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Owners of a Volvo EX90 or Polestar 3 may soon be able to unlock and start their electric vehicle with a Samsung Galaxy phone. Samsung is rolling out Digital Key support for Polestar's SUV in North America, Europe and Asia starting this month. EX90 drivers in those regions and Latin America will get access to the feature in the coming days too. Samsung says it will support more models from each automaker in the future.

You can use the Digital Key to lock, unlock and start a paired car using a supported Galaxy device (S20, Z Fold 2, Z Flip 5G and later). It's possible to share a key with family and friends if they need access to your car, and you can remotely lock or delete a Digital Key from a lost or stolen Galaxy phone. Samsung uses biometric and PIN-based authorization to help make Digital Key use secure.

The company started rolling out Digital Key in 2021 (a similar function is available on recent Google Pixel devices and Android phones). BMW, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia and Mini are among the other brands that support the feature.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/samsungs-digital-key-technology-now-works-with-volvo-and-polestar-evs-160357150.html?src=rss

A lot of U.S. foreign aid money still appears to be frozen, despite a January waiver from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that should exempt critical lifesaving work. That includes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, the 2003 HIV and AIDS prevention program from President George W. Bush, which the State Department said has saved an estimated 26 million lives. In theory, the work should continue, but global health organizations, including those with the United Nations, said clinics have already had to close their doors.

Angeli Achrekar is deputy executive director for programs of the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS, also known as UNAIDS. She discussed the impact of the funding cutoff with “Marketplace Morning Report” host Nova Safo.

The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. 

Nova Safo: While the administration has said work can continue on lifesaving activities, it’s not clear to organizations on the ground whether HIV treatment and prevention is lifesaving activity. Is that right?

Angeli Achrekar: In this waiver, comprehensive treatment, testing and prevention of mother-to-child transmission to ensure babies are born HIV-free are covered. These are activities that are covered. The problem is that we need to make sure that that waiver is fully implemented. That’s not currently the state of affairs right now. What’s also equally important is what’s not included in the waiver: prevention services that will absolutely be critical in the HIV response. We need to ensure that new HIV infections are halted.

Safo: Can you explain how aid flows? Because it’s not a question of, necessarily, the government provides the money and then it’s spent. It’s spent and then the government provides the money, right? Is that the crux of the problem here?

Achrekar: Funds flow from the State Department to the headquarters of these various implementing agencies, including [the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], the Department of Defense, and there are others, through cooperative agreements or grants to implementing partners at the country level. They also need to make sure that if they do not have the funds — which in this case, a lot of the funding has stopped — they need to be able to be reassured that they will indeed be reimbursed for those funds.

Safo: Are there groups now doing HIV prevention work, treatment work, that are closing shop?

Achrekar: Many of the implementing partners, many of the groups have indeed closed shop. We’ve also seen community drop-in centers, where people living with HIV and AIDS would normally go to get tested, pick up their lifesaving medicines — they will come to the clinic and the doors will be closed.

Safo: What happens if these disruptions are not resolved or if the aid stops flowing?

Achrekar: What happens is we will see an increase by tenfold of people dying from AIDS. Currently, it’s 630,000 deaths per year. We will see that increase to 6.3 million over the next four to five years. For new infections, currently, there are 1.3 million new infections a year. What we will see over the next four to five years is an exponential jump to 8.7 million new infections. That goal of ending AIDS by 2030 will not be achievable if all of this turns off.

In the flurry of executive orders and policy directives from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE team, several sources of government data have disappeared — especially those related to race and gender. 

Those federal clearinghouses relied upon by researchers and businesses have gone offline. And while some have come back, there is a cost when data goes away.

At tax and consulting firm RSM, data is crucial to help their clients decide how to do business. Joe Brusuelas is RSM’s chief economist and has already noticed some key pieces of data related to housing and consumer demand are missing.

“Gender, identity and race are things that I could have looked at a couple months ago. Now, it’s not available,” he said.

What data is and isn’t online is in flux, according to Amy O’Hara, president of the Association of Public Data Users. The risk of losing key federal datasets has researchers, think tanks and businesses scrambling.

“You can’t always buy a replacement,” she said, “and what is sold may not be accurate or comprehensive. And plus, a lot of times, the organizations that sell data, they have used public data to build their models.”

Buying the data that used to be free adds to the cost of doing business.

Maggie McCullough is CEO of PolicyMap, which sells custom maps and data, ranging in cost from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. But PolicyMap also relies on federal data to build many of its products.

“Without that data, you’re kind of just flying blind, right?” McCullough said.

And without detailed data, she said that it’s harder to invest, run a business or govern the country.

WhatsApp may face greater regulation in the European Union thanks to an increase in users on its open channels. The platform announced Friday that these feeds for news sources, public figures and more averaged approximately 46.8 million users in the EU during the last half of 2024. This increase in users means WhatsApp's open channels, akin to a social network, now qualify as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).  

The DSA uses the labels very large online platform or search engine when the entity has more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. These designations allow the European Commission greater regulatory power around transparent advertising, content moderation, an annual independent audit, data sharing with the EU and more. Relevant online platforms must also mitigate and assess the risk of damaging and illegal content. 

WhatsApp's parent company, Meta, is already designated as a VLOP (and not happily), alongside ByteDance, Amazon, Google and more. The European Commission will now need to determine whether to give WhatsApp the designation. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/eu-might-impose-further-regulation-on-whatsapp-152832935.html?src=rss

The eufy RoboVac 11S Max is one of our favorite budget robot vacuums, and it’s now 44 percent off at Amazon, making it only $140. This affordable robot vacuum from a few years back can still trade blows against newer models even without Wi-Fi connectivity.

The 11S Max has three power modes — Standard, BoostIQ and Max, and the company claims a noise level of around 55 dB. Even so, its suction power is nothing to scoff at. And should it accidentally try to swallow a charging cable, the beeping alerts are loud enough to hear from the opposite end of an apartment.

As with the latest robot vacuums, the 11S Max has sensors that prevent collisions and falling down the stairs. Our tests show that it occasionally bumped into objects but also avoided the tester’s cat play tunnel when other budget vacuums didn’t.

The 11S Max doesn’t have Wi-Fi, but we didn’t find that to be a major issue in our testing. The remote control has buttons for scheduling auto cleaning, selecting cleaning modes, manually returning the robot to the charging base and more.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/one-of-our-favorite-budget-robot-vacuums-is-44-percent-off-right-now-143706102.html?src=rss

xAI has launched its Grok 3 models during a livestream with Elon Musk, who said they were "an order of magnitude more capable than Grok 2." The Grok 3 mini model can answer questions quickly, but it's not as accurate as the other models in the family. Meanwhile, the Grok 3 Reasoning and Grok 3 mini Reasoning models are capable of mimicking human-like reasoning when it comes to analyzing information the user needs. 

Other examples of AI models capable of reasoning tasks are DeepSeek's R1 and OpenAI's o3-mini. According to TechCrunch, xAI claimed during the event that Grok 3 Reasoning performed better than the best version of o3-mini on several benchmarks. Grok 3's features will initially be available to subscribers paying for X's Premium+ tier, which now costs $40 a month in the US. (X raised the Premium+ tier's pricing from $16 to $22 in December — now, less than two months later, it's almost twice as expensive.) They will also be available through an upcoming separate subscription option for the standalone Grok app and Grok on the web. Based on leaked information, the subscription option will be called SuperGrok and will cost $30 a month. 

With the Grok 3 models enabled, users will be able to ask the chatbot to "Think" if they want to tap its reasoning capabilities for mathematics, science and programming questions. For even more complex queries, they can use the "Big Brain" function that requires additional computing. The models' reasoning capabilities power a new Grok feature called DeepSearch, which xAI describes as the "next generation search engine." DeepSearch will scan the internet and X, formerly Twitter, to conjure a brief summary for research inquiries. 

In addition to launching the Grok 3 models, xAI also revealed during the event that the Grok app will get a "voice mode" within a week, giving it synthesized voices to converse with users. Grok 2, the company's older models, will be open sourced in the coming months. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/xai-launches-grok-3-ai-claiming-it-is-capable-of-human-reasoning-140007172.html?src=rss

Spotify is rolling out a Music Pro tier later this year that will give users access to higher-quality audio and remixing tools, according to Bloomberg. The tier will reportedly cost users $6 per month on top of their $12 Premium subscription, but they'll be priced differently across regions and will be cheaper in less-developed markets. Many long-time Spotify subscribers, however, will probably say that they'll believe it when they see it. The service teased a high-fidelity streaming option way back in 2017 and had confirmed that it was working to provide users with access to lossless audio in 2021. 

Several reports about the feature's availability had come out over the years after the company's confirmation. In 2024, Bloomberg also reported that HiFi streaming is expected to arrive before the year ended as a $5 add-on. The publication's latest report says the pricing and timeline for lossless streaming could still change, because the company hasn't secured rights from all the major music companies yet. It's worth noting that Spotify recently announced new multi-year agreements with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. 

In addition to lossless streaming, Bloomberg says the Music Pro tier will give subscribers access to tools that will give them a way to mix songs by different artists. Some of those tools will be powered by generative AI tech. The tier will reportedly give users access to presales for concerts, as well, and could offer them the option to buy better seats than what they could get elsewhere. Spotify will be testing the tier's features over the next few months and will apparently be rolling out the add-on's tools and features in phases. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-could-offer-its-long-awaited-hifi-audio-tier-as-a-6-add-on-later-this-year-130043402.html?src=rss

DJI has unveiled two new smartphone gimbals, the Osmo Mobile 7 and 7P, with the latter offering native app tracking on both Android and iOS thanks to its "Multifunctional Module." That feature is clearly designed to rival Insta360's Flow 2 Pro, which until yesterday only offered native app tracking on iPhones via Apple's Dockkit. 

The primary differences between the Osmo Mobile 7 and 7P is that the latter comes with the Multifunctional Module, while the Osmo Mobile 7 doesn't (though it can be purchased separately later if you change your mind). The Osmo Mobile 7P also has a built-in extension rod that's missing on the Osmo Mobile 7. With that said, the products look very similar and have the same folding design carried over from the Osmo Mobile 6. A key addition to both is that the tripod is now built in to the gimbal (just like on the Flow 2 Pro) so you no longer need to screw on an accessory like before. 

Steve Dent for Engadget

DJI sent me the Osmo Mobile 7P to test, so I'll be referring to that product from now on. As with the Osmo Mobile 6, it's primarily designed as a three-axis gimbal to smooth out smartphone video better than your mobile device's built-in camera ever could, with the ability to shoot in both "Tilt Lock" and "FPV" modes for either steady or more dynamic footage. At the same time, you can control the gimbal's direction using the built-in joystick.  

It also tracks subjects automatically, and that's where the Multifunctional Module comes in. On the Osmo Mobile 6, automatic subject tracking only worked with DJI's Mimo camera app. Now, with the new module connected to your smartphone, the Osmo Mobile 7P can track your subject automatically (with gesture control) in nearly any app on both Android devices and iPhones.

Here's how it works. The Multifunctional Module can be mounted either forward for the main camera or backward for the selfie camera. It's about the size of DJI's Mic 2, and has a built-in tracking camera along with an LED light. It also works as a receiver for DJI's Mic Mini wireless microphones. 

Steve Dent for Engadget

With the module installed on the side of the gimbal and connected via a USB-C cable to your phone, just open your app of choice (I tried the native camera apps on an iPhone 16 and Pixel 7a, plus Zoom, Google Chat and Blackmagic Camera). Then, simply hold up your palm to the camera or have your subject do it and tracking will begin automatically, as indicated by a green light on the module — then hold up two fingers to start and stop recording. From there, you can move around while you vlog or conduct a video call, and the Mobile 7P will move to keep you in view. It works reliably with only minor lag provided you stay within the gimbal's range of motion. 

Interestingly, Insta360 just released a similar module for its Flow 2 Pro gimbal called the AI Tracker that performs the same function. Up until now, native app tracking on the Flow 2 Pro only worked on iPhones via Apple's Dockkit function, so Android users were out of luck. Insta360's new module brings the same feature set to Android users, albeit at a cost of $40, or in a bundle with the Flow 2 Pro at $180. 

That does beg the question as to whether DJI will introduce Dockkit support for the Osmo Mobile 7/7P, as it would allow iPhone users to get the tracking benefit of the module without having to pay for it. However, DJI is staying mum on that matter for now. 

Steve Dent for Engadget

Other features on both gimbals include 10-hour battery life, and when the gimbal isn't in use, it works as a power bank to charge your phone. With the DJI Mimo app, tracking supports multiple people in a scene as well as pets, and you can easily switch subjects by tapping on the tracking box. The Mimo app also supports panoramic shooting, dynamic zoom and other intelligent functions, along with zoom/focus control via the side wheel, which also activates the fill light. 

And of course, the Osmo Mobile 7P's Multifunctional Module works as a receiver for DJI's $59 Mic Mini transmitter, so if you have one of those, you'll get far better sound quality than you would from your phone alone — a big advantage over the Flow 2 Pro. 

Given the rivalry with Insta360, the Osmo Mobile 7/7P is an interesting addition to DJI's lineup — particularly in light of the Flow 2 Pro's very similar new AI Module. The Osmo Mobile 7 ($89) and Osmo Mobile 7P ($149) are now available to order with shipping starting today. There's no word yet on pricing for OM 7 Series Tracking Kit when it's purchased separately. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/djis-osmo-mobile-7p-gimbal-can-track-you-around-on-any-android-or-ios-camera-app-130037243.html?src=rss

Our latest Economic Pulse check-in is a closer look at the long-term effects of fires on local economies. Our eyes alone tell us a lot about what the terrible California wildfires are doing to employment, as people struggle to find shelter. But what about job creation even years out from the incidents?

We have someone now who has studied this, and published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. Raphaelle Gauvin-Coulombe is co-author of new research, and she’s a professor of economics at Middlebury College. She spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio and the following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

David Brancaccio: There’s clearly disruption in the near term. That, almost, is obvious, right?

Raphaelle Gauvin-Coulombe: Yes, and we do find effects that last about three years after the fires. And we do find that an increase in fire exposure leads to a decline in employment growth that can last for about three years after the fire.

Brancaccio: And, it’s not that the business burned down and couldn’t hire. You think it has to do with flows of potential labor?

Gauvin-Coulombe: So, part of it is evidence of a shrinking labor force, because we see evidence that some people decide to migrate. But of course, we can imagine that some businesses are also demanding less workers in response to fires, especially in industries like services and tourism.

Brancaccio: But, professor, what about federal disaster aid, when FEMA comes in? I mean, that’s been shown in other disasters to be perversely a kind of economic positive with all the rebuilding.

Gauvin-Coulombe: And that’s exactly right. So if we look only at fires that receive a FEMA disaster declaration, which is a small portion of fires — and here, it’s important to note that a FEMA disaster declaration is a precondition for a wide range of federal assistance programs. So when we look at only the fires that got this disaster declaration, then we do not see any negative economic effects of fires.

Brancaccio: In other words, the federal money mutes the economic impact. And, in fact, you don’t see job creation go down.

Gauvin-Coulombe: Exactly. It’s able to offset the effect on both employment and migration.

Brancaccio: All right, now, for communities that don’t get a disaster declaration — and for many fires and sometimes other disasters, you don’t get one — other lessons for local communities, counties, states in your data about how to somehow compensate for the possibility that people will leave and that therefore jobs will leave?

Gauvin-Coulombe: That’s a difficult question. What we do find is that some communities tend to be more robust, even if they don’t receive financial aid, and that’s because some communities are more diversified economically, or have a more educated workforce. So we find that these communities are much more resilient against the economic effects of fires.

Sales of new vehicles dropped 25% in January, according to Cox Automotive. That’s not exactly surprising, as January is typically a slow period in the automotive market.

For those who are out shopping for new cars, they’ll likely see more vehicles available on dealers’ lots as inventories were up 14% compared to a year ago.

Dealerships were pretty barren for a while, after pandemic shutdowns and chip shortages messed up car manufacturing. But slowly and steadily, lots have filled back up.

“Higher inventory levels on dealer lots are really good for the buyers,” said Sam Fiorani at AutoForecast Solutions. “If you have more to choose from, dealers want to get them off the lot, and so they will negotiate.”

And they might throw in a lower interest rate loan or a rebate. And yet, average new car prices are still up there — 2.5% higher than a year ago. 

Erin Keating at Cox Automotive said that’s largely because of the kinds of vehicles carmakers have been building, and drivers have been buying. 

“In America, we really like our vehicles large. We like them to come with all the bells and whistles, and we want every variety in between,” said Keating.

Providing all those options is costly, so carmakers charge more. And they’re unlikely to bring prices down anytime soon, she said, especially if they’re hurt by more tariffs from the Trump administration

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Last week, Apple’s Tim Cook teed up a new product for launch on February 19 — that’s tomorrow. Cook’s tweet also included an animated image of a shimmering Apple logo, which made a lot of us assume the reveal could be for a second-generation AirTag. It’s been rumored for a while that Apple would introduce a second-gen tracker sometime this year, and the original AirTag landed almost four years ago. So there are plenty of tech upgrades the tracker could benefit from.

Rumors suggest the next AirTag may feature a more tamper-proof speaker to reduce stalking and an improved Ultra-Wideband chip with up to 3x longer tracking range. However, would the CEO of Apple tweet (and hype up) a mere accessory? Probably not. Following a barrage of leaks and rumors, a next-gen iPhone SE seems more likely.

This upgraded entry-level basic iPhone may appear with a design closer to the iPhone 14. That means appearing with a notch, so no Dynamic Island, no home button. It’ll likely make the shift to USB-C and probably have enough power to run all those Apple Intelligence features too. (In the past, while SE iPhones have had humble screens and hardware, Apple typically packs them with chips on par with the latest iPhones.)

It could also be a wildcard: Apple’s rumored smart display is meant to arrive sometime this year too. Having said all that, there isn’t really an Apple device as shiny as an AirTag. We’ll find out tomorrow. Hopefully alongside some more tech news because it’s been a quiet few days.

— Mat Smith

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The biggest tech stories you missed

• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 zooms onto Paramount+ on February 18

• Viktor Antonov, art director for Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, has died

• Anyone in the US can now buy Nintendo’s Alarmo clock from the online store

• The best laptop power banks for 2025

Arm is reportedly developing its own in-house chip The new CPU could be a piece in the $500 billion Stargate AI project.

Arm is reportedly planning to reveal its own processor this year, with Meta as the main customer. The chip would be a CPU designed for data center servers and customizable for clients.

Last month, Arm’s parent company, Softbank, announced the Stargate project, a partnership with OpenAI to build up to $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure. Arm, along with Microsoft and NVIDIA, is a key technology partner for the project. Arm’s chip could now play a role in all of that.

Continue reading.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review Incrementally better… again. Engadget

It’s become a depressing trend from recent Samsung hardware: solid, capable devices that lack a strong enough reason to upgrade — or get excited, even. The Galaxy Watch 7 is a capable companion for Samsung phones, with great hooks into Samsung’s Health app, reliable activity tracking and zippy performance. The always-on display hits battery life hard, however, so we were tasked with recharging (or even topping up) the device more often than we’d like.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121854699.html?src=rss

Tablets have become the all-purpose gap-fillers of the gadgets world. If you’re on a plane and you want something portable but slightly bigger than your phone for reading comics or watching movies, there’s nothing better. Alternatively, if you want a shared device for the living room to control smart home stuff, do a bit of shopping or doomscrolling (it’s ok, we’re not judging), having a slim little slate that lives on your coffee table is super convenient. And if you want something sleek to carry around for work or school, tablets can totally replace laptops now, too.

That said, one change we’ve made to this guide for 2025 is adjusting some of the categories, because let’s be honest: If you’re an Android person, no amount of browbeating is going to convince you to switch ecosystems and buy an iPad. The same goes for all the Apple people or Windows die-hards out there. And that’s more than OK. So instead of crowning a best overall, we’re simply recommending the most powerful and best tablets for each OS, alongside some additional picks for other use cases.

Table of contents

• Important things to consider before buying a tablet

• What size screen do I need?

• Best tablets for 2025

• How we test tablets

• Other tablets we tested

• Tablet FAQs

• Tablet accessories

Important things to consider before buying a tablet

Before you start looking at specific devices, the number one thing you should do is figure out what you plan to use your new tablet for. That’s because if all you need is something to keep a kid busy, buying a brand new iPad Pro doesn’t make a ton of sense. On the flip side, if you want to use a tablet for video editing or drawing, you’ll need to take things like performance and stylus support more seriously.

You’ll also want to think about stuff like how often you plan on traveling with the device and if it’s more for productivity, or for less demanding stuff like browsing the web or streaming shows. There’s also an important trade-off to consider when it comes to battery life as well. Larger devices tend to have longer runtimes, though an increase in size may make it less portable.

What size screen do I need?

Figuring out the best screen size for you will also be related to the kind of work (or play) you intend to do. Larger displays make it much easier to view two apps side by side, and big screens also deliver a more immersive movie viewing experience. But at the same time, the larger the tablet, the less likely you’re going to want to move it around. That means you’re not only going to want to take stock of your workspace (i.e., if you have a desk or instead plan to work from a couch or even your bed), but you’re also going to want to think about how the device will fit into your everyday routine or commute (if you have one).

Best tablets for 2025

How we test tablets

When evaluating different tablets, there are a few important things we look for above all else: solid performance, a good screen and long battery life. For performance, we run a handful of synthetic tests like Geekbench 6, while also performing a number of hands-on, real-world use cases such as editing photos and playing games. And with tablets often serving as hybrid devices, we also consider how easy it is to multitask and switch quickly between various apps. The more responsive a device feels, the better.

Because a tablet’s display is such a critical component, we also view a wide range of content to gauge things like brightness, color gamut and dynamic range. It’s important to take into account the difference between various panel types like OLED, which typically produce richer colors and excellent contrast but may not be as bright as a mini LED display. Recently, refresh rate has become an increasingly important spec as 90Hz and 120Hz screens can make scrolling smoother and graphics appear sharper in games.

We also consider a tablet’s design (including things like size, weight and water resistance), its connectivity (WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, 5G, et cetera) and special features like stylus support or the ability to serve as a secondary display. That’s because, while tablets were often viewed as content consumption devices in the past, higher-end devices like the Surface Pro and iPad Pro are more than capable of replacing a laptop for a lot of people.

Finally, we test battery life by running our standard local video rundown test, which involves playing a single video on a loop from 100 percent until it runs out of juice. Ideally, a tablet should be able to last an entire working day, but longer runtimes are always welcome.

Other tablets we tested Apple iPad mini

Apple updated the iPad mini for 2024 with some under-the-hood changes including a new processor and additional RAM to help support Apple Intelligence features. While the iPad mini is one of the best iPads you can buy, its small size makes it a bit niche. Only if you prefer your tablet be the size of an ereader should you consider this one.

Google Pixel Tablet

The Google Pixel Tablet excels as a smart display rather than a simple tablet. As the latter, it's unexciting, but when paired with its speaker/charging dock, it becomes much more useful. It could be a good option for those that already live within the Google ecosystem and use the Google Assistant often, or those who like the idea of a tablet that can be docked and used as a smart display as well.

OnePlus Pad

The solid OnePlus Pad is let down by Android because there aren't many Android apps designed to be used on a large display like this model's 11.6-inch panel. Otherwise, the hardware is well-designed, its companion stylus is comfortable to use and it has an excellent battery life.

Tablet FAQs What is the best brand for tablets?

The best brand for tablets is really the brand you feel most comfortable with. We recommend taking stock of the gadgets you already have — do you live in the Apple ecosystem already? An iPad might be best for you then. Do you have a Samsung phone? If so, a Galaxy Tab will likely be the most convenient choice. There is no one "best brand" for tablets; you’ll find good options made by companies including Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft and Amazon.

Can a tablet replace a laptop?

It’s possible for a tablet to replace a laptop, but you’ll need a few accessories to truly make the experience as close as possible to that of a traditional notebook. A keyboard is a must, be it a keyboard case or a Bluetooth accessory that you keep with you. Some keyboard cases, like apple’s Magic Keyboard for the iPad, have a built-in trackpad, which will be more ergonomic than tapping on your tablet’s screen for input. Additionally, you could go one step further and use a wireless mouse that connects via Bluetooth to your tablet. If you’re primarily looking for a tablet to replace your laptop, consider buying a 2-in-1 laptop since those systems typically consist of high-powered tablets that are designed to work well with (and without) keyboards.

Tablet accessories

Finally, you’ll want to consider any add-ons or accessories you’re planning to use, which can range from detachable keyboards to things like external mics or a stylus. The good news is that many of the best tablets nowadays offer some kind of keyboard accessory, which allows the device to function more like a 2-in-1 instead of simply being a content consumption device. Some tablets also feature things like microSD card slots that support expandable storage, or optional 4G or 5G connectivity, which can be a real boon to frequent travelers. And if you’re planning to use the tablet mainly for work, you might want to grab a USB hub for connecting all your favorite peripherals so your devices don’t have to fight for the charger.

Recent updates

February 2025: Updated to include clarification around our top picks and new buying advice.

October 2024: We updated this list to include information on the new iPad mini 7.

June 2024: We updated our top picks to include the Microsoft Surface Pro Copilot+ edition.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/best-tablets-150026056.html?src=rss

According to recent survey data, 75% of older adults want to age in their homes. However, between accessibility and care needs that emerge later in life, 44% feel a move is inevitable.

That’s not to say that aging in place is impossible, though.

Kirsten Harrison was searching for a local place for her mother to move into so that she and her husband could help care for her. When they found a 55+ housing co-op in Golden Valley, Minnesota, they realized that it fit their own needs as well.

“For people who can afford it, you can age in place,” said Harrison. “And we’ve now gotten into a community that we didn’t know we needed.”

Tell us your real estate or housing story using the form below, and you may be featured on a future edition of “Adventures in Housing.”  

Demand for housing may be down, but demand for electricity is headed up — both in the U.S. and around the world. Global demand is set to grow at about 4% per year through 2027, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. 

That’s like adding more than the equivalent of Japan to global electricity consumption in each of the next three years. 

In some rich countries, electricity consumption has remained relatively flat or declined in the last 15 years. But in 2024, that changed — and in the next three years, the IEA expects many advanced economies, including the U.S., to see power demand grow, driven in part by data centers and electric vehicles. 

But emerging economies will be responsible for 85% of the growth in global demand in the next three years, according to the report.

“We’re talking about orders of magnitude differences in developing countries, and so most of the energy investment and infrastructure is going to be in Asia, Africa, Middle East,” said Todd Moss, executive director of the think tank Energy for Growth Hub.

China, Southeast Asia and South Asia are some of the major drivers of demand growth, said Gautam Jain, a researcher with Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

“All these countries are obviously growing, and the middle class is growing, and these are countries that are actually much more exposed to climate change,” he said.

In countries around the equator, including India and Indonesia, he said, days above 95 degrees Fahrenheit are more frequent. “So there’s a need for more air conditioning.”

To meet additional demand for electricity, countries are turning to renewables and nuclear energy, said Eren Çam, an electricity analyst at the IEA.

“Basically stabilizing global emissions growth,” he said.

He forecasts that CO2 emissions associated with electricity generation will roughly plateau in the next three years.

More homes were for sale in January in the United States than at any point in the last five years, according to a new analysis from Redfin. Demand for homes, meanwhile, is the lowest it’s been since then. 

For the housing market, 2025 is off to a slow start. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand out there, but buyers were certainly moving very cautiously in January,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.

She said there are a couple of reasons for that.

“The most obvious is that mortgage rates have just remained much higher than maybe some prospective homebuyers were hoping,” she said.

Many of them were expecting mortgage rates to come down after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates last year. Instead, they ticked up.

“But I think the biggest is really people feeling a little bit uncertain about the overall economy,” she said. “There’s a lot of psychology and emotion that goes into homebuying, and we know that when consumer confidence falls, we also see the housing market soften.”

And consumer confidence has been falling.

“Right now, to put it simply, we’re going through a chaotic period of time,” said Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Imagine you work for a federal agency and you’re suddenly wondering how long that’ll be true.

“You’re not going to buy a house if you’re worried about a job, if you don’t know where your next paycheck is going to come from. You can’t make big purchases thinking about long-term future when your short-term future looks very uncertain,” he said.

In addition to uncertainty, there are cost barriers. For a long time now, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, “what people have been hoping for has been an improvement in affordability, and we haven’t seen that.”

If that improves — including if mortgage rates come down even half a point — she thinks buyers will come off the sidelines. Economic uncertainty and all. 

Over the last decade, college enrollment has been declining. A study from the National Center for Education Statistics says undergrad enrollment dropped by 15%, from 18.1 million to 15.4 million students, between fall 2010 and fall 2021.

With fewer students enrolled in classes, its gotten more difficult for many institutions to keep their doors open.

Karin Fischer is a Senior Writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education. She wrote about what happens to a town when its college closes. She joined “Marketplace” host Amy Scott to discuss her reporting. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Amy Scott: An average of one college closed every week last year. I was kind of stunned by that number. What is causing this situation?

Karin Fischer: It was kind of a perfect storm of things. It’s the combo of the declining demographics and, you know, there was COVID relief funding that was keeping a lot of colleges going through the pandemic, and that’s all dried up and disappeared, and we just have a lot of colleges. So the competition for students is pretty great. And so a lot of colleges have been kind of in precarious financial states for a while, and this is just a sort of a tipping point for a number of them, unfortunately.

Scott: So you spent some time reporting in a town called Aurora, New York, where it’s small college, Wells College, closed. Can you talk about what happened to Wells and what it’s meant for the community?

Fischer: Wells, like many of these other colleges, had been having some financial troubles for a long time, and it actually it’s a liberal arts college, or was a liberal arts college and it was a women’s college, and it had gone co-ed in part to try to sustain itself. But then this spring, or last spring, in April, it just announced that it was closing, and it took everybody by surprise. The students started registered for classes, the faculty members, you know, had signed their contracts, and it took the community by real surprise as well. I mean, the college had just as recently as a few months earlier, assured them that their financial health was fine, and they just had never really contemplated, I think the community members, what it would be like not to have this college in the center of their town.

Scott: Yeah, and you talk about not only the economic impact, this is the town’s largest employer, but also the effect on just basic services in the community.

Fischer: Sure. I mean, you know, colleges and medical centers, they anchor communities. I mean, they do have this great economic impact. They create jobs, they buy things in the communities, but, you know, many of these towns have grown up around the college, and so they’re very interconnected. In Wells’ case, the college actually ran the water treatment facility, and so all of a sudden, the town just didn’t even know how it was going to continue to go on, you know, and have safe drinking water for its residents. But there’s also other ways. I mean, I think the people think of these places very much as cultural magnets. They are points of pride. They can be community gathering places, and all of a sudden that was lost to this town.

Scott: And the health center is hanging in the balance as well.

Fischer: Yeah. So, Wells is a very small college, and so it, years ago, in fact, had sort of merged its college Infirmary with the Community Health Center in town, and so they used the college’s infirmary space. And it was sort of a win, win. It, you know, gave the college onsite medical providers. But it also served as the only community health center for about 15 miles, which upstate New York in the winter, is not insignificant. And because the college housed the Community Health Center, now with the college campus’s future uncertain, so is the future of the Community Health Center.

Scott: And you write that this is not just limited to this town of Aurora. This is happening in small towns around the country. What kinds of solutions do you see to this problem of towns losing their economic lifeblood, really, in some cases?

Fischer: I mean, I think there are questions about what can you do ahead of time? Are there ways that communities and colleges can work together more effectively, ways that maybe, perhaps it could stave off some of these closures? Were there things that towns can do, for example, the zoning, that could help the colleges sell property or use it in more mixed ways. I think there’s also the feeling, and it came out very clearly, both in Aurora and Wells and some other communities that I talked with that also had pretty abrupt college closures that communication would be really helpful. You know, a lot of people said it’s one thing for the college to shut down, but for it to shut down so abruptly and take us by surprise that didn’t enable us to do any kind of planning for what was next. But I don’t think, unfortunately, there is any sort of magic bullet, some solution that’s going to make colleges finances whole, and, you know, avert other Auroras and other Wells from going through the same thing.

Along the main thoroughfare of Arlington, Massachusetts, is a tiny typewriter repair and retail shop: Cambridge Typewriter. The place has been around so long that the phone number on the big sign above the front door doesn’t even have the area code.

On a Saturday morning, amidst towers of typewriters, customers were edging around each other to look at what’s in stock.

Customers abound these days at Cambridge Typewriter. (Sarah Leeson/Marketplace)

Typewriters and vintage media have seen a real resurgence in recent years, but that’s only part of the reason that the store is packed — Tom Furrier, the shop’s owner of 45 years, announced that he’s closing the shop at the end of March.

“As soon as I posted that we’re closing March 31, it went crazy, and it’s been like this every single day, all day,” Furrier said. “I haven’t got anything done at my bench, which is fine because I love meeting people and talking typewriters. But I need to fix some of these machines before I go.”

Furrier is turning 70 this year and he said he’s ready to retire. Over the last year, he had tried to find a buyer for the shop, but it didn’t work out.

“I just said, ‘That’s it. I’m not putting off retirement anymore,'” Furrier said. “‘We’re just gonna have to close the shop, and people will have to find other means.’”

Although Furrier calls his store a “break-even kind of business,” there are more than 50 typewriter shops still operating across the U.S., and the demand for these services exists — particularly in the last two decades as vintage came back into style.

Emre Gucum, 5, has been “asking for a typewriter for weeks,” according to his dad, Ahmet Gucum. (Sarah Leeson/Marketplace)

More recently, however, there might be another reason for the interest in typewriters and all things vintage: Taylor Swift.

Meghan Miraglia, a 23-year-old studying for her MFA at Boston University, was in the shop for the first time Saturday, hoping to get her family’s typewriter fixed up. Miraglia, a self-described Swifty, said that she would credit Swift with the resurgence.

“[Taylor Swift] is really one to take retro aesthetics and revisit them and consider how they can be applied to the contemporary,” Miraglia said.

Tom estimates about a third of his customers these days are young adults like Meghan, but not all first-timers fit that category. Charles Gilroy was there from Hingham, Massachusetts. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s back in 2008 and he was there to find a typewriter that will help with tasks like writing checks.

“My handwriting is so bad, some things come back to me where they can’t read it in the post office,” Gilroy said. “I’ve been trying to find a program for my computer that would be able to write out a check. I haven’t been able to find one that you could just take an envelope, stick it in and just, you know, line up the lines and write the check.”

The electric Corona Smith that Furrier dug out and sold to Gilroy is going to add to Furrier’s repair backlog, which he figures is about four months long now.

“Best part of my day is when I get to leave my workbench, come out here and geek out over typewriters with someone that I just met,” Furrier said. “You know, it’s beautiful.”

He still has about a month to make those memories, and fix all those typewriters.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, over 9% of properties in the United States are at risk of flooding. When disaster strikes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is in charge of the response. And FEMA has a rule for how communities rebuild. It’s called the 50 Percent Rule and it’s designed to stop the cycle of flood damage by requiring houses to be elevated in certain circumstances. But whether FEMA’s 50 Percent Rule hurts or helps your town often comes down to money.

Ninety percent of the historic town of Mandeville, Louisiana, is in the FEMA flood zone. I got a tour from Rod Scott. All the houses we passed were lifted up on pilings 12 feet in the air.

“This is the new one that’s going up now. Look at that,” he said. Scott’s a contractor who specializes in elevating buildings. He’s raised 1,500 all over the country. “ Better breeze, better view. You don’t have to flood.” 

Scott told me Mandeville has flooded 17 times in the last 18 years during storms and hurricanes. And when houses are significantly damaged, homeowners have to elevate because of FEMA’s 50 Percent Rule. The rule says if your house is damaged and repair costs are over half of your house’s market value, you can’t simply repair your house to how it was before. 

Now, almost all the buildings in historic Mandeville are perched high up on pilings. Houses, restaurants, stores — all up with the birds. “Mandeville is the most flood-adapted, retrofitted community on the planet right now,” Scott said.

But elevation is expensive. Just a small house costs $150,000 to raise. And most of the houses in Mandeville are not small; some homeowners here have shelled out $1 million to raise their house. 

Homeowners insurance doesn’t cover it, so almost everyone in Mandeville has paid out of pocket. “So, in this community, there was enough wealth to write a check and do that,” said Scott.

But 80 miles south of Mandeville, it’s a different story. Rev. Tyronne Edwards is the council member in Pointe à la Hache, a majority Black town right on the banks of the Mississippi River. “Because the law that FEMA created with forced elevation,” said Edwards, “people can’t afford it.”

“Forced elevation” — that’s how a lot of people refer to the 50 Percent Rule. And, Pointe à la Hache is at severe risk of flooding. “I’m afraid because I know if a hurricane comes today, this community can’t rebuild,” Edwards said.

In this community, most residents don’t have over $100,000 to elevate if their homes are severely damaged. There are FEMA grants available to help cover elevation costs, but demand is high, and these grants are hard to get.

Chadwick Encalade is one of two residents in Pointe à la Hache who received a FEMA elevation grant after his house was damaged in Hurricane Katrina.

Chadwick Encalade and his mom, Vergie, stand outside her home in Pointe à la Hache, Louisiana. They live next door to each other, but Chadwick’s house is elevated 23 feet in the air, while Vergie’s is barely off the ground. (Carlyle Calhoun)

“I’m like one of the few in the area that got the grant,” he said. Now, his home sits 23 feet in the air. “I see over the levee. I can see the ships. I see everything — it’s a beautiful view.”

Chadwick Encalade knows that when the next storm hits, his elevated house will probably make it through. But his mom, Vergie Encalade, lives next door, and her house is barely off the ground. “What’s going to happen if something happens to my home?” Vergie wondered. “I don’t have the funds to elevate, you know, some — I don’t have the funds to elevate anything.”

It’s easy to imagine Chadwick’s house as one of the few that survive the next storm. He’s worried, though, about his mom — and his neighbors. This is a tight-knit community. And, he said, people don’t want to leave.

“It’s part of you. It’s part of your being. So, it’s like losing a part of yourself if you leave, you know,” said Chadwick.

The goal of FEMA’s 50 Percent Rule is to create safer communities. But what that often looks like on the ground is that residents have pay to go up or find a new place to live.

One of the few houses in Pointe à la Hache that has been elevated 18 feet, FEMA’s base flood elevation here. Residents say FEMA’s 50 Percent Rule is causing stress and even forcing people out because they can’t afford to raise their houses. (Carlyle Calhoun)

There’s nothing worse than trying to get work done offsite and realizing your laptop is nearly dead. OK, there are plenty of worse things, but running out of battery when you’re not near an outlet can be seriously inconvenient. Laptop power banks are similar to other rechargeable banks you may have used to top off a smartphone, but with larger capacities and more ports. There’s no standard rating to qualify a battery as a laptop-grade brick, but here we only considered versions with at least a 20,000mAh capacity so they can deliver enough charge but under 27,000mAh (99Wh) so the TSA will let you fly with them in your carry-on luggage. After testing a slew of popular options over the past couple of years, we think these are the best laptop power banks you can buy.

Table of contents

• Best laptop power banks for 2025

• What to look for in a laptop power bank

• How we test portable laptop chargers

• Laptop power bank FAQs

Best laptop power banks for 2025

What to look for in a laptop power bank Capacity

If you just need to keep a smartphone from dying before you can make it home, just about any power bank will do. But if you need to revive multiple devices or the substantial battery of a laptop, you’ll want something with a high milliamp-hour​​ (mAh) capacity. A power bank capable of delivering enough power to a laptop will have a capacity between 20,000 and 27,000 mAh.

Go higher than 27,000mAh and you likely won’t be able to take it on an airplane, which is why most portable chargers top out around that number. Since the voltage for most portable power banks is around 3.7 volts, a 27,000mAh battery translates to 99.9 watt hours — which is the maximum capacity the TSA will allow for carry-on luggage. (And note that these batteries can’t be checked, regardless of size).

If you want something even bigger than a laptop power bank, and don’t need to fly with it, you’ll likely want to look into portable power stations. These can be the size of a car battery or larger and can potentially fuel an entire weekend away.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the capacity listed in a power bank's specs is not what will be delivered to your devices. As I mentioned, the capacity of these banks is around 25,000mAh. Even the huge battery on a 16-inch MacBook Pro or a Dell XPS 16 has a mAh rating of around 5,000 - 6,000mAh, so you might think you’d get five full charges but in reality, you only get about a single 70-percent charge. The voltage is different (typically 3.7V for the power bank and 11.4V for a laptop) which makes the watt-hours, or the amount of energy each battery can hold, different (working out to 92Wh for the battery and 72Wh for the built-in laptop batteries). On top of that, in order to feed a charge from a power bank to a laptop, a voltage conversion takes place and that dissipates a decent amount of energy.

Without turning this into a physics lesson, this all means that a power bank with a 25,000mAh (or 92Wh) capacity will typically fill a 5,000mAh (or 72Wh) laptop battery to about 75 percent. In my tests, I averaged about a 60-percent efficiency rate between a power bank’s listed capacity and the actual charge delivered.

Ports

Every large power bank I’ve tested has at least three USB ports, with a mix of USB-C and USB-A, which should cover nearly any portable device you need to recharge — earbuds, phones, tablets, laptops, you name it. In addition to the different plug formats, some ports supply power at different wattages. For example, one USB-C port might be rated for 60 watts, while the one next to it is rated for 100 watts. So if you’ve got a device that’s capable of 70W fast charging, such as the new MacBook Air, you’d want to opt for the 100W port to get the best charging speeds possible. Note that devices with a smaller wattage draw won’t be negatively affected by connecting to ports with high ratings. For example, a Galaxy S24 Ultra, capable of 45W super fast charging, can happily plug into the 100W port. A device will only draw what it can take, regardless of what a port can supply. Just remember that the port, device and cable need to be at or above the desired wattage rating to achieve maximum charging rates.

Some of these larger batteries also have AC ports. It might seem like a natural fit to plug in your laptop’s power adapter for a recharge. But really, the AC port should only be for devices that can’t use USB — such as a lamp or a printer. Plugging a power adapter into the AC port only wastes energy through conversion. First, the battery converts its DC power to supply the port with AC power, then the power adapter converts that AC power back to DC so your laptop can take it in. And as you’ll remember from physics class, each time energy is converted, some is lost to heat and other dissipations. Better to cut out the middleman and just send that DC power straight from the battery to the device.

Also, you can use more than one port at a time with these devices; just remember that the speed of whatever you’re charging will likely go down, and of course, the battery is going to drain proportionally to what you’re refilling.

Wireless charging

Just in the last year and a half that I’ve been testing portable power banks, wireless charging capabilities have noticeably improved. The first few I tried were painfully slow and not worth recommending. Now the wireless pads built into power banks are impressively fast — particularly, in my experience, when charging Samsung Galaxy phones (though the lack of a stabilizing magnetic connection like Apple’s MagSafe means they only work when rested flat on a pad). Most wireless charging connections can be used while other ports are also being employed, making them convenient for some mobile battlestation setups.

Of course, wireless charging is always less efficient than wired, and recharging from an external battery is less efficient in general. If you want to waste as little energy as possible, you’re better off sticking to wired connections.

Design

All power banks are designed to be portable, but there’s a big difference between a pocket-friendly 5,000mAh battery and one of these laptop-compatible bruisers. Most of the latter weigh between a pound and a half to two pounds, which is a considerable addition to a backpack. Many of the options listed here have a display to tell you how much charge remains in the battery, which is helpful when you’re trying to judiciously meet out charges to your devices. If a bank has a wireless connection, the pad is usually on the flat top and any available AC connection is usually at one end. Both may require you to engage those charging methods. Don’t be like me and grumble loudly that you got a bum unit without pressing (and sometimes double pressing) all the buttons first.

How we test portable laptop chargers

For the past year and a half, I’ve been testing and using dozens of portable batteries for our other battery guide. Some of those batteries include the higher-capacity power banks you see here. I also got a hold of a few extra banks just for this guide to make sure we covered what’s available. I went for brands I’m already familiar with, as well as battery packs from well-received manufacturers I hadn’t tried before (like UGREEN and Lion Energy). I only considered banks with at least a 20,000mAh capacity and mostly stuck with those that rated 25,000mAh and higher.

Here’s everything we tested:

• Zendure Supertank Pro

• Mophie Powerstation Pro XL

• Mophie Powerstation Pro AC

• Lion Energy Eclipse Mag

• Lion Energy Trek

• Baseus Blade Laptop

• Anker Prime 27,650mAh

• Goal Zero Sherpa 100 AC

Due to shipping and travel issues, I wasn’t able to test two of the batteries I had slated: the HyperJuice 245W and the UGREEN Power Bank 25,000mAh. Once I’ve had a chance to see how these two perform — as well as any new worthy contenders that hit the market — I’ll update this guide accordingly.

I tested each power bank with an iPhone 15, a Galaxy S23 Ultra, an iPad Air (M1) and a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip. Even though these banks can charge multiple devices at once, I refilled one at a time, to make side-by-side comparisons more straightforward. I drained the batteries of the phones and tablets to between zero and five percent and then didn’t use any device as it refilled.

For the MacBook, I let it run down to 10 percent before plugging in the power bank. That's when most laptops give display a “connect to power” warning, as draining any battery to empty will compromise the battery life. I then used it as one might in a mobile office, with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, while connected to Wi-Fi and a VPN.

For each test, I noted how long a completely charged battery took to get a device back to full and how much of the battery’s capacity was used up in one charge. I also noted things like portability, apparent durability, helpful features and overall design.

For reference, here are the battery capacities of the devices I used:

• iPhone 15: 3,349mAh

• Galaxy S23 Ultra: 4,855mAh

• iPad Air (5th gen): 7,729mAh

• 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro: 27,027mAh

Laptop power bank FAQs How do laptop power banks differ from phone power banks?

The main difference is size. Phone power banks tend to have a capacity ranging from 5,000mAh to 20,000mAh and laptop powerbanks are typically rated between 20,000mAh and 27,000mAh. There’s no official definition, however. Laptop batteries are simply larger and need a bigger supply of power to give them a meaningful charge.

How do you fast charge a power bank?

You can charge a power bank exactly as fast as the power bank’s internal mechanisms will allow. Most batteries are limited in how quickly they can accept and deliver a charge to avoid dangerously overheating. But to make sure you’re charging a bank as quickly as possible, make sure the wall adapter and the USB-C cable you are using have a high wattage rating — using a 5W power brick and a 10W cable will take a lot longer to refill your bank than a 65W wall charger and a 100W cord.

What size power bank do I need for a laptop?

Look for a power bank with a rating of at least 20,000mAh. Slightly smaller batteries may work, but they won’t deliver a significant charge to your laptop.

How many mAh to charge a laptop?

A milliamp hour (mAh) is how much a battery can hold, and most portable batteries list their capacity using mAh. If you get a battery rated at 20,000mAh or above, it should be able to charge your laptop.

Using mAh to discuss laptop batteries can be confusing. Due to differing voltages, you can’t directly compare the mAh ratings of a power bank battery to a laptop battery. Using watt-hours is a better gauge, as that calculation takes voltage into account.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-laptop-power-bank-120040388.html?src=rss

This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago high above the Arctic Circle — isolated and far away. It’s home to a vault that aims to be the ultimate backup for our data.

There, based in a former coal mine that closed down three decades ago, is the Arctic World Archive. Rune Bjerkestrand is its founder.

“It’s a remote destination, far away from wars, crisis, terrorism, disasters, and it’s regulated by an international treaty. It’s a demilitarized zone,” he said. “So what could be safer?”

The Svalbard archipelago, north of mainland Norway, is home to the Arctic World Archive. (Viken Kantarci/AFP via Getty Images)

Using head lamps, visitors descend a dark passageway, 300 meters deep into the permafrost, where temperatures are subzero. There, behind heavy doors, is the vault. Inside are stacks of silver packets containing reels of film.

“Now, we have more than 100 deposits from 30-plus countries across the world,” Bjerkestrand explained. “So it’s a wide selection of cultural heritage, history, literature, art, music — you name it.”

Inside one large box is a copy of the world’s open source code, the building blocks of most of the software and websites that we use. Kyle Daigle is chief operating officer of GitHub, which is behind this code vault. 

“It’s incredibly important for humanity to secure the future of software,” he said. “It’s become so critical to our day-to-day lives. We’re essentially building another wonder of the world every day by working together to write software.”

The Arctic World Archive is a commercial operation run by data preservation company Piql. At its Norwegian offices in Drammen — an hour from Oslo — all those files are printed onto film. 

“We convert the sequence of the bits which come from our clients’ data into images,” said Alexey Matantsev, a senior product developer at Piql. “We are sending those raw images onto film. After that, we develop the film. We can scan it back, and we can decode the data just the same way a user could see reading data from a hard drive.”

No one knows how long this archive will last, but plans are being made to preserve the digital memories we have today — considering the uncertainty of the future.