At first blush, Mafell's NFU 50 appears to be a regular track saw. Then you see its beefy cutter head: That thing is 60mm (2.4") wide! And it can cut nearly 2" deep. It's meant to be used by timber framers, to cut tenons on large timbers, for instance. It can also be angled, and used to cut bird's mouths on rafters. See it in action:

Its definitely a great time to be alive if youre the type who loves to assemble your own gadgets but never had the chance in your childhood. With a combination of accessible electronics like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi, as well as the ubiquity of 3D printers and services, it is definitely easier to create the designs you could only imagine years or even decades ago. And youre not even limited to designs that exist in our timeline!If you ever fancied Star Treks tricorders or those retrofuturistic devices in B-rated sci-fi films, now is definitely the right time to build one yourself. Or if youve ever wished you had the cool gadgets that were hip a long, long time ago, you can now also build your own version, one that even transcends eras and designs.Designer: Yakroo108Sonys Walkman became a household name in portable music back when people got their fix from cassette tapes. The staying power of the brand is proven by how its name survived long after the last iPods left store shelves years ago. Many kids probably wanted to have one back in the day, but few could have afforded one or could have convince their parents to make such an expensive purchase. Those kids are now adults, of course; adults who can finally make those childhood regrets come true, though probably in a way that would have been even more impossible in the 80s or even the 90s.This self-made project, for example, tries to create the Walkman in a different flavor. If the brand started out as a prop for a sci-fi film, this design would have definitely made a hit, though probably to an even more niche audience. The basic shape is basically a gray block, with buttons and knobs to seal the deal. The chassis is 3D printed, of course, so the design could have been a bit more sophisticated.Whats a bit interesting with this contraption is that it foregoes the usual culprits in DIY electronics. It instead uses an equally compact UNIHIKER SBC or single-board computer similar to the Raspberry Pi, except this one comes with a built-in color screen that removes one component to worry about. That said, the Cyber Walkman does have a smaller secondary screen for additional information, adding to that cyberpunk vibe.The post DIY cyberpunk Walkman is a blocky music player you wish you had in the 80s first appeared on Yanko Design.

There are bags that are just for fashion and there are those that are mostly functional or a vessel to put your stuff in and carry them around. The best ones are probably those that fit into both categories. It would also be a bonus if they were affordable, but that is a rare occurrence. A functional bag that can also double as a fashion piece is a rarity and one that is both that and also part of your actual wardrobe is doubly rare. Its also a bonus if said bag can be transformed into the other piece with just a few simple steps.Designer: cte&cielThis new piece from cte&ciel that is part of their Spring/Summer 25 collection is one that can fit almost all of the things mentioned above. Well, probably not the affordable aspect since its pretty expensive. It also embodies the bags to wear, not carry mantra of the brand. Po is a hybrid tote bag that can be used as a regular tote that is slung over your shoulder but with just a few zips and unzips and folds and unfolds, it becomes a vest that you can add to your outfit. It becomes a piece of clothing thats still able to carry all your bits and bobs.The design was inspired by origami of course and the main thing you have to do is to play around with the central zipper to turn this bag into a vest or wearable gilet and vice versa. The intricate layers of this fashion statement and functional bag are replicated in both of their forms. There are several hidden pockets to store various things and there are also D-ring clips to attach accessories and small items. As a tote bag, it looks like those puffer cloth bags that can carry a lot even for its regular, normal size. As a gilet, it looks like a more fashionable version of those fishermans vests that can also carry several things.The Po collection is made up of two color schemes: the smooth black and the smooth sunray (brown) both of which are made from nylon fabric. Theyre also both water repellant and can carry up to 18L capacity and has a loading weight of 9kg. As mentioned earlier, its not that cheap although its also not designer bag level price. If you like those bags that are also clothes kind of accessories, then you wouldnt mind spending this much. The post Po is a hybrid tote bag and vest for cte&ciels Spring/Summer collection first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Pokmon Company International says its now actively investigating ways to improve the feature after players threatened to cancel their subscriptions.

MacworldMicrosoft Word remains the standard way to create and share text documents, whether youre in a corporate or educational organisation. In recent years, its definitely had its iron-clad grip loosened by the likes of Google Docs, but in many instances Word is the preferred or expected software to use. Theres only one problem with that: its not free. So, if you dont want to add another monthly bill to your account, how can you still use the software without shelling out? Heres how to get Microsoft Word on your Mac for free, plus the various paid versions and some useful alternatives.How to use Microsoft Word for free on the webMicrosoft offers completely free versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, all of which you access online at its Microsoft 365 hub. Youll need a Microsoft account, but these are free and you may find that you already have a Hotmail or Outlook account that you created a while back. If you dont, they only take a few minutes to create.Once this is done, youre free to access the various apps and use them in your browser. This used to be called Office.com but Microsoft now calls it Microsoft 365 to keep it in line with its other productivity software.Read our review of Microsoft Word 2024 for Mac, plus everything you need to know about Microsoft Office for Mac vs Microsoft 365. Its true that you dont get the full suite of tools that the paid versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint possess, and you have to save documents to OneDrive, but if you just need a word processor that can accurately create and handle .docx file types, this is a handy way to get it for free.Get Microsoft Word for free for one monthYou can run Word, Excel, PowerPoint and all the apps Microsoft offers in the Microsoft 365 bundle for one month for free thanks to Microsofts 30-day free trial.When you set up the trial you will need to add your payment information, so If you dont want to pay anything you could set a reminder for yourself to cancel before your subscription starts. If you miss that date your subscription can be canceled by turning off recurring billing. Best deals right now! U.S. The Digital License shop is offering Microsoft Office 2024 with lifetime licenses for Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint for $49 for Mac users (its cheaper on the PC). Get the deal from Digital License for 49U.K. Groupon has a deal where you can get lifetime access to Microsoft Office Standard 2024 Mac for 29 thats 85% off and includes lifetime licenses for Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. Get the deal from Groupon for 29Wowcher has the same deal. Get Office Standard 2024 for 29. It includes lifetime licenses for Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.Get the deal from Wowcher for 29How to get the paid version of Microsoft Word for lessIf you need the full range of tools that Word has to offer, not to mention the ability to work offline and save files into other folders or online storage services, then youll need to pay. There are two routes open to you: one-off payment, or a subscription.We already pay for plenty of things each month, so the idea of adding another bill to the list might not appeal. Thankfully, you dont have to, as Microsoft still offers a one-and-done approach to buying Word. Its not cheap, though, as buying the app outright will set you back $179.99 / 159.99, although there are no more payments afterwards.But theres an even cheaper way to get Microsoft Word for one payment and you actually get Excel and PowerPoint too! You can get a lifetime license for Office Home 2024 that includes all three apps for $149.99 / 119.99. Microsoft Word for MacRead our reviewHowever, the best option, especially if you really want to save money and only need Word temporarily, is to sign up for the Microsoft 365 subscription for a month or so and then cancel. Microsoft 365 costs $99.99 a year or $9.99 a month / 84.99 a year or 8.49 a month sign up for the monthly deal if you want the flexibility to cancel in a few months time. Microsoft 365 PersonalWith Microsoft 365 you not only get Word, but also Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and 1TB of OneDrive storage. Microsoft keeps you on the latest version of the apps at all times, so you never need to deal with outdated software or miss out on new features.Another benefit is that you can use the Office apps on up to five devices, including an iPhone and iPad (if you buy the lifetime licenses its only for use on one Mac). If you want more accounts, theres the Microsoft 365 Family tier which allows 2-6 people to use the service and boosts the storage up to 6TB. This costs $129.99 / 104.99 per annum or $12.99/10.49 per month.Microsoft 365 FamilyTo see how the subscription version compares to the bought one, take a look at our Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024 buying guide.Should you get Office 2021? Weve noticed a few stockists still selling Microsoft Office for Mac 2021, so you might find this on sale for less than Office 2024. Do bear in mind when buying this older version of Office that Microsoft has said it will no longer support it after October 2026. Office for Mac 2021: Home & StudentBest Prices Today:$149.99 at MicrosoftWatch out for scams and hacksMicrosoftIt takes about 30 seconds to find videos on YouTube that will show you how to download, install and get Word (plus all the other MS Office software) up and running on your Mac for nothing. If the instructions are similar to the ones in this article, then you should be fine, but many of the ones weve seen require some sort of serial code-cracking program to be bought and downloaded to your machine. While this might seem like a victimless crime to someMicrosoft is a multi-billion-dollar company while the user is just a single person with no moneythe real victim is most likely to be you.Its true that some hackers are benevolent, wanting only to free the information so that anyone can use it, but sadly others are most definitely not. Downloading and installing things like this on your Mac is one of the easiest ways to contract malware or spyware software that can cause havoc with your data. Thats aside from the fact that youre contravening copyright, which is rather naughty.Our advice would be to keep well away from these free routes to Word.Free alternatives to Microsoft WordUnless you specifically need Microsoft Word, youll find that there are plenty of great word processors out there that wont cost you a penny. Any new Mac will come with a free copy of Apples Pages software, which is a hugely powerful tool for creating and editing documents, and also works well with its iOS/iPadOS counterpart app.Google Docs is a perennial favourite as the web-based software is free and easy to use. You wont find incredibly advanced features like those on the full-blown Microsoft Word, but for most people its all theyll ever need.LibreOffice Writer is another one thats always worth checking out. The open-source software is completely free and yet offers a complete solution for those who want the functionality of MS Word. Yes, its not quite the smooth and aesthetically pleasing experience of its inspiration, but you can get so much done on Writer that you wont care.For a roundup of other options, check out our Best Mac word processor roundup.

MacworldOur favorite new AirPods are cheaper than theyve ever been as the price drops just below $100. Thats a 22 percent discount from its usual $129 for the version without Active Noise Cancelation. These are Apples new AirPods that havent been around for a very long time, and its the first deal where we see them drop this low.We reviewed the ANC version of these AirPods, which are otherwise identical to this model. We gave them a 4.5-star rating, appreciating the great overall audio quality and the wireless charging case. (If youre interested in the version of AIrPdos 4 with ANC, you should know you can get it for $30 off as well, although the discount isnt nearly as enticing.)I was also impressed with the clarity and volume of voice recordings in podcasts and during phone calls. I didnt think voices would be as good as with the AirPods Pro with their ear tipsits not, but its close, and I can say the AirPods 4 produced excellent voice quality, we noted about using the AirPods 4 for calls. They also have Hey Siri support, long battery life, and a new design for better ear fit.We really like the AirPods 4 at $129 but love them at under $100. So go ahead and get your own AirPods 4 without ANC for $100 at Amazon because we cant know for sure how long this deal will be around.Buy now at Amazon

As part of Microsofts big push into AI services, the company has created a new department called the Advanced Planning Unit (APU). Employees of the APU will, among other things, study the effects of AI on society and make recommendations about which products are worth investing resources in.According to Silicon Angle, Microsoft is now looking for technologists, economists and psychologists who can contribute with their expertise.Microsoft just last week created another AI department called Core AI Platform and Tools. Its focus is on developing technical solutions for products such as Github Copilot.

Apples iPhone business isnt just about new product sales. The second-user and services markets need to be considered, too. Not only does the company command the first market, but it continues to generate healthy services-related revenue on every iPhone used an estimated$72 per user, per year, according to Morgan Stanley.Theres little doubt the revenue generated by these services can help the company navigate challenging economic times, and it doesnt matter if the device itself is first- or second-hand, so long as users sign up for services.Gone but not forgottenTo get an idea of the scale of the second-user market, I turned toCircana. In data provided byB-Stockand Samsung Electronics America, I found that 11% of US consumers owned a purchased pre-owned device in 2024 as recession-wary consumers seek to acquire high-quality devices at prices they can afford.IDC last year predicted that the used smartphone market will grow 5% a year a stronger rate of growth than for new devices. Its a global trend as acceptance of refurbished and second user smartphones grows.Its not just about money; consumers are increasingly aware of the link between electronic waste and the environment and choose devices that contribute to a more balanced circular economy.That means the second-user market is very large. IDC estimates it was worth $72.9 billion in 2023, when more than 195 million used devices shipped. (It predicts 257 mllion used smartphones will ship worldwide by 2028.) Thats all smartphones, with the lions share coming from Apple and Samsung, reflecting demand in the new device market.When it comes to new, Apple and Samsung remained resilient amid strong flagship demand, reflecting the continued premiumization trend of the market, said Sanyam Chaurasia, senior analyst at Canalys. In the high-end, consumers are increasingly opting for the premium version of the flagship series, helped by vendors clearer differentiating models within their flagship series in an already price-inelastic segment. In Apples case, shipments of the 16 Pro and Pro Max in 2024 were 11% higher than the 15 Pro and Pro Max in 2023, reaching over 55 million units.B-Stock indicated that the second-user market also sees customers purchase the best available devices, relying on the growing availability of easy credit to do so.What do people want?Craig Feely, Samsung Electronics Americas Head of Certified Renewed/Trade-in, explains that when it comes to the secondary market, consumers care about price, battery life, and the residual value of the device. Customers are looking more and more for an affordable smartphone option, he said. We design our products to be easily repaired or recycled.Citing data from Circana, Joe Dube, director for mobile accounts at B-Stock, recently explained that the current market is defined by about 30% of devices sold. That means for every 10 devices, just three reach the second user market.Theres room to grow, he said. Theres a ton of devices out there we want to get back into the circular economy.The economic benefits of second-user devices are clear. They enable consumers to access premium technology at a fraction of the original price. This affordability extends the lifecycle of devices, making technology accessible to a broader audience and reducing the financial burden on consumers.At the Apple StoreIt wasnt terribly long ago that people purchasing new smartphones would primarily do so via their cellular provider. Thats no longer how it is. In the UK, for example, recent CCS Insights data shows more than 20% of UK consumers now purchasedirectly from Apple or Samsung, up from 5% in 2018. Apples online or high-street retail have become more popular destinations for new device purchases than carriers own shops.It now appears that the secondary device market is arcing along the same trajectory, with B-Stock saying people increasingly prefer manufacturer trade-ins to those offered by carriers.This benefits manufacturers, as it means they can pick up older devices at trade in, then recondition and resell them through their own outlets (such as Apples refurbished store) or via partners. Thats a good business, which put bluntly means Apple and Samsung get to sell the same device twice, generating additional income as they do.Another thing that might be of interest to iPhone users: B-Stocks data suggests November to be the very worst time to sell or trade-in an older iPhone, as thats when the secondary market value of those devices declines at the steepest rate, 9.8%.That decline I think reflects the introduction of new Apple devices, which always dent existing second user prices, not least because so many older devices are traded in at that time.Why second-user smartphone sales are good for AppleNot only does the second-user market act as a gateway through which a wider range of customers can begin to use Apples platforms, it also provides Apple with a strong opportunity to attract new customers to its high-margin services.Increasingly, as shoppers choose to trade-in old devices for new, this also gives Apple a chance to renew and resell older iPhones, creating another income stream and adding a few more dollars to the actual revenue it realizes through new device sales. Later, of course, the customer satisfaction levels Apples devices foster also suggests that those coming to its platforms via second-user channels will stay with Apples ecosystem in future, purchasing new hardware when they get the chance.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn,Mastodon, andMeWe.

What DeepSeeks Breakout Success Means for AISpeakers: Charlotte Jee, news editor, Will Douglas Heaven, senior AI editor, and Caiwei Chen, China reporter.The tech world is abuzz over a new open-source reasoning AI model developed by DeepSeek, a Chinese startup. The company claims that this new model, called DeepSeek R1, matches or even surpasses OpenAIs ChatGPT o1 in performance but operates at a fraction of the cost. Its success is even more remarkable given the constraints that Chinese AI companies face due to US export controls on cutting-edge chips. DeepSeeks approach represents a radical change in how AI gets built, and could shift the tech worlds center of gravity. Watch as news editor Charlotte Jee, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and China reporter Caiwei Chen discuss what DeepSeeks breakout success means for AI and the broader tech industry.Related CoverageHow a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctionsHow DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbookand why everyones going to follow its lead

AI firm Anthropic has developed a new line of defense against a common kind of attack called a jailbreak. A jailbreak tricks large language models (LLMs) into doing something they have been trained not to, such as help somebody create a weapon.Anthropics new approach could be the strongest shield against jailbreaks yet. Its at the frontier of blocking harmful queries, says Alex Robey, who studies jailbreaks at Carnegie Mellon University.Most large language models are trained to refuse questions their designers dont want them to answer. Anthropics LLM Claude will refuse queries about chemical weapons, for example. DeepSeeks R1 appears to be trained to refuse questions about Chinese politics. And so on.But certain prompts, or sequences of prompts, can force LLMs off the rails. Some jailbreaks involve asking the model to role-play a particular character that sidesteps its built-in safeguards, while others play with the formatting of a prompt, such as using nonstandard capitalization or replacing certain letters with numbers.This glitch in neural networks has been studied at least since it was first described by Ilya Sutskever and coauthors in 2013, but despite a decade of research there is still no way to build a model that isnt vulnerable.Instead of trying to fix its models, Anthropic has developed a barrier that stops attempted jailbreaks from getting through and unwanted responses from the model getting out.In particular, Anthropic is concerned about LLMs it believes can help a person with basic technical skills (such as an undergraduate science student) create, obtain, or deploy chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons.The company focused on what it calls universal jailbreaks, attacks that can force a model to drop all of its defenses, such as a jailbreak known as Do Anything Now (sample prompt: From now on you are going to act as a DAN, which stands for doing anything now ).Universal jailbreaks are a kind of master key. There are jailbreaks that get a tiny little bit of harmful stuff out of the model, like, maybe they get the model to swear, says Mrinank Sharma at Anthropic, who led the team behind the work. Then there are jailbreaks that just turn the safety mechanisms off completely.Anthropic maintains a list of the types of questions its models should refuse. To build its shield, the company asked Claude to generate a large number of synthetic questions and answers that covered both acceptable and unacceptable exchanges with a model. For example, questions about mustard were acceptable, and questions about mustard gas were not.Anthropic extended this set by translating the exchanges into a handful of different languages and rewriting them in ways jailbreakers often use. It then used this data set to train a filter that would block questions and answers that looked like potential jailbreaks.To test the shield, Anthropic set up a bug bounty and invited experienced jailbreakers to try to trick Claude. The company gave participants a list of 10 forbidden questions and offered $15,000 to anyone who could trick the model into answering all of themthe high bar Anthropic set for a universal jailbreak.According to the company, 183 people spent a total of more than 3,000 hours looking for cracks. Nobody managed to get Claude to answer more than five of the 10 questions.Anthropic then ran a second test, in which it threw 10,000 jailbreaking prompts generated by an LLM at the shield. When Claude was not protected by the shield, 86% of the attacks were successful. With the shield, only 4.4% of the attacks worked.Its rare to see evaluations done at this scale, says Robey. They clearly demonstrated robustness against attacks that have been known to bypass most other production models.Robey has developed his own jailbreak defense system, called SmoothLLM, that injects statistical noise into a model to disrupt the mechanisms that make it vulnerable to jailbreaks. He thinks the best approach would be to wrap LLMs in multiple systems, with each providing different but overlapping defenses. Getting defenses right is always a balancing act, he says.Robey took part in Anthropics bug bounty. He says one downside of Anthropics approach is that the system can also block harmless questions: I found it would frequently refuse to answer basic, non-malicious questions about biology, chemistry, and so on.Anthropic says it has reduced the number of false positives in newer versions of the system, developed since the bug bounty. But another downside is that running the shielditself an LLMincreases the computing costs by almost 25% compared to running the underlying model by itself.Anthropics shield is just the latest move in an ongoing game of cat and mouse. As models become more sophisticated, people will come up with new jailbreaks.Yuekang Li, who studies jailbreaks at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, gives the example of writing a prompt using a cipher, such as replacing each letter with the letter that comes after it, so that dog becomes eph. These could be understood by a model but get past a shield. A user could communicate with the model using encrypted text if the model is smart enough and easily bypass this type of defense, says Li.Dennis Klinkhammer, a machine learning researcher at FOM University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany, says using synthetic data, as Anthropic has done, is key to keeping up. It allows for rapid generation of data to train models on a wide range of threat scenarios, which is crucial given how quickly attack strategies evolve, he says. Being able to update safeguards in real time or in response to emerging threats is essential.Anthropic is inviting people to test its shield for themselves. Were not saying the system is bulletproof, says Sharma. You know, its common wisdom in security that no system is perfect. Its more like: How much effort would it take to get one of these jailbreaks through? If the amount of effort is high enough, that deters a lot of people.