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Sennheiser’s Sport True Wireless Earbuds are down to $74.99 on Woot for two days or until they sell out, with free shipping for Prime members (or $6 otherwise). That’s a decent drop from their original $149.99 price, and quite a bit cheaper than what they’re currently going for on Amazon ($149.95). The deal includes a 90-day Woot limited warranty, but it’s worth noting that shipping is limited to the continental U.S.
The earbuds themselves are somewhat hit or miss.. On the one hand, they offer strong audio with deep bass and clear highs, and you get support for both AptX and AAC codecs. The fit is customizable, with multiple ear tips and fins included. Battery life clocks in at a reasonable nine hours, plus another 18 from the charging case. But the “Sport” branding is a stretch, notes this PCMag review. The IP54 water-resistance rating can handle sweat and light rain, but it’s not great for anything more intense. And instead of an ambient sound mode, the earbuds rely on physical eartip swaps—one type for more awareness, one for less—which feels clunky in 2025.
The app experience doesn’t help much. You need it to adjust sound profiles based on which ear tips you’re using, but the EQ is limited, and the layout feels a little dated. There’s also no carrying pouch for the extra tips, which makes it easier to misplace or mishandle them. These earbuds do sound good and offer decent comfort, but they come with enough small frustrations that they’re not for everyone. If you just want solid wireless sound for less than $80 and don’t care much about extras, this deal might still make sense, but if you’re considering alternatives, the Tribit FlyBuds 3, priced at $39.99, could be worth a look.
Back in March, Zwift launched their “bike upgrades” feature, allowing Zwifters to improve the performance of their in-game bike frames in 5 stages by logging time/distance/elevation on the frame before purchasing an upgrade.
To date, bike upgrades have been enabled in most community race events (including Zwift Insider’s Tiny Races) as well as Zwift’s major races (the ZRacing series). However, upgrades are disabled in the popular Thursday TTT events, as well as the Zwift Racing League Showdown wrapping up next week.
That’s going to change soon, though. We’ve received word from WTRL (organizers of the Thursday TTTs) that upgrades will be enabled starting in July (target date: July 3). Additionally, WTRL and Zwift have confirmed that, when Zwift Racing League (ZRL) spins up its first round in September, bike upgrades will be enabled for all events.
So today, I’m publishing this post as a public service announcement: if you’re racing on Zwift but haven’t started upgrading your bike(s), it’s time to get to work.
Simply put, riding a fully-upgraded version of a fast bike will give you a significant advantage over anyone riding a non-upgraded version of the same frame. This is especially true when it comes to time trials, where results are based purely on finishing time and there’s no hiding in the competition’s draft.
A fully upgraded TT bike will be approximately 50 seconds faster across an hour of flat riding vs the non-upgraded version, and anyone who has raced a TTT knows that’s a huge margin. If you look at that time savings through the lens of power savings, it works out to ~11 watts saved.
This time savings is so significant that I believe we’ll see team leaders choosing to exclude riders who don’t have access to a fully-upgraded TT frame once upgrades are enabled for Thursday TTTs and ZRL.
A fully upgraded all-around road frame will save you approximately 30 seconds across an hour of flat racing vs the non-upgraded version. It will also save you ~37 seconds across an hour of climbing. This works out to ~6 watts saved in flat races and ~3 watts on climbs. While these savings may not be noticeable when you’re riding tempo in the pack draft, racers know that saving power during the easier parts of a race allows you to have more in the tank when it’s time to go full gas.
Lastly, we have climbing frames, which improve by ~60 seconds across an hour of climbing when they’re fully upgraded. This works out to a ~5-watt savings, which will prove helpful for many riders who struggle on longer climbs in ZRL events.
So, which bike frames should you be riding and upgrading? If you want to dig into the data yourself and draw your own conclusions, see our detailed road bike frame performance charts and time trial frame performance charts.
Want to keep it simple? Here are my recommendations:
While some teams/riders are using, shall we say, less than admirable methods for achieving bike upgrades, there are definitely ways to ethically maximize your efforts as you work to upgrade your frames. Before you begin each Zwift session, give a bit of thought to which bike frame you should use for the session, as you’ll accumulate upgrade progress on which frame(s) you select.
Here are three simple tips:
Where are you in your bike upgrade efforts, and what’s your overall strategy for upgrading? Share your thoughts below!
RoadCraft isn’t the type of game you just pick up on a whim. It’s a hardcore simulator with realistic physics and mud mechanics, terrain and elevation considerations, and vehicles that maneuver like a tank from World War I in the French countryside. But hey, we’re all new to the genre at one point or another, and to…
Fast-paced online soccer game Rematch is launching without crossplay. This was confirmed online just a few hours before the sports game launched on consoles and PC. Developers Sloclap say adding crossplay is a top priority, but many players are still disappointed at the news.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Japan is the latest nation hoping to tempt disgruntled US researchers alarmed by the Trump administration’s hostile attitude to academia to relocate to the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese government aims to create an elite research environment, and has detailed a $693 million package to attract researchers from abroad, including those from America who may have seen their budgets slashed or who fear a clampdown on their academic freedom.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Palmer Luckey’s military tech company Anduril recently announced a partnership with Meta to build “the world’s best AR and VR systems for the US military.” In two recent public conversations, Luckey offered up some details on the XR helmet his company is building for the military and how this unlikely partnership arose years after his VR company Oculus was acquired by Meta, followed by his unceremonious firing.
Following the announcement, Luckey spoke to host Ashlee Vance on an episode of the Core Memory podcast, and on stage with author and creative technologist Stephanie Riggs during a conversation at the AWE USA 2025 conference. From these conversations, we’ve detailed the most interesting information about Anduril’s upcoming military XR headset.
Luckey said that Anduril’s upcoming military XR device is codenamed ‘Eagle Eye’. The goal is to build a complete helmet replacement (with built-in XR capabilities) for soldiers, rather than merely an add-on device that would be worn or attached to standard-issue helmets.
“Eagle Eye is not just a head mounted display. It’s a fully-integrated ballistic shell, with hearing protection, vision protection, head protection, on-board compute, on-board networking, radios… and also vision augmentation systems… sensor systems that enhance your perception,” Luckey said on Core Memory. “And what we’re doing is working with Meta to take the building blocks that they’ve invested enormous amounts of money and expertise in, and we’re able to use those building blocks in Eagle Eye without having to recreate them from scratch ourselves.”
More specifically, he explained at AWE that, “Eagle Eye is not one head mounted display. It’s actually a platform for building vision augmentation systems. We’re building different versions because you have different people who have different roles. The guy who is a front-line infantryman being shot at has a different job than the guy who’s a logistician, or aircraft maintainer, or somebody who works in a warehouse. The field-of-view they need, the level of ballistic rating they need—it’s very very different. So Eagle Eye is actually a platform for hosting multiple vision augmentation systems.”
While not many technical specifics have been shared thus far, Luckey mentioned the headset uses multiple microdisplays per-eye. That tells us the headset could be a passthrough AR headset rather than transparent. That might seem surprising, (considering the need for battlefield awareness) but he repeatedly emphasises the goal of the helmet offering greater perception for soldiers through augmentation, rather than less.
Luckey admitted that the multi-microdisplay layout results in a visible seam in the peripheral image (which reminds me of an old ultrawide field-of-view headset prototype from Panasonic).
He said the seam wouldn’t be acceptable for the consumer market, but because the headset is being built as a tool to keep people alive, the tradeoff is worth it.
“One of the things we’re doing with eagle eye is using multiple microdisplays per-eye, with a tiled seam. And so you end up with this small little kind of distorted seam that’s living out in your peripheral view. And you can see it really easily. It’s there. It doesn’t bother you. It doesn’t make you sick. But it’s definitely there,” he told host Ashlee Vance. “Apple [for example] can’t make something like that [because it wouldn’t be acceptable to the consumer market]. They can’t make a thing where there’s a seamless magical experience, except for this weird distorted bubble seam down both sides of your vision in your periphery. But for a tool [like Eagle Eye] you can do that… it’s not actually a problem.”
As for cost, at AWE Luckey suggested that the headset could cost in excess of $10,000.
“[The US military] would rather have something that is significantly more performant even if it’s somewhat more expensive. Now I’m not saying we should charge the government some obscene price, but if they can choose between a $1,000 sensor that lets them see things that are twice as far, or a $100 sensor that has half the range, every time they’re going to make the choice for the $1,000 sensor, because the cost of losing that soldier or failing the mission is so much higher than the cost of that headset,” he said. “So what’s fun for me—from a tech perspective—is we’re able to build a headset that costs tens of thousands of dollars to make. We can load it with image sensors that are nicer than even Apple would put in something like the Vision Pro. We can afford to put extremely high-end displays in it that are far beyond what the consumer market would reasonably bear today.”
Without a consumer cost restriction, Luckey said Eagle Eye will have some specs that are significantly beyond anything that’s available on the consumer market today.
“Eagle Eye is gonna be the best AR and VR device that’s ever been made; it’s not even close. We’re running at an extraordinarily high framerate and extraordinarily high resolution. I’d tell you the specs but unfortunately the customer doesn’t want me to at this point,” Luckey told Stephanie Riggs at AWE. “But I will tell you it’s several times higher resolution in capability than even Apple Vision Pro. There’s nothing in the consumer market that’s going to be able to meet it where it is, because I have a different set of requirements. I’m not making an entertainment device you buy at Best Buy, I’m building a tool that keeps you alive. And that’s something the Army is willing to pay for.”
He also emphasized not just the helmet’s XR tech but also the integration of artificial intelligence, likening the end goal being “in the vein of Cortana,” the artificially intelligent sidekick of Master Chief (the hero from the Halo franchise).
“[…talking about Iron Man’s sci-fi armor suit] it wasn’t just the suit right? It was also the augmented vision paired with [some] kind of AI guardian angel in the form of Jarvis; that is what we were building. Eagle Eye has an onboard AI guardian angel, maybe less in the style of Jarvis and more in the vein of Cortana from Halo, but this idea of having this ever-present companion who can operate systems, who can communicate with others, that you can offload tasks onto, that is looking out for you with more eyes than you could ever look out for yourself, right there in your helmet—that is such a powerful thing to make real.”
One of the key capabilities of the headset involves threat detection, Luckey said at AWE.
“Eagle Eye has a 360° threat awareness system… that is able to detect drone threats, vehicular threats, threats on foot, and automatically categorize ‘what is a threat and what is not’ and then present that to you.”
Further, he spoke of the AI as a way to make all of the helmet’s capabilities easy to use without overwhelming the wearer.
“You shouldn’t be toggling between 10 different sensor menus. You should just see seamless view that’s built by kind of an AI interpolator that looks out into the world and says ‘ok well I know he probably wants to see all of the hot human signatures, I know he probably wants to see all the drones…’ you can build technology that is transparent to the user,” said Luckey. “[…] maybe I’m not the guy to argue that the tech is easy to use because I’m a hardcore technohead from birth and I can operate wacky stuff. But you can put it on a normal person… they can look out into the world and do things and see things with zero training that they never would have been able to do otherwise. I’m not concerned about information overload because I’m [confident in our ability to build the right tool for the job].”
Regarding manufacturing, Luckey said the Eagle Eye XR helmet will be built in the US or with US allies, with “no Chinese parts,” as a matter of operational security. He expects the first prototypes of Eagle Eye this year, and says the company already has working prototypes.
“We’re gonna be delivering the first prototypes to the army this year. That’s the intent anyway, if all goes according to plan in the way that I hope,” he told Vance. “But we’ve been working on the technology that underpins Eagle Eye for years. And we’ve been making a really serious hardware effort for over a year at this point. And so actually there’s an Eagle Eye sitting on my desk back at my office right now.”
But how did Luckey go from having his VR startup (Oculus) acquired by Meta, then getting fired from Meta for political backlash, starting a military technology company (Anduril), raising it to a valuation of billions, and then end up partnering once again with the company that had booted him out?
Well, by Luckey’s telling, it started last year when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered a quote to an article about Luckey that was surprisingly conciliatory. That openness from Zuckerberg (and outright apology from Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth) opened the door to a renewed relationship.
“We ended up reconnecting [after the article], talking about some of the problems that are going on with America, some of the inefficiencies that exist for terrible reasons… how there are people who are dying needlessly because of barriers between our technology industry and our national security community,” Luckey said on the Core Memory podcast. “We ended up deciding that this was something that we needed to work on together. Meta’s been doing a lot more on the national security front; they’ve been working a lot more work with the government.”
Luckey says he’s moved on from any anger he harbored for his firing by Meta, saying that it’s a different company than it was those nine years ago—not just culturally, but also many of the people advocating for his ousting are no longer working at Meta.
Luckey sees the partnership as a win for Anduril (as it doesn’t need to rebuild key XR technology), while saving the American taxpayer from paying for tech that already exists in the private sector.
“[…] there’s a lot of things in Meta that I invented, my team invented, before they acquired [Oculus]. There’s other things that I invented, that the team invented, while I was at Facebook (now Meta). And there was a bunch of technology that was invented after I was fired,” he explained to Vance. “And this partnership is about taking that entire base of technology and IP—around hardware, software, in AI, VR, AR space—and applying it to solving our military’s most pressing challenges. It’s taking a lot of the people who have been working on these technologies for consumer applications and adapting their work to solve national security problems at a very low cost to the taxpayer.”
Luckey says the partnership will allow Anduril to build “the world’s best” XR tech for the US government and allies.
On the other hand, he said that the details of the partnership with the likes of Meta and Qualcomm mean that future innovations will hopefully trickle back to the consumer side.
“The way I see this is: the tech that we’re building—working with partners like Qualcomm and Meta—they’re going to be able to bring back into their consumer devices. And that’s the way our licensing agreement works,” he told Riggs. “The tech that we co-develop together… I’m the guy who is going to be deploying it to the military; they’re going to be the people taking it back into the consumer realm.”
It’ll be some time yet until we know more about what Eagle Eye actually looks like and how it works, but there may well be some overlap with Microsoft’s prototype IVAS system, as that’s the helmet that Eagle Eye is being built to replace.
The post What We Know So Far About Anduril’s ‘Eagle Eye’ Military XR Headset and Founder’s Reunion With Meta appeared first on Road to VR.
Obsidian Entertainment has been an incredibly versatile game developer over the years, even venturing outside its RPG comfort zone with the original Grounded. As a survival adventure game where you’re shrunken down and explore the hidden, vast world of a backyard, it became a well-loved hit, and it evolved even further throughout its early access period. But now, the developers have big plans for Grounded 2, which has new features and a larger scope that was too big for the original to contain.
Shortly after the reveal during the recent Xbox Games Showcase alongside Summer Game Fest 2025, I got to play the opening of the sequel, which sees the familiar crew of teenage scavengers, now a little older and wiser, shrunken down once again to survive a new small world hidden in the town’s park. Even as a new iteration of a familiar premise, which is essentially the survival gameplay of Rust by way of the whimsical Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Grounded 2 is already showing some promise as the bigger and better sequel.
Grounded 2, which will also launch in early access, already feels like a bigger game, even from the confines of the tutorial zone. For starters, there’s a larger focus on building up the experience of the four teenage scavengers and how they fit into the larger story. It’s not quite Yellowjackets when it comes to teen drama, but the crew exploring the small world of the park have colorful language and quips at their disposal. There’s a generally stronger sense of personality in Grounded 2, which is bolstered by some more character-driven writing and opportunities to take in the lore of the company responsible for the experiments in town.
The experience of playing Grounded 2, much like the original and other survival games, is all about gathering resources from the land and acquiring knowledge to stay alive. Along with collecting materials to build weapons, armor and structures, you’ll also have to keep your characters fed and hydrated. You’ll also need to defend yourself against the various critters roaming about, such as the ants and the spiders. Also returning is the arachnophobia accessibility option to make them appear less disturbing for players. Thankfully, you can now use a dodge to avoid attacks – a first for the series – and combat is generally more responsive and fair.
Grounded 2 feels like a more well-rounded and refined take on the original, which is a solid game in its own right. One great addition that I got to play with was the new ant mount, or buggy, as the devs call it. You’ll be able to ride on top of a friendly ant that can attack enemies, move faster throughout the world, and even collect material far more quickly than the human scavengers.
Shortly after my hands-on experience, I sat in on a roundtable discussion with game director Chris Parker and producer Miles Winzeler from Obsidian Entertainment, who explained how early access feedback from players helped bring the game to its current state. In order to fully implement their vision for Grounded, though, they would need a new game.
“Almost everything in Grounded 2 comes from feedback from the community that we had gathered from the first game,” Parker said. “We had to look at what was important to work on with the sequel. People always want more stuff to do. They wanted to have the buggies, which was a huge one and our number one most requested feature from out the gate on Grounded 1. We then had to work on new creatures, armor and weapons, among other things. How can we further develop our progression systems? So those were all the things that we took on from the beginning for Grounded 2.”
Grounded 2 felt like a more fully realized game, which leveraged years of work on the original. Along with a more developed story campaign focusing on helping the kids survive the portion of Brookhollow Park they have to explore – which is more than three times the size of the original’s map – The game will also launch with creative mode, which was a popular feature that let players focus on exploring and building up structures at their leisure.
“We’re always trying to challenge scale and how we can create a sense of awe and mystery by having something that’s supposed to be normal but is now this gigantic thing,” Parker said. “That’s always the fun when making this game.”
I really took to the added scope of Grounded 2. Not just as a shrunken person trapped on the grounds of a park but also for the new features and ideas at work for the sequel. With the game coming out in July for early access, Grounded 2 has already got me invested in making a return visit to this small world with big ambitions.
Grounded 2 will release in early access on July 29 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will be available for Game Pass subscribers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/obsidian-entertainment-has-big-ambitions-for-grounded-2s-small-world-173027415.html?src=rss
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Even if consider yourself an experienced do-it-yourselfer and own a shed filled with power tools, chances are good you’re only scratching the surface of what’s out there to help you tackle projects around the house. In fact, if any particular aspect of a DIY project annoys, chances are decent someone has already designed a power tool that solves the problem—provided you know what to look for.
These nine power tools might not be found in every tool cabinet, but all of them can all make your DIY life a whole lot easier.
If you’re like me, doing any sort of drywall work is a frustrating experience—especially the sanding part, which is a sweaty, dusty mess (unless you wet sand, which can really reduce the dust). If you’re tired of sanding and sanding and sanding, rejoice, because you can buy yourself a power drywall sander like this one from Dewalt. Cordless and extendable, this makes sanding down drywall a breeze, using hook-and-loop sandpaper pads that you can buy at just about any hardware store. It’s important to note that while the sander has a vacuum hose, you’ll need to hook up a separate vacuum to capture the dust. Dewalt sells a range of dust extractors, but you can use any shop vac with a HEPA filter—but you might need a vacuum connector to make it work. Fire up the vac, pop in a battery, and suddenly sanding your drywall is a cleaner and simpler experience. (You can see it in action here.)
Caulking should be easy. Load a cartridge into even the cheapest caulk gun, squeeze the trigger, caulk comes out. But getting a clean, consistent bead of caulk with an old-school manual gun is a challenge, and if you’re doing a lot of caulking your future most likely includes hand cramps. That’s why a powered caulking gun is the kind of mind-blowingly obvious power tool to add to your kit. Load up your caulk, press a button, and an absolutely perfect bead of caulk comes out for as long as you need it to (or as long as the cartridge holds out). Most models have adjustable speeds so you can find the sweet spot for the job.
If you’re cutting stuff with manual scissors, stop—especially if you’re cutting awkward, thick stuff like sheets of plastic, or that deadly clamshell plastic packaging that quickly becomes a dangerous weapon as you struggle to get it open. A cordless power scissor will slice through that stuff easily—a blessing if you’re going to be cutting up a lot of stuff and you don’t want to have to ice your forearm later.
Still swinging a hammer like a caveman? Still mangling your thumbs and denting everything within a few inches of your intended nail? Once you use an auto hammer you will never go back. Just load a nail onto the magnetic strike plate, position it, and press the trigger. The auto hammer will drive a wide range of nails with little effort, saving you time and sweat—not to mention your thumbs.
Anyone who regularly does projects around the house probably has a circular saw in their tool collection. But even with careful measuring a circular saw can betray you when it comes to straight lines—especially if you need to cut a very long piece. This can be especially frustrating when you’re ripping down a piece of wood and need a very straight, level edge. Not everyone has space for—or can afford—a table saw, but with a track saw kit you can get perfectly straight cuts without the bulk of a table saw. The track can be affixed horizontally or vertically, to walls or other surfaces—anywhere that requires a perfectly straight cut.
Most casual DIYers have sandpaper in their toolbox. Some might even have a power sander tucked away somewhere. But if you need to sand narrow or difficult-to-reach surfaces, conventional sandpaper can be a frustrating experience and most power sanders will be way too large and inflexible. Having a finger sander (aka a detailing or file sander) will give you the ability to reach those difficult spaces and sand with a fine amount of control.
If you’re like me, you’ve come to regard that mechanical snake you bought years ago as a crock: Every time the drain slows down you jam that cable down into your drain, turn the crank, and…nothing happens. You end up having to take your plumbing apart in order to locate and clear the clog. Unless you have an air snake kit like this. Without removing anything, the air gun uses a shot of high-pressure air to clear traps and pipes, turning an hour of sweaty work into about three minutes.
Getting your garden together? Dealing with landscaping headaches? Hauling pebbles to your driveway? Whatever you’re using a wheelbarrow for, you know they were designed for medieval peasants who never expected to live past the age of thirty and will leave your back feeling like a pretzel. This is why a power-assisted wheelbarrow like this one is a must if you use a wheelbarrow more than…well, ever. The motor adds just enough thrust to make pushing it a breeze, even on inclines.
Power drills are standard in any toolkit, and make both easy and complex projects a lot simpler. There are even specialty drill bits that can make drilling and driving screws around corners and in tight spaces much easier. But none of those solutions can compare to a 4-in-1 drill like this one from Milwaukee. The attachments can be fitted to each other, so you can come up with solutions on the fly without sacrificing torque—even drilling around pipes or other obstacles that block your bits and make even a flexible drill bit difficult to use.
Reports emerged earlier this year that Meta was working with Oakley on smart glasses and it seems we’re about to see the fruits of those labors. A new Instagram account called @oakleymeta has popped up and its first post teased an announcement for this Friday (June 20). Instagram’s own official account and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the clip on their stories, as did Oakley on its social channels, so this is legit.
The end of the video shows the Oakley and Meta logos side by side in a very similar fashion to the branding for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Meta’s web store has a banner with the same text used in the teaser — “The next evolution arrives June 20” — and an option to sign up for updates on products, news and innovations.
So, unless this is a bait and switch, we’ll probably see Oakley Meta glasses this week. Of course, Oakley and Ray-Ban share a parent company in EssilorLuxottica.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that a set of smart glasses based on Oakley’s Sphaera glasses was on the way. The camera in the Ray-Ban Meta glasses is set in one of the sides of the frame, but it’s expected to be in the centre of the Oakley Meta glasses. These new smart glasses are said to be aimed at cyclists and other athletes, perhaps to try and challenge GoPro in the action sports market.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/meta-and-oakley-tease-a-smart-glasses-announcement-for-june-20-172532944.html?src=rss
Process Explorer is a task manager and system monitor. It provides the functionality of Windows Task Manager along with features for collecting information about processes running on the user’s system.
The post Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Microsoft Process Explorer appeared first on Linux Today.
This Thursday, MAAP+Zwift launch the Down Under Crit Series, an 8-week series of unique “neutral start” crit races aimed at bringing fun to the Aussie winter.
These events are structured differently from any major series we’ve seen on Zwift. Every race is three laps long, with the first two laps fenced so the group stays together, and the final lap being an unfenced, all-out race!
These races are mass-start events modelled after the iconic Donny Chaingang format. It’s unclear just how fast these two fenced laps will be, and ultimately that will be up to the rider leader (beacon). Based on the event description, the first two laps will be fast, but not race pace. (Think tempo, not full gas. Of course, “full gas” is different from one rider to another.) Ride leaders will control the pace using the fence, which will “zap” riders (remove them from the event) if they ride ahead of the fence for too long:
The final lap of each event is where the race happens. The ride leader will turn off the fence, and it’s an all-out effort to the end.
(Note: these rides are technically classified as group rides, which means they won’t modify your Zwift Racing Score or count toward race rankings on ZwiftPower.)
Events are scheduled in two time slots each Thursday for 8 weeks:
Each week features three laps on a fresh route, rotating between several Zwift maps:
Researchers have built a breakthrough random number generator that solves a critical problem: for the first time, every step of creating random numbers can be independently verified and audited, with quantum physics guaranteeing the numbers were truly unpredictable.
Random numbers are essential for everything from online banking encryption to fair lottery drawings, but current systems have serious limitations. Computer-based generators follow predictable algorithms — if someone discovers the starting conditions, they can predict all future outputs. Hardware generators that measure physical processes like electronic noise can’t prove their randomness wasn’t somehow predetermined or tampered with.
The new system, developed by teams at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, uses quantum entanglement — Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” — to guarantee unpredictability. The setup creates pairs of photons that share quantum properties, then sends them to measurement stations 110 meters apart. When researchers measure each photon’s properties, quantum mechanics ensures the results are fundamentally random and cannot be influenced by any classical communication between the stations.
The team created a system called “Twine” that distributes the random number generation process across multiple independent parties, with each step recorded in tamper-proof digital ledgers called hash chains. This means no single organization controls the entire process, and anyone can verify that proper procedures were followed. During a 40-day demonstration, the system successfully generated random numbers in 7,434 of 7,454 attempts — a 99.7% success rate. Each successful run produced 512 random bits with mathematical certainty of randomness bounded by an error rate of 2^-64, an extraordinarily high level of confidence.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Donald Trump’s image will soon be used to sell smartphones, the Trump Organization confirmed after unveiling a new wireless service, Trump Mobile, on Monday.
According to the press release, Trump Mobile’s “flagship” wireless plan will be “The 47 Plan,” which references Trump’s current term as the United States’ 47th president.
The Trump Organization says the plan offers an “unbeatable value”—costing $47.45 per month—and “transformational” cellular service. But the price seems to be on par with other major carriers’ “best phone plans,” according to a recent CNET roundup, and the service simply plugs into the 5G network through “all three major carriers,” the press release noted.
I test a lot of batteries and I find myself drawn to the ones that do a little extra, like offering built-in cables, magnetic charging, onboard displays or, in this case, a handy kickstand that lets you view your phone as it recharges. Anker’s MagGo 10,000mAh power bank is the one we recommend for iPhones in our guide to the best power banks. Right now, it’s 20 percent off, bringing the $90 brick down to $72. That’s not the lowest price we’ve seen — it dipped below $60 for Black Friday last year — but this is the best deal we’ve seen since then.
In my test with an iPhone 15, the bank’s 10,000mAh capacity charged the handset from near-dead to full and had enough juice left over for an additional 70 percent refill. It was fairly speedy too, getting the phone up to 85 percent in about 90 minutes. The kickstand is sturdy and the magnets hold the phone firmly. Though that compatibility is restricted to MagSafe iPhones (iPhone 12 and newer), the USB-C port on the side means you can charge other devices with a wired connection. It even comes with a USB-C to C cable.
A digital display on the side tells you how much charge the battery has left as well as how much wattage is funneling to your device as you charge. It comes in five colors: white, black, blue, green and pink, all of which are on sale. You can get the same deal directly from Anker with an auto-applied code. Of course, the battery may dip lower for Amazon’s Prime Day sale that’s expected in July, but even without a further discount, this is still a good deal on a capable portable charger.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/our-favorite-power-bank-for-iphones-is-20-percent-off-right-now-163026961.html?src=rss
Whether it’s from work, caregiving, emotional overload, or just trying to keep up with the pace of life, sometimes we all hit a wall. Fortunately, there are podcasts out there that can offer real help—not just quick fixes, but the tools, insight, and compassion you need to recover, recharge, and protect your mental health.
Here are 10 of the podcasts I turn to when I need to go from overwhelmed to just whelmed.
A constant cycle of shame can be one of the many reasons for feeling burnout, especially social burnout. On Mental Health Rewritten, Dominic Lawson is great at creating a cohesive and scientific narrative to help you combat shame with empathy, especially when that shame stems from elements of identity like race and gender. This season of the show hopes to help you rewrite your internal and external dialogues around sex, suicide, and cultural identity, from desire to dysfunction. At the very least, it might make you feel less alone and more heard.
The prospect of living mindfully can be daunting, but on 10% Happier, Dan Harris makes it feel accessible. With a focus on meditation, neuroscience, and emotional balance, this show is a powerful antidote to burnout. Harris, who got interested in the topic after experiencing his own on-air panic attacks, interviews a wide range of experts, blending science with personal experience. He is a skeptical, funny, and refreshingly honest host, sharing his own struggles with anxiety, stress, and overwork, giving the show totally relatable, approachable vibe. (We can all make tiny changes, right?)
On Therapy for Black Girls, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford offers accessible, culturally sensitive conversations about mental health, boundaries, and navigating burnout aimed especially at Black women—but her advice resonates universally. She interviews experts on topics like people-pleasing, toxic workplaces, and self-care strategies. This show will both inform you and make you feel cared for.
The Happiness Lab, hosted by Yale psychology professor Dr. Laurie Santos, is a science-based, myth-busting deep dive into what truly makes us happy—and how modern life often sets us up for burnout instead. The show draws directly from Dr. Santos’ wildly popular Yale course “The Science of Well-Being,” which has helped millions rethink their approach to stress, work, and daily life. Dr. Santos blends storytelling with cutting-edge research to address stuff like toxic productivity, perfectionism, emotional exhaustion, and how our brains often trick us into habits that fuel burnout rather than prevent it.
On Everything Happens, Kate Bowler brings heartfelt honesty to difficult conversations about navigating the most challenging seasons in life, offering perspective and grace for those feeling overwhelmed or exhausted. A historian who recently faced down her own cancer diagnosis, Bowler excels at exploring the intersections of grief, loss, and resilience.
On WorkLife, organizational psychologist Adam Grant dives into what we can do to make work better and less draining. His episodes on toxic workplaces, resilience, and remaining productive without burnout are essential listening. His expertise helps listeners reimagine work culture and personal habits, and not many people can blend academic research with engaging storytelling like Adam can.
While The Ezra Klein Show isn’t exclusively about burnout, many of his in-depth interviews tackle the cultural, economic, and psychological forces that drive modern exhaustion. Ezra interviews top thinkers, from psychologists to sociologists to economists, who help listeners understand not just how burnout happens, but why our systems often make it inevitable. As host, Ezra asks thoughtful, compassionate questions that get to the heart of work culture, attention scarcity, rest, and the pressures of modern life.
On We Can Do Hard Things, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle offer honest conversations about boundaries, feeling overwhelmed, and navigating emotional labor. With vulnerability and humor, these three share their own struggles and insecurities, making the show feel like a safe space. Topics range from dealing with parenting burnout to navigating exhausting relationship dynamics.
Based on their bestselling book Burnout, on Feminist Survival Project, sisters Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski offer science-backed strategies for women dealing with chronic stress. (Don’t miss “Polyvagal 101,” about your nervous system can screw you over.) If you’re neurodivergent and looking for a podcast that acknowledges the exhaustion of living in systems not designed for humans to thrive in, it’s especially helpful; Emily is on the autism spectrum and is open about her experiences with ADHD. This one is more academic than other shows on the list, but it’s weirdly also the funniest.
The Blindboy Podcast, hosted by Blindboy of the Rubberbandits, isn’t strictly about stress, but Blindboy’s gentle conversations and openness make theshow feel like a big hug when you’re stressed. With a mixture of cultural commentary, history, observations, and magical storytelling, Blindboy manages to normalize the therapy process and the experience of living as an autistic person. In free-flowing episodes that cover everything from Irish and Greek mythology, to what’s inside of a tennis ball, to a discussion with the late Sinéad O’Connor, he helps listeners discover something they might need to hear about the world and themselves.
After August 4, creators setting up a paid membership page on Patreon will have to pay a 10 percent fee on their earnings under the platform’s new standard plan. While Patreon currently offers Pro and Premium plans, which carry fees of 8 percent and 12 percent of creators’ income, respectively, it’s merging the two into a single option moving forward. The price increase only applies to creators publishing a new page; Patreon says it will continue to honor the lower Pro rate for anyone who has locked it in by August 4.
Once the change is in place, things will also get a bit cheaper for creators who were operating under the Premium (12 percent) plan. Rather than continuing to pay 12 percent, Premium creators will be shifted to a custom “Pro + merch” plan that will come with an 11 percent fee. If they remove the merch option, the fee will drop to 8 percent.
Patreon also says it’s increasing the amount of free storage it’ll provide for creators using Patreon Video. While it previously said it would provide storage for up to 100 hours of video across the account’s lifetime and charge for anything beyond that, Patreon now says it will begin offering 100 hours of video per month for free later this summer. The move comes shortly after the platform teased new tools including a built-in livestreaming feature, Live Video. Patreon began tests of Live Video among select creators this spring, with plans for a summer rollout.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/patreon-is-raising-its-fees-for-new-creators-this-summer-161546739.html?src=rss
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal has long been home to the Canadian Grand Prix. The artificial island was originally built for Expo 67 but was later remodeled for the 1976 Olympics; a race track was then constructed out of the roads on the island in 1978. F1 has come and gone in the US and Mexico in that time, but Canada has been a near-constant, missing just 2009.
Many of those races have been classics. 2007 saw Lewis Hamilton’s first win, when he was a rookie with McLaren. (Takuma Sato’s sixth place in the Super Aguri made that day even better.) 2010 had such extreme tire degradation that then-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone had Pirelli build that into its tires from 2011 as a feature, one that at times had a highly deleterious effect on racing.
Yesterday’s race in Montreal will not be remembered as one of the all-time great Canadian F1 races. Well, perhaps it will by the Mercedes team, which scored its first win of the year with George Russell, and rookie Kimi Antonelli finished third, claiming his first podium. Montreal lacks the long-duration corners that overheat the Mercedes’ tires past their best. Instead, it rewards good traction and good braking, both attributes that the silver arrows’ car possesses.
For the first time, an Apple executive has shown themselves using their visionOS Persona.
Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing, shared a short clip on X in response to YouTuber iJustine, who posted a similar clip raving about the all-new Personas in visionOS 26.
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visionOS 26 was announced last week at WWDC25, and the significantly more realistic Personas are one of the many improvements the update is set to bring.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
Apple says the new Personas leverage “industry-leading volumetric rendering and machine learning technology”, and have “striking expressivity and sharpness, offering a full side profile view, and remarkably accurate hair, lashes, and complexion”. The company has also expanded the eyewear options for your Persona to include over 1000 variations of glasses.
Despite the improvements, the new Personas are still generated in a matter of seconds via holding the headset up to let it scan your face.
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Apple Vision Pro’s original Personas were harshly criticized, and even ridiculed, at the headset’s launch last year, with many feeling they fell into the uncanny valley and calling them “cursed”. Apple has improved their realism over time, but the visionOS 26 update represents a step-change in quality.
That Joswiak has shared a clip of himself using his visionOS 26 Persona suggests an important quality threshold has been crossed in the mind of Apple executives, and the feature is no longer described as beta.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
Tim Cook remains the only Apple executive to be publicly seen wearing the Vision Pro headset itself, in a Vanity Fair piece one day before it launched.
