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• AMD's full EPYC 9006 price list tops out with the 256-core, 600W EPYC 9996 at $14,904 on a per-1,000-unit basis
• The CPU, which costs ~$58 per core or $29 per thread, is narrowly more expensive ($91) than its own older Turin flagship, which clocked in at $14,813
• While PCIe 6.0 is forecast to reach PCs around 2030, MRDIMM, a registered server module that specifically caters to AI memory bandwidth needs, may never make the jump

AMD has published specifications and 1,000-unit pricing for all 31 processors in its 6th Gen EPYC 9006 "Venice" family, and the top-of-stack chip sets a new high for the company on multiple fronts.

The AMD EPYC 9996 combines 256 Zen 6c cores and 512 threads with 1,024MB of L3 cache and a 600W default power rating on AMD's new SP7 socket, and it lists at $14,904, according to a full SKU sheet reported by StorageReview and corroborated by TechPowerUp.

The price is the highest for a single CPU that AMD has ever charged, as it continues to leverage its CPU lead and GPU business to carve itself a piece of an increasingly lucrative AI pie.

A measly pricing record coupled with plenty of real upgrades under the hood

When AMD's Turin launched in October 2024, it listed the 192-core EPYC 9965 at $14,813; our TechRadar Pro coverage described it previously as its most expensive processor to date.

Fast forward two years, and we have a CPU that costs $91 more but adds 64 Zen 6c cores, with benchmarks pointing to it as a significant performance upgrade for only a 1% increase in cost.

Hyperscalers willing to pay $77 a core for the EPYC 9965 would be more than happy to pay AMD's $58 ask, but that might be a moot point here; AMD's pricing is essentially guidance before OEM discounts and negotiations kick in for consumers who generally want chips in the hundreds or thousands for a typical deployment.

Interestingly, $14,904 might be where AMD's pricing caps out, but it is not the most anyone has historically asked for a server CPU; Intel's 128-core Xeon 6980P launched at $17,800 in 2024, making it considerably more expensive than its competition.

With a mammoth 600W power rating (AMD has retired its TDP rating for a 'default CPU power' figure that provides a more accurate power consumption under specific workloads), a gigabyte of L3 cache, and 256 Zen 6c 'compact' cores under the hood, the AMD EPYC 9996 is one of the fastest CPUs money can buy.

It also offers PCIe 6.0 connectivity and MRDIMM support for higher memory bandwidth, both key technologies for a current-generation AI workstation or datacenter's performance needs. The former is expected to reach desktop PCs by 2030, while the latter, a registered, buffered server module, might never see the inside of one for the foreseeable future.

AMD currently holds 46% of server CPU revenue, according to Mercury Research, which can lead one to conclude that AMD's nearest competitor is, as Storage Review put it, "its own last generation," at a time when Intel is still playing catch-up and OEMs are turning to Nvidia's Vera Rubin offerings as an alternative in the same space.

A more cynical take would be that list prices have drifted so far from what buyers actually pay that holding the sticker flat costs AMD very little, even as OEM partners and hyperscalers get to see the actual costs, which might not be as simple as an additional 64 cores for a $91 increase in cost at a time when AI demand outstrips supply on various fronts.

• Microsoft has admitted cloud-based M365 data owned by licensed nonprofits has been deleted in a license-switching cock-up
• Microsoft retired its 365 Business Premium Grant license, advising nonprofits to move to the Microsoft 365 Business Basic for free
• The deleted data cannot be retrieved

Microsoft has admitted it accidentally deleted the data from an undisclosed number of nonprofits with retiring Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant licenses. While advising the customers to switch to a different license for free and offering a retention and export window, the software behemoth somehow managed to lose their data, rather than retain it.

Worse, Microsoft has also admitted the lost data is irretrievable. So unless the organizations concerned had their own backups of the cloud-based data, the situation is irreversible.

All organizations with an expired Business Premium subscription are affected, but Microsoft has offered them a complementary “concierge service” to help get set up on their new Microsoft 365 Business Basic license – assuming they haven’t switched to Google Workspace.

How has this happened?

Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant licenses were specifically for nonprofit organizations. It provided 10 free licenses for eligible organizations.

The announcement of their impending closure was made in early 2025. Any renewal on or after July 1 2025, would have been the last one. At the time, Microsoft issued an email to licensees:

“The Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant will be discontinued on your next renewal on or after July 1, 2025. Your licenses will expire on April 1, 2026. We will continue to provide up to 300 granted licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Basic and discounts of up to 75 percent on many Microsoft 365 offers to nonprofits, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium.”

Once a decision was made, the license should have been migrated to a Microsoft 365 Business Basic or Microsoft 365 Business Premium license, based on the demands of the organization concerned. Emails and documents should not have been affected.

Instead, data has been lost.

Microsoft’s vague mea culpa

According to reports, Microsoft has admitted that “data cannot be recovered” and is similarly unable to provide any list or spreadsheet or log of what was lost. This leaves nonprofit organizations – notably, those with low license requirements, so presumably operating on minimal funding – without access to the data they had stored within the Microsoft 365 OneDrive cloud.

They will also be without emails, potentially including details concerning contracts, fundraising, and other critical information.

Microsoft has expressed regret and attempted to manage the situation by offering the affected organizations a specialist to assist in setting up a new Microsoft 365 account. However, given the fact that the data has been lost, and there is no migration headache to endure, it's a good bet Google Workspace or even Zoho Workplace are stronger options.

The fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent last January in Minneapolis set off a firestorm of protests around the U.S. Her family is speaking out for the first time.

(Image credit: Ellen Schmidt)

• Oura has partnered with women's precision health platform Xella Health
• Members can share sleep, HRV, temperature, and cycle data with Xella's clinicians
• Xella pairs that data with biomarker testing and physician-guided treatment plans

Oura has a new partner integration, and this time it’s a women's health platform that combines lab testing with telehealth care, dubbed Xella Health. Folks with an Oura ring in the US can now sign up to send ring data and other analysis right into Xella Health’s systems, assuming you’re subscribed to the platform.

Those subscribed to Xella Health can choose to share sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, temperature trends, recovery, activity, and menstrual cycle insights — essentially all the core Oura stats. Xella then runs what it calls "multi-omic" diagnostics, using custom AI to analyze the physiologic data from Oura alongside your hormones, metabolism, inflammation, nutrition, reproductive health, and cardiometabolic risk to spot patterns that may indicate a change in your health.

This assumes that Xella already has that information, and that you’re a Xella member. If so, combining wearable stats with Xella’s in-depth health metrics might shed light on changes with Oura readings, such as why a Readiness or Sleep score is fluctuating.

From there, Xella’s AI creates a care plan with a doctor, which can include treatment for more than 130 conditions that impact women, such as endometriosis and PMOS. The integration with Oura enables Xella and its doctors to keep an eye on your Oura trends as care continues to catch any significant changes in your health. The partnership between Oura and Xella is targeting fertility, perimenopause, cardiometabolic health, hormonal health, and women's longevity.

"Wearables have transformed our ability to detect physiologic change," Kelly Lacob, CEO and co-founder of Xella Health, said in a statement. "By combining continuous data and insights from Oura with Xella's molecular diagnostics and clinical care, we're creating a more complete picture of women's health."

It's worth noting that Xella is a separate, paid membership on top of Oura that requires an annual fee of $499. Women in all U.S. states, except New York and New Jersey, can sign up to integrate with Xella and go through the process. Of course, an Oura Ring 5 starts at $399 and has a monthly cost of $5.99, but it’s also not a medical device; it's a smart wearable without a screen.

Pairing wearables with lab testing is becoming a battleground for the premium screenless crowd. One of Oura's biggest competitors, Whoop, has opened its blood-testing and cancer-screening service to non-Whoop owners, and Oura has already partnered with women's health app Natural Cycles.

Xella gives Oura a clinical, women-focused answer to Whoop's approach.

Starting Oct. 1, many immigrants who are here legally lose their Medicaid coverage because of the Republican budget bill passed last year.

(Image credit: Eric Risberg)

The governor of California has signed into law a ban on child marriage. What is the status of other efforts to ban the practice? And do bans prove effective?

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The Federal Trade Commission has urged companies to be transparent about their pricing, but that may not be enough.

Gemini 4 Argon is only available to cyber defenders now, a sign Google is gearing up for a wider launch soon.

An S26 Ultra with 1TB of storage now lists for $2,000.

Do you use a VPN, antivirus or other security software? Let us know which ones are the most trustworthy.

The fridge-size satellite with AI chips on board is part of Project Suncatcher, the company's moonshot effort to put AI data centers in space and harness solar energy.

(Image credit: Planet Labs PBC)

Citing "exceptional circumstances," a D.C. judge has ruled that the federal government cannot refile its Reflecting Pool charges against David Hearn, despite pressure from President Trump to do so.

(Image credit: Mark Schiefelbein)

Data centers consume large amounts of power and require upgrading infrastructure. But it's difficult to determine how much residential customers benefit and how much they actually pay for the benefit.

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Counter to what a local prosecutor has claimed, the alleged victim of a 2024 gang rape at Cornell University clearly said in her police statement that she was sexually assaulted, her attorney told NPR.

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Bird Buddy 2: Two-minute review

The Bird Buddy 2 is the next-gen smart feeder on from the sleek, popular Bird Buddy Smart Feeder Pro. It shares the same integrated solar roof panels but has a new circular magnetic camera unit that pops out and rotates instantly between 9:16 portrait and 16:9 landscape modes.

More than six months after first hanging the Bird Buddy 2 in my garden, I'm delighted with its build quality and solar efficiency; however, it's fair to say my relationship with this smart feeder is still a mix of genuine appreciation and lingering frustration.

The feeder's integrated solar roof has kept the camera powered continuously for over half a year without me needing to bring it inside to charge once (which is good, as this is a fiddly job).

Combine that with its neat, easy-wipe, plastic build, clean refill design, and a charming app full of postcards and daily highlights, and I think it remains one of the most enjoyable, albeit pared-back smart feeders on the market. The equally popular Birdfy ecosystem offers more functionality, whereas I see Bird Buddy aiming for a simpler user experience.

Although it's easily rotatable, the camera is fixed facing forward, and framing isn’t quite right for landscape mode. The shallow seed tray means smaller birds sitting right in the seed for a good munch get cropped at the bottom of the frame. But now that 2K Ultra video resolution is available to Premium users, it takes the clarity of footage to an impressive level.

As I’ve said, one of the big selling points of the Bird Buddy app is how user-friendly and engaging it is, but this can come at the detriment of basic usability features – such as having customizable sleeping hours – meaning my camera regularly missed the earliest (and often most active) morning visitors because it’s not awake to record them.

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But I do love how easy it is to keep your feed organised. New postcards will stay in your active feed for a week. From here, you can choose to collect or discard them (and the collection is where postcards stay permanently), which means the onus is on you to curate your sightings and choose the best clips and stills.

I'm not sold on the app feature to give images filters and birds outfits – but if it helps entice younger users into birdwatching, then maybe it's not such an awful idea. There's also a lot of educational content, with Birdy Buddy feeding you tidbits of facts about identified species.

• Interested what other options are available besides the Bird Buddy 2? Check out our best bird feeder cameras guide.

I found live streaming to be occasionally laggy, sometimes not loading at all, and even when I set the camera to Frenzy Mode, the AI postcard capture missed birds I could clearly see sitting on the feeder from my kitchen window. It’s not the most reliable feeder I’ve used, and not ideal if you want to capture every single bird and build a picture of their visiting habits; however, it does stop your feed from getting clogged with thousands of similar clips.

Despite these niggles and quirks, I really enjoy the core experience. The AI bird identification is almost perfect, the postcard collection system provides a handy highlight reel, and the solar roof means near-continuous use.

The Bird Buddy 2 is a sleek, low-maintenance smart feeder with strong app design and best-in-class solar performance. For now, it earns its spot in my garden (and believe me, I have four smart feeders on the go), though I can’t help thinking about its price and hope tighter bird detection lands in future updates.

Lauren ScottLauren ScottBird Buddy 2: Price and availability

• Wider release rolled out in mid-2026
• Available via Amazon US and Amazon UK
• $299 in the US (approx. £300)

At $299 in the US and about £300 on Amazon UK, the Bird Buddy 2 sits firmly at the premium end of smart bird feeders. It demands a serious investment compared to standard single-camera setups and sits noticeably higher than competitors like the Birdfy range (even the dual-lens Birdfy Feeder 2 Pro at $279).

Bird Buddy is fully functional without a paid subscription, however, giving you AI species identification, live streaming, and daily Postcards for free. The Bird Buddy Pro subscription ($5.99/month or $59.99/year) is optional and unlocks longer video clips, 2K Ultra Resolution, Alexa integration, species-specific AI filtering and more.

US buyers can order directly from Bird Buddy or Amazon, but the brand doesn't currently ship the Gen 2 directly to the UK via its official site. That leaves Amazon UK (around £300) as the main route for UK buyers to get hold of one.

That price tag covers the built-in solar roof, but you don't get accessories like a wall mount in the box, and mounting poles are separate, too (less surprising). The Bird Buddy 2 is undoubtedly a steep purchase, with extra costs for the Premium features like 2K Ultra footage. I think a handful of keen and more technically-minded birders spending this much might feel short-changed.

Bird Buddy 2: Specs

Feature

Specification

Sensor

1/2.8"

Photo quality

5MP - HDR, 66–150mm (2.6–5.9 in) focus range with a 135-degree FOV

Video quality

Up to 2K @ 30fps (with HDR), Slow motion up to 95-120fps @ 960p

Memory

N/A - online storage

Dimensions

160 (W) x 230 (H) x 175 mm(D)

Weight

600 g (approx. empty)

Weather resistance

IP67 Certified

Battery

3900 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion

Connectivity

Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz / 5 GHz) and Bluetooth

Lauren ScottLauren ScottBird Buddy 2: Design

• Flush solar roof for cable-free, continuous power
• IP67-rated weatherproof housing
• Magnetic camera module for quick portrait and landscape switching

I found setting up the Bird Buddy 2 pretty painless; a booklet in the box details assembly, plus an app walkthrough. Like all smart feeders, you need to download the app first, then follow a series of illustrated steps to set up the Wi-Fi connection between your phone and the camera. It takes no more than five minutes and has been well thought through.

Initially, I connected the Bird Buddy 2 to my main internet router (likely about 12 metres away), as it said there was a strong signal. But each day I checked the app status, and it flagged that there was a low, unstable signal, and this may affect the number of postcards I was getting. Well, reader, it did just this, as I regularly watched a couple of blue tits land, feast and fly off from my kitchen window without any notifications.

I then added a wireless extender much closer to the garden and the camera. You can't change the Wi-Fi network on the camera directly in the app and instead have to factory reset the device and pair it again as a new one. This doesn’t lose postcards and your history as I thought it would; it’s more just a faff.

I’ve tested over ten smart bird feeder cams in my garden before, and the Bird Buddy 2 stands out for its clean aesthetics. It’s still plastic (recycled ASA plastic with an IP67 weather rating) rather than wood or bamboo, but the housing feels solid and has resisted any signs of UV fading over a very hot, bright British summer. Crucially, I’ve also found it fairly easy to keep clean, but you can't dunk the whole feeder in water to avoid getting the USB-C charging point wet.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

On earlier units, you could pop the camera out to charge and leave the feeder hanging outside. With the Gen 2, because the solar roof and camera housing are wired together, offline charging requires unhooking the entire dirty feeder or wrestling with the mounting bracket outdoors. At least the solar roof panels sit flush against the top without trailing cables or awkward side arms. Top-ups are easy thanks to a rear-sliding tray that lets you pour seed in without spilling. There’s less room for access than other feeders I’ve tried where the lid totally comes off, but it’s nice and secure.

The biggest design change on this second-generation unit is its circular, rather than pill-shaped camera module. It attaches in a magnetic socket behind a scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass lens, and can be twisted 90 degrees to flip between vertical (9:16) and widescreen (16:9) modes on the fly. For bird photographers who are more accustomed to landscape framing, I think it’s a welcome addition.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

However, I found that the seed tray depth negates some of the benefits of having two different views. Because the tray floor sits close to the lens mount, small garden birds often drop low into the seed to feed. In both portrait and landscape orientation, this leaves their bodies cut off by the bottom lip of the frame, resulting in video clips that showcase plenty of background trees but only the top of a bird's head.

There are several ways to mount the Bird Buddy 2. The easiest is to use the metal hanger wire included in the box, which keeps the feeder suspended from a hook or branch in your garden. I used this option and found the wire very strong, though the Feeder did sway slightly in high winds.

A bottom bracket adapter is included in the box, though Bird Buddy sells a metal mounting pole separately. A wall mount for fence panels and outside walls is another optional add-on, which is a shame, as rival Birdfy usually includes this option in the box.

Bird Buddy 2: Performance

• Flawless solar power over months
• 5MP images detailed in bright light; quality drops off in shade
• Engaging app experience, though the live stream is laggy

If there’s one good reason to buy the Bird Buddy 2, it is the battery performance. Over six months of continuous outdoor use, the solar roof kept the battery topped up continuously and is still at 100% as I write this review. I haven't needed to bring the camera inside to plug it into a wall outlet even once—a massive win for an outdoor smart device—even if I have had to bring it in for cleaning and firmware updates.

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Like any camera, the Bird Buddy 2’s image quality depends on the light quality. When mounted in gentle, direct sunlight, I found the 1080p videos and 5MP photos captured were crisp and vibrant. Close-ups show some feather textures, eye reflections, and accurate colors, particularly on bright birds like blue tits. The 2K Ultra footage (available to premium users) truly has the sharp look you might expect at a $299 / £300 price point.

For smartphone viewing and social media sharing, both the 1080p and 2K Ultra clips look great – colorful, sharp, instantly recognizable, and easy to download and share to your camera roll. It's a shame that the downloaded images have the Bird Buddy watermark, but this isn't unique to the brand.

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The wider 135-degree field of view also gives a nice sense of surrounding garden action, but I still find it frustrating how much of the bird gets cut off when sat straight in the feeder.

Like most small-sensor outdoor cameras, image quality drops off noticeably in flat or shaded light, and noise becomes noticeable. In high-contrast situations (like bright sun filtering through trees), the dynamic range struggles, leading to blown-out highlights or heavy shadows on dark-plumaged birds. The built-in microphone is clean enough for the app's AI audio identification features to work effectively.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

As for AI species identification, only a handful of entries weren't identified, usually because the bird in question (Common wood pigeon) was too close to the camera, but you can edit the species manually if you want. When it does trigger automatically, however, the digital Postcards are delightful. Instead of spamming your phone with hundreds of motion-alert notifications like standard security cameras, the AI compiles a daily highlight reel with accurate species identification. It turns checking your garden activity into an enjoyable daily routine rather than notification clutter.

Detection consistency is an area needing refinement. The app prioritizes simplicity over granular controls, which means you can’t adjust the camera's sleep and wake hours. As a result, the feeder frequently stayed asleep past dawn, missing early-morning feeding rushes.

Even when I toggled it to Frenzy Mode for maximum recording sensitivity, the feeder frequently ignored birds clearly visible with the naked eye. Live streaming initially suffered similar latency issues, often taking 15 to 20 seconds to establish a connection, but improved with time. Maybe like the hobby of birdwatching itself, the Bird Buddy 2 just requires a bit of patience and learning to get into the swing of things.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)Should you buy the Bird Buddy 2?Buy it if...

You want to swap camera orientations

The twistable magnetic camera unit lets you instantly swap between 9:16 portrait (good for socials) and 16:9 landscape framing to suit your preference, common species or photo collection. No app required.

You want a stylish, low-maintenance design

The integrated solar roof kept my camera fully powered for over six months without ever needing to bring the unit inside to charge. The housing stands up to the weather well, is easy to wipe down, and I think it looks good despite being made from plastic instead of wood.

Don't buy it if...

You want to capture a log of every visitor

The detection rate can be sporadic even in Frenzy Mode, and fixed sleeping hours mean the camera might miss early morning visits. If you're a birdwatching purist who wants a complete log of garden visitors, options like the Birdfy range are more steadfast trackers.

You want round-the-clock watching

The Bird Buddy 2 enters a power-saving sleep state at dusk, whereas some rivals in the Birdfy line, the NatureSpy BirdCam and smaller brands have infrared sensors to capture night vision.

Also consider

Birdfy Bamboo

If the Bird Buddy is a little too loud and plastic an ornament for you, Netvue's bamboo-constructed option is for bird watchers hoping for something more naturalistic in design. It's built from sustainable bamboo boards and looks far more integrated in a traditional garden setting. You still get AI species identification, while the app is slightly more home-security-style, but it's still a full-featured HD feeder camera. Just note that because it's real wood, it needs more upkeep and is more likely to be chewed by squirrels.

Read our Netvue Birdfy Bamboo reviewView Deal

Bird Buddy Pro (with solar roof)

The Pro version with a solar roof is a similar proposition to the Bird Buddy 2 but slightly cheaper. The Pro Solar has the same set-and-forget power potential, meaning you can forget about charging for months. The camera is vertical-only, meaning you miss out on landscape mode. Image quality is on par, with HD video and 5MP images, though 2K is only unlocked by subscription.

Read our Bird Buddy Pro reviewView Deal

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)How I tested the Bird Buddy 2

• Tested for 6 months
• Hung in a UK garden between April and September
• Tried HD and 2K video and stills

I tested the Bird Buddy 2 for more than 6 months, hanging it from a pole in my UK garden where small birds and squirrels visit regularly through the seasons. I left the feeder in the same spot, only bringing it inside briefly once a month for cleaning.

I paired the feeder to my iPhone 15 Pro using the Bird Buddy app, and set up a nearby Wi-Fi extender in my kitchen to ensure it always had a strong connection. I tested the feeder's reliability for recording sightings, assessed the AI recognition and tested all the features and settings available in the Bird Buddy app.

Before May, I filled up the feeder more fully with a premium garden bird seed mix. During the summer months, I followed RSPB guidance on feeding birds and left small amounts of mealworms and suet in the base of the feeder.

First reviewed October 2026

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In mother-of-pearl suits, the Pearly Kings used to canvass East London for charity. The most famous one, George Major, died in August. A look back on this larger-than-life figure and the Pearly King tradition.

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