Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer identified by multiple news outlets as the federal agent who shot 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday, is a veteran deportation officer in ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, according to sworn testimony from the federal district court in Minnesota obtained by WIRED. A member of a Special Response Team, ICE’s version of a SWAT team, he’s had duties as a firearms trainer and led teams drawn from multiple federal agencies including the FBI, Ross testified.

The testimony stems from a December 2025 trial related to a June incident with parallels to the interaction that led to Good’s killing.

In June according to Ross’s testimony, he led a team seeking to apprehend a man named Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala, who was on an administrative warrant for being in the United States without authorization. Because the man’s home was across from a school and immigration agents had no authority to enter his home, Ross testified, they instead trailed him in unmarked vehicles.

Muñoz-Guatemala’s attorney did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

According to the December testimony and a New York Times account of an FBI agent’s affidavit associated with the case, Ross approached Muñoz-Guatemala and asked him to roll down his window and open his door. Ross, who testified that he had been driving an unmarked vehicle, was dressed in ranger green and grey, and wore his badge on his belt, broke the driver’s side back window and reached into the vehicle, at which point Muñoz-Guatemala pulled away.

While being dragged at a speed he claimed seemed like “40 miles an hour at least, if not more,” Ross pulled out his Taser and fired it at the driver. Muñoz-Guatemala continued to drive, and succeeded in shaking Ross from the car. At trial, Ross testified that he suffered injuries that required 33 stitches.

According to the affidavit, Muñoz-Guatemala called 911 to report that he’d been assaulted by ICE, which led to his arrest. Last month, he was convicted of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

Reports from the Minnesota Star-Tribune and The Guardian identified Ross as the shooter who killed Good, a mother and recent transplant to Minneapolis, during an immigration enforcement action in the city. Video of the incident appears to show a federal agent firing shots into Good’s vehicle as she attempted to leave the scene. The officer did not appear to have been struck by the vehicle, and Good appeared to be turning the wheel to avoid contact, video analysis by The New York Times and the Washington Post shows.

At Thursday’s White House press briefing, vice president JD Vance answered questions about the incident, and his responses included numerous identifying details about Ross, mainly relating to his interaction with Muñoz-Guatemala. “That very ICE officer nearly had his life ended, dragged by a car, six months ago, 33 stitches in his leg,” said Vance, “so you think maybe he is a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?”

Department of Homeland Security secretary Kirsti Noem has repeatedly described Good’s actions as an intentional act of “domestic terrorism.” An FBI investigation into Good’s killing is ongoing.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told WIRED in a statement that the department is “not going to expose the name of this officer. He acted according to his training.” McLaughlin added that federal immigration agents “are under constant threat from violent agitators” because of “doxxing” and that the Minnesota Star Tribune, which first published Ross’ name, “should delete their story immediately.”According to Ross’ December testimony, he served in the Indiana National Guard and was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 as a machine gunner on a patrol truck, then joined Border Patrol in 2007 after finishing college, working near El Paso, Texas.

For Chinese companies, the bet is that lower prices and more AI features will persuade people to wear smart glasses all day, recording their lives through constant video and audio. If you lower the price to around $200, “people will start to use them every day,” says Brian Chen, general manager of Appotronics’ innovation center. That shift would raise obvious privacy and security concerns that both Rokid and Appotronics have acknowledged, but they see the potential payoff as worth the risk.

From Vacuums to Cars

Several major Chinese electric vehicle companies, including Geely and Great Wall Motor, brought their cars to CES, but what stole the show were two brands that almost no one had heard of before. Nebula Next and Kosmera both showed off sleek, luxurious electric sports car prototypes, neither of which are available on the market yet. Both brands have connections to Dreame, a leading Chinese robot vacuum company, but they claim to operate independently from it. At CES, however, the Nebula Next and Kosmera booths were tied to Dreame in the conference’s directory.

Putting aside this complicated corporate relationship, the idea of a robot vacuum company investing in EVs is not as absurd as it sounds. If anything, it’s just the latest example of how Chinese electronics companies are parlaying their existing manufacturing expertise into making cars. The founder of Roborock, another Chinese vacuum company, started an EV company in 2023. Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone and home device giant, launched its first EV in 2024.

Dreame isn’t the first and won’t be the last Chinese company crossing over from electronics to EVs, says Lei Xing, an independent car market analyst and the former chief editor of the China Auto Review, who checked out Kosmera’s prototypes at CES with me. China’s sophisticated supply chain, engineering talent, and manufacturing ecosystem make it relatively easy for newcomers to take a shot at building cars, Xing explains, but only a few will succeed. Others could end up more like Apple, whose long-running car project ultimately collapsed. “Life and death will be a natural outcome,” Xing says.

Robovans Are Coming

When I went back to China last year, I made sure to try Baidu’s robotaxi service, which is roughly on par with Alphabet’s Waymo in the US. What surprised me in China, however, was how many autonomous parcel delivery cars there were roaming the same open streets alongside my robotaxi.

Neolix is the leading company in China making both the hardware and software for robovans. It says the number of them deployed in China is growing roughly tenfold each year and reached about 10,000 in 2025. (For comparison, there’re about 2,500 Waymo cars operating in the US.) Neolix claims to represent more than 60 percent of the market and has no major competitors globally, says Zhao You, the company’s executive president. Neolix brought three of its cars to CES, ranging in size from a mini-fridge to a golf cart: tiny, windowless boxes perched on oversized wheels, with no driver inside.

Neolix is eager to expand internationally and already has pilot projects underway in the Middle East, East Asia, and Latin America. It’s eyeing the American market too. Zhao told me he’s aware that any self-driving company in the US will face heavy scrutiny on issues like safety and data security, but he’s hoping to work with local partners who could help navigate compliance requirements here. “As a tech company, working with one cloud service provider for any market is the most affordable option, but it won’t work. You have to talk to local regulators and learn which cloud providers they approve of,” Zhao says.

Generating Viral Videos

When OpenAI launched Sora 2 last year, it was making an ambitious bet that generative AI can be not just a tool but a content genre big enough to sustain an entire social media platform. That vision hasn’t fully materialized yet, but at CES I met with two AI video companies that are competing with OpenAI’s Sora.

Kling is the AI division of Kuaishou, a massively popular Chinese short-video platform. The Kling app and website combined have more than 60 million registered users, the majority of which the company says are based outside China. About 100 people attended Kling’s panel event at CES with the platform’s power users. Jason Zada, an award-winning director who made Coca-Cola’s controversial 2024 AI-generated holiday commercial, said he recently used Kling to generate a YouTube video featuring a fireplace calmly burning as Santa, turkeys, astronauts, and snowmen make inexplicable appearances. Zada said he created over 600 clips with Kling and pieced them together to make the final 105-minute video. It cost about $2,500 in token credits.

you’ve probably seen a smart bird feeder or know someone who has one. They’re fairly recognizable from a distance with their clear housing, cameras, and solar panels, and perhaps a friend or family member has sent you a photo or video of a bright goldfinch or handsome woodpecker (guilty). The question at this point, then, is whether these things are really worth the $100-plus price tag. Are they actually durable? And what about the squirrel problem?

Lucky for you, we’ve been testing the most popular smart bird feeder models, including Netvue’s original Birdfy Lite feeder ($140) and Birdbuddy’s Pro ($179), for over a year—in rain, snow, and heat, and in a yard with persistent squirrels. We’ve explored the apps and notification settings, examined the photo and video quality, noted which features are hidden behind a subscription paywall, and used Cornell Lab’s All About Birds—as well as Google Lens and our own local expertise—to verify the accuracy of AI identifications.

Updated January 2026: I’ve added the solar-roof version of Kiwibit’s Beako as a new pick and new testing notes for both Birdbuddys, added a feeder from Detiko to Others Tested, and ensured up-to-date links and prices. Next up is the Coolfly Aura, a feeder with a unique modular camera system, which debuted at CES this week.

Best Overall

This cheery blue- or yellow-roofed feeder, from security company Netvue, is the first smart feeder WIRED tested, back in 2022. At that time, we gave it a 6/10 rating for its high price and wonky AI. Both metrics have improved dramatically since then—Birdfy’s app is now the second-most user-friendly on the market, behind only Birdbuddy, and this feeder is often on sale for $150 or less. If you pay $20 more, you get a lifetime subscription for AI identification, which is a solid deal, especially since the AI’s success rate is fairly decent. Without it, it’ll cost you $5 a month, but it’s not required to get plenty of enjoyment. This is the feeder I bought my elderly parents for Christmas during an Amazon Prime Day sale for its reliability, easy setup, and easy-to-navigate app, and it’s still going strong two years later.

The 1080p camera has one of the widest viewing angles of any smart feeder, at 155 degrees, and it offers color night vision. The IP65 plastic construction also makes this feeder durable and easier to clean, and the 50-ounce seed reservoir is super easy to fill with its convenient flip-up top. Not all bundles come with a solar panel, but you can buy it separately. Unlike other feeders, the solar panel is not built in and will have to be mounted and connected separately with the included 9.8-foot charging cable. (The Birdfy can be mounted on a pole, wall, or tree, though if you mount it on a pole using the 5-7-9 siting rule, you won’t be able to mount the solar panel.)

Best Upgrade

This Beako model is not only one of the most thoughtfully designed feeders on the market, it’s also what I use in my own yard when I’m not testing feeders for work. The 1.5L dual-hopper plastic seed reservoir is removable from the body for refilling, so you don’t have to take the whole feeder down; the 8 MP photos and 4K HD video are much better quality than you’ll find from most competitors; and the components come apart for easy cleaning. I also tested the original version with a separate solar panel, and my only complaint was that the panel stopped charging the camera after about six weeks. There’s now a version with a built-in solar roof, which has done an excellent job keeping things charged during its six-week-long test, even in cloudy weather. The IP65 plastic body is extremely thick and sturdy, and unlike lighter-weight models, it’s designed to hold up in more extreme weather.

The app is easy to navigate, and the whole setup is fully functional without a Kiwibit Plus subscription ($4/month or $47/year, purchasable through the Kiwibit app)—it even includes AI identification as a base feature, and it’s pretty decent. However, Kiwibit Plus is necessary to access all features, mainly extended 60-day storage and the ability to record up to three minutes of video if a bird is doing something interesting, which is a unique feature among smart feeders and one I discovered I love. (Nothing more frustrating than having a video cut off right as a bird is about to do something funny.) If you’ve tried other smart feeders and found them lacking, this one costs a bit more for what it is, and it’s almost never on sale, but if you know you like having a smart feeder, I think it’s worth the investment. Note, however, that it only works on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and the warranty is half the length you get from competitors.

Best Connectivity

Camojojo’s original Hibird feeder has long been a reliable model in my testing stable, unique for its ability to run on both 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi bands—almost all smart feeders are 2.4 GHz only—and this year saw the debut of an upgraded model, the Hibird Pro. This one has built-in solar panels, an option for pole mounting, and supposedly improved AI identification, though it still frequently misidentifies even common birds in my West Coast backyard as East Coast species. The app is not as streamlined or user-friendly as Birdfy’s or Birdbuddy’s, but it’s still easy enough to navigate, with options for changing video length (default is 10 seconds) or viewing in slo-mo. Video is the default media type it saves, though this is 4K Ultra HD. Without a subscription, you can’t search past videos by bird, and cloud storage is capped at 5 GB over 60 days, though the feeder does come with a 128-GB SD card. You’ll also get “smarter” chats with the app’s AI Q&A function, “Dr. Bird,” and the ability to share across two devices ($45 year/$4 month).

I appreciate the generous 1.5L seed hopper, though this, combined with the solar panel and battery, makes this one heavy feeder. When filled, it tips the scales at 5 pounds, so if you do pole mount, you will need to use both included hose clamps. I also wouldn’t attempt to mount it on anything unstable. Other Hibird features transferred to the Pro are the assembly screws having little handles on them, so you won’t need a screwdriver, and a chunky IP66 plastic body. It was subjected to a little bit of squirrel chewing during my test, but still held up well.

Best Smart Hummingbird Feeder

Birdbuddy is known for its user-friendliness and thoughtful and fun app, and its new Pro Smart Hummingbird Feeder is no exception. Everything about its use is intuitive and easy. AI identification, 5 MP photos, 2K HD video with slo-mo—everything you need is included out of the box. A subscription is optional to unlock features like family sharing and a higher bit rate, but the feeder is perfectly usable without it. There’s also no auxiliary solar panel to worry about, as it’s built into the roof. Pairing with your phone is a cinch, integrating it into the Birdbuddy app with other feeders is a snap, and even filling it is no problem—unlike other hummingbird feeders that have weirdly cavernous capacities and/or need to be filled upside down, the Birdbuddy’s bottom screws off and holds a reasonable 1.75 cups of liquid. This is more important than you’d think, as Cornell Lab of Ornithology points out that the easier it is to clean a hummingbird feeder, the more likely you are to do it often and well.

It also comes with extra plastic flowers and a little brush to clean them with, and the app sends reminders as to when it’s time to clean. You’ll also find fun, seasonal touches in the app, like the ability to send digital bird holiday cards with your pics, or a tool to superimpose hats, clothes, and various accessories on the birds, which is actually funnier than it sounds. However, as with the Birdbuddy Pro seed feeder, below, the big downside is that the feeder’s sensor doesn’t always pick up every bird that visits, which can definitely be a bummer when you see something interesting out the window but it doesn’t show up in the app.

A Unique Smart Birdhouse

It’s simple to integrate with the easy-to-use Birdfy app, which is ready and waiting to assemble a bird’s shareable “story,” from assembly of the nest to hatching to fledgling, and finally “the end,” when the nest is abandoned for the season. Note that the camera does emit an audible click whenever it’s triggered by movement or the app, and the inside is a little larger than most birds would naturally gravitate to, though I did like that it comes with interchangeable hole sizes to interest different species. We did have a few assorted connectivity issues, and our test house didn’t attract any visitors this year, but a project director for Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch said it should only be a matter of time.

Best App

The photos aren’t nearly as impressive as those by competitors like the Birdfy Pro Duo, Camojojo Hibird, or Kiwibit Beako, and the camera, frustratingly, only captures a handful of the birds that visit. (The non-solar version is occasionally flagged as a frequently returned item on Amazon due to both this and charging issues, so I recommend the solar version.) However, Birdbuddy’s app is a consistent standout, with a user-friendly design and plenty of helpful alerts, like if a cat is detected nearby, or if it’s time to clean the feeder.

It also serves you insights gathered over time, like what time certain species seem to prefer to visit. (Finches apparently like to visit my yard at 10 am daily.) The Birdbuddy also “sleeps” at night and does not seem to emphasize capturing photos of people, so it wouldn’t make a good choice to double as a security camera, and there are also unique seasonal features like the ability to send holiday cards or “dress up” visiting birds with hats, glasses, and sweaters. (It is funnier than it sounds, really!) Both Birdbuddys work with 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi only.

Another Birdbuddy downside is the infuriatingly small, hinged opening for filling the 4 cups’ worth of seed. The feeder comes with its own spouted cup, but I have yet to fill the feeder without making an enormous mess. I also tested the 3-in-1 Nutrition Set ($39), which includes a screw-on tray that can variably become a water fountain, jelly dish, or fruit stake for fruit-loving species like orioles. I’ve used it as a jelly dish and water fountain and found that it blocks enough of the perch area that birds tend to shift out of camera view to avoid it. However, this feeder is still worth it for those who like a more streamlined app experience and/or want to take advantage of some of its unique sharing features, especially Premium’s ability to share your feeder livestream with others.

If You Want to Use an Existing Bird Feeder

If you have an existing bird feeder you like, or are interested in building your own and are just looking for a camera, Hibird’s stand-alone DIY feeder camera is for you. It’s compatible with both 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi bands—a rarity for bird feeder cameras—and the cute green owl face streams the same 4K HD video and 1080p pics as the bigger Hibird feeder, above. There is a subscription tier with features like increased storage, but the camera is still usable without it. There’s an auxiliary solar panel included for charging, and you can mount it via its ¼-inch nut on the included bendable arm and bracket, or jury-rig a custom solution. It pairs seamlessly with the Hibird app, with access to AI (which is just OK), livestreaming, and the Dr. Bird ChatGPT-like feature, where you can ask bird-related questions. (The answers are corny and not as granular as they could be, but it still could be useful for some.)

A Truly Squirrel-Proof Design

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first—the app for this feeder is not good. Not only is it suspiciously called “Birdty,” it’s not intuitive to navigate and requires a subscription to access all features—including AI identification, which is terrible. I have also seen this feeder body (TT Nature offers it in green or red) sold from time to time under other Amazon insignias, so it’s not unique to this brand. However, those usually have solar panels attached to the roofs, from which squirrels can hang upside down to avoid tripping the spring-loaded perch. This one leaves off the panel (there is one that can be mounted separately, but it’s not possible when the feeder is pole-mounted, which is what I recommend), but it doesn’t need it, as the charge from the 5,200-mAh battery lasts well over a month.

I had my test unit sited on a pole with a baffle far from fences and overhanging branches, and though an occasional squirrel would still manage to find the feeder, the spring-loaded perch mechanism worked as intended—a squirrel tries to sit, and a bar flips up to block access to the seed. (There’s also a squirrel alarm feature that can be toggled on and off in the app, but in my experience, those never work.) I have seen squirrels try to chew through the sides, but given that the body is metal, their efforts are fruitless.