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…
So what does all this new technology—the voice commands, the on-screen help, the file sorting—actually mean for you? The promise is one of convenience: a smarter computer that can save you time, simplify complex tasks, and help you find information more naturally. This brings us to the ultimate question: Is a new computer actually required…
An image from the study illustrating how plastic bottles reach Latin American Pacific coasts. Illustration: Garcés-Ordóñez et al. (2025) (CC BY 4.0) The scientists found that, like other marine debris, the bottles and caps they retrieved were sometimes colonized by immobile organisms called epibionts, which live on the surface of other organisms or materials. The…
Despite touting ambitious goals of making America healthier, the Trump administration on Monday revealed in court documents that it is backpedaling on a ban on cancer-causing asbestos. Last year, under the Biden administration, the Environmental Protection Agency took a long-awaited step to ban the last type of asbestos still used in the US—chrysotile asbestos, aka…
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. In a social media post on X viewed more than 500,000 times, a man who looks like Gebbia sits with an espresso at a coffee shop. He’s wearing metallic…
US president Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance. Zhao, widely known as CZ, pled guilty in November 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws and US sanctions. The plea formed part of a sweeping deal with the US Department of Justice, under which Binance was required to pay…
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…
If its performance was a smidge better, this Moto would be a home run. It’s worth considering if money’s tight, but spring for the Moto G Stylus if you can (even if you don’t care for the stylus). Keep in mind, Motorola will likely announce a new version early in 2026. Other Motorola Phones to…
Recently departed staffers maintain that the current administration is simply taking a new approach to reining in the agency. Rather than attack it head on, they say, it’s quietly draining the staff, resources, and authority it needs to be effective. In April, acting CFPB leaders tried to lay off all but roughly 200 of the…
SpaceX is planning to raise tens of billions of dollars through an initial public offering next year, multiple outlets have reported, and Ars can confirm. This represents a major change in thinking from the world’s leading space company and its founder, Elon Musk. The Wall Street Journal and The Information first reported about a possible…