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Those of us who only have on-street parking know the frustration of waking up on a snowy morning to find our vehicle completely buried in snow—a situation often made worse by passing snowplows that block it in even more. Digging your car out can be a challenge, but taking a few precautions and having the right tools ready can make it easier. Here’s everything you need to dig your car out when it is buried by snow.

Digging your car out from the snow actually begins before the storm hits. Prepping the car ahead of time will make it a lot easier to extract from snow drifts. Here’s what you need:

• Battery blankets. Your battery won’t be exposed to the snow, but it will be exposed to temperature extremes. Car batteries start to lose capacity when the temperatures reach freezing, and things just get worse from there—so if it’s cold enough to snow, it’s cold enough to stress your battery. A battery blanket can help by insulating your battery and keeping it warm enough to start your car, which is an essential part of getting it out of a snow-packed spot.

• Car covers. If you know snow is coming, you can save yourself some trouble by covering your car in some way. Even throwing a standard blue tarp and securing it with some twine or elastic straps can make it a lot easier to de-snow your car (you could also buy one of these enormous plastic bags, instead of a tarp). Other options include windshield covers that will make snow removal easier while also protecting your side-view mirrors.

• Grille covers. Ice and snow can get into your car’s ventilation system via the front grille, so buying a grille cover for your specific car make and model isn’t a bad addition to your snow prep.

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After the universe has dumped several feet of snow on your car and the local snowplows have made the situation worse, you’ll need some tools to free the vehicle. A shovel, of course, is going to be necessary at a minimum, but a few more gadgets will make the job a lot easier and quicker:

• A remote starter. If your car doesn’t have a remote start feature, consider adding an aftermarket product. This will allow you to start the car before you even head out into the snow, ensuring that it’s warmed up and melting snow and ice off of itself before you even lift a shovel.

• A Snow Joe. The Snow Joe is a terrific tool—it’s a scraper and a finish-safe broom in one, with optional lights if you bother to pop batteries into it. If you don’t cover your car, or if your cover slipped and you still have snow to clear, the Snow Joe will make it easy.

• A cordless blower. Using your muscles to clear snow off your car is one way to do it. Another is to invest in a cordless blower, or, in a pinch, to drag your leaf blower out there to just blow the snow off. Whatever you do, don’t use a hair dryer or a heat gun—watching the snow melt off your car might be satisfying, but you can crack your windshield and harm your car’s finish by using heat in cold weather like that.

• De-icer. If the ice that has formed a shell on your car is thick and difficult to scrape, having some de-icer to safely melt it off will be a godsend. You can buy some to keep in the trunk, or make your own by mixing up two-thirds isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) and one-third water. Adding a dash of dish soap will make it easier to spread so it sits on the ice to work instead of just draining off.

• Traction mats. Digging your car out is often just step one of getting it out of an iced-up spot. Some traction mats in the trunk will ensure you have enough friction to get off the ice sheet that has formed under your vehicle.

• Tow straps. Finally, if you’ve been out there for two hours and your car remains immobile despite your best efforts, you might ask someone to give you a quick tow, and for that you’ll need some tow straps. Having these in the trunk might just save the day when all the gadgets and products in the world can’t get that car out of the snow.

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Last summer, Google announced that Android 16 would include a desktop interface built from Samsung DeX, a mirroring and phone integration tool for PC. Thanks to a (now permissions-restricted) bug report discovered on Google’s Issue Tracker, we have what is almost certainly a first look at the Android-on-desktop project, codenamed Aluminium OS.

First spotted by 9to5Google, the bug report was about Chrome incognito tabs and included two screen recordings. The description said the recordings were from an HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook. The video shows a ‘chrome://version/’ page where one can see the OS listed as Android 16. 9to5Google also said the bug report listed “ALOS” as the operating system, understood to stand for Aluminium OS, along with a corresponding build number that matches the one seen in the screen recordings.

The UI looks like a clear blend of ChromeOS and Android aesthetics, with an Android-style taskbar across the bottom and status bar across the top, with familiar battery and Wi-Fi indicators. The videos also show the Play Store, windowed apps, split-screen multitasking and a version of Chrome with an extensions button, which is currently only available on the desktop version. Google has yet to comment on the leak, so users may have to wait for future Android 16 updates for a more in-depth look at the upcoming desktop experience.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/our-first-look-at-googles-android-for-pc-interface-leaks-in-a-bug-report-133006008.html?src=rss

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is recommending measures to give publishers more control over how their content is used in Google’s AI overviews. The aim is to “provide a fairer deal for content publishers, particularly news organizations,” the CMA’s chief executive Sarah Cardell said in a press release.

With Google accounting for more than 90 percent of search inquiries in the UK, the CMA recently designated the company with “strategic market status” for search under the Digital Market Act. That allows the regulator to apply “conduct requirements” on Google to promote competition and avoid antitrust issues.

With those new powers, the CMA proposed a number of measures today. The first is a set of controls that would allow publishers to opt out of their content being used for features like AI Overviews or to train AI models. Google would also need to properly attribute publisher content.

Another measure would require Google to apply fair search result rankings for businesses, with an “effective process for raising and investigating issues.” Google would also need to provide a “choice screen” for alternative search options on Android mobile and Chrome browsers.

“These targeted and proportionate actions would give UK businesses and consumers more choice and control over how they interact with Google’s search services — as well as unlocking greater opportunities for innovation across the UK tech sector and broader economy,” Cardell said in a statement.

In response, Google wrote that it’s “exploring updates to let sites specifically opt out of Search generative AI features.” The aim, it said, is to keep search helpful for people who want information quickly while allowing publishers to better manage content. “Any new controls need to avoid breaking Search in a way that leads to a fragmented or confusing experience for people,” the company wrote, adding that it’s “optimistic” it can meet the CMA’s requirements.

When its new designation was announced in October 2025, Google complained that some of the proposed interventions would inhibit UK innovation and growth. Citing a study, the company said that similar measures imposed by the European Union produced “negative results” that “have cost businesses $114 billion.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/uk-wants-to-give-web-publishers-a-fairer-deal-with-googles-ai-overviews-132742850.html?src=rss

If you’re going to go with Android rather than an iPhone for your smartphone, then Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy handsets are the two most high-profile options you’ve got. There are other Android phones worth considering—from the likes of OnePlus and Nothing, for example—but Google and Samsung are the most well-known.

While the fundamental operating system on Pixel and Galaxy phones is the same, there are numerous differences between these two flavors of Android. They’re not all obvious, though, unless you spend every day with these handsets, and that can make it tricky to decide whether you’re better off going with Google or Samsung.

As it happens, I use Pixel and Galaxy phones every day, more or less—not because tech journalists are particularly wealthy, but because we have to write a lot of reviews, news stories, and how-to guides for our jobs. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way, and how you can choose between Pixel phones and Galaxy phones.

Customization and clutter

In the old days we used to talk about “stock” Android on Google’s Nexus or Pixel phones, but that doesn’t really exist any more: Even Google puts its own twists and tweaks on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) that every Android manufacturer has access to. Samsung adds even more on top of the AOSP foundation, and markets its own take on Android as One UI.

There’s no doubt that One UI on Galaxy phones is busier and more complex than Android on Pixel phones—which can either be a positive or a negative, depending on how you like your mobile software. Samsung offers more settings, customizations, and configurations than Google, so One UI is going to appeal to power users.

Samsung’s One UI gives you a lot of customization options.
Credit: Lifehacker

Galaxy phones offer more in the way of theming options, for example, which completely transform the look of the software—though Pixels have caught up to some extent with features like icon theming in recent updates. You can do more on the lock screen with Samsung phones too, tweaking frames, widgets, and effects as needed.

Google takes a simpler approach to the user interface—which you could praise as uncluttered or criticize as basic, depending on your perspective and taste. The Pixel version of Android has gotten a bit more polished over time, and has borrowed a few tricks from Samsung, but it’s still not as customizable overall.

Apps and ecosystem

With Pixel phones, Google’s apps are front and center. On a Galaxy phone, you get all of Google’s key apps, and all of Samsung’s equivalents, installed by default: So again, Galaxy phones are the more cluttered of the two. There’s nothing wrong with Samsung’s apps for photos, calendars, contacts, web browsing, and so on, but it’s likely that most of the time you’re going to prefer the Google option.

That might change depending on what else you own: If you have a Galaxy Watch strapped to your wrist, then Samsung Health becomes far more useful and interesting. If you’ve gone for a Pixel Watch, then you’re going to prefer the Google-owned Fitbit. As with most tech purchases these days, from TVs to smart speakers to laptops, you’ll need to consider what else you own from Google or Samsung.

Pixels offer easier access to Google’s many and varied apps.
Credit: Lifehacker

Google does keep some features as exclusives for Pixel phones, though they often trickle out to the wider Android ecosystem over time. At the moment, they include Call Screen (for putting a barrier between you and spam calls), the real-time Scam Detection feature, Pixel Screenshots for analyzing your screengrabs, a Now Playing widget for the home screen, and photo features such as Night Sight.

In some cases, Samsung has counterparts for those Pixel exclusives, and it has a few exclusives of its own that you don’t get with Pixel phones. There’s also the suite of Good Lock modules that take phone customization and tweaking to the next level: You can set different volume levels for different apps, design your own themes, and take more control over your home screen, for example.

Hardware differences and updates

I don’t want to talk too much about hardware differences, because these change regularly with each passing year (or even every six months), but there’s no doubt that hardware design comes into play when you’re choosing a smartphone—and broadly speaking, I think most people will agree that Samsung’s phones are more sleek and stylish.

Aesthetics are subjective, but the Samsung Galaxy series look closer to the polish and refinement of the iPhones, whereas Google takes a more simplified and industrial approach to its Pixels: Look at that chunky rear camera bar for example (which to be fair does help when a phone is laid flat).

Handsets like the Galaxy S25 are easy on the eye.
Credit: Samsung

Performance is difficult to gauge, but it’s fair to say that the Snapdragon (and even Exynos) chipsets that Samsung uses have a better reputation than the Tensor CPUs that Google puts in its Pixel phones. That said, there’s an argument to be made that Google wins on camera lens quality, which is something the Galaxy series hasn’t really moved the needle much on in recent years.

What’s indisputable is that Android updates roll out to Google phones several months before Samsung phones: Samsung needs time to adapt the AOSP code for its own One UI release, and so if you want to get the latest Android features before anyone else, the Pixel series is your best bet.

My personal preferences

If I’m buying a new Android phone for myself, I’ll still usually go with a Google Pixel. The software interface is a little more rudimentary, but I don’t mind that, and I use so many Google apps so regularly—Gmail, Google Chat, Google Maps, Google Keep—that I want the most friction-free and seamless access to them possible. I don’t want or need a bunch of Samsung apps too.

That’s not to say Galaxy phones don’t have their appeal, and I like tinkering around with some of the extra features and hacks you don’t get with Pixels—like the secret wifi menu, for example, or the built-in easy mode. Ultimately, though, Pixels feel more intuitive and easier to use for me, and I absolutely want to be first in the queue for Android updates.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold showing off Google’s distinctive design language.
Credit: Google

Admittedly, part of this is down to familiarity. I’ve been using Google phones more regularly for across a longer span of time than Samsung phones, and I’m used to them and the way they work—if you’re a seasoned Galaxy phone owner, then the benefits of a Pixel probably won’t have as much appeal, considering you’re going to have to get used to a different set of options and menus.

An open-source AI agent originally called Clawdbot (now renamed Moltbot) is gaining cult popularity among developers for running locally, 24/7, and wiring itself into calendars, messages, and other personal workflows. The hype has gone so far that some users are buying Mac Minis just to host the agent full-time, even as its creator warns that’s unnecessary. Business Insider reports: Founded by [creator Peter Steinberger], it’s an AI agent that manages “digital life,” from emails to home automation. Steinberger previously founded PSPDFKit. In a key distinction from ChatGPT and many other popular AI products, the agent is open source and runs locally on your computer. Users then connect the agent to a messaging app like WhatsApp or Telegram, where they can give it instructions via text.

The AI agent was initially named after the “little monster” that appears when you restart Claude Code, Steinberger said on the “Insecure Agents” podcast. He formed the tool around the question: “Why don’t I have an agent that can look over my agents?” […] It runs locally on your computer 24/7. That’s led some people to brush off their old laptops. “Installed it experimentally on my old dusty Intel MacBook Pro,” one product designer wrote. “That machine finally has a purpose again.”

Others are buying up Mac Minis, Apple’s 5″-by-5″ computer, to run the AI. Logan Kilpatrick, a product manager for Google DeepMind, posted: “Mac mini ordered.” It could give a sales boost to Apple, some X users have pointed out — and online searches for “Mac Mini” jumped in the last 4 days in the US, per Google Trends. But Steinberger said buying a new computer just to run the AI isn’t necessary. “Please don’t buy a Mac Mini,” he wrote. “You can deploy this on Amazon’s Free Tier.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple has been leaning harder on services for several years now. That part of the business brought in tens of billions of dollars in revenue last year alone, and the company says 2025 was a record year. With Apple Creator Studio, Apple is extending that strategy further into professional creative software.

Apple Creator Studio is a new subscription bundle that packages several of the company’s pro apps under a single monthly or yearly fee. It launches on January 28 and includes a one-month free trial. The key shift is that some of these apps are now subscription-only on iPad, even as Apple continues to offer one-time purchases on the Mac – albeit with slightly different feature offerings. Here’s everything you need to know about Apple Creator Studio and the programs it includes.

What Apple Creator Studio includes

At its core, Apple Creator Studio gives subscribers access to Apple’s professional video, music and imaging apps. The bundle includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor and MainStage. Pixelmator Pro (which Apple acquired in late 2024) is also coming to iPad for the first time, with a touch-optimized interface and Apple Pencil support.

A Creator Studio subscription also unlocks premium content and features inside Apple’s productivity apps. Keynote, Pages and Numbers remain free, but subscribers get access to premium templates and themes, plus a new Content Hub with Apple-curated photos, graphics and illustrations. Similar paid features are coming to Freeform later this year, the company says.

Apple is also using the bundle to introduce new “intelligence” features across several apps. In Final Cut Pro, the new Beat Detection feature can analyze a music track and show a beat grid so you can line edits up to the rhythm. The app is also getting tools like transcript search and visual search designed to make it easier to find moments across footage.

Logic Pro is gaining new AI-assisted Session Players and workflow features on Mac and iPad. Pixelmator Pro continues to rely heavily on machine learning for tasks like background removal, image repair and image upscaling. Note that some of these features require an Apple Intelligence-capable device.

Which devices are supported

Apple Creator Studio works across multiple Apple platforms, though not every app is available everywhere.

On the Mac, subscribers get access to all six apps: Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor and MainStage.

On the iPad, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro are included. Motion, Compressor and MainStage remain Mac-only.

On the iPhone, Creator Studio does not include full versions of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro or Pixelmator Pro. Instead, it unlocks premium features and content inside Keynote, Pages and Numbers, and eventually Freeform.

Apple says the best experience is on macOS 26, iPadOS 26 and iOS 26 or later, with individual app requirements varying by device and chip. 

Apple

Pricing and subscription options

Apple Creator Studio costs $12.99 per month or $129 per year, and new subscribers can try the service free for one month. College students and educators get a steep discount: the education plan costs $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, and it also comes with a one-month free trial.

A standard subscription can be shared with up to five other people using Family Sharing, allowing six users total. Education subscriptions are limited to individual use and cannot be shared. Apple is also offering three free months of Creator Studio to customers who purchase a qualifying new Mac or iPad around launch.

But Creator Studio isn’t the only way you can access most of these apps. Apple says all of the major apps included in Creator Studio will continue to be available as one-time purchases on the Mac App Store.

Final Cut Pro remains priced at $299.99, Logic Pro at $199.99, Pixelmator Pro at $49.99, Motion at $49.99, Compressor at $49.99 and MainStage at $29.99. Users who already own these apps can keep using them and re-download them from the App Store as usual.

On the iPad, however, things are different. Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro for iPad are only available through the Creator Studio subscription. There is no standalone purchase option for those apps on iPadOS.

Keynote, Pages, Numbers and Freeform remain free for everyone to download and use. Apple says those apps will continue receiving updates, including the upcoming visual design changes tied to iOS 26 and iPadOS 26.

Without a Creator Studio subscription, you can still create, edit and collaborate in those apps. What you will not get are the paid templates, Content Hub assets and certain intelligence features.

What happens to your projects if you cancel

Apple says projects and content you create with an active subscription remain licensed as part of your original work.

Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro projects remain on your devices and can be copied or shared elsewhere. But you will need an active subscription to open or edit projects in those paid apps.

Keynote, Pages, Numbers and Freeform documents remain editable without a subscription. However, you will not be able to make new edits that rely on paid features once your subscription ends.

Other information about the new bundle

Apple Creator Studio also comes with some immediate trade-offs. Alongside the bundle, Apple confirmed that the older Pixelmator app for iPhone and iPad, now described as Pixelmator Classic, will no longer receive updates. Apple says it will remain functional, but development is shifting to Pixelmator Pro, including the new iPad version included with Creator Studio.

But don’t expect the standalone versions of the apps to maintain feature parity with their Creator Studio counterparts. Per Apple’s FAQ, “The Apple Creator Studio version of Pixelmator Pro includes access to the Warp Tool feature,” which implies that feature isn’t present on the standalone version. 

More broadly, the bundle puts Apple more directly in competition with Adobe and other subscription-focused creative platforms, especially for people who are looking for a lower monthly entry point. At the same time, Apple is keeping one-time purchases on the table for Mac users, even as iPad access moves behind a subscription.

Apple Creator Studio will be available January 28. Whether it makes sense will likely come down to which device you work on and whether you would otherwise pay upfront for one or more of Apple’s pro apps.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-creator-studio-is-now-available-whats-included-how-much-it-costs-and-what-it-means-for-creators-130000182.html?src=rss

China has agreed to import its first batch of NVIDIA’s H200 AI chips after the government initially rejected the idea, Reuters reported. Several hundred thousand H200 chips were approved for sale in the country following NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang’s visit there last week, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The US government allowed the sale of NVIDIA’s H200 processors to vetted and approved companies in China late last year. The first sales have been allocated mainly to three unnamed Chinese internet companies and the government is accepting applications for future approvals, according to the sources.

NVIDIA’s most powerful AI chip, the Blackwell B200, is still restricted for export to China. Despite that, over $1 billion worth of those and other high-end NVIDIA chips made their way to China via black market sales, according to previous reports.

The H200 is NVIDIA’s second most powerful AI GPU behind the B200, which is reportedly 10 times faster for some jobs. However, the H200 is still far more capable than NVIDIA’s H20, which was the only chip approved for export to China prior to the Trump administration’s H200 approval in December. Initially, China’s government rejected that chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors.

China is trying to become self-reliant for its AI chips and infrastructure, with Huawei currently offering the best processors domestically. However, AI chip experts have said NVIDIA’s tech is still far ahead of anything that Huawei or other Chinese companies can currently produce.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/china-finally-approves-the-first-batch-of-nvidia-h200-ai-gpu-imports-130000335.html?src=rss

Rarely does a set of open-fit earbuds actually impress me. I tend to find them underwhelming because overall sound quality is subpar compared to the more “traditional” in-ear models. Any promise of noise reduction, or a far-fetched claim of noise cancellation, usually doesn’t hold true. The first time I used the Shokz OpenFit Pro ($249.95) I was immediately met with better audio performance than I’d just experienced on Sony’s new LinkBuds Clip and noise reduction technology that actually lessened some distractions. These aren’t the perfect set of open earbuds, but they have a lot more to offer than most of the competition. 

Design

Shokz has a number of over-the-ear hook earbud designs under its belt, and they all carry the OpenFit name. That is also an apt description of these products since they all sit outside of your ear canal, which inherently allows you to remain aware of your surroundings. The company currently offers the OpenFit 2 and 2+ in addition to the OpenFit Air, at prices ranging from $120 to $200. The OpenFit Pro looks similar to its predecessors, albeit with a slightly smaller main housing and more pops of silver. Those ear hooks have a titanium wire inside and are wrapped in “ultra-soft” silicone. They’re plenty flexible and provide a secure yet comfortable fit for daily wear and workouts. 

Both earbuds of the OpenFit Pro have tiny physical controls for media playback, volume adjustments, calls and noise settings. The various actions are customizable through the Shokz app. During several weeks of testing, these buttons responded quickly to my clicks and using them didn’t cause the OpenFit Pro to shift out of place. 

The OpenFit Pro comes with a charging case that’s larger than most other earbuds, which is understandable since Shokz had to accommodate that ear hook. However, the case is quite flat, so it doesn’t take up too much room and easily fits in a small pocket. There’s a USB-C port around back for charging and a Bluetooth pairing button inside. The case also supports wireless charging, if your charging pad is large enough. 

Noise reduction vs. noise cancellation

The OpenFit Pro is the first set of Shokz earbuds with what the company calls Open-Ear Noise Reduction. This is essentially the company’s take on active noise cancellation (ANC), but it’s designed to be effective with earbuds that don’t enter your ear canals. Since your ears aren’t completely sealed off from the noise of the outside world, Shokz is limited in just how much sound it can reduce. But I’m happy to report the company’s microphone and algorithm combo is actually quite effective. 

Shokz says its noise reduction works best in moderately loud environments, like offices and cafes. I’ve found the OpenFit Pro does well to reduce the distraction of constant noise sources like HVAC systems, fans and white noise machines. The earbuds completely silenced a particularly raucous HVAC fan in my hotel room during CES. It’s not the most effective at cutting down environmental noise, but in exchange you get a more comfortable set of earbuds while also remaining somewhat alert and aware of your surroundings

Other OpenFit Pro features

Billy Steele for Engadget

The OpenFit Pro is Shokz’ most premium set of earbuds, so the features don’t end at noise reduction. Head tracking, customizable EQ, multipoint pairing, find my earbuds and wear detection are also available here. The company’s app displays battery percentages for each earbud and the case right at the top of the main screen with access to the rest of its tools just below. You don’t have to go searching and tapping through menus until you’ve found what you’re looking for. As someone who has to contend with a lot of headphone apps, I appreciate when all of the options are quickly available from the home screen. 

Like other companies offer on their open-type earbuds, Shokz has given the EQ settings a few presets specifically designed for the open nature of the product. Those include a Vocal option that boosts mids for audiobooks or calls and a Private mode that reduces high frequency sounds to prevent leakage. I usually kept the OpenFit Pro around 70 percent volume, which is loud enough that a nearby neighbor in a quiet room could hear the muffled rage of Incendiary’s “Echo of Nothing.” 

Another audio feature that’s worth mentioning is Dolby Atmos support. More specifically, the OpenFit Pro is “optimized for Dolby Atmos,” thanks in part to the aforementioned Dolby Head Tracking. You can disable the enhanced audio and head tracking individually in the Shokz app, but I found leaving Atmos on all the time, even when I wasn’t listening to Dolby Atmos music, gave the earbuds a more immersive, more detailed sound profile. 

Sound quality and calls

Overall sound quality is another area where the OpenFit Pro shines. Many open-design earbuds struggle to manage much bass or detailed highs, both of which Shokz has addressed with its driver design. Dual 11x20mm diaphragms power a larger, rectangular driver that’s the equivalent of a 16.7mm round driver in a “normal” set of earbuds. For comparison, most in-ear models typically use 10-12mm drivers, with smaller designs housing 6-8mm units. Shokz says it tuned the OpenFit Pro with what it calls OpenBass 2.0 and DirectPitch 3.0, features that provide better bass performance and audio that’s beamed more directly into your ears. 

All of that combines for some truly impressive audio performance in a set of open earbuds. The OpenFit Pro still doesn’t muster the bombastic bass that earbuds like the WF-1000XM5 offer, but the low-end performance here is greatly improved over other open models like the LinkBuds Clip. While Thrice’s “Silhouette” still has enough driving kick drum, bass guitar and riffs to do the track justice, there isn’t as deep of a growl as the song has on flagship options from Bose, Sony and Sennheiser. 

Billy Steele for Engadget

There’s also more clarity and detail in the tuning here than on other open models, which is on full display when listening to albums like Wet Leg’s alternative masterpiece moisturizer. I love how I can hear the texture of the guitars and drums, and even the vocals, which are the kind of subtle details open earbuds typically lack. 

I should also mention that overall sound quality will depend on how the OpenFit Pro sits on your ears. I can easily improve the bass tone if I slightly push the earbuds in closer to my ear canals, but all of the observations I just made were with the earbuds in their natural resting position. 

Shokz says the three-microphone setup that assists with its noise reduction tech also helps with calls. That configuration, combined with AI-powered voice recognition, should be able to block over 99 percent of background noise and deliver sharper vocal clarity overall. While that first part holds true — the OpenFit Pro does a great job canceling any ambient roar — the overall voice quality here is below average. It will certainly work for casual chats, but I wouldn’t recommend it for regular work calls or any scenario where you might need to record what you’re saying. My voice sounded muffled during calls and voice memos, more like I would over speakerphone than a set of carefully tuned earbuds. 

OpenFit Pro battery life

Shokz promises up to 12 hours of battery life on the OpenFit Pro with up to 50 hours of total use when you factor in the charging case. That’s with noise reduction disabled though; you can expect up to six hours with that turned on (24 hours total with the case). During weeks of testing, I never encountered any issues hitting those figures and the OpenFit Pro never struggled to get through a full work day of music, podcasts and calls using a combination of the default Open Mode and Noise Reduction mode. 

As I mentioned, the charging case can be topped up wirelessly if you have a compatible accessory that’s large enough. And if you find yourself with a pair of completely dead earbuds, Shokz includes a quick-charge feature that gives you up to four hours of use in 10 minutes. 

The competition

Billy Steele for Engadget

If you’re looking for something that closely resembles the design of the OpenFit Pro, Shokz’ other OpenFit models are likely your best alternatives. The $200 OpenFit 2+ offers 11 hours of battery life and Dolby Audio with both physical buttons and touch controls. The most affordable option, the OpenFit Air ($120), lasts up to six hours on a charge but doesn’t have enhanced audio or wireless charging. As you step down from the OpenFit Pro, you’re missing out on noise reduction, Dolby Atmos and longer battery life. 

JBL will soon have three models of its own to rival the Shokz OpenFit line. The Soundgear Sense is currently available for $165 and the Sense Pro and Sense Lite are coming in March for $200 and $150, respectively. These all have a variety of seemingly handy features, but none of them offer any kind of noise reduction and they all have shorter battery life than the OpenFit Pro and OpenFit 2+. I also cannot vouch for them as I haven’t tested any of JBL’s open designs yet. 

Wrap-up

Shokz has achieved a rare feat. The company managed to build a set of open-fit earbuds that retain all of those inherent benefits while also providing some relief from distractions with noise reduction. No, the over-the-ear hook design isn’t for everyone — especially if you wear glasses — but the comfy, secure fit and IP55 rating make these a great choice for workouts. The OpenFit Pro is also good enough to be your all-around set of earbuds, and that noise reduction can be beneficial in the office or your favorite work from home space. Sound quality is better than you’ll find on most open earbuds as well, but you’ll probably enjoy not having anything crammed into your ears most. And you don’t have to make too many sacrifices here for that satisfaction.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/shokz-openfit-pro-review-reducing-distractions-while-keeping-your-ears-open-130000443.html?src=rss

For years, the cybersecurity industry has operated under a massive delusion. We’ve been led to believe that if we just buy one more “next-gen” firewall or implement a slightly more intrusive endpoint detection tool, our data will finally be safe. Meanwhile, the bad actors have stopped banging their heads against the digital fortress walls. Instead, they’re simply walking through the front door because an executive—or the executive’s assistant—willingly handed them the keys.

Phishing has evolved from the laughable “Nigerian Prince” emails of the early 2000s into a sophisticated, multi-vector psychological operation. Today, we are dealing with “Whaling,” where high-value targets like CEOs and CFOs are hunted with terrifying precision. To combat this, we need to stop treating security training as a checkbox for HR and start treating it as a core survival skill. This is why Wizer is currently the most interesting company in the space; they’ve realized that to secure a network, you have to re-engineer the human element.

The Human Lifecycle of Vulnerability

The “human exploit” doesn’t start in the office. It starts in the second grade. Gabriel Friedlander, the founder and CEO of Wizer, realized this when he noticed his own children were issued school passwords that were shared, insecure, and remained unchanged for years. If we train children to have zero digital hygiene, we can’t be surprised when they grow up to be employees who click on every “Urgent Invoice” attachment they see.

This problem spans the entire human lifecycle. Children are the entry point into home networks; retirees are the targets for life-savings drainage; and every employee in between is a potential bridge into a corporate database. Wizer’s genius was in creating a platform that recognizes this generational gap in security literacy. By offering playlists for parents and short, punchy videos that feel more like a TikTok feed than a corporate seminar, they are building a culture of awareness that follows the user from the classroom to the boardroom.

Why the C-Suite is the New Ground Zero

If you are a hacker, why spend months trying to find a zero-day exploit in a Linux kernel when you can spend ten minutes on LinkedIn and find out exactly who the CFO’s executive assistant is? Modern phishing—specifically Spear Phishing and Whaling—is about context. Attackers now use voice sampling, often taken from corporate voicemails or public speeches, to create “vishing” (voice phishing) attacks that sound exactly like a company’s IT director or CEO.

This is exactly why the financial industry has become the primary driver of Wizer’s rapid growth. In banking and fintech, the “Human Firewall” is the only thing standing between a legitimate wire transfer and a catastrophic loss. These firms have realized that their executives are the most targeted and, ironically, often the least trained. Executives often feel they are “too busy” for security training, but Wizer’s “Duolingo-style” approach—short, one-to-two-minute videos—strips away that excuse.

Gamification: Because Boredom is a Security Risk

The traditional approach to security training is to lock employees in a room (or a Zoom call) once a year and subject them to 45 minutes of mind-numbing legal jargon. This doesn’t work. In fact, it’s counterproductive because it teaches employees to associate “security” with “annoyance.”

Wizer flips this script by using simulations and games. Instead of lecturing, they use opt-in simulations where employees are challenged to identify a phishing attempt in real-time. Those who spot it quickly are recognized and rewarded. This creates a competitive environment where being “secure” becomes a point of pride. For a tech publication audience, this is the “killer app” of security: turning a defensive posture into an offensive game. When employees are actively looking for the “hook,” the hackers lose their greatest advantage: the element of surprise.

The Need for the High-EQ Security Awareness Manager

One of the most significant hurdles in rolling out effective training is the “IT-to-Human” translation layer. IT professionals are great at configurations, but they are often—bluntly—terrible at empathy. This is why the role of the Security Awareness Manager (SAM) is becoming critical.

A SAM needs to be more of a marketer and a psychologist than a coder. They need very strong people skills to facilitate the rollout of these programs without making the staff feel like they are being policed. They are there to build a culture of “shared responsibility.” For smaller firms that don’t have the headcount for a dedicated SAM, Wizer has intelligently filled the gap by offering SAM-as-a-Service, providing a human touch to an automated world.

The AI Revolution in Training Content

The speed of attacks is increasing, and training content needs to keep up. Wizer recently introduced a feature that allows companies to upload their own internal documents—like a new AI usage policy or an HR update—and the platform will automatically generate a training video based on that document.

This is a game-changer. If a company experiences a “near miss” attack on a Tuesday, the Security Awareness Manager can write a paragraph describing the event, upload it, and by Wednesday morning, every employee has a custom video in their inbox explaining how to avoid that specific threat. This level of agility is exactly what is needed to counter the rise of AI-driven social engineering. It’s also why infrastructure giants like Acronis have partnered with Wizer; they recognize that the best backup in the world is useless if the user is trained to give away the encryption keys.

Wrapping Up

The “human exploit” is the most scalable, cost-effective, and dangerous weapon in the modern hacker’s arsenal. From the grammar school student to the Fortune 500 CEO, we are all being hunted. Wizer has effectively disrupted the stale security training market by treating users like people rather than “vulnerabilities.” By utilizing short-form video, gamified simulations, and AI-driven content creation, they are providing the tools necessary to build a resilient “human firewall.” But tools are only half the battle; the other half is the Security Awareness Manager, the high-EQ bridge that turns technology into culture. If you aren’t training your executives to spot the hook, you’re just waiting to be gutted.

An open source AI assistant called Moltbot (formerly “Clawdbot”) recently crossed 69,000 stars on GitHub after a month, making it one of the fastest-growing AI projects of 2026. Created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, the tool lets users run a personal AI assistant and control it through messaging apps they already use. While some say it feels like the AI assistant of the future, running the tool as currently designed comes with serious security risks.

Among the dozens of unofficial AI bot apps that never rise above the fray, Moltbot is perhaps most notable for its proactive communication with the user. The assistant works with WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, and other platforms. It can reach out to users with reminders, alerts, or morning briefings based on calendar events or other triggers. The project has drawn comparisons to Jarvis, the AI assistant from the Iron Man films, for its ability to actively attempt to manage tasks across a user’s digital life.

However, we’ll tell you up front that there are plenty of drawbacks to the still-hobbyist software: While the organizing assistant code runs on a local machine, the tool effectively requires a subscription to Anthropic or OpenAI for model access (or using an API key). Users can run local AI models with the bot, but they are currently less effective at carrying out tasks than the best commercial models. Claude Opus 4.5, which is Anthropic’s flagship large language model (LLM), is a popular choice.

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I’ve been using Firefox as my default browser for over two decades now, and during this time, I’ve learned a thing or two about making the most of its many features. There are some features that are turned on by default that I would recommend turning off, and some simple tweaks you can make that will greatly enhance your privacy and security. Here are all the Firefox hacks I use to make my browsing experience better, so you can try them yourself.

Make the home screen truly yours

Firefox pushes the Firefox Home screen as the default whenever you open a new tab. There’s nothing particularly wrong about that, but it does come with some unnecessary sponsored content, which you can get rid of. To do this, go to the Firefox settings, by clicking the three-lines icon in the top-right corner of an open Firefox window window and selecting Settings. Now, click the Home tab in the left pane and scroll to Firefox Home Content. Disable Support Firefox to remove sponsored content, and toss in remove Shortcuts if you prefer a cleaner look over quick links to commonly visited sites. My home screen just has Web Search enabled, which looks good with a nice wallpaper.

Use the built-in task manager

Credit: Pranay Parab

If your Firefox is being slow or unresponsive, you can use the built-in task manager to identify which tabs or extensions are causing a slowdown. This feature is also great for periodically monitoring the browser’s performance. You can access it by clicking the three-lines icon in the top-right and navigating to More tools > Task Manager. Alternatively, you can open Firefox and press Shift-Esc, or type about:processes in the address bar.

Once the task manager is open, you can use it just as you’d use the task manager on your PC or Mac. It lets you quickly close unresponsive tabs, disable all extensions in one go, and monitor RAM and CPU usage, too.

Firefox has a handy screenshot tool

You can open any webpage in Firefox and use the built-in screenshot tool to take a quick picture of the webpage you’re on. This is the fastest way to take a full-page screenshot without throwing in the rest of your screen, or to capture just a small section of a webpage. Just right-click anywhere on a webpage and select Take Screenshot. You’ll see both options (capture a selected part of the page, or the full page), and you can pick one to take a quick screenshot.

Disable unwanted AI features

Like every other app in the world, Firefox has added AI features I never asked for to the browser. One of these appears in the context menu, so you can easily remove it from there. Right-click any webpage, and in the Ask AI Chatbot section, select Remove AI Chatbot to get rid of this feature. You can also go to Firefox settings > General > Tabs and disable Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups.

Stop Firefox’s data collection (and generally protect your privacy)

Credit: Pranay Parab

Unfortunately, Firefox collects a lot of data about your browsing habits by default, and I highly recommend disabling this to enhance your privacy. Go to Firefox settings > Privacy & Security > Firefox Data Collection, and disable every option under this section.

While you’re at it, let’s keep people who aren’t Firefox from seeing your browsing data, too. Firefox can automatically switch to a more secure HTTPS page if you accidentally open an unencrypted HTTP link (these are mostly being phased out, but you might stumble upon them every once in a while). Under Firefox settings > Privacy & Security > HTTPS-Only Mode, just toggle on Enable HTTPS-Only Mode in all windows. The browser will handle the rest.

You can also encrypt your web traffic further by enabling DNS over HTTPS, which is below the option I just mentioned. On the same page, in the section titled Enable DNS over HTTPS using:, scroll down a bit and choose Increased Protection or Max Protection (Max Protection is a bit stricter, but can break some websites, so I only recommend it for power users). The default DNS provider is Cloudflare, but you can also use NextDNS or a custom DNS if you wish. This feature makes it harder for third-parties to see which sites you’re visiting.

For even more privacy, try out advanced about:config tweaks.

Don’t let sites use your location

Whenever I visit a website these days, it feels like I’m being bombarded with permissions pop-ups asking me if they can send me notifications, use my location, and who knows what else. Firefox lets you easily disable most of these. Go to Firefox settings > Privacy & Security > Permissions. Click Location and select Block new requests to access your location. While you’re there, you can click through the available options and turn on other blocks, too. You can use these to block notification requests and autoplaying videos. Some sites may still use special tricks to bypass autoplay blocks, but it doesn’t hurt to make them work for it.

Install a few good extensions (but don’t overdo it)

Credit: Pranay Parab

A Firefox installation just isn’t complete without a few good browser extensions. I keep seeing fun new extensions I want to install, but having too many of these can slow your browser down. So, it’s best to install a few good ones and remove any redundant extensions. To know where to start, check out my list of the best Firefox extensions.

Use a good ad blocker

There are many pros and a few cons to using an adblocker, but it’s a recommended tool these days, both to protect your privacy and to stay safe from scams. A good ad blocker will remove unwanted junk from webpages, block trackers, and speed up browsing. I’ve been using uBlock Origin for a decade now, and it’s still the one I recommend most to everyone who asks. Once the extension is installed, you should tweak a few advanced uBlock Origin settings to make the most of it.

Consider using vertical tabs

This is a bit of a controversial take, but it works for me, so here it goes: Vertical tabs are better than horizontal ones. I really like my browser window to occupy as much space as possible, and using horizontal tabs goes against that idea. Once I made the switch to vertical tabs, my browser’s window just started looking a lot cleaner. On my Mac, I still use horizontal tabs, but that’s because I keep the dock on the left side of the screen. On my Windows PC, however, vertical tabs just look so much nicer. If you want to try making the switch, go to Firefox settings > General > Browser Layout. Pick Vertical Tabs and enjoy.

Try Firefox Labs to see what the future looks like

No, this is not a time travel tip. Firefox Labs is where the browser releases experimental new features before making them public (or canning them). If you’re fine with being a guinea pig, Firefox Labs is your chance to try these experimental features without downloading the browser’s full beta release. You can enable these features by going to Firefox settings > Firefox Labs.

If you’re in the space business long enough, you learn there are numerous ways a rocket can fail. I’ve written my share of stories about misbehaving rockets and the extensive investigations that usually—but not always—reveal what went wrong.

But I never expected to write this story. Maybe this was a failure of my own imagination. I’m used to writing about engine malfunctions, staging issues, guidance glitches, or structural failures. Last April, Ars reported on the bizarre failure of Firefly Aerospace’s commercial Alpha rocket.

Japan’s H3 rocket found a new way to fail last month, apparently eluding the imaginations of its own designers and engineers.

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Amazon has confirmed that it’s letting go of 16,000 workers and employees across its organization. In an announcement by company SVP Beth Galetti, she explained that Amazon was going through organizational changes to reduce layers and remove bureaucracy. Affected employees in the US will be given 90 days to look for another internal role and will receive severance pay if they do not find any. Galetti also said that Amazon doesn’t have plans to announce “broad reductions every few months” but admitted that the company could “make adjustments as appropriate.”

News about the layoffs was leaked in an email mistakenly sent out early to workers, along with a calendar invitation for a meeting dubbed internally as “Project Dawn.” In the email seen by Bloomberg and the BBC, Amazon Web Services Senior Vice President Colleen Aubrey told workers that their “impacted colleagues” from the US, Canada and Costa Rica had already been notified. “Changes like this are hard on everyone. These decisions are difficult and made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success,” Aubrey reportedly wrote in the email.

Amazon eliminated 14,000 roles back in October 2025 across its games, logistics, payment and cloud computing divisions, with the availability of AI technologies being one of the main reasons for the layoffs. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before,” Amazon said in its announcement back then. This new round of layoffs is just a continuation of the previous one, as Amazon was reportedly looking to let 30,000 people go from the start.

The announcement comes shortly after Amazon revealed that it was shutting down its remaining Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores and will focus on grocery deliveries instead. To note, Amazon’s year-over-year net sales grew by 13 percent in the third quarter of 2025 alone. Its net income increased to $21.2 billion compared to the $15.3 billion it posted in the third quarter of 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazons-latest-round-of-layoffs-will-affect-16000-workers-120000702.html?src=rss