Technology

OpenAI says its Jalapeño chip delivered up to 1.9 times more performance per watt than Nvidia Blackwell systems in its first published benchmark tests.

The post OpenAI’s Jalapeño Benchmark Promises Faster, Cheaper AI appeared first on TechRepublic.

• Nvidia is reportedly preparing to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9bn
• A 2023 investment round valued the company at $4.5bn
• Nvidia is on a roll of investing heavily in other companies

Nvidia has reportedly spent the past couple of weeks actively engaging with Hugging Face to explore an acquisition deal worth an estimated $12.9 billion, according to Business Insider reporting, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

To date, the companies are yet to reach an agreement, but with the current valuation speculations, it would make a Hugging Face acquisition one of Nvidia's largest acquisitions to date.

Importantly, this wouldn't be the chipmaker's first run-in with Hugging Face – it took part in a $235 million funding round in 2023. At that time, Hugging Face's valuation was around $4.5 billion - making today's valuation nearly three times higher.

Nvidia and Hugging Face

While this may be one of Nvidia's biggest acquisitions to date, it's just one of a growing number, as the company recently admitted it had $18 billion committed to equity investments for the rest of the financial year, and it already holds $47.9 billion in private company stock.

However, there's still a shadow over the potential Nvidia acquisition, with Hugging Face previously turning down a $500 million Nvidia investment over concerns that a single shareholder could have such a big influence.

The high valuation also makes the prospective acquisition a costly one – at around 86x Hugging Face's annualized revenue ($150 million), Nvidia would be paying a premium for the platform's strategic position and existing relationships, against a backdrop of ongoing investments in models and development tools.

Regulator scrutiny might also question whether competing chipmakers and cloud service providers could be put at a disadvantage, particularly if Nvidia imposes hardware and software restrictions on the platform after a takeover.

Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face responded to requests for comment.

• Salesforce and Anthropic reveal Claudeforce
• Greater expansion of Claude into Salesforce's services, including a new plugin offering 37 pre-built sales skills
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says "Saaspocalypse" is "such nonsense"

Salesforce has extended its partnership with Anthropic to build Claude directly into the former's services.

Claudeforce will give Claude direct access into customer data and other information stored in Salesforce, allowing the AI to carry out everyday tasks and access information much easier than before.

This includes the launch of Salesforce in Claude, a new plugin offering 37 pre-built sales skills giving sellers and agents the ability to reason over live revenue context, automate pipeline updates, and take governed action right from Claude.

Claudeforce

In a blog post announcing the news, the company claimed that Claudeforce, "brings together the best of both worlds — Claude brings intelligence and judgment, reasoning, adapting, and deciding in real time. Salesforce provides the data, rules, and trusted workflows that turn that judgment into enterprise-ready action."

Along with the new plugin, Claude will also now be available in Agentforce, acting as a reasoning model for the Atlas Reasoning Engine, as well as powering Agentforce Vibes and Agentforce Coworker by default, and available in Agent Builder.

Claude will also become the "default model" for Slack, Salesforce noted, serving as "the intelligent backbone across every layer of the Slack experience".

“We believe frontier intelligence should be safe, trusted, and deeply capable, which is why the world’s leading businesses turn to Claude for their most important work," noted Dario Amodei, CEO & Co-Founder, Anthropic.

"Salesforce in Claude brings this same frontier intelligence into the systems where much of the world’s commercial activity happens. Through this partnership, companies can point Claude at the customer information and business context that they’ve been building in Salesforce for decades, and use it to actually run and grow their businesses.”

(Image credit: Salesforce)

The launch comes as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has once again pushed back against fears of a so-called “SaaSpocalypse” brought on by increased AI innovation.

“This SaaSpocalypse narrative has been such nonsense,” Benioff told CNBC. “Frontier models depend on CRM. They don’t replace it.”

Benioff noted that the company's latest financial results suggest AI is having a significant effect on its customer base, with nine of the 10 leading artificial intelligence companies using Salesforce and Slack, and spending on the platforms surging 435% from a year ago.

The CEO pointed to Claudeforce as a clear signal of Salesforce being a strong foundation for AI agents, noting models such as Claude rely on the customer data, business context and workflows housed on Salesforce’s platform.

“Salesforce is first and foremost in the data business,” the CEO said. “These AI models need this level of intelligence, security and controls for users.”

When was the last time you reviewed your cyber security standards? Let’s be clear: keeping a company secure is a constant task.

Cyber breaches are on the rise; according to the latest UK Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 4 in 10 businesses were compromised in the last 12 months. It’s important to remember businesses of all types and sizes are at risk – where there are gaps in security, attackers will take advantage.

Against this backdrop, plus high-profile cyber-attacks on companies including M&S and JLR, the government has reviewed its Cyber Essentials framework.

Its latest overhaul is raising the bar for organizations of all sizes.

Designed to provide the basic controls to protect businesses and their staff, if taken seriously, Cyber Essentials can make all the difference. Yet many businesses are still struggling to meet even baseline security standards.

Common issues such as a lack of budget, limited resources and a focus on other priorities are all factors holding organizations back – and they all make a major IT breach more likely.

Historically treated as a once-a-year compliance exercise, the latest ‘Denzel’ Cyber Essentials framework signals a clear and overdue shift towards implementing continuous cyber resilience. This means tougher standards which could catch businesses out.

Here are the key changes and how to approach them, to reduce the risk of a breach.

Implement a robust patching regime

Under the new framework, expectations have been tightened around patch management – the process of fixing a security risk or software error by installing updates – and vulnerability management.

Previously businesses could demonstrate compliance with patching requirements though documented processes and periodic updates.

In reality, teams find it hard to build in regular patching routines which work without affecting live services, due to downtime and continual testing. And that’s without taking into consideration all the third-party patches that need to be applied, as well as the critical operating system ones.

There is evidence that not addressing application issues and vulnerabilities is leading to more breaches. The 2026 Verzion Data Breach Investigations Report shows system compromise is now up to 61%, the highest it’s been over the last three years.

Timelines for applying critical patches have been made stricter, with a 14-day window to comply. Critical patches must be deployed consistently within this period, and businesses must be able to evidence their patching regime is working.

Companies will be afforded two chances to prove patches have been successfully deployed using a process called “double sampling”. If the first round of evidence has critical issues identified, a second chance will be given to fix it and prove it has worked – if it hasn’t, businesses will fail their certification.

IT teams should review systems now to determine if everything is being patched within the 14-day window. If not, they will need to work closely with operational teams to build up to the requirements in time for the next assessment.

Deploy Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) across the board

MFA remains one of the most effective controls against account compromise. The issue for many organizations is not a lack of MFA capability, but inconsistent deployment.

Businesses are likely to have MFA enabled for remote access such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Microsoft 365 services – but admin interfaces, cloud platforms and third-party services often do not follow the same practice, leaving companies exposed. Threat actors know this and use these weaknesses to try to gain access.

Under the new framework, if you have a cloud system which supports MFA then it must be enabled for all users, irrespective of whether it’s a free, included or paid-for option. Without MFA enabled, it’s an automatic certification failure.

This begs the question: do you know if MFA is enabled on all your cloud services? If not, how long will it take to turn this around?

Cloud services must be accounted for

Under previous versions of the framework, cloud services could be excluded from the assessment as it was argued they sat outside of the scope. This argument is no longer viable. Organizations need to provide a clear, well-defined document with evidence to support proper segregation of all IT Systems, otherwise they will automatically be viewed as within scope.

This means businesses must account for all services, regardless of where they are hosted. Given the flexibility of cloud solutions, this can quickly become a complex issue to gain appropriate visibility of all systems. If you are processing or storing data in a cloud service, this will be included. Typically, these are CRM platforms, HR software and financial systems, project management solutions, plus many more.

As it can take time to discover what’s in use and in scope, this is another area where organizations need to leave plenty of time to ensure all cloud services are covered.

Replace legacy hardware and update operating systems

A major change, and possibly the greatest headache, is the requirement to replace ageing hardware and software.

Recent retirement of the Windows 10 operating system is one area where businesses are under pressure to replace all their hardware to remain compliant. It doesn’t stop there – ageing IT infrastructure, along with major vendor services and solutions, all need to be replaced at some point. If organizations don’t plan ahead, they could be left with a mounting problem and not enough time to deal with it.

Once a vendor stops supporting a platform, the risk of a breach increases until this is addressed. Security patches will no longer be made available and given the time these systems have been out in the wild, it’s only a matter of time before another vulnerability is discovered and exploited.

In the short term, businesses should ensure they have a clear view of their assets in scope of Cyber Essentials and check vendor support dates (and when these run out) to avoid any hidden surprises at the last minute. In the long-term, a robust strategy for replacing all hardware as it is approaching end of life will save difficulty further down the line.

Don’t delay on a gap analysis

Core areas in the Cyber Essentials framework have been updated to reflect the fast-changing security landscape. It’s not all bad news, as businesses have time to turn things around. Organisations should read carefully through the new standards and consider how they apply to their own company.

Do not treat Cyber Essentials as a tick-box exercise and wait until a month before your next assessment. Do a gap analysis now and deal with the findings.

At the end of the day, it is absolutely worth the effort.

The best internet security suites for PCs, Macs and mobile devices, reviewed by the experts.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

Compare five top-rated Wave Accounting alternatives for 2026, including QuickBooks, Zoho Books, Xero, Sage 50, and FreshBooks, to find the right fit.

The post 5 Best Wave Accounting Alternatives for 2026 appeared first on TechRepublic.

• Whoop launches Meridian, its jewelry-inspired fitness tracker
• It's essentially a Whoop 5.0 with Milanese metal mesh and premium metallic finishes
• It 'keeps the same sensor array and tracking accuracy as the standard band'

If there's one thing Whoop hates, it's people taking their fitness trackers off. After all, you're losing valuable data.

That's why the Whoop MG comes with a charging puck that clips directly onto the wearable as you wear it, and it's why you get push notifications from the Whoop app whenever you remove the tracker, telling you it's 'off body'. But there are occasions when a fabric Whoop band would be inappropriate to wear — a wedding, perhaps, or a fancy dinner.

Enter Whoop Meridian: a sleek metallic fitness tracker with a Milanese mesh band and tapered silhouette, designed to look more like jewelry than gym.

According to Whoop, 'Meridian is designed to solve one of the biggest gaps in health wearables: the fact that most people take theirs off exactly when continuous tracking matters (sleep quality outside routine, recovery on off days, stress during social events).'

(Image credit: Whoop)

It offers the same sensors and tracking accuracy as a standard Whoop 5.0, and can be purchased as an additional accessory rather than a complete Whoop, if you so choose. In theory, Whoop members can swap their standard tracker for their Meridian band when needed and continue seamlessly tracking from day to night.

It's available in four colors: Gold, Rose Gold, Alloy (a generic metallic finish), and Black. It's priced at $149 / £119 / AU$219, and is available from today (Thursday 27 August).

Wearables have tried to capture the jewelry aesthetic before, to varying degrees of success: notably the Fitbit Luxe and Apple with the Hermes editions of its best Apple Watches.

However, I quite like the look of these Whoop bands: some shades like Rose Gold and Gold simply look like bracelets, while the darker, more robust colors almost feel like watch straps. If you can't stand to lose hours of valuable data, this could be a stylish solution.

I’ve been reviewing ereaders and epaper writing tablets for nearly a decade now and, in that time, I don’t think I’ve been more excited about an E Ink device as much as Amazon’s Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

When it was announced in October 2025, I was keen to see how well Amazon had implemented the E Ink Kaleido 3 screen technology on the 11-inch note taker, especially since I found the 7-inch Kindle Colorsoft ereader to be one of the better-optimized displays in this category of tablets.

I had to wait over six months after it was initially available to buy in the US — living in Australia meant I could finally lay my hands on it in June this year — but I happened to try the 3rd-generation Kindle Scribe with frontlight first. Following that up with the Colorsoft version was probably a bad idea because I think the 2025 Kindle Scribe is arguably the best Kindle Amazon has made to date: it’s fast, the implementation of the monochrome E Ink Carta 1300 screen is fantastic and the battery life remains just as impressive as on any other Kindle.

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, in comparison, lacks luster. For the most part, it’s not really Amazon’s fault that its monochrome sibling outshines it — it’s the limitations of color E Ink display tech after all — but the one thing that really stands out to me is very much under Amazon's control.

Why so blue, Amazon?

I love the new wallpaper artwork on the 2025 release of the Scribes. They're beautiful, different and, after seeing them first on the 3rd-generation Kindle Scribe in black and white, I was keen to appreciate them in color.

All the lockscreen artwork looks blue on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (Image credit: TechRadar / Sharmishta Sarkar)

Strangely, the dominant color you see on the lockscreen artwork on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is blue. From the start screen, showing the silhouette of the boy reading under the tree, to the red-and-white balloon hovering over a lake and forest, every default artwork just looks… blue.

Now, I know some of this is due to the screen itself — the color filter array (CFA) layered over the screen tends to shift hues towards a grey-blue. But if Boox can ensure the other colors pop in the default wallpapers on its large-screen color devices, so can Amazon.

The wallpaper on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (left) looks duller compared to the Boox Note Air5 C (right) (Image credit: TechRadar / Sharmishta Sarkar)

I thought I’d get used to it but, two months on, and I’m left feeling… well, blue every time I wake up the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. I don’t typically like displaying book covers on the lockscreen, but that’s what I’ve reverted to recently just to avoid the dominance of that one color.

It’s there in black and white

OK, I’ll admit that I sound like I’m nitpicking with the wallpapers, but it highlights one big issue with color E Ink displays — they’re darker than the monochrome E Ink Carta screens and, unless you bump up frontlight brightness, the colors don’t really pop. You can see that with not just the wallpapers, but with book covers and comics too on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

This is because of the RGB layer integrated into the display and it affects every single color ereader and digital notebook, not just the Colorsofts. That means the ‘white’ background isn’t as white as it would be on a similar device using the E Ink Carta 1300 screen (like the 2nd and 3rd generation Kindle Scribes) which, in turn, makes colors look dull.

With excellent contrast and fast performance, the 3rd generation Kindle Scribe is the better Amazon digital notebook (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

But increasing frontlight brightness to enjoy those colors means you’re draining battery life quicker. In the two months I’ve been using the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, I’ve had to charge it every 2 to 3 days with an average use of 5 hours a day — mostly reading, but some writing too, and browsing the Kindle Store — with auto-brightness settings and Wi-Fi on. In comparison, the 2025 Kindle Scribe lasted me about 5 days on a single charge with the same settings and similar use case.

Annoyingly, the Colorsoft edition takes much longer than the standard Scribe to recharge as well.

Color isn’t always necessary

If color reading really is important to you, you’re better off with an iPad or a Samsung tablet to be honest — color E Ink just isn’t there yet. Moreover, most of us who use an ereader don’t necessarily even need color; we tend to mostly read text-heavy books and note-taking also, similarly, is mostly black ink.

On the Kindle Colorsoft Scribe, the color ink isn’t even as dark as I’ve seen on the Boox Note Air 5C, so it really doesn’t offer as much value for your hard-earned cash compared to some of its competition.

In comparison, its monochrome sibling is the overall better performer — as I’ve said in my Kindle Scribe (2025) review, it’s arguably the best digital notebook Amazon has made to date and, if it wasn’t so expensive, it would have scored full marks.

You'll be better served opting for a monochrome digital writing tablet, or even the Boox Note Air 5C if you want color (Image credit: TechRadar)

If you want a note-taking Kindle, I would still recommend the 2024 release of the Kindle Scribe — you might as well pick it up as long as it's still available. I suspect Amazon will discontinue it soon, but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper even at full price, is often discounted even outside of major sales and, according to Good Ereader, it will get the new software features that released with the current Scribe models, including Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive connectivity, AI search and the refreshed homescreen layout.

If you’re willing to explore other E Ink writing tablets, I’d suggest looking into the reMarkable Paper Pure or even the Boox Go 10.3 series if you prefer an Android device that will also double as an ereader. A word of caution on the Boox devices, though: you'll need to deal with some ghosting.

• United’s new Airbus A321XLR begins service soon, and it’s packed with tech
• It’ll mostly serve international, transatlantic routes with free Starlink-powered Wi-Fi
• The big surprise? Two Economy Plus rows with no middle seats

Just a few months back, I got to go inside United’s next-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliner, complete with a high-tech new interior, spacious seats, and some notable upgrades for Economy.

The 787 is a wide-body aircraft built for United’s biggest and longest routes, and now, the airline is bringing that same design philosophy to a much smaller plane and experimenting with something I’ve never seen on a United aircraft before: an Economy Plus row with no middle seat.

I’ve been inside United’s brand-new Airbus A321XLR, a single-aisle aircraft that’s designed to bridge the gap between narrowbody efficiency and widebody distance capabilities, and it’s a pretty fascinating look at where the airline’s cabins are headed.

There’s a new Polaris business-class seat with closing doors, a spacious Premium Plus cabin, 4K OLED screens at every seat, Starlink Wi-Fi from day one, and, yes, those two-seat Economy Plus rows, designed to give you a little more space without the dreaded middle seat.

And after spending time in all four cabins, I think United might be onto something.

Let’s start with the new Polaris business-class product. The A321XLR is a single-body aircraft with 20 Polaris seats, complete with closing doors on either the left or right side of the aircraft. They are pretty spacious, though a bit smaller than the Polaris seats on the 787 Dreamliner. Still, you get an ample seat with an electronic touchscreen control to let it lay flat, kick out the leg rest, or adjust many facets of the experience.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

There are plenty of power ports, including two USB-C ports that top out at 60 watts, a standard wall plug, and a wireless charger. At the center of the experience is a 19-inch 4K OLED screen that’s touch-enabled and, with a button press, slightly pushes out from its base and lets you pull it forward for the perfect view. You’ll also find plenty of storage and a sizable tray table that I wish was a bit larger — still, it should fit a 14-inch laptop very comfortably.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

That’s the most premium experience on board the A321XLR. The middle option of United’s three class offerings is Premium Plus, which features a very spacious recliner that rivals those in domestic first class on smaller single-body aircraft.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

It boasts a 16-inch 4K OLED screen that can tilt and matches the size of the screen on the original Polaris product still in use on some aircraft. You’ll even find a wireless charger tucked under the armrest — a unique spot, but helpful. There’s also a standard wall plug for each seat — remember, Premium Plus is a 2x2 configuration — and a USB-C port tucked at the bottom of the OLED screen.

The tray table is pretty close to the size of what’s in Polaris and can be a good mini-desk for working in the sky, or, let’s be honest, enjoying whatever meal United is serving.

Finally, we move into Economy, which has a total of 118 seats split into 84 standard Economy and 34 Economy Plus extra-legroom options, including two with the middle seat removed.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

With any of these seats, you get a punchy, vibrant 13-inch 4K OLED that’s touch-enabled; across the board, United is knocking it out of the park with the displays here. An intuitive interface offers plenty to watch, including Apple TV in the sky, plus access to music and podcasts from Spotify. A crisp, vibrant screen in each seatback will certainly elevate the experience everywhere.

United began the process of reintroducing screens on aircraft without them, and making them a key part of the ‘United Next’ cabin, back in 2021, and now the airline has close to 800 aircraft with screens in every seat, and should have a quarter of a million seat-back screens across its fleet by the end of next year.

Peter Wolkowski, United’s Head of Product Marketing, told me, “In our post-flight survey data, we just see kind of huge increases in satisfaction across the board when customers fly on an aircraft with screens versus one without.”

There’s a standard headphone jack and USB-C port built into every Economy and Economy Plus seat, meaning that every seat, even in Economy, gets at least one power source — that’s excellent. You also get two standard wall plugs per row, but those are shared.

Economy Plus with open middle seats is where the experimentation comes into play — it was my first time seeing these, and especially for a transatlantic flight, which are the routes the A321XLR will primarily be flying, if the price is right, it could really be worth the upgrade.

The main appeal is no one next to you in the middle, and for couples flying, this is pretty nice. You get plenty of elbow room, and the middle seat essentially has a metal table bolted across it, with two indents for cupholders and a padded rear.

I’m very curious to see pricing for these, and how much of a premium they command over standard Economy Plus.

@techradar

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United is starting with only two of these rows on the aircraft, but if they prove popular, I wouldn’t be surprised if the airline expands this offering. Peter Wolkowski, United’s Head of Product Marketing, told me, “There’s a lot to love about this aircraft, but just having the ability to kind of test new concepts is really exciting.”

“We’re really eager to see how customers respond to [the open middle seat option], and if it is something that kind of performs well and customers love it, we’re going to look at more ways of doing that type of thing on other aircraft.”

I hope we continue to see this kind of experimentation with new seat types, and at affordable price points, rather than airlines just prioritizing the top end.

Rounding out the United A321XLR offering is 'Starlink from the start', meaning the plane is equipped with the right antennas and routers, as well as the proper certification, to offer Starlink Wi-Fi from its very first flights.

This means that any MileagePlus members can get free, fast Wi-Fi for as many devices as they bring, and in my testing, both on media flights and regular ones, it really improves the overall flying experience. No longer is there a concern about not being able to connect, whether that’s when you’re sending a text to a loved one or friend, or something else that requires a connection.

The A321XLR also features mood lighting, which United can split up by cabin — i.e., Polaris, Premium Plus, or Economy — to help set the mood for different parts of the flight, but also to potentially help combat jet lag.

So when does the A321XLR begin flying, and where is it headed?

Alongside the launch event at a hangar at Newark Liberty International Airport, United also announced new routes, and the A321XLR is a key part of them.

Starting September 1, 2026, the A321XLR begins with domestic flights, but later this year, the aircraft formally kicks off its international routes. In total, United announced 10 entirely new international destinations and 13 new routes for 2027.

The new routes are San Francisco to Okinawa, Japan; Washington Dulles to Toulouse, France; and several for Newark. The latter includes Newark to Luxembourg City; Marseille, France; Ibiza, Spain; Valencia, Spain; Terceira, Portugal; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Olbia (Sardinia), Italy; and Catania (Sicily), Italy.

If you like the idea of a flight on the Airbus A321XLR, it’ll be headed to Luxembourg from Newark, Washington, DC; to Toulouse from Newark; to Ibiza from Newark; to Valencia from Newark; and to Marseille from Newark.

• Desktop CPU shipments dropped over 20% amid rising memory and GPU costs
• AMD now holds nearly 35% of the entire desktop processor market
• Mobile CPU shipments jumped as Intel finally closed its capacity gap

Global processor shipments fell in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, new figures have claimed.

Mercury Research found, the decline stemmed mainly from weaker system-on-chip and embedded volumes tied to AMD's shrinking games console business, along with a steep drop in desktop CPU volumes.

Even as the overall market contracted, AMD continued to take share away from Intel across nearly every product category tracked by the research firm.

Desktop demand buckles under higher prices

Desktop CPU shipments fell by more than 20% year on year, a decline Mercury links to weaker demand for high-end gaming PCs rather than typical seasonal softness.

Rising memory prices, driven by chipmakers prioritizing more profitable high-bandwidth memory for AI servers, have pushed up the cost of finished PCs.

A shortage of consumer GPUs appears to stem from similar supply pressures within the broader chip industry.

"Higher PC prices and limited GPU supplies are having a significant impact," Mercury Research said in its report.

AMD's decline in desktop shipments was smaller than Intel's, allowing it to grow its desktop share to nearly 35%, up from about 32% a year earlier.

AMD extends its lead in mobile and server chips

Mobile processor shipments told a different story, climbing strongly compared with the previous quarter after Intel expanded output during two heavily supply-constrained quarters.

Intel added millions of units of mobile CPU capacity in the second quarter, narrowing the earlier gap between supply and available demand.

Despite that expansion, AMD's share of the mobile segment rose to nearly 29%, up from 20.6% during the same quarter last year.

Server processor shipments increased by 20% year on year, with Mercury citing stronger demand for both datacenter—class chips and processors built for networking and storage.

AMD's share of server processors climbed to 34.5%, compared with 27.3% a year earlier, and would reach 46.4% if the comparison were limited only to Intel's Xeon SP and AMD's EPYC lines.

Mercury also tracks the smaller Arm-based CPU market for PCs and servers, cautioning that its estimates carry more uncertainty due to the absence of centralized revenue reporting for Arm chips.

The firm recorded strong growth in Apple's Mac lineup, including its newer lower-cost Neo models, alongside solid gains for Arm-based Chromebooks.

Arm-based systems reached 15.3% of the client market during the quarter, a record high and an increase of 0.9 percentage points.

In servers, Arm's share also hit a record of 13.6%, up 0.5 percentage points from the prior period.

Taken together, the figures suggest a processor market driven less by shifting consumer taste than by supply-chain pressure from the AI boom.

Memory and GPU scarcity appear to be squeezing traditional desktop buyers even as data-center and mobile demand hold up, leaving AMD well placed to keep benefiting from Intel's uneven recovery.

Via The Register

Some critics say it’s not a good look for Apple.

• China has tested an airborne blimp called the S4000
• It generates electricity from wind power at an altitude of 4,000 meters
• The airship can move to wherever it is needed most

If you thought the age of blimps was over, think again. China has just launched a successful test of a helium-filled airship that is used to generate electricity from the sky, and it could mean a return to the air of the skyfaring vehicles that went out of fashion almost 100 years ago.

According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV (via South China Morning Post), the apparent world-first feat involved the airship ascending to 4,000 meters, generating power and returning to the ground. Measuring roughly the length of a Boeing 747 airplane, the craft is reportedly not far from being deployed on a wider scale.

The goal of the vehicle — named the S4000 after the height it climbs to — is to harness the strong winds that can be found high above the earth, which it does using turbines strapped to each side of its body. The winds at altitude are stronger and steadier than those closer to ground level, and any electricity generated is sent back to base using a long tether.

Returning to the skies

(Image credit: CCTV)

By operating in the sky, the S4000 has a few advantages over traditional static wind turbines. For one thing, it can move to windier areas as required, allowing it to adapt to changing conditions or transfer to where it is needed most. For another, it means less real estate is taken up on the ground, freeing up space for other uses and potentially reducing the complaints that are often directed at wind farms.

The S4000 was developed by Chinese firm Sawes Energy Technology alongside Tsinghua University and the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Previous models included the S1500 and the S2000, which drew a combined total of 500 million yuan (US$74.3 million) in orders, according to the SCMP.

The S4000 is far from the only recent effort to harness wind power. As we reported earlier this week, the Ventyra R1 portable wind turbine can be folded up into a backpack yet provides 50W of power output, taking around 35 minutes to fully charge a connected smartphone.

Combined with the S4000 — and the many other developments in the wind power industry — it’s clear that a lot is being done in the world of renewable energy. So don’t be surprised to one day see blimps make a return to the skies, this time in the service of generating electricity.

• Iveda’s GX10-F100 claims more than 150 minutes of airborne endurance
• The gasoline-powered aircraft carries up to 19 pounds of cargo during missions
• Semi-symmetrical carbon-fiber frame targets coastal and remote operating environments

Iveda has introduced a rotary-wing unmanned aircraft aimed at military logistics, reconnaissance, communications support, and other operations requiring longer airborne endurance.

The Arizona-based company says its GX10-F100 can remain airborne for more than 150 minutes, which it claims is five times the endurance of comparable electric quadcopters.

The aircraft uses gasoline propulsion, carries up to 19 pounds (9 kilograms) of cargo, and features a semi-symmetrical carbon-fiber airframe for operations along coastlines, in remote terrain, and in high winds.

A longer-endurance aircraft

The GX10-F100 measures 72 inches in length and has a rotor span of 72 inches, giving it dimensions comparable to compact helicopters.

A 1.43-gallon fuel tank supplies the engine, while the aircraft reaches speeds of 68 mph and has an advertised operational range of 19 miles.

Those figures give the aircraft a different operating profile from smaller electric systems, although actual endurance can vary with payload and conditions.

Iveda says its onboard autonomy software supports live video, route guidance, and object tracking without requiring continuous manual flight control.

The company also lists coastal patrols, emergency services, infrastructure inspection, public safety, and architectural work among possible applications for the platform.

“Mission-critical operators have been forced to work within the limitations of drone systems that were never designed for the environments they operate in. This new helicopter line was built to solve that problem,” said David Ly, CEO and founder of Iveda.

Procurement and future plans

Beyond the military and security operations, this aircraft is also designed for emergency response and infrastructure work.

Therefore, approved emergency response agencies, infrastructure companies, and military pilots can purchase the aircraft for disaster management, inspection, and other operations.

The company says governments can obtain the aircraft through GlobalMed under a federal logistics arrangement, while qualified pilots may purchase units directly.

The GX10-F100 complies with federal procurement requirements for defense acquisitions and with agreements governing eligible commercial suppliers.

This means that not all governments will be eligible to purchase this device, as some are blacklisted for national security.

The GX10-F100 therefore enters a market where endurance, payload capacity, and procurement eligibility can matter alongside autonomy and sensor capabilities.

On the flip side, the gasoline engine introduces logistical considerations which are absent in many battery systems.

Iveda has not provided independent endurance testing showing whether the stated 150-minute figure remains achievable under maximum payload conditions.

This distinction matters because aircraft performance can change substantially when carrying heavier equipment, operating against strong winds, or conducting repeated autonomous missions.

Iveda also disclosed plans to convert retired full-size helicopters into autonomous aircraft, though such a project would represent a larger class of unmanned aviation than the GX10-F100.

For now, the GX10-F100 provides Iveda with an entry into military and government drone operations centered on longer flight duration.

Whether that endurance translates into a major battlefield advantage will depend on reliability, payload performance, autonomy, and actual operating conditions encountered.

Via The DroneFront

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