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Max Buondonno/ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways The OnePlus Pad 2 is the company’s latest Android tablet with a premium design and flagship specs for $547.  It’s compatible with a keyboard and pen that OnePlus sells separately, so you can turn it into an Android-powered laptop. While the multitasking features are excellent, and the Pad 2 checks all the boxes when it comes to entertainment, it still suffers from the pitfalls of using Android on a big…

Anadolu/Getty Images Your Android device retains your Google searches, enabling various sites and services to use that data to personalize ads and other types of recommendations.  For some of us, that level of personalization makes using the platform easier. But in this modern era, with companies leveraging such information to capture a very particular picture of you and your web usage, one could consider this practice an invasion of privacy. This can be especially problematic…

Kevin Schafer/Getty Images You might think it’s too early to ponder the possibilities 2025 holds, but it’s already the third week of November, which means it’s the perfect time to don my prediction cap for next year. With enough information, it can be fairly easy to see the evolution of something like computer software and systems. Also: The best Linux laptops of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed Just what will 2025 have in store? These are…

Hisense/ZDNET Looking to light up a loved one’s face with wide-eyed joy this holiday season by gifting them a high-res smart TV? Or maybe it’s time to upgrade your own home entertainment setup? Either way, Walmart has you covered with this competitive deal. Also: The 50+ best Black Friday Walmart deals 2024: Early sales live now With a 4K UHD picture quality and HDR compatibility, the Hisense R6 offers exceptional clarity, vibrant colors, and sharp detail….

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Roborock Flexi Lite is available for $400 This vacuum and mop can tackle wet and dry messes, juice spills, pet hair, and more; it’s also self-cleaning, so you only have to empty the dirty water and add clean water The Roborock Flexi Lite seems only to mop when pulled back, so it requires push-and-pull movements to clean effectively. What’s the deal? Roborock Flexi Lite is typically available for $400, but an early…

Reining in big tech This is less about regulation per se than liking some regulations and interventions more than others. Reading Carr’s public statements as FCC commissioner — he also authored the new administration’s ‘Project 2025’ section on the FCC — a variety of attention-grabbing opinions stand out. He’s a critic of what he claims are attacks on free speech by big tech platforms. As he put it on X (formerly Twitter) last week in…

Ed Bott/ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways The 13-inch Microsoft Surface Pro with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is on sale now for $899 — $300 off the regular price. It features exceptional battery life, with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processor lasting roughly twice as long as Intel CPUs. Heat doesn’t appear to be an issue, even when under demanding loads. Most mainstream business software written for Intel-based Windows PCs should run just fine, but apps…

Here’s a breakdown of specific details for the 10 fastest supercomputer systems on the TOP500 list for November 2024: No. 1: El Capitan Location: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif. HPL score: 1.742 Exaflop/s System model: HPE Cray EX255a Processors: AMD 4th generation EPYC processors with 24 cores at 1.8 GHz and AMD Instinct MI300A accelerators Total core count: 11,039,616 Interconnect: Slingshot 11 Energy efficiency: 58.89 Gigaflops/watt No. 2: Frontier Location: Oak Ridge National Laboratory…

Svetlana Ivanova/Getty Images AI search engines combine the conversational capabilities of chatbots with the web, creating a new, optimized search experience. Despite their proficiency in research, AI search engines fall short in certain areas, such as online shopping. However, Perplexity hopes to change that with this new feature.  Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT, Copilot, and worthy alternatives On Monday, Perplexity is rolling out what the company is calling a “first-of-its-kind AI commerce…

Svetlana Ivanova/Getty Images AI search engines combine the conversational capabilities of chatbots with the web, creating a new, optimized search experience. Despite their proficiency in research, AI search engines fall short in certain areas, such as online shopping. However, Perplexity hopes to change that with this new feature.  Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT, Copilot, and worthy alternatives On Monday, Perplexity is rolling out what the company is calling a “first-of-its-kind AI commerce…