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Air travel may be fast, but it’s also often a source of stress and discomfort. Aside from tight seats, delays, and generally uncomfortable accommodations, airlines have been nickel-and-diming us with fees for just about everything, including luggage. Checked bag fees range around $30 to $40 to start, so it’s not surprising that more and more people are trying to travel with just their carry-on.

Restricting yourself to a single carry-on is liberating—no more waiting at the luggage carousel, no more dragging a bulky, heavy roller behind you everywhere—but also limiting in terms of space. Clever packing, like rolling your clothes, can help get the most out of a carry-on, but eventually, you run up against the laws of physics. If you really want to stretch that carry-on’s capacity to the limit, here are a few clever items you can buy that will help you with that project.

Packing cubes

As our own Beth Skwarecki will tell you, packing cubes are life-changing. They contain all your loose items—like those rolled-up shirts—so they stay in their pristine, efficient configuration instead of getting disorganized and chaotic. Compression cubes can also shrink down many of your items so they take up as little space as possible. They also make it a lot easier to use the space inside your carry-on efficiently, transforming a bunch of oddly-shaped stuff into neat cubes that can be quickly arranged and re-arranged. Finally, they can be used to separate out your stuff by use case, so you can keep stuff neatly packed away when you access the stuff you need right now.

Vacuum bags

If compression packing cubes can shrink down some of your stuff, imagine an entire carry-on that compresses itself. Vacuum seal carry-on backpacks have a built-in vacuum that compresses everything inside all at once with the touch of a button, making the bag as small and easily stowed as possible.

The two downsides to a vacuum-sealed carry-on are access and security. If you need to grab something from your carry-on, you’ll have to decompress it first. In terms of getting these bags through security at the airport, the TSA says they are “discouraged” but allowed, so you can get them through. But the TSA agents may force you to decompress them so they can inspect the contents—especially if the compression makes it difficult to make out what’s in there. Because of the built-in vacuum, you should be able to re-seal the bag after you grab your stuff or have it inspected, but it’s still a downside.

Stuffable neck pillows

If you’re going to use a neck pillow on the plane, why not buy one that lets you easily stuff it full of rolled-up clothing or other soft items? Every shirt you get into a neck pillow is a shirt you don’t have to fit into your carry-on, opening up space for other items or making your packing job just a little bit easier, and you still get the benefit of a neck pillow. It’s a win-win!

Belt bags

Belt bags (or fanny packs, as the unwashed call them) are a great way to get just a little extra room in your carry-on. It’s true that many airlines will consider a visible belt bag to be a personal item and demand that you stuff it into your carry-on when boarding. But that can only happen if they see it—choosing a slim, compressed belt bag like this one will allow you to wear it under your clothes while boarding, and no one will be the wiser.

Stackable containers for toiletries

These hexagonal, magnetic capsules are designed to be the perfect way to bring liquid stuff with you on the plane. They hold 1.32 ounces of stuff, snap together to make packing them very easy, and are pre-labeled so you know exactly what’s in them. It’s a much more efficient way to bring some basics like shampoo, conditioner, or lotion with you than trying to manage tiny plastic bottles or even a lumpy bag of tiny plastic bottles.

Solid toiletries

If you’re going to be packing your own shampoo and other toiletries, consider bringing solid versions—shampoo bars, conditioner, or lotion—instead of their harder-to-manage liquid versions. You could replace your toothpaste with a tooth powder as well, which can be transferred to any appropriately-sized container. These options are not only easier to pack, with less chance of a mess—they also won’t get you into any trouble at the security line, since they’re not liquid.

This is some footage of a rarely seen sun candle (aka subsun), an optical phenomenon that occurs when sunlight is reflected off flat ice crystals in the atmosphere and appear as a beam resembling a giant candle flame. Are we sure that’s what it is though? Because I really think somebody should step through it just to see where that portal takes them.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The gap between Windows 10 and Windows 11 continues to narrow, and Microsoft’s flagship operating system is on track to finally surpass its predecessor by summer. The latest figures from Statcounter show the increase in Windows 11’s market share accelerating, while Windows 10 declines.

Before Champagne corks start popping in Redmond, it is worth noting that Windows 10 still accounts for over half the market — 54.2 percent — and Windows 11 now accounts for 42.69 percent. However, if the current trends continue, Windows 10 should finally drop below the 50 percent mark next month and be surpassed by Windows 11 shortly after.

The cause is likely due to enterprises pushing the upgrade button rather than having to deal with extended support for Windows 10. Support for most Windows 10 versions ends on October 14, 2025, and Microsoft has shown no signs of deviating from its plan to retire the veteran operating system.

[…] Whether users actually want the operating system is another matter. Windows 11 offers few compelling features that justify an upgrade and no killer application. The looming October 14 support cut-off date is likely to be the major driving factor behind the move to Windows 11.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It was Tuesday June 25, 2019. San Francisco became the first US city to (temporarily) ban the sale of vapes, SpaceX successfully launched and deployed 24 satellites and I sat in Nintendo’s UK office on the outskirts of London, playing a demo of a game that still isn’t out. 

However, according to yesterday’s Switch 2 presentation, Hollow Knight: Silksong will arrive at some point this year. Nintendo even showed off a couple of seconds of new footage. There are slopes!

Oh Silksong, oh Hollow Knight: Silksong, oh Hollow Knight’s repurposed DLC. The second Hollow Knight game from Team Cherry was initially meant to be a DLC addition to the original, but plans changed, with the developers saying that it had become “too large and too unique.” (This many years later, exactly how large and unique will Silksong be?)

Later, as part of the 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games showcase, a Silksong trailer teased a release date in the next 12 months as part of Xbox’s attempt to deliver a wave of exciting games after a lackluster start to the Series X/S launch.

When the early 2023 release date passed us by, Team Cherry delayed the game into 2024 and now, well, it’s 2025. I played that demo so long ago that it might have just been a dream.

Without rewriting my six-year-old hands-on impressions entirely, the new game features a new playable character named Hornet, who featured as a repeatable boss fight in the original Hollow Knight, with silk-based attacks and faster, more agile gameplay. It also offers a more aggressive play style, with Hornet able to heal herself using silk charges and even repair damage with silk bundles left behind from prior unsuccessful attempts. It’s a different gameplay twist from having to beat the Hollow Knight shadow in the original.

I subtitled my hands-on impressions, saying it would be “worth the wait.” Back then, I’d recently finished Hollow Knight on the Switch, putting in a few too many hours and was hungry for more bug-shaped Metroidvania adventures. Silksong felt fresh, more responsive, faster and flashier — and I just wanted to play more Hollow Knight.

Barely six seconds of footage during Nintendo’s Switch 2 presentation was enough to re-ignite the Silksong fandom, when it revealed nothing new more than some downhill traversal. It’s proof that a lot of people are still excited — and still waiting.

I’m excited, and six years on, it feels like it must be pretty close. 

Right?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/that-one-time-i-played-hollow-knight-silksong-160022483.html?src=rss

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Google released the Pixel 9 smartphones along with the Pixel Watch 3, and the Pixel Buds Pro 2 late last summer. Their second generation earbuds brought some great upgrades, and make them a great value for any Pixel user (although they’re compatible with any Android and have limited iOS support). Right now, you can get the Pixel Buds Pro 2 for $179 (originally $229), matching the lowest price they’ve ever been according to price-tracking tools.

Google Pixel Buds Pro 2

Brand: Google, Color: Hazel, Ear Placement: In Ear, Noise Control: Active Noise Cancellation

$259.00
at Amazon

$259.00
at Amazon

The list price for the new Pixel Buds Pro 2 is $29 more than the original Pixel Buds Pro, which have since dropped to $111. Some of the improvements Google has made to the new earbuds to justify the price include a new twisting mechanism that secures to the ear better for more intense workouts, better active noise-cancelling (ANC) thanks to the more snug fit, better audio processing with the new Tensor A1 chip, longer battery life of about eight hours with ANC on and 31 hours from the charging case, and the inclusion og Gemini Live, Android’s AI voice assistant. Some things that were not improved this time around: the drivers, wireless charging, and the equalizer options are all the same as the previous generation.

The earbuds have an IP54 rating for water resistance and the charging case is also water resistant, with an IPX4 rating. With a full charge, you can expect eight hours of continuous listening with ANC on (12 hours with ANC off) plus an additional 22 hours (36 hours with ANC off) from the charging case.

As CNET’s review explains, the audio and ANC quality the earbuds will offer you depends on how good of a snug fit you’ll get from them.

If you’re looking for the latest pair of ANC Pixel earbuds with Gemini virtual AI assistant, a smaller design, better ANC, audio and mic quality, these are a good option at this price.

Will this Chevrolet Silverado EV be the biggest electric vehicle we test this year? Almost certainly. Fractionally narrower and less tall than a Hummer EV pickup at more than 18 feet (just under 6 m) long and with a curb weight of 8,532 lbs (3,870 kg), the Silverado EV is what happens when Chevy’s electric vehicle engineers get tasked with making their rivals over at Ford feel like they didn’t try hard enough with the electric F-150.

Now that production has been ongoing for a while, Chevy is filling out the lower trim levels. For commercial customers, there’s a Work Truck, but for normies, the entry point is now the LT trim, at a tax credit-friendly—if still wallet-munching—$75,195 (for as long as the tax credit still lasts and until the effect of pointless and damaging trade tariffs make themselves known, of course).

The 645 hp (481 kW), 756 lb-ft (1,037 Nm) Silverado EV LT comes with the smaller of the two battery packs offered to non-commercial customers. That adjective is doing a lot of work there; a useable 170 kWh is indeed smaller than the 200 kWh you can find in the more expensive RST Max Range, but it’s also more than double the capacity of something like a Hyundai Ioniq 5. The range estimate is a commensurate 408 miles (657 km), or “just” 390 miles (628 km) if, as in our test pickup, the premium package has been fitted.

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There’s a lot of hype around the Switch 2. Nintendo’s upcoming console improves upon the now eight-year-old Switch in almost every way, supporting 4K HDR resolution, high refresh rates, and even “mouse mode” via the Joy-Cons 2.

In addition to all the new features and changes announced on Wednesday, Nintendo also revealed the release date (June 5) as well as the preorder date (April 9). Avid Nintendo fans might have added that preorder day to their calendars, perhaps signing up for alerts from various stores to ensure they snag their console as soon as humanly possible. However, I have some bad news: Preorders for the Switch 2 are officially delayed.

Nintendo shared the news with the media Friday morning. Its brief statement reads: “Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.”

There’s no ambiguity here. The tariffs the Trump administration haphazardly imposed to countries around the globe—as well as the retaliatory tariffs those countries imposed back onto the United States—are directly responsible for Nintendo’s decision to pull back the preorder date for Switch 2. We don’t know what the company is specifically looking for before they choose a new preorder date, but we do know the volatility of global markets has put what is usually a fun process on hold.

We also don’t know what this means for the Switch 2’s price tag outside of Japan. The company did not formally announce the price during the Nintendo Direct itself, choosing to reveal the $450 MSRP after the event concluded. It’s entirely possible Nintendo decides to increase the price of the console in response to these tariffs, passing along the inflated costs to consumers. In fact, there was already a price discrepancy before the delay—while Americans prepared to pay $450 for the Switch 2 ($500 for the Mario Kart World bundle), Japanese customers only need to pay 49,980 yen, or roughly $333.

A four-pack of Samsung’s SmartTag 2 trackers is on sale for $58 via Woot. That’s a massive discount of 42 percent, as the regular price is $100. This combo pack ships with two black trackers and two white trackers.

They easily made our list of the best Bluetooth trackers. We appreciated the vast finding network, as there are a lot of Samsung phones out there contributing to it. We said the network is “larger than anything out there for Android.” The trackers offer a decent battery life of 16 months, and the batteries are replaceable.

There’s also a large hole for keychains, which is something Apple AirTags lack. The ring volume is also louder than both AirTags and Tile Pro trackers. These trackers are fairly hearty, with IP67 water and dust-resistance. Setup is simple, as the companion app walks users through just about everything.

There’s only one downside, but it’s a doozy. SmartTag trackers only work with Samsung tablets and phones. This doesn’t really impact the finding network, as there are millions of Samsung devices out there, but does limit who should make this purchase.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/a-four-pack-of-samsung-smarttag-2-trackers-is-on-sale-for-58-right-now-152356230.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: AI is projected to reach $4.8 trillion in market value by 2033, but the technology’s benefits remain highly concentrated, according to the U.N. Trade and Development agency. In a report released on Thursday, UNCTAD said the AI market cap would roughly equate to the size of Germany’s economy, with the technology offering productivity gains and driving digital transformation. However, the agency also raised concerns about automation and job displacement, warning that AI could affect 40% of jobs worldwide. On top of that, AI is not inherently inclusive, meaning the economic gains from the tech remain “highly concentrated,” the report added.

“The benefits of AI-driven automation often favour capital over labour, which could widen inequality and reduce the competitive advantage of low-cost labour in developing economies,” it said. The potential for AI to cause unemployment and inequality is a long-standing concern, with the IMF making similar warnings over a year ago. In January, The World Economic Forum released findings that as many as 41% of employers were planning on downsizing their staff in areas where AI could replicate them. However, the UNCTAD report also highlights inequalities between nations, with U.N. data showing that 40% of global corporate research and development spending in AI is concentrated among just 100 firms, mainly those in the U.S. and China.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nintendo has delayed US Switch 2 pre-orders in response to the new set of tariffs announced by President Donald Trump earlier this week, as first reported by Polygon. Following Nintendo’s announcement of the console on Wednesday, pre-orders in the United States were slated to open on April 9. They’re now delayed indefinitely.   

“Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the US will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,” the company told Engadget. “Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.”

As mentioned earlier, Nintendo officially announced the Switch 2 on April 2. Hours later, the Trump administration said it would impose a sweeping set of new tariffs targeted against a broad swath of countries, including Japan, China and Vietnam. Products from the latter two countries, where Nintendo manufactures much of its hardware, will be subject to import duties of 54 percent and 46 percent, respectively.  

In the US, Nintendo said the Switch 2 would cost $450. As Polygon notes, sticker shock was already dominating the conversation around Nintendo’s new handheld, with many fans begging the company to “drop the price!” of console during its recent livestreams. It’s unclear what could happen following Nintendo’s assessment of the situation, but one possibility is that the company could allocate less stock for the US market.              

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-delays-switch-2-us-pre-orders-following-trump-tariffs-150747208.html?src=rss

This is a vintage safety style video created by Youtuber Hoog highlighting ways you can protect yourself from the eventual armies of killer robotic dogs that will be prowling the streets. Granted, there wasn’t anything presented that I didn’t already know, but I don’t subscribe to Robot Apocalypse Digest just for the babes with laser guns centerfolds.

Nintendo Switch 2 preorders, which were due to begin on April 9, are being delayed indefinitely amid the financial uncertainty surrounding Donald Trump’s recent announcement of massive tariffs on most US trading partners.

“Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,” Nintendo said in a statement cited by Polygon. “Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.”

Nintendo announced launch details for the Switch 2 on Wednesday morning, just hours before Trump’s afternoon “Liberation Day” press conference announcing the biggest increase in import duties in modern US history. Those taxes on practically all goods imported into the United States are set to officially go into effect on April 9, the same day Nintendo had planned to roll out Switch 2 preorders for qualified customers.

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Camera manufacturers continue to use different proprietary RAW file formats despite the 20-year existence of Adobe’s open-source DNG (Digital Negative) format, creating ongoing compatibility challenges for photographers and software developers.

Major manufacturers including Sony, Canon, and Panasonic defended their proprietary formats as necessary for maintaining control over image processing. Sony’s product team told The Verge their ARW format allows them “to maximize performance based on device characteristics such as the image sensor and image processing engine.” Canon similarly claims proprietary formats enable “optimum processing during image development.”

The Verge argues that this fragmentation forces editing software to specifically support each manufacturer’s format and every new camera model — creating delays for early adopters when new cameras launch. Each new device requires “measuring sensor characteristics such as color and noise,” said Adobe’s Eric Chan.

For what it’s worth, smaller manufacturers like Ricoh, Leica, and Sigma have adopted DNG, which streamlines workflow by containing metadata directly within a single file rather than requiring separate XMP sidecar files.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

April is when gardeners need to start being mathematicians and professional organizers, trying to find space for all the seedlings that need to get into trays on time. It’s also the first time this year you’ll start succession seeding, both indoors and out. Succession seeding is one of the real benefits of growing your own seeds: It means you can grow one or two of a variety instead of needing the space for a whole six pack you’d pick up at the nursery. Grow a mixed tray of vegetables or herbs now, and start another one in a few weeks. This will also help alleviate some strain on square footage in your growing space.

Even if you haven’t started your seed growing yet, there’s still time. And remember: There’s no shame in just buying starts or waiting for giveaways. If you are going to start your own seeds, though, you want to use seedling mix, not potting soil.

Tomatos, eggplant, and peppers

Credit: Amanda Blum

Peppers generally get started in March, so consider this your last call on getting your own started. Tomatoes and eggplant are more forgiving, but peppers need a long runway; get tomatoes and eggplant seeds sowed by April 15. As they grow, be brutal in thinning seedlings and tossing starts with any signs of distress or disease; you can’t afford to lose all your plants, and sickness spreads quickly in a growing space. 

Start succession seeding peas and other vegetables outside

Credit: Amanda Blum

By now, you should be sowing peas outside. Schedule a calendar alert for every two weeks, and ensure you’re getting radishes, carrots, beets, green onions, and lettuce in the ground. Remember, you’re succession planting, so you don’t need a ton to go in every week. Consider how many radishes you’ll really eat every few weeks, and get a few different varieties in. Carrots are a longer-term investment, but planting them now, in succession, takes advantage of the rain you are likely getting for easier germination rates. I make short rows of these seeds so I have plenty of room for them. You should see those peas come up quickly, and planting every two weeks through April will ensure you have peas until the weather gets too hot for them. 

Cucumbers, squash, and melon

Back inside, look to the end of the month to start cucurbits and squash. There are so many cucumbers to consider—for pickling, for slicing—and there are cucamelons, a small sour gherkin that has become quite popular. I’ve found the pickling cucumbers benefit from succession planting, so I plant a series of seeds in late April and then again at the beginning of May. This allows me to have one continuous harvest all summer. Pumpkins don’t require the same succession; they tend to be prolific on their own, but late April is the time to get them planted inside. Melons, cucumbers, and squash are all easy seedlings; they come up quick and grow to a transplantable size quickly, so you want to seed them close to the date you can transplant into the garden.

As you are planting seeds, it’s easy to dismiss the conservatism of just a few zucchini plants. Remember that one zucchini plant feeds a nation, and save yourself a lot of work giving away gigantic squash this July.

Onions and leeks come in a few flavors

Credit: Amanda Blum

There are three kinds of onions to consider this time of year. First, there are keeping onions, which are the ones you can use all winter if you store them right. These will come in sets, which you can get at the nursery right now. You can grow these from seed, but you’re late to them this year, so for a few dollars, grab a set and share them with friends. For placement, consider that tomatoes do well interplanted with onions. These bundled starts will go in the ground now, and you want to be sure to give each of them enough room, so don’t overcrowd. Each onion should have about six to eight inches between them so they can really flush out the bulb over the summer.

You also have scallions, or green onions, and those can be seeded directly in the ground every few weeks as an easy garden item to grow. The last item is leeks, which have a very long, protracted growing season, but are really rewarding as a winter and fall harvest. Leeks are easily grown from seed, so get them started in early April. You don’t grow leeks one per cell, but rather they can be grown together in a bunch in a four-inch pot or any tray you have. Once they have reached six inches in height, start cutting them back to three inches and let them grow back. When they’re ready to plant, you’ll carefully separate them and plant them as deep as you can, outside. 

It’s time for all the flowers

Credit: Amanda Blum

While it’s too late for snapdragons, it’s the right time to get marigolds, nasturtium, and sweet alyssum started. I mention these three together specifically because these are the building blocks of your pest prevention program in a garden, and you’ll want them everywhere, so overseed them, inside, now. You can tuck nasturtium  and sweet alyssum almost anywhere. At this point, I start the first succession of all my annual flowers except sunflowers. That’s zinnia, stock, poet flower, foxglove, delphinium, echinacea, cosmos, scabiosa, yarrow, calendula, blanket flower, salvia, agastache, and whatever else you’re planning. If you’re doing a second succession, you’ll start that in the third week of April. 

Growing herbs from seed saves money

Growing herbs from seed is one of the best ways to save money, as they’re expensive starts at the nursery and expensive to buy at the grocery store. Most seed easily, too. Make sure you’re getting the cilantro, basil, and dill in the seed trays now. Remember that dill is a pest deterrent, so grow more of it than you need to use alongside the marigolds and sweet alyssum. Dill, cilantro, and parsley bolt, so you’ll want to succession seed them in mid-April. This is a good time to consider herbs you might not have before, like chamomile, lemongrass, lemon verbena, and chives.