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5 Harbor Freight Tools That Are More Powerful Than Ryobi

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Ryobi is frequently cited as one of the best major power tools brands on the market, particularly when it comes to measuring the ratio of price-to-performance. Not only is the Ryobi One+ battery system robust and reliable, but the company’s catalog of both corded and cordless tools is absolutely massive, with over 300 products in the 18V class alone. On top of that, Ryobi is the official Home Depot-affiliated power tool brand, which is why you won’t find any of the green tools sold at Lowe’s or any other brick-and-mortar retailer. This affiliation gives the company a certain measure of credibility that’s hard to come by in many of the other value-oriented brands on the market.

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Harbor Freight’s power tools fill a similar niche. They aren’t usually trying to outperform the top-of-the-line models from DeWalt, Makita, or Milwaukee, but many of them aim to offer an approximation of that performance at a fraction of the price. This is most apparent in the company’s premium Hercules power tools, which are generally higher quality than those in its Bauer line.

The tool lines of these two manufacturers aren’t sold in the same stores, but the companies trade blows in terms of specs and performance more often than you might think. Ryobi is considered the safer bet by many craftspeople, but there are several instances where you might be surprised to learn that Harbor Freight comes out on top. By comparing the specs of two similar tools from each brand, taking a look at their weighted customer review scores, and seeing what pros have to say about them, you can see that there are several Harbor Freight tools that are able to outperform their Ryobi counterparts in terms of raw power.

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Hercules 20V ½-inch Ultra Torque Impact Wrench (HCB85B2)

The Hercules lineup consistently hits well above its weight class in terms of design, power, and performance, but there are a handful of the brand’s power tools that are truly exceptional. These manage to hit high-end performance benchmarks while costing about half as much as other brands. One of the best examples of this is the Hercules 20V ½-inch Ultra Torque Impact Wrench (HCB85B2). 

The closest Ryobi variation of this tool is the 18V One+ HP ½-inch High Torque Impact Wrench (PBLIW01B). This is a fairly powerful battery-powered wrench that offers four modes of control and up to 1,170 ft-lbs of breakaway torque. It retails for $219.00 and is well-loved by users, with a 4.9 out of 5 on the Ryobi site and a 4.8 on Home Depot. Even so, the Hercules has the same four control modes, three different speed modes, and also boasts an impressive 1,500 ft-lbs of breakaway torque, handily outperforming the Ryobi while also being cheaper, at just $189.99.

This tool has a 4.9 out of 5 on the Harbor Freight website, matching the customer review score of the Ryobi. There are dozens of reviews that specifically cite the tool’s build quality and power as reasons for their positive reviews. “I feel like I have to brace myself when I use this,” said one. “Maybe I just need to work on upper body strength, but the force is great.” Torque Test Channel did extensive testing on this tool as well, and found that it even outperformed several higher-end tools offered by premium brands like DeWalt and Milwaukee, sitting several slots above the Ryobi on the power scale.

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Hercules 20V 7 ¼-inch Rear Handle Circular Saw (HCB72B-1)

Just about every craftsperson needs a good circular saw, but many might not know that the rear-handled worm-drive-style saws tend to be a lot stronger than the typical top-handled variety. Hercules makes one of these that dramatically outperforms Ryobi’s closest competitor.

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One of the best circular saws that Ryobi has to offer is the 18V One+ 7 ¼-inch Circular Saw (PBLCS300B). This promises 325 cuts per charge (though the listing doesn’t specify battery capacity) and cuts at speeds up to 4,300 RPM. That’s a pretty potent little saw, and users seem to like it, giving it a 4.8 out of 5 on the Ryobi site and a 4.5 on Home Depot, where it retails for $129.00.

That said, it isn’t even close to the power offered by the Hercules 7 ¼-inch Rear Handle Circular Saw (HCB72B-1). This tool costs an extra $20, but it’s able to make up to 725 cuts per charge on a 12Ah battery and speeds up to 5,800 RPM. That’s a significant boost in power, making it outperform the Ryobi model.

The Hercules saw has 4.9 out of 5 on the Harbor Freight site. “I love the worm drive configuration and the hook,” one reviewer said. “It has plenty of power. I’ve run it for several days on one battery. It’s half the price of DeWalt or Milwaukee, but performs just as good in my opinion.” Pro reviewers seem to like the tool as well. “Hercules claims this saw can handle all grades of lumber, including the toughest hardwoods. They aren’t messing around,” said Tool Craze. “No doubt thanks to a strong high-performance brushless motor designed to chew up and spit out lumber.”

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Hercules 20V ½-inch Drill/Driver (HCB91B)

One of the most important power tools in any collection has to be the basic drill. This is something that you’ll be using in nearly every project that you take on, so it makes sense that you’d want to make sure you get a good one. Fortunately, this is another area where Harbor Freight put a lot of effort into making a tool with fantastic performance.

The Hercules 20V ½-inch Drill/Driver (HCB91B) is just $69.99 and has 14 clutch settings, a two-speed transmission, and promises to drill up to 350 holes on a single charge. But most importantly, it has a brushless motor that promises up to 1,200 in-lbs of torque. That’s a lot of power for any standard drill, let alone a budget option. Meanwhile, Ryobi’s brushless 18V One+ HP ½-inch Drill Driver (PBLDD01B) goes for $99.99 at Home Depot. This has a lot of the same features, but it’s only able to generate a maximum of 750 in-lbs of torque. This is a huge difference in performance, making the Harbor Freight tool outshine Ryobi in both price and quality.

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The Hercules has a 4.7 out of 5 on the Harbor Freight website. “This drill is solid, well-built, and powerful,” one reviewer wrote. “I was impressed with the quality of the materials used in its construction,” said another. It isn’t just customers who feel this way, either. Pros seem to like the drill as well. “It has specs that come out in a good place for a Pro-level compact drill,” said Pro Tool Reviews Editor in Chief, Kenny Koehler. “The design and specs are close enough to that DeWalt drill to make us wonder if Stanley Black & Decker might be manufacturing Hercules for Harbor Freight.”

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Hercules 20V ½-inch Hammer Drill/Driver (HCB92B)

Those who are going to be working with a lot of masonry might need to get a hammer drill rather than the standard version. These produce percussive force in addition to rotation that allows the bit to penetrate materials like concrete, brick, and asphalt. Luckily, this is another tool that is exceptional in the Hercules line.

The Ryobi 18V One+ HP ½-inch Hammer Drill (PSHM02B) is a popular option that has some decent specs. It’s able to operate at speeds up to 1,700 RPM, can deliver up to 450 in-lbs of torque, and hammers at a rate of up to 27,200 BPM. That ain’t bad, which is why the tool has a 4.7 out of 5 on Home Depot. That said, the Hercules 20V ½-inch Compact Hammer Drill/Driver (HCB92B) outclasses it in every metric. It operates at speeds up to 2,000 RPM, can produce up to 1,200 in-lbs of torque, and hammers at rates up to 32,000 BPM. 

This tool boasts a 4.8 out of 5 on the Harbor Freight site, and users seem to be particularly impressed by its reliability and power. “I use this drill on a daily basis,” said one reviewer. “I used this drill to core drill 12″ holes in storm sewer pipes. We also use it to mix up batches of mortar in 5-gallon buckets. I used other brand drills doing the same things, and they broke or burned out right away.” YouTuber Tool Review Zone did extensive testing on the drill as well. “This thing definitely stands on its own,” he said. “Even if this thing was priced a bit higher, this is still a legit buy. This is a well-built hammer drill and another really good job by Hercules.”

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Hercules Compact Jobsite Blower (HC102B)

The quality of a jobsite blower can be measured in a few different ways. Weight, volume, and battery life can all contribute to a blower’s overall quality, but blowing power is measured by two separate metrics: volume and speed. The Ryobi 18V ONE+ HP Compact Blower (PSBLB01B) is a decently capable little tool that blows air at a volume of 220 CFM and at speeds up to 140 MPH, and retails for $109.00. The tool is quite popular, with a 4.8 out of 5 on the Ryobi site and a 4.7 out of 5 on Home Depot. Compare this to the Hercules 20V Compact Jobsite Blower (HC102B), though. This $44.99 tool blows 120 CFM at much higher speeds, reaching up to 200 MPH. This means that the Ryobi wins in terms of volume, which is better for sweeping wide areas and clearing dry leaves, but the Hercules is the superior tool when it comes to speed. This makes it better for tightly focused power, which is generally more ideal for shop environments and clearing stubborn, wet materials.

The Hercules blower has a 4.7 on the Harbor Freight site. “They weren’t kidding about how handy this is for shop and project cleanup,” one review stated. “No longer need to wait for air compressor pressure or use a much larger leaf blower. Surprisingly powerful for its size.” Pro reviewers have argued that the lightweight, small form factor, and power make it a really handy tool to keep in the shop. “This is a must-have tool,” said YouTuber Rural Minnesota Guy. “This, right now, I use all the time. Any time I get done with a tool, I blow it off. I clean up [my workbench]. It’s just really, really good.”

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Our methodology

In order to compare the power levels of tools from different brands, we started by finding the Harbor Freight and Ryobi tools that were the most similar in terms of power source, design, fittings, and intended use. This is important in order to ensure that we are truly showcasing comparable products and not comparing dissimilar tools, like a drill to an electric screwdriver, for instance. We then examined each of these tools’ specs, specifically choosing examples where the Harbor Freight version of the tool advertised more power than the Ryobi alternative.

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Once we had our tools picked out, we examined the customer reviews on each of the companies’ respective websites and then sought out professional reviews. This helped to verify that these tools stood up to real-world use and testing and that the power they demonstrated is in line with the specs reported by the manufacturer.



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Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 Review – Trusted Reviews

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Verdict

The Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 blower is a powerful yet lightweight garden tool. With an extremely comfortable grip shape like to the ones you’d find on Ryobi’s drills, it’s easy to manoeuvre around with minimal hand fatigue. It lacks a bit of raw power but makes up for it by being so easy to handle.


  • Comfortable grip shape

  • Light and manoeuvrable

  • Comes with two nozzle tips

  • Can only be locked on full power

Key Features


  • Cordless


    Uses the same batteries as Ryobi’s cordless tools


  • Powerful for smaller jobs

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    Blows air up to 7m/s (from one metre away), making it good for smaller jobs

Introduction

Compatible with the company’s range of batteries, the Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 is a flexible and versatile leaf blower. A little limited in power, it’s still a good choice for smaller jobs, particularly for those who own Ryobi tools already.

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Design and Features

  • The grip shape is ergonomically designed and very comfortable
  • Supplied with two nozzle tips for focus and wide sweeping
  • Can be locked on full power

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If you’re familiar with Ryobi’s bright green offerings, then the RY18BLCXA-125 is another cleverly designed tool to join the family. It feels sturdy, well-thought-out and is more like holding a drill than a leaf blower. This choice makes it supremely easy to point the nozzle tip at individual leaves that stick to wet grass.  

Weighing just 1.5 kg with the battery in place, this blower is ultra lightweight and very easy to hang on to. It boasts a variable speed trigger that is sensitive and responsive. The trigger can be locked on, a bit like cruise control on a car, but it only locks on full power. 

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Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 triggerRyobi RY18BLCXA-125 trigger
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

The Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 comes with a 2.5 Ah battery and charger, as well as a pair of nozzle tips and extension tubes. The standard round tip is for focused blowing, while the wide tip works a bit like a broom. You lose a bit of air speed, but the wide stream of air is great for jobs like clearing a path of fallen leaves. 

Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 battery and controlRyobi RY18BLCXA-125 battery and control
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

And because it comes with a battery and charger, you can use it in any one of hundreds of Ryobi tools. You can take apart the extension pieces and nozzle tips to store the blower away neatly, and hang it up by the handle to save floor space. 

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Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 heroRyobi RY18BLCXA-125 hero
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Performance

  • Excellent focused air stream
  • Lightweight yet powerful
  • Loud and harsh on full power

What stands out about the RY18BLCXA is how easy it is to point at the target. Thanks to the excellent grip shape and overall light weight, it’s a doddle to use. Unlike some of the big and chunky blowers, anyone could use this tool without getting tired after a few minutes. 

At high speed from one metre away, I measured the air speed at 7m/s, which is enough of a gust to blower lighter debris around. This blower lacks the raw strength of the Einhell GP-LB 36/270 but has an impressive power-to-weight ratio. Overall, this kind of power is good for smaller jobs in smaller gardens, but you’ll need something larger and more powerful for bigger piles of leaves or bigger gardens.

I like the idea of being able to lock the trigger on, but as it only does so on full power it will drain the battery in less than 10 minutes, so it’s not always ideal. Keeping the blower on about half power extends the runtime to a decent 15 minutes. 

The real downside of this blower is the noise that it makes. The noise levels of 80dB on the lowest power setting and 98dB on the highest are not ideal. The tone is quite high too – on full power, it’s quite piercing. 

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Should you buy it?

You want a lightweight yet powerful little leaf blower

If you already own Ryobi tools, it’s an easy decision to make. 

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You want to move big piles of leaves around

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More suitable for focused blowing, this leaf blower lacks the raw power of bigger machines. 

Final Thoughts

I like this blower for its lightness and ease of use. The two nozzle tips make it useful for focused blowing as well as path clearance too. The brushless motor is mighty enough for smaller jobs, but annoyingly loud on full power. If you need something more powerful, read the guide to the best leaf blowers.

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How We Test

We test every leaf blower we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.

Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.

  • Tested with a variety of garden debris
  • We measure wind speed and air flow

FAQs

Is the Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 compatible with the same batteries as the power tools?

Yes, you can use the standard batteries you use with the cordless drills and so on with this leaf blower.

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Test Data

  Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125
Sound (normal) 93 dB
Air speed 15cm (low) 10 m/s
Air speed 15cm (high) 15 m/s

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Full Specs

  Ryobi RY18BLCXA-125 Review
UK RRP £129.99
Manufacturer
Weight 1.53 KG
Release Date 2026
First Reviewed Date 03/03/2026
Accessories Two nozzles
Leaf blower type Cordless
Speed settings Variable speed trigger, trigger lock
Max air speed 15 m/s
Adjustable length

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Samsung’s smart glasses are real and coming sooner than you think

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Samsung’s long-rumoured smart glasses may finally be getting closer to reality.

Speaking at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Samsung executive vice president Jay Kim confirmed that the company is actively developing the wearable. He also hinted that a launch could happen sooner than many expected.

While details remain limited, Kim did confirm one key feature: the glasses will include a camera positioned at eye level. That camera will capture what the wearer is looking at and send the information to a connected Galaxy smartphone. The phone then processes the data and returns relevant insights to the user.

The approach keeps the glasses lightweight by shifting the heavy lifting to the phone. It’s a similar concept to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. In this case, the wearable acts mainly as the sensor while the smartphone handles computing tasks.

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What Samsung didn’t confirm is whether the first version will include a built-in display. When asked about screens, Kim pointed toward Samsung’s existing devices including its smartphones and smartwatches. This suggests the glasses may rely on them instead of embedding a display directly in the frames.

That doesn’t necessarily rule out a display in the future. Reports suggest a more advanced version with integrated visuals could arrive later. Possibly around 2027, with the first model focusing more heavily on camera and AI-driven features.

Samsung’s broader vision for the product appears to centre on context-aware AI. The glasses could recognise what you’re looking at and provide helpful information instantly. For example, they could translate a menu, identify landmarks, or help with tasks like navigation and messaging without needing to pull out your phone.

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The project has reportedly been in development since 2023, with Qualcomm and Google involved in building the underlying chips and software platform.

Samsung hasn’t given a precise launch date yet, but executives at MWC suggested the company aims to bring the glasses to market sometime in 2026. If that timeline holds, Samsung could soon be stepping into the fast-growing smart glasses space. Rivals like Meta are already establishing an early lead.

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Rode’s Rodecaster Video Core makes livestreaming even cheaper

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Rode’s not done releasing trimmed-down versions of its production tools with an eye on budget conscious creators. Today, it’s launching Rodecaster Video Core, an all-in-one studio setup which sits below its flagship Rodecaster Video and its (now) mid-range Video S. It’s aimed at folks who are either dipping a toe into this world, or already have audio gear and just want to broaden out to HD video as well. Arguably, the biggest change is the lack of any controls on the hardware itself, as you’ll be running the show entirely from inside the Rodecaster App.

In terms of connectivity, you’ll find three HDMI-in, one HDMI-out, four USB-C, two 3.5mm and two Neutrik combo ports ‘round back. Connect a compatible video device to a USB-C port and you’ll be able to run up to four sources at a time, and you can even use network cameras via Ethernet. Plus, you’ll be able to use the Rode Capture app to wirelessly connect the feed from an iOS device to your setup. And you’ll even be able to set it up to automatically switch between feeds based on audio inputs, reducing your need to micromanage multi-person feeds.

Port selection

Rode

And, if you’re already rocking one of Rode’s audio consoles, the Rodecaster Sync app will make your life a lot easier. Essentially, if you’ve got a Rodecaster Pro 2 or Duo, you’ll be able to hook it up to your Video Core, allowing you to set shortcuts directly to your pads. In fact, you can run your audio and video setup from the one desk, hopefully reducing the amount of fiddling you need to do in the middle of your stream.

Core is designed to stream straight to YouTube, Twitch and any other platforms you’d care to use instead. You’ll be able to record your footage to an external drive and, thanks yo a new firmware update across the range, you’ll also be able to output a EDL file for DaVinci Resolve. Oh, and you’ll now be able to import media in non-standard resolutions and aspect ratios — such as square footage from social media — which will be automatically scaled and optimized for your show.

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Rodecaster Video Core is available to pre-order now for $599, but there’s no word yet on when the sturdy boxes will start winging their way around the world.

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‘Flying Cars’ Will Take Off in American Skies This Summer

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New kinds of aircraft, sorts of “flying cars” that can take off and land with little space like helicopters but function like airplanes, will start operating in US airspace as early as June, the US Department of Transportation announced on Monday.

Eight regions across the US, including New York and New Jersey, Texas, Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, will take part in a three-year pilot program that will see new aircraft designs ferrying people and cargo around the country even before they formally receive full certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The companies building the tech say their aircraft are quieter, cheaper, and release fewer emissions than helicopters or airplanes. Some promise totally autonomous trips. Many involved in the project, including electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, and ultra-short takeoff aircraft, require way less space to operate, landing and taking off outside of traditional airports and closer to where people live and work. The companies outline futures in which regular people can zip between neighboring cities in a matter of minutes, sailing above traffic and reordering the economy as they go.

Electra EL9 Ultra Short

Electra’s nine-passenger EL9 Ultra Short.

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Courtesy of Electra

On an earnings call with investors earlier this month, Adam Goldstein, the CEO and founder of Archer Aviation, one of the firms involved, called the federal pilot program “our Waymo moment,” a science fiction project turned real life. “Now the goal is to have half a million people in the biggest cities in the country start to see these aircraft as part of your everyday commute, just like they started to see Waymos every day,” he said.

Archer’s electric air taxi, called Midnight, is built to carry up to four passengers on 60 to 90-minute trips. The company will take part in pilot projects in Texas, Florida, and New York. Goldstein told investors that Midnight would complete another important step toward certification “in the coming quarters.” The company has received funding from automaker Stellantis and United Airlines.

Other companies involved in the pilot projects include the small electric plane manufacturer Beta Technologies, Toyota- and Jet Blue-funded air taxi maker Joby Aviation, and Electra, which is building a hybrid electric ultra short aircraft. All four of those firms have completed test flights in the US.

“What we love about the [pilot] is the chance to demonstrate that this is not fantasy,” Electra CEO Marc Allen tells WIRED. “It’s not science fiction. It’s in the real world.”

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Jay Graber steps down as Bluesky CEO, moves into chief innovation officer role at social media platform

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Jay Graber accepts her Uncommon Thinkers award at the GeekWire Gala in December 2025. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota)

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber announced Monday that she’s stepping down from her position and moving to a new role as chief innovation officer of the decentralized social network.

“As Bluesky matures, the company needs a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution, while I return to what I do best: building new things,” Graber, who is based in Seattle, wrote in a post.

Toni Schneider, former CEO of Automattic (operates WordPress.com) and partner at True Ventures, is joining Bluesky as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent new leader.

“I deeply believe in what this team has built and the open social web they’re fighting for,” Schneider, who has been an advisor to Bluesky and Graber, wrote on LinkedIn. He also penned a blog post on Bluesky.

Graber has led Bluesky since 2021, when it spun out of Twitter. The platform has become a leading alternative to X, growing its user base 60% last year from 25.9 million users to 41.4 million. The company reported Monday that it now has 43 million users.

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“Scaling up this company has been a learning experience unlike anything else,” Graber wrote in her post. “I’ve grown a lot as a leader and had the privilege of assembling the best team I’ve ever worked with.”

She added: “I’m most energized by exploring new ideas, bringing a vision to life, and helping people discover their strengths. Transitioning to a more focused role where I can do what brings me energy is my way of putting that belief into practice.”

Wired reported that the chief innovation officer position was created for Graber, who also sits on the company’s board.

Bluesky has differentiated itself from other social media networks with the AT Protocol, an open technical standard for social media that Bluesky’s team built as the foundation for its network. Most social networks today are walled gardens, where one company runs the servers, owns the data, and sets the rules.

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“Last year, we grew a world-class team, expanded the AT Protocol ecosystem, and proved that a values-driven social network could thrive at scale,” Graber wrote.

Bluesky has no official headquarters. Graber and several employees work out of a co-working space in Seattle.

Graber was honored at last year’s GeekWire Gala as one of five Uncommon Thinkers — inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs selected in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners for their work transforming industries and the world. 

Related: Uncommon Thinkers: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is planting the seeds for a decentralized digital world

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Australians Flock to VPNs in the Wake of Online Age-Restriction Laws

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A new set of laws in Australia requiring adult websites and app stores to age-restrict content for those under 18, and requiring AI companies to restrict chatbot offerings from displaying certain types of sensitive or adult content to minors, is apparently driving many to download Virtual Private Network apps there.

Major adult sites have closed their virtual doors to those who aren’t age-confirmed in Australia, and these changes follow a nationwide ban on social media use by teenagers and young children that went into effect in December.

According to reports from Reuters, The Guardian and others, in response to the bans, downloads of VPN-related apps, which people can use to circumvent location-based restrictions, are sharply on the rise. According to Reuters, three of the 15 most downloaded free iPhone apps in the country were VPN-related as the new laws went into effect on Monday.

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Lawmakers in some regions, including the US, are well aware that people use VPNs in this way. In states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, laws are being proposed to limit or outright ban VPN use. Wisconsin’s proposed law would require adult sites to block VPN traffic, while Michigan’s proposal would ban VPN use entirely in the state.

There is also a proposal in England under consideration to ban VPN use by minors. That proposal is currently under review.

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How AI Assistants Are Moving the Security Goalposts

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: AI-based assistants or “agents” — autonomous programs that have access to the user’s computer, files, online services and can automate virtually any task — are growing in popularity with developers and IT workers. But as so many eyebrow-raising headlines over the past few weeks have shown, these powerful and assertive new tools are rapidly shifting the security priorities for organizations, while blurring the lines between data and code, trusted co-worker and insider threat, ninja hacker and novice code jockey.

The new hotness in AI-based assistants — OpenClaw (formerly known as ClawdBot and Moltbot) — has seen rapid adoption since its release in November 2025. OpenClaw is an open-source autonomous AI agent designed to run locally on your computer and proactively take actions on your behalf without needing to be prompted. If that sounds like a risky proposition or a dare, consider that OpenClaw is most useful when it has complete access to your entire digital life, where it can then manage your inbox and calendar, execute programs and tools, browse the Internet for information, and integrate with chat apps like Discord, Signal, Teams or WhatsApp.

Other more established AI assistants like Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s Copilot also can do these things, but OpenClaw isn’t just a passive digital butler waiting for commands. Rather, it’s designed to take the initiative on your behalf based on what it knows about your life and its understanding of what you want done. “The testimonials are remarkable,” the AI security firm Snyk observed. “Developers building websites from their phones while putting babies to sleep; users running entire companies through a lobster-themed AI; engineers who’ve set up autonomous code loops that fix tests, capture errors through webhooks, and open pull requests, all while they’re away from their desks.” You can probably already see how this experimental technology could go sideways in a hurry. […] Last month, Meta AI safety director Summer Yue said OpenClaw unexpectedly started mass-deleting messages in her email inbox, despite instructions to confirm those actions first. She wrote: “Nothing humbles you like telling your OpenClaw ‘confirm before acting’ and watching it speedrun deleting your inbox. I couldn’t stop it from my phone. I had to RUN to my Mac mini like I was defusing a bomb.”

Krebs also noted the many misconfigured OpenClaw installations users had set up, leaving their administrative dashboards publicly accessible online. According to pentester Jamieson O’Reilly, “a cursory search revealed hundreds of such servers exposed online.” When those exposed interfaces are accessed, attackers can retrieve the agent’s configuration and sensitive credentials. O’Reilly warned attackers could access “every credential the agent uses — from API keys and bot tokens to OAuth secrets and signing keys.”

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“You can pull the full conversation history across every integrated platform, meaning months of private messages and file attachments, everything the agent has seen,” O’Reilly added. And because you control the agent’s perception layer, you can manipulate what the human sees. Filter out certain messages. Modify responses before they’re displayed.”

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macOS 26.4 beta 4 lets everyone use the colorful MacBook Neo wallpapers

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Wallpapers created for the all-new MacBook Neo have now been made available to all macOS Tahoe users, as of macOS 26.4 beta 4.

Open laptop with thin black bezel displaying colorful abstract wallpaper of rounded rectangles in yellow, green, and turquoise gradients against a soft yellow-to-teal gradient background
MacBook Neo wallpapers are now available for all Macs, as of macOS 26.4 beta 4.

On March 4, Apple announced the MacBook Neo, a colorful budget-oriented laptop, powered by an iPhone chip. The low-end Mac is available in four bright color options — Blush, Citrus, Indigo, and Silver, each with a matching wallpaper.
The MacBook Neo ships with a special build of macOS 26.3, AppleInsider as predicted. All other Macs will need macOS 26.4 beta 4 to get the wallpapers made for the machine.
Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Anthropic rolls out Code Review for Claude Code as it sues over Pentagon blacklist and partners with Microsoft

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Anthropic on Monday released Code Review, a multi-agent code review system built into Claude Code that dispatches teams of AI agents to scrutinize every pull request for bugs that human reviewers routinely miss. The feature, now available in research preview for Team and Enterprise customers, arrives on what may be the most consequential day in the company’s history: Anthropic simultaneously filed lawsuits against the Trump administration over a Pentagon blacklisting, while Microsoft announced a new partnership embedding Claude into its Microsoft 365 Copilot platform.

The convergence of a major product launch, a federal legal battle, and a landmark distribution deal with the world’s largest software company captures the extraordinary tension defining Anthropic’s current moment. The San Francisco-based AI lab is simultaneously trying to grow a developer tools business approaching $2.5 billion in annualized revenue, defend itself against an unprecedented government designation as a national security threat, and expand its commercial footprint through the very cloud platforms now navigating the fallout.

Code Review is Anthropic’s most aggressive bet yet that engineering organizations will pay significantly more — $15 to $25 per review — for AI-assisted code quality assurance that prioritizes thoroughness over speed. It also signals a broader strategic pivot: the company isn’t just building models, it’s building opinionated developer workflows around them.

How a team of AI agents reviews your pull requests

Code Review works differently from the lightweight code review tools most developers are accustomed to. When a developer opens a pull request, the system dispatches multiple AI agents that operate in parallel. These agents independently search for bugs, then cross-verify each other’s findings to filter out false positives, and finally rank the remaining issues by severity. The output appears as a single overview comment on the PR along with inline annotations for specific bugs.

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Anthropic designed the system to scale dynamically with the complexity of the change. Large or intricate pull requests receive more agents and deeper analysis; trivial changes get a lighter pass. The company says the average review takes approximately 20 minutes — far slower than the near-instant feedback of tools like GitHub Copilot’s built-in review, but deliberately so.

“We built Code Review based on customer and internal feedback,” an Anthropic spokesperson told VentureBeat. “In our testing, we’ve found it provides high-value feedback and has helped catch bugs that we may have missed otherwise. Developers and engineering teams use a range of tools, and we build for that reality. The goal is to give teams a capable option at every stage of the development process.”

The system emerged from Anthropic’s own engineering practices, where the company says code output per engineer has grown 200% over the past year. That surge in AI-assisted code generation created a review bottleneck that the company says it now hears about from customers on a weekly basis. Before Code Review, only 16% of Anthropic’s internal PRs received substantive review comments. That figure has jumped to 54%.

Crucially, Code Review does not approve pull requests. That decision remains with human reviewers. Instead, the system functions as a force multiplier, surfacing issues so that human reviewers can focus on architectural decisions and higher-order concerns rather than line-by-line bug hunting.

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Why Anthropic thinks $20 per review is a bargain

The pricing will draw immediate scrutiny. At $15 to $25 per review, billed on token usage and scaling with PR size, Code Review is substantially more expensive than alternatives. GitHub Copilot offers code review natively as part of its existing subscription, and startups like CodeRabbit operate at significantly lower price points. Anthropic’s more basic code review GitHub Action — which remains open source — is itself a lighter-weight and cheaper option.

Anthropic frames the cost not as a productivity expense but as an insurance product. “For teams shipping to production, the cost of a shipped bug dwarfs $20/review,” the company’s spokesperson told VentureBeat. “A single production incident — a rollback, a hotfix, an on-call page — can cost more in engineer hours than a month of Code Review. Code Review is an insurance product for code quality, not a productivity tool for churning through PRs faster.”

That framing is deliberate and revealing. Rather than competing on speed or price — the dimensions where lightweight tools have an advantage — Anthropic is positioning Code Review as a depth-first tool aimed at engineering leaders who manage production risk. The implicit argument is that the real cost comparison isn’t Code Review versus CodeRabbit, but Code Review versus the fully loaded cost of a production outage, including engineer time, customer impact, and reputational damage.

Whether that argument holds up will depend on the data. Anthropic has not yet published external benchmarks comparing Code Review’s bug-detection rates against competitors, and the spokesperson did not provide specific figures on bugs caught per dollar or developer hours saved when asked directly. For engineering leaders evaluating the tool, that gap in publicly available comparative data may slow adoption, even if the theoretical ROI case is compelling.

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What the internal numbers reveal — and what they don’t

Anthropic’s internal usage data provides an early window into the system’s performance characteristics. On large pull requests exceeding 1,000 lines changed, 84% receive findings, averaging 7.5 issues per review. On small PRs under 50 lines, that drops to 31% with an average of 0.5 issues. The company reports that less than 1% of findings are marked incorrect by engineers.

That sub-1% figure is the kind of stat that demands careful unpacking. When asked how “marked incorrect” is defined, the Anthropic spokesperson explained that it means “an engineer actively resolving the comment without fixing it. We’ll continue to monitor feedback and engagement while Code Review is in research preview.”

The methodology matters. This is an opt-in disagreement metric — an engineer has to take the affirmative step of dismissing a finding. In practice, developers under time pressure may simply ignore irrelevant findings rather than actively marking them as wrong, which would cause false positives to go uncounted. Anthropic acknowledged the limitation implicitly by noting the system is in research preview and that it will continue monitoring engagement data. The company has not yet conducted or published a controlled evaluation comparing agent findings against a ground-truth baseline established by expert human reviewers.

The anecdotal evidence is nonetheless striking. Anthropic described a case where a one-line change to a production service — the kind of diff that typically receives a cursory approval — was flagged as critical by Code Review because it would have broken authentication for the service. In another example involving TrueNAS’s open-source middleware, Code Review surfaced a pre-existing bug in adjacent code during a ZFS encryption refactor: a type mismatch that was silently wiping the encryption key cache on every sync. These are precisely the categories of bugs — latent issues in touched-but-unchanged code, and subtle behavioral changes hiding in small diffs — that human reviewers are statistically most likely to miss.

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A Pentagon lawsuit casts a long shadow over enterprise AI

The Code Review launch does not exist in a vacuum. On the same day, Anthropic filed two lawsuits — one in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and another in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — challenging the Trump administration’s decision to label the company a supply chain risk to national security, a designation historically reserved for foreign adversaries.

The legal confrontation stems from a breakdown in contract negotiations between Anthropic and the Pentagon. As CNN reported, the Defense Department wanted unrestricted access to Claude for “all lawful purposes,” while Anthropic insisted on two redlines: that its AI would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance. When talks collapsed by a Pentagon-set deadline on February 27, President Trump directed all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic’s technology, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally designated the company a supply chain risk.

According to CNBC, the complaint alleges that these actions are “unprecedented and unlawful” and are “harming Anthropic irreparably,” with the company stating that contracts are already being cancelled and “hundreds of millions of dollars” in near-term revenue are in jeopardy.

“Seeking judicial review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security,” the Anthropic spokesperson told VentureBeat, “but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners. We will continue to pursue every path toward resolution, including dialogue with the government.”

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For enterprise buyers evaluating Code Review and other Claude-based tools, the lawsuit introduces a novel category of vendor risk. The supply chain risk designation doesn’t just affect Anthropic’s government contracts — as CNBC reported, it requires defense contractors to certify they don’t use Claude in their Pentagon-related work. That creates a chilling effect that could extend well beyond the defense sector, even as the company’s commercial momentum accelerates.

Microsoft, Google, and Amazon draw a line around Claude’s commercial availability

The market’s response to the Pentagon crisis has been notably bifurcated. While the government moved to isolate Anthropic, the company’s three largest cloud distribution partners moved in the opposite direction.

Microsoft on Monday announced it is integrating Claude into Microsoft 365 Copilot through a new product called Copilot Cowork, developed in close collaboration with Anthropic. As Yahoo Finance reported, the service enables enterprise users to perform tasks like building presentations, pulling data into Excel spreadsheets, and coordinating meetings — the kind of agentic productivity capabilities that sent shares of SaaS companies like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Intuit tumbling when Anthropic first debuted its Cowork product on January 30.

The timing is not coincidental. As TechCrunch reported last week, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services all confirmed that Claude remains available to their customers for non-defense workloads. Microsoft’s legal team specifically concluded that “Anthropic products, including Claude, can remain available to our customers — other than the Department of War — through platforms such as M365, GitHub, and Microsoft’s AI Foundry.”

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That three of the world’s most powerful technology companies publicly reaffirmed their commitment to distributing Anthropic’s models — on the same day the company sued the federal government — tells enterprise customers something important about the market’s assessment of both Claude’s technical value and the legal durability of the supply chain risk designation.

Data security and what enterprise buyers need to know next

For organizations considering Code Review, the data handling question looms especially large. The system necessarily ingests proprietary source code to perform its analysis. Anthropic’s spokesperson addressed this directly: “Anthropic does not train models on our customers’ data. This is part of why customers in highly regulated industries, from Novo Nordisk to Intuit, trust us to deploy AI safely and effectively.”

The spokesperson did not detail specific retention policies or compliance certifications when asked, though the company’s reference to pharmaceutical and financial services clients suggests it has undergone the kind of security review those industries require.

Administrators get several controls for managing costs and scope, including monthly organization-wide spending caps, repository-level enablement, and an analytics dashboard tracking PRs reviewed, acceptance rates, and total costs. Once enabled, reviews run automatically on new pull requests with no per-developer configuration required.

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The revenue figure Anthropic confirmed — a $2.5 billion run rate as of February 12 for Claude Code — underscores just how quickly developer tooling has become a material revenue line for the company. The spokesperson pointed to Anthropic’s recent Series G fundraise for additional context but did not break out what share of total company revenue Claude Code now represents.

Code Review is available now in research preview for Claude Code Team and Enterprise plans. Whether it can justify its premium in a market already crowded with cheaper alternatives will depend on whether Anthropic can convert anecdotal bug catches and internal usage stats into the kind of rigorous, externally validated evidence that engineering leaders with production budgets require — all while navigating a legal and political environment unlike anything the AI industry has previously faced.

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Real-Time ISS Tracker Shows Off The Goods

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What hardware hacker doesn’t have a soft spot for transparent cases? While they may have fallen out of mainstream favor, they have an undeniable appeal to anyone with an interest in electronic or mechanical devices. Which is why the Orbigator built by [wyojustin] stands out among similar desktop orbital trackers we’ve seen.

Conceptually, it’s very similar to the International Space Station tracking lamp that [Will Dana] built in 2025. In fact, [wyojustin] cites it specifically as one of the inspirations for this project. But unlike that build, which saw a small model of the ISS moving across the surface of the globe, a transparent globe is rotated around the internal mechanism. This not only looks gorgeous, but solves a key problem in [Will]’s design — that is, there’s no trailing servo wiring that needs to be kept track of.

For anyone who wants an Orbigator of their own, [wyojustin] has done a fantastic job of documenting the hardware and software aspects of the build, and all the relevant files are available in the project’s GitHub repository.

The 3D printable components have been created with OpenSCAD, the firmware responsible for calculating the current position of the ISS on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is written in MicroPython, and the PCB was designed in KiCad. Incidentally, we noticed that Hackaday alum [Anool Mahidharia] appears to have been lending a hand with the board design.

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As much as we love these polished orbital trackers, we’ve seen far more approachable builds if you don’t need something so elaborate. If you’re more interested in keeping an eye out for planes and can get your hands on a pan-and-tilt security camera, it’s even easier.

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