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Apple Watch Ultra 3 owners tend to know the headline features by now: satellite messaging, the brighter always-on display, hypertension alerts.

What most people haven't noticed is a much quieter feature that only shows up if you also own a pair of the well-received AirPods Pro 3 — the same earbuds you're probably already using on all those Zoom calls at work every day.

For anyone else trying to squeeze a workout into a packed workday (or if you're trying to travel light on a business trip), I can tell you it's become the one I actually rely on most.

No more packing the chest-strap

AirPods Pro 3 have their own in-ear heart rate sensors, enabled by default, which is easy to miss since Apple doesn't make a big deal about it.

On their own, they're a genuinely solid heart rate source, useful for anyone who wants to track a run or a lift without a watch at all. But when you wear both an Apple Watch and AirPods Pro 3 during the same workout, the two devices don't just duplicate the same job.

They combine into multiple simultaneous streams of heart rate data, and the system automatically leans on whichever source has the highest confidence at any given moment.

(Image credit: Future)

That matters more than it sounds like. Wrist-based optical sensors, including the Ultra 3's, can struggle during movements that shift the watch on your wrist: heavy grip work, rowing, anything involving a lot of wrist flexion.

In-ear sensors don't have that problem, but they can be thrown off by their fit or by their own motion. Fusing both sources means the watch is quietly falling back on whichever sensor is actually reading you correctly, workout to workout and rep to rep, instead of you having to guess which device to trust.

Honestly, it's replaced the chest strap by now. I used to strap one on for anything where zone accuracy actually mattered, interval sessions, heavy lifting days, anything where the watch slides around enough on my wrist to throw the optical sensor off.

Is it clinically equivalent to a chest strap? Probably not. But after a few months of comparing the two side by side, it's close enough that I just don't bother anymore.

As a professional, that feels like a win to me. It's one less piece of gear I have to cart around with me on a business trip or to a conference with the rest of my work gear.

(Image credit: Future)

Setting it up takes no extra effort. Heart rate monitoring is enabled by default on AirPods Pro 3, so if you already own both devices, this will likely happen in the background the next time you start a workout with both in use.

You can check or turn it off entirely from the Settings app on iPhone, under your AirPods' name, if you'd rather it not run.

It's a small thing, and Apple has barely marketed it. But it's the kind of feature that only reveals itself once you own the specific pair of devices it's built for.

In my experience, it's an ideal setup for busy professionals who still want accurate health data without adding extra setups and gear.

If you've already got an Ultra 3 and a pair of AirPods Pro 3, there's nothing to set up and nothing to buy. You're most likely already using it without realizing it.

If you love coffee, you’ll be very aware of the impact of factors like grind size, water temperature, and infusion time, but there’s something else that’s often overlooked. A double espresso is at least 90% water, and the minerals and other substances it contains can have a huge impact on the overall taste.

I’m a big coffee-drinker (which is just as well, since I test over a dozen coffee makers every year for TechRadar), and I’m planning to buy a water filter to take my brewing to the next level — but what should I look for — and what should you consider if you’re thinking of taking the plunge into filtered water too?

To find out, I spoke to Andy McPhilbin, Head of Aquaphor Professional for UK and Ireland, and Genevieve Upton, beverage industry expert and Head of Water Filtration at Our Taap.

Why does water matter?

“Water quality can have a considerable impact on how coffee tastes, with chlorine, mineral composition, alkalinity and pH all influencing the final flavour profile,” says Upton.

“Most tap water supplied to UK homes is disinfected using chlorine-based compounds. Residual chlorine can react with components in coffee and tea, contributing bitter, medicinal or chemical notes that may overwhelm the more delicate characteristics of the coffee. Boiling water can reduce the levels of chlorine, though it can also create other unwanted flavours, such as by reacting to a plastic kettle.”

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She explains that the mineral composition and pH of the water also play an important role when it comes to how your coffee tastes.

“Slight differences in acidity, together with the concentrations of minerals and buffering compounds, influence extraction efficiency and the balance of flavors in the final cup. As water companies vary their supply sources throughout the year, you might notice that the same beans, brewed in exactly the same way, taste different from season to season.”

In fact, using unfiltered water doesn’t just mean your coffee tastes sub-optimal - it could cause your expensive coffee machine to break down — and it won’t be covered by the manufacturer's warranty..

“The warranty only covers manufacturing defects, and unfortunately, hard water is not a manufacturing defect,” explains McPhilbin. “So you can turn something that is a very efficient espresso machine into something very inefficient within a matter of weeks. You get a millimeter of scale forming within a matter of six weeks.

“Now, is that important? It is, because you want the life of the machine to be good, but also you've got little injectors which put the right amount of water into that espresso. If they're blocked, you're not going to get the right amount of water. You're going to have the wrong taste. It's got to be precise.”

What types of filtration are there?

Our Taap specializes in home water filtration Its latest system is the Our Taap Home Water System II — a countertop unit that connects to your mains water supply, and uses a triple filtration system with UV purification to remove contaminants while retaining minerals.

Aquaphor makes water filters for commercial and home use, including under-sink systems, pitchers, and even water bottles. Its most advanced systems for home users are the RO-101, RO-102, and RO-202, all of which use reverse osmosis (RO).

This involves forcing water through a semi-permeable membrane that removes chlorine, bacteria, viruses, pesticides, and microplastics. Standard RO filters also strip out minerals, but Aquaphor’s systems can optimize the concentration of calcium and magnesium so they’re just right for coffee — something McPhilbin says “really is a science”.

Under-counter reverse osmosis systems can be a good choice if you need a large volume of filtered water (Image credit: Getty Images, onurdongel)

“The mineral content is measured in TDS [total dissolvable solids], and we want that TDS to be somewhere in the realms of between 80 and 120 [parts per million],” he explains. “We have a couple of ways in which we do it, but generally we can either feed more minerals in it by making it tuneable, or we can take them out as well by turning it the other way. But if you have too little, you can cause corrosion, and if we have too much, we're going to get limescale. So we try to hit that sweet spot, which is 100 parts per million in the middle there.”

Our Taap’s filters use granular activated carbon filtration, which Upton says “is particularly good at removing chlorine and some of its by-products, which can mask the more delicate flavour notes in coffee.”

the water has a cleaner, more neutral taste, allowing the natural characteristic of the coffee beans to come through

Genevieve Upton, Our Taap

“By reducing these compounds, the water has a cleaner, more neutral taste, allowing the natural characteristic of the coffee beans to come through. Whether you’re brewing with a cafetière, pour-over or espresso machine, using filtered water can help create a smoother, more balanced cup with greater flavour clarity.

"It's worth remembering, however, that activated carbon filters are designed primarily to remove chlorine and certain organic compounds rather than minerals,” she adds. “As a result, they have little effect on the calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate levels that influence water hardness, alkalinity and extraction.”

Under-sink or countertop?

So which type of filter is right for you? Do you need an under-sink reverse-osmosis system, or would a countertop filter be better? McPhilbin says the decision will mostly depend on how much filtered water you need.

“I think it's down to capacity more than anything,” he says. “Our jug filters have twice the capacity of the competition because we use a unique media called Aqualen, which is a patented media based on ionic exchange and carbon, so you're getting a dual-purpose piece of filtering equipment there. Reverse osmosis has a massive capacity, and [the filter] is not something [you’re] changing all the time.”

Even if you have soft tap water, your coffee can still benefit from a water filter (Image credit: Getty Images, Henadzi Pechan)

Upton says your choice of filter will also depend on the problem you want to solve.

“If your tap water has a noticeable chlorine taste or smell, a filter with activated carbon is usually the best place to start,” she says. “This technology is available in everything from filter jugs to more advanced under-sink or countertop systems, with plumbed-in options offering great convenience for households that use filtered water regularly.

“If you’re dealing with limescale build-up in kettles or coffee machines, it’s important to choose a filter that specifically reduces water hardness, as not all filtration systems are designed to do this.”

You can turn something that is a very efficient espresso machine into something very inefficient within a matter of weeks

Andy McPhilbin, Aquaphor

I know I live in a hard water area (the limescale in my kettle is proof) but even if your tap water is soft, McPhilbin says a water filter is still a good investment.

“Most of the water in the UK is chlorinated, and that can affect the taste quite a lot,” he says. “And it might be that you've not got enough minerals in it to get the best taste.”

If you’re not sure about the type of water you’re working with, there are online tools that can help you understand its composition.

“The Our Taap Water Confidence Index is a great way to look up your postcode and understand what’s in your local water and how this impacts taste, scent and quality, so you can find the best filter for your needs,” says Upton.

According to the Confidence Index, I’m lucky - my tap water is better than 93% of UK postcodes. However, it is moderately hard (as I expected), with a normal level of chlorine and an elevated level of overall minerals. I’m still deciding exactly which type of filter to choose, but considering these results and my penchant for espresso, I’m leaning towards under-counter reserve osmosis with mineral balancing. What about you?

Anyone with a keen interest in the European car market will know that Cupra parted ways with its sister company Seat way back in 2018 to become the high-performance, funky standalone brand to attract the attention of a more youthful buyer.

The gamble paid off, as Cupra now outsells Seat in most regions, thanks to its heady line-up of handsomely styled SUVs and sporty hatchbacks, all with a fine selection of electrified powertrains.

This latest edition to the family, the relatively diminutive Raval, is the first of its kind to sit on parent company VW’s MEB+ platform, which will also underpin the upcoming and equally spicy ID Polo (including the GTI), the ID Cross and Skoda’s more crossover focused Epiq.

(Image credit: Cupra)

But Cupra being Cupra has seen fit to endow the Raval with almost comically sporty proportions, a fabulously appointed interior and the sort of electric powertrain that is designed to have true driving fans won over.

Having driven the top spec VZ models out on the beautifully flowing roads of northeastern Spain, it’s clear that there is still room for the compact, agile hot hatch in the often soulless world of modern EVs.

Seriously styled

(Image credit: Cupra)

You only have to take a look at one of the many recent Cupra events to realize that the company approaches new product launches a little differently.

These shindigs are typically held in warehouses and other industrial settings, often involve world-class DJs and incorporate faces from fashion, sports and culture.

The overemphasized creases on the bonnet, super aggressive front lamps and chunky rear diffuser on this VZ model signal its racy intentions.

The Raval is all of this stuff distilled into a diminutive hatchback, with copper accents and contrast flourishes on the outside, myriad on-trend materials throughout the cockpit and the latest technology taking care of infotainment duties.

On the outside, the Raval rides low to the ground (well, as low as any modern EV can) and wears its squat proportions with pride.

The over-emphasized creases on the bonnet, super aggressive front lamps and chunky rear diffuser on this VZ model signal its racy intentions.

It also rides on 19-inch ‘Rebel’ rims and crams vegan leather bucket seats into the cockpit, as well as a 12.9-inch Android Automotive central display and a separate 10.25-inch digital cockpit that takes care of speed and whatnot.

(Image credit: Cupra)

Considering the Raval VZ starts at £34,9995 in the UK (that’s around $47,000 / AU$65,000), it feels like a generous dose of premium car for the money.

But for those happy with the smaller wheels and smaller battery pack (more on that later), the range actually starts from £23,785 (around $32,000 / AU$45,000) for the 115hp, 37kWh models.

Nice and spicy

(Image credit: Cupra)

Clearly, the VZ version driven here is a little ‘spicier’ when it comes its performance credentials, as it features the larger 52kWh battery pack and a powertrain that delivers 222bhp and 214lb ft to the front wheels in proper hot hatch fashion.

Prod the accelerator and the little Raval wants to move, whisking drivers and passengers from rest to 62mph in a respectable 6.8 seconds.

It even has a quasi launch control mode that sends little shudders and vibrations through the seat to make the process of accelerating feel more exciting.

Prod the accelerator and the little Raval wants to move, whisking drivers and passengers from rest to 62mph in a respectable 6.8 seconds.

Granted, it feels a little gimmicky but Cupra has done an excellent job of making the Raval feel as sprightly as its exterior lines would suggest.

Flick it into Cupra mode via a dedicated button on the steering wheel and, alongside a growling synthesized soundtrack, you’re treated to massive levels of grip.

This results in the ability to round corners with all the thrills of a go-kart, while the dynamic chassis control fitted to this VZ model keeps things flat and firm when the mood takes. Thankfully, it is adjustable through 15 stages, so you can easily get a set up that suits.

But when settling back down into Eco of Comfort modes, the Cupra does its best impression of a sensible, grown-up VW Group product, proving almost perfectly quiet and comfortable when cruising along the highway. The ride quality really is excellent.

Fuel for thought

(Image credit: Cupra)

Having driven almost too many EVs to remember, I have got into the habit of always checking battery efficiency after an event like this.

It’s a great indication of real-world driving, often taking in faster, flowing sections of road (where the regen will help top-up batteries), slower city driving and battery-sapping highway miles.

The Cupra Raval revealed that we averaged around 4.5 miles per kWh after a day of driving, which means we could have happily racked up over 200-miles from a single charge of the relatively small 52kWh NMC battery packs.

Cupra’s official WLTP rating has this pegged at 239-miles, which feels honest and achievable if driving sensibly… which I wasn’t during this particular test.

(Image credit: Cupra)

Raval’s recharging game is strong too, with a 10-80% session taking just 24-minutes from a 105kW DC public charger. It’s slightly longer than close rivals, such as the recent Renault 5 and Kia EV2, but neither of those cars can really be described as feisty.

But perhaps the most striking thing to note from the small, sporty hatchback is that there’s a decent amount of room inside. Two adults can very comfortably sit up front and there’s just enough room in the back for a few friends.

Admittedly, leg room in the rear isn’t exactly generous, but it’s very good in this segment, while the rear trunk is positively cavernous. Mounting the motor at the front results in an impressive amount of space to store bulkier items.

(Image credit: Cupra)

There’s even a clever folding floor that can be set at various levels, making it easier to throw in shopping when space isn’t required or free up a deeper hole for those weekend trips away.

The Cupra Raval offers a beguiling mix of sensible, grown up elements — such as the responsive Android Automotive-based infotainment system, practical interior space and premium-feeling fabrics — and laces it with a hefty dose of fun.

Granted, this isn’t the all-out hot hatch that we might be used to from the ICE era, but it gets very close.

Plus, with VW set to unleash an ID Polo GTI later this year with eerily similar performance figures, it makes you wonder if it’s worth holding out for that revered badge when the Raval VZ is this good.

• Startup replaces Nvidia GPUs with custom Arm-powered AI processing hardware
• Prometheus packs up to 128TB of unified LPDDR6 memory onboard
• New server promises 1,000× more memory available per processor

Majestic Labs, a startup founded in 2023 by former Google and Meta engineers, has unveiled a server built to rival Nvidia's GPU and HBM combination.

The Tel Aviv-based company argues that pairing costly graphics processors with high-bandwidth memory has become a fundamentally memory-bound and dead-end approach for AI inference.

Its answer is the Prometheus server, which swaps GPUs for Ignite AI Processing Units combining Arm cores with RISC-V vector and tensor engines.

A different way to scale memory

Each Prometheus server can house up to 12 AIUs, sharing between 8 TB and 128 TB of LPDDR6 memory across one contiguous, coherent pool.

That memory pool is accessed through custom memory aggregation chiplets linked by copper cables up to one metre long instead of memory attached directly to GPU packages.

A standard 40U rack can hold four such servers, drawing 120 kW total and cooled through cold-plate liquid systems rather than air.

By comparison, an Nvidia DGX B300 system with eight Blackwell GPUs offers 2.3 TB of HBM3e plus up to 4 TB of DDR5 system memory.

Majestic claims its architecture therefore delivers over 50 times more fast memory than that rival configuration, alongside 1.7 times its interconnect bandwidth.

“One Majestic rack holds the fast memory capacity of 25 Nvidia NVL72 Vera Rubin racks at a fraction of the power,” Majestic Lab said.

“Organizations that could never justify hyperscaler infrastructure can now run any workload. In fact, there can be up to “1000× more memory per processor.”

Performance claims await broader testing

Majestic Labs says the Prometheus server could cost between 10 and 50 times less than a GPU system of equivalent performance once it ships next year, while consuming less electricity per rack.

The server is designed to be OCP-compliant and will support PyTorch, vLLM and OpenAI's Triton frameworks, letting existing AI models run without modification.

Founded by CEO Ofer Shacham, President Sha Rabii and COO Masumi Reynders, the company employs around 40 people across Tel Aviv and Los Angeles and raised $100 million in an A-round late in 2025.

It claims to have already received significant orders from large enterprises, neoclouds and hyperscalers.

Yet several details remain unclear, including how many memory aggregation chiplets a single server actually requires.

If a 128 TB configuration relies on widely available 2 GB LPDDR6 dies, it would need roughly 64,000 of them, implying well over a hundred aggregation chiplets per server.

The numbers Majestic Labs presents are striking, but they remain the startup's own projections ahead of any independent benchmarking or shipped hardware.

Enterprise buyers considering a shift away from established GPU vendors may have to wait for independent validation to verify Majestic's claims.

Via Blocks and Files

I’ve tested more than 50 Bluetooth speakers, and whenever I review a new model, there are a number of factors to consider. Do its features rival the competition? Can its design merge beauty with practicality? Is it actually worth the asking price? But one question is more important than any other: does it genuinely sound good?

This raised a deep curiosity within me. What if a Bluetooth speaker was judged on sound alone, with elements such as pricing, brand reputation, and looks holding no influence on people’s perception of quality? Well, I decided to find out for myself, and blindfolded four of my colleagues for a blind speaker test.

I played a 30-second snippet of a track, asked listeners to make notes, and when each speaker had been tested, I got my participants to rank each speaker from 1 to 5 (with 1 being the best, and 5 the worst). We repeated this process across five different tracks, each spanning a range of genres, in order to determine which sounded the best.

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A few things to run through before we get into the results, though. The volume of the speakers were all equalized, but I ensured not to push them above 80% volume, in order to limit distortion and compression. Each speaker was also set to its default EQ, and tracks were streamed from a single source device over Spotify. Also, my listeners had no prior knowledge of the speakers involved in the test, so as to cancel out any prejudices or prior experiences they may potentially hold.

I decided to use five speakers in a very similar size category: the JBL Go 5, the IKEA Kallsup, the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2, the Edifier ES20, and the Ultimate Ears Miniroll. Some have a higher power output than others and some are considerably cheaper (or pricier) than others. And some sit in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers, while others have fallen short. But interestingly, rankings varied quite a fair bit depending on the track and listener involved.

Curious to find out who came out on top? Here’s how our listeners ranked each speaker across each track, as well as the final scores.

Track 1: Fascinator by Max Dean

I started with a house track, Fascinator by Max Dean. I asked participants to listen to a short lead up to some sub-bass, and while I emphasized that the small models wouldn’t produce roaring power, I asked them to assess how well the speakers manage it. When the drop came in, I also asked them to judge how controlled and precise drums sounded in the treble range.

The results were pretty interesting here. Our cheapest option, the $10 / £5 IKEA Kallsup was the clear loser, with one listener, Caspar, noting ‘tinny’ highs and underwhelming bass — a sentiment generally shared across the board. It was quite close between JBL and Edifier here, with some listeners noting a slight lack in low-end impact, but improved mid-range performance and tighter treble.

However, the clear winner was Bose, which ranked 1st with all of our participants — and spoiler alert, this was the only instance of a unanimous verdict across the entire experiment. One listener, Ashley, noted how the track sounded ‘balanced with no distortion’ with others including Josh and Erin highlighting meatier bass and a pleasingly warm tone.

Track 1: rank (by listener)

Josh

Caspar

Ashley

Erin

JBL Go 5

4

5

4

2

IKEA Kallsup

5

4

5

5

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

1

1

1

1

Edifier ES20

2

3

3

4

UE Miniroll

3

2

2

3

Track 1: overall rank

Speaker

Rank

JBL Go 5

4th (15pts)

IKEA Kallsup

5th (19pts)

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

1st (4pts)

Edifier ES20

3rd (12pts)

UE Miniroll

2nd (10pts)

Track 2: Orphans by Cero

I changed up the vibe for Track 2, and played a snippet from the jazz-infused indie pop track Orphans by Japanese band Cero. Vocals are meant to be slightly forward, so I asked listeners to determine how well the speakers captured this, while also prompting them to judge how well-balanced percussion and guitars were in the mix.

The Kallsup unfortunately finished in last place once more, with Josh highlighting ‘rolled off’ vocals and unclear guitars in the mid-range. However, the JBL Go 5 wasn’t far in front, with Erin noting ‘lifeless guitars’.

The Edifier ES20 and UE Miniroll performed well, though, with participants highlighting better balance across the frequency range, warmer and more prominent vocals, and cleaner bass. The SoundLink Micro Gen 2 took the win once more, though, with an emphasis on clearer, more tonally accurate guitars, well-defined vocals, and more articulate percussion.

Track 2: rank (by listener)

Josh

Caspar

Ashley

Erin

JBL Go 5

3

5

5

4

IKEA Kallsup

5

4

4

5

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

2

1

2

1

Edifier ES20

1

2

3

3

UE Miniroll

4

3

1

2

Track 2: overall rank

Speaker

Rank

JBL Go 5

4th (17pts)

IKEA Kallsup

5th (18pts)

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

1st (6pts)

Edifier ES20

2nd (9pts)

UE Miniroll

3rd (10pts)

Track 3: The Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz

I wanted to try out something softer next, so I went for the legendary Bossa Nova track, The Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz. I requested my blindfolded colleagues to tune into the separation between guitars and vocals, the subtlety and texture of vocals and percussion, and control of the double bass. And this is where things got really interesting.

Surprisingly, Bose, which had been bossing it so far, finished in a lowly 4th place here, with listeners generally expressing disappointment with the speaker’s overemphasized bass and slightly unrefined treble response.

However, one thing remained the same, as the IKEA Kallsup came in 5th place. In fact, this was the only occasion in which every listener decided the Kallsup was the worst performer, with Erin writing: ‘No. What? What is this? It sounds like there’s a horde of bees trying to escape.’ Ouch.

Our champion this time out was the Edifier ES20, a speaker which I’ve often championed for its supreme mid-range clarity. Listeners appreciated this model’s beautifully balanced presentation, textured and controlled double bass, and detailed vocals. The UE Miniroll and JBL Go 5 finished 2nd and 3rd respectively, with our participants widely noting their relatively expansive interpretation of the track, and talking up their crisp, textured handling of vocals.

Track 3: rank (by listener)

Josh

Caspar

Ashley

Erin

JBL Go 5

2

4

4

1

IKEA Kallsup

5

5

5

5

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

4

1

3

4

Edifier ES20

1

2

2

2

UE Miniroll

3

3

1

3

Track 3: overall rank

Speaker

Rank

JBL Go 5

3rd (11pts)

IKEA Kallsup

5th (20pts)

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

4th (12pts)

Edifier ES20

1st (7pts)

UE Miniroll

2nd (10pts)

Track 4: Come On, Come Over by Jaco Pastorius

But how did the speaker manage a busier, more chaotic mix? I threw on Come On, Come Over by Jaco Pastorius, a funky, high-octane track that has it all. Participants were told to listen for the aggressiveness and clarity of horns, the quality of the track’s mid-bass punch, and how the speakers manage the swathe of instruments and vocals.

And it seemed that in this test, order was restored to how it had been up until Track 3. Bose came out on top, with Ashley praising the speaker’s balanced approach and Caspar highlighting the SoundLink Micro Gen 2’s impactful low end and enhanced vocal clarity. However, the Edifier ES20 and UE Miniroll did run Bose very close indeed. Participants enjoyed the tonality of the vocals, the decently open soundstage, and solid separation on offer.

IKEA’s Kallsup fell to last place, however, largely due to its unregimented bass and tinny mids. Meanwhile, listeners also felt that the JBL Go 5 struggled with the business of the tune, though some did highlight solid clarity in the treble range.

Track 4: rank (by listener)

Josh

Caspar

Ashley

Erin

JBL Go 5

5

4

4

4

IKEA Kallsup

4

5

5

5

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

3

1

2

1

Edifier ES20

1

2

3

2

UE Miniroll

2

3

1

3

Track 4: overall rank

Speaker

Rank

JBL Go 5

4th (17pts)

IKEA Kallsup

5th (19pts)

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

1st (7pts)

Edifier ES20

2nd (8pts)

UE Miniroll

3rd (9pts)

Track 5: Black Eye by Allie X

With Track 5, I wanted to assess the portable speakers’ handling of dynamics, so I went with an electronic song from TechRadar’s reference playlist, Black Eye by Allie X. Colleagues were asked to hone in on the attack of strings in the beginning of the snippet, and assess the control and dynamism of the bass and its impact, as well as the breathiness and detailing in the vocals.

And this was an incredibly close battle between Bose, Edifier, and Ultimate Ears. Bose just about managed to top the podium, with Erin delighted with the ‘dramatic strings’ and ‘expansive vocals,’ and Caspar highlighting dynamic bass and ‘nice balance between vocals and instruments’.

Josh’s favorite was the ES20, stating that vocals were ‘wonderfully conveyed’ and that bass was ‘punchy yet controlled’. Ashley, however, liked the UE Miniroll the most, arguing that it offered the cleanest low-end and most articulate vocals of the bunch.

But the poor Kallsup finished in 5th once more. Muted synths, a lack of texture and kick in the low-end, and recessed vocals left our listeners wanting more.

Track 5: rank (by listener)

Josh

Caspar

Ashley

Erin

JBL Go 5

4

5

4

4

IKEA Kallsup

5

4

5

5

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

2

1

3

1

Edifier ES20

1

2

2

3

UE Miniroll

3

3

1

2

Track 5: overall rank

Speaker

Rank

JBL Go 5

4th (17pts)

IKEA Kallsup

5th (19pts)

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

1st (7pts)

Edifier ES20

2nd (8pts)

UE Miniroll

3rd (9pts)

Final results: and the winner is…

(Image credit: Future)

So, the experiment drew to a close. Our listeners handed over their final scores, and I totaled them up to discover which speaker was king on sound alone. And the winner was… the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2!

Was I surprised by the result? Well, not entirely. I personally think this is a great-sounding small speaker, and its ability to produce meatier bass than much of the competition, alongside more precision in the treble range and clearer separation was all it needed to scoop up top spot.

What’s important to recognize, though, is that Bose’s small speaker is far pricier than all of the competition. It has a list price of $129 / £119.95, and while it certainly produces the goods in terms of sound, that’s an awfully high price tag given that you can nab larger, meatier, and more feature-rich models at that cost — the JBL Flip 7 is probably the first that comes to mind.

I was surprised, however, that the Edifier ES20 did so well. Josh selected the ES20 as his overall favorite, and it continually competed closely with Bose throughout, even topping the table in Track 3. In the UK, it’s less than half the price of the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2, but you really wouldn’t think so. Its composure and clarity in the mid-range is exceptional, and it has enough warm bass and controlled treble to keep more energetic tracks sounding as they should. If you want value for money, I think this model is absolutely worth checking out.

Another standout was the UE Miniroll, which Ashley picked out as her personal favorite. It continued to plate up clear mids and bass throughout, and I think it earns its relatively modest price.

Some may be surprised to see the JBL Go 5 a bit off the pace in 4th, but I still think it produced a solid performance across the experiment considering its limitations. It has a weaker power output than the top 3 speakers, which limits its ability to provide the drive and low-end might that others can. And although it could’ve offered slightly better separation, it's still a great small speaker given its low asking price of $54.95 / £39.99.

I felt very sorry for the IKEA Kallsup, which was regularly placed last by each of our participants. However, in the IKEA speaker's defense, not only does it have the lowest power output of the bunch (at just 3W), but it’s just $9.99 / £5. Yes, it's extremely cheap, and so the fact that it occasionally squeaked 4th place here and there is impressive in itself.

Check out the final table below, where you can see the final scores and rankings for each speaker, as well as their typical asking price. Were the results as you expected? Let me know in the comments!

Final ranking

Speaker

Overall rank

List price

JBL Go 5

4th (77pts)

$54.95 / £39.99

IKEA Kallsup

5th (95pts)

$9.99 / £5

Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2

1st (36pts)

$129 / £119.95

Edifier ES20

2nd (42pts)

$89.99 / £49.99

UE Miniroll

3rd (48pts)

$79 / £69

• China unveils rugged AS2-W robotic platform with advanced onboard artificial intelligence
• Robot wolf climbs steep slopes while carrying heavy operational payloads
• AS2-W combines wheeled mobility with advanced terrain handling capabilities

Chinese robotics company Unitree has unveiled its new AS2-W, an uncrewed ground vehicle on its official website.

The four-wheeled vehicle weighs 25 kg and can carry a stationary payload of up to 150 kg while sitting still.

It travels roughly 30 km on a single charge without cargo, or about 25 km carrying up to 16 kg.

Sensors and mobility built for rough terrain

According to Unitree, the AS2-W can climb obstacles reaching 80 cm high while traversing slopes of up to 45° without manual intervention.

The robot reaches speeds exceeding 6 m/s using industrial-grade joint modules delivering approximately 95 N·m of peak joint torque.

Unitree also says the platform uses a 648 Wh, 15,000 mAh battery capable of providing more than three hours of unloaded operation.

Its equipment includes industrial-grade 64- to 128-line LiDAR, an HD camera, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, 4G connectivity, microphones, speakers, and front lighting.

The AS2-W supports an IP54 dust and water resistance rating and is designed to operate in temperatures ranging from -20°C to 55°C.

Unitree also provides developer software tools, application programming interfaces, and support for artificial intelligence models enabling autonomous interaction and decision-making.

A demonstration video released by the company shows the robot navigating rocky slopes without losing its footing throughout the test.

The same footage shows the machine maintaining full mobility even after falling from elevated platforms during separate testing runs later.

Unitree describes the AS2-W as running a high-performance AI module capable of 150 TOPS, or trillion operations per second, onboard.

The company has not specified whether that processor is actually manufactured by Nvidia, despite widespread reports describing it that way.

Its ISS 3.0 autonomous navigation system is designed to provide centimetre-level positioning accuracy during movement through complex operating environments.

Military interest follows the armed version sighting

The People's Liberation Army has already shown interest in the AS2-W following its appearance during the Chinese-Mongolian Steppe Partner 2026 joint military exercise.

Chinese military reports indicated similar robotic platforms performed reconnaissance and fire support tasks during the exercise alongside conventional military units.

The public unveiling followed those exercises, although Unitree's commercial announcement focused primarily on the platform's technical characteristics rather than operational deployment.

The vehicle's onboard artificial intelligence enables object processing directly on the platform, potentially reducing delays associated with transmitting information to remote operators.

Its combination of autonomous navigation, onboard computing, and off-road mobility reflects broader interest in unmanned ground vehicles across several defence programmes worldwide.

However, the company has not disclosed the full operational limitations, endurance under sustained military use, or performance while carrying heavier payloads.

Unitree's YouTube video of this robot comes with the disclaimer, "Please, everyone be sure to use the robot in a friendly and safe manner."

"It takes close to eight months to produce the topiaries," explained Debbie Mola Mickler, area manager at Disney's Horticulture — for installations that were on display for just a few weeks.

On that clock, Disney's horticulture team is likely already deep into next year's lineup — even though this year's International Flower & Garden Festival at EPCOT only wrapped June 1. Mola Mickler oversees production of the living character sculptures that define the festival at Walt Disney World in Orlando. What look like decorative topiaries from a distance reveal themselves up close as something far more complex.

Underneath, engineered steel frames, a moss growth medium, and tightly integrated irrigation work together so that whether it's Mickey, Buzz, Lightning McQueen, or any other character, the topiary presents itself exactly as it should. They're closer to architecture than landscaping, and the timeline to build one reflects that.

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

That timeline starts long before any planting begins. Disney's horticulture team works directly with Walt Disney Imagineering to decide which characters can even be translated into living structures — a process that blends creative direction with real-world constraints like weight, scale, and maintenance. Once a character is selected, Mola Mickler goes straight to the source and thinks about scale — how big the topiaries need to be, and what plant material can tell that story.

From design, Disney's digital team produces a maquette — a small 3D-printed physical model of each topiary — that serves as the reference guide for everything that follows, from fabrication through final trimming.

That translation from screen to structure is where Disney's topiaries stop being just landscaping and become systems design problems. "Our Imagineers are so creative, they've pushed us towards getting these topiaries with more movement," she explained. The dresses have folds; legs may be bent like a character is mid-dance. That push toward motion and expression has forced a redesign of how internal structures are built — especially as characters become more dynamic and less symmetrical.

Once a design is approved, Disney builds a full production pipeline that starts with digital modeling and ends with custom steel fabrication. "You can't just go to the yellow pages and find a welder to make the frame," Debbie said.

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

Each topiary begins as a custom-engineered stainless steel structure designed to support weight, shape, and long-term outdoor exposure. Built into each frame are engineered pick points — load-bearing anchors that allow heavy equipment like cranes and forklifts to position the finished topiaries into their beds in the park. Some characters arrive in multiple pieces and are assembled on-site.

Once the steel frame is in place, it's filled with sphagnum moss, which acts as the primary growth medium. For larger characters, Disney builds a secondary cage of chicken wire inside the frame first — since plants only need about two to three inches of growing area, the inner cage reduces the amount of moss required while maintaining the structure's shape.

The moss retains moisture, supports plant plugs, and forms the core structure that everything else grows into. Built into each frame is a segmented irrigation system that allows Disney to control water distribution at a surprisingly granular level.

"We can do arms, we can do the head, we can do the feet," Debbie said. "And then we'll turn it off as needed." That segmentation isn't just for efficiency — it's environmental control. Florida's climate can shift rapidly, and different parts of a topiary may require different hydration levels depending on sun exposure and airflow.

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

As the plants grow in, the maquette becomes the trimming guide — helping maintain pose accuracy and character shape across months of active growth before the festival opens.

Behind the scenes, Disney operates continuous environmental monitoring across 12 greenhouse facilities, each subdivided into controlled environments that simulate different growing conditions depending on plant type and stage. Debbie described automated alerts that notify her directly if temperatures fall outside safe ranges — a system her team relies on enough that they refer to themselves as "weather watchers."

The foundational methods, though, have deep roots. "Many years ago when I first started in Disney horticulture, we did not have sphagnum topiary," Debbie said. "We only had woody topiaries with single shrubs being trained in a frame, and it can take seven to 10 years to grow one."

Those traditional systems, still used at Disneyland, rely on shrubs trained over lightweight frames and take several years to mature. At EPCOT, the sphagnum system enables faster production cycles and far more expressive designs — but still requires nearly a year of preparation per installation.

(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

Some heritage pieces remain in rotation, including a more than 50-year-old elephant topiary originally built for Magic Kingdom that now makes a special appearance just for Flower & Garden in EPCOT's United Kingdom Pavilion.

Modern festival builds, meanwhile, sit at the intersection of horticulture and fabrication engineering. Materials like palm fiber replicate textures such as Woody's hat and boots; coconut coir matting handles facial detailing. Props like belt buckles and sheriff badges are 3D printed and integrated directly into the structures.

Even animation principles feed into final assembly. "We want to make sure the eyes are always looking at the guest when they take a picture," Debbie said.

It's that kind of detail — designed not just to be seen, but to be experienced — that makes the topiaries something more than seasonal decoration. They're living installations built to hold up across an entire festival, in Florida heat, one carefully engineered character at a time.

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 Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, August 1 (game #1147).

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 #1148) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• LIKE
• AIRPLANE
• VIA
• FLAX
• À LA
• SO
• BY
• DARK
• PER
• LORD
• WELL
• ASEA
• THROUGH
• BEAST
• OLGA
• ACTUALLY

NYT Connections today (game #1148) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Meaningless meaning
• GREEN: How to get threre
• BLUE: A type of thing different to the main thing
• PURPLE: Abbreviations for baggage handlers

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 #1148) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: FILLER WORDS
• GREEN: BY MEANS OF
• BLUE: MODE
• PURPLE: U.S. AIRPORT CODES PLUS STARTING LETTER

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

NYT Connections today (game #1148) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1148, are…

• YELLOW: FILLER WORDS: ACTUALLY, LIKE, SO, WELL
• GREEN: BY MEANS OF: BY, PER, THROUGH, VIA
• BLUE: MODE: AIRPLANE, BEAST, DARK, À LA
• PURPLE: U.S. AIRPORT CODES PLUS STARTING LETTER: ASEA, FLAX, LORD, OLGA

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I love getting Connections badges and today was rewarded with a Reverse Rainbow. Incredibly, after playing the game for several years this is only the second time I’ve achieved this.

Key to my Purple First success was spotting LAX hidden in FLAX and GLA in OLGA, having travelled to both airports plenty of times. LAX feels particularly iconic thanks to its inclusion in several lyrics — “I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan” from Miley Cyrus’s Party in the USA being a favorite.

Next, I got MODE in part because I am fairly certain we have had this category before, while I simply got lucky connecting BY MEANS ahead of the yellow group of FILLER WORDS.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, August 1, 2026, game #1147)

• YELLOW: BEDDING: COMFORTER, SHAM, SHEET, THROW
• GREEN: OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS SINCE 2010: BALE, JORDAN, PHOENIX, WALTZ
• BLUE: PERFORM SOME HOLE MACHINING OPERATION: S BORE, COUNTERSINK, DRILL, REAM
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH BREAD SHAPES: BOULEVARD, BUNDLE, LOAFER, ROLLS-ROYCE

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 Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, August 1 (game #881).

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Eyes on the prize

NYT Strands today (game #882) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• BURP
• HABIT
• NATION
• CLAP
• ALONG
• APPEAL

NYT Strands today (game #882) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 7 letters

NYT Strands today (game #882) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

• First side: right, 8th row

• Last side: left, 2nd row

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

NYT Strands today (game #882) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #882, are…

• AMBITION
• GOAL
• PLAN
• PURPOSE
• OBJECTIVE
• INTENTION
• SPANGRAM: AIMHIGH

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I’d collected six non-game words before I found AMBITION and managed to resist the temptation of speeding things up with a couple of hints.

After I’d got going, GOAL, PLAN and PURPOSE came easily, but even though I saw OBJECTIVE I still managed to mess up the order connecting the letters.

All in all, a quite straightforward game with the most unusual feature being a rare right-to-left diagonal spangram.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, August 1, game #881)

• SILLY
• ABSURD
• PREPOSTEROUS
• LUDICROUS
• LAUGHABLE
• SPANGRAM: GETREAL

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 Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Saturday, August 1 (game #1650).

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 #1651) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* 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 #1651) — 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 #1651) — 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 #1651) — 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 #1651) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• B

• E

• R

• M

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

Quordle today (game #1651) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1651, are…

• BOOTH
• EASEL
• REACH
• MAKER

Another close call for me today after I struggled to get EASEL.

Fortunately, by this point I only had a few letters left, so I was out of alternative options. Plus, for my final word MAKER, my first guess of “gamer” gave me the letter M, which narrowed things down considerably.

Daily Sequence today (game #1651) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1651, are…

• TITHE
• SEIZE
• FLIRT
• LEVER

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1650, Saturday, 1 August: OMEGA, BIRCH, SMOCK, EERIE
• Quordle #1649, Friday, 31 July: MANIA, SINGE, STOOL, LOFTY
• Quordle #1648, Thursday, 30 July: MODAL, IDLER, CHUMP, LUMPY
• Quordle #1647, Wednesday, 29 July: GAWKY, ALLOY, AUDIT, LATCH
• Quordle #1646, Tuesday, 28 July: SMITE, ROACH, RUDDY, GLOBE
• Quordle #1645, Monday, 27 July: TAFFY, FIGHT, GUILD, WAGER
• Quordle #1644, Sunday, 26 July: STOMP, LIMIT, FUNKY, STEAD
• Quordle #1643, Saturday, 25 July: SALON, SHEEN, BURST, GOURD
• Quordle #1642, Friday, 24 July: DOLLY, EDIFY, LAGER, PRANK
• Quordle #1641, Thursday, 23 July: LADEN, EVICT, WOVEN, SHIRE
• Quordle #1640, Wednesday, 22 July: COYLY, SINGE, AWASH, AWOKE
• Quordle #1639, Tuesday, 21 July: TRUSS, AXIAL, SWINE, THING
• Quordle #1638, Monday, 20 July: ICING, SLICK, GAILY, RISEN
• Quordle #1637, Sunday, 19 July: SPURT, ACRID, THRUM, BLEEP
• Quordle #1636, Saturday, 18 July: KNAVE, TIGHT, BLEAT, CHAOS
• Quordle #1635, Friday, 17 July: CUMIN, PALER, GRASS, INBOX
• Quordle #1634, Thursday, 16 July: IGLOO, PLAIT, YEAST, AROMA
• Quordle #1633, Wednesday, 15 July: PROXY, BRICK, BROTH, SURGE
• Quordle #1632, Tuesday, 14 July: EBONY, AVOID, RODEO, CUTIE
• Quordle #1631, Monday, 13 July: VOICE, BISON, BURNT, BUILT

• Etched reached a $10.3 billion valuation after securing fresh SK Hynix backing
• The startup built custom processors specifically for demanding AI inference workloads
• Etched says conventional GPUs waste power during many inference tasks today

Etched, a US-based AI chip startup, has secured fresh backing from SK Hynix as it hits a $10.3 billion valuation while pursuing processors built specifically for inference workloads.

The company argues that conventional GPUs deliver more computational capability than many inference tasks require, yet offer insufficient memory for increasingly demanding AI models.

Its latest funding will support the production of rack-scale inference systems designed around custom chips, shared memory, and lower power consumption, rather than general-purpose graphics processors.

Etched bets custom inference chips can outperform traditional GPUs

Founded by former Harvard students Gavin Uberti, Robert Wachen, and Chris Zhu, Etched focuses exclusively on AI inference rather than training large language models.

The startup says its systems combine Low Voltage Inference (LVI) technology with Cluster Scale Memory (CSM), allowing processors to access substantially larger shared memory pools than conventional GPUs.

“Today, AI chips can't scale FLOPs without thermal throttling. As FLOPs utilization increases, AI chips draw more power and downregulate clock speed…,” said Chris Zhu

We’ve designed a new architecture to run our chip’s math blocks at under half the voltage of most AI chips. This enables multiple times the FLOPs density of AI chips today.”

The researchers claim that existing processors struggle to increase floating-point performance because higher utilisation raises power consumption and eventually reduces operating clock speeds through thermal limits.

Processors using High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) cannot achieve SRAM-level decoding speeds because memory subsystems and interconnects introduce additional latency during inference workloads.

They therefore created a shared low-latency memory pool connected through what it describes as a proprietary ultra-low-latency, high-bandwidth interconnect to enable faster memory access

“Our HBM/SRAM hybrid design solves both memory capacity and mem2mem latency, enabling high throughput and interactivity simultaneously.

“CSM improves latency and avoids today's cost, reliability, yield, thermal, and compute tradeoffs of SRAM-only chips, 3D DRAM chips, or optics.”

The company also claims many AI models waste time moving data between chips, memory, and networking hardware before processing can continue.

According to Etched, its CSM architecture reduces those delays by minimising additional memory layers during data transfers.

Funding surge accelerates production and global expansion

Etched has attracted funding at a rapid pace, raising $5.4 million in its 2023 seed round, $120 million in 2024, $500 million in 2025, and $300 million in 2026.

Those investments bring total funding to approximately $925.4 million, while the latest financing doubled the company's valuation from $5 billion to $10.3 billion.

The C-round included Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Jane Street, Diffusion, Argo, and SK Hynix, signalling continued investor confidence despite increasing competition within AI hardware markets.

Robert Wachen said, "This round accelerates production of our inference clusters," while confirming an 80,000 sq ft, 10 MW facility opened near Milpitas.

The company now employs more than 400 people, reports customer demand exceeding $1 billion, and has established manufacturing operations in Taiwan.

Etched systems will support conventional large language models, mixture-of-experts architectures, and alternatives including Mamba.

Via Blocksandfiles

AI demands a huge amount of energy, water, compute, and, of course, money. Big tech companies, including Google and Meta, have pledged huge sums of money toward the capital expenditure (capex) to continue the push to more powerful AI. But many inventors feel increasingly wary that this spending is simply swelling an already inflated bubble.

Laying the tracks

Speaking with CNBC in July 2026, the legendary investor Warren Buffett, who recently retired, weighed in on the capex debate.

Quote of the day

This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here.

Big tech companies are pledging a huge sum to the AI infrastructure buildout, which may reach up to $750 billion over 2026 and up to $4.5 trillion by 2030 among the four largest hyperscalers, including Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet. Many suggest this is further evidence of a bubble being fuelled aggressively by big tech companies doubling down on a technology that hasn't demonstrated meaningful returns.

But explaining his firm Berkshire Hathaway's 17.85 million-share purchase of Alphabet stock, disclosed in November 2025, Warren Buffett drew parallels between this level of spending and that during the 1800s to build the railroad system.

From digital to physical

As an investor, Buffett famously avoided software giants, suggesting they were asset-light businesses and didn't see the value in the investment propositions. This is a point he's since conceded he was wrong about. The firm he led made an additional $10 billion investment in Alphabet in June 2026.

The rationale is that there's currently a pivot underway in which these companies are shifting from the purveyors of digital products, namely applications and software, toward the physical infrastructure and compute to power AI.

Although the hyperscalers have been investing heavily in cloud infrastructure to power their software as a service (SaaS) propositions, the spending that AI commands is on a completely different level, as the figures show. That's why, in the end, Buffett believes that Alphabet proved a sound investment – given he believes that they have the cash flow to sustain the ongoing physical infrastructure buildout.

“Sometimes I find I get to thinking of the past,” sang (or croaked) Leonard Cohen, and I’ve found myself recently doing the same. However, while Cohen was lamenting the death of a relationship, my early-onset nostalgia has been triggered by something far more tragic and poetic: the death of affordable computer components.

I’ve spent the majority of 2026 marvelling and despairing, in equal measure, at how components, especially memory-based ones, such as SSDs, RAM and graphics cards, have skyrocketed in price. As you probably know by now, this mainly due to pressures on the supply chain from a seemingly endless procession of AI services that have been gobbling up memory.

Not only has this made upgrading your PC extremely expensive (upgrading the RAM was once one of the most cost-effective upgrades you could make), it’s also made products such as laptops, games consoles, and phones more expensive too. It’s upended decades of the tradition of technology getting cheaper over time.

Watching the tech I write about (and love) get increasingly expensive and inaccessible for a lot of people is getting pretty depressing.

Take both the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. In previous generations, six years after launch, consoles should have had numerous price cuts, making them almost impulse buys at this stage; along with a healthy second-hand game market, this traditionally meant that waiting until late into a generation to get a console was a great way to save some serious cash.

However, both the PS5 and Xbox Series have had several price rises this generation, which means buying a six-year-old bit of hardware is now more expensive. This is far from an ideal situation (and one of the reasons why the PS5 will likely be the first PlayStation console I don’t buy), and it’s not unique to consoles. Apple recently hiked the prices of its Macs and MacBooks (including the budget MacBook Neo, which launched at $599 / £599 / AU$899, but has since risen to $699 / £699 / AU$1,059 and which in turn quite drastically undermines the Neo’s value proposition).

Watching the tech I write about (and love) get increasingly expensive and inaccessible for a lot of people is getting pretty depressing. Take the Steam Deck: recently, it was announced that Steam Deck sales have dropped by a whopping 80% after Valve increased the price of the gaming handheld to $789 / £649 / AU$1,199, a $240 / £170 / AU$300 rise.

Now, I've loved the Steam Deck since day one, and would always recommend it to most people thinking about buying a new gaming laptop or handheld, simply due to its excellent value.

Now? Not so much. I simply can't justify the idea that people should buy an old, underpowered bit of kit that’s almost as expensive as the budget gaming laptops I used to tell people to avoid.

For many of us PC gamers, it also means upgrading or building a new gaming PC is now out of the question, and the hardware we currently have will need to tide us over for a few more years.

But, does that mean you can’t upgrade your PC at all for the moment? Thankfully, there are still plenty of ways to boost your computer without spending a fortune, such as upgrading parts that aren’t memory-dependant (for instance getting yourself a new monitor), or tweaking the software.

As for me, I decided to transplant one of my existing gaming PCs into a new case, while also taking the opportunity to upgrade the cooling. One of the most fun things about building PCs is coming up with a theme or design, and because of my disillusionment with the current state of computing, I thought it would be fun to turn my PC into a retro device that harkened back to a time when computing really was fun: the 1990s.

Cut to the caseExisting Spec

Because I’m updating my current PC, I have most of the hardware already (which is just as well considering the prices of many components). Here is the starting spec:

Motherboard: MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi

CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i RGB ELITE Liquid CPU Cooler

Case fans: Noctua NF-A14 PWM Chromax 140mm

Processor: Intel Core i9-12900K, 16 Cores / 24 Threads

GPU: PNY Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Slim

RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32GB DDR5 5200MHz

Storage: 500GB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 PCIe

Secondary Storage: 2TB WD_BLACK AN1500 1TB NVMe SSD

Power: Corsair HX1500i 80 PLUS Platinum 1500W PSU

Case: Fractal Design Vector RS Tempered Glass

I've been feeling for a while that this is a bit of a mid-range setup that is (outside of the RTX 5070) showing its age, which is why I mainly use it for working, with a spot of image and video editing and the occasional game.

For pretty much all of my gaming needs, I have a far more powerful gaming PC with newer components (and an RTX 5090), but looking at the specs at this point in 2026 during the midst of the RAM crisis, I think I was being rather harsh on this PC. For a start, the 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2.5TB of storage feels positively decadent these days.

So, my main goal was to swap the (perfectly fine, if a little dull) Fractal Design Vector RS case for something with a bit of retro style. Enter the Thermaltake Retro 360 TG Mid Tower Chassis.

This is a case built for modern PCs, but with a pleasingly retro look. Of course, it’s a wonderful shade of beige that will instantly give flashbacks (the good kind) to anyone who used a PC in the 1990s. It also has sections for a CD-ROM drive and floppy disk drive, though those aren’t usable and are really more of a gimmick.

Still, it looks like it could have come straight from the '90s, while still supporting modern hardware, including space for all-in-one CPU coolers, and a front panel that includes a USB-C port. It also has a tempered glass window to show off the components inside, something that’s common these days, but wasn’t really a thing back then. This combination of retro looks and modern capabilities was perfect for my needs.

Cooling off

To make things easier when transporting the motherboard and installed components into the new case, I was planning on removing the existing Corsair iCUE H150i RGB ELITE Liquid CPU cooler, giving me an excuse to install a new one.

To make the most out of the glass window of the Retro 360 TG case, I picked the Thermaltake TH360 V3 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO Liquid Cooler, which — as well as having powerful cooling — comes with a 3.95-inch LCD display that looks (to my mind, at least) like an old CRT monitor.

This screen can display system info (such as the temperature of your CPU), as well as custom animations, and I thought it would help liven up the inside of the PC, while still keeping with the retro-modern theme.

I also had a spare pack of Corsair RX120 RGB fans (the perks of being a tech journalist) that I wanted to use. For a start, they're white, which would fit the beige aesthetic, and it also meant I wouldn’t have to remove the case fans in the older chassis, potentially saving me some time and annoyance (the Thermaltake Retro 360 TG Mid Tower Chassis doesn’t come with fans, and they are essential for keeping the PC cool when in use).

Prepping for surgery

(Image credit: Future)

Once I’d assembled everything I needed to transform my PC into a retro powerhouse, I prepared to make the switch. Because I was swapping an already-built PC into a new case, the prep work differed slightly than if I was building a new PC from scratch.

The first step was to remove the bulk of the PC from the old case. To make things easier, I wanted to keep as much as I could in the motherboard, but there were some components that needed to be removed.

So, I started by unscrewing the large CPU cooler from the top of the processor. I then removed the GPU and WD_BLACK AN1500 SSD, which like the GPU, slots into a PCI-e lane of the motherboard. The other SSD is screwed directly into the motherboard via the M.2 port, so I didn’t need to worry about that.

I then carefully disconnected the case fans and I/O connectors (which allow you to turn the PC on and off using the buttons on the case, use USB ports, etc), then unscrewed the motherboard and lifted it out of the case.

It wasn’t a major inconvenience, but a good example of how moving cases can require tools that you’d not usually need when building a PC.

Once the motherboard was out, one of the first major hurdles that you wouldn’t encounter if building a PC from scratch presented itself. I noticed when I tried placing the motherboard in the new case that it wouldn’t sit properly. Taking it out, I realized that when unscrewing the motherboard from the old case, some of the standoffs (which screw into the case to lift the motherboard off the chassis) had been unscrewed as well, and were still attached to the motherboard.

So, I needed to hunt down some pliers, which allowed me to hold the standoffs and unscrew the motherboard from them.

Once off, I was able to screw the motherboard into the new case (which already had its own standoffs installed) without an issue. It wasn’t a major inconvenience, but a good example of how moving cases can require tools (in this case pliers) that you’d not usually need when building a PC.

Plugging in

With the motherboard installed, I then plugged in the new cases’ I/O connectors. One thing I loved about the Thermaltake Retro 360 TG Mid Tower case is that front panel’s wires, which are often individual wires that can be extremely fiddly to attach to a motherboard, came as a block, which made installation much easier and faster.

While the larger components were still laying on my desk, I also connected up the PSU cables. The Corsair HX1500i 80 PLUS Platinum, which again I transported from the old PC, is a modular PSU, which means the cables aren’t permanently attached to the PSU — instead you can just plug in the cables you need to both the motherboard and PSU.

This makes installation a lot easier, and cable management much neater, and it meant I could plug the cables into the motherboard without having to install the PSU until later (a decision I made to make things easier, but I’m not sure it worked!).

I also took the opportunity to install the three Corsair RX120 RGB fans, adding two to the front of the chassis to pull in cooler air, and one at the rear that pushes hot air generated by the PC’s components out of the case.

These fans are more advanced than the previous ones I used for the PC: rather than being plugged into the motherboard and controlled that way, they daisy chain to each other, then connect to an iCUE LINK system hub, which then connects to the motherboard via a microUSB cable, all powered by the PSU.

This made the installation harder, as it meant I needed to route the proprietary cables to connect each fan to the hub, and some of those cables weren’t that long. It also meant having to hunt down an extra PSU cable, which caused issues later. While the iCUE LINK system hub meant I had greater control over the fan’s RGB lighting and temperature control, I don’t really think it was worth the extra effort. If I did this again, I’d stick to standard, easier-to-install case fans.

Finally, I installed the TH360 V3 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO CPU cooler. I removed the existing thermal paste from the CPU and reapplied a small blob. I had ordered extra thermal paste as I wasn’t sure if the CPU cooler would include some, as not all do. As it turns out, the cooler does come with a small tube of thermal paste, so I now have a spare tube, but it’s always handy to have extra.

It was important to reapply the thermal paste, as the existing paste on the CPU was now several years old, and some of it remained on the cooler when I removed it. To ensure maximum cooling efficiency, removing the old paste and applying new paste was the best, and safest, option.

Installation was easy: I screwed the radiator and fans to the top of the case, attached the fan controls to the CPU Pump header on the motherboard, then placed the screen (which attached via magnets) on the cooler.

Always keep hold of cables and any other extras that come with your components, even if you don’t initially need to use them

With that in place, I then put the GPU and SSD back in their PCIe slots, connected (almost) everything up to the PSU, then secured the PSU in the case.

I say ‘almost’, as I didn’t have a cable to attach the iCUE LINK hub to the PSU. As I mentioned earlier, the PSU is modular, so I had only plugged in the cables I needed during the original build, but now I needed an extra cable. The PC wouldn’t boot without the hub powered on, nor would it boot when I tried a cable from a different PSU (this is likely a safety feature — you should never use cables from a different PSU, but I wanted to check).

Thankfully, after some rummaging around, I found the extra cables from the PSU, installed the correct cable to the hub and the PC booted fine. This wouldn’t have been an issue if I’d used a more basic fan, but at least I was now up and running. It also highlighted an important lesson: always keep hold of cables and any other extras that come with your components, even if you don’t initially need to use them.

Finishing touches

With the PC booting without issue, I then added the finishing touches. For instance, I ordered some retro stickers from Geekenspiel, a website that makes the kind of stickers you used to find on PCs, but for modern hardware (such as a sticker with the old Nvidia logo, but referencing the modern RTX graphics card).

I also paired the PC with the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard, a wonderful-feeling keyboard that offers modern features but with an old-fashioned look and beige colorway that perfectly complements the PC.

I also ordered a Microsoft ProIntelli Wired mouse, which is a modern mouse inspired by Microsoft’s iconic IntelliMouse peripherals. Again, it combines retro looks with modern tech, which makes it a perfect choice for this build.

With the peripherals attached, I logged into Windows 11 and set up the TT RGB PLUS 3.0 software, which allows me to tweak the settings of the TH360 V3 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO CPU cooler, and configure the screen. I made a short retro-inspired gif of the TechRadar logo, and used the software to display it on the LCD screen of the cooler.

I was very pleased with the results, and it instantly made the PC more interesting visually while still feeling retro. However, I have to say the TT RGB PLUS 3.0 software seemed quite flakey, with some options simply not working. The software also needs to load in Windows 11 before the animation plays on the screen.

The fans of the cooler were also very loud, and setting them to ‘Quiet’ in the software didn’t seem to make a difference. So, I restarted the PC and went into its BIOS and tweaked the fan speeds there, which worked. Suddenly, the PC was whisper-quiet.

Turning Windows 11 into Windows 95

I wasn’t quite done, however. While the hardware now certainly looked the part, I wanted the software to match. At first, I considered ditching Windows 11 altogether and instead using a Linux distro skinned to look like Windows 95.

The benefits of this is that I’d be free of all the bloat that Windows 11 comes with, especially the AI stuff I have no interest in, and also that Linux is far more customizable; with a bit of time, I could make an operating system that looked and acted a lot more like Windows 95.

However, there were also plenty of downsides. For one, it would be time-consuming to install and configure a distro, and many PC games and software won’t run natively on Linux. The TT RGB PLUS 3.0 software, for instance, won't work on Linux, and while there are workarounds, they are again time-consuming and fiddly. Plus, this approach would mean things like adding gifs to the screen wouldn’t work — and I wanted my gifs.

So, I decided to stick with Windows 11, but heavily mod it to look like Windows 95. This involved using WindowBlinds 11 and Start11 by Stardock. The first piece of software lets you drastically change the look of Windows 11, and has a ‘classic’ theme that’s perfect for my needs.

For a little while, I was able to pretend the tech world wasn’t a dumpster fire, but a more fun, perhaps more innocent, place to be

Start11, as you might have guessed from the name, focuses on the Start menu, and allows you to tweak it so that it looks, and works, like the classic Start menus of Windows 95 and Windows 98.

(Image credit: Future)

Each of these bits of software took a bit of configuring, but before long I had Windows 11 looking, and feeling, like Windows 95. Changing the desktop icons through Windows 11’s settings to feature classic Windows icons (I downloaded them from DeviantArt), and changing the desktop wallpaper to a solid teal color completed the look.

(Image credit: Future)

While not perfect (Windows Explorer still tries to show Windows 11-era tabs, and the taskbar clock can be a bit funny), I now had a retro-inspired modern operating system to complement my retro PC.

(Image credit: Future)

Overall, I was pretty happy, and a comforting sense of nostalgia washed over me as I used my big beige box. For a little while, I was able to pretend the tech world wasn’t a dumpster fire, but a more fun, perhaps more innocent, place to be.

(Image credit: Future)Final thoughts

Overall, I’m so glad I tried this out: it feels, ironically, as if I’ve given my aging PC a new lease of life. It looks great, and the mouse and keyboard feel fantastic — and familiar. Windows 11 also feels more sprightly, as I turned off a lot of the unnecessary animations and visual effects that usually run when using the operating system.

Strangely, I have also managed to fix a weird startup bug the PC used to have where sometimes the GPU didn’t power on. Since moving the PC into its new case, this has not happened once, so I must have inadvertently changed something during the move (not just by removing the GPU, as I had tried that before, and even swapped GPUs, and the problem persisted), so that’s a nice side effect.

The process was a lot faster with an existing PC than if I’d built one from scratch, though that has meant I needed to make some compromises. The motherboard and components don’t really complement the beige case, for instance; if I’d been building a new PC, I’d have probably tried to get white components instead, and cables to match.

Even in 2026, building, tweaking and upgrading your PC can be fun and creative, and you don’t have to spend a fortune if you can repurpose a lot of the components

I’m also glad that I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to tech, and I hadn’t thrown away the PSU cables I didn’t originally use. Okay, so I might have felt a bit daft holding on to cables for almost half a decade that I would likely never use, but it meant that I had the correct one when I needed it.

(Image credit: Future)

Finally, it proved that even in 2026, building, tweaking and upgrading your PC can be fun and creative, and you don’t have to spend a fortune if you can repurpose a lot of the components.

The retro theme of both the PC itself and the software it runs looks and feels great as well. It was hard work, but well worth it. If this article has inspired you to do something similar, let me know in the comments below!

• Ukraine receives rights to produce Britain’s Stone Cloak electronic warfare system
• Tablet-sized device helps Ukraine counter growing Russian drone operations
• Stone Cloak expands Ukraine’s electronic warfare capabilities against unmanned threats

Ukraine is receiving access to the intellectual property behind the UK-developed Stone Cloak electronic warfare system.

The tablet-sized device is designed to disrupt Russian drone detection systems and strengthen Ukraine’s ability to counter unmanned threats.

Thousands of Stone Cloak units have already been supplied to Ukrainian forces as electronic warfare becomes increasingly important on the battlefield.

Ukraine gains rights to produce British-designed drone defence system

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham recently hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London, where he announced the United Kingdom will transfer intellectual property rights for its Stone Cloak electronic warfare system to Ukraine.

“Stone Cloak is an example of the best of British innovation, proven on the front lines, and will be crucial to safeguarding the security of both our nations,” Burnham said.

“This will help them hit their targets and save Ukrainian lives. It also demonstrates the kind of innovations our industries can create together.”

The transfer gives Ukraine the ability to manufacture the compact electronic warfare equipment without depending entirely on external deliveries.

The system works by interfering with drone detection capabilities, helping Ukrainian forces reduce the effectiveness of hostile unmanned aerial operations.

Electronic warfare systems like Stone Cloak have become a major part of modern combat as drones continue shaping battlefield tactics.

British officials described the transfer of intellectual property as a way to support Ukraine’s defence needs through expanded manufacturing capability.

The agreement forms part of broader defence cooperation between London and Kyiv involving military assistance, training, and technology sharing.

“The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and our support remains unwavering. Russia should have no doubt about our resolve, and we will not back down until we achieve a lasting and just peace for Ukraine,” Burnham said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has continued seeking greater access to defence technologies that can be produced within Ukraine.

The Stone Cloak system is among several technologies aimed at improving protection against increasingly common drone threats.

Its compact design allows easier deployment compared with larger electronic warfare systems that require more extensive equipment and infrastructure.

Compact electronic warfare gains importance against drone threats

The growing use of unmanned systems has increased demand for smaller electronic warfare tools capable of responding quickly.

Drones have become widely used for surveillance, reconnaissance, and attack missions, creating greater demand for effective countermeasures.

Systems like Stone Cloak are designed to provide another layer of protection against these increasingly common battlefield threats.

The effectiveness of electronic warfare equipment depends on continued improvements because drone technology and countermeasures continue evolving.

Manufacturing Stone Cloak inside Ukraine could allow faster adaptation of the system based on battlefield feedback and operational requirements.

However, production expansion will depend on industrial capacity, component availability, and the ability to maintain reliable manufacturing processes.

Future availability of Stone Cloak units will depend on how quickly Ukrainian production facilities can scale up operations.

Via Ukrainska Pravda

I bought my first Tesla Model 3 in June 2019. It was my dream car. The promise of getting in, selecting a destination, and the car taking care of the rest was one I bought into.

I originally bought the Model 3 without Full Self Driving (FSD), which at the time cost $6,000. Then about a month later, Elon Musk announced the cost would start going up by $1,000 every few months. So, I bought FSD outright before that happened. I even ordered custom license plates to make it very clear to other drivers my car was driving itself.

A couple of years later, the first beta arrived, and during the next few years, after many updates, it got good. Really good.

I know headlines love to point out when an accident happens during FSD use — and rightfully so — but my overall experience with it as of a year ago was that I felt safe when using it. I could get in, tell it where to take me, and the majority of the time, I only had to babysit.

I used FSD probably 95% of the time; I was behind the wheel. I no longer hated driving.

Goodbye FSD, hello Comma 4

(Image credit: Jason Cipriani/Future)

Then, life changed. My wife and I decided to open a pizza food truck, and we quickly learned the truck we planned on using wasn't up for the job of towing our trailer. So, I traded in my Model 3 for a 2025 Ford F-150 Lightning Flash. Bye-bye FSD.

My Lightning came with three free months of BlueCruise, Ford's hands-free driver-assist system that only works on highways. When you're on standard roads, Ford has a basic lane-keeping feature that keeps you within the lines, and that's about it.

After my BlueCruise trial ended, I opted not to pay the $50 a month/$500 a year subscription fee, mainly because it's limited to highways and I wasn't doing a lot of highway driving at the time. In town, I was still able to use lane keep and deal with the super annoying "Keep Your Hands on The Wheel" nag that goes off all the time.

I didn't miss the more advanced self-driving-like features of BlueCruise at all. I got by.

Then, in January, I had shoulder surgery. The extended recovery process meant driving an hour away for physical therapy at least once a week, and I'm still making that same drive. So, I decided to turn my Ford Rewards points into a couple of free months of BlueCruise to help me get back and forth.

Only this time, I loved it. I could cruise up and down the highway at 80 miles per hour, tap the blinker to start an automatic lane change and just relax — all hands free.

With a few weeks left in my extended trial, I decided to sign up for the $500-per-year subscription. While I waited for the charge to hit my credit card, a friend reminded me about Comma.ai, the small dash cam-like device that helps control your vehicle.

In Comma's own words: "It's upgraded active driver assistance for your Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, and more." Comma states it supports over 300 different vehicles.

Knowing I was about to commit to $500 per year for BlueCruise, curiosity got the best of me, and I spent over a week reading everything I possibly could about Comma and how it works.

The overly simplified explanation is that you need to install the device and a wire harness specific to your vehicle. The two components then intercept and send driver assistance commands to your vehicle, enabling hands-free driving on any marked road — not just highways.

I also spent more than a few days reading through and asking far too many questions in the Ford-specific Discord channel. The group there was amazing and patiently answered every single one.

I'll admit I felt very uneasy about random people on the internet writing software that can control my car. I still do, to an extent, but eventually I felt comfortable and curious enough to order the $1,000 gadget.

Install, setup and daily use

(Image credit: Comma)

A few weeks later, a small box arrived with the camera, the Ford-specific wiring harness, and zero instructions.

Thankfully, there are quite a few YouTube videos detailing the installation process. That process requires installing the wiring harness under the dash, where my truck's Image Processing Module A (IPMA) is located. I had to remove some paneling to get to it, then route the included OBD-C cable from under the dash to my rear-view mirror where the Comma 4 is mounted.

The install process took about an hour, with the most difficult part being connecting the wiring harness to the IPMA — it's such a tiny space and hard to get to, but eventually I got it.

With the harness connected, the Comma 4 mounted, and the cable run, the next thing I needed to do was install an operating system.

The Comma 4 comes with a bare-bones operating system installed, able to do just enough to help facilitate whatever version of driving software — commonly referred to as forks — you want to use.

OpenPilot is Comma's own driving software, but it's not optimized for every vehicle. For my Ford Lightning, I have to use BluePilot, a Ford-specific fork that's customized and optimized to handle quirks in driver-assistance commands, for the best experience.

I went through the software setup process in about 10 minutes, and then it was ready for me to take a short calibration drive. Once that was done, I had my very own self-driving assistant, ready to begin driving me around.

Activating Comma is done using the same buttons I would use to turn on BlueCruise or Ford's lane-keeping features. I can see when Comma is active by looking at the Comma 4's screen for green border indicators where the edges of the lane are, and a solid green line in the middle showing that path the truck is going to take.

It took me a few days of tweaking features and settings to fine-tune how the Comma controls my truck. For instance, out of the box it doesn't handle lane changes for you. You have to enable lane changes, and even then it'll only perform a change when you activate your blinker — it won't do it on its own.

You can even customize how aggressive it is during the lane change, how long it will wait after activating the blinker before changing, so you need to confirm the change by nudging the wheel in that direction before it fully commits. It's really cool stuff.

What's taken me the longest to get just right is adjusting my truck's alignment in a lane. With default settings, my truck was consistently riding the left side of every lane I was in. It wouldn't go over it, but it was too close for my comfort. I spent some more time figuring out the proper setting to adjust and started tweaking. A few minutes later, my truck is almost perfectly centered.

I'm still tweaking different settings, but for the most part it drives just like I want. I continue to experience some very slow ping-ponging — when the car goes from one side of the lane to the other and then back — but it's easily remedied if I just place my hand on the wheel. From what I understand, I may never get fully rid of it.

I've learned a lot along the way, too. In my Ford, the Comma 4 only controls lateral movements to keep you centered in the lane, not longitudinal controls such as speeding up and braking. Ford's ACC system still handles the latter feature – something I found reassuring.

(Image credit: Jason Cipriani/Future)A couple of disclaimers you need to know

There are a few things I want to make clear, should you decide to get a Comma 4 (or one of the older models).

First, you, as the driver, are responsible for your vehicle at all times. The Comma 4 is an assistance device, not a fully-take-over-all-controls device. It hasn't tried to steer me unexpectedly into another lane, but I've seen reports and feedback about a recent update doing just that.

Second, Comma 4 will never offer a Full Self Driving-like point-to-point experience. There are just too many variables to how a third-party device can interact with and control various vehicles. In a Ford, for example, Comma 4 has limits in how aggressively it can steer, which makes tight corners difficult if not downright impossible. A recent update to BluePilot has made progress in this regard, but a 90-degree turn is all but out of the question.

1,000 miles and no regrets

My original intent was to take full advantage of the 30-day no-questions-asked return policy and send the Comma 4 back if I had any reservations after testing it. And, well, that window closed a few weeks ago.

All told, I'm nearing 1,000 miles over 97 driving sessions and 26 total hours since installing the Comma 4 in my truck. Not all of that is with it activated, but I'd wager that 75% or more of those miles were driven by Comma.

It's earning my trust with every drive and scenario I throw at it. The system has built enough confidence that I'm now going fully hands-free on longer drives.

Even with its quirks and limitations, the trade-off is a no-brainer for me. The Comma 4 handles backroads and standard city streets where BlueCruise simply gives up.

Best of all, I don't have to pay Ford $500 a year for a highway-only feature on top of what I already pay for premium connectivity. For a one-time $1,000 hardware investment, I got a sliver of my FSD experience back, saved money in the long run, and gained a system that continuously gets better thanks to an active community.

(Image credit: Ford)

• ISBNdb ships up to a million books anonymously to AI labs
• Pre-2022 books are prized because chatbots never touched their text
• Spine-cutting scanners destroy originals to speed up digitization for training

AI companies are increasingly turning to printed books published before 2022 as preferred training material because those works predate the widespread use of AI-generated content.

Large-scale scanning operations reportedly involve cutting book spines, separating pages, and destroying physical copies to create digital datasets for large language models.

The practice has attracted growing criticism because some books entering these pipelines are reportedly extremely rare, raising concerns about irreversible cultural losses.

Pre-2022 books become valuable AI training material

Reports by 404 Media found data broker ISBNdb supplies physical books in bulk to AI developers seeking human-written material unaffected by modern chatbot output.

The company argues books published before 2022 offer cleaner datasets because they cannot contain text generated by contemporary large language models.

They are often considered "dense, edited, authoritative," in contrast to internet content increasingly filled with machine-generated material of uncertain quality.

The approach also attempts to avoid so-called model collapse, in which AI systems gradually lose quality after repeatedly training on synthetic content generated by earlier models.

ISBNdb additionally argues that older printed works avoid deliberate data-poisoning techniques authors increasingly use to disrupt AI training through carefully modified documents.

However, there are reports that many of these books are scanned using high-speed equipment.

This equipment requires workers to remove the spine before feeding individual pages through automated imaging machines.

That process reportedly destroys the original volume, making rapid digitisation considerably cheaper than slower preservation methods designed to keep books physically intact.

Secrecy and legal rulings fuel preservation concerns

ISBNdb openly acknowledges reputational concerns surrounding the practice while offering strict non-disclosure agreements that keep customer identities confidential throughout commercial engagements.

Its website reportedly states, "'AI company destroys two million books' is not a headline that generates sympathy," while suggesting clients describe the process as digital preservation.

Such a level of destruction is an order of magnitude bigger than the loss of the Library of Alexandria. Yet, it is unfolding with none of the outrage that history reserves for burned libraries.

Booksellers interviewed by 404 Media said some volumes entering these scanning programmes have very few surviving copies after enduring wars, fires, and centuries of handling.

Critics argue that unlike websites or widely available modern publications, exceptionally scarce historical works cannot simply be reproduced after their physical copies disappear forever.

A recent United States court ruling involving Anthropic found that scanning legally purchased books for AI training constituted fair use under specific circumstances.

Part of that reasoning held that destroying each printed copy during scanning meant one legal copy effectively replaced another rather than creating multiple copies.

In response to a critic (@Hedgie) of this method on X, Elon Musk said, "I've asked the SpaceXAI team to preserve any rare books in a library and scan them the hard way," suggesting an alternative approach.

If significant awareness is not created, this quiet erasure of irreplaceable books risks becoming the defining act of cultural loss for this era, remembered only after it can no longer be undone.

You could be sitting on a treasure trove of fantastic iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV games and not even know it.

Apple Arcade might be one of the most underrated gaming services on the market right now, with many Apple One subscribers not even realizing that it is included in all tiers of the service. You can also subscribe to it separately and you could even be able to access a generous free trial right now if you're reading this on a shiny new Apple device.

But what exactly is Apple Arcade, how much does it cost, what kind of games can you play on it, and, perhaps most importantly, are any of them actually good? I've spent the last week really sinking my teeth into the service in order to find out and deliver this ultimate guide to everything that you need know.

From all the basic facts to a bumper list of my personal game recommendations and even a personality quiz to match you to titles that you might like, everything here is intended to help you walk away an expert in all things Apple gaming.

The ultimate guide to Apple Arcade

What is Apple Arcade? Everything you need to know about the gaming service

No idea where to start? This is our comprehensive breakdown of everything that you need to know about Apple Arcade from how much it costs to the kinds of games that are included.

Apple Arcade is a joyful reminder of when mobile gaming was about fun, not emptying your wallet

Apple Arcade review: is the mobile gaming service still worth it in 2026? Here's our definitive verdict

I've played all 279 Apple Arcade games — here are the eight best

I spent a week playing every single game available on Apple Arcade to bring you this definitive list of the ones worth checking out first.

What kind of iPhone gamer are you? Find out — and get game suggestions — in our quiz

The Apple Arcade controllers I've tested and recommend to improve your gaming

I've spent the last week really getting to grips with the Apple Arcade service, trying out all of the available games and experimenting with its major features.

Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.

The experience has been great so far, thanks to the many console-quality games out on the platform. I'm talking titles like Sonic Dream Team, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Cult of the Lamb, Fantasian, and so much more.

Although they're all perfectly playable with touch controls, loads of Apple Arcade games (including all of the aforementioned titles) offer full controller support. Hooking up a compatible gamepad is the perfect way to get an even more console-like experience, and really recommend getting your hands on one if you want to make the absolute best and most comfortable playing sessions.

For iPhone players, I would recommend three of the best mobile controllers on the market today: the Backbone One, Backbone Pro, and Razer Kishi V3 Pro. They're all formidable choices, though each has its own distinct advantages. The Backbone One, for example, is the most portable and cheapest of the three, while the Pro and Kishi V3 Pro are more comfortable and have better software features. I've also included the GameSir G8 Plus Galileo as a worthy budget alternative, though it doesn't offer quite as seamless an experience as the others.

For iPad gamers, the Razer Kishi V3 Pro XL is one of the few options that's compatible with massive tablets. It can even fit the truly huge 13-inch iPad Air and Pro models.

Finally, those playing on Apple TV are best served by more conventional options: the Xbox Wireless Controller and DualSense Wireless Controller. If you want something a little quirkier, the cute CRKD Neo S is a strong choice.

Recommended Apple Arcade controllers

Backbone One

Backbone Backbone Pro

Razer Kishi V3 Pro

Razer Kishi V3 Pro XL

GameSir G8 Plus

Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller

Sony DualSense Wireless Controller

CRKD Neo S

• Instructions hidden as white text in a Word document can make Microsoft 365 Copilot silently alter the file it is drafting and copy the instructions into the output
• Each poisoned document becomes a carrier, so the attack spreads through ordinary internal workflows without the original malicious file and needs no macros, malware, or code execution
• Microsoft has shipped two mitigations across a 144-day disclosure, including a model upgrade, and the attack was still reproducible by the researcher

A security researcher has published a proof of concept showing that instructions hidden inside a Word document can cause Microsoft 365 Copilot to silently alter the file it is drafting, then copy those same instructions into the finished document, so the next person to use it becomes a carrier too.

Håkon Måløy, a data scientist with a doctorate in applied machine learning, disclosed the technique as the third installment of his Context Collapse series, after a 144-day coordinated disclosure with the Microsoft Security Response Center.

The reason this is being reported ahead of a fix is that it still works despite multiple attempts by Microsoft, as he notes that no robust mitigation for the broader vulnerability class is currently available.

A clever attack designed around Copilot's approach to text

The underlying attack belongs to a family known as cross-domain prompt injection, or XPIA. An attacker writes instructions in a natural-language document, formats them as white text on a white background at a small point size, and shares the file.

Because Copilot for Word strips formatting before passing text to the underlying language model, the model reads text the human never sees. This is true even for documents that are not opened by the user on purpose: The attack can trigger either when a user manually attaches a document to Copilot or when Copilot, working in Work IQ mode, searches the user's OneDrive for relevant files and finds the malicious one on its own.

It is also more dangerous than other exploits because of one key element: propagation. The hidden prompt in Måløy's proof of concept had two parts. One instructed Copilot to alter the document being drafted, in his demonstration halving every financial figure in a quarterly report.

The other instructed Copilot to copy the prompt into the new document and conceal it, framed innocuously as source tracking and readability formatting. Copilot did both, appending the instructions in white text and mentioning neither action to the user.

The disclosure timeline is the most uncomfortable part of the report. Måløy reported to MSRC on March 6 2026. Microsoft confirmed the behavior on March 31 and shipped a first mitigation in early April via a reworked Edit with Copilot experience, which successfully blocked his original prompt wording. He reproduced the attack with different wording the same week, and a second case was opened.

The second fix, on July 14, consisted of upgrading the underlying model to GPT-5.5. Måløy broke it the following day using GPT-5.6, then voluntarily offered Microsoft a further two-week delay to attempt another mitigation. The class still reproduced on the disclosure date, indicating that although a fix is in the works, the exploit is still possible to run.

A complicated issue that lacks a proper resolution

The issue goes far beyond Microsoft Word: an AI assistant must ingest untrusted content to determine whether it is relevant or hostile. But the content enters the same context window as the system prompt and the user's actual request, so by the time the model evaluates whether the text is an attack, the attacker's tokens have already shaped that evaluation.

As Måløy puts it, "the content being inspected participates in the act of inspection."

Microsoft confirmed it had reviewed the findings in a statement to The Register but stopped short of indicating a timeline for a complete fix:

“We have addressed the findings reported by the researcher and thank them for working with us through coordinated vulnerability disclosure," the company said.

"To address this class of risk, we use a defense-in-depth strategy with safeguards that block malicious instructions at multiple points and help keep tasks aligned with users’ requests. We are continuously strengthening these safeguards as the technology and threat landscape evolve. We encourage customers to install the latest updates, use multiple layers of security protection, treat content from unknown sources with caution, and review AI-generated content before using or sharing it.”

Måløy's recommendations are to treat externally sourced documents as untrusted when using them with Copilot, review attachments before starting an AI-assisted draft, and review Copilot's output carefully before sharing or reusing it.

He also suggested that generated documents should carry provenance metadata that records source material and model edits, which would not prevent injection but would make an infection traceable after the fact.

With Copilot extending further into agentic products that create and manipulate documents with less human oversight, the scope of how exploits like this could affect workflows (and users) will widen rather than narrow, and a complete solution is not yet in sight.

Whether you're a die-hard mobile gamer or a newcomer to the world of portable play, Apple Arcade will likely have something for you.

Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.

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