Tech

5 Cars That Looked Totally Different Just One Generation Ago

Published

4 hours ago

20 April 2026

There’s something to be said about brand recognition — being able to tell what one car is from another at a glance. Companies have their trademark “looks” befitting certain models, sure — Jeep Wranglers are always boxy 4x4s with the seven-slotted grille and Ford Mustangs have the triple-taillight and a fastback coupe body shape. And these trends generally carry on from one generation to the next — a modern Wrangler still bears a superficial resemblance to the old TJ Wrangler from the 1990s, for instance. But every now and then, you get manufacturers trying something new. Whether it’s reusing a name on a brand-new platform or just a total ground-up redesign, sometimes you’re simply baffled to see the same logo on two seemingly completely different cars.

This is actually way more common than one might think. Take the Dodge Challenger, for instance, which went from a pony car in the early 1970s to a rebadged Mitsubishi Galant of all things. There are a few instances of this practice rearing its head, generally when automakers are chasing trends or undergoing large platform changes. An example of the latter is the Dodge Ram, which went from a Spartan, functional pickup in the 1980s to arguably the first modern production pickup truck in 1994.

We don’t see it as often today, with designs focusing more on minimalism and safety. But there are a few newer cars out there that will make you go, “Wait, it looked like that just one generation ago?” Let’s dive in and have a look.

Chrysler 300

What’s the first thought that comes to your mind when you think of the name “Chrysler 300?” Because the answer is generally all over the place; these cars (sadly now discontinued) once began life as midsize 1950s luxury sedans. Then they evolved into 1960s luxury sedans, then 1970s luxury sedans, and so on — the trend ran right up to their ultimate demise. But while these cars never changed their intended purpose, they most certainly changed their looks. Because the modern 2005-2023 Chrysler 300’s father is actually just a fancier Sebring — identical body shape and all, to the point where you’d be forgiven for mistaking the two without the presence of the badge.

Okay, granted, that badge reads “300M,” but it’s a Chrysler 300 — a car which, like its predecessors, prides itself on being refined and luxurious. Although you won’t find a Hemi anywhere near this car (unless you’re a lunatic who swapped in a remarkably inexpensive Hemi crate engine). Instead, you’ll find that classic Pentastar V6 in 3.5L form married to a front-wheel drive setup, all housed underneath a remarkably well-rounded body shell. It was Chrysler’s thing at the time; we all know that look from the Town and Country minivans.

The mid-2000s marked a pivotal period for Chrysler (and Mopar as a whole), with the entire range undergoing massive redesigns. These included the debuts of the new Jeep Wrangler JK in 2007, the Dodge Magnum in 2005, and many others. For the 300, it meant going from FWD budget luxury to intimidating, Hemi-powered RWD aspiration piece, a move that became so iconic that the car remained nearly unchanged right up until it was discontinued.

Chevrolet Corvette

Chevrolet C8 Corvette parked in front of garage, front-right 3/4 view

Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock

This one is also fairly obvious when you look at it, especially considering this was the first time we’ve ever seen a mid-engine Corvette in dealerships. It’s a car that has arguably marred a silhouette that was well over 50 years old, with the classic front-engine, rear-drive grand tourer coupe layout solidifying in 1963 with the Stingray fastback. Those classic lines of the long hood and sweeping rear end met their demise with Chevrolet’s modern rendition, for better or worse, marking a shift in design philosophy never before seen in the lineup — going from a grand touring sports car to supercar.

Typically the Corvette filled the niche of the former: a sports car. It was less money, less hassle, more practical, and generally more common than a lot of other high-performance vehicles of its era. Even today, you’re more likely to see a Corvette cruising down the highway than, for instance, a Lamborghini that’s more than double the cost (depending on where you live). But modern “fast cars” have a new image attached to them; think of modern Ferraris, the Audi R8, and so on. These are cars which typically command six-figure sums and hit 60 in three seconds or less. But not the Corvette (at least the base model).

The original design was revolutionary for the time, being marketed as “America’s First Sports Car.” And it’s a classic template, one which could easily continue into the future. But GM chose to depart from the “sports car” label, leaving us with what is ostensibly America’s budget supercar. Recognizable in name and performance, but hardly a trace when it comes to aesthetic presentation.

Dodge Charger

This was probably one of the most startling and controversial redesigns of the past couple years, with the Charger going from a pure-bred modern muscle car to a two-door EV (with the Hurricane turbocharged straight six available in model year 2026 onwards). Some might call it blasphemous to release a muscle car with no V8 option available for the masses, but whatever you think about the powertrain, it still wears the Charger badge — and looks almost nothing like its predecessor, with only a passing resemblance in four-door form.

Granted, the Charger was never exactly a svelte sports car in terms of its looks (as you can see in each generation). It was more of a brick on wheels than anything. The original Charger was a full-size sleeper coupe, looking more like a salesman’s car from the outside but potentially hiding a massive engine under the hood. The second-gen is what we generally think of when we hear of a classic Charger, but they both share certain key traits like that iconic, stone-faced grille and fastback roof. The modern Charger takes these elements and reimagines them in a 2020s context, returning the two-door configuration, flat nose, and vintage roof line. It’s a retro-flavored design, for sure, arguably returning the Charger name to a more traditional aesthetic.

Redesigns rarely hit without backlash, as we see fairly often in website facelifts for instance. And the new Charger was met with tons of it, though that generally revolved around its powertrain, not its aesthetics. The actual look of the car is, in fact, far more in-line with vintage Charger design philosophy, which may not be to everyone’s taste. But it’s certainly more faithful than the 2000s-era four-door sedan look, which is arguably its own unique thing.

Toyota Supra

We have yet another sports car entering the chat, this time a Japanese-German chimera born from a BMW — and yes, the Supra has a BMW engine. The B58, to be specific, the same engine as the BMW Z4. Of course, the body is quite different from the Z4, though that doesn’t stop people from calling the MK5 Toyota Supra a BMW. It’s yet another controversial car in this regard, but aside from the question of whether or not it’s a “real” Toyota, one fact still remains consistent: This thing looks nothing like the MK4 A80 Supra, from just about any angle.

One might suggest that such a design departure is obvious enough. After all, the A80 itself looks almost nothing like its predecessor either, trading the boxy pop-up headlights look for that timeless rounded shape. Regardless of what you think about the car (it’s arguably seriously overrated for what it provides), that body shape is instantly recognizable and looks correct even in modern traffic. By contrast, the MK5 is certainly not a bad-looking car in its own right, with exceptionally sporty design language. That said, good luck finding commonality, aside from the 2-door fastback styling.

By contrast, the MK5 Supra is a car with a contemporary aggressive fascia, plenty of vents, a svelte body with bold accents, and a long nose hiding that straight six. The FT-1 concept it was based on was well-received for its looks, with the production Supra basically being a watered-down version. Is it bad? Absolutely not — neither it nor its ancestor were. But you really have to stretch the definition of “similar” to marry this car’s aesthetic language to the MK4’s.

Chevrolet Blazer

Typically when a car totally jumps from one segment to another, you get some sort of differentiation in the name — Ford Mustang Mach-E or Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, for example. Other times it’s a revival of a far older nameplate banking on recognition, such as the Ford Capri or Maverick. And then there’s this thing. The Chevrolet Blazer at a glance looks like it fills a similar role to the previous S-10 Blazer. That car was produced until the mid-2000s in North America, supplanted by the TrailBlazer in the midsize segment. Neither model bear even a passing resemblance to the modern crossover, however, either in form or function.

The S-10 and TrailBlazer alike were both unquestionably SUVs, with the S-10 in particular being more off-road oriented with its traditional high ground clearance, optional full-time 4WD, and features on-par with competitors like the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Additionally, Chevrolet even offered it in performance truck trim, with street-oriented option packages like the Blazer Xtreme. Its versatile SUV platform suited many roles well for its day, but its design is certainly dated on modern roads.

Chevrolet’s answer wasn’t to remake it as an SUV but rather as a crossover, debuting in 2019 to mixed reception (putting it mildly). The design proved controversial with the Blazer crowd, expecting a plucky, utilitarian 4×4 to rival the Bronco and getting a decidedly road-oriented unibody instead. It is almost nothing like the Blazers of old, only sharing the rough physical footprint they take up on the road. The Blazer is essentially the reverse of the Chrysler 300, going from a RWD or 4×4 truck to a FWD or AWD midsize that blazes rental fleets nationwide.

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Blue Origin’s New Glenn put a customer satellite in the wrong orbit during its third launch

Published

8 minutes ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin successfully re-used one of its New Glenn rockets for the first time ever on Sunday, but the company failed at its primary mission: delivering a communications satellite to orbit for customer AST SpaceMobile.

AST SpaceMobile issued a statement Sunday afternoon that the upper stage of the New Glenn rocket placed BlueBird 7 satellite into an orbit that was “lower than planned.” The satellite successfully separated from the rocket and powered on, the company said, but the altitude is too low “to sustain operations” and will now have to be de-orbited — left to burn up in the atmosphere of Earth.

The cost of the loss of the satellite is covered by AST SpaceMobile’s insurance policy, according the company, and there are successive BlueBird satellites that will be completed in around a month. AST SpaceMobile has contracts with more than just Blue Origin, and the company said it expects to be able to launch 45 more to space by the end of 2026.

But this represents the first major failure for Blue Origin’s New Glenn program, which only made its first flight in January 2025 after more than a decade in development. This was the second mission where New Glenn carried a customer payload to space, after launching twin spacecraft bound for Mars on behalf of NASA last November. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The apparent failure of New Glenn’s second stage could have wider implications beyond Blue Origin’s near-term commercial ambitions. The company is pushing hard to become one of the main launch providers for NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon and beyond. The space agency — and the Trump administration — has put pressure on Blue Origin and SpaceX to be able to put landers on the moon by the end of President Donald Trump’s second term, before advancing to returning humans to the lunar surface.

Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp has even said his company “will move heaven and Earth” to help NASA get back to the moon faster.

Blue Origin recently completed testing its first version of its own lunar lander, which the company is expected to try and launch at some point this year (without any crew). Blue Origin had suggested last year that it was considering launching this lander on New Glenn’s third mission, but ultimately decided to launch the AST SpaceMobile satellite instead.

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The third New Glenn launch seemed to start just fine on Sunday, with the the mega-rocket lifting off at 7:35 a.m. local time from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the first time Blue Origin re-used a previously-flown New Glenn booster — the same one that flew during New Glenn’s second mission. Roughly 10 minutes after liftoff, the booster came back down and landed on a drone ship in the ocean, just like it had last November. Jeff Bezos even shared drone footage of the booster’s landing on X, the social media site owned by his rival Elon Musk. (Musk offered congratulations.)

Roughly two hours after the launch, though, Blue Origin announced in its own post that the New Glenn upper stage placed AST SpaceMobile satellite in an “off-nominal orbit.” The company has not released any more information since that post.

Blue Origin spent a long time developing New Glenn, and it has been taken as a sign of confidence in that process that the company decided to start launching commercial payloads during these early missions. By comparison, SpaceX has spent the last few years flying test versions of its massive Starship, but has stuck with using dummy payloads as it works out the rocket’s kinks.

SpaceX did lose payloads deeper into its Falcon 9 program. In 2015, on the 19th Falcon 9 mission, the rocket blew up mid-flight and lost an entire International Space Station cargo spacecraft. In 2016, a Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad during testing, causing the loss of an internet satellite for Meta.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, April 20 (game #1044)

Published

21 minutes ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

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 Sunday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, April 19 (game #1043).

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.

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What Is The ‘Green Wave’ When It Comes To Traffic Lights?

Published

30 minutes ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Cars navigating traffic with help from green wave traffic lights

Miguel Angel Flores/Getty Images

There are many drivers who often bemoan the very existence of traffic lights. Despite incurring the daily ire of commuters who are running late for work, even those haters have to acknowledge the traffic signal’s invaluable function in helping to keep our roadways safe.

Traffic signals have, of course, evolved considerably since they were first pressed into use in the late-1860s, with the first electric lights coming into play sometime around 1912. It wasn’t long until those signals started using colored lights, and have since evolved into the red, yellow, and green modes we are all too familiar with today. Even as safety remains the primary purpose of the hundreds of thousands of traffic lights currently employed throughout the United States, some theorize that the life-saving devices may one day cease to exist.

Until that fateful day, getting stuck at red lights when you’re in a rush will remain a constant source of commuter frustration. On some occasions, however, a stream of greens opens up on the road ahead like the parting of the Red Sea. That stream of green has a name, with researchers dubbing it the “Green Wave.” While they may seem rare, the “Green Wave” is a common occurrence in certain parts of the world, and it serves a very important purpose.

What is the purpose of a traffic light Green Wave?

Brasil2/Getty Images

While it might seem like a weird sort of karmic intervention, that “Green Wave” of traffic lights was actually programmed for a specific purpose by whatever government organization is in charge of maintaining the traffic signals in your city, state or township. They are, however, far more commonly utilized on high-volume roads in urban areas. The purpose of a “Green Wave” is to improve the flow of traffic in those areas, particularly during times with increased traffic volume.

At its core, the concept is very simple. The idea is to keep traffic flowing during peak volume times by simply reducing the number of stops at concurrent traffic signals. To enact a “Green Wave,” planners and engineers simply synchronize the traffic lights in congested areas to all turn green at the same time and stay that way for a specified period that ensures a steady flow of traffic in one direction. The method is, naturally, easier to manage on one-way streets with no turning lanes, though some cities have attempted to aid traffic flow further by simply outlawing left turns in metropolitan areas. Some have even taken to banning right turns too.

In any case, on top of aiding the flow of traffic in congested areas, “Green Wave” traffic patterns are also believed to have a positive effect on the environment. After all, the reduction in stop-and-go traffic also reduces a vehicle’s idling time, which, in turn, leads to reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

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Digit Humanoid Nails a 65-Pound Deadlift and Reveals How Agility Trains Its Robots

Published

42 minutes ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Agility Digit Humanoid Robot Deadlifting Weightlifting
Digit is seen performing deadlifts with a 65-pound weight in the center of a lab. Agility Robotics shared the video a few days ago, and to be honest, the robot maintains a fairly steady balance and completes the task from beginning to end. Someone mentions that the new version can lift significantly more weight than the previous one, while another laughs about how it can run all day without stopping.

The engineers designed the test so that Digit had to work harder than usual. Every additional pound it must lift causes the robot to modify its entire body at simultaneously, including its arms, legs, torso, and everything else. The system must keep the weight centered and avoid tipping over, therefore the legs, arms, and rest of the robot must all function together. These actuators and joints can withstand repeated load without breaking down. Digit’s video simply shows the robot grasping the weight, rising up, then effortlessly placing it down repeatedly in a standard indoor location built for people.

Unitree G1 Humanoid Robot（No Secondary Development）

Sleek & Durable Design: Standing at 132cm tall and weighing only approx. 35kg, the G1 is constructed with aerospace-grade aluminum alloy and carbon…
High Flexibility & Safe Movement: Boasting 23 joint degrees of freedom (6 per leg, 5 per arm), it offers an extensive range of motion. For safety, it…
Smart Interaction & Connectivity: Powered by an 8-core high-performance CPU and equipped with a depth camera and 3D LiDAR. It supports Wi-Fi 6 and…

Simulation is where all of the training takes place, because before it touches a real weight, an engineer creates a digital copy of the same thing in a virtual world. Then they anticipate what will happen when the weight shifts. The grip pressure remains constant, with no slipping or lowering. Any changes to the robot’s equilibrium are registered extremely instantly. The policy learns the perfect lift in the simulated environment with no complications before being transmitted directly to the real robot. When you see the real robot perform it, it looks fairly natural because it has already handled every potential variable thousands of times in the simulation.

Agility Digit Humanoid Robot Deadlifting Weightlifting
Engineers chose deadlifts for the test because the movement requires complete body control. A simple arm raise would not put the hardware under the same level of stress. By incorporating weight into the simulation loop, the team is able to handle balancing changes that a pre-programmed script cannot handle alone. As a result, Digit lifts consistently, with no wobbling or resets. This method is easily adaptable to other objects or larger loads in future tests.

Digit was built by Agility to manage long, repetitive jobs that wear people out, such as working in factories or warehouses where you must squeeze into tight spaces, pick up oddly shaped goods, and continue without taking a break. This deadlift test demonstrates Digit’s ability to lift weight on ordinary floors while remaining steady, which is ideal for picking up boxes, carrying tools, and stacking things in human-designed places.

It also illustrates how far they’ve come in teaching robots to perform physical tasks. Whole-body synchronization was originally a nightmare, with hand-tuned code for each joint angle. But now they can simply train a policy in simulation that adapts on the go. Digit detects weight using its sensors, corrects itself in real time, and completes the lift without assistance, while the hardware can keep up because the training has already taught the actuators and joints to be more durable.
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Is the Iran War Driving a Surge of Interest in Electric Cars?

Published

52 minutes ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

In October and through November, America’s EV sales reached their lowest point since 2022 after government subsidies expired, remembers Time. “But first-quarter data for 2026 shows that used EV sales were 12% higher than the same time last year and 17% higher than the previous quarter.

“One factor likely helping push buyers toward these cars is high gas prices, which recently topped $4.00 a gallon for the first time in four years,” they write — but it’s not just in the U.S. Instead, they argue the conflict “is driving a global surge of interest in electric vehicles…”

In the U.K., electric car sales reached a record high, with 86,120 vehicles sold in March… The French online used-car retailer Aramisauto reported its share of EV sales nearly doubled from February 16 to March 9, rising to 12.7% from 6.5%, while sales of fueled models dropped to 28% of sales from 34%, and sales of diesel models dropped to 10% from 14%. Germany’s largest online car market, mobile.de, told Reuters that the share of EV searches on its website has tripled since the start of March — from 12% to 36%, with car dealers receiving 66% more enquiries for used EVs than in February.

South Korea reported that registrations for electric vehicles more than doubled in March compared to the prior year, due in part to rising fuel prices and government subsidies… In New Zealand, more than 1,000 EVs were registered in the week that ended on March 22, close to double the week before, making it the country’s biggest week for electric vehicle registrations since the end of 2023, according to the country’s Transport Minister, Chris Bishop.

In America, Bloomberg also reports 605 high-speed EV charging stations switched on in just the first three months of 2025, “a 34% increase over the year-earlier period,” according to their analysis of federal data. A data platform focused on EV infrastructure tells Bloomberg that speedier and more reliable chargers are convincing more drivers to go electric and use public plugs.

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La Dolce Audio Current Drive Tube Amplifiers Have a Different Take on Valve Amplification: AXPONA 2026

Published

1 hour ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Most loudspeaker designers don’t spend much time debating open versus closed the way headphone enthusiasts do. Cabinets are part of the equation for a reason, offering control, efficiency, and predictable performance. That’s the accepted playbook. But like any good rule in audio, someone is always trying to break it.

At AXPONA 2026, La Dolce Audio showed what happens when you ignore that playbook and lean into experimentation. Founder Terry Gesualdo isn’t approaching amplification or speaker design from a traditional standpoint, he’s part of a growing group of builders exploring open designs and current drive amplification as an alternative to the usual voltage driven norm.

I met Gesualdo on the shuttle ride over to the show, which feels about right. This isn’t a polished, corporate origin story, it’s the familiar path of someone who started by modifying gear, then building his own tube amps for himself, then for friends and family. The difference here is that he didn’t stop at tweaking circuits. He kept pushing until the results looked and sounded like something entirely his own.

Current Drive Tube Amplification: Why La Dolce Audio Isn’t Following the Script

Having built a few tube amps, I’m always curious to see what others are doing, and Terry Gesualdo is not following the usual path. Most of his designs are single ended pentode circuits, not triodes, and not push pull designs chasing more voltage swing. That choice alone puts him in a different lane than a lot of tube builders.

Where things really diverge is the move to current drive. Most amplifiers are voltage driven. That’s the standard approach across both solid state and tube designs. Current drive shows up more often inside DACs where signal levels are extremely small, and occasionally in headphone amplifiers, but rarely in loudspeaker systems where current demands are far higher.

The idea behind current drive is fairly straightforward. By controlling current instead of voltage, the amplifier reduces the impact of back EMF from the driver. That back EMF is the voice coil behaving like a generator as it moves through the magnetic field, feeding energy back into the amplifier. Reduce that interaction and, in theory, you reduce distortion and improve control over the driver.

It’s not a new concept, but it’s one that almost nobody is applying to loudspeakers in this way, especially with tube amplification. That’s what makes what La Dolce Audio is doing worth paying attention to.

Control Over Harmonics Instead of Chasing Purity

Circling back to that idea of ignoring the usual playbook, another aspect that reinforces how La Dolce Audio is taking a different path is the near exclusive use of pentode tubes instead of the more common triodes. Triodes are the simplest form of amplification with three active elements, anode, cathode, and grid. Fewer parts in the signal path is why many listeners and designers gravitate toward them. The assumption is less complexity means lower distortion and fewer unwanted artifacts.

But that’s only part of the story. Harmonic distortion doesn’t disappear just because the circuit is simpler. It just changes character. And not all harmonics are a problem. A lot of what people describe as tube warmth comes from second and third order harmonics, which many listeners actually prefer.

Terry Gesualdo leans into that reality rather than trying to avoid it. By using pentodes, which add additional control elements beyond what a triode offers, he can shape those harmonic structures instead of accepting whatever the circuit gives him. That includes adjusting the balance between second and third order harmonics and even their phase relationships.

It’s a different mindset. Instead of chasing the lowest possible distortion number, the goal is control over how that distortion presents itself, and giving the listener a way to fine tune the result.

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Some will find that approach a bit sacrilegious. There’s a large part of the hobby focused on removing as much of this behavior as possible, chasing lower distortion numbers and cleaner measurements. That’s not the goal here.

La Dolce Audio leans into a different philosophy. “If it sounds good, do it” is more than a slogan. It reflects the idea that listening is subjective and that not every system needs to be locked into a single interpretation of neutrality. By giving users control over harmonic structure, the design puts some of that decision making back in the listener’s hands.

UA2.5 and UA2.5M: Modular Power and User Tunability

ua-25m-angle — La Dolce Audio UA2.5M monoblock

La Dolce Audio offers two amplifier paths built around the same core ideas but with different roles. The UA2.5 is a dual channel amplifier rated at roughly 3 to 5 watts depending on tube selection, and it’s where most of the flexibility lives. With 24 possible sound signatures, it gives the user direct control over how the amplifier presents harmonic content and overall character.

The UA2.5M monoblocks step things up in output, delivering around 9 watts per channel, but they take a more focused approach. They are designed to be paired with the UA2.5, which handles preamp duties and sound shaping. As a result, the monoblocks do not include the same tuning controls, focusing instead on providing additional power while maintaining the same underlying design philosophy.

HPA2.3 Headphone Adapter

hpa-23-ua-25-front — La Dolce Audio UA2.5 Tube Amplifier (top) with HPA2.3 Headphone Adapter (bottom)

Alongside its amplifiers, La Dolce Audio offers the HPA2.3 headphone “amplifier,” although that label needs a bit of clarification. It’s not an amplifier in the traditional sense. The HPA2.3 is a passive device designed to work with the UA2.5, relying on it for signal processing and gain. In practice, it converts the UA2.5 into a headphone amplifier rather than operating as one on its own.

That means the HPA2.3 can drive a wide range of headphones depending on how the UA2.5 is configured, but it cannot function independently. No preamp, no sound.

Pricing reflects that modular approach. The UA2.5, which serves as the foundation of the system, runs between $1,799 and $2,499 depending on configuration and tube selection. The UA2.5M monoblocks are $1,999 each, and the HPA2.3 adds another $599. A full system lands in the $3,500 range, depending on how far you go down the rabbit hole.

The Bottom Line

La Dolce Audio isn’t trying to fit into the usual mold, and that’s the point. In a category where a lot of designs feel like small variations on the same theme, this is a reminder that there are still different ways to approach amplification and system building.

Beyond the amplifiers, the partnership with ABX Audiophiles on Discord to offer open baffle speaker kits adds another layer. It invites listeners to get involved, not just as buyers but as participants, with a community that shares ideas, solves problems, and pushes designs forward together. We’ll have more on that ABX side of things in a forthcoming article.

It won’t be for everyone. If you want plug and play simplicity, this isn’t it. But if you’re the type who likes to understand what your system is doing and shape it to your preferences, La Dolce offers something most companies don’t. A system you can actually interact with, not just listen to.

For more information: ladolceaudio.com

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Hisense U7SG TV Review (2026): Better Design, Great Value

Published

1 hour ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Unlike previous years in what TV nerds like me call the “brightness wars,” the U7SG doesn’t outblast its predecessor, but it’s not a problem. It gets around three times as bright as anything you can stream (which is naturally capped due to compression), and has enough firepower for all but the flashiest 4K HDR Blu-rays. Its color processing shows a little more restraint than in previous models. It’s not quite what I’d call “accurate to the director’s intent,” like the best TVs I test, but it does keep itself from blasting your eyeballs most of the time.

The high brightness is matched by deep black levels, without much of the “blooming” or “haloing” around bright objects that can dilute the contrast of many budget-friendly TVs. It’s not as striking as OLED TVs, which can control each of their millions of pixels on demand, but it’ll wow you in deep space scenes just the same. I was pleased that the TV’s odd local dimming issue didn’t crop up in real-world content, but the picture does tend to flatten shadows in dark scenes more than expected, even as the matte-like screen does a good job keeping reflections at bay.

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There are some other notable flaws. Moving off to the TV’s side in my easy chair led to dimmer colors, washed-out contrast between the brightest and darkest images, and uneven backlighting, aka the “dirty-screen effect.” That stood out most in the green backdrop of the Masters on Sunday as Rory McIlroy held on for the win. It wasn’t an issue when viewing head-on, but even then, I noticed some dingy yellow lines along the screen’s left and right sides with light backgrounds. (I may not have noticed them much if I hadn’t been bombarding this TV with test content first.)

The U7SG still doesn’t feel quite like a premium model. But it’s a very clear, bright TV, and will feel more like it’s worth the money once RGB shows up on other Hisense models and the price on this one drops. If you want something brighter than a similarly priced OLED like the LG B5, the U7 is a great buy and has a few good upgrades over last year’s U75QG.

We’ll know more about the 2026 TV landscape once the new RGB TVs have landed, but if you need a powerful, classy-looking TV before then, the U7SG should be on your list.

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Opinion: Whither Microsoft? A view from the neighborhood

Published

2 hours ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Microsoft’s Redmond campus. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)

Feroze Motafram is an operations consultant based in Sammamish, Wash., and founder of Avestan LLC. This piece is adapted from a LinkedIn post.

Someone asked me recently what made me think about writing this. The trigger, I told them, was simpler than you might expect.

I live in Sammamish, in the shadow of Microsoft’s looming presence. Microsoft employees are my neighbors, my social circle, the people I run into at weekend gatherings. Over time I noticed that conversations with them had a distinctive gravitational pull — always inward, toward reorgs, internal politics, who reports to whom now, who’s ascendant, who’s out. Customers were rarely part of the conversation. This usually means navigating the organization has become more consuming than building anything within it.

Microsoft’s stock decline and the softening of real estate in this corridor (both affecting me personally) were the prompts to write it down. The material was already sitting in front of me.

I should be clear about what I am and am not. My formal training is in electrical engineering. The primary instruments of my early career were set squares and slide rules, which will tell you something about both my vintage and my domain. I have spent the intervening decades as a senior executive at Fortune 100 companies and, more recently, as an operations and supply chain consultant. I build and fix things: supply chains, organizations that have lost their way. What I can offer is not insider knowledge. It is 30 years of pattern recognition, applied to what is visible from where I stand.

This is the lens I am bringing. Take it for what it is worth.

The market is asking a question

Microsoft stock declined roughly 25% in Q1 2026, representing its worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial crisis despite blockbuster results. The market may overreact, but it is not stupid. When the stock of a company of this scale underperforms that of its peer group by double digits, the question worth asking is not “is this a buying opportunity.” The question is: what does the market understand about this organization that the headlines don’t capture?

Part of the answer is visible in the financials. A striking portion of Microsoft’s forward revenue backlog is tied to a single counterparty, OpenAI, an unprofitable startup that has since signed a landmark cloud agreement with Amazon, directly challenging the Azure exclusivity Microsoft had treated as a cornerstone of its AI strategy. Meanwhile, Microsoft is building its own internal AI model as a hedge, an expensive bet layered on top of an already expensive bet.

But the part that does not show up in an earnings report may be the more consequential story. That is what I want to offer here.

The monopoly dividend, and its hidden cost

For the better part of three decades, Microsoft enjoyed something very few companies in history have had: a captive market. Enterprise customers did not use Office because they loved it. They used it because leaving was more painful than staying. That distinction between loyalty and lock-in matters enormously, and it is one that organizations rarely make honestly about themselves.

When your customers cannot leave, the feedback loops that drive genuine innovation go silent. The tendency is to stop asking “what does the customer need?” and start asking “what can we get away with?” Processes multiply. Committees proliferate. Bureaucracy thrives. The organization optimizes for defending territory rather than creating it.

This is not a character failing. It occurs insidiously and unconsciously. It is an entirely rational organizational response to a monopolistic competitive environment. But it leaves a mark. And that mark does not disappear simply because the competitive environment changes.

Satya Nadella earned his laurels, but the work isn’t finished

The Azure pivot was a genuine strategic achievement, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s cultural reset from “know-it-all” to “learn-it-all,” as he framed it, was real and necessary. The stack-ranking era that preceded him did generational damage to Microsoft’s ability to collaborate, retain talent, and take meaningful risks. He arrested that decline and deserves full credit for it.

But here one must tread carefully. Stack ranking was formally abolished in the final months of Steve Ballmer’s tenure. The announcement was celebrated, the headlines were laudatory. What is rather more interesting is what one hears in conversations since. Ask Microsoft employees about the performance review system that replaced it, and the response is rarely enthusiastic. Whether the underlying mechanics genuinely changed, or whether the organization simply learned to dress the same instincts in more palatable language, is a question I cannot answer from the outside. What I can observe is that the people doing the work don’t appear to believe the answer is reassuring.

Cultural transformation in a 220,000-person organization moves at a glacial pace. You can change the language in a decade. Changing the instincts takes considerably longer. One has to wonder how many of the engineers and managers who learned to survive the Ballmer years by navigating politics rather than building products have since moved on, and how many remain, in leadership positions, still oriented by instinct toward self-protection over bold action.

What I can observe is the output. Copilot (inarguably Microsoft’s most strategically critical product) has converted just 15 million paid subscribers from a captive base of 450 million Microsoft 365 users. That is 3.3%. When your own customers will not buy what you are selling at scale, it is worth asking whether the product is genuinely solving a problem or simply a feature in search of a use case.

Microsoft’s internal preoccupations do not stay inside the building. I have observed versions of this dynamic before, most vividly when I lived in Brookfield, Wis., in the orbit of GE Healthcare’s then-headquarters. But what I observe in this corridor is of a different magnitude. It is not just politics that dominates the conversation. It is the organization itself — its structure, its hierarchies, its shifting priorities — that has become the primary subject of intellectual energy.

The campus, in a very real sense, has become the product. When navigating the organization becomes more consuming than building anything within it, that is not a criticism of the individuals. It is a diagnosis of the system they are operating inside.

The human capital story no one is writing

There is a dimension to this that the financial press has largely missed, and I raise it because I see it in my community every day… including, in ways I did not anticipate, in my own backyard.

A significant proportion of Microsoft’s engineering talent (and the engineering talent of the broader Seattle tech corridor) consists of H-1B visa holders. These are exceptional professionals: highly educated, deeply skilled, often carrying decade-long career investments in the United States. They have built lives here. Many have children born here. They have been, in many cases, the intellectual engine of the products Microsoft is depending on to compete in the AI era.

That population is operating under a level of personal anxiety that is, in my observation, without modern precedent. Travel advisories from their own employers. A $100,000 petition fee for new visa applications. Proposed rule changes touching birthright citizenship. A policy environment that sends a clear and unambiguous message: your presence here is conditional, negotiable, and subject to revision without notice.

The behavioral consequence of that anxiety is not visible in a quarterly earnings report. But it is real and consequential. People operating under existential personal uncertainty do not take professional risks. They do not champion the bold new initiative. They do not volunteer for the high-visibility project that could fail. They execute reliably on what already exists and protect their position. In an organization that already has a cultural predisposition toward risk aversion, this compounds the pathology in ways that will show up — perhaps not this quarter, but in the product decisions made over the next eighteen months.

The effects are visible beyond the campus walls. Conversations with real estate professionals in this corridor tell a consistent story: demand from this community, which has historically been among the most financially capable buyers in the region, has softened measurably. Not because the finances have changed, but because the horizon has. When you are uncertain whether your visa will be renewed, or whether your children’s citizenship status may be revisited, you do not buy a house.

The softening of demand is not merely an abstraction for those of us who live here. But the more significant consequence is not measured in property values. It is measured in the quality of risk-taking inside those campuses. And risk-taking is precisely what Microsoft needs most right now.

The case for optimism, and why it requires more than patience

None of this is to suggest Microsoft is broken beyond repair. Betting against Microsoft has historically been an enterprise for the foolhardy. The balance sheet remains stellar. The enterprise relationships are genuinely extraordinary. Ripping out Azure, Teams, and the M365 stack is not a decision any CIO makes lightly. The installed-base moat is real, and should not be underestimated by anyone, least of all an operations consultant from the suburbs.

What I would offer, more modestly, is this: the bull case requires more than a great balance sheet and sticky products. It requires an organization capable of genuine innovation at speed. Which in turn requires a culture that rewards risk, retains its most creative talent, and executes with urgency. Whether Microsoft can summon those qualities at this particular moment is a question I cannot answer with conviction.

What I can say is that the market, which is considerably more qualified than I am, appears to be asking the same question. The valuation has compressed to levels not seen in a decade, briefly falling below the S&P 500 for the first time in a generation. That is not the posture of a market betting with conviction that the answer is yes.

Perhaps it should be. I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that the signals visible from outside the building — from the neighborhood, from weekend gatherings, from the casual conversations — are worth paying attention to. They usually are.

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Humanoid robot beats human half-marathon world record by 7 minutes at Beijing race with 112 teams

Published

2 hours ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

A humanoid robot named Lightning completed the Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating the human world record by nearly seven minutes. The robot, built by Shenzhen Honor Smart Technology Development Co., navigated the 21-kilometre course autonomously, without remote control, using multi-sensor fusion and real-time decision-making algorithms. A second Lightning unit, this one remotely controlled, crossed the finish line even faster at 48 minutes and 19 seconds. The human half-marathon world record is 57 minutes and 20 seconds, set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon on 8 March.

The robots and the roughly 12,000 human runners followed the same route but competed in separate lanes. The human race was won by Zhao Haijie of China in 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds. The robot race was won by a machine that stands 169 centimetres tall, has an effective leg length of 95 centimetres designed to mimic elite human runners, generates 400 newton-metres of peak torque, and uses a proprietary liquid cooling system with a heat exchange flow rate exceeding four litres per minute, technology borrowed from Honor’s smartphone division.

The scale of the event

This was the second edition of the Robot World Humanoid Robot Games Half-Marathon, co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal People’s Government and China Media Group. The first, held on the same date last year, was riddled with mishaps. Only six of 21 robotic runners completed the course. Several stumbled, careened out of control, or simply lay down at the starting line. The winner, a Tiangong Ultra robot, finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds.

The 2026 edition was a different event in almost every respect. One hundred and twelve teams from 26 brands entered, fielding more than 300 individual robots, including five international teams from Germany, France, and Brazil. Roughly 40% of the teams competed in the autonomous navigation category, in which robots must navigate the course without human input. Remote-controlled teams had their net times multiplied by a 1.2 coefficient, a 20% penalty designed to encourage autonomous capability. All three podium finishers in the autonomous category were Honor robots, and all three posted times faster than the human world record.

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The improvement from 2025 to 2026, from six finishers out of 21 to more than 100 teams competing with autonomous navigation, represents the kind of year-over-year progress that makes the event significant beyond spectacle. Lightning still collided with a barricade near the finish line and fell, requiring staff to help it back up before it completed the race. Another robot fell at the start line. But the failures were exceptions rather than the norm, a reversal from last year.

Who built the winner

Honor, the smartphone manufacturer spun off from Huawei in 2020, is the first major phone company to enter the humanoid robotics market. It unveiled its humanoid robot programme at Mobile World Congress on 1 March and committed $10 billion over five years to AI development. The company says Lightning’s running speed of four metres per second is 14% faster than Boston Dynamics’ Atlas. The entire development-to-marathon-entry process took one year.

Du Xiaodi, an Honor engineer on the winning team, said the competition’s value lies in technology transfer: “Looking ahead, some of these technologies might be transferred to other areas. For example, structural reliability and liquid-cooling technology could be applied in future industrial scenarios.” The race functions as a forcing function for locomotion, balance, navigation, and endurance, the same capabilities required for factory floors, construction sites, and eventually domestic environments.

China’s humanoid robot industry

The marathon is a showcase for an industry that China is building with the kind of coordinated state investment it previously applied to electric vehicles and solar panels. The 15th Five-Year Plan, covering 2026 to 2030, elevates robotics and “embodied intelligence” to one of the country’s top ten “new industry tracks.” The government has committed a one-trillion-yuan ($138 billion) state-backed fund to humanoid robots, industrial automation, and embodied AI. In February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveiled the “Humanoid Robot and Embodied Intelligence Standard System,” drafted by more than 120 research institutions and manufacturers, with a roadmap to push Chinese standards into ISO and IEC international adoption by 2028.

MIIT describes humanoid robots as “the next groundbreaking innovation following computers, smartphones, and new-energy vehicles.” The industry is projected to surpass 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in scale by the end of this year. Chinese companies already dominate production. AGIBOT shipped more than 5,000 units in 2025. Unitree Robotics shipped 5,500. UBTech shipped more than 1,000 and plans to reach 5,000 this year and 10,000 in 2027. Chinese firms accounted for nearly 90% of global humanoid robot shipments last year. By comparison, Boston Dynamics, Figure AI, and Agility Robotics each shipped approximately 150 units.

The gap between running and usefulness

The question the marathon raises is whether speed on a road translates into capability in a factory or a home. Western humanoid robot companies, including Tesla with Optimus, Figure AI, and those supplying BMW, have emphasised dexterity and manipulation: picking up objects, assembling components, navigating cluttered indoor environments. Chinese companies have invested heavily in bipedal locomotion and speed, which produces more dramatic demonstrations but addresses a narrower slice of the problem.

The global humanoid robot market is projected to reach somewhere between $6.5 billion and $15 billion by 2030, depending on the research firm, with Goldman Sachs estimating $38 billion by 2035. The spread in projections reflects genuine uncertainty about how quickly robots that can run a half marathon will learn to do things that people will pay for. Industrial deployment is advancing: Figure 02 completed an 11-month pilot at a BMW plant, moving more than 90,000 components. But the gap between a controlled factory deployment and the kind of general-purpose humanoid robot that China showcased at its Spring Festival Gala remains wide.

Lightning’s 50-minute half-marathon is a genuine engineering achievement. A robot that navigates 21 kilometres autonomously, maintains balance at 25 kilometres per hour, manages thermal loads through liquid cooling, and recovers from a collision with a barricade has demonstrated capabilities that did not exist in any humanoid platform a year ago. The question is not whether the technology is impressive. It is whether the country investing $138 billion in it will find applications that justify the spending before the rest of the world catches up on a different approach to the same problem.

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Chinese Automaker Seres Gets Patent Approved for a Toilet That Slides Out from Under a Passenger Seat

Published

2 hours ago

20 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Aito Seres Slide-Out Toilet In-Car
Photo credit: Autoblog
Seres developed an in-car toilet design that allows the system to fit inside an electric vehicle without taking up additional room. Engineers put the entire assembly on a movable rail connecting to the seat frame. When it is not needed, the toilet simply disappears beneath the floor. All it takes is a simple nudge or a whispered order, and it appears like a drawer.

Voice commands activate the system with a simple phrase that initiates the toilet function. Once you get access to it, the rest of the interior remains largely unchanged. A built-in fan draws in air and expels foul air through an exhaust pipe. Pee and other waste enter a tank, which must be manually emptied when you get at your destination. They include a small heating element inside that helps to dry everything up, making cleanup easier.

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The beauty of it is that when it’s not in use, nothing sticks out, allowing you to use the space for seating or storage. The patent filing cites extended journeys, camping vacations, and any time spent living in your car as the primary reasons for this functionality. Traffic delays that used to force you to make painful decisions are no longer as inconvenient. Seres already manufactures automobiles with features meant to make your daily commute easier. They compete in a market where each new model strives to be unique. This invention fits nicely into that approach by figuring out how to transform something you use every day into another part of the car.

Aito Seres Slide-Out Toilet In-Car
There are still several technicalities to be sorted out before anyone can install this system in a real car. There is concern that scents may remain if the fan or seals fail to function properly when the unit is frequently utilized. Emptying the tank is also a bother, whether at the gas station or at home. If you’re sharing a car with a group of people, you might be afraid to take turns in such a small place, and there’s also the question of how well it will withstand all of the road’s bumps.

Seres hasn’t said whether they intend to manufacture any automobiles with this system in them. Patents don’t always come to fruition, therefore there’s a high risk this idea will go unnoticed. Nonetheless, it’s a creative solution to a problem that almost every driver has encountered at some point. If it ever gets it out of the design phase, road vacations may not be such a burden.
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