Despite the perception that our teenagers and young drivers profess to know everything, they’re still watching and learning from how their parents behave. The example you set for them behind the wheel may be the most important in terms of actually keeping them safe, more so than any other safety message you’ve given them in…

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Hard problems are usually not a welcome sight. But cryptographers love them. That’s because certain hard math problems underpin the security of modern encryption. Any clever trick for solving them will doom most forms of cryptography. Several years ago, researchers found a radically new approach…

If you were trying to learn how to get other people to do what you want, you might use some of the techniques found in a book like Influence: The Power of Persuasion. Now, a preprint study out of the University of Pennsylvania suggests that those same psychological persuasion techniques can frequently “convince” some LLMs…

First, we tested the Whirlpool WFW5720RR for performance and found the washer to be excellent at cleaning clothes. After we removed the load, we monitored the humidity inside the drum. We then ran the Dry Drum cycle (which runs a fan and periodically tumbles the drum for four hours) and recorded the humidity again. After…

Enter the MagSafe Accessory World Joby GripTight Tripod Mount for MagSafe Peak Design Creator Kit I have been testing MagSafe accessories for years, and you should totally take advantage of the vast ecosystem with your new Pixel. Whether you want a magnetic wallet or phone tripod, we have plenty of WIRED-tested recommendations in our guides….

As a new parent myself, I can tell you unequivocally that when babies become mobile, the world becomes their playground. Coffee tables become climbing gyms, cabinets become treasure troves, and phone chargers become rope toys. Babyproofing your home isn’t about bubble-wrapping your life; it’s about thinking like a young mind and getting one step ahead…

That’s why we put dozens of models to the test. In our lab, we expose detectors to low CO levels (100 parts per million) and high CO levels (400 ppm) to see how quickly and accurately they detect the colorless, odorless gas. For models that display or announce specific CO levels, we check the accuracy…

If you only do one thing, do this. The biggest power hog in your laptop is, by far, the screen. The brighter it is, the more power it consumes. Unless you’re working under direct sunlight, you probably don’t need it at its highest setting. Lowering the brightness is as simple as tapping a function key…

To put a wall oven through its paces, our experts use a combination of calibrated time and temperature measurements that size up how evenly an oven distributes heat for baking, broiling, and self-cleaning. Our test engineers bake over 400 cakes and 2,400 cookies each year, looking for the models that do the best job baking…

HDR, short for high dynamic range, is now found in a vast majority of midsized to large sets. It increases the contrast between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks a TV can produce. To do a good job with HDR video, a TV needs to get bright enough to display brighter, more colorful images…