Xshift created a modular racing dash box for simulators that simply clicks together like a set of puzzle pieces, each held in place by a magnet. Each element has its own set of controls and readouts, and they all connect to a central unit for stability and data collection. The end result is a fully equipped control panel that is just as detailed as a real rally vehicle cockpit.

To finalize the design, Xshift began with some initial Photoshop sketches to ensure that the look, feel, and details were just correct. They then used 3DS Max to make accurate replicas of every button, dial, and screen, taking real-world measurements with their trusty calipers to ensure that every last detail was spot on. The printed parts were then sent to the 3D printer, where they were reinforced to withstand the subsequent sanding and painting. Meanwhile, the acrylic sheets were laser cut and then glued with a sophisticated carbon fiber wrap for a truly polished look.

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The ESP32-S3 circuit board is at the heart of the system, handling all of the inputs and outputs without the need for any additional components. To keep things orderly, the buttons and switches are placed in a grid, allowing you to get twelve controllers from only seven pins, while the rotary encoders have their own dedicated wires for clean signals. There are also optocouplers to keep the 12-volt LED buttons isolated from the rest of the board and prevent electrical noise from entering. Xshift even created a unique PCB from scratch, using Fusion 360 to ensure it has a firm ground plane and all of the necessary manual traces to keep everything functioning properly.

The beauty of it is that you can simply remove a module and replace it with another when necessary. One module features a large LCD screen that displays your current gear selection and lap times in real time from the simulator program. If you want more information, you may add some supplementary LCD screens or even a strip of LEDs to display your RPM gauge (or leave it off completely if you’re driving an electric vehicle). The dials and switches control everything from radio settings to pit stops, with a single button press providing fast reaction.

On the software side, Xshift connected all of this hardware to multiple sim racing titles using SimHub, and they even went to the bother of designing a bespoke dashboard interface in Photoshop that refreshes in real time with all of the game’s statistics. They employed some complex JavaScript expressions to connect each static graphic element to the live data feeds, ensuring that your screens always reflect exactly what’s happening on the track. He designed the circuitry on the microcontroller to handle button presses, encoder spins, and LED patterns with no lag, all before they finished the matrix scanning as well as input tests.

When you put it all together, you have a really neat item that fits nicely on your sim rig. The magnets hold everything in place, but you can still remove a portion when you need to change it out for something else. If you’re feeling daring, you can even download all of the files from the Xshift Patreon page and build your own at home, replete with every 3D model, laser-cut template, PCB layout, and code snippet you’ll require. The end result is a cockpit that seems like it just came out of the factory, yet with plenty of room for you to customize and future-proof your setup.
[Source]

The UK Gladiators series 3 wrapped up recently on March 28, with George McDonald and Emily Bell emerging as winners. But if you’re already missing the thrill of everyday people taking on highly trained athletes, American Gladiators (2026) reboot is here with a fresh 10-episode series.

The format is as gladiator-esque as ever, with everyday contestants going head-to-head against 16 elite athletes – both men and women – in a series of intense physical challenges, all for not just bragging rights but also a whopping $100,000 prize.

There’s a big Fire TV update coming and it’s going to affect a boatload of products, so take a deep breath as there’s plenty to get through here.

But in short, we have a new TV, a revised and streamlined interface, a new Fire TV streaming stick and wider availability for (the still in Early Access) Alexa+.

The All New Fire TV Experience (again)

First off, there’s a new, redesigned Fire TV experience, launching six years after the first big redesign. Amazon says the new Fire TV interface will be “cleaner, faster, and better organised for customers”.

Categories have been added so viewers can “more easily” see their movies, TV shows, news, live content and sports. Amazon says it’s also 30% faster to use than the previous version.

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In the next few weeks Amazon will also roll out its Fire TV Channels section that will allow customers to dive into latest content about stuff they’re interested in, whether that be sports, music videos, comedy, lifestyle and more. Its free to view and supported by ads. Simply turn on a Fire TV device, head to Fire TV Channels and you’ll find what’s trending across your favourite topics.

And with the World Cup 2026 on the horizon, Amazon is introducing a new football hub with the new Fire TV Experience that’ll allow viewers to keep up to speed with their teams as well as take them directly to watch live games through their local providers. Expect the hub to come back in different forms based on major global sporting events.

Alexa+ is here to help

A quick note on Alexa+. While it’s still in Early Access stage, Alexa+ on Fire TV will be officially available in the UK on compatible devices.

So if you have the new Fire TV Stick HD or Ember Artline lifestye TV, she’ll be there to answer any question or start a conversation about what you want to watch.

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The slimmest and fastest Fire TV Stick HD

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Amazon’s enty-level Fire TV Stick is getting an upgrade. After the Select joined the Fire TV Stick roster in 2025, the HD model is getting a revised version.

It’s smaller in volume and width than the previous models, and can run on your TV’s USB port without the need for a separate power adapter. Not only does it mean it can fit more neatly behind a TV, but it should make it more accessible for taking on your travels as well.

This new version is also 30% faster than the previous models, which in layman’s terms should make for a faster powering up process and apps opening up quicker too.

In the coming months Amazon will be adding a new Adaptive Display setting to the Fire TV Stick HD, an accessibility feature that makes text, menus, and content easier to see and navigate.

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It can increase the size of smaller items like text and menus while “scaling up” larger items such as content artwork to create a more balanced browsing experience. Users can also choose from multiple size options to create an experience that works best for them.

You can pre-order the Fire TV Stick HD now, priced at £39.99, with shipping starting on April 29th.

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Amazon saunters into the lifestyle market with Ember Artline

Finally, there’s a new lifestyle TV joining Amazon’s TV range. The Ember Artline works in similar fashion to the Samsung Frame and Hisense Canvas, offering a “global” collection of over 2000 curated art pieces at no extra cost beyond what you pay for the TV.

The selection includes Impressionist classics to more contemporary photography, and there’s an AI function called “Match the Room” that aims to make it easier to find artwork that matches your TV’s surroundings. Also, the Ember Artline comes with one of 10 frame colours to choose from at checkout, so you’re not stuck with a boring black frame.

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The introduction of the Ember Artline, along with the “All New Fire TV Experience”, will also be part of the Amazon’s rebrand of its TVs. No longer will they be called Amazon Fire TVs. The latest generation will now be known as the Amazon Ember TVs.

The Ember Artline TV comes in 55- and 65-inch sizes, priced at £949 and £1199 respectively. You can pre-order today with the TVs expected to ship on May 7th.

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Roughly 90 percent of hard tech startups fail due to funding constraints, longer R&D timelines for developing hardware, and the complexity of manufacturing their products, according to a number of studies.

Generally, these startups require up to 50 percent more investor financing than software ones, according to a Medium article. Typically, they need at least US $30 million, according to a Lucid article. That’s double the funding needed by software companies on average.

To help them connect with investors, IEEE Entrepreneurship in 2024 launched its Hard Tech Venture Summits. The two-day events connect founders with potential investors and other entrepreneurs. Attendees include manufacturers, design engineers, and intellectual property lawyers.

“Even though there are a lot of startup investor conferences, it’s hard to find those focused on hard tech,” says Joanne Wong, who helped initiate the program and is now the chair. She is a general partner at Redds Capital, a California-based venture capital firm that invests in global early-stage IT startups.

The IEEE member is also an entrepreneur. She founded SciosHub in 2020. The company’s software-as-a-service and informatics platform automates the data-management process for biomedical research labs.

“Many investors are focused on AI software—which is good,” she says. “But for hard tech companies, it is still hard to find support.”

The summit also includes a workshop to help founders navigate manufacturing processes and regulatory compliance. The event is open to IEEE members and others.

IEEE is a natural fit for the program, Wong says, because hard tech is synonymous with electrical engineering.

“Some of the domains we’re covering are robotics, semiconductors, and aerospace technology. IEEE has societies for all these fields,” she says. “Because of that, there are many resources within the organizations for startups, whether it be mentors or guides on how to commercialize products.”

There are several venture summits planned for this year. Two are scheduled in collaboration with the IEEE Systems Council: this month in Menlo Park, Calif., and in October in Toronto.

On 10 and 11 June, a third summit is scheduled to take place in Boston at the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society’s International Microwave Symposium.

More events are being planned for next year in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America.

Networking and a pitch competition

Each summit includes keynote speakers, followed by networking roundtables. Each table is composed of people from three to five startups, one or two investors, and a service provider.

That arrangement helps founders build relationships, which is the summit organizers’ priority, Wong says. Investors at past events have included i3 Ventures, Monozukuri Ventures, and TSV Capital.

“The connection with the community was fantastic, especially investors and founders in robotics.” —Mark Boysen, founder of Naware

Startups present their pitch, which a number of investors evaluate before ranking the business plan and product. The top 10 startups pitch their business to all the investors.

On the second day, the startup founders participate in a half-day engineering design–to–manufacturing workshop, at which manufacturing engineers teach them how to navigate the process and meet regulations.

In an exhibition area, participants can see demonstrations from the startups and connect with service providers.

The 2025 event’s half-day engineering design–to–manufacturing workshop was led by Liz Taylor, president of DOER Marine. The company manufactures marine equipment.Larissa Abi Nakhle/IEEE

Positive feedback from attendees

In a survey of past summit attendees, startup founders said the event connected them not only with investors but also with other entrepreneurs having similar struggles.

“The connection with the community was fantastic, especially investors and founders in robotics,” said Mark Boysen, who founded Naware. The company, based in Edina, Minn., developed a robot that uses AI to detect and remove weeds from golf courses, parks, and lawns.

“I loved getting the investors’ perspectives and understanding what they’re looking for,” Boysen said.

Jeffrey Cook, who attended a summit in 2024, said he met “a lot of great contacts and saw what the hard tech venture climate is like.”

Attendees of the Hard Tech Venture Summit spend the first day networking and presenting their pitch to investors. IEEE Entrepreneurship

“Those in the community would benefit from coming to the summit,” said Cook, who founded Gigantor Technologies in Melbourne Beach, Fla. It develops hardware systems for AI-powered devices.

More than 90 percent of attendees at the 2025 event in San Francisco said they would highly recommend the summit to others, according to a survey.

Investors and service providers also have found the events successful.

Ji Ke, a partner and the chief technology officer of deep tech VC firm SOSV, attended the 2025 summit.

“I met a lot of young entrepreneurs tackling some big challenges,” he said. “This is one of the best events to meet some very-early-stage companies.”

Making important connections in hard tech

Startup founders who want to attend a summit must apply. Applications for this year’s events are open. Participants must be founders of preseed, seed, or Series A startups.

Preseed founders are seeking small investments to get their businesses off the ground. Those in the seed stage have already secured funding from their first investor. Series A startups have obtained funding and are developing their product.

Applicants are reviewed by a committee of investors to ensure the startups would be a good fit. Those who are approved are matched with investors and service providers based on their specialty.

“The journey for a hard tech startup is very long and arduous,” Wong says. “Founders need to meet as many investors as possible and other people who support hard tech systems so that they’re able to reach out to them for advice or help.”

Those interested in learning more about an upcoming event can send a request to entrepreneurship@ieee.org.

Although Amazon first revealed its Samsung Frame competitor TV back at CES, it’s now finally available to pre-order.

Coined Ember Artline, how does Amazon’s new lifestyle TV compare to the Samsung Frame? Ahead of our review, we’ve compared the initial specs of the Ember Artline to the four-star Samsung Frame and noted the key differences between the two below.

Once you’re done here, make sure you visit our round-up of the best TVs, best cheap TVs and best 4K TVs too, to find your next investment.

Price and Availability

At the time of writing, Amazon’s Ember Artline is available for pre-order and will launch officially on April 22nd in the US and Canada, and May 7th in the UK. Germany is slated to see the TV later in May, although an exact date hasn’t been announced just yet.

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The Ember Artline has a starting RRP of $899.99/£949.99 for the 55-inch model.

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In comparison, the Samsung Frame is available to buy now and has a starting price of £799/$899 for the smallest 43-inch model. While the Ember Artline is only available in two sizes (55- and 65-inches), the Samsung Frame comes as a 43-, 50-, 55- or 65-inch screen.

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Ember Artline supports Alexa+

Naturally as it’s an Amazon TV, the Ember Artline is fitted with Alexa – specifically the recently launched Alexa+. However, we should disclaim that Alexa+ is only free for Prime members, no non-Prime subscribers will have to spend £19.99 to access the voice assistant. 

Alexa+ is essentially a smarter, more conversational and personalised upgrade over the original Alexa. While we’re yet to provide our full review on the voice assistant, our Home Technology Editor Dave Ludlow has given his early thoughts on Alexa+ and noted where it excels and still struggles.

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Otherwise, Alexa+ provides hands-free control on the TV, and allows you to search for shows, receive personalised recommendations and have natural conversations too.

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Fire TV vs Tizen

One of the key differences between the Ember Artline and Samsung Frame is with their respective operating systems. While the Ember Artline runs on Amazon’s Fire TV, the Samsung Frame is powered by, unsurprisingly, Samsung’s Tizen OS instead.

Both are smart TV systems that offer access to streaming apps such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney Plus and more, and have their respective pros and cons. For example, while Tizen isn’t the easiest to navigate, it does offer recommendations and there’s now the option to create multiple profiles for your household. In comparison, although Fire TV is intuitive, we found that it has a tendency to promote Amazon Prime content – which is somewhat understandable. 

Ember Artline includes artwork at no additional cost

The key selling point of the two TVs here is that they can display artwork on their screens when not in use. The Samsung Frame has a dedicated Art Mode that presents a gallery of artwork and even your own photos on screen. Plus, with Pantone-validated colour and the promise of no screen burn, images don’t only look vibrant and authentic but you can keep the screen on without worry.

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However, although the Samsung Frame does offer a selection of complimentary pieces to display, you will need to pay in order to access the complete library of over 3500 works of art.

In comparison, at least at the time of writing, the Ember Artline offers its collection of 2000 art pieces without any additional cost. Much like the Samsung Frame, you can also choose to display your own photos on the Ember Artline, via the Amazon Photos app.

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Samsung Frame has more ports

You can never have too many ports, and the Samsung Frame offers a pretty generous selection overall. Alongside its four HDMIs, there’s three USBs (two A and one C), an Ethernet port and an optical port too.

In comparison, the Ember Artline has slightly less, with three HDMI 2.0s, one HDMI with eARC, one USB type-3 and an optical audio port.

However, the Ember Artline does benefit from Wi-Fi 6 support whereas the Samsung Frame sports the older Wi-Fi 5.

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Both are 4K QLED displays

Both the Ember Artline and Samsung Frame are 4K, QLED displays, and are packed with plenty of premium screen technologies too, including HDR. In addition, both displays have an anti-glare finish that reduces reflections. In our review of the 2022 Samsung Frame, we found the screen did an excellent job at keeping reflections at bay, so we expect the latest model to do the same.

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Otherwise, both the Ember Artline and Samsung Frame have a motion sensor that can either wake or turn off the screen accordingly. 

Finally, it’s worth noting that both TVs here also have customisable frames, or bezels, which are sold separately.

Early Verdict

Both the Amazon Ember Artline and Samsung Frame are impressive lifestyle TVs. As we’re yet to review the Ember Artline, we’ll hold off from giving a conclusive review for now. However, if you already own some of the best Amazon Echo devices, enjoy using Alexa for hands-free controls and don’t want to pay extra for artwork, then the Ember Artline seems like a great choice.

On the other hand, if you require more ports, don’t mind TizenOS and want a wider choice of screen sizes, then the Samsung Frame will likely suit you better.

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We’ll update this versus once we review the Ember Artline.

Anthropic on Thursday released a new AI model, and no, it’s not Claude Mythos Preview. Claude Opus 4.7 is now generally available, meant to help developers and vibe coders with their hardest coding tasks.

Opus 4.7, like a well-trained dog, is supposedly better at following instructions. Anthropic wrote in its blog post that Opus 4.7 takes instructions “literally,” where previous models skipped or loosely interpreted prompts. It has improvements to its file-based memory system, so it should be able to recall information from previous sessions and documents. And it can handle larger image files and analyze data from charts more easily. 

Anthropic also said the model is more “tasteful and creative” when creating interfaces, documents and slide decks. There are no details on exactly what Anthropic considers bad versus good taste.

Anthropic made waves earlier this month when it revealed it had created Claude Mythos Preview, its next-generation model, but the model was so good at finding security gaps that the company would be sharing it with tech and internet infrastructure companies — like Cisco, CrowdStrike and Amazon Web Services — so they could address the issues Mythos found. 

The idea is that if tech companies can improve their systems with the help of AI, they will be more resilient to cyberattacks by bad actors who can use publicly available AI models like everyone else.

While Opus 4.7 isn’t the same as Mythos, Anthropic is testing some of its new cybersecurity protections in Opus 4.7. These safeguards, which “automatically detect and block requests that indicate prohibited or high-risk cybersecurity uses,” are the watered-down version of what will be in “Mythos-class” models, the company’s blog post said. But they’re still important as cybersecurity becomes increasingly saturated with AI, both for defense and for attack.

Enterprise AI is entering a new phase — one where the central question is no longer what can be built, but how to make the most of our AI investment.

At VentureBeat’s latest AI Impact Tour session, Brian Gracely, director of portfolio strategy at Red Hat, described the operational reality inside large organizations: AI sprawl, rising inference costs, and limited visibility into what those investments are actually returning.

It’s the “Day 2” moment — when pilots give way to production, and cost, governance, and sustainability become harder than building the system in the first place.

“We’ve seen customers who say, ‘I have 50,000 licenses of Copilot. I don’t really know what people are getting out of that. But I do know that I’m paying for the most expensive computing in the world, because it’s GPUs,’” Gracely said. “‘How am I going to get that under control?’”

Why enterprise AI costs are now a board-level problem

For much of the past two years, cost was not the primary concern for organizations evaluating generative AI. The experimental phase gave teams cover to spend freely, and the promise of productivity gains justified aggressive investment, but that dynamic is shifting as enterprises enter their second and third budget cycles with AI. The focus has moved from “can we build something?” to “are we getting what we paid for?”

Enterprises that made large, early bets on managed AI services are conducting hard reviews of whether those investments are delivering measurable value. The issue isn’t just that GPU computing is expensive. It is that many organizations lack the instrumentation to connect spending to outcomes, making it nearly impossible to justify renewals or scale responsibly.

The strategic shift from token consumer to token producer

The dominant AI procurement model of the past few years has been straightforward: pay a vendor per token, per seat, or per API call, and let someone else manage the infrastructure. That model made sense as a starting point but is increasingly being questioned by organizations with enough experience to compare alternatives.

Enterprises that have been through one AI cycle are starting to rethink that model.

“Instead of being purely a token consumer, how can I start being a token generator?” Gracely said. “Are there use cases and workloads that make sense for me to own more? It may mean operating GPUs. It may mean renting GPUs. And then asking, ‘Does that workload need the greatest state-of-the-art model? Are there more capable open models or smaller models that fit?’”

The decision is not binary. The right answer depends on the workload, the organization, and the risk tolerance involved, but the math is getting more complicated as the number of capable open models, from DeepSeek to models now available through cloud marketplaces, grows. Now enterprises actually have real alternatives to the handful of providers that dominated the landscape two years ago.

Falling AI costs and rising usage create a paradox for enterprise budgets

Some enterprise leaders argue that locking into infrastructure investments now could mean significantly overpaying in the long run, pointing to the statement from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that AI inference costs are declining roughly 60% per year.

The emergence of open-source models such as DeepSeek and others has meaningfully expanded the strategic options available to enterprises that are willing to invest in the underlying infrastructure in the last three years.

But while costs per token are falling, usage is accelerating at a pace that more than offsets efficiency gains. It’s a version of Jevons Paradox, the economic principle that improvements in resource efficiency tend to increase total consumption rather than reduce it, as lower cost enables broader adoption.

For enterprise budget planners, this means declining unit costs do not translate into declining total bills. An organization that triples its AI usage while costs fall by half still ends up spending more than it did before. The consideration becomes which workloads genuinely require the most capable and most expensive models, and which can be handled just fine by smaller, cheaper alternatives.

The business case for investing in AI infrastructure flexibility

The prescription isn’t to slow down AI investment, but to build with flexibility being top of mind. The organizations that will win aren’t necessarily the ones that move fastest or spend the most; they’re the ones building infrastructure and operating models capable of absorbing the next unexpected development.

“The more you can build some abstractions and give yourself some flexibility, the more you can experiment without running up costs, but also without jeopardizing your business. Those are as important as asking whether you’re doing everything best practice right now,” Gracely explained.

But despite how entrenched AI discussions have become in enterprise planning cycles, the practical experience most organizations have is still measured in years, not decades.

“It feels like we’ve been doing this forever. We’ve been doing this for three years,” Gracely added. “It’s early and it’s moving really fast. You don’t know what’s coming next. But the characteristics of what’s coming next — you should have some sense of what that looks like.”

For enterprise leaders still calibrating their AI investment strategies, that may be the most actionable takeaway: the goal is not to optimize for today’s cost structure, but to build the organizational and technical flexibility to adapt when, not if, it changes again.