LLM Summarizers Skip the Identification Step
takes a five-minute exchange and returns eight clean sections. Decisions. Action items. Risks. Open questions. Each section reads like it was written by someone who was paying attention. Read the underlying transcript, though, and you find that two of those sections were inferred from a single ambiguous sentence, one was invented entirely, and three were […]
Forget wall-mounted tablets—an E-Ink dashboard is what your smart home really needs
Smart home forums are full of posts from people showing off the incredible dashboards that they’ve created, often displayed on wall-mounted tablets. While these dashboards can show you a lot of information about your smart home, there are many ways in which a simple E-Ink dashboard is a better option. Why a tablet can fail […]
I’m a running coach: this is my long run survival kit for all eventualities, from the best watches and vest to the ideal phone to carry
I’ve been running for the past decade, and somewhere along the way I went from couch to coach. Since gaining my coaching qualification I’ve supported around 100 runners, from people taking their very first running steps to those tackling ultra marathon distances. One thing I didn’t expect when I started coaching was how often I’d […]
Google’s UCP Update: Carts, Catalogs, And Loyalty In AI Shopping
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol can now handle shopping carts, live catalog queries, and loyalty program benefits for AI agent transactions. On March 19, Google announced three new UCP capabilities and a simplified onboarding path through Merchant Center, two months after Google and Shopify unveiled UCP at the National Retail Federation conference in January 2026. The January launch had a […]
How I customized my Sonos speaker to make my home theater sound truly immersive
TV and Music Level: In this settings folder, you can adjust the audio level of your surrounds when playing TV audio or music. You can adjust these levels on a 30-point scale, plus or minus 15. I keep these settings neutral Surround Distance: Ensure your surround distance is as accurate as possible, as this feature […]
I measured 5G signals of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon in a small town – here’s what the data says
Adam Doud/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways I tested 5G on country roads and farmland for three days. Verizon led in overall network levels, followed by AT&T and T-Mobile. T-Mobile was the only network to pull in a 5G signal. My quest to test 5G has taken […]
My passwords never leave my phone — this free app is how I manage all of them
You may have hundreds of apps on your smartphone, but none of them is more important than your password manager. These apps essentially contain the keys to your digital life, as they allow anyone with access to the password manager to access any account you may have on the web. There was a time when […]
Could Contact-Tracing Apps Help With the Hantavirus? Not Really
After three people died on a cruise ship struck by a hantavirus, authorities are actively tracking down 29 people who had left the ship. They’re trying to trace the spread of the virus. It’s a long, arduous, global process to find and notify people who might be at risk of infection. Hey, wasn’t there supposed […]
Vivo’s X300 Ultra has the best cameras in any phone
A few months ago, I wrote that the telephoto camera is the only lens that matters any more, at least when it comes to Ultra-class flagships. As phones got better, cameras became where manufacturers tried to stand out. As cameras got better, telephoto lenses became the next point of focus. The most recent Ultra phones […]
Do City Delivery Drones Make Sense? No One Knows, but They’re Flying Over NYC
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a six-propeller flying vehicle with a nearly eight-foot wingspan. For the next year, delivery drones operated by the British company Skyports are taking daily weekday trips across New York City’s East River, between the tip of Manhattan and a pier in Brooklyn. Since early May—a bit behind schedule—the […]