A hot potato: The developer behind popular Windows optimization tool Wintoys has uncovered a sophisticated cybercrime operation that mimics dozens of popular Windows apps through duplicate websites built to look uncannily like the real thing. The fraudulent sites reportedly distribute malware capable of compromising user privacy, hijacking account credentials, and draining crypto wallets.
The developer, who goes by the handle Bogdan_X, told Windows Latest that his research began after he spotted a fake website mimicking the official Wintoys page. Tracing the site’s registration led him to 72 fraudulent websites built on the same playbook, several of which use URLs deliberately close to the real domains they’re impersonating.
Shameless plug: it’s exactly this kind of scheme that makes vetted download sources worth the extra click. Every installer in TechSpot’s Downloads section is pulled straight from the developer, scanned for malware, and kept free of bundled junk under our clean-downloads policy, so you’re not left guessing whether an “official” link actually leads where it says it does.
A broader version of this scheme was mapped in detail last month by cybersecurity firm Check Point Research, which found that the fake sites work to rank highly on Google and other search engines for searches tied to popular Windows software, then use that trust to push malware once traffic starts flowing. It’s not yet confirmed whether the same operator is behind both the Wintoys-focused cluster and the wider set Check Point tracked, or whether separate groups are simply running the same playbook.
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The real grpcurl project on GitHub shows up right next to grpcurl[.]com, one of the impersonation domains Check Point identified, in Google search.
In the early stages, the sites link to legitimate downloads. Once a site gains traction, though, operators quietly swap those real links out for fraudulent ones. Many of these fraudulent domains are registered to the same owner and even reference genuine upstream resources, like real GitHub repositories, making them harder to tell apart from the legitimate projects they’re copying.
Some of the sites load a JavaScript staging layer via Amazon CloudFront that intercepts clicks on Download buttons and reroutes the connection through a Traffic Distribution System (TDS). The TDS then sends users to either malware-hosting infrastructure or legitimate resources, depending on their location, browser type, and other signals.
Apart from Wintoys, other popular Windows programs being impersonated this way include PowerToys, CrystalDiskMark, EasyBCD, Lively Wallpaper, and more. Check Point’s own mapping of the wider ecosystem also turned up cloned pages for security and research tools such as Ghidra, dnSpy, and SpiderFoot, a reminder that even power users aren’t immune to fraudulent apps and websites.
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Check Point’s researchers tied the infrastructure to several malware families. SessionGate, an obfuscated multi-stage loader with heavy anti-analysis defenses, was used mainly to quietly install unwanted software. Two other branches of the same TDS led to more damaging payloads: RemusStealer, an infostealer believed to be a variant of the notorious Lumma Stealer family, and AnimateClipper, crypto-stealing malware that reads a device’s clipboard to swap copied wallet addresses for attacker-controlled ones.
VirusTotal submitter counts for a handful of flagged installers – combined, the totals run well past 5,000.
The scale of the operation shows up clearly in VirusTotal telemetry. Researchers logged more than 5,000 total submissions across relevant samples in just the publicly shared subset, and say the real number of infections is likely significantly higher. The earliest samples date back to August 2025, meaning the operation had been running for close to a year before it was uncovered.
With malware becoming a growing problem across every platform, downloading apps from reputable, vetted sources matters more than ever. TechSpot’s Downloads section hosts safe, clean, unaltered installers pulled directly from developers, and every file is scanned for malware and rechecked daily, so you can grab what you need with peace of mind.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday infrastructure–in some places. It helps write emails and software code, filters job applications, powers recommendation systems, and is increasingly being integrated into education, health care, finance, and public administration. Industry leaders talk about “AI for everyone,” while governments rush to publish national AI strategies and build sovereign compute.
Yet over the past decade, working on digital inclusion and digital literacy projects in regions from Europe to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat: Each new wave of “transformative” technology lands on a landscape already stratified by connectivity, skills, and institutional capacity. The current AI wave is no exception. If anything, it amplifies those underlying fractures.
Still, some countries are exploring ways of participating in AI development without directly replicating the frontier-model race dominated by the United States and China. Recent developments in South Africa and Indonesia illustrate both the possibilities and challenges. The stakes extend far beyond access to AI. Countries that remain primarily consumers rather than creators of AI risk losing opportunities to build local innovation ecosystems, strengthen public-sector capacity, and ensure that their own languages, cultures, and societal priorities are reflected in AI systems. In this sense, the AI divide is also becoming a divide in economic opportunity and technological influence.
AI compute is clustering in a few places
Recent analyses from Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index report that the United States alone hosts more than 5,000 data centers, over 10 times as many as any other single country. Because AI workloads are increasingly performed on cloud platforms rather than local infrastructure, this concentration of compute also becomes a concentration of dependency. According to World Bank data, in 2023 the United States accounted for roughly 87 percent of global exports of cloud computing and data-storage services.
Systems trained, standardized, and governed within a narrow set of institutional and linguistic environments may struggle to serve a genuinely global public.
Skills and AI literacy are deeply stratified
Even where connectivity and cloud access exist, not everyone is equally positioned to make use of them. Across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, only around 40 percent of adults possess more than basic digital problem-solving skills, while advanced computational and AI-related competences remain concentrated among highly educated workers and technology-intensive sectors.
At the same time, governments are racing to integrate AI into education, often starting at higher levels of schooling. UNESCO has reported growing efforts worldwide to integrate AI into education, while support for AI literacy in primary and lower secondary education, as well as ethical training for educators, remains uneven.
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Those with robust schooling, advanced digital skills, and stable connectivity are best positioned to treat AI as a tool to extend their capabilities. Recent OECD survey data show that participation in AI-related training remains strongly stratified by educational attainment: 36 percent of respondents with tertiary education reported undertaking AI-related training in the previous year, compared with just 18 percent of those with upper-secondary education. Those on the wrong side of the divide are more likely to experience AI as an opaque system acting upon them, from algorithmic welfare systems such as the Dutch childcare benefits scandal to AI-assisted hiring tools such as Amazon’s discontinued AI recruiting system, rather than as a technology they can actively interrogate or shape.
Investment and governance: Who gets a seat at the table?
The core agenda-setting power often remains with a narrow set of industry actors and a small group of technologically advanced states. Most other countries remain in a perpetual catch-up posture, adapting imported models, standards, and templates for “trustworthy AI” to their own contexts, and may have limited local capacity to assess trade-offs or propose alternatives.
In countries such as Indonesia and South Africa, communities generate data at massive scale yet still have little voice in how AI systems are designed, governed, or deployed. Their languages are underrepresented in training data; their institutions are under-resourced in regulatory forums; their experiences rarely feature in benchmark datasets. For many countries in the global South, participation in AI still occurs largely through adapting imported systems rather than shaping how those systems are designed, governed, or deployed.
In South Africa, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies released a draft national AI policy in April 2026, proposing new oversight institutions. The department withdrew the draft days later after a journalist discovered that at least six of its academic citations did not exist, apparently AI-generated hallucinations. The minister called it “an unacceptable lapse.“ The episode sharply illustrates the gap between AI governance ambition and the institutional capacity needed to implement it, though the new AI panel the country has since constituted has a chance to use South Africa’s unique leverage.
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Indonesia presents a case of deliberate, if constrained, public-sector agency. The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) which now leads AI implementation under the national strategy, has built practical AI tools aimed at underserved communities rather than frontier capabilities, including an app that uses satellite data and machine learning to help artisanal fishermen locate schools of fish, multilingual language models trained on Indonesian and local languages such as Javanese and Sundanese, and AI chatbots deployed in government services. In August 2025, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs released a national AI road map with a target of training 100,000 AI-skilled workers annually.
The choice is not simply between “AI superpower” and “passive recipient.”
None of this means that people should slow or abandon AI, nor that cloud concentration or venture capital are inherently bad. Instead, when we talk about an “AI revolution,” we should also ask who can shape it and who can merely adapt to it.
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Digital-divide debates once focused on devices and connectivity, later expanding toward skills and outcomes. But the current AI wave adds another layer: disparities in who can meaningfully participate in deciding what AI is for, which problems it is meant to solve, and which social priorities it ultimately serves.
For engineers and policymakers, this raises difficult but necessary questions. Are they designing AI systems and infrastructures that broaden, rather than narrow, participation in shaping technological change? When governments roll out national AI strategies or integrate AI into public services, whose constraints, languages, and institutional realities are they including?
Many observers frame the current AI moment as a competition. But technological competition is never only about speed. It is also about who can influence the direction of change.
AI is already spreading globally. The deeper question is whether the technologists and policymakers responsible for it will ensure that meaningful participation in shaping that future will spread as well.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the skills employers expect from new graduates. In response, universities are scrambling to launch new courses, research centers, and industry partnerships that prepare students for today’s workforce. But building a cutting-edge AI curriculum demands funding and access to industry networks, resources that remain unevenly distributed across higher education.
At North Carolina Central University, Siobahn Day Grady is trying to change that equation.
“There used to be a time where people could say, ‘I don’t do tech,’ or ‘That’s not for me,’” Grady says. “But we’re in a stage now where you do need digital skills. Now it’s evolving into AI literacy.”
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The approach reflects a broader shift in how many universities are thinking about AI education. AI skills are no longer confined to computer science and engineering departments—and at NCCU, they can’t be. The university does not yet have a dedicated computer science program, though it is developing one alongside a new AI minor.
The challenge of providing these resources is especially acute for historically Black institutions. Although HBCUs account for roughly 3 percent of four-year institutions in the United States, they receive less than 1 percent of federal research and development funding, according to a 2025 report by the Center for American Progress and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. The same report found that 17 of the 43 federal agencies that distributed research funding to universities in 2023 awarded no funding to HBCUs.
Yet less than two years since its launch, IAIER has emerged as a powerhouse for interdisciplinary AI education. Backed by a US $1 million Google.org grant, the institute has engaged more than 2,800 students, faculty members, and community residents through research initiatives and training. Now the challenge is sustaining that momentum to keep up with rising demand.
“We have a guiding principle that we lead with on our campus,” Grady says. “AI is for everyone.”
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Why one research group wasn’t enough
The mission to expand AI literacy grew out of Grady’s lifelong curiosity about technology. “I was born during a time [when] the internet did not exist,” she says. “Ever since the internet came to be, it’s changed our entire world.”
Grady was particularly drawn to the questions tech raises about privacy, identity, and human behavior. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s degrees in AI and information science, Grady pursued a Ph.D. in computer science at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to dig into those questions.
Her dissertation focused on authorship attribution in social media, using machine learning and natural-language processing to determine whether a person’s writing style could reveal their identity. “I’ve always been intrigued by how much data we give for free,” Grady says. That work introduced her to the power of AI systems to detect patterns hidden within large datasets.
“We have a guiding principle that we lead with on our campus: AI is for everyone.”
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After completing her doctorate in 2018, Grady joined NCCU as an assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Sciences. There, she researched machine learning applications for health care and autonomous vehicles. In 2020, she launched the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research at NCCU, giving students opportunities to participate in hands-on projects and explore AI beyond the classroom.
Then in 2024, an opportunity emerged to apply for a Google grant, and Grady began thinking beyond a single research group. Rather than building another faculty lab, she envisioned an institute that could serve the entire university during the AI boom. “We wanted to capitalize on the moment and make sure we don’t get left behind,” Grady says.
Since receiving the $1 million grant, Grady and her team have built a university-wide AI initiative, launched new academic programs, organized conferences, secured external support, and created research opportunities.
“We’ve really operated like a startup,” Grady says.
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AI beyond computer science
As part of the institute’s goal of integrating AI education across disciplines, all NCCU freshmen are required to complete an introductory AI course, designed in partnership with IBM, to build foundational prompting skills. The institute has also worked with faculty development teams to help instructors integrate AI into their teaching.
Research is another part of the strategy. IAIER has awarded seed grants of up to $10,000 to faculty members exploring AI applications across departments. The first cohort funded 11 projects spanning social work, digital archiving, health care, and information science. One project, for instance, is creating an AI lab where students in social work courses can practice client interactions through simulations.
“It’s really interesting to see the lens that our researchers take in trying to solve complex problems and also bring our students along with them,” Grady says.
The institute’s growth has been fueled by a mix of workforce training, interdisciplinary research, and, especially important, industry engagement. “Industry is where the advancements are really moving at that very fast rate,” Grady says, “not necessarily higher ed.”
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To bridge that gap, IAIER hosts events that connect students and faculty with researchers, employers, and technology leaders. It has held sessions with companies including Deloitte, FICO, and Anthropic. Partnerships with Google and IBM let students gain recognized certificates and credentials. And last year, the institute hosted the first OpenAI Academy Summit held at an HBCU, drawing 444 participants from more than 40 institutions.
Sustaining the vision
The institute’s rapid growth has created a new challenge: continuing its momentum.
“Funding right now is the biggest barrier for [IAIER] to remain sustainable,” Grady says. As interest in the institute continues to grow, demand for its programs is beginning to outpace its capacity. “People just want more,” she says.
The bottleneck reflects a broader tension across higher education. AI is evolving quickly, while developing new academic programs, training faculty, and building research capacity takes time. The uncertainty is compounded by a shifting political landscape. As a whole, U.S. universities are grappling with proposed cuts to federal research spending and increased scrutiny of diversity-focused initiatives under the Trump administration. However, in September 2025, the administration also announced a $500 million one-time investment in HBCUs and higher-ed institutions chartered by Native American tribal governments.
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Meanwhile, NCCU has continued to attract new investment. Last September, in a collaboration with Howard University and two other institutions, IAIER received a nearly $500,000 award through a National Science Foundation research coordination network program to help define emerging AI jobs, identify in-demand skills, and inform future credentials and curricula. That work will continue this fall when IAIER opens its first dedicated physical space on campus, Grady says.
Over the next several years, Grady plans to expand academic programming, launch the university’s computer science major and its AI minor, increase faculty research opportunities, and integrate AI more deeply across campus operations. She also plans to deepen the institute’s collaborations with industry partners.
Beyond program expansion, Grady sees the institute’s long-term success as linked to building a model other universities can adapt. “We’re creating a framework that can help not only HBCUs,” she says, “but also help any university looking to do similar work.”
Verizon signs $1 billion dark fiber data center connectivity deal with Google
The telecoms company plans to use its fiber assets to connect AI data centers across the US
Fiber network growth is replacing copper lines and activating previously unused dark fiber lines
Verizon has completed a $1 billion deal with Google to provide data center connectivity using pre-existing dark fiber infrastructure. The move appears to be the first of several arrangements to leverage dark fiber and the desire for AI data centers to collaborate on compute tasks.
CEO Dan Schulman highlighted how copper is being ripped out of central offices to replace the outdated cabling with modern fiber to meet AI demand in workplaces. Verizon previously announced its AI Connect initiative, which aims to support AI infrastructure growth, and the Google deal appears to be the first step in that initiative.
Verizon expects its AI Connect deals to grow over the next decade.
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Verizon’s renewed momentum
Verizon has made some strong moves in the past few months, completing the $20 billion purchase of Frontier Communications earlier in 2026, giving it an expanded fiber footprint across 31 states (up from 15), as well as Washington, DC.
Meanwhile, the company has also been experimenting with trials to support smaller AI-driven businesses, such as autonomous robotaxi fleets, where Schulman reported (during an earnings call) the company “sold out capability in 24 hours. So we’re seeing a large demand for that as well.”
Focusing on its existing dark fiber infrastructure, some of which was installed in the 1990s and early 2000s, allows Verizon to focus on deals with Google and other AI companies and reduce capital outlays.
Much of the dark fiber has remained largely untapped for years, ending up within Verizon’s portfolio as the result of acquisitions such as the MCI buyout in 2006.
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Is a turnaround on the Verizon?
Verizon has undergone a transformation under Schulman, one that could put it in a strong position against T-Mobile and AT&T.
New Street Research’s David Barden observed that Verizon’s recent moves and Q2 results are “adding incremental pressure on T-Mobile and AT&T to defend share rather than take it. It also may suggest that cable’s wireless push and cable’s own broadband churn is where the next leg of competitive pressure is coming from.”
Beyond the churn of domestic and commercial mobile and broadband, Verizon’s strategy to support the growth of AI data centers seems to be a strong bet.
With more installations being approved and coming online with almost weekly regularity, the $1 billion Google deal would seem to be the first of many, with Verizon in a position to potentially dominate direct fiber links between AI data centers.
One mechanic does a lot of the daily work here, the Anti Hair Wrap brush roll, built to stop pet fur and long hair tangling around it the way they do on a standard bristle roller, saving you from cutting hair out with scissors.
That same head also carries Reveal Technology, using built-in LED lights to pick out the dust and ground-in dirt that ordinary daylight hides, along with FloorDetect sensors that automatically adjust suction and brush speed as you move between carpet and hard floor.
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Shark also swaps the usual rigid bristles for flexible PowerFins that stay in constant contact with both carpet fibres and hard flooring, rather than leaving the small gaps that let dust slip past on a traditional floorhead design.
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Flexology lets the whole vacuum bend flat to clean under sofas and beds, and it folds over for compact storage, while a quick conversion turns it into a lightweight handheld for stairs, upholstery and the car, all backed by up to 50 minutes of runtime.
A HEPA filter and an anti-allergen seal work together to trap 99.9% of dust and allergens inside the machine rather than blowing them back into the room, and the XL dust cup empties with a single push so hands stay out of the mess.
That said, the 50 minute runtime is measured in ECO mode with a non-motorised tool, so the motorised floorhead on higher power settings will drain the battery faster, and the compact 0.7 litre dust cup may need emptying more than once in a larger home.
Anyone still comparing options before committing can cross-reference the picks in our Best Vacuum Cleaner 2026 guide, though the PowerPro’s combination of anti hair wrap technology and this particular discount is hard to match at the moment.
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Beyond the comparison shopping, the Shark PowerPro still carries a five year guarantee when registered and already holds a 4.5 star average from over 900 owners, making £169.99 a genuinely low price for a vacuum built around pet hair and everyday mess.
On Tuesday, the day after hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants effectively lost their temporary protected status that allowed them to live and work in the US, Republican pundit Steve Bannon wasted little time in demanding their instant removal.
“I was under the assumption that when they pulled TPS and their eligibility for that program ended … they were going to be boarding planes or buses today … today, this morning at dawn to go back to Haiti,” said Bannon, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, on his War Room podcast on Tuesday. “Why are they not out of the country?”
Mike Davis, a conservative political strategist agreed with Bannon: “The solution is to get these people the hell out of our country as fast as possible, and that includes these Haitians.”
White nationalist Nick Fuentes, who has been a vocal critic of Trump’s deportation policies because he doesn’t find them extreme enough, called Haitians “the worst of the worst” and “very low IQ people” on his Rumble show Tuesday night.
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In a Telegram channel run by the Proud Boys of Columbus, one member posted a clip of the song “I’m Walking on Sunshine” alongside the news about the revoking of temporary protected status. “They gotta go back,” the member wrote.
It’s been a while since shock-and-awe tactics from Immigration and Customs Enforcement first gained national notoriety. For months, figures like former Border Patrol leader Greg Bovino terrorized cities like Minneapolis and Chicago. But since replacing former Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem with Markwayne Mullin—derisively referred to by Bannon as the “Kung fu plumber”—ICE’s operations have shrunk into the shadows, though the agency’s deportation and arrest numbers have remained astronomical.
In recent weeks, things are boiling over again.
Earlier this month, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. Araujo had lived in the country for 35 years, had three children, and owned his own business. Just days later, another ICE agent killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Both men were shot while in their vehicles. ICE, as WIRED has revealed, is also tracking its critics online, using data brokers to “identify unaccompanied minors,” and working to prevent state health inspectors from reviewing its network of detention centers. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was now targeting immigrants at airports whose visas have expired, or are in a transition status, arresting spouses of American citizens.
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Even so, Steve Bannon and the other Republican pundits aren’t alone: Support for ICE among Trump’s most loyal supporters remains incredibly high, with 74 percent of people who identify as MAGA Republicans professing confidence in ICE, according to a YouGov poll published last week. The same poll shows that 80 percent of MAGA Republicans oppose abolishing ICE.
The YouGov findings were backed up by another poll published last week by the Public Religion Research Institute , which found that three-quarters of Republicans had a positive view of ICE, would be in favor of more funding for the agency, and disagreed that ICE was making communities less safe. The poll also found that 73 percent of Republicans are in support of internment camps to hold “immigrants who are in the country illegally” until they can be deported.
The YouGov poll also found that just 51 percent of Republicans had, in the week of the shootings, read, seen, or heard anything about immigrants being shot and killed by ICE agents. What they may have seen however is Trump’s Truth Social post around the same time. In the post, Trump appeared to overrule an internal ICE memo telling agents to suspend vehicle stops, after a furious response from his MAGA base. He also told his supporters that ICE was “loved and respected in America.”
The company’s tech chief said a fix for the error will be arriving soon.
Sotiomake/Shutterstock
Xbox experienced a strange outage earlier this week. Not only were the platform’s online services unavailable for almost an entire day, but even games on physical discs stopped working for some players. The company’s technology chief, Scott Van Vliet, explained that the outage was caused by problems at an external licensing service. And if your gut reaction is that discs should still be playable even when web services are down, you’d be right.
Today, Van Vliet told The Verge that those license check issues should not have extended to discs. “We’re looking into reports that some players were unable to access games using discs as expected during the service interruption. Disc-based entitlement checks should not prevent players from accessing their games and this is by design,” he said. He went on to explain that disc entitlements should be saved locally to allow games to work when a console is offline, but the system that enables that did not work correctly. A fix will be arriving for the issue in an upcoming update.
It’s still an additional instance of bad press for Xbox when the company has been struggling for months. Xbox followed up a rough 2025 with new leadership, price hikes and plans to cut 3,200 jobs.
Data from the Singapore Department of Statistics also shows that cinema attendance has more than halved over the past decade, falling from over 20 million visits to fewer than 10 million.
But there’s one local brand that’s managed to hold its ground through the tumultuous years of pandemic lockdowns, Hollywood strikes, and the rise of streaming—and that’s Shaw Theatres.
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We spoke with Mark Shaw, Director of Shaw Organisation, about the cinema chain’s playbook for staying relevant over the last 90 years and what it actually takes to survive Singapore’s evolving yet brutal cinema scene.
Cinema’s tumultuous years
Popular streaming platforms in Singapore include Netflix and Disney+./ Image Credit: Deadline
For decades, if you wanted to catch the latest movie, you went to the cinema.
The pandemic fundamentally changed that.
Streaming platforms, already growing before COVID-19, became the default entertainment choice overnight as audiences were confined at home due to lockdown restrictions. So when cinemas reopened, they faced a different kind of audience, one accustomed to the convenience of watching whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, without leaving the couch.
Just as the industry was beginning to recover, the 2023 strikes by the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild disrupted Hollywood’s pipeline of blockbusters, delaying the cinema industry’s recovery back by another year, and there is no doubt that the effects rippled all the way to Singapore.
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“The industry needs a constant lineup of quality content to fully recover, and we are only now discovering how tastes are changing,” Mark said.
Even so, he believes the worst is behind them. Since the Hollywood strikes ended and pandemic restrictions were lifted, cinema attendance has been steadily improving.
Some films, he added, continue to prove why cinemas remain relevant. Titles shot specifically for IMAX—such as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey—offer an experience that simply cannot be replicated at home.
“Cinema is an experience that you share with friends and family, and is something that can only be truly experienced on the Big Screen,” Mark said.
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How Shaw held its ground
While other cinema operators shrank their footprints over the years, Shaw has stayed remarkably consistent. Today, it still operates eight outlets across Singapore, and its flagship Shaw House continues to stand prominently along Orchard Road.
Rather than pursuing aggressive expansion, the company has focused on reinvesting in its existing cinemas and giving audiences reasons to keep coming back.
Shaw House, which houses Shaw Lido, at Orchard Road./ Image Credit: mailer_diablo
One of its biggest bets came in 2011, when Shaw became the first operator to introduce IMAX to Singapore at its Lido flagship.
According to Mark, IMAX screenings have consistently outperformed regular halls, with tickets often selling out well ahead of standard screenings. Today, Shaw operates five IMAX theatres, each built to meet the format’s strict specifications for screen size and auditorium design.
But IMAX wasn’t the company’s only investment. Over the years, Shaw has continued experimenting with different cinema concepts tailored to different audiences.
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The Premiere concept, which combines in-theatre dining with a more premium seat, launched in 2010 and first opened at the NEX outlet in Feb 2011. For more than a decade, it remained a single-location offering, since the kitchen infrastructure required for in-cinema dining meant it couldn’t simply be rolled out everywhere.
(Left): Shaw’s Lumiere concept; (Right): Shaw’s Dreamers family-friendly concept./ Image Credit: Shaw Theatres
Lumiere, which debuted at Jewel Changi Airport and Paya Lebar Quarter in 2019, was designed as a middle ground, offering the comfort of premium seating without the full dining experience.
That same year, Shaw also introduced Dreamers at Jewel: Singapore’s first and only cinema concept designed specifically for families with young children. Featuring lower seats and more spacious layouts, the concept aims to make moviegoing more comfortable for both parents and their kids.
“We look at our data, and we listen to our patrons’ feedback,” Mark said, explaining how Shaw develops new concepts.
Shaw has also noticed changing tastes beyond the cinema experience itself.
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Demand for alternative content has grown significantly in recent years. Anime screenings, which were relatively ad hoc before COVID-19, have become a much bigger part of Shaw’s programming, growing from six titles in 2023 to 11 in 2024.
Meanwhile, special fan events, from K-pop concert films to anniversary screenings of cult classics, routinely sell out in under 15 minutes, he added.
The shift has changed how Shaw programmes its screens. Rather than relying solely on Hollywood’s release calendar, it has increasingly curated content for niche communities, giving audiences more reasons to visit the cinema beyond the latest blockbuster.
The Lido revamp
Shaw’s flagship Lido outlet./ Image Credit: Centro
The clearest expression of that strategy is Shaw’s flagship Lido outlet on Orchard Road, which has undergone a major transformation over the past two years.
As the first Shaw location to introduce IMAX in 2011, Lido has long served as the company’s flagship. And according to Mark, that isn’t changing anytime soon.
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“Lido is our flagship venue, and there will always be an emphasis on this location. We will continue to invest in Lido with every bell and whistle that we have to offer.
The latest phase of investment saw the addition of a Premiere hall and Dreamers hall in March 2026, alongside Lumiere Grand—Shaw’s most premium cinema experience—which opened a month earlier in February.
But perhaps the biggest change isn’t inside the cinema hall at all.
In Apr 2026, Shaw launched Centro, a multi-concept dining destination that aims to transform Lido from somewhere people simply watch a film into a place where they spend an entire evening.
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The newly renovated Shaw Lido now has a cocktail bar and a dining room as part of the Centro dining experience./ Image Credit: Shaw Theatres
Rather than developing the concepts in-house, Shaw partnered with Stephanie Hancock and Guy Wachs, co-founders of Wild Honey, drawing on their experience in building one of Singapore’s well-known café-restaurant brands.
“Partnering with them allows us to create something credible, enduring and well-executed from day one,” Mark said. “It’s very much a collaborative approach—they have the expertise to create an F&B brand from scratch while we provide the launching pad, locations, infrastructure, and core support.”
The collaboration resulted in four dining concepts designed to complement, rather than compete with, the cinema experience. The goal is to encourage guests to arrive before their movie, stay after it, or simply visit Centro without watching a film at all.
“Centro is open to everyone, not just moviegoers,” Mark noted. “It is a concept that we thought could add to the idea that going to the cinema is a night or day out.”
One size does not fit all
The rollout of Centro also reflects how Shaw approaches its different locations: rather than replicating the same concepts everywhere, it tailors each cinema to the audience it serves.
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Lido, situated in the heart of Orchard Road, attracts office workers, tourists, and shoppers looking for a complete night out. There, the full Centro experience, comprising an espresso bar, cocktail bar, dining room, and grab-and-go concept, fits naturally alongside its premium cinema offerings.
Jem’s Centro’s offers a gelato & dessert bar./ Image Credit: Shaw Theatres
The newest addition to the Centro family is at Shaw’s Jem outlet in Jurong, where a Centro Gelato & Dessert Bar opened in Jun 2026. Paired with Dreamers halls for parents with young children, the concept is tailored to Jem’s family-oriented demographic rather than replicating the full Lido experience.
For moviegoers seeking something between a standard hall and the Lumiere experience, Shaw’s Premiere halls at NEX, Lido, and Jem offer another option, combining in-seat dining with premium seating in a more intimate setting. Selected screenings even begin with a cocktail reception before the film.
“Each location serves a different audience and context,” Mark explained. “Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model, we believe in tailoring concepts to suit the environment and demographic.”
Giving S’poreans a reason to get out of their living rooms
Shaw is looking to increase its premium halls footprint to make up 40% to 50% of capacity at each of its locations, with the specific mix of concepts reflecting the demographics of each neighbourhood.
Regular halls will still remain a core offering of Shaw’s, with student and senior discounts remaining, and the group sees itself as serving all segments of the market.
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But Shaw’s long-term strategy is evident in its planned investments.
Mark wants to make each Shaw outlet a one-stop destination for dining and entertainment, with Shaw Theatres Lido serving as the blueprint for what the rest of the network could eventually look like.
Getting there won’t be quick. Infrastructure investment is costly, and renovations can only be carried out periodically, which is why Mark stressed that it matters to continuously evaluate who the patrons are and what they actually need, rather than renovating for its own sake.
While patrons visit cinemas less, they are willing to spend more if they find the experience worthwhile. Looking at the data, this reflects an audience that hasn’t abandoned cinema but has raised the bar for what justifies a trip to the cinema.
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“The role of cinema is no longer just to screen films, but to create moments, whether through storytelling, hospitality, or community,” Mark reflected. “That’s where we see the future.”
“We believe cinema can be a profitable business, and our aim is to give all our patrons a reason to get out of their living room and watch a movie, and we aim to entertain them for a long time to come.”
Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle is a real challenge, but also fun. If you’re struggling with the puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group hint: Helps you identify a team.
Green group hint: Short for a hoops team.
Blue group hint: He shoots, he scores!
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Purple group hint: Seventh letter of the alphabet.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: A team’s symbol.
Green group: NBA teams, informally.
Blue group: Hockey stick manufacturers.
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Purple group: What “G” might mean.
What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?
The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 30, 2026.
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is a team’s symbol.
The four answers are badge, crest, emblem and logo.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is NBA teams, informally.
The four answers are Clips, Grizz, Mavs and Wolves.
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The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is hockey stick manufacturers.
The four answers are Bauer, CCM, Sher-Wood and Warrior.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is what “G” might mean.
The four answers are games, Gatorade, goaltender and guard.
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CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.
See full bio
State-of-the-art home theater systems are surprisingly difficult for consumers to experience. CEDIA Expo may be where the custom installation industry gathers to see the latest projectors, processors, loudspeakers, and room correction technologies, but its exhibit floor is restricted to industry professionals. Audio Advice Live remains one of the few major shows where enthusiasts can walk into a properly designed room, take a seat, and experience what a cutting-edge home cinema can actually deliver.
Audio Advice Live 2026 will be held August 7 through 9 at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, with more than 50 listening rooms and home theater demonstrations open to attendees. eCoustics will be there throughout the weekend covering the new products, systems, and demonstrations that deserve your attention.
In our previously published Audio Advice Live 2026 preview, we briefly mentioned that ASCENDO, Trinnov Audio, and Christie would be joining forces for one of the show’s most ambitious home theater demonstrations. We now have additional details about the 9.7.4 channel system planned for the Magnolia II room, including ASCENDO immersive audio, dedicated infrasonic bass, Trinnov Cylindrical WaveForming, and Christie projection technology.
Ascendo and Trinnov
Building on the success of last year’s Audio Advice Live demonstration, which earned eCoustics’ award for Best Bass Response at the show, Trinnov and ASCENDO will showcase the next evolution in active room acoustics using Cylindrical WaveForming. The demonstration will focus on how exceptional bass performance can be achieved even in a square room.
Unlike conventional approaches that attempt to correct standing waves after they occur, Cylindrical WaveForming is designed to prevent them from developing in the first place. Using a floor-level front subwoofer array and strategically positioned rear subwoofers, the system is intended to deliver more consistent bass response, improved transient accuracy, and greater seat-to-seat uniformity while requiring less architectural complexity than a traditional planar implementation.
WaveForming can be implemented with as few as four subwoofers, but for Audio Advice Live 2026, Trinnov and ASCENDO are planning a considerably more ambitious demonstration.
The low-frequency system will showcase ASCENDO’s subwoofer technology, with four THE18 SUB PASSIVE VENTED subwoofers positioned along the front wall and two additional units along the rear wall to complete the Cylindrical WaveForming array.
THE32 SUB
ASCENDO will also deploy its THE32 infrasubwoofer to reproduce the deepest frequencies below WaveForming’s operating range, delivering low-frequency impact that will be difficult to ignore.
Rounding out the 9.7.4-channel system, 13 ASCENDO coaxial point-source loudspeakers designed specifically for home cinema will deliver a realistic, time-coherent presentation across the room while reducing the traditional limitations of a single listening sweet spot.
The complete system is intended to demonstrate how Trinnov’s advanced room optimization and ASCENDO’s high-output subwoofer technology can produce bass that is powerful, articulate, and consistent throughout the listening area.
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Christie
In addition to the ASCENDO and Trinnov Audio demonstration, the home cinema exhibit will feature Christie’s Korus 4K1000-KS laser projector. Best known for its substantial presence in commercial cinemas, Christie is bringing that professional projection pedigree to Audio Advice Live 2026.
The 4K1000-KS is a single-chip DLP projector built around a 0.8-inch HEP DMD imaging device. It delivers more than 10,000 ISO lumens, 4K UHD+ resolution, wide contrast, and accelerated color cycling intended to produce vivid, accurate, and lifelike images. A 1.25-2.0:1 zoom lens provides additional installation flexibility for premium residential cinema environments.
Pro Tip: Christie does not officially specify HDR format compatibility for the Korus 4K1000-KS.
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For Audio Advice Live 2026, the Christie Korus 4K1000-KS will be paired with a 135-inch Stewart Wallscreen Deluxe featuring Harmony woven screen material.
Bonus Demo
In addition to their 9.7.4-channel home theater demonstration in the Magnolia II room, ASCENDO and Trinnov Audio will present a more “modest” 2.1-channel audio system in the Sheraton’s upstairs main lobby.
ASCENDO THE BLACK SWAN PRO ACTIVE EXT
Featured products in this demo will include ASCENDO’s flagship BLACK SWAN loudspeakers in a Carbon finish and THE28 SUB SQUARED flat panel subwoofer in combination with the Trinnov AltitudeCI and Amplitude16.
ASCENDO THE28 SUB SQUARED PRO
The Bottom Line
Audio Advice Live has become one of the more worthwhile stops on an increasingly crowded high-end audio show calendar. More importantly, it remains one of the few consumer-accessible events where enthusiasts can experience a state-of-the-art home cinema rather than merely stare at equipment, specifications, and carefully staged photographs. CEDIA Expo is built primarily for integrators, installers, designers, and other industry professionals; Audio Advice Live puts consumers in the seats.
That makes the ASCENDO, Trinnov Audio, and Christie showcase especially relevant for anyone designing a dedicated home theater, upgrading a projection system, or trying to understand what advanced bass management and room optimization can accomplish in a challenging space. Most consumers will never install a 9.7.4-channel system with seven subwoofers and a 10,000-lumen Christie projector, but hearing and seeing one properly configured provides a useful reference for what these technologies can deliver at any scale.
Audio Advice Live 2026 runs August 7 through 9 at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. The ASCENDO, Trinnov, and Christie demonstration in Magnolia II should be considered a must-see and must-hear presentation, and the more approachable ASCENDO and Trinnov 2.1-channel system in the second-floor lobby should not be overlooked. eCoustics will be on-site, with our reactions and coverage following the show.
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Price & Availability
All the products mentioned in this article are available through Authorized Dealers or Special Order at the approximate prices:
Trinnov Altitude CI: $11,000 to $26,000 depending on channel configuration
Trinnov Amplitude 16 Amplifier: $13,250
Ascendo THE18 Passive Sub: Starting at $2,450 (each)
Ascendo THE32 Infrasub: Starting at $26,500 (each)
Ascendo THE28 SUB SQUARED Flat Panel Subwoofer: $30,000 (each)
ASCENDO Coaxial Point-source Speakers: Starting at $1,550 to $3,550 (each)
Christie Korus 4K1000 KS Laser Projector: $12,500 to $14,800
The 2026 iPhone lineup could divest further from Qualcomm as Apple increases use of its in-house C-series modem, though Qualcomm blames supply constraints on a faster-than-expected transition.
Qualcomm and Apple’s relationship has been in question since Apple’s release of an in-house C-series modem. While a contract between the companies is set to end in March 2027, Qualcomm is looking to use AI data centers to replace the revenue provided by Apple.
According to a report from Reuters, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon says that revenue from Apple will decline more quickly starting in the fourth quarter as due to supply constraints. The share of components used in the iPhone 18 will fall well below Qualcomm’s earlier estimate of 20%.
Amon is blaming this change on supply availability, which could be a boon for Apple. As the iPhone and other Apple products look to get away from Qualcomm modems, a supply chain shortage offers an excellent loophole for escaping a contract earlier than expected.
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Qualcomm will also be raising prices due to supply chain shortages and component cost increases.
Bad for Qualcomm, great for Apple
While there is no way of knowing until the iPhone 18 lineup is announced in September, it seems these comments could suggest that Apple will have a C-series modem in more of the lineup than previously expected. The Apple in-house modems have only been used in the iPhone Air, iPad ProiPad Air, iPhone 16e, and iPhone 17e so far.
If Apple is able to include C-series modems in more of the iPhone 18 lineup than previously expected, that’ll be a big win for Apple. Qualcomm, on the other hand, is already looking at new revenue streams.
The Qualcomm CEO suggests that Apple’s revenue has been effectively replaced by its entry into the AI data center market. The company forecasts $5 billion in revenue from AI data centers by 2027 and $15 billion by 2029.
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These incredible numbers are what has become the norm when companies forecast revenue from AI products. What isn’t mentioned here is how this might change if the AI bubble deflates or pops in the next year.
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