pros and cons Pros Boost is offering the iPhone 16 for free when you enroll in its Infinite Access plan. It’s a great deal if you’re looking for a fresh start or already a Boost Mobile customer. All models are included. Cons The catch is that you’ll have to pay for Boost Mobile’s networking plan, which starts at $65 per month. You’ll have to pay off the phone if you end the 36-month contract early….

Milwaukee/ZDNET Memorial Day might be over, but you can still find great deals on hand tools and wrench sets, like this 77-piece Milwaukee SAE/Metric wrench and socket set at The Home Depot. Right now, you can save $200 on a high-quality set of hand tools, bringing the price to just $549.  Also: This electric screwdriver is my go-to tool for weekend fixes – here’s why With a 47-piece socket wrench set and 30 combination wrenches,…

Jason Hiner/ZDNET I, like a lot of other people, waited a few months after launch to grab the new iPhone 16 Pro Max. But I’m so glad I did: Ever since upgrading, I definitely feel like this phone will serve me well for the next few years.  Also: Verizon will give you almost any phone for free with just one trade-in required – here’s how If you’ve been holding out, now is the perfect time…

Jada Jones/ZDNET It’s been one year since Sonos released its first pair of consumer headphones, and although they made waves when they first dropped, how have they fared after the hype has died down? You can often find the Ace discounted for up to $120 off their original price, and if you’re interested in them, that’s the best time to buy them. Also: The best headphones of 2025 I’ve worn the Sonos Ace often since their…

Maria Diaz/ZDNET The first Roku device was launched 17 years ago. It was initially developed in partnership with Netflix to stream its “Watch Instantly” service. Since then, the company has released numerous generations of streaming players and its very own Roku TVs — which means you might own one of these older devices. What is a cache? Just like your computer or smartphone, your Roku TV also stores temporary data (the cache) to help apps…

We Are/Getty Images Not so long ago, generative AI could only communicate with human users via text. Now it’s increasingly being given the power of speech — and this ability is improving by the day. On Thursday, AI voice platform ElevenLabs introduced v3, described on the company’s website as “the most expressive text-to-speech model ever.” The new model can exhibit a wide range of emotions and subtle communicative quirks — like sighs, laughter, and whispering…

Jada Jones/ZDNET Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, kicks off Monday morning. This year, the company is expected to announce a rebrand of its operating system naming scheme and design, reveal new Apple Intelligence features, showcase some CarPlay capabilities, and much more. Also: How to watch Apple WWDC 2025 and what to expect next week New hardware typically isn’t on the menu during WWDC, and analysts and industry insiders assert that an AirPods Pro 3 appearance may not…

Key features of ARC-Compact include: Energy Efficiency: Utilizing the L4 GPU (72-watt power footprint) and an energy-efficient ARM CPU, ARC-Compact aims for a total system power comparable to custom baseband unit (BBU) solutions currently in use. 5G vRAN support: It fully supports 5G TDD, FDD, massive MIMO, and all O-RAN splits (inline and lookaside architectures) using Nvidia’s Aerial L1+ libraries and full stack components. AI-native capabilities: The L4 GPU enables the execution of AI for…

gonin/Getty Roughly five weeks before President Donald Trump announces his administration’s AI policy, major AI companies are continuing to strengthen their ties to government — specifically for national security customers.  On Thursday, Anthropic announced Claude Gov, a family of models “exclusively for US national security customers,” it said in the release. Claude Gov is intended for everything from operations to intelligence and threat analysis, and is designed to interpret classified documents and defense contexts. It…

ZDNET’s key takeaways A ruggedized handset that has it all — a fast processor, lots of RAM, a big battery, and a fantastic display This is one of the few rugged handsets that squarely falls into the mid-range category This is a big handset that you’re definitely going to feel in a pocket. I’m a huge fan of tough, ruggedized smartphones that have been built to survive rain, sleet, snow, bangs, and crashes. The size…