The story Mike Landry told about his students, who were majority African American, sounded depressingly familiar: poor, raised on the wrong side of the tracks, ignored, forgotten. But it made the rest of their story seem even more inspiring: Through grit, hard work, and help from a hole-in-the-wall private school — T.M. Landry College Prep in tiny Breaux Bridge, Louisiana — the students landed spots at Yale, Harvard, Brown, Wellesley and other elite schools.
But it wasn’t the whole story. Several of the school’s students did make it into elite colleges. However, once they enrolled, a significant number of them struggled to maintain their academic status as they realized they had inadequate skills. All they really knew was what they’d memorized through incessant ACT prep drills at T.M. Landry.
At worst, Landry’s narrative, with its lack of nuance and reliance on old stereotypes of underserved Black children in poor areas, preyed on the very communities he purported to support — resulting in many gains for himself and his wife, Tracey, but at great personal cost to the students and their families.
In their book, “Miracle Children,” two New York Times reporters — Erica L. Green, a longtime education reporter who now covers the White House, and Katie Benner, an investigative reporter — explore the duplicity of Landry’s motives and the damage he wrought.
The book opens with Alex and Ayrton Little, two exceptionally gifted brothers out of T.M. Landry who made it into Stanford and Harvard respectively. Their story is an example of how Landry used his young charges to promote his own false narrative.
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The brothers were featured on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” where they were portrayed as academic phoenixes: “You were raised by a single mom,” DeGeneres said. “You were on the verge of being homeless for most of your lives.”
In truth, though the Littles were indeed raised by a single mother, and at times the family did struggle financially, they weren’t dirt-poor for most of their lives and their academic achievement wasn’t the result of a miraculous transformation at T.M. Landry. Rather, the brothers were high performers at a different, well-established private high school and had transferred to Landry about a year before.
Yet, Landry was able to manipulate the Littles’ success for his own ends: Social media videos of them reading their college acceptance emails generated millions of views, burnishing the Landry Prep brand and fueling a lucrative pipeline of new students and potential donors. It was a pattern Landry would repeat over and over. In fact, the Littles themselves had been lured to Landry Prep in part because of similar exuberant social media posts by previous students.
As a cautionary tale, with more states considering diverting taxpayer dollars to fund alternatives to traditional public schools, the story of T.M. Landry highlights troubling gaps in how education is measured and regulated, particularly at uncredentialed private academies and microschools.
In Louisiana, which has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the country and where parents scramble to get their children into a limited number of well performing schools, Mike and Tracey Landry were able to operate with no oversight. They demanded complete trust in their method, deliberately kept parents in the dark about the children’s progress and persistently dodged questions, even as the school’s troubles mounted and law enforcement was closing in.
Even worse, and the crux of Benner and Green’s examination, is how the students suffered. Landry coerced students to paint themselves falsely in their college applications — downtrodden, ill-used — telling them that it was the only way elite schools would find them compelling. If they refused, Landry rewrote their essays and shamed them in front of their peers. When the colleges accepted them and promoted their success, the schools seemed complicit in the lie, further damaging the students’ well-being.
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The students also carried a burden of secrets, including witnessing severe physical punishments and emotional abuse that left them traumatized. The Landrys deny that they abused children.
EdSurge spoke with Benner and Green, who first reported on T.M. Landry in 2018 and revisit many of the students’ stories in “Miracle Children.” Landry Prep alumni, as they write in their authors’ note, “believe, as do we, that they deserve to take back their stories from the Landrys and tell one that is complicated and real.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
EdSurge: One thing that struck me about this story is that there’s a lot of exploitation going on. There’s exploitation of stereotyped perceptions of Black children. There is the exploitation of expectations in education for different groups, of Black and white, poor and wealthy. And there is the exploitation of our culture’s unspoken rules about how the system works.
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Katie Benner: That exploitation of unspoken rules that you’re describing, one of the reasons why so many of these rules are unspoken is because they’re things that society doesn’t want to admit to or to face. And we’ve seen this in all sorts of other kinds of stories of exploitation and abuse where somebody takes advantage of the fact that there are rules that we live by that we don’t want to say.
You know, American society has a lot of preconceived notions about what it means to be Black in America. And Mike [Landry] was willing to exploit them, including this idea that all Black people are damaged and that it’s that damage that makes them valuable — instead of saying if there is damage done to this community, we should fix it and stop it. It’s a fetishization of that damage.
He kept parents in the dark. He didn’t like to be questioned. If parents were not getting enough information about anything… I’m just wondering why this worked for so long?
Erica L. Green: This is something that the parents, as I’m sure you can imagine, have reflected deeply on. Even when they felt uncomfortable, even when they questioned Mike’s tactics, even when they thought he was full of it, he delivered results. They had receipts. This was a transaction that they made with him.
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When the parents and families visited, when they ultimately enrolled, the ground rules were that you do not talk to your children about education. You feed them, clothe them, and I am responsible for everything else. And so for a lot of them who were uncomfortable with that, they saw this transaction that they made pay dividends on social media with videos of students getting into the most elite colleges in the country.
They saw a lot of propaganda, too, of their children solving complex math problems. And they obviously didn’t know that that was fake, but they saw to the extent that they needed to with their own eyes, what the return on investment — even the investment of deep, unfettered trust — would yield for them.
What did you learn in the course of reporting for the book that was different or surprised you since 2018?
Benner: One of the things that happened over that time frame is that the students themselves had time to process what had happened to them. I think we were both really wary of assigning meaning to another person’s experience, which is easy to do, especially if you work in a newspaper. It’s one of the things you’re asked to do — take an experience … and then to use outside voices to assign a larger meaning.
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We were able to let the students themselves process what had happened and have them explain how they see their stories and what meaning they import to it.
It’s very powerful.
The students’ stories are moving. One, Raymond, was drawn to Mike Landry because he saw firsthand many of the inequities Landry had identified when he was growing up. But Raymond is eventually neglected by Landry.
Benner: Raymond is one of the stories people find so moving in the book. I think that there are things that are sad about his story, but he talks about how much he got out of that experience, how it forced him to reflect on whether or not the dreams that Mike had told him he should have were the dreams he actually wanted.
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I think that that asks us all to wonder why we give specific kinds of dreams around going to certain kinds of colleges or having certain kinds of jobs.
I hope readers [wonder] too, [and] understand that dignity is not about a diploma and it’s not about a salary, that dignity is something else.
The case of Louisiana allowed for another exploitation. It is typically at the bottom of national test scores, though it showed some improvement in the National Report Card assessments last year. Would continuing to improve these scores keep other families from becoming prey to people like the Landrys?
Green: This is something that I really reflected on when we were writing this book and thinking about my K-12 coverage over more than a decade. So much rides on these test scores. And I’m not one of those people who think test scores don’t matter. We need to measure academic achievement in this country. But I recall when I was covering Baltimore, progress would just fluctuate every other release.
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I don’t know if we can sit here and say that Harvard or any other Ivy is looking at NAEP scores and saying, ‘well maybe the Louisiana students are getting better, maybe we should look there more.’ That’s just not how it works. That’s what we expose in the book. That’s not how it’s ever worked. The access to these institutions does not depend on NAEP scores.
And in Louisiana, a lot of the high-performing schools are private. Which is why T.M. Landry was such an anomaly — why it was so shocking that students were leaving their very high-performing private schools to go to T.M. Landry in 11th grade and 12th grade. Because they understood that no matter how much preparation they had had throughout their educational careers in public school or private school, that what T.M. Landry was offering was … one [ACT test score] number that would get them on the radar of the most elite colleges. That was their ticket in.
He claimed that he had this network of elite-school deans who could give his students an in. The ACT score was important, but it was also about who you know.
Green: The parents say it for themselves in the book. [Mike Landry] wasn’t just selling a dream for their kids, he was selling a dream to [the parents], too. He was selling access to places that growing up in Louisiana, [they seemed] to be shut out of.
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Can you talk about how the school shifted from being a sort of whole-child institution, tutoring kids from elementary school age, to one that was focused on and recruiting much older kids?
Benner: Isn’t that one of the most interesting things? You do get the sense that when they were a home school, between around 2005 and 2012, that [Mike and Tracey Landry] wanted just to tutor students and they were able to make some money off of it. And it was something that could have been a going concern in a part of the country where living expenses are lower.
But they got this taste of what it could mean both to be revered in their community and to be able to attract more students and possibly even charge higher prices when they can get a student into NYU [New York University].
That’s a very different proposition. It’s in New York City, it’s far away, it’s somewhat of a household name. And things start to change because there’s a realization that you can have more of those tangible benefits, whether it’s money or it’s renown, adoration from your community or adoration from institutions like Harvard or Yale. You start creating a different set of goals for your kids, for the students.
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And it’s much easier if you’re trying to get a pipeline, to lure that pipeline from schools that have students who are in high school and doing well, than to try to take somebody who’s 4 or 5 or 6 years old and spend the next seven years of their life training them to get into Harvard. That is hard and the outcomes are unknown. Whereas meeting somebody who in their junior year seems like they could probably get into Harvard, that’s a much easier and sure business proposition.
Did T.M. Landry have elementary-age kids at the end?
Benner: They did. And that’s one of the reasons why the school begins to unravel. One of the parents [Adam Broussard] who had a student who was in high school and doing well went to T.M. Landry, and then went to an Ivy League college. [Adam] put his really young son [Colin] in T.M. Landry as well, thinking it would produce the same result.
And this is the part of the book that I think is just really beautiful: Erica [Green] wrote this part where [Broussard] gets an email from T.M. Landry, this miracle school. And he’s looking over his kid’s work and he’s like, wait a second. This isn’t the quality that I’m expecting.
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And then he takes [Colin] to a Sylvan Learning Center and finds that he actually is not doing very well at all. So he starts to tell all these other parents.
Green: Once word spread that the younger ones were not performing, that’s when things really started to collapse. And it was so sad that it happened to Adam Broussard, in particular, because he was such a booster for the school. He handed over Colin when he was, like, 3 years old.
It seemed that Landry was selling a means of escape from Louisiana, from a certain way of life. But what was interesting is that at least a couple of students chose to return to their home towns because they wanted to help their communities.
Green: I think that’s actually one of the beautiful things about the book, one of the beautiful outcomes. Escape was very much imposed on them — not that they didn’t come to believe it. Mike was very, very clear that they needed to get out of Louisiana, they needed to go ‘up north,’ which is code for where white people and wealth are. They were not allowed to apply to HBCUs; they were not allowed to apply to in-state schools. So it was very much drilled into them that if they wanted a better life, they needed to get away from their own people.
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There were some who did want to leave Louisiana. But as they started to come home for different reasons, whether it was financial or other circumstances, they really rediscovered their love for themselves and for their communities.
Bryson, he started a business and he has a daughter and he could not be happier. Nygel, he stayed in Louisiana after wanting to go to MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. Now he’s getting his master’s to become a psychologist. As he says so beautifully, he wants to become who he needed — to extinguish the gaps that the Michael Landrys of the world fill.
Google Maps is rolling out its biggest update in more than a decade, introducing a Gemini-powered chatbot and a new “Immersive Navigation” interface. “Ask Maps” lets users plan trips, ask questions, and refine travel suggestions conversationally within the app. “The new chatbot will be accessible via a button up near the search bar,” notes Ars Technica. “You can ask it anything you’re likely to find in Google Maps without jumping into another app. You can ask for directions, of course, but it can also plan out road trips and vacations from a single prompt. Ask Maps works like a chatbot, so it accepts follow-up prompts to refine and expand on its suggestions.”
Meanwhile, Google is promising a “complete transformation” of the navigation experience in Maps with what they’re calling “Immersive Navigation.” It brings detailed 3D visuals, smarter route previews, and improved guidance powered by data from Street View and aerial imagery. “You’ll see accurate overpasses, crosswalks, landmarks, and signage in the new navigation experience,” reports Ars. “Google also aims to solve some of the biggest usability issues with turn-by-turn navigation in this update. […] Immersive Navigation tries to show you more of the route as you drive, using smart zoom and transparent buildings to help you plan ahead. Voice guidance will also reference turns after the next one where appropriate.”
Immersive Navigation will also highlights the tradeoffs between different route options, such as longer routes that avoid traffic or tolls. And, as you approach your destination, it will uses Street View imagery, building entrances, and parking information to help you orient yourself. The features are launching on Android and iOS first, with broader platform support coming later.
Alongside the Sonos Play, which is positioned as one of the brand’s most flexible speakers, is the Sonos Era 100 SL. But how does the Era 100 SL compare to the similarly titled Era 100?
Considering we awarded the Sonos Era 100 a 4.5-star rating, why should you buy the Era 100 SL?
To help you decide, we’ve compared the specs of the Sonos Era 100 SL to the Era 100 and pointed out the key differences and noteworthy similarities between the two below. Keep reading to see which speaker is likely to suit you best.
At the time of writing, the Sonos Era 100 SL is available for pre-order and will officially launch in stores on March 31st. With an RRP of $189/£169, it’s hailed as being Sonos’ “most cost-effective way to build” a home setup.
Instead, the Sonos Era 100 has an RRP of £199/$219. However, as it’s an older speaker, it is possible to find the device with a price cut, so make sure you keep an eye out during sales events.
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Sonos Era 100 supports voice control
One of the biggest differences between the Sonos Era 100 SL and Era 100 is that the latter has a microphone and, therefore, supports voice control. You can either use Sonos Voice Control to manage music, or you can also rely on Amazon Alexa for answering questions, setting timers and the like.
Sonos Era 100. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
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On the other hand, the Sonos Era 100 SL isn’t equipped with any voice control or assistants, as it lacks a microphone. Sonos explains that the decision to not equip the Era 100 SL with built-in voice control was to ensure the speaker is more affordable than the 100. However, if you pair the Era 100 SL with a voice-enabled soundbar then you’ll still benefit from voice control, even though the Era 100 SL doesn’t actually support it.
Android users won’t be able to use Trueplay tuning technology on the Sonos Era 100 SL
Following on from the above, the Era 100 features Sonos’ clever Trueplay technology which measures how sound reflects off walls and furnishings in a room and tunes the speaker accordingly. While the Sonos Era 100 SL does also support Trueplay, it will only work with an iOS device. This is because the Era 100 SL doesn’t have a microphone, which Android devices need to activate Trueplay.
Pair of Sonos Era 100 SL speakers. Image Credit (Sonos)
With this in mind, if you’re sporting one of the best Android phones and want optimised sound for your room, then the Sonos Era 100 SL might not be the top choice for you.
Both have the same sonic architecture
Under their respective hoods, the Sonos Era 100 SL and Era 100 sport the same sonic architecture. In fact, Sonos promises that the more affordable Era 100 SL will have “no compromises on sound quality”.
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Considering we concluded that the Era 100’s provides a weightier performance across the frequency range, this certainly bodes well for the Era 100 SL. We also found the Era 100 sported an increase in bass over its predecessor that gave music genres such as R&B, Hip Hop and Pop more impact and excitement too.
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Having said that, we’d encourage users to play around with the EQ to perfect the bass and treble levels to best suit your personal listening preferences. Although we haven’t reviewed the Era 100 SL yet, we expect this will be the case for the new speaker too.
Sonos Era 100. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Sonos Era 100 SL is designed to fit into your existing speaker set-up
Although you can listen to the Era 100 SL on its own, Sonos explains it’s designed to slot into your existing home entertainment set-up. For example, you can pair two Era 100 SLs to a Sonos soundbar, such as the Sonos Beam or Sonos Arc Ultra, to create a surround sound system.
Alternatively, Sonos does state that you can use the Era 100 SL as a stand-alone speaker too.
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It’s a similar situation with the Era 100, which can be paired with another Era 100 SL and a soundbar too.
Sonos Arc Ultra. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
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Both share similar designs, although the Era 100 SL is slightly lighter
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Era 100 and Era 100 SL were the same speakers, as both measure in at 7.19 x 4.72 x 5.14 inches and come in a choice of Black or White. However, unsurprisingly as it lacks a microphone, the Era 100 SL weighs slightly less at 1.95kg compared to 2.02kg.
Early Verdict
As we haven’t reviewed the Sonos Era 100 SL yet, we’ll hold off from giving a conclusive verdict. However, as it’s slightly more affordable than the Era 100 and promises the same brilliant sound quality and sleek design, the Era 100 SL is certainly an appealing option for many – as long as you’re an iOS user and won’t miss voice control.
Every GPU cluster has dead time. Training jobs finish, workloads shift and hardware sits dark while power and cooling costs keep running. For neocloud operators, those empty cycles are lost margin.
The obvious workaround is spot GPU markets — renting spare capacity to whoever needs it. But spot instances mean the cloud vendor is still the one doing the renting, and engineers buying that capacity are still paying for raw compute with no inference stack attached.
FriendliAI’s answer is different: run inference directly on the unused hardware, optimize for token throughput, and split the revenue with the operator. FriendliAI was founded by Byung-Gon Chun, the researcher whose paper on continuous batching became foundational to vLLM, the open source inference engine used across most production deployments today.
Chun spent over a decade as a professor at Seoul National University studying efficient execution of machine learning models at scale. That research produced a paper calledOrca, which introduced continuous batching. The technique processes inference requests dynamically rather than waiting to fill a fixed batch before executing. It is now industry standard and is the core mechanism inside vLLM.
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This week, FriendliAI is launching a new platform called InferenceSense. Just as publishers use Google AdSense to monetize unsold ad inventory, neocloud operators can use InferenceSense to fill unused GPU cycles with paid AI inference workloads and collect a share of the token revenue. The operator’s own jobs always take priority — the moment a scheduler reclaims a GPU, InferenceSense yields.
“What we are providing is that instead of letting GPUs be idle, by running inferences they can monetize those idle GPUs,” Chun told VentureBeat.
How a Seoul National University lab built the engine inside vLLM
Chun founded FriendliAI in 2021, before most of the industry had shifted attention from training to inference. The company’s primary product is a dedicated inference endpoint service for AI startups and enterprises running open-weight models. FriendliAI also appears as a deployment option on Hugging Face alongside Azure, AWS and GCP, and currently supports more than 500,000 open-weight models from the platform.
InferenceSense now extends that inference engine to the capacity problem GPU operators face between workloads.
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How it works
InferenceSense runs on top of Kubernetes, which most neocloud operators are already using for resource orchestration. An operator allocates a pool of GPUs to a Kubernetes cluster managed by FriendliAI — declaring which nodes are available and under what conditions they can be reclaimed. Idle detection runs through Kubernetes itself.
“We have our own orchestrator that runs on the GPUs of these neocloud — or just cloud — vendors,” Chun said. “We definitely take advantage of Kubernetes, but the software running on top is a really highly optimized inference stack.”
When GPUs are unused, InferenceSense spins up isolated containers serving paid inference workloads on open-weight models including DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM and MiniMax. When the operator’s scheduler needs hardware back, the inference workloads are preempted and GPUs are returned. FriendliAI says the handoff happens within seconds.
Demand is aggregated through FriendliAI’s direct clients and through inference aggregators like OpenRouter. The operator supplies the capacity; FriendliAI handles the demand pipeline, model optimization and serving stack. There are no upfront fees and no minimum commitments. A real-time dashboard shows operators which models are running, tokens being processed and revenue accrued.
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Why token throughput beats raw capacity rental
Spot GPU markets from providers like CoreWeave, Lambda Labs and RunPod involve the cloud vendor renting out its own hardware to a third party. InferenceSense runs on hardware the neocloud operator already owns, with the operator defining which nodes participate and setting scheduling agreements with FriendliAI in advance. The distinction matters: spot markets monetize capacity, InferenceSense monetizes tokens.
Token throughput per GPU-hour determines how much InferenceSense can actually earn during unused windows. FriendliAI claims its engine delivers two to three times the throughput of a standard vLLM deployment, though Chun notes the figure varies by workload type.
Most competing inference stacks are built on Python-based open source frameworks. FriendliAI’s engine is written in C++ and uses custom GPU kernels rather than Nvidia’s cuDNN library. The company has built its own model representation layer for partitioning and executing models across hardware, with its own implementations of speculative decoding, quantization and KV-cache management.
Since FriendliAI’s engine processes more tokens per GPU-hour than a standard vLLM stack, operators should generate more revenue per unused cycle than they could by standing up their own inference service.
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What AI engineers evaluating inference costs should watch
For AI engineers evaluating where to run inference workloads, the neocloud versus hyperscaler decision has typically come down to price and availability.
InferenceSense adds a new consideration: if neoclouds can monetize idle capacity through inference, they have more economic incentive to keep token prices competitive.
That is not a reason to change infrastructure decisions today — it is still early. But engineers tracking total inference cost should watch whether neocloud adoption of platforms like InferenceSense puts downward pressure on API pricing for models like DeepSeek and Qwen over the next 12 months.
“When we have more efficient suppliers, the overall cost will go down,” Chun said. “With InferenceSense we can contribute to making those models cheaper.”
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
The full weight of the Ryobi product catalog can be a game changer for home improvers, repairers, and even professionals in the trades. While Ryobi has frequently been considered a tool brand geared toward recreational users, some new developments in its pipeline are certainly bound to turn heads at the pro level. Among Ryobi’s most eye-catching features is the frequency with which its tools come in at cost-effective pricing models while retaining high quality functionality. Ryobi tools are powerful, often feature premium ergonomics and integrated enhancements, and yet they’re routinely priced at affordable levels.
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Many of Ryobi’s highly rated tools can be found for under $100, but an even slimmer threshold still yields excellent gear that can help get the job done efficiently. Searching through Ryobi’s catalog, buyers will find a slate of equipment across its various battery-powered platforms for $75 and under. This might seem like a tough act, but Ryobi delivers in a meaningful way. These tools aren’t gimmicky or niche, and they offer a genuine expansion to a DIYer’s toolkit or an upgrade to existing gear that may be supporting your efforts. They’ve all been reviewed by scores of buyers with great feedback along the way, blending quality and price in a potent mix.
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USB Lithium 3-Port Charger and Power Source
Tools come in many forms. Some deliver unexpected functionality that can modernize the way you move about tasks around the house and more. The USB Lithium 3-Port Charger and Power Source is a high-output power supply tool listed for $60 that provides on-the-go recharging capabilities for large and small devices alike. The tool is particularly useful as a support system for other cord-cutting Ryobi USB Lithium tools, and it can recharge three batteries simultaneously to support the range with up to 80% faster charging speeds than a standard USB cable and wall wart. The tool features a USB-C input/output interface for quick charging in both directions. It utilizes a carabiner clip to allow for heightened mobility and can also operate with a belt clip.
The power source features a perfect 5 star rating at Ryobi’s website, although at time of writing only 15 reviewers have given their feedback on the product. It’s also available from Home Depot for the same price; there, 53 buyers have given it a 4.5 star average rating. The tool’s versatility in supporting batteries for your frontline tools, as well as acting as a remote charging solution for phones, tablets, and more, makes it a great potential find for any sort of user.
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USB Lithium 3/8-Inch Ratchet Kit
The USB Lithium range frequently rivals Ryobi’s mainline 18V One+ catalog. The tools in this line offer surprising power even when compared to standard 18V models, and their low price tags make them ideal for buyers looking to create a mobile toolkit or even renters seeking a few crucial home maintenance tools that won’t break the bank or take up too much space. The USB Lithium 3/8-Inch Ratchet Kit seems to meet these criteria. It’s a $69 purchase and features 251 reviews with a 4.7 star average rating on Ryobi’s website, making it an example of a small-scale tool that provides big time job support. As is the case with other USB Lithium products, it comes packaged with a battery and USB-C cable in tow, allowing you to get working with the unit right away, even if it’s your first tool from Ryobi’s USB Lithium line.
The ratchet features a 3/8-inch drive, sitting in the middle position among the three most common drive sizes. It offers an ergonomic body with an easy-to-use trigger action that delivers up to 10 ft.-lbs. of torque. The tool is shaped just like a typical ratchet handle, however, allowing users to manually tighten fasteners when the job calls for it with the unit. Putting some elbow grease into the tool, you’ll gain the ability to drive 50 ft.-lbs. of torque with the equipment. However, be aware that you’ll have to bring your own ratchet sockets, as none are included.
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18V ONE+ Jig Saw
The 18V ONE+ Jig Saw is among some of the most cost-effective tools Ryobi offers. It’s listed at a new lower price of $50, down from $79 previously. That makes it an extremely valuable addition to the tool collection of any woodworker or home improver, and buyers note that even with this low price tag the tool doesn’t miss a step. It has been reviewed by 457 customers, and they give it a 4.9-star average rating.
The tool offers a variable speed trigger to control its cutting velocity with a range from zero to 3,000 strokes per minute. Ryobi says the tool’s body also dampens vibration by 30%. The jig saw features a ergonomic, D-shaped handle to reduce user fatigue across lengthy cuts and includes a tool-free blade release that makes swapping cutting accessories painless and fast. Other features, like four orbital settings and an LED work light, combine to make this tool a potent cutting option.
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USB Lithium Soldering Pen Kit
Ryobi makes few different soldering tools, and it’s most ambitious hybrid power station is among the best soldering irons you’ll find on the market (more on that later). For a similarly low price that doesn’t disappoint, the USB Lithium Soldering Pen Kit is a tool with plenty of premium features and a mobile footprint that cuts the cord entirely. It’s available for $70 at Ryobi’s website and at Home Depot; at Ryobi the tool has received a 4.2 star average rating from 34 buyers, while Home Depot’s listing features a 4.5 star average from 97 customer reviews.
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The tool delivers up to 900 degree Fahrenheit temperatures in under two minutes, and when placing the tip cover back on the tool it automatically shuts off and begins the cooldown process for safety and convenient storage. It also features an auto shutoff function after 10 minutes of use, allowing for the complete elimination of worry over whether you turned the tool off when you finished or not. It’s ready to solder in just 40 seconds from startup and features a 10 watt power output for a small but powerful approach to delicate electronic repair and jewelry making tasks. The unit naturally comes with a USB Lithium battery and USB-C cable, and it features introduces a battery level status bar and an LED work light.
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USB Lithium Power Cutter Kit
Home improvement enthusiasts may not immediately see a use for a tool like the USB Lithium Power Cutter Kit. It’s ideal for cutting through cardboard, plastic, and other materials, but this might seem like overkill for a box opener and other similar functions. However, this power cutter features the ability to shear through carpet and other tricky material like and leather. This makes it an ideal crafting solution as well as a home improvement tool, as it can provide vast coverage across a wide range of cutting requirements. It can provide precise, powerful shearing action that’s simply not replicable with a hand tool or other more intense powered solutions that might also serve this purpose in a pinch.
The power cutter is available for $60 and it features 541 reviews with a 4.7-star average rating. It utilizes an integrated guideline that enhances the precision of the tool’s cutting capability. The tool features an onboard LED fuel gauge and also comes equipped with a self-sharpening blade that naturally maintains itself without any additional work on your part. It delivers up to 270 RPM cutting speeds, potentially making it a critical efficiency booster in tackling not just home improvement tasks but also a range of crafting needs like wrapping presents or cutting hobby material.
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18V ONE+ One-Handed Reciprocating Saw
The reciprocating saw is a tool that finds itself at home in a variety of settings. There’s a variety of formats these come in, and the Ryobi 18V ONE+ One-Handed Reciprocating Saw is an interesting addition to this well-established catalog of cutting and demolition tools. This unit is lightweight, featuring a scaled-down body that allows it to be used with a single hand while maintaining the same level of accuracy and control of a two-handed model. It delivers a maximum speed of 3,000 strokes per minute with a ⅝-inch stroke length, placing it largely in line with the standard reciprocating saw you’ll find elsewhere, including within Ryobi’s own ecosystem. The tool retails for $60, making it a cost-effective option as well as a functionally rich solution to support cutting needs across the board. Moreover, it features a quick release blade change function to make swapping out cutting implements easier.
The tool has been reviewed by 23 buyers at Ryobi’s website with a 5-star average rating coming in the process. It’s available at Home Depot for the same price and features 255 reviews with a 4.5-star rating. The tool features a variable speed trigger and an overmold grip that aims to make it more comfortable to use across numerous demanding tasks. It also features a non-marring shoe in the event that you need to maintain the structural integrity of elements around the component you’re cutting.
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18V ONE+ 3/8-Inch Crown Stapler
Ryobi’s 18V ONE+ 3/8-Inch Crown Stapler is among its highest rated products, as 899 reviewers on Ryobi’s website have given it a 4.9-star average rating. It’s also offered for $70, down from its previous list price of $99. The tool can deliver more than 5,500 staples per charge when paired with a ONE+ high capacity Lithium+ battery. It accepts crown staples ranging from ¼-inch to 9/16 of an inch and is also compatible with Arrow T50 staples. The tool comes with a belt clip and a dual screen/wire attachment that make it easier to use across numerous job requirements.
The stapler also utilizes an adjustment knob to control the depth of drive, giving users the ability to dial in precise power output for both heavy duty applications and light fastening tasks. The tool weighs just 3 pounds and operates with a magazine capacity of 85 staples. It aims to deliver quick and efficient fastening coverage for plenty of use cases, including upholstery repair and lawn and garden modernizations like installing chicken wire or weed suppressant layers in planter boxes. The tool eliminates the need to manually grip a stapler, speeding up the process significantly and removing the fatigue that is often associated with this kind of tool.
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18V ONE+ 45W Hybrid Soldering Station
The 18V ONE+ 45W Hybrid Soldering Station we briefly mentioned above worth a closer look. It’s an interesting solution, listed for $63, which makes it cost-effective for handling electronics repair tasks and more. The tool provides functionality that can be taken on the go; it operates in either a corded power mode or with support from an 18V One+ battery. When powered by a 6Ah battery, it can operate for over 4 hours. The tool features a temperature control knob that provides temperatures between 300 degrees and 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The soldering iron itself is attached via a 3-foot cord and the iron holder and other storage elements are all housed within the same station body.
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The tool has received 166 reviews from buyers with a 4.8 star average rating. The station’s unique hybrid power setup marks it as a dynamic soldering solution that many other tools in the arena can’t match. It comes with support accessories like solder coil and a tip cleaning sponge, as well as two different soldering tips to get you started right away.
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18V ONE+ Cordless Compact Workshop Blower
Ryobi’s 18V ONE+ Cordless Compact Workshop Blower is a support tool that can be of significant use across numerous workspaces. This can stand in as an outdoor power tool when necessary, handling leaves and other debris in a pinch; however, its primary use case is in on worksites. The tool features three speed settings with a maximum air speed of up to 160 MPH. It’s a lightweight and compact tool that allows you to easily blow debris off of workbenches, across the shop floor, and into a corner to form a pile. Rather than painstakingly sweeping the entire area, using a workshop blower allows you to contain your mess in seconds.
This tool is listed for $65 and features a 4.8-star rating from 772 buyers. It utilizes a variable speed trigger alongside its integrated settings, providing significant flexibility and control across your working requirements. The tool measures just under 20 inches in length and is ideally suited to one-handed use, and its 2.5-pound weight allows for a cleanup solution with plenty of power and lots of versatility.
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4V Screwdriver
Like many other brands, Ryobi makes a number light duty screwdriving tools. There are plenty of excellent multibit screwdrivers that operate under hand fastening power to consider. Ryobi went a different route with its 4V Screwdriver, though; this solution that can make a genuine and lasting difference in your assembly tasks and repair needs. The tool is listed at Ryobi’s website for just $25, and it features a 4.8 star average rating from 852 buyers.
The screwdriver can deliver up to 350 RPM and features ¼-inch hex collet connection to support all standard screwdriving bits. It utilizes an internal 4V battery with compatibility for USB charging built directly into the butt of the tool. A simple forward and reverse button setup stands on the top of the tool to make use easy, and it features two LED lights to cast illumination on your workpiece for use inside dark or recessed areas.
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18V ONE+ 10 Oz. Caulk Gun
Professionals often rely on powered caulking guns because of the time saving capabilities of the tool. DIY users frequently don’t, however; a standard skeleton caulking gun will run you just a few bucks at your local hardware store, making it feel the upgrade simply isn’t worth it. Yet the 18V ONE+ 10 Oz. Caulk Gun is available for $50, realistically a marginal price hike over the typical handheld tool in this arena. It’s also notably cheaper than many other powered implements a buyer might consider when adding to their collection. The tool delivers up to 500 pounds of push force, powered by a simple trigger and controlled by a variable speed dial. It includes an onboard puncture tool to eliminate the need for additional gear to open a tube of caulk, adhesive, or sealant before placing it in the tool’s holding compartment. It also offers a switch lock and anti-drip technology to keep the tool from dispensing your chosen product unless you’re actively using the gun.
Buyers give this tool a 4.8 star average rating across 233 reviews. The control offered by the unit allows for strain-free application of tubed construction and renovation products, significantly improving upon the experience you’ll have with a standard caulk gun. Rounding things out, the tool has the ability to dispense over 200 10-oz. tubes on a single battery charge, making it ideal for bulk use and simple home improvement projects like sealing up window edges ahead of the winter months.
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18V ONE+ 10-Inch Orbital Buffer
Automotive enthusiasts can gain significant value from the 18V ONE+ 10-Inch Orbital Buffer. It’s a tool listed for $45 and features a 4.8-star average rating from 330 buyers. The tool features a pair of handles, located on either end of the buffer, allowing for complete control over the unit as rotates the buffing pad beneath the main body. The unit can rotate at speeds up to 2,500 RPM; Ryobi claims it delivers a swirl-free finish for a pristine shine.
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As is the case with many tools featuring a constant-on state of use, buffers often give users concern about the longevity of their tool on a single battery charge. However, this Ryobi model delivers up to 90 consecutive minutes of use when paired with an 18V One+ Lithium+ high capacity battery. That’s more than enough operational time to get through shining up multiple cars without worrying about running out of power. The tool weighs 4.3 pounds, comes with Ryobi’s standard three year warranty covering its power tools, and includes elastic applicator and buffing bonnets in the packaging.
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18V ONE+ 1/4 Sheet Sander
Sanding tools are often a high priority for carpenters and woodworkers, DIY renovators, and builders. Sanding equipment can be useful in metalworking shops as well as serving as a support tool for mechanics and project car enthusiasts. Sanders come in many different layouts, and the Ryobi 18V ONE+ 1/4 Sheet Sander is a versatile solution that pairs bulk sanding capabilities with a tool geometry that allows for easy access to corners and tight spaces. A sheet sander is the ideal tool for rapid material removal, and this unit delivers sanding speeds of up to 14,000 oscillations per minute. It features a quick paper change capability and operates with quarter sheets for an easy fractional divide of a whole piece of sandpaper.
The sander is available as a bare tool for $59. It can also be found with a 4Ah battery and charger for $117 for those needing additional power support for their collection. The individual tool’s price tag is notably reasonable, and buyers give it high praise. 183 reviewers have given it a 4.7 star average rating, indicating its value as a high volume support solution when tackling numerous jobs. It offers onboard dust collection with additional vacuum compatibility and comes with a dust bag and an assortment of sandpaper, regardless if you buy the standalone tool or as part of the kit.
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Methodology
All of these cordless, battery-powered Ryobi tools come recccommeded by users, as they have at least 50 reviews and sport a 4.0 star average or better. Each one is an interesting find that may not already be in your toolkit, therefore offering the ability to expand your horizons as a DIYer or repairer tackling jobs around the house or in the workshop.
Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa+ is getting another new personality. On Thursday, the company announced it’s expanding its lineup of personality styles for users to choose from to include a “Sassy” option, which is for adults only. Notes Amazon, before opting to use the Sassy personality, users will be required to go through additional security checks in the Alexa app.
The personality style will also not be available when Amazon Kids is enabled, Amazon says.
The new option joins others like Brief, Chill, and Sweet, launched last month.
Image Credits:Amazon
When you toggle on the option for Sassy in the Alexa mobile app, you’re warned that the Sassy style uses explicit language, which is why it requires a security check. On iOS, this involved a Face ID scan.
The AI assistant explained its style to us like this: “The Sassy style is built on one premise: help first, judge always. Every answer comes wrapped in wit and a well-placed roast — it’ll answer your question; it’ll just make you feel something about it first. Expect reality checks delivered with charm, compliments that somehow sting, and warmth you didn’t see coming. Equal-opportunity irreverence, zero apologies. Honest, sharp, and funny — and somehow that’s more helpful than helpful.”
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Alexa’s app also had warned that the style could contain “mature subject matter.”
However, further investigation discovered this is not Amazon’s version of something like Grok’s adult AI companions. The AI assistant said the new option won’t get into areas like explicit sexual content, hate speech, illegal activities, personal attacks, or anything that could cause harm to oneself or others.
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The move is the latest example of how Amazon is trying to make Alexa+ more customizable, as it revamps the assistant for the generative AI era. By offering the assistant different personalities — including one positioned as more adult — Amazon is borrowing from a broader trend in AI, where companies have been experimenting with tone, style, and personas to make their assistants more engaging and personalized to the individual users’ choices.
As always with authoritarian regimes (and corporate ownership), this is all presented to the public as an effort to restore balance, eliminate (nonexistent) “liberal bias,” and reach out to real Americans. As if billionaires and their useful idiots could care less about everyday Americana.
“So, look, I’ve said this since the beginning, which is, you know, for — when it really comes to — editorial independence will absolutely be maintained. It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN. And, really, who we want to talk to is the 70% of Americans and really around the world that identify as center-left, as center-right. And we want to be in the truth business. We want to be in the trust business. And that’s not going to change.”
Traditionally there’s only one editorial direction U.S. journalism usually goes under consolidated corporate ownership. U.S. media owners like tax cuts, deregulation, subsidies, access, and merger approvals, so corporate media’s editorial slant generally follows the financial interests of ownership. The pretense that U.S. media suffers from widespread “liberal bias,” or the belief that there are still functional firewalls between ownership and editorial, are long-deceased relics.
Larry Ellison clearly wants to hoover up what’s left of corporate media (including CBS, CNN, HBO) — and fuse it with his co-ownership of TikTok to create a sort of Hungary-esque autocratic state media, where administration allies praise dear leader while the government strangles independent and public media just out of frame.
The only thing saving us from the full and terrible vision of this outcome to date is the fact that very few of the weird nepobabies and brunchlords being tasked with its creation have anything you’d mistake for competence.
When Max Brodeur-Urbas co-founded Gumloop in mid-2023, his vision was to help non-technical employees automate repetitive tasks using AI. At that time, the concept of AI agents was still largely experimental and prone to errors.
As AI technology has matured, so has Gumloop’s offering.
The company claims that it now allows teams at organizations like Shopify, Ramp, Gusto, Samsara, Instacart, and Opendoor to deploy reliable AI agents that autonomously handle complex, multi-step tasks, all without ever needing an engineer.
Employees can share the agents they build with colleagues, creating a compounding effect that accelerates internal automation. “They get addicted, they start building more agents, and then all of a sudden, the whole company is AI native,” Brodeur-Urbas told TechCrunch.
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As companies race to adopt AI, Benchmark general partner Everett Randle believes the key to success lies in empowering every worker with AI superpowers, and Gumloop’s intuitive agent-builder is an example of the kind of tool that will unlock that potential.
That’s why Randle, who joined Benchmark last October from Kleiner Perkins, chose to lead a $50 million Series B investment into Gumloop. The deal, which is Randle’s first at his new firm, included participation from Nexus VP, First Round Capital, Y Combinator, Box Group, The Cannon Project, and Shopify.
Though Gumloop wasn’t actively seeking new capital, the startup decided this was the year to “step on the gas.” For Brodeur-Urbas, partnering with Benchmark—the firm behind icons like eBay, Uber, and Dropbox—was a “no-brainer.”
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While Brodeur-Urbas previously planned to ‘build a 10-person, billion-dollar company,’ the surging demand from enterprise clients has compelled him to build a dedicated sales force and scale up his engineering team, he said.
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Gumloop is by no means the only player vying to turn every knowledge worker into an AI agent-builder. The startup faces stiff competition from established automation platforms like Zapier and n8n, as well as specialized agent builders like Dust. Even foundational AI labs are entering the fray. For instance, Anthropic’s Claude Co-Work allows users to create autonomous agents without writing a single line of code.
But Randle believes Gumloop is superior to all its rivals. During his due diligence, he discovered that at least one of the company’s customers had adopted Gumloop somewhat organically.
When Randle asked a CTO how they chose Gumloop, the response was telling. The company had given employees full access to Gumloop alongside two competitors. Six months later, the results were clear: staff were using Gumloop daily or weekly, while the competing tools sat untouched, Randle told TechCrunch.
The reason Gumloop gained such momentum, according to Randle, is its minimal learning curve. “You can go in and start making agents and workflow automations immediately,” he said.
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While many AI startups worry that foundational models will replicate the same functionality and render them obsolete, Randle is convinced that Gumloop’s model-agnostic approach is precisely what will keep attracting customers.
As models continue to evolve, one may perform better than another for a specific task. So, Gumloop provides the flexibility to choose the model best suited for the job at any given moment.
Another reason why model independence is attractive, according to Randle, is cost. “Plenty of enterprises have OpenAI, Gemini, and Anthropic credits. They want to use all of them,” he said
His excitement for the company ultimately comes down to the sheer size of the opportunity.
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“Enterprise automation is a massive pot of gold,” Randle said. “I think it’s the biggest category in enterprise AI.”
Ever since 3D printing has become a popular tool, the question of waste has been looming in the background. The sad reality of rapid prototyping is that you’re going to generate a lot of prints that just don’t aren’t fit for purpose, even if your printer runs them off perfectly every time. Creality has some products on the way aimed at solving that problem, and [Embrace Making] on YouTube has got his hands on a pre-production prototype of the Creality M1 Filament Maker to give the community a first look.
The M1 is actually only half of the system; Creality is also working on an R1 shredder to reduce your prints into re-usable shreds. [Embrace Making] hasn’t gotten his hands on that, but shredding prints isn’t the hard part. We’ve featured plenty of DIY shredders in the past. Extruding filament reliably at home has traditionally proven much more difficult, which is why we mostly outsource it to professionals.
Lacking the matching shredder, and wanting to give the M1 the fairest possible shake, [Embrace] tests the machine out first using Creality-supplied PLA pellets. The filament diameter isn’t as stable as we’ve gotten used to, and the spool rolling setup needs a bit more work.
Again, this is an early prototype. Creality says they’re working on it and claims they’ll get to ±0.05 mm precision in the production models. Doubtless they’ll also fix the errors that led to [Embrace]’s messy spool. That’s probably just software given that the winding mechanism did a pretty good job on the Creality-supplied spool.
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Most importantly, the M1-produced filament does print. The prints aren’t perfect due to the variation in diameter, but they turn out surprisingly well for home-made filament. [Embrace] also shows off the ability to mix custom colors and gradients, but, again, using raw PLA rather than shredded material. Hopefully Creality lets him test drive the R1 shredder once its design is further along.
Apple’s new MacBook Neo design makes it startlingly quick and simple to repair, with Self Service Repair program instructions proving the point.
MacBook Neo’s keyboard is now easier to repair
Apple first announced its Self Service Repair program back in 2021, and it was really a case of doing it before being forced to by law. It’s slowly expanded out, launching first for the iPhone in April 2022, and later expanding to Macs. Throughout, it’s been criticized for being expensive and for making users go through hoops to get the work done. Now, though, Apple appears to be embracing the Right to Repair pressures it has faced, and do so both with the program, and with its designs. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Phased-array radars are great for all sorts of things, whether you’re doing advanced radio research or piloting a fifth-generation combat aircraft. They’re also typically very expensive. [Nawfal] hopes to make the technology more affordable with an open-source radar design of their own.
The design is called the AERIS-10, and is available in two versions. Operating at 10.5 GHz, it can be built to operate at ranges between 3 or 20 kilometers depending on the desired spec. The former uses an 8 x 16 patch antenna array, while the latter extends this to a 32 x 16 array. Either way, each design is capable of fully-electronic beam steering in azimuth and can be hacked to enable elevation too—one of the most attractive features of phased array radars. The hardware is based around an STM32 microcontroller, an FPGA, and a bunch of specialist clock generators, frequency synthesizers, phase shifters, and ADCs to do all the heavy lifting involved in radar.
Radar is something you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about unless you’re involved in maritime, air defence, or weather fields. All of which seem to be very much in the news lately! Still, we feature a good few projects on the topic around these parts. If you’ve got your own radar hacks brewing up in the lab, don’t hesitate to let us know.
