For the first time, it is possible to face the iconic delivery from the comfort of an indoor batting net, thanks to new technology that is set to be rolled out across Australia. Read...

Instabase appoints Omkar Pendse to spearhead product and technology as it doubles down on AI workflow automation after $100 million raise. Read...

A clinician working in one of hospitals called the situation shambolic. Read...

`Technology for me but not for thee` would seem to be the mantra of a growing number of Western governments who seem more intent on controlling their populations rather than serving them. Read...

When Dolby Labs announced Dolby Vision 2 in September 2025, I didn’t really get it. The original Dolby Vision was easy to understand: If your TV and streaming content supported it, you’d get a brighter picture with more color detail, particularly in shadows and highlights. I remember being blown away by the technology when it first debuted at CES 2014, especially compared to the 4K displays and curved panels that TV makers were hyping up at the time. The improvements Dolby Vision 2 promises aren’t as straightforward. While Dolby’s initial press release uses all kinds of jargon to describe the new format (with terms like “Content Intelligence” and “Authentic Motion”), the tangible benefits are tougher to parse. Fortunately, CES 2026 provided an opportunity to see Dolby Vision 2 up close, compare it with the original Dolby Vision, and get some questions answered. While Dolby Vision 2’s benefits are a bit murkier, they at least address some annoyances with streaming video today. Dolby Vision 2 deals with HDR’s darkness issues HDR (high dynamic range) is a feature in many modern TVs that allows for greater differences between the darkest and brightest parts of an image, with more color detail in between. With HDR, for example, a scene depicting an explosion will exude more vivid reds and oranges, instead of blown-out whites, while HDR in a shadowy scene will be rendered with evocative blue and green hues, instead of just depicting a muddy gray. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. But with every HDR format—the original Dolby Vision along with HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma)—a common complaint is that dark scenes can look too dark. Dolby’s solution is to gather more data about how the content was made—for instance, the creator’s choice of reference monitor, or how much ambient light was in the color-grading room—and adjust brightness on playback accordingly. The idea is to compensate for the difference between what creators see in their expensive editing suites and what viewers see on their TVs at home. Jared Newman / Foundry “We know exactly what shadows were meant to be seen, and not,” said Dolby’s director of business strategy, Jonas Klittmark. Dolby Vision 2 aims to make HDR look better on cheaper TVs While the original Dolby Vision typically required a mid-range or better TV, Dolby is optimizing this new version for cheaper sets through a new tone-mapping engine. This combines additional metadata from creators with local tone mapping, which makes more granular adjustments to the colors of each pixel. Local tone mapping is the process of analyzing the wide range of color of brightness in an HDR image, and then compressing that data into a form that the TV you’re watching can actually deliver. In a demo at CES, the result was a noticeable difference on what Dolby claimed was a $250 TV that didn’t have any local dimming zones. Next to a comparable set running the original Dolby Vision, the new version produced more vivid colors. Jared Newman / Foundry “The new engine is just much more capable of holding onto the goodness of the original HDR source, even on a display that’s quite limited in its capabilities, like this,” Klittmark said. That same tone-mapping engine also gives Dolby Vision 2 a neat new trick: It’ll let users control the intensity of the HDR effect through a slider in their TV settings. Users might want to increase the effect in a window-lit room with lots of reflections, for instance, or dial it back if the picture seems too eye-searingly bright. Dolby Vision 2 allows for smoother motion (without overdoing it) One of the most intriguing Dolby Vision 2 features has nothing to do with HDR at all. Instead, it’s a feature called “Authentic Motion,” which makes for a less jerky picture in scenes with fast motion (the industry refers to this visual jerkiness as “judder”). Unlike the much-maligned motion smoothing effects on most smart TVs, which can be so smooth that it looks like you’re watching a soap opera, Dolby’s feature applies just a small amount of frame interpolation in certain scenes, based on metadata delivered by content providers. In a CES demo, Dolby showed a movie scene in which the camera swept across the room without the usual judder, but in a way that still felt cinematic. “In Dolby Vision 2, we’re dynamically through metadata setting the de-judder just enough to take the edge off of the judder, so that it doesn’t bother you anymore,” Klittmark said. Dolby Vision 2 Max Alongside the standard Dolby Vision 2, there will also be a fancier version called Dolby Vision 2 Max. While both versions will have mostly the same features, Dolby Vision 2 Max will further adjust the picture based on a TV’s ambient light sensors; for example, it will help to avoid scenes that look overly dark. This is effectively an evolution of Dolby Vision IQ, an extension of Dolby Vision that is available in many of today’s mid-range to high-end TVs. More importantly, Dolby believes Max will serve as an overall indicator of TV quality, in the same way it believes Dolby Vision once did. When Dolby Vision first arrived in the mid-2010s, many TVs promised HDR compatibility, but weren’t bright or colorful enough to make HDR video look good. Dolby Vision support became a useful proxy for knowing if you’d get a decent HDR picture. Now that Dolby Vision 2 is heading to lower-end TVs, Dolby hopes the “Max” label will help delineate TVs with superior picture quality. “Dolby Vision 2 Max is for premium TVs, and it will basically replace Dolby Vision in the market,” Chris Turkstra, Dolby’s vice president of home devices, said. “Dolby Vision 2, which you can think of as a standard version of Dolby Vision, that will attach to new TVs that don’t have Dolby Vision today.” It’ll be a while before Dolby Vision 2 matters While it’s worth being aware of Dolby Vision 2 as more TV makers and streaming services get on board, it’s still early days for the format. So far, only three TV makers have committed to supporting Dolby Vision 2: Hisense will offer it in its top-shelf RGB MiniLED TVs for 2026, TCL will have it in its high-end X11L SQD Mini LEDs and mainstream C series sets, and Panasonic will bring it to several new OLED TVs. In other words, the promise of Dolby Vision 2 in low-end TVs isn’t materializing anytime soon. Meanwhile, three other major TV manufacturers–LG, Samsung, and Sony–have not announced their Dolby Vision 2 intentions. Samsung, for one, doesn’t support any version of Dolby Vision today–most likely because it doesn’t want to pay royalties to Dolby. On the content side, Peacock is the only streaming service on board with Dolby Vision 2, which it will support along with the original Dolby Vision for live sports. Given that content makers must also support Dolby Vision 2 in the editing process, it might be a while before more streamers decide to throw their weight behind it. Dolby Vision 2 probably won’t be a factor for anyone thinking of buying a new TV in 2026. But as the format becomes more common in the years to come, it’s something you’ll want to think about, especially if, like me, you finally understand it. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

A proper fast-charging power adapter is one of those essentials you shouldn’t overlook. Right now, the Ugreen Nexode model is currently 40 percent off, the best deal we’ve seen so far, bringing the price down to $33.24 at Amazon. View at Amazon It’s not just that this charger is fast, it also features four ports all your gadgets. There are three USC-C ports and one USB-A, giving you plenty of ways to charge everything from your laptop to your smartphone, earbuds, and smartwatch. If you’re only using a single port, the top two USB-C ports can deliver up to 100W, perfect for your laptop. If all ports are in use, the top port maxes out at 45W, the second at 30W, and the other two deliver 10.5W each, so you’ll need to be mindful which cable goes to which device. Built with GaN technology, the charger outperforms older power adapters by being smaller, faster, and more efficient. Its foldable plugs make it ideal for travel, as the prongs won’t catch, bend, or break. Grab the Ugreen Nexode charger for $33.24 before this deal ends. Charge four gadgets at once with this 40% off power adapterBuy now at Amazon Read...

Microlise has appointed Dean Garvey-North as chief technology officer to steer its next growth phase in fleet and logistics technology. Read...

The satellite technology has become a vital communications lifeline after the government shut down the internet last week. Read...

The Trump Administration said Wednesday that it will place tariffs on certain “advanced computing chips,” such as the Nvidia H200, to address what the government referred to as national security concerns. The additional tariffs didn’t name a specific country, referring only to “national security concerns with respect to imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and their derivative products.” What those products are weren’t specified, there were a few exceptions. The government said that a 25 percent tariff will apply to “certain advanced computing chips, such as the Nvidia H200 and AMD MI325X. This tariff will not apply to chips that are imported to support the buildout of the U.S. technology supply chain and the strengthening of domestic manufacturing capacity for derivatives of semiconductors.” The fact sheet announcing the tariffs didn’t link to any additional list of products. The government also warned that the Trump administration may impose broader tariffs on semiconductor imports and their derivative products, in a push to promote domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Trump and his administration used the prospect of tariffs as leverage to push major chip manufacturers to invest in U.S. production. For example, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced a $100 billion investment in U.S. chip plants. In August 2025,Trump threatened a 100 percent tariff on all imports of computer chips, unless they were made in the United States. Before today, the administration had placed a 50 percent tariff on chips originating in China. Read...

While wandering the show floor at CES 2026, I was struck by the future of living room gaming. What was once the realm of gaming consoles seems to be turning into PC territory. Handheld gaming PCs are now a mainstay in PC showcases alongside laptops, and lots of companies have third-party docks for TV gaming (à la the Nintendo Switch). Just as Valve’s Steam Deck kicked off the age of handheld PC gaming, Valve’s forthcoming Steam Machine will probably kick off another battle over living room gaming, with future Xbox hardware widely expected to be based on Windows. Meanwhile, Intel and AMD are also squabbling over handheld gaming hardware. And GeForce Now ensures that even if you don’t have a PC in your living room, there’s a good chance your smart TV can stream PC games from Nvidia’s cloud servers. We know that PCs are the future for living room gaming. The question is whether Windows or SteamOS will emerge as king. Handheld PCs and docks everywhere When you see all the new hardware from companies like Asus and Lenovo, you’ll find handheld gaming PCs right alongside their gaming laptops. It’s awesome. Handheld gaming PCs are everywhere now, even in demonstrations showing off fanless cooling technology. But they’re also sneaking into the living room. This year, in the far corners of the Las Vegas Convention Center show floor, I saw quite a few docks intended for machines like the Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go, Asus ROG Xbox Ally, and other handhelds. They’re a hot product. Chris Hoffman / Foundry According to Valve, 20 percent of Steam Deck owners use the official docking station with their Deck, and that number doesn’t count all the other Steam Deck owners who use third-party docks. I own a Steam Deck and the official docking station, and it delivers a nice living room gaming PC experience, albeit with some quirks. Learn more about how I turned my Steam Deck into a living room console. GeForce Now brings PC games to TVs Back at CES 2015, Razer announced the Razer Forge: an Android-based living room gaming console. With Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo absent from CES 2015 and not showing off their consoles, this was the type of machine you found in those days. Indeed, back then, the future of living room gaming seemed to look toward mobile platforms. Apple has its Apple TV hardware, which can install games from the App Store. With smart TV platforms running operating systems—both the Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick run Android-derived operating systems under the hood—it seemed like living room gaming on smart TVs might hit their peak with Flappy Bird-style hypercasual games from mobile app stores. But that never even took off. Instead, we’re now seeing Nvidia make big inroads with GeForce Now. Your future smart TV won’t have powerful PC gaming hardware built into it—rather, it’ll connect to Nvidia’s servers and stream PC games directly from the cloud. Nvidia At CES 2026, Nvidia brought GeForce Now to Amazon Fire TV devices. On the show floor, I walked by a variety of smart TVs that proudly advertised built-in GeForce Now support. With a Bluetooth controller, a smart TV, and a fast internet connection, you can now play high-end modern 3D PC games directly on a TV. I prefer running PC games locally on my gaming PC, but if I was going to game on a smart TV in my living room, I’d rather play “real” PC games running in the cloud than Candy Crush Saga running on the TV. The Steam Machine vs. future Xbox The one thing that still isn’t common is serious desktop PC hardware that plugs into the TV, console-style, delivering a living room gaming experience with more power. Valve’s forthcoming Steam Machine will deliver that gaming PC experience that’s optimized for the living room. Meanwhile, rumor is that Microsoft’s next Xbox will be a Windows PC. Forget the customized Xbox system and proprietary hardware. Microsoft already feels like it’s giving up on the Xbox as a console platform, with Xbox hardware sales at an all-time low. Microsoft wants the Xbox to be a cross-device gaming platform, not a console like a PlayStation or Nintendo Switch. I’m surprised no PC manufacturer has leaped ahead of Valve and Microsoft with their own console-style machine that runs Windows. But competition is ramping up. There’s a new full-screen Xbox experience that’s coming to all Windows PCs, and Lenovo has delivered a full-screen gaming interface optimized for the Legion Go since 2023. PCs are the future of living room gaming Sony’s PlayStation 5 owns the traditional console market now that Microsoft no longer seems interested. And as long as Nintendo keeps its games exclusive, there will always be a place for Nintendo’s own consoles like the Switch 2. But aside from that, where are the alternatives? Apple has never been interested in gaming, so it’s no surprise that the Apple TV hardware isn’t a particularly interesting gaming platform, despite stronger hardware than the average living room streaming box and integration with the Apple Arcade subscription service. For smart TVs, the dream of simple mobile games on the TV has been dead for years. TV manufacturers would rather wow you with PC games on GeForce Now than show off mobile games on their 4K TVs—and for good reason. Meanwhile, docked handheld PCs are all the rage now. But I bet there are a lot of desktop PCs and gaming laptops plugged directly into TVs out there, too. For more than a decade, I’ve plugged gaming laptops and desktops right into my TV and had a great experience in the living room. Now, everyone is realizing how awesome PCs are as a living room gaming platform—and I’m excited to see where this goes. Read...