Plus, if you compare it to the best wet-dry vacuums, you’ll see that it’s quite affordable, even if it is among the more expensive Bissell models. I do have a few quibbles, such as the fact that there’s an upper limit on the size of the debris it can suck up or the fact that all the debris goes into the same dirty water tank making emptying it a bit of a mess.

Still, for the price, it might be the best vacuum with wet-dry capabilities out there. Just be aware that the Bissell CrossWave Reach Plus is the same as the Bissell CrossWave Reach, but comes with a charging base.

Bissell CrossWave Reach Plus Cordless Wet-Dry Vacuum: price & availability

IEEE recently released the IEEE Xplore AI Research Suite, built on the full text of millions of peer-reviewed publications in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. The library offers full-text access to IEEE standards, journals, magazines, conference proceedings, and more.

Researchers who use the AI suite to search the digital library receive answers grounded in verified scientific results, ensuring a high level of accuracy and trust.

The suite is available as an optional subscription upgrade to all IEEE Xplore Digital Library institutional subscribers.

Powered by a proprietary AI system optimized for STEM literature, the suite introduces powerful, intelligent features within the digital library. The suite enables users to seamlessly search and discover articles to accelerate their comprehension of complex technical papers.

The system surfaces deep insights, replacing the typical keyword queries with natural, conversational research workflows.

As AI tools become more common in conducting research, IEEE collaborated to build the suite around a simple principle: Answers should be trustworthy, not just fast, says W. Clem Karl, vice president, IEEE Publication Services and Products.

“AI can be a highly effective and beneficial tool that can help researchers accelerate discovery, enhance decision-making, and surface new connections,” Karl says. “However, many AI engines present a great risk of hallucinating answers or introducing bias into otherwise credible research. With this in mind, IEEE has taken a responsible approach in our AI strategy by developing concrete safeguards to ensure our solution is rigorously grounded in scientific evidence that users can trust.

“As stewards of the scholarly record, we held the new AI engine to the same standards as the peer-reviewed research we publish: A researcher shouldn’t have to trust an answer; they should be able to verify the work behind it.”

Collaboration with the scientific community

The IEEE Xplore AI Research Suite was developed in close collaboration with global scientific and library communities.

The development process began with research into user needs and the challenges associated with existing AI research assistants. More than 3,000 testers—including engineers, scientists, and library information professionals—provided feedback to refine the AI engine and support research workflows.

Capabilities include:

• Semantic AI search. Users can input free-form, natural-language queries or paste long blocks of text to locate similar research and identify novel solutions.
• Time-saving summaries. The platform generates immediate, accurate AI overviews of search results and provides in-context definitions of technical terms so that users can grasp new concepts faster and accelerate their research.
• Built on trusted content. The suite is the only AI research assistant that uses both the full text and metadata of IEEE’s peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers to optimize the accuracy and relevance of the results.
• Comprehensive coverage. A variety of STEM metadata is available from journal articles and conference papers that have been curated to include scholarly articles without the typical noise found in other tools.
• Source links and verifiable results. The AI-generated overviews include reference links to source documents, allowing users to verify information and cross-reference findings.

Reducing hallucinations

To mitigate the risk of AI hallucinations, the search-retrieval process is limited to querying the millions of IEEE peer-reviewed full-text documents, alongside an expertly curated dataset of STEM metadata. If the AI tool is unable to find relevant scientific content within the defined dataset, it is designed to inform the user rather than generate fabricated answers.

“IEEE is committed to providing the technical community with a highly precise and reliable research experience,” says Steven Heffner, IEEE’s chief publication officer and managing director of IEEE Publications. “The IEEE Xplore AI Research Suite offers something unique in that it is the only AI research assistant that leverages both the full-text and metadata of IEEE’s peer-reviewed content, rather than abstracts alone.

“The difference is significant: Our internal testing showed a threefold increase in result quality and accuracy across every key metric. These results underscore how critical full-text grounding is for technical research.”

For more information about features and coverage, or to request a demo for your organization, visit the IEEE Xplore AI Research Suite website.

Questyle’s QCC Dongle Pro2 is the company’s latest flagship Bluetooth transmitter, designed to bring higher-quality wireless audio to smartphones, tablets, computers, and other compatible devices. Best known for its portable DACs, headphone amplifiers, and other audiophile source components, Questyle recognizes that even serious listeners are increasingly embracing wireless headphones. The problem is that not every source device supports the advanced Bluetooth codecs those headphones are capable of using. Apple users, in particular, have been stuck with AAC and SBC for native Bluetooth audio transmission, regardless of how expensive their wireless headphones might be. Questyle thinks it’s time to change that.

Building on the original QCC Dongle Pro, the new QCC Dongle Pro2 introduces Bluetooth 6.1 connectivity, LDAC support, and an expanded selection of high-quality wireless audio codecs in a compact USB-C transmitter. It also carries official Apple MFi certification, providing additional assurance of compatibility with supported iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices. The goal is straightforward: give listeners access to better wireless audio capabilities without forcing them to replace perfectly good source devices. Whether the Pro2 can deliver a meaningful improvement in everyday listening is another question, but Questyle is making a strong case that the weakest link in your wireless audio system might not be your headphones.

Related Reading:

Better Bluetooth Codecs and Lower Gaming Latency

The QCC Dongle Pro2 is designed to bridge the gap between premium wireless headphones and source devices that cannot take full advantage of their capabilities. Consider the Noble Audio FoKus Artem is, which supports LDAC, aptX Adaptive, and aptX Lossless, but requires a compatible transmitter to access those codecs. Rather than relying on a computer’s built-in Bluetooth hardware and codec support, Questyle handles wireless audio transmission through its USB-C adapter. It’s a similar approach to the FiiO BT11 and Sennheiser BTD 700, although Questyle adds support for LHDC, LE Audio, and Auracast to broaden its capabilities.

For gamers, the more interesting development involves wireless audio latency, particularly when using Bluetooth headphones with PCs, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch consoles. Questyle claims the Pro2 can achieve latency as low as 48 milliseconds using aptX Adaptive and just 20 milliseconds using LE Audio’s low-latency mode. Those figures refer to the wireless transmission stage rather than total system latency, and achieving them requires compatible receiving hardware. The aptX Adaptive figure specifically depends on headphones using Qualcomm’s newer Gen 2 Sound Platforms, while LE Audio’s lowest-latency mode requires compatible receivers. Standard Bluetooth headphones won’t magically deliver those results simply because the transmitter supports them.

Questyle also faces competition from the Creative BT-W6, which we previously reviewed and found to be a capable solution for Windows users and gamers, with support for aptX Adaptive, LC3, and dedicated gaming modes. Our testing of the original Questyle QCC and QCC Pro revealed Windows compatibility issues, making the Pro2’s promised plug-and-play performance particularly important to verify. The codec support looks promising, but actual compatibility, connection stability, and latency will determine whether this is a meaningful upgrade or just another impressive collection of Bluetooth acronyms.

Setup, Connectivity, and Everyday Performance

I had expected the Dongle Pro2 to function as a replacement for the built-in Bluetooth systems of the devices it connects to. On reflection, that was an unrealistic assumption. After all, that would be hugely complex to support and might not even be possible on Apple and Android devices. The QCC Dongle Pro2 actually functions like a wireless USB-C cable, but one you’ll need to configure using Questyle’s companion app. That’s a lot less “seamless” than I had imagined, but such is the reality of today’s complex software systems.

To begin using the Dongle Pro2, you must first download its companion app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Thankfully, it doesn’t require an account, but the app is oddly large, coming in at 166MB on Android.

The app itself is minimalist, with an austere user interface. It worked well for me, and I was able to set up the Dongle Pro2 and update its firmware quickly. Pairing devices was equally straightforward, and I had LDAC playback running on my Noble Audio Artemis without any issues. Once paired with a device, the Dongle Pro2 remembers the connection, even after being unplugged. This is also how you use it with laptops and PCs: establish the connection using a smartphone or tablet, then move the transmitter to your computer. While this approach does allow you to switch Bluetooth headphones between source devices without re-pairing, it also means you cannot connect a different pair of Bluetooth headphones or adjust the connection settings without returning to the Questyle app.

Low-Latency and Gaming

To use the QCC Dongle Pro2 with a gaming console, you must first enable “Game Mode” in the app. This mode disables certain Bluetooth features in exchange for significantly lower latency. You sacrifice a bit of sound quality, but I was able to reduce latency from approximately 240ms to 45ms on Windows 10. Is that good enough for competitive gaming? Not really, but it’s more than adequate for single-player experiences or casual online gaming.

I tested the Dongle Pro 2 with both my Switch OLED and Switch 2, and it worked well on both consoles. Sound quality was slightly better using the consoles’ native Bluetooth connections, but that came at the expense of significantly higher latency. The trade-off is worthwhile for fast-paced titles like Splatoon 3 and Kirby Air Riders, although some players may be able to tolerate the additional delay when playing more cinematic games like Pokémon Pokopia.

The downside of using the Dongle Pro2 with the Switch family of consoles is that it occupies the USB-C port used for charging. Wireless headphones are convenient, but losing the ability to charge your handheld console while playing certainly isn’t. The Dongle Pro 2 lacks USB-C pass-through capability, and its absence is particularly frustrating in situations like this. Other wireless audio adapters, such as the Noble Audio Sceptre, offer USB-C pass-through, making Questyle’s omission a notable inconvenience.

The Bottom Line

The QCC Dongle Pro2 is a solid HiFi-capable Bluetooth dongle. It is platform independent, and offers seamless connection to (previously-paired) devices at very high transmission qualities. With Bluetooth 6.1, LDAC, and LE support baked in, the Dongle Pro2 is one of the most complete BT dongles on the market, representing both broad compatibility and future-proof advanced capabilities. While the Dongle Pro2 lacks USB-C pass-through and is on the pricier side, it is still a great choice for audiophiles that demand bleeding-edge wireless audio capabilities.

Pros:

• Extensive codec support, including LDAC, aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive, LHDC, and LE Audio.
• Bluetooth 6.1 connectivity with Auracast support.
• Apple MFi certification and broad compatibility with USB-C source devices.
• Excellent LDAC playback with compatible wireless headphones.
• Significant reduction in gaming latency with Game Mode enabled.
• Remembers paired headphones when switching between source devices.
• Compact, portable design.
• Straightforward initial setup and firmware updates.

Cons:

• Relatively expensive compared with simpler Bluetooth transmitters.
• No USB-C charging pass-through, particularly inconvenient for handheld gaming consoles.
• Requires a smartphone app for initial pairing, configuration, and switching headphones.
• No dedicated desktop configuration app.
• Game Mode sacrifices some sound quality to reduce latency.
• Low-latency performance still falls short of competitive gaming requirements.

Our Ratings:

★★★★★★★★★★ Sound Quality

★★★★★★★★★★ Range/Stability

★★★★★★★★★★ Usability

★★★★★★★★★★ Value

Where to buy:

Related Reading:

Anthropic filed its hotly anticipated IPO prospectus on Monday, spelling out parts of the company’s business, strategy, and risk profile ahead of its public debut. Though the filing, known as an S-1, is several hundred pages long, it has some notable omissions—namely, certain financial figures.

“Claude has experienced the fastest enterprise adoption of any technology in history, as demonstrated by revenue growing from $0 at commercial launch in the first quarter of 2023 to $_____ for the three months ended September 30, 2026,” reads the first of dozens of such examples.

It’s relatively common for companies to redact certain information in their S-1 filings, and Securities and Exchange Commission rules allow for a certain degree of leniency around the practice, particularly when it comes to information considered “confidential.”

Still, it’s helpful to know what, exactly, these companies decide to leave out. In Anthropic’s case, the missing details largely revolve around financials for its most recent quarter, which concluded at the end of September, and lease agreements tied to its compute investments. While experts expect many details to be disclosed before Anthropic goes public, their current absence may hint at the uncertainties of investing in artificial intelligence, as companies work to secure sufficient compute.

Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment.

Michael Dambra, an accounting and law professor at the University at Buffalo School of Management, tells WIRED that there are “practical reasons” for Anthropic’s third-quarter numbers to be absent: September 30 was only a few weeks ago, and “closing the books for a company of this size takes time.”

Companies can also be liable for misstatements in their registration statements, “so there is a strong incentive not to publish numbers before they have been fully vetted,” Dambra says. SEC rules require that “Anthropic would need to update the filing with third-quarter financials” if the company goes public any later than about mid-November, he says.

As for data center lease agreements, Erica Neuman, an accounting professor at Youngstown State University, says it’s “not unusual” for companies to redact confidential details from “contract exhibits,” which could include lease terms.

However, Neuman adds that it’s worth scrutinizing whether Anthropic’s redactions would prevent, or make it more difficult, for investors to analyze Anthropic’s financial obligations and whether they may impact the company’s cash flow.

Many of Anthropic’s financial obligations relate to compute, which is the “most significant operating cost in our business,” according to the S-1. It’s also a business risk for the company, and it’s laid out both in terms of undersupply and overinvestment. (Parts of the AI industry have been warning that chip constraints could slow the progress of AI.)

Michael Pick wanted a small electric pickup without paying forty thousand dollars or waiting for something like the Slate to reach the market. High gas prices made his old V6 Ranger feel expensive to run, so he bought a high-mileage 2017 BMW i3 REx sight unseen from an online auction for fifty-eight hundred dollars and set out to convert it himself.

Before any cutting could begin, the i3 required a new 12V battery and a thorough cleaning. With the interior stripped and the hatch removed, Pick carefully planned where he would cut into the carbon fiber cabin, then disassembled it and hacked off the back half. Before he could begin working on the rest, he designed a custom rear cab structure to provide much-needed extra support, added a back window as a bonus, and then spent some time sealing the entire thing up so that water couldn’t get in and the remaining space remained dry and functional.

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The cargo bed was next on his to-do list. It’s made of plywood that’s been coated with heavy-duty penetrating epoxy and covered with a bedliner, so it rests on top of the compartment that houses the car’s core electronics. Pick was diligent in ensuring that the junction between the cabin and the bed was tightly sealed to prevent water from seeping in. The old taillight lenses were too large for the new opening, so he had to relocate the electronics. To cap it off, he added some aluminum tie-down rails and a detachable tailgate net to complete the bed. The good news is that it can be completely removed when the engine is serviced.

Pick decided to stick with the original systems rather than fiddling with the car’s software because it was simply easier that way. He did, however, change the factory screen to a larger 12.3 inch one with Apple CarPlay and tweaked the range-extender controls to make them function more seamlessly. As a result, the final truck can travel approximately 100 miles on batteries alone and more than 340 miles when the small gasoline engine comes in.

The total cost was just under $8,000, which the donor vehicle, a new shattered windshield, and all of the modifications he made. What you end up with is a two-seater ute that looks outrageously fantastic, runs on electricity most of the time, and has a lovely useful open bed for carrying light things. It won’t compete with a full-size truck in terms of carrying capacity, but it does definitively address the one question Pick began with: an affordable electric pickup is possible if you’re ready to hack an existing car to pieces.
[Source]

You don’t hear the defenders of so-called Western civilization talk much about The Odyssey these days.

Maybe that’s because their rabid denunciations of Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of Homer’s epic were buried in an avalanche of money. The July blockbuster has grossed nearly $1.8 billion worldwide, silencing the right-wingers who predicted a massive flop due to diverse casting and deviations from the source material.

Perhaps the loudest of these preemptive critics was Elon Musk. The world’s richest man spared no vitriol for what he considered a desecration of the ancient Greek narrative; four days after its release, he vowed to produce a superior version. “Before this year ends,” Musk wrote on X, “Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”

A little more than three months later—long after the discourse moved on—the public finally has a first glimpse of what we might call the Grodyssey, an Odyssey rendered through prompts fed into xAI’s video and image generation model. Rather than a “full-length movie,” it’s a seven-minute “episode” of an apparently ongoing series, depicting how Odysseus, king of Ithaca, resists a call to war against Troy but is ultimately compelled by an oath of loyalty to sail there with his army.

“Odyssey with Grok Imagine,” Musk announced Friday on X when sharing the clip, produced by AI entertainment company Wonder Studios X. The subdued post received just 18,000 likes, notably less engagement than other recent posts in which Musk cast doubt on the results of Brazil’s elections, complained about pronouns, and disparaged “legacy news.”

Grok’s introductory episode bears many hallmarks of AI slop. The movements of faces don’t match the dialog, which is further undercut by stilted and unnatural delivery. Besides Odysseus, none of the principal characters are introduced by name, and the pacing issues are laughable: The Ithacans arrive on the shores of Troy immediately after leaving their homeland, for example. Even the blue checks on X were harsh in their assessment. “Someone actually watched this and still decided to post it?” wrote one user. “Fire that person.”

But Musk’s stated goal wasn’t to deliver a better-looking or more narratively cohesive version of The Odyssey. He and his culture war comrades dubiously claimed that they were against Nolan’s casting of Black and trans actors, the Americanized English spoken by the characters they played, and various designs of ships and armor in the film because they were “historically inaccurate.” Hence Musk’s guarantee of a “historically accurate” corrective.

So, did Grok Imagine succeed on that front? Asking Grok for a self-evaluation yields an interesting answer. “No,” the chatbot says when queried about whether this Odyssey snippet is historically accurate. “Grok Imagine’s Episode 1 (and the broader promised series) is an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey, not a historically accurate reconstruction of real events.”

Def. Not A Bubble: Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, recently shared a scathing note on the true extent of the so-called “AI revolution.” The data suggest AI’s macroeconomic impact remains very limited, which could mean we are heading toward some truly interesting times in terms of financial trends and global economic outcomes.

According to Slok’s Daily Spark note, AI has so far delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech, despite the massive amount of money and hype surrounding the latest advancements in large language model research.

A few tech-related corporations are seeing noticeable returns, but the overwhelming majority of companies in the S&P 500 are seeing little to show for their generative AI or LLM efforts.

Slok said inflation-adjusted revenue per worker is rising only for the Magnificent 7, the Big Tech-heavy slice of the S&P 500 that includes Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, Google/Alphabet, Apple, and Meta. Profit margins are rising for that group too. Meanwhile, the “S&P 493,” as he calls the rest of the index, is flat on both revenue per worker and profit margins.

Furthermore, Apollo’s economist does not see any sign that AI is boosting productivity growth. To put it simply, GenAI and LLMs are having no impact on the bottom line outside of tech. With nothing to show for it, mainstream S&P 500 companies are already pulling back on the massive sums AI requires, treating token spending as a cost that weighs on margins rather than a potential source of future growth.

Venture-backed companies keep spending more and more on AI tokens, while mainstream organizations don’t need the latest models, and aren’t willing to pay for them. Slok said that if AI stays confined to a small portion of the overall economy, its macroeconomic effects will be very limited.

AI models might become more and more commoditized, and tokens might eventually get “cheap” enough for revenue to grow and margins to expand. However, Slok thinks that lofty goal could be harder to achieve than it sounds. He describes AI as a powerful “calculator,” but argues that businesses run on good judgment, not number crunching.

“AI does not understand accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness, all of which shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue growth and profit margins,” Slok said in his post.

In his view, the AI story will ultimately be decided by the S&P 493 rather than by the Magnificent 7’s financial fireworks.

Slok’s firm, Apollo manages roughly $1 trillion in assets, so his read on the economy carries weight. His outlook also echoes other cautionary reports, with Gartner recently estimating that more than $3.5 trillion in AI infrastructure investment could face write-downs by the end of 2030. But not everyone shares that pessimism. Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius argues that AI investment will ultimately pay off in higher productivity and economy-wide profits.