There are endless crafty ways to keep plants watered while youre away from home: You can wick water from jugs, upend wine bottles into your planters, or simply pay the neighbors kid to come by. The problem is that all of these methods are imperfect, and all too often, you come home to plants that are over-watered, under-watered or neglected completely. This week at CES, LeafyPod introduced smart planters that dont simply hold onto a months worth of waterthey promise to take better care of your plants than a plant sitter.Self-watering planters have been helping plants the last few years by keeping water in a reservoir at the bottom of the planter, allowing the plant to intake what it needs, but this is also limitedyou usually get just a few weeks of watering. LeafyPods can hold a month of water, and rather than allowing the plant to slowly intake water on its own, the planters use sensors that monitor humidity, light, and temperature and then apply water to your plantonly as much as it needs. If youre worried about cords, the LeafyPod is wireless and cordless. The battery promises to last for six months, and is recharged via USB-C. Credit: LeafyPod LeafyPod uses AI (of course it does), and will spend a few weeks learning your plants habits and needs, and then will take over. When home, you work in tandem with LeafyPod. The app will identify the type of plant, and then make specialized recommendations to you specifically for that plant, whether it needs more light or humidity, or is too cold.Every single plant in my stewardship has specific needs, and theyre used to how I water. I know the signs of trouble for each of them, and Ive never been able to find a plant sitter that replaced me. I always assume Im coming home to a few dead plants, and Im rarely wrong, no matter how well meaning people are. For me, LeafyPod has a lot of potential. It also has some obvious limitations.First, theres the price. Each LeafyPod is about $75, and youll need a LeafyPod Bridge (also around $75) for your flock of pods. Second, the planters only come in one size: small. The internal dimensions of LeafyPod are 5.1 inches by 4.1 inches, which means even medium-sized plants are out of luck. Lastly, LeafyPod is decidedly modern looking, so youll need to make these all white planters work with your aesthetic. Still, I can see the upside of trusting LeafyPod with particularly spendy houseplants, rather than risking it with a housesitter. Even if youre home, I like the idea of something monitoring my plants and catching things I dont, like lighting needs and temperature issues.LeafyPod is on pre-order sale, with plans to ship in April 2025. One planter plus the bridge is $148, two planters and the bridge is $228, and three planters plus a bridge is $308.

I dont think I could deal with winter if I didnt have a few hot, comforting drinks to rely on; steaming mugs of hot chocolate, tea, or coffee feel like burying my head in the sand for 10 minutes. But Ive been growing a little tired of the usual suspects. Luckily, on a cold November morning, my sister-in-law introduced me to the most wonderfully rejuvenating drink: aguapanela con queso. This drink-snack combo has given me something to look forward to this winter.Aguapanela, simple and satisfyingAguapanela is a comforting sweet drink made from dissolving chopped panela, or piloncillo, into water. Panela is raw, unrefined cane sugar. Its usually sold in cones or large rounds, and shrink-wrapped in plastic. Panela is used all over Latin America but raw cane sugar is used frequently in other countries bearing different names, like jaggery or muscovado. Depending on the cooking method and the plant, the flavors and intensity of sweetness differ slightly. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann I started seeing panela available in the international aisle of large supermarkets and specialty markets around 10 or 15 years ago. It seems to be becoming more available as time goes on, and you can buy an eight-ounce cone for about $1.50. I promise itll be worth the splurge.Have your drink and cheese it tooYou dont have to speak fluent Spanish to understand that the con queso (with cheese) in this drink's name. It was the first time I ever spooned cheese out of my drink, and before I knew it, I couldnt stop.My sister-in-law explained that she was making us (me, my brother, and our dad) a breakfast drink she and her family would make in Colombia all the time. She handed us cups of brown liquid with a spoon in it and white blobs at the bottom. That was the queso. I spooned up a hunk of cheese and ate it, sipping some of the liquid at the same time. The cheese was soft (semi-melted in the steaming liquid), chewy, and a bit salty in a similar way to low-moisture mozzarella. The drink itself was sweet but full of flavorsmoky caramel, molasses, and did I detect anise?I asked her how she made this clearly complicated and nuanced drink. Well, you simply dissolve chopped panela sugar in water.How to make aguapanela con quesoShe explained that in Ibagu, Colombia they make aguapanela as an energizing drink that can be enjoyed hot or cold, and if youre feeling sick its common to drink it with fresh lime juice.1. Chop the panelaThese cane sugar bricks are hard, so you have to cut them. Even though its a type of brown sugar, its not like the kind you might be used to baking with. I use a large, sharp knife and run it down the edge to shave off strips. I think it dissolves a bit faster this way rather than to cut off big clumps. Ive read that some folks grate it with a microplane, but I feel like that would take a while.2. Dissolve it in hot waterPut the chopped sugar into a pot with water to dissolve over medium-low heat. Alternatively, you can put the sugar and water in a microwave-safe measuring cup and microwave it in 30-second-to-one-minute intervals. Stir to help dissolve the sugar.3. Add the cheeseOnce the drink is piping hot and the sugar has all dissolved, add small hunks of cheese to the cup to soften. Serve extra cheese on the side.This sweet and slightly salty combination is my current obsession. This type of cheese gets stretchy and chewy but it doesnt melt away to cloud up the drink. I like to eat a piece of cheese and sip the drink while I chew. Its a fun activity and, above all, a new way for me to enjoy cheese. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann You dont have to add cheese to your aguapanela, but I heartily suggest you give it a try. Check your supermarkets cheese fridge and look for Latin American cheeses. Tropical is probably the biggest brand supplier Ive seen in New York and it offers a wide variety. You can use quesito Colombiano, queso campesino, queso blanco, or panela cheese, and if you simply cant find those cheeses, you can use mozzarella. Personally, I would take low-moisture mozzarella over fresh mozzarella because of the saltiness, but its up to you.During this particularly gusty week in Brooklyn, Ill be doing ice-cold marathon training runs with one thing on my mindnot personal records, but hot aguapanela con queso when I get home.Aguapanela Con Queso RecipeIngredients: cup chopped panela (or piloncillo) cup boiling waterAs many chunks of queso as youd like (or try lime juice, or cinnamon)1. Combine the chopped panela and water in a microwave safe cup. Stir and heat in the microwave in 30 second installments until the sugar is dissolved and the drink is piping hot. Taste it to see if you want more panela or more water. 2. Add pieces of queso and let them soften for a few moments before enjoying.

There was no question that NVIDIA's RTX 5000 GPUs would be one of the biggest stories at CES 2025, and I figured Intel and AMD to arrive with some new hardware of their own. But I didn't expect that each of these companies would, in their own way, be putting the pedal to the metal when it comes to power for their chip designs. After all, we've spent the last few years covering AI PC CPUs that was targeting efficiency more than raw performance.While NVIDIA RTX 5000 GPUs seem to deliver the performance leap we expected over its 2022-era cards, AMD is also redefining what's possible for mobile workstations with its Ryzen AI Max chips, which combine powerful graphics with gobs of integrated memory. Intel isn't sitting still either it's finally moving Arrow Lake into the high-performance and gaming arena with its Core Ultra 200HX chips, which can reach up to 24 cores and 5.5GHz speeds.I'm not just talking about power in the sheer performance sense, either. NVIDIA's $1,999 RTX 5090 requires a 1,000-watt power supply to function and uses up to 575 watts. The Ryzen AI Max chips, meanwhile, could eat up as much as 120-watts. Intel's Core Ultra 200HX chips go as high as 120-watts. Clearly, none of this hardware is meant for anyone concerned about their energy bills or potential laptop battery life.RTX 5090RTX 5080RTX 5070 TiRTX 5070RTX 4090ArchitectureBlackwellBlackwellBlackwellBlackwellLovelaceCUDA cores21,76010,7528,9606,14416,384AI TOPS3,3521,8011,4069881,321Tensor cores5th Gen5th Gen5th Gen5th Gen4th GenRT cores4th Gen4th Gen4th Gen4th Gen3rd GenVRAM32 GB GDDR716 GB GDDR716 GB GDDR712 GB GDDR724 GB GDDR6XMemory bandwidth1,792 GB/sec960 GB/sec896 GB/sec672 GB/sec1,008 GB/secTGP575W360W300W250W450WSo what do you get for all of this energy consumption? AMD says the RTX 5090 will deliver roughly twice the performance of its previous flagship, the $1,499 RTX 4090. In a 4K Cyberpunk 2077 demo with full ray tracing, the 4090 hovered around 108 fps while the 5090 was reaching 240 fps. That frame count is a bit controversial, though, since the RTX 5090's DLSS 4 AI upscaling generates three frames for every natively rendered frame. The end result may look smoother to most people, but some gamers might question the integrity of so-called false frames.It's those same AI-generated frames that allow NVIDIA to proclaim that the $549 RTX 5070 could be as powerful as the 4090. That may be true when it comes to pure frames-per-second count, but it certainly won't be for rasterized performance without DLSS 4.AMD's Ryzen AI Max chips aren't aiming for the same sort of graphical heights as NVIDIA's new GPUs, but they're still notable for the sheer amount of hardware they contain. The top-of-the-line Ryzen AI Max+ 395 sports 16 CPU Zen 5 cores, 50 TOPS of AI performance and 40 RDNA 3.5 GPU compute units. According to AMD, it should be on-part with Apple's 14-core M4 Pro chip (and even faster in the Vray benchark), and it's 2.6 times faster in 3D rendering than Intel's Core Ultra 9 288V.AMDIn an interview with AMD CVP and product CTO Joe Macri, he told Engadget that the success of Apple Silicon as a major reason why the Ryzen AI Max exists. "What Apple showed was consumers don't care what's inside the box," he said. Macri later noted, "I always knew, because we were building APUs, and I'd been pushing for this big APU forever, that I could build, a system that was smaller, faster, and I could give much higher performance at the same power."AMD also briefly previewed its RDNA 4 graphics at CES, though at this point it's clearly aiming for the mid-range and not NVIDIA's RTX 5090. Notably, AMD will debut a new AI powered upscaling technology in RDNA 4 GPUs, FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4). That should finally give AMD a way to directly compete against NVIDA's DLSS, which for years has looked better than earlier versions of FSR. The first RDNA 4 cards, the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, will arrive sometime in the first quarter.Intel's presence at CES 2024 was more muted than the competition, but loyalists will likely appreciate the new Core Ultra 200HX chips. While they scale back NPU performance from its recent AI PC hardware (12 TOPS down from 48 TOPS), the Core Ultra 9 285HX looks like a 24-core beast. It'll be interesting to see how it competes AMD's Ryzen AI 300 hardware, though it likely won't stand a chance against the Ryzen AI Max when paired up with a discrete GPU.IntelThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/nvidia-amd-and-intel-aimed-for-maximum-power-at-ces-2025-150038070.html?src=rss

At CES 2017, Faraday Future introduced its futuristic luxury EV, the FF 91. Seven years later, following repeated delays, bankruptcy, lawsuits and other controversies, the company has sold 15 or 16 FF 91s. Now the company is detailing its latest strategy shift, with a plan to sell cheap EVs under its new low-cost FX brand. FX CEO Max Ma came to CES, along with two prototype vehicles, to pitch the plan that he described as a fresh start for the embattled company.As you might expect with Faraday, the exact details are somewhat hazy, but it involves sourcing parts from Chinese car-makers and bringing them to the US to produce mass volume mainstream vehicles with some of the premium touches Faraday is known for. We want to take that $300,000-car expertise from a technology and features and performance [standpoint] into a $30,000, $40,000 car to try to upgrade the overall user experience, Ma said during a briefing with Engadget. The first FX vehicle, the flagship product of the brands lineup, will be a minivan (or, as Ma referred to it, an AI MPV") called the "Super One."Faraday showed off two prototype minivans to demonstrate the concept. We were not permitted to take photos but the vehicles in the photo at the top of this post are the ones I saw.One was meant to show the kind of premium in-cabin experience Faraday is envisioning for the low-cost car. It had two rows of white leather captain seats. The second-row seats had reclining footrests, heated seats and built-in massagers. There was also a small fridge underneath the center console for keeping drinks cold. The vehicle was missing its door handles and several other pieces. Obviously, well have door handles, a Faraday rep assured us.The second minivan was even less finished. The entire interior, including the dashboard and instrument cluster, was covered in black fabric held together with binder clips. But a Faraday rep took me and other reporters for a ride in it, driving in small, slow circles around a Las Vegas parking lot. Later, Faraday offered to let me take the minivan for a spin and I apparently the first lady to pilot the vehicle also drove it in slow circles around the parking lot. Im not sure what I was supposed to get out of it, though, it felt like driving a minivan.There are two other vehicles planned for the initial FX lineup, the FX 5 and FX 6, which were previously announced by the company. Faraday is aiming for a $20,000 - $30,000 price for the FX 5 and $30,000 - $50,000 for the FX 6. There aren't many other details yet about either, though Faraday shared a teaser image of an FX 6 prototype, which it described as an "extra-large luxury AIEV."Faraday FutureFaraday claims it will start producing one of its planned vehicles later this year, with the first "pre-production" model rolling off the production line by the end of 2025, according to a timeline shared by Ma. Thats a lofty promise considering the companys past history of mismanagement and delays. Faraday Future CEO Matthias Aydt also acknowledged that the company has yet to finalize its partnerships with the companies that will supply its parts. He also didnt address how tariffs may affect those plans.Ma said he understood the skepticism. Basically, this is a kind of fresh start. We really want to demonstrate that through our dedication of hard work, we can achieve what we promised.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/faraday-future-pitches-a-fresh-start-with-a-minivan-ev-prototype-at-ces-2025-010050422.html?src=rss

Google has teamed up with the Linux Foundation to establish a new initiative called the "Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers." At the moment, most of the money that keeps Chromium, the open-source web browser project that produced the codebase powering Chrome, comes from Google. The company says it has no intention of reducing its contribution going forward, but it also continues to "welcome others stepping up to invest more."Under the Linux Foundation's management, the new initiative aims to fund the open development of Chromium projects and ensure proper support for contributions that could lead to technological advancements. It's also meant to provide a "neutral space" where developers, members of the academia and big industry players can work together. Aside from Google, Microsoft, Meta and Opera have also pledged their support for the initiative.Google said it established the new program after hearing from "many companies and developers about how critical the Chromium project is to their work" and how they would like to give it more than direct engineering support over the years. Chrome is just one of the browsers built on Chromium Microsoft's Edge and Opera are also based on the project's codebase, so their involvement in the initiative doesn't really come as a surprise.It's worth noting that the Department of Justice called for the breakup of Google last year, including a sale of the Chrome web browser. Google said in its announcement that it intends to continue supporting the Chromium project, but only time will tell if selling off Chrome will affect its contributions.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/a-new-initiative-will-fund-and-support-open-source-chromium-projects-143028118.html?src=rss

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We've waited a while to see the veil lifted on the future of handheld gaming, and CES 2025 has done just that.

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When Russell Maichel started growing almonds, walnuts and pistachios in the 1980s, he didnt own a cellphone. Now, a fully autonomous tractor drives through his expansive orchard, spraying pesticides and fertilizer to protect the trees that have for decades filled him with an immense sense of pride.The sustainability of doing things perfectly the first time makes a lot of sense, the first-generation farmer told The Associated Press at CES 2025, where John Deere unveiled a fleet of fully autonomous heavy equipment, including the tractor Maichel has been testing on his northern California farm.Sustainability is a key theme this year at the annual tech trade show in Las Vegas. From Volvo CEO Martin Lundstedt announcing their commitment to net-zero emissions by 2040 to Wisconsin-based OshKosh Corporation showing off its electric fire engines and garbage trucks, companies big and small are showcasing their green innovations and initiatives.We absolutely need more climate-smart technologies, said Jacqueline Heard, CEO and co-founder of Enko Chem, which researches climate tech solutions in agriculturean industry Heard says is under a lot of pressure right now.That much is clear on the CES show floor, where farming is on full display and company leaders are highlighting the impacts of climate change and labor shortages on farmers.Not far from John Deeres booth where autonomous tractors and dump trucks are towering over conference attendees, Kubota, another equipment manufacturing company, is showcasing its AI technology that detects diseases in crops and sprays where pests have been identified.Todd Stucke, president of Kubota Tractor Corporation, said AI is the future of farming, especially with summers getting longer and storms getting stronger.Stucke himself grew up on a potato farm in Ohio. Each night after dinner, his father would scour the field for bugs and then send Stucke out to spray the crops with insecticides.We sprayed the whole field, but we mightve only needed to spray a part of the field or a plant, he said. Take that analogy into vineyards, orchards, and so forth, you dont have to spray everything.This is known as precision agriculture, Heard said. It allows farmers to really optimize their land.The idea, Heard said, is that farmers can expand the lifespan and improve the quality of their crops while using fewer chemicals, like pesticides and fertilizer.Its good for the environment. Its good for farmers, she said.Heard said she wouldnt be surprised if AI can one day help farmers map out their land, showing them the different soil types and what kinds of crops would grow best there.It could be that with climate change, they should move to a crop thats much more adapted to this new world, she said.Back at the John Deere booth, Maichel, a tree nut farmer, said hes hopeful that advancements in AI will help him better manage the unpredictability of farming. Each year on his orchard is different from the last.Theres no sliding scale, per se, that we have to deal with as far as climate change goes, he said. We really bend to the climate that were dealt with. Its not something I can predict. Its really something we have to adapt to every growing season.If someone had told him just 10 years ago that a tractor would one day be driving itself through his orchard, he said he wouldnt have believed it. But now, he says, he sees how this evolving technology can help him adapt to the changing industry and climate.We all need to eat, right? Maichel said. A farmers job is one that we all need.Associated Press video journalist Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos contributed to this report.Rio Yamat, Associated Press

The high school where Brian De Palma brought Stephen Kings Carrie to life, Will Rogers ranch house, and a motel owned by William Randolph Hearst are among some of the famous structures that have been damaged or destroyed by the California wildfires.Los Angeles is a town full of landmarks, thanks to its costarring role in over a century of filmed entertainment. Some famed spotslike the Hollywood Bowl, the TCL Chinese Theatre, and the Dolby Theatre, where the Oscars are heldinitially seemed imperiled by the Hollywood Hills fire, yet remained at least largely unharmed Thursday. But the fires have taken a toll on some familiar sites.Palisades Charter High SchoolThere was significant damage to Palisades Charter High School, though the main campus building stands. Founded in 1961 and built for a reported $6 million, the high school currently serves some 3,000 students throughout the Los Angeles area, though they were not in session this week.FAMOUS CREDITS: De Palmas 1976 adaptation of Carrie, starring Sissy Spacek as the outcast teen, is perhaps Pali Highs most recognizable credit. Its also played high schools in the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday, with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, the Kirsten Dunst movie Crazy/Beautiful, the Anne Hathaway film Havoc, the television series Teen Wolf and American Vandal, and the music video for Olivia Rodrigos good 4 u. Notable alumni include filmmaker J.J. Abrams, actors Jennifer Jason Leigh and Forest Whitaker, musician will.i.am, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.Will Rogers ranch houseWill Rogers Western Ranch House, a property dating back to the 1920s, was completely destroyed in the Palisades Fire. Built on 186 acres in the Pacific Palisades area, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it had 31 rooms, corrals, a stable, riding ring, roping arena, polo field, golf course, and hiking trails. It was where the famed actor (once one of the highest paid) and radio personality would ride horses and practice roping before his death in 1935. His widow, Betty Rogers, gave the property to the state in 1944 and it became a historic state park.FAMOUS CREDITS: The state park was featured in the 1975 Barbra Streisand sequel Funny Lady.Topanga Ranch MotelThe Palisades Fire also destroyed the Topanga Ranch Motel, a 30-room, bungalow-style motel built by William Randolph Hearst in 1929. The property had been uninhabited and deteriorating for nearly 20 years, but there were plans for a restoration and reopening in the works.FAMOUS CREDITS: The 1970s television series Mannix as well as an episode of Remington Steele, the 1986 Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy movie Blue City, and the 1991 Bridget Fonda movie Leather Jackets.Reel Inn MalibuThis seafood shack on the Pacific Coast Highway and across the street from Topanga Beach State Park opened in 1986 and burned to the ground in the fire. In an Instagram post, the owners wrote that they werent sure what would remain of the beloved spot. Hopefully the state parks will let us rebuild when the dust settles, Teddy and Andy Leonard wrote.FAMOUS CREDITS: Its been featured on shows like Man v. Food and The Chew and counted the likes of Cindy Crawford, Paris Hilton, and Jerry Seinfeld as fans of its fried seafood fare. It also made a cameo in 24.The Bunny MuseumA quirky Los Angelesarea oddity, The Bunny Museum, located in Altadena and dedicated to all things bunnies, was also destroyed. The museum had all sorts of bunny-themed items, from Trix boxes and bottles of Nesquik to Bugs Bunny paraphernalia and magazine covers of performer Bad Bunny. There was also a Chamber of Hop Horrors detailing the historical abuse of bunnies that had an age requirement: 13 and up.FAMOUS CREDITS: Its made the Guinness Book of World Records, and been featured in Ripleys Believe It Or Not!, the Smithsonian Magazine, and an episode of VisitingWith Huell Howser.Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer