PARTNER CONTENT: Integrating AI into the iEPMS platform to achieve a 98% quality review accuracy rate and slash report generation times, leveraging experience from 240,000 global projects

ZTE Corporation today showcased its pioneering achievements in digital transformation and AI-driven project management at the 14th IPMA Research Conference in Bogotá, Colombia.

During the conference, Wang Yuzhu, Managing Director of Engineering Services at ZTE Colombia, and Jose Perez, Senior Expert in Engineering Delivery Management at ZTE, delivered a keynote speech themed “The Digital and Intelligent Future of Project Management”, highlighting ZTE’s practical experiences and innovative achievements in global project delivery.

To address the evolving challenges of global project delivery, ZTE has developed a digital project management system tailored for complex international scenarios. Built on the “One Team, One System, One Mechanism” tripartite architecture, this system, powered by ZTE’s iEPMS (Intelligent Engineering Project Management System), enables comprehensive management across the entire project lifecycle—spanning planning, cost control, quality assurance, risk mitigation, and resource allocation. Through digital, automated, and intelligent management approaches, the system significantly enhances project management efficiency and precision.

On the intelligence front, ZTE is driving the deep integration of AI with project management. By deploying Optical Character Recognition (OCR), AI Agents, Large Language Models (LLMs), and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for knowledge enhancement, ZTE has automated key workflows such as quality reviews, design generation, risk analysis, and reporting. These innovations have yielded outstanding operational benefits: the accuracy of AI-powered quality reviews has reached 98%, and the time required to generate project reports has plummeted from 180 minutes to just 5 minutes, significantly improving delivery efficiency and governance capabilities.

ZTE’s digital delivery achievements are backed by its extensive global footprint and rich network service expertise. Globally, ZTE has delivered over 240,000 projects, deployed over 7 million base stations and over 240,000 kilometers of optical cables, while managing and maintaining over 510,000 kilometers of network cabling. By continuously automating processes and building an intelligent tool ecosystem, ZTE has achieved a 65% reduction in acceptance costs, an 85% drop in site re-entry rates, and a 2.5-fold improvement in network activation efficiency, creating tangible value for global customers.

ZTE also showcased several global benchmark case studies at the conference. In Ecuador’s RAN network project, ZTE integrated its intelligent platform with over 50 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to achieve a seamless, “zero-user-perception” migration during network handovers. Additionally, ZTE’s digital project management solutions have been widely deployed in Colombia across diverse projects, including lithium battery installations, solar energy, microwave, FTTH, and DWDM networks.

Centered on the theme “Project Management Practice in a Disruptive Era: Integrating Technology, Innovation, and Sustainability”, this landmark event gathered experts from over 50 countries. Across key thematic tracks including AI & innovation, project manager 5.0, and sustainability & purposeful management, attendees explored how disruptive technologies are reshaping human leadership and project frameworks in the digital era.

Looking ahead, ZTE will continue to act as a “Driver of Digital Economy”, deepening the integration of AI, big data, and project management to upgrade global delivery models. ZTE remains committed to collaborating with global ecosystem partners to advance both research and practical innovation, contributing to an open, intelligent, and sustainable global project management ecosystem.

Contributed by ZTE.

Alex Yu set out to build something many makers only joke about. He created a complete CoreXY 3D printer where almost every structural piece came from another printer first. The result carries the name Encore and fits on a desk without dominating the space. The finished machine measures roughly 219 by 221 by 262 millimeters. Its build volume reaches 120 millimeters on each side. That footprint sits smaller than a Voron 0 and matches the size of a standard filament box, yet it still handles practical parts and detailed prototypes with ease.

The machine’s outer casing is entirely composed of printed panels that are only 1.5 millimeters thick yet provide a strong outer shell once all of the pieces are welded together. The horizontal axes are directly mounted to the side panels, eliminating the need for internal frames or elaborate aluminum elements to hold them. And that’s the point: keep things simple and inexpensive while maintaining the stiffness required for quick, accurate movement. All of the printed elements are made on a standard 225 millimeter build plate, so almost anyone with a capable 3D printer, such as an Ender series printer or a Bambu, can create all of the parts without the need for additional equipment or a large bed.

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This design relies extensively on modularity, with the gantry, Z stage, and outside panels all being separate parts. That is, you can simply upgrade or repair one part of the system without disassembling the whole thing, and when new ideas and better components arise, this flexibility becomes increasingly vital. It employs MGN9C linear rails and a CoreXY belt system to move the gantry horizontally. The two drive motors are smooth and reliable, so there is little to worry about in terms of weight and acceleration. The hotend is a small Bambu-style design, while the extruder is a low-cost BMG-style clone that neatly feeds filament through a Bowden tube in the back.

The machine raises and lowers the bed using an 8-millimeter leadscrew and matching linear rods controlled by a pancake stepper motor. The power supply is behind the Z rods, and the main controller board is contained in the base, leaving the machine’s front exposed and short in length. When first tested, it demonstrated some of the typical concerns associated with compact, high-speed machines, such as the hotend not cooling sufficiently, resulting in print issues. So Yu replaced the blower with a stronger one, altered the cooling shroud to allow air to enter from a variety of angles, and added two more blowers to the side of the build area to finish the job, resolving the issue with PLA prints at high speeds.

Another issue that occurred was vibration on the bed at high speeds. So he inserted some stronger Z rods, 8 millimeters in diameter instead of 6, which had a huge influence. The machine now produces clean, consistent parts because layer lines stack up uniformly, and the gantry’s lightweight design keeps ringing under control. As a result of its short travel motions and high acceleration without frame instability, the Encore can rapidly build a wide range of miniature prototypes. It is now being used to accelerate work on a Bambu A1 for rapid iteration projects.

The project files are fully hosted on GitHub, and STLs are available on Printables, MakerWorld, and Thingiverse. If you want to dig deeper, the CAD archives are accessible in Fusion 360 and STEP formats, and the documentation is constantly expanding as he adds assembly notes and the complete bill of materials.
[Source]

AudioQuest did not invent portable digital audio, but with the original DragonFly USB DAC in 2012, it did something arguably more important: it made the category make sense to normal people. Plug it into a laptop, connect headphones or a real system, and suddenly the miserable little audio section inside your computer could go sit in the corner and think about its life choices.

That original DragonFly was designed by Gordon Rankin, the same Gordon Rankin behind Wavelength Audio — and yes, the man also knows his way around a tube amplifier. His 300B-based Wavelength Duetto remains the best tube amp I ever owned, which is still a sore subject. Damn you, ex-wife’s lawyers.

AudioQuest says more than 300,000 DragonFly DACs have been sold worldwide, which is not a rounding error. That is a category-defining number. I still have the original DragonFly, DragonFly Red, and DragonFly Cobalt somewhere in the black hole otherwise known as my box of hi-fi accessories. Every audiophile has one. Some have three.

Some still have one plugged into an older MacBook that refuses to turn back on. Damn you, dead hard drive and the piece of biltong I used to beat that smug aluminum bastard like it owed me money.

The new AudioQuest DragonFly Copper, introduced at High End Vienna 2026, arrives in a very different market. The original DragonFly helped create the USB DAC/dongle DAC category; in 2026, that category is packed tighter than a Knicks watch party outside Penn Station. iFi Audio, FiiO, Cayin, Questyle, Astell&Kern, Campfire Audio, and others now offer pocket-sized DAC/headphone amps with higher published resolution support, balanced outputs, app control, wireless codecs, and in some cases Bluetooth support for aptX, aptX HD, aptX Lossless, and LDAC.

So Copper cannot win merely by being cute, copper-colored, or historically important. Nostalgia is not a feature set. Thankfully, AudioQuest appears to understand that.

DragonFly Copper Is More Powerful, More Efficient, and Still Designed to Be Simple

The headline changes are straightforward: DragonFly Copper uses a 32-bit ESS Sabre ES9218 DAC/headphone amplifier, outputs 2.1 volts, draws 25% less current than previous DragonFly models, and delivers twice the output power of any earlier DragonFly, according to AudioQuest. It remains a portable USB DAC, preamplifier, and headphone amplifier designed for headphones, powered speakers, preamps, amplifiers, and full audio systems. 

That matters because DragonFly has always lived or died on ease of use. Copper still works with Apple, Windows, iOS, and Android devices, meets USB Audio Class standards, and does not require additional drivers. AudioQuest also includes a DragonTail USB-A to USB-C adaptor, which is far more useful in 2026 than another removable cap destined to vanish under a car seat. My mother once found one under the back seat of her Subaru, and I still have no idea how it got there.

The volume is still controlled by the phone, tablet, or computer. That may look less fancy than a rotary knob or OLED screen, but Rankin’s explanation is practical: DragonFly negotiates with the host device and uses its own internal volume control, allowing the host to send bit-true audio while avoiding extra controls that add power draw and fragility.

AudioQuest has confirmed the core DragonFly Copper specifications, although not every measurement has been published yet. Copper uses a 32-bit ESS Sabre ES9218 DAC/headphone amplifier and delivers 2.1 volts of output from its 3.5mm analog headphone/preamp output. It supports PCM playback at 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96kHz, with the DragonFly logo changing color to show standby and sample-rate status: red for standby, green for 44.1kHz, blue for 48kHz, yellow for 88.2kHz, and light blue for 96kHz.

The Copper Case Is Not Just Jewelry

AudioQuest says the copper-plated case is designed to improve RF-noise drainage, drawing from the company’s work on the RF-draining barrels used in its Mythical Creatures interconnects. Garth Powell says the direct-plated copper case was chosen before the product name, because the material is highly conductive at radio frequencies and more effective at draining induced RF noise than polymer, brass, zinc, or aluminum. 

That is the most AudioQuest part of the story, and yes, some people will immediately start sharpening their measurement knives. Fair enough. But RF noise in compact USB-powered audio devices is a real engineering problem, especially when the source is a laptop, tablet, phone, or streamer with more digital hash flying around than a Best Buy returns counter on December 26th.

Copper is also compatible with AudioQuest’s JitterBug FMJ USB filter, unlike Cobalt, which already incorporated some similar filtering technology and was not always an ideal match with an external JitterBug in series. AudioQuest says Copper is its quietest DragonFly yet, but additional noise rejection is possible with JitterBug. 

No 32-bit/384kHz, No DSD Arms Race

This is where the 2026 market comparison becomes important. Many current dongle DACs advertise 32-bit/384kHz PCM, DSD256 or higher, balanced 4.4mm outputs, onboard displays, app control, and sometimes wireless support. On a spec sheet, DragonFly Copper looks conservative because it remains limited to 24-bit/96kHz playback.

AudioQuest is not pretending otherwise. Rankin’s argument is that Full Speed USB tops out at 24/96 and consumes significantly less power than High Speed USB implementations used for 32/384 playback. His position is blunt: higher-rate processing often increases current draw, heat, noise, and processing demands without necessarily improving real-world performance from a phone-powered DAC. 

That will not satisfy everyone. Some buyers want the biggest numbers because the spec sheet told them to feel something. But AudioQuest is clearly not chasing the dongle DAC arms race. Copper is being positioned as a better DragonFly: more power, less current draw, lower distortion, better RF noise management, and the same plug-and-play simplicity that made the line popular in the first place.

Gordon Rankin Had to Restart the Project After MQA Became Yesterday’s Sandwich

The development story is also more interesting than the usual “we improved everything because adjectives” routine. According to Rankin, the next DragonFly had originally been planned as a more powerful MQA-rendering model, codenamed “Ruby.” Then COVID delayed development, MQA’s relevance collapsed, and the war in Ukraine disrupted access to materials used in earlier DragonFly components. That forced AudioQuest and Rankin to rethink the design goals and parts strategy. 

Removing MQA from the mandate changed the engineering path. Without MQA rendering, the processor no longer had to inspect and process incoming frames for MQA data, reducing DSP requirements and allowing a lower-power design. Rankin says ESS delivered the ES9218 integrated DAC/headphone solution, enabling twice the headphone power of previous DragonFly models while retaining digital filter options used in Cobalt. 

The other major work was less glamorous but likely more important: capacitors, board layout, and careful tuning. That sounds boring until you realize that small USB-powered DACs live or die by layout, power behavior, and noise management. Tiny boxes do not forgive sloppy engineering. They just make it portable.

The Bottom Line

DragonFly Copper Enters a Much Tougher Dongle DAC Market.

This is the part AudioQuest cannot duck. In 2012, DragonFly was a revelation. In 2026, it is walking into a knife fight wearing a very nice copper jacket.

The competition is real. iFi has been aggressive in the portable DAC space. FiiO offers strong value and increasingly polished hardware. Cayin and Questyle bring serious amplification credibility. Astell&Kern knows premium portable audio better than almost anyone. Campfire Audio has also entered the USB DAC/amp market with products aimed at IEM and headphone users who want small, clean, travel-friendly solutions.

Many of those competitors offer features DragonFly Copper does not: balanced outputs, higher-resolution PCM and DSD support, gain modes, displays, firmware customization, app-based settings, and wireless codec support. Copper’s counterargument is not more buttons. It is execution, power efficiency, reduced current draw, low noise, improved output, and the fact that it remains one of the easiest ways to improve sound from a phone, tablet, laptop, streamer, or desktop system.

Pricing & Availability

AudioQuest DragonFly Copper is available for $249.95 at Crutchfield, which includes USB-C adapter. but we don’t yet know when the product ships. For more information, visit audioquest.com.

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The rapid buildout of data centers across the US to meet the increasing needs of AI tools has become a controversial topic, with state laws popping up to limit their construction, and cities and individuals weighing in to stop them.

As tech giants rush to build out these massive AI data centers, critics have questioned the land, water and power being guzzled, including the protesters who staked out the Microsoft Build software conference focusing on AI in San Francisco this week.

One of the people positioned at the entrance to the Fort Mason event center, handing out leaflets detailing the effects of data centers being built, was Amy Herman. I spoke to her about her concerns.

Watch this: AI Data Center Infrastructure Plans Continue to Draw Controversy

01:58

“I would say it’s more of an opposing viewpoint,” she clarified when I asked about the protest. “It’s not that we’re against technology, or against any sort of monetization of innovation.”

She said it’s more a challenge of balancing limited natural resources with big tech companies that don’t want to be held accountable for managing climate change while chasing technological advancement.

“What we’re doing on our planet and all the impacts that are happening, not just here in San Francisco but across the United States,” said Herman, adding that “the ripple effects of that are going to be felt.”

In response to a request for comment, Microsoft said it “respects the right to peaceful protest.”

During the Microsoft Build keynote on Tuesday morning, CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft would seek community permission to build data centers in the future. 

It’s aiming to get approval from local residents by improving the cooling systems and reducing water use by data centers; ensuring data centers don’t increase electricity prices for locals; adding to “the tax base that funds local hospitals, schools, parks and libraries,” and investing in AI training and non-profits in those areas.

Nadella called the rapid buildout of data centers “extraordinary” during a live podcast on Tuesday with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil of No Priors and Swyx of Latent Space.

“At this point, it’s clear that … we as an industry are very principled about ensuring that the benefits of all the stuff we’re talking about are felt in real ways at the community level,” Nadella said. “It has to be real, where people are saying, ‘It’s not changing the prices of energy for me, in fact, if anything, it’s bringing down the prices because long term there’s going to be a better grid, there’s going to be more energy … water is being replenished.’”

He emphasized the importance of getting communities to buy into AI technologies and the data centers that drive them.

“All this has to be real. And if that is the case, then we’ll have permission,” he said. “If it is not, you won’t have permission; it’s as simple as that.”

He added that Microsoft is seeking to add jobs during and after construction of these massive data centers — but he said people are right to question it all.

“We have to take it as an industry very seriously,” Nadella said. “I think it’s good for communities to be skeptical, ask the hard questions.”

Some of the people asking those questions were on hand outside Microsoft Build alongside Herman, with colorful imagery depicting scenes of corporate greed, pollution and poverty, eager to speak with conference-goers.

Herman said one of the major issues is that electricity prices in rural areas are much higher than they were before data centers were constructed in those communities, with people forced to choose between paying for medical support or their electricity bills.

Microsoft has more than 500 data centers in 80 regions, with the tech giant adding more data center capacity in the past 18 months than it did in the first decade of its Azure cloud services. And they’re not only in the US, but across the rest of the globe — Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and South America.

Speaking during the keynote about the Fairwater data center — “our first AI super factory” — Nadella broke down the three major workflows of such factories into AI training, inference and agent runtime.

“The entire system was designed from the ground up for AI,” Nadella said. “And we’re rethinking even the power delivery … how do we deliver hundreds of kilowatts per row while minimizing … the conversion loss that happens from the grid to the silicon?”

Fairwater went live ahead of schedule in April, with Nadella calling it “the world’s most powerful AI data center” in a post on social media site X.

He says there was a new approach to water use in the Fairwater AI data center’s cooling system, which is filled only once and then can operate “with zero water consumption” thereafter.

“The daily water usage over the course of an entire year is roughly equivalent to what a single restaurant would use,” Nadella said on Tuesday.

Some data centers that are currently under construction “will use more energy than large cities,” according to Harvard Law School‘s Ari Peskoe.

Microsoft says Fairwater has “cost-efficient, reliable power,” with usage of around 140kW per rack, 1,360kW per row, as well as software and hardware solutions for reducing power during off-peak times and using “an on-site energy storage solution to further mask power fluctuations without utilizing excess power.” For comparison, the energy usage of a typical US residential utility customer is around 1.2kW.

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During the keynote on Tuesday morning, Nadella said Microsoft’s new principles for building out data centers involve ensuring they “do not increase the electricity prices, making sure that we are replenishing all our water use, creating jobs in the local communities for the local residents, adding to the tax base, making sure we’re strengthening the communities by investing in local training and the nonprofits in the area.

“Only when we live up to these principles, do the hard work around it, is when we earn the permission to go ahead and innovate and build,” the CEO said.

When I asked Herman about Microsoft’s promises to give back to local communities after seeking their permission to build data centers there, she expressed doubtful hope.

“If they’re actually that invested, I’d love to see them develop a more cooperative business development model that incorporates democratic values at the core of their operational agendas,” she said. “I haven’t seen that demonstrated in practice internally as a business, so why would I trust it at a local governance level?”

Professional Stratasys FDM printers demand a pretty hefty price premium over your typical hobbyist-level machine, with the gold-plating continuing even with the special filament cartridges that you buy for some of their printers.

This raises the question of in how far this eye-watering price tag is justified, and how much is just you paying for support and the brand name. After acquiring a spool of Stratasys ABS filament via a US viewer, [Dr. Igor Gaspar] set to work to try and answer this question.

The viewer had already liberated the spool of ABS+ P430 filament from its cartridge, making it easy to use that directly with the Bambu Lab FDM printer.

To make it a fair comparison, [Igor] also needed to have a sample printed on a real Stratasys printer, for which he used a local company’s services. An interesting sidenote here is that the US viewer’s company moved away from Stratasys to Bambu Lab printers.

[Igor] was able to see his test parts being printed on the Stratasys printer, as said company is in the same city. This showed him that it took 14 hours to print the parts versus 3.5 hours on the Bambu Lab printer, suggesting that his worries about the right printing parameters for the Stratasys filament were warranted. Sussing those out was thus paramount for a fair comparison and warranted some test prints.

From a sheer aesthetic point of view the Stratasys-printed parts looked much cleaner, and their dimensional accuracy was also significantly better due to the slicer adjusting for this. Between the used Stratasys M30 and Bambu Lab ABS filaments there’s no clear winner, with both trading blows. Amusingly enough, the older Stratasys ABS type in the form of the ABS+ P430 filament performed the best of all when printed on the Bambu Lab printer at its preferred temperature setting.

Moral of the story is thus that – unless you really want to pay for that service contract – to loot old Stratasys ABS spool cartridges and use them in your hobbyist FDM printer. As [Igor] says in the conclusion, the nicer looks is probably due to them printing very thin layers, much finer than the 0.2 mm layers he used. This would also match the much longer print time and is thus something we can replicate on any FDM printer with a temperature-controlled printing environment.

It’ll be available for PC and mobile, and maybe Nintendo Switch down the line.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned on Friday that artificial intelligence may need to be rationed because the power supply cannot keep up with its capabilities. He said companies and governments face “very big social choices” as energy constraints force trade-offs between sectors. The question is not whether AI can do more, but whether there is enough electricity to let it.

“AI is probably going to fairly soon be at a point where it can do more things, more big things than we have the power supply to achieve,” Bailey said at an event in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, with Bloomberg’s Stephanie Flanders and former Cabinet minister Ed Balls.

He framed the dilemma as a choice between competing priorities. “Do we want to make more very big breakthroughs in health?” he asked. Or “do we want to make more breakthroughs in drone technology to fight the Russians in Ukraine?” Bailey said the issue of potential trade-offs was recently raised with him by the head of a large AI firm, whom he did not name.

The concern is not theoretical. The EU recently asked households to cut electricity use during peak hours because AI data centres are straining the grid. US utilities plan to spend $1.4 trillion on infrastructure by 2030 to cope with the data centre boom. Every megawatt allocated to AI is a megawatt unavailable for housing or manufacturing.

Bailey has previously argued that the UK economy is stuck between waves of technological innovation. The last wave was the internet. He sees AI as the most likely candidate to be the next general-purpose technology, but has cautioned that productivity benefits will take time to materialise.

On employment, Bailey was less alarmed. He said AI will both create and destroy jobs, pointing to roles like data scientists as examples of new positions that will emerge. “There will be jobs that don’t exist anymore,” he added, but signalled he is not concerned about a surge in mass unemployment.

That tracks with broader warnings that the UK’s AI ambitions may collide with its climate commitments. Bailey’s comments suggest the collision extends beyond carbon: the fundamental constraint may be physical infrastructure that simply cannot be built fast enough.

If you purchased an iPhone 16 or iPhone 15 when they launched, you may be able to claim some of the money from a class action lawsuit against Apple. It’s all tied to the new Apple Intelligence features the company previewed during launch — features that ultimately didn’t arrive on time.

And depending on what Apple announces at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, you could end up seeing the money before some of those features actually arrive.

Apple last month settled a shareholder lawsuit and agreed to pay $250 million to customers who bought the iPhone 16 and some iPhone 15 models during a specified period. The lawsuit alleged that Apple misled customers by promising AI features that didn’t ship when the new devices did. Payouts between $25 and $95 per eligible device are expected.

In a statement to CNET Mobile Managing Editor David Lumb, an Apple spokesperson said, “Apple has reached a settlement to resolve claims related to the availability of two additional features. We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.”

Why is there a lawsuit over Apple Intelligence?

When Apple advertised its new iPhone 16 lineup, it emphasized how they were optimized for AI features such as an enhanced Siri that could act as an intelligent agent. When the phones did arrive, Apple Intelligence wasn’t yet ready; its first features didn’t arrive until iOS 18.1 five weeks later.

According to the proposed settlement, “Apple allegedly saturated the market with deceptive ads, inducing consumers to purchase iPhones based on the promise of certain enhanced Siri features.”

Some features of Apple Intelligence did ship soon after the introduction of the iPhone 16 and iOS 18, including Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, Writing Tools, Genmoji and Clean Up. But those weren’t the advanced features Apple highlighted.

Who is eligible for the $250 million settlement?

Customers who purchased one of the following devices between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025, are eligible to receive a settlement payment:

• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16E
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are included because they had the processor and memory to run Apple Intelligence features.

It’s estimated that there are approximately 36 million customers eligible for this settlement.

Watch this: What iPhone Users Actually Want From the New Google-Powered Siri

09:49

How to claim your portion of the settlement

For now, you need to wait.

As set forth in the settlement, Apple will provide a list of eligible customers and their contact information to a settlement administrator. 

After the data has been verified, the company Verita will send email and postal notices to those customers directing them to a settlement website. That site has not yet been created. The deadline for filing your claim will be 90 days after your notice arrives.

When can you expect to receive a settlement payment?

According to the settlement, Apple must provide the information about affected customers within five days of the settlement approval, which is scheduled for June 17, 2026.

When the data is provided and verified, a 45-day notice period begins to inform potential consumers that they’re eligible for a payment.

The actual payment of claims will occur within a 60-calendar-day window after the final details, such as exclusions and objections,  have been worked out. That puts the first checks or deposits arriving sometime after September 2026, depending on court dates and possible extensions.

I’d like to believe I’m organized. Reality suggests otherwise. I’ve left my smartphone in the refrigerator and spent hours searching for it. I’ve misplaced my AirPods and Oura Ring for days at a time. I once lost my house key for three months, only to find it in one of my hoodies. My typical strategy isn’t to look harder; it’s to assume whatever’s missing will eventually reappear someday.

The problem is, lost items don’t always cooperate. Even seasoned travelers know that once luggage disappears onto an airport conveyor belt, all you can do is hope. That’s why Bluetooth trackers are essential. Yes, there are legitimate privacy concerns around tracking devices and misuse. But without Bluetooth and GPS trackers, I’d spend considerably more of my life wandering around my apartment wondering, “Where did I put that?”

These are the best Bluetooth trackers WIRED has tested and vetted. Still confused about how these devices work? We have more information on how to find your phone, how to track your luggage, and the best trackable luggage.

Featured in This Guide

Best Bluetooth Tracker Overall

Chipolo Bluetooth Trackers

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Best Bluetooth Tracker Overall

In the competition between Tile and Chipolo for the most ubiquitous tracker, I would not have guessed that Chipolo would be the one to land exclusive collaborations with both Apple and Google (cough, antitrust congressional hearings, cough). Yet here we are. Chipolo has three separate product lines: the Chipolo Pop, Loop, and Card, plus bundles that work with the Chipolo app; all products are compatible with iOS and Android devices.

WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu and I have tested several of these lines. They’re at a similar price point to Tile’s and come in a variety of colors. Setup is simple, especially if you use your phone’s native app. I currently have a Card in my wallet. It’s about the same size as one credit card and about as thick as two of them. It’s also loud enough for me to hear even when it’s in my wallet, inside my purse, and in another room. Like with the Tile, you can choose to get alerts if you leave the house without your keys. As with many trackers, the connection can get wonky—I sometimes have to walk around a bit—but it’s usually able to find an accurate last location. —Adrienne So

Best for Apple Devices

Apple’s long-awaited Tile competitor debuted in 2021; AirTags use Bluetooth connectivity and Apple’s special U1 location-finding chip to help you pinpoint location via the Find My app. The second-gen improves the ability to find the tracker’s location when using Apple’s Precision Finding feature, with up to 1.5 times greater range. With a new chime, it’s also 50 percent louder than its predecessor, and Apple says it can be heard from twice as far away as before.

WWDC 2026 is Tim Cook’s final Swan Song ahead of him leaving the firm later this year, and it gives him one opportunity to scrub clean one of the biggest blemishes on his time at Apple: the botched launch of the redesigned, smarter Siri. 

Now don’t misunderstand me; Tim Cook has been a force to be reckoned with during his time at the helm, guiding the company through successive iconic product launches like the Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Silicon and much more – but I’m sure that the botched Apple Intelligence rollout still haunts his dreams.

Announced at WWDC 2024 and scheduled for release sometime during the iOS 18 era, the redesigned Siri was the star feature of Apple Intelligence and was supposed to be much smarter, essentially putting it on par with competing LLM-based assistants like Google Gemini.

Well, that didn’t happen, and it didn’t appear the following year in iOS 26 either, with plenty of leaks suggesting that it just wasn’t up to Apple’s standards.

However, with Apple officially partnering with Google to use Gemini smarts to power Siri earlier this year, and plenty of leaks suggesting that Siri will be the true star of next week’s WWDC 2026, it looks like Tim Cook could finally right that wrong just before he hands the keys over to John Ternus. 

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The long-awaited launch of the improved Siri

If the leaks are correct – and given that we’ve seen multiple reports from multiple sources, some with screenshots, it seems that it’s pretty much on the money – the real star of WWDC 2026 won’t be iOS 27, macOS Big Bear (or whatever it’s called), iPadOS 27 or watchOS 27. 

No, it’ll be the long-awaited reveal of the smarter, more contextual Siri that Apple has been talking about for years at this point – and it might be the game-changer in AI that Apple has desperately needed to stay competitive in the space. 

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While Apple Intelligence has been available in some form since late 2024, it’s, on the whole, pretty lacklustre – both in its feature set and in how it actually performs – compared to Android alternatives. That’s true not only of writing tools and transcription but also of Apple’s performance in image-editing tech.

Really, it needed something smarter to reach the performance level of Android counterparts, and, well, it looks like the redesigned (and Gemini-powered) Siri could finally do that. Now, it’s not clear how much is from Apple and how much is from Google, but leaks suggest that the new Siri is going to be very capable indeed.

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You should expect all the staples of a modern AI assistant, including a much greater understanding of both you and what you want, by accessing things like emails, messages, files, photos, and more. That should allow Siri to help you find recent files, messages or general queries about files on your phone, all without knowing the exact specifics of what you’re looking for. 

It’ll also be able to ‘look’ at your screen and complete actions on your behalf, like asking Siri to add an address to a contact card, or send a photo you’re looking at in the Photos app to someone in iMessage. 

It’s not just locked down to first-party apps either; it’s said to be able to perform actions across third-party apps, and while we don’t yet have a full picture of what that could entail exactly, Apple has suggested in the past that it’ll be able to move files from one app to another, edit a photo and then share it to someone, or get directions home and send the ETA to someone in WhatsApp. 

It’ll also mark the first time that Siri has had an actual app; rumours suggest it’ll work in a similar way to the ChatGPT app, allowing for both text- and voice-based conversations, and just like the competition, you’ll be able to integrate services and apps into the chatbot to expand its feature set. 

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Siri’s ambitions go way further than answering queries

That already sounds like a massive improvement over the underwhelming Siri experience Apple is offering right now, but Siri’s ambitions go far beyond a new chatbot experience.

According to a bunch of leaked screenshots that have been doing the rounds on the web over the past few weeks, Siri is going to be deeply integrated into other Apple apps. 

That starts with the Camera app, which, in addition to offering photo and video modes, will supposedly offer a dedicated Siri mode. This would essentially replace the Visual Intelligence feature currently baked into the Camera Control button on iPhones, and would allow Siri to analyse the world and answer questions about what you’re seeing.

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More interesting is the Photos app; it’s rumoured to not only get two new Siri-powered features in Reframe and Extend – the former allows users to change the perspective of shots, while the latter would use generative image tech to expand the borders of the image – but also natural language photo editing, which would let users tell Siri what edits to make, either via voice or text.

Elsewhere, the Shortcuts app is said to be getting a significant Siri-powered overhaul that’ll allow users to create more complex shortcuts by simply describing what they want it to do, while Apple has also been dabbling in AI-generated wallpapers and a much-improved version of Image Playground for higher-quality images. 

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Apple’s also said to be integrating Siri into the Health app to provide something closer to the AI-powered experience in the new Google Health app – though likely without the added subscription.

And, there’s no single doubt in my mind that it’s only possible thanks to Siri’s upgraded capabilities – though we’ll have to wait and see how it actually performs in users’ hands because, well, Apple Intelligence hasn’t exactly convinced me of its premiership so far. 

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Apple’s on-device hook

Now I’m not going to pretend that these are entirely new AI features – they’re not. We’ve seen pretty much all of this on the Android side of things in one form or another (okay, bar the Shortcuts app – I still wish Google had an alternative to that app!), and it’d be easy to say that this is simple Apple playing catch-up to the competition.

But there’s a core difference here: Apple’s laser focus on privacy.

Most Android-based AI tools, especially image-based tools, rely on cloud processing – and that means sending your private data to a cloud-based server somewhere, before the result is sent back to you via the web. Depending on what you’re doing, that could be a privacy nightmare.

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But Apple has always had a particular focus on privacy that stands in direct opposition to how Google does things with Android – and it seems that’ll continue with the new Siri experience. 

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It’s said that Apple is aiming to keep as much processing on-device as possible to limit the amount of data that leaves the user’s device, and, where necessary, it’ll lean on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute systems that even Apple doesn’t have internal access to. 

It’s also said that Apple will limit Siri’s memory, including restrictions on the information it can ‘remember’ and how long it’s kept, with users able to auto-delete chats and requests after set periods. 

And it’s that focus on privacy that’ll really help Apple sell the upgraded Siri experience, even in the face of much more established options from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and the like. I just hope that it actually works as well as it sounds, because Apple can’t mess this up. Not again. 

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