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Product Reviews

ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team

by admin October 3, 2025

United States immigration authorities are moving to dramatically expand their social media surveillance, with plans to hire nearly 30 contractors to sift through posts, photos, and messages—raw material to be transformed into intelligence for deportation arrests and raids.

Federal contracting records reviewed by WIRED show the agency is seeking private vendors to run a multi-year surveillance program out of two of its little-known targeting centers. The program envisions stationing nearly 30 private analysts at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Vermont and Southern California. Their job: Scour Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms, converting posts and profiles into fresh leads for enforcement raids.

The initiative is still at the request-for-information stage, a step agencies use to gauge interest from contractors before an official bidding process. But draft planning documents show the scheme is ambitious: ICE wants a contractor capable of staffing the centers around the clock, constantly processing cases on tight deadlines, and supplying the agency with the latest and greatest subscription-based surveillance software.

The facilities at the heart of this plan are two of ICE’s three targeting centers, responsible for producing leads that feed directly into the agency’s enforcement operations.The National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center sits in Williston, Vermont. It handles cases across much of the eastern US. The Pacific Enforcement Response Center, based in Santa Ana, California, oversees the western region and is designed to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Internal planning documents show each site would be staffed with a mix of senior analysts, shift leads, and rank-and-file researchers. Vermont would see a team of a dozen contractors, including a program manager and 10 analysts. California would host a larger, nonstop watch floor with 16 staff. At all times, at least one senior analyst and three researchers would be on duty at the Santa Ana site.

Together, these teams would operate as intelligence arms of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division. They will receive tips and incoming cases, research individuals online, and package the results into dossiers that could be used by field offices to plan arrests.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

The latest Anker Prime charging devices are already 20 percent off

by admin October 3, 2025

Anker has a bunch of new Prime charging devices available and some of them are already getting solid discounts. The lineup includes a laptop-compatible Prime Power Bank (26,250mAh, 300W). The device’s Amazon page currently features a clippable coupon that will take $46 off the price, reducing it by 20 percent. That means you’ll be able to snap this powerbank up for $184.

This portable charger delivers a whopping 300W of total output between its two USB-C ports and single USB-A port. Anker says that, thanks to its 140W output (and if you’re using a 5A cable), you can top up the battery of an M4 Pro MacBook Pro to 50 percent in 27 minutes and an iPhone 17 Pro Max to 50 percent in 22 minutes. You can keep tabs on what’s happening on each port using the display.

Anker

Anker’s new powerbank can deliver total charging output of 300W, and it’s 20 percent off when you apply a clippable coupon.

$184 at Amazon

This is also the first Anker power bank that supports up to 250W of input recharging by using both USB-C ports simultaneously. This faster charging can top up the powerbank’s own battery to 50 percent in just 13 minutes, according to Anker.

This model has a capacity of 26,250mAh (99.75Wh), which is very close to the FAA’s limit of 100W. It’s TSA-approved, so you’ll be able to take it on flights. It’s capable of taking an M4 MacBook Pro from fully dead to an 80 percent charge. The power bank weighs 1.3 lbs — the same as about three iPhones, Anker says.

Other Anker Prime devices are on sale too. A new 3-in-1 MagSafe charger — which can top up the batteries of your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods with wireless charging case simultaneously — also gets a 20 percent discount to $184 when you use a clippable coupon. While there are certainly less expensive 3-in-1 MagSafe options out there, this one includes Qi2 25W support for faster charging, as well as TEC active cooling. Anker suggests this can help speed up charging times and help guard against iPhone battery degradation over time.

A three-port GaN Prime Charger that plugs into an outlet is 20 percent off too, at $120 with a clippable coupon. Anker says it’s as compact as an AirPods Pro 3 case and can provide a total output of 160W, with up to 140W via a single USB-C cable. The charger is said to offer smart power distribution, and you can monitor what’s happening and adjust modes via an onboard display and controls.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

I tested Google Keep and found it excels at simple note-taking

by admin October 3, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

The best note-taking apps help you remember crucial information. It’s often done with physical notebooks, but digital note-taking apps provide an easier way. You already carry a smartphone, so using the same device to take notes makes things convenient. Google Keep is one of the most popular note-taking apps used on smartphones globally.

Initially launched in 2013, Google Keep has amassed tens of millions of users within a short period. Because it’s free to use, Google Keep has become a go-to option for people seeking a simple app to store and manage notes.

But, is Google Keep an ideal note-taking tool for you? What are its unique features, and how does it differ from competitors? I’ve extensively reviewed the app to answer these questions for you. Read on to learn about Google Keep’s features, pros, and cons compared to rival note-taking tools.

(Image credit: Google)

Google Keep: Plans and pricing

As I mentioned earlier, Google Keep is a tool you can use at no cost. Google offers it for free, along with various other tools, to keep users attached to its software ecosystem. Anyone with a Google account can enjoy Keep’s features.

However, there’s a catch. Google offers a premium tier for companies that desire collaborative functionalities and access to enhanced features on Google software tools. If your company subscribes to this premium plan, called Workspace, the features of Google Keep don’t change. However, your company can enjoy seamless collaboration on Google Keep and many other Google tools.

Google Workspace has three pricing tiers: Starter, Standard, and Plus. The Starter plan costs $7 per user per month, the Standard plan costs $14 per user per month, and the Plus plan costs $22 per user per month. There’s also an Enterprise Plus plan for large companies that can negotiate custom sales deals with Google’s team.

The Starter plan unlocks 30 GB of storage per account, the Standard plan unlocks 2 TB of storage, and the Plus plan allocates 5 TB to each account. Google Keep’s functionalities remain the same regardless of your plan, but these plans have significant differences in other areas.

(Image credit: Google)

Google Keep: Features

Google Keep’s core feature is letting users keep and retrieve notes when needed. It lets you create and organize notes, from shopping lists to personal reminders, phone numbers, and workplace ideas. You can then label these notes for easy retrieval later. For example, you can have separate labels named “work” and “personal” and simply click on any label to find the relevant notes when needed.

To create a note, you have various options: a plain note, a list, a note with a drawing, or a note with an image. A plain note can be any text you choose to write. There’s no limit on the number of characters you can store in the plain note.

After writing your plain note, you can add a reminder to it, which will be saved in the Google Reminders app, and you’ll receive an email or push notification reminder at the appropriate time. Google Keep has seamless integrations with other Google tools, making it convenient if you already use one Google app or another.

If a plain note isn’t satisfactory, you can add images or drawings for context. Images can be uploaded directly from your PC or smartphone, but videos aren’t permitted. All uploaded images count towards your allocated storage, which ranges from 15 GB on the free plan to between 30 GB and 5 TB on Workspace plans.

Similarly, you can add drawings to your notes, a feature that is useful when trying to sketch ideas. Forgive me for not being the best artist, but my example below illustrates how adding drawings is done on Google Keep.

(Image credit: Google)

Notably, you can convert your drawing into an image and download it to your device. Drawings help you add significant context to the notes you’ve jotted.

I like that Google Keep provides ample text formatting features. It allows users to break down notes into headings and subheadings, making them easy to read later. You can bold, italicize, and underline specific words or phrases within your notes. The formatting options aren’t as plentiful as what you’ll find on a word processor, expectedly, but they provide the basics that help users create detailed notes.

Another feature I enjoyed is Google Keep’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which lets users extract text from uploaded images. The example below illustrates a picture I uploaded and its extracted text.

You can observe that Google Keep extracted the text from the image with a high degree of accuracy. I only needed to adjust the text a little to get a coherent note. The OCR feature isn’t perfect, but it works well most of the time. It’s a valuable feature in many situations, such as a lecture with informative slides displayed on a projector. In this case, you can simply snap a slide and extract the text instead of typing the same thing manually.

Still on the idea of extracting external information into your notes, Google Keep has a browser extension available exclusively on Google Chrome. With this extension, you can download web pages directly as notes to view later. Suppose you encounter a web page that piques your interest, but you’re too busy to read it at the moment. You can simply download it as a note and open it later. My only complaint is that this feature is compatible with Chrome but not with other browsers.

(Image credit: Google)

Another interesting feature is the ability to record voice notes and transcribe them into text. You can add an audio memo to a note, and Google’s sophisticated voice recognition system will translate it to text and also keep the audio recording for future playbacks. In my case, the transcription feature wasn’t perfect, as I had to edit some words and phrases, but it transcribed most words correctly. Note that this feature only works on the mobile app.

I talked about using labels to organize your notes. However, that’s not the only way. You can change the background color of each note to differentiate it from the rest. For example, all personal notes can have one background color, and those related to work can sport another color.

Likewise, you can pin specific notes at the top of your dashboard. These pinned notes, which are of utmost importance, will always be displayed above the other notes you’ve created.

I mentioned reminders earlier, but there’s more to it. You can not only set time-based reminders, but you can also set reminders based on locations. That is, Google will issue a reminder about a note as soon as you arrive at a specific location. For example, you can set Google to remind you about school notes as soon as you arrive at school. You can receive work reminders as soon as you arrive at the office. These reminders are helpful in many day-to-day situations.

Seamless collaboration is one of Google Keep’s main benefits compared to rival note-taking tools. You can easily share your notes with friends, family, and colleagues, and they can view or edit the notes.

To share a note with someone, you can add their email address, and they’ll receive a notification about the note you’ve shared with them. Collaborators can view or edit your notes, and any changes are reflected in real-time.

For example, if you share a checklist, the collaborator can tick off items on the checklist, and it’ll immediately reflect in your Google Keep dashboard. A good thing about Google Keep is that there’s no limit to the number of collaborators you can invite.

Most Google tools allow you to set specific permissions for collaborators (read-only or editing access), but Google Keep bucks the trend. Anyone you invite automatically gets full access, including the ability to edit your notes. I didn’t like this lack of permission management.

Another thing I didn’t like relates to the text formatting options, which I mentioned earlier. Google Keep’s formatting features are basic, unlike the advanced formatting options I’ve encountered on several competing note-taking tools. However, it’s understandable because those tools require paid subscriptions, while Google Keep’s core features are entirely free.

Despite some drawbacks, Google Keep remains an excellent note-taking tool given the features available for free. It’s ideal if you need an intuitive app to keep simple notes. However, it’s not the best option if you need to manage large volumes of notes.

(Image credit: Google)

Google Keep: Interface and in use

Google Keep is as simple to use as it gets. Its features aren’t much, so they are neatly arranged along the dashboard. The dashboard prominently displays the box to create a new note, and after opening this box, formatting options are clearly displayed at the bottom. The main menu lies in the top-left corner and is easy to navigate.

Even as a first-time user, you wouldn’t have problems understanding Google Keep’s interface at a glance. It’s coherent and intuitive, which I’ve observed as the norm with Google tools.

I liked that Google Keep has a built-in option to switch between light and dark theme modes, both on the web version and mobile apps (iOS and Android). I also liked the ability to switch between list and grid views of my notes. Generally, Google Keep has an excellent interface that I enjoyed interacting with.

Google Keep: Support

Google Keep users have access to ample support resources. Given it’s a free tool, there’s no direct support from Google’s team, except you’re a Google Workspace subscriber. However, you can always consult the official Google Keep Help Center, which includes detailed user guides and solutions to common troubleshooting scenarios.

Every Google Keep feature is covered in the Help Center, so you’ll likely find the solution to the problems you encounter on Google Keep. Along with the Help Center, there’s also an online community where you can seek solutions from other Google Keep users.

If your company is subscribed to Google Workspace, you can get direct help from Google’s support team via email, live chat, or telephone. However, Google Keep is simple enough that direct help is needed on rare occasions, or if at all.

Google Keep: The competition

Note-taking is a thriving software niche with many players. Google Keep is one of the players, albeit a dominant one. Two major competitors I’d like to highlight are Notion and Evernote.

Notion is more than a note-taking app. It’s a versatile tool that lets you manage broad projects, storing everything from knowledge bases to wikis and technical documents. Notion is extensively customizable and has a wider library of third-party integrations than Google Keep.

Google Keep is the go-to tool for managing simple notes, but Notion is the go-to tool for managing complex notes and text documents. Notion has extensive collaboration features with more permission control than Google Keep. The drawback is that Notion’s extensive features present a steep learning curve for the everyday user. It’s not as user-friendly as Google Keep, so expect more time to get used to it.

Evernote has several note-keeping features that Google Keep lacks, such as the ability to add videos to notes, rich text formatting, and whiteboards where multiple users can work on the same note simultaneously. It provides more advanced ways to organize notes, making it ideal for managing large note volumes.

The downside is that Evernote requires a subscription to access most of its features, while Google Keep is completely free. Evernote’s free tier is heavily limited compared to Google Keep.

Google Keep: Final verdict

Google Keep is an excellent choice if you need a simple app to keep your day-to-day notes. It’s free to use, intuitive, and lets you share notes with others.

Google Keep doesn’t have the most advanced features, such as rich text formatting, inserting videos within notes, and using folders and subfolders to organize notes. However, that’s intentional. Google created it as a free tool for everyday use, not for the most complex note-keeping scenarios. The app fulfills its purpose of simplifying digital note-taking perfectly.

We’ve listed the best note-taking apps for Android.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Matthew McConaughey Talks More About Shooting That Iconic One-Take ‘Interstellar’ Moment

by admin October 3, 2025

Matthew McConaughey looked back on filming that pivotal crying scene in Interstellar, where a drastic time jump occurs to his space-traveler lead role in Christopher Nolan’s powerful sci-fi epic.

In a career retrospective video with Vanity Fair, McConaughey reacted to his emotional reaction as Cooper, an astronaut who, after a nearly failed mission on a water planet experiencing extreme time dilation (an hour there is seven years on Earth), ends up losing 23 years of his young children’s lives in a matter of a few hours.

The actor talked about his prep for the heartbreaking moment: “It was the first scene up. I had gotten good rest that weekend, and I had had a pretty humble, good weekend. I was with my family,” McConaughey explained, touching on the fact that ultimately, the key scene was a one-and-done moment: the first take is what audiences eventually saw in the film.

“We got in, and Nolan was going to set up, they were about to play the tape. ‘Let’s rehearse the tape.’ I went, ‘Ah, ah.’ I remember, I think I had a note. I’d written, ‘See you first,’” McConaughey continued. “I handed it to Chris. All of a sudden, things came over, and cameras were there, and we played the tape. And again, this is that first take; that’s what we used.”

Of course, that moment would go on to be one of Interstellar‘s most memorable, not just for its dramatic connection in the film, but also for how it spun off into its own life as a viral internet reaction meme, used to convey everything from somber experiences to overblown fictional tragedy striking any given fandom.

“I didn’t have to go to a place. I did think about, and I did try to understand, what if one day you go to work, and [then] you were gone for 10 years. When Casey Affleck and Chastain come on [playing Cooper’s grown up children], the dread of having to miss that in my own life with my own kids, I just reacted.” McConaughey elaborated. “Which is what I’ve learned I like to do… there’s things like that. Because I’ve consistently tried to [be like], ‘Let’s just do the first take.’ Because everything after take one is acting, for real. We can improve stuff in take two, but everything after take one, if you’re fully relaxed and just reacting—everything after take one is acting. I didn’t want to know what was coming.

“I wanted to just… that’s all about relaxing, then. That’s just me relaxing, then what happens, happened.”

And what happened was one of the most iconic moments in McConaughey’s career—memery or otherwise.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

At a Conspiracy Conference in Rural Ireland, Charlie Kirk Was the Star

by admin October 3, 2025

At this point, the event was briefly disrupted by a small protest outside by two local activists who highlighted the fact that Attwood had been advocating a toxic bleach solution to his followers. Power and fellow far-right activist Philip Dwyer confronted the two protesters and questioned if they were trying to get Attwood killed, just like Kirk. Dwyer declined to answer WIRED’s questions about his comments but called this reporter a “communist left-wing radical.”

Back inside, Attwood laughed off the protesters, with one later speaker calling them “clones.”

Finally, after mystic Honey C Golden had informed everyone that “The Matrix was a reality show” and that she doesn’t “really believe in time,” it was time for Lewis Herms, a fringe candidate for California governor, to take the stage.

Herms, who became popular through his Screw Big Gov platform online, is running as an independent conservative and is one of almost 70 people who have filed statements of interest in being governor of California. Calling himself an “anti-politician,” Herms slammed the GOP for not talking about “child trafficking,” “election fraud,” or the influence of “Big Pharma.”

While Herms has decided not to employ a campaign manager—because it would not be authentic—he did claim that he is working with some other people.

“I’m very proud to say a lot of RFK Jr.’s team is already working with us,” Herms said. “And they already label our team Super MAHA because we’re looking for different modalities that we can bring back to California and bring to a whole other level than he’s even doing it right now.”

Herms and Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment.

Herms received a standing ovation at the end of his nearly 45-minute speech despite the fact that most people were, at this point, very cold. But even though it was now dark outside, there was still time for one more speaker—Janine Morigeau, a Canadian tarot card reader.

Just as the day had begun with the name of Kirk being invoked, so it ended. “Is Charlie Kirk really dead?” an audience member asked, with the rest of the crowd reacting excitedly. Morigeau proceeded to pull half a dozen different cards and very quickly concluded that the person seen on camera being shot was not actually Kirk at all.

“Whatever they were doing there was likely a white hat op, because it’s to the benefit of humanity,” Morigeau said before adding mysteriously: “I don’t know if even the real Charlie Kirk was who we thought he was.”

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Apple removes ICEBlock from the App Store after Trump administration’s demand

by admin October 3, 2025

Apple has removed ICEBlock, the app which allowed users to put a pin on a map to show where ICE agents have recently been spotted, from the App Store. It has also pulled other apps that served a similar purpose. According to Fox Business, Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded their takedown, telling Apple that the apps were “designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.” Bondi added that “violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.” She also said that the “Department of Justice will continue making every effort to protect [its] brave federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe.”

“We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps,” Apple told the publication in a statement. “Based on information we’ve received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store.”

Bondi demanded the apps’ removal after the FBI and the administration reported that the gunman who attacked an ICE facility in Dallas used tracking apps, including ICEBlock, to open fire from a rooftop. The gunman killed two immigrants and injured a third, but he was allegedly targeting ICE agents. Joshua Aaron, the app’s developer, told Fox Business that he was “incredibly disappointed” by Apple’s actions. “Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” he said. “Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.” Aaron added: “We are determined to fight this with everything we have. Our mission has always been to protect our neighbors from the terror this administration continues to reign down on the people of this nation.”

ICEBlock climbed to the top of the App Store charts in July after administration officials slammed it, making more people aware of its existence. At the time, officials warned Aaron that they were “looking at him, and he better watch out” because the app threatens the lives of law enforcement agents. NBC News reports that it was downloaded more than 1 million times since it was introduced. Tom Homan, the administration’s “border czar,” recently told Fox News that the government will investigate the “people who put these apps up” because they put “law enforcement at great risk.”

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

I tested NotebookLM and found it very useful for academic, technical, and general research

by admin October 3, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Navigating the web to analyze data can be tiring. From scouring various websites looking for the correct data to analyzing and summarizing the data you’ve obtained, online research can be hectic. But what if I told you it doesn’t have to be?

Thanks to recent artificial intelligence (AI) advancements, you can have a virtual research partner that helps you analyze and summarize data from the web. That partner is named NotebookLM.

NotebookLM is an AI-based research and note-taking app developed by Google, the company best known for its eponymous search engine. Released in 2023, NotebookLM has amassed a large user base, thanks to its features that help users research and retrieve insights from bulky documents.

How does NotebookLM work, and what sets it apart from similar tools? Is it free or paid, or both? What are its key features? I’ve reviewed the app extensively to answer these essential questions. Read on to learn in-depth about NotebookLM and whether it’s a suitable tool to adopt.

NotebookLM: Plans and pricing

NotebookLM is a freemium tool, i.e., it has free and paid versions. The free NotebookLM is a very capable tool that integrates the latest models of Gemini, Google’s proprietary large language model (LLM). It lets users upload PDFs, Word documents, and presentations to extract data and generate summaries. You can ask NotebookLM questions and get detailed answers under this free plan.

However, the free plan imposes limits on the number of documents you can upload, the number of daily chat queries, notebooks, and audio and video generations. Specifically, the free plan allows 100 notebooks, each with up to 50 sources, 50 daily chat queries, 3 audio overview generations, and 3 video overviews.

You can increase the limitations by subscribing to the NotebookLM Pro plan. This plan allows 500 notebooks, 500 daily chat queries, 20 daily audio generations, and 20 daily video overviews. As a Pro user, you can also share your notebooks with other users and extensively configure the AI assistant’s response style, among other benefits.

To become a Pro user, you need to subscribe to the Google AI Pro plan, which costs $20 monthly. This plan unlocks more than just NotebookLM’s advanced features. It also unlocks access to AI features on other Google apps.

That said, at $20 monthly, the Google AI Pro plan is quite pricey. It’s justifiable if you’ll heavily use the provided features, but otherwise, the free NotebookLM version works well for the average user. You can try the Google AI Pro plan for one month to test its features before making a final decision.

(Image credit: Google)

NotebookLM: Features

NotebookLM is a mobile app you can download on an iOS or Android device. It’s not accessible via a web browser. This app functions as a companion you can use to extract data from uploaded documents or external web pages.

You can create distinct notebooks on the app, with the free plan allowing up to 100 notebooks. On each notebook, you can extract data from up to 50 sources on the free plan and 300 sources on the Pro plan.

Here’s an illustration to make it simpler to understand. Imagine you’re a student tasked with reviewing a research paper and generating key insights. The research paper is bulky, with over 5,000 words.

Instead of scanning through every paragraph manually to extract key points, you can upload the research paper in PDF format to NotebookLM. Then, NotebookLM will study and analyze the paper on your behalf, and you can ask it comprehensive questions related to the research paper.

For instance, if the research paper is about the prevalence of a disease in different regions, you can ask NotebookLM to provide a detailed breakdown of the number of infections observed in each region and the percentage compared to the total number of infections. You can ask it to visualize this data for you.

A research paper is just a single example. Instead of uploading a PDF file to NotebookLM, you can provide a specific web address and ask it to analyze the information on that web page.

For example, NotebookLM can analyze a long news article about recent mergers & acquisitions in the tech industry, and you can ask specific questions like “Which companies got acquired recently?” “How much was [company name] acquired for?” “Give me a breakdown of all the acquired companies mentioned in the article and how much they were acquired for?”

NotebookLM solves a key problem that most people experience. Reading through and analyzing large volumes of information can get tiring. Often, when I experienced this problem, I always wished for a virtual assistant that could help me sort through the information and find the desired key points. I was happy when Google announced NotebookLM in 2023, and I became an early adopter.

My main use case for NotebookLM is sifting through voluminous articles and reports to generate insights. I’ve used it heavily for both personal and work activities. For example, I often read detailed economic reports issued by think-tanks and government agencies. NotebookLM has extensively helped me to analyze and note crucial information from these reports.

I like that NotebookLM lets users share notebooks with friends, family, and colleagues, even on the free version. As a free user, you can grant a collaborator “Viewer” or “Editor” access to your notebook.

(Image credit: Google)

A Viewer has access to uploaded source documents and shared notes, but can’t remove these documents or add new ones. In contrast, an Editor can remove or add new documents to your notebook. Sharing is as easy as generating a unique link and sending it to the desired collaborators, who can access it with their Google accounts.

If you’re subscribed to the Pro plan, you can share a notebook in chat-only mode, wherein the collaborator can’t modify the source documents but can ask the AI system questions related to the documents.

When sharing a notebook on the Pro plan, you can monitor two key metrics about how collaborators have interacted with your notebooks: the number of users who have made at least one query per day and the number of queries made by each user. However, these metrics are only available if you’ve shared the notebook with at least four other users.

NotebookLM doesn’t just issue text answers. It can give audio answers in a creative way. For instance, I used NotebookLM to turn an article into an audio conversation. The conversation was akin to two human hosts discussing a deep dive into the article on a podcast. The AI hosts summarized the article, highlighted key information, and had back-and-forth conversations about the information contained in the article. However, don’t expect perfection.

In my case, I observed several mistakes during the audio conversations, including key information being skipped, factual inaccuracies, and references to information not present in the document. Likewise, the speech sounded unnatural in several cases, owing to excessive use of filler words, such as “you know” and “like,” which isn’t typical in real human conversations.

That’s not to say the audio overview feature isn’t helpful. Indeed, it’s beneficial, and such a feature available for mass usage would have been unthinkable a few years ago. However, you shouldn’t rely entirely on it to summarize documents. It works most of the time, but a minor mistake can be significant when analyzing documents.

Similar to the audio overview feature I just discussed, NotebookLM also has a video overview feature. That is, users can turn documents and articles into AI-generated video narrations. The narrations will include images, quotes, figures, and diagrams pulled from your document, with an AI voice dissecting the key points in a conversational tone.

I liked that I could tailor video overviews according to my needs, for example, by selecting the images and quotes I wanted to include in a video narration. I also liked that I could create multiple video overviews for the same PDF document or web page, gaining different perspectives.

Visual learning is more interactive and fun compared to reading long text. If you have a long text piece, NotebookLM makes the perfect companion to convert the long text into a visual narration that’s easy to learn from. However, beware of the limitations.

I noticed some mistakes in the video overviews I generated, similar to those of audio overviews. These mistakes included inaccurate information and some key data I highlighted being skipped. Just as I mentioned earlier, you shouldn’t rely 100% on NotebookLM to summarize your documents. Manual reading remains important.

NotebookLM is very useful, especially the free tier, but it still needs significant improvements. The good news is that Google is committed to continually improving the underlying Gemini LLM that NotebookLM is based on. It has released various updates to boost Gemini’s accuracy and will continue doing so amid intense competition from the likes of ChatGPT.

(Image credit: Google)

NotebookLM: Interface and in use

NotebookLM is as simple to navigate as a mobile app can be. After opening the app, the homepage lists all the notebooks you’ve previously created, or prompts you to create a notebook if you haven’t done so. The button to create a new notebook is prominently highlighted at the bottom.

You can easily create a notebook, add files, and begin asking questions and generating audio or video overviews. Every feature is neatly arranged at the bottom of the dashboard, and you can quickly upload a file, paste text, or enter an external web address to be analyzed. I give NotebookLM a perfect score in user-friendliness.

NotebookLM: Support

As a NotebookLM user, the first place to consult when troubleshooting issues is the official NotebookLM Help Center hosted by Google. This Help Center has comprehensive details about every functionality accessible on NotebookLM.

From learning how to use NotebookLM to changing configurations and resolving commonly encountered problems, the Help Center provides detailed answers. Personally, I encountered most issues when trying to import files, some of which failed to import initially, but the Help Center quickly solved my problem.

If you’re a Google AI Pro subscriber, you can get direct help from Google’s support team in addition to the self-help resources from the official Help Center. Google’s support team is reachable via live chat, email, and telephone and provides detailed answers.

NotebookLM: The competition

NotebookLM is a unique tool that combines note-taking and artificial intelligence-based research. Most rival apps focus on one of these functions but don’t combine the two. Its main competitors aren’t as popular, and they are mostly new apps launched within the last four years.

A competitor I’d like to highlight is Logically (formerly called Afforai). Just like NotebookLM, Logically lets you upload documents and ask its AI assistant in-depth questions related to the document. It doesn’t stop there, but also helps you add more relevant information to text documents, such as citations, tables, and diagrams.

Logically has a free plan and a paid version that unlocks unlimited access to its AI assistant. Users can also pay for addons like external large language models, a file annotator, and a reference manager.

I can’t confidently say Logically is better than NotebookLM or vice versa. However, Logically has a broader feature set that combines both NotebookLM’s core AI-based research feature and other useful AI-based features like writing assistance, file annotation, and academic reference management.

NotebookLM: Final verdict

NotebookLM is a valuable tool to have in your toolkit. It makes things easier when researching information online, thanks to its ability to extract key insights from long swathes of text and convert voluminous text into engaging visual summaries.

I’ll proudly recommend NotebookLM to students, teachers, corporate professionals, or information sleuths who engage in extensive research. Whether on the free or paid version, NotebookLM offers features that make research less hectic and more interactive.

We’ve listed the best text-to-speech software.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Today’s Wordle clues, hints and answer for October 3 #1567

by admin October 3, 2025

There’s a winning word out there, and we can help you find it. Team our tailor-made clue for the October 3 (1567) Wordle up with our fresh hints for maximum effect, giving you a bit of a push while still leaving you in control of how much assistance you receive. Need as much as we can give you? You’ve got it. The answer to today’s Wordle is only a little scroll away.

A clue for today’s Wordle

Stuck on today’s Wordle? Here’s a clue that pertains to the meaning of the word.

If you’re still just as stuck after our clue, scroll down for further hints.

Related articles

Hints for the October 3 (#1567) Wordle

Our Wordle hints will start vague so as to just give you a bit of a nudge in the right direction at first.

As you scroll down, they’ll offer more and more help towards figuring out today’s word without fully giving it away.

Are there any repeated letters in today’s Wordle?

There are four different letters in here.

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

Once you’ve found today’s lonely vowel, move on.

What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?

It’s a good idea to open with an “S”.

Words? What are those?

The October 3 (#1567) Wordle answer is…

(Image credit: Future)

This is it. No turning back now!

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The solution to today’s Wordle puzzle is…

The meaning behind today’s Wordle answer

The worst. When your leg or your back says no to whatever you’ve just done too much on and insists on a break. Ouch. 🩹

Previous Wordle answers

Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated.

Here are the last 10 Wordle answers:

September 23: MOUTH
September 24: BLUNT
September 25: DRAPE
September 26: DALLY
September 27: FRITZ
September 28: GOOEY
September 29: CIVIL
September 30: GEESE
October 1: SPOIL
October 2: WIDTH

Learn more about Wordle

(Image credit: Future)

How to play Wordle

Wordle’s a daily guessing game, where the goal is to correctly uncover today’s five letter word in six goes or less. An incorrect letter shows up as a grey box. A correct letter in the wrong space turns up yellow. And the correct letter in the right place shows up as green. There’s no time limit to worry about, and don’t forget that some letters might be used more than once.

Get better at Wordle!

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

Generally you want to pick something with a good mix of common consonants and vowels in it as your Wordle opener, as this is most likely to return some early green and yellow letters. Words like SLATE, CHIME, and REACT all work, but feel free to find your own favourite.

Is Wordle getting harder?

(Image credit: Valve)

Wordle is not getting harder!

There will always be the occasional day where the answer is the name of a body part, has a sneaky double vowel, or a word obscure enough to send everyone rushing off to a dictionary. But the daily answers, edited by Tracy Bennett, are still a good mix of common terms and tougher challenges.

Remember that if you’re craving more of a challenge, you can enable Hard Mode under the ⚙️ options menu. This option doesn’t make the words themselves harder, but it requires that “any revealed hints must be used in subsequent guesses.”

How did Wordle begin?

Wordle is the creation of Josh Wardle, and began life as a small personal project before its public release in 2021. From there it’s gone on to become a global phenomenon, attracting a dedicated daily audience, billions of plays, a whole host of competitors, and even a seven-figure sale to the New York Times where it’s become a mainstay of daily games alongside the crosswords and Connections.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

This early Prime Day deal has MSI’s gorgeous 34-inch curved ultrawide QD-OLED gaming monitor dropping to $649 at Amazon

by admin October 3, 2025

If you want to view the output from your PC and its accompanying graphics card in fine detail, then you need to splash out on a quality monitor. Depending on your priority, whether it’s working on photo imagery or video, or for pure gaming, you go for the specs that suit your use case the best. In some of these early Amazon Prime Big Deals Day deals, there are some great discounts on popular monitor brands. Today, we have a deal on one of MSI’s fantastic QD-OLED gaming monitors, which will make your games pop, with inky blacks and eye-popping colors.

The MSI MAG 341CQP gaming monitor is on sale for $649 at Amazon, one of its lowest prices in recent history. With its large 34-inch ultrawide display and impressive specifications, this is a luxury gaming monitor for serious gamers who want to experience the best visuals on a QD-OLED panel. This monitor deal is also available directly from MSI, should they sell out quickly on Amazon.

The MAG 341CQP spans 34 inches diagonally and features a QD-OLED panel with an 1800R curvature to wrap around the periphery of your vision. It has an original list price of $899.99, but prices have fluctuated between an all-time low of $575.99 in November 2024, to $780 in May of this year (according to CamelCamelCamel). Currently, it’s discounted to a much more palatable price in this deal.

The MSI MAG 341CQP’s display features support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, handy for reducing screen tearing and frame refresh rate issues. The large 34-inch screen has a 21:9 aspect ratio and sharp 3440×1440 (UWQHD) pixel resolution. The refresh rate can go up to 175Hz. A QD-OLED panel means not only excellent contrast, but also super-low response times of around 0.03ms.

It also supports DisplayHDR True Black 400 and has a good selection of ports for video input. You can take advantage of two HDMI 2.1 inputs and one DisplayPort 1.4a port. It also works as a USB hub, with a built-in KVM. Two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, one USB 2.0 Type-B port, and a Type-C port with 15W charging. A 3.5mm audio jack is also included.

The monitor comes with a 3-year manufacturer’s warranty from MSI, including coverage for OLED burn-in.

If you’re looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

The Best and Worst of Six Flags Fright Fest 2025

by admin October 3, 2025

Warner Bros. and Legendary horrors have taken over Six Flags Fright Fest to add more thrills to the national coaster theme park chain. Combining scares with metal behemoths of adrenaline-pumping rollercoasters is the main draw, but over the years, as competitors began to rely on major IP to up the ante, Six Flags has made some effort to catch up. Every year tends to improve upon the last; it’s still outpaced by the bigger names in the theme park industry, but with its 2024 initiated merger with Cedar Fair (which runs Knott’s Scary Farm), we were hopeful that things might be changing for the better.

io9 was invited to attend media night for the opening of the annual Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California, which this year featured haunted houses from a host of cinema greats, including the Conjuring universe, Trick ‘r Treat, and Saw. While the latter two are repeat mazes from 2024, this year the Conjuring house was updated to reflect the latest film, The Conjuring: Last Rites. Here’s what we thought about the Halloween offerings at this year’s fright fest.

The Good

The Conjuring Universe: This house plays as a Warren family investigations greatest hits. It’s good, though; as you enter, you’re met face-to-face with Annabelle behind the glass (at first) before venturing through some of the scariest moments from the Warren files. It’s Fright Fest’s best house that perfectly evokes the scares of the Warrens’ most horrifying cases. You get to walk through their collection of haunted relics as they’re summoned around you. Yes, there’s a nun behind the portrait, but even though you know it, you’re simply not prepared to have that experience.

Like in the film, Valak comes out of the walls right at you, and your soul flies out of the room faster than you can get your body to follow. It does feel a little all over the place, as the fearsome highlights include the Perron possession case among the chaos of the iconic demon entities, an old-school filmstrip of the Crooked Man being expanded on walls warning of his presence, and Annabelle being freed in so many forms. Then, of course, there are devilish forces waiting to get their claws on you, which end up manifesting as a dark hidden form within the shadows that reaches out to you with long black claws as you make your escape.

Trick ‘r Treat: Based on the Halloween anthology film, this house feels so festive and fun as you venture into its horrors. Fright Fest did a really good job at establishing the vibe of an inviting spooky season neighborhood house you want to enter that only gets more and more nightmarish as you make your way further in. You encounter teases of the iconic Sam, the mischievous pumpkin-headed demon child that connects each of the stories in Trick ‘r Treat, while you relive the creepiest moments from the movie, which is a genre spookshow. There’s the teenage werewolf party in the forest where a girl dressed as Red Riding Hood hides a dark secret. Another great recreation includes the school bus haunting of kids who died on Halloween years ago that included the crashed vehicle, as well as the creepy masked kids who spring up on you from beyond. The fog in that room is perfectly deployed to make you discombobulated enough to not see them coming. But it’s the end, where Sam chases you through a mirror maze (I looped it twice) before meeting him in his throne room, that really shines as one of the park’s most fun Halloween experiences.

The So-So

Scare Zones: There were several new interesting concepts this year! The twisted Wonderland area was a pastel fever dream with mad hatters and demented-looking rabbits chasing you. And just in time for the Oz renaissance, there was a steampunk take on the lore with an evil witch, tin man, lion, and flying monkeys lurking about. However, while the makeup designs were a highlight of inspired monster creations, the settings were really sparse, and there weren’t very fully formed environments to feel immersed in. At least there was a yellow brick road projection, but both Oz and Wonderland needed a showstopping backdrop. If there was one, it was too dark.

Saw: The Saw house plays up the torture device set pieces in creative and showstopping ways thanks to the actors in the houses, but it’s the scares that are lacking. The monsters that come at you are mostly the pig-masked hooded figures, which got really repetitive. And there was a big lack of Billy the Puppet. He only really appears once on his trike, if it’s working, which undercuts why he’s so scary when he’s supposed to be the figurehead that asks, “Do you wanna play a game?” When we went through, he was stuck on his automated track, and we nearly missed him. There was more Billy on the merch!

The Merch: Fright Fest shines with its original art merchandise based on the park’s original houses and roaming characters, such as the clown sliders, Medusa-inspired psychics, or retro zombie ladies. Those designs really capture the energy that makes Fright Fest unique and are usually an instant buy. This year it released some spooky Looney Tunes gear that was great despite there not being anything Looney in Bugs Bunny World besides a creepy carnival area. I was excited to buy a truly unhinged shirt that features Sylvester as the Bride of Frankenstein and Tweety as Frankenstein’s monster, which in a really weird way I sort of get. The merch for the movie properties, however, was a mixed bag; it would have been cool to get the Six Flags artists to do a take on the characters in The Conjuring, but those shirts mostly felt like licensed marketing images slapped on things.

Carnage: New for this year is a house that takes you into the fortress of an anarchic clown’s hub of madness and recruitment in a “city under siege.” While the house was fun and filled with chaotic jump scares, I couldn’t help but think this was maybe meant to be a Joker house. It doesn’t help that it was literally in the DC Universe area of the theme park! While going through, some set pieces reminded me of Joker moments from Suicide Squad and even Joker in aesthetic. At one point the clown leader jumps on a car and talks to you. So I was very distracted by how cool a Gotham run by Joker and his goons could have been to experience as a maze. The rights that Fright Fest has on how it can use DC characters remain so confusing, so maybe it would’ve been better to try and avoid the parallels here.

The Bad

© Six Flags

Themed foods/drinks: There was a variety of items based on just Halloween, but none inspired by the major IP houses, which I was looking forward to. But I’ll preface that with I was setting myself up for that disappointment here: I saw the official Six Flags Instagram promote drinks based off The Conjuring universe and thought they’d be at Magic Mountain. I mean, it’s the park closest to Hollywood and other major haunt competitors, so it would have made sense, right? So I was very surprised when I realized that the drink in question, Valak’s Vice, was nowhere to be found to represent the best house at the event.

Old houses: The last time I went to Fright Fest was before I had my now one-year-old child. So I was a little bummed to discover that a good number of houses I’ve already experienced were still there. And if there were recent additions, they felt so generically similar to older houses that I couldn’t tell you what’s new. This is something I hope changes, as I hope there’s more collaboration within the merger, allowing for a bit of the Knott’s Scary Farm magic to get sprinkled onto Fright Fest. Knott’s historically is the first park to really turn haunted houses into immersive storytelling you can experience through its legendary Scary Farm offerings and stands apart from the parks that rely on only movie and TV properties. Six Flags has the opportunity to be the best of both worlds with its WB and DC horror connections and its original houses within the sheer amount of good space they were given to build on. Here’s hoping the potential of the Knott’s merger sees an upgrade in years to come.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments