I cannot in all honesty advise anyone to buy an 8GB RAM laptop in 2026. Between resource-heavy browser tabs, background updates, and new AI features, 8GB is a recipe for constant freezing and elevated blood pressure.

Fortunately, you don’t need a massive budget to save your sanity. After scouring Amazon, Dell, Lenovo, and Newegg, I found that new, name-brand 16GB Windows laptops with actual decent processors under $500 are nearly extinct.

However, these three incredible exceptions are live right now — but you’ll have to act fast, as one is a major clearance deal.

Why buy it: This machine sports the fastest CPU of the three. Because of its smartphone-style architecture roots, it can easily squeeze out 20 hours of battery life — enough to let you leave the charger at home. It features a spacious screen and a dedicated numeric keypad, making it perfect for students, freelancers, and spreadsheet warriors. At just over $500, it’s a total steal when you consider HP sells the lesser 256GB version for $750.

Why buy it: This is a remarkably capable workstation masquerading as a budget notebook. Originally priced at $750, Best Buy is actively clearing these out for just $501 (compared to $659 at Newegg). The Ryzen AI processor is an absolute beast for multi-tasking and light content creation, though it won’t quite match HP’s legendary all-day battery life. Snag this one quickly before clearance stock dries up.

Why buy it: If you want the absolute lowest price tag, this is it. While it has a smaller 256GB SSD and shorter battery life than its rivals, it still holds its own in raw performance thanks to fast DDR5 RAM and a reliable Intel i5 chip. Even better? Unlike most modern budget laptops, you can upgrade its internal components down the road. Walmart has this marked down to $480, easily beating Amazon’s $540 price tag.

The verdict

I couldn’t find any new, branded Windows laptop with 16GB RAM and a decent CPU (no N-series, no Core i3, no older tech) from Amazon, Dell, HP, Lenovo or Newegg. I have focused only on Windows 11 laptops rather than Chromebook ones.

I’m not the first to say this, but it’s a strange and heartbreaking time to be a teacher and parent of young children. 

As a recent transplant to New Mexico, I admire the ways the state invests in children, regardless of their identities. Seeing these state policies in action has changed my perspective and made me think differently about what students deserve and how much better things would be if we chose to care for students and families more consistently. 

There are days when my own children are crawling into my lap with a book while I continue to process footage of children suffering in conflicts on the other side of the world. My high school students are writing the kind of poetry that leaves me speechless, even as I privately wonder about their career options as artificial intelligence receives more investment than the arts. Yet, my experience in New Mexico has shown me that another approach is possible. 

I have a unique vantage point, both as a parent and an educator who sees these challenges reflected in the lives of my students and their families. My local school district in New Mexico has yet to pivot to hybrid learning in response to the palpable fear parents felt, while the actions of federal agents created widespread fear in their community. My state is not banning books and restricting curricula. Instead, as a recent transplant to the state, I’m in awe of the ways New Mexico invests in children and our more vulnerable residents.

After the 2024 election, a shockwave swept through my school as students grappled with what another Trump presidency would mean for their futures. At the performing arts school where I teach, we have a high percentage of queer and trans students, a stark contrast to my previous school in California, where most LGBTQ+ students often chose to remain closeted until well after graduation. I grieve for what my previous students lost when they did not acknowledge or affirm their queer and trans classmates. In English class, they missed robust discussions; the depth their queer and trans peers bring to literary discussions, while leveraging queer theory, translates into highly analytical and more engaging coursework. In the scope of a school day, there were countless other ways all students missed a more complete experience, while their queer and trans peers chose safety in an environment hostile to their identities. 

And while New Mexico is much less hostile to trans residents, I still can’t imagine what it would be like to be growing up in a world that constantly demands you to defend and fight for your humanity. Guaranteed care by the state means nothing if authority figures are consistently exposed to negative messaging about transgender people or if your lack of insurance prevents you from getting the life-saving care you need. 

And yet, trans students in New Mexico are able to attend school in an environment with teachers who are largely committed to affirming a variety of gender identities, select curriculum that allows LGBTQ students to see themselves, bond with accepting and encouraging peers from across the gender spectrum, and learn from LGBTQ teachers who embody a hopeful future of what it means to be your full self in your career. This is all possible when a school doesn’t just accommodate gender and sexual diversity, but embraces it. Extensive research confirms the ways in which affirming environments like ours can be life-saving for LGBTQ teens, especially trans students.

Earlier in my career, I felt optimistic about my queer and trans students’ futures. Today, seeing my trans students grapple with the new political realities has renewed my commitment to making an optimistic future visible for them. In a past article, I reflected on my role as a teacher in presenting a hopeful future for my students during unhopeful times. There is no one for whom this is more crucial than our queer and trans students. 

Ultimately, I wonder what it would look like for our world to care about children as much as the state of New Mexico does. What will happen when all children can attend high-quality early childhood education without adding to the financial burden of a growing family? What does it look like when gender affirming care is protected by law? Or when our lawmakers prohibit book and curriculum censorship? Or when we finally decide that school shootings do not have to be a certainty of American life? 

I know these questions will remain abstract while we watch students as young as Liam Ramos fear for their lives. But we cannot have a different future if we are not imagining a better one in the present. I’m thankful for my students, past and present, who encourage my imagination.

This story is part of an EdSurge series chronicling diverse educator experiences. These stories are made publicly available with support from the Learning Commons. EdSurge maintains editorial control over all content. (Read our ethics statement here.) This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

President Donald Trump is enthralled with the Ultimate Fighting Championship staging an event at the White House on his birthday this weekend—in effect his present to himself, since he came up with the idea. We have the details on both the fighting and the anticipated lobbying.

Lobbying by the Octagon

While the White House does not yet know exactly which celebrities might show up for the UFC on Sunday because they have not accepted their Ticketmaster email invitations, Trump’s aides tell Inner Loop they are expecting a parade of donors to attend.

The tickets have been free—and there is no resale—because the UFC is footing the approximately $60 million cost to stage the event, but the UFC has also offered sponsor packages for upwards of $1 million that come with ringside seats.

With limited avenues for executives and companies to get close to Trump these days, political consulting firms in Washington have been advising clients to buy the packages, and Trump’s aides say they have been inundated with requests.

The sponsorship requests have come on top of a stream of queries by administration officials and members of Congress trying to get into the UFC White House event, which is oversubscribed because Trump has personal control over the majority of seats and is deciding who he wants and he doesn’t, the aides say.

The most sought-after seats are under the Claw, a giant 92-foot-tall arch structure that holds lights and sound equipment above the Octagon. The structure is actually called a “beta tent” by its supplier Stageco, but it was renamed by the White House, ESPN reported.

UFC president Dana White has said that he and Ari Emanuel, the chair of the UFC’s parent company, will control 700 seats between them, while Trump will control about 1,200.

The most well known method to get direct face time with Trump during his second term in office has been to buy a $1 million seat at the so-called candlelight dinners hosted by Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. Trump would go from person to person and talk with them directly, according to one political consultant with close ties to Trump’s fundraising operation.

But the candlelight dinners don’t happen with regular frequency—sometimes months go by without a dinner, the consultant said—and so, companies that missed out on donating to fund Trump’s ballroom have been advised to consider sponsoring.

A White House official tells Inner Loop that they have not been involved in any sponsorship discussions and any cost information could be found with UFC. At least some of the UFC’s regular Octagon sponsors, including Meta, have ongoing business interests before the federal government.

In a statement, White House spokesperson David Ingle disputed the notion of lobbying at the event. “The Fake News’ continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read,” he said. “There are no conflicts of interest.”

Fight Night

Meanwhile, Trump’s team acknowledges that the UFC White House event won’t be featuring the biggest names; they were unable to get the likes of former UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.

There were conversations behind the scenes by White and his contract negotiator Hunter Campbell to book them both, but those talks fell through, people familiar with the matter tell Inner Loop.

It would have been a big deal for the White House to have landed McGregor, the biggest box office attraction in the sport’s history, for his comeback fight, after his last appearance in the Octagon in 2021 against Dustin Poirier ended with a broken leg.

What Happens to Kids When Schools Take Away Recess and Add More Screens?

Schools have been quietly chipping away at recess for nearly a decade, and a sweeping new update from the American Academy of Pediatrics says the consequences are real, measurable, and showing up well beyond elementary school. At the same time, the federal government has issued a formal advisory on children and screen time, calling on schools, parents, and tech companies to act. Both stories point in the same direction, but the path forward is far less obvious than the headlines suggest.

The Fight to Bring Recess Back

For the first time since 2013, the American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its recess guidelines, and the expansion is significant: the new recommendations extend to middle and high school students, not just younger children. EdSurge reporter Lauren Coffey has been reporting on what that guidance actually means for administrators under pressure to protect instructional time, whether the evidence on attendance and attention is strong enough to move policy, and why advocates say the answer may be simpler than schools are willing to admit.

A Federal Advisory With Unfinished Business

A formal screen time advisory from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy calls for bell-to-bell phone bans, warning labels on apps, and the elimination of recommendation algorithms for children. But researchers are being careful: the evidence linking screen time to negative outcomes is correlation, not proven cause and effect, and the line between harmful social media and beneficial education technology is one that schools and families are still figuring out how to draw. EdSurge reporter Nadia Tamez-Robledo breaks down what the advisory actually asks of schools, why the tech industry response will be the real test, and what the carve-outs for students with IEPs reveal about the limits of a one-size-fits-all approach.

Stories Mentioned in This Episode

Recess Took a Break in Some Schools. A Push Is On to Bring It Back by Lauren Coffey

Surgeon General Advisory Wants Kids to Live Beyond the Confines of Screens by Nadia Tamez-Robledo

Join us on This Week with EdSurge where we ask whether the research is pointing toward a simpler solution than most schools are willing to try. Listen to the episode.

This Week with EdSurge is produced by the EdSurge newsroom. Subscribe to the EdSurge newsletter for the latest in education news delivered straight to your inbox.

Smartphones deliver more power and polish than ever, yet most follow the same safe template. AYANEO decided to break the mold with its first smartphone. The Pocket Play takes the sliding concept from Sony’s long-gone Xperia Play and updates it for today’s games and apps. Slide the 6.8-inch display upward in landscape mode and the magic happens. A full set of physical controls appears underneath. You get a proper D-pad on the left, ABXY face buttons on the right, two round capacitive touchpads that stand in for analog sticks, plus shoulder bumpers and triggers, while dedicated shortcut buttons sit within easy reach.

The layout is similar to the 2011 Xperia Play, but with a more modern flair. Those spherical touchpads replace traditional analog sticks, yet they still provide a remarkably natural input experience, especially with the limited time you have to check them out. Keeping your thumbs off the screen allows you to have a continuous view even during the most intense gaming sessions. The entire control deck is pushed to the bottom, leaving the huge display completely unobstructed for whatever you’re doing, whether gaming or watching media.

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The 6.8-inch display boasts a 2400 by 1080 resolution and a refresh rate of 165Hz. An OLED panel delivers stunning colors and silky smooth action, whether you’re playing high-frame-rate Android games or streaming from the cloud. When the device is closed, it acts like a phone for calls, messages, and app use; however, when you open it, it morphs into a dedicated gaming setup.

The MediaTek Dimensity 9300, along with its Immortalis-G720 graphics engine, provides excellent performance. AYANEO backs it up with lots of high-speed LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. You also get a microSD card slot, which is a nice touch given how useful they are for adding new games or emulator roms to your library. The active cooling mechanism keeps everything operating smoothly, even during extended gaming sessions, which is unfortunately uncommon on most smartphones.

A 5,000 mAh battery keeps the lights on, and a quick recharge means you won’t have to wait long before your next gaming session. You also get stereo speakers and a strong vibration motor, which work together to create a really immersive gaming experience with excellent audio and haptic feedback. A USB-C port with speeds of up to 3.1 Gen 2 and a DisplayPort 1.4 output enable you to connect the device to a TV or monitor and enjoy games on the big screen. You also have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to suit your wireless requirements.

The device’s cameras are mounted on the back and include a 50-megapixel primary sensor and a 16-megapixel ultrawide lens. There is a 5-megapixel selfie camera on the front. To be fair, these cameras exist merely to handle the basics and are unlikely to impress anyone; early reports show they do the job, but don’t expect high-end photography from them. It’s clear that AYANEO emphasized gaming gear over taking beautiful photos.

You get Android 15 out of the box, and a fingerprint scanner is buried inside the power button for quick unlock. The software offers a full smartphone experience in addition to the typical gaming capabilities. There are also some useful shortcut buttons and a slide mechanism that allow you to quickly access game controls without having to deal with on-screen overlays.Pricing is unknown until the Kickstarter campaign opens. Rumors suggest that early backers will pay around $500, with future tiers perhaps providing extra RAM, storage, or higher-end finishes. AYANEO also intends to offer additional grips and cases to improve comfort for both gaming and non-gaming applications.

You can spend a whole lotta money on a good office chair these days – but however feature-rich and overly engineered they are, in my experience, you can’t beat a comfortable, solid office chair that won’t break the bank.

Of all the office chairs I’ve tested and reviewed, I still think the $210 Boulies EP200 on Amazon is the best value chair you can get right now. For me, the EP200, which is also on sale in the UK for £190 at Amazon delivers all the core features I expect, and more. Amazon has matched the sale price of this chair, which is discounted at both Boulies.com and Boulies.co.uk. It amounts to around a 30% discount, whichever site you choose.

I’ve been sitting on this chair day in, day out for 18 months straight now and it’s as good today as it was when I first assembled it. The mesh is still firm, supportive, and comfortable. There’s no creaks, no squeaks. If I were buying a new office chair today, I’d just get another EP200. It’s worth every penny. It scored 4.5 stars in my review, with a Highly Recommended award.

Having spent many hours in an office sitting on the iconic Herman Miller Aeron, I can tell you that while that pricey mesh chair was very comfortable, for most people working in an office or home office, the EP200 delivers everything you’d want from a seat at a fraction of the price.

In summarizing my time with the EP200 in my review update, I said “Overall, a year on, I still find the Boulies EP200 to be the archetypal office chair for most people. It’s relatively cheap, not overly engineered or designed (in a good way), and suitable for long hours in the office and home office.”

For more top-performing options, check out my in-depth guide to the best office chairs we’ve tested (and yep, the EP200 is on that list).

Industry 4.0 represents an opportunity for innovative, ambitious and future-focused professionals to transform the world as we know it.

The fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0 as it is often better known, is the integration of smart, digital technologies into larger industrial and manufacturing processes, with the aim of creating intelligent, improved systems.

Skills in this area are absolutely vital for any professionals looking to work in a future-focused role or high-tech capacity.

SiliconRepublic.com, as part of its month-long Industry 4.0 coverage, has compiled a list of some of the most important skills to have as you face a changing world. 

Stay human

It is not at all uncommon to assume that the most critical qualities to possess in technical and complex industries are all hard skills. It is, however, a commonly held myth, as soft skills are critical to long-term success in any professional space, including for careers under the Industry 4.0 umbrella. These are the abilities that enable you to communicate effectively with co-workers, negotiate positive change and create a better workplace environment. 

Skills to prioritise are adaptability and problem-solving, as Industry 4.0 roles are often complex and ever-evolving; collaboration, as your job may demand a degree of crossover with other teams, departments or companies; critical thinking, as Industry 4.0 careers are often rooted in a need to address modern-day problems with unique solutions; and leadership, as everyone should know how to command a room and lead others when necessary.

Soft skills bring a crucial human element to careers that are often considered complex and clinical.  

New dimensions

3D printing – or as it is often known, additive manufacturing – has enabled experts in Industry 4.0 careers to move beyond traditional methods as they create models and prototypes with the power to improve quality of life, reduce costs and maximise resources.

Clinicians may use 3D printing to develop prosthetics and implants to match a patient’s specific anatomy. Manufacturers can use the technology to create specific, necessary medical equipment and aerospace engineers often use additive manufacturing to develop small, complex parts that demand high accuracy and specific criteria.

There are a range of organisations and sectors in STEM and outside of it that are now using 3D advancements and it is undoubtedly a skill that will be carried into the next industrial wave. 

Seeing double

Digital twin technology is described as the virtual representation of a physical system or process that receives data from the real world, in real-time. Its purpose is to mirror the behaviour, performance and state of the primary, physical model, so experts can explore, experiment and analyse without impacting the real counterpart.

Digital twin tech allows organisations to simulate real-world scenarios, fortify security and improve operations, while also minimising risk or accidental harm.

Among the skills that are useful to those who want to know more about wielding digital twin technologies are abilities in IoT, AI, data analytics, simulation software and cloud computing – and it is of particular importance to those hoping to work in manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, energy and utilities, healthcare, smart cities, and infrastructure. 

Stay connected

Research suggests that IoT, as a critical element of Industry 4.0, is a skill that is under near constant demand by organisations and employers.

Anyone hoping to be an IoT expert should ensure that they have a robust education in software such as AutoCad, which allows engineers to design machines; cybersecurity for managing complex and high-risk projects; data and analytics skills that ensure clean, concise and insightful work; and AI and ML, among others. 

Careers in Industry 4.0 are moving so rapidly it can be hard to keep up with the changes, but what is important to remember is that the skills of today create the future. All you have to do to keep pace is to commit to upskilling and tackle each challenge as it comes. 

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

The JDY botnet, a malware network previously associated with Chinese threat actors like Volt Typhoon, has significantly expanded its targeting scope and reconnaissance efforts.

According to researchers at Black Lotus Labs by Lumen, who have been monitoring its activity, JDY maintains a strong focus on the United States, where many of its compromised devices are located and where it heavily targets military and associated networks.

The security firm notes that JDY has grown from roughly 650 active bots in January 2024 to over 1,500 compromised SOHO and IoT devices today.

While the numbers seem low, it’s important to note that JDY isn’t an exploitation framework or a DDoS botnet that requires large swarms to accumulate firepower, but is instead a distributed scanning and fingerprinting network that helps its operators locate targets vulnerable to newly disclosed flaws.

“Analysis of this activity shows a clear focus on identifying vulnerable infrastructure shortly after public vulnerability disclosures, suggesting that reconnaissance output is rapidly operationalized by China-nexus advanced persistent threat (APT) actors,” reads the Black Lotus Labs report.

“This targeted focus has been observed across a range of sectors, with the U.S. military and associated entities as the most prominent.”

CISA has previously warned about the risk Volt Typhoon operatives pose to unprotected SOHO routers, urging network device vendors to eliminate vulnerabilities in SOHO router web management interfaces (WMIs) during the design and development phases.

The JDY botnet is designed to conduct service discovery, service banner grabbing, TLS certificate collection, protocol fingerprinting, and flaw-focused reconnaissance.

Among the compromised devices are those from Cisco, Araknis, Mimosa Networks, Ubiquiti, DrayTek, Hikvision, and Linksys, for MIPS, MIPS64, MIPSEL, and MIPSEL64 architectures.

The threat actors are quick to target newly disclosed vulnerabilities, with Lumen researchers observing JDY scans targeting CVE-2026-35616 shortly after Fortinet publicly disclosed the FortiClient EMS flaw.

The operators control the botnet through hidden Tor services, which also serve as command-and-control (C2) infrastructure. The open-source reverse-shell and host-management framework Platypus is also used in some cases.

The malware registers with a central “Dispatch Service” and receives scanning assignments, which it executes, compresses the results, and sends them back to the C2.

The scanning module supports the following:

• TCP scanning
• SSL/TLS scanning
• UDP scanning
• ICMP probing
• Banner collection
• TLS certificate harvesting
• Service fingerprinting using downloadable rule sets

The botnet client repeats the same cycle until the operator specifically orders it to stop.

The TCP scanning function is one of the most technically interesting, say the researchers, explaining that, when JDY has sufficient privileges, it performs much faster and stealthier raw SYN scanning.

“If the malware can open a raw socket, which generally requires root or administrative privileges, it initiates high-speed SYN scanning using custom-crafted TCP packets,” explains the report.

“These custom packets use a fixed source port of 19000, increment the destination ports one at a time, and batch-process thousands of scan targets.”

As JDY botnet activity increases, organizations should ensure routers, firewalls, and IoT devices are running the latest security updates and patches to prevent them from being recruited into reconnaissance networks.

Defenders should also reduce their external attack surface by disabling unnecessary internet-exposed administrative interfaces, restricting remote management access, replacing default credentials, and monitoring for unusual outbound scanning activity originating from edge devices.

Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.

The Picus whitepaper shows how breach and attack simulation tests your SIEM and EDR rules so threats stop slipping by detection.

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