President Donald Trump restarted the Iran conflict with days of missile strikes, and US intelligence officials now estimate the total military cost of the war for the Pentagon could exceed $100 billion, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.

The officials were tracking the total cost of Operation Epic Fury to be in the $50 to $100 billion range at the end of May, dovetailing with confidential congressional estimates putting the costs to date at around $80 billion.

The Trump administration has not disclosed its cost estimates for the Iran war. In June the White House made a request for $88 billion to cover some of the costs of the war, but even that is an undercounting, the people say.

Part of the reason why a final cost is not available is that the Pentagon is still deciding whether to replace all the aircraft destroyed or damaged beyond repair during the conflict, the people say.

If the Pentagon decides not to replace certain aircraft, defense officials have told lawmakers, they will not request money for it—and therefore not factor that into the total cost of the war, the people say.

Presented with a detailed breakdown of this reporting, a War Department official told Inner Loop: “We have nothing further to announce at the moment.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a report on May 20 compiled using only publicly available reporting that the US had lost at least 17 manned aircraft and 25 drones since the start of the conflict.

The CRS report also showed the US had been losing an increasing number of drones, which are not cheap to replace. Among the 25 drones lost was an MQ-4C Triton, a high-altitude Navy surveillance aircraft that costs more than $600 million per airframe.

The cost of repairing US bases in the region, some of which sustained heavy damage from Iran firing retaliatory missiles and one-way attack drones in response to US strikes, will also be high.

Defense officials have told lawmakers behind closed doors they have not accounted for the costs of repair—and may never do so—if the US ultimately decides to shutter those bases because they are too vulnerable to Iranian attacks, the officials say.

Iran has been able to repeatedly hit several key bases in the Middle East in retaliatory strikes, including the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet at Naval Support Activity, Bahrain, which the Pentagon has not publicly acknowledged.

The only actual cost provided publicly by a top defense official has been from then acting Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst, who testified in an oversight hearing in May that the cost of the war had risen to roughly $29 billion.

On Tuesday, at his nomination hearing to permanently become comptroller, Hurst declined to provide an updated figure but said the $29 billion was mainly munitions and the costs like fuel associated with having two US aircraft carriers steaming around the Middle East.

Operation “Gold Eagle” Has Arrived

The Trump administration on Tuesday launched a clearinghouse that will try to identify and patch any software vulnerabilities before malicious actors can hack them with the most powerful AI models.

An administration official told Inner Loop the clearinghouse, named “Gold Eagle,” will be run by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which will itself use AI models that are not publicly available, to identify vulnerabilities.

It marks the first major implementation of Trump’s June 2 executive order that aims to create a framework to oversee the rapidly growing threat of advanced AI models.

The new flagship headphones blend Bose audio and big bass.

Hardware and features

On paper, the Crusher 1080 checks just about every flagship box. There’s the aforementioned ANC along with wear detection, a claimed 60 hours of battery life, fast charging, multipoint Bluetooth, Auracast and an EQ with customizable controls via an app. The over-ear design is reminiscent of older Crusher models, with a reassuring, but hefty build and an understated aesthetic that feels a bit 2010’s in a non-intentional way. There are some nice metal accents in the headband which make it feel premium, but overall it’s a larger, more robust headset compared to the sculpted lines of current Sony or Bose models.

James Trew for Engadget

Skullcandy hasn’t really ventured into the realm of gesture and touch controls, and they remain absent here. The physical buttons are all quite large which generally makes them easy to locate. The biggest is the dedicated haptic bass dial, which is so large it’s part of the aesthetic. Nestled beside that is a switch for toggling between ANC and transparency mode. This pressable switch also cycles through listening presets (Music, Podcast, Movie and Custom). These two controls are close enough to each other that I often accidentally deactivate ANC when I want to adjust the haptic bass. The right-hand side has a mini joystick style control for volume and media, plus a button for power/pairing. The Crusher 1080 also supports regular 3.5mm and USB-C wired connections.

With 50 hours of battery with ANC active or 60 without, the Crusher 1080 is already pretty longevous. I still appreciate the fast-charging feature as quick top-ups can provide enough juice for a long commute or cafe work session on the occasions you forgot to plug them in.

Who’s the Bose?

Noise cancellation

James Trew for Engadget

Crushing it

The competition

Wrap-up

James Trew

Edifier has expanded its MR Studio Monitor Series for 2026 with the new MR4.5, a near-field active loudspeaker designed for content creators, musicians, producers, and desktop listeners who want greater flexibility without moving into the larger and more expensive MR5.

Positioned between the MR4 and flagship MR5, the Edifier MR4.5 combines studio-focused sound reproduction with wireless connectivity, customizable tuning, and a compact design suitable for home studios, editing suites, gaming systems, and desktop audio setups.

The new model joins the MR3, MR4, and MR5 to complete Edifier’s current studio monitor lineup, offering buyers another option in a category where accuracy increasingly has to share desk space with convenience.

Related Reviews:

Features and Connectivity

Two Speakers: The Edifier MR4.5 includes two speakers. The active speaker serves as the system hub, handling connectivity, amplification, and signal distribution for both channels. No external amplifier, stereo receiver, or home theater receiver is required. The passive speaker connects to the active speaker using the supplied cable, which carries both power and audio signals.

Adaptable Setup: The MR4.5 includes acoustic tuning and desktop compensation controls that allow users to adjust its performance for different rooms, speaker positions, and listening distances. These controls can be useful when the speakers are placed on a desk, close to a wall, or in a small home studio where placement options may be limited.

Wired and Wireless Connectivity: The MR4.5 supports both wired connections and wireless streaming. Bluetooth 6.0 includes LDAC support for higher-resolution wireless audio, while multipoint connectivity allows the speakers to remain connected to more than one compatible device. This makes it easier to switch between a computer, smartphone, tablet, or other source without repeatedly disconnecting and pairing devices.

Bi-Amplified Speaker Design: The MR4.5 uses a bi-amplified design with an active crossover that divides the audio signal between the mid-bass driver and tweeter. Edifier designed the system to provide a balanced transition between the drivers and accurate sound reproduction for music production, video editing, gaming, and everyday desktop listening.

Extended Frequency Response: The MR4.5 has a specified frequency response of 50 Hz to 40 kHz. Edifier has tuned the system for a neutral, transparent presentation intended to reproduce recordings without excessive tonal coloration.

Dimpled Tweeter Waveguide: The MR4.5 uses a dimpled tweeter waveguide designed to improve high-frequency extension and clarity while creating a wider listening area. This should provide more consistent performance when the listener moves away from the central listening position.

80 Watts of Total Output: The MR4.5 delivers 80 watts RMS of total system output and a maximum sound pressure level of 98 dB at one meter. Although primarily intended for near-field listening, it should also provide sufficient output for some mid-field setups and medium-sized rooms.

Hi-Res Audio Support: The MR4.5 uses an analog front end and Class D amplifiers and supports digital audio signals up to 24-bit/96 kHz. Wireless playback is available through Bluetooth with LDAC support. Under compatible conditions, LDAC can transmit audio at up to 990 kbps and support signals up to 24-bit/96 kHz.

Wired Connection Options: Balanced XLR and TRS inputs allow the MR4.5 to connect to professional audio interfaces, mixers, and other studio equipment. RCA and 3.5 mm auxiliary inputs accommodate common consumer audio sources, while a headphone output supports private listening.

Bluetooth Multipoint: Bluetooth 6.0 provides a stable wireless connection, while Bluetooth Multipoint allows two devices to remain connected simultaneously. Users can switch between sources without disconnecting and re-pairing each time.

Room Acoustic Compensation: Rear knobs and the EDIFIER ConneX app provide multiple settings for room acoustic compensation, allowing you to adapt to different room modes and achieve the optimal listening experience.

Edifier MR Studio Monitors Comparison

The Bottom Line 

Although Edifier has enjoyed success with its MR Studio Monitor Series, a substantial gap remained between the MR4 and MR5 in both price and features. The MR4.5 fills that space by adding Bluetooth, LDAC, balanced XLR connectivity, room compensation, app-based adjustments, and an active bi-amplified crossover—features not offered by the more basic MR4.

The MR4.5 also provides a logical step down from the MR5, which uses a larger three-way driver configuration, a tri-amplified active crossover, and 110 watts of total output. Those additional capabilities may make the MR5 better suited to larger rooms and more demanding studio applications, but they may be unnecessary for desktop users and smaller production spaces.

The MR4.5 does not include HDMI ARC or eARC, USB audio, optical connectivity, or a phono input. Buyers who require HDMI eARC, USB-C, and optical inputs should consider Edifier’s M90 active speakers. The Onkyo Creator Series GX-30ARC goes further by combining HDMI ARC, USB-C, optical, and a line/phono input for direct connection to a turntable with a moving-magnet cartridge.

Price & Availability

Related Reading

For years, musicians have said AI song generators fed on their work without asking. A hacker just opened the black box and showed them exactly how.

Leaked source code from Suno, one of the biggest AI music tools, tells the story. It trained its model by scraping millions of songs and lyrics from across the internet. 404 Media got the data from a hacker who breached the company.

The haul is enormous. One file, labelled “youtube_music,” had logged more than 2 million clips. Others list tens of thousands of hours pulled from Deezer, Genius, and the stock library Pond5. In all, it adds up to decades of recorded music.

Ripping the vocals

The code is specific about what it wanted. To capture clean voices, it hunted for a cappella versions of songs on YouTube. To slip past YouTube’s defences, Suno routed its scraping through a proxy firm called Bright Data. It also trawled 420,000 podcasts, chasing roughly a million hours of speech.

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None of this is entirely new. In court, Suno has already admitted training on “essentially all music files of reasonable quality” on the open web. But the leak shows the machinery behind that line.

The record labels have long alleged as much. Suing Suno, the RIAA said the company copied “decades worth of the world’s most popular sound recordings,” and did it by “stream ripping” from YouTube, dodging the platform’s copy protections.

‘Fair use,’ Suno says

Suno’s defence, like most AI firms, is fair use. It says it trains on “publicly available music files” and builds its models for “original creation.” It even leaves artist names out of its training data, to discourage copycats.

On the breach, the company played it down. It called the November 2025 incident “limited” and “quickly contained,” said the exposed code was outdated, and insisted no sensitive data leaked. It does not hold customers’ full card numbers, it added, and it decided it did not need to tell users at all.

The hacker, who goes by ellie.191, tells a different story. They said they got in through the Shai-Hulud worm, grabbed an employee’s credentials, and pulled customer emails, phone numbers, and Stripe records. Suno never warned those users, some of them told 404 Media. The motive? “I like to hack anything and everything.”

The bigger fight

The timing matters. Some labels have already made peace, striking licensing deals with AI firms rather than fighting on. Sony is still in court, with a pivotal fair-use ruling due this summer.

Meanwhile artists keep saying the deals do little for them. Suno’s chief executive, Mikey Shulman, once said most people “don’t enjoy the majority of the time they spend making music.” The people whose music trained his model might disagree.

A team of ten domino builders spent many days organizing over 30,000 tiles into a gigantic three-dimensional pyramid. Then, on one fateful day and time, all of those tiles came tumbling down in an incredible display. The FALLDOWN Domino Team, led by Steven Price of Sprice Machines, completed the feat on June 20th, 2026, in a gym in Garden City, Michigan. Guinness World Records has now taken a look at the achievement and made it official: the 3D pyramid is the new record holder after 29,193 dominoes came crashing down in one spectacular chain reaction.


The pyramid was the centerpiece of a much larger installation that included no fewer than 123,456 dominoes in total. So how did the team bring this mammoth of an installation to life? They created a variety of incredibly huge ordinary goods, like giant paperclips, enormous friendship bracelets, massive bonsai trees, school supplies, and even a rubber ducky that appears out of nowhere. This all led to a series of chain reactions that snaked through the entire device and fed into the pyramid, giving the record attempt one more push. Because it was so clean and white, a burst of multi-colored dominoes pouring up the side of a building was rather beautiful, while yet meeting all of the criteria for a successful 3D pyramid.

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Building one of these things (a 3D pyramid, as the foundation must be just right or you’ll end up with a pile of dominoes on the floor) needs near-perfectionism. If you get it wrong, you’ll lose everything before you’ve even dropped the last domino. This one’s base was a 35×35 grid of dominoes stacked in layers to form a pointed apex. To get here, they approximately doubled the number of dominoes Andreas Zauner managed in 2020 in a similar challenge. This required a lot more tiles and a lot of rigorous engineering to ensure that everything stayed up during the construction.

Steven Price has set multiple records with his FALLDOWN crew, including the longest domino wall and the largest 2D pyramid, to name a few. So this time, they decided to try with 3D pyramids. Oh, and they were going to use a special mechanism to bring the whole thing down, but Guinness eventually convinced them to just let the dominoes do their thing. That’s right, in order for it to be officially recorded, the entire process must begin with a traditional domino-to-domino touch.
[Source]

What a difference eight days makes.

On July 7, Dynaudio announced that it would cease commercial operations in North America and permanently close its U.S. subsidiary in the fall of 2026. The Danish loudspeaker manufacturer said it was redirecting its market development efforts toward Europe and Asia, despite acknowledging that North American sales had grown in recent years.

The announcement sent shockwaves through the high-end audio industry. Dynaudio had just shown major new products at AXPONA 2026 and HIGH END Vienna, including the $7,000 Legend bookshelf loudspeaker and Symphony Opus One immersive audio system. eCoustics had to cancel multiple forthcoming Dynaudio reviews, including our planned evaluation of the Legend.

Now Dynaudio’s parent company, Goer Dynamics, has announced a strategic partnership with IMAX and IMAX China to create what the companies describe as the world’s first IMAX branded in-vehicle entertainment system.

The system is expected to enter commercial production by the end of 2026 and will initially be marketed to premium automakers in China, although none have been named at this time.

North America may no longer justify the cost of maintaining a traditional high-end loudspeaker business. China’s enormous electric-vehicle market, apparently, is another matter.

What Are IMAX and Goer Dynamics Building?

The proposed system combines an IMAX certified 4K HDR flip-down display with an IMAX developed multidimensional acoustic architecture.

The large display will use custom image processing and ambient-light adaptation intended to preserve picture quality as conditions inside and outside the vehicle change. That matters in a car, where sunlight can turn an otherwise respectable display into an expensive black mirror before you have reached the end of the driveway.

Goer Dynamics and IMAX also promise high dynamic range audio, substantial low-frequency output and controlled bass distortion. Modular configurations will allow automakers to adapt the system to different vehicle platforms, cabin layouts, speaker counts and trim levels.

The companies are positioning the system primarily for autonomous vehicles, where the cabin can become what the automotive industry insists on calling a “third living space.” That phrase sounds considerably more appealing than “the place where you spend three hours moving six miles on the Garden State Parkway.” As someone who has spent enough time trapped on New Jersey highways to watch the extended edition of Lawrence of Arabia, I understand the opportunity.

The Dynaudio Connection

The partnership is between IMAX and Goer Dynamics, not directly between IMAX and Dynaudio.

Goer Dynamics was founded in 2020 under China’s Goer Group and owns and operates Dynaudio, XEO and Libratone, and also holds a minority stake in fellow Danish high-end manufacturer Gryphon Audio Designs. Its businesses cover home audio, professional studio monitoring, automotive systems, consumer electronics and audio-visual technology. The company claims to have supplied in-vehicle entertainment systems for nearly three million new-energy vehicles.

Dynaudio became part of the wider Goertek organization when the Chinese electronics manufacturer acquired a majority interest in the Danish company in 2014. Dynaudio said at the time that the acquisition would give it access to additional engineering expertise in electronics, wireless technology and manufacturing.

Automotive audio is not a side project that appeared after someone discovered a large dashboard and an empty licensing agreement. Dynaudio has worked with Volvo, Volkswagen and Bugatti, and more recently developed premium systems for Chinese automaker BYD. The BYD Seal, for example, offers a 12-speaker Dynaudio system rated at 775 watts, while the Yangwang U8 luxury electric SUV uses a 22-speaker Dynaudio Evidence system.

That history gives Goer Dynamics considerable automotive acoustic experience, even though the announcement does not confirm whether Dynaudio engineers, drivers, DSP technology or branding will appear in the finished IMAX system.

Why China Comes First

China is the logical starting point.

More than 13 million electric cars were sold there in 2025, representing approximately six out of every ten EVs sold worldwide. The International Energy Agency expects electric vehicles to approach 60% of Chinese new-car sales during 2026.

Chinese manufacturers are also competing aggressively over cabin technology. Large displays, premium audio, karaoke, gaming, streaming video, reclining seats and smart-cockpit features have become important differentiators, especially in higher-priced electric vehicles.

Neither company has identified a launch partner, although Goer Dynamics’ existing relationships offer some obvious possibilities. Dynaudio currently supplies systems for BYD vehicles including the Seal and the premium Yangwang U8, while Goer Dynamics has also announced cooperation with Hongqi and Voyah. Those brands would be logical candidates for the first IMAX-equipped vehicles, but there is no confirmation that any has signed on.

For Dynaudio’s parent company, the potential scale is vastly different from selling $7,000 bookshelf loudspeakers through a shrinking network of specialist North American dealers.

That does not make Dynaudio’s withdrawal from North America any less disappointing. It does help explain where the company’s owners believe the larger opportunities now exist.

IMAX Has Already Been Inside a Car

The claim that this is the first IMAX branded in-vehicle entertainment system requires some qualification.

IMAX Enhanced content has already been offered in select Mercedes-Benz vehicles through Sony Pictures Entertainment’s RIDEVU service. The platform delivers selected films with IMAX’s expanded aspect ratio and remastering process, accompanied by DTS audio. It can distribute content across as many as six built-in or connected screens, although the driver can watch only while the vehicle is parked.

We experienced the Mercedes-Benz demonstration at CES 2025 and gave the IMAX Enhanced DTS system a Best in Show award. The sound was far more convincing than anyone had a right to expect inside an E-Class sitting in a convention center.

The new Goer Dynamics project appears to go further by offering automakers a complete IMAX branded hardware and acoustic platform rather than adding IMAX Enhanced content to an existing infotainment system.

That is a meaningful distinction, but IMAX is not entering the automotive market from a standing start.

What We Still Do Not Know

The announcement contains a substantial amount of language about immersion, dynamic range and cinematic detail, but very few specifications.

IMAX and Goer Dynamics have not disclosed:

• The size, resolution beyond 4K, brightness or display technology of the screen
• The number or type of loudspeakers
• Amplifier power or system frequency response
• Whether Dynaudio drivers or acoustic technologies are involved
• Whether the finished product will carry Dynaudio branding
• Support for DTS, Dolby Atmos or another immersive audio format
• Compatibility with IMAX Enhanced movies
• Streaming, rental or download partners
• Available content libraries
• Connectivity requirements
• Subscription costs
• Which automaker will become the first confirmed customer
• Which markets will follow China
• Whether the display can be used only by rear passengers or while the vehicle is parked

We also do not know what IMAX certification means in this specific environment. A cinema auditorium is built around controlled light, fixed seating positions and carefully placed loudspeakers. A vehicle cabin contains glass, reflective surfaces, road noise, moving passengers and seats that may recline, rotate or slide.

Producing consistent immersive sound inside that environment is not impossible, but it requires far more than placing a logo on a screen and adding enough bass to shake loose the toll receipts.

The Bottom Line

The IMAX and Goer Dynamics partnership is more significant than another oversized rear-seat display. It combines IMAX’s entertainment brand and image technology with a company that has already supplied systems for nearly three million new-energy vehicles and owns one of the most respected names in loudspeaker engineering.

It also arrives at an uncomfortable moment.

Dynaudio is preparing to leave North America, close the subsidiary it built to support dealers and customers, and focus on Europe and Asia. Multiple eCoustics reviews disappeared from our schedule almost overnight. One week later, its parent company unveiled a potentially large automotive partnership aimed squarely at China.

The message is difficult to miss. Traditional high-end audio remains culturally important, but automotive entertainment may offer the scale, recurring technology partnerships and overseas growth that selling passive loudspeakers through North American dealers no longer provides.

Whether any recognizable Dynaudio technology reaches the finished IMAX system remains unknown. So do the screen size, speaker arrangement, audio format, content services, automakers and price.

Watching Oppenheimer on the New Jersey Turnpike may soon be technically possible. Missing your exit near Secaucus because the Trinity test sequence was getting interesting will remain entirely your fault.

[Source: businesswire.com]

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from the fix-is-in dept

Well, it was fun while it lasted. And even while it still (theoretically) lasts, it’s really nothing more than the Fifth Circuit saying rights can violated, but only for 90 days at a time.

Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit managed to deliver a very un-Fifth Circuit decision, finding in favor of rights and against the Trump administration’s war on migrants. As almost every court has recognized for decades, people residing in the United States — even illegally — have constitutional rights. The Fifth Circuit has long been one of the exceptions to this rule.

The administration chose to ignore this because doing would slow its horrific roll towards an eventual evacuation of everyone who wasn’t white enough for this administration to recognize as Americans. To justify ignoring long-held constitutional rights, the administration first invoked the Alien Enemies Act (best known for our atrocities against Japanese migrants and residents during World War II). Then it pretended that anyone who had been in the country for weeks, years, or decades should be treated the same as anyone apprehended while illegally crossing the border.

The Fifth Circuit couldn’t bring itself to rule that migrants arrested long after they’ve crossed the border have access to their due process rights on day one of their apprehension. Instead, it decided (without really explaining why) these rights don’t actually kick in until someone has been in custody for more than 90 days.

That meant nothing would really change. People arrested by ICE and other DHS components all over the nation would be hastily relocated to the Fifth Circuit (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi) ASAP to prevent them from challenging their detention for 90 days. Presumably, the administration hoped to have most of these detainees deported long before they were allowed to invoke their constitutional rights.

Apparently, 90 days of denying rights isn’t long enough. It looks as though enough judges in the Fifth Circuit think these rights should never be available to migrants. Less than a month after handing down its decision, the Fifth Circuit has declared it will be taking another pass at this.

A majority of the circuit judges in regular active service and not disqualified having voted in favor, on the Court’s own motion, to rehear this case en banc,

IT IS ORDERED that this cause shall be reheard by the court en banc with oral argument on a date hereafter to be fixed. The Clerk will specify a briefing schedule for the filing of supplemental briefs. Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 41.3, the panel opinion in this case dated July 02, 2026, is VACATED.

So, we’re now back to the Fifth Circuit status quo. The government can ignore constitutional rights on day one and continue ignoring them until they’ve ejected migrants into whatever war-torn human rights hellhole will have them.

Sure, there’s a very slim (I’d say “nonexistent”) chance the petitioners for rehearing think the Fifth Circuit screwed up by giving the administration a 90-day head start on ignoring constitutional rights. But come on. We’re talking about the Fifth Circuit here.

The most likely reason for this rehearing action is that a lot of Fifth Circuit judges think the Trump administration shouldn’t have to recognize the rights of migrants ever, which is why they want to take another stab at setting precedent that would cover some of the DHS’s largest detention facilities.

The best case scenario would appear to be the circuit upholding its previous ruling, with its (unconstitutional) 90-day 14th Amendment snooze button. The worst case scenario is the entire panel agrees with this hideous, racist administration and says anyone in the country without documentation should be treated like someone caught in the act of crossing the border illegally. I’m not holding my breath for a positive outcome. I need that breath for stuff that’s actually feasible and foreseeable.

Filed Under: 14th amendment, 5th circuit, dhs, due process, ice, mass deportation, trump administration

Automation and [SvHCI’s VMware] VM Import Utility were absolutely vital to scaling this migration. Operating in a 24/7/365 retail environment meant that minimizing business disruption was critical. It required meticulous planning and heavy automation to ensure our store operations ran as smoothly as possible throughout the entire transition.

SvHCI product maturity in relation to APIs meant it was a small amount of extra work, and the main challenge of the migration was [finding] the time available to do it, for the scale of the environment. They were having to simultaneously plan, develop, and implement.

For many companies, the idea of moving off VMware is daunting due to the money, time, and staff that it may require. Some also report challenges in finding alternatives with the same capabilities and compatibility as VMware. Total or even partial migrations can seem particularly implausible for organizations that depend on VMware technology.

As a result, there are many VMware customers interested in quitting or reducing their use of VMware products, but have yet to make the move or are still in the planning phases. In September, Gartner estimated that 35 percent of VMware workloads would migrate elsewhere by 2028.

StorMagic targets VMware’s larger customers

StorMagic has a reputation for serving small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), but today’s announcement highlights its interest in winning over the enterprise-sized firms that Broadcom’s VMware strategy targets, especially enterprises with numerous SMB-sized locations.

“In reality, we have always focused heavily on two distinct markets: SMB/mid-market datacenters and the ‘edge’ environments of large, highly distributed enterprises, like Sheetz. A distributed enterprise with hundreds or thousands of retail, grocery, or branch locations actually faces similar IT challenges at each site as a local SMB,” Scott Mann, StorMagic’s SVP of global sales, told Ars via email, pointing to these organizations having limited physical space, power, on-site technical staff, and budget.

The executive sees further opportunity among VMware’s current enterprise clients.

“Historically, large enterprises tolerated the ‘VMware tax’ at their edge locations because it was the status quo. However, with recent massive industry shifts, specifically Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, enterprises are facing massive budget increases just to keep their remote sites running,” Mann said.

Other enterprises recently revealed to be migrating off of VMware include Allstate, T-Mobile, and UK grocery chain Tesco.

For its part, Broadcom has argued that changes to VMware’s licensing model are in line with the rest of the industry, and its acquisition of VMware is considered financially successful.

Beta Pictoris d is estimated to be around two times the mass of Jupiter.

NASA scientists have discovered a new planet orbiting a neighbouring star located 63 light years away from us. The new exoplanet, named ‘Beta Pictoris d’, is the third to be found contained within the Beta Pictoris planetary system.

The 23m-year-old star Beta Pictoris offers scientists a rare glimpse into how newborn planetary systems form, and how its young planets interact with the dust and residual material left behind from their formation.

The sun, in comparison, is around 4.5bn years old.

The new discovery makes Beta Pictoris the second planetary system ever known to contain at least three planets that have been imaged, NASA said today (15 July).

According to the team behind the discovery, Beta Pictoris d is estimated to be around two times the mass of Jupiter, while orbiting its star at around 30 astronomical units – which is comparable to the region Neptune occupies in our solar system. It’s the smallest of the three exoplanets orbiting this star, and takes the widest orbit of the known three.

Beta Pictoris d remained hidden under one of the brightest debris disks known to us, concealing it from traditional discovery techniques. It was discovered rather unexpectedly using the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) Near-Infrared Spectrograph.

“There was an unexpected bright source of light within the Integral Field Unit imaging, but we’ve learned not to trust bright blobs in images,” said Jean-Baptiste Ruffio, a research scientist at University of California, San Diego and principal investigator of the first Webb observations where the discovery was made.

“They can be instrumental artifacts or other structures in the debris disk. By obtaining a spectrum at the same time as the image, we were able to quickly confirm our suspicions.”

The new spectroscopy technique also revealed the object’s motion, allowing scientists confirm that the exoplanet is indeed orbiting Beta Pictoris, rather than a behaving like a background star or a brown dwarf with carbon monoxide in its atmosphere.

This is one of the first times researchers have discovered new planets mainly using moderate-resolution spectroscopy.

Scientists say this new discovery could help explain some of the puzzling structures of the Beta Pictoris debris disk.

“This discovery adds another piece to an already fascinating planetary system,” said Aidan Gibbs, the lead author of the new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“Beta Pictoris has long served as a laboratory for understanding how planetary systems form and evolve, and now we have another planet helping us tell that story.”

Last year, astronomers witnessed the very early stages of a new solar system being created around a baby star roughly 1,300 light years away, while earlier this year, 25-year-old University of Galway scientist Chloe Lawler discovered a 5m-year-old exoplanet some 437 light years away.

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