Tech
I’ve Tested Countless Mesh Systems. Here Are the Routers I Recommend
Performance was consistently good throughout my home, with some of the fastest speeds I have recorded at close and medium range. My top pick, the Orbi 770 Series, outperformed the BE67 in some scenarios. By default, the 6-GHz band is a separate SSID, appended _6GHz, and MLO is switched off. I joined with my Pixel 10 Pro XL, and after multiple speed tests at close range (up to 8 feet away), I generally got download speeds around 100 Mbps faster than on the 5-GHz band, but this dropped sharply with distance. The range of 6 GHz is significantly shorter, and just one room over, the signal strength was visibly weaker than that of 5 GHz. If you want to take advantage of 6 GHz for wireless backhaul, you can’t have the routers too far apart or with too many obstacles, or you will have dead zones. I don’t think the coverage is as wide as TP-Link suggests, though much depends on your home; the Orbi 770 offered slightly better range for me.
Disappointingly, the free tier of HomeShield offers only limited security, and Security+ costs $5 a month or $36 a year for web and intrusion protection with notifications and reports, while Total Security costs $70 a year for the first year ($130 per year after) and adds antivirus for devices, VPN service, and a password manager. Advanced Parental Controls require a second subscription costing $3 a month or $18 a year for time limits, downtime scheduling, rewards, app time limits, safe search, insights, and reports. Quality of Service allows you to prioritize specific devices and set bandwidth allowances. There is also a mixed-mode security option for WPA2 and WPA3. You can also split the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands and create guest or IoT networks.
The Deco app and web interface are solid but fairly limited in terms of options. The app was able to identify many of the devices on my network, but this required me to share data with a third party. There is now an option to run a speed test on the router to see what your ISP delivers, which is handy. Ultimately, this three-pack gave me reliable and speedy internet throughout my home and garden.
Deco App via Simon Hill
Deco App via Simon Hill
Deco App via Simon Hill
TP-Link does have far too many similar mesh systems, though, and I run through some of the alternatives below. Performance and price-wise, the BE67 falls between the BE63 and the flagship BE85, and I think it’s the sweet spot in TP-Link’s line-up for most people. The Deco BE68 is the same system as the BE67, but exclusive to Best Buy.
Best Wi-Fi 6 Mesh
The combination of speedy performance, impressive range, and lots of extra features earns the Asus ZenWiFi XT8 the title of best Wi-Fi 6 mesh system. (Even if it’s a bit of a mouthful.) I tested the two-pack, and the straightforward setup through the mobile app took minutes, though you have to keep the node close by during setup and then move it. This is a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 system with one 2.4-GHz band and two 5-GHz bands (one is reserved for wireless backhaul). Available in black or white, these units are fairly large, but they’re unobtrusive and look classy, with side vents to help dissipate heat. Each router offers three gigabit Ethernet ports, which is generous, as well as a 2.5 gigabit WAN port and a USB 3.1 port.
At short, medium, or long range, the XT8 was consistently one of the fastest systems I tested, and speeds never dropped. The inclusion of AiProtection Pro, which adds anti-malware and parental controls powered by Trend Micro, is very welcome, especially since it doesn’t require a subscription, unlike most competitors. Just remember that using AiProtection means sharing your data with Trend Micro, so you might want to read its privacy policy. I like the parental controls, too. You can set up and reuse profiles, schedule bedtimes, filter by age group, and review activity. The Quality of Service (QoS) option lets you prioritize activities like working from home, gaming, or streaming, and you can limit bandwidth for specific devices.
Tech
The Best Movies to Stream This Month
April might be springtime in the northern hemisphere, but some of the best streaming services seem to think it’s the perfect time for a dry run of spooky season. How else to explain the arrival of some exquisitely dark slices of horror, like 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple arriving on Netflix, Weapons coming to Prime Video, or Shelby Oaks landing on Hulu? If you prefer your off-season Halloween viewing to be in the vein of campy B movies rather than serious scares though, horror specialist Shudder has you covered with Deathstalker, a gloriously cheesy reboot of a near-forgotten ’80s series.
Reality is often scarier than fiction though, as shown by Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere—his first documentary film with Netflix, exploring the dark side of social media and the world of toxic male influencers. (Be sure to read our interview with the filmmaker.) And if the thought of that leaves you wanting something a bit more wholesome to watch, thankfully Zootopia 2 has popped up on Disney+—and there’s even a rabbit in that, for some appropriately springtime imagery.
Here are WIRED’s picks of the best movies to watch right now.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
The fourth film in the long-running postapocalyptic horror series switches focus from rampaging rage zombies to a more dangerous threat: humans. OK, OK, “people are the real monsters” isn’t a hot take for the genre, but The Bone Temple offers a unique twist, with 28 Years Later survivor Spike (Alfie Williams) trapped in the company of a murderous gang led by deranged satanist “Sir Lord” Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). The villain is modeled on disgraced British TV presenter Jimmy Savile, whose sexual abuse crimes hadn’t been revealed by the time of the initial outbreak in 28 Days Later, adding a dash of real-world terror.
As the group stalks what remains of the English countryside, Spike’s only hope might be Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), whose experiments on curing alpha zombie Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) might hold humanity’s last hope. Although best watched back to back with its predecessor for the full, horrifying picture, director Nia DaCosta’s chapter stands on its own—and earns bonus points for one of the best uses of Iron Maiden’s “Number of the Beast” in film history.
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere
It’s the silence that does the trick; British documentarian Louis Theroux always knows when not to speak and instead let his subject expose themselves for the world to see. It’s a masterful technique whether Theroux is investigating the Westboro Baptist Church or UFO conspiracy theorists, but it is rarely put to better use than in his latest outing: exploring the online “manosphere” subculture of self-appointed “alphas” offering toxic advice on how to be a “real man.” Speaking with key figures in the loosely defined movement, Theroux’s mild-mannered approach often leaves them to do most of the talking, exposing shockingly misogynistic and extremist views. Even more distressing? The quiet revelation that for many of them their performative masculinity is all just one big grift, and how they rationalize the harm they cause in pursuit of a payout. Depressing but compelling viewing—not all men, but definitely all of these men.
Crime 101
Jewel thief Mike (Chris Hemsworth) is the best in the business, a meticulous planner who pulls off his heists without leaving a shred of evidence—much to the consternation of LAPD detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), who doesn’t even know exactly who he’s hunting for a string of thefts. Elsewhere in the City of Angels, Sharon (Halle Berry) is an underappreciated VP at an insurance firm, frustrated at being passed over for promotion for years. She’s the perfect insider to help Mike orchestrate an elaborate $11 million diamond heist. But as Lou uncovers evidence connecting to Mike’s past, and the chaotic, violent biker Ormon (Barry Keoghan) aims to take the score for himself, even the most masterful planning can’t prevent everything spiraling dangerously out of control.
Tech
OpenAI Executive Kevin Weil Is Leaving the Company
Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s former chief product officer who was recently tapped to build a new AI workspace for scientists, Prism, is leaving the company, WIRED has confirmed. Weil was previously an early executive leading product at Instagram.
OpenAI is also sunsetting Prism, which the company launched as a web app in January this year to give scientists a better way to work with AI. The company is folding the roughly 10-person team behind it into Thibault Sottiaux’s Codex team. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the changes, and tells WIRED this is part of the company’s effort to unify its business and product strategy. OpenAI has broader ambitions to turn Codex, its AI coding application, into an “everything app.”
Weil, who joined OpenAI in June 2024, announced last September that he would be starting a new initiative inside of the company called “OpenAI for Science.” Now, OpenAI is dispersing those employees throughout the company’s product, research, and infrastructure teams. An OpenAI spokesperson reiterated the company’s commitment to accelerating scientific discovery, and says it’s one of the clearest ways AI can benefit humanity.
OpenAI is currently trying to refocus the company around a few key areas, such as enterprise offerings and coding. Last month, OpenAI’s CEO of AGI deployment Fidji Simo told staff that the company needs to simplify its product offerings. The push to divert resources to more consequential efforts resulted in OpenAI discontinuing its Sora video-generation app.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Tech
Gazing Into Sam Altman’s Orb Now Proves You’re Human on Tinder
Sam Altman’s iris-scanning, humanity-verifying World project announced at an event in San Francisco on Friday that Tinder users around the globe can now put a digital badge on their profiles signaling to potential suitors that they’re a real human, provided they’ve already stared into one of World’s glossy white Orbs and allowed their eyes to be scanned. The announcement follows a pilot project for Tinder verification that World previously conducted in Japan.
The global Tinder expansion is one of the biggest tests yet for World, and the company’s bet that everyday consumers will be willing to sign up for biometric verification services to use internet applications. Founded in 2019 by Altman and Alex Blania, the World project was designed for a future where the internet is overrun with highly capable AI agents that make it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to tell who is really human. As companies like OpenAI—where Altman is CEO—and Anthropic push AI agents into the mainstream, the problem World was built to solve feels increasingly urgent.
But World has struggled to achieve mainstream adoption, and it has encountered resistance from governments around the globe that have probed the company over suspected violations of data protection laws. The company says 18 million people have now been verified with an Orb, up from 12 million last year.
In addition to the Tinder global expansion, Tools for Humanity, the company behind World, announced a number of other consumer and enterprise partnerships on Friday at its Lift Off event in San Francisco. The startup says Tinder users who verify with their World ID will receive five free “boosts,” typically a paid feature that increases the number of users who see a profile by up to 10 times for 30 minutes. The videoconferencing platform Zoom also says that users can now require other participants to verify their identity with World before joining a call. Docusign, the contract signing software, will allow users to require World’s identity verification technology.
Tiago Sada, Tools for Humanity’s chief product officer, tells WIRED the company sees major platform partnerships as key to helping World become a mainstream identity-verification technology. Sada said he’s especially interested in working with social media companies in the future, and was encouraged to see that Reddit has started testing World as a solution to help users distinguish bots from real people.
World is also launching a tool called Concert Kit, which lets artists reserve concert tickets for verified humans, a pitch aimed squarely at the bot-driven scalping problem that critics say has plagued sites like TicketMaster. World will test the feature on the upcoming Bruno Mars World Tour featuring Anderson .Paak, who is scheduled to play a verified-humans-only show under his alias DJ Pee .Wee in San Francisco on Friday night.
No new hardware announcements or updates were made at Friday’s event. World first launched the iris-scanning Orb back in 2023, alongside a mobile app that contains “mini apps” for different verification and blockchain-related programs. After a person scans their eyeball with one of World’s Orbs, the startup creates a unique cryptographic key for each person—their World ID. This creates a private, decentralized way to verify people online, without requiring them to upload their government ID all over the internet.
The project was initially called Worldcoin, and in the early days the startup offered people free cryptocurrency to scan their irises. World still offers a cryptocurrency token and a wallet for digital currencies, but dropped the “coin” from its name in 2024 and has since shifted its focus to identity verification for the AI era. Jess Montejano, a spokesperson for Tools for Humanity, says the company still offers crypto as an incentive when new users sign up, but has also expanded its offerings to include Netflix and Apple TV subscription trials.
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