Eliana Willis

The Altair 8800, the first commercially successful personal computing device. Boston Globe/Getty Images Have I told you the story about Bill Gates and me in those early days of personal computing? To be clear: Bill Gates is older than I am. In 1975, as Bill was leaving Harvard to start Microsoft, I had just skipped […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Dali IO-8 headphones are available on Amazon for $1,100. They produce a clarity of sound and separation that will blow you away. The beige colorway isn’t the most attractive, and they’re not cheap. –> I’ve been a connoisseur of headphones since the 1980s. Back then, I was living on a […] More

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNETSamsung’s One UI 7 is my favorite Android skin right now. It is fast, responsive, and intuitive. But nothing comes fine-tuned to your experience straight out of the box. You need to personalize your smartphone to make it more appealing. I change almost a dozen settings on every Samsung Galaxy phone to best suit my needs, and I believe these will elevate your user experience, too. Also: Every Samsung Galaxy S25 model compared: Which phone should you buy?From setting the highest available screen resolution to more privacy-focused features, here are 11 Galaxy phone settings that I recommend changing to enhance your Galaxy phone experience. Please note that some settings might be phone-specific.1. Turn off pop-up notifications More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The new Xiaomi 15 Ultra sees improvements in almost all the right places, with a 200MP periscope lens and a more durable design. The camera configuration is still one of the most competitive ones on the market. If you’re in the US, you’ll have to pay to play, with conversions nearing […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 6 is available now starting at $839. It’s a solid budget business laptop with a wide range of configurations. The display and webcam might not be good enough for most users, and opting for higher-end hardware can nearly double the price more buying choices On the […] More

Anthropic / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETInstead of shying away from the use of AI in the classroom, many schools are learning just how useful it can be. That is why Anthropic just debuted a new AI chatbot designed to change how students learn.Also: ChatGPT Plus is free for students now – how to grab this deal before finalsIn a post this week, the company announced that it is launching Claude for Education, a specialized version of Claude specifically designed for teachers and students. The chatbot has similarities to the regular version of Claude, but it has a few major differences. New learning modeA new “learning mode” is the highlight and where Claude for Education is truly different. Rather than simply answering questions, the chatbot will ask questions to help students arrive at an answer on their own. Anthropic says the education version of its chatbot will use guiding questions like “How would you approach this problem?” and “What evidence supports your conclusion?” It will emphasize core concepts and highlight fundamental principles behind problems throughout the conversation, making sure that a student understands what they are learning. Also: Anthropic is expanding Claude AI to the enterprise with domain-specific AI agentsStudents can also do things like write literature reviews with citations, work through complex math problems with step-by-step guidance, and even get feedback on a thesis statement before submitting it, Anthropic added. The tool is also intended to make life easier for teachers and school leaders. Also: Why Anthropic’s latest Claude model could be the new AI to beat – and how to try itTeachers can create rubrics that align with specific outcomes, Anthropic says, handling tasks like writing individualized feedback on student essays and generating chemistry equations with varying difficulty levels. Administrators can do things like analyze enrollment trends, automate repetitive email responses, and convert policy documents into accessible formats that are easier to digest. More

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETI have spent a lot of time writing about how battery wear is a fact of life, and the more a battery is used, the more it will wear. It is a consumable item, and it will wear. Also: The best power banks you can buyBut there are also things that we can do to prevent battery wear. A research paper led by Jihyun Hong at POSTECH and Jongsoon Kim at Sungkyunkwan University on EV (electric vehicle) batteries uncovers a new enemy — too much discharge. Discharging EV batteries harms themWithout getting too deep into the chemistry and physics of battery wear, the study discusses a newly identified mechanism of oxygen loss in layered oxide cathodes used in lithium-ion batteries, specifically during the discharge process at voltages below 3.0V. Because of this additional wear, the study goes on to emphasize the importance of carefully setting DCOVs (discharge cut-off voltages) to slow down degradation and improve battery longevity. Also: 12 Android phone settings you should change to dramatically increase battery lifeBasically, excessively discharging batteries harms them. What about the batteries in our devices?While the study is limited to EV batteries, can we assume that this chemistry applies to the lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones, tablets, laptops, and so on? Also: iOS 18.4 update draining your iPhone’s battery? Try these 6 fixesYes and no. To strike a good balance between battery runtime and battery life, the typical point at which the battery management controller (a circuit that controls the charge and discharge of rechargeable batteries) sets the DCOV cut off is normally around 2.8 to 3.0V. So, there are batteries in all sorts of devices that dip below that 3.0V damaging discharge point mentioned in the study. But not all batteries will go that low, and I have found that higher-end devices and devices built to better handle temperature extremes have more conservative battery management and might cut off at 3.3V. Also: Change these 10 iOS settings right now to instantly get better iPhone battery lifeFor reference, iPhone batteries that I have tested appear to have DCOVs in the range of 3.1 to 3.3V and do not normally go below the 3.0V threshold, so they should not be subject to the damage highlighted by the study. More