I’m not going to get to have the Acer Veriton GN100 for long, so this is more of a hands-on discussion than an actual review.

My first reaction, out of the box, to the Acer Veriton GN100 is that it all seems remarkably familiar. An elegant mini-PC style case with a car-grill aesthetic, a selection of USB-C ports alongside a 10GbE LAN port and the mercurial NVIDIA ConnectX-7 SmartNIC.

Anthropic just made some of the most powerful tools in Claude available to everyone for free. Features that were once locked behind paid tiers, such as file creation, connectors, and custom skills, can now be accessed by all users without a subscription.

The move significantly raises the baseline for what people can expect from a free AI assistant. By making advanced tools free and keeping the experience ad-free, Anthropic is positioning Claude as a serious alternative to ChatGPT and Gemini, especially for users who want useful features without committing to a subscription.

A closer look at Claude’s new free tools

File creation

One of the most notable upgrades is the ability to create files directly from a Claude conversation. Free users can now ask Claude to generate PowerPoint decks, spreadsheets, PDFs, or Word documents from simple prompts.

For instance, asking for a budget plan can instantly produce a usable spreadsheet with formulas. It can also outline points for a presentation and generate a ready-made slide deck, inside the same chat window.

Connectors

Connectors let Claude plug directly into the apps you already use, giving it real context instead of just isolated prompts. Once a connection is set up, Claude can pull in information from services like Google Drive, Gmail, calendars, GitHub, or design tools such as Canva and Figma.

This means you no longer have to copy and paste data. Claude will automatically review documents, reference emails or schedules, and even help you inside work platforms like Slack.

Custom Skills

With custom skills, you can shape how Claude responds to repetitive tasks, effectively turning it into a more personalized assistant. You can teach the AI assistant to draft emails in your style, format reports according to specific guidelines, or follow your workflow preferences across different tasks.

Instead of telling Claude each time what to do, you can define a specific set of instructions once and reuse them whenever needed.

Anthropic has also extended conversation length for free users, so you can now chat longer without hitting the limit. In addition to this, Claude also gets improved voice and image search features, along with a more interactive interface.

OpenAI recently stirred debate by introducing ads to its free and lower-cost ChatGPT plans. In response, Anthropic took a dig at ChatGPT by running high-profile ads that highlighted Claude’s ad-free approach.

Nothing, the hardware company backed by Tiger Global, is opening its first retail store in India, its biggest market. The store is located in Bengaluru, where a large chunk of Nothing’s userbase in India is concentrated, the company said.

The new, two-storied location will show off Nothing’s products and other projects. Customers will also be able to buy hardware products and other merchandise from the store and have select items customized.

“We wanted to create a fun space. It is kind of inspired by all the parts that are related to the brand. For instance, the factory: if you buy a product, there’s like a production line where the product comes out. We also show machines where phones go through testing, like USB port testing or water resistance testing. So we just wanted to bring that world together,” the company’s co-founder and CEO Carl Pei said.

The store will feature products from both Nothing and CMF, its budget brand, which it spun off last year. Notably, CMF is headquartered in India and has a joint venture with local Indian ODM (original design manufacturer), Optiemus.

Pei mentioned that both brands are differentiated in terms of the products they offer, which fall in different price ranges, as well as the audience they target.

“Nothing is more niche with a higher price. CMF is more [targeted towards] mass. You know it’s mass, but it’s not like just off-the-shelf rebrand products that usually what occurs in this price point. They are also products that we put a lot of care into,” he said.

India has been Nothing’s strongest market, with over 2% market share in smartphones, analyst firm IDC told TechCrunch last year. It also noted that Nothing was the fastest-growing brand in the country in Q2 2025, with 85% growth in shipments year-over-year.

Other hardware makers are building aspirational retail stores in India, too. Apple is set to open its sixth store in the country this month, situated in Borivali, Mumbai, for instance.

This is the first Nothing store outside of London, where the company is headquartered. The startup said that it plans to open two more stores in Tokyo and New York, but didn’t provide timelines for openings.

The company raised $200 million in Series C funding at a $1.3 billion valuation last year, led by Tiger Global, along with investors like GV, Highland Europe, EQT, Latitude, I2BF, and Tapestry. Nothing has raised $450 millon to date.

ESA Phi-Lab attempts to bridge disruptive research and commercial needs to advance space-enabled innovation in Europe.

Ireland has launched its first European Space Agency (ESA) Phi-Lab at Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. The new facility, run in collaboration with Amber, the Research Ireland Centre based in Trinity College Dublin, is poised to become Ireland’s national platform for space technology development.

The Irish Government has committed to invest €170m into the ESA over the next five years, and the six-year-long ESA Phi-Lab programme is a flagship element of that wider national commitment. The consortium is co-funded by the ESA and Enterprise Ireland.

First announced last June, the ESA Phi-Lab Ireland is one of 10 centres across Europe. Together, the labs are attempting to bridge disruptive research closer to commercial needs.

The Phi-Lab network responds to needs from the industry by maturing technologies in advanced manufacturing, materials discovery, AI, quantum and robotics.

The new Mullingar Phi-Lab is expected to accelerate space-enabled innovation, industrial competitiveness and create new high-value jobs. The lab was launched today by the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD, who unveiled a commemorative plaque at IMR’s Advanced Manufacturing Lab. The plaque was produced using a space-grade additive manufactured material mounted on a local piece of 6,500-year-old Irish bog oak.

“ESA Phi-Lab Ireland strengthens Ireland’s position, and the midlands region, as a hub for advanced research, innovation and high-value enterprise,” commented Minister Burke.

“It demonstrates our long-term commitment to supporting cutting-edge technologies that will drive competitiveness, create skilled jobs and deliver solutions to global challenges, from advanced manufacturing to industrial transformation.

“The Government’s €170m commitment to ESA over the next five years is about ensuring Ireland plays a leading role in Europe’s space future.”

The Phi-Lab launch comes as the Irish space-tech industry shows signs of rapid growth, with 120 space-active companies currently working with ESA. Meanwhile, an increasing volume of Irish companies are providing technologies and solutions to the commercial space sector globally.

Barry Kennedy, the CEO of IMR, described the new Phi-Lab as a defining moment for Ireland’s innovation landscape.

“Today marks a significant milestone in Ireland’s space and innovation ambition. IMR is proud to lead the launch of ESA Phi-Lab Ireland, establishing it as a national platform for space technology development.

“This facility positions Ireland at the forefront of European space-enabled innovation, where advanced manufacturing, AI and data-driven technologies can be developed, tested and commercialised for global impact. Ultimately, this is about translating world-class research into real economic and societal value.”

Similar to the Phi-Lab, IMR offers manufacturers a platform to experiment and advance the technologies they use. The organisation offers solutions across automation, robotics, AI and circular production.

Irish space-techs Mbryonics and Ubotica have been picked out as the first two companies to be supported by ESA Phi-Lab Ireland. The two were selected via an open call put out by the Irish Government.

Based out of Galway, Mbryonics specialises in designing and developing photonic satellite communications hardware and software. While Dublin’s Ubotica works to deploy AI technology into space for imaging, data processing and autonomous decision-making.

Today (13 February), Burke launched a second open call that seeks to fund cutting-edge research in Irish industry across materials discovery and testing to the scaled production optimised for space.

The call is looking for projects from space-active companies seeking to advance their position in the European space market or those hoping to bring their innovations to larger terrestrial markets. The call is also open to projects from companies that have previously never considered their products for space.

“With ESA Phi‑Lab Ireland, ESA is investing in the technologies that will elevate the future of Europe’s space sector, strengthening industrial competitiveness while ensuring that innovation for space delivers value far beyond it,” said Dietmar Pilz, the director of technology at ESA, and the head of the European Space Research and Technology Centre.

“It reinforces ESA’s commitment to fostering excellence across its member states and to ensuring that innovation developed for space delivers real benefits for industry, society and Europe’s long‑term competitiveness.”

Philip Thomas, the head of the ScaleUp programme division in ESA’s Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness Directorate added: “Through being part of the ScaleUp Phi-Lab network, the ESA Phi-Lab in Ireland is able to help companies in Ireland and across Europe to reach their full commercial potential by providing targeted and relevant support for their most innovative proposals.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

OpenAI is officially removing several older language models from its ChatGPT interface as of February 13, 2026, marking a significant shift in how users interact with its AI. The retirement affects several models, including GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini, alongside previously announced retirements of GPT-5 Instant and GPT-5 Thinking variants. These changes apply to the ChatGPT product itself, while access via API remains unchanged for the time being.

Known for its expressive tone, multilingual capabilities, and multimodal features, GPT-4o was temporarily brought back after user pushback during the GPT-5 rollout last year. But with most users already gravitating toward newer versions like GPT-5.2, OpenAI says it’s time to sunset these older systems and concentrate its development efforts on more current technology.

What’s changing and why it matters

The official retirement means that from today forward, these legacy models simply won’t be selectable in the ChatGPT model menu for everyday users. Conversations you’ve had that relied on a now-retired model will automatically default to a newer model, like GPT-5.2, moving forward. For custom applications, workflows, and saved chats, the behaviour will remain seamless from the user’s perspective, though behind the scenes, the model powering those interactions will shift.

OpenAI says the move isn’t taken lightly. Feedback from users who favoured GPT-4o’s particular style and warmth helped shape features in its newer models, like the personality and customisation options in GPT-5.1 and GPT-5.2. However, overall usage of the older systems had dwindled to the point where only a fraction of daily users still opted for them. That said, there is a section of the user base that genuinely relied on the emotional support of the 4o model, and they seem to be quite devastated.

There’s also a practical side to this transition. From a safety and maintenance standpoint, having fewer legacy models to support means fewer resources spent on patching, hosting, and updating code for systems most people no longer use. Looking at the bigger picture, though, this change underscores how fast the world of generative AI continues to move. Models come, users adopt them, and eventually even popular systems give way to advances that promise better speed, smarter responses, and more nuanced interaction. Even if some longtime fans aren’t quite ready to say goodbye.

Many things about diamonds seem eternal, including the many engineering problems related to making them work as a silicon replacement in semiconductor technology. Yet much like a diamond exposed to a stream of oxygen-rich air and a roughly 750°C heat source, time will eventually erase all of them. As detailed in a recent [Asianometry] video, over the decades the challenges with creating diamond wafers and finding the right way to dope pure diamond have been slowly solved, even if some challenges still remain today.

Diamond is basically the exact opposite as silicon when it comes to suitability as a semiconductor material, with a large bandgap (5.5 eV vs the 1.2 of silicon), and excellent thermal conductivity characteristics. This means that diamond transistors are very reliable, albeit harder to switch, and heat produced during switching is rapidly carried away instead of risking a meltdown as with silicon semiconductors.

Unlike silicon, however, diamond is much harder to turn into wafers as you cannot simply melt graphite and draw perfectly crystallized diamond out of said molten puddle. The journey of getting to the state-of-the art soon-to-be-4″ wafers grown on iridium alongside the current mosaic method is a good indication of the complete pain in the neck that just this challenge already is.

Doping with silicon semiconductors is done using ion implantation, but diamond has to be special and cannot just have phosphorus and boron implanted like its sibling. The main challenge here is that of availability of charge carriers from this doping, with diamond greedily hanging on to these charge carriers unless you run the transistor at very high temperatures.

Since you can only add so much dopant to a material before it stops being that material, a more subtle solution was sought. At this point we know that ion implantation causes damage to the diamond lattice, so delta-doping – which sandwiches heavily doped diamond between non-doped diamond – was developed instead. This got P-type transistors using boron, but only after we pacified dangling carbon electron bonds with hydrogen atoms and later more stable oxygen.

State-of-the art switching with diamond transistors is currently done with MESFETs, which are metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors, and research is ongoing to improve the design. Much like with silicon carbide it can take a while before all the engineering and production scaling issues have been worked out. It’s quite possible that we’ll see diamond integrated into silicon semiconductors as heatsinks long before that.

Assuming we can make diamond work for semiconductor transistors, it should allow us to pack more and smaller transistors together than even before, opening up many options that are not possible with silicon, especially in more hostile environments like space.

• Samsung begins commercial HBM4 shipments as AI memory competition heats up
• HBM4 reaches 11.7Gbps speeds while pushing higher bandwidth and efficiency gains for data centers
• Samsung scales production plans with roadmap extending to HBM4E and custom memory variants

Samsung says it has not only begun mass production of HBM4 memory, but also shipped the first commercial units to customers, claiming an industry first for the new high bandwidth memory generation.

HBM4 is built on Samsung’s sixth generation 10nm-class DRAM process and uses a 4nm logic base die, which reportedly helped the South Korean memory giant reach stable yields without redesigns as production ramped up.

Gillian Keating and Caroline O’Driscoll explore the opportunities for women and girls in STEM – as well as the many challenges.

Caroline O’Driscoll and Gillian Keating are the co-founders of I Wish, a national initiative promoting gender equity in STEM that aims to inspire, inform and empower teenage girls. A major event on the organisation’s annual calendar is the I Wish Festival, which this month welcomed nearly 4,000 girls to Dublin’s RDS.

There, they had the opportunity to engage with industry leaders and role models, hear about real career journeys, and see STEM careers as visible, achievable, and relevant. According to O’Driscoll, the festival directly impacts gaps in STEM education for young women by connecting them with positive role models and providing guidance. 

“Over the past 12 years, I Wish has built a sustainable, inclusive and gender-equitable STEM ecosystem in Ireland, supporting girls from primary school through higher education,” O’Driscoll tells SiliconRepublic.com. 

“Many alumni return as volunteers, mentors and speakers, highlighting the lasting impact of the programme in creating confident, skilled young women who believe they belong in STEM.”

The marginalisation that impacts girls and women often starts early and accumulates over time, notes Keating, who explains that a lack of visible role models in leadership positions is key, especially as confidence gaps shaped by social conditioning and structural barriers prevent access to STEM subjects. 

“This marginalisation is rarely about talent – it’s about access, encouragement and belonging,” she says. 

This is why, for both O’Driscoll and Keating, progress in STEM equality doesn’t come from a single event or initiative but from consistent commitment, collaboration and belief in potential. 

Keating says: “This is on all of us. The I Wish Festival matters because it doesn’t just ask girls to adapt to STEM, it asks STEM to adapt to girls. That shift in thinking is where real, lasting change begins.”

Ireland’s future

Recent research from the Economic and Social Research Institute found that Ireland currently has Europe’s largest gender gap in advanced digital skills usage in the workplace. It found that 44pc of men in Ireland use advanced digital skills in their jobs, compared to just 18pc of women, a 26pc difference that is close to double the European average.

Prof Joyce O’Connor, the co-founder and chair of Block W and a research contributor, made note of the fact that in an economy like Ireland’s, which is close to full employment, “failing to fully utilise the advanced digital capability of women already in the labour market is inefficient and unsustainable”. 

This point is echoed by O’Driscoll, who says: “Ireland’s future economy depends heavily on STEM skills, innovation and problem-solving. Excluding or under-supporting half the population is not just inequitable, it’s unsustainable.

“By enabling girls and women to fully contribute their skills and expertise, Ireland benefits from a larger, more diverse talent pool, stronger innovation and creativity, better decision-making and problem-solving, and a workforce that reflects the society it serves. Gender inclusion in STEM is both a social imperative and an economic necessity.”

First impressions

While the present is always a good place to start, when attempting to undo bias or break down barriers, often the work begins from birth and never stops. O’Driscoll explains how educational and workplace institutions often bridge the gap for girls and women in STEM. 

She says: “At primary level, gender inclusive STEM education is key. At secondary level, they need to expose the girls to initiatives like I Wish to connect learning to real world careers.

“At third level, they need to provide mentorship and targeted support. At industry level, they need to support flexible pathways that account for different life stages and responsibilities.”

But to truly advance the system, for all women, Keating emphasises the importance of offering continuous support and – when you have made it – showing others how it can be done. 

Speakers at the I Wish Festival included Olympic paracyclist Richael Timothy, International Rose of Tralee Katelyn Cummins and Olympians Louise Shanahan and Gráinne Walsh, all of whom shared their authentic career journeys, highlighting both the challenges and the successes they have experienced.  

“Our goal is simple but powerful,” says Keating. “If even one girl in our audience leaves I Wish feeling that she truly belongs in this space and is inspired to pursue her ambitions, then we consider it a real win. Through these stories, we hope to spark belief, courage and a sense of possibility in every participant.”

O’Driscoll confirms the importance of a strong role model, noting that when young girls are looking to their futures and the careers they may want, seeing women succeed in STEM can help them visualise themselves in similar roles, breaking down stereotypes about who belongs in these fields. 

She adds: “Our I Wish surveys repeatedly show that girls want more information about STEM and say that access to female role models positively influences their choices. One of the central aims of I Wish is to connect girls with inspiring women in STEM, not just to inform them, but to support them. 

“By inviting women to share their stories and engage directly with students, I Wish creates a network of support that helps girls feel they belong and that their pathways are real and possible.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.