We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.Most people buying TVs focus on the visuals, looking for words like 4K and OLED, meaning the audio aspect often takes a back seat. If you want to understand dialogue and not rely on subtitles, getting a soundbar is a must and will take your TV-watching experience to the next level. The best deal of the year so far on a quality soundbar is upon us: The Samsung Q990D 11.1.4ch Soundbar is on sale for $997.99 (originally $1,997.99) on Woot, a 50% discount. This is the lowest price this soundbar has been, according to price tracking tools. Samsung HW-Q990D Q-series 11.1.4ch Soundbar Wireless Subwoofer (2), Wireless Surround Speaker (Left/Right), HDMI Cable, Wall Mountable. $997.99 at Woot $1,997.99 Save $1,000.00 Get Deal Get Deal $997.99 at Woot $1,997.99 Save $1,000.00 The Samsung HW-Q990D Q-series 11.1.4ch soundbar is considered one of the best premium soundbars, even a year after its release. You get a wall-mountable soundbar with the wall-mount kit included, a wireless subwoofer, two wireless surround rear speakers (one left and one right), a remote control, and an HDMI 2.1 cable. The HDMI 2.1 is great for gamers since it allows 4K at 120Hz passthrough. There is also an eARC input, which is separate from the two HDMI 2.1 inputs, making it ideal to have two gaming consoles connected at the same time while able to switch to watch movies on your TV seamlessly. Of course, there's also wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Dolby 5.1, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby TrueHD for an immersive and dimensional audio experience. If you want to quickly connect to your sound system, you can connect your iPhone with AirPlay 2 or your Android with Chromecast or Alexa. Another cool feature is the Adaptive Sound, which auto-adjusts audio levels to optimize it depending on what you're watching (an action movie will have a different sound EQ to a drama). The SpaceFit Sound Pro tunes the audio depending on your room layout to also optimize the sound. There's also a Game Mode Pro feature for gamers that enhances directional sound, making full use of the surround sound. At 50% off, this soundbar system is the best value you can get for those looking for a premium audio experience.

The Windows Snipping Tool is best known for its screenshot-taking capabilitiesafter all, when you launch it from the Start menu, that's what it invites you to do. But Microsoft has packed a number of other unexpected, useful functions into this program.These extra features aren't particularly well-advertised nor easy to access, so you'll be forgiven if you've never come across them before. Open it via the Win+Shift+S keyboard shortcut or through the Start menu, and check out what it can do.Run an image searchIf you want to know more about an image you've capturedor any image on your system that you open up in the Snipping Toolyou can use it to run an image search on the internet. It's helpful for everything from shopping for products to looking up info about landmarks.To try it, open an image in Snipping Tool, click the three dots in the top right corner, then choose Visual Search with Bing. You'll be directed to Microsoft's search engine in your default browser, and from there you can click through on any result to see more.Extract text from images Extracting text from an image. Credit: Lifehacker The Snipping Tool also works well as an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program. With a picture loaded up on screen, click the Text actions button at the top (the horizontal lines inside a frame) to identify text in an image and make it available to highlight.From there you can copy some or all of the text to the Windows clipboard and other programsvery handy if you need to pull text out of receipts or documents, for example. Click Quick redact to ignore any text containing email addresses and phone numbers.Scan QR codesLifehacker has written before about how the Snipping Tool can turn itself into a QR code reader, though this is limited to QR codes embedded in images; you can't scan a QR code that you've pointing your laptop's webcam at (which is probably for the best anyway).The process is the same as it is for text extraction: Open the image in the Snipping Tool, then click Text actions (the button with horizontal lines in a frame), and as long as the image you're dealing with has a QR code inside it, you'll see a clickable link appear on top.Record video and audio Switch to movie mode to record clips. Credit: Lifehacker This perhaps counts as a screenshot feature, but it's still worth mentioning: The Snipping Tool is a capable video and audio recorder, so you can use it to record whatever's going on your screen. Just click the movie camera button then the + New button (both top right).You have the option of recording the entirety of the screen, or just a particular section of it (by dragging the edges of the selection window). When the recording is in progress, a control bar appears at the top with options for including system and microphone audio.Editing images to add annotations or emojiThe Snipping Tool can also be a handy way to add highlights and annotations to your picturesremember, you can open any image in the app, not just screenshots. Maybe you want to highlight the key message in a text conversation, for example.With an image open inside the Snipping Tool, you'll see four buttons on the top toolbar: the pen, the highlighter, the eraser, and the shapes tool (which also lets you drop in emojis). Click once to select a tool, then click the button again to bring up its options.

It's always gratifying when something promised at CES actually comes to market. That's the case with the Pebble Flow electric trailer that my colleague Sam Rutherford checked out last year's CES. I was able to see the final draft on the show floor this week and was adequately impressed. Like the (four!) other sustainable, electrified tiny homes we saw this year, it was shiny and luxe and decked out in wood tones, glass, metal and white polymers. The main features that drew us to the Flow last year remain intact: sleeping for four, a 45 kWh battery and a 1.1 kW solar panel, full kitchen and bath, a queen-size Murphy bed that transforms into a shared working space and a convertible dinette at the other end. The kitchen faucet even spins 180-degrees and out the window to let you do some washing up outside. The option for the Magic Pack add-on is still here. For an upcharge, it allows the Flow to self-park, automatically hitch itself and provide it's own propulsion from dual motors so it's not such a drag (literally) on the vehicle that's towing it. One of the coolest features is still the glass separating the bathroom from the rest of the cabin. At the push of a button it goes from clear to opaque so you can have some privacy without having to kick your entire family out of the trailer. Amy Skorheim for Engadget As for what's new, those changes were partly sourced from prospective customers. One directive was "more windows," so a skylight was added, along with a larger window at the back. The cupboards are now easier to access by flipping up instead of down. And the overall shape was refined to be more aerodynamic. Walking around in the Flow, everything felt soothing and clean. The bed was so plush I wanted to melt into it. The seating area was inviting and spacious. It was tough to leave this homey pod (especially considering how stupendously hard it is to just find a place to sit down at CES). I don't have a vehicle that can pull a trailer, but I would love to park one of these in my backyard. Even if I never took it on the road, I'd happily hang out in its well-appointed comfort and even (reluctantly) give it up to guests when they visited. Production on the Flow will begin early this year and shipping is scheduled for spring. The option without the motor assist and self-parking features will go for $109,500. If you want the Magic Pack package, that brings your price to $135,500. There's also a "Founders Edition" with a limited-edition color scheme and a few more upgrades going for $175,000. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/cess-pebble-flow-ev-trailer-gets-some-tweaks-ahead-of-its-spring-shipping-date-161502791.html?src=rss

Meta knowingly used pirated materials to train its Llama AI models with the blessing of company chief Mark Zuckerberg according to an ongoing copyright lawsuit against the company. As TechCrunch reports, the plaintiffs of the Kadrey v. Meta case submitted court documents talking about the company's use of of the LibGen dataset for AI training.LibGen is generally described as a "shadow library" that provides file-sharing access to academic and general-interest books, journals, images and other materials. The counsel for the plaintiffs, which include writers Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, accused Zuckerberg of approving the use of LibGen for training despite concerns raised by company executives and employees who described it as a "dataset [they] know to be pirated."The company removed copyright information from LibGen materials, the complaint also said, before feeding them to Llama. Meta apparently admitted in a document submitted to court that it "remov[ed] all the copyright paragraphs from beginning and the end" of scientific journal articles. One of its engineers even reportedly made a script to automatically delete copyright information. The counsel argued that Meta did so to conceal its copyright infringement activities from the public. In addition, the counsel mentioned that Meta admitted to torrenting LibGen materials, even though its engineers felt uneasy about sharing them "from a [Meta-owned] corporate laptop."Silverman, alongside other writers, sued Meta and OpenAI for copyright infringement in 2023. They accused the companies of using pirated materials from shadow libraries to train their AI models. The court previously dismissed some of their claims, but the plaintiffs said their amended complaint supports their allegations and addresses the court's earlier reasons for dismissal.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/lawsuit-says-mark-zuckerberg-approved-metas-use-of-pirated-materials-to-train-llama-ai-141548827.html?src=rss

Tesla has quietly unveiled its facelifted Model Y with new styling that will help it keep up with rivals like Kia and Volvo. Though currently only available in the Asia Pacific region, the refreshed "Juniper" model is likely to appear stateside in the coming months. That was the case with the revised Model 3, which first appeared in Asia in September 2023 and went on sale in the US in January the following year.The new Model Y retains the gawky proportions of its predecessor, but looks sleeker thanks to smoothed out front and rear ends. The smaller headlights bookend a slim lightbar across the front, with a similar treatment for the taillights. In the case of the lights, the new design language is more aligned with the Cybertruck than the Model 3.TeslaMany interior treatments on the Model Y are similar to the Model 3, with one notable exception. Like the Model 3, it has new ventilated seats, a rear-seat display and a light strip that wraps around much of the vehicle. However, the new steering wheel lacks the turn signal buttons found on the Model 3 instead, the Juniper Model Y uses a stalk like its predecessor. Tesla may have done that to keep it competitive with rivals, particularly in China where it's up against juggernaut rival BYD.Tesla is offering rear-wheel drive and long-range all-wheel drive versions in Australia, but no performance option for now. It's promising up to 342 miles (551 km) of range by the WLTP cycle on the long-range model, or around 307 miles by US EPA standards. However, US models could have different battery specs and thus different range numbers.TeslaThe new model arrives in good time for Tesla. In 2024, the company saw its first drop in vehicle deliveries since 2012, even though it improved in its key market, China. The redesigned Model Y will start shipping there in March 2025 and is likely to arrive elsewhere in several months, though the company has yet to nail down a date for US deliveries.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-finally-launches-the-refreshed-2025-model-y-in-the-asia-pacific-region-133010038.html?src=rss

Two display options to stretch the battery life

According to a new rumor, this years highest-end Samsung flagship may ship without a Bluetooth-enabled S Pen, which would mean losing access to a handful of great features.

See which companies took home this year's awards!

Its supposed to be the rainy season in Southern California, but the last time Los Angeles measured more than a tenth-inch of rain was eight months ago, after the city logged one of the soggiest periods in its recorded history. Since then, bone-dry conditions have set the stage for the catastrophic wildfires now descending upon the metropolis from multiple directions.This quick cycling between very wet and very dry periodsone example of what scientists have come to call weather whiplashcreates prime conditions for wildfires: The rain encourages an abundance of brush and grass, and once all that vegetation dries out, it only takes a spark and a gust of wind to fuel a deadly fire. Thats what happened in Los Angeles County this week, when a fierce windstorm fueled the Palisades and Eaton fires, which as of Thursday night had killed at least 10 people, destroyed more than 4,000 structures, and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.The kind of weather whiplash that fueled the fires is only becoming more common, and not just in the United States. A new analysis in the peer-reviewed academic journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment has found that rapid shifts between heavy rain and drought (and vice versa) are becoming more intenseand the trend is unfolding faster than climate models have projected. Across the worlds land area, weather whiplash within three-month periods has increased by 31% to 66% since the mid-20th century, according to the research. That means that most places around the world find themselves getting both wetter and drier in quick succession, a dangerous combination that can lead to landslides, crop losses, and even the spread of diseases.The volatility of wet and dry extremes is this sort of emerging signature of climate change, said Daniel Swain, a coauthor of the paper and a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. This year, unfortunately, I couldnt have asked for a better poster child for this process than Southern California.Swain, along with researchers across the United States and in Switzerland, analyzed a flurry of recent research on what they refer to as hydroclimate volatility and developed a way to measure how it might get worse in the future. They found that the swings between very wet and very dry weather are rising exponentially for each passing fraction of a degree the globe warms.I do think this is a big part of the reason why it feels like climate change has accelerated, Swain said.To understand why wet and dry periods are becoming more extreme, it can help to think of the atmosphere as a kitchen sponge thats becoming more and more absorbent as it warms. When you wring out this more powerful sponge, it sends down heavier rains than before. On the other hand, when the sponge dries out, it has even more capacity to suck up moisture from the soil and plants below, parching the landscape and turning it into tinder. The papers authors coin a new phrase for this phenomenon: the expanding atmospheric sponge effect. Jim Stagge, who runs the Hydrologic Extremes Research Laboratory at The Ohio State University and was not involved in the new research, called it a clever analogy and said the papers evidence was generally convincing. The volatile swings between wet and dry patterns arent unfolding uniformly across the world. The Mediterranean, for example, is getting less rain on average, whereas the eastern United States is getting distinctly wetter, according to Swain. While the expanding atmospheric sponge effect is happening everywhere, changes in regional weather patterns are either countering some of its effects or else amplifying them. The regions experiencing the biggest whiplash include a broad swath of land from northern Africa through the Arabian Peninsula and into South Asia, as well as high latitudes in Canada and Eurasia, the research found.Adapting to a future thats both wetter and drier presents a unique social challenge. For instance, it would be easy to get tunnel vision and focus on preparing for water scarcity, only to accidentally make a town more vulnerable to flooding in the process, Swain pointed out. Flexibility is key to successful interventions, according to the new paper. Some options include expanding natural floodplains and removing impermeable pavement from citiesapproaches that allow the soil to absorb more rainfall, lessening flood risk, and at the same time stockpiling water underground for future use.While extreme weather like that highlighted in the new research gets the most attention, its also worth noting what the world is seeing less of as the climate changes: the moderate weather of the past. Light rain, the study observes, is becoming less common nearly everywhere.When it rains, it pours, Swain said. Literally.This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here.

Canada is looking at putting retaliatory tariffs on American orange juice, toilets and some steel products if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his threat to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian products, a senior official familiar with the matter said Thursday.The official said the wide-ranging list hasnt been completed yet. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.Trump said this week he will use economic coercion to pressure Canada to become the nations 51st state. And he continues to erroneously cast the U.S. trade deficit with Canadaa natural resource-rich nation that provides the U.S. with commodities like oilas a subsidy.Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Trump is trying to distract from his threats of stiff tariffs by talking about making Canada the 51st state.President Trump, who is a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that conversation, Trudeau said.Everything American consumers buy from Canada is suddenly going to get a lot more expensive if he moves forward on these tariffs. And thats something we need to be focusing on a little bit more.Trudeau made comments in an interview with CNN in Washington, where he attended the funeral for the late U.S. President Jimmy Carter.When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.We would definitely respond as we did years ago, Trudeau said.Yogurt imports from Wisconsin and whiskey from Kentucky, the home states of top Republicans Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell respectively, were hit with 10% duties in 2018.Florida, Trumps home state, is known for its extensive citrus production.Trump claimed again Thursday that the U.S doesnt need anything from Canada, including oil.Almost a quarter of the oil the U.S. consumes every day is from Canada, with Alberta exporting 4.3 million barrels a day to the U.S. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels a day, while domestically producing about 13.2 million barrels a day.We dont need their energy. We dont need their oil and gas, Trump said. We dont need anything that they have.Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the leader of Canadas most populous province, said Trump has been misinformed about the U.S. not needing Canadian products.Supply chains for the auto industry are deeply connected, with parts manufactured in Ontario being used in cars that are assembled in Detroit and then sold back to Canada. Ford has noted that in the auto sector alone parts can go back and forth across the Canada-U.S. border several times.Ford warned that Canada will retaliate if Trump imposes tariffs. He said a wide range of U.S. products shipped to Canada will be targeted, but he declined to specify which ones.Top Canadian government officials say Trumps comments that Canada should become the 51st state are no longer a joke and are meant to undermine Americas closest ally.The joke is over, Dominic LeBlanc, the countrys finance minister and point person for U.S.-Canada relations, said Wednesday. Its a way for him, I think, to sow confusion, to agitate people, to create chaos knowing this will never happen.LeBlanc has been talking to incoming Trump Cabinet officials about a billion-dollar plan to increase border security in an effort to deflect Trumps threat of tariffs. Trudeau called that a win for Trump.Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.Rob Gillies, Associated Press