Technology

Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Monday, August 11 (game #1295).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1296) - hint #1 - VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1296) - hint #2 - repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.

Quordle today (game #1296) - hint #3 - uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1296) - hint #4 - starting letters (1)Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1296) - hint #5 - starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• T

• J

• O

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1296) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1296, are…

• SPOOL
• TITLE
• JAUNT
• OVINE

Today's Quordle was notable for two rarities – the first was that the words used all five vowels, the second was an appearance by the shy letter J.

Neither of these two occurrences were the cause of my wrong guess today. Instead it was my nemesis, the letter V in OVINE, a word I had never previously heard of (it means to resemble a sheep) before getting it by putting in random guesses until one was deemed an actual word. 

Daily Sequence today (game #1296) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1296, are…

• COMFY
• BOOST
• MOURN
• HATCH

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1295, Monday, 11 August: ADULT, BROOM, PURER, CRUEL
• Quordle #1294, Sunday, 10 August: SCRUM, PIPER, TROLL, SPORE
• Quordle #1293, Saturday, 9 August: NOOSE, INLET, ELEGY, VIRUS
• Quordle #1292, Friday, 8 August: KNEEL, KINKY, RALPH, BOOZY
• Quordle #1291, Thursday, 7 August: PLUNK, PROXY, CURVY, PEARL
• Quordle #1290, Wednesday, 6 August: RISKY, APART, FAUNA, HANDY
• Quordle #1289, Tuesday, 5 August: ROAST, SLICK, AUDIT, BILLY
• Quordle #1288, Monday, 4 August: MACAW, SINCE, COLON, CHIRP
• Quordle #1287, Sunday, 3 August: MOTIF, LEERY, LOFTY, BURST
• Quordle #1286, Saturday, 2 August: WARTY, PUPAL, CLEAR, SLICE
• Quordle #1285, Friday, 1 August: ACTOR, MEALY, WIDTH, ADOBE
• Quordle #1284, Thursday, 31 July: STYLE, VALET, AGONY, ALLOY
• Quordle #1283, Wednesday, 30 July: DEBAR, ADMIN, FOLIO, USAGE
• Quordle #1282, Tuesday, 29 July: BATCH, TOPIC, MURKY, BUNCH
• Quordle #1281, Monday, 28 July: CANDY, TRYST, SHIRT, FORGO
• Quordle #1280, Sunday, 27 July: TRAWL, BALER, PIANO, MINCE
• Quordle #1279, Saturday, 26 July: MUDDY, SAINT, KINKY, POLAR
• Quordle #1278, Friday, 25 July: BONUS, RESIN, CEDAR, MADAM
• Quordle #1277, Thursday, 24 July: AGONY, VERVE, GLEAN, MINUS

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, August 11 (game #526).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #527) - hint #1 - today's themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Spitting image

NYT Strands today (game #527) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• PORE
• LIKE
• FELT
• SCALE
• DITCH
• PLACES

NYT Strands today (game #527) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 8 letters

NYT Strands today (game #527) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 4th row

Last side: right, 6th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #527) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #527, are…

• DOUBLE
• DUPLICATE
• LOOKALIKE
• REPLICA
• FACSIMILE
• SPANGRAM: COPY THAT

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

Today’s Strands was fiendishly tricky, in part because of the length of the words.

The theme gave me a big clue towards what we were searching for, but I still needed a hint to get started.

After being gifted DOUBLE I spotted COPY and THAT separately as non-game words before splicing them together to make up the Spangram.

I love the idea of doppelgangers roaming the world, unaware of a REPLICA version living their lives thousands of miles away. When I was a kid, my dad bought back a holiday brochure that had what I thought was a photo of my mother and sister on the front cover – except it wasn’t.

That brochure was shown to anyone who visited for years and they were all aghast at the similarity. Recently, on a visit home I found it in a drawer and was shocked how unlike them the photo was – I’d just been seduced by the idea of it. 

I wonder if my doppelganger is playing Strands right now…

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, August 11, game #526)

• DREGS
• SOUVENIR
• TRACE
• RESIDUE
• VESTIGE
• REMNANT
• SPANGRAM: LEFTOVERS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

• Apple's affordable MacBook has again been rumored
• This time we're told the price could be as cheap as $599
• The apparent idea is for Apple to 'shake up the notebook market' and also offset any price increase for the MacBook Air (caused by inflation)

Apple's affordable MacBook, which was recently rumored to be in the pipeline, is again the subject of chatter on the grapevine - and this time we've heard it could be priced as cheaply as $599.

Wccftech flagged a post from leaker Jukan on X (see below), which airs a report from DigiTimes that taps sources in the supply chain over in Asia, spilling some fresh info on said MacBook.

Report: Exclusive: Apple reportedly preparing US$599 MacBook to capture more laptop market shareApple is preparing to shake up the notebook market with an all-new ultra-low-cost MacBook, according to supply chain sources. Some components are expected to enter mass production by… pic.twitter.com/UTIC94KjsbAugust 11, 2025

We're told that the MacBook is set to be priced between $599 and $699 in the US, and some components will be made in Q3 of this year - potentially more or less right away - ahead of notebooks being put together towards the end of 2025.

This is ahead of a rumored launch in (early) 2026, although this new report even mentions the chance of a commercial launch late in 2025 - but that doesn't seem likely to me (unless it's referring to an initial reveal, perhaps).

As we've previously been told, one of the main ways in which Apple will keep the price of this purported MacBook down is by using an iPhone chip as the processor. DigiTimes reminds us that the CPU will supposedly be the A18 Pro, and the laptop will be a compact affair, smaller than the MacBook Air, in fact, with a 12.9-inch screen.

Analysis: Laptop quake

(Image credit: Future)

The report makes it clear that Apple intends to "shake up the notebook market" with this "ultra-low-cost MacBook," and if the price does land as low as $599, that'll certainly be a seismic shift in terms of the laptop landscape.

Obviously, bear in mind that this is just a rumor, and further consider that the pricing we have is a range ($599 to $699), indicating Apple hasn't decided itself yet, which is doubtless the case. If this affordable MacBook is even happening in the first place, although given that we're hearing about it once again, that seems a fair bit more likely. If the rumors around Q3 production of components are correct, there will likely be a good deal more supply chain-based spillage in the near future to back all this up.

DigiTimes makes it clear that the education sector - and Chromebooks - are not the target of this theoretical MacBook, and rather, it's the broader market, with Apple looking to offset the MacBook Air potentially going up in price (due to inflation) with this cheaper offering.

With Mac sales suffering notable wobbles last year, Apple is surely looking to ensure that trend doesn't reemerge, and instead, the company will want to keep the tide turning. (Apple's fiscal Q3 saw a turnaround with Mac sales, although that was compared to weak sales in the same quarter of 2024).

Whatever the reason for Apple producing this low-cost MacBook, if it is indeed priced at $599, it's going to be a seriously tempting product. Indeed, such a laptop might just tempt me to finally buy a macOS device - something I've mulled in recent times, despite a lifetime of buying Windows PCs and laptops.

It's either that, or an entry-level Mac mini, but until now, the cost of MacBooks has put me off, frankly - although maybe next year, that will change. I'm keen to give Apple's computing world a spin, if the price is right, bearing in mind that an MSRP of $599 is going to lead to some highly enticing discounts in sales (or with refurbs, even).

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In November last year, I wrote that the Google Pixel 9 Pro was the best-looking phone of 2024 and the only Android device that could tempt me away from my beloved iPhone. Ultimately, I still sided with the iPhone 16 Pro (the call of convenience was too hard to resist), but Google seems determined to win me over in 2025 with the Pixel 10 Pro.

Google’s next flagship is set to debut at this year’s Made by Google showcase on August 20, but it’s already been semi-unveiled in an official teaser video. The footage in question shows the back and one side of what’s purported to be the Pixel 10 Pro in a brand new ‘Moonstone’ color, and it’s heightened my excitement for the phone’s full-blown reveal.

Now, I’m not usually one to lose my head over colors, but this silverish-blue shade seemingly complements Google’s new (or rather, unchanged) flagship Pixel design perfectly. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the Google Pixel 10 Pro in Moonstone is already the best-looking phone of 2025 – and yes, I’ve seen the rumored iPhone 17 Pro design.

To be clear: the Pixel 10 Pro looks almost identical to the Pixel 9 Pro. Leaked renders suggest that the phone’s metal frame will more closely resemble its rear panel glass (rather than being polished, as on the Pixel 9 Pro). But beyond that, it’s safe to expect a like-for-like handset; I don’t think this is a bad thing.

An official image of a phone believed to be the Pixel 10 Pro in Moonstone (Image credit: Google)

Google hit a home run with the design of the Pixel 9 Pro, which, in my opinion, is the Android phone that’s come closest to replicating the iPhone’s unique synergy of simplicity and style. It remixed the Pixel formula with flat aluminum sides, a frosted glass rear panel, and a perfectly sized pill-shaped module, all of which made the Pixel line feel more grown-up.

Google is right to stick by this cleaner, more industrial aesthetic with the Pixel 10 Pro, and the addition of a new ‘Moonstone’ color (as opposed to something more outlandish) suggests Google wants its next flagship phone to be perceived as just that: a grown-up flagship.

Of course, design is subjective. I’m sure many people continue to prefer the uniquely Pixel aesthetic of the Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 7 Pro, and so on. I can understand why.

But I genuinely believe that Google is one of the few – perhaps the only – smartphone manufacturers to have successfully designed a better-looking phone with each new generation. And if the below X post is anything to go by, Google thinks so too:

10 generations in the making. Look for #Pixel10 in 10 days at #MadeByGoogle: https://t.co/VxzWRaYodH pic.twitter.com/ER8qtFcDv5August 10, 2025

Will I finally switch sides and buy the Pixel 10 Pro is year? Probably not. But that’s only because a decade of investing in Apple hardware has made ditching the iPhone more trouble than it's worth. The Pixel 9 Pro was the best-looking phone of last year, and, for me, the Pixel 10 Pro has already repeated the feat in 2025.

For more on Google's next flagship, check out our roundup of the five upgrades to expect from the Google Pixel 10 Pro.

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• President Trump set to meet with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan
• The President recently called for the CEO's immediate resignation
• Trump accused Tan of major "conflicts of interest" because of his investments in Chinese companies

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is set to meet with President Trump to discuss the former's professional and personal history, and explore ways in which the US government and Intel can work together, sources have told the Wall Street Journal.

Tan has recently faced a series of attacks from President Trump, who has demanded his resignation over alleged investments and dealing with Chinese businesses.

Trump has accused Tan of being “highly conflicted” and demanded his “immediate resignation,” stating that there is “no other solution to this problem.”

Rocky history

Intel has been steadily trimming its global workforce in recent months, leading to a 20% reduction in headcount that has seen thousands of employees lose their jobs in US factories

Tan has also recently butted heads with Intel board members over the direction of Intel’s investments in the US.

For example, the new CEO has reduced the pace of construction of a new factory in Ohio in order to meet perceived customer demands, causing issues with Republican Ohio senator Bernie Moreno.

Both the job cuts and slowed construction directly contradict President Trump’s desire to increase domestic investment from companies that have typically manufactured goods outside of the US.

What’s more, Tan’s previous position as CEO of Cadence Design Systems appears to have ruffled a few feathers in the Trump administration due to the company recently handing over $140 million in penalties after pleading guilty to unlawfully exporting chip design tools to restricted Chinese military organizations.

Tan himself also holds numerous investments in Chinese businesses, including buying $200 million worth of stakes in Chinese manufacturing and chip companies between 2012 and 2024 according to a Reuters report.

However, Tan has not only been on the board of numerous enterprises involved in chip manufacturing, but founded a venture capital firm named Walden International that focused heavily on tech startups in the Asian market.

Tan’s holdings in Chinese companies could therefore simply be a smart investment based on decades of experience, rather than the shady under-the-table dealings Trump has alleged in his Red Scare tirades on Truth Social.

Trump appears to be deaf to his own accusations of Tan’s “conflicts of interest,” with the President frequently using his position to market his own goods from the Trump Store, as well as launching the $TRUMP cryptocurrency of which the President controls 80% of the coin's supply.

(Image credit: Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In a recent letter to employees, Tan said the US had been his home for more than 40 years, and the company was communicating with the White House to make sure the President has “the facts.”

Trump has recently levied significant tariffs on countries that he perceives to have an unfair trade balance, causing the price of some goods to increase as the cost of imports are passed on to the consumer - a fact that many within the Trump administration and his MAGA base are struggling to come to terms with.

Trump’s pursuit of an America First policy has drawn significant investment from many major companies, including Nvidia, Intel, and Apple, to build factories in the US to produce goods domestically. However there is a reason that these companies have historically manufactured their goods outside of the US. It’s cheaper.

Recent studies into the costs of a US manufactured iPhone for example have theorized that the price tag could rise by between 25-100%.

In an added contradiction, Trump’s own branded handsets from Trump Mobile likely won’t be manufactured in the US, with Eric Trump claiming that “Eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America.”

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• Columbia University files form with the Maine Attorney General's Office
• It confirmed the number of victims, and the type of data stolen
• Victims are being offered free credit and identity theft monitoring services

A massive cyberincident affecting almost 870,000 Columbia University students, employees, and other individuals occured in May 2025, the university has confirmed.

In a new filing with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, the university said in late June 2025 it experienced an outage in its IT systems, prompting an investigation with the support of third-party cybersecurity and forensics experts.

The investigation confirmed the outage was the result of a cyberattack, in which yet unidentified perpetrators stole sensitive data on exactly 868,969 people, including employees, applicants, students (both current and former), and various family members.

460 GB of data taken

"Our investigation determined that, on or about May 16, 2025, an unauthorized third-party gained access to Columbia's network and subsequently took certain files from our system," Columbia University said.

"To date, we have no evidence that any Columbia University Irving Medical Center patient records were affected."

The university recently started notifying affected individuals via letters which detailed the type of information stolen in the breach:

"The affected data included your name, date of birth, and Social Security number, as well as any personal information that you provided in connection with your application to Columbia, or that we collected during your studies if you enrolled," the university apparently said.

"This included your contact details, demographic information, academic history, financial aid-related information, and any insurance-related information and health information that you shared with us."

Some attackers confirmed the breach, and claimed to have stolen 460 GB of data. So far, there is no evidence that the data was abused in the wild, but Columbia University will provide victims with two years of free credit monitoring, fraud consultation, and identity theft protection services, through Kroll, regardless.

How to stay safe

While victims directly cannot do much about the stolen data, they can make sure the attackers don’t use it against them. The best course of action is to remain vigilant with incoming communications, especially those claiming to come from Columbia University.

Unsolicited emails, instant messages, or phone calls, particularly those “threatening” to terminate accounts or otherwise prevent services, are most likely bogus.

If you suspect you’re being targeted, the best course of action is to stop all communication, and then reach out to Columbia University directly, through proven channels.

Via BleepingComputer

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Alien: Earth is finally close to hatching on TV screens across the globe. The highly-anticipated project and first-ever show set in the Alien franchise will burst forth later this week, so you'll want to know when and where you can stream it.

Below, I've provided more details on its various release dates and launch times. I'll also fill you in on which streaming platforms it'll be available on and provide you with a full release schedule, so you can block out time in your busy schedule to watch new episodes when they drop.

What is the release date and launch time for Alien: Earth episodes 1 and 2?

Alien fans heading over to their streamer of choice to watch the franchise's maiden TV show like... (Image credit: FX Network/Hulu/Disney+)

That depends on where you live. Those of you in North and South America can tune in to watch its two-episode premiere on Tuesday, August 12. Meanwhile, viewers in the UK, Europe, Africa, and Asia can catch them on Wednesday, August 13.

As for those all-important launch times, here's when Alien: Earth will debut on Hulu (US only) and Disney+ (everywhere else). NB: if your nation isn't listed below, use the 5pm PT option to work out when you should load up Disney+, aka one of the world's best streaming services.

• US – Tuesday, August 12 at 5pm PT / 8pm PT
• Canada – Tuesday, August 12 at 5pm PT / 8pm PT
• UK – Wednesday, August 13 at 1am BST
• India – Wednesday, August 13 at 5:30am IST
• Singapore – Wednesday, August 13 at 8am SGT
• Australia – Wednesday, August 13 at 10am AEST
• New Zealand – Wednesday, August 13 at 12pm NZST

When will new episodes of Alien: Earth air on Hulu and Disney+?

Yep, the Alien property's famous Xenomorphs are part of proceedings (Image credit: FX Networks/Hulu)

You can catch new entries every Tuesday in North and South America, and Wednesdays everywhere else. For more information, check out the list below:

• Alien: Earth episode 1 – Tuesday, August 12 / Wednesday, August 13
• Alien: Earth episode 2 – Tuesday, August 12 / Wednesday, August 13
• Alien: Earth episode 3 – Tuesday, August 19 / Wednesday, August 20
• Alien: Earth episode 4 – Tuesday, August 26 / Wednesday, August 27
• Alien: Earth episode 5 – Tuesday, September 2 / Wednesday, September 3
• Alien: Earth episode 6 – Tuesday, September 9 / Wednesday, September 10
• Alien: Earth episode 7 – Tuesday, September 16 / Wednesday, September 17
• Alien: Earth episode 8 – Tuesday, September 23 / Wednesday, September 24

Before its first two chapters arrive, read my Alien: Earth review and our dedicated Alien: Earth guide. Then, check out the section below for more exclusive coverage on the forthcoming sci-fi horror TV Original from FX Networks.

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If you're looking for the best supplements to boost your immune system, you've come to the right place.

Looking for some fast and affordable internet in the City of Brotherly Love? Our broadband experts are here to help you stay connected with these top picks.

Commentary: As someone who has been writing about the iPhone for over a decade, I'm ready to see Apple step it up in this perhaps unexpected way.

But my testing showed me I'm not patient enough to get the truly best results.

Updated design, better battery life and a few surprise health features... Here's everything we expect on the next Apple Watch straight from the rumor mill (and the CEO himself).

• Four Polk speaker models, all with improved audio and weatherproofing
• Easier to install, even in hard-to-reach spaces
• From $225 per pair

Polk Audio has updated its Atrium series of outdoor speakers, which start at a very affordable $225 (so around £169 or AU$345, give or take).

Polk has been making speakers for the great outdoors for ages – the Atrium first launched way back in 1991 – and the latest models come with improved weather resistance, more versatile mounting options and "enhanced sonic performance", which from Polk should not be taken lightly.

(Image credit: Polk Audio)Polk Audio Atrium speakers 2025: models and pricing

There are four models in the range: the Atrium 4, the Atrium 5, the Atrium 6 and the Atrium 8SDI. Prices range from $225 per pair for the Atrium 5 to $550 for the Atrium 8SDI.

The mid-range drivers are now injection-molded mineral filled or aerated polypropylene, the same materials used in Polk's LSi Series, and the tweeters are anodized aluminum. The Atrium 6, 7 and 8SDI also get water-resistant PowerPort bass venting, which ups the low end by around 3dB.

Both tweeters and woofers have rubber surrounds, and the speakers have a new broad coverage baffle design that Polk says offers better sound dispersion than previous models. The grilles and brackets are aluminum to eliminate rusts issues and make the speakers last longer outdoors.

Another key update is the new Speed-Lock mounting system, which Polk says makes installation much easier – so much so that you can install the speakers one-handed "even in hard-to-reach locations".

As before the Atrium speakers come with a wide range of standards compliance including ASTM D5894-UV Salt Fog, Mil Standard 810 Immersion, and Mil-Std 883 Method 1009.8 for salt and corrosion.

The new Atrium speakers are available now in black or white, and Polk says they're also paintable so you can customize them to fit any outdoor décor.

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• President Trump allows chip sales to China to resume - with one major caveat
• AMD and Nvidia will have to hand over 15% of the sales revenue
• No additional measures have been made to address national security threats

The US government has reversed a ban on the sale of Nvidia's H20 chip and AMD’s MI308 chip to China under the condition that 15% of the revenue is paid to the US government.

The Trump administration expanded efforts to curb China’s ability to obtain powerful chips used to develop AI models by expanding Biden-era sanctions to an outright ban on the sale of the processors.

Many security experts, including those working under the Trump administration, have warned the government the sale of powerful processors to China will help it to expand both its consumer and military AI efforts to surpass the US.

What happened to national security?

The Nvidia H20 and AMD MI308 processors were developed to comply with Biden administration restrictions on AI processing chips that could be sold in China. Restrictions were imposed on the sale of powerful AI chips to China due to national security concerns surrounding the development of AI models for the People’s Liberation Army.

Trump banned the sale of these chips to China following a trade spat in April 2025, and then reversed the ban in July. Now, seeing the apparent worth of the sales and hoping to cash in, the Trump administration is issuing a 15% revenue cut for itself.

Speaking to the BBC, Nvidia said, “We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets. While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide.”

Whether this 15% revenue cut will be passed on to the Chinese market by Nvidia and AMD remains to be seen. But the elephant in the room still remains. What happened to the national security problem?

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation, said “You either have a national security problem or you don't. If you have a 15% payment, it doesn't somehow eliminate the national security issue."

Despite sanctions and trade bans, China has still managed to import powerful AI processing chips through loopholes and third-parties, and is likely using the chips to train AI systems to be used for military purposes.

20 security experts wrote a letter to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick advising against the sales of the chips to the Chinese market, adding that even though the majority of the buyers would be civilian companies, the chips would still be used by China’s military.

“Chips optimized for AI inference will not simply power consumer products or factory logistics; they will enable autonomous weapons systems, intelligence surveillance platforms and rapid advances in battlefield decision-making,” the letter said.

Charlie Dai, vice president and principal analyst at global research firm Forrester called the deal “unprecedented,” further stating that, “The arrangement underscores the high cost of market access amid escalating tech trade tensions, creating substantial financial pressure and strategic uncertainty for tech vendors.”

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I'm happy we don't have to live with Apple's choice.

• Buds 2a are predicted to launch on 20th August 2025
• Leaks suggest ANC and Spatial Audio, but no head tracking
• Reports also suggest a 50% price hike in Europe

It's been a few days since the last Google Pixel Buds 2a leak, so we're due another big one – and well-known leaker Evan Blass is happy to oblige. Posting on X, Blass has published a leaked spec sheet that fills in some of the blanks from previous leaks.

The spec sheet also does something useful: it shows how the more affordable buds compare to the current Google Pixel Buds Pro 2.

(Image credit: Evan Blass / X)Google Pixel Buds 2a: key features and pricing

Like the Buds Pro 2, the Google Pixel Buds 2a should have active noise cancellation, but they don't appear to have the Pros' Silent Seal, which adapts the ANC further based on the shape of your ears.

There are three other key differences here: the Buds 2a get spatial audio, but they aren't getting head tracking; the Buds 2a don't have wireless charging; and they don't have conversation detection. The only other spec on the sheet is battery life, which is a promised 7 hours – and 20 with the charging case. By comparison the Buds Pro 2 get 8 hours and 30 hours respectively.

This isn't the only Google Pixel Buds 2a leak. According to the German tech site WinFuture, which has also posted new renders of the earbuds, there's going to be a price hike in Europe: where the Pixel Buds A were €99, the Buds 2a will reportedly be €149. That's a huge price increase and if it's reflected in other markets would mean $149 / £149 / AU$195).

On a related note: if you're already a Google Pixel Buds Pro user and don't want to buy new buds any time soon, there's a little bit of good news for you: Google is rolling out a nifty visual upgrade to Android's headphone and earbud status notifications to make it easier to check battery levels. Thanks to Android Police for that one.

Of course, the Pixel Buds 2a leaks above are unofficial and should be treated as such – speculation and possible feature sets, rather than stone cold reported fact. But when we know more about the unreleased Pixel Buds 2a, so shall you.

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• M&S has finally restored its in-store click and collect service
• The cyber incident was disclosed in April 2025
• Online orders for delivery were restored in June

Marks and Spencer (M&S) has finally restarted click and collect orders for clothing, home and beauty products after a nearly four-month suspension following an apparent major cyberattack.

Although the company had resumed online orders for delivery on June 10 after it disclosed details of a cyber incident on April 22 (and stopped deliveries and collections from April 25), M&S took a further 15 weeks to switch back on its click and collect services.

The cyber incident was previously expected to cost the company around £300 million in lost operating profit for this fiscal year, but M&S hopes to halve the impact via insurance and cost controls.

M&S click and collect back online

However, although the restoration of click and collect signals a 'back to normal' for customers, analysts aren't expecting a sudden resurgence as M&S continues to battle with reputational damages.

Although the British retail giant took a major hit, the industry didn't, and rivals like Sainsburys and Next were able to scoop up some of the lost business.

M&S CEO Stuart Machin had previously stated the effects of the incident could continue into June and July, signalling a restoration in August, and the company has been able to adhere to that.

Detailing its learnings in Parliament, M&S has urged stronger cyber-incident disclosure norms. The counsel also noted that companies should be able to operate manually during outages.

The UK's National Crime Agency arrested four people in a probe tied to attacks on M&S, Co-op and Harrods, however the true cause of the incident still remains uncertain.

The attacks against Marks and Spencer (M&S) and the Co-op supermarket were combined into a single incident by the same attacker by the Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC), an independent, non-profit body established to categorize major cyber events by the insurance industry.

It had been reported the group known as Scattered Spider was behind the ordeal, but TCS, which has been servicing M&S for more than a decade, is also investigating whether it was the stepping stone to the attack.

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There's a calculation that every AI executive should know by heart, but most have never done: an on-premises GPU server costs roughly the same as six to nine months of renting equivalent cloud capacity.

Given that hardware typically runs for three to five years, the mathematics are stark, yet somehow this isn't common knowledge in boardrooms making million-pound infrastructure decisions.

The issue stems from a fundamental mismatch between how we think about AI costs and how they actually accumulate. The operational expenditure over capital expenditure model feels intuitive when you pay as you go, scale as needed, and avoid big upfront commitments.

But AI workloads break these assumptions in ways that make traditional cloud economics misleading.

What the cloud isn't telling you

For example, renting a single NVIDIA H100 GPU instance from a hyperscaler cloud provider can cost around $8/hour, or over $5500 per month. Over 12 months, that's upwards of $65,000.

By contrast, purchasing equivalent hardware outright might cost around $30,000 to $35,000, with three to five years of usable life. Add power, cooling, and maintenance and you still come out ahead after just 6 to 9 months of usage. Plus, you own the hardware so you don’t have to return it after 12 months.

But the pricing hierarchy is more complex than it appears. While neocloud providers like Fluidstack offer H100s at that $2/hour rate, hyperscalers charge closer to $8/hour, making the on-premises case even stronger.

The real-world comparison gets harder to ignore when you consider actual deployments: 8xH100 systems from Dell or Supermicro cost around $250,000, versus $825,000 for three years of equivalent hyperscaler capacity (even with reserved pricing). NVIDIA's own DGX systems carry a punishing 50-100% markup over these already substantial prices.

The missing numbers in most AI budgeting conversations represent real savings, not theoretical ones. The problem compounds when you examine specific use cases.

Consider training runs. Most cloud providers only guarantee access to large GPU clusters if you reserve capacity for a year or more. If your training only needs two weeks, you're still paying for the other 50.

Meanwhile, inference demands create their own mathematical puzzle. Token-based pricing for large language models means costs fluctuate with the unpredictability of the models themselves, making budget forecasting feel more like weather prediction than financial planning.

Elasticity, but with fine print

The cloud’s promise of elastic scale feels tailor-made for AI – until you realize that scale is constrained by quota limits, GPU availability, and cost unpredictability. What’s elastic in theory often requires pre-booking in practice and cash upfront to make costs acceptable.

And once your usage grows, discounts come with multi-year commitments that mirror the CapEx models cloud was meant to replace.

It's not that the cloud isn't scalable. It's that the version of scale AI teams need (cost-efficient, high-throughput, burstable compute) isn’t always what’s on offer.

The irony runs deeper than pricing. Cloud providers market flexibility as their core value proposition, yet AI workloads, which are the most computationally demanding applications of our time, often require the least flexible arrangements.

Long-term reservations, capacity planning, and predictable baseline loads start to look suspiciously like the traditional IT procurement cycles cloud computing was supposed to eliminate. The revolution becomes circular.

Hidden costs, visible friction

The hidden complexity emerges in the details. Teams preparing for usage spikes often reserve more capacity than they use, paying for idle compute "just in case."

Data migration between providers can consume non-trivial amounts of engineering time, representing an opportunity cost that rarely appears on infrastructure budgets but significantly impacts small, time-constrained teams.

These opportunity costs compound over time. When teams switch between cloud providers – driven by pricing changes, performance issues or compliance needs, they often face weeks of rewrites, re-optimizations, and revalidations.

It’s not just the IT infrastructure that changes, but all the code that manages it, internal expertise in that provider disappears and deployment pipeline needs to be rewritten. For lean teams, this can mean delayed product updates or missed go-to-market windows, which rarely get factored into the headline GPU bill.

Perhaps most surprisingly, the operational burden of managing on-premises infrastructure has been systematically overstated. Unless you're operating at extreme scale, the complexity is entirely manageable through in-house expertise or through managed service providers.

The difference is that this complexity is visible and planned for, rather than hidden in monthly bills that fluctuate unpredictably.

From budgeting to strategy

Smart companies are increasingly adopting hybrid approaches that play to each infrastructure model's strengths. They use owned hardware for predictable baseline loads like the steady-state inference that forms the backbone of their service.

Cloud resources handle the spikes: time-of-day variations, customer campaign surges, or experimental workloads where spot pricing can soften the blow.

Companies taking this approach have moved beyond anti-cloud thinking toward financially literate engineering.

The cloud remains invaluable for rapid experimentation, geographic scaling, and genuinely unpredictable workloads. But treating it as the default choice for all AI infrastructure ignores the mathematical reality of how these systems actually get used.

Companies getting this calculation right are doing more than saving money. They're building more sustainable, predictable foundations for long-term innovation.

These conversations aren’t just technical, they’re strategic. CFOs may favor cloud for its clean OpEx line, while engineers feel the pain of FinOps teams desperately chasing them to delete resources as month-end cost spikes and poor support hit.

That disconnect can lead to infrastructure decisions driven more by accounting conventions than real performance or user experience. Organizations getting this right are the ones where finance and engineering sit at the same table, reviewing not just cost, but throughput, reliability, and long-term flexibility. In AI, aligning financial and technical truths is the real unlock.

Understanding these hidden mathematics won’t just help you budget better, it’ll make sure you’re building infrastructure that works the way AI actually does, freeing up headspace to focus on what matters most: building better, faster, and more resilient AI products.

We list the best IT management tool.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

• Hostinger Horizons integrates ecommerce directly, removing reliance on plugins or third-party connections.
• The update uses a tested ecommerce engine from Hostinger’s existing website builder system.
• Users can add up to 600 products with no extra transaction fees charged.

Hostinger has introduced built-in ecommerce platform functionality to its Horizons vibe coding platform, making it the first such tool in its category to offer a complete online store setup without relying on third-party integrations.

The website builder company claims this update removes the need for plugins, lengthy configuration, or technical expertise, which allows users to establish an online retail presence in minutes.

Users can list up to 600 products, configure over 100 payment gateway options, set up shipping methods, and apply taxes or discounts as needed.

Reducing time and effort for digital storefronts

“We’re building Horizons for people who don’t want to worry about technical setup or to have to figure out how ecommerce works," said Dainius Kavoliūnas, Head of Hostinger Horizons.

"Creating an online store was technically possible before, but it took too much time and effort - fortunately, a tested solution was right next door – our Hostinger Website Builder team already had a powerful ecommerce engine. We just needed to integrate it."

Vibe coding is a relatively new approach to web development that replaces manual coding with conversational AI prompts - all users need to do is describe their desired website or application in natural language, and the platform generates a ready-to-publish version.

Additionally, the Horizons update integrates an ecommerce platform directly into the interface, enabling seamless store management without needing to leave the system.

Hostinger states there are no additional transaction fees, and inventory management can be done manually without consuming paid AI prompts.

While this eliminates recurring costs for simple updates like price changes or stock adjustments, scaling beyond the provided capacity or customizing complex workflows may still require additional resources.

The inclusion of Hostinger’s existing e-commerce engine, previously part of its standalone website builder, suggests the company is repurposing proven infrastructure rather than introducing an untested solution.

This could offer some reliability, but whether it meets the expectations of experienced merchants remains to be seen.

Although AI can be used for storefront customization, such as rearranging products or altering visual elements, the long-term success of any online shop will still rely heavily on marketing, product quality, and customer service

These factors are not automatically solved by a fast setup process.

Hostinger launched Horizons in March 2025 to enable non-technical users to build and publish websites or applications through simple text prompts.

Earlier updates included generative engine optimization, manual editing tools, free automatic error correction, and database integration.

“After analyzing 200,000 prompts, we learned that business websites are the most popular use case among Hostinger Horizons clients, representing around a third of all projects built with the AI tool.”

“Understanding that our clients want to sell online, we delivered an easy, intuitive ecommerce feature,” Kavoliūnas added.

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