• The auto brands that grew the most in Australia in 2025

    January 8, 2026

    Australia’s new-vehicle market grew only modestly in 2025, and numerous auto brands posted significant declines. However, there were some brands that enjoyed strong sales growth last year and, perhaps surprisingly, not all of them were Chinese. For this article, we’ve looked at the brands with the largest percentage increase in sales. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. We’ve excluded exotic brands like Rolls-Royce (up 24.1 per cent year over year) and Aston Martin (up 20.1 per cent), as given their low sales volumes they’re more susceptible to significant percentage differences.…

  • The Tone Outdoors T1 solved the biggest problem with leaf blowers

    January 8, 2026

    Every fall, dozens of maple and oak trees in my neighborhood shed their leaves. Thus begins the constant drone of gas-powered leaf blowers every day through early December. The noise is by far the most annoying thing about these yard tools, but I can appreciate it’s a necessary evil — unless you prefer to pick up a blister-inducing rake. Whisper Aero argues there’s a better way. The company is using aerospace tech to quiet the noisy devices, introducing the T1 leaf blower at CES 2026 under its sub-brand Tone Outdoors. The company promises the T1 is 80 percent quieter and…

  • Ford has an AI assistant and new hands-free BlueCruise tech on the way

    January 8, 2026

    Ford is developing an AI assistant that will debut in the company’s smartphone app, before expanding to its vehicles in 2027, the company announced Wednesday at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show. The company also teased a next-generation of its BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system that is both cheaper to make and more capable — ultimately leading to eyes-off driving in 2028. Wednesday’s announcement was one of the only ones to come from a major automaker at CES, marking a sharp turnaround from the late 2010s when they dominated the show. And it wasn’t made at a flashy keynote event; rather,…

  • Ram 2500 and 3500 recalled

    January 7, 2026

    The Ram 2500 and 3500 pickups have been recalled as key safety features may not work. “Due to a manufacturing defect, the Occupant Restraint Controller (ORC) module may disable the Electronic Stability Control (ESC). If this occurs, the ESC may fail without warning resulting in a loss of vehicle control,” reads the recall notice from American Special Vehicles, a partnership between importer Ateco Automotive and the Walkinshaw Group which remanufactures Ram vehicles in right-hand drive. “This may also result in the seatbelt pre-tensioners and airbags not performing as intended in the event of an accident. “A loss of vehicle control…

  • Bluetti’s Charger 2 uses solar and engine power to charge your portable battery

    January 7, 2026

    If you’re off-roading, it’s a neat idea to use your engine to top up your battery, which prompted Bluetti to launch the Charger. You could hook it to your alternator and draw off energy as you drove to make sure you turned up to your campsite with full batteries. But if you’re also toting around solar panels on your roof, then it’s a shame you can’t also use that power to top up. This omission is what prompted Bluetti to turn up to CES 2026 with the Charger 2, which will take power from your engine and your solar panels…

  • Yes, LinkedIn banned AI agent startup Artisan, but now it’s back

    January 7, 2026

    Over the past few days, several posts on LinkedIn and Twitter/X went viral after one of the most talked about AI companies in San Francisco suddenly vanished from LinkedIn: Artisan AI.   The company’s LinkedIn page, individual employee profiles, and posts from executives all displayed a “This post cannot be displayed” message.   The startup had been banned from the site, Artisan CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack confirmed to TechCrunch. However, after working with LinkedIn over the past two weeks — and addressing the social network’s concerns — Artisan is now being reinstated.  “Every startup inevitably has some kind of thing that comes back…

  • 2026 Suzuki Swift review | CarExpert

    January 7, 2026

    As Impreza is to Subaru, and Civic is to Honda, Swift is one of Suzuki’s most iconic nameplates. In 2024, the long-running Japanese light hatch entered a new generation, giving us the Mk4 Swift ‘Hybrid’ you see here. The headline addition was a new 12V mild-hybrid system, making the latest Swift a hybrid-only model and marking the first step in Suzuki’s electrified model push in Australia. Following in its low-capacity mild-hybrid footsteps would later be the Fronx light SUV in 2025, while the fully electric e-Vitara – and a hybrid version of the regular Vitara – is due to arrive…

  • This haptic wristband pairs with Meta smart glasses to decode facial expressions

    January 7, 2026

    It’s only been a few months since Meta announced that it would open its smart glasses platform to third-party developers. But one startup at CES is already showing off how the glasses can help power an intriguing set of accessibility features. Hapware has created Aleye, a haptic wristband that, when paired with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, can help people understand the facial expressions and other nonverbal cues of the people they are talking to. The company says the device could help people who are blind, low vision or neurodivergent unlock a type of communication that otherwise wouldn’t be available. Aleye…

  • Roku’s $3 streaming service Howdy will be coming to other platforms, CEO says

    January 7, 2026

    At CES 2026, Anthony Wood, Roku’s founder, chairman, and CEO, offered a hint about the future of the company’s newest streaming channel, Howdy, and its ambition to become a broader competitor in the market. Launched last August, the $2.99 per month streaming service offers ad-free access to library content, at a time when rival streamers are raising their prices. “The opportunity for Howdy was — if you just look at what’s going on in the streaming world with streaming services, they’re getting more expensive. They keep raising prices, and they keep adding larger and larger ad loads,” Wood explained at…

  • A Coding Implementation to Build a Unified Apache Beam Pipeline Demonstrating Batch and Stream Processing with Event-Time Windowing Using DirectRunner

    January 7, 2026

    In this tutorial, we demonstrate how to build a unified Apache Beam pipeline that works seamlessly in both batch and stream-like modes using the DirectRunner. We generate synthetic, event-time–aware data and apply fixed windowing with triggers and allowed lateness to demonstrate how Apache Beam consistently handles both on-time and late events. By switching only the input source, we keep the core aggregation logic identical, which helps us clearly understand how Beam’s event-time model, windows, and panes behave without relying on external streaming infrastructure. Check out the FULL CODES here. !pip -q install -U "grpcio>=1.71.2" "grpcio-status>=1.71.2" !pip -q install -U apache-beam crcmod…