Smokeless fire gpits work by funneling air up into the fire pit through openings on the bottom or side of the pit. Not only does this minimize smoke, but it also means the wood burns down all the way to ash, making it easier to clean up afterward. Smokeless fire pits come in all shapes and sizes. That makes it easy to find one that’s right for your specific needs – once you sift through the wide array of choices available today....

In fact, according to a 2017 study, 38% of people fall asleep faster when listening to white noise, like from a fan or air conditioner. Noise machines emit built-in sounds ranging from white noise, pink noise, nature sounds, and even meditations that you can listen to as you fall asleep. Many high-tech sound machines today even have accompanying apps and timer settings with auto-shut-off options. We’ve rounded up the best sound machines available so you can doze off quicker tonight and every night....

But smart blinds range in degrees of intelligence, with only a few brands offering quality, variety, and compatibility with home automation systems all at once. So what are the best smart blinds and shades available right now? Must read: The best smart home bridgesThe best home automation systemsThe best smart home hubsThe best smart speakersThe best smart lights These are the best option when you consider value for money, quality, and compatibility options in one set of smart blinds or shades....

There are countless different earbuds on the market right now, and some are quite expensive. When you’re making a significant investment, buying the wrong pair could be an annoying, costly mistake. To help you cipher through the earbud market, ZDNET experts rounded up the top wireless earbuds so you can start listening hands-free today. Also: The best earbudsThe best cheap earbudsThe best headphonesThe best gaming headsetsThe best Bluetooth headphones The best headphones for musicThe best headphones for working out...

The report makes sobering reading because it highlights the huge problems that Android users face when it comes to securing their smartphones. And it’s not just free apps and games. The problems are across the board and affect apps such as banking and payment apps. Must read: Don’t make this common, fatal iPhone or Android mistake Predictably, the category of top-free games was the worst, where 96% were found to contain vulnerable components....

Also: From plugs to thermostats, 12 useful smart home gadgets to give as gifts Most EVs include a cable that allows you to plug into a standard household outlet for what’s known as Level 1 charging. In the U.S., that means a 120V circuit capable of adding about 3-5 miles of range for every hour of charge. This sort of trickle charging might be good enough to cover your daily commute if you charge overnight, but it gets frustrating fast....

*J.D. Power’s 2020 Home Security Satisfaction Study. Based on a 1,000-point scale. Why we chose it SimpliSafe offers the most flexibility of any home security system, allowing you to choose the exact equipment and monitoring right for your needs. Pros: Comprehensive professional monitoringNo lengthy contractsBuild-your-own system Cons: Mobile alerts are not available with the basic planLimited integration with other smart devices Equipment available: Indoor, outdoor, and doorbell camerasWindow and door sensorsMobile phone control panelEnvironmental sensorsSmart locks, lighting, and thermostat...

If you’re into the technology and applications side of things, how does a Neo4j demo of a social network application with 3 billion people, running queries designed to test the limits of graph query languages and databases across a 1000 node cluster sound? Equally impressive, probably. Graph database vendor Neo4j CEO and co-founder Emil Eifrem is announcing the funding and showcasing the demo today at the company’s annual virtual conference NODES....

That’s the main finding from recruiter Harvey Nash Group’s Digital Leadership Report, which shows that more than two-thirds (67%) of digital leaders globally are now unable to keep pace with change because of a dearth of technology talent. Bev White, chief executive of Harvey Nash Group, says her conversations with CIOs suggest that companies with IT skills gaps are going to find it much harder to hit their digital transformation targets....

Over the past 15 years, Google has engaged in “anticompetitive, exclusionary and unlawful” practices that have allowed it to “severely weaken if not destroy competition in the ad tech industry,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference Tuesday. Filed along with a handful of states in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the suit alleges that Google has violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by manipulating three major elements of the ad tech market....

This new set of classes will help experienced IT professionals move into cloud engineering roles in as little as six months working remotely. You may not be able to get out of your house, but that’s less of a problem for your future job prospects in these days of the pandemic and afterward. As Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics has said, “Our best estimate is that 25% to 30% of the workforce will be working-from-home multiple days a week by the end of 2021....

Also: The 2022 M2 Apple iPad Pro is my (drone) copilot I make no secret of the fact that out of all my drones, the Mini 3 Pro is my favorite (yes, even beating the Mavic 3). I like the portability and freedom that the compact sub-249g drone offers. The Mini 3 takes many of the good bits of the Mini 3 Pro, adds more battery life, and drops the starting price by $200....

Data poisoning occurs when attackers tamper with the training data used to create deep-learning models. This action means it’s possible to affect the decisions that the AI makes in a way that is hard to track. Also: These experts are racing to protect AI from hackers. Time is running out. By secretly altering the source information used to train machine-learning algorithms, data-poisoning attacks have the potential to be extremely powerful because the AI will be learning from incorrect data and could make ‘wrong’ decisions that have significant consequences....

Microsoft went all-in and sold the Surface Duo as a premium product, with two side-by-side 5.6-inch displays that come together in a foldable device that stands right between a phone and a tablet. In September 2020, the device started shipping for an eyebrow-raising $1,400. But before long, catchy discounts were showing up, suggesting at least a slight excess of ambition on Microsoft’s part. The Surface Duo was meant to help Microsoft make a serious dent in the mobile market after years of failure....

We made five million calls from those kiosks last year, but volumes have also been dropping for some time: we spent 800 million minutes talking in phone boxes in 2002, but just seven million last year. That’s bad news for the remaining telephone boxes across the country, not just the iconic red K2 or K6 (regal, basically indestructible, and you could dislocate your shoulder just trying to get the door open), but also less-loved later models like the pastel-toned KX100 that arrived in the 80s (post-privatisation brash aluminium frame, flimsy and draughty)....

Now, however, shifts in markets, technologies and business alliances are changing the equation. The market shift is primarily about who does the buying. In the past, big server installations were predominantly located in large enterprises, companies with lots of employees, businesses and data. Technological Evolution The technology shift comes along a similar path as Moore’s Law; that is, process nodes continue to shrink, and greater capability takes less power and space than before....

Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) is tracking the group as an emerging threat under the tag DEV-0530 and says the ‘H0lyGh0st’ payload has affected small businesses in multiple countries over the past year. It’s another double-extortion racket, so there’s a threat to files being both locked up and leaked, but the group’s motivations remain ambiguous. The group’s standard methodology is to encrypt all files on the target device and use the file extension ....

Digital Daze App & eLearning Bundle Is there anything better than getting a great PlayStation Plus bargain? Well, yes, when it comes with unlimited access to courses that could lead to a new career and powerful VPN protection. For a limited time only, get the Digital Daze App & eLearning Bundle for $69 (reg. $1753). PlayStation Plus: 2-Year Subscription Stackable Code Bundle This bundle consists of two 1-year subscriptions. You can stack them, or give away a PlayStation Plus subscription to a family member or friend....

According to Robert Half’s 2023 Salary Guide, business leaders remain focused on expanding, accelerating and protecting their IT investments over the next 12 months, despite many companies preparing to feel the squeeze of an economic downturn. In fact, 79% of chief information officers (CIOs) and chief technology officers (CTOs) report feeling ‘very confident’ about their company’s growth prospects in the year ahead, citing efficiency and productivity (31%), computing initiatives (26%), digital transformation (24%), and blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) projects as their top strategic priorities for 2023....

Open banking - a practice that allows third party financial services firms to open up customer data for regulated providers to access, use and share through application programming interfaces (APIs) with consumer consent – is being introduced in Brazil under a phased approach. The current phase aims to enable the introduction of new environments for making payments and, subsequently, new dynamics for credit operations. After instant payments, other capabilities to be introduced under the third phase will include services such as transfers between accounts of the same institution, direct debits and credit proposals....