Technologies

Refurbished Tech Is Always an Option for You, and It Could Be a ‘Joyful’ One Too

Joining the «joyful revolution» happening in the refurbished tech space is good for the planet and for dodging tariffs.

I’ve been writing about the right-to-repair movement and finding more sustainable ways to buy tech for years, but it wasn’t until earlier this year on a routine Tube journey across London that I heard of Back Market, a refurbished tech marketplace originating in France.

While avoiding any possible eye contact with strangers, as is good Tube etiquette, my gaze drifted up to a Back Market advert above the window pane. «Sorry, cats. Tech now has multiple lives too,» it said. It was amusing and immediately made me want to know more.

It turned out that I was late to the party, and this was just one of many cheeky ads that Back Market has run on the London Underground network and beyond. The company’s campaigns aim to normalize buying refurbished tech by making it fun, Back Market’s CEO Thibaud Hug de Larauze said at SXSW London on Tuesday.

«Don’t make people feel guilty, like you’re a bad person because you’re buying new,» he said. «It’s not going to work. It’s not going to change people’s behavior.»

Extending the lifespan of our phones, laptops and other tech products, whether through repair, responsible trade-ins that prioritize recycling or buying refurbished devices, is critical to ensure we’re not wasting precious minerals and exerting pressure on the natural world in ways that contribute to the climate crisis. It’s serious stuff, but Back Market’s lighthearted approach is about sparking «a joyful revolution» in the world of refurbished tech, Hug de Larauze said.

Buying into this revolution is good for the planet and protecting the well-being of the people in developing countries, whose health is impacted by mining for minerals or recovering them from discarded e-waste. It’s also good for another reason – avoiding price rises on new tech sparked by tariffs.

The repair and refurbish movement

Back Market isn’t the only marketplace willing to pay for your old tech and sell you a refurbished device, but it’s one part of a more widespread movement for change. Earlier this year, the company partnered with iFixit, which equips people around the world with the tools they need to repair their own tech while advocating for right-to-repair legislation.

«We want to enable people to repair by default, if they want and if they can,» Hug de Larauze said. «If they cannot, let’s trade in easily and adopt a refurbished one.»

Together, the companies encourage people to increase the time they hold onto their phones to five years, rather than the current average of two and a half years. They’re also applying pressure to phone manufacturers to increase software support to 10 years.

But Hug de Larauze has an even bigger request for tech companies, which he describes as «the next fight we need to push for.»

When tech manufacturers cease to provide ongoing support for devices, he wants them to unleash the hardware they’ve made so that it can be fully divorced from the operating system. The idea is that an old iPhone, for example, could get a new lease on life as something like a baby monitor or security camera if combined with different software.

This feels like a big ask for tech companies, with the main argument against the proposal likely to center on security concerns. Still, the world of refurbished tech is changing quickly. Over a million refurbished devices were purchased through Back Market last year alone and, according to Hug de Larauze, there are already signs that people are holding onto their smartphones for longer and trading in more often.

«For me, it’s about building a global ecosystem of service for everybody to basically access to repair by default,» he said. «Obviously, keep the device longer, but if for some reason you cannot, then easily trade it in and access refurbished devices instead.»

Technologies

TikTok’s Fate May Be Decided This Week After Years of Threats and Bans

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to seal a TikTok deal on Thursday, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

After years of political wrangling, lawsuits, looming bans and uncertainty for millions of people, TikTok’s long-running dramatic saga might finally conclude this week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to «consummate» a long-negotiated agreement on Thursday, allowing TikTok to continue operating in the US under new ownership terms.

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«The details are ironed out,» Bessent said, stating that his purpose in the negotiations was «to get the Chinese to agree to approve the transaction» and that it was «successfully accomplished.»

It’s possible, of course, that Thursday could come and go without a TikTok deal finalization. Dates and deadlines have been flexible along the way. Trump set numerous deadlines for changes involving TikTok and has bumped those dates several times. TikTok went briefly offline in January hours ahead of a planned ban, but returned the next day.

TikTok’s controversial history in the US

TikTok’s political rollercoaster began in 2020, when Washington first raised alarms about the app’s Chinese ownership and potential data vulnerabilities. Congress passed a 2024 law forcing ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent, to divest its US operations or face a total ban. Since then, the video-sharing site has faced multiple executive orders, court challenges and failed acquisition attempts.

The time to make a deal has been running out. The US Supreme Court upheld the divestment order earlier this year, rejecting arguments that a ban would violate free speech. That ruling pushed both sides back to the negotiating table, but there have been numerous delays and shifts to the TikTok deal deadline over the last few months.

Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 25, allowing the new ownership to be US-based and made up of a majority of American investors and stakeholders.

The all-important algorithm

The White House confirmed in September that TikTok’s algorithm will be operated in the United States and overseen by American tech company Oracle. Private equity firm Silver Lake and Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, will also be among the investors. In September, Trump said that News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch will also be part of the ownership group, but CNN later reported that the Murdochs’ media company, Fox Corp, would be the investor, not the two Murdochs individually.

TikTok’s algorithm is a major part of the deal. The algorithm is what recommends content to you while you’re scrolling on TikTok, and it is controversial because of US concerns that ByteDance, TikTok’s original Chinese owner, could be forced by the Chinese government to use those recommendations in pro-Chinese, anti-US ways.

Under the new TikTok deal, the algorithm will be retrained on US user data.

What this means for TikTok users

For TikTok users, the alleged deal could preserve access to an app that has become a cultural mainstay in the US, eliminating the looming threat of a shutdown or spinoff app.

As part of the new arrangement, TikTok’s US user data will remain stored domestically and managed by a dedicated oversight board, which may appease many Americans with concerns about data privacy.

Trump and Xi will meet again in Korea on Thursday, which means a TikTok deal could be announced by the end of this week. However, implementing the deal and changing ownership will likely take months.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is a personal friend of Trump, and some users fear his role with TikTok could mean the algorithm could push right-wing political content to users. A recent NPR story reported that analysts say that this could happen, but they will also need to refrain from alienating the existing audience.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 28 #604

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 28, No. 604.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a toughie, I thought. At least one of the answers was one I would never have come up with on my own. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: The write stuff

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Not pens, but …

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

PART, RAPT, PENS, SHARP, HARP, DOOM, ROOM, EARN, REAR, REARS, SEAR, FILLER

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

ERASER, REFILL, CEDARWOOD, GRAPHITE, SHARPENER

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is PENCILMEIN. (Pencil me in, though it looks like «pencil mein.») To find it, start with the P that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind over and down.

Technologies

Battlefield 6’s Redsec Mode, Coming Tomorrow, Brings Battle Royale Back to the Series

Time to squad up and drop in on a new map.

The Battlefield franchise returned to its former glory with the release of Battlefield 6 earlier this month. The multiplayer military shooter is about to launch its first season of content and events, which will bring changes to the game as well as a new free-to-play battle royale mode.

Update 1.1.1.0 for Battlefield 6 will start Tuesday morning, and also releasing on the same day is Redsec, the game’s battle royale mode, according to posts from the official Battlefield account on Monday. The first season patch is set to go live at 5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT, while Redsec will launch at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT.

Redsec marks the franchise’s second attempt at a battle royale mode. Battlefield V had the Firestorm mode that launched in March 2019, five months after the game launched. It tried to capture the battle royale craze at the time, but it was largely forgotten by players, especially with the release of Call of Duty: Warzone the following year.

The Battlefield account did not provide many details about the upcoming battle royale mode on the Monday post, other than a 10-second teaser trailer. Developer Battlefield Studios did, however, teased some information last month.

Eyes up.
Plates on.#REDSEC arrives tomorrow at 8:00 PT / 15:00 UTC 🔴
🔔 set reminder: https://t.co/xuRd1LETVr pic.twitter.com/Lpi7sufuay

— Battlefield (@Battlefield) October 27, 2025

A Battlefield Labs update from Sept. 10 outlined the testing done by players and some of the changes made before the launch of the mode. According to the developers, Redsec is going to have a new map where players can have access to transport vehicles and could eventually unlock armored vehicles to use during a match. During the test, players joined up in four-person squads, but it’s unclear whether there would be an option to play individually.

Like in Battlefield 6 matches, players can pick their classes before the match starts, but they won’t be able to change in the middle. They’ll be able to gain XP in a game from defeating other players or completing missions, and as they level up, players will unlock new traits to improve their soldier. During a match, the opportunities for destruction are everywhere as walls and buildings can be destroyed to stay within the shrinking ring of the map, which the developers say will be extremely deadly for those who venture outside of it as it collapses.

Before Redsec goes live, the first update to kick off season 1 will drop with a slew of improvements, which include refined animations, better accuracy on weapons, visual upgrades and map fixes to resolve issues that arise while playing a match. A longer list of what’s being changed with this first season was posted on the game’s official X account.

Battlefield 6 is out now for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S consoles.