Techno

Monday, December 25, 2023

Best Latex Mattresses of 2023 - CNET

No standard mattress can beat latex mattresses for durability, pressure relief and sustainability.

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Sunday, December 24, 2023

What to Know About EndeavorRX, the Video Game to Treat ADHD - CNET

The FDA extended its authorization to more kids and teens; adults can play it without prescription. Here's what to know about it.

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Saturday, December 23, 2023

Latest Tech News

Christmas deals abound, and you can still save a lot, whether you're still seeking last-minute Christmas gift ideas or you're prepping for the new year. The unfortunate thing is that it is December 23 now, and most online stores will tell you that unless you order online and pick it up at one of their physical locations, you won't be getting that order until after Christmas.

You always have the option to join the shopping fray, but it's like the Wild West out there, and unless you're a glutton for punishment, you'd want to avoid that as much as possible.

The great news is that you absolutely can. While most items on Amazon won't arrive until after Christmas, even for Prime members, the retailer is still offering its free one-day shipping for a handful of products. And I found 9 of them for your convenience - because trust me, it's not easy.

There's more good news: all of these nine products that include an educational toy for the kids, some of the best-rated headphones, and a couple of tablets are heavily-discounted still. You know what that means. Not only are you saving yourself a massive headache and a whole lot of stress, but you're saving money as well.

Just keep in mind that these products have varying time-frame in terms of that one-day shipping privilege. Some, you can get by the 24th when you order within the next 12 hours; others, you'll only have a few hours. Make sure to check before you hit that buy button.

Today's best deals to arrive on the 24th

LeapFrog Magic Adventures Microscope: was ~~$79.99~~ now $55.99 at Amazon
30% off - Christmas may be the perfect time to spend with the family, but the adults need a bit of relaxation as well before the new year. If you're looking for a new toy to get the kids entertained over the holiday break, this educational toy from LeapFrog may just be the solution. With 8double-sided smart slides showing educational BBC videos and images and 15 topics including flowers, animals, food and minerals that can enjoy on its 2.4-inch display, the kids will have hours of fun while the adults can put their feet up and unwind with a glass of wine and a good book. Order this within the next few hours, and you can get it delivered by the 24th for free!View Deal

Beats Powerbeats Pro Wireless Earbuds: was ~~$249.95~~ now $159.99
Save $89.96 – For those looking for fitness-inspired wireless earbuds, the Powerbeats Pro are a great pick. You're scrapping noise cancellation in favor of fantastic comfort and an ear grip design that ensures your buds will never slip out during even the most intense of workouts. Plus, you're getting up to 9 hours of listening time and more than 24 hours with charging case. Currently, the ivory version is a whopping 36% off, and you can get delivered for free on the 24th if you order now.View Deal

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K: was ~~$49.99~~ now $29.99 at Amazon
40% off - Get the best-selling Fire TV Stick on sale for just $29.99. The HD streaming player allows you to enjoy tens of thousands of channels, apps, and Alexa skills and features an Alexa voice remote, plus support for Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and immersive Dolby Atmos audio. What's even better is that the included remote has Alexa built-in so now only can you quickly find content with just your voice, you can also use it to control compatible smart home devices like cameras, lights, and more. Order this today, and you'll also get it on the 24th, giving you enough time to wrap it and nestle it under the tree before Christmas morning.View Deal

KitchenAid Variable Speed Corded Hand Blender: was ~~$59.99~~ now $44.99
25% off - Winter is soup season, and this immersion blender from KitchenAid is just the perfect affordable last-minute gift for the chef or aspiring chef in your life. This comes with a removable bending arm, a 4-point stainless steel blade, and a 3-cup blender jar for smaller jobs. Bear in mind that KitchenAid doesn't hold sales as often as other brands, so this is a must-grab. As with all the others on this list, you can get it before the 24th if you order soon.View Deal

Amazon Fire 10 Kids: was ~~$189.99~~ now $129.99 at Amazon
Save $60 - With a 10.1-inch 1080p display, this kiddie tablet offers the best immersion for young kids as they consume educational content for hours and hours. As with Amazon's other kids tablet, it comes with a kid-proof case, a free year of Amazon Kids+, and comprehensive parental controls. As a new release, it's also 25% faster than its predecessor, which means the kids won't get impatient waiting for their favorite content to be pulled up. Order this tablet today, and you can rest assured you'll get it on Christmas Eve.View Deal

Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023): was ~~$139.99~~ now $89.99 at Amazon
Save $50 - Amazon promises a 25% performance improvement on this new Fire HD 10 over the previous Fire HD 10 slate, with a feature set built for "streaming, reading and gaming." Amazon has also worked on the tablet's durability, while the 2023 HD 10 also promises up to 13 hours of battery life and a baseline 32GB of storage. Order this one today at 36% off, and you can get it by Christmas Eve!View Deal

Sony SRS-XB100 Wireless Bluetooth Portable Travel Speaker: was ~~$59.99~~ now $38 at Amazon
37% off - Summer may be months away, but this portable Bluetooth speaker from Sony may just be the perfect gift for the beach bum in your life. This comes with IP67 waterproof & dustproof, a versatile strap, and up to 16 hours of battery life. It also comes in different colors, but the blue shade in discounted right now for the holiday season. Order it today, and you'll get it before Christmas with Amazon's free one-day shipping.View Deal

Sony LinkBuds S x Olivia Rodrigo: was ~~$199.99~~ now $178 at Amazon
$21 off - Sony's LinkBuds S are great noise-canceling earbuds that have smart features and are lightweight in design. But this version are even more fantastic, especially to the Olivia Rodrigo fan in your life. Coming in an adorable pink-and-purple colorway, these are a special edition that must not be missed, especially since they come with two custom EQs tuned by Olivia herself. Order these within the next few hours, and you'll get it delivered by Christmas Eve.View Deal

Echo Studio: was ~~$199.99~~ now $159.99 at Amazon
20% off - Want the best-sounding smart speaker for Amazon to gift to the audiophile in your life? Then the Echo Studio is your best bet. Not only does it come with all of Echo's basic smart home features to control your devices, but it comes with a smart home hub as well. As a speaker, it's able to automatically sense the acoustics in the room to adapt its audio and it comes wtih a booming bass as well. Order within the next few hours, and you can get this on the 24th, leaving you just enough time to gift-wrap it.View Deal

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6 Tips to Prevent Frozen Pipes and Costly Repairs This Winter - CNET

Save yourself a big headache and a big bill by avoiding burst pipes.

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Latest Tech News

Google accompanied the recent launch of its Gemini AI models with the latest version of its flagship tensor processing unit (TPU) for AI training and inference, in what appears to be an attempt to take on Nvidia's own market-leading GPUs.

TPU v5p – Google's most powerful custom-designed AI accelerator – has been deployed to power the firm's 'AI Hypercomputer'. This is a supercomputing architecture that's built specifically to run AI applications, rather than supercomputers which normally run scientific workloads, because TPUs are unsuited to this.

The latest version of its TPU has 8,960 chips per pod (which comprise the system), versus 4,096 in v4, and it's four times as scalable in terms of total availability of FLOPs per pod. These new pods provide a throughput of 4,800Gbps. The new pods also have 95GB of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) versus 32GB HBM RAM in TPU v4.

Nvidia H100 vs Google TPU v5p: Which is faster?

Unlike Nvidia, which offers its GPUs out for other companies to purchase, Google's custom-made TPUs remain in-house for use across its own products and services. Google's TPUs have long been used to power its services including Gmail, YouTube and Android, and the latest version has also been used to train Gemini.

Google's v5p TPUs are up to 2.8 times faster at training large language models than TPU v4, and offer 2.1-times value-for-money. Although the intermediary version, TPU v5e, released earlier this year, offers the most value for money of all three, it's only up to 1.9-times faster than TPU v4, making TPU v5p the most powerful.

It's even powerful enough to rival Nvidia's widely in-demand H100 GPU, which is one of the best graphics cards out there for AI workloads. This component is four times faster at training workloads than Nvidia's A100 GPU, according to the company's own data.

Google's TPU v4, meanwhile, is estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.7-times faster than the A100, according to research it published in April. Incredibly rough calculations would suggest the TPU v5p, therefore, is roughly between 3.4 and 4.8-times faster than the A100 – which makes it on par or superior to the H100, although more detailed benchmarking is needed before any conclusions can be drawn.

Friday, December 22, 2023

Best Squat Racks: Top Fitness Picks for Your Home Gym - CNET

Is it time to level up your weight lifting workouts? These are the best squat racks to add to your home gym.

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Latest Tech News

We’re about to witness a significant surge in the deployment of DarkGate and NetSupport, security experts are warning.

Researchers from Proofpoint claim to have observed a brand new threat actor, dubbed "BattleRoyal". This threat actor mounted at least 20 email campaigns in the months between September and November this year, to deliver the DarkGate malware.

In late November and early December, the group pivoted from DarkGate to NetSupport, a legitimate remote access tool frequently abused by hackers to establish persistence on targeted endpoints. Besides emails, the group also used a series of compromised websites and fake update lures to get people to download the malware.

Abusing a SmartScreen flaw

The reasons for the switch remain a mystery, with the researchers hinting it might be due to DarkGate drawing too much attention.

In any case, the group was abusing a vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-36025 to deliver the malware. Other groups abused this flaw too, but the BattleRoyal cluster “exploited this vulnerability more than any other actor observed in Proofpoint threat data.” BattleRoyal was abusing it even before it was published by Microsoft, the company said.

The flaw is found in Windows SmartScreen, a security feature designed to stop people from visiting dangerous websites. Proofpoint explained that the attackers could bypass SmartScreen defenses by getting the victim to click on a specially designed URL, which the vulnerability allowed.

As explained by Malpedia, DarkGate is a commodity loader first documented in 2018. It comes with numerous features, including the ability to download and execute files to memory, a Hidden Virtual Network Computing (HVNC) module, the ability to log keystrokes, steal sensitive information, and escalate privileges. DarkGate abuses legitimate AutoIt files and typically runs multiple AutoIt scripts.

New versions of DarkGate have been advertised on a Russian-language eCrime forum since May 2023, the report concludes.

Thursday, December 21, 2023

The 18 Best Food and Drink Subscriptions to Gift in 2023 - CNET

Whether your giftee covets coffee, cheese, whiskey or wine, there's a perfect food club membership or boozy subscription to lay on them this year.

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Latest Tech News

Beeper Mini is officially no more. The developer is calling it quits in trying to find new workarounds for bringing iMessage to Android devices.

Instead, Beeper would much rather work on its own projects and achieve its goal “of building the best chat app on Earth.” The developer goes on to state in a recent announcement post that every time Beeper Mini goes offline or is made worthless because of Apple’s meddling, its credibility takes a hit, adding it’s unsustainable to continue like this. It admits that it just “can’t win a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company on Earth”. It’s just not worth the hassle anymore. They would rather move on.

The final workaround

There is a final workaround available although it is very convoluted. The process requires you to first own a Mac or Linux computer (a Raspberry Pi works as well) with the Beeper desktop app installed and a jailbroken iPhone.

You plug the iPhone into the computer then run certain commands in the Terminal tool. You will need to install an app called Palera1n along the way. Eventually, you will install Beeper Mini onto the smartphone in order to receive an iMessage registration code for your Android device. Then and only then, will you be able to use the service as intended. Also, the iPhone at the heart of all this must be connected to your Wi-Fi and turned on at all times, according to TheVerge.

That's the basic rundown. We glossed over a lot of the more elaborate steps involving Palera1n. What’s more, if your Mac is equipped with Apple silicon, you may have to unplug the iPhone when the word “Checkmate!” appears otherwise the workaround presumably fails. Beeper doesn’t explain why you need to disconnect the device. As we said earlier, this whole thing is convoluted.

Beeper Mini's future

If you don’t own a jailbroken iPhone, you can buy one from Beeper. Prices range from $30 to $60. Or you can rent one for “several dollars per month”. You will however need to sign up and fill out a special form on the developer’s website before renting or buying. Interested users will need to act fast because it looks like the service will stop at the end of the year. But “if there is enough interest”, Beeper will extend the program into the new year.

This solution, as crazy as it may seem, is the final method. If Apple decides to block it, the developer says it won’t make another. Again, it’s not worth the hassle in their eyes. That said, Beeper believes it managed to create a workaround that the tech giant is willing to “tolerate”, although whether or not this is true remains to be seen.

Goodbye, Beeper Mini; we hardly knew ye.

While we have you check out TechRadar's list of the best encrypted messaging apps for Android.

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Wednesday, December 20, 2023

How to Watch 'Beau Is Afraid' From Anywhere - CNET

Go on an extremely weird road trip with Joaquin Phoenix, as the A24 horror comedy hits Paramount Plus.

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Latest Tech News

An AI just mastered Labyrinth in six hours, and I am questioning my own existence.

I started playing Labyrinth in the 1970s. While it may look deceptively simple and is fully analog, Labyrinth is an incredibly difficult, nearly 60-year-old physical board game that challenges you to navigate a metal ball through a hole-riddled maze by changing the orientation of the game platform using only the twistable nobs on two adjacent sides of the game's box frame.

I still remember my father bringing Labyrinth home to our Queens apartment, and my near-total obsession with mastering it. If you've never played, then you have no idea how hard it is to keep a metal ball on a narrow path between two holes just waiting to devour it.

It's not like you get past a few holes and you're home free; there are 60 along the whole meandering path. One false move and the ball is swallowed, and you have to start again. It takes fine motor control, dexterity, and a lot of real-time problem-solving to make it through unscathed. I may have successfully navigated the treacherous route a few times.

It sometimes ignored the path and took shortcuts. That's called cheating.

In the intervening years, I played sporadically (once memorably with a giant labyrinth at Google I/O), but mostly I forgot about the game, though I guess I never really forgot the challenge.

Perhaps that's why my mouth dropped open as I watched CyberRunner learn and beat the game in just six hours.

In a recently released video, programmers from the public research university ETH Zurich showed off their bare-bones AI robot, which uses a pair of actuators that act as the 'hands' to twist the Labyrinth nobs, an overhead camera to watch the action, and a computer running an AI algorithm to learn and, eventually, beat the game.

In the video, developers explain that "CyberRunner exploits recent advances in model-based reinforcement learning and its ability to make informed decisions about potentially successful behaviors by planning into the future."

Initially, CyberRunner was no better than me or any other average human player. It dumped the metal ball into holes less than a tenth of the way through the path, and then less than a fifth of the way through. But with each attempt, CyberRunner got better – and not just a little better, but exponentially so.

In just six hours, according to the video, "CyberRunner's able to complete the maze faster than any previously recorded time."

The video is stunning. The two motors wiggle the board at a super-human rate, and manage to keep the ball so perfectly on track that it's never in danger of falling into any of the holes. CyberRunner's eventual fastest time was a jaw-dropping 14.8 seconds. I think my best time was... well, it could often take many minutes.

I vividly recall playing, and how I would sometimes park the ball in the maze, taking a break mid-challenge to prepare myself for the remainder of the still-arduous journey ahead. No so with CyberRunner. Its confidence is the kind that's only possible with an AI. It has no worries about dropping its metal ball into a hole; no fear of failure.

It also, initially, had no fear of getting caught cheating.

As CyberRunner was learning, it did what computers do and looked for the best and fastest path through the maze, which meant it sometimes ignored the path and took shortcuts. That's called cheating. Thankfully, the researchers caught CyberRunner, and reprogrammed it so it was forced to follow the full maze.

Of course, CyberRunner's accomplishment is not just about beating humans at a really difficult game. This is a demonstration of how an AI can solve physical-world problems based on vision, physical interaction, and machine learning. The only question is, what real-world problems will this open-source project solve next?

As for me, I need to go dig my Labyrinth out of my parent's closet.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Full vs. Queen Mattress: Differences, Dimensions and Who's It Best For - CNET

Finding the right mattress for you starts with deciding on what's the ideal size for your needs. Here's what to consider when choosing between the two most popular bed sizes.

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Monday, December 18, 2023

Latest Tech News

Smart home brand Eve is slated to kick off 2024 with the launch of three new Matter-supporting gadgets including its first in-wall outlet.

The company does currently sell smart plugs, but the Eve Energy Outlet, as it’s called, won’t have the big brick jutting out as it’ll be flush with the wall. It’s meant to be the more “permanent solution”. According to the announcement, it’ll allow users to remotely control and access other Matter devices on their home network via the app or through voice commands. Each receptacle can be “automated individually” so people can create scenes and automation that best suit their needs.

There is a catch with this device, however. While it does let people “monitor and control their energy consumption”, you can only do so on either the Eve app on iOS or Samsung’s SmartThings app. As TheVerge points out, you won’t be able to monitor your energy consumption on other platforms like Google Home.

Something to keep in mind about the Eve Energy Outlet is that it uses the Thread wireless protocol meaning it requires both a Thread border router and a Matter controller to connect to a home network. Finding the right supporting hardware can be tricky. So to help users out, the company has a guide on its website listing out the best controllers for specific smart home ecosystems.

Controlling the lights

Next, there is the Eve Light Switch which will let you control the light bulbs in your house either through the mobile app or by voice commands. On iOS, users can set up schedules for when the lights should automatically turn on or off. No word on whether the company will bring this function to the Android app.

Then we have the Eve Blinds Collection. These, as the name suggests, are shades custom-made to fit the window frames in your house. The product will support the brand’s Adaptive Shading tech giving them the ability to “automatically close according to the position of the sun.” The fabric used in the collection will be available in a semi-transparent or blackout with special “insulating properties” to help you save on energy.

Availability

The Blinds Collection will come out on February 1st in the United States and Germany on the official Eve Store. After that, the Energy Outlet will become available for purchase from the same online store as well as Amazon for $49.95 beginning February 6th. The Light Switch will go on sale for $49.95 sometime in the second quarter of 2024. An exact date was not given.

We reached out to Eve for clarification on certain details. It’s unknown how much the blinds will cost although if we had to take a guess, the final price will probably depend on the size of a window frame. Additionally, we don’t know if there are plans to launch international versions of the outlet or the switch. This story will be updated at a later time.

Until then, check out TechRadar's list of the best smart home devices for 2023.

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Latest Tech News

Kwumsy has launched a new model of its keyboard and display combo device, the Kwumsy K3, which combines an 82-key mechanical keyboard with a 13-inch touchscreen display.

As you can tell from its name, the Kwumsy K3 Touch-Expanding Screen Keyboard is the third-generation model, and one of the significant upgrades in this iteration is the ability to tilt the screen upward, adjusting the viewing angle between 0 and 90 degrees, which means it can sit at a right angle to the keyboard or lie flat.

The 13-inch LCD touchscreen has a 1920 x 720 resolution, a 60 Hz refresh rate, and up to 300 nits brightness. It supports 10-point multitouch input.

Fully customizable

The Kwumsy K3 includes two USB Type-C ports, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, an SD card reader, and an M.2 2280 slot, so users can add an SSD to the device. A pair of stereo speakers is also incorporated into the design.

The keyboard itself is equipped with RGB backlighting and supports 20 different lighting effects. RGB light strips are also present along the sides of the device. There are hot-swappable Gateron yellow switches, and 18MM cherry keycaps.

The Kwumsy K3 package also includes a USB-C power adapter and several adapter cables, such as USB-C to HDMI, USB-C to USB-C, and USB-A to USB-C.

As you might expect, the Kwumsy K3 is rather large - measuring 330 x 295 x 39mm.

The keyboard is usually priced at $599, but it’s currently on sale for $360 through the Kwumsy website. In addition, if you use the code MC15, you can get an additional 15% off, bringing the price down to $313.65. Free shipping is included.

Kwumsy K3 Touch-Expanding Screen Keyboard in use — (Image credit: Kwumsy)

Latest Tech News

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly addressed worker complacency in a recent all-hands meeting following complaints that some employees are simply coasting along while enjoying bumper paycheques.

According to insight shared with Business Insider by people in attendance, Huang acknowledged the growing issue of some long-tenured Nvidia employees not pulling their weight, a concern raised by colleagues who appear to have noted that some middle managers have entered a “semi-retirement” stage whereby they’re not putting in the work that’s worthy of their high salary.

Several reasons for this complacency were cited, indicating that the inherently poor work ethic relates to workers resting and vesting.

Nvidia managers cruising through to retirement

According to the report, the company’s CEO has been reluctant to fire workers, with the last large-scale round of redundancies taking place in 2008 at the time of the economic crash. During the 2022-2023 layoff season, Intel reportedly cut hundreds of jobs, while Nvidia kept all its workers onboard, offering reduced salaries and higher stock awards instead.

The problem is that Nvidia’s stock is up by around 1,400% over the past five years, and around 240% this year to date, thanks to a huge surge in orders of chips powering new AI tools.

Nvidia has arguably benefited more from artificial intelligence than rival chipmakers like AMD and Intel, and long-standing workers see this as an opportunity to stockpile shares and watch them grow, leaving them with little motivation to put in the work.

The company is also slated for having a pretty hands-off management style, making it difficult for execs to identify and address problems like complacency.

Huang has asked that workers take ownership of their work by viewing themselves as their own CEO. Nvidia declined to comment.

Monday, December 25, 2023

Sunday, December 24, 2023

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Christmas sales 2023: quick links

Today's best deals to arrive on the 24th

Nvidia H100 vs Google TPU v5p: Which is faster?

More from TechRadar Pro

Friday, December 22, 2023

Abusing a SmartScreen flaw

More from TechRadar Pro

Thursday, December 21, 2023

The final workaround

Beeper Mini's future

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Wednesday, December 20, 2023

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Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Monday, December 18, 2023

Controlling the lights

Availability

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Fully customizable

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Nvidia managers cruising through to retirement

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