It took a few years, but Google’s Pixel phones have risen to the top of the Android ranks, and its new Pixel 9a keeps most of what has made flagship Pixel phones so good, including the slick software and versatile cameras. Despite a revamped design and larger battery, Google has maintained the $499 price point of last year’s phone, undercutting other “budget” devices like the iPhone 16e.
However, hitting this price point involves trade-offs in materials, charging, and—significantly—the on-device AI capabilities compared to its pricier siblings. None of those are deal-breakers, though. In fact, the Pixel 9a may be coming along at just the right time. As we enter a period of uncertainty for imported gadgets, a modestly priced phone with lengthy support could be the perfect purchase.
A simpler silhouette
The Pixel 9a sports the same rounded corners and flat edges we’ve seen on other recent smartphones. The aluminum frame has a smooth, almost silky texture, with rolled edges that flow into the front and back covers.
The push for the latest, greatest and most feature-packed gadgets often results in so much pressure that buying anything else can feel like self-betrayal. And while the Pixel 9a is technically a new device, its chip is six months old. The same goes for its design, which is nearly a carbon copy of its older sibling. To make matters even worse, this phone is meant to be a more affordable entry into the Pixel phone family, which feels like a death sentence for anyone who cares about keeping up with the Joneses (or just the most up-to-date specs). But you know what? That’s okay, because starting at $500, the Pixel 9a offers the best value of any Android phone today.
Design and display: Simple but sturdy
The Pixel 9a looks so similar to the standard model — especially from the front — that it’s hard to tell them apart until you put them side by side. Once you do, you’ll notice the 9a features slightly thicker bezels. But aside from that, there aren’t a ton of differences. You still get a relatively compact 6.3-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 2,700 nits, just like on the regular Pixel 9. It’s sharp, it’s colorful and it’s simply one of the best displays in this price range.
If you pick both of them up, you may also notice that the 9a is also a touch lighter (6.56 ounces vs 6.98 ounces). That discrepancy is due to Google forgoing Gorilla Glass 3 for the backpanel in favor of recycled polycarbonate (aka plastic). That said, you still get a sturdy aluminum frame (also made from recycled materials) and an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.
The 9a’s biggest departure by far is that unlike every other Pixel dating back to the Pixel 6, it doesn’t have a large bar or visor housing its cameras. Instead, you get a small teardrop-shaped protrusion that houses the main and ultra-wide shooters. The module is so shallow it practically sits flush against the phone, which makes this one of the few handsets in recent memory that actually sits flat on a table. Granted, this is a really minor design tweak, but as someone who doesn’t like cases, I think it’s a nice touch.
Performance: Good enough speed
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Just like the rest of the Pixel 9 family, the 9a is powered by Google’s Tensor G4 chip. The major change is that instead of featuring 12GB of RAM, you only get 8GB. That said, unless you’re frequently switching between apps or doing more intense things like gaming or video editing, you aren’t really going to notice a huge difference. In Geekbench 6, both phones posted very similar results with a multi-core score of 4,294 for the 9a and 4,360 for the standard Pixel 9. The biggest potential impact of this for most people is that you won’t be able to have quite as many apps running in the background, and if you switch between them often, you may spend some extra time reloading.
The Pixel 9a also supports nearly all of Google’s AI-powered tools including helpful stuff like car crash detection and Call Assist. You also have access to more advanced tools like Gemini Live (including camera and screen sharing) and Pixel Studio (now with the ability to generate images of people), the latter of which can be a fun way of creating silly custom images to troll your friends. Well, at least that’s what I use it for.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
However, software support isn’t quite the same as you get on more expensive models. That’s because one app that I’ve grown quite fond of on recent Pixels — Google’s Screenshots app — isn’t available on the Pixel 9a. This is definitely a bummer, because I found the ability to use AI to quickly search through all the screencaps I’ve taken is way better than doing it manually. I’m not entirely sure why it’s not available considering some of the other machine learning-based features that do work. But when asked, a Google representative told me that in order to “maintain a $499 starting price, the company did have to make some trade-offs. As a result, some [of the standard Pixel 9’s] features won’t be available on the Pixel 9a.”
Cameras: Better image quality than phones twice its price
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
When it was first announced, Google claimed the 9a would have the best cameras of any phone under $500. And after considering the Pixel family’s pedigree for excellent image quality, I pitted the phone’s 48-MP main camera and 13-MP ultra-wide cam up against the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to give it a real challenge. And despite costing $800 less, it acquitted itself with aplomb.
In a daytime photo of a cozy coffee shop, the Pixel 9a preserved more details and produced a generally better looking image than a similar pic taken by the S25U (though part of that is due to Samsung’s tendency to oversharpen). But perhaps an even better example of this was when I took photos of a croquette. Not only did the Pixel 9a’s shot look more accurate, it featured better colors and was generally much more appetizing. And in low light, I got similar results with the 9a doing a great job with white balance while capturing sharp, detailed images despite the tough conditions.
While the Pixel 9a doesn’t have a dedicated telephoto lens, Google tries to make up for that with Super Res Zoom, which uses AI to support up to 8x digital zoom. On top of that, the phone has a macro focus mode. That said, you won’t find a specific setting for it in the Camera app, because it activates automatically whenever you get really close to something. You’ll know it’s working when you see a tiny flower icon pop up in the corner of the screen. I found this mode gives you a way to capture a bit more detail, but nailing focus can be a bit finicky. I often had to adjust the phone a tiny bit forward or backward to find the camera’s sweet spot.
Battery Life: The best yet from any Pixel
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Equipped with a 5,100 mAh power pack, the Pixel 9a just barely beats out its biggest sibling — the Pixel 9 Pro XL (5,060 mAh) — for the most battery capacity among Google’s phones. What’s more, the company claims the 9a has the best runtime of any of its handsets, which based on my testing, isn’t just hot air. On our standard local video rundown test, the Pixel 9a lasted just over 28 hours on a single charge (28:04). That’s half an hour better than what I got from a regular Pixel 9. Not too shabby.
The downside is that the phone’s charging speeds haven’t improved since last year, so you still get lackluster rates when using either wired (23 watts) or Qi wireless (7.5 watts) power adapters. That’s notably slower than what you get from a standard Pixel 9 (27 watts wired and 15 watts wireless), which is probably one of the most compelling reasons you’d want to upgrade to the 9a’s more expensive siblings. To better highlight the phone’s lethargic charging speeds, I put it on a compatible pad at 25 percent battery and after 10 minutes, it only sucked down an extra 5 percent. On the 9a, wireless charging is definitely something you use more for convenience than speed.
Wrap-up
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Look, the Pixel 9a might not be jam-packed with fancy features and its raw specs aren’t super impressive. I would love to see Google add a true telephoto lens and its charging speeds (both wired and wireless) could be better. But for $500, Google’s most budget-friendly phone covers all the bases and then some.
The 9a’s camera quality can hang with flagships twice its price and it has more than enough performance for all but the most demanding gamers or multitaskers. When you add in support for almost all of Google’s software like the Recorder app, Pixel Studio and more, you get a really compelling package. Plus, the lack of a big camera bump means this thing is surprisingly sleek. If my kids were old enough to need a cell phone, this is what I would buy. For everyone who says that all they want is a simple, solid handset with a nice screen that can take high-quality photos, this thing is basic in all the best ways.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-pixel-9a-review-basic-in-just-the-right-way-130050005.html?src=rss
Merged back in Linux 6.9 was AMD Preferred Core support for Linux for the concept of “preferred cores” with newer Zen processors that are communicated via ACPI CPPC for select cores able to reach a higher maximum frequency or should otherwise be preferred over other cores on the system in the name of maximizing performance. That was a nice step forward for better handling newer Ryzen processors on Linux and matching functionality that had already been working under Microsoft Windows. Of focus more recently has been working on enabling more dynamic Preferred Core support for where the priority of the preferred cores may change at run-time…
Google engineers earlier this year detailed an AMD CPU microcode signature verification vulnerability. For local users with administration/root privileges, it could lead to loading malicious CPU microcode patches on the system. Initially AMD Zen 1 through Zen 4 were affected but the Google security engineers since discovered Zen 5 also could be impacted. BIOS updates are rolling out to address this signature verification issue while the Linux kernel is also being patched for microcode protections on Zen 5…
OpenAI has filed a countersuit against Elon Musk, accusing him of staging press attacks and malicious campaigns on “the social media platform he controls,” as well as of making “harassing legal claims” and a “sham bid for OpenAI’s assets.” In its filing, courtesy of TechCrunch, the ChatGPT-maker said Musk could not tolerate seeing such “success for an enterprise he had abandoned and declared doomed” and had made it his own project to take down the organization. It also said that Musk’s efforts have ramped up in recent months after it announced its plans to restructure and become a for-profit entity with a non-profit division.
Last year, Musk sued OpenAI, accusing it of ditching its nonprofit mission, becoming a “closed-source de facto subsidiary” Microsoft and of violating its foundational agreement to develop generative AI “for the benefit of humanity.” But Musk, OpenAI said in its new lawsuit, is only pretending to represent the public and in truth is seeking to stop it from restructuring. Musk “advised that a similar reorganization was needed to salvage OpenAI’s mission” years ago when he was still part of the company, it said.
After Musk filed a lawsuit last year, OpenAI published old emails from when he was still involved in its operations. The organization said Musk was there when it first started talking about going for-profit and even wanted majority equity, control of the initial board of directors and the CEO position. It also published an email wherein Musk suggested merging OpenAI with Tesla so that the automaker could fund its work. Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and eventually founded his own generative AI company, xAI. The AI company recently purchased X, formerly known as Twitter, for $33 billion.
In a tweet, OpenAI said that Musk’s actions are just “bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI” and that he’s spreading false information about the organization, as well as aiming to seize control of its technology for his personal benefit. In its lawsuit, it said that Musk “should be enjoined from further unlawful and unfair action” and should be “held responsible for the damage he has already caused.” OpenAI has to complete its reorganization by the end of this year or its private funding could be cut by as much as $10 billion.
He’s been spreading false information about us. We’re actually getting ready to build the best-equipped nonprofit the world has ever seen – we’re not converting it away.
In response, Musk’s legal team told Reuters that if OpenAI had taken a close look at his offer for the company, then it would know that the bid was serious and not a sham. “It’s telling that having to pay fair market value for OpenAI’s assets allegedly ‘interferes’ with their business plans,” Musk’s lawyer Marc Toberoff told the news agency.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-files-countersuit-against-elon-musks-bad-faith-attacks-123030861.html?src=rss
Welcome to “Cookbook of the Week.” This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a particular recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own.
It’s not much of a secret that I like to tinker with recipes. I like to see how different flours create different biscuit textures, how periodic cooking makes the perfect boiled egg, or how sour cream performs as an “egg wash.” There’s great freedom in being untethered to “the right way” to make recipes. Granted, I use recipes all the time, but if I’m missing an ingredient, I’d rather try a work around than go out and buy that one thing. It’s industrious laziness, and I’ve learned so much because of it.
Clearly not driven by laziness, Katarina Cermelj has moved from tinkering to full-out scientific experimentation in The Elements of Baking. I’m spotlighting this book for Cookbook of the Week because, frankly, we may all be adapting, omitting, and replacing ingredients in our baking soon. It’s good to have a guide so your brownies and cookies don’t turn out like crap.
About the book
TheElements of Baking is a cookbook designed to help readers make gluten-free, vegan, egg-free, or dairy-free recipes. It is not, however, simply a book with allergen-free recipes. While those are in here, the greatest part of this cookbook is that you can learn how to make any existing recipe into an allergen-free recipe. (Nut-free isn’t explicitly mentioned in this book, but I think you can use sunflower seeds when you run into those cases.) Make Junior’s New York Cheesecake recipe into a dairy-free version. Turn your great gram’s Swiss roll into a gluten-free Swiss roll. Whip up a batch of vegan crêpes.
Not only is this helpful for folks like myself who are trying to avoid spending extra money at the grocery store, but this is a must-have resource for anyone with dietary restrictions themselves, or for folks who cook for others with dietary restrictions. You can stop endlessly searching the internet for a vegan and gluten-free buttermilk biscuit recipe that may or may not suck. Cermelj has put in the work of testing and documenting all of her free-from recipe successes in The Elements of Baking in informative yet accessible prose. Though, the best part of this book is getting sucked into the science.
A great cookbook for baking nerds of all levels
The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook does a good job appealing to us food nerds with all-around practical food whys and hows, but The Elements of Baking is a special gift to those of us obsessed with baking. Katarina Cermelj front-loads the book with information, including the roles different components play in recipes, how to adapt recipes to free-from diets, and ingredient substitutions you’ll need to get your hands on. There’s even a flow chart for adapting existing recipes so you can see which part of the book to flip to. See what I mean? Do not tempt me with a good time.
Cermelj doesn’t sugar coat (ha) the truth with free-from recipes. Substituting major ingredients with others can change the product—reducing flexibility, browning, or aeration depending on the swap. But slightly different baked goods can still be just that—good. I really appreciate the thorough case studies and plentiful picture comparisons. You get to see how your dessert should look depending on the version you’re making (maybe a little blonde in color or with more aeration), and cross-sections for cakes so you can check out the crumb’s texture.
The different iterations of brownies in ‘The Elements of Baking.’ Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
If you’re more of a light-level baking nerd, Cermelj has also considered you. You could really skip the whole front section (with the beautiful flow chart and textbook-esque case studies) and jump to Chapter 5. Here the book is broken into color-coded free-from recipe chapters: Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free, Vegan, Gluten-free Vegan, and finally Frostings, Icings, Creams, and Curds. You don’t need to know how the sausage is made, just get to your chapter and start baking.
The treats I baked this week
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
I’ve been testing out egg replacements for cake recently, so I took the opportunity to try out some egg-less cookie adaptations. I navigated the flow chart and found two pathways for non-cakey cookies: ones that spread and ones that hold their shapes. I decided to try both.
I decided to adapt my regular peanut butter cookie recipe, and the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of a Ghirardelli bag of chocolate chips. The peanut butter cookie doesn’t spread, so that substitution is simply a swapped measurement of milk (dairy or non) for each egg. The chocolate chip cookie recipe is typically a cookie that spreads, so for that recipe I was able to use Greek yogurt as the egg replacement.
Both cookies turned out perfectly. The chocolate chip cookie was nearly identical in texture and flavor to the unmodified recipe, and despite how tangy Greek yogurt can be, there was no noticeable flavor from it. The peanut butter cookie was excellent, though it was more crisp and lacked the soft center that the unmodified recipe usually has. Still, if I had a friend with egg allergies, I don’t think I’d hear any complaints.
Although I haven’t had a chance to try them yet, I look forward to testing out the gluten-free bread recipes in this book.
How to buy it
The Elements of Baking is available for purchase online as a hardcover or as an e-book. It’s still relatively new, so you’ll likely see it on displays in your local bookstore.
It’s 2025, so it should be no surprise that another organization has sold its soul (entered into a licensing deal with an AI company) for an undisclosed sum. A new partnership allows UK-based Synthesia to access Shutterstock’s content library for training its latest AI model, EXPRESS-2. This deal isn’t the first of its kind for Shutterstock, which previously teamed up with OpenAI to sell stock images made using AI generator DALL-E 2.
Synthesia creates avatars for corporate videos about topics such as cybersecurity and good communication at work. It aims to use Shutterstock’s video data to “try out new approaches that will improve the performance of EXPRESS-2, and increase the realism and expressiveness of our AI generated avatars, bringing them closer to human-like performances.,” Synthesia stated in a release.
Typically, Synthesia uses actors to create avatars, paying to use their likeness for three years. But, now it will have access to individuals through Shutterstock’s videos. Though these people will not be used to create avatars but to model body language, tone of voice and how people look at a desk or while using a whiteboard, for example.
While, it means that someone featured on Shutterstock won’t suddenly see their face in a workplace video, it does mean that their existence — whether it’s movements or words — is being fed to an AI company. Time and time again, companies are selling AI companies the rights to use individuals’ work without any consultation (or typically compensation) for the creators or participants. Such is the case for licensing deals with the likes of DotDash Meredith, Time and Reuters, to name only a few instances.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/shutterstock-licenses-its-video-library-to-ai-corporate-video-company-120004055.html?src=rss
With days 1 and 2 of Zwift Community Live 2025 ridden and uploaded, I was feeling the fatigue in the legs. But the weather was beautiful in Mallorca, the vibe at ZCL was perfect, and nothing was going to stop me from taking on the toughest ride of the week up Sa Calobra! Here’s how the final day of ZCL unfolded for me…
Ride Plan
Today I was again taking on the “Uber Pretzel” version of the three ride options. If ZCL had a “Queen Stage”, this was it: as much distance as the day before, but twice as much elevation! We would ride from sea level up to the top of the famous Sa Calobra climb, then descend it all the way down to sea level before turning around to climb our way out:
I really wasn’t sure how well my tired legs would handle all the elevation, so I resolved to take it easy and enjoy the ride so I could finish ZCL on a high note.
Ride Summary
Getting Started
Once again, the dining room was buzzing for breakfast as all the Uber riders chatted about their day. Sa Calobra is a bucket list climb for many, so there were lots of excited – if not a little nervous – riders in the room. I was one of them.
After a quick breakfast full of clean carbs (whole grains, fruit, and yogurt) I kitted up and headed out to the starting area.
Since I wanted to make sure I saved my legs for the climbs without holding up my group too much, I resolved to join a more medium-paced group instead of one of the first, faster groups. I was also looking to ride with some Zwifters I hadn’t ridden with yet, so I joined the group led by Zwift’s Director of Women’s Strategy, Kate Veronneau. (I knew from prior experience that Kate is both a very strong rider and an experienced ride leader. She wouldn’t steer us wrong!)
Let the Fun Begin: Coll de sa Batalla
The first 10km of the ride were quite flat, and the group got into a rhythm. Then the ground sloped up so we were climbing – but this was just the easy stuff. 25km in, the switchbacks began as we made our way up the Coll de sa Batalla (7.9km at 6%):
This is where most of the group pulled away from me, and I just rode my own ride, enjoying the switchback climb and valley views as I lugged my “overmuscled” physique toward Sa Calobra.
Solo climbing time on Coll de sa BatallaValley view from Coll de sa Batalla
I caught up to the group where they’d stopped at the Repsol gas station, and I thought we were close to the start of the Sa Calobra descent.
We were not.
Thinking we didn’t have much climbing left, and with legs that felt decently fresh, I followed the front two guys (one wearing an Everesting jersey, which should have tipped me off) who quickly got away from the rest of the group as we put in a solid climbing effort to finish off Coll de sa Batalla.
A Surprising Climb
A fun rollercoaster descent followed, lulling me into a sense of security. Then the road pitched upward – surprisingly so – and I realized I had made a bit of a mistake. We still had another 3.1km at 6% to climb to the top of Coll dels Reis before we could descend the other side (which is Sa Calobra). I was soon caught and (once again) passed by most of the group. Ha!
We regrouped at the top of Coll dels Reis on the Sa Calobra side, and Kate explained that we could hang out there, at the top of Sa Calobra. Or we could descend it, then turn around and climb back up. Everyone in our group was there to ride Sa Calobra, so down we went.
Descending Sa Calobra
It’s hard to adequately describe my experience descending Sa Calobra for the first time. It’s such an otherworldly and unique road. The smooth, serpentine turns seem to undulate endlessly, contrasting with the rocky mountainside as you look down and try to wrap your head around how it’s all laid out.
The road was smooth and dry, the temperature was cool but not cold, and there were no cars getting in the way. I took advantage of it and enjoyed the descent, staying off the brakes when it felt safe (because fast is fun), but not taking any unnecessary risks, either.
It was perhaps halfway down that I began passing Zwifters who were in the first, fast group and on their way up the climb. Nick Nellis from TFC, Nick Kalkounis from ZwiftHQ, Jeff Linder from NorCal Cycling, Nathan Guerra, Jason Stern from DIRT… I yelled “Allez allez!” at everyone I recognized, flashing a smile as they suffered their way up the climb. I knew I’d be there soon enough.
Soon enough I was down at the bottom with a whole lot of cyclists, and it was time to turn around and pay the piper.
Climbing Sa Calobra
I told the two riders with me that I was going to treat this like a Zwift TTT race: holding what seemed like too easy of a pace at the start so I still had something to give at the end. So I chugged along around 220W, somewhere between 2.5 and 3 W/kg, and just enjoyed this infamous climb.
(At least, I think that’s where my power was. I’m not convinced my Garmin pedals were reading accurately, since my L/R balance was way off, indicating at least one misreading pedal.)
In the early part of the climb, I met one of the Zwifters with me: Vlad. He’s from the Ukraine, and lives in Kiev. He’s only ridden indoors, on Zwift, since the war began. ZCL was his first opportunity to ride outside in over three years. Wow.
Zwifters from later groups began zipping past us, descending as we climbed, and we started yelling “Ride On!” to everyone we recognized. You could hear the Ride Ons all over the mountain as Zwifters shared the love. Super fun!
The end of the climb actually came a bit earlier that I’d expected, but that’s not to say it felt short. The Zwift support van was parked perhaps 100 meters before the finish line of the Strava segment, so as I neared the van I heard yells of “push all the way to the sign!” Everyone had to go hard to the line.
I clocked a blazing 50:28 on the official segment, earning me 81,823rd place out of 165,549 riders. Top 50%!
All Downhill from Here
We regrouped at the support van, then made our way together to the coffee shop for a welcome shot of caffeine and cake. Our 2000 meters of climbing were essentially done, we just had a mostly-downhill 40km left to knock out.
Cyclists know that’s a great way to end a ride. Top-knotch route design right there.
It was probably bad form for me to enjoy a cheeky supertuck off the front of the group on a long, straight section of downhill. But it felt like such a fun and Zwifty thing to do. (Take that, UCI!)
SupertuckingSpinning with the Zwinfluencers
And it’s also possible that a few others and myself enjoyed ourselves a bit too much, relishing the speed of the rolling descent. Kate eventually rolled up to the front to get things slowed down and grouped together, and we began making our way toward home as a unit once again… slowly.
Mercifully, when a faster group of Zwifters rolled by, Kate said we could join them if we wanted to roll faster, so a few of us did just that. That’s how I ended up riding next to Ayesha McGowan (@ayesuppose) and Carolyn Carter (@la_triathlete) in a zippy group of influencers (Zwinfluencers?) who towed me the rest of the way into Mallorca.
The day was far from over, though. After a shower and some hangout time with Monica to hear how her ride went, we headed for dinner (fajitas!) followed by the final fireside chat hosted by Matt Stephens.
This third chat was by far my favorite of the three nights. Matt’s two guests were Sirs Chris Hoy and Mark Cavendish, and those three men held everyone’s attention for over an hour. The conversation was expertly guided by Matt and included serious notes (Sir Chris talking about his stage 4 cancer diagnosis) but also lots of stories and laughs.
Stephens with Hoy and CavThanking the ride leaders and ZHQ crew
Eric Min came up next, thanking everyone for coming, inviting the Zwift staffers and ride leaders up for a round of applause, and promising a ZCL for 2026. (Everyone cheered, because everyone wants to do it again!)
We ended the night with a 10-minute ZCL highlights video, which I wish Zwift had uploaded somewhere because I’d include it here. (It was so well done, and really captured the positive energy and community vibes of the week.) It felt like the perfect ending to an incredible few days.
That’s a Wrap
I may write one more post with additional thoughts on all things ZCL, because there was so much I haven’t shared in these daily summaries. But since it’s past midnight here in St. Andrews, Scotland, where Monica and I have extended our European stay, for now I’ll leave you with a #humblebrag shot of the sweet aero socks Zwift gave everyone at ZCL:
Gravel racing has been full of tyre talk of late, from the shift towards larger volumes to racers opting to use low-rolling-resistance tyres from mountain biking.
The issue is that, bar a few exceptions, gravel tyre tech has tried to span the wide variety of gravel riding.
That spectrum covers everything from fast, flat-out shorter-distance gravel racing to multi-day epics, bikepacking and everything in between.
That has meant tyre compounds have tended towards the hard-wearing rather than race-developed options.
Well, it looks as if Maxxis has become the first MTB tyre brand to take gravel tyre tech seriously, introducing its new gravel-specific HYPR-X compound.
Where the mountains meet the road
Maxxis’ gravel range has a tread for every condition. Maxxis
The new HYPR-X compound blends the road-racing HYPR compound from the High Road SL tyre with the race-winning MaxxSpeed mountain bike compound.
The new HYPR-X compound is being rolled out on Maxxis’ four gravel models – the Receptor, Reaver, Rambler and Ravager.
Higher grip, lower rolling resistance
Maxxis’ new HYPR-X compound has been introduced across the whole gravel tyre range. Maxxis
Maxxis claims the new compound brings with it a 19 per cent improvement in cornering traction and 25 per cent less rolling resistance in lab testing.
The compound is wrapped around Maxxis’ 120 TPI casing, updated from the previous generation with a stronger nylon yarn. Maxxis claims this will vastly increase tread durability.
The old Rambler (left) and the new grippier, lower-rolling-resistance HYPR-X Rambler (right). Warren Rossiter / OurMedia
We’ve got a set of the new HYPR-X compound Ramblers and I’ve tested them side-by-side with the current Dual-compound Ramblers over a few brief rides. We’ll follow up with a full test of the new Ramblers soon.
My first impressions are that the new compound has much more elasticity than its predecessor.
The shoulder tread deforms more easily in the corners and the grip feels much more assured. Meanwhile, its roll on the road feels impressively quick for a treaded tyre.
The new Rambler gets updated graphics on its hot patch. Warren Rossiter / OurMedia
Given the previous Rambler was one of the best gravel tyres, this new compound looks to be improving on that very high standard.
The new HYPR-X brings a small increase in weight to 566.3g (45mm), compared to 560.3g (45mm) on the previous Dual-compound tyre.
Maxxis Rambler HYPR-X specifications
The new compound has a much more elastic feel to its pronounced shoulder tread. Warren Rossiter / OurMedia
The Reaver and the Rambler with HYPR-X and new casing will be available first in 700x45c, with other sizes arriving over the next three months.
All sizes of the Ravager and the Receptor are scheduled to roll out in the third quarter of 2025.
Maxxis has confirmed pricing will be the same as its current gravel tyres.
Owning a home is great, except for the utility bills that come along with it. The average cost of gas and electricity in the U.S. is $206.22 per month, and if you’re eager to pay less, you’ve probably done the obvious stuff—conserving your use, sealing (or replacing) your windows and doors, or even using your appliances at off-peak times.
But if you’ve covered the basics and your bills still seem too high, it’s time to dig deeper. Sometimes the reasons behind an unusually large utility bill aren’t obvious at all, and have nothing to do with your behaviors or usage patterns. Here are six unexpected—but not entirely unlikely—causes for a higher bill.
Your appliances are older
If your electricity bill has been rising steadily, investigate the appliances in your home. The efficiency ratings on that sticker that came with your new furnace or water heater are for an appliance in brand-new condition. Unfortunately, appliances age pretty rapidly in a lot of ways—in just two years, for example, a refrigerator’s electricity use can climb by 11%.
That doesn’t mean you need to replace your appliances every other year, but just because they’re still working doesn’t mean they’re doing so efficiently. If your utility bills are getting fatter, consider the “useful” life of those appliances—as they get older, they will pull more energy to get the same job done.
Refrigerators: Refrigerators typically last an average of 14 years, but the seals around the door will start to wear out after 8 years or so. As its efficiency falls it will pull more power to compensate, bloating your bills.
Dishwashers: About 10 years.
Washing Machines: About 10 years.
Dryers: About 13 years.
Microwaves: About 9 years.
Ovens, Ranges, and Stoves: Gas models can operate efficiently for as long as 15 years, but electric models have a slightly shorter lifespan, about 13 years.
Another consideration? “Vampire” appliances. You can (and probably should) unplug countertop appliances like coffee makers when they’re not in use, and if you’re going on a long trip, you should consider unplugging stoves, televisions, and other devices that continuously sip on your power, driving up the bill.
Inefficient interior design choices
The layout and design choices in your house can have a big impact on your utility bills, because they can make it harder to heat and cool your home. Even if you set your thermostat to a reasonable temperature and schedule, if your furnace, boiler, or air conditioning system has to work overtime to maintain those temps, your utility bills will skyrocket.
A few considerations when remodeling or rearranging furniture:
Exposed beams. Those rustic beams exposed can add a lot of charm to your space—but also add heating and cooling costs. Exposing beams means there’s no insulation up there, so heat and cold will just transfer through your roof, and your utility bill will rise.
High ceilings. Even without exposed beams, high ceilings make it harder to heat and cool your space, simply because your HVAC system will have to work harder to cool or heat a larger volume of space.
Layout. If you’ve got furniture blocking heat sources or HVAC vents, you’re making your system work twice as hard to heat and cool your home. Similarly, long window treatments that cover radiators can drive up your bills. Opening up your layout as much as possible by removing ‘breaks’ like bookshelves or tall furniture can help cool and warm air to flow freely, making it easier for your systems to control the climate.
Exposed brick. No matter how thick your walls are, brick is not a great insulator. The R-value (a measurement of thermal resistance) of brick is just 3, but exterior walls in most homes need an R-value of at least R-13. Exposing that brick will look amazing, and drive your utility bills skyward.
Your water heater setting
When you install a new water heater, chances are good the default temperature set by the manufacturer is 140ºF. This is pretty hot—hot enough for the water to cause serious burns with just a few seconds of exposure. From an energy perspective, it’s just not an efficient setting, as much of that heat gets lost, forcing your water heater to work harder. You probably won’t notice much difference if you turn it down to 120ºF. This isn’t just a safer bet, it can also save you as much as 22% off your utility bills.
Defective wiring
Defective wiring—whether due to incorrect installation or simple age—can leak electricity, meaning you’re paying for power that you’re not using. Old wiring can also overpower appliances and light fixtures, pumping more juice to them than they need. This not only raises your utility bills unnecessarily, it can stress your appliances and shorten their lifespan.
You’ve got a freeloader
Another possible reason your utility bills are so high? Someone might be stealing from you. Water, electricity, and even your internet service can be diverted and split, leaving you to subsidize someone else’s usage. A few tell-tale signs are extension cords plugged into exterior outlets, mysterious digging around your property, and rogue hoses attached to your exterior spigots.
Cryptocurrency mining
No, really: Depending on where you live, cryptocurrency companies might be driving your utility bills higher. Cryptocurrency mining requires a lot of energy, and many crypto companies have made sweetheart deals with local utilities to get discounted electricity rates—with the costs sometimes passed on to regular consumers. In Texas, for example, residential consumers saw their electric bills rise by almost 5% because of subsidized rates for local crypto enterprises, and there are similar scenarios in New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arkansas.
Amazon has to operate like the “world’s largest startup” as it works to meet demand for AI and cut bureaucracy in its ranks, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said in his annual letter to shareholders. From a report: “If your customer experiences aren’t planning to leverage these intelligent models, their ability to query giant corpuses of data and quickly find your needle in the haystack, their ability to keep getting smarter with more feedback and data, and their future agentic capabilities, you will not be competitive,” Jassy wrote in the letter on Thursday. “It’s moving faster than almost anything technology has ever seen.”
Amazon, like most of the largest technology companies, has bet heavily on artificial intelligence, committing much of its $100 billion in planned capital expenditures this year to AI-related projects.
A family altar in the Maya city of Tikal offers a glimpse into events in an enclave of the city’s foreign overlords in the wake of a local coup.
Archaeologists recently unearthed the altar in a quarter of the Maya city of Tikal that had lain buried under dirt and rubble for about the last 1,500 years. The altar—and the wealthy household behind the courtyard it once adorned—stand just a few blocks from the center of Tikal, one of the most powerful cities of Maya civilization. But the altar and the courtyard around it aren’t even remotely Maya-looking; their architecture and decoration look like they belong 1,000 kilometers to the west in the city of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico.
The altar reveals the presence of powerful rulers from Teotihuacan, who were there at a time when a coup ousted Tikal’s Maya rulers and replaced them with a Teotihuacan puppet government. It also reveals how hard those foreign rulers fell from favor when Teotihuacan’s power finally waned centuries later.
A change merged yesterday to the Intel Mesa graphics driver code lessens a restriction around the amount of system memory (RAM) that can be used by processes for the Vulkan system heap. This will allow more games/apps to work with the Intel integrated graphics that previously exceeded the driver-enforced limits but at the risk of running into broader out-of-memory behavior if under too much memory pressure…
Creating users in Linux is a fundamental task for system administrators. The useradd command is a universal tool available in all Linux distributions that allows you to create users efficiently. Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide on how to use it.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pause some of the exorbitant tariffs that he put in place earlier today, he spoke to the press at the White House and provided some commentary that could be a positive for Apple. When asked whether he would consider exempting some U.S. companies from the tariffs in the future, Trump said that he would. “As time goes by, we’re going to take a look at it,” he said. “There are some that by the nature of the company get hit a little bit harder, and we’ll take a look at that,” he added, claiming that he will “show a little flexibility.”
[…] When speaking to the press, Trump reiterated his aim of bringing manufacturing to the United States, and he claimed that Apple “building” in China is unsustainable. “If you look at Apple, Apple is going to spend $500 billion building a plant. They wouldn’t be doing that if I didn’t do this. They’d just keep building them in China. And that’s unsustainable,” he said.
Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is a type of software that enables individuals to design electronic systems. We pick the best open source tools for Linux.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Meta’s latest whistleblower, Sarah Wynn-Williams, got a warm reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the Careless People author who the company has fought to silence described the company’s chief executive as someone willing to shapeshift into whatever gets him closest to power. The message was one that lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism were very open to. Their responses underscore that amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest pivot in cozying up to the right, his perception in Washington has not yet totally changed, even as he reportedly lobbies President Donald Trump to drop the government’s antitrust case against the company.
“He’s recently tried a reinvention in which he is now a great advocate of free speech, after being an advocate of censorship in China and in this country for years,” subcommittee Chair Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, pointing to longtime conservative allegations that Meta has suppressed things like vaccine skepticism and the Hunter Biden laptop story. “Now that’s all wiped away. Now he’s on Joe Rogan and says that he is Mr. Free Speech, he is Mr. MAGA, he’s a whole new man, and his company, they’re a whole new company. Do you buy this latest reinvention of Mark Zuckerberg?”
“If he is such a fan of freedom of speech, why is he trying to silence me?” Wynn-Williams asked in response. Meta convinced an arbitrator to order her to stop making disparaging statements and halt further publishing and promotion of the book, which details Meta’s alleged dealings with the Chinese government and claims of sexual harassment from a top executive.
Google made waves with the release of Gemini 2.5 last month, rocketing to the top of the AI leaderboard after previously struggling to keep up with the likes of OpenAI. That first experimental model was just the beginning. Google is deploying its improved AI in more places across its ecosystem, from the developer-centric Vertex AI to the consumer Gemini app.
Gemini models have been dropping so quickly, it can be hard to grasp Google’s intended lineup. Things are becoming clearer now that the company is beginning to move its products to the new branch. At the Google Cloud Next conference, it has announced initial availability of Gemini 2.5 Flash. This model is based on the same code as Gemini 2.5 Pro, but it’s faster and cheaper to run.
You won’t see Gemini 2.5 Flash in the Gemini app just yet—it’s starting out in the Vertex AI development platform. The experimental wide release of Pro helped Google gather data and see how people interacted with the new model, and that has helped inform the development of 2.5 Flash.
WASHINGTON, DC—Over the course of a nearly three-hour committee hearing Wednesday, the nominee to lead NASA for the Trump administration faced difficult questions from US senators who sought commitments to specific projects.
However, maneuvering like a pilot with more than 7,000 hours in jets and ex-military aircraft, entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman dodged most of their questions and would not be pinned down. His basic message to members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation was that NASA is an exceptional agency that does the impossible, but that it also faces some challenges. NASA, he said, receives an “extraordinary” budget, and he vowed to put taxpayer dollars to efficient use in exploring the universe and retaining the nation’s lead on geopolitical competitors in space.
“I have lived the American dream, and I owe this nation a great debt,” said Isaacman, who founded his first business at 16 in his parents’ basement and would go on to found an online payments company, Shift4, that would make him a billionaire. Isaacman is also an avid pilot who self-funded and led two private missions to orbit on Crew Dragon. Leading NASA would be “the privilege of a lifetime,” he said.
