Do you need cellular? All Apple Watch Series and SE models can be purchased with Bluetooth connectivity alone. Adding cellular capacity raises the sticker price by about $100, plus the roughly $10-per-month fee for a wireless plan. The Ultra models can be purchased only with cellular capacity, but you don’t have to activate it. Most…
If you want Apple’s most budget-friendly option, the iPhone 16e is for you. That model is a refresh of the iPhone SE (2022), which is no longer sold by Apple, with some hardware upgrades. It has a 6.1-inch display that our testers say is excellent quality, with smooth scrolling and crystal-clear images. Ditching the Home…
Honorable Mentions Photograph: Kat Merck Shark FlexBreeze HydroGo for $100: I love the original Shark FlexBreeze (above), so I was very excited to see Shark had released a rechargeable portable fan in seven colors, including ones not normally seen in fans, like Lilac and Honeydew. Shark says it can run 30 minutes with the mister…
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has released an open source model that performs advanced reasoning as well as the best offerings from both the United States and China—one of the strongest signs so far that the nation’s big investments in artificial intelligence are starting to pay off. The new model, K2 Think, comes from researchers…
Over several years, consumer advocacy groups criticized Ring’s RFA program, with many asking CR and other product review outlets to stop recommending Ring products. (CR’s evaluations are based on its own independent product testing, and we did not change our ratings.) In 2021, the company completed a two-year audit of its Neighbors network with the New…
We did the math to help you find the hybrids that will start saving you money the fastest (and a few that won’t). We calculated the payoff time using $3.14-per-gallon regular gas, $3.96-per-gallon premium gas, and 12,000 miles per year. We also used CR’s exclusive real-world fuel economy ratings and compared the sticker price for…
I also spoke to John Gallucci, a licensed physical therapist and athletic trainer who specializes in treating symptoms from poor office posture, and he confirmed much of what Egbert said. Closed case, right? Well, it’s certainly not just marketing speak so that office chair manufacturers can charge you extra. But there are some important factors…
Apple has taken the second approach with caveats. Rumors suggest the iPhone 17 Air’s battery capacity will sit around 2,900 mAh, a steep drop from prior iPhone models, especially at the 6.6-inch screen size. But the company is supposedly making up for it with power-saving tricks to make sure battery life remains similar to other…
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…