Robotics

Kerry Wan/ZDNETSamsung is kicking off its first Unpacked event for 2025 on Wednesday, January 22. Although there is about a week until airing (at the time of this writing), we have a pretty good idea 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

Kerry Wan/ZDNETWe’re just a weekend away from Samsung’s big Unpacked event, where the company is expected to unveil the new Galaxy S25 series of smartphones — and possibly more. If last year’s January product launch was any indication of what we can expect from Samsung moving forward, the company may just squeeze in a teaser or two of future devices toward the end of the Wednesday keynote. It might be a new XR headset. It might be the Ray-Ban Meta competitor I’ve been waiting for. It might even be another phone.Also: Samsung Unpacked 2025: How to watch and what to expectThat’s what the latest rumors suggest, with OnLeaks and SmartPrix hinting at a Samsung Galaxy S25 “Slim” edition. As the name suggests, the unique rendition of this year’s mobile lineup will have a thinner design, supposedly measuring just 6.4mm in width. For reference, the iPhone 16 Pro is 8.25mm thick, while the standard Galaxy S24 is 7.6mm thick. If the specs are accurate, the Galaxy S25 Slim would be Samsung’s thinnest phone to date. More

Tyler Daviaux (Unsplash)/ZDNETDo you have an old PC lying around? Maybe your Windows 10 PC won’t support Windows 11, and you’re not interested in purchasing a new machine. What do you do?You can turn to a lightweight Linux distribution. This type of operating system typically has very low system requirements and can make older machines feel as if they’re brand new. Also: 10 Linux apps I install on every new machine (and why you should, too)Although there are some distributions that claim to be lightweight, I’m limiting my choices to those whose system requirements are equal to or less than a 1GHz CPU, equal to or less than 2GB of RAM, and a minimum of 10GB storage. I’ve also only chosen those distributions that don’t skimp on the features in favor of speed. But which distribution should you choose? Let me help you with that.1. Linux Lite More

Xie GengHong/Getty Images This year, artificial intelligence will be dominated by the maturation of AI code as corporate “workers” that can take over corporate processes and be managed just like employees, according to a year-outlook blog post disseminated by investment bank Goldman Sachs featuring its chief information officer, Marco Argenti. Human and machine resources “The capabilities of […] More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?The Nano Power Bank More

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETSome of the most interesting products we saw this year and last take an analog product and digitize it: the ReMarkable Paper Pro, which is as close to a perfect copy of pen and paper as I’ve seen, or Amazon’s new Kindle Scribe, which aims to duplicate the simple process of reading a book and scribbling notes in the margins.Also: Five CES 2025 products I’d buy as soon as they’d take my moneyBut taking this to the next level is the Nuwa Pen, an actual ink pen equipped with three tiny cameras that capture what you write (on actual paper) and save it in a digital library in the accompanying app. You can then search your scribbles by content: names, numbers, and keywords, as well as interact with the app’s built-in large language model to ask questions about what you’ve written. This last part interested me the most, as it’s necessary to make this product truly useful.  More

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETLenovo unveiled an unexpected new laptop alongside its fleet of new devices at CES 2025: a 14-inch laptop with a “rollable” display that extends upwards over 16 inches, and it works better than I initially assumed. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 looks like a normal 14-inch device on the surface but hit a button on the keyboard, and the display starts growing upward. Once it’s fully extended, the screen measures 16.7 inches, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but Lenovo says you gain about 50% screen real estate. Also: CES 2025: The 12 most impressive products so farIt’s definitely comparable to working on an external monitor, as I was able to fit two browser windows of equal size on top of one another just fine when I demoed it. Working on a portrait-oriented monitor is not everyone’s preference (as opposed to a landscape orientation) but plenty of users prefer it, especially coders and writers who work with long, vertical text windows.  More

ZDNETSome Linux distributions ship with plenty of pre-installed apps, whereas others tend to be a bit leaner. Even those distributions that include a host of applications don’t always get the collection of pre-installed apps quite right.From my experience, there are certain apps that should be considered “must haves” for every new user, and it often confuses me why they aren’t included in many of the major distributions.Also: How to create system restore points on Linux with Timeshift – and why you shouldThe good news is that there are plenty of apps to easily install, most of which are found in the standard repositories.What is my list of “must haves” for Linux? Let’s find out.1. LibreOfficeStandard office suiteLibreOffice More