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Galaxy Buds 3 Pro just got 5 much-needed upgrades, but you need a Galaxy S25 to get ‘em

TechRadar News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 06:25
  • Samsung has announced 5 key upgrades coming to its third-gen earbuds
  • The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro/Buds 3 upgrades are exclusive to One UI 7
  • …which means that right now, you need a Galaxy S25 to get them

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Buds 3 just got several key upgrades – for those of you who just bought one of the company's newest Galaxy S25 or S25 Ultra smartphones, that is.

I'll list the updates coming to Samsung's July 2024-issue earbuds in detail momentarily – there are five to get through – but you should know right from the get go that to enjoy them, you'll need to be running One UI 7 (read: Samsung's answer to Android 15). It's the much-touted OS that made its debut in Samsung's S25 lineup, introducing a UI overhaul with all-new AI and navigation perks, including the Now Bar.

But as any Galaxy S24 or S24 Ultra owner knows, you could be waiting until May to get One UI 7, owing to Samsung's apparent plan for multiple beta versions for anything not in the S25 lineup – and if Google goes ahead and announces Android 16 in May, that might instantly make the update feel, ahem, outdated before it gets its full rollout.

Anyway, back to the upgrades for some of you and, following an announcement on February 27, Samsung has explained five changes to be on the lookout for if you own an S25 or S25 Ultra along with a set of 3-suffixed Galaxy Buds.

The first is new Galaxy Buds 3 settings, found within the rejigged One UI 7 Quick Settings panel. Basically, you'll no longer have to fire up the Galaxy Wearable app in order to tweak your Buds’ settings – you’ll now be able to do it right from Quick Settings. Less clunky!

Also mentioned by Samsung was the ability to set sound preferences for individual apps (also within Quick Settings), a tailored sound experience for those with hearing issues, Galaxy AI with Interpreter in 20 languages, and a new microphone software upgrade that should interpret the ambient sound around you to adjust volume.

Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Buds 3: the 5 upgrades
  • Tweak sound settings more easily: with One UI 7, you won't need to go in through the Galaxy Wearable app on your smartphone, you can do it directly in the quick settings panel.
  • App-specific personalized sound settings: you can set sound preferences for individual apps within the quick settings panel.
  • Tailored sound for specific hearing needs: an updated Adapt sound feature expands on ambient sound capabilities for more clear and accurate in-call experiences or when watching videos and so on.
  • Easy communication in 20 Languages: thanks to Galaxy AI with Interpreter in Listening Mode, you'll be able to hear translations for conversations piped directly into your Galaxy Buds.
  • Intelligently optimized sound: Adaptive Noise Control will use your Buds' onboard mics to analyze your immediate surroundings and automatically adjust the optimal level of noise-nixing, without the need to tweak it yourself.

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Galaxy Buds 3 were launched in July 2024 and to stay sitting pretty on the cutting-edge of technological advancements, these upgrades – especially within Samsung's flagship earbuds – feel both necessary and welcome.

The issue, of course, is whether or not you've got the necessary software to enjoy it, which is currently tied exclusively to whether or not you've bought a 2025 Samsung phone. Of course, if you need to have the newest and best, updating to the latest handset as and when it lands, this is no stumbling block for you. But that's not all of us.

As we noted in our review of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Samsung chose to take a leaf out of Apple's playbook last year, by introducing a swatch of decidedly 'walled garden' features with the proposition – perks you'll always need a new-ish Samsung source device to enjoy. And that's all well and good if there's reasonable backwards compatibility. But if the electronics giant can't deliver its latest One UI 7 update to its wider fanbase (and by that I mean people who bought one of the company's newest phones and earbuds in 2024) sooner rather than later, that could be an issue.

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Categories: Technology

Private API keys and passwords found in AI training dataset - nearly 12,000 details leaked

TechRadar News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 06:24
  • Truffle Security found thousands of pieces of private info in Common Crawl
  • The archives are used to train some of the biggest LLMs today
  • The researchers notified the vendors and helped fix the problem

Cybersecurity researchers have found thousands of login credentials and other secrets in the Common Crawl dataset.

Common Crawl is a nonprofit organization that provides a freely accessible archive of web data, collected through large-scale web crawling. As of recent estimates, the organization hosts over 250 petabytes of web data, with monthly crawls adding several petabytes more.

Recently, security researchers from Truffle Security analyzed roughly 400 terabytes of information, collected from 2.67 billion web pages archived in 2024. They said that almost 12,000 valid secrets (API keys, passwords, and similar) were found hardcoded in the archive. They found more than 200 different secret types, but the majority were for Amazon Web Services (AWS), MailChimp, and WalkScore.

Training AI

“Nearly 1,500 unique Mailchimp API keys were hard coded in front-end HTML and JavaScript,” the researchers said, noting many secrets were found in multiple instances. In fact, almost two-thirds (63%) were found on multiple pages, with one WalkScore API key appearing “57,029 times across 1,871 subdomains”.

Software developers often leave login credentials and other secrets in the code, to simplify the process during development. However, many seem to forget to remove the data, leaving a simple backdoor for malicious actors to exploit.

Cybercriminals could scour the archives for the secrets themselves, but there is an ever bigger problem here. Many of the world’s most popular large language models (LLM), such as the ones from OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, Meta, and others, are trained using Common Crawl’s archives, meaning that crooks could use Generative AI to uncover login credentials and other secrets.

LLMs don’t use entirely raw data, and it is filtered to remove sensitive information, but the question remains how well the filters work, and how many secrets make it through.

That being said, Truffle Security allegedly reached out to impacted vendors and helped them revoke compromised keys.

Via BleepingComputer

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Categories: Technology

These smart contact lens prototypes could convince future me to ditch my glasses thanks to wireless power transfer and eye health biosensing

TechRadar News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 06:22
  • XPANCEO has unveiled a trio of smart contact lens prototypes at MWC 2025
  • Technology showcased includes fully remote power transfer
  • Other prototypes include a biosensing smart contact lesns, and a lens that can help manage glaucoma

A self-acclaimed "deep tech" company focused on the next generation of computing has unveiled three smart contact lens prototypes at MWC 2025, giving us a glimpse into the technology that could shape vision health of the future.

XPANCEO took the covers off its three prototypes, each one showcasing a unique technology that could feature in future "smart" contact lenses.

The company's prototypes highlight fully remote power transfer (charging over the air), biosensing, and intraocular pressure sensors for managing and detecting diseases such as glaucoma.

Here are the three prototypes and what they could mean for the future of vision health. After all, we'll happily wear the best smartwatches and smart rings, as tech progresses, it seems only natural that more and more ubiquitous items take on the "smart moniker."

1. Smart Contact Lens with a Wireless Powering Companion

(Image credit: XPANCEO)

XPANCEO's first prototype (and these are all prototypes likely years from production) showcases fully remote power transfer technology. Naturally, any "smart" device including a contact lens requires power from a battery or other source to run. This prototype technology offers twice the range of previous industry solutions, powering a contact lens wirelessly from a compact companion device such as a contact lens case you'd carry around.

Having literal electricity fired into your eye doesn't sound like a great starting point for any smart health device, but XPANCEO says its solution puts out radiation levels similar to other common wearables such as the best wireless headphones.

2. Biosensing Smart Contact Lens

(Image credit: XPANCEO)

XPANCEO's prototype biosensor can measure body parameters directly from tear fluid. The lens purportedly uses nanoparticles to enable high-sensitivity monitoring of biomarkers such as glucose, hormones such as cortisol, estradiol, estrone, progesterone, and testosterone, and vitamins B1, B2, B3, E, and D.

While Apple is still trying to wrap its head around non-invasive blood glucose monitoring on Apple Watch, XPANCEO is proposing a decidedly more clinical sci-fi future where you can measure body metrics through tears.

3. Smart Contact Lens with an IOP (Intraocular Pressure) Sensor

(Image credit: XPANCEO)

XPANCEO's third tech prototype is a non-invasive glaucoma management system. Using an AI-powered smartphone app and a built-in intraocular pressure sensor, the company says it can provide "instant, highly precise measurements" that can be used to detect early glaucoma before significant vision loss occurs.

XPANCEO's other smart lens tech

XPANCEO also showcased improved tech for its smart contact lens featuring augmented reality, which no longer uses external image sources but instead features an integrated microdisplay that can show images previously only viewable through smart glasses or AR/VR headsets. Finally, the company showcased a smart contact lens for data reading using a wireless data transmission antenna to send real-time data from the contact lens to a smartphone.

Naturally, showing off these prototypes is world's away from developing a contact lens that incorporates all of this technology in a commercially viable package that can be mass produced. But if XPANCEO can crack even one of these technologies for mass market, it might have a major health breakthrough on its hands.

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Categories: Technology

Xiaomi unveils first earbuds with Wi-Fi, delivering hi-res audio up to 4.2Mbps

TechRadar News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 06:16
  • Lossless audio over Wi-Fi without ruining battery life
  • Very limited phone compatibility and definitely no iPhones
  • £159 / £189 (about $200 / $240)

Xiaomi's new Buds 5 Pro have launched in Europe and are available in two flavors, the standard Buds 5 Pro and the Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi. Both models have a very impressive specification, but the Wi-Fi ones are particularly impressive: they're capable of delivering lossless audio at up to 4.2Mbps over their Wi-Fi connection. That's way beyond anything the best Bluetooth headphones can deliver.

The Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi have Qualcomm's S7 Pro chip and Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound Technology Suite, which supports audio at up to 96kHz/24-bit. However there's a caveat: it'll only work with certain smartphones. Xiaomi says it'll post a list of compatible devices on its website imminently. Right now the only supported phones are the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra.

(Image credit: Xiaomi) Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro and Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi: features and pricing

The Buds 5 Pro are based around 11mm dynamic drivers with a PZT tweeter and planar driver, and they support aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless. Bluetooth is 5.4 and the built-in ANC is capable of removing noise up to 55dB. The buds also offer AI features including real-time translation.

Surprisingly, the Wi-Fi models have even better battery life than the Bluetooth-only ones: ten hours compared to eight, with a total of 40 hours via the charging case.

The Buds Pro 5 are £159.99 (about $200 or AU$325) and you can have them in white or gray; the Buds Pro 5 Wi-Fi are £189.99 (around $240 or AU$385).

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Categories: Technology

MWC 2025: all the latest consumer news and hands-on experience from the big tech showcase

TechRadar News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 06:13

MWC 2025 has arrived once again taking place in Barcelona, and a crack-team of TechRadar journalists are onsite to bring you all the latest consumer news from the big tech showcase.

Where once MWC was very smartphone-focussed, it's evolved into a bigger tech showcase, with home devices, robots, cars and more all popping up across the expansive halls of the Fira.

Don't expect to hear any big news from the likes of Samsung or Google, but get ready for a slew of interesting products and developments that'll likely set the scene for the tech world for 2025 and beyond.

So you're in the right place for all the news and view coming out of MWC 2025. Read on.

Hello! Roland Moore-Colyer, Managing Editor of Mobile Computing here to take you on this live blog journey as it kicks off.

I'm not at MWC this year, with fellow but we have a selection of TechRadar-ians over in Barcelona to soak up all that MWC has to offer. So let's get into it.

Honor embraces AI hook, line and sinker

(Image credit: Honor)

So first up we have a report from Phones Editor Axel Metz on how phone-maker Honor has rebranded itself as an "AI device ecosystem company". That's a bit odd but there's apparently three steps the company plans to take in order to deliver “purpose-built, human-centric AI designed to maximize human potential.”

My read on this is basically Honor will go hard on AI-based tech, and we can expect its new products to contain a host of smart features. For a better and deeper lowdon, I'd suggest reading Mr Metz full report: Honor rebrands as an 'AI device ecosystem company' and commits to developing a 'super intelligent' smartphone.

So here's an odd turn up for the books: actor Drew Barrymore appeared at an HMD showcase to tease Project Wildflower, which is a mission led by the phone-maker to tackle people spending too much time on their smartphones.

Check out our TikTok video below for more.

@techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar HMD wants to tackle a teenage screen time epidemic

(Image credit: HMD)

Following on from that TikTok below is a full report from Axel Metz on HMD's aim to help tackle a supposed screen time epidemic, especially among teenagers.

As such, the company revealed the HMD Fusion X1, a phone made in partnership with smartwatch manufacturer Xplora aimed at teenagers, which will enable parents to remotely enable, disable, or limit access to apps of their choosing via an Xplora subscription.

Now I'm not sure many teenagers would welcome relinquishing control of their phone to their parents, but the idea here is to safeguard young people against some of the darker elements of online and always-connected life.

Read Axel's full report: 'The smartphone teens want, with the safety parents desire': HMD’s Fusion X1 is here to save the TikTok generation.

Meet the Honor Earbuds Open

Reader: he loves them… (Image credit: Future)

Moving on to something different to smartphones, and let me flag the Honor Earbuds Open wireless earbuds to your attention.

Honor's inaugural open earbuds have been designed to specifically not enter one's ears, sitting on the opening to the ear canal instead.

Audio Editor Becky Scarrott to the Earbuds Open for a spin, so I suggest you go read her thoughts on them: I tried Honor's new Earbuds Open and for me, they jumped straight to the top of the pile.

Here's another TikTok from HMD's event last night, which we visited. Give it a gander... especially if you like football and retro phones.

@techradar

♬ stellar (Sped Up) - .diedlonely & énouement Watch this!

(Image credit: Honor)

Honor is having a busy MWC, as it has revealed the Honor Watch 5 Ultra, its newest smartwatch.

There's a good bit to like here, as the smartwatch sports a grade 5 titanium case, a 1.5-inch AMOLED, and a host of health-centric features. The only thing that's missing is Google's Wear OS; instead the Honor Watch Ultra 5 runs Honor's proprietary MagicOS.

Read our full report: Honor's new Android smartwatch has a 1.5-inch AMOLED display, 15 days of battery life, and works with iPhone and Android.

Categories: Technology

Amazon’s Delivery Drones Are Grounded. The Birds and Dogs of This Texas Town Are Grateful

WIRED Top Stories - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 06:00
Amazon’s drones met more resistance in College Station, Texas, than in any other city in the US. Now they’re gone—and a sense of peace and privacy has been restored.
Categories: Technology

Copilot Pro for Word review

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:56

This review first appeared in issue 355 of PC Pro.

Copilot has three main uses in Word: creating a draft for either an entire document or for sections of it, based on a prompt of up to 2,000 characters; rewriting selected text according to a prompt; and answering questions about a document’s content, including summarizing it.

When you create a new document in Word, you’ll see how much Microsoft wants you to draft using Copilot: it’s the first thing you see. And any time you make a new paragraph, the Copilot icon shows up in the left margin, letting you input a prompt to write a new section. If you select text, the icon shows up with an option to rewrite the selection. There’s also a Copilot icon in the Home toolbar, which opens a sidebar so you can ask questions about the open document, summarize it, or write additional parts.

The output quality of any big language model depends on the prompt you provide. If you aren’t specific or clear enough, Copilot Pro will produce dull texts that don’t match your voice. You must give sufficient details and context for it to understand your purpose and style, as well as information about the preferences of the audience, all of which can be tricky in a prompt limited to 2,000 characters.

Occasionally, it’s vague, drifts off-topic, or entirely ignores explicit instructions – for example, about word counts or facts you have told it to include. You must check and edit the texts that Copilot Pro writes to make sure they’re right for your goal and audience.

Copilot for Word works best if you ask it to create an outline rather than an entire document (Image credit: Future)

Copilot has its own little linguistic ticks, which you will probably need to be explicit about in prompts. It absolutely adores bullet-pointed lists, and will include them every time unless you tell it not to. Similarly, and likely reflecting the web content on which it’s trained, it loves to include “hints and tips” sections in virtually every kind of content.

Rewriting is also erratic. Although its grammar is impeccable (albeit with a penchant for the Oxford comma and American spellings), Copilot won’t catch and fix all the problems in your paragraphs; think coherence, structure and flow. It’s no replacement for a dedicated tool such as Grammarly or LanguageTool. I even found that Copilot added in things that Microsoft Editor thought were errors.

Copilot can still be handy in Word if you use it for what it’s good at. For example, instead of making it write a whole document, ask it to create an outline for you to work. This delivers solid results, and if nothing else avoids the blank sheet of paper issue.

I also found it handy to keep the sidebar open when working on a long piece; in one case, I needed to make sure that every chapter included a call to action at the end, and that’s something Copilot is great at. It’s also handy for those moments when you want to get suggestions for something, whether that’s as trivial as looking for an antonym or as complex as “give me five typical Russian male first names, popular in the 1950s”.

Considering that this is Microsoft’s first stab at Copilot for Word, it’s an impressive piece of work.

We also rated the best online learning platforms.

Categories: Reviews

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could have even smaller bezels - and that could mean an even bigger display

TechRadar News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:51
  • A tipster has claimed the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra may come with shrunken bezels
  • This could allow for a 7-inch display on the rumored flagship phone
  • The tipster also suggests the Galaxy S26 Ultra won't get an under-display camera

It’s been a busy year for Samsung already, with the release of the flagship Samsung Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus, and Galaxy S25 Ultra, a refreshed lineup of mid-range handsets, and the reveal of the still-mysterious Galaxy S25 Edge.

However, that’s not stopped speculation about the future of Samsung’s mobile portfolio, not least regarding next year’s rumored highest-end model, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. In fact, a new rumor suggests that one of the most impressive aspects of the Galaxy S25 Ultra could be getting even better with its next iteration.

According to tipster PandaFlash, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could feature even thinner bezels than its current-gen counterpart. The bezels of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra were already visibly reduced from the Galaxy S24 Ultra, allowing the newer phone to attain a display size of 6.9 inches without a noticeable change to its overall dimensions.

If Samsung is able to achieve a similar improvement this year, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could be the first modern flagship slab phone to feature a 7-inch display.

As SammyFans notes, PandaFlash hinted at the bezel reduction in the reply section of a post concerning the rumored Galaxy S26’s selfie camera.

Though other rumors had pointed to the chance of an under-display camera (UDC) for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, PandaFlash seems adamant this won't be happening.

As the post (and our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review) notes, a UDC can’t offer the same performance as a regular punch-hole selfie camera, which is as good a reason as any to hold off on implementing one.

PandaFlash didn’t offer much in the way of context or sources for these claims – we have reported on their tips before during the build-up to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s release, but these weren’t quite on the money. It’s worth taking these new rumors with a healthy does of skepticism.

With that all said, there’s nothing too outlandish about suggesting Samsung may be able to reduce the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s bezels and fit it with a regular selfie camera – we’re not talking about a drastic redesign or internal overhaul here, and it’s still likely to be one of the best Samsung phones at launch.

What would you like to see from the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra? Would a thinner bezel be reason enough to upgrade? Let us know in the comments.

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Categories: Technology

With the Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer, I can tap my way to perfectly-done meals

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:50
Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: one-minute review

The Kalorik Vivid Touch 7 Quart High-Resolution Touchscreen Air Fryer with Window stands out from the crowded air fryer scene in a couple of ways. First and foremost, it has a high-resolution touchscreen. I thought perhaps it was a silly gimmick until I actually tried it. The touchscreen meant that I didn't have to refer to a guide to figure out how to cook a particular item. It's all right there in the menu. For example, if you want to heat up some frozen french fries, just tap the French Fries option from the menu. From there, you choose from House Cut, Wedges, Fresh, Crinkle, Waffle, or Curly. Then you choose your quantity, make any adjustments to time and temperature you wish, and then hit start.

The other feature that isn't necessarily typical for air fryers is the large window and interior light so you can take a peek at your food's progress without interrupting the cook cycle.

Overall, this is a pretty typical drawer-style air fryer with some special touches that make it better.

Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: price and availability
  • List price: $149.99 (about £119 / AU$240)

The Kalorik Vivid Touch 7-Quart High-Resolution Touchscreen Air Fryer with Window is available at many retailers both online and in brick-and-mortar stores such as Amazon, Home Depot, HSN, Walmart, and more. Choose from three color options: stainless steel, graphite, and black. The retail price is $149.99 USD for the 7-quart size. There is also a 5-Quart version, which retails for $129.99 and comes in just one color, stainless steel.

  • Value score: 4.5/5
Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: specifications Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: design and features
  • High-resolution touchscreen
  • Twelve cooking menus
  • Window and interior light

The Kalorik Vivid Touch looks like a regular air fryer, with the standard drawer and interior crisping tray. You pull out the drawer by its large handle, place your food on the crisping tray, and air fry your food. However, instead of pressing buttons, the Vivid Touch is operated entirely via touch screen.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

To use the air fryer, pull out the drawer and place the crisping tray inside. In the drawer, you'll see markings indicating the level of food you have inside. These markings will come into play when you start a cooking cycle. In certain cook modes, you'll select the quantity of your food of your based on these markings.

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

The touchscreen menu technically has 12 cooking modes: French Fries, Frozen Faves, Pizza, Chicken, Red Meat, Pork, Veggies, Fish, Seafood, Bake, Vegan, Latin Food, Defrost, Preheat, Reheat, and DIY. In actuality, it's much more than that. For example, if you tap on the Veggies menu, you'll see more options: Florets (broccoli and cauliflower), Whole Corn, Cut Carrots, Cut Zucchini, Brussel Sprouts, and Green Beans. Under Chicken, you can choose from Wings, Tenderloins, Breast, Thighs, Drumsticks and Half Chicken. The Vegan menu includes Veggie Burger, Cauliflower Wings, Vegan Sausage, Tofu, Tempeh, and Seitan. Tap Latin Food and you'll see Chimichangas, Taquitos, Arepas, Platanos Maduros, Enchiladas, and Nachos.

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)Image 2 of 4

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

Choose your cooking mode, then choose your specific food. You'll usually be asked to choose your quantity at that point, and also you'll have the option to change the time and the temperature if you wish. Press Start.

At the halfway point, you'll get an alarm telling you to shake (or turn) your food for even browning. This is important, because the heat comes only from the top. If you don't flip your food, only the top will get crisp and the underneath can get soggy. Tap the light bulb icon to turn on the interior light and keep an eye on your food through the window.

You'll be alerted when your cook time is complete. There is an "add two minutes" button you can tap if you like. Otherwise, remove your food and enjoy.

Cleaning the Kalorik Vivid Touch is easy enough, just hand wash the drawer and crisping tray after use. I don't even remove the tray for cleanup. You should also wipe down the interior of the air fryer outside of the drawer as needed.

  • Design score: 4.5/5
Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: performance

I tested a number of foods in the Kalorik Vivid Touch on various cooking modes with varying degrees of success. Generally it works best for air frying pre-made and frozen convenience foods or reheating and re-crisping leftovers. I did try baking in the Vivid Touch and that worked okay, but only when baking very small and thin items.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

I can't take credit for the tofu curry dish seen above, my youngest kiddo made this delicious dinner. They seasoned and breaded the tofu, fried it up in the Kalorik Touch and put it together with curry veggies and rice. It was truly perfection.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

Frozen French Fries become a perfectly fried treat in the Kalorik Vivid Touch. The fries are crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. They couldn't be easier to make. Just be sure to shake the drawer at the halfway point; you'll be alerted when you should do so. This ensures even browning.

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)Image 2 of 4

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

I made sweet potato "fries" from scratch in the air fryer with just a quick spritz of oil, salt, and pepper. They were delicious, browned on the outside and soft in the middle. I also make lots of fresh veggies and some definitely came out better than others. All of them got blackened, which I enjoy. But for some reason, the cauliflower came out perfect, but the broccoli and Brussels sprouts came out a little bit tough.

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)Image 2 of 3

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

Baking in the Kalorik Vivid Touch is possible but not ideal. I baked a quick two-ingredient bread (greek yogurt and self-rising flour) which came out pretty well. You definitely want to keep it thin and small, and even flip it if possible. I made pancake bites in a small silicone muffin mold, and it took two tries to get them right. The key is to fill the molds less than halfway. Fill them up any more than that and they come out burned on top, raw in the middle.

I also attempted corn bread from a mix. I started with a baked the batter in two 5 x 5 inch pans instead of the 8 x 8 inch pan suggested on the box. I made one in the air fryer and the other in my toaster oven. The toaster oven one came out fine but the air fryer one was a fail. Though it was perfectly browned on top, it was raw in the middle.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

However, when I heated frozen pre-made waffles in the Kalorik Vivid Touch air fryer, they came out just perfect. Nice and crisp on the outside, fluffy and warm on the inside. I did flip them halfway through the cook time and put a little chocolate on there which melted nicely.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

Although I'm a vegetarian, I did make some chicken for my husband. I can barely touch raw meat, but I popped the chicken into the drawer, selected "Breast" from the "Chicken" menu, and it came out great. I did flip it half way as instructed, and I also added two minutes at the end of the cook time because it was a rather thick chicken breast.

  • Performance score: 4/5
Should you buy the Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer? Buy it if

You prefer a touchscreen over buttons

No need to consult a manual over and over. The touchscreen makes operation easier and gives you lots of ideas of what you might make in the Kalorik Vivid Touch and exactly how to make them.

You want to air fry a variety of foods

With twelve different cook modes, if you can imagine air frying it, the Kalorik Vivid Touch can do it. Of course the DIY mode means the options are endless.

You want to keep an eye on your food

While your food is cooking, just tap the light bulb icon to light up the interior and peek at your food's progress. No need to open it and interrupt the cooking cycle.

Don't buy it if

You lack counter space

The Kalorik Vivid Touchscreen Air Fryer, particularly the 7-Quart model I tested, takes up a bit of counter space. It's not ugly but it doesn't exactly raise your kitchen's chic factor either.

You want the cheapest possible no frills air fryer

There are certainly cheaper options out there.

You plan to do a lot of baking in your air fryer

If that’s the case, you might prefer a toaster oven-air fryer combo appliance instead.

Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: also consider

If you're not sure about the Kalorik Vivid Touchscreen Air Fryer, here are some other options to consider ...

Ninja Double Oven Air Fryer

Cook two different items two different ways at the same time in this two-compartment air fryer oven. This is a good pick if you want to bake and air fry with the same appliance, which is why it earned a place in our roundup of the best air fryers.

Read our full review here.

Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System

The clever Ninja Crispi air fries your food directly in a glass container that goes straight to the table and later the fridge if you have leftovers.

Check out our full review here.

How I tested the Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer
  • I tested many different cooking modes multiple times
  • I used it daily for two weeks to cook a variety of food
  • I cleaned it daily

I love to eat healthy meals but I don't really enjoy cooking. I'm always on the hunt for a kitchen gadget that makes cooking quicker and easier. The Kalorik Vivid Touch does that, particularly for crisping up convenience foods so they taste amazing. My husband and youngest (adult) child enjoyed using the Kalorik Vivid Touch as well. Between us, we made: veggie burgers, hash browns, veggie nuggets, broccoli, frozen waffles, veggie chicken nuggets, chicken breast, fresh sweet potato fries, cauliflower, cottage cheese bread, yogurt bread, breaded tofu, corn bread, pancake bites, tater tots, Brussels sprouts, french fries, and reheated pizza.

Read more about how we test.

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Categories: Reviews

Copilot Pro for PowerPoint review

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:45

This review first appeared in issue 355 of PC Pro.

If you want an example of what not to use Copilot for in PowerPoint, then I have just the thing.

You might think that asking Copilot Pro to “create a presentation about Copilot Pro in PowerPoint” would be an easy win for the AI. You would think wrong: instead, it came up with a presentation about a fictitious piece of software that appears to combine advanced aircraft flight planning with a collision avoidance system – which it illustrated with a picture of a car.

Of all the Office applications, PowerPoint probably benefits least from Copilot Pro when it comes to creating documents from scratch. This is down to it not having one of the key features that business users of Copilot get: the ability to take a Word document and turn it into a PowerPoint deck. PowerPoint is, fundamentally, an application for taking information and presenting it in a visual format, and a 2,000-character prompt just isn’t enough for anything except the shortest presentations.

“Create a six-slide presentation about processors” resulted in this half-decent effort, even if Copilot’s choice of images is a little random (not unusually). (Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

What Copilot is good for, though, is taking an existing deck and improving it. If you don’t like a visual being on the left-hand side of a slide, you can just ask Copilot to move it to the right – although you also need to tell it to move whatever is already on the right to the left, too, if you don’t want a visual pile-up to ensue. Similarly, asking it to change the headline font on all slides to, say, Constantia – and it makes the changes in seconds – feels magical.

Wisely, Microsoft includes a set of pre-made prompts to get you started with the kind of things that Copilot is good at. For example, it can scan a deck for deadlines and list them all out, helping you avoid that moment when you realize you have combined two people’s work and got entirely different deadlines for a project in them.

Overall, stick to the preset prompts at first, and Copilot Pro in PowerPoint is a useful tool.

We also ranked the best small business accounting software.

Categories: Reviews

European leaders pledge to back Ukraine. And, takeaways from the Oscars

NPR News Headlines - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:43

Several global leaders pledged support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's efforts to stop Russia's war. And, heartfelt speeches, a big surprise and history were made at the Oscars.

(Image credit: Peter Nicholls)

Categories: News

Bad onboarding is costing businesses billions - here's how you can improve

TechRadar News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:42
  • Bad employee onboarding is costing the US $2.2 billion annually
  • 29,000 IT and tech workers will leave due to poor onboarding
  • HR and IT departments need to work together with automation

US organizations alone are wasting $2.2 billion every year on rehiring IT and tech talent due to poor onboarding experiences, new research has claimed.

A repoort from Nexthink found substandard onboarding has been linked with high turnover rates, meaning more workers are likely to leave their roles and companies are forced to invest in new workers, subjecting them to equally bad experiences.

Of the more than 117,000 IT or tech hires that take place in the US every year, over 29,000 (or around one-quarter) will likely leave their roles due to their initial experiences.

Proper onboarding can decrease turnover rates

Nexthink's findings blamed poor onboarding experiences on the fact IT teams tend to only have a few days to equip new hires, meaning there is limited time to not only make the right impression but also to give an indication of the company’s operational efficiency.

The research also points to rushed setups, leading to technology issues and a lack of proper access, which can often be caused by hiring managers failing to communicate the necessary tools and permissions to IT in advance.

High turnover rates among new employees is also having a negative impact on existing workers, reducing morale and making them more likely to want to leave the company, amplifying the effects. Negative employer reputations as a result could also be making potential recruits less likely to want to onboard with a company.

The report calls for HR and IT departments to work together more closely, forming a ‘Super Team’ to understand the needs of new starters. The three takeaways highlighted by Nexthink are that an interdepartmental shared understanding should be developed, real user feedback and use data should be analyzed, and that workflows should be automated wherever possible to kickstart recruitment processes and make them more efficient.

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Categories: Technology

Copilot Pro for Outlook review

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:41

This review first appeared in issue 355 of PC Pro.

There are three key features in Copilot for Outlook: summarization, drafting and coaching. Summarization is probably the feature you’ll encounter first, as every email you receive has a prominent “Summary by Copilot” bar at the top.

Click on this, and it creates a short, easy-to-read summary of the key points in the email. How useful this will be depends on the kind of mail you get. But if you spend a long time reading complex emails and trying to work out what the point is, you’ll love it.

The second main feature, drafting, is like the drafting feature in Word, in that you give it a prompt and it writes the email for you. You can vary the tone using pop-up options – direct, neutral, casual, formal or, erm, “make it a poem” – and set the length as short, medium or long. Beware: Outlook uses the last tone you selected, so if you do decide to write a poem, remember to change it before drafting an email to your accountant.

As with Word, I’d categorize the results as “something to start with and personalize” rather than the finished article. Tonally, it veers towards the extreme: formal is very formal, and casual is probably fine for sending to family and close friends only. In my tests, direct produced the best results, although some of its phrases required toning down to stop them sounding like the kind of email you get from the bailiffs chasing you for a late payment.

My favorite feature is coaching. This checks the content of an email you’ve written and gives you tips on how to improve it, with clear advice that’s actually useful. It advised me to make my tone more confident, which professional writing coaches have told me in the past.

We've also ranked the best video conferencing software.

Categories: Reviews

Copilot Pro for OneNote review

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:37

This review first appeared in issue 355 of PC Pro.

It could be because I tried Copilot in OneNote after all the other apps. It could be a because I’m not a regular OneNote user. Or it could be that this is indeed a, “oh, I suppose we should add it to OneNote as well” kind of effort.

Copilot appears in OneNote the same way as most other apps: as a button in the Home ribbon. You can do all the things you’d expect, such as summarizing meeting notes and creating action points. But where in Teams it feels powerful and integrated, here it feels like an add-on.

For example, I hoped that it would tie in with the transcription option, perhaps creating a rival to Otter.ai that not only delivered the notes but gave me something extra, such as sentiment analysis. But no, it couldn’t even remove the timestamps from the text when I accidentally kept them in.

You’ll also need to be careful about where you file notes, as Copilot has some difficulty discerning between the active note and all the ones filed within a project. Mind you, the fact that it can work across a bunch of collated notes has its advantages, too.

Copilot in OneNote performed best when working with my scrawled notes from a meeting, deducing that when I wrote some names next to “Who?” that these were indeed the people involved.

If you’re a OneNote fan then you’ll probably like what Copilot Pro can do. But I can’t see this making any new converts.

We've also rated the apps for note-taking.

Categories: Reviews

Consumer and enterprise browsers: distinct tools built for different missions

TechRadar News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:31

From Netscape to Chrome, the consumer browsers we have used since the dawn of the internet were first built for a singular need: accessing information. They worked brilliantly for that purpose, which is why – thirty-five years later – the browser remains one of the most pervasive consumer-grade technologies on the planet.

In the early browsing days, the internet just consisted of websites. Applications, on the other hand, lived outside the browser. Until one day someone had the brilliant idea to deliver apps inside the browser itself. Users have been accessing web apps ever since, from communications platforms to online banking. Today, it is the most pervasive way to engage applications on the planet. Extensions were tacked onto the browser, adding productivity and other features to extend the consumer browser’s capabilities.

However, consumers have not been the browser’s only users. Over the past three decades, enterprises – from banks and manufacturers to hospital systems and universities and beyond – have inextricably integrated the browser (as well as myriad apps and extensions) into their everyday operations.

Here’s where the friction starts to arise.

Unchanged browser, evolving needs

The core functionality of the traditional browser has remained largely unchanged, continuing to serve its original purpose for consumers without evolving to meet the enterprise's specific security and productivity needs. In fact, when you consider that the consumer browser must support billions of users worldwide, it must have a great deal of openness and flexibility to meet a wide array of consumer and advertiser needs. After all, consumer browsers were not designed to be a safe application delivery platform. They were designed for accessing websites and content.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that enterprise IT teams have always fought an uphill battle to place control around consumer browsers, not to mention browser extensions, which number more than 200,000 today. When these consumer browsers are used, security teams must layer on complex stacks of tools to secure their environments​​. Further, applications teams must commonly bolt on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments and Virtual Private Networks (VPN) for connectivity. These measures are expensive, inefficient, and ineffective.

It’s not a knock on consumer browsers – these tools were simply never designed for enterprise needs.

It’s like putting a Rolls-Royce in the Daytona 500: the car may be perfect in its own right, but it isn’t built to perform in that environment.

The browser designed for the enterprise

That’s where the enterprise browser comes in.

The enterprise browser uses its native mechanics to deliver corporate applications while embedding security, control, and productivity features directly into the browser itself – retaining the same experience users have enjoyed for decades while eliminating the need for complex add-on application delivery technologies and security stacks to keep them safe.

In an enterprise browser, security teams have full visibility into what employees can see and do at the appropriate times. Security features are native, from zero-trust and data loss prevention to session isolation and encryption. Workforce enablement is seamless, nearly eliminating the need for VPNs or virtual desktops for secure access to corporate resources. And access to cloud applications is fine-tuned without extra security tools.

For example, the enterprise browser can empower the user to freely engage personal applications such as ChatGPT, personal email, etc., while preventing users from copying sensitive data from corporate applications into such personal applications. It can enforce role-based access, ensuring that users only see and interact with resources that are appropriate for their role. And it can log and monitor all browser activity for security and compliance purposes where needed, providing visibility into who accessed what, from where, and how.

It can govern who uses what extensions under what circumstances and shut down high-risk extensions and access to unsanctioned GenAI websites in real-time. All while preserving privacy and without adding user delays or disruptions.

It’s a win for CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, and users. Employees enjoy faster, more efficient workflows in a familiar browser-based experience, while leadership gains visibility, compliance, security, and cost savings.

Secure browsers are not enterprise browsers

And what about secure browsers? Are they enough to address enterprise needs and issues? In a word, no. It’s a lingering misconception that an enterprise browser equals a secure browser. They are fundamentally different. Sure, an enterprise browser is a highly secure environment to operate within, but the concept of an enterprise browser is so much more than the old-school secure browser approaches.

Secure browsers were built primarily to prevent security breaches, relying on clunky and restrictive measures that can interfere with necessary work tasks. These browsers are often virtualization engines wrapped around consumer browsers. They degrade the user experience while offering little to no enterprise-level control.

The bottom line is security is table stakes for an enterprise browser. However, they are designed from the ground up as an application delivery platform designed to secure and optimize the entire enterprise IT environment while giving the user a very natural and familiar environment to operate within. It is an optimistic landscape where the user has freedom and comfort while the organization can rest safely knowing their applications and underlying data are secure. Indeed, that’s why we coined the term “enterprise browser.”

Different cars for different tracks

Today’s consumer browser has evolved beyond a window to the web to an unwitting participant for application consumption. It helps billions of people communicate across borders, learn new skills, watch their favorite sports, manage their money, and more – and drive trillions of dollars in ecommerce every year. Like the Rolls Royce, it’s an engineering marvel that has stood the test of time.

But at the end of the day, the enterprise requires a different vehicle. The enterprise browser finally delivers on challenges that have thus been out of reach for its consumer counterpart – empowering organizations to safeguard data, enforce policies, gather app and user insights, and more, all without compromising performance. Both have value, but enterprise demands require a different approach that can change everything.

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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

Categories: Technology

Seeing Washington change course on Ukraine, Taiwan ponders its own fate

NPR News Headlines - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:01

Developments in the Ukraine-U.S. relationship have regularly made headline news in Taiwan lately. Many in Taiwan compare Ukraine's fate to its own, as China continues to threaten an invasion.

(Image credit: Ashish Valentine)

Categories: News

Spring Equinox Is Almost Here: Have You Heard the Egg-Balancing Myth?

CNET News - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:00
The vernal equinox heralds the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere. But is it the only day you can balance an egg on its end?
Categories: Technology

What you need to know about Trump's address to joint session of Congress

NPR News Headlines - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:00

President Trump will lay out his second term agenda in an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. From talk on tariffs to the U.S. role in the world, here's what to expect.

(Image credit: Mark Wilson)

Categories: News

To solve for doctor shortages, states ease licensing for foreign-trained physicians

NPR News Headlines - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 05:00

Some states are trying to make it easier for doctors trained in other countries to work in the U.S. Skeptics say other licensing and hiring barriers could hamper this effort.

(Image credit: Roya Qaemi)

Categories: News

Private company's Blue Ghost spacecraft makes historic lunar landing

NPR News Headlines - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 04:46

For the first time, a private company has successfully landed a probe on the moon. Firefly Aerospace's "Blue Ghost" lander touched down on the lunar surface early Sunday morning.

Categories: News

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