Technology

The journey of Acer's latest eco-conscious laptop begins in the brackish waters near its home base in Taiwan.

The tech company announced on Monday a next-generation Aspire Vero 16 that's made partially out of oyster shells, which have been cleaned, crushed, and mixed with a blend of more than 70 percent post-consumer recycled plastic. (You best believe it's a world's first.) Acer showcased the PC ahead of CES 2025, and it'll be available for purchase this April starting at $799.99.

SEE ALSO: Trying the Acer Nitro Blaze 11 at CES 2025: A Switch and a gaming laptop have a huge baby Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

Eric Ackerson, Acer's associate director of product marketing, told Mashable in a demo that the reasoning behind Acer's decision to make a laptop with oysters was twofold: They're in abundance in its headquartered country, and they were easy to incorporate with the PCR it was already using in previous generations of the Aspire Vero 16. (The last iteration was made from 60 percent recycled plastic.)

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

For what it's worth, you wouldn't know the Aspire Vero 16 was made from armor of dead molluscs just by looking at it. It's chassis is smooth, gray, and lightly speckled up close — pretty minimalist, aside from a pearlescent Acer logo at the top of its lid. A press release notes that it meets a military-grade durability standard for shock resistance and overall ruggedness.

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

Underneath all that oyster, the Aspire Vero 16 runs on hot-off-the-press Intel Core Ultra 200H (Arrow Lake) processors with up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. All things considered, we're jonesing to test it: Its predecessor's battery and performance kind of shucked.

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

"Today we are announcing our next generation: the RTX Blackwell family."

What a way to open CES 2025, Jensen Huang.

Nvidia's newest GeForce RTX graphics cards may have leaked extensively ahead of the consumer tech event, but that doesn't make the company CEO's official announcement any less exciting for gamers, crypto miners, and people who do AI stuff.

SEE ALSO: CES 2025 highlights: What we've seen so far

During the PC hardware titan's CES keynote on Monday night, Nvidia finally pulled back the curtain on its highly anticipated RTX Blackwell 50-series graphics cards. The company confirmed the lineup will include the 5070, 5080, and 5090, with launch dates kicking off later this month.

Unsurprisingly, the cutting-edge performance won’t come cheap: the flagship 5090 starts at $1,999, followed by the 5080 at $999, the 5070 Ti at $799, and the 5070 at $549. That said, the 5070 and 5070 Ti are shaping up to be absolute bargains, packing 4090-level performance at a fraction of the price.

On the spec sheet, NVIDIA's RTX 50-series is an absolute beast. It boasts a staggering 4,000 TOPS, 380 RT TFLOPS, and 125 Shader TFLOPS, powered by an incredible 92 billion transistors. The card features G7 memory and delivers an eye-watering 1.8TB/s of memory bandwidth. Adding to its next-gen prowess is an AI-management processor, designed to optimize performance and efficiency in ways we’ve yet to see fully explored.

This story is developing...

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

CES 2025 has brought us some major information about Sony and Honda's collab electric vehicle, AFEELA, and wow it's a doozy. The AFEELA 1, a sleek EV five years in the making, is set to hit the streets — but only if you’re in California and ready to shell out a cool $89,900.

Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) revealed pricing and preorder details for the AFEELA 1 lineup at their CES press event. The base model, AFEELA 1 Origin, will start at the aforementioned $89,900, while the premium AFEELA 1 Signature model will set you back $102,900.

SEE ALSO: Sony and Honda are teaming up to build electric cars The three avalible colors of the Afeela Signature 1: Core Black, Tidal Gray, Calm White. Credit: Sony Honda Mobility Group

Both models include AI-powered personal assistant AFEELA Personal Agent, "optimally placed speakers" with Sony's 360 Spatial Sound Technologies, 5G connectivity, and a three-year subscription to AFEELA Intelligent Drive. You can also take your pick from Tidal Gray, Calm White, or Core Black, with the Signature trim adding Black or Gray interior choices.

Interestingly, SHM is limiting availability to California drivers for now. If you’re in the Golden State and have $200 to spare, you can place a refundable deposit to reserve your spot. However, you'll still have to wait a while before taking your AFEELA for a spin. SHM CEO Yasuhide Mizuno has clarified that while the prototype is "near final," deliveries of the Signature 1 aren’t expected until 2026, with the Origin following in 2027.

AFEELA isn’t done making waves at CES just yet either. SHM has another press conference lined up to dive into the customer experience and offer hands-on demos of their tech-packed EV when the show floor opens on Tuesday.

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

A new power bank, designated Anker Power Bank 25K, has been announced. It has a 25,000mAh capacity and 165W fast charging capabilities, but also comes with a display that shows you its current battery status.

Anker has announced a new 140W charger with a built-in screen for the current charging status. This charger has three USB-C ports and one USB-A port, letting you charge multiple devices at the same time.

Anker sells a few portable power stations that can be charged with solar panels. Now, it has created a more elegant way to charge them up: a solar-powered umbrella.

Anker just revealed three electric coolers under its SOLIX brand. The EverFrost models have capacities of 23 liters, 40 liters, and 58 liters, and can also function as a power station.

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 7 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 7 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Front women

These words are famous 'ladies.'

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

Words identify well-known things, or people, that include the word 'Lady' in their name.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Ladies.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for January 7

• Finger

• Slipper

• Bird

• Gaga

• Liberty

• Bunny

• Marmalade

• Ladies

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Strands.

CES 2025 hit us with a curveball when Naughty Dog Studios' creative director Neal Druckmann unexpectedly stepped onto the Sony press conference stage to drop a brand new trailer for The Last of Us Season 2 — and yeah, it’s as intense as you’d hope.

It's the latest in a few teasers dropped over the last few months. In this one, not only do we get to see our favorite post-apocalyptic duo, Joel and Ellie (Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey), back in action, but we also learned that the new season is set to premiere on Max this April — with the exact date to come.

This time around, Season 2 dives deep into the emotionally charged storyline of The Last of Us Part II, following Ellie’s relentless quest for revenge after a devastating act of violence shakes her world. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, the trailer gives us another haunting glimpse of Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, a character shrouded in mystery but carrying some major emotional baggage — especially when it comes to Joel.

Amazfit has revealed its latest smartwatch, the Amazfit Active 2. The watch is a health tracker first and foremost, but it also won't stand out as much as a typical health band or Apple Watch.

Samsung is set to reveal its new Galaxy S phone series in two weeks, with the company announcing that it will host its next Unpacked event on Jan. 22.

The follow up to Samsung's current Galaxy S24 model, the Galaxy S25 range is expected to be revealed in the showcase staged in San Jose, along with other gadgets, wearables, and more. The date for Samsung's Unpacked event had previously leaked, but the company officially confirmed it with a brief yet undeniably jazzy teaser on Monday (which also hinted at a new and improved Bixby).

Samsung Unpacked will be streamed live on Samsung's website and YouTube channel at 1 p.m. EST / 10 a.m. PST.

Samsung's S25 flagship models likely to be revealed are the Samsung Galaxy S25, Samsung Galaxy 25+, and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Mashable's Stan Schroeder previously reported on leaked beta software containing the model numbers of all three.

The company will also lean heavily on revealing new Galaxy AI features for its smartphone series and other devices at Unpacked. As Samsung's press release vaguely teased, "The next evolution of Galaxy AI is coming and it’s going to change the way you interact with the world every day." Of course, there have already been leaks about what these AI features could be.

SEE ALSO: Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked, including Galaxy AI and Galaxy Ring

We also know that Samsung is reportedly working on (at least) three new foldable phones for 2025, though whether they'll be announced at Unpacked remains to be seen.

To give you an idea of what to expect, here's everything Samsung revealed at its Galaxy Unpacked event last year, including the Samsung Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch Ultra, and more.

And in the meantime, Samsung has plenty of reveals now happening at CES 2025, where Mashable is on the ground.

CES 2025 is filled with weird, new robot vacuum innovations. Dreame, a Chinese tech company, has unveiled its new X50 Ultra, a "stair-climbing" robot vacuum. But before you start dreaming (pun intended) of a bot that can clean your steps, here’s the reality: the X50 Ultra doesn’t actually climb stairs.

SEE ALSO: Samsung at CES 2025: You can't escape the smart house

Well, not exactly.

The X50 Ultra can "climb" only if your stairs are about two inches tall, which might make it more accurate to call it a threshold-hopper. Dreame’s North American PR team is marketing it as the "robot vacuum that can literally climb stairs" (their emphasis, not ours). That claim feels a bit overblown, considering the X50 Ultra’s actual capability is more about navigating small obstacles like cords or the lip of a doorway — tasks powered by Dreame’s ProLeap System technology.

Even so, two inches is more than double the threshold clearance height of most robot vacuums on the market. It may not be enough for a full step, but it's nothing to sneeze at.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to test the X50 Ultra’s ability to handle thresholds due to Wi-Fi issues. Still, despite its exaggerated marketing claims, the X50 Ultra looks like a solid contender based on its specs. It boasts up to 20,000Pa of suction power, a HyperStream Detangling DuoBrush for tangle-free cleaning, and a 360-degree scanning sensor for smooth, efficient navigation.

You’ll still need to manually carry your robot companion up stairs considering that its navigational abilities are limited to thresholds just over two inches high. But if you’re after a premium robot vacuum that’s great at handling obstacles on flat floors without getting stuck, the X50 Ultra might be worth considering.

The Dreame X50 Ultra will be available for pre-order on Jan. 7 for $1,699 and launches on Valentine's Day 2024.

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

CES 2025 is giving us a lot of cool hardware, but once that's over, we still have a lot to see over the next weeks and months. Samsung, for its part, is already gearing up to show us its next smartphones. When, exactly? At its Unpacked event on January 22nd.

It's been a couple of years since the last time we got a new generation of GPUs. Intel got the ball rolling with its second-gen Arc cards, which means it's time for NVIDIA and AMD to make a move themselves. AMD is unveiling its range of RDNA 4 GPUs, starting with the Radeon RX 9070 and the RX 9070 XT.

AI-powered TVs are here, whether you really want one or not.

Google unveiled its new TV operating system at CES 2025, promising many AI offerings. For what it's worth, Google is far from alone — as Mashable's Cecily Mauran pointed out, AI-powered TVs are one of the big trends of CES 2025. 

Here are three things the Gemini-enhanced TVs will reportedly be able to do after its planned release later this year.

1. Chat with your TV

Ever struggle to find that one movie you're looking for? Google seems to think Gemini can help there.

It wrote in a blog post about the new TVs:

"You and your family will be able to gather together and have a natural conversation with your TV. This will make searching through your media easier than ever, and you will be able to ask questions about travel, health, space, history and more, with videos in the results for added context."

The idea is that you can use Gemini to ask your TV questions, access specific content, or perform other tasks.

2. Read the news to you

As TechCrunch noted, the new Gemini TVs will be able to read you a daily news brief it generates after "the AI assistant [scrapes] news stories from across the internet and YouTube video headlines posted by trusted news channels." That seems neat on its surface, but it is also a bit troubling considering all the trouble AI tools — Google's included — have had with getting basic facts correct.

SEE ALSO: How a Monday Night Football mishap may have exposed deep problems with Google Search 3. Know when you're around

The new TVs will be outfitted with sensors that can tell when you're nearby, prompting the TV to "show 'personalized and informative widgets' with the weather or news stories," the Verge noted.

You might never need to ask Alexa the temperature outside again.

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

Samsung kicked off CES 2025 with a splashy media day before the shows open — pulling top-tier tech reporters into a private event to unveil its latest lineup of Bespoke AI smart appliances. Held at the glitzy Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, the showcase made one thing abundantly clear: Samsung wants AI to power everything in your home.

SEE ALSO: The 6 most WTF robots at CES 2025

Backed by the trio of Samsung Knox, Bixby, and SmartThings, the company has envisioned an AI experience designed to be user-friendly, energy-efficient, and, most importantly, focused on helping you take care of yourself. Think Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but with an oven that can pinpoint exactly how hot your turkey is.

For context, Samsung Knox is the company's mobile security platform; Bixby is Samsung's AI voice assistant, and Smart Things is the device hub that provides the interconnectivity between all the appliances. These are devices such as the SmartThings Hub, Motion Sensor, and Camera.

Credit: Chance Townsend / Mashable

Samsung showcased a sprawling ecosystem of connected devices. From ovens and refrigerators to washer/dryer combos, vacuums, and even HVAC systems, the company’s lineup is designed to integrate seamlessly — at a cost. Even the PR rep we spoke to admitted they couldn’t afford the AI-powered utopia Samsung envisions for its customers.

SEE ALSO: 5 new gadgets from CES 2025 that you can actually buy right now

The most connected of the bunch is the new fridge, equipped with AI Vision technology and internal cameras that track everything going in and out. Integrated with Instacart’s product-matching system, it can recommend items to replenish and let you place an order with just a few taps. You can even browse your grocery list directly on the fridge’s touchscreen and arrange for same-day delivery, turning your kitchen into a high-tech command center.

In addition to Bixby’s voice assistant enabling hands-free control, Samsung has offered a clear peek into its ambitious “screens everywhere” vision for the modern home, where every appliance is part of an interconnected, AI-driven ecosystem.

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

Another CES, another new handheld gaming console. Except Acer's Nitro Blaze 11 isn't your average Steam Deck competitor.

The Taiwanese tech company announced the portable PC Monday ahead of the massive annual trade show in Las Vegas, a new entry in its Nitro series of handheld gaming devices. It's huge in size but shockingly light, with a detachable controller design that makes it feel an awful lot like a Nintendo Switch on steroids — with the added twist of some laptop functionality.

SEE ALSO: 5 new gadgets from CES 2025 that you can actually buy right now

Mashable got to go hands-on with the Nitro Blaze 11 just before launch, and while it swings a bit toward "who is this for?" territory, it's an incredibly cool and versatile gadget for the right kind of user with cash to burn.

How the Acer Nitro Blaze 11 feels to use That's the smaller, also-new Acer Nitro Blaze 11 in the background on the right. Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

It simply must be said: At over 14 inches wide and nearly seven inches tall, this thing is gigantic — massive, hulking, jumbo, beefy, majestic even. It gives Apple's largest iPad Pro a run for its money. It dwarfs my hands, and these puppies used to be able to stretch a full octave on a standard piano.

Yet, the Nitro Blaze 11's dimensions are slightly deceptive. Picking it up for the first time is a disarming experience: It weighs only 1,050 grams, or about 2.3 pounds. I can't believe how light it is; it's surprisingly comfortable to hold. A big win for gamers' wrists everywhere.

SEE ALSO: CES 2025 highlights: What we've seen so far

It's especially impressive when you consider the amount of power the device packs. Inside, there's a laptop-tier AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor with 16GB of RAM and an NPU that can hit up to 39 trillion operations per second (TOPS) in AI tasks. That's coupled with AMD Radeon 780M graphics and up to 2TB of storage. I should note that it got pretty hot on the back just sitting on its pedestal in Acer's media showroom.

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

The Nitro Blaze 11 isn't rated for battery life just yet, but an Acer rep told me there's probably a reason for that: "It's not something to boast about." Not entirely surprising, all specs considered.

The device's display is an immersive 10.95-inch touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. It's an IPS display, not OLED like the ones on the latest Steam Deck and Switch, but it looks fluid and plenty vibrant in person. (It's rated at 500 nits of brightness.)

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

On either side of the screen are two detachable controllers, which slide easily out of their slots and click satisfyingly back into place. Both of them have a joystick with a colorful lit-up border; there's a D-pad below the left one and action buttons above the right. They feel a little plasticky but well-made overall, and the joysticks' movement is silky smooth. They feature magnetic Hall Effect technology (as are their triggers), so the long-term stick drift issues that plague the Switch should be a non-issue here.

In a Nintendo similarity, the backside of the Nitro Blaze 11 has a kickstand that lets you switch (!) to playing it in tabletop mode. It's sturdy and stays in place when not in use. When I pointed out the Switchiness of the Nitro Blaze 11's design, Acer's rep remarked, "It works."

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

Here's where we start veering away from Switch territory: The Nitro Blaze 11 runs on Windows 11 and comes with some fixings that make it usable as a laptop alternative. There's a front camera situated at the very top of its display, for instance, and users can connect it to peripherals like a keyboard via Bluetooth or its USB-A port. It doesn't feel like a total laptop replacement, but if you need to hop on a quick Zoom call or write up an email and it's the only device you have on you, you're not SOL.

Acer Nitro Blaze 11 price and release date Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

Acer's rep told me that the company hasn't quite defined its target audience for the Nitro Blaze 11 just yet, but younger commuters in Asia who want a discreet way to play PC games on the go are top of mind.

I'm sort of stuck on the same issue. With a starting price of $1,099, I think a standard gaming laptop would be a wiser purchase for most people. At the same time, I want one. It's sick. It's slick. And sometimes awesomeness trumps practicality.

The Nitro Blaze 11 launches in Q2 2025 alongside the smaller new Acer Nitro Blaze 8 ($899), which has an 8.8-inch 144Hz display; it omits its bigger sibling's detachable controllers, kickstand, and camera. Stay tuned for our full review.

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

Apple's M Pro and M Max chips used in modern MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro computers have proved difficult to beat, especially in the laptop space. Now, AMD wants to change that with the new Ryzen AI Max chips.

Switching browsers can be tedious. But if you've been mulling over switching to or moving away from Safari, Apple's streamlined import and export tool reduces friction and saves you time. Let's see how to use it.

AMD has a used 3D V-Cache a few times now as a way to boost gaming performance on CPUs. So what happens when AMD puts 3D V-Cache on its very best Ryzen 9000-series CPUs to date? The answer is the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 9950X3D.