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22 Aug 2025

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Hundreds of thousands of Grok chats exposed in Google results
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot appears to have published messages without users' knowledge.

Hurry! This HP Chromebook with 4GB RAM is dirt cheap for $129
As another year of school kicks off, you may be scrambling for a decent day-to-day laptop for yourself (or your kid) that won’t cost an arm and a leg. Well, here’s an excellent back-to-school deal that you won’t want to pass up: Best Buy is selling HP’s Chromebook 14 for just $129! That’s an insane 61% off its original $329 price, making this already budget-friendly laptop one of the best value laptops in its class. Before you get too excited, let’s keep our expectations in check. At $129, you aren’t getting anything close to a powerhouse machine—but the 14-inch HP Chromebook is pretty decent for what it’s worth. The Intel Celeron N4500 processor is fine and the 1366×768 display is adequate, but Given that this thing is running ChromeOS instead of Windows 11, you’ll be fine as long as it’s mainly used for email, browsing, and simple tasks like word documents and spreadsheets. The HP Chromebook 14 has 4GB of LPDDR4X memory (which is more than you’d expect in a $129 device) and 64GB of storage (in the slower eMMC format that’s expected in budget Chromebooks), plus a sufficient 45-watt-hour battery that’ll get you through a day’s worth of light activity on a single charge. Surprisingly, the connectivity options are okay with an HDMI 1.4, a USB-C, two fast USB-A, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Lastly, it has a built-in 720p webcam that’s good enough for Zoom and such. No one can deny that this is a budget-tier device—but the specs are shockingly good for just $129. Get this HP Chromebook 14 at Best Buy before this jaw-dropping deal ends! Save $200 on this budget-friendly HP Chromebook 14 laptopBuy now from Best Buy

This low-tech ‘fix’ for digital hacking is out of date. Stop using it
You probably live in 2025. That is, you’ve created online accounts for major services like utilities and finances. But a handful of people still avoid it, and usually it’s because they think doing so will help keep their accounts safer. It won’t. If that’s not you, chances are that someone close to you believes this. And it’s a problem. If the account owner doesn’t set up and control online access, that leaves an opportunity for a hacker or scammer to do it instead. Twenty years ago, the offline approach made sense. Online security was frustratingly limited. (For example, bank passwords often set a length restriction of just ten characters…and with unlimited tries for guessing.) Other barriers made sense for staying analog—you could ban permission to online access or your financial institution may have required opening an online account in person. Nowadays, the world revolves around online access. Services fall over themselves to make setting up digital account access, and it can be done from anywhere in the world. So likewise, going online is actually the smarter, more secure choice—if you (or the analog lover you’re helping) takes the following steps: Create an online account with a strong password. It will probably be much longer than you’re used to—I recommend at least 20 characters. If two-factor authentication is available, I recommend setting this up as well. If this is too complicated, make the password longer. Save the password somewhere secure you can access. Your best bet is a password manager. A local app like KeePassXC can help maintain a sense of control and security. If that won’t work, a discreet note hidden away in the home is better that than a weak password. Set up alerts for any activity on the account (sent to your email address or via text). Leave it be. If the account supports passkeys, set up a passkey in addition to the password + 2FA combo. That way you can still log in if you lose the device with the passkey, but the passkey can be the faster, easier way of logging into the account whenever necessary. Convincing anyone wary of digital accounts can be a tall order (just ask anyone who does informal tech support for friends and family). Keep this info in your back pocket for whenever you next talk to them.

OPPO Pad SE launches in New Zealand with family-friendly focus
OPPO has launched its durable, family-focused Pad SE tablet in New Zealand, featuring a long-lasting battery and parental controls for NZD $499.

GE Lighting’s Cync Smart Keypad Dimmer makes Lutron Caséta dimmers look tame
GE Lighting seems to be bucking a trend with its all-new GE Cync Keypad Dimmer Smart Switch. Most new-to-the-market smart lighting controls do their best to not look like smart lighting controls. This is typically accomplished by limiting the number of buttons on the device, making it less intimidating to the user and eliminating confusion as to which button performs which function. Festooned with no fewer than five buttons, two of which can be programmed, the Cync Keypad Dimmer makes Lutron’s Caséta family of geeky smart dimmers look tame. The equally new GE Cync Smart Paddle Dimmer, on the other hand, hews closer to Lutron’s Diva smart dimmer, with a vertical slider on its right-hand side for controlling the brightness of a connected light. Both dimmers have 7-element LEDs to report the current brightness level. The top two buttons on the GE Cync Keypad Dimmer Smart Switch are user-programmable.GE Lighting GE Lighting, a division of Savant Systems, announced both new devices during CES last January and now they’re finally available for sale. The GE Cync Keypad Dimmer Smart Switch is priced at $44.99 and the GE Cync Paddle Dimmer Switch costs $25.99. These new smart lighting controls support Matter-over-Wi-Fi, enabling users to configure them in Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and SmartThings ecosystems, with or without a smart home hub. Both switches also have onboard Wi-Fi adapters, but both also depend on the presence of a neutral wire in the box where they’ll be installed. The GE Sync Paddle Dimmer looks much more conventional than its button-festooned stablemate.GE Lighting GE tells us a single Cync switch can render the entire circuit smart, eliminating the need for a companion switch in 3- and 4-way installations where another switch in the room or in another part of the house controls the same load (both switches come with traveler wires for this purpose). The company also tells us that when paired with Cync smart bulbs, pre-programmed schedules will continue to run and voice commands will remain available even if the switches are in the off position. Look for our hands-on reviews of both devices soon. This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart dimmers and switches.