Adam Breeden/ZDNET Whether you’re considering buying a new TV or your old flat panel seems to be doing fine, there are still ways to optimize your viewing experience, and it all begins with your television’s settings. Let’s explore some of the key factors determining how your TV performs and what you can do to make it look even better. 1. Turn down the sharpness The sharper the picture, the better. Right? Not necessarily. Contrary to…

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Did you know that whenever you turn on your smart TV, you invite an unseen guest to watch it with you? These days, most popular TV models utilize automatic content recognition (ACR), a form of ad surveillance technology that gathers information about everything you watch and transmits it to a centralized database. Manufacturers then use your data to identify your viewing preferences, enabling them to deliver highly targeted ads. Also: 5 Chromecast tricks to…

“One of the challenges that people sometimes have with OpenTelemetry is their ability to configure it, validate where it has been deployed, if it’s running properly, if it’s configured properly, and critically, if there is anywhere they haven’t yet deployed it where they need to go actually get that done,” says Morgan McLean, OpenTelemetry co-founder and senior director of product management for Splunk Observability Cloud. Splunk’s new Service Inventory addresses the challenges of large-scale observability…

ZDNET’s key takeaways Ugreens Finder Tag is on sale now for $14, and the Slim Wallet Finder is available for $26. The battery in the tag for keys is purpose-built to be hard to remove, making it safer around children. They don’t have the high-precision capabilities as more expensive finder tags. Apple AirTags have been a game changer in my life, saving me countless hours searching for my keys, wallet, and passport. But as handy…

Fifteen partners, including Cisco, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell Technologies, Oracle, and Google Cloud, were involved in the latest round of MLPerf testing, which, he noted, was the largest number of Nvidia partners submitting to the benchmark in any given round. When asked about his overall impression on the latest results, Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research, said, “the first thing is that MLPerf continues to adjust to the demands of the market and…

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Say you recently picked up a shiny new TV. You unbox it like a kid at Christmas and prepare to indulge in all its visual glory. You think to yourself, “This is 2025. TV technology is sizzling, and it’s going to look amazing no matter what.” So you plug it in and don’t take one look at the default settings. Big mistake. Also: I saw Samsung’s deluge of Neo QLED TVs releasing in…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Asus Zenbook A14 is available at Best Buy, with configurations starting at $999. Asus’ new ultraportable is a fantastic balance of innovation and value with a brilliant OLED display, competitive hardware, and a satisfying physical form. While its use case is clearly defined, the laptop has its limits when it comes to high-end performance. more buying choices When Asus officially announced the Zenbook A14 at CES this year, I wasn’t the…

Samsung/ZDNET If you’ve been looking for a new digital storage option, Samsung has a deal on the 4TB Samsung T5 Evo portable SSD for just $230, plus get a 256GB Sonic the Hedgehog microSDXC card for free. With that much storage, the device is perfect for large digital game libraries, raw video and photo files, raw and rendered digital art, and other important programs and documents you may need to take on the go. And you…

Segway The robot mower market is growing almost as fast as your lawn in the spring — and a new player just entered. Segway has launched a new Navimow X3 Series of robot mowers designed for residential and commercial applications.  This new X3 Series can cover up to 2.5 acres, with four variants ranging from 0.4 to 2.5 acres. The robots are built for efficiency, capable of covering up to 1.25 acres in 24 hours….

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Nothing Phone 3a makes smart tradeoffs for a budget device, excelling in design, battery life, and display quality. Essential Space offers a refreshingly subtle AI experience, showcasing Nothing’s restraint and clear vision. While some see Nothing’s design as a novelty, hands-on experience proves its signature style runs deeper than aesthetics. more buying choices The Nothing Phone 3a, priced at $379, stakes its claim in the competitive mid-tier smartphone market with a…