• Smeg’s Mini Milk Frother is now available with a smart matte finish
• It froths hot and cold, and works with both dairy and plant-based milk
• It’s on sale now for £129.95 (about $170 / AUS$250) direct from Smeg

If you enjoy a shot of espresso, but long for a luxurious latte in the morning, you’ll be pleased to know that Smeg has given its compact Mini Milk Frother a fresh new look for 2026. The tiny appliance, which was originally available with a glossy black or white finish, is now also available with a satiny matte finish that looks smarter and is less prone to attracting fingerprints.

Manual espresso machines usually have a steam wand for frothing your milk, compact bean-to-cup machines (like the excellent Philips Baristina I reviewed recently) may not, leaving you with a perfectly brewed espresso but no means of turning it into a latte or cappuccino. It’s the same story with even the best Nespresso machines; without anything extra, foam is out of the question.

That’s where a standalone milk frother comes in. I’ve tested quite a few of these little gadgets as TechRadar’s Homes Editor, and the Smeg Mini Milk Frother remains my favorite. It’s particularly easy to use.

Article continues below

This little frother can be used with dairy or plant-based milk, which it heats to a consistent temperature of 140F / 60C while whisking it into a creamy foam. This is an ideal temperature for drinking, and means your coffee never tastes scalded or ‘custardy’.

Samsung makes everything from smartphones and gaming monitors, to smart TVs and dishwashers. I’m always looking for a sale (I’m assuming you are, too), and I’ve found the best Samsung promo codes and special offers to help you save big on your most important tech purchases. At WIRED, we often review the South Korean company’s products, especially Samsung’s vast lineup of Galaxy smartphones, and I’ve rounded up a bunch of Samsung coupons for (virtually) every type of shopper.

Get $100 Off With Samsung Promo Codes and $1,000 Off Galaxy Phones

Right now, Samsung has some of the best deals I’ve ever seen on their best-selling tech with more exclusive discounts to ring in the new year. On top of today’s sale deals, there are also limited-time promo codes, flash discounts, and trade-in offers. Beyond the coupons above, you can get up to $100 in Samsung credit when you sign up for The First Look now. You’ll not only be able to see the newest cutting-edge tech, but you’ll get savings towards the latest Samsung innovations like select 2026 TVs, monitors, and home appliances.

And when you buy products together that you already need, you can save a ton. This includes 30% off Galaxy Buds, watches and tablets when you order the Galaxy S25 Ultra. If you’re in the market for a new Samsung phone, you can get a new Galaxy Z Fold7 for $1,000 less with a trade-in. Feeling nostalgic? The new spin on an old classic, the Galaxy Z Flip7 is up to $600 off. Or maybe you want one of the Galaxy S25 Ultra models. Get $350 off a Galaxy S25 Ultra, you’ll get up to $700 off with instant trade-in credits, and a storage upgrade for a limited time.

Unlock a 30% Off Samsung Coupon Code With These 2026 Offer Programs

One of the hottest Samsung coupons is a whopping 30% discount for government employees, first responders, military personnel, and educators. Customers enrolled in the Offer Program can stack promo code discounts with most other promotions, and even get access to exclusive coupons. Some of the best deals we’ve seen in the Offer Program right now include an extra 15% off Galaxy Watch8 (read our review here), plus up to $200 off with trade-in, and an extra 10% off the Frame Pro Neo QLED 4K TV, Galaxy XR (read our review here), and Galaxy Tab S11 series tablets (read our full review here).

Get up to $250 Off Your First Order With Samsung Referral Code

Get a pal involved for more savings—when a friend uses your referral code to make a purchase at Samsung.com, they’ll get 5% off their purchase (up to $250 off) and you’ll get up to $100 off per order (with the potential to save $1,000 per calendar year). My insider tip is to sign up for a Samsung Rewards account and download the mobile app for even more perks, including app-only coupons, and updates on the newest products, like the QLED 8K, select refrigerators, and other home appliances.

Score a $1,000 Samsung Mastercard on 2 or More TVs, Monitors & More Tech

Along with other great tech, Samsung has some seriously nice TVs. The Samsung Frame TV has been trending this year for its stylish ability to blend into your home’s decor. Plus it just feels more elevated than a regular ol’ TV and mount. Some other trending TVs have been the Q60D, S90C, and the S95D models–not only do they have instant discounts of over up to 35% ($2,100 off).

Samsung is starting out the new year with a new season of sales with the Samsung Buy More Save More savings event. When you purchase two or more Samsung products, you’ll receive a $100 Samsung Prepaid Mastercard, continuing like that with three, four, etc. to up to eight or more products for a $1,000 Prepaid Mastercard. This is a great way to make the most (and save big) on products you already purchase, including a myriad of Samsung’s bestselling gadgets like TVs, soundbars, monitors, refrigerators, dishwashers, vacuums, and so, so much more. This deal ends March 31, so make sure you buy and register your product on Samsung’s site to qualify for the Mastercard deal.

Plus, there are tons of TV and home theater deals at Samsung, including a bundle offer for $7500 off when you buy a Neo QLED 4K TV with a Dolby ATMOS soundbar.

Take advantage of their Trade-In Recycling Program for up to $200 off when you trade in your old TV—any brand, any size. When your new one is delivered, Samsung will handle recycling the old one, so you can enjoy your upgrade.

Get a Free Cookware Set with Samsung Promo Code

Although here at WIRED we mostly cover Samsung’s traditional AV tech, they also make top-of-the-line kitchen and home appliances. Although here at WIRED we mostly cover Samsung’s traditional AV tech, they also make top-of-the-line kitchen and home appliances. Right now, you can even get a free induction cookware set of a five-piece Circulon Premier Professional with any Samsung induction cooktop or range. Better yet, this offer is valid even if you didn’t purchase it directly from Samsung! To redeem, visit Samsung’s promotions tab, and select “Website” to access the online offer claim form. Then you’ll receive an email from Samsung with the unique promo code, and you’ll need to enter it on Circulon’s website to redeem the offer.

Save $480 on New S26+

We on the WIRED Reviews team love the newly released Samsung Galaxy S26 series, especially the Samsung Galaxy S26+ because of its new built-in privacy display. Plus, it has excellent performance and great battery life. And right now, when you buy a Samsung Galaxy S26+, you’ll get up to $480 in instant trade-in credit or $150 off for add-ons without a trade-in.

15% Off Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro

The rewards just don’t stop! We especially loved the newly released Galaxy S26 Ultra. We rated it a high 8/10 because of its built-in privacy display. We also loved the horizon lock to capture super steady video footage. Plus, it has excellent performance, great battery life, and a reliable quad-camera system. And right now, when you buy one of these excellent phones you can get 15% off Buds4 Pro when you purchase a Galaxy S26 Ultra. We rated the Buds4 Pro a 8/10 for their bold and detailed sound across frequencies, excellent call quality, and polished design. Plus, we loved the loads of extra features, especially for Galaxy phones and ability to auto-switch between Samsung devices.

Stay up to Date on all Things Samsung at WIRED

Us nerds here at WIRED have a lot of opinions about Samsung’s foldable Galaxy Z Flip6 and Z Fold6 phones But we also have guides to help determine which Galaxy S24 phone is best for you and how to set up your Samsung Galaxy S25 to ensure you’re getting the most out of its features, as well as advice on which Galaxy S24 series accessories are worth the money.

OpenAI has acquired popular tech industry talk show TBPN — Technology Business Programming Network — making this the AI giant’s first acquisition of a media company. The show will report to OpenAI’s chief political operative, Chris Lehane.

TBPN, hosted by former tech founders John Coogan and Jordi Hays, is a daily live show that airs on YouTube and X for three hours, focusing on tech, business, AI, and defense.

The show has gained a cult following in Silicon Valley, a safe space where industry power players can speak candidly and be questioned by fellow insiders. The show has a reputation for being something of a Sports Center for the tech industry — a place where top tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Marc Benioff, and, yes, Sam Altman, come to chop it up, react to the news of the day, and occasionally make some of their own.

TBPN will continue to live on as its own brand, which OpenAI will help scale. Not that it necessarily needed help on that front; TBPN has grown into an empire that’s on track to pull in more than $30 million this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

OpenAI already has its own podcast for long-form conversations with the people building tech at the company.

OpenAI will also tap the founders’ “amazing comms and marketing instincts” outside the show, according to OpenAI’s head of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, who said TBPN will “bring AI to the world in a way that helps people understand the full impact of this technology on their daily lives.”

Simo went even further, noting that TBPN’s prowess is necessary for an atypical company like OpenAI where “the standard communications playbook just doesn’t apply.”

She said TBPN will have editorial independence and continue to “run their programming, choose their guests, and make their own editorial decisions.”

Still, the acquisition might give some pause. After all, OpenAI is a valuable AI lab on the brink of an IPO buying a buzzy talk show that often discusses the company and its competitors. And once the deal closes, TBPN will operate under OpenAI’s strategy team and report to Chris Lehane, the man who invented the phrase “vast right-wing conspiracy” as a tool to deflect press scrutiny of the Clinton White House.

Lehane, who has been described as a master of the “political dark arts,” is also behind the crypto industry super PAC Fairshake, which spent hundreds of millions to kneecap anti-crypto candidates in the 2024 election. He joined OpenAI that same year and has been in President Trump’s ear ever since, whispering recommendations for sweeping and controversial policies like preventing states from regulating AI and easing environmental restrictions that might slow data center construction.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who said in a social media post that TBPN is his favorite tech show, seems to believe the acquisition won’t change TBPN’s commentary and even criticism of the company.

“I don’t expect them to go any easier on us, am sure I’ll do my part to help enable that with occasional stupid decisions,” he wrote.

TBPN, meanwhile, sees the acquisition as a means to do more than just commentary.

“While we’ve been critical of the industry at times, after getting to know Sam and the OpenAI team, what stood out most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right,” Hays said in a statement. “Moving from commentary to real impact in how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us.”

Got a tip or documents about the AI industry? From a non-work device, contact Rebecca Bellan confidentially at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com or Signal: rebeccabellan.491.

A deal would give Amazon’s Leo satellite programme access to Globalstar’s L-band spectrum and operational infrastructure, a shortcut in its race to rival SpaceX’s Starlink. Apple’s stake, which powers Emergency SOS on iPhones, has made negotiations significantly more complex.

Amazon is in advanced talks to acquire satellite telecommunications group Globalstar in a deal that would value the company at approximately $9 billion, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters confirmed the report.

Both Amazon and Globalstar declined to comment, and the two sides are still negotiating the complexities of a potential deal after what the FT describes as lengthy talks. Nothing has been signed.

The strategic rationale is straightforward. Amazon is building Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper,  a planned constellation of more than 3,200 low-earth-orbit satellites designed to rival SpaceX’s Starlink, the dominant player in satellite internet.

As of the time of the report, Amazon has launched more than 180 Leo satellites. Globalstar would accelerate that ambition considerably, bringing with it L-band and S-band spectrum licences, finite, strategically valuable radio frequencies that cannot simply be replicated by launching more satellites, along with decades of operational expertise and existing ground infrastructure serving enterprise, government, and consumer markets globally.

Globalstar turned profitable in 2025 and recorded $273 million in revenue.

The complication is Apple. In 2024, Apple invested $1.5 billion in Globalstar, acquiring a 20% stake in the company, in a deal that enabled Globalstar to order additional satellites and underpin Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite feature on iPhone 14 and later models and Apple Watch Ultra.

That stake has made Amazon’s negotiations considerably more complex, requiring Amazon to engage with Apple directly over the terms of any acquisition.

Apple’s reliance on Globalstar’s network for a core iPhone safety feature is not merely a financial stakeholder situation: it creates a genuine operational dependency that any acquirer would need to resolve.

Globalstar’s shares surged following the FT’s report, reaching an 18-year high in after-hours trading, driven in large part by investor recognition of the value of its spectrum holdings.

For Amazon, a successful acquisition would compress years of infrastructure development into a single transaction, providing a more immediate platform from which to challenge Starlink across individual consumers, businesses, and government customers, the same segments Starlink already serves, including US national security agencies through its Starshield variant.

Whether a deal can be structured that satisfies Apple’s operational requirements while serving Amazon’s competitive ambitions remains the central question.

In a surprise release, OpenAI has made ChatGPT’s Voice mode available through Apple CarPlay. If you’re running the latest version of both iOS and the ChatGPT app, and own a CarPlay-compatible vehicle, you can check out the experience. To get started, download all the necessary software, connect your iPhone to CarPlay and select “New voice chat” from ChatGPT. When the in-app text indicates ChatGPT is “listening,” you can start a conversation.

There are some notable limitations to using ChatGPT Voice with CarPlay. For one, OpenAI’s chatbot can’t control car functions. If you want to adjust the cabin temperature or skip tracks, you’ll still need Siri for those tasks. Due to Apple’s restrictions, you also can’t start using ChatGPT through a wake word like you can Siri. For example, to resume a previous conversation, you need to open the ChatGPT app from CarPlay and tap a recent or pinned chat.

With those limitations in mind, OpenAI suggests you can use Voice mode to get how-to advice, brainstorm ideas and practice languages. Personally, I like to listen to podcasts and music when I’m driving, but if talking with ChatGPT is your thing, you do you.  

The ACEMAGIC Retro X5’s mere presence on a desk is enough to stop most people in their tracks and have them take a closer look. It’s a simple gray and black box that pays homage to the original NES console but is far smaller in size. It measures 5.5 inches wide, 5 inches deep, and is less than 2 inches tall, making it easy to fit into small areas or pack in a suitcase for travel.

Up front, there are a handful of USB connections, a USB C slot, and a normal audio jack next to the red power button. To be honest, it has an old-school feel. When you press that button, the machine boots up quickly thanks to the solid state drive inside. Ventilation slots on either side keep it looking sleek, and the back panel provides a variety of connection options.

Sale

KAMRUI Pinova P2 Mini PC 16GB RAM 512GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 4300U(Beats 10110U/3500U/N150/N95,Up to…

• 【AMD Ryzen 4300U Processor】KAMRUI Pinova P2 Mini PC is equipped with AMD Ryzen 4300U (4-core/4-thread, up to 3.7GHz), Based on the advanced Zen…
• 【Large Storage Capacity, Easy Expansion】KAMRUI Pinova P2 mini computers is equipped with 16GB DDR4 for faster multitasking and smooth application…
• 【4K Triple Display】KAMRUI Pinova P2 4300U mini desktop computers is equipped with HDMI2.0 ×1 +DP1.4 ×1+USB3.2 Gen2 Type-C ×1 interfaces for…

Inside, you’ll discover a powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with 12 cores and 24 threads, while for graphics, it includes an integrated Radeon 890M unit with 16 compute units. It starts with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a one-terabyte solid-state drive, which you can quickly update in one of two available slots by unscrewing the chassis and swapping in extra memory or storage as needed.

As soon as you turn it on, the Retro X5 demonstrates its true potential. Everyday chores like online browsing with dozens of tabs open go smoothly, and editing photographs or documents is simple. When it comes to gaming, the system provides seamless gameplay in a variety of current titles. With medium details and scaling turned on, Cyberpunk 2077 maintains a frame rate of roughly 70 frames per second. Racing games, such as Forza Horizon 5, provide frame rates in the 60-80 range at 1440p resolution, depending on how you configure the settings. If you enjoy retro gaming, you’ll be ecstatic because this device can run classic systems at full speed, including full-speed runs of PS3 and GameCube titles upscaled to 4K.

Connectivity covers almost every situation you can possibly encounter. Two 2.5 gigabit Ethernet ports provide speedy wired networking for downloading and playing online. Wireless access is provided via the most recent WiFi standard, with Bluetooth connectivity for controllers and headphones. Display outputs include HDMI and DisplayPort connections, allowing you to connect up to four high-resolution screens. To top it all off, you get one high-speed USB4 port that allows you to connect an external graphics card for more power as needed.
[Source]

If you’ve never heard of the threadless ball screw, which was invented over sixty years ago, [Angus] of Maker’s Muse has a video demonstrating the whole thing, covering its history and showcasing both its strengths and weaknesses. If you like seeing mechanical assemblies in action, give it a watch.

The device — consisting of little more than a smooth rod and three angled ball bearings — is a way to turn rotational motion into linear motion. Not a single belt, thread, or complex mechanical assembly in sight. While a simple nut on a threaded rod can turn rotation into linear motion, those come with their own issues. The threadless ball screw was one effort at finding a better way.

Threadless ball screws never really took off, although they were given some consideration for use in 3D printers back in the RepRap days. Today one can purchase quality CNC components without leaving one’s web browser, but back in the early 2000s things like lead screws and ball screws were rather more specialized, less accessible, and more expensive than they are today. RepRap folks had to make their own solutions. But while the threadless ball screw is a very DIY-friendly design, it was ultimately lacking in performance.

The main problem is they’re just not precise enough for anything like CNC work. [Angus] does some back-and-forth tests with a 3D printed unit that shows serious drift after only a few minutes. Now, he knows perfectly well that his 3D-printed test unit is far from ideal, but the rapidity at which it drifted was still a surprise. Making a carriage with two threadless ball screws — one at each end — performed a lot better, but was ultimately still flawed.

It’s not all bad. There’s zero backlash. They are mechanically simple, remarkably smooth, and utterly quiet. Also, [Angus] discovered that the maximum force this setup can be made to apply is surprisingly significant, and is directly related to the tension on the bearings. That means one can trivially adjust how easily the carriage slips  (or doesn’t) just by tightening or loosening the screw holding each bearing.

Sure, they’re not precise. But maybe you don’t need precision. Maybe you just need to move something back and forth in a strong & silent sort of way that can still slip gracefully (and quietly) if something goes awry, like bottoming out an axis. 3D printing makes it pretty easy to whip one up, so maybe there’s still a place for the threadless ball screw.