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The iPhone 18 Pro could be upstaged by Apple’s first foldable this year, though the iPhone Ultra might be hard to get at launch.

A report from Labor Department investigators found former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer violated her own department's policy prohibiting harassment. She resigned in April.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

Microsoft’s Project Zenith brings a ready-to-code Windows experience to developer PCs, with local AI support and preconfigured tools.

The post Microsoft Project Zenith: Windows Developer PCs Will Come Ready to Code appeared first on TechRepublic.

While the Labor Day sales are usually a bigger event for appliances, furniture, and outdoor goods to prep for fall, there are actually dozens of tech deals out there as well. And one big category is laptops, where savings of up to $900 are available at Best Buy, Amazon, Dell, HP, and more. I've searched through all of these sales and picked out the 9 best Labor Day laptop deals that are worth buying.

Best Buy is actually one of the strongest retailers when it comes to sales this week, with discounts of up to $900 off a wide selection of Chromebooks, laptops, and gaming laptops.

One of its top offers is this Acer Aspire Go 15 for $499.99 (was $699.99). It may have some older components, but you get a solid AMD Ryzen 7, 16GB of RAM, and a respectable 512GB SSD for storage. That's a set of components you don't always see for under $500, and is powerful enough to keep up with work, college, and just everyday use.

Elsewhere, Dell might not have the biggest sale, but it's going to be tough for anyone else to beat this Dell XPS 13 for $699.99 (was $899.99). Even better still, eligible students can get another $100 off on top, bringing this fantastic all-around device to a frankly ridiculous $599. It's near-unbeatable for a fast, powerful, and stylish machine.

Be sure to check out all of the best laptop deals I've found below, as well as the highlights from the Labor Day sales at various other retailers and manufacturers.

All the best Labor Day laptop sales

• Amazon: big savings on laptops
• Apple: up to $150 gift card
• Best Buy: up to $900 off laptops
• Dell: up to $700 off
• HP: up to 65% off
• Lenovo: laptops & tablets from $599.99
• Walmart: laptops from $219

9 best Labor Day laptop deals

XPS 13 Laptop: was $999.99 now $699.99
Display - 13.4 inches
Processor - Intel Core 5
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 512GB

The Dell XPS 13 has regularly been one of our favorite laptops here at TechRadar, and this brand-new version continues that trend. With an Intel Core 5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, it has everything you need for solid all-around performance at work or college. Students can also save an extra $100, bringing the price down to a ridiculously low $599.View Deal

Aspire Go 15: was $699.99 now $499.99
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB

The Acer Aspire Go is undoubtedly one of the best budget Windows 11 laptops you can buy right now, as attested in our review of this very model. This configuration in particular features a powerful chipset, 16GB of RAM, and a spacious storage drive for a really compelling price at Best Buy. If you just want a great value laptop that can handle working from home or basic tasks, then this is one of the top options available at this week's sales. View Deal

Display: 13 inches
Processor: A18 Pro
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB

The MacBook Neo just got a price bump, but students can get it cheaper again thanks to Apple's education discount. The latest MacBook packs a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, an A18 Pro chip, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and up to 16 hours of battery life, all for under $600, which is fantastic value. Discounts have been better in the past, but I think these will be rarer to see over the coming months and this price likely won't be beaten over Black Friday.View Deal

Processor: MediaTek Kompanio 540
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128GB

You don't always find a laptop with 8GB of memory for under $300, so this Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook really stands out in Best Buy's Labor Day sale. Other components are good for light use, but that bump to 8GB of RAM will really help with everyday performance and load times. It's still a fairly basic laptop, but with enough extra power to avoid dramatic slowdown when multitasking.View Deal

IdeaPad Slim 3x: was $849.99 now $599.99
Display - 15.3 inches
Processor - Snapdragon X
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 256GB

This is a solid discount on a modern laptop powered by one of the efficient Snapdragon X CPUs. As well as excellent levels of all-around performance, this device boasts a huge all-day battery life, so you won't need to worry about being attached to a charger at all times. I think the storage is a little stingy at 256GB, but if you can cope with that and make use of cloud storage for everything else, this is an impressive laptop for the price.View Deal

15 Laptop: was $849.99 now $479.99
Processor: Intel Core Core i5
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 512GB

Dell's entry-level 15-inch laptops are always a solid option if you're looking for a good value machine for everyday use. This particular configuration features a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD — that's more than enough for the basics like web browsing or shopping. While not a high-end machine by any stretch, this is a sensible buy with plenty of storage space for essential files and applications.View Deal

Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB

This OmniBook X Flip 2-in-1 is a top pick if you want a mid-to-high-end laptop in the HP Labor Day sale. Not only do you get 16GB of RAM and a decent-sized 512GB SSD, but you also get one of the latest Intel Ultra 7 chipsets for plenty of power under the hood. This particular model also features a handy 2-in-1 form factor as well as a high-end 3K OLED display for added flexibility and sharp visuals.View Deal

Swift Go 16: was $1499.99 now $999.99
Display - 16 inches
Processor - AMD Ryzen AI 9
RAM - 32GB
Storage - 1TB

There's a massive $500 price cut on this powerful high-end laptop, which boasts an AMD Ryzen AI 9, a performance-boosting 32GB of RAM and a large 1TB SSD. This is a great pick for business and productivity needs, with enough power to multitask with ease and battery life that lasts a full day.View Deal

Display - 14 inches
Processor - Intel Celeron N4500
RAM - 4GB
Storage - 64GB

This HP Chromebook 14 is a basic device, but it's cheap, making it a great buy for light use such as general browsing and schoolwork. It also boasts full-day battery life thanks to the lean but perfectly functional Chrome OS from Google, meaning it's best suited for students or those always on the move. If you have around $200 to spend and need a cheap laptop, then it's one of the best options right now.View Deal

The new effort appears to be another tactic in a broader Trump administration strategy to short-circuit immigrants' already limited due process options in order to speed deportations.

(Image credit: Charly Triballeau)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is examining whether the self-driving vehicle meets federal safety standards.

That's the grim assessment from the ground in the wake of the catastrophic flooding, which damaged or destroyed 7 health facilities, interrupted routine care and is affecting mental health.

(Image credit: Sameer Shrestha/Anadolu)

After a bruising Senate primary, Michigan Democrats are trying to unify to hold onto a must-win seat. But healing those fissures is proving not so simple.

(Image credit: Jeff Kowalsky)

The BeamO thermometer has a new AI feature that analyzes the device’s heart and lung recordings.

Compare 12 Ray-Ban Meta alternatives for AI, privacy, sports and displays, including their key features, prices and trade-offs, to find the right pair.

The post 12 Best Ray-Ban Meta Alternatives to Buy in 2026 appeared first on TechRepublic.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says "excavation work" will begin in the next two weeks, without approval from a key federal body. Veterans who sued over the arch want a judge to intervene before then.

(Image credit: Joe Raedl)

• Nvidia's NVHBM moves the memory controller off the accelerator die and into the HBM stack's base die, allowing it to claim a potential 30% more bandwidth, 15% lower HBM power, and 25% more compute area versus standard HBM4E
• Nvidia's NVHBM performance comparisons are linked to HBM4E, which is still in the sampling stage, with a launch expected sometime in 2027
• Access to the custom solution is gated behind NVLink Fusion; Amazon's Annapurna Labs is the only named partner so far and has not said which GPU uses that memory

On August 26, Nvidia extended its NVLink Fusion program with NVHBM, a custom high-bandwidth memory architecture that the company says delivers up to 30% more memory bandwidth per stack, 15% lower HBM power consumption, and up to 25% more usable area on the accelerator die.

The performance was measured against standard HBM4E samples even as the memory is expected to ship in volume some time in 2027.

Amazon's Annapurna Labs is the first named partner for Nvidia's memory advance which aims to address growing performance limitations for frontier-level AI models centering around limited bandwidth.

What makes NVHBM tick?

Nvidia's approach doesn't reinvent how memory is handled; it reimagines where it is managed. Conventional HBM approaches split this between two companies: the memory vendor supplies the DRAM stack and its base die, and the accelerator designer puts the memory controller and physical interface on its own compute die.

JEDEC standardizes the connection between the two at the cost of a very wide, comparatively slow parallel bus. NVHBM dissolves the seam altogether by moving Nvidia's memory controller into the base die of the 3D stack, replacing the standard bus with a narrower, serialized die-to-die link that Nvidia designs and memory makers can build.

Nvidia's technical blog puts the resulting reduction in interface and support area at up to 67% against the JEDEC HBM4E standard, even as it improves key power consumption, memory bandwidth, and usable area.

The underlying tech is not completely new, however: Marvell announced the same basic idea in December 2024, naming Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix as collaborators while claiming up to 25% more compute area, 33% greater memory capacity, and a 70% reduction in memory interface power, figures that come close to what Nvidia is currently projecting. Counterpoint Research analyst Neil Shah put it plainly: "The technology is not new. The distribution is."

Even as HBM4E remains elusive, as it is not in mass production just yet, with Samsung shipping the first HBM4E samples in late May 2026 and SK hynix pulling its own sampling forward to around June, NVHBM is even more elusive. It is a building block gated behind NVLink Fusion, Nvidia's program for connecting third-party accelerators to its rack-scale platform, and access runs through that program's partner list.

Amazon's Annapurna Labs is the first named participant, with Nvidia's blog saying Annapurna will support NVLink Fusion with Trainium4 without explicitly mentioning NVHBM.

For now, NVHBM might be the future, but it may arrive well after HBM4E is already being deployed en masse. Nvidia's own technical blog describes NVHBM as built on the same technology the company will use for future GPUs, without specifying the first generation that would support it natively.

• Google released Chrome 152.0.7977.82/.83 for Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Patch fixes 12 flaws, including zero‑day CVE‑2026‑85046 (type confusion in V8)
• Sixth Chrome zero‑day this year; Chromium browsers also affected, update urged immediately

Google has released a new version of its Chrome browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux, fixing a dozen of vulnerabilities. Among them is a high-severity flaw that is being actively exploited in the wild.

In a security advisory published on the Google blog on September 3, the search engine company said Chrome’s newest version is now 152.0.7977.82/.83 for Windows and Mac, and 152.0.7977.82 for Linux.

Rollout is expected to be gradual, so make sure to check if you already received it. Most of the time the update is automatic and instant and if you’re not certain, tap the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the browser and choose Help. Navigate to About Google Chrome and there you will find the version number.

Running malicious code remotely

This patch fixes a total of 12 vulnerabilities, most of which are graded as high severity. Among them is a “type confusion in V8” bug, discovered by security researcher Salvatore Gulizia.

For his effort, Gulizia was awarded $1,000. Apparently, this bug is being actively leveraged in real-life attacks, although Google (as usual) decided not to share the juicy details until the majority of browsers are protected.

The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-85046. On the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), it is described as a “type confusion in V8 in Google Chrome [that allows] a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page.”

V8 is Chrome’s JavaScript engine which allows web apps and interactive websites to run in the browser. Those interested in the technical breakdown of the vulnerability can find it on Guzlia’s blog.

You can find the full list of fixed vulnerabilities on this link.

This is the sixth zero-day Google fixed in Chrome since the start of the year. It also affects other browsers built on Chromium, so if you’re running Edge, Brave, Opera, or Vivaldi, make sure to update to the latest version as soon as possible.

Via The Hacker News

Indian tech brand Noise has teamed up with Bose for a brand new pair of open earbuds, the Noise Master Buds Open.

These clip-on buds are a first for Noise in the open ear segment, but join its existing Master series lineup, that includes over-ear headphones and in-ear buds — which were also built alongside Bose.

And lucky me — I’ve already tried the Master Buds Open for myself. I got hands on with the brand new open earbuds at IFA Berlin 2026, and spoke with Noise about its collaboration with Bose and the fancy features crammed into its latest creation.

Bose sound at an affordable price… kinda

(Image credit: Future)

Allow me to start with something of a disclaimer. The Master Buds Open aren’t a fully fledged Bose product, they simply feature ‘Sound by Bose’ technology. This means that the audio giant helped to tune the sound on the Master Buds Open, and there’s a specific Sound by Bose EQ option for the model.

We’ve seen other brands use Sound by Bose tech in the last year or so, with Baseus making use of a partnership in its Inspire line (including the XH1 headphones), and Skullcandy teaming up with the ANC giant for products including the Method 360 ANC (which we rated very highly).

However, Noise has a closer relationship with Bose than most, as the latter has invested in the Indian company across recent years, and the pair have already developed a number of audio products together, including the Noise Master Buds 2 and Master Buds Max.

Although the new Master Buds Open don’t quite offer the exceptional build and sound quality we’ve come to expect from products like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Gen 2, this collaboration certainly heightens the perceived value of Noise’s affordable audio gear, and helps it to stand out as a relatively recent entrant in competitive markets like the US, UK, and EU.

Getting hands on

(Image credit: Future)

Anyway, let’s talk about my time getting hands-on with the Noise Master Buds Open.

I have to say, when the buds were brought over to me, they made an excellent first impression. They come in a beautiful case with appealing metallic details, and the buds themselves look incredibly sleek and almost futuristic — especially in the slick Silver colorway.

In use, the Master Buds Open also felt supremely comfortable. I find that some clip-on earbuds have the tendency to either feel a bit tight, or almost too loose, but in my short time with the Master Buds Open they seemed to master the clip-on feel, with a secure yet comfortable fit and almost weightless on-ear sensation.

Sonically, the Master Buds Open performed about as well as I expected, although I should preface my thoughts by noting that the unit I tried was a prototype, and so the Master Buds Open may sound a little different at launch.

Naturally, I made use of the Sound by Bose EQ option, and I’d say the earbuds performed decently overall. A representative played me a bit of I’m Alive by Céline Dion, and I was treated to clear vocals, with fairly prominent bass (as far as open ears go), and well-separated guitars in the mid-range.

I also had the chance to play some songs of my choosing, and switched over to Can’t Resist by Jamback. In this house track, I realized that treble was pretty forward, meaning that drums higher in the frequency range were particularly prominent. Bass was also decently weighted, although you won’t get the pounding low-end that some of the best wireless earbuds can provide.

Was I blown away by the audio on offer from the Master Buds Open? Perhaps not — at least not at this stage. But they did perform pretty well overall, especially when you consider their price. I was told that the Master Buds Open will release for about €119 (around $140 / £100), which is relatively affordable — especially when you consider that Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds have a list price of $299 / £299 / AU$449.95.

A surprising highlight

(Image credit: Future / Noise)

While the Master Buds Open will undoubtedly face stiff competition from similarly priced rivals like the Anker Soundcore AeroClip, they did impress me with their comfort and looks.

But one thing struck me more than any other: their surprisingly feature-rich companion app. Not only did I find Noise’s app to be incredibly easy to use and navigate, but I also couldn’t believe how much functionality it had to offer.

There’s a spatial audio setting, designed to offer “dynamic and realistic” audio, as well as a Gaming Mode if you need low-latency audio — a nice touch for keen mobile gamers.

On top of this, the Master Buds Open have customizable touch controls, multi-point, Find My Device capabilities, and a Focus Mode, which locks the buds’ controls when you just want to zone in on your tunes and avoid accidental touch commands. Of course, there are also EQ settings, including a fully customizable equalizer, and mics built in for taking calls on the go.

Noise was also keen to show me that the Master Buds have a built-in AI assistant. This enables you to ask questions with your voice, read chat history, and transcribe meetings or discussions. That’s quite a lot of functionality for buds in this price-range.

While there’s no specific launch date for the Master Buds Open just yet, Noise has said that they’re set to launch on their website and with some major online retailers from late September 2026.

Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, and now John Ternus: those are the three Apple CEOs of the 21st century, and I've seen them all in action. From keynotes to deep product dives during WWDC, each had his own presentation style, but what Jobs and, eventually, Cook shared was an uncanny ability to focus attention through the force of their personalities. Now it's Ternus'...er...turn. He's far from untested in these situations but has never led a major Apple keynote. That changes on Wednesday, September 9, when Ternus leads Apple's "Surprise and Shine" event at Apple Park in Cupertino, California.

In many ways, this should be a predictable event; the product lineup is widely rumored. Here are the anticipated highlights:

• Apple's first folding iPhone, the iPhone Ultra with two rear cameras and a truly creaseless design
• iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max (while they hold back the iPhone 18)
• AirPods 5 with ANC
• Apple Watch Series 12 with continuous heart rate tracking
• Apple Watch Ultra 4 with a new S Chip and blood pressure monitoring
• Apple 4K TV box with an A18 Chip and more RAM to support AI
• HomePod mini 2 with deeply integrated Siri AI
• A possible HomePad combo device with some robotic elements

Things get interesting, though, when we try to assess what kind of Apple Event keynote Ternus will run. The new CEO could take a page from the Tim Cook playbook and appear briefly on the Steve Jobs Theater stage before handing it over to a series of canned product-launch videos.

I find that hard to believe. First of all, Apple has had since April to plan for a keynote built around John Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran who is, unlike Cook, a true technologist. Ternus might relish staying on stage to explain, in depth, some of Apple's most exciting new products.

Alternatively, Ternus could let the videos handle all the product launch walkthroughs except for the folding iPhone Ultra. Sure, it's the world's worst-kept secret, but imagine if Ternus officially launched his time as CEO with a memorable "One more thing."

TechRadar Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff (left) with John Ternus shortly after he was announced as Apple's incoming CEO. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Ternus has some charisma, and it would make sense for Apple to lean into showcasing that on stage, live.

Maybe he'll spend some time talking about the official launch of Siri AI and how it ties together all of Apple's new products. Siri will be in evidence on the new HomePod, AirPods, Apple Watch, Apple TV 4K, iPhone 18, and Apple Watch models. Not to mention the entire recently updated Mac, MacBook, and iPad lineup. Ternus could do one of Steve Jobs' classic live demos that weaves an exciting story of life at home with Apple products and Siri AI. Maybe he'll even joke and ask everyone in the theater to turn off their WiFi (if you know, you know).

Ternus also faces a critical test in how he reassures Apple fans and detractors that it will be more careful than others with the expansion of AI across almost every part of Apple's business without breaking privacy promises or adding to the growing outrage over resource use and data centers.

People will be looking to these moments to understand who Ternus really is and compare him to Cook and even Jobs (yes, inevitably, all roads lead back to Steve Jobs).

Many people have asked me if I expect Ternus to put his own stamp on the event, and I think the answer is yes. It's a massive opportunity for him (and Apple), and one I think that he is fully aware of. All eyes will be tuned in to learn about Apple's latest iPhone lineup and to confirm that folding phone, but also, and maybe even mostly, to see Ternus in action on Apple's biggest stage. It is, in truth, his moment to shine.

If you're building a new PC or upgrading an aging boot drive, you'll definitely want to check out the Kingston NV3 1TB internal SSD, now $157 (was $216) at Newegg.

An established name in the storage arena, Kingston built the NV3 as the successor to its popular NV2 line, and the jump to a Gen 4x4 controller brings a meaningful speed increase - it can hit read speeds up to 6,000MB/s.

But it keeps the single-sided, compact M.2 2280 form factor that fits easily into laptops and small-form-factor builds.

NV3 M.2 2280 1TB PCIe: was $215.99 now $156.99
PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD rated for read/write speeds up to 6,000/4,000MB/s, with lower power consumption and reduced heat versus the previous NV2 generation.View Deal

Why we recommend it

The headline number is up to 6,000MB/s of sequential read performance, and independent testing has generally found the NV3 hits close to its rated speeds, putting it in the same territory as several established TLC-based drives despite using cheaper QLC NAND.

Kingston keeps costs down with a DRAM-less design that relies on Host Memory Buffer, borrowing a slice of system RAM instead of including a dedicated cache chip. For typical use, booting, loading applications, and gaming, that trade-off is barely noticeable, and it's part of how Kingston is able to price the NV3 competitively.

The single-sided M.2 2280 layout keeps the drive slim enough for thin laptops and small-form-factor desktops, and Kingston's reputation for reliable, mainstream storage gives some reassurance on a component you don't want to think about after installing it.

Price Context & Historical Value

A $59 drop from $215.99 to $156.99 is a substantial discount, around 27 percent off, on a capacity and speed class that typically runs cheaper than this. It's worth double-checking Newegg's price at checkout since SSD pricing shifts often, but this discount looks like a genuine markdown rather than an inflated list price.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Kingston NV3 1TB if... you want a fast, affordable PCIe 4.0 boot drive for a new build or upgrade, you need a compact single-sided M.2 2280 drive with low power draw, or you're a mainstream user whose workloads are mostly reads rather than sustained large writes.

❌ Skip the Kingston NV3 1TB if... you regularly write very large files such as video footage and need consistent sustained write speeds, you want a drive with a dedicated DRAM cache rather than Host Memory Buffer, or you need more than 1TB in a single drive.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

This is a QLC, DRAM-less drive, so sustained write performance drops noticeably once its SLC cache fills, which matters most for large, continuous file transfers rather than everyday use.

• See all Labor Day deals at Newegg

Circular Ring 3 Slim and Pro add non-invasive glucose insights, contactless payments, haptic alerts, and up to 12 days of claimed battery life per charge.

The post Circular Ring 3 Adds Glucose Insights: Which Model Fits Your Needs appeared first on TechRepublic.

Xiaomi showcased CyberOne at IFA after reporting a 98% success rate in an EV factory trial, highlighting the promise and limits of humanoid robots.

The post Xiaomi Says CyberOne Hit 98% in Factory Trial Before IFA Demo appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple may launch a 13.8-inch OLED MacBook with touch support and an under-display camera between the MacBook Air and Pro in late 2028 or early 2029.

The post Apple Reportedly Plans 13.8-Inch Notch-Free OLED MacBook appeared first on TechRepublic.

Vara has received CE certification allowing its AI to clear some mammograms as normal without radiologist review, marking a step toward autonomous medical AI.

The post AI Can Now Clear Some Mammograms Without a Radiologist’s Review appeared first on TechRepublic.