Follow live updates on the Trump administration here.
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to create a national stockpile of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, an audacious idea that has been widely criticized as a scheme to enrich crypto investors.
The basis of the stockpile will be a stash of Bitcoin, estimated to be worth as much as $17 billion, that the United States has seized in legal cases over the years.
The order also calls for federal agencies to develop strategies to buy more Bitcoin, the most popular digital currency, as long as those purchases do not generate extra costs for taxpayers.
“This Executive Order underscores President Trump’s commitment to making the U.S. the ‘crypto capital of the world,’” said David Sacks, the White House’s crypto and A.I. policy czar, in a post on social media. He said the United States would not sell any Bitcoin in the reserve, which he likened to “a digital Fort Knox.”
Since Mr. Trump took office in January, his administration has moved rapidly to elevate the crypto industry, a volatile sector that had battled with federal regulators for years. The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped lawsuits against two of the biggest U.S. crypto companies and halted investigations into several others. And on Friday, Mr. Trump is scheduled to host crypto executives at the White House for a first-of-its-kind “crypto summit.”
Mr. Trump has a personal stake in the success of the crypto industry, creating conflicts of interests that have raised alarms with government ethics experts. Last year he started a business, World Liberty Financial, that offers a cryptocurrency called WLFI. Just days before his inauguration, he also began selling a so-called memecoin — a type of cryptocurrency tied to an online joke or a celebrity figure.
The notion of a U.S. crypto reserve gained traction last year as Mr. Trump embraced the industry on the campaign trail. Proponents argued that an investment in Bitcoin would help the government chip away at the $36 trillion national debt, and ensure that the United States remained dominant in a hypothetical future where the global economy runs on cryptocurrencies.
But skeptics said the plan seemed calculated to enrich crypto executives who already owned large amounts of Bitcoin by lifting its price. They argued that it was dangerous to link the nation’s economic future to a highly volatile asset.
At a conference in Nashville in July, Mr. Trump gave a speech to a crowd of Bitcoin enthusiasts and vowed to establish a national stockpile. He doubled down on that promise last weekend, posting on social media that he intended to create a reserve consisting of Bitcoin and other lesser-known cryptocurrencies, such as Solana, Cardano, Ether and XRP.
That plan drew criticism from some crypto executives, who argued that the only asset in a national reserve should be Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency on the market.
Under the order, the government will create a separate stockpile of digital assets other than Bitcoin. But it will include only coins that were acquired in criminal or civil seizures, and the government will not move to buy any cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin.
Crypto investors celebrated the announcement on social media, calling it a “historic day” and a “massive win” for the country.
“By holding Bitcoin and other digital assets for the long term, the White House is taking a future-forward approach,” Nathan McCauley, the chief executive of the crypto firm Anchorage Digital, said in a statement. “Expect this move to catalyze crypto adoption among more governments and institutions.”
We’re at a crossroads in the US with diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Opponents have neutralized the concept by reducing it to a series of letters that can be easily vilified and rooted out by a new generation of government censors.
But those who do that are missing the point. Diversity, equity, and inclusion isn’t about having a “DEI manager” who ensures that target numbers are hit. It’s about widening the circle to make sure a company is considering all candidates who might be appropriate for a given position. It’s important for the company, because it’s hard to find and hire good people. And it’s important for the job applicants, because if they’ve put in the work, they deserve to be evaluated fairly.
Learn faster. Dig deeper. See farther.
At O’Reilly, we seek out talent from groups that might not be in our direct circles of influence, but we hire them based on skill. That said, we do believe that biases exist, which is why we use anonymous application reviews that spotlight an applicant’s relevant expertise when deciding who to evaluate.
As a woman who leads a SaaS organization in a tech industry still very much dominated by men, I believe I got here because I put in the work and built the necessary skills. That said, Tim O’Reilly had the wherewithal to disregard industry biases and open the circle to ensure I was considered to run his company. Women make up only 35% of the tech workforce versus about 56% in the labor force as a whole. We know that’s not because women can’t shine in tech jobs. You have only to look at tech superstars like former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati or SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell. And women are not the only overlooked sources of talent.
At O’Reilly, we want to help accelerate the solution. Which is why I’m pleased to announce the continuation of our highly successful diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarship toincrease learning opportunities for members of underrepresented communities in technology. Through this scholarship program, 500 awardees receive annual all-access memberships to the O’Reilly learning platform so they can put in the work and learn the skills they need to break through the industry’s barriers. Let’s hope they learn fast, because over 85 million skilled tech workers will be needed in the next five years.
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.
Last year, we unveiled the new Atlas—faster, stronger, more compact, and less messy. We’re designing the world’s most dynamic humanoid robot to do anything and everything, but we get there one step at a time. Our first task is part sequencing, a common logistics task in automotive manufacturing. Discover why we started with sequencing, how we are solving hard problems, and how we’re delivering a humanoid robot with real value.
My favorite part is 1:40, where Atlas squats down to pick a part up off the ground.
Professor Patrícia Alves-Oliveira is studying authenticity of artworks co-created by an artist and a robot. Her research lab, Robot Studio, is developing methods to authenticate artwork by analyzing their entire creative process. This is accomplished by using the artist’s biometrics as well as the process of artwork creation, from the first brushstroke to the final painting. This work aims to bring ownership back to artists in the age of generative AI.
Biological snakes achieve high mobility with numerous joints, inspiring snake-like robots for rescue and inspection. However, conventional designs feature a limited number of joints. This paper presents an underactuated snake robot consisting of many passive links that can dynamically change its joint coupling configuration by repositioning motor-driven joint units along internal rack gears. Furthermore, a soft robot skin wirelessly powers the units, eliminating wire tangling and disconnection risks.
Autonomous manipulation in everyday tasks requires flexible action generation to handle complex, diverse real-world environments, such as objects with varying hardness and softness. Imitation Learning (IL) enables robots to learn complex tasks from expert demonstrations. However, a lot of existing methods rely on position/unilateral control, leaving challenges in tasks that require force information/control, like carefully grasping fragile or varying-hardness objects. To address these challenges, we introduce Bilateral Control-Based Imitation Learning via Action Chunking with Transformers(Bi-ACT) and”A” “L”ow-cost “P”hysical “Ha”rdware Considering Diverse Motor Control Modes for Research in Everyday Bimanual Robotic Manipulation (ALPHA-α).
Powered by UBTECH’s revolutionary framework “BrainNet”, a team of Walker S1 humanoid robots work together to master complex tasks at Zeekr’s Smart Factory! Teamwork makes the dream of robots work.
Personal mobile robotic assistants are expected to find wide applications in industry and healthcare. However, manually steering a robot while in motion requires significant concentration from the operator, especially in tight or crowded spaces. This work presents a virtual leash with which a robot can naturally follow an operator. We successfully validate on the ANYmal platform the robustness and performance of our entire pipeline in real-world experiments.
Researchers at Penn Engineering have discovered that certain features of AI-governed robots carry security vulnerabilities and weaknesses that were previously unidentified and unknown. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Laboratory, the research aims to address the emerging vulnerability for ensuring the safe deployment of large language models (LLMs) in robotics.
ReachBot is a joint project between Stanford and NASA to explore a new approach to mobility in challenging environments such as martian caves. It consists of a compact robot body with very long extending arms, based on booms used for extendable antennas. The booms unroll from a coil and can extend many meters in low gravity. In this talk I will introduce the ReachBot design and motion planning considerations, report on a field test with a single ReachBot arm in a lava tube in the Mojave Desert, and discuss future plans, which include the possibility of mounting one or more ReachBot arms equipped with wrists and grippers on a mobile platform – such as ANYMal.
Merino wool is a super fiber. The best merino wool clothing somehow manages to be comfortable in 95-degree-Fahrenheit heat, and merino base layers keep you warm well below freezing. Unlike synthetic fibers derived from petroleum, merino wool is natural and renewable.
Merino wool’s versatility means there’s a bewildering array of blends and options to choose from. Here are our favorite merino wool products that we’ve tested by wearing and washing (usually in cold water, and hung to dry) over the course of months and even years in some cases. Once you’re done here, don’t forget to check out the rest of our apparel guides, like the Best Puffer Jackets, the Best Hoodies, and the Best Hiking Boots.
Updated March 2025: We’ve added new base layers and T-shirts, and we’ve updated links and prices throughout.
Table of Contents
Why Is Merino Wool So Great?
Merino wool is great because you’re stealing a sheep’s ability to keep itself warm or cool based on the temperatures it’s in, a process often referred to as thermoregulation. If you’ve only ever worn the sort of itchy wool sweaters your proverbial grandmother supposedly made, you might wonder what all the fuss is. The answer is that Merino sheep have thinner, softer wool, which has evolved to keep them comfortable across a wide range of temperatures and is comfortable to wear next to your skin. Wool is sustainable, too.
One sheep can produce 4 to 5 pounds of wool per year. That’s because the sheep that make merino wool drink only the purest alpine waters and study the art of comfort under the tutelage of those stuck-up Pashmina goats, who, let’s face it, might know a thing or two about wonderfully pillowy softness. Just kidding. Merino sheep do have that softer wool though, and merino wool is a remarkable fabric that’s become the cornerstone of my wardrobe.
Merino wool comes in different weights, which you will frequently see listed as “200 GSM” or something similar. (The GSM refers to grams per square meter, sometimes listed as g/m.) What’s important is the scale and where your garment falls on it. At the low end, you have T-shirts and underwear, which are typically 150 GSM, though we have seen some as low as 120 GSM. Generally, anything below 200 GSM will be a good base layer or T-shirt. From 200 to 300 GSM are your mid-layers, and anything above 300 is a heavier garment.
If you’re more familiar with synthetic ratings like those often used on fleece, know that, in my experience, about 120–160 GSM wool corresponds to 100 weight fleece, 160–200 GSM wool roughly matches 200 weight fleece and 200+ wool is like 300 weight fleece. In every instance, the wool is warmer because it’s better at trapping heat, especially in the wind (that said, there are reasons to go with fleece at times, like how incredibly lightweight it can be).
Nuyarn is a merino wool synthetic hybrid weave, wherein merino wool is wrapped around a nylon core for warmth, lightness, and extra durability. The idea is to get the temperature regulation benefits of merino, but to add some of the longevity of nylon. In my experience, Nuyarn mostly works. It’s our top pick for base layers, though I find it less necessary in more casual garments where I prefer 100 percent wool.
How to Care for Merino Wool
Most merino products will have care instructions. Most likely it will be to wash cold and lay flat to dry. The latter is important, as hanging wool to dry will stretch it out (because of the water weight). While most merino labels will say the garment can be machine washed, my experience has been that hand-washing merino will extend its life. This is particularly true of very lightweight (150 GSM) merino base layers and T-shirts. The exception is Minus33’s Microweight Raglan short sleeve T-shirt, which is machine-washable and dryer-friendly. Having done both to mine for over a year, it does indeed hold up.
I’ve never had a problem storing merino in my closet between wears, but for long-term storage, I recommend you take precautions against moths, which are notorious for eating holes in wool. I have lost merino garments to moths.
If you don’t want to smell like mothballs, there are better solutions. I make sure to wash and thoroughly dry whatever I am storing, then I seal it in a compression bag, like this. Another option is to put your merino garment in a cotton bag or otherwise wrap it in cotton and then put it in a plastic bin. It’s very important to make sure that the garment is completely dry before using any of these storage methods, otherwise your wool will smell musty and moldy. Other options include storing your garment in a cedar chest, which is a good natural deterrent for moths, or use moth traps or lavender sachets, which will repel the moths.
100 Percent Merino vs. Blends
Should you buy 100 percent merino or should you go for a blend? The answer is … it depends. On the garment in question, the use case, and your preferences. Probably the best way to find out is to try several and see what you like. One advantage to blends is that they’re stretchy, which makes them better for active pursuits like hiking, rock climbing and the like. I like 100 percent merino for heavier mid-layers like hoodies or jackets, but I prefer blends for lighter layers. My experience has been that the closer I get to my skin, the more blend I want, with Nuyarn being my top pick for base layers.
There are also some alpaca blends out there that are also wonderfully soft (I love everything I’ve tried from Paka and Arms of Andes). If you’re one of the rare people who do find merino itchy, you might be allergic to lanolin, which is the skin oil produced by sheep. Alpacas don’t make lanolin, and the fibers are thinner and finer than merino. That makes alpaca warmer and softer, but it’s also more expensive.
Merino vs. Synthetic Fibers
Which is better? The answer again is … it depends (sorry). But usually merino. By synthetics, I generally mean polyester, nylon, polypropylene, rayon, or blends of these and other fabrics—everything but cotton, wool, and linen.
Synthetics generally win for wicking away sweat, which means they tend to feel drier. They also tend to dry faster, so when it comes to things like socks and underwear, even most “merino” options are often more than 50 percent synthetic. Synthetics are just better at handling moisture. How much this matters depends on a host of personal factors. For example, I feel weird and almost clammy in anything synthetic, so I don’t really care how much moisture it wicks away.
The downside to that moisture wicking is that synthetics retain odor. There are some chemical treatments that can help, but I’ve never tried anything synthetic that was as odor-resistant as merino wool.
Another difference is breathability. Synthetics are passable in this department, but it’s where merino really excels. If you’re hot and are hiking up an exposed slope toward an open pass and then dropping down into the cool of a forest, merino is your friend, because the breathability means less sweat to cool you when you get out of the sun. Again, how much this matters depends on your body.
The final factor worth thinking about is durability. In some cases, synthetics will last longer than pure merino, particularly in scenarios where abrasion is a major source of wear. To my mind, this is just another reason to choose a merino blend rather than going all the way to synthetics, but it’s something to think about if you do a lot of off-trail hiking or rock climbing—any activity where your clothes are going to take a beating.
Base Layers
To really see how remarkable merino wool is, start at the bottom, with the clothes next to your skin. Merino really shines as a base layer . I’s warmer for the weight, wicks moisture better, and unlike synthetic fabrics, merino stays stink-free for days of wear. These are the best merino wool base layer tops and bottoms that we’ve tested. Be sure to read our layering guide for more on how to put it all together and stay comfortable in any weather.
Best Lightweight Base Layer
Ibex Woolies Pro Tech base layer crew is the best lightweight merino base layer we’ve tested. If you want a hard-wearing shirt, this it it. Woolies are Nuyarn (see above), which is 85 percent merino wool and 15 percent nylon—the merino wool is wrapped around a nylon core, which increases the warmth while being lighter (5 oz for the men’s large) and more durable. This is my top pick for all things technical. It’s what I bring hiking, backpacking, and it’s reviews editor Adrienne So’s pick for running, climbing and other high-aerobic activities when it’s cold. I also love the Woolies Pro Tech Bottoms ($115), which are what I bring backpacking in all but the warmest of weather. There’s also a quarter zip version of the shirt if you prefer.
Aside from comfort and warmth, a bit part of the reason we recommend Woolies is that they last. Ibex is what passes for a heritage company in this space; the company was founded in 1997 and has been cranking out merino garment for a long time. Adrienne’s parents bought her two sets of Ibex base layers in 2001 that she still wears today, in the year of our Lord 2025. Properly cared for, Woolies will keep you comfortable warm for years to come.
Best Midweight Base Layer
When I want something a bit warmer than the lightweight Woolies above, I reach for Smartwool’s Classic long sleeve base layer. These may be the most popular merino shirts around, and for good reason: They’re very comfortable, tending to the looser side, feature heavy-duty seams (read: sturdier, longer lasting) that don’t rub, and sit off the shoulder for more comfort when wearing a pack. At 87 percent merino wool (blended with nylon), these are also very durable while remaining lightweight (10.3 oz for a men’s large). This Smartwool shirt, along with the matching pants ($115), have been my constant companions through a chilly Wisconsin winter.
Best Heavyweight Base Layer
If you’re going to be in serious cold, Minus33 is the company to shop. It calls this a midweight, but I find it the perfect heavyweight base layer for snowy days. It’s nice and soft, and paired with the Minus33 Expedition weight hoodie below, it’s plenty warm enough for winter hiking and snowshoeing. The seams don’t rub, even with a heavy pack on, and the cut is roomy without being too baggy. I’ve been testing this shirt for over a year now and it still looks like it did the day I got it—almost no pilling and no fraying. Note that the women’s version is called the Ossipee, but it’s functionally the same shirt.
The picks above all have what my wife calls “that sporty look,” which the industry refers to as “technical.” This 100 percent merino shirt from Unbound is the opposite: it just looks like a long sleeve shirt. It’s incredibly soft and while it does pill a bit if you run it through the dryer (don’t), it’s proved itself plenty durable—I’ve been wearing it constantly for over a year now and it still looks like it did when I got it. It’s the long-sleeve, base layer twin to our favorite T-shirt (see below). It’s on the thin side for a base layer, which makes it perfect for those cool weather mornings in the shoulder seasons. It’s versatile too; it can be used as a base layer, but it also works as a T-shirt when it’s not too chilly. Fit runs true to size, and if the one you want is sold out, be patient; Unbound frequently updates its stock.
Other Great Base Layers:
REI Merino 185 Base Layers for $80 (Men’s): Our favorite budget merino base layers, these REI tops and bottoms are comfortable, warm, and considerably cheaper than some of our other favorites. We also love the bottoms and leggings (Men’s/Women’s), which are likewise reasonably priced
Ridge Merino Aspect Midweight Base Layer for $75 (Men’s): This is one of the rare base layers that you can actually where as just a T-shirt around town and you won’t look like you just drove in from the trailhead, which makes it a bit more versatile then some of the others here. If you want something multi-use, this is a good option.
Bombas Merino Wool Blend Long-Sleeve Shirts for $74: If you want a softer shirt, we like these, which are 50 percent wool and 50 percent Tencel, a lightweight eucalyptus fiber. Tencel is very silky to the touch, which makes this shirt particularly versatile—it’s warm when you need it and provides UPF 50 protection if you want to wear it in the sun.
Kari Rose Base Layer Bottoms for $110: I am 5’2″ and struggle to find clothing options that will fit—especially ones that are meant to fit next to the skin. As high-quality as a base layer may be, it won’t keep you warm if it rucks up around your waist or sags below your hips. Kari Traa’s leggings have a very high waist that helps keep them up. The patterns are also pretty, for those of you who object to parading around the lodge in what looks like pajamas. —Adrienne So
Artilect Boulder 125 Leggings for $120 (Men’s): These base layer pants were my introduction to Nuyarn and they’re an excellent choice for anything active—they have a ton of stretch and flexibility thanks to the many fabric panels and stitch lines that actually make sense. They’re quite thin and quite tight, but I really like these for running on cool mornings.
Ridge Aspect Midweight Merino High Rise Bottoms: These are another great option fro women looking for something that can be worn around town as well as on the trail. My daughter has even worn them under shorts for no-gi juijitsu and they’ve held up great, which is a testament to their durability.
Merino Mid Layers
Fleece has its place, but I rarely wear it these days. I prefer merino for my mid layers. It’s better at helping your body regulate its temperature. The one place fleece still wins for me is backpacking, it’s almost always lighter for comparable warmth, at least in mid layers.
An Icebreaker hoodie was my introduction to merino wool, and it remains my favorite jacket I’ve ever owned. Alas, after about 10 years, mine had a run-in with moths (see our care guide) and had to be retired. Mine was not the exact style pictured, but very close to it. This jacket is 100 percent merino and incredibly warm, despite not being all that thick. That makes it a great option for days when the weather may vary considerably–it’s warm enough for a cold morning but won’t be a burden in your pack the rest of the day. This is on the tight-fitting side, so if that’s not your thing (and it’s not mine), get the next size up.
Best Heavyweight Hoodie
Like the Northern Lights or the McRib, the thickest Ibex wool hoodie appears irregularly and with some fanfare. The Mammoth Hoodie is indeed a big, furry beast of a garment—it’s basically the weight of the classic American Giant hoodie but made of 85% wool cut with 15% nylon for added warmth and stretch. Ibex says it’s the warmest hooie they’ve ever made, and in my week of testing, I’ve used it in place of a jacket in mid-30s temps. It has an athletic cut with zippered pockets and thumb holes. I do wear a stocking hat with it in the cold because the scuba hood is meant to fit under a helmet which means it’s too small to provide enough warmth for my large shaved head on its own. —Martin Cizmar
Other Great Hoodies:
Ibex Men’s Indie Hoodie ($170): WIRED’s commerce director, Martin Cizmar, tested this midweight wool hoodie and says it’s now one of his “absolute favorite pieces of clothing.” See what good wool does for you? Makes you a fan. The cut on this one is sporty but not too tight that you can’t layer under it. The thumb loops, zippable tall neck, and hood make it a lot more versatile than a typical wool long-sleeve shirt. Cizmar says it’s perfect for general winter use, whether you’re doing yardwork, biking, or tossing a football around in the park.
Ridge Merino Hyde Hoodie ($150): This 100 percent merino wool hoodie uses a 275 GSM terry weave merino that doesn’t feel like wool. Like the Icebreaker, it’s a midweight hoodie, perfect for those cool days in autumn and spring. It features a full length zipper, thumb holes in the sleeves and zipper on the pocket. I really like this hoodie, except for that fact that it is cut on the longer side, which makes it look a little large, even though it isn’t. There’s a women’s version as well.
There’s a dearth of merino wool for kids. Perhaps the price for something that kids may outgrow in a few months makes the economics unappealing for manufacturers. Whatever the case, very few companies offer kids-size merino (see below for more). In fact, this Minus33 hoodie isn’t available in kids’ sizes, but the extra-small women’s fit my 10-year-old perfectly and continues to fit her as an 11-year-old. You’ll want to check the fit chart on Minus33 for your own kids, but if they do fit, this is a fantastic hoodie. It’s plenty warm (and my daughter is always cold) and durable enough to stand up to kid life, climbing trees, and running through the woods, and the hand warmers pair well with mittens on cold days. Best of all when kids are involved, this one can be machine-washed and tumble-dried. It won’t shrink or lose its shape, and the colors won’t bleed.
Minus33 calls this an expedition-weight base layer, but for those of us not climbing Mt. Washington at dawn in a windstorm, it’s really more of a mid-layer, a pullover sweatshirt—an insanely warm, comfy pullover sweatshirt. My testing time was limited. After a month, my wife stole it and now refers to it as a security blanket and has said it’s the one item of clothing she cannot live without.
I did manage to try it everywhere from the beach on cool mornings to around the campfire on winter evenings, and even as a base layer under a puffer jacket when the temps dropped below freezing last winter. In all those situations I stayed plenty warm. The looser fit means it can go over a base layer, but isn’t so bulky you can’t put a jacket over it.
A growing number of studies have shown that there are PFAs—hormone-disrupting chemicals that are commonly used in a number of plastics—in ordinary sportswear, like leggings and sports bras. If you, like me, are on a quest to replace your polyester clothing with natural fibers, then Ibex’s 100 percent merino wool Shak Jacket is the natural candidate to replace your (my) worn-out Patagonia Better Sweater ($159).
I took this jacket on a trip this spring to Ireland. It’s surprisingly dense and soft to the touch. It kept me warm on blustery 30-degree days, layered easily under my rain jacket and over my tank top, and looked sleek enough to go out to dinner. In western Ireland, at least (“I like your jumper!” said many an Irishman). It doesn’t pack down quite as compactly as a synthetic layer might, nor is it as light, but it looks much nicer and it won’t feel like slime on your skin when it gets wet. —Adrienne So
If you have concerns about using goose down jackets as an insulation layer, merino wool is also a decent substitute for synthetic insulation. Vests are like the cheat code of layering if you like to keep your core warm but your arms mobile, or you want to get an extra soupçon of warmth without adding too much bulk. I like to layer Ibex’s Wool Aire Vest under my regular wool coat or rain shell, if I’m going out for the night or on a long run. —Adrienne So
The Best Merino Wool T-Shirts
Wool might not seem like a good choice for a summer T-shirt, but merino is surprisingly comfortable even when it’s warm. To a point anyway. On humid days over about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, I usually go with cotton or linen, but anything under 90 and I’m wearing merino. There are far more merino T-shirt options out there than we can cover, but here are some of our favorites. Note that while I am a fan of crew neck styles, most of these are also available as V neck shirts.
The Best Merino Wool T-Shirt for Travel
These are my absolute favorite T-shirts. They are the softest, best-made, best-fitting T-shirts I’ve ever worn, merino or otherwise. Yes, they are that good. They’re incredibly versatile. I’ve worn them doing everything from backpacking in the summer heat to rolling jiujitsu to sitting around the fire on cool autumn evenings. They’re never anything but comfy. I also like that they have no logo. Unbound’s Active Merino T-shirt ($95), aimed specifically at working out, is also quite nice, but it’s a tighter cut than the regular T-shirt.
The Best Technical Merino Wool T-Shirt
When I’m heading out hiking, backpacking, paddleboarding, just about anything outdoors, this is the T-shirt I reach for first. It’s lightweight (84 percent 145 GSM merino, 16 percent synthetic) jersey knit is soft and comfortable—not too hot in the sun (it’s also UPF Rating 20), warm enough when it’s cool. It’s also durable (I’ve been rolling jiu jitsu in this shirt for years and it’s fine) and machine washable. You can even throw it in the dryer, no need to baby this T-shirt.
The Best Women’s Merino T-Shirt
Artilect’s blend of merino wool and Tencel (a fiber made from eucalyptus) is shockingly lightweight and versatile. This summer, the Utili-Tee became my favorite shirt for climbing and backpacking. It was soft and comfortable when I was in the tree shade, and then magically stayed light and breathable when I broke through the tree line and the temperature suddenly rose by 15 degrees in the sunlight. The flat seams didn’t cause chafing on my shoulders or waist through backpack straps or a harness, and even though it’s a flattering slim fit, it didn’t constrict the movement of my shoulders or arms in any way. —Adrienne So
Other Great T-Shirts:
Icebreaker Tech T-Shirt for $85: These Icebreaker merino wool shirts were one of my gateways to merino wool. They’re warm, yet somehow cool, and surprisingly good at stopping the wind. These shirts aren’t great in humidity; for that, I’d probably go with a blend. Note that some of Icebreaker’s T-shirts are blends, so check the details on your favorite design before you invest.
Minus33 Algonquin T-Shirt for $70: Minus33 knows a thing or two about keeping you warm. The company is in New Hampshire, after all. This 170-GSM T-shirt is comfortable, with a loose cut that works well over a base layer on cool mornings or as a T-shirt during warmer parts of the day. It’s a great all-around choice for all but warmest of summer days.
Paka Tee for $55 (Women’s): This isn’t merino—it’s a blend of organic cotton and Alpaca wool. But it’s such a nice, comfy T-shirt I’m including it here.
Arms of Andes Alpaca Wool T-Shirt for $75 (Women’s): This might be a merino wool guide, but we also feature quite a few alpaca items, including this T-shirt, which I love for its surprising warmth. This is not a heavy shirt and yet it manages to be quite warm, especially worn over a base layer in winter, it does an excellent job of insulating and breathing at the same time.
Unbound Merino Tank Top for $70 (Men’s): Want a cooler option for hot days? This tank top is perfect for warmer, humid climates. It’s 100 percent merino (175 GSM) and doesn’t have any logo or tag, which we like. It does go in and out of stock frequently, so if it’s sold out, check back later, Unbound frequently adds more stock.
Socks, Underwear and Bras
You could argue this is the true base layer, but we’ll skip that and just say that merino wool underwear, socks, and bras are so much nicer than their synthetic counterparts. If you haven’t tried it yet, you’re in for a treat. After testing dozens of each, these are our favorites.
While merino wool is very soft, most products in this category are blends, usually with some form of nylon. Darn Tough socks are a WIRED favorite. They’re great for skiing, hiking, climbing, and just about anything else you want to do. These blends vary by weight, but most of them are around 50 percent nylon and 50 percent merino, which makes them dry a bit faster than pure merino while remaining plenty warm and comfortable. Darn Tough’s socks also last. Mine are going on two years now without a worn area or hole in sight.
Minus33 socks are my personal favorite merino socks. I have several pairs of the lighweight and midweight and even one pair of the expedition, though those are so thick and warm I rarely wear them (they’re perfect with the temps drop below 0F though). My favorite are the Lightweight Mountain Heritage Boot Wool Socks, which are perfect for hiking or wearing around town. Minus33 doesn’t publish a blend breakdown for these, but I would guess they’re about 60/40 wool to nylon, with plenty of both softness and stretch to them.
Other Great Socks:
Carhartt Midweight Merino Wool Blend Crew Sock for $22: The weird thing about socks is that, as a warm-weather lover, well, I hate socks. Every day with socks is a kind of failure. That said, these Carhartts (gifted to me by a friend who was worried that I wandered about in sockless sandals in the snow) are really nice. They’re incredibly warm and soft, and they never smell.
The Best Men’s Merino Underwear
The phrase “wool underwear” might conjure images of some lumberjack from the 1800s with hair growing through the weaves of his itchy, hot long johns, but that’s not what the merino underwear we’ve tested is like. In most cases these are blends, with some nylon as well.
Thanks to WIRED readers for pointing out Woolly to us. These 100 percent merino (190 GSM) boxers are fantastic and affordable. They ventilate well and adjust to changing conditions to keep you comfortable even on days when the weather starts hot and ends cold, or as I like to call it, hiking in the mountains. They’re on the shorter side with a 4-inch inseam, but Woolly makes the same thing in a longer cut.
These are the only 100 percent merino underwear I’ve tested (there’s elastic in the waistband, but it’s surrounded by wool), and they’re also some of my favorites, especially in cold weather. These are longer than any of the other boxers I’ve tried. These are 170 GSM, making them a little lighter, but because they merino content is higher, these are the warmest I’ve tested. After years of testing merino underwear, these are my favorite on all but the hottest days.
Other Great Underwear:
Unbound Merino Boxers for $45: Unbound’s boxer briefs are very soft and comfortable. These are 84 percent merino wool, 12 percent nylon, and 4 percent Spandex, so they do have a bit of stretch to them. The 180-GSM merino is light enough for even the warmest of days.
Icebreaker Merino Anatomica Boxers for $45: Another great pair of boxers, these Icebreakers are a very similar blend (83 percent merino, 12 percent nylon, 5 percent elastane) to the Unbound above, but lighter weight at 150 GSM. They fit true to size and are on the shorter side in terms of length. Icebreaker also makes a long version that I tested as well. They’re virtually the same, just a bit longer.
Ridge Merino Wool Boxer Briefs for $35: These Ridge Merino boxers are 83 percent merino wool (170 GSM), with the remainder of the fabric made of nylon and spandex. The blend gives them a stretchier feel, and they’re nice and soft as well. They generally fit true to size, and have a 6-inch inseam.
The Best Women’s Merino Underwear
Branwyn makes what they call merino wool performance sets. I am a fan of Branwyn’s clothes, all of which are Oeko-Tex 100 certified, which means every component of the clothing has been independently tested against a list of up to 350 toxic chemicals. This is one of the most widely known and respected labels for consumer safety. These fit true to size. (I suppose it’s important to note here that I’m a small-busted woman, and that Branwyn makes a Busty Bra ($58) if you need more support.)
However, this is not quite supportive enough to go running, which is why Branwyn launched the Racerback Bra ($75). It’s pretty impressive that Branwyn got merino wool to be compressive enough for medium impact activity. I like that it offers full coverage, with no annoying small and twisty straps and no padding. It precludes the need to change from cotton “everyday” underwear to tight nylon “sport” underwear every time I want to do something active, which is all the time. —Adrienne So
Other Great Underwear:
Ibex Natural Briefs for $35: if you’d prefer a thinner option, Ibex’s natural briefs feel much more like your basic, breathable cotton undies. I usually line dry my merino wool, but these look enough like my cotton briefs that I threw them in the dryer and shrank them. If this sounds like you, you might want to size up. —Adrienne So
Icebreaker Siren Bra for $35: I only have one Branwyn bra, but these are the bras that I wear every other day of my life. Like Icebreaker’s men’s underwear, they are 83 percent merino, 12 percent nylon, and 5 percent elastane, and they fit true to size. —Adrienne So
Wool& Roam Merino Bra for $70: Wool&’s merino fabric is the softest I’ve felt in my entire life, probably because the blend has a much lower merino content at 68 percent merino wool, 25 percent nylon and 7 percent spandex. I tried these and Wool&’s underwear. They’re insanely soft, but overpriced when compared to our other options, and you have to size up. —Adrienne So
The Best Everyday Merino Clothes
I’ll confess that when I launched this guide years ago I thought of merino wool mainly as an outdoor-related fabric. It is great for that, but I’ve since discovered that merino is good for everything, especially travel, since it can be worn several times without any odors. I’ve tried merino pants, dress shirts, workout clothes, hats, and more. The best stuff I’ve tested is below.
Merino wool pants? Yes. Merino wool all the things. I was skeptical, but I actually love these pants. Don’t let the name fool you, they’re not shop pants in the sense that Carhartts are. They’re much lighter and have a more fitted cut, but there are several leg pockets and a loop you could maybe attach a tool to. Mostly, though, they’re just nice casual pants—not too heavy, not too light. They’re a blend of 75 percent merino wool (450 GSM), 21 percent bamboo, and 4 percent elastane, which gives them just a bit of flex.
These super comfy, casual sweatpants from Ridge Merino are some of the most comfortable pants I’ve ever worn. I don’t often work out in them, I’ve never actually jogged in them (or yogged, it might be a soft j), but they’re great around the house. These are 100 percent merino wool (275 GSM) with what Ridge calls a terry fabric (they feel like sweatpants).
What do you do when you’ve got nice merino wool pants, merino wool underwear, and merino wool socks, but you need something nicer than a T-shirt? That’s where this button-down long-sleeve shirt from Woolly comes in. It’s a little more formal, what you might call business casual, but still comfortable and soft. The only thing I am not quite so fond of is the slightly shimmery look, but that’s just personal preference.
On Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court handed down a very brief order that effectively requires the government to pay foreign aid contractors as much as $2 billion for work they’ve already completed. The Court’s order is quite narrow and is unlikely to have many implications for future cases.
Shortly after President Donald Trump took office for a second time, his administration attempted to halt funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Wednesday’s Supreme Court order is the latest chapter in ongoing litigation over whether cutting off this funding is legal. In that order, the Supreme Court leaves in place a lower court decision which forbade the administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing the obligation or disbursement of appropriated foreign-assistance funds” that had been authorized as of January 19.
So this is a defeat for Trump, but it is an extremely small one. The Supreme Court’s order is only one paragraph long, and it mostly says that the Court will not second-guess the lower court because of an amateurish mistake by acting solicitor general Sarah Harris and the other Justice Department lawyers working on this case.
The Supreme Court also decided this case, known as Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, in a 5-4 vote — with Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh joining a dissenting opinion by Justice Samuel Alito. That means that, despite Harris’s error, four justices nonetheless sided with Trump.
Trump’s legal team flubbed this case by appealing the wrong lower court order
On February 13, federal District Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary order suggesting that the Trump administration’s suspension of USAID funding was illegally arbitrary because the administration has not “offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid…was a rational precursor to reviewing programs” for inefficiency or noncompliance with Trump’s policy goals.
Twelve days later, after the plaintiffs in this case complained that they still had not received payments they are owed by the government, Ali issued a second order seeking to enforce his first. That February 25 order required the State Department and USAID to “pay all invoices and letter of credit drawdown requests on all contracts for work completed prior to the entry of the Court’s [first order] on February 13.”
As Alito argues in dissent, there are plausible arguments that Judge Ali erred when he issued the February 13 order. It’s possible, for example, that the plaintiffs filed their case in the wrong court — Alito suggests this case should have been filed in the Court of Federal Claims, and not in Ali’s US District Court for the District of Columbia.
But the Trump administration inexplicably did not appeal Ali’s February 13 order. Instead, they only challenged the February 25 order seeking to enforce that first order. That means Alito’s concern that some other lower court should have heard this case was not properly raised by the Trump administration.
As a majority of the justices explain in their Wednesday order, “on February 13, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia entered a temporary restraining order enjoining the Government from enforcing directives pausing disbursements of foreign development assistance funds. The present application does not challenge the Government’s obligation to follow that order.”
That said, the majority’s order does call upon Ali to “clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines,” so there appears to be some concern among the justices in the majority that Ali is requiring the government to fix too much, too quickly.
Wednesday’s order dodges the biggest issues presented by this case
In any event, all of the issues raised by both the majority and the dissent in the AIDS Vaccine order — whether the government appealed the correct order, whether the plaintiffs sued in the right court, and whether Ali should have proceeded more cautiously — are pretty far afield from the big constitutional questions presented by this case.
The Trump administration claims to have the power to “impound” federal funding, meaning that the president can cancel spending appropriated by an act of Congress. But the president does not have this authority under the Constitution. As future Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote in a 1969 Justice Department memo, “it is in our view extremely difficult to formulate a constitutional theory to justify a refusal by the President to comply with a congressional directive to spend.”
So, if the Supreme Court ultimately rules that the Constitution still applies to Donald Trump — an uncertain prospect after the Court’s decision last July holding that he is allowed to use the powers of the presidency to commit crimes — it will someday need to rule that Trump cannot impound federal spending.
For now, however, the Court appears content to leave that showdown for another day. The Supreme Court’s order in the AIDS Vaccine case touches on none of these big issues, and largely turns on a mistake by Justice Department lawyers that they can correct in future cases.
Stars Reach, the new sandbox sci-fi online game coming from Playable Worlds, aims to be the next big sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It’s in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign, and it’s going pretty well.
Stars Reach hit its Kickstarter goal of $200,000 in one hour and it’s now crossed $499,000 with 23 days to go. (sunday march 2) Raph Koster, a veteran MMO developer, and seasoned game exec Eric Goldberg started this project in 2019. I interviewed them both about the progress they’ve made. The project has thousands of players kicking the tires now, but Playable Worlds isn’t disclosing the exact number.
Koster, who has been making big online game worlds since 1994, wrote the vision doc for the game with dozens of pages, with the full simulation of virtual worlds. It was the dream for a game that Koster had wanted to make for 30 years, where gameplay would emerge from the way that the physics of the world worked. If you dug a hole into the ground without enough structural support, it would cave in. That’s what he meant by emergent physics.
He used that to raise money with cofounder Eric Goldberg. He hired engineers he had worked with before to make an Unreal engine-based prototype. Then they switched along the way to make the game on Unity. The principles of the game worked and the engineers made it faster. Then you could run around in a world, where you could set oil on fire, see water pour out from lakes. And that answered the technical question of making the physics-based world work at scale.
The San Marcos, California-based company’s goal is to make “the most alive game world ever made,” where the “galaxy is yours to shape.” And the Kickstarter campaign is less about raising money and more about getting players excited about what’s coming and giving them a chance to directly support the game. The campaign is about getting help from players to finish the game and fully test it.
Playable Worlds has been successful raising money, scooping up $10 million in June 2020 from Galaxy Interactive and others. And in the midst of the metaverse hype, the Playable Worlds raised $25 million in funding from Kakao and others in 2022.
Raph Koster is CEO of Playable Worlds. He has wanted to make a game like Stars Reach for 30 years.
Now, Playable Worlds can show through its prototypes what it means when it comes to physics. With rain, a patch of dirt will get muddy. A forest can grow back after a devastating fire. Lakes freeze in winter. Rivers can change course. Your actions leave a mark on the world. It’s a “living, breathing galaxy shaped by you,” Koster said.
Freezing water in the living world of Stars Reach.
The team has created tools so so that players can resculpt landscapes, build entire cities, and ruin more planets just like humanity ruined their original eight homeworlds (per the back story). Koster wants the galaxy to be endless, full of aliens where you will have to fight them for control of the habitat.
After five-plus years of development, players are actively testing and exploring the game. The game is in its pre-alpha testing phase.
The vision for the planets and the galaxy
Eric Goldberg is cofounder of Playable Worlds.
They won’t run out of planets to explore because the worlds are procedurally generated. Each has its own unique climate, gravity, and ecosystem. No two worlds are ever the same.
Players can develop their own playstyles and progress through their own skills. They can be characters such as a ranger, miner, xenobiologist, weaponsmith, leader or politician, journalist, entertainer or pilot. Skills and professions are integrated into the player-driven economy.
Combat is fast-paced and action-driven where movement, timing and physics play roles. Enemies react dynamically. Some flee when outmatched, others call for reinforcements. Environmental destruction matters. Blow a crater in the ground, and it stays there. Weapons are diverse, ranging from precision sniper rifles to devastating sci-fi melee weapons. You can terraform your world into a green planet or a barren wasteland. Your world has a health bar that tells you how it’s doing.
In Stars Reach, every item is crafted, traded, or discovered by players. There are no loot boxes or random drops. If you want the best gear, you’ll either need to craft it yourself or trade for it. Weapons, ships, and tools break over time and must be repaired or replaced.
Space is also alive and dangerous. Smugglers can transport illegal goods. Pirates can steal your stuff. You can govern entire planets and manage player-run civilizations. As for the galaxy’s backstory, long ago, a mighty alien civilization called the Old Ones terraformed the galaxy into a vast, cosmic garden. They carved wormhole highways across space like roads, exterminated civilizations and reshaped planets to suit their needs, and built marvels that still bend reality to this day. Then, without warning, they vanished, leaving behind only ruins and technology that might as well be magic. Now, humanity is leaving its homeworlds and exploring the galaxy.
Kickstarter backers of the Reacher tier ($30) and above will be at the head of the line for the remainder of the closed testing phase. During the testing phase, the servers will not be open 24/7, and wipes will be frequent, but players will have daily access to the dev team. The team will eventually release an early access build, per haps this summer, with Kickstarter supporters getting admission. The goal is to be in beta in the late part of the year and officially launch in the first half of 2026.
In addition to the Kickstarter, the company expects to continue to raise money from investors and publishers. The scope will change based on the money raised.
A cloud-native game
Stars Reach is a cloud-native game.
Goldberg said that the industry has become so risk averse, as noted in Matthew Ball‘s 224-page slide deck about the state of gaming. One of the solutions for that, Koster said, is this game. Titles like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto VI are expected to be wildly popular because they can keep up in the graphics race. But some titles like Ubisoft’s recent games are falling off in terms of big audiences.
The unusual step that Playable Worlds took was to make a “cloud-native game,” where new kinds of gameplay are possible and constant updates are available because the development happens in the cloud, where the game resides. You don’t have to constantly update the game’s local version. The cloud-native version scales more like the web at web speed, delivering assets the way the web does.
“When you look at the moments where the games market has really expanded, historically, it’s usually been when new technologies and new platforms have come along that allow games to do things they couldn’t do before,” Koster said. “Otherwise what you get into is, ‘Let’s make what we already make only slightly nicer.’ Usually, that means it’s nicer and more complicated, and it gradually gets more complicated and actually caps out the audience.”
Koster said that happened with flight simulators that grew too complex for many gamers, as well as war strategy games that also became less accessible thanks to too many features. That spirals into higher costs and fewer players.
“When we see expansion, we often see it with new platforms. We see it with new controls. We see it with new distribution or technology benefits. That might be touch screens, it might be Flash, allowing distribution, web, embedded and so on. In our case, what we’re doing by going cloud native is bringing a lot of those benefits, actually similar to what Flash had, with the ability to have constant ongoing updates to far more malleable environments than what we can do.”
He said the way the team builds the game is now is creating new forms of gameplay and more varieties of experience. That opens up new markets, he said.
“All of those kinds of things are things that our tech is set up to do. We’re starting, obviously, with just one game,” Koster said. “The response from players in our testing has been, ‘Wow. I’ve never seen things like watching a forest grow around me, or draining a lake into a cavern, or things like that.’”
Koster said everyone is saying the industry is in a tough spot. The answer, fundamentally, is that you can’t keep doing business as usual, Koster said.
“You have to take some swings that are outside of the normal comfort zone. And that’s at the heart of what we are doing,” Koster said. “We are pushing technical boundaries in order to deliver experiences that you can’t get any other way. It is something that gets you out of the spiraling costs for diminishing returns trap that everybody is buzzing about in the industry now.”
Goldberg said that the cloud tech means the company can make changes in the game while it’s operating in the cloud, often within minutes or hours. Programming changes can happen fast, while art changes are dependent on the artists to get something out fast. That means the pre-alpha keeps changing.
“We’ve been adding features at a pretty breakneck pace since we’re able to literally change the game several times a month,” Goldberg said. “When it’s ready, we can just throw it in and you don’t have to recompile the game. The game runs in the cloud.”
Discovery?
An adventure in space in Stars Reach.
And while it’s hard to get discovered now, especially for brand new intellectual properties, the good thing for Playable Worlds is that players can see that it’s different and they’re spreading the word. That’s why the Kickstarter is going well and the player count for testing is good.
“For us, the answer has been let as many people as possible into our Kickstarter, into our testing,” Koster said. “Even though the game is still pre-alpha, we use standard business metrics like net promoter score and customer satisfaction index to measure what people think of what they’re playing.”
Around 50 is good net promoter score, where people will recommend it to someone else. Playable Worlds’ Stars Reach has a net promoter score of 80. That means the players are the evangelists, Koster said.
The business model
Feeling a bit colonial? Burning trees in Stars Reach.
The likely business model is for the game to be a mix of free to play and one-time payments for certain features. The company has been dropping new content into the game every couple of days. And the bild tells the players about new features when they login. A bunch of blog posts describe what’s new at the company’s web site as well, and there’s a narrative recap.
The good response from the players is giving the team an energy boost, Koster said. The team is also being as transparent as it can be about the development process and its schedule, Goldberg said.
As for the state of competition, it’s been hard for a lot of companies to run big online games. Sony shut down Concord as it couldn’t generate much of an audience. Koster, however, has been doing this for decades, starting with Ultima Online, and Goldberg has been in games for decades too. South Korean game companies have been doing well with free-to-play online games.
The players so far
Stars Reach is attracting MMO players and more.
So far, the core early adopters of the game are sandbox MMORPG players, like those who have played Star Wars Galaxies or Runescape and so on.
“We’re attracting a lot of MMO fans, but from there, it expands outwards. We’re starting to pull in folks from survival games, Minecraft and Trove, and games like Enshrouded and Valheim. We’re seeing the potential for a pretty sizable audience that goes beyond standard MMOs,” Koster said.
The game is playable in short bursts, where players can login and do maintenance on their homes or shops and then hop out in five or ten minutes. You can play on your smartphone if you wish. If someone on your usual team doesn’t show, you can find another person, Goldberg said. You don’t have to play 40 hours a month to get enjoyment out of it, he said.
“A lot of the beauty in games is that the control is in the hands of the players and not necessarily in the hands of designers,” Koster said. “That doesn’t take anything away from The Last of Us Part Two, of course. But it does speak to the idea that if you have ways to give players greater freedom, that is something that they respond to. It’s a thing that games can do uniquely. And we see that in the titles that have popped up in the indie scene.”
Some players are peaceful, while others love player-versus-player combat. Many want to live in an alternate world where they live, explore, fight and so on.
“It’s more about the people who dream of visiting another world, right, and adventuring and leveling up,” Koster said. “We’re also catching a chunk of the cozy game players because we have of all of the crafting adn we have the survival, sandbox game players too.”
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To fuel successful technology adoption and maximize outcomes, companies need to focus on simplifying infrastructure architecture rather than how to make new technologies fit into existing stacks. “When it comes to digital transformation, choosing an architectural approach over a purely technology-driven one is about seeing the bigger picture,” says Rajarshi Purkayastha, the VP of solutions at Tata Communications. “Instead of focusing on isolated tools or systems, an architectural approach connects the dots—linking silos rather than simply trying to eliminate them.”
Establishing the robust global network most companies need to connect these dots and link their silos requires more capability and bandwidth than traditional networks like multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuits can typically provide in a cost-effective way. To keep pace with innovation, consumer demands, and market competition, today’s wide area networks (WANs) need to support flexible, anywhere connectivity for multi-cloud based services, remote locations and users, and edge data centers.
Understanding hybrid WAN
Traditional MPLS became the gold standard for most WAN architectures in the early 2000s to address the mounting challenges brought by the rapid growth of the internet and subsequent rapid expansions of enterprise networks. Today, as technological advances continue to accelerate, however, the limitations of MPLS are becoming apparent: MPLS networking is expensive; hard-wired connectivity is difficult to scale; and on its own, it doesn’t fit well with cloud computing adoption strategies.
In 2014, Gartner predicted hybrid WANs would be the future of networking. Hybrid WANs differ from traditional WANs in that the hybrid architecture facilitates multiple connection points: private network connections for mission-critical business, usually via the legacy MPLS circuits; and public network connections, typically utilizing internet connections such as 5G, LTE, or VPN, for less critical data traffic; and dedicated internet access (DIA) for somewhat critical traffic.
In 2025, we are seeing signs Gartner’s hybrid WAN prediction might be coming to fruition. At Tata Communications, for example, hybrid WAN is a key component of its network fabric—one facet of its digital fabric architecture, which weaves together networking, interaction, cloud, and IoT technologies.
“Our digital fabric simplifies the complexity of managing diverse technologies, breaks down silos, and provides a secure, unified platform for hyper-connected ecosystems,” explains Purkayastha. “By doing so, it ensures businesses have the agility, visibility, and scalability to succeed in their digital transformation journey—turning challenges into opportunities for innovation and growth.”
Hybrid WAN provides the flexible, real-time data traffic channeling an architectural approach requires to create a programmable, performant, and secure network that can reduce complexities and ease adoption of emerging technologies. “It’s not just about solving today’s challenges—it lays the groundwork for a resilient, scalable future,” says Purkayastha.
Benefits of hybrid WAN
Hybrid networking architectures support digital transformation journeys and emerging tech adoption in several ways.
President Donald Trump is throwing his support behind the creation of a federal reserve of cryptocurrency assets — he specifically mentioned XRP, Solana, and Cardano, but not Bitcoin or Ethereum.
In January, Trump issued an executive order calling for the formation of a working group that would study and make recommendations around crypto policy, including “the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile.”
The working group was supposed to “propose criteria for establishing such a stockpile,” which could be “potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts.”
In a post this morning on his social network Truth Social, Trump seemed to go further, making it clear that he wants to see the reserve become a reality.
“A U.S. Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration, which is why my Executive Order on Digital Assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA,” Trump wrote. “I will make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.”
As of publication time Sunday morning, the prices of all three of the cryptocurrencies mentioned in Trump’s post have shot up by 20% or more.
As Trump acknowledged in his post, his executive order seemed directed at undoing the crypto regulatory framework put in place by former President Joe Biden.
Under the Trump administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission seems to be taking a friendlier, deregulatory stance towards the industry, dismissing its lawsuit against Coinbase and declaring that memecoins are not securities. (The value of Trump’s own $TRUMP coin has plummeted since his inauguration.)
Trump has also signed an executive order calling for the creation of a U.S. sovereign wealth fund that he said could be used to purchase TikTok.
It’s been nearly four years since Cricut refreshed its central products, but today you can buy its newly updated Maker and Explore cutting machines. The new Cricut Explore 4 and Cricut Maker 4 get big upgrades, focused almost exclusively on improving what the previous versions do well.
You won’t get far in the home crafting space these days without hearing the name Cricut. Most of the company’s direct competition has either disappeared or become less relevant over the last couple of years, a fact immediately evident when you walk into any craft store. You don’t have to look far to see hand-made stickers, iron-on clothing art, vinyl decals and beautiful greeting cards across Etsy, nearly all of which have been made with the help of these popular machines.
At first glance the biggest difference between the 4 series and its predecessors is a bolder array of color options. Where the 3 series exterior has a lighter, more pastel shade, you’ll find deeper, richer color options for this upgrade. Both the Maker and Explore look nearly identical to the previous model, but if you look underneath the primary cutting blade you’ll find a small white plastic foot.
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This shell hides a new optical sensor aimed at providing greater accuracy when cutting printed designs, like stickers or iron-on designs. A light shines from under the plastic to illuminate whatever you’re trying to cut, ensuring it will function the same, no matter how bright your craft space is.
Cricut
The new features you can’t immediately see are aimed specifically at Cricut’s massive home crafting audience. Cricut’s 3 series offered a significant cutting speed improvement when you used its self-branded Smart Materials, and the 4 series is bringing those same speed improvements to just about everything you’d cut on one of Cricut’s cutting mats.
If you use Smart Materials, and especially if you prefer to buy larger rolls of vinyl, the 4 series now also allows you to design and cut projects up to 12 feet long. If you’re not using Smart Materials, you’re only limited by the longer 24-inch cutting mat.
Many of the differences between the Explore and Maker cutting machines remain the same. Cricut’s $400 Maker 4 supports a much wider variety of cutting tools and pressure options, allowing you to cut leather, fabric and even thin pieces of wood with additional accessories. The Explore 4, while less capable, still cuts a massive array of thin materials at a much lower $250 starting price. Both will be available to buy alone, or in bundles with materials to get started.
