Browsing: Tech Reviews

If you want to connect your new TV to a soundbar or receiver, the easiest way to do it is with an HDMI cable. Nearly all modern TVs and audio gear have an HDMI feature called Audio Return Channel. ARC, or the newer eARC, is a way to get the audio from the TV (where the streaming apps are) back down to the audio device. This replaces older cables, like optical. With a single cable, you can get all the audio from the TV, including Dolby Atmos, to speakers that actually sound good. While it should be as easy as that sounds,…

Google has added flashcards, quizzes, and smarter chat to the NotebookLM mobile appThese customizable study tools were previously only available on desktopsThe update also enhances the Gemini-powered conversation option and offers longer context and memory on mobile devicesGoogle’s NotebookLM is bringing some of its best AI-powered study features to its mobile app and augmenting its chat experience along the way. You can now make flashcards and quizzes based on sources you upload, even while you’re walking into a classroom for a test.NotebookLM began as an AI assistant for students, but it’s since expanded into a broader hub for processing information…

This post lists the current top five best Wi-Fi 7 routers. They are all excellent options to consider when you need a new router in a home where a single Wi-Fi broadcaster is enough. Need extended Wi-Fi coverage? Some of the units below are a good start that allow you to extend the coverage, or check out this list of purpose-built Wi-Fi 7 systems. Dong’s note: I first published this frequently-revised post on December 12, 2023, and last updated it on November 6, 2025. Best Wi-Fi 7 routers: Wi-Fi 7 hardware comes in all shapes and sizes. Five best Wi-Fi 7…

Christmas Island Shire President Steve Pereira told Reuters that the council is examining community impacts before approving construction. “There is support for it, providing this data center actually does put back into the community with infrastructure, employment, and adding economic value to the island,” Pereira said. That’s great, but what about the crabs? Christmas Island’s annual crab migration is a natural phenomenon that Sir David Attenborough reportedly once described as one of his greatest TV moments when he visited the site in 1990. Every year, millions of crabs emerge from the forest and swarm across roads, streams, rocks, and beaches…

IKEA has officially announced its range of Matter-compatible smart home products. The Swedish furniture store is releasing 21 new items under the tentpoles of lighting, sensors and control. IKEA teased these releases back in July.Part of the roll out will include updates to existing categories in order to work with Matter, an open source smart home standard. “We’re upgrading our most-appreciated products while also adding new ones to solve even more everyday challenges,” Stjepan Begic, product developer at IKEA. “Our focus has been on keeping things simple from setup to daily use, so it’s easy for people to start, use…

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? There’s a game in there that I have never heard of before. If you want the answers, read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.Read more: Tips and Tricks for…

Fastnet will connect the US with Ireland, with over 320 Tbps of capacityAWS will bury it 1.5m under the seabed to protect it from damageMore AWS Regions and Availability Zones are in the worksAmazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to build a new transatlantic subsea cable to connect the US with Ireland.Expected to go live in 2028, the route, subbed Fastnet, will connect Maryland with County Cork, and promises to deliver over 320 Tbps of capacity, which equals roughly 12.5 million HD streams or transmitting the entire digitized Library of Congress three times per second.AWS sees Fastnet as a…

Sandisk today announced its latest USB-C flash drive, and you’ll miss it if you don’t pay attention. Indeed, the new “thumb” drive, called Sandisk Extreme Fit USB-C Flash Drive, is about as tinny—and cute—as a button. On this front, Sandisk claims that the new portable drive is “the world’s smallest 1TB USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 drive.” Let’s find out more! Here’s the Sandisk Extreme Fit USB-C Flash Drive attached to a laptop’s USB-C port. Related stories on SSDs, HDDs, and general storage Sandisk Extreme Fit USB-C Flash Drive: A tiny storage device that could The Sandisk Extreme Fit USB-C Flash…

I counted more than a dozen other organizations providing assurances that were similarly confusing, misleading, or false. Even Moore—a security veteran with more than three decades of experience—told me: “The surprising part to me is that Intel/AMD would blanket-state that physical access is somehow out of scope when it’s the entire point.” In fairness, some TEE users build additional protections on top of the TEEs provided out of the box. Meta, for example, said in an email that the WhatsApp implementation of SEV-SNP uses protections that would block TEE.fail attackers from impersonating its servers. The company didn’t dispute that TEE.fail…

It can be challenging for us humans to wrap our brains around really massive numbers. Even the scale of a million or billion is pretty hard for most people to really comprehend. So prepare yourself to think big, because scientists have recorded the largest and most distant black hole flare to date, and the numbers around it are pretty staggering.The event occurred at an active galactic nucleus, also known as an accreting or feeding black hole, that they predict is 500 million times more massive than our sun and is located 10 billion light years away. The researchers suspect that…