You might have noticed that most gear for outdoor use, such as backpacks and vests, have plenty of hooks, latches, and straps. These are designed to allow you to have a few critical objects outside and within reach at a moments notice. And what could be more critical these days than a power bank thats always ready to juice up your phone for outdoor emergencies or dramatic selfies?Not all power banks come with carrying straps, even the smaller ones. And even if you could hook them into some of these loops and eyes, that would mean theyd be dangling and swaying back and forth precariously. This simple design solves that problem by combining two designs in one, resulting in a multi-purpose accessory that could be of great use even if youre not the type to always go on outdoor adventures.Designer: NestoutIs it a carabiner with an attached power bank or a power bank with a built-in carabiner? Look at it from whichever angle you want, it will still be the same rugged accessory that clings to you in every trip and journey. Clip it anywhere you want, whether on a bag strap or on a jacket loop and youre ready to answer the call of adventure, confident that your phone wont die out on you until you get to your next pit stop.The 5,000mAh battery inside is probably enough to give most phones another life, or at least even half if youre using it while charging. Thanks to that small capacity, its also easy to charge so you dont have to waste daylight waiting for it to be ready for another trek. Its also IP44-rated, so theres at least some protection against light rain and dust. It makes no qualms about its rugged appearance since its designed to be used in equally rugged situations.That said, theres nothing preventing you from using this Carabiner Battery anywhere else, at least if you dont mind carrying around what definitely looks like an outdoor tool. It even has features youll probably want regardless of your location, like a built-in phone stand that can hold some phones upright, depending on their sizes.One thing that would have made this design even better is if it had a built-in USB-C cable. It does have a separate clip to act as a way to hold a short charging cable in place, but its still a separate thing you need to be careful not to lose along your way. Retractable cables seem to be a rising trend in chargers and power banks today, but even a simple, short strip could go a long way in making the Carabiner Battery a self-sufficient accessory designed for the great outdoors.The post Chunky carabiner is actually a petite power bank for your outdoor adventures first appeared on Yanko Design.

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MacworldIt seems obvious: when you open a file in an app through theFile > Openmenu item, you would like to have the same location chosen when you chooseFile > Savefor a new file orFile > Save As(Option key may be required) to save the document under a new name.Clicking the current folder name displays recent folders. The dropdown list shows the most recent locations youve used.The Open dialog (and Save As) dont retain the last place you opened or saved in macOS.FoundryIf you want to control the snapping back of Open/Save As dialogs, you need to install a third-party app, such asDefault Folder X($39.95).This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Ken.Ask Mac 911Weve compiled a list of the questions we get asked most frequently, along with answers and links to columns:read our super FAQto see if your question is covered. If not, were always looking for new problems to solve! Email yours tomac911@macworld.com, including screen captures as appropriate and whether you want your full name used. Not every question will be answered; we dont reply to emails, and we cannot provide direct troubleshooting advice.

MacworldApple released an update to iOS, so what should you expect? We take a look at whats in iOS 18.3, plus talk about the latest Apple news, in this episode of the Macworld Podcast!This is episode 919 with Jason Cross, Michael Simon, and Roman Loyola.Watch episode 919 on YouTubeListen to episode 919 on Apple PodcastsListen to episode 919 on SpotifyGet infoFor more information about the topics discussed on the show, click on the links below.5 small (but still kinda big) changes coming to your iPhone in iOS 18.3macOS 15 Sequoia superguide: macOS Sequoia 15.3 now availableThis MacBook Pro was too busted for even AppleCare+ to repairIts safe to wear Apple Watch bands, Apple assures in response to lawsuitOver a dozen ways Samsung ripped off Apple at the Galaxy S25 launchSubscribe to the Macworld PodcastYou can subscribe to the Macworld Podcastor leave us a review!right here in the Podcasts app. The Macworld Podcast is also available on Spotify and on the Macworld Podcast YouTube channel. Or you can point your favorite podcast-savvy RSS reader at: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/macworldTo find previous episodes, visit Macworlds podcast page or our home on MegaPhone.Apple

Chinas Alibaba Group has launched an upgraded version of its Qwen 2.5 AI model, claiming it outperforms models from DeepSeek, OpenAI, and Meta, as competition in the AI market intensifies.Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B, Alibabas cloud unit said on its WeChat account, according to Reuters.On its GitHub page, the company showed benchmarking results indicating that its instruct models designed for tasks like chat and coding mostly outperformed GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3, and Llama-3.1-405B, while performing comparably to Claude 3.5-Sonnet.The launch follows DeepSeeks disruptive entry into the market, marked by the Jan 10 debut of its AI assistant powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model and the Jan 20 release of its open-source R1 model.The Chinese startups low-cost strategy has shaken Silicon Valley, sending tech stocks lower and prompting investors to question the sustainability of major US AI firms high-spending approach.Chinas AI race heats upAlibabas launch coincided with the Lunar New Year holiday, a time when much of China is on break, underscoring the growing competitive pressure from DeepSeek.DeepSeeks rapid ascent over the past three weeks has intensified rivalry not only with global players but also among Chinese tech firms.The AI model war is no longer just China versus the US competition within China is also intensifying as companies like DeepSeek, Alibaba, and others innovate and optimize their models to serve a high-scale domestic market, said Neil Shah, partner and co-founder at Counterpoint Research. Chinese companies are being pushed to innovate further due to resource constraints, including limited access to the most advanced semiconductors, global-scale data, tools, infrastructure, and audiences.The race for frugal AIThe race to develop high-performance, cost-efficient AI models is intensifying, challenging the business strategies and pricing structures of major US hyperscalers and AI firms as they seek to recover billions in investment.This gives enterprise buyers and decision-makers more leverage, increasing pricing pressure on AI applications built with more expensive underlying models, Shah said. Such breakthroughs will force enterprises to reconsider, or at least rethink, the economics of AI investments and their choice of models and vendors.DeepSeek is driving immediate pricing considerations in two key areas of AI raw token costs and model development expenses. These factors may force AI companies worldwide to consider optimizing their models to remain competitive.DeepSeeks success also highlights the power of open source, strengthening the argument that open-source AI could become a dominant market later, said Hyoun Park, CEO and chief analyst at Amalgam Insights. If that happens, companies with strong open-source business models for enterprises such as IBM Red Hat and Canonical could step in and rapidly scale AI-related managed services.The geopolitics advantageGeopolitics remains a wild card for Western AI firms, potentially tilting the market in their favor by restricting the adoption of Chinese models in certain regions.At the same time, China is likely to tighten controls on the use of Western AI models, mirroring restrictions seen with other tech applications.Enterprises will first assess whether these models comply with global privacy and regulatory standards before adopting them at scale, said Sharath Srinivasamurthy, associate vice president of Research at IDC.DeepSeeks advancements could lead to more accessible and affordable AI solutions, but they also require careful consideration of strategic, competitive, quality, and security factors, Srinivasamurthy said.However, Chinas substantial investment in AI research and development is only beginning to yield results, according to Srinivasamurthy. Other Chinese firms, like Alibaba, which have also been investing in AI in recent years, may soon start launching their own models.

A Canadian startup called Xanadu has built a new quantum computer it says can be easily scaled up to achieve the computational power needed to tackle scientific challenges ranging from drug discovery to more energy-efficient machine learning.Aurora is a photonic quantum computer, which means it crunches numbers using photonic qubitsinformation encoded in light. In practice, this means combining and recombining laser beams on multiple chips using lenses, fibers, and other optics according to an algorithm. Xanadus computer is designed in such a way that the answer to an algorithm it executes corresponds to the final number of photons in each laser beam. This approach differs from one used by Google and IBM, which involves encoding information in properties of superconducting circuits.Aurora has a modular design that consists of four similar units, each installed in a standard server rack that is slightly taller and wider than the average human. To make a useful quantum computer, you copy and paste a thousand of these things and network them together, says Christian Weedbrook, the CEO and founder of the company.Ultimately, Xanadu envisions a quantum computer as a specialized data center, consisting of rows upon rows of these servers. This contrasts with the industrys earlier conception of a specialized chip within a supercomputer, much like a GPU.But this work, which the company published last week in Nature, is just a first step toward that vision. Aurora used 35 chips to construct a total of 12 quantum bits, or qubits. Any useful applications of quantum computing proposed to date will require at least thousands of qubits, or possibly a million. By comparison, Googles quantum computer Willow, which debuted last year, has 105 qubits (all built on a single chip), and IBMs Condor has 1,121.Devesh Tiwari, a quantum computing researcher at Northeastern University, describes Xanadus progress in an analogy with building a hotel. They have built a room, and Im sure they can build multiple rooms, he says. But I dont know if they can build it floor by floor.Still, he says, the work is very promising.Xanadus 12 qubits may seem like a paltry number next to IBMs 1,121, but Tiwari says this doesnt mean that quantum computers based on photonics are running behind. In his opinion, the number of qubits reflects the amount of investment more than it does the technologys promise.Photonic quantum computers offer several design advantages. The qubits are less sensitive to environmental noise, says Tiwari, which makes it easier to get them to retain information for longer. It is also relatively straightforward to connect photonic quantum computers via conventional fiber optics, because they already use light to encode information. Networking quantum computers together is key to the industrys vision of a quantum internet where different quantum devices talk to each other. Auroras servers also dont need to be kept as cool as superconducting quantum computers, says Weedbrook, so they dont require as much cryogenic technology. The server racks operate at room temperature, although photon-counting detectors still need to be cryogenically cooled in another room.Xanadu is not the only company pursuing photonic quantum computers; others include PsiQuantum in the US and Quandela in France. Other groups are using materials like neutral atoms and ions to construct their quantum systems.From a technical standpoint, Tiwari suspects, no single qubit type will ever be the winner, but its likely that certain qubits will be better for specific applications. Photonic quantum computers, for example, are particularly well suited to Gaussian boson sampling, an algorithm that could be useful for quickly solving graph problems. I really want more people to be looking at photonic quantum computers, he says. He has studied quantum computers with multiple qubit types, including photons and superconducting qubits, and is not affiliated with a company.Isaac Kim, a physicist at the University of California, Davis, points out that Xanadu has not demonstrated the error correction ability many experts think a quantum computer will need in order to do any useful task, given that information stored in a quantum computer is notoriously fragile.Weedbrook, however, says Xanadus next goal is to improve the quality of the photons in the computer, which will ease the error correction requirements. When you send lasers through a medium, whether its free space, chips, or fiber optics, not all the information makes it from the start to the finish, he says. So youre actually losing light and therefore losing information. The company is working to reduce this loss, which means fewer errors in the first place.Xanadu aims to build a quantum data center, with thousands of servers containing a million qubits, in 2029.

The Indiana JonesIP has taken a beating in recent years, but though its recent efforts in the film space have largely failed, in the games industry, it seems to have taken a great stride forward. MachineGames, Bethesda, and Xbox released Indiana Jones and the Great Circlein December, and the action-adventure title is seemingly enjoying a flying start.Thats as per Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who revealed in the companys recent quarterly fiscal briefing that in addition to the widespread critical acclaim that it enjoyed,Indiana Jones and the Great Circlehas also been played by over 4 million players to date.We saw rave reviews of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which has already been played by more than 4 million people, he said.During its launch week,The Great Circlewas the second-best selling title in the United States, so its success doesnt come as a shock. Lucasfilm Games has already broached the idea of sequels, and leaks have claimed that follow-ups are indeed in the works.In our review of the game, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle captures its source materials vibe down to a T, delivering an authentic, swashbuckling Indiana Jones adventure that can stand toe-to-toe with the original trilogy, while strong level design, compelling exploration, smartly designed puzzles, and enjoyable stealth and combat also combine in a well-crafted gameplay experience that might just be MachineGames best outing to date. Read the full review through here.Indiana Jones and the Great Circleis available on Xbox Series X/S and PC, and releases for PS5 this Spring.

When Sony first introduced mandatory PSN account linking for its PC releases last year, it instantly proved to be a controversial decision, mildly put. Since then, the company has stuck by that requirement with each new release on the platform, though going forward, itll be making some changes that PC players are sure to appreciate.Sony has announced that it is removing mandatory PSN account linking in select titles on the platform. Specifically,Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, God of War Ragnarok,Marvels Spider-Man 2,the upcomingThe Last of Us Part 2 Remastered(contrary to a recent confirmation) will no longer need PSN accounts for those who wish to play them on PC.Instead, those who do link their accounts will get free, bonus in-game rewards. InThe Last of Us Part 2,that will include an in-game skin for Ellie based on Naughty Dogs upcoming sci-fi titleIntergalactic. You can view the fill list of rewards for each game below.Whether we can expect Sony to take a similar approach with all future releases remains to be seen, but one would certainly hope that thats the case, given how unpopular the PSN account linking requirements have been with the vast majority of PC players thus far.Marvels Spider-Man 2launches for PC on January 30.The Last of Us Part 2 Remasteredwill follow on April 3. Make sure to check out the formers system requirements and platform-specific features.