Amid a fierce debate about the environmental toll of artificial intelligence, Google released a new study that says its Gemini AI assistant only uses a minimal amount of water and energy for each text prompt. But experts say that the tech giant's claims are misleading. Google estimates that a median Gemini text prompt uses up about five drops of water, or 0.26 milliliters, and about as much electricity as watching TV for less than nine seconds, roughly 0.24 watt-hours (Wh), which produces around 0.03 grams of carbon dioxide emissions. Google's estimates are lower than previous research on water- and energy-intensive data centers that und …Read the full story at The Verge.

Hardening your home network is crucial to safeguard your devices from the constant scourge of malware. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to bolster the defenses of your systems, ranging from VPNs and multi-factor authentication to locally-hosted firewalls and intrusion prevention systems.

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT is a card that we really loved when we reviewed it. Not only does it deliver excellent performance, but it also does so at a budget price. Of course, what makes the card even better is when you can grab with a discount, which happens to be the case with Newegg dropping the XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT OC to $360 for a limited time.

Who doesn't like a good love story? Two people meet, they hit it off, and the next thing you know, there's cheeky banter and flirting before falling in love. As straight to the point as it might sound, that's not always the case, and there aren't a lot of 'great love stories' that the world knows because they ended well.

If you're anything like me, you really only touch the BIOS if you've just put together a new system, or you're upgrading parts to an existing one. A quick tour of changing a handful of the usual settings just to get up and running, and that's it. However, lurking in the depths of your motherboard's firmware could be remnants of old troubleshooting steps, forgotten toggles, or poor default settings that are sneakily making your PC worse, and it's a good idea to go through and tie up these BIOS loose-ends.

Masimo isn’t happy about the CBP reversing its previous Apple Watch import ban. Medical tech company Masimo is suing US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in an attempt to overturn the agency’s decision to allow Apple to restore the blood oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches.Apple has been embroiled in legal disputes over Masimo’s blood oxygen sensor patent since 2020, disabling the feature on supported US Apple Watch models following an ITC import ban in December 2023. In a complaint filed on Wednesday, Masimo said that the CBP failed to notify the company of its decision to reverse the International Trade Commission restrictions, leaving Masimo with no opportunity to review or challenge the ruling. Masimo said it only learned that the ban had been reversed after Apple announced its “redesigned” pulse oximetry feature last week, which now calculates blood oxygen levels on iPhones instead of the Watch.While no direct accusations were made, Masimo called out in the filing that Apple has made “a series of substantial investments in the United States” after its appeals to overturn the ITC ban were denied. Masimo noted that the CBP then allowed Apple to reactivate the feature, despite the company continuing to infringe on Masimo’s patents, and that “whatever proceeding led to this new ruling departed substantially from CBP’s established practice regarding LEO ruling requests.”“Each passing day that this unlawful ruling remains in effect irreparably deprives Masimo of its right to be free from unfair trade practices and to preserve its competitive standing in the US marketplace,” Masimo said in a supporting statement seen by Bloomberg Law.Masimo is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the new ruling that allows Apple to restore blood oxygen features, and reinstate the original ruling that determined Apple could only import Watches to the US if the infringing patent tech had been completely disabled.

Are you tired of constantly juggling between Jira for task management, Slack for team communication, and Notion for documentation? While there are several all-in-one apps out there, an open-source tool called Huly won me over due to several reasons. It combines all these essential functions into one workspace and emerges as a powerful alternative to the big three. Here's why I think it’s the best open-source rival to the likes of Jira, Slack, and Notion.

By now, if you’re trying to run away from adopting AI into your daily workflow and routine, you’re fighting a losing battle. I gave up on doing that a long, long time ago, and I've been testing AI tools left and right, trying to find ones that actually make my life easier.

Subtle, it is not. Honor has launched a new flip phone today, the Magic V Flip 2, and it arrives with a sparkly special edition in partnership with fashion designer Jimmy Choo.The former Huawei subsidiary has partnered with Choo before, for last year’s V Flip, and has kept to a similar formula this year, swapping glittery green for a brilliant blue. It also comes with custom wallpapers that are somehow even less subtle than the phone itself, an engraved hinge that’s oddly insistent on using Choo’s full name and titles, and a pair of sparkling cases so you can keep the phone both safe and shiny.The phone itself looks pretty impressive, and also comes in non-Choo versions in purple, white, or gray. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip inside isn’t quite top tier, but the full-size OLED cover screen is. It’s also got a 5,500mAh battery — pretty enormous for a flip phone, thanks to compact silicon-carbon tech — and supports 80W wired charging and 50W wireless. Water- and dust-resistance caps out at IP58/59 though, so the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s IP68 exclusivity holds for now.The V Flip 2 is available to preorder now, but only in China. If you’re hankering for a glittery flip phone but don’t live in China, there’s always Motorola’s Swarovski gem-encrusted Razr, set to launch soon. Meanwhile Honor itself has a London launch event on August 28th planned for its larger Magic V5, currently the world’s thinnest book-style foldable.

Oh boy do we love a new IP in gaming. Games that try something new, tread the road less taken, and experiment with novel designs or mechanics. Now, they might not always land, but I don't think any new IP or dev team should be judged on their first outing alone. In fact, it's the sequels that really define a series, because they come with a polish only maturity can bring, after the devs listen to feedback, expand and realize their full vision, and iron out the kinks from their previous outings.

The second day of protests at Microsoft’s headquarters involved red paint. A Microsoft employee has been arrested as part of protests at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington this week. On Tuesday, a group of current and former Microsoft employees, as well as community members, took over a plaza at Microsoft’s headquarters to protest against the company’s contracts with Israel. The No Azure for Apartheid protest group says at least one Microsoft employee has now been arrested as part of 18 arrests in a second day of protests.Protestors at Microsoft’s headquarters set up a “Liberated Zone” encampment for a second day on Wednesday, and poured red paint over a Microsoft sign on campus. Komo News reports that Redmond Police allege that some protesters also “blocked a pedestrian bridge, and tried to create a barrier using stolen tables and chairs.” While the group of protesters were moved on peacefully on the first day of protests on Tuesday, Redmond Police arrested 18 people at Wednesday’s protests and claim some protestors “became aggressive.”One of the 18 arrested is Anna Hattle, a software engineer in Microsoft’s cloud and AI team. Abdo Mohamed, a No Azure for Apartheid organizer and former tech worker fired by Microsoft, confirmed to The Verge that Hattle and former Microsoft employees Hossam Nasr and Vaniya Agrawal were arrested on Wednesday. “Those arrested include current and former Microsoft workers as well as Seattle community members,” says the No Azure for Apartheid group in a press release. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Maximillian Alvarez (@maximillian.alvarez)The group has been organizing a series of protests against Microsoft’s cloud contracts with the Israeli government in recent months. A former Microsoft employee disrupted the company’s 50th anniversary event and called Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman a “war profiteer.” Microsoft’s three CEOs were also interrupted by another former Microsoft employee during the same event. The group also disrupted Microsoft’s Build conference earlier this year multiple times, and Microsoft even blocked emails that contain “Palestine” after these employee protests.The latest protests come just days after The Guardian, in partnership with +972 Magazine and Local Call, published an investigation which revealed that the Israeli government is relying on Microsoft’s cloud services to store recordings and data of up to “a million calls an hour” made by Palestinians.“The company announced last week that it is pursuing a thorough and independent review of new allegations first reported earlier this month about the purported use of its Azure platform in Israel,” says an unnamed Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to Komo News. “Microsoft will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others.”Update, August 21st: Article updated with additional details on the arrests.

Managing computers isn't the easiest task when you've got a bank of servers and PCs to handle. Now, I'm not running a data center, but even within my home lab, I've been looking for a simple way to keep tabs on all my machines. Over the years, I've tried out a wide range of apps to keep tabs on servers. Some are complex, some have a subscription fee that blows my humble home lab budget, and others simply didn't work for me. However, I've recently come across an open-source project called MeshCentral, which has quickly become the backbone of how I manage my personal computer and servers. Here's why.