Robotics

MF3d/Getty Images ZDNET’s key takeaways GPT-5 Pro delivers the sharpest, most actionable code analysis. A detail-focused prompt can push base GPT-5 toward Pro results. o3 remains a strong contender despite being a GPT-4 variant. With the big news that OpenAI has released GPT-5, the team here at ZDNET is working to learn about and communicate […] More

Debian / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways The latest Debian Linux comes with multiple improvements.Debian will no longer support old 32-bit x86 architectures.Debian supports essentially all Linux desktop interfaces.Debian Linux is everywhere. Debian may only be ranked fifth on the DistroWatch list of Linux distributions, but other Linux distros, such as Mint, MX Linux, and Ubuntu, are built on its strong foundation. The latest release, Debian 13, codenamed Trixie, released on Aug. 9. What’s new with Trixie?This latest version features numerous updates and introduces some notable changes. Perhaps the one alteration that will hit old-time Linux users the hardest is that Debian will no longer support the 32-bit x86 architecture. Also: 10 Linux features you should be using to get the best performance and functionalityThis change comes as no surprise. After all, Linus Torvalds bid adieu to the i386 CPU way back in 2012, saying, “I’m not sentimental. Good riddance,” got rid of floppy drives in 2019, and dropped 32-bit support from the Linux kernel with the end of 486 and early Pentium processors earlier in 2025. If you want to run Linux on ancient hardware, Debian won’t help you going forward. Instead, you’ll need to, as Torvalds has said, “run museum kernels.” Also: 8 ways I quickly leveled up my Linux skills – and you can tooDebian developers have also fixed a bug dating back to 2003 in this release. When an operating system is 31 years old — more than old enough to drink, vote, and get a driver’s license — these kinds of things can happen. However, Trixie will officially support the newish RISC-V (riscv64) architecture. The new version also ships with Linux kernel 6.12. This shift is a major update from Debian 12, Bookworm’s December 2022 vintage 6.1.27 Linux kernel. This release also features updated programming languages, including Python 3.13, PHP 8.4, PostgreSQL 17, GCC 14.2, and glibc 2.41. However, the Debian infrastructure still has trouble with rebuilding packages that systematically use static linking. In practice, that issue means the Go and Rust ecosystems will be covered by limited security support for now. For web browsers, Debian recommends and comes with Firefox and Chromium. However, while you can run other web browsers, Debian notes, “The high rate of vulnerabilities and partial lack of upstream support in the form of long-term branches make it very difficult to support these browsers and engines with backported security fixes.” So, take care running other browsers. Also: The 5 most customizable Linux desktop environments – when you want it your wayDebian comes with two major supported desktops: GNOME 48 and KDE Plasma 6.3. It also basically supports all other major Linux desktop interfaces. GNOME 48’s most noteworthy feature is that its dual Wayland and X11 screen compositor, Mutter, now supports dynamic triple buffering. This support means that whether you have a top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 or a low-end PC with integrated graphics, you’ll still get significantly smoother animations, noticeably fewer dropped frames, and more fluid transitions. On the KDE side, the interface’s fractional scaling works much better. That means if you have a high-dots-per-inch (DPI) monitor, your display will look better. This release also ships with a new “Cereratopsian” theme. This is an attractive, organic look based on Trixie, the Toy Story triceratops. Also: Think Linux desktop market share isn’t over 6%? This 15 million-system scan says otherwiseBehind the scenes, Apt 3.0, Debian’s default software package installation program, now comes with colored output, a new signature verification backend (Sequoia), apt-key deprecation, and simplified source management via the .sources DEB822 format. The result is that package operations are safer and more intuitive. The once-controversial /usr merge is now complete. The latest Debian also boasts such security enhancements as support for Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET), Pointer Authentication Codes (PAC), and Branch Target Identification (BTI). On compatible CPUs, Debian provides mitigations for Return-Oriented Programming (ROP)-based exploits, which are increasingly common attacks. Under the hood, the temporary files directory (/tmp) now resides on tmpfs by default. Confused? Don’t be. All you need to know is that it will make reading and writing to storage and your computer faster. Want to check out Trixie?You can download Debian 13 in multiple formats if you’re currently using a Linux distribution based on Debian. Also: 5 Linux distros I recommend to help businesses cut costs and boost securityOther distributions, such as Tails 7.0 RC1 and Gnoppix AI Linux 25_8, and more mainstream distributions, including Mint and Ubuntu, will incorporate the latest Debian in their next major releases. More

Windows 11 comes with its own screen capture app, the Snipping Tool. It’s perfectly serviceable for its purpose, but ShareX is better in just about every way.Like the Snipping Tool, ShareX supports various image capture methods. You can capture the entire screen, a specific window, or a certain region among other areas, as well as record videos. But what makes ShareX so much better is its powerful editing tools. With this set, the app is almost like having a mini-Photoshop at your disposal.Download: ShareXYou can add shapes, text, crop areas, slap on emoji stickers, and blur or pixelate key areas of a screenshot. Once you’ve finished, you can upload your finished content onto a variety of third-party platforms, like Google Drive and Imgur, directly. I remember using ShareX for the first time back in 2021, and it vastly improved my workflow.  More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 users are entitled to a six-month subscription to Google AI Pro for free.The premium tier includes access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, Veo 3, 2TB of cloud storage, and more.You can renew the subscription or cancel it at expiration.The Galaxy Z Fold 7 More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysiOS 26 introduces a new gesture behavior to the iPhone camera switcher.This shift in app navigation has caused frustration among pros and casual users.On the latest dev beta, Apple has added a toggle to revert the behavior to the original.While many would say that the public development of iOS 26 has been rocky, one recent feature, introduced in the latest developer beta, has given me renewed faith in Apple.When the company first launched the iOS 26 beta, most people were drawn to the polarizing Liquid Glass design language. The revamped camera app UI came in second, but something was clearly off about it: Navigating the various camera modes was needlessly changed.Also: Five iOS 26 features I already can’t live without – and how to access themCamera buffs noticed it immediately, followed by regular consumers, including myself — muscle memory will do that to you. When gliding left or right, the different modes would pan in the same direction. Why it’s a problemThis is a departure — a complete 180, if you will — from Apple’s traditional interface physics, where widgets, text, and other elements would move counter-directionally, as if you were dragging them away. This has been the case since the early versions of iOS, whether you were scrolling through a web page or a carousel.Also: Update to iOS 26? We tested the public beta on our iPhones – these features are a big dealBeyond going against your instincts, this gesture change introduces the problem of blocking pertinent information on the screen. As you’re scrolling between camera modes, your finger naturally covers where and what you’re scrolling to. You can see things in motion below.[embedded content]The fixIn response to this issue, Apple has added a new setting for the camera app that allows you to revert the scroll direction to how it was in iOS 18. This is only accessible in the latest developer beta, and can be found at the bottom of the Camera settings page under Mode Switching.Also: Best iPhone 2025: I tested the top models and found the best options for youWith it toggled on, scrolling between camera modes will feel like how it’s supposed to. Should Apple want to make the software transition period less disruptive for users, especially once new iPhones launch in September, it would be even wiser to set the original gesture behavior as the default and allow users to toggle it off instead. Hopefully that’s not asking for too much.Get the morning’s top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter. More

Manufacturers typically offer different runtimes for lamps, refrigerators, CPAP machines, and so on, but if you want to work this out for yourself, you may need two figures, and a bit of math!First, you need the power rating of the device you plan on running, which can usually be found on a label on the device and is measured in Watts (W). You also need to know the capacity of the power station, measured in Watt hours (Wh), which should be printed somewhere on the device. Let’s say you have a device that consumes 200W and a power station that has a capacity of 2,048Wh, you can get a ballpark runtime for the device using the following equation:(2048 x 0.85)/200 = 8.7 hoursNote that the capacity of the power station is multiplied by 0.85 to account for efficiency losses that happen. More

Maria Diaz/ZDNETAs an avid iPad user, I’m all too familiar with the internal struggles that course through me when the battery is about to die. I love using either the iPad 11 or iPad Air to write and work, but I also use it to stream content, play games, and browse the internet after work. This makes me appreciate the iPad’s long battery life, yet my anxiety grows when I start getting ‘low battery’ alerts without a charger nearby.Also: How you’re charging your tablet is slowly killing it – 3 methods to avoid (and the right way)There are many things you can do to increase your iPad’s battery life that go beyond the usual advice. You can start with the usual: lowering your screen brightness and setting the auto-lock to a shorter time, which I’ll cover here. I’ll also cover other ways to extend your battery life that have, altogether, given me a few more hours of use from my iPad.1. Lower screen brightnessThis is one of the first recommendations you’ll hear from anyone offering tips on conserving your iPad’s battery life — and it truly works. Depending on your usage, lowering your screen’s brightness settings could offer you over an hour of extra use on each charge. Also: 5 Apple products you definitely shouldn’t buy this month (and 7 to get instead)Doing so also makes it easier on your eyes, reducing the eye strain involved with staring at bright screens for too long. That’s the main reason I prefer keeping my brightness low, but the perk of a longer battery life makes it even more worthwhile. Your iPad’s screen brightness can be adjusted from the Control Center by swiping down on the top right side of your screen.2. Turn off location servicesLocation services can keep your iPad working extra, especially if you have them enabled for multiple apps. It’s a good idea to turn off location services for any apps that you don’t use often, especially those that you know you won’t be using in the next day or two. While turning off your iPad’s location services won’t double your battery life, it can add a good half hour or more of use. To check and turn off your location services, follow these stepsGo to your iPad SettingsSelect Privacy & SecurityGo to Location ServicesAlso: 8 reasons why I replaced my Kindle with an iPad Mini for reading ebooksYou can check which applications have access to your iPad’s location and decide which ones to revoke. Alternatively, you can turn off all Location Services altogether, especially if you’ll be using your tablet for work, streaming, or playing.3. Turn off wireless when idle More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The 11th-generation iPad 11th Generation normally retails for $349. The upgraded iPad has double the base storage as the previous generation, more RAM, and an upgraded processor in the A16 Bionic chip. However, it still isn’t compatible with Apple Intelligence and doesn’t support the Apple Pencil Pro. more buying choices It’s […] More