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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
193 stories archived
Lowe’s Promo Codes and Deals: Up to $300 Off Appliances
Find the latest Lowe’s promo codes and offers, including up to $300 off select major appliances and $5 off $50 with sign-up, here at WIRED.
Nothing Phone 4a Pro review: premium aluminium meets quirky design
Mid-range Android stands out with huge screen, slick software and dot-matrix display, but falls just short of greatnessNothing’s latest quirky smartphone is a huge aluminium Android with three cameras and a big LED matrix screen on the back that challenges the notion mid-range phones can’t be just a bit more fun.The Phone 4a Pro is a bit of a departure from UK-based Nothing’s previous glass-clad transparent designs. It still has a touch of those elements but only in the camera island at the top, with the rest of the body now solid aluminium – a rare sight in the world of Android phones. Continue reading...
Ulta Promo Codes: Up to 50% Off in May
Shop the latest beauty trends and save big using an Ulta promo code for beauty tech, makeup, and more.
Quantum ‘Jamming’ Could Help Unlock the Mysteries of Causality
To keep communications secure in a post-quantum world, cryptographers are digging down into the concept of cause and effect.
How Forza Horizon took on Japan with deep research – and 360-degree cameras
The open world driving sim has roared through locations from Colorado to Australia, its authentic feel resting on exhaustive research. But, as the team explain, this was the toughest challenge yetSince the arrival of the original Forza Horizon in 2012, a game that revolutionised open world driving sims by setting players loose in a virtual Colorado, British developer Playground Games has promised authenticity with its settings. For each instalment, design teams are sent out on location to take thousands of photos, hours of video, even detailed captures of the sky, before construction of a virtual copy begins. It’s a huge undertaking. But it seems that for much of the past decade, one country remained slightly out of reach – an intimidating prospect. “Japan has been on our shortlist for several games now,” says design director, Torben Ellert. “But we just didn’t feel like we were ready to take on the challenge of building it.”It’s not just about the sheer variety of the country’s landscape. There’s something else going on. Most video game players hold an image of what it is like to explore Japan. It may be inspired by the fictitious rural town of Inaba in Persona 4, or the busy docks of Yokosuka in Shenmue, or perhaps the neon-drenched Kabukichō district of Tokyo, which forms a regular backdrop in the Yakuza series. For decades, gamers around the world have been bombarded with images of the country that are often highly stylised and fragmented, but nonetheless potent and persuasive. As art director Don Arceta puts it, “with Japan there’s such an expectation [of] what gamers want - it’s a certain version of Japan that they picture.” Continue reading...
The Best Smart Sprinklers and Irrigation Systems: In-Ground Sprinklers, Hose Timers (2026)
We’ve tested almost a dozen options that handle everything from scheduling and weather changes to water conservation, so you don’t have to.
Gotta catch an MP! Players ‘debate’ UK politicians in Pokémon-style game
Creator of Politidex hopes free online app will help humanise politics and act as a way of ‘flipping the narrative’The year is 2016 and Pokémon Go has taken over the world. People are wandering for miles on end, disrupting concerts, and even slamming into poles in their attempts to capture fantastical cartoon creatures.Ten years later, a new generation are flocking to another Pokémon-inspired game. Instead of Pikachu, Charizard and Blastoise, however, players are catching and training up their local politicians in order to build their own political parties. Some MPs are even catching themselves. Continue reading...
The FBI Wants ‘Near Real-Time’ Access to US License Plate Readers
Plus: Google publishes a live exploit for an unpatched flaw, the feds arrest two men accused of creating thousands of nonconsensual deepfake nudes, and more.
I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human | Wendy Liu
As intelligence itself becomes privatised by big tech, allowing your intellectual faculties to wither in service of inane bots seems a dangerous moveLong before the age of multi-billion-dollar AI companies promising to disrupt the field of software development, I was learning to code the hard way.It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer. With the help of a basic text editor program, I learned how to make websites – first basic, then increasingly complex – from scratch. The results were never as beautiful or polished as in my imagination, but I could live with that, because I was learning a craft. The painstaking hours of debugging and poring over arcane documentation for projects that I eventually abandoned never felt wasted.Wendy Liu is a writer based in San Francisco and the author of Abolish Silicon Valley Continue reading...
Cosmic Voids May Contain the Universe’s Best Secrets
Once dismissed as empty expanses between galaxies, cosmic voids are becoming one of the most promising tools for probing the universe’s biggest mysteries.
Google announces glasses are back and search is getting an AI makeover
At annual I/O conference, company debuts a product for everyday consumers to create autonomous AI agentsGoogle announced on Tuesday that it would expand its search bar, the centerpiece of the most-visited website in the world, with a heavy dose of artificial intelligence. The tech giant is also trying its hand at hi-tech glasses again, more than a decade after wearers of its first eyewear were dubbed “glassholes” and laughed out of San Francisco.Google executives announced at the company’s annual conference for software developers, Google I/O, that its search box would accommodate longer and more specific queries than before – questions more like those people would ask one another than Search’s idiosyncratic syntax. The changes will direct users to engage directly with Google’s chatbot. The change to search is underpinned by the company’s new artificial intelligence model, Gemini 3.5, announced the same day. Continue reading...
Legal fail: Don’t use AI to sue Facebook users for calling you a bad date
Fake citations dashed a dude’s “Are We Dating the Same Guy” revenge lawsuit.
The Universe Is Full of ‘Impossible’ Black Holes. Now Scientists Know Why
There are black holes that are too big to be born from the death of a star but aren’t quite supermassive either. There’s finally evidence for where those came from.
Elon Musk took too long to sue OpenAI, jury unanimously agrees
Musk plans to appeal after judge immediately affirmed the jury's decision.
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech while emulating Xi Jinping on AI
Tim Cook and Elon Musk, among other tech CEOS, will accompany the US president on a trip to ChinaDonald Trump is heading to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, would join the US president. Other guests from the tech sphere include Meta’s recently appointed president, Dina Powell McCormick; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of computer memory maker Micron; Chuck Robbins, CEO of longtime telecom giant Cisco; and Cristiano Amon, CEO of semiconductor maker Qualcomm, according to a White House official. Continue reading...
Best Power Banks (2026): My Picks After Testing Over 100
Keep your phone, laptop, handheld gaming console, and other electronics running with these travel-friendly power banks.
The US is betting on AI to catch insider trading in prediction markets
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission wants us to know it's taking this very seriously.
Russia pressures university students to become wartime drone pilots
Universities promise no frontline duty and perks if students enlist in military.
Forget the AI job apocalypse. AI’s real threat is worker control and surveillance
A new divide is emerging: between workers who use AI at work and those who are managed by itThe real danger that artificial intelligence poses to work is not just job loss – it is the growing divide between people who use AI to extend their skills and those whose working lives are increasingly shaped by opaque, AI-powered systems of surveillance and control.The debate about artificial intelligence and how it will affect workers is stuck in the wrong place. On one side are warnings that machines are coming for millions of jobs. On the other are claims that AI will turbocharge productivity. Both stories miss what is already happening in workplaces across the world, from Britain to Kenya to the United States. Continue reading...
Memorial Day Dyson Vacuum Deals: V15 Detect, Gen5Detect, PencilVac On Sale
Wishing for your very own Dyson vacuum? Don’t miss these vacuum deals happening over the holiday weekend.
Driving sims were once all the rage – will Forza Horizon 6 get them back on track?
Driving sims were overtaken by open world fantasy adventures, but new upgrades show how much joy there is in the genreI have spent the last week careening around Japan in a Porsche 911, seeing the sights, racing other cars and occasionally veering off the road to plummet through an ancient bamboo forest. You all know what’s coming next … this wasn’t in real life, folks – it was in Forza Horizon 6, the latest instalment in Microsoft’s series of open world driving games set in authentic-looking, real-world locations.Reviewing this game (which is out now on Xbox and PC, and coming to PS5 later in the year) has reminded me of the sheer fun and exhilaration that driving games can provide. It’s easy to forget, but this was the biggest genre in town from the 1990s to the early 2000s. Consoles were sold on how good their racing games were: the original PlayStation had Ridge Racer, the Sega Saturn had Daytona USA. Later came the dirt-track thrills of Colin McRae Rally, the chaotic destruction of Burnout, the sophisticated realism of Gran Turismo. They were the bestsellers of the era, showcasing the future of real-time 3D visuals. Continue reading...
L.L.Bean's Zip Hunter's Tote Is the Only Carryall You Need
Its do-it-all thermoplastic lining can both carry gear through wet muck and transport wet, mucky groceries home from the store.
Online child safety campaigners call for US inquiry into Roblox
Groups claim game platform’s design and business model conflict with children’s developmental needsOnline child safety campaigners including Jonathan Haidt, the bestselling writer on the mental health impacts of social media, have called on the Trump administration to investigate Roblox, the booming gaming and chat platform used by 150 million people daily, including a large number of under-13s.Haidt’s Anxious Generation Movement, Fairplay and the rightwing anti-pornography National Center on Sexual Exploitation are among groups claiming Roblox’s design and business model conflict with children’s developmental needs. Continue reading...
Forza Horizon 6 review – classic open world racing sim roars beautifully into Japan
Microsoft; PC, Xbox Series X/S (PS5 due later) Dreamy vistas of the country’s natural beauties are stunningly delivered – but won’t distract from thrilling high-end driving adventuresThe Forza Horizon games have always been about drama. Not just the tension and excitement of racing, but also the sensory impact of the natural environment – the sun rising over a dense city, rain clouds hovering above a valley floor. There are moments in this game – perhaps after emerging from a dense forest, or coming up from an underpass – where Mount Fuji briefly appears in the distance, hazy yet majestic, the Platonic ideal of a volcano – and it almost takes your breath away. Fans of this series have been waiting years for Japan and now here it is, the whole country, reduced, remixed and repackaged as a driving paradise.In many ways, Forza Horizon 6 is a continuation of what this series has always been about. You enter a festival-style driving competition then drive around a vast map splattered with various races and challenges, earning reputation by competing well and buying new vehicles for your extensive garage. There are slight changes this time – you start as a rookie not an established legend, so you have to qualify to enter the festival, and Playground has re-introduced the need to unlock successive levels of competition bringing back the sense of progression from the earliest titles in the series. You start out clattering about in slower C-class vehicles on easier circuits and have to work hard to start lining up against super cars such as the Ferrari J50 or Lamborghini Huracán. Continue reading...