Tech

Original title: Is AI the end of software engineering or the next step in its evolution? The first time I used ChatGPT to code, back in early 2023, I was reminded of “The Monkey’s Paw,” a classic horror story about an accursed talisman that grants wishes, but always by the most malevolent path — the desired outcome arrives after exacting a brutal cost elsewhere first. With the same humorless literalness, ChatGPT would implement the change I’d asked for, while also scrambling dozens of unrelated lines. The output was typically over-engineered, often barnacled with irrelevant fragments of code. There were some usable lines in the mix, but untangling the mess felt like a detour. When I started using AI-assisted tools earlier this year, I felt decisively outmatched. The experience was like pair-programming with a savant intern — competent yet oddly deferential, still a tad too eager to please and make sweeping changes at my command. But when tasked with more localized changes, it nailed the job with enviable efficiency. The trick is to keep the problem space constrained. I rec ...

Original title: Review: $399 Beosound A1 Portable Speaker Shows Why Bang & Olufsen Commands a Premium Bang & Olufsen recently released the third generation of its award-winning Beosound A1 portable Bluetooth speaker, and after playing with it for a good month, I’m scrambling to come up with negatives. Sure, at $399 it’s pricey, and this ultraportable unit from B&O is unashamedly pitched at the premium end of the Bluetooth speaker market, but the Danish high-end audio manufacturer’s principled attention to design and craftsmanship almost justifies the price alone. Fortunately, it sounds great, too. Design Taking the A1 out of the box, the first thing that strikes you is the compactness of the unit relative to its weight, especially given the materials used in its construction. At about 1.27 pounds (576 grams), it’s not the lightest ultraportable speaker I’ve held, but its beautifully minimalist ‘hockey puck’ design is disarmingly slight, partly thanks to designer Cecilie Manz’s decision to embed the power, volume, play/pause, and pairing controls around the rim, with the attached waterp ...

Original title: Meet the Guys Betting Big on AI Gambling Agents When Carson Szeder turned five dollars into more than a thousand by betting on an NFL game last year, he knew he was onto something major. “Definitely my biggest win,” he says. He hadn’t scored because he was especially deft at football analytics—or because he was particularly lucky. Instead, he says he used an AI program to help him decide how to gamble. Since a federal ban on sports betting was struck down in the United States seven years ago, gambling on the internet has exploded in popularity. Last year, Americans spent over $150 billion on sports-related wagers, with many placing bets on their phones rather than boarding a flight to Vegas. The American Gaming Association reported a nearly 24 percent jump in popularity in sports betting in the US in 2024, and the obsession shows no signs of slowing down. The mania has coincided with a modern AI gold rush. Now, the race is on to combine the economy-shaking pursuits, and a cottage industry has emerged to give bots the ability to plac ...

Original title: Meraki Espresso Machine Review (2025): Fine Grind, Loose Fit In theory, you’d like your espresso machine to contain everything you need to make good coffee, including a grinder for fresh beans. But in practice, this hasn’t always been the case. The classic knock on espresso machines with built-in grinders is that the grinders have often been kinda terrible. That situation is changing fast, as consumers start paying attention—and as the conventional wisdom seeps in that grinders are one of the most important components to making good coffee. (See WIRED’s guide to the best coffee grinders for some good advice.) Appliance titan Breville has started outfitting its top-line espresso machines—including WIRED’s top semi-automatic espresso pick, the Breville Oracle Jet ($2,000)—with the burr set from WIRED’s top grinder pick for mere mortal budgets, the Baratza Encore ESP ($200). It’s still a surprise to see a total newcomer like Shenzhen-founded Meraki lap most of the established brands, when it comes to the quality of its built-in grinder. Meraki is a ...

Original title: Urban Arrow FamilyNext Pro Review: The Perfect Family Bike How time flies. I first reviewed the original Urban Arrow in 2020, when my kids were 3 and 5. Back then, nothing delighted a couple of preschoolers more than strapping into a big, motorized cargo bike and scooting around town, shrieking, with the wind blowing in their tiny faces. Alas, they are now 8 and 10. When I picked up my 8-year-old two days ago, he crouched down in the box while sitting on the padded seats (with seat belts!) so that none of his friends would see him. All this to say: My Tern GSD and I are great friends, but I wish my kids were five years younger so I could’ve bought the FamilyNext Pro instead. Urban Arrow’s new electric cargo bike has a lot of great upgrades, is easier to ride than ever, and is even more useful as my kids have gotten older. Bounce House To the naked eye, the two biggest upgrades to the FamilyNext Pro are a newly redesigned cargo box and suspension on the front fork. (It also comes in a very classy, new sage green, but unfortunately, my demo bike ...

Original title: 62 Best Labor Day Sales on Gear We’ve Tested—Just a Few Hours Left Labor Day weekend is almost over, but there is still a pontoon boat load of deals to score while shopping with a cold beer and a hot dog. The unofficial end of summer brings with it bargains on WIRED-tested gear, including home office essentials and some of our favorite gadgets. For the past few weeks, we’ve been tracking prices on the gear we recommend to our friends and bringing you the best sale prices. Check our Best Labor Day Mattress Deals and Labor Day Outdoor Gear Deals stories for additional savings. We’ve also got some updated roundups for Back to School Deals and Back to School Laptop Deals. Updated September 1, 2025: We’ve added 10 new deals from Steelcase, Solo Stove, JBL, Sonos, and more. Featured Labor Day Deals Tech Deals Photograph: Ryan Waniata It’s a small discount, but our favorite Bluetooth speaker very rarely drops below this price. The deal varies slightly by color, but almost all of them are on sale. The JBL Flip 7 is durable, with IP68 dust and water resistance ...

Original title: The 79 Best Deals From REI’s 2025 Labor Day Sale REI’s Labor Day sale ends tonight at midnight. Many items are up to 30 percent off, and REI Co-op members save 20 percent on any REI Outlet item (on top of the sale price). To get the member discount, add the promo code LABORDAY2025 at checkout. Many of the best REI deals are on the company’s house brand gear, but we’ve also pulled in deals from competing sales at Backcountry, Mystery Ranch, Hyperlite Mountain Gear, Zenbivy, and other cottage industry retailers. Below are the best deals on all our favorite tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, pads, cookware, outdoor apparel, and more. Updated Monday, September 1: We’ve added some last minute Labor Day sale finds on Mystery Ranch packs, bike helmets, satellite messengers, headlamps, tent stakes, and more. WIRED Featured Deals Deals on Tents REI tents are some of the best deals around, even more so during sales. If you’d like to learn more, see our guide to the best backpacking tents and best car camping tents. Photograph: Scott Gilbertson R ...

Original title: Apple Previews New Store With Unified Genius Bar and Pickup Counter Apple has previewed its third retail location in India, Apple Hebbal. The new store is located at Phoenix Mall of Asia in Bengaluru. Apple Hebbal spans approximately 8,000 square feet and is staffed by 70 employees representing 15 states across India, according to Apple. It joins Apple BKC in Mumbai and Apple Saket in Delhi. Apple Hebbal features a unified Genius Bar and Pickup counter, merging Apple’s technical support and online order collection services into a single area. This two-in-one area has rolled out in a handful of new and renovated stores over the past year. To mark the occasion, Apple released a downloadable set of exclusive wallpapers themed around the store’s peacock feather-inspired design, along with a curated Apple Music playlist featuring artists from Bengaluru. The store officially opens to the public at 1 p.m. on September 2. ...

Original title: Latam-GPT: The Free, Open Source, and Collaborative AI of Latin America The supercomputing infrastructure at the University of Tarapacá (UTA) in Arica, Chile, is a fundamental pillar for Latam-GPT. With a projected investment of $10 million, the new center has a cluster of 12 nodes, each equipped with eight state-of-the-art NVIDIA H200 GPUs. This capacity, unprecedented in Chile and the region more broadly, not only enables large-scale model training in the country for the first time, it also encourages decentralization and energy efficiency. The first version of Latam-GPT will be launched this year. The model will be refined and expanded as new strategic partners join the effort and more robust data sets are integrated into it. The interview was edited for length and clarity. WIRED: Tech giants such as Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic have invested billions in their models. What is the technical and strategic argument for the development of a separate model specifically for Latin America? Álvaro Soto: Regardless of how powerful these other models may be, the ...

Original title: Magnesium Supplements Crash Course: Benefits and Side Effects Suddenly, everyone is obsessed with magnesium supplements. It’s the key ingredient in #sleepygirlmocktails, powders stirred into tart cherry juice and prebiotic soda, a wellness cocktail for anxious millennials. Your coworkers are popping magnesium glycinate before bed instead of melatonin, because it allegedly cures insomnia, constipation, and existential dread. Folks seem especially concerned with optimizing their poop and pillow time. In the past year, Google searches for “which magnesium is best for sleep” and “which magnesium makes you poop” have more than doubled. Magnesium is essential for maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system. It’s also one of the most abundant minerals in the human body, running more than 300 biochemical reactions, from protein synthesis to nerve function and blood sugar regulation. It supports bone structure and helps shuttle calcium and potassium across cell membranes, a process that allows for muscle contractions and normal heart rhythms. You can get ...