The Best Things to Get for Your New Laptop
This effortlessly cool, feature-packed bag excels in both form and function.
Every laptop needs a good bag. Elegant form and utilitarian features (such as a magnetic top closure and a plethora of pockets) make this wear-anywhere bag look more pricey than it is. Read more about it in our guide to the best laptop backpacks. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter
This waxed-canvas messenger has a distinctive vintage aesthetic, and its smooth nylon shoulder strap is extra-comfy. $119 from WaterField Designs
At once stylish and sturdy, this bag transitions seamlessly between the office and more casual settings. Read more about it in our guide to our favorite messenger bags. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
This versatile case is roomy, waterproof, and sharp-looking—plus, it has lots of handy pockets.
The Cary is comfortable to tote, has an impressive capacity, and looks good dressed up or down. Read more about it in our guide to the best briefcases. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
This simple, soft sleeve comes in an almost limitless number of designs, and it's constructed with stiff canvas-style polyester, which protects against dust, scratches, and impact.
A sleeve offers more protection for your laptop and allows you to carry it in any bag that lacks a dedicated computer compartment. Featuring the designs of countless artists, laptop sleeves sold by Society6 have a sturdy construction that should protect your laptop from bumps. Read more about it in our guide to the best laptop sleeves. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
This affordable sleeve fits laptops better and offers more protection than most other similarly priced options. It has thick, cushioned corners and a plushly protective interior that protects your laptop from most drops, spills, and scratches. Read more about it in our guide to the best laptop sleeves. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter
If you have data on your laptop, you need to back it up, and not just to the cloud. This portable hard drive has the largest capacity available among portable drives, and it's one of the most affordable drives we considered with this much storage. It works with both Windows computers and Macs, and it comes with USB-C and USB-A connectors and a three-year warranty. Read more about it in our guide to the best external hard drive. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
This portable SSD is the best because it's reliable, fast, and reasonably priced, and like most of the portable SSDs we tested, it's compact enough to partly hide under a stack of sticky notes. Read more about it in our guide to the best portable SSD. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter
With its flexible pricing options, IDrive lets you back up essential files for a low price or an enormous collection of large files for more. $70 from iDrive
(per year, 5 TB)
If you have only one backup, you don't have a backup. IDrive is easy to set up, and it backs up your files quickly. It offers flexible pricing, so you don't overpay for storage you don't need. Read more about it in our guide to the best online cloud backup services. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
A good pair of headphones sounds better than the speakers on your laptop, helps you focus by blocking outside noise, and keeps your study music, plane-movie dialogue, or game sounds private. These headphones deliver customizable sound, impressive noise cancellation, stellar call clarity, and long battery life. Read more about it in our guide to the best Bluetooth wireless headphones. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
Our favorite wireless earbuds provide a great fit and excellent-sounding drivers that keep up with high and low frequencies alike. Read more about it in our guide to the best wireless Bluetooth earbuds. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
This inexpensive, neutral-sounding pair of headphones is perfect for music, recording, or film students, performers doing session work, podcasters, videographers who need to monitor sound, and folks building up their sound booth — or, really, anyone who wants great-sounding headphones for less than $100. Read more about it in our guide to the best audiophile headphones. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter
These earbuds have a neutral sound profile and a sturdy, detachable cable with no built-in remote or microphone.
This is a comfortable pair of earbuds with a neutral sound that should have broad appeal. Read more about it in our guide to the best wired earbuds. Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
With a sound that's neither too trebly nor too bass-heavy, the Linsoul Tin HiFi T3 Plus set is a great entry point for the discerning music fan who prefers wired earbuds.
Pleasing sound, comfortable fit, and a replaceable cable make this affordable pair a great entry point. Read more about it in our guide to the best wired earbuds.
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Gas versus renewables: how will the power demand of data centres be met?
Texas is renowned for its ranching industry, but this oldest of American vocations is fast becoming entwined with icons of modern life: solar and wind farms. Among the cattle, Texas is also home to more than 15,300 wind turbines across 239 projects and 197 utility-scale solar farms. 'Solar and wind energy now frequently provide more than 45% of the state's electricity needs,' says Dennis Wamsted of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. With such strong credentials in renewables, it is little wonder that proposals to build more than 100 new gas-fired power plants were met with furore among some. According to non-profit environmental group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), as of April 2025, plans were afoot to build 108 new facilities and expand 17 others, adding as much as 58GW; there were also proposals, without specific detail, for five other projects. In a June report, the EIP said many of the proposals included requests to access the Texas Energy Fund, which meant using state taxpayer dollars, adding further fuel to the fire. The group identified proposals such as the 930MW three gas‐turbine project near Corpus Christi; the 900MW two gas-turbine project west of Houston; and another 900MW facility to the south-west of the city. Wamsted notes that how many of the proposals EIP identified will actually be built is left unanswered and believes Texas will continue to lead US renewables. However, 'Texas is also the leading market for gas-based thermal power', caveats Pavan Vyakaranam, energy analyst at Power Technology's parent company GlobalData. According to GlobalData, Texas was home to 81.53GW of gas power capacity in 2024, far beyond runner-up Florida's 54.96GW. It is becoming increasingly likely that the state's clean energy push may not go hand in hand with equal efforts to reduce thermal power as the energy transition requires – but why is Texas, alongside other US states and industrialised countries, looking at gas again? Tech needs gas Data centres are increasingly in demand as AI and automation markets boom. In the US, data centre investments nearly quadrupled between 2019 and 2024, according to International Energy Agency (IEA). Wamsted says it is clear that in Texas, data centre buildout is a strong driving force behind the projected increase in power demand placed on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). This is not just a problem for Texas. IEA data shows that globally, data centre electricity consumption is expected to more than double to around 945 terawatt-hours by 2030. The Trump administration has pushed for data centre and energy co-expansion across US states through favourable conditions such as tax incentives. The latest state to signal its intent to bank on this opportunity was Pennsylvania, which secured investment in excess of $90bn from technology, energy and finance companies to become an AI hub backed by state and federal economic incentives. Although many of the rumoured projects for this hub include clean energy, some are said to contain plans for new natural gas facilities, raising questions of which energy source is best suited to meet date centres' needs. In the US at least, with the Trump administration's preference for hydrocarbons, gas power holds a significant advantage, says Vyakaranam. 'In order to meet such a huge increase in demand [from data centres], there is a need for large capacity additions. With [Trump's] pro-fossil fuel policies in place, it is both more economical and, from clearances perspective, easier to roll out gas-based projects than others like renewables.' He also notes that gas power offers better grid stability with flexibility – able to be quickly started and stopped – and reliability – providing constant power generation to ensure continuous operations for data centres – in comparison to renewables. 'Renewable power, due to its intermittent nature, cannot be a sole solution [for data centres] without any backup power or storage.' However, Wamsted is dismissive of the notion that gas is absolutely needed, saying any rise in demand can be met reliably and economically by renewable sources in markets like Texas with significant renewable capacity. '[In Texas] the 24/7 power demand sought by data centres and other high load users can be supplied by the ERCOT system. Saying data centres require gas or nuclear since they are supposedly more reliable is misleading,' he argues. Do renewables have the power over gas? Wamsted notes that Texas' growing renewables capacity meets much of the state's needs even as demand on the ERCOT climbed by 31.3% between 2016 and 2024. 'Texas actually is a prime example of how quickly we can transition grids from fossil fuels to renewable energy, even without state support,' he says. In theory, Texas could prove it is possible to power the AI future with clean energy. Many Texas-based data centres are already trialling this. In 2024, Sabey Data Center Properties completed the construction of a Tier III two-storey 19,875m² facility in Austin, with a commitment to operate on 100% renewable energy. Similarly, Equinix built a Tier IV facility in Dallas to be entirely powered on renewables. As recently as April 2025, Soluna Holdings' said its 120MW South Texas data centre project, Project Hedy, will also be powered entirely by wind. There are others outside of the US, notes Vyakaranam. Malaysia's Bridge Data Centres is actively integrating 400MW of renewable energy into its operations, with a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. The country's AirTrunk Operating is also constructing a data centre with the capacity to generate up to 30MW of renewable energy. Despite these noteworthy blueprints, however, it seems Malaysia will also go big on gas as it tries to reduce coal use, yet balance the economic benefit of a growing data centre industry with the power it needs. With projections that the country will see demand triple in the five years to 2027, it plans to add 6–8GW of gas-fired capacity by the beginning of the next decade, according to the CEO of state utility provider Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Megat Jalaluddin. While the country also has a goal of doubling its renewable capacity by 2030, overall, the transition to clean energy is more a long-term goal than one to meet the urgent demands of data centres. Meanwhile, Vyakaranam says the US renewables sector is facing major challenges under the current administration, with Texas being no exception. 'Trump's position is poised to result in a significant increase in the growth of gas-powered energy production and stagnation of the renewables market,' he says. This approach has its own difficulties. The US, Malaysia and others looking at a gas power boom face stiff competition for gas components – thus, heftier price tags. The substantial increase in the gas-based project pipeline has seen the lead time for gas turbines reach around 5–7 years, according to GlobalData, meaning equipment manufacturers have had to ramp up production as they contend with huge order backlogs. 'Power generation companies, in order to secure turbine supplies, are engaging in aggressive procurement strategies such as making order requests years in advance, diversifying their supplier network, and coming up with different project designs and configurations to avoid any grid reliability shortfalls,' Vyakaranam notes. These considerations threaten Texas' new gas turbine plans as they 'cannot be resolved quickly, if at all', warns Wamsted, adding that engineering, procurement and construction companies have 'limited capability to meet the rapid proposed buildout'. 'Both of these capacity problems are raising the cost of gas-fired generation, which could put a brake on planned additions,' he continues. 'New gas pipelines will be needed for many of the planned expansion efforts, which will take time and have significant capital costs.' Are Malaysia and Texas part of a bigger picture? Vyakaranam believes that renewables alone cannot yet power the world through its AI revolution – instead, gas power has to be part of the mix. 'Although there will be a continued push towards renewables and battery storage innovations, which will eventually help meet data centres' demand,' he says, 'gas and nuclear will have to do some of the heavy lifting in the meantime.' Wamsted takes a different view: 'I would say it is renewables that can quickly and affordably meet the US' rising electricity needs, not gas, which may be sold out through 2030, or nuclear, which is unlikely to add significant new capacity before 2035 at earliest.' He also cautions against relying on gas alone. 'All generation systems require maintenance and have unforced outages during the year […] Relying on one resource – or worse, one facility – would be highly risky,' he says. However, the same could be said about renewables, particularly given their reliance on weather conditions and without the support of energy storage. With data centres – and everything they enable – now part of our world, it seems energy transition hopes are destined to do battle with our thirst for technology. With strong support and opposition for both renewables and gas power to support the AI boom, the reality is likely somewhere in between. Therefore, perhaps Texas and Malaysia have got it right, in spite of the raised eyebrows their approaches elicit. With battery storage still lacking, new gas turbines backlogged and nuclear, at best, a long-term investment, the best way to meet the exponentially increasing demand from data centres may be for renewables and gas power to work together. Of course, even this peculiar collaboration is not enough. To ensure a reliable and sustainable AI future, power capacity additions – regardless of energy source – will need to be paired with efforts to upgrade ageing grids, expand energy storage and decentralise energy systems as a whole, while tailoring energy solutions for each data centre to its local surroundings. "Gas versus renewables: how will the power demand of data centres be met?" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. 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Motive's $150M War Chest Signals All-Out Assault on Fleet Tech Dominance
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Enterprise customers represent Motive's fastest-growing segment, with the platform now serving global leaders. Industry analysts note that companies are finally ready to move beyond patchwork solutions to unified platforms, with Motive's comprehensive approach well-positioned to capitalize on this trend. Motive's platform strategy generates multiple revenue streams from single customer relationships. A fleet might start with dashcams for safety compliance, add fuel cards for spend management, then integrate workforce management and equipment monitoring. Each additional module increases customer lifetime value while creating switching costs that protect market share. The funding will accelerate development of what Motive calls its AI-first architecture. Unlike competitors retrofitting AI onto existing platforms, Motive has rebuilt core systems around machine learning models that improve continuously through real-world data collection. The platform's analytics capabilities represent the next frontier. Motive Analytics promises to unify insights from safety, maintenance, and spend management into natural language interfaces that let fleet managers ask complex questions and receive instant answers. Company executives emphasize that the focus extends beyond data collection to actionable automation that makes fleets safer and more profitable without requiring additional human oversight. Bloomberg reported last year that the company could go public by the end of 2025. The latest funding round maintains Motive's position as one of the most valuable private companies in fleet technology, with earlier rounds valuing the business at $2.85 billion. The path to public markets appears increasingly clear. Motive serves nearly 100,000 customers across multiple industries, demonstrating the scale and diversification that public investors demand. 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Motive's platform approach could provide a template for technology adoption across industries where physical assets and mobile workforces dominate, with the UK expansion serving as a test case for broader European market penetration. For competitors, the funding round intensifies competition in markets that many considered mature. Traditional telematics providers, focused on location tracking, now face platforms that promise comprehensive operational transformation. The question becomes whether established players can match Motive's AI capabilities or risk losing customers to more sophisticated alternatives. What seems inevitable is that Motive's comprehensive platform approach, combining safety, operations, and financial management in a single AI-powered system, represents the future of fleet technology. The funding provides resources to execute that vision at a global scale, potentially reshaping how millions of commercial vehicles operate across the physical economy. For an industry long defined by fragmented technology solutions, Motive's integration strategy could prove as transformative as the AI capabilities that power it. The $150 million funding round ensures the company has the resources to execute its vision of comprehensive fleet technology platforms at a global scale. The post Motive's $150M War Chest Signals All-Out Assault on Fleet Tech Dominance appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Android Authority
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Every angle of the Pixel 10 Pro gets exposed in latest leak
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