Technology

A capable everyday laptop doesn't have to cost the earth. I've found a great deal on the 2026 Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i at Best Buy. It combines a 15.3-inch touchscreen with an Intel Core 7 350 processor, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and a 512GB SSD in a relatively light 3.5lb chassis.

• Best for: Remote workers and students wanting a portable Windows laptop for productivity, streaming, and general everyday use without requiring a dedicated graphics card.

• The deal: The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i (2026) is now $680 (was $1300) at Best Buy.

• Why it matters: You get a Core 7 350 processor, 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and a 512GB SSD in a 3.5lb chassis, along with a 15.3-inch 120Hz touchscreen and a good selection of ports. We've reviewed previous editions of the IdeaPad 3i and appreciated its attractive design, affordability, and performance for day-to-day tasks.

Ideapad Slim 3i 15.3" 2k Touchscreen Laptop: was $1299.99 now $679.99
This 15.3-inch touchscreen laptop features an Intel Core 7 350 processor, 16GB DDR5-5600 memory, a 512GB SSD, 120Hz IPS display, Wi-Fi 6, USB-C, HDMI, SD card reader, and Windows 11 Home.View Deal

Why we recommend it

The IdeaPad Slim 3i is powered by a Core 7 350 six-core processor that can reach 4.8GHz. It's accompanied by integrated Intel graphics and an NPU rated at up to 17 TOPS.

It comes with 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory, which can be expanded to 32GB, alongside a 512GB SSD. The 15.3-inch touchscreen has a 120Hz refresh rate and reaches 400 nits of brightness. Lenovo claims up to 18 hours of battery life.

Connectivity includes two USB-A 3.2 ports, USB-C 3.2 with DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, an SD card reader, and a headphone/microphone connection. There's also a 720p webcam with a privacy shutter, Dolby Audio, and a numeric keypad.

Price context & historical value

Best Buy has cut the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i from $1,299.99 to $679.99, knocking $620 off the listed price. I've seen it selling for this amount a couple of times in the past, but not any cheaper.

At first, I suspected the list price was inflated - perhaps partly due to the component crisis that's sending prices skyrocketing - but an 8GB IdeaPad Intel Core 3 is currently listed at $900 direct from Lenovo, and $1000 for the Intel Core 5 model.

That makes this Best Buy deal the better pick by miles, with double the memory and a faster processor.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i if...

You want a thin general-purpose Windows laptop with a large touchscreen, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and enough processing power for work, study, and everyday tasks.

❌ Skip the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i if...

You perform demanding workloads that need a dedicated GPU for graphics work, or you specifically want a laptop with a backlit keyboard.

• Shop all the laptops at Best Buy

• Lanterns' weekly viewing figures have been revealed
• On average, 19 million people have tuned in to each episode on HBO and HBO Max worldwide
• A rumored writers' room update also suggests a season 2 renewal could be imminent

Lanterns is truly shining on the world stage.

According to audience measurement experts Nielsen (via Variety), HBO's Green Lantern TV show has been a huge hit with viewers across the globe. Indeed, per Nielsen's internal data, each episode of the sci-fi crime drama's first season has been watched by an average of 19 million people across HBO and its streaming sibling HBO Max. Of that figure, 12 million are in the US alone.

Impressive numbers though they are, Lanterns' global viewership is arguably even bigger than what Nielsen has reported. Indeed, because HBO and HBO Max aren't available in some world regions, Lanterns is also available on other streaming platforms. The chances are, then, that its audience share is even greater than we realize.

To put an even bigger spotlight on its stunning performance, Lanterns' debut season has, on average, drawn in more viewers per episode than The Pitt season 2. Considering how popular the aforementioned multi-award-winning medical drama is, it's to Lanterns' credit that it's outperforming The Pitt's most recent outing.

Given its success, it's more likely than ever that Lanterns will get a second season on HBO and some of the world's best streaming services, right? As a huge fan of the Aaron Pierre- and Kyle Chandler-fronted program, I certainly hope so.

Read my Lanterns coverage

- Lanterns episode 1 ending explained
- Sinestro in Lanterns explained
- Lanterns' Manhunters explained
- Lanterns' Guardians of the Universe explained
- Lanterns episode 4 ending explained
- Lanterns episode 5 ending explained
- Lanterns episode 6 introduces a major character from Hal Jordan's past
- Lanterns episode 8 trailer spawns major new fan theory about John Stewart
- 6 predictions for Lanterns' season 1 finale

I'll readily admit I feared the worst for Lanterns season 2 after comments made by HBO boss Casey Bloys in mid-September. However, with Lanterns posting nearly 20 million average views per chapter, and DC Studios co-head James Gunn confirming (via Threads) that its eighth episode is only its debut season's finale, rather than a series finale, I'm starting to convince myself that it's a matter of when, not if, the DC Universe (DCU) TV show will get another run.

That growing confidence is helped by recent speculation that a full writers' room has been assembled to thrash out a potential plot for the DCU Chapter One show's sophomore season.

As reported by Nexus Point News, five writers have joined showrunner and co-creator Chris Mundy to come up with a compelling storyline for another season.

Vanessa Baden Kelly, who penned two of this season's eight entries, has returned, while new faces in Chris Cantwell, Nakkiah Lui, Zack Whedon, and Selwyn Seyfu Hinds have also come on board.

I should point out that the assembly of a writers' room doesn't guarantee that Lanterns season 2 has been greenlit internally. It's still possible, then, that Gunn, Mundy, and company won't move ahead with what I'd expect to be another eight-part installment.

Still, there's clearly an appetite from Lanterns' cast and crew, as well as its growing audience, for another season. Let's collectively hope that this season's finale, which airs Sunday (October 4) in the Americas and Monday (October 5) everywhere else, ends with confirmation that season 2 is officially in development.

In the meantime, check out my six big predictions for Lanterns' season 1 finale. Once you're done, see if you're brave enough to tackle my tricky Lanterns season 1 quiz.

• Shopify has launched a new tool for editing websites
• Canvas lets you view and edit your entire website from one workspace
• It is rolling out to users over the coming days

Shopify has launched Canvas, a new tool that lets users move across every page of their online store, zoom into detail, and use conversational AI to turn ideas into real, on-page changes.

Canvas lets users ‘zoom out’ from individual pages, turning their full site into a workspace for creativity and collaboration with Shopify’s dedicated AI assistant, Sidekick. This means merchants can see every page laid out together on one screen, helping give a feel for the store as a whole, identify branding inconsistencies, then zoom in to work on them in detail.

“When I built Kotn 12 years ago, I knew how to code, and it still took me two weeks to get a rough store working,” says Ben Sehl, Director of Product at Shopify. “Today, an entrepreneur on Shopify can build a fully custom store in twenty minutes that’s head and shoulders above what I built then. That’s what we’re enabling with Canvas: helping more entrepreneurs get closer to the version of their store that exists in their head.”

What is Canvas all about?

Here is what you can do with Canvas:

• Store-wide visualisation: You can see every page of your online store laid out in one single canvas
• Real-time code rendering: Change your store by rendering actual code; make real edits from one central workspace
• Talk your ideas into existence: Edit by telling Sidekick what you want in plain-English terms, or you can edit manually
• Improve AI outputs: Sidekick will take screenshots of its work and validate the code in a feedback loop before handing you back the design
• Save time with store design decisions: Sidekick carries design decisions across sessions to maintain consistency without the need to constantly re-explain

Early stages

According to a press release shared with TechRadar Pro earlier this week, Canvas is still in the early stages of rollout and will be available to users over the coming days. For now, it will exist alongside the current theme editor, offering a hybrid approach to website editing.

Today’s businesses face growing pressure to reduce IT spend. Hosting decisions can quickly become focused on the headline price.

On paper, choosing a lower-cost hosting provider can seem like the sensible option. The monthly infrastructure fee is lower, the cost per virtual machine or physical server resource, such as RAM or CPU, appears competitive, and the headline storage or bandwidth allowances may seem sufficient.

When procurement teams compare quotes line by line, the cheapest option can therefore be difficult to challenge.

The problem is that the invoice represents only part of the true cost. A low-cost platform can quickly become more expensive if it results in downtime, poor support, security gaps or additional pressure on internal teams.

This is the impact of “service drag”: repeated incidents, slow resolution, unclear ownership, and the constant need to chase updates or re-explain issues to tiered support teams. Over time, this consumes valuable internal capacity and erodes the savings made on the original contract.

Hidden costs ramp up

Hidden costs can then start to build. Cheaper hosting packages may include unpredictable billing and fees, upgrade charges, support add-ons and scaling costs. Resources can be over-provisioned, incorrectly sized or left running when they are no longer needed. Equally, providers can keep prices low by limiting/throttling, or not clearly disclosing, the resources available to customers.

This often only becomes clear at the point of need when the customer realizes the resources included do not meet their operational requirements. Increasing capacity may be possible, but it often comes at a high additional cost. Over time, the cheap entry point can become an expensive growth path, particularly if migrating away from the platform is hard to do.

When support becomes the workload

The most significant cost, however, is often the work pushed back onto the customer. When a hosting provider does less, the customer’s internal team has to do more. That can include everything from monitoring infrastructure to managing vendors, handling patching and upgrades and responding to incidents.

Support is where service drag becomes most visible. A lower-cost provider may offer support but it can mean ticket-only access, limited technical ownership or first-line responses that do not resolve the underlying issue. Skilled engineers are costly, so low-cost models often depend on high customer volumes and limited hands-on management.

For the customer, this means more time diagnosing problems and chasing updates. Even a short outage can outweigh months of hosting savings if it affects productivity or customer confidence.

Security and resilience often cannot be bolted on later

Cheaper hosting options often also result in security shortcuts. Such services are often multi-tenant, with organizations sharing infrastructure with thousands of other customers.

Multi-tenant infrastructure can be safely run if environments are properly isolated and sufficient resources are allocated to each user. A virtual private cloud model, for example, can provide logical separation on shared infrastructure, while still allowing resources to scale. But if too many users share the same infrastructure, performance suffers. If environments are not safely isolated, a DDoS attack or security incident affecting one customer can have wider consequences.

Backups need similar scrutiny. “Backups included” does not mean recovery is guaranteed. Buyers typically need to know how often backups are taken, what recovery time is realistic and who manages the recovery process.

What businesses should expect from a quality provider

For many organizations, buying hosting can seem like a complicated process. It does not have to be. The best managed hosting providers reduce the operational burden on the customer. That means taking responsibility for outcomes, rather than simply supplying compute, storage and connectivity.

Businesses should be able to rely on proactive monitoring, direct access to experienced engineers, clear incident ownership and managed security. They should expect capacity planning, patching, lifecycle management, transparent pricing, documented SLAs and regular service reviews.

The architecture should be designed around the workload, rather than forcing the business into a one-size-fits-all package or provisioning the bare minimum in order to lower costs and win the business, only to scale costs later once the customer is heavily invested.

To make sure they get what they need, buyers should follow a practical checklist. They should know what is included in the quoted price, what support is available outside office hours and who takes ownership during an incident. They should also be asking whether backups are tested and how quickly capacity can be increased.

The responses will reveal whether the provider is simply selling infrastructure or offering expertise, resilience, response, predictability and accountability.

The final cost calculation

The true cost of hosting is not measured by the monthly invoice alone but by the time, risk and operational burden placed on the business. Real cost control comes from reducing the effort needed to keep critical systems stable and secure.

For MSPs and hosting providers, value comes from faster decisions and a service model that takes pressure away from customer teams. A stronger provider may cost more because it assumes work and risk that would otherwise remain with the customer.

Ultimately, the lowest-cost hosting provider is only cheaper while everything is working. The real measure of value is what happens when demand rises, systems fail or the business needs help.

We've featured the best green web hosting.

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

Apple’s iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 with a 7.6-inch folding display. See its release date, specs, cameras, battery life, features, and more.

The post iPhone Duo Cheat Sheet: Price, Specs, Features and More appeared first on TechRepublic.

I've reviewed the best task management software for different workflows. From sprints to Kanban to personal tasks, find the platform that fits how your team works.

The post 9 Best Task Management Software of 2026: My Top Picks appeared first on TechRepublic.

• UK orgs are failing to deliver projects or losing clients and contracts due to a lack of skills
• 97% have adopted AI to some degree, but only 6% report workforce-wide AI literacy
• The solution is a combination of recruitment and training opportunities

More than one in three (35%) UK tech execs believe that the ongoing skills gap could be costing them at least £380,000 per year – a figure that's even more pronounced when Pluralsight asked cybersecurity professionals, 41% of whom agreed with that estimate.

One of the most commonly cited factors leading to higher costs is that 40% have had to unexpectedly outsource work because they lacked the necessary skills within the organization, leading to budget overruns for 30% of the survey's respondents.

Many have even failed to deliver key projects (39%) or lost clients or contracts altogether (27%) as a result of not having enough skills internally.

UK businesses are struggling to operate without outside help

Pluralsight also revealed that many UK organizations have likely rushed into AI without an appropriate strategy, causing spend to skyrocket without the tangible benefits. Nearly all (94%) have invested in at least some AI tools, but only 6% report AI literacy across the entire workforce.

Still, it's good news for job applicants because recruitment doesn't seem to have gone anywhere. More than four in five (85%) say they hired the same number (or more) junior tech professionals this year as before, and 10% have even significantly increased hiring. The biggest concern, shared by 88% of the survey's respondents, is that there's simply not enough junior talent entering the workforce.

"This means that businesses cannot rely on recruitment alone, but must invest in clear development pathways that prepare new talent and help existing employees continually build relevant skills," Pluralsight Author Fellow Faye Ellis explained.

However, more than half (53%) of senior leaders are still unsure how to solve their skills gaps. Looking forward, the research paints a picture of the need to not overlook training existing workers for future skills, the importance of AI literacy as the way we work undergoes an evolution, and a continued investment in junior recruitment.

The FTC is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms over potential consumer harms, safety claims and risks tied to increasingly autonomous AI systems.

The post FTC Probes OpenAI, Anthropic as AI Agent Safety Risks Draw Scrutiny appeared first on TechRepublic.

• AI chatbots appear to be providing less diverse responses, research claims
• Displaying the same answers has been likened to globalisation, where the same products and brands are available everywhere
• Such a move may increase convenience, but also reduce diversity

Could we be heading into a real-world Idiocracy? A repeated reliance on AI to provide answers – invariably the same answers, offering the same views – could be shrinking human knowledge, a new study has claimed.

The research, which tested 27 different LLMs, found that even with the best performing LLM, the information presented as answers was almost 19% less diverse than what is available using Google’s standard search engine. Consequently, the information was less varied, providing a narrower selection of answers, views, and restricting interpretation.

Researchers believe that this trend risks pushing certain content to the peripheries of accepted knowledge, while other content is considered dominant or primary – and the end result of this could indeed be a world where people are less aware, more idiotic, and perhaps even with less intelligence than today.

Topic testing

The study was conducted by researchers at the Department of Computer Science (DIKU) at the at the University of Copenhagen.

To establish how the LLMs would deliver answers, they were tested on 155 topics (ranging from nuclear weapons to K-Pop). The researchers used 200 prompt formulations drawn from research into real AI chatbot usage, generating an incredible 70 million responses from the models.

Even answers from GPT-5, the LLM producing the most varied responses, were still 18.5% less varied than answers from Google Search.

“People are to a large extent exposed to the same information over and over again,” says first author Dustin Wright. “So AI chatbots are not just changing how we find knowledge, but also which knowledge we have access to."

An Idiocracy?

Whether using AI models as part of Google Search, DuckDuckGo’s search tool, Bing, or by specifically quizzing Gemini, ChatGPT, or any of the other chatbot-accessible LLMs, the findings from the research indicate a change in how information is surfaced.

“We risk exposing people to fewer perspectives and a narrower range of knowledge. This could create a vicious cycle in which the most popular content becomes even more dominant, while other content is increasingly overlooked,” says DIKU Professor (and senior author) Isabelle Augenstein.

She compares the phenomenon with the downsides of globalization: “Today, you can buy the same products and find the same coffee chains almost everywhere in the world. That has many advantages, but it has also reduced diversity.”

As for the possibility that AI could shrink knowledge across humanity, and leave a world governed by those wholly unsuited to the task, Professor Augenstein is more upbeat. She says that a “knowledge collapse is not happening yet […] we can see that the more recent models produce slightly more diverse answers than older models.”

We’re midway through the 2026 Amazon Prime Big Deal Days event in Australia, and we’ve found a whole heap of deals on a wide range of tech, including coffee machines, vacuums, smartwatches, headphones and more.

With a lot of the deals we’ve covered all comfortably fitting in the ‘big splurge’ category, I wanted to highlight some of the best cheap buys we’ve found during this sale, all for less than AU$100 apiece.

We’ve also seen some fantastic deals from Logitech, Anker, Harman Kardon and more, with discounts on peripherals, speakers and chargers to name a few. I've also included some cheap tech that I personally own and vouch for — all of which are still going strong even after a few years.

Prime Big Deal Days will be running through the long weekend, ending at 11:59pm AEST on Monday, October 5. Be sure to arm yourself with a Prime membership because the best prices will be exclusive to subscribers. If you've never tried the service before, you can sign up now and use the 30-day free trial to shop the sale, then cancel if you don't want to pay the ongoing fee of AU$9.99/m.

• Follow our dedicated live coverage of the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026 sale for more deals and discounts

Luna 2: was $229.95 now $99.95
Our colleagues at What Hi-Fi gave this portable speaker 4 out of 5 stars in its review, praising the design, audio performance and bass. They did say the battery life was middling and there was some slight treble edginess, but this 57% discount takes care of those concerns in spades.View Deal

If you just need a decent pair of computer speakers without going all-out for an expensive audiophile-level setup, these small and compact ones from Creative “punch way above their weight” in terms of sound and design, according to our Creative Pebble Pro review. That said, these are quite basic with few features and the cables can make for a cluttered desk, but I doubt that you can find anything comparable for this price.View Deal

• Looking for more discounted audio gear? Check out these deals on headphones and more speakers here.

MX Anywhere 3S: was $139.95 now $77.90
This mouse is my favourite for travelling, not only for its small and compact size but also for its ability to work on more surfaces than just about any other mouse can, hence the name. The battery life also lasts up to 18 months without a charge, and it also features the same adjustable scroll wheel found in the larger MX Master mouse. This price only applies to the Rose colour, but the Black and Pale Grey are also discounted.View Deal

Monitor Light Bar: was $59.99 now $47.99
This monitor-mounted lamp will illuminate your workspace and reduce eye strain and screen reflections, while also saving some precious desk space that a conventional lamp would take otherwise. I have this at my home office desk and it was easy to mount and attach, and has served me well for four years.View Deal

• Find some more deals on PC peripherals here

P41 45W 10,000mAh power bank: was $39.99 now $28.48
We love Iniu’s power banks and we’ve included some of them in our best power banks in Australia buying guide. We haven’t reviewed this specific model but I own one and it has so far been my favourite of all the power banks I’ve owned before. It’s slim at just 1.7cm at its thickest point, and compact enough at 11cm tall and 6.9cm wide to easily fit in a pocket. It comes with a braided cable attached to the unit for convenience, fast 45W charging and a cute pawprint-shaped battery level indicator.View Deal

112W desktop charger: was $79.95 now $53.19
This 6-in-1 charger (3 USB-C and 3 USB-A) from Anker sits mainly on my desk to quickly charge all my devices and power some desk-bound bits and bobs like a desk fan and a mini lamp, all while tucked away underneath the desktop, thanks to the included cable organiser. I’ve also used it as a travel charger on some trips instead of traditional charging bricks, due to its relatively compact design and high-wattage fast charging.View Deal

• Devices running out of battery too quickly? We’ve also found some deals on mobile phones, tablets and ereaders.

Battery Video Doorbell 2K: was $149 now $68
The second generation of this affordable video doorbell from Amazon-owned Ring now provides head-to-toe coverage, 2K resolution video and a swappable battery, earning itself 4 stars out of 5 in its review and a spot in our best video doorbells buying guide. You can also get a bundle with a no-drill mount or another with the third-generation Ring Chime. It’s worth noting that a lot of the features are locked behind a subscription service, Ring Protect, which starts at AU$4.95/m or AU$49.95 per year, so take those costs into account as well.View Deal

Video Doorbell 2K (2nd Gen): was $229 now $68.89
We named the first-gen model one of the best video doorbells you can buy in Australia, and this newer iteration improves upon it with 2K resolution video, a wireless option with USB-C rechargeable internal battery and a smaller, more compact design. Like the Ring above, a lot of the features are locked behind a subscription, Arlo Secure, with prices starting from AU$6.67/m.View Deal

• Looking for other deals on smart home tech? Check out some more Prime Day discounts here.

Smart Band 10: was $89.50 now $64.99
We rated this the best overall cheap fitness tracker for its 18-19 day battery life, 150-plus tracking modes, reliable heart rate tracking, accurate step counts, sleep monitoring and more. Our review’s score is attributed to the minor upgrades and a price hike over its predecessor rather than any fault of the device itself, and so this discount takes care of those concerns with ease.View Deal

Amazfit made a splash earlier this year when it officially launched in Australia, bringing with it plenty of affordable but feature-packed smartwatches and fitness trackers that undercut offerings from Garmin, Apple, Samsung and more. The Bip 5 Unity can track 120 sports modes, heart rate, blood oxygen and sleep quality. It also has a built-in speaker and microphone for calls directly on your wrist, as well as support for Alexa. More importantly, the battery is rated for 11 days with typical usage or up to 26 days in battery saver mode.View Deal

• Don’t mind spending a bit more? Here are some more options and also check our dedicated page on Garmin deals.

Looking for more cheap deals? You can find a couple more in our main Amazon Prime Big Deal Days hub, where you can also find more discounts on vacuum cleaners, air fryers, cameras and more.

• Maxsun Z890 workstation moves the graphics card away from the motherboard
• MCIO allows the motherboard and GPU to occupy opposite chassis sides
• The Z890 Mini-ITX platform supports multiple PCIe lane configurations through MCIO

Chinese manufacturer Maxsun has designed a new compact workstation which separates its graphics card from the motherboard while retaining a high-speed PCIe connection.

The system uses MCIO connectors to move the graphics processor away from its conventional motherboard location inside a small Cooler Master chassis.

MAXSUN demonstrated the system at Intel Connection 2026 alongside several forthcoming mini PCs from the company.

MCIO moves the GPU away from the motherboard

This workstation uses a Z890 Mini-ITX board with MCIO replacing the conventional GPU connection, allowing the motherboard and graphics card to sit on opposite sides of the chassis.

Routing the PCIe link through wiring gives hardware developers extra freedom when designing small desktops and similar high-density machines.

Mini-ITX is the smallest mainstream desktop board size at 17 cm by 17 cm, which limits how far designers can space components.

Maxsun previously confirmed that PCIe lanes can pass through slim cable connectors on its Q870 and Z890 boards, supporting x8+x8 and x8+(x4+x4) splits.

An x8+x8 split divides 16 lanes into two groups of eight, while x8+(x4+x4) divides the second group again into two links of four lanes.

The connector, common in data center hardware, is reported to support PCIe Gen5 links, though the exact bandwidth achieved in this system was not stated.

The demonstration leaves performance and availability unclear

MAXSUN installed the motherboard and graphics card on opposite sides of a Cooler Master i100 Air chassis, using a Hyper 510 low-profile cooler for the processor.

A V850 SFX Gold power supply provides power to the compact system, completing the hardware arrangement shown in the demonstration.

Because retail graphics cards lack native MCIO connectors, an adapter or intermediary board remains necessary to establish the cabled PCIe connection.

That requirement means the MCIO approach changes the motherboard's connection method rather than altering the graphics card itself.

The demonstration therefore shows how the components can be arranged differently inside a compact chassis without replacing the conventional connector on the GPU.

MAXSUN did not specify the graphics card used in the demonstration, leaving its hardware configuration and performance over the cabled connection unclear.

It also did not show performance figures, temperatures or noise, so the demonstration offers no evidence about how the finished system behaves under sustained workloads.

What the setup does establish is that MCIO can relocate the graphics card within the chassis while preserving a PCIe connection to the motherboard.

That flexibility could simplify layouts where a conventional expansion slot would restrict the placement of a large graphics card inside a compact enclosure.

However, Gen5 PCIe connections operate at high signaling rates, making cable quality, connector design, and signal integrity important to maintaining reliable operation.

MAXSUN has previously shown MCIO-equipped motherboards, suggesting that the company continues developing cable-based PCIe layouts for compact systems.

However, it has not provided a launch date or pricing for the device, leaving the commercial status of the workstation unclear.

Until those details and independent testing become available, the demonstration shows the layout's technical possibility rather than a finished product.

Via Videocardz

It’s a good month to reassess old accounts and retake control of your data and privacy.

• Gunnir fits two Arc Pro B70 graphics cards inside one compact workstation
• Each Arc Pro B70 card carries 32GB of GDDR6 ECC graphics memory
• The dual GPU workstation provides 64GB across two separate graphics processors

At the recent Intel Connection 2026 event in China, hardware manufacturer Gunnir showed two custom workstation systems built around Intel's Arc Pro B70 graphics processors.

Both machines use Intel Core Ultra 200HX Arrow Lake-HX processors, so neither configuration includes an AMD processor or graphics option anywhere in its hardware.

The larger system fits two Arc Pro B70 cards inside a compact enclosure, while liquid cooling handles the heat from the graphics hardware.

Two B70 graphics processors share one compact machine

Each graphics card carries 32GB of GDDR6 ECC memory, giving the dual-GPU workstation 64GB of memory spread across two separate graphics processors rather than a single pool.

This memory remains divided between the GPUs rather than forming one 64GB pool, although supported software can distribute workloads between them.

Intel’s oneAPI framework supports computation across multiple devices, allowing compatible applications to use several GPUs for parallel processing workloads.

Intel builds the B70 on its larger BMG-G31 Battlemage GPU, which contains 32 Xe cores and 256 XMX engines for up to 367 INT8 TOPS.

Intel also lists 608GB/s of memory bandwidth for each B70 card, which applies to both graphics processors in the larger workstation.

Partner boards can run anywhere between 160W and 290W, a wider spread than the single 230W rating Intel gives its reference board.

Intel launched the B70 earlier this year with a suggested starting price of $949, although partner versions can carry different prices depending on implementation.

The event coverage lists no shipping date, price, or release window for either workstation, so their cost against the $949 card remains unknown.

Intel describes the B70 as suited to local AI inference and workloads that can use several graphics processors at the same time.

That focus explains why GUNNIR is experimenting with dense dual-GPU systems rather than conventional gaming desktops, according to the event coverage.

Compact systems fit serious graphics hardware into limited space

The smaller workstation places the same GPU family into a more compact design, and a vapor chamber manages its thermal output instead of liquid cooling.

GUNNIR also showed MXM graphics modules using B50 and B65 chips for compact systems where conventional PCIe cards cannot fit.

The smaller MXM format allows workstation manufacturers to add discrete graphics in places where full-size desktop expansion cards would require more physical space.

Neither the B50 nor the B65 module listed memory, core counts, or pricing in the coverage, so their performance against the B70 is unclear.

Separately, GUNNIR sells the Arc Pro B70 TF 32G for workstation use, with 32GB of ECC memory and a blower cooler built for sustained operation.

ECC memory corrects certain data errors automatically, and GUNNIR lists that feature on its blower-cooled card alongside the 32GB capacity.

Because partner boards range from 160W to 290W, GUNNIR's blower and liquid cooling choices may matter as much as the silicon itself.

Via Videocardz

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, October 1 (game #1208).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1209) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• LITTLE
• REAL ESTATE
• COMMON
• RING
• INDEX
• FUND
• BANKROLL
• RIB
• STANDARD
• MIDDLE
• STOCK
• SUPPORT
• BACK
• NUMBER
• ROUTINE
• TIMER

NYT Connections today (game #1209) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Put some money behind it
• GREEN: Digits
• BLUE: Pretty ordinary
• PURPLE: Begin with a word that rhymes with “rhyme”

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1209) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: FINANCE
• GREEN: FINGERS
• BLUE: CUSTOMARY
• PURPLE: PRIME_____

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1209) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1209, are…

• YELLOW: FINANCE: BACK, BANKROLL, FUND, SUPPORT
• GREEN: FINGERS: INDEX, LITTLE, MIDDLE, RING
• BLUE: CUSTOMARY: COMMON, ROUTINE, STANDARD, STOCK
• PURPLE: PRIME_____: NUMBER, REAL ESTATE, RIB, TIME

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Whenever there is a very easy game of Connections I am always left with regret that I did not slow down and play more tactically.

Unfortunately I cannot help myself and blitz through the groups as I discover them, which today meant getting green first instead of a coveted purple first.

That said, despite the simplicity of this game there was a little red herring that almost caught me out, with STOCK, INDEX and FUND all being about financial trading.

Kudos if you took care and spotted PRIME____.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, October 1, 2026, game #1208)

• YELLOW: PUT: PLACE, POSITION, SITUATE, STICK
• GREEN: DRESS SHIRT MEASUREMENTS: CHEST, NECK, SLEEVE, WAIST
• BLUE: 2000S INDIE ROCK BANDS, WITH "THE": DECEMBERISTS, NATIONAL, SHINS, WALKMEN
• PURPLE: STARTS OF NYT PRINT PUZZLES: ACRO, CROSS, KEN, SUD

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, October 1 (game #942).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #943) - hint #1 - today's themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… On the sly

NYT Strands today (game #943) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• SKINT
• FISH
• NEEDS
• SAVE
• GOAT
• NEAT

NYT Strands today (game #943) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 14 letters

NYT Strands today (game #943) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

• First side: left, 5th row

• Last side: left, 8th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #943) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #943, are…

• SHIFTY
• COVERT
• DEVIOUS
• STEALTHY
• FURTIVE
• SPANGRAM: SNEAKINGAROUND

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

I’m not saying that today’s words were hidden in a particular STEALTHY or COVERT way but after getting SHIFTY I hit a blank and resorted to our pal the hint to get moving.

Today’s words can be interpreted in several opposite ways. The first, is as creepy; the kinds of activities a nosey parker or, worse, a Peeping Tom might employ. Alternatively, they can be looked on more positively as the kind of skills a military operative might employ in an undercover operation — not that the Marines are likely to call what they do SNEAKING AROUND!

Today was also notable for an excellent spangram that snailed back on itself — kudos if you spotted it first.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, October 1, game #942)

• BREAK
• CRUMBLE
• COLLAPSE
• DISSOLVE
• FRAGMENT
• SPANGRAM: BEYONDREPAIR

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, October 1 (game #1711).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1712) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1712) — hint #2 — repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #1712) — hint #3 — uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1712) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1712) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• I

• S

• A

• L

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1712) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1712, are…

• IVORY
• SADLY
• ANGEL
• LLAMA

It took me a lot of experimenting before I finally guessed LLAMA.

Part of the process was realizing that there were no common two-letter combinations left available — “plank” would have been my guess if every letter was still in play — so it had to be something unusual, or in this case doubly unusual with its double-L start.

It's all quite embarrassing really, considering that my sister owns three llamas and is quite literally a llama farmer.

Daily Sequence today (game #1712) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1712, are…

• MOUSE
• EVICT
• WAXEN
• LUSTY

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1711, Thursday, 1 October: NAVEL, SHEER, BIRTH, TACKY
• Quordle #1710, Wednesday, 30 September: CHOKE, BATCH, MOSSY, EAGER
• Quordle #1709, Tuesday, 29 September: BILGE, MEDAL, LODGE, PORCH
• Quordle #1708, Monday, 28 September: BRUNT, TORSO, STONE, HEATH
• Quordle #1707, Sunday, 27 September: VALET, CHEST, VIGIL, PUREE
• Quordle #1706, Saturday, 26 September: SNORT, BIBLE, LAPSE, CRANE
• Quordle #1705, Friday, 25 September: SWEAR, FLOOD, GUPPY, GROAN
• Quordle #1704, Thursday, 24 September: TOPIC, METRO, SCALP, FREED
• Quordle #1703, Wednesday, 23 September: SHEET, BLAND, JOIST, GUAVA
• Quordle #1702, Tuesday, 22 September: COMFY, LOBBY, DRESS, PANEL
• Quordle #1701, Monday, 21 September: WAXEN, HIPPO, PETAL, LEASH
• Quordle #1700, Sunday, 20 September: DERBY, LIMBO, GAWKY, REIGN
• Quordle #1699, Saturday, 19 September: SCOPE, HEIST, PULSE, CHAMP
• Quordle #1698, Friday, 18 September: MUCUS, MIRTH, APPLE, TILDE
• Quordle #1697, Thursday, 17 September: CRIER, CHIRP, NEIGH, FREER
• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER

Focal Mu-so Hekla review

The Focal Mu-so Hekla is a wireless speaker in soundbar's clothing, featuring superbly detailed, sizable sound, a stunning build and a jumbo price. Weirdly, Focal insists it's not a soundbar, despite it sounding like a soundbar, connecting via eARC like a soundbar and looking an awful lot like a soundbar.

Named Hekla after one of Iceland’s most active stratovolcanoes — known semi-affectionately) as the ‘Gateway to Hell’ to locals — it's also been released under the Focal sister brand, rather than Naim's like the rest of the Mu-so line. So it does feel like the Hekla might be a bit confused about its identity... and honestly who could blame it?

(Image credit: Future)

At 4.65 x 39.37 x 11.61 inches / 118 x 1000 x 295mm, the Hekla is certainly proportioned like a soundbar. The fact that it’s compatible with Dolby Atmos, features side- and up-firing drivers to facilitate a spatial audio effect, and has an HDMI eARC socket for connection to a TV is quite soundbar-y too.

And the knowledge that this product has been branded ‘Focal’ (or, more specifically, ‘Focal powered by Naim’) because the French company is perceived to have greater credibility in the audio-visual and home cinema markets doesn’t really do anything to support Focal’s declaration that it’s primarily an all-in-one system either. Even at on Focal's website, it’s referred to as an ‘immersive Home Cinema system’ quite early on.

Get beyond these mild oddities, though, and the Focal Mu-so Hekla remains an intriguing device. Its black aluminum casing features anodized and shot-blasted aluminum heatsinks for a bit of visual drama on top of their practical applications, and the overall standard of build and finish is basically impeccable.

If you’re familiar with the Naim Mu-so (2nd Gen) wireless speaker, there will be nothing in the way the Mu-so Hekla looks that will come as any great surprise. It even features the same oversized control dial that’s been a feature of Naim equipment for a decade or more.

(Image credit: Future)

There are 15 individual speaker drivers across the cabinet, powered by an all-in total of 660 watts of Naim-designed Class D power. Across the front, there are three 130 x 60mm bass drivers, a pair of 60mm midrange drivers and a couple of 25mm tweeters — the bass drivers get 60 watts of power each, all the rest receive 40 watts each.

Each side of the cabinet features two 70 x 40mm full-range drivers, and there are two more of these drivers positioned on the top, behind those areas of perforated metal. It’s an arrangement that’s designed to deliver 7.1.2-channel spatial audio and a frequency response of 30Hz - 20kHz.

Getting the audio information on board in the first place can be done in a few different ways. There’s a digital optical input (which can comfortably handle up to 24bit/96kHz) alongside the HDMI eARC socket on the rear of the cabinet, where you’ll also find a pre-out for use with a subwoofer.

There’s dual-band Wi-Fi 6 on board, with the antennae integrated into the heatsinks. This means the Mu-so Hekla is compatible with (among other things) the ‘Connect’ versions of Qobuz, Spotify and TIDAL music streaming services, Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast. It’s also UPnP-compatible, can access internet radio provided by Naim servers, and it features Bluetooth 5.1 with SBC and AAC codec compatibility.

(Image credit: Future)

The Mu-so Hekla is able to deal with pretty much any worthwhile file type, and quite a few of the less worthwhile alternatives too. It can handle resolutions of up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD128 for two-channel stuff and up to 24bit/192kHz for multichannel and spatial audio content.

That large, illuminated and entirely gratifying control dial is useful for getting at the Focal’s headline functions. But for granular control of the Mu-so Hekla, the Focal & Naim control app (free for Android and iOS) is where the action is.

First and foremost, here’s where you get access to the nuts and bolts of the Focal’s spatial audio reproduction. You have a choice of five settings: Dolby Movie, Dolby Music and Dolby Night, along with a couple of Focal’s own designs called Sphere Movie and Sphere Music.

The idea is that the Sphere settings are best suited to small-to-medium rooms that have had a degree of acoustic treatment while the Dolby alternatives are better suited to larger rooms with less treatment.

Regardless of which one you decide best suits your purposes, though, you can properly stick your oar into the sound you receive. There’s a three-band EQ, ‘+/-10’ sliders to adjust settings labelled ‘height’, ‘surround’, low frequency effects’ and ‘voice enhance’, and the ability to trim the level of each of the 10 individual channels that comprise the Mu-so Hekla’s 7.1.2 layout.

The one thing you can’t do where spatial audio is concerned is turn it all the way off. It doesn’t matter what you feed into the Focal — two channel stuff, old-school 5.1 surround sound content, full-on Dolby Atmos soundtracks, you name it — the Mu-so Hekla will use all of its drivers, even if you feed in stereo content and select ‘stereo’ mode.

(Image credit: Future)

Between its room-correction routine and its spatial audio algorithms, the Mu-so Hekla is convinced it can deliver a sound that’s optimised to your space, every time, using every one of its 15 drivers.

Otherwise, the Focal & Naim control app is stable, extensive business as usual. Here’s where you get to control playback, access the various inputs, nominate as many as five shortcuts to favorite radio stations, playlists or what-have-you, and run the ‘ADAPT’ room correction algorithm.

On top of that, you can adjust the brightness of the lighting around the control dial, check for available updates, incorporate the speaker into a multi-room setup (using as many as 32 individual Focal or Naim streamers), and there’s a fair bit more too. The Focal & Naim app has been the subject of more-or-less continuous updates for years now, and it shows.

(Image credit: Future)

Given the best stuff to work with (and in this instance ‘best’ = ‘native Dolby Atmos’), the Mu-so Hekla is, in broad terms, one of the most successful one-box spatial audio solutions around.

There’s really not a huge amount of difference between the five spatial audio modes (at least, not much is apparent in my listening environment), but the Focal is a lively, robust, eloquent and, perhaps most importantly of all, spacious listen in every circumstance.

Certainly the soundstage it can summon is noticeably larger than the cabinet it comes from. There’s a gratifying amount of width and height to the presentation, and the Mu-so Hekla moves effects around from left to right, from top to bottom and from front to back confidently.

The spaces and silences between occurrences are given due prominence, too — but despite this, there’s no suggestion of remoteness or a lack of cohesiveness about the sound. Dolby Atmos movie soundtracks and music mixes sound unified and singular, and on occasion deserve the description ‘immersive’.

(Image credit: Future)

It’s even-handed where tonality is concerned, with a fairly neutral and natural approach to the timbre of the entire frequency range. And where frequency response is concerned, there’s just a suggestion of bloom at the very bottom end to disrupt what is otherwise a smooth and even line from the top end down.

Those lowest frequencies may be fractionally overstated, but they’re nevertheless nicely shaped, properly controlled and loaded with detail both broad and fine — the combination of punch and variation makes the Focal’s bass response very enjoyable, and it has no trouble expressing musical rhythms with real positivity thanks to the attention it pays to the decay and, especially, attack of individual notes or hits.

At the opposite end of the frequency range, the Mu-so Hekla is similarly revealing of detail in treble sounds, and summons enough substance to prevent the top end becoming hard or edgy even at volume. Don’t imagine for a moment the Focal isn’t capable of prodigious volume though.

(Image credit: Future)

The balance in the midrange is just as nicely judged. It’s articulate with voices, whether speaking or singing, and loads on the details to the point that everything from tone and timbre to breath control and vocal attitude are made perfectly apparent.

And while the unity of the presentation is never in doubt, the midrange in general and voices in particular project well — dialogue is always distinct, even when it’s surrounded by sonic chaos.

As well as being fully equipped where outright volume is concerned, the Mu-so Hekla has a generous amount of dynamic headroom — the distance it can put between quiet and loud (which is especially apparent during a big Hollywood set-piece) is huge.

So when the going gets intense during a symphony, or the whispered exposition transitions to an almighty explosion, the Focal can make the transitions absolutely apparent.

Focal Mu-so Hekla review: Price & release date

• Launched at the end of 2025 in parts of Asia
• Released to the rest of the world from late March 2026

The Focal Mu-so Hekla launched in South Korea and China at the end of November 2025, and became available in the wider world from late March 2026.

In the United Kingdom, it’s priced at £2,999, while American customers will need to spend $3,599, and in Australia it goes for AU$6,499.

(Image credit: Future)Focal Mu-so Hekla review: Specs

Dimensions

4.65 x 39.37 x 11.61 inches / 118 x 1000 x 295mm

Speaker channels

Up to 7.1.4

Connections

HDMI eARC; digital optical; WiFi 6; Bluetooth 5.1

Dolby Atmos / DTS:X

Yes / No

Sub included

No

Rear speakers included

No

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Focal Mu-so Hekla?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Greater Bluetooth codec compatibility would be nice, as would the ability to listen in unprocessed stereo. Otherwise has everything you might reasonably expect.

4 / 5

Performance

Big, detailed and properly organized sound with just a hint of low-end overconfidence.

4.5 / 5

Design

Hard to make a big speaker look anything but ‘functional’ but the Focal enjoys coherent industrial design.

4.5 / 5

Setup and usability

Swift, simple, logical, and with an excellent control app.

5 / 5

Value

If you want as little compromise as possible when it comes to the sound of your one-box spatial audio system, it’s going to cost you.

4.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want a big taste of spatial audio without the need for multiple speakers
The Mu-so Hekla can’t compete with a similarly priced multi-speaker system, but it gets a fair bit closer than most.

You have a top-tier music streaming service subscription
The Focal is just as adept with Dolby Atmos music as it is Dolby Atmos movies.

You like nice things and you want everyone else to know you like them too
The Mu-so Hekla is a great big block of good taste where industrial design is concerned, and is the audio equivalent of a highbrow hardback book on a coffee table.

Don't buy it if...

You’re expecting the best spatial audio performance £3K can buy
The Focal represents simply the finest one-box spatial audio performance your £3K can buy.

You like to listen to stereo music in stereo
The Mu-so Hekla will attempt to work its magic on two-channel stuff, even if you’ve selected ‘stereo’ mode.

You think you might fancy a soundbar
It’s NOT a soundbar How many times do I have to say it?

Focal Mu-so Hekla review: Also consider

Focal Mu-so Hekla

Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere

McIntosh RS250

Dimensions

118 x 1000 x 295mm / 4.6 x 39.3 x 11.6 inches

160 x 932 x 121mm / 6.3 x 36.7 x 4.8 inches

145 x 630 x 324mm / 5.7 x 24.8 x 12.8 inches

Speaker channels

7.1.2

Not listed

2.0 (Stereo)

Connections

1x HDMI eARC, 1x Optical TOSLINK, 1x RCA subwoofer output, 1x Ethernet (RJ45), Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1

1x HDMI eARC (4K 120FPS / 8K 60FPS passthrough), Analogue audio via USB-C (3.5mm via adapter), 3x Ethernet (1Gbit switch), Dual-band Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.4

1x HDMI ARC, 1x Optical TOSLINK, 1x Moving Magnet (MM) Phono input, 1x 3.5mm Aux, 1x 1/4" Headphone jack, 1x Mono RCA Subwoofer output, 1x Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0

Dolby Atmos/DTS:X

Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos

No

Sub included

No

No

No

Rear speakers included

No

No

No

Features

15 speaker drivers, 660W total Class D amplification, Naim streaming engine, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast/Chromecast, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, UPnP streaming, Focal & Naim app multiroom support (up to 32 devices), illuminated top dial control

10 custom drivers, 550W total amplification, 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos decoding with True Image up/downmixing, Wide Stage technology, 90 responsive internal LEDs, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Beolink Surround support, Cradle to Cradle Certified Bronze

8 speaker drivers (2x tweeters, 4x midranges, 2x down-firing woofers), 650W total power output, Illuminated digital output meters, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Roon Ready, aptX HD & Low Latency Bluetooth

Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere
A soundbar that’s prepared to admit it’s a soundbar, the Premiere is predictably ostentatious and predictably high-achieving. If the Mu-so Hekla seems a bit underdesigned and a bit too affordable, here’s the product you need.

McIntosh RS250
No spatial audio pretensions and no great shakes where ‘design’ is concerned either — but the RS250 is nonetheless an absolute powerhouse of a wireless all-in-one audio system. And it has VU meters too.

(Image credit: Future)How I tested the Focal Mu-so Hekla

• Connected to a Philips OLED TV via HDMI eARC
• Streaming via Qobuz Connect, TIDAL Connect and internet radio
• Tested for well over a working week

I used a QED HDMI cable to connect the Mu-so Hekla to my Philips OLED806 TV via each machine’s HDMI eARC socket. The TV features Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, National Theatre at Home and Netflix apps, so plenty of streamed content is available, including Dolby Atmos stuff — and it’s also connected to a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player and a Sony Playstation 5.

I stream wirelessly using both Qobuz Connect and TIDAL Connect. Which, again, makes plenty of content available at a whole range of resolutions including music mixed in Dolby Atmos.

UPnP connectivity allows me to access a Buffalo Terrastation NAS device loaded with content of up to 24bit/192kHz and DSD64 resolution. And I listen to a mixture of these input options and file formats for more than a working week (if, like me, you count a ‘working week’ as Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm).

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: October 2026

• WiCi puts an RTX 5060 Ti inside a complete wireless computer
• Wi-Fi 7 replaces the cable connecting WiCi's GPU to host devices
• WiCi's 11.52-Gbps wireless link trails conventional high-speed GPU connections

WiCi is preparing a wireless external GPU, the WiCi One, which houses a GeForce RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of GDDR7 memory in a separate box.

The device communicates through Wi-Fi 7, while its enclosure also contains a processor, storage, power hardware, cooling and networking components.

The company says this is not a cloud-style streaming service, although the unit is a full computer with its own processor and storage.

A complete computer with a graphics processor

The 5060 Ti configuration pairs the GPU with an Intel Core 3 100U processor, 1TB NVMe 4 storage, and 16GB GDDR7.

The device supports Wi-Fi 7 connectivity with 4x4 MIMO and a 320MHz channel, allowing the host device to communicate wirelessly with the separate computer.

The company also intends to offer an RTX 5090 variant containing 32GB GDDR7, an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H and 4TB NVMe 5 storage.

WiCi says its software can make the graphics processor available through driver, software development kit and application programming interface modes.

It describes the arrangement as a local alternative to cloud processing, with data remaining inside the user's network unless deliberately transmitted.

However, the main question is whether Wi-Fi 7 can provide enough throughput for workloads that normally depend upon much faster wired connections.

Wi-Fi 7 can theoretically reach 46.1 Gbps under configurations using 16 spatial streams, but WiCi's hardware specifies only four.

That 4x4 arrangement, using 320MHz bandwidth and 4096-QAM, reaches approximately 11.52 Gbps at the physical layer.

But its Thunderbolt 5 interface can provide 64 Gbps for PCIe traffic, while PCIe 4.0 x4 through OCuLink also offers 64 Gbps.

WiCi relies on software to bridge the bandwidth gap

WiCi says its protocol reduces network traffic through caching, deduplication, compression, streaming, and pipelining.

Those techniques are intended to limit how much information must travel between the host and graphics processor during demanding workloads.

The company claims its RTX 5060 Ti model can run Cyberpunk 2077 at 80 FPS in 4K Ultra with DLSS 4.

It also claims Black Myth: Wukong reaches 60 FPS at 4K Cinematic settings, although independent testing will determine how those results translate in real-life usage.

WiCi tests place the computer approximately 50 cm from the connected laptop, leaving questions about performance through walls or amid competing wireless traffic.

At $1,999 for early signups, WiCi's 5060 Ti model costs considerably more than a conventional external GPU enclosure, although it also includes a processor, storage and other components needed to operate as a standalone computer.

That makes its comparisons with other compact computing systems more relevant than a simple eGPU price comparison.

WiCi lists competing pocket AI machines at between $1,399 and $2,999, while Apple's Mac Studio M5 Max starts at $2,499.

Those systems, however, serve different purposes, since WiCi is designed to place a discrete GPU on the local network and make its computing resources accessible to multiple nearby host devices.

• Meta closed a woman’s Facebook and Instagram accounts with no warning
• The closed accounts contained 20 years’ worth of ‘digital memories’
• The woman couldn’t contact a human and was forced to use AI chatbots

What would you do if you lost your Facebook and Instagram accounts along with all of the photos, posts, and memories they contained? That’s the prospect faced by one unfortunate woman — a situation made even worse by the actions of Meta’s AI chatbots.

When Jasmine Ault checked her phone in the middle of the night, she was greeted by a notification saying her Facebook and Instagram accounts had been permanently disabled, taking 20 years of personal data and contacts with them.

Ault attempted to contact Meta to rectify the situation, but found herself passed from pillar to post and unable to secure a resolution. In fact, Ault found herself completely shut out by Meta’s customer service and could only talk to an AI chatbot that couldn't fix it. Even after paying for expedited service, Ault was unable to get through to a human.

“It feels like I’ve lost everything in a metaphorical fire with my digital albums and my digital memories,” Ault told CBC News. “And who’s going to protect those if I can only speak to AI?”

Ault appealed the ban but says she received a summary judgment just minutes later declaring that her case had been closed and that there was no possibility of any further appeals. And with that, she had seemingly run out of options.

An opaque, uncaring system

(Image credit: Shutterstock / mundissima)

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a case like this. Social media is awash with reports of people being erroneously banned from Meta’s platforms without any means of recourse — there’s even a dedicated subreddit for it.

With Meta rolling out AI across its platforms, it’s likely that situations like this will continue. Many people have accused AI moderation tools of incorrectly flagging users’ accounts, which might be one cause of the distress.

Part of the problem is the opaqueness of Meta’s actions. While Ault received a message saying her account was banned for breaking the platform’s rules, she was never informed which specific rules had been broken or how. She told CBC that she stayed awake for 26 hours straight in an attempt to restore her accounts — and all the memories contained therein — back to working order.

Yet Ault has been unable to resolve the situation. Speaking to CBC, she said “it feels almost sick to me that they just think, like, ‘We can just shut these people’s accounts down, they can’t get through to us and talk to us,’ and it’s people’s lifelines. It’s people’s memories. It’s people’s everything.”

If you’re concerned something similar might happen to you, it would be worth downloading your Facebook and Instagram data so that you have a backup. You never know when Meta might send everything to the digital incinerator and leave you stuck with an unsympathetic AI chatbot.

Although AI has sucked up all the bandwidth of public discourse across the tech industry, quantum computing is arguably just as revolutionary a technology – but remains dormant for now. That said, key breakthroughs in the last couple of years are said to mean that these machines could be 'useful' before too long.

Quantum advantage

IBM's senior vice president and director of research Dario Gil explained to CBS' 60 Minutes exactly what the likely impact of useful quantum computers would be.

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The idea of quantum advantage, he said, was slightly difficult to wrap your head around. That's certain given the ratcheting-up effect in terms of power that happens when you begin to scale up these machines from just a handful of quantum bits (qubits) to thousands, tens of thousands and beyond.

Because the capabilities of quantum computers grow exponentially the more qubits that you add to the system, it could one day achieve things we haven't been able to even conceptualise yet due to the rigid parameters of existing computing.

More problems

Quantum computing does represent a paradigm shift, as Gil was trying to convey, but that doesn't mean simply building powerful hardware will help us achieve anything. Scientists are also aware that we need to define problems to solve using these future machines.

Many companies like IBM and others have been granting businesses access to quantum computers through the cloud, but these have primarily been used for early pilot programs, to build proprietary algorithms or gear their systems for future hardware.

For example, both Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have partnered with the IBM Quantum Network to simulate chemical reactions inside EV battery cells.