When sending important information over email, such as financial statements, health records, or legal documents, it’s critical to keep them safe from prying eyes. If you’re a user of Microsoft Outlook, then you’re in luck! The popular email client has several ways of beefing up the security of your messages, one of them being encryption.

Last year, we were excited to see the launch of Ventiva's wizard-like ICE9 fanless cooling technology and were wowed by their invention's ability to push massive amounts of air without making a sound. We've been eagerly awaiting a real-world implementation of this product in a laptop, and thanks to the joint efforts of Ventiva, Dell, and Intel, the company debuted a laptop cooled entirely by their ICE technology at CES 2025.

Microsoft Excel is undoubtedly one of the most powerful apps out there to work with numbers. However, it requires an Office 365 subscription or an Office 2024 purchase, which isn't feasible for a lot of users. If you don't want to shell out money, a good alternative to Excel is Google Sheets. Not only is it free to use, but it is also a simpler version for students with less intimidating features and options. Moreover, you also get a plethora of templates and features like extensions for added functionality.

Photo by The Verge Nvidia plans to release a native GeForce Now app for Steam Deck “later this year,” according to a blog post. It’s already relatively straightforward to get Nvidia’s cloud gaming service set up on Steam Deck thanks to a special script from Nvidia, but a native app should be easier to install and will support up to 4K resolution and 60 fps with HDR when connected to a TV.Nvidia also plans to bring GeForce Now to some major VR headsets later this month, including the Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest 3 and 3S, and Pico “virtual- and mixed-reality devices.” When GeForce Now version 2.0.70 is available, people using those headsets will be able to access an “extensive library of games” they can stream by visiting play.geforcenow.com in their browser.The company also says that two major titles from Microsoft will be available on GeForce Now when they come out this year: Avowed, which launches February 18th, and DOOM: The Dark Ages, which is set to be available sometime this year.

There have been plenty of keyboards shown off during CES 2025, but not all of them look as classy as what Keychron showed off during the event. If you want a keyboard that looks the part but you don't want to sacrifice performance, the Keychron K2 HE is likely what you're looking for. Best of all, you can grab one right now.

Image: Firefly Aerospace A lander hasn’t successfully reached the surface of the Moon’s cratered Mare Crisium region since the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed there to collect samples in August 1976. But SpaceX is prepping a launch that’ll send not one, but two landers there on Wednesday January 15th, Firefly Aerospace has announced. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch at approximately 1:11 AM EST, and will not only have Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lander on board, but also the Resilience lander from the Japanese robotic spacecraft firm iSpace. It will take 45 days for the craft to journey to the Moon before it spends another 14 days carrying out surface operations. There’s no word on whether we’ll be able to watch it take off.The Firefly lander will carry 10 NASA payloads to the surface. They’re designed to measure various particulate compositions, thermal properties, and electromagnetic activity of both the Moon and the Earth. It’ll collect data for various applications, from improving landing and takeoff procedures to learning about the Moon’s resources and its history.The so-called LEXI payload is particularly interesting — it’s an x-ray machine that can read the Earth’s magnetic field. NASA will use the data to see how our magnetosphere interacts with solar winds, which could ultimately help accurately detect and track solar weather patterns that cause power outages on Earth and interfere with satellite and GPS systems. This would be NASA’s second attempt to deploy such technology. It first launched the device, then known as STORM, into space in 2012. That one didn’t land on the moon, however, and wasn’t able to get the full picture that LEXI’s wide-angle sensors will be able to capture.

Image: The Verge Google DeepMind is assembling a new team of artificial intelligence researchers to develop “world models” that can simulate physical environments. The initiative will be led by Tim Brooks, a former co-lead for OpenAI’s Sora project who joined DeepMind in October to work on Google’s video generation and world simulators.World models are a relatively new development within AI that could serve a variety of purposes, such as creating real-time interactive media environments for video games and movies, and realistic training scenarios for robots and other AI systems. It’s also part of Google’s push to achieve an artificial general intelligence system, or AGI, before its competitors.“DeepMind has ambitious plans to make massive generative models that simulate the world,” Brooks announced in an X post on Monday. Brooks included two open job listings for research engineers and scientists who will help to advance AI “world models” capable of simulating real-world scenarios by solving problems around training “at massive scale,” curating training data, and studying how they can be integrated with multimodal language models.DeepMind has ambitious plans to make massive generative models that simulate the world. I'm hiring for a new team with this mission. Come build with us!https://t.co/pqvALtAvLs https://t.co/vtwgeXl9Dl— Tim Brooks (@_tim_brooks) January 6, 2025“We believe scaling pretraining on video and multimodal data is on the critical path to artificial general intelligence,” DeepMind said in the job descriptions. “World models will power numerous domains, such as visual reasoning and simulation, planning for embodied agents, and real-time interactive entertainment.”The race to be the first to declare AGI is heating up, so Google’s focus here isn’t surprising. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that the company has cracked how to achieve the tech industry’s long-sought benchmark, and that autonomous AI agents may start to meaningfully join workforces this year.There are several competitors who already have a head start over DeepMind’s world modeling project, including Nvidia’s Cosmos platform for advancing physical AI, autonomous vehicle, and robot development; and the World Labs startup created by “the godmother of AI,” Fei-Fei Li.Introducing Genie 2 - our most capable large-scale foundation world model, which can generate a diverse array of consistent worlds, playable for up to a minute. We believe Genie 2 could unlock the next wave of capabilities for embodied agents . pic.twitter.com/AfL3EbOMeB— Jack Parker-Holder (@jparkerholder) December 4, 2024The new DeepMind team will work alongside existing Google AI projects including its flagship Gemini AI models, Veo video generator, and Genie — Google’s prior world model for simulating playable 3D environments in real-time.

CES 2025 is well underway, and one surprise that came from the show was confirmation from Valve that the company wants SteamOS to run on everything. It's been kind of expected for a while, but a direct confirmation of it along with a promise for more devices to come with it isn't necessarily something most people had on their bingo cards for the show. What it means is that you'll be able to install SteamOS on your PC or your gaming handheld, without a need to worry about dealing with Windows.

It's easy to get caught up with all the hot new products in CES 2025, but not much attention goes towards all the progress and collaboration that goes on behind the scenes to make said products happen. If you want a peek into the inner workings of your favorite devices, Google and MediaTek took to the stage to reveal how their partnership is going. By the sounds of things, the two are going to make smart homes even better in the coming new year.

The Philips Hue app already offers a lot of customizable lighting effects, but soon you’ll be able to created personalized ones with the help of AI. | Image: Signify Philips Hue users will soon be able to create their own AI-powered lighting scenes, the company announced on Tuesday.Philips Hue’s new generative AI lighting assistant lets users create personalized lighting scenes based on occasion, mood, or style. They can do so by typing commands like “Give me a scene for a garden party” into the Hue app and also by using their voice. The assistant will then either recommend scenes from the existing Philips Hue gallery or create a new one entirely. In addition to creating scenes, the AI assistant can also be used to adjust the settings of existing lights, including brightness levels and color. Image: Philips Hue The assistant will recommend scenes based on prompts. The news comes after Hueblog reported that Philips Hue was working on a generative AI feature in October. According to Hueblog, the “AI Playground” lets users create lighting scenes based on typed text like “Create a scene for a children’s birthday party,” but there was no mention of voice commands.Philips Hue isn’t the first to offer an AI-powered lighting assistant. Govee’s AI Lighting Bot generates similar dynamic lighting effects and also responds to voice prompts. Meanwhile, Nanoleaf’s “Magic Scenes” feature creates similar scenes, too, but only responds to typed short phrases like “tropical paradise.”Philips Hue says the AI assistant will be compatible with all of its lights. The company hasn’t divulged details about its exact availability, but stated it’ll start rolling out in the first quarter of 2025.The AI-powered lighting assistant isn’t the only piece of news Philips Hue announced on Tuesday. The Philips Hue Sync TV app now supports LG TVs, while the color-changing Philips Hue Datura ceiling light is now available in the US starting at $299.99. The frameless ceiling panel offers a pair of individually controllable lights and customizable color effects.Philips Hue also announced new smart home security features, including smoke alarm sound detection and the ability to stream live camera feeds to Amazon Alexa and the Google Nest Hub. Users can also now check out live camera views or schedule system settings straight from their devices.

Oshkosh’s all-electric firefighting vehicle for airports. | Image: Oshkosh Oshkosh, the 108-year-old American company that makes military vehicles and other specialty equipment, has big plans for your neighborhood. The company appeared at CES in Las Vegas for the first time to announce a raft of new commercial electric vehicles, including plug-in fire engines and garbage trucks as well as AI-powered technology that it says will make these vehicles safer and more convenient. You may know Oshkosh, which has a lot of credibility as a defense contractor, from its contract with the United States Postal Service to build the first all-electric postal truck. Last year, The Washington Post reported that the project was mired in delays, with only 93 trucks delivered to the USPS as of November. But despite these delays, Oshkosh thinks it’s well positioned to help build these next-generation specialty vehicles and says it plans to eventually deliver 165,000 vehicles to USPS, up to 70 percent of which will be electric. The company also announced plans to build a variety of electric and autonomous vehicles for airports, including a robot cargo handler and EVs for construction sites. But the “neighborhood” EVs, as Oshkosh calls them, stand the chance to be the most visible and impactful — if the company can get them built. The first vehicle to be announced today is the McNeilus Volterra ZFL, an all-electric front-loader garbage truck with an AI-powered detection system for refuse bins. The sensors detect the location of the garbage cans and communicate with the truck to ensure it’s positioned accurately. Then a robotic arm is deployed to snag the bin and lift it for trash disposal. Oshkosh is also rolling out a new AI-powered, vision-based contamination system to identify and remove items that don’t belong in the waste or recycling streams. Speaking of robots, Oshkosh has introduced HARR-E, an autonomous electric refuse collection robot that purports to offer on-demand trash and recycling pickup via a smartphone app or virtual home assistant like Amazon Alexa. The robot “makes trash removal as easy as ordering an Uber or a Lyft right from your home,” said Jay Iyengar, Oshkosh’s chief technology officer. HARR-E deploys from a central refuse collection area within the neighborhood and navigates to the resident’s home autonomously for collection before returning to the base to unload and recharge.“Trash removal as easy as ordering an Uber or a Lyft right from your home”For firefighters, Oshkosh is introducing a new Collision Avoidance Mitigation System, or CAMS, that aims to tell emergency workers when it’s safe to get out of their vehicles. According to Iyengar, “CAMS uses an advanced camera and radar sensor suite with AI to accurately detect the trajectory, the speed and proximity of ongoing vehicles relative to a parked emergency vehicle. CAMS can provide up to two to three seconds of advanced notice of an impending collision, giving an extra layer of safety during roadside operations.”It’s an ambitious suite of technologies. Oshkosh says it’s up to the task. But political headwinds, including President-elect Donald Trump’s promises to eliminate billions of dollars in EV incentives, could make success more difficult. Despite this, Oshkosh executives tried to project a sunny outlook. “The reviews on the first vehicle are fantastic,” Oshkosh CEO John Pfeifer said of the new USPS delivery truck. “It’s been written up in a lot of publications about the postal carrier’s responses to the first vehicles. But it’s going exceptionally well.”

When it comes to tools you should use on your PC, Task Manager is one of the more useful tools for power users on Windows 11. It's quite common to use it for basic functionality like ending processes that refuse to close, but aside from that, there is a lot more it can do, too. If you want even more functionality, though, then you should try out an alternative like Task Manager DeLuxe.