Category: Technologies

In my Galaxy S26 review, I briefly mentioned that Good Lock is a pilgrimage every Samsung user should undertake. One UI is jam-packed with features, which don’t always feel coherent, but the software design seems deliberate. Samsung’s custom skin has been among my favorites due to its strong identity, and one of its best hidden tricks is Good Lock.

Good Lock is one of those Samsung features that can be weirdly easy to ignore. There’s no shiny demo at the start of the setup process, sitting as a separate app that you’ll have to download. But oddly enough, it is exactly what gives One UI the edge over many other Android skins.

Samsung describes Good Lock as a suite of customization apps for Galaxy devices, letting users personalize the interface, improve productivity, and install only the tools they actually need. This doesn’t sound too interesting till you actually give it a shot.

The module that instantly explains the appeal is Theme Park

I used it to push my Galaxy S26 into deep purple tones across the interface, including the Quick Settings panel. This isn’t your typical wallpaper‑matching trick, as you can get in‑depth options. With QuickStar, you can redesign parts of the Quick Panel, while LockStar makes the lock screen and Always On Display become more flexible. I even added stickers to the AOD, including goody little line faces, because why not?

It is absolutely not for everyone. But the fact that Samsung even let me make these changes is the point.

Most phones let you choose a wallpaper, pick a color palette, and maybe change icons if the launcher supports it. Good Lock goes several layers deeper. It makes the Galaxy S26 feel less like Samsung’s phone and more like mine.

There’s a lot of silly stuff

The most fun I had was with Edge Lighting+. I set up a flower effect that pops up when a notification comes in. Again, this isn’t essential at all and frankly kind of ridiculous. It makes notifications even more distracting, yet my phone felt more alive in some weird manner. You do have more practical lighting effects to choose from, and they won’t make your phone feel spring. But it is really fun to mess around with.

Chinese smartphones are known for going all‑in on customizations, and it’s great to see that Samsung doesn’t fall behind either. The Galaxy S26 hardware does appear safe in places. Good Lock helps push back against that by having the software be more unique.

Utility is solid too

Good Lock is not only about making your phone look different. You get access to plenty of modules that are quietly useful. I already called NotiStar my favorite in the Galaxy S26 review, and I still think it is one of the best Good Lock tools because notification management is one of those things Android can never make too good. Sound Assistant is a close second for me because it gives you more granular control over audio behavior than the regular settings menu.

Then there is Nice Catch, which helps track unexplained actions like vibrations, sounds, ringer mode changes, call mode changes, and toast notifications. If you’ve ever been bothered or curious about why your phone is buzzing for no apparent reason, this makes sure no software gets away with it.

Camera Assistant is another module worth calling out. Samsung’s own Good Lock listing includes camera customization among its plugin tools, and the module adds the sort of camera behavior tweaks that power users usually wish were built directly into the default camera app.

The beauty of Good Lock is that you do not need to use all of this. Samsung has built a modular app that lets you choose how deep you want to go. So you can simply skip any of the ones that don’t interest you.

Samsung can brag about this more

Good Lock isn’t entirely unknown. At this point, it’s more of an open secret. However, it can be a bit confusing for those getting into it for the first time. A casual user could open it, stare at the list, and leave immediately. But if you give it a shot, you’ll see why the flexibility in Android is the reason why many people never move over to Apple’s polished but locked ecosystem. After using it properly on the Galaxy S26, going back to a cleaner Android phone seems strangely limiting.

Imagine the moisture in the air around you could recharge your fitness band or run the sensors in your smart home. That is precisely what an international team of scientists led by Queen Mary University of London has accomplished.

Their newly unveiled Moisture‑Electric Generator (MEG) converts ambient humidity into usable electricity using only three commonplace kitchen items: gelatin, table salt and activated charcoal.

How it operates

The MEG captures water molecules either from the surrounding atmosphere or directly from human skin. As the gelatin‑salt mixture dries, it spontaneously separates into three distinct layers without any elaborate manufacturing steps.

This layered arrangement establishes a moisture gradient that drives ion migration through the material, producing a steady output of roughly 1 volt per unit that can last for more than 30 days.

When 100 units are linked in series, the voltage climbs to about 90 V and the current reaches 5.08 mA—enough to illuminate a string of 40 decorative lights. The 100‑unit stack weighs only 6.7 g and occupies less volume than a typical AA battery, which supplies just 1.5 V.

Beyond power generation

The MEG also functions as a self‑powered sensor. It can monitor breathing in real time by detecting fluctuations in exhaled moisture, count the syllables in spoken words, and gauge skin hydration levels.

Touch‑free proximity detection is possible as well, since the natural moisture from a hovering fingertip can trigger a voltage response. Importantly, the device biodegrades in soil within three weeks and can be recycled by dissolving it in water and remoulding it, without any loss of performance.

The MEG adds to a growing portfolio of battery‑free energy concepts. Earlier work includes a protein nanowire that harvests electricity from air moisture, a bionic mushroom that generates power via bacteria, and ultra‑thin, nearly invisible solar cells that can coat a car window.

At first glance, it looks like a regular USB cable. But a new Kickstarter project called Hacknect is trying to turn something as ordinary as a charging cable into a surprisingly powerful hacking and automation device. The product is being pitched toward ethical hackers, cybersecurity researchers, developers, and automation enthusiasts. Hidden inside the cable is a tiny Wi‑Fi‑enabled computer powered by an ESP32‑S3 chip, allowing it to do far more than simply charge a phone or transfer files.

According to the Kickstarter campaign, Hacknect can remotely execute scripts, automate tasks, emulate keyboard inputs, and even store hidden files through a built‑in microSD card slot. Users can reportedly control the cable wirelessly through a browser dashboard or smartphone.

In simple terms, once plugged into a computer, the cable can pretend to be a keyboard and automatically type commands or launch scripts. That’s why many people are comparing it to tools like the USB Rubber Ducky and O.MG Cable, which are already popular in cybersecurity circles for penetration testing and security training.

Why a cable like this is grabbing attention

The interesting part is not just what Hacknect can do – it’s how invisible it looks while doing it.

Cybersecurity tools used to look like developer hardware or bulky gadgets. Now, they’re increasingly being disguised as everyday objects. A charging cable that secretly contains a wireless hacking platform feels like something out of a spy movie, which is exactly why projects like this grab attention so quickly online.

For professionals, there are legitimate uses. Security teams often use devices like these to test whether employees can detect malicious USB devices or to simulate real‑world cyberattacks during training exercises. Automation enthusiasts can also use them for repetitive workflows, scripting, or remote device management.

But there’s also an uncomfortable side to this conversation.

Because the cable looks completely normal, critics argue that the same features could potentially be abused if used irresponsibly. A device capable of remotely injecting commands into a computer naturally raises concerns about unauthorized access and physical cybersecurity threats.

What makes devices like Hacknect dangerous is how easily they blend into everyday life. Most people would never suspect that a normal‑looking charging cable could secretly execute commands, inject keystrokes, or remotely communicate over Wi‑Fi. That creates a major trust problem around physical device security.

In the wrong hands, tools like this could potentially be used to steal data, install malicious software, or gain unauthorized access to systems without immediately raising suspicion. Since the cable appears completely ordinary, victims may plug it into personal laptops, office systems, or shared computers without thinking twice. Cybersecurity experts have long warned that physical hardware attacks are becoming harder to detect – and products like this show why.

The bigger trend behind it

Hacknect also reflects a larger shift happening in cybersecurity right now. As software defenses become stronger, researchers and attackers alike are paying more attention to hardware‑based attack methods.

At the same time, Western companies are increasingly paying attention to the hardware innovation happening in smaller developer communities and independent tech projects. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter have become a launchpad for niche cybersecurity gadgets that might once have stayed hidden inside underground forums or specialist circles.

That said, products like this still sit in a gray area. The creators heavily market Hacknect as an ethical hacking and educational tool, but like most cybersecurity hardware, the intent behind how it’s used matters far more than the gadget itself.

And while it may look like an ordinary cable sitting on a desk, Hacknect is a reminder that modern cybersecurity threats are starting to hide in plain sight.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the iconic faces of the Moon‑landing era. Elon Musk’s vision for Mars may feature a very different public figure: Chun Wang, a cryptocurrency billionaire whose wealth stems from Bitcoin mining.

Wang is slated to head a future SpaceX Starship flight that would swing past Mars and then return to Earth. SpaceX has not disclosed a launch window, and the mission remains contingent on Starship demonstrating it can safely transport humans far beyond low‑Earth orbit.

From Apollo legends to billionaire space tourists

Private space travel has already passed its celebrity stage. In April 2025, Blue Origin launched Katy Perry, Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn and Kerianne Flynn on the NS‑31 New Shepard flight. The all‑female sub‑orbital trip lasted only minutes but captured worldwide attention.

Wang’s planned expedition is far more ambitious than a brief hop to the edge of space. The Mars flyby is expected to take roughly two years, presenting a far tougher challenge for both the passenger and the vehicle. Should SpaceX succeed, Wang could become one of the first humans to journey toward Mars, even without touching down.

Wang is no stranger to private spaceflight. He previously commanded SpaceX’s Fram2 mission, a Crew Dragon flight that took four civilian astronauts over Earth’s polar regions in 2025. That several‑day orbital experience gave Wang real spaceflight credentials before his intended Starship jump. While this background doesn’t diminish the ambition of a Mars flyby, it shows SpaceX isn’t selecting someone with no prior space experience.

Musk’s Mars ambition still hinges on a functional vehicle

Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the twelfth flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/XXBAtryPpL

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 22, 2026

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Elon Musk has long asserted that SpaceX aims for Mars. Starship is the launch system built for that purpose, but it remains in the testing phase.

SpaceX’s upgraded Starship V3 lifted off on May 22 2026 after an earlier scrub caused by a launch‑tower issue. The uncrewed test reportedly met most objectives, including stage separation and a simulated Starlink satellite deployment, before ending with a splashdown in the Indian Ocean and a dramatic fireball. SpaceX explained the fiery conclusion was intentional, as the company did not intend to recover or reuse the experimental craft.

Since Starship has yet to carry humans, Wang’s Mars mission is still a long way off. For now, the proposal depends on SpaceX proving the rocket can safely ferry people far beyond Earth.

For the past two years, tech firms have loudly proclaimed that AI is ready to take over large swaths of repetitive human labor. Yet Starbucks has just found out that correctly spotting milk cartons inside a coffee shop remains tougher than Silicon Valley promised.

The chain is officially pulling the plug on its AI-driven inventory counting system across North America only nine months after launch, Reuters reported. The solution, meant to automate stock tallies and curb in‑store shortages, reportedly suffered from frequent miscounts and labeling mix‑ups, such as confusing similar milk varieties or overlooking items altogether.

Starbucks’ AI inventory system: More headaches than help?

The automated setup relied on cameras and LIDAR‑equipped tablets to scan beverage inventories and ingredient supplies throughout stores. It formed part of CEO Brian Niccol’s broader “Back to Starbucks” turnaround plan, which aims to boost product availability and operational efficiency.

Even though Starbucks previously claimed the system enhanced inventory visibility, staff continued to battle inaccurate counts and unreliable product recognition. Internal communications reviewed by Reuters even showed workers openly celebrating the tool’s removal. Starbucks says it will revert to manual inventory counting while concentrating on more standardized replenishment processes and daily restocking improvements.

AI keeps stumbling over the mundane tasks companies said it would solve first

The irony is that inventory counting is exactly the kind of structured, repetitive job AI vendors constantly argue should be easy to automate. Yet once these systems move from polished demos to chaotic real‑world settings with shifting lighting, similar packaging, and busy staff, they tend to break down quickly.

This is especially awkward given how aggressively corporations are chasing AI adoption. Companies are laying off workers, reshuffling teams, and pouring billions into automation while many AI tools still flounder on basic reliability in everyday workflows. Starbucks becoming the latest “humans still needed” case feels both funny and inevitable. Perhaps the bigger takeaway is that replacing people proves far tougher than swapping PowerPoint decks for AI‑generated buzzwords.

A lot of people on MacBooks do not really think of themselves as gamers. Aside from a few casual titles on phones or trying out GTA or COD on their friend’s console, many don’t really get into that hobby. Macs have never had the same gaming reputation as Windows PCs, and if your idea of gaming is competitive shooters or open-world RPGs from AAA studios, it’s easy to miss out on the gems that are available on the Mac ecosystem.

But some of the best games for non-gamers are not about fast reflexes at all. They are about choices, curiosity, grief, adventure, and so much more. This is exactly why I’ve chosen these three games, which aren’t your typical hardware showcase. These go much deeper than that. Video games as an art form have been a long-standing debate, and I can’t recommend Disco Elysium, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Firewatch enough.

What stands out here is the confidence in writing and atmosphere.

Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium is one of the best arguments that games can be literature without becoming homework. Enter the underwhelming role of a broken detective investigating a murder, but that description barely covers what the game actually does. This is a game about a lot of things. From politics and addiction to identity and the horror of waking up as yourself after everything has gone wrong. There’s a combat loop here, and it’s your conversational skills.

The real battles are fought inside your head, as different parts of the protagonist’s personality play a big role in the outcome of the story. This makes it perfect for MacBook users who do not want a mechanically demanding game. You simply talk, choose, and live with the consequences. Steam describes it as having a “revolutionary dialogue system,” and seeing how you can write sweet talk, romance, and even write poetry in-game, I’d say that’s pretty apt.

What Remains of Edith Finch

What Remains of Edith Finch is the game I would hand to someone who says they do not have time for games. In essence, it’s a series of connected short stories and experiences that are condensed into one single game that is incredibly easy to understand. You explore the Finch family home as the titular Editch, uncovering the stories of relatives who died in strange, tragic, sometimes surreal ways.

Each interactive short story changes how you play for a little while, but none of them asks you to master complicated systems. It is experienced from a first-person perspective and ends with that family member’s death, with the larger game exploring what it feels like to be humbled by the world.

If the concept sounds heavy, that’s exactly what the devs were going for. This is from the same people who brought you other critically acclaimed titles like Outer Wilds and Stray. So it’s no surprise that there’s a strong focus on narrative. You are not just watching a family history unfold; you are experiencing it yourself and piecing it together room by room.

Firewatch

Firewatch is probably the easiest of the three to recommend to someone who wants a “normal” game but does not want stress. You play as Henry, a man working as a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness. Your main connection is Delilah, another lookout who speaks to you through a walkie-talkie.

While the setup is simple, the game has a very distinct feel to it. Firewatch is about isolation, emotional escape, and the danger of treating distance like a solution. This is a proper single-player experience where choices shape the narrative.

You can expect to explore, talk, and investigate as you slowly get pulled into something stranger. It is not difficult in the traditional sense, but you will be facing emotional challenges between two characters who aren’t honest enough to face their own lives.

For non-gamers on MacBooks, these three games are a perfect starting point. They are not about proving you are good at games. These are experiences that will make you stop and think for a while.

If you use Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, you have probably noticed a floating Copilot button hovering over your documents. It has been there since December 2025, sitting at the bottom-right corner of your screen, and Microsoft is finally letting you move it.

Starting the last week of May 2026, an update will give users the option to send it back to the ribbon where it belongs.

Why did Microsoft add the floating Copilot button in the first place?

The short answer is numbers. Only around 3.3% of Microsoft 365 users actually pay for Copilot, and adoption has stayed well below what Microsoft expected. To push more people toward the feature, Microsoft rolled out what it calls the Copilot Dynamic Action Button, or DAB, and quietly expanded it to everyone by May 2026.

The idea was that making Copilot more visible would drive more clicks, which it did. However, it also drove a wave of complaints. Excel users were hit hardest, since the button floated directly over spreadsheet cells, blocking data with no easy way to dismiss it.

How to move the Copilot button off your screen

Once the update rolls out, you can right-click the Copilot icon and choose to move it back to the ribbon. Microsoft is not removing the dock option, so you will still be able to switch between the floating button, the docked version, and the ribbon placement depending on your preference.

Katie Kivett, partner group product manager at Microsoft, acknowledged the frustration, saying the company is making short-term adjustments while it figures out a better long-term approach.

This is not the first time Microsoft has quietly scaled back Copilot. Just a month ago, it began pulling Copilot buttons from various Windows 11 apps after similar pushback. It seems Microsoft is slowly learning that forcing AI into every corner of your workflow is not the same as making it useful.

Something extraordinary is unfolding across Namibia’s wildlife reserves. A satellite network named Icarus is now monitoring animal panic responses, potentially becoming the most potent anti‑poaching tool ever devised.

To grasp its importance, consider the poaching crisis. Over the past 15 years, more than 10,000 rhinos have been illegally killed in South Africa, and the threat shows no sign of abating. Rangers are outnumbered, protected areas are immense, and by the time a poacher’s presence is detected, it is often too late.

According to a recent BBC report, scientists at Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior have proposed an unconventional remedy. Instead of deploying additional rangers or cameras, they asked: why not let the animals do the watching?

How the technology operates

Whenever a danger moves through the bush, animals exhibit predictable panic behaviors. To accurately map these signatures, the researchers needed real‑world data, which meant staging simulated poaching events at Okambara, a private wildlife reserve in Namibia.

Armed hunters traversed the terrain, firing shots into the air while drones captured the exact reactions of each species. The goal was not to harm the animals but to record their fear response to an approaching poacher.

These panic patterns will train an algorithm that can issue instant alerts to rangers. As Martin Wikelski, a world‑leading movement ecologist heading the Max Planck Institute, explains, even the most unlikely creatures become valuable sensors. Giraffes, for example, rarely run; they simply stand, heads aligned, observing the threat from a safe distance. “That tells us where the poacher is,” Wikelski notes.

Central to the system are wildlife tracking tags that log GPS location, activity, heart rate, body temperature, and atmospheric pressure. The ambition is to have 100,000 animals tagged worldwide by 2030, each acting as a beacon in a global early‑warning network.

Can it really curb poaching?

In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, the system has already facilitated the rescue of 80 wild dogs caught in snares. However, real‑time poacher detection is still being refined. In November, Icarus launched its first satellite, with five more slated for deployment by 2027. Once the constellation is complete, it will stream live animal‑movement data from any corner of the globe, making it increasingly difficult for poachers to operate unseen.

I’ve been thinking about buying a new device, which is usually where reasonable plans go to die. I don’t want to spend big laptop money, partly because I know most of that laptop would sit on a desk pretending to be portable. I also don’t want to build my own desktop, because that becomes a hobby the moment you blink. Suddenly, I’m comparing cases, power supplies, cooling, GPUs, and other things I only wanted to think about for five minutes.

That’s how I ended up looking at mini PCs, possibly the least dramatic lane in personal computing. They’re small boxes that sit under a monitor and mind their business. Nobody looks at one and thinks, wow, the future finally arrived in matte black.

A boring box starts to make sense

Calling them boring almost feels unfair, because the plainness is doing actual work. A mini PC skips the built-in screen, battery, keyboard, webcam, hinge, and thin metal shell that help make laptops expensive. It also avoids the full-tower spiral, where every purchase quietly invites another opinion about airflow.

Instead, it assumes you already have, or can choose, the stuff around it. A monitor. A keyboard. A mouse. Maybe some speakers. In return, it avoids a lot of the drama that makes a basic tech purchase feel weirdly inflated.

The Mac mini has helped make that idea feel normal again. The M4 model is available with 16GB of memory, which makes the tiny desktop idea look less like a niche experiment and more like a sane default. The Windows side is messier. Beelink, Geekom, Minisforum, Asus NUC-style machines, and other compact PCs turn this whole lane into something half practical and half suspicious Amazon listing.

The compromise is the whole appeal

The catch, obviously, is that mini PCs aren’t magic. Some are underpowered. Some are noisy. Some are sold with gaming claims that deserve a raised eyebrow and possibly a small investigation. Integrated graphics can be useful, but a little box doesn’t become a gaming tower just because the product page discovered neon lighting.

Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine makes that line even blurrier. Valve describes it as PC gaming packed into a roughly 6-inch cube, built for a desk or under a TV, which is basically the mini PC argument wearing a console hoodie. It’s not just another tiny desktop, but it does point in the same direction: fewer parts to obsess over, less build-your-own theater, and a box that tries to make PC gaming feel less like a weekend chore.

That limitation is useful because it keeps the promise small. For browsing, office work, media, light editing, and casual gaming, there’s a wide gap between what many people need and what they keep getting nudged to want. Mini PCs live in that gap. They’re more interesting as the machine you buy when you’re tired of pretending every purchase needs to be aspirational.

Just enough computer feels refreshing

That’s why mini PCs feel oddly refreshing. Computer buying has become bloated in ways that are easy to miss. Premium laptops sell polish. Gaming desktops sell power fantasies. Creator machines suggest every spreadsheet might secretly become a short film.

Mini PCs are less flattering. They ask what you actually need from a machine once you strip away the lifestyle packaging. That question feels especially sharp when a recent Tom’s Hardware survey found that 60% of PC gamers had no plans to build a new PC in the next two years, with pricing pressure and component shortages dragging down enthusiasm.

A mini PC won’t make anyone gasp. It probably won’t become the centerpiece of a desk setup video. But as an unshowy little desktop that does normal things without turning the purchase into a personal identity, it starts to look strangely exciting. Maybe “just enough computer” is the upgrade I actually want.

Researchers at MIT Media Lab have found a genuinely jaw-dropping use for the LiDAR sensor sitting inside your iPhone and iPad Pro. It can detect and track objects that are completely outside the camera’s field of view. Yes, that means seeing around corners.

This kind of imaging, called non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging, is not a new concept. But past demonstrations relied on powerful, expensive lab-grade lasers with little application in the real world.

What makes this research exciting is that the MIT team pulled it off using the same low-power LiDAR sensor already embedded in our smartphones.

How does it work?

The team is using the LiDAR sensor to allow us to look beyond corners at objects that are not directly in our line of sight. The secret sauce is motion. As your device moves, the system simultaneously tracks the object’s shape, the object’s position, and the camera’s position over time.

The team calls this an aperture sampling model, and it essentially stitches together a series of noisy, imperfect readings into something meaningful. The outputs are not crisp photos of what is hiding around the corner. Instead, you get progressively richer inferences. The system can tell you something is there, how it is moving, and what shape it roughly has. Think of it like echolocation, but with light.

What can it actually do?

The team demonstrated four specific capabilities: tracking a single object, reconstructing its shape, tracking multiple objects at once, and something particularly interesting for robotics, which is camera self-localization using hidden landmarks.

That last one is a big deal. A robot or autonomous system that can orient itself using objects it cannot directly see has a massive advantage in the real world. It can also help improve the self-driving tech or delivery drones for things like accident avoidance.

Sadly, you cannot try this on your smartphone right now, “as that would require these companies to release their raw data, which they often don’t do,” said Siddharth Somasundaram, one of the researchers on this project. That said, the researchers have made their code publicly available, and the sensor hardware can be assembled for under $50.