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Thirty thousand fewer people are dying every year in the U.S. from fentanyl and other street drugs. This shift has stunned addiction experts, reversing decades of rising death. Here are eight theories on why things are getting better.

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Kyshawn Lane of Weekly Home Check and Dana K. White, author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life, share their top house cleaning hacks and tips.

(Image credit: Carol Yepes)

With no help from the federal government, states are trying to regulate recreational marijuana. California's Department of Cannabis Control works to keep contaminants out of joints, vapes and edibles.

(Image credit: Preston Gannaway for NPR)

Occupying Gaza and establishing military rule there would go beyond Israel's stated war goals to end Hamas rule and free hostages captured in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

(Image credit: Abdel Kareem Hana)

Florida ends UConn's bid to repeat — again — in Sunday action that saw a memorable buzzer-beater. Meanwhile, South Carolina advances in the women's tournament, which rounds out its Sweet 16 on Monday.

(Image credit: Jared C. Tilton)

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war with Hamas, Gaza health officials say. We reconstructed what happened in one of the deadliest Israeli strikes of the war.

(Image credit: Mahmoud Rehan)

TikTok has become the go-to-source on ADHD for teens and young adults. But a new study finds a lot of the information is misleading and can make people's symptoms worse.

(Image credit: Amr Bo Shanab)

Comedian Conan O'Brien received the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night, which David Letterman called "the most entertaining gathering of the resistance ever."

(Image credit: Clifton Prescod for Netflix)

The BenQ PD2730S is a stunning display recently launched by BenQ, explicitly designed for creative professionals who seek exceptional clarity, precision, color reproduction, and connectivity. This monitor boasts a sharp 5K resolution and a wide color gamut, offering more input/output options than the (in)famous Apple Studio Display.

For creative professionals, a quality display is one of the most essential things in their arsenal of technologies. Whether they are in the video, photo, design, or something similar, knowing that what you have on your screen is accurately being shown and is not washed out or misrepresented.

For a good reason, the Apple Studio Display is known as the gold standard for monitors in the creative space right now. Granted, it's remarkably pricy, doesn't have great inputs, and has a few other downsides, but when it comes to color reproduction, it's hard to beat.

BenQ decided to disrupt that market, offering a more versatile, affordable Apple Studio Display alternative with this newest release - and they might have just done it.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) BenQ PD2730S: Price and Availability

The BenQ PD2730S has just been officially publicly released at $1200 through the BenQ official website and B&H for now. For UK, Australian, and European readers, it's slightly more widely available, and retails for around £1000 / AU$2000 / €1199.

At that price, the PD2730S is cheaper than the Studio Display but slightly more expensive than the shockingly cheap (and limited) ASUS ProArt PA27JCV.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) BenQ PD2730S: Unboxing & first impressions

Over the years, I've looked at a lot of BenQ Monitors. Each of their monitors has come in the same basic and secure packaging, keeping the display safe even through the test of transit and ensuring minimal waste. The packing is professional and minimal, precisely as I expected.

In the box are the monitor, the stand upright, the stand base, cables, documentation, and the excellent HotKey Puck G3 that BenQ is known for. If you're unfamiliar with the puck, it is a wireless controller that gives you quick access to changing settings on the monitor without reaching behind or under the monitor and messing with a joystick or a handful of random buttons.

The monitor is sharp and professional, with a plastic backing, though it doesn't look bad. The bezels are minimal, and the back has a VESA mounting option, meaning that this monitor can fit just about anywhere, be it with the included base, an ergo arm from BenQ, or any other VESA arm.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) BenQ PD2730S: Design & build quality Specs

Panel Type: 27-inch IPS with Nano Matte coating
Resolution: 5120 x 2880 (5K)
Brightness: 400 nits peak
Contrast Ratio: 2000:1
Color Gamut: 98% P3, 100% sRGB
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Response Time: 5ms (GtG)
HDR Support: VESA DisplayHDR 400
Ports:
• 1 x Thunderbolt 4 (90W PD)
• 1 x Thunderbolt 4 downstream
• 2 x USB-C
• 3 x USB-A 3.2
• 1 x HDMI 2.1
• 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
• 1 x Headphone jack

Stand Adjustments: Height (up to 150mm), Tilt (-5° to 20°), Swivel (60°)
VESA Mount: 100 x 100mm
Speakers: 2 x 3W stereo
Included Accessories: HotKey Puck G3 wireless controller

The BenQ PD2730S is a gorgeous 27-inch panel. It has a beautiful Nano Matte coating, helping to manage reflections and providing a clear viewing experience. I've seen some hate for this kind of texture as it's been made popular by the Apple Studio Display. However, I like a slightly matted display. I can see things better and more smoothly, and I'm not distracted by the reflections of the world behind me.

The monitor casing is made from a classy-looking plastic with a premium feel, helping to make the monitor lighter. I wouldn't have minded some extra weight to add a more elegant case, but I don't frequently carry this monitor around either. I'm more of a set it up right once and then leave it (for a few weeks until I change around my desk setup again to add a new gadget).

I have been using this monitor on a VESA monitor arm from Corsair. If you prefer to use the stand that comes with the monitor, or you don't have a monitor arm you want to use, the one that BenQ designed to go with this monitor is sleek and offers comprehensive adjustments, including height, tilt, and swivel. It's pretty sharp-looking.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) BenQ PD2730S: In use

I got the BenQ PD2730S a few weeks ago to test pre-release, and so far, my experience has been nothing short of excellent. It's a spectacular picture with the 5K resolution, and unlike some 5K monitors I have tried, this one scales wonderfully with both PC and Mac.

I've tested this monitor with everyday work and some basic photo and video editing—nothing too fancy, but I could see how great this screen was even with those tests.

As mentioned earlier, I use this monitor mostly in my home office. So, 400 nits wasn't a huge problem. I tested it next to my beloved BenQ MA3020U, which has a peak of 600 nits, and I could tell a difference. Not to mention my iPhone 16 Pro with a peak brightness of 2,000 nits.

Moving on, the color accuracy on this monitor was immediately something that I paid attention to. Since this monitor is designed for a creative and visually demanding workforce, it is vital to knock it out of the park. The PD2730S factory calibration ensures accurate colors out of the box, covering 98% of the P3 color gamut. In short, it looks great, works great, and produces excellent results, making it one of the best video editing monitors and best photo editing monitors for those who don't want to shell out for the Apple Studio Display.

One of the things that makes this a better option than the Apple Studio Display is the ports and overall connectivity. You can only use the Studio Display with Macs. With the PD2740S, you can use it with any device and with multiple different inputs. The PD2740S has Thunderbolt, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4 as options to provide feedback to this display.

This is a gorgeous display, easy to use, and, dare I say, a pleasure to use. It's an excellent option for those who need a 5K display in their workflow.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) BenQ PD2730S: Final verdict

For professionals who want a premium 5K display without Apple’s ecosystem limitations, the BenQ PD2730S delivers more flexibility, better connectivity, and built-in ergonomics—all at a lower price point. It’s an easy choice for those who need a pro-grade display that works seamlessly with both Mac and PC setups without sacrificing adjustability or requiring extra dongles.

While Apple’s Studio Display is a strong contender for macOS users, it lacks port variety, adjustability, and cross-platform flexibility. The BenQ PD2730S delivers comparable display quality, better ergonomics, and broader compatibility, making it the better all-around choice for creatives who don’t want to be locked into Apple’s ecosystem.

For more high-resolution displays, we rounded-up the best 5K and 8K monitors.

The looming End of Life (EoL) deadlines for several Microsoft applications and systems are fast approaching – and it’s clear they’re playing on many organizations' minds.

We’ve seen a sharp increase in enquiries from large organizations seeking guidance on Microsoft Teams and legacy technology upgrades, particularly in the last month. This upturn in activity highlights an urgency felt by these businesses to address their legacy applications and operating systems scheduled to reach their official EoL in 2025.

With classic Microsoft Teams set to be phased out by July this year and major Microsoft products like Windows 10, Office 2019, and Exchange Server 2019 all reaching end-of-support by October – now just six months away – businesses face critical decisions to avoid operational, security, and compliance risks.

But this rush to tackle EoL also comes from a mindset of what it supposedly represents – high-risk, outdated technology that requires an immediate upgrade. While risks need dealing with, the truth of the matter is this isn’t a one off event. As one product is upgraded, another will approach its EoL. It’s something we have to live with.

Instead, businesses should view EoL management as an ongoing activity. And sometimes maintaining EoL systems is the best approach – they just need to be turned into a compliant and safe form.

Changing EoL mindsets

The potential impact of Windows end of support on a number of industries will be significant – and organizations are facing a pivotal transition. Left unchecked, the disruptions associated with unmanaged and outdated systems will be major.

Back in February 2020, TechRadar revealed that approximately one third of NHS computers were still operating on Windows 7, despite the government's target to upgrade all PCs to Windows 10 by January 2020. They ended up using Microsoft’s extended support period to complete the process by 2021 – and they now face the upcoming deadline to upgrade Windows 10 by October.

Consequently, with end of support deadlines imminent, there can be a feeling amongst organizations that they need to overhaul their applications and systems to work on modern infrastructure (through complex refactoring or recoding, for example) or integrate a whole new application suite. The issue is these applications are business critical and any disruption could represent a severe risk to operations.

This is where a mindset change needs to take place. Rather than attempting to significantly alter the applications themselves, it’s all about modernizing the IT estate, adopting an approach that can seamlessly migrate these software applications across different environments and onto supported operating systems.

This means companies can keep their legacy Windows 10 applications, for example, but secure their compatibility by moving them onto a supported Windows server or cloud environment. It’s akin to having the rug pulled from beneath your feet but you still remain standing in the same position – just now on new ground.

So, whether applications are located on on-premise servers or moved onto the cloud, this means they can continue to receive support and software updates. This strategy extends to cloud providers, who are crucial in meeting the increasing reliance on cloud technologies, as they change data centers.

The goal of this approach is to give companies freedom and flexibility to migrate or extend the life of critical applications smoothly and securely. The compulsory activity, however, is that something has to be done before their end of support to secure and manage them effectively. Otherwise, they will become high-risk.

Supporting out-of-support applications

When you look at the numbers on Statcounter, it’s easy to see why companies are actively seeking guidance.

In the UK, as of January 2025, there was an exact split in the market share of Windows desktop versions between Windows 10 and Windows 11, with both sitting at 49.4%. That means half of all desktops are approaching their EoL. And due to the complexity of migrating a business’ IT infrastructure as opposed to personal use, this percentage is likely to be weighted even more to Windows 10 with large organizations.

Responding to these concerns and the increase in demand and enquiries, dedicated EoL hotlines have been set up, helping companies to receive quick, tailored guidance on preparing for EoL transitions. This includes how to migrate existing applications like the Microsoft 365 products edging towards their EoL and secure their compatibility.

Crucially, the process of moving existing out-of-support applications onto managed and supported servers causes very minimal disruption to operations. The task of doing this transition, however, can be complex to perform. Therefore, if companies have the internal resources, expertise and guidance, then it’s possible to perform such an undertaking internally.

The ‘R approach’ is an industry standard process used by cloud providers. It involves six different methods to assess a company's IT estate and then carry out migrations for EoL software. ‘Rehosting’, for example, involves moving applications to the cloud without making significant changes, whereas ‘retiring’ involves identifying applications that are no longer useful and can be turned off. Each R can play its role for different contexts.

But if a company’s requirements are bespoke or too complicated to be performed by such methods, then joining up with an external specialist/partner presents a more efficient, effective and cost-effective way of approaching such a pivotal undertaking.

Keeping Windows EoL front of mind

With several end of support deadlines looming for Microsoft products in 2025, organizations are feeling compelled to understand how they can quickly and securely upgrade their Microsoft Teams and legacy applications.

But with the risks of not doing this playing on their mind, there can be a tendency to conduct expensive upgrades and overhaul entire application suites – a process that could cause significant disruption and risk itself.

However, rather than changing out-of-support applications themselves, companies can look to migrate them into secure and managed operating environments, both on-premises and in the cloud. With many desktops in the market still operating on Windows 10, this presents an approach that can keep operations ticking over while apps are migrated into these environments.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean embracing EoL software as it is. If it’s left unmanaged or on unsupported software it becomes an inherent risk. But it’s a call to change mindsets over how EoL is viewed and understanding that the applications themselves don’t have to be the problem.

Migration strategies like the R process give companies the ability to assess their IT estate and make the necessary changes. But for those that don't fit the mold, they can seek out companies which can help in those cases.

Moving away from EoL is a journey and, for most companies, it will be phased due to how these older legacy applications work. Much like DOGE you can't just rip out legacy systems and hope everything will work with new systems unless you plan it!

The support is there to achieve such a transition. Organizations just need to make sure they keep the EoL deadlines and challenges of their applications front of mind before it’s too late.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

• This laptop is branded xCaim, ClinkX and ClinkCaim
• Eliminates the touchpad, introducing a fully interactive palm rest
• Supports an edge-to-edge keyboard as well as an integrated status bar for call display

A relatively unknown Chinese company, Emdoor Digital Technology, has introduced a prototype business laptop with an unconventional design, earning the prestigious iF Design Award for 2025.

The xCaim laptop immediately stands out with its edge-to-edge keyboard, eliminating the traditional palm rest area and replacing the conventional touchpad with a fully interactive palm rest surface with tactile buttons.

The xCaim laptop will feature a Samsung V-NAND SSD 980, available in capacities ranging from 250GB to 1TB, suggesting it could be a suitable laptop for programming.

A bold rethinking of laptop design

Like the Honor MagicBook Art 14 (2024), the xCaim laptop comes with a modular business webcam that attaches magnetically above the screen, integrates real-time environmental sensing, and can serve as a secondary screen when detached, displaying shortcuts and notifications.

The xCaim laptop adopts a sleek and modern design with a white and black color scheme, and thin bezels. It features a regular hinge design and a chiclet-style keyboard. The function keys are replaced with a touch-sensitive function area.

Just below the keyboard, a small horizontal display shows system status icons, call information, and a digital battery display. A removable bottom panel reveals dual cooling fans.

The laptop's connectivity options are minimal, with just three USB-C ports, two on the right side and one on the left.

The xCaim laptop is not commercially available yet, but it offers a glimpse into a future where business laptop designs break free from tradition, embracing new forms of interaction and AI tools integration.

The iF Design Award is often regarded as the "Oscars" of the design industry, and the 2025 edition of the competition saw nearly 11,000 entries from 66 countries, with 131 jurors from 23 countries selecting the most outstanding designs.

Via iFDesign

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Many observers said Monday's ruling on Han Duck-soo doesn't signal much on the upcoming verdict on President Yoon Suk Yeol, as Han wasn't a key figure in Yoon's martial law imposition.

(Image credit: AP)

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 182, for March 24

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 24.

The New York Times is pictured on June 15, 1971. From left are Times editors James L. Greenfield, foreign editor; Max Frankel, chief Washington correspondent; and Fred P. Graham from the Times Washington bureau. Frankel went on to be the paper's top editor.'/>

Frankel was The New York Times' executive editor from 1986 to 1994. He remained with the newspaper for nearly half a century, ushering it through different eras.

(Image credit: ‎)

• Compal Infinite Laptop offers a horizontally expanding screen, from 14-inch to 18-inch
• Rollable business laptops could emerge as the future of multitasking
• Infinite Laptop also includes LED notification grids

The world's first rollable laptop, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, was unveiled at CES 2025 after years of development, featuring a 14-inch display which expands vertically to 16.7 inches with the press of a button.

While Lenovo’s approach focuses on increasing vertical space, Taiwanese manufacturer Compal's Infinite Laptop concept (via iFDesign) expands horizontally to create an ultrawide business laptop.

The Compal Infinite Laptop features a 14-inch display which extends from both sides to form an 18-inch screen, which could make it an ideal laptop for trading and multitasking.

A rollable screen designed for productivity

Compal’s Infinite Laptop is still a concept, but its bold design has already earned an iF Design Award.

This rollable mechanism ensures a seamless transition between compact and expanded modes while maintaining a lightweight build.

Similar to the ClinkCaim laptop, another 2025 iF Design Award-winning concept, the Infinite Laptop lacks a distinct touchpad.

Instead, a dimly glowing light indicates the touchpad area, which could make it a more intuitive laptop for programming.

The laptop appears to feature an LED notification array embedded in its lid for system alerts and notifications.

The laptop’s expansion mechanism looks impressive, and it's certainly made waves —the 2025 iF Design Awards featured nearly 11,000 entries from 66 countries, with 131 jurors selecting the most innovative designs, solidifying the Compal Infinite Laptop’s place among groundbreaking concepts.

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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has called for the return of the Venezuelan migrants sent by the U.S. to El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele said they were transferred to a mega-prison.

(Image credit: Javier Campos)

• Silicon Motion 128TB SSD RDK optimizes AI pipelines with enhanced data management
• PerformaShape technology boosts SSD efficiency for AI-driven workloads
• MonTitan SSD’s PCIe Gen 5 speeds enhance enterprise data throughput

Silicon Motion, a leading NAND flash controller designer, has begun supplying its 128TB SSD Reference Design Kit (RDK), to select partners after nearly three years of testing since its initial announcement in 2022.

This large SSD kit, utilizes the latest 2 TB die QLC NAND, is built on the MonTitan PCIe Gen 5 platform, and features advanced firmware to maximize performance and efficiency in AI tool workloads, making it one of the best external SSD designs available.

The MonTitan RDK, designed for enterprise and data center use, delivers sequential read speeds exceeding 14 GB/s, ranking among the fastest external SSDs, with random read performance of over 3.3 million IOPS for efficient data thoroughput. The kit utilizes the PCIe Dual Ported enterprise-grade SM8366 controller with support for PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMe 2.0 and OCP 2.5 data center specifications.

High-speed storage that could shake up the enterprise market

The RDK's high-speed performance provides a 25% improvement in random read efficiency over other Gen 5 solutions, making it particularly well-suited for AI applications such as large language model (LLM) training and graph neural network (GNN) computations.

Additionally, the drive design utilizes NVMe 2.0 FDP (Flexible Data Placement) to enhance write efficiency and endurance, extending the lifespan of the QLC NAND.

"Silicon Motion's MonTitan SSD RDK offers a comprehensive solution for our customers, enabling them to rapidly develop and deploy enterprise-class SSDs tailored for AI data center and edge server applications." said Alex Chou, Senior VP of Enterprise Storage and Display Interface Solution Business.

"By providing this fully integrated platform that supports up to 128 TB SSD with QLC NAND, we empower our customers and solution partners to accelerate the development and commercialization of AI solution's growing demands of high-capacity, high-performance storage."

Silicon Motion’s proprietary PerformaShape technology optimizes SSD performance based on user-defined quality-of-service (QoS) parameters, reducing latency. The new RDK could play a crucial role in AI storage and data center infrastructure, optimizing multi-tenant environments by efficiently handling AI data pipeline stages such as ingestion, preparation, training, and inference.

"We are delighted to collaborate with Silicon Motion in developing our latest enterprise SSD for AI servers and data centers. With Silicon Motion's MonTitan Enterprise SSD development platform, we have the flexibility to design enterprise SSDs that deliver industry-leading performance," said CC Wu, VP of Innodisk.

Frank Chen, the CEO of Exascend said, "In the era of AI explosion, data storage is more critical than ever. Through this collaboration with Silicon Motion, we have developed a PCIe Gen 5 SSD tailored for AI servers, ensuring stable read and write speeds with efficient data management, perfectly meeting the storage demands of the AI era."

Via TechPowerUp

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Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,374 for March 24.