Tech Digest 101

Microsoft’s VASA-1 can deepfake a person with one photo and one audio track

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 15:07:06 +0200

Enlarge / A sample image from Microsoft for "VASA-1: Lifelike Audio-Driven Talking Faces Generated in Real Time." (credit: Microsoft)

On Tuesday, Microsoft Research Asia unveiled VASA-1, an AI model that can create a synchronized animated video of a person talking or singing from a single photo and an existing audio track. In the future, it could power virtual avatars that render locally and don't require video feeds—or allow anyone with similar tools to take a photo of a person found online and make them appear to say whatever they want.

"It paves the way for real-time engagements with lifelike avatars that emulate human conversational behaviors," reads the abstract of the accompanying research paper titled, "VASA-1: Lifelike Audio-Driven Talking Faces Generated in Real Time." It's the work of Sicheng Xu, Guojun Chen, Yu-Xiao Guo, Jiaolong Yang, Chong Li, Zhenyu Zang, Yizhong Zhang, Xin Tong, and Baining Guo.

The VASA framework (short for "Visual Affective Skills Animator") uses machine learning to analyze a static image along with a speech audio clip. It is then able to generate a realistic video with precise facial expressions, head movements, and lip-syncing to the audio. It does not clone or simulate voices (like other Microsoft research) but relies on an existing audio input that could be specially recorded or spoken for a particular purpose.

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LLMs keep leaping with Llama 3, Meta’s newest open-weights AI model

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 23:04:42 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Benj Edwards)

On Thursday, Meta unveiled early versions of its Llama 3 open-weights AI model that can be used to power text composition, code generation, or chatbots. It also announced that its Meta AI Assistant is now available on a website and is going to be integrated into its major social media apps, intensifying the company's efforts to position its products against other AI assistants like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, and Google's Gemini.

Like its predecessor, Llama 2, Llama 3 is notable for being a freely available, open-weights large language model (LLM) provided by a major AI company. Llama 3 technically does not quality as "open source" because that term has a specific meaning in software (as we have mentioned in other coverage), and the industry has not yet settled on terminology for AI model releases that ship either code or weights with restrictions (you can read Llama 3's license here) or that ship without providing training data. We typically call these releases "open weights" instead.

At the moment, Llama 3 is available in two parameter sizes: 8 billion (8B) and 70 billion (70B), both of which are available as free downloads through Meta's website with a sign-up. Llama 3 comes in two versions: pre-trained (basically the raw, next-token-prediction model) and instruction-tuned (fine-tuned to follow user instructions). Each has a 8,192 token context limit.

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LastPass users targeted in phishing attacks good enough to trick even the savvy

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 20:42:06 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Password-manager LastPass users were recently targeted by a convincing phishing campaign that used a combination of email, SMS, and voice calls to trick targets into divulging their master passwords, company officials said.

The attackers used an advanced phishing-as-a-service kit discovered in February by researchers from mobile security firm Lookout. Dubbed CryptoChameleon for its focus on cryptocurrency accounts, the kit provides all the resources needed to trick even relatively savvy people into believing the communications are legitimate. Elements include high-quality URLs, a counterfeit single sign-on page for the service the target is using, and everything needed to make voice calls or send emails or texts in real time as targets are visiting a fake site. The end-to-end service can also bypass multi-factor authentication in the event a target is using the protection.

LastPass in the crosshairs

Lookout said that LastPass was one of dozens of sensitive services or sites CryptoChameleon was configured to spoof. Others targeted included the Federal Communications Commission, Coinbase and other cryptocurrency exchanges, and email, password management, and single sign-on services including Okta, iCloud, and Outlook. When Lookout researchers accessed a database one CryptoChameleon subscriber used, they found that a high percentage of the contents collected in the scams appeared to be legitimate email addresses, passwords, one-time-password tokens, password reset URLs, and photos of driver’s licenses. Typically, such databases are filled with junk entries.

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OpenAI winds down AI image generator that blew minds and forged friendships in 2022

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:00:46 +0200

Enlarge / An AI-generated image from DALL-E 2 created with the prompt "A painting by Grant Wood of an astronaut couple, american gothic style." (credit: AI Pictures That Go Hard / X)

When OpenAI's DALL-E 2 debuted on April 6, 2022, the idea that a computer could create relatively photorealistic images on demand based on just text descriptions caught a lot of people off guard. The launch began an innovative and tumultuous period in AI history, marked by a sense of wonder and a polarizing ethical debate that reverberates in the AI space to this day.

Last week, OpenAI turned off the ability for new customers to purchase generation credits for the web version of DALL-E 2, effectively killing it. From a technological point of view, it's not too surprising that OpenAI recently began winding down support for the service. The 2-year-old image generation model was groundbreaking for its time, but it has since been surpassed by DALL-E 3's higher level of detail, and OpenAI has recently begun rolling out DALL-E 3 editing capabilities.

But for a tight-knit group of artists and tech enthusiasts who were there at the start of DALL-E 2, the service's sunset marks the bittersweet end of a period where AI technology briefly felt like a magical portal to boundless creativity. "The arrival of DALL-E 2 was truly mind-blowing," illustrator Douglas Bonneville told Ars in an interview. "There was an exhilarating sense of unlimited freedom in those first days that we all suspected AI was going to unleash. It felt like a liberation from something into something else, but it was never clear exactly what."

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Kremlin-backed actors spread disinformation ahead of US elections

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 23:55:30 +0200

Enlarge (credit: da-kuk/Getty)

Kremlin-backed actors have stepped up efforts to interfere with the US presidential election by planting disinformation and false narratives on social media and fake news sites, analysts with Microsoft reported Wednesday.

The analysts have identified several unique influence-peddling groups affiliated with the Russian government seeking to influence the election outcome, with the objective in large part to reduce US support of Ukraine and sow domestic infighting. These groups have so far been less active during the current election cycle than they were during previous ones, likely because of a less contested primary season.

Stoking divisions

Over the past 45 days, the groups have seeded a growing number of social media posts and fake news articles that attempt to foment opposition to US support of Ukraine and stoke divisions over hot-button issues such as election fraud. The influence campaigns also promote questions about President Biden’s mental health and corrupt judges. In all, Microsoft has tracked scores of such operations in recent weeks.

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Broadcom says “many” VMware perpetual licenses got support extensions

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 18:44:44 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan this week publicized some concessions aimed at helping customers and partners ease into VMware’s recent business model changes. Tan reiterated that the controversial changes, like the end of perpetual licensing, aren't going away. But amid questioning from antitrust officials in the European Union (EU), Tan announced that the company has already given support extensions for some VMware perpetual license holders.

Broadcom closed its $69 billion VMware acquisition in November. One of its first moves was ending VMware perpetual license sales in favor of subscriptions. Since December, Broadcom also hasn't sold Support and Subscription renewals for VMware perpetual licenses.

In a blog post on Monday, Tan admitted that this shift requires "a change in the timing of customers' expenditures and the balance of those expenditures between capital and operating spending." As a result, Broadcom has "given support extensions to many customers who came up for renewal while these changes were rolling out." Tan didn't specify how Broadcom determined who is eligible for an extension or for how long. However, the executive's blog is the first time Broadcom has announced such extensions and opens the door to more extension requests.

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Linus Torvalds reiterates his tabs-versus-spaces stance with a kernel trap

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 23:51:20 +0200

Enlarge / Cans of Tab diet soda on display in 2011. Tab was discontinued in 2020. There has never been a soda named "Spaces" that had a cult following. (credit: Getty Images)

Anybody can contribute to the Linux kernel, but any person's commit suggestion can become the subject of the kernel's master and namesake, Linus Torvalds. Torvalds is famously not overly committed to niceness, though he has been working on it since 2018. You can see glimpses of this newer, less curse-laden approach in how Torvalds recently addressed a commit with which he vehemently disagreed. It involves tabs.

The commit last week changed exactly one thing on one line, replacing a tab character with a space: "It helps Kconfig parsers to read file without error." Torvalds responded with a commit of his own, as spotted by The Register, which would "add some hidden tabs on purpose." Trying to smooth over a tabs-versus-spaces matter seemed to awaken Torvalds to the need to have tab-detecting failures be "more obvious." Torvalds would have added more, he wrote, but didn't "want to make things uglier than necessary. But it *might* be necessary if it turns out we see more of this kind of silly tooling."

If you've read this far and don't understand what's happening, please allow me, a failed CS minor, to offer a quick explanation: Tabs Versus Spaces will never be truly resolved, codified, or set right by standards, and the energy spent on the issue over time could, if harnessed, likely power one or more small nations. Still, the Linux kernel has its own coding style, and it directly cites "K&R," or Kernighan & Ritchie, the authors of the coding bible The C Programming Language, which is a tabs book. If you are submitting kernel code, it had better use tabs (eight-character tabs, ideally, though that is tied in part to teletype and line-printer history).

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Attackers are pummeling networks around the world with millions of login attempts

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 23:31:25 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Matejmo | Getty Images)

Cisco’s Talos security team is warning of a large-scale credential compromise campaign that’s indiscriminately assailing networks with login attempts aimed at gaining unauthorized access to VPN, SSH, and web application accounts.

The login attempts use both generic usernames and valid usernames targeted at specific organizations. Cisco included a list of more than 2,000 usernames and almost 100 passwords used in the attacks, along with nearly 4,000 IP addresses sending the login traffic. The IP addresses appear to originate from TOR exit nodes and other anonymizing tunnels and proxies. The attacks appear to be indiscriminate and opportunistic rather than aimed at a particular region or industry.

“Depending on the target environment, successful attacks of this type may lead to unauthorized network access, account lockouts, or denial-of-service conditions,” Talos researchers wrote Tuesday. “The traffic related to these attacks has increased with time and is likely to continue to rise.”

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New UK law targets “despicable individuals” who create AI sex deepfakes

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 16:51:38 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

On Tuesday, the UK government announced a new law targeting the creation of AI-generated sexually explicit deepfake images. Under the legislation, which has not yet been passed, offenders would face prosecution and an unlimited fine, even if they do not widely share the images but create them with the intent to distress the victim. The government positions the law as part of a broader effort to enhance legal protections for women.

Over the past decade, the rise of deep learning image synthesis technology has made it increasingly easy for people with a consumer PC to create misleading pornography by swapping out the faces of the performers with someone else who has not consented to the act. That practice spawned the term "deepfake" around 2017, named after a Reddit user named "deepfakes" that shared AI-faked porn on the service. Since then, the term has grown to encompass completely new images and video synthesized entirely from scratch, created from neural networks that have been trained on images of the victim.

The problem isn't unique to the UK. In March, deepfake nudes of female middle school classmates in Florida led to charges against two boys ages 13 and 14. The rise of open source image synthesis models like Stable Diffusion since 2022 has increased the urgency among regulators in the US to attempt to contain (or at least punish) the act of creating non-consensual deepfakes. The UK government is on a similar mission.

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Why the US government’s overreliance on Microsoft is a big problem

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 15:55:34 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Joan Cros via Getty)

When Microsoft revealed in January that foreign government hackers had once again breached its systems, the news prompted another round of recriminations about the security posture of the world’s largest tech company.

Despite the angst among policymakers, security experts, and competitors, Microsoft faced no consequences for its latest embarrassing failure. The United States government kept buying and using Microsoft products, and senior officials refused to publicly rebuke the tech giant. It was another reminder of how insulated Microsoft has become from virtually any government accountability, even as the Biden administration vows to make powerful tech firms take more responsibility for America’s cyber defense.

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Alleged cryptojacking scheme consumed $3.5M of stolen computing to make just $1M

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 21:46:03 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Federal prosecutors indicted a Nebraska man on charges he perpetrated a cryptojacking scheme that defrauded two cloud providers—one based in Seattle and the other in Redmond, Washington—out of $3.5 million.

The indictment, filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York and unsealed on Monday, charges Charles O. Parks III—45 of Omaha, Nebraska—with wire fraud, money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions in connection with the scheme. Parks has yet to enter a plea and is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Omaha on Tuesday. Parks was arrested last Friday.

Prosecutors allege that Parks defrauded “two well-known providers of cloud computing services” of more than $3.5 million in computing resources to mine cryptocurrency. The indictment says the activity was in furtherance of a cryptojacking scheme, a term for crimes that generate digital coin through the acquisition of computing resources and electricity of others through fraud, hacking, or other illegal means.

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Framework’s software and firmware have been a mess, but it’s working on them

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:00:44 +0200

Enlarge / The Framework Laptop 13. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Since Framework showed off its first prototypes in February 2021, we've generally been fans of the company's modular, repairable, upgradeable laptops.

Not that the company's hardware releases to date have been perfect—each Framework Laptop 13 model has had quirks and flaws that range from minor to quite significant, and the Laptop 16's upsides struggle to balance its downsides. But the hardware mostly does a good job of functioning as a regular laptop while being much more tinkerer-friendly than your typical MacBook, XPS, or ThinkPad.

But even as it builds new upgrades for its systems, expands sales of refurbished and B-stock hardware as budget options, and promotes the re-use of its products via external enclosures, Framework has struggled with the other side of computing longevity and sustainability: providing up-to-date software.

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Change Healthcare faces another ransomware threat—and it looks credible

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 20:25:32 +0200

Enlarge (credit: iStock / Getty Images Plus)

For months, Change Healthcare has faced an immensely messy ransomware debacle that has left hundreds of pharmacies and medical practices across the United States unable to process claims. Now, thanks to an apparent dispute within the ransomware criminal ecosystem, it may have just become far messier still.

In March, the ransomware group AlphV, which had claimed credit for encrypting Change Healthcare’s network and threatened to leak reams of the company’s sensitive health care data, received a $22 million payment—evidence, publicly captured on bitcoin’s blockchain, that Change Healthcare had very likely caved to its tormentors’ ransom demand, though the company has yet to confirm that it paid. But in a new definition of a worst-case ransomware, a different ransomware group claims to be holding Change Healthcare’s stolen data and is demanding a payment of their own.

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“Highly capable” hackers root corporate networks by exploiting firewall 0-day

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 22:48:47 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Highly capable hackers are rooting multiple corporate networks by exploiting a maximum-severity zero-day vulnerability in a firewall product from Palo Alto Networks, researchers said Friday.

The vulnerability, which has been under active exploitation for at least two weeks now, allows the hackers with no authentication to execute malicious code with root privileges, the highest possible level of system access, researchers said. The extent of the compromise, along with the ease of exploitation, has earned the CVE-2024-3400 vulnerability the maximum severity rating of 10.0. The ongoing attacks are the latest in a rash of attacks aimed at firewalls, VPNs, and file-transfer appliances, which are popular targets because of their wealth of vulnerabilities and direct pipeline into the most sensitive parts of a network.

“Highly capable” UTA0218 likely to be joined by others

The zero-day is present in PAN-OS 10.2, PAN-OS 11.0, and/or PAN-OS 11.1 firewalls when they are configured to use both the GlobalProtect gateway and device telemetry. Palo Alto Networks has yet to patch the vulnerability but is urging affected customers to follow the workaround and mitigation guidance provided here. The advice includes enabling Threat ID 95187 for those with subscriptions to the company’s Threat Prevention service and ensuring vulnerability protection has been applied to their GlobalProtect interface. When that’s not possible, customers should temporarily disable telemetry until a patch is available.

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Words are flowing out like endless rain: Recapping a busy week of LLM news

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 22:31:08 +0200

Enlarge / An image of a boy amazed by flying letters. (credit: Getty Images)

Some weeks in AI news are eerily quiet, but during others, getting a grip on the week's events feels like trying to hold back the tide. This week has seen three notable large language model (LLM) releases: Google Gemini Pro 1.5 hit general availability with a free tier, OpenAI shipped a new version of GPT-4 Turbo, and Mistral released a new openly licensed LLM, Mixtral 8x22B. All three of those launches happened within 24 hours starting on Tuesday.

With the help of software engineer and independent AI researcher Simon Willison (who also wrote about this week's hectic LLM launches on his own blog), we'll briefly cover each of the three major events in roughly chronological order, then dig into some additional AI happenings this week.

Gemini Pro 1.5 general release

(credit: Google)

On Tuesday morning Pacific time, Google announced that its Gemini 1.5 Pro model (which we first covered in February) is now available in 180+ countries, excluding Europe, via the Gemini API in a public preview. This is Google's most powerful public LLM so far, and it's available in a free tier that permits up to 50 requests a day.

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Intel’s “Gaudi 3” AI accelerator chip may give Nvidia’s H100 a run for its money

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 22:56:59 +0200

Enlarge / An Intel handout photo of the Gaudi 3 AI accelerator. (credit: Intel)

On Tuesday, Intel revealed a new AI accelerator chip called Gaudi 3 at its Vision 2024 event in Phoenix. With strong claimed performance while running large language models (like those that power ChatGPT), the company has positioned Gaudi 3 as an alternative to Nvidia's H100, a popular data center GPU that has been subject to shortages, though apparently that is easing somewhat.

Compared to Nvidia's H100 chip, Intel projects a 50 percent faster training time on Gaudi 3 for both OpenAI's GPT-3 175B LLM and the 7-billion parameter version of Meta's Llama 2. In terms of inference (running the trained model to get outputs), Intel claims that its new AI chip delivers 50 percent faster performance than H100 for Llama 2 and Falcon 180B, which are both relatively popular open-weights models.

Intel is targeting the H100 because of its high market share, but the chip isn't Nvidia's most powerful AI accelerator chip in the pipeline. Announcements of the H200 and the Blackwell B200 have since surpassed the H100 on paper, but neither of those chips is out yet (the H200 is expected in the second quarter of 2024—basically any day now).

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Hackable Intel and Lenovo hardware that went undetected for 5 years won’t ever be fixed

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 20:53:03 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Intel)

Hardware sold for years by the likes of Intel and Lenovo contains a remotely exploitable vulnerability that will never be fixed. The cause: a supply chain snafu involving an open source software package and hardware from multiple manufacturers that directly or indirectly incorporated it into their products.

Researchers from security firm Binarly have confirmed that the lapse has resulted in Intel, Lenovo, and Supermicro shipping server hardware that contains a vulnerability that can be exploited to reveal security-critical information. The researchers, however, went on to warn that any hardware that incorporates certain generations of baseboard management controllers made by Duluth, Georgia-based AMI or Taiwan-based AETN are also affected.

Chain of fools

BMCs are tiny computers soldered into the motherboard of servers that allow cloud centers, and sometimes their customers, to streamline the remote management of vast fleets of servers. They enable administrators to remotely reinstall OSes, install and uninstall apps, and control just about every other aspect of the system—even when it's turned off. BMCs provide what’s known in the industry as “lights-out” system management. AMI and AETN are two of several makers of BMCs.

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AT&T: Data breach affects 73 million or 51 million customers. No, we won’t explain.

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 00:28:02 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

AT&T is notifying millions of current or former customers that their account data has been compromised and published last month on the dark web. Just how many millions, the company isn't saying.

In a mandatory filing with the Maine Attorney General’s office, the telecommunications company said 51.2 million account holders were affected. On its corporate website, AT&T put the number at 73 million. In either event, compromised data included one or more of the following: full names, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, dates of birth, AT&T account numbers, and AT&T passcodes. Personal financial information and call history didn’t appear to be included, AT&T said, and data appeared to be from June 2019 or earlier.

The disclosure on the AT&T site said the 73 million affected customers comprised 7.6 million current customers and 65.4 million former customers. The notification said AT&T has reset the account PINs of all current customers and is notifying current and former customers by mail. AT&T representatives haven’t explained why the letter filed with the Maine AG lists 51.2 million affected and the disclosure on its site lists 73 million.

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New AI music generator Udio synthesizes realistic music on demand

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 23:47:44 +0200

Enlarge / A screenshot of AI-generated songs listed on Udio on April 10, 2024. (credit: Benj Edwards)

Between 2002 and 2005, I ran a music website where visitors could submit song titles that I would write and record a silly song around. In the liner notes for my first CD release in 2003, I wrote about a day when computers would potentially put me out of business, churning out music automatically at a pace I could not match. While I don't actively post music on that site anymore, that day is almost here.

On Wednesday, a group of ex-DeepMind employees launched Udio, a new AI music synthesis service that can create novel high-fidelity musical audio from written prompts, including user-provided lyrics. It's similar to Suno, which we covered on Monday. With some key human input, Udio can create facsimiles of human-produced music in genres like country, barbershop quartet, German pop, classical, hard rock, hip hop, show tunes, and more. It's currently free to use during a beta period.

Udio is also freaking out some musicians on Reddit. As we mentioned in our Suno piece, Udio is exactly the kind of AI-powered music generation service that over 200 musical artists were afraid of when they signed an open protest letter last week.

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Thousands of LG TVs are vulnerable to takeover—here’s how to ensure yours isn’t one

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 21:12:47 +0200

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

As many as 91,000 LG TVs face the risk of being commandeered unless they receive a just-released security update patching four critical vulnerabilities discovered late last year.

The vulnerabilities are found in four LG TV models that collectively comprise slightly more than 88,000 units around the world, according to results returned by the Shodan search engine for Internet-connected devices. The vast majority of those units are located in South Korea, followed by Hong Kong, the US, Sweden, and Finland. The models are:

LG43UM7000PLA running webOS 4.9.7 - 5.30.40
OLED55CXPUA running webOS 5.5.0 - 04.50.51
OLED48C1PUB running webOS 6.3.3-442 (kisscurl-kinglake) - 03.36.50
OLED55A23LA running webOS 7.3.1-43 (mullet-mebin) - 03.33.85

Starting Wednesday, updates are available through these devices’ settings menu.

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What Are These Companies Hiding? - Rabbit R1 / Humane AI Pin

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 06:17:29 +0200

These Apple AirPods Seem… Impossible?

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:02:06 +0200

If You’re Tired of MacBooks Winning…

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The M3 MacBook Air "Problems"

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Apple Vision Pro Thoughts...

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The NEW Lenovo LEGION Laptops!

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:28:19 +0100

Intel's Secret Gaming Device - MSI Claw

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:23:26 +0100

The NEW Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 and G14

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 09:01:40 +0100

This Double Screen Laptop is SO AWESOME

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 07:12:59 +0100

How Is This Powerful Laptop So Quiet?!

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DELL XPS 14 + XPS 16 - SUPER CLEAN!!

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 06:43:39 +0100

The Biggest Moment For Laptops Since Apple’s M1

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My Favorite of Tech - 2023 (ALL WHITE)

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 18:34:09 +0100

Nvidia Laptops Have Changed SO MUCH.

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 21:25:18 +0100

Steam Deck OLED Review - OMG

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 20:07:30 +0100

2022 GMC Hummer EV Pickup Review: One-Trick Pony - CNET

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 11:00:01 +0100

After the allure of the Hummer's physics-defying acceleration wears off, there isn't a whole lot left to love.

Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite Review: Capable Streamer, Cheap Price - CNET

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 19:01:00 +0100

The first ultrabudget streamer with a voice remote talks circles around Roku.

2023 Land Rover Range Rover Review: Running Out of Room for Improvement - CNET

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 11:00:01 +0100

The latest generation of the ubiquitous luxury SUV is damn near perfect.

Roku Streambar Review: Instant Sound and 4K Streaming Upgrade - CNET

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 12:00:00 +0100

Editor's Choice: This tiny bar adds great 4K HDR streaming, and solid sound, to any TV.

Anker Nebula Mars II Pro Review: Petite Portable Projector Performs Proficiently - CNET

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 16:31:00 +0100

Editor's Choice: This tiny, battery-powered entertainment machine does a lot of things right.

BenQ HT2050A Review: Great (Big) Picture for the Money - CNET

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 01:00:00 +0100

Editor's Choice: Excellent contrast, accurate color and solid features make it our favorite sub-$1,000 projector for 2020.

Epson Home Cinema 5050UB: Big, Bold and Beautiful - CNET

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 19:21:00 +0100

Editor's Choice: A higher-end projector worthy of the "home cinema" moniker.

2023 BMW iX M60 Review: Electric Excess, Not Necessarily the Best - CNET

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 12:00:01 +0100

The more powerful spec of BMW's iX electric SUV is certainly quicker than the base model, but that extra oomph comes at too high a cost.

LG C2 OLED TV Review: Best High-End TV for the Money - CNET

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 16:53:00 +0100

The C2 sets the pace for 2022 with superb picture quality, numerous sizes and a track record of success.

Blink Mini Review: A Low-Cost Camera With Pan-Tilt Mount Now Available - CNET

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 22:13:00 +0200

Available in black or white, Amazon's Blink Mini sports many features for a reasonable price.

2023 BMW i4 M50 Review: Treat Yo' Self - CNET

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 21:33:00 +0200

You don't need to pay more for dual-motor i4 M50 to have a good time, but it's hard to argue with more power and fun.

2022 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Review: Fierce Looks, Gentle Demeanor - CNET

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 11:00:01 +0200

Toyota's off-road-ready pickup is mighty fine in daily driving, too.

2023 Cadillac XT6 Review: Super Cruising Into the Spotlight - CNET

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 11:00:00 +0200

The addition of Caddy's hands-free highway driving assistant makes the XT6 one of the most interesting luxury SUVs on the road -- but there's a catch.

2022 Chevy Silverado Trail Boss Review: Diesel Brawn Meets Google Brains - CNET

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 11:00:01 +0200

This rough-and-ready pickup is home to Chevy's new Android-based, Google Assistant-powered dashboard tech.

2022 Ford Bronco Raptor Review: The Unstoppable Force - CNET

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 11:00:00 +0200

Ford's most powerful, most capable Bronco is an absolute blast to drive anywhere.