
IPhone 18 and iPhone Air 2 Design Won't Be Changing, According to New Leak
New leak from Fixed Focus Digital suggests Apple’s upcoming iPhone 18 will retain the same design as the iPhone 17, with only subtle dimension adjustments and no screen size change. The same report indicates the iPhone Air 2 will also keep its current look, including a single rear camera, contradicting earlier rumors of a 2027 launch. Both devices are slated for a fall 2024 release alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, which may only receive new color options. The iPhone Fold remains the only model expected to feature a major redesign.
Intel "Nova Lake" To Use Xe3 Graphics and Xe3P Display/Media Engine
Intel’s upcoming Nova Lake CPUs, part of the Core Ultra 400 series, will integrate Xe3 graphics and the Xe3P display/media engine rather than the newer Xe4 IP. The platform targets a late‑2026 launch with early‑2027 market availability and will natively support...

This MSI RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Laptop with 20-Core CPU and 144 Hz Panel Is $298 Off
MSI’s Vector 16 HX AI gaming laptop, equipped with an RTX 5070 Ti GPU, a 20‑core Core Ultra 7 255HX CPU, 16 GB DDR5 RAM and a 144 Hz FHD+ panel, is on sale for $1,349.99 on Woot—a $298 (18%) discount. The machine targets QHD and high‑refresh‑rate FHD gaming, offering...
A Small But Useful Debugging Addition For AMD Zen Systems With Linux 7.1
Linux 7.1 adds automatic reporting of AMD's AGESA firmware version to the kernel log, eliminating the need to reboot into BIOS or parse vendor notes. The change is delivered via a patch in the tip/x86/platform branch and will be merged...

The NASA Watch That Lets Kids Write Real Code for $129
The NASA Artemis Watch 2.0 is a $129 smartwatch that lets kids write real code using open‑source firmware. Launched alongside the Artemis II lunar mission, the watch ships pre‑assembled with a dual‑core ESP32, color LCD and multiple sensors. It offers three coding...
YieldWerx Delivers a Master Class in Co-Packaged Photonics Implementation
YieldWerx announced a forthcoming webinar that will teach semiconductor engineers how to implement co‑packaged photonics (CPO) across the full product lifecycle. The session, led by CEO/CTO Aftkhar Aslam, will detail the 12 cross‑domain challenges—from optical data complexity to test‑flow discontinuities—and...
How Rare Earth Elements Power Modern Electric Lawn Equipment: From Motors to Manufacturing
Electric lawn tools have shifted from noisy gas engines to quiet, battery‑powered devices thanks to rare‑earth permanent magnets and phosphor‑based displays. Neodymium‑praseodymium (NdFeB) magnets provide high torque in compact motors, while dysprosium and terbium preserve magnetic strength at high temperatures....

X2D or P2 Evolution? Analyzing Bambu Lab’s Likely Direction After Retiring the X1 Series
Bambu Lab has retired its flagship X1 series, replacing it with the P2S model that offers comparable performance at a lower price point. Speculation about an X2D dual‑extruder printer is growing, but the author argues the market is shifting toward...
![[OFC 2026] Part 2 of 5: CPO and the AI Interconnect Challenge](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FG3y!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3201360a-f898-4593-8267-8cfc0766cc04_1280x1280.png)
[OFC 2026] Part 2 of 5: CPO and the AI Interconnect Challenge
AI compute clusters are doubling annually, pushing Meta's rack designs from 72 GPUs to over 256 nodes and exceeding 1 MW of power per rack. At these scales, copper backplanes face insurmountable limits in power delivery, bandwidth density, and routing complexity....
![[OFC 2026] Part 2 of 5: CPO and the AI Interconnect Challenge](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FG3y!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3201360a-f898-4593-8267-8cfc0766cc04_1280x1280.png)
[OFC 2026] Part 2 of 5: CPO and the AI Interconnect Challenge
AI training racks are scaling rapidly, with Meta's upcoming ORW rack doubling node count and pushing single‑rack power beyond one megawatt. Copper backplanes now face insurmountable limits in bandwidth, power density, and routing complexity. Meta used OFC 2026 to set...

Find the Perfect E Ink Tablet to Organize Your Professional Life in 2026
The 2026 e‑ink tablet market now spans vibrant color displays, AI‑driven organization tools, and a spectrum of price points. Flagship models like the Remarkable Paper Pro showcase 11.8‑inch Gallery 3 panels for creative work, while budget options such as the Remarkable 2 and...

Is the NoClogger Really Effective for Desktop 3D Printers?
The NoClogger is a metal rod tool marketed to clear nozzle clogs in desktop FFF 3D printers by pushing material through the hot end. Traditional methods include the cold‑pull technique, which melts debris and retracts filament, and thin metal probes...

A Unique Feature No Smartphone Needs: Vivo iQOO 15 Ultra Review
The Notebookcheck review of Vivo’s iQOO 15 Ultra highlights a bold experiment: an integrated cooling fan meant to tame the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. Despite the fan, the phone still throttles under sustained load, questioning the practical value of laptop‑style cooling in smartphones. The...

Attackers Exploit RCE Flaw as 14,000 F5 BIG-IP APM Instances Remain Exposed
Shadowserver reports that more than 14,000 F5 BIG‑IP Access Policy Manager (APM) instances remain publicly reachable, and attackers are actively exploiting the newly‑re‑classified critical remote code execution flaw CVE‑2025‑53521. The vulnerability, now scored 9.8 on the CVSS v3.1 scale, allows...
Intel Launches Core Ultra 7 251HX Arrow Lake Processors with 18 CPU Cores and 3 Xe GPU Cores
Intel quietly added the Core Ultra 7 251HX to its Arrow Lake HX family, slotting between the Core Ultra 5 245HX and the Core Ultra 7 255HX. The processor features 18 cores – six Performance and twelve Efficient – with a 30 MB Smart Cache and a...
RISC-V Has Momentum. The Real Question Is Who Can Deliver
RISC‑V has moved from a promising ISA to a viable platform as the RVA23 baseline unifies high‑performance compute. Arm’s recent transition to a silicon‑first model reshapes the IP landscape, intensifying competition. Akeana’s Alpine test chip, taped out in a 4 nm...
Steam Will Estimate Game FPS Before Purchase to Show Expected PC Performance
Steam is developing a feature that predicts a PC's frames‑per‑second output for any game before purchase. The tool will draw on Valve's telemetry, which already collects anonymous hardware specs and in‑game FPS data from millions of users. By matching a...

NASA Artemis Watch 2.0 Launches as Retro-Futuristic Pip-Boy for $129
NASA’s Artemis Watch 2.0 launched as a retro‑futuristic smartwatch reminiscent of the Fallout Pip‑Boy, priced at $129 (≈€169 or $184). Built on an ESP32 microcontroller, it offers Bluetooth notifications, activity tracking, and sensors such as a gyroscope, accelerometer, temperature sensor,...

FujiFilm North America Announces U.S. Availability of 40TB LTO Ultrium Gen 10 Data Cartridges
FujiFilm North America has launched a 40 TB native (up to 100 TB compressed) LTO Ultrium 10 data cartridge in the United States, the highest‑capacity tape media in the LTO family to date. The cartridge delivers up to 400 MB/s native and 1,000 MB/s compressed...

Raidon Technoloy Launches MiUM2776P+Dual M.2 NVMe SSD Extension Kit (MCIO+3.5-Inch Swappable Enclosure)
Raidon Technology has introduced the MiUM2776P+ Dual M.2 NVMe SSD Extension Kit, a complete deployment solution that turns a single motherboard M.2 slot into a front‑accessible dual‑NVMe hot‑swap bay. The kit bundles an all‑metal 3.5‑inch enclosure, a MAP6‑EZ MCIO adapter,...

Cirrascale Cloud Services Partners with Google Public Sector to Deliver Specialized Research Offerings and Launches New Government Services Division
Cirrascale Cloud Services has teamed up with Google Public Sector to deliver high‑performance AI infrastructure for research and education through the Google Public Sector Program for Accelerated Research (GPAR). The partnership introduces Cirrascale Government Services, a new division dedicated to...

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba and Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Assigned Sixteen Patents
Toshiba and its subsidiary Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage have been granted sixteen patents covering a range of disk‑drive innovations, from a flexure with variable thickness to shock‑absorbing covers, digital‑filter engines, and power‑supply redundancy schemes. The filings, dated between March...

Design of the Week: Hands-Free Hand Visor
The Hands‑Free Hand Visor is a whimsical 3‑D‑printed accessory that turns a plastic hand into a functional sunshade. Designed by MakerWorld contributor Emin, it clips onto the head and positions the palm over the eyes, freeing the real hands for...

The KV Cache Wars?
A quiet but critical battle is unfolding in agentic AI infrastructure over the key‑value (KV) cache. The KV cache, which stores key and value projections for every token, scales linearly with context length, layer count, batch size, and heads, consuming...
14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" Will Continue to Be "Abundantly Available," Says Intel
Intel confirmed that its 14th‑gen Core “Raptor Lake Refresh” desktop CPUs, the 700‑series chipset, and the LGA1700 socket will stay in production and be “abundantly available.” The company is encouraging motherboard makers to launch boards that support both DDR4 and...
Seasonic Readies Japan-Exclusive FOCUS ATX 3.1 Sakura Limited Edition PSU
Seasonic has teased a Japan‑only version of its FOCUS ATX 3.1 power supply, dubbed the Sakura Limited Edition. The unit sports a white chassis printed with cherry‑blossom motifs, Sakura‑pink lettering, a matching white 135 mm fan, and fully sleeved white modular...
Canadian Listings of Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Indicate Near-$1000 US Pricing
Canadian retailers ShopRBC and PC‑Canada have posted early listings for AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, pricing the chip at CAD $1,374‑$1,375, which converts to roughly USD $990. The listings suggest AMD will set a $999 MSRP when the processor launches on April 22, 2026. The...
Intel Pulls the Plug on XeSS Support in Unity Game Engine
Intel abruptly discontinued its official XeSS plugin for the Unity game engine, removing support for frame generation, temporal super‑sampling, and antialiasing. This follows the release of Intel's XeSS 3.0 SDK only a month earlier, which introduced multi‑frame generation and shared...
AT&T’s $2 Billion FirstNet Expansion Signals a New Era for Infrastructure Investing:
AT&T announced a $2 billion expansion of the FirstNet public‑safety network in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce. The investment will upgrade 5G coverage, add edge computing and AI‑driven management, and extend service to underserved rural areas. By positioning FirstNet...

With the AGI CPU, Arm Is Launching Its First Data Center Chip and Is Making a Direct Entry Into the...
Arm announced its first production silicon for AI data centers, the AGI CPU, marking a historic shift from pure IP licensing to selling its own server processors. Built on TSMC's 3‑nm N3P process, the chip offers up to 136 Neoverse...
CEO Interview with Dr. Tony Atti of Phononics
Phononic, led by CEO Dr. Tony Atti, is scaling solid‑state thermoelectric cooling across major hyperscalers to address the exploding thermal load of AI‑driven data centers. The company’s Thermal Kit combines fast‑acting TEC modules, software analytics and design services to deliver...

GE HealthCare (GEHC) Receives FDA Clearance for Photonova Spectra CT System
GE HealthCare secured FDA 510(k) clearance for its Photonova Spectra, a next‑generation photon‑counting CT system featuring Deep Silicon 8‑bin energy resolution. The scanner processes data volumes up to 50 times larger than conventional CTs using Nvidia‑accelerated computing and rotates in...

The Gigawatt Delusion (DDCU 2/7)
Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta together pledged $320 billion for data‑center expansion in fiscal 2025, launching the largest coordinated capital deployment in tech history. More than 1,000 U.S. sites are under construction, delivering roughly 75 GW of capacity—about New York City’s peak demand....
Linux 7.1 Expected To Begin Removing I486 CPU Support
A patch targeting the upcoming Linux 7.1 merge window will begin stripping Intel 486 (i486) CPU support from the kernel. The change removes the CONFIG_M486SX, CONFIG_M486 and CONFIG_MELAN Kconfig options, preventing new i486 kernel builds. Linus Torvalds and maintainer Ingo Molnar argue the...

What Happened in Tech While You Weren’t Looking
The Gadgeteer’s latest roundup highlights a surge of innovative consumer tech, from MOVA’s ultra‑thin smart ring that triggers 77‑language translation on its S1 AR glasses, to RayNeo’s Wi‑Fi‑free AR glasses priced at $249. High‑performance laptops like the Razer Blade 16 with...

Silicon Photonics Market and Technology Report 2026
The Silicon Photonics Market and Technology Report 2026 highlights rapid growth in datacenter optical interconnects driven by AI workloads and the shift toward co‑packaged optics. It outlines a projected market size of roughly $12 billion by 2026, driven by expanding foundry...

4 Hidden iPhone USB-C Features That Go Way Beyond Charging
Apple’s shift to USB‑C on the iPhone unlocks practical capabilities that extend far beyond simple charging. The new port enables device‑to‑device power sharing, allowing an iPhone to act as a portable charger for Android phones, AirPods, Apple Watches and other...

Intel Intros New 16-Core Panther Lake CPU with Capable Arc B390 iGPU
Intel announced the Core Ultra X9 378H, a 16‑core Panther Lake processor that mirrors the X7 368H’s architecture but caps its turbo at 5 GHz, slightly below the X9 388H’s 5.1 GHz. It retains the Intel Arc B390 integrated GPU while stripping enterprise‑grade features such as vPro, AMT, and...

Valve Steam Machine Update: RAM Supply Stabilizes as Unified Deck Software Expands
Valve’s Steam Machine is gaining traction as the global RAM market steadies, easing component costs that have hampered production. OpenAI’s reduced RAM purchases and Google’s TurboQuant technology are key drivers of this stabilization. Meanwhile, Valve’s Unified Deck software expands the...
Hid-Omg-Detect: Linux Driver In Development To Detect Malicious HID Devices
Zubeyr Almaho is spearheading a new Linux kernel driver called hid‑omg‑detect, designed to passively monitor and flag potentially malicious HID peripherals such as compromised keyboards and mice. The driver evaluates low‑level signals like keystroke‑timing entropy, immediate post‑enumeration typing, and suspicious...
Mesa 26.1 Makes It Easier To "Fake" A GPU Reset Using LLVMpipe
Mesa 26.1 introduces a new feature for the LLVMpipe software driver that lets developers simulate a GPU reset. By setting the LP_CONTEXT_RESET_FILE environment variable and writing to the specified file, LLVMpipe triggers an emulated reset. The change, contributed by Wayland...

Fabrinet (FN): One of the Best Strong Buy AI Stocks to Invest In Now
Fabrinet (NYSE:FN) is highlighted as a strong‑buy AI stock. iPronics announced a partnership to build a dedicated silicon‑photonic manufacturing line, slated for Q2 2026, to meet hyperscaler demand for energy‑efficient optical switches. Analyst Rosenblatt raised its price target to $715 from...

Federal Government Publishes ‘Expectations of Data Centres and AI Infrastructure Developers’
The Australian Federal Government released a policy paper outlining its expectations for data‑centre operators and AI infrastructure developers. The document sets clear standards on energy consumption, water use and national‑interest considerations, echoing recent Australian Financial Review coverage of the sector’s...

Apple Watch Ultra 4 Leak: Touch ID Is Finally Coming to the Action Button
Apple is poised to launch the Watch Ultra 4 in September, keeping the familiar rugged design while doubling its sensor count for sharper health metrics. A new S‑series processor promises notable battery‑life gains without enlarging the battery. Leaked details suggest Touch ID...

PC Gaming on Android at 100 FPS, Battery Efficiency : Red Magic 11
The Red Magic 11 Golden Saga Edition introduces native PC game emulation on Android, running titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 at 40‑100 fps. Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, Adreno 840 GPU, 24 GB LPDDR5‑T RAM and up to 1 TB UFS 4.1 storage, it delivers desktop‑class performance...

ESP32-S3 Gets Post-Quantum Encryption with Aethyr Edge Node Open-Source Firmware
Aethyr Research has released open‑source firmware for ESP32‑S3 that adds post‑quantum encryption using ML‑KEM‑768, BLAKE3, and XChaCha20‑Poly1305. The firmware boots in 2.1 seconds and completes a full PQC handshake in 35 ms, with an 833 KB flash footprint and 157 KB free SRAM. It...
![[OFC 2026] Part 1 of 5: 300mm SiPh Foundry: Who Is Actually Ready?](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FG3y!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3201360a-f898-4593-8267-8cfc0766cc04_1280x1280.png)
[OFC 2026] Part 1 of 5: 300mm SiPh Foundry: Who Is Actually Ready?
At OFC 2026, Samsung, GlobalFoundries and NVIDIA each presented seven conference papers detailing their progress toward 300 mm silicon‑photonic (SiPh) foundry capabilities. The analysis highlights that the competition has moved beyond pure device performance to a broader contest of system‑level integration...
![[OFC 2026] Part 1 of 5: 300mm SiPh Foundry: Who Is Actually Ready?](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FG3y!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3201360a-f898-4593-8267-8cfc0766cc04_1280x1280.png)
[OFC 2026] Part 1 of 5: 300mm SiPh Foundry: Who Is Actually Ready?
The OFC 2026 conference showcased seven papers from Samsung, GlobalFoundries and NVIDIA that dissect the state of 300 mm silicon‑photonic (SiPh) foundries. While the headline race to 200 Gbit/s per wavelength still dominates headlines, the papers reveal that success now hinges on...
NVIDIA's Neural Texture Compression Cuts VRAM Use From 6.5 GB to 970 MB
NVIDIA unveiled Neural Texture Compression (NTC), an AI‑driven method that slashes GPU VRAM usage by up to seven times. In a GTC 2026 demo, the technology compressed a 6.5 GB texture set to just 970 MB while preserving visual fidelity. NTC replaces traditional...
Razer Wolverine V3 Pro & Betop KP50 Controllers To Be Supported By Linux 7.0
The upcoming Linux 7.0‑rc7 kernel adds native support for the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro and Betop KP50B/C gaming controllers via the XPad driver, covering both wired and 2.4 GHz wireless modes. The Wolverine V3 Pro, a high‑end controller priced around $199, uses...