TL:DR: Five years of AdGuard VPN for $49.99 gives you fast encrypted browsing, 70+ global locations, and protection across 10 devices. Monthly subscriptions are the background noise of modern tech life — streaming, storage, apps, and security tools all billing you forever. That’s why a multi-year VPN offer stands out. The AdGuard VPN 5-year plan for $49.99 (MSRP $359.40) turns privacy protection into a one-time decision rather than a recurring commitment. AdGuard routes your traffic through encrypted tunnels using its own optimized protocol, keeping browsing habits, downloads, and logins shielded from trackers and public Wi-Fi risks. Whether you’re working remotely, traveling, or just using café Wi-Fi, your data stays unreadable to anyone snooping nearby. You also get access to 70+ global server locations, which helps stabilize connections and unlock region-restricted content while keeping speeds usable for streaming and large downloads. And unlike many plans that cover only a laptop and phone, this one protects up to 10 devices simultaneously — meaning your computer, tablet, and smart TV stay covered under one account. AdGuard also maintains a strict no-logging policy, so activity isn’t stored or sold. Set your privacy and forget it for the next five years. Get a 5-year subscription to AdGuard VPN for a one-time $49.99 payment (MSRP $359.40). AdGuard VPN: 5-Yr SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

TL;DR: SwifDoo PDF Pro gives you editing, converting, signing, and organizing tools for life for a one-time $34.99 payment. PDFs are supposed to make life easier, yet they somehow turn simple tasks into a convoluted scavenger hunt. That’s what’s so refreshing about the SwifDoo PDF Pro lifetime license for $34.99 (MSRP $129). Instead of juggling multiple tools (and monthly fees), this bundles everything into one Windows app you actually own. Need to tweak a contract? Edit text directly. Need a Word file? Convert it instantly. Need a signature? Drop one in and send. SwifDoo handles the everyday workflow loop: open, annotate, merge, split, compress, and export — including conversions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, and even CAD formats. It also adds practical extras like password protection, watermark controls, and quick translations when documents arrive in another language. The big difference isn’t just the feature list — it’s permanence. No renewal countdown, no locked tools after a trial period, and no wondering which tier includes basic functions. For students, freelancers, office workers, or anyone constantly wrangling forms, this turns PDFs back into what they were meant to be: documents, not obstacles. Remove unnecessary friction from your daily routine. Get a SwifDoo PDF Pro Perpetual Lifetime License for $34.99 (MSRP $129). SwifDoo PDF Pro: Perpetual Lifetime License for WindowsSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Deepfakes showing grim taxpayer-funded waterparks have gone viral and drawn some racist responses. Read...

OpenAI said the account`s activity did not meet the threshold to flag it to authorities when it was identified. Read...

The outage was caused by damage to several copper and fibre cables, a Chorus spokesperson said. Read...

The company said several copper and fibre cables had been damaged, with the outage affected nearly 7500 customers.. Read...

When the news first broke that legendary Apple designer John Ive was joining forces with OpenAI on the first made-for-ChatGPT hardware, imaginations ran wild.  What could the first ChatGPT hardware be? Not anything with a screen, insiders said (Ive and ChatGPT founder Sam Altman have remained mostly mum on the subject.) Maybe more a “pebble” that would fit in your pocket, a “third-core” device that would be “contextually aware” of its surroundings.  Indeed, reports of a leaked OpenAI conference call detailed Altman calling the device the “coolest piece of technology that the world will have even seen,” while Ive has called the upcoming ChatGPT hardware the beginning of a “new design movement.”  Well, a groundbreaking ChatGPT hardware device may yet be in the pipeline, but a new report says one of the first ChatGPT devices will be far more familiar: a plain-old smart speaker.  The speaker, which might not arrive until February 2027, would ship with a camera and cost between $200 and $300, according to the Information and its anonymous sources.   Other OpenAI hardware in the works include smart glasses and—maybe—a smart lamp, the report said, with the glasses not expected to be released until 2028 or later.  OpenAI has yet to comment on The Information’s story, and like any report from anonymous industry sources, it should be taken with a grain of salt.  But if we are just getting a glorified, ChatGPT-powered Echo speaker as our first OpenAI product, it will be quite a letdown. I already have an AI-powered smart display in my kitchen—the Google Nest Hub Max with Gemini inside—and it mostly just sits there, displaying family photos, while the Alexa+-enabled Echo Dot in my office stays mostly silent. Personally, I haven’t found many inspiring uses for AI in a smart speaker, and the same goes for ChatGPT’s voice mode and Gemini Live on a phone; the conversations tend to be stilted, halting, or downright weird. ChatGPT has done a lot for me on a desktop, but in a smart speaker? I’m not so sure.  The rumored ChatGPT smart glasses would be a little closer to the vision of an on-the-body device that gathers intel from your surroundings, but OpenAI would be heading into well-trod territory (hello, Meta, and possibly even Apple).  A ChatGPT smart lamp? That’s a little more out of the box, and we have seen similar smart lights with integrated smart speakers before.   Personally, I’ll be waiting for the ChatGPT pebble. Read...

If you’ve been looking at gaming monitors over the last few years, you’ve probably seen a lot of OLEDs and not much else. If you’ve been hunting for a solid non-OLED deal, you might want to check out Dell’s newest offering: a 27-inch 1080p monitor with a color-accurate IPS panel and 240Hz of speed. That’s pretty darn good if you play online multiplayer games… and right now it’s just $130. Dang! Notably, this is a Dell monitor, not in the company’s more premium Alienware brand. That makes sense as the SE2726HG appears to be very specifically targeted at budget gamers. It uses dull black plastic, it has zero USB inputs, there are no RGB lights on the rear. But it does support multiple devices at once (two HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4) and has a headphone jack for easily connecting a headset or speakers. You get a VESA mount, which you should absolutely use to add a monitor arm. The 1920×1080 resolution is fairly basic for a modern monitor, especially a 27-inch one, during a time when 1440p is the new “sweet spot.” But the IPS panel—a definite upgrade over cheaper VA—gets my attention as someone who frequently has to work with photos. And 240Hz is a huge plus! That’s four times the speed of a basic non-gaming monitor, and definitely in the range that competitive gamers want. All this for $150 retail or $130 with the current discount on Dell’s web store. (These discounts tend to be “sticky” for Dell, so you can expect to see this price a lot going forward.) That’s the best price I’ve seen on a new gaming monitor in a long, long time. Read...

YouTube is planning to test a new Gemini-powered AI feature on smart TVs that allows users to interact with the TV—such as by asking questions about what they’re watching, jumping to a specific timestamp, etc.—using prompts and voice commands, reports Android Authority. The “Ask” feature is based on Google’s AI assistant Gemini. You’ll be able to call it up by selecting an “Ask” button and then interface with it by choosing from prewritten questions or ask your own questions using the microphone on your TV remote control. This feature is already available in YouTube’s mobile and web versions, but it will be tested on smart TV platforms such as Google TV, Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, gaming consoles, and streaming boxes. Google is initially rolling out the test to a small number of users and may expand the launch depending on the response. Read...

There are many photo apps that can improve the quality of your images–and nowadays they often use AI. One of the best tools is Luminar. It has all the basics: you can crop, rotate, and flip your images, and adjust light and colors. Luminar also offers many filters that alter the look of images. In addition, it provides tools that can change the content of an image. For example, you can replace a dull gray sky with a clear blue one. Luminar includes an eraser function that can remove unwanted details. If you have taken a portrait, you can give the person smoother skin and a slimmer body. The basic version of Luminar is free, but to get the most out of it, you have to pay. You can buy a desktop license for a one-time fee of $119 or a cross-device license for $159. If you want to use the service’s generative AI, you must pay extra for the first year. Luminar recently won Google’s App of the Year award in the multi-device category. This category includes services available on various platforms. Foundry Download Luminar for Android Download Luminar for iOS Download Luminar for Windows Store www.skylum.com/luminar Read...