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Should You Leave Your Phone Charging Overnight?

WIRED

Should You Leave Your Phone Charging Overnight? It used to be common wisdom that leaving your phone charging overnight degrades the battery. But handset design has evolved to mitigate the harm caused by constant charging. You may have heard that leaving your smartphone charging overnight--either plugged in or atop a wireless charger --can damage your battery. But is it actually harmful or dangerous to do that?


iGarden M1 Pro Max 100 Review: A Sports Car for Your Pool

WIRED

Managed a perfect cleaning record, if you leave it in the water long enough. Basket is quite difficult to clean. Must be retrieved with a pole when finished. In an aquatic world dominated by robotic pool cleaners that mostly look identical, a company called iGarden has been that breath of fresh air you take after reaching the water's surface. The company's pool cleaners have always featured designs that feel inspired more by high-end automobiles than underwater janitors, and with the new M1 series, its gear is sportier than ever.


An Inside Look at Lego's New Tech-Packed Smart Brick

WIRED

Lego's next release is a digital brick loaded with sensors that add new layers of interactivity to its play sets. WIRED got exclusive access to the Lego labs where the Smart Brick was born. The secretive division of 237 staff based here and in London, Boston, and Singapore is dedicated to thinking up what comes next for the world's largest toy brand. In front of me, on a plain white table, is a batch of prototypes of Lego's new Smart Brick, the final version of which is a small, sensor-laden 2-by-4 black brick with a big brain. No outsider has seen these prototypes, all of which represent stages of a journey Lego has been charting over the past eight years. Lego hopes this innovation, which lands in stores March 1, will safeguard the future of its plastic empire. The diminutive proportions of the finished Smart Brick belie the fact that the thing is exceedingly clever. Inside is a tiny custom chip running bespoke software that can communicate with onboard sensors to monitor and react to motion, orientation, and magnetic fields. It's also likely no exaggeration that the Smart Brick could represent the most radical product Lego has produced since Jens Nygaard Knudsen, the company's former longtime chief designer, created the minifigure nearly 50 years ago.




Thomas Edison's failed rechargeable battery may get a second life

Popular Science

Technology Engineering Thomas Edison's failed rechargeable battery may get a second life The famed inventor's nickel-iron idea isn't suited for EVs, but it could help solar farms and data centers. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. A rechargeable battery based on technology pioneered by Thomas Edison may finally get its due. But while the famous inventor envisioned nickel-iron batteries powering the automobile industry over a century ago, researchers now believe the underlying concepts are more suited for renewable energy centers. According to a study published in the journal, a team including engineers from the University of California, Los Angeles have developed a prototype battery that recharges in seconds and withstands over 12,000 cycles of use--an equivalent to over 30 years of daily activity.


BotsLab 4-Cam W510 System review: This security package doesn't deliver

PCWorld

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. BotsLab 4-Cam W510 System review: This security package doesn't deliver Four 4K cameras, a base station with expandable local storage, and no subscription required, So, what's the catch? This four-camera system impresses with solid video quality and expandable local storage, but only when those cameras are in such close range that they probably won't provide full coverage of your property. Outfitting your home with outdoor security cameras can get complicated--and expensive--quickly. Anyone looking for a shortcut on both fronts might consider one of BotsLab's W510 kits, bundles consisting of up to six 4K outdoor pan/tilt security cameras, solar panels to keep each camera's battery topped off, and a base station with 32GB of onboard storage (expandable up to 16TB with a user-supplied 2.5 hard drive).



The Download: what Moltbook tells us about AI hype, and the rise and rise of AI therapy

MIT Technology Review

For a few days recently, the hottest new hangout on the internet was a vibe-coded Reddit clone called Moltbook, which billed itself as a social network for bots. As the website's tagline puts it: "Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. Launched on January 28, Moltbook went viral in a matter of hours. It's been designed as a place where instances of a free open-source LLM-powered agent known as OpenClaw (formerly known as ClawdBot, then Moltbot), could come together and do whatever they wanted. But is Moltbook really a glimpse of the future, as many have claimed? More than a billion people worldwide suffer from a mental-health condition, according to the World Health Organization. The prevalence of anxiety and depression is growing in many demographics, particularly young people, and suicide is claiming hundreds of thousands of lives globally each year. Given the clear demand for accessible and affordable mental-health services, it's no wonder that people have looked to artificial intelligence for possible relief. Millions are already actively seeking therapy from popular chatbots, or from specialized psychology apps like Wysa and Woebot. Four timely new books are a reminder that while the present feels like a blur of breakthroughs, scandals, and confusion, this disorienting time is rooted in deeper histories of care, technology, and trust. Making AI Work, MIT Technology Review's new AI newsletter, is here For years, our newsroom has explored AI's limitations and potential dangers, as well as its growing energy needs . And our reporters have looked closely at how generative tools are being used for tasks such as coding and running scientific experiments . But how is AI being used in fields like health care, climate tech, education, and finance? How are small businesses using it? And what should you keep in mind if you use AI tools at work? These questions guided the creation of Making AI Work, a new AI mini-course newsletter. Read more about it, and sign up here to receive the seven editions straight to your inbox. The number of civil lawsuits it's pursuing has sharply dropped in comparison to Trump's first term. It's the latest example of Brussels' attempts to rein in Big Tech. Local governments and banks are only too happy to oblige promising startups. Cryptocurrency is now fully part of the financial system, for better or worse. "Agentic engineering" is the next big thing, apparently. Runners had long suspected its suggestions were pushing them towards injury. Only around three dozen supporters turned up. Its menswear suggestions are more manosphere influencer than suave gentleman. "There is no Plan B, because that assumes you will fail.


Consolidating systems for AI with iPaaS

MIT Technology Review

Years of layering new tools on old infrastructure has left enterprise IT brittle and fragmented. For decades, enterprises reacted to shifting business pressures with stopgap technology solutions. To rein in rising infrastructure costs, they adopted cloud services that could scale on demand. When customers shifted their lives onto smartphones, companies rolled out mobile apps to keep pace. And when businesses began needing real-time visibility into factories and stockrooms, they layered on IoT systems to supply those insights. Each new plug-in or platform promised better, more efficient operations.