Technology
- Adobe Firefly now generates AI images with OpenAI, Google, and Flux models – how to access them April 25, 2025New models include the Firefly Image Model 4, GPT-4o image model, and Imagen 3.
- Your TV's USB port is seriously underutilized: 5 handy features you're overlooking April 25, 2025The USB port on your TV might seem like an afterthought, but it's actually a hidden gem packed with surprisingly handy features.
- How to prevent your streaming device from tracking your viewing habits (and why it makes a difference) April 25, 2025Your Fire Stick, Roku, and other streaming devices collect your personal data for various reasons. If you're uncomfortable with that, here's how to get peace of mind.
- I changed 12 settings on my Android phone to dramatically improve battery life April 25, 2025Say goodbye to battery anxiety – these 12 tried-and-true tips will help you get the most out of your Android's battery life.
- This simple Kindle accessory made the reading experience so much better for me April 25, 2025Strapsicle's silicone straps secure my Kindle Paperwhite and give me the perfect grip for comfortable reading. It's the perfect time to snag a pair during Amazon's Book Sale.
- This $50 fitness band made ditching my smartwatch easier than I expected April 25, 2025The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is a budget-friendly fitness tracker that pairs a user-friendly app with a solid lineup of practical features.
- I tested this affordable E Ink phone for two weeks, and it rewired my brain (for the better) April 25, 2025If you're looking to break free from the smartphone attention trap, the Mudita Kompakt offers a refreshing escape – an ultra-minimal E Ink phone with just a handful of essential apps.
- These Motorola earbuds with Swarovski crystals may be the biggest wearable flex I've seen yet April 25, 2025Motorola teamed up with Swarovski and Bose to launch the eye-catching Moto Buds Loop, diamond-studded earbuds that don't hold back on flair.
- I tested Motorola's $1,300 Razr Ultra, and it made my Samsung Galaxy Z Flip feel outdated April 25, 2025The new lineup of Motorola Razr phones includes an Ultra model that's the biggest flip phone flex yet.
- HP's new EliteBook is a beast in the office (and a breeze to commute with) April 25, 2025HP's first-generation EliteBook X has impressive hardware that makes it a productivity powerhouse and a sleeker form than its rivals.
- I swapped my ThinkPad for a MacBook Air M4, and it's spoiled work laptops for me April 25, 2025Apple's M4 MacBook Air (2025) brings a little more power to the thin and light form factor, while optimizing what made it great in the first place.
- Anthropic finds alarming 'emerging trends' in Claude misuse report April 25, 2025Claude was used to create advanced malware and push paid political agendas on social media.
- Why the road from passwords to passkeys is long, bumpy, and worth it – probably April 25, 2025The passkey standard has reached a precarious moment. Let's not blow it, OK?
- The best VPNs for streaming in 2025: Expert tested and reviewed April 25, 2025Netflix won't easily block our favorite streaming VPNs, and we've tried and tested the best VPNs for high-speed, reliable streaming.
- The best Amazon Fire TV Stick VPNs of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed April 25, 2025Combining the Amazon Fire TV Stick with a VPN can bypass smart TV restrictions and access more streaming platforms and libraries. These are ZDNET's top picks.
- 8 simple ways Mac users can better protect their privacy April 24, 2025Just because you're running Apple's rock-solid operating system doesn't mean your privacy is automatically protected. These simple steps will keep you safer.
- The best Galaxy Z Fold 5 cases 2025: Expert recommended April 24, 2025We've scoured brands like Spigen, Casetify, and Samsung to find the best cases with optimal security for your Galaxy Z Fold 5. Here are our favorites.
- Are sleep earbuds legit? I put these made by ex-Bose engineers to the test April 24, 2025The Ozlo Sleepbuds are the Bose Sleepbuds reincarnated. They're also the most comfortable and effective sleep earbuds I've tried.
- People are Googling fake sayings to see AI Overviews explain them – and it's hilarious April 24, 2025Google's AI Overviews tool now confidently creates origin stories for made-up idioms. Try it for yourself.
- Load up your Kindle for summer: Get up to 93% off popular eBooks at Amazon right now April 24, 2025Need a beach read? Stock up your library ahead of the summer season during Amazon's Book Sale.
Technology
- Nous, which plans to launch an AI training system on Solana using people's idle computing power, raised a $50M Series A, a source says at a $1B token valuation (Leo Schwartz/Fortune) April 25, 2025Leo Schwartz / Fortune: Nous, which plans to launch an AI training system on Solana using people's idle computing power, raised a $50M Series A, a source says at a $1B token valuation — Training AI models requires a massive amount of computing power. — The crypto industry has been fighting to get a piece […]
- Sources: Tencent Music is in advanced talks to buy Chinese podcasting startup Ximalaya in a $2.4B deal (Bloomberg) April 25, 2025Bloomberg: Sources: Tencent Music is in advanced talks to buy Chinese podcasting startup Ximalaya in a $2.4B deal — An agreement could be reached as soon as the coming weeks, the people said. — Talks are ongoing and no final decisions have been made, the people said.
- Baidu CEO Robin Li says demand for text-based models like DeepSeek's is "shrinking" and claims its model had a higher propensity for "hallucinations" (Eleanor Olcott/Financial Times) April 25, 2025Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times: Baidu CEO Robin Li says demand for text-based models like DeepSeek's is “shrinking” and claims its model had a higher propensity for “hallucinations” — Search group's chief makes rare criticism of China's generative artificial intelligence darling
- Toshiba Europe researchers say they used quantum key distribution cryptography to send messages over a 250km German commercial telecommunications network (Michael Peel/Financial Times) April 25, 2025Michael Peel / Financial Times: Toshiba Europe researchers say they used quantum key distribution cryptography to send messages over a 250km German commercial telecommunications network — Researchers harness quantum mechanics to create communications system that can avoid being hacked — Scientists have sent messages …
- Brazil's AI-based social security app, launched in 2018, has cut bureaucracy in some cases but wrongly rejected hundreds of vulnerable people over minor errors (Gabriel Daros/Rest of World) April 25, 2025Gabriel Daros / Rest of World: Brazil's AI-based social security app, launched in 2018, has cut bureaucracy in some cases but wrongly rejected hundreds of vulnerable people over minor errors — An algorithmic tool meant to reduce bureaucracy is misfiring on complex cases, and vulnerable Brazilians are paying the price.
- Three European scientific funding agencies have put research programs with China on hold since 2021 due to concerns over the country's Data Security Law (Andrew Silver/Reuters) April 25, 2025Andrew Silver / Reuters: Three European scientific funding agencies have put research programs with China on hold since 2021 due to concerns over the country's Data Security Law — Several of Europe's biggest funders of scientific collaboration with China, in fields such as viruses and air quality …
- JD.com's costly bid to challenge Meituan in food delivery, while the latter enters the e-commerce space, has led to a loss of ~$70B in combined market value (Charlotte Yang/Bloomberg) April 25, 2025Charlotte Yang / Bloomberg: JD.com's costly bid to challenge Meituan in food delivery, while the latter enters the e-commerce space, has led to a loss of ~$70B in combined market value — Powerbeats Pro 2 Review: Best Workout Earbuds Still Lag on Audio Quality — Beats' newest exercise headphones are improved, but they face stiffer […]
- OpenAI expands deep research usage for Plus, Pro, and Team users with an o4-mini-powered lightweight version, which also rolls out to Free users today (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch) April 25, 2025Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: OpenAI expands deep research usage for Plus, Pro, and Team users with an o4-mini-powered lightweight version, which also rolls out to Free users today — OpenAI is bringing a new “lightweight” version of its ChatGPT deep research tool, which scours the web to compile research reports on a topic …
- Baidu rolls out Ernie 4.5 Turbo and X1 Turbo, new versions of its flagship foundation and reasoning models, as it looks to take on Alibaba's Qwen and DeepSeek (Bloomberg) April 25, 2025Bloomberg: Baidu rolls out Ernie 4.5 Turbo and X1 Turbo, new versions of its flagship foundation and reasoning models, as it looks to take on Alibaba's Qwen and DeepSeek — The Chinese search engine leader rolled out Ernie 4.5 Turbo and Ernie X1 Turbo, the latest versions of its flagship foundation …
- Adobe says Firefly users can now generate images using OpenAI's GPT, Google's Imagen 3 and Veo 2, and Flux 1.1 Pro, in addition to its own Firefly image models (Stephen Nellis/Reuters) April 25, 2025Stephen Nellis / Reuters: Adobe says Firefly users can now generate images using OpenAI's GPT, Google's Imagen 3 and Veo 2, and Flux 1.1 Pro, in addition to its own Firefly image models — Adobe (ADBE.O) said on Thursday it is adding image-generation artificial intelligence models from OpenAI and Alphabet's Google …
- Sources: Apple plans to move assembly of all US-sold iPhones, ~60M/year, to India by the end of 2026, as President Trump's trade war pushes a pivot from China (Financial Times) April 25, 2025Financial Times: Sources: Apple plans to move assembly of all US-sold iPhones, ~60M/year, to India by the end of 2026, as President Trump's trade war pushes a pivot from China — FT Exclusive: Tech giant plans to shift assembly as soon as next year in response to Donald Trump's trade war
- YouTube is testing a new AI Overviews carousel in its search results for queries focused on products and location information, for some US Premium subscribers (Danny Goodwin/Search Engine Land) April 25, 2025Danny Goodwin / Search Engine Land: YouTube is testing a new AI Overviews carousel in its search results for queries focused on products and location information, for some US Premium subscribers — YouTube is testing a new AI Overviews carousel. It will appear in search results for select queries.
- Sources: the US is conducting a criminal antitrust probe into TP-Link's pricing strategies and whether the router maker represents a national security threat (Bloomberg) April 25, 2025Bloomberg: Sources: the US is conducting a criminal antitrust probe into TP-Link's pricing strategies and whether the router maker represents a national security threat — Beyond pricing, a focus of the inquiry is also whether the company's growing US market share represents a threat to national security …
- Source: Alphabet's Q1 profit was boosted by $8B in unrealized gains from an investment in SpaceX; Alphabet has been a major SpaceX investor since at least 2015 (Davey Alba/Bloomberg) April 25, 2025Davey Alba / Bloomberg: Source: Alphabet's Q1 profit was boosted by $8B in unrealized gains from an investment in SpaceX; Alphabet has been a major SpaceX investor since at least 2015 — Powerbeats Pro 2 Review: Best Workout Earbuds Still Lag on Audio Quality — Beats' newest exercise headphones are improved, but they face stiffer […]
- Netflix rolls out subtitles with just spoken dialog, without audio cues or speaker names, and says ~50% of US viewing hours happen with subtitles or captions on (Emma Roth/The Verge) April 25, 2025Emma Roth / The Verge: Netflix rolls out subtitles with just spoken dialog, without audio cues or speaker names, and says ~50% of US viewing hours happen with subtitles or captions on — The new option drops sound descriptions and speaker names from subtitles. … Netflix is rolling out a new subtitle option that shows […]