SanDisk’s SSD hits a record‑low price for ultra‑fast, durable storage on the go. The post SanDisk Offloads Its SSDs, Now Selling the 2TB Model for Pennies on Amazon appeared first on Kotaku .
Remembering hundreds of secure passwords isn’t really possible unless you’re some kind of savant. What to do? Well, passkeys are a great alternative , but they’re far from universal… so some kind of password management system is almost essential. But those put all your passwords behind a single point of failure, which can become a target of hackers. That’s happening to LastPass and Bitwarden right now. A large phishing campaign is targeting both of these popular cross-platform password management systems, according to a report from BleepingComputer. LastPass has confirmed the campaign, which is sending out mass emails that claim the password managers have been hacked and that they’re sending out new desktop programs for increased safety. For the record, it appears that neither LastPass nor Bitwarden have actually been hacked as of this writing ( at least not recently ). These are phony messages trying to get you to install a remote access program, presumably to steal your data. Interestingly, the mass phishing campaign is using legitimate remote access tools—Syncro, which is an alternative to programs like LogMeIn or Windows Remote Desktop—hidden in the malicious download. BleepingComputer also reports an apparently separate phishing campaign for 1Password that began last week. Cloudflare has been blocking access to at least some of the links in these emails. Remember, if someone gets into your email inbox and claims that you need to download something or log in for confirmation, double-check the sender’s email address and never click those direct links . Look at the company’s public-facing web page for verification, and manually log in via a separate window, browser, or even device.
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Daniel Kuhn / The Block : a16z Crypto invests $50M in Solana infrastructure provider Jito through a private token sale, likely one of a16z's largest crypto investments in recent years — - Andreessen Horowitz's crypto wing invested $50 million in key Solana infrastructure provider Jito in a strategic private token sale.
Gaming on laptops has come a long way. These days, there’s no shortage of machines that can pack serious power. But not every gaming laptop is built for the way in which you play. Maybe you’re all about chasing those super-high frame rates in shooters. Or maybe you just want to get lost in story games with amazing graphics. Either way, performance matters. That’s where we come in. We’ve tested every laptop on this list ourselves, and we didn’t just look at the specs. We also paid attention to frame rates, thermals, keyboard feel, screen quality, and more. No fluff or filler here! Why you should trust PCWorld for laptop reviews and buying advice It’s in our name! PCWorld prides itself on laptop experience and expertise. We’ve been covering PCs since 1983, and we now review more than 70 laptops every year. All of the picks below have been personally tested and vetted by our experts, who’ve applied not only performance benchmarks but rigorous usability standards. We’re also committed to reviewing PC laptops at every price point to help you find a machine that matches your budget. Alienware 16X Aurora – Best gaming laptop overall Pros High-end CPU performance Bright and beautiful display Great gaming experience Very competitive price Cons You can get better gaming performance with a faster GPU (of course) Some hot air blows out the sides Price When Reviewed: 2099 Euro Best Prices Today: Retailer Price 2.099,00 € View Deal Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Who should buy the Alienware 16X Aurora? If you want a high-end gaming laptop that punches well above its price point, the Alienware 16X Aurora is the one to spring for. It’s fast, powerful, and surprisingly good value for what you’re getting. The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU is an absolute beast for gaming (or productivity!), and the RTX 5070 graphics handles modern titles just fine at high settings, even at higher resolutions. Whether you’re jumping straight into AAA games or streaming your favorite titles, this laptop will definitely keep up. The 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display is bright, colorful, and buttery-smooth thanks to its 240Hz refresh rate. It’s great for competitive gaming or fast-paced action games. You also get a full-sized keyboard, a responsive trackpad, and a crisp 1080p webcam with Windows Hello face login. The build is solid, too. It feels premium and the design doesn’t go overboard with the flashy gamer aesthetic. Alienware 16X Aurora: Further considerations The Alienware 16X Aurora isn’t the lightest laptop in the room at 5.86 pounds and that’s okay. The aluminum and plastic construction keep it premium-feeling, though it does pick up fingerprints more than we’d like. The keyboard and trackpad also aren’t the best, but they’re comfortable and functional. The RTX 5070 GPU isn’t top of the line, but it offers plenty of oomph for high-end gaming at 1440p. If it’s a fancy OLED display and an all-metal build you’re after, you’ll definitely pay significantly more for those features. Finally, battery life is about average for a gaming laptop (we eked out seven hours on a single charge), but you’ll probably be plugged in anyway for those intense matches. Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10 – Best high-end gaming laptop Pros Top-notch performance Excellent display Fast wired and wireless connectivity Supports USB-C charging Cons Premium pricing Has the short battery life of gaming laptops Trackpad could be bigger Price When Reviewed: 3599 Euro Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Lenovo 3.599,00 € View Deal HeinzSoft 3.600,00 € View Deal Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Who should buy the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10? If you want a no-compromises gaming machine, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 is where it’s at. It has an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX chip and RTX 5080 graphics, which is more than enough for buttery-smooth AAA gaming. The 16-inch OLED screen looks awesome, and that crazy fast 240Hz refresh rate makes everything feel super smooth when you’re gaming. Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10: Further considerations The Legion Pro 7i is pricey and not exactly backpack-friendly at more than five pounds, but if you’re chasing high frame rates and gorgeous visuals, this laptop delivers. Battery life isn’t its strong suit, so plan to stay plugged in for long sessions. But when it comes to raw gaming power, this one’s a beast. Acer Nitro V 16 – Best gaming laptop under $1,000 Pros Solid performance Competitive price Dedicated button for quick performance-mode switching Fast 165Hz display with good colors Cons Fully plastic build Mushy keyboard Weak battery life Price When Reviewed: 1199 Euro Best Prices Today: Retailer Price 900,00 € View Deal 900,00 € View Deal 1.299,00 € View Deal Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Who should buy the Acer Nitro V 16? The Acer Nitro V 16 is a solid starter laptop if you’re watching your budget. It’s surprisingly good at running games, especially for the price. The AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU will give you plenty of power for smooth 1080p gaming. The 16-inch 1080p 165Hz screen is also big and runs nice and fast. Battery life isn’t great, though. It clocked just around four hours in our tests, but that’s to be expected — it is a gaming laptop, after all. If you mostly game at your desk, then it’s not a deal breaker. Acer Nitro V 16: Further considerations This is a great pick for budget-conscious gamers who still want solid frame rates. You’re getting a lot of power for the money. The plastic build is one area where costs are trimmed. It doesn’t feel cheap, but you’ll notice the plastic around the touchpad and vents–it’s just not as fancy as metal. Still, it’s totally fine for everyday use and the peppy performance totally makes up for the plastic look. Bottom line is, if you’re okay skipping the fancy materials, the Nitro V 16 delivers where it counts — gameplay. Read our full Acer Nitro V 16 ANV16-41-R961 review Razer Blade 14 (2025) – Most portable gaming laptop Pros Thin, light, and compact Solid gaming performance Beautiful OLED display Premium quality all around Cons Expensive Bulkier gaming laptops will perform better Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Who should buy the Razer Blade 14 (2025)? Looking for a gaming laptop that won’t kill your back? The Razer Blade 14 (2025) is only 3.59 pounds–that’s crazy light for a beast like this. It’s packing an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU and an RTX 5070 GPU, so it can easily handle modern games on High or Ultra settings. The 14-inch 2880×1800 120Hz OLED screen is a delight to behold and, somehow, it manages to stay cool and quiet even when it’s under load. Oh, and that matte-black finish? Pretty slick. Razer Blade 14 (2025) : Further considerations It’s not cheap or super flashy, but it hits the sweet spot for power and portability. Battery life is pretty good for a gaming laptop (just over 11 hours!), but don’t expect to game unplugged all day. The keyboard and touchpad are fine, speakers could be better. Still, if you want a capable gaming rig that you can carry with ease, this one’s worth it. Read our full Razer Blade 14 (2025) review Acer Chromebook 516 GE – Best gaming Chromebook Pros Attractive design Excellent CPU performance Plenty of wired and wireless connectivity High-resolution 1600p display Cons Mediocre keyboard and touchpad Disappointing speakers and microphone Display falls behind in contrast and color vibrancy Price When Reviewed: 949 Euro Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Media Markt 799,00 € View Deal Saturn 799,00 € View Deal Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Who should buy the Acer Chromebook 516 GE? If you want to try out cloud gaming, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a solid pick. It can’t run games by itself (Chromebooks just aren’t built for that), but if you hook it up with GeForce Now or Amazon Luna , it actually runs pretty smooth. The 16-inch 2560×1600 display is sharp and fast at 120Hz, and the Ethernet port is a must-have for a stable internet connection. It’s also just a solid everyday Chromebook for work or school. Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Further considerations This Chromebook was made for cloud gaming on the go. It’s got enough power for daily tasks and the gameplay feel great (as long as your internet’s up to the task). If you need offline play, you’ll want a Windows laptop instead. Read our full Acer Chromebook 516 GE review Other gaming laptops we’ve tested We’ve also tested a few other gaming laptops that impressed us, even if they didn’t make the top cut. The Alienware m18 is a monster with its massive 18-inch 2560×1600 LCD display and high-end specs–great for immersion, not so great for your backpack or budget. Same goes for the MSI Raider 18 HX AI : powerful, but pricey. On the flip side, the Lenovo LOQ 15 is a solid budget pick. For around $799, you get reliable 1080p gaming thanks to the RTX 3050 graphics card. It’s great for newcomers or anyone trying to save some cash. How we test gaming laptops The PCWorld team puts each and every Windows laptop through a series of benchmarks that test GPU and CPU performance, battery life, and so on. The idea is to push the laptop to its limits and then compare it against others we’ve tested. Chromebooks, on the other hand, go through a series of web-based tests. For a much deeper look at our review methodology, check out how PCWorld tests laptops . Who curated this article? Hi, I’m Ashley Biancuzzo , and I oversee all laptop and Chromebook coverage at PCWorld. While you’ll see me review Chromebooks on occasion, I’m also really into the broader world of consumer tech. I spend a lot of time writing and thinking about where laptops are headed–from AI and sustainable designs to long-term trends. When I’m not deep in the world of tech, you’ll probably find me gaming, getting lost in a good book, or chilling with my rescue greyhound, Allen. How to choose the best gaming laptop To find the best gaming laptop for your needs, pay close attention to the following features. What’s the best screen for a gaming laptop? When you buy a gaming laptop, one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make regards the screen. After all, what you get on day one is what you’re stuck with until you junk the device. You could run an external monitor, but then, what’s the point of a laptop? Look for an IPS or OLED display, though gaming laptops under $1,000 sometimes feature a TN panel. You can get buy with a 60Hz display if you mostly play single-player games, but thankfully, most gaming laptops these days opt for faster 120Hz+ panels instead. What’s the best screen size for a gaming laptop? The size of the screen dictates the size of the laptop itself, and thus weight. Think long and hard about whether you’re willing to take the weight penalty in exchange for the screen real estate. What’s the best screen resolution for a gaming laptop? The buzzword today is “4K.” That high resolution delivers sharper photo viewing and more space for video editing, but that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. Anything not using the panel’s native resolution of 3840×2180, such as games running at lower-than-4K resolution, won’t look quite as sharp unless you exponentially increase the graphics power of the laptop. If you’re running at 1920×1080 resolution because your GPU can’t hit 60fps at 4K, that feature is moot. For many gamers, 1920×1080 (1080p) or 2560×1440 (1440p) is more optimal. IPS vs. TN vs. OLED: What’s the difference? The panel technology is a key feature. IPS (in-plane switching) generally produces much greater color accuracy and superior off-axis viewing, but tends to lag in response times, which can lead to blurring. TN (twisted nematic) panels can offer far higher refresh rates and usually better response times than IPS, but can look washed out or just blah. A middle-ground technology that’s appearing more often is VA (vertical alignment). VA is sometimes alternately referred to as “wide viewing angle” technology. (Many assume this spec to be IPS, but it’s not). In our experience, we’ve found VA panels to run the gamut from being worthy competitors to IPS to being worse than the better TN panels. The wildcard in all this is OLED. Unlike IPS, TN, and VA, OLED panels don’t rely on edge- or backlighting where “black” is produced by a shutter-like mechanism that blocks light from coming through. Instead, each pixel generates its own light. To produce black, it just switches off the light. This amounts to truly stunning contrast ratios and vibrant colors. OLEDs also boast fantastic response times. The negatives include smaller screen sizes (we haven’t seen anything larger than 15.6 inches yet), higher cost, and lack of support for variable refresh rate. OLED panels can also use more power than conventional methods if the image is on a white background. Should a gaming laptop have G-Sync or FreeSync support? Okay, we called this section G-Sync and FreeSync, but the reality is, when it comes to beefy gaming laptops, it’s a GeForce GPU world. And that means it’s a G-Sync world. In a nutshell, Nvidia and AMD’s respective variable-refresh-rate technologies help synchronize the monitor and the GPU to greatly reduce screen tearing. Variable refresh rates can make gaming at 40fps far smoother to your eyes than a screen without it. The first variable-refresh-rate panels for laptops maxed out at 75Hz, only marginally better than the standard 60Hz. More recently, we’ve begun to see laptop panels that can push 120Hz, 144Hz, and even 240Hz. This generally means smoother and sharper gaming to your eyes. It even helps smooth out everyday tasks such as scrolling a browser page or Word document. One last very important note: G-Sync screens have to be connected directly to the laptop’s discrete GPU, which means a large hit on battery life. In most laptops without G-Sync, the Intel integrated graphics is connected directly to the screen, so the GPU can be turned off when not being used. So while G-Sync is beautiful to behold, the cost in battery life is huge. What should you look for in a gaming laptop keyboard and trackpad? A new trend in gaming laptops is the offset trackpad, which is more conducive to gaming than a dead-center trackpad. The concept is sound, but anyone who actually cares about PC gaming will just plug in a mouse. The worst thing about that offset trackpad is when you try to use it for non-gaming purposes. As far as keyboards go, the most important gaming feature is n-key rollover. This means the keyboard physically scans each key separately. If you wanted to, you could press 20 keys simultaneously and they’d all register, as each is independently wired. That probably sounds excessive, but keyboards that lack this feature can suffer missed keystrokes, which both ruins gameplay and hurts in everyday tasks. Other keyboard considerations include LED backlighting (which adds ambiance but does nothing for gameplay) and mechanical keys vs. membrane. Mechanical keys are excellent–but are available on only a handful of laptops that usually weigh a ton. We have seen a few designs with low-profile mechanical keyboards, but even we admit they can be an acquired taste. What kind of storage is best for a gaming laptop? Having your games load from an SSD instead of a hard drive significantly cuts down on load times. But beyond that, we haven’t found it to matter that much whether it’s a super-fast NVMe PCIe drive or a slower SATA SSD. What does matter more today is the size of the SSD rather than the interface it uses. With games now topping 50GB and some touching 100GBs, a once-spacious 256GB SSD will feel too small with just four games installed. So when spec’ing out that gaming laptop, be mindful of just how much total storage you have. If you go for laptop with a small SSD and large hard drive combo, expect to install your games to the hard drive. If the laptop will have an SSD only, choose an absolute minimum of 512GB, with 1TB preferred. How much RAM do you need in a gaming laptop? When laptop makers spec out gaming laptops, one of the levers they use to try to convince you to buy their product is upping the amount of RAM. It’s not hard to find gaming laptops with “upgraded” configurations that go from 16GB of RAM to 32GB. While having an adequate amount of RAM is important for gaming, today’s games typically top out at 16GB of RAM, and sometimes can run fine with just 8GB of RAM. Most people should invest in a gaming laptop with 16GB of memory if possible, and it makes sense to opt for 32GB if you plan on holding onto your gaming laptop for a long time. Modern games are only getting more memory-hungry. Should a gaming laptop have dual-channel or single-channel RAM? Besides the amount of memory, a couple of other important, but not critical, questions to ask is what clock speed and what mode. Modern CPUs let you run RAM in sets to increase the memory bandwidth. More memory bandwidth immediately helps laptops that are running integrated graphics, but the conventional wisdom has long been that discrete GPUs in laptops don’t benefit as much because they have their own dedicated, much faster GDDR5 RAM to use. That’s typically the case, but the performance of today’s GPUs and CPUs can make this conventional wisdom wrong. Gaming performance is often about a balance between the CPU and the GPU, and how graphically intensive a game is. With games that are graphically intensive, the GPU is the primary bottleneck on performance. Play a game that isn’t graphically intense, though, and the CPU can rapidly become the bottleneck on performance. With the power of today’s GPUs, a lot of games, especially at a sedate resolution of 1920×1080, have shifted more performance to the CPU. The reason we’re talking about this now is if you rob the CPU of memory bandwidth, even a decently fast one, you can take a sizable hit in gaming performance. The basic lesson is you should opt for dual-channel memory bandwidth configurations when possible. On a laptop spec sheet, you typically would see this expressed as “dual-channel” or “2 x 8” to indicate that two 8GB memory modules were used in a laptop. Some laptop makers will express memory in clock speed, so you’ll see “DDR4/2,133 or DDR4/2,400.” While a higher memory clock does increase memory bandwidth, the impact isn’t quite as great as going from dual-channel to single-channel mode. How many CPU cores do you really need in a gaming laptop? For most people on a budget, a 4-core CPU with Hyper-Threading will function just fine in most games, especially when combined with a lower-cost and lower performance GPU. Still, if you have the extra cash, a 6-core CPU with Hyper-Threading is likely the sweet spot for today and tomorrow. If you plan to stream your gaming live or edit it, investing in a 6-core is recommended. Intel and AMD’s top-end 8-plus-core CPUs will deliver the greatest benefit to those who might do other graphics-intensive tasks, such as 3D animation or video editing. If you also plan to record and stream video, the 8-core will offer a performance benefit there, too. If you’re thinking, great, let me buy a 4-core Core i5 or Ryzen 5 CPU with a luxury laptop to save money, you usually can’t, because PC makers typically only offer budget CPUs with other budget parts. Why? Well, most budget shoppers can’t afford any luxury items, and most PC makers like to add in the extras to increase the profit. What GPU is best for a gaming laptop? The single most important piece of hardware in a gaming laptop is undoubtedly the GPU. For AMD fans, the situation is as sad as it is in CPUs: It’s an Nvidia GeForce world. As with CPUs though, the good news is that the dominating products are top-notch. The hardest part will be deciding just how much GPU you need. Our general guidance is to buy as fast a GPU as you can afford and are willing to heft. Generally, the faster the GPU (or GPUs), the larger and heavier the laptop. If you’re talking about playing on a higher-resolution panel of 2560×1440 at high-refresh rates, then keep increasing the amount of money spent on the GPU. What kind of battery life should a gaming laptop have? The last topic we’ll cover is battery life. The best way to understand battery life on a gaming laptop is to accept that it’ll be horrible for all things gaming. The minute you crank up a GPU on a gaming laptop to play a game, you’re basically limiting yourself to an hour or an hour and a half of battery runtime. Period. And in some cases, far less than that. The only reason to consider battery life on a gaming laptop is if you want to use your laptop unplugged for non-gaming purposes. In that respect, you’ll find a lot of variance, with some offering decent battery life, albeit with a trade-off in gaming performance. FAQ 1. What is the best gaming laptop? The Alienware 16X Aurora is PCWorld’s top gaming laptop, delivering high-end performance without the ridiculously high price tag. 2. What is the best cheap gaming laptop? The Acer Nitro V 16 is PCWorld’s best cheap gaming laptop. You get solid 1080p performance thanks to the RTX 4060 graphics, and the 165Hz display ensures smooth gameplay. 3. When is the best time to buy a gaming laptop? The best time to pick up a gaming laptop is during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or back-to-school season. Those deals will save you a lot of cash. 4. Should you get a gaming laptop or a PC? It really depends on your lifestyle. If you’re someone that’s always on-the-go, a gaming laptop is a good fit. But if you’re okay with staying in one spot and want more power or upgrade options, a PC is a better choice. 5. What’s the difference between a gaming laptop and a regular laptop? A gaming laptop is made for handling games, so it has beefed-up graphics and better cooling. A regular laptop, on the other hand, is designed for everyday stuff like browsing or working on documents and operating unplugged for extended periods of time. Related content PCWorld laptop reviews The gaming laptop I’m drooling for has no GPU (and it’s not a laptop) 5 unusual PC gaming accessories you need to know about Optimize your gaming laptop with these must-have programs Sick of your gaming laptop’s awful battery life? 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Apple TV and NBCUniversal today announced a new partnership, where customers in the US will be able to subscribe to a combined Apple TV and Peacock bundle at a discounted price. The $14.99/mo bundle includes Apple TV and Peacock Premium, or you can get Apple TV and Peacock Premium Plus (their ad-free tier) for $19.99/mo. This represents a roughly 30% saving compared to subscribing to the services individually. For the first time, Apple has also arranged a special deal for Apple One subscribers … more…
Anthropic launched a new capability on Thursday that allows its Claude AI assistant to tap into specialized expertise on demand, marking the company's latest effort to make artificial intelligence more practical for enterprise workflows as it chases rival OpenAI in the intensifying competition over AI-powered software development. The feature, called Skills , enables users to create folders containing instructions, code scripts, and reference materials that Claude can automatically load when relevant to a task. The system marks a fundamental shift in how organizations can customize AI assistants, moving beyond one-off prompts to reusable packages of domain expertise that work consistently across an entire company. "Skills are based on our belief and vision that as model intelligence continues to improve, we'll continue moving towards general-purpose agents that often have access to their own filesystem and computing environment," said Mahesh Murag, a member of Anthropic's technical staff, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. "The agent is initially made aware only of the names and descriptions of each available skill and can choose to load more information about a particular skill when relevant to the task at hand." The launch comes as Anthropic, valued at $183 billion after a recent $13 billion funding round , projects its annual revenue could nearly triple to as much as $26 billion in 2026, according to a recent Reuters report . The company is currently approaching a $7 billion annual revenue run rate, up from $5 billion in August, fueled largely by enterprise adoption of its AI coding tools — a market where it faces fierce competition from OpenAI's recently upgraded Codex platform. How 'progressive disclosure' solves the context window problem Skills differ fundamentally from existing approaches to customizing AI assistants, such as prompt engineering or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Murag explained. The architecture relies on what Anthropic calls "progressive disclosure" — Claude initially sees only skill names and brief descriptions, then autonomously decides which skills to load based on the task at hand, accessing only the specific files and information needed at that moment. "Unlike RAG, this relies on simple tools that let Claude manage and read files from a filesystem," Murag told VentureBeat. "Skills can contain an unbounded amount of context to teach Claude how to complete a task or series of tasks. This is because Skills are based on the premise of an agent being able to autonomously and intelligently navigate a filesystem and execute code." This approach allows organizations to bundle far more information than traditional context windows permit, while maintaining the speed and efficiency that enterprise users demand. A single skill can include step-by-step procedures, code templates, reference documents, brand guidelines, compliance checklists, and executable scripts — all organized in a folder structure that Claude navigates intelligently. The system's composability provides another technical advantage. Multiple skills automatically stack together when needed for complex workflows. For instance, Claude might simultaneously invoke a company's brand guidelines skill, a financial reporting skill, and a presentation formatting skill to generate a quarterly investor deck — coordinating between all three without manual intervention. What makes Skills different from OpenAI's Custom GPTs and Microsoft's Copilot Anthropic is positioning Skills as distinct from competing offerings like OpenAI's Custom GPTs and Microsoft's Copilot Studio , though the features address similar enterprise needs around AI customization and consistency. "Skills' combination of progressive disclosure, composability, and executable code bundling is unique in the market," Murag said. "While other platforms require developers to build custom scaffolding, Skills let anyone — technical or not — create specialized agents by organizing procedural knowledge into files." The cross-platform portability also sets Skills apart. The same skill works identically across Claude.ai , Claude Code (Anthropic's AI coding environment), the company's API , and the Claude Agent SDK for building custom AI agents. Organizations can develop a skill once and deploy it everywhere their teams use Claude, a significant advantage for enterprises seeking consistency. The feature supports any programming language compatible with the underlying container environment, and Anthropic provides sandboxing for security — though the company acknowledges that allowing AI to execute code requires users to carefully vet which skills they trust. Early customers report 8x productivity gains on finance workflows Early customer implementations reveal how organizations are applying Skills to automate complex knowledge work. At Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten , the AI team is using Skills to transform finance operations that previously required manual coordination across multiple departments. "Skills streamline our management accounting and finance workflows," said Yusuke Kaji, general manager of AI at Rakuten in a statement. "Claude processes multiple spreadsheets, catches critical anomalies, and generates reports using our procedures. What once took a day, we can now accomplish in an hour." That's an 8x improvement in productivity for specific workflows — the kind of measurable return on investment that enterprises increasingly demand from AI implementations. Mike Krieger, Anthropic's chief product officer and Instagram co-founder, recently noted that companies have moved past " AI FOMO " to requiring concrete success metrics. Design platform Canva plans to integrate Skills into its own AI agent workflows. "Canva plans to leverage Skills to customize agents and expand what they can do," said Anwar Haneef, general manager and head of ecosystem at Canva in a statement. "This unlocks new ways to bring Canva deeper into agentic workflows—helping teams capture their unique context and create stunning, high-quality designs effortlessly." Cloud storage provider Box sees Skills as a way to make corporate content repositories more actionable. "Skills teaches Claude how to work with Box content," said Yashodha Bhavnani, head of AI at Box. "Users can transform stored files into PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents that follow their organization's standards—saving hours of effort." The enterprise security question: Who controls which AI skills employees can use? For enterprise IT departments, Skills raise important questions about governance and control—particularly since the feature allows AI to execute arbitrary code in sandboxed environments. Anthropic has built administrative controls that allow enterprise customers to manage access at the organizational level. "Enterprise admins control access to the Skills capability via admin settings, where they can enable or disable access and monitor usage patterns," Murag said. "Once enabled at the organizational level, individual users still need to opt in." That two-layer consent model — organizational enablement plus individual opt-in — reflects lessons learned from previous enterprise AI deployments where blanket rollouts created compliance concerns. However, Anthropic's governance tools appear more limited than some enterprise customers might expect. The company doesn't currently offer granular controls over which specific skills employees can use, or detailed audit trails of custom skill content. Organizations concerned about data security should note that Skills require Claude's code execution environment, which runs in isolated containers. Anthropic advises users to "stick to trusted sources" when installing skills and provides security documentation, but the company acknowledges this is an inherently higher-risk capability than traditional AI interactions. From API to no-code: How Anthropic is making Skills accessible to everyone Anthropic is taking several approaches to make Skills accessible to users with varying technical sophistication. For non-technical users on Claude.ai , the company provides a "skill-creator" skill that interactively guides users through building new skills by asking questions about their workflow, then automatically generating the folder structure and documentation. Developers working with Anthropic's API get programmatic control through a new /skills endpoint and can manage skill versions through the Claude Console web interface. The feature requires enabling the Code Execution Tool beta in API requests. For Claude Code users, skills can be installed via plugins from the anthropics/skills GitHub marketplace, and teams can share skills through version control systems. "Skills are included in Max, Pro, Teams, and Enterprise plans at no additional cost," Murag confirmed. "API usage follows standard API pricing," meaning organizations pay only for the tokens consumed during skill execution, not for the skills themselves. Anthropic provides several pre-built skills for common business tasks, including professional generation of Excel spreadsheets with formulas, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and fillable PDFs. These Anthropic-created skills will remain free. Why the Skills launch matters in the AI coding wars with OpenAI The Skills announcement arrives during a pivotal moment in Anthropic's competition with OpenAI, particularly around AI-assisted software development. Just one day before releasing Skills, Anthropic launched Claude Haiku 4.5 , a smaller and cheaper model that nonetheless matches the coding performance of Claude Sonnet 4 — which was state-of-the-art when released just five months ago. That rapid improvement curve reflects the breakneck pace of AI development, where today's frontier capabilities become tomorrow's commodity offerings. OpenAI has been pushing hard on coding tools as well, recently upgrading its Codex platform with GPT-5 and expanding GitHub Copilot's capabilities. Anthropic's revenue trajectory — potentially reaching $26 billion in 2026 from an estimated $9 billion by year-end 2025 — suggests the company is successfully converting enterprise interest into paying customers. The timing also follows Salesforce's announcement this week that it's deepening AI partnerships with both OpenAI and Anthropic to power its Agentforce platform, signaling that enterprises are adopting a multi-vendor approach rather than standardizing on a single provider. Skills addresses a real pain point: the "prompt engineering" problem where effective AI usage depends on individual employees crafting elaborate instructions for routine tasks, with no way to share that expertise across teams. Skills transforms implicit knowledge into explicit, shareable assets. For startups and developers, the feature could accelerate product development significantly — adding sophisticated document generation capabilities that previously required dedicated engineering teams and weeks of development. The composability aspect hints at a future where organizations build libraries of specialized skills that can be mixed and matched for increasingly complex workflows. A pharmaceutical company might develop skills for regulatory compliance, clinical trial analysis, molecular modeling, and patient data privacy that work together seamlessly — creating a customized AI assistant with deep domain expertise across multiple specialties. Anthropic indicates it's working on simplified skill creation workflows and enterprise-wide deployment capabilities to make it easier for organizations to distribute skills across large teams. As the feature rolls out to Anthropic's more than 300,000 business customers, the true test will be whether organizations find Skills substantively more useful than existing customization approaches. For now, Skills offers Anthropic's clearest articulation yet of its vision for AI agents: not generalists that try to do everything reasonably well, but intelligent systems that know when to access specialized expertise and can coordinate multiple domains of knowledge to accomplish complex tasks. If that vision catches on, the question won't be whether your company uses AI — it will be whether your AI knows how your company actually works.
Now's a pretty good time to consider it especially as it's currently available for as low as $150. The post Get the Fitbit Versa 4 for 50 Bucks Less with this Limited-time Deal! appeared first on Phandroid .
Oxygen OS 16 is here, and it's bringing Android 16 to phones like the OnePlus 13. I've been using it for a few days now and these are my favorite features so far.
The rumored demise of Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge indicates that ultra-thin phones may already be on thin ice.
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman . Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a much bigger refresh is planned for either late 2026 or early 2027. Apple is developing thinner, lighter OLED MacBook Pro models with touch screen capabilities. The late 2026/early 2027 refresh will mark the first design update to the MacBook Pro since 2021. As for the MacBook Air, it received a design update in 2022, though Apple did introduce a larger-screened 15-inch model in 2023. Rumors suggest the MacBook Air will get an updated LCD display in 2027, so design tweaks could come at that point. Apple is developing new versions of the Mac Studio and Mac mini , with those machines likely to get M5 Pro and/or M5 Max chips as well. There are also two external displays that are in the works, at least one of which is a second-generation version of the Studio Display. It's possible that new displays could come out alongside upgraded desktop machines, but there is no word on when Apple plans to update the Mac mini and Mac Studio. This article, " M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
EA employees involved with the Communications Workers of America union have issued a sternly-worded statement against the recently-proposed private acquisition of the company by Saudi-backed investors, according to a report by Eurogamer . The complaints don't involve Saudi Arabia's long history of human rights violations , but rather that workers weren't represented in any negotiations for the $55 billion deal. The employees worry that any jobs lost as a result of the purchase would "be a choice, not a necessity, made to pad investors' pockets." In addition to this formal response , unionized workers have issued a petition that urges regulators to scrutinize the deal. I just signed a @theactionnet petition: Make @EA Better for Workers and Gamers - Not Billionaires. Sign here: https://t.co/YEwBBwPmJQ — John Chau (@JChau95) October 16, 2025 "EA is not a struggling company," the statement reads, going on to note that the company's success has been driven by workers. "Yet we, the very people who will be jeopardized as a result of this deal, were not represented at all when this buyout was negotiated or discussed." The statement calls out the huge number of layoffs that have impacted the industry in recent years. Unionized staffers note that "every time private equity or billionaire investors take a studio private, workers lose visibility, transparency and power." "We are calling on regulators and elected officials to scrutinize this deal and ensure that any path forward protects jobs, preserves creative freedom and keeps decision-making accountable to the workers who make EA successful," the statement reads. "The value of video games is in their workers. As a unified voice, we, the members of the industry-wide video game workers' union UVW-CWA, are standing together and refusing to let corporate greed decide the future of our industry." Eurogamer reached out to the FTC to inquire about the status of the proposed acquisition but the agency refused to comment on the grounds that it doesn't speak about "pending mergers or acquisitions." It's worth noting that President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is involved with the purchase. The Financial Times recently suggested that the deal won't face any real opposition, as "what regulator is going to say no to the president's son-in-law?" As previously noted, the proposed deal is valued at $55 billion. This would take the company private for the first time in its 35-year history. Various entities have partnered to make this deal, including the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Kushner's Affinity Partners. US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal have also voiced concerns about this acquisition. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/unionized-ea-staffers-are-not-happy-about-that-proposed-saudi-backed-acquisition-155559256.html?src=rss
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