Technology

The company isn't sharing a lot of details yet, but promises more flexibility.

• SpiNNaker 2 supercomputer operates without disks or an operating system for unmatched speed
• Sandia’s system uses 152 cores per chip to mimic the parallelism of the human brain
• With 138,240 terabytes of DRAM, the SpiNNaker 2 relies entirely on memory speed

A new computing system modeled after the architecture of the human brain has been activated at Sandia National Laboratories in the US state of New Mexico.

Developed by Germany-based SpiNNcloud, the SpiNNaker 2 stands out not only for its neuromorphic design, but also for its radical absence of an operating system or internal storage.

Backed by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Advanced Simulation and Computing program, the system marks a noteworthy development in the effort to use brain-inspired machines for national security applications.

SpiNNaker 2 differs from conventional supercomputers

Unlike conventional supercomputers that rely on GPUs and centralized disk storage, the SpiNNaker 2 architecture is designed to function more like the human brain, using event-driven computation and parallel processing.

Each SpiNNaker 2 chip carries 152 cores and specialized accelerators, with 48 chips per server board. One fully configured system contains up to 1,440 boards, 69,120 chips, and 138,240 terabytes of DRAM.

These figures point to a system that is not just large but built for a very different kind of performance, one that hinges on speed in DRAM rather than traditional disk-based I/O.

In this design, the system’s speed is attributed to data being retained entirely in SRAM and DRAM, a feature SpiNNcloud insists is crucial, stating, “the supercomputer is hooked into existing HPC systems and does not contain any OS or disks. The speed is generated by keeping data in the SRAM and DRAM.”

SpiNNcloud further claims that standard parallel Ethernet ports are “sufficient for loading/saving the data,” suggesting minimal need for the elaborate storage frameworks typically found in high-performance computing.

Still, the real implications remain speculative. The SpiNNaker 2 system simulates between 150 and 180 million neurons, impressive, yet modest compared to the human brain’s estimated 100 billion neurons.

The original SpiNNaker concept was developed by Steve Furber, a key figure in Arm’s history, and this latest iteration appears to be a commercial culmination of that idea.

Yet, the true performance and utility of the system in real-world, high-stakes applications remain to be demonstrated.

“The SpiNNaker 2’s efficiency gains make it particularly well-suited for the demanding computational needs of national security applications,” said Hector A. Gonzalez, co-founder and CEO of SpiNNcloud, emphasizing its potential use in “next-generation defense and beyond.”

Despite such statements, whether neuromorphic systems like SpiNNaker 2 can deliver on their promises outside specialized contexts remains an open question.

For now, Sandia’s activation of the system marks a quiet but potentially important step in the evolving intersection of neuroscience and supercomputing.

Via Blocks & Files

You might also like

• New insights into the Sun's corona emerge
• AI Marie Curie or Robo-Galileo might make the next big science discovery
• Scientists plan 3.84 Gigapixels virtual sensor made of 60 smartphone cameras to detect elusive antiproton annihilation events

The beloved original to the horror franchise is being remade by the team also responsible for 2024's successful Silent Hill 2 remake.

The latest Kingdom Rush tower defense game will also be on Apple's subscription gaming service next month.

Some users are reporting all of Google's services being down, as well as many more sites and services online.

• QPUs may run AI inference faster and cheaper than conventional hardware ever could
• Hybrid nodes combining CPUs, Nvidia GPUs, and diamond QPUs could change how we build quantum software
• From defense to finance, Quantum Brilliance is betting on diamond chips to drive adoption

Diamonds have emerged as a critical material in the development of quantum technologies due to their unique atomic properties, and Quantum Brilliance, a company based in Germany and Australia, has outlined an ambitious plan to develop portable quantum computers using diamond-based quantum processing units (QPUs).

These devices are being designed to operate at room temperature and may eventually be integrated alongside GPUs and high-end CPUs in servers or vehicles.

But while the company’s vision promises a future where quantum computing is as seamless as plugging in a GPU for AI inference, several technical and commercial hurdles remain.

Rethinking quantum computing with diamonds

Over the past decade, researchers have increasingly focused on engineering high-purity synthetic diamonds to minimize interference from impurities.

Notably, a 2022 collaboration between a Japanese jewelry firm and academic researchers led to a new method for producing ultra-pure 2-inch diamond wafers.

In 2023, Amazon joined the effort through its Center for Quantum Networking, partnering with De Beers’ Element Six to grow lab-made diamonds for use in quantum communication systems.

Now, Quantum Brilliance aims to utilize nitrogen vacancies in diamond to create qubits, offering a more compact and power-efficient alternative to cryogenic quantum systems.

“We do have a roadmap to fault tolerance, but we are not worrying about that at the moment,” said Andrew Dunn, COO of Quantum Brilliance.

“People think of millions of qubits, but that will be very expensive and power hungry. I think getting an understanding of having 100 qubits in a car cheaply and simply - the use cases are very different."

This signals a departure from the prevailing trend in quantum computing, which focuses on building systems with millions of qubits.

The company is instead targeting inexpensive and practical use cases, particularly in applications such as AI inference and sparse data processing.

Quantum Brilliance is already collaborating with research institutions like the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF).

IAF is currently evaluating the company’s second-generation Quantum Development Kit, QB-QDK2.0, which integrates classical processors like Nvidia GPUs and CPUs with the QPU in a single box.

In parallel, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US has acquired three systems to study scalability and parallel processing for applications like molecular modeling.

“The reason they are buying three systems is that they want to investigate parallelisation of systems,” Dunn added.

Quantum Brilliance is also working closely with imec to integrate diamond processes into standard chip manufacturing.

Beyond computation, the company sees potential in quantum sensing, and the technology may also be repurposed for defense and industrial sensors.

Ultimately, the company wants quantum computing to become as ordinary as any other chip in a server.

“Personally, I want to make quantum really boring and invisible, just another chip doing its job,” said Dunn.

Via eeNewsEurope

You might also like

• Upgrading to Windows 11 just got easier with Microsoft's new business backup tool
• Check out the best 3D modeling software for 3D printing and more
• We've rounded up the best portable monitors available now

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 13, #733.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 467 for June 13.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,455 for June 13.

• The Moto tag finally supports ultra-wideband tracking
• This brings the Android Find Hub tracker on par with Apple's AirTags
• No word yet on when other Find Hub trackers will support UWB

Google’s Find Hub – previously Find My Device – has been a fairly proficient Android alternative to the always useful Apple Find My service, with both the Android and iOS options helping you locate your missing tech. But until now, Google’s service has lacked a key feature: ultra-wide band finding.

Find Hub can help you locate your phone, headphones, compatible Bluetooth trackers, and even close friends and family, all from one app. If you’ve not used the service (admittedly, it can feel a little hidden behind Google’s better known Android apps) it’s a useful one-stop finding shop that you’ll want to add to your home screen.

However, it has lacked one of Apple's core benefits of its Find My service: ultra-wideband tracking.

This upgraded variant of Bluetooth tracking allows your phone to more accurately track the precise location of the tag. Rather than simply being further or closer to the missing tag, the app can give you much more precise directions and distances thanks to UWB. But until now, no Find Hub devices offered UWB as an option.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Now, finally, the Moto Tag does so thanks to a firmware update, as spotted by Android Police. Once installed via the Moto Tag app (currently rolling out through the Play Store), you can launch the Find Hub app, and the updated tracker will be discoverable via UWB.

You’ll also need a high-end smartphone. While a few years-old devices support UWB, the feature is exclusive to premium models like the Google Pixel 6 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus and Ultra. The standard flagships, unfortunately, lack the feature for now.

Hopefully, as other UWB trackers arrive for Android, there will be more reason for budget-friendly devices to support it. For now, Moto’s Tag appears to be the only UWB device supported by Find Hub.

Beyond UWB, Google’s Find Hub is also set to gain support for tracking some devices using satellites “later this year” (via Google’s blog), making the service even more useful than it currently is. That would let the service not just catch up to Apple, but effectively take the lead.

You might also like

• How to use Gemini on Android
• How to add another account on Android
• How to send pictures from iPhone to Android

Don't skip a step or else you may have to go through an even longer process to transfer data from your original Switch.

• High-end and luxury products are being advertised with huge savings
• 4,000+ fake domains impersonating big brands have been spotted
• Victims are losing money without receiving their products

More than 4,000 fake domains impersonating popular brands have been spotted in a scheme pushing scam ads targeting Facebook users.

The campaign was uncovered by threat analysis from Silent Push, in a trend researchers are calling "GhostVendors," which sees scam ads for the false domains primarily run on Facebook Marketplace by exploding Meta's ad policy loopholes, with ads being removed from the Meta Ad Library upon campaign completion to prevent tracking efforts, helping attackers remain undercover.

Key to the fake ads are unrealistically low prices designed to lure victims into thinking they've found a bargain – for example, researchers spotted a Milwaukee Tool chest for $129.

Scam artists are luring shoppers via Facebook ads

The ads also instil a sense of urgency by using keywords like 'clearance', 'Holiday sale' or 'excess inventory', applying pressure on buyers to act promptly.

Links on the ads lead to scam sites that look like their genuine counterparts through Domain Generation Algorithms and template cloning, with redirection also applied to pull victims towards malicious sites.

Countless brands have been observed imitated across the more than 4,000 fake domains, including retailers (Amazon, Costco, Argos), footwear (Birkenstock, Crocs, Skechers) and gift sites (Bath & Body Works, Yankee Candle).

Being that there have been so many attacks, consequences can vary. Many victims have had their payment information stolen with no goods delivered, or have experienced financial fraud. Moreover, the threat appears to be on a global scale and is not restricted to a core country or region.

Silent Push says threat actors have demonstrated a deep understanding of Meta's ad systems, which have been criticized for not keeping a public archive of inactive scam ads and for not allowing holistic tracking without (prohibited) external scraping.

In the meantime, potential victims (including virtually all online shoppers) are being advised to warn ads that appear too good to be true.

Users can also verify the authenticity of deals by visiting websites directly. It's also recommended that online purchases are made with credit cards that come with additional protection, with direct bank transfers totally inadvisable.

You might also like

• This dangerous new phishing scam spoofs a top Google program to try and hack Facebook accounts
• We've listed the best identity theft protection services
• Check out our roundup of the best antivirus software

If you’ve been experiencing issues with a single part or various parts of Google’s massive operation, or with playing your favorite songs or podcasts on Spotify, you’re not alone.

Since over an hour ago, at 2 PM ET in New York City, reported issues on outage tracker Down Detector have been spiking for Google, Google Cloud, and Spotify, to the extent that Google has confirmed issues impacting its various services as of 3:01 PM ET.

Spotify normally comments on issues via the @SpotifyStatus account on X (formerly Twitter), but as of now, it’s remaining silent. Now, the TechRadar team uses various parts of Google – mainly G-Suite with Docs – and hasn’t encountered issues yet, but my Spotify has been experiencing some issues with extended load times.

Considering that two major services are reporting issues, this could signal larger issues with a cloud data provider like Cloudflare. Either route, we’re starting our live reporting to keep you up to date on the latest developments with the outages affecting Google and Spotify.

A Quick Look at Down Detector’s homepage as of 3:25 PM ET shows that an extensive range of services are experiencing issues, with some leveling off or dropping, with Google, Google Cloud, and Spotify at the forefront, alongside Discord and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Google and Google Cloud both began spiking in the 2 PM ET hour, reaching over 10,000 reports, while Spotify also started in that hour but is currently at over 44,000 reports.

(Image credit: Future)Google is investigating the issue

Google's status page currently lists an active 'Service Disruption' as of 3:01PM ET that is impacting a number of services – it's a good note, though, as teams at the company are investigating.

"We're investigating reports of an issue with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Cloud Search, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Tasks, and Google Voice. We will provide more information shortly.

Multiple Workspace products beginning on Thursday, at 2025-06-12 10:58 PDT may be experiencing service issues.

Our engineers are currently investigating the issue.

We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption."

It's impacting several services from the entire G-Suite, including Gmail. Still, Google doesn't clarify if a specific user set is experiencing the issue. As of now, I can access my personal and work Google accounts without problem. However, individuals in the comments on Down Detector are reporting issues with Messages, Google Cloud, and Google Voice.

Spotify has still not issued a statement, although reported issues on Down Detector continue to grow, now standing at over 45,000 reports as of 3:22 PM ET. We have also reached out to the streaming giant to request a comment.

It does seem that a majority of these issues started shortly after the 2 PM ET hour and are now stretching to over an hour of disruptions.

At the same time that these issues with Google and Spotify began emerging, Cloudflare is dealing with its own problems, according to the company's status page.

The latest update, as of 3:12 PM ET, from Cloudfalre notes that its services are starting to recover, but issues are still present.

"We are starting to see services recover. We still expect to see intermittent errors across the impacted services as systems handle retried and caches are filled."

Considering that Discord and Snapchat are also experiencing a spike in reports, these issues may well be related to the problems affecting Cloudflare.

(Image credit: Future)Google's making progress, says everything but Meet is fixed

(Image credit: Google)

Google is making some progress, at least according to the latest update on its Workspace status page, posted at 3:30 PM ET.

It reads: "All product impacts except Google Meet have recovered.

Google engineers continue to work on full mitigation."

This is good news for folks in the Google ecosystem, as it appears everything but Google Meet is back up. And even reports for Google's calling platform are starting to drop on Down Detector, now sitting at 1,854 reports as of 3:31 PM ET.

Snapchat and Discord are both seeing reported issues spikes

(Image credit: Future)

Alongside issues impacting Google, Google Cloud, and Spotify, reported issues with Snapchat and Discord are both elevated on Down Detector.

Reported issues with Discord are currently sitting at 6,683 as of 3:35PM ET, but did spike to over 10,000 at 2:20PM ET – the same hour where Google and Spotify saw major increases.

Snapchat is currently on the rise, with over 6,693 reported issues with the platform. For what it's worth, I can open the app on my iPhone, but I'm unable to load stories or the main page.

Google gives the all clear on Workspace issues

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The Google Workspace status page now effectively says we're all clear. In a post that went live 3:53PM ET, Google says all the issues are resolved.

"The problem with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Cloud Search, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Tasks, and Google Voice has been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support."

Reports on Down Detector have slowed for both and have been on the decline, so it appears that most services are coming back or already back. Again, this does line up with Cloudflare's reported issues, and those are starting to recover.

Cloudflare is having some critical issues

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Sharaf Maksumov)

Cloudflare has posted a new update as of 3:57 PM ET on its own status page, detailing a bit more about what is going on and the potential impact here. You can see the statement in full below, but Cloudflare’s critical Workers KV service went offline due to a separate outage hitting a key third-party service.

A Worker KV is essentially a flow or automation that moves requests throughout Cloudflare's vast network, mainly starting or ending in storage libraries.

Furthermore, Cloudflare acknowledges that it's aware of the significant impact this is causing and is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible with all hands on deck.

Cloudflare’s critical Workers KV service went offline due to an outage of a 3rd party service that is a key dependency. As a result, certain Cloudflare products that rely on KV service to store and disseminate information are unavailable including:

Access

WARP

Browser Isolation

Browser Rendering

Durable Objects (SQLite backed Durable Objects only)

Workers KV

Realtime

Workers AI

Stream

Parts of the Cloudflare dashboard

Turnstile

AI Gateway

AutoRAG

Cloudflare engineers are working to restore services immediately. We are aware of the deep impact this outage has caused and are working with all hands on deck to restore all services as quickly as possible.

Google Cloud is still having issues

While Google says the issues affecting Workspace have been resolved, but the Google Cloud dashboard continues to display issues.

There are still "Multiple GCP products are experiencing Service issues," in fact, it's over 39 products including API Gateway, Agent Assist, and AlloyDB for PostgreSQ across the globe. This is the latest update from Google Cloud as of 3:56PM ET, you can see the status page here.

Impacted services are starting to recover

(Image credit: Future)

Google, Google Cloud, Spotify, Snapchat, and Discord, among other services that saw an increase in reported issues on Down Detector, are all starting to show a decline, and that's a good thing.

It's been roughly two and a half hours since we started seeing a spike in the 2PM hour for services like Google and Spotify, with the latter seeing over 44,000 reported issues. While Spotify has yet to provide any comment, Google Workspace and Google Cloud have been updating status dashboards. The former states that things are back to normal, while the latter continues to show some impacted services.

Down Detector is looking a lot better now, though reported outages do remain for all these platforms.

Cloudflare is still working to bring all of its impacted services back online, with the last update on its dashboard at 3:57 PM ET. That concluded with, "We are aware of the deep impact this outage has caused and are working with all hands on deck to restore all services as quickly as possible."

Cloudflare say it's services are 'recovering quickly' around the globe

In line with impacted services reported outages dropping on Down Detector, Cloudflare says its services are 'recovering quickly' across the globe in an update on its status page as of 4:32PM ET. It's expecting a 'steady drop' in services impacted and 'further recovery' in the next few minutes.

That's good news and likely means that Google, Spotify, and other services will be back online for you soon, if not already.

"Cloudflare services are recovering quickly around the globe. WARP and Turnstile are operational, though a small residual impact remains and we’re working to eliminate it. The core KV service is restored, bringing dependent products back online. We expect further recovery over the next few minutes and a steady drop in impact."

Now, Cloudflare says it's back to fully operational in an update that was posted just before the top of the hour at 4:57PM ET.

It reads in full: "All Cloudflare services have been restored and are now fully operational. We are moving the incident to Monitoring while we watch platform metrics to confirm sustained stability."

It's an excellent update for those who have felt the impact of this outage, and hopefully, any issues you've experienced have been resolved. While many services were impacted today, alongside this Cloudflare outage, Down Detector is looking a lot better with declines.

Google Workspace's status page indicates that the incident is resolved, while Google Cloud's status page still displays an active incident worldwide.

Furthermore, although Spotify didn't confirm an issue, the brand's care account is responding to a few users, recommending a restart of the app if they're unable to use the service.

• The spec for PCIe 7.0 has been announced
• It’s a new standard for even faster – incredibly quick – connections with PCIe components in your PC
• The standard is still in the earliest stages, though, and won’t be here for a long time (PCIe 6.0 hasn’t quite arrived yet, in fact)

PCIe (PCI Express) connectivity continues to forge ahead and already a new spec for a future generation of PCs has been announced, which is PCIe 7.0.

VideoCardz reports that PCI-SIG, the organization that oversees the standard, has announced PCIe 7.0 and is boasting about just how fast it’ll be. (Spoiler alert: really, really fast).

But wait a minute – aren’t we still on PCIe 5.0 these days? Well, yes, that’s what a (cutting-edge) PC will support, and I’ll come back to exactly what’s going on with the development path of the PCI Express standard (and PCIe 6.0) momentarily.

PCIe 7.0 is currently a spec that has just been sketched out, and it’ll offer a data rate of 128GT/s, which is twice the speed of PCIe 6.0 (which itself doubled the transfer rate of PCIe 5.0).

With PCIe 7.0, you’ll get support for up to 16 PCIe lanes (in a single slot) and up to 512GB/s of bandwidth in total (in both directions). PCIe lanes are bi-directional (meaning data can be sent in either direction) lines of communication hooking up PCIe components – primarily the graphics card or SSDs (but also other miscellaneous boards) – to the motherboard.

Collectively, PCIe lanes facilitate all these key components working in your PC (read up more about this here).

So, while much faster speeds for that communication is indeed a potentially big deal for the future, for the performance of GPUs and drives mainly, we are very much looking to the future here – meaning way down the line.

Analysis: Timescales – and PCIe 8.0 appearing on the horizon

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

As I already mentioned, we are on PCIe 5.0 right now. PCIe 6.0 was announced at the start of 2022, over three years ago, and still remains in development, though it is now nearing the finish line – we may even see the first hardware supporting it arrive later this year (or early next).

So, as you can imagine, we’re looking towards the end of the decade before PCIe 7.0 actually pitches up. Leading up to that milestone, hardware makers will be working away with the standard, developing and testing prototypes, and refining the final hardware for three or four years. And initially, that hardware will be used in the likes of quantum computing, data centers and other demanding tasks – not consumer PCs.

And meanwhile, PCI-SIG has confirmed that work on concocting the PCIe 8.0 standard has already begun.

So, while this is all well and good, with these incoming standards lining up and sounding ever more blisteringly fast, what’s the impact for consumers in the nearer-term? Not a lot, frankly. Even the top-tier, super-expensive examples of the best GPUs currently available aren’t pushing the boundaries of PCIe 5.0 yet – there’s no need for anything faster, not even in the flashiest PC.

However, there are niche cases where older PCIe standards are now hampering some new graphics cards.

A case in point is the RTX 5060 Ti (or non-Ti) with 8GB of video RAM, which loses some performance when it’s in a PCIe 4.0 motherboard slot because that slower standard isn’t enough – and if your motherboard’s still using PCIe 3.0, that’s a world of performance pain. (For a detailed explanation of why this GPU is problematic in this way, check here – AMD’s RX 9060 XT is also held back by its 8GB of VRAM).

Really, though, this is outlier stuff more than anything (and frankly, more to do with questionable decision-making and configuration of these graphics cards in the first place). Still, with ever-faster PCIe standards rolling inexorably towards us, in the future, even aging consumer PCs might cope better with whatever dubious decisions GPU makers throw at them.

Furthermore, as recently discussed, advancing the PCIe spec and keeping it very much on the cutting-edge is important in terms of maintaining standardization for the connection of PC components.

You might also like

• Nvidia RTX 5080 vs RTX 5070 Ti: Should you spend a little more?
• Want very big SSDs? Here's a little-known secret, 15.36TB models are almost as cheap as 8TB ones per terabyte — but there's a catch
• AMD could be working on a faster RX 9070 Extreme graphics card

• Edifier reveals 3 speakers, from tabletop to super-portable
• 6W, 34W and 60W speaker models
• New ANC headphones with 92-hour battery life

I'm a big fan of modern tech in retro clothes: give me a hi-res audio player that looks like an old AM radio and you can take my money. And I'm also a fan of corporate PR nonsense. So the launch of the new Edifier ES Series of speakers and headphones has put me in my happy place.

Corporate PR nonsense first: The letters ES carry "layered meaning", because the E means "Elegant", the S stands for "Superb (or Luxurious)", and if you put those two letters together they stand for "Edifier Sound".

Nonsense aside, I love the look of the speakers: there are three models of increasing elongation, beginning with the super-cute square of the ES20, stretching into the rectangular ES60 and then the bigger box of the ES300. And the specs are impressive for all three.

It's not just speakers: there are new 92-hour ANC headphones too (Image credit: Edifier)Edifier ES20, ES60, and ES300: key features and pricing

The flagship here is the ES300, a 60W, handcrafted wooden speaker with leather-look accents, a braided grille and a metallic control panel. Behind the grille there's a 4-inch long-throw mid/bass driver and dual 1.25-inch silk dome tweeters.

The ES300 has hi-res audio up to 24-bit/96kHz, and it has dual-band WiFi and AirPlay 2. Wired ports are USB-A and Aux, and there's a built-in ambient light system with three effects and two colors.

The ES300 is $399.99 in the US, £299.99 in the UK* and AU$399 in Australia.

The portable ES60 is smaller but still punchy, with 34W of power through its dual 22mm tweeters, oval mid/bass driver with neodymium magnets and passive bass radiator. It has Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint and stereo pairing, USB-C for audio input and charging, and promises 9 hours of playback. Like its bigger sibling it too has ambient lighting built-in.

The ES60 is $199.99 / £119.99 / AU$199.00.

Last but not least there's the teeny ES20, a 6W portable Bluetooth speaker with a 43mm full-range neodymium magnet driver and a 55mm passive bass radiator and a class D amp. It's IP67 rated, has Bluetooth 5.4 and includes a high sensitivity microphone for calling; once again there's built-in ambient lighting.

The ES20 is $89.99 / £49.99 / AU$99.

Edifier has also launched a set of headphones, the ES850NB. They're wireless over-ears with wired and wireless Hi-Res Audio certification, 40mm dynamic drivers and support for LDAC as well as the usual AAC and SBC. There's active noise cancellation, AI call clarity, and up to 92 hours of battery life.

The ES850NB headphones are $169.99 / £119.99 / AU$179.

All four models from the Edifier ES Series are available now.

* US prices are from Edifier's press release; UK and Australian prices are from retailers' websites.

You might also like

• The best Bluetooth speakers for all budgets, all tested by us
• The best wireless speaker, all tested by us, from Apple, JBL and more
• The best wireless headphones 2025, chosen by our experts

I'll also be playing Baldur's Gate and Warhammer 40K: Space Marine on Xbox Game Pass.

It’s been a hectic week for Apple with an entirely new look dubbed Liquid Glass arriving for all its platforms, true multitasking on the iPad, some Apple Intelligence changes, a new naming scheme, and a workout buddy for the Apple Watch, among so much else. We’ve been breaking it all down at TechRadar, and you can find a nice roundup of the 15 things we learned at WWDC 2025 here.

But, in true TechRadar fashion, shortly after the nearly two-hour keynote, we sat down with two special guests in an ultra-sleek podcast studio inside the ring at Apple Park for a special edition of the TechRadar Podcast.

Tom’s Guide Managing Editor for Video and TikTok star Kate Kozuch, KLTA Tech Reporter and @RichOnTech radio host Rich DeMuro, and TechRadar’s Editor At Large Lance Ulanoff, joined me for a wide-ranging discussion on nearly everything that Apple announced.

(Image credit: Future)

If you’re curious about Liquid Glass – Apple’s new look for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS – you won’t have to wait long as we kick off our discussion there. We also quickly dive into the significant changes arriving with iPadOS 26, the super-charged Spotlight within macOS 26, and the shorter section of the keynote around Apple Intelligence and the update on Siri.

We even discuss what the significant changes on iPad – the arrival of multitasking, a dock, proper file support, and a menu bar – could mean for the future of the Mac. Does this mean a MacBook with a touchscreen is on the horizon, or is the iPad a true laptop replacement for anyone now?

And if you had thoughts about Apple’s updated naming schemes for its platforms – they’re all lined up to 26 now – we provide analysis on that and even some speculation on what this could mean for future hardware from Apple.

You can watch the video version of our special edition podcast below, or listen to the audio version on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. While you’re there, or on YouTube, why not follow us to stay up-to-date with everything happening in tech?

You might also like

• You won't believe how insanely realistic Personas are in visionOS 26 on the Vision Pro
• This is what really happened with Siri and Apple Intelligence, according to Apple
• I’ve tried Apple CarPlay Ultra – it fixes everything that’s irritating about CarPlay, but there’s a catch

Google's research lab has joined forces with the National Hurricane Center for its new AI weather forecasting. But don't ignore your meteorologist.

• Experts warns of fake Booking.com sites circulating the web
• The sites come with a fake "Accept Cookie" prompt that downloads a RAT
• Shoppers should be on their guard when searching for deals

Hackers have been found targeting holidaymakers around the world with remote access trojans (RAT) distributed through fake Booking.com websites, experts have warned.

Researchers from HP Wolf Security found cybercriminals have been making websites that, on first glance, look just like booking.com - they carry the same branding, the same color scheme, and same formatting. However, the content of the website is blurred, and over it, a deceptive cookie banner is displayed.

If victims press “Accept cookies”, they’ll trigger a download of a malicious JavaScript file. This, in turn, installs XWorm, a powerful RAT that grants the attackers full control over the compromised device, including access to files, webcams, and microphone. They can also use the access to disable security tools, deploy additional malware, and exfiltrate passwords and other data.

Peak booking period

HP Wolf Security says it first spotted the campaign in Q1 2025, which is “peak summer holiday booking period”, and a time when “click fatigue” sets in, as prospective holidaymakers are reckless and don’t pay attention to the sites they’re visiting, ending in disaster.

"Since the introduction of privacy regulations such as GDPR, cookie prompts have become so normalized that most users have fallen into a habit of ‘click-first, think later,’” commented Patrick Schläpfer, Principal Threat Researcher in the HP Security Lab.

“By mimicking the look and feel of a booking site at a time when holiday-goers are rushing to make travel plans, attackers don’t need advanced techniques - just a well-timed prompt and the user’s instinct to click.”

There are a few things users can do to stay safe, and the first one is - to slow down when browsing.

Users should also make sure not to click on links in emails or social media messages, especially for well-established sites such as Booking. Instead, type in the address in the browser’s navigation bar manually.

You might also like

• Claude AI and other systems could be vulnerable to worrying command prompt injection attacks
• Take a look at our guide to the best authenticator app
• We've rounded up the best password managers

If you want to save your battery and make your games look even better, you should check out these settings.