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ZDNET’s key takeaways Lenovo’s sixth-generation ThinkPad T14s is on sale now, starting at $1,505. It’s is a powerful workhorse thanks to the new AMD Ryzen AI chipset and support for the speedy Wi-Fi 7 standard. Its display, on the other hand, isn’t all that impressive considering its price tag. Whenever Lenovo isn’t pushing the boundaries of laptop design, the brand is creating high-quality personal work computers like the new ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. On the surface…

Maria Diaz/ZDNET Better online security, privacy tools, and strong encryption protocols are just some of the promises made by today’s top virtual private network (VPN) providers — so how do you choose the right one? At the heart of the service, you need robust encryption, backed up by a server network that offers locations suitable for how you want to use your VPN — whether it is at home, while traveling, or to access particular…

gremlin/Getty Images Artificial intelligence (AI) recruiting tools keep coming, but can they help freelancers navigate a competitive job market?  On Wednesday, the freelancing platform Fiverr released Dynamic Matching, an AI-enhanced tool that it says “transforms how businesses can find and hire freelancers.” Both an AI writing aid and a talent search tool, the feature helps businesses perfect their project briefs, recommends ideal candidates, and shares the brief with them. If businesses prefer to look for candidates themselves,…

ZDNET’s key takeaways At $10, the Lerobo Apple Watch band comes in 25 different colorways and four different sizes. The Apple Watch band actually fits my small wrist and makes me want to wear the smartwatch more. I have nothing bad to say about this watch band so far. My wrists are dainty and small. I turn sideways, and they disappear.  Also: I finally found a leather watch band for my Apple Watch Jokes about…

Google Following OpenAI’s lead, Google released a slew of AI announcements ahead of the holiday season, focusing on agentic AI. The announcements included the highly anticipated Gemini 2.0, which is powering other advanced AI products, including Project Mariner. Project Mariner is a research prototype built on Gemini 2.0 that explores human-agent interactions. It can automate tasks in your browser, acting like an AI agent by carrying out tasks delegated to it on the web for…

Alison DeNisco Rayome/ZDNET If you’re a YouTube TV subscriber, you’ll soon be paying more for the service. In an email to customers on Thursday, the company revealed that it’s upping the price of a monthly subscription by $10, from $73 to $83 a month.  Also: The best live TV streaming services of 2024 The change will take effect on Jan. 13, 2025, the message says, and apply to new and existing customers. If you’re currently…

Current price: $400 Original price: $430 One of our favorite deals is for a Samsung TV at Best Buy. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly model with a lot of display space — say, 65 inches — then you should consider the discount available. The Samsung CU7000 Crystal UHD 4K Smart Tizen TV is on sale with a $30 discount, and so you can pick up the TV for only $400. Sure, it doesn’t offer…

Across industries, artificial intelligence (AI) is optimizing workflows, increasing efficiency, driving innovation—and prompting investments in accelerators, deep learning processors, and neural processing units (NPUs). Some organizations are starting small with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for inference tasks before progressively expanding to accommodate a larger number of users. Enterprises that handle large volumes of private data may prefer setting up their own training clusters to get the accuracy that custom models built on select data can deliver….

The saying, “big things come in small packages,” is true, especially when it comes to technology. If you want a device that’s larger than a smartphone but more portable than a laptop, it sounds like you’re in the market for a tablet. A small tablet can work just as well as (or even better than) larger ones, especially when it comes to lugging one around between classes or in your work bag on your commute….

Maria Diaz/ZDNET As a smart home reviewer, I have a healthy variety of smart plugs and outlets in my home. There’s also your garden variety of smart lights and smart light strips, as you can expect. But the Kasa Smart Plug Ultra Mini is the one smart plug I can’t rave about enough. It’s one of the most reliable ones I’ve ever tested, both in connectivity and voice control integrations. Plus, each one is 20%…