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My kids love their Fire tablets, and I love the convenience of parental controls they offer. Maria Diaz/ZDNET Amazon is offering some huge deals on its latest Fire Kids Tablets, my kids’ favorite device for home and on-the-go entertainment. The newest Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet is 39% off at $85, the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet for older kids is also down to $85, and the larger Amazon Fire HD 10…

ZDNET’s key takeaways At $130, the Blink Outdoor 4 Floodlight Camera is a practical, battery-powered solution for darker areas around your house that lack wiring and outlets. The AA batteries allow the floodlights to beam at 700 nits of brightness, which is not the most powerful on the market but good enough to see your surroundings. The Blink app is feature-rich, with plenty of camera settings to customize for the best surveillance, but you’ll need…

ZDNET’s key takeaways Samsung’s Galaxy A35 5G is a well-rounded smartphone for $399 You’ll love the two-day battery life, amazing screen quality, and four years of software updates The biggest issue? Performance tends to vary from day to day and can lead to overheating. more buying choices What’s the deal? Amazon currently has a discounted Galaxy A35 bundle available. On the retailer, you can buy the smartphone packaged with the Galaxy Buds FE for $470….

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is a premium flagship meant for users who want the most out of their phone, with a starting price of $1,299. Key improvements include new Galaxy AI features, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and a 50MP ultrawide lens. No major shifts to camera hardware, battery size, and charging speeds. more buying choices Samsung’s Big Bad Galaxy phone has arrived, and it’s almost everything I expected. The…

Yana Iskayeva/Getty Images *** Deep sigh *** This is the part of the article where I usually drop a witty line to spark your curiosity or offer a fresh perspective on something intriguing. But today, I’m literally at a loss for words. (If you know me, you know how hard it is to leave me speechless.) Let me explain There I was, minding my own bidness and getting some work done, when I got a…

ZDNET Cybercriminals who specialize in phishing attacks often spoof popular companies and products to trick unsuspecting users. By impersonating a well-known brand, the scammers try to convince their victims that their malicious emails and web pages are legitimate. A new report from cyber intelligence firm Check Point Research highlights the most spoofed brands so you’ll know which emails and pages to scrutinize. Top 10 most-phished brands Among the top 10 most-phished brands in the fourth quarter of…

“Leasing has always been the preference over building its own. Oracle has recently increased its focus on cloud services and ramped up its capex, but I’ve not seen evidence that the strategy of leasing rather than building has changed,” said John Dinsdale, chief analyst and research director for Synergy Research Group. Ellison appears to be taking the lead in this effort, and he’s the wrong one for this role, argues Rob Enderle, principal analyst with…

ZDNET Perplexity AI is going mobile with a new digital assistant for your Android phone.  The company announced the feature this week, explaining that it lets you use Perplexity as usual, but takes things a step further by integrating with other apps on your phone and chaining commands — meaning you can play media, set reminders, send texts and emails, book rides, learn about things using your camera, and more.  Also: Operator isn’t worth its $200-per-month ChatGPT…

ZDNET As TikTok went dark briefly for the app’s 170 million US users last Saturday, tech giants began rolling out various incentives to attract TikTok creators to their platforms. Snapchat launched a new public marketing campaign featuring trendy influencers known for posting on TikTok. Substack, meanwhile, used a 25,000 cash prize and expanded live-streaming capabilities to TikTok users on its platform.  However, one of TikTok’s biggest social media rivals, Meta, is further capitalizing off the legal…

The spike in electricity needs is unprecedented, McKinsey wrote, and will be difficult to meet. In another report released this week, Goldman Sachs also predicts a surge in data center power demand, and expects an increase of 160% by 2030, compared to 2023 levels. Data center builds typically have timelines of 18 to 24 months, gas and renewable power plans have timelines of three to five years, and new transmission development can take seven to…