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Full-size pickup trucks have become the default choice for a lot of buyers, despite the fact that most people rarely use even half of the capability they offer. Massive towing figures and oversized dimensions may look impressive on paper, but they also come with higher prices, worse fuel economy, and a more cumbersome driving experience. For the average driver, a modern mid-size truck often makes far more sense.

I've come to realize that the problem with PC storage isn't capacity, it's scalability. After all, while even a small 250GB drive has its uses, no one is stopping you from buying an 8TB SSD. Sure, it'll cost a fortune, but you do you.

In many ways, Google Messages is a big step forward for texting on Android, but in other ways, it's a trap. Just like how using Google Messages makes it exceedingly difficult to transfer your number back to any other texting app, enabling backups in Google Messages comes with inadvertent downsides as well.

Google should be celebrating the release of the Fitbit Air this month. The new screen-less fitness tracker gives competitors like Whoop and even aspects of the Apple Watch a run for their money with a number of unique features.

Instead, Google is now dealing with backlash from some fo Fitbit's existing user base after the company retired the Fitbit app and replaced it with a new AI-focused Google Health app.

On Reddit, not all Fitbit users are happy with the change, to say the least.

"Thanks, Google, for ruining Fitbit," reads one post, which has received nearly 2,000 upvotes on the r/fitbit subreddit. "I’ve been using Fitbit for over 10 years and I canceled my premium membership today. The Google Health [app] is awful. No one asked for this. Google owes us all a refund on these watches."

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SEE ALSO: Google Fitbit Air: 6 unique features that could tempt us to switch

On social media platforms like Reddit, some long-time Fitbit users have shared their dislike for the new Google Health user interface, which they say is less intuitive and customizable than the old Fitbit app. Others are upset that Google appears to have removed data that was previously available, like certain sleep tracking stats and in-app challenges.

And then, of course, there are complaints about the AI features. The AI coach wasn't a surprise. In fact, Google rolled out trials of these AI features in the Fitbit app prior to the migration. However, within the old Fitbit app, users had control over the AI features and could turn them off. That's not the case with the new Google Health app.

The Google Fitbit Air is a screenless fitness tracker. Credit: Google SEE ALSO: I tested the top fitness trackers for running a marathon (by running the NYC marathon)

"Beyond frustrated with the forced 'Google Health' update," reads another Reddit post with more than 1,200 upvotes. "I participated in the public preview for the new version of this app, and turned it off after a week. It was clear that Gemini was extremely poorly implemented, and the new version was not ready for public use. It appears that they have launched in exactly the same state as it was." 

"Why must I now scroll through paragraphs of AI slop on every tab before I can actually see my activities and data?" the Reddit user continued.

Since Google Health's release, Fitbit users have also been bombing the app with negative reviews on Google Play.

"The overhaul of the original Fitbit app is absolutely terrible," reads one review on the Google Play store. "It forces AI on you at every turn, all the information in the app is AI-based, besides from the raw data collected by your Fitbit device. Awful app, 0/10 CANNOT recommend. Give me back the Fitbit app over this trash any day."

"Lacks most of the information that was available on Fitbit, can't track just daily activity, no stress component," reads another. "I guess I will get an Apple Watch."

For Google's part, the company does appear to realize the severity of the situation and has already responded with a roadmap to address users' issues with the app.

According to Google, it's currently working on a series of improvements and bug fixes for the Google Health app. A list of those changes can be found at the Google support site and will roll out starting this week.

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If you’re in the market for a new speaker system and are on a limited budget, you should seriously consider getting a quality stereo (2.0 or 2.1) system instead of a cheap, but compromised, surround setup. A high-end stereo setup has always been, and likely always will be, a better choice than a cheap and poor-sounding surround sound system for reasons that go beyond superior sound quality.

Last year’s biggest mobile software story was Apple’s divisive new “Liquid Glass” design style. Then, this year started with hints of Google bringing a similar look to Android 17 on Pixel phones. Google has directly denied any inspiration, but the latest beta tells a different story.

Buying a first car for a teenager is one of the more important decisions a family makes. The vehicle has to be affordable, reliable, and safe. Traffic crashes remain one of the leading causes of death for teens between 15 and 18, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with novice teen drivers twice as likely as adults to be involved in a fatal crash.

Pi-hole might be the simplest Raspberry Pi project of them all, while at the same time being one of the most impactful in terms of everyday usage. Once you’ve set Pi-hole up, leave your Raspberry Pi plugged in and it will quietly do its job without the need for a display, mouse, keyboard, or anything else.

The Raspberry Pi is one of the most popular single-board computers out there among tinkerers, self-hosting enthusiasts, and homelabbers. However, if you're looking to get the best homelab performance for your dollar, the Pi isn't a great option—it just isn't designed for that use. There are better options out there at the same price.

At a glance

• Data Formulator 0.7 is an open-source AI-powered system for enterprise data analytics that combines data connectivity, agent-guided exploration, and visualization refinement in a shared workspace.
• It includes a Data Connectors feature, which supports governed, reusable connections across databases, warehouses, BI systems, object stores, and local files, reducing integration work for platform teams.
• Context-aware agents help users prepare data, explore analyses, generate visualizations, and navigate long-running and branching analytical workflows.
• An interactive, multimodal interface allows teams to iteratively explore and refine analyses across fragmented data sources, with no SQL or programming expertise required.

Enterprise teams increasingly rely on AI systems for analytics, but enterprise data workflows are often fragmented across storage systems and tools. Before analysis can begin, teams often need to establish governed connections, prepare metadata, manage permissions, and build workflows for combining and reshaping data across multiple systems.

Beyond data connection, analysis itself remains challenging for analysts and domain experts, many of whom lack deep coding expertise. They frequently need to compute new metrics, compare different ways of organizing data, inspect intermediate outputs, and refine visualizations as needs evolve. These workflows are difficult to reproduce inside isolated chat interactions that lack persistent access to enterprise data, workflow history, and visualization context.

Our new release, Data Formulator 0.7 (opens in new tab), is designed to address these challenges. It is an open-source AI-powered data analysis system that connects fragmented enterprise data and iterative analytical workflows. It provides a lightweight way to connect across a variety of data sources, context-aware agents that assist with data preparation, exploration, and visualization, and an interactive workspace where users can iteratively refine and share their analyses.

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AI Testing and Evaluation: Learnings from Science and Industry

Discover how Microsoft is learning from other domains to advance evaluation and testing as a pillar of AI governance.

Listen now Opens in a new tab Connecting enterprise data with Data Connectors

Data Formulator helps teams bring enterprise data into an AI-ready workspace without needing to rebuild the same connections for every source of data. The Data Connectors feature supports authentication, persistent connections, previews, metadata, and a unified workspace model across databases, warehouses, BI systems, object stores, and local files. This reduces integration work for platform teams and allows users to work from centrally managed, reusable data connections rather than relying on repeated manual file uploads, as shown in Figure 1. 

Figure 1. Data Connectors provide persistent connections between enterprise data sources and Data Formulator, allowing analysts and AI agents to load, query, and visualize shared data. Context-aware agents for data analysis

Context-aware AI agents form the core of Data Formulator. Unlike a single prompt, Data Formulator gives agents access to the full analysis workspace, including connected data sources, loaded tables, prior charts, and the user’s objective. Agents reason and act through tools rather than text alone. In a single interaction, an agent can inspect data, write and run code in an isolated environment, generate chart specifications, and explain its results while showing intermediate steps.

When a request is ambiguous, the agent asks clarifying questions before proceeding. This allows agents to carry out more complex analytical workflows: aligning analyses with the user’s goal, preparing and transforming data, suggesting follow-up questions, generating tables and charts in batch, and creating verifiable, reproducible code for every result.

A workspace for iterative data analysis

Data Formulator pairs these agents with a multimodal interface designed for open-ended analysis workflows. Users work with agents through the Data Thread, a structured chat that records every question, intermediate finding, and chart throughout the analysis process. Long sessions stay navigable: users can revisit earlier steps, branch into alternative analyses, and compare them side by side without losing context.

As illustrated in Figure 2, the interactive canvas complements Data Thread by allowing users to directly edit visualizations. When users shift from exploration to communication, they can refine charts directly on the canvas or describe changes in natural language and let the agent adjust labels, annotations, layout, color, and emphasis. Analysts can also generate reports and share their findings with others.

Figure 2. (Left) Data Thread allows users to interact with AI agents by asking questions, requesting data visualizations, and exploring follow-up analyses. Threads preserve the history of long analysis sessions, making it possible to revisit, reuse, and build on earlier work. (Right) The interactive canvas allows users to refine visualizations directly by adjusting settings, redesigning charts, and inspecting the underlying data and code side by side.

View the Data Formulator demo here (opens in new tab), or explore the Data Formulator GitHub repository (opens in new tab). Teams developing analytics workflows for enterprise data can use the project as a foundation for adapting these capabilities to their own systems and requirements.

Opens in a new tab

The post Data Formulator 0.7: AI-powered data analytics for enterprise data appeared first on Microsoft Research.

TL;DR: Watch Norway vs. Latvia in the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free on IIHF.TV. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships are rolling through the knockout rounds, with Norway and Latvia set to battle it out for a place in the semi-final stage. There are some big names left in contention for the top prize, so things are heating up on the ice.

If you're interested in watching the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

When is Norway vs. Latvia?

Norway vs. Latvia in the 2026 IIHF World Championships starts at 2:20 p.m. ET on May 28.

How to watch Norway vs. Latvia for free

Norway vs. Latvia in the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships is available to live stream for free on IIHF.TV.

IIHF.TV is not available in some locations due to regional broadcasting restrictions (blocked locations listed here), but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in a location with access, meaning you can stream the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in a location with access

4. Connect to IIHF.TV

5. Watch the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer pretty generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream Norway vs. Latvia plus every other fixture before recovering your investment.

If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming platforms from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for the Ice Hockey World Championships?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for streaming live sport on free platforms, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream Norway vs. Latvia in the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Watch Switzerland vs. Sweden in the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free on IIHF.TV. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships quarter finals are finally here, with some massive matchups on the schedule. Switzerland vs. Sweden is a particularly interesting contest, pitting the hosts against a team that has been hit-or-miss in this competition.

If you're interested in watching the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

When is Switzerland vs. Sweden?

Switzerland vs. Sweden in the 2026 IIHF World Championships starts at 2:20 p.m. ET on May 28.

How to watch Switzerland vs. Sweden for free

Switzerland vs. Sweden in the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships is available to live stream for free on IIHF.TV.

IIHF.TV is not available in some locations due to regional broadcasting restrictions (blocked locations listed here), but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in a location with access, meaning you can stream the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in a location with access

4. Connect to IIHF.TV

5. Watch the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer pretty generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream Switzerland vs. Sweden plus every other fixture before recovering your investment.

If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming platforms from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for the Ice Hockey World Championships?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for streaming live sport on free platforms, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream Switzerland vs. Sweden in the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships for free with ExpressVPN.

Are you ready for another set of homelab projects? It's all about backups and optimizations this weekend, as I show you how important game server and GitHub backups are, as well as how to optimize the downloading of updates and apps across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have an insider-trading problem. And now it seems the U.S. Department of Justice is doing something about this illegal activity.

Last month, the DOJ charged a U.S. Army soldier with profiting from Polymarket trades made using their access to classified information regarding the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

Now, the DOJ has made another insider trading charge. This time against an engineer at Google.

According to the DOJ complaint, Google engineer Michele Spagnuolo made more than $1.2 million off of Polymarket trades based on the search giant's confidential business information.

"Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. "As alleged, Spagnuolo violated the duties he owed to his employer and used Google’s confidential business information to make more than $1.2 million in trading profits on Polymarket. Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted."

Spagnuolo, who has worked as a software engineer at Google for over a decade, made lucrative Polymarket trades using the alias "AlphaRaccoon," according to the complaint.

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SEE ALSO: Here's how Google Search is changing forever

At the end of every year, Google releases the top trending searches across multiple niches and categories, a feature called the "Year in Search." Before being released to the public, this data was marked "Google Confidential" within the company. The DOJ alleges that Spagnuolo made trades based on this unreleased Google data ahead of the company's 2025 Year in Search.

The complaint alleges that between October and December 2025, Spagnuolo made multiple trades on Polymarket regarding who the “Top 5 Most Searched People on Google" would be for the year. Google didn't publicly release the Year in Search until Dec. 4, 2025. (For those curious, the top 5 most searched people on Google in 2025 were d4vd, Kendrick Lamar, Jimmy Kimmel, Tyler Robinson, and Pope Leo XIV.)

Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen living in Switzerland, is alleged to have profited over $1.2 million from these trades.

Spagnuolo is being charged with violating the Commodity Exchange Act, wire fraud, and money laundering. Each count carries anywhere between a maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison. 

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SAVE $300: As of May 28, the LG 52-inch UltraGear Evo G9 5K2K curved monitor is on sale for $1,699.99 at Amazon. That's 15% off its list price of $1,999.99 and its best price on record.

Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 52-inch UltraGear Evo G9 5K2K $1,699.99 at Amazon
$1,999.99 Save $300   Get Deal

LG debuted a new lineup of gaming monitors earlier this year and the biggest of the bunch — the 52-inch UltraGear Evo G9 — just got a huge $300 price drop. If you're looking to enhance your gaming experience on a massive scale, this is the premium rig you're looking for.

As of May 28, the LG 52-inch UltraGear Evo G9 5K2K curved gaming monitor is on sale for $1,699.99 instead of $1,999.99. That's 15% in savings and its best price on record, which it has only reached once prior.

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Yes, that's still expensive, but for the cost, you're getting what LG calls "the world's largest 5K2K gaming monitor." It packs a a 5120x2160 WUHD resolution across a massive 52-inch curved VA panel with an impressive 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response rate. The steep 1,000R curvature is designed to bring more of the details of the screen into your natural field of view. This makes for particularly expansive and clearer open-world games.

Other specs include VESA DisplayHDR 600 for striking contrast and boosted brightness, up to 95% DCI-P3 color gamut, AMD FreeSync Premium, plenty of connectivity options (DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, and USB-C with 90W power delivery), and a matte screen surface.

If you have the budget and desktop real estate, the LG UltraGear Evo G9 is a beast of a monitor offering an extremely immersive gaming experience. And at $1,699.99, it's the cheapest you'll find.

Samsung has never been scared to include as many options as possible in its devices. That includes the Galaxy Watch as well, of course, but not all of the best features are enabled fresh out of the box. Let's make sure you haven't overlooked some grayed-out toggles.

Like all good tech geeks, I am a terrible hoarder. I have drawers full of old cables for phones I no longer own, and empty boxes from devices I sold years ago. I also have several old routers gathering dust, and decided to put one of them to good use.

A couple of years ago, the Oura Ring 4 impressed us with its health tracking capabilities. Now, the Oura Ring 5 looks to do the same, but in a much smaller form factor.

Oura officially unveiled Ring 5 on Thursday, bringing news that the device is 40 percent smaller than the previous model, making it Oura's smallest health wearable yet. It launches on June 4, starting at $399 for basic finishes like silver and black. You can pay an extra $100 to get it in the Gold, Stealth, Brushed Silver, or Deep Rose finishes, too. There's also a standalone charging case available for $99, but you'll need to get that separately.

SEE ALSO: 5 fitness gadgets to help improve your health

If the smaller size of the ring wasn't enough of a selling point, Oura is also packaging it with a bundle of new software features that sound pretty useful for health tracking. You can use the ring to track live activity in the Oura app (for things like running and workouts), and there's a new Health Radar system that constantly monitors certain metrics in the background in case anything troubling comes up. Those metrics to start with are blood pressure monitoring and a measurement of your nighttime breathing habits.

Other odds and ends include an AI health assistant available in the Oura app, as well as new insights into GLP-1 treatments. In general, it sounds like the software offerings here are even more compelling than the size of the device itself.

You can pre-order one at Oura's site now.

My favorite thing about owning a 3D printer is being able to invent solutions for my everyday life. Those small annoyances or inefficiencies that store-bought products can’t fix. One recent example is my custom desktop water tracker. Come along with me on this problem-solving journey.

Are you pondering learning how to script on Linux? Perhaps you wanted to create a service or automate something, but thought Bash was too much. The if-statement represents a huge chunk of how a script functions, yet you can learn it in an hour. That knowledge opens up many new, strong options on Linux, so it's worth taking the time to learn.