Best Duffel Bags: Eastpak, Patagonia, Baboon to the Moon (2026)
Need to schlep some stuff? These field-tested duffels can handle your baggage. ⌘ Read more
Europe Tests Laser Links As Satellite Comms Outgrow Radio
Europe is testing laser-based satellite communications through a new mountaintop ground station in Greece, aiming to deliver faster, more secure links than traditional radio systems as bandwidth demand grows. The Register reports: Lithuanian space and defense biz Astrolight says that it has commissioned a new optical ground station in Greece that will support … ⌘ Read more
These 11 Automatic Cat Feeders Were the Best We Tested in 2026
We tested some of the most popular automatic dry- and wet-food pet feeders to see which ones are worth the money. ⌘ Read more
Microsoft Testing Adjustable Taskbar, Start Menu In Windows 11
Microsoft is testing long-requested Windows 11 customization options, including a resizable taskbar, smaller taskbar buttons, and a more configurable Start menu that lets users reduce recommended content. BleepingComputer reports: Starting with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8493, the taskbar can now be configured to use smaller buttons and mo … ⌘ Read more
Linux 6.6 LTS To Linux 7.1 Bechmarks: Performance Up 13% On AMD Threadripper Over Three Years
The Linux 7.1 kernel performance has been looking quite good on the various Intel/AMD systems I have tested over the past three weeks. Linux 7.1 does bring some solid improvements over Linux 7.0 prior in different workloads and haven’t encountered any worrisome regressions compared to the current Linux 7.0 stable kernel. For those wondering the longer-term picture, here are benchmarks of Linux 7.1 Git compared to recent Linux … ⌘ Read more
Kernel prepatch 7.1-rc4
The 7.1-rc4 kernel prepatch is out for
testing.
Some of the documentation updates might be worth highlighting: the
continued flood of AI reports has basically made the security list
almost entirely unmanageable, with enormous duplication due to
different people finding the same things with the same
tools. People spend all their time just forwarding things to the
right people or saying “that was already fixed a week/month ago”
and pointing to the public … ⌘ Read more
Us Math/Reading Scores Continue 13-Year Decline. Researchers Blame Reduced Testing and Social Media
Test scores “are lower than they were a decade ago in school districts across the U.S.,” reports Times magazine, citing new data released Wednesday by Stanford researchers. “Reading scores were down roughly 0.6 grades in 2025 compared to 2015, and math scores were down about 0.4 … ⌘ Read more
The First Atomic Bomb Test in 1945 Created an Entirely New Material
The discovery from the Trinity nuclear test site shows how extreme conditions can result in materials never before seen in nature or in the lab. ⌘ Read more
FreeBSD 15.1 Beta 3 Updates OpenZFS, Ensures Cloud Images Up-To-Date On First Boot
In working toward the stable FreeBSD 15.1 release in early June, FreeBSD 15.1 Beta 3 is out this weekend as the latest weekly test candidate… ⌘ Read more
Memtest86+ 8.10 Improves Support For Newer Hardware
Memtest86+ 8.10 is out today as a significant update to this legendary open-source RAM testing software… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.1-rc4 Seeing The Latest Laptop Quirks
Ahead of the Linux 7.1-rc4 kernel test release due out on Sunday, a new round of x86 platform driver fixes were submitted for the week… ⌘ Read more
The Era of 15GB Free Gmail Storage Is Ending
Google has confirmed it is testing a 5GB storage limit for some new Gmail accounts, with users able to unlock the standard 15GB by adding a phone number. Android Authority reports: While the company didn’t mention which regions are impacted, user reports from yesterday were mostly from African countries. That said, if Google’s tests prove successful, this could possibly become the norm … ⌘ Read more
Élections en Andalousie: les jeunes socialistes espèrent éviter une débâcle à Pedro Sánchez
Alors que les législatives se profilent, le scrutin régional du 17 mai fait figure de test pour les socialistes espagnols. Une lourde défaite du PSOE face au Parti populaire, de droite et donné favori, fragiliserait davantage le premier ministre, déjà en position précaire. ⌘ Read more
Intel’s Cache Aware Scheduling Inches Closer To Being Merged For Linux
I have been writing about the Cache Aware Scheduling work led by Intel engineers on the Linux kernel for more than a year. I’ve also tested out Cache Aware Scheduling on both Intel and AMD CPUs with the patched Linux kernel to great success. And thus very happy to see the Cache Aware Scheduling patches inching closer to the mainline Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more
I’m pleased to announce that express-twtkpr (my ExpressJS library for hosting, editing, and posting to a twtxt.txt file) continues to crawl towards a full release with another (pre-alpha) update published to NPM. This update includes a whole new plugin system, and even a (little) more documentation. Check it out, if you dare (and use it at your own risk): https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-twtkpr
And speaking of plugins, here’s where the fun’s at: announcing express-twtkpr-core-plugins, a set of 3 plugins for your TwtKpr install: emojiButton, uploadButton, and postToMastodon. Like express-twtkpr, this set of plugins is still in pre-alpha, and lacks documentation, examples, tests, installation flexibility, or polish (so also use them at your own risk). Other than that, they work great: https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-twtkpr-core-plugins
Stay tuned for more! 🤘
GCC 16 Produces Faster Binaries Than GCC 15, Competitive Race With LLVM Clang 22
GCC 16.1 released at the end of April as the latest major, annual feature release to the GNU Compiler Collection. Early benchmarks showed some nice leads for GCC 16 over GCC 15. Continued testing of the new GCC 16 compiler has continued to show overall better performance of the resulting binaries than using GCC 15 on the same hardware and same compiler flags. That led many to wonder about the GCC 16 performance up against the latest LLVM … ⌘ Read more
Inside the Race to Develop a Test for the Rare Andes Hantavirus
A University of Nebraska lab has developed a test that can detect the virus before symptoms become severe. Now, it’s ready to start testing those returning to the US after a cruise outbreak. ⌘ Read more
Best Air Purifiers (2026): Coway, AirDoctor, IQAir, and More
Protect your home against dust, pets, allergies, and more with the best air purifiers, tested firsthand. ⌘ Read more
NetBSD 11.0-RC4 Comes As Hopefully The Last Release Candidate
In addition to FreeBSD 15.1 releasing in the coming weeks, NetBSD 11.0 is also just around the corner as another prominent and major BSD update. NetBSD 11.0-RC4 is now available for last minute testing with this hoping to be the final release candidate… ⌘ Read more
„Drohnenmauer“ vor Sommeroffensive-Test
Nach Ende der Waffenruhe sind die Kämpfe in der Ukraine am Dienstag wieder aufgeflammt. Westlichen Fachleuten zufolge gelingt es Russland allerdings im Krieg gegen die Ukraine seit Monaten nicht, nennenswerte Erfolge zu erzielen. Entscheidend dafür ist die von der ukrainischen Armee errichtete „Drohnenmauer“: Kiew hat derzeit einen Entwicklungsvorsprung beim Einsatz von Drohnen im Schlachtfeld. Wenn Russland demnächst wie erwartet seine Sommeroffensive beginnt, könnte diese zum entscheidenden Tes … ⌘ Read more
Running Four Intel Graphics Cards Under Linux On Ubuntu 26.04
It’s been nearly one year to the week since Intel introduced Project Battlematrix as their initiative for improving their Linux driver support for the Arc Pro B-Series with enhancements such as bettering the multi-GPU support in allowing up to eight Arc Pro GPUs per system as well as other open-source driver optimizations in the era of AI. Recently with the Arc Pro B70 in having four review samples for testing I was finally able to try out the multi-GP … ⌘ Read more
Some Women Are Obsessively Testing Their Vaginas to Optimize Them
Biohacker Bryan Johnson recently bragged about his girlfriend’s “top 1%” vagina as the at-home vaginal microbiome test industry is thriving. But experts are skeptical. ⌘ Read more
Testing for ‘Bad Cholesterol’ Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
There’s a more accurate way of measuring who’s at risk for cholesterol-related health issues. So why don’t more doctors use it? ⌘ Read more
Anthropic Says ‘Evil’ Portrayals of AI Were Responsible For Claude’s Blackmail Attempts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Fictional portrayals of artificial intelligence can have a real effect on AI models, according to Anthropic. Last year, the company said that during pre-release tests involving a fictional company, Claude Opus 4 would often try to blackmail engineers to avo … ⌘ Read more
Debian to require reproducible builds
Paul Gevers has slipped an interesting bit of news into a “ bits from the release\
team” message:
Aided by the efforts of the Reproducible Builds project, we’ve
decided it’s time to say that Debian must ship reproducible
packages. Since yesterday, we have enabled our migration software
to block migration of new packages that can’t be reproduced or
existing packages (in testing) that regress in reproducibility.
As Gioe … ⌘ Read more
Une Française rapatriée dimanche a été testée positive à l’hantavirus, 22 cas contacts
Sur les cinq Français rapatriés et placés à l’isolement à l’hôpital Bichat à Paris, l’état de santé d’une femme s’est «malheureusement dégradé cette nuit» et les «tests sont revenus positifs», a dit lundi matin la ministre de la santé. ⌘ Read more
Kernel prepatch 7.1-rc3
Linus has released 7.1-rc3 for testing.
“I think this answers the ‘is 7.1 continuing the larger size pattern
that we saw with 7.0?’ question, and the answer is yes: that wasn’t a fluke
brought on by a .0 release - it simply seems to be the new normal.” ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.1-rc3 Released With Many Networking Changes
Linus Torvalds just issued the third weekly test candidate of the Linux 7.1 kernel with around a third of the patches being for the networking subsystem… ⌘ Read more
Rush Rescue Mission for NASA’s $500M Space Telescope Passes Key Milestone
NASA’s $500 million Neil Gehrels Swift space observatory was launched in 2004. But it’s now “at risk of falling back through the atmosphere and burning up without intervention,” reports Spaceflight Now.
Fortunately, a mission to prevent that “just passed a notable prelaunch testing milestone.”
On Friday, NASA announced that th … ⌘ Read more
The Trump Phone Either Is Or Isn’t Closer To Delivery
September 2025? January 2026? Delivery dates keep slipping for the Trump Organization’s “Trump Phone” — a gold-coloured Android smartphone priced at $499 (£370). But in March the Verge spotted signs the phone was moving forward:
FCC listings for a smartphone with the trade name “T1” show that it was tested late last year, and granted certification by the FCC in Janu … ⌘ Read more
Cisco Releases Open-Source ‘DNA Test for AI Models’
Cisco has released an open-source tool “to trace the origins of AI models,” reports SC World, “and compare model similarities for great visibility into the AI supply chain.”
[Cisco’s Model Provenance Kit] is a Python toolkit and command-line interface (CLI) that looks at signals such as metadata and weights to create a “fingerprint” for AI models that can then be compared to … ⌘ Read more
Best Live-Captioning Smart Glasses (2026), WIRED tested
Can’t hear what they’re saying? Now you can turn on the subtitles for real-life conversations. ⌘ Read more
We Asked Coffee Pros to Blind Test Coffee Machines. The Results Were Surprising
For our latest WIRED Blind Test, we sat coffee industry professionals down to rank leading do-it-all coffee machines—and the winner wasn’t what anyone expected. ⌘ Read more
An update on KDE’s Union style engine
Arjen Hiemstra has published
an article on the status of the Union project: a
single system to support all of KDE’s technologies used for styling
applications.
The work on Union’s Breeze implementation has progressed to the
point where it is very hard to distinguish whether or not you are
running the Union version. We have also tested with a bunch of
applications and … ⌘ Read more
Best Bug Spray (2026), Tested and Reviewed
Our writer tried some of the most popular insect repellents during runs, hikes, and evening walks. These are the ones we recommend. ⌘ Read more
Major Homebuilder To Test Placing Mini Data Centers in Suburban Backyards
NewtonsLaw writes: According to Realtor.com, a California startup called Span plans to partner with Nvidia, PulteGroup, and other homebuilders to equip new homes with mini-data centers, so as to relieve the need to build and power much larger traditional centers. The article states the company “can install 8,000 XFRA units ab … ⌘ Read more
11 Best Sunscreens, WIRED Tested and Reviewed
We put 36 sunscreens to the test during summer hikes, spring ski days, and beachside hangs. Out of all the mineral, chemical, and spray varieties we tried, these are our top picks. ⌘ Read more
Nouveau vs. NVIDIA R595 Linux Driver For Workstation Graphics Performance
When having the HP Z6 G5 A workstation in the lab for benchmarking, one of the curiosity-driven tests was seeing how well the latest open-source and upstream Nouveau driver stack is competing against the latest official NVIDIA R595 driver for workstations. The official NVIDIA Linux driver stack remains the best positioned software solution for RTX (PRO) hardware but Nouveau continues evolving while awaiting the Nova kernel driver to rea … ⌘ Read more
Best Webcams (2026): My Honest Take After Testing the Best
I tested all the major webcams across the price spectrum in attempts to find the very best. Here’s what I learned. ⌘ Read more
Fedora Yet To Decide On x86_64-v3 Packages For Fedora Linux 45
Last month a Fedora Linux change proposal was shared proposing that Fedora 45 be built with x86_64-v3 packages to complement the generic x86_64 (v1) packages currently being compiled. This has the possibility of providing greater performance out of packaged Fedora software but comes with the cost of greater burdens on web mirrors, QA / testing, and related infrastructure impact. The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee “FESCo” decided toda … ⌘ Read more
Manjaro 26.1 Preview Released With GNOME 50, KDE Plasma 6.6 & Xfce 4.20 Options
The preview release of the Arch Linux powered Manjaro 26.1 is now available for testing… ⌘ Read more
9 Best Portable Power Stations (2026): Power Capacity, Portability, Camping, and More
Whether you’re going off-grid or safeguarding against blackouts, these beefy, WIRED-tested batteries can keep the lights on. ⌘ Read more
The Best Food Gifts to Buy Online, as Tested by Our Tastebuds (2026)
From tinned fish to baked goodies, you can deliver the best-tasting treats to their door—even if you don’t live close by. ⌘ Read more
Kernel prepatch 7.1-rc2
The second 7.1 kernel prepatch is out for
testing. “It’s not small, and while it’s a bit early to say for sure, I
do suspect we’re seeing the same continued pattern of more patches than
usual - probably due to AI tooling - that we saw in 7.0.” ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.1-rc2 Released With Audio Fix For Steam Deck OLED, Other Fixes
Linux 7.1-rc2 is out for testing with its accumulation of initial bug and regression fixes that have been collected over the past week since the Linux 7.1 merge window was capped off… ⌘ Read more
FreeBSD 15.1 Beta Released For Early Testing
Following last year’s release of FreeBSD 15.0, FreeBSD 15.1 is working its way toward release release in June. For kicking off the release dance, FreeBSD 15.1 Beta 1 is available today for testing… ⌘ Read more
8 Best Travel Adapters (2026), Tested and Reviewed
When going abroad, the right plugs are essential to keep your gadgets charged. These are my favorite travel adapters and chargers. ⌘ Read more
Disneyland Now Uses Face Recognition on Visitors
Plus: The NSA tests Anthropic’s Mythos Preview to find vulnerabilities, a Finnish teen is charged over the Scattered Spider hacking spree, and more. ⌘ Read more
An Editor’s Picks: The Best Gifts for Bird Lovers
Whether they’re into feeders, field guides, or games, these tried-and-tested picks are sure to land perfectly. ⌘ Read more
New Lithium-Plasma Engine Passes Key Mars Propulsion Test
NASA engineers have tested a next-generation lithium-plasma electric propulsion system that reached 120 kilowatts, a new U.S. record and about 25 times the power of the electric thrusters on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. “Designing and building these thrusters over the last couple of years has been a long lead-up to this first test,” said James Polk, who is a s … ⌘ Read more