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If you’ve just upgraded to a brand-new, lightning-fast boot drive, you don’t have to get rid of the old one. The same goes for those ancient HDDs we all have sitting in a dusty drawer, like the ones we used to boot our Windows XP PCs from.

Modern displays are amazing when it comes to detail, brightness, color, and all the ingredients that make for an impressive picture—except motion clarity.

The Mercedes-Benz GLB-Class was designed to bridge a gap in the automaker's product line and luxury SUV market as a whole. Although the subcompact GLA served as the entry point, its smaller cabin could feel cramped over time for growing families.

Lots of people will use an IDE like VS Code or a regular editor like Vim, but for my work in data science and statistics, I need something different. Here's why I use IPython and Jupyter notebooks for exploring datasets.

Modern Android phones have a number of built-in utilities aside from the ones we've all heard of and used, like the torch. Some of these tools allow you to convert any photo (as well as webpages and emails) into a PDF file, extract text from photos, and more.

My Alexa smart speakers were meant to usher in a future where I controlled everything in my smart home with my voice. Instead, they turned out to be a closed system with limited capabilities and some serious privacy issues. I decided it was time they were replaced.

Every TV today has at least one HDMI port on the side or back. It’s used to stream content from another device to your television—whether that’s a streaming device, tablet, or computer.

Gaming routers are everywhere these days, and they're sold with all the subtlety of a neon-lit race car. Big antennas, aggressive fonts, tri-band this, Wi-Fi 7 that, and a very simple pitch: buy this, and your games will run faster.

A new report from The Midas Project's Model Republic publication has found that news site, The Wire by Acutus, relies almost entirely on AI-generated content. The publication has been operational since the end of 2025 with nearly 100 published articles across tech, energy, media, science, business, and healthcare. Stranger still, their About page describes their work as "collaborative journalism" led by an "editorial team," but the site has no masthead and credits no editors or journalists in its publications.

The official explanation for this anonymity is buried in their How It Works subhead:

Our editorial team identifies timely topics and invites contributors with relevant, firsthand experience to share their perspective through structured conversations. Those perspectives are synthesized and edited into stories that reflect where contributors align, where they diverge, and what it all means — offering depth, balance, and clarity beyond the headline.

But when journalist Tyler Johnston ran the site's content through Pangram, an AI detection tool that boasts a 99.98% accuracy rating, he discovered just how widely AI was relied upon: "Of the 94 articles, 69% came back flagged as fully AI-generated, with another 28% flagged as partially AI-generated. Only three articles were classified as human-authored."

Johnston's suspicions grew when he looked at the content itself, which was both overwhelmingly in favor of the development of artificial intelligence and dismissive of AI's critics. One piece, for example, warns of "Escalating Anti-AI Radicalism," while another chides the reader: "Will Republicans Let Blue States Set America’s AI Rules?" 

The deeper Johnston dug, the clearer the picture got. As a new site with very little social media presence, articles by The Wire are seldom retweeted, but Johnston discovered that half of its engagement on X came from Patrick Hynes, the president of the PR firm Novus Public Affairs. A quick glance at their client list reveals they work on behalf of Targeted Victory, the consulting firm at the very heart of OpenAI's lobbying efforts in Washington on behalf of its regulatory interests. 

Generative artificial intelligence has already created rifts in our collective perception of reality. With enough computing power, you can create fake trailers for films that were never made and never will be, or steal a politician's voice for a deep fake, or even invent an absurd, implausible scenario, like a shark attacking a plane, and fool at least a few credulous internet rookies.

If Johnston's reporting is correct and his inferences are accurate, we may have an instance of an AI firm deliberately mischaracterizing its work as "independent journalism" to lobby on its behalf (something Johnston points out contravenes its own usage policies).

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Everyone dunks on Ubuntu for being bloated, and honestly, they're not wrong. There are far more powerful Linux distros that offer more features while consuming less resources than Ubuntu. In fact, at the time of writing, Ubuntu now demands higher system requirements than Windows 11. So I ran both to find out if that weight actually matters.

Pixel phones aren't exactly known for being adventurous. Google mainly sticks with clean designs and simple features—that’s part of the appeal. However, it did once experiment with nifty touch-less gestures. Now you can bring them back to any Android phone.

Voice typing on desktop computers usually promises efficiency but rarely delivers, despite many wanting to ditch the keyboard for voice typing. Dictation is meant to save time and lower keyboard use, but you constantly have to correct errors, manage software crashes, and fight incompatible interfaces. The primary problem is not that you lack choices, but that these applications do not fit your workflow, vocabulary, or environment. I spent several weeks testing seven different applications on Windows, ranging from free system defaults to expensive enterprise software. I think I've found the one you've been looking for, since it works well for me.

Despite coming from competing companies, Android and Windows are two platforms that are quite compatible and capable of interaction. Here, I'll show you several ways to connect and run Android apps on your Windows PC.

Everyone who uses i3—or any Linux window manager—has some version of the same story: excited going in, and confused right after installing it. People on the internet will show you what’s possible with i3, but very few talk about what it actually takes to get there. I pushed through, figured it out, and now I’m sharing the three things I wish I knew before I started.

A local library of music is almost always cheaper than paying for a subscription, which is why home media servers have become so popular. In a weird way, Google Play Music was the first taste of this concept for many people. Despite what you may think, it still lives on today.

Raspberry Pi-based Plex servers look like a DIY-friendly, low-power way to build a compact Plex server. They're readily available, easy to work with, and have fantastic community support. Unfortunately, the builds you see on YouTube and social media only look good because they avoid one of the Raspberry Pi's greatest weaknesses.

Luxury is often associated with premium badges, but the badge itself doesn’t always guarantee the best ownership experience. In the used market especially, some overlooked mainstream models deliver the same refinement, comfort, and road presence as traditional luxury cars, often for far less money. One German liftback proves that stepping outside the usual premium brands can be a surprisingly smart move.

Choosing the right tool for multiple jobs can be tough, especially with so many brands to choose from. Then, once you decide on a brand and start stocking up, you'll realize you forgot something important. Earlier this year, I finally bought a RIDGID 4 Gallon wet/dry shop vac, and not only is it a tool I sorely needed, but it's something everyone should own.

TL;DR: Score a free iPhone 17e when signing up for a T-Mobile plan with no trade-in required. The iPhone 17 is also available for free from T-Mobile when signing up for an Experience More plan and trading in an eligible device.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple T-Mobile: Apple iPhone 17 for free   Shop Now

March was massive for Apple. After months of anticipation, new iPhones, MacBooks, and iPads were finally released to the public.

So what now?

Is the expectation that we all just sit around and wait for the next announcement from Apple? No, this is the time for finding the best deals on this fresh lineup. And there's a special offer available right now for anyone interested in upgrading to the new iPhone 17.

For a limited time, you can switch to almost any T-Mobile plan and get a free iPhone 17e (no trade in required). Alternatively, you can claim the iPhone 17 for free when signing on for 24 months of an Experience More plan and trading in an eligible phone. It's important to note that T-Mobile will charge taxes on these deals and a $35 device connection fee, but that's pretty much always the case with these "free" deals.

SEE ALSO: How the iPhone Fold and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 differ, according to leaks

The Experience More plan is designed for power users who want 4K streaming, huge hotspot data, and international roaming that can keep up with even the most frequent flyers. You're therefore faced with a higher monthly bill than more limited plans. The Experience More plan does include perks like Apple TV+ and Netflix, which helps to offset some of that cost.

The iPhone 17 is the first base model built to handle Apple’s most advanced AI features. Mashable's Stan Schroeder said it's an "excellent phone that matches the iPhone Pro models in many ways that matter." Content creators should note that the camera is "almost as good as the one on the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max."

Score the Apple iPhone 17 for free this weekend with T-Mobile.

When it comes to the most popular streaming websites, one we can all agree on is Netflix. Sure, the Netflix prices have gone up, and sometimes, you wonder if there are better alternatives out there, but at the end of the day, the platform has a ridiculous amount of content on it that gives you plenty of options.