Honorable Mentions Courtesy of Amazon bkr Spiked Big Bottle 1L for $62: Glass water bottles remain the cleanest, nontoxic, and greenest choice. Bkr’s signature silicone protects the glass from shattering but also adds an edgy, grippy texture. It won’t dent or clang against surfaces, and if you drop it in a crowded room, it lands…
Top Choice: Porcelain TileA natural fit for high-traffic areas of the home, porcelain tile outperforms every other flooring material we test for resistance to scratching, and it resists dents from light objects like falling utensils very well, says Li Wang, the CR engineer responsible for rating flooring. Porcelain tile comes in a range of styles…
Not all water needs fixing. Whether a softener is worthwhile depends on how hard your water is, how it’s affecting your home, and what you’re hoping to improve. A good plumber or water treatment specialist can help assess your needs. But keep in mind, most installers have a product to sell. “I don’t recommend treating…
The best mirrorless camera for you depends on what you want to do with it. Ultimately, there is no such thing as the perfect camera. Each has its own limitations, and part of the magic of photography is learning how to get around them. What you want to find is the camera best suited to…
Combined with the X1’s four speakers, you’ve got 200 watts of lossless audio power through one cable, and with Dolby Audio support (although no Dolby Atmos) and 25 ms latency on screen there’s no synching issues I could spot. Range for the speakers is up to 100 feet, but you’ll want them closer for cinematic…
I spend a lot of money getting my hair professionally styled. Getting my hair wet would cause it to revert to its original state of chaos and disarray. Plus, snagging another hair appointment could take days or even weeks (insert scream!) to arrive—this is as terrifying as a person who wears extensions and can’t style…
If you have an area of 600 to 800 square feet that’s slightly damp or infused with a musty smell, a medium-capacity dehumidifier may solve your problem. Wetter rooms as small as 400 square feet can also benefit from midsized units, which are designed to remove 30 to 39 pints of moisture per day. As…
“Something like over 70 percent of [Anthropic’s] pull requests are now Claude code written,” Krieger told me. As for what those engineers are doing with the extra time, Krieger said they’re orchestrating the Claude codebase and, of course, attending meetings. “It really becomes apparent how much else is in the software engineering role,” he noted….
Tricky transmission: The logbook frequently mentioned the transmission’s low-speed performance. The testers said that the transmission felt as if it didn’t initially allow the full engine power to reach the wheels. Then it would come on abruptly. This was particularly noticeable at rolling stops, such as coming to an intersection where you slow down for…
To help people with darker skin choose a sunscreen that looks good when they put it on, Consumer Reports recruited 83 adults with complexions ranging from olive to deep brown to try 21 sprays and lotions. (Our volunteers were all women, but there’s no reason our results wouldn’t apply to men, too.) All of the…