Tech

Blackout curtains are useful for a range of reasons—most obviously, blocking out sunlight, but also for reducing outside noises, temperature control (whether that be insulating for winter months or blocking out light to keep the room cooler in the summer), and ensuring privacy. I wanted to try a myriad of …

It shouldn’t be this cheap to thoroughly enjoy the sound of John Wick as he breaks a real-life NBA player’s neck with a book. Yet for around $200 (a penny less if on sale), you can get a 5.1 soundbar system from Vizio that lets you hear the subtle crack …

Active (aka “powered”) speakers do not require a separate amplifier or receiver. Instead, they have built-in amplification (which powers the speakers and makes the sound loud enough to play through them). These amps are often customized for their specific drivers and cabinetry, which can deliver performance benefits. Modern powered speakers …

GoPro has a few tricks here and there worth mentioning, though. As someone who likes to handle color grading in postproduction software, the new, improved Log video support is very welcome. I would go so far as to say this is the best Log profile I’ve seen in an action …

It tends to really be used only by developers, but the address bar and search box up at the top of the Google Chrome interface has an official name: the omnibox. It reflects the multipurpose capabilities of this little text field, as it’s able to do much more than look …

To study the cell membranes of deep-sea animals, the biochemist Itay Budin (center) joined forces with marine biologists Steve Haddock (right) and Jacob Winnikoff (left). Photographs: From left: Tamrynn Clegg; Geoffroy Tobe; John Lee “They are looking into an area that, to a large degree, has not been explored,” said …

Michelle Barlak, public relations manager for The Seeing Eye, which provides guide dogs for people with visual impairments, tells WIRED that the organization has received “frequent and increasing reports of rideshare access denials from Seeing Eye dog handlers.” A survey by the nonprofit Guide Dogs for the Blind found 83 …

A new type of shape-shifting robot can amputate its leg to free itself from tricky situations. The robot is the brainchild of a group of engineers at a lab in Connecticut. The robot itself is palm-sized and made of silicone, and it’s one of many new “soft” robots that researchers …

Geckos apparently have a “sixth sense” that allows them to pick up deep and low vibrations. This mysterious sixth sense had remained hidden until now when researchers discovered that tokay geckos could actually detect vibrations using a completely different structure in their bodies that are part of their inner ear. …

Anthropic, the AI vendor second in size only to OpenAI, has a powerful family of generative AI models called Claude. These models can perform a range of tasks, from captioning images and writing emails to solving math and coding challenges. With Anthropic’s model ecosystem growing so quickly, it can be …