The stabilizers are PCB-mounted, which is preferable to the typical plate-mounted units that many keyboards use, and are lubricated from the factory. The lube on these stabilizers, while a bit excessive (there were small clumps of lube visible on the outside housings, which is not typical), feels great. The stabilized keys are smooth and consistent, with no audible rattling or sticking when typing.

But as it turns out, the greatest downside of this keyboard is, also, the material choice. As much as unsealed, raw concrete is quirky and fun, it is ultimately a utilitarian material: It’s heavy, has an inconsistent texture, and stains easily. During my time with this keyboard, it gathered quite a few smudges and stains, nearly all of which had unknown-to-me origins. Maybe they came from cleaning sprays, or from something on my hands, but I honestly have no clue. Depending on your perspective, this can be a flaw or a bonus. What some consider dirty, others will see as “patina.” But as someone who likes keeping their electronics squeaky-clean for as long as possible, it’s definitely a bit of a bummer to me.

(Being concrete, I would assume there are dozens of ways to get nearly any stain out of this keyboard, such as a power washer or a can of brake cleaner. However, I didn’t have the gumption to try it out for myself, and as such, I can’t guarantee that it’s possible.)

Gaming on Granite

Despite my multiple complaints about Keychron’s all-ceramic keyboard, I was still fond of the Tunneling Magnetoresistance (TMR) switches inside. They were innovative, functional, and novel, with notable advantages over standard Hall Effect (HE) switches. Because of that, I was surprised to see this keyboard going back to standard HE switches. They’re still great switches, of course, but going back to an inferior option for a similarly unique keyboard doesn’t quite make sense to me.

Regardless, these switches are still impressive by any other standard of comparison. They feel smooth, have a reasonable weight, snap back quickly when pressed. This keyboard both feels good to type on, and is responsive enough for gaming, especially with the 1,000 Hz polling rate.

Photograph: Henri Robbins

When my daughter was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), it meant a lot of changes for us to help manage her condition. While epilepsy is different for each person, and it can change over time and with medication, we knew that we’d have to help manage it.

My daughter’s epilepsy started suddenly one morning when, out of nowhere, she had a seizure while we were on holiday in August 2025. We hoped it would be a one-off, but every six or seven days, she’d have another seizure, always in the morning after waking.

After a full diagnosis of JME, the medication has worked, although we did have a period of breakthrough seizures at the start of January 2026, which meant that we had to reapproach her routine. Here’s what we did.

A wireless doorbell

When she had first had seizures, my daughter would know she was about to have one. Not everyone gets a sense, but she did. It was important that she didn’t have to move, and that we could come to her. The easiest way to alert us was with a wireless doorbell, which we picked up from Argos.

This came with the wireless press, a plug-in chime that we put downstairs, and a wireless chime that we put in our bedroom. Any morning that she woke up and felt funny she could press the button, and we’d come to her, reducing the dangers of her falling over and hitting her head.

The benefit of this system is that it’s cheap, and all of the bits are portable. So, my daughter can move the wireless press around with her, and the entire system can go with her. When she stayed at her grandparents’, for example, she took the system with her, and we’ve taken it to a hotel, too.

Since going on medication, she no longer gets any indication that a seizure is about to come, so we’ve had to change how we manage things, but we leave the doorbell with her as a precaution.

Gentle wake-up

A trigger for my daughter is being woken up with a start. When she can wake naturally and easily with as little stimulation as possible, she doesn’t have seizures. We get her to stay in bed for 30 minutes after waking, as that’s the danger period for having a seizure based on previous patterns.

To wake her up, we use a Philips Hue smart light in her bedroom and the wake-up automation. This slowly brightens the light, gently waking her naturally without the harsh buzzing of an alarm. 

This really seems to work for us and for her, and it’s easy to adjust if she needs to wake up at a different time. At the weekend, she can sleep in longer, for example, before she has to wake to take her medication.

Eero to control screen time

We have an Eero Wi-Fi system at home, and it has some of the best parental controls. It’s particularly useful, as we don’t let our daughter use screens 30 minutes before she has to go to sleep. With Eero, I have a profile set for her, and her internet time automatically shuts down 30 minutes before bedtime. That stops her from streaming anything to the TV and avoids us forgetting to tell her to turn the TV off.

For her phone, we have Apple Screen Time, which puts her phone into downtime when it’s time to shut down for the evening.

Homey for monitoring

Outside of a school day, we let her wake up a bit later, but it’s useful to know what time she did wake up, so we can judge when we’re past that initial period when she’s more likely to have a seizure. 

Thanks to the smart light, which she turns on when she wakes up, I can use Homey to record when the light turns on and, therefore, roughly when my daughter wakes up. It’s a handy extra check.

Things change, but we’re ready

Having spoken to other people, epilepsy is individual, and patterns of seizures and triggers change person-to-person, and through life, and through medication. Routine seems to be important, and the tech we’ve got helps to gently manage that, while giving flexibility to adapt.

Ever since wealthy European landowners started displaying vast, unused swaths of turfgrass as status symbols, regular folk have been chasing that perfectly mown and tended lawn for similar reasons. In the modern era, most mowers used to maintain these spaces use a spinning blade attached to a motor of some sort, but this can be dangerous especially on rocky fields like [Greenhill Forge] needs to mow. For these fields it’s best to use a different type of mower, and he’s built one from scratch.

This type of mower is called a flail mower, which has hinged, sharpened hammers attached to a central rotating drum. Since the flails have less rotational speed at the ends, they are less dangerous if they strike solid objects like rocks. To build one, he first builds the central drum and flails, then the enclosure to mount it to his tractor, and then a drivetrain to attach it to the tractor’s PTO. Since everything is getting built in [Greenhill Forge]’s metalworking shop, many of the parts needed to be fabricated from scratch, which involved several jigs for the plasma cutter as well as forging some steel to make some of the thicker parts.

Although not many of us have fully-stocked metalworking shops like this, it shows that almost anything can be built with the right tools. A forge is actually fairly accessible for those looking to start smithing; we’ve seen them built from little more than an off-the-shelf unmodified microwave or from a propane torch and some cookware.

Fast charging has a heat problem.

You’ve felt it before: your phone gets hot while navigating in the car, your MagSafe battery pack turns into a hand warmer during a Zoom call, or charging suddenly slows because thermal throttling kicks in. As smartphones become more powerful, portable chargers are struggling to keep up.

That is the pitch behind the new MiniMag Pro from TORRAS, a magnetic power bank built around an idea most accessory makers rarely talk about: cooler charging.

And surprisingly, the company’s solution borrows from the same battery conversation happening inside the EV industry.

Portable chargers have hit a wall

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For years, power banks competed on one thing: capacity. Bigger numbers won. More mAh, faster charging, thinner designs.

But modern smartphones have changed the equation.

Phones now run AI-powered photo tools, console-level mobile games, 4K video workflows, always-on navigation, and constant background syncing. That creates more power demand and more heat, especially during fast charging.

The issue is not just comfort. Heat is one of the biggest long-term stressors on lithium batteries. The hotter a charging system gets, the harder it becomes to maintain efficiency, battery health, and consistent charging speeds.

Most accessory brands still treat that as a tradeoff.

TORRAS does not.

Photo credit: TORRAS

The MiniMag Pro’s big idea: stay cool

According to TORRAS, the MiniMag Pro maintains a surface temperature around 98°F (37°C) during sustained charging sessions, even under heavier loads.

That matters because magnetic wireless charging is convenient, but it is also notoriously prone to heat buildup. Anyone who has used a magnetic battery pack while traveling or multitasking has probably noticed it.

The MiniMag Pro approaches the issue differently by using a semi-solid-state battery architecture instead of a traditional lithium-ion setup.

That sounds like marketing jargon until you realize semi-solid-state batteries are becoming one of the most talked-about technologies in next-generation electronics and EV development.

Wait, semi-solid-state? In s power bank?

Traditional lithium-ion batteries rely on liquid electrolytes. Semi-solid-state batteries replace part of that structure with a more stable gel-like material designed to improve thermal stability and reduce internal risks.

In plain English: less heat, better stability, and a lower chance of things going sideways under stress.

The technology also allows for denser battery packaging, which helps explain why the MiniMag Pro feels unusually thin for a magnetic charger.

The 5000mAh version comes in at just 8.5mm thick. The larger 10000mAh model is still only 14mm thick while supporting faster charging speeds and PPS support.

This is where the product starts to feel less like another Amazon accessory and more like an early example of where mobile power is headed.

Because the real innovation here is not necessarily faster charging. It is smarter charging.

Photo Credit: TORRAS

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The era of “Invisible” tech accessories

The best tech accessories are increasingly the ones you stop noticing altogether.

Nobody wants to carry extra cables, bulky battery bricks, or overheating chargers anymore. Consumers want accessories that integrate into their lives with as little friction as possible.

That shift helped make magnetic charging mainstream. Snap a battery onto the back of your phone and keep moving.

The MiniMag Pro leans hard into that behavior. Its magnetic alignment system is designed for secure attachment during movement, allowing users to keep texting, navigating, filming, or streaming while charging one-handed.

Combined with the slim profile, it feels built for modern everyday carry culture rather than emergency-only battery backup.

That distinction matters.

Portable charging is evolving from “just in case” tech into an always-on companion product.

Safety is quietly becoming the new premium feature

There is another reason companies are suddenly investing more heavily in battery architecture: consumers are paying attention.

As devices become thinner and charging speeds get more aggressive, battery safety is no longer an invisible engineering problem. It is becoming part of the buying decision.

TORRAS says the MiniMag Pro underwent puncture testing and extreme pressure testing to validate thermal stability and structural integrity under stress.

Most consumers will never watch those test videos. But they will notice when a charger stays cooler in a backpack, charges more consistently during travel, or does not feel like it is cooking their phone battery over time.

That is increasingly where the premium accessory market is moving.

Not necessarily toward maximum power, but toward smarter thermal management, better materials, and products that feel more reliable over the long run.

Portable charging is entering its next phase

For years, portable power felt stagnant. Every new release promised the same thing: more battery, faster charging, smaller footprint.

Now the conversation is shifting.

Consumers are starting to care less about spec-sheet races and more about real-world experience. Does it overheat? Is it annoying to carry? Does it feel safe? Can it keep up with how people actually use smartphones today?

The MiniMag Pro feels designed around those questions.

And if semi-solid-state battery tech continues moving into mainstream accessories, this may be the beginning of a much bigger shift than just one magnetic power bank.

The 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons has risen to the top so fast that he’s had zero time to process how far he’s come.

“It’s been go, go, go,” Parsons tells WIRED. “Even the tiniest bit of a break,” he says, would give him some better perspective on everything that’s happened over the past few years. But for the moment, he’s soaking up the limelight—and thinks it’ll be at least another month before he has the space to reflect on his big break.

Backrooms, a moody horror piece that stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, is a cerebral expansion of Parsons’ atmospheric YouTube web series of the same name. It marks his feature debut as A24’s youngest director to date, at the helm of a movie long anticipated by a huge and hungry internet fan base. You could hardly ask for a better kick start to summer blockbuster season.

Yet Parsons makes his meteoric success sound like something of an accident. “I never went into making that first short or making the series with the intention of, ‘I want to do this so I can prove to Hollywood that this is an engine that is viable for a film,’” he says.

That original nine-minute video, titled “The Backrooms (Found Footage)” and uploaded by Parsons in 2022, was inspired by—of all things—a sinister 4chan meme that spawned a collaborative mythology. The 2019 post on the notorious image board’s /x/ forum included a disquieting photo of an empty hallway bathed in sickly light. An anonymous user described being transported into “the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old, moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in.”

“God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you,” the 4chan user added.

Other people took up the concept, creating spinoff imagery and stories on various social platforms. Parsons encountered these, as well as then-popular memes about surreal liminal spaces—the Backrooms being a paranormal extension of this phenomenon. He was intrigued by what this material evoked but felt it hadn’t been fully explored.

“It was clearly scratching something that I didn’t really see much other media scratching,” he says. “I think there was an element of like, I wish there was more for me to engage with here.”

To that end, Parsons decided to see whether he could conjure an immersive vision of the Backrooms with Blender 3D graphics software and Adobe After Effects. That initial video, in which a person is chased through the Backrooms by a malevolent life-form, went massively viral, with viewers marveling at Parsons’ technical skill and the chilling suspense he’d created. Fans excitedly speculated on the larger mythology of the uncanny setting. Within a month, studios were approaching Parsons with hopes for a full-length movie.

Although still a teenager at the time, Parsons knew enough to be wary of the offers. “I was very distrustful of pretty much everything that was happening, just because I feel like it’s a very common experience for that sort of event to turn into nothing,” he says. “Or you end up with less than nothing.”

Ultimately, however, he got what a young filmmaker dreams of: the chance to pursue his vision, in this case with top talent at his side. The feature film has a script by Homeland and Westworld writer Will Soodik, and its producers include horror maestros Osgood Perkins and James Wan.

The ‘Cheap Yellow Display’, or CYD, is becoming a staple in these circles, and with good reason: just like the name says, it’s cheap, it has a display, and of course an ESP32 microcontroller to give it lots of brainpower. What it doesn’t come with is a lot of RAM, which was a problem for [DynaMite]’s project. What was there to do but solder on more PSRAM so the CYD could become a mini TV for retrogaming?

Depending what you want to play, you might not need the extra memory. In [DynaMite]’s case, he wanted to run Retro-Go, which opens up a lot more than just the standard NES emulator you can run on an unmodified CYD — including 16-bit systems like the SNES and Sega Genesis/MegaDrive or even DOOM. Adding the PSRAM is just a matter of getting the little chip onto an unpopulated footprint on the board, cutting some traces, and adding a bodge wire. It’s not nothing, but it’s not impossible.

While he was slinging solder, [DynaMite] also took the time to swap some resistors in a step that apparently does great things for the CYD’s sound output, which is… not great, from stock. For really good sound, you really need to break out I2S, but for a tiny game system this is doubtless good enough.

The whole thing goes into a lovely retro TV case that takes its design cues from The Simpsons, which is available via the link as a STEP file as well as STLs. He’s also got a vibe-coded video player application — think of it like the VCR, maybe —and a launcher that will switch betwixt that and the emulator or any other applications stored as .bin files on an SD-card. Check it out in action in the demo video below.

Emulating video games is one source of retro fun, but if you want the full experience you also need to emulate broadcast TV. Don’t forget the preview channel!

The race to build the next great affordable laptop is heating up, and Acer thinks it has a strong contender. The company today unveiled the Swift Air 14, a thin-and-light Windows laptop that combines a premium design, AI-ready hardware, and impressive battery claims for a starting price of just $699.

At a time when even mainstream laptops are creeping toward four-figure price tags, Acer’s latest machine feels refreshingly straightforward. It’s aimed at students, remote workers, and anyone who wants a laptop that looks and feels expensive without draining their bank account. The Swift Air 14 is powered by Intel’s new Core Series 3 processors and delivers up to 19 hours of battery life. That’s the sort of endurance that could realistically get many users through a full workday and beyond without scrambling for a charger.

Acer is focusing on things people actually notice

Laptop makers love talking about processor benchmarks, but most buyers notice other things first. How heavy is it? Does it look good? Is the screen nice to use? Can the speakers fill a room? That’s where the Swift Air 14 appears to have its priorities in order. The laptop weighs just 1.19 kg and measures only 12.9 mm at its thinnest point, all while using an aluminum chassis that should feel significantly more premium than the plastic-heavy designs common at this price point. Acer is also bringing some personality to the lineup with four color options: Sage Green, Frost Blue, Blossom Pink, and Lilac Purple.

The display sounds promising as well. Acer has equipped the Swift Air 14 with a 14-inch WUXGA panel featuring a 120Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB color reproduction. For students, creators, and everyday users, that’s a welcome upgrade over the dull screens that often plague budget laptops. Then there’s the audio. Acer says the laptop includes a quad-speaker setup with DTS:X Ultra support, a feature rarely highlighted in this segment but one that can make a noticeable difference when streaming movies, joining video calls, or listening to music.

The Swift Spin 14 AI raises the stakes

Acer wasn’t finished with just one Swift launch. The company also introduced the Swift Spin 14 AI, a more premium convertible aimed at users who need additional flexibility and performance. Powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor 386H, the laptop features a dedicated NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS and up to 100 platform TOPS overall. It also supports stylus input through Wacom AES 2.0 technology, making it a potentially appealing option for artists, designers, note-takers, and hybrid professionals. Its 360-degree hinge allows it to switch between laptop, tablet, presentation, and display modes, while features like Wi-Fi 7, a 5MP IR camera, Copilot+ PC capabilities, and up to 26 hours of battery life round out a very ambitious package. Still, the more fascinating device may be the cheaper one.

The Swift Air 14 arrives at a moment when buyers are increasingly questioning whether they need to spend MacBook money for a great everyday laptop. Acer’s answer is clear: offer a premium metal design, long battery life, AI-powered features, and a modern display at a price that feels far easier to justify. The Acer Swift Air 14 is scheduled to launch in North America in August 2026, while the Swift Spin 14 AI will arrive during the same timeframe.

Acer is going straight after the MacBook Neo crowd

The comparison to Apple’s MacBook Neo feels impossible to ignore. Both laptops are targeting the same audience: students, first-time laptop buyers, and people who want something premium without spending MacBook Air money. Apple’s answer was a $599 machine with an aluminum design, an A18 Pro chip, up to 16 hours of battery life, and the familiar advantages of the macOS ecosystem. 

Acer, however, is taking a different route. The Swift Air 14 undercuts many of the compromises associated with entry-level laptops by offering a 120Hz display, more connectivity options, a larger battery, quad speakers, and a wider range of color choices, all while staying in the same affordability conversation. According to Acer’s specifications, the laptop packs a 70Wh battery, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a 120Hz WUXGA panel — areas where it arguably looks more ambitious than Apple’s budget MacBook on paper. 

The real battle here isn’t Windows versus macOS. Which company can convince buyers that spending less no longer means settling for less?