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The cost rivals that of the largest private, personal construction projects in human history. Building permits put the price tag for the main construction at around $100 million, in addition to $170 million in land purchases, but this is likely an underestimate. Building costs on the remote island are still higher than pre-pandemic levels.

That price for a private residence is unparalleled in the local construction industry—as is the level of secrecy and security. “The only other time you see that is when you’re doing secure military installations,” says one local construction industry official affiliated with the site. “For a private project to have an NDA attached to it is very rare.”

With such scale and complexity come workplace accidents. In February, for instance, a crane traveling down a steep, narrow road on the property fell off an edge—careening down a hill with the operator inside. The driver, a 53-year-old Kauai local, suffered serious injuries and was transported to the hospital in stable condition. He has since returned to the site, Hoffine Barr tells WIRED.

In August 2019, 70-year-old security guard Rodney Medeiros, who was under an NDA that, from what his family understood, prevented him from discussing specific details about his job, ended a 12-hour shift standing watch at a beach by the property. He was a contracted worker and was only hired when Zuckerberg was visiting—which he was that weekend, according to court documents reviewed by WIRED. These documents, later filed on behalf of Medeiros’ children, claim that rainy conditions made it impossible for an ATV to pick him up, as was standard practice. Medeiros began making his way up a steep trail to reach the compound’s exit, and midway up the path he suffered a heart attack. He was transported to a hospital, where he died hours later.

The secrecy of the compound was evident in the wake of Medeiros’ death. A recorded conversation between three of his children and a compound security manager, Hank Barriga, a week after his death, hints at what their legal team has implied in their wrongful death suit against one of Zuckerberg’s LLCs. The filing alleges that there is an effort behind the scenes of the Zuckerberg project to control the flow of information. In the recording, Medeiros’ children express frustration that in the days after their father’s heart attack they weren’t provided any details about what happened. Barriga says that he wanted to talk with the family but was blocked from doing so. “I was told to just wait, you know, all the supervisors want to talk to each other,” he says. Another contracted worker, a longtime roommate and close friend of Medeiros, said in a court deposition that he had also felt reluctant to discuss the incident because of his NDA. Hoffine Barr declined to comment on the recording due to the ongoing litigation.

According to Allan Parachini, a local journalist, the focus on managing the flow of information around the compound has included reprimanding the local press for critical coverage. Throughout 2017, Parachini had been requesting permits in an effort to learn what Zuckerberg was building on Kauai. He’d also recently written an opinion piece in the local newspaper, The Garden Island, that was critical of Zuckerberg, ending with a call for residents to “tell Zuckerberg that abusing his stewardship of public beaches as if we are just another batch of Facebook victims is unacceptable.”

After the article was published, Parachini claims, a local Zuckerberg representative informed him that their team would not communicate with him for any future pieces. This ban extended beyond the professional world. Parachini also volunteered with a marine mammal rescue program, which on one occasion in 2017 needed to cross Zuckerberg’s land to quickly reach a distressed seal on the beach next to the property. After crossing the compound, he claims he was informed that he, specifically, would no longer be allowed on the property under any circumstances, at the request of the owner. “I was amused,” Parachini says. “I thought it was a silly, petty, juvenile thing to do. I just laughed it off.” Hoffine Barr declined to comment on Parachini’s account of these events.

It’s that time of year again. The holidays? Nope! Winter solstice? Try again. OK, I’ll just tell you: it’s Samsung’s quarterly Discover event. I know, I know—it’s less exciting than wintry festivities, but if you’re in the market for any Samsung products (for yourself or others), this event is big news. Samsung is running discounts not only on some of its older products but also on its latest and greatest flagships. Here’s a curated list of some of the highlights, which run through the week—and we found the same deals (if not better) at other retailers too. Each and every one of these picks has been tested, vetted, and put through the paces by the WIRED Gear team.

We’ve also got some Samsung coupons worth checking out including an exclusive 30 percent off code that comes with lots of strings but could save you money depending on what you’re buying. Dyson also currently has many of its cordless vacuums on sale at prices at or below what we saw on Black Friday, including the Dyson V15 Absolute at $500 and the Dyson V11 at $400. You can scan our coupon page for more savings.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

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Samsung Deals

Samsung Galaxy S23

Photograph: Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy S23 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is the quintessential flagship phone. It’s the no-compromises, every-feature-included, latest-and-greatest from Samsung. All three phones in the S23 range (the S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra) feature brilliant and fluid 120-Hz AMOLED displays, and over a day of battery life on a single charge. During testing, WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu found that the real star is the triple camera system. Delivering stellar low-light quality, and maybe the most stable video capture on any Android phone, it’s a camera cluster well worth the extra cash. This is the lowest price we’ve seen to date. Just remember that Samsung is poised to announce the Galaxy S24 series in January.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra

Photograph: Samsung

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is a fully-featured tablet with some of the best hardware on any Android device. It features an ultra-bright display with a liquid-smooth 120-Hz refresh rate, and cutting-edge internals that make the most of the hardware. Did we mention the 14.6-inch screen? There aren’t many tablets around at that massive size. The stylus feels responsive and fluid, and apps and games run beautifully on this gargantuan display.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5

Photograph: Samsung

The Z Flip5 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) isn’t the phone for everyone, it’s got some quirks (less-than-stellar battery life, for one), but it’s an adorable little phone. It folds up to about the size of a stack of Post-Its and fits into even the smallest of pockets. Plus, it has an external touchscreen display so you don’t have to snap it open every time you get an alert. Samsung only has the 512-GB model discounted, but it’s cheaper on Amazon for $970. The base 256-GB model is a better deal, though it has dipped as low as $800 during Black Friday.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5

Photograph: Samsung

The fifth iteration of Samsung’s folding flagships, the Galaxy Z Fold5 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) remains one of the best folding phones on the market. The cameras take great photos, and the displays (internal and external) are bright, colorful, and responsive. It’s still kind of a thick chunky phone when it’s closed. According to WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu, the external screen is still a bit narrow compared to the competition, leaving some apps feeling squished. You can save some extra by going for the 256-GB model.

Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic

Photograph: Samsung

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch6 Classic (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is a responsive smartwatch, and the mechanical bezel makes it fun to scroll through the interface. It’s best paired with Samsung phones if you want the full set of health features, but it works with any Android phone. It’s comfy to wear, and you get better battery life than an Apple Watch or Pixel Watch. The non-Classic model, which ditches the mechanical bezel, is even cheaper.

Samsung S95C QD-OLED

Photograph: Samsung

Samsung’s S95C QD-OLED TV (8/10, WIRED Recommends) boasts a dazzling display capable of rendering both super-bright and super-dim scenes with ease. There’s a level of clarity here that WIRED editor Parker Hall says makes it feel like you could fall into it, like an open window. The display is capped off by razor-thin bezels that only add to this TV’s ability to fully immerse you in whatever you’re watching.

Samsung QN900B

Photograph: Best Buy

There’s not much content out there for 8K TVs just yet, but if you have the cash to burn and you want the absolute biggest and best TV on the market, you can’t do much better than Samsung’s QN900C TV (8/10, WIRED Recommends). Backlit by an array of mini-LEDs, the TV produces some of the most beautiful colors and image processing we’ve ever seen.

Photograph: Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra (6/10, WIRED Review) is a great productivity laptop, and despite its 16-inch display, it’s surprisingly portable. It’s lightweight, coming in at almost a pound less than the M2 Max version of the MacBook Pro 16-inch. It packs a lot of power too, thanks to the Nvidia RTX 4050 inside. According to former WIRED contributor Adam Speight, that portability doesn’t mean you’re missing out on power either. This thing can be configured to have some absolutely killer (and gaming-worthy) internal hardware. It’s a shame the battery life, speakers, and keyboard are lackluster.

Over nearly a decade, the hacker group within Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency known as Sandworm has launched some of the most disruptive cyberattacks in history against Ukraine’s power grids, financial system, media, and government agencies. Signs now point to that same usual suspect being responsible for sabotaging a major mobile provider for the country, cutting off communications for millions, and even temporarily sabotaging the air raid warning system in the capital of Kyiv.

On Tuesday, a cyberattack hit Kyivstar, one of Ukraine’s largest mobile and internet providers. The details of how that attack was carried out remain far from clear. But it “resulted in essential services of the company’s technology network being blocked,” according to a statement posted by Ukraine’s Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-UA.

Kyivstar’s CEO Oleksandr Komarov told Ukrainian national television on Tuesday that the hacking incident “significantly damaged [Kyivstar’s] infrastructure, limited access; we could not counter it at the virtual level, so we shut down Kyivstar physically to limit the enemy’s access,” according to Reuters. “War is also happening in cyberspace. Unfortunately, we have been hit as a result of this war.”

The Ukrainian government hasn’t yet publicly attributed the cyberattack to any known hacker group—and nor have any cybersecurity companies or researchers. But on Tuesday, a Ukrainian official within its SSSCIP computer security agency, which oversees CERT-UA, pointed out in a message to reporters that a group known as “Solntsepek” had claimed credit for the attack in a Telegram post, and noted that the group has been linked to the notorious Sandworm unit of Russia’s GRU.

“We, the Solntsepek hackers, take full responsibility for the cyber attack on Kyivstar. We destroyed 10 thousand computers, more than 4 thousand servers, all cloud storage and backup systems,” reads the message in Russian, addressed to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and posted to the group’s Telegram account. The message also includes screenshots that appear—but could not be verified—to show access to Kyivstar’s network. “We attacked Kyivstar because the company provides communications to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as government agencies and law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. The rest of the offices helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine, get ready!”

Solntsepek has previously been used as a front for the hacker group Sandworm, the Moscow-based Unit 74455 of Russia’s GRU, says John Hultquist, the head of threat intelligence at Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant and a longtime tracker of the group. He declined, however, to say in which network intrusions Solntsepek has been linked to Sandworm in the past, suggesting that some of those intrusions may not yet be public. “It’s a group that has claimed credit for incidents we know were carried out by Sandworm,” Hultquist says, adding that Solntsepek’s Telegram post bolsters his previous suspicions that Sandworm was responsible. “Given their consistent focus on this type of activity, it’s hard to be surprised that another major disruption is linked to them.”

The US Supreme Court has decided to hear a case challenging access to abortion pills in the United States, including in states where abortion is legal.

Whatever the court decides, this will be the most consequential case for access to reproductive healthcare since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Pills are now the most common abortion method in the US; curtailing the availability of medication abortion would be a major blow to reproductive healthcare.

The Supreme Court will hear the this term, which means a decision may come in summer 2024, in the midst of the US presidential election season.

The ongoing legal saga centered on access to mifepristone began way back in 2002, when an alliance of anti-abortion activist groups first challenged the approval of the drug with a citizen petition. (The standard two-step regimen of medication abortion, which couples mifepristone with another drug, misoprostol, has been legal in the United States since 2000, when the Food and Drug Administration first approved mifepristone.) The FDA ignored that initial challenge, but the coalition of activists persisted.

In November 2022, the group brought suit in Texas, claiming that the FDA’s original approval process was flawed because it did not properly assess safety risks. An initial ruling from Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas sided with the plaintiffs, invalidating the FDA’s approval. (Kacsmaryk is a President Trump appointee, known for his anti-abortion views.)

In April, shortly after the initial ruling, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals partly overruled Kacsmaryk, allowing mifepristone to stay on the market but overturning the ability to receive the medication by mail. At the urging of the Biden Administration, the Supreme Court then ordered a stay until the appeals process concluded. This bought virtual abortion clinics some time, as they would have otherwise been forced to modify how they operated. Some clinics have planned to continue offering medication abortion, but with a one-pill regime of misoprostol.

In September, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to intervene in an attempt to end the legal logjam. In court papers filed that month, US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar stressed that the Fifth Circuit’s decision was the first time a court had doubted the FDA’s judgement on whether a drug should be allowed on the market, and that upholding it would upend the way medications are developed and approved in the US. “The logic of the Fifth Circuit’s unprecedented decision would threaten to severely disrupt the pharmaceutical industry and prevent FDA from fulfilling its statutory responsibilities according to its scientific judgment,” Prelogar wrote.

Overturning Roe demonstrated how sympathetic the Supreme Court can be toward anti-abortion activism. But curtailing mifepristone access may be too extreme even for this iteration of the Court.

“Hopefully, the fact that the Court denied cert in the cross-petition is an indication that they don’t want to upset the apple cart with FDA approval,” says David S. Cohen, a professor of law at Drexel University who studies abortion rights and the law. “But, it’s scary to have this Supreme Court once again wade into abortion.”

Not every good product can snag a best-in-category title, but there are several more bags we’ve tested that get our thumbs-up and deserve a mention.

The North Face Base Camp for $129: Unlike most duffel bags these days, this is a cylindrical duffel bag. If you’re a folder, it can be difficult to keep everything straight and wrinkle-free as you pack it into the Base Camp’s curved bottom, but those who roll their clothes won’t have any problems. I compared the Base Camp (6/10, WIRED Reviews) to a sturdy, old truck, more than competent enough for tough jobs but lacking in finer details of more modern bags. It’s a workhorse used often by the outdoors crowd, so while the water-resistant fabric and the handles are durable, they just don’t feel as nice to the touch.

Patagonia Black Hole 40L for $159: This is another great adventure duffel with a water-resistant fabric coating and backpack straps. It’s It’s 1.5 inches too thick in one dimension for US domestic carry-on requirements and could have a bit more waterproof material. But it’s a duffel, so you can squish it to fit in an overhead bin.

Tom Binh Aeronaut 45 Duffel for $330: It’s tough to find a made-in-the-US bag these days, but as long as you’re willing to pony up the extra coin, you’ll find it in this Seattle-made, carry-on-size duffel. WIRED reviewer Martin Cizmar applauded the sturdiness of the 1050-denier nylon fabric and YKK zippers, which held up well on tough streets and even tougher airlines over the 10 years he’s been using it. There are hideaway backpack straps, plus what Martin calls the most comfortable cross-body strap he’s ever used.

Gregory Alpaca 40 Duffel for $140: This one impressed me. It weighs a scant 2.7 pounds, but the water-resistant fabric and extraordinarily beefy (though plastic) buckles make it a solid bag for adventuring. It’s not quite as burly as the Base Camp, Big Haul, and Red Oxx bags, and it lacks triple-stitching, but it feels tougher than most, including the Eagle Creek below. There’s an exterior pocket for storing shoes or dirty clothes. The backpack straps don’t tuck away for storage—you have to unclip them—but might be the most well-padded, comfortable straps I’ve encountered on a duffel. Exterior daisy chains and an interior zippered pocket round out the impressive features list.

Land’s End Waxed Canvas Duffel for $90 $180: Most duffel bags these days are made of nylon, and while it’s tough to call a material that’s been popular since the 1940s “modern,” nylon bags don’t have the old-school charm that this waxed canvas bag does. Cotton canvas, covered in wax for water resistance, is offset with leather. It feels well-made, with durable stitching, chunky leather handles, and burlier-than-typical zippers. The internal zippered pocket is a nice touch, as well.

Eagle Creek Cargo Hauler 40L for $149: Two things jump out about the Cargo Hauler. First, it weighs 1 pound, 13 ounces, which is only slightly heavier than air. Second, it has backpack straps that stow away in a front pocket. It’s less heavy-duty than the other duffels in this guide, but it doesn’t feel cheap.

Skyway Epic Carry-On for $80: Bags under $100 are sometimes dodgy. At 7.1 pounds, the Epic is on the lighter end of average. While it’s a fair bit cheaper than the Maxlite 5, our favorite budget bag, it’s also a couple pounds heavier. The handle is a wee bit more finicky, and the Travelpro’s wheels glide a little more nicely. Still, for under $100, the Skyway’s zippers and wheels were of fine quality. These are areas cheap bags usually skimp on. If you must spend less than $100 on a bag, the Epic is a solid choice.

Db Ramverk Pro Front-Access Carry for $699: If you need an absolutely bomber-tough rolling suitcase and don’t mind its 9.6-pound weight, the Pro Front-Access Carry will stand up to more abuse than most rolling bags, with its aluminum frame and 70-percent-recycled polycarbonate body. WIRED reviewer Chris Haslam says it’s his favorite rolling bags in years, sold on its usefulness by what he calls its brilliantly simple front compartment that gives instant access to your stuff, without having to lay the bag flat. Add in a pull-up toggle that easily lifts your laptop clear without disturbing your other belongings and their multi-compartment camera inserts, and you’ve got a seriously versatile bag for active travelers.

Target Signature Weekender Bag for $81: Looking like a cross between a duffel and a handbag, the Weekender has a stucture that product reviewer Louryn Strampe says can become overfilled, so keep that in mind if you plan to bring it onto a plane as a carry-on. She appreciates its durability and the many internal pockets for organization, though, and its rather long five-year warranty.

Solgaard Carry-On Closet Plus for $365: It’s a tiny bit over what most airlines list as the maximum dimensions, but the difference is so small that it’s accepted 95 percent of the time. WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe praises its optional clip-in closet clothing organizer, which makes for efficient packing. The built-in TSA lock is easy to use, and there’s an internal power-bank pocket. This suitcase is included in our Favorite Upcycled Products guide.

July Checked Bag for $325: This bag uses a polycarbonate shell with aluminum bumpers, striking a good compromise between weight and durability. It’s lighter than the 16-inch Monos checked bag that WIRED reviewer Adrienne So tested by about a pound, and it showed fewer scratches and rub marks on a trip. However, the Monos’ telescoping handle has a much smoother roll-out, and the surface is smooth, not pebbled.

Samsonite Outline Pro Carry-On for $200: This is a hard-side, four-wheeled spinner carry-on made from an outer shell of durable polypropylene. Standout features include an interior fabric made from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles and a “WetPak” storage pocket for keeping damp items separated from the rest of your luggage.

Adidas Defender Duffel for $40: If you’re looking for an inexpensive duffel that’ll handle some light-duty traveling, this is a good way to save $100. The fabric is significantly thinner and less sturdy than that of other duffels in this guide, and it lacks backpack straps. If there’s a chance you’ll have to check it often, I’d look elsewhere. But for taking on the train or tossing into a car trunk, it’ll do the trick.

Paravel Aviator International Carry-On for $395: This carry-on has an interior lining made of recycled plastic bottles, a telescoping handle made of recycled aluminum, and vegan leather trim to help it stand out from all the plain black bags at the airport. Product reviewer Jaina Grey really fell in love with its roomy interior and durable, anti-scuff hard-shell exterior.

I used to feel a little embarrassed by my home clothes—anything I wore when no one could see me. That included ratty shoes, shirts with holes, and old shorts I should have gotten rid of long ago. When I got a dog, my embarrassment swelled because I was too lazy to change when I left the house for his daily walks. People could see me shuffling around in my holey pajamas! Horrifying.

Thankfully, over the past few years, I’ve donated the clothes (the ones without holes) and upgraded my at-home wear. But my default shoes for dog walks or quick runs to the deli were still cheap slip-ons I bought on Amazon, and after a year of constant use, these deteriorated. Then I’d buy a new pair. They also always looked crappy.

Enter Rothy’s new line of men’s shoes, which the brand introduced in February. I’ve been wearing the Driving Loafers almost daily for 10 months and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with a pair of casual shoes. They’re quick to slip on, comfy, easy to clean, and, best of all, attractive. I was just complimented on them a few weeks ago!

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Recycled Rothy’s

We’ve written about Rothy’s before, but it’s worth repeating that its shoes are made from plastic bottles. It took 21 bottles to make the Driving Loafers. The company also has a recycling program, so you can return your old Rothy’s at a store and get a $30 discount code for a new pair. Those old shoes are then disassembled and recycled for new uses. That’s a much better end compared to my cheap slip-ons from Amazon, which are probably sitting in a landfill somewhere.

Rothy’s shoes are expensive. I mean, I was buying $30 to $40 everyday shoes on Amazon before, and these start at $189. But I highly recommend you wait for sale events. For example, right now, you can snag the Driving Loafers for as low as $99 in select colors. Still expensive! But a lot more palatable than the MSRP.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Tesla is recalling more than two million vehicles, nearly all of the vehicles it has sold in the US to date, to fix a flawed system designed to make sure drivers are paying attention when they use Autopilot.

Rather than physically recalling vehicles, documents posted today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that Tesla will send out a software update in an attempt to fix the problem.

The recall covers nearly all of the vehicles Tesla sold in the US, including the Model X, Model S, Model Y, and Model 3, and impacts those produced between October 5, 2012, and December 7 2023.

It comes after a two-year investigation by the NHTSA into a series of crashes that supposedly happened while Autopilot system was in use. Since 2016, the NHTSA has opened more than 40 special crash investigations involving Teslas and where advanced driver assistance such as Autopilot were suspected of being switched on. Nineteen crash deaths have been reported in these investigations.

NHTSA states that its investigation has found that Autopilot’s method of ensuring drivers are paying attention and in control are inadequate and “in certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse.”

Aside from Tesla’s software update including added controls and alerts “to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility,” the NHTSA safety recall report states that update—already issued to some vehicles and with the rollout ongoing—will apparently limit where Autosteer can be used.

“Additional controls will include, among others, increasing the prominence of visual alerts on the user interface, simplifying engagement and disengagement of Autosteer, additional checks upon engaging Autosteer and while using the feature outside controlled access highways and when approaching traffic controls, and eventual suspension from Autosteer use if the driver repeatedly fails to demonstrate continuous and sustained driving responsibility while the feature is engaged,” the NHTSA report states.

According to Tesla’s own literature, “Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car nor does it make a car autonomous.” So, despite its name, although Autopilot can steer, accelerate and brake automatically in lane, it cannot drive for you.

They’ve also got an extra two hours of battery, with eight hours of playback time instead of six hours in the standard pair. Both pairs offer three extra charges in their respective charging cases.

That said, the cheaper model is pretty well stocked for its price point, with options like a volume limiter and gain enhancer (for low-volume audio sources), adjustable auto-pause and voice prompts, and mid-tier noise canceling and transparency mode. You’ll get better performance from the Pro model’s Adaptive noise canceling, but you’ll also pay a hefty premium to get there, and the regular model does a decent job with low-end rumbles like fans and traffic noise.

Once again, there are some execution issues at play with both pairs. Transparency mode sounds rather brittle and, more notably, the sound gets much quieter with transparency mode on, then ramps back up for ANC. This appears to be by design so you can better hear the world around you, but in practice it was annoying to jump back and forth, forcing me to crank the volume in transparency mode and then blasting my ears when I engaged noise canceling.

I also noticed some occasional rumbling noise that sounded like interference with ANC on, mostly apparent in the standard pair, though it’s not usually noticeable with audio playing.

Powerful Sonic Skills

When I say I can’t tell you what you’ll get with the PerL’s sound, I mean that in more ways than one. In three different profile adventures, across both the PerL and the PerL Pro, I got three different results, with the visual evidence to prove it (a little color pattern in the app shows you the hearing sensitivities measured).

The first version with the PerL Pro seemed like something of a misfire. The sound was different, and certainly better than the default, which seems almost purposely aimed at blandness, but it didn’t feel particularly tailored to my sonic vibe. The second try was better, serving up excellent clarity and detail, but still felt a little crisp and forward for my taste.

For whatever reason, it was with the more affordable model that I found blissful success. The first profile cooked up by the standard PerL earbuds felt like someone was in my head, crafting sound elements that “Ryan 3” would particularly enjoy. It might come as no surprise that the sound has a certain processed quality, what with it being processed before my eyes. Even so, it is one sweet ride.

Instruments seem to pop out of the ether, isolated so that each tone color is fully revealed, yet subtly presented. Horns are satiny and smooth, guitars and synths burn in their sonic corners with brilliantly colored timbres, and bass is full and balanced. All the different elements are married together in spectacular harmony.

Vocals are especially well reproduced with the PerL, offered with uncommon presence that lets you hear the full wash of reverb and each minute breath and detail with impressive precision. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard Brian Wilson’s “Feel Flows,” but it wasn’t until now that I realized he alternates “feel flows” with “feel goes” in the chorus. Similarly, Robert Smith’s breathy effects in “Close To Me” have never been more lively and, well, close to me.

I’ve never really bought into personalized sound profiles up until now, preferring to let the speakers do at least the majority of the work, and position my ears as semi-objective observers. Part of that is admittedly some insecurity; as someone who relies on their ears for a living, and for whom ear plugs have long been standard operating procedure, I don’t like to think about the ravages time takes on all of our hearing over time.

Denon’s PerL earbuds have made me a cautious convert. From the fit and design to the inconsistencies in the custom profiles, the PerL aren’t perfect, but they do feel like a confident step on the road toward something very exciting. If you’ve been wondering about personalized sound, I suggest you try a pair for yourself—you might find something your ears have been missing.

Platform workers can no longer be fired automatically by algorithms, according to new European Union rules agreed today in a sweeping reform of the gig economy that will affect Uber drivers and Deliveroo couriers.

“Now we have a proper system, which is something that doesn’t exist anywhere else around the world,” said Elisabetta Gualmini, an Italian politician who led the negotiations for the European Parliament, in a press conference on Wednesday. She described the new rules as a real improvement in the labor rights for millions of workers.

“We do not want an inhuman labor market,” she said, citing the case of a delivery rider in Italy who was fired last year via an automatic email because he did not complete a delivery. The reason? He had been killed just hours before in a road accident. The platform involved, Glovo, told his family at the time it had been a mistake.

The issue of platform work is an existential issue for Europe, Gualmini said. “We are not against changes in innovation,” she added. “But we think that we have to manage these big transitions and transformations in order to protect workers.”

Negotiators from the EU’s three branches of government—the Council, the Commission and the Parliament—debated for 11 hours, through Tuesday night, to agree sweeping reform of the platform economy and the rules governing the EU’s 28 million platform workers, who include taxi drivers and food delivery couriers. The deal is a provisional agreement which means it still needs to be signed off by European governments and politicians sitting in the European Parliament.

The new rules also attempt to clarify whether platform workers are employees entitled to sick pay, holiday pay and pension contributions, or self-employed free agents, who are not.

“If you are completely dependent on an algorithm, a machine, for the organization of work, your breaks, the speed with which you have to deliver things and your vacations, it is very hard to consider yourself self-employed,” Gualmini said. “So you are a worker, you are an employee, and you deserve to have social rights.”

The platform work directive now states that workers should be legally considered as employees if their relationship with the platform paying them meets two of the following five criteria: if the platform allocates their tasks, restricts working hours, limits their earnings, supervises their performance, or imposes rules about their conduct or appearance.

The US government took the first step Tuesday toward requiring new cars to have technology that checks whether the driver is drunk.

At an event in Washington, DC, officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the nation’s top road safety regulator, said the technology could help prevent thousands of annual road deaths involving alcohol. Almost 13,400 people died in US alcohol-related crashes in 2021 alone, NHTSA figures say.

The agency is still exploring how best to precisely detect and measure impairment in drivers and would seek multiple rounds of public input before creating any regulations to force automakers to include the feature. Industry and academic research has shown that it’s possible to detect evidence of impairment using air sensors in a vehicle to recognize alcohol in a person’s breath, touch sensors that look for alcohol in the blood, or by a tracking driver’s gaze or steering.

The NHTSA says that any technology that becomes standard would have to be “passive,” meaning it would have to work without any specific action from a driver such as blowing into a breathalyzer tube.

“Today’s announcement sets the groundwork for impaired driving rulemaking that will seek the most mature and effective technology,” Polly Trottenberg, the deputy secretary of the US Department of Transportation, said at the event Tuesday. Translation: It’ll be a while until technology to detect drunkenness becomes a required standard. Don’t expect your next car to come with an anti-drunk-driving feature.

Congress directed the NHTSA to create regulations requiring “advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology” in vehicles in 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. But the process of creating new vehicle regulations can take months and even years, as regulators collect input from industry, researchers, and the public.

In a document accompanying Tuesday’s announcement, regulators laid out several open questions around anti-drunk-driving technology that made clear the NHTSA’s plans are at an early stage: What’s the best way to determine whether someone is drunk or drowsy or distracted, and should the car treat those impairments differently? What should a car do if it determines its driver is drunk? And—critically—is there a way to guarantee that systems will never lock out people who aren’t drunk?

Even if reasonable answers can be found for those questions, the technology would also have to survive the court of public opinion. “The public will reject this if the false positives are too high,” says James C. Fell, a principal research scientist who studies impaired driving at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, an independent research organization. “You don’t want to stop people from driving who are not impaired.”