Technology

• Gunnir fits two Arc Pro B70 graphics cards inside one compact workstation
• Each Arc Pro B70 card carries 32GB of GDDR6 ECC graphics memory
• The dual GPU workstation provides 64GB across two separate graphics processors

At the recent Intel Connection 2026 event in China, hardware manufacturer Gunnir showed two custom workstation systems built around Intel's Arc Pro B70 graphics processors.

Both machines use Intel Core Ultra 200HX Arrow Lake-HX processors, so neither configuration includes an AMD processor or graphics option anywhere in its hardware.

The larger system fits two Arc Pro B70 cards inside a compact enclosure, while liquid cooling handles the heat from the graphics hardware.

Two B70 graphics processors share one compact machine

Each graphics card carries 32GB of GDDR6 ECC memory, giving the dual-GPU workstation 64GB of memory spread across two separate graphics processors rather than a single pool.

This memory remains divided between the GPUs rather than forming one 64GB pool, although supported software can distribute workloads between them.

Intel’s oneAPI framework supports computation across multiple devices, allowing compatible applications to use several GPUs for parallel processing workloads.

Intel builds the B70 on its larger BMG-G31 Battlemage GPU, which contains 32 Xe cores and 256 XMX engines for up to 367 INT8 TOPS.

Intel also lists 608GB/s of memory bandwidth for each B70 card, which applies to both graphics processors in the larger workstation.

Partner boards can run anywhere between 160W and 290W, a wider spread than the single 230W rating Intel gives its reference board.

Intel launched the B70 earlier this year with a suggested starting price of $949, although partner versions can carry different prices depending on implementation.

The event coverage lists no shipping date, price, or release window for either workstation, so their cost against the $949 card remains unknown.

Intel describes the B70 as suited to local AI inference and workloads that can use several graphics processors at the same time.

That focus explains why GUNNIR is experimenting with dense dual-GPU systems rather than conventional gaming desktops, according to the event coverage.

Compact systems fit serious graphics hardware into limited space

The smaller workstation places the same GPU family into a more compact design, and a vapor chamber manages its thermal output instead of liquid cooling.

GUNNIR also showed MXM graphics modules using B50 and B65 chips for compact systems where conventional PCIe cards cannot fit.

The smaller MXM format allows workstation manufacturers to add discrete graphics in places where full-size desktop expansion cards would require more physical space.

Neither the B50 nor the B65 module listed memory, core counts, or pricing in the coverage, so their performance against the B70 is unclear.

Separately, GUNNIR sells the Arc Pro B70 TF 32G for workstation use, with 32GB of ECC memory and a blower cooler built for sustained operation.

ECC memory corrects certain data errors automatically, and GUNNIR lists that feature on its blower-cooled card alongside the 32GB capacity.

Because partner boards range from 160W to 290W, GUNNIR's blower and liquid cooling choices may matter as much as the silicon itself.

Via Videocardz

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections 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 Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, October 1 (game #1208).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

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

NYT Connections today (game #1209) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• LITTLE
• REAL ESTATE
• COMMON
• RING
• INDEX
• FUND
• BANKROLL
• RIB
• STANDARD
• MIDDLE
• STOCK
• SUPPORT
• BACK
• NUMBER
• ROUTINE
• TIMER

NYT Connections today (game #1209) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Put some money behind it
• GREEN: Digits
• BLUE: Pretty ordinary
• PURPLE: Begin with a word that rhymes with “rhyme”

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1209) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: FINANCE
• GREEN: FINGERS
• BLUE: CUSTOMARY
• PURPLE: PRIME_____

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

NYT Connections today (game #1209) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1209, are…

• YELLOW: FINANCE: BACK, BANKROLL, FUND, SUPPORT
• GREEN: FINGERS: INDEX, LITTLE, MIDDLE, RING
• BLUE: CUSTOMARY: COMMON, ROUTINE, STANDARD, STOCK
• PURPLE: PRIME_____: NUMBER, REAL ESTATE, RIB, TIME

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Whenever there is a very easy game of Connections I am always left with regret that I did not slow down and play more tactically.

Unfortunately I cannot help myself and blitz through the groups as I discover them, which today meant getting green first instead of a coveted purple first.

That said, despite the simplicity of this game there was a little red herring that almost caught me out, with STOCK, INDEX and FUND all being about financial trading.

Kudos if you took care and spotted PRIME____.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, October 1, 2026, game #1208)

• YELLOW: PUT: PLACE, POSITION, SITUATE, STICK
• GREEN: DRESS SHIRT MEASUREMENTS: CHEST, NECK, SLEEVE, WAIST
• BLUE: 2000S INDIE ROCK BANDS, WITH "THE": DECEMBERISTS, NATIONAL, SHINS, WALKMEN
• PURPLE: STARTS OF NYT PRINT PUZZLES: ACRO, CROSS, KEN, SUD

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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 Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, October 1 (game #942).

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… On the sly

NYT Strands today (game #943) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SKINT
• FISH
• NEEDS
• SAVE
• GOAT
• NEAT

NYT Strands today (game #943) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 14 letters

NYT Strands today (game #943) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

• First side: left, 5th row

• Last side: left, 8th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #943) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #943, are…

• SHIFTY
• COVERT
• DEVIOUS
• STEALTHY
• FURTIVE
• SPANGRAM: SNEAKINGAROUND

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

I’m not saying that today’s words were hidden in a particular STEALTHY or COVERT way but after getting SHIFTY I hit a blank and resorted to our pal the hint to get moving.

Today’s words can be interpreted in several opposite ways. The first, is as creepy; the kinds of activities a nosey parker or, worse, a Peeping Tom might employ. Alternatively, they can be looked on more positively as the kind of skills a military operative might employ in an undercover operation — not that the Marines are likely to call what they do SNEAKING AROUND!

Today was also notable for an excellent spangram that snailed back on itself — kudos if you spotted it first.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, October 1, game #942)

• BREAK
• CRUMBLE
• COLLAPSE
• DISSOLVE
• FRAGMENT
• SPANGRAM: BEYONDREPAIR

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.

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 Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, October 1 (game #1711).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 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 #1712) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* 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 #1712) — hint #2 — repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #1712) — hint #3 — uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1712) — 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 #1712) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• I

• S

• A

• L

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

Quordle today (game #1712) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1712, are…

• IVORY
• SADLY
• ANGEL
• LLAMA

It took me a lot of experimenting before I finally guessed LLAMA.

Part of the process was realizing that there were no common two-letter combinations left available — “plank” would have been my guess if every letter was still in play — so it had to be something unusual, or in this case doubly unusual with its double-L start.

It's all quite embarrassing really, considering that my sister owns three llamas and is quite literally a llama farmer.

Daily Sequence today (game #1712) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1712, are…

• MOUSE
• EVICT
• WAXEN
• LUSTY

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1711, Thursday, 1 October: NAVEL, SHEER, BIRTH, TACKY
• Quordle #1710, Wednesday, 30 September: CHOKE, BATCH, MOSSY, EAGER
• Quordle #1709, Tuesday, 29 September: BILGE, MEDAL, LODGE, PORCH
• Quordle #1708, Monday, 28 September: BRUNT, TORSO, STONE, HEATH
• Quordle #1707, Sunday, 27 September: VALET, CHEST, VIGIL, PUREE
• Quordle #1706, Saturday, 26 September: SNORT, BIBLE, LAPSE, CRANE
• Quordle #1705, Friday, 25 September: SWEAR, FLOOD, GUPPY, GROAN
• Quordle #1704, Thursday, 24 September: TOPIC, METRO, SCALP, FREED
• Quordle #1703, Wednesday, 23 September: SHEET, BLAND, JOIST, GUAVA
• Quordle #1702, Tuesday, 22 September: COMFY, LOBBY, DRESS, PANEL
• Quordle #1701, Monday, 21 September: WAXEN, HIPPO, PETAL, LEASH
• Quordle #1700, Sunday, 20 September: DERBY, LIMBO, GAWKY, REIGN
• Quordle #1699, Saturday, 19 September: SCOPE, HEIST, PULSE, CHAMP
• Quordle #1698, Friday, 18 September: MUCUS, MIRTH, APPLE, TILDE
• Quordle #1697, Thursday, 17 September: CRIER, CHIRP, NEIGH, FREER
• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER

Focal Mu-so Hekla review

The Focal Mu-so Hekla is a wireless speaker in soundbar's clothing, featuring superbly detailed, sizable sound, a stunning build and a jumbo price. Weirdly, Focal insists it's not a soundbar, despite it sounding like a soundbar, connecting via eARC like a soundbar and looking an awful lot like a soundbar.

Named Hekla after one of Iceland’s most active stratovolcanoes — known semi-affectionately) as the ‘Gateway to Hell’ to locals — it's also been released under the Focal sister brand, rather than Naim's like the rest of the Mu-so line. So it does feel like the Hekla might be a bit confused about its identity... and honestly who could blame it?

(Image credit: Future)

At 4.65 x 39.37 x 11.61 inches / 118 x 1000 x 295mm, the Hekla is certainly proportioned like a soundbar. The fact that it’s compatible with Dolby Atmos, features side- and up-firing drivers to facilitate a spatial audio effect, and has an HDMI eARC socket for connection to a TV is quite soundbar-y too.

And the knowledge that this product has been branded ‘Focal’ (or, more specifically, ‘Focal powered by Naim’) because the French company is perceived to have greater credibility in the audio-visual and home cinema markets doesn’t really do anything to support Focal’s declaration that it’s primarily an all-in-one system either. Even at on Focal's website, it’s referred to as an ‘immersive Home Cinema system’ quite early on.

Get beyond these mild oddities, though, and the Focal Mu-so Hekla remains an intriguing device. Its black aluminum casing features anodized and shot-blasted aluminum heatsinks for a bit of visual drama on top of their practical applications, and the overall standard of build and finish is basically impeccable.

If you’re familiar with the Naim Mu-so (2nd Gen) wireless speaker, there will be nothing in the way the Mu-so Hekla looks that will come as any great surprise. It even features the same oversized control dial that’s been a feature of Naim equipment for a decade or more.

(Image credit: Future)

There are 15 individual speaker drivers across the cabinet, powered by an all-in total of 660 watts of Naim-designed Class D power. Across the front, there are three 130 x 60mm bass drivers, a pair of 60mm midrange drivers and a couple of 25mm tweeters — the bass drivers get 60 watts of power each, all the rest receive 40 watts each.

Each side of the cabinet features two 70 x 40mm full-range drivers, and there are two more of these drivers positioned on the top, behind those areas of perforated metal. It’s an arrangement that’s designed to deliver 7.1.2-channel spatial audio and a frequency response of 30Hz - 20kHz.

Getting the audio information on board in the first place can be done in a few different ways. There’s a digital optical input (which can comfortably handle up to 24bit/96kHz) alongside the HDMI eARC socket on the rear of the cabinet, where you’ll also find a pre-out for use with a subwoofer.

There’s dual-band Wi-Fi 6 on board, with the antennae integrated into the heatsinks. This means the Mu-so Hekla is compatible with (among other things) the ‘Connect’ versions of Qobuz, Spotify and TIDAL music streaming services, Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast. It’s also UPnP-compatible, can access internet radio provided by Naim servers, and it features Bluetooth 5.1 with SBC and AAC codec compatibility.

(Image credit: Future)

The Mu-so Hekla is able to deal with pretty much any worthwhile file type, and quite a few of the less worthwhile alternatives too. It can handle resolutions of up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD128 for two-channel stuff and up to 24bit/192kHz for multichannel and spatial audio content.

That large, illuminated and entirely gratifying control dial is useful for getting at the Focal’s headline functions. But for granular control of the Mu-so Hekla, the Focal & Naim control app (free for Android and iOS) is where the action is.

First and foremost, here’s where you get access to the nuts and bolts of the Focal’s spatial audio reproduction. You have a choice of five settings: Dolby Movie, Dolby Music and Dolby Night, along with a couple of Focal’s own designs called Sphere Movie and Sphere Music.

The idea is that the Sphere settings are best suited to small-to-medium rooms that have had a degree of acoustic treatment while the Dolby alternatives are better suited to larger rooms with less treatment.

Regardless of which one you decide best suits your purposes, though, you can properly stick your oar into the sound you receive. There’s a three-band EQ, ‘+/-10’ sliders to adjust settings labelled ‘height’, ‘surround’, low frequency effects’ and ‘voice enhance’, and the ability to trim the level of each of the 10 individual channels that comprise the Mu-so Hekla’s 7.1.2 layout.

The one thing you can’t do where spatial audio is concerned is turn it all the way off. It doesn’t matter what you feed into the Focal — two channel stuff, old-school 5.1 surround sound content, full-on Dolby Atmos soundtracks, you name it — the Mu-so Hekla will use all of its drivers, even if you feed in stereo content and select ‘stereo’ mode.

(Image credit: Future)

Between its room-correction routine and its spatial audio algorithms, the Mu-so Hekla is convinced it can deliver a sound that’s optimised to your space, every time, using every one of its 15 drivers.

Otherwise, the Focal & Naim control app is stable, extensive business as usual. Here’s where you get to control playback, access the various inputs, nominate as many as five shortcuts to favorite radio stations, playlists or what-have-you, and run the ‘ADAPT’ room correction algorithm.

On top of that, you can adjust the brightness of the lighting around the control dial, check for available updates, incorporate the speaker into a multi-room setup (using as many as 32 individual Focal or Naim streamers), and there’s a fair bit more too. The Focal & Naim app has been the subject of more-or-less continuous updates for years now, and it shows.

(Image credit: Future)

Given the best stuff to work with (and in this instance ‘best’ = ‘native Dolby Atmos’), the Mu-so Hekla is, in broad terms, one of the most successful one-box spatial audio solutions around.

There’s really not a huge amount of difference between the five spatial audio modes (at least, not much is apparent in my listening environment), but the Focal is a lively, robust, eloquent and, perhaps most importantly of all, spacious listen in every circumstance.

Certainly the soundstage it can summon is noticeably larger than the cabinet it comes from. There’s a gratifying amount of width and height to the presentation, and the Mu-so Hekla moves effects around from left to right, from top to bottom and from front to back confidently.

The spaces and silences between occurrences are given due prominence, too — but despite this, there’s no suggestion of remoteness or a lack of cohesiveness about the sound. Dolby Atmos movie soundtracks and music mixes sound unified and singular, and on occasion deserve the description ‘immersive’.

(Image credit: Future)

It’s even-handed where tonality is concerned, with a fairly neutral and natural approach to the timbre of the entire frequency range. And where frequency response is concerned, there’s just a suggestion of bloom at the very bottom end to disrupt what is otherwise a smooth and even line from the top end down.

Those lowest frequencies may be fractionally overstated, but they’re nevertheless nicely shaped, properly controlled and loaded with detail both broad and fine — the combination of punch and variation makes the Focal’s bass response very enjoyable, and it has no trouble expressing musical rhythms with real positivity thanks to the attention it pays to the decay and, especially, attack of individual notes or hits.

At the opposite end of the frequency range, the Mu-so Hekla is similarly revealing of detail in treble sounds, and summons enough substance to prevent the top end becoming hard or edgy even at volume. Don’t imagine for a moment the Focal isn’t capable of prodigious volume though.

(Image credit: Future)

The balance in the midrange is just as nicely judged. It’s articulate with voices, whether speaking or singing, and loads on the details to the point that everything from tone and timbre to breath control and vocal attitude are made perfectly apparent.

And while the unity of the presentation is never in doubt, the midrange in general and voices in particular project well — dialogue is always distinct, even when it’s surrounded by sonic chaos.

As well as being fully equipped where outright volume is concerned, the Mu-so Hekla has a generous amount of dynamic headroom — the distance it can put between quiet and loud (which is especially apparent during a big Hollywood set-piece) is huge.

So when the going gets intense during a symphony, or the whispered exposition transitions to an almighty explosion, the Focal can make the transitions absolutely apparent.

Focal Mu-so Hekla review: Price & release date

• Launched at the end of 2025 in parts of Asia
• Released to the rest of the world from late March 2026

The Focal Mu-so Hekla launched in South Korea and China at the end of November 2025, and became available in the wider world from late March 2026.

In the United Kingdom, it’s priced at £2,999, while American customers will need to spend $3,599, and in Australia it goes for AU$6,499.

(Image credit: Future)Focal Mu-so Hekla review: Specs

Dimensions

4.65 x 39.37 x 11.61 inches / 118 x 1000 x 295mm

Speaker channels

Up to 7.1.4

Connections

HDMI eARC; digital optical; WiFi 6; Bluetooth 5.1

Dolby Atmos / DTS:X

Yes / No

Sub included

No

Rear speakers included

No

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Focal Mu-so Hekla?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Greater Bluetooth codec compatibility would be nice, as would the ability to listen in unprocessed stereo. Otherwise has everything you might reasonably expect.

4 / 5

Performance

Big, detailed and properly organized sound with just a hint of low-end overconfidence.

4.5 / 5

Design

Hard to make a big speaker look anything but ‘functional’ but the Focal enjoys coherent industrial design.

4.5 / 5

Setup and usability

Swift, simple, logical, and with an excellent control app.

5 / 5

Value

If you want as little compromise as possible when it comes to the sound of your one-box spatial audio system, it’s going to cost you.

4.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want a big taste of spatial audio without the need for multiple speakers
The Mu-so Hekla can’t compete with a similarly priced multi-speaker system, but it gets a fair bit closer than most.

You have a top-tier music streaming service subscription
The Focal is just as adept with Dolby Atmos music as it is Dolby Atmos movies.

You like nice things and you want everyone else to know you like them too
The Mu-so Hekla is a great big block of good taste where industrial design is concerned, and is the audio equivalent of a highbrow hardback book on a coffee table.

Don't buy it if...

You’re expecting the best spatial audio performance £3K can buy
The Focal represents simply the finest one-box spatial audio performance your £3K can buy.

You like to listen to stereo music in stereo
The Mu-so Hekla will attempt to work its magic on two-channel stuff, even if you’ve selected ‘stereo’ mode.

You think you might fancy a soundbar
It’s NOT a soundbar How many times do I have to say it?

Focal Mu-so Hekla review: Also consider

Focal Mu-so Hekla

Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere

McIntosh RS250

Dimensions

118 x 1000 x 295mm / 4.6 x 39.3 x 11.6 inches

160 x 932 x 121mm / 6.3 x 36.7 x 4.8 inches

145 x 630 x 324mm / 5.7 x 24.8 x 12.8 inches

Speaker channels

7.1.2

Not listed

2.0 (Stereo)

Connections

1x HDMI eARC, 1x Optical TOSLINK, 1x RCA subwoofer output, 1x Ethernet (RJ45), Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1

1x HDMI eARC (4K 120FPS / 8K 60FPS passthrough), Analogue audio via USB-C (3.5mm via adapter), 3x Ethernet (1Gbit switch), Dual-band Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.4

1x HDMI ARC, 1x Optical TOSLINK, 1x Moving Magnet (MM) Phono input, 1x 3.5mm Aux, 1x 1/4" Headphone jack, 1x Mono RCA Subwoofer output, 1x Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0

Dolby Atmos/DTS:X

Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos

No

Sub included

No

No

No

Rear speakers included

No

No

No

Features

15 speaker drivers, 660W total Class D amplification, Naim streaming engine, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast/Chromecast, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, UPnP streaming, Focal & Naim app multiroom support (up to 32 devices), illuminated top dial control

10 custom drivers, 550W total amplification, 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos decoding with True Image up/downmixing, Wide Stage technology, 90 responsive internal LEDs, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Beolink Surround support, Cradle to Cradle Certified Bronze

8 speaker drivers (2x tweeters, 4x midranges, 2x down-firing woofers), 650W total power output, Illuminated digital output meters, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Roon Ready, aptX HD & Low Latency Bluetooth

Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere
A soundbar that’s prepared to admit it’s a soundbar, the Premiere is predictably ostentatious and predictably high-achieving. If the Mu-so Hekla seems a bit underdesigned and a bit too affordable, here’s the product you need.

McIntosh RS250
No spatial audio pretensions and no great shakes where ‘design’ is concerned either — but the RS250 is nonetheless an absolute powerhouse of a wireless all-in-one audio system. And it has VU meters too.

(Image credit: Future)How I tested the Focal Mu-so Hekla

• Connected to a Philips OLED TV via HDMI eARC
• Streaming via Qobuz Connect, TIDAL Connect and internet radio
• Tested for well over a working week

I used a QED HDMI cable to connect the Mu-so Hekla to my Philips OLED806 TV via each machine’s HDMI eARC socket. The TV features Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, National Theatre at Home and Netflix apps, so plenty of streamed content is available, including Dolby Atmos stuff — and it’s also connected to a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player and a Sony Playstation 5.

I stream wirelessly using both Qobuz Connect and TIDAL Connect. Which, again, makes plenty of content available at a whole range of resolutions including music mixed in Dolby Atmos.

UPnP connectivity allows me to access a Buffalo Terrastation NAS device loaded with content of up to 24bit/192kHz and DSD64 resolution. And I listen to a mixture of these input options and file formats for more than a working week (if, like me, you count a ‘working week’ as Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm).

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: October 2026

• WiCi puts an RTX 5060 Ti inside a complete wireless computer
• Wi-Fi 7 replaces the cable connecting WiCi's GPU to host devices
• WiCi's 11.52-Gbps wireless link trails conventional high-speed GPU connections

WiCi is preparing a wireless external GPU, the WiCi One, which houses a GeForce RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of GDDR7 memory in a separate box.

The device communicates through Wi-Fi 7, while its enclosure also contains a processor, storage, power hardware, cooling and networking components.

The company says this is not a cloud-style streaming service, although the unit is a full computer with its own processor and storage.

A complete computer with a graphics processor

The 5060 Ti configuration pairs the GPU with an Intel Core 3 100U processor, 1TB NVMe 4 storage, and 16GB GDDR7.

The device supports Wi-Fi 7 connectivity with 4x4 MIMO and a 320MHz channel, allowing the host device to communicate wirelessly with the separate computer.

The company also intends to offer an RTX 5090 variant containing 32GB GDDR7, an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H and 4TB NVMe 5 storage.

WiCi says its software can make the graphics processor available through driver, software development kit and application programming interface modes.

It describes the arrangement as a local alternative to cloud processing, with data remaining inside the user's network unless deliberately transmitted.

However, the main question is whether Wi-Fi 7 can provide enough throughput for workloads that normally depend upon much faster wired connections.

Wi-Fi 7 can theoretically reach 46.1 Gbps under configurations using 16 spatial streams, but WiCi's hardware specifies only four.

That 4x4 arrangement, using 320MHz bandwidth and 4096-QAM, reaches approximately 11.52 Gbps at the physical layer.

But its Thunderbolt 5 interface can provide 64 Gbps for PCIe traffic, while PCIe 4.0 x4 through OCuLink also offers 64 Gbps.

WiCi relies on software to bridge the bandwidth gap

WiCi says its protocol reduces network traffic through caching, deduplication, compression, streaming, and pipelining.

Those techniques are intended to limit how much information must travel between the host and graphics processor during demanding workloads.

The company claims its RTX 5060 Ti model can run Cyberpunk 2077 at 80 FPS in 4K Ultra with DLSS 4.

It also claims Black Myth: Wukong reaches 60 FPS at 4K Cinematic settings, although independent testing will determine how those results translate in real-life usage.

WiCi tests place the computer approximately 50 cm from the connected laptop, leaving questions about performance through walls or amid competing wireless traffic.

At $1,999 for early signups, WiCi's 5060 Ti model costs considerably more than a conventional external GPU enclosure, although it also includes a processor, storage and other components needed to operate as a standalone computer.

That makes its comparisons with other compact computing systems more relevant than a simple eGPU price comparison.

WiCi lists competing pocket AI machines at between $1,399 and $2,999, while Apple's Mac Studio M5 Max starts at $2,499.

Those systems, however, serve different purposes, since WiCi is designed to place a discrete GPU on the local network and make its computing resources accessible to multiple nearby host devices.

• Meta closed a woman’s Facebook and Instagram accounts with no warning
• The closed accounts contained 20 years’ worth of ‘digital memories’
• The woman couldn’t contact a human and was forced to use AI chatbots

What would you do if you lost your Facebook and Instagram accounts along with all of the photos, posts, and memories they contained? That’s the prospect faced by one unfortunate woman — a situation made even worse by the actions of Meta’s AI chatbots.

When Jasmine Ault checked her phone in the middle of the night, she was greeted by a notification saying her Facebook and Instagram accounts had been permanently disabled, taking 20 years of personal data and contacts with them.

Ault attempted to contact Meta to rectify the situation, but found herself passed from pillar to post and unable to secure a resolution. In fact, Ault found herself completely shut out by Meta’s customer service and could only talk to an AI chatbot that couldn't fix it. Even after paying for expedited service, Ault was unable to get through to a human.

“It feels like I’ve lost everything in a metaphorical fire with my digital albums and my digital memories,” Ault told CBC News. “And who’s going to protect those if I can only speak to AI?”

Ault appealed the ban but says she received a summary judgment just minutes later declaring that her case had been closed and that there was no possibility of any further appeals. And with that, she had seemingly run out of options.

An opaque, uncaring system

(Image credit: Shutterstock / mundissima)

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a case like this. Social media is awash with reports of people being erroneously banned from Meta’s platforms without any means of recourse — there’s even a dedicated subreddit for it.

With Meta rolling out AI across its platforms, it’s likely that situations like this will continue. Many people have accused AI moderation tools of incorrectly flagging users’ accounts, which might be one cause of the distress.

Part of the problem is the opaqueness of Meta’s actions. While Ault received a message saying her account was banned for breaking the platform’s rules, she was never informed which specific rules had been broken or how. She told CBC that she stayed awake for 26 hours straight in an attempt to restore her accounts — and all the memories contained therein — back to working order.

Yet Ault has been unable to resolve the situation. Speaking to CBC, she said “it feels almost sick to me that they just think, like, ‘We can just shut these people’s accounts down, they can’t get through to us and talk to us,’ and it’s people’s lifelines. It’s people’s memories. It’s people’s everything.”

If you’re concerned something similar might happen to you, it would be worth downloading your Facebook and Instagram data so that you have a backup. You never know when Meta might send everything to the digital incinerator and leave you stuck with an unsympathetic AI chatbot.

Although AI has sucked up all the bandwidth of public discourse across the tech industry, quantum computing is arguably just as revolutionary a technology – but remains dormant for now. That said, key breakthroughs in the last couple of years are said to mean that these machines could be 'useful' before too long.

Quantum advantage

IBM's senior vice president and director of research Dario Gil explained to CBS' 60 Minutes exactly what the likely impact of useful quantum computers would be.

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The idea of quantum advantage, he said, was slightly difficult to wrap your head around. That's certain given the ratcheting-up effect in terms of power that happens when you begin to scale up these machines from just a handful of quantum bits (qubits) to thousands, tens of thousands and beyond.

Because the capabilities of quantum computers grow exponentially the more qubits that you add to the system, it could one day achieve things we haven't been able to even conceptualise yet due to the rigid parameters of existing computing.

More problems

Quantum computing does represent a paradigm shift, as Gil was trying to convey, but that doesn't mean simply building powerful hardware will help us achieve anything. Scientists are also aware that we need to define problems to solve using these future machines.

Many companies like IBM and others have been granting businesses access to quantum computers through the cloud, but these have primarily been used for early pilot programs, to build proprietary algorithms or gear their systems for future hardware.

For example, both Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have partnered with the IBM Quantum Network to simulate chemical reactions inside EV battery cells.

• AMD's full EPYC 9006 price list tops out with the 256-core, 600W EPYC 9996 at $14,904 on a per-1,000-unit basis
• The CPU, which costs ~$58 per core or $29 per thread, is narrowly more expensive ($91) than its own older Turin flagship, which clocked in at $14,813
• While PCIe 6.0 is forecast to reach PCs around 2030, MRDIMM, a registered server module that specifically caters to AI memory bandwidth needs, may never make the jump

AMD has published specifications and 1,000-unit pricing for all 31 processors in its 6th Gen EPYC 9006 "Venice" family, and the top-of-stack chip sets a new high for the company on multiple fronts.

The AMD EPYC 9996 combines 256 Zen 6c cores and 512 threads with 1,024MB of L3 cache and a 600W default power rating on AMD's new SP7 socket, and it lists at $14,904, according to a full SKU sheet reported by StorageReview and corroborated by TechPowerUp.

The price is the highest for a single CPU that AMD has ever charged, as it continues to leverage its CPU lead and GPU business to carve itself a piece of an increasingly lucrative AI pie.

A measly pricing record coupled with plenty of real upgrades under the hood

When AMD's Turin launched in October 2024, it listed the 192-core EPYC 9965 at $14,813; our TechRadar Pro coverage described it previously as its most expensive processor to date.

Fast forward two years, and we have a CPU that costs $91 more but adds 64 Zen 6c cores, with benchmarks pointing to it as a significant performance upgrade for only a 1% increase in cost.

Hyperscalers willing to pay $77 a core for the EPYC 9965 would be more than happy to pay AMD's $58 ask, but that might be a moot point here; AMD's pricing is essentially guidance before OEM discounts and negotiations kick in for consumers who generally want chips in the hundreds or thousands for a typical deployment.

Interestingly, $14,904 might be where AMD's pricing caps out, but it is not the most anyone has historically asked for a server CPU; Intel's 128-core Xeon 6980P launched at $17,800 in 2024, making it considerably more expensive than its competition.

With a mammoth 600W power rating (AMD has retired its TDP rating for a 'default CPU power' figure that provides a more accurate power consumption under specific workloads), a gigabyte of L3 cache, and 256 Zen 6c 'compact' cores under the hood, the AMD EPYC 9996 is one of the fastest CPUs money can buy.

It also offers PCIe 6.0 connectivity and MRDIMM support for higher memory bandwidth, both key technologies for a current-generation AI workstation or datacenter's performance needs. The former is expected to reach desktop PCs by 2030, while the latter, a registered, buffered server module, might never see the inside of one for the foreseeable future.

AMD currently holds 46% of server CPU revenue, according to Mercury Research, which can lead one to conclude that AMD's nearest competitor is, as Storage Review put it, "its own last generation," at a time when Intel is still playing catch-up and OEMs are turning to Nvidia's Vera Rubin offerings as an alternative in the same space.

A more cynical take would be that list prices have drifted so far from what buyers actually pay that holding the sticker flat costs AMD very little, even as OEM partners and hyperscalers get to see the actual costs, which might not be as simple as an additional 64 cores for a $91 increase in cost at a time when AI demand outstrips supply on various fronts.

• Microsoft has admitted cloud-based M365 data owned by licensed nonprofits has been deleted in a license-switching cock-up
• Microsoft retired its 365 Business Premium Grant license, advising nonprofits to move to the Microsoft 365 Business Basic for free
• The deleted data cannot be retrieved

Microsoft has admitted it accidentally deleted the data from an undisclosed number of nonprofits with retiring Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant licenses. While advising the customers to switch to a different license for free and offering a retention and export window, the software behemoth somehow managed to lose their data, rather than retain it.

Worse, Microsoft has also admitted the lost data is irretrievable. So unless the organizations concerned had their own backups of the cloud-based data, the situation is irreversible.

All organizations with an expired Business Premium subscription are affected, but Microsoft has offered them a complementary “concierge service” to help get set up on their new Microsoft 365 Business Basic license – assuming they haven’t switched to Google Workspace.

How has this happened?

Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant licenses were specifically for nonprofit organizations. It provided 10 free licenses for eligible organizations.

The announcement of their impending closure was made in early 2025. Any renewal on or after July 1 2025, would have been the last one. At the time, Microsoft issued an email to licensees:

“The Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant will be discontinued on your next renewal on or after July 1, 2025. Your licenses will expire on April 1, 2026. We will continue to provide up to 300 granted licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Basic and discounts of up to 75 percent on many Microsoft 365 offers to nonprofits, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium.”

Once a decision was made, the license should have been migrated to a Microsoft 365 Business Basic or Microsoft 365 Business Premium license, based on the demands of the organization concerned. Emails and documents should not have been affected.

Instead, data has been lost.

Microsoft’s vague mea culpa

According to reports, Microsoft has admitted that “data cannot be recovered” and is similarly unable to provide any list or spreadsheet or log of what was lost. This leaves nonprofit organizations – notably, those with low license requirements, so presumably operating on minimal funding – without access to the data they had stored within the Microsoft 365 OneDrive cloud.

They will also be without emails, potentially including details concerning contracts, fundraising, and other critical information.

Microsoft has expressed regret and attempted to manage the situation by offering the affected organizations a specialist to assist in setting up a new Microsoft 365 account. However, given the fact that the data has been lost, and there is no migration headache to endure, it's a good bet Google Workspace or even Zoho Workplace are stronger options.

• Oura has partnered with women's precision health platform Xella Health
• Members can share sleep, HRV, temperature, and cycle data with Xella's clinicians
• Xella pairs that data with biomarker testing and physician-guided treatment plans

Oura has a new partner integration, and this time it’s a women's health platform that combines lab testing with telehealth care, dubbed Xella Health. Folks with an Oura ring in the US can now sign up to send ring data and other analysis right into Xella Health’s systems, assuming you’re subscribed to the platform.

Those subscribed to Xella Health can choose to share sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, temperature trends, recovery, activity, and menstrual cycle insights — essentially all the core Oura stats. Xella then runs what it calls "multi-omic" diagnostics, using custom AI to analyze the physiologic data from Oura alongside your hormones, metabolism, inflammation, nutrition, reproductive health, and cardiometabolic risk to spot patterns that may indicate a change in your health.

This assumes that Xella already has that information, and that you’re a Xella member. If so, combining wearable stats with Xella’s in-depth health metrics might shed light on changes with Oura readings, such as why a Readiness or Sleep score is fluctuating.

From there, Xella’s AI creates a care plan with a doctor, which can include treatment for more than 130 conditions that impact women, such as endometriosis and PMOS. The integration with Oura enables Xella and its doctors to keep an eye on your Oura trends as care continues to catch any significant changes in your health. The partnership between Oura and Xella is targeting fertility, perimenopause, cardiometabolic health, hormonal health, and women's longevity.

"Wearables have transformed our ability to detect physiologic change," Kelly Lacob, CEO and co-founder of Xella Health, said in a statement. "By combining continuous data and insights from Oura with Xella's molecular diagnostics and clinical care, we're creating a more complete picture of women's health."

It's worth noting that Xella is a separate, paid membership on top of Oura that requires an annual fee of $499. Women in all U.S. states, except New York and New Jersey, can sign up to integrate with Xella and go through the process. Of course, an Oura Ring 5 starts at $399 and has a monthly cost of $5.99, but it’s also not a medical device; it's a smart wearable without a screen.

Pairing wearables with lab testing is becoming a battleground for the premium screenless crowd. One of Oura's biggest competitors, Whoop, has opened its blood-testing and cancer-screening service to non-Whoop owners, and Oura has already partnered with women's health app Natural Cycles.

Xella gives Oura a clinical, women-focused answer to Whoop's approach.

The Federal Trade Commission has urged companies to be transparent about their pricing, but that may not be enough.

Gemini 4 Argon is only available to cyber defenders now, a sign Google is gearing up for a wider launch soon.

An S26 Ultra with 1TB of storage now lists for $2,000.

Do you use a VPN, antivirus or other security software? Let us know which ones are the most trustworthy.

Google is testing payments to publishers whose content contributes to AI search answers, but early payouts vary widely across participating websites.

The post Google Tests Publisher Payments as AI Search Cuts Into Website Traffic appeared first on TechRepublic.

Metaview raised $60 million to expand its AI recruiting platform and autonomous agent fillmore across sourcing, screening and hiring workflows.

The post Metaview Raises $60M for AI Agents That Source, Screen and Schedule Candidates appeared first on TechRepublic.

Google DeepMind’s SynthID Bio embeds detectable watermarks in AI-designed proteins while preserving their function in early laboratory tests.

The post Google DeepMind Adds Watermarks to AI-Designed Proteins Without Breaking Them appeared first on TechRepublic.

• Critics claim a competition-winning video was made using AI
• They cite unusual movements in the cells shown in the footage
• Contest organizer Nikon says it is investigating

Last month, a video depicting airway cells in motion in a child’s body wowed the world and took home first prize in Nikon’s annual Small World in Motion competition. Yet the footage might not have been all that it seemed, with Nikon now reportedly investigating whether AI played an outsized role.

The image in question showed a child’s airway cilia, which are tiny hair-like structures that protrude from cells. The video was captured at 100x magnification and was shot by Dr. Ning Xu of Tsinghua University in China, who said that “When people watch cilia beating, they immediately understand that something beautiful and important is happening inside us.”

As charming as that sounds, the video raised questions once it became apparent that it had taken home Nikon’s prize. Some scientists have questioned whether the motion seen in the video accurately reflects cilia movements, raising the idea that AI might have been used at some point.

And Nikon has since clarified its position. Commenting under its own post on LinkedIn, Nikon said that it was “carefully re-reviewing the information provided during the initial vetting, along with additional supporting materials from the entrant.”

It added that “Dr. Ning Xu is respectfully complying and has provided detailed technical documentation outlining the microscopy equipment, imaging methods, and processing techniques used to create the source video. We plan to update the Nikon Small World community next week.”

Claims of AI watermarks

Dr. Xu has denied breaking the competition’s rules, saying on LinkedIn (via BBC News) that “AI was not used to generate the experimental movie, the cilia, or their motion.” However, they have conceded to using AI to “to distinguish and visualize features in the reconstructed grayscale images.”

Some critics have argued that the entry’s use of AI goes far beyond that, with claims being put forward that the cilia’s shapes do not fit with known behaviors and that the cilia appear to be too large.

Edward Phelps, Associate Professor at the University of Florida, said on LinkedIn that “There any many serious problems with this video,” for instance, with certain elements “popping in and out of existence and migrating between cells.”

What’s more, Ian Donovan a PhD student at UT Southwestern Medical Center, claimed to have uncovered “an embedded SynthID watermark identifying synthetic/AI-generated content.”

We’ll have to wait to see what conclusion Nikon’s investigation reaches, but it should perhaps not be surprising that, in the age of AI, remarkable images come under much more suspicion than they might have done in the past. AI or not, it’ll be fascinating to see what Nikon’s probe uncovers.

• New Microsoft report shows cyber activity is increasing around the globe
• AI is reducing the timescale of attacks, but its also helping defenders detect intrusions
• The UK faces the most state-sponsored cyber activity in Europe

As AI becomes more widely available and lowers the barrier of entry into cybercrime, hackers are launching a record number of campaigns against consumers and businesses alike, experts have warned.

The United Kingdom is now fifth in the world for countries where customers are most frequently impacted by cyber threats, with the nation accounting for 3.8% of global activity, according to a new report from Microsoft.

The UK has also risen to the top as the most targeted country for nation-state and geopolitical cyber activity in Europe, facing 76 observed events in the past year.

AI reduces cyber activity timeline

Cybercriminals and state-sponsored actors are now capable of putting together sophisticated cyberattacks in minutes as AI compresses the attack lifecycle. Attackers no longer need to spend days mapping and planning an attack.

But the points of entry haven’t changed much. Phishing attacks jumped globally from 7% to 23% of incident-response intrusions year-over-year, showing that humans remain as the weakest link despite AI helping defenders improve detection.

Voice phishing is also showing significant growth as an attack vector. While workforces have been drilled on the dangers of email phishing, a fake Teams call from a colleague or IT helpdesk adds a sense of urgency. To that end, voice phishing has jumped 502% over the past year.

Ransomware is also on the rise around the world. The United States saw a 50% jump in ransomware detections, Germany increased 276%, and the UK saw an increase of 66%.

Attacks against state and local government, education, and critical infrastructure are also increasing. Research and academia is the most targeted, making up 38% of all cyber attacks against this sector, followed by transport at 22%, and government agencies and services at 13%.

“Security in the AI era is no longer simply about preventing individual intrusions. It is about ensuring institutions can operate effectively in an environment where risks are interconnected, threats move faster, and attackers remain hidden longer,” said Mike Yeh, Vice President, Customer Security & Trust at Microsoft.

“Public-private partnerships are also more important than ever for securing critical government infrastructure and developing the policies and regulations needed for emerging technologies.”