Saturday 11th May 2024

Razer Blade 18 (2024) Review: The Gaming Laptop of the Future

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Razer's Blade 14 is my go-to recommendation for anyone hunting for a good gaming laptop, but as impressive as it is, it trades power for portability. If that’s the kind of sacrifice you don’t want to make, then say hello to the Razer Blade 18—this is the powerhouse you’re looking for.


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6 Best Gaming Laptops (2024): From Cheap to Premium

We tested the latest and greatest gaming laptops—from portable machines to an 18-inch gargantuan—so you can level up your game anywhere.


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36 Best Graduation Gifts (2024): For College Grads

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Securing a degree is always worth celebrating, but the past few graduating classes have overcome more than the standard all-nighters and strict professors. After dealing with an ongoing pandemic, remote learning, and the rising prices of everything from food to fuel, the graduates of 2024 have succeeded against all odds.


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The Earth Is About to Feast on Dead Cicadas

Two cicada broods, XIX and XIII, are emerging in sync for the first time in 221 years. They’re bringing the banquet of a lifetime for birds, trees, and humans alike.


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Best Registries for Weddings and Baby Showers (2024): Advice and Tips

In the span of a year and a half, I had two weddings (one was a Covid-lockdown elopement, the other a post-lockdown reception) and a baby shower. I made multiple online registries in that time, because in true product reviewer fashion, I wanted to try every single popular one before choosing my favorite.

A good wedding registry or baby registry is easy for you to create, and for your loved ones to shop on your behalf without worrying whether you already have an air fryer or high-quality bed sheets. The best registries are easy to navigate and buy from because, let's be honest: You're not getting as many gifts if it's a pain in the rear to shop for you. Not all registries are equal, and there are a ton of options to navigate. Here's what you should keep in mind as you choose an online registry and which ones we like best—based on my own research and testing plus feedback from other WIRED reviewers.


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The Best Period Underwear, Menstrual Cups, and Reusable Pads (2024)

Periods are normal and shouldn't be embarrassing to talk about. It’s ingrained in us early, though, especially for those of us who are whisked away in elementary school to watch a short video on “becoming a woman.” That’s about where public education on menstruation begins and ends—a secret discussion that boys can’t be privy to. In an effort to break the stigma, some of us at WIRED discussed how we manage our period flows and habits.

Long before pads and tampons were available, people simply bled into their clothes or used homemade flannel cloths if flows were particularly heavy. Women often stuffed rags that were then washed and reused later (hence the phrase “being on the rag”). Now there’s period underwear, menstrual cups, reusable pads, applicator-less tampons for less waste, and even subscription services to get products delivered to your door every month.


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‘TunnelVision’ Attack Leaves Nearly All VPNs Vulnerable to Spying

Researchers have devised an attack against nearly all virtual private network applications that forces them to send and receive some or all traffic outside of the encrypted tunnel designed to protect it from snooping or tampering.

TunnelVision, as the researchers have named their attack, largely negates the entire purpose and selling point of VPNs, which is to encapsulate incoming and outgoing Internet traffic in an encrypted tunnel and to cloak the user’s IP address. The researchers believe it affects all VPN applications when they’re connected to a hostile network and that there are no ways to prevent such attacks except when the user's VPN runs on Linux or Android. They also said their attack technique may have been possible since 2002 and may already have been discovered and used in the wild since then.


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‘Hades 2’: Our 8 Best Tips to Get You Started

Hades II is a witchy roguelike that Supergiant Games somewhat surprise-dropped on Steam earlier this week. Unlike the first Hades, where gamers play as the underworld’s prince, fighting his way out of the depths of hell, Hades II hands the weapons over to the underworld’s princess, Melinoë, who must fight her way further into the depths to defeat Chronos, the Titan of Time.

As fans of Hades, we were stoked to play the early access version of this game. Even though the developers are still working to improve Hades II and add more content, it might already be the best game we’ve played so far this year. (And, yes, that even includes Balatro.)


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The Northern Lights Could Be Visible Across the US Thanks to a Rare Solar Storm

Three rapid bursts of charged particles that erupted toward Earth from the sun’s burning-hot outer atmosphere on Wednesday could lead to stunning auroras across a wide swath of the US and a colorful hue as far south as Florida to start the weekend.

Traveling at more than 1.5 million miles per hour, the trio of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have merged into one pulse of plasma and magnetic field during the 60-hour trip from the sun’s atmosphere toward our own.


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What to Expect at Google I/O 2024, and How to Watch It

The chirping of birds, the buzzing of bugs, the soft patter of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s shoes as he bounds across the stage. The sounds of spring are here, so you know what that means: Google I/O is blooming.

Hot on the heels of Apple's iPad launch event last week, Google is going all out for its I/O developer conference on Tuesday, May 14. The event is taking place at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, just down the road from Google's headquarters. The keynote starts at 10 am PDT on Tuesday, and as usual, it will be livestreamed. Expect to hear and see updates about Android 15, Google search, the already announced Pixel 8A budget phone, and just an absolute torrent of news about the tech topic of the decade: artificial intelligence.


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