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CNET
2 days ago
- CNET
I Spent Weeks Using Orb: It's Unlike Any Internet Speed Test I've Ever Used Before
Internet speed tests aren't just for people who obsess over their internet connection. If you're having an inevitable home internet slowdown, my first recommendation is always to start with a speed test. In fact, I've tested and used dozens of internet speed tests -- the market is pretty saturated with them. Ideally, the best internet speed test is one that diagnoses your bandwidth blues as easily as possible -- no ads, no extra features you can't make sense of and no slowing down your Wi-Fi. Speed tests are nothing new in the home internet space, but then again, I've never used a speed test quite like Orb before. Meet Orb The creators of the industry's most popular speed test, Ookla, rolled out Orb at the end of April. (Disclaimer: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) While I was skeptical about what value Orb could bring to the internet speed testing market, I felt differently after I downloaded the app to my iPhone and personal computer a few weeks ago. Orb is a free, sophisticated speed testing application. It doesn't just test your download and upload speeds; it measures the overall health of your home network holistically, using multiple metrics and continuous speed tests. Orb co-founder and CEO Doug Suttles says Orb isn't really a speed test at all. Locating local internet providers 'We're not a speed test, that's the best way to put it,' Suttles tells me. 'We have speed testing functionality, but we focus far more on what we call responsiveness.' What does Orb track? Orb uses a few different metrics to measure responsiveness. You can see what your best (and worst) lag times look like. Screenshot by Cierra Nofke/CNET Responsiveness -- which includes measurements like lag, latency, jitter and packet loss -- is the main metric Orb uses to rate your internet connection. Reliability, or the network's responsiveness over time, and speed are secondary measures that Orb takes into account. 'It's a different side of broadband that we're focusing on,' Suttles says. 'The things that we built at our past company were perfect for the time when we built them, when broadband was in its infancy and you needed to measure throughput first and foremost.' With data use surging and internet speeds soaring, our lives are more connected than ever -- and speed alone is no longer the only factor in judging a good internet plan. I see this often while reviewing home internet plans: While most internet shoppers mainly focus on speed and cost, a host of other factors, beyond advertised max speeds, determine whether a connection is reliable or consistent. Jamie Steven, president and co-founder of Orb, says a reliable internet connection, not just a fast one, is vital for his rurally located home. 'The connection would go down all the time,' Steven says, 'Speed wasn't always or very often was not the issue. The issue was reliability and responsiveness.' Suttles and Steven compare typical internet speed tests as akin to measuring a car's top speed. Instead of focusing solely on speeds, Orb focuses on whether your internet stalls or how quickly it can accelerate. Additionally, Steven notes that the top speed of most cars is impractical for everyday use. 'It's not what you're doing day-to-day,' Steven says, referring to max internet speeds. 'For us, it was more about continuous measurement of your internet experience.' How does Orb work? Orb measures your internet's current speeds as well as its peak speeds. Screenshot by Cierra Nofke/CNET Part of Orb's ingenuity is its ability to run those continuous speed tests, instead of only running speed tests when you're experiencing delays or interruptions. My first thought was that such an approach would put a hit on one's bandwidth. But Suttles assured me that Orb uses a much smaller payload (around 10MB) compared to popular speed test alternatives. For rural internet users like Steven, that lighter payload makes all the difference in keeping his internet connection stable. If you'd like to give your internet a stress test, Orb does come with a 'peak speed' function to test your network's capacity, but that's not a continuous test. Every device you connect to your internet acts as an "orb" or "sensor" that tests your internet connection. You can also set up a dedicated device to continuously monitor your network, 24/7. There is one downside to Orb as it compares to other speed tests: You can't run the tests in a browser. You'll have to download the application to a device (which could be anything from a spare smartphone to a Raspberry Pi). Once you create an account, you can basically download Orb to anything with a hard drive -- and easily diagnose your internet issues in different rooms, simultaneously. Hands-on with Orb Screenshot by Cierra Nofke/CNET Orb is completely free and easy to use. A few weeks ago, I installed it on my phone and personal computer and used it to test my fiber internet connection. Using a scale of 0 to 100, Orb gives your internet a rating that's pretty easy to understand: Red (0 to 49) means poor performance and green (90 to 100) means your internet is performing excellently. My internet connection gets a solid 90 most of the time -- not bad for AT&T's cheapest speed tier. "We want consumers to use this because these are problems that all of us on the founding team have had at home,' Steven says. 'We want this to be free forever." 'There's more value in building a brand than in trying to monetize consumers for something that, quite frankly, we're so passionate about, we just want to give it away anyway,' Suttles says. I used Orb to test the internet connection in my office and the speeds I was getting in the living room where my TV is. Both tests showed results typically consistent with what I'd see using Ookla. You can add as many devices to your Orb network as you'd like; they'll all play a role in measuring your internet connectivity. Screenshot by Cierra Nofke/CNET Orb is still in its beginning stages -- while it's an effective tool for understanding how your internet connection works, there are a few features coming to the app that will make it even more user-friendly, like the ability to access historical data (similar to Ookla). 'Orb does record all data locally first,' Steven notes. 'We just hadn't presented it in the UI, but that was something we were very passionate about. We didn't want to require cloud connectivity to be able to see the past.' Perhaps most importantly, Orb will eventually start releasing recipes for measuring the connectivity of specific applications or services, like Microsoft Teams or Slack and, eventually, even specific internet services. 'Different web services use different sorts of protocols,' Steven says. 'So Zoom might use this special RTSP protocol -- can my connection open that port to that service? Is it accessible? What's its responsiveness?' Down the road, Suttles and Steven would like to see Orb used by the community to create different 'recipes' and ways of measuring reachability. 'At its core, Orb is really a recipe engine,' Suttles says. 'Our vision is to release and share new recipes, then have the community start creating them.' Final thoughts The internet isn't getting any cheaper, and while it might be tempting to just buy more speed, there are simpler ways of diagnosing and boosting your connection first. While Orb (and the internet) continue to evolve, it's a good idea to have a holistic sense of your network's connectivity, beyond speed.
CNET
3 days ago
- CNET
How to Boost Your Productivity With This AI Tool
There are a lot of AI tools to help out your productivity at work, but not as much gets written about using AI for your home tasks. Time is the most precious thing you have -- so if you can save time on your weekly to-do list, in all parts of life, you could be saving a lot more time for the fun things. Just like money, there's no time savings too small. Saving 15 minutes on your weekly responsibilities is better than nothing. Become a time budgeter with the help of artificial intelligence. AI productivity tools can help you with a lot of things, like planning, saving and maximizing time on cleaning, cooking, exercising, shopping, scheduling, traveling and life admin. Look at the tasks you procrastinate on – this is where you can use the most support. ChatGPT seems to be one of the best AI productivity tools to chat with, so I'm testing out its time-saving chops. OpenAI's ChatGPT was released in 2022, but it has undergone major updates, notably to the free version. There's a premium subscription for $20 a month, but the free version is usually all you need. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) Review your week for pain points Society obsesses over AI being able to generate jokes or scripts in seconds, but does this really solve problems? No. Ponder on your personal pain points and use the tools tactically to find better or faster ways of doing things. If meals are always a mess, use ChatGPT as a co-cook. If you want to get the kids off screens, you could use ChatGPT to generate trivia questions for their age group. If you never know what to wear to work, you could ask AI to plan your week's outfits, based on your wardrobe. Contemplate how ChatGPT can best help you, with two to three top tasks or categories. AI productivity ideas For example, here are two weekly tasks (one home, one work) that could be organized and optimized with AI: 1. Family chores and housework. 2. Digitize handwritten meeting notes. AI to schedule family chores and housework Organize your family chore chart with ChatGPT. It's a handy tool to help assign age-appropriate housework tasks. You could ask ChatGPT to use a star or point system, which connects to your kids' allowance, screen time sessions or weekend activities. Let's use a family of four as an example: mom, dad, a 6-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. In your prompt, include specific details that might affect a weekly schedule. For example, commuting to work, playing sports, music lessons and recurring household tasks. Prompt: "Create a weekly chore chart for a family of four, with kids aged 6 and 3. Include age-appropriate chores, the estimated time to complete each task, and a reward system based on points." I wanted to see what it generated, because it gave me ideas I hadn't thought of, such as watering house plants. Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET And here's the points-based reward system it generated: Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET I asked ChatGPT to remove the dusting, vacuuming, sweeping and organizing books and toys from the kids' list, but make packing and unpacking the dishwasher a daily task and add help with cooking on Saturday or Sunday. I made a couple of requests, such as adding "get shoes on" daily, then asked ChatGPT to sort in order of daily to weekly tasks. I also asked it to switch up the parent tasks. Prompt: For parent tasks, change laundry to Wednesday and Sunday. Daily cooking, 1 hour a day including lunch and dinner. Vacuum on Sunday, 30 minutes. Clean stovetop, surfaces and toilet, 15 minutes. Dust on Sunday, 15 minutes. Take out trash and recycling, twice a week, 20 minutes. Meal plan and grocery shop on Sunday, 1 hour. If there are any errors, just ask ChatGPT to regenerate it. Small tweaks are to be expected. Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET ChatGPT's reward system suggestions triggered an idea: The kids could earn bonus points if they help with any parent tasks, especially for Sunday's chores. You could even ask ChatGPT to turn its plan into a printable page to stick on your fridge to use as a scoreboard. AI to digitize handwritten notes Another way to gain AI productivity is to summarize handwritten meeting notes in seconds. If you're in multiple meetings during the week, use ChatGPT to digitize your handwriting. Download the ChatGPT app so you can easily take and upload a photo of your pages. Prompt: Transcribe these handwritten notes into text. Amanda Smith/CNET Then open up the desktop version to easily check the text and paste it in a word document. Keep the physical notes page (or photo) open to cross-check. I have the handwriting of a high school student, so I had to make a few requests. I told it that the sixth bullet should read "Clearer briefs – deadlines, time, priority list (one for you)." But still, not bad, ChatGPT! Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET While this might not save you hours per week, it's a good example of a small task that can be sped up with AI. Once you start using AI productivity tools for these tasks, the time savings will soon add up.
CNET
3 days ago
- Business
- CNET
If OpenAI and Microsoft Break Up, What Does It Mean for Copilot? Try These AI Alternatives
The love-hate relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft may be heading toward a permanent dissolution, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. That raises questions about the future of Microsoft's AI assistant, Copilot, in Windows 11 and Bing, which is currently powered by OpenAI's generative AI technology. The tech giants have maintained a relationship for six years, but amid negotiations to separate the partners-turned-competitors, OpenAI execs have begun discussing whether to go "nuclear" and accuse Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior during their partnership, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) A sudden breakup could make teasing out their integration a bit messy. Microsoft announced in May that its AI assistant, Copilot, would begin using GPT-4o, OpenAI technology that also powers the paid version of ChatGPT. Copilot was launched in 2023 to add AI across Microsoft's platforms. Representatives for Microsoft and OpenAI didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. What does it mean to me if OpenAI and Microsoft break up? Although much of the details about the ongoing negotiations matter more to the companies and their investors, if the companies do end their relationship suddenly, it could potentially impact Microsoft's Copilot. The AI assistant relies on OpenAI for a variety of features, including voice and computer vision and photo editing. There are plenty of AI chatbot alternative options, including a free version of OpenAI's ChatGPT. However, we recommend trying Claude by Anthropic. If you want to check out an alternative image generator, we'd recommend for seriously creative work and Canva as a free, beginner-friendly option.
CNET
3 days ago
- Business
- CNET
OpenAI and Microsoft Reportedly May Be Calling It Quits
OpenAI and Microsoft may be breaking up, potentially leaving Microsoft's Copilot without a, uh, copilot, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. The two tech giants have been engaged in a symbiotic relationship for six years, with Microsoft tapping OpenAI's generative AI technology to power its AI assistant, Copilot, in Windows 11 and Bing . But amid negotiations to separate the partners-turned-competitors, OpenAI execs have begun discussing whether to accuse Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior during their partnership, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.). A sudden breakup could make teasing out their integration a bit messy. Microsoft announced in May that its AI assistant, Copilot, would begin using GPT-4o, OpenAI technology that also powers the paid version of ChatGPT. Copilot was launched in 2023 to add AI across Microsoft's platforms. Representatives for Microsoft and OpenAI didn't immediately respond to request for comment.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
Massive June 12 internet outage explained: What we know so far (updated)
On Thursday afternoon, a massive list of popular internet services all started experiencing outages at the same time. Thousands of confused internet users took to Google and social media to ask why they couldn't log into their favorite websites and apps. The front page of Down Detector was a menagerie of spiking orange line graphs, starting around 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 12. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis owns both Mashable and Down Detector.) So, what caused the outage? Here's what we know so far. In a statement to Mashable, a representative for hosting platform Cloudflare pointed the blame at Google Cloud. In addition, the Cloudflare status page attributed the service to "an outage of a 3rd party service that is a key dependency" for Cloudflare services. Initial speculation focused on internet hosting platforms like Cloudflare and Google Cloud, as both companies reported problems Thursday. An initial update on the Cloudflare status page stated, "We are seeing a number of services suffer intermittent failures. We are continuing to investigate this and we will update this list as we assess the impact on a per-service level." And at the Google Cloud status page, the company reported that "Multiple GCP products are experiencing Service issues." Mashable reached out to Google for comment, and we'll update this story if we receive more information. By 5:15 p.m. ET, the Google Cloud status page stated, "Most of the Google Cloud products are fully recovered," though some "residual impacts" continued. A previous update on the page said: "We have identified the root cause and applied appropriate mitigations. Our infrastructure has recovered in all regions except us-central1. Google Cloud products that rely on the affected infrastructure are seeing recovery in multiple locations. Our engineers are aware of the customers still experiencing issues on us-central1 and multi-region/us and are actively working on full recovery. We do not have an ETA for full recovery." Starting around 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 12, Down Detector, a platform where users can report issues with popular websites and apps, received an avalanche of user reports, with Google Services, popular AI platforms, and e-commerce websites all affected. Social apps like Twitch, Nintendo Switch Online, and Discord all received a spike in error reports as well. Even more services. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector Some impacted services. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector More services. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector The spike in outage reports started to calm down by 3:30 p.m., and after a few hours, most platforms seemed to be operating normally again. During the initial outage, Down Detector users reported problems to a variety of Google services, although Google Search and Gmail appeared to be working for most users. Multiple Mashable reporters also experienced problems accessing services such as Google Meet. Google Cloud experienced issues, which would help explain why so many Google services are struggling. As of 3:20 p.m. ET, dozens of popular platforms were down or experiencing disruptions. According to Down Detector, the following sites reported a surge in error messages: Discord Google and all related services (e.g. YouTube, Google Meet) Spotify Twitch Rocket League Cloudflare Etsy Pokémon Trading Card Game Snapchat fuboTV Anthropic Shopify Gemini Doordash Ikea Equifax Marvel Vimeo Nintendo Switch Online Gitlab Calendly Bluesky Grok Fortnite Apple Music Netflix Disney Plus Prime Video This story is developing... UPDATE: Jun. 12, 2025, 6:30 p.m. EDT This story has been updated with additional details about the widespread internet service disruption. An earlier version of this story stated that Amazon Web Services (AWS) was impacted by the outages; however, an Amazon representative told Mashable this is not the case. An AWS spokesperson said, "Currently there are no board service issues with AWS."
