Robotics

The Fenix PD36R Pro is our pick for the best flashlight overall due to its excellent performance and convenience. Its rugged design is made of anodized aluminum for extra durability, and it boasts a replaceable, rechargeable 5,000mAh battery. A single charge offers more than 40 hours of use. The company claims a lumen output of 2,800, but in our lab testing, the Fenix PD36R started out at an impressive 3,618 lumens. After one minute, we measured the lux (the amount of light that falls on a surface) to be 122.6 lumens per square meter, and then 46.9 lumens after five minutes. The flashlight was also able to shine at a distance of 414 yards, which is plenty of distance for the average person. The flashlight is classified as an everyday carry (EDC) flashlight, although some verified customers note that it is a bit large for an EDC. Still, it has a two-way body clip you can attach to your bag, purse, backpack, or belt for easy access.Fenix PD36R tech specs: Price: $120 | Lumens: 2,800 | Beam distance: 414 yards | Beam width: 102 inches | IP Rating: IP68+ | Weight: .38 pounds | Battery life: ~42 hours More

A new Costco membership comes with a free $20 gift card right now. StackSocial Thinking about joining Costco? Or, have you been sharing a membership card with your parents or friends? Now that Costco is starting to crack down on membership sharing (in the coming months, the stores will start scanning cards at the entrance […] More

Altayb/Getty Images If you’ve reached a point where your role feels like a dead end, you’re not alone. Research from Gallup suggests that almost 62% of employees say they are not engaged at work, and 15% are actively disengaged. Dissatisfaction is common enough that more than half (52%) of employees are watching for or actively […] More

Blackview BV8900 Pro. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysBlackview BV8900 Pro More

Full Name/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysThe Creative Zen Air SXFI More

Jason Hiner/ZDNETAccording to a report by technology market analyst firm Canalys, the last quarter — Q2 2024 — saw an estimated 8.8 million AI-capable PCs shipped, with Apple Mac systems accounting for 60% of those sales. Additionally, when looking at $800+ Windows PCs, AI-capable PC shipments jumped from 7% in Q1 2024 to 14% in Q2 2024. Does this mean that there’s growing interest in PCs that can handle emerging workloads, or is AI capability becoming a standard feature? Before looking at that, let’s clarify a few things.Also: What is an AI PC? (And should you buy one?)First, what is an “AI-capable PC”? Canalys says that an “AI-capable PC must be a desktop or notebook possessing a dedicated chipset or block to run on-device AI workloads,” and goes on to highlight AMD’s XDNA, Apple’s Neural Engine, Intel’s AI Boost, and Qualcomm’s Hexagon as examples of such dedicated chipsets. The next point that always comes up when discussing the whole concept of AI-capable PCs is whether “AI-capable” is marketing fluff or something definitive and useful. The argument can be made both ways – some will claim that AI workloads are nothing new and that it’s just the type of workloads that have changed, while the point can also be made that modern AI workloads go beyond what the CPU and GPU can comfortably handle without making too many compromises, and that dedicated NPUs (Neural Processing Units) are needed to back up existing silicon and keep everything moving along.I’m old enough to have seen the “this is marketing fluff” argument made numerous times about new PC features. Making and selling PCs is a business, so there will always be marketing. However, workloads change, and progress must be made. Also: ‘SinkClose’ AMD CPU vulnerability explained: How dangerous is it really?And AI workloads are the latest new thing.But we can tease some additional data from the Canalys report that might shed light on consumer interest in AI workloads. A fact that’s hard to overlook from the data is that Apple Macs account for 60% of the 8.8 million AI-capable PC shipments. Since Apple made the switch to its M-series chips in November 2020 and began purging Intel CPUs from the Mac, dedicated neural engines have been built into those chips as standard, making NPUs the default. When most consumers buy a Mac, they’re not choosing an AI-capable system, they’re getting one by default. More

PM Images/Getty Images In 2021 and 2023, Cash App suffered two different data breaches — one in which a former employee downloaded user transaction reports, and another in which an unauthorized person accessed user account data. A new class action lawsuit alleges that Cash App was negligent in handling these breaches and didn’t properly address […] More

Orhan Turan/Getty Images Worrying computer news always comes out of the hacker convention Defcon — and this year was no different. A pair of security researchers, Enrique Nissim and Krzysztof Okupski from security specialist IOActive, announced they’d found a nasty CPU vulnerability, which they named SinkClose.  The flaw endangers essentially all — yes, all — AMD processors made […] More