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ZDNET’s key takeaways The Powerbeats Pro 2 retail for $250 in vibrant Black, Quick Sand, Hyper Purple, and Electric Orange colorways. The earbuds can replace your smartwatch or fitness tracker, offering exercise and activity data via companion apps. The sound isn’t very robust, delivering weak bass and hollow mids. I’ve tested dozens of earbuds over the past year, and even new releases can feel monotonous after a while. Most brands make product upgrades in small…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Sony LinkBuds Open are cooler than ever, with upgraded software features and a $178 price tag. The LinkBuds Open offer great sound, smart assistant-less voice controls, and thoughtful in-app features. The fit and finish of these earbuds can be hit or miss Experimenting with different cushions is key. What’s the deal?  The Sony LinkBuds Open is $22 off its original price ahead of Presidents’ Day. This takes the price down to…

Jason Hiner/ZDNET Apple is exploring the connections between technology and health more deeply. On Wednesday, the tech giant launched the Apple Health Study, which explores how its iPhones, Apple Watches, AirPods, and other third-party wearables can impact health advancements. What is the Apple Health Study? The study, conducted with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, examines the connection between mental health and heart rate, sleep and exercise, and more, according to the press release.  Unlike clinical studies, which are…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Sabrent USB SSD 4-bay docking station is available now on Amazon for $89 This docking station makes adding external drives to your system a total plug and play affair The case is plastic, so it feels a bit cheap but that doesn’t get in the way of performance. more buying choices It seems I’m always running out of room on my iMac drives. Why? Video files. You see, I film a…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Baseus MC1 Open Ear Clip-On Earbuds are on sale on Amazon for $60. They’re some of the most comfortable I’ve worn for exercising, and easily stay put when moving around. Although the MC1 earbuds don’t produce the best sound, it’s quite clear and loud enough for you to hear in most situations. The open-air earbud format was never one that got me terribly excited. Part of the problem is that they…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The InfinaCore 2024 has a Qi2 MagSafe charging pad and two other pads for the Apple Watch and AirPods. The charging stand is strong, stable, and minimalist. It doesn’t come with a wall charger, so you’ll need to provide one. I’ve tested many wireless charging stands over the years, and I find them to be a convenient option if you own all three of Apple’s main devices: the iPhone, Apple Watch, and…

ZDNET There are many lightweight Linux distributions on the market, many of which are outstanding options for bringing aging hardware back to life with speed, flexibility, and security that those old computers might never have known. That’s part of the beauty of Linux — it’s not only flexible, reliable, and secure, but it’s also perfectly capable of performing like a champ on machines that modern Windows iterations would cripple. Also: How to use Linux without…

Apptronik AI-powered humanoid robots that co-exist with humans to help our workloads may seem like the plot of a sci-fi movie, but companies have been working on them for years. Case in point: Apptronik, a robotics lab founded in early 2016, has been working on a 5-foot 8-inch, 160-pound, general-purpose humanoid robot named Apollo. The company’s latest funding will accelerate the robot’s deployment.    On Wednesday, Austin-based Apptronik announced the closing of a $350 million…

A core element of ZTNA is that security is based on identity, rather than, say, IP address. This makes it more adaptable for a mobile workforce, but requires additional levels of authentication, such as multi-factor authentication and behavioral analytics. What other technologies may be part of SASE? In addition to those four core security capabilities, various vendors offer a range of additional features. These include web application and API protection, remote browser isolation, DLP, DNS,…

diyun Zhu/Getty Images When I first examined whether it’s possible to fight back against AI-generated plagiarism, and how that approach might work, it was January 2023, just a few months into the world’s exploding awareness of generative AI.  This is an updated version of that original January 2023 article. When I first tested GPT detectors, I used three: the GPT-2 Output Detector (this is a different URL than we published before), Writer.com AI Content Detector, and…