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"If you've made grilled cheese in a pan and you put a lid on there, it melts the cheese faster because the lid helps trap the heat," a National Weather Service official told NPR.

(Image credit: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, EPA, USFWS)

• AI tools are reshaping how we live, from morning chores to late-night admin
• Time isn’t just money anymore - it’s a function of how much tech you can manage
• AI promises more free time, but the wealth gap decides who gets to enjoy it

As AI continues to reshape how we work and live, the promise of regaining time is attracting growing interest.

New research from Lloyds Bank has claimed emerging technologies could help people reclaim up to 110 minutes of free time per day.

A focus on automating daily routines, such as chores, shopping, and travel, could help free up time, but the benefits appear skewed toward high earners. AI tools, including AI assistants, autonomous drones, and driverless vehicles, are framed as part of this shift toward a more efficient daily life, but these are not cheap.

AI tools free up time, but at a cost

The bank found in the UK, 86% of adults say having more time is important, rising to 99% among those earning over £100,000.

While 60% of the wider population is open to using new technologies to save time, this jumps sharply among affluent individuals, with nearly all saying they are willing to adopt such tools.

“We know life is hectic, with work, family, and personal commitments all vying for attention,” said Adam Rainey, Director of Mass Affluent at Lloyds.

“But our research shows people are becoming more comfortable with using technology to handle daily tasks.”

The most time-consuming responsibilities, according to the study, are cleaning, cooking, and managing finances.

Almost half (47%) of respondents identified household chores as their primary time drain, while 31% pointed to financial admin.

AI is being promoted as the solution through smart home devices or personal AI agents. These tools promise to handle repetitive work.

Yet many of the best AI tools come with steep costs or require a level of digital skill that remains out of reach for some.

Banking apps continue to lead among accessible time-saving tech, with 48% of adults relying on them. However, the gap widens when it comes to advanced tools; 49% of high earners are now using AI assistants, and 92% agree that wealth enables more free time.

It’s a compelling idea that could integrate everyone, but also one that raises the question - who has the means to work smarter?

As with the story of the Mexican fisherman, it’s worth asking whether we’re overengineering the pursuit of a simpler life some may already have, just without the premium subscription.

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Much of the Midwest and the East Coast are under a heat advisory or warning this week as dangerous heat continues. Here's how to stay cool.

(Image credit: Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

Microsoft continues to support your PC only if you use cloud backups linked to your OneDrive account.

China is closely watching whether Israel and Iran can broker a ceasefire. Beijing gets much of its crude oil imports from Iran through a "dark fleet" of vessels to evade American sanctions.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 275, for June 25.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for June 25, #745.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 479 for June 25.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,467 for June 25.

When we wrote our XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro review, which led to it being crowned as our favorite budget option among the best portable projectors, we noted three flaws: it didn't have a built-in battery, the speakers were weak, and it couldn't hold up well in bright conditions.

The last of these isn't unique to the MoGo series, and you have to pay a lot more for brightness that can stand up to sunlight, so that's fair enough.

The other two, however, are solvable problems – and in the MoGo 4, XGIMI has not only fixed them, it's made a better, tighter portable projector all around, based on my time with it so far.

This is far from a full review, but the improvements to the MoGo 4 were obvious to see just from my early time testing it. This is such an impressive portable entertainment device for its $499 / £509 price.

I pulled the MoGo 4 out of its box at home, and because of its new built-in battery, it was up and running within a handful of seconds, pointing at a convenient white wall. The design is actually even slicker than the last version, but still with the same smart 'fold-away' cylinder shape that protects the lens when you're not using it – and this is all despite adding the battery.

XGIMI says the battery should last for about 2.5 hours, and I haven't put this fully to the test yet (obviously, we'll check for our full review), but one thing I noted immediately is that being on battery power doesn't diminish the performance.

(Image credit: Future)

Sometimes with high-power devices that switch to batteries, you see some slow-down in the smart TV software or in other areas – but one of the elements that impressed me early here is how slick its Google TV integration is.

It responds instantly to every button press on the remote, so scrolling around is completely frustration-free – and there are some expensive options among the best TVs that I can't say that about.

During setup, the automatic keystone correction and focus didn't seem to kick in right away. Instead I had to hit the focus button on the remote early on to make the setup screens look clear, and the keystone fixing started working suddenly when I got to a certain point in the process.

After that, the keystone correction activated every time I moved the projector – even if I just wobbled it a bit too much. This again worked incredibly quickly – in under a second each time, it had a stable new picture.

(Image credit: Future)

The other element I noticed during this time, even before getting anything playing on it, was that the sound seemed to be massively improved. And once I fired up some movie images, it was clear that this is the case – the MoGo 4 sounds ridiculously good for speakers built into a small projector frame.

I tested the MoGo 4 in my spare room, where I have a TV with a Sonos Ray soundbar set up – my partner was confused about the type of projector it was, because she was convinced I must have connected it to the Sonos Ray given the sound she was hearing from downstairs.

The sound is full, it's wide, it's bass rich, and dialogue remains clear. Obviously, it still has the potential problem that if it's behind you, it'll sound behind you – but I had it in front and to the side of me, and I felt like I was getting a satisfying movie experience just by taking this thing out of its box, pointing it at the wall, and firing something up. No extra equipment, not a single cable involved.

(Image credit: Future)

The picture quality itself is very similar to the MoGo 3 Pro, and capable of producing really rich colors, good detail (though this is an HD projector, not 4K), and enough brightness to be clearly watchable even with a decent amount of ambient light – I had a (not particularly bright, but still normal) light on in the room, and it was perfectly watchable overall.

As you'd expect, dark tones are the problem, especially when projected onto a wall instead of a screen that can help with it. With ambient light, it's not really capable of anything you'd call 'black' – in the image below, the jellyfish is supposed to be on a black background, not a see-through one – but I don't hold this against it, because it's a problem with all portable projectors.

(Image credit: Future)

Watching brighter scenes, I was totally pulled in by the combination of the solid colors and rich sound, on a 65-inch-ish screen that I'd just instantly thrown up from about six feet away.

Given the quality of the viewing experience, and the convenience of the battery-packing design and elements such as having a full-size HDMI port, and a mini-remote that's attached to it (so you can leave the regular Google TV remote at home), I think this looks like a real winner for the price.

There is a more expensive laser version coming too, which is about 25% brighter, and that XGIMI says it's the most compact laser projector to date. I'm looking forward to seeing what that can do.

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• A team of Chinese researchers has achieved a 1Gbps data transmission from a satellite
• The satellite operates 22,807 miles above Earth, while Starlink satellites are at around 341 miles
• This kind of speed could be revolutionary for internet connections in remote areas on Earth, but also in space

It's no secret that getting a stable, reasonably fast internet connection in non-urban areas is still a challenge (and even those of us living in cities sometimes struggle). Elon Musk's satellite internet service, Starlink, goes a long way toward making internet more accessible all around the globe – but it just got majorly overshadowed by a small team of Chinese scientists.

This new breakthrough in satellite internet technology (via Interesting Engineering) was achieved by Liu Chao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor Wu Jian of Peking University of Posts and Telecommunications. The scientists developed a new method of combating the biggest hurdle faced by satellite laser connections: atmospheric turbulence.

Combining two already established technologies and using them in synergy resulted in shockingly fast data transmission. But this isn't just about speed (although that's arguably the best part for us, internet users). It's also about the distance to the satellite and the laughably low wattage of the laser used by the Chinese researchers.

Super-fast satellite speeds with a surprisingly low error rate

A key benefit of this method lies in the relatively low error rate during data transmission, increasing the chance of achieving usable signals by nearly 20% (previously 72%, now 91.1%). As we all know, speeds are just one part of the equation when it comes to internet connections, and anyone who's ever had to deal with an unreliable ISP knows that stable is often better than faster.

Still, the Chinese researchers were reportedly able to achieve both through a mix of Adaptive Optics (AO) and Mode Diversity Reception (MDR). The former sharpens distorted light, and the latter captures scattered signals. Only when combined did these two separate methods achieve 1Gbps in data transmission, though, and the scientists praise this method for successfully avoiding drops in communication quality.

(Image credit: T-Mobile)

They carried out the test at the Lijiang observatory in China, using a 5.9-foot telescope that contains hundreds of tiny mirrors – that's the adaptive optics system in play. These mirrors reshape incoming laser light to account for atmospheric turbulence. Speaking of lasers: the team used a two-watt laser for this experiment, which can be compared to a nightlight. Of course, this refers to laser power and not the satellite’s total energy use.

Once processed and extracted, the light splits into eight base-mode channels, and finally, a special algorithm decides which of these channels is the most promising, in real-time. Choosing the top three signals out of eight gave the researchers a major boost in signal strength, all the while dramatically outpacing Starlink’s downlink speeds – especially impressive given the much greater orbital distance.

This could be good news for internet users worldwide (and beyond)

(Image credit: Unsplash / Evgeny Opanasenko)

Comparing this new breakthrough to Starlink reveals a few key differences. First, data transmission speeds reaching up to 1Gbps are not something that Starlink can currently achieve; in our Starlink review, we found that the average for downloads sat at 71Mbps, and Starlink itself promises to deliver between 25 to 100 Mbps on the Standard plan. Second, signal strength and reduced errors in data transmission, despite the massive distance to the satellite, are both promising.

Cutting back on errors and snags in the connection is crucial for users who want to stream videos or send larger files. If this technology is ever made mainstream, we might be able to use the internet even in remote areas without having to compromise on what we can or cannot do. Goodbye, waiting for five minutes for that text to come through – we really wouldn't miss you.

But the implications here are huge, even if you think bigger than just having a reliable connection everywhere. Boosting signal speed, distance, and strength through this method of laser communication could spell great news for satellite navigation. It could even impact the ability to connect with space missions, such as with the ISS, more seamlessly and without delays.

Right now, this is just a proof of concept – an interesting achievement described in the Acta Optica Sinica journal. Let's hope that this picks up and gives Starlink a serious run for its money.

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If you’re having issues using iCloud.com and the various apps like Photos or Mail on the web, you’re not alone. Apple’s iCloud Status page is officially showing an outage for both ‘iCloud Web Apps’ and ‘iWork for iCloud’, as well as issues for two other facets of the wide-ranging service.

Apple officially notes the issues as starting at 2:36PM ET and TechRadar noticed that Down Detector is showing a spike nearing 1,000 reported outages as of 3:35PM ET. As of right now, I can sign into iCloud.com, though it’s a bit slow going.

Stick with us as we cover the issues hitting Apple’s iCloud right now with live reporting down below.

Additionally, we’ve reached out to Apple to request insight into this outage, but it’s reassuring that the status page at least acknowledges that something is wrong.

As of 2:36PM ET, Apple's iCloud status page shows an outage for 'iCloud Web Apps (iCloud.com)' and 'iWork for iCloud', noting that some users are affected with issues accessing or using parts of these services.

(Image credit: Apple)

While I was able to sign into iCloud.com just minutes ago, when I load it now nothing is appearing other than the logo in the top left.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

And, Apple at least instructs its services to notify you when something is wrong. I am now seeing a 'Connection Error' screen appear, informing me that something is up.

I've also heard from colleagues and at least one friend that they're seeing this same pop-up either before signing in or trying to return to an active session on iCloud.com.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)Photos is also having issues

While 'Photos' is only listed as an issue with Apple noting that some user might be having problems with the service, TechRadar's Editor-At-Large Lance Ulanoff let me know that when viewing pictures in the Photos app on his iPhone, images were reneding at lower resolution potentially pointing to issues accessing the shots from iCloud.

This has resolved, though, for him, and is now being loaded in full resolution. Attempting to view Photos on iCloud.com isn't working at all right now, as I'm still seeing a connection error there.

Here are the impacted parts of iCloud

Apple's service status page is quite handy during outages, so here's a look at the currently impacted parts of iCloud.

• iCloud Mail - Issue
• iCloud Storage Upgrade - Issue
• iCloud Web Apps (iCloud.com) – Outage
• iWork for iCloud - Outage
• Photos - Issue

I've just checked the Photos app on my iPhone and on my Mac, and neither has synced in well over an hour for both. The iPhone shows it last synced at 2:03PM ET, while my Mac was slightly later at 2:11PM ET, and I can't force a sync for either.

I do back up my photos to iCloud, so I am in the impacted group, it seems, for now.

Find My is also having issues

Apple has updated its status page to note that 'Find My' as well as 'iCloud Account & Sign In' are both experiencing issues. The latter, pertaining to account and sign-in, have the same start time as the other issues and outage, but 'Find My' shows a start time of 3:57PM ET.

Find My appears to be working for me on my Mac, as it's pulling through updated locations. However, one of my friends just sent me a screenshot showing "Find My Unavailable."

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

iCloud.com is still loading, but it continues to display the same 'Connection Error' pop-up on my end. And here's a look at the current list of impacted issues on Apple's status page.

As of now, it's not spreading beyond iCloud, so there are no impacts on the App Store or Apple Music.

• Find My - Issue
• iCloud Account & Sign In - Issue
• iCloud Mail - Issue
• iCloud Storage Upgrade - Issue
• iCloud Web Apps (iCloud.com) – Outage
• iWork for iCloud - Outage
• Photos - Issue

The only non-iCloud issue or outage is with 'Apple Business Essentials' – that's currently listed as one issue, one resolved outage, and one resolved issue.

I still can't get iCloud.com to load fully, but on my iPhone, I just had a pop-up for Apple Account Verification for my account. I went into Settings, but then had that error out when I tried to complete the request.

My colleague Lance Ulanoff's Apple Account page in Settings is presenting a 'Verification Failed' splash screen on his iPhone.

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

The game's developer, Hypixel Studios, will also be shutting down.

The nation's top safety investigators concluded that a lack of basic safety processes at Boeing, coupled with an inexperienced workforce, contributed to the door plug blowout in January 2024.

(Image credit: NTSB handout)

• Built in California, powered by Linux, the Liberty Phone says no to tech giants
• With no Android or iOS, it’s the loneliest smartphone on the market today
• It costs more, does less, and still claims to be the best smartphone for privacy

Despite rising political pressure to bring tech manufacturing back to the US, building a premium smartphone domestically remains a costly and technically difficult challenge.

The Liberty Phone by Purism, priced at $1,999, offers a rare example of how close a company can get to building an America-made device, but it comes with significant trade-offs in performance and practicality.

Unlike the widely promoted but questionable $499 Trump Phone, the Liberty Phone is at least verifiably assembled in the US, although it lacks flagship-level features.

Still not 100% "Made In USA!"

Todd Weaver, Purism’s founder, is upfront about the limitations, noting, “Someone who needs a wicked-strong camera is not our audience.”

Weaver estimates the Liberty Phone costs around $650 to produce, higher than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which TechInsights says costs about $550 to build in China.

This discrepancy is driven largely by US labor costs, with savings made by using lower-spec components such as a basic camera and a low-resolution screen.

This may suit its core user base, including security geeks, older users, kids, and those who want to distance themselves from major tech brands, but it is nowhere near mainstream Android alternatives - for anyone expecting the best smartphone for business or multimedia tasks, the Liberty Phone is unlikely to compete.

Part of Purism’s appeal lies in its transparent and partially domestic supply chain - the motherboard is built at the company's California site, the chip is sourced from NXP’s Austin, Texas, facility, and the final assembly is local.

But some critical components, like the camera from South Korea and the display and battery from China, still depend on global sourcing.

“There are just some parts that don’t yet have a supply chain,” says Weaver. “We’re gonna keep incrementing there until we can get to that point.”

It runs PureOS, a Linux-based operating system that supports basic tasks like calling, texting, and web browsing, but without support for Android or iOS apps, it’s a hard sell for anyone needing a broad app ecosystem or high-end performance.

Nonetheless, Weaver believes a niche market exists and claims that about half of Purism’s customers are US government agencies.

Even though tariffs might someday narrow the cost gap, the continuity of this project is not certain.

“We don’t have factories here building application processors, high-end displays or most of the other things in your smartphone,” said Jeff Fieldhack of Counterpoint Research, showing his skepticism.

At the moment, the Liberty Phone is more of a philosophical gesture than a practical solution, and only Americans or those loyal to the US will give it a second look.

Via Wall Street Journal

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Having a positive outlook is good, but you can’t be positive all the time. Suppressing or invalidating negative emotions may lead to toxic positivity -- which isn't as helpful as you think.

The decision reveals that Anthropic pirated over 7 million books, then systematically purchased and destroyed millions of physical copies to create a digital "research library."

• Malware-ridden apps are sneaking on to official app stores
• SparkKitty will steal photos to crack into your crypto wallet
• One infected app was downloaded over 10,000 times

A dangerous new malware strain targeting smartphone users has managed to sneak on to both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store without being detected, experts have warned.

SparkKitty was first spotted by cybersecurity experts at Kaspersky in January 2025, and uses optical character recognition to scan through your photos and harvest cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases.

Most crypto currency exchanges will tell a user to write down a memorable phrase when creating an account for recovery purposes, but many users will simply screenshot their memorable phrase - making it super easy for SparkKitty to steal.

Snooping through photos and stealing crypto

Kaspersky says the SparkKitty malware has been actively distributed across both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store since February 2024, and has also been distributed through unofficial means as well.

The infected apps have since been removed from both app stores.

In many cases, the apps appeared to be legitimate and were designed for numerous purposes. One infected app called SOEX was downloaded over 10,000 times on the Google Play Store, and appeared to be a messaging app with cryptocurrency trading and exchange features - the perfect disguise for a malware designed to target cryptocurrency wallets.

Once installed on a user's device, the app will ask for permission to access and modify the image library on both iOS and Android devices. After being granted access, the app then scans the image library and will re-scan if it detects modifications being made to the image library, such as new images being added or deleted.

Obviously, outside of the threat to crypto wallets there is the threat of users being extorted using other images that could be found in their image library, but there is no evidence of this happening so far.

Hackers are constantly developing new tactics to hide their malware on applications that can be distributed through trusted platforms such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Always remember to double check that the application you are downloading is made by a trusted developer, is definitely the authentic version of the app you are looking for, and has trustworthy reviews. If in doubt, don’t download it.

Also be wary of apps that ask for more permissions than they actually need, or apps that request permission to create new configuration profiles and certificates. Finally, when creating a memorable phrase for recovering an account, don’t keep it stored where it can be easily stolen.

Many of the best cloud storage services and best password managers offer encrypted storage vaults for storing important phrases.

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I spent six weeks putting the top robot lawn mowers through its paces in my own yard. I found two clear winners and a few duds.

Two European giants battle it out for first spot in Group C.