TECH

Perk Up To Delicious Savings Up To Half Off Coffee And Espresso Makers

I'm dating myself with this one, but a jingle that often pops up in my head is, "The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup!" Of course, there are better coffee options out there, depending on what you're into. But it all starts with having something capable of brewing your favorite beans into a cup of pick-me-up. With that in mind, there are some deals to be had on coffee and espresso makers ahead of Amazon's big Prime Day event next month.

One of those is the Bella Pro 12-Cup Coffee Maker pictured above, which is actually available for half off at Best Buy where it's priced at $29.99 (down from $59.99). It's a simple coffee maker, albeit with some nice perks such as an LED screen that is easy to read and use, a pause feature (so you can pour a cup before the entire pot is finished brewing), and a freshness timer to ensure you're not serving yourself (or your guests) stale coffee.

It's programmable for up to 24 hours too, so you can configure it to have your coffee ready for whatever time you normally wake up in the morning. For safety, it will shut off after 2 hours, so that's one less thing to worry about. And it's dishwasher safe (carafe and accessories.

Over on the complete opposite end of the spectrum is this advanced Philips 4400 Series Espresso Machine that's on sale for $799.99 at Amazon (20% off). This is anything but your average coffee machine, with features and capabilities that will appeal to more seasoned users, which is reflected in the asking price. Even with the discount in play, this isn't a cheap machine by any stretch.

It is, however, a highly capable unit with a whole bunch of hot and iced coffee functions, including Coffee, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato, Iced Coffee, Americano, Caffe Crema, Latte, Ristretto, Coffee with Milk, Iced Americano, Iced Espresso.

There are a lot of bells and whistles on this machine, such as a 100% ceramic grinder with a dozen grind settings, touchscreen display, the ability to create a silky smooth milk froth, five aroma strength options, a 1.8-liter water tank with an AquaClean filter that's good for up to 5,000 cups without descaling, and the list goes on.

If it's ultra-convenience you're after, then check out the Keurig K-Express Single Serve K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker—it's on sale for $79.99 at Amazon (20% off). Available in a variety of colors to match your kitchen decor, these machines are great options if you just want to brew a mug of coffee with the least amount of fuss or cleanup.

You can select from three brew cup sizes, including 8-ounce, 10-ounce, and 12-ounce cups. Meanwhile, the multi-cup water reservoir in the back of the slim machine holds up to 42 ounces, so you don't have to refill it after each cup.

Other features include a removable drip tray, support for travel mugs up to 7.4 inches tall, an auto turn-off feature that turns off the coffee maker after 5 minutes from the last brew, and a strong brew option when you're craving a more intense cup of coffee.

Note that the Ninja coffee maker is prone to dropping down to $79.99 and with Prime Day around the corner, it might do so again. If you don't want to wait, though, the current price is well below the MSRP.

An honorable mention is the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew 2-Way Brewer (Renewed), which is on sale for $78.95 at Amazon (save 37%). Or skip the risk of buying renewed and get it in brand new form for $99 at Walmart. I've been using this as my near-daily driver for the past several years and love the convenience of being able to choose between brewing a carafe or popping a pod in the other side for a quick cup. It also comes with a plastic pod that you can fill with coffee grinds, if you want want to pay for standalone pods.

There's also a newer model available, the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew Advanced 5-in-1, that adds iced coffee to the mix, along with a sleeker design. It's not on sale, but at $119.20 on Amazon, I wouldn't hesitate to pounce.

• Shardor Espresso Machine 20 Bar: $99.99 (save 20%)
• Philips 1200 Series Fully Automatic Espresso Machine: $383.62 (save 23%)
• Ninja Pods & Grounds Specialty Single-Serve Coffee Maker: $99.99 (23% off)
• Tastyle Single Serve Coffee Maker: $64.99 (save 28%)
• Tastlye Mini Hot And Iced Coffee Maker: $39.99 (save 33%)
• Nostalgia Retro 12-Cup Programmable Coffee Maker: $59.99 (save 25%)

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DIGITAL LIFE

AI vision language models provide video descriptions for blind users

For people who are blind or have low vision, the audio descriptions of action in movies and TV shows are essential to understanding what is happening. Networks and streaming services hire professionals to create audio descriptions, but that's not the case for billions of YouTube and TikTok videos.

That doesn't mean people don't want access to the content. Using AI vision language models (VLM), researchers at Northeastern University are making audio descriptions available for user-generated videos as part of a crowdsourced platform called YouDescribe. Like a library, blind and low-vision users can request descriptions for videos, and later rate and contribute to them.

"It's understandable that a 20-second video on TikTok of somebody dancing may not get a professional description," says Lana Do, who received her master's in computer science from Northeastern's Silicon Valley campus in May. "But blind and low-vision people might like to see that dancing video too."

In fact, a 2020 video of the South Korean boy band BTS's song "Dynamite" is at the top of YouDescribe's wishlist, waiting to be described. The platform has 3,000 volunteer describers, but the wishlist is so long, they can't keep up. Only 7% of requested videos on the wishlist have audio descriptions, Do says.

Do works in the lab of Ilmi Yoon, teaching professor of computer science on the Silicon Valley campus. Yoon joined YouDescribe's team in 2018 to develop the platform's machine learning elements.

This year, Do added new features to speed up YouDescribe's human-in-the-loop workflow. New VLM technology provides better quality descriptions, and a new infobot tool will allow users to ask for more information about a specific video frame. Low-vision users can even correct mistakes in the descriptions with a collaborative editing interface, Do says.

The result will make video content descriptions better and more quickly available. AI-generated drafts ease the burden on human describers, and users can easily engage in the process through ratings and comments, she said.

"They could say that they were watching a documentary set in a forest and they heard a flapping sound that wasn't described," Do says, "and they wondered what it was."

Do and her colleagues presented a paper recently at the Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work in Amsterdam about the potential for AI to accelerate the development of audio descriptions. AI does a surprisingly good job, says Yoon, at describing human expressions and movements. In this video, an AI agent describes the steps that a chef takes while making cheese rolls.

But there are some consistent weaknesses, she says. AI isn't as good at reading facial expressions in cartoons. And overall, humans are better at picking up on the most important details in a scene—a key skill in creating a helpful description.

"It's very labor-intensive," Yoon says.

Graduate students in her lab compare the AI first drafts to what human describers create.

"Then we measure the gaps so we can train the AI to do a better job," she says. "Blind users don't want to get distracted with too much verbal description. It's an editorial art to verbalize the most important information in a concise way."

YouDescribe was launched in 2013 by the San Francisco-based Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute to train sighted volunteers in the creation of audio descriptions. With a focus on YouTube and TikTok videos, the platform offers tutorials for recording and timing narration that make user-generated video content accessible.

Provided by Northeastern University 

 

TECH

Here's why NVIDIA chose GDDR6 for desktop RTX 5050 and GDDR7 for laptops

NVIDIA's newest budget gaming GPU is notable for a couple of reasons. For one, the freshly-minted GeForce RTX 5050 is the first xx50 model GPU since the GeForce RTX 3050 (NVIDIA never released a GeForce RTX 4050, and instead the GeForce RTX 4060 was the lowest end model in the Ada Lovelace family). And secondly, NVIDIA opted to equip the desktop GeForce RTX 5050 with GDDR6 memory chips and the laptop version with GDDR7. The looming question is why, and it doesn't sound like the cost savings was the sole factor for using slower VRAM on the desktop model.

So why did NVIDIA use two different types of memory on the same model GPU? Ben Berraondo, Director of Global PR at NVIDIA, offered some clarity on a couple of X posts. What it basically boils down to is that the laptop form factor is a better candidate for the power efficiency gains of GDDR7 compared to GDDR6.

"The RTX 5050 notebook GPU has been optimized for the best power efficiency for portable laptops with great battery life. Therefore G6 is the best choice for desktops an the more power efficient G7 is the best choice for laptops," Berraondo wrote.

His post prompted an X user to reply that since GDDR7 is faster than GDDR6, wouldn't it still make sense to use the same type of chips on the desktop models? To which Berraondo offered a little more context.

"In this case, benefits of G7 are for thermals and battery life, crucial for our OEM partners and hopefully you'll see some great laptop options," Berraondo wrote.

We received the same messaging in discussions with NVIDIA GeForce product management in regards to the GeForce RTX 5050 launch. There's undoubtedly a cost benefit for NVIDIA (and potentially consumers, if using GDDR6 helped set the MSRP at $249), but to NVIDIA's point, the GeForce RTX 5050 is an entry-level discrete GPU that doesn't necessarily need bleeding-edge memory.

Every other GeForce RTX 50 series product on the desktop employs GDDR7, but the argument can be made (and is made, essentially) that the faster VRAM has a bigger impact on higher-end GPUs starting with the GeForce RTX 5060 and on up, versus a budget card. Sort of like how racing tires are going to have a far bigger impact on a sports car than an economical grocery-getter.

That said, using GDDR7 could have given the destkop GeForce RTX 5050 more memory bandwidth. As it stands, the 8GB of GDDR6 on the desktop model offers up 320GB/s of bandwidth, versus 384GB/s for the laptop version (20% more). So it's a fair question to ask, though in the grand scheme of things, we can see why NVIDIA went the route that it did (the extra supply and lower cost likely outweighed a bump in memory bandwidth on a entry-level SKU).

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TECH

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 tipped to be even thinner than expected

Both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 will reportedly be much thinner than their predecessors. A leaker has now added weight to rumours about key upgrades to the flagship foldables and revealed the alleged final thickness of each device.

Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 will be officially unveiled at the next Galaxy Unpacked event on 9 July 2025. Whilst official promo images and specs-related information have gradually emerged over recent weeks, leaker Setsuna Digital now claims to have revealed the finalised details about the thickness of each device.

According to the leak, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will have a thickness of 4.2 mm (0.17 in) when unfolded and 8.9 mm (0.35 in) when folded, making it just 0.1 mm thicker than the Honor Magic V5 in its folded state and almost as thin when unfolded. By comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (approx. $1,500 on Amazon) is more than 3 mm (0.12 in) thicker when closed. Setsuna Digital also supported earlier reports about the phone’s other specs, including its 215 g (7.58 oz) weight, 200 MP main shooter, 10 MP self camera, 8-inch main display, and 6.5-inch cover screen.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is expected to measure 13.7 mm (0.54 in) thick when folded and 6.5 mm (0.26 in) when unfolded, shaving off 1.2 mm (0.05 in) and 0.4 mm (0.02 in), respectively, compared to its predecessor. Despite the slimmer design, battery capacity is tipped to increase by 7.5% to 4,300 mAh, whilst the device weight is likely to remain largely unchanged at 188 g (6.63 oz).

The leaker also suggests that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 will feature a 4.1-inch secondary screen – larger than previously assumed – alongside significantly narrower bezels measuring just 1.25 mm (0.05 in). Similarly, the main display could potentially grow to 6.9 inches and adopt a 21:9 aspect ratio. Both screens are rumoured to support 120 Hz and deliver peak HDR brightness of 2,600 nits.

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DIGITAL LIFE

Big tech's companies will have to comply with the law in Brazil: Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok are required to remove illegal content in Brazil even without a court ruling

The Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) ruled this Thursday(26/06) in favor of tougher regulation of social networks, in a country where the fight against disinformation is an important political issue.

Platforms such as X, TikTok, Instagram or Facebook must now immediately remove illegal content, such as that which advocates terrorism, child pornography or incites hatred, without waiting for a judge's decision. Technology companies may also be held liable for damages caused if they do not remove content after being informed by an internet user or notified by a judge.

Eight of the court's 11 judges voted in favor of the partial unconstitutionality of an article of a Brazilian law, according to which platforms can only be held liable when they ignore a court ruling. The Supreme Court was evaluating appeals that attempted to prevent the application of the ruling.

"We have preserved freedom of expression to the greatest extent possible, without, however, allowing the world to collapse into an abyss of incivility," said the president of the STF, Luis Roberto Barroso.

For magistrate Kássio Nunes, one of the three judges who voted against greater accountability for technology giants, "civil liability lies primarily with the agent who caused the damage" and not with the platforms.

In a note sent to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), Google expressed concern about the change in Brazilian regulations and warned that it could have "an impact on freedom of expression and the digital economy."

Debates on social media have been livening up Brazil's highest court for several months, gaining particular importance in 2024, when judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered access to platform X to be blocked for having ignored a series of court decisions related to the fight against disinformation.

X was blocked for 40 days in Brazil, with its owner, billionaire Elon Musk, calling Moraes a dictator who threatens freedom of speech, before giving in to the demands.

These deliberations took place alongside the trial of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and several former collaborators for an attempted coup in 2022, following his election defeat to leftist candidate and current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the alleged coup plotters used misinformation on social media to question the electronic voting system and justify a coup, which ultimately did not happen.

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TECH

Samsung Galaxy A55 5G tipped to get Android 16 beta soon

The Galaxy A55 5G is a mid-range, previous-generation Samsung smartphone. Despite that, it is now tipped to become eligible for the OEM's latest version of Android before the end of 2025. It has apparently been spotted on a benchmarking site with the new build in place of its official One UI 7 software.

The Galaxy A55 5G is a 2024 sub-flagship smartphone that can be found for $399.99 on Amazon today (June 29, 2025). It is listed with its original One UI 6.1 software on that page - however, it could upgrade to a newer version of that Android skin soon.

A device with the A55 5G's model number ("samsung SM-A556E") has surfaced on Geekbench with "Android 16" as its OS - even though its latest official update brings it up to One UI 7. 

The leak suggests that it will join the Galaxy S25 series in gaining access to One UI 8 soon - even if it will be at the public beta stage.

The new discovery closely follows reports that its successor the A56 5G has also exhibited leaked One UI 8 as of late.

We found the Galaxy A55 5G to be a decent Android mid-ranger in our testing, with a few potentially crucial drawbacks such as the hamstrung screen-to-body ratio (which was fixed somewhat in the A56) and lack of wireless charging (which wasn't).

Now, it seems the handset might be able to add the prospect of a timely major software upgrade to the ability to use microSD cards (subsequently taken away in its successor) to the list of its advantages as a long-term daily driver.

 

TECH

Minisforum launches UM690L Slim Mini PC with Ryzen 9 6900HX, LPDDR5 RAM & triple 4K output

Minisforum has introduced a new ultra-compact mini PC called the UM690L Slim. The device has a volume of just 0.8 liters and weighs 0.67 kilograms. The 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD version is priced at 2499 yuan ($348) in China.

The UM690L Slim features an 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU with a maximum boost clock of 4.9GHz. The processor has a configurable TDP of 65W and is paired with integrated Radeon 680M graphics. According to the company, the chip scores around 2621 points in 3DMark TimeSpy, putting its GPU performance close to a GTX 1050. The mini PC uses LPDDR5 memory running at 6400MT/s, with options for either 16GB or 32GB configurations. It supports dual M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSDs for storage, allowing a combined capacity of up to 4TB. According to Minisforum, the system can achieve read speeds as high as 7000MB/s, making it ideal for quick boot times and managing large file transfers efficiently.

The company has designed a dual-fan cooling system for this model. The system uses phase-change thermal materials and adds dedicated cooling for memory and storage components. Under full load, the noise levels remain under 35dB, based on internal lab tests.

In terms of connectivity, the UM690L Slim includes a 2.5G Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3. The device supports triple 4K display output through USB4, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4. The USB4 port also supports up to 40Gbps data transfer and Power Delivery charging input between 65W and 100W. It also allows 15W output for reverse charging. The I/O layout includes two front-facing USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports, two USB 2.0 ports at the rear, one USB4 port, a DP 1.4 port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack. The UM690L Slim runs Windows 11 Pro out of the box and measures 130 × 126.5 × 50.4mm.

In related news, Gmktec recently introduced the EVO-T1 Mini PC featuring a Core Ultra 9-285H processor, 64GB RAM, and support for quad 4K display output. Meanwhile, Geekom has launched the IT15 Mini PC with a desktop-grade Core Ultra processor, 64GB RAM, a 4TB SSD, and quad 4K output support.

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