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• The US Treasury's FinCEN arm asks financial institutions to file scam center suspicious activity reports under a new keyword
• FinCEN says that it flagged financial moves across 33,904 different filings, but actual losses might differ significantly, as the approach is prone to double-counting transactions
• Only 1,300 institutions filed reports, with 10,082 (29.7%) of them centering around exploitation of the elderly by scammers

The US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issuespublished an alert and a companion data analysis telling banks, credit unions, digital asset exchanges, and securities firms that it needs sharper reporting on the overseas scam centers that it says target Americans at an industrial scale.

FinCEN puts total damages, per its reporting mechanism, at roughly $12.7 billion linked to suspected digital asset investment scams between September 2023 and the end of 2025.

The number comes from adding up the dollar values of 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act filings that referenced the keyword from its 2023 "pig butchering" alert, which may be overstated, as it includes both attempted and successful transactions as well as both inbound and outbound reports, often of the same transactions, causing significant overlap.

FinCEN's new requirement is a keyword

While the $12.7 billion is a measure of what institutions have flagged and is prone to double-counting and errors, victim losses, a significant chunk of which go unreported, may be considerably higher.

This has prompted Gene Lange, who effectively works as the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, to call these scams "one of the most significant fraud threats facing Americans today."

It has also prompted a new suspicious activity report keyword: "FIN-2026-SCAMCENTERS," which institutions are expected to use to indicate that a scam center is potentially involved.

FinCEN also wants chat logs, scammer phone numbers, social media handles, wallet addresses, transaction hashes, and the URLs victims were told to deposit into, filed in the structured cyber indicator fields rather than left out.

Institutions to volunteer more information to stop scams

The move is part of its push to have institutions volunteer more information under the US Patriot Act, as it aims to confront what is a growing intelligence problem: scammers tend to route victims through several institutions in sequence; most filers see only one slice of a scam's lifecycle and often have difficulty tracing it all the way.

For example, a crypto exchange might see a customer buying USDT and sending it off-platform, a bank might see a wire to that exchange, and a brokerage might see a retirement account liquidated. None of them would have the bigger picture of what essentially happened or what triggered the transaction.

Combined, with properly linked information, it makes it much easier to identify a potential scam; separately, these incidents can inflate the number of reports, which often aren't linked, and investigations can lack insight into the origin or final destination of the funds.

FinCEN's Rapid Response Program has interdicted $1.8 billion and recovered just over $1 billion for 5,790 US victims since 2015, which, against the flagged totals, is a very limited recovery at best compared with the actual funds at stake. This highlights a larger fundamental problem: institutions mostly detect these schemes after the money is gone, and reporting them correctly and thoroughly may yield limited dividends at best against an industry that has morphed, relatively unchecked, into a multi-billion-dollar juggernaut.

Here are hints and the answers for today’s NYT Strands puzzle for Sept. 17, 2026.

• Scientists have developed solar panels that can work up to 10 meters underwater
• The panels can capture up to 324 mWh of energy at that depth
• Each device is expected to last up to five and a half years at a time

A lot of devices are deployed underwater for research and exploration purposes, but powering them all can prove to be difficult, especially if they’re under the waves for a considerable period of time. A new scientific paper, however, has shown that solar panels can be successfully used at depths of up to 10 meters, potentially presenting a new way to keep underwater tech powered up and ready for action.

The paper was published in the Joule periodical and accompanied by a press release explaining its advances. The research was conducted by a team of scientists from Yunnan University in China, who said that a series of solar cells placed 32 feet (10 meters) below the water’s surface in the South China Sea were able to collect enough energy to power up a set of lithium-ion batteries in two hours.

The cells were made from lead halide perovskite with a polymer called polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride added into the mix. This additive helped to enhance the effectiveness of the panels.

According to Wen-Hua Zhang of Yunnan University, “Very few studies have been reported on underwater solar cells, and all of them are focused on very shallow water depths of only two meters or less, a scenario far from catering for requirements of practical application.”

A photo of the prototype solar cells being tested in the South China Sea. (Image credit: Joule)

“This work presents the first functional validation of submerged solar cells practically operating at a water depth of up to about 10 meters, greatly broadening their application scope,” Zhang added. The researchers stated that each cell could be deployed for around five and a half years at a time.

The panels captured 1,416 milliwatt-hours (mWh) of electricity at a depth of two meters. This decreased to 752 mWh at six meters and 324 mWh at ten meters. During separate lab testing, the solar panels had a power conversion efficiency of just under 35%.

Paving the way

Solar panels could one day be used to power ‘self-sustained marine energy systems and autonomous underwater devices,’ researchers believe. (Image credit: datacenterdynamics)

The idea behind this research is that underwater solar panels could be used to power devices such as sensors, cameras, communications systems, and more.

Many of these objects are stationary for much of the time, so nearby solar cells could help keep them topped up and working without necessarily requiring extensive human intervention.

One question that remains unanswered is how exactly solar panels like this would interact with their environment. For example, it’s likely that they would accumulate biomatter that could hinder their operation, potentially requiring regular cleaning in order to remain fully functional. After all, the sunlight that will power these cells could also promote the growth of plants and animals — a process known as biofouling.

Still, the research seems to have potential. As the authors noted, “This work paves the way for the practical deployment of perovskite photovoltaics in underwater environments, offering a promising route toward self-sustained marine energy systems and autonomous underwater devices.”

It’s been 66 million years and science is still learning more about the most famous dinosaur.

A business tool, or a theme park for my face? Right now I’m leaning toward the latter.

Cricket joins the club of mobile providers bundling home internet with mobile phone service.

No one across the U.S. is consistently tracking climate-fueled deaths. One medical examiner has a new protocol on heat-deaths.

(Image credit: Cassidy Araiza for NPR)

• A pseudonymous GitHub account has published what it calls a reconstruction of Stuxnet malware that purportedly took out a fifth of Iran's centrifuges before being discovered
• The original source has never surfaced, and the 'Stuxnet' moniker that the account uses comes from Symantec's coining of the name weeks after it was discovered
• The code remains unverified and untested, with some users indicating that it is likely an AI-generated replication of the original binaries' behavior, which has been widely documented

A GitHub account has published what it describes as a faithful reconstruction of Stuxnet, the worm that sabotaged Iranian uranium-enrichment centrifuges.

It also became the first piece of software widely accepted as having caused physical destruction in the real world, highlighting how malicious software can often do much more harm to people and hardware than just stealing or manipulating data.

The repository surfaced via a Show HN submission, which mainstream media outlets then picked up, highlighting the as-yet-unknown researcher's reverse-engineered code.

Not the first or last Stuxnet repository

The original Stuxnet source, written by whoever built it, has never been leaked and did not leak last week. The repository's README explicitly states that it is a reconstruction assembled from decompiled binaries, and those binaries have been in public circulation since Belarusian firm VirusBlokAda pulled samples from an Iranian customer's machines in June 2010.

Everything that followed, including Symantec's W32.Stuxnet Dossier and Ralph Langner's To Kill a Centrifuge, was built on those samples and how they reacted in test environments.

This is also not the first time readable C-language code aiming to replicate Stuxnet has been published online. Malware researcher Amr Thabet published a decompilation of the MRxNet rootkit carrying a 2010 to 2011 copyright notice. Christian Roggia followed with a dropper decompilation called open-myrtus, copyrighted 2012 to 2014, which has since been forked into a long chain of repositories.

The irony is that if such code were a faithful replication of the infamous malware, it would not have mentioned "Stuxnet" in multiple places, including registry keys. This is because the moniker is not one the developers likely used, but one Symantec switched to from its original 'W32.Temphid' identifier.

The thread where it was first brought to attention by a user called Sadpainy also has mixed views from developers, many of whom have branded it 'AI slop' or a 'fake' that relies on a mixture of already existing repositories, even as the about page on its GitHub repo states that it was reproduced by the researcher for educational purposes and is designed to only work on Windows XP and Windows 7.

For those looking to test it, a virtual machine might be their best bet, especially given Stuxnet's ability to physically damage hardware, but it is also a stark reminder of what a rogue AI agent could do if left unchecked without specific instructions or safeguards.

The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates. Now, if you want to finance a tech upgrade, you’ll pay more in interest.

The 2027 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra fold phone mirroring into the native UI rather than walling it off, even as GM keeps Apple and Google’s apps out of its electric lineup.

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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Wednesday, September 16 (game #1696).

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 #1697) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 2*.

* 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 #1697) — hint #2 — repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.

Quordle today (game #1697) — 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 #1697) — 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 2.

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 #1697) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• C

• C

• N

• F

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

Quordle today (game #1697) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1697, are…

• CRIER
• CHIRP
• NEIGH
• FREER

A very taxing game despite its heavy use of the letter R and lack of vowels.

NEIGH was the hardest to get to, but once I entered N-E-I onto the tiles I realized there was no other possibility.

Daily Sequence today (game #1697) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1697, are…

• SOBER
• STONY
• IDYLL
• QUARK

Quordle answers: The past 20

• 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
• Quordle #1691, Friday, 11 September: PLUSH, PAINT, RIVAL, AFOUL
• Quordle #1690, Thursday, 10 September: AGENT, EXILE, TITAN, PUREE
• Quordle #1689, Wednesday, 9 September: HAPPY, GONER, SMACK, MOTIF
• Quordle #1688, Tuesday, 8 September: FLUNG, DIARY, HALVE, BERTH
• Quordle #1687, Monday, 7 September: VISIT, CLANK, FEVER, OCEAN
• Quordle #1686, Sunday, 6 September: PILOT, HONOR, BOWEL, TAUNT
• Quordle #1685, Saturday, 5 September: GNASH, GEEKY, WHELP, PUTTY
• Quordle #1684, Friday, 4 September: QUICK, BEEFY, TRUCK, SNAIL
• Quordle #1683, Thursday, 3 September: SIGMA, ESSAY, MERRY, LLAMA
• Quordle #1682, Wednesday, 2 September: INCUR, FELLA, TITAN, FROZE
• Quordle #1681, Tuesday, 1 September: NASAL, ROUTE, ANKLE, MIGHT
• Quordle #1680, Monday, 31 August: ALIVE, LOUSE, ABOVE, MOSSY
• Quordle #1679, Sunday, 30 August: USING, SORRY, FILET, PIPER
• Quordle #1678, Saturday, 29 August: OVINE, ALLOY, VOICE, CARVE
• Quordle #1677, Friday, 28 August: WAIST, EDICT, BONUS, DEUCE

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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, September 16 (game #927).

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… A little comic relief

NYT Strands today (game #928) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• MUST
• TUNE
• NECK
• STICK
• PUPPY
• BLOCK

NYT Strands today (game #928) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 13 letters

NYT Strands today (game #928) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

• First side: top, 1st column

• Last side: bottom, 6th column

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

NYT Strands today (game #928) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #928, are…

• PEANUTS
• ZIPPY
• MUTTS
• PICKLES
• ZITS
• BLONDIE
• SPANGRAM: THEFUNNYPAGES

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 3 hints

After missing out on getting an easy Spangram-first yesterday I was on a mission to spot it today and it ended up being far easier than I thought.

I was unsure exactly what the theme meant, but seeing the word 'funny' in the middle of the board and then the word 'the' in the top-left-hand corner helped me connect THEFUNNYPAGES.

This, though, was where my good fortune ended, as I needed three hints to find all of the comic strip names, being familiar with only Peanuts.

Comic strips were less of a big deal in the UK, where I grew up, although the cartoon strips on the back page along with the TV listings section were the only parts of the newspaper I read as a kid. Ours, though, were the adventures of a world-weary viking called Hägar.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, September 16, game #927)

• JAZZY
• VIVID
• BRIGHT
• FLASHY
• STRIKING
• VIBRANT
• SPANGRAM: EYECATCHING

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 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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, September 16 (game #1193).

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 #1194) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• SPRING
• SUBWAY STATION
• PRESTIGE
• TRIANGLE
• TAP
• GIVE
• LANGUAGE
• FOUNTAIN
• WELL
• BOUNCE
• SEWER LINE
• HANDLES
• SHEEP
• DETECTIVES
• MINE SHAFT
• FLEXIBILITY
• WOLVERINE

NYT Connections today (game #1194) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Stretchy
• GREEN: Found down below
• BLUE: Films starring a well jacked man
• PURPLE: Compound words with added romance

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 #1194) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: ELASTICITY
• GREEN: THINGS THAT ARE UNDERGROUND
• BLUE: HUGH JACKMAN MOVIES, WITH "THE"
• PURPLE: LOVE ____

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

NYT Connections today (game #1194) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1194, are…

• YELLOW: ELASTICITY: BOUNCE, FLEXIBILITY, GIVE, SPRING
• GREEN: THINGS THAT ARE UNDERGROUND: MINE SHAFT, SEWER LINE, SUBWAY STATION, WELL
• BLUE: HUGH JACKMAN MOVIES, WITH "THE": FOUNTAIN, PRESTIGE, SHEEP DETECTIVES, WOLVERINE
• PURPLE: LOVE ____: HANDLES, LANGUAGE, TAP, TRIANGLE

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 mistakes

My first mistake could have been a group of ways to access water — SPRING, TAP, WELL and FOUNTAIN — but drew a complete blank.

Thinking of a different meaning for SPRING helped me find the other words describing ELASTICITY, but I flopped again, adding TAP instead of WELL to the group that became THINGS THAT ARE UNDERGROUND.

Finally, I did not know that I was collecting HUGH JACKMAN MOVIES, WITH “THE” but I knew that PRESTIGE, SHEEP DETECTIVES and WOLVERINE were all films and took a gamble that FOUNTAIN was too.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, September 16, 2026, game #1193)

• YELLOW: ENDING IN METAL ELEMENTS: LATIN, LONG JOHN SILVER, MARIGOLD, STEAM IRON
• GREEN: STARTING WITH U.S. COINS: DIMENSION, NICKELODEON, PENNYWISE, QUARTERBACK
• BLUE: POETS' MIDDLE NAMES: BARRETT, CARLOS, ST. VINCENT, WADSWORTH
• PURPLE: SAUSAGES PLUS A LETTER: BORAT, CLINK, FRANK-N-FURTER, WIDENER

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.

In case you were unaware, Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max last week, alongside its first-ever foldable, the iPhone Duo.

Naturally, the iPhone 18 Pro preorders quickly followed suit, with rebates of up to AU$1,595 when you trade in an old phone, and accompanying SIM plans from AU$39/m.

While it’s always nice to have the latest tech, a fresh product launch also means an older device is ripe for discounts, and that’s certainly the case for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Apple may have discontinued both models from its online store, but retailers and telcos, including Amazon, Optus and Vodafone, still have stock — including the popular Cosmic Orange colour — meaning you still have time to score one at a discount. Whether you just want to save money, aren’t fussed with having the latest iPhone, or you simply prefer the colour options of the iPhone 17 Pro series, now’s a great time to take advantage of any offers.

Buying outright

If you want to buy outright, then Amazon and Optus are great options, although if you’d prefer to shop at the former, you’ll want to hurry as the retailer doesn’t have stock of all sizes and all colours.

The standout offer has to be a 9% saving on the iPhone 17 Pro Max (256GB) in Cosmic Orange, now AU$1,995. The same phone is also available in Silver for the same price.

If you’d prefer the smaller iPhone 17 Pro, Amazon no longer has stock of the base 256GB variant. Instead, the most affordable option is 512GB for AU$2,197 in Deep Blue, or AU$2,229 in Cosmic Orange.

Alternatively, you could get the 256GB iPhone 17 Pro from a retailer such as The Good Guys, and pair it with Optus’ Small plan, or any of our other highly recommended SIM-only plans.

With a telco

Optus arguably has some tempting offers of its own. Not only can you split the cost of either the iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone 17 Pro Max into monthly interest-free instalments over up to 36 months, but all colours and storage sizes are in stock.

And, for a limited time, you can pair either iPhone with Optus’ Small plan, which has currently been reduced to just AU$39/m while the included data has increased from 60GB to 100GB. These benefits only apply to the first 12 months, after which the plan reverts to its regular AU$60/m for 60GB data — at this point, I’d recommend you check out the best SIM-only mobile plans for a more affordable option.

If you’re able to, it’s cheapest to pay the device off over 12 months, as you can see in the table below.

Repayment

Device/month

Months 1-12

After month 12

Total during device term

12 months

AU$166.56

AU$205.56/m

Device paid off

AU$2,466.72

24 months

AU$83.28

AU$122.28/m

AU$142.28/m x 12

AU$3,186.72

36 months

AU$55.52

AU$94.52/m

AU$115.20/m x 24

AU$3,906.72

However, if you intend to remain on that Optus plan for three years anyway, all three options cost exactly the same over 36 months: AU$3,906.72. With the 12-month option, you'd simply pay $205.56/month for year one, then $60/month for years two and three.

Vodafone also has some attractive offers, with monthly device payments for the iPhone 17 Pro starting at AU$47.18/m. Once again, you’ll spend the least amount of money if you pay off over 12 months.

Repayment

Device/month

Months 1-12

After month 12

Total during device term

12 months

AU$141.58

AU$186.58

Device paid off

AU$2,238.72

24 months

AU$70.79

AU$115.79/m

AU$128.79/m x 12

AU$2,934.72

36 months

AU$47.18

AU$92.18

AU$105.18/m x 24

AU$3,630.72

This is just a snapshot of the iPhone 17 Pro offers available right now, but if you want to take advantage, you’ll need to be quick, because once stock has gone, it’s gone.

• Panasonic launches new DMR-4X1010 4K Blu-ray player in Japan
• Also includes 4K tuners, 10TB of local storage for recordings, Blu-ray recording, and support for cloud storage
• About $2,800 / £2,080 / AU$3,930

Blu-ray fans should be feeling blessed this month: with new players decidedly thin on the ground, September has brought us news of not one but two 4K Blu-ray players — though neither is really aimed at the average movie enthusiast.

The new Panasonic DMR-4X1010 is a flagship 4K player with a bunch of other neat tricks up its sleeve, and while it's likely to stay as a Japan-only release, we're still happy to see new players being made.

A 434,500 yen, which works out at about $2,800 / £2,080 / AU$3,930, it's a fair bit cheaper than this month's other new Blu-ray player, the Magnetar Ultima: that costs a cool $12,000 (about £8,895 / AU$16,687).

(Image credit: Panasonic)Panasonic DMR-4X1010: key features

The Panasonic DMR-4X1010 not plays 4K Blu-rays, regular Blu-rays and DVDs, it also features 4K broadcast tuners and includes a giant 10TB hard drive for recording shows and movies. There's also the option of cloud recording of up to 10TB via Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, so you can access recordings on your phone or store Blu-ray disc images in the cloud.

It even records to BD-R/RE discs of up to 100GB, if you prefer. Recording from live broadcast isn't that popular worldwide, but evidently it's popular enough in Japan to make this the ultimate 'own your copies' machine.

The player uses an AVC encoder for high-definition recording, and Panasonic says the encoder can compress 24Mbps signals to around 1.6Mbps to maximize recording space… though, again, it does come with 10 terabytes.

The DMR-4X1010 also works with Panasonic's AI Viera system, which can automatically adjust the picture quality to fit the scene — so bright and vivid if you're watching sports, and richer contrast if you're watching a noir movie. AI can also adjust the audio to make it more immersive.

The new player launches through authorized dealers on October 22, 2026, and exclusively to the Japanese market.

There have been worries about the future of 4K Blu-ray, and whether the companies are still interested in producing them — the current models have been around for a long time, and Panasonic just increased the price of its options.

But the release of this model and the Magnetar show that companies aren't blind to the desire for new options — I just hope we might get something more affordable and mainstream than these at some point.

The legislation was named for the late South Carolina Republican. It gives the president authority to impose tariffs on top importers of oil and natural gas from Russia, such as China and India.

(Image credit: Mariam Zuhaib)

The developer beta includes updates to apps like Facetime and Podcasts.

• Future memory could be more durable thanks to developments with wurtzite ferroelectrics materials
• A new structural design has enabled a demonstration of 10 billion writing cycles, around 100 times the previous limit
• The breakthrough was made by scientists from the Xidian University working with the City University of Hong Kong and Fudan University.

Next generation memory for future AI systems will need far faster and more durable performance, and scientific researchers in China seem to have made a breakthrough, demonstrating a new design which can complete some 10 billion writing cycles, 100 times more than the previous limit.

This development – by teams at the Xidian University working with the City University of Hong Kong and Fudan University – is one of the most significant breakthroughs in memory development, and relies on the discovery of a quirk in the behavior of Nitrogen atoms.

Dense, low-power memory chips now seem to be a realistic possibility for a future demanding ever-scaling AI processing.

Wurtzite ferroelectrics

Creating faster memory and storage with greater capacity while keeping the energy requirements low is the holy grail of computing.

Over the past few years, research has increasingly focused on wurtzite ferroelectrics (polar crystal materials) such as aluminium scandium nitride (AlScN), which has the advantage of being compatible with semiconductor manufacturing processes currently in use.

It also offers that low energy target, along with the superior switching speed required by fast storage. Until now, the main challenge had been reliability. Testing of repeated switching in previously developed AlScN chips had resulted in failure after around 100 million writing cycles, but the researchers have found a solution.

Nitrogen cornfields

So, why has this breakthrough been made now? The previous failed attempts led researchers into deeper investigation as to why the AlScN chips would top out at 100 million cycles, which is where they found the problem: missing nitrogen atoms.

Wang Ruiqing, is a doctoral researcher at Xidian University and one of the authors of the research paper on the study, recently published in journal Science.

“Think of ferroelectric material as a neatly planted cornfield,” Wang said, “with nitrogen vacancies representing spots where seedlings are missing.” The defects were not the problem itself, however, but rather their behavior during switching. Rather than remain stationary, the nitrogen vacancies would move, and even group together. The consequence of this was the creation of “pathways” that allowed electricity to leak.

Upon discovering this, the team designed a structure to minimise the nitrogen vacancies, slowing the deterioration of the material.

“In the past, researchers knew that the devices failed and could observe some of the symptoms, but no one had been able to explain at the atomic scale what was moving, how they were moving and how that movement ultimately caused failure.” Wang added.

If successful, AlScN-based RAM and storage could form the backbone of future server farms and provide the framework for greater LLM and artificial intelligence adoption.

Here are hints and the answers for today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Sept. 17, 2026.

It's hard to imagine how we'd interact with computers today without the work of engineer and inventor Douglas Engelbart, who pioneered many aspects of computer science and also invented the computer mouse. The breadth and depth of his work led him to believe that humanity's digital era could be the most significant in its history.

The digital revolution

Engelbart, then a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute where he led the development of interactive computing, was delivering a demonstration now considered by many as legendary.

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This spoken presentation, known as 'The Mother of All Demos', involved a 90-minute showcase in which his team described their progress to a captivated audience.

Engelbart wasn't standing at a podium, but at a computer that was based 30 miles away in his research lab. The event cycled between spoken passages, live demos, and different members of the team using teleconferencing to speak about different technologies.

A new era

During this talk, he delivered his opinion that their work, which would lay the foundation for advancements in the years to come, was a more important contribution than both writing – and even printing.

This was an incredibly bold prediction, because he was comparing the digital revolution to core aspects of the human condition. Writing and printing fundamentally opened pathways for sustainable knowledge transfer, allowing humanity to pass on and build on progress over the course of millennia.

If anybody was poised to know the significance of the computing era, it was Eglebart. His work was at the heart of many of the technologies that we take for granted today, including the humble computer mouse. In 1964, he built a small, carved wooden block featuring a single button on top and two metal wheels beneath to track movement. He went on to demonstrate this for the first time at his 1968 demo.