Technology

The $399 Signal Ring by Vital Signals claims to deliver cuffless, calibration-free blood pressure readings from the finger.

• A joint Insider/Der Spiegel/Le Monde investigation published leaked documents showing a Chinese-authored, three-level plan to contain and defeat Starlink
• The plan, presented to Russian officers at a secret forum in 2023, highlights a three-level approach to contain and destroy SpaceX's Starlink
• A separately signed June 2023 Moscow protocol also commits Russia and China to jointly build a hypersonic-missile-defense system based on technology Russia had never before been willing to share, even with allies

Starlink is the world's largest satellite constellation ever built, and as a result, it also doubles as the backbone for many civilian and military communications channels.

With approximately 10,400 satellites in low-Earth orbit as of June 2026, SpaceX's low-Earth-orbit satellite internet network covers nearly 160 different countries and territories while delivering low-latency communications (20-40 milliseconds) that often make it a better choice than GEO systems that have a baked-in round trip delay of 500-700 milliseconds.

Its potential for military use, until recently, was downplayed by many in the industry, but it has formed the backbone for communications for Ukraine in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war earning it the ire of the Russian government and renewed focus from China, which has already covertly begun to prepare for an eventuality where it would have to disable the network.

A secret meeting that highlighted growing Chinese-Russian military co-operation

With China affirming that its 'no limits' partnership with Russia is still very much in play as early as 2025, a year-long investigation spearheaded by The Insider, Germany's Der Spiegel, and France's Le Monde indicates that both players may have already considerably broadened its scope beyond what was visible earlier, especially when it came to their respective military ambitions.

Starlink, which Russians consider a key hindrance to their campaign in Ukraine, forms the backbone of the latter's communications even as the former are cut off from access as the conflict continues to evolve in what is now the 5th year of fighting.

For China, it represents a growing threat, underscored by the US military's increasing reliance on SpaceX, which is not only the Pentagon's most important space contractor but also helps the US government deploy and service its military-grade version of Starlink: Starshield.

Chinese military officials and engineers met with Russian officers in November 2023 at a summit in Guangzhou to discuss how to tackle Starlink, presenting a 3-pronged plan of action: diplomatic pressure, jamming, then cyberattacks, and, alternatively, physical destruction.

Not only would both China and Russia aim to leverage their considerable weight in diplomatic forums to hinder Starlink's growth by imposing regulatory pressures, but they would also invest in electromagnetic-jamming infrastructure to render existing satellites useless in certain geographic areas, even as they collaborated within each other's ecosystems.

Perhaps more troubling for Elon Musk and SpaceX would be the cyberwarfare and physical warfare component, where plans to leverage "access spoofing, virus infection, and the exploitation of vulnerabilities" meet plans to "eliminate" satellites already in orbit altogether.

Given that these plans were first discussed in 2023, one can assume they have evolved considerably since then, even as drone warfare, laser-based weaponry, and anti-satellite missiles have made major inroads, as modern militaries prepare for asymmetric warfare in future conflicts.

For example, Chinese researchers at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xi'an have reportedly built a ground-based microwave weapon capable of targeting low-orbit satellites, as per local media

With China and Russia also agreeing to deploy an air-defense solution as part of the "Working Protocol" signed in Moscow, which is expected to dwarf existing capabilities, including Russia's S-500, the revelations indicate that China is not passively but rather actively supporting Russia in its ongoing endeavors.

This makes for a tricky subject to broach for Elon Musk and a White House that backs him: the former has taken a conciliatory stance toward China even as Tesla depends on the market for sales, houses its largest and most efficient plant, and has previously resulted in favorable lease terms and loans in play from the Chinese government, while the latter might tip his hand based on 'national security' concerns that could make for an uncomfortable situation much like how it has played out for Nvidia after Beijing intervened.

Starlink might be an important piece of the pie for both the US government and Elon Musk, but the response from both to Chinese plans for the service might considerably differ as a result, given what is at stake for both entities.

Don’t want your chatbot conversations to be used for AI training? Here’s what to do.

Pollen, wildfires, and other airborne particles can turn summer into a respiratory nightmare. We tested 15 top units using a custom smoke bomb test. These are the best air purifiers for removing smoke, allergens and more from your home's air.

The iPhone's virtual assistant got a glow-up with iOS 27 and finally lives up to Apple's 2011 promise. In my early testing, Siri is just here to get things done.

• Neo Beta robot hands have human-level dexterity
• They use tendon-like controls instead of in-hand motors
• They're waterproof and can perform many skills normally reserved for human hands

Neo's new robot hands are so good and lifelike, you might assume that they're gloved human hands, and then you might wonder why someone is swinging a hammer at them.

In a new demo video recently released on YouTube by Neo Beta robot parent company 1X, you can watch a pair of Neo Hands screw in a lightbulb and pull the chain switch (before someone inexplicably shatters the bulb with a hammer), pluck grapes off a bunch and drop each one in a container, carefully pickup a screw, unzip a jacket (a bit creepy), and even open a small bag of Funyuns onion ring snacks.

In that last bit, someone swings a hammer at the hands while they work, which they pay no mind to, before the bag is unsealed.

It even expertly builds a small Lego stack. Okay, okay, they're the larger Duplo blocks, but it still does as good a job as your average kindergartner.

The hands move slowly but also with a grace and ease you might mistake for humanness. This appears to be down to the underlying technology.

As 1X described it, the rubber-covered, waterproof hands use a "closed-loop tendon-driven system". This means that 1X moves the motors or servos out of the hand and back along the arm, which keeps the hand smaller and more supple. Those motors are then connected to an intricate system of tendon-like connectors that are pulled and released to enable the robot hands' movement and manipulation. That style of control more closely resembles our own hands, which, while including muscle, are also filled with tendons that are pulled inside the forearm.

1X says the fingers, palm, and thumb have 25 degrees of freedom, but, as evidenced in the video, they can also over-extend backward in a rather unnatural or certainly more-than-human way.

The robot hands feature some impressive strength, too, lifting a 20 lb. dumbbell and then, with just one finger, curling a smaller pulley weight.

Naturally, the fingers include sensors so that the hands and robot know when it's gripping something and how much force is or should be applied. That's how the Neo robot hand avoids breaking that light bulb (unlike that hammer).

Next-level grace

I know, just last week, we heard about a pair of robots performing gall-bladder surgery on a pig. You'd think that those humanoid hands must've been far more graceful. However, those robots each simply gripped a pair of laparoscopic controls so that the finer control, where the cutting and suturing was done, happened at the end of those devices. No robot hand directly manipulated the scalpels.

While Neo's robot hands will be useful for all kinds of home helper chores when the $20,000 Neo finally arrives in consumer homes (early adopters may be receiving them now), the hands are also useful for helping itself: In the video, a Neo Beta robot uses the hands to pick up its MagSafe-style charging puck, which it carefully attaches to its robot hip.

1X writes that these hands will deliver new real-world training data to its robotic development, and one would assume this will ultimately make the Neo robots even better home helpers, companions, and enablers (all those Funyuns).

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 17, No. 1,854.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 17, No. 866.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 17, No. 1,132.

You'll have to give your thumbs-up -- or some kind of biometric approval -- when the AI agent needs to use a password.

I hope the rumored OLED screen doesn't send prices through the roof.

No login or account will be required in the expanded content hub, which will compete with rivals such as Tubi, Pluto TV and the Roku Channel.

Your bank is not going to use a video call to "verify" your password or other secure information.

The biggest data breaches of 2026 so far, ranked by impact, with details on exposed data, affected users, and what readers should do next.

The post The Biggest Data Breaches of 2026 So Far, Ranked by Impact appeared first on TechRepublic.

If you use big tech's products, your data belongs to them unless you do something about it. Here's how.

Google Play will open catalog access to third-party US Android app stores on July 22, following a court order tied to Epic Games’ antitrust case.

The post Google’s Android App Store Shake-Up Starts July 22 appeared first on TechRepublic.

SpaceXAI open-sourced Grok Build under Apache 2.0 after privacy backlash over broad directory uploads from its terminal AI coding agent.

The post SpaceXAI Open-Sources Grok Build After Privacy Backlash appeared first on TechRepublic.

Samsung has clarified that withdrawing consent for Health AI training removes only data collected for AI development, not users’ existing health records or syncing access.

The post Samsung Says Health AI Opt-Out Will Not Delete User Records appeared first on TechRepublic.

OpenAI is reportedly developing a portable screenless AI speaker with cameras, sensors, GPT-Live, and moving parts.

The post OpenAI’s First Device Explained: Everything We Know About the Screenless AI Speaker appeared first on TechRepublic.

Creep out the neighborhood kids with this cool upgrade to one of the most popular holiday haunts around.