03.12.26

Hi there. I’m Julian, senior editor for WIRED’s Gear section, back in your inbox again to catch you up on the latest tangible things gracing our lives. This summer, that could be a “flying car.” The US Department of Transportation announced a three-year pilot program that would see ultralight flying vehicles and electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, operate in eight regions in the country, including New York, Florida, and Texas. That’s before even receiving full certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration.

If your futuristic desires are more grounded, perhaps holograms will appeal? Brooklyn-based company Looking Glass has been making 3D screens for nearly a decade, and now it finally has a consumer-grade digital picture frame, called the Musubi, that turns your photos and videos into holograms, in part thanks to artificial intelligence. Looking Glass CEO Shawn Frayne tells WIRED that everything is processed locally and that no one has access to your images. It launched as a Kickstarter and, guess what? It has already blown past its fundraising goal.

Speaking of launches, Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S26 series arrived this week, next to Apple’s bevy of hardware announcements from last week. We’ve got a review of the MacBook Neo and the iPhone 17e, and keep your eyes peeled for our reviews of Samsung’s latest and greatest. 

At $599, the MacBook Neo is Apple’s first budget laptop. For the most part, Apple cut corners in the right places and made a MacBook its intended buyers will adore.

Can it really be the case that the company can now make a laptop $200 cheaper than a watch?

Laptop batteries lag in performance as they age. But you can slow down their deterioration by tweaking your Mac’s charging settings.

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One of the desk drawers in my childhood bedroom looks like an archeological site, where devices I’ll never use again live among tangled wired earbuds and outdated chargers. Sometimes, I reach my hand into the abyss and pull out a silver iPod shuffle from 2005 or an LG Cosmos cell phone from 2011 and let out a sigh in a dramatic expression of my nostalgia for simpler times. But I know my deep hatred of clutter will eventually outweigh my sentimental streak, and I’ll develop a sudden urge to get these now-useless chunks of metal out of my sight. Lucky for me, and for those of you prone to the impulse to purge old gadgets, our very own Simon Hill has a guide on how to (responsibly) do just that.—writes Elana Klein.

I stuck Amazon’s Echo Show 15 and its Alexa+ AI assistant in my kitchen for a month. Things have not gone well.

You need to sort out that rat’s nest of cables under your desk. These cable management tips and products can help you do it.

The federal government announced a new pilot program designed to get new kinds of ultralight vehicles and “eVTOLs” up and running around the country—even if they’re not fully FAA-certified.