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Combat Dry Indoor Winter Air With a New Humidifier

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Combat Dry Indoor Winter Air With a New Humidifier


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Recommended With Reservations

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

Carepod Mini for $150: When turned on, the Carepod Mini looks like a Brita Filter that’s also an electric tea kettle. And you’ll think this too because of the Carepod’s unique oscillator that moves the water around inside the clear plastic tank. And unlike the larger stainless steel parts of the larger Carepod models, the Carepod Mini is not dishwasher safe. However, like all Carepod models, the Mini doesn’t have a filter because Carepod recommends using filtered water, putting the water-purifying duties on the user. I would prefer a model with a filter option. Still, the Mini is easy to clean with mild soap and water, unlike some humidifiers that require special descaling solutions. I like what Carepod is trying to do in the humidifier market space, but I almost tipped the whole thing over when I instinctively picked it up by the handle that only lifts up the top part. Still, I found the percolating water effect to be soothing and it does a good job of providing a steady flow of mist. I elevated my Carepod Mini because of its slightly sideways mist flow. I put it on a ceramic plant stand because Carepod warns against placing the Mini directly on wood or furniture because of possible water damage. And while I still do not understand the benefits of Carepod’s oscillator, it looks cool.

Not Recommended

Pure Enrichment Hume X.L. Humidifier a silver rectangular device with mist coming out the top

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

Pure Enrichment Hume XL Humidifier for $80: There are certain design issues that can make a humidifier less user-friendly, and Pure Enrichment’s Hume XL has them all. To begin with, the Hume XL has the old-style tank that needs to be removed and flipped over to fill from the bottom, with a cap that needs to be unscrewed. And while The Hume has a surprisingly large-capacity 5-gallon tank, the filling process is cumbersome, and I always spilled water while doing it. And while the Hume XL has an automatic shutoff when the tank is empty, the opaque black plastic tank is nearly impossible to see through, making it difficult to gauge if I need to fill the tank. There’s also no indicator light to let me know the tank is running low. And while the Hume XL has a solid five-year warranty, night light, and two settings for low or high mist, it’s neither app compatible nor does it have a built-in humidistat. Other lower-cost models have these features. Lastly, the decalcification cartridge filter is sold separately.

FAQs

I’ve been writing about air quality for WIRED since 2019. All the humidifiers in this review were tested in my 100-plus-year-old apartment with the heat on. I was looking for user-friendly humidifiers that could fill a medium-size room with the ideal moisture. I didn’t want to lug jugs of distilled water up my stairs; I also wanted one that was easy to maintain. I was looking for a more committed and sustainable relationship with my humidifier. Maybe you want that too.

At What Percent Humidity Should I Use a Humidifier?

According to the EPA, ideal humidity in a home should be between 30 and 50 percent. Having an indoor humidity at over 60 percent produces a risk of mold growth. A recent study noted that relative humidity serves as a viable predictor of mold growth, and while temperature plays a significant role, keeping humidity levels in the safe range provides benefits without contributing to the unwanted issue of mold. Another study noted that decreased humidity contributed to increased static electricity, skin dryness, and eye irritations along with increased influenza virus survival. For all of those reasons, a humidifier might be what your heat-on/winter season requires.

How Often Should I Clean My Humidifier?

WIRED has seen instructions ranging from “after every use” for dishwasher-safe tanks to “once a week,” to “once a month” in various user manuals. A recent study found that while study participants often did not know how to clear their humidifiers, many used a solution of vinegar and water. If you save anything from the box your humidifier came in, save the manual. I used a solution of water and citric acid to clean my Dyson humidifier. It’s worth noting that a South Korean study found that certain humidifier chemical disinfectants for household humidifiers caused lung injury. Follow your user manual and do not add chemical disinfectants—this is one reason that dishwasher-safe water tanks are an appealing option.

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Hands On With Google’s Nano Banana Pro Image Generator

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Hands On With Google’s Nano Banana Pro Image Generator


Corporate AI slop feels inescapable in 2025. From website banner ads to outdoor billboards, images generated by businesses using AI tools surround me. Hell, even the bar down the street posts happy hour flyers with that distinctly hazy, amber glow of some AI graphics.

On Thursday, Google launched Nano Banana Pro, the company’s latest image-generating model. Many of the updates in this release are targeted at corporate adoption, from putting Nano Banana Pro in Google Slides for business presentations to integrating the new model with Google Ads for advertisers globally.

This “Pro” release is an iteration on its Nano Banana model that dropped earlier this year. Nano Banana became a viral sensation after users started posting personalized action figures and other meme-able creations on social media.

Nano Banana Pro builds out the AI tool with a bevy of new abilities, like generating images in 4K resolution. It’s free to try out inside Google’s Gemini app, with paid Google One subscribers getting access to additional generations.

One specific improvement is going to be catnip for corporations in this release: text rendering. From my initial tests generating outputs with text, Nano Banana Pro improves on the wonky lettering and strange misspellings common in many image models, including Google’s past releases.

Google wants the images generated by this new model—text and all—to be more polished and production-ready for business use cases. “Even if you have one letter off it’s very obvious,” says Nicole Brichtova, a product lead for image and video at Google DeepMind. “It’s kind of like having hands with six fingers; it’s the first thing you see.” She says part of the reason Nano Banana Pro is able to generate text more cleanly is the switch to a more powerful underlying model, Gemini 3 Pro.

An example of how the tool can create a composite from multiple images.

Courtesy of Google



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Four Indicted In Alleged Conspiracy to Smuggle Supercomputers and Nvidia Chips to China

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Four Indicted In Alleged Conspiracy to Smuggle Supercomputers and Nvidia Chips to China


Stern said text messages obtained by authorities show Li boasting about how his father “had engaged in similar business on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.” Stern alleged the messages also show Li, who works at a hardware distribution company, was aware through news articles he shared that the Nvidia chips were subject to export controls. “He explained that his father had ways to import them,” Stern said, again citing Li’s text messages.

Stern told the court that Li “did admit to various facts” during questioning by federal agents on Wednesday that implicated him.

The defendants face various charges related to violating export control laws and up to 20 years in prison.

Ho and Raymond did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent to LinkedIn accounts purportedly belonging to them. Public defenders for Chen and Li declined to comment.

Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo said in a statement that “even small sales of older generation products on the secondary market are subject to strict scrutiny and review” and that “trying to cobble together datacenters from smuggled products is a nonstarter, both technically and economically.”

Corvex, an AI cloud computing business Raymond consulted for, said in a statement that it had rescinded a job offer for him to join the company full-time and that it had no connection to the alleged wrongdoing.

Earlier this year, the US Department of Commerce was reportedly considering restricting the sale of advanced chips to Malaysia and Thailand in an effort to curb chip smuggling, but the regulations have yet to be finalized. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Magistrate Judge Westmore ordered Li to hire an attorney because she said he had significant equity in a San Leandro, California, home and other assets, making him ineligible for a public defender. The magistrate also set a hearing for Tuesday to decide whether Li is a significant flight risk and should continue to be detained. He holds a US green card and Hong Kong citizenship.

Li, wearing glasses, flipflops, and a black windbreaker, nodded in response to some of Westmore’s statements but did not speak. Kaitlyn Fryzek, his temporary public defender, said Li is planning to marry a US citizen. “His incentive is to stay and get married to his fiancée,” Fryzek said.



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Got a Pixel 10? Google’s Android Phone Can Now Share Files With Apple’s AirDrop

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Got a Pixel 10? Google’s Android Phone Can Now Share Files With Apple’s AirDrop


The caveat is that the iPhone user will need to switch AirDrop into the “Everyone for 10 Minutes” mode instead of “Contacts Only” mode. Google says this isn’t some kind of workaround solution. It’s a direct, peer-to-peer connection; your data isn’t routed through a server, shared content isn’t logged, and no extra data is shared. Naturally, iPhone owners will be able to send data back to Pixel 10 phones as well.

Google has not worked with Apple on this cross-compatibility, as the company says it “welcomes the opportunity” to work with Apple so that this sharing function can work in the Contacts Only mode. “We accomplished this through our own implementation,” a Google spokesperson tells WIRED. “Our goal is to provide an easy and secure file-sharing experience for our users, regardless of who they are communicating with.”

In a security blog post, Google says the underlying strategy for what makes this new synergy between Quick Share and AirDrop work is the memory-safe Rust programming language. “These overlapping protections on both platforms work in concert with the secure connection to provide comprehensive safety for your data when you share or receive,” writes Dave Kleidermacher, vice president of Google’s platforms security and privacy.

Google tapped NetSPI, a third-party and independent penetration testing firm, to validate the security of the new sharing feature. The findings? The interoperability is “notably stronger” than other industry implementations. That’s pretty important, considering what happened the last time someone tried to improve cross-compatibility between iOS and Android without Apple: The startup Beeper tried to make texts from Android phones show up as blue bubbles on iPhones and caused all kinds of drama.

The number of people who can actually use this feature is limited because it’s only available on Google’s latest Pixel 10 smartphones, which just launched this past August. However, Google says it’s looking to expand the feature to more Android devices in the future.

This new feature in Quick Share is rolling out starting today to the Pixel 10 series, which includes the Google Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. As it’s rolling out, you may not see it immediately on your device. To use it, all you need to do is select something to share, whether it’s a file, contact, or photo, choose Quick Share in the sharing menu, and make sure the iPhone owner has their AirDrop set to “Everyone for 10 Minutes Only.” The iPhone will be able to see the Pixel 10 device and can receive or send data.



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