Eliana Willis

Jackery is a well-known brand in the power station space, and for good reason. Its versatile power stations consistently rank among our best products, thanks to the enormous power these devices provide and their flexibility in setup, especially in a camping scenario.Steve Conaway, the director of CNET Test Labs (at our sister site), has tested dozens of power stations and said the Jackery is one of his top picks. “The versatility of modularity is what makes this power station so impressive,” Conaway said. “You can choose to take just the one unit for regular camping, but if you wanted a bigger setup to power a cabin, you could easily add on more units.”Review: This portable battery station can power your home for 2 weeksIn our lab testing of the 2000 Plus unit, we found it charged devices at 17.76Wh per minute, and it took 48 minutes to charge a device to 50% and one hour and 18 minutes to charge a device to 80%. Plus, you can add on the PackPlus E2000 Plus battery pack for an additional 2042.8Wh of electrical storage capacity to the system.Remember that the more additions you add to this setup, the heavier it will be. On its own, it weighs 41.9 pounds but can reach well over 100 pounds with more units. Despite the weight, Reddit users note that the solar additions, in particular, have been useful in camping and outdoor situations.Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus specs: Watts/hr: 2042.8W | Continuous watts: 3000W | Surge watts: 6000W | Solar input (W): 1400 | Ports: 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, 4 AC | Weight: 61.5 pounds More

miniseries/Getty Images IDC estimates that companies invested $16B in generative AI solutions in 2023, and that they’ll invest $140B in 2027 — a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 70%, according to the Trends in AI for CRM research from Salesforce. Here is the executive summary of the report:  Also: Today’s challenge: Working around AI’s […] More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?Right now, Amazon is selling the 15-inch MacBook Air (M2) for $250 off More

June Wan/ZDNETTwo years after settling a class action lawsuit over faulty MacBook keyboards, Apple is finally sending payouts to qualifying individuals. The latest update to the MacBook Keyboard Litigation Settlement website says that payments would be issued for approved claims by August 2024. Based on a report from 9to5Mac and other sites, some people have already received checks for as much as $395.To cash in on the settlement, you must have purchased a MacBook with a butterfly keyboard between 2015 and 2019. You also must have gotten keyboard repairs or service for your system.If you had at least two topcase replacements within four years of purchase, you could get up to $395. If you had just one topcase replacement, you may be due as much as $125. A topcase consists mainly of the battery, keyboard, and a few smaller components. If you only ordered keycap replacements, your payout would be no more than $50.Also: Sorry, Apple: This Logitech keyboard is my new go-to for the MacWhatever types of repairs you received, you must have already filed a claim by now, as the deadlines all passed on March 6. In the claim, you would’ve had to assert that the repairs didn’t fix the keyboard issues. If you did file a claim, then there’s nothing more you need to do. Apple will notify you via email when your check or electronic payment has been sent.The entire process has dragged on for quite a while. Although Apple settled the case in July 2022, the court didn’t approve Apple’s settlement until May 2023 and took until June 27, 2024, to issue the payment order. More

Nina Raemont/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeaways The Nothing CMF Buds Pro 2 More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysSamsung’s Galaxy A35 5G More

Jack WallenZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysVanilla OS “Orchid” is available now to install and use for free.Vanilla OS supports several installation package types, offers a clean GNOME desktop, and offers a very shallow learning curve to appeal to any user type.Some user types might not love the GNOME desktop environment.In the land of Linux, there are a few distributions that go out of their way to set themselves apart. One such take on the open-source operating system is Vanilla OS. I’ve previously covered Vanilla OS to discuss its take on security, which (of course) is a key factor.Also: The first 5 Linux commands every new user should learnHowever, the developers of Vanilla OS have spent the last year completely rewriting the operating system to redefine simplicity and performance. The end goal is to provide a seamless and intuitive experience for users of any type.They succeeded.By a mile.Also: 5 reasons why Linux will overtake Windows and MacOS on the desktop – eventuallyVanilla OS offers a few features that make it stand apart from other operating systems and the end result is simplicity, cleanliness, freedom, and an obstruction-free experience.Even the new installer is impressive. For example, during the installation wizard, you can select what you’d like installed. You can enable the installation of LibreOffice and common utilities (to go alongside the core utilities and web browser).  More

PM Images/Getty Images Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) developers continuously push the boundaries of what’s possible, such as Google’s Gemini 1.5, which can take in a million tokens of information at a time.  Still, even this level of development is not enough to make real progress in AI, say competitors who go toe-to-toe with Google. […] More