New satellite images of what was once the largest iceberg in the world show warning signs of its imminent demise, revealing extensive pools of aquamarine blue water melting on its surface. NASA's Earth-observing Terra satellite captured an image of what remains of iceberg A-23A in Antarctica, which suggests it may have sprung a leak and is only days away from completely disintegrating. Iceberg A-23A has had a long and arduous journey. It first broke off from Antarctica's Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. In March 2024, it was caught in a rotating ocean vortex in the Drake Passage before spinning out and becoming lodged again on the shallow coastal shelf south of South Georgia Island. When it was first detached, the iceberg was around the size of Rhode Island, measuring roughly 1,500 square miles (4,000 square kilometers). Scientists have been tracking the iceberg's journey for years using satellite imagery, allowing them to document its disintegration over time. Today, scientists estimate that the iceberg won't be around for much longer, giving it days to weeks before its complete disintegration. “I certainly don't expect A-23A to last through the austral summer,” Chris Shuman, a retired scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, said in a NASA statement. “A-23A faces the same fate as other Antarctic bergs, but its path has been remarkably long and eventful.” An astronaut on board the International Space Station (ISS) has also captured a closer image of the iceberg, revealing streaks of blue and white that likely accumulated when the ice was part of a glacier dragging across Antarctic bedrock. “It's impressive that these striations still show up after so much time has passed, massive amounts of snow have fallen, and a great deal of melting has occurred from below,” Shuman said. A-23A is currently on thin ice, floating in water that's around 37 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) and heading toward even warmer temperatures. Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more. Follow along with Gizmodo as we check out all the latest gadget announcements from the year's biggest, most-packed tech event, CES 2026. Scientists uncover new evidence of undocumented glacial earthquakes in Antarctica. This year, thousands of Tuvaluans applied for Australia's climate-migration visas to escape the impacts of rising sea levels. “Against the enormity of such a wild region, this is an amazing story of the little float that could.”

Open-source database software support firm Percona is refocusing its business on structured, services-led engagements aimed at solving performance and AI-readiness challenges for enterprise database teams. Last month, the company announced the launch of Percona Packages, a suite of structured consulting and support offerings for enterprise IT and DBA teams. The initial offerings — Quickstart, Performance Optimization, and AI Readiness — target critical database challenges with structured, time-bound engagements. According to Percona, this talent crunch leaves teams overstretched, slowing database modernization and increasing the risk of costly downtime, inefficient operations, and stalled AI initiatives. The company's latest release helps database users eliminate performance roadblocks through optimization and future-proofs databases with AI readiness. Percona's new Packages release returns the company to its roots of empowering organizations with database services, CEO Peter Farkas noted. “Our goal is to be a one-stop shop for open-source database technology, providing support across MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Valkey/Redis, and beyond. These packages tackle the most urgent database challenges while delivering fast, measurable results, so our customers can focus on innovation, not infrastructure headaches,” he explained. Fast results apply to scalability, performance, AI readiness, and overall environmental stability. “In all cases, these engagements are designed to deliver fast, actionable outcomes,” he told LinuxInsider. Herring reported that a SaaS provider joined Percona last year due to long-standing performance issues stemming from instability. Performance Optimization does not lend itself to a single, universal percentage reduction in query latency. It can address a wide range of performance issues, including slow queries, recurring outages, and failover instability. “We have eliminated or significantly reduced these problems for customers across on-premises and cloud environments, spanning all major verticals,” he said. A second hurdle is a lack of familiarity with AI database tooling that leads to configuration problems at the critical intersection of AI workloads and the data they depend on, he explained. “Our AI Readiness package is designed to proactively address both challenges, helping customers move faster while avoiding costly rework and downstream performance issues,” Herring added. We will continue to evaluate our customers' and potential customers' needs, as well as the success of the PostgreSQL AI offering, to inform future plans,” Herring said. Well-known AI companies, gaming companies, financial institutions, and SaaS providers come to Percona to assess the health of their environment after experiencing difficulty scaling with their customer base and new application functionality. “This is where Percona shines, and after these initial engagements, most ultimately become long-term customers of our various services,” he said. However, if customers want a turnkey solution for an upgrade, migration, or new deployment, all but the simplest scenarios demand a greater level of hands-on execution and customization,” he advised. These packages were specifically designed to solve common business challenges our customers face, regardless of technology. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open-source technologies. He is an esteemed reviewer of Linux distros and other open-source software. The $5 Trillion House of Cards: How Spectral Is About to Topple Nvidia E-Waste Won't Be Solved by Disposal: It Starts With Design Alliance Calls for Cyber U to Stem Tide of Nation-State Attacks AMD Positions Itself as a Platform Power in the AI Era Our Children Are Not Ready: A Generational Crisis in the Age of AI The New Hollywood: Inside GenAI's Coming Shakeup of Film and TV

Observe was founded in 2017 by Jacob Leverich, Jonathan Trevor, and Ang Li and launched its first observability product built on a centralized Snowflake database in 2018. Notably, both Snowflake and Observe were incubated at Sutter Hill Ventures, with Sutter Hill managing director Mike Speiser serving as Snowflake's founding CEO from 2012 to 2014. The acquisition also creates a unified framework for telemetry data, which is automatically collected, built on Apache Iceberg and OpenTelemetry architectures. According to reports, the deal is valued at around $1 billion, which would make it Snowflake's largest acquisition to date, surpassing its $800 million purchase in March 2022 of Streamlit, an open source framework that allows developers and data scientists to quickly build and share data applications without needing expertise in front-end development. Observe was most recently valued at $848 million as of July 2025, according to PitchBook data. TechCrunch has reached out to Snowflake for more information on the deal. Last year saw a wave of consolidation in the data industry as data companies looked to build out their product offerings to make themselves more attractive one-stop-shop partners in the age of AI. This deal could be a sign that data company consolidation will continue in 2026. Becca is a senior writer at TechCrunch that covers venture capital trends and startups. You can contact or verify outreach from Becca by emailing rebecca.szkutak@techcrunch.com. Founder of spyware maker pcTattletale pleads guilty to hacking and advertising surveillance software Lego Smart Bricks introduce a new way to build — and they don't require screens Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference Clicks debuts its own take on the BlackBerry smartphone, plus a $79 snap-on mobile keyboard

A Bellevue, Wash.-based startup is moving closer to commercialization of a handheld scanning device that it says could change one of the most dangerous and controversial procedures in policing: the physical pat-down for weapons. Lassen Peak‘s radar-based imaging system allows officers to detect concealed guns, knives and other weapons from several feet away, without touching a person. The technology — similar to full-body scanners used in airport security checkpoints — is built around a custom-designed semiconductor chip that operates at extremely high radio frequencies, enabling detailed imaging through clothing. Intended for use by law enforcement, military, and private venues, the device could help reduce use-of-force incidents during pat-downs — known as Terry frisks — while addressing long-standing concerns about privacy, bias and officer safety. That's our goal,” Lassen Peak Chairman and CEO Hatch Graham told GeekWire. Graham, a longtime inventor, engineer and entrepreneur, co-founded the company in 2019 alongside Chief Scientist Dr. Ehsan Afshari, a professor at the University of Michigan and an expert in ultra-high frequency microelectronics. The company announced $10 million in debt and equity financings this week led by Menlo Park, Calif.-based Structural Capital. Lassen Peak, which was a finalist for Innovation of the Year at the 2025 GeekWire Awards, is also backed by Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group, among others, and has raised about $40 million to date. At the heart of Lassen Peak's system is a proprietary imaging radar chip that operates in the so-called “terahertz gap,” at frequencies around 300 gigahertz — far higher than conventional radar used in autonomous vehicles or wireless communications. At those frequencies, the wavelength of the signal shrinks to about a millimeter, allowing dozens of antennas to be integrated directly onto a standard chip. The system is designed to show only abstract shapes and bounding boxes, rather than anatomical details. That data can be retained for evidentiary purposes, similar to body-camera footage. The Terry stop and Terry frisk, named for a 1968 Supreme Court case, are brief detentions and pat-downs that allow officers to conduct an outer-clothing search for weapons when they have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The frisk has long been criticized as invasive and is widely regarded by officers as one of the most dangerous moments in an encounter. It's when officers and those being detained can get hurt, according to Carl Rushmeyer, Lassen Peak's vice president of public safety and a former law enforcement officer. Instead of putting hands on a detainee, an officer standing six or eight feet away can remotely scan and verify an individual using the Lassen Peak device. The company has focused on large police departments with more than 1,000 sworn officers, narrowing its initial target market to about 160 agencies nationwide. Graham said Lassen Peak has met with 62 of them in the past year. While the first commercial product is a handheld scanner, Lassen Peak's long-term vision centers on the chip itself, which can be embedded into multiple platforms. These include drones that could assess a potentially dangerous situation from the air or ceiling-mounted dome cameras with “eyes” on a hospital, school, courthouse or other sensitive location. “It has to be a product that goes out into the world and does not come back,” Graham said. GeekWire Studios has partnered with AWS for the Guide to re:Invent. This interview series took place on the Expo floor at AWS re:Invent 2025, and features insightful conversations about the future of cloud tech, as well as partnership success stories. Click for more about underwritten and sponsored content on GeekWire. GeekWire Awards: Nuclear power, quantum computing and more Innovation of the Year finalists Microsoft's new handheld gaming device raises questions about Xbox strategy Microsoft reveals new handheld Xbox Ally gaming PC in partnership with Asus Startup radar: Seattle founders tackle city permits, medical records, estate planning, cybersecurity

More companies should follow this approach - especially as right-to-repair becomes a bigger issue. "Bose blows" is a popular comment amongst the audiophile community but, to me, it seems like they don't blow at all[0]. In fact quite the opposite: this is a fantastic example for other companies to follow. [0] What is actually true is that they are opinionated about sound reproduction in ways that a bunch of people don't agree with but which in the right context are often effective and enjoyable to listen to. [0] What is actually true is that they are opinionated about sound reproduction in ways that a bunch of people don't agree with but which in the right context are often effective and enjoyable to listen to. That comment is not wrong, you are imo just not making an important distinction that the criteria on which audiophiles judge Bose as “blowing” (which is almost purely the sound profile + a few other smaller things like physical comfort/connectivity/price/etc.) vs. what you judge it on (which is more in the long-term technical user/community product support, idk how to describe that area much better) are almost entirely disjoint.It is perfectly fine and valid for an audio product to “blow” from an opinionated audiophile perspective, while being exceptionally great from the long-term product/user/community product support perspective.I heavily agree with you btw, Bose should be heavily lauded for making a decision to open-up their speaker firmware after it reaches the official end of support deadline. The fact that this is an exceptional practice is imo, a little bit sad, because I believe that it should be way more common. It is perfectly fine and valid for an audio product to “blow” from an opinionated audiophile perspective, while being exceptionally great from the long-term product/user/community product support perspective.I heavily agree with you btw, Bose should be heavily lauded for making a decision to open-up their speaker firmware after it reaches the official end of support deadline. The fact that this is an exceptional practice is imo, a little bit sad, because I believe that it should be way more common. I heavily agree with you btw, Bose should be heavily lauded for making a decision to open-up their speaker firmware after it reaches the official end of support deadline. The fact that this is an exceptional practice is imo, a little bit sad, because I believe that it should be way more common. If you want really good stereo or 5.1 sound there is no substitute for big speakers that can move a lot of air. [1] maybe it is that gene polymorphism that makes my ears overflow with wax and has my doctor warning they will plug up one of these days [1] maybe it is that gene polymorphism that makes my ears overflow with wax and has my doctor warning they will plug up one of these days Audiophiles using music to listen their systems are missing the point. But the sound is very pleasing, it's reliable and nearly invisble in my living room.I'm not an audiophile though, just a music lover. I'm not an audiophile though, just a music lover. One, to show their support for audiophiles who supported them.Two, make superior products to klipsch that - ummm - actually state the real ranges of the speakers and use real copper windings instead of “painted” copper. Two, make superior products to klipsch that - ummm - actually state the real ranges of the speakers and use real copper windings instead of “painted” copper. - battery repair/replacement guide: https://cdn.teufelaudio.com/products/MYND/pdf/Teufel_MYND_RM...I believe that they designed the mechanical parts to be 3D-printable as well. I believe that they designed the mechanical parts to be 3D-printable as well. Budget-aware folks will buy these second-hand, neophiles will buy new, confident that long term solutions will exist even after "long term support" is over.Heck, even knowing there's a second-hand market makes me more likely to buy Bose new. Heck, even knowing there's a second-hand market makes me more likely to buy Bose new. And if there's a community well-known for creating religions out of their hardware preferences... Guess which you were more likely to find discounted, even if only by a marginal amount, by some store desperate to move stock out of the way?By contrast, I'm not worried about the fact I can't resell my copy of Game X I got on Steam when I only paid $5 for it in the first place. I'd avoid, even if they happened to do this. Sound quality is not the same as music quality.To be more specific, Sound Reproduction Fidelity is not the same as Pleasant MusicTo be even more specific, Signal Reproduction is not the same as "Pleasant Sounds*The goal of music is not always high fidelity of reproduction; if it were, over-driven valve amps would never have been a thing.The only thing objective in this context is signal reproduction, which is not the highest concern for music production. To be more specific, Sound Reproduction Fidelity is not the same as Pleasant MusicTo be even more specific, Signal Reproduction is not the same as "Pleasant Sounds*The goal of music is not always high fidelity of reproduction; if it were, over-driven valve amps would never have been a thing.The only thing objective in this context is signal reproduction, which is not the highest concern for music production. To be even more specific, Signal Reproduction is not the same as "Pleasant Sounds*The goal of music is not always high fidelity of reproduction; if it were, over-driven valve amps would never have been a thing.The only thing objective in this context is signal reproduction, which is not the highest concern for music production. The goal of music is not always high fidelity of reproduction; if it were, over-driven valve amps would never have been a thing.The only thing objective in this context is signal reproduction, which is not the highest concern for music production. (I'm not disagreeing with you, just adding more color.) (I'm not disagreeing with you, just adding more color.) Until quite recently, they were widely one of if not the most recommended wireless headphones. The new Sennheiser's that come with a USB-C dongle might have finally stepped past what Bose has been delivering, but at a higher price. We also like the Bose soundbar as it has a mode that makes dialogue more intelligible on our TV. Now if I could change the firmware to turn NC off, that would be something entirely different... They are such a standard response that presumably a real audiophile will come along to point out that their favorite model is much better, than a particular well known Sennheiser model, but as far as one can say in brand terms they are solid. Once single EU / US legislation introduced that force manufacturers into opening end-of-life products all IP right owners will either immediately make it possible or go out of business.Since everyone will be forced to do the same no one will gain any advantages. At least people can create their own implementation of the API tho. I wish more manufacturers would unlock their devices for local use when they don't want to support them any more. Or maybe even, hear me out, before support ends! Maybe we could even vote with our wallets and buy open stuff instead of walled gardens. Or across the board, since they are absurdly powerful right now. Nintendo could not legally keep you from hacking a console before the DMCA. It's one of those things that has to be mandated by law to provide a uniform floor on all companies and manufacturers, like food safety laws, fire codes, or accessibility for the physically disabled. Only takes one person to create the new firmware. Everyone else can follow whatever steps are needed to use it. > When cloud support ends, an update to the SoundTouch app will add local controls to retain as much functionality as possible without cloud servicesThis is a far bigger move than releasing API information, IMO bigger than if they had actually open sourced the software & hardware, from the point of view of most end users - they can keep using the local features without needing anyone else to maintain a version.--------[1] TFA doesn't state that this will be possible, but opening the API makes no sense if it isn't. This is a far bigger move than releasing API information, IMO bigger than if they had actually open sourced the software & hardware, from the point of view of most end users - they can keep using the local features without needing anyone else to maintain a version.--------[1] TFA doesn't state that this will be possible, but opening the API makes no sense if it isn't. Is it the same app that caters for other speakers too ? If it is, and Bose continue to include their old speakers on the functionality of the app, then I can hardly see how this is a true EoL. They're really continuing to support the speakers in their app, at least. Important note: Your system will no longer receive security and software updates. Please make sure to always use your system on a secure, private network. Important note: Your system will no longer receive security and software updates. Please make sure to always use your system on a secure, private network. * Publishing API documentation for the speaker.I actually think this is worth noting not so much in a "well aktshully it's not open source!" kind of way, but as a good lesson for other manufacturers - because this is meaningfully good without needing to do any of the things manufacturers hate:* They didn't have to publish any Super Secret First or Third Party Proprietary IP. * They didn't have to release any signing keys or firmware tools. Manufacturers should take note that they don't have to do much to make customers much happier with their products at end of life. * Publishing API documentation for the speaker.I actually think this is worth noting not so much in a "well aktshully it's not open source!" kind of way, but as a good lesson for other manufacturers - because this is meaningfully good without needing to do any of the things manufacturers hate:* They didn't have to publish any Super Secret First or Third Party Proprietary IP. * They didn't have to release any signing keys or firmware tools. Manufacturers should take note that they don't have to do much to make customers much happier with their products at end of life. kind of way, but as a good lesson for other manufacturers - because this is meaningfully good without needing to do any of the things manufacturers hate:* They didn't have to publish any Super Secret First or Third Party Proprietary IP. * They didn't have to release any signing keys or firmware tools. Manufacturers should take note that they don't have to do much to make customers much happier with their products at end of life. * They didn't have to publish any Super Secret First or Third Party Proprietary IP. * They didn't have to release any signing keys or firmware tools. Manufacturers should take note that they don't have to do much to make customers much happier with their products at end of life. * They didn't have to release any signing keys or firmware tools. Manufacturers should take note that they don't have to do much to make customers much happier with their products at end of life. Manufacturers should take note that they don't have to do much to make customers much happier with their products at end of life. Manufacturers should take note that they don't have to do much to make customers much happier with their products at end of life. I would assume this includes engineering quality and honesty.This bricking avoidance seems like another note in that positive direction. This bricking avoidance seems like another note in that positive direction. https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/59188/do-beats-...I'd take this with a huge grain of salt. For headphones, lighter is better and usually more expensive. If a counterfeiter could produce lighter knock-offs of Beats headphones that sounded similar, they'd probably be better off just selling them as a superior competitor. This, of course, ignores branding, which Beats is extremely good at. I'd take this with a huge grain of salt. For headphones, lighter is better and usually more expensive. If a counterfeiter could produce lighter knock-offs of Beats headphones that sounded similar, they'd probably be better off just selling them as a superior competitor. This, of course, ignores branding, which Beats is extremely good at. > Open-source options for the community> We're making our technical specifications available so that independent developers can create their own SoundTouch-compatible tools and features. The documentation is available here: SoundTouch API Documentation (https://assets.bosecreative.com/m/496577402d128874/original/...).AFAIK, the soundtouch web API was already accessible via some bose developer portal. It doesn't seem like they are open sourcing anything. There is an abstraction layer for music service APIs. There is a process on the speaker that reaches out to a music service registry, which is an index of bose music service adapters. Then we could add and maintain music service playback for the community. But there is no open sourcing of any actual code here and this soundtouch web api cannot change the URLs on the existing firmware of the user management service or the music service registry.So to my eye this story seems misleading and just some PR nonsense. It's a little frustrating reading all of the "great job, Bose!" comments here like anything was actually done... Disclaimer: I used to work at Bose. > We're making our technical specifications available so that independent developers can create their own SoundTouch-compatible tools and features. The documentation is available here: SoundTouch API Documentation (https://assets.bosecreative.com/m/496577402d128874/original/...).AFAIK, the soundtouch web API was already accessible via some bose developer portal. It doesn't seem like they are open sourcing anything. There is an abstraction layer for music service APIs. There is a process on the speaker that reaches out to a music service registry, which is an index of bose music service adapters. Then we could add and maintain music service playback for the community. But there is no open sourcing of any actual code here and this soundtouch web api cannot change the URLs on the existing firmware of the user management service or the music service registry.So to my eye this story seems misleading and just some PR nonsense. It's a little frustrating reading all of the "great job, Bose!" comments here like anything was actually done... Disclaimer: I used to work at Bose. AFAIK, the soundtouch web API was already accessible via some bose developer portal. It doesn't seem like they are open sourcing anything. There is an abstraction layer for music service APIs. There is a process on the speaker that reaches out to a music service registry, which is an index of bose music service adapters. Then we could add and maintain music service playback for the community. But there is no open sourcing of any actual code here and this soundtouch web api cannot change the URLs on the existing firmware of the user management service or the music service registry.So to my eye this story seems misleading and just some PR nonsense. It's a little frustrating reading all of the "great job, Bose!" comments here like anything was actually done... Disclaimer: I used to work at Bose. There is an abstraction layer for music service APIs. There is a process on the speaker that reaches out to a music service registry, which is an index of bose music service adapters. Then we could add and maintain music service playback for the community. But there is no open sourcing of any actual code here and this soundtouch web api cannot change the URLs on the existing firmware of the user management service or the music service registry.So to my eye this story seems misleading and just some PR nonsense. It's a little frustrating reading all of the "great job, Bose!" comments here like anything was actually done... Disclaimer: I used to work at Bose. Then we could add and maintain music service playback for the community. But there is no open sourcing of any actual code here and this soundtouch web api cannot change the URLs on the existing firmware of the user management service or the music service registry.So to my eye this story seems misleading and just some PR nonsense. It's a little frustrating reading all of the "great job, Bose!" comments here like anything was actually done... Disclaimer: I used to work at Bose. So to my eye this story seems misleading and just some PR nonsense. It's a little frustrating reading all of the "great job, Bose!" comments here like anything was actually done... Disclaimer: I used to work at Bose. https://github.com/captivus/bose-soundtouch This library provides a clean, Pythonic interface to control SoundTouch speakers over your local network, ensuring your speakers remain fully functional even after cloud services end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyrion_Music_Server Lyrion Music Server (LMS) is a streaming audio server supported by the LMS community and formerly supported by Logitech, developed in particular to support their Squeezebox [discontinued in 2012] range of digital audio receivers.. [LMS] also works with networked music players, such as the Roku SoundBridge M1001, Chumby, O2 Joggler, RPi and the SqueezeAMP open source hardware player. This library provides a clean, Pythonic interface to control SoundTouch speakers over your local network, ensuring your speakers remain fully functional even after cloud services end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyrion_Music_Server Lyrion Music Server (LMS) is a streaming audio server supported by the LMS community and formerly supported by Logitech, developed in particular to support their Squeezebox [discontinued in 2012] range of digital audio receivers.. [LMS] also works with networked music players, such as the Roku SoundBridge M1001, Chumby, O2 Joggler, RPi and the SqueezeAMP open source hardware player. Lyrion Music Server (LMS) is a streaming audio server supported by the LMS community and formerly supported by Logitech, developed in particular to support their Squeezebox [discontinued in 2012] range of digital audio receivers.. [LMS] also works with networked music players, such as the Roku SoundBridge M1001, Chumby, O2 Joggler, RPi and the SqueezeAMP open source hardware player. When my kid was born, I bought a brand-new Snoo. That's when I discovered stories of people whose used Snoos had been bricked by the company. I have to try and get them working again. The only solution I've heard of is to get an old version of the Sonos app APK, a dedicated old single purpose Android phone to acts as a bridge between your speakers and phone and connect that way.Stay away from Sonos. It sounds like there are two main pieces to me:1. Making usable the API (and providing documentation)With a minor 3rd piece:3. Making usable the API (and providing documentation)With a minor 3rd piece:3. Making usable the API (and providing documentation)With a minor 3rd piece:3. Sanitizing an existing documentation for public release might take notable time and effort if there are 100s of endpoints. But I would assume that is not the case with an API for a speaker. This is making them controllable.The headline may be inaccurate, but I'm not clear on what source code you'd even want. The headline may be inaccurate, but I'm not clear on what source code you'd even want. A documented API seems like the most useful option here. Secondly, these devices are basically one step above embedded. It's highly unlikely you can load and run anything custom on them.Since they are opening up the API, you can keep using them for what they were made for, which is at least a solid basic liberty Since they are opening up the API, you can keep using them for what they were made for, which is at least a solid basic liberty Seeing that, I expected the ability to build and run a custom firmware, like with an Android device with its bootloader unlocked. But it is not that, and they didn't open source their app either.What they did is that they removed dependence on their servers, and opened their device to be controlled by third party apps. That is, they let users use their device past its end of life, including when the first party app will stop being maintained, but not to the point of letting user add features.In understand why they would do that, they don't want users to backport features only available on their latest models that are sold at a premium, therefore competing against themselves. After all, the value in smart speakers is not the sound producing device, which I think is a problem that has been solved more than a decade ago at the consumer level, it is all about software features. What they did is that they removed dependence on their servers, and opened their device to be controlled by third party apps. That is, they let users use their device past its end of life, including when the first party app will stop being maintained, but not to the point of letting user add features.In understand why they would do that, they don't want users to backport features only available on their latest models that are sold at a premium, therefore competing against themselves. After all, the value in smart speakers is not the sound producing device, which I think is a problem that has been solved more than a decade ago at the consumer level, it is all about software features. In understand why they would do that, they don't want users to backport features only available on their latest models that are sold at a premium, therefore competing against themselves. After all, the value in smart speakers is not the sound producing device, which I think is a problem that has been solved more than a decade ago at the consumer level, it is all about software features. Unless you want to actually develop ON the device (and build binaries etc...), this completely allows you to use the device and connect it to whatever, so I don't know what more we should expect.No one else is doing this, so yeay applause No one else is doing this, so yeay applause They were $100* but went on sale for $50 and I snagged one.Then Microsoft discontinued Cortana for it, but they didn't kill the speaker. They released firmware that turned it into a perfectly good bluetooth speaker (which I still use today.) And they sent me a $50 gift card* to buy something else from Microsoft. Shame about the software...* Apparently $200 initially but they had some steep sales because Cortana as a voice assistant wasn't reviewing well. Reviews are a bit negative on the sound quality. Probably true enough at $200, but for $0-50, I think it's actually really good sound quality. Then Microsoft discontinued Cortana for it, but they didn't kill the speaker. They released firmware that turned it into a perfectly good bluetooth speaker (which I still use today.) And they sent me a $50 gift card* to buy something else from Microsoft. Shame about the software...* Apparently $200 initially but they had some steep sales because Cortana as a voice assistant wasn't reviewing well. Reviews are a bit negative on the sound quality. Probably true enough at $200, but for $0-50, I think it's actually really good sound quality. * Apparently $200 initially but they had some steep sales because Cortana as a voice assistant wasn't reviewing well. Reviews are a bit negative on the sound quality. Probably true enough at $200, but for $0-50, I think it's actually really good sound quality. I was the engineering lead on that product, and built a SW platform from scratch for it (Microsoft provided an SDK to Cortana which they developed in parallel. Oh, and you could make Skype calls from across the room, and the microphone array lived up to Skype's tough certification requirements which took weeks of testing in Microsoft's anechoic chamber for the DSP/algorithm team to fine tune.I tried to push for open-sourcing the platform but it was tricky because 1) the director of engineering in Harman didn't know what open source meant and for a hardware focused business to understand the value was a hard sell, 2) it used a HW module that came with a SW stack I mostly got rid off but a few parts were remaining that would need to be replaced which would require additional resources, 3) I was burned out at that point and had limited energy left to fight the good fight. Oh, and you could make Skype calls from across the room, and the microphone array lived up to Skype's tough certification requirements which took weeks of testing in Microsoft's anechoic chamber for the DSP/algorithm team to fine tune.I tried to push for open-sourcing the platform but it was tricky because 1) the director of engineering in Harman didn't know what open source meant and for a hardware focused business to understand the value was a hard sell, 2) it used a HW module that came with a SW stack I mostly got rid off but a few parts were remaining that would need to be replaced which would require additional resources, 3) I was burned out at that point and had limited energy left to fight the good fight. I tried to push for open-sourcing the platform but it was tricky because 1) the director of engineering in Harman didn't know what open source meant and for a hardware focused business to understand the value was a hard sell, 2) it used a HW module that came with a SW stack I mostly got rid off but a few parts were remaining that would need to be replaced which would require additional resources, 3) I was burned out at that point and had limited energy left to fight the good fight. Has anyone read the API documentation EULA and can comment on if it really meets some recognizable standard for "open source?" SoundTouch API Documentation (pdf) linked from the announcement:https://assets.bosecreative.com/m/496577402d128874/original/... Sometimes companies fuck up, what's really refreshing is to see a company backpedal on a shit choice, and decide to do better. I noticed Sonos speakers are featured in some upscale cars now, Audi for example. Flashing these with a minimal distro running snapclient (for multiroom audio) and shairport-sync (AirPlay 2) makes them infinitely better than they were on stock firmware. eBay prices are probably going to double by tomorrow morning. Some users report they aren't even able to use it with a VPN.The over-reliance on closed source apps with mandatory logins for configuring devices you own must come to an end. The over-reliance on closed source apps with mandatory logins for configuring devices you own must come to an end. https://assets.bosecreative.com/m/496577402d128874/original/...From a quick glance it looks like you are just able to do high level playback controls, similar to what you'd do using their on-device UI. From a quick glance it looks like you are just able to do high level playback controls, similar to what you'd do using their on-device UI.

[Editor's Note: Agents of Transformation is an independent GeekWire series and 2026 event, underwritten by Accenture, exploring the people, companies, and ideas behind the rise of AI agents.] Microsoft is making its own bid to turn AI conversations into agentic commerce, announcing a new feature called Copilot Checkout that lets users complete purchases directly within its AI chatbot, without being redirected to an external website. The company is betting that its existing enterprise technology footprint and established relationships with large retailers will give it an edge over OpenAI, Google, and Amazon in winning over merchants wary of giving up control to retail rivals or AI intermediaries. “We've designed it in such a way that retailers own those relationships with the customers,” said Kathleen Mitford, corporate vice president of global industry marketing at Microsoft. It's part of a broader AI rollout by Microsoft at NRF 2026, the retail industry's annual conference in New York. Microsoft's Mitford offered a different take in an interview this week, saying that consumer behavior is shifting faster than it may seem. Copilot Checkout is rolling out now in the U.S. on Copilot.com, with PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe handling payment processing. Shopify merchants are set to be automatically enrolled following an opt-out window. That last detail is notable given the backlash Amazon has faced over its “Buy for Me” feature, where brands complained about being included without consent and seeing inaccurate listings. OpenAI launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT last September, partnering with Shopify and Stripe to let users buy from more than a million merchants. Recent data from Similarweb's Global AI Tracker showed ChatGPT with about 68% of AI chatbot web traffic, with Google Gemini at 18% and Copilot in the single digits. But Microsoft has its advantages: Unlike Amazon and Google, which compete directly with retailers through their own marketplaces, it isn't a retailer. Mitford said Microsoft is leaning on its existing trust and long-standing relationships with retailers, along with a commitment to responsible AI, to help differentiate itself from rivals. A Microsoft-commissioned study from IDC, released in November, found that retail and consumer packaged goods companies are seeing a 2.7x return on every dollar spent on generative AI. The technology, she said, is being “adopted at a pace that I've never seen.” Accenture proudly supports GeekWire in its latest series highlighting how companies are using agentic AI to reinvent. We're driving change across every industry with technology and human ingenuity. Contact us to learn more about how AI agents can help transform your organization. How Microsoft is betting on AI agents in Windows, dusting off a winning playbook from the past AI is coming for your shopping cart: How agentic commerce could disrupt online retail GeekWire Studios has partnered with AWS for the Guide to re:Invent. This interview series took place on the Expo floor at AWS re:Invent 2025, and features insightful conversations about the future of cloud tech, as well as partnership success stories. How Microsoft is betting on AI agents in Windows, dusting off a winning playbook from the past AI is coming for your shopping cart: How agentic commerce could disrupt online retail Microsoft adds Anthropic's Claude AI models to 365 Copilot as OpenAI relationship evolves

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. “As a favor, if you buy a new one, please sell your gaming PC to our company,” begged the X-account of Sofmap Gaming in Akihabara, the Electric Town district of Tokyo (machine translation, h/t PC-Watch). The store shared a photo of some almost barren shelves, presumably taken at its triple-floor retail establishment. In the above Tweet, it asks customers to come in and sell their old PCs, highlighting that “We buy them back at pretty high prices...” Moreover, the company underlined that it wasn't going to be fussy. These are clearly the words of a PC retailer facing consumer demand that it just can't meet. We reported on Akihabara store trying to limit new RAM, SSD, and HDD sales back in November. That's reasonable, as consumers and industry both need to be fed product from the same big-three memory makers. Some DDR5 kits, if you can find them in stock, like this Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-5200 16GB (2x8GB) on Amazon is now $235. That price is more than 3.5X what it cost last October ($66). However, there remains some hope that DDR4 pricing and availability, thanks to old stocks and upgraders already having DIMMs, could provide a safe haven for continued PC building. This perception even seems to permeate PC component makers, with more DDR4-supporting motherboards being manufactured, plus hints about new processors for DDR4 platforms. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Graphics cards with more generous VRAM quotas are also strongly rumored to be facing constraints. We should at least expect a price rise for GPU-restocks, with next-gen GPUs rumored to be delayed… We'd expect retailers that dabble in used PCs for non-enthusiast users to limit their purchases to DDR4 platforms, with hardware support that slots above the Windows 11 minimum requirements (Intel 8th Gen, AMD Ryzen 2000). There's an entirely different market for really old PCs, though. Vintage computers of certain eras have been increasingly pricey for quite a long time now. I was in Japan this time last year and astonished by the bountiful supplies of old PCs at used electronics retailers like Hard-Off. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

The company is also offering a separate $79 slide-out physical keyboard that fits on any device. At CES, TechCrunch chatted with Clicks' chief marketing officer and co-founder, Jeff Gadway, and went hands-on with the latest prototype of the upcoming smartphone. Other apps are within easy reach via a scrollable list. Reception for the new devices has been better than expected, Gadway told TechCrunch. Although he declined to share sales numbers, he said that over the past week, the company was making a sale every 6.5 seconds between both devices. The device will also sport a 4000mAh silicon-carbon battery and is currently weighing in around 170 grams (or 6 oz). Underneath the back is where your nano-SIM card will go. The phone also comes with interchangeable back covers that you can pop off to change its look. That's where the device's light-up side button can help. Called the “Signal Light,” the button can be configured to glow with different colors or patterns when you receive messages from certain people, groups, or apps. So you can be sure to respond if it's your boss or the kids contacting you and ignore less important notifications. (There's a debate on whether the keys should have 110 grams of pressure or 120 or 130 grams, and feedback so far is that the latter figures are winning.) With less pressure, the keys feel softer, which could be more accessible for those who haven't used a BlackBerry before. “This is the stuff that Michael Fisher and myself and Kevin Michaluk fight over all the time,” said Gadway, referring to his co-founders. The Clicks Communicator comes with a fixed-focus, hole-punch front camera that can capture 24-megapixel photos. The phone runs on a 4-nanometer, MediaTek 5G IoT processor, with 8 gigabytes of RAM. The Communicator will have a 4.03-inch AMOLED display at 1,080 x 1,200 resolution. The device is also Qi compatible and Android Strongbox-ready, which will appeal to security-minded customers. The phone has other standard features too, like GPS and NFC, and will offer five years of security updates as well as Android updates through Android 20. The most bizarre tech announced so far at CES 2026 Founder of spyware maker pcTattletale pleads guilty to hacking and advertising surveillance software Lego Smart Bricks introduce a new way to build — and they don't require screens Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference Clicks debuts its own take on the BlackBerry smartphone, plus a $79 snap-on mobile keyboard

An emailed update to Space.com received early Thursday morning stated that NASA is “actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew-11's mission.” The agency has not disclosed what the health issue is nor which crew member is affected out of respect for their medical privacy. “These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely,” the statement to Space.com reportedly reads. “We will provide further updates within the next 24 hours.” Crew-11, which consists of space station commander Mike Fincke (58), flight engineer Zena Cardman (38), Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui (55), and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov (39), launched to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on August 1. As of now, that's still the official plan. In this case, bringing Crew-11 home early would be relatively straightforward, as their Crew Dragon spacecraft is still docked to the ISS. A SpaceX recovery vessel based in Southern California would then retrieve the spacecraft and crew. Crew-11's early departure would not leave the ISS uncrewed. NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian cosmonauts—Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikayev—who launched to the space station in November aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft would remain on the space station. It is unusual for NASA to postpone a spacewalk due to a medical issue, but they have previously been pushed back due to minor concerns, such as a pinched nerve or spacesuit discomfort. NASA's Fincke and Cardman were supposed to emerge from the space station's Quest airlock at approximately 8 a.m. It would have been Cadman's first spacewalk and Fincke's 10th, tying him with Peggy Whitson for the most spacewalks by a NASA astronaut. Their primary task was to prepare the 2A power channel for future installation of a roll-out solar array. Cardman and Fincke would have also installed jumper cables, photographed station hardware, and swabbed the exterior of the ISS to collect potential microorganism samples, according to NASA. ET on Thursday, January 15, sending another pair of NASA astronauts outside the space station to replace a high-definition camera, install a new docking aid for visiting spacecraft, and relocate several cooling hoses. It's currently unclear whether this medical issue will force NASA to postpone the January 15 EVA. Follow along with Gizmodo as we check out all the latest gadget announcements from the year's biggest, most-packed tech event, CES 2026. Decades in the making, NASA's X-ray timelapse shows a stellar explosion expanding into space at up to 2% the speed of light. On Thursday, a pair of astronauts will venture outside the space station to prepare for the future installation of roll-out solar arrays that will help power its deorbit in 2030. With this new evidence, the existence of “Betelbuddy” is closer than ever to being confirmed.

Retailers are facing changes in how consumers discover products online, as AI tools, social platforms, and recommendation engines increasingly influence buying decisions before shoppers reach a brand's website. Kuruvilla (pictured above) aims to address this with Spangle — positioning it as software that helps retailers personalize shopping experiences based on that context as shoppers move through their sites, using real-time, AI-generated product recommendations and layouts. Since emerging from stealth in March of last year, Spangle has signed nine enterprise customers, including fashion retailers Revolve, Alexander Wang, and Steve Madden, whose combined online sales total about $3.8 billion, Kuruvilla said in an interview. At the core of Spangle's approach is a simple idea: Instead of sending shoppers to pre-built product or category pages, brands route traffic to what is essentially a blank page. Spangle's AI fills that page in real time using a proprietary model called ProductGPT, drawing on signals such as where the shopper came from, what they searched for or clicked on, and how similar visitors have behaved, to surface products, recommendations, and content tailored to that moment. “We are future-proofing the brand,” Kuruvilla said, adding that Spangle trains its AI model on each retailer's catalog and performance data, allowing shopping experiences to adapt automatically. Before starting Spangle in 2024, Kuruvilla served as CEO of the one-click checkout company Bolt and earlier spent more than a decade at Amazon, where he worked on large-scale commerce and AI systems. Kuruvilla said their experience running commerce and payments platforms shaped Spangle's focus on building infrastructure rather than incremental fixes. Some, he added, view the startup as a kind of Shopify for AI-powered commerce. Spangle's approach also aligns with a shift toward shopping mediated by AI tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and several browser-based agents. Kuruvilla told TechCrunch that Spangle became viable only in the past two years as three major shifts converged: consumers growing comfortable discovering products through AI tools, a rapid proliferation of discovery channels beyond Google and Meta, and advances in AI technology that have sharply lowered the cost and latency of generating real-time experiences. Together, he said, those changes made it possible to replace incremental fixes with an AI-native commerce system that can adapt instantly as shopping behavior evolves. Currently, Spangle has six full-time employees, underscoring how AI tools are allowing startups to scale enterprise software with relatively small teams. Jagmeet covers startups, tech policy-related updates, and all other major tech-centric developments from India for TechCrunch. Founder of spyware maker pcTattletale pleads guilty to hacking and advertising surveillance software Lego Smart Bricks introduce a new way to build — and they don't require screens Clicks debuts its own take on the BlackBerry smartphone, plus a $79 snap-on mobile keyboard

We've got a plethora of new SSDs and RAM modules on the scene, with storage solutions for mobile devices on display, too. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Patriot just dropped a plethora of new memory modules and SSDs, as well as several storage solutions for mobile devices and gaming handhelds. Despite the ongoing DRAM and storage pricing squeeze, the Tom's Hardware team checked out Patriot's booth at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada, to check out 15 new DDR5 RAM kits, as well as a DDR5 SODIMM with a maximum capacity of 48GB (1x48GB). The company said that it designed the color specifically to blend well with both light and dark builds, ensuring that it wouldn't stand out as either too bright or too dark. Patriot also showed off a prototype with the same eye-catching heat-spreader, running in a 2x24GB configuration, at speeds of up to 10,000 MT/s. There are also four Viper-branded SSDs — the Viper VP4300 Lite PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD available in 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, and the Viper PV563 PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD, which you can get in either 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB capacities. Lastly, there's the top-of-the-line Viper PV593, offering up 14,000 and 13,000 MB/s sequential read and write speeds, plus a random read speed of up to 2,000K IOPS, Patriot claims. We have no word on how much the memory or storage might cost you; however, as pricing for both DRAM and NAND storage remain extremely volatile. Aside from these PC components, it also released a wide range of USB flash drives and enclosures for those that need portable memory on the go. The company also introduced a Storage Hub designed for mobile devices. This plugs in to your gear via a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 connector, giving you one HDMI port capable of 4K@60Hz and a USB-C PD 3.0 port that accepts up to 100 watts of power. More importantly, it will give you extra storage options in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities, allowing you to turn your phone or tablet into a proper productivity tool. This PCIe 3.0 x1 expansion card delivers sequential read and write speeds of up to 800 MB/s and 600 MB/s, allowing you to quickly load games directly from it. While this is still being tested, it gives us a glimpse of what Patriot has in store for us in the future. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

Alphabet's market capitalization was $3.88 trillion at the close of trading on Wednesday—just a tiny bit higher than Apple's $3.84 trillion. According to CNBC, it was the first time this happened since 2019.These companies were not in a steel cage with one another. Wall Street trading is not like dropping coins in a pair of coffee shop tip jars labeled “Chappell Roan” and “Taylor Swift.” Nonetheless, the timing makes it hard not to ignore the symbolic power of this milestone. After all, Apple is in the middle of a predictable stretch—on the verge of, well, releasing a lot of iPhones, including, reportedly, a long-awaited foldable iPhone that, if the newly leaked information is accurate, meets or slightly exceeds years of hype. But may I interest you in Apple's updated smart home hub called a HomePad, or perhaps the AirTag 2?Meanwhile, what has Alphabet been up to lately? For what it's worth, unexpectedly body slamming OpenAI in the frontier AI model race. And on the transportation side, Alphabet earned a whole lot of press by filling San Francisco with disabled Waymo robotaxis. I don't mean to create a dichotomy where Apple sounds wholesome and Alphabet/Google sounds scary—tech companies this size are all scary from a certain perspective. But this is a business environment where Apple, the company famous for making familiar physical objects that people exchange money for (often too much money) feels like more of an underdog than Google, the company famous—currently—for investing in speculative and risky new tech that the public, broadly speaking, isn't stoked about. It's no surprise to see investors favoring the latter over the former, but it's also not comforting. Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more. Follow along with Gizmodo as we check out all the latest gadget announcements from the year's biggest, most-packed tech event, CES 2026. Qualcomm demoed its Flex SoC that controls driver assistance and safety features at the same time as in-car entertainment in cars. "Slop" was the word of the year, and it's not just AI-generated images we have to groan about.

Sustainability: News about the rapidly growing climate tech sector and other areas of innovation to protect our planet. A company spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by GeekWire. Avalanche and dozens of companies around the world are vying for scientific breakthroughs that would allow them to generate electricity from fusion reactions on a commercially viable scale. Avalanche is pursuing a different strategy than many of its competitors, building desktop-sized energy devices and working multiple angles for revenue generation. The fusion industry produced surprising headlines shortly before Christmas with the announcement of a $6 billion planned merger between Trump Media & Technology Group and California fusion company TAE Technologies. The partnership aims to site and begin building what it calls the world's first utility-scale fusion plant this year, with Trump Media committing $300 million in near-term funding. GeekWire Studios has partnered with AWS for the Guide to re:Invent. This interview series took place on the Expo floor at AWS re:Invent 2025, and features insightful conversations about the future of cloud tech, as well as partnership success stories. Fusion R&D hub aims to break ground in Eastern Washington this summer Avalanche lands $10M state grant to build fusion energy R&D site in Washington Sparks fly: Seattle-area fusion startup rivals debate path to commercial power

AMD also hints that Panther Lake's price point won't be pretty When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Tom's Hardware sat down with AMD's SVP and GM of Client Product Group, Rahul Tikoo, at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada, to get AMD's response surrounding Intel's new speedy Panther Lake mobile CPUs. Tikoo revealed that AMD is not afraid of Intel's new chips, claiming its lineup of high-performance Ryzen AI Max (Strix Halo) APUs and mainstream Ryzen AI series chips fulfill the market's needs more effectively.Tikoo said that Intel's Panther Lake competition isn't anything for AMD to worry about. "Strix Halo, or Ryzen AI Max will kill it. He said that AMD is in the most optimal position possible in the market, and that the company is meeting market demands better by providing two distinctly different lines of chips that provide very specific performance requirements for the demands of power users/prosumers and mainstream consumers. "Tikoo clarified that he believes shoppers will make decisions based on their needs, rather than looking for a chip that can do a little bit of everything. When they go into this space, they're like, Okay, here's the applications I'm using... or here's the gaming I'm doing. "The AMD lead also didn't miss the chance to jab Intel a bit, noting how Intel did not add any Strix Halo APU models into its benchmark comparisons — limiting its benchmarking runs strictly to its lower-end Ryzen AI series chip and its own previous-generation chips. He also subtly exposed that Intel's pricing for Panther Lake won't be pretty: "And, oh, by the way, that 12 Xe [Panther Lake]... Wait until you see the price point on that. Panther Lake is Intel's latest and most powerful mobile CPU platform to date, built on its new 18A process node, with high-performance Cougar Cove P-cores, Darkmount E-cores, and Intel's highly potent Xe3 integrated graphics engine. The flagship Core Ultra X9 388H comes with 16 cores in total (four P-cores, eight E-cores, and four LP-cores), 18MB of L3 cache, Arc B390 iGPU with 12 Xe cores, and support for up to 96GB of LPDDR5x-9600 memory.Intel's slides claim that the X9 388H packs 10% more performance for the same power as the previous-gen Arrow Lake-H Ultra 9 285H, and 60% more performance in the same metric as Intel's Lunar Lake Ultra 9 288V. Intel's new Xe3 iGPU flagship is so fast, in fact, that Intel claims the X9 388H gets roughly similar performance to an Nvidia RTX 4050 laptop GPU in most games at a 60W sustained power envelope, with the X9 388H operating at just 45W sustained.If you want a better perspective, Intel's Xe3 B390 iGPU was able to pull off 80 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p high settings with XeSS set to Balanced mode in our hands-on testing. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.