Strongroom AI raised $17 million at a $70 million valuation. Three weeks later, investors called the police. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Support for a high number of users TCL’s new smart-home app is a dramatic improvement Lots of features for the price Cons Deadbolt feels a bit wobbly Doesn’t support recurring credentials The doorbell feels superfluous Our Verdict This budget smart lock doesn’t skimp on features, although reservations over the robustness of it hardware keep us from making a strong recommendation for it. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock Retailer Price $109.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices TCL jumped into the smart lock market late in late 2024 with some ambitious—and pricey—locks that were hit and miss, perhaps rushed to market without enough testing. The manufacturer has since taken a step back and is fleshing out its lineup a bit more thoughtfully, including the launch of this budget-priced offering, the TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock Plus. Specifications The TCL D2 Plus looks a lot like its big brother, the TCL D2 Pro, but with a major change under the hood: The Pro is a palm vein scanning lock, where the Plus relies on a more pedestrian fingerprint scanner as its primary authentication system. The biggest advantage is that the change helps get the price way down: An MSRP of $110 compared to $170 for the Pro model. That $60 difference makes it a solid value. TCL now has its own mobile app, TCL Home, and it’s a great improvement over the generic Tuya app it used before. The exterior of the aluminum-clad lock, which is rated IP55 for weatherproofing but with no ANSI/BHMA certification, offers only a few surprises, including the aforementioned fingerprint scanner, a touch-sensitive numeric keypad, and support for NFC cards (the SKU reviewed here doesn’t come with any cards, but you can buy the lock bundled with several fobs at Amazon for just a few dollars more). An exposed physical keyhole—along with two keys—provides another means of entry. The doorbell button embedded in the TCL D2’s PIN pad isn’t backlit, which makes it very difficult to see at night.Christopher Null/Foundry An understated doorbell button is embedded in the lock’s keypad. When a visitor presses the button, you’ll hear a chime and receive a push notification on your smartphone. This product is not a video doorbell, however, and it has no video features at all; nor does TCL offer a secondary chime that can be installed inside the house. A USB-C port on the bottom of the exterior escutcheon can be used for emergency access if the lock’s batteries die while you’re out. Speaking of batteries, you’ll need to bring your own: Eight AA cells, which TCL says will provide about 6 months of running time. The lock connects directly to your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network, eliminating the need for a bridge or smart home hub. Amazon Alexa and Google Home are both supported if you want to extend your ecosystem beyond the basics of the TCL Home app. Installation and setup The TCL D2 Plus comes with the usual bits and pieces, including two physical keys.Christopher Null/Foundry The process of installing the TCL D2 Plus is the same as it is for entry-level locks, with two bolts connecting the exterior escutcheon to a mounting frame on the inside of the door. The interior escutcheon mounts to that frame with just two more bolts, and a single electrical cable connects the two components, making this a quick install compared to the rest of the industry. Popping the eight batteries into place feels like the more onerous part of the process. More good news: TCL has moved from the awful Tuya app that it initially relied upon for the TCL D1 series, and now has its own mobile app, TCL Home. This is a great improvement, and setting up the lock with this app was simple. The app automatically discovered the lock once it was powered up, and pressing a button under the battery cover completed the onboarding process. Answering a few simple questions added the lock to my Wi-Fi network, and after three(!) firmware updates it was ready for use. Using the TCL D2 Plus Finger Print Smart Lock The TCL D2 Plus is largely intuitive and easy to use, although you’ll need to spend a bit of time in the settings menu to optimize it fully. One option I recommend changing immediately is to turn off “Device Security,” which requires you to enter a PIN in the app every time you use the app, which quickly becomes very tiresome. TCL now has its own smart home app, and it’s a big improvement over what it bundled with its earlier smart locks.Christopher Null/Foundry Other settings cover the basics: Auto locking can be set to between 10 and 120 seconds (though the lock has no door sensor and will lock whether it’s open or closed), and wrong-try protection lets you specify 5 to 10 incorrect permission attempts before it disables the lock for 2 to 5 minutes. Notifications can be individually set for unlocking, locking, doorbell presses, and alarm conditions (such as the activation of wrong-try lockout). Each of these activities is logged in the Events tab on the home screen and is summarized by day and week in the Home Assistant tab. One additional feature on this tab is called Homecoming Reminder, which is a type of alarm/reminder that will push a notification to the administrator if a configured user has not returned home and unlocked the door within a window of time that you set. It’s clearly designed for parents to keep tabs on children, and it worked well in my testing. The TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock requires eight AA batteries, and you’ll need to provide them.Christopher Null/Foundry User management is well designed, with credentials assigned user by user. Each user can have multiple fingerprints, PINs (4 to 8 digits), and NFC cards assigned. The lock supports up to 100 of each type of credential in total. Fingerprints and NFC cards always provide 24/7 access; PINs can be set to permanent or time-limited, although there is no facility for recurring passwords that are valid, say, only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Duress PINs can be used to send an alert to the administrator if a user is unlocking the door under duress, so the admin can notify authorities. Lastly, one-time, immediate-use passwords can be generated on demand within the app; these expire within 10 minutes, and only one can be active at a time. I encountered no significant issues working with the TCL Home app or the lock’s input systems throughout several days of testing. My only real complaint about using the lock was with some aspects of the hardware itself. The thumbturn requires a lot of pressure to get the bolt to extend all the way, and the motor can’t get the job done either, though the bolt made it most of the way to full extension—just a couple of millimeters shy. The TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock isn’t the most demure lock on the market.Christopher Null/Foundry I wasn’t thrilled with the way the deadbolt jiggles around when it’s extended, either, feeling a bit loose and unsteady. Without formal testing it’s hard to know how secure the lock is physically; but anecdotally, it just doesn’t feel all that secure. Remember, the lock is not ANSI/BHMA certified. The doorbell on the front of the lock, meanwhile, feels like an afterthought. The tiny icon is not illuminated unless the keypad is lit up, and I would never realistically expect a visitor to find the button to tap. It is, however, very easy to accidentally press it when you’re trying to unlock the door. My advice: Set it to mute and forget it’s there. Should you buy the TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock? I’ve seen the street price of the TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock drop as low as $80, making for a very good deal. It’s a bit less of a bargain at its $120 MSRP, but it still feels like a reasonable price for what you get. At the very least, this lock is a dramatic upgrade over the still-available TCL D1 series, putting TCL in a much better position to merit consideration in the smart lock space. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart locks. Read...

Coralogix launches Olly, an autonomous agent that automates real-time observability by detecting and resolving production issues faster and with no human input required. Read...

Nvidia is reactivating a feature that many of you may have already written off: The new Game Ready driver 591.44 brings back PhysX support for selected older games. For owners of a GeForce RTX 50 graphics card, this is a very relevant change — especially if you enjoy playing classic games with elaborate physics effects. Why PhysX is important – and why it was removed PhysX has been a mainstay in PC gaming for many years, creating realistic effects for fabrics, smoke and particles in titles such as “Borderlands 2” and “Batman: Arkham City.” But Nvidia cancelled PhysX support at the beginning of 2025: New RTX-50 series graphics cards could no longer accelerate PhysX calculations in 32-bit games via GPU. As a result, the calculations landed entirely on the CPU — with significant performance losses compared to prior generation GeForce cards. Some gamers reacted with a hilarious, yet totally functional workaround: They plugged an older Nvidia card into their computer just to be able to continue using PhysX effects. Driver 591.44: PhysX returns – but only for select games With the current driver, there is now a turnaround. Nvidia is introducing a so-called “Custom Support” level. This is not a complete return of the old 32-bit support, but rather individually created profiles for a hand-picked selection of particularly popular PhysX titles. These nine games now benefit from GPU acceleration again: Alice: Madness Returns Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Batman: Arkham City Batman: Arkham Origins Borderlands 2 Mafia II Metro 2033 Metro: Last Light Mirror’s Edge Nvidia has announced additional support for “Batman: Arkham Asylum” for the first half of 2026. Whether other games will follow remains to be seen. Nvidia writes that it has initially focused on the most popular classics that are still frequently played today. PhysX technology originally comes from Ageia, which developed its own physics processor unit (PPU) around 20 years ago. Nvidia took over Ageia in 2008 and integrated PhysX calculations directly into the CUDA cores of its own GeForce graphics cards. This made the additional PPU card superfluous, but also tied the effects firmly to Nvidia hardware. Driver also brings optimizations and bug fixes In addition to the return of PhysX, Nvidia’s new Game Ready driver offers further improvements: Optimizations for “Battlefield 6: Winter Offensive” and “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7”, especially in conjunction with DLSS 4. Fixes for graphics artifacts in “The Witcher 3”. Stability fixes for Adobe Premiere Pro. Driver 591.44 is available for download as usual via the Nvidia app or the Nvidia website. If you play classic games with PhysX effects, the update should bring noticeable improvements — often significantly higher frame rates and reactivated graphical effects. If, on the other hand, you only play modern titles, you will primarily benefit from the general optimizations and bug fixes. Read...

Google has unveiled its favorite Chrome browser extensions for 2025. This year’s list is not ranked but is dominated by AI. It is divided into three categories. AI companionsGoogle specifically highlights Monica and Sider, two all-in-one tools that help you summarize web pages, analyze PDFs and write text directly in the browser. HARPA AI, in turn, combines AI with web automation, for example to monitor price changes online. In addition, Quillbot continues to be a popular writing aid with advanced grammar and paraphrasing features. Work and learningIn this category, Google recommends Fireflies.ai and Bluedot, which are extensions that can record, transcribe and summarize digital meetings automatically. QuestionAI then acts as a personalized tutor to explain difficult topics, while eJOY weaves language learning into daily browsing. Creativity and shoppingAdobe has now brought its Photoshop features directly to the web, which Google says makes quick image editing more accessible than ever. Phia, the final winner in Google’s list, helps users compare prices and find the best buy with just one click. PCWorld’s own list of top-notch Chrome extensions doesn’t lean as hard on AI. Check out our roundup of 11 essential Chrome extensions I install on every PC for a more practical lists of add-ons. Read...

AI supply chains will consolidate by 2026, with tight human oversight, integrated infrastructure and trust becoming key differentiators. Read...

Microsoft is testing a new version of the Run command window (summoned by pressing Win + R simultaneously) in Windows 11. The new version is based on Microsoft’s Fluent Design ethos, which infuses Windows apps and tools with a more modern look with rounded corners and support for the dark mode in Windows 11. Windows 11 is getting a modern Run dialog! Build 26534 ships with bits for it, here`s a first look: pic.twitter.com/K0kWO8ltSe— phantomofearth ?? (@phantomofearth) December 4, 2025 For now, it seems that users will be able to choose whether they want to run the new or the old version, via an option in the advanced system settings. If you want a peek at the new design and how it contrasts with the original, check out Windows Latest’s full report on the new Run. Consistent Windows preview leaker PhantomOfEarth first drew attention to the hidden new tool. The old version of Windows Run has basically remained unchanged since the Windows 95 era, which means that the code is currently more than 30 years old. Read...

A privacy brouhaha has erupted over Kohler Health’s new toilet camera, the Dekota, that scans your poop looking for clues about your gut health.  Specifically, a security researcher is disputing Kohler Health’s claims that data collected by the Dekota, including scans of your fecal matter, are end-to-end encrypted. Kohler Health, meanwhile, is doubling-down, countering that the connection is end-to-end encrypted.  In a blog post, researcher Simon Fondrie-Teitler (as reported by TechCrunch) defines end-to-end encryption as “a method of securing data that ensures only the sender and their chosen recipient are able to view it. Correctly implemented, it prevents other parties, including the developer of the application, from accessing the protected data.”  But as Fondrie-Teitler learned in his research, Kohler Health does have access to data gathered by the Dakota, a $599 device that clips to the side of your toilet and aims an optical sensor at the bottom of your toilet bowl, where it examines your bowel movements and delivers reports about its findings in the Kohler Health app.  Thus, Fondrie-Teitler argues, while the Dakota’s data tunnel may indeed be encrypted, it is not end-to-end encrypted, as are the secure connections between two parties in a WhatsApp call or the “client-side” encryption employed by Apple’s iCloud storage service, which prevents Apple itself from seeing a user’s data.  “What Kohler is referring to as E2EE here is simply HTTPS encryption between the app and the server, something that has been basic security practice for two decades now, plus encryption at rest,” Fondrie-Teitler concluded, while adding that Kohler Health’s privacy policy says it may use data from the Dekota to train AI models.  As Fondrie-Teitler noted, many tech reporters (myself included) parroted Kohler Health’s end-to-end encryption claims about the Dekota toilet camera, so naturally I reached out to the company for more details.  Here is the statement I received:  “The term end-to-end encryption is often used in the context of products that enable a user (sender) to communicate with another user (recipient), such as a messaging application. Kohler Health is not a messaging application. In this case, we used the term with respect to the encryption of data between our users (sender) and Kohler Health (recipient).  We encrypt data end-to-end in transit, as it travels between users’ devices and our systems, where it is decrypted and processed to provide and improve our service. We also encrypt sensitive user data at rest, when it’s stored on a user’s mobile phone, toilet attachment, and on our systems.  If a user consents (which is optional), Kohler Health may de-identify the data and use the de-identified data to train the AI that drives our product. This consent check-box is displayed in the Kohler Health app, is optional, and is not pre-checked.  Privacy and security are foundational to Kohler Health because we know health data is deeply personal. We welcome user feedback and want to ensure they understand that every element of the product is designed with privacy and security in mind.”  So, according to Kohler’s logic, Kohler Health counts as a trusted party at the other end of its toilet cam’s encrypted tunnel because Kohler Health is not a messaging service—and thus, it counts as end-to-end encryption.  But there’s also an argument to be made that while Kohler Health isn’t a messaging service, it’s still a company acting as the guardian of our private data, and the term “end-to-end encryption” imples that Kohler will treat that data the same way that Apple does with iCloud—meaning, Apple can’t access it at all.   In this case, however, Kohler does (according to Fondrie-Teitler’s research) have access to its user’s data, including the option to deanonymize the data of willing users for use in AI training. I put this point to Kohler’s spokesperson in a follow-up query, and am awaiting a reply.  In an interview with 404 Media, Fondrie-Teitler argues that Kohler Health’s claims undermine the very meaning of end-to-end encryption—which, according to Cloudflare’s definition, is “a type of messaging that keeps messages private from everyone, including the messaging service.”   “I’d like the term ‘end-to-end encryption’ to not get watered down to just meaning ‘uses https’,” Fondrie-Teitler said in 404 Media’s story. “I think everyone has a right to privacy, and in order for that to be realized people need to have an understanding of what’s happening with their data.” Read...

I can’t find a single set of DDR5 RAM at 32 gigabytes on the first page of Amazon results for under $300. So the fact that you can get an Acer laptop with 32 gigs for $485.99 on eBay right now might actually qualify as a Christmas miracle. It’s a refurbished laptop, but it’s absolutely packed with tech and comes with a two-year warranty. The Acer Aspire 14 AI is a traditional clamshell laptop design with a 14-inch 1920 x 1200 touchscreen, an 8-core Intel Ultra 5 processor, the aforementioned 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. All of those are well above the level you’d be able to find on a typical $500 laptop, where 16GB of RAM is still considered a pretty good deal. The screen isn’t amazing, nor is the battery life, but you get a good selection of ports (double USB-C and USB-A, HDMI) with support for Windows Hello face unlock via the IR camera. You can read all about this particular model in the PCWorld review, though this package has that boosted RAM. Though this is being sold directly from Acer (via its official eBay shop), it’s coming with a two-year Allstate warranty. That’s technically better than the one you get with a new laptop, though Allstate’s service doesn’t have the best reputation. If you’re looking for something else, this Ryzen-powered Lenovo Yoga laptop is still $420 off, or you can take a glance at the best laptops in PCWorld’s roundup. Get a 32GB refurbished Acer laptop for $486View Deal Read...

From graphics cards to mid-sized cars, you can’t find any new electronics that don’t claim to be “AI-powered” in some way. That includes Logitech’s mice and keyboards, some of which are being loaded specifically with “AI” buttons. But the CEO of Logitech says she sees no value in infamous “AI” gadgets, such as the Rabbit A1 or the Humane pin. “What’s out there is a solution looking for a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Hanneke Faber in an interview with Bloomberg. That seems to be the consensus among reviewers, and many early adopters, who found the Rabbit R1 to be little more than a stripped-down smartphone that was less capable than, well, a phone just running the ChatGPT app. The Humane pin was even more lampooned, with its questionable utility underscored by poor battery life and overheating issues for the projected hand screen. Both devices are now essentially dead. That isn’t to say that Logitech has no ticket to the “AI” hype train. It sells a “Signature AI Edition” of the M750 mouse which has a dedicated assistant button right there on the top of the mouse. Logitech has an “AI” Prompt Builder that integrates with its omnibus Logi Options+ management app as well, allowing triggered actions on most of its mid-range and high-end keyboards and mice. That being said, looking at the company’s latest products, it’s refreshing to see something that doesn’t have abominable intelligence plastered on every page. The MX Master 4 mouse and the Alto Keys 98M keyboard both omit any mention of “AI” on their promotional pages. The latter doesn’t even have a Copilot button, despite being a cross-platform Windows/Mac input device. With so many products and services apparently injecting “AI” into their features list apparently just to tick a box, I appreciate Logitech’s apparent resistance to the trend. Faber also said that Logitech isn’t looking to raise prices again anytime soon, after a notable jump in sticker prices following the initial round of Trump tariffs. “…It had to be done and it was better to rip off the proverbial Band-Aid than kind of drag our feet, which some others did.” Logitech increased prices on some devices by around 25 percent in early 2025. That said, with pricing for chips and memory exploding, thanks largely to the “AI” industry boom, even low-end devices could see more pricing pressure in 2026. Read...