Eliana Willis

Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNETMicrosoft is now automatically rolling out Windows 11 24H2 to all eligible and supported PCs, whether you like it or not.In a recent status update to its Windows 11 24H2 known issues and notifications page, the company announced that it has reached a new stage in the phased rollout of version 24H2. All eligible computers running the Home and Pro editions of Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2 will now gradually receive the 24H2 version.Also: How to upgrade your ‘incompatible’ Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 in 2025If you don’t want to wait for the automatic update to pop up, head to Settings, select Windows Update, and click the button to Check for updates. You should then see an option prompting you to download and install version 24H2.This automatic update applies only to personal computers not managed by IT departments. Even then, individual users can choose to reschedule or postpone the update. But doing so will pause all updates, not just the 24H2 version. Sooner or later, you’ll probably have to accept the update, especially when 23H2 and 22H2 are no longer supported, just like 21H2 and 22H2 reached end of support in October 2024. More

ZDNETTurns out, you really can make a competition out of almost anything.A recent The New York Times piece peeled back the cover on the e-sport you didn’t know you were missing: the Microsoft Excel World Championship.The world’s greatest Excel-erLast month in Las Vegas, 12 men ran through a pro sports-style entrance tunnel at an e-sports arena, took the stage in front of a cheering crowd, sat at desktop computers, perused a seven-page instruction book, and began — furiously pecking away at Excel spreadsheets.Their goal? To win $5,000, an actual championship belt, and the title of world’s greatest Excel-er.Also: How to create a drop-down list in Excel – quickly and easilyThe actual competition involved solving complex puzzles, navigating mazes, and completing themed challenges, some of which required contestants to work on a rotated spreadsheet. The final centered around World of Warcraft, with the contestants designing an Excel spreadsheet to track vital signs for 20 different avatars and progressing through a simulated game. Players with the lowest score were eliminated every five minutes, keeping the action going. More

ZDNETOpen-source  artificial intelligence (AI) has reached another milestone — and the cost differences it represents could shake up the industry.On par with o1On Monday, Chinese AI lab DeepSeek announced the release of R1, the full version of its newest open-source reasoning model, which the company launched in preview in November. The company noted that R1 beats or is on par with OpenAI’s o1 in several math, coding, and reasoning benchmarks.Also: $450 and 19 hours is all it takes to rival OpenAI’s o1-previewSimilar to o1, R1’s reasoning takes more time to answer than other models, but its queries are meant to be more sophisticated and accurate. Alongside the 671-billion-parameter model, DeepSeek also released six smaller “distilled” versions with as few as 1.5 billion parameters, which can be run on a local device.”Pushing the boundaries of **open AI**!” DeepSeek teased in the thread.DeepSeek’s release marks a promising trend in open-source reasoning models. Just over a week ago, UC Berkeley researchers succeeded in creating an open-source model on par with o1-preview. It only took them 19 hours and about $450 in compute costs.Also: OpenAI’s o1 lies more than any major AI model. Why that mattersPricingR1’s pricing structure is similarly poised to give OpenAI a run for its money. API access starts at just $0.14 for a million tokens (about 750,000 words analyzed) — a fraction of the $7.50 OpenAI charges for the equivalent tier. OpenAI is currently offering unlimited access to o1 for $2,400 a year through ChatGPT Pro.That multiple labs are increasingly able to build models with capabilities comparable to OpenAI’s proves competitive AI doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. Both DeepSeek and UC Berkeley making strides in the open-source AI — and releasing their training methods — draws attention to OpenAI’s long-forgotten original mission (though the company’s ironic name persists). More

Bose had an avid following when it launched its Sleepbuds, but discontinued the product after it “didn’t reach the level of adoption” Bose hoped it would, according to a Bose spokesperson. That’s when three ex-Bose engineers took the sleep earbuds under their wing and developed a brand and product of its own, under Ozlo. The Ozlo Sleepbuds are the best, most comfortable sleep earbuds I’ve tried to date.While a new product isn’t without its flaws — the major one being that the app setup was annoyingly glitchy — the product itself is impressively effective at what it does: getting you to bed. Once the Sleepbuds are in your ears they produce noise-masking (not noise-canceling) white noise that’s dialed at the perfect volume to reduce external distractions and help you quickly fall asleep (and you don’t even need to connect them with a phone or the app for this to work). My bedroom overlooks a bustling Brooklyn street that is always polluted with noise, like police sirens, screaming ambulances, neighbors singing and celebrating into the wee hours of the night, and pedestrians yelling at each other. These earbuds simplified my descent into sleep — I put these earbuds in and couldn’t hear a song or chatter outside my window. Also: I actually want to put these $300 sleep earbuds in my ears every night If you download the app, you can customize your sleep sounds with up to 10 to choose from, set up an alarm in the earbuds, and put a timer on the earbuds for them to shut down after you’ve gone to bed. Some features, like sleep tracking, will also be coming soon in an over-the-air app update. As far as comfort goes, you won’t find a sleep earbud that’s more comfortable to sleep in. This is thanks to the stabilizing ear wings that keep the buds in place without additional pressure buildup (that tends to cause soreness and sensitivity). I’m a side sleeper and found these the most comfortable to wear as I turned from one side of my head to the other. In my review, I write that they dissolved into my ears, becoming nearly invisible as I fell asleep, which is all that you really want out of a sleep earbud. The earbuds were so good that Ozlo was awarded a Best of CES award in the wellness category, as selected by ZDNET, CNET, PCMag, Mashable, and Lifehacker. Of course, $300 is still a pretty penny to pay for a decent night of uninterrupted sleep. But the Ozlo Sleepbuds are the best earbuds for a reason: they have a thoughtful design, are an effective sound-masking technology, and are a comfortable fit that makes me want to wear them every night. Ozlo Sleepbuds tech specs: Form factor: Earbuds | Connectivity: Bluetooth | Battery: 10 hours in the earbuds | Fit: In-ear  More

The Samsung Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, S24 Ultra. Kerry Wan/ZDNETSamsung has been everywhere so far this January, from Las Vegas for CES to San Jose for its Unpacked event, where we expect to hear more about the company’s plans for Galaxy AI and the latest S series of smartphones. The phone maker confirmed a few weeks back that the San Jose event will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 22 — and the day is nearly here (it’s tomorrow). Also: What to expect from Samsung Unpacked 2025: Galaxy S25 Ultra, AI features, and more”Get ready for AI that is more natural and intuitive. The next evolution of Galaxy AI is coming, and it’s going to change the way you interact with the world every day,” says Samsung in its initial press release. What exactly the new AI features will entail is up for grabs, but the idea of a more burdenless, meet-you-where-you-already-are approach to software sounds promising.What we can make an educated guess about has to do with Samsung’s continuous partnership with Google in popularizing Android. As previously reported, the search giant is rumored to give Samsung users a year’s worth of Gemini Advanced access for free when they preorder the upcoming Galaxy S25 series. That’s $200 in value alone.To top that, Samsung is still running a reservation-to-preorder deal More

The Apple Watch Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Ring, and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have ushered a new age of AI wearables. Jason Hiner/ZDNETSamsung is kicking off its first Unpacked event for 2025 tomorrow, January 22. Although there’s still a day until airing, we have a fairly good sense of what will be revealed. Spoiler: The Galaxy S25 series will undoubtedly be the star of the show.Also: Samsung Unpacked 2025: How to watch and what to expectNew Galaxy smartphones are usually shown off during the first Unpacked of the year. Plus, Samsung revealed the topic in its formal invitation. The company stated that “the new Galaxy S series is about [to reset] the bar once again”. Artificial intelligence (AI) is probably set to be the second-biggest topic, as Samsung referred to the “new AI developments as premium Galaxy innovations.”But what about the rest of the show? Well, there’s a good chance more will be unveiled at the event, even if it’s in the form of a short teaser image or video. Samsung has been working on all sorts of devices outside of its wheelhouse for the past few years, and they could make a surprise appearance at Unpacked 2025. Below is a list of four potential candidates.1. Galaxy S25 Slim More

ZDNETHave you ever deleted a text message or conversation on your iPhone only to realize later that you still needed it? We’ve probably all been in that boat. Worry not, for there is a way to resuscitate a deleted message. But don’t wait too long. The iMessage app typically retains deleted texts for up to 40 days. As long as you act before that deadline, you should be able to recover that gone-but-not-forgotten message.OK, fine, but what if you miss the deadline and need to access a text that’s been permanently deleted? One option is to turn to a third-party iPhone recovery tool. I use an iPhone utility called iMazing More