When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. AMD announced its new Ryzen 7 9850X3D chip at CES 2026, showcasing a 7% performance uplift over the iconic Ryzen 7 9800X3D, one of the best CPUs. What the company didn't show in that presentation is that you don't necessarily need high-speed DDR5 RAM to achieve those gains. In a marketing slide for the CPU obtained by Videocardz, the company says there's only a 1% difference in FPS between DDR5-4800 and DDR5-5600. Managing latency is key in gaming workloads, so the L3 cache is preferred over system memory in most cases. The leaked AMD slide compares five games, including Cyberpunk 2077, but the most significant gap was seen in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 at just 1.6%, while Red Dead Redemption 2 showed essentially no gains at 0.2%. On average, there's a less than 1% difference in FPS, and the company even includes current pricing for 32GB kits at the bottom. According to AMD, the average price for a DDR5-4800 kit is $400, while the DDR5-6000 kit can run you up to $470. Both of those are very generous estimates, as we were able to find a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit for "just" $325.99 on Amazon, though it's CL36. So, if you have bone-stock DDR5 lying around without EXPO or XMP, the X3D chips will give you the same glorious performance as someone with an overclocked kit. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York,

But the executives say even that isn't enough, framing the problem as a supply issue that requires building “more homes of all kinds.” They're backing several bills in the current legislative session, including SB 6026, which would allow residential development on commercial land like strip malls and big-box stores. Bob Ferguson's proposed $225 million in bonds for the state Housing Trust Fund. “Going forward, legislators must commit to a simple test: If a policy makes housing more costly or takes longer to build, don't pass it. They warn that other states are moving faster to attract developers. “Banks, investors and lenders are going where they can make predictable returns.” The joint push comes after Microsoft released a report last week outlining lessons learned from its housing investments. GeekWire Studios has partnered with AWS for the Guide to re:Invent. This interview series took place on the Expo floor at AWS re:Invent 2025, and features insightful conversations about the future of cloud tech, as well as partnership success stories. Click for more about underwritten and sponsored content on GeekWire. What Microsoft has learned about housing, and why it's urging the state to unlock commercial land Washington state lawmaker says proposed payroll tax could benefit large tech companies Why housing affordability looms as a final frontier for Seattle area's space industry

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. A trip to your local thrift store might be worth it. That's precisely what one Reddit user discovered after stumbling upon an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT at their local Goodwill for just $4.99. This is one of the many thrift-store PC scores we've seen recently and quite a good one considering the RX 5700 XT, which used to be one of the best graphics cards, is still capable of reliable 1080p and even 1440p gaming. Custom models are selling for over $500, according to our GPU 2026 price tracker. This shows that sometimes thrift-store hardware needs a bit of basic maintenance to function again. Positioned as a strong option for 1080p and 1440p gaming, the GPU debuted with a $399 MSRP and often outperformed Nvidia's RTX 2060 Super in traditional rasterized workloads, though it lacked hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Thrift store finds like this highlight a pattern we've seen over the past year or so: capable GPUs end up at remarkably low prices simply because they are either untested or poorly labeled. In a similar case, a lucky gamer found an Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB for just $4.99, suggesting that older but still functional hardware can end up in donation piles. With many thrift stores lacking the time or expertise to evaluate PC components, working hardware can easily be mistaken for scrap. That said, hunting for PC parts at a thrift store always comes with some risk, since there's no guarantee the hardware will work. But this RX 5700 XT shows that older graphics cards can often be revived with basic maintenance and some PC hardware knowledge. For budget gamers or tinkerers willing to take a chance, places like Goodwill can still hide some surprisingly good deals. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

Food carts are a staple of New York City dining, dispensing everything from dosa and doner kebabs to dogs and dim sum in short order. Cart owners and customers may not have to suck on fumes much longer. A Brooklyn-based startup is testing the use of its e-bike batteries to power food carts, starting with La Chona Mexican on the corner of 30th and Broadway in Manhattan. “This really started out as a lark last summer,” David Hammer, co-founder and CEO of PopWheels, told TechCrunch. “I'm an ex-Googler from the early days, and this felt like a classic, old-school 20% project.” Normally, PopWheels battery packs are zipping around the city strapped to food delivery bikes. The team soon realized that connecting them to food carts was an avenue worth pursuing. “Are e-bike packs the perfect energy type to be powering food carts? PopWheels currently operates 30 charging cabinets around Manhattan, which serve gig workers riding e-bikes, most of whom use either Arrow or Whizz models. That's resulted in a “de facto decentralized fleet,” Hammer said, allowing the company to stock just a few different types of batteries to serve hundreds of customers. In response, bodegas started offering e-bike charging services, for which delivery workers typically pay $100 per month. When factoring in battery wear and tear, the total cost nears $2,000 per year, Hammer said. PopWheels charges customers $75 per month for unlimited access to its network, and Hammer said the company has a long waitlist. The startup's charging cabinets can hold 16 batteries, and PopWheels designed them to swiftly extinguish a battery fire should anything go awry during charging. (The company's founding mission was to stamp out e-bike fires in New York City, which became a significant problem few years ago.) After building some initial cabinets, the company raised a $2.3 million seed round last year 2025. Swap sites are typically small open spaces like parking lots, which PopWheels has retrofit with fences and the necessary electrical connections to support several cabinets. As PopWheels e-bike service grew, the startup began studying other opportunities. “If you build urban-scale, fire-safe battery swapping infrastructure, you're creating an infrastructure layer that lots of people are going to want to get on board with.” Hammer started to think about alternative uses for the batteries after someone sent an article about how New York City was working to decarbonize food carts. “We think we could be cost neutral with gasoline for a food cart owner while solving all of the quality of life issues.” Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor. De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT's Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing tim.dechant@techcrunch.com. Hear from 250+ tech leaders, dive into 200+ sessions, and explore 300+ startups building what's next. TikTok users freak out over app's ‘immigration status' collection — here's what it means Microsoft gave FBI a set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops: Reports Capital One acquires Brex for a steep discount to its peak valuation, but early believers are laughing all the way to the bank Humans&, a ‘human-centric' AI startup founded by Anthropic, xAI, Google alums, raised $480M seed round SpaceX didn't properly inspect crane before collapse at Starbase, OSHA says

Bag of rocks is starting to become a classic. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Just a few days ago, we covered back-to-back GPU cases from Reddit, one positive and one negative, breaking the pessimistic cycle often associated with these stories. Specifically, a Redditor received a bunch of rocks and a towel in lieu of an MSI Suprim RTX 5090, one of the best graphics cards, which is worth at least $3,000 as per our GPU 2026 price tracker. The victim wrote in r/pcmasterrace, detailing how they'd ordered an RTX 5090 from Amazon Resale, which means the GPU was repackaged and sold, but got sediment instead. The post says the box's seal was barely intact, and we can see an LPN label, which means it was a previous return. So, this is a classic switcheroo: someone bought and actually received the real thing, swapped it for rocks to match the weight, and returned it to Amazon, which didn't bother checking what was inside. It's strange that someone who's been wronged three times already would try their luck yet again. Funny enough, a very similar story unfolded last month when someone received a large brick instead of the RTX 5080 they ordered, which later led to an investigation. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Newly unsealed court documents reveal the behind-the-scenes history of Microsoft and OpenAI, including a surprise: Amazon Web Services was OpenAI's original partner. With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop; edited by Curt Milton. Does Compute, presented by Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and GeekWire Studios, is a podcast exploring the ways that computer science is reshaping our world through building useful stuff that works. Amazon fixes Alexa ordering bug, Microsoft rethinks AI data centers, and cameras capture every fan GeekWire Podcast: Alexa's next act, Microsoft's retail play, Google's AI Inbox, and a smart bird feeder fail GeekWire Podcast: Silver lining for Seattle in DJI ban, and a verdict on the 2007 Camry tech retrofit GeekWire Studios has partnered with AWS for the Guide to re:Invent. This interview series took place on the Expo floor at AWS re:Invent 2025, and features insightful conversations about the future of cloud tech, as well as partnership success stories. Elon Musk's xAI plans Seattle hub with engineering jobs paying up to $440k OpenAI's $38B cloud deal with Amazon takes ChatGPT maker further beyond Microsoft

All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Gizmodo may earn an affiliate commission. U.S.-based crypto exchange giant Coinbase has established an independent advisory board to evaluate and provide guidance on the threat quantum computing may pose to the cryptography used in blockchain networks. This issue has become increasingly discussed among notable financial leaders, such as Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio and VanEck CEO Jan van Eck, as it is thought to be preventing further institutional investment in crypto. Since blockchain networks use cryptography to empower each user to have full autonomy over their digital assets on an individual basis, a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) would effectively make these systems unworkable, as anyone with such a CRQC would be able to spend from any address. Of course, the cryptography used in these systems and the traditional financial sector can theoretically also be upgraded to be quantum-resistant. In terms of specific activities, the new advisory board, officially known as the Coinbase Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, will publish papers assessing threat levels, issue recommendations to institutions and developers, and respond to new breakthroughs in the quantum computing field as they arise. Board members include Director of the Quantum Information Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Scott Aaronson, and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research, Dan Boneh. Last year, new developments in quantum computing from the likes of Google, with its Willow chip, reignited excitement around the prospect of real progress in this emerging technology. In fact, many tech giants, such as Google and Amazon, have already implemented changes to prepare for what has increasingly become known as Q-Day. One of the reasons those in the crypto space are interested in being particularly proactive when it comes to quantum preparedness—outside the fact that everything will break if a CRQC appears without being sufficiently prepared—is that decentralized systems tend to be more difficult to upgrade than centralized tech companies that have lead decision makers with the ability to have the final say on changes. Due to this longer timeframe associated with crypto network upgrades, it makes sense to start working on this issue before it is anywhere near an obvious, imminent threat. bitcoin devs still pretending "no one technical" is concerned about quantum? Of course, it's also true that crypto has become increasingly indistinguishable from traditional, centralized fintech. Blockchain networks are now being centrally operated by traditional fintech firms like Stripe and stablecoin issuers like Circle, as it has become clearer over time that mainstream userbases are more interested in dollar-compatible tokens than more volatile, crypto-native assets like bitcoin and ether. On the other hand, Bitcoin itself still maintains a high degree of decentralization in its development process, which has made it extremely difficult to implement changes at the protocol level. The argument that Bitcoin will likely be slower to adopt changes than other networks has merit, as there could be heated disputes over specifics such as whether old, seemingly lost coins should be frozen. Of course, there are several quantum computing startups that are hopeful old coins will not be frozen, as they'd like a chance to crack the keys holding around half a trillion dollars (depending on the day) worth of bitcoin treasure. Bitcoin developers also see a hastily added upgrade for quantum computing as a potential security vulnerability and generally reject fear-based protocol developments outside of extreme circumstances. For now, there are some Bitcoin developers working on the issue, including a draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP), and according to longtime cypherpunk and Blockstream CEO Adam Back, the correct approach isn't fear but readiness for the worst potential outcome. A move that should have simplified trading is fraught with drama.

It's difficult to overstate the significance of NASA's upcoming Artemis 2 mission. But Artemis 2 won't just test spaceflight systems and hardware. This mission will also put NASA's in-space science operations to the test. “I'm really excited about this test flight,” Jacob Richardson, deputy lunar science lead for Artemis 2, told Gizmodo. “There is a super special place in my heart for Artemis 2—for the crew that has completely leaned into being a part of our science team and for the science that we'll get out of this mission.” All but one entered lunar orbit, and six landed astronauts on the surface. NASA launched each of these missions to reach the Moon when the landing sites were lit by early morning sunlight, a time when surface temperatures were manageable and shadows could help guide lander navigation. Their view was also limited by their low orbital altitude, which was typically just 70 miles (110 kilometers) above the surface. Their spacecraft, Orion, will fly by the Moon at a minimum distance of 4,300 miles (6,900 km). “They're going to be the first humans to see virtually the entire far side disk in a single view,” Richardson said. From that vantage point, they'll be able to observe and compare surface features thousands of miles apart from each other—a perspective orbiters can't provide, he explained. Richardson and his colleagues on the lunar science team have provided them with extensive training on how to look for certain features, photograph or videotape them, and write detailed descriptions of what they see. The astronauts won't have a precise idea of which far-side features they will be able to observe until launch, Richardson said. In the first few days of flight, he and his team will finalize a list of observation targets for the astronauts to prioritize. These targets may include Mare Orientale, a massive impact basin that straddles the boundary between the Moon's near and far sides, according to Richardson. Humans have never directly laid eyes on the far-side portion of this mare before. As the youngest and best-preserved multi-ring impact basin on the lunar surface, Orientale is a natural laboratory for investigating the Moon's impact history and how ringed craters form. This far-side impact crater is the Moon's largest, stretching more than 1,550 miles (2,500 km) across. Scientists believe it is also among the oldest, but its exact age remains elusive. We know that similar events have happened across the entire solar system. This mission will offer an unprecedented view of the Moon's most enigmatic terrain, giving scientists on Earth fresh insight into its history and the forces that continue to shape our closest celestial neighbor. “My hope is that with the Artemis missions, we as scientists today—in 2026—end up looking kind of like fools, and that the Artemis missions create so much opportunity for discovery that we're able to rewrite the textbooks,” Richardson said. Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more. As internet conspiracy theories go, this one was exceptionally dumb. The final stage of launch preparations officially kicks off tomorrow.

You have to be careful with budget laptops. With budget gaming laptops, that's even more true. These machines aren't thin, quiet, or overly powerful. Many times, they have low-quality screens and keyboards. These gaming laptops aren't perfect, but they're all under $1,000 and offer a solid gaming experience for the money if your budget is tight. There is only one gaming laptop selling for under $1,000 that doesn't make any significant trade-offs to the experience of using a modern laptop. That's this one, the Lenovo LOQ 15 (8/10, WIRED Recommends). It comes with an Nvidia RTX 5060 laptop graphics card, for one thing, meaning you get solid frame rates in games, without needing to depend on image upscaling through Nvidia's DLSS technology or frame generation. I was impressed by the performance across a suite of games, even though the system gets undeniably loud under heavy load. It can also be cranked up to 347 nits of brightness, which is bright enough as long as you're not gaming by a window. The significantly better screen makes the LOQ 15 a far better option as a laptop that can be used for school or work just as enjoyably as it is for gaming. Even the touchpad has a smooth, responsive surface. If you want to go cheaper, Lenovo offers an RTX 5050 model that uses the same CPU. You get the same good display and keyboard, with less performance. Occasionally, a product gets so heavily discounted that it makes some of its unsavory elements more acceptable. That's true of the Acer Nitro V 16 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). The display is bright enough and has a fast refresh rate of 180 Hz, but the colors are an issue. As I saw in my tests, the color accuracy and gamut are wildly off, resulting in some funky, desaturated color. It's not enough to ruin the gaming experience entirely, but it's a serious downgrade from the Lenovo LOQ 15. That gives you more screen space and thinner bezels. While the smaller power brick is nice, it means you can't run intensive games in Turbo mode without draining the battery—even while plugged in. The default Balanced mode doesn't have that problem; it's problematic for long-term battery health, and it just feels wrong. I've been told that the updated 2026 model will fix this problem, but it's not available yet. Even with those issues, the price is undeniable. You won't find a cheaper gaming laptop that's this powerful, which gives it an upper edge for anyone looking to save as much as possible. It's slightly more expensive, though, and has a 16:9 aspect-ratio display. It's the only other gaming laptop with an RTX 5060 currently selling for under $1,000. The Cyborg A15 even comes with one less USB-A port. The touchpad and keyboard are both nice, and if you like a colorful machine, the Cyborg gives you three-zone RGB backlighting. Availability is tough on this one right now, though. While this configuration is over $1,000, it comes with a terabyte of storage. Fortunately, cheaper versions are available with the more powerful RTX 5060, even under $1,000. What You Should Look For in a Cheap Gaming Laptop Most cheap gaming laptops share a lot in common. Here are some of the key specs to look for: You won't find higher-resolution panels on gaming laptops under $1,000. Also, take a look at the refresh rate. While OLED and mini-LED are more common in higher-end gaming laptops, all budget-oriented options use LED IPS. While Intel has announced its next-gen Core Ultra Series 3 chips, these still haven't come out just yet. GPU: We're currently in Nvidia's RTX 50-series graphics cards, which came out at the beginning of 2025. In gaming laptops under $1,000, you'll be stuck with either the RTX 5050 or 5060. Memory: You want at least 16 GB of RAM, and that's typically what you'll be stuck with in budget gaming laptops. Many gaming laptops let you upgrade RAM yourself later, though with the price of stand-alone memory these days, it might not be a bad idea to configure it with 32 GB upfront. Storage: Gaming laptops start at 512 GB, and that will be enough for most. Upgrading to 1 terabyte isn't a bad idea, though, whether that's configured up-front or doing it yourself later. The laptops above are the cheapest gaming laptops you should buy, but as you'll discover with some research, there are some even lower-priced options out there—some as low as $500 or $600. Most come with older graphics cards and processors, meaning you're getting a dip in performance. This is especially true if you buy something like an RTX 3050 or 2050. The RTX 40 series was announced in 2023, meaning anything older than that is well over three years old. I wouldn't recommend anything that old, especially not if it was already budget-oriented. I haven't seen anything cheap enough that would make me think you shouldn't go with one of the RTX 50 series options above instead. Take a look at this older version of the Lenovo LOQ 15, which has an RTX 3060 (and a different design) and is currently selling for $550. Asus and Dell both have RTX 5050 options, but neither is under $1,000. The Asus ROG A14 is out there, but I can't find a version cheaper than $1,270. It's definitely on my list to test next, as Alienware generally has great build quality. If you're willing to spend a bit more, you'll find gaming laptops over $1,000 with more memory and storage, higher-quality displays (sometimes even OLED), thinner chassis, and most importantly, more powerful CPUs and GPUs. That goes up to $1,879 for the most affordable RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop on sale. That should give you an idea of how performance scales up from what is considered “budget.” Read our Best Gaming Laptops guide for more high-end picks. Gaming comes first, and we run a series of in-game benchmarks to establish a baseline that can be compared apples-to-apples, including titles from different genres like Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel Rivals, and Monster Hunter: Wilds. This spits out a score, yes, but while it's running, we pay attention to factors like fan noise, internal temperatures, and surface temperatures. These are all important and contribute to the overall experience of using the laptop both in and out of gaming. We also test battery life in local video playback. We also test out the speakers and webcam to see how they hold up. Lastly, we handle these laptops to get a sense for durability, build quality, and usability. Add in the included specs, price, and configuration options, and it comes together in something that I'd either personally recommend or not. For budget-oriented devices, price is given more weight in this evaluation. If one gaming laptop costs more than another, it needs to add something that offers a qualitative benefit. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.

Cordless portable blenders weren't really a thing a decade ago, or maybe even three years ago. This means the best portable blender I've tested, the Ninja Blast Max ($100), is now fully able to make a six-pack of crushed-ice margaritas at your next picnic or blend up a berry-filled protein shake at the gym without breaking much of a sweat. Meanwhile, the ingeniously designed Nutribullet Flip ($115) offers more torque than previous-generation blenders, plus enough insulation to keep ice frozen until it's time for lunch (or even dinner). cordless blenders are a disappointment, especially compared to the best blenders that plug into the wall—which are often as much as a hundred times more powerful. But I found that our two top cordless blenders were far superior to the rest, after testing eight of the most promising contenders for battery life, ice crushing, smoothie and milkshake consistency, and all-round blender vortexing. That said, it's worth considering whether you actually need a cordless blender for blending on the go—or just a small personal blender that performs much better and whose blending chamber can transform magically into a drinking cup to go. WIRED has been testing personal blenders for years, and our top pick, the Nutribullet Ultra ($164), just might be the high-powered, sippy-cup, office-bound solution of your dreams. In part, this is the result of sheer power, when power is measured in tens and not hundreds of watts. But the cordless Ninja is also good at plowing through almond butter without jamming up. And it's the only portable blender I tested that was able to crush ice without a running start. Indeed, it can turn cubed ice into fluffy snow without any ungainly chunks, a feat that no other cordless blender even came close to achieving. If you add tequila and a little margarita mixer and take the thing to a picnic, the results are even more satisfying. But the Blast Max can blend for anywhere from seven to 10 drinks on a single charge, depending on how much blending is needed—enough to reliably make an octet of blended cocktails or smoothies. My colleague Adrienne So has told me that the Ninja Blast Max's predecessor, the max-less Ninja Blast, was a life-changing addition to her morning rituals when it arrived in the doldrums of 2023. Portable blenders have a very simple problem: Ice. Ice is what provides a lot of the satisfying texture that makes smoothies fun. This Nutribullet Flip, quite cleverly, solves this problem by using the same double-walled vacuum technology that keeps your coffee hot and your water cold in your favorite travel mug. But as long as most of the constituents in the blender are chilled, you have a pretty good chance of making it to lunch with some ice cubes still intact. Most portable blenders require that you unscrew the vessel from the blender before adding a drinkable lid, requiring you to keep track of extra parts and potentially causing spills if you forget to flip the thing appropriately as you unscrew it. The Flip avoids this problem entirely by adding a little hinged drinking spout to the blending base: When you flip the blender over, it's an adult sippy cup. The Flip, with its 11-volt battery, is more powerful than the previous generation of cordless blenders but still less powerful than our top-pick Blast Max. This means it's more likely to bog down on ice if you load ingredients in the wrong order. Since the insulated blending jug is opaque, this'll also require that you remember to load ice into the blending jug first before adding softer ingredients and flipping it over. It's quite possible that you never needed a portable blender in the first place. Ask yourself an important question: Did you actually need to blend your smoothie somewhere other than at home? Or did you just want the convenience of a small blender whose chamber doubles as a portable drinking cup that you can take with you out the door? Most cordless blenders top out at double-digit watts. WIRED's top-pick personal blender, the 1200-watt Nutribullet Ultra, is stylish, smartly designed, compact, and convenient—and it will make fast mince of ice, frozen fruits, and every manner of nut butter as long as you make sure you have the prerequisite amount of liquid in your blending jug. It has a particular ability to make beautifully smooth-textured hummus, a feat you will achieve with precisely zero cordless blenders. Whatever smoothie or protein shake concoction you desire, you can just pop off the blending jug, slap a sippable lid on it and jet to the car. That said, though it's quite compact and convenient at home, you probably won't cart this thing around on an airplane or hiking trip. In general, I use some of the same tests for portable blenders as in our guide to other blenders. I make frozen cocktails (in this case margaritas) to test usefulness at picnics. And I float baby carrots in water to see if the blender can generate a sufficient vortex to suck down and blend the baby carrots. Is the blended ice sufficiently broken up, or are there chunks? This means charging each blender from dead, to see how long it takes to reach full battery life. And it means blending until the battery is dead again, to see how many smoothies I could likely make before running out of power. I also assess ease of use: Some portable blenders require you to keep track of lids and other accessories. After all, the power comes from your wall socket, so it's pretty easy to get up to 900 or 1,200 watts. Makers of portable blenders tend to be more circumspect, because the numbers are much a smaller. Cordless blenders tend to have the same Lithium-ion battery technology, and the same theoretical max power, of your average cordless beard trimmer—and wattages an order of magnitude smaller than corded blenders. In general, the lower power of these small blenders means they don't have quite as much torque, and are less able to do useful things like crush ice and create a powerful blender vortex. Thus, most cordless blenders require in their instructions that you add a sufficient quantity liquid to the bottom of the blending jug to help create a blending vortex to mix up ingredients. Most also ask that you layer softer ingredients on the bottom and frozen ingredients on the top, so that the blades can get sufficiently revved up before being called upon to shred a frozen carrot. And its wider, straight-walled blending chamber was more likely to bog down or spin uselessly, requiring you to stop, shake, and start again. This then uses up more battery power and cuts the number of drinks you can expect to make with it. It's also tiny enough to earn a permanent home on WIRED editor Adrienne So's counter before its blade gave up after two years. But charge capacity is nowhere near as good as the next-generation Blast Max, and neither is the blending power. But the 7-volt battery just doesn't quite have the necessary capacity or power to blend, and it has a tendency to just give up when faced with ice. Nutribullet Portable Blender for $55: The base model of Nutribullet's portable blender is economically priced, but faces the same problems as the Flex: Its 7-volt battery just kinda doesn't have (or keep) enough power, and can bog down against ice. Dash Personal Charging Blender for $40: Dash makes a habit out of creating surprisingly useful, somewhat cute appliances that cost far less than you'd expect. But while the $40 price is nice, the blender's tiny blade isn't overly useful for crushing ice or making a blender vortex, and the cordless blender base doesn't hold much of a charge. Blendjet 2 Bundle for $60: Leaving aside a somewhat troubling recall of nearly 5 million BlendJet blenders sold between 2020 and 2023 that could potentially overheat and catch fire, my colleague Boutayna Chokrane's experience with underpowered, undersized BlendJet blenders left her suspicious of the entire category of portable blenders. $25 off $25+ DoorDash Promo Code for New Customers WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.

Even then, who would want to invade Canada? Despite the recent political blustering, it seems incredibly unlikely that the US would invade Canada, and the only other plausible invader that I can think of right now is Russia, but their military isn't doing very well at all right now. (Although I'm Canadian, so this may perhaps just be wishful thinking on my part) Gold falls into the category "has always had value, so it will always have value" type of thoughts. > A strategic reserve can be ... A commodity, such as intervention stocks of food or petrol ...> Examples of commodity reserves: Global strategic petroleum reserves ... Gold reserve But bonds and currencies are just “paper”…or are more vulnerable than gold to shocks in certain conditions.The disadvantage of physical gold is that it doesn't generate any income by itself, as compared to bonds.During times of higher uncertainty, people and institutions (including central banks) flock to gold. The disadvantage of physical gold is that it doesn't generate any income by itself, as compared to bonds.During times of higher uncertainty, people and institutions (including central banks) flock to gold. During times of higher uncertainty, people and institutions (including central banks) flock to gold. What they have to do is move, but quietly, without announcing it. I hold Xetra Gold (tax free gains after 12mon).

Hexus founder and CEO Sakshi Pratap, who previously held engineering roles at Walmart, Oracle, and Google, tells TechCrunch that her San Francisco-based team has already joined Harvey, while the startup's India-based engineers will come onboard once Harvey establishes a Bangalore office. Pratap adds that she will lead an engineering team focused on accelerating Harvey's offerings for in-house legal departments. “What we're bringing to Harvey is deep experience building enterprise AI tools in adjacent problem spaces,” Pratap said. “This expertise helps Harvey move faster in a market that's becoming increasingly competitive.” Hexus had raised $1.6 million from Pear VC, Liquid 2 Ventures, and angel investors before the acquisition. While Pratap declined to share deal terms, she said the structure was aligned around “long-term team incentives.” Harvey now claims more than 1,000 clients across 60 countries, including a majority of the top 10 U.S. law firms. When TechCrunch spoke with co-founder and CEO Winston Weinberg in November, he traced Harvey's origin story back to a cold email sent to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. According to Weinberg, the OpenAI Startup Fund remains Harvey's second-largest investor. Hear from 250+ tech leaders, dive into 200+ sessions, and explore 300+ startups building what's next. TikTok users freak out over app's ‘immigration status' collection — here's what it means Microsoft gave FBI a set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops: Reports Humans&, a ‘human-centric' AI startup founded by Anthropic, xAI, Google alums, raised $480M seed round SpaceX didn't properly inspect crane before collapse at Starbase, OSHA says

Yet the country's overall smartphone market stayed largely flat at around 152–153 million devices. This is up from 7% in 2024, Counterpoint Research data shows, making it the iPhone's strongest year yet in the world's second-largest smartphone market by volume. The gains were driven by the iPhone's product portfolio, growing aspirational demand and wider availability across sales channels, Counterpoint Research's director for devices and ecosystems, Tarun Pathak, said. CFO Kevan Parekh also said iPhone's active install base hit an all-time high in India and the company set a quarterly record for upgraders, highlighting Apple's push to expand its user base beyond just new buyers, though the company did not disclose detailed figures for India on the call. Earlier this month, it introduced Apple Creator Studio — a subscription bundle of creative apps such as Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro — priced at ₹399 a month ($4.35) in India. Even as overall shipments stagnated, India's premium segment continued to expand. Smartphones priced above ₹30,000 (around $327) grew 15% year-over-year in 2025 and accounted for a record 23% of total shipments — the highest share ever — according to Counterpoint. That shift has helped brands with stronger premium portfolios, including Apple, gain ground even as the mass market slowed. By volume, China's Vivo led India's smartphone market in 2025 with a 23% share of shipments, per Counterpoint, followed by Samsung at 15% and Xiaomi at 13%. Apple remained outside India's top three by shipments despite its record year, underlining how the market is still dominated by mass-market Android brands even as premium devices take a growing share. Counterpoint expects India's smartphone market to slip about 2% in 2026, warning that rising memory prices could squeeze demand in the sub-₹15,000 (under-$170) segment and force phone makers to cut cashback offers, trim specifications or raise prices. Even so, average selling prices are forecast to rise 5% in 2026 after a 9% increase in 2025, suggesting the premiumization trend is set to continue. Jagmeet covers startups, tech policy-related updates, and all other major tech-centric developments from India for TechCrunch. You can contact or verify outreach from Jagmeet by emailing mail@journalistjagmeet.com. Hear from 250+ tech leaders, dive into 200+ sessions, and explore 300+ startups building what's next. TikTok users freak out over app's ‘immigration status' collection — here's what it means Microsoft gave FBI a set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops: Reports Capital One acquires Brex for a steep discount to its peak valuation, but early believers are laughing all the way to the bank Humans&, a ‘human-centric' AI startup founded by Anthropic, xAI, Google alums, raised $480M seed round SpaceX didn't properly inspect crane before collapse at Starbase, OSHA says

With AI weaving itself into the fabric of the global economy, executives are turning to creative solutions to power this new workforce. At the forefront of these conversations are an increasing need for security to mitigate enterprise risk. One company balancing the ROI of rapid AI expansion with guardrails around an expectation gap and vulnerability exposure is Rubrik. “The number one thing stopping AI acceleration actually isn't that it's difficult to build models or agents anymore,” Dev Rishi, GM of AI at the company tells GeekWire Studios during a conversation at AWS re:Invent 2025. “With AI agents, you have the potential for 10x the damage in one-tenth the time,” Rishi warns.One solution to tackle these challenges is Rubrik Agent Cloud, a comprehensive platform that addresses all three risk dimensions. The platform starts with a single pane of glass across various AI platforms, tracking what agents are running, their potential impact, and the type, and scope of, data they can access. Integrating natively, and through gateway-based traffic observation, these tools work with multiple platforms including those available on AWS. During re:Invent, Rubrik announced a key integration with AWS Bedrock Agent Core, enabling seamless observability for agents running on one of the industry's most popular AI platforms. “You need to have native hooks into the most popular areas so you can have a turnkey experience for observability,” Rishi explains. Using Rubrik's protected backup data, the ability to revert changes creates what is essentially a time machine for AI operations. Increasingly, organizations are going to be operating at AI speed, and they're going to need an infrastructure system that can support that.”