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We Tried and Tested the Best Gifts for Plant Lovers With Our Own Green Thumbs

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We Tried and Tested the Best Gifts for Plant Lovers With Our Own Green Thumbs


Ostensibly, plant lovers should be the easiest to shop for. Just get them a plant, right?

Wrong. (Well, most of the time.) I review indoor hydroponic gardens for WIRED and have been a proud plant parent for almost 30 years, so I can say that even if you have a running mental catalog of all your recipient’s houseplants and know which ones they don’t yet have, you may not know what they have space for, or what kind of substrate or pot they’d like to be using.

In general, the best gifts remind them of the plants they do have, or that will help them care for them. However, suppose you know beyond a shadow of a doubt your recipient would indeed like a plant. In that case, we’ve included a couple of mail-order options from companies we’ve tried and recommend, including a lucky jade plant and a tree that bears edible fruit.

For more gift ideas, check out our other gift guides, including Gifts for Bird Lovers, Gifts for Coworkers, Gifts for Book Lovers, and the Best Flower Delivery Services.

Updated December 2025: We’ve added new gifts from LetPot and Ferry-Morse, and ensured up-to-date links and prices.



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What is RGB LED TV? Explaining the Futuristic Tech Landing in Living Rooms This Year

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What is RGB LED TV? Explaining the Futuristic Tech Landing in Living Rooms This Year


Micro RGB TVs should still offer better contrast than their mini-LED rivals, as their smaller size can theoretically offer more dimming zones for better overall black levels. They may also more readily provide naturalistic and granular color shifts, though we won’t know just how much better or different they are until we’ve spent more time with each variety. Samsung’s 2025 prototype was impressive in the short time I spent with it, with fantastic colors, clarity, and brightness. You can currently buy Samsung’s first Micro RGB TV in a 115-inch size for a cool $30,000, but 2026 will see more accessible sizes and (presumably) pricing.

What Is RGBY LED?

Just as we’re all getting our heads around this new era of RGB LED backlighting, Hisense moved the needle once again. After pushing RGB LED backlighting into the spotlight at CES 2025, the company used CES 2026 to reveal its new 116UXS RGB mini-LED TV that adds a new color substructure to RGB’s red, green, and blue modules with the introduction of cyan. (This is not to be confused with Hisense’s new emissive Micro LED TV, which also uses cyan in its color architecture.)

“Cyan sits in the part of the spectrum where human vision is most sensitive to subtle changes and its addition allows the 116UXS to render gradients, tones and transitions with a level of nuance that feels more natural and lifelike,” said Hisense in its press release. The TV is claimed to go above and beyond current RGB LED tech with a stunning 110 percent coverage of the BT.2020 color spec, as well as audio extras like a Devialet Opéra de Paris 6.2.2-channel audio system. We don’t know much more about it or its backlight tech right now, but expect it to come with a very high price tag if and when it becomes available.

What About SQD LED?

TCL was one of the few major panel makers that did not showcase an RGB LED TV at CES 2026. Instead, the company touted another new display technology that advances today’s many quantum-dot-enabled (or QLED) displays, called Super Quantum Dot mini-LED. Debuting with TCL’s new 85-inch X11L SQD mini-LED TV, the new tech blends traditional blue mini-LED backlighting with “newly formulated” Super Quantum Dots, and a new UltraColor Filter.

The TV offers similarly stunning specs to top RGB LED TVs, including up to a claimed 10,000 nits peak brightness and 100 percent of the BT.2020 color spectrum—though the brand also notes the latter is based on “typical performance of tested units” and that “actual results may vary.” TCL goes on to say its new display tech minimizes color artifacts when compared to RGB LED TVs, and that the X11L’s WHVA 2.0 panel is designed to provide a “wide color viewing angle” and enhanced contrast for deep black levels to better compete against OLED displays.

While I haven’t seen the X11L in person yet, it made a big splash at the show, promising to be an exciting new competitor to RGB LED in this rapidly evolving market. The X11L SQD TV is available now in 75-, 85-, and 98-inch sizes starting at $7,000.

RGB TVs You Can Buy in 2026

Courtesy of Hisense

One of the most exciting things about RGB LED is that it’s already here. In fact, Hisense began selling its first model, the UX Series RGB mini-LED TV, in 2025, albeit in gigantic sizes with similarly gigantic price tags. That’s changing this year, with multiple RGB LED TV models set to be available in more modest sizes, hopefully with more attainable price tags. That’s why we declared 2026 the year of the RGB LED TV. Here are the RGB LED TV models we know about so far:

RGB LED TVs Available Now

Samsung’s original Micro RGB backlit TV claims to offer a backlight system that is “the smallest available in any RGB LED TV” and 100 percent of the BT.2020 color spectrum, Samsung’s glare-free coating, and is powered by Samsung’s Micro RGB AI engine. The short time I spent with this TV’s prototype offered impressive spectacle, with fantastically bright colors. At CES 2026, Samsung also debuted a 130-inch RGB LED TV in a unique form factor the brand calls “the peak of our picture quality innovation,” but it’s unclear when or if this TV will be commercially available.

Hisense’s mini-LED RGB TV was similarly spectacular at CES 2025. It reaches 95 percent of the BT.2020 color gamut from over 20,000 “color control units, and claims up to 8,000 nits of blasting brightness.

RGB LED TVs Coming Soon

Samsung’s latest Micro RGB TV lineup will include 55-, 65-, 75-, 85-, 100-, and 115-inch model sizes, which should mean much more attainable pricing. Along with more accessible screen sizes, highlights include Samsung’s next-gen Micro RGB AI Engine Pro chipset and an upgraded Micro RGB light source with “enhanced” RGB color dimming for improved precision. All the TVs will incorporate Samsung’s glare-free matte screen tech.

Called the “most advanced LCD TV,” LG’s Micro RGB evo will incorporate an upgraded processor and is claimed to achieve 100 percent coverage of BT.2020, the more widely used DCI-P3, and Adobe RGB color gamuts.

With an aim at making RGB LED backlighting tech available to “more homes, more screen sizes, and more price points,” the UR9 and UR8 models will likely be the most accessible of the RGB LED TVs we’ve seen thus far. Calling the new models proof of “what’s scalable,” we’re hoping these TVs may wind up being somewhere in the premium range of current OLED and QLED tech, though pricing is still up in the air. While specs are limited so far, Hisense says these models will provide “dramatically expanded color range with richer saturation and more accurate tonal reproduction than standard premium TVs on the market.” I can’t wait to see if they deliver.

It’s still early days for RGB displays, and way too soon to count out other new display technologies or OLED, which continues to evolve further than we ever expected. We’ll find out a lot more this year, but what’s clear is that the future of TV is brighter, cheaper, and better-looking than ever.



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I Ditched Hinge for an AI Matchmaker, to Mixed Results

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I Ditched Hinge for an AI Matchmaker, to Mixed Results


“On the matchmaking app, if we ask you a question and your tonality changes in the response, it cues to us that you may not be telling us the full truth. And so we’ll ask you that same question in two or three different ways throughout your experience,” Cohen-Aslatei says. “We built this to mimic what a matchmaker would do for a client. The LLM is tracking pitch and tone change in your voice because we want to make sure that we have an accurate understanding of who you are and what you’re looking for.”

After answering dozens more questions about lifestyle, future goals, boundaries, family, attraction, hobbies, and more over the course of a few days, Tai told me it’d take the information provided and get back to me. Two days later, I received my first two potential matches.

I Love You, Alive Girl

As a 31-year-old woman, I put my ideal age range at a healthy 26 to 40 years old. My first two matches were 23 and 47. One was not alive when 9/11 happened, and the other had already graduated from college at that time. Off to a rocky start.

When a potential match is found, the person’s picture is blurred, and Tai gives you a synopsis of what makes you a potential good match. (You need to provide selfie verification to confirm identity, and no one unverified will ever be matched.) After that, you can click to see a bit more about them, like profession, age, income, and a short bio that the AI creates.

At this stage of AI adoption, there is still a strong statistical bias toward, let’s say, men who wear wraparound sunglasses and think driving a Cybertruck is a sign of virility. Nearly every one of the 16 matches I received during testing was Christian and wanting children ASAP, which Tai flagged each time as a potential issue. Many were also flagged initially by Tai because they only wanted to date a certain race or valued traditional gender roles, both of which I made clear that I wasn’t aligned with.

Out of journalistic duty, I accepted every match I received; even a MMA-loving body builder that enjoys grilling meat (I’m vegan) and going to the gun range (I’m generally anti-gun). Matches ranged from Portland, Oregon, to DC, to New York City (where I live, although most matches were outside NYC). Overall, not a single person I was matched with would be someone I’d swipe right on if I saw them on a traditional dating app.

If you accept, you’ll either need to wait for the other person to accept or pass on the match, or they will have already accepted, and you can begin chatting. Here, your AI dating coach steps in to play wingman, providing prompts based on the other person’s profile, highlighting similarities you have, and giving conversation questions based on answers from the match’s profile. Not only does the coach provide potential ice breakers (and responses), you can also chat and ask for pointers.

Three Day Rule via Molly Higgins

I asked it to give me tips on how to break the ice with new matches, and it gave me advice, with each point having an explanatory paragraph below. Advice included giving compliments, asking open-ended questions, using humor, referencing current events, sharing about yourself, and mentioning mutual interests. The advice was basic but solid, and mirrored what the coach was doing with the provided conversation prompts.

This is all a great idea in theory, and could be very helpful with people who have a tough time communicating with strangers. But it could also lead to a bigger problem. You don’t really know who you’ve been talking to if AI has been doing all of the chatting for you. And if you meet in person, you don’t know much about your date’s actual personality. You can tell so much from how people type, what questions they ask, and their sense of humor. That was all missing here.



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Why Are Some Women Training for Pregnancy Like It’s a Marathon?

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Why Are Some Women Training for Pregnancy Like It’s a Marathon?


Rohr, as one of 10 children with 29 nieces and nephews, has watched countless family members and friends navigate hard pregnancies. In response, she’s determined to have a positive, empowering one. “I always thought having a baby was, like, the least casual thing ever,” she says. “It just seems like this life-changing thing that I wanted to be super, super sure about.”

Doctors say that, in general, all this new attention surrounding the “zero trimester” is a very positive, exciting development. Healthy moms usually spell better outcomes for mom and baby. Currently, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend doctors ask patients of reproductive age if they plan to get pregnant within the year during checkups. “There’s so many things that we can do to optimize underlying health in that preconception year that will make outcomes in pregnancy better,” says Natalie Clark Stentz, an ob-gyn and reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at Michigan Medicine. This is especially true if you have a chronic health condition, like diabetes, hypertension, depression, or a thyroid disease, that needs to be managed and monitored during pregnancy.

At the same time, that “prep” should be expert-vetted and backed by science, and it usually doesn’t involve the TikTok Shop. A doctor’s preconception toolbox is much simpler than what you might see online, and really hasn’t changed much in decades: ensure vaccinations are up to date, avoid alcohol, stop smoking and taking drugs, start a prenatal vitamin with folic acid to prevent neural tube defects at least a month before getting pregnant, and go through any prescription medications and supplements with your doctor. Only 5 percent of the preconception nutritional claims on social media reviewed in a 2025 study were referred to in current international preconception guidelines, and 54 percent were considered to have “no evidence for the health outcome.” TikTok and Instagram had a higher percentage of “no evidence” claims than other platforms.

For instance, raw milk is a darling of self-proclaimed “crunchy moms,” yet unpasteurized milk can introduce harmful germs like listeria, which can cause a miscarriage or harm a fetus. Extreme diets and exercise can work against your fertility, too, by affecting the hormones that are necessary for conception, says Kara Goldman, an ob-gyn and associate professor of reproductive endocrinology and infertility and director of fertility preservation at Northwestern University. Recently, a patient with a history of estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer told her she’d been taking beef organ supplements, not realizing until Goldman dug into the ingredients that the capsules included “ovary” and “uterus.” This meant she was inadvertently taking supplemental estrogen after years of avoiding unnecessary estrogen exposure. Additionally, organ meats like liver can be rich in Vitamin A, which Stentz says can be “very toxic” for pregnancy.

“Any buzzy individual thing is likely sensational, whether that’s Brazil nuts, organ meats, or whatnot,” Stentz adds. “The evidence-based things, they’re not sexy. Maintain a normal BMI, stop smoking, pick a boring prenatal vitamin.”

Pregnancy prep regimens can get pricey fast. A month’s supply of Perelel’s “conception support pack,” which includes a prenatal, omega DHA + EPA, and CoQ12 + folate, costs $58.77. A full swap-out of all kitchen Tupperwares, cooking utensils, and pans can run you hundreds. Add on “soft movement” like Pilates, organic produce, a whole new set of makeup and skin-care products, and it becomes all the more expensive.





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