SpaceX and Tesla commit $16.8 billion to build a gigantic Texas chip factory
TeraFab could cover more than 100 million square feet when fully built
Elon Musk claims TeraFab will reach 50 times the size of the Pentagon
SpaceX and Tesla have revealed more details in their plan to invest $16.8 billion in a massive semiconductor factory planned for Grimes County, Texas.
The facility, known as TeraFab, is expected to manufacture chips for several computing-intensive applications associated with both companies.
At full construction, SpaceX says the factory could exceed 100 million square feet, or approximately 9.3 million square metres.
A semiconductor factory on an unprecedented scale
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk described the planned facility as potentially the largest and most valuable building on Earth after completion.
“TeraFab will be 50 times the size of the Pentagon when complete,” Musk said on X.
Since the Pentagon is 6.6 million square feet and SpaceX has only confirmed TeraFab will exceed 100 million square feet, Musk's "50 times" figure would require a final size closer to 330 million square feet — a number the company has not disclosed or confirmed.
Even so, the scale remains extraordinary: the Pentagon, Apple Park, Mall of America, and Giga Texas together total 25.04 million square feet, meaning TeraFab's confirmed 100 million square feet alone would already be roughly four times larger than all four combined.
The project originally emerged from Musk’s concern that existing semiconductor suppliers could not satisfy Tesla’s future computing requirements.
Tesla first discussed the concept publicly in November 2025, describing it as a much larger version of its Gigafactory model.
Plans announced in March 2026 called for the semiconductor plant to operate beside Tesla’s Austin headquarters.
SpaceX and Tesla subsequently established the project as a joint venture, with Intel later joining the development effort.
Musk has said the facility would use Intel’s 14A manufacturing process, although production plans may evolve during development.
The companies have linked the factory to chips required for space-based computing, advanced vehicles, and humanoid robotic systems.
Costs, employment and environmental commitments
The initial project estimate was $20 billion, but later filings indicated substantially larger potential spending during subsequent development phases.
A May property tax abatement application revealed that an initial phase could cost $55 billion, with eventual spending potentially reaching $119 billion.
The latest $16.8 billion commitment, therefore, does not represent the maximum investment that may eventually be required.
SpaceX expects the facility to employ at least 3,000 workers, including people from Grimes County and neighboring Brazos County.
Local authorities approved a 100% property tax abatement in June 2026 after county commissioners voted 4-1 on three related proposals.
The companies also say industrial operations will use water from Gibbons Creek Reservoir instead of relying on nearby groundwater supplies.
SpaceX and Tesla have also committed to wastewater treatment, water reuse, conservation measures, and compliance with environmental regulations.
Their plans include regulated handling of hazardous materials, chemicals, and industrial byproducts generated during semiconductor manufacturing.
“The combined SpaceX and Tesla demand for chips is expected to be in excess of 1 terawatt (TW) of compute,” said SpaceX in its website post.
The proposed scale makes TeraFab an unusually large industrial project, while its final cost and construction scope remain subject to future expansion.
- Announced in November 2025 - It will be the show's final season - Expected to premiere in 2028 - Filming could begin in early 2027 - No trailer or other footage available yet - Many of the show's cast will return - Some actors won't reprise their roles - Plot will pick up after the season 3 finale - Other story details teased in its source material - No plans for a surprise fifth season
House of the Dragon season 4 has plenty riding on it. With the high-fantasy show's next chapter set to be its final installment, it'll have to deliver a fittingly fiery conclusion to the Targaryen Civil War, and wrap numerous other subplots and character arcs before its final credits sequence rolls.
All of that, and the final season's 2028 launch, feel a long way off at this stage — but that doesn't mean we can't look forward to its eventual release. So, if you want to know more about its possible cast, expected storylines, and more besides, this guide to the Game of Thrones prequel's next chapter is geared towards you.
Hop on, dragonrider, and let's take flight together.
House of the Dragon season 4 release date: what we know
Daemon will return in House of the Dragon's final season (Image credit: HBO Max)
HBO hasn't revealed next season's official launch date yet. However, as part of a multi-show renewal announcement that confirmed House of the Dragon season 4 was in development, the US TV network's boss Casey Bloys said it would premiere sometime in 2028.
Of course, plans can change, but word is that the cameras will start rolling in early 2027. Should that be the case, I'll be more confident that House of the Dragon season 4 will make its HBO Max debut in 2028.
House of the Dragon season 4 trailer: is there one?
Any idea when we'll see next season's first trailer, Alicent? (Image credit: HBO)
Unsurprisingly, no — and we won't see one for a long time yet. Once a trailer for House of the Dragon season 4 is unveiled, I'll update this section.
House of the Dragon season 4 likely cast
We'll see Aegon II and Aemond again next season (Image credit: Ollie Upton/HBO)
Full spoilers follow for House of the Dragon season 3, and Fire and Blood, aka the book the show is based on.
Here's who I expect to see in House of the Dragon season 4:
Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen
Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower
Matt Damon as Daemon Targaryen
Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon
Tom Glynn-Carney as Aegon II Targaryen
Ewan Mitchell as Aemond Targaryen
Bethany Antonio as Baela Targaryen
Phoebe Campbell as Rhaena Targaryen
Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull
Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull
Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria
Kieran Bew as Hugh Hammer
Tom Bennett as Ulf the White
Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Daeron Targaryen
Freddie Fox as Gwayne Hightower
Jefferson Hall as Tyland Lannister
Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers
Joplin Sibtain as Jon Roxton
Kyrt Egyiawan as Orwyle
Archie Barnes as Oscar Tully
Annie Shapero as Alysanne Blackwood
Dan Fogler as Torrhen Manderly
Amanda Collin as Jeyne Arryn
Three big names were taken off the proverbial chess board in last season's finale, meaning they won't return for chapter 4.
James Norton's Ormund Hightower and Tommy Flanagan's Roderick Dustin were both gravely injured as part of their Tumbleton duel. The pair were then burned alive by Ulf and his dragon Silverwing in the final throes of said conflict.
Meanwhile, Phia Saban's Helaena committed suicide by throwing herself from a window in Maegar's Holdfast as a way out of being Rhaenyra's perennial prisoner. This trio, then, won't be back for another round.
So long, Helaena (Image credit: HBO Max)
There are bound to be a few returning faces, including Jamie Kenna's Ser Alfred Broome, while individuals like Ser Marston Waters and an unhinged, so-called prophet known simply as The Shepherd, who are yet to appear in House of the Dragon, might also show up.
In Fire and Blood, Broome and Waters play integral roles in the Fall of Dragonstone and/or other late-game events. Meanwhile, The Shepherd is responsible for instigating the Storming of the Dragonpit, a hugely significant event that was teased as part of Helaena's dream sequence in season 3 episode 7. I have a wild theory about the identity of The Shepherd, though, which you can read more about in my season 3 ending explained article in this guide's plot section.
That all said, House of the Dragon has taken some creative liberties with its source material, so there's no guarantee that this triumvirate will be part of proceedings. Hopefully, it won't be too long until HBO confirms season 4's full cast roster, and we can say with certainty that they, plus other returnees and newcomers, will take part.
House of the Dragon season 4 story speculation
Rhaenyra has fully committed to her tyrant queen persona (Image credit: HBO Max)
Full spoilers follow for House of the Dragon season 3. Fire and Blood spoilers are also discussed.
Season 4's story synopsis hasn't been revealed yet, but we've got a good idea of what'll happen next
My House of the Dragon season 3 ending explained piece contains some clues about where things will go from here. Meanwhile, those who've read Fire and Blood will definitely know what's in store for Rhaenyra, Aegon II, and everyone else moving forward.
I'm about to dig into some aspects of the latter, so this is your one and only warning: potentially big spoilers immediately follow for House of the Dragon season 4. Skip to the next section if you don't want any major story beats ruined ahead of time.
What'll become of Corlys Velaryon next season? (Image credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO)
Still here? You'll already know — or want to know — that there are many more deadly events yet to be played out in the Dance of the Dragons.
Indeed, the Fall of Dragonstone and Storming of the Dragonpit notwithstanding, we should also see live-action depictions of the Battle Above the Gods Eye, the Second Battle of Tumbleton, and the final showdown between Rhaenyra and Aegon II.
Other moments, such as the Moon of the Three Kings, Battle of the Kingsroad, the False Dawn, and Hour of the Wolf could also be adapted. However, House of the Dragon season 4 already has plenty of destructive and life-threatening ground to cover, so I'd be surprised if the latter pair are shown in any great capacity, if at all.
There could be further ructions in the Velaryon household in season 4 (Image credit: HBO)
That said, the series could end on an unexpected note. Asked by Business Insider about how he planned on concluding things, Condal replied: "We've talked about this being kind of a World War II movie: There are plenty of World War II movies that exist where you tell the story within this greater war, but the curtain drops at some point in the story, and it's not necessarily with Japan's surrender or Hitler dying in the bunker — these big kind of endpoints where you could say World War II truly ended. You're telling the story within the story.
"So, in no way to comment at all on how we're planning on ending this, but I think that was the trick," he continued. "Because Fire & Blood is a decades-spanning history, the question is really more 'Where do you drop the curtain on this particular story?. We're telling the story of the Dance of the Dragons... at what point do you drop the curtain on this, [in a way] that feels satisfying and like you've told a complete story, but also that leaves certain things open-ended? [By] telling the audience, intentionally, that history marches on."
Ulf White and Hugh Hammer might no longer be affiliated with the Targaryens or Hightowers (Image credit: HBO)
Before things come to an end, there are many subplots and character arcs to tie up. Those include — but aren't limited to — Rhaenyra potentially losing more allies in Baela, Addam, and Corlys; Aegon and Aemond teaming up to tackle Daeron and Rhaenyra; Alyn having to deal with taking the life of the High Septon under Rhaenyra's orders; and Hugh reckoning with Cat's death, and how that'll impact his loyalty to Rhaenyra.
Furthermore, there will be Alicent learning of Helaena's death and Aegon II's return, Mysaria's possible role in instigating a rebellion against Rhanyera, and Ulf being a dragon-wielding wildcard whose no longer loyal to Team Black or Team Green — and that's just dealing with some of the show's expansive ensemble.
Of course, the biggest question of all is: will House of the Dragon be able to give closure to everyone in the eight, 60-minute-long episodes that remain before its final curtain call? That remains to be seen. But, with other popular shows recently failing to stick the landing from a finale standpoint, Condal and company will hope House of the Dragon doesn't become the latest one to under-deliver for its fanbase.
Will there be a fifth season of House of the Dragon?
Who else pulled this face when they realized there won't be a fifth season? (Image credit: HBO Max)
Right now, no. Speaking to Deadline in January, HBO boss Casey Bloys replied "yes, that is the idea" when asked if the show will end with season 4. In a separate chat with Deadline this June, showrunner Ryan Condal also said "I think I have said what I have to say about Westeros" — the implication being that, once House of the Dragon's fourth season has ended, it won't return for another outing.
There's always the prospect of HBO replacing Condal with someone else if it felt that a fifth season was necessary, but it would be bizarre to see another individual helm a single season of it. It would be even weirder if House of the Dragon's story continued after season 4, because the show was only intended to cover the Targaryen Civil War as it's outlined in Fire and Blood.
There's plenty more ground to cover with House Targaryen and Westeros more generally post-The Dance of the Dragons. Those stories are arguably best told in separate Thrones spin-offs, though, rather than being the foundations on which to build a fifth season. In short: don't expect to see House of the Dragon season 5 once the show reaches what's expected to be its natural end with its fourth and final installment.
Chinese research vessel lingered above critical Pacific undersea communications infrastructure
Taiwan's Coast Guard warned the vessel to turn away from the Pacific Light Cable Network
Windward linked slow vessel movements with recognized intelligence-gathering behavior
A Chinese-flagged research vessel was recently observed loitering directly above an undersea cable system connecting Taiwan to the United States.
Taiwan's Coast Guard filmed the encounter and warned the 200-foot ship to alter its course away from the cable route.
The cable is the Pacific Light Cable Network, an 8,000-mile fiber-optic system linking Taiwan, the Philippines and the US.
A pattern consistent with intelligence gathering
Maritime analysis platform Windward tracked the vessel moving at slow speed directly over the cable route in the Philippine Sea.
The company described such slow-speed movement over critical undersea infrastructure as one of the clearest signals used in maritime intelligence gathering.
Windward stated plainly that cables do not move, adding that "vessels that hover over them get noticed" by trained analysts worldwide.
Though the vessel's name and identifying number were withheld, Windward said it had operated repeatedly near the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands.
Records also placed the same ship as far as the Bay of Bengal and waters off Sri Lanka in earlier years.
Analysts also noted increased Chinese research vessel activity east of Taiwan since June alongside broader maritime operations in surrounding waters.
Some analysts have expressed concerns that Beijing's military-civil fusion policy could enable information gathered by civilian research vessels to support military activities.
However, no publicly available evidence has verified that the vessel gathered intelligence or transferred information to Chinese military authorities during the reported voyage.
Beijing refutes the claims
Chinese authorities have consistently denied that their vessels intentionally damage undersea cables, calling such accusations premature and politically motivated overall.
They accuse Taiwan and several Western governments of concluding before formal investigations into these incidents are completed.
Chinese-flagged vessels have featured in previous investigations into damaged undersea cables around Taiwan.
NATO officials and Taiwan's own Coast Guard have also linked Chinese-flagged vessels to earlier cable disruptions, including suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea.
On its part, China claims that all its maritime activities are completely legal and respects international maritime law.
Submarine cables worldwide now carry roughly 99% of all intercontinental internet traffic, making their protection a growing global security concern.
The Pacific Light Cable Network carries added significance because Taiwan alone produces more than 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductor chips today.
This network was originally planned to connect Hong Kong before US regulators blocked that route in 2020.
American officials cited concerns at the time that the connection could directly expose sensitive US data to Chinese intelligence services.
The project was later reconfigured to link only the United States, Taiwan and the Philippines, bypassing Hong Kong entirely afterward.
Analysts believe the recent deployments may gradually normalize China's presence in waters that Taiwan has long regarded as strategically important.
Whether the vessel's activity ultimately amounted to scientific research or intelligence collection remains unresolved.
The 2020s has seen a huge shift in music, and the thirst for new releases has never been this parched — we have the pandemic to blame for that. Now, artists are pumping out albums like never before, and it’s become quite the challenge to keep up with this sonic saturation.
Back in 2023, I decided to take action. I started recording my favorite songs released throughout the year by adding them all into one big playlist on Spotify, starting afresh and creating a new playlist at the turn of the new year. Three years later, I’ve kept up the momentum, and now I’ve got four stacked playlists (one each for 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026).
But as the years have gone by, my playlists have done more than simply record the songs that defined every 365 days. Not only can I immediately refer to them whenever someone asks me ‘what were your favorite songs of 2025?’ for example, but they give me a comprehensive overview of how my music taste has evolved.
It’s become integral to my music streaming regime, and Spotify folders have helped boost my playlist organization further — but I’m waiting for an easier way to group my favorite albums of the year.
(Image credit: Future)
Spotify locked playlist folders behind the desktop experience for 15 years, but since it rolled the feature out for mobile back in April, it’s been a huge help in grouping my playlists, especially for my ‘Year in Music’ series.
Following the launch of folders, Spotify increased its Library pins limit from 4 to 20, so now I can finally pin my ‘Year in Music’ folder to my library without having to scroll through the cluttered mess to reach it. It’s a win-win situation, but I still think there’s room for improvement.
While I love a hit single, albums are my favorite way to enjoy music, and New Music Friday has brought back the album release as an event (thank you, Beyoncé). Though you can now freely group playlists in folders in Spotify, I’m still waiting for the platform to roll out the option to do this with albums.
That said, there’s currently a small workaround. You can create album folders by adding all the songs from one album to a playlist, then adding that playlist to a folder to keep track of your favorite releases, repeating the process with each album.
It’s handy, but it adds more steps to the process and doesn’t look as neat or refined. Additionally, I’ve also tried adding several albums to make one monster playlist of my favorite yearly releases, but this ends up looking even more ridiculous.
(Image credit: Future)
For a music platform that prides itself on being the first one with social media-like features, Spotify sure needs to improve the organization of these tools. As a result of the messiness of my Library, I’ve resorted to using third-party services to group my favorite albums into chronological and concise lists.
Musicboard is one of my favorites because you can review music, curate your own lists, and interact with other music fans more smoothly. It’s essentially Letterboxd for music, and just like Letterboxd Pro, you can have access to additional features and customize your profile to reflect your musical identity. That said, it would be even better if I could do this from one place in the streaming platform that gives me my music fix.
It’s refreshing to know that there are platforms out there that understand what tools music enthusiasts want alongside access to the music itself. For me personally, my listening experience isn’t over as soon as a song or album comes to a close — I need to actively log what I’m listening to, and having a cluttered abundance of albums saved into one massive list in Spotify just wrecks my nerves.
If you're of a certain age, you'll remember the frisson of excitement around the launch of Gmail back in 2004. The idea of getting 1GB of storage space completely free of charge seemed wild — and all of your messages could be got at in a simple web browser tab.
As someone who had become accustomed to deleting emails to save space, and painstakingly moving over message archives manually every time I got a computer upgrade, this sounded fantastic. So did being able to get at my emails from any device I wanted, instantly (that seems less appealing these days, somehow).
Something else Gmail has done really well down the years is act as a hub for other email accounts, letting you import and send messages from other accounts inside the Gmail interface — with all the benefits of powerful search, filtering, and spam flagging tools. Now though, most of that functionality is going away.
These are features that I've relied on for decades inside Gmail, and it's going to make my email experience much more frustrating and fragmented.
What's changing
Gmail is focusing on Google emails now (Image credit: Ascannio / Shutterstock)
Charting the gradual dismantling of these features inside Gmail is tricky, because the updates have largely come through emails to users and updates to support documentation — there aren't really any official blog post announcements to point to (it's not surprising Google wants to keep all of this quiet).
The most recent news is that the ability to send emails from other accounts through Gmail is going away, and will be switched off completely from January 2027. If you currently send your Outlook or Yahoo messages through Gmail, as I do, you're going to have to find another solution from the start of next year.
A couple of other features are also being killed off in January 2027 as well, though these changes are ones we've known about for a while. You'll no longer be able to import messages from other accounts via the old POP protocol — something I've relied on for years to get emails from all of my various accounts into the same place — and you won't be able to use the Gmailify feature that essentially adds a few Gmail features (like spam protection) to your third-party accounts.
As someone who primarily uses Gmail on the web, and has several email accounts feeding into it, these are significant changes — and I'm not the only one upset about them. My current setup means I can have separate emails for work, app sign-ups, newsletters, and so on, and keep them all in Gmail for searching, filtering, and labeling, and it's been a simple and reliable setup.
Now I'm going to have to go back to jumping between three or four different email apps to check everything. Different rules, different storage limits, different interfaces. It's an annoying set of changes, which Google hasn't really explained — presumably the idea is to keep users focused on Gmail, and to cut costs.
What to do next
You can still access other accounts in Gmail on mobile (Image credit: Google)
You do have a few options for trying to cling on to Gmail as a message hub, though none of them are ideal. You can get your third-party email account to auto-forward messages to Gmail — it means you'll have them in your Gmail archive for filtering and searching, though there's no 'send as' functionality.
This might cost you too: It's a paid-for extra for Yahoo Mail for example. That's particularly galling for me, because Yahoo is one of the accounts I feed into Gmail. I rely on it for newsletters, tickets, store accounts, general admin, and the like, and now I'm not going to be able to get at any of that inside Gmail.
Another option is to set up a desktop email client on Windows or macOS, which feels very old school. Gmail still supports the IMAP standard, and so do most other modern email services: all of your email will be together in one place, but you're only going to be able to access everything in one place from whatever desktop computer you set this up on.
Lastly, you can still add third-party accounts inside the Gmail app for Android or iOS. However, while this will let you view all your emails in one unified inbox, it won't actually move anything over to Gmail — if you open up the web app, your other accounts and all the messages inside them won't be there.
It's all a bit of a sorry mess, and I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do going forward. What's certain is that I'm not going to be able to carry on as I have been, and that Gmail is going to be a significantly less useful email hub for me in the future.
A developer has a 28.9-million-parameter model generating TinyStories-style text at 9.88 tokens per second, fully offline, on a $10 microcontroller
It was achieved by fitting a language model on a chip with 512KB of RAM by leaving most of it in flash storage
The project is available on GitHub under an MIT license
A developer going by slvDev has a 28.9-million-parameter language model generating text on an ESP32-S3, a microcontroller built for sensor nodes and smart plugs, at 9.88 tokens per second, with nothing leaving the chip.
The project, esp32-ai, went up on GitHub under an MIT license in late July 2026, was showcased on the Better Stack YouTube channel, and has since collected over 3,600 stars and has more than 470 forks of the underlying code.
Given the underlying hardware's limitations, the attempt meant the model, which was trained on the TinyStories dataset by Microsoft Research, had to be scaled down.
Still a capable LLM despite the loss in accuracy
The arithmetic involved here is brutally unforgiving; weights typically need one to four bytes per parameter just to sit in memory, so 28.9 million parameters at 16-bit precision still require nearly 60 MB of RAM. An ESP32-S3 offers 512 KB of SRAM and 8 MB of PSRAM that is woefully inadequate at first glance.
Quantization closes the first part of the gap: dropping the weights to four-bit precision trades a little accuracy for a 75% reduction, bringing 60MB down to 14.9MB.
The second step is where the project earns most of its attention: most of a language model's parameters sit in embedding tables that the model reads from rather than computes against, and something you only read can live somewhere slow.
Borrowing Per-Layer Embeddings from Google's Gemma 3n, slvDev moved about 25 million parameters (roughly 12 MB at four-bit) into the board's 16 MB of flash, pulling around 6 rows, about 450 bytes, per token.
What remains in working memory is closer to 2 MB: the dense core and output head in PSRAM, and activations and norm weights in SRAM. Each tier stores whatever is read at its own frequency, and the chip's memory hierarchy serves as the architecture that enables the LLM.
Offloading weights to storage is not new; it is how people coax frontier-class models onto hardware that has no business running them, but it usually destroys throughput, turning tokens per second into seconds or minutes per token.
The PLE approach avoids that because the offloaded weights are accessed sparingly, so flash bandwidth never becomes the bottleneck. The resulting performance, 9.88 tokens per second, is faster than most people read.
The LLM has its limitations, however: the model writes short, mostly coherent stories and will not answer questions, follow instructions, write code, or know facts. The developer says the limit stems from the small part of the model that performs the reasoning (~4M parameters) and that the memory trick does not change its capabilities. His repository also ships a second model, Barista, which expressly answers espresso questions only (pun intended).
In short, the approach doesn't make small models smarter, but it does allow them to offload data within the board onto chips they could not previously run on, making it an interesting choice, though one with limited practical uses in its current iteration.
Welcome to the Blu-ray Bounty July 2026. This is where we test the latest 4K releases of each month that we think will be perfect for showing off your home theater. If you’re new to the Blu-ray Bounty, you can check out previous editions here, where we’ve reviewed over 100 discs since starting in November 2024.
4K Blu-ray is easily one of the best ways to enjoy a movie at home, especially when it’s on the best TVs and best soundbars. I personally use it as my main source for testing AV equipment, thanks to its uncompressed picture and audio quality.
In last month’s June 2026 Blu-ray Bounty, I tested seven discs, including Speed Racer (which is one of the best discs I’ve ever tested, and you can expect to see it as reference source in future reviews), EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert, Bullet In The Head (1991), Body Heat, Avatar: Fire & Ash, Five Easy Pieces and 36 Hours.
In this month’s list, I’ll be testing 4 discs, and I’ll be using our usual setup. This consists of the LG G6, one of 2026’s best OLED TVs, the Panasonic DP-UB820, the best 4K Blu-ray player for most users on the market, and the Samsung HW-Q990C, the brand’s flagship 11.1.4 channel Dolby Atmos system from 2023.
As always, I’ll only be discussing the video and audio quality of each disc, not the movie itself.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Universal Pictures)
Nintendo / Universal Pictures / Future Nintendo / Universal Pictures / Future Future
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, sequel to 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, follows Mario, Luigi, Peach Yoshi and Toad's adventure to rescue Princess Rosalina, who's been kidnapped by Bowser Jr. The film stars Chris Pratt, Anya-Taylor Joy, Charlie Day and Jack Black, who reprises his role as Bowser.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie looks gorgeous on 4K Blu-ray. This disc is so impressive, that I've even started using it for reference testing, and you can read my full thoughts on it here. Below is a summary about the disc's picture and audio.
It's all about color reproduction here, which is bold and vibrant, generating some amazing pop on screen. As the Lumas listen to Rosalina's bedtime story, the color of each Luma is punchy with some amazing highlights, especially with Dolby Vision HDR. The animation throughout is crisp, delivering 3D-like textures and depth that is seriously impressive.
If you have a bright display at home, you'll be rewarded with some beautiful brightness too. The star that one of the Lumas turns into dazzles on screen, and anytime Rosalina uses magic, there are stunning, glittery colors that illuminate the screen. The movie delivers excellent contrast too, particularly in space scenes where the dark blue sky of space balances nicely with the bright stars and vivid characters.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has an impressive Dolby Atmos soundtrack included too. There's excellent detail and precision here, as Peach and Toad first fly through the space on the star, the twinkling trail behind the star follows its path accurately, and is well defined in the mix, clearly audible even in the uplifting score. As characters fly towards Bowser Jr's ship, height effects are fully utilized, with the character's flight mapped overhead to create a fully immersive sound. There's even great demonstrations of bass throughout, as character's fire up ship engines or crash through things, generating plenty of impact.
To Live and Die in L.A (Arrow Video)
Arrow Video / Future Arrow Video / Future Future
To Live and Die in L.A. follows the story of two Secret Service agents, Richard Chance (William Petersen) and John Vukovich (John Pankow), who are in pursuit of counterfeiter-turned-killer Eric Masters (Willem Defoe) after Masters kills Chance’s former partner.
To Live and Die in L.A. looks excellent in 4K in this restoration, presented by Arrow Video. Textures have been cleaned up well, with skin looking realistic, and more intricate details such as scars and marks on people’s faces delivered with real clarity in close-up shots. Colors have seen beautiful pop, with the Dolby Vision grade really adding some serious punch. Reds, such as those on the US flags throughout, in particular jump off the screen.
There’s some strong contrast throughout, as well as some refined shadow detail. In dimly-lit areas, overhead lights create strong shadows across people’s faces, with a stakeout scene with Chance and Vukovich acting as one of the best demonstrations of this. Black tones are deep throughout as well, in both environments and people’s clothing.
There are two soundtracks included here: the original stereo audio and a DTS-HD 5.1 MA mix. Using the 5.1 MA mix, there’s some seriously good detail here. As Masters makes counterfeit notes, the whirring of the printing press balances nicely with Wang Chung’s score. Even intricate effects in the scene, such as Masters cutting out the notes and washing the surface, are clearly audible. During a night-time stakeout, the pouring rain is accurately mapped to the rear channels, even creating a sense of height. Speech is clear throughout, and the soundstage is wide enough to give all elements room to breathe.
Alice In Wonderland (1951) (Disney)
Disney / Future Disney / Future Future
Alice In Wonderland, based on both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, tells the story of Alice, a young girl who ends up in a magical world where she meets a weird and wonderful cast of characters, including the evil Queen of Hearts who rules over Wonderland.
Alice in Wonderland looks great in 4K. Colors are bold and accurate in equal measure, faithfully rendering that classic Disney look. While most colors are beautifully vivid, it’s reds and pinks that really stand out on screen, looking particularly dazzling. The animation style here looks refined and has been nicely upscaled, giving characters more depth.
On the LG G6 I used, bright colors such as the white of Alice’s clothes and the gold of the doorknob have striking brightness and vibrancy to them, aided by the Dolby Vision HDR featured on this disc. While I usually use Filmmaker Mode on the G6, I found this movie did benefit from the brighter Cinema Home mode for some added punch.
While there is still some film grain present for cinephiles, the movie has been refined quite a lot and this does give the animation a very clean look, making it look much more contemporary than its original 1951 animation style would suggest.
There are two soundtrack options available: DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 mono. The 2.0 mono is more faithful to the original, but the 5.1 MA mix has a nice balance to it, giving every element depth and warmth, while letting them all breathe. The score is mapped to the rear speakers, allowing the front channels to deliver speech and other effects. Outside of the score and vocals, there aren’t many other elements to show off your home theater, but this 5.1 mix does sound brilliant.
Hairspray (1988) (Criterion)
The Criterion Collection / Future The Criterion Collection / Future Future
Set in 1962, Hairspray follows Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake), a teenager who achieves stardom on a local dance show, and attempts to use her newfound fame to advocate for more racial integration on the dance show. Directed by John Waters, the movie also stars Divine, Sony Bono, Jerry Stiller and Debbie Harry.
As you’d expect from a movie set in the 1960s, there’s some seriously bold visuals here. From the bright pinks of the Turnblad home to the striking red of Link’s car, colors have some really nice pop on screen. Textures have been upscaled effectively, giving them a more 3D-like look, though not quite to the extent from other Criterion restorations such as 3:10 To Yuma. Finer details have also been refined, with individual strands of hair given some nice depth and volume.
There’s a lot of grain still present here, so cinephiles will be happy. Black tones are deep as well, shown predominantly in people’s hair. There’s some nice contrast too, as shaded areas contrast with the bright lights of the studios for the dance shows themselves.
For audio, there are two soundtracks available: DTS-HD MA 2.0 surround and DTS-HD MA 5.1. The 5.1 soundtrack does a great job of giving the soundtrack room to breathe, with a good balance between the speech and stacked tracklist of songs used for the dance scenes. More intricate effects such as the sound of shuffling feet and clapping hands during dance scenes have a nice clarity, clearly audible over the much louder songs.
Researchers tested AI-generated patches on six CVEs with poor success rates
Many fixes failed, altered behavior, or introduced new vulnerabilities
Guidance improved outcomes, leading to FLAWED evaluation harness release
When using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to fix vulnerabilities, security professionals are most of the time just robbing Peter to pay Paul, experts have warned.
Researchers from 1Passwords Off-by-1 Labs analyzed fixes proposed by two frontier models - ChatGPT 5.5 at “medium” effort, and Claude Opus 4.8 at “high” effort.
As an experiment, the researchers took six recently disclosed CVEs and produced 6,080 patches using two frontier, cyber-capable reasoning models. The results were underwhelming to say the least - of all the proposed patches, just a quarter (26%) fully resolved the issue.
FLAWED work?
This obviously leaves plenty to be desired, as half (49.3%) of the patches failed to fix at least one existing exploit path. A fifth (20.1%) fixed the original issue but changed application behavior, while 2.3% introduced new security issues. Funny enough, 2.2% failed to fix the vulnerability while also introducing additional exploit paths, as well.
Even among the patches that might be considered (26% of clean ones and 20.1% of those that changed app behavior), more than a third were fragile and not entirely addressing the underlying problem.
The researchers created an acronym for automated LLM patches: FLAWED (Fix-Like Artifacts With Embedded Defects), and warned against letting AI work without human oversight: "The expected value of a fully LLM-generated, non-human-reviewed patch is a net-negative by a considerable margin."
Results drastically improved when the AI was given better context, the researchers further explained. Before working on any patch, human developers are usually given initial guidance. When AI is given proper guidance, its success rate rises to 65%. Incorrect guidance, on the other hand, drops the success rate down to 15.2%. The difference between humans and AI is that humans are better at catching misleading information and poor guidance.
This doesn’t mean developers will, or should, abandon AI. Worst case scenario is that developers will spend more time reviewing AI-generated fixes which could increase cognitive load and still end up being net negative. Therefore, the researchers released a patch evaluation harness called FLAWED, which organizations can now use to determine the effectiveness of their AI-generated fixes.
The Apple AirPods Pro 3 have just received a surprise price cut at Amazon, bringing the excellent premium earbuds down to just $189 (was $249) at the retailer.
That's the lowest price since the retailer's annual Prime Day mega-sale back in June, and likely the best deal we'll see for a while. Ever since Prime Day, these buds have stubbornly held at $199, which is the usual 'sales price' for Apple's premium buds.
Even though the record low is officially $169, the AirPods Pro 3 only hit that on one occasion over Prime Day, so today's price cut is definitely worth considering. Even at $189, the AirPods Pro 3 are an excellent buy for anyone looking for some high-end buds. Not only do they feature excellent noise cancellation, but they're packed with new features like heart rate monitoring and Live Translation.
The AirPods Pro 3 are cheaper today at Amazon
Amazon has dropped Apple's AirPods Pro 3 to $189.99, which is the best deal I've seen on these buds in well over a month. Upgrades to the AirPods Pro 3 include improved Active Noise Cancellation and audio, a new comfortable in-ear design, and new features such as live translation and the ability to track heart rate, workouts, and calories burned.View Deal
We awarded the buds an impressive four and a half stars out of five in our AirPods Pro 3 review, calling them 'near-perfect noise-cancelling earbuds' at the time. While not exactly cheap, they offer excellent noise cancellation and sound quality.
If we had to draw any criticisms, we'd mention that the AirPods Pro 3 don't have class-leading battery life (around 5.5 hours in our testing). You'll also need one of the latest iPhones to really take advantage of their full suite of features like Live Translation and personalized fitness insights. They're still great with older devices, but iPhone 15 and newer devices support Apple Intelligence, which is required for the newest bells and whistles.
Spoilers for My Life with the Walter Boys season 3 ahead.
If you watched My Life with the Walter Boys season 3 with the hope that Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez) and Cole (Noah LaLonde) would be more loved up than ever before, you were sadly never going to get your wish.
Just before the season finale, Netflix pried the two apart once again, with Cole listening to Jackie's uncle Richard's (Alex Quijano) 'advice,' and believing that he was holding Jackie back from fulfilling her full potential.
Not only did this leave Jackie rightly heartbroken, but it's thrust her into the arms of newcomer Eliot (Naveen Paddock), who is all too happy to back Richard's beliefs up. While Jackie and Eliot move in for their first kiss at the community space launch party, Cole leaves his drag race final to try and win her back.
But before he can, disaster strikes. A mysterious car pulls up while Cole is driving to the party, and we see that it's the drag racing contestant who Cole left behind in the final.
He's clearly annoyed that the race has been cancelled, and is looking to take his revenge. Finally, the two cars clip, sending Cole's car into a nearby field, where it continues to roll.
Heading into the already-renewed My Life with the Walter Boysseason 4, Cole has been left for dead. Or has he? I'm convinced that the first details Netflix has revealed about the next season have also confirmed that Cole is still alive.
Noah LaLonde will be returning for My Life with the Walter Boys season 4 — and that's good news
According to Netflix, actor Noah LaLonde will be returning for season 4, with filming having started in Calgary in May 2026. He's seen in a new image of him, Rodriguez, and Ashby Gentry (Alex) on set, with the streamer confirming that the trio is "embarking on the next chapter."
Given that the endgame of the Netflix series is surely to romantically unite Jackie and Cole for good — they just have to go through the worst in order to get there. Frankly, it would be ridiculous for showrunners to kill Cole off completely, especially considering that Alex has finally admitted his feelings for Kiley (Mya Lowe).
Hopefully, Cole's accident is the catalyst for bringing him back to Jackie, and will allow Jackie to fully forgive Cole for so coldly dumping her during season 3. Then, of course, there's the question of whether Jackie actually follows through with her kiss with Eliot at the same time that Cole crashes.
I've got a sneaking suspicion that she'll pull away at the last second... but perhaps that's wishful thinking. It's certainly a moment that her future relationship with Cole could hinge on, if he pulls through.
There is a worst-case scenario, however. LaLonde could simply be returning to film flashback scenes, or to communicate with Jackie through visions from beyond the grave. It's not something we can totally rule out, but it certainly would take My Life with the Walter Boys down a much darker route.
But how likely is this? At the moment, it's far too early to make a call. However, my educated guess is that Cole and Jackie will be just fine in the long run... sometimes, it takes the worst kind of tragedy to realize what you really want.
It will likely rely on the very new Starlink V3 satellite
SpaceX's huge Starship will play a crucial role in the effort to compete with major carriers
SpaceX's first earnings call this week as a publicly traded company was full of promises and hyperbole, including the prediction from boaster-in-chief Elon Musk (also SpaceX CEO and Chief Engineer) that Starlink "will deliver a majority of the world's internet, at least in countries where we're allowed to operate, which is the vast majority of countries." As for a time scale, think not the distant future, but fewer than 10 years.
That's some bold talk, but SpaceX President, COO, and someone far less likely to wax bombastic, Gwen shotwell, backed up those claims. "As far as revenue, I'm just going to take a very high-level kind of top-down. The big three in the U.S., AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, roughly between them, $600 billion a year. I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better." Shotwell told investors.
These promises all hinge, in part, on the development and launch of Starlink's V3 satellites, which will, on a per-satellite basis, drastically improve throughput. Starlink's current V2 satellite has a downlink throughput of roughly 80GBps. V3 can, the company claims, deliver 1 Terabit of downlink connectivity. Uplink jumps from roughly 7 Gbps to between 160 and 200 Gbps.
It's not just the speed; Starlink V3 satellites promise exponentially more beams, which is basically support for more concurrent users. V2 offers just under 200 beams while V3 promises 2048 per satellite.
Still, with just a reported 10,918 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), they will need a way of quickly delivering tens of thousands of satellites into orbit to achieve this lofty goal.
And so the other part of this hyperbolic plan hinges on SpaceX's still-in-testing Starship rocket. Granted, the 408ft tall spacecraft is rapidly transitioning to the operational phase and may have a full launch as soon as this month. It's already lifted some V3 satellites into orbit during one of its earlier orbital test flights. Now, to realize Musk's plan, it must shift to rapid launch deployment and then relaunch and deploy again.
Musk told investors that "Starlink V3 satellite is about an order of magnitude more capable than the Starlink V2 satellite." Then he added some color on the scale of what SpaceX and Starlink are planning: "We expect to launch about an order of magnitude more Starlink V3 satellites. That would mean a roughly two-order-of-magnitude increase in the delivered bandwidth."
Musk believes we'll need all that bandwidth, not just for potential consumer mobile broadband users but for the vast amounts of data and connectivity required by AI and robotics (both here and possibly on a Moon base), two other sectors where Musk has a vested interest.
"With the advent of AI, and humanoid robotics and vehicle robotics and just a massive number of robots, the appetite for bandwidth will be much greater than it has been in the past," he explained during the earnings call.
Starlink Mobile reality check
Starlink, though, is quite a distance away from competing directly with Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T in the US. Across them, they have more than 300M connections (or customers). Starlink has a reported 12M global customers.
As for those V3 satellites that will help propel Starlink Mobile into the mobile broadband competitive space, they do not officially launch until next year. In the meantime, Starlink's V2 Satellites will fill the gaps and help provide partners like EchoStar with better, faster, and maybe more reliable satellite connectivity.
We do already have some proof of the efficacy of Starlink WiFi connectivity and throughput. Earlier this year, TechRadar US Managing Editor for News Jake Krol took a flight on a Starlink-equipped United Airlines aircraft where he enjoyed incredible connectivity and speed. Krol was a fan: "I could livestream a show or movie, or even select a 'live channel' via Disney+ on an iPad, watch any video on YouTube, and scroll through TikTok or Instagram Reels without the slowdowns or loading issues typical of non-Starlink-equipped United flights."
Of course, that connectivity goes from the Starlink satellites to a responder on the jet, which then feeds the signal to onboard Wi-Fi and connected devices. In the case of Starlink Mobile, there'll potentially be no middleman, just your phone, a satellite, and instant, fast connectivity.
The benefit of the low-Earth-orbit V3 satellites, when they do finally launch and fill the skies, is that they should allow consumers to connect with them just as they would with towers assigned to their favorite carrier.
There is also one major hurdle that SpaceX and Starlink already cleared when the FCC granted Starlink approval in January 2026 for the company's "Next-gen satellite constellation."
Even with all this in place, the stars must align with Starship being fully operational, all those new satellites launched, and customers lined up by the millions. The last bit is surely the biggest question mark. Even if most of their modern cellphones support these direct-to-satellite connections, how likely are consumers to leave their trusted carrier behind?
Shotwell, for one, is bullish: "I'm quite excited about Starlink Mobile going forward," she told investors, "We will start to fly the satellites next year, and we will start providing service end of next year."
