What’s more festive than transforming a room in your house into a dreamy, fairy-lit world, perfect for a spot of creative portrait photography?
The concept is simple – by sticking a fast prime lens onto the front of your DSLR or mirrorless camera and taking advantage of its super-wide aperture, we’ll be able to create a nicely blurred background to transform those tiny, twinkling…
These are my top 12 photography books published in 2025
December 29, 2025
How to Photograph Gardens
Anyone wondering how to do just that will find plenty to learn in this book by Jason Ingram. One of the UK’s leading exponents of the craft, he takes the reader on a tour of some of his favourite gardens in the UK and abroad, illustrating his…
For years, Tesla Powerwall has been the go-to recommendation for “normals” looking for a painless, low-effort experience from their first home solar and battery backup solutions. But with a recent recall on more than 10,000 home batteries over fire safety concerns…
Renault Group closes out 2025 with a new EV efficiency record
December 29, 2025
First shown earlier this year as a styling concept, the Renault Filante Record 2025 technology demonstrator has been continually developed to prove that it’s got more than racy looks going for it. The concept drove more than 1,000 km in less than 10 hours, proving that extreme efficiency is possible at highway speeds.
Unlike Chevrolet’s extreme hypermiling adventure that saw a Silverado EV…
Honda buys out EV battery plant in the US for nearly $3B as it preps for an all-new lineup
December 29, 2025
Honda agreed to buy its co-owned EV battery plant in Ohio from LG Energy Solutions as it prepares for an all-new dedicated lineup.
Honda buys US EV battery plant from LG for $2.9 billion
The facility, L-H Battery Company, is part of Honda and LG Energy’s joint venture in…
The United States airstrikes that targeted Islamic State group militants in northwestern Nigeria on Thursday marked a major escalation in an offensive that the West African’s overstretched military has struggled with for years.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on social…
Japan’s Cabinet OKs record defense budget that aims to deter China
December 29, 2025
Japan’s Cabinet on Friday approved a record defense budget plan exceeding 9 trillion yen ($58 billion) for the coming year, aiming to fortify its strike-back capability and coastal defense with cruise missiles and unmanned arsenals as tensions rise in the region.
The draft budget for fiscal 2026, beginning April, is up 9.4% from 2025 and marks the fourth year of Japan’s ongoing five-year…
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I would buy DLC for Windows 11
December 29, 2025
A little before Thanksgiving, my colleague Mark Hachman sent me a Threads link. It showed a cute little animated cat running on your taskbar. The add-on from GitHub claims to show your CPU load, with the feline running faster the harder your processor works.
The comments on…
I failed at spotting AI slop videos. Can you do better?
December 29, 2025
Fake videos used to stand out immediately to me. Nowadays? I’m far worse at identifying them. And thanks to the fine folks over at NPR, I have the quiz results to prove it. (Oof.)
The short, four-question test asks you to identify AI versus human-made video. The scenarios…
I Never Met Vince Zampella, But Here’s The Thank You I Would Have Wanted to Say to Him
December 26, 2025
It’s no stretch to say I wouldn’t possess the privilege of having this job without Vince Zampella. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare changed the way I played games, interacted with them as part of a community, and made me think deeper about level and mission design than I had up to that point in my life. I was fifteen upon its release in 2007, and, although I had enjoyed playing games throughout…
