Browsing: Tech Reviews

Earlier this month, a hacker named Lovely claimed to have breached a Condé Nast user database and released a list of more than 2.3 million user records from our sister publication WIRED. The released materials contain demographic information (name, email, address, phone, etc.) but no passwords. The hacker also says that they will release an additional 40 million records for other Condé Nast properties, including our other sister publications Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and more. Of critical note to our readers, Ars Technica was not affected as we run on our own bespoke tech stack. The hacker said…

It’s a new year, and a great time to fulfill your resolution to practice better cybersecurity. The early days of January are a great time to grab a last-minute subscription for yourself or a loved one. With access to a virtual private network (VPN), you can stream TV shows and events from all over the world, protect your information from hackers and thwart online trackers.Although we strongly recommend using a VPN, jumping on the first deal that comes along might get you stuck with a substandard app. Beyond that, even otherwise respectable VPNs sometimes frame their prices in misleading ways,…

Ty Pendlebury/CNETLG makes some of the best TVs on the market — I’ve been using an LG C2 OLED for some years, and am still blown away by its picture quality each time I sit down to watch a movie or a TV show. The company revealed its W6 Wallpaper TV at CES 2026. With its thin design, wireless connection box and the option to display artwork digitally, LG’s Wallpaper TV allows you to install a television in your living room while maintaining a clean setup that doesn’t, by default, make it the center of attention. Plus, enhancements to its…

Your Philips Hue lights are getting a new feature called Hue SpatialAwareIt applies scenes differently depending on the location of lights in a roomThere’s also a long-awaited update coming to the Philips Hue Bridge ProYour Philips Hue lights are getting an upgrade that’s going to make your rooms look a lot more cohesive. It’s called Hue SpatialAware, and it will apply lighting scenes differently depending on the location of smart lights within your room, resulting in a more natural-looking effect.Lighting scenes are palettes of themed colors that you can apply to all the lights in a particular room or area.…

TP-Link today showcased its two new Wi-Fi 7 devices at CES 2026: the Archer BE670 and the Deco BE77. As you might guess from the name, the former is meant to be a standalone router (though you can get multiple units to form an EasyMesh system) and the latter is a purpose-built mesh solution. Compared to this time last year, the number of new devices TP-Link announced this year is modest, likely because the company already has arguably the most extensive portfolio of Wi-Fi 7 solutions. In fact, these two new members barely squeeze into a tight spot in the…

Californians are getting a new, supercharged way to stop data brokers from hoarding and selling their personal information, as a recently enacted law that’s among the strictest in the nation took effect at the beginning of the year. According to the California Privacy Protection Agency, more than 500 companies actively scour all sorts of sources for scraps of information about individuals, then package and store it to sell to marketers, private investigators, and others. The nonprofit Consumer Watchdog said in 2024 that brokers trawl automakers, tech companies, junk-food restaurants, device makers, and others for financial info, purchases, family situations, eating,…

Jensen Huang took to the CES stage on Monday to share the latest from NVIDIA, and while the presentation was more a refresher of technologies the company has been working on for the past few years, there were a couple of notable announcements.NVIDIA announced Alpamayo, a family of open-source reasoning models designed to guide autonomous vehicles through difficult driving situations. The centerpiece of the release is Alpamayo 1 , a 10-billion parameter chain-of-thought system NVIDIA says is capable of approaching driving more like a human being would. The model works by breaking down unexpected driving situations into a smaller set…

CES is chock-full of unique concepts, but every now and then, I stumble upon something that purely seems to exist for the heck of it. I got a (literal) taste of that with the Lollipop Star. This sweet treat also packs a little trick: it can play music while it’s in your mouth using bone conduction (sound vibrations that go through your skull’s bones to your inner ear). You can choose from three artists: Ice Spice, Akon and Armani White. Each artist pop has its own flavor: Ice Spice is peach, Akon is blueberry and Armani White is lime. I went…

Peacock is already one of the best streaming services for its breadth of content, offering everything from Wicked to Minions, plus SNL, Bravo shows, cult favorites like The Office, and a wide range of live content, from the NBA to the NFL, with WWE in between. Now, it’s deepening its ties with Dolby to help ensure that whatever you’re streaming looks its best.Announced at CES 2026, Peacock is diving deeper into Dolby’s technology across both picture and sound, adding support for Vision and Atmos even on live sports streaming – something Peacock is continuing to dive headfirst into in 2026…

Sandisk today unveiled “SANDISK Optimus” at CES 2026 as the new brand name for its popular consumer-grade internal SSDs made for gamers, creators, and professionals. Previously, these storage devices were part of the WD Black and WD Blue lineups. This development only makes sense considering that Sandisk parted from Western Digital earlier last year as a new company of non-platter storage. Tip In March 2025, Western Digital (WD) split off Sandisk (a slight name change from “SanDisk”) as a separate company. The move means WD retains all hard platter-based products, including those with “SanDisk” in their model names. Similarly, Sandisk…