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• AMD's Versal Premium Gen 2 Memory on Package launch formally ends HBM in its adaptive SoC lineup
• The move represents a ~65% bandwidth cut from the discontinued Versal HBM's 840 GB/s, clocking in at just 288 GB/s
• AMD is painting this as a win, citing better availability, a smaller form factor, efficiency wins, and guaranteed memory supply for the next 15 years

The AI boom may have just eaten AMD's own lunch, thanks to an HBM shortage that forced it to resort to lower-bandwidth LPDDR5x for its Versal Premium Gen 2 Memory on Package offerings.

AMD recently announced the Versal Premium Gen 2 Memory-on-Package family, which leverages up to 32GB of LPDDR5x memory directly onto the chip package.

The move, which effectively cuts bandwidth by 65% compared with previous-generation Versal offerings that use HBM, is seen by many as the need of the hour as memory supplies dwindle amid overwhelming demand.

A needs-based move to lower-bandwidth memory

AMD's move is calculated, even if it comes at a significant performance cost to the chip designer. HBM memory supply is strained, and even within AMD's own lineup, its more profitable (and more demanding) Instinct datacenter GPUs have priority for HBMs' current and future iterations.

AMD is therefore both a beneficiary and a casualty of the same AI demand wave that creates opportunities on one end but constrains supply for other segments, such as its consumer-grade hardware, gaming, and SoC divisions.

AMD's Versal lineup stems from Xilinx, which it acquired in 2022. Xilinx shipped its first on-package memory FPGAs, the Virtex UltraScale+ HBM parts, in 2018 with up to 16 GB of first-generation HBM. The follow-up Versal HBM series, a variant of the Versal Premium line, supported up to 32 GB of HBM2e with 840 GB/s bandwidth.

The problem for AMD isn't just sourcing supply for its new Versal FPGAs, something it calls an Adaptive SoC (System-on-Chip), but the fact that these are extremely long-tail products. In other words, support, dedicated supply, and accessories must remain available to consumers for a long time if they are to embrace and continue working with a particular FPGA class, which complicates matters.

AMD discontinued its last-generation Versal lineup in September 2025, citing HBM2E supply constraints rather than any issues with the chips themselves, and offered no alternatives to customers, stating only that "final orders (LTB) for Adaptive SoC parts will be accepted until June 30, 2026, subject to material availability."

The new Versal lineup effectively addresses this gap, stating that it has a 15-year lifecycle and citing "memory longevity" as the reason for its pivot to LPDDR5X.

AMD's move does bring it some other advantages despite the obvious bandwidth chokepoint: LPDDR5X has better availability than HBM for the foreseeable future, and it also operates at industrial temperatures, whereas HBM tends to be stacked in ways that require advanced cooling. Not only does LPDDR5X run cooler, often passively so in most configurations, but thanks to sporting only 4 memory chips onboard, it is over 60% smaller than comparable FPGAs.

The newer FPGAs will be considerably cheaper to manufacture than their HBM alternatives in current market conditions, and with Chinese memory suppliers such as CXMT also eyeing the same market, Versal Gen 2 might be the long-stay that its predecessor was initially intended to be in a rapidly changing market.

• OpenAI has brought big changes to ChatGPT’s desktop app
• ChatGPT and Codex have been merged into a single app
• Users are unhappy with many of the new updates

OpenAI has been running its Codex vibe coding platform as a separate tool from the regular ChatGPT app for a while now, but that’s all changed with the artificial intelligence app’s latest update. The two products have been merged into one ‘super app’ — but many users are deeply disappointed with the move.

If you download ChatGPT today — or update an existing installation — you’ll find an app that looks very different to the one you’re used to, which could be particularly disorienting if you’ve used the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for some time now.

For example, you’ll now find a new toggle in the top-left corner of the app that lets you switch between ‘ChatGPT Work’ and ‘ChatGPT Codex.’ Instead of containing buttons for your library, projects, and apps, the left-hand sidebar now houses scheduled tasks and plugins. Projects and tasks sit below in their own sections.

What used to be the ChatGPT app still exists, but has been renamed to ChatGPT Classic. The standalone Codex app, meanwhile, has become the main ChatGPT app. Both ChatGPT Work and ChatGPT Codex share plugins, and while both are capable of similar tasks, Codex shows more of the technical details that Work obscures in a bid to be more user-friendly.

An unpopular moveThe old ChatGPT app showing projects and a long list of recent conversations in the left-hand sidebar.FutureThe new ChatGPT with hidden recent chats and an empty list of projects. Where did they go?Future

Unfortunately for OpenAI, this major change has not gone down too well. Apple pundit John Gruber, for example — long a fan of OpenAI’s decision to make ChatGPT a native Mac app that conformed to macOS conventions — described the change as “the day OpenAI f*cked up the ChatGPT Mac app.” He also pointed out that while the old ChatGPT app weighed in at a lightweight 159MB, the new edition has ballooned to 1.5GB.

I’m certainly not a fan of the new-look ChatGPT either. I have little interest in Codex and use ChatGPT to work through problems, often revisiting old conversations to add new details. Yet in the new app, your recent conversations are hidden and require many more clicks to access. Only your five most recent threads are shown, and to access more you have to click Chat > See All to uncover them. Previously, they were right there waiting for you in the sidebar.

As well as that, my existing projects seem to have totally disappeared. I only had a couple, but they were related to a small-claims case I was involved in, so seeing all my relevant threads scattered and disorganized in a long list of chats is a major pain. For anyone juggling a plethora of projects, this change could be disastrous. And what’s more, Custom GPTs also seem to have vanished into the ether.

I know I’m not alone in my disappointment. Over on Reddit, OpenAI’s decision has not been well received, with user powprodukt summing up the mood by saying: “ChatGPT projects and custom GPTs are the heart of why I use that app. Without these features there is no feature parity.”

Other users took issue with the new user interface, with Kaotic987 exclaiming “Christ almighty, this is so bad!” Eriane, meanwhile, cynically suggested that OpenAI “vibe coded everything without testing it.”

Whether you even get ChatGPT Classic seems up for debate. It’s available for Windows in the Microsoft Store and can be downloaded separately from the new ChatGPT app. On macOS, however, I updated to the new edition and ChatGPT Classic is nowhere to be seen. Luckily, I backed up the old app before updating, so I can still access it, which might be the way to go if you’re a Mac user and don’t want to lose all your projects and custom GPTs.

The move to combine ChatGPT and Codex into a form of ‘super app’ has already alienated plenty of users, myself included. From the questionable user interface to the absence of projects and custom GPTs, there’s a lot for OpenAI to work on before it can get the app back to a good place.

In a complaint filed Friday, Apple accuses OpenAI of illegally accessing information about unannounced products.

• Xiaomi has launched its first NAS, a dual-base storage solution that comes in three different storage capacities
• The Xiaomi Smart Storage was not planned but was brought into being by customers eager to own one after a mistaken label indicated one was being designed
• The Xiaomi Smart Storage device attracted a reported 30,000 net orders within its first hour of crowdsourcing

Network-attached storage seems to be the new frontier for Chinese heavyweight Xiaomi, which has come a long way from its roots as a software developer focused on a heavily modified version of Android.

While many of Xiaomi's moves when it comes to investments and product lineups often surprise others given the breadth of its offerings, many of which are unrelated to each other, a NAS drive feels like a relatively timid product line to focus on.

The product sees Xiaomi directly compete in an industry that was previously dominated by Synology, QNAP, Ugreen, and Huawei in the region, with users essentially asking it to bring its plans to fruition.

A 'happy accident' for Xiaomi fans

The firm, whose catalog already spans a Nürburgring-bothering electric supercar, rice cookers, nose-hair trimmers, electric scooters, and the phones that started it all seems to have stumbled upon the possibility of having its own NAS, now known as 'Xiaomi Smart Storage', purely by accident.

The idea surfaced by accident in May 2025, when a schematic labeled "10G NAS" appeared in promotional imagery for the company's networking-switch range. Chinese consumers, however, reacted loudly enough that Xiaomi's ecosystem general manager, Chen Bo, publicly committed to building one, delivering a finished, crowd-funded option roughly 13 months later.

Xiaomi's crowd-funded NAS offering comes in 3 different sizes or configurations: the entry-level 4TB SKU (¥ 2299), the mid-range 8TB SKU (¥ 2899), and a top-of-the-line 16TB SKU (¥ 4699). All of these options include the dual-bay Xiaomi Smart Storage with two equal-sized hard drives.

The NAS comes fairly well-equipped, offering USB 3.0, HDMI, a 2.5-gigabit Ethernet port, and support for both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA drives, and capable hardware reportedly under the hood (a Realtek RTD1619B, a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 clocked to 1.7GHz, with 2GB of DDR3L and 8GB of eMMC).

Xiaomi seems equally committed on the software side of the spectrum; It has also published a companion app on both Apple's App Store and Google Play, while offering support for its Mi Home ecosystem application from the get-go.

This has allowed the company to rack up an impressive 30,000 orders in the first hour the NAS drive went live on its crowdfunding site as consumers buy into Xiaomi's brand value and ecosystem promise alike, even as storage prices continue to head up thanks to AI-centric demand.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 11, No. 1,848.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 11, No. 1,126.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 11 No. 860.

Patriotic art and music is taking center stage this year under the Trump Administration, as funds shift away from DEI. For some orgs, like the Reagan Presidential Library, this is their wheelhouse.

(Image credit: Consolidated News Pictures/AFP via Getty Images)

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Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was a 52-year-old Mexican national who worked in construction for more than three decades. The father of three was shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after they attempted to pull him over.

(Image credit: Sergio Martínez-Beltrán
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• Check Point Research reports education faced 4,816 weekly ransomware attacks in June 2026, up 16% YoY, keeping it the most targeted sector
• Risks stem from open networks, thin budgets, and reckless GenAI use, with 1 in 26 enterprise prompts leaking sensitive data and 85% of orgs affected
• Latin America saw the sharpest rise (27%), while government and telecoms also absorbed heavy volumes, showing attackers’ focus on high‑exposure industries

Every week in June, organizations in the education industry around the world faced 4,816 ransomware attacks. This is up 16% compared to the same month last year, and means this sector remains the most popular target among cybercriminals.

This is according to “A New Ransomware Leader Emerges as June 2026 Attack Volumes Climb Worldwide”, a new in-depth report on the state of ransomware, published by security experts Check Point Research (CPR).

As per CPR’s new paper, education is a popular target because of “open campus networks, constant device turnover, and thin security budgets”. In other words, it’s a low-hanging fruit, especially compared to other industries like government, technology, or healthcare. But these are not the only reasons why hackers target education more than any other industry. It is also because of how employees behave which, by using GenAI recklessly, substantially increases security risk.

Latin America bearing the brunt

“It is about what employees place into prompts: customer records, internal documents, infrastructure details, legal material, financial data, or HR information that may be copied into public or unmanaged GenAI tools,” CPR explains.

“1 in every 26 GenAI prompts from enterprise networks carried a high risk of sensitive data leakage, equal to a global exposure rate of 3.9%,” the paper reads. “85% of organizations that regularly use GenAI tools were affected by high-risk prompt activity,” and “a further 27% of prompts contained potentially sensitive information.

This mostly affects organizations in Latin America who reported, on average, 3,501 weekly attacks (up 27% compared to June 2025). APAC followed at 3,060 (up 5%), and Africa posted 3,008 weekly attacks (down 9%).

Besides education, ransomware operators are also targeting government institutions (2,836 weekly attacks - up 5%), and telecoms (2,835 weekly attacks - up 13%).

“Together these three sectors continue to absorb a disproportionate share of global attack volume, a pattern that has held steady across recent months even as the specific numbers shift,” CPR concluded.

If you're looking to hop on the latest trend, there are some things you should know first.

Browser capabilities will still exist, though, in OpenAI's desktop AI.

• The K100XR can travel at over 220 mph (354 km/h) and has a range of 1.9 miles (3 km)
• Nordic Air Defense has demonstrated the K100XR engaging in a live interception
• Three K100XR interceptors cost less than a single Stinger missile

Drone warfare has presented numerous challenges over the past few years, mostly demonstrated in Ukraine’s defense and retaliation against the Russian invasion, a prolonged conflict that started in 2022. Stopping drone attacks has proved difficult, but that could be about to change.

Defense startup Nordic Air Defense, along with its partners, have unveiled the K100XR, a portable counter-drone system that can intercept and destroy attack drones, such as the Iranian-built devices employed by Russia.

Recently the subject of a live “Demo Day,” the Nordic Air Defense has taken the K100XR beyond the conceptual stage and demonstrated the drone – which can travel faster than a Black Hawk attack helicopter – before a media audience.

Counter-drone vs. Stinger missile

Working in partnership with Volvo Defense, as well as Polish firms WB Group and Tantalit, Nordic Air Defense has taken the K100XR from concept – as revealed in 2025 – to a working prototype, capable of reaching speeds over 220 mph (354 km/h) which makes it faster than the 183 mph (294 km/h) Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter.

But the speed that this compact 12-inch long drone offers as a response to drone attacks is only part of the story. It can maintain its general position for over 20 minutes, thanks to the fact it relies on not jet, but propeller-based propulsion. The K100XR can reach altitudes of 3,300 feet (just over 1 km) and uses AI to identify and track enemy drones, completely autonomously.

As the AI is embedded within the drone, once it is launched the K100XR requires no continuous input from a human controller. Nordic Air Defense claim that three of these counter-drone devices costs less than a single Stinger missile, which typically costs around $480,000.

Can the K100XR realistically play a part in drone defense?

Following the event, the company issued a statement online, noting “The K100XR is designed to meet that challenge by combining high speed, advanced maneuverability, autonomy and a low cost per kill. Demo Day marked an important milestone for Nordic Air Defence.”

Several theaters are opening up that rely on this technology, from the Iranian crisis in the Middle East to NATO’s response to Russia’s expansionism and belligerence on the EU border (which may explain the interest of Nordic Air Defense’s Polish partners). These largely use low cost Iranian Shahed-type drones, essentially single-use kamikaze devices loaded with explosive payloads. Nordic Air Defense’s Demo Day illustrated how the K100XR can deal with these threats, which makes the “low cost per kill” factor significant.

While the scalability of the operation remains unknown, the cost of K100XR drones versus a Stinger is a clear advantage and will likely be a major deciding factor in whether it can prove a more effective deterrent or response to drone warfare.

Via Defense Blog

The WeWard app encourages movement before you get your TikTok fix.

Soarin' has taken flight over California and across the world. Now, to celebrate the USA's 250th, it's visiting landmarks from sea to shining sea.

iOS 27 beta code hints that Lucid and Xiaomi vehicles could gain Apple Car Key support, though compatible models and launch timing remain unconfirmed.

The post Apple Wallet Car Key Support Could Expand to Lucid, Xiaomi Vehicles appeared first on TechRepublic.

• Report claims China's AI consumption is now over 100 trillion tokens per day, up from 100 billion in justtwo years
• Enterprise customers are increasingly paying per usage, not per seat
• General consumers will likely keep their fixed, monthly pricing

AI token consumption in China has increased "more than 1,000-fold" in around two years, with National Bureau of Statistics data claiming daily token consumption rose from 100 billion at the start of 2024 to 100 trillion by the end of 2025.

By March 2026, China was consuming around 140 trillion tokens per day, which SCMP illustrates as 100,000 tokens per person per day if every single Chinese citizen, including children, pensioners and non-workers, were to use AI.

"Today, the token economy is emerging," Yin Hao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a recent Beijing conference, the South China Morning Post reported.

AI consumption-based pricing could replace per-seat pricing

With users consuming more tokens than ever before, AI providers are now under pressure to cover the growing costs. Industry experts like Hao now believe that token-based pricing could soon replace traditional subscription models.

This could see subscribers paying a fee based on how much AI they actually use, rather than paying a fixed monthly charge per user.

AI providers globally are also increasingly recognizing growing token consumption and are adapting their pricing strategies to match, including OpenAI and Anthropic. Others, like Zendesk, are charging per meaningful outcome rather than per seat or per token.

However, for now, these pricing shifts are primarily affecting enterprise customers consuming huge amounts of tokens. General consumers logging into their preferred chatbot, like ChatGPT or Gemini, are unlikely to be affected as compute becomes cheaper.

Anthropic’s AI-run espionage report shows why enterprises need stronger governance for AI agents, MCP connectors, and enterprise data access.

The post Claude Code Espionage Campaign Exposes a New Enterprise AI Risk appeared first on TechRepublic.

Despite a step forward, don't expect the next level of TV panels to be widely marketed anytime soon.

PSB iQ2: Two-minute review

‘Larger’ is not the same as ‘large’, and so while the PSB iQ2 is the larger of the two models in the newly refreshed iQ range, it’s still a very compact little pair of speakers. ‘Compact’ in this instance, though, in no way implies a shortage of features or a restriction on performance

The standard of build and finish is good, the looks clean and understated no matter which of the seven different finishes you choose. The iQ2 has everything you could realistically hope for in a wireless speaker system costing this sort of money. It has — deep breath — wired and wireless connectivity (including a moving magnet phono stage for use with a turntable, and a HDMI eARC socket for connection to a TV), one of the best user interfaces around in the shape of BluOS, a total of 270 watts of power, frequency response that belies the physical size of the speakers, and authentically high-resolution playback. That's a lot.

Though you don’t get everything you could realistically hope for where sound quality is concerned, the PSB nevertheless has plenty to recommend it. Through every input except its phono stage, it’s a lively, engaging and informative listen, can deal confidently with rhythms and tempos, has a fair amount of well-controlled punch, and doesn’t overlook the finer details when it comes to unpicking a recording.

It can sound a little cramped via Bluetooth, sure, and its phono stage is dull when every other input sounds energetic. But as long as you’re not expecting small cabinets with small drivers to deliver hangar-filling sound you'll get from the best stereo speakers on the market there’s plenty to enjoy here.

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)PSB iQ2 review: Price & release date

• $1,399 / £1,199 / $2,299 (approx.)
• Released in June 2026

The PSB iQ2 active wireless stereo speaker system is on sale now. In the United States it sells for $1,399 — unless you like the walnut veneer finish, in which case it'll set you back $1,499. The equivalent in the United Kingdom is £1,199 / £1,299. The pricing is yet to be confirmed for Australia, but you’re probably looking at AU$2299 / AU$2499 or thereabouts.

There is neither the time nor the space to reel off all the very many excellent products that PSB is going up against at this price.

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)PSB iQ2 review: Features

• 19mm aluminum dome tweeter, 100mm mid/bass driver
• 24bit/192kHz DAC
• Wireless and wired inputs

It’s compact, yes, but PSB's iQ2 has found enough space to ensure it's equipped to justify the asking price. No aspect of its specification is underpowered.

Getting your audio information on board in the first place can be done in a number of different ways. All physical inputs are on the rear panel of the ‘primary’ speaker. It has sockets for HDMI eARC, digital optical, USB-C, USB-A and a moving magnet phono stage on RCAs for use with a turntable (this input is switchable to line level in the control app). There’s also a pre-out for connecting to a subwoofer.

The wireless stuff is covered off by Bluetooth with aptX Adaptive codec compatibility. The iQ2 is compatible with the BluOS eco-system, which means wireless access to every worthwhile music streaming service, internet radio and any content you may have stored on a device connected to the local network.

Once it’s on board, the digital stuff is handled by a 24bit/192kHz digital-to-analog converter before it’s handed over for amplification — the analog stuff, of course, is passed straight through. There are 270 watts of TI Burr Brown-derived Class D amplification to power the driver array — 45 watts for each 19mm aluminum dome tweeter, and 90 watts for each 100mm mid/bass drivers. The latter, mildly unusually, are positioned above the former. This is an arrangement that, suggests PSB, is good for a frequency response of 64Hz - 20kHz.

• Features score: 5 / 5

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)PSB iQ2 review: Sound quality

• Lively and informative sound
• Well-organized soundstage but not the largest
• Sounds dull via its phono stage

There are caveats here, and they concern the out-and-out scale of sound the PSB is capable of generating (or not), and the efficacy of its phono stage. But it’s probably best to start with the things the iQ2 gets — there are more than one or two.

With a Tidal-derived stream of Geese’s Getting Killed playing as a 24bit/44.1kHz FLAC file, the iQ2 is an energetic, engaging listen with a stack of pertinent observation to make where tone, timbre and basic detail retrieval are concerned. It maintains a nicely even-handed tonality, neither adding to nor subtracting from the organic heat of the recording. At every turn, it is attentive to even the finer details of texture and harmonic variation.

It sounds very much like it extends further down the frequency range than PSB is claiming, and when it’s down there it punches with well-controlled determination (as well as no little variation) and has no problems expressing rhythms believably as a result.

Frequency response is equally well judged, so when the system modulates from low end to midrange there’s no apparent step change. Then, once it's there, the iQ2 invests voices with plenty of character and emotional attitude, as well as revealing the finer details of technique. Move up again into the highest frequencies and, though the PSB is not the most substantial where treble sounds are concerned, it manages to describe shine and bite without becoming hard or glassy. The DSP-assisted crossover occurs at around the 3Khz mark, but it’s basically imperceptible.

There’s a fair amount of dynamic headroom available, so as well as having the grunt to play good and loud, the iQ2 breathes deeply enough to put worthwhile distance between the quieter moments of a recording and the points of greatest intensity and attack. And it can manage these transitions without audible stress or compression, which is not something you can automatically say about some of its nominal rivals.

The soundstage it creates is well defined and properly organized, so even complex recordings are laid out coherently. It’s not the most expansive soundstage you ever encountered, though. These are small-ish cabinets featuring small-ish drivers, and quite obviously there’s a limit to the scale of sound you’re entitled to expect. Got a great big room you want to fill with sound? You’ll be needing bigger speakers than these.

And it’s definitely worth noting that the above applies to most, but not all, of the iQ2’s inputs. It can, inevitably, sound a little squashed when streaming via Bluetooth — this is hardly unheard of, even in systems costing plenty more than this. Yet the integrated phono stage is an authentic disappointment. It gives away the bulk of the vibrant, energetic attitude the system displays through all of its other inputs and replaces it with an altogether more pedestrian, vanilla alternative. No turntable = no problem, of course, but if you have a record player you’d like to use, try and hear the PSB’s phono stage before you commit to spending any money…

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)PSB iQ2 review: Design

• 246 x 145 x 192mm (HxWxD)
• Choice of seven finishes
• Rear-firing bass reflex port

If a significant part of the appeal of systems like this is their relatively discreet nature, then PSB is onto a winner with the iQ2. Even by prevailing standards it’s notably compact at 246 x 145 x 192mm, and as long as you give each cabinet’s rear-facing bass port a little breathing space then it’s very adaptable and flexible when it comes to positioning.

As is generally the case with PSB, the standard of build and finish that’s on display here is more than acceptable. The cabinet edges are crisp and clean, and the combination of MDF and aluminum used in the construction allows the speaker to be fairly light (7.4kg per pair) but notably robust. The main sleeve is of MDF, the rear panel is of aluminum, and the front baffle (which is separated from the main body by a slim slice of brightwork) is MDF on aluminum.

There are seven available finishes, which means there really ought to be something to suit your interior design choices, but I can’t help thinking I got the short straw with my review sample's ‘sandstone’ beige. It’s a rather insipid and non-committal color. I haven't seen them but I’d suggest that any of the black, white, ‘boreal’ green, ‘granite’ gray, ‘ember’ red or (cost option) walnut veneer alternatives are likely to be preferable.

For me, anyway, the fact the iQ2 is supplied with four little magnetically attached grilles that cover only the drivers rather than the entirety of the front baffle is probably a good thing. Unless you’re actually trying to disguise the colour of the speakers in the first place…

• Design score: 5

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)PSB iQ2 review: Usability & setup

• BluOS control app
• A few physical controls
• Easy to create a multi-channel or multi-room system

The primary speaker, the one with all the physical and wireless connectivity, also features a few capacitive (and illuminated) touch controls on its top panel. They’re useful if you happen to be passing, but of much more wide-ranging use is the BluOS control app.

BluOS is an increasingly popular control and management interface, one that’s been adopted by quite a number of manufacturers, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a clean, clear and stable interface, logical in navigation and extensive in its functionality.

Everything you need, from initial set-up — telling the primary speaker if it’s the left or right channel, for instance — and EQ control to establishing a multi-channel or multi-room system using any BluOS-compatible product, can be taken care of from here. Integrating your favorite music streaming service(s), accessing internet radio, checking for updates, so on and so forth — they're all here.

A great operating system is not, in and of itself, a reason to buy a wireless speaker system but it certainly makes it easier when you’re making your mind up.

• Usability & setup score: 5 / 5

(Image credit: Future)PSB iQ2 review: Value

• Great specification
• Very acceptable build and finish
• Energetic sound

Just because you don’t get a whole lot in physical terms, doesn’t mean the PSB iQ2 doesn’t represent very decent value for money.

The specification is good, the operating system is better still, the standard of build and finish is very acceptable indeed — and best of all, the sound is energetic and engaging through all but one of the input options.

If you want nicely poised and enjoyable sound from a system that won’t dominate your room, there’s authentic value to be had here.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)Should I buy PSB iQ2?PSB iQ2 scorecard

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

No aspect is underpowered; 19mm aluminum dome tweeter, 100mm mid/bass driver, 24bit/192kHz DAC

5 / 5

Sound quality

Lively, informative and well organized; but sounds dull via phono stage

4 / 5

Design

Choice of seven finishes; crisp and clean edges; notably robust

5 / 5

Setup & usability

Excellent BluOS control app; easy to create a multi-channel or multi-room system

5 / 5

Value

Authentic value to be had, with good specification and even better control app; phono stage just a little lacking

4.5 / 5

Buy them if…

You want a comprehensive little speaker system
PSB has managed to cram a lot into what are very compact speaker cabinets.

You have interior decor that requires complementing
My review sample looks a bit weird, but the other six finishes are very nice.

You’re considering multi-room and/or multi-channel listening
BluOS is supported by a lot of brands and they can all join in with your system.

Don’t buy them if…

You have a big space you want to fill with sound
Here’s where I say something profound about the laws of physics…

You want to use vinyl as a primary source
The phono stage is the least effective of the iQ2’s inputs.

You haven’t shopped around
In isolation the PSB is a great little system, but in practice it has some stiff competition.

PSB iQ2 review: Also consider

KEF LSX II
The KEF LSX II is a little larger than the PSB iQ2, and it sounds it — and it’s arguably a more complete, better-balanced listen, too. The industrial design is, to my eyes at least, also more interesting. But while its control app is perfectly adequate, it’s not a patch on the BluOS app the iQ2 is running…

How I tested the PSB iQ2

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

I put the iQ2 on some Soundstyle speaker stands for the majority of this test — from there they were attached to a turntable and a CD player (via the phono input and the digital optical input respectively), as well as streaming via Bluetooth and from Tidal using the BluOS app.

I also tried them on a shelf for a while, and listened purely wirelessly, but because my shelves are positioned in the traditional way, it was quite difficult to get the rear bass reflex ports far enough away from a rear surface…

• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026