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– Sergey "Shnatsel" Davidoff on /r/rust

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Named Fn trait parameters

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Structs with no fields or all-ZST fields are ZSTs

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2026-06-18 | Florianópolis, BR | Rust SC
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BMW i3: Elektrischer 3er startet überraschend früh bei Händlern

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:18:00 +0200

BMW hat eigentlich noch mit dem iX3 und dem Hochlauf der Neuen Klasse zu tun, der neue BMW i3, der erst vor wenigen Wochen vorgestellt wurde, sollte daher erst im …

So teuer ist der elektrische GTI von Peugeot

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:47:45 +0200

Das Zeitalter der elektrischen GTI-Modelle ist da und auch Stellantis will mit dem Namen die Performance-Menschen abholen. Der Peugeot E-208 GTI steht an und es gibt einen Preis, der, wie …

BYD verrät weitere Details zum neuen Kleinwagen für Europa mit über 1000 km Reichweite

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 09:02:35 +0200

Der BYD Dolphin G DM-i feiert im Juni 2026 in Berlin Premiere und positioniert sich im europäischen B-Segment, also in derselben Klasse wie viele der beliebtesten Kleinwagen Europas. Das Modell ist 4,16 Meter lang (425 Liter Kofferraumvolumen; durch Umklappen der im Verhältnis 40:60 geteilten Rücksitzlehnen lässt sich das Volumen auf bis zu 1225 Liter erweitern) und gehört gleichzeitig zu den wenigen Plug-in-Hybriden dieser Klasse, die einen klaren Schwerpunkt auf längere Reichweiten im Elektrobetrieb legen.

BYD nutzt die firmeneigene DM-i-Technologie (Dual Mode Intelligence), bei der Elektromotor (120 kW/163 PS, 210 Newtonmeter Drehmoment) und Benzinmotor (1,5 Liter Hubraum) je nach Fahrsituation zusammenarbeiten. Damit beschleunigt das Fahrzeug in nur 8,3 Sekunden von 0 auf 100 km/h. Laut BYD soll das Fahrzeug einen Großteil der täglichen Pendelfahrten elektrisch bewältigen können, während die Gesamtreichweite bei 1.040 Kilometern liegen soll (bei voller Ladung und vollem Tank).

Die rein elektrische Reichweite gibt BYD mit der größeren Batterie (18,3 Kilowattstunden) mit 105 Kilometern an. Den Kraftstoffverbrauch gibt BYD mit nur 1,4 Litern pro 100 Kilometer an – bei vollständig geladener Batterie. Bei der kleineren Batterie mit 7,42 Kilowattstunden seien eine rein elektrische WLTP-Reichweite von 40 Kilometern und eine Gesamtreichweite von 1020 Kilometern möglich, wie BYD verspricht.

Im EV-Modus agiert das Fahrzeug wie ein reines Elektroauto: Es nutzt nur die Energie der Batterie, und der Benzinmotor bleibt so lange ausgeschaltet, bis der Ladezustand der Batterie auf ein bestimmtes Niveau abgesunken ist. Dabei kommt ausschließlich der Elektromotor zum Einsatz, der beim Bremsen Energie rekuperiert und die Batterie auflädt.

Aufladen: Die Active-Modelle verfügen über einen On-Board-Charger mit 3,3 kW, der die Batterie in knapp unter drei Stunden von 15 auf 100 Prozent aufladen soll. Die Versionen Boost, Comfort und Sport erhöhen die Ladeleistung auf 6,6 kW und bieten zusätzlich eine DC-Schnellladefunktion mit bis zu 39 kW. Damit soll die 18,3-Kilowattstunden-Batterie in 26 Minuten von 10 auf 80 Prozent aufladen.

Zur Ausstattung gehören Leichtmetallräder – 16 Zoll bei den Ausstattungen Active und Boost, 18 Zoll im Zweiton-Design in der Comfort-Linie sowie 18 Zoll in Glanzschwarz in der Sport-Version –, LED-Rückleuchten, 8,8‑Zoll‑Digitalinstrument und Infotainment‑Bildschirm (wahlweise mit 10,1 oder 12,8 Zoll Diagonale).

Fahrerassistenzsysteme

Serienmäßig sind alle Versionen mit Front- und Heckparksensoren ausgestattet. Die Varianten Active und Boost bieten zusätzlich eine Rückfahrkamera, während Comfort und Sport dieses System mit einer 360-Grad-Kamera für eine optimale Rundumsicht erweitern.

Zur Fahrerassistenz gehören in allen Ausstattungslinien unter anderem ein adaptiver Tempomat sowie ein intelligenter Tempomat, ein Notfall-Spurhalteassistent und Spurverlassenswarner, Front- und Heck-Querverkehrswarner inklusive Querverkehrsbremsfunktion, Totwinkelwarner, ein Fahrerüberwachungssystem sowie eine Ausstiegswarnung.

Es gibt den BYD Dolphin G DM-i in vier Ausstattungsvarianten und in vier Metallic-Farben: Skiing White (Weiß), Time Grey (Grau), Obsidian Black (Schwarz) und Ocean Blue (Blau), sowie in Uni Oxford White (Weiß) und dem Perleffekt-Lack Orange Sunset (Orange).

Vollständige technische Spezifikationen oder Preise hat BYD noch nicht bekannt gegeben. Der Dolphin G DM-i wird in den kommenden Wochen in Europa in den Verkauf gehen und soll voraussichtlich im Frühherbst in Deutschland ausgeliefert werden. Es ist das erste Mal, dass BYD ein Modell von Grund auf speziell für internationale Märkte entwickelt, wobei Europa als klarer Zielmarkt im Fokus steht.

BYD

Mehr zu BYD lesen (Auto-Testberichte):

Wie alles begann:

Tesla und BYD im Vergleich – wer hat die Nase vorn? Wir haben 2023 die beiden Marken miteinander verglichen. Damals war das Kürzel BYD noch nicht jedem Auto-Interessierten ein Begriff. Obwohl im Jahr 2022 der chinesische Autohersteller BYD mit damals mehr als 1,85 Millionen verkauften E-Autos den bisherigen Branchenprimus Tesla überholt hatte und seitdem als weltweit größter Hersteller für Elektrofahrzeuge gilt.

BYD verrät weitere Details zum neuen Kleinwagen für Europa mit über 1000 km Reichweite

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:21:48 +0200

Fahrerassistenzsysteme

BYD

Mehr zu BYD lesen (Auto-Testberichte):

Wie alles begann:

This Week In Rust: This Week in Rust 655

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:13:12 +0200

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub and archives can be viewed at this-week-in-rust.org. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

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Crate of the Week

This week's crate is rustion, a SSH bastion server.

Thanks to handewo for the self-suggestion!

Calls for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization.

No calls for testing were issued this week by Rust, Cargo, Rustup or Rust language RFCs.

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Call for Participation; projects and speakers

CFP - Projects

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but did not know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here or through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on Bluesky or Mastodon!

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Are you a new or experienced speaker looking for a place to share something cool? This section highlights events that are being planned and are accepting submissions to join their event as a speaker.

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Updates from the Rust Project

526 pull requests were merged in the last week

Compiler

Library

Cargo

strip CR from cargo:token-from-stdout

Rustdoc

Clippy

Rust-Analyzer

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

A fairly noisy week, with a bunch of small regressions contained within, leading to a slight increase on average in instruction counts. This week had a lot of large rollups, likely due to some CI problems, but thankfully many of those came with pre-triaged perf results by the time (thank you to those triagers!). Roughly similar slight regressions for cycles and wall times across the week.

Triage done by @simulacrum. Revision range: 4804ad7e..f3ef3bd8

2 Regressions, 0 Improvements, 10 Mixed; 5 of them in rollups 32 artifact comparisons made in total

Full report here

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

#![register_{attribute,lint}_tool]

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

Tracking Issues & PRs

Rust

Deny todo!() in tidy

Leadership Council

Rust All Hands 2027

No Items entered Final Comment Period this week for Rust RFCs, Cargo, Language Team, Language Reference or Unsafe Code Guidelines.

Let us know if you would like your PRs, Tracking Issues or RFCs to be tracked as a part of this list.

New and Updated RFCs

RFC for convenient, explicit closure capture using move($expr) expressions

Upcoming Events

Rusty Events between 2026-06-10 - 2026-07-08 🦀

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2026-06-18 | Florianópolis, BR | Rust SC
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If you are running a Rust event please add it to the calendar to get it mentioned here. Please remember to add a link to the event too. Email the Rust Community Team for access.

Jobs

Please see the latest Who's Hiring thread on r/rust

Quote of the Week

– Prof. Dr. Ralf Jung on github

Thanks to Theemathas for the suggestion!

This Week in Rust is edited by:

Email list hosting is sponsored by The Rust Foundation

Please submit your suggestions and votes for next week!

Zukunft von Volkswagen: Fokus wandert auf China-Importe

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 08:03:09 +0200

Das Wissen und die Produktion der Automobilbranche wandert zunehmend ab und auch Volkswagen legt seinen Fokus als Konzern mittlerweile auf China. Dort wird im Moment eine komplett neue Generation an …

BYD verrät weitere Details zum neuen Kleinwagen für Europa mit über 1000 km Reichweite

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:49:06 +0200

Fahrerassistenzsysteme

BYD

Mehr zu BYD lesen (Auto-Testberichte):

Wie alles begann:

Welcome to AI’s creepy era

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:49:29 +0200

For the past few days, I’ve been immersed in Google’s latest vision of the future — an AI-infused dashboard that taps into info from all of your Google app activity and then uses that data to cook up a series of daily “stories” designed to “connect you with what matters.”

And — believe me, I don’t say this lightly — the experience of interacting with this system has me longing more than ever for the past.

The app is called Dreambeans. Google launched it as an experiment last Wednesday, and I was offered the opportunity to skip the standard waitlist and get immediate access to explore it.

I won’t beat around the bush: Using the app really has been an eye-opening, enlightening experience for me. Just not in the way that Google had presumably wanted.

[Get level-headed knowledge in your inbox with my free Android Intelligence newsletter. Something new and useful every Friday — from my keyboard to your email.]

Google Dreambeans and the next phase of AI

In many ways, Dreambeans feels like the ultimate example of everything Google’s been gunning for — and AI in general has been building up to — over the past several years.

With your permission, the app accesses your ongoing activity data from Google Workspace (including such services as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive) along with Google Search, Google Photos, and YouTube to create an evolving profile of your life and interests. That means everything from who you email to what’s on your agenda, what you’re writing or saving files about, and what sorts of subjects you’re searching for, videos you’re watching, and activities you and your friends, family, and other associates are appearing in throughout photos (and even how you all look in those photos) gets constantly analyzed and processed and used as fodder for a personalized feed that updates a few times a day.

On the surface, it sounds a little like Google Now — the excellent and all-too-short-lived proactive intelligence feature Google added into Android for a while back around 2012.

In practice, though, lemme tell ya: It feels dramatically different. Whereas Google Now felt almost magical in its ability to anticipate what you needed before you ever asked for it — with proactive cards on things like flight statuses based on itineraries in your inbox or flight-related searches you’d performed, traffic alerts based on your typical daily routes or appointments in your agenda, and links to maps for businesses you’d been researching — Dreambeans takes those same basic concepts to a whole other level that ends up feeling creepy and invasive, both in the info it’s offering and in the way it’s presenting it.

And, more broadly, it feels indicative of the way AI is heading in general — not just with this one app or with Google but across the industry and in a style that I think most people are increasingly finding off-putting and will only find ever more intrusive in time.

Now, let’s be clear: I’m no technophobe. Far from it: I love clever tech creations and thoughtful new touches that make our lives easier. Heck, I’ve spent much of my life searching for and writing about such feats. And that’s precisely why my reaction to Dreambeans strikes me as so significant: If I’m this put off by this concept, how will average tech users — most of whom are far less tuned into tech trends and intrigued by interesting new options then I am — react?

I’ll tell you more about what I’ve heard so far in a second. First, let me show you exactly what I’ve been seeing, so you can assess this thing for yourself and see how it comes across to your spidey senses.

Here’s a handful of the Dreambeans “story” suggestions that appeared in the app upon its first day working for me, with a few names and personal details blurred for privacy purposes:

Some of Dreambeans’ custom “stories” throughout my first day with the app.

JR Raphael, Foundry

I’m honestly not even sure where all of these suggestions came from, but what jumped at me right away were the (occasionally flattering) caricatures of me and my wife and the general sense of invasion from all the slightly too personal stuff and too familiar integration of family members’ names and interests integrated into the material.

For the record: I had been looking into speaker stuff at some point in the not-too-distant past; I’ve never once typed, uttered, or even considered the phrase “hand-loomed textiles” until just now; we had been looking at the arts festival it mentioned; I’ve never specifically searched for or expressed any interest in Scary Movie 6; and I am not into the band Genesis — though, to be fair, I can’t dance.

I showed all this same material to my wife as well as to several other friends and family members I’d categorize more as typical tech users — not tech professionals or card-carrying geeks but just regular people who own and use a variety of devices, as we all do, and rely on ’em for both personal and professional purposes with varying levels of dread, excitement, and/or indifference. Without exception and without any prompting or personal opinions presented to sway them, every single one of ’em responded the same basic way: “Oh. That’s creepy.” And: “I do not like that.” Without fail.

It doesn’t get much better from here, either. Most of the app’s subsequent suggestions have continued to veer just a touch too far onto the “ick” side of the spectrum, as well as occasionally being off-base in some pretty perplexing ways. For instance:

Nice AirPods, Mr. Apple fan!

JR Raphael, Foundry

For the record on this set: I do love the show Seinfeld — SERENITY NOW! more than ever — though it’s been some time since I’ve actively watched it; I somewhat famously am allergic to Apple products and avoid ’em whenever possible (notice the name of this column, anyone?); I don’t live in the same city as my brother but do find it creepy to have him pictured in ghoulish caricature form and brought randomly into a discussion about Plex (something he wouldn’t even remotely be interested in hearing from me about); and my various editorial newsletters are all powered by a service called Kit — not Beehiiv — which is mentioned in plenty of places both on my websites and throughout my emails.

Also, while my hairline may not be what it once was, I’m (ahem) not that bald yet — thankyouverymuch, Dreambeans.

Another example that I won’t show here was an item that pictured me in overalls working on installing some “coated stainless steel wire for [my] gallery canvases” — a reference to a community art gallery (with all sorts of details wrong and in some cases flat-out fabricated) connected to my mother’s recent passing. It casually mentioned her by name, too, alongside that eerie illustration of me performing a skill I definitely don’t have in my nonexistent home workshop. I don’t think I have to elaborate on how unsettling, unappreciated, and — again — invasive it felt to have that pop up in this feed.

More than anything, what I’ve been feeling while seeing all of this is a combination of (a) egad, it knows too much — especially when it casually name-drops and caricature-pics my wife, kids, and other family members — and (b) at the same time, the info it’s giving me isn’t especially helpful or insightful. It’s mostly just flat, generic, and — well, more or less exactly what you’d expect from something AI-generated.

Seeing caricatures and personal details about my kids is odd — and, at the same time, neither of my kids actually plays or has any interest whatsoever in soccer.

JR Raphael, Foundry

More than anything, in other words, it’s a combination of creepy and not particularly useful.

Some of what I’ve seen when opening Dreambeans’ personal “stories.” Yay?

JR Raphael, Foundry

And it’s the “creepy” part that really sticks with me the most.

The fine line Google forgot to avoid crossing

Maybe if the info I’m being served up here were exceptionally useful, this could be a tradeoff I’d be at least a little more likely to accept. Maybe. But in this scenario, it just feels odd and a little too invasive — which I’ve come to realize is a common theme surrounding much of what seems to be the next level of our forced-upon-us AI future.

Take Google’s Gemini Spark, for instance — the “agentic” AI assistant announced at Google I/O that’s meant to be a “proactive” helper tackling tasks on your behalf. David Pierce from The Verge got an early look at the tool in action and called it “the most impressive and terrifying AI experience” he’s had to date, also bringing that “creepy” word into the equation:

And that, I think, mirrors the exact reaction I’ve been experiencing with Dreambeans. We’ve all always known that Google knows a lot about us, but we’ve also — at least intellectually — understood how all of that data is and isn’t being used. And it’s never been rubbed in our faces just how much the company can figure out about us by putting all the various pieces together and creating an awkward sense of robotic intimacy.

I remember years ago, being in a Google press briefing where someone from the company talked about how much more their systems and services could accomplish but how they deliberately held back on going that far and overdoing the personalization — ’cause even though they had all that info and could make all those connections, they knew (at the time) that people wouldn’t respond well to seeing all their personal activity put together in such shocking ways. They knew (at the time) that most of us weren’t looking for an artificial BFF who knew too much about us. They knew (at the time) that giving us that sensation would cross the line into being creepy.

Well, this just in: That line’s officially been decimated. We’re in AI’s creepy era. And seemingly no one is worrying anymore if it’s actually something any of us want or will appreciate.

It kinda feels now like tech companies are actively rubbing in our faces how much they know about us — and even if there’s nothing truly nefarious going on with what they’re doing, it sure doesn’t feel good. It feels creepy. And at a time when trust in tech titans is shockingly low and most folks outside of the Silicon Valley bubble are feeling more and more frustrated with AI and all of the effects it’s foisting upon us, that isn’t a great look to be giving off.

Put those sensations alongside the sigh-inducing explosion of AI “content creators,” the proliferation of lifeless AI-generated “writing” (been on LinkedIn much lately?), and the troublingly blurry line between photorealistic AI-generated images and actual real-world photographs — not to mention the maddening experience of interacting with an AI bot support agent or encountering the ever-expanding array of AI-powered scams and security threats and AI-generated job cuts, just to name a few other problematic consequences this movement is imposing — and it’s hard not to question if all this purported progress is ultimately more helpful or harmful for us, as living, breathing humans in the real world.

A few months ago, at the three-year mark of Gemini’s launch, I posed the question: Did anyone actually ask for this? And, more pressingly: Is this the future we wanted? As we’re moving now into yet another era of AI innovation and seeing how it’s affecting our lives, it gets tougher every day to imagine many folks outside of the tech industry who’d answer with an emphatic yes.

And, unfortunately, you don’t need any fancy-schmancy AI chatbots to tell you that things are only gonna get more extreme — and, yes, more creepy — from here.

Find the tips and tools that’ll *actually* help you with my free Android Intelligence newsletter. No hype, no nonsense — just useful new stuff in your inbox every Friday, from one (alleged) human to another.

Neuer Audi Q7 ist da – mit einer überraschenden Weltneuheit

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:02:29 +0200

Erst vor wenigen Tagen erhielten wir einen ersten Einblick in den neuen Audi Q7. Jetzt hat Audi den Schleier vollständig gelüftet und es steht fest, dass Audi der Evolution den Vorzug vor der Revolution gegeben hat. Die neue Generation ist auf den ersten Blick als Q7 erkennbar (über dem künftig der neue Q9 positioniert ist), verfügt jedoch über straffere Linien, eine modernere Lichtsignatur und ein deutlich umfangreicheres Technikpaket.

Audi

Die überraschendste Neuerung findet sich jedoch weder im Innenraum (wahlweise fünf-, sechs- oder siebensitzig) noch unter der Motorhaube. Audi stellt das vor, was als weltweit erster projizierter Blinker in einem Serienfahrzeug beschrieben wird. Wenn der Fahrer blinkt, wird ein Lichtsignal auf die Fahrbahn projiziert, das dem Blinkrhythmus folgt und das Fahrzeug für Fußgänger und Radfahrer im Dunkeln besser sichtbar machen soll. Es ist eine dieser Ideen, die zunächst seltsam klingen, sich aber im dichten Stadtverkehr tatsächlich als sehr clever erweisen können. Audi schreibt dazu:

Audi

Im Innenraum setzt Audi auf Komfort und Flexibilität. Der Q7 wird serienmäßig mit fünf Sitzen ausgeliefert und kann auch als Sechssitzer mit Einzelsitzen in der zweiten Reihe bestellt werden. Ein neues Panoramadach mit einstellbarer Transparenz, ein Beifahrer-Display und ein Infotainmentsystem mit integrierter ChatGPT-Funktion sollen zudem das Premium-Gefühl weiter steigern.

Audi

Das Kofferraumvolumen beträgt beim Fünfsitzer bis zu 806 Liter. Bei umgeklappter zweiter Sitzreihe wächst der Stauraum auf bis zu 2.075 Liter an. Der Siebensitzer bietet bis zu 722 Liter Gepäckraum hinter der zweiten Sitzreihe und 1.980 Liter maximales Volumen hinter der ersten Sitzreihe.

Zum Marktstart des neuen Q7 ist das Fahrzeug mit Dreiliter-V6-Dieselmotor mit 220 kW (299 PS) und 630 Nm Drehmoment oder mit 180 kW (245 PS)und 500 Nm erhältlich. Mit MHEV-Plus-System inklusive Triebstranggenerator, der den Antrieb temporär mit bis zu 18 kW (24 PS) zusätzlicher Leistung unterstützt. Ein elektrisch angetriebener Verdichter soll zudem für eine starke Anfahrperformance sorgen.

Der neue Audi Q7 kann bereits jetzt bestellt werden, und die ersten Auslieferungen beginnen im Juni 2026. Die Preise beginnen bei 87.900 Euro für die 245-PS-Version. Für den Diesel mit 299 PS ruft Audi mindestens 90.500 Euro auf.

Skodas neuer Elektro-Riese – Premiere in wenigen Wochen

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:32:47 +0200

Der Peaq wird Skodas neues elektrisches Flaggschiff und die Tschechen haben nun weitere Details dazu verraten. Mit knapp 4,9 Metern Länge und einem Radstand von 2.965 mm ist der Peaq Skodas bislang größtes und geräumigstes Modell.

Die Frontpartie zeichnet sich durch das markentypische „Tech-Deck Face“, schmale T-förmige LED-Scheinwerfer und eine deutlich kantigere Formensprache als bei den aktuellen Modellen aus. Die Skizzen zeigen zudem versenkte Türgriffe, breite D-Säulen und eine kraftvolle Silhouette, die deutlich auf einen großen SUV hindeutet.

Das Heck folgt dem gleichen Thema mit T-förmigen Rückleuchten und einem verbindenden Leuchtelement. Der Peaq verfügt über das größte Panorama‑Glasdach, das je in einem Škoda verbaut wurde – mit Dynamic Shade Control und neun individuell einstellbaren Segmenten, mit denen Sie den Lichteinfall ganz nach Ihren Wünschen gestalten können.

Der Peaq bietet Platz für bis zu sieben Personen und eine Reichweite von mehr als 600 Kilometern (vorläufiger Wert) in unserem bislang größten und geräumigsten Modell. Der Fünfsitzer verfügt über einen Kofferraum mit 935 Litern. Es wird den Peaq in drei Antriebsvarianten geben. Mit DC‑Schnellladern soll der Wagen in 28 Minuten von 10 Prozent auf 80 Prozent aufgeladen werden. Mit der Vehicle‑to‑Load-Technik kann der Peaq externe Geräte wie E‑Bikes oder Wohnwagen mit Strom versorgen.

Der Peaq bietet ein intuitives 13,6‑Zoll‑Hochformatdisplay und ein Augmented-Reality-Head-up-Display für alle wichtigen Informationen. Der neue digitale Fahrzeugschlüssel ermöglicht es Ihnen, das Fahrzeug per Smartphone oder Smartwatch zu entriegeln und zu starten. Zur weiteren Ausstattung gehören LED‑Heckleuchten, Voll‑LED‑Matrix‑Scheinwerfer sowie Leichtmetallräder von 19 bis 21 Zoll.

Weitere Daten hat Skoda bislang noch nicht vorgestellt. Mehr darüber erfahren wir voraussichtlich bei der Weltpremiere des Peaq am 23. Juni in Frankreich.

Vorsprung durch Technik: Audi feiert wieder den Verbrenner

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 06:02:30 +0200

Audi möchte, dass der Slogan „Vorsprung durch Technik“ nicht mehr belächelt wird und etwas gegen sinkende Verkaufszahlen und vor allem das Image tun. Daher gibt es nach dem R8 wieder …

This Week In Rust: This Week in Rust 654

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:06:19 +0200

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub and archives can be viewed at this-week-in-rust.org. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

Want TWIR in your inbox? Subscribe here.

Updates from Rust Community

Official

Launching the Rust Foundation Maintainers Fund

Project/Tooling Updates

Observations/Thoughts

Rust Walkthroughs

Research

Counterfactuals via the Causal Monad in Rust

Crate of the Week

This week's crate is remyx, a framework for building TUIs on top of Ratatui.

Thanks to Manuel Garcia de la Vega for the self-suggestion!

Calls for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization.

No calls for testing were issued this week by Rust, Cargo, Rustup or Rust language RFCs.

Let us know if you would like your feature to be tracked as a part of this list.

Call for Participation; projects and speakers

CFP - Projects

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but did not know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here or through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on Bluesky or Mastodon!

CFP - Events

Are you a new or experienced speaker looking for a place to share something cool? This section highlights events that are being planned and are accepting submissions to join their event as a speaker.

Scientific Computing in Rust 2026| 2026-06-05 | Virtual | 2026-07-08 - 2026-07-10

If you are an event organizer hoping to expand the reach of your event, please submit a link to the website through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on Bluesky or Mastodon!

Updates from the Rust Project

500 pull requests were merged in the last week

Compiler

Library

Cargo

Rustdoc

Clippy

Rust-Analyzer

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

This week we saw nice wins across the board thanks to merging several compiler queries together (#155678), and also substantial improvements in doc performance thanks to doing less work when sorting trait impls (#157179).

Triage done by @Kobzol. Revision range: 783eb8c8..4804ad7e

Summary:

(instructions:u)	mean	range	count
Regressions ❌ (primary)	0.3%	[0.1%, 0.7%]	14
Regressions ❌ (secondary)	0.4%	[0.1%, 0.9%]	39
Improvements ✅ (primary)	-0.9%	[-6.8%, -0.2%]	111
Improvements ✅ (secondary)	-1.1%	[-2.9%, -0.1%]	53
All ❌✅ (primary)	-0.8%	[-6.8%, 0.7%]	125

3 Regressions, 1 Improvement, 2 Mixed; 4 of them in rollups 35 artifact comparisons made in total

Full report here.

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

No RFCs were approved this week.

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

Tracking Issues & PRs

Rust

Unsafe Code Guidelines

Can references to uninhabited types ever be valid?

No Items entered Final Comment Period this week for Rust RFCs, Cargo, Language Team, Language Reference or Leadership Council. Let us know if you would like your PRs, Tracking Issues or RFCs to be tracked as a part of this list.

New and Updated RFCs

Upcoming Events

Rusty Events between 2026-06-03 - 2026-07-01 🦀

Virtual

2026-06-03 | Virtual (Indianapolis, IN, US) | Indy Rust
- Indy.rs - with Social Distancing
2026-06-04 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | Rust Berlin
- Rust Hack and Learn
2026-06-04 | Virtual (Nürnberg, DE) | Rust Nuremberg
- Rust Nürnberg online
2026-06-04 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Code Mavens 🦀 - 🐍 - 🐪
- Exploring FalkorDB - Learning to use a Graph Database in Rust
2026-06-06 | Virtual (Kampala, UG) | Rust Circle Meetup
- Rust Circle Meetup
2026-06-07 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup
- Rust Deep Learning: First Sunday
2026-06-08 | Virtual (Cardiff, UK) | Rust and C++ Cardiff
- RustWeek Reflections
2026-06-09 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup
- Second Tuesday
2026-06-09 | Virtual (London, UK) | Women in Rust
- 👋 Community Catch Up
2026-06-10 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona
- Weekly coding session
2026-06-16 | Virtual (Washington, DC, US) | Rust DC
- Mid-month Rustful
2026-06-17 | Hybrid (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust
- Rust Study/Hack/Hang-out
2026-06-17 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona
- Weekly coding session
2026-06-18 | Hybrid (Seattle, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group
- June, 2026 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup
2026-06-18 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | Rust Berlin
- Rust Hack and Learn
2026-06-21 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup
- Rust Deep Learning: Third Sunday
2026-06-23 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup
- Fourth Tuesday
2026-06-23 | Virtual (London, UK) | Women in Rust
- Lunch & Learn: What the heck are monads - and how do we fake them in Rust
2026-07-01 | Virtual (Indianapolis, IN, US) | Indy Rust
- Indy.rs - with Social Distancing

Africa

2026-06-09 | Johannesburg, ZA | Johannesburg Rust Meetup
- Rust by Example - Lifetimes

Europe

2026-06-03 | Dublin, IE | Rust Dublin
- Join us live and INPERSON for Rust 261
2026-06-03 | Girona, ES | Rust Girona
- Rust Girona Hack & Learn 06 2026
2026-06-10 | München, DE | Rust Munich
- Rust Munich 2026 / 2 - Hacking Evening
2026-06-11 | Switzerland, CH | PostTenebrasLab
- Rust Meetup Geneva
2026-06-12 - 2026-06-14 | Kraków, PL | Rustmeet
- Rustmeet
2026-06-16 | Leipzig, DE | Rust - Modern Systems Programming in Leipzig
- Interactive: Everything is Open Source
2026-06-16 | Milano, IT | Rust Language Milan
- Real-time planning in Rust: SolverForge & SERIO
2026-06-18 | Aarhus, DK | Rust Aarhus
- Talk Night at Danske Commodities
2026-06-23 | Paris, FR | Rust Paris
- Rust meetup #86
2026-06-25 | Berlin, DE | Rust Berlin
- Rust Berlin Talks: The next generation

North America

2026-06-04 | Chicago, IL, US | Chicago Rust Meetup
- Rust Happy Hour
2026-06-04 | Saint Louis, MO, US | STL Rust
- Testing, Coverage, Tracey & Mutations
2026-06-06 | Boston, MA, US | Boston Rust Meetup
- Boston Common Rust Lunch, June 6
2026-06-11 | Lehi, UT, US | Utah Rust
- Utah Rust June Meetup
2026-06-11 | Mountain View, CA, US | Hacker Dojo
- RUST MEETUP at HACKER DOJO
2026-06-11 | San Diego, CA, US | San Diego Rust
- San Diego Rust June Meetup - Back in person!
2026-06-16 | San Francisco, CA, US | San Francisco Rust Study Group
- Rust Hacking in Person
2026-06-16 | San Francisco, CA, US | San Francisco Rust Study Group
- Rust Hacking in Person
2026-06-17 | Hybrid (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust
- Rust Study/Hack/Hang-out
2026-06-18 | Hybrid (Seattle, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group
- June, 2026 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup
2026-06-24 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX
- Rust Lunch - Fareground
2026-06-24 | Los Angeles, CA, US | Rust Los Angeles
- Rust LA: Rust-Based Constraint Solvers in 2D Sketching with Zoo Technologies
2026-06-25 | Atlanta, GA, US | Rust Atlanta
- Rust-Atl
2026-06-26 | New York, NY, US | Rust NYC
- Rust NYC's Big Summer Social

Oceania

2026-06-25 | Melbourne, AU | Rust Melbourne
- Rust Melbourne June 2026

South America

2026-06-18 | Florianópolis, BR | Rust SC
- Rust Floripa

If you are running a Rust event please add it to the calendar to get it mentioned here. Please remember to add a link to the event too. Email the Rust Community Team for access.

Jobs

Please see the latest Who's Hiring thread on r/rust

Quote of the Week

– kornel on rust-users

Thanks to Moy2010 for the suggestion!

This Week in Rust is edited by:

Email list hosting is sponsored by The Rust Foundation

Revell “Das Boot” für nur 166,10 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon

Audi lüftet den Schleier über dem neuen Q7

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:47:37 +0200

Der Q7 ist seit der Markteinführung der ersten Generation im Jahr 2005 eines der wichtigsten Modelle von Audi. Damals riefen die enormen Abmessungen des SUV auch Kritik hervor, mittlerweile erscheint der Q7 aber gar nicht mehr so groß. Mit der neuen dritten Generation verspricht Audi eine Weiterentwicklung des Konzepts mit modernster Technik, mehr Komfort und einem zeitgemäßen Design.

Das nun veröffentlichte Bild liefert jedoch nicht besonders viele Antworten. Zwar sind große Teile der Fahrzeugseite zu sehen, doch hält Audi die Front, das Heck und den Innenraum weiterhin geheim. Dagegen lassen sich bereits jetzt mehrere Details erkennen, wie neue Türgriffe, überarbeitete Karosserielinien und ein S line-Emblem auf dem vorderen Kotflügel.

Der erste Eindruck ist zudem, dass Audi Evolution vor Revolution gewählt hat. Die Proportionen wirken vertraut vom aktuellen Q7, während Details und Linien eher modernisiert als von Grund auf neu entworfen zu sein scheinen. Audi formuliert das in perfektem Marketing-Sprech folgendermaßen:

Audi beschreibt die neue Generation als in allen Bereichen verfeinert und hebt einen flexiblen Innenraum, erstklassige Materialien und neue, nutzerorientierte Technik hervor. Technische Spezifikationen oder Angaben zu den Antriebssträngen wurden hingegen noch nicht vorgestellt. Der neue Q7 wird gleichzeitig ein wichtiger Teil von Audis laufender Modelloffensive sein. Später im Sommer wird zudem der vollkommen neue Q9 (Erster Blick auf den neuen Audi Q9: Sehr großer Luxus auf Rädern) sein Debüt als neues SUV-Flaggschiff der Marke oberhalb des Q7 geben.

Die Premiere des neuen Audi Q7 findet im Laufe des Sommers 2026 statt. Wenn das Bild bereits jetzt etwas aussagt, dann scheint Audi eher auf Evolution als auf Revolution gesetzt zu haben. Zum Preis findet man ebenfalls noch keinen Hinweis.

Amazon-Bestpreis: 1,2 Meter langes ‘Boot’ von Revell jetzt 83 Euro günstiger

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:01:17 +0200

Modellbauspezialist Revell betrat 2025 Neuland – und das gleich mit einem echten Kracher. Denn Revell hatte damals sein erstes Klemmbausteinemodell (Revell Brick System) vorgestellt: “Das Boot”. Also ein Bausatz des berühmten U-Boots U-96, das Vorbild für den Kino-Erfolg von 1981 und die spätere Miniserie war. Laut Revell ist das Modell ein originalgetreuer Nachdruck des berühmten Filmposters im Format A3.

Tipp: Sie bekommen diesen Bausatz jetzt 34 Prozent günstiger für nur 166,10 Euro, und zwar hier auf Amazon. Das ist ein neuer Amazon-Bestpreis! Doch gegenüber dem offiziellen Revell-Shop ist dieser Bausatz auf Amazon trotzdem deutlich günstiger und Sie sparen 83,89 Euro. Zudem gibt es aktuell keine lange Lieferzeit.

Device Native / JR Raphael, Foundry

Wenn Sie die 6483 Einzelteile zusammengesetzt haben, ist das fertige Modell 120 cm lang und 13 cm breit sowie 29 cm hoch. Der Bausatz bildet das Original im Maßstab 1:56 ab. Revell empfiehlt den Bausatz für Erwachsene, eine Bauanleitung liegt bei und alle Bauteile sind bereits bedruckt.

Spannend: Sie bauen auch den Innenraum des U-Boots nach. Revell schreibt dazu Folgendes:

Wichtig: Sie können den aufwendig gestalteten Innenraum auch beim fertigen Modell noch bewundern. Denn die Seitenteile sind extra so konstruiert, dass sie einfach abgenommen werden können. Das Modell soll sich auch einfach in die einzelnen Segmente zerlegen lassen, sodass die Details auch im Nachhinein bewundert werden können. Das erklärte uns Revell auf Nachfrage.

Pinterest cut AI costs 90% by gutting a frontier model's vision layer

Fri, 29 May 2026 19:33:13 +0200

At 620 million monthly users, calling a frontier model for every image recommendation isn't a strategy — it's a bill. Pinterest CTO Matt Madrigal solved it by gutting Qwen3-VL's vision layer and rebuilding it with proprietary embeddings, cutting costs 90% and boosting accuracy 30%.

Madrigal’s team has been heavily investing in customizing open-source models “foundationally in-house.”

“If you've got really unique data that you can then fine-tune an open source model with, data quality will, frankly, outweigh or overcome model size,” Madrigal explained in a recent VB Beyond the Pilot podcast.

How Pinterest customized Qwen for visual discovery

Pinterest, which has around 620 million monthly active users, has long applied open source models for visual search and discovery, going back to Google’s BERT and OpenAI’s CLIP. The company fine-tuned its own Pin CLIP on the latter, incorporating proprietary visual embeddings and image metadata.

Pinterest’s conversational shopping assistant, Navigator 1, was built on Qwen3-VL and customized in “pretty significant” ways. Madrigal’s team essentially “ripped out” Qwen’s vision encoder layer and fine-tuned the model on proprietary multimodal embeddings. This has allowed them to capture metadata around pins and images that can then be precomputed offline and regularly retrained on new information to deliver personalized experiences.

“Open-source models, especially with open Apache licenses where you can truly tweak a lot of open weights and customize for unique use cases — that's where we've found open source to be so powerful for us,” Madrigal said.

Bringing their own embeddings allows his team to gain context around metadata, pins, and images; also, notably, the model performs better at runtime and inference. Without these embeddings, devs would have to call and encode each image returned at runtime, one at a time. That results in a latency “20 times worse” from an inference perspective, Madrigal said.

“If it's something that's going to be critical for our end users, that's going to drive engagement, that will have to scale to over 600 million monthly active users, we're going to either probably build it or we're going to leverage open source and customize the heck out of it,” he said.

How a taste graph captures evolving interests

To guide users from inspiration to purchase, Madrigal's team built a "taste graph": a dynamic representation of what individual users actually like, not just what they click on. “It's this representation of billions of people's evolving tastes,” he said.

People go to Google or other search engines when they have a clear picture of what they want; Pinterest is for when they’re still in the discovery phase, Madrigal said. Pinterest’s goal is to encourage “lateral exploration” and transform discovery to intent (that is, clicking through ads or making purchases).

Under the hood, the architecture combines a graph structure with representational learning. User embeddings capture a user’s evolving tastes. These are constantly updated based on activity and new content and signals. “It's not a social graph,” Madrigal said. “It's much more of a preference graph: What's going to inspire you? What are you trying to do next?”

For instance, one user may be into mid-century modern designs; another may prefer a Nantucket aesthetic. Those preferences will be captured in user embeddings, and the taste graph will deliver up specific, relevant products as a result.

“You go from the upper funnel, inspiration discovery, all the way through lower funnel intent,” Madrigal said.

Listen to the full podcast to hear more about:

How Pinterest uses sandboxes to encourage creativity in a way that is secure and contained;
Why a continuous feedback loop can prevent visual AI slop;
The importance of constant benchmarking to gauge user engagement, performance, latency, and other factors.

You can also listen and subscribe to Beyond the Pilot on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

There's a Heck of a Camera Inside This Colorfully Designed Phone

Thu, 28 May 2026 14:48:20 +0200

The Huawei Pura 90 Pro Max is a refreshing new slab phone with a striking design and top-notch camera hardware.

Stop buying Motorola Android phones

Thu, 28 May 2026 12:16:19 +0200

Over the past decade, there’s something I’ve hinted at, mentioned in passing as a part of broader discussions, and told more people than I can count privately via email and other one-on-one conversations.

And now, as the writer of the internet’s longest-standing Android column and newsletter — a fancy way of saying someone who is apparently now old as molasses — I feel like I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t just come out and say it as prominently and plainly as possible:

There is no valid reason anyone should be buying Motorola Android devices in 2026. None.

It’s a shame, too, ’cause Motorola has a heck of a history within Android and the mobile realm in general. And, to its credit, the company does still make some impressive-looking and at times quite interesting hardware.

But the compromises that come with that package are just too serious and consequential to be forgiven. That’s been the case for some time now, truth be told — but with yet another facepalm-inducing infraction being added onto the list now, it’s time to say it loud and clear:

Please stop buying Motorola Android phones. And please join me in telling everyone you know the same thing.

Trust me: You’ll be doing them a major favor. And here, with no punches pulled and absolutely no sugarcoating, is exactly why.

[Get level-headed knowledge in your inbox with my free Android Intelligence newsletter — three new things to try every Friday and tons of other tasty treats.]

The Motorola Android compromise: Part I

I won’t beat around the bush: The most pressing reason Motorola Android phones are completely inadvisable to buy is the reason that’s been present for the longest — and that’s the company’s complete and utter disregard for even minimally acceptable post-sales software support.

It’s something I’ve noted in my data-based Android Upgrade Report Cards for more years than I can even remember at this point, and it’s almost comically consistent: Year after year, upgrade cycle after upgrade cycle, Motorola simply does not give a damn about investing the time or the money to bring current Android versions to its existing customers in anything close to a timely manner. Once you’ve forked over your phone and put away your wallet, good luck: You’ll be lucky if you get a single software update from Motorola after that, half a year to a year after the fact — and you almost certainly won’t hear a single peep from the company about the progress (or lack thereof) at any point along the way.

Motorola has managed to score an almost impressive number of back-to-back “F” scores on my annual analyses; no other Android device maker even comes close to that record. And lest you think this is purely about pokiness in providing polish and surface-level progress, remember that practically every Android software update is packed with critically important changes around privacy, security, and performance — and the way apps are able to interact with both your data and your hardware.

Running outdated software isn’t just dangerous — it’s downright irresponsible, especially if you’re a professional using your phone for business purposes but even if you’re just a regular ol’ schmoe focused purely on personal stuff. No one who understands a thing about security would ever recommend that, and that’s exactly what you’re signing up for anytime you buy a Motorola-made device.

So that’s part one, and that’s the biggest problem with Motorola’s Android products. But it isn’t the end of this tale nor the reason I was finally moved to write this missive, with the hopes that it’d eventually reach any Android-interested phone-buyers with Motorola on their minds.

Motorola’s more recent Android offenses

All update-related issues aside, the problem with Motorola’s Android products is that they make all sorts of compromises that are all about lining Motorola’s pockets at the expense of your experience.

The most recent example and the straw that broke the Android columnist’s (increasingly creaky) back is the new discovery that Motorola had seemingly been indirectly hijacking the Amazon app on its devices and sneakily injecting an affiliate code into links. The end result of such actions, according to observations published this week, is generating unearned revenue from your day-to-day purchases.

That’s an underhanded and shady-seeming practice, to say the very least. It just feels icky and ethically reckless. And clearly, what was demonstrated was intended to go unnoticed, which is always a pretty apparent sign in my mind that someone’s doing something shifty.

Following the discovery and subsequent outcry, Moto released a statement saying that the behavior was “unintended” and the result of its partnership with a company called Device Native. According to Moto, it had teamed up with that organization to develop “an app search and suggestion experience for the Moto App Launcher.” You can choose to interpret that how you will, but the reality is that Device Native is a company that exists to inject personalized, native-seeming ads directly into the core Android software experience, as its website plainly establishes — with “no user opt-in required,” allowing for easier “scale” of “monetization globally.”

A screenshot from the Device Native website.

On some level, at least, Motorola evidently decided to work with this company and integrate its ad technology into the Android experience on its phones. Regardless of whether the Amazon code injection was truly deliberate, which organization caused it to happen, and who was or wasn’t aware of the actions, Motorola opted to place this ad-serving system into the phones it was selling and to allow the company behind it to exert this kind of control over its customers’ experiences — as well as, one would imagine, likely leaning on it for other forms of invasive system-level ad integration.

And sure, maybe Moto will back down from this practice and perhaps even distance itself from the partnership entirely if the outrage grows loud enough. But does someone stopping a shady-seeming practice simply because they got caught and people complained make for the kind of company you want to trust in general?

It’s similar to the way Moto lards up its devices with so much preinstalled bloatware that you actually have to fight to get through it or — Goog forbid — remove it and reclaim the product you paid hundreds of dollars to purchase. Heck, even the company’s top-of-the-line, nearly $2,000 folding Razr Fold phone is guilty of this sin, and that’s just embarrassing for a device of that price and caliber.

Even with Motorola’s lower-level phones, though, we’re talking about devices that often cost $500 or close to that. These aren’t bottom-of-the-barrel, heavily subsidized garbage gadgets. You could get one of Google’s Pixel 10a phones for that same price or often even less — without any of the bloatware, the link-hijacking and potential ad-injecting shenanigans, or the unforgivable software support failures. You’d get a full seven years of guaranteed timely and reliable software updates, from major Android versions to monthly security patches and the quarterly feature drops that accompany those. And that’s to say nothing of the superior camera experience and other assorted advantages.

You could go with one of Samsung’s midrange models, too, imperfect as those are in their own ways, and it’d still be a massive step up from the Motorola madness.

We’ve reached a point where there really is just no comparison — and, again, no reason why anyone should be buying a Motorola phone anymore. The issue, unfortunately, is that most of the people who are buying Moto devices are the same people who aren’t reading columns like these. They’re the people who waltz into a carrier store, see whatever model is featured on the shelf or pushed by a commission-earning, partnership-promoting salesperson, and walk out with whatever caught their eye or had the best promotional pricing on that particular day.

Make no mistake about it: these types of devices give Android a bad name and propagate the myth of the entire platform being a second-rate dumping ground for “folks who can’t afford iPhones.” Android is so much more and so much better than that. You deserve so much better than that.

Plain and simple, this isn’t the Motorola of yesterday. There’s no reason to keep setting yourself up for failure when so many better options exist. At this point, there’s no excuse — and no reason to keep setting yourself up for failure when so many better options exist.

Say goodbye, Moto. And make sure everyone you know who won’t be reading this column knows why they should do the same.

Get unmatched Android insight in your inbox with my free Android Intelligence newsletter — three new things to try and zero punches pulled every Friday.

This Week In Rust: This Week in Rust 653

Thu, 28 May 2026 10:25:02 +0200

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub and archives can be viewed at this-week-in-rust.org. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

Want TWIR in your inbox? Subscribe here.

Updates from Rust Community

Newsletters

Scientific Computing in Rust #18 (May 2026)

Project/Tooling Updates

Observations/Thoughts

Rust Walkthroughs

Miscellaneous

Content-addressed Rust builds (or, what kache actually caches)

Crate of the Week

This week's crate is inline_tweak, a crate to embed tweakable constants inside your Rust application without full recompilation.

Thanks to Kill The Mule for the suggestion!

Please submit your suggestions and votes for next week!

Calls for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization.

No calls for testing were issued this week by Rust, Cargo, Rustup or Rust language RFCs.

Let us know if you would like your feature to be tracked as a part of this list.

Call for Participation; projects and speakers

CFP - Projects

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but did not know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

rust cookbook - Expand Command Line section with clap derive, subcommands, and env vars

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here or through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on Bluesky or Mastodon!

CFP - Events

Are you a new or experienced speaker looking for a place to share something cool? This section highlights events that are being planned and are accepting submissions to join their event as a speaker.

No Calls for papers or presentations were submitted this week.

If you are an event organizer hoping to expand the reach of your event, please submit a link to the website through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on Bluesky or Mastodon!

Updates from the Rust Project

352 pull requests were merged in the last week

Compiler

Library

Cargo

Rustdoc

stabilize --remap-path-prefix in rustdoc

Clippy

Rust-Analyzer

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

This week was largely positive, with most of the improvements coming from algorithm change in visibility checking: #156228.

Triage done by @panstromek. Revision range: 281c97c3..783eb8c8

Summary:

(instructions:u)	mean	range	count
Regressions ❌ (primary)	0.4%	[0.1%, 0.7%]	5
Regressions ❌ (secondary)	0.5%	[0.1%, 1.1%]	16
Improvements ✅ (primary)	-0.9%	[-6.6%, -0.1%]	164
Improvements ✅ (secondary)	-0.4%	[-1.3%, -0.1%]	51
All ❌✅ (primary)	-0.9%	[-6.6%, 0.7%]	169

2 Regressions, 2 Improvements, 5 Mixed; 2 of them in rollups 34 artifact comparisons made in total

Full report here

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

Propose the concept of a crates.io username for identity

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

Tracking Issues & PRs

Rust

Rust RFCs

Avoid linting unreachable_code on todo!()

Unsafe Code Guidelines

What are the values of a union type? (in particular, what is the validity invariant of a union)

No Items entered Final Comment Period this week for Cargo, Language Team, Language Reference or Leadership Council. Let us know if you would like your PRs, Tracking Issues or RFCs to be tracked as a part of this list.

New and Updated RFCs

No New or Updated RFCs were created this week.

Upcoming Events

Rusty Events between 2026-05-27 - 2026-06-24 🦀

Virtual

2026-05-27 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona
- Weekly coding session
2026-06-02 | Virtual | libp2p Events
- rust-libp2p Open Maintainers Call
2026-06-02 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Rust 🦀 TLV
- ‎שיחה חופשית ווירטואלית על ראסט
2026-06-03 | Virtual (Indianapolis, IN, US) | Indy Rust
- Indy.rs - with Social Distancing
2026-06-04 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | Rust Berlin
- Rust Hack and Learn
2026-06-04 | Virtual (Nürnberg, DE) | Rust Nuremberg
- Rust Nürnberg online
2026-06-04 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Code Mavens 🦀 - 🐍 - 🐪
- Exploring FalkorDB - Learning to use a Graph Database in Rust
2026-06-06 | Virtual (Kampala, UG) | Rust Circle Meetup
- Rust Circle Meetup
2026-06-07 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup
- Rust Deep Learning: First Sunday
2026-06-09 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup
- Second Tuesday
2026-06-10 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona
- Weekly coding session
2026-06-16 | Virtual (Washington, DC, US) | Rust DC
- Mid-month Rustful
2026-06-17 | Hybrid (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust
- Jiff
2026-06-17 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona
- Weekly coding session
2026-06-18 | Hybrid (Seattle, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group
- June, 2026 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup
2026-06-18 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | Rust Berlin
- Rust Hack and Learn
2026-06-21 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup
- Rust Deep Learning: Third Sunday
2026-06-23 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup
- Fourth Tuesday
2026-06-23 | Virtual (London, UK) | Women in Rust
- Lunch & Learn: What the heck are monads - and how do we fake them in Rust

Asia

2026-06-02 | Beijing, CN | Voice AI and Rust Meetup (Rust for AI, lowcoderust.com)
- AI Agents and Open Source LLM (Call for Speakers)

Europe

2026-05-28 | Copenhagen, DK | Copenhagen Rust Community
- Rust meetup #68
2026-05-28 | London, UK | Rust London User Group
- LDN Talks May Community Showcase
2026-05-29 | Berlin, DE | Rust Berlin
- Rust Berlin Talks: The next generation
2026-05-30 | Stockholm, SE | Stockholm Rust
- Ferris' Fika Forum #26
2026-06-02 | Frankfurt, DE | Rust Rhein-Main
- gRPC with Rust and Tonic
2026-06-03 | Dublin, IE | Rust Dublin
- Join us live and INPERSON for Rust 261
2026-06-03 | Girona, ES | Rust Girona
- Rust Girona Hack & Learn 06 2026
2026-06-10 | München, DE | Rust Munich
- Rust Munich 2026 / 2 - Hacking Evening
2026-06-11 | Switzerland, CH | PostTenebrasLab
- Rust Meetup Geneva
2026-06-12 - 2026-06-14 | Kraków, PL | Rustmeet
- Rustmeet
2026-06-16 | Leipzig, DE | Rust - Modern Systems Programming in Leipzig
- Interactive: Everything is Open Source
2026-06-16 | Milano, IT | Rust Language Milan
- Real-time planning in Rust: SolverForge & SERIO
2026-06-18 | Aarhus, DK | Rust Aarhus
- Talk Night at Danske Commodities

North America

2026-05-27 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX
- Rust Lunch - Fareground
2026-05-28 | Atlanta, GA, US | Rust Atlanta
- Rust-Atl
2026-05-28 | Los Angeles, CA, US | Rust Los Angeles
- Rust LA: Rust in Embedded & Autonomous Systems at Parallel Systems in DTLA
2026-05-28 | Mountain View, CA, US | Hacker Dojo
- RUST MEETUP at HACKER DOJO
2026-05-30 | Boston, MA, US | Boston Rust Meetup
- Central Cambridge Rust Lunch, May 30
2026-06-04 | Saint Louis, MO, US | STL Rust
- Testing, Coverage, Tracey & Mutations
2026-06-06 | Boston, MA, US | Boston Rust Meetup
- Boston Common Rust Lunch, June 6
2026-06-11 | Lehi, UT, US | Utah Rust
- Utah Rust June Meetup
2026-06-11 | Mountain View, CA, US | Hacker Dojo
- RUST MEETUP at HACKER DOJO
2026-06-11 | San Diego, CA, US | San Diego Rust
- San Diego Rust June Meetup - Back in person!
2026-06-16 | San Francisco, CA, US | San Francisco Rust Study Group
- Rust Hacking in Person
2026-06-17 | Hybrid (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust
- Jiff
2026-06-18 | Hybrid (Seattle, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group
- June, 2026 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup
2026-06-24 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX
- Rust Lunch - Fareground
2026-06-24 | Los Angeles, CA, US | Rust Los Angeles
- Rust LA: Rust-Based Constraint Solvers in 2D Sketching with Zoo Technologies

South America

2026-06-18 | Florianópolis, BR | Rust SC
- Rust Floripa

If you are running a Rust event please add it to the calendar to get it mentioned here. Please remember to add a link to the event too. Email the Rust Community Team for access.

Jobs

Please see the latest Who's Hiring thread on r/rust

Quote of the Week

– Nadrieril on their blog

Thanks to Theemathas for the suggestion!

This Week in Rust is edited by:

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Revell “Das Boot” für nur 184,99 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon

MG 4X vorgestellt: Das dürfte der Bestseller der Marke werden

Thu, 28 May 2026 06:33:09 +0200

MG Motor ist mit dem MG4 durchaus erfolgreich in Europa und hat das Portfolio in diesem Jahr ausgebaut – mit einer Neuauflage und günstigeren Version. Doch der echte Besteller kommt …

Merck and Mastercard are seeing real agentic AI results. Both say the plumbing came first.

Wed, 27 May 2026 21:32:08 +0200

Merck is using AI agents to cut drug discovery cycles by a third and ship compliant marketing materials up to 80% faster — but VP of Digital Platforms Sean Finnerty says the only reason it's working is because they built the infrastructure first.

And the pharmaceutical manufacturer is seeing promising early results: AI is generating marketing drafts that are “99% right” when it comes to compliance, shrinking review cycles from months to days and accelerating delivery by 70% to 80%. In the company’s medical research, meanwhile, one AI-assisted discovery cycle was reduced by 33%.

Still, agentic AI only works if companies first build the underlying “plumbing,” Finnerty said of digital platforms and services at a recent AI Impact Series event.

“If we do one-offs, we're gonna end up with thousands and thousands of things that are ultimately just gonna be debt that we'll have to deal with later,” he said. “And that's gonna be a drag on any further innovation.”

Starting with the plumbing

Merck’s plumbing-first strategy comes from lessons learned during the early days of cloud in the 2010s “when nobody knew what the heck was going on,” Finnerty said.

Getting the cloud right meant building from the ground up; at Merck, that infrastructure now supports 2,500 AWS accounts, numerous Microsoft Azure subscriptions, and new Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integrations.

“AI is gonna be the same exact thing,” Finnerty said. “We're going to have thousands and thousands of agents.” The questions then pile up: How do you register them? How do you secure them? How do you ensure they're connected to the right tools, and have access to the right data and the right context?

Context delivery is also critical; Merck works with three hyperscalers and has forty-seven edge locations and hundreds of databases. “Many, many petabytes” of structured and unstructured data are stored in Oracle databases, SQL databases, Excel spreadsheets, phone transcripts, and other repositories, Finnerty said.

His team is building scaffolding to deliver meaningful context in various situations, he explained. Data must be organized and ingested into various platforms, because “there’s no one solution to solve every single problem.” Sometimes it's Databricks, other times it's Amazon Redshift, “plus four other things.”

The goal is: “Let's make that easy and frictionless for people to do, and secure it, and make sure it's well integrated with MCP [model context protocol], and A2A [Agent2Agent], and upstream compute,” Finnerty said. “If you wanna run stuff on GCP or you wanna run stuff on AWS, we've got the plumbing in place so you can run your adjacent workloads wherever you want.”

How Merck is using agents

As it builds out its technical plumbing, Merck is experimenting with agents across regulated enterprise operations, scientific discovery workflows, and app modernization.

Notably, AI is accelerating drug discovery. Finnerty explained that scientists look at molecular structures and disease states to determine if a given condition is druggable. But even if a disease state is known, developing a drug to target it can take years.

Now with AI, teams are starting to see “very promising things,” such as cutting one particular research cycle down by one-third. “That's a year off of the life of the discovery cycle,” Finnerty said. “Which means, theoretically, we can get it to a patient who needs that therapy a year faster.”

Once developed and approved, these products are regulated and marketing materials around them must be clearly and explicitly articulated. “The way you communicate that information per market, per country, per state, per region, is all very carefully governed and regulated,” Finnerty said. It’s also variable: An ad campaign for a vaccine in the state of Georgia looks much different from one launched in Canada.

Historically, humans did the due diligence to make sure the company complied with various laws. Draft materials go through iterations of reviews; when a mistake is discovered, it gets “kicked back to the beginning, and it goes through it again, and then it takes another however many weeks and months,” Finnerty said.

But now, AI can do that “much, much more effectively,” and the process is increasingly evolving from a human-in-the-loop to essentially a "human-as-governor." With human oversight, AI can deliver a first draft in a day or week that is 99% there, allowing teams to ship materials up to 80% faster.

Meanwhile, when it comes to app modernization, AI can discover architecture, document data interactions, APIs, network paths, and do authentication checks and authorization; it can also write code for Terraform for deployment and refactor JavaScript into Python.

Where the company would have previously spent weeks and months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to update one application, Finnerty said, agents are now handling the work through prompts.

Running into "wackiness"

That’s not to say there aren’t significant challenges; Finnerty noted that his team has run into some “wackiness”; for example in automated code and scenario testing. AI has blatantly made up scenarios, whether due to incorrect context, infrastructure, “or if it was just getting creative with, ‘You should be testing these three functions that don't even exist in the code that you're trying to test.’”

“That surprised me a little bit because I thought we were further past some of the hallucination challenges in these later models,” he said.

To address this, his team has engineered guardrails to keep hallucinations to a minimum, essentially using AI to supervise AI and applying confidence scores. So if Claude created the first output, they’ll instruct Microsoft Copilot to assess it.

“So if you ask something once, have AI check it, then ask it a third time, the confidence increases every time, and it minimizes some of the garbage that gets created in the early runs,” Finnerty said.

Use cases for agentic AI in financial services

Meanwhile, at Mastercard, Chief Data Officer Andrew Reiskind and his team are focusing agentic experimentation on highly orchestrated transaction and dispute workflows. As he noted, a chargeback or fraud dispute is not a single event.

When a consumer disputes a charge (typically online), that “kicks off an entire other process on the back-end that tends to be very labor-intensive,” Reiskind said.

Mastercard has to collect specifics about the actual dispute; then the merchant has its own investigations (Was the card reported as lost or stolen? Does the consumer dispute charges often?). Further, the network sitting in the middle has its own rules for timing and information submission.

“You have each and every one of these steps, many of which are unstructured, but there are also structured data elements to this,” Reiskind said. Whether a card was lost or stolen tends to be structured, but the consumer complaint is “unstructured data of questionable reliability.”

“So you're sitting there with a decisioning system that has deterministic decisions, but also probabilistic decisions,” he said.

This problem can be sped up and potentially solved by AI agents, but that can be a complex process: Which tasks are you handing off to agents? When are they kicking things back to human reps? How many agents are you ultimately using? What are the cost implications?

Then there are reputational questions and costs: Have you just called a consumer potentially a liar when they weren't lying?

“It's an exact problem where you want to, as a bank, maintain trust with your consumer,” Reiskind said. “But you also wanna make this efficient and take costs out of the system.”

The PB&J versus turkey mistake: Determine what risks are acceptable

There’s always going to be risk with AI, and enterprises should assess it from the beginning of product design, Reiskind said. There’s also the question of acceptable risk.

As an example: Did you serve a customer a peanut butter jelly sandwich instead of a turkey sandwich (a minor inconvenience)? Or did you serve gluten to someone with celiac disease?

“Is it an acceptable risk if one percent of the time it makes the mistake? If it is, let's go to the next stage of how you're mitigating that risk,” Reiskind said.

Leaders must perform cost-benefit analysis, break problems down to their “constituent pieces,” and calculate cost for each one. But these are estimates; it’s near-impossible to forecast real usage, Reiskind said. “It is not a simple process to get to the cost,” he said. “But it is doable.”

Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Türer vorgestellt: Affalterbach verdreht wieder Köpfe und Ohren

Wed, 20 May 2026 12:47:36 +0200

AMG aus Affalterbach geht einen ungewöhnlichen Weg. Der elektrische GT 4-Türer stemmt 1.169 PS und klingt wie ein röhrender V8. Auch der Blick aufs Heck polarisiert. Dieser Artikel wurde einsortiert unter Technology, Elektroauto, Mobility.

I'm an analog photography nut, and this cheap compact is as close as a digital camera has come to capturing the feel of shooting film

Wed, 20 May 2026 11:05:07 +0200

Offering a treasure-trove of app-based film looks, the RewindPix is a heck of a lot of fun for retro-loving photographers.

8 critical questions about the Googlebook, Android, and ChromeOS

Wed, 13 May 2026 13:03:07 +0200

Well, hell’s bells: It’s finally happening.

After years of misguided rumors and off-base expectations — over a decade’s worth, even! — Google is actually now on the brink of combining Android and ChromeOS into a single superpowered platform for laptops and mobile devices alike.

The company officially announced the advent of an entirely new type of product called the Googlebook as part of its pre-Google-I/O “Android Show” event on Tuesday. According to Google, the Googlebook is “a new category of laptops” that brings together Chrome, the Google Play ecosystem of apps, and “a modern OS that’s designed for Intelligence” (a fancy way to say “there’ll be lots of Gemini AI this-and-thats”).

At their core, Googlebooks appear to sport an interface that’s somewhere between Android as we know it and ChromeOS — with echoes of the 2010-era large-screen-optimized Android 3.0 Honeycomb era — to create what Google seemingly now sees as the future of the laptop experience.

In a lot of ways, Googlebooks seem poised to pick up right where ChromeOS left off — like, for instance, with how they make it easy to both natively install Android apps and stream apps directly from your phone on the computer. They also feature a nifty-sounding new Quick Access system that lets you seamlessly search, view, and work with files from your phone right on the laptop, without even having to do any sharing or transferring.

The Googlebook Quick Access system makes your Android phone’s storage easily accessible from your laptop.

Google

But more than anything, what’s defining Googlebooks at this point is what we don’t know about the devices and the ecosystems around ’em. Google is being deliberately cryptic with what it’s revealing about the setup — which is set to ship sometime “later this year” — as part of this early preview.

And what’ll really tell us the story of this new platform and what it’s all about — as well as the equally important tale of what it signifies for the broader Android and ChromeOS ecosystems and the people, companies, and organizations that depend on those — will be the answers to eight critical questions in areas where Google is thus far staying firmly tight-lipped.

[Get level-headed knowledge in your inbox with my free Android Intelligence newsletter — three new things to try every Friday.]

Specifically:

1. Do Googlebooks run Android?

It’s a pretty simple-seeming question, but somehow, it’s an answer that evades us as of this moment — and that, I’m told, is very much by design.

What we know right now is that Googlebooks are “optimized for the Android ecosystem” and able to run Android apps — but the same is technically true for Chromebooks, and those rely on a completely different operating system.

When I pressed for clarity on this during an embargoed press prebriefing (highfalutin lingo for a small meeting when Google presents info ahead of time to a bunch of writer-type folk in exchange for an agreement that we won’t talk about it until a specific stated date), an executive from the Googlebook team divulged that the devices are “built on the Android tech stack” and combine “the best of Android” with what Google learned from ChromeOS — and, of course, all the more recent Gemini stuff, too.

The Googlebook, as shown in a product mock from Google — with many mysteries remaining beneath that shiny outer surface.

Google

But that still doesn’t tell us if they’re Android devices or something else entirely — with an entirely new custom operating system at their core built for this specific purpose and merely based on Android as a starting point. (When I asked for further clarity a couple more times via email after the event, I eventually was told that Google is leaving those exact details to be answered later.)

And you’d better believe that’s a consequential distinction, as my next two questions illustrate.

2. Will device-makers be allowed to mess around with the operating system, à la Android, or will it be more locked down and consistent like ChromeOS?

Perhaps the biggest point of differentiation between an Android device and a ChromeOS device is that Android — for better or sometimes for worse — is a bit of an open canvas, and each individual device-maker and even carrier is able to take it and modify it for their own needs.

That’s why we see such a dramatic difference in how “Android” looks when you experience it on a Google-made Pixel phone vs. a Samsung-made Galaxy phone, for instance — and also why so many devices come with manufacturer- or carrier-added bloatware that exists solely to make those companies extra money at the cost of your user experience.

From the get-go, Chromebooks were kind of the anti-Android in this way. Google made it clear from day 1 that ChromeOS was a pristine surface that’d be identical no matter what exact device you’re using or who made it. And, with minor exceptions, it’s stuck to that all this time. You can pick up a Chromebook made by HP, Samsung, Acer, or Google and know it’ll look and work more or less the same exact way, with more or less the same exact interface and out-of-the-box experience.

If Googlebooks are truly Android devices, it’d logically follow that they’ll work more like Android — with each manufacturer potentially putting on their own custom spin and revamping the interface as well as adding in additional apps as they see fit. In that scenario, a device made by Samsung is likely to be very different from a device made by HP, Acer, or Google (and so on).

The seemingly technical distinction of what operating system is at the core means everything in this area — and the same is equally true and even more consequential with my next big question.

3. What do those last two questions tell us about Googlebooks’ software support and update expectations?

Whoo, boy — here we go: can of worms time.

Because device-makers are able to modify and control so many parts of the software experience with Android, it’s up to each individual manufacturer to process every new operating system update as it arrives — and then provide that update to its customers.

And you know the deal from there, right? In practice, that means there’s a massive disparity in the speed and reliability of post-sales software support across the Android ecosystem — with some devices always receiving new updates within mere days of their release and others consistently waiting six months to a year or even longer to get increasingly stale software. It’s a serious problem in the Android arena, and it has been for ages now.

And even if you don’t care about the more superficial interface improvements and feature additions, you’d better believe timely software support matters. Operating system updates are packed with vital fixes in areas like privacy, security, and performance. Particularly for professionals, knowing you’re always on the latest available Android version should be a given — not something you need to worry about or an area where you risk realizing you’re half a year behind.

If Googlebooks follow the Android model, it stands to reason that this same disparity will exist among them — and that knowing who makes a device and what their upgrade history looks like will be an incredibly important part of any intelligent buying decision.

If Googlebooks are more their own individual operating system and it’s one that more closely mirrors the ChromeOS concept, then Google itself might handle the heavy lifting with updates and deliver ’em all quickly and universally, without any third-party meddling or reliance.

Again, as of now, we just don’t know, nor do we yet know even what the overall standard will be for software support and update longevity with Googlebooks in general. As you can imagine, the answers to these questions couldn’t be more critical — for professionals and organizations in particular, but also just for regular ol’ individual device owners.

Googlebooks present an entirely new software environment — with lots of unknowns.

Google

Speaking of which…

4. What does the Googlebook’s arrival mean for the future of ChromeOS and Chromebooks?

Here’s the million-dollar question — or maybe the $14.7 billion question, to be more precise:

With Googlebooks set to start shipping sometime later this year, is ChromeOS effectively kaput? Is Google shifting its focus away from Chromebooks and toward Googlebooks as their de facto replacement?

The answer here gets especially murky. When I raised the subject during the aforementioned briefing, executives were quick to note that they will continue to support all existing ChromeOS devices through their promised lifespans — and that they absolutely were not giving up on the platform or abandoning its users.

That’s important, and it’s great to know. But it still isn’t answering the actual question I’m posing here — which is longer term, if Google intends to continue investing in ChromeOS and creating new Chromebook devices or if that platform and device type is essentially being phased out and supported only in a legacy context, for the products that already exist or are presently under development.

And that’s where I’ve been struggling to get a clear, unambiguous answer. Upon following up with a Google media relations rep to try to gain clarity, I received the following carefully worded statement:

Okay, so we got a teensy new nugget there — in that “many Chromebooks” will be able to “transition” to the newer, Googlebook-style setup. Again, good to know.

But still, it isn’t the answer we’re looking for here. Will Chromebooks keep being produced and offered indefinitely alongside Googlebooks, as different choices for different markets and/or needs — or will Googlebooks eventually replace Chromebooks as the de facto laptop-level device at some point in the foreseeable future?

When pressed on this point, a media relations rep from Google told me that yes, Chromebooks will “continue to be sold” — and that there are already more devices “in the pipeline” for release. When I followed up further to attempt to clarify, again, if that meant Googlebooks and Chromebooks would both be produced and offered indefinitely moving forward — not just that there’ll be a period of overlap in which both will be available to purchase, based on devices that were already released or under development — I didn’t receive another reply (after a day and a half and in time for this article’s publication).

At the risk of turning this into a total Abbott and Costello routine, I’m still just not entirely sure that what we’re hearing actually answers what I’m asking — or what that might mean for the many education and enterprise organizations relying on Chromebooks now, once their current devices start to near end dates and they’re ready to look for replacements.

As a potentially related side note, all software-level considerations aside, Googlebooks are described as being “built with premium craftsmanship and materials” — every Googlebook — and so it sure doesn’t seem like they’ll be positioned in the same way that many current Chromebooks have, at the more budget or midrange level that’s suitable for mass organizational deployment.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

5. What about other core Chromebook qualities — like the built-in security, lack of slowdown over time, and the true desktop browser experience they offer?

I’ll make this one easy for ya: Don’t know, don’t know, don’t know.

Once more, extremely critical questions. And so far, no known answers.

6. Will Googlebooks be able to run Linux programs — and/or Windows apps, as Google worked so hard to establish with ChromeOS in recent years?

Over the years, ChromeOS morphed into something I’ve called the “everything” OS — an ironic evolution, without a doubt, given the original Chromebook vision.

Part of that means the devices can run practically every type of app imaginable, short of Mac-native software. You can install Android apps, of course, and run anything from the web. You can also install Linux apps and, with the right add-on, even run full-fledged Windows programs on a Chromebook — a move Google made proudly and after lots of thoughtful iteration to close the gap on corporate concerns around ChromeOS limitations.

Part of the Chromebook’s appeal has also always been the desktop-caliber Chrome browser experience it gives you — something that the mobile versions of browsers have never quite been able to match when it comes to speed and unrestricted productivity. It’s a very noticeable difference when you attempt to do work on the web on a Chromebook compared to a traditional Android (or any other mobile operating system) device.

As for Googlebooks, all we know right now is that they can run Android apps. So are they essentially just a new and improved version of an Android tablet — something that’d be fine and maybe even nice for more casual use but a far cry from the sort of productivity-minded environment Chromebooks have grown into providing? Or will they retain their predecessors’ progress when it comes to that singularly versatile platform-bending software support?

Until we know those answers, it’s impossible to really wrap our heads around any of this.

7. Will the devices all be touch-centric, with touch-capable displays?

The way Google is showing its Googlebooks being used certainly makes it seem like they’re more touch-oriented devices — with keyboards available for when you need ’em.

Chromebooks, though, started out that way and then quickly evolved to showcase a more diverse range of hardware options — which, in recent years, increasingly did not include touchscreens as a baseline option.

If these are being portrayed as more traditional laptops, maybe touch isn’t necessarily expected for them, either. But if they’re more of supercharged tablets, a touch capability would certainly make sense.

The Googlebook’s trademark “glowbar,” as seen on some past Google-made devices.

Google

So. Many. Questions. And, on that note, one more:

8. How will these be branded — and will Google itself be making Googlebook hardware?

Based on the name “Googlebook” (which, on a side note, is remarkably similar to “gobbledegook” — trust me, you’ll never unsee it now), you’d be forgiven for assuming that Google itself is the one making ’em all.

That, we do know, is definitely not the case. Google says it’s partnering with a variety of companies — including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, to start — to create the very first Googlebooks, and that alone raises so much curiosity in my mind.

To wit: Will all of those companies’ devices simply be called Googlebooks — the Acer Googlebook and the Dell Googlebook, for instance? Or will it be more of a Windows-esque model, where they’ll brand ’em however they want and then list somewhere on the packaging that they’re Googlebooks or running, erm, GoogleOS, or Android Googlebook Desktop Edition, or whatever the heck it ends up being called?

For that matter, will Google itself be making a Googlebook? It’d be weird if it didn’t, given the name “Googlebook” and the company’s ever-increasing homemade hardware ambitions. But if it does, will its device be the Pixelbook Googlebook? (Gesundheit.) And will we be seeing the same sort of awkward competition that’s present within Android now, where Google both makes and controls the OS and competes for customers as a creator of the same sort of hardware?

For now, all we can really say is that Googlebooks are coming — and they appear to establish a whole new horizon for how we think about laptops, Android, and ChromeOS. They’ll have a neat glowbar that brings to mind earlier Google hardware products, and they’ll feature a bunch of bits of native Gemini integration. And they’ll interact with Android in some interesting ways.

Beyond that, let’s hope that the answers to all these questions become apparent as the months march on and we grow closer to the Googlebook’s launch — ’cause without these answers, Googlebooks really are just a bunch of gobbledegook, albeit gobbledegook surrounded by a cryptically pretty enclosure and plenty of hazily promising potential.

Want even more Googley knowledge? Come check out my free Android Intelligence newsletter and get next-level insight delivered directly to your inbox.

Volkswagen: Der erste Elektro-GTI hat ein Datum

Wed, 13 May 2026 11:17:16 +0200

Volkswagen plant den ersten vollelektrischen GTI und hat uns heute ein Datum für die Ankündigung des VW ID Polo GTI verraten. Am 15. Mai, also diesen Freitag, um 13 Uhr …

Why do I hate Microsoft? Let me count the ways….

Fri, 08 May 2026 23:04:15 +0200

For various reasons, I’ve had to deal with a large number of Microsoft systems (and Microsoft problems) a lot recently. And of course, it’s been frustating as all hell. But after having fighting through a large number of different problems, I’ve come to some conclusions about how and why it’s been so frustrating to me.

The fundamental problem is that there are no real diagnostic tools which are avilable. Under Linux, if something strange happens, I can look at the various syslog files, or look at a ps listing to see what a process is doing, or in an extreme case, use lsof or strace to see what’s going on.

With Windows, if an a Windows Internet Explorer service pack 2 install hangs at 88% for 10-15 minutes, there’s not much I can do other than let it sit, or cancel it. There are no tools to figure out what the heck is going on.

Or if the ethernet interface on my Windows laptop suddenly stops functioning, and the device manager simply says, “there was an error initializing the device driver”, I have absolutely no idea what actually was wrong, or how to fix it. All I could do was to try several times to remove the network device, and then rebooting, and hoping Windows would notice the new hardware, and attempt to do something sane with this. Why it suddenly started worked after the third time I tried doing this, and not after the first or second time, I have no idea.

All of this was summed up by a friend at a BBQ as follows: “With Unix, you know you’ve found the problem before you fix it. With Windows, you don’t know that you’ve found the problem until after you’ve fixed it.” (And sometimes after you’ve fixed it, you still don’t know what the problem was.)

There is an old joke in the BSD fortune file about Brian Kernighan’s car: its only instrument is a big question mark on the dashboard, which lights when something goes wrong. According to the joke, Dr. Kernigham explained this by saying: “The experienced driver will know what’s wrong.” What I’ve found is this is actually far more appropriate for Windows than Unix. For anything other than most routine problems, Unix systems have far better diagnostics available to me than under Windows.

Scary thought for the week

Fri, 08 May 2026 23:03:34 +0200

The HIP folks requested that Tero generate a 384-bit DH group for PDA’s with lame CPU’s for which it would take too long to use a 512-bit DH modulus. Oh, when will they ever learn? Heck, a 512-bit modulus was considered a bad idea thirteen years ago in Brian Lamacchia’s Paper.

Small configuration file parser

Fri, 08 May 2026 23:03:16 +0200

I’ve recently taken the Kerberos V5 profile library, which I had originally written ten years ago (!!!) to parse /etc/krb5.conf, and taken the version from krb5 1.4.2, and simplified the heck out of it (took out locking for multi-threading support, the ability to modify config files from the program, etc.) and boiled it into a single C source file, so that e2fsck could have its own fast, simple, and lightweight configuration file. The end result is here, and compiles down to 6.5k of x86 object code. I could probably get it to be even smaller, but still, that’s not bad.

After finishing, I wondered what other choices I might have used. I haven’t done a formal release yet, so it’s still possible for me to try something else, if there is some other small, robust, configuration file parser that would be better. Since e2fsck needs to fit on potentially small root filesystems (or other small boot-time environments), we can rule out libxml2 — one megabyte of compiled code can’t be all bad — but that kind of bloatware is just scary. The smallest XML parser I could find is ezxml, which is still over 3 times the size of my win.ini parser, and which, like most XML parsers, has an API which is not terribly convenient to use.

It is amazing to me how there seems to be so little interest in small, compact, elegant pieces of code that can be reused. The trend these days seems to be towards large pieces of bloatware, and it doesn’t matter whether programs are written in C, C++, Java, or Perl. Sigh.

How to publish?

Fri, 08 May 2026 23:02:56 +0200

That is meant as a question to the readers. The problem I have right now is that I have more or less finished the paper accompanying one of the talks I gave at the Red Hat Summit in Nashville last year. The slides for the talk about CPU Caches are available. But quite honestly, as most slide sets, they don't do the topic any justice. I had to compress things to < 45 mins which is of course not enough. The paper covers everything I can currently think of and which makes sense with relation to CPU caches and CPU memory, as far as programmers are concerned (nothing for hardware people). The title I currently use it

and I think this is adequate.

For this reason I usually write a paper on the important topics I talk about. And this topic qualifies. I consider the topic especially important since it's almost never treated in the software world at all. College grads today in most cases have not the slightest clue about this topic. Ideally I'd like the paper be picked up by some lecturers (like they do for many of my other publications) and use it in a course. Heck, I'm even willing to teach it myself if that is what it takes to get credibility.

The problem I'm facing is that the document is (using my usual paper style, two column etc) around 100 densely packed pages long. Some of the people I've shown it to suggested that it should rather be published as a book. I'm a bit unsure about this. I have a few publisher who for a long time keep pestering me about writing something for them (some even prematurely submitted titles to distributors!). One I talked to would be willing to print it even though it's thin for a book. But there are a lot of pluses and minuses all around:

My PDF only: Going this route means the document is easy to change and extend. The format is exactly as I want it. The visibility is restricted, not in the print market. No professional review. Due to the size (and use of color) it is hard to print.
Go with a publisher: Professional editing, maybe a college edition, visibility through listing in catalogs etc. Additionally available as e-book. But it likely means the color has to go (printing in color is expensive) and there will be no free-of-charge copy. Getting a revision out will be almost impossible.
Go with Lulu: The alternative publishing route: I could submit an appropriately formatted PDF to Lulu and have them publish it. Demand printing, ISBN available. B&W and color printing possible. Even e-books if anybody cares. No professional editing.

Going with Lulu has the advantages I want but it's quite an effort. And there are costs associated with it. I do not plan to make money out of all this but I'd have to recover the costs. Excess gains would probably go to charity (in my case this is the Monterey Bay Aquarium in case anybody is interested).

So, the questions I have and would like to get some feedback on are:

Are printed copies wanted at all? Especially for those teaching, is it a prerequisite?
If yes, do you prefer a professional, more expensive book?
Or perhaps an amateur-ish publication which is either B&W and cheap (I guess not much more than $10)...
... or a colored print for around $30. The paper has currently around 60 diagrams and color helps.

If you have an opinion and a mail or add a comment to the blog (which won't be published). I know it is not easy to answer given that you haven't seen the material. But this is the same for most books, isn't it? Look at the slides and assume 100 times more details. I doubt I'll find many people who know all these details now (I had to do research myself).

Organic vs. Non-organic Open Source

Fri, 08 May 2026 23:02:15 +0200

Brian Aker dropped by and replied to my previous essay by making the following comment:

I made an initial reply as comment, and then decided it was so long that I should promote it to a top-level post.

I assume that when Brian talks about “organic open source” what he means is what I was calling an “open source development community”. Some googling turned up the following definition from Mozilla Firefox’s organic software page: “Our most well-known product, Firefox, is created by an international movement of thousands, only a small percentage of whom are actual employees.”

This puts it in contrast with “non-organic” software, where all or nearly all of the developers are employed by one company. (And anyone who proves talented at adding features to that source base soon gets a job offer by that one company. 🙂 By that definition we can certainly see projects like Wine, Mysql, Ghostscript (at one time), and others as fitting into that model, and being quite successful. There’s nothing really wrong with the non-organic software model, although many of them have struggled to make enough money when competing with pure proprietary softare competitors, with MySQL perhaps being the exception which proves the rule.

In most of these cases, though, the project started more as an organic open source, and then transitioned into the non-organic model when there was a desire to monetize the project — and/or when the open source programmers decided that it would be nice if they could turn their avocation into a vocation, and let their hobby put food on the family table.

Solaris, of course, is doing something else quite different, though. They are trying to make the transition from a proprietary customer/supplier relationship to trying to develop an Open Source community — and what John’s candidate statement pointed out is that they weren’t really interested in creating an organic open source developer community at all, but they wanted the fruits of an open source community — with plenty of application developers, end-users, etc., all participating in that community.

We don’t have a lot of precedent for projects who try to go in this direction, but I suspect they are skipping a step when they try to go to the end step without bothering to try to make themselves open to outside developers. And by continuing to act like a corporation, they end up shooting themselves in the foot. For example, the OpenSolaris license still prohibits people from publishing benchmarks or comparisons with other operating systems. Very common in closed-source operating systems and databases, but it discourages people from even trying to make things better, both within and outside of the Open Solaris core team. Instead, they respond to posts like David Miller’s with “Have you ever kissed a girl?”. (Thanks, Simon, for that quote; I had seen it before, but not for a while, and it pretty well sums up the sheer arrogance of the Open Solaris development team.)

So while Linux may not be completely optimized in terms of “less priests” and more inclusion, at least over 1200 developers contributed to 2.6.25 during its development cycle. Compared to that, Open Solaris is positively dominated by “high priests” and with a “you may not touch the holy-of-holies” attitude; heck, they won’t even allow you to compare them to other religions without branding you a heretic and suing you for licensing violations!

Meltdown and Spectre Linux Kernel Status

Fri, 08 May 2026 22:52:40 +0200

By now, everyone knows that something “big” just got announced regarding computer security. Heck, when the Daily Mail does a report on it , you know something is bad…

Anyway, I’m not going to go into the details about the problems being reported, other than to point you at the wonderfully written Project Zero paper on the issues involved here. They should just give out the 2018 Pwnie award right now, it’s that amazingly good.

25 great uses for an old Android device

Fri, 01 May 2026 12:02:04 +0200

Got extra smartphones sitting around your office? How about tablets? As we move multiple generations into mobile technology, more and more of us are building up collections of old, dated devices from both our work and our personal lives. And more often than not, those devices do little more than take up space and gather dust.

Here’s a little secret, though: Your abandoned Android gadgets are actually virtual gold mines. You just have to find the right way to tap into their potential and give them new life.

So grab the nearest DustBuster and get ready: Here are 25 ways to make your old phone or tablet useful again.

1. Create a no-cost Wi-Fi extender

If you struggle with poor Wi-Fi coverage in particular areas of your home, office, and/or home office (hello, my fellow converted garage dwellers!), a random old Android device can serve as a surprisingly effective extender for your internet signal — in the same way that a dedicated Wi-Fi extender or repeater appliance could.

Few folks realize it, but the hotspot option built into Android works not only with mobile data — the way most of us use it with a current, active Android device — but also with any Wi-Fi network associated with the device. That means your old Android gizmo can take the signal it’s receiving from a router and broadcast it further, almost as if it were a point in a mesh networking system like Eero or Nest Wifi (only without quite as elegant or simple of a setup — but hey, this approach is completely free!). It’s an interesting advantage that Apple devices notably don’t offer.

The key is to find a place for the phone where it’s close enough to a router to be seeing a reasonably strong Wi-Fi signal and close enough to your dead zone that it can extend the signal further in that direction, while still being plugged in to have consistent power. You may have to experiment to figure out what exact positioning works best.

Once you have the device in the right spot, though, all that’s left is to find the hotspot option within its settings and get it configured correctly. The precise placement of the option may vary depending on the device’s software, but you’ll usually want to look within a Network & Internet section of the system settings (or whatever closest equivalent you find), then look for a “Hotspot” or “Hotspot & Tethering” subsection within that area.

Tap the option for “Wi-Fi Hotspot” there, and you should be able to configure the name and password of the network the phone will generate — using your existing Wi-Fi network as its backbone. If there’s an option to turn the hotspot off automatically anytime no other devices are connected, you’ll probably want to disable that. And if you see an option for setting the network to be 2.4GHz or 5GHz, you’ll likely want to enable both of those paths.

Then, just flip the switch to start your hotspot — and that’s it: Your extended network is officially up and running.

Android’s Wi-Fi hotspot setup, in action — a feat iPhones won’t allow.

JR Raphael / Foundry

Now, just go into the part of your building where Wi-Fi wasn’t great and try connecting to your phone’s network instead of the standard Wi-Fi network. If your positioning worked, the signal should be noticeably stronger — and your connection should be noticeably faster as a result.

2. Use it as a wireless trackpad and controller for your computer

With the right software and a couple minutes of configuration, your old Android device can act as an on-demand controller for your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.

An app called Unified Remote and a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection are all you need to make the magic happen. The free version of the app gives you basic mouse and keyboard control along with specialized remotes for media playback and power-related commands, while the full $5 version adds in program-specific remotes for presentation control along with other advanced features.

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Unified Remote provides basic mouse and keyboard control along with a variety of specialized remotes.

JR Raphael / IDG

Grab whichever version you prefer and download the server-side software for your computer — then toss your old device into a desk drawer or computer bag and rest easy knowing it’ll be ready and waiting the next time you need to go wireless.

3. Turn it into a remote computer terminal

Want easy access to your home computer from the office — or vice-versa? Your old Android phone or tablet can be a splendid stationary screen for keeping a remote system at arm’s reach.

And it couldn’t be any easier to make that happen. All you need is Google’s free Chrome Remote Desktop program on both your computer and your old Android device, and your phone or tablet will effectively become a window to your desktop.

I’ve got a thorough guide to the Chrome Remote Desktop setup process, if you want step-by-step instructions — but the short version is that you’ll need to install the official Google Chrome Remote Desktop extension into Chrome on your computer, then open the Chrome Remote Desktop website and follow the prompts to set up remote access.

Snag the companion Remote Desktop Android app, get all signed in there, and that’s it: Your old Android device is now a full-fledged terminal and access point for any computer you want.

4. Make it a portable storage device

Cloud services may often be the simplest way to store and transport files nowadays, but there’s something to be said for good old-fashioned physical storage — both in terms of consistent availability regardless of connectivity and in terms of the added assurances having especially important files in your own pocket can provide.

While there’s certainly no shortage of high-quality portable thumb drives and external hard drives available, any old Android device is essentially the same thing — with the added advantage of also offering up an easy interface for interacting with anything on its local storage and optionally dropping such files into an email, a Slack chat, or any other cloud-connected spot should the need ever arise.

Just securely erase your Android device to give it a fresh start and free up as much space as possible, then plug it into your computer to transfer files from the computer to the phone or tablet.

You’ll have ample room for whatever you need to store, and you can easily carry it around or keep it somewhere safe — then connect it to another computer or rely on assorted Android business apps for managing the files, emailing them, sharing them in collaborative environments, or anything else that may come up.

5. Reposition it as an AI-powered chatbot interface

Generative AI systems are quickly becoming critical tools for company productivity, and an old Android device is the perfect vessel for creating a dedicated on-demand AI chatbot interaction station.

This one’s especially easy, too: Just install the ChatGPT Android app, the Gemini Android app, the Microsoft Copilot Android app, or any other AI tool you use — then keep it front and center on your old device’s home screen.

In the case of Gemini, you can also opt in to allowing Gemini to take over the role of your default system assistant and make it available via a Hey Google voice command.

And just like that, you’ve got a generative AI chatbot at your beck and call 24/7 without having to have it take over your current Android device and run down its battery.

6. Give yourself a separate work and personal phone

With more and more companies taking a bring-your-own-device approach for the workplace, the lines between our personal and professional lives are getting increasingly blurry.

And while Android does have some decent options for creating separate work and personal profiles — both natively, if your phone is part of an enterprise-managed arrangement, and with a little creative configuring in any other scenario — there’s an undeniable appeal in creating a formal barrier between your worlds and being able to leave your work completely behind when the opportunity arises.

So think about using your old Android device as a dedicated work or personal phone and setting it up explicitly for that purpose, then using your current Android phone exclusively for the other role. That’ll give you separate physical devices for your separate life roles — the kind of power most people only dream about seizing these days.

7. Use it as a universal smart remote

Even the junkiest old Android device has ample power to serve as a smart remote for your home or office. That can be a helpful way for you and anyone else around to control your various smart devices and multimedia components without needing any special access (or your own current personal phone in hand).

First, the easy part: Load up your old phone or tablet with all the relevant apps for your smart-device setup — things like Google Home, Hue, and anything else appropriate for controlling your home or office tech.

Next, think about adding some tools that’ll let the device handle any audio and video systems in your area. There are a few ways you can make that work:

Pair the phone or tablet with one of Google’s Streamer boxes or, better yet, one of the company’s older, simpler, and far more affordable Chromecast dongles, if you’ve still got one sitting around somewhere. You can then keep the old Android device on your desk or coffee table and use it as a hub for wirelessly casting content — everything from Netflix and YouTube to TED Talks, CNBC, and Google Slides — to your TV.
Use your device as a dedicated remote for your home or office entertainment setup. If the device is running an Android version from 2012 or later, you can give yourself a ready-to-roll Google TV remote that’ll work with any compatible streaming products by installing and then signing into the official Google TV app. The Play Store also has a variety manufacturer-made apps for controlling specific components, including those by AT&T U-verse and Roku.
Set up a full-fledged media server using Plex, then use your old device as a dedicated remote to stream your own local content to a TV. (The Plex media server software is free; a premium subscription with added features runs $7 per month, $70 per year, or $250 for a lifetime license.)

8. Transform it into a free-standing security camera

Who needs a fancy-schmancy connected camera when you’ve got an old Android phone sitting around? With the aid of a third-party app, the camera on your dated device can let you keep an eye on your home, office, or top-secret crime lair from anywhere — and even perform advanced functions like video recording and motion detection.

Just download the free IP Webcam app or get the fully featured $5 pro version and follow its instructions. Within moments, you’ll be able to peek through your device’s lens from any compatible web browser and cackle with glorious glee.

9. Repurpose it as a dedicated camera

Smartphone cameras just keep getting better, but we’re reaching a point where even cameras from a few years back are really quite good — and the differences between them and their more current siblings are relatively subtle.

With that in mind, an old Android device can be a perfect way to have a ready-to-roll camera at your disposal for times when you might not want your primary phone to be out and about on your adventures — whether you’re worried about it getting wet or damaged or maybe just trying to disconnect from the world of work-related dings and pings for a while.

The best part about this setup that is no special preparation is even required. Just grab the old phone and go, and rest easy knowing your “real” phone is safe and sound somewhere far away from whatever you’re photographing.

10. Reframe it as a full-time videoconferencing station

Set up your old Android device with the app for your video-chatting platform of choice — Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or whatever the case may be — then drop it into a dock on your desk or conference room table. Say “hocus pocus” for good measure, and ta-da: You’ve just created a permanent access point for virtual face-to-face communications.

Just think: With enough old phones and tablets, you can create an entire house- or office-wide videoconferencing system. Sign each device into its own unique account, with the name of the room as its username, and seeing someone across the building will never be more than a couple quick taps away.

11. Turn it into a kitchen command center

Hard to believe, but my ancient 2011 Motorola Xoom tablet was one of the most used devices in my house until it finally kicked the bucket some six years into its life. That’s because I converted it into a multipurpose command center for our kitchen — a role my 2012 Nexus 10 tablet then took over for another couple years after that.

So how to make a kitchen command center of your own? Easy: First, use a custom Android launcher like Smart Launcher or Niagara Launcher to simplify your old tablet’s home screen and add in some easy-to-perform gestures — like double-tapping anywhere on the screen to launch Android’s voice search function for on-the-fly info-gathering and other hands-free commands, either via Gemini or the old Google Assistant, if your old Android device still has that present.

Second, populate the home screen with the right apps for the purpose. Netflix and other video-streaming services will effectively turn your old tablet into a cooking-time television. Recipe apps can also be useful, as can Android note-taking apps — like Google Keep, Microsoft OneNote, and Notion — for quick viewing of personal recipes or editing of always-synced family-shared shopping lists.

If you really want to get wild, you can even set up a smart-display-like screensaver that’ll turn your device into a customizable intelligent info center whenever you aren’t actively using it — kind of like what Google has tried (but thus far mostly failed) to accomplish with its not-so-old Pixel Tablet product.

12. Make it a data-based extension of your current phone service

If you use Google Fi (formerly known as Project Fi) for your current phone’s wireless service, take advantage of a little-known bonus feature: the ability to get an extra SIM card that’s connected to your account and able to provide data on any other device — without any superfluous fees.

All you’ve gotta do is order the card from the Google Fi website, pop it into an old phone (or a tablet, if you happen to have one with a SIM slot) — and bam: That device is instantly online and connected. You’ll pay only for whatever mobile data the device uses in any given month, at the same flat rate associated with your regular Fi plan, so it’s essentially just an extension of your primary phone.

That opens up plenty of interesting possibilities: You could use your old device as a ready-to-go backup phone in case your regular one is ever missing, broken, or low on battery; you could use it as a dedicated hotspot to beam out mobile data access without draining your primary phone’s battery; or you could use it as an always-connected on-the-go slate for your kids (hello, airport video-streaming) without having to pay for an extra line of service.

13. Make it your live window into the world

Don’t have the greatest view from your desk? Let your old Android phone or tablet be your window to wild and exciting locales.

To get started, grab the EarthCam Webcams app from the Google Play Store. It’ll give you one-touch access to an impressive list of live streaming cameras around the world, from the hustle and bustle of New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street to the swooshing serenity of Niagara Falls. Pull up any view you like, then tap the icon to go full-screen and gaze the day away. If you find yourself craving some variety, you can consider upgrading from the app’s free collection to a set of 175 live cameras for a one-time $5 fee.

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EarthCam lets you gaze down Niagara Falls — or a slew of other webcams around the world — for a break from the mundane.

JR Raphael / IDG

You can find quite a few mobile-friendly live cameras on the web as well: Pull up your device’s browser and try out the San Diego Zoo’s assorted animal cams — including a penguin cam, koala cam, and tiger cam, among other exotic views — or the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s extensive underwater cams for even more “aww”-inducing options.

14. Convert it into a digital photo frame

Ah, memories. Snag an inexpensive stand, plug your device into its charger, and turn it into a cloud-connected photo frame for your home or office.

If you use Google Photos, just open up the app, tap on any photo in your main library or within a specific album, and then tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. Scroll horizontally along the menu that appears and select “Slideshow.” The app will cycle through your photos and give you plenty of memories to reflect upon whilst relaxing or taking care of business.

If your old Android phone is a Pixel, you can also set it on one of Google’s official Pixel Stands to start an ever-evolving Photos-linked slideshow showing any specific albums or even specific people you want.

15. Use it as a dedicated e-reader

Want a distraction-free reading environment for your next business trip or public transit commute? Load up your old Android device with only the apps you need for reading — Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, Nook, or whatever tickles your text-ingesting fancy.

You can even borrow books from your local library: Check with your nearest branch for information on how to do it or download the free Libby app, which is used by a variety of libraries, schools, and institutions.

Be sure to disable notifications from Gmail and other noisy apps — heck, even switch the device into airplane mode once you’ve downloaded the content you need — and you’ve got the equivalent of a dedicated e-reader without all the usual phone or tablet temptations.

16. Transform it into a dedicated desk calendar

Dock your old device on your desk and put it to work as your personal calendar. Google’s own Calendar app can get the job done with plenty of productivity-oriented elements, or the free DigiCal Calendar Agenda app will give you an even more graphical and customizable interface that’s perfectly suited for this purpose.

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The DigiCal app looks especially sharp in its landscape (horizontal) orientation.

JR Raphael/IDG

DigiCal is free with an optional $5.50 upgrade for extra themes and customization options.

17. Treat yourself to a dedicated audio player

The idea of an iPod may seem amusingly antiquated at this point, but there’s something to the idea of having a dedicated device for the specific purpose of playing podcasts, music, or even just some manner of white noise.

By outsourcing that task to an old Android device, you can grant yourself the freedom to leave your current phone behind when you’re working out, doing something outside, or even just taking a break from business on the weekend — and eliminate the temptation to keep checking your inbox or looking at other work-related distractions.

You can also give yourself a great way to listen to audio while traveling without having to wear down your primary device battery during a long day of flights.

18. Make it a mounted command center for a non-connected car

Save yourself the hassle of futzing around with your current phone in your car by turning your old device into an always-available command center for a car that doesn’t have its own built-in equivalent.

Just find a decent car dock and mount the device somewhere safe. Be sure to plug it into your car’s power port and connect it to the stereo (via Bluetooth or a 3.5mm headphone jack). Then, either use your primary phone as a hotspot to keep it online or go the economical route and download any necessary music and directions before you hit the road, while you’re still connected to Wi-Fi.

All that’s left is to open up the Google Maps app and start a navigation, and you’ll be moving full-speed ahead with a simplified interface and ready-to-roll voice commands.

19. Turn it into a kid-friendly learning tool

Your old tablet may seem tired to you, but it’s still top-notch tech by toddler standards — so why not turn it into a fun and educational gadget for your kid?

On most reasonably recent tablets, you can find a native Restricted Profile feature right within the operating system: Just head into the system settings, tap “Users” (or “Users & accounts” and then “Users,” depending on your OS version), and then “Add user or profile.”

Select the option to add a restricted profile. You’ll be prompted to enable or disable access to each app installed on the tablet, allowing you to control exactly what processes your progeny will and won’t be able to use.

If your old device has Android 7.0 or higher (or Android 5.0, on a limited number of models), Google’s Family Link program can give you even more robust controls — including the abilities to set screen-time limits and receive weekly activity reports. You can learn more and sign up at the Family Link website.

20. Let it serve as a high-tech e-clock

Time for something new? An old phone with a dock can make a snazzy customizable clock for your desk or nightstand. Google’s own Clock app is a great place to start, especially if you want to use the clock for alarms. Look for the “Screensaver” option in the Display section of your system settings to make it automatically activate anytime your device is plugged in.

21. Convert it into a gaming device for your downtime

Put down the briefcase and summon your inner Pac-Man: Silly as it may seem, your old Android device is a mini-arcade just waiting to be called into action. (Hey, we all need the occasional break from working, right?)

To complete your device’s Game-Boy-like transformation, just surf the Play Store for some games — you can even find emulators for console-level systems, if (ahem) you know where to look — and then level up by grabbing a universal Android game controller like the ones you’ll find available on Amazon or at other tech retailers.

22. Keep it handy for emergencies

Any cell phone can make emergency calls, even if it’s not connected to active service. Keep an old phone charged and in your car or travel bag; if something bad happens and your active phone is either dead or unavailable, you’ll still have a way to get through to 911.

23. Turn it into your personal testing ground

Android is a tinkerer’s dream. It typically doesn’t take too much sorcery to root, or gain system-level access to, an Android device — and once you’ve done that, you open up a whole new world of possibilities. You can install powerful root-only applications and even replace your device’s entire operating system with a custom ROM full of fresh features and advanced customization potential.

Anytime you start poking around under the hood, though, you risk screwing something up. And when the device in question is your primary phone or tablet, that can be a daunting gamble to take (especially since rooting a device usually violates its warranty).

That’s where an old phone or tablet can come into play. Put on your hacker’s hat and do a Google search for “root [your device name]” and then “[your device name] ROM.” There’s a huge community of Android enthusiasts out there, and you’ll almost certainly find some helpful user-generated guides to get yourself started.

24. Sell it

This one’s easy, right? After all, what’s old to you is new to someone else. You can go the regular route and list your device on Craigslist or eBay — or you can check in with a more niche service like Swappa or Gazelle to get an instant estimated price for your device. Amazon and Best Buy also both offer buyback programs that may be worth investigating.

Whatever you do, make sure you head into your device’s system settings and perform a full factory reset before passing anything along. You’ll probably also want to remove any memory cards you might have added, if your old phone or tablet has an external storage slot.

25. Donate it

Feeling philanthropic? Rest assured: There’s no shortage of organizations ready to put your old Android device in the hands of someone who could really use it.

A few possibilities worth considering:

Medic Mobile: This nonprofit organization recycles old phones and tablets and then uses the proceeds to purchase new phones for health workers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The workers use those phones for things like tracking disease outbreaks and communicating in emergencies. You can print a prepaid shipping label on the Medic Mobile website.
Cell Phones For Soldiers: This nonprofit sends old phones along with free international calling service to troops serving overseas from all branches of the U.S. military. You can donate a device by finding a local drop-off point or requesting a mailing label.
Rainforest Connection: This nonprofit utilizes old phones to protect threatened rainforests in Indonesia, Africa, and the Amazon. How? The devices are fitted with solar panels for energy as well as specialized software that uses their microphones to monitor for the sound of illegal chainsawing and then alert nearby rangers to the activity (yes, really!). You can donate a device by mailing it to the organization’s California headquarters.

So there you have it: 25 intriguing options for giving new life to your old device. Figure out which one best suits you — and send those gadget-dwelling dust bunnies packing.

This story was originally published in August 2014 and most recently updated in May 2026.

More Android tips:

Notbremslicht: EU führt neue Pflichtfunktion für alle neuen Pkw ein

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:47:28 +0200

Das Notbremslicht kommt. Die EU führt ab Juli 2026 ein adaptives Bremslicht für neue Pkw ein. Ab dem 7. Juli 2026 müssen neu zugelassene Pkw in der Europäischen Union mit …

Das ist der elektrische VW ID Polo: Volkswagen zeigt „neues Kapitel“

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:01:50 +0200

Mit über 20 Millionen verkauften Einheiten gehört der VW Polo laut Volkswagen zu den erfolgreichsten Autos, nicht nur im Konzern, sondern allgemein. Jetzt schlägt man hier ein „neues Kapitel“ auf, …

26 Prozent Rabatt für Revell-Bausatz “Das Boot” – 1,2 Meter lang und 6.483 Einzelteile

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:31:32 +0200

Tipp: Sie bekommen diesen Bausatz jetzt 26 Prozent günstiger für nur 184,99 Euro, und zwar hier auf Amazon. Das ist zwar kein Amazon-Bestpreis: Der liegt bei 170 Euro. Doch gegenüber dem offiziellen Revell-Shop ist dieser Bausatz auf Amazon trotzdem deutlich günstiger und Sie sparen 65 Euro. Zudem gibt es aktuell keine lange Lieferzeit.

Revell “Das Boot” für nur 204,99 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon

Spannend: Sie bauen auch den Innenraum des U-Boots nach. Revell schreibt dazu Folgendes:

Volkswagen zeigt ein ungewöhnliches Elektroauto

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 07:47:03 +0200

Mit dem Wandel der Automobilbranche setzten die meisten Automarken in erster Linie auf das, was Kunden kaufen wollen, und das waren SUVs. Der Markt für die vollelektrischen SUVs ist gesättigt …

Der elektrische Neustart von Smart ist gescheitert

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 06:17:12 +0200

Vor ein paar Jahren wollte man bei Mercedes und Geely ein neues Image für Smart und entwickelte ein komplett neues Portfolio mit großen SUVs. Doch der #1, #3 und #5 …

Allbirds' Move To AI Has Echoes of the Dot-Com Frenzy

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:22:35 +0200

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg, written by writer Austin Carr: Allbirds is pivoting to artificial intelligence. The San Francisco brand, whose wool running shoes were once the sneaker du jour among the tech crowd, announced last week that it was expanding into AI computing infrastructure. The bizarre strategic shift was immediately greeted with a surprising frenzy on Wall Street, where shares of Allbirds soared 582% last Wednesday before dropping the next day. [...] Of course, the absurdity of Allbirds' situation echoed familiar Silicon Valley tropes -- from the endless startup pivots of the 2010s to the more recent boom-and-bust cycles of arbitrarily valued crypto coins. But it immediately reminded me of the marketing ploys of the dot-com crash. After all, some of the more iconic fails ended up being retailers such as Pets.com, Webvan, etc., riding the web wave with little to show for it beyond terrible margins. One particular comparison from that period stands out as relevant to Allbirds: Zap.com. The holding company behind it, Zapata Corp., had a long and convoluted history, but was essentially selling fish-oil products by the time it decided to reinvent itself as an internet portal. It amassed a variety of web properties -- in media, e-commerce, gaming and so on -- and even once tried to acquire the search engine Excite. Spoiler alert: Zap flopped. Jen Heck, then a young employee at one of Zap's up-and-coming portfolio entities, remembers how quickly the hype of that web 1.0 turned to hell. As absurd as Zapata's pivot sounds today, it seemed feasible during the excitement of the internet revolution. "We went from like, 'Wow, this life thing is just so easy,' to it all ending so suddenly," Heck recalls. The ones who survived that tech bubble, she says, actually had differentiated products and the right creative thinkers building them -- and weren't just cynically jumping on the latest hot trend. "'Internet' was the magic word then, and 'AI' is the magic word now," Heck says.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mercedes C-Klasse Elektro ist da: Kommt bis zu 800 km weit und lädt mit 330 kW

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:57:04 +0200

Ein schönes Heck, eine schöne Front und insgesamt ein hochwertiges Auftreten, damit überzeugt die C-Klasse EQ auf den ersten Blick. Womit sie außerdem überzeugen kann,…

Dieser Artikel Mercedes C-Klasse Elektro ist da: Kommt bis zu 800 km weit und lädt mit 330 kW erschien zuerst auf SmartDroid.de.

20 tricks for more efficient Android messaging

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:02:23 +0200

No matter what type of Android phone you carry or how you usually use it, one thing is a near-universal constant:

You’re gonna spend a ton of time messing with messages.

The messages may be from clients, colleagues, or your cousin Crissy from Cleveland (damn it, Crissy!). But regardless of who sends ’em or what they’re about, they’re all poppin’ up on your phone and cluttering your weary brainspace.

My fellow Android adorer, I’m here to tell you there’s a better way.

Google’s Android Messages app has gotten surprisingly good over the years. That’s no big secret. If you only rely on what you see on the surface, though, you’re missing out on some of Messages’ most powerful and underappreciated efficiency-enhancing options.

[Hey: Want even more advanced Android knowledge? Check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse to learn tons of time-saving tricks — for messaging and beyond!]

Today, we’ll explore the Android Messages app’s most effective out-of-sight superpowers. They may not be able to cut down on the number of messages you send and receive on your phone (DAMN IT, CRISSY!), but they will help you spend less time fussing with ’em. And they might just help you have a more pleasant experience, too.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

(Before you splash forward, take note: The tips on this page are all specific to the Google Messages app for Android. If you’re using a phone where that exact app wasn’t preinstalled or set as the default, you can download it from the Play Store and give it a whirl. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.)

Android Messages trick #1: Message resurrection

We’ll start with a freshly added fix for one of the longest-standing Android messaging frustrations — and that’s the app’s inability to let you bring back a messaging thread you inadvertently deleted.

As of just this month — April 2026 — Google is finally in the midst of adding an overdue “Trash” section into the Messages app that lets you see and optionally restore any conversation you’ve killed within the past 30 days. Can I get a halle-frickin’-lujah?!

Once the feature is available to you, it couldn’t be much easier to find and manage:

Just tap your profile picture in the Messages app’s upper-right corner.
And look for the newly added “Trash” option in the menu that appears — directly beneath “Archived.”

At last! A place for finding and optionally restoring deleted messages within the Google Messages app on Android.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Tap that, and you’ll be taken to a special section of the app where every axed thread lives for about a month before being permanently deleted. There, you can tap any thread and then tap the circular clock icon at the top of the screen to restore it — or tap the trash icon to delete it permanently (and irreversibly) from your phone. You can also restore or delete all threads in that area together, if you want.

Thank goodness.

Android Messages trick #2: Text editing

In addition to recovering a deleted message, Google Messages on Android also now allows you to edit your own sent message — for those mortifying moments when you realize you’ve made a mistake or sent the wrong thing to the wrong person (egad!).

The option is available only in messages where everyone involved is using the current RCS messaging standard. You’ll know that’s the case if you see “RCS message” in the text box at the bottom of the thread.

Provided that’s present, just press and hold your finger onto any individual message you’ve sent, then look for the pencil-shaped editing icon along the app’s upper edge — and, last but not least, swear to yourself you’ll never hit send without reading over what you wrote again. (Right…)

On that note, I’d be remiss not to inform you that anyone’s original, pre-edited messages are always accessible for anyone else in the conversation to see — if they know where to look.

Android Messages trick #3: Custom icons

Up next is what might be my favorite little-known trick within Google’s Android Messages app: With a couple quick adjustments, you can turn any of your contacts’ faces into a custom notification icon. That icon will then show up at the top of your phone whenever that person messages you for extra-easy visibility and access.

See?

A quick bit of simple setup, and bam: Anyone’s face can become their notification icon (for better or for worse!) on your phone.

JR Raphael, IDG

The only catch is that your phone needs to be running 2020’s Android 11 operating system or higher for the feature to be available. (And honestly, if your phone isn’t running Android 11 at this point, you’ve got bigger fish to fry, Francesco.) Also, Samsung has screwed around with this system for no apparent reason — a frustratingly common theme with Samsung’s heavily modified approach to Android, especially as of late — so you may or may not be able to take advantage of this on a Galaxy gadget, depending on how recently its software has been ~~screwed up~~ updated. (Exaggerated sigh. What more can I say?!)

On any reasonably recent Android device that sticks close to Google’s core Android interface, though, here’s how to make the magic happen:

The next time you get a message from someone, press and hold your finger to the notification.
That’ll pull up a screen that looks a little somethin’ like this:

Android’s Priority conversation setting is the key to creating custom notifications that really stand out.

JR Raphael, IDG

Tap the “Priority” line, then tap “Apply” to save the changes.

And that’s it: The next time that person messages you, you’ll see their profile picture in place of the standard Messages icon in your status bar, and the notification will show up in a special section above any other alerts.

Hip, hip, hoorah!

Android Messages trick #4: Custom sounds

In addition to making it easier to spot an important contact by their notification icon, you can also create a custom alert sound for messages coming in from different people — or even from specific threads within the Google Messages app — so you immediately know what they are before you have a chance to look.

This is one of those things that’s super-basic but also awkwardly out of sight and consequently unknown to an awful lot of Android-owning organisms. But once you know where to find it, it really couldn’t be much easier to get going. And it’s all connected to Android’s notification channels, which let you get incredibly nuanced on how different types of notifications within apps behave.

The quickest way to zip where you need to be is to open the thread you want to customize within Messages itself — whether it’s a one-on-one text with an individual person or a group conversation with multiple contacts. Once you’re inside the thread, tap the three-dot menu icon in its upper-right corner and select “Details,” then select “Notifications” on the screen that comes up next.

And hey, wouldya look at that? You should now be staring at a series of options about how that exact notification behaves — including, at least in the standard Google version of Android, the all-important “Sound” setting.

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A special sound for every conversation is no more than few fast taps away.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Tap that, then find and select any sound you like. The next time a new message comes in for this conversation, there’ll be no mistaking what awaits you from the second it arrives.

Android Messages trick #5: Contact prioritizing

While we’re thinking about making certain conversations stand out, ever wish you could keep your most important messaging threads at the top of the list for easy ongoing access?

Poof: Wish granted. No matter what kind of Android phone you’re holding or how needlessly meddled with its software may be, just hold your finger onto the conversation in question on the main Messages app screen, then tap the pushpin-shaped icon in the app’s upper bar.

You can now pin up to 20 conversations that way, and they’ll always appear above all other threads in that main inbox view.

Android Messages trick #6: Short-term tune-out

Some incoming messages always require your immediate attention. Others, in contrast, are best tuned out and caught up with much later.

Surely you’ve been in that type of thread before, right? Y’know, the one where people are getting just a little too active — sending message after message, typically either during your workday or while you’re trying to focus on anything other than their uninteresting missives?

Google’s Android Messages app actually has a great way to deal with such struggles. It’s a temporary snoozing mechanism that lets you opt out of notifications from one specific conversation and that conversation only and stop receiving alerts from it for a set amount of time.

To try it out, press and hold your finger onto any thread in your main Messages list, then look for the clock icon with a “z” inside of it at the top of the screen. Tap that, and you can then decide to snooze notifications from that single conversation for one hour, eight hours, 24 hours, or — if you really want to tune it out — forever.

The sanity-saving Android Messages snooze option. (Don’t worry: I won’t tell.)

JR Raphael, Foundry

You’ll continue to get notifications from all other conversations in the meantime, and you’ll still be able to see new activity from the snoozed thread by opening up Messages and actively looking at it. But you won’t be interrupted by its alerts again — for a little while, at least.

Android Messages trick #7: Gemini be gone

Speaking of tuning out distractions, if you rarely to never interact with Google’s Gemini chatbot from inside the Messages app — perhaps because, y’know, it’s also available in approximately 7 gazillion other in-your-face places — you might appreciate the distraction-free satisfaction of an interface without a prominent Gemini button begging for you to caress it every frickin’ time you open up your messages.

(The Gemin icon is that starbust-shaped symbol that sits perpetually above the “Start chat” button, in Messages’ lower-right corner, if you haven’t ever tapped it to find out.)

And good news: You can actually send that icon a-packin’, if you’re so inspired: Just tap your profile picture in Messages’ upper-right corner, select “Messages settings,” then tap “Gemini in Messages” and flip the switch on the screen that comes up next into the off and inactive position.

All that’s left is to pat yourself on the back and celebrate the fact that you’ll only have to see Gemini in 6.9 gazillion other places from this point forward.

Android Messages trick #8: Free in-flight Wi-Fi

Gemini may be little more than a distraction within Messages most of the time, but one moment when that capability can actually come in handy is while you’re flying the allegedly friendly skies.

A while back, a crafty reader alerted me to the fact that you could use Gemini’s Messages integration to effectively give yourself free in-flight Wi-Fi access even when you haven’t paid for the privilege. It’s a heck of a clever hack and a moment when you genuinely may want to activate Gemini within the Messages app, at least for a little while.

I’ve got a complete breakdown of how it works and how you can put it to use on your next flight.

Android Messages trick #9: Calendar connection

Whether from the sky or on the regular ol’ ground, the next time you’re working to plan a meeting or event with a fellow Homo sapien in Messages, make yourself a mental note of this:

Anytime someone sends you a message that includes a specific date and time, the Messages app will underline that text. See it?

That underlined time is a covert link from an incoming message to your Android calendar agenda.

JR Raphael, IDG

You’d be forgiven for failing to realize, but you can actually tap that underlined text to reveal a shortcut for opening that very same day and time in your Android calendar app of choice. It’s a great way to get a quick ‘n’ easy glimpse at your availability for the time you’re discussing.

And if you then want to create a calendar event, just look for the “Create event” command that should appear right below that very same message. That’ll fire up a new calendar event for you on the spot, with the appropriate day and time already filled in.

That button to the left of the text suggestions is a spectacular time-saver for on-the-fly event creation.

JR Raphael, IDG

Don’tcha just love simple step-savers?

Android Messages trick #10: Seamless scheduling

If you’re ready to hammer out a response to a message right now but don’t want your reply to be sent for a while, follow the advice shared by a reader in my Android Intelligence newsletter recently and simply schedule your message for some specific future time.

The Android Messages app’s scheduling system is spectacularly useful. You can rely on it for setting reminders to be sent to clients, business-related messages to be pushed out the next morning, or context-free middle-finger emojis to be delivered to your cousin in Cleveland at ungodly hours in the middle of the night.

To tap into this productivity-boosting power, just type out your message normally — but then, instead of tapping the triangle-shaped send icon at the right of the composing window, press and hold your finger onto that same button when you’re done.

No reasonably sane person would possibly realize it, but that’ll pull up a hidden menu for selecting precisely when your message should be sent.

Send any message, anytime — no matter when you actually write it.

JR Raphael, IDG

And the person on the other end will have no way of even knowing you wrote the thing in advance.

Android Messages trick #11: Swift saving

When you run into a message you know you’ll want to reference again, save yourself the trouble of trying to dig it back up later and instead star it on the spot to make it fast as can be to find in the future.

It couldn’t be much easier to do: Whilst viewing an individual message thread, just press and hold your finger onto the specific message you want to save, then tap the star-shaped icon that appears in the bar at the top of the screen.

Then, when you want to find the message again, tap the search icon at the top of the main Messages screen and select “Starred” from the menu that comes up. That’ll show you every message you’ve starred for exceptionally effortless resurfacing.

Android Messages trick #12: Smart searching

Speaking of that Messages search system: Starring is sublime, but sometimes, you need to dig up an old message that you didn’t go out of your way to save.

The Android Messages app makes that even easier than you might realize. Tap that same search icon at the top of the app’s main screen — and in addition to searching your entire history message for any specific string of text, take note:

You can start typing out the name of anyone in your contacts, then select them from the suggestion that appears — and then type in some text to look for something specific only within messages from that one person.
You can use the options within the main Messages search screen to look specifically at images, videos, locations, or links people have sent you.
And you can combine any of those variables for even more granular finding — looking for links you sent to a particular client, for instance, or locations an out-of-town colleague sent to you.

The Android Messages app’s search system is chock-full of helpful info.

JR Raphael, IDG

How ’bout them apples?!

Android Messages trick #13: Instant marking

I don’t know about you, but I find it impossibly irksome to see messages sitting with bold emphasis in my Android Messages inbox. That, to me, is a marking that means I need to read (and possibly also respond) to the message in question. And I can’t possibly rest for the day until I know that everything in my Messages inbox is open, addressed, and dealt with (or at least opened and with a reminder set to deal with it at some specific future time).

Sometimes, though, it’s all too easy to fall behind and get a backlog of bolded messages — and in such scenarios, sometimes, you need a quick ‘n’ easy one-switch reset button to bring everything back to read status and give yourself a fresh start.

Well, surprise: Messages has such an option! Tap your profile picture in the app’s upper-right corner and look for “Mark all as read” in the menu that comes up to find it — then let yourself rest easy as all that attention-demanding boldness melts away once and for all.

Android Messages trick #14: Easier-to-read text

On the subject of more noticeable text, file this next Android Messages feature under “accidental discoveries”: The next time you find yourself squinting at something in a messaging thread on your phone, try a good old-fashioned zoom gesture on the screen — placing your finger and thumb together and then spreading ’em slowly apart.

You’d never know it, but the Messages app supports that standard gesture for zooming into a conversation. The inverse applies, too: When you’re ready to zoom back out and make everything smaller, just bring your two fingers closer together.

And if those actions aren’t working for you, tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen and select “Messages settings,” then make sure the toggle next to “Pinch to zoom conversation text” is in the on position.

Android Messages trick #15: Custom colors

While we’re thinkin’ about easier reading, a relatively recent Android Messages addition can let you create a custom color palette for any conversations you’ve got goin’.

That way, you can always remember that texts with your significant other are in, say, purple, whereas messages with your most important client are in red. (Best not to get those two threads confused.)

This one works only with messages sent using the modern RCS messaging platform, which basically means messages that don’t involve pesky people still carrying around iPhones with outdated software on ’em. (It’s always the iPhone people, isn’t it?!)

With any currently supported conversation, open up the thread within Messages — then:

Tap the three-dot menu icon in the screen’s upper-right corner.
Select “Change colors” from the menu that appears.
Pick the color scheme you prefer, then tap the Confirm button at the bottom.

Every Android Messages conversation can have its own distinctive color, if you take the time to set it up.

JR Raphael, IDG

Repeat for any other compatible conversations, and you’ll always know exactly what you’re looking at even with a fast glance — and without having to give it an ounce of active thought.

Android Messages trick #16: Meatier media

You know a fantastic way to waste time? I’ll tell ya: moving from one app to another just to glance at something someone sent you (like those blasted Bangles video Crissy is always blasting your way).

But get this: Google’s Android Messages app can let you preview and get the gist of both text articles and even YouTube videos without ever leaving your current conversation — from right within the app and that very same message thread.

The key is to make sure you’ve got the associated options enabled:

Tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen.
Select “Messages settings,” then tap “Automatic previews.”
Make sure the toggle next to “Show all previews” is on and active.

Now, the next time someone sends you a link, you’ll see the associated item’s thumbnail and description right then and there, within the Messages conversation:

Videos expanded in-line within Messages — easy peasy.

JR Raphael, IDG

With web pages, Messages will show you just enough of a preview to let you make an educated decision about whether you want to tap the link or not.

Web links gain useful extra context once you enable the right option within the Android Messages settings.

JR Raphael, IDG

Almost painfully sensible, no?

Android Messages trick #17: Smarter shortcuts

If I had to pick the simplest Android Messages trick for enhancing your efficiency, it’d be embracing the built-in shortcuts Google gives us for faster message actions.

From the main Messages screen, you can swipe left or right on any message to perform an instant action — archiving the conversation, deleting it, or toggling it between read and unread status.

All you’ve gotta do is mosey your way back into the Messages app’s settings areas and tap on the “Swipe actions” item to set things up the way you want…

Step-saving swipes within Messages — now available for your customization.

JR Raphael, IDG

…and then, just remember to actually use those gestures moving forward. (That part’s on you.)

Android Messages trick #18: Quicker cleanup

Certain services love to send confirmation codes via text messaging when you sign in or try to perform some action. It may not be the most advisable or effective form of extra security, but — well, it’s better than nothing. And for better or for worse, it’s a pretty common tactic.

Core security considerations aside, the most irksome part of these confirmation codes is having ’em clutter up your messages list at every Goog-forsaken moment. But the Google-made Android Messages app can actually take care of that for you, without any ongoing effort — if you take about 20 seconds to make the right tweak now.

Here’s the secret:

Tappity-tap that comely character in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen (y’know, the one whose appearance has a striking resemblance to your oversized head).
Tap “Messages settings” in the menu that comes up, then select “Messages organization.”
Within that curiously created section, you’ll see only one option: “Auto-delete OTPs after 24 hrs.” OTP may not exactly be an everyday, universally known abbreviation, but fear not — for it isn’t an erroneous reference to an early 90s rap hit with equally ambiguous meaning. Nope: It stands for one-time password, which is the same thing we’re thinking about here.
Flip that toggle into the on and active position, then flip a finger of your choice to all the confirmation codes in your messages list with the knowledge that they’ll be auto-purged a day after their arrival from that point forward.

Who’s down with OTP? Every last homie. (I apologize.)

Android Messages trick #19: Readable reactions

Slack-style reactions may seem silly on the surface, but they serve an important communication purpose in allowing you to quickly acknowledge a message without having to carry the conversation on further. Whether it’s a thumbs-up, a clapping hands symbol, or even perhaps an occasional burrito emoji, it really can be a handy way to say “Yup, got it” (or “Yup, want beefy goodness”) without having to use a single word.

You probably know you can summon a reaction within the Android Messages app by pressing and holding a specific message within a conversation and then selecting from the list of available emoji options — right? But beyond that, Messages packs an even faster way to issue a reaction in the blink of an eye.

And here it is: Simply double-tap your finger onto any individual message within a conversation. That’ll apply the thumbs-up reaction to it without the need for any long-press or symbol selection.

It’d be nice if there were a way to customize which reaction is used for that action by default — so that, obviously, we could all change it to the burrito emoji, since that’s what any sane person uses most often — but if and when an upward thumb will do the job, now you’ve got a super-easy way to bring it into any conversation with a fast finger tap.

Android Messages trick #20: iRritation elimination

Last but not least in our list of magnificent Messages enhancements is something specific for your conversations with the Apple-adoring animals in your life. And it relates to those very same sorts of reactions we were just going over.

One obnoxious side effect of Apple’s “no one exists outside of iOS” mentality, y’see, is the way the iPhone’s equivalent of those reactions show up on Android. Plain and simple, they show up as — well, plain and simple text messages, instead of coming through as reactions.

Surely you’ve encountered this, right? Those pointless messages you get from iGoobers that say stuff like “Loved ‘Please stop texting me, Crissy'”?

Well, scribble this on your metaphorical mental iPad: Google’s Android Messages app is actually able to intercept those absurd platform-specific reactions and turn ’em into standard reactions instead of plain-text interruptions. And it’ll take you all of 12 seconds to enable the option:

Head back into the Messages app’s settings.
Tap “Advanced.”
Look for the line labeled “Show iPhone reactions as emoji” and make sure the toggle next to it is in the on position.

All that’s left is to breathe one final heavy sigh of relief — and to send Crissy a well-deserved burrito reaction.

Hey: Don’t let the learning stop here. Get six full days of advanced shortcut knowledge with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. Tons of time-saving tricks await!

CIOs are caught between employee AI fatigue and leadership expectations

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 12:08:11 +0200

In 2024, when cloud-based software company BlackLine implemented its Buckie AI agent, a knowledge base that employees could ask HR- or IT-related questions, the company didn’t expect to move away from the tool within a year.

“The technology was moving so fast,” CIO Sumit Johar says, and the company needed a different system to scale for the future.

By June the following year, BlackLine had migrated to Google Gemini enterprise, and today, employees organization-wide have built nearly 300 AI agents themselves.

The rapid clip at which organizations are adopting AI is compounding challenges for CIOs. And for employees, being bombarded with new tools and processes is leading to AI fatigue, a feeling of burnout from added workflows and unmet promises of time savings.

At the same time, corporate boards are putting increased pressure on CEOs to deploy AI and deliver results. So CIOs are caught in the middle, balancing board and leadership expectations with employee reality on the ground. They’re pressured to move quickly — a strategy that, in reality, often backfires, according to Doug Gilbert, CIO and chief digital officer at global business technology consultancy Sutherland. He says AI implementations currently have up to a 90% failure rate. “Doing AI right may sound slower, but in the long run, it’s going to be faster,” he says.

Why employee fatigue happens

Riley Stricklin, founder and chief strategy officer at AI integration firm Cadre AI, agrees that AI fatigue is a growing problem across companies. It’s not necessarily because employees are anti-AI, but rather they’re overwhelmed with new tools, new expectations, and constant change, he says.

The initial steps to implement AI take time, temporarily adding to employee workloads before delivering promised time savings, a common complaint Johar hears. Then, the moment teams feel they’re settling in with a new technology, understanding how they can organize their business processes and maximize value, something new comes up that changes everything. “That’s why there’s exhaustion, because things are moving so fast,” he says.

Gilbert adds that AI fatigue most commonly arises when AI is clunky, when organizations bolt AI on top of an existing process, rather than implement it as an in-line solution. Employees could be asked, for instance, to copy and paste data from their programs into a separate LLM like ChatGPT. But the method doesn’t take. “You’re frustrating the heck out of the employee,” Gilbert says.

On top of that, he adds that when AI isn’t properly integrated with a company’s data, or it lacks broader organizational context, the LLM can hallucinate, delivering outputs that, as he puts it, are kind of crap.

Stricklin also says when AI is an added layer instead of an integrated solution, it compounds friction when the purpose is to reduce it.

So the most successful CIOs don’t simply plug AI into existing systems and expect transformation, he says. They rethink the entire workflow and build AI into operations. And in the most seamless AI integrations, Gilbert says employees don’t really think about AI; they simply use a process and get better, faster results.

CIOs pressured from all sides

Gilbert says the clunky approach often happens because of a top-down push that ripples throughout the organization. Boards and CEOs may see case studies or articles of what other companies are doing related to AI, and want to jump on the bandwagon. The AI request trickles to the CIO, who then feels pressure to deploy a solution quickly, rather than take the time to develop an in-line system.

“The reality is you’ll never meet the false expectations they have in their heads,” Gilbert says, adding that boards and CEOs often have a utopian mindset of AI capabilities. Likewise, company investors often expect AI to slash costs, which pressures leadership to demonstrate immediate ROI from AI, Johar adds.

“They don’t always understand that you have to incur the cost before you save any cost,” he says.

In fact, a recent McKinsey survey shows that of the companies that participated, only 39% reported AI‑related impact on their earnings at the enterprise level, suggesting the majority of AI programs have yet to deliver meaningful financial results.

In addition to top-down pressure, sometimes CIOs are feeling stress from the ground up. Despite employee fatigue around AI, Johar’s team at BlackLine has seen requests for AI-based tools from other departments increase by up to 25%.

The higher volume of requests creates fatigue for the IT team itself, as they evaluate myriad tools. Increasing the challenge, the fast pace of change with AI means the team’s processes to evaluate technology have to evolve, too. By the time IT makes a decision to procure a technology or select a supplier, it’s possible the tech is already obsolete, Johar says.

BlackLine has also trained employees on how to build their own agents for specific departmental functions, and to date, employees have built nearly 300 AI agents. CIOs and their teams bear the responsibility of bringing governance and structure to the flood of agents, as Johar puts it, ensuring they meet corporate policies around data privacy or security.

As tech features such as vibe coding continue to gain traction, Johar anticipates additional questions will arise for CIOs related to software oversight.

Framing the AI narrative

Delivering business value continues to be a top priority for tech leaders, and Stricklin says the most successful CIOs establish clear business objectives — whether it’s increasing revenue or margins, or reducing cycle time — before an AI deployment.

But when persuading employees to embrace AI that ultimately creates business value, CIOs may need a different tact than touting the benefits.

Johar says CIOs should frame AI’s benefits as compelling from an employee point of view, like helping employees do their jobs more effectively and building skillsets. “Once you position it that way, employees become a lot more accommodating to invest their time,” he says.

In this kind of climate, Gilbert says CIOs need to reassure employees that AI isn’t a means to headcount reduction but about flipping the narrative to how AI will work alongside employees, not replace them. Gilbert adds that humans should always be in the loop to fine-tune models and improve the accuracy of AI’s outputs over time.

Finding the right balance is key, given the gap that still exists between leader and employee sentiment around AI. Executives are 15% more likely to say AI has had a significant positive impact on their companies than their employees are, according to a survey commissioned by Google Workspace.

Stricklin also advises CIOs to have a focused strategy for how they adopt AI instead of trying to boil the ocean and immediately implement AI organization-wide. So they should pick two to three priority areas to use AI over the next six months, and get employees involved with the best course of action. “Trying to address everything simultaneously will cause more harm than wins,” Stricklin says, adding that equally important is selecting areas in which an organization won’t pursue AI.

Gilbert agrees that not every facet of a business is enhanced by gen AI. CIOs should be mindful of that and not be afraid to push back against CEOs or boards if they suspect an AI deployment is unnecessary. “Sometimes AI isn’t the answer,” Gilbert says.

Alienware 27 (AW2726DM) QD-OLED monitor review: A budget PC gamer's new best friend

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:17:59 +0200

The price of nearly every type of gaming gadget has skyrocketed recently. RAMageddon has caused the cost of memory to double or triple in the last six months, with companies like HP saying that RAM now accounts for more than a third of a new PC’s bill of materials. Meanwhile, the Xbox Series S/X and the PS5 have gotten price hikes, and a similar bump for the Switch 2 is starting to look “inevitable.” Even mobile devices are not immune, with Samsung jacking up the cost of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 nine months after release. But with the $350 27-inch QD-OLED (AW2726DM), Alienware hasn’t just created a gaming display that’s an excellent value, it’s made a beacon of hope for anyone looking to upgrade their setup without emptying their bank account.

Design

Unlike some of Alienware’s more expensive displays, the AW2726DM’s design couldn’t be simpler. It sits on a square 8.75-inch base that supports tilt, pivot and height adjustments. Though it does require a little assembly, everything you need comes in the box. Alienware’s monitor arm attaches via a captured thumb tab, while the monitor relies on four screws and a VESA mount that can be connected using the bundled Philips wrench. (Though if you have a proper screwdriver, that would be even better.) Setup only took me a few minutes and after arranging it properly on my desk, the monitor felt quite solid. The only potential drawback is that if you have limited desk space or you’re the kind of gamer that likes jamming your keyboard as close to your monitor as possible, Alienware’s stand might get in the way.

The back of the monitor has an easy-to-use joystick for controlling its on-screen settings menu.

Sam Rutherford

At around 4mm thick, the AW2726DM’s panel is exceedingly sleek, though naturally that expands a bit on the lower portion of the monitor where its ports are located. This brings us to one of the biggest differences between Alienware’s budget display and more premium options: limited connectivity. All you get here is two HDMI 2.1 jacks, one DisplayPort 1.4 slot and a 3.5mm plug for audio out. There’s no support for data transfer, power sharing or anything else. Heck, there isn’t even any RGB lighting, which feels weird on a product from Alienware. But given its price, I’m not upset. In fact, it’s actually kind of refreshing. Finally, there’s a handy control stick on the back of the display for navigating its on-screen menu.

Visuals

As long as it's not too sunny or bright, the AW2726DM delivers excellent visuals for the money.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The AW2726DM features a QD-OLED panel supplied by Samsung that comes with a QHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440) and up to a 240Hz refresh rate. Alienware supports VRR via AMD FreeSync Premium and VESA AdaptiveSync, though sadly there’s no native option for NVIDIA G-Sync. That means if you have a GPU from Team Green and want to take full advantage of the monitor’s potential, you’ll want to rely on that DisplayPort for optimal compatibility.

Regardless, for a $350 gaming display, the AW2726DM checks all the most important boxes and it looks fantastic. Alienware’s budget monitor showcases the strengths of OLED panels versus LCD, even when compared to Sony’s Inzone M9, which was a much more expensive monitor when it debuted back in 2022. Alienware offers richer colors (it covers 99 percent of DCI-P3), and thanks to its deep inky blacks, contrast is significantly better as well.

Here's a direct comparison between the AW2726DM and the Sony Inzone M9, the latter of which cost $900 when it came out in 2022.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The one big drawback is that, with a typical brightness of 200 nits, the AW2726DM is dimmer than more expensive rivals. That means the monitor doesn’t have fancy certifications for stuff like VESA True Black and instead relies heavily on general HDR10. Furthermore, Alienware chose a glossy (and quite reflective) finish that makes colors look even more saturated while improving perceived brightness. The one thing you need to watch out for is glare, especially if your PC or console lives in a room that gets a lot of sunlight. But if you’re like a lot of gamers that prefer to frag at night or in the dark, this may not be an issue.

Outside of gaming, there’s another shortcoming of the AW2726DM. Between its QHD resolution and the arrangement of Samsung’s QD-OLED subpixels, folks with good eyesight may notice a little fringing, especially when compared to higher-res 4K displays. This means some Word docs and web pages may not look quite as sharp as you’d like, but that’s a small price to pay for some of the best visuals you can get on a gaming monitor in this price range.

Warranty and care

The stand for the AW2726DM supports tilt, height adjustment and even pivoting all the way into portrait mode.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

One of the major concerns about OLED displays when they first hit the market was the potential for burn-in, resulting in permanent damage to the panel from things like static UI elements staying on the screen too long. Thankfully, the AW2726DM comes with a three-year warranty that includes a clause covering burn-in, along with a free panel replacement in case there’s even a single bright pixel. Furthermore, Alienware uses a graphite film heatsink and an AI algorithm to prevent any sort of ghosting from appearing in the first place.

Wrap-up

Alienware also conveniently includes both HDMI and DisplayPort cables in the box, along with the required screws for mounting the panel to the stand.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The AW2726DM might not have all the fancy features you get on more expensive monitors, but it’s an excellent example of a no frills gadget done right. You get just enough ports, a straightforward design and a beautiful QD-OLED panel with a solid resolution and refresh rate — all for just $350. It would certainly be nice if it was a little brighter or if text looked a touch sharper, but those shortcomings are pretty easy to live with. For anyone looking to upgrade what might be arguably the second most important part of your gaming setup (your screen is your window into new worlds after all), this display is budget gold.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/alienware-27-aw2726dm-qd-oled-monitor-review-a-budget-pc-gamers-new-best-friend-130000287.html?src=rss

Chrome, Vivaldi, and the challenge of changing browsers

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:01:46 +0200

Ahem: My fellow Android-appreciating organisms — I’ve got a confession.

After the better part of two decades of personally using Google’s Chrome browser on both Android and every desktop computer I own, I’ve made the leap into the arms of a shiny new web-weaving seductress. Her name is Vivaldi.

Yes, it feels like a mildly geeky version of virtual adultery (especially with an exotic-sounding name like that). But I’ve long been a proponent of embracing whatever apps and services best serve your individual needs at any given moment and avoiding being beholden to any one company — no matter who that company may be. And now, after all these years, it’s become clear that Chrome is no longer the best web-wading companion for me.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Chrome is completely fine. It’s got plenty of positives, and I’ve certainly got no major beefs with it. I think that’s why it’s been so easy to stick with all this time, for so many of us — ’cause it gets the job done, and it’s familiar. There’s something to be said for that.

But as a person who’s always curious about new technology, constantly striving to optimize my digital environments, and endlessly working to make ’em all as efficient as humanly possible, I came to realize that “fine” wasn’t as good as it’d get anymore. And, lemme tell ya: Particularly if you’re a productivity-minded browser power-goober like me, stickin’ with Chrome largely just because it’s what you use and know is causing you to miss out on some incredibly interesting and advantageous upgrades.

And you know what? You aren’t alone. In fact, the vast majority of monitor-staring mammals work exclusively within the confines of Chrome. (The browser commands somewhere around three-quarters of the worldwide desktop computer browser market as of early 2026, according to some recent estimates.)

Again: It’s easy to understand why. Heck, I was one of those numbers myself — up until just a matter of months ago. I’d tried pretty much every other browser out there at some point, and I just hadn’t found anything meaningfully different and better enough for my needs to make it worth the hassle of switching over and dealing with all that adjustment.

Until now.

And my goodness, it wasn’t an easy change to make.

[Get level-headed knowledge in your inbox with my free Android Intelligence newsletter. Three new things to try every Friday — and my Android Notification Power-Pack as a special welcome bonus.]

My Chrome to Vivaldi adapting adventure

I’ve got an entire separate article about what ultimately won me over with Vivaldi and which exact features I’m finding to be invaluable within it. I’d highly recommend giving it a read.

Here, I want to focus specifically on how I managed to overcome the hurdle of such a challenging change — and it isn’t about anything technical with the transition, either. In fact, Vivaldi makes it almost shockingly easy to move your data over from Chrome and import all your basic settings and history.

What I found, though, was two-fold:

On the Android front, moving into the Vivaldi app was actually quite painless. I started out by using it here and there, as a supplement to the standard Android Chrome browser, and quickly realized how much I enjoyed and appreciated its experience and the added niceties it gave me — including seemingly endless customization over every last element of the browser interface and a whole slew of on-demand privacy and web-clutter-cutting options. It wasn’t long before I changed my Android browser default and was using it full-time.

Vivaldi’s Android browser is powerful, pleasant to use, and incredibly customizable.

JR Raphael, Foundry

On the desktop front, the change presented far more friction. In fact, I’ve been using the Vivaldi Android app for months now — since sometime in the fall of 2025 — and it wasn’t until early this year that I made the leap over to Vivaldi on my workday Windows computer, too.

What changed was that I finally put my finger on the problem.

If there’s one real hurdle with Vivaldi — and one thing that kept me, personally, from fully moving into its desktop version for so long — it’s that it really can be overwhelming to adapt and get accustomed to all the new interfaces and elements it gives you, especially within the feature-rich desktop domain and with an environment so central to everything we do these days.

As I noted in my in-depth Vivaldi exploration, with as much time as most of us spend in our browsers on computers at this point, the browser essentially is our desktop — and our virtual office, too. And leaving the comfort of familiarity behind for something so unknown and unfamiliar is a daunting prospect.

Vivaldi, in particular, is quite different from Chrome on a computer at first exposure. And it has a lot of new options, features, and possibilities to ponder.

The options and features within the Vivaldi desktop browser are both amazing and — especially at first — overwhelming.

JR Raphael, Foundry

With that in mind, let me tell you what worked for me:

First, I took advantage of Vivaldi’s immense customization potential and scaled back some of the more jarring differences. For me, that meant eliminating the on-by-default left-of-screen vertical tab bar — which was just too different of an interface for me at first, especially amidst everything else I was adjusting to — and also changing the “Tab Cycling” setting to “Cycle in Tab Order” and the “New Tab Position” setting to “After Related Tabs,” which were two subtle-seeming returns to the standard Chrome behavior that really kept throwing me off in their different-by-default implementations.
Second, I forced myself to ignore most of the new Vivaldi features — all that good stuff I go over in that other article! — and focus on just one new feature or element at a time, for at least a few days each. There is a lot to take in with this program, and if you try to ingest all of it at once, it’s bound to overwhelm you and lead to a retreat. But if you explore one new piece of the puzzle at a time, really see how you feel about it and get in the habit of using it (or, alternatively, disabling it — if it just isn’t for you), it’s a much more manageable and enjoyable transition.
Third, after that initial targeted series of adjustments, I mostly ignored the mountain of Vivaldi settings for a while. There’s just too much there to reasonably process at the get-go. I’m still peeking in periodically and finding something new and realizing I can customize it in a way that suits my working style better (and then sometimes realizing that a similar option also exists that I hadn’t yet tapped into on Android). Doing it all at once before you even have a feel for the browser just isn’t reasonable.

Last but not least, remember — particularly for desktop purposes — that Vivaldi is based on the same Chromium foundation as Google’s Chrome browser. That means you can use the standard Chrome Web Store to find and install extensions as needed and bring over the same tools you’ve always had in your browser setup. That, too, helps a lot with making yourself comfortable and creating an optimal environment that works for your needs (though I always recommend eliminating any extensions you aren’t actively using, and a browser change is a perfect time to perform an audit and get rid of any dead weight).

If you follow this approach and take the time to wrap your head around everything Vivaldi offers, the transition doesn’t have to be difficult. And — who knows? — you might find yourself feeling the same sense of excitement I have over a guilt-free virtual daliance where the only lasting impact is your own happiness and efficiency.

Check out my free Android Intelligence newsletter for even more thoughtful knowledge — including three new things to try each Friday and a trio of useful Android notification tools to get you going.

What the heck is wrong with our AI overlords?

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:19:01 +0200

New profile of Sam Altman shines a light on a whole industry.

ADAC-Studie überrascht: So viel Rabatt steckt wirklich im Autokauf

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:31:58 +0200

Der ADAC hat in einer verdeckten Studie deutliche Unterschiede bei Rabatten für 14 Neuwagenmodelle festgestellt. Laut ADAC wurden deutschlandweit für 14 vorkonfigurierte Fahrzeuge jeweils acht Verkaufsgespräche in verschiedenen Regionen geführt. …

18 Prozent Rabatt für Revell-Bausatz “Das Boot” – 1,2 Meter lang und 6.483 Einzelteile

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:17:00 +0200

Modellbauspezialist Revell betrat letztes Jahr Neuland – und das gleich mit einem echten Kracher. Denn Revell hatte damals sein erstes Klemmbausteinemodell (Revell Brick System) vorgestellt: “Das Boot”. Also ein Bausatz des berühmten U-Boots U-96, das Vorbild für den Kino-Erfolg von 1981 und die spätere Mini-Serie war. Laut Revell ist das Modell ein originalgetreuer Nachdruck des berühmten Filmposters im Format A3.

Tipp: Sie bekommen diesen Bausatz jetzt 18 Prozent günstiger für nur 204,99 Euro, und zwar hier auf Amazon. Das ist zwar kein Amazon-Bestpreis: Der liegt bei 170 Euro. Doch gegenüber dem offiziellen Revell-Shop ist dieser Bausatz auf Amazon trotzdem deutlich günstiger und Sie sparen 45 Euro. Zudem gibt es aktuell keine lange Lieferzeit.

(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Spannend: Sie bauen auch den Innenraum des U-Bootes nach. Revell schreibt dazu Folgendes:

Mary Jo Foley: What the heck is going on with Microsoft lately?

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:17:39 +0200

In her debut column for GeekWire, longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley digs into the recent wave of reorgs, hiring freezes, and leadership shakeups in Redmond, and asks whether it's business as usual or something bigger. Read More

Nvidia-backed ThinkLabs AI raises $28 million to tackle a growing power grid crunch

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:17:29 +0200

ThinkLabs AI, a startup building artificial intelligence models that simulate the behavior of the electric grid, announced today that it has closed a $28 million Series A financing round led by Energy Impact Partners (EIP), one of the largest energy transition investment firms in the world. Nvidia’s venture capital arm NVentures and Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, also participated in the round.

The funding marks a significant escalation in the race to apply AI not just to software and content generation, but to the physical infrastructure that powers modern life. While most AI investment headlines have centered on large language models and generative tools, ThinkLabs is pursuing a different and arguably more consequential application: using physics-informed AI to model the behavior of electrical grids in real time, compressing engineering studies that once took weeks or months into minutes.

"We are dead focused on the grid," ThinkLabs CEO Josh Wong told VentureBeat in an exclusive interview ahead of the announcement. "We do AI models to model the grid, specifically transmission and distribution power flow related modeling. We can calculate things like interconnection of large loads — like data centers or electric vehicle charging — and understand the impact they have on the grid."

The round drew participation from a deep bench of returning investors, including GE Vernova, Powerhouse Ventures, Active Impact Investments, Blackhorn Ventures, and Amplify Capital, along with an unnamed large North American investor-owned utility. The company initially set out to raise less than $28 million, according to Wong, but strong demand from strategic partners pushed the round higher.

"This was way oversubscribed," Wong said. "We attracted the right ecosystem partners and the right capital partners to grow with, and that's how we ended up at $28 million."

Why surging electricity demand is breaking the grid's legacy planning tools

The timing of the raise is no coincidence. U.S. electricity demand is projected to grow 25% by 2030, according to consultancy ICF International, driven largely by AI data centers, electrified transportation, and the broader push toward building and vehicle electrification. That surge is crashing into a grid that was engineered decades ago for a fundamentally different set of demands — and utilities are scrambling to keep up.

The core problem is one of computational capacity. When a utility needs to understand what will happen to its grid if a large data center connects to a particular substation, or if a cluster of EV chargers goes live in a residential neighborhood, engineers must run power flow simulations — complex calculations that model how electricity moves through the network. Those studies have traditionally relied on legacy software tools from companies like Siemens, GE, and Schneider Electric, and they can take weeks or months to complete for a single scenario.

ThinkLabs' approach replaces that bottleneck with physics-informed AI models that learn from the same engineering simulators but can then run orders of magnitude faster. According to the company, its platform can compress a month-long grid study into under three minutes and run 10 million scenarios in 10 minutes, while maintaining greater than 99.7% accuracy on grid power flow calculations.

Wong draws a sharp distinction between what ThinkLabs does and the generative AI models that dominate public discourse. "We're not hallucinating the heck out of things," he said. "We are talking about engineering calculations here. I would really compare this to a computation of fluid dynamics, or like F1 cars, or aerospace, or climate models. We do have a source of truth from existing physics-based engineering models."

That source of truth is crucial. ThinkLabs trains its AI on the outputs of first-principles physics simulators — the same tools utilities already trust — and then validates its models against those simulators. The result, Wong argues, is an AI system that is not only fast but fully explainable and auditable, a critical requirement in an industry where a miscalculation can cause blackouts or damage physical infrastructure.

How ThinkLabs' three-phase power flow analysis differs from every other grid AI startup

The competitive landscape for AI in grid management has grown crowded over the past two years, with startups and incumbents alike racing to apply machine learning to utility workflows. But Wong contends that ThinkLabs occupies a fundamentally different position from most of its competitors.

"As far as we know, we're the only ones actually doing AI-native grid simulation analysis," he said. "Others might be using AI for forecasting, load disaggregation, or local energy management, but fundamentally, they're not calculating a power flow."

What ThinkLabs performs is a full three-phase AC power flow analysis — examining every node and bus on the electric grid to determine real and reactive power levels, line flows, and voltages. This is the same type of analysis that utility engineers perform today using legacy tools, but ThinkLabs can deliver it at a speed and scale that those tools simply cannot match.

The distinction matters because utilities make capital investment decisions — worth billions of dollars — based on exactly these types of studies. If a power flow analysis shows that a proposed data center connection will overload a transmission line, the utility may need to build new infrastructure at enormous cost. But if the analysis can also suggest alternative solutions — battery storage placement, load flexibility scheduling, or topology optimization — the utility can potentially avoid or defer those capital expenditures.

"With many utilities, existing tools will basically show them all the problems, but they can only address solutions by trial and error," Wong explained. "With AI, we can use reinforcement learning to generate more creative solutions, but also very effectively weigh the pros and cons of each of these solutions."

Inside ThinkLabs' strategic relationships with NVIDIA, Edison, and Microsoft

The presence of NVentures in the round — Nvidia’s venture arm does not write many checks — signals a deeper strategic relationship that extends well beyond capital. Wong confirmed that ThinkLabs works extensively within the Nvidia ecosystem on the energy and utility side, leveraging CUDA for GPU-accelerated computation and integrating Nvidia’s Earth-2 climate simulation platform into ThinkLabs' probabilistic forecasting and risk-adjusted analysis pipelines.

"We are what one utility mentioned as the only high-intensity GPU workload for the OT side — the operational technology side — that's planning and operations," Wong said. He added that ThinkLabs is also in discussions with Nvidia’s Omniverse team about additional utility use cases, though those efforts are still early.

Edison International's participation carries a different kind of strategic weight. In January 2026, ThinkLabs publicly announced results from a collaboration with Southern California Edison (SCE), Edison International's utility subsidiary, that demonstrated the real-world capabilities of its platform. As the Los Angeles Times reported at the time, the collaboration showed that ThinkLabs' AI could train in minutes per circuit, process a full year of hourly power-flow data in under three minutes across more than 100 circuits, and produce engineering reports with bridging-solution recommendations in under 90 seconds — work that previously required dedicated engineers an average of 30 to 35 days.

In today's announcement, Edison International's Sergej Mahnovski, Managing Director of Strategy, Technology and Innovation, reinforced that urgency: "We must rapidly transition from legacy planning tools and processes to meet the growing demands on the electric grid — new AI-native solutions are needed to transform our capabilities."

ThinkLabs also works closely with Microsoft, which hosted a webinar in mid-2025 featuring Wong alongside representatives from Southern Company, EPRI, and Microsoft's own energy team. The SCE collaboration was built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, situating ThinkLabs within the cloud infrastructure that many large utilities already use.

The 20-year career path that led from Toronto Hydro to an autonomous grid startup

Wong's biography reads like a deliberate preparation for this exact moment. He has spent more than 20 years in the utility industry, starting his career at Toronto Hydro before founding Opus One Solutions in 2012 — a smart-grid software company that he grew to over 100 employees serving customers across eight countries before selling it to GE in 2022, as previously reported by BetaKit.

After the acquisition, Wong joined what became GE Vernova and was asked to develop the company's "grid of the future" roadmap. The thesis he developed there — that the grid is the central bottleneck to economic growth, electrification, and national security, and that autonomous grid orchestration powered by AI is the solution — became the intellectual foundation for ThinkLabs.

"I was pulling together the thesis that we need to electrify, but the grid is really at the center of attention," Wong said. "The conclusion is we need to drive towards greater autonomy. We talk a lot about autonomous cars, but I would argue that autonomous grids is the much more pressing priority."

ThinkLabs was incubated inside GE Vernova and spun out as an independent company in April 2024, coinciding with a $5 million seed round co-led by Powerhouse Ventures and Active Impact Investments, as reported by GlobeNewswire at the time. GE Vernova remains a shareholder and strategic partner. Wong is the sole founder.

The team composition reflects the company's dual identity. "Half of our team are power system PhDs, but the other half are the AI folks — people who have been looking at hyper-scalable AI infrastructure platforms and MLOps for other industries," Wong said. "We have really been blending the two."

How ThinkLabs doubled its utility customer base in a single quarter

Utilities are famously among the most conservative technology buyers in the world, with procurement cycles that can stretch years and layers of regulatory oversight that slow adoption. Wong acknowledges this reality but says the landscape is shifting faster than many observers realize.

"I have noticed sales cycles really accelerating," he said. "It's still long and depends on which utility and how big the deal is, but we have been witnessing firsthand sales cycles going from the traditional one to two years to a shortest two to three months."

On the commercial side, Wong declined to share specific revenue figures but offered several data points that suggest meaningful traction. ThinkLabs is working with more than 10 utilities on AI-native grid simulation for planning and operations, he said, and the company doubled its customer accounts in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

"So not one or two, but we're working with 10-plus utilities," Wong said. "Things have really picked up pace even before this A round."

The company primarily targets investor-owned utilities and system operators — the organizations that own and operate the grid — though Wong noted that AI is also beginning to democratize grid simulation capabilities for smaller utilities that previously lacked the engineering resources to run sophisticated analyses.

Wong said the primary use of funds will go toward advancing the product to enterprise grade and expanding the range of use cases the platform supports. The company sees a significant land-and-expand opportunity within individual utility accounts — moving from modeling a small region to training AI models across entire states or multi-state territories within a single customer.

EIP's involvement as lead investor carries particular significance in this market. The firm is backed by more than half of North America's investor-owned utilities, giving ThinkLabs a direct line into the executive suites of the customers it is trying to reach. "Utilities are being asked to add capacity on timelines the industry has never seen before, and the stakes extend far beyond the energy sector," Sameer Reddy, Managing Partner at EIP, said in the press release.

What a 99.7% accuracy rate actually means for critical grid infrastructure

Any conversation about applying AI to critical infrastructure inevitably confronts the question of failure modes. A hallucination in a chatbot is an embarrassment; a miscalculation in a grid power flow analysis could contribute to equipment damage or widespread outages.

Wong addressed this head-on. The 99.7% accuracy figure, he explained, is an average across large-volume planning studies — specifically 8,760-hour analyses (every hour of the year) projected across three to 10 years with multiple sensitivity scenarios. For planning purposes, he argued, this level of accuracy is not only sufficient but may actually exceed what traditional methods deliver in practice.

"If you look at a source of truth, the data quality is actually the biggest limiting factor, not the accuracy of these AI models," he said. "When we bring in traditional engineering analysis and actually snap it with telemetry — metering data, SCADA data — I would actually argue AI is far more accurate because it is data driven on actual measurements, rather than hypothetical planning analysis based on scenarios."

For more critical real-time applications, ThinkLabs deploys what Wong called "hybrid models" that blend AI computation with traditional physics-based simulation. In the most stringent use cases, the AI handles roughly 99% of the computational workload before handing off to a physics-based engine for final validation — a technique Wong described as using AI to "warm start" the simulation.

The company also monitors for model drift and maintains strict training boundaries. "We're not like ChatGPT training the internet here," Wong said. "We're training on the possibility of grid conditions. And if we do see a condition where we did not train, or outside of our training boundary, we can always run on-demand training on those certain solution spaces."

Why ThinkLabs says its value proposition survives even if the data center boom slows down

The bullish case for ThinkLabs — and for grid-focused AI more broadly — rests heavily on the assumption that electricity demand will surge dramatically over the coming decade. But some analysts have begun questioning whether those projections are inflated, particularly if AI investment cycles cool and data center build-outs decelerate.

Wong argued that his company's value proposition is resilient to that scenario. Even without dramatic load growth, he said, utilities face a fundamental modernization challenge. They have been using tools and processes from the 1990s and 2000s, and the workforce that knows how to operate those tools is retiring at an alarming rate.

"Workforce renewal is a big factor," he said. "These AI tools not only modernize the tool itself, but also modernize culture and transformation and become major points of retention for the next generation."

He also pointed to energy affordability as a driver that exists independent of load growth projections. If utilities continue to plan based on worst-case deterministic scenarios — building enough infrastructure to cover every conceivable contingency — consumer rates will become unmanageable. AI-powered probabilistic analysis, Wong argued, allows utilities to make smarter, more cost-effective decisions regardless of whether the most aggressive demand forecasts materialize.

"A large part of this AI is not only enabling workload, but how do we act with intelligence — going from worst-case to time-series analysis, from deterministic to probabilistic and stochastic analysis, and also coming up with solutions," he said.

Wong frames the broader opportunity with an analogy that captures both the simplicity and the ambition of what ThinkLabs is attempting. For decades, he said, the utility industry's default response to grid constraints has been the equivalent of building wider highways — more wires, more copper, more steel. ThinkLabs wants to be the navigation system that reroutes traffic instead.

"In the past, when we drive, we always drive with what we are familiar with — just the big roads," he said. "But with AI, we can optimize the traffic patterns to drive on much more effective routes. In this case, it might be a mix of wires, flexibility, batteries, and operational decisions."

Whether ThinkLabs can deliver on that vision at the scale the grid demands remains an open question. But Wong, who has spent two decades building and selling grid software companies, is not thinking in terms of incremental improvement. He sees a narrow window — measured in years, not decades — during which the foundational AI infrastructure for the grid will be built, and whoever builds it will shape the energy system for a generation.

"I truly believe the next two years of AI development for the grid will dictate the next decades of what can happen to the grid," Wong said. "It's really here now."

The grid, in other words, is getting a copilot. The question is no longer whether utilities will trust AI with their most critical engineering decisions, but how quickly they can afford not to.

Rätselraten um geklaute Daten: Was über den Hackerangriff auf Speyerer Schulen bekannt ist

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:04:57 +0100

... Hacker haben die Netzwerke Speyerer Schulen infiltriert und Daten gestohlen. ... Wie gelangten die Hacker ins System? Laut Heck lag das ...

Upgrade dein Auto in nur 5 Minuten: AUTO-VOX Solar 3A Plus jetzt stark reduziert

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 07:46:56 +0100

Fahrer*innen vollbepackter Transporter, älterer Wohnmobile oder aber Autos mit unübersichtlichem Heck kennen die Situation beim Rückwärtseinparken nur allzu gut. Der Bereich hinter der Stoßstange bleibt oft verborgen und auch das Rangieren gerät zum Glücksspiel.

The BB-777 is the ultimate in boombox nostalgia

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 03:01:24 +0100

Bumpboxx is fully embracing nostalgia with its latest boombox, the BB-777, which is modeled very closely on the legendary Sharp GF-777. A real deal GF-777 will set you back over $2,000 for one in working order. Plus, that vintage unit lacks modern amenities like Bluetooth or a rechargeable battery. Heck, it doesn't even have a […]

Apple Studio Display XDR review: Expensive, but there’s no monitor like it

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 04:08:03 +0100

It’s hard for most people to justify spending $3,299 on a monitor, but creative pros will gladly do so if it makes their jobs easier. Apple’s 27-inch 5K Studio Display XDR is aimed straight at those folks and it costs considerably less than the company’s previous high-end monitor, the 6K Pro Display XDR.

Thanks to the Mini LED IPS panel, the Studio Display XDR has higher brightness and color accuracy than nearly any other monitor on the market. It also has tech that boosts contrast to outperform similar displays. With its unique combination of features, the Studio Display XDR isn’t as overpriced as you might think, and it has high appeal for me as a video editor. I do, however, wish it was bigger.

Design and features

If you’re familiar with Apple’s previous Studio Display, you’ll have a good idea of the Studio Display XDR’s design. The body has a high-quality brushed aluminum finish, with small holes across the top and bottom designed to vent heat from the built-in, nearly silent fan.

It has enough internal hardware to be a standalone computer, as it’s equipped with an A19 Pro processor and 12GB (!) of RAM — more than Apple’s new MacBook Neo laptop. That extra horsepower is required for all of the image processing, dimming algorithms, webcam operation and HDR tone-mapping.

Steve Dent for Engadget

A tilt- and height-adjustable stand was a cool $1,000 option on the more expensive Pro Display XDR, but it’s thankfully included with this new model. The stand’s motion is delightfully smooth, with just a slight amount of pressure required to move it up and down. However, it only offers four inches of height adjustment and no ability to swivel the screen. You can also get this monitor with a VESA mount instead at the same base price, in case you want to mount it on your own stand or a wall.

The Studio Display XDR comes with two high-speed 120Gbps Thunderbolt ports to connect your Mac, storage or another display, along with two 10Gbps USB-C inputs, but there’s no HDMI port in sight. One of the Thunderbolt ports supports 140W charging, which can replenish a 16-inch MacBook Pro at the maximum possible speed. Apple has also thrown in a Thunderbolt 5 cable that is thicker than any USB-C cable I’ve seen. The power cable also looks nice, but is not removable.

Up front, the monitor has surprisingly thick bezels (0.75 inches) that detract from the otherwise sleek design. In comparison, my ASUS ProArt PA32UCX display’s bezels are just a quarter of an inch thin. Built into the top bezel is a 12-megapixel camera with Apple’s Center Stage feature that keeps your face front and center during Zoom calls. Note that if you prefer less glare, you can get nano-texturing on the display for an extra $300.

The Studio Display XDR is designed mainly for use with Macs, and recent ones at that. Mac models with M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, M2 and M3 chips only support this monitor at up to 60Hz — not the maximum 120Hz. Apple doesn’t mention support for Intel Macs or Windows PCs, but I tested the monitor on both and it worked fine at the 60Hz limit.

Image quality

Steve Dent for Engadget

Apple has largely stuck with Mini LED and quantum dot technology for its MacBook Pro laptop screens and monitors because of the higher brightness levels and lack of “burn in” compared to OLED displays. The tradeoff for that is lower contrast, as I explained here. Mini LED displays also show a phenomenon called “blooming” not present in OLED panels, which is caused by light bleed from neighboring pixels.

However, Apple has largely solved those issues on the Studio Display XDR by boosting the number of local dimming zones (individual LED backlights) to 2,304, four times as many as the XDR Display Pro. That allows not only more brightness, but higher contrast and minimal blooming.

This model doesn’t offer 6K like the Pro Display XDR, but its 5K resolution is still higher than most rivals. That’s a big benefit for designers, animators, photographers and others who want the sharpest image possible. The higher 120Hz refresh rate is also easier on the eyes and better for gaming. However, creators used to screens that are 32 inches or larger may be turned off by the Studio Display XDR’s smaller size.

Brightness is where this monitor really shines; XDR stands for “extended dynamic range,” after all. Apple promises a peak level of 1,000 nits in SDR and 2,000 nits in HDR mode. I was able to verify those claims: I measured 1,991 nits on a Calibrite colorimeter in a 25 percent window and 988 nits at full screen — making this the brightest monitor I’ve ever tested. When I watched HDR material on YouTube and Netflix graded for brightness levels over 1,000 nits, I didn’t see any of the highlight clipping that occurs on my 1,400-nit ASUS ProArt display.

What’s more, the Studio Display XDR’s 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio is among the highest of any non-OLED display (though not infinite like OLED displays). On top of that, I saw virtually no blooming with bright light points against black. Finally, this monitor has the best off-axis performance I’ve seen with very little drop in gamma even at fairly sharp viewing angles.

Steve Dent for Engadget

Color accuracy is also a strong point. Apple promises a Delta E of less than one, and my measurements (around 0.8) bore that out. And like the Pro Display XDR, this model has a true 10-bit IPS panel, which means you get one billion colors total. Apple notes that the Studio Display XDR is the first Apple monitor to include both the P3 wide color Adobe RGB primaries, unlocking "deeper greens and cyans than P3 alone," it said in a white paper. For HDR work, it covers 81 percent of the challenging BT.2020 color gamut, which is excellent though a bit below some OLED monitors.

The Studio Display XDR can handle a variety of work thanks to the huge number of color profiles included with the display, which total 16 in all. Those include HDR profiles, P3 Digital Cinema, Photography, HDR photography, Design and Print and even Medical Imaging. To verify that, I tested it with several apps including Lightroom Classic and DaVinci Resolve, and was astounded by the color accuracy and brightness. Unlike some rivals, most notably ASUS, it doesn’t support Dolby Vision, however.

On top of being an excellent content creation monitor, the Studio Display XDR is solid for entertainment and gaming. I watched scenes from movies and TV shows including Spider-Man No Way Home, Game of Thrones and Tenet, and enjoyed the extra brightness, high color accuracy and contrast ratio that allowed me to see what the heck was going on in the Night King battle in GoT. For gaming I tried Cyberpunk 2077 for Mac, and the 120Hz refresh rate (it also supports Adaptive Sync 47-120Hz refresh rates), along with the brightness and color accuracy, makes it Apple’s best display yet for gaming.

Camera and speakers

Though it has the same name, the 12MP Center Stage webcam is much improved from the previous Studio Display. The resolution may be the same, but the new camera provides a much brighter and sharper image in dim conditions. However, to use the Desk View feature I needed to tilt the screen forward more than I’d like.

The built-in six speaker sound system is surprisingly good too, offering what is easily the best sound I’ve ever heard coming from a monitor. It supports Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos sound as before, but now offers deeper bass. It still can’t match a dedicated soundbar or separate speakers, of course, but the audio on this display is clear and surprisingly loud.

Wrap-up

Steve Dent for Engadget

As I said at the outset of this review, Apple’s Studio Display XDR is overpriced, but not by a lot. It’s the brightest monitor I’ve measured and has among the highest number of dimming zones for a Mini LED display for maximum contrast. At the same time, it offers superb color accuracy out of the box, supports up to 5K 120Hz resolution and oozes quality. Few monitors in any category and price range, whether Mini LED or OLED, can boast all of that.

There are cheaper options that can do some of those things. If you prefer OLED, the ASUS ProArt PA27 4K model offers 1,000 nits of max brightness and similar color performance, with better contrast and double the refresh rate for $1,299. And if you want a bigger display that’s nearly as bright as the Studio Display XDR, ASUS also makes the $3,199 PA32UCG-K Mini LED 32-inch monitor with 1,600 nits peak brightness, albeit with half the number of dimming zones.

However, if you require the best image quality possible and don’t mind a 27-inch display, Apple’s Studio Display is the best choice. It will never be a mainstream product, but thanks to its versatility and better value than the Pro Display XDR, I think it will be a surprisingly popular option.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/apple-studio-display-xdr-review-expensive-but-theres-no-monitor-like-it-120018426.html?src=rss

Upgrade dein Auto in nur 5 Minuten: AUTO-VOX Solar 3A Plus jetzt stark reduziert

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:46:29 +0100

Fiido Nomads im Test: E-Bike mit zwei Zusatzakkus am Heck und 240 Kilometer Reichweite

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:31:18 +0100

Dank drei Akkus soll das Fiido Nomads bis zu 240 Kilometer weit fahren. Dabei ist der Preis verlockend niedrig. Wo die Vor- und Nachteile liegen und ob es eine Empfehlung gibt, erfahrt ihr im Test. Dieser Artikel wurde einsortiert unter Technology, E-Bike, Mobility, Fiido Nomads.

Fiido Nomads im Test: Touren-E-Bike mit zwei Zusatzakkus am Heck - kann das gut gehen?

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:02:07 +0100

Bis zu 240 Kilometer weit fährt das Fiido Nomads dank seiner drei Batterien. Dabei kostet dieses Touren-E-Bike nur 1.400 Euro. Wo die Vor- und Nachteile des legalen Pedelecs liegen, klärt der Test. Dieser Artikel wurde einsortiert unter Technology, E-Bike, Mobility, Fiido Nomads.

Audi gelingt langsam der Wandel bei Elektroautos

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 06:01:29 +0100

Bei Audi ging es letztes Jahr beim Umsatz und Gewinn etwas zurück und die operative Umsatzrendite sank von 6 auf 5,1 Prozent. Das ist nicht das Ziel, vor einer Weile …

What is old is new again: default deny on the endpoint - Colby DeRodeff, Danny Jenkins - ESW #402

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:58:33 +0100

Default deny is an old, and very recognizable term in security. Most folks that have been in the industry for a long time will associate the concept with firewall rules. The old network firewalls, positioned between the public Internet and private data centers, however, were relatively uncomplicated and static. Most businesses had a few hundred firewall rules at most.

The idea of implementing default deny principles elsewhere were attempted, but without much success. Internal networks (NAC), and endpoints (application control 1.0) were too dynamic for the default deny approach to be feasible. Vendors built solutions, and enterprises tried to implement them, but most gave up.

Default deny is still an ideal approach to protecting assets and data against attacks - what it needed was a better approach. An approach that could be implemented at scale, with less overhead. This is what we'll be talking to Threatlocker's CEO and co-founder, Danny Jenkins, about on this episode. They seemed to have cracked the code here and are eager to share how they did it.

This segment is sponsored by ThreatLocker. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/threatlocker to learn more about them!

We wanted security data? We got it! Now, what the heck do we DO with all of it?

The core challenge of security operations, incident response, and even compliance is still a data management and analysis problem. Which is why we're seeing companies like Abstract Security pop up to address some of these challenges.

Abstract just released a comprehensive eBook on security data strategy, linked below, and you don't even need to give up an email address to read it! In this interview, we'll talk through some of the highlights:

Challenges
Myths
Pillars of a data security strategy
Understanding the tools available

Segment Resources

A Leader's Guide to Security Data Strategy eBook

In the enterprise security news,

new startup funding
what happened to the cybersecurity skills shortage?
tools for playing with local GenAI models
CVE assignment drama
a SIEM-agnostic approach to detection engineering
pitch for charity
a lost dog that doesn't want to be found

All that and more, on this episode of Enterprise Security Weekly.

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/esw for all the latest episodes!

Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-402

Neuer FIAT-Konfigurator verspricht Leasing komplett online

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:16:22 +0100

Der Autobauer FIAT erweitert sein Online-Angebot und ermöglicht Privatkunden die vollständige Konfiguration und den Abschluss eines Leasingvertrags im Internet. Mit dem neuen Service im sogenannten FIAT Financing Store können Interessenten …

Neuer Audi Q4 e-tron für 2026 offiziell bestätigt

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:16:29 +0100

Volkswagen wird in diesem Jahr mit MEB+ eine Weiterentwicklung der bekannten MEB-Plattform (Modulare E-Antriebs-Baukasten) auf den Markt bringen, die nicht nur für die kompakten Modelle wie den VW ID Polo …

Upgrade dein Auto in nur 5 Minuten: AUTO-VOX Solar 3A Plus jetzt stark reduziert

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:31:10 +0100

Console exclusives might be making a comeback

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 21:31:32 +0100

The near future of game consoles could look a lot like the past. Once a hallmark of the industry, over the last few years console-exclusive games have steadily become rare, as the likes of Sony and Microsoft experimented with offering titles on multiple platforms. Heck, who knows what an Xbox even is anymore? But it […]

Unihertz’s new QWERTY phone is even more like a Blackberry

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:46:37 +0100

Unihertz, known for its slab phone alternatives, has unveiled an evolution of its device with a physical keyboard: The Titan 2 Elite. It's smaller and sleeker than the (aptly named) Titan that precedes it, comes in the orange color that's all the rage right now, and looks a heck of a lot like a Blackberry. […]

Upgrade dein Auto in nur 5 Minuten: AUTO-VOX Solar 3A Plus jetzt stark reduziert

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 08:01:15 +0100

Elektroauto: BYD modernisiert den Seal und erhöht die Preise

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:46:19 +0100

Der BYD Seal kommt für das Modelljahr 2026 mit leicht verändertem Heck auf den Markt, bietet mehr Platz für Gepäck und eine Fahrerüberwachung. (BYD, Elektroauto)

Upgrade dein Auto in nur 5 Minuten: AUTO-VOX Solar 3A Plus jetzt stark reduziert

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 07:31:18 +0100

Kleines Fahrrad-Rücklicht, großer Effekt: Smarter Bremslicht-Trick für Stadtpendler unter 20 Euro

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:46:10 +0100

Im dichten Stadtverkehr bleiben Fahrräder leicht übersehen, doch ein kompaktes Rücklicht mit Bremslicht-Effekt rückt das Heck in den Fokus und liefert ein Sicherheits-Upgrade unter 20 Euro.

Fahrrad-Rücklicht: Cleverer Bremslicht-Trick für Pendler unter 20 Euro

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 14:31:30 +0100

Mehr Sichtbarkeit im Stadtverkehr: Ein kompaktes Fahrrad-Rücklicht mit Bremslicht-Effekt lässt das Heck beim Abbremsen kurz aufleuchten und macht Fahrmanöver deutlich klarer erkennbar im Alltag.

Pendler-Trick fürs Fahrrad: Rücklicht mit Bremslicht-Effekt unter 20 Euro

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 15:46:04 +0100

Im dichten Stadtverkehr sorgt ein kompaktes Fahrrad-Rücklicht mit Bremslicht-Effekt für auffällige Präsenz am Heck. Beim Abbremsen leuchten die LEDs kurz heller und machen Fahrmanöver klarer erkennbar.

Smarter Pendler-Deal: Fahrrad-Rücklicht mit Bremslichtfunktion für mehr Sicherheit

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 18:01:09 +0100

Im hektischen Stadtverkehr steigert ein kompaktes Fahrrad-Rücklicht mit Bremslichtfunktion die Sichtbarkeit am Heck. Auf dunklen Wegen sorgt es für spürbar mehr Sicherheit unter 20 Euro.

Pendler-Deal für dunkle Wege: Sigma Blaze-Rücklicht mit smarter Bremslichtfunktion

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:16:34 +0100

Im dichten Stadtverkehr entscheidet gute Sichtbarkeit über Sicherheit. Ein beliebtes Fahrrad-Rücklicht mit Bremslichtfunktion erhöht die Präsenz am Heck und bleibt dabei unter 20 Euro.

Upgrade dein Auto in nur 5 Minuten: AUTO-VOX Solar 3A Plus jetzt stark reduziert

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 07:31:34 +0100

Upgrade dein Auto in nur 5 Minuten: AUTO-VOX Solar 3A Plus jetzt stark reduziert bei Amazon

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:03:46 +0100

Hängematte auf dem Dach, riesiges Bett dadrunter: Dieser Mercedes-Camper macht es anders

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:01:54 +0100

Hier könnt ihr entweder im Dachzelt, im großzügigen Bett im Heck oder in der Hängematte auf dem Dach schlafen: Der aus Deutschland stammende "Sea Land Mountain" ruft alle Abenteuer. Dieser Artikel wurde einsortiert unter Technology, Mobility.

Apple’s AI pin and the rise of super-chatty Siri [Cult of Mac podcast No. 4]

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 21:21:43 +0100

On the latest Cult of Mac podcast: Details emerge about Apple’s work on an AI pin, and we’re all wondering the same thing. What the heck will it do? The AirTag-size device that Apple’s testing reportedly packs multiple cameras and microphones. And it will work with the new, chatbot-style Siri that’s also in the works. […]

I made a security tool kprotect that blocks "bad" scripts from touching your private files (using eBPF)

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 23:07:48 +0100

Hey everyone!

So, for the past few months, I’ve been obsessed with how easy it is for a random npm install or pip install to just... steal all your SSH keys or .env files. We always talk about supply-chain attacks, but I wanted something that actually stops them without me having to manually check every line of code in every library I use.

I called it kprotect, and I finally got it to a point where it's actually usable (at least on my machine lol).

What the heck is it? Basically, it sits in the Linux kernel (using eBPF LSM) and watches which processes are trying to touch your sensitive files. But instead of just looking at what process it is, it looks at the whole lineage.

The "Chain of Trust" thing: This is the part I'm most proud of. You can tell kprotect: "Hey, I only trust cat to read my SSH keys IF it was started by VS Code -> Terminal." If some random python unsafe.py tries to call cat to read those same keys? Blocked. Even if you're running as root! Because the "chain" doesn't match what you authorized.

Some cool (I think) features:

Near-zero lag: Since it’s eBPF, it's super fast.

Encrypted stuff: All the logs and configs are AES-encrypted so a hacker can't just edit them to white-list themselves.

A GUI! I spent way too much time on a Tauri/React dashboard so you don't have to live in the terminal if you don't want to.

Live feed: You can watch processes pop up and get blocked in real-time. It’s actually kind of satisfying to watch.

Disclaimer: I'm just one person working on this in my free time, so it's definitely in "beta" (0.1.0-beta). It needs a recent-ish kernel (5.10+) with BPF LSM enabled. If you're on Ubuntu/Debian/Arch, it should work fine after a quick tweak.

I’d love for some of you to try it out and tell me if it’s actually useful or if I’m just crazy.
Bug report or donation is very welcome !

Link: https://github.com/khoinp1012/kprotect

submitted by /u/Jazzlike_Library8060
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Viofo A329 S im Test: Die beste 4K-Dashcam mit drei Kameras

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 16:17:03 +0100

Die Viofo A329 S ist eine Top-Dashcam mit 4K-Front-Kamera, 2K für Heck und Innenraum, Polfilter und Parküberwachung.

Neuer Karmann Dexter 595: In diesem Campingbus ist ja alles anders!

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 12:17:22 +0100

Riesige Nasszelle im Heck, Hubbett, separate Dusche: Dieser Campervan fährt mit einer sehr ungewöhnlichen Raumaufteilung vor. So will das neue Wohnmobil von Karmann punkten. Dieser Artikel wurde einsortiert unter Technology, Mobility.

32 Prozent Rabatt für Revell-Bausatz “Das Boot” – perfektes Weihnachtsgeschenk zum Bestpreis

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 10:16:30 +0100

Modellbauspezialist Revell betrat vor einiger Zeit Neuland – und das gleich mit einem echten Kracher. Denn Revell hatte sein erstes Klemmbausteinemodell (Revell Brick System) vorgestellt: “Das Boot”. Also ein Bausatz des berühmten U-Boots U-96, das Vorbild für den Kino-Erfolg von 1981 und die spätere Mini-Serie war. Laut Revell ist das Modell ein originalgetreuer Nachdruck des berühmten Filmposters im Format A3.

Tipp: Sie bekommen diesen Bausatz jetzt 19 Prozent günstiger für nur 169,90 Euro, und zwar hier auf Amazon. Das ist erneut der Amazon-Bestpreis: Vor einiger Zeit hatte “Das Boot” knapp 170 Euro gekostet. Gegenüber dem offiziellen Revellshop ist es massiv günstiger und Sie sparen 80,09 Euro. Zudem gibt es aktuell keine lange Wartezeit. Das Geschenk erreicht Sie noch vor Weihnachten!

Revell “Das Boot” für nur 169,90 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon

„Rosinenbomber“ der Berliner Luftbrücke als cooler Revell-Bausatz mit 362 Teilen

Spannend: Sie bauen auch den Innenraum des U-Bootes nach. Revell schreibt dazu Folgendes:

Diese Bestseller in der Amazon Black Friday Woche sollten Sie nicht verpassen

19 Prozent Rabatt für Revell-Bausatz “Das Boot” – perfektes Weihnachtsgeschenk

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 10:17:06 +0100

Tipp: Sie bekommen diesen Bausatz jetzt 19 Prozent günstiger für nur 202,02 Euro, und zwar hier auf Amazon. Das ist aber nicht der Bestpreis: Vor einiger Zeit hatte “Das Boot” nur knapp 170 Euro gekostet. Gegenüber dem offiziellen Revellshop ist es immer noch deutlich günstiger und Sie sparen 47,97 Euro. Zudem gibt es aktuell keine lange Wartezeit.

Revell “Das Boot” für nur 202,02 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon

„Rosinenbomber“ der Berliner Luftbrücke als cooler Revell-Bausatz mit 362 Teilen

Spannend: Sie bauen auch den Innenraum des U-Bootes nach. Revell schreibt dazu Folgendes:

Diese Bestseller in der Amazon Black Friday Woche sollten Sie nicht verpassen

Kubernetes Is Retiring Its Popular Ingress NGINX Controller

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 02:20:27 +0100

During last month's KubeCon North America in Atlanta, Kubernetes maintainers announced the upcoming retirement of Ingress NGINX. "Best-effort maintenance will continue until March 2026," noted the Kubernetes SIG Network and the Security Response Committee. "Afterward, there will be no further releases, no bugfixes, and no updates to resolve any security vulnerabilities that may be discovered." In a recent op-ed for The Register, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reflects on the decision and speculates about what might have prevented this outcome: Ingress NGINX, for those who don't know it, is an ingress controller in Kubernetes clusters that manages and routes external HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the cluster's internal services based on configurable Ingress rules. It acts as a reverse proxy, ensuring that requests from clients outside the cluster are forwarded to the correct backend services within the cluster according to path, domain, and TLS configuration. As such, it's vital for network traffic management and load balancing. You know, the important stuff. Now this longstanding project, once celebrated for its flexibility and breadth of features, will soon be "abandonware." So what? After all, it won't be the first time a once-popular program shuffled off the stage. Off the top of my head, dBase, Lotus 1-2-3, and VisiCalc spring to my mind. What's different is that there are still thousands of Ingress NGINX controllers in use. Why is it being put down, then, if it's so popular? Well, there is a good reason. As Tabitha Sable, a staff engineer at Datadog who is also co-chair of the Kubernetes special interest group for security, pointed out: "Ingress NGINX has always struggled with insufficient or barely sufficient maintainership. For years, the project has had only one or two people doing development work, on their own time, after work hours, and on weekends. Last year, the Ingress NGINX maintainers announced their plans to wind down Ingress NGINX and develop a replacement controller together with the Gateway API community. Unfortunately, even that announcement failed to generate additional interest in helping maintain Ingress NGINX or develop InGate to replace it." [...] The final nail in the coffin was when security company Wix found a killer Ingress NGINX security hole. How bad was it? Wix declared: "Exploiting this flaw allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code and access all cluster secrets across namespaces, which could lead to complete cluster takeover." [...] You see, the real problem isn't that Ingress NGINX has a major security problem. Heck, hardly a month goes by without another stop-the-presses Windows bug being uncovered. No, the real issue is that here we have yet another example of a mission-critical open source program no one pays to support...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Heck yeah - the next HELLDIVERS 2 Warbond finally brings a minigun

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 12:51:49 +0100

HELLDIVERS 2 is still one of the best online co-op action games around, and we're finally going to be able to get a minigun to really tear through enemies.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Perfektes Weihnachtsgeschenk: Modellbausatz von “Das Boot” – jetzt mit 12 Prozent Rabatt

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 16:01:56 +0100

Tipp: Sie bekommen diesen Bausatz jetzt 12 Prozent günstiger für nur 219 Euro, und zwar hier auf Amazon. Das ist aber nicht der Bestpreis: Vor ein paar Tagen hatte “Das Boot” nur knapp 170 Euro gekostet. Gegenüber dem offiziellen Revellshop ist es immer noch deutlich günstiger und Sie sparen 31 Euro. Zudem gibt es aktuell keine lange Wartezeit.

Revell “Das Boot” für nur 219 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon

„Rosinenbomber“ der Berliner Luftbrücke als cooler Revell-Bausatz mit 362 Teilen

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Diese Bestseller in der Amazon Black Friday Woche sollten Sie nicht verpassen

Its not "Is Linux for Me?" but "Is Windows/Mac for Me?"

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 06:38:38 +0100

For the name of a kernel, Linux carries either a lot of emotion or none at all.

Many people, simply don't know what Linux is. Those who do, seem to be either extremely passionate about Linux or picture pale, greasy, desk-bound hobbits. Those who associate Linux with the latter, I simply assume have obviously not tried Linux and seem to be confused that Linux is a kernel, a piece of software, a tool -- not a lifestyle or a personality trait.

To clarify, I will use the word Linux as a broad categorization of the various distributions. I know it is a kernel as I'm sure many of you do too. I know that each distribution has ups and downs and differences from another, so I am simply speaking generally. For non-Linux but Unix-related systems, like the BSDs, the generalizations and concepts I make here extend to them as-well, in my experience.

Lets get started!

Recently in my Reddit feed, I am seeing more and more posts of people inquiring about Linux with titles like these: "Is Linux right for me?" "Is Linux worth it?" "What's the best distro?" "What should I use?" "I want to switch from Windows, but I'm not sure if ?" I could write these all day, you get the point. Now I am not bashing the people who make those posts, I get it; I too come to Reddit to gather insight from people with experience in something that I am curious about. Lets talk about some of these questions (or I guess I will and you can contribute in the comments).

Linux is great. In the modern-day of today, I think many of you will agree that the knee-jerk response of "Linux is only for techy people" is simply just not the case anymore. Distributions like Mint (I chose them simply because I can vouch for what I say about Mint from experience) make it so stinking easy to get going - even dual-booting is a simple task. For example, lets take the generic "Grandma" who is not tech-savvy and simply wants to look at cat pictures and browse the online shops or read news. She will have the same amount of difficulty doing this as she would on Windows or Mac; the process is the same, there's a desktop, with programs (apps), that she can interact with via the mouse and keyboard.

Now it would be silly to only use Grandma as the example to showcase that Linux is for everyone -- but it tackles the point many non-Linux users seem to try to make and (based on the Reddit posts I see) what the general public thinks.

Let's talk about gaming. For many, this is a staple in their desktop experience. If gaming is important to you, this is indeed a fair question. I am not a big gamer myself, nonetheless I still have some things to say about gaming and Linux. Again, in today's world, and depending on the distribution/hardware (this is one of the biggest factors regarding hardware support and ease of use/user experience), gaming on Linux can be painless. Except for three main things: hardware support, game support (from it's publisher), and kernel-level-anticheat.

Hardware support: this is one of the most variable factors. Generally speaking, there are Linux drivers for a lot of hardware. Some of which are manufacturer made/maintained and others by the OSS community. There is a lot of support and information here on Reddit and the internet covering troubleshooting and what is or is not supported. If gaming is a must for you, then you I do think it is worth your while to look into whether your hardware will work okay.
Game support: There are a lot of games on Steam, and Steam works on Linux. It's possible that there may be quirks in some distributions vs. others for running Steam or certain games -- but I couldn't tell you. I would wager that if it is on Steam, you can probably play it on Linux. For games like Fortnite or Valorant where they have their own launchers - that ultimately comes down to the developer's support. I would also wager that if everyone started gaming on Linux, then those companies would start making their games Linux-compatible.
Kernel-level-anticheat: Stop playing that game. No, seriously, I think that it is insane how someone thought that it is a good idea and was just.. allowed? This is a crime, it is the computer equivalent of having a little implant inside you that can control everything you do.

Let's talk work environments. I don't have a whole lot to say here because neither you, nor I, can do much about what is required at work. I think part of the reason companies either cannot or will not use Linux is because of big enterprise monopolies, support contracts, software stacks, or resource management systems that they are heavily invested in or rely upon. Hypothetically, if every one of those things was compatible with Linux, then I'm sure it really wouldn't matter to the company what they ran on their computers.

The last category of people that seem to be barred from Linux, are the creatives. Linux has alternatives, I'm sure you're aware, but they do not receive millions in budget towards development and yadda-yadda-yadda. If you are a creative, and require the big creative suit software stack, then yeah Linux will probably not be your day-to-day. I am not saying it can't be, it could definitely be worth exploring. This is not to say the Linux alternatives are bad or worse, but they won't have the whole feature-set you may be used to.

Linux may not be able to offer the same capabilities in some of the scenarios I mentioned above, but that doesn't mean it is not right for you, simply not the best tool for that job.

Okay, so whats so great about Linux then, right? When I say you can do pretty much whatever you want on Linux, I mean it. Yeah you may not be able to run Adobe Photoshop, but it's not impossible? Someone just has to develop it XD. If the same amount of time and money went into Linux as some of these other things, then I'm positive there would be no difference.

I had this thought the other day after scrolling by some of the Linux-questionnaire Reddit posts: "The question isn't 'Is Linux for me?', it should be, 'Is Windows/Mac for me?'" What do I mean by that? There seems to be so much more useful programs available on Linux. Some of them may also be available on other systems, but may be limited in capability or not perform the same. As a result of simply having more programs available, naturally that means that there are more options for you to choose from.

Let's not talk about filesystems... but the same goes.

For example, on Apple you have Finder and Windows you have Explorer. I could not tell you how many different file-browsers there are on Linux - and they're not just different 'looks', oftentimes they offer different feature-sets. Humans love choice right? So what better than the ability to choose the right tool for you and for your workflow. I used the file-browser here as an example but this is the case for many programs in Linux. Heck, even your desktop-environment can be of your choosing ... or none! Apple recently rolled out its "liquid glass" update, well with something like picom (a compositor), we've had "liquid glass" for I don't even know how long, longer than I've used Linux.

The terminal/command-line interface (CLI). The CLI is first class citizen on Linux. While this is intimidating for some, it is truly a powerful tool. I'm not saying it doesn't exist on Windows or Mac, but on Linux it is everywhere. Even if you don't use the CLI now on Windows, I bet you'll get curious on Linux and start playing around. I've talked long enough and I could go on and on about all the things you can do with the terminal - many of which could also be done on Mac or Windows, but, in my opinion, it is much less intuitive there - as if to steer you away or hide it (says my inner skeptic). Linux offers you so many powerful tools all right at your fingertips, learn how to use them and you start to feel like a wizard.

Customer support. A.k.a all of you. Something not working? Having trouble figuring out how to set something up? Hoping for a feature? General questions? Ask!. Many of us love Linux and would love to help others along in their journey. We are human, and you may meet some of our grumps, but would you rather talk to a Customer Support Chatbot for an hour and get nothing but an email asking to rate your experience? There are many sponsored and paid/funded projects in Linux, but the general community has a "we're all in it together" feeling.

The last thing I want to mention is how much learning Linux promotes. If you are a Curious George like me, you will not be disappointed. There is constantly something else you'll want to learn about.

I will not be able to use Windows anymore and the only thing I prefer about MacOs is the nice metal box they come in. I appreciate the choices, structure, and capabilities Linux brings to my user experience that I simply would not have on any other system. I am more productive and more knowledgeable about every little thing going on in my system than I would be on a different one, plus, it looks and functions exactly how I like - tailored to me.

I'm wrapping this up because I've wrote a lot already and have plenty more I could share but I'll save it and feel free to ask if your curious about something.

submitted by /u/Stinkygrass
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So optimieren Sie den Luftstrom im PC

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 08:05:14 +0100

Wer den Luftstrom gezielt plant, kann die Temperaturen einzelner Komponenten deutlich senken und gleichzeitig die Lautstärke minimieren. Es geht dabei nicht um das blinde Befolgen vermeintlicher Regeln, sondern um ein Verständnis für Strömungswege, Druckverhältnisse sowie die Eigenheiten des jeweiligen Gehäuses.

Ein verbreitetes Missverständnis betrifft den Einsatz von Lüftern mit einem hohen statischen Druck. Diese eignen sich zwar ideal für den Einsatz hinter Radiatoren oder engen Mesh-Panels, bieten aber bei freistehenden Einbauplätzen keinen spürbaren Vorteil gegenüber Airflow-optimierten Modellen. Hier kommt es mehr auf den Luftdurchsatz, die Lagerqualität und die Drehzahlsteuerung an.

Bequiet

Ebenso ist die klassische Front-zu-Heck-Ausrichtung nicht immer die beste Lösung. Je nach Layout des Gehäuses, Position der Grafikkarte und Vorhandensein von Netzteil- oder Festplattenkammern kann ein Luftstrom von unten nach oben oder eine gezielte Seitenbelüftung bessere Ergebnisse liefern. Insbesondere in Modellen mit glatter Front sowie seitlichen Lufteinlässen kann ein leicht geänderter Strömungsweg den Unterschied machen.

Foundry

Auch die oft gepriesene positive Druckverteilung ist kein Garant für sauberen und kühlen Betrieb. Dabei wird mehr Luft ins Gehäuse gedrückt als herausbefördert. So lassen sich zwar Staubablagerungen reduzieren, allerdings führt das Verfahren in engen Gehäusen oftmals zu Hitzestau, wenn die warme Luft nicht schnell genug entweichen kann.

Eine neutrale Druckverteilung liegt vor, wenn ein- und ausströmende Luftmengen in etwa ausgeglichen sind. Bei negativem Druck wird mehr Luft abgesaugt als zugeführt, was den Abtransport heißer Luft beschleunigen kann. Sie können das leicht beeinflussen, indem Sie die Anzahl wie auch die Drehzahl von Einlass- und Auslasslüftern anpassen, beispielsweise über das Umsetzen von Gehäuselüftern oder die Lüfterkurvensteuerung im BIOS respektive UEFI.

Corsair

Ein weiterer Irrtum ist die Annahme, dass mehr Lüfter automatisch auch mehr Kühlung bringen. Zusätzliche Rotoren können Luftströme stören, wenn sie ungünstig platziert sind oder mit anderen Lüftern im System in Konflikt geraten. Ziel ist ein klarer, ungestörter Luftstrom mit möglichst wenig Verwirbelungen.

Anstatt auf Quantität zu setzen, sollten Sie auf die gezielte Positionierung und Abstimmung der Lüfter achten. Dazu ist eine durchdachte Lüfterkurve im UEFI oder per Software hilfreich. Wer diese Punkte berücksichtigt, baut kein System nach Mythen, sondern nach nachvollziehbaren thermischen Prinzipien – und holt so das Maximum an Effizienz und Laufruhe aus seiner Hardware heraus.

Lesetipp: So reinigen Sie PC und Laptop richtig

E-Bike als Pick-up von Cube: So vielseitig war noch kein Pedelec

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 10:30:55 +0100

Über Aussehen und Form lässt sich streiten, doch das Lasten-Trike von Cube mit starkem Bosch-Motor kann wirklich ein Auto ersetzen. Das liegt am besonderen Heck. Dieser Artikel wurde einsortiert unter Technology, E-Bike, Mobility.

Riesen-Modellbausatz von “Das Boot” jetzt mit 32 Prozent Rabatt

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:16:00 +0100

Spartipp: Sie bekommen diesen Bausatz jetzt sagenhafte 32 Prozent günstiger für nur 169,99 Euro, und zwar hier auf Amazon. Das ist unseres Wissens der absolute Bestpreis für diesen Bausatz. Und gegenüber dem offiziellen Revellshop deutlich günstiger und Sie sparen 80 Euro. Zudem gibt es aktuell keine lange Wartezeit (unter Umständen fällt eine Versandgebühr an).

Revell “Das Boot” für nur 169,99 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon

„Rosinenbomber“ der Berliner Luftbrücke als cooler Revell-Bausatz mit 362 Teilen

Spannend: Sie bauen auch den Innenraum des U-Bootes nach. Revell schreibt dazu Folgendes:

Modellbausatz “Das Boot” von Revell jetzt mit 30 Prozent Rabatt

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 12:01:12 +0100

Spartipp: Sie bekommen diesen Bausatz jetzt sagenhafte 30 Prozent günstiger für nur 175,20 Euro, und zwar hier auf Amazon. Das ist unseres Wissens der absolute Bestpreis für diesen Bausatz. Und gegenüber dem offiziellen Revellshop deutlich günstiger und Sie sparen 74,79 Euro. Unter diesem Link bestellen Sie den Revell-Bausatz “Das Boot” für nur 175,20 Euro. Zudem gibt es aktuell keine lange Wartezeit.

Revell “Das Boot” für nur 175,20 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon

„Rosinenbomber“ der Berliner Luftbrücke als cooler Revell-Bausatz mit 362 Teilen

Spannend: Sie bauen auch den Innenraum des U-Bootes nach. Revell schreibt dazu Folgendes:

Tipp: Klemmbausteinespezialist Cobi bietet das U-Boot U96 Typ VIIC ebenfalls an. 41,39 Euro kostet der Bausatz COBI-4847. Das fertig zusammengebaute Modell ist allerdings nur knapp 47 cm lang.

U-Boot “Das Boot” als Modellbausatz von Revell jetzt mit 30 Prozent Rabatt

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:45:50 +0100

Revell “Das Boot” für nur 175,20 Euro statt 249,99 Euro bei Amazon