Author: The Tech Guy

Optera uses photoluminescence instead of lasers for long-term optical storage solutionsSpectral hole burning encodes data by manipulating nanoscale phosphor lattice imperfectionsMulti-bit encoding allows several bits to be stored per physical location on the mediumDr Nicolas Riesen at the University of South Australia is leading the development of an optical storage archive that records data through photoluminescence instead of physical laser etching.The technology operates at room temperature and uses relatively low-cost lasers instead of the femtosecond systems used in some competing glass-based archives.The initial implementation of this archive is a 500GB proof-of-concept medium planned for 2026, and it represents the first…

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Waymo has hit another bump in the road. Just days after its robotaxi fleet crumbled into complete disarray because of a city power outage in San Francisco, the company was forced to suspend all rides again in the Bay Area on Thursday in anticipation of a nasty storm, CNBC reported. Customers received word of the measure via the company’s ride-hailing app. “Service temporarily paused due to National Weather Service flash flood warning,” a notification read. While you can hardly fault Waymo for erring on the side of caution, the measure comes as its self-driving cabs’ ability to…

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test. Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2): One-minute reviewThe Noise Luna Ring 2 is the second generation of the Luna Ring. I reviewed the original in early 2025 and liked that it felt comfortable, offered solid insights, and was impressively accurate for sleep tracking from a first-gen product.On paper, the Luna Ring 2 doesn’t sound like a huge leap forward and, visually, you’d be forgiven for not immediately spotting what’s changed.…

Introduction Oppo released some awesome phones in 2025 – now if only it would let people buy them. Seriously, some of the best phones of the year are exclusive to China. Jealous window shopping aside, Oppo did actually release some impressive phones worldwide – here are the highlights (and lowlights) of the last 12 months. Winners: Oppo Find X9 and Find X9 Pro The Find X9 Pro is “almost too good to be true”. That was our verdict when we reviewed this versatile flagship. The battery life is the second best that we’ve ever tested and the charging speed is…

As of December 18, 2025, law enforcement authorities are actively investigating a potential connection between the mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island (on December 13), and the fatal shooting of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts (on December 15). There are reports that some 40 year old shooter did the Brown University shooting and then with the same car and guns went to shoot the MIT Professor. Brown University Shooting A lone gunman entered the Barus & Holley engineering building during finals week.Killed two students (Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, and Ella Cook,…

Most of us are used to paying a single amount for electricity, turning devices on and off when it suits us, not necessarily when it’s best for the grid. Time-of-use (TOU) tariffs are an alternative, offering different prices at different times. The idea is that cheaper electricity is offered at off-peak times, when there’s less demand, but there’s a surplus to pay when electricity is in high demand. Used properly, a TOU tariff can save money, but they’re currently difficult to understand and compare, and smart meters don’t go far enough to make energy savings easier. What is a time-of-use…

Ever wondered why your phone’s display turns off when you’re on a call or bring it close to your face? That’s the proximity sensor detecting if you are using the earpiece to talk, thus turning off the display to save battery. Sensors on your phone do a lot more than you realize, and some are hidden so well that you’ll never realize they exist. Other sensors in your phone include a magnetometer, a barometer, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and even a temperature sensor on some devices. Most of these work silently in the background, but with the right apps, you…

We took some impressive pictures with the OPPO Find X9 Pro’s Hasselblad lens kit, and the rather impressive 230 mm lens offers significant distance, which can be extended up to 40x digital zoom, roughly equivalent to 920 mm. That’s pretty long range, and as a very, very, very amateur astronomer, I wondered whether OPPO’s lens kit would be a gateway to some even more amateur astrophotography. Given the rise of brilliant camera phones, computational photography, and dedicated astrophotography modes, I set out to answer whether smartphones are finally catching up to entry-level telescopes for casual sky-watching.Before I braced myself for…

From left to right, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman stand outside before boarding their Orion spacecraft inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. Because the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket upon which they will launch is not yet at the launch pad, the crew boarded Orion inside NASA Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building, where engineers are conducting final preparations on the spacecraft, rocket, and ground systems. During the rehearsal, teams went…

Every year, the GPU market seems to follow a familiar script. Nvidia continues to set the pace at the high end, AMD responds where it can, and the loudest headlines are dominated by flagship performance. For most buyers, that still means choosing between the same two companies — even as the balance of power clearly tilts in Nvidia’s favor. But the GPU I’m most excited about heading into 2026 doesn’t come from either of the companies. Instead, it’s an unconfirmed card that could quietly change the shape of the market – Intel’s Arc B770, often referred to in leaks as…