When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Intel this week formally introduced its Xeon 6+ processors codenamed 'Clearwater Forest' that pack up to 288 energy-efficient Darkmont cores and are the first data center CPUs made on the company's 18A fabrication process (1.8nm-class). Intel aims its Xeon 6+ 'Clearwater Forest' processors primarily for telecom, cloud, and edge AI workloads as they feature Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX), QuickAssist Technology (QAT), and Intel vRAN Boost technologies. Intel's Xeon 6+ processors with up to 288 cores combine 12 compute chiplets containing 24 energy-efficient Darkmont cores per tile that are produced using 18A manufacturing technology, two I/O tiles made on Intel 7 production node, as well as three active base tiles made on Intel 3 fabrication process. The compute tiles are stacked on top of the base dies using Intel's Foveros Direct 3D technology, whereas lateral connections are enabled by Intel's EMIB bridges. Intel's 'Darkmont' efficiency cores have received rather meaningful microarchitectural upgrades. The number of execution ports has also been increased in a bid to improve both scalar and vector throughput under heavily threaded server workloads. Intel positions Clearwater Forest for telecom and cloud workloads. The company says operators deploying 5G Advanced and future 6G networks increasingly rely on server CPUs for virtualized RAN and edge AI inference, as they do not want to re-architect their data centers in a bid to accommodate AI accelerators. By combining matrix/vector acceleration, vRAN offloads (using the vRAN Boost), large caches, and broad I/O in one platform, the CPU can perform jobs that are normally reserved for various accelerators that consume more power and take up space. Also, extreme core count of Xeon 6+ 'Clearwater Forest' CPUs — that approaches 288 cores for uniprocessor configurations and 576 cores in dual socket configurations, enabling a single server to host dozens or even hundreds of virtual machines while maintaining power efficiency and low latency. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Systems based on Intel's Xeon 6+ processors will be available later this year. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

What happens here matters everywhere by Taylor Soper on Mar 3, 2026 at 8:44 amMarch 3, 2026 at 8:44 am Ziff Davis has agreed to sell its Connectivity division — which includes Ookla, the Seattle-based network analytics company known for its flagship Speedtest app — to Accenture in a $1.2 billion deal announced Tuesday. Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline From underdog to top dog? T-Mobile completes a 12-year quest — but Verizon says not so fast T-Mobile claims U.S. network lead, unveils new DoorDash perk and T-Satellite launch date Tech Moves: Starbucks names CFO; Avanade bolsters C-suite; Tune Therapeutics gets CEO After another major outage, Alaska Airlines taps Accenture to audit technology systems Catch every headline in your inbox

Founder Summit 2026 in Boston: Don't miss ticket savings of up to $300. Audible is rolling out a cheaper “Standard” subscription plan that costs $8.99 per month, the Amazon-owned company announced on Tuesday. The Standard plan includes one audiobook per month from Audible's catalog and unlimited listening from a curated library that includes a selection of Audible Originals. The launch of the new subscription plans comes as Audible is facing growing competition from Spotify, which launched audiobooks in 2022 and has bundled the format with music and podcasts as part of its own Premium subscription. Spotify said last October that the number of users listening to audiobooks rose 36% over the past year, and listening hours increased 37%. Additionally, it noted that more than half of Spotify's 281 million premium subscribers have engaged with an audiobook. “By expanding our membership options, we're maximizing access for lighter listeners while enabling publishers and creators to reach new audiences — a win-win that grows the entire audiobook category,” said Cynthia Chu, chief financial and growth officer at Audible, in a press release. Audible says early testing of the new plan showed strong member acquisition and retention rates, as testing in the United Kingdom and Australia showed that the plan drove a double-digit increase in new member sign-ups compared with previous offerings. With its expansion to new markets, the Standard plan is projected to bring in millions of new customers, the company says. Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor's degree from University of Toronto and a master's degree in journalism from Western University. MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI, the viral calorie app built by teens Why did Netflix back down from its deal to acquire Warner Bros.? India disrupts access to popular developer platform Supabase with blocking order Jack Dorsey just halved the size of Block's employee base — and he says your company is next An accountant won a big jackpot on Kalshi by betting against DOGE

Astronomers have identified a rare, tightly bound star system in which an eclipsing binary—two stars that pass in front of each other from our perspective—also eclipses a third star, while a fourth star orbits farther out. The study, published Tuesday in Nature, provides a closer look at the weird and chaotic world of hierarchical star systems. At first, the object's brightness dimmed for around 1.5 days, indicating that it consists of at least two stars that orbit each other. Then, every 26 days the object would fade again, confirming that there is a third star in the system. TESS observed the star system, named TIC 120362137, between 2019 and 2024. That is the shortest orbital period for an outer fourth star ever observed in a system of its kind. The inner three stars are all packed together within an area similar in size to Mercury's orbit around the Sun, while the fourth star extends farther out in an area comparable to Jupiter's orbit. “Stars are generally formed in groups via the collapse of large molecular clouds containing dust and gas, and they can form various structures such as clusters, loosely bound associations, or binaries, triples, quadruples, and so on, depending mainly on their formation environment and how gravitational interactions with other objects affect this process,” Tibor Mitnyan, a researcher from the University of Szeged in Hungary and co-author of the new paper, told Gizmodo. In about 300 million years, the inner stars are going to merge into a single white dwarf (an extremely dense core remnant of large stars). The two remaining white dwarf stars will continue to circle one another, completing one orbit in around 44 days. “It is also interesting to note that if such a double white dwarf system is found today, the observers would likely have no idea that it might have come from such an exotic compact 3+1 quadruple system with an outer period of about a thousand days,” Mitnyan added. Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more. A closer look at the planets around a star called LHS 1903 may just flip our understanding of how planetary systems form. The new image offers a rare look at the fate of our own star and planetary system. The recent discovery has left astronomers dumbfounded. Researchers have figured out why V Sagittae is so gosh dang bright.

Amazon is adding a new layer to its AI tools for online sellers, rolling out a feature that provides customized, interactive dashboards and scenario planning in real time. It expands the existing Seller Assistant, an AI chat tool that Amazon introduced in 2024 and later upgraded with agentic capabilities. “It's the difference between giving someone a better calculator and giving them a financial advisor who really understands their business inside and out,” said Mary Beth Westmoreland, Amazon's vice president of Worldwide Selling Partner Experience, in an interview. The announcement comes as e-commerce platforms race to embed AI into their tools. Sellers complained about broken links, generic recommendations and, in one case, an AI response that advised a seller dealing with false policy violations to seek legal action against Amazon. Asked about the forum feedback, Westmoreland cited internal data showing that sellers accept Seller Assistant's recommendations nearly 90% of the time, as an indication of its effectiveness. The new canvas for Seller Assistant goes further to provide “a lot more context to sellers in a visual way” that helps them understand recommendations more deeply, she said. They can also test scenarios such as “What if demand drops 10%?” and see projected impacts on revenue and cash flow before committing to a decision. Westmoreland said Amazon built the architecture to swap between models as needed. The chips powering your smart TV, voice assistant, tablet, and car all have something in common: MediaTek Click for more about underwritten and sponsored content on GeekWire. Filings: How Amazon's $50B OpenAI deal actually works, and what they're keeping secret Amazon invests $50B in OpenAI, deepens AWS partnership with expanded $100B cloud deal Pick Alexa's personality: Amazon lets users choose ‘Brief,' ‘Chill,' or ‘Sweet' conversation styles Amazon unveils new agentic AI tools for sellers amid heightened scrutiny ‘Project Amelia': Amazon's new AI assistant will advise sellers and act on their behalf Amazon shows seller ratings on product search results in new test

The MacBook Air also gets Wi-Fi 7 and a faster SSD When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Apple today announced updates to its best-selling laptop, the MacBook Air. Apple is promising a faster SSD with "2x faster read/write performance compared to the previous generation," a boon for local AI workloads as well as large files for creative work. In addition, the MacBook Air will get Apple's N1 wireless chip to support Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.But the new chip, SSD, and other upgrades will come at a cost. Those are both $100 increases over the M4 MacBook Air, though it's likely we'll eventually see deals from third-party sellers like Amazon and Best Buy. The new MacBook Air laptops will be up for pre-order tomorrow, March 4, and will go on sale on Wednesday, March 11.The 4TB option doesn't come cheap, though. But Apple also suggests that web browsing on the M5 is "up to 50 percent faster when compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core Ultra X7 processor, and more demanding tasks get up to 2x faster performance." Apple is retaining the same MacBook Air chassis. Apple has been using since the M2 chip in 2022, a fetching design with flat edges and rounded corners. There are no new colors this year, with Apple settling on sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver — the same as last year. 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. Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

Despite coming in the wake of a major overhaul for the venerable tabletop game with a new series of core rulebooks, 2025 was a little quiet for D&D, as the studio reset its plans for both dungeons and dragons alike in the face of some internal restructuring. But now Wizards of the Coast is ready to show what's coming in 2026—and if you're as much of a video gamer as you are a tabletop one, the format's going to look very familiar. Announced at GAMA in Louisville, Kentucky today, instead of defining its roadmap for the year by individual sourcebook and adventure releases, Wizards of the Coast is switching Dungeons & Dragons to a seasonal content format, linking together major releases with a flurry of themed events and products over the course of a few months. Alongside the accompanying sourcebook, each season will be supported by a series of extra product releases tied to that theme—whether it's new accessories like dungeon masters' screens or ability reference card decks, or a full-blown adventure book—as well as new tools on D&D Beyond and events for Organized Play tied to that season's content. The season will also bring extra products like a Tarokka Deck designed to support gameplay elements from The Horrors Within, as well as a new DM screen and separate map pack based on locations from the sourcebook. Beginning in July after Season of Horror begins is Season of Magic, which will include not one, but two book releases: first up is Arcana Unleashed, a new sourcebook revolving around high magic, including new spells, arcane-themed character creation options, and even a new system for magic items that allows equipment to grow in power alongside a player. It'll be supported by Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall, an adventure expansion that takes players deep inside the magical society of Thay and a new Wizard War. Lastly for the year is the Season of Champions, which Wizards is keeping close to its chest for now, beyond the fact that it will begin in October and run through to December, with its main supporting product being announced at a later date. It's also currently unknown if there'll be a gap before seasonal content begins again in 2027, or if D&D will roll right into a new series of seasons. It's an interesting shakeup of D&D‘s typical release schedule, familiar enough—there's still going to be three major sourcebooks, and at least one new adventure book to boot—but also meant to sustain interest in a given release officially for a longer period than the run-up to and release of a given product. We'll find out just how well it does at building more of a conversation and community around new releases when D&D‘s Season of Horror kicks off with the release of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within in June. Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. No, it's not an art error: Raph's weapon of choice has had a bit of a tweak for the new 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' set for 'Magic: The Gathering.' Gale Dekarios is also here to represent 'Baldur's Gate 3' in Wizards of the Coast's 'Dungeons & Dragons'-themed superdrop.

Alongside its price-friendly iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air from Monday, Apple just announced a few updates to the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and its rarely refreshed desktop display line. Apple seems to be holding its rumored new entry-level MacBook for Wednesday's in-person event in New York City, but today's announcements should make potential upgraders happy. There are no other major hardware changes—it now comes with 512 GB of starting storage with “faster SSD technology”—but you can still get the Air in either a 13- or 15-inch screen size. This laptop also features Apple's N1 wireless chip, which includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for the latest connectivity standards. It still comes with the standard 16 GB of RAM, and sadly, there's a $100 price bump to account for the extra storage. Like previous generations of Apple silicon, the “Pro” and “Max” configurations add significantly improved multicore CPU and graphics performance. The M5 Pro can scale up to 20 GPU cores, while the M5 Max extends up to 40 GPU cores. The M5 Max CPU upgrade is a bit more modest by comparison—just 15 percent over the M4 Max, according to Apple. Thanks to higher memory bandwidth, more efficient Neural Engine, and improved GPU architecture, Apple says both the M5 Pro and M5 Max have “over 4X the peak CPU compute for AI” compared to the last generation and offer 20 percent better GPU performance. The new MacBook Pros don't include any other hardware changes; things have stayed largely the same since 2021—same port selection, Mini-LED display, speakers, and webcam. Interestingly, as recently as last week Bloomberg reported that Apple plans to launch a more significant update to the MacBook Pro this year, which will reportedly debut the M6 chip, an OLED touchscreen, and a thinner chassis. Apple also introduced two new versions of the Studio Display computer monitor, both still coming in at 27 inches. It has been four years since Apple updated the original Studio Display. It's still a 27-inch, 5K screen with standard LED backlighting. That's really impressive, as the original Studio Display already had the best speakers you could find on a monitor. The new Studio Display also gets two faster Thunderbolt 5 ports in the back, which Apple says allows you to daisy-chain four Studio Displays. Like the 2022 model, it maxes out at 600 nits of SDR brightness. Like the standard Studio Display, the XDR model comes with a 5K resolution, but it now sports a 120-Hz refresh rate and improved mini-LED backlighting. The new Studio Display XDR now has 1,000 local dimming zones, which is how it gets to 2,000 nits of peak brightness in HDR and 1,000 nits of SDR brightness. The original Pro Display XDR had 576 dimming zones and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. While that might sound insanely expensive, it's actually a $1,700 price drop from the original Pro Display XDR. When the original Pro Display XDR came out in 2019, there were almost no other HDR-capable mini-LED or OLED displays on the market, outside of expensive professional reference monitors. These days, though, you'll find tons of OLED monitors that go up to at least 1,000 nits of peak brightness selling for under $1,500. The Studio Display XDR comes with a tilt- and height-adjustable stand, though if you want a VESA adapter you'll need to purchase it separately. Like the laptops, the new monitors are up for preorder starting on March 4 and available in-person at Apple Stores starting on March 11. In your inbox: WIRED's most ambitious, future-defining stories The authors of ICE's ‘mega' detention center plans College campuses are in upheaval over faculty ties to Epstein 50% Off Doordash Promo Code For New & Existing Users 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.

Founder Summit 2026 in Boston: Don't miss ticket savings of up to $300. The tech giant says the chips are engineered around its new Fusion Architecture, an advanced design that merges two dies into a single, high-performance system on a chip (SoC), which includes a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities. Collectively, the CPU boosts performance by up to 30% for pro workloads. “The GPU scales up the next-generation architecture introduced in M5 to an up-to-40-core GPU,” Apple explained in a press release. “With a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core and higher unified memory bandwidth, M5 Pro and M5 Max are over 4x the peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation.” Apple says the M5 Pro is aimed at pro users, such as data modelers, post-production sound designers, and STEM students who need strong CPU and GPU performance, along with large amounts of unified memory for complex projects and workloads. M5 Max is designed for pro users, such as 3D animators, app developers, and AI researchers who run workloads that demand maximum GPU compute and the highest unified memory bandwidth, the tech giant says. The new MacBook Pro models are available for preorder tomorrow, with availability beginning March 11. Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor's degree from University of Toronto and a master's degree in journalism from Western University. MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI, the viral calorie app built by teens Why did Netflix back down from its deal to acquire Warner Bros.? India disrupts access to popular developer platform Supabase with blocking order Jack Dorsey just halved the size of Block's employee base — and he says your company is next An accountant won a big jackpot on Kalshi by betting against DOGE

Founder Summit 2026 in Boston: Don't miss ticket savings of up to $300. The modern enterprise tech stack is mind-bogglingly complex — it employs dozens of tools that work together and break things in uniquely different ways, which is why being able to analyze data streams lets companies understand when, where, and why things break. But security teams can't wait until something's broken to fix it. To use a metaphor: An alarm that hasn't gone off for a while cannot be trusted to be working. And the modern security stack is so dense with tools that a small change in one tool could have unpredictable downstream effects that may compromise detection and response capabilities. The startup just came out of stealth with $38 million in seed and Series A funding, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. In a nutshell, the startup's tech traces data flows in the security stack, from the origin at sources through data pipelines and data lakes to security orchestration and automation response platforms, and then alerts security teams when changes at any point affect detection or response capabilities. The platform also allows companies to simulate how new fixes, patches, or changes could affect their system before they're deployed. “Instead of looking at the data and tracing it forward and seeing where it ends up, we look at your detections because that is the thing that you need to work,” Fig's CEO and co-founder, Gal Shafir (pictured above, center), explained to TechCrunch. And then we alert [the security team] if something has an inconsistency in real time.” Shafir said Fig does this by sampling a company's data as it flows through different tools in the infrastructure and understanding how it changes through the pipeline. This lets the company create a “data lineage” that can be used to find out how any upstream changes could break security tools downstream in real time. The startup says it connects with data links and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems to do all of this, which lets its tech be used with security tools and environments of all sorts. Fig's launch comes as enterprises evolve in real time, especially with C-suites being pressured to find out how AI-powered tools can help save costs, reduce human errors, and improve efficiency. Shafir, who led Google Cloud Security's global architecture team before starting Fig, says he saw this uncertainty firsthand when meeting with customers while pitching Google's AI products. That led Shafir and his co-founders, Nir Loya Dahan (CPO), and Roy Haimof (CTO) to the realization that they could solve security teams' issues with understanding what's happening on the ground. Investors in the funding rounds include Team8 and Ten Eleven Ventures, as well as security professionals including Doug Merritt (former CEO of Splunk), Rene Bonvanie (former CMO of Palo Alto Networks), and the founders of Demisto and Siemplify. You can contact or verify outreach from Ram by emailing ram.iyer@techcrunch.com. MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI, the viral calorie app built by teens Why did Netflix back down from its deal to acquire Warner Bros.? India disrupts access to popular developer platform Supabase with blocking order Jack Dorsey just halved the size of Block's employee base — and he says your company is next An accountant won a big jackpot on Kalshi by betting against DOGE

Indeed, the scientists behind the new paper, Sohrab Rahvar and Shahin Rouhani, estimate that advanced civilizations last no longer than roughly 5,000 years. Physicist Enrico Fermi first proposed the question in 1950, suggesting that life is common throughout the universe and yet our search for extraterrestrial intelligence keeps turning up empty. The Fermi Paradox prompted several explanations for the lack of evidence: either space is too vast for alien signals to be detected, intelligent civilizations are intentionally shielding themselves from being found, or maybe we are all alone in the cosmos, among many other proposed resolutions to the paradox. The new study came up with a different explanation. Today's radio telescopes have the ability to listen to a region of space that covers nearly 100,000 years of the galaxy's history (it takes about 100,000 years for light to travel across the galaxy). Therefore, our technology should have allowed us to detect any civilization that existed within that time period, according to the study. The numbers indicate that technologically advanced civilizations last for around 5,000 years. That would explain why we have not detected radio signals from another planet; any advanced civilization that may have existed in the Milky Way either died out, or their short-lived stint in the cosmos hasn't come up yet. Earth has been an advanced civilization for around 300 years. Over the last 100 or so years, we've been capable of emitting technosignatures that could be detected by intelligent life on another planet. As our modern world continues to grow, our doom is also fast approaching, the new research would seem to suggest. The authors of the new paper list a number of threats that could spell out destruction for advanced civilizations: a large asteroid impacting the planet, volcanic eruptions, climate change, pandemics, nuclear war, and artificial intelligence. Sooner or later, civilizations tend to bring about their own demise. Lara Trump recently claimed the president already has a speech prepared on UFOs. "Obama is talking to a subset of the population whom he knows will understand." For 21 years, the SETI@home project tapped personal computers to analyze unusual radio signals from space. The over 2,400-year-old ceramist's stylus likely features Dionysus...and his other bits.

That's six times more frequent than the average user, meaning only one in seven requests comes from legitimate buyers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Scalpers are reportedly deploying web scrapers to make a quick buck while we're deep in the memory and storage chip crisis. According to DataDome, a firm that protects websites and other online assets from automated attacks run through bots and AI, it has detected an operation trolling for the latest pricing data on memory modules and their components, sending queries every 6.5 seconds — that's over 550 requests for each page, resulting in more than 50,000 requests per hour in total. Instead, it was also looking at various levels of the supply chain, including DIMM sockets and CAMM2 connectors, as well as industrial memory modules designed for B2B transactions. This isn't the first time that we've seen scalpers take advantage of a supply situation in the electronics and computer industry. In fact, this has been a problem with every item that's been limited or is experiencing a shortage in recent history, like the Sony PlayStation 5 Pro 30th Anniversary pre-orders, RTX 5090 GPUs a few days after its launch, the limited edition MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z, and even scalpers taking advantage of selling DDR5 kits for 7x their original value on eBay. But what's insidious about this operation is that it seems to be a deliberate attack orchestrated by an organized entity with access to sophisticated bots. The traffic also did not vary to consider breaks, reduced traffic during weekends, and the peak in activity during early evening. When the bot encountered a technical issue, the traffic dropped considerably for several minutes before returning to 100% capacity — something that just does not happen with organic human traffic. Data centers are already expected to consume nearly 70% of the world's memory supply this year, resulting in limited stocks for every other segment. We hope that the memory chip manufacturers like Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix increase their manufacturing capacity to stabilize prices once more, but this is easier said than done, with new fabs and production lines taking several months, if not years, to build from scratch. 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. Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

When I was a kid, I thought that high blood pressure was a condition that only affected people who made egregious lifestyle choices. Since 1990, the incidence of hypertension has increased globally, with up to one in three adults worldwide affected by it. If people could diagnose and monitor hypertension at home, the World Health Organization estimates that up to 76 million lives could be saved with easy fixes, like stopping smoking or adjusting diet. In the past year, it's gotten much easier to monitor your blood pressure at home. Our top pick is the traditional Withings BPM Vision ($180), which offers tabletop, medical-grade results. Withings also offers Cardio Check-Up, an electrocardiogram review service available through the app that works with the company's ECG-enabled devices. (If your blood pressure doesn't drop while you sleep, that is a serious indicator that you may have heart disease.) Blood pressure monitoring also showed up on the Whoop MG ($359/year), and a new cuffless monitor called the Aktiia Hilo will be making its way stateside later this year. Comfort is an important factor when it comes to blood pressure monitors, since nearly everything can affect the readings, including whether your ankles are crossed. I also like that you can use guest profiles, so you don't need to have the Withings app to use it, and multiple people can also use the BPM Vision. I also like that you can take several readings in a row, which I recommend because my first reading is always high (from the stress of having my blood pressure taken). The BPM Vision doesn't actually work with Withings' Cardio Check-Up—you need an ECG-enabled Withings tracker, like the ScanWatch 2 ($370), to use that feature. It's also bigger than the BPM Connect and a few of the other monitors we've listed here, but this is the best, most accurate, and easiest-to-use blood pressure monitor for home monitoring. New advancements in the category of blood pressure monitoring are few and far between, but the Aktiia Hilo band (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is probably the most exciting in a while. Last year, the Hilo was FDA-cleared; it has been tested and reviewed in multiple clinical-grade studies over several years, and meets the ISO 81060-2 standard for validating the accuracy of blood pressure monitors. If you have hypertension, the Aktiia Hilo could be a game changer when it goes on sale in the US later this year. Even taking your BP in a doctor's office can confound the results, since a lot of people are more relaxed in a clean, empty doctor's office than when trying to get their kids ready for soccer practice. The Hilo measures up to 25 times a day, including while you're sleeping, which is a key measurement, since if your BP doesn't go down during this activity, that's a strong indicator that you may already have cardiovascular disease. Continuous measuring lets you take the average of your measurements, rather than spot-checking at times that may give you an incomplete picture of your cardiovascular health. Unlike the traditional cuff, which uses oscillometric detection (vibrations, basically) to listen to when the blood stops and starts flowing in your veins, the Hilo uses the same optical photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors that many other fitness trackers already use to extrapolate your BP from the shape of your blood vessels. The band is waterproof, and battery life lasts for up to 15 days (I got around 10). The flagship health feature on last year's Apple Watch Series 11 was hypertension notifications. Apple cleared the feature with the FDA in September 2025; however, it is important to note that in the FDA paperwork, Apple states that the Apple Watch itself is not intended to replace traditional methods of diagnosis; it has limited indication for those who have not previously been diagnosed; and that the absence of a notification does not indicate the absence of hypertension. Just because you don't get a notification doesn't mean you don't have high blood pressure, and the readings on the watch are much less accurate than those using a traditional cuffed method. Keeping all that in mind, the Apple Watch is so widely used that it stands to reason that a lot of people who might otherwise not have known about their hypertension will be more aware of it. To turn on hypertension notifications, you must have an Apple Watch Series 9 or later with the latest version of WatchOS; an iPhone with the latest version of iOS; Wrist Detection must be turned on; and you must be older than 22, not pregnant, and not previously diagnosed with hypertension. The Apple Watch is not calibrated with a cuff. It takes 30 days of cardiac data from the existing optical PPG sensors, analyzes it, and gives you a probability that you might have hypertension. It's also significant that this is the first year that the Apple Watch has had a true 24 hours of battery life, so you can wear it while you're sleeping without taking it off to charge. I've turned this on with my Series 11 and have not yet gotten a notification (and hope I never will), but given that general awareness, screening, and detection of hypertension is a huge barrier to diagnosis, the Apple Watch is a significant step forward. As former contributor Richard Baguley says, it achieves this feat with a remarkable degree of accuracy (the device is ESH-10 approved, a widely recognized standard for accuracy in automated blood pressure monitors). The Ease basically turns your phone into a BPM. The base communicates via Bluetooth to your Apple or Android device, takes the reading, and sends it to the iHealth MyVitals app, which is free and accessible to others, like your family or doctor. Baguley notes that the Ease is true to its name and was very easy to use, although it's a bit slower than the other devices we've tried. There's also a useful emergency stop button on the base for anyone who finds the pinching sensation of a blood pressure cuff too uncomfortable, though with every monitor here, if it becomes uncomfortable, you can always just take it off. Alternative: Baguley also tested the Omron Evolv ($120), which is another stand-alone BPM that syncs with the Omron Connect app. You slip the whole device on your arm to measure. Baguley notes that, unlike other devices we've tested, it's a little finicky to use, and the app has to be running to receive data from the device; others, like the Withings, can store data onboard until the app can sync. When I reviewed the Whoop MG (8/10, WIRED Recommends) in June last year, I noted that it was the first wearable fitness tracker that I'd seen to offer blood pressure measurements. At the time, the feature was still in beta; later, Whoop would opt not to pursue FDA clearance. Whoop continues to stand by its blood pressure feature. Whoop does have similar disclaimers as Apple, but it's notable that both Apple and Aktiia opted to pursue FDA clearance. Whoop calibrates the feature with readings from a third-party BPM. It uses the onboard PPG sensors to measure your heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and blood flow patterns to estimate your blood pressure and offers you estimated systolic and diastolic readings. (I did note that Whoop has since changed the wording of its marketing from “medical-grade insights” to “cutting-edge insights” on its website.) As with the Apple Watch, the Whoop band's accessibility may be its main advantage when it comes to checking your blood pressure. Whoop is a privately held company, and sales are not disclosed, but it has been expanding rapidly since 2024. Every monitor and device that we have listed here includes instructions for how to measure your blood pressure. However, here are a few general tips for getting a more accurate reading, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If possible, take your reading at the same time every day. If possible, sit still and rest for about 5 minutes before each reading. If you're using a cuff or tabletop unit, keep your arm flat on the surface in front of you. What Is a Normal Blood Pressure Reading? Each of us has gone to a doctor's office for a routine check-up and had our blood pressure taken. Your diastolic blood pressure reading is the lower reading; it's the pressure exerted when your heart is at rest. If your blood pressure is elevated, it's not necessarily a sign that you're having an emergency. If, however, you have an elevated reading and symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath, call 911 immediately. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that's too important to ignore. 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On June 1, 2023, as a sweltering heat wave baked Quebec, thousands of lightning strikes flashed across the province, setting off more than 120 wildfires. The blazes ripped through parched forests and withered grasslands, burned for weeks, and compounded what was rapidly turning into Canada's worst fire year on record. It just raised millions of dollars in a funding round that it plans to use to accelerate its product development and expand its operations.Until last week the company, which highlights the role lightning played in the 2023 infernos, stated on its website that it has demonstrated technology capable of preventing “up to 100% of lightning strikes.” It was an eye-catching claim that went well beyond the confidence level of researchers who have studied the potential for humans to suppress lightning—and the company took it down following inquiries from MIT Technology Review.“While the statement reflected an observed result under specific conditions, it was not intended to suggest uniform outcomes and has been removed,” Nicholas Harterre, who oversees government partnerships at Skyward, said in an email. “In complex atmospheric systems, consistent 100% outcomes are not realistic, as the experts you spoke to rightly pointed out.” The company now states it demonstrated that it “can prevent the majority of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in targeted storm cells.” So far, Skyward hasn't publicly revealed how it does so, and in response to our questions Harterre said only that the materials are “inert and selected in accordance with regulatory standards.” But online documents suggest the company is relying on an approach that US government agencies began evaluating in the early 1960s: seeding clouds with metallic chaff, or narrow fiberglass strands coated with aluminum. Field trials conducted decades ago by US agencies suggest it could help reduce lightning strikes, at least to some degree and under certain conditions. If Skyward could employ it reliably on significant scales, it might offer a powerful tool for countering rising fire risks as climate change drives up temperatures, dries out forests, and likely increases the frequency of lightning strikes. But researchers and environmental observers say there are plenty of remaining uncertainties, including how well the seeding may work under varying weather and climate conditions, how much material would need to be released, how frequently it would have to be done, and what sorts of secondary environmental impacts might result from lighting suppression on commercial scales. Some observers are also concerned that the company appears to have moved ahead with weather modification field trials in parts of Canada without providing wide public notice or openly discussing what materials it's putting into the clouds. Given the escalating fire dangers, it's “reasonable” to evaluate the potential for new technologies to mitigate them, says Keith Brooks, programs director at Environmental Defence, a Canadian advocacy organization.“But we should be doing so cautiously and really transparently, with a robust scientific methodology that's open to scrutiny,” he says. Skyward's website offers few technical details, but the company says it worked with Canadian wildfire agencies in 2024 and 2025 to demonstrate its technology. The company also says it has developed AI tools to predict lightning strikes that could set off fires. Skyward announced last month that it raised $7.9 million in Canadian dollars ($5.7 million), in an extension of a seed round initially closed early last year. Investors included Climate Innovation Capital, Active Impact Investments, and Diagram Ventures. “Our first season demonstrated that prevention is possible at scale,” Goldman said in a statement. In addition, Unorthodox Philanthropy, a foundation that provided a grant to support Skyward's efforts “to test and deploy” the technology, offered more detail in an awardee write-up about Goldman.It states: “The Skyward team … settled on an inert substance consisting of aluminum covered glass fibers, which is regularly used in military operations to intercept and confuse enemy radar and can also dis-charge clouds.” Additional details were disclosed in a document marked “Proprietary and Confidential,” which the World Bank nonetheless released within a package of materials from companies developing means of addressing fire risks. Skyward's diagrams show planes dropping particles into clouds to prevent cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in “high risk areas.” The company also notes in the document that it uses artificial intelligence for a number of purposes, including forecasting lightning storms, prioritizing treatments, targeting storm cells, and optimizing flight paths. Harterre stressed that the company would deploy the technology judiciously and reserve it for storm events with elevated wildfire risk, adding that such storms account for less than 0.1% of lightning activity in a given area.“Our objective is to reduce the probability of ignition on the limited number of extreme-risk days when fires threaten lives, critical infrastructure, and ecosystems, and when suppression costs and impacts can escalate rapidly,” he said. The document posted by the World Bank states that Skyward partnered with Alberta Wildfire in August of 2024 to “prove suppression by plane and drone,” and that its process produced a “60-100% reduction” in lightning compared with “control cells” (which likely means storm cells that weren't seeded). “BC Wildfire Service is aware that Skyward is developing technology that aims to reduce instances of lightning in targeted situations,” the British Columbia agency acknowledged in a statement provided to MIT Technology Review. “Last year, preliminary trials were conducted by Skyward to gain a better understand [sic] of the technology and its applicability in B.C. Alberta Wildfire didn't respond to similar questions from MIT Technology Review. Within them, snowflakes and tiny ice pellets known as graupel rub together, causing atoms to trade electrons. This process creates highly reactive ions with negative and positive charges. An electrostatic discharge occurs in the form of a lightning strike. Warmer air holds more moisture and adds more convective energy to the atmosphere, which drives the vertical movement of air that forms clouds and stirs up lightning storms. This combines with other growing risks like longer fire seasons, warmer temperatures, and drier vegetation, together raising the odds of more severe fires and more greenhouse-gas emissions, says Brendan Rogers, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center who studies the effect of fires on permafrost thaw. Amid the cultural optimism and booming economy of the postwar period, US research agencies and corporations went on a tear of cloud seeding experiments aimed at conquering nature—or at least moderating its dangers. Research teams launched or dropped materials like dry ice and silver iodide into clouds in attempts to boost rainfall, reduce hail, dissipate fog, and redirect hurricanes. (Soviet scientists also carried out some field experiments on lightning suppression in the 1950s, as well as some related research that involved using rockets to launch lead iodide into thunderstorms in the 1970s, but it's difficult to find further details about those programs.) A near tragedy reignited US government interest in the possibility of lightning suppression in 1969, when lightning struck the Apollo 12 space shuttle twice within seconds of launch. In the aftermath, NASA and NOAA teamed up on what became known as Project Thunderbolt, which relied on the metallic chaff normally used in military countermeasures. Researchers at the US Army Electronics Laboratory had previously proposed the possibility of suppressing lightning by deploying this material, which a handful of defense contractors manufacture. The idea is that chaff acts as a conductor in a forming electrical field, stripping electrons from some oxygen and nitrogen molecules and adding them to others. The mismatched electrons already collecting in cloud water molecules, thanks to all that rubbing between snowflakes and graupel, can then leap over to those newly charged atoms. “By continuously redistributing—and thereby neutralizing—charges within the storm in a weak electric field, the strong electric fields required to produce lightning would never develop,” Stepanian and Williams wrote. NASA and NOAA carried out a series of experiments seeding clouds with chaff from the early to mid 1970s, over Boulder, Colorado, and later at the Kennedy Space Center. So what does all this tell us about our ability to prevent lightning? “In my opinion, it's unambiguously true that this technique can be used to reduce lightning strikes in a storm,” says Stepanian, a technical staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory's air traffic control and weather systems group. (Stepanian consulted with Skyward in its early stages, and he declined to discuss the startup. )His coauthor on the history of lightning suppression seems a tad more skeptical. In an email, Williams, a research scientist at MIT who studies physical meteorology and atmospheric electricity, said there's unmistakable evidence that chaff “has an impact on the electrification of thunderstorms.” But in email responses, he said its effectiveness in reducing or eliminating lighting activity “remains controversial” and requires further testing. In his own written reviews, he's highlighted a number of potential shortcomings with earlier research, including unaccounted-for differences in cloud heights between treated and untreated storms. According to an abstract of the paper—which hasn't been peer-reviewed or published but was presented at the American Geophysical Union conference in December—storms that occurred when chaff was present were generally “smaller and shorter-lived.” But the number of total flashes—which includes ground strikes as well as lightning within and between clouds and the air—was actually significantly higher in clouds carrying chaff: 62,250 versus 24,492. “In summary, so far, it is hard to draw any conclusion about lightning suppression using chaff,” the authors wrote. Williams says their results and other studies suggest that large chaff concentrations may be needed to suppress lightning. But that may also present a significant deployment challenge, since chaff quickly becomes dilute once it's released into the midst of turbulent storm clouds, Williams adds. For instance, a Naval Health Research Center report assessing environmental impacts from decades of training exercises near Chesapeake Bay concluded that “current and estimated use of aluminized chaff by American forces worldwide” will not raise total aluminum levels above the Environmental Protection Agency's established limits. But a US Government Accountability Office report in 1998 raised a few other flags, noting that chaff can also affect civilian air traffic control radar and weather forecasts. It also highlighted a “potential but remote chance of collecting in reservoirs and causing chemical changes that may affect water and the species that use it.” Stepanian says that if lightning suppression efforts require more chaff than the military currently releases, further studies may be needed to properly evaluate the environmental effects. He is also wary of the possible secondary effects of intervening in storms.“I just think there's the potential for unintended consequences if we start to mess with a complex system, like weather,” Brooks says, adding: “It makes me nervous to think there are pilots going on without people knowing about them.” Harterre said that the company abides by any applicable regulations, and that it conducts its field activities “in coordination with relevant authorities and with appropriate authorization.” He added that it releases seeding materials at lower volumes and concentrations than those associated with defense use and that deployments “are limited to defined high-wildfire-risk storm conditions.” The company hasn't released data from its field trials, published any papers in peer-reviewed literature, or disclosed how its tests were performed, as far as MIT Technology Review was able to determine. Without such information it's impossible to assess its claims, Williams says. He and two of his New Mexico Tech coauthors—associate professor Adonis Leal and master's student Jhonys Moura—had all expressed skepticism about the company's previous claim of “up to 100%” lightning prevention. Harterre said Skyward intends to release more technical information as its programs mature. In the meantime, Skyward's investors have high hopes for the company and see “tremendous opportunity” in its potential ability to counteract fire dangers.“Mitigating the exponentially increasing risk of wildfires can only happen if we shift from reactive suppression to proactive prevention,” Kevin Kimsa, managing partner of Climate Innovation Capital, said in a statement when the company's recent funding was announced.Rogers, of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, has spoken with Skyward several times but hasn't worked with them. He also stressed that it's crucial to understand potential environmental impacts from lightning suppression and to consult with citizens in affected areas, including Indigenous communities.But he says he's “optimistic” about the role that lighting suppression could play, if it works effectively and without major downsides. A cheaper, safer, and more abundant alternative to lithium is finally making its way into cars—and the grid. This metal is one to watch for the battery and mining industries. From molten salt to TRISO fuel, here's how technological advancements could upend an old power technology.

Joe Gebbia, cofounder of Airbnb and the US chief design officer appointed by President Trump, was spotted in San Francisco today using a mysterious metallic device. He's wearing metallic buds that bisect his ears, with a matching clamshell-shaped disc in front of him on the counter. After the video was posted Monday morning, social media users were quick to suggest that this could be some kind of prototype from OpenAI's upcoming line of hardware devices designed in partnership with famed Apple designer Jony Ive. An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment on the potential Gebbia video after WIRED reached out. Gebbia also did not respond to a request for comment. The device Gebbia appears to be wearing looks quite similar to the hardware seen in a fake OpenAI ad that was widely circulated on Reddit and social media in February. “Fake news,” wrote OpenAI President Greg Brockman at the time, responding to a social media post. It would also be quite surprising if a government official were seen using Huawei tech, considering the Chinese company is effectively banned from selling its phones in the US due to security concerns. WIRED's audio experts say he's most likely wearing open earbuds, as Gebbia's pair share some similarities with Soundcore's AeroClips or Sony's LinkBuds Clip, though the cases for those buds don't match what's on the table in front of Gebbia. Still, AI detectors are not always reliable and can include false outputs. It's possible that the entire post could be a synthetic hoax. Could this be some kind of soft launch teaser for OpenAI's hardware? From small startups to larger tech giants, numerous companies are developing hardware centered around generative AI models despite high-profile flops like the Humane Ai Pin. It's unclear why Gebbia would be testing prototype hardware in a public setting, like San Francisco, where people who work in the tech industry are more likely to recognize him. “The chief design officer will help recruit top creative talent, coordinate with executive departments and agencies (agencies), and devise innovative solutions,” the order reads. The position mainly focuses on updating government websites for better usability. Anticipation for what kind of hardware OpenAI will eventually release has been brewing since last May, when Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a partnership to create a unique line of AI-powered devices. Despite OpenAI's past denials, commenters on social media are holding out hope that this mysterious, metallic device could be a glimpse of OpenAI's hardware or that another powerful startup has convinced a US official to test their prototype. Keeping all of that in mind, it's still very possible that this brouhaha is about nothing at all, and Gebbia is just rocking an odd-looking set of unidentified headphones. Either way, I'm curious to find out which theory, if any, prevails. Until then, I'll keep sipping on an espresso and refreshing my feed. A wave of unexplained bot traffic is sweeping the web Big Story: The women training for pregnancy like it's a marathon