Hacker News

Sony is paying approximately $460 milliion to <a target="_blank" class="link rapid-with-clickid" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=15919d69-aefa-41ae-a977-fdcae58a803c&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=42138c35-3898-490f-b1fe-90aa0633f46f&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Sony&linkText=purchase+Peanuts&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5zb255LmNvbS9lbi9Tb255SW5mby9JUi9uZXdzLzIwMjUxMjE5X0UucGRmIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiI0MjEzOGMzNS0zODk4LTQ5MGYtYjFmZS05MGFhMDYzM2Y0NmYiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNvbnkuY29tL2VuL1NvbnlJbmZvL0lSL25ld3MvMjAyNTEyMTlfRS5wZGYifQ&signature=AQAAAX0uBk23gZnDcCQnXL0aINug3K3i4DNj3Nt2xnaUx3en&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sony.com%2Fen%2FSonyInfo%2FIR%2Fnews%2F20251219_E.pdf" data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Sony;elmt:;slk:purchase Peanuts;cpos:1;pos:1" data-original-link="https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/news/20251219_E.pdf">purchase Peanuts</a> [PDF] and its characters, including Snoopy and Charlie Brown, created by Charles M. Schulz. That’s a 41 percent stake Sony is buying from Canadian firm WildBrain. Since Sony bought 39 percent of the franchise back in 2018, this will give the company an 80 percent stake. The deal is still subject to regulatory approvals, but Peanuts will become Sony’s consolidated subsidiary once it’s closed. Schulz’s family still owns the remaining 20 percent stake in the franchise. Schulz launched the Peanuts universe in comic strips 75 years ago, back in 1950. The franchise has grown massively since then, spawning animated series, <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/apple-tv-releases-the-first-peanuts-musical-in-37-years-130003599.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">cartoon musicals</a> and movies that made Snoopy a household name. The company said that it has focused on expanding the Peanuts IP since it bought 39 percent of the brand years ago. “With this additional ownership stake, we are thrilled to be able to further elevate the value of the ʻPEANUTSʼ brand by drawing on the Sony Groupʼs extensive global network and collective expertise,” Sony Music Entertainment Japan CEO Shunsuke Muramatsu added. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/sony-is-buying-peanuts-022341467.html?src=rss

Dec 19, 2025

Trump's TikTok deal is another step closer to finally actually happening

Remember back in September when President Donald Trump signed an <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/social-media/trump-signs-executive-order-saying-his-tiktok-deal-is-legal-204607521.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">executive order</a> that seemingly finalized some of the terms of a deal to spin off TikTok's US business? Three months later, that same deal is apparently one step closer to being official.According to <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-18/tiktok-says-it-signed-agreements-to-create-new-us-joint-venture" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">Bloomberg</a>, TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees that TikTok and ByteDance had signed off the agreement for control of TikTok's US business. It sounds like terms of the deal are roughly the same as what Trump announced earlier this year. A group of US investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will control a majority of the new entity while ByteDance will keep a smaller stake in the venture. According to Chew's memo, the deal is expected to close January 22, 2026. “Upon the closing, the US joint venture, built on the foundation of the current TikTok US Data Security (USDS) organization, will operate as an independent entity with authority over US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance,” he wrote according to Bloomberg.  TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Notably, it's still not clear where Chinese officials stand on the deal. Trump said back in September that China was "fully on board," but subsequent meetings between the two sides have so far produced vague statements. In October, China's Commerce Ministry <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/china-says-it-will-work-with-u-s-to-resolve-tiktok-issues-after-trump-xi-meeting" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">said</a> it would "work with the U.S. to properly resolve issues related to TikTok." If a deal is indeed finalized by next month, it will come almost exactly a year after Trump's first executive order <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-delays-tiktok-ban-for-at-least-75-days-via-executive-order-014523110.html" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">to delay</a> a law that required a sale or ban of the app front taking effect. He has signed off several other extensions since. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/trumps-tiktok-deal-is-another-step-closer-to-finally-actually-happening-001813404.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Steam Winter Sale discounts Clair Obscur, Silent Hill f and more

Holiday shopping is in full swing, which means it's about time for the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/492711197218440447?l=english" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">Steam Winter Sale</a>. This go-around, Valve’s sale runs from December 18, 2025 through January 5, 2026, and includes discounts on some of this year's hit games, like <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/clair-obscur-expedition-33-review-an-original-hit-rpg-090012488.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">Clair Obscur: Expedition 33</a>, <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/silent-hill-f-preview-gamescom-2025-123030305.html" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">Silent Hill f</a> and <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/assassins-creed-shadows-review-an-ambitious-and-captivating-world-thats-stuck-in-the-past-170008367.html" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">Assassin's Creed Shadows</a>.<a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903340/Clair_Obscur_Expedition_33/" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">Clair Obscur</a> is available for $40, down from its normal $50, <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://store.steampowered.com/sub/1049570" data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1">Silent Hill f</a> is 40 percent off, bringing its price down to $42, and the normally $70 <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/3159330/Assassins_Creed_Shadows/" data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1">Assassin's Creed Shadows</a> is selling for $35, a solid deal on what was somewhat of a comeback for the long-running Ubisoft series. On top of those sales, you can get <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://store.steampowered.com/sub/82712" data-i13n="cpos:8;pos:1">Stardew Valley</a> for $9, or the difficult-to-master walking sim <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1281040/Baby_Steps/" data-i13n="cpos:9;pos:1">Baby Steps</a> for $13. I'm also considering picking up <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/Consume_Me/" data-i13n="cpos:10;pos:1">Consume Me</a> for $10 and <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2062430/BALL_x_PIT/" data-i13n="cpos:11;pos:1">Ball x Pit</a> for $12, just to round out my collection of indie hits from 2025.Valve runs Steam sales on a pretty regular cadence, so if the game you're eyeing isn't on sale, there's a good chance it could be soon. With holiday vacations coming up, and hopefully time to play games on the menu, though, now's the perfect time to pick up something new. And if you don't get to it this year, consider it an investment of sorts for the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/valve-announces-new-steam-machine-and-steam-controller-182836847.html" data-i13n="cpos:12;pos:1">Steam Machine</a> you might purchase in 2026.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/steam-winter-sale-discounts-clair-obscur-silent-hill-f-and-more-230834279.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Google’s NotebookLM introduces Data Tables feature

Dec 18, 2025

LG will let you delete the previously unremovable Microsoft Copilot shortcut on its smart TVs

Dec 18, 2025

AirTags are back on sale, with a four-pack retailing for $65

Apple keeps most of its product pricing on a tight leash, but we do see the company's AirTags go on sale pretty frequently. Another cost cut has come around for this item just in time for the holidays. Amazon is currently selling a four-pack of <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&itemId=amazon_B0D54JZTHY&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=24b60c33-f851-4bee-9d8b-9c00c8cc034a&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=AirTags&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2RwL0IwRDU0SlpUSFk_dGFnPWdkZ3QwYy0yMCIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMjRiNjBjMzMtZjg1MS00YmVlLTlkOGItOWMwMGM4Y2MwMzRhIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2RwL0IwRDU0SlpUSFkiLCJkeW5hbWljQ2VudHJhbFRyYWNraW5nSWQiOnRydWUsInNpdGVJZCI6InVzLWVuZ2FkZ2V0IiwicGFnZUlkIjoiMXAtYXV0b2xpbmsiLCJmZWF0dXJlSWQiOiJ0ZXh0LWxpbmsifQ&signature=AQAAAR-tHxD_n-S9V6FZTggBPzQxNCDZMIugRbDnHNS6azZ_&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB0D54JZTHY" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D54JZTHY?"><ins>AirTags</ins></a> for $65. At a third off the regular cost, that price is pretty close to the record low discount of $63 we've seen for these Bluetooth trackers.  <core-commerce id="3f2e8dbba5f04aee8fc64ab5334170d5" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D54JZTHY?"></core-commerce> If you place an order quickly, the AirTags should arrive in time for Christmas, making this a solid choice as a gift for someone with a tendency to misplace stuff. AirTags can also be useful for people who travel frequently, helping you to keep track of essentials like your passport as well as a way to keep tabs on luggage while you're on the go. If you do purchase some AirTags, we have some recommendations for <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-apple-airtag-cases-holders-accessories-123036404.html"><ins>useful accessories</ins></a> to go along with them, such as different styles of cases to best attach the trackers to different types of items. These are worth looking over and adding to your shopping cart in order to make the most of the product.  AirTags have an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance and their replaceable batteries should last for about a year. They can also support Precision Finding, which gives more exact directions to a lost item, when paired with most models after the iPhone 11. Up to five people can share an AirTag's location, which is helpful for families or large travel groups.  Follow <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://twitter.com/EngadgetDeals">@EngadgetDeals</a> on X for the latest <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/deals/">tech deals</a> and <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/best-tech/">buying advice</a>.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/airtags-are-back-on-sale-with-a-four-pack-retailing-for-65-202333979.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Auto chip shortage: Honda will pause production in Japan and China

The ripples of the auto industry's chip shortage are still being felt, as evidenced by Honda. Bloomberg <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-18/chip-shortage-lingers-as-honda-to-halt-output-in-japan-china" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">reported</a> on Wednesday that the automaker will suspend production in Japan on January 5 and 6. (Honda didn't specify the affected factories.) In addition, all three of the automaker's Guangqi Honda Automobile plants in China will shut down from December 29 to January 2.The halt is an outgrowth of a chip shortage stemming from a recent <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/15/tech/netherlands-nexperia-us-china-tech-war-intl-hnk" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">geopolitical proxy war</a> in the Netherlands, of all places. In October, the Dutch government, bowing to pressure from the Trump administration, seized control of the Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia. The company, which operates in the Netherlands, makes low-end chips that power automobiles, appliances and other tech.The Dutch government's official explanation for the seizure was that Nexperia had "serious governance shortcomings." It cited a concern that Nexperia's Chinese majority owner, Wingtech, would move key technology out of Europe. However, the New York Times later <a target="_blank" class="link rapid-with-clickid" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=c813ae39-7d58-41cb-ac66-ad830606ceef&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=965d4db1-6e2c-40e4-80bc-b331d9f5112c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=The+New+York+Times&linkText=reported&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5ueXRpbWVzLmNvbS8yMDI1LzEyLzEwL3dvcmxkL2FzaWEvZHV0Y2gtbmV4cGVyaWEtemhhbmctY2VvLmh0bWwiLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6Ijk2NWQ0ZGIxLTZlMmMtNDBlNC04MGJjLWIzMzFkOWY1MTEyYyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyNS8xMi8xMC93b3JsZC9hc2lhL2R1dGNoLW5leHBlcmlhLXpoYW5nLWNlby5odG1sIn0&signature=AQAAAe3OZL1LJZiFCLzmRvLzM4ZIj3TdaKPKglt7y9Lciq5u&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F12%2F10%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fdutch-nexperia-zhang-ceo.html" data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:The New York Times;elmt:;cpos:3;pos:1" data-original-link="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/world/asia/dutch-nexperia-zhang-ceo.html">reported</a> that the Dutch government had known about those plans since 2019.Regardless, China retaliated by blocking exports of Nexperia-made chips. The Netherlands eventually <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7p7j83rn1o" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">suspended</a> its intervention, following "constructive talks." China then relaxed (but did not entirely remove) its restrictions through exemptions to export controls. The uneasy resolution hasn’t been enough to help supply chains fully recover.Honda initially anticipated that production would return to normal starting in late November. So much for that. "No one [in the auto industry] prepared for geopolitical disruption," automaker consultant Ambrose Conroy, CEO of Seraph Consulting, <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/how-nexperia-chip-crisis-upended-auto-supply-chains-again-2025-11-24/" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">told</a> Reuters in November. "And they're still not prepared."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/auto-chip-shortage-honda-will-pause-production-in-japan-and-china-200857591.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The Displace Hub can make your normal TV wireless

Displace first tried its hand at reimagining the TV in 2023, with <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/displace-wireless-tv-hands-on-002620453.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">a wireless screen</a> that suctions onto walls and features built-in rechargeable batteries. At CES 2026, the company is not only introducing new versions of its own TVs, it's also showing off the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/displace-redefines-wall-mounts-at-ces-2026-with-displace-hub-turning-any-tv-into-a-truly-wireless-smart-display-on-the-wall-302645568.html?tc=eml_cleartime" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">Displace Hub</a>, an accessory that can make other TVs wireless.The Displace Hub is a wall-mounting system with some extra bells and whistles. It combines the "active-loop suction" of Displace’s TVs, with a rechargeable battery that can power whatever screen you mount on it and a built-in PC that runs Displace's "ambient computing platform." The Hub uses an Intel N-150 4-core CPU with an integrated GPU, 16GB RAM and 128GB of storage to run Displace's operating system, and includes a 15,000mAh battery to keep everything powered. The Hub also has two HDMI inputs for external devices and supports Displace's Controller 2.0, which offers a second screen for additional information and content.<figure><img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/Displace-Hub-back.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/Displace-Hub-back.jpg" style="height:1440px;width:2560px;" alt="A rendering of the back of a Displace Hub feature circular "active-loop" suction mounts." data-uuid="c71f30dc-bc9e-48ff-8e0c-5655276a5c39"/><figcaption>The Displace Hub uses the same "active-loop suction" system as the Displace TV.</figcaption><div class="photo-credit">Displace</div></figure>The mounting system does have some notable limits, however. Displace says the Hub can support weights up to 150 pounds, and is specifically designed to mount TVs between 55 and 100 inches, which might rule out the TV you already own. The battery life of the Displace Hub could also be a concern. Connecting your TV to the Hub's integrated battery is supposed to eliminate the need for unsightly power cables, but depending on how often you watch and the energy demands of your screen, you might be recharging fairly often. Displace says the Displace Hub's battery life lasts anywhere from five to 10 hours. While the Hub can be recharged while keeping your TV mounted at the same time, having to plug and unplug your TV setup from a charger seems like it could defeat the point of having a wireless TV in the first place.Other TV makers have tried to offer mostly wireless screens at CES in the past, like the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/lg-signature-m3-oled-tv-zero-connect-160030192.html" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">LG Signature OLED M3</a> and the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/samsungs-ces-2025-tv-lineup-includes-8k-ai-enhancements-and-a-wireless-connect-box-030058512.html" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN990F</a>, which use wireless breakout boxes to stream HDMI connections to their TV screens. Both of those TVs were focused on reducing the number of cables that you connect to your screen rather than eliminating cables entirely, though, a goal that still comes with tradeoffs based on the limitations of the Displace Hub. Displace hasn't announced a release date for the Displace Hub, but the company says that the mounting system will cost $1,900 at launch and will be available to pre-order during CES 2026.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/the-displace-hub-can-make-your-normal-tv-wireless-193837460.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Apple is bringing even more ads to the App Store

Apple just announced <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://ads.apple.com/app-store/help/ad-placements/0082-search-results#ntf"><ins>it will be integrating more ads</ins></a> into the App Store because our poor eyeballs must be assaulted at all times. The company plans on littering search results with advertisements <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/12/17/apple-announces-more-ads-are-coming-to-app-store-search-results/"><ins>beginning next year</ins></a>. Currently, the App Store only has one ad spot. That's at the very top of search results. If you search for something like Instagram it's likely that top spot will be filled with an ad for a rival social media platform. The new ads will appear further down the actual search results. Apple says that advertisers won't have to alter their campaigns, as the ads will "run in either the existing position — at the top of search results — or further down in search results." The company says that 65 percent of app downloads happen after a search, so this move will "give advertisers more opportunities." Google began inundating the Play Store <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://tech.yahoo.com/general/articles/google-wants-shove-more-ads-154557115.html"><ins>with more ads last year</ins></a> and, well, the results <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1inbdxg/the_play_store_is_90_ads/"><ins>haven't been pretty</ins></a>. The general consensus is that the store has become <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.androidpolice.com/android-ads-are-becoming-unbearable/"><ins>more frustrating to use</ins></a>. We'll have to wait and see just how intrusive these App Store ads end up being. Recent reporting also indicates that Apple <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-is-reportedly-getting-ready-to-introduce-ads-to-its-maps-app-170654072.html"><ins>plans on bringing ads to the Maps app</ins></a>. This is reportedly scheduled for next year, though the company has yet to comment.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-is-bringing-even-more-ads-to-the-app-store-193416921.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Trump Mobile's T1 still doesn't exist, but the company is now selling refurbished phones

The T1 smartphone from Trump Mobile remains <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/trump-mobile-is-promoting-its-smartphone-with-terribly-edited-photos-of-other-brands-products-222940375.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">non-existent vaporware</a>, but the company is still finding new ways to take people's money. Anyone who desperately wants to fund this sham can now buy a refurbished phone from the company. The business's website has listings for "Renewed" models of the Samsung S24 and S23 and the iPhone 15 and 14. Gizmodo <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://gizmodo.com/the-trump-phone-delivers-on-its-promise-of-being-complete-and-utter-bullshit-2000701261" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">noticed</a> that Trump Mobile is selling these other brands' phones for the same cost, or sometimes more, than the same refurbs from other retailers. Seems pretty par for the course. NBC News opted to order one of the T1 phones in August to track its development. "After confirming with the credit card company that the transaction was not fraudulent, NBC News received a confirmation email verifying the order," the publication said in a <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/trump-mobile-phone-customers-left-waiting-months-delay-rcna245035" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">report</a> last month. However, it has not received much communication from the company on why the phone still has not shipped. "Neither Trump Mobile nor the Trump Organization responded to NBC News’ multiple requests for comment on when the phone would be released and why it’s delayed."In case you missed the previous acts of sketchiness from Trump Mobile, the company insisted at its debut that the phone was made in the US. That seemed like <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/the-golden-trump-phone-is-almost-certainly-not-made-in-the-us-174536590.html" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">a dubious claim</a> and the "made in the USA" language was <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/trump-mobile-drops-its-made-in-the-usa-claims-193917169.html" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">quietly removed</a> from the website shortly after.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/trump-mobiles-t1-still-doesnt-exist-but-the-company-is-now-selling-refurbished-phones-191740570.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Trump Media is merging with a Google-backed fusion energy company in a deal worth $6 billion

Trump media, the company behind the president's personal social media platform Truth Social, is inexplicably merging with a Google-backed fusion energy company called TAE Technologies. The deal is worth $6 billion, <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.ft.com/content/1e1978d5-535b-4241-872f-38db778df694?utm_social_post_id=626593619&utm_social_handle_id=10977192"><ins>according to reporting by </ins><ins>Financial Times</ins></a>. Why is an entity known for publishing frenzied hot takes by the president at 3AM combining with a fusion energy company? Who the heck really knows, but a statement says the two organizations will join together to build the "world's first utility-scale fusion power plant." This would be huge, if true, as there are currently no operational commercial nuclear fusion power plants. <div id="5abb5d14aed44a8d9d2fe8476a9a2b1e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">📣TAE Technologies, a premier global fusion power company, to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group to create one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies. Join our joint investor call at 9 am ET today to learn more: <a href="https://t.co/3ccBmMY5qr">https://t.co/3ccBmMY5qr</a> Read more:… <a href="https://t.co/f7TYQS4jQp">pic.twitter.com/f7TYQS4jQp</a>— TAE Technologies (@TAE) <a href="https://twitter.com/TAE/status/2001622308998267339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2025</a></blockquote> </div> We know what TAE would bring to the table in that scenario. The energy company <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://tae.com/about-us/history-of-innovation-2025/"><ins>has been around since the 1990s</ins></a> and has attracted interest from Google, Chevron and others. Trump Media would be a great partner when building a reactor <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/15/politics/trump-rob-reiner-truth-social-post"><ins>powered by insults</ins></a>, but doesn't seem to offer much of anything else. The merger statement does mention that Trump Media would provide TAE with "access to significant capital." The company <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2025/11/07/trump-media-truth-social-djt-tmtg-taylor-swift/"><ins>lost $55 million last quarter</ins></a>, as there's only so much money in a social media platform primarily used by just one person. However, the president himself is likely the world's most renowned raiser of funds when it comes to <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/big-tech-is-helping-to-pay-for-trumps-ballroom-that-we-all-definitely-want-162545434.html"><ins>personal pet projects</ins></a>. He knows how to get a roomful of billionaires to open up their wallets, provide copious compliments and <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/general/big-tech-bent-the-knee-for-trump-in-2025-140000365.html"><ins>even hand-deliver gold statues</ins></a>. The terms of the deal state that Trump Media will provide TAE with $300 million in capital as a bonus of sorts, though we don't know where that money is coming from as it represents over ten percent of the company's entire valuation. This is an all-stock deal and stocks aren't exactly immune from the <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/oblb/blog-post/2025/04/most-far-reaching-securities-fraud-history-trump-tariffs-and-securities-law"><ins>manipulative whims of billionaires</ins></a>. To that end, shares in Trump Media have risen dramatically since this deal was announced. President Trump <a data-i13n="cpos:8;pos:1" href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/sec.irpass.cc/2660/0001474506-24-000291.htm"><ins>shifted his stake in the company</ins></a> to a revocable trust that he is the sole beneficiary of and is controlled by Donald Trump Jr.  There's also the potential notion of using access to shore up federal support for grants, low-interest loans and permit approvals. That kind of thing seems particularly thorny and, to put it mildly, legally gray. <div id="46e51e0c4b8a41a6b68b207b40cf6168"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dGr8VaITKbA?si=GWPiYU-oNLoPDUO2" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> Creating a power plant for large-scale nuclear fusion would be an incredible undertaking and it's something <a data-i13n="cpos:9;pos:1" href="https://www.polytechnique-insights.com/en/columns/energy/nuclear-fusion-the-true-the-false-and-the-uncertain/"><ins>humanity has yet to figure out</ins></a>. TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer <a data-i13n="cpos:10;pos:1" href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/business/truth-social-trump-tae-technologies-nuclear-fusion"><ins>told </ins><ins>CNN</ins></a> the newly-formed company will have it done in "five-ish years." Most experts <a data-i13n="cpos:11;pos:1" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-future-of-fusion-energy/"><ins>put that time frame</ins></a> in the "30-ish years" category.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-media-is-merging-with-a-google-backed-fusion-energy-company-in-a-deal-worth-6-billion-180910779.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The 11 best gifts under $25 for 2025

The most hyped tech is often also the most expensive: flagship smartphones, ultra-powerful gaming laptops, immersive VR headsets and the like. But it would be wrong to assume that those are the only pieces of technology worth gifting. You don’t have to drain your wallet to get someone a cool gadget that will both be useful and make their lives easier. There are more solid, affordable gadgets out there now more than ever, but that also means you’ll discover some junk along the way. We’ve collected our favorite pieces of tech under $25 that make great gifts and help you to stick to a budget. <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-under-25">Best gifts under $25</h2> <core-commerce id="27358a5a86354f51887950fe4773b2a4" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/ESR-HaloLock-Magnetic-Compatible-Charging/dp/B0B38P9TF8/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="b9d43ecb74d54fe190958ad00d29edc5" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Mystic-Maze-1000-Piece-Jigsaw-Company/dp/B08NDXDR84?ref_=ast_sto_dp"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="4f7c91705b94487fa45bf8c8d4ccdd87" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-smart-plug-works-with-Alexa/dp/B089DR29T6"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="84b67fc6217347419af9a4c04c7c23af" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Rechargeable-Handheld-Portable-Operated-Flashlight/dp/B07QK9C9KT/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="5ecad628af6a4c06b387f9fb0ebb4a39" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Botanicals-Happy-Plants-Building/dp/B0DRW6C2RF/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="84c61ea28c914b7bab748aa43bcc6e64" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/iFixit-Moray-Driver-Kit-Smartphones/dp/B08NWKMT8V?"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="33dada4678064855a594cf32d62f8f83" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Qi-Certified-Compatible-Fast-Charging-PowerWave/dp/B07DBXZZN3?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="8aa03bf00ef448eabf39e0b0e7b9fbaa" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Compatible-Generation-Shockproof-Protective/dp/B0CLCDR33Z/ref=sr_1_3?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="ce8f9aa68cc24b74b3d402ceade94144" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/JLab-Bluetooth-Resistance-Connection-Signature/dp/B0CXGXT6W8/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="f33eebe3ed154d1ca28825882eb4f303" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Switch-12-Month-Individual-Membership/dp/B07FV64QLX?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="00f4cc5410fc4d88849d6d6a85ca9a3a" data-type="product-list"></core-commerce> Check out the rest of our <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gifts/">gift ideas</a> here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-11-best-gifts-under-25-for-2025-140042203.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Apple opens up iOS in Japan in response to new regulations

You can add Japan to the list of regions where Apple has been forced to do something it would rather not: open up the App Store. On Thursday, the company <a target="_blank" class="link rapid-with-clickid" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=4130e2f0-a14f-4c5e-bdab-cd52ac7d8e79&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=5e3fd528-9ae3-4fa5-b524-acc88551b9d7&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Apple&linkText=announced&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hcHBsZS5jb20vbmV3c3Jvb20vMjAyNS8xMi9hcHBsZS1hbm5vdW5jZXMtY2hhbmdlcy10by1pb3MtaW4tamFwYW4vIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiI1ZTNmZDUyOC05YWUzLTRmYTUtYjUyNC1hY2M4ODU1MWI5ZDciLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFwcGxlLmNvbS9uZXdzcm9vbS8yMDI1LzEyL2FwcGxlLWFubm91bmNlcy1jaGFuZ2VzLXRvLWlvcy1pbi1qYXBhbi8ifQ&signature=AQAAAbCmrJB7K04yrNjlMdEEHrU1rzftBzrWA43JJUnvr1no&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Fnewsroom%2F2025%2F12%2Fapple-announces-changes-to-ios-in-japan%2F" data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Apple;elmt:;cpos:1;pos:1" data-original-link="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/12/apple-announces-changes-to-ios-in-japan/">announced</a> changes to iOS in Japan to comply with the nation's Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA). The tighter regulations for Apple and Google, which overlap <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-repeats-its-long-held-criticism-of-the-eus-digital-markets-act-130058440.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">with Europe's</a>, took effect today. Users in the US and elsewhere won't see any of these changes.Apple's changes in <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/ios-262-is-here-with-another-liquid-glass-tweak-new-podcasts-features-and-more-181020133.html" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">iOS 26.2</a> in Japan revolve around alternative app stores, payments outside the App Store and browser choice. The company worked with Japanese regulators on new protections for increased security risks.The company calls this set of safeguards Notarization. It involves an authorization process for alternative app stores and child-safety protocols. Third-party marketplaces will need to undergo a baseline security review. This uses a combination of human and automated checks to block malware and other threats.Naturally, Apple cautions that Notarization is less comprehensive than the App Store's reviews. "The App Store — where every app is reviewed to meet the App Store's high bar for privacy and security — remains the best place for iOS users in Japan to discover and download the apps they love," the company wrote.To state the obvious, the App Store is a booming business for the iPhone maker. In 2024, it <a target="_blank" rel="" class="link" href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apples-app-store-generated-nearly-13-trillion-in-sales-in-2024-130002805.html" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">generated $1.3 trillion</a> in total sales. Opening it up poses a threat to one of the company's most reliable revenue streams. Big Tech seems to talk a lot about fewer rewards and more penalties for users when their own money trees are at risk.<figure><img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/2025-12/3ea018f2-9302-4343-839c-68fa2f930c15" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/2025-12/3ea018f2-9302-4343-839c-68fa2f930c15" style="height:1809px;width:2714px;" alt="Apple CEO Tim Cook (C) applauds as US President Donald Trump delivers a speech to business leaders at the US ambassador's residence in Tokyo on October 28, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) " data-uuid="29db6cc4-a5f6-3ca0-bf02-81f57377fa2c"><figcaption>Apple CEO Tim Cook in Tokyo in October 2025</figcaption><div class="photo-credit">ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images</div></figure>iOS 26.2 in Japan also introduces new payment options. Developers can now use non-Apple payment processors within their apps or link to external websites for purchases. (Children's content is exempt from this.) Here, Apple again warns the user about the penalties for doing something that will hurt its bottom line. "For apps that use alternative payment processing or link users to the web for transactions, Apple will not be able to issue refunds and will have less ability to support customers encountering issues, scams or fraud," the company cautioned.The last big change involves picking defaults within the operating system. Users in Japan will see new browser and search engine choice screens. They'll also find default controls for navigation apps and app stores. Finally, developers can now offer browsers that use alternative engines other than Apple's WebKit.Apple's announcement comes a day after Google <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/complying-with-mobile-software-competition-act/" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">detailed</a> its compliance with the MSCA. Since Android is more open than iOS, Google's changes in response to the regulations are a bit less pronounced. Android users will find new browser / search choice screens, expanded billing options and side-by-side comparisons of external vs. Play Store payment options.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/apple-opens-up-ios-in-japan-in-response-to-new-regulations-174854950.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Save on Crunchyroll annual subscriptions this holiday season

If you're struggling to find your next binge-watch, you can't go wrong with anime. For the holidays, you can save on a <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Crunchyroll;elmt:;cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=b79b93c2-acb6-4dce-94f0-adb51960a04a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=d4b4dd4d-8f13-4ef2-9537-58b9ba035b39&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Crunchyroll&linkText=Crunchyroll&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5jcnVuY2h5cm9sbC5jb20vcHJlbWl1bSNwbGFucyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiZDRiNGRkNGQtOGYxMy00ZWYyLTk1MzctNThiOWJhMDM1YjM5Iiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5jcnVuY2h5cm9sbC5jb20vcHJlbWl1bSNwbGFucyJ9&signature=AQAAAboBxu_RWMJ6sTimzBt3ij7ozYUxdDZgA0gtMG9kfim6&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchyroll.com%2Fpremium%23plans" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.crunchyroll.com/premium#plans">Crunchyroll</a> subscription, giving you access to its vast library of anime series to watch. Through December 29, you can sign up for an annual Fan subscription for $67, down from the usual $80, or a Mega Fan subscription for $100, down from $120. While both the Fan and Mega Fan plans are ad-free, you do get some different benefits depending on which you decide to pay for. Fan subscribers get full access to Crunchyroll's library, new episodes "shortly after they air in Japan" and five percent off select purchases in the Crunchyroll Store. Mega Fan subscribers get all those benefits, plus the ability to stream on four devices at the same time, download HD quality episodes and movies to view offline, play games from the Crunchyroll Game Vault and receive 10 percent off select products in the Crunchyroll Store. <core-commerce id="0018c30bccff4dd6a818d3d74c05a002" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.crunchyroll.com/premium#plans"></core-commerce> Notably missing from either subscription is access to <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/a-new-crunchyroll-manga-mobile-app-arrives-later-this-year-155234860.html">Crunchyroll's new Manga service</a>, but unless you're specifically looking for reading material, you'll get plenty of entertainment out of Crunchyroll's video library. Outside of Netflix, which produces and licenses its own growing collection of anime, Crunchyroll is the de facto place to watch Japanese animation in the US. You'll find long-running series like One Piece and newer hits like Spy X Family, alongside hundreds of more niche series. Crunchyroll has its issues, of course. Since the streaming service was <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/sony-completes-crunchyroll-acquisition-220920170.html">acquired by Sony</a>, it's been particularly interested in using generative AI to subtitle shows, which has already <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/crunchyroll-blames-third-party-vendor-for-ai-subtitle-mess-145621606.html">produced poor results</a>. It's hard to beat Crunchyroll's library, though, and for as little as $65, you'll get more than your money's worth. Check out our coverage of the <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/deals/best-streaming-service-deals-133028980.html">best streaming deals</a> for more discounts, and follow <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://twitter.com/EngadgetDeals">@EngadgetDeals</a> on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/save-on-crunchyroll-annual-subscriptions-this-holiday-season-194345431.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Alexa+ can now answer your Ring doorbell and talk to people

Amazon just introduced a <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/alexa-ring-doorbell-ai-greetings"><ins>new feature for Alexa+ called Greetings</ins></a>. This lets Alexa+ answer the doorbell and converse with visitors, which certainly sounds futuristic in a "gated community as dystopia" kind of way. There are several caveats here. First of all, it only works with certain newer Ring video doorbell models. Customers also have to pony up for a Ring Premium Plan and have access to the Alexa+ early access build. It's available in the US and Canada and only in English. If you meet those criteria, this could be a fairly useful little feature. Amazon says it "transforms your Ring doorbell into an intelligent assistant capable of determining who's at your door, understanding what they need and responding conversationally." The company promises that the tool operates whether people or home or out doing errands. How does this work? It's an AI algorithm that "determines who's there based on what they're wearing, holding or their actions." It will use "visual context, any information the visitor shares and the instructions it's been given to help manage interactions on your behalf." Amazon says that it can, for instance, distinguish if a person is wearing a delivery uniform and tell them to leave the package at the back door. Most of my delivery drivers don't come to the door in full uniforms because it's winter and that would be ridiculous. I don't even expect that during the summer. In other words, this is modern AI and mistakes will happen. The company gives other examples of how this could be used, like gathering messages from friends who stop by and telling door-to-door salespeople to (politely) bug off. Amazon also says Alexa+ will be able to direct visitors to water and snacks that have previously been laid out. Finally, there's a way to avoid those pesky cute kids on Halloween while still providing them with treats. Everything can be reviewed later on via the Ring app, which should provide context as to who has been hanging around the porch. Alexa+ Greetings are rolling out today. <div id="1fd89a50bcac4a26ba383ca3b7dd7c29"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YYbAJ2nh25M?si=7UHDkRcc37iyUFAX" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> For the uninitiated, Alexa+ is <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/ai/alexa-preview-an-almost-philosophical-exercise-130012573.html">Amazon's updated chatbot</a>. It's more conversational than the old Alexa, which could be useful or annoying depending on what you use it for. I use Alexa primarily as an alarm, so I don't necessarily want a gabfest.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/alexa-can-now-answer-your-ring-doorbell-and-talk-to-people-162712774.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Meetup's new mobile app is designed to make it easier to meet people IRL

If you're like me, it's probably been a hot minute since you’ve used or even thought of Meetup. Predating both Facebook and Twitter, the website, which was designed to help people organize in-person events, has changed hands a handful of times in recent years. In 2017, founder Scott Heiferman sold it to WeWork, which offloaded it a few years later before <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/wework-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-protection-030708470.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">declaring bankruptcy in 2023</a>. As of 2024, Bending Spoons, the Italian tech company that's probably best known for buying <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/evernote-bending-spoons-acquisition-201505825.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">Evernote in 2022</a>, has been running Meetup. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the platform has seen something of resurgence. As of late 2025, Gen Z and young Millennials make up 40 percent of Meetup's active user base and represent its most engaged group of users. This year, the app has also seen a 20 percent year-over-year increase in new registrations. Going into 2026, Bending Spoons is hoping to build on that momentum with a redesign of Meetup's mobile app. The new interface, which starts rolling out today, brings the Android and iOS app inline with Meetup's recently redesigned website. Across the application, users can expect updated fonts, new more colorful icons and better spacing. The goal of the redesign is to make the app "vibrant, fun and more modern than before," says Chiara Vivaldi, Meetup's product lead. She adds the redesigned app retains all the key features found in the previous version, while making those easier to find. For instance, users can access their profile and groups directly from the homepage of the app.  Beyond making Meetup feel more modern, Bending Spoon is using the redesign to cement the groundwork for a series of improvements it plans to roll out in the coming months. <figure><img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/Roadmap_asset_%E2%80%A2_Profiles.png" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/Roadmap_asset_%E2%80%A2_Profiles.png" style="height:2160px;width:3840px;" alt="Soon, Meetup users will be able to see a breakdown of the people who have signed up for an event." data-uuid="9fbbd01c-2e5c-4fac-aabd-afb9e0d0e37a"><figcaption>Soon, Meetup users will be able to see a breakdown of the people who have signed up for an event.</figcaption><div class="photo-credit">Bending Spoons</div></figure>According to Vivaldi, one major priority is to give people, particularly women, more confidence to attend the events that are listed on Meetup. When you navigate to an event page in the new app, you'll see a broad gender and age breakdown of the users who have signed up to be there. Additionally, new and richer user profiles allow people to get a better sense of who exactly they might meet if they decide to go. Bending Spoons is also introducing a new Super Organizer badge it plans to award to the platform's top event planners. It's designed to signal to users that the person who put together the event takes community building seriously. Taken together, Vivaldi says these features are designed to reduce the friction of attending events where you might not know anyone, and they're something the company plans to build on in the future. At the same time, Bending Spoons plans to make it easier for organizers to use Meetup. Starting early next year, the company will unify Meetup's two disparate apps — right now, the company maintains separate ones for members and organizers. Vivaldi says organizers can expect the unified app to include all of the features they depend on, alongside a handful of enhancements. For instance, Vivaldi’s team is working to make QR-based ticketing the norm for check-ins and attendance tracking. She says the move to a single app is informed by the fact that 75 percent of Meetup's organizers got their start as a member. "[Organizers] are part of the community. They want to be in the action, and so having them within the same app is conducive to that. They can jump into conversations, look at other events, making it all feel a bit more organic," Vivaldi said. In the meantime, if it’s been since you’ve used Meetup, you can download the redesigned app from the <a target="_blank" class="link rapid-with-clickid" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=30d2e469-9244-431a-8b29-6e1d2254f8ef&featureId=text-link&linkText=App&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL2FwcHMuYXBwbGUuY29tL3VzL2FwcC9tZWV0dXAtc29jaWFsLWV2ZW50cy1ncm91cHMvaWQzNzU5OTAwMzgiLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjMwZDJlNDY5LTkyNDQtNDMxYS04YjI5LTZlMWQyMjU0ZjhlZiIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hcHBzLmFwcGxlLmNvbS91cy9hcHAvbWVldHVwLXNvY2lhbC1ldmVudHMtZ3JvdXBzL2lkMzc1OTkwMDM4In0&signature=AQAAAY-lVXV4VGRn9i4-Wk4KYjBSxiQl2AFWxJJyEI9CxAjM&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fapps.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fmeetup-social-events-groups%2Fid375990038" data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:;elmt:;slk:App;cpos:3;pos:1" data-original-link="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meetup-social-events-groups/id375990038">App</a> and <a target="_blank" class="link rapid-with-clickid" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=30d2e469-9244-431a-8b29-6e1d2254f8ef&featureId=text-link&linkText=Google+Play&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3BsYXkuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS9zdG9yZS9hcHBzL2RldGFpbHM_aWQ9Y29tLm1lZXR1cCZobD1lbl9DQSIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMzBkMmU0NjktOTI0NC00MzFhLThiMjktNmUxZDIyNTRmOGVmIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3BsYXkuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS9zdG9yZS9hcHBzL2RldGFpbHM_aWQ9Y29tLm1lZXR1cCZobD1lbl9DQSJ9&signature=AQAAAXKNw2Oi6l514NhJDWJnFvkL2sY5b7ml7dixfOHM8EQZ&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.meetup%26hl%3Den_CA" data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:;elmt:;cpos:4;pos:1" data-original-link="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meetup&hl=en_CA">Google Play</a> stores. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/meetups-new-mobile-app-is-designed-to-make-it-easier-to-meet-people-irl-150000920.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The best Christmas gift ideas everyone on your 2025 holiday shopping list will love

Finding the right gifts for everyone on your list this time of year can be a major source of stress. It can be even more daunting if you’re trying to stick to a budget all while getting the folks you love things that they will really appreciate. But there’s also a good chance you’re getting fed bad gift ideas (and just as bad deals) if you’re browsing the web frantically searching as we get closer and closer to the holidays. Allow us at Engadget to help you through it. Here, you’ll find all of our holiday gift guides collected in one place, so you can more easily find the best Christmas gifts you need this year. Are you looking for white elephant gift ideas? Are you struggling to come up with a good gift for the father figure in your life? Are you just looking for a good board game to pick up for your own family? We’ve got you covered with gift ideas for all of those scenarios and more. <h2 id="jump-link-best-white-elephant-gift-ideas">Best white elephant gift ideas</h2> <core-commerce id="29ce84ae976d44e487f8812fdb9e6d66" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/KFC-Limited-Spices-Starter-Enviro-Log/dp/B08RQHMYN3/"></core-commerce> According to legend, the King of Siam would give a white elephant to courtiers who had upset them. The recipient had no choice but to simply thank the king for such an opulent gift, knowing that they likely could not afford the upkeep for such an animal. It would inevitably lead them to financial ruin. This story is almost certainly untrue, but it has led to a modern holiday staple: the white elephant gift exchange. These gift ideas will not only get you a few chuckles, but will also make your recipient feel (slightly) burdened. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/the-10-best-white-elephant-gifts-that-are-worth-stealing-150516734.html">The best white elephant gift ideas</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-secret-santa-gifts">Best Secret Santa gifts</h2> <core-commerce id="b581f97c9345481b9c71d3b84f9d8469" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Charger-Compact-Adapter-MacBook/dp/B0C6DX66TN"></core-commerce> Secret Santa gift exchanges are supposed to be fun, but it’s easy to overthink it. You want a gift that feels thoughtful without being awkward, useful without being boring, and most importantly, affordable. The sweet spot is under $50, which is plenty to find something that fits your recipient’s personality. Whether you’re buying for a co-worker you only chat with at the coffee machine, a friend who already has everything or a cousin who never gives you ideas, there are clever options that will make them smile. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/the-best-secret-santa-gift-ideas-for-2025-affordable-gifts-from-lego-apple-yeti-and-others-130014081.html">The best Secret Santa gift ideas</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-tech-gifts-and-gadgets">Best tech gifts and gadgets</h2> <core-commerce id="d2ffd89472f24364a716d6eb581ddb15" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Sony-WH-1000XM6-Headphones-Microphones-Studio-Quality/dp/B0F3PQHWTZ/?th=1"></core-commerce> Trying to find the right gift for an unabashed gadget lover during the holidays can be difficult, especially if you don’t keep up with tech industry news yourself. Fortunately, you’re reading Engadget.com, a site entirely staffed by people who spend all day figuring out what new stuff is and isn’t actually good. So allow us to help. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite gadgets and gear that just might satisfy the avid geek in your life. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/computing/the-best-tech-gifts-and-gadgets-for-2025-140052015.html">The best tech gifts and gadgets</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-board-game-gifts">Best board game gifts</h2> <core-commerce id="628ea846c12f44929344e866ac54d4a4" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Quacks-Board-Game-Quedlinburg-Explosions/dp/B0F4SRMRG9"></core-commerce> We could all use more time away from screens of all types and sizes, and board games are a fun way to do that and bond with friends and family. You can find plenty of unique sets out there now, from word puzzles to whodunnits to calming playthroughs that showcase the beauty of the little things in life. From games with giant monsters to those with haunted mansions, we’re sure at least one of our suggestions will be a hit with you and your loved ones. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/the-best-board-games-to-gift-and-play-this-2025-holiday-season-125529143.html">The best board games to gift this season</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-25-or-less">Best gifts for $25 or less</h2> <core-commerce id="e74ee974ba9c4960a2833c3fd64f2c28" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/JLab-Bluetooth-Resistance-Connection-Signature/dp/B0CXGXT6W8/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=1"></core-commerce> So you want to give someone a gift but you don’t have a ton of cash to spare. Don’t fret because first, you’re not alone, and second, there are tons of options to choose from. Especially if you’re looking in the tech space, it can feel especially daunting to find a gadget that’s affordable but also worth gifting — in other words, not a piece of junk that will eventually take up residence at the bottom of a drawer. But you don’t have to drain your wallet to get someone a cool gadget that will both be useful and make their lives easier. We’ve collected our favorite pieces of tech under $25 that make great gifts and help you to stick to a budget. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-11-best-gifts-under-25-for-2025-140042203.html">The best gifts for $25 or less</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-under-50">Best gifts under $50</h2> <core-commerce id="1046faddef8f41e4a48a28cc363e9520" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Botanicals-Happy-Plants-Building/dp/B0DRW6C2RF/"></core-commerce> We wouldn’t blame you if you try to do all of your tech shopping around the holidays. That’s when you can typically get the best sales, both on relatively affordable gear and (more importantly) on big-ticket items. But it would be wrong to think that only the most expensive tech is worth gifting. Since we at Engadget test a plethora of gadgets every year, we know that there are some hidden (and not so hidden) tech gems at lower price ranges — you just have to know where to find them. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-best-stocking-stuffers-for-50-or-less-130049421.html">The best gifts under $50 that make great stocking stuffers</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-under-100">Best gifts under $100</h2> <core-commerce id="06c8e5337a034a88903207c80ffb9d3a" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWXNS552/ref=fs_a_md_0"></core-commerce> Finding a gift for the tech nerd on your list can be tough. They likely have all the tech they need and then some, but you can add to their kit with the right accessories. Apple, Samsung, Sony and other big tech companies all have affordable gear that comes in at $100 or less, you just have to know where to look. We've collected some of our favorites, but remember: you can often find alternatives that are just as good (and sometimes better) than these. However, for the people in your life for which brand names really do matter, these gifts will speak to them. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-best-tech-gifts-for-100-or-less-from-apple-google-nintendo-and-others-130038046.html">The best tech gifts under $100</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-tech-toys-for-kids">Best tech toys for kids</h2> <core-commerce id="6001613e36094a2090ca06830073fce4" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/NANO-MALS-Stardream-Electronic-Responses-Interactive/dp/B0DNG5W1GH/"></core-commerce> We know it’s been a pretty crazy year that’s got you wondering how exactly you’re going to make the holiday season extra special, especially for the kids in your life. The good news is that the toy industry is just as creative as ever, and this year’s crop of hot tech toys is filled with plenty of surprise and delight, all at affordable prices. We’ve picked some of our favorites under $100, ones that will not only thrill right out of the box, but keep the kids entertained for months to come. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:8;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/the-13-best-tech-toys-for-kids-in-2025-140038849.html">The best tech toys for kids</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-remote-workers">Best gifts for remote workers</h2> <core-commerce id="a244b12ef6614dd7b3c4e62c00d0a417" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Compatible-Charging-Magnetic-Wireless/dp/B0FMC3PW5W/?th=1"></core-commerce> There's a pretty good chance you know at least one person who works remotely in some fashion. While the WFH life has its perks — nobody likes a long commute — it comes with its own set of challenges, from lacking pro-level equipment to dealing with household disturbances. If you’re looking to give a gift to someone who spends much of their time in their home office, we’ve rounded up a few techy gift ideas that should make their days a little more delightful, or at least easier to manage. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:9;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-21-best-gift-ideas-for-the-remote-worker-in-your-life-140037992.html">The best gift ideas for the remote worker in your life</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-travel-gifts">Best travel gifts</h2> <core-commerce id="09b8aac412b34a5ba1e4ddd277e46a85" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-South-Transmitter-Noise-Cancelling-Headphones/dp/B0BQZBMXD4/"></core-commerce> For as long as humans have traveled, they've carried gear with them to make long journeys easier. Airplanes may have made travel faster, but crossing states and countries can still be exhausting. If you have a friend or family member who loves exploring the world, they'll appreciate things that will save them stress when they're far from home. So let Engadget help you find the perfect gift for the person in your life with wanderlust. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:10;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/the-best-travel-gifts-for-2025-141009086.html">The best gifts for travelers</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-nintendo-lovers">Best gifts for Nintendo lovers</h2> <core-commerce id="d621227de9804900a2de5b6211847791" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Switch-Mario-World-Bundle-2/dp/B0F3GWXLTS?th=1"></core-commerce> If you're like us, Nintendo holds a special place in your heart thanks to iconic characters like Mario, Peach and Donkey Kong and multiple generations of best-selling consoles. But little did we know that outside of gaming hardware and accessories, there's an ever-growing assortment of Nintendo-themed toys, clothes and decor. And it's kind of a problem because we want all of it. So to help you figure out the best gifts for the Nintendo fan in your life, we've put together a big list of our favorite products that will give anyone a power-up this holiday season. Of course, if none of the ones on our list quite fit the bill, you can also head over to our full list of <a data-i13n="cpos:11;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/best-nintendo-switch-2-accessories-070011952.html">the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories</a> for even more ideas. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:12;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-best-nintendo-gifts-for-the-2025-holiday-season-110057620.html">The best Nintendo gifts for the holiday season</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-retro-gaming-gifts">Best retro gaming gifts</h2> <core-commerce id="94d0dae09f214955ad70ce7b015d5e06" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Oregon-Trail-Card-Game-Pressman/dp/B01JF4CHWK/"></core-commerce> The stream of new video games never ends, but for some of us, nothing beats the classics. If you don’t feel like hunting through eBay and local game shops for old cartridges to add to your loved one’s collection, we’ve picked out a few other gift ideas for the nostalgic gamer in your life — from video upscalers for old consoles to retro-themed books and artwork. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:13;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-12-best-retro-gaming-gifts-for-the-2025-holidays-140016618.html">The best retro gaming gifts for the holidays</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-gamers">Best gifts for gamers</h2> <core-commerce id="d8ac3178e9cb4b5e86cecba3b4e0e0b3" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://play.date/"></core-commerce> The year may not be over, but 2025 is all but guaranteed to go down as one of the best 12 months in gaming history. Between releases like Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong and Ghost of Yotei, to name just a few, there was truly something for everyone in 2025. Of course, that abundance also means it can be tricky to find a gift for the gamers in your life, especially if you're not one yourself. Worry not — Engadget is here to help. We guarantee our guide will help you find the perfect gift for your friend or loved one. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:14;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-best-gifts-for-gamers-in-2025-150008395.html">The best gifts for gamers</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-moms">Best gifts for moms</h2> <core-commerce id="4eb82ca11c924a4ba5867eb33149c569" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Picture-Unlimited-Storage-Anywhere/dp/B09X2CL5HG/?th=1"></core-commerce> Some moms really do mean it when they say they don’t need any gifts. But those same moms will probably appreciate getting something thoughtful and personal — a gift that shows you put in a bit of consideration. It’s tough to pin-point what that ideal gift is for any given mom, but we’ve got ideas to get you started. Since we spend our days testing and otherwise thinking about tech, most of the presents here have a gadget spin, but all of them are a heck of a lot more unique than a candle and a bath bomb. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:15;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/the-best-gifts-for-moms-for-2025-130044423.html">The best gifts for mom</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-dads">Best gifts for dads</h2> <core-commerce id="b0fefefdbbd546b6971b6d58d784b6e0" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/iFixit-Pro-Tech-Toolkit-Electronics/dp/B01GF0KV6G"></core-commerce> It's not always easy to find gifts for dads, especially for those who are often quick to snap up whatever they need on their own. But even the geekiest and most well-informed dads have blind spots — the trick is to find something they've never heard of, but could actually make their lives useful. We've collected some of our favorite dadcore gift ideas, which would suit everyone from a complete gadgetphobe to a total techie. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:16;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/the-11-best-gifts-for-dads-for-2025-170014823.html">The best gifts for dads</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-subscription-box-gifts">Best subscription box gifts</h2> <core-commerce id="6f9e48e0a58249728b39d28fe010e130" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.universalyums.com/"></core-commerce> Subscription boxes are the rare gift that keeps its charm long after the wrapping paper is gone. You make the choice once, but the surprises keep landing on their doorstep for months after that. For anyone who loves the buzz of a delivery, these are gifts that extend the season well past December. Each box on this list combines a bit of discovery with something tangible, such as gadgets, books, collectibles, snacks or clever projects. Some appeal to hardcore hobbyists, others to the curious or the comfort seekers, but all offer that same spark of delight that comes from unboxing something unexpected. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:17;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/the-best-subscription-box-gifts-for-2025-130037236.html">The best subscription box gifts</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-home-cooks">Best gifts for home cooks</h2> <core-commerce id="ebc8e208f371489ca04d93e3b8009707" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Ninja-Milkshake-Calories-Program-NC701/dp/B0DSJW8SFG/"></core-commerce> For home cooks, kitchen tools are the equipment that make all your favorite dishes and meals possible. And while having the fanciest gear certainly isn't a requirement, it is really nice, which makes products like the ones here such great gifts. These are the kind of things that people want but might not be able to justify buying for themselves, or essential pieces that would be handy additions to any kitchen or pantry. So if you're looking for present ideas for the chef in your life, check out our guide of tried and tested cooking tools and gadgets. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:18;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/the-best-cooking-gifts-for-2025-140038716.html">The best cooking gifts</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-coffee-lovers">Best gifts for coffee lovers</h2> <core-commerce id="efcb5dcc8bfc41e98cafed089e0752dc" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/AeroPress-Go-Plus-Portable-Camping/dp/B0D369CGVQ/"></core-commerce> When it comes to making coffee at home, us coffee nerds are constantly evolving. Whether the person you’re shopping for is newly indoctrinated into the world of small-batch roasters or obsessive over every possible aspect of every brewing process, we’ve compiled a list of the best coffee gear for any coffee geek this holiday season. For brewing, grinding and drinking, we’ve got multiple options at a range of prices to help expand any java geek’s horizons. And if you think the coffee aficionado on your list already has everything they need, we’ve got a recommendation for them too. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:19;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/the-best-gifts-for-coffee-lovers-in-2025-184515015.html">The best gifts for coffee lovers</a> <h2 id="jump-link-best-gadgets-for-your-pets">Best gadgets for your pets</h2> <core-commerce id="d7fad293edf64345b9c20b02a3b1a2d8" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Petcube-Monitoring-Security-Mounting-Surveillance/dp/B088C4NHRS?th=1"></core-commerce> We're a pet-loving staff here at Engadget, with diverse distribution of cat people, dog people, other-small-fuzzy-creature people, bird feeder enjoyers and so on (at press time, I'm unsure if we have a rat person, but I'd be surprised if we didn't). And, of course, we love getting new gadgets of all sorts for our pets as much as for ourselves. Our list, with gifts as low-tech as a blanket and as high-tech as the best $30 two-way camera you'll ever use, is for the pet lover in your life — whether that's you or another favorite human. Read more: <a data-i13n="cpos:20;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/the-10-best-gadgets-for-your-pets-150714288.html">The best gadgets for your pets</a> Check out the rest of our <a data-i13n="cpos:21;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gifts/">gift ideas</a> here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-christmas-gift-ideas-everyone-on-your-2025-holiday-shopping-list-will-love-170018978.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Apple's Mac mini M4 is on sale for $479 right now

This time of year is not only a good time to save on gifts, but also to save on tech you may need (or want) for yourself. If you've been thinking about upgrading your computer, you can save right now on <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&itemId=amazon_B0DLBTPDCS&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=a4b87d1c-bb4f-4033-b906-fff96c9cb013&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=Apple%27s+Mac+mini+M4&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2RwL0IwRExCVFBEQ1M_dGFnPWdkZ3QwYy0yMCIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiYTRiODdkMWMtYmI0Zi00MDMzLWI5MDYtZmZmOTZjOWNiMDEzIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2RwL0IwRExCVFBEQ1MiLCJkeW5hbWljQ2VudHJhbFRyYWNraW5nSWQiOnRydWUsInNpdGVJZCI6InVzLWVuZ2FkZ2V0IiwicGFnZUlkIjoiMXAtYXV0b2xpbmsiLCJmZWF0dXJlSWQiOiJ0ZXh0LWxpbmsifQ&signature=AQAAARM6vdDkOCxMZFf17qo47290pL_LoXKpmwChBLX-yUtu&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB0DLBTPDCS" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DLBTPDCS?th=1">Apple's Mac mini M4</a>. The desktop is down to $479, which is 20 percent off its usual price and the same low price we saw during Black Friday. Apple released the Mac mini M4 in late 2024 and we were impressed with how something so small could be so powerful. We gave it a <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/computing/apple-mac-mini-review-m4-pro-2024-shockingly-small-incredibly-powerful-140042432.html">90 in our review</a>, thanks to features like its speed and standard 16GB of RAM. The — currently — $479 base model also comes with 256GB of SSD. We were also happy to see it had front-facing USB-C and headphone ports.  <core-commerce id="56405b3714494dcb95da693d1f868025" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DLBTPDCS?th=1"></core-commerce> If you really want to go all out for someone's gift (or for yourself) then you can buy one of the Mac mini M4's higher memory or storage options. You can pick up the <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&itemId=amazon_B0DLBX4B1K&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=a4b87d1c-bb4f-4033-b906-fff96c9cb013&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=Mac+Mini+M4+with+16GB+of+RAM+and+512GB+of+SSD&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2RwL0IwRExCWDRCMUs_dGFnPWdkZ3QwYy0yMCIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiYTRiODdkMWMtYmI0Zi00MDMzLWI5MDYtZmZmOTZjOWNiMDEzIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2RwL0IwRExCWDRCMUsiLCJkeW5hbWljQ2VudHJhbFRyYWNraW5nSWQiOnRydWUsInNpdGVJZCI6InVzLWVuZ2FkZ2V0IiwicGFnZUlkIjoiMXAtYXV0b2xpbmsiLCJmZWF0dXJlSWQiOiJ0ZXh0LWxpbmsifQ&signature=AQAAASfPaAcfs2nbxErkbH5JM89mpypAB7z2OrE-qaEm3LRM&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB0DLBX4B1K" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DLBX4B1K?th=1">Mac Mini M4 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD</a> for $690, down from $799 — a 14 percent discount. Meanwhile, the <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&itemId=amazon_B0DLBV145M&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=a4b87d1c-bb4f-4033-b906-fff96c9cb013&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=24GB+of+RAM+and+512GB+of+SSD+model&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2RwL0IwRExCVjE0NU0_dGFnPWdkZ3QwYy0yMCIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiYTRiODdkMWMtYmI0Zi00MDMzLWI5MDYtZmZmOTZjOWNiMDEzIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2RwL0IwRExCVjE0NU0iLCJkeW5hbWljQ2VudHJhbFRyYWNraW5nSWQiOnRydWUsInNpdGVJZCI6InVzLWVuZ2FkZ2V0IiwicGFnZUlkIjoiMXAtYXV0b2xpbmsiLCJmZWF0dXJlSWQiOiJ0ZXh0LWxpbmsifQ&signature=AQAAAQdyfag4blL0v6hOeXnVUPb3vo--1QmFWbtEGvN9II3C&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB0DLBV145M" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DLBV145M?th=1">24GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD model</a> is 11 percent off, dropping to $890 from $999. Check out our coverage of the <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/deals/best-apple-deals-150020110.html">best Apple deals</a> for more discounts, and follow <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://twitter.com/EngadgetDeals">@EngadgetDeals</a> on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-mac-mini-m4-is-on-sale-for-479-right-now-150041630.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

OpenAI just launched an app store inside ChatGPT

OpenAI has introduced an app directory that's now available right inside ChatGPT, the company announced. "Apps extend ChatGPT conversations by bringing in new context and letting users take action like order groceries, turn an outline into a slide deck or search for an apartment," the company wrote in a <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://openai.com/index/developers-can-now-submit-apps-to-chatgpt/">blog post</a>. OpenAI also noted in a <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11487775-apps-in-chatgpt">help document</a> that "connector" apps like Google Drive are now simply called "apps." The new apps section (on iOS, Android and web) is divided into Feature, Lifestyle and Productivity categories, letting you connect to commonly used apps and sites like Booking.com, Spotify and Dropbox. To use an app, simply click on it, hit "Connect" then authorize the app to access ChatGPT. With that done, you can then start a chat related to that app. In the case of Dropbox, for instance, you'll be able to "gather insights, prepare briefs and summarize reports or internal documents," according to the description. Once connected, any app can be accessed by doing an @ mention of it. A new addition that came along with the store is an Apple Music app that, like Spotify, helps users find music, create playlists and manage their libraries through a chat interface. Another is DoorDash, which lets you transform recipes, meal planning and staples into "an actionable shopping cart." Along with the app directory, OpenAI is now allowing developers to submit apps for review and publication in ChatGPT according to the company's app submission <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://developers.openai.com/apps-sdk/app-developer-guidelines">guidelines.</a> It also published resources to help developers build such apps, including <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://developers.openai.com/blog/what-makes-a-great-chatgpt-app">best practices</a>, open-source example apps, an open-sourced UI library for chat-native interfaces and a step-by-step <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://developers.openai.com/apps-sdk/quickstart/">quickstart guide</a>. That's on top of the software developer kit (SDK) that OpenAI <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/spotify-canva-and-other-apps-can-now-connect-to-chatgpt-194830116.html">introduced in October</a>. OpenAI noted that for now, developers can only monetize apps by linking out from the ChatGPT app to the native app or website — but the company is exploring internal monetization options as well. Privacy was also emphasized, with companies required to provide "clear" policies. The new feature is a big part of Sam Altman's promises to make ChatGPT more versatile with the addition of <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gpts-are-the-single-application-mini-chatgpt-models-that-anyone-can-create-203311858.html">custom "GPT" bots</a>. "Over time, we want apps in ChatGPT to feel like a natural extension of the conversation, helping people move from ideas to action, while building a thriving ecosystem for developers," the company wrote. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-just-launched-an-app-store-inside-chatgpt-133049586.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The 10 best white elephant gifts worth fighting over for 2025

There are a lot of competing ideas as to what a white elephant gift exchange really is. The origins of the term “white elephant” point to one definition: According to legend, the King of Siam would give a white elephant to courtiers who had upset them. It was a far more devious punishment than simply having them executed. The recipient had no choice but to simply thank the king for such an opulent gift, knowing that they likely could not afford the upkeep for such an animal. It would inevitably lead them to financial ruin. While that story is almost certainly untrue, it can inform one approach to the white elephant gift exchange: gifting something just useful or amusing enough that it won’t immediately get tossed into the trash, but is also somewhat of a burden. However, every workplace, friend group and family unit has their own approach to white elephant gift exchanges nowadays. Some compete to get a gift that others will surely want to steal, while others scavenge for the most niche and targeted gag gifts. Almost all of them, though, typically have a price limit that keeps the burden of gift giving to a minimum — usually $50 or less. So with all of that in mind, here are some white elephant gift ideas that will get you a few chuckles without requiring you to spend too much (or think too hard about it). <h2 id="jump-link-best-white-elephant-gift-ideas">Best white elephant gift ideas</h2> <core-commerce id="c577680a6a2f43588deff224a0759cd6" data-type="product-list"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="6b2d0998ef9145f7a4c90bb9831603b0" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/OCOOPA-Rechargeable-Ultra-Thin-Handwarmer-Essentials/dp/B0D947MPVQ?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="8f604de5793c4776931511d155943083" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/WANIDEA-flickering-Rechargeable-ambience-Decoration/dp/B0CST6LXY7/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="72d92d1b23734bc5ac7ed98961282e43" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Etsfmoa-Rechargeable-Lighted-Headlight-Headlamp/dp/B07YNCY36R/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="6b289de0819647b19becc682bea609d6" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Mystic-Maze-1000-Piece-Jigsaw-Company/dp/B08NDXDR84?ref_=ast_sto_dp"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="5c43ca86d139443c9c92f432e85a9dce" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Chop-Sabers-Light-LightSaber-Chopsticks/dp/B01CA2HOZ4/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="ab02ed0856074dc39a4893586ccfc226" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Native-Union-Pop-Phone-Conferences/dp/B0FK5BQ9YK/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="0874848234d74b27afe4351167724a56" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Projector-Birthday-Decorations-Twinkling-Projection/dp/B0B3QR6HRY/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="d516361f071542fbacb2610b2f0d2a18" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0761VVFDX?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="0b5eb2c4c2af481cbf3ec63cf11bd50a" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Clocky-Rolling-Sleeper-Bed-Room-Run-away/dp/B004MSMUGI/?th=1"></core-commerce> <h2 id="jump-link-white-elephant-faqs">White elephant FAQs</h2> <h3 id="jump-link-what-is-white-elephant">What is white elephant?</h3> A white elephant gift exchange is a party game typically played around the holidays in which people exchange funny, impractical gifts. <h3 id="jump-link-how-does-white-elephant-work">How does white elephant work?</h3> A group of people each bring one wrapped gift to the white elephant gift exchange, and each gift is typically of a similar value. All gifts are then placed together and the group decides the order in which they will each claim a gift. The first person picks a white elephant gift from the pile, unwraps it and their turn ends. The following players can either decide to unwrap another gift and claim it as their own, or steal a gift from someone who has already taken a turn. The rules can vary from there, including the guidelines around how often a single item can be stolen — some say twice, max. The game ends when every person has a white elephant gift. <h3 id="jump-link-why-is-it-called-white-elephant">Why is it called white elephant?</h3> The term “white elephant” is said to come from the legend of the King of Siam gifting white elephants to courtiers who upset him. While it seems like a lavish gift on its face, the belief is that the courtiers would be ruined by the animal’s upkeep costs. Check out the rest of our <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gifts/">gift ideas</a> here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-10-best-white-elephant-gifts-worth-fighting-over-for-2025-150516281.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The AirPods Pro 3 are back on sale for a record low of $199

No need to fret if you missed out on some of the best Black Friday deals this year — some of them have returned already. Case in point: <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&itemId=amazon_B0FQFB8FMG&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=42f7f263-d7c8-4a21-ad07-9121207a6244&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=Apple%27s+AirPods+Pro+3&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL0FwcGxlLUNhbmNlbGxhdGlvbi1UcmFuc2xhdGlvbi1IZWFkcGhvbmVzLUhpZ2gtRmlkZWxpdHkvZHAvQjBGUUZCOEZNRy8_dGFnPWdkZ3QwYy0yMCIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiNDJmN2YyNjMtZDdjOC00YTIxLWFkMDctOTEyMTIwN2E2MjQ0Iiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL0FwcGxlLUNhbmNlbGxhdGlvbi1UcmFuc2xhdGlvbi1IZWFkcGhvbmVzLUhpZ2gtRmlkZWxpdHkvZHAvQjBGUUZCOEZNRy8iLCJkeW5hbWljQ2VudHJhbFRyYWNraW5nSWQiOnRydWUsInNpdGVJZCI6InVzLWVuZ2FkZ2V0IiwicGFnZUlkIjoiMXAtYXV0b2xpbmsiLCJmZWF0dXJlSWQiOiJ0ZXh0LWxpbmsifQ&signature=AQAAAa00rgoV0I-UbOq0nkwpsQ1FfJifrSdBPZ_6PPl2wT9r&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FApple-Cancellation-Translation-Headphones-High-Fidelity%2Fdp%2FB0FQFB8FMG%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Cancellation-Translation-Headphones-High-Fidelity/dp/B0FQFB8FMG/">Apple's AirPods Pro 3</a>, which came out in September this year, are back down to $199. That's an all-time-low price and better than the price it was during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With the new AirPods Pro, Apple made some big improvements, including better battery life and sound quality, and introduced useful new features, such as Live Translation. <core-commerce id="eae3086f4cbf45b7b7990d7656cc4a5f" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Cancellation-Translation-Headphones-High-Fidelity/dp/B0FQFB8FMG/"></core-commerce> The AirPods Pro 3 are <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/best-airpods-100041810.html">the best AirPods</a> available today, with Apple's H2 chip, and earned a score of 90 out of 100 in <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/airpods-pro-3-review-a-significant-update-to-apples-best-earbuds-120028170.html">Engadget's review</a> this fall. Active noise cancellation (ANC) is one of the biggest selling points of the AirPods Pro, and Apple has made the experience even better with the AirPods Pro 3. They sport new foam-infused ear tips that create a better seal to improve passive noise isolation, and as Engadget's Billy Steele wrote in his review, "Ultra-low-noise microphones combine with advanced computational audio to silence even more background noise." In testing, they had no problem blocking out the chatter of people nearby or otherwise noisy environments. With the AirPods Pro 3, Apple introduced heart-rate sensing, so you'll be able to see your heart rate data from the earbuds in the Fitness app and other workout apps. The AirPods Pro 3 also boast Live Translation, which you can activate via controls on the earbuds themselves. As long as you have an Apple Intelligence-capable device, you'll be able to translate in-person conversations in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese (Mandarin). Follow <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://twitter.com/EngadgetDeals">@EngadgetDeals</a> on X for the latest <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/deals/">tech deals</a> and <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/best-tech/">buying advice</a>.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-airpods-pro-3-are-back-on-sale-for-a-record-low-of-199-222806371.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Ultrahuman brings snoring detection and respiratory health tracking to the Ring Air

The Ultrahuman Ring Air now has the capacity to track snoring and general respiratory health. This is thanks to proprietary technology called Respiratory Health PowerPlug, which is basically a suite of audio analysis tools along with some "advanced biomarker tracking" and AI tomfoolery. All of this results in "one of the most comprehensive consumer tools ever built for understanding nighttime respiratory stability." It details snoring sessions, of course, but also delivers a holistic and "actionable sleep picture." The company says this "reveals patterns, trends and changes in respiratory health over time." <figure><img src="https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-12/d5df56a0-db6c-11f0-bdff-bf2175f36b3b" data-crop-orig-src="https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-12/d5df56a0-db6c-11f0-bdff-bf2175f36b3b" style="height:727px;width:1344px;" alt="Health insights." data-uuid="cde2071f-ea88-3663-af33-559da11e470a"><figcaption></figcaption><div class="photo-credit">Ultrahuman</div></figure> To that end, it can also detect coughing and respiratory disturbances. This data is cross-referenced with movement patterns, sleep fragmentation patterns and resting heart rate to "show exactly how breathing issues shape sleep quality." The company says this can be a good resource when experimenting with interventions, like switching to a new pillow or taping up the nose. More health data is never a bad thing, but this information isn't free. Ultrahuman is charging $4 per month for access to the tool, though folks can pick up an annual subscription for $40. The Ultrahuman Ring Air made our list of the <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/wearables/best-smart-ring-140000425.html"><ins>best smart rings</ins></a>, and that was before the company introduced this new software. It tracks an impressive amount of data and integrates with third-party devices like glucose monitors.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/ultrahuman-brings-snoring-detection-and-respiratory-health-tracking-to-the-ring-air-130054901.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The FTC is reportedly investigating Instacart over its AI pricing tool

The Federal Trade Commission has sent Instacart a civil investigative demand, seeking information about its AI-powered pricing tool, according to <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/ftc-investigating-instacarts-ai-pricing-tool-source-says-2025-12-17/" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">Reuters</a>. This comes after a recently published <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/study-shows-that-instacart-was-charging-different-amounts-for-the-same-items-165108224.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">pricing experiment study</a> showed that the online grocery delivery app gave different users different prices for the same items from the same store location at the exact same time. Some of the testers saw prices up to 23 percent higher than what the other testers saw, though the average difference for the same list of items was around 7 percent. Those higher prices could cost customers over $1,000 more in expenses for the year. “The Federal Trade Commission has a longstanding policy of not commenting on any potential or ongoing investigations,” the FTC told Reuters in a statement. “But, like so many Americans, we are disturbed by what we have read in the press about Instacart’s alleged pricing practices.”When the study came out, Instacart told Engadget that the pricing variances were caused by some of its retail partners doing “limited, short-term and randomized tests” to better understand consumers. Those randomized pricing tests were enabled by Instacart’s AI pricing tool called Eversight developed by a company it purchased in 2022. Instacart told <a target="_blank" class="link rapid-with-clickid" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=34e37b9c-8975-48da-aa39-df8bcd5badc3&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=fe9cac17-7766-45de-ab3b-cf20e4ad74af&featureId=text-link&merchantName=CNBC&linkText=CNBC&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5jbmJjLmNvbS8yMDI1LzEyLzE3L2luc3RhY2FydC1zZWMtcHJvYmUtcHJpY2luZy10b29sLmh0bWwiLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6ImZlOWNhYzE3LTc3NjYtNDVkZS1hYjNiLWNmMjBlNGFkNzRhZiIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY25iYy5jb20vMjAyNS8xMi8xNy9pbnN0YWNhcnQtc2VjLXByb2JlLXByaWNpbmctdG9vbC5odG1sIn0&signature=AQAAAcRizn_Z5EqpOmroThm3_K_7bZEMXlFl3kkQRGwxx2Hi&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2025%2F12%2F17%2Finstacart-sec-probe-pricing-tool.html" data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:CNBC;elmt:;cpos:3;pos:1" data-original-link="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/17/instacart-sec-probe-pricing-tool.html">CNBC</a> that “much of what’s been reported has mischaracterized how pricing works” on its platform. The spokesperson repeated that retailers conduct pricing tests on its app and said that “prices on Instacart do not change in real time,” aren’t based on supply or demand and that it never uses “personal, demographic, or user-level behavioral data to set item prices.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-ftc-is-reportedly-investigating-instacart-over-its-ai-pricing-tool-130000472.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Sony settles with Tencent over 'slavish' Horizon clone

Earlier this year Sony <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sony-sues-tencent-over-its-horizon-zero-dawn-clone-191009077.html">sued Tencent</a> for copyright infringement over its Light of Motiram game, calling it a "slavish clone" of Horizon Zero Dawn. Then, earlier this month, Tencent agreed to <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sony-sues-tencent-over-its-horizon-zero-dawn-clone-191009077.html">stop promoting</a> and publicly testing the game. Now, the two companies have reached a "confidential settlement" and the case has been dismissed, according to <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26381827-sony-v-tencent-stipulation-for-dismissal-pursuant-to-rule-41a1aii/">court documents</a> seen by <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://www.theverge.com/news/847080/sony-tencent-lawsuit-horizon-clone-light-of-motiram-settlement">The Verge</a>. Light of Motiram has also disappeared from Steam and Epic's game stores.  "SIE and Tencent are pleased to have reached a confidential resolution and will have no further public comment on this matter," Tencent's spokesperson told The Verge.  When Sony first filed its lawsuit in July 2025, it said that Tencent's game appeared to copy aspects of not just Horizon Zero Dawn, but other franchise games including <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/horizon-forbidden-west-review-water-robot-dinos-080126554.html">Horizon Forbidden West</a> and <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/lego-horizon-adventures-might-be-sonys-most-important-game-of-the-year-160026354.html">Lego Horizon Adventures</a>. That included the post-apocalyptic setting with humans and machines coexisting, the visual appearance of characters and even the marketing materials — something Engadget certainly noticed when Tencent first announced the game. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sony-settles-with-tencent-over-slavish-horizon-clone-120042886.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The best AirPods for 2026

Apple’s AirPods have become the default choice for many people, whether you want simple wireless earbuds that work without fuss or premium options with features like noise cancellation and spatial audio. The lineup has grown over the years, so there is now a model for almost every type of listener. Some pairs are built for all-day comfort, others focus on isolation and richer sound, and Apple’s over-ear option offers a more immersive experience for movies and music. If you spend most of your time on an iPhone or iPad, all AirPods share one big advantage: they connect instantly and switch between Apple devices seamlessly. With new models always on the horizon and longtime favorites still holding up well, we rounded up the best AirPods to help you decide which ones match your listening style. <h2 id="jump-link-table-of-contents">Table of contents</h2> <ul> <li><a href="#jump-link-what-you-need-to-know-about-airpods">What you need to know about AirPods</a></li> <li><a href="#jump-link-best-airpods-for-2026">Best AirPods for 2026</a></li> <li><a href="#jump-link-best-airpods-specs-comparison-chart">Best AirPods specs comparison chart</a></li> <li><a href="#jump-link-other-airpods-we-tested">Other AirPods we tested</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="jump-link-what-you-need-to-know-about-airpods">What you need to know about AirPods</h2> When it comes to Apple’s earbuds and headphones, there are several things you’ll want to keep in mind before making your final decision. First, the standard AirPods are the open-design earbuds with no tip that allow some environmental noise to come into your ears at all times. The Apple AirPods Pro are the model with tips that completely close off your ear canal, which enables features like more powerful noise cancellation and the hearing test. Lastly, the Apple AirPods Max are the company’s over-ear noise-canceling headphones preferred by audiophiles, and currently the company’s only option for wireless headphones at all that aren’t made by Beats. There are a few features that are available across all models as they’ve become inherent to the AirPods experience. First, you can expect connectivity perks like Automatic Switching between Apple devices that are synced with your iCloud account. This means that a pair of AirPods will automatically change to your phone when you get a call while you’re listening to music on a MacBook or laptop, for example. It’s functionally similar to multipoint Bluetooth, but the feature isn’t limited to two devices like most earbuds and headphones. Second, hands-free access to Siri is the default, allowing you to ask the assistant for help without touching your AirPods. And lastly, Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking is available across the entire lineup, even on the most affordable version and the new AirPods, including AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation. If you don’t think any of the AirPods options are right for you, consult our recommendations on the <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/best-wireless-earbuds-120058222.html">best wireless earbuds</a> and <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/best-headphones-wireless-bluetooth-120543205.html">best wireless headphones</a> for some alternatives. <h2 id="jump-link-best-airpods-for-2026">Best AirPods for 2026</h2> <core-commerce id="fb2a1a714ae94ceebd8dabee67bfe6a3" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Cancellation-Translation-Headphones-High-Fidelity/dp/B0FQFB8FMG"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="aa73f8ec4db04683bda488a88b119484" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Headphones-Cancellation-Transparency-Personalized/dp/B0DGHMNQ5Z/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="9fd05e62de8c49e38a5d8b0cae46eea3" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGJC52FP/?th=1"></core-commerce> <h2 id="jump-link-best-airpods-specs-comparison-chart">Best AirPods specs comparison chart</h2> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td>Spec </td> <td>AirPods 4 </td> <td>AirPods Pro 2 </td> <td>AirPods Max </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Price </td> <td>$129 </td> <td>$249 </td> <td>$549 </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Design </td> <td>In-ear </td> <td>In-ear </td> <td>Over-ear </td> </tr> <tr> <td>H2 chip </td> <td>Yes </td> <td>Yes </td> <td>Yes </td> </tr> <tr> <td>ANC </td> <td>No </td> <td>Yes </td> <td>Yes </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking </td> <td>Yes </td> <td>Yes </td> <td>Yes </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Hearing test </td> <td>No </td> <td>Yes </td> <td>No </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Rated battery life </td> <td>5 hours </td> <td>8 hours </td> <td>20 hours </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Durability </td> <td>Dust, sweat, and water resistant (IP54) </td> <td>Dust, sweat, and water resistant (IP57) </td> <td>N/A </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <h2 id="jump-link-other-airpods-we-tested">Other AirPods we tested</h2> <h3 id="jump-link-airpods-4-with-anc">AirPods 4 with ANC</h3> The <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/apple-airpods-4-review-pro-features-for-everyone-120032046.html">AirPods 4 with ANC</a> represent the first time active noise cancellation has been available on the open-wear, “regular” AirPods. Design-wise, they’re the same as the non-ANC model, so the difference is entirely in the features list. This more expensive version adds Adaptive Audio, Transparency mode, Conversation Awareness and a wireless charging case. The ANC isn’t as powerful as the AirPods Pro 2, partially due to the fact that the AirPods 4 doesn’t completely seal off your ears. The noise-canceling performance is definitely useful though, working best with constant, low-frequency annoyances like fans and white noise machines. Lastly, you won’t get access to Apple’s hearing test and hearing aid features, partially due to the fact that the AirPods 4 with ANC doesn’t seal off your ears, which would affect accuracy and effectiveness.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/best-airpods-100041810.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The best streaming deals: Get 50 percent off MasterClass subscriptions, plus save on Starz, Audible, Crunchyroll and others

Whether you’re a true cord-cutter or you just want to watch the next season of Stranger Things when it drops, everyone’s on the lookout for streaming deals nowadays. Plenty have chosen VOD and<a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/best-live-tv-streaming-service-133000410.html"> live TV streaming services</a> over traditional cable in recent years, but the savings that choice got you just a few years ago have somewhat evaporated now. Companies like Netflix, Disney, Max and others have been<a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-is-increasing-prices-again-for-standalone-streaming-plans-183518837.html"> consistently</a><a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/discovery-is-raising-prices-for-all-customers-160646636.html"> raising</a><a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-raises-subscription-praises-again-with-its-standard-plan-now-costing-18-per-month-234344714.html"> prices</a> to the point where you may question<a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/is-streaming-video-even-still-worth-it-192651141.html"> if streaming is even worth it anymore</a>. We at Engadget still think so, for many reasons, but you can (and should) be smart with your money at the same time. Streaming deals are an option, even if they don’t come around with the same regularity as discounts on AirPods do. If you’re looking to save money and still stream all of the content you want, Engadget can help by laying out the best streaming deals you can get right now, how you can save with bundles and everything you should know before paying for yet another streaming service. <h2 id="jump-link-best-streaming-deals">Best streaming deals</h2> True streaming deals can be hard to come by. Most often, they’ll pop up during the Black Friday shopping period. On occasion, we’ll see them sparingly throughout the year and they usually take the form of a discounted monthly or annual rate for a limited period of time. Also, true streaming deals are typically on the ad-supported versions of a service, but once in a while you’ll find a unicorn of a deal on a tier that has ad-free viewing. If you’re able to wait for a deal before subscribing to a streaming service, we recommend doing so. You’ll save money upfront and in the long run, and you also have the option to cancel your subscription before the price goes back up to the normal rate. <core-commerce id="33796ca353684d4caf5aff8c37ef9663" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.masterclass.com/"></core-commerce> <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:ESPN Plus;elmt:;cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=55640060-7940-40de-bdca-1c734608a52a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=ESPN+Plus&linkText=ESPN+Unlimited+bundle+%E2%80%94+%2430%2Fmonth+with+Disney%2B+and+Hulu+for+free+for+one+year%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3BsdXMuZXNwbi5jb20vIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIwMjZmZTFiNS1lYTIyLTQ5ZjYtODAxNi1mZDg2ODY5MjhmNWMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vcGx1cy5lc3BuLmNvbS8ifQ&signature=AQAAAbH1myAvnrjGJKLK3mYi8RVjXTwAN5WKceh4QItJ6nZf&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fplus.espn.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://plus.espn.com/">ESPN Unlimited bundle — $30/month with Disney+ and Hulu for free for one year:</a> Sports fans can sign up for the new ESPB Unlimited bundle at the standard $30-per-month rate, but for a limited time, you can get Disney+ and Hulu (with ads) included in that price for free. The trio bundle would typically cost you $36 per month, so overall, you're saving $6 per month for one year, for a total of $72 in savings. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Philo;elmt:;cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=b250d7a0-0e4e-4332-bc87-bf6e669b0564&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Philo&linkText=Philo+Core+%E2%80%94+%2425+for+your+first+month+%28%248+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5waGlsby5jb20vZ28vd2VsY29tZS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGhpbG8uY29tL2dvL3dlbGNvbWUvIn0&signature=AQAAAcObtbQypHCk_8EN37lv2NseVWZRa_wXQ5aLLV7GRR6y&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.philo.com%2Fgo%2Fwelcome%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.philo.com/go/welcome/">Philo Core — $25 for your first month ($8 off):</a> Our pick for the best cheap <a data-i13n="cpos:8;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/best-live-tv-streaming-service-133000410.html">live TV streaming service</a>, Philo offers more than 70 channels in its Core tier, plus access to HBO Max (with ads), AMC+ and Discovery+. After your first month, the subscription will auto-renew at the standard $33-per-month rate. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:9;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=Audible+%E2%80%94+three+months+for+%243&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2h6L2F1ZGlibGUvYXJ5YS9tbHA_dGFnPWdkZ3QwYy0yMCIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMDI2ZmUxYjUtZWEyMi00OWY2LTgwMTYtZmQ4Njg2OTI4ZjVjIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2h6L2F1ZGlibGUvYXJ5YS9tbHAiLCJkeW5hbWljQ2VudHJhbFRyYWNraW5nSWQiOnRydWUsInNpdGVJZCI6InVzLWVuZ2FkZ2V0IiwicGFnZUlkIjoiMXAtYXV0b2xpbmsiLCJmZWF0dXJlSWQiOiJ0ZXh0LWxpbmsifQ&signature=AQAAAfMvK6sFZ255bSg-g-jctQiNv8WNrCdbI8g1JcCxx5lH&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fhz%2Faudible%2Farya%2Fmlp" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/hz/audible/arya/mlp?">Audible — three months for $3</a>: For <a data-i13n="cpos:10;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-three-months-of-audible-for-3-in-this-black-friday-deal-140010983.html">literally $1 per month</a>, you can get access to Audible's enormous library of published audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals (which can be anything from never-before-heard books to live performances). It's only three months, after which you'll have to cancel or renew at the regular price, but an audiobibliophile can cram a lot of listening into 90 days. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Crunchyroll;elmt:;cpos:11;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=b79b93c2-acb6-4dce-94f0-adb51960a04a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Crunchyroll&linkText=Crunchyroll+%E2%80%94+%2467+for+one+year+%28%2413+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5jcnVuY2h5cm9sbC5jb20vcHJlbWl1bT8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY3J1bmNoeXJvbGwuY29tL3ByZW1pdW0_In0&signature=AQAAAQHv3x2BqnDYSajSlUgtQw8IJHXK0ur7qhcusKAe48WI&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchyroll.com%2Fpremium%3F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.crunchyroll.com/premium?">Crunchyroll — $67 for one year ($13 off):</a> Anime fans can get one year of Crunchyroll access for less right now. The Fan tier is down to $67 for the year, while the Mega Fan tier is on sale for $100 for one year. Both tiers give you ad-free access to the streaming service, but you'll get offline access and up to four simultaneous streams with the Mega Fan option. Note that this deal does not include access to Crunchyroll Manga. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:STARZ;elmt:;cpos:12;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=cc213f7f-ca63-4b41-92c9-3fcfeaf9686b&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=STARZ&linkText=Starz+%28one+year%29+for+%2412+%28%2458+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5zdGFyei5jb20vdXMvZW4vYnV5IiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIwMjZmZTFiNS1lYTIyLTQ5ZjYtODAxNi1mZDg2ODY5MjhmNWMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnN0YXJ6LmNvbS91cy9lbi9idXkifQ&signature=AQAAASvBZnmRMUepaJ9V51qB_SFah2VNJT7ZShmZ1jEvguLh&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.starz.com%2Fus%2Fen%2Fbuy" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.starz.com/us/en/buy">Starz (one year) for $12 ($58 off):</a> Pay upfront for one year and you can get more than $40 off a Stars annual subscription. There's a month-to-month option too, which costs $3 per month for the first three months if you don't want to commit to the full year. Either option gives you access to the entire Starz TV and movie library with offline viewing and no ads. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Spotify;elmt:;cpos:13;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=449e2503-c6b5-44c5-bdb8-b3045047b3e5&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Spotify&linkText=Spotify+Premium+Individual+%E2%80%94+four+months+for+free+%28%2448+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5zcG90aWZ5LmNvbS91cy9wcmVtaXVtLyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMDI2ZmUxYjUtZWEyMi00OWY2LTgwMTYtZmQ4Njg2OTI4ZjVjIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5zcG90aWZ5LmNvbS91cy9wcmVtaXVtLyJ9&signature=AQAAAdaiYdV6ebxlNdxxOVsJY1iaGuffnyPKLzxLXI3yggbh&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spotify.com%2Fus%2Fpremium%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.spotify.com/us/premium/">Spotify Premium Individual — four months for free ($48 off):</a> This is our <a data-i13n="cpos:14;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/best-music-streaming-service-130046189.html">favorite</a> music streaming service for podcasts and social features. The Premium Individual plan lets you listen ad-free and skip songs at will. You can also organize your listening queue and download content for offline listening. Just be aware, your subscription will auto-renew at the end of the trial period. So if you don't want to be on the hook for the $12 monthly fee, set a reminder to cancel and go back to the free version. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:15;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=Amazon+Music+Unlimited+%E2%80%94+three+months+for+free+%28%2436+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL211c2ljL3VubGltaXRlZC8_dGFnPWdkZ3QwYy0yMCIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMDI2ZmUxYjUtZWEyMi00OWY2LTgwMTYtZmQ4Njg2OTI4ZjVjIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL211c2ljL3VubGltaXRlZC8iLCJkeW5hbWljQ2VudHJhbFRyYWNraW5nSWQiOnRydWUsInNpdGVJZCI6InVzLWVuZ2FkZ2V0IiwicGFnZUlkIjoiMXAtYXV0b2xpbmsiLCJmZWF0dXJlSWQiOiJ0ZXh0LWxpbmsifQ&signature=AQAAATr5NyQZrGjh1pcpizqFpRB4Slm7thpzMA8Nwbc0TK75&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fmusic%2Funlimited%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/music/unlimited/">Amazon Music Unlimited — three months for free ($36 off):</a> Amazon's own music streaming service is now free for three months, for new subscribers only. With it, you get access to 100 million songs with no ads, many podcasts and some audiobooks from Audible as well. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:FuboTV;elmt:;cpos:16;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=9a941868-c063-4b44-9207-896f1fb5891e&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=FuboTV&linkText=Fubo+Pro+for+%2455%2Fmonth+for+the+first+month+%28%2430+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mdWJvLnR2L3dlbGNvbWUiLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnViby50di93ZWxjb21lIn0&signature=AQAAAXqYkMKAUm8799Kqd7h3b8qXj7L_Ft7q4NAGclsLGpGU&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fubo.tv%2Fwelcome" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.fubo.tv/welcome">Fubo Pro for $55/month for the first month ($30 off): </a>Fubo has introductory discounts on most of its packages, and the Pro package is the least expensive plan currently listed. It offers access to 224 channels, unlimited cloud DVR and up to 10 simultaneous streams. It even includes regional sports content from the NHL, MLB and NBA. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:DIRECTV;elmt:;cpos:17;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=fd7207b2-1b6a-4385-aa15-2f04784de078&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=DIRECTV&linkText=DirecTV+starting+at+%2450%2Fmonth+for+one+month+%28up+to+%2440+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5kaXJlY3R2LmNvbS9hZmZpbGlhdGVzL3N0cmVhbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlyZWN0di5jb20vYWZmaWxpYXRlcy9zdHJlYW0vIn0&signature=AQAAAQDUQXWrENexJ0x2uVIRUR1ga53PuRSUUoWHof31tjmo&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.directv.com%2Faffiliates%2Fstream%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.directv.com/affiliates/stream/">DirecTV starting at $50/month for one month (up to $40 off):</a> All of DirecTV's signature packages are up to $45 off right now for your first month when you sign up. If you opt for the base "Entertainment" package, you'll spend $50 for the first month and get access to over 90 channels, including many local stations as well as ESPN, ESPN 2 and Fox Sports 1. You'll also be able to watch on the go with the DirecTV mobile app. <h2 id="jump-link-streaming-bundle-discounts">Streaming bundle discounts</h2> There’s more consolidation happening now than ever before in the streaming space, and that means there are more streaming bundle options. These bundles offer you access to more content with one subscription price, but those prices are typically higher than paying for a single service by itself (obviously). It may be tempting to just get the bundle, but if only one of those services in the bundle speaks to you, you’ll spend less overall by just paying for the single service. Speaking of a deep love for a single streaming service: if all of your favorite shows are on Peacock or the latest releases on HBO Max consistently bring you joy, consider paying for one year upfront. Subscribing with an annual plan usually saves you money in the long term over paying on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, not all streaming services (looking at you, Netflix) have an annual subscription option. <h3 id="jump-link-disney">Disney+</h3> If you feel like Charlie Kelly trying to figure out <a data-i13n="cpos:18;pos:1" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NBfZcNU4O0">who Pepe Silvia is</a> when you look at <a data-i13n="cpos:19;pos:1" href="https://help.disneyplus.com/article/disneyplus-price">Disney's streaming prices chart</a>, you're not alone. The confusion comes from the fact that Disney owns, or has a hand in, many streaming services including Hulu and ESPN. Throw in a partnership with HBO Max and you have a ton of options to consider and, probably, whiplash to match. Here's a quick overview of popular Disney+ bundle pricing. <ul> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Disney+;elmt:;cpos:20;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=85d85ef3-fac9-418f-9573-418cf162cd0c&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Disney%2B&linkText=Disney%2B+and+Hulu+bundle+%28with+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5kaXNuZXlwbHVzLmNvbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzbmV5cGx1cy5jb20vIn0&signature=AQAAAfTrIOOmtx6dAIKCTZ26nxRVnZ6d5zjFO4nGLRZV9o6l&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.disneyplus.com/">Disney+ and Hulu bundle (with ads)</a> — $13/month</li> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Disney+;elmt:;cpos:21;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=85d85ef3-fac9-418f-9573-418cf162cd0c&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Disney%2B&linkText=Disney%2B+and+Hulu+bundle+%28without+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5kaXNuZXlwbHVzLmNvbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzbmV5cGx1cy5jb20vIn0&signature=AQAAAfTrIOOmtx6dAIKCTZ26nxRVnZ6d5zjFO4nGLRZV9o6l&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.disneyplus.com/">Disney+ and Hulu bundle (without ads)</a> — $20/month</li> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:ESPN Plus;elmt:;cpos:22;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=55640060-7940-40de-bdca-1c734608a52a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=ESPN+Plus&linkText=Disney%2B%2C+Hulu+and+ESPN+Select+%28with+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3BsdXMuZXNwbi5jb20vIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIwMjZmZTFiNS1lYTIyLTQ5ZjYtODAxNi1mZDg2ODY5MjhmNWMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vcGx1cy5lc3BuLmNvbS8ifQ&signature=AQAAAbH1myAvnrjGJKLK3mYi8RVjXTwAN5WKceh4QItJ6nZf&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fplus.espn.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://plus.espn.com/">Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Select (with ads)</a> — $20/month</li> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:ESPN Plus;elmt:;cpos:23;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=55640060-7940-40de-bdca-1c734608a52a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=ESPN+Plus&linkText=Disney%2B%2C+Hulu+and+ESPN+Select+%28without+ads+on+Disney%2B+and+Hulu+only%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3BsdXMuZXNwbi5jb20vIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIwMjZmZTFiNS1lYTIyLTQ5ZjYtODAxNi1mZDg2ODY5MjhmNWMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vcGx1cy5lc3BuLmNvbS8ifQ&signature=AQAAAbH1myAvnrjGJKLK3mYi8RVjXTwAN5WKceh4QItJ6nZf&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fplus.espn.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://plus.espn.com/">Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Select (without ads on Disney+ and Hulu only)</a> — $30/month</li> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Disney+;elmt:;cpos:24;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=85d85ef3-fac9-418f-9573-418cf162cd0c&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Disney%2B&linkText=Disney%2B%2C+Hulu+and+HBO+Max+%28with+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5kaXNuZXlwbHVzLmNvbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzbmV5cGx1cy5jb20vIn0&signature=AQAAAfTrIOOmtx6dAIKCTZ26nxRVnZ6d5zjFO4nGLRZV9o6l&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.disneyplus.com/">Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max (with ads)</a> — $20/month</li> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Disney+;elmt:;cpos:25;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=85d85ef3-fac9-418f-9573-418cf162cd0c&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Disney%2B&linkText=Disney%2B%2C+Hulu+and+HBO+Max+%28without+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5kaXNuZXlwbHVzLmNvbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzbmV5cGx1cy5jb20vIn0&signature=AQAAAfTrIOOmtx6dAIKCTZ26nxRVnZ6d5zjFO4nGLRZV9o6l&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.disneyplus.com/">Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max (without ads)</a> — $33/month</li> </ul> <h3 id="jump-link-peacock-tv">Peacock TV</h3> Peacock doesn't have any streaming bundles available all year round, but you can save if you pay for one year upfront. <ul> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Peacock TV;elmt:;cpos:26;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=cbef8901-c2f3-4af7-b1b7-e2c3afcffd7a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Peacock+TV&linkText=Peacock+Select+%28with+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wZWFjb2NrdHYuY29tLyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMDI2ZmUxYjUtZWEyMi00OWY2LTgwMTYtZmQ4Njg2OTI4ZjVjIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wZWFjb2NrdHYuY29tLyJ9&signature=AQAAARXqvTiK8KC4G7CmQ2W6v60373zowuts3jNV1TNK9pDh&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.peacocktv.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.peacocktv.com/">Peacock Select (with ads)</a> — $8/month or $80/year</li> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Peacock TV;elmt:;cpos:27;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=cbef8901-c2f3-4af7-b1b7-e2c3afcffd7a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Peacock+TV&linkText=Peacock+Premium+%28with+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wZWFjb2NrdHYuY29tLyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMDI2ZmUxYjUtZWEyMi00OWY2LTgwMTYtZmQ4Njg2OTI4ZjVjIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wZWFjb2NrdHYuY29tLyJ9&signature=AQAAARXqvTiK8KC4G7CmQ2W6v60373zowuts3jNV1TNK9pDh&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.peacocktv.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.peacocktv.com/">Peacock Premium (with ads) </a>— $11/month or $110/year</li> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Peacock TV;elmt:;cpos:28;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=cbef8901-c2f3-4af7-b1b7-e2c3afcffd7a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Peacock+TV&linkText=Peacock+Premium+Plus+%28without+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wZWFjb2NrdHYuY29tLyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMDI2ZmUxYjUtZWEyMi00OWY2LTgwMTYtZmQ4Njg2OTI4ZjVjIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wZWFjb2NrdHYuY29tLyJ9&signature=AQAAARXqvTiK8KC4G7CmQ2W6v60373zowuts3jNV1TNK9pDh&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.peacocktv.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.peacocktv.com/">Peacock Premium Plus (without ads)</a> — $17/month or $170/year</li> </ul> <h3 id="jump-link-paramount">Paramount+</h3> Paramount+ used to bill its tier with Showtime as a sort of bundle, but it has since renamed its plans and focused the Showtime inclusion in its premium tier as just another bonus of paying for the higher priced plan. <ul> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Paramount Plus;elmt:;cpos:29;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=b0d3a482-802c-4eb1-9616-94f7490562f7&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Paramount+Plus&linkText=Paramount%2B+Essential+%28with+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wYXJhbW91bnRwbHVzLmNvbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGFyYW1vdW50cGx1cy5jb20vIn0&signature=AQAAAV8iOXVl016P3T1Ibx0jMonfg-tZJd-51LFlOrDY5Khd&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.paramountplus.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.paramountplus.com/">Paramount+ Essential (with ads)</a> —$8/month or $60/year</li> <li><a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Paramount Plus;elmt:;cpos:30;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=b0d3a482-802c-4eb1-9616-94f7490562f7&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Paramount+Plus&linkText=Paramount+Premium+%28without+ads%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wYXJhbW91bnRwbHVzLmNvbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGFyYW1vdW50cGx1cy5jb20vIn0&signature=AQAAAV8iOXVl016P3T1Ibx0jMonfg-tZJd-51LFlOrDY5Khd&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.paramountplus.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.paramountplus.com/">Paramount Premium (without ads)</a> — $13/month or $120/year</li> </ul> <h2 id="jump-link-student-discounts-on-streaming-services">Student discounts on streaming services</h2> It pays to be a student — sometimes, at least. A number of streaming services have student discounts you can take advantage of as long as you're actively studying. What that translates to most of the time is being able to verify your student status and signing up with your .edu email address. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:HBO Max;elmt:;cpos:31;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=c7892fca-8328-4299-9c5b-59b5f841f383&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=HBO+Max&linkText=HBO+Max+student+discount+%E2%80%94+subscribe+for+%245%2Fmonth+%2850+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5oYm9tYXguY29tL3N0dWRlbnQiLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjAyNmZlMWI1LWVhMjItNDlmNi04MDE2LWZkODY4NjkyOGY1YyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGJvbWF4LmNvbS9zdHVkZW50In0&signature=AQAAASB-nObPhCNr-TcY_bwSM6W0oUPPcuQiQqPqHj7i0IHw&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2Fstudent" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.hbomax.com/student">HBO Max student discount — subscribe for $5/month (50 percent off):</a> HBO Max offers their ad-supported tier to students for half off the usual rate. You’ll just have to verify that you’re a student through <a data-i13n="cpos:32;pos:1" href="https://www.myunidays.com/US/en-US">Unidays</a>, and make note that this offer is only good for up to 12 months of service. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Hulu;elmt:;cpos:33;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=ca19dea0-e7ad-4f54-beed-6302bce56589&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Hulu&linkText=Hulu+student+discount+%E2%80%94+subscribe+for+%242%2Fmonth+%2875+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5odWx1LmNvbS9zdHVkZW50IiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIwMjZmZTFiNS1lYTIyLTQ5ZjYtODAxNi1mZDg2ODY5MjhmNWMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lmh1bHUuY29tL3N0dWRlbnQifQ&signature=AQAAAV4KsYBbX0kLrA2y-GMrG3k9z_PHlyJK2q92V_FBdUqc&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Fstudent" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.hulu.com/student">Hulu student discount — subscribe for $2/month (75 percent off):</a> Those with a valid student ID can get Hulu’s ad-supported tier for 75 percent off the typical rate. They’ll keep the same sale price for as long as they’re a student as well. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Spotify;elmt:;cpos:34;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=449e2503-c6b5-44c5-bdb8-b3045047b3e5&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Spotify&linkText=Spotify+student+discount+%E2%80%94+Premium+%2B+Hulu+with+ads+for+%246%2Fmonth+%2872+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5zcG90aWZ5LmNvbS91cy9zdHVkZW50LyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMDI2ZmUxYjUtZWEyMi00OWY2LTgwMTYtZmQ4Njg2OTI4ZjVjIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5zcG90aWZ5LmNvbS91cy9zdHVkZW50LyJ9&signature=AQAAARP4AyvppygFvJ4vrPFGYZ9k2weFDpL_FzdcVGE3uM9X&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spotify.com%2Fus%2Fstudent%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.spotify.com/us/student/">Spotify student discount — Premium + Hulu with ads for $6/month (72 percent off):</a> Spotify’s student offer continues to be one of the best around, giving you access to the Premium tier of the music streamer and Hulu’s ad-supported plan for only $6 monthly. Purchased separately, you’d pay $22 per month for both of the services. Plus, the first month is free when you sign up. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:National Basketball Association;elmt:;cpos:35;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=c109eac4-825f-483e-8edf-51532ca9e7cb&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=026fe1b5-ea22-49f6-8016-fd8686928f5c&featureId=text-link&merchantName=National+Basketball+Association&linkText=NBA+League+Pass+student+discount+%E2%80%94+one+year+for+%24120+%2840+percent+off%29&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5uYmEuY29tL2xlYWd1ZS1wYXNzLXB1cmNoYXNlIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIwMjZmZTFiNS1lYTIyLTQ5ZjYtODAxNi1mZDg2ODY5MjhmNWMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5iYS5jb20vbGVhZ3VlLXBhc3MtcHVyY2hhc2UifQ&signature=AQAAAZadDR9xCS5BtTDzW1IBtori54n6wL80q-F8WuzWbEgt&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nba.com%2Fleague-pass-purchase" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.nba.com/league-pass-purchase">NBA League Pass student discount — one year for $120 (40 percent off)</a>: Students can get one year of League Pass for only $10 per month, which includes access to NBA TV and the ability to watch classic and archive games on-demand. On the NBA League Pass website, look for the student discount banner at the top and follow the instructions to verify your student status. <h3 id="jump-link-read-more-streaming-coverage">Read more streaming coverage</h3> <ul> <li><a data-i13n="cpos:36;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/best-live-tv-streaming-service-133000410.html">The best live TV streaming services to cut cable</a></li> <li><a data-i13n="cpos:37;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/best-streaming-services-154527042.html">The best streaming services: Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and more</a></li> <li><a data-i13n="cpos:38;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/best-streaming-devices-media-players-123021395.html">The best streaming devices</a></li> </ul> Follow <a data-i13n="cpos:39;pos:1" href="https://twitter.com/EngadgetDeals">@EngadgetDeals</a> on X for the latest <a data-i13n="cpos:40;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/deals/">tech deals</a> and <a data-i13n="cpos:41;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/best-tech/">buying advice</a>.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-streaming-deals-get-50-percent-off-masterclass-subscriptions-plus-save-on-starz-audible-crunchyroll-and-others-133028536.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

The best multi-device wireless charging pads for 2026

There’s a good chance you own a couple of gadgets that support wireless charging now, be it your iPhone or Android phone, wireless earbuds or smartwatch. Multi-device<a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/best-wireless-charger-140036359.html"> wireless chargers</a> can help power them all up in one place, without the need for a bunch of cords messing up your space. There are dozens of these accessories out there today, and we’ve tested a bunch of the most popular models. You’ll find out top picks below for the best wireless charging pads, plus some advice on how to choose the right one for your needs. <h2 id="jump-link-table-of-contents">Table of contents</h2> <ul> <li><a href="#jump-link-best-wireless-charging-pads">Best wireless charging pads</a></li> <li><a href="#jump-link-do-wireless-charging-pads-work-with-any-phone-or-device">Do wireless charging pads work with any phone or device?</a></li> <li><a href="#jump-link-how-to-pick-the-best-wireless-charging-pad-for-your-needs">How to pick the best wireless charging pad for your needs</a></li> <li><a href="#jump-link-wireless-charging-speed-and-performance">Wireless charging speed and performance</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="jump-link-best-wireless-charging-pads">Best wireless charging pads</h2> <core-commerce id="b9f90728f09f4e00a110ffd02d2b6ff9" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Foldable-Wireless-Ultra-Compact-Pocket-Size/dp/B0DZX533Y1/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="fcfb0fbd5ac34730abfd820c44a298c6" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Compatible-Anker-Charging-Certified-Wireless/dp/B0CF56WHV4/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="2fd9ed5d61204d58b1361ceeb2a8167d" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Satechi-Wireless-Charging-Station-Charger/dp/B0DJFPT7S1/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="a941b073766c49e784fd3e3a0b26d321" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Compatible-Charging-Magnetic-Wireless/dp/B0FMC3PW5W?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="99fe78464018475d9c87a545fa8f2ec2" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Compatible-Charging-Magnetic-Wireless/dp/B0FMBXRHQP/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="066541e005874900ac8e6de4e1533771" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Certified-Wireless-Foldable-Compatible/dp/B0D4DX8PH3/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="220e7f5376e64187a734c85059847229" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BRR53TB6/"></core-commerce> <h2 id="jump-link-do-wireless-charging-pads-work-with-any-phone-or-device">Do wireless charging pads work with any phone or device?</h2> The short answer is no, but the long and more detailed answer starts with it depends. Regular old wireless charging pucks should work with any device that’s compatible with the same wireless charging standard that the charger supports. Smartphones and other mobile devices that support wireless charging nowadays are likely to support the Qi standard, so double check that your phone or gadget fits that bill and it should work with any Qi wireless charging pad (all of our top picks fall into this category). When it comes to multi-device chargers, things can get a little tricky. Rather than starting your search looking for the most universally adaptable accessory, consider the devices you have and aspire to own in the future. If you’re an iPhone user with an Apple Watch, you may want to look for a wireless charger that has a Watch pad built in. Ditto if you’re a Samsung phone owner and use a Galaxy Watch. Some earbuds support wireless charging, but you’ll only need an open pad or space on your multi-device charger where you can sit the earbuds in their case down for a power-up. Those with iPhone 12s and newer Apple smartphones can take advantage of MagSafe chargers, which magnetically attach to their handsets. Android devices don’t support Apple’s proprietary MagSafe technology, but you can buy a <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&itemId=amazon_B09BZ17JM7&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=92afccad-7a6d-4b3e-b701-91c6301fd52f&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=magnetic+adapter+for+pretty+cheap&custData=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&signature=AQAAAdEX_d0-vXtE7h5w9QtUo9s6V3nZnhWggLO4XCvtu56x&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FESR-HaloLock-Universal-Conversion-Compatible%2Fdp%2FB09BZ17JM7%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/ESR-HaloLock-Universal-Conversion-Compatible/dp/B09BZ17JM7/">magnetic adapter for pretty cheap</a> that will allow your Samsung or Pixel phone to work with MagSafe multi-device chargers. You’ll also need that to get full <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/android-phone-makers-dropped-the-ball-on-qi2-in-2024-191029769.html">Qi2 goodness</a> with newer Android phones like the Galaxy S25 series, which are “Qi2 ready,” but since they do not have magnets built in, aren’t precisely Qi2 compliant. <h2 id="jump-link-how-to-pick-the-best-wireless-charging-pad-for-your-needs">How to pick the best wireless charging pad for your needs</h2> <figure> <img src="https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2022-04/b2b575e0-c7fe-11ec-8ee7-4c395c0c840d" data-uuid="6047284f-87c6-3158-b91e-34320647eb5e"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> Even without a charging cable to worry about, you’re probably buying a multi-device wireless charger with one location in mind. It might sit on your nightstand or on your desk. Not everyone buys a charger just for themselves, though; you might want to use one as a shared station for you and a partner. If the charger will sit on your nightstand, you’ll likely want a compact, stable unit that won’t swallow all your free space or tumble to the floor (and if it does fall, one with enough durability to survive). Some may prefer a lay-flat design if your phone screen has a tendency to keep you awake at night. Others might use their phone as their alarm clock, in which case you may want a stand that keeps the screen within reach and eyeshot. This is also the preferred design if you use Standby Mode on iPhones. A vertical orientation may be best for a charger that lives on your desk so you can more easily check notifications throughout the day. Will the charger sit on a low table? Horizontal charger pads may make it easier to grab your devices in a hurry. Travel chargers should fold up or otherwise protect the pads while they’re in your bag. And, yes, aesthetics count. You may want something pretty if it’s likely to sit in a posh room where guests will see it. For vehicles, consider a wireless car charger if you frequently need to top off your device on the go. These chargers combine convenience with functionality, ensuring your phone stays powered while you’re navigating and taking calls at the same time. We also heavily recommend a magnetic charger so there’s less of a chance your phone will go flying into the passenger’s seat the next time you hit a pothole. <h2 id="jump-link-wireless-charging-speed-and-performance">Wireless charging speed and performance</h2> It’s no secret that wireless charging is slower than wired, and powering multiple devices adds a new wrinkle. As these chargers often have to support a wide range of hardware, you’ll have to forget about the fastest, device-specific options from brands like Google, OnePlus and Samsung. Today, most wireless chargers come in at 15W for phones. The latest Qi2 standard can get you up to 25W of power with a compatible smartphone. These speeds are improving bit by bit, but they're still not quite as fast as wired charging. It’s rare that you’ll find a truly slow-as-molasses example, mind you. Even some of the most affordable options we’ve seen will recharge your phone at a reasonable 7.5W or 10W, and the 5W for other devices like wireless earbuds is more than enough. If you’re only docking overnight or while you work, speed won’t make a huge difference. Just be sure that whatever you buy is powerful enough for a phone in a case. Some chargers may also include an AC adapter in the box. If not, make sure you’re using one with the right power level to get the fastest charge.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-multi-device-wireless-charging-pads-120557582.html?src=rss

Dec 18, 2025

Dolby and LG introduce a modular home audio system for CES 2026

Dec 17, 2025

China reportedly has a prototype EUV machine built by ex-ASML employees

A report from <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/how-china-built-its-manhattan-project-rival-west-ai-chips-2025-12-17/" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">Reuters</a> claims that scientists in China have created a prototype of a machine that could eventually be used to produce semiconductor chips capable of powering artificial intelligence. Sources told the publication that a team in Shenzhen completed the prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine earlier this year and it is allegedly now undergoing testing. The EUV machine was reportedly made by former engineers from Dutch semiconductor supplier ASML. Reuters states that China is targeting production of its own EUV chips beginning in 2028, although other experts have projected 2030 as a more likely date. EUV is a supremely complicated bit of technology; we have an explainer below that gets into some of the details. It is at the heart of the chips made by companies such as Intel and TSMC, so any company trying to compete would also need access to EUV. Although the Chinese prototype is not yet making chips, it is reportedly able to generate the extreme ultraviolet light needed for chip manufacturing.<div><div style="left:0;width:100%;height:0;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oIiqVrKDtLc?rel=0" style="top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;border:0;" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" data-provider-name="youtube"></iframe></div></div>If confirmed, this development would put China in control of tech much sooner than analysts had previously expected. To date, EUV has largely been kept out of reach by Western companies and used as <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/nvidia-can-now-sell-its-high-end-ai-chips-to-approved-customers-in-china-trump-says-130007458.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">a bargaining chip</a> by the US government. Chinese President Xi Jinping has placed a high priority on the country being able to produce its own semiconductors. "The aim is for China to eventually be able to make advanced chips on machines that are entirely China-made," a source told Reuters. "China wants the United States 100 percent kicked out of its supply chains."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/china-reportedly-has-a-prototype-euv-machine-built-by-ex-asml-employees-235833756.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

A Facebook test makes link-sharing a paid feature for creators

Creators and publishers have long worried about Meta's ability to throttle links to outside content. Now, the company is testing out a new scheme that effectively puts link-sharing behind a paywall for creators on Facebook.Under the test, a Meta Verified subscription will determine how many links a creator can share another profile per month. According to a screenshot <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.threads.com/@mattnavarra/post/DSXCACNirEt?xmt=AQF0RFIeIUKauwYgaXm8z0zs0jD3qmZqDZnvscsBxLvu0g" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">shared by</a> social meda consultant Matt Navarra, creators in the test recently received a notification from Meta informing them that "certain Facebook profiles without Meta Verified, including yours, will be limited to sharing links in 2 organic posts per month."  <figure><img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/587306041_17932047504117490_7939502344875913795_n_%281%29.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/587306041_17932047504117490_7939502344875913795_n_%281%29.jpg" style="height:1372px;width:1170px;" alt="Meta is making link sharing pay to play with a new test." data-uuid="360a7da6-7fb6-4f06-a787-bb206515c17e"><figcaption>Meta is making link sharing pay to play with a new test.</figcaption><div class="photo-credit"></div></figure>A spokesperson for Meta confirmed the test to Engadget. The test is currently affecting an unspecified number of creators and pages using "professional mode" on Facebook. Publishers aren't affected for now. "This is a limited test to understand whether the ability to publish an increased volume of posts with links adds additional value for Meta Verified subscribers," the spokesperson said.While Meta seems to be trying to downplay the significance of the test, it's a notable shift for the company. Many creators and businesses rely on Facebook and reducing their ability to send traffic to outside websites could be a significant hit. Many creators are already frustrated that the company puts its better customer service features behind the Meta Verified subscription, which <a target="_blank" class="no-affiliate-link link" href="https://www.facebook.com/business/m/meta-verified-creators" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1">starts at</a> $14.99/month. Making link-sharing a premium feature as well would be even more unpopular. Have a tip for Karissa? You can reach her by <a target="_blank" class="linkDecorator_linkStyle__yM-Nh link" href="mailto:[email protected]" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">email</a>, on <a target="_blank" class="linkDecorator_linkStyle__yM-Nh link" href="https://x.com/karissabe" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">X</a>, <a target="_blank" class="linkDecorator_linkStyle__yM-Nh link" href="https://bsky.app/profile/karissabe.bsky.social" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">Bluesky</a>, <a target="_blank" class="linkDecorator_linkStyle__yM-Nh link" href="https://www.threads.com/@karissabe" data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1">Threads</a>, or send a message to @karissabe.51 to chat confidentially on Signal.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/a-facebook-test-makes-link-sharing-a-paid-feature-for-creators-224632957.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

Astronomers find mysterious lemon-shaped exoplanet with NASA's Webb telescope

Dec 17, 2025

Jared Isaacman is NASA's new leader

NASA has a leader again. On Wednesday, the US Senate <a target="_blank" class="link rapid-with-clickid" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=c813ae39-7d58-41cb-ac66-ad830606ceef&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=cf534aea-a343-4253-b8c9-6032d53ab63a&featureId=text-link&merchantName=The+New+York+Times&linkText=confirmed&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5ueXRpbWVzLmNvbS8yMDI1LzEyLzE3L3NjaWVuY2UvbmFzYS1qYXJlZC1pc2FhY21hbi1jb25maXJtZWQtc2VuYXRlLmh0bWwiLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6ImNmNTM0YWVhLWEzNDMtNDI1My1iOGM5LTYwMzJkNTNhYjYzYSIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyNS8xMi8xNy9zY2llbmNlL25hc2EtamFyZWQtaXNhYWNtYW4tY29uZmlybWVkLXNlbmF0ZS5odG1sIn0&signature=AQAAAenYLtO1lgUMcFaCzOijpBPxvE9uerFzbxElDGgvmrKt&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F12%2F17%2Fscience%2Fnasa-jared-isaacman-confirmed-senate.html" data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:The New York Times;elmt:;cpos:1;pos:1" data-original-link="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/science/nasa-jared-isaacman-confirmed-senate.html">confirmed</a> Jared Isaacman as the agency's administrator, with a 67-30 vote. The billionaire entrepreneur (and Elon Musk ally) will have his hands full navigating political waters while managing a <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-will-lose-over-2000-senior-staff-due-to-proposed-trump-budget-cuts-210109229.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">severely downsized workforce</a>.You might recall that this wasn't Isaacman's first shot at the job. He was nominated to the post earlier this year. But days before he was scheduled for a confirmation vote, President Donald Trump <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/science/space/trump-makes-a-last-minute-backtrack-on-his-pick-to-lead-nasa-153253836.html" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">withdrew his nomination</a>.The reversal reportedly came after the president was told that Isaacman had donated to prominent Democrats. (Trump’s description of his decision, as based on a "thorough review of prior associations," seemed to lend weight to that.) However, that was also around the time the Trump-Musk feud was <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/elon-musk-leaves-doge-amid-tanking-tesla-sales-153859407.html" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">about to boil over</a>. Regardless, Isaacman was nominated again in November.The new NASA head reportedly has broad support from the space community. (That makes him something of an aberration among <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5274744/rfk-confirmation-vaccines-health-secretary" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">Trump appointees in scientific fields</a>.) "I am optimistic that Mr. Isaacman will bring a steady hand and clear vision to NASA," Sen. Marie Cantwell (D-WA) told The New York Times.The new administrator has traveled to space twice on private missions. In a document published in May, Isaacman shared his three objectives for NASA. These included human missions to the Moon, Mars and deep space; helping the organization do more with a constrained budget; and cost-cutting through industry and academic partnerships.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/jared-isaacman-is-nasas-new-leader-220833691.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

Billboard's charts are increasingly weighted towards on-demand streaming, but not enough for YouTube

YouTube <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-billboard-chart-update/" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">announced</a> that it will no longer share data with Billboard for the creation of the Billboard Hot 100 and other charts because the video platform doesn't believe they're calculated fairly. The issue lies, per YouTube, with how Billboard weighs on-demand streams in its rankings: The publication weighs streams from paid music streaming services over ad-supported streams, and YouTube just so happens to run an ad-supported streaming service.Much like getting a book on The New York Times Bestseller list, landing a spot on the Billboard charts doesn't carry quite the same importance that it once did. When the majority of the media people consume is digital and on-demand, sales numbers aren't a guaranteed indicator of success or popularity. That's part of the reason why Billboard started <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/billboard-hot-100-to-include-digital-streams-1050326/" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">including digital streams</a> in its calculations way back in 2007, and why it announced plans to adjust how it weighs on-demand streaming just yesterday.On Tuesday, <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.billboard.com/pro/billboard-charts-add-more-weight-on-demand-streaming-2026/" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">Billboard announced</a> that it would add more weight to streaming to "better reflect an increase in streaming revenue and changing consumer behaviors." Billboard currently counts an "album consumption unit" as an album sale, which either breaks down to "3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams." In the new ranking scheme that will go into effect in January 2026, "each album consumption unit will now equal 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams." "The change means that it will take 33.3 percent fewer ad-supported on-demand streams of songs from an album, and 20 percent fewer paid/subscription on-demand streams of songs from an album, to equal an album unit," Billboard says. Put another way, things are moving in YouTube’s favor, just apparently not as quickly as the company wants.YouTube characterizes pulling its data from Billboard as fighting for fairness and equality, but it's equally connected to the platform’s demonstration of its own power. It already <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/23/youtube-paid-out-8b-to-the-music-industry-in-12-months/" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">funnels billions of dollars</a> to artists and labels from the money it makes on ads and subscriptions, but it clearly also wants the power to mint new chart-topping stars. “We are committed to achieving equitable representation across the charts and hopefully can work with Billboard to return to theirs,” YouTube says in its announcement. “Until then, if you're curious about what music is making waves on YouTube, you can visit our charts <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://charts.youtube.com/" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">here</a>.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/billboards-charts-are-increasingly-weighted-towards-on-demand-streaming-but-not-enough-for-youtube-220238291.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

The best VPN deals: Up to 88 percent off ProtonVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, NordVPN and more

With a good <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/what-is-a-vpn-and-what-can-you-do-with-one-161549146.html">virtual private network (VPN)</a>, you can stream TV shows and events from all over the world, protect your information from hackers and thwart those online trackers that watch you sleep and show you weird personalized ads. Although we strongly recommend <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/how-a-vpn-works-and-why-you-should-care-143000250.html">using a VPN</a>, jumping on the first deal that comes along might get you stuck with a substandard app. Beyond that, even otherwise respectable VPNs sometimes frame their prices in misleading ways, with advertised deals not always as available as they seem to be. Even so, there are some great bargains on the table. For the holiday season, plenty of the <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/best-vpn-130004396.html">best VPNs</a> — including our top pick, Proton VPN — have end-of-year deals live that can save you anywhere from 67 to 88 percent on annual subscriptions. Most of these discounts only apply if you sign up for a year or more, but as long as you're comfortable with a service before you take the plunge, committing actually makes sense. You pay more at the start, but if you divide the cost by the months of subscription, it's much cheaper over time. <h2 id="jump-link-best-vpn-deals">Best VPN deals</h2> <core-commerce id="96ac5765cf384f3bbb95c5bf40b9a658" data-type="product-list"></core-commerce> <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:ExpressVPN;elmt:;cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=4255ebf1-6185-403e-9be2-91ab47ad1ac3&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=ExpressVPN&linkText=ExpressVPN+Basic+%E2%80%94+%2497.72+for+a+two-year+subscription+with+four+months+free+%2873+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5leHByZXNzdnBuLmNvbS90b3Avc3BlY2lhbC1kZWFsL29mZmVyIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIzODIwZjA3Zi0wYzVlLTRhOTYtYmFiYS1kNmQ5ZWEwNTEwYzMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmV4cHJlc3N2cG4uY29tL3RvcC9zcGVjaWFsLWRlYWwvb2ZmZXIifQ&signature=AQAAAdvyvaCYKEPEDRaiHSVqiB_O8xJWLFXjCV92TS8ZM1Yw&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressvpn.com%2Ftop%2Fspecial-deal%2Foffer" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.expressvpn.com/top/special-deal/offer">ExpressVPN Basic — $97.72 for a two-year subscription with four months free (73 percent off):</a> This is one of the best VPNs, especially for new users, who will find its apps and website headache-free on all platforms. In tests for my <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/vpn-review-expressvpn-2023-gaming-streaming-160052492.html">ExpressVPN review</a>, it dropped my download speeds by less than 7 percent and successfully changed my virtual location 14 out of 15 times. In short, it's an all-around excellent service that only suffers from being a little overpriced — which is why I'm so excited whenever I find it offering a decent deal. This discount, which gets you 28 months of ExpressVPN service, represents a 73 percent savings. Be aware, though, that it'll renew at the $99.95 per year price. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:ExpressVPN;elmt:;cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=4255ebf1-6185-403e-9be2-91ab47ad1ac3&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=ExpressVPN&linkText=ExpressVPN+Advanced+%E2%80%94+%24125.72+for+a+two-year+subscription+with+four+months+free+%2867+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5leHByZXNzdnBuLmNvbS9vcmRlci8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjM4MjBmMDdmLTBjNWUtNGE5Ni1iYWJhLWQ2ZDllYTA1MTBjMyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZXhwcmVzc3Zwbi5jb20vb3JkZXIvIn0&signature=AQAAAYJJJiCVpBWMd-u8PFtNT1KgZesvJI5NwAjxhMUGyhNp&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressvpn.com%2Forder%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.expressvpn.com/order/">ExpressVPN Advanced — $125.72 for a two-year subscription with four months free (67 percent off):</a> ExpressVPN recently <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/expressvpn-switches-to-multi-tiered-pricing-with-more-feature-options-130016633.html">split its pricing into multiple tiers</a>, but they all still come with similar discounts for going long. In addition to top-tier VPN service, advanced users get two additional simultaneous connections (for a total of 12), the ExpressVPN Keys password manager, advanced ad and tracker blocking, ID protection features and a 50 percent discount on an AirCove router. As above, note that it renews at $119.95 annually. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:NordVPN;elmt:;cpos:8;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=c52a3d27-2d9a-44d8-8cf2-6f6387b122a0&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=NordVPN&linkText=NordVPN+Basic+%E2%80%94+%2480.73+for+a+two-year+subscription+with+three+months+free+%2874+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL25vcmR2cG4uY29tL3NwZWNpYWwvIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIzODIwZjA3Zi0wYzVlLTRhOTYtYmFiYS1kNmQ5ZWEwNTEwYzMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbm9yZHZwbi5jb20vc3BlY2lhbC8ifQ&signature=AQAAAdOT-QW4mYUKKaZHKPgEaTgjP68Gxzw0j_z_9YlV2rsv&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fnordvpn.com%2Fspecial%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://nordvpn.com/special/">NordVPN Basic — $80.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (74 percent off):</a> NordVPN gets the most important parts of a VPN right. It's fast, it doesn't leak any of your data and it's great at changing your virtual location. I noted in my <a data-i13n="cpos:9;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/nordvpn-review-2025-innovative-features-a-few-missteps-163000578.html">NordVPN review</a> that it always connects quickly and includes a support page that makes it easy to get live help. NordVPN includes a lot of cool features, like servers that instantly connect you to Tor. This holiday deal gives you 74 percent off the two-year plan, which also comes with three extra months. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:NordVPN;elmt:;cpos:10;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=c52a3d27-2d9a-44d8-8cf2-6f6387b122a0&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=NordVPN&linkText=NordVPN+Plus+%E2%80%94+%24105.03+for+a+two-year+subscription+with+three+months+free+%2874+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL25vcmR2cG4uY29tL3NwZWNpYWwvcHJpY2luZy8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjM4MjBmMDdmLTBjNWUtNGE5Ni1iYWJhLWQ2ZDllYTA1MTBjMyIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9ub3JkdnBuLmNvbS9zcGVjaWFsL3ByaWNpbmcvIn0&signature=AQAAAYmuUj1Ii9goZGcp0SPeezjUlzb3qrEJ4zxaiRP4qpN8&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fnordvpn.com%2Fspecial%2Fpricing%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://nordvpn.com/special/pricing/">NordVPN Plus — $105.03 for a two-year subscription with three months free (74 percent off):</a> In another holiday discount, NordVPN has also taken 74 percent off its Plus subscription. For only a little more, you get a powerful ad and tracker blocker that can also catch malware downloads, plus access to the NordPass password manager. A Plus plan also adds a data breach scanner that checks the dark web for your sensitive information. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:surfshark;elmt:;cpos:11;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=6119f7ca-bf13-40ba-b3f6-2a335a8890f6&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=surfshark&linkText=Surfshark+Starter+%E2%80%94+%2453.73+for+a+two-year+subscription+with+three+months+free+%2887+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3N1cmZzaGFyay5jb20vcHJpY2luZyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMzgyMGYwN2YtMGM1ZS00YTk2LWJhYmEtZDZkOWVhMDUxMGMzIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3N1cmZzaGFyay5jb20vcHJpY2luZyJ9&signature=AQAAAdH2FAIDIVtPS_0cqGWMA7QRjWMeFVrXRjSMMEO0fqYM&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fsurfshark.com%2Fpricing" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://surfshark.com/pricing">Surfshark Starter — $53.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (87 percent off):</a> This is the "basic" level of <a data-i13n="cpos:12;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/surfshark-vpn-review-a-fast-vpn-for-casual-users-170022675.html">Surfshark</a>, but it includes the entire VPN; everything on Surfshark One is an extra perk. With this subscription, you'll get some of the most envelope-pushing features in the VPN world right now. Surfshark can rotate your IP constantly to help you evade detection — it even lets you choose your own entry and exit nodes for a double-hop connection. That all comes with a near-invisible impact on download speeds. With this year-round deal, you can save 87 percent on 27 months of Surfshark. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:surfshark;elmt:;cpos:13;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=6119f7ca-bf13-40ba-b3f6-2a335a8890f6&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=surfshark&linkText=Surfshark+One+%E2%80%94+%2461.83+for+a+two-year+subscription+with+three+months+free+%2888+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3N1cmZzaGFyay5jb20vcHJpY2luZyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMzgyMGYwN2YtMGM1ZS00YTk2LWJhYmEtZDZkOWVhMDUxMGMzIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3N1cmZzaGFyay5jb20vcHJpY2luZyJ9&signature=AQAAAdH2FAIDIVtPS_0cqGWMA7QRjWMeFVrXRjSMMEO0fqYM&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fsurfshark.com%2Fpricing" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://surfshark.com/pricing">Surfshark One — $61.83 for a two-year subscription with three months free (88 percent off):</a> A VPN is great, but it's not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware) and Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach), plus Surfshark Search and Alternative ID from the tier below. This extra-low deal gives you 88 percent off all those features. If you bump up to Surfshark One+, you'll also get data removal through Incogni, but the price jumps enough that it's not quite worthwhile in my eyes. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:CyberGhost;elmt:;cpos:14;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=9fd99815-3196-46cf-9b6f-707caf84c282&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=CyberGhost&linkText=CyberGhost+%E2%80%94+%2456.94+for+a+two-year+subscription+with+two+months+free+%2883+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5jeWJlcmdob3N0dnBuLmNvbS9idXkvY3liZXJnaG9zdC12cG4tMyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMzgyMGYwN2YtMGM1ZS00YTk2LWJhYmEtZDZkOWVhMDUxMGMzIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5jeWJlcmdob3N0dnBuLmNvbS9idXkvY3liZXJnaG9zdC12cG4tMyJ9&signature=AQAAAVFDOemP8POGnLzpyPpCaI_la8hdkR0Ve_jFdJWf5NL4&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyberghostvpn.com%2Fbuy%2Fcyberghost-vpn-3" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/buy/cyberghost-vpn-3">CyberGhost — $56.94 for a two-year subscription with two months free (83 percent off):</a> CyberGhost has some of the best automation you'll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost's other best feature is its streaming servers — I've found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites. Currently, you can get 26 months of CyberGhost for 83 percent off the usual price. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Hide.me;elmt:;cpos:15;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=9e251e36-74b6-419a-8a7b-de182315da42&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Hide.me&linkText=hide.me+%E2%80%94+%2469.95+for+a+two-year+subscription+with+four+months+free+%2875+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL2hpZGUubWUvZW4vcHJpY2luZyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMzgyMGYwN2YtMGM1ZS00YTk2LWJhYmEtZDZkOWVhMDUxMGMzIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL2hpZGUubWUvZW4vcHJpY2luZyJ9&signature=AQAAAe0QPv6SUX-6hvSv7_eROeuRZA8bFPmcBZA109HcavzL&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fhide.me%2Fen%2Fpricing" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://hide.me/en/pricing">hide.me — $69.95 for a two-year subscription with four months free (75 percent off):</a> Hide.me is an excellent free VPN — in fact, it's my favorite on the market, even with <a data-i13n="cpos:16;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/heres-how-eventvpn-is-different-from-other-free-vpns-213014671.html">EventVPN</a> and the free version of Proton VPN as competition. If you do want to upgrade to its paid plan, though, the two-year subscription offers great savings. Hide.me works well as a no-frills beginner VPN, with apps and a server network it should frankly be charging more for. <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:private internet access;elmt:;cpos:17;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=8b0732cc-efc2-4542-849d-cadc641525e2&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=private+internet+access&linkText=Private+Internet+Access+%E2%80%94+%2479+for+a+three-year+subscription+with+four+months+free+%2883+percent+off%29%3A&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5wcml2YXRlaW50ZXJuZXRhY2Nlc3MuY29tL2J1eS12cG4tb25saW5lP2NvdXBvbj1vZmZpY2lhbC1zaXRlIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiIzODIwZjA3Zi0wYzVlLTRhOTYtYmFiYS1kNmQ5ZWEwNTEwYzMiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnByaXZhdGVpbnRlcm5ldGFjY2Vzcy5jb20vYnV5LXZwbi1vbmxpbmU_Y291cG9uPW9mZmljaWFsLXNpdGUifQ&signature=AQAAATlqHa_vZEKuis4XsOMk7-D6bWa2kZz1DudT0Xrs_4bN&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.privateinternetaccess.com%2Fbuy-vpn-online%3Fcoupon%3Dofficial-site" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/buy-vpn-online?coupon=official-site">Private Internet Access — $79 for a three-year subscription with four months free (83 percent off):</a> With this deal, you can get 40 months of <a data-i13n="cpos:18;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/private-internet-access-vpn-review-both-more-and-less-than-a-budget-vpn-120033882.html">Private Internet Access (PIA)</a> for a little bit under $2 per month — an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Despite being so cheap, PIA has plenty of features, coming with its own DNS servers, a built-in ad blocker and automation powers to rival CyberGhost. However, internet speeds can fluctuate while you're connected. <h2 id="jump-link-what-makes-a-good-vpn-deal">What makes a good VPN deal</h2> Practically every VPN heavily discounts its long-term subscriptions year-round, with even sharper discounts around occasions like the holidays. The only noteworthy exception is Mullvad, the Costco hot dog of VPNs (that's a compliment, to be clear). When there's constantly a huge discount going on, it can be hard to tell when you're actually getting a good deal. The best way to squeeze out more savings is to look for seasonal deals, student discounts or exclusive sales like <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:ProtonVPN;elmt:;cpos:19;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=06a20697-4135-4e83-a421-f326eee937ed&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=3820f07f-0c5e-4a96-baba-d6d9ea0510c3&featureId=text-link&merchantName=ProtonVPN&linkText=Proton+VPN%27s+coupon+for+Engadget+readers&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3Byb3RvbnZwbi5jb20vbC92cG4taG9tZS1wbGFucy1vZmZlci02NiIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiMzgyMGYwN2YtMGM1ZS00YTk2LWJhYmEtZDZkOWVhMDUxMGMzIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3Byb3RvbnZwbi5jb20vbC92cG4taG9tZS1wbGFucy1vZmZlci02NiJ9&signature=AQAAAXblbAdg41Upy-ikI1NWGnvIj4qyrHoZiRe-XQqP16_n&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fprotonvpn.com%2Fl%2Fvpn-home-plans-offer-66" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://protonvpn.com/l/vpn-home-plans-offer-66">Proton VPN's coupon for Engadget readers</a>. One trick VPNs often use is to add extra months onto an introductory deal, pushing the average monthly price even lower. When it comes time to renew, you usually can't get these extra months again. You often can't even renew for the same basic period of time — for example, you may only be able to renew a two-year subscription for one year. If you're planning to hold onto a VPN indefinitely, check the fine print to see how much it will cost per month after the first renewal, and ensure that fits into your budget. Follow <a data-i13n="cpos:20;pos:1" href="https://twitter.com/EngadgetDeals">@EngadgetDeals</a> on X for the latest <a data-i13n="cpos:21;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/deals/">tech deals</a> and <a data-i13n="cpos:22;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/best-tech/">buying advice</a>.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-vpn-deals-up-to-88-percent-off-protonvpn-surfshark-expressvpn-nordvpn-and-more-120056445.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

The best Secret Santa gift ideas for 2025: Affordable gifts you can still get from Lego, Apple, Yeti and more

Secret Santa gift exchanges are supposed to be fun, but it’s easy to overthink it. You want a gift that feels thoughtful without being awkward, useful without being boring, and most importantly, affordable. The sweet spot is under $50, which is plenty to find something that fits your recipient’s personality. Whether you’re buying for a co-worker you only chat with at the coffee machine, a friend who already has everything or a cousin who never gives you ideas, there are clever options that will make them smile. These picks prove you don’t need to spend big to win at Secret Santa. <h2 id="jump-link-best-secret-santa-gift-ideas">Best Secret Santa gift ideas</h2> <h2 id="jump-link-"></h2> <core-commerce id="1046e35e31ae47ba9029189c2e0a1dea" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Botanicals-Happy-Plants-Building/dp/B0DRW6C2RF"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="f211042146894b34940161783bbdb6f1" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MX532LL-A-AirTag/dp/B0CWXNS552"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="90df7250f46348848c6fe11b924bb57d" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Arcade-Classics-Pac-Man-4-Color-Screen/dp/B0CRX25RKK"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="76324a8f6ec2416791bcf98c04837fd3" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Charger-Compact-Adapter-MacBook/dp/B0C6DX66TN"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="6b0c203235f240549e803fd88e60a00f" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Rechargeable-Game-Activity-Cube-Christmas/dp/B0BGWYD9KC"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="4b13df67c04a4469bc00fa01e3d6ce4c" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/YETI-Stackable-Insulated-Stainless-MagSlider/dp/B0CZYMJS6J?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="f4cb1f7979474c9186dd0b31ed7d651a" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Govee-Control-Segmented-Bluetooth-Changing/dp/B099S9DXT7?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="019eea552cd44520b244fc6249bc08b8" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Exploding-Kittens-Happy-Salmon-Family-Friendly/dp/B09KKJMR4L?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="ac241b325ce9459e83783558412c750a" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Crosley-CR3029A-TN-Turntable-Bluetooth-Tourmaline/dp/B086BRG9M5"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="6f71d6c0df694a5db3fcf8ee48645e3e" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/JLab-Wireless-Bluetooth-Connection-Signature/dp/B0CXG87GYK"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="150c0333587a4aa090e8fcb0048ddf11" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4SL6HZT"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="01f573de81134555a18cc331142312aa" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Rocketbook-Reusable-Spiral-Notebook-Executive/dp/B0DP3HK7RR?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="a0da61c2bee04b888bc5fc352182a184" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Tea-Forte-Presentation-Infusers-Assorted/dp/B08T6JBH9J"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="030564174829402c86f4d08cb83c9064" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/mophie-15W-Wireless-Charging-Kickstand/dp/B0DJCLGPR8"></core-commerce> Check out the rest of our <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gifts/">gift ideas</a> here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-secret-santa-gift-ideas-for-2025-affordable-gifts-you-can-still-get-from-lego-apple-yeti-and-more-130014284.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

The first post-EA FIFA soccer sim will be a Netflix Games exclusive

FIFA's first true soccer sim after <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/fifa-23-ea-sports-fc-branding-170729395.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">the end of its EA partnership</a> will be available exclusively on Netflix, <a target="_blank" class="link rapid-with-clickid" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=2a170a1e-7e5c-4edd-b5dd-ea6d3bd9416a&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=4d3cea94-8666-4f9c-9097-910299d01f87&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Netflix&linkText=the+streaming+service+announced&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXRmbGl4LmNvbS90dWR1bS9hcnRpY2xlcy9maWZhLW1lbnMtd29ybGQtY3VwLTIwMjYtZ2FtZS1vbi1uZXRmbGl4IiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiI0ZDNjZWE5NC04NjY2LTRmOWMtOTA5Ny05MTAyOTlkMDFmODciLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5ldGZsaXguY29tL3R1ZHVtL2FydGljbGVzL2ZpZmEtbWVucy13b3JsZC1jdXAtMjAyNi1nYW1lLW9uLW5ldGZsaXgifQ&signature=AQAAAVs_IfJNeeCk8iQViHr9KohVUQtNyEGUqC_7u7KlxSQg&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netflix.com%2Ftudum%2Farticles%2Ffifa-mens-world-cup-2026-game-on-netflix" data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Netflix;elmt:;cpos:2;pos:1" data-original-link="https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/fifa-mens-world-cup-2026-game-on-netflix">the streaming service announced</a>. This "reimagined FIFA football simulation game" will be developed and published by Delphi Interactive, and be available to Netflix subscribers next year, right in time for FIFA World Cup 2026.EA and FIFA maintained a nearly 30 year partnership creating soccer games before they parted ways in 2022. EA continued its soccer series afterward as EA FC, but despite being in talks with "leading game publishers, media companies and investors" about "a major new FIFA simulation football game title for 2024," a FIFA-backed competitor has yet to materialize. Instead, FIFA has mostly supported arcade soccer games in the last few years, like <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/mythical-games-and-fifa-team-up-to-bring-new-football-arcade-game-fifa-rivals" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">FIFA Rivals</a> from Mythical Games and <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKWU52Et1ww" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">FIFA Heroes</a> from ENVER.While the game Delphi Interactive is working on is pitched as a "simulation game," based on what little detail appears in Netflix's announcement, it doesn't sound like it's targeting hardcore soccer fans in the same way EA's games do. Instead, this new FIFA title is designed to be "a game that anyone, anywhere, can pick up and instantly feel the magic of football," according to Delphi Interactive CEO Caspar Daugaard. The game will also be designed to use a smartphone as a controller, possibly limiting how demanding or complicated gameplay can actually be.This new FIFA game will be Delphi Interactive's second project as a studio after working on IO Interactive's <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/io-interactives-007-first-light-reimagines-james-bond-as-a-young-and-reckless-spy-180000758.html" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">007 First Light</a>. Backing approachable games that can be controlled with a smartphone is part of a new approach Netflix has taken with its interactive titles in 2025. The company has either <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/netflix-reportedly-shutters-studio-behind-squid-game-mobile-spinoff-151156987.html" data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1">cancelled</a> or <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/netflix-is-getting-rid-of-another-of-its-game-studios-by-selling-it-back-to-its-founders-203645232.html" data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1">handed off</a> its more ambitious game projects and studios, and zeroed in on <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-is-bringing-party-games-to-tvs-123034128.html" data-i13n="cpos:8;pos:1">party games</a> and adaptations as its main focus.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-first-post-ea-fifa-soccer-sim-will-be-a-netflix-games-exclusive-204321196.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

Study links Amazon's algorithmic pricing with erratic, inflated costs for school districts

When it comes to convenience, it’s hard to beat Amazon. And that rationale isn’t limited to consumers: Many local districts shopping for supplies with public funds apply the same logic. But the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ILSR-AmazonProcurementReport.pdf" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">published a study</a> earlier this month (via <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://prospect.org/2025/12/17/amazon-conning-school-districts-out-of-millions/" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">The American Prospect</a>) that illustrates the cost of that bargain. It suggests that Amazon’s “dynamic pricing” has led many schools and other localities to overpay for supplies.Public schools and local governments have historically bought supplies by soliciting competitive bids from local suppliers. Those vendors then respond with fixed price lists, delivery timelines and other terms. This competition — all out in the open, part of the public record — encourages low prices and transparency.On the surface, ordering from Amazon appears to offer competition, too. After all, the platform includes third-party vendors fighting for your dollars. But turning taxpayer funds over to Amazon’s algorithms isn’t quite that simple. That’s because the platform’s “dynamic pricing” (algorithmically driven real-time changes) is inherently opaque.According to the report, Amazon’s contracts with public entities don’t include fixed price lists. Instead, they include language built around swings. “This contract has a dynamic pricing structure in which the price for items listed on the online digital marketplace is driven by the market,” Amazon’s contract with Utah reads. “This contract will not need to be amended when prices fluctuate.”Below are some examples of wild price discrepancies for these districts. All of ILSR’s examples are from localities buying supplies from Amazon Business with public funds in 2023.<ul><li>A City of Boulder, CO employee ordered a 12-pack of Sharpie markers from Amazon Business for $8.99. On the same day, a Denver Public Schools worker ordered the same markers for $28.63.</li><li>Amazon charged Clark County, WA, $146,000 for 610 computer monitors. On another day, that same order would have cost $24,000 less.</li><li>Pittsburgh Schools bought two cases of Kleenex for $57.99 each. On the same day, Denver Schools paid $36.91 for a single case.</li><li>On a single August day, Denver Schools placed two separate orders for bulk cases of dry-erase markers. One cost $114.52. The other was $149.07.</li><li>In March 2023, Denver Schools paid $15.39 for a Swingline stapler (sold by Amazon). A few days later, the same school system paid $61.87 for the same product (sold by a third-party seller).</li></ul>Even in that last example, ILSR says Amazon’s algorithms are the culprit. “It might be tempting to blame the seller for putting a $62 price tag on a stapler or the employee for not noticing the cost,” the nonprofit argues. “But that overlooks Amazon’s pivotal role in the transaction — and the profit it makes. Amazon’s algorithms steer shoppers’ attention, selecting featured products and organizing search results. The platform routinely prompts users to ‘buy it again,’ even when the price has jumped. For busy public school employees, it’s all too easy to simply click the buy button, under the assumption that Amazon is surfacing the best option.”<figure><img src="https://media-mbst-pub-ue1.s3.amazonaws.com/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-02/d51f6860-e4df-11ef-9fbd-65a89c2ab524" data-crop-orig-src="https://media-mbst-pub-ue1.s3.amazonaws.com/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-02/d51f6860-e4df-11ef-9fbd-65a89c2ab524" style="height:3885px;width:5827px;" alt="LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 3: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during a keynote address at AWS re:Invent 2024, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 3, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services)" data-uuid="b29c3886-6a7b-39e3-9a8d-2730a373eaf1"/><figcaption>Amazon CEO Andy Jassy</figcaption><div class="photo-credit">Noah Berger via Getty Images</div></figure>One portion of the study looked at repeat orders for 2,500 “high-frequency items.” (These included Amazon-brand copy paper, Elmer’s glue, BIC pens, Lysol cleaning wipes and Crayola crayons.) In total, the jurisdictions in the study spent $3 million on those items. But based on the lowest prices Amazon charged during that period, they would have paid only $2.5 million. Across those same items, one school district could have saved 17 percent (about $1 million) if it consistently received Amazon’s lowest prices.What would fair market value have been for those items? Well, it’s hard to say because the algorithms are steering pricing silently in the background. A more thorough study that included the same items, bought exclusively through the traditional procurement method, would tell us much more. And recent history has taught us that trusting Big Tech’s algorithms to serve the public good (rather than its own bottom line) is a fool’s errand.In at least some cases, the practice routes public funds away from local vendors and toward overseas ones — and, of course, Amazon itself. In Berkeley County, WV, the school district spent $1.3 million on Amazon Business in 2023. What portion went to sellers in the state? A measly $142.On top of all of that, the practice has snuffed out many of the smaller vendors that traditionally competed for these contracts. “The disappearance of these small and mid-sized businesses weakens local economies and tax bases,” the report concludes. “And it leaves governments increasingly dependent on Amazon, paving the way for the kind of monopoly control that ensures higher prices, poorer service, and less innovation.”In a statement sent to <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/04/us-schools-amazon-algorithmic-pricing" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">The Guardian</a>, Amazon disputed the study’s conclusions. “Pricing research is notoriously difficult to conduct accurately and typically lacks reliable methodology, including cherry-picked product selections, mismatched product comparisons and comparing in-stock items with products out-of-stock at competitors,”ILSR’s report drew in spending data from 128 local governments (including cities, counties and school districts) and 122 state agencies. It also gathered contract documents and interviewed public officials, procurement experts and vendors.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/study-links-amazons-algorithmic-pricing-with-erratic-inflated-costs-for-school-districts-202047988.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

Meta is 'pausing' third-party VR headsets from ASUS and Lenovo

Last year, Meta announced that it was opening up its VR operating system to other headset makers, starting with <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/meta-opens-quest-os-to-third-parties-including-asus-and-lenovo-163127396.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">ASUS and Lenovo</a>. Now, it seems that Meta is pumping the brakes on the effort and those third-party Horizon OS headsets might never actually launch.The company has "paused" the program, Road to VR <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-horizon-os-third-party-headset-cancelled-asus-lenovo/" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">reported</a>. Meta confirmed the move in a statement to Engadget, saying that it's instead focusing on "building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market." ASUS and Lenovo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Both companies have said little about the headsets since they were first announced in 2024. ASUS' was going to be a "performance gaming" headset under its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand, while Lenovo's was intended to be a mixed reality device focused on "productivity, learning and entertainment" experiences The shift isn't entirely surprising. Meta Connect was very light on virtual reality news this year as smart glasses have become a central focus for the company. Earlier this month, Bloomberg <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-04/meta-s-zuckerberg-plans-deep-cuts-for-metaverse-efforts" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">reported</a> that Meta was planning significant cuts to the teams working on virtual reality and Horizon Worlds. The company said at the time it was "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and wearables given the momentum there."Still, Meta is seemingly leaving the door open for third-party VR headsets in the future. "We’re committed to this for the long term and will revisit opportunities for 3rd-party device partnerships as the category evolves," the company said. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-is-pausing-third-party-vr-headsets-from-asus-and-lenovo-193622900.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

This cute little Behringer synthesizer sounds massive and costs just $49

Behringer is no stranger to <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/2020-01-01-behringer-cat-synth-octave-cat-clone.html">remaking classic synthesizers</a> and selling them at <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/2019-11-25-behringer-poly-d-stacks-four-moog-clones.html">much cheaper price points</a>. However, this latest release may just take the budget-friendly cake. The company <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.behringer.com/behringer/product?modelCode=0722-ABS">just introduced the UB-1 Micro</a>, previously called the Spirit, a portable analog synth inspired by the Oberheim Matrix line that costs just $49. Despite the price tag, this thing still manages to sound extremely beefy. It features a pair of digitally controlled oscillators (DCOs) based on the Oberheim Matrix 6 analog chip. The monophonic/duophonic synth boasts two LFOs to control filters and tuning and an arpeggiator with three patterns and a hold function. <div id="7705dcb5c06c449399d56826778f6514"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QGyIG0Dz6L4?si=r4qr3Mo8PKBEVknP" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> It also offers 32 factory presets, which is expandable via the <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Sweetwater Sound;elmt:;cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=e54dc56f-69db-417f-9610-572a1a179058&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=d7cf7538-f43f-4182-aa84-60cdb675778f&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Sweetwater+Sound&linkText=company%27s+SynthTribe+software&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5zd2VldHdhdGVyLmNvbS9zd2VldGNhcmUvYXJ0aWNsZXMvZ2V0dGluZy1zdGFydGVkLXdpdGgtYmVocmluZ2VyLXN5bnRodHJpYmUvIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiJkN2NmNzUzOC1mNDNmLTQxODItYWE4NC02MGNkYjY3NTc3OGYiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnN3ZWV0d2F0ZXIuY29tL3N3ZWV0Y2FyZS9hcnRpY2xlcy9nZXR0aW5nLXN0YXJ0ZWQtd2l0aC1iZWhyaW5nZXItc3ludGh0cmliZS8ifQ&signature=AQAAAbqgkDGU6MW5c2ujewbFKUSy5IsSl-4_0spXoKlhba6T&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sweetwater.com%2Fsweetcare%2Farticles%2Fgetting-started-with-behringer-synthtribe%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/getting-started-with-behringer-synthtribe/">company's SynthTribe software</a>. The UB-1 Micro includes 16 touch-sensitive keys, six function buttons and an OLED display for editing parameters. There's a USB-C port, for connecting to smartphones and computers. To that end, it can do USB/MIDI. This is just the latest teensy recreation by Behringer. The UB-Xa Mini <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0722-AAZ">is a take on another Oberheim classic</a> and a portable version of its own full-size UB-Xa synthesizer. The JT Mini <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0722-AAX">recreates an iconic Roland Jupiter synth</a>, while the Phara-o Mini is <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0722-AAU">primarily based on the Korg Volca Keys</a>.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/this-cute-little-behringer-synthesizer-sounds-massive-and-costs-just-49-191513007.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

The best stocking stuffer ideas you can shop for $50 or less

The big ticket tech gifts may get the lion's share of attention during the holidays, but it's surprising how much people appreciate small and thoughtful accessories and gadgets. We picked out a dozen such stocking stuffers for under $50 — perfect for a little something extra for a loved one or a welcome gift for a coworker. Just be sure to check the shipping windows to make sure these handy gizmos will arrive in time. Here are some of our favorite techie gift ideas that come in at $50 or less. <h2 id="jump-link-best-stocking-stuffers-for-50-or-less">Best stocking stuffers for $50 or less</h2> <core-commerce id="19dd380a979444049856fa47337c2e52" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Mystic-Maze-1000-Piece-Jigsaw-Company/dp/B08NDXDR84?ref_=ast_sto_dp"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="c9d7af0404794722b94c3e4d6ab43cfc" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/JISULIFE-Handheld-Powerful-150%C2%B0Folded-Essentials/dp/B0CRDT715R/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="77e2a37add044d7b9b03f060314baba9" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Botanicals-Happy-Plants-Building/dp/B0DRW6C2RF/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="3aa73df51cc04864b7d6feacb6b108a5" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-South-Transmitter-Noise-Cancelling-Headphones/dp/B0BQZBMXD4/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="cb0c0ea19fa144a1b8746cea6d7039d2" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-South-PowerBug-Magnetic-Wireless/dp/B0FHZ15MT8/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="5e9df41603264efe853af50aaebbb965" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Charger-Compact-Adapter-MacBook/dp/B0C6DX66TN/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="2f129d267979429c92b2159195d68213" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Tamagotchi-43421-Paradise-Pink-Land/dp/B0F2QB96LL/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="d2b2e7e1a95242619f4e2761ad0c5200" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Controller-Vibration-Joysticks-Gaming-Console/dp/B0DM1WH5BV?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="a15e54b3e25b445a9b7044d5eeb50b4a" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Chipolo-POP-Tracker-Tag-Compatible/dp/B0DZXTLD38/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="ca6067c584f54b61ba33eefe98e988f6" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Govee-Assistant-Backlights-Pictures-Decoration/dp/B096WZXKZP/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="116a4c3cf7b0488ba40c61a6ffe48087" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B14C719T"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="03cb274f1986427c925bd3f94a3ad0b7" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Portable-Charger-Foldable-Essentials/dp/B0CX4992Z8/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="c96629437005456f8ef3d0dccb35ba95" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/PopSockets-Adjustable-Kickstand-Landscape-Compatible/dp/B0F5X4YWW8/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=1"></core-commerce> Check out the rest of our <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gifts/">gift ideas</a> here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-best-stocking-stuffer-ideas-you-can-shop-for-50-or-less-130049822.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

The Oscars will exclusively air on YouTube starting in 2029

The entertainment industry’s most well-known awards show is heading to streaming. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://press.oscars.org/news/academy-partners-youtube-exclusive-global-rights-oscarsr-and-other-academy-content-starting" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">has announced</a> that the Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, will exclusively air on YouTube starting in 2029. The new deal means the awards show is abandoning its long-time partnership with ABC (owned by frequent Oscars heavyweight, The Walt Disney Company), though the Oscars will continue to air on the network through its 100th anniversary in 2028.The Academy Awards will be joined by other Academy events and programming on the Oscars YouTube channel, including “the Governors Awards, the Oscars Nominations Announcement, the Oscars Nominees Luncheon, the Student Academy Awards, the Scientific and Technical Awards, Academy member and filmmaker interviews, film education programs, podcasts, and more,” AMPAS says. The Google Arts & Culture initiative will also digitize artifacts in the Academy collection and help provide digital access online as part of the new partnership.“We are thrilled to enter into a multifaceted global partnership with YouTube to be the future home of the Oscars and our year-round Academy programming,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said in the announcement of the new YouTube deal. “The Academy is an international organization, and this partnership will allow us to expand access to the work of the Academy to the largest worldwide audience possible — which will be beneficial for our Academy members and the film community.”Awards shows have struggled to find their footing in the streaming era, particularly because they already served a niche audience even when broadcast TV was the norm. Prior to the Oscars heading to YouTube, Netflix snagged the rights to <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/netflix-sag-awards-ceremony-livestream-145828446.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">stream the SAG Awards</a> in 2023, an acting-focused award show that’s often seen as a precursor to the Oscars.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-oscars-will-exclusively-air-on-youtube-starting-in-2029-181545531.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

The 22 best gift ideas for the remote worker in your life

For many folks, working from home is simply the new normal. If you’re looking to treat someone who spends most of their time in the home office, this holiday season is as good a time as any to make their daily routine a little more convenient. As a collection of remote workers ourselves, we at Engadget have rounded up a few gift ideas that should add a bit more delight to the WFH life. <h2 id="jump-link-best-gifts-for-remote-workers">Best gifts for remote workers</h2> <core-commerce id="a3805c71c6ec42aa842e032a20a6c6e3" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083W7K6QC/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="19128630cb694f62a053cd671d73c6b9" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Compatible-Charging-Magnetic-Wireless/dp/B0FMC3PW5W/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="8d4563c0ad7b45549f7a69762780eb0e" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Govee-Gaming-Real-time-Display-Options/dp/B0DZ6T9VCM?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="17738c7099be4729a81c4aacedc019df" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Correction-Auto-Framing-Reduction-Microsoft/dp/B09QWVYK6V?"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="b67cc14a290f4f39887891284a876c3d" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Botanicals-Happy-Plants-Building/dp/B0DRW6C2RF/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="a5e249dd0b1f4c6ebaddd2aff6b945d4" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DL5L1ZLH"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="6b817b14d72e4a51a4278db287d4652d" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://portlandgear.com/products/cascade-tote?variant=46406835929275"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="d1c3bd6ffce547e0a8a0d448065519a4" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/BenQ-Illumination-Adjustable-Brightness-Temperature/dp/B0CZ9P1QW9?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="5575b73d619a49ff8e3d3e2bf270dac8" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Ears-WONDERBOOM-360-Degree-Waterproof/dp/B0BRXJVG1S"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="7d336e382bdb4869b542536190c1c182" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://ember.com/products/ember-tumbler?variant=43379319570617"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="db5431e22d774b41baeac9e5cb343e28" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Vertical-Wireless-Mouse-Rechargeable/dp/B07FNJB8TT"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="b45c06a1a5e84e088cf46d82207d85ee" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Ergonomic-Performance-Ultra-Fast-Scrolling/dp/B0FC5SJNQX"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="45f01dca4e8d4655a034bb51ee1d51bd" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Razer-Basilisk-Wireless-Gaming-Mouse/dp/B0DG837JYP/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="c47bf74483e54c459d491b1288a8f4b9" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Govee-Assistant-Bedroom-Mapping-Material/dp/B0CQN1B4JM"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="99d7adb18d4b481db8526d01a62a4a02" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Echo-Spot-2024-release-Smart-alarm-clock-with-vibrant-sound-Alexa-Ocean-Blue/dp/B0BFC8DR7C"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="fbb260f20bcf4c169345e8b5324d2641" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L2460DW-Monochrome-Subscription-Replenishment/dp/B0CPL2N5H6/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="d1c2780c00bf4eafb512eea8bbf7fd44" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Keychron/VMaxSeries_CUSTOMKEYBOARDS/page/F7D4855C-7A70-4E88-B1FE-C77FEDB32C67"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="48793dbeae0b42279b87d12f34dcb5eb" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Bluetooth-Personalized-Compatibility-Splash-Resistant/dp/B0D1GWVLY3"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="ffb7b848f5404f3c9fc5f17319585f54" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://grovemade.com/desk-shelf-system/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="6f14ec4ff411416c944958e99ed212e7" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9WKGXHD"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="17decbe50e2a4216aa8f5e787c9f739c" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Minimalist-Computer-Bluetooth-Customizable/dp/B0DXW25R3D?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="06a07d25870a46f5aa94112f62bb8718" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://ticktick.com/card?language=en_US"></core-commerce> Check out the rest of our <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gifts/">gift ideas</a> here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-22-best-gift-ideas-for-the-remote-worker-in-your-life-140037336.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

The 12 best last-minute Christmas gifts for 2025 that will arrive by December 24

We’re almost out of time — the holidays are just about here, and if you’re still doing your holiday shopping, you’re not alone. Between wrapping things up at work before some well-deserved time off and making sure you have everything you need to host family and friends, it can be hard to find the time to go shop for some gifts. And if you’re going to physical stores right now, you’re probably being met with half-empty shelves. But the internet remains an option, even this late in the game: you still have time to buy holiday gifts online. <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.usps.com/holiday/holiday-shipping-dates.htm">USPS</a>,<a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://assets.ups.com/adobe/assets/urn:aaid:aem:e8548535-8096-4fa9-9cef-2b81aef7c26c/original/as/year-end-holiday-schedule-us-en.pdf"> UPS</a> and<a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:FedEx;elmt:;cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=a5111425-2888-4e46-b687-d0d941ce8817&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=f10f3474-8a9f-4844-b943-494ef9bdc916&featureId=text-link&merchantName=FedEx&linkText=FedEx&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mZWRleC5jb20vZW4tdXMvaG9saWRheS9sYXN0LWRheXMtdG8tc2hpcC5odG1sIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiJmMTBmMzQ3NC04YTlmLTQ4NDQtYjk0My00OTRlZjliZGM5MTYiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZlZGV4LmNvbS9lbi11cy9ob2xpZGF5L2xhc3QtZGF5cy10by1zaGlwLmh0bWwifQ&signature=AQAAAQtTN5YmvX4UacmN4bwSh8OW_t77XEiJVW4dr_vhqhMU&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fedex.com%2Fen-us%2Fholiday%2Flast-days-to-ship.html" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.fedex.com/en-us/holiday/last-days-to-ship.html"> FedEx</a> have laid out their holiday shipping deadlines for 2025. At this point, we recommend picking up small, affordable gifts that will ship quickly from retailers like<a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Amazon;elmt:;cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=66ea567a-c987-4c2e-a2ff-02904efde6ea&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=f10f3474-8a9f-4844-b943-494ef9bdc916&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Amazon&linkText=Amazon&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tLz90YWc9Z2RndDBjLTIwIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiJmMTBmMzQ3NC04YTlmLTQ4NDQtYjk0My00OTRlZjliZGM5MTYiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFtYXpvbi5jb20vIiwiZHluYW1pY0NlbnRyYWxUcmFja2luZ0lkIjp0cnVlLCJzaXRlSWQiOiJ1cy1lbmdhZGdldCIsInBhZ2VJZCI6IjFwLWF1dG9saW5rIiwiZmVhdHVyZUlkIjoidGV4dC1saW5rIn0&signature=AQAAATEu5FmrC8rdTNoJCDWd9xA9iH757gYS2xuqA0gzg_7g&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.amazon.com/"> Amazon</a>,<a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Walmart;elmt:;cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=3719d8d4-5edd-4817-998a-91f3229e7323&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=f10f3474-8a9f-4844-b943-494ef9bdc916&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Walmart&linkText=Walmart&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YWxtYXJ0LmNvbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6ImYxMGYzNDc0LThhOWYtNDg0NC1iOTQzLTQ5NGVmOWJkYzkxNiIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2FsbWFydC5jb20vIn0&signature=AQAAAYGLsWODNCZSPzl6zhEk7dXSE2U9uiqC1CTIr6kzXWv1&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.walmart.com/"> Walmart</a> and<a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Target;elmt:;cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=827d7835-78d6-4491-ae04-c042cab1d6e7&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=f10f3474-8a9f-4844-b943-494ef9bdc916&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Target&linkText=Target&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy50YXJnZXQuY29tLyIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiZjEwZjM0NzQtOGE5Zi00ODQ0LWI5NDMtNDk0ZWY5YmRjOTE2Iiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy50YXJnZXQuY29tLyJ9&signature=AQAAAWfl2VnTg9b_oq3XZrbxqL8LIhjXnnIj61vKOmtsKt6g&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.target.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.target.com/"> Target</a> so you have plenty of time to wrap them up nicely and make it look like you had everything well-planned from the start. Here are the best last-minute Christmas gifts you can get right now and still have in time before the holidays. <h2 id="jump-link-best-last-minute-christmas-gifts">Best last-minute Christmas gifts</h2> <core-commerce id="46b859d82d0945b6b63e306a0e005cb6" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/JISULIFE-Handheld-Powerful-150%C2%B0Folded-Essentials/dp/B0CRDT715R/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="142315ad84f64ccb9225c70790c678c9" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Charger-Compact-Adapter-MacBook/dp/B0C6DX66TN/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="c7246d3bd86b4fb389fc658d9dff6af9" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Botanicals-Happy-Plants-Building/dp/B0DRW6C2RF/"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="e2f0355428dc462894639e437c11f2a1" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Controller-Vibration-Joysticks-Gaming-Console/dp/B0DM1WH5BV?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="039ebc6f8fee474f81f5e86f1ef5579e" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Chipolo-POP-Tracker-Tag-Compatible/dp/B0DZXTLD38/?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="087c8b40d7ef489a876cd97d89ac8a38" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Mystic-Maze-1000-Piece-Jigsaw-Company/dp/B08NDXDR84?ref_=ast_sto_dp"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="c82599ad8d0f4aa79b7f8efc3b82c62f" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Glocusent-Rechargeable-Portable-Brightness-Dimmable/dp/B0DWSNHJFQ?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="a81a9c14c8834403a39029d7b6266e7f" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/PopSockets-Adjustable-Kickstand-Landscape-Compatible/dp/B0F5X4YWW8/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="ef0f7b16045e4c05a84bc8901d4da2b8" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Qi-Certified-Compatible-Fast-Charging-PowerWave/dp/B07DBXZZN3?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="e446a0c73904490c8febdc2eaf535337" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/JLab-Bluetooth-Resistance-Connection-Signature/dp/B0CXGXT6W8/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=1"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="27110e486c4047fd906021c3f2d55302" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-smart-plug-works-with-Alexa/dp/B089DR29T6"></core-commerce> <core-commerce id="194fd1ebd55245c08204e41973ddc1c4" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.amazon.com/Blink-Mini-2-Camera-Black/dp/B0BWX39R5W/"></core-commerce> <h2 id="jump-link-holiday-shipping-deadlines-for-2025">Holiday shipping deadlines for 2025</h2> <ul> <li>USPS: Ground Advantage — December 17, Priority Mail Express: December 20</li> <li>UPS: Three-Day Select — December 19, Next Day Air — December 23</li> <li>FedEx: Ground Economy — December 15, First Overnight — December 23</li> <li>Amazon Prime: December 23</li> </ul> Check out the rest of our <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/gifts/">gift ideas</a> here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-12-best-last-minute-christmas-gifts-for-2025-that-will-arrive-by-december-24-140037753.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

IO Interactive's 007 First Light reimagines James Bond as a young and reckless spy

The creators of the Hitman series have honed their style of- open-ended and spectacle-driven sandboxes across several games, and now they're taking their signature immersive gameplay to the world of James Bond. With 007 First Light, developer IO Interactive is crafting an origin story for the globetrotting British spy, showing how he undertook daring missions at the start of his career to eventually become the world's most infamous agent.Before the reveal at The Game Awards of 007 First Light's newest villain, <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igTh9ud5Liw" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">played by Lenny Kravitz</a>, we had an early look at the latest bits of plot for James Bond's origin story as a superspy. We also spoke with cinematic and narrative director Martin Emborg about the main inspirations for the game, how Bond's origin taps into decades of lore, and why a good spy story is timeless."What I think is kind of baked into doing an origin story for a character like James Bond, is that everyone knows the character and who he's going to become," Emborg said. "But how does he become this character? I think that's an exciting challenge from a storytelling perspective."<figure><img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/007FirstLight_Screenshots_2.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/007FirstLight_Screenshots_2.jpg" style="height:1440px;width:2560px;" alt=" " data-uuid="9bb349b3-88eb-4dd4-9d47-b47218aef3b6"><figcaption>IO Interactive's James Bond is young and inexperienced.</figcaption><div class="photo-credit">IO Interactive</div></figure>While some Bond films and novels have touched upon the early years of the iconic character, 007 First Light will be the first attempt at an actual, modernized origin story. As a twenty-something new MI6 recruit, this James Bond, portrayed by Patrick Gibson, is inexperienced and brash, which can result in some operations going off the rails. He still possesses a certain cunning, and near-supernatural levels of charisma and resourcefulness. This presents a solid archetype for the game’s open-ended missions where players will explore tightly designed worlds with a multitude of tasks and objectives to handle – however the players see fit.While IO Interactive's Hitman series taps into the spy experience, what really separates James Bond from Agent 47 is that he's a far more social character. The social element will play a big part in how players can find ways to distract, or even outright bluff through charisma to sneak into areas.. Emborg explained that James Bond's resourcefulness also makes him a compelling character for a video game, especially one that is all about player agency.<figure><img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/007FirstLight_Screenshots_4.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/007FirstLight_Screenshots_4.jpg" style="height:1440px;width:2560px;" alt=" " data-uuid="3ddfd955-d150-4ea8-88b4-e1bcb6486995"><figcaption>007 First Light will take players to several locations, including Slovakia and what appears to be Vietnam.</figcaption><div class="photo-credit">IO Interactive</div></figure>"Bond is a competent character,” Emborg said. “We want to give the player the opportunities to have that agency to say, 'Oh, I'm gonna talk to that guy,' or, 'I'm gonna go and punch that guy,’ or, ‘I can probably crawl up into a tight space to sneak in.' Having that sense of agency is pivotal if you want to deliver a full Bond experience. Obviously, the social aspect of that is important; to embed yourself and infiltrate socially is a big part of that Bond experience." Emborg said the rhythm of a James Bond game is different from a Hitman title, even though espionage, infiltration and subterfuge are at the core of both. "We have a lot of experience with that from obviously making Hitman, but there are just many more gears to Bond,” he said. “Of course, the shape of this game is different. We have sandbox locations where you make the open-ended decisions, but we also have other levels where it is a chase or a set-piece encounter, and then it opens up again. So we kind of coined the term, having a game that breathes. It's a very different way of playing this type of game that we usually do, so we've definitely bolstered our toolbox for this game."In many ways, 007 First Light is a story that can only be told in an interactive format. The new game will pull from numerous novels and films for its plot, and it also features a large cast of familiar characters seen throughout the franchise – such as MI6 assistant Moneypenny (performed by Kiera Lester), gadget guru and quartermaster Q (played by Alastair Mackenzie), and team leader M (Priyanga Burford). <div><div style="left:0;width:100%;height:0;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jom-jxUEqJg?rel=0" style="top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;border:0;" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" data-provider-name="youtube"></iframe></div></div>But like any singular Bond story, First Light features its own set of original characters. In addition to James Bond's MI6 mentor John Greenway (portrayed by Lennie James), a new core villain, black-market smuggler and warlord Bawma, will be played by Lenny Kravitz. It's a familiar setup for a Bond experience for sure, but within the context of a video game – one made by IO Interactive – it really taps looks to tap into the Bond fantasy more than other games have. From the gameplay demos and trailers we've seen, IO Interactive looks to be channeling the style and lore from decades of Bond with its modernized reboot of the character. From deep cuts to On Her Majesty's Secret Service – one of the great and underrated Bond movies – and You Only Live Twice, 007 First Light is keeping a keen eye on paying tribute to what came before."At the very beginning, it was very much like a maelstrom of [ideas], then suddenly something emerges, and you build up a story around it," Emborg said. He continued, “I love doing this stuff and with great reverence for the material. It's a privilege to work in this universe. James Bond is one of the few IPs that still hasn't been overdone, in my view. We have a space to come in with a fresh take, and he's a character who's seen a lot of versions over the years."<figure><img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/007FirstLight_Screenshots_1.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/007FirstLight_Screenshots_1.jpg" style="height:1440px;width:2560px;" alt=" " data-uuid="64cfa0ee-db10-4b22-b01d-f6a58c0466d9"><figcaption>Confirmed MI6 gadgets include the "Q-Watch."</figcaption><div class="photo-credit">IO Interactive</div></figure>So far, 007 First Light has the makings of not only the biggest Bond game but also the most true-to-life simulation of being a superspy. While previous Bond games like Goldeneye and Everything or Nothing are well-loved classics, they embody traditional video game shooting spectacle. 007 First Light is looking to lean into the immersive element of the Hitman games in its adaptation of James Bond, finally giving players the opportunities to explore the social aspects of spy work on a grand scale. 007 First Light will arrive on March 27, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/io-interactives-007-first-light-reimagines-james-bond-as-a-young-and-reckless-spy-180000758.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

One of our favorite budgeting apps has 50 percent off annual subscriptions right now

With a new year just around the corner, now is the perfect time to take stock of your finances. A budgeting app can help with that, and right now you can get 50 percent off your first year of a Monarch Money plan. All you need to do is enter the code MONARCHVIP at <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:;elmt:;cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=f9cd69a7-2172-4476-a391-04d87e530174&featureId=text-link&linkText=checkout&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5tb25hcmNoLmNvbS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6ImY5Y2Q2OWE3LTIxNzItNDQ3Ni1hMzkxLTA0ZDg3ZTUzMDE3NCIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubW9uYXJjaC5jb20vIn0&signature=AQAAARwktSmO4PJU9ssHMWNW1CNwqCBkDSTAXrkQ5R7F7InQ&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.monarch.com%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.monarch.com/">checkout</a> and you’ll pay $50 for the initial 12 months instead of the regular price of $100. Note that the offer only applies to new users. <core-commerce id="f98651f4139742f384f1e014183217b4" data-type="product-list" data-original-url="https://www.monarch.com/"></core-commerce> Monarch Money was the runner-up in our <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/apps/best-budgeting-apps-120036303.html">guide</a> to the best budgeting apps in 2025, and it was definitely a grower. Initially we found the experience of using the app to be needlessly complicated compared to some of its rivals, but get over that hurdle and it’s impressively fully-featured. There are plenty of customization options, a helpful “goals” feature and a thorough month-in-review recap that beats out similar features from some of its competitors. We also like how you can grant account access to others. Besides the steep learning curve, we also noted that the mobile app is less intuitive to use than the web version, which might pose a problem if you were hoping to do most of your accounting on the go. We also had some issues with the app failing to distinguish between bills and other recurring expenses, as well as a few bugs along the way. All things considered, Monarch is definitely one of our favorite budgeting apps, only being beaten out by Quicken Simplifi. As you might expect, the biggest strength of <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:Quicken;elmt:;cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=36291888-36d6-4b83-80bb-f82004bcfdb1&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=f9cd69a7-2172-4476-a391-04d87e530174&featureId=text-link&merchantName=Quicken&linkText=Simplifi&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5xdWlja2VuLmNvbS9wcm9kdWN0cy9zaW1wbGlmaS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6ImY5Y2Q2OWE3LTIxNzItNDQ3Ni1hMzkxLTA0ZDg3ZTUzMDE3NCIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucXVpY2tlbi5jb20vcHJvZHVjdHMvc2ltcGxpZmkvIn0&signature=AQAAAcjwPzPESOivQ55g2fEQPmSNKCm3cABrXYDXGtaVVoPW&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.quicken.com%2Fproducts%2Fsimplifi%2F" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=36291888-36d6-4b83-80bb-f82004bcfdb1&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=1bf1c17b-7ece-4b18-b17b-dc7b5e70f411&featureId=editorial-text-link&merchantName=Quicken&linkText=Quicken+Simplifi&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5xdWlja2VuLmNvbS9wcm9kdWN0cy9zaW1wbGlmaS8iLCJjb250ZW50VXVpZCI6IjFiZjFjMTdiLTdlY2UtNGIxOC1iMTdiLWRjN2I1ZTcwZjQxMSIsIm9yaWdpbmFsVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucXVpY2tlbi5jb20vcHJvZHVjdHMvc2ltcGxpZmkvIn0&signature=AQAAAbMvHj3oXh84pIOu8r492PhA-ItqAdRJz8sU9m5pK1aI&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.quicken.com%2Fproducts%2Fsimplifi%2F&spaceId=1197802876&uuid=FvcoW1s0651yDa8f43990">Simplifi</a> is its simplicity, and how it eases you into using its various features. If you value that kind of user experience, it might be a better choice for you, but there’s unfortunately no free trial to take advantage of. Follow <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://twitter.com/EngadgetDeals">@EngadgetDeals</a> on X for the latest <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/deals/">tech deals</a> and <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/best-tech/">buying advice</a>.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/one-of-our-favorite-budgeting-apps-has-50-percent-off-annual-subscriptions-right-now-154056535.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

Uber and DoorDash challenge NYC law that encourages tipping

Uber and DoorDash are challenging a forthcoming NYC law that encourages tipping on food-delivery apps, <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:The New York Times;elmt:;cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=c813ae39-7d58-41cb-ac66-ad830606ceef&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=df26240c-1a9f-4844-abc3-6cafebe4115a&featureId=text-link&merchantName=The+New+York+Times&linkText=as+reported+by+The+New+York+Times&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5ueXRpbWVzLmNvbS8yMDI1LzEyLzE2L255cmVnaW9uL3ViZXItZG9vcmRhc2gtbnljLXRpcHBpbmcuaHRtbCIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiZGYyNjI0MGMtMWE5Zi00ODQ0LWFiYzMtNmNhZmViZTQxMTVhIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5ueXRpbWVzLmNvbS8yMDI1LzEyLzE2L255cmVnaW9uL3ViZXItZG9vcmRhc2gtbnljLXRpcHBpbmcuaHRtbCJ9&signature=AQAAATX1QZ2lUBjMYSs6bPhBYDKSrTKefoterWZe7Zp7hhqa&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F12%2F16%2Fnyregion%2Fuber-doordash-nyc-tipping.html" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/nyregion/uber-doordash-nyc-tipping.html"><ins>as reported by </ins><ins>The New York Times</ins></a>. The two entities have filed a joint federal lawsuit just ahead of the ruling going into effect next month. Back in 2023, many food delivery apps in the city moved the tip suggestion box to after purchases had been completed. This is sort of how rideshare apps work. It followed NYC mandating a <a data-i13n="elm:affiliate_link;sellerN:The New York Times;elmt:;cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://shopping.yahoo.com/rdlw?merchantId=c813ae39-7d58-41cb-ac66-ad830606ceef&siteId=us-engadget&pageId=1p-autolink&contentUuid=df26240c-1a9f-4844-abc3-6cafebe4115a&featureId=text-link&merchantName=The+New+York+Times&linkText=minimum+pay+rate+for+food+delivery+workers&custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5ueXRpbWVzLmNvbS8yMDIzLzA2LzEyL255cmVnaW9uL255Yy1kZWxpdmVyeS13b3JrZXJzLW1pbmltdW0td2FnZS5odG1sIiwiY29udGVudFV1aWQiOiJkZjI2MjQwYy0xYTlmLTQ4NDQtYWJjMy02Y2FmZWJlNDExNWEiLCJvcmlnaW5hbFVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMjMvMDYvMTIvbnlyZWdpb24vbnljLWRlbGl2ZXJ5LXdvcmtlcnMtbWluaW11bS13YWdlLmh0bWwifQ&signature=AQAAARvAzgkWS3LcMXwu2-AzMDzrlrS-em9hIjPFG1jSxRei&gcReferrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F06%2F12%2Fnyregion%2Fnyc-delivery-workers-minimum-wage.html" class="rapid-with-clickid" data-original-link="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/nyregion/nyc-delivery-workers-minimum-wage.html"><ins>minimum pay rate for food delivery workers</ins></a>, the first in the country. The new law simply switches the tip suggestion box back to checkout, with a suggestion of ten percent. Customers are still free to set it to zero, if that's their thing. The two companies say this law violates the First Amendment by requiring them to "speak a government-mandated message." They also say the rule would cause customers to use the app less because they were suffering from "tipping fatigue." As a customer of food delivery apps, I am not stricken with tipping fatigue. I have, however, come down with a serious case of "what are all of these mysterious fees on my bill and why is my burrito $45?" fatigue. NYC food delivery workers have <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://ny.eater.com/2024/1/18/24033112/delivery-apps-tipping-nyc-laws"><ins>experienced a sharp decline</ins></a> in tips since the apps switched the suggestion field to after a purchase has been completed. It's extremely easy to ignore an app notification while in a food coma on the couch. "Removing the tipping option is to keep workers in poverty and make them depend on taking more orders," said Ligia Guallpa, co-founder of Workers Justice Project. Food delivery in the city is still booming. New Yorkers spent more than $265 million on restaurant deliveries in the first half of 2025, which is up from $183 million during the same period in 2022. Current estimates suggest that there are around 80,000 delivery workers in NYC. This particular law became a small part of the city's recent mayoral campaign. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Oe1vnlkzkygCRnW_31ft2fjnEITEWXvN/view"><ins>said during the campaign</ins></a> that he supported giving customers the option to tip at checkout. DoorDash donated $1 million to his rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uber-and-doordash-challenge-nyc-law-that-encourages-tipping-163315375.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

Google's Gemini 3 Flash model outperforms GPT-5.2 in some benchmarks

Almost exactly a month after the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-new-gemini-3-model-arrives-in-ai-mode-and-the-gemini-app-160054273.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">debut of Gemini 3 Pro</a> in November, Google has begun rolling out the more efficient Flash version of its latest AI model. According to the company, the new system offers similar "pro-grade" reasoning performance as its flagship model at a fraction of the cost, making it ideal for everyday use. In benchmarks, the new system performed significantly better than Google's previous generation models, including Gemini 2.5 Pro. More notably, in Google’s testing it managed to trade blows with <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-releases-gpt-52-to-take-on-google-and-anthropic-185029007.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">GPT-5.2</a>, the model OpenAI rushed out to counter Gemini 3 Pro. <figure><img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/gemini-3-flash_final_benchmark-table_light_25-12-17_%282%29.gif" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/gemini-3-flash_final_benchmark-table_light_25-12-17_%282%29.gif" style="height:1408px;width:1210px;" alt="A table comparing Gemini 3 Flash's performance across a variety of AI benchmarks. " data-uuid="13d78434-01b0-4756-a807-3767bb40b179"/><figcaption>A table comparing Gemini 3 Flash's performance across a variety of AI benchmarks. </figcaption><div class="photo-credit">Google</div></figure>For example, in the tough <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://agi.safe.ai/" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">Humanity's Last Exam</a> suite, Gemini 3 Flash scored less than a percentage point worse than GPT-5.2 when neither model had access to tools like web search. In a handful of other benchmarks, Google's more efficient system even managed to outperform OpenAI's latest. For instance, in MMMU-Pro, a benchmark designed to test a model's multimodal understanding and reasoning, it edged out GPT-5.2 with a result of 81.2 percent compared to 79.5 percent. Of course, benchmarks only tell a partial story; we'll have to see what people think once both systems are broadly available. Still, the fact Gemini 3 Flash is even close to GPT-5.2, and the "Extra High" reasoning mode at that, is a <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-house-of-cards-seems-primed-to-collapse-170000900.html" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">worrying sign for OpenAI</a>.   As with Gemini 3 Pro, Google is rolling out the new model to both the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://blog.google/products/gemini/gemini-3-flash-gemini-app/" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">Gemini App</a> and <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://blog.google/products/search/google-ai-mode-update-gemini-3-flash" data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1">AI Mode in Search</a> where it will be the default model for both services. "That means all of our Gemini users globally will get access to the Gemini 3 experience at no cost, giving their everyday tasks a major upgrade," Google explains. While on the subject of AI Mode, it's now possible to access <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-nano-banana-pro-image-generator-leverages-gemini-3-for-improved-visuals-and-text-rendering-185505073.html" data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1">Nano Banana Pro</a>, Google's latest image generator, directly from the chatbot. Provided you live in the US, select "Thinking with 3 Pro," followed by "Create Images Pro" from the model picker. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-gemini-3-flash-model-outperforms-gpt-52-in-some-benchmarks-160000000.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

OnePlus 15R review: A 165Hz display and big battery for $700

I know what you're thinking, didn't OnePlus release a new phone just last month? It did. A little over five weeks after the announcement of the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/oneplus-15-review-a-great-phone-if-photography-isnt-a-priority-143000489.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">OP15</a>, the company is back with the OnePlus 15R, a more affordable version of its new flagship that starts at $700 (or $200 less than its sibling). Off the top, this will be a shorter review because most of what I said about the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/oneplus-15-review-a-great-phone-if-photography-isnt-a-priority-143000489.html" data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1">OnePlus 15</a> also applies to the OP15R. It's a great phone that asks you to make one pretty significant compromise.  <core-commerce data-type="product-list" id="4a9a498a-fa4e-4682-b844-e4cea3fa3721" data-original-url="https://www.oneplus.com/us/oneplus-15r"></core-commerce> <h2 id="7b8c4697-78c4-4f9d-b568-1ddadbc09ade">Design and display</h2> <figure> <img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-4.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-4.jpg" style="height:3247px;width:5772px;" alt="The OnePlus 15R's screen is slightly cooler than that of the OnePlus 15. " data-uuid="e491cbe3-9fc7-45b0-bfa8-37e9fa95d9ae"> <figcaption> The OnePlus 15R's screen is slightly cooler than that of the OnePlus 15. </figcaption> <div class="photo-credit"> Igor Bonifacic for Engadget </div> </figure> Like the OnePlus 15, the 15R looks like the OnePlus 13s and 13T, a pair of smaller, 6.32-inch phones the company released in India and China this past spring. I said the design of the OP15 was boring and derivative of the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/iphone-16-pro-and-pro-max-review-apple-focuses-on-cameras-and-customization-120052459.html" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1">iPhone 16 Pro</a>. The 15R has done nothing to change that opinion. With one fewer camera, the OP15R doesn't look much different from the iPhone 12 I've been hanging on to since 2020.  That said, I'm more fond of the 15R's mint breeze color (the phone is also available in charcoal black) than the sand storm shade of my OP15. We're big fans of minty phones here at Engadget, and OnePlus has gone with a particularly pleasing hue of the color with its new phone. With the redesign, OnePlus has also improved the phone's waterproofing, bringing it in line with the OP15. The new handset is IP69K-certified against moisture and dust, meaning it can withstand heated water shot at it at pressure. Like the OP15, the 15R trades OnePlus' old Alert Slider for a new Plus Key. It functions like the iPhone's Action button, allowing you to add a shortcut for a favorite feature. For example, you can configure it to open the camera app or act as a do not disturb toggle, among a few other options.   One departure from the OP15 is that the 15R has a larger 6.83-inch display, making it slightly taller than its sibling. OnePlus is marketing this as one reason buyers might pick the 15R over the OP15, but holding the phones side by side, there's not much difference between the two. They're both big, and you'll either like that or won't. On top of being big, the 15R's screen can refresh at a fast 165Hz in games. The two displays are also comparable in terms of resolution and brightness; both can push 1,800 nits of brightness. One difference I noticed is the OnePlus 15 has a warmer panel, even when the two phones are set to the same colorspace. I've reached out to OnePlus to find what might be causing the disparity, but for now it may be due to a quality control issue or oversight in the company's software.   One last thing, OnePlus has upgraded the 15R to add an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor beneath the screen. This is placed in a nice spot toward the bottom third of the display, and it's fast and accurate.    <h2 id="9c561e26-2407-4145-8b8c-e41c979155e0">Performance and battery</h2> <figure> <img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-2.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-2.jpg" style="height:3375px;width:6000px;" alt="The OnePlus 15R is also slightly thinner than the OnePlus 15." data-uuid="de6cc5ff-2ff6-4d6b-a4ca-c9acfac22645"> <figcaption> The OnePlus 15R is also slightly thinner than the OnePlus 15. </figcaption> <div class="photo-credit"> Igor Bonifacic for Engadget </div> </figure> The OnePlus 15R is the first phone in North America to arrive with Qualcomm's latest <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-snapdragon-8-gen-5-is-a-cut-down-version-of-qualcomms-flagship-elite-chipset-063050786.html" data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1">Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset</a>. Not to be confused with the Snapdragon Gen 5 Elite in the OP15, this new chipset is similar to Qualcomm's flagship system-on-a-chip but has a weaker CPU and GPU. This is reflected in benchmarks like Geekbench 6 where the OP15 handily outperforms the OP15R. It's not even close, either, with the OP15 delivering standout single- and multi-core scores of 3,773 and 11,293, while the 15R put up more modest results of 2,857 and 9,512.  From that perspective, you're losing a fair amount of performance, but real-world use tells a different story. Outside of the handful of games such as Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG that support the OP15 and 15R's 165Hz displays, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 offers more than enough muscle for the majority of applications. Even for most games (like the ones I like to play, including Diablo Immortal and League of Legends: Wild Rift), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is a great match.  OnePlus also hasn't skimped on the 15R's other internal components. You're still getting 12GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.1 storage. That's the same configuration as the base model of the OP15. This translates to a phone that doesn't miss a beat when switching between apps and loading files like images and videos.   The 15R has a slightly bigger battery, coming in at 7,400mAh, up from 7,300mAh on the OP15. In practice, the two phones offer the same amount of battery life. Putting them through both Engadget's video rundown test, they both ran for 38 hours before their batteries died (which makes sense given the OP15R has a bigger screen). Like the OP15, the 15R comes with the OnePlus 55W SUPERVOOC charger in the box. The adapter can get the 15R from dead to 100 percent in less than an hour. If you hate charging your phone, the 15R makes that process as painless as possible, with a battery that both lasts long and won't be at the outlet for hours.             <h2 id="3c8b8457-b00b-4f6e-acf0-aec4d65f79f4">Cameras</h2> <figure> <img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-3.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-3.jpg" style="height:3375px;width:6000px;" alt="A closeup of the OnePlus 15R's camera module. " data-uuid="6915a60b-c7ba-4973-b8d4-b2823bf14b2e"> <figcaption> A closeup of the OnePlus 15R's camera module. </figcaption> <div class="photo-credit"> Igor Bonifacic for Engadget </div> </figure> By this point you're probably wondering what OnePlus cut from the OP15 to make the 15R more affordable. The answer — quite literally — is an entire camera. The new phone is missing a telephoto camera, something you could find on its predecessor, the OnePlus 13R. And as far as I can tell, the two remaining cameras use the same 50-megapixel and 8MP sensors OnePlus shipped on last year's model. The company also hasn't upgraded the glass on either camera. That leaves the selfie camera as the only area to see some change in the form of a sharper 32MP sensor and the addition of autofocus.       <core-slideshow data-slideshowid="b702c679-611b-45da-9084-c515bc9fd649" /> Unfortunately, none of the 15R's cameras stand out. As a whole, they suffer from the same set of problems that plague the OnePlus 15's cameras. They're fine out on a sunny day, but as soon as the light becomes a bit challenging, the 15R struggles with shadow details, resulting in muddy pictures. The more I've used both the OP15 and 15R, the more I've come to the conclusion that OnePlus needs to go back to the drawing board with its new Detail Max Engine. It feels like it's holding back what should, at least on paper, be solid hardware. <h2 id="4719f97b-be9c-47ca-ad85-baf7357c56d4">Software</h2> <figure> <img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-6.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-6.jpg" style="height:4000px;width:6000px;" alt="Despite it's large size, the OnePlus 15R isn't too heavy. " data-uuid="6e4fd52a-a32f-4641-9ca9-51f477b93c78"> <figcaption> Despite it's large size, the OnePlus 15R isn't too heavy. </figcaption> <div class="photo-credit"> Igor Bonifacic for Engadget </div> </figure> There's not much to say here other than the 15R ships with <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/oxygenos-16-has-new-lock-screen-customization-options-and-a-novel-gemini-integration-184958404.html" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1">OxygenOS 16</a>, just like the OP15. OnePlus has also promised to support the 15R for the same amount of time as the OP15: four years with software updates and six years with security patches. That's a shorter window than Google and Samsung, both of which promise seven years on all their latest phones. It's hopefully something that OnePlus decides to change starting with the OnePlus 16. The reason I bring that up is that the company’s version of Android is one I like a lot. OxygenOS is slick, with animations that highlight the speed of the 15R's processor and display. The fact the phone comes with the latest version of OxygenOS means you also get access to all of the company's newest AI features, including its Mind Space hub where you can save screenshots and notes for an on-device model to transcribe and summarize.     <h2 id="53580b54-c20f-467c-9cb7-9f7bf3594a34"> Wrap-up</h2> <figure> <img src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-1.jpg" data-crop-orig-src="https://d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net/images/user-uploaded/oneplus-15r-1.jpg" style="height:3375px;width:6000px;" alt="The OnePlus 15R comes in a lovely mint color. " data-uuid="1cd9e9b9-0681-4c59-8aed-52f525be5b5b"> <figcaption> The OnePlus 15R comes in a lovely mint color. </figcaption> <div class="photo-credit"> Igor Bonifacic for Engadget </div> </figure> In short, the OnePlus 15R is the phone for people who don't care about photos and videos. That's the same conclusion I came to with the OP15. If you're a OnePlus fan, the 15R excels in all the areas you would expect the company's devices to make a good showing: performance, battery life and display responsiveness. Given I wasn't too impressed with the OP15's camera, I would actually recommend the 15R over that model. For $200 off the starting price of the OP15, you're getting a device that has almost all of the same strengths of its more expensive sibling.   Compared to <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/best-midrange-smartphone-183006463.html" data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1">other phones in its price range</a>, such as the <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-pixel-10-review-170041718.html" data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1">Pixel 10</a> and <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s25-fe-review-iterative-to-a-fault-183026577.html" data-i13n="cpos:8;pos:1">Galaxy S25 FE</a>, the 15R is not as well-rounded, and can't compete with those devices in camera quality, but you're getting much better performance, battery life and a display they can't match.   This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/oneplus-15r-review-a-165hz-display-and-big-battery-for-700-150000340.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

How a VPN works (and why you should care)

The <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/best-vpn-130004396.html" data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1">best VPNs</a> can make your online life more private with software that's convenient and cheap — <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/best-free-vpn-120032818.html" data-i13n="slk:sometimes even free;cpos:2;pos:1">sometimes even free</a>. While keeping your IP address invisible, you can use your VPN to explore streaming content from all over the world or (virtually) sneak into a sports event that's not available in your area.However, while VPNs are widely available, there's a strange dearth of information on what they actually do behind the scenes. You may know that a VPN masks your device with a proxy server to make it look like you're somewhere else, and maybe even that encryption is involved. But finding any more details can mean running a gauntlet of misinformation.That's a shame, because the inner workings of a VPN aren't all that difficult to understand. You may not be able to build one yourself without a degree in computer science, but with a little work, you can understand exactly what it's doing on your computer. That's information you can use to select the right VPN for you, and make the most of it once you've got it.<h2 id="70cde443-d9f2-456a-93b4-59c0b8e7b82a">What is a VPN?</h2>To make sure nobody gets left behind, I'll start from the beginning. A VPN (virtual private network) is a method of securely accessing a network, either a closed network (like you might have at the office) or the internet as a whole. Initially, organizations set up VPNs so remote workers can work with secure files. While this still happens, the last 15 years have seen VPNs increasingly marketed to individuals, with <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/proton-vpn-review-2025-a-nonprofit-service-with-premium-performance-153046073.html" data-i13n="slk:Proton VPN;cpos:3;pos:1">Proton VPN</a>, <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/vpn-review-expressvpn-2023-gaming-streaming-160052492.html" data-i13n="slk:ExpressVPN;cpos:4;pos:1">ExpressVPN</a> and others seeing massive user growth.Broadly, a VPN consists of two parts: the server, which forwards requests to your chosen destination, and the client, a piece of software that lets you interact with the server. <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/what-is-a-vpn-and-what-can-you-do-with-one-161549146.html" data-i13n="slk:You can find a longer explanation here;cpos:5;pos:1">You can find a longer explanation here</a>, but I'll use the two sections below to tell you what you need to know right now.One more note before that — there are multiple kinds of VPNs, including the remote-access VPNs and site-to-site VPNs commonly used by workplaces. However, for this article, I'll be talking mainly about the commercial VPN services sold to individuals for general security needs. Instead of a specific network, these VPNs are designed to handle all of a user's traffic to any point on the internet.<h2 id="5cc696a3-0830-4398-b2ce-ff2c298dab84">What happens when you use a VPN?</h2>First, you use the client to connect to a server — either the fastest one available or a particular location you need. Once you've connected, every request you send to the internet goes through the VPN server first. This communication between your device and the web is encrypted so it can't be traced back to you.The VPN server decrypts your requests and sends them on. The destination then communicates with the VPN server, which relays the information back to you — after re-encrypting it so nobody follows it home.Since the VPN does everything on your behalf, it's your "mask" online. Your internet service provider (ISP) and third parties can see what's being done, but — so long as you’re not otherwise logged in or identifying yourself — nobody knows that it's you doing it. It's like having a friend order pizza for you so the pizzeria doesn't hear you calling for the third time this week (not that I speak from experience).<h2 id="3fc61835-654b-42ae-b891-e1a638f125af">What's the point of using a VPN?</h2>Why add an extra step to the already complex process of getting online? The two biggest reasons are maintaining anonymity and changing your virtual location. I've already explained how a VPN keeps you anonymous. Among other things, this prevents your ISP from selling your browsing history to advertisers and protects activists who face government repercussions for what they do online.Changing your virtual location is part of masking, but it can also be used to see the internet as it's visible in other countries. Streaming services are frequently limited to certain places, and almost all of them change the available content based on their licenses in each nation. You can also use a VPN in a country with a nationwide firewall, <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/2016-04-05-fan-bingxi-great-firewall-of-china.html" data-i13n="slk:like China;cpos:6;pos:1">like China</a>, to see forbidden outside information sources.<h2 id="6e0d3680-d238-4f09-9c70-12192098a2bf">How does a VPN work? The full technical explanation</h2>Most online explanations stop after defining a VPN as an anonymous agent between you and the internet — but I wrote this article to go a little bit deeper. To understand what a VPN is doing on a technical level, we'll need to cover how the internet works, how the VPN knows where to send encrypted information and just what "encryption" actually is.<h3 id="02caaf09-a724-4593-b963-d8b790c505c1">How the internet transmits data</h3>When you're not using a VPN, internet traffic goes directly from your modem to your ISP, then on to your chosen destination. The key technologies here are IP, which stands for Internet Protocol, and TCP, which stands for Transmission Control Protocol. They're usually combined as TCP/IP.You may have heard that every online device has an IP address that identifies it to every other device. TCP/IP governs not just those names but how data moves between them. Here's how it works, step-by-step.<ol><li>You click a link or enter a URL into your web browser.</li><li>Your computer sends a request to your modem, asking to see the page associated with the URL. Your modem forwards the request to your ISP.</li><li>Your ISP finds a domain name server (DNS) that tells it which IP address is connected to the URL you asked to see. It then sends the request to that IP address along the fastest available route, which will involve being relayed between several nodes.</li><li>That IP address is connected with a server that holds the content you're looking for. Once it receives the request, it breaks the data down into small packets of about 1 to 1.5 kilobytes.</li><li>These packets separate to find their own fastest routes back to your ISP, your modem and finally your web browser, which reassembles them.</li><li>You see a web page, likely no more than a second after you asked for it.</li></ol>The outgoing requests and inbound packets are key to understanding VPN function. A VPN intervenes during step 2 (when your modem contacts your ISP) and step 5 (when your ISP sends the packets back to you). In the next section, I'll explain exactly what it does during those steps.<h3 id="4bfdc75a-e03c-4367-9846-9aa3f1bf8c98">How VPN tunneling protects data</h3>You might have heard a VPN's activities described as "tunneling." That term refers to a figurative tunnel being created between your device and the VPN. Data enters the tunnel when it's encrypted by the VPN client and exits when it's decrypted by the VPN server. Between those two points, encryption means nobody can see the true data. It's as though it's traveling through an opaque tunnel.While the tunnel is a useful metaphor, it may be better to think of VPN encryption as an encapsulation. Each packet of data sent via VPN is "wrapped" in a second packet, which both encrypts the original packet and contains information for reaching the VPN server. However, none of these outer layers have the complete path — each just knows enough to reach the next relay. In this way, the origin point (that's you) remains invisible.The same thing happens when the internet returns content to show you. Your ISP sends the data to the VPN server, because, as far as it knows, that's where the request came from. The VPN then encrypts each packet and sends them back to you for decryption and reassembly. It takes a little longer with the extra steps; that's why VPNs always slightly slow down your browsing speed, though the best ones don't do that by much (<a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/surfshark-vpn-review-a-fast-vpn-for-casual-users-170022675.html" data-i13n="slk:Surfshark;cpos:7;pos:1">Surfshark</a> is currently the fastest).You learned in that last section that two protocols, IP and TCP (usually combined as TCP/IP), are responsible for letting online devices talk to each other, even if they've never connected before. In the same way, a VPN protocol is like a shared language that lets VPNs encrypt, move and decrypt information. See the next section to learn how a VPN protocol works in detail.<h3 id="795a93d9-5500-4c8a-b5a1-fcfde25c4ccd">How VPN protocols encrypt data</h3>VPN protocols are the technology behind VPNs; every other feature of your VPN is just a method of interacting with them. All protocols are designed to encrypt data packets and wrap them in a second layer that includes information on where to send them. The main differences are the shape of that second layer, the types of encryption used and how the client establishes its initial secure connection with the server.It's extremely common for VPNs to advertise protocols with "bank-grade" or "military-grade" encryption. This is talking about the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256), a symmetric encryption algorithm, which is used by financial institutions and the US government and military. AES-256 is indeed some of the strongest available encryption, but it's only part of the story. As a symmetric algorithm, it's not fully secure on its own, because the same keys are used to encrypt and decrypt it — and those keys can be stolen.For that reason, most VPN protocols use AES-256 (or a similarly strong cipher like ChaCha20) to encrypt the data packets themselves, then combine it with a larger suite of multiple encryption algorithms. One of the most reliable and popular protocols, OpenVPN, uses the asymmetric TLS protocol to establish a secure relationship between client and server, then transmits packets encrypted with AES-256 across that channel, knowing the keys will be safe.Explaining this could easily reach the length of a book, but the basic principle isn't complicated. In asymmetric encryption, a sender encodes data with a unique key, then a recipient decodes it with a different paired key. The keys are provided by a trusted third party. In a maneuver called a TLS handshake, the server and client send each other encrypted data. If each can decode the other's test data, they know they have a matched pair of keys, which proves that both are the same client and server that got the keys from the trusted authority.Why not just use asymmetric encryption for the data itself, if it's more secure? Mainly, protocols don't do this because it's a lot slower. Asymmetric encryption requires a lot of resource-heavy math that makes connections drag. That's why OpenVPN and others use the asymmetric-to-symmetric two-step instead.To summarize, a VPN protocol is a complex set of instructions and tools that control encryption and routing via VPN servers. Protocols still in use include OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, SSTP and L2TP. PPTP, one of the oldest protocols, is no longer considered secure. On top of these, VPNs often build their own proprietary protocols, such as ExpressVPN's Lightway.<h2 id="194fe0d7-96f6-4022-bc10-fa63aa7f4be1">Putting it all together</h2>Now that we've hit all the relevant information, let's revisit that step-by-step from earlier, this time with a VPN in the mix. Here are the steps, starting with establishing the VPN connection and ending with anonymously viewing a website.<ol><li>You open your VPN client, choose a server location and connect. The VPN client and server authenticate each other with a TLS handshake.</li><li>The client and server exchange the symmetric keys they'll use to encrypt and decrypt packets for the duration of this session (i.e. until you disconnect). Your VPN client tells you that it's established a secure tunnel.</li><li>You open your web browser and enter a URL. Your browser sends a request to view the content at that address.</li><li>The request goes to your VPN client, which encrypts it and adds an outer layer of information with directions to the VPN server.</li><li>The encrypted request reaches the VPN server, which decrypts it and forwards it to your ISP.</li><li>As normal, your ISP finds the IP address associated with the URL you entered and forwards your request along.</li><li>The destination server receives the request and sends all the necessary packets of information back to your ISP, which forwards it to the VPN server.</li><li>The VPN server encrypts each packet and adds a header directing it to the VPN client.</li><li>The client decrypts the packets and forwards them to your web browser.</li><li>You see the web page you opened.</li></ol>Because of the encrypted tunnel, the request arrives at the VPN server without any information on where it came from. Thus, the VPN doesn't actually encrypt your activity on the websites themselves — for the most part, the HTTPS protocol does that. Instead, a VPN gives you a false name to put in the register, with no information that could be traced back to your real identity.<h2 id="6588ec1f-d408-4bde-bda5-ba8ecd56620e">How to use this information</h2>Now that you know how a VPN works on a technical level, you're better equipped to choose one for yourself. You can cut through marketing hype statements like:<ul><li>"Military-grade encryption!" (It's the same algorithm everybody uses)</li><li>"Stay completely anonymous online!" (Plaintext you post on social media is not encrypted)</li><li>"Dodge ISP throttling!" (If your ISP is throttling you based on your IP address, this works — but if you're being slowed down because of your moment-to-moment activity, your identity doesn't matter)</li></ul>A VPN is just one important part of a <a target="_blank" class="link" href="https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/12-steps-you-can-take-right-now-to-be-safer-online-130008335.html" data-i13n="slk:complete cybersecurity breakfast;cpos:8;pos:1">complete cybersecurity breakfast</a>. While hiding your IP address, make sure to also use strong passwords, download updates immediately and remain alert for social engineering tactics.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/how-a-vpn-works-and-why-you-should-care-143000250.html?src=rss

Dec 17, 2025

Samsung will show off its expanded Micro RGB TV series at CES

Last year at CES, Samsung <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/samsungs-new-29999-micro-rgb-tv-looks-ridiculously-good-194629549.html">debuted</a> its first mainstream Micro RGB TV, a 115-inch model that surprised us with its rich, vivid colors and $30,000 price tag. Now, the company has <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-expands-premium-micro-rgb-lineup-for-2026-with-new-sizes-and-advanced-features">announced</a> that it will be showing off an entire lineup of Micro RGB TVs at CES 2026 ranging from 55- to 115-inch models, promising to set "a new standard for premium home viewing."  As a reminder, Micro RGB is a unique new technology similar to Mini LED displays. Unlike the white backlights used on Mini LEDs, though, it uses tiny red, green and blue LEDs that produce more accurate colors and offer smaller and more controllable dimming zones. However, because pixels can't be turned on and off individually like Micro LED or OLED, Micro RGB contrast ratios aren't as high. They promise to be brighter and more color accurate than other technologies, though, hence the high prices and "premium" branding.  Samsung's upcoming Micro RGB lineup will be available in 55-, 65-, 75-, 85-, 100- and 115-inch models and use the next evolution of the company's technology. The main claim to fame is near broadcast monitor-like color accuracy, covering 100 percent of the demanding BT.2020 HDR standard. That new standard now has a name and VDE certification: Micro RGB Precision Color 100.  Other key features include Samsung's "Micro RGB AI Engine Pro" for more precise frame-by-frame clarity and realism, new color enhancement functions, Samsung's glare free tech and enhanced audio features including Dolby Atmos and Adaptive Sound Pro.  Yesterday, LG <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/lg-will-debut-its-first-micro-rgb-television-at-ces-010037923.html">announced</a> that it would also show off new televisions using Micro RGB technology, with 75-, 86- and 100-inch models coming next year. What remains to be seen, however, is pricing. Given the $30,000 cost of the 115-inch model, you can likely expect the first Micro RGB televisions to be among the most expensive in the lineups of both LG and Samsung. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/samsung-will-show-off-its-expanded-micro-rgb-tv-series-at-ces-141716449.html?src=rss

LWN

Dec 18, 2025

A change of maintainership for linux-next

Dec 18, 2025

[$] Episode 29 of the Dirk and Linus show

Dec 18, 2025

Systemd v259 released

Dec 18, 2025

Three stable kernels for Thursday

Dec 18, 2025

Security updates for Thursday

Dec 18, 2025

[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for December 18, 2025

Dec 17, 2025

[$] Going boldly into the COSMIC desktop environment

Dec 17, 2025

Asahi Linux 6.18 progress report

Dec 17, 2025

[$] The Civil Infrastructure Platform after (nearly) ten years

Dec 17, 2025

Security updates for Wednesday

Dec 16, 2025

Mozilla gets a new CEO: Anthony Enzor-DeMeo

Dec 16, 2025

[$] 2025 Maintainers Summit development process discussions

Dec 16, 2025

Security updates for Tuesday

Dec 15, 2025

[$] Calibre adds AI "discussion" feature

Dec 15, 2025

Announcing Vojtux: a Fedora-based accessible Linux distribution

Cloudflare Blog

Dec 18, 2025

Announcing support for GROUP BY, SUM, and other aggregation queries in R2 SQL

Dec 15, 2025

The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review: The rise of AI, post-quantum, and record-breaking DDoS attacks

Dec 15, 2025

ChatGPT's rivals, Kwai's quiet rise: the top Internet services of 2025

Dec 11, 2025

React2Shell and related RSC vulnerabilities threat brief: early exploitation activity and threat actor techniques

Dec 9, 2025

Shifting left at enterprise scale: how we manage Cloudflare with Infrastructure as Code

Dec 8, 2025

Python Workers redux: fast cold starts, packages, and a uv-first workflow

Dec 5, 2025

Cloudflare outage on December 5, 2025

Dec 3, 2025

Cloudflare WAF proactively protects against React vulnerability

Dec 3, 2025

Cloudflare's 2025 Q3 DDoS threat report -- including Aisuru, the apex of botnets

Dec 1, 2025

Why Replicate is joining Cloudflare

Nov 25, 2025

Partnering with Black Forest Labs to bring FLUX.2 [dev] to Workers AI

Nov 24, 2025

Get better visibility for the WAF with payload logging

Nov 18, 2025

Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025

Nov 17, 2025

Replicate is joining Cloudflare

Nov 13, 2025

Finding the grain of sand in a heap of Salt

Nov 12, 2025

Connecting to production: the architecture of remote bindings

Nov 10, 2025

A closer look at Python Workflows, now in beta

Nov 7, 2025

DIY BYOIP: a new way to Bring Your Own IP prefixes to Cloudflare

Nov 6, 2025

Async QUIC and HTTP/3 made easy: tokio-quiche is now open-source

Nov 6, 2025

Extract audio from your videos with Cloudflare Stream

NPR

Dec 19, 2025

Trump suspends U.S. green card lottery after Brown University and MIT shootings

Dec 19, 2025

EU leaders agree on $105bn Ukraine loan, but without relying on frozen Russian assets

Dec 19, 2025

A federal jury finds Milwaukee judge guilty of obstructing immigration agents

Dec 19, 2025

Suspect in Brown University shooting and MIT professor killing found dead

Dec 19, 2025

TikTok signs deal to give U.S. operations to Oracle-led investor group

Dec 18, 2025

Mangione pre-trial hearing wraps, but judge won't rule on evidence for months

Dec 18, 2025

What to know about Jared Isaacman, the billionaire private astronaut leading NASA

Dec 18, 2025

Austrian nuns await word from the Vatican on whether they can stay in their convent

Dec 18, 2025

Inflation cools slightly in November as worries about affordability grip Americans

Dec 18, 2025

New York has a new Archbishop. His background looks a lot like Pope Leo's

The Onion

Dec 18, 2025

Trump Announces New ‘Dodger Dividend’ For Anyone Who Avoided Military Service

Dec 18, 2025

Trump Assures Struggling Nation He Has Plenty Of Money

Dec 18, 2025

Aldi CEO Chased Off From Whole Foods Dumpsters

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New Research Reveals Ancient Egyptians Received Significant Help From Parents While Building Pyramids

Dec 18, 2025

Political Profile: Jack Schlossberg

Dec 17, 2025

Report Finds More Americans Using GoFundMe For Basic Necessities

Dec 17, 2025

Joe Flacco’s Wife Dresses As Giant Football To Spice Things Up In Bedroom

Dec 17, 2025

Coworker Returning From European Vacation Brings Back Latvian Man For Everyone To Share

Dec 17, 2025

Campbell’s Unveils New Line Of Self-Defense Soups

Dec 17, 2025

MS NOW Lures New Viewers With Rotating Gyro Spit In Corner Of Screen

Dec 17, 2025

Travis Kelce Worried Patrick Mahomes’s ACL Tear Will Derail ‘Harlem Shake’ Groomsmen Entrance

Dec 16, 2025

Downer and Blitzin’

New Scientist

Dec 19, 2025

Roman soldiers defending Hadrian’s Wall had intestinal parasites

Dec 18, 2025

Two asteroids crashed around a nearby star, solving a cosmic mystery

Dec 18, 2025

Closure of US institute will do immense harm to climate research

Dec 18, 2025

Sitting by a window may improve blood sugar levels for type 2 diabetes

Dec 10, 2025

Chance of a devastating asteroid impact briefly spiked in 2025

Dec 17, 2025

Strange lemon-shaped exoplanet defies the rules of planet formation

Dec 17, 2025

Chronic fatigue syndrome seems to have a very strong genetic element

Dec 10, 2025

People saw a new colour for the first time in 2025

Dec 10, 2025

Did ancient humans start farming so they could drink more beer?

Dec 10, 2025

Why we only recently discovered space is dark not bright

Dec 17, 2025

Cosmology’s Great Debate began a century ago – and is still going

Dec 10, 2025

China's carbon emissions may have started to fall in 2025

Dec 16, 2025

Crash clock says satellites in orbit are three days from disaster

Dec 15, 2025

The world will soon be losing 3000 glaciers every year

Dec 16, 2025

Saturn's rings form a giant dusty doughnut encircling the planet

Dec 16, 2025

Your period may make sport injuries more severe

Dec 10, 2025

AI firms began to feel the legal wrath of copyright holders in 2025

Dec 15, 2025

How green hydrogen could power industries from steel-making to farming

Dec 10, 2025

Science still produced many wonders in 2025 despite being under siege

Dec 10, 2025

The stargazing events to look forward to in 2026

Dec 8, 2025

Are we living in a simulation? This experiment could tell us

Dec 8, 2025

What the family drama of interbreeding polar and grizzly bears reveals

Dec 9, 2025

The 33 best books, films, games and TV to entertain you this Christmas

Dec 9, 2025

We’ve finally cracked how to make truly random numbers

Dec 12, 2025

Some Arctic warming ‘irreversible’ even if we cut atmospheric CO2

Dec 12, 2025

Mars may once have had a much larger moon

Dec 12, 2025

Qubits break quantum limit to encode information for longer

Dec 10, 2025

De-extinction was big news in 2025 – but didn't live up to the hype

Dec 10, 2025

Test your brain on these mind-bending scientific riddles

Dec 10, 2025

Can you work out what these enigmatic close-up photos are of?

Dec 11, 2025

Disney and OpenAI have made a surprise deal – what happens next?

Dec 11, 2025

Killer whales and dolphins are ‘being friends’ to hunt salmon together

Dec 10, 2025

How 3 imaginary physics demons tore up the laws of nature

Dec 11, 2025

Roman occupation of Britain damaged the population’s health

Dec 10, 2025

This year we were drowning in a sea of slick, nonsensical AI slop

Dec 10, 2025

How I learned to keep my brain in better repair this year

Dec 10, 2025

The potential of GLP-1 drugs to transform medicine exploded in 2025

Dec 11, 2025

New antibiotic could stave off drug-resistant gonorrhoea

Dec 11, 2025

Supposedly distinct psychiatric conditions may have same root causes

Dec 11, 2025

Earth and solar system may have been shaped by nearby exploding star

Dec 10, 2025

Best acronym? Best use of AI? We present our end-of-year awards

Dec 10, 2025

Donald Trump and Elon Musk put science on the chopping block in 2025

Dec 10, 2025

We may finally know what a healthy gut microbiome looks like

Dec 10, 2025

Inside the wild experiments physicists would do with zero limits

Dec 10, 2025

Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test

Dec 10, 2025

Oldest evidence of fire-lighting comes from early humans in Britain

Dec 10, 2025

What the evolution of tickling tells us about being human

Dec 10, 2025

Australia's social media ban faces challenges and criticism on day one

Dec 10, 2025

Dinosaurs like Diplodocus may have been as colourful as birds

Dec 9, 2025

2025 was chock full of exciting discoveries in human evolution

Dec 9, 2025

The surprising longevity lessons from the world’s oldest animal

Dec 9, 2025

Pompeii building site reveals how the Romans made concrete

Dec 9, 2025

Timing cancer drug delivery around our body clock may boost survival

Dec 9, 2025

The audacious quest to light up the sky with artificial auroras

Dec 9, 2025

2025 is the second-hottest year since records began

Dec 8, 2025

Odd elements in supernova blast might have implications for alien life

Dec 8, 2025

How worried should you be about spending too much time on your phone?

Dec 8, 2025

Extreme heat hampers children’s early learning

Dec 8, 2025

Too busy to meditate? Microdosing mindfulness has big health benefits

Dec 3, 2025

Human challenge trials have never been more popular

Dec 3, 2025

How deliberately giving people illnesses is supercharging medicine

Dec 3, 2025

Why do I feel lonely even when I'm surrounded by a festive crowd?

Dec 2, 2025

Black hole entropy hints at a surprising truth about our universe

Dec 5, 2025

Quantum experiment settles a century-old row between Einstein and Bohr

Dec 1, 2025

A sinister, deadly brain protein could reveal the origins of all life

Dec 5, 2025

Comet 3I/ATLAS from beyond solar system carries key molecule for life

Dec 5, 2025

Tattooing may trigger localised damage to the immune system

Dec 3, 2025

The two standout science-fiction films of 2025

Dec 5, 2025

Hunter-gatherer groups are much less egalitarian than they seem

Dec 5, 2025

How Australian teens are planning to get around their social media ban

Nov 24, 2025

A new understanding of causality could fix quantum theory’s fatal flaw

Nov 5, 2025

What we’re learning about consciousness from master meditators’ brains

Dec 4, 2025

Incredible close-up of spider silk wins science photo prize

Dec 4, 2025

Images reveal the astonishing complexity of the microscopic world

Dec 3, 2025

The four best science documentaries of 2025

Dec 4, 2025

AI can influence voters' minds. What does that mean for democracy?

Dec 4, 2025

Why is AI making computers and games consoles more expensive?

Dec 4, 2025

Volcano eruption may have led to the Black Death coming to Europe

Dec 10, 2025

Comets were on fire this year – for better or worse

Nov 26, 2025

Cold-water swimming has benefits for the brain as well as the body

Dec 3, 2025

Stop treating your pet like a fur baby – you're damaging its health

Dec 3, 2025

The six best science-fiction shows of 2025

Dec 3, 2025

Where did I put it? Loss of vital crypto key voids election

Dec 4, 2025

Could the super-rich be cloning themselves? And why would they?

Dec 4, 2025

Tigers seem to be bouncing back in remote Sumatran jungle

Dec 3, 2025

Experimental vaccine prevents dangerous allergic attack for a year

Dec 3, 2025

Dogs may make us more caring and sociable by changing our microbiome

Dec 3, 2025

Planned satellite launches could ruin Hubble Space Telescope images

Dec 3, 2025

Forming moon may have taken three big impacts early in Earth’s history

Dec 2, 2025

Why quantum mechanics says the past isn’t real

Dec 2, 2025

Ancient human artefacts found near caves in Arabian desert

Dec 2, 2025

Can viral relationship tests really tell you about your relationship?

Dec 2, 2025

Asteroid Bennu carries all the ingredients for life as we know it

Dec 1, 2025

What would Russia's inability to launch crewed missions mean for ISS?

Dec 1, 2025

Coral reefs have fuelled severe global warming in Earth's past

Dec 1, 2025

We now have a greater understanding of how exercise slows cancer

Dec 1, 2025

Man unexpectedly cured of HIV after stem cell transplant

Dec 1, 2025

Cats can overcome fear of water to benefit from aquatic therapy

Nov 26, 2025

The 12 best science fiction books of 2025

Dec 1, 2025

The best new science fiction books of December 2025

Phys

Dec 19, 2025

Candida auris: Genetic process offers new treatment target for deadly fungal disease

Dec 19, 2025

Medical students explore ChatGPT's ability to support qualitative research

Dec 19, 2025

Trump shifts priority to moon mission, not Mars

Dec 19, 2025

Discovery turns household plastic recycling into anti-cancer medication

Dec 19, 2025

Early testing of schoolchildren has absolutely zero effect, researchers say

Dec 19, 2025

'This year nearly broke me as a scientist': US researchers reflect on how 2025's science cuts have changed their lives

Dec 19, 2025

To feel lonely is to be human: Here's how to handle it at Christmas

Dec 19, 2025

How much does it cost to end rough sleeping? An Australian-first study may have just found out

Dec 19, 2025

Many shoppers take a strange comfort of buying now and paying later—but it can come with a sting after Christmas

Dec 19, 2025

Universities' work towards Indigenous identity policies signals difficult conversations

Dec 19, 2025

'The river will not wait for us': Strict timeline set for Colorado River deal

Dec 19, 2025

Bromeliads promote plant diversity in the forest by enriching the soil with nutrients

Dec 19, 2025

How Europe's new carbon tax on imported goods will change global trade—and our shopping habits

Dec 19, 2025

Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History discovered more than 70 new species in 2025

Dec 19, 2025

Q&A: New method measures how quickly heat spreads through mountain permafrost

Dec 19, 2025

Roman soldiers defending Hadrian's Wall were infected by parasites, study finds

Dec 18, 2025

Fort Lauderdale wants to help residents build 'living' seawalls

Dec 18, 2025

Drone sampling of whale breath reveals first evidence of potentially deadly virus in Arctic

Dec 18, 2025

Food companies' reports overlook key environmental harms beyond climate impact

Dec 18, 2025

Citizens have greater trust in parliaments with higher female representation, new research finds

Dec 18, 2025

A 400-million-year-old fossil is revealing how plants grew into giants

Dec 18, 2025

Research reinvents MXene synthesis at a fraction of the cost

Dec 18, 2025

A short-lived kinase state that's essential for normal cell migration and T-cell function

Dec 18, 2025

'AI advisor' helps self-driving labs share control in creation of next-generation materials

Dec 18, 2025

Private donors pledge $1 billion for world's largest particle accelerator

Dec 18, 2025

Newly discovered microbes challenge assumptions about methane production in the environment

Dec 18, 2025

Hybrid excitons: Combining the best of both worlds

Dec 18, 2025

Life on lava: How microbes colonize new habitats

Dec 18, 2025

Survey of researchers shows active AI adoption for core scientific tasks

Dec 18, 2025

Bazinga! Physicists crack a 'Big Bang Theory' problem that could help explain dark matter

Quanta

Dec 18, 2025

The Year in Mathematics

Dec 17, 2025

The Year in Physics

Dec 16, 2025

The Year in Computer Science

Dec 15, 2025

The Year in Biology

Dec 12, 2025

String Theory Inspires a Brilliant, Baffling New Math Proof

PC Gamer

Dec 18, 2025

Days after launching their first indie game, everyone responsible for publishing it was laid off: 'We had a Slack channel with everyone in it, and then you see them leaving one by one'

Dec 18, 2025

We're hitting peak saturation for first person dungeon crawlers, but Queen's Domain stands apart from the crowd

Dec 18, 2025

Naughty Dog developers reportedly hit with mandatory overtime to finish an internal demo for its upcoming sci-fi game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet

Dec 18, 2025

This birdwatching take on Pokémon Snap says my awful Junco photography is worth $6000 and I'm not about to argue

Dec 18, 2025

Swen Vincke promises an AMA to clear up Larian's use of generative AI: 'You’ll get the opportunity to ask us any questions you have about Divinity and our dev process directly'

Dec 18, 2025

Where to find Tomo's lost cat in The Forge

Dec 18, 2025

The best deals in the 2025 Steam Winter Sale

Dec 18, 2025

Less than a week after dropping a big new trailer at The Game Awards, Exodus studio head James Ohlen has stepped down because he 'felt his work on the game was complete'

Dec 18, 2025

Pressing buttons is optional in this 'walking simulator' paladin build Diablo 4 players have just cooked up

Dec 18, 2025

World's most powerful 92-year-old wins Tekken 8 tournament for the elderly

Dec 18, 2025

The Doom-playing rats are back, and now they've learned how to shoot

Dec 18, 2025

Horizon-like survival game Light of Motiram disappears from Steam and Epic after Tencent reaches a 'confidential settlement' with Sony

Dec 18, 2025

Arc Raiders patch brings blueprint drop rates back down to Earth, but Embark says they're 'still higher overall than before'

Dec 18, 2025

FIFA wants to redefine 'the pure motion of simulation games' with its 2026 World Cup game, which will also be a Netflix exclusive

Dec 18, 2025

The Steam Winter Sale kicks off with deals on some of 2025's biggest games, including PC Gamer's 2025 Game of the Year

Dec 18, 2025

How to complete the Goblin King quests in The Forge

Dec 18, 2025

'Our world is like a theme park': Fallout 76's latest expansion into the mysterious Ohio has proven to be its best move yet

Dec 18, 2025

80% of the world's data centres have been built in places either too hot or too cold for the hardware inside

Dec 18, 2025

WoW devs plan to 'whitelist' spells for use in combat mods and addons, and while it looks like Blizzard's going soft, I'm not sure that's the whole picture

Dec 18, 2025

The 9 best quests in Fallout history

Dec 18, 2025

Intel Panther Lake laptops leak early onto retailer sites, so it looks like 18A really is ready to roll

Dec 18, 2025

Ex-ASML workers reverse-engineered state of the art chipmaking machines to get China far closer than previously thought to independence from foreign tech

Dec 18, 2025

Arc Raiders continues in the Christmas spirit with $10 worth of free currency alongside the ongoing blueprint bonanza

Dec 18, 2025

Battlefield liked to 'take the p*ss' out of Call of Duty, but it was a 'very healthy rivalry' that pushed DICE to do its own thing

Dec 18, 2025

Asus tells owners of its Intel motherboards to update the BIOS because they 'may allow unintended access to system memory'

Dec 18, 2025

Game devs charged up to 50x more for fonts by Japanese typeface maker and yes, even this might be AI's fault

Dec 18, 2025

Dune: Awakening's Chapter 3 update includes a 'completely revamped Landsraad system,' a new 'specialization experience system,' and eight new overland maps to visit

Dec 18, 2025

All I want to see in Dune: Awakening is a third-stage Guild Navigator, and according to game director Joel Bylos: 'You'll be a very happy man during the next year'

Dec 18, 2025

With Total War: Warhammer 40,000, Creative Assembly is resurrecting a 16-year-old experiment, which didn't exactly go to plan last time

Dec 18, 2025

'We're all big fans of Walton': Walton Goggins reprised his role as the Ghoul for Fallout 76's latest expansion, and it was a big hit among the devs

Dec 18, 2025

Öoo is a 4 hour platformer about solving problems with bombs, and it's the cleverest puzzle game I played in 2025

Dec 18, 2025

Dawn of War Definitive Edition is the best way to play the best RTS today

Dec 18, 2025

Despite being banned from Steam and Epic, horror game Horses sells 18,000 copies—and while that's enough to pay loans and royalties, it's not enough for a new game

Dec 18, 2025

Corsair One i600 review

Dec 18, 2025

CEO of Manor Lords and Against the Storm publisher says publishers should not be trying to 'break even at the expense of developers' and should be willing to take a loss because they can afford to 'spread the risk'

Dec 18, 2025

Add it to the pile: G.Skill issues statement on surging DRAM memory prices and the company totally blames AI

Dec 18, 2025

Micron says memory shortages will persist beyond 2026 but 'more memory is essential' for the 'AI experience'

Dec 18, 2025

Wikiflix offers up the classics for all to enjoy: 4,000 public domain movies from the last 100 years—and I want games to get the same treatment

Dec 18, 2025

Analyst firm says the games market is expected to reach a record-breaking $197 billion by the end of 2025, 'driven primarily by stronger-than-expected performance on PC and mobile'

Dec 17, 2025

Forget Pewdiepie, YouTube will become the exclusive home of the Academy Awards beginning in 2029

Dec 17, 2025

Diablo 4 is having its best season yet, not just because of paladins, but because Blizzard has finally cracked how to make loot endlessly exciting

Dec 17, 2025

Fallout's Justin Theroux drops a hint for a possible New Vegas character cameo that's got me pumping my fist

Dec 17, 2025

Another MOBA gives up: Supervive, developed by former Riot devs, is closing in February, just 7 months after it launched

Dec 17, 2025

Remember that bodycam shooter that went viral in 2023? Now it's got them sweet Tencent megabucks to reach its 'full potential'

Dec 17, 2025

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is PC Gamer's GOTY because it 'trusts' players and takes them seriously, says Warhorse co-founder: 'I think you can only eat so much popcorn'

Dec 17, 2025

Six Xbox Game Pass titles to dive into during the holidays

Dec 17, 2025

Meta puts third-party VR headsets using Horizon OS on indefinite pause 'to focus on building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market'

Dec 17, 2025

What PC game is this in-game PC from? Our newest quiz is all about the computers inside our computer games!

Dec 17, 2025

Eric Barone doesn't want to 'reveal much yet,' but Stardew Valley's 1.7 update is starting to sound like another big one

Dec 17, 2025

Swen Vincke says the price of RAM and SSDs means Larian will be doing lots of optimisation in Divinity's early access 'that we didn't necessarily want to do at that point in time'

IEEE Spectrum

Dec 18, 2025

The U.S. CHIPS Act Takes Another Hit

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/workers-wearing-clean-suits-in-a-semiconductor-lab.jpg?id=62601704&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=62%2C0%2C63%2C0"/> The head of a U.S. CHIPS and Science Act-funded center devoted to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/digital-twins" target="_self">digital twins</a> for chip manufacturing has informed its 121 members that the <a href="https://www.commerce.gov/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. Department of Commerce</a> will terminate its US $285-million five-year contract.According to its website, the <a href="https://www.smartusatwins.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SMART USA Institute</a> has the goal of uniting academic and industrial labs to create “virtual manufacturing replicas” that reduce development and manufacturing costs by more than 35 percent, cut manufacturing development time by 30 percent, and improve manufacturing yields by 40 percent. It also aimed to train 110,000 workers over five years. This is the second CHIPS Act related institution to be <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/natcast" target="_self">defunded</a> by the federal government since the second Trump administration began in January 2025.RELATED: <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/natcast" target="_blank">Trump Seeks to Cancel CHIPS Act R&D Organization’s Funds</a>SMART stands for “semiconductor manufacturing and advanced research with twins”, and the organization began life when it won a government contract in January 2025. <a href="https://www.smartusatwins.org/about/faq/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">It has a complicated structure.</a> The organization is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., and it is part of a network of federally-sponsored manufacturing innovation institutes called <a href="https://www.manufacturingusa.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Manufacturing USA</a>, which predates the CHIPS Act. SMART is a public-private partnership operated by SRC Manufacturing Consortium Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the <a href="https://www.src.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC)</a>. Established in 1982, and backed by the semiconductor industry, SRC funds R&D at universities and has sponsored more than 15,000 students. According to an email dated 12 December, sent to SMART USA participants, and obtained by IEEE Spectrum, Commerce notified the organization of the termination on 10 December. The funds were withdrawn “<a href="https://www.nasbp.org/post/the-government-contractors-guide-to-termination-for-convenience/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">for convenience</a>,” an option that allows the government to unilaterally withdraw from an agreement that is written into many federal contracts, the email states. Requests for comment from the Commerce Department were not returned by press time.“Although DOC acknowledged that we built an effective organization and met all performance targets, the administration has chosen not to support R&D and workforce development in this direction,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddyounkin/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Todd Younkin</a>, SMART USA’s executive director and the CEO of SRC, wrote in the email.<h2>What Comes Next?</h2>Details of what happens next are still coming, but Younkin wrote that the organization would hold a Q&A webinar on Wednesday 17 December to answer member questions.“While this is a setback, it doesn’t diminish the importance of the work or the strength of our shared commitment to advancing leadership in microelectronics and advanced packaging,” he wrote in the email. He added that SRC will continue to fund research through its other programs.In response to IEEE Spectrum’s questions, Younkin’s office confirmed that the email was genuine. Younkin reiterated that SMART USA had met its performance targets, and that the organization’s performance was not the reason for the move. The organization added that it is “coordinating a responsible transition with [the Commerce Department] and members.”Regarding SRC, Younkin stated: “While this transition is challenging, it does not define our future. We have united the semiconductor community for decades, and will continue to do so. SRC will continue to drive industry-led innovation, fostering strong ecosystems and collaborations. That includes empowerment of the next generation of semiconductor professionals, who must deliver the next era of compute and communications. Together, we will turn this moment into momentum.” In a statement, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-henshall-8a21497" target="_blank">David N. Henshall</a>, chief operations officer for SMART USA, and senior vice-president for SRC, said: “Federal contracting decisions evolve over time, and ‘termination for convenience’ is an established mechanism in those agreements and is not a reflection of the significant work we were doing. What’s clear is the industry’s continued need: the challenges in microelectronics and advanced packaging remain, and SRC’s programs provide a durable path forward for collaborative R&D and talent.” <cite class="pull-quote">“NIST has a reputation as a neutral and steadfast partner that can work with any industry and academic organization. This reputation is very much at risk”</cite>—Zoe Lofgren and Haley Stevens, House of Representatives Committee on Science Space, and TechnologyThe addition of SMART USA to SRC’s portfolio led to some disruption, according to an academic participant who did not wish to be named. This scientist’s three-year, $450,000 proposal had been accepted for funding in 2025, 2026, and 2027 under <a href="https://www.src.org/program/grc/about/mission/" target="_blank">SRC’s Global Research Collaboration</a> program. But, early in 2025, years two and three of the grant were canceled and the scientist was invited to apply to SMART USA instead. The new program required expanding the scope of the project, boosting the number of academic participants, and seeking participation and funding from SMART USA members. He joined up with researchers from eight other universities and a chipmaking equipment firm, then spent the summer writing a new proposal and trying to get SMART USA industry members on board. By August, “we were not able to secure enough funding commitments from SMART USA members to even submit,” he said, adding that many of the SRC member companies that the group had been working with had not joined SMART USA by the time of submission, and those that had seemed to be putting in very little cash into the effort.<h2>Commerce vs. the CHIPS Act</h2>The withdrawal of funding from SMART USA echoes an earlier move that withdrew $7.4 billion from Natcast, the public-private partnership set up to run the National Semiconductor Technology Center, the CHIPS Act’s main R&D effort.However, the two events are starkly different in tone and publicity. Commerce has so far made no public statement about SMART USA. But in a <a href="https://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/2025-08/Natcast-CEO-Letter.pdf" target="_blank">public letter</a> announcing the withdrawal of funds from Natcast, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick implied impropriety on the part of organization, its CEO—<a href="https://corporate-awards.ieee.org/recipient/deirdre-hanford/" target="_blank">IEEE Frederik Philips Award</a> winner Dierdre Hanford—and other experts involved in its creation. Within weeks, Natcast was forced to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/natcast-layoffs" target="_self">lay off the majority of its staff</a> and has now folded. In a <a href="https://democrats-science.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2025-12-17_HSST_Letter_Lofgren-Stevens_SmartUSA.pdf" target="_blank">letter to Craig Burkhardt</a>, Acting Undersecretary of Commerce for standards and technology, date 17 December, two members of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology questioned the move to defund SMART USA. California Democrat <a href="https://lofgren.house.gov/" target="_blank">Zoe Lofgren</a> and Michigan Democrat <a href="https://stevens.house.gov/" target="_blank">Haley Stevens</a> “question the Department’s recent decisions to halt or delay semiconductor research and development (R&D) programs and awards authorized by Congress, and break existing obligations to industry and academia.”The lawmakers worry that these moves cause long term harm to the <a href="https://www.nist.gov/" target="_blank">National Institute of Science and Technology</a> (NIST), the agency within Commerce that implements the CHIPS Act. “NIST has a reputation as a neutral and steadfast partner that can work with any industry and academic organization,” they write. “This reputation is very much at risk. Few companies would willingly seek partnership with an organization that cancels its obligation on a whim.” The letter then went on to criticize NIST’s <a href="https://www.nist.gov/chips/r%2526d-funding-opportunities/crdo-broad-agency-announcement-baa" target="_blank">solicitation of R&D proposals</a> made in September in the wake of the destruction of Natcast. “NIST seems to have pivoted its model to that of an investment accelerator or venture capital fund, funding riskier research in exchange for intellectual property and equity,” they write. “While there is a time and place for the venture capital model, especially in the private sector, dedicating the entire CHIPS R&D program to it would unquestionably fail to meet the clear text and intent of the CHIPS Act.”

Dec 17, 2025

This Valve Could Halve EV Fast-Charge Times

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-cylinder-stamped-with-the-word-hydrohertz.jpg?id=62595319&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=62%2C0%2C63%2C0"/> Fast, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/fast-charging" target="_self">direct-current charging</a> can charge an EV’s battery from about 20 percent to 80 percent in 20 minutes. That’s not bad, but it’s still about six times as long as it takes to fill the tank of an ordinary petrol-powered vehicle.One of the major bottlenecks to even faster charging is cooling, specifically uneven cooling inside big <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/vanadium-batteries" target="_blank">EV battery packs</a> as the pack is charged. <a href="https://www.hydrohertz.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hydrohertz</a>, a British startup launched by former motorsport and power-electronics engineers, says it has a solution: fire liquid coolant exactly where it’s needed during charging. Its solution, announced in November, is a rotary coolant router that fires coolant exactly where temperatures spike, and within milliseconds—far faster than any single-loop system can react. In laboratory tests, this cooling tech allowed an EV battery to safely charge in less than half the time than was possible with conventional cooling architecture.<h2>A Smarter Way to Move Coolant</h2>Hydrohertz calls its solution <a href="https://www.hydrohertz.com/industries/show/the-dectravalve" target="_blank">Dectravalve</a>. It looks like a simple manifold, but it contains two concentric cylinders and a stepper motor to direct coolant to as many as four zones within the battery pack. It’s installed in between the pack’s <a href="https://www.trumonytechs.com/what-is-a-battery-cold-plate/" target="_blank">cold plates</a>, which are designed to efficiently remove heat from the battery cells through physical contact, and the main coolant supply loop, replacing a tangle of valves, brackets, sensors, and hoses.To keep costs low, Hydrohertz designed Dectravalve to be produced with off-the-shelf materials, and seals, as well as dimensional tolerances that can be met with the fabrication tools used by many major parts suppliers. Keeping things simple and comparatively cheap could improve Dectravalve’s chances of catching on with automakers and suppliers notorious for frugality. “Thermal management is trending toward simplicity and ultralow cost,” says <a href="https://www.che.psu.edu/department/directory-detail-g.aspx?q=CXW31" target="_blank">Chao-Yang Wang</a>, a mechanical and chemical engineering professor at <a href="https://www.che.psu.edu/index.aspx" target="_blank">Pennsylvania State University</a> whose research areas include dealing with issues related to internal fluids in batteries and fuel cells. Automakers would prefer passive cooling, he notes—but not if it slows fast charging. So, at least for now, Intelligent control is essential.“If Dectravalve works as advertised, I’d expect to see a roughly 20 percent improvement in battery longevity, which is a lot.”–Anna Stefanopoulou, University of MichiganHydrohertz built Dectravalve to work with ordinary water-glycol, otherwise known as antifreeze, keeping integration simple. Using generic antifreeze avoids a step in the validation process where a supplier or EV manufacturer would otherwise have to establish whether some special formulation is compatible with the rest of the cooling system and doesn’t cause unforeseen complications. And because one Dectravalve can replace the multiple valves and plumbing assemblies of a conventional cooling system, it lowers the parts count, reduces leak points, and cuts warranty risk, Hydrohertz founder and CTO <a href="https://uk.linkedin.com/in/martyn-talbot-bb06a9100" target="_blank">Martyn Talbot</a> claims. The tighter thermal control also lets automakers shrink oversize pumps, hoses, and heat exchangers, improving both cost and vehicle packaging.The valve reads battery-pack temperatures several times per second and shifts coolant flow instantly. If a high-load event—like a fast charge—is coming, it prepositions itself so more coolant is apportioned to known hot spots before the temperature rises in them.Multizone control can also speed warm-up to prevent the battery degradation that comes from charging at frigid temperatures. “You can send warming fluid to heat half the pack fast so it can safely start taking load,” says <a href="https://me.engin.umich.edu/people/faculty/anna-stefanopoulou/" target="_blank">Anna Stefanopoulou</a>, a professor of mechanical engineering at the <a href="https://umich.edu/" target="_blank">University of Michigan</a> who specializes in control systems, energy, and transportation technologies. That half can begin accepting load, while the system begins warming the rest of the pack more gradually, she explains. But Dectravalve’s main function remains cooling fast-heating troublesome cells so they don’t slow charging.Quick response to temperature changes inside the battery doesn’t increase the cooling capacity, but it leverages existing hardware far more efficiently. “Control the coolant with more precision and you get more performance for free,” says <a href="https://uk.linkedin.com/in/martyn-talbot-bb06a9100" target="_blank">Talbot</a>.<h2>Charge Times Can Be Cut By 60 Percent</h2>In early 2025, the Dectravalve underwent bench testing conducted by the <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/" target="_blank">Warwick Manufacturing Group</a> (WMG), a multidisciplinary research center at the <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of Warwick</a>, in Coventry, England, that works with transport companies to improve the manufacturability of battery systems and other technologies. WMG compared Dectravalve’s cooling performance with that of a conventional single-loop cooling system using the same 100-kilowatt-hour battery pack. During fast-charge trials from 10 percent to 80 percent, Dectravalve held peak cell temperature below 44.5 °C and kept cell-to-cell temperature variation to just below 3 °C without intervention from the battery management system. Similar thermal performance for the single-loop system was made possible only by dialing back the amount of power the battery would accept—the very tapering that keeps fast charging from being on par with gasoline fill-ups.Keeping the cell temperatures below 50 °C was key, because above that temperature <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360128521000514" target="_blank">lithium plating</a> begins. The battery suffers irreversible damage when lithium starts coating the surface of the anode—the part of the battery where electrical charge is stored during charging—instead of filling its internal network of pores the way water does when it’s absorbed by a sponge. Plating greatly diminishes the battery’s charge-storage capacity. Letting the battery get too hot can also cause the electrolyte to break down. The result is inhibited flow of ions between the electrodes. And reduced flow within the battery means reduced flow in the external circuit, which powers the vehicle’s motors. Because the Dectravalve kept temperatures low and uniform—and the battery management system didn’t need to play energy traffic cop and slow charging to a crawl to avoid overheating—charging time was cut by roughly 60 percent. With Dectravalve, the battery reached 80 percent state of charge in between 10 and 13 minutes, versus 30 minutes with the single-cooling-loop setup, according to Hydrohertz. <h2> When Batteries Keep Cool, They Live Longer</h2>Using Warwick’s temperature data, Hydrohertz applied standard degradation models and found that cooler, more uniform packs last longer. Stefanopoulou estimates that if Dectravalve works as claimed, it could boost battery life by roughly 20 percent. “That’s a lot,” she says.Still, it could be years before the system shows up on new EVs, if ever. Automakers will need years of cycle testing, crash trials, and cost studies before signing off on a new coolant architecture. Hydrohertz says several EV makers and battery suppliers have begun validation programs, and CTO Talbot expects licensing deals to ramp up as results come in. But even in a best-case scenario, Dectravalve won’t be keeping production-model EV batteries cool for at least three model years.

Dec 17, 2025

Advice on Leading and Mentoring for Greater Innovation

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-senior-executive-mentoring-a-younger-colleague-in-his-office.jpg?id=62599660&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C65%2C0%2C66"/> In the modern era of rapid digital transformation, engineering leaders are expected to be more than project managers and technical experts. They need to be vision-setters, innovation enablers, and mentors shaping the next generation of talent.Leadership and mentorship, when paired with intention, do more than advance business goals. They create an ecosystem where innovation flourishes and careers accelerate.I want to share how my professional journey, spanning leadership roles at retail giant <a href="https://www.walmart.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Walmart</a> and cloud communications company <a href="https://www.twilio.com/en-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twilio</a>, has underscored the profound synergy between the two dimensions.<h2>Leadership as an innovation engine</h2>Innovation rarely happens by accident. It is cultivated in environments where leaders articulate a compelling vision, empower their teams to experiment, and then remove obstacles that stifle creativity.As a senior engineering manager at Walmart Global Tech in Sunnyvale, Calif., I have led efforts to address one of the retail industry’s most persistent challenges: shrinkage. This loss of inventory, commonly due to shoplifting, theft, and return fraud, results in a difference between the amount of stock a retailer is supposed to have and the amount it actually has.Globally, retailers lose more than US $100 billion annually due to shrinkage. Walmart alone faces multibillion-dollar losses each year.The scale of the problem demands more than incremental improvements. By aligning the challenge with cutting-edge technologies such as <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10616321" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">computer vision</a> and <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/artificial-intelligence/" target="_self">artificial intelligence</a>, I framed a plan that transformed a business imperative into a technological frontier. We focused on deploying computer vision models at the store front-end, supported by an edge and cloud pipeline that allowed rapid experimentation. The system combined real-time detection of high-risk events with predictive analytics that highlighted emerging patterns of loss, and it integrated directly with store operations so actions could be taken quickly.The impact was twofold. Engineers were energized by the opportunity to solve a problem of global relevance, and the company gained a system that significantly reduced losses while protecting customer trust. The role of leadership in this context was not to dictate solutions but to create clarity of purpose and provide the latitude for teams to innovate boldly.As a senior engineering manager at Twilio, I led the billing platform team during a period of exponential growth, and innovation manifested itself differently.Working on a billing system is not typically met with excitement, yet it is mission-critical because billions of dollars are processed annually. By giving engineers ownership of architectural decisions and encouraging experimentation in scalability and fault tolerance, we achieved breakthroughs that enabled the company to scale reliably. There, leadership meant empowering teams with autonomy and fostering a culture where innovation could emerge from the ground up.<h2>Mentorship as a catalyst for professional growth</h2>If <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-leadership-and-learning" target="_self">leadership</a> provides the framework for innovation, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-collabratec-mentoring-program" target="_self">mentorship</a> provides the scaffolding for individual growth. In my experience, mentorship is not a one-time act but a continuous relationship built on guidance, challenge, and advocacy.One effective approach I have employed is the use of stretch projects, which are tasks beyond an employee’s current skill set, experience, or job responsibilities.At Twilio, I formed the Tiger Team, bringing together individuals from across the organization who expressed interest in learning new skills and solving complex billing challenges. They were encouraged to generate new ideas, conduct experiments, and develop improvements to the billing platform. The initiative not only advanced the platform’s capabilities but also gave employees a rare opportunity to develop and grow outside of their day-to-day responsibilities.At Walmart, I also used stretch assignments to accelerate an employee’s professional growth. For example, when an engineer expressed a strong interest in applying AI to improve our on-call operations, I encouraged him to lead the design and development of a solution leveraging the model context protocol (MCP) standard to reduce on-call workload. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-agent-economy" target="_self">MCP standardizes AI models</a> that connect with and use external tools and data sources to automate tasks and simplify integrations.The effort was successful, attracting contributions from the broader team and reducing the staff’s labor for dealing with incidents by more than 1,500 hours annually.That not only created measurable operational impact but also provided the engineer with a platform to develop his leadership skills and drive innovation at scale.A feedback-rich environment is advisable. At Walmart, I instituted weekly one-on-one sessions with each of my staff members that extended beyond project updates to cover their career aspirations, strengths, and areas for growth. The conversations uncovered career blind spots, exposed leadership potential, and helped prepare people to step into broader roles.Equally important is advocacy. Mentorship does not stop at giving advice; it involves opening doors to opportunities. I have nominated mentees for conference speaking roles, cross-team leadership positions, and recognition programs. The platforms advanced their careers and amplified our teams’ work.<h2>Encouraging exploration beyond boundaries</h2>Another powerful mechanism to accelerate innovation and growth is intentionally allocating time for self-directed exploration. At both Walmart and Twilio, we designated a dedicated week every six months during which engineers were encouraged to work on anything they found meaningful, even if it was outside their team or organizational responsibilities.“Engineering leadership and mentorship are not optional complements to technical execution; they are fundamental drivers of sustainable success.”Some chose to collaborate with colleagues across different departments, while others pursued new projects. The experience gave the employees the freedom to follow their curiosity, sharpen their skills, and explore areas aligned with their personal growth. Beyond skill development, it often led to surprising innovations, as cross-pollination of ideas from different parts of the organization produced creative solutions that likely would not have emerged doing traditional project work.<h2>The interdependence of innovation and growth</h2>Leadership and mentorship are not parallel tracks. They are interdependent areas that reinforce each other. Innovative projects provide fertile ground for engineers to grow, while their professional growth feeds back into innovation by broadening their perspectives and capabilities.The AI-powered shrink-prevention initiative at Walmart exemplifies the dynamic. Engineers who contributed to the project gained technical expertise in machine learning and computer vision, as well as career-defining opportunities. Some presented their work at internal company forums. Others became mentors to new engineers. And many transitioned into leadership roles. Innovation was not an isolated outcome but part of a virtuous cycle of growth.<h2>Lessons for future leaders</h2>Reflecting on my experiences, here are several lessons for those aspiring to lead with impact:<ul><li>Balance technology with people. Great systems are built by motivated, empowered individuals.</li><li>Encourage risk-taking within safe boundaries. Innovation is often the product of bold experiments, not cautious, gradual adjustments.</li><li>Invest early and consistently in mentorship. Influence is measured not only by what you build but also by whom you help.</li><li>Recognize and celebrate achievements. Acknowledgement fosters motivation, which accelerates innovation and professional development.</li><li>Create opportunities for exploration. Allocating time for personal projects can spark creativity and cultivate skills that enrich the organization.</li></ul>Engineering leadership and mentorship are not optional complements to technical execution; they are fundamental drivers of sustainable success. Leadership provides the vision and structure for innovation, while mentorship nurtures the individuals who bring that vision to life. Together, they create a multiplier effect that advances both technological innovation and career growth.My experience demonstrates that when leaders intentionally combine the two practices, organizations not only deliver transformative technologies but also cultivate the next generation of innovators and leaders.That dual impact is what makes engineering leadership such a powerful force in shaping both the future of technology and the careers of those who drive it.

Dec 17, 2025

A Chip That Keeps Time (Almost) Like an Atomic Clock

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-square-chip-with-black-and-gold-components-leans-against-a-sugar-cube.jpg?id=62599760&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C83%2C0%2C84"/> For decades, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/optical-atomic-clocks" target="_self">atomic clocks</a> have provided the most stable means of timekeeping. They <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/device-that-revolutionized-timekeeping-receives-an-ieee-milestone" target="_self">measure time</a> by oscillating in step with the resonant frequency of atoms, a method so accurate that it serves as the basis for the definition of a second. Now, a new challenger has emerged in the timekeeping arena. Researchers recently developed a tiny, MEMS-based clock that makes use of silicon doping to gain record stability. After running for 8 hours, the clock deviated only by 102 nanoseconds, approaching the standard of atomic clocks while both requiring less physical space and less power to run. Doing so has been a challenge in the past because of the chaos that even slight temperature variations can introduce into timekeeping.The group <a href="https://iedm25.mapyourshow.com/8_0/sessions/session-details.cfm?scheduleid=80" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">presented</a> their new clock at the <a href="https://www.ieee-iedm.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">71st Annual IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting</a> last week.<h2>Saving Space and Power</h2>The MEMS clock is built from a few tightly connected parts, all integrated on a chip smaller than the face of a sugar cube. At its center, a silicon plate topped with a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/piezoelectric-effect" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">piezoelectric</a> film vibrates at its natural frequencies, while nearby electronic circuitry measures those vibrations. A tiny, built-in heater gently keeps the whole structure at an optimal temperature. Because the resonator, electronics, and heater are all close together, they can work as a coordinated system: The resonator creates the timing signal, the electronics monitor and adjust it, and the heater prevents temperature swings from causing drift. This clock is unique in a few ways, explains project advisor and University of Michigan MEMS engineer <a href="https://phonon.engin.umich.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Roozbeh Tabrizian</a>. For one, the resonator is “extremely stable amid variations in environment,” he says. “You could actually change the temperature from -40 °C all the way to 85 °C and you essentially don’t see any change in the frequency.”The resonator is so stable because the silicon from which it’s crafted has been <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/semiconductor-doping" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">doped</a> with phosphorus, Tabrizian says. When a material is doped, impurities are added into it, typically to change its conductive properties. Here, though, the group used doping specifically to stabilize mechanical properties. “We’re controlling the mechanics in a very tight way so that the elasticity of the material does not change upon temperature variations,” he says. Some other materials, like the commonly used timing-crystal <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/diy-ocxo-quartz-clock" target="_self">quartz</a>, can also be doped for robustness. But “you cannot miniaturize [quartz] and you have a lot of limitations in terms of packaging,” Tabrizian explains. “Semiconductor manufacturing benefits from size miniaturization,” so it is an obvious choice for next-generation clocks.The doping also allows the electronics to actively tune out any small drifts in frequency over long periods. This attribute is “the most distinctive aspect of our device’s physics compared to previous MEMS clocks,” Tabrizian says. By making the silicon conductive, the doping lets the electronics subtly adjust how strongly the device is mechanically driven, which counteracts slow shifts in frequency.This system is also unique in its integration of autonomous temperature sensing and adjustment, says <a href="https://ece.engin.umich.edu/people/directory/phd-students/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Banafsheh Jabbari</a>, a graduate student at the University of Michigan who led the project. “This clock resonator is operating in two modes [or resonant frequencies], essentially. The main mode of the clock is very stable and we use it as the [time] reference. The other one is the temperature sensor.” The latter acts like an internal thermometer, helping the electronics automatically detect temperature shifts and adjust both the heater and the main timing mode itself. This built-in self-correction helps the clock maintain steady time even as the surrounding environment changes.These features mean that it’s the first MEMS clock to run for 8 hours and only deviate by 102-billionths of a second. Linearly scaled up to a week of operation, that equates to just over 2 microseconds of drift. That’s worse than the top-of-the-line laboratory atomic clocks by a few orders of magnitude, but it rivals the stability of miniaturized atomic clocks. What’s more, the MEMS clock has a significant space and power savings advantage over its atomic competition. The more isolated from their environments and the more power they use, the more precisely atomic clocks can probe the oscillations of atoms, Tabrizian explains, so they’re typically the size of a cabinet and draw a lot of power. Even chip-scale atomic clocks are 10 to 100 times as large as the MEMS clock, he says. And, “more importantly,” this new clock requires 1/10th to 1/20th the power of the mini atomic clocks.<h2>Timekeeping for Next-Gen Tech</h2>Jabbari’s work came out of a <a href="https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/h6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DARPA project</a> with the goal of making a clock that could operate for a week and deviate by only 1 µs, so there’s still more to be done. One challenge the team faces is how the doped silicon will behave over longer operating periods, like a week. “You see some diffusion and some changes in the material,” Tabrizian says, but only time will tell how well the silicon will hold up.It’s important to both researchers that they continue their efforts because of the wide-ranging applications they foresee for a small, power-efficient MEMS-based clock. “Essentially all modern technology that we have needs some sort of synchronization,” Jabbari says, and she thinks the clock could fill gaps in time synchronization that currently exist.For situations in which technology has robust access to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/gladys-west-hidden-figure-gps" target="_self">GPS</a> satellites, there’s no problem to solve, she says. But in more extreme scenarios, like space exploration and underwater missions, navigation technology is forced to rely on internal timekeeping—which must be extremely bulky and power hungry to be accurate. A MEMS clock could be a small and less power-intensive replacement.There are also more day-to-day applications, Tabrizian says. In the future, when more information will need to be delivered faster to each phone (or whatever devices we’ll be using in 50 years), accurate timing will become crucial for data-packet delivery. “And, of course, you cannot put a large atomic clock in your phone. You cannot consume that much power,” he says, so a MEMS clock could be the answer.Even with promising applications, it could be a tough road ahead for this project because of existing competition. <a href="https://www.sitime.com/products?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_sale_2023&utm_term=sitime&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=20246058643&utm_term=sitime&_bt=660933302525&_bm=b&_bn=g&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20246058643&gbraid=0AAAAADra00z9oxkYNgEzq6VHLuDMCIrnL&gclid=CjwKCAiA0eTJBhBaEiwA-Pa-haMEG8N_ry8vF9fv1iR0IIdWbr-HpWjQxJ5Ro6Oe0qN8GmAzAg1kPxoCtJIQAvD_BwE" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SiTime</a>, a company already producing <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/mems-time" target="_self">MEMS clocks</a>, is even now <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/sitime-releases-new-chip-aimed-wearable-gadgets-2025-09-17/" target="_blank">integrating</a> its chips in Apple and Nvidia devices.But Tabrizian is confident about his team’s capabilities. “Companies like SiTime put a lot of emphasis on system design,” thus increasing system complexity, he says. “Our solution, on the other hand, is entirely physics based, looking into the very intricate, very fundamental physics of a semiconductor. We’re trying to get around the need for a complex system by making the resonator 100 times more accurate than the SiTime resonator.”

Dec 17, 2025

Key Questions to Ask in Your Next Job Interview

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-illustration-of-stylized-people-wearing-business-casual-clothing.webp?id=62078755&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C50%2C0%2C50"/> This article is crossposted from <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant" target="_self">IEEE Spectrum</a>’s careers newsletter. <a href="https://engage.ieee.org/Career-Alert-Sign-Up.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sign up now</a> to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, written in partnership with tech career development company <a href="https://jointaro.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Taro</a> and delivered to your inbox for free!<h2>Don’t squander the reverse interview</h2>At the end of every job interview, you will get asked, “Do you have any questions for me?”There is only one correct answer here: yes! You absolutely should have questions for the interviewer, for two reasons: <ol><li>You gain valuable insights about life at the company.</li><li>It signals that you are a curious and thoughtful job seeker. </li></ol>But not all questions are created equal. Here’s what to keep in mind for the 5 to 10 minute reverse interview at the end of each job interview. First, what not to do: Don’t ask about the interviewer’s favorite flavor of coffee in the microkitchen—at least not as your first question! Your questions should demonstrate a thoughtful consideration of the job’s responsibilities, rather than a frivolous detail about a perk.The best question reveals an understanding of the company’s future, your future, and how those two paths could mutually benefit each other. Some examples: <ul><li>Mentioning a concern or idea you had based on a recent launch the company had, and asking if the company has considered it.</li><li>Sharing a specific characteristic about your working style, and asking how it could benefit the team or your career at the company.</li></ul>A template for good interviewer questions doesn’t exist because the questions are inherently unique to the company, your role, and your background. However, here are some general ideas for inspiration: <ul><li>“What is the biggest challenge facing the company in the next 6 months?” By asking about problems, you show that you care about the company and its future. You want to bring your experience to overcome these challenges.</li><li>“What’s the best thing that you have learned at this company?” This is a much better version of the “favorite coffee” question. You can and should ask the interviewer about their lived experience, but with a focus on growth: How can the company help you learn and grow as an engineer?</li></ul>—Rahul<h2><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/levi-unema-underwater-robotics-exploration" target="_self">For This Engineer, Taking Deep Dives is Part of the Job</a></h2>Levi Unema doesn’t work in a typical office setting. Rather, the engineer spends weeks at a time in the open ocean, maintaining and piloting remotely operated vehicles aboard ships exploring the seas. But, when he first started his engineering career, Unema didn’t think he would work on underwater robotics—until his high-school science teacher gave him an unexpected call. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/levi-unema-underwater-robotics-exploration" target="_blank">Read more here.</a><h2><a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/executive-education/insights/articles/the-10-most-in-demand-tech-careers-of-2026" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The 10 Most In-demand U.K. Tech Careers of 2026</a></h2>The United Kingdom’s technology sector is the largest in Europe. But what roles will define the U.K. tech workforce in 2026? The London School of Economics and Political Science ranked the 10 most in-demand jobs, noting the demand, job satisfaction, and salary for each role. One key takeaway: “By 2026, the most sought-after professionals will combine AI literacy and data analytics with human problem-solving, working confidently alongside intelligent systems.”<a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/executive-education/insights/articles/the-10-most-in-demand-tech-careers-of-2026" target="_blank">Read more here. </a><h2><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/two-new-ai-ethics-certifications" target="_self">Two New AI Ethics Certifications Available from IEEE</a></h2>AI tools and autonomous intelligent systems are now being used by nearly every organization. Despite the benefits, they also bring risks. To help AI developers and companies ensure systems are trustworthy and ethically sound, the IEEE Standards Association just launched an ethics program offering two certifications: one for individuals and one for products. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/two-new-ai-ethics-certifications" target="_blank">Read more here. </a>

Dec 17, 2025

U.S. Plans Largest Nuclear Power Program Since the 1970s

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/conical-dome-in-the-background-and-american-flag-in-the-foreground.jpg?id=62599124&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=156%2C0%2C156%2C0"/> The United States aims to embark on its most active new nuclear construction program since the 1970s. In its most high-dollar nuclear deal yet, the Trump administration in October launched <a href="https://westinghousenuclear.com/strategic-partnership/press-releases/brookfield/" target="_blank">a partnership to build at least $80 billion</a> worth of new, large-scale nuclear reactors, and chose <a href="https://westinghouse.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopW1I1bjAmm29LWgcnJ_FkucTWL5pWaydkuLVAE5MtcCeaE4z1Q" target="_blank">Westinghouse Electric Company</a> and its co-owners, Brookfield Asset Management and Cameco, for the job.The money will support the construction of AP1000s, a type of pressurized water reactor developed by Westinghouse that can generate about 1,110 megawatts of electric power. These are the same reactors as units 3 and 4 at the <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vogtle-unit-4-enters-commercial-operation-302129976.html" target="_blank">Vogtle nuclear plant</a> in Georgia, which wrapped up seven years behind schedule in 2023 and 2024 and cost more than <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=57280" target="_blank">twice as much</a> as expected—about $35 billion for the pair. Along the way, Westinghouse, based in Cranberry Township, Penn., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.Chief executives of investor-owned utilities know that if they were to propose committing to similar projects on the same commercial terms, they’d be sacked on the spot. As a result, the private sector in the United States has been unwilling to take on the financial risk inherent in building new reactors.The $80 billion deal with the federal government represents the U.S. nuclear industry’s best opportunity in a generation for a large-scale construction program. But ambition doesn’t guarantee successful execution. The delays and cost overruns that dogged the Vogtle project present real threats for the next wave of reactors.<h2>Streamlining AP1000 Reactor Construction</h2>What might be different about the next set of AP1000s? On the positive side, delivering multiple copies of the same reactor ought to create the conditions for a steady decline in costs. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/slow-steady-progress-for-two-us-nuclear-power-projects" target="_self">Vogtle Unit 3 was the first AP1000 to be built</a> in the United States, and the lessons learned from it resulted in Vogtle Unit 4 costing 30 percent less than Unit 3. (Six AP1000s are currently operating outside the United States, and 14 more are under construction, according to Westinghouse.)There’s been a bipartisan effort in the United States to streamline regulatory procedures to ensure that future projects won’t be delayed by the same issues that hampered Vogtle. The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1111" target="_blank">(ADVANCE) Act</a> that was signed into law by former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2024, includes several measures intended to improve processes at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). <img alt="An industrial site hosting four conical towers with smoke billowing out and a sunset in the background. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2ea1e74c680384e65223fc6ead90bc09" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d4aa1" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-industrial-site-hosting-four-conical-towers-with-smoke-billowing-out-and-a-sunset-in-the-background.jpg?id=62599125&width=980"/> The last nuclear reactors to be built in the United States—Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Waynesboro, Georgia—were completed seven years behind schedule and cost more than twice as much as expected.Georgia Power Co. That included a mandated change in the NRC’s mission statement, setting a goal of “enabling the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies”. It was a symbol of Congress’s intent to encourage the commission to support nuclear development.In May President Trump built on that legislation with <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/9-key-takeaways-president-trumps-executive-orders-nuclear-energy" target="_blank">four executive orders</a> intended to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/doe-advanced-nuclear-site-permit" target="_self">speed up reactor licensing</a> and accelerate nuclear development—a framework that has yet to be tested in practice. In November the NRC published <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/26/2025-21305/streamlining-select-rules-of-practice-and-procedure" target="_blank">regulations</a> setting out how it planned to implement the president’s orders. The changes are focused on removing redundant and duplicative rules.One of President Trump’s orders included a series of provisions intended to help build the U.S. nuclear workforce, but it’s clear that that will be a challenge. The momentum gained in training skilled workers during the construction at Vogtle is already dissipating. Without other active new reactor projects to move on to immediately in the United States, many of the people who worked there have likely gone into other sectors, such as liquified natural gas (LNG) plants.Around the time that construction was wrapping up at Vogtle, many employers in the industry were already reporting difficulties in finding the staff they need, according to the Department of Energy’s 2025 <a href="https://www.energy.gov/policy/us-energy-employment-jobs-report-useer" target="_blank">United States Energy and Employment Report</a>. Surveyed in 2024, 22 percent of employers in nuclear construction said it was “very difficult” to hire the workers they needed, and 63 percent said it was “somewhat difficult”. In nuclear manufacturing, 63 percent of employers said hiring was “very difficult”.If reactor construction really begins to pick up, there is clearly a danger that those numbers will rise. <h2>U.S. Nuclear Power Expansion Plans</h2>So just how many reactors will $80 billion buy? Assuming an average of $16 billion per AP1000—slightly less than for Vogtle, and allowing for cost reductions from economies of scale and learning-by-doing—the plan would mean five new reactors. That would represent an increase of about 5.7 percent in total U.S. nuclear energy generation capacity, if all the reactors currently in service remain online.The full details of the $80 billion deal, including the precise allocation of financing and risk-sharing, have not been specified. But Westinghouse’s co-owner, Brookfield, did disclose that the partnership includes profit-sharing mechanisms that will give the U.S. government some of the upside if the initiative succeeds.The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/10/28/nuclear-trump-japan-westinghouse/" target="_blank">reported</a> that after the U.S. signs the final contracts for $80 billion worth of new reactors, it will be entitled to 20 percent of all Westinghouse’s returns over $17.5 billion. And if Westinghouse’s valuation surpasses $30 billion, the administration can require it to be floated on the stock market. If that happens, the government will get a 20 percent stake. <img alt="Deep pool of liquid containing two cylinder-shaped structures holding metal rods " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ce37c6c9adcf6ccbbbd2d72da99e5970" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="6872c" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/deep-pool-of-liquid-containing-two-cylinder-shaped-structures-holding-metal-rods.jpg?id=62599130&width=980"/> Enriched uranium is loaded at Vogtle Unit 4.Georgia Power Co. Japan’s government is also playing a key role. As part of a <a href="https://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/tariff_measures/houmon/pdf/250905oboegaki.pdf" target="_blank">$550 billion U.S.-Japan trade deal</a> struck in July, the Japanese government pledged large-scale investment in U.S. energy, including nuclear. Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba Group, and IHI Corp., are interested in investing up to $100 billion in the United States to support the construction of new AP1000s and small modular reactors (SMRs), the two governments said.The Westinghouse deal supports a range of the administration’s objectives, including power for AI and investment and job creation in the American industrial sector. The focus on AP1000s also makes it possible to rely on U.S.-produced fuel, strengthening energy security. (Many of the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-powered-data-center" target="_self">designs for SMRs</a>, which have garnered a considerable amount of excitement globally, use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel, which is not currently produced on a large scale in the United States).<h2>U.S. Nuclear Energy Investment</h2>There have been other recent moves to add additional nuclear capacity in the United States. <a href="https://www.santeecooper.com/" target="_blank">Santee Cooper</a>, a South Carolina utility, announced plans for completing the construction of two AP1000 reactors that had been abandoned in 2017 at the <a href="https://www.ans.org/news/2025-10-24/article-7493/santee-cooper-opts-to-reboot-summer-reactor-project/" target="_blank">V.C. Summer site in Jenkinsville, S.C</a>.Separately, Google announced in October <a href="https://newsroom.nexteraenergy.com/NextEra-Energy-and-Google-Announce-New-Collaboration-to-Accelerate-Nuclear-Energy-Deployment-in-the-U-S?l=12" target="_blank">a deal with NextEra Energy</a> to reopen a 615-MW nuclear plant in Iowa. The Duane Arnold Energy Center was shut down in 2020, and the aim is to have it operational again by the first quarter of 2029. Google has agreed to buy a share of the plant’s output for 25 years. <img alt="Industrial construction site with cranes, large windowless buildings and a domed structure." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2bf68094752767ddfbf0c4f182909a1c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="9ad61" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/industrial-construction-site-with-cranes-large-windowless-buildings-and-a-domed-structure.jpg?id=62599135&width=980"/> Construction of two AP1000 reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear site in Jenkinsville, S.C. were abandoned in 2017 after delays and cost overruns. Executives leading the projects were charged with fraud. Chuck Burton/AP But the plans that have been announced so far pale in comparison to the Trump administration’s nuclear ambitions. Earlier this year, President Trump set a goal of adding a whopping <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/9-key-takeaways-president-trumps-executive-orders-nuclear-energy" target="_blank">300 gigawatts of nuclear capacity</a> by 2050, up from a little under 100 GW today. That would mean much stronger growth than is currently projected in Wood Mackenzie’s forecasts, which show a near-doubling of U.S. nuclear generation capacity to about 190 GW in 2050.The main driver behind the Trump administration’s interest in nuclear is its ambitions for artificial intelligence. Chris Wright, the U.S. energy secretary, has described the race to develop advanced AI as the Manhattan Project of our times, critical to national security, and dependent upon a steep increase in electricity generation. Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in September, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/event/conversation-us-secretary-energy-chris-wright" target="_blank">Wright promised</a>: “We’re doing everything we can to make it easy to build power generation and data centers in our country.” One of the hallmarks of the Trump administration has been its readiness to intervene in markets to pursue its policy goals. Its nuclear strategy exemplifies that approach. In many ways, the Trump administration is acting like an energy company: using its financial strength and its convening power to put together a deal that covers the entire nuclear value chain. Throughout the history of nuclear power, the industry has worked closely with governments. But the federal government effectively taking a commercial position in the development of new reactors would be a first for the United States. In the first wave of U.S. reactor construction in the 1970s, federal government support was limited to R&D, uranium mining and enrichment, and indemnifying operators against the risk of nuclear accidents.Before the partial deregulation of U.S. electricity markets that began in the 1990s, utilities could develop nuclear plants with the assurance that the costs could be recovered from customers, even if they went far over budget. With many key markets now at least partially deregulated, nuclear project developers will need other types of guarantees to secure financing and move forward.The first new plants that result from the $80 billion deal will come online years after President Trump has left office. But they could play an important role in boosting U.S. electricity supply and developing advanced AI for decades.

Dec 16, 2025

iRobot’s Cofounder Weighs In on Company’s Bankruptcy

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/many-boxes-of-irobot-roomba-robot-vacuums-on-display-at-a-store.jpg?id=62593562&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C83%2C0%2C84"/> On Sunday evening, the legendary robotics company iRobot, manufacturer of the Roomba robotic vacuum, <a href="https://investor.irobot.com/news-releases/news-release-details/irobot-announces-strategic-transaction-drive-long-term-growth%5C" target="_blank">filed for bankruptcy</a>. The company will be handing over all of its assets to its Chinese manufacturing partner, Picea. According to iRobot’s press release, “this agreement represents a critical step toward strengthening iRobot’s financial foundation and positioning the Company for long-term growth and innovation,” which sounds like the sort of thing that you put in a press release when you’re trying your best to put a positive spin on really, really bad news.This whole situation started back in August 2022, when iRobot <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/amazon-irobot-acquisition" target="_self">announced</a> a US $1.7 billion acquisition by Amazon. Amazon’s interest was obvious—some <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ring-indoor-security-drone" target="_self">questionable hardware decisions</a> had left the company struggling to enter the home robotics market. And iRobot was at a point where it needed a new strategy to keep ahead of lower-cost (and increasingly innovative) home robots from China.Some folks were skeptical of this acquisition, and admittedly, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/amazon-irobot-acquisition" target="_self">I was one of them</a>. My primary worry was that iRobot would get swallowed up and effectively cease to exist, which tends to happen with acquisitions like these, but regulators in the United States had much more pointed concerns: namely, that Amazon would <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-jones-lawmakers-call-on-ftc-to-oppose-amazons-proposed-165-billion-acquisition-of-irobot" target="_blank">leverage its marketplace power to restrict competition</a>. The European Commission <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_5990" target="_blank">expressed similar objections</a>.By late January 2024, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/irobot-amazon" target="_self">the deal had fallen through</a>, iRobot laid off a third of its staff, suspended research and development, and CEO and cofounder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinangle/" target="_blank">Colin Angle</a> left the company. Since then, iRobot has seemed resigned to its fate, coasting along on a few lackluster product announcements and not much else, and so Sunday’s announcement of bankruptcy was a surprise to no one—perhaps least of all to Angle.<h2>iRobot’s Bankruptcy and Amazon Deal Collapse</h2>“iRobot’s bankruptcy filing was really just a public-facing outcome of the tragedy that happened a year and a half ago,” Angle told IEEE Spectrum on Monday. “Today sucks, but I’ve already mourned. I mourned when the deal with Amazon got blocked for all the wrong reasons.” Angle points out that by the early 2020s, iRobot was no longer monopolizing the robot-vacuum market. This was especially true in Europe, where iRobot’s market share was 12 percent and decreasing. But from Angle’s perspective, regulators were more focused on making a point about Big Tech than they were about the actual merits and risks of the merger. <img alt="A suited man with short blonde hair and glasses holds a round black robot vacuum in a hallway covered in patents." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cd75ab9b587f11ce6673aac5b55a0856" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="5ec16" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-suited-man-with-short-blonde-hair-and-glasses-holds-a-round-black-robot-vacuum-in-a-hallway-covered-in-patents.jpg?id=62593550&width=980"/> Cofounder Colin Angle says that iRobot’s bankruptcy filing was unsurprising after a failed acquisition by Amazon a year and a half ago.Charles Krupa/AP“We were roadkilled in a larger agenda,” Angle says. “And this kind of regulation is incredibly destructive to the innovation economy. The whole concept of starting a tech company and having it acquired by a bigger tech company is far and away the most common positive outcome. For that to be taken away is not a good thing.” And for iRobot, it was fatal. A <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268854" target="_blank">common criticism</a> of iRobot even before the attempted Amazon merger is that the company was simply being out-innovated in the robot-vacuum space, and Angle doesn’t necessarily disagree. “By 2020, China had become the largest market in the world for robot vacuums, and Chinese robotics companies with government support were investing two or three times as much as iRobot was in R&D. We simply didn’t have the capital to move as quickly as we wanted to. In order for iRobot to continue to innovate and lead the industry, we needed to do so as part of a larger entity, and Amazon was very aligned with our vision for the home.”This situation is not unique to iRobot, and there is <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ghost-robotics-quadruped-robot-arm" target="_blank">significant concern in robotics</a> about how companies can effectively compete against the massive advantage that China has in the production of low-cost hardware. In some sense, what happened to iRobot is an early symptom of what Angle (<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ghost-robotics-quadruped-robot-arm" target="_self">and others</a>) see as a fundamental problem with robotics in the United States: lack of government support. In China, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/11/embodied-ai-china-smart-robots" target="_blank">long-term government support for robotics and embodied AI</a> (in the form of both policy and direct investment) can be found across industry and academia, something that neither the United States nor the European Union has been able to match. “Robotics is in a global competition against some very fearsome competitors,” Angle says. “We have to decide whether we want to support our innovation economy. And if the answer is no, then the innovation economy goes elsewhere.”The consequence of companies like iRobot losing this competition can be more than just bankruptcy. In iRobot’s case, a Chinese company now owns iRobot’s intellectual property and app infrastructure, which gives it access to data from millions of highly sensorized autonomous mobile robots in homes across the world. I asked Angle whether or not Roomba owners should be concerned about this. “When I was running the company, we talked a lot about this, and put a lot of effort into privacy and security,” he says. “This was fundamental to Roomba’s design. Now, I can’t speak to what they’ll prioritize.”While Angle has moved on from iRobot, and has since cofounded a more-mysterious-than-we’d-like company called <a href="https://www.familiarmachines.com/" target="_blank">Familiar Machines and Magic</a>, he still feels strongly that what has happened to iRobot should be a warning to both robotics companies and policymakers. “Make no mistake: China is good at robots. So we need to play this hard. There’s a lot to learn from what we did at iRobot, and a lot of ways to do it better.”On a personal note, I’m choosing to remember the iRobot that was—not just the company that <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/irobot-roomba-history" target="_self">built a robot vacuum out of nothing</a> and conquered the world with it for nearly two decades, but also the company that built the <a href="https://robotsguide.com/robots/packbot" target="_blank">PackBot</a> to save lives, as well as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUd1miyCn5I" target="_blank">all of these other crazy robots</a>. I’m not sure there’s ever been a company quite like iRobot, and there may never be again. It will be missed.

Dec 16, 2025

This AI Can Beat You At Rock-Paper-Scissors

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/close-up-of-tdk-s-prototype-of-an-analog-reservoir-ai-chip.jpg?id=62299641&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C83%2C0%2C84"/> Rock-paper-scissors is often a game of psychology, reverse psychology, reverse-reverse psychology, and chance. But what if a computer could understand you well enough to win every time? A team at Hokkaido University and the <a href="https://www.tdk.com/en/index.html" target="_blank">TDK Corp.</a> (of cassette-tape fame), both based in Japan, has designed a chip that can do just that.Okay, the chip does not read your mind. It uses an acceleration sensor placed on your thumb to measure your motion and eventually earns which motions represent paper, scissors, or rock. The amazing thing is, once it’s trained on your particular gestures, the chip can run the calculation predicting what you’ll do in the time it takes you to say “shoot,” allowing it to defeat you in real time.The technique behind this feat is called reservoir computing, which is a machine learning method that uses a complex dynamical system to extract meaningful features from time-series data. The idea of reservoir computing goes as far back as the <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/7/3/311/3172/A-Model-of-Corticostriatal-Plasticity-for-Learning?redirectedFrom=fulltext" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1990s</a>. With the growth of artificial intelligence, there has been renewed interest in reservoir computing due to its comparatively low power requirements and its potential for fast training and inference.The research team saw power consumption as a target, says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomoyuki-sasaki-98284b193/?originalSubdomain=jp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tomoyuki Sasaki</a>, section head and senior manager at TDK, who worked on the device. “The second target is the latency issue. In the case of the edge AI, latency is a huge problem.”To minimize the energy and latency of their setup, the team developed a CMOS hardware implementation of an analog reservoir-computing circuit. The team presented their demo at the <a href="https://www.ceatec.com/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies</a> conference in Chiba, Japan, in October and are presenting their paper at the <a href="https://rebootingcomp.github.io/icrc2025/#registration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">International Conference on Rebooting Computing</a> in San Diego this week.<h2>What is reservoir computing?</h2>A reservoir computer is best understood in contrast to traditional <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-is-deep-learning/neural-network" target="_self">neural networks</a>, the basic architecture underlying much of AI today.A neural network consists of artificial neurons, arranged in layers. Each layer can be thought of as a column of neurons, with each neuron in a column connecting to all the neurons in the next column via weighted artificial synapses. Data enters into the first column and propagates from left to right, layer by layer, until the final column.During training, the output of the final layer is compared to the correct answer, and this information is used to adjust the weights in all the synapses, this time working backward, layer by layer, in a process called <a href="https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/backpropagation" target="_blank">backpropagation</a>.This setup has two important features. First, the data travels only one way—forward. There are no loops. Second, all of the weights connecting any pair of neurons are adjusted during the training process. This architecture has proven extremely effective and flexible, but it is also costly; adjusting what sometimes ends up being billions of weights takes both time and power.Reservoir computing is also built with artificial neurons and synapses, but they are arranged in a fundamentally different way. First, there are no layers—the neurons are connected to other neurons in a complicated, weblike way with plenty of loops. This imbues the network with a type of memory, where a particular input can keep coming back around.Second, the connections within the reservoir are fixed. The data enters the reservoir, propagates through its complex structure, and then is connected by a set of final synapses to the output. It’s only this last set of synapses, with their weights, that actually gets adjusted during training. This approach greatly simplifies the training process, and eliminates the need for backpropagation altogether.Given that the reservoir is fixed, and the only part that’s trained is a final “translation” layer from the reservoir to the desired output, it may seem like a miracle that these networks can be useful at all. And yet, for certain tasks, they have proved to be extremely effective.“They’re by no means a blanket best model to use in the machine learning toolbox,” says <a href="https://www.cs.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/sanjukta-krishnagopal" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sanjukta Krishnagopal</a>, assistant professor of computer science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not involved in the work. But for predicting the time evolution of things that behave chaotically, such as for example, the weather, they are the right tool for the job. “This is where reservoir computing shines.”The reason is that the reservoir itself is a bit chaotic. “Your reservoir is usually operating at what’s called the edge of chaos, which means it can represent a large number of possible states, very simply, with a very small neural network,” Krishnagopal says. <h2>A physical-reservoir computer</h2>The artificial synapses inside the reservoir are fixed, and backpropagation does not need to happen. This leaves a lot of freedom in how the reservoir is implemented. To build physical reservoirs, people have used a wide variety of mediums, including <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-55172-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">light</a>, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/artificial-intelligence-on-a-mems-device-brings-neuromorphic-computing-to-the-edge" target="_self">MEMS devices</a>, and my personal favorite, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-39432-7_63" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">literal buckets of water</a>.However, the team at Hokkaido and TDK wanted to create a CMOS-compatible chip that could be used in edge devices. To implement an artificial neuron, the team designed an analog circuit node. Each node is made up of three components: a nonlinear resistor, a memory element based on MOS capacitors, and a buffer amplifier. Their chip consisted of four cores, each made up of 121 such nodes.Wiring up the nodes to connect with each other in the complex recurring patterns required for a reservoir is difficult. To cut down on the complexity, the team decided on a so-called simple cycle reservoir, with all the nodes connected in one big loop. <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5555/3722577.3722735" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Prior work</a> has suggested that even this relatively simple configuration is capable of modeling a wide range of complicated dynamics.Using this design, the team was able to build a chip that consumed only 20 microwatts of power per core, or 80 µW of power total—significantly less than other CMOS-compatible physical-reservoir computing designs, the authors say.<h2>Predicting the future</h2>Aside from defeating humans at rock-paper-scissors, the reservoir-computing chip can predict the next step in a time series in many different domains. “If what occurs today is affected by yesterday’s data, or other past data, it can predict the result,” Sasaki says.The team demonstrated the chip’s abilities on several tasks, including predicting the behavior of a well-known chaotic system known as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_map" target="_blank">logistic map</a>. The team also used the device on the archetypal real-world example of chaos: the weather. For both test cases, the chip was able to predict the next step with remarkable accuracy.The precision of the prediction is not the main selling point, however. The extremely low power use and low latency offered by the chip could enable a new set of applications, such as real-time learning on wearables and other edge devices.“I think the prediction is actually the same as the present technology,” Sasaki says. “However, the power consumption, the operation speed, is maybe 10 times better than the present AI technology. That is a big difference.”

Dec 15, 2025

Virtual Power Plants Play the Imitation Game

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/ilustration-of-a-hand-holding-up-a-lightbulb-inside-the-lightbulb-is-a-home-with-solar-panels-and-an-electric-car-charging.jpg?id=62504289&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C209%2C0%2C209"/> In 1950, the English mathematician Alan Turing devised what he called “the imitation game.” Later dubbed the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/turing-test" target="_self">Turing test</a>, the experiment asks a human participant to conduct a conversation with an unknown partner and try to determine if it’s a computer or a person on the other end of the line. If the person can’t figure it out, the machine passes the Turing test.Power grid operators are now preparing for their own version of the game. Virtual power plants, which concatenate small, distributed energy resources, are increasingly being tapped to balance electricity supply and demand. The question is: Can they do their job as well as conventional power plants? Grid operators can now find out by running these power plants through a Turing-like test called the Huels. To pass the Huels test, the performance of a virtual power plant must be indistinguishable from that of a conventional power plant. A human grid operator serves as the judge. Virtual power plant developer <a href="https://www.energyhub.com/" target="_blank">EnergyHub</a>, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., developed the test and outlined it in <a href="https://www.energyhub.com/building-trustworthy-power-plants-vpp-maturity-model" target="_blank">a white paper</a> released today. “What we’re really trying to do is fool the operators into feeling that these virtual power plants can act and feel and smell like conventional power plants,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-hines-energy/" target="_blank">Paul Hines</a>, chief scientist at EnergyHub. “This is a kind of first litmus test.”<h2>What Are Virtual Power Plants (VPPs)?</h2>The virtual-versus-conventional power plant question is a timely one. Virtual power plants, or VPPs, are networks of devices such as rooftop solar panels, home batteries, and smart thermostats that come together through software to collectively supply or conserve electricity. Unlike conventional power generation systems, which might crank up one big gas plant when electricity demand peaks, VPPs tap into small, widely disbursed equipment. For example, a VPP might harness electricity from hundreds of plugged-in electric vehicles or rooftop solar panels. Or it might direct smart thermostats in homes or businesses to turn down heat or cooling systems to reduce demand. The technology is emerging at a time when concerns over data centers’ electricity demand is hitting a fever pitch. The consultancy BloombergNEF <a href="https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-energy/ai-and-the-power-grid-where-the-rubber-meets-the-road/" target="_blank">estimates</a> data-center energy demand in the United States <a href="https://heatmap.news/am/data-center-demand" target="_blank">will reach 106 gigawatts by 2035</a>–a 36 percent jump from what it had projected just seven months ago. How utilities and grid operators will meet the growing demand is unclear and faces challenges on many fronts. Turbines for natural gas plants are backordered and <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-powered-data-center" target="_blank">new nuclear reactors</a> are still years away. Wind and solar, while cheap and fast to build, don’t produce the 24/7 electricity that data centers demand, and face an uphill political battle under the Trump administration. All of this together has created an <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/virtual-power-plants-battery-tech" target="_blank">opening for VPPs</a>, which could add gigawatts to the grid without significantly jacking up electricity rates. “It’s a political issue. If you said you’re going to get electricity costs under control, this is literally the only way to do it in 12 months,” says <a href="https://x.com/JigarShahDC" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jigar Shah</a>, a clean energy investor at <a href="https://multiplier.expert/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Multiplier</a> in Washington, D.C., who led the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office under the Biden administration. VPPs could also reduce utilities’ need to invest in distribution equipment, avoiding supply chain shortages and inflated costs, Shah says. “There is no other idea that you could possibly deploy in 12 months that would have that big of an impact,” he says. According to a 2024 U.S. Department of Energy <a href="https://www.smartenergydecisions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/liftoff_doe_virtualpowerplants2025update.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report</a>, VPPs could provide between 80 and 160 gigawatts of capacity across the U.S. by 2030—enough to meet between 10 and 20 percent of peak grid demand. <h2>How Can VPPs Gain Grid Operator Trust?</h2>But first, VPP developers have to win over grid developers. Benchmarks like the Huels test are crucial to building that trust. “In order for us to build our reliance on VPPs, they do need to pass the Huels test and operators need to be able to count on” the VPPs delivering power when called upon, said <a href="https://rmi.org/people/lauren-shwisberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lauren Shwisberg</a>, a principal in the nonprofit research group Rocky Mountain Institute who co-authored a recent <a href="https://rmi.org/how-virtual-power-plants-can-help-the-united-states-win-the-ai-race/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report</a> on VPPs and was not involved in the development of the test. <a href="https://www.huels.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Matthias Huels</a>, an engineer who spent more than four years at EnergyHub, first came up with the idea for the test in 2024. After workshopping the idea with colleagues and, somewhat ironically, ChatGPT, Huels presented the concept to the company.Huels designed the test subjectively. Currently, in its earliest iteration, it appears to follow a guideline akin to the Supreme Court’s “<a href="https://texaslawreview.org/8459-2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">I know it when I see it</a>” test for what distinguishes pornography from erotic art. That is to say: passing the test depends on who’s judging. If a grid operator finds the power from a VPP as dependable as electricity from an actual power plant burning gas to produce electrons, then the VPP has passed. There are four levels to the Huels test. To reach level 1, a VPP must be able to shave off demand from the grid by, for example, successfully scheduling smart thermostats to dial down when the grid faces maximum demand. To reach level 2, a VPP must be able to respond to market and grid data and dial down demand when prices hit a certain level or tap into solar panels or batteries when power is needed. Human decision makers are involved at these levels.Passing the Huels test comes at level 3. That’s when a VPP can function automatically because it’s proven reliable enough to be indistinguishable from a gas peaker plant–the type of power station that comes online as backup only when the grid is under stress. Passing level 4 involves VPPs acting fully autonomously to adjust output based on a number of actively-changing variables throughout the day. “The imitation game that Alan Turing came up with was: Can a computer fool an interrogator to think it’s actually human even though it’s a computer,” Hines says. “We propose this idea of a test that would allow us to say: Can we fool a grid operator into thinking that the thing that’s actually solving their problems is this aggregation of many devices instead of a big gas plant?”<h2>Can VPPs Mimic Gas Peaker Plants? </h2>Peaker plants only generate power about 5 percent of the time over their lifespans. That makes them easier for VPPs to mimic because, like peaker plants, the limited amount of power that can be made available by demand response or harvested from batteries only provides bursts of power that last a few hours at a time.Far more difficult is stacking up to a full-scale gas plant, which operates 65 percent of the time or more, or a nuclear plant, which usually operates at least 95 percent of the time. Getting there would involve equipping a VPP network with long-duration storage that could be powered up during the day when solar panels are at peak output and discharged all night long. “You start talking about VPPs with large amounts of batteries that can run 365 days per year,” Hines says. “That’s a road we can go down.”EnergyHub has been putting its VPP systems through the Huels test. Last year, EnergyHub <a href="https://www.energyhub.com/news/dynamic-load-shaping-demand-response" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">successfully ran trials</a> with Arizona Public Service, Duke Energy in North Carolina, and National Grid in Massachusetts. In Arizona, EnergyHub’s software dialed into homes with solar panels and smart thermostats and ran air conditioners to “pre-cool” houses during the day when the sun was generating lots of electricity. This allowed the state’s biggest utility to reduce demand during peak hours when residents would typically return home from work to turn on televisions and crank up their air conditioners.“You have too much power in the middle of the day because of solar, then the early evening comes and you get people ramping up their evening loads right as the solar is ramping down,” Hines says. “You need something that can feather through that schedule. We created something that can do this.” That lands the company somewhere between a 2 and 3 on the Huels testing scale. Passing level 3 “is going to take a few years,” Hines says.

Dec 15, 2025

Could This Technology Prevent Blackouts?

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/man-in-pink-shirt-standing-behind-four-racks-of-electronic-converters.jpg?id=62296753&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=62%2C0%2C63%2C0"/> Spain’s grid operator, <a href="https://www.ree.es/en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Red Eléctrica</a>, proudly declared that electricity demand across the country’s peninsular system was met entirely by renewable energy sources for the first time on a weekday, on 16 April 2025.Just 12 days later, at 12.33 p.m. on Monday, 28 April, Spain and Portugal’s grids collapsed completely, plunging some 55 million people into one of the largest blackouts the region has ever seen. Entire cities lost electricity in the middle of the day. In the bustling airports of Madrid, Barcelona, and other key hubs, departure boards went blank. No power. No Internet. Even mobile phone service—something most people take for granted—was severely compromised. It was just disconnection and disruption. On the roads, traffic lights stopped functioning, snarling traffic and leaving people wondering when the power would return.The size and scale of the impact were unsettling, but the scariest part was the speed at which it happened. Within minutes, the whole of the Iberian Peninsula’s energy generation dropped from roughly 25GW to less than 1.2GW. While this may sound like a freak accident, incidents like this will continue to happen, especially given the rapid changes to the electrical grid over the past few decades. Worldwide, power systems are evolving from large centralized generation to a multitude of diverse, distributed generation sources, representing a major paradigm shift. This is not merely a “power” problem but is also a “systems” problem. It involves how all the parts of the power grid interact to maintain stability, and it requires a holistic solution.Power grids are undergoing a massive transformation—from coal- and gas-fired plants to millions of solar panels and wind turbines scattered across vast distances. It’s not just a technology swap. It’s a complete reimagining of how electricity is generated, transmitted, and used. And if we get it wrong, we’re setting ourselves up for more catastrophic blackouts like the one that hit all of Spain and Portugal. The good news is that a solution developed by our group at <a href="https://www.iit.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Illinois Institute of Technology</a> over the last two decades and commercialized by our company, <a href="http://www.syndem.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Syndem</a>, has achieved global standardization and is moving into large-scale deployment. It’s called <a href="http://www.syndem.com/Products.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Virtual Synchronous Machines</a>, and it might be the key to keeping the lights on as we transition to a renewable future.<h2>Rapid Deployment of Renewable Energy</h2>The<a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.iea.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">International Energy Agency</a> (IEA) created a <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Net Zero</a> by 2050 roadmap that calls for nearly 90% of global electricity generation to come from renewable, distributed sources, with <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/renewables/solar-pv" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">solar photovoltaic (PV</a>) and <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/renewables/wind" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wind</a> accounting for almost 70%. We are witnessing firsthand a paradigm shift in power systems, moving from centralized to distributed generation.The IEA projects that <a href="https://www.iea.org/news/global-renewable-capacity-is-set-to-grow-strongly-driven-by-solar-pv" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">renewable power installations will more than double between 2025 and 2030</a>, underscoring the urgent need to integrate renewables smoothly into existing power grids. A key technical nuance is that many distributed energy resources (DERs) produce direct current (DC) electricity, while the grid operates on alternating current (AC). To connect these resources to the grid, inverters convert DC into AC. To understand this further, we need to discuss inverter technologies. <img alt="An array of touch screens and Syndem converters in a control room." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="98cfcb8630cc629f93d55eaf18ac723d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3b7b2" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-array-of-touch-screens-and-syndem-converters-in-a-control-room.jpg?id=62297380&width=980"/> Professor Beibei Ren’s team at Texas Tech University built modules for a SYNDEM test bed with 12 modules and a substation module, consisting of 108 converters. Beibei Ren/Texas Tech UniversityMost of the inverters currently deployed in the field directly control the current (power) injected to the grid while constantly following the grid voltage, often referred to as <a data-linked-post="2668553450" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy-transition" target="_blank">grid-following inverters</a>. Therefore, this type of inverter is a current source, meaning that its current is controlled, but its terminal voltage is determined by what it connects to. Grid-following inverters rely on a stable grid to inject power from renewable sources and operate properly. This is not a problem when the grid is stable, but it becomes one when the grid is less stable. For instance, when the grid goes down or experiences severe disturbances, grid-following inverters typically trip off, meaning they don’t provide support when the grid needs them most.In recent years, attempts to address grid instability have led to the rise of <a data-linked-post="2667719615" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-inverter" target="_blank">grid-forming inverters.</a> As the name suggests, these inverters could help form the grid. These usually refer to an inverter that controls its terminal voltage, including both the amplitude and frequency, which indirectly controls the current injected into the grid. This inverter behaves as a voltage source, meaning that its terminal voltage is regulated, but its current is determined by what it is connected to. Unlike grid-following inverters, grid-forming inverters can operate independently from the grid. This makes them useful in situations where the grid goes down or isn’t available, such as during blackouts. They can also help balance supply and demand, support voltage, and even restart parts of the grid if it shuts down. One issue is that the term “grid-forming” means different things to different people. Some of them lack clear physical meaning or robust performance under complex grid conditions. Many grid-forming controls are model-based and may not scale properly in large systems. As a result, the design and control of these inverters can vary significantly. Grid-forming inverters made by different companies may not be interoperable, especially in large or complex power systems, which can include grid-scale battery systems, high-voltage DC (HVDC) links, solar PV panels, and wind turbines. The ambiguity of the term is increasingly becoming a barrier for grid-forming inverters, and no standards have been published yet.<h2>Systemic Challenges when Modernizing the Grid</h2>Let’s zoom out for a moment to examine the broader landscape of structural challenges we need to address when transitioning today’s grid into its future state. This transition is often called the democratization of power systems. Just as in politics, where democracy means everyone has a say, this transition in power systems means that every grid player can play a role. The primary difference between a political democracy and a power system is that the power system needs to maintain the stability of its frequency and voltage. If we apply a purely democratic approach to manage the power grid, it will sow the seeds for potential systemic failure.The second systemic challenge is compatibility. The current power grid was designed long ago for a few big power plants—not for millions of small, intermittent energy sources like solar panels or wind turbines. Ideally, we’d build a whole new grid to fit today’s needs, but that would bring too much disruption, cost too much, and take too long. The only feasible option is to somehow make various grid players compatible with the grid. To better conceptualize this, think about the invention of the modem, which solved the compatibility issues between computers and telephone systems, or the widespread adoption of USB ports. These inventions made many devices, such as cameras, printers, and phones, compatible with computers.The third systemic challenge is scalability. It’s one thing to hook up a few solar panels to the grid. It’s entirely different to connect millions of them and still keep everything running safely and reliably. It’s like walking one large dog versus walking hundreds of Chihuahuas at once. It is crucial for future power systems to adopt an architecture that can operate at different scales, allowing a power grid to break into smaller grids when needed or reconnect to operate as one grid, all autonomously. This is crucial to ensure resilience during extreme weather events, natural disasters, and/or grid faults.To address these systemic challenges, the technologies need to undergo a seismic transformation. Today’s power grids are electric-machine-based, with electricity generated by large synchronous machines in centralized facilities, often with slow dynamics. Tomorrow’s grid will run on power electronic converters—small, distributed, and with fast dynamics. It’s a significant change, and one we need to plan carefully for.<h2>The Key is Synchronization</h2>Traditional fossil fuel power plants use synchronous machines to generate electricity, as they can inherently synchronize with each other or the grid when connected. In other words, they autonomously regulate their speeds and the grid frequency around a preset value, meeting a top requirement of power systems. This synchronization mechanism has underpinned the stable operation and organic expansion of power grids for over a century. So, preserving the synchronization mechanism in today’s grids is crucial for addressing the systemic challenges as we transition from today’s grid into the future.Unlike traditional power plants, inverters are not inherently synchronous, but they need to be. The key enabling technology is called v<a href="http://www.syndem.com/Products.html" target="_blank">irtual synchronous machines</a> (VSMs). These are not actual machines, but instead are power electronic converters controlled through special software codes to behave like physical turbines. You can think of them as having the body of power converters with the brain of the older spinning synchronous machines. With VSMs, distributed energy resources can synchronize and support the grid, especially when something unexpected happens. <img alt="clear box with a green circuit board and some copper coils." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="053e94ce126c9de29c97e5c3db7a5d19" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ece07" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/clear-box-with-a-green-circuit-board-and-some-copper-coils.jpg?id=62297364&width=980"/> Syndem’s all-in-one reconfigurable and reprogrammable power electronic converter educational kit.SYNDEMThis naturally addresses the systemic challenges of compatibility and scalability. Like conventional synchronous machines, distributed energy resources are now compatible with the grid and can be integrated at any scale. But it gets better. First, inverters can be added to existing power systems without major hardware changes. Second, VSMs support the creation of small, local energy networks—known as microgrids—that can operate independently and reconnect to the main grid when needed. This flexibility is particularly useful during emergencies or power outages. Lastly, VSMs provide an elegant solution for the common concern about inertia, traditionally provided by large spinning machines that help cushion the grid against sudden changes. By design, VSMs can offer similar or even better characteristics of inertia.VSMs are poised to become mainstream in the coming decade, driven in part by the backing of a global standard. After years of hard work, IEEE approved and published the first global standard on VSM, <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/2988/10581/" target="_blank">IEEE Standard 2988-2024</a>. It involved members affiliated with key manufacturers, including <a href="https://www.ge.com/" target="_blank">General Electric</a>, <a href="https://www.siemens.com/" target="_blank">Siemens</a>, <a href="https://www.hitachienergy.com/us/en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hitachi Energy</a>, <a href="https://www.se.com/us/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Schneider Electric</a>, and <a href="https://www.eaton.com/us/en-us.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eaton</a>, in addition to regulators and utilities, including <a href="https://www.nerc.com/Pages/default.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">North American Electric Reliability Corporation</a> (NERC), <a href="https://www.misoenergy.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Midcontinent Independent System Operator</a> (MISO), <a href="https://www.nationalgridus.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Grid</a>, <a href="https://www.sce.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Southern California Edison</a>, <a href="https://www.duke-energy.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Duke Energy Corporation</a>, and <a href="https://energinet.dk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Energinet</a>.<h2>The Holistic SYNDEM Architecture</h2>Until now, much of the expert discourse has focused primarily on energy generation. But that’s only half of the equation—the other half is demand: how different loads consume the electricity. Their behavior also plays a crucial role in maintaining grid stability, in particular when generation is powered by intermittent renewable energy sources.There are many different loads, including motors, Internet devices, and lighting, among others. They are physically different, but technically have one thing in common: They will all have a rectifier at the front end because motor applications are more efficient with a motor drive, which consists of a rectifier; and Internet devices and LED lights consume DC electricity, which needs rectifiers at the front end as well. Like inverters, these rectifiers can also be controlled as VSMs, with the only difference being the direction of the power flow. Rectifiers consume electricity while inverters supply electricity.As a result, most generation and consumption facilities in a future grid can be equipped and unified with the same synchronization mechanism to maintain grid stability in a <a href="https://resourcecenter.ieee-pels.org/education/webinars/pelsweb032018v#:~:text=Qing%2DChang%20Zhong&text=Power%20systems%20are%20going%20through,syndem.com%20for%20more%20details." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">synchronized-and-democratized</a> (SYNDEM) manner. Yes, you read that correctly. Even devices that use electricity—like motors, computers, and LED lights—can play a similar active role in regulating the grid by autonomously adjusting their power demand according to instantaneous grid conditions. A less critical load can adapt its power demand by a larger percentage as needed, even up to 100%. In comparison, a more critical load can adjust its power demand at a smaller percentage or maintain its power demand. As a result, the power balance in a SYNDEM grid no longer depends predominantly on adjusting the supply but on dynamically adjusting both the supply and the demand, making it easier to maintain grid stability with intermittent renewable energy sources.For many loads, it is often not a problem to adjust their demand by 5-10% for a short period. Cumulatively, this offers significant support for the grid. Due to the rapid response of VSM, the support provided by such loads is equivalent to inertia and/or spinning reserve—extra power from synchronized generators not at full load. This can reduce the need for large spinning reserves that are currently necessary in power systems and reduce the effort to coordinate generation facilities. It also mitigates the impact of dwindling inertia caused by the retirement of conventional large generating facilities.In a SYNDEM grid, all active grid players, regardless of size, whether conventional or renewable, supplying or consuming, would follow the same SYNDEM rule of law and play the same equal role in maintaining grid stability, democratizing power systems, and paving the way for autonomous operation. It is worth highlighting that the autonomous operation can be achieved without relying on communication networks or human intervention, lowering costs and improving security.The SYNDEM architecture takes VSMs to new heights, addressing all three systemic challenges mentioned above: democratization, compatibility, and scalability. With this architecture, you can stack grids at different scales, much like building blocks. Each home grid can be operated on its own, multiple home grids can be connected to form a neighborhood grid, and multiple neighborhood grids can be connected to create a community grid, and so on. Moreover, such a grid can be decomposed into smaller grids when needed and can reconnect to form a single grid, all autonomously, without changing codes or issuing commands. The holistic theory is established, the enabling technologies are in place, and the governing standard is approved. However, the full realization of VSMs within the SYNDEM architecture depends on joint ventures and global deployment. This isn’t a task for any one group alone. We must act together. Whether you’re a policymaker, innovator, investor, or simply someone who cares about keeping the lights on, you can play a role. Join us to make power systems worldwide stable, reliable, sustainable, and, eventually, fully autonomous.

Dec 15, 2025

Remembering Influential Engineering Educator Lyle Feisel

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/lyle-feisel-smiling-in-front-of-a-bookshelf.jpg?id=62485810&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=62%2C0%2C63%2C0"/> <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/5913/campus-mourns-watson-college-founding-dean-lyle-feisel" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lyle Feisel</a>, an influential engineering educator and dedicated IEEE volunteer, died on 5 November at the age of 90.Feisel was a professor of electrical engineering and the founding dean of the <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/watson/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Watson engineering school</a> at the <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">State University of New York, Binghamton</a>. He established its organizational structure, academic programs, and culture. He also hired the majority of its faculty.For more than six decades, the Life Fellow helped define IEEE’s long-term approach to education and professional development. He served in key leadership roles for <a href="https://ea.ieee.org/ea-programs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Educational Activities</a>, the <a href="https://history.ieee.org/about/ieee-history-committee/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE History Committee</a>, the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-life-members-reconnect" target="_blank">IEEE Life Members Committee</a>, and the <a data-linked-post="2659934900" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-foundation-celebrates-50-years" target="_blank">IEEE Foundation</a>.“Lyle Feisel’s passion, compassion, and thoughtfulness were an inspiration to everyone who knew him,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-galuchie" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Karen Galuchie</a>, the IEEE Foundation’s executive director. “I feel privileged to have known him. The IEEE community was fortunate to have such a dedicated and caring leader.”<h2>Early career highlights</h2>Feisel served in the U.S. <a href="https://www.navy.mil/About/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Navy</a> from 1954 to 1958 as a radio operator—which sparked his interest in electronics and communications. After his active duty ended, he earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from <a href="https://www.iastate.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Iowa State University</a>, in Ames.In 1964 he joined the <a href="https://www.sdsmt.edu/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">South Dakota School of Mines and Technology,</a> in Rapid City, as a researcher and professor of electrical engineering. He taught there for 20 years.Feisel’s research focused on thin-film materials, including tin-oxide films. He pursued early solar-cell research during a time when photovoltaics were still a niche experimental field. He supervised numerous undergraduate and graduate students and wrote an undergraduate curriculum that emphasized design projects and laboratory work.By the late 1970s, Feisel was promoted to head of the EE department, where he helped update curriculum, recruit faculty, and expand research programs.<h2>Building an institution from the ground up</h2>Feisel left South Dakota Mines in 1983 to join SUNY Binghamton (now Binghamton University). That same year he founded the university’s Watson engineering school (now the <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/watson/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science</a>). He served as dean until his retirement in 2001.In a <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/4396/stories-from-watson-college-decade-by-decade" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2023 interview</a> about his career with the university’s newspaper, Feisel recalled that the school was “constantly growing and changing.”“Every year, new programs were added,” he said. “If you look at the number of degrees in 1983 and the number we had in 2001, there’s no comparison at all.”Feisel recognized the importance of interdisciplinary programs among EE, mechanical engineering, computer science, and industrial engineering to create new courses. He emphasized hands-on laboratory work and industry partnerships to better prepare students for their careers.“Dean Feisel came at the right time, to the right place, and brought together all of the elements necessary to create superb academic programs and to attract faculty who excel in their fields,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-f-mcgoff-670b728" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Michael McGoff</a> wrote in a <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/5913/campus-mourns-watson-college-founding-dean-lyle-feisel" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tribute</a> published on SUNY-Binghamton’s website. McGoff served as assistant dean and associate dean under Feisel for 17 years.“Without his vision,” McGoff said, “there would not be a Watson College today.”<h2>Extensive leadership across IEEE</h2>Feisel dedicated decades to leadership and service across IEEE, especially in roles that shaped educational policy, historical preservation, and member engagement.He was a longstanding member of the <a href="https://ieee-edusociety.org/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Education Society</a>, serving as its 1978–1979 president.As vice president of IEEE Educational Activities from 2000 to 2003, he played a central role in shaping programs that supported engineering faculty, students, and practitioners worldwide. He helped guide IEEE’s strategic plans for accreditation, continuing education, and the expansion of digital learning resources.“Lyle Feisel’s passion, compassion, and thoughtfulness were an inspiration to everyone who knew him.” —Karen Galuchie“IEEE is incredibly blessed to have volunteers, like Lyle, who passionately work on behalf of the mission of our organization,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-moesch-7502b31" target="_blank">Jamie Moesch</a>, managing director of IEEE Educational Activities.Feisel also was involved with <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-accrediting-engineering-programs" target="_self">ABET</a>, the organization responsible for accrediting engineering programs. In the late 1980s he served on the Engineering Accreditation Commission, ABET’s primary body responsible for setting accreditation criteria and overseeing evaluation processes. IEEE is a founding member of the organization.Education wasn’t Feisel’s only passion. He served as 2006 chair of the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-life-members-reconnect" target="_self">IEEE Life Members Committee</a>, which supports those at least 65 years old who have been members long enough so that their age and years of membership equal or exceed 100.He was a member of the IEEE Foundation board of directors and the 2012—2013 chair of the IEEE History Committee. While chair, Feisel proposed creating a multimedia-based history program for young people, which evolved to the <a href="https://reach.ieee.org/" target="_blank">IEEE REACH Program</a>. It offers preuniversity history teachers free access to educational resources so students can explore engineering and technology and how they impact society.“Lyle exemplified the sort of long-term, engaged, active volunteer that makes IEEE be IEEE,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-geselowitz-9a9079b" target="_blank">Michael Geselowitz</a>, senior director of the <a href="https://www.ieee.org/about/history-center" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE History Center</a>.<h2>A legacy of generosity</h2>Feisel was recognized as a “<a href="https://www.ieeefoundation.org/an-eclectic-journey-of-service-and-generosity/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Forever Generous</a>” donor by the IEEE Foundation for his sustained support of scholarships, student programs, and educational initiatives. He and his wife, Dorothy, are members of the <a href="https://www.ieeefoundation.org/our-supporters/ieee-goldsmith-legacy-league/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Goldsmith Legacy League</a>, which recognizes IEEE members who have included the IEEE Foundation in their estate plans.“The critical function of the IEEE Foundation—or any charity—is that it lets you help accomplish a goal that you could never achieve by yourself,” Feisel said in a recent <a href="https://www.ieeefoundation.org/an-eclectic-journey-of-service-and-generosity/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">interview</a> with the Foundation. “Acting alone, we could never put a girl through high school in Guatemala, teach a class in New Jersey about the history of engineering, illuminate a light bulb in Haiti, or take a kid for a ride on a replica sailing ship.“By giving to the IEEE Foundation and other charities,” he said, “we’re able to help do all of those things.”

Dec 13, 2025

7 Bell Labs Breakthroughs Honored as IEEE Milestones

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/tom-coughlin-kathleen-kramer-and-thierry-klein-posing-in-front-of-a-wall-with-seven-ieee-milestone-plaques.jpg?id=62301705&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=62%2C0%2C63%2C0"/> Bell Labs is already highly recognized, but in its centennial year, the organization hoped to add more awards to burnish its reputation as one of the world’s leading centers of technical innovation.On 21 October, <a href="https://www.ieee.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE</a> representatives, <a href="https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nokia Bell Labs</a> leaders, and alumni of the storied institution gathered to celebrate seven technological achievements recognized as <a href="https://ethw.org/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Milestones</a>:<ul><li><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/molecular-beam-epitaxy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Molecular beam epitaxy</a>, a chip-making process key to many transistors and lasers.</li><li>The <a href="https://journals.aps.org/rmp/pdf/10.1103/RevModPhys.71.875" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fractional quantum Hall effect</a>, a physics discovery important to quantum computing.</li><li><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/convolutional-neural-networks" target="_self">Convolutional neural networks</a> launched the modern AI era.</li><li>The <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/bellmac-32-ieee-milestone" target="_self">Bellmac-32</a>, a groundbreaking microprocessor.</li><li><a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2014/press-release/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Super resolution fluorescence microscopy</a>, a vital tool for cell biology.</li><li>The <a href="https://mcdonaldobservatory.org/research/instruments/charged-coupled-devices" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">charge-coupled device</a>: the foundation of digital imaging.</li><li><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/big-bang-theory-discovery" target="_self">Project Echo and Telstar</a>, efforts that led to satellite communication and the discovery of the cosmic microwave background.</li></ul>The large number of milestones granted at once is due to an extraordinary effort to achieve the recognitions during <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/bell-labs-100-birthday" target="_self">Bell Labs’ 100th anniversary year</a>, which IEEE Fellow<a href="https://www.nokia.com/people/peter-vetter/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Peter Vetter</a>, president of Nokia Bell Labs core research, told the attendees was always intended as a full 12 months of celebrations.Speakers emphasized that celebrating such history inspires today’s—and tomorrow’s—engineers.“History gives us context,” <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-presidents-note-september-2025" target="_self">IEEE President Kathleen Kramer</a> said. “It reminds us why we do what we do.”<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/todsizer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Theodore Sizer</a>, Nokia Bell Labs executive vice president,<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/todsizer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>said of the recognition, “We are also here to celebrate the 100 years ahead of us.”Presenters at the event acknowledged the outsize role Bell Labs has played in the development of many technologies, noting that it helped make <a href="https://ieeer1.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Region 1</a>—the Eastern United States—a powerhouse of innovation. Sixty of the 285 IEEE milestones that have been granted so far were to technologies developed in Region 1, noted its director,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/IEEEDay/videos/mr-bala-prasanna-ieee-region-1-director-a-special-note-from-prasanna-honoring-th/1144637610962126/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Bala Prasanna</a>, an IEEE life senior member.“Bell Labs stands at the heart of that legacy,” Prasanna said.<a href="https://nextg.princeton.edu/2025-symposium-speakers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>IEEE Life Member <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/emad.farag" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emad Farag</a>, chair of the <a href="https://r1.ieee.org/northjersey/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE North Jersey Section</a>, said, “This section has given birth to technology that is at the heart of modern life.”<h2>Molecular beam epitaxy </h2>The high-purity crystal growth process called molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) was developed by IEEE Fellow <a href="https://www.invent.org/inductees/alfred-y-cho" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Alfred Y. Cho</a> in the 1960s. Used to grow thin films of crystal atop one another, the process makes possible <a href="https://mwe.ee.ethz.ch/research/HEMT.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">high-electron mobility transistors</a>, <a href="https://spie.org/publications/spie-publication-resources/optipedia-free-optics-information/fg12_p40_vcsel" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers</a> (VCSELs), and other technologies.With MBE, ultrapure elements such as gallium and arsenic are heated within the side compartments of a vacuum chamber. Inside the chamber sits a heated target semiconductor wafer. The elements sublimate, evaporating and flying at the target wafer, where they attach and combine, slowly growing into a layer of crystal.“It sounds straightforward, but it’s difficult to get it right,” said IEEE Fellow <a href="https://www.nokia.com/people/david-neilson/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">David Nielson</a>, group leader for optical transmission at Bell Labs. “The thermodynamics going on at the surface in MBE is incredibly complex.”VCSELs are dependent on MBE, Nielson noted. They rely on multiple vertical semiconductor layers to form internal reflectors and other structures. VCSELs are key to the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/face-recognition" target="_self">facial recognition</a> systems used to unlock smartphones today. The tiny array of lasers paints your face with a pattern of dots to create a 3D map.Because MBE happens one atomic layer at a time and under clean-room conditions, it gives scientists unprecedented control over the thickness, composition, and purity of each layer—similar to 3D printing but at the nanometer scale, according to the <a href="https://uiowa.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">University of Iowa</a> physics and astronomy department’s <a href="https://physics.uiowa.edu/molecular-beam-epitaxy-lab#:~:text=Growth%20materials%20include%20Ga%2C%20Al,6%2C000%2Dgallon%20liquid%20nitrogen%20tank." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MBE Lab</a>.Building up enough layers to make a useful device—a process that happens at the glacial pace of 1 micrometer (or less) per hour—was a test of Bell Labs scientists’ patience and determination, Nielson said.“In the lab, we used to say MBE didn’t just stand for molecular beam epitaxy; it also meant many boring evenings,” he joked.The scientists’ steadfast attention and patience paid off.“It unlocked all sorts of new materials,” Nielson said. “It allows you to build materials that don’t naturally exist. Some of the impacts in the scientific domain include <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_quantum_Hall_effect" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fractional quantum Hall effects</a>—another Bell Labs innovation being celebrated today.”As Cho recounted in a <a href="https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2015/06/102702406-05-01-acc.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2010 interview</a> for the <a href="https://computerhistory.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Computer History Museum</a>’s oral history series, he began working at the Murray Hill facility in 1968. His colleague <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Arthur_Jr." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">John R. Arthur Jr.</a> soon proposed a new approach to fine-tuning the semiconductor formulations: Evaporate pure elements such as gallium and arsenic in an ultrahigh vacuum, then let the resulting molecular beams travel unimpeded, allowing them to condense on a heated crystalline substrate. Cho said in the oral history that Arthur’s idea inspired him to connect insights gleaned from research papers, lectures, and his own graduate work.When asked how he invented what became known as MBE, he described it as “linking ideas from one field to another to create something entirely new.”Cho understood how early effusion cells (the combustion chambers in which the elements are heated until they break down into their molecular or atomic components) and cesium ion emitters (which improve the orderliness of the atomic layering) worked in an ultrahigh vacuum.He applied that knowledge, along with his background in surface physics—the understanding of how to monitor and assess the quality of the atomic layers through <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/electron-diffraction" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">electron diffraction</a> and how to remove oxides to clean surfaces—to the growth of semiconductor materials. By connecting surface physics, ion engines, and crystal growth, he helped create a new field, he said in the oral history.“History gives us context. It reminds us why we do what we do.” —IEEE President Kathleen KramerBy the end of 1968, he and Arthur had built the first experimental MBE system. Their 1969 Bell Labs technical memo and follow-up <a href="https://pubs.aip.org/aip/apl" target="_blank">Applied Physics Letters</a> paper documented the first high-quality gallium arsenide layers with atomically sharp interfaces—something no other technique could achieve. What astonished their colleagues was the repeatability: By controlling shutter timing, temperature, and beam flux—the rate at which elements evaporate and their atoms flow toward the target wafer—they could reproduce identical structures repeatedly.The invention had all the hallmarks of the Bell Labs tradition: a simple question pursued with rigor, a culture that valued exploration over deadlines, and an audacious belief that even the smallest layer of matter could be engineered to perfection.The <a href="https://ethw.org/Milestones:Molecular_Beam_Epitaxy,_1968%E2%80%931970" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Milestone plaque</a> honoring MBE reads:“In 1968–1970, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) techniques using reflection high-energy electron diffraction for growing epitaxial compound semiconductor films were introduced. MBE deposits single-crystal structures one atomic layer at a time, creating materials that cannot be duplicated through other known techniques. This precise crystal growth method revolutionized the fabrication of semiconductor devices, quantum structures, and electronic devices, including lasers for reading and writing optical disc media.” <h2>Charge-coupled device</h2>In 1969 two Bell Labs physicists and IEEE Life Fellows—<a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2009/boyle/facts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Willard S. Boyle</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2009/smith/facts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">George E. Smith</a>—scribbled an idea on a blackboard that would quietly reshape the way the world records light. Their concept, sketched amid a one-hour conversation, would become the <a href="https://mcdonaldobservatory.org/research/instruments/charged-coupled-devices" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">charge-coupled device</a>, or CCD—a breakthrough that, as <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Scientific American</a> noted in its <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/issue/sa/1974/02-01/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">February 1974 issue</a>, seemed poised to improve TV cameras and astronomical imaging. It eventually ushered in the digital photography revolution and changed how scientists see the universe.At the time, Bell Labs was in one of its most fertile phases, having already given the world the transistor, the laser, and information theory. The company was turning its attention to solid-state imaging and memory—technologies it hoped might one day support the burgeoning field of electronic communications. Boyle, then head of the device concepts department, and Smith, a physicist known for his intuitive design skills, were exploring how to create a new kind of semiconductor memory.The spark came partly from internal competition. As Smith recalled during his Nobel lecture, Bell Labs’ Electronics division had two groups: William Boyle’s semiconductor department and another department which handled all other technologies. Under pressure to advance magnetic bubble memory, vice president Jack Morton urged Boyle’s group to develop a competing semiconductor device or see resources shift to the other group.“To address this demand, on October 17, 1969, Bill and I got together in his office,” Smith <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/smith_lecture.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">later explained</a>. “In a discussion lasting not much more than an hour, the basic structure of the CCD was sketched out on the blackboard, the principles of operation defined, and some preliminary ideas concerning applications were developed,” he said.According to Bell Labs’ internal technical reports, the essence of their idea was that a grid of capacitors that could hold and shift electrical charges, one to the next, in a controlled sequence. The charge-coupled device would store data.The CCD’s image-capture capability was an accidental discovery, Sizer said during his presentation at the Milestone ceremony.Boyle and Smith were testing the CCD for use as a memory circuit “when they noticed that light in the room flipped bits in the device,” Sizer said. “That accident connected light and information—and turned a memory circuit into an imaging sensor.”“Today the essence of that blackboard sketch lives in every smartphone camera. The CCD turned light into data. It taught machines to see.”Within weeks, Boyle and Smith had a working prototype, which under laboratory lamps produced a faint but discernible pattern—a “ghostly image,” as Smith later described it.Bell Labs quickly organized teams to refine the fabrication process, improve signal-to-noise ratio, and explore an array of uses including in video cameras and data storage arrays.Management appeared to recognize the potential almost immediately, though commercial products were still years away. As noted at the time by former Bell Labs president <a href="https://ethw.org/Mervin_J._Kelly" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mervin J. Kelly</a>, the CCD fit squarely within the institution’s mission: pushing the frontiers of solid-state electronics to strengthen communication systems.“AT&T’s Bell Labs News wrote that it could be used in a small color TV camera for future videophones—a remarkably clairvoyant prediction,” Sizer said.By the mid-1970s, companies including <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/Fairchild-Semiconductor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fairchild Semiconductor</a>,<a href="https://www.rca.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> RCA</a>, and <a href="https://www.sony.com/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sony</a> had taken the concept further, producing the first CCD video cameras and astronomical imagers, according to the <a href="https://www.digitalkameramuseum.de/en/history#:~:text=1973%20%2D%20Fairchild%20CCD,with%20an%20array%20of%20480x390px." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Digital Camera Museum</a>.The device soon found its way into camcorders, telescopes, fax machines, and medical instruments. By the 1990s, CCDs had become the gold standard for digital imaging.When Boyle and Smith received <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the Nobel Prize in Physics</a> in 2009, they credited the company’s culture for their success.“Bell Labs gave us the freedom to think in any direction,” Smith said in an interview about the Nobel Prize. “That was its genius.”The <a href="https://ethw.org/Milestones:Charge-Coupled_Device,_1969" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Milestone plaque</a> honoring the CCD reads:“The charge-coupled device (CCD), originally conceived for digital memory applications, was later shown to offer a compact, sensitive, and efficient way to convert light into digital signals by storing light-generated charges in a series of tiny capacitors. Invented and developed by Bell Labs scientists Willard Boyle, George Smith, and Michael Tompsett, CCDs found wide use in astronomical instruments, medical imaging, and consumer electronics.”<h2>Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy</h2>According to accounts from Bell Labs archives and interviews published by the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/the-nobel-prize-organisation/the-nobel-foundation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nobel Foundation</a>, by the early 1990s, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2014/betzig/facts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eric Betzig</a>’s corner of the Bell Labs facility was alive with the hum of possibility. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nmeth817" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">He received a </a>2014 <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2014/betzig/facts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nobel Prize in Chemistry</a><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nmeth817" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">.</a><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nmeth817" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fluorescence microscopy</a>—a biologist’s window into the cell—had hit the diffraction limit of about 200 nanometers (or roughly half the wavelength of visible light), which had been postulated a century earlier by physicist<a href="https://www.acp.uni-jena.de/1771/about-ernst-abbe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Ernst Abbe</a>. But Betzig suspected there was a way around it. His idea was radical for its time: If a single fluorescent molecule could be detected, he theorized, then perhaps an image could be built one molecule at a time, with each point localized far more precisely than the laws of optics previously seemed to allow.Bell Labs continued to evolve through the 1990s, yet remained one of the world’s great research institutions. The<a href="https://www.fjc.gov/history/spotlight-judicial-history/breakup-ma-bell" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> breakup of AT&T</a> ushered in a more commercially aware era. As a result, researchers were asked to balance blue-sky curiosity with a clearer line of sight to practical applications.For Betzig and other researchers, whose passion leaned toward fundamental physics rather than communications or materials science, that balance was hard to strike, according to a 2012 <a href="https://time.com/archive/7106285/like-building-refrigerators-bell-labs-and-the-end-of-game-changing-innovation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Time magazine article</a> written by <a href="https://journalism.princeton.edu/people/jon-gertner/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jon Gertner</a>, adapted from his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovation/dp/0143122797" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation</a>.The lab did not become hostile to discovery. Far from it. But management steered toward projects that promised tangible short-term returns in telecommunications and optoelectronics, Gertner said.Betzig’s work on single-molecule fluorescence, while elegant, was difficult to justify within the emerging priorities. Over time, he felt his path diverging from that of the company.“It wasn’t that they were wrong,” he said in a 2014 Nobel interview with the <a href="https://www.kva.se/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences</a>. “Just that my interests no longer fit.”After demonstrating single-molecule imaging in 1993, as documented in his paper in <a href="https://opg.optica.org/ol/home.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Optics Letters</a> that year, Betzig found himself at a crossroads. Rather than retool his research to fit Bell Labs’ shifting agenda, he chose to step away. He left in 1995 to work at his father’s machine shop in Michigan—a move described in a September 2015 New York Times profile.“In a discussion lasting not much more than an hour, the basic structure of the CCD was sketched out on the blackboard, the principles of operation defined, and some preliminary ideas concerning applications were developed.” —George E.Smith, 2009 Physics Nobel laureate The story might have ended there if not for another promising physicist determined to break through Abbe’s theoretical boundary. Physicist <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2014/hell/facts/" target="_blank">Stefan W. Hell</a>, an IEEE member, began publishing papers describing his <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43586-024-00335-1" target="_blank">stimulated emission depletion</a> (STED) microscopy technique. It used a laser to make fluorescent molecules glow and a second, donut-shape laser to suppress fluorescence everywhere except a nanometer-scale central point so that telescopes could resolve features much smaller than half a wavelength.Hell’s technique was among several advances in microscopy that spurred Betzig to resume his career in science. He joined the <a href="https://www.janelia.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus</a>, in Ashburn, Va., where he continued his research.Together <a href="https://www.invent.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/2024_Fact_Sheet_Harald_Hess.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">with Harald Hess</a>, another Bell Labs alumnus, Betzigl developed a working prototype demonstrating the feasibility of his microscopy method, which he called <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18408726/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">photoactivated localization microscopy</a>, or PALM. It broke through the diffraction limit by precisely mapping thousands of blinking molecules to reconstruct nanometer-scale images.Betzig shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for that work with Hell and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2014/moerner/facts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Life Senior Member William E. Moerner.</a> In 1988, while working at IBM’s <a href="https://research.ibm.com/labs/almaden" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Almaden Research Center</a> in Silicon Valley, Moerner achieved the first optical detection of a single molecule.For Betzig, the award was a reflection of Bell Labs’ enduring legacy—and the kind of deep, foundational curiosity it instilled in generations of scientists.“Bell Labs taught me how to think,” he said in his Nobel Foundation biography and in interviews with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. “Even after I left, I was still one of theirs.”The <a href="https://ethw.org/Milestones:Super-Resolved_Fluorescence_Microscopy,_1992" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Milestone plaque</a> honoring super-resolution fluorescence microscopy reads:“The first super-resolution image of a biological sample was obtained in 1992 by exciting and collecting light diffracted in the near field of the sample. This breakthrough achievement, called super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, exploited the properties of evanescent waves and made single-molecule microscopy possible. Its successful use in imaging single fluorophores inspired applications in cell biology, microbiology, and neurobiology.”<h2>Fractional Quantum Hall Effect</h2>In early 1982, in a low-temperature laboratory at Bell Labs, physicist <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1998/stormer/biographical/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Horst L. Störmer</a> watched a set of electrical traces appear on an oscilloscope that defied every expectation. The measurements were taken from a wafer of gallium arsenide cooled to a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero and placed in a powerful magnetic field. The pattern that emerged showed “beautiful, clean plateaus in Hall resistance, but at fractional values of e2/h”—the fundamental constant, where e represents the electrons’ charge and h equals <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Plancks-constant" target="_blank">Planck’s constant</a>, the value of the smallest possible discrete packets of energy at atomic and subatomic scales, according to <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/stormer-lecture.pdf" target="_blank">Störmer’s Nobel lecture</a> in 1998.To Störmer and his colleague <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1998/tsui/facts/" target="_blank">Daniel C. Tsui</a>, it was a moment both thrilling and disorienting. The electrons should have behaved like independent particles. Instead they were somehow acting as if they had split into smaller, correlated entities: quasiparticles with fractional charge. The phenomenon had no place in classical theory—at least not yet.The discovery of the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1998/9580-practice-and-theory/" target="_blank">fractional quantum Hall effect</a> (FQHE) led to “the development of new theoretical concepts of significance in many branches of modern physics,” as stated by the <a href="https://www.kva.se/en/" target="_blank">Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences</a> in the news release announcing that <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1998/press-release/" target="_blank">Störmer and Tsui had been named Nobel laureates</a>. As chronicled in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15387305" target="_blank">Bell Labs Technical Journal</a> and the Nobel Foundation’s background material about the technology, FQHE emerged from the collaborative environment at Bell Labs.Störmer joined the company in 1970 to study high-mobility two-dimensional electron systems—structures made possible by<a href="https://research-hub.nrel.gov/en/publications/chapter-4-principles-of-molecular-beam-epitaxy/" target="_blank"> molecular beam epitaxy</a>. The exquisitely pure gallium arsenide/aluminum–gallium arsenide heterostructures allowed electrons to move almost without scattering, making them ideal playgrounds for exploring quantum phenomena.Working with Tsui, who had a well-honed feel for experimentation, Störmer began studying how the two-dimensional electron gases behaved under magnetic fields of several teslas. In 1980 <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1985/klitzing/facts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Klaus von Klitzing</a> at the <a href="https://www.fkf.mpg.de/en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Planck Institute for Solid State Research</a>, in Stuttgart, Germany, discovered the <a href="https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/phys/theoretical-physics/itp-dam/documents/gaberdiel/proseminar_fs2018/07_Meng.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">integer quantum Hall effect</a>. Von Klitzing showed that current flow, instead of varying smoothly across the magnetic field, forms plateaus at precise, quantized values in integer multiples of e2/h—a discovery that earned him the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics.Störmer and Tsui noted in a 1982 <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/" target="_blank">Physical Review Letters</a> paper (“<a href="https://journals.aps.org/rmp/abstract/10.1103/RevModPhys.71.S298" target="_blank">The Fractional Quantum Hall Effect</a>”) that their data showed the plateaus appeared not just at integers but at simple fractions such as one-third. Something entirely new was happening.At first, neither Störmer nor Tsui could believe the measurements. The duo was surprised by the data they were seeing, according to the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1998/press-release/#:~:text=In%20their%20refined%20experimental%20studies,the%20fractional%20quantum%20Hall%20effect." target="_blank">news release</a> announcing that they had been named Nobel laureates. The results did not conform with existing theories. Yet repeated experiments confirmed the result.Within weeks, the pair had a preprint ready for Physical Review Letters. It was published in November 1982.The theoretical explanation came soon after, from <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1998/laughlin/facts/" target="_blank">Robert B. Laughlin</a>, then a young theorist at <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/" target="_blank">Stanford</a>. In a landmark 1983 Physical Review Letters paper, Laughlin explained theoretically what the Bell Labs researchers were seeing with their experiments. Laughlin proposed that under extreme magnetic fields and low temperatures, electrons could condense into a new collective quantum state—a “liquidlike state of matter” (such as a <a href="https://www.livescience.com/54667-bose-einstein-condensate.html" target="_blank">Bose-Einstein condensate</a>)—supporting subatomic particles carrying a fraction of the electron’s charge. Laughlin’s elegant wavefunction not only explained the 1/3 state but also predicted an entire family of fractional states—all later confirmed experimentally.The work exemplified the Bell Labs ecosystem at its best: precision materials from Cho’s MBE group, cryogenic measurement expertise from the low-temperature labs, and an atmosphere that encouraged cross-disciplinary risk-taking.“We were never told to stop,” Störmer recalled in a <a href="https://physicsworld.com/" target="_blank">Physics World</a> interview.Störmer, Tsui, and Laughlin shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery and theoretical explanation of the FQHE.The <a href="https://ethw.org/Milestones:Fractional_Quantum_Hall_Effect,_1982" target="_blank">IEEE Milestone plaque</a> honoring the discovery of the FQHE reads:“In 1982 Bell Labs researchers revealed a new phase of matter, an incompressible quantum fluid that supports fractional charges. Daniel Tsui and Horst Störmer experimentally observed this result in two-dimensional electron systems confined within gallium arsenide heterostructures engineered by Arthur Gossard. This discovery, named the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE), transformed key concepts in physics while opening new directions in quantum computation and other potential applications.” <h2>Convolutional neural networks</h2>In the late 1980s, when most of the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/artificial-intelligence" target="_self">artificial intelligence</a> community had grown disenchanted with neural networks, a small group of researchers at the Bell Labs facility in Holmdel, N.J., would not let the idea die. Their goal was deceptively simple: Teach computers to see as humans do by recognizing patterns in raw pixels.The <a href="https://www.usps.com/ship/welcome.htm?utm_medium=search&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=evergreenps&utm_content=e329_eese&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=6558889088&gbraid=0AAAAADpMVX-Tvl9hIOhWfDqOpd1ueRE5I&gclid=CjwKCAiAzrbIBhA3EiwAUBaUdVkNTiIDsIdc1XP0jdAVyPPY6Le3rVt38-F_ryiqMctgsK5yBnqy4xoCW3sQAvD_BwE" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. Postal Service</a> was looking for a faster, more accurate way to read handwritten <a href="https://faq.usps.com/s/article/ZIP-Code-The-Basics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ZIP codes</a>. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/facebook-ai-director-yann-lecun-on-deep-learning" target="_self">Yann LeCun</a>’s Bell Labs team trained a neural network on thousands of digit samples with varying slants and handwriting pressure. By the early 1990s, the team had built a prototype that matched human-level digit-reading accuracy.The technology behind it—<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/convolutional-neural-networks" target="_self">convolutional neural networks</a> (CNNs)—was inspired by the human visual cortex. As LeCun explained in his 1998 <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Proceedings of the IEEE</a> paper, “<a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/726791" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gradient-Based Learning Applied to Document Recognition</a>,”CNNs learn their filters directly from images through the mathematical operation of convolution. The idea drew on earlier work by researcher <a href="https://personalpage.flsi.or.jp/fukushima/index-e.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kunihiko Fukushima</a>, whose 1980 <a href="https://www.rctn.org/bruno/public/papers/Fukushima1980.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“neocognitron</a>” model proposed a similar layered structure. LeCun frequently credited Fukushima as an influence, but his Bell Labs team made the concept practical.Working with colleagues including <a href="https://yoshuabengio.org/profile/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yoshua Bengio</a>, LeCun implemented multilayer CNNs on state-of-the-art workstations and trained them using <a href="https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/backpropagation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">backpropagation</a>, a technique formalized in a 1986 Nature paper coauthored by <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2024/hinton/facts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Geoffrey Hinton</a>—the Nobel laureate under whom LeCun served as a postdoctoral researcher at the<a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> University of Toronto</a> before joining Bell Labs.By 1993, Bell Labs’ parent company, <a href="https://about.att.com/pages/corporate-profile" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AT&T</a>, had deployed CNN technology commercially in its check-sorting and mail-reading systems. Millions of envelopes were processed daily by CNN-enabled machines, according to Klover.ai’s <a href="https://www.klover.ai/convolutional-neural-networks-cnns-history-impact-future/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">history of the technology</a>.Despite that success, neural networks soon fell out of favor. As <a href="https://cacm.acm.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Communications of the ACM</a> reported, limited data and computing power made newer methods, such as <a href="https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/support-vector-machine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">support vector machines</a>, appear more effective. After Bell Labs’ 1996 spinoff into <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lucent-Technologies-Inc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lucent Technologies</a>, research priorities shifted to short-term, market-driven goals.Yet the intellectual groundwork endured. LeCun’s 1998 publication of<a href="https://d2l.ai/chapter_convolutional-neural-networks/lenet.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> LeNet-5</a> became a cornerstone for the next generation of AI researchers. When<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-is-deep-learning/neural-network" target="_self"> deep learning</a> reemerged in the 2010s—fueled by powerful GPUs and vast image datasets—CNNs became the foundation of modern computer vision, enabling self-driving cars, advanced medical imaging, and smartphone cameras.In 2018 LeCun, Bengio, and Hinton received the <a href="https://amturing.acm.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Turing Award</a>—referred to as the “Nobel Prize of computing”—from the <a href="https://www.acm.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Association for Computing Machinery</a> for their contributions to deep learning. By then, LeCun was a professor at <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York University</a> and director of <a href="https://www.meta.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Meta AI</a> research—the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a> parent company’s AI lab. He often credits Bell Labs as the place where the modern neural network learned to see.The <a href="https://ethw.org/Milestones:Convolutional_Neural_Networks,_1989" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Milestone plaque</a> honoring convolutional neural networks reads:“In 1989 research on computational technologies at Bell Laboratories helped establish deep learning as a branch of artificial intelligence. Key efforts led by Yann LeCun developed the theory and practice of convolutional neural networks, which included methods of backpropagation, pruning, regularization, and self-supervised learning. Named LeNet, this deep neural network architecture advanced developments in computer vision, handwriting recognition, and pattern recognition.”<h2>Previously publicized breakthroughs</h2>Two additional innovations, the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/big-bang-theory-discovery" target="_self">Echo project</a> and the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/bellmac-32-ieee-milestone" target="_self">Bellmac-32</a> microprocessor, were honored with IEEE Milestone plaques at the October gathering. Stories of those inventions were detailed and celebrated this year in <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/" target="_self">The Institute</a>. <img alt="Sung-Mo Kang speaking in front of a projector screen displaying information about the BellMac-32 development team." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f9d9595f01e69d2d4e3a639f53b17507" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="cc612" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/sung-mo-kang-speaking-in-front-of-a-projector-screen-displaying-information-about-the-bellmac-32-development-team.jpg?id=62301712&width=980"/>IEEE Life Fellow Sung-Mo “Steve” Kang, one of the lead developers of the Bellmac-32 microprocessor honored as an IEEE Milestone, gave a talk and answered questions about the 1980s-era chip. Ben LoweIEEE Life Fellow <a href="https://chancellor.ucmerced.edu/about-office/past-chancellors/kang" target="_blank">Sung-Mo “Steve” Kang</a>, one of the lead engineers who worked on the development of the Bellmac-32—which pioneered CMOS chip architecture and featured several other firsts—spoke at the Milestone event.The Bellmac-32 had 150,000 transistors—“massive for 1981,” Kang said. “Today, a student could do that in a semester with CAD tools, but at that time, it took a hundred engineers.”Plaques recognizing the seven IEEE Milestones are displayed in the lobby at the Nokia Bell Labs facility in Murray Hill, N.J. The IEEE North Jersey Section sponsored the nominations.Administered by the <a href="https://www.ieee.org/about/history-center" target="_blank">IEEE History Center</a> and supported by donors, the Milestone program recognizes outstanding technical developments worldwide that are at least 25 years old.<a href="https://ieeetv.ieee.org/" target="_blank">IEEE Multimedia</a> covered the Milestone dedication event. <a href="https://ieeetv.ieee.org/video/ieee-milestone-celebration-nokia-bell-labs-21-october-2025" target="_blank">Click here</a> to watch the ceremony.

Dec 12, 2025

Video Friday: Robot Dog Shows Off Its Muscles

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/person-interacts-with-a-large-robotic-skeleton-model-of-a-canine-on-wheeled-legs-outdoors.png?id=62313004&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=30%2C0%2C30%2C0"/> Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Robotics%20event%20suggestion%20for%20Video%20Friday">send us your events</a> for inclusion.<h5><a href="https://2026.ieee-icra.org/">ICRA 2026</a>: 1–5 June 2026, VIENNA</h5>Enjoy today’s videos!<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><div style="page-break-after: always"> </div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="0np8rafbgqa">Suzumori Endo Lab, Science Tokyo has developed a dog musculoskeletal robot using thin McKibben muscles. This robot mimics the flexible “hammock-like” shoulder structure to investigate the biomechanical functions of dog musculoskeletal systems.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0np8RafBgqA?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://www.robotics.mech.e.titech.ac.jp/suzumori/home.html">Suzimori Endo Robotics Laboratory</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div>HOLEY SNAILBOT!!!<iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AKedCtTmlWI?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://freeformrobotics.org/tllam/">Freeform Robotics</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="gjqd86h9nok">We present a system that transforms speech into physical objects using 3D generative AI and discrete robotic assembly. By leveraging natural language, the system makes design and manufacturing more accessible to people without expertise in 3D modeling or robotic programming.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GJQD86H9Nok?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2025/mit-researchers-speak-objects-existence-using-ai-robotics-1205">MIT</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="zyolmoplpbi">Meet the next generation of edge AI. A fully self-contained <a data-linked-post="2650269104" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/better-eyes-for-flying-robots" target="_blank">vision system</a> built for robotics, automation, and real-world intelligence. Watch how OAK 4 brings compute, sensing, and 3D perception together in one device.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zyOlMOpLPbI?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://www.luxonis.com/oak4">Luxonis</a> ]Thanks, Max!<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="4ywjrcxqzsk">Inspired by vines’ twisty tenacity, engineers at MIT and Stanford University have developed a robotic gripper that can snake around and lift a variety of objects, including a glass vase and a watermelon, offering a gentler approach compared to conventional gripper designs. A larger version of the robo-tendrils can also safely lift a human out of bed.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4ywJrCxqZSk?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2025/vine-inspired-robotic-gripper-gently-lifts-heavy-and-fragile-objects-1210">MIT</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="s5awy8nnim0">The paper introduces an automatic limb attachment system using soft actuated straps and a magnet-hook latch for wearable robots. It enables fast, secure, and comfortable self-donning across various arm sizes, supporting clinical-level loads and precise pressure control.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S5aWy8nnIm0?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-665X/ae2555">Paper</a> ]Thanks, Bram!<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="wdaoxzo92zs"><a data-linked-post="2668536834" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/autonomous-vehicles-great-at-straights" target="_blank">Autonomous driving</a> is the ultimate challenge for AI in the physical world. At Waymo, we’re solving it by prioritizing demonstrably safe AI, where safety is central to how we engineer our models and AI ecosystem from the ground up.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wdAoxZO92Zs?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://waymo.com/blog/2025/12/demonstrably-safe-ai-for-autonomous-driving">Waymo</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="x1elbggbooa">Built by Texas A&M engineering students, this AI-powered robotic dog is reimagining how robots operate in disaster zones. Designed to climb through rubble, avoid hazards and make autonomous decisions in real time, the robot uses a custom multimodal large language model (MLLM) combined with visual memory and voice commands to see, remember and plan its next move like a first responder.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X1ElBGgbOOA?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://engineering.tamu.edu/">Texas A&M</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="sg5gbf4ueb4">So far, aerial microrobots have only been able to fly slowly along smooth trajectories, far from the swift, agile flight of real insects — until now. MIT researchers have demonstrated aerial microrobots that can fly with speed and agility that is comparable to their biological counterparts. A collaborative team designed a new AI-based controller for the robotic bug that enabled it to follow gymnastic flight paths, such as executing continuous body flips.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sg5gBf4uEB4?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2025/mit-engineers-design-aerial-microrobot-fly-like-bumblebee-1203">MIT</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="ujrpefyqw5w">In this audio clip generated by data from the SuperCam microphone aboard NASA’s Perseverance, the sound of an electrical discharge can be heard as a Martian dust devil flies over the Mars rover. The recording was collected on Oct. 12, 2024, the 1,296th Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance’s mission on the Red Planet.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UjrPEFYqW5w?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance/perseverance-rover/nasa-rover-detects-electric-sparks-in-mars-dust-devils-storms/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="ualxgn1mnzo">In this episode, we open the archives on host Hannah Fry’s visit to our California robotics lab. Filmed earlier this year, Hannah interacts with a new set of robots—those that don’t just see, but think, plan, and do. Watch as the team goes behind the scenes to test the limits of generalization, challenging robots to handle unseen objects autonomously.</blockquote><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UALxgn1MnZo?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>[ <a href="https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-robotics/">Google DeepMind</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div>This GRASP on Robotics Seminar is by Parastoo Abtahi from Princeton University, on “When Robots Disappear – From Haptic Illusions in VR to Object-Oriented Interactions in AR”.<iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qeJTR4_NRlI?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe><blockquote>Advances in audiovisual rendering have led to the commercialization of virtual reality (VR); however, haptic technology has not kept up with these advances. While a variety of robotic systems aim to address this gap by simulating the sensation of touch, many hardware limitations make realistic touch interactions in VR challenging. In my research, I explore how, by understanding human perception through the lens of sensorimotor control theory, we can design interactions that not only overcome the current limitations of robotic hardware for VR but also extend our abilities beyond what is possible in the physical world. In the first part of this talk, I will present my work on redirection illusions that leverage the limits of human perception to improve the perceived performance of encountered-type haptic devices in VR, such as the position accuracy of drones and the resolution of shape displays. In the second part, I will share how we apply these illusory interactions to physical spaces and use augmented reality (AR) to facilitate situated and bidirectional human-robot communication, bridging users’ mental models and robotic representations.</blockquote>[ <a href="https://www.grasp.upenn.edu/events/fall-2025-grasp-on-robotics-parastoo-abtahi/">University of Pennsylvania GRASP Laboratory</a> ]<div class="horizontal-rule"></div>

Dec 12, 2025

Webinar: Will AI End Distinct Programming Languages?

Dec 12, 2025

Real-World Diagnostics and Prognostics for Grid-Connected Battery Energy Storage Systems

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/power-lines-tower-over-a-rural-landscape-at-twilight-with-pink-and-blue-clouds-in-the-sky.jpg?id=62304943&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=40%2C0%2C40%2C0"/> This is a sponsored article brought to you by <a href="https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/629147697;436392438;c;gdpr=%24%7BGDPR%7D;gdpr_consent=%24%7BGDPR_CONSENT_755%7D" target="_blank">The University of Sheffield</a>.Across global electricity networks, the shift to renewable energy has fundamentally changed the behavior of power systems. Decades of engineering assumptions, predictable inertia, dispatchable baseload generation, and slow, well-characterized system dynamics, are now eroding as wind and solar become dominant sources of electricity. Grid operators face increasingly steep ramp events, larger frequency excursions, faster transients, and prolonged periods where fossil generation is minimal or absent.In this environment, battery energy storage systems (BESS) have emerged as essential tools for maintaining stability. They can respond in milliseconds, deliver precise power control, and operate flexibly across a range of services. But unlike conventional generation, batteries are sensitive to operational history, thermal environment, state of charge window, system architecture, and degradation mechanisms. Their long-term behavior cannot be described by a single model or simple efficiency curve, it is the product of complex electrochemical, thermal, and control interactions.Most laboratory tests and simulations attempt to capture these effects, but they rarely reproduce the operational irregularities of the grid. Batteries in real markets are exposed to rapid fluctuations in power demand, partial state of charge cycling, fast recovery intervals, high-rate events, and unpredictable disturbances. As <a href="https://sheffield.ac.uk/eee/people/academic-staff/dan-gladwin" target="_blank">Professor Dan Gladwin</a>, who leads Sheffield’s research into grid-connected energy storage, puts it, “you only understand how storage behaves when you expose it to the conditions it actually sees on the grid.”This disconnect creates a fundamental challenge for the industry: How can we trust degradation models, lifetime predictions, and operational strategies if they have never been validated against genuine grid behavior?Few research institutions have access to the infrastructure needed to answer that question. <a href="https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/629147697;436392438;c;gdpr=%24%7BGDPR%7D;gdpr_consent=%24%7BGDPR_CONSENT_755%7D" target="_blank">The University of Sheffield</a> is one of them. <img alt="Rows of battery racks with red connectors in a power storage facility." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="95b22f2ba3635303738a9b23997d6e04" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="e842d" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/rows-of-battery-racks-with-red-connectors-in-a-power-storage-facility.jpg?id=62304947&width=980"/>Sheffield’s Centre for Research into Electrical Energy Storage and Applications (CREESA) operates one of the UK’s only research-led, grid-connected, multi-megawatt battery energy storage testbeds. The University of Sheffield<h2>Sheffield’s unique facility</h2>The <a href="https://sheffield.ac.uk/creesa" target="_blank">Centre for Research into Electrical Energy Storage and Applications (CREESA)</a> operates one of the UK’s only research-led, grid-connected, multi-megawatt battery energy storage testbeds. This environment enables researchers to test storage technologies not just in simulation or controlled cycling rigs, but under full-scale, live grid conditions. As Professor Gladwin notes, “we aim to bridge the gap between controlled laboratory research and the demands of real grid operation.”At the heart of the facility is an 11 kV, 4 MW network connection that provides the electrical and operational realism required for advanced diagnostics, fault studies, control algorithm development, techno-economic analysis, and lifetime modeling. Unlike microgrid scale demonstrators or isolated laboratory benches, Sheffield’s environment allows energy storage assets to interact with the same disturbances, market signals, and grid dynamics they would experience in commercial deployment.“The ability to test at scale, under real operational conditions, is what gives us insights that simulation alone cannot provide.” —Professor Dan Gladwin, The University of SheffieldThe facility includes:<ul><li>A 2 MW / 1 MWh lithium titanate system, among the first independent grid-connected BESS of its kind in the UK</li><li>A 100 kW second-life EV battery platform, enabling research into reuse, repurposing, and circular-economy models</li><li>Support for flywheel systems, supercapacitors, hybrid architectures, and fuel-cell technologies</li><li>More than 150 laboratory cell-testing channels, environmental chambers, and impedance spectroscopy equipment</li><li>High-speed data acquisition and integrated control systems for parameter estimation, thermal analysis, and fault response measurement</li></ul>The infrastructure allows Sheffield to operate storage assets directly on the live grid, where they respond to real market signals, deliver contracted power services, and experience genuine frequency deviations, voltage events, and operational disturbances. When controlled experiments are required, the same platform can replay historical grid and market signals, enabling repeatable full power testing under conditions that faithfully reflect commercial operation. This combination provides empirical data of a quality and realism rarely available outside utility-scale deployments, allowing researchers to analyse system behavior at millisecond timescales and gather data at a granularity rarely achievable in conventional laboratory environments.According to Professor Gladwin, “the ability to test at scale, under real operational conditions, is what gives us insights that simulation alone cannot provide.” <img alt="Man in a suit stands in a lab with equipment and computer showing graphics." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b1b099148caa1fa7436566a5a1ff5eb6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="81b46" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/man-in-a-suit-stands-in-a-lab-with-equipment-and-computer-showing-graphics.jpg?id=62304994&width=980"/>Dan Gladwin, Professor of Electrical and Control Systems Engineering, leads Sheffield’s research into grid-connected energy storage.The University of Sheffield<h2>Setting the benchmark with grid scale demonstration</h2>One of Sheffield’s earliest breakthroughs came with the installation of a 2 MW / 1 MWh lithium titanate demonstrator, a first-of-a-kind system installed at a time when the UK had no established standards for BESS connection, safety, or control. Professor Gladwin led the engineering, design, installation, and commissioning of the system, establishing one of the country’s first independent megawatt scale storage platforms.The project provided deep insight into how high-power battery chemistries behave under grid stressors. Researchers observed sub-second response times and measured the system’s capability to deliver synthetic inertia-like behavior. As Gladwin reflects, “that project showed us just how fast and capable storage could be when properly integrated into the grid.”But the demonstrator’s long-term value has been its continued operation. Over nearly a decade of research, it has served as a platform for:<ul><li>Hybridization studies, including battery-flywheel control architectures</li><li>Response time optimization for new grid services</li><li>Operator training and market integration, exposing control rooms and traders to a live asset</li><li>Algorithm development, including dispatch controllers, forecasting tools, and prognostic and health management systems</li><li>Comparative benchmarking, such as evaluation of different lithium-ion chemistries, lead-acid systems, and second-life batteries</li></ul>A recurring finding is that behavior observed on the live grid often differs significantly from what laboratory tests predict. Subtle electrical, thermal, and balance-of-plant interactions that barely register in controlled experiments can become important at megawatt-scale, especially when systems are exposed to rapid cycling, fluctuating set-points, or tightly coupled control actions. Variations in efficiency, cooling system response, and auxiliary power demand can also amplify these effects under real operating stress. As Professor Gladwin notes, “phenomena that never appear in a lab can dominate behavior at megawatt scale.”These real-world insights feed directly into improved system design. By understanding how efficiency losses, thermal behavior, auxiliary systems, and control interactions emerge at scale, researchers can refine both the assumptions and architecture of future deployments. This closes the loop between application and design, ensuring that new storage systems can be engineered for the operational conditions they will genuinely encounter rather than idealized laboratory expectations.<h2>Ensuring longevity with advanced diagnostics</h2> <img alt="Battery testing unit with connected cables and a metal duct." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a814c289be132be49fe499d17e90337d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="260ac" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/battery-testing-unit-with-connected-cables-and-a-metal-duct.jpg?id=62304950&width=980"/>Sheffield’s Centre for Research into Electrical Energy Storage and Applications (CREESA) enables researchers to test storage technologies not just in simulation or controlled cycling rigs, but under full-scale, live grid conditions.The University of SheffieldEnsuring the long-term reliability of storage requires understanding how systems age under the conditions they actually face. Sheffield’s research combines high-resolution laboratory testing with empirical data from full-scale grid-connected assets, building a comprehensive approach to diagnostics and prognostics. In Gladwin’s words, “A model is only as good as the data and conditions that shape it. To predict lifetime with confidence, we need laboratory measurements, full-scale testing, and validation under real-world operating conditions working together.”A major focus is accurate state estimation during highly dynamic operation. Using advanced observers, Kalman filtering, and hybrid physics-ML approaches, the team has developed methods that deliver reliable SOC, SOH and SOP estimates during rapid power swings, irregular cycling, and noisy conditions where traditional methods break down.Another key contribution is understanding cell-to-cell divergence in large strings. Sheffield’s data shows how imbalance accelerates near SOC extremes, how thermal gradients drive uneven ageing, and how current distribution causes long-term drift. These insights inform balancing strategies that improve usable capacity and safety.Sheffield has also strengthened lifetime and degradation modeling by incorporating real grid behavior directly into the framework. By analyzing actual market signals, frequency deviations, and dispatch patterns, the team uncovers ageing mechanisms that do not appear during controlled laboratory cycling and would otherwise remain hidden.These contributions fall into four core areas:<h4>State Estimation and Parameter Identification</h4><ul><li>Robust SOC/SOH estimation</li><li>Online parameter identification for equivalent circuit models</li><li>Power capability prediction using transient excitation</li><li>Data selection strategies under noise and variability</li></ul><h4>Degradation and Lifetime Modelling</h4><ul><li>Degradation models built on real frequency and market data</li><li>Analysis of micro cycling and asymmetric duty cycles</li><li>Hybrid physics-ML forecasting models</li></ul><h4>Thermal and Imbalance Behavior</h4><ul><li>Characterizing thermal gradients in containerized systems</li><li>Understanding cell imbalance in large-scale systems</li><li>Mitigation strategies at the cell and module level</li><li>Coupled thermal-electrical behavior under fast cycling</li></ul><h4>Hybrid Systems and Multi-Technology Optimization</h4><ul><li>Battery-flywheel coordination strategies</li><li>Techno-economic modeling for hybrid assets</li><li>Dispatch optimization using evolutionary algorithms</li><li>Control schemes that extend lifetime and enhance service performance</li></ul>Beyond grid-connected systems, Sheffield’s diagnostic methods have also proved valuable in off-grid environments. A key example is the collaboration with <a href="https://mopo.co/" target="_blank">MOPO</a>, a company deploying pay-per-swap lithium-ion battery packs in low-income communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. These batteries face deep cycling, variable user behavior, and sustained high temperatures, all without active cooling or controlled environments. The team’s techniques in cell characterization, parameter estimation, and in-situ health tracking have helped extend the usable life of MOPO’s battery packs. “By applying our know-how, we can make these battery-swap packs clean, safe, and significantly more affordable than petrol and diesel generators for the communities that rely on them,” says Professor Gladwin. <iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/imWo0cpiwII?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>Beyond grid-connected systems, Sheffield’s diagnostic methods have also proved valuable in off-grid environments. A key example is the collaboration with MOPO, a company deploying pay-per-swap lithium-ion battery packs in low-income communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. MOPO<h2>Collaboration and the global future</h2>A defining strength of Sheffield’s approach is its close integration with industry, system operators, technology developers, and service providers. Over the past decade, its grid-connected testbed has enabled organizations to trial control algorithms, commission their first battery assets, test market participation strategies, and validate performance under real operational constraints.These partnerships have produced practical engineering outcomes, including improved dispatch strategies, refined control architectures, validated installation and commissioning methods, and a clearer understanding of degradation under real-world market operation. According to Gladwin, “It is a two-way relationship, we bring the analytical and research tools, industry brings the operational context and scale.” <img alt="A man in high-visibility jacket stands by a blue and white shipping container." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="185200c57f1b98691cc91039d814b75c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="6a6ee" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-man-in-high-visibility-jacket-stands-by-a-blue-and-white-shipping-container.jpg?id=62304989&width=980"/>One of Sheffield’s earliest breakthroughs came with the installation of a 2 MW / 1 MWh lithium titanate demonstrator. Professor Gladwin led the engineering, design, installation, and commissioning of the system, establishing one of UK’s first independent megawatt scale storage platforms.The University of SheffieldThis two-way exchange, combining academic insight with operational experience, ensures that Sheffield’s research remains directly relevant to modern power systems. It continues to shape best practice in lifetime modelling, hybrid system control, diagnostics, and operational optimization.As electricity systems worldwide move toward net zero, the need for validated models, proven control algorithms, and empirical understanding will only grow. <a href="https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/629147697;436392438;c;gdpr=%24%7BGDPR%7D;gdpr_consent=%24%7BGDPR_CONSENT_755%7D" target="_blank">Sheffield’s</a> combination of full-scale infrastructure, long-term datasets, and collaborative research culture ensures it will remain at the forefront of developing storage technologies that perform reliably in the environments that matter most, the real world.

Dec 12, 2025

How the RESISTORS Put Computing into 1960s Counter-culture

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-photo-of-teenagers-sitting-and-lying-on-a-rug-one-of-them-is-typing-on-a-computer-keyboard.jpg?id=62304521&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C1225%2C0%2C1226"/> In late April of 1968, a computer conference in Atlantic City, N.J., got off to a rocky start. A strike by telephone operators prevented exhibitors from linking their terminals to off-site computers, as union-sympathetic workers refused to wire up the necessary connections. Companies’ displays were effectively dead. <img alt="Book cover for ReadMe: A Bookish History of Computing from Electronic Brains to Everything Machines by W. Patrick McCray. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bb634f953dd4c10108490615deb464f5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d7170" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/book-cover-for-readme-a-bookish-history-of-computing-from-electronic-brains-to-everything-machines-by-w-patrick-mccray.jpg?id=62299136&width=980"/> This article is an adapted excerpt from W. Patrick McCray’s <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262553483/readme/" target="_blank">README: A Bookish History of Computing From Electronic Brains to Everything Machines</a> (The MIT Press, 2025).MIT PressBut a small cohort of teenage computer enthusiasts from the Princeton, N.J., area flaunted a clever work-around: They borrowed an acoustic coupler—a forerunner of the computer modem—and connected it to a nearby pay phone. With this hardware in place, the youngsters dialed in to an off-site minicomputer.The teenagers called themselves the RESISTORS, a retronym (they picked the moniker first and then matched words to the letters) for “Radically Emphatic Students Interested in Science, Technology, Or Research Studies.” The trade publication Computerworld gave the RESISTORS front-page billing—“Students Steal Show as Conference Opens”—and noted how the group drew a “fascinated crowd” of computer professionals. A reporter even suggested that the RESISTORS represented the vanguard of a small-scale social movement as the teens sought to engage with their counterparts from “underprivileged areas of Trenton” and introduce them to personal computing. <img alt="Color photo of a young boy seated in front of a large computer, with other computer equipment in the background. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="74d439409010f4ad5cd99d5b8bd60e66" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="73651" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/color-photo-of-a-young-boy-seated-in-front-of-a-large-computer-with-other-computer-equipment-in-the-background.jpg?id=62293684&width=980"/> RESISTOR Peter Eichenberger works on a DEC PDP-8 computer, which Claude Kagan convinced the company to donate to the group.Chuck EhrlichIn the modern history of computing, a story about a small cohort of teens “playing” with computers might seem tangential. But the previously untold history of the RESISTORS highlights the fact that, years before there were machines called personal computers, some people regularly accessed computers for activities unrelated to their professional lives. Motives varied, but entertainment as well as the display of technical prowess mattered. Just as important, the story of the RESISTORS expands our sense of the hobbyist community beyond later and better-known groups like the Bay Area’s <a href="https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/personal-computers/17/312" target="_blank">Homebrew Computer Club</a>.<h3></h3> <div class="rblad-ieee_in_content"></div><h2>An early computer club for teens </h2>Fewer than 70 kids claimed membership in the RESISTORS over the group’s roughly decade-long existence. Nonetheless, a surprisingly large number of them went on to have careers in technology and science. Two members wrote books about computing that would sell millions of copies. Another member cofounded <a href="https://www.cisco.com/" target="_blank">Cisco Systems</a>, which got its start manufacturing Internet routers and other networking hardware and is now a multibillion-dollar business. Others became college professors or professional programmers. And starting around 1969, the RESISTORS became linked to computer pioneer <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ted-nelson-on-what-modern-programmers-can-learn-from-the-past" target="_self">Ted Nelson</a> (more on that later).An engineer named <a href="https://www.computer.org/profiles/claude-kagan" target="_blank">Claude Kagan </a>was the nucleus around which the RESISTORS first organized. Born in 1924 in Orval, France, Kagan moved to the United States as a teen, served in the army, and earned an M.S. from <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/" target="_blank">Cornell University</a> in 1950. He took a position with Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of AT&T, and in 1958, he moved to Hopewell Township, N.J., a short drive from Princeton. <img alt="Black and white photo of men in suits talking and sitting around a square table. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d611a980d7dfa6e616a64e7750ac59e0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="74fe8" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-photo-of-men-in-suits-talking-and-sitting-around-a-square-table.jpg?id=62293590&width=980"/>Electrical engineer Claude Kagan [second from left] encouraged the RESISTORS to learn computing, using the large collection of used equipment stored in his barn. Chuck EhrlichKagan’s specialty was high-level computer languages, such as Fortran and BASIC, in which programmers write code that is largely independent of the particular type of computer. He was also an inveterate collector of old computers and other electronics, which he stored in a large red barn on his property that was also home to some donkeys and malamutes.Chuck Ehrlich, one of the original RESISTORS and later an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, recalls that in late 1966, he and a small group of “brainy social outcasts” were looking for some sort of clubhouse. The kids weren’t interested in smoking pot or social protests, and they were disenchanted with the science classes offered at their local schools. But they were into electronics.Kagan knew one of the teens’ fathers and offered to let the group use his barn. They soon discovered Kagan’s collection of artifacts, including a surplus IBM paper tape punch, some analog telephone equipment, and a <a href="https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/flexo/tour.shtml" target="_blank">Friden Flexowriter</a> (a kind of heavy-duty typewriter that could be linked to a computer). <img alt="A color photo of a 1950s mainframe computer in a room filled with assorted junk. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3d152d1813a9353173fc42a44bebd354" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="93678" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-color-photo-of-a-1950s-mainframe-computer-in-a-room-filled-with-assorted-junk.jpg?id=62293697&width=980"/> <img alt="A color photo of a 1950s mainframe computer in a room filled with assorted junk. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="55ef581685bb80056f741e9422dfc416" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="cf545" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-color-photo-of-a-1950s-mainframe-computer-in-a-room-filled-with-assorted-junk.jpg?id=62299217&width=980"/> The first computer the RESISTORS used was a Burroughs Datatron 205 mainframe, which occupied most of two walls in Kagan’s barn.David GessweinBut the main attraction for the teens were Kagan’s computers. The most imposing of these was a <a href="https://tjsawyer.com/B205home.php" target="_blank">Burroughs Datatron 205</a>, a computer first manufactured in the mid-1950s and based on vacuum tubes. The enormous machine weighed several tons, and stories circulated about how Kagan had borrowed a tractor trailer to heroically transport the behemoth from Michigan to New Jersey.Only slightly less imposing was an inoperable <a href="https://s3data.computerhistory.org/brochures/packardbell.hycomp250.1961.102646194.pdf" target="_blank">Packard Bell PB250</a>, a refrigerator-size computer of more recent vintage that the teens managed to get working. Kagan also allowed the teens to connect to his employer’s <a href="https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/minicomputers/11/331" target="_blank">DEC PDP-8</a> machine via teletype over phone lines so they could run programs written in <a href="https://www.resistors.org/index.php/The_RESISTORS_and_Trac" target="_blank">TRAC</a> (Text Reckoning And Compiling). Developed starting in 1959 by computer scientist <a href="https://garfield.library.upenn.edu/commentaries/tsv11(06)p09y19970317.pdf" target="_blank">Calvin Mooers</a>, TRAC was an efficient language amenable to being run on machines that had relatively little memory. The teens were fond of connecting to the off-site computer and accessing a version of Joseph Weizenbaum’s <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/365153.365168" target="_blank">ELIZA chatbot</a> program.Being able to work with computers interactively and in real time was generally unavailable to nonprofessional computer users at the time. Kagan eventually persuaded the Digital Equipment Corp. to donate a PDP-8—no trivial gift, as new models sold for US $15,000 or more—which the RESISTORS worked with in the barn. <img alt="Black and white photo of a donkey peering out of a barn window at a seated young man adjusting some equipment." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1d2c4680c5f99fcc4e1ff7a0bbf5b348" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="909ed" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-photo-of-a-donkey-peering-out-of-a-barn-window-at-a-seated-young-man-adjusting-some-equipment.jpg?id=62302124&width=980"/> One of the donkeys in Claude Kagan’s barn looks on as RESISTOR Doug Timbie works on some equipment.John A. Pietras/The Evening Times; Trenton Free Public LibraryThe bargain Kagan struck with the RESISTORS was unusual for several reasons. First, Kagan was gay, a fact that the teens (and their parents) were aware of but which, by all accounts, bothered no one. When the Hopewell Valley Jaycee-ettes held a house tour in April 1966, the brochure encouraged people to visit Kagan’s “unique bachelor setting” that he shared with artist George Furnish. Furnish passed away around the time the RESISTORS were forming, and the grieving Kagan assumed multiple roles for the group: guru, mentor, publicity agent, and landlord. Kagan provided the space, while the teens were responsible for maintaining both it and the equipment as well as covering the cost of electricity.Most amateur computer clubs of the era were masculine spaces, but photographs of the RESISTORS almost always show one or more young women working at a terminal or solving a programming problem. When it came to deciding whose turn it was to use a machine, <a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/people/jean-hunter" target="_blank">Jean Hunter</a>—later a professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell—likened it to social time-sharing that required “beating people over the head to make them give you a turn.” <a href="https://www.johnlevine.com/about.phtml" target="_blank">John R. Levine</a>, who was a RESISTOR before studying computer science at Yale and later coauthoring the bestseller <a href="https://www.dummies.com/book/technology/internet-basics/the-internet-for-dummies-14th-edition-281740/" target="_blank">The Internet for Dummies</a>, recalled, “We were so nerdy that it didn’t occur to us that girls [would] be any different in terms of what they could do.”There were also efforts to recruit African American teens from schools in Trenton. One of these kids, Joseph Tulloch, provided quirky, Dr. Seuss-like illustrations for a programming manual that Kagan and the teens assembled and published. Tulloch later became a programmer for the state of New Jersey.New members were initiated into the group by having an omega sign, the engineer’s symbol for electrical resistance, drawn on their face with a Magic Marker (these were teenagers after all). One of the first things a new member would learn was how to use TRAC to write programs. For his part, Kagan held a dim view of traditional learning as practiced in local classrooms. He instead insisted that the RESISTORS learn by doing. The group’s pedagogical approach came from the African American motto “Each one, teach one.” As one member recalled, “If you want to teach someone how to do something, you had to let them sit at the keyboard.”The RESISTORS’ location in the Princeton area contributed to their success. Several members had parents employed at nearby technology companies, such as AT&T and RCA. Others, such as Nat Kuhn, had parents who worked at <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/" target="_blank">Princeton University</a>. Kuhn’s father was Thomas Kuhn, a historian and author of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/19/thomas-kuhn-structure-scientific-revolutions" target="_blank">The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</a> (1962), the landmark book that introduced “paradigm shift” into the vernacular. <img alt="A black and white photo of a young boy who is smiling and pointing a pen device at a computer screen. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bbb6fb74b3895ec05b2695bc0c8114b5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ce0d7" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-black-and-white-photo-of-a-young-boy-who-is-smiling-and-pointing-a-pen-device-at-a-computer-screen.jpg?id=62293602&width=980"/>Twelve-year-old Nat Kuhn was just 10 when he joined the RESISTORS. “I was super geeky,” he later recalled. David FoxAs a kid, Nat built devices from hobbyist electronics kits with his father, a former physicist. Nat joined the RESISTORS after attending an open house the group sponsored in February 1968 at the Princeton Junior Museum. He was just 10 years old at the time. “I was super geeky,” he recalled, “and the computer became my hobby and obsession. You could understand things through it and make things happen.”Soon after Nat had his face inked with an omega sign, another person, much older but just as passionate about personal computing, started showing up at Claude Kagan’s barn.<h2>Ted Nelson and the birth of hypertext</h2>Ted Nelson had majored in philosophy at Swarthmore College, graduating in 1959, and then studied sociology at the University of Chicago and later Harvard, where he took his first computer course. Nelson’s 2010 autobiography includes a whole chapter, titled “The Epiphany of Ted Nelson,” about this revelatory experience. When he realized that the computer, instead of a dreary number-crunching device, “could be whatever it was programmed to be,” his “world exploded.” <img alt="A person stands at a 1970s printer, holding a paper while wearing a white shirt and striped tie." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="245c3062d98abeaa1f848896c18872ec" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="e4cce" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-person-stands-at-a-1970s-printer-holding-a-paper-while-wearing-a-white-shirt-and-striped-tie.jpg?id=62299163&width=980"/> Ted Nelson met the RESISTORS in the late 1960s, when he was developing his ideas around hypertext and globally interconnected networks for publishing.Ted NelsonNelson had a penchant for writing, and so an even bigger revelation was that computers could handle text by manipulating, storing, printing, and, above all, displaying it on screens. And, if this could be done with text, it could probably also be done with images and sound. “The future of mankind was at the computer screen,” he decided, as the “interactive computer would become the workplace of the future.”Equally profound for Nelson was recognizing that once a person had text on a computer screen, they could use it to construct parallel, nonsequential textual passages. These word assemblages could then be linked to one another or branch off in entirely new directions—a farsighted idea for the time.In 1964, Nelson accepted a teaching position at Vassar College, where his new colleagues invited him to describe how the future of work and artistic creativity would happen on computer screens. In the promotional flyer for the talk, he introduced a new word: hypertext. <img alt="Black and white drawing of a Superman-like figure flying toward a rectangular opening, with the words Dream Machine at top." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ecd3c493bf198cd56b5adcaae5c2ee18" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="f50f9" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-drawing-of-a-superman-like-figure-flying-toward-a-rectangular-opening-with-the-words-dream-machine-at-top.jpg?id=62299307&width=980"/> Some of the ideas that Ted Nelson discussed with the RESISTORS later turned up in Nelson’s opus Computer Lib/Dream Machines.Microsoft PressAs Nelson defined it in <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800197.806036" target="_blank">a 1965 paper</a>, hypertext meant “a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper.” Almost any topic could, in principle, be represented on a computer screen with “links” connecting one entry to another, along with annotation, footnotes, and summaries, while also including “every feature a novelist or absent-minded professor could want.”RELATED VIDEO: <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ted-nelson-on-what-modern-programmers-can-learn-from-the-past" target="_blank">Ted Nelson on What Modern Programmers Can Learn From the Past</a>Nelson imagined that his system of information storage, retrieval, and documentation could “grow indefinitely,” containing more and more of the world’s knowledge while revealing important connections between all of the entries.Nelson soon quit Vassar and started raising money and his professional profile. His goal was to design and implement a universal text handling, publishing, and globally connected electronic library system, which he named <a href="https://www.xanadu.net/" target="_blank">Project Xanadu</a>, from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.” (It’s also the name of Charles Foster Kane’s mansion in Orson Welles’s 1941 classic, Citizen Kane.) Xanadu would turn into Nelson’s lifelong obsession.<h2>A convergence of art and computers</h2>The catalyst that brought Nelson together with Claude Kagan and the RESISTORS wasn’t some new computer but an avant-garde art show. In the fall of 1970, a lavish new exhibition titled <a href="https://www.artforum.com/events/software-234492/" target="_blank">Software</a> opened at the <a href="https://thejewishmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Jewish Museum</a> in New York City. Museum director <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1968/04/03/archives/jewish-museum-finds-its-new-director-brooklynborn-karl-katz-in.html" target="_blank">Karl Katz</a> handpicked the influential art theorist <a href="https://monoskop.org/Jack_Burnham" target="_blank">Jack Burnham</a> to curate the show. Burnham, in turn, was inspired by <a href="https://museum.dataart.com/short-stories/norbert-wiener" target="_blank">Norbert Wiener</a>’s cybernetic concepts and wanted to explore how conceptual artists might experiment with new computing technologies, such as “real-time computing” and “interactivity,” in a gallery setting. The exhibition gave thousands of visitors an opportunity to see, and in some cases use, minicomputers, teletype equipment, high-speed copy machines, and closed-circuit television. <img alt="Black and white photo shows 3 teenagers looking at a 1960s computer terminal." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="37f9fa6cdbcdbf874174d438063b0830" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="0b1ac" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-photo-shows-3-teenagers-looking-at-a-1960s-computer-terminal.jpg?id=62293557&width=980"/> <img alt="Black and white photo shows a large room decorated with hand-written posters and people seated at tables. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f60b3d213c03735fc06b3007f6d95a2c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d247c" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-photo-shows-a-large-room-decorated-with-hand-written-posters-and-people-seated-at-tables.jpg?id=62293556&width=980"/>When the Jewish Museum launched an ambitious art and tech exhibition in 1970, members of the RESISTORS collaborated with artists and provided tech support. The Jewish MuseumA contributor to the show and its technical adviser, Ted Nelson recruited the RESISTORS to help him and some of the artists. As he later wrote in his influential 1974 book <a href="https://computerlibbook.com/" target="_blank">Computer Lib/Dream Machines</a>, “Some people are too proud to ask children for information. This is dumb. Information is where you find it.” For Agnes Denes, a Hungarian-born conceptual artist, the teens coded a minicomputer to animate triangles on a screen for a piece called Trigonal Ballet. For conceptual artist Carl Fernbach-Flarsheim, the teens used the I Ching to program a piece called Conceptual Typewriter. A visitor could select one of several buttons, such as “the silent” (represented by a circle) or “the providing” (illustrated by sheaves of wheat), and then use a light pen to alter the image. Both artists provided the initial ideas, but the RESISTORS executed them.Nelson, working with programmer Ned Woodman, contributed a piece titled Labyrinth. Running on a PDP-8 that DEC provided, Labyrinth was explained as “the first public demonstration of a hypertext system.” To use it, a visitor would sit at a terminal and begin reading the displayed text. For the passage “The exhibition you are attending is called Software. It was organized by Jack Burnham,” you could use keystrokes (such as F for forward) to navigate the text and retrieve a definition of “software” or biographical details about Burnham. <img alt="A black and white photo of four people posing in front of a computer terminal that displays a stack of triangles. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b2069e0ed4438c60a8ed1e8fa3beb0a4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="24096" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-black-and-white-photo-of-four-people-posing-in-front-of-a-computer-terminal-that-displays-a-stack-of-triangles.jpg?id=62293611&width=980"/>Conceptual artist Agnes Denes [right] programmed her piece Trigonal Ballet at the Jewish Museum with help from RESISTORS [from left] Peter Eichenberger, J Laurence Sarno, and John Levine.The Jewish MuseumFor many museumgoers, the entire exhibition suggested a technological future where people easily navigated the information-rich realm of what would become known as cyberspace.The RESISTORS, meanwhile, gradually faded throughout the 1970s as its members went off to college and the supply of new recruits dwindled. Nonetheless, members like Nat Kuhn and John Levine recall that ideas they bantered about in bull sessions with Nelson in Kagan’s barn materialized later in the pages of Computer Lib/Dream Machines. “There was certainly very little in that book that we hadn’t already heard about before it appeared,” Levine said.When I talked with former RESISTORS, it was surprising to hear how many members remained in touch with one another more than a half-century later. Many of them still included their participation on résumés. Courtships formed, and at least two members married each other. Their activities left a long-lasting echo in the world of computing as well. <a href="https://www.computer.org/profiles/len-bosack" target="_blank">Len Bosack</a> cofounded Cisco Systems. <a href="https://dwork.seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Cynthia Dwork</a>, a professor of computer science at Harvard, made pioneering contributions to cryptography. <a href="https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/biography/steve-kirsch" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Steve Kirsch</a> was one of two people to invent the optical mouse and went on to become a successful tech entrepreneur.Even as the RESISTORS were fading as a group, massive technological changes were just over the horizon. Personal computers, introduced in the early 1970s, soon became consumer goods found in hundreds of thousands of homes. That technological revolution would be solidified when Time named the PC “<a href="https://time.com/archive/6697864/machine-of-the-year-1982-the-computer-moves-in/" target="_blank">Machine of the Year</a>” in 1982. New computing worlds beckoned to experts and neophytes alike, but it was a future that a group of teens in a New Jersey barn had already seen and lived.This article is adapted from the author’s new book, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262553483/readme/" target="_blank">README: A Bookish History of Computing from Electronic Brains to Everything Machines</a> (The MIT Press, 2025).

Dec 11, 2025

Ghost Robotics’ Arm Brings Manipulation to Military Quadrupeds

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/robotic-dog-lifting-backpack-with-its-mechanical-arm-in-an-industrial-setting.jpg?id=62304619&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C83%2C0%2C84"/> <a href="https://www.ghostrobotics.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ghost Robotics</a> is today announcing a major upgrade for their Vision 60 quadruped: an arm. Ghost, a company which originated at the <a href="https://www.grasp.upenn.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania</a>, specializes in exceptionally rugged quadrupeds, and while many of its customers use its robots for public safety and disaster relief, it also <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/274841/promising_experiment_signals_future_integration_of_advanced_tech_into_army_units" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">provides robots</a> to the United States military, which has very specific needs when it comes to keeping humans out of danger.In that context, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Ghost’s robots may sometimes be used to carry weapons, and despite the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ukraine-killer-drones" target="_self">proliferation of robots</a> in many roles in the Ukraine war, the idea of a legged robot carrying a weapon is not a comfortable one for many people. IEEE Spectrum spoke with Ghost co-founder and current CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-kenneally-321a3833/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gavin Kenneally</a> to learn more about the new arm, and to get his perspective on selling robots to the military. <img alt="Green military robot dog opens a wooden door with articulated arm." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="78cf986983e026176a5e342b27bb8387" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="a501b" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/green-military-robot-dog-opens-a-wooden-door-with-articulated-arm.jpg?id=62304622&width=980"/> The Vision 60’s new arm has six degrees of freedom. Ghost Robotics<h2>Robots for the Military</h2>Ghost Robotics initially made a name for itself with its very impressive <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ghost-robotics-minitaur-quadruped" target="_self">early work with the Minitaur direct-drive quadruped</a> in 2016. The company also made headlines in late 2021, when a now-deleted post on Twitter (now X) went viral because it included a photograph of one of Ghost’s Vision 60 quadrupeds <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ghost-robotics-armed-military-robots" target="_self">with a rifle mounted on its back</a>.That picture resulted in a <a href="https://kodlab.seas.upenn.edu/news/koditscheks-letter-to-ghosts-ceo/" target="_blank">very strong reaction</a>, although as IEEE Spectrum reported at the time, robots with guns affixed to them wasn’t new: To mention one early example, the U.S. military had already deployed weapons on mobile robots <a href="https://www.wired.com/2008/04/armed-robots-st/" target="_blank">in Iraq in 2007</a>. And while several legged robot companies <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/robots-with-weapons-industry-initiative" target="_self">pledged in 2022 not to weaponize their general purpose robots</a>, the Chinese military <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/30/chinese-armys-latest-weapon-gun-toting-dog" target="_blank">in 2024 displayed</a> quadrupeds from Unitree equipped with guns. (Unitree, based in China, was one of the signers of the 2022 pledge.)The issue of weaponized robots goes far beyond Ghost Robotics, and far beyond robots with legs. We’ve covered both the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/we-should-not-ban-killer-robots" target="_self">practical</a> and <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/a-path-towards-reasonable-autonomous-weapons-regulation" target="_self">ethical</a> perspectives on this extensively at IEEE Spectrum, and the intensity of the debates show that there is no easy answer. But to summarize one important point made by some ethicists, some military experts, and Ghost Robotics itself: robots are replaceable, humans are not. “Customers use our robots to keep people out of harm’s way,” Ghost CEO Kenneally tells Spectrum.It’s also worth pointing out that even the companies who signed the pledge not to weaponize their general purpose robots <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/robots-with-weapons-industry-initiative" target="_self">acknowledge</a> that military robots exist, and are accepting of that, provided that such robots are used under existing legal doctrines and operate within those safeguards—and that what constraints should or should not be imposed on these kinds of robots is best decided by policymakers rather than industry.This is essentially Ghost Robotics’ position as well, says Kenneally. “We sell our robots to U.S. and allied governments, and as part of that, the robots are used in defense applications where they will sometimes be weaponized. What’s most critical to us is that the decisions about how to use these robots are happening systematically and ethically at the government policy level.”To some extent, these decisions are already being made within the U.S. government. <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jan/25/2003149928/-1/-1/0/DOD-DIRECTIVE-3000.09-AUTONOMY-IN-WEAPON-SYSTEMS.PDF" target="_blank">Department of Defense Directive 3000.09</a>, ‘Autonomy in Weapon Systems,’ lays out the responsibilities and limitations for how autonomous or human-directed robotics weapons systems should be developed and deployed, including requirements for human use-of-force judgements. At least in the U.S., this directive implies that there are rules and accountability for robotic weapons.<iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143594232?h=7e2f4d4f75" title="vimeo-player" width="640"></iframe><h2>Vision 60’s Versatile Arm Capabilities</h2>Ghost sees its Vision 60 quadruped as a system that its trusted customers can use as they see fit, and the manipulator enables many additional capabilities. “The primary purpose of the robot has been as a sensor platform,” Kenneally says, “but sometimes there are doors in the way, or objects that need to be moved, or you might want the robot to take a sample. So the ability to do all of that mobile manipulation has been hugely valuable for our customers.”As it turns out, arms are good for more than manipulation. “One thing that’s been very interesting is that our customers have been using the arm as a sensor boom, which is something that we hadn’t anticipated,” says Kenneally. Ghost’s robot has plenty of cameras, but they’re mostly at the viewpoint of a moderately-sized dog. The new arm offers a more human-like vantage and a way to peek around corners or over things without exposing the whole robot.Ghost was not particularly interested in building their own arm, and tried off-the-shelf options to get the manipulation bit working. And they did get the manipulation working; what didn’t work were any of those arms after the 50 kilogram robot rolled over on them. “We wanted to make sure that we could build an arm that could stand up to the same intense rigors of our customers’ operations that the rest of the robot can,” says Kenneally. “Morphologically, we actually consider the arm to be a fifth leg, so that the robot operates as a unified system for whole-body control.”The rest of the robot is exceptionally rugged, which is what makes it appealing to customers with unique needs, like special forces teams. Enough battery life for more than three hours of walking (or more than 20 hours on standby) isn’t bad, and the Vision 60 is sealed against sand and dust, and can survive complete submergence in shallow water. It can operate in extreme temperatures ranging from -40 °C to 55 °C, which has been a particular challenge for robots. And if you do manage to put it in a situation where it physically breaks one of its legs, it’s easy to swap in a spare in just a few minutes, even out in the field. <img alt="Robotic dog opening a glass door with its arm in front of a building." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fb918804faf74036d592f1602bbde275" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="724f7" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/robotic-dog-opening-a-glass-door-with-its-arm-in-front-of-a-building.jpg?id=62304623&width=980"/> The Vision 60 can open doors withe high-level direction from a human operator.Ghost Robotics<h2>Quadruped Robot Competition From China</h2>Despite Ghost quietly selling over a thousand quadrupeds to date, Kenneally is cautious about the near future for legged robots, as is anyone who has seriously considered buying one, because it’s impossible to ignore the option of just buying one from a Chinese company at about a tenth the cost of a quadruped from a company based in the U.S. or Europe.“China has identified legged robotics as a lynchpin technology that they are strategically funding,” Kenneally says. “I think it’s an extremely serious threat in the long term, and we have to take these competitors very seriously despite their current shortcomings.” There is a technological moat, for now, but if the market for legged robots follows the same trajectory as the market for drones did, that moat will shrink drastically over the next few years.The United States is poised to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/chinese-dronemaker-dji-urges-us-complete-security-review-2025-12-04/" target="_blank">ban consumer drone sales from Chinese manufacturer DJI</a>, and <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/08/us-army-just-ordered-soldiers-stop-using-drones-chinas-dji/139999/" target="_blank">banned DJI drone use by federal agencies in 2017</a>. But it may be too late in some sense, as DJI’s global market share is <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/06/26/1094249/china-commercial-drone-dji-security/" target="_blank">something like 90 percent</a>. Meanwhile, Unitree may have already cornered <a href="https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/quadruped-state-of-the-market-unitree" target="_blank">somewhere around 70 percent</a> of the global market for quadrupeds, despite <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/unitree-robot-exploit" target="_self">the recent publication of exploits</a> that allow the robots to send unauthorized data to China.In the United States in particular, private sector robotics funding is unpredictable at the best of times, and Kenneally argues that to compete with Chinese-subsidized robot-makers American companies like Ghost who produce these robots domestically will need sustained U.S. government support, too. That doesn’t mean the government has to pick which companies will be the winners, but that it should find a way to support the U.S. robotics industry as a whole, if it still wants to have a meaningful one. “The quadruped industry isn’t a science project anymore,” says Kenneally. “It’s matured, and quadruped robots are going to become extremely important in both commercial and government applications. But it’s only through continued innovation that we’ll be able to stay ahead.”

Dec 11, 2025

Tiny Chips Could Lead to Giant Power Savings

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/close-up-of-powerlattice-s-newest-chiplet-on-the-pad-of-a-person-s-pointer-finger.jpg?id=62303380&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C83%2C0%2C84"/> Even if a GPU in a data center should only require 700 watts to run a large language model, it may realistically need 1,700 watts because of inefficiencies in how electricity reaches it. That’s a problem Peng Zou and his team at startup <a href="https://www.powerlatticeinc.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PowerLattice</a> say they have solved by miniaturizing and repackaging high-voltage regulators.The company claims that its new <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/chiplet" target="_self">chiplets</a> deliver up to a 50 percent reduction in power consumption and twice performance per watt by sizing down the voltage conversion process and moving it significantly closer to processors.<h2>Shrinking and Moving Power Delivery</h2>Traditional systems deliver power to AI chips by converting AC power from the grid into DC power, which then gets transformed again into low-voltage (around one volt) DC, usable by the GPU. With that voltage drop, current must increase to conserve power. This exchange happens near the processor, but the current still travels a meaningful distance in its low-voltage state. A high current traveling any distance is bad news, because the system loses power in the form of heat proportional to the current squared. “The closer you get to the processor, the less distance that the high current has to travel, and thus we can reduce the power loss,” says <a href="https://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/people/profile/hanh-phuc-le" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hanh-Phuc Le</a>, who researches power electronics at the University California, San Diego and has no connection to PowerLattice.Given the ever-growing <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-energy-use" target="_self">power consumption of AI data centers</a>, “this has almost become a show-stopping issue today,” PowerLattice’s Zou says.Zou thinks he and his colleagues have found a way to avoid this huge loss of power. Instead of dropping the voltage a few centimeters away from the processor, they figured out how to do it millimeters away, within the processor’s package. PowerLattice designed tiny power delivery chiplets—shrinking inductors, voltage control circuits, and software-programmable logic into an IC about twice the size of a pencil eraser. The chiplets sit under the processor’s package substrate, to which they’re connected.One challenge the minds at PowerLattice faced was how to make inductors smaller without altering their capabilities. Inductors temporarily store energy and then release it smoothly, helping regulators maintain steady outputs. Their physical size directly influences how much energy they can manage, so shrinking them weakens their effect.The startup countered this issue by building their inductors from a specialized magnetic alloy that “enables us to run the inductor very efficiently at high frequency,” Zou says. “We can operate at a hundred times higher frequency than the traditional solution.” At higher operating frequencies, circuits can be designed to use an inductor with a much lower inductance, meaning the component itself can be made with less physical material. The alloy is unique because it maintains better magnetic properties than comparable materials at these high frequencies.The resulting chiplets are less than 1/20th the area of today’s voltage regulators, Zou says. And each is only 100 micrometers thick, around the thickness of a strand of hair. Being so tiny allows the chiplets to fit as close as possible to the processor, and the space savings provide valuable real estate to other components. <img alt="3D rendering of PowerLattice's chiplets on the underside of a processor package." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="021f62d1d6c6c79efa82e26851f46a54" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="e0195" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/3d-rendering-of-powerlattice-s-chiplets-on-the-underside-of-a-processor-package.jpg?id=62303434&width=980"/> PowerLattice’s chiplets would sit on the underside of a GPU’s package to provide power from below.PowerLatticeEven at their small size, the proprietary tech is “highly configurable and scalable,” Zou says. Customers can use multiple chiplets for a more comprehensive fix or fewer if their architecture doesn’t require it. “It’s one key differentiator” of PowerLattice’s solution to the voltage regulation problem, according to Zou.Employing the chiplets can reduce 50 percent of power needs for an operator, effectively doubling performance, the company claims. But this number seems ambitious to Le. He says that 50 percent power savings “could be achievable, but that means PowerLattice has to have direct control of the load, which includes the processor as well.” The only way he sees it as realistic is if the company has the ability to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/a-circuit-to-boost-battery-life" target="_self">manage power supply in real time </a>depending on a processor’s workload—a technique called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/dynamic-voltage-and-frequency-scaling" target="_blank">dynamic voltage and frequency scaling</a>—which PowerLattice does not.<h2>Facing Competition</h2>Right now, PowerLattice is in the midst of reliability and validation testing before it releases its first product to customers, in about two years. But bringing the chiplets to market won’t be straightforward because PowerLattice has some big-name competition. Intel, for example, is developing a <a href="https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/design/ipla/software-development-platforms/servers/platforms/intel-pentium-silver-and-intel-celeron-processors-datasheet-volume-1-of-2/fully-integrated-voltage-regulator-fivr/" target="_blank">Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator</a>, a device partially devoted to solving the same problem. Zou doesn’t consider Intel competition because, in addition to the products differing in their approaches to the power delivery problem, he does not believe Intel will be providing its technology to its competitors. “From a market position perspective, we are quite a bit different,” Zou says.A decade ago, PowerLattice wouldn’t have room to succeed, Le says, because companies that sold processors only ensured reliability for their chips if customers purchased their power supplies as well. “Qualcomm, for example, can sell their processor chip and the vast majority of their customers also have to buy their proprietary Qualcomm power supply management chip because otherwise they would say, ‘We don’t guarantee the reliable operation of the whole system.’”Now, though, there may be hope. “There’s a trend of what we call chiplet implementation, so it is a <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/intels-view-of-the-chiplet-revolution" target="_self">heterogeneous integration</a>,” Le says. Customers are mixing and matching components from different companies to achieve better system optimization, he says. And while notable providers like Intel and Qualcomm may continue to have the upper hand with notable customers, smaller companies—mostly startups—building processors and AI infrastructures will also be power hungry. These groups will need to look for a power supply source, and that’s where PowerLattice and similar companies could come in, Le says. “That’s how the market is. We have a startup working with a startup doing something that actually rivals, and even competes with, some large companies.”

Dec 11, 2025

In 1844, Chess Was Already Online

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/collage-with-chess-game-vintage-machine-and-map-against-yellow-and-black-background.png?id=62293844&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C34%2C0%2C35"/> On 18 November 1844, the Washington Chess Club challenged its counterparts in Baltimore to a match. Two teams were organized, and at 4 p.m. on 26 November, the first game commenced with three consulting members to a side. Washington began conventionally, pushing a pawn to the center of <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61533/pg61533-images.html#CHESS" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the board</a>. Baltimore immediately responded by mirroring the move. But this was unlike any chess game ever played before. The Baltimoreans were still in Baltimore, the Washingtonians were still in Washington, D.C, 60 kilometers away, and they were playing by electrical telegraph.Successive moves were transmitted over the new Baltimore–Washington telegraph line, the first in the United States, which Samuel Morse and company had inaugurated in May of that year with the message “<a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_713485" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">What hath God wrought</a>.” <img alt="Black and white photo of a man in 19th century garb standing, with his hand on a mechanical apparatus." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="78a425740bc603a795881a5521fb7f9e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="e791e" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-photo-of-a-man-in-19th-century-garb-standing-with-his-hand-on-a-mechanical-apparatus.jpg?id=62293850&width=980"/> Samuel F.B. Morse pushed for the first U.S. telegraph, which connected Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Md.<a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2001700118/" target="_blank">Mathew B. Brady/Library of Congress</a>One chess game led to another, and play continued on and off for days. Records of the games are incomplete and sometimes inconsistent—181 years later, it’s unclear who exactly dreamt up chess over wire and why. But thanks in part to historical documents at the Smithsonian Institution, we know enough about the people involved and the operation of the early telegraph to have a sense of the proceedings. We know that Morse would <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61533/pg61533-images.html#LETTER_19" target="_blank">cite chess</a> in lobbying Congress to fund the extension of the telegraphic network to New York via Philadelphia. And we know that there was much more chess by telegraph to come.Not simply a novelty or a one-off tech demo, telegraph chess eventually became a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23788123" target="_blank">well-known, joked-about trend</a> in the United States and Britain, writes historian <a href="https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/cas/ueber_uns/Postdoctoral-Fellows/cas-postdoc-alumni/Simone_M__ller_Pohl/index.html" target="_blank">Simone Müller-Pohl</a>. Chess by telegraph also prefigured chess played through other means of telecommunications. There are records of recreational and serious games played over radio, on telephone lines, satellite, and through online interfaces including forums, email, and dedicated live services. Most recently, chess has evolved into an esport. Earlier this year, chess joined the likes of Call of Duty, Street Fighter, and Rocket League at the<a href="https://www.esportsworldcup.com/en/news/chess-joins-ewc" target="_blank"> 2025 Esports World Cup</a> in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. <img alt="Color photo of a man wearing headphones and seated at a computer, staring at a display of a chess board. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4dcdeff5b34c9a2a71ddf7a704178841" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3e0c7" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/color-photo-of-a-man-wearing-headphones-and-seated-at-a-computer-staring-at-a-display-of-a-chess-board.jpg?id=62293851&width=980"/> Last August, chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen won the first ever Chess Esports World Cup.Esports World CupThe number of adults worldwide who play chess regularly is often estimated at <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-chess-day" target="_blank">around 600 million</a>, and many of them use whatever means available to play games across long distances with friends, rivals, and strangers. Indeed, the 1,500-year-old game and the latest in telecommunications always seem to find each other, starting just months after the first telegraph was built in the United States, when chess went electric.<h2>The Birth of Chess by Telegraph</h2>The Baltimore–Washington telegraph was financed in 1843 with US $30,000 (about $1.3 million today) <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/senate-stories/morses-telegraph-in-the-capitol.htm" target="_blank">appropriated by Congress</a>, with the help of Morse’s business partner, <a href="https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1860&context=mainehistoryjournal" target="_blank">Francis O.J. Smith</a>, who had supported the project in 1838 while still a sitting congressman from Maine. By late 1844, a bill to extend the line to New York was in front of the U.S. House of Representatives. In at least one way, drawing the attention of legislators to the new line was relatively easy—the Washington end moved back and forth between the Capitol building and<a href="https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/headquarters-sites.pdf" target="_blank"> the post office</a>, near the present-day National Portrait Gallery. If you were a lawmaker in Washington at the time, the telegraph would’ve been hard to miss.<h3></h3> <div class="rblad-ieee_in_content"></div>But perhaps they needed more persuading. Orrin S. Wood, a telegraph operator, thought so. On 5 December 1844, Wood wrote <a href="https://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=ezra0002_4#page/12/mode/1up" target="_blank">a letter</a> to his brother-in-law, engineer Ezra Cornell, who had worked on the line and would go on to cofound Western Union:“We have had considerable excitement in playing chess between this place and Baltimore for the last 2 or 3 weeks.…I am inclined to think that Congress will do something for Prof Morse as very many of them appear to be very much interested with [chess].”A week later, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61533/pg61533-images.html#LETTER_19" target="_blank">Morse wrote</a> to George M. Bibb, Secretary of the Treasury, to lobby for the funding. The telegraph could relay congressional news, presidential convention results, or the whereabouts of wanted criminals, he argued. He also played the chess card: <img alt="Two brief hand-written notes related to a telegraph chess match between the Washington Chess Club and its counterpart in Baltimore. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="691f8c928163515c0b56c7f5d4d1d27e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3865a" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/two-brief-hand-written-notes-related-to-a-telegraph-chess-match-between-the-washington-chess-club-and-its-counterpart-in-baltimo.jpg?id=62293858&width=980"/> On 18 November 1844, the Washington Chess Club challenged Baltimore to a game of telegraph chess. One telegraph operator asked his counterpart, “Are you tired of checkers?”<a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217214" target="_blank">Smithsonian Institution Archives</a>“To show the variety of the operations of the telegraph, a game of draughts [checkers], and several games of chess, have been played between the cities of Baltimore and Washington, with the same ease as if the players were seated at the same table.”Chess had even been played on rainy nights, he noted. The telegraph’s continued operation in both inclement weather and darkness compared favorably with <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-the-count-of-monte-cristo-can-teach-us-about-cybersecurity" target="_self">optical telegraphy</a>. Such systems, popular in France, consisted of regularly spaced flag towers that relayed messages by semaphore; they were costly to build and operate and only worked in daylight and good weather.While Morse played up people’s interest in telegraphic chess, the game itself didn’t obviously begin with promotional intent. It began with checkers. We know this because Morse’s associate Alfred Vail kept a “Journal of the Magnetic Telegraph between Washington and Baltimore” (now part of the <a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217214" target="_blank">Vail Telegraph Collection</a> at the Smithsonian) in which he meticulously recorded messages sent over the wire for posterity. <img alt="A hand-written note dated Nov 26 records chess moves in a game between Washington, D.C, and Baltimore " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bdedcdec349f0b042747f1b2505d324a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d7781" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-hand-written-note-dated-nov-26-records-chess-moves-in-a-game-between-washington-d-c-and-baltimore.jpg?id=62293859&width=980"/> Notes from a 26 November 1844 chess game record players’ moves, as well as other snippets of information, such as “I sent tea for Mr. Vail by 5 o’clock train.”<a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217214" target="_blank">Smithsonian Institution Archives</a>On 15 November 1844, Vail in Washington instructed Henry J. Rogers in Baltimore to “get a checkerboard and let us play a game tomorrow morning.” Vail promised to send instructions by regular mail on the five o’clock train. At first confused, Rogers came up with the idea of using numbered squares to communicate locations on the board. Later that day, Rogers announced that John Wills, a journalist with the Baltimore Patriot, would play in his place.The next morning, before the checkers game began, Vail recorded a telegraphic exchange between himself and Rogers, in which Vail suggests the game is for private enjoyment, and he would prefer that Wills—a reporter—not write about it:Do you think the game any advantage RWhat game VCheckers RAmusement VDon’t you think people will make remarks RNot if it is done by ourselves Vyes have you any objections to Wills Rnone if he does not publish it Vyes RWills was thoroughly impressed with the technology, calling it “another wonder of the age,” according to Rogers. And so the telegraphers agreed that he could publish an account of the game, which perhaps was Vail’s hope all along. The story was still being prepared for publication on 18 November when Vail tapped, “The Washington Chess Club challenge Baltimore to a game.”<h2>How about a Nice Game of Chess?</h2>Vail’s 1845 book about the telegraph includes <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61533/pg61533-images.html#CHESS" target="_blank">a brief report</a> on chess. He writes that in the Washington–Baltimore match, seven games were played, totalling 686 moves “transmitted without a single mistake or interruption.” These details reappear in <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/05025200/" target="_blank">The Book of the First American Chess Congress</a>, which called the Baltimore–Washington games the first telegraphic chess match. <img alt="Black and white photo of a man in fancy 19th century dress, seated and holding a walking stick." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0f99a27c1fabe0e42187853bb6e4e5ee" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="548b8" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-photo-of-a-man-in-fancy-19th-century-dress-seated-and-holding-a-walking-stick.jpg?id=62293860&width=980"/> Alfred Vail, Morse’s associate, was instrumental in organizing the first telegraph chess match and kept detailed notes on messages sent over the line.Zoom Historical/AlamyHow did the games actually unfold? While many of the rules and conventions of chess would be familiar to modern chess players, the games were unusual in other ways. At the time, the standard way of describing chess moves was descriptive notation, says <a href="https://new.uschess.org/author/john-mccrary" target="_blank">John McCrary</a>, a former president of the <a href="https://new.uschess.org/" target="_blank">United States Chess Federation</a> who maintains a collection of some 100 chess books from <a href="https://chesscollectorsinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/rare-chess-book-collecting.pdf" target="_blank">before 1900</a>. For instance, “pawn to queen’s bishop’s four” described moving a pawn in front of the bishop on the queen’s side of the board to the fourth row from the bottom.Before the electrical telegraph, such descriptions would have been used in correspondence chess, played by mail. And <a href="https://archive.org/details/TheOxfordCompanionToChessFirstEditionByDavidHooperKennethWhyld/page/n355/mode/2up" target="_blank">The Oxford Companion to Chess</a> (1984) describes a proposed 1823 match between France and England that intended to use semaphore telegraph, although the notation used was either never planned or has been lost to time.But Vail and Rogers used a system that assigned a unique number to each of the 64 squares. So “pawn to queen’s bishop’s four” would have been rendered as “11 to 27.” Though the game itself can be remarkably complex, that system allowed individual moves to be communicated simply. “The exchange of information in chess is relatively low,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kazdan-ba92968/" target="_blank">David Kazdan</a>, an engineer at <a href="https://case.edu/" target="_blank">Case Western Reserve University</a> who has recently overseen a <a href="https://www.arrl.org/news/view/using-amateur-radio-to-play-chess" target="_blank">renewed collaboration</a> between the school’s radio and chess clubs. “You don’t need much of a communication channel to play chess.” <img alt="Two hand-drawn grids labeled \u201ccheckers\u201d and \u201ccheckers & chess,\u201d with numbers in different squares. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="82c3ef308a87be8e90baeef14827febd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="2e716" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/two-hand-drawn-grids-labeled-u201ccheckers-u201d-and-u201ccheckers-chess-u201d-with-numbers-in-different-squares.jpg?id=62293861&width=980"/> To represent the positions on their telegraph chess board, Alfred Vail and Henry Rogers assigned a unique number to each of the 64 squares.<a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217214" target="_blank">Smithsonian Institution Archives</a>Vail’s book logs the moves for two of the chess games, and both accounts include an illegal move—probably errors that were introduced later. The accounts in Vail’s telegraphic journal, on the other hand, appear accurate, and even include a real-time correction of one move. <img alt="A list titled First Game of Chess that records the chess moves made by the W, for white, player and the B, for black, player. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5af26151b40e50f137e859c9a29725ef" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="33085" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-list-titled-first-game-of-chess-that-records-the-chess-moves-made-by-the-w-for-white-player-and-the-b-for-black-player.jpg?id=62293864&width=980"/> In the first game of telegraph chess, White was defeated.<a href="https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PGw8AAAAYAAJ/page/n1/mode/2up" target="_blank">Google Books</a>In Vail’s journal, Washington claims the white pieces, but close examination shows that Washington either played the first move as black, or the board was mirrored left to right. At the time, the white pieces did not always take the<a href="https://new.uschess.org/news/evolution-modern-chess-rules-white-moves-first" target="_blank"> first move</a>. The sides also agreed to a limit of 10 minutes per move, even though time controls weren’t common in chess, and the chess clock had not yet been invented. And while Vail wanted “first rate players,” McCrary calls the overall play weak, with a poor understanding of the long-term planning needed to coordinate all of the pieces. Both teams also made tactical errors. For example, in the second game, Washington overlooked that one of their pawns was overworked defending two other pieces simultaneously, watched as Baltimore captured one of the pieces, and elected not to retaliate in order to continue defending a more valuable knight. “Even with changing conventions of that time, what was there in the description was atypical,” says McCrary.RELATED: <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/chess-computer-1920" target="_self">This 1920 Chess Automaton Was Wired to Win</a>The teams took a break during the first game and then reconvened on 28 November. With a pawn in position to advance to the last row, where it would be “promoted”—that is, replaced by a more dangerous piece of the player’s choice—Baltimore swept in with its queen and readied checkmate in one move. Unable to salvage the game, Washington resigned. “Ha ha,” wrote Rogers. “Ha ha,” responded Vail.There is no record of overall standings, and no winner was declared between the two cities after all games had been played.<h2>The Tech of Telegraph Chess</h2>By today’s standards, the hardware that relayed the moves was relatively simple, mainly consisting of a battery, a switch, and a magnet. “It’s not all that different from a doorbell,” says <a href="https://www.albany.edu/history/faculty/david-hochfelder" target="_blank">David Hochfelder</a>, a historian at the <a href="https://www.albany.edu/" target="_blank">State University of New York at Albany</a> who has studied the <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/3173/telegraph-america-1832-1920" target="_blank">early American telegraph</a>.Laying the line between the two cities had been difficult, with costly delays after failed attempts to bury the cable and to use cheaper noninsulated wire. Eventually, overhead insulated copper wire was strung the distance between poles. <img alt="Black and white photo of a tabletop apparatus with metal gears." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4e1acd0e57f3c7484c8239b204a846c4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d725b" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/black-and-white-photo-of-a-tabletop-apparatus-with-metal-gears.jpg?id=62293867&width=980"/> On 24 May 1844, this telegraph register received the first message sent by telegraph: “What hath God wrought.”APYears before the chess match, Morse had considered a messaging system that used only numbers, which corresponded to set words or phrases listed in a code book. But he soon realized that a practical communications service would need an alphabetic component to spell out proper names.This led to Morse’s eponymous code, which assigns a series of short and long signals to different alphanumeric characters. By tapping on a key, telegraph operators would interrupt a battery-powered current that ran the length of the telegraph wire. At the other end, an electromagnet moved a stylus, pen, or pencil, to mark a piece of paper with the corresponding dots and dashes, which an operator would then read. (The sounder, which turned the signals into audible sounds, hadn’t yet been invented.)Related: <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/morse-codes-vanquished-competitor-the-dial-telegraph" target="_self">Morse Code’s Vanquished Competitor: The Dial Telegraph</a>During the chess games, the telegraph operators occasionally asked each other how many people were in the room. At times, a dozen kibitzers looked on. At others, only the rotating cast of chess players and telegraph operators was present.<h2>Telegraph Chess Moves On</h2>The Baltimore–Washington telegraph line was an immediate hit with a general public that embraced popular science through lectures and popular books and magazines. Scientific American was founded in 1845, for example. But people were more curious to see the telegraph at work than they were to use its services, even though the line operated <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-week-of-the-telegraph/" target="_blank">free of charge</a> for the first year. “Operators tended to show its capabilities rather than handling actual message traffic,” says Hochfelder.The lack of activity is sometimes evident in the telegraph journal. Many of the messages are purely functional (“I am ready,” “stop 30 minutes”); simple greetings; notifications of letters sent and received; or requests for daily newspapers. The Baltimore end of the telegraph was in the Mt. Clare station of the <a href="https://preservationmaryland.org/this-day-in-history-chartering-of-the-bo-railroad/" target="_blank">B&O railroad</a>, and the telegraph line ran alongside the tracks. Mail delivered by train took half a day door to door, says Hochfelder, and the telegraph offered little practical advantage.On 5 December 1844, Rogers wrote to Vail:“I hear from several sources that we are making rather an unfavorable impression with the religious part of the community, and I am under the impression if we continue after the present party is through that we will be injured more than any benefit might or can be derived from it.”The exact nature of the religious community’s complaint with telegraph chess is unclear.Although Morse wrote to Vail on the day of the first chess game that he “was much pleased with your game of drafts,” he came to feel that chess was too <a href="https://atlantic-cable.com/Article/1926CableChess/index.htm" target="_blank">frivolous</a> for the telegraph, as noted by the chess writer Tim Harding in his <a href="https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/correspondence-chess-in-britain-and-ireland-1824-1987/" target="_blank">Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824–1987</a> (McFarland, 2011). Whatever the reasons, it appears that after 17 December 1844, no more chess was played on the line. And in the end, Congress didn’t fund a telegraphic connection to New York, nor did it acquire perpetual rights to the telegraph, in part because Morse’s business partner had other designs, says Hochfelder. The Baltimore–Washington line operated under the auspices of the <a href="https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/telegraph.pdf" target="_blank">Postal Service</a> from 1845 to 1847, when funding ended. <img alt="Two black and white photos. On the left, a man in a suit moves a piece on a chess board. On the left the man holds a printout coming from a teletype machine, while another man stands next to him. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1f39a5b28cbc1e78105d85f19359c6bf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="21deb" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/two-black-and-white-photos-on-the-left-a-man-in-a-suit-moves-a-piece-on-a-chess-board-on-the-left-the-man-holds-a-printout-co.jpg?id=62293885&width=980"/> When U.S. chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer was prevented from attending an international tournament in Havana, his moves were relayed via teletype. Left: Everett Collection Historical/Alamy; Right: Smith Archive/AlamyAfter that, the U.S. telegraph thrived in private ventures. Over the next few years, companies built local lines and networks to connect cities across the country. Most notably, Ezra Cornell’s Western Union completed a <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-transcontinental-telegraph.htm" target="_blank">transcontinental telegraph in 1861</a>, and eventually became a monopoly in the United States. Ordinary people rarely used the telegraph, says Hochfelder, but it transformed industries such as finance and journalism.Meanwhile, telegraph chess was taken up elsewhere. In 1845, for example, a match between London and Gosport, England, involved inventor <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/morse-codes-vanquished-competitor-the-dial-telegraph" target="_self">Charles Wheatstone</a> and chess master Howard Staunton. But it would take another few decades for telechess to become more widespread, with prominent club matches <a href="https://atlantic-cable.com/Article/1926CableChess/index.htm" target="_blank">played over telegraph</a> from the 1890s into the 1920s.High-level chess competitions tend to be held in person, but games have been played remotely from time to time. For example, in 1965, U.S. grandmaster Bobby Fischer relayed his moves <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0UJ52Gw5W4" target="_blank">by teletype</a> over telephone lines from New York City to Havana, after the U.S. State Department prevented his attending a tournament there. And in 1999, a couple of years after losing a rematch to the IBM supercomputer <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-ibms-deep-blue-beat-world-champion-chess-player-garry-kasparov" target="_self">Deep Blue</a>, world champion Garry Kasparov played a promotional game against a team representing “the world,” which consulted on moves via a <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/source/1999/10/25/world-chess-champion-garry-kasparov-defeats-world-team-in-kasparov-vs-the-world-on-msn-com/" target="_blank">Microsoft forum</a>. <img alt="Color photo of a man in a suite sitting next to a computer with a large display of a chess board. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="827934da739092c6f33c665423ffaa4d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="e6618" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/color-photo-of-a-man-in-a-suite-sitting-next-to-a-computer-with-a-large-display-of-a-chess-board.jpg?id=62293870&width=980"/> In a promotional game in 1999, Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov played an online game against “the world.” Jeff Christensen/Getty ImagesToday, the internet has taken telecom chess to fabulous new heights, with one site alone, <a href="https://chess.com" target="_blank">chess.com</a>, often hosting up to 20 million games a day. Indeed, the growth in online play has sometimes <a href="https://www.chess.com/blog/CHESScom/chess-is-booming-and-our-servers-are-struggling" target="_blank">stretched</a> the capacities of the servers and the engineers who maintain them.Why have technologists taken the opportunity to play chess using so many generations of telecommunications? It may simply be that chess is popular, and by its nature can actually be played with short messages and perfect information, unlike soccer or poker.But is there something more, maybe a natural affinity? “There are similarities in thinking processes [between] engineering design, and the sort of puzzle solving that a chess game involves,” says Kazdan of Case Western Reserve. The connection may be one-sided. “Many engineers like chess. I’m not sure many chess players like engineering.”

Dec 10, 2025

Why Vision AI Models Fail

Dec 10, 2025

Two New AI Ethics Certifications Available from IEEE

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-large-floating-cube-with-ai-written-on-its-front-and-a-halo-hovering-above.jpg?id=62301657&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C83%2C0%2C84"/> It appears that nearly every organization is planning to use <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/artificial-intelligence/" target="_self">artificial intelligence</a> to improve operations. Although autonomous intelligent systems (AIS) can offer significant benefits, they also can be used unethically. The technology can create <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/real-time-audio-deepfake-vishing" target="_self">deepfakes</a>, realistic-looking altered images and videos that help spread <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-misinformation-llm-bullshit" target="_self">misinformation</a> and disinformation. Meanwhile, AI systems trained on <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/inclusive-ai" target="_self">biased data can perpetuate discrimination</a> in hiring, lending, and other practices. And surveillance systems that incorporate AI can lead to misidentification.Those issues have led to concerns about AIS trustworthiness, and it has become more crucial for AI developers and companies to ensure the systems they use and sell are ethically sound. To help them, the <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Standards Association</a> (IEEE SA) launched its <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/products-programs/icap/ieee-certifaied/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE CertifAIEd</a> ethics program, which offers two certifications: one for individuals and one for products.IEEE CertifAIEd was developed by an interdisciplinary group of AI ethics experts. The program is based on IEEE’s <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/import/documents/other/ethical-considerations-ai-as-29mar2018.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AI ethics framework and methodology</a>, centered around the pillars of accountability, privacy, transparency, and avoiding bias. The program incorporates criteria outlined in the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/2025/06/25/introducing-cc-signals-a-new-social-contract-for-the-age-of-ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AI ontological specifications</a> released under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a> licenses.IEEE is the only international organization that offers the programs, says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-labrador-862899395/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jon Labrador</a>, director for conformity assessment of IEEE SA programs.<h2>Assessment program details</h2>The <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/products-programs/icap/ieee-certifaied/professional-certification/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">professional certification</a> provides individuals with the skills to assess an AIS for adherence to IEEE’s methodology and ethics framework.Those with at least one year of experience in the use of AI tools or systems in their organization’s business processes or work functions are <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/products-programs/icap/ieee-certifaied/professional-certification/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">eligible to apply</a> for the certification.You don’t have to be a developer or engineer to benefit from the training, Labrador says. Insurance underwriters, policymakers, human resources personnel, and others could benefit from it, he says.“Professionals from just about any industry or any company that’s using an AI tool to process business transactions are eligible for this program,” he says.The training program covers how to ensure that AI systems are open and understandable; identify and mitigate biases in algorithms; and protect personal data. The <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/products-programs/icap/ieee-certifaied/curriculum-licensing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">curriculum</a> includes use cases. Courses are available in virtual, in-person, or self-study formats.Learners must take a final exam. Once they’ve successfully passed the test, they’ll receive their three-year IEEE professional certification, which is globally recognized, accepted, and respected, Labrador says.“With the certification, you’ll become a trusted source for reviewing AI tools used in your business processes, and you’ll be qualified to run an assessment,” he says. “It would be incumbent on a company to have a few IEEE CertifAIEd professionals to review its tools regularly to make sure they conform with the values identified in our program.”The self-study exam preparatory course is available to IEEE members at US $599; it costs $699 for nonmembers.<h2>Product assessments</h2>The <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/products-programs/icap/ieee-certifaied/product-certification/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">product certification program</a> assesses whether an organization’s AI tool or AIS conforms to the IEEE framework and continuously aligns with legal and regulatory principles such as the <a href="https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">European Union AI Act</a>.An IEEE CertifiAIEd assessor evaluates the product to ensure it meets all criteria. There are <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/products-programs/icap/ieee-certifaied/product-certification/#certification-registry" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more than 300 authorized assessors</a>.Upon completion of the assessment, the company submits it to <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/products-programs/icap/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Conformity Assessment</a>, which certifies the product and issues the certification mark.“That mark lets customers know that the company has gone through the rigors and is 100 percent in conformance with the latest IEEE AI ethics specifications,” Labrador says.“The IEEE CertifiAIEd program can also be viewed as a risk mitigation tool for companies,” he says, “reducing the risk of system or process failures with the introduction of a new AI tool or system in established business processes.”You can <a href="https://standards.ieee.org/products-programs/icap/ieee-certifaied/product-certification/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">complete an application</a> to begin the process of getting your product certified.

Dec 10, 2025

This Low-Cost Stopgap Tech Can Fix the Grid

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/three-rows-of-machines-outdoors-surrounded-by-a-fence.jpg?id=62286808&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=156%2C0%2C156%2C0"/> The power surging through transmission lines over the iconic stone walls of England’s northern countryside is pushing the United Kingdom’s grid to its limits. To the north, Scottish wind farms have doubled their output over the past decade. In the south, where electricity demand is heaviest, electrification and new data centers promise to draw more power, but new generation is falling short. Construction on a new 3,280-megawatt nuclear power plant west of London lags years behind schedule.The result is a lopsided flow of power that’s maxing out transmission corridors from the Highlands to London. That grid strain won’t ease any time soon. New lines linking Scotland to southern England are at least three to four years from operation, and at risk of further delays from fierce local opposition.At the same time, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is bent on installing even more wind power and slashing fossil-fuel generation by 2030. His Labour government says low-carbon power is cheaper and more secure than natural gas, much of which comes from Norway via the world’s longest underwater gas pipeline and is vulnerable to disruption and sabotage. <img alt="Map of transmission lines in southern Scotland and northern England." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="446bf80e04c448e6b6777be28653cf5e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="1e710" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/map-of-transmission-lines-in-southern-scotland-and-northern-england.png?id=62286818&width=980"/> The lack of transmission lines available to move power flowing south from Scottish wind farms has caused grid congestion in England. To better manage it, the U.K. has installed SmartValves at three substations in northern England—Penwortham, Harker, and Saltholme—and is constructing a fourth at South Shields. Chris Philpot The U.K.’s resulting grid congestion prevents transmission operators from delivering some of their cleanest, cheapest generation to all of the consumers who want it. Congestion is a perennial problem whenever power consumption is on the rise. It pushes circuits to their thermal limits and creates grid stability or security constraints.With congestion relief needed now, the U.K.’s grid operators are getting creative, rapidly tapping new cable designs and innovations in power electronics to squeeze more power through existing transmission corridors. These <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/grid-enhancing-technologies" target="_self">grid-enhancing technologies</a>, or GETs, present a low-cost way to bridge the gap until new lines can be built.“GETs allow us to operate the system harder before an investment arrives, and they save a s***load of money,” says <a href="https://linkedin.com/in/julian-leslie-b9059535?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">Julian Leslie</a>, chief engineer and director of strategic energy planning at the National Energy System Operator (NESO), the Warwick-based agency that directs U.K. energy markets and infrastructure. <img alt="A stone wall along a dirt trail with large powerlines running overhead on a sunny day " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e49cb9910ee1729273759d7c84a27319" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3c272" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-stone-wall-along-a-dirt-trail-with-large-powerlines-running-overhead-on-a-sunny-day.jpg?id=62286810&width=980"/>Transmission lines running across England’s countryside are maxed out, creating bottlenecks in the grid that prevent some carbon-free power from reaching customers. Vincent Lowe/Alamy The U.K.’s extreme grid challenge has made it ground zero for some of the boldest GETs testing and deployment. Such innovation involves some risk, because an intervention anywhere on the U.K.’s tightly meshed power system can have system-wide impacts. (Grid operators elsewhere are choosing to start with GETs at their systems’ periphery—where there’s less impact if something goes wrong.)The question is how far—and how fast—the U.K.’s grid operators can push GETs capabilities. The new technologies still have a limited track record, so operators are cautiously feeling their way toward heavier investment. Power system experts also have unanswered questions about these advanced grid capabilities. For example, will they create more complexity than grid operators can manage in real time? Might feedback between different devices destabilize the grid?There is no consensus yet as to how to even screen for such risks, let alone protect against them, says <a href="https://www.robinpreece.com/" target="_blank">Robin Preece</a>, professor in future power systems at the University of Manchester, in England. “We’re at the start of establishing that now, but we’re building at the same time. So it’s kind of this race between the necessity to get this technology installed as quickly as possible, and our ability to fully understand what’s happening.”<h2>How is the U.K. Managing Grid Congestion?</h2>One of the most innovative and high-stakes tricks in the U.K.’s toolbox employs electronic power-flow controllers, devices that shift electricity from jammed circuits to those with spare capacity. These devices have been able to finesse enough additional wind power through grid bottlenecks to replace an entire gas-fired generator. Installed in northern England four years ago by <a href="https://www.smartwires.com/" target="_blank">Smart Wires</a>, based in Durham, N.C., these SmartValves are expected to help even more as NESO installs more of them and masters their capabilities.Warwick-based <a href="https://www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission" target="_blank">National Grid Electricity Transmission</a>, the grid operator for England and Wales, is adding SmartValves and also replacing several thousand kilometers of overhead wire with advanced conductors that can carry more current. And it’s using a technique called <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/dynamic-line-rating-grid-congestion" target="_self">dynamic line rating</a>, whereby sensors and models work together to predict when weather conditions will allow lines to carry extra current.Other kinds of GETs are also being used globally. Advanced conductors are the most widely deployed. Dynamic line rating is increasingly common in European countries, and U.S. utilities are beginning to take it seriously. Europe also leads the world in topology-optimization software, which reconfigures power routes to alleviate congestion, and advanced power-flow-control devices like SmartValves. <img alt="Workers wearing hard hats and safety harnesses standing high up on an electricity pylon in the countryside" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="999b853b63d6a9c61ec2689d68981c79" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="4a9a9" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/workers-wearing-hard-hats-and-safety-harnesses-standing-high-up-on-an-electricity-pylon-in-the-countryside.jpg?id=62286977&width=980"/> Engineers install dynamic line rating technology from the Boston-based company LineVision on National Grid’s transmission network. National Grid Electricity Transmission SmartValves’ chops stand out at the Penwortham substation in Lancashire, England, one of two National Grid sites where the device made its U.K. debut in 2021. Penwortham substation is a major transmission hub, whose spokes desperately need congestion relief. Auditory evidence of heavy power flows was clear during my visit to the substation, which buzzes loudly. The sound is due to the electromechanical stresses on the substation’s massive transformers, explains my guide, National Grid commissioned engineer Paul Lloyd.Penwortham’s transformers, circuits, and protective relays are spread over 15 hectares, sandwiched between pastureland and suburban homes near Preston, a small city north of Manchester. Power arrives from the north on two pairs of 400-kilovolt AC lines, and most of it exits southward via 400-kV and 275-kV double-circuit wires. <img alt="Power lines crossing a rural pasture, with an old fence in the foreground and a substation in the background." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4eb4e306bf60e8ee5fc54e06a33f89a6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ce7e1" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/power-lines-crossing-a-rural-pasture-with-an-old-fence-in-the-foreground-and-a-substation-in-the-background.jpg?id=62286959&width=980"/> Transmission lines lead to the congested Penwortham substation, which has become a test-bed for GETs such as SmartValves and dynamic line rating. Peter Fairley What makes the substation a strategic test-bed for GETs is its position just north of the U.K. grid’s biggest bottleneck, known as Boundary B7a, which runs east to west across the island. Nine circuits traverse the B7a: the four AC lines headed south from Penwortham, four AC lines closer to Yorkshire’s North Sea coast, and a high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) link offshore. In theory, those circuits can collectively carry 13.6 gigawatts across the B7a. But NESO caps its flow at several gigawatts lower to ensure that no circuits overload if any two lines turn off.Such limits are necessary for grid reliability, but they are leaving terawatt-hours of wind power stranded in Scotland and increasing consumers’ energy costs: an extra £196 million (US $265 million) in 2024 alone. The costs stem from NESO having to ramp up gas-fired generators to meet demand down south while simultaneously compensating wind-farm operators for curtailing their output, as required under U.K. policy.So National Grid keeps tweaking Penwortham. In 2011 the substation got its first big GET: phase-shifting transformers (PSTs), a type of analog flow controller. PSTs adjust power flow by creating an AC waveform whose alternating voltage leads or lags its alternating current. They do so by each PST using a pair of connected transformers to selectively combine power from an AC transmission circuit’s three phases. Motors reposition electrical connections on the transformer coils to adjust flows. <img alt="Large machines outdoors connected to power lines " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5f34705676581e34113ed9594d186de2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d09c1" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/large-machines-outdoors-connected-to-power-lines.jpg?id=62286963&width=980"/> Phase-shifting transformers (PSTs) were installed in 2012 at the Penwortham substation and are the analog predecessor to SmartValves. They’re powerful but also bulky and relatively inflexible. It can take 10 minutes or more for the PST’s motorized actuators at Penwortham to tap their full range of flow control, whereas SmartValves can shift within milliseconds.National Grid Electricity Transmission Penwortham’s pair of 540-tonne PSTs occupy the entire south end of the substation, along with their dedicated chillers, relays, and power supplies. Delivering all that hardware required extensive road closures and floating a huge barge up the adjacent River Ribble, an event that made national news.The SmartValves at Penwortham stand in stark contrast to the PSTs’ heft, complexity, and mechanics. SmartValves are a type of static synchronous series compensator, or SSSC—a solid-state alternative to PSTs that employs power electronics to tweak power flows in milliseconds. I saw two sets of them tucked into a corner of the substation, occupying a quarter of the area of the PSTs. <img alt="Workers on an elevated platform and tall, cylindrical machinery" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e36b8e4392b0e819f0c360ef10fe8f38" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="146f3" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/workers-on-an-elevated-platform-and-tall-cylindrical-machinery.jpg?id=62286971&width=980"/> The SmartValve V103 design [above] experienced some teething and reliability issues that were ironed out with the technology’s next iteration, the V104. National Grid Electricity Transmission/Smart Wires The SmartValves are first and foremost an insurance policy to guard against a potentially crippling event: the sudden loss of one of the B7a’s 400-kV lines. If that were to happen, gigawatts of power would instantly seek another route over neighboring lines. And if it happened on a windy day, when lots of power is streaming in from the north, the resulting surge could overload the 275-kV circuits headed from Penwortham to Liverpool. The SmartValves’ job is to save the day.They do this by adding impedance to the 275-kV lines, thus acting to divert more power to the remaining 400-kV lines. This rerouting of power prevents a blackout that could potentially cascade through the grid. The upside to that protection is that NESO can safely schedule an additional 350 MW over the B7a.The savings add up. “That’s 350 MW of wind you’re no longer curtailing from wind farms. So that’s 350 times £100 a megawatt-hour,” says Leslie, at NESO. “That’s also 350 MW of gas-fired power that you don’t need to replace the wind. So that’s 350 times £120 a megawatt-hour. The numbers get big quickly.”<a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37266637500" target="_blank">Mark Osborne</a>, the National Grid lead asset life-cycle engineer managing its SmartValve projects, estimates the devices are saving U.K. customers over £100 million (US $132 million) a year. At that rate, they’ll pay for themselves “within a few years,” Osborne says. By utility standards, where investments are normally amortized over decades, that’s “almost immediately,” he adds.<h2>How Do Grid-Enhancing Technologies Work?</h2>The way Smart Wires’ SSSC devices adjust power flow is based on emulating impedance, which is a strange beast created by AC power. An AC flow’s changing magnetic field induces an additional voltage in the line’s conductor, which then acts as a drag on the initial field. Smart Wires’ SSSC devices alter power flow by emulating that natural process, effectively adding or subtracting impedance by adding their own voltage wave to the line. Adding a wave that leads the original voltage wave will boost flow, while adding a lagging wave will reduce flow.The SSSC’s submodules of capacitors and high-speed insulated-gate bipolar transistors operate in sequence to absorb power from a line and synthesize its novel impedance-altering waves. And thanks to its digital controls and switches, the device can within milliseconds flip from maximum power push to maximum pull.You can trace the development of SSSCs to the advent of HVDC transmission in the 1950s. HVDC converters take power from an AC grid and efficiently convert it and transfer it over a DC line to another point in the same grid, or to a neighboring AC grid. In 1985, Narain Hingorani, an HVDC expert at the Palo Alto–based Electric Power Research Institute, showed that similar converters could modulate the flow of an AC line. Four years later, Westinghouse engineer Laszlo Gyugyi proposed SSSCs, which became the basis for Smart Wires’ boxes.Major power-equipment manufacturers tried to commercialize SSSCs in the early 2000s. But utilities had little need for flow control back then because they had plenty of conventional power plants that could meet local demand when transmission lines were full.The picture changed as solar and wind generation exploded and conventional plants began shutting down. In years past, grid operators addressed grid congestion by turning power plants on or off in strategic locations. But as of 2024, the U.K. had shut down all of its coal-fired power plants—save one, which now burns wood—and it has vowed to slash gas-fired generation from about a quarter of electricity supply in 2024 to at most 5 percent in 2030.The U.K.’s extreme grid challenge has made it ground zero for some of the boldest GETs testing and deployment.To seize the emerging market opportunity presented by changing grid operations, Smart Wires had to make a crucial technology upgrade: ditching transformers. The company’s first SSSC, and those from other suppliers, relied on a transformer to absorb lightning, voltage surges, and every other grid assault that could fry their power electronics. This made them bulky and added cost. So Smart Wires engineers set to work in 2017 to see if they could live without the transformer, says Frank Kreikebaum, Smart Wires’s interim chief of engineering. Two years later the company had assembled a transformerless electronic shield. It consisted of a suite of filters and diverters, along with a control system to activate them. Ditching the transformer produced a trim, standardized product—a modular system-in-a-box.SmartValves work at any voltage and are generally ganged together to achieve a desired level of flow control. They can be delivered fast, and they fit in the kinds of tight spaces that are common in substations. “It’s not about cost, even though we’re competitive there. It’s about ‘how quick’ and ‘can it fit,’” says Kreikebaum.And if the grid’s pinch point shifts? The devices can be quickly moved to another substation. “It’s a Lego-brick build,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/owen-wilkes/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">Owen Wilkes</a>, National Grid’s director of network design. Wilkes’s team decides where to add equipment based on today’s best projections, but he appreciates the flexibility to respond to unexpected changes.National Grid’s deployments in 2021 were the highest-voltage installation of SSSCs at the time, and success there is fueling expansion. National Grid now has packs of SmartValves installed at three substations in northern England and under construction at another, with five more installations planned in that area. Smart Wires has also commissioned commercial projects at transmission substations in Australia, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States.<h2>Dynamic Line Rating Boosts Grid Efficiency</h2>In addition to SSSCs, National Grid has deployed lidar that senses sag on Penwortham’s 275-kV lines—an indication that they’re starting to overheat. The sensors are part of a dynamic line rating system and help grid operators maximize the amount of current that high-voltage lines can carry based on near-real-time weather conditions. (Cooler weather means more capacity.) Now the same technology is being deployed across the B7a—a £1 million investment that is projected to save consumers £33 million annually, says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/corin-ireland-4040b2179/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">Corin Ireland</a>, a National Grid optimization engineer with the task of seizing GETs opportunities.There’s also a lot of old conductor wires being swapped out for those that can carry more power. National Grid’s business plan calls for 2,416 kilometers of such reconductoring over the coming five years, which is about 20 percent of its system. Scotland’s transmission operators are busy with their own big swaps. <img alt="Rural farmland with shape and rotating wind turbines " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="992bfc288fa58bd824fc8be3752bb91c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="80b0b" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/rural-farmland-with-shape-and-rotating-wind-turbines.jpg?id=62286812&width=980"/> Scottish wind farms have doubled their power output over the past decade, but it often gets stranded due to grid congestion in England. Andreas Berthold/Alamy But while National Grid and NESO are making some of the boldest deployments of GETs in the world, they’re not fully tapping the technologies’ capabilities. That’s partly due to the conservative nature of power utilities, and partly because grid operators already have plenty to keep their eyes on. It also stems from the unknowns that still surround GETs, like whether they might take the grid in unforeseen directions if allowed to respond automatically, or get stuck in a feedback loop responding to each other. Imagine SmartValve controllers at different substations fighting, with one substation jumping to remove impedance that the other just added, causing fluctuating power flows.“These technologies operate very quickly, but the computers in the control room are still very reliant on people making decisions,” says Ireland. “So there are time scales that we have to take into consideration when planning and operating the network.”This kind of conservative dispatching leaves value on the table. For example, the dynamic line rating models can spit out new line ratings every 15 minutes, but grid operators get updates only every 24 hours. Fewer updates means fewer opportunities to tap the system’s ability to boost capacity. Similarly, for SmartValves, NESO activates installations at only one substation at a time. And control-room operators turn them on manually, even though the devices could automatically respond to faults within milliseconds. <img alt="Workers in harnesses and hard hats climbing and standing high up on a transmission tower in the countryside." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="daec885051d36b90c1e22378978eeb3c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="9e46e" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/workers-in-harnesses-and-hard-hats-climbing-and-standing-high-up-on-a-transmission-tower-in-the-countryside.jpg?id=62286819&width=980"/> National Grid is upgrading transmission lines dating as far back as the 1960s. This includes installing conductors that retain their strength at higher temperatures, allowing them to carry more power. National Grid Electricity Transmission Modeling by Smart Wires and National Grid shows a significant capacity boost across Boundary B7a if Penwortham’s SmartValves were to work in tandem with another set further up the line. For example, when Penwortham is adding impedance to push megawatts off the 275-kV lines, a set closer to Scotland could simultaneously pull the power north, nudging the sum over to the B7a’s eastern circuits. Simulations by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-hiorns-6a92b158/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">Andy Hiorns</a>, a former National Grid planning director who consults for Smart Wires, suggest that this kind of cooperative action should increase the B7a circuits’ usable capacity by another 250 to 300 MW. “You double the effectiveness by using them as pairs,” he says.Operating multiple flow controllers may become necessary for unlocking the next boundary en route to London, south of the B7a, called Boundary B8. As dynamic line rating, beefier conductors, and SmartValves send more power across the B7a, lines traversing B8 are reaching their limits. Eventually, every boundary along the route will have to be upgraded.Meanwhile, back at its U.S. headquarters, Smart Wires is developing other applications for its SSSCs, such as filtering out power oscillations that can destabilize grids and reduce allowable transfers. That capability could be unlocked remotely with firmware.The company is also working on a test program that could turn on pairs of SmartValve installations during slack moments when there isn’t much going on in the control rooms. That would give National Grid and NESO operators an opportunity to observe the impacts, and to get more comfortable with the technology.National Grid and Smart Wires are also hard at work developing industry-first optimization software for coordinating flow-control devices. “It’s possible to extend the technology from how we’re using it today,” says Ireland at National Grid. “That’s the exciting bit.”NESO’s Julian Leslie shares that excitement and says he expects SmartValves to begin working together to ease power through the grid—once the operators have the modeling right and get a little more comfortable with the technology. “It’s a great innovation that has the potential to be really transformational,” he says. “We’re just not quite there yet.”

Dec 9, 2025

Virtual Power Plants Are Finally Having Their Moment

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/exterior-of-a-house-with-multiple-roof-top-solar-panels.jpg?id=62288939&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C83%2C0%2C84"/> German utility RWE implemented the <a href="https://uplight.com/blog/what-is-virtual-power-plant/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first known virtual power plant</a> (VPP) in 2008, aggregating nine small hydroelectric plants for a total capacity of 8.6 megawatts. In general, a VPP pulls together many small components—like rooftop solar, home batteries, and smart thermostats—into a single coordinated power system. The system responds to grid needs on demand, whether by making stored energy available or reducing energy consumption by smart devices during peak hours.VPPs <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/virtual-power-plants-real-power" target="_self">had a moment</a> in the mid-2010s, but market conditions and the technology weren’t quite aligned for them to take off. Electricity demand <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65264" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wasn’t high enough</a>, and existing sources—coal, natural gas, nuclear, and renewables—met demand and kept prices stable. Additionally, despite the costs of hardware like solar panels and batteries falling, the software to link and manage these resources lagged behind, and there wasn’t much financial incentive for it to catch up. But times have changed, and less than a decade later, the stars are aligning in VPPs’ favor. They’re hitting a deployment inflection point, and they could play a significant role in meeting energy demand over the next 5 to 10 years in a way that’s faster, cheaper, and greener than other solutions. <h2>U.S. Electricity Demand Is Growing</h2>Electricity demand in the United States is expected to <a href="https://www.icf.com/insights/energy/electricity-demand-expected-to-grow" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">grow 25 percent</a> by 2030 due to data center buildouts, electric vehicles, manufacturing, and electrification, according to estimates from technology consultant ICF International.At the same time, a host of bottlenecks are making it hard to expand the grid. There’s a <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-data-centers" target="_self">backlog of at least</a> three to five years on new gas turbines. Hundreds of <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/transmission/chart-the-us-clean-energy-backlog-is-getting-bigger-and-bigger" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gigawatts of renewables</a> are languishing in interconnection queues, where there’s also a backlog of up to five years. On the delivery side, there’s a <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/transformer-shortage" target="_self">transformer shortage</a> that could take up to five years to resolve, and a dearth of <a href="https://www.cleanenergygrid.org/new-report-reveals-u-s-transmission-buildout-lagging-far-behind-national-needs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">transmission lines</a>. This all adds up to a long, slow process to add generation and delivery capacity, and it’s not getting faster anytime soon. “Fueling electric vehicles, electric heat, and data centers solely from traditional approaches would increase rates that are already too high,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-heavner-9a63b311/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Brad Heavner</a>, the executive director of the <a href="https://calssa.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">California Solar & Storage Association</a>. Enter the vast network of resources that are already active and grid-connected—and the perfect storm of factors that make now the time to scale them. <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/engineering_and_computing/faculty-staff/nasiri_adel.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Adel Nasiri</a>, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of South Carolina, says variability of loads from data centers and electric vehicles has increased, as has deployment of grid-scale batteries and storage. There are more distributed energy resources available than there were before, and the last decade has seen advances in grid management using autonomous controls.At the heart of it all, though, is the technology that stores and dispatches electricity on demand: batteries. <h2>Advances in Battery Technology</h2>Over the last 10 years, battery prices have plummeted: the average <a href="https://about.bnef.com/insights/commodities/lithium-ion-battery-pack-prices-see-largest-drop-since-2017-falling-to-115-per-kilowatt-hour-bloombergnef/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lithium-ion battery pack</a><a href="https://about.bnef.com/insights/commodities/lithium-ion-battery-pack-prices-see-largest-drop-since-2017-falling-to-115-per-kilowatt-hour-bloombergnef/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://about.bnef.com/insights/commodities/lithium-ion-battery-pack-prices-see-largest-drop-since-2017-falling-to-115-per-kilowatt-hour-bloombergnef/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> price</a> fell from US $715 per kilowatt-hour in 2014 to $115 per kWh in 2024. Their <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1234-april-18-2022-volumetric-energy-density-lithium-ion-batteries" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">energy density</a> has simultaneously increased thanks to a combination of materials advancements, design optimization of battery cells, and improvements in the packaging of battery systems, says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-gross-b4a86714/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Oliver Gross</a>, a senior fellow in energy storage and electrification at automaker Stellantis.The biggest improvements have come in batteries’ cathodes and electrolytes, with nickel-based cathodes starting to be used about a decade ago. “In many ways, the cathode limits the capacity of the battery, so by unlocking higher capacity cathode materials, we have been able to take advantage of the intrinsic higher capacity of anode materials,” says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregless/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Greg Less</a>, the director of the University of Michigan’s Battery Lab.Increasing the percentage of nickel in the cathode (relative to other metals) increases energy density because nickel can hold more lithium per gram than materials like cobalt or manganese, exchanging more electrons and participating more fully in the redox reactions that move lithium in and out of the battery. The same goes for silicon, which has become more common in anodes. However, there’s a trade-off: These materials cause more structural instability during the battery’s cycling.The anode and cathode are surrounded by a liquid electrolyte. The electrolyte has to be electrically and chemically stable when exposed to the anode and cathode in order to avoid safety hazards like thermal runaway or fires and rapid degradation. “The real revolution has been the breakthroughs in chemistry to make the electrolyte stable against more reactive cathode materials to get the energy density up,” says Gross. Chemical compound additives—many of them based on sulfur and boron chemistry—for the electrolyte help create stable layers between it and the anode and cathode materials. “They form these protective layers very early in the manufacturing process so that the cell stays stable throughout its life.”These advances have primarily been made on electric vehicle batteries, which differ from grid-scale batteries in that EVs are often parked or idle, while grid batteries are constantly connected and need to be ready to transfer energy. However, Gross says, “the same approaches that got our energy density higher in EVs can also be applied to optimizing grid storage. The materials might be a little different, but the methodologies are the same.” The most popular cathode material for grid storage batteries at the moment is lithium iron phosphate, or LFP.Thanks to these technical gains and dropping costs, a domino effect has been set in motion: The more batteries deployed, the cheaper they become, which fuels more deployment and creates positive feedback loops.Regions that have experienced frequent blackouts—like parts of <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/18/texas-energy-grid-power-outages-climate-change-infrastructure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Texas</a>, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-11-06/edison-blacks-out-more-customers-to-stop-utility-sparked-fires" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">California</a>, and <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/puerto-rico-earthquake-power-outages-prepa-news" target="_self">Puerto Rico</a>—are a prime market for home batteries. Texas-based <a href="https://www.basepowercompany.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Base Power</a>, which raised $1 billion in Series C funding in October, installs batteries at customers’ homes and becomes their retail power provider, charging the batteries when excess wind or solar production makes prices cheap, and then selling that energy back to the grid when demand spikes.There is, however, still room for improvement. For wider adoption, says Nasiri, “the installed battery cost needs to get under $100 per kWh for large VPP deployments.”<h2>Improvements in VPP Software</h2>The software infrastructure that once limited VPPs to pilot projects has matured into a robust digital backbone, making it feasible to operate VPPs at grid scale. Advances in AI are key: Many VPPs now use machine learning algorithms to predict load flexibility, solar and battery output, customer behavior, and grid stress events. This improves the dependability of a VPP’s capacity, which was historically a major concern for grid operators. <img alt="Close-up of a roof-top solar panel." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="911de5e73703fce63c31e1a227ac916b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="b3240" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/close-up-of-a-roof-top-solar-panel.jpg?id=62288941&width=980"/> While solar panels have advanced, VPPs have been held back by a lack of similar advancement in the needed software until recently.SunrunCybersecurity and interoperability standards are still evolving. Interconnection processes and data visibility in many areas aren’t consistent, making it hard to monitor and coordinate distributed resources effectively. In short, while the technology and economics for VPPs are firmly in place, there’s work yet to be done aligning regulation, infrastructure, and market design.On top of technical and cost constraints, VPPs have long been held back by regulations that prevented them from participating in energy markets like traditional generators. SolarEdge recently <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251029315871/en/SolarEdge-Surpasses-500-MWh-of-Storage-in-Virtual-Power-Plants-Across-16-U.S.-States-Canada-and-Puerto-Rico" target="_blank">announced</a> enrollment of more than 500 megawatt-hours of residential battery storage in its VPP programs. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamarasinensky/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tamara Sinensky</a>, the company’s senior manager of grid services, says the biggest hurdle to achieving this milestone wasn’t technical—it was regulatory program design.California’s Demand Side Grid Support (<a href="https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/demand-side-grid-support-program" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DSGS</a>) program, launched in mid-2022, pays homes, businesses, and VPPs to reduce electricity use or discharge energy during grid emergencies. “We’ve seen a massive increase in our VPP enrollments primarily driven by the DSGS program,” says Sinensky. Similarly, Sunrun’s Northern California VPP delivered 535 megawatts of power from home-based batteries to the grid in July, and saw a <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/sunrun-sees-400-growth-in-virtual-power-plant-participation/805169/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">400 percent increase</a> in VPP participation from last year.<a href="https://www.ferc.gov/ferc-order-no-2222-explainer-facilitating-participation-electricity-markets-distributed-energy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FERC Order 2222</a>, issued in 2020, requires regional grid operators to allow VPPs to sell power, reduce load, or provide grid services directly to wholesale market operators, and get paid the same market price as a traditional power plant for those services. However, many states and grid regions don’t yet have a process in place to comply with the FERC order. And because utilities profit from grid expansion and not VPP deployment, they’re not incentivized to integrate VPPs into their operations. Utilities “view customer batteries as competition,” says Heavner.According to Nasiri, VPPs would have a meaningful impact on the grid if they achieve a penetration of 2 percent of the market’s peak power. “Larger penetration of up to 5 percent for up to 4 hours is required to have a meaningful capacity impact for grid planning and operation,” he says.In other words, VPP operators have their work cut out for them in continuing to unlock the flexible capacity in homes, businesses, and EVs. Additional technical and policy advances could move VPPs from a niche reliability tool to a key power source and grid stabilizer for the energy tumult ahead.<a href="#_msocom_2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a>

Dec 9, 2025

Why the Most “Accurate” Glucose Monitors Are Failing Some Users

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/illustration-of-an-arm-with-a-glucose-monitor-against-a-glitchy-line-graph-of-blood-sugar-data.jpg?id=62295175&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=62%2C0%2C63%2C0"/> When Dan Heller received his first batch of Dexcom’s latest <a data-linked-post="2650277674" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/why-noviosenses-ineye-glucose-monitor-might-work-better-than-googles" target="_blank">continuous glucose monitors</a> in early 2023, he decided to run a small experiment: He wore the new biosensor and the previous generation at the same time to see how they compared in measuring his glucose levels. The new, seventh-generation model (aptly called the G7) made by San Diego-based healthcare company <a href="https://www.dexcom.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dexcom</a> had just begun shipping in the United States. Dexcom claimed the G7 to be the <a href="https://investors.dexcom.com/news/news-details/2022/Dexcom-G7-Receives-FDA-Clearance-The-Most-Accurate-Continuous-Glucose-Monitoring-System-Cleared-in-the-U.S/default.aspx" target="_blank">“most accurate sensor”</a> available to the thousands of people with Type 1 diabetes who use continuous glucose monitors to help manage their blood sugars. But Heller found that its real-world performance wasn’t up to par. In a September 2023 post on his Substack, which is dedicated to covering Type 1 diabetes research and management, he <a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/danheller/p/the-dexcom-g7-vs-g6-which-is-better?r=1q2796&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote about the experience</a> and predicted an increase in adverse events with the G7, drawing on his past experience leading tech and biotech companies. In the two years since Heller’s experiment, many other users have reported issues with the device. Some complaints regard failed connection and deployment issues, which Dexcom claims to have <a href="https://www.medtechdive.com/news/dexcom-execs-fixed-g7-quality-problems/804383/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">now addressed</a>. More concerning are reports of erratic, inaccurate readings. A <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1539517486772872" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">public Facebook group</a> dedicated to sharing negative experiences with the G7 has grown to thousands of users, and several class action <a href="https://rosenlegal.com/case/dexcom-inc/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lawsuits</a> have been filed against the company, alleging <a href="https://wilshirelawfirm.com/dexcom-class-action-lawsuit/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">false advertising</a> and <a href="https://cowperlaw.com/cowper-law-llp-dicello-levitt-file-class-action-against-dexcom-over-misleading-claims-about-g7-cgm/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">misleading claims</a> about device accuracy. Yet, based on a standard metric in the industry, the G7 is one of the most accurate glucose sensors available. “Accuracy in the performance of our device is our number one priority. We understand this is a lifesaving device for people with Type 1 diabetes,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-c-simpson-533a083/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Peter Simpson</a>, Dexcom’s senior vice president of innovation and sensor technology, told IEEE Spectrum. Simpson acknowledged some variability in individual sensors, but stood by the accuracy of the devices.So why have users faced issues? In part, metrics used in marketing can be misleading compared to real world performance. Differences in study design, combined with complex biological realities, mean that the accuracy of these biosensors can’t be boiled down to one number—and users are learning this the hard way. <h2>Dexcom’s Glucose Monitors</h2>Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) typically consist of a small filament inserted under the skin, a transmitter, and a receiver. The filament is coated with an enzyme that generates an electrical signal when it reacts with glucose in the fluid surrounding the body’s cells. That signal is then converted to a digital signal and processed to generate glucose readings every few minutes. Each sensor lasts a week or two before needing to be replaced. The technology has come a long way in recent years. In the 2010s, these devices required blood glucose calibrations twice a day and still weren’t reliable enough to dose insulin based on the readings. Now, some insulin pumps use the near-real-time data to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/artificial-pancreas-could-conquer-diabetes" target="_blank">automatically make adjustments</a>. With those improvements has come greater trust in the data users receive—and higher standards. A faulty reading could result in a dangerous dose of insulin. The G7 introduced several changes to Dexcom’s earlier designs, including a much smaller footprint, and updated the algorithm used to translate sensor signals into glucose readings for better accuracy, Simpson says. “From a performance perspective, we did demonstrate in a clinical trial that the G7 is significantly more accurate than the G6,” he says. So Heller and others were surprised when the new Dexcom sensor seemed to be performing worse. For some batches of sensors, it’s possible that the issue was in part due to an unvalidated change in a component used in a resistive layer of the sensors. The new component showed worse performance, according to a <a href="https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/dexcom-inc-700835-03042025" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">warning letter</a> issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March 2025, following an audit of two U.S. manufacturing sites. The material has since been removed from all G7 sensors, Simpson says, and the company is continuing to work with the FDA to address concerns. (“The warning letter does not restrict Dexcom’s ability to produce, market, manufacture or distribute products, require recall of any products, nor restrict our ability to seek clearance of new products,” Dexcom added in a statement.)“There is a distribution of accuracies that have to do with people’s physiology and also the devices themselves. Even in our clinical studies, we saw some that were really precise and some that had a little bit of inaccuracy to them,” says Simpson. “But in general, our sensor is very accurate.”In late November Abbott—one of Dexcom’s main competitors—<a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/medical-device-recalls-and-early-alerts/early-alert-glucose-monitor-sensor-issue-abbott-diabetes-care" target="_blank">recalled some of its CGMs</a> due to inaccurate low glucose readings. The recall affects approximately 3 million sensors and was caused by an issue with one of Abbott’s production lines. The discrepancy between reported accuracy and user experience, however, goes beyond any one company’s manufacturing missteps. <h2>Does MARD Matter? </h2>The accuracy of CGM systems is frequently measured via “mean absolute relative difference,” or MARD, a percentage that compares the sensor readings to laboratory blood glucose measurements. The lower the MARD, the more accurate the sensor. This number is often used in advertising and marketing, and it has a historical relevance, says <a href="https://de.linkedin.com/in/manueich/de" target="_blank">Manuel Eichenlaub</a>, a biomedical engineer at the <a href="https://www.ifdt-ulm.de/en/" target="_blank">Institute for Diabetes Technology Ulm</a> in Germany, where he and his colleagues conduct independent CGM performance studies. For years, there was <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/dia.2023.0435" target="_blank">a general belief</a> that a MARD under 10 percent meant a system would be accurate enough to be used for insulin dosing. In 2018, the FDA established a specific set of accuracy <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-H/part-862/subpart-B/section-862.1355" target="_blank">requirements</a> beyond MARD for insulin-guiding glucose monitors, including Dexcom’s. But manufacturers design the clinical trials that determine accuracy metrics, and the way studies are designed can make a big difference. <img alt="Graph comparing readings from two glucose monitors from 12 AM to 2:24 PM. Blue dots represent the Dexcom G6 and red dots represent the G7. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3f5fb17a1310204cdfe93cec4ab6ae6d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="62791" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/graph-comparing-readings-from-two-glucose-monitors-from-12-am-to-2-24-pm-blue-dots-represent-the-dexcom-g6-and-red-dots-represe.jpg?id=62299343&width=980"/> When Dan Heller wore the Dexcom G6 and G7 at the same time, he says he noticed the G7 readings were more erratic, making it more difficult to properly control his blood sugar. Dan Heller For instance, blood glucose levels serve as the “ground truth to compare the CGM values against,” says Eichenlaub. But glucose levels vary across blood compartments in the body; blood collected from capillaries with a finger prick fluctuates more and can have glucose levels around 5 to 10 percent higher than venous blood. (Dexcom tests against a gold-standard venous blood analyzer. When users see inaccuracies against home meters that use capillary blood, it could in part be a reflection of the meter’s own inaccuracy, Simpson says, though he acknowledges real inaccuracies in CGMs as well.)Additionally, the distribution of sampling isn’t standardized. CGMs are known to be less accurate at the beginning and end of use, or when glucose levels are out of range or changing quickly. That means measured accuracy could be skewed by taking fewer samples right after a meal or late in the CGM’s lifetime. According to Simpson, Dexcom’s trial protocol meets the FDA’s expectation and tests the devices in different blood sugar ranges across the life of the sensor. “Within these clinical trials, we do stress the sensors to try and simulate those real world conditions,” he says. Dexcom and other companies advertise a MARD around 8 percent. But some independent studies are more demanding and find higher numbers; a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19322968251315459" target="_blank">head-to-head study of three popular CGMs</a> that Eichenlaub led found MARD values closer to 10 percent or higher.Eichenlaub and other CGM experts believe that more standardization of testing and an extension of the FDA requirements are necessary, so they <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0009898125006072" target="_blank">recently proposed comprehensive guidelines</a> on CGM performance testing. In the United States and Europe, a few manufacturers currently dominate the market. But newer players are entering the growing market and, especially in Europe, may not meet the same standards as legacy manufacturers, he says. “Having a standardized way of evaluating the performance of those systems is very important.”For users like Heller though, better accuracy only matters if it yields better diabetes management. “I don’t care about MARD. I want data that is reliably actionable,” Heller says. He encourages engineers working on these devices to think like the patient. “At some point, there’s quantitative data, but you need qualitative data.”

Dec 8, 2025

Amazon’s “Catalog AI” Product Platform Helps You Shop Smarter

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/smiling-portrait-of-abhishek-agrawal.jpg?id=62288075&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C71%2C0%2C72"/> If you’ve shopped on <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/about-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon</a> in the past few months, you might have noticed it has gotten easier to find what you’re looking for. Listings now have more images, detailed product names, and better descriptions. The website’s predictive search feature uses the listing updates to anticipate needs and suggests a list of items in real time as you type in the search bar.The improved shopping experience is thanks to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/agrawalabhishekaa/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Abhishek Agrawal</a> and his <a href="https://www.carbon6.io/blog/amazon-project-starfish-fba-prep-seller-updates-2025-08-01/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Catalog AI</a> system. Launched in July, the tool collects information from across the Internet about products being sold on Amazon and, based on the data, updates listings to make them more detailed and organized.<h3>Abhishek Agrawal</h3> EmployerAmazon Web Services in SeattleJob titleEngineering leaderMember grade Senior memberAlma maters University of Allahabad in India and the Indian Statistical Institute in KolkataAgrawal is an engineering leader at <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon Web Services</a> in Seattle. An expert in AI and machine learning, the IEEE senior member worked on Microsoft’s <a href="https://www.bing.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bing</a> search engine before moving to Amazon. He also developed several features for <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Microsoft Teams</a>, the company’s direct messaging platform.“I’ve been working in AI for more than 20 years now,” he says. ”Seeing how much we can do with technology still amazes me.”He shares his expertise and passion for the technology as an active member and volunteer at the <a href="https://ieee-seattle.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Seattle Section</a>. He organizes and hosts career development workshops that teach people to create an AI agent, which can perform tasks autonomously with minimal human oversight.<h2>An AI career inspired by a computer</h2>Agrawal was born and raised in Chirgaon, a remote village in Uttar Pradesh, India. When he was growing up, no one in Chirgaon had a computer. His family owned a pharmacy, which Agrawal was expected to join after he graduated from high school. Instead, his uncle and older brother encouraged him to attend college and find his own passion.He enjoyed mathematics and physics, and he decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in statistics at the <a href="https://www.allduniv.ac.in/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">University of Allahabad</a>. After graduating in 1996, he pursued a master’s degree in statistics, statistical quality control, and operations research at the <a href="https://www.isical.ac.in/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Indian Statistical Institute</a> in Kolkata.While at the ISI, he saw a computer for the first time in the laboratory of <a href="https://www.isical.ac.in/~nikhil/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nikhil R. Pal</a>, an electronics and communication sciences professor. Pal worked on identifying abnormal clumps of cells in mammogram images using the<a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/413225/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> fuzzy c-means model</a>, a data-clustering technique employing a machine learning algorithm.Agrawal earned his master’s degree in 1998. He was so inspired by Pal’s work, he says, that he stayed on at the university to earn a second master’s degree, in computer science.After graduating in 2001, he joined <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novell" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Novell</a> as a senior software engineer working out of its Bengaluru office in India. He helped develop <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFolder" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">iFolder</a>, a storage platform that allows users across different computers to back up, access, and manage their files.After four years, Agrawal left Novell to join Microsoft as a software design engineer, working at the company’s <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/msidc/hyderabad-campus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hyderabad campus</a> in India. He was part of a team developing a system to upgrade Microsoft’s software from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">XP</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Vista</a>.Two years later, he was transferred to the group developing Bing, a replacement for Microsoft’s Live Search, which had been launched in 2006.<h2>Improving Microsoft’s search engine</h2>Live Search had a traffic rate of less than 2 percent and struggled to keep up with <a href="https://www.google.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google</a>’s faster-paced, more user-friendly system, Agrawal says. He was tasked with improving search results but, Agrawal says, he and his team didn’t have enough user search data to train their machine learning model.Data for location-specific queries, such as nearby coffee shops or restaurants, was especially important, he says.To overcome those challenges, the team used deterministic algorithms to create a more structured search. Such algorithms give the same answers for any query that uses the same specific terms. The process gets results by taking keywords—such as locations, dates, and prices—and finding them on webpages. To help the search engine understand what users need, Agrawal developed a query clarifier that asked them to refine their search. The machine learning tool then ranked the results from most to least relevant.To test new features before they were launched, Agrawal and his team built an online A/B experimentation platform. Controlled tests were completed on different versions of the products, and the platform ran performance and user engagement metrics, then it produced a scorecard to show changes for updated features.Bing launched in 2009 and is now the world’s second-largest search engine, according to<a href="https://blackraven.digital/the-rise-of-bing-and-how-it-differs-from-google/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Black Raven</a>.Throughout his 10 years of working on the system, Agrawal upgraded it. He also worked with the advertising department to improve Microsoft’s services on Bing. Ads relevant to a person’s search are listed among the search results.“The work seems easy,” Agrawal says, “but behind every search engine are hundreds of engineers powering ads, query formulations, rankings, relevance, and location detection.”<h2>Testing products before launch </h2>Agrawal was promoted to software development manager in 2010. Five years later he was transferred to Microsoft’s Seattle offices. At the time, the company was deploying new features for existing platforms without first testing them to ensure effectiveness. Instead, they measured their performance after release, Agrawal says, and that was wreaking havoc.He proposed using his online A/B experimentation platform on all Microsoft products, not just Bing. His supervisor approved the idea. In six months Agrawal and his team modified the tool for company-wide use. Thanks to the platform, he says, Microsoft was able to smoothly deploy up-to-date products to users.After another two years, he was promoted to principal engineering manager of Microsoft Teams, which was facing issues with user experience, he says.“Many employees received between 50 and 100 messages a day—which became overwhelming for them,” Agrawal says. To lessen the stress, he led a team that developed the system’s first machine learning feature: Trending. It prioritized the five most important messages users should focus on. Agrawal also led the launch of incorporating emoji reactions, screen sharing, and video calls for Teams.In 2020 he was ready for new experiences, he says, and he left Microsoft to join Amazon as an engineering leader.<h2>Improved Amazon shopping</h2>Agrawal led an Amazon team that manually collected information about products from the company’s retail catalog to create a glossary. The data, which included product dimensions, color, and manufacturer, was used to standardize the language found in product descriptions to keep listings more consistent.That is especially important when it comes to third-party sellers, he notes. Sellers listing a product had been entering as much or as little information as they wanted. Agrawal built a system that automatically suggests language from the glossary as the seller types.He also developed an AI algorithm that utilizes the glossary’s terminology to refine search results based on what a user types into the search bar. When a shopper types “red mixer,” for example, the algorithm lists products under the search bar that match the description. The shopper can then click on a product from the list.In 2023 the retailer’s catalog became too large for Agrawal and his team to collect information manually, so they built an AI tool to do it for them. It became the foundation for Amazon’s Catalog AI system.After gathering information about products from around the Web, Catalog AI uses large language models to update Amazon listings with missing information, correct errors, and rewrite titles and product specifications to make them clearer for the customer, Agrawal says.The company expects the AI tool to increase sales this year by US $7.5 billion, according to a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/tech/amazons-ai-wants-own-online-shopping-data" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fox News report</a> in July.<h2>Finding purpose at IEEE</h2>Since Agrawal joined IEEE last December, he has been elevated to senior member and has become an active volunteer.“Being part of IEEE has opened doors for collaboration, mentorship, and professional growth,” he says. “IEEE has strengthened both my technical knowledge and my leadership skills, helping me progress in my career.”Agrawal is the social media chair of the IEEE Seattle Section. He is also vice chair of the <a href="https://cis.ieee.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Computational Intelligence Society</a>.He was a workshop cochair for the <a href="https://attend.ieee.org/neweraai25/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE New Era AI World Leaders Summit</a>, which was held from 5 to 7 December in Seattle. The event brought together government and industry leaders, as well as researchers and innovators working on AI, intelligent devices, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ukraine-weapons" target="_self">unmanned aerial vehicles</a>, and similar technologies. They explored how new tools could be used in cybersecurity, the medical field, and national disaster rescue missions.Agrawal says he stays up to date on cutting-edge technologies by peer-reviewing 15 IEEE journals.“The organization plays a very important role in bringing authenticity to anything that it does,” he says. “If a journal article has the IEEE logo, you can believe that it was <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-research-integrity-process" target="_self">thoroughly and diligently reviewed</a>.”

Dec 8, 2025

Privacy Concerns Lead Seniors to Unplug Vital Health Devices

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/person-next-to-healthcare-device-looking-at-phone.jpg?id=62288369&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=62%2C0%2C63%2C0"/> I was interviewing a 72-year-old retired accountant who had unplugged his <a data-linked-post="2650272654" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/monitor-diabetes-from-your-smart-watch" target="_blank">smart glucose monitor</a>. He explained that he “didn’t know who was looking” at his blood sugar data.This wasn’t a man unfamiliar with technology—he had successfully used computers for decades in his career. He was of sound mind. But when it came to his health device, he couldn’t find clear answers about where his data went, who could access it, or how to control it. The instructions were dense, and the <a data-linked-post="2650254931" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/protecting-online-privacy" target="_blank">privacy settings</a> were buried in multiple menus. So, he made what seemed like the safest choice: he unplugged it. That decision meant giving up real-time glucose monitoring that his doctor had recommended.The healthcare IoT (Internet of Things) market is <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/iot-healthcare-market-worth-289-140000086.html" target="_blank">projected</a> to exceed $289 billion by 2028, with older adults representing a major share of users. These devices are fall detectors, medication reminders, glucose monitors, heart rate trackers, and others that enable independent living. Yet there’s a widening gap between deployment and adoption. According to an <a href="https://www.aarp.org/personal-technology/companies-address-online-privacy-concerns/" target="_blank">AARP survey</a>, 34% of adults over 50 list privacy as a primary barrier to adopting health technology. That represents millions of people who could benefit from monitoring tools but avoid them because they don’t feel safe.In my study at the University of Denver’s Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science, I surveyed 22 older adults and conducted in-depth interviews with nine participants who use health-monitoring devices. The findings revealed a critical engineering failure: 82% understood security concepts like <a data-linked-post="2673796623" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/two-factor-authentication-sandia-labs" target="_blank">two-factor authentication</a> and <a data-linked-post="2666495720" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/homomorphic-encryption" target="_blank">encryption</a>, yet only 14% felt confident managing their privacy when using these devices. In my research, I also evaluated 28 healthcare apps designed for older adults and found that 79% lacked basic breach-notification protocols.One participant told me, “I know there’s encryption, but I don’t know if it’s really enough to protect my data.” Another said, “The thought of my health data getting into the wrong hands is very concerning. I’m particularly worried about identity theft or my information being used for scams.”This is not a user knowledge problem; it’s an engineering problem. We’ve built systems that demand technical expertise to operate safely, then handed them to people managing complex health needs while navigating age-related changes in vision, cognition, and dexterity.<h2>Measuring the Gap</h2>To quantify the issues with privacy setting transparency, I developed the Privacy Risk Assessment Framework (PRAF), a tool that scores healthcare apps across five critical domains.First, the regulatory compliance domain evaluates whether apps explicitly state adherence to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or other data protection standards. Just claiming to be compliant is not enough—they must provide verifiable evidence.Second, the security mechanisms domain assesses the implementation of encryption, access controls, and, most critically, breach-notification protocols that alert users when their data may have been compromised. Third, in the usability and accessibility domain, the tool examines whether privacy interfaces are readable and navigable for people with age-related visual or cognitive changes. Fourth, data-minimization practices evaluate whether apps collect only necessary information and clearly specify retention periods. Finally, third-party sharing transparency measures whether users can easily understand who has access to their data and why.When I applied PRAF to 28 healthcare apps commonly used by older adults, the results revealed systemic gaps. Only 25% explicitly stated HIPAA compliance, and just 18% mentioned GDPR compliance. Most alarmingly, 79% lacked breach notification protocols, which means that the users may never find out if their data was compromised. The average privacy policy readability scored at a 12th-grade level, even though <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16541986/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">research shows</a> that the average reading level of older adults is at an 8th grade level. Not a single app included accessibility accommodations in their privacy interfaces.Consider what happens when an older adult opens a typical health app. They face a multi-page privacy policy full of legal terminology about “data controllers” and “processing purposes,” followed by settings scattered across multiple menus. One participant told me, “The instructions are hard to understand, the print is too small, and it’s overwhelming.” Another explained, “I don’t feel adequately informed about how my data is collected, stored, and shared. It seems like most of these companies are after profit, and they don’t make it easy for users to understand what’s happening with their data.”When protection requires a manual people can’t read, two outcomes follow: they either skip security altogether leaving themselves vulnerable, or abandon the technology entirely, forfeiting its health benefits.<h2>Engineering for privacy</h2>We need to treat trust as an engineering specification, not a marketing promise. Based on my research findings and the specific barriers older adults face, three approaches address the root causes of distrust.The first approach is adaptive security defaults. Rather than requiring users to navigate complex configuration menus, devices should ship with pre-configured best practices that automatically adjust to data sensitivity and device type. A fall detection system doesn’t need the same settings as a continuous glucose monitor. This approach draws from the principle of “security by default” in systems engineering.Biometric or voice authentication can replace passwords that are easily forgotten or written down. The key is removing the burden of expertise while maintaining strong protection. As one participant put it: “Simplified security settings, better educational resources, and more intuitive user interfaces will be beneficial.”The second approach is real-time transparency. Users shouldn’t have to dig through settings to see where their data goes. Instead, notification systems should show each data access or sharing event in plain language. For example: “Your doctor accessed your heart-rate data at 2 p.m. to review for your upcoming appointment.” A single dashboard should summarize who has access and why.This addresses a concern that came up repeatedly in my interviews: users want to know who is seeing their data and why. The engineering challenge here isn’t technical complexity, it’s designing interfaces that convey technical realities in language anyone can understand. Such systems already exist in other domains; banking apps, for instance, send immediate notifications for every transaction. The same principle applies to health data, where the stakes are arguably higher.The third approach is invisible security updates. Manual patching creates vulnerability windows. Automatic, seamless updates should be standard for any device handling health data, paired with a simple status indicator so users can confirm protection at a glance. As one participant said, “The biggest issue that we as seniors have is the fact that we don’t remember our passwords... The new technology is surpassing the ability of seniors to keep up with it.” Automating updates removes a significant source of anxiety and risk.<h2>What’s at Stake</h2>We can keep building healthcare IoT the way we have: fast, feature-rich, and fundamentally untrustworthy. Or, we can engineer systems that are transparent, secure, and usable by design. Trust isn’t something you market through slogans or legal disclaimers. It’s something you engineer, line by line, into the code itself. For older adults relying on technology to maintain independence, that kind of engineering matters more than any new feature we could add. Every unplugged glucose monitor, every abandoned fall detector, every health app deleted out of confusion or fear represents not just a lost sale but a missed opportunity to support someone’s health and autonomy.The challenge of privacy in healthcare IoT goes beyond fixing existing systems, it requires reimagining how we communicate privacy itself. My ongoing research builds on these findings through an AI-driven Data Helper, a system that uses large language models to translate dense legal privacy policies into short, accurate, and accessible summaries for older adults. By making data practices transparent and comprehension measurable, this approach aims to turn compliance into understanding and trust, thus advancing the next generation of trustworthy digital health systems.

Dec 5, 2025

Entrepreneurship Program Brings Incubator Ideas to More Countries

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/susan-lau-natasha-main-ryan-ramkhelawan-and-julia-proto-posing-in-front-of-several-international-flags.jpg?id=62282024&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C83%2C0%2C84"/> Technology evolves rapidly, and innovation is key to business survival, so mentoring young professionals, <a data-linked-post="2660284236" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/lwanga-herbert-qa" target="_blank">promoting entrepreneurship</a>, and connecting tech startups to a global network of experts and resources are essential.Some IEEE volunteers do all of the above and more as part of the <a href="https://entrepreneurship.ieee.org/latin-america-region-team-ambassador-program/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Entrepreneurship Ambassador Program</a>.The program was launched in 2018 in <a href="https://ieeer8.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Region 8</a> (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) thanks to a grant from the <a href="https://secure.ieeefoundation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Foundation</a>. The ambassadors organize networking events with industry representatives to help IEEE young professionals and student members achieve their entrepreneurial endeavors and strengthen their technical, interpersonal, and business skills. The ambassadors also organize pitch competitions in their geographic area.The ambassador program launched this year in <a href="https://www.ieeer10.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Region 10</a> (Asia Pacific).Last year the program was introduced in <a href="https://r9.ieee.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Region 9</a> (Latin America) with funding from the <a href="https://www.ieeefoundation.org/impact/illuminate/taenzer-memorial-fund/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Taenzer Memorial Fund</a>. The results of the program’s inaugural year were impressive: 13 ambassadors organized events in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay.“The program is beneficial because it connects entrepreneurs with industry professionals, fosters mentorship, helps young professionals <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/thinking-like-an-entrepreneur" target="_blank">build leadership skills</a>, and creates opportunities for startup sponsorships,” says <a href="https://wie.ieee.org/susana-lau/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Susana Lau</a>, vice chair of <a href="https://entrepreneurship.ieee.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Entrepreneurship</a> in Latin America. “The program has also proven successful in attracting IEEE volunteers to serve as ambassadors and helping to support entrepreneurship and startup ventures.”Lau, an IEEE senior member, is a past president of the <a href="https://r9.ieee.org/panama/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Panama Section</a> and an active <a href="https://wie.ieee.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Women in Engineering</a> volunteer.<h2>A professional development opportunity</h2>People who participated in the Region 9 program say the experience was life-changing, both personally and professionally.<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ieeeENT/posts/2024-best-ambassador-award-winner-pedro-jos%C3%A9-pineda-fern%C3%A1ndez-de-c%C3%B3rdova-is-reco/1089241469909019/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pedro José Pineda</a>, whose work was recognized with one of the region’s two Top Ambassador Awards, says he’s been able to “expand international collaborations and strengthen the innovation ecosystem in Latin America.“It’s more than an award,” the IEEE member says. “It’s an opportunity to create global impact from local action.”“This remarkable experience has opened new doors for my future career within IEEE, both nationally and globally.”—Vitor PaivaThe region’s other Top Ambassador recipient was <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitor-paiva-medeiros-da-cunha-466724223/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Vitor Paiva</a> of Natal, Brazil. He had the opportunity to attend this year’s <a href="https://ieee-risingstars.org/2026/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Rising Stars</a> in Las Vegas—his first international experience outside Brazil.After participating in the program, the IEEE student member volunteered with its regional marketing committee.“I was proud to showcase Brazil’s IEEE community while connecting with some of IEEE’s most influential leaders,” Paiva, a student at the <a href="https://www.ufrn.br/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte</a>, says. “This remarkable experience has opened new doors for my future career within IEEE, both nationally and globally.”<h2>Expanding the initiative</h2>The IEEE Foundation says it will invest in the regional programs by funding the grants presented to the winners of the regional pitch competitions, similar to the funding for Region 9. The goal is to hold a worldwide competition, Lau says.The ongoing expansion is a testament to the program’s efforts, says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophergwright" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Christopher G. Wright</a>, senior manager of programs and governance at the IEEE Foundation.“I’ve had the pleasure of working on the grants for the IEEE Entrepreneurship Ambassador Program team over the years,” Wright says, “and I am continually impressed by the team’s dedication and the program’s evolution.”To learn more about the program in your region or to apply to become an ambassador, visit the <a href="https://entrepreneurship.ieee.org/latin-america-region-team-ambassador-program/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Entrepreneurship website</a> and search for your region.

Feb 9, 2022

Andrew Ng: Unbiggen AI

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/andrew-ng-listens-during-the-power-of-data-sooner-than-you-think-global-technology-conference-in-brooklyn-new-york-on-wednes.jpg?id=29206806&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C210"/> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Ng" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Andrew Ng</a> has serious street cred in artificial intelligence. He pioneered the use of graphics processing units (GPUs) to train deep learning models in the late 2000s with his students at <a href="https://stanfordmlgroup.github.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stanford University</a>, cofounded <a href="https://research.google/teams/brain/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Brain</a> in 2011, and then served for three years as chief scientist for <a href="https://ir.baidu.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Baidu</a>, where he helped build the Chinese tech giant’s AI group. So when he says he has identified the next big shift in artificial intelligence, people listen. And that’s what he told IEEE Spectrum in an exclusive Q&A.<hr/> Ng’s current efforts are focused on his company <a href="https://landing.ai/about/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Landing AI</a>, which built a platform called LandingLens to help manufacturers improve visual inspection with computer vision. He has also become something of an evangelist for what he calls the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06-AZXmwHjo" target="_blank">data-centric AI movement</a>, which he says can yield “small data” solutions to big issues in AI, including model efficiency, accuracy, and bias. Andrew Ng on... <ul> <li><a href="#big">What’s next for really big models</a></li> <li><a href="#career">The career advice he didn’t listen to</a></li> <li><a href="#defining">Defining the data-centric AI movement</a></li> <li><a href="#synthetic">Synthetic data</a></li> <li><a href="#work">Why Landing AI asks its customers to do the work</a></li> </ul> The great advances in deep learning over the past decade or so have been powered by ever-bigger models crunching ever-bigger amounts of data. Some people argue that that’s an <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/deep-learning-computational-cost" target="_self">unsustainable trajectory</a>. Do you agree that it can’t go on that way? Andrew Ng: This is a big question. We’ve seen foundation models in NLP [natural language processing]. I’m excited about NLP models getting even bigger, and also about the potential of building foundation models in computer vision. I think there’s lots of signal to still be exploited in video: We have not been able to build foundation models yet for video because of compute bandwidth and the cost of processing video, as opposed to tokenized text. So I think that this engine of scaling up deep learning algorithms, which has been running for something like 15 years now, still has steam in it. Having said that, it only applies to certain problems, and there’s a set of other problems that need small data solutions. When you say you want a foundation model for computer vision, what do you mean by that? Ng: This is a term coined by <a href="https://cs.stanford.edu/~pliang/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Percy Liang</a> and <a href="https://crfm.stanford.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">some of my friends at Stanford</a> to refer to very large models, trained on very large data sets, that can be tuned for specific applications. For example, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/open-ais-powerful-text-generating-tool-is-ready-for-business" target="_self">GPT-3</a> is an example of a foundation model [for NLP]. Foundation models offer a lot of promise as a new paradigm in developing machine learning applications, but also challenges in terms of making sure that they’re reasonably fair and free from bias, especially if many of us will be building on top of them. What needs to happen for someone to build a foundation model for video? Ng: I think there is a scalability problem. The compute power needed to process the large volume of images for video is significant, and I think that’s why foundation models have arisen first in NLP. Many researchers are working on this, and I think we’re seeing early signs of such models being developed in computer vision. But I’m confident that if a semiconductor maker gave us 10 times more processor power, we could easily find 10 times more video to build such models for vision. Having said that, a lot of what’s happened over the past decade is that deep learning has happened in consumer-facing companies that have large user bases, sometimes billions of users, and therefore very large data sets. While that paradigm of machine learning has driven a lot of economic value in consumer software, I find that that recipe of scale doesn’t work for other industries. <a href="#top">Back to top</a> It’s funny to hear you say that, because your early work was at a consumer-facing company with millions of users. Ng: Over a decade ago, when I proposed starting the <a href="https://research.google/teams/brain/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Brain</a> project to use Google’s compute infrastructure to build very large neural networks, it was a controversial step. One very senior person pulled me aside and warned me that starting Google Brain would be bad for my career. I think he felt that the action couldn’t just be in scaling up, and that I should instead focus on architecture innovation. “In many industries where giant data sets simply don’t exist, I think the focus has to shift from big data to good data. Having 50 thoughtfully engineered examples can be sufficient to explain to the neural network what you want it to learn.” —Andrew Ng, CEO & Founder, Landing AI I remember when my students and I published the first <a href="https://nips.cc/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NeurIPS</a> workshop paper advocating using <a href="https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-zone" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CUDA</a>, a platform for processing on GPUs, for deep learning—a different senior person in AI sat me down and said, “CUDA is really complicated to program. As a programming paradigm, this seems like too much work.” I did manage to convince him; the other person I did not convince. I expect they’re both convinced now. Ng: I think so, yes. Over the past year as I’ve been speaking to people about the data-centric AI movement, I’ve been getting flashbacks to when I was speaking to people about deep learning and scalability 10 or 15 years ago. In the past year, I’ve been getting the same mix of “there’s nothing new here” and “this seems like the wrong direction.” <a href="#top">Back to top</a> How do you define data-centric AI, and why do you consider it a movement? Ng: Data-centric AI is the discipline of systematically engineering the data needed to successfully build an AI system. For an AI system, you have to implement some algorithm, say a neural network, in code and then train it on your data set. The dominant paradigm over the last decade was to download the data set while you focus on improving the code. Thanks to that paradigm, over the last decade deep learning networks have improved significantly, to the point where for a lot of applications the code—the neural network architecture—is basically a solved problem. So for many practical applications, it’s now more productive to hold the neural network architecture fixed, and instead find ways to improve the data. When I started speaking about this, there were many practitioners who, completely appropriately, raised their hands and said, “Yes, we’ve been doing this for 20 years.” This is the time to take the things that some individuals have been doing intuitively and make it a systematic engineering discipline. The data-centric AI movement is much bigger than one company or group of researchers. My collaborators and I organized a <a href="https://neurips.cc/virtual/2021/workshop/21860" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">data-centric AI workshop at NeurIPS</a>, and I was really delighted at the number of authors and presenters that showed up. You often talk about companies or institutions that have only a small amount of data to work with. How can data-centric AI help them? Ng: You hear a lot about vision systems built with millions of images—I once built a face recognition system using 350 million images. Architectures built for hundreds of millions of images don’t work with only 50 images. But it turns out, if you have 50 really good examples, you can build something valuable, like a defect-inspection system. In many industries where giant data sets simply don’t exist, I think the focus has to shift from big data to good data. Having 50 thoughtfully engineered examples can be sufficient to explain to the neural network what you want it to learn. When you talk about training a model with just 50 images, does that really mean you’re taking an existing model that was trained on a very large data set and fine-tuning it? Or do you mean a brand new model that’s designed to learn only from that small data set? Ng: Let me describe what Landing AI does. When doing visual inspection for manufacturers, we often use our own flavor of <a href="https://developers.arcgis.com/python/guide/how-retinanet-works/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">RetinaNet</a>. It is a pretrained model. Having said that, the pretraining is a small piece of the puzzle. What’s a bigger piece of the puzzle is providing tools that enable the manufacturer to pick the right set of images [to use for fine-tuning] and label them in a consistent way. There’s a very practical problem we’ve seen spanning vision, NLP, and speech, where even human annotators don’t agree on the appropriate label. For big data applications, the common response has been: If the data is noisy, let’s just get a lot of data and the algorithm will average over it. But if you can develop tools that flag where the data’s inconsistent and give you a very targeted way to improve the consistency of the data, that turns out to be a more efficient way to get a high-performing system. “Collecting more data often helps, but if you try to collect more data for everything, that can be a very expensive activity.” —Andrew Ng For example, if you have 10,000 images where 30 images are of one class, and those 30 images are labeled inconsistently, one of the things we do is build tools to draw your attention to the subset of data that’s inconsistent. So you can very quickly relabel those images to be more consistent, and this leads to improvement in performance. Could this focus on high-quality data help with bias in data sets? If you’re able to curate the data more before training? Ng: Very much so. Many researchers have pointed out that biased data is one factor among many leading to biased systems. There have been many thoughtful efforts to engineer the data. At the NeurIPS workshop, <a href="https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~olgarus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Olga Russakovsky</a> gave a really nice talk on this. At the main NeurIPS conference, I also really enjoyed <a href="https://neurips.cc/virtual/2021/invited-talk/22281" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mary Gray’s presentation,</a> which touched on how data-centric AI is one piece of the solution, but not the entire solution. New tools like <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/datasheets-for-datasets/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Datasheets for Datasets</a> also seem like an important piece of the puzzle. One of the powerful tools that data-centric AI gives us is the ability to engineer a subset of the data. Imagine training a machine-learning system and finding that its performance is okay for most of the data set, but its performance is biased for just a subset of the data. If you try to change the whole neural network architecture to improve the performance on just that subset, it’s quite difficult. But if you can engineer a subset of the data you can address the problem in a much more targeted way. When you talk about engineering the data, what do you mean exactly? Ng: In AI, data cleaning is important, but the way the data has been cleaned has often been in very manual ways. In computer vision, someone may visualize images through a <a href="https://jupyter.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jupyter notebook</a> and maybe spot the problem, and maybe fix it. But I’m excited about tools that allow you to have a very large data set, tools that draw your attention quickly and efficiently to the subset of data where, say, the labels are noisy. Or to quickly bring your attention to the one class among 100 classes where it would benefit you to collect more data. Collecting more data often helps, but if you try to collect more data for everything, that can be a very expensive activity. For example, I once figured out that a speech-recognition system was performing poorly when there was car noise in the background. Knowing that allowed me to collect more data with car noise in the background, rather than trying to collect more data for everything, which would have been expensive and slow. <a href="#top">Back to top</a> What about using synthetic data, is that often a good solution? Ng: I think synthetic data is an important tool in the tool chest of data-centric AI. At the NeurIPS workshop, <a href="https://tensorlab.cms.caltech.edu/users/anima/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anima Anandkumar</a> gave a great talk that touched on synthetic data. I think there are important uses of synthetic data that go beyond just being a preprocessing step for increasing the data set for a learning algorithm. I’d love to see more tools to let developers use synthetic data generation as part of the closed loop of iterative machine learning development. Do you mean that synthetic data would allow you to try the model on more data sets? Ng: Not really. Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re trying to detect defects in a smartphone casing. There are many different types of defects on smartphones. It could be a scratch, a dent, pit marks, discoloration of the material, other types of blemishes. If you train the model and then find through error analysis that it’s doing well overall but it’s performing poorly on pit marks, then synthetic data generation allows you to address the problem in a more targeted way. You could generate more data just for the pit-mark category. “In the consumer software Internet, we could train a handful of machine-learning models to serve a billion users. In manufacturing, you might have 10,000 manufacturers building 10,000 custom AI models.” —Andrew Ng Synthetic data generation is a very powerful tool, but there are many simpler tools that I will often try first. Such as data augmentation, improving labeling consistency, or just asking a factory to collect more data. <a href="#top">Back to top</a> To make these issues more concrete, can you walk me through an example? When a company approaches <a href="https://landing.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Landing AI</a> and says it has a problem with visual inspection, how do you onboard them and work toward deployment? Ng: When a customer approaches us we usually have a conversation about their inspection problem and look at a few images to verify that the problem is feasible with computer vision. Assuming it is, we ask them to upload the data to the <a href="https://landing.ai/platform/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LandingLens</a> platform. We often advise them on the methodology of data-centric AI and help them label the data. One of the foci of Landing AI is to empower manufacturing companies to do the machine learning work themselves. A lot of our work is making sure the software is fast and easy to use. Through the iterative process of machine learning development, we advise customers on things like how to train models on the platform, when and how to improve the labeling of data so the performance of the model improves. Our training and software supports them all the way through deploying the trained model to an edge device in the factory. How do you deal with changing needs? If products change or lighting conditions change in the factory, can the model keep up? Ng: It varies by manufacturer. There is data drift in many contexts. But there are some manufacturers that have been running the same manufacturing line for 20 years now with few changes, so they don’t expect changes in the next five years. Those stable environments make things easier. For other manufacturers, we provide tools to flag when there’s a significant data-drift issue. I find it really important to empower manufacturing customers to correct data, retrain, and update the model. Because if something changes and it’s 3 a.m. in the United States, I want them to be able to adapt their learning algorithm right away to maintain operations. In the consumer software Internet, we could train a handful of machine-learning models to serve a billion users. In manufacturing, you might have 10,000 manufacturers building 10,000 custom AI models. The challenge is, how do you do that without Landing AI having to hire 10,000 machine learning specialists? So you’re saying that to make it scale, you have to empower customers to do a lot of the training and other work. Ng: Yes, exactly! This is an industry-wide problem in AI, not just in manufacturing. Look at health care. Every hospital has its own slightly different format for electronic health records. How can every hospital train its own custom AI model? Expecting every hospital’s IT personnel to invent new neural-network architectures is unrealistic. The only way out of this dilemma is to build tools that empower the customers to build their own models by giving them tools to engineer the data and express their domain knowledge. That’s what Landing AI is executing in computer vision, and the field of AI needs other teams to execute this in other domains. Is there anything else you think it’s important for people to understand about the work you’re doing or the data-centric AI movement? Ng: In the last decade, the biggest shift in AI was a shift to deep learning. I think it’s quite possible that in this decade the biggest shift will be to data-centric AI. With the maturity of today’s neural network architectures, I think for a lot of the practical applications the bottleneck will be whether we can efficiently get the data we need to develop systems that work well. The data-centric AI movement has tremendous energy and momentum across the whole community. I hope more researchers and developers will jump in and work on it. <a href="#top">Back to top</a> This article appears in the April 2022 print issue as “Andrew Ng, AI Minimalist.”

Feb 8, 2022

How AI Will Change Chip Design

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/layered-rendering-of-colorful-semiconductor-wafers-with-a-bright-white-light-sitting-on-one.jpg?id=29285079&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> The end of <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/on-beyond-moores-law-4-new-laws-of-computing" target="_self">Moore’s Law</a> is looming. Engineers and designers can do only so much to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ibm-introduces-the-worlds-first-2nm-node-chip" target="_self">miniaturize transistors</a> and <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/cerebras-giant-ai-chip-now-has-a-trillions-more-transistors" target="_self">pack as many of them as possible into chips</a>. So they’re turning to other approaches to chip design, incorporating technologies like AI into the process.Samsung, for instance, is <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/processing-in-dram-accelerates-ai" target="_self">adding AI to its memory chips</a> to enable processing in memory, thereby saving energy and speeding up machine learning. Speaking of speed, Google’s TPU V4 AI chip has <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/heres-how-googles-tpu-v4-ai-chip-stacked-up-in-training-tests" target="_self">doubled its processing power</a> compared with that of its previous version.But AI holds still more promise and potential for the semiconductor industry. To better understand how AI is set to revolutionize chip design, we spoke with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-gorr-phd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Heather Gorr</a>, senior product manager for <a href="https://www.mathworks.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MathWorks</a>’ MATLAB platform.How is AI currently being used to design the next generation of chips?Heather Gorr: AI is such an important technology because it’s involved in most parts of the cycle, including the design and manufacturing process. There’s a lot of important applications here, even in the general process engineering where we want to optimize things. I think defect detection is a big one at all phases of the process, especially in manufacturing. But even thinking ahead in the design process, [AI now plays a significant role] when you’re designing the light and the sensors and all the different components. There’s a lot of anomaly detection and fault mitigation that you really want to consider. <img alt="Portrait of a woman with blonde-red hair smiling at the camera" class="rm-shortcode rm-resized-image" data-rm-shortcode-id="1f18a02ccaf51f5c766af2ebc4af18e1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="2dc00" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/portrait-of-a-woman-with-blonde-red-hair-smiling-at-the-camera.jpg?id=29288554&width=980" style="max-width: 100%"/> Heather GorrMathWorksThen, thinking about the logistical modeling that you see in any industry, there is always planned downtime that you want to mitigate; but you also end up having unplanned downtime. So, looking back at that historical data of when you’ve had those moments where maybe it took a bit longer than expected to manufacture something, you can take a look at all of that data and use AI to try to identify the proximate cause or to see something that might jump out even in the processing and design phases. We think of AI oftentimes as a predictive tool, or as a robot doing something, but a lot of times you get a lot of insight from the data through AI.What are the benefits of using AI for chip design?Gorr: Historically, we’ve seen a lot of physics-based modeling, which is a very intensive process. We want to do a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_order_reduction" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduced order model</a>, where instead of solving such a computationally expensive and extensive model, we can do something a little cheaper. You could create a surrogate model, so to speak, of that physics-based model, use the data, and then do your <a href="https://institutefordiseasemodeling.github.io/idmtools/parameter-sweeps.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">parameter sweeps</a>, your optimizations, your <a href="https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/monte-carlo-simulation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monte Carlo simulations</a> using the surrogate model. That takes a lot less time computationally than solving the physics-based equations directly. So, we’re seeing that benefit in many ways, including the efficiency and economy that are the results of iterating quickly on the experiments and the simulations that will really help in the design.So it’s like having a digital twin in a sense?Gorr: Exactly. That’s pretty much what people are doing, where you have the physical system model and the experimental data. Then, in conjunction, you have this other model that you could tweak and tune and try different parameters and experiments that let sweep through all of those different situations and come up with a better design in the end.So, it’s going to be more efficient and, as you said, cheaper?Gorr: Yeah, definitely. Especially in the experimentation and design phases, where you’re trying different things. That’s obviously going to yield dramatic cost savings if you’re actually manufacturing and producing [the chips]. You want to simulate, test, experiment as much as possible without making something using the actual process engineering.We’ve talked about the benefits. How about the drawbacks?Gorr: The [AI-based experimental models] tend to not be as accurate as physics-based models. Of course, that’s why you do many simulations and parameter sweeps. But that’s also the benefit of having that digital twin, where you can keep that in mind—it’s not going to be as accurate as that precise model that we’ve developed over the years.Both chip design and manufacturing are system intensive; you have to consider every little part. And that can be really challenging. It’s a case where you might have models to predict something and different parts of it, but you still need to bring it all together.One of the other things to think about too is that you need the data to build the models. You have to incorporate data from all sorts of different sensors and different sorts of teams, and so that heightens the challenge.How can engineers use AI to better prepare and extract insights from hardware or sensor data?Gorr: We always think about using AI to predict something or do some robot task, but you can use AI to come up with patterns and pick out things you might not have noticed before on your own. People will use AI when they have high-frequency data coming from many different sensors, and a lot of times it’s useful to explore the frequency domain and things like data synchronization or resampling. Those can be really challenging if you’re not sure where to start.One of the things I would say is, use the tools that are available. There’s a vast community of people working on these things, and you can find lots of examples [of applications and techniques] on <a href="https://github.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">GitHub</a> or <a href="https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MATLAB Central</a>, where people have shared nice examples, even little apps they’ve created. I think many of us are buried in data and just not sure what to do with it, so definitely take advantage of what’s already out there in the community. You can explore and see what makes sense to you, and bring in that balance of domain knowledge and the insight you get from the tools and AI.What should engineers and designers consider when using AI for chip design?Gorr: Think through what problems you’re trying to solve or what insights you might hope to find, and try to be clear about that. Consider all of the different components, and document and test each of those different parts. Consider all of the people involved, and explain and hand off in a way that is sensible for the whole team.How do you think AI will affect chip designers’ jobs?Gorr: It’s going to free up a lot of human capital for more advanced tasks. We can use AI to reduce waste, to optimize the materials, to optimize the design, but then you still have that human involved whenever it comes to decision-making. I think it’s a great example of people and technology working hand in hand. It’s also an industry where all people involved—even on the manufacturing floor—need to have some level of understanding of what’s happening, so this is a great industry for advancing AI because of how we test things and how we think about them before we put them on the chip.How do you envision the future of AI and chip design?Gorr: It’s very much dependent on that human element—involving people in the process and having that interpretable model. We can do many things with the mathematical minutiae of modeling, but it comes down to how people are using it, how everybody in the process is understanding and applying it. Communication and involvement of people of all skill levels in the process are going to be really important. We’re going to see less of those superprecise predictions and more transparency of information, sharing, and that digital twin—not only using AI but also using our human knowledge and all of the work that many people have done over the years.

Feb 7, 2022

Atomically Thin Materials Significantly Shrink Qubits

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/a-golden-square-package-holds-a-small-processor-sitting-on-top-is-a-metal-square-with-mit-etched-into-it.jpg?id=29281587&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> Quantum computing is a devilishly complex technology, with many technical hurdles impacting its development. Of these challenges two critical issues stand out: miniaturization and qubit quality.IBM has adopted the superconducting qubit road map of <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ibms-envisons-the-road-to-quantum-computing-like-an-apollo-mission" target="_self">reaching a 1,121-qubit processor by 2023</a>, leading to the expectation that 1,000 qubits with today’s qubit form factor is feasible. However, current approaches will require very large chips (50 millimeters on a side, or larger) at the scale of small wafers, or the use of chiplets on multichip modules. While this approach will work, the aim is to attain a better path toward scalability.Now researchers at <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-021-01187-w" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MIT have been able to both reduce the size of the qubits</a> and done so in a way that reduces the interference that occurs between neighboring qubits. The MIT researchers have increased the number of superconducting qubits that can be added onto a device by a factor of 100.“We are addressing both qubit miniaturization and quality,” said <a href="https://equs.mit.edu/william-d-oliver/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">William Oliver</a>, the director for the <a href="https://cqe.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Center for Quantum Engineering</a> at MIT. “Unlike conventional transistor scaling, where only the number really matters, for qubits, large numbers are not sufficient, they must also be high-performance. Sacrificing performance for qubit number is not a useful trade in quantum computing. They must go hand in hand.”The key to this big increase in qubit density and reduction of interference comes down to the use of two-dimensional materials, in particular the 2D insulator hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). The MIT researchers demonstrated that a few atomic monolayers of hBN can be stacked to form the insulator in the capacitors of a superconducting qubit.Just like other capacitors, the capacitors in these superconducting circuits take the form of a sandwich in which an insulator material is sandwiched between two metal plates. The big difference for these capacitors is that the superconducting circuits can operate only at extremely low temperatures—less than 0.02 degrees above absolute zero (-273.15 °C). <img alt="Golden dilution refrigerator hanging vertically" class="rm-shortcode rm-resized-image" data-rm-shortcode-id="694399af8a1c345e51a695ff73909eda" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="6c615" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/golden-dilution-refrigerator-hanging-vertically.jpg?id=29281593&width=980" style="max-width: 100%"/> Superconducting qubits are measured at temperatures as low as 20 millikelvin in a dilution refrigerator.Nathan Fiske/MITIn that environment, insulating materials that are available for the job, such as PE-CVD silicon oxide or silicon nitride, have quite a few defects that are too lossy for quantum computing applications. To get around these material shortcomings, most superconducting circuits use what are called coplanar capacitors. In these capacitors, the plates are positioned laterally to one another, rather than on top of one another.As a result, the intrinsic silicon substrate below the plates and to a smaller degree the vacuum above the plates serve as the capacitor dielectric. Intrinsic silicon is chemically pure and therefore has few defects, and the large size dilutes the electric field at the plate interfaces, all of which leads to a low-loss capacitor. The lateral size of each plate in this open-face design ends up being quite large (typically 100 by 100 micrometers) in order to achieve the required capacitance.In an effort to move away from the large lateral configuration, the MIT researchers embarked on a search for an insulator that has very few defects and is compatible with superconducting capacitor plates.“We chose to study hBN because it is the most widely used insulator in 2D material research due to its cleanliness and chemical inertness,” said colead author <a href="https://equs.mit.edu/joel-wang/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Joel Wang</a>, a research scientist in the Engineering Quantum Systems group of the MIT Research Laboratory for Electronics. On either side of the hBN, the MIT researchers used the 2D superconducting material, niobium diselenide. One of the trickiest aspects of fabricating the capacitors was working with the niobium diselenide, which oxidizes in seconds when exposed to air, according to Wang. This necessitates that the assembly of the capacitor occur in a glove box filled with argon gas.While this would seemingly complicate the scaling up of the production of these capacitors, Wang doesn’t regard this as a limiting factor.“What determines the quality factor of the capacitor are the two interfaces between the two materials,” said Wang. “Once the sandwich is made, the two interfaces are “sealed” and we don’t see any noticeable degradation over time when exposed to the atmosphere.”This lack of degradation is because around 90 percent of the electric field is contained within the sandwich structure, so the oxidation of the outer surface of the niobium diselenide does not play a significant role anymore. This ultimately makes the capacitor footprint much smaller, and it accounts for the reduction in cross talk between the neighboring qubits.“The main challenge for scaling up the fabrication will be the wafer-scale growth of hBN and 2D superconductors like [niobium diselenide], and how one can do wafer-scale stacking of these films,” added Wang.Wang believes that this research has shown 2D hBN to be a good insulator candidate for superconducting qubits. He says that the groundwork the MIT team has done will serve as a road map for using other hybrid 2D materials to build superconducting circuits.

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