Browsing: Tech Reviews

A zero-day exploit circulating online allows people with physical access to a Windows 11 system to bypass default BitLocker protections and gain complete access to an encrypted drive within seconds. The exploit, named YellowKey, was published earlier this week by a researcher who goes by the alias Nightmare-Eclipse. It reliably bypasses default Windows 11 deployments of BitLocker, the full-volume encryption protection Microsoft provides to make disk contents off-limits to anyone without the decryption key, which is stored in a secured piece of hardware known as a trusted platform module (TPM). BitLocker is a mandatory protection for many organizations, including those…

The popular VR game Moss and its sequel are coming to consoles and PCs in a bundle. Moss: The Forgotten Relic brings together Moss, Moss: Book II and the Twilight Garden DLC into a single package. Developer Polyarc says the games have been “beautifully enhanced and reimagined.” This was likely a necessity, given that VR games tend to play differently than traditional flat-screen titles. This is especially true in the case of Moss, which features a unique VR playstyle. In the VR versions, players control both a mouse named Quill and act as a…

Our smoke detection test chamber lets us test how quickly each model raises an alarm when smoke enters the environment. Gianmarco Chumbe/CNETWhen it comes to detecting smoke, time is of the essence. That is why we designed a test that simulates a real-life emergency.  The first thing to know is that there are two main types of fires that these products are designed for: smoldering fires and flaming fires. A smoldering (or slow-burning) fire refers to the combustion that occurs at the surface of a solid material. Smoldering fires produce large amounts of thick smoke but can’t sustain a flame.…

IIHF World Championship 2026: Friday, May 15 to Sunday, May 31FREE stream: ORF On (Austria, select games)US stream: NHL Network via Sling TVAccess your usual streaming services with NordVPN Watch IIHF World Championship 2026 live streams, as newly crowned Olympic champions the USA look to defend their world title in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland. The US join 15 of the world’s top sides, include a Canada side intent on revenge, for a festival on ice.The difficulty for the US side, now led by Don Granato, is that a lot of their gold medal-winning roster from Milano-Cortina are still in Stanley…

The UniFi U7 Pro XG Wall (model U7-Pro-XG-Wall) is a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 access point with a 10Gbps PoE+ uplink port. As such, it’s currently the best Wi-Fi 7 wall-mount access point in the UniFi family. Here’s the bottom line: The U7 Pro XG Wall offers the best combo of performance, design, and cost for those needing real-world multi-Gigabit via Wi-Fi in their UniFi network—one hosted by a UniFi Cloud Gateway. For that, it’s worth every penny of its $279 price tag. Get one or a couple today! Pros 10Gbps uplink with excellent performance Seamless integration with a UniFi console,…

During a call with investors on Wednesday night, Cisco executives discussed the layoffs further, with CFO Mark Patterson saying, “This was really not a savings-driven restructure,” according to a transcript of the call. “Things are moving incredibly fast right now,” he said. “And this is more realigning from an already strong base, as you’re seeing in our financials, but really realigning resources around silicon, optics, security, and AI. And so being able to move fast, we don’t always have the exact resources that we need going forward in the right places. And so that’s really what this is about versus…

Microsoft Windows 11 users are not happy campers at the moment for multiple reasons, but Microsoft is doing something about an issue around updates. The company just introduced “Cloud-Initiated Driver Recovery” (let’s call it CIDR) for Windows Update, a system that will roll back faulty drivers detected during the company’s shiproom evaluation process, with no user intervention required.  Microsoft noted that faulty drivers installed through Windows Update can only be dealt with currently by its partners or the end user, which is obviously not ideal. “With [CIDR], Microsoft can now…

Android and ChromeOS are merging into a single operating system that will debut in Google’s new laptop lineup, Googlebooks, announced during this week’s Android Show. With no official name yet, the merged operating system has been going by Aluminum OS, but that will likely change by the time it arrives on machines.We’ve known for some time that Google’s mobile and cloud-based operating systems would be merging, but several questions still remain. Through a handful of leaks, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Here’s what we know.What do we know about Aluminum OS?Though it won’t be called…

Trident reportedly destroys reconnaissance drones from distances reaching 1.5 kilometers awayUkrainian developers claim the laser weapon costs far less than Western systemsThe Trident laser reportedly damages aircraft optics, electronics, and structural components effectivelyUkrainian company Celebra Tech is putting the final touches on a Trident laser weapon which it claims can destroy drones, helicopters, and even missiles at significant distances.The Trident burns through enemy optics and structural components from up to three miles away.Western defense giants have spent enormous sums on similar technology, such as the £120 million DragonFire laser unveiled by Britain, yet Ukrainian developers claim their Trident system will…

Since its first availability in the US in 2018, 5G NR has slowly become the wireless solution for those living in areas without traditional land-based broadband infrastructure, namely cable or fiber-optic. And even if you already have an excellent cable plan, 5G can also be a backup for high availability. This post includes the list of the five best 5G routers and add-on modems, among those I’ve reviewed, that you can bring home today. Best 5G solutions: The UniFi 5G Max PoE cellular modem in action. Related stories on home networking Best 5G routers and add-Ons: 2026’s current top 5…