The Pro version of the best-selling chair brings comfort, ergonomics, and amazing arm rest adjustments (but a drab look).

This wasn't meant for public consumption, but everyone loves it.

This emergency first aid kit will be ready to rescue your Mac or Windows machine when disaster strikes.

Big Dating got singles hooked on convenience culture. But finding a partner is workand a batch of matchmaking services think theyve cracked the code for partnership.

I think Google realizes that this is a once-in-a-generation chance to reinvent the search experience

MacworldAt a glanceExpert's RatingProsEasy to useWell-pricedFocus on securityConsBasic Mac appOnly 5GB free planOur Verdict Sync.com does what it says on the tin, syncing files across your devices. While it can be used as a backup app, its perhaps a little closer to Dropbox because its intended to carry files you can work on from any device, rather than backing up a large folder.Price When ReviewedThis value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefinedBest Pricing TodayBest Prices Today: Sync.comRetailerPriceSync.com (Monthly)$8View DealPrice comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwideProductPricePrice comparison from BackmarketWeve tested so many cloud-based storage services for your Mac that our heads are starting to spin, and Sync.com is easily one of the most no-nonsense options.Its Mac app is basic, but its focus on security makes it arguably best for enterprise users. Thats thanks to end-to-end encryption, something not offered by many rivals, while its Vault function lets you keep files in the cloud that arent synced across devices, too.These all combine with a lightweight interface to make Sync easy to recommend for just about anyone, although its perhaps not as well-known as the likes of Dropbox and Google Drive which may make getting others on board a little harder.First ImpressionsSyncs web app is fantastic, offering ease-of-use and efficiency right from the jump.FoundryOnce you put together a Sync account, you can start using the web app immediately. While some options, like iCloud Drive, have slow web interfaces, Syncs is snappy and responsive.Thats partially because its remit is a little narrower its a document syncing service more than a full backup solution (more on that shortly).The app itself is easy to use, making itself at home on your Macs Finder sidebar so you can dump files there with ease.Free plans offer 5GB of space, which isnt the worst but remains some distance behind the likes of Google which offers 15GB.Personal plans start at $5 for 200GB, but for just $8 you can get to 2TB per month with additional features like document previews, too. These need to be paid annually, though.Teams plans offer 1TB per user, per month, but again these need to be paid monthly. Higher-priced options have monthly options, both for individuals and teams, but expect an outlay at the start once you hit that 5GB limit.Sync.com featuresAs mentioned above, Sync is closer to a Dropbox alternative, offering a centralised, cloud-based storage solution for storing and syncing files across multiple devices.Thats no bad thing, but it doesnt have the robust feature set of Google Drives document creation tools or Backblazes commitment to off-site backups.Still, whats here is pretty fantastic, syncing files in the background via the Mac app. What I particularly like is that clicking the menu bar item brings up a recent documents list, making it easier to dive into files youve recently added without needing to open a Finder window each time.You can also export lists of files when you need to, and update your password information within the app ideal if you prefer to change yours regularly.The end-to-end encryption is the real draw here. Not many rivals offer it, and that makes the Vault feature feel even more worthwhile. Dropping files here wont sync it to your other devices, so you could use this as a sort of backup setting, and CloudFiles help you free up any files from your Macs storage.FoundryMicrosoft Office 365 integration means you can edit documents within your cloud folder, too, and theres integrations for the likes of Slack and Adobe, too.Sync.com annoyancesThe lightweight nature of Syncs Mac app is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it runs quickly and in the background.On the other, it doesnt let you sync multiple folders, so your Sync folder is constantly updated but anything outside of that is left unchecked. For reference, Google Drive is currently syncing my Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders with the cloud.Finally, the 5GB limit is certainly not the worst weve seen, but its some way off the top dogs in this regard.Should you buy Sync?Sync is a fantastic cloud syncing service that will serve many teams and users perfectly. While its simple folder syncing will frustrate some, others will appreciate the simplicity it provides.

MacworldSpring is the time of somewhat odd Apple announcements. We all know well see the revisions to all of the companys software platforms in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference, and that new iPhones and Apple Watches arrive in September. But spring? Anything can happen! The fields wide open.If this years spring announcements have a theme, it could perhaps be best summarized as everything old is new again. From the iPhone 16es iPhone-14-like design to the amazing staying power of the M3 line, Apple once again showed us how it loves to recycle.But this weeks unveiling of the latest MacBook Air, Mac Studio, iPad Air, and base-level iPad demonstrate something else as well: Apples commitment to delivering legitimately good entry-level devices to welcome as many people as possible into its ecosystem.The Air down thereThe base-level MacBook Air has held down that $999 price point for years now. Apple clearly loves to have an offering that comes in (technically) under a thousand dollars. (Lets not discuss sales tax.) Not only does it look good, but it provides a good hook to get people in the doorbefore convincing them to spend a little more to upgrade this spec here or that capacity there.The fact that the $999 MacBook Air now sports an M4 instead of an older chip is a great deal.AppleThis time around, though, Apples offering a base-level MacBook Air with fewer compromises than before. Last year, the company introduced the M3 MacBook Air, but didnt seem quite able to hit that $999 price pointthe base-level M3 went for $1,099, so the company ended up keeping the M2 MacBook Air around to hold down the lower price.Not so with the M4 Air, which not only starts at $999 but alsothanks to Apples across-the-board hikes with last years modelscomes with 16GB of RAM. That M4 processor is no slouch either: while it might come with a binned version that features just 8 GPU cores instead of the standard 10, thats no different from last years $1,099 M3 Air.How did Apple manage to slide the M4 in at the sub-$1000 price point? The likely answer is scale. Yes, despite talk of the M3s status as a dead-end line, its sticking around, but its also in relatively fewer devices (and, if I had to guess, devices that sell in lower quantities). The M4, meanwhile, is being cranked out for iMacs and Mac minis, as well as the upgraded Pro and Max variants. That volume can help Apple control cost-savings, and pass those on to its customers. The result: a pretty compelling $999 MacBook Air.iPad-ing the lineupLikewise, the iPad line saw updates to both the base-level $349 iPad, which now features an A16 processor, and the iPad Air, which gets an M3. Im most interested in that lower-end model, in large part because its surprisingly compelling. Yes, it lacks many of the niceties of the higher-end models, like Face ID and ProMotionbut also, have we mentioned that its just $349? For that price, you can basically buy three for the price of most iPad Pros.ScreenshotFoundryAnd while the base-level iPad may be the lone device in Apples lineup to not run Apple Intelligence, I dont think thats necessarily going to be the enticement to upgrade that the company probably hopes, given its spotty performance thus far.Thats a bigger issue with the iPad line overall, where moving up to the iPad Air (or, honestly, the iPad Pro) doesnt necessarily open up a lot of new capabilities. Yes, the Air has a better processor, a somewhat nicer display, and different accessory compatibility, but its got the same camera system, the same USB-C port, and the same Touch ID home button. Id challenge most users to find things that they can do on the iPad Air that they cant do on an iPad. And again, its $250 cheaper.Good for me, good for you, good for AppleFor a long time, Apples modus operandi for selling its products has been a classic good/better/best strategy. Sometimes thats in its overall product linesthe iPhone 16e/iPhone 16/iPhone 16 Pro, for exampleor even within product configurations, like the new $999/$1199/$1399 MacBook Air offerings. But what happens when those good products, whether its the $999 MacBook Air or the $349 iPad, are good enough for most users?Im not just talking in terms of initial outlay either. Im typing this on an M1 MacBook Air from 2020. It may not have the sleek design introduced with the M2 model or MagSafe or the latest version of Thunderbolt, but honestly, it works just fine. For the purposes I need it for, in fact, it works great: its battery still lasts me almost all day, its base-level processor handles everything I need to do on a regular basis, and I still havent filled up its 256GB of storage. Tempted as I am by that M4 MacBook Air, I simply cant justify anything beyond window shopping.Is the solid performance of its cheapest products a problem for Apple? No, not really. And thats a testament to how the company has built its business: as long as it can still get customers into the door, its happy to sell them any product. Moreover, part of getting the cost curve down is that Apple still maintains its comfortable margins on products. Its not like its out there selling a $499 MacBook Air. But itll always convince a smaller percentage of people to spend the extra money to upgrade storage or buy a more expensive device. Like a perfect game of tic-tac-toe, Apple has maneuvered itself into a situation where no matter what choice customers make, it winsas long as they buy from Apple.

When you hear the word drone, what comes to mind? Most people think of fun consumer recreational copters that capture incredible video from the sky. Others think of military drones that spy on battlefields and drop bombs.Its true that drones are transforming photography and war. But the categorys biggest impact may be in business.What is a drone, anyway?A drone isnt an RC helicopter. Its 2025, and time to shed that view and embrace what a drone really is. A drone is a robot that moves by flying rather than rolling or walking.More than that, drones are by far the most capable and useful robots we have. They can move about in any environment without bumping into things. They can fly down air shafts, under vehicles, five miles away and 5,000 feet high.Nearly all these flying robots use AI in a breathtaking range of ways.Because of the power and flexibility of modern drones, the business and enterprise drone industry is growing fast, transforming business operations across industries. Which industries use drones? Listed in order from biggest to smallest users, they include energy, construction, agriculture, mining, real estate, public administration, waste management, transportation, insurance, media, telecommunications, healthcare, education, science, and others.Even the military sector is a heavy user of drones for non-military purposes.While the overall drone market size was estimated at $73 billion in 2024,according to Grand View Research, the business market for drones was $32 billion that same year,according to IMARC Group.Future projections range wildly, from 10% annual growth exceeding $54 billion in five years (again,Grand View Research) to nearly 27% yearly growth reaching $126 billion by 2030 (360iResearch).In other words, the growth of the business and enterprise drone market ranges from incredibly fast to spectacularly fast.Weve become used to a general plateauing of hardware improvements in technology. PCs are all fast now, and massive amounts of storage are cheap. This years smartphone crop is more or less like last years. Moores Law has really slowed.But drone hardware capabilities improve super fast. Constant boosts in battery efficiency, AI-powered autonomous systems, and enhanced imaging sensors all make each new crop of drones much better than the last. And AI is making drones far more capable and increasingly autonomous.Inspections made easyLook at how drones have radically improved just one task performed by many industries: inspection.Construction and real estate, energy companies, and many other industries used to send a worker climbing slowly to high, low, cramped, or dangerous places or capturing details from an airplane or helicopter. Now, its trivial to put a drone in the air and do the same inspection at a tiny fraction of the former cost. Drones can quickly and thoroughly (and because of the low cost, frequently) inspect power lines, utility poles, pipelines, bridges, cell towers, industrial boilers, chemical storage containers, construction sites, fermenter tanks, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, storage silos, wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric facilities, dams, agricultural fields, quarries, and all manner of confined spaces.Their flexibility also makes them compatible with a wide range of applications. For example, drones like the Matrice 300 RTK have transformed the mapping of challenging terrain without exposing survey crews to hazardous conditions. Drone deployment for surveying can produce multiple mapping outputs, including 2D and 3D orthomosaic maps, LiDAR point clouds, 3D models, thermal maps, and multispectral maps, providing surveyors with everything they need fast and cheaply.Over the next five years, drones will get even more advanced AI and automation, better cameras, faster connections, longer flying times, higher payload capacity, and more. When people think about autonomous robots, they imagine humanoid robots living and working alongside people in society. That may be possible, but its also decades away. Meanwhile, autonomous drones will acquire real-time decision-making, object recognition, and near-full autonomy. Theyll even come back and charge themselves, then re-deploy automatically (actually, this capability already exists).In other words, the first widely deployed autonomous robots will be enterprise drones (and battlefield military drones).The rise of the drone platformA noteworthy trend in the drone industry is the emergence of Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) business models, in which businesses can rent drones and related services rather than buying drones and programming them in-house.But even in-house deployments will increasingly be seen as using drones as part of a larger system or platform for carrying out a specific role within a company. The best expression of this idea comes from DJI, the Chinese drone leader that owns 70% of the global drone market.Late last month, the company announced its new Dock 3, which it calls a Drone in a Box.Designed to work with the companys new DJI Matrice 4D and DJI Matrice 4TD drones, the product is targeted at public safety (police and security) and infrastructure maintenance across all industries.The drones have three cameras that work together as a complete system. A wide-angle camera captures large areas in a single shot, a medium-zoom camera gets closer looks, and a powerful telephoto camera can examine objects from far away with fine detail. Plus, they have a Laser Range Finder. The Matrice 4D is designed for high-precision mapping and surface inspections, while the Matrice 4TD is equipped with an infrared thermal camera and a new auxiliary light with 100 meters of coverage.Companies can mount The Dock 3 on top of a vehicle, which can support two drones. (This enables one drone to always be in the air while the other is charging.)And DJIs new D-RTK 3 Relay Fixed Deployment Version can be added to work without interference from nearby sources of electromagnetic radiation. Its also super rugged. The dock can work in temperatures from -22 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Its water- and dust-resistant, and the drones it works with can fly in freezing rain and high winds.The new Dock 3 integrates with DJIs existing FlightHub 2 through a seamless cloud-based connection that enables advanced remote operations. That means anyone can drive to remote, hostile locations with the drone and park while remaining mostly inside the vehicle. A skilled operator working from the comfort of home on the other side of the world can control it.FlightHub 2, the management software that controls Dock 3 remotely, processes operation data, and converts drone footage into actionable 2D and 3D models. It also has a Virtual Cockpit feature, giving operators an interface designed to be intuitive; its divided into Map Window, Livestream Window, and Flight Dashboard components. This interface revolutionizes drone control through Mouselook camera manipulation (enabling operators to control camera movements with a mouse), one-click flight commands for rapid navigation, and split-screen viewing that combines geographic context with live video feeds.The system enables powerful applications, such as persistent monitoring, remote inspection, and real-time data visualization, while requiring minimal specialized training for operators.As you can see from this example, the drones themselves, while powerful, are just one part of an ecosystem that includes a delivery and charging platform, a comprehensive cloud-based platform, and software for processing the data collected into actionable, usable information.Its time to pay closer attention to whats possible with enterprise drones and drone platforms. These intelligent flying robots will do more than any other robotics in the next five years to transform whats possible in businesses and enterprises.

One of the most dangerous trends arising from the combination of access to generative AI (genAI) tools, the cloud, and mobile apps is how easy it is for a line-of-business chief to do an end-run around IT and deploy all manner of things.Although the centralization/decentralization pendulum has always swung back-and-forth in the enterprise, the ease with which business units can deploy sophisticated (and potentially dangerous) technology without getting the CIO/IT Director blessing is alarming. (We cant even confidently label this Shadow IT, since that usually just means purchasing technology without corporate approvals.Is it really Shadow IT if the department head memoes everyone to do it?Lets be clear: this isnt about an IT Director/CIO power trip or about control. Vendors make all kinds of absurd claims about their capabilities and theyre rarely candid about the downsides. Thats why IT management needs to protect other executives from using technology that they dont fully understand whether its the CFO suggesting Accounts Payable use Microsoft Copilot or Anthropics Claude to speed up invoice processing or the supply chain chief turning to ChatGPT for help with shipment logistics.Quantum computing is another new (and endless) source of confusion. Yes, quantum technology is getting closer to practical use and it will have significant implications for encryption. But exactly when it will be ready for prime-time use, and what it will actually, remains amorphous.My point here is that with the easy availability of these kinds of new and intriguing technology, its more imperative than ever that IT leaders from the CIO on down educate their colleagues. Its far too easy for eager early adopters to get into tech trouble, and its better to head off problems before your corporate data winds up, say, being used to train a genAI model.This teaching role is critical for high-ranking execs (C-level execs, board members) in addition to those on the enterprise front lines. CFOs tend to fall in love with promised efficiencies and would-be workforce reductions without understanding all of the implications. CEOs often want to support what their direct reports want when possible and board members rarely have any in-depth knowledge of technology issues.Its especially critical for IT Directors, working with the CIO, to become indispensable sources of tech truth for any company. Not so long ago, business units almost always had to route their technology needs through IT. No more.Its not a battle that can be won by edicts or directives. IT directives are often ignored by department heads, and memo mayhem wont help. You have to position your advice as cautionary, educational helpful even all in a bid to spare the business unit various disasters. You are their friend. Only then does it have a chance of working.Lets say an IT Director works 40 hours a week. (Stop laughing; we all know its probably closer to 100 hours a week, but lets pretend for the moment.) It will help protect the enterprise far more if 10 of those hours are spent teaching higher-ups and peers about the dangers of new technology.Another wrinkle to keep in mind is that vendors especially in hot-button tech areas are now pushing their messages to LOB chiefs and not necessarily to IT. They know they can sometimes do an end-run so theyre going to try. That lets them spew half-truths today that they would never have tried a decade ago when they were speaking directly to IT and only IT.Theres even a silver lining here: This teaching role can make beteer-informed senior IT managers far more useful to the company. That translates to potentially better compensation and, at the very least, more protection during layoffs.

This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Reviewsweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here.This week saw the release of some fascinating news about some very furry rodentsso-called woolly micecreated as part of an experiment to explore how we might one day resurrect the woolly mammoth.The idea of bringing back extinct species has gained traction thanks to advances in sequencing of ancient DNA. In recent years, scientists have recovered genetic blueprints from the remains of dodo birds, more than 10,000 prehistoric humans, and frozen mammoths, a species that went extinct around 2000 BCE.This ancient genetic data is deepening our understanding of the pastfor instance, by shedding light on interactions among prehistoric humans. But researchers are becoming more ambitious. Rather than just reading ancient DNA, they want to use itby inserting it into living organisms.Colossal Biosciences, the biotech company behind the woolly mice, says thats its plan. The eventual goal is to modify elephants with enough mammoth DNA to result in something resembling the extinct pachyderm.To be sure, there is a long way to go. The mice Colossal created include several genetic changes previously known to make mice furry or long-haired. That is, the changes were mammoth-like, but not from a mammoth. In fact, only a single letter of uniquely mammoth DNA was added to the mice.Because this idea is so new and attracting so much attention, I decided it would be useful to create a record of previous attempts to add extinct DNA to living organisms. And since the technology doesnt have a name, lets give it one: chronogenics.Examples are exceptionally few currently, says Ben Novak, lead scientist at Revive & Restore, an organization that applies genetic technology to conservation efforts. Novak helped me track down examples, and I also got ideas from Harvard geneticist George Churchwho originally envisioned the mammoth projectas well as Beth Shapiro, lead scientist at Colossal.The starting point for chronogenics appears to be in 2004. That year, US scientists reported theyd partly re-created the deadly 1918 influenza virus and used it to infect mice. After a long search, they had retrieved examples of the virus from a frozen body in Alaska, which had preserved the germ like a time capsule. Eventually, they were able to reconstruct the entire virusall eight of its genesand found it had lethal effects on rodents.This was an alarming start to the idea of gene de-extinction. As we know from movies like The Thing, digging up frozen creatures from the ice is a bad idea. Many scientists felt that recovering the 1918 fluwhich had killed 30 million peoplecreated an unnecessary risk that the virus could slip loose, setting off a new outbreak.Viruses are not considered living things. But for the first example of chronogenics involving animals, we have to wait only until 2008, when Australian researchers Andrew Pask and Marilyn Renfree collected genetic data from a Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, that had been kept in a jar of ethanol (the last of these carnivorous marsupials died in a Hobart zoo in 1936).The Australians then added a short fragment of the extinct animals DNA to mice and showed it could regulate the activity of another gene. This was, at one level, an entirely routine study of gene function. Scientists often make DNA changes to mice to see what happens.The difference here was that they were studying extinct genes, which they estimated accounts for 99% of the genetic diversity that has ever existed. The researchers used almost religious language to describe where the DNA had come from.Genetic information from an extinct species can be resurrected, they wrote. And in doing so, we have restored to life the genetic potential of a fragment of this extinct mammalian genome.That brings us to what I think is the first commercial effort to employ extinct genes, which came to our attention in 2016. Gingko Bioworks, a synthetic-biology company, started hunting in herbariums for specimens of recently extinct flowers, like one that grew on Mauis lava fields until the early 20th century. Then the company isolated some of the genes responsible for their scent molecules.We did in fact insert the genes into yeast strains and measure the molecules, says Christina Agapakis, Gingkos former senior vice president for creative and marketing, who led the project. Ultimately, though, Ginkgo worked with a smell artist to imitate those odors using commercially available aroma chemicals. This means the resulting perfumes (which are for sale) use extinct genes as inspiration, not as actual ingredients.Thats a little bit similar to the woolly mouse project. Some scientists complained this week that when, or if, Colossal starts to chrono-engineer elephants, it wont really be able to make all the thousands of DNA changes needed to truly re-create the appearance and behavior of a mammoth. Instead, the result will be just a crude approximation of an extinct creature, one scientist said.Agapakis suggests not being too literal-minded about gene retrieval from the past. As an artwork, I saw how the extinct flower made different people feel a deep connection with nature, a sadness and loss at something gone forever, and a hope for a different kind of relationship to nature in the future, she says. So I do think there is a very powerful and poetic ethical and social component here, a demand that we care for these woolly creatures and for our entanglements with nature more broadly.To wrap up our short list of known efforts at chronogenics, we found only a few more examples. In 2023, a Japanese team added a single mutation found in Neanderthals to mice, to study how it changed their anatomy. And in unpublished research, a research group at Carlsberg Laboratory, in Copenhagen, says it added a genetic mutation to barley plants after sifting through 2-million-year-old DNA recovered from a mound in Greenland.That change, to a light-receptor gene, could make the crop tolerant to the Arctics extremely long summer days and winter nights.Now read the rest of The CheckupRead more from MIT Technology Reviews archiveHow many genetic edits can be made to a cell before it expires? The answer is going to be important if you want to turn an elephant into a mammoth. In 2019, scientists set a record with more than13,000 edits in one cell.We covered a project in Denmark where ancient DNA was replicated in a barley plant. Its part of a plan to adapt crops to grow in higher latitudesa useful tool as the world heats up.To learn more about prehistoric animals, some paleontologists are building robotic models that fly, swim, and slither around. For more, have a look at this MIT Technology Review story by Shi En Kim.The researcher who discovered how to make a mouse with extra-long hair, back in 1994, is named Jean Hebert. Last year we profiled Heberts idea for staying young by gradually replacing your brain with substitute tissue.Looking for an unintended consequence of genetic engineering? Last year, journalist Douglas Main reported how the use of GMO crops has caused the evolution of weeds resistant to herbicides.From around the webThe United Kingdom now imports half the donor sperm used in IVF procedures. An alleged donor shortage is causing sperm to become more expensive than beluga caviar, on a per-gram basis. (Financial Times)Jason Bannan, the agent who led the FBIs scientific investigation into the origins of covid-19, is speaking out on why he thinks the pandemic was started by a lab accident in China. (Vanity Fair)An Australian company, Cortical Labs, released what its calling the first commercial biological computer. The device combines silicon chips with thousands of human neurons. (Boing Boing)The Trump administration is terminating medical research grants that focus on gender identity, arguing that such studies are often unscientific and ignore biological realities. Researchers vowed to press on. (Inside Medicine).The US Senate held confirmation hearings for Stanford University doctor Jay Bhattacharya to be director of the National Institutes of Health, which funds nearly $48 billion in research each year. Bhattacharya gained prominence during the covid-19 pandemic for opposing lockdowns. (NPR)Francis Collins has retired from the National Institutes of Health. The widely admired geneticist spent 12 years as director of the agency, through 2021, and before that he played a key role in the Human Genome Project. Early in his career he identified the gene that causes cystic fibrosis. (New York Times)