Browsing: Tech Reviews

My coding skills leave something to be desired. I never stuck with the instructional books and guides long enough to truly create the kinds of apps and programs I wanted to see. AI chatbots powered by large language models have changed that. Now I can write down my vision for something like a visual gallery of horror movies or a twist on a classic PC game and the chatbot will turn my plain English into hundreds of lines of code — and bring my vision to life. CNETThis is called vibe coding. For experienced coders, it can make work go…

When it comes to US and UK smartphone sales in 2026, Apple is going to win. According to Counterpoint Research, Apple achieved half of all mobile shipments in the US in Q3 2025. In the UK, Uswitch reports that Apple had a market share of 48.5% in September 2025. And while Apple’s lead might fluctuate, it has been constant in both countries for years, and is overwhelmingly likely to continue.Despite this near-certainty, Apple spent 2025 pushing the iPhone forward in multiple ways – some overdue, and some surprisingly forward-thinking. The iPhone 17 is the best base-model iPhone in years, the…

Gamers can be hard to shop for. Even if you know the type of games they usually play, there’s no guarantee they’ll like a specific title. But I have no qualms in recommending Astro Bot to anyone on your list who has a PS5. I don’t have a ton of time to play games, so I’m careful about which ones I pick (mostly I just play whatever Engadget reviews) so when Jess called Astro Bot “one of the best games Sony has ever made” I figured it was a safe bet. That was an underestimation on my part. It’s a…

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, but you might struggle at first to see a connection between the words. If you need hints and answers, read on.I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So FarHint…

Intel’s sub-$200 CPUs now deliver performance once reserved for far pricier processorsCore Ultra 5 chips pressure AMD by pairing clocks with multicore resultsAMD’s Ryzen 9 5900XT struggles to justify pricing against newer Intel alternativesI’ve spotted something interesting in the low end of the desktop CPU market – right now, some of the fastest processors you can buy for around $200 come from Intel, not AMD, and the performance gap is uncomfortable enough to raise an intriguing question: Is Intel starting to look like the old AMD, the company that wins by offering more performance for less money?The clearest example here…

Amazon Prime Video is the exclusive home for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football games, including this week’s game. On top of Amazon Prime Video, an Amazon Prime subscription includes free shipping, exclusive deals, access to the Prime Day sales events, Amazon Music, a year of free GrubHub+ and more.  A standard Amazon Prime subscription is $15 monthly or $139 annually, but discounts are available for students and those on qualified government assistance. You can try Amazon Prime free for 30 days. You can also just subscribe directly to Prime Video and forego all the other Prime Benefits. A Prime Video…

Your Christmas Eve gaming session might not go as planned. Online gaming hub Steam went down on Wednesday.The Steam outage appeared to begin mid-afternoon ET, according to Downdetector, which monitors site outages. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)A representative for Steam did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As of Wednesday noon PT, Steam’s official X and Bluesky accounts hadn’t posted anything about the outage.Gamers certainly noticed. “Steam down, Steam down!!!” wrote one Bluesky user. Others commented on the bad timing just as gamers were enjoying time off or receiving gaming gifts. “‘You…

South Korea adds facial recognition to SIM registration to choke off scam-driven phone numbersStolen personal data has made mobile fraud cheap, and regulators want higher barriersTelecom security failures forced government to rethink how phone accounts are approvedSouth Korea is moving to tighten how new mobile accounts are created by adding facial recognition to the signup process.A new government post (via The Register) outlined how the change will reduce scams that rely on fraudulently registered phone numbers.Under the new policy, buyers will still present official identity documents, but they will also complete a facial scan through carrier-backed mobile applications. You may…

Here’s some exciting news for those looking to bring their home network along on a long road trip: Ubiquiti just announced the UniFi Travel Router (model UTR), its first of its kind. From the look of it, the UTR seems interesting to say the least, featuring the dated Wi-Fi 5. But that might just be all you’d need anyway. Let’s find out more! The Ubiquiti UniFi Travel Router (UTR) Related stories on Ubiquiti and Wi-Fi Ubiquiti UniFi Travel Router: Will Wi-Fi 5 be cool again? When Wi-Fi 5 was mainstream, I called it “cool” partly because it’s a pun considering…

The Trump administration has issued travel bans that prohibit five European tech researchers, including one former EU Commissioner, from entering the United States. “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.That official is Thierry Breton, the former European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Digital Services, who Sarah Rogers called the “mastermind” of the Digital Services Act. Rogers, the Under Secretary of State, said Breton threatened Elon Musk…