Browsing: Tech Reviews

Part phone, part lighter. It can make calls and make fire. David Lumb/CNETHave you ever wanted your phone to last for days in the wild and light your campfire, too? At the Showstoppers press event ahead of MWC 2026, I saw a new smartphone from outdoor electronics company Oukitel that aims to be an all-in-one device for the rugged digital nomad. The Oukitel WP63 phone is around $500 and checks a lot of boxes. It’s got a 20,000-mAh battery — yes, twenty thousand milliamp hours — with an included USB-C port that can charge your other devices. It also powers the audio speaker…

Open Instagram and you would think post-workout recovery begins and ends with an ice bath. After you hit ‘save’ on your Apple Watch, your run zips off to the Strava cloud, plenty of social media influencers advise you go for a cold plunge (if you have access) or a cold shower (if you don’t).But a new human study on muscle healing suggests something different: if you actually want your muscles to repair themselves, you are better off turning the hot tap up than jumping into a tub of freezing water or opting for a cold shower.Dr Freya Bayne, a sport…

Who would’ve guessed we’d get to play the original Banjo-Kazooie on a handheld with just a D-pad in 2026. HyperMegaTech!’s latest release is a collaboration with Rare Ltd., the legendary game developer known for the Banjo-Kazooie franchise and, more recently, Sea of Thieves, called the Super Pocket Rare Edition.The vertical handheld features 14 classics from the British developer, including two Battletoads titles, Conker’s Pocket Tales and many more. While most of the games were released on 8- or 16-bit consoles, Banjo-Kazooie will be the headliner since it was originally released on the Nintendo 64. It may sound weird to control…

When to watch MotoGP 2026 racesThe 2026 season runs from March 1 until Nov. 22.Where to watchThe MotoGP season will stream in the US on Fox Sports. 73% off with 2yr plan (+4 free months). Now only $3.49/month See more details See at Sling TV Carries FS1 and FS2 for $57 a month Sling TV Blue plus Sports Extra See at Fubo Carries Carries FS1 and FS2 for $56 a month Fubo Show more (3 items) The new MotoGP season kicks into gear this weekend, with familiar rivalries set to be renewed and a number of exciting new riders joining…

Apple will manufacture the Mac mini in the United States starting later this yearProduction will shift from Vietnam and China to a Houston Foxconn facilityThe Houston warehouse conversion provides 220,000 square feet of Mac mini assembly spaceApple has announced it will begin manufacturing the Mac mini, its compact mini PC, in the United States later this year, shifting part of its production from Vietnam and China.The company plans to use a Foxconn facility in north Houston, converting a 220,000-square-foot warehouse into manufacturing space.Apple says this initiative is intended to serve local demand while gradually scaling production to meet broader global…

Google and other browser makers require that all TLS certificates be published in public transparency logs, which are append-only distributed ledgers. Website owners can then check the logs in real time to ensure that no rogue certificates have been issued for the domains they use. The transparency programs were implemented in response to the 2011 hack of Netherlands-based DigiNotar, which allowed the minting of 500 counterfeit certificates for Google and other websites, some of which were used to spy on web users in Iran. Once viable, Shor’s algorithm could be used to forge classical encryption signatures and break classical encryption…

OpenAI has reached an agreement with the Defense Department to deploy its models in the agency’s network, company chief Sam Altman has revealed on X. In his post, he said two of OpenAI’s most important safety principles are “prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems.” Altman claimed the company put those principles in its agreement with the agency, which he called by the government’s preferred name of Department of War (DoW), and that it had agreed to honor them.The agency has closed the deal with OpenAI, shortly after President…

Sick of your smart ring’s battery not holding up? Ultrahuman’s new $479 Ring Pro smart ring, unveiled on Friday, offers up to 15 days of battery life on a single charge. The Ring Pro joins the company’s $349 Ring Air, which boosts health tracking, thanks to longer battery life, increased data storage, improved speed and accuracy and a new heart-rate sensing architecture. The ring works in conjunction with the latest Pro charging case. Ultrahuman also launched its Jade AI, which can act as an agent based on analysis of current and historical health data. Jade can synthesize data from across the…

LG Display OLEDs achieve “100% Dimming consistency” certification from UL SolutionsOLED handles different brightness zones more consistently than backlit onesSomehow, AI’s been crowbarred into this, tooLG Display’s OLED panels for TVs and monitors have achieved what the company says is an industry first: they’ve been certified as having “100% dimming consistency” from a third party, UL Solutions. By comparison, LCD panels only achieved a maximum of 83%, with some scoring just 43%.According to LG Display, OLED is even better than next-gen RGB mini-LED technology. And also, that it’s “the optimal choice in the AI era.”I don’t doubt that LG’s panels…

NASA is making major changes to its Artemis Moon program. On Friday, Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the space agency would carry out an additional flight in 2027 to test commercial lunar landers from SpaceX and/or Blue Origin. The new mission will take the place of Artemis 3, which previously would have seen NASA attempt to land on the Moon for the first time since 1972. The flight will also see the agency test a new spacesuit made by Axiom Space.As part of the new plan, the redesigned Artemis 3 mission will give NASA the chance to test at least one…