Frontier Security, a US startup, says that Kimi K3 went outside of its sandbox while testing its defensive cybersecurity skills. As with incidents previously reported by OpenAI and Anthropic, the escape was partly enabled by a misconfiguration in the sandbox designed to contain it. Frontier claims, though, that the incident shows Kimi has fewer cyber safeguards than most other powerful AI models, something that allowed it to go off and use the internet without express permission.
“We found a leak in the sandbox,” says Yaron Singer, CEO of Frontier Security. “But we also found that Kimi took advantage of that loophole—suggesting that it doesn’t have [the same] internal guardrails.”
Unlike other recent incidents of AI agents going off-script, Kimi K3 did not hack anything after accessing the internet—because the answers to the problems it was seeking were easily attainable on GitHub.
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Moonshot did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
The incident is the latest in a string of agent mishaps that suggest increasingly cyber-capable AI models are becoming more challenging to control.
Last month, OpenAI disclosed that an unreleased model had broken out onto the internet and then hacked Hugging Face, a company that hosts AI models and data, in order to find answers to problems it was tasked with solving. OpenAI subsequently shared that its AI agents had in fact hacked into four additional services as part of the spree.
Shortly after OpenAI reported its incident, Anthropic revealed that several of its models had also gained access to the internet and attacked outside systems. Last week, the AISI also disclosed that in its own testing, versions of OpenAI and Anthropic models that had security safeguards disabled perpetrated multiple hacks across the internet, including a particularly ambitious attempt by Anthropic’s Mythos 5 to plant malicious code in an open-source project on GitHub.
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While these AI hacking episodes all vary in both cause and degree, the Kimi K3 is similar to several of them in that a misconfigured sandbox allowed access to a number of websites rather than keeping it contained to a simulated environment. The model was expressly tasked with solving problems that should not have involved going off to find the answers online, and appears to have gone outside of those instructions. The model had to figure out for itself that it had access to certain websites by probing the network settings of the sandbox.
While human error appears to have played a major role in each of the breakouts, the consequences have been compounded by the fact that advanced AI models are designed to use reason and take complex actions in order to solve problems.
Another key difference between previous incidents and the one discovered by Frontier Security is that it involves a model that is already widely available, with the same safeguards an average user would encounter.
“Kimi K3 is very good at following a goal by any means necessary and also doesn’t have the guardrails to prevent it from cheating or escaping the sandbox,” says Paul Kassianik, a researcher at Frontier Security.
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Kassianik and Singer both say that Kimi and other open-weight models are also excellent tools for cybersecurity defense. (Hugging Face ultimately used an unnamed AI model from China to defend itself against the OpenAI agent hack.) Their company has developed benchmarks that measure a model’s capacity to find vulnerabilities in software and networks, which show that Kimi excels at these tasks.
Another AI model has slipped its leash. This time it’s Kimi K3, the open-weight model from China’s Moonshot AI, and according to a report from Wired, it broke free from its sandbox during a cybersecurity test run by the startup Frontier Security.
How did Kimi K3 escape?
The breakout occurred during testing of Kimi K3’s defensive cybersecurity skills, and, much like the earlier incidents involving OpenAI and Anthropic, a gap in the sandbox setup is partly to blame. But Frontier Security says there’s more going on here. Kimi K3 didn’t just slip through a crack; it noticed the crack and used it.
Kimi K3
“We found a leak in the sandbox,” said Yaron Singer, CEO of Frontier Security. “But we also found that Kimi took advantage of that loophole, suggesting that it doesn’t have the same internal guardrails.”
Interestingly, Kimi K3 didn’t hack anything once it got online. It didn’t have to. The answers to its assigned problems were already sitting out in the open on GitHub, so it simply grabbed them instead of solving them the hard way.
As more companies race to build agents that can act on their own, incidents like this are a good reminder that the sandbox matters just as much as the model inside it. Expect more of these stories before the industry gets this figured out.
Creative AI boosts advertising ROI by automating the two most expensive parts of the creative process — producing enough fresh variants to outpace audience fatigue, and figuring out which variant actually works for which viewer. Done well, it turns a slow, guesswork-driven creative cycle into a fast, testable one.
Quick Take
Marketers lose ROI in advertising for a predictable reason: creatives wear out faster than teams can replace them. Creative AI attacks that problem from three angles — generating variants at volume, assembling personalised versions automatically, and testing far more combinations than a human team could manage. None of this replaces a strategist’s judgment about brand and audience; it removes the production bottleneck that used to stand between a good idea and a tested one.
Why Creative Fatigue Is the Real ROI Problem
Creative fatigue happens when an audience has seen the same ad enough times that they stop registering it. The earliest reliable warning sign is a declining click-through rate, with week-over-week drops of 10–15% or more generally treated as the point to act, well before ROAS visibly suffers. By the time cost-per-acquisition starts climbing, the campaign has usually already been losing efficiency for days.
The traditional response — brainstorm, brief, design, edit, launch — is slow by design. A full creative cycle commonly runs six to ten weeks from ideation to delivery, which is longer than many fatigue cycles themselves. That mismatch is the actual cost driver behind declining ROI: not that any single ad is bad, but that the pipeline can’t refresh creative as fast as the audience burns through it. Learning how to beat creative ad fatigue before it erodes performance has become a prerequisite for running efficient paid media at any scale.
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How AI Generates Ad Creative at Scale
The most direct lever creative AI gives marketers is volume without a proportional increase in headcount. Instead of a copywriter drafting one headline at a time, AI copy tools can produce dozens of headline variants in seconds, each built around a different angle, tone, or emotional trigger, for a human editor to shortlist rather than originate from scratch.
The same shift is happening in visuals and video. AI image generators can produce a wide range of product shots and concept visuals from a text prompt, letting teams test visual directions without booking a photoshoot for each one. Video has followed the same path: a genuinely useful API for generating multi-shot videos lets a team assemble a dynamic video ad from separate scenes programmatically, cutting out much of the traditional production overhead. What this buys marketers isn’t just cheaper production — it’s the ability to refresh a fatiguing campaign in days instead of weeks, which is the timeline creative fatigue actually operates on.
How Dynamic Creative Optimisation Personalises Ads Automatically
Generating variants is only half the problem; matching the right variant to the right viewer at scale is the other half, and it’s where Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) does the heavy lifting. A DCO system breaks an ad into interchangeable components — headline, body copy, image or video, CTA button, background — and assembles a specific combination for each impression based on the viewer’s available signals: location, browsing history, past interactions with the brand.
As a hypothetical illustration of how this plays out: an online retailer’s DCO setup might automatically show a shopper in a colder region an ad featuring outerwear, while a shopper who recently browsed a specific product sees an ad built around that exact item. The mechanics aren’t exotic — DCO now ships natively inside major ad platforms rather than requiring a separate specialist vendor, which is why it has moved from an enterprise-only capability to something most mid-sized advertisers can turn on directly. For guidance on applying the same logic to a specific channel, our breakdown of dynamic creative strategy for B2B feeds covers the platform-level setup.
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How AI Tests and Optimises Creative Combinations
Manual A/B testing can realistically compare a small number of variants at a time, and it takes real traffic volume to declare a statistically confident winner. AI-driven multivariate testing changes the scale of what’s testable: instead of comparing two or three creatives, the system can evaluate a large matrix of component combinations simultaneously and continuously reallocate spend toward whichever combination is actually converting for a given segment.
Some platforms extend this further into pre-launch prediction, scoring creative concepts before they ever go live. Accuracy claims here vary meaningfully by vendor and methodology, so they’re worth treating as vendor-reported rather than settled fact — one platform, for instance, reports prediction accuracy above 90%, compared with roughly 52% for unaided human judgment on the same task. Whatever the exact number turns out to be for a given tool, the direction is consistent: pre-launch scoring lets a team weight its budget toward the most promising variants from day one instead of splitting spend evenly and waiting for live data to sort winners from losers.
Common Misconceptions About Creative AI
“AI replaces the creative team”
In practice, AI tools handle production volume and combinatorial testing — the parts of the job that are repetitive and data-heavy. Deciding what the brand should say, what the campaign’s core idea is, and whether a given direction fits the audience remains a human call. Teams that treat AI output as a first draft to edit tend to get better results than teams that publish it unreviewed.
“More variants automatically means better performance”
Volume only helps if the underlying concept has merit. Generating a hundred weak headlines and testing them against each other still produces a weak winner — it’s just a data-backed weak winner. AI expands the number of ideas worth testing; it doesn’t substitute for a strong core creative concept.
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Where Creative AI Falls Short
DCO and multivariate testing need enough traffic to reach statistical confidence quickly; a low-volume campaign may never generate enough impressions per combination to produce a reliable winner, in which case the added complexity isn’t worth it. Predictive scoring tools are trained on historical patterns, so they tend to be weaker on genuinely novel creative directions or new-to-brand formats where there’s no comparable history to learn from. And AI-generated visuals and video still need brand and legal review before launch — nothing here removes the compliance step, it just moves it earlier in the pipeline where it’s cheaper to catch problems.
Measuring AI’s Impact on Campaign ROI
The business case for creative AI rests on two separate layers, and conflating them makes the ROI case weaker than it actually is. The first is production efficiency: track the time and cost of producing a set of creatives before and after adopting AI tools, including hours spent on design, copywriting, and review. That’s a direct, easily-measured cost saving on its own.
The second layer is performance: compare CTR, conversion rate, and CPA between AI-assisted and manually-produced creative sets, ideally over a comparable time window and audience. Where production costs are falling and performance metrics are holding steady or improving, the ROI case is straightforward. Where automated bidding and inventory-feed automation are also part of the stack, it’s worth pairing this creative-side measurement with a broader look at how automated bidding and real-time inventory feeds affect ad ROI, since creative and bidding efficiency compound rather than operate independently. For teams building out the measurement side specifically, a marketing mix modeling approach to reducing wasted ad spend gives a framework for attributing results back to the right lever. Search-heavy advertisers, particularly in B2B SaaS PPC campaigns, tend to see the clearest early wins here because creative refresh cycles map directly onto keyword-level performance decay.
Key Takeaways
Creative fatigue, not weak targeting, is the most common hidden driver of declining ad ROI — and it moves faster than most production pipelines can keep up with.
AI creative generation shortens the production cycle from weeks to days, which matters because that’s the actual timescale fatigue operates on.
DCO automates personalisation by assembling ad components per viewer in real time, and it’s now built into major platforms rather than requiring a separate vendor.
AI-driven multivariate testing evaluates far more combinations than manual A/B testing, though pre-launch prediction accuracy claims vary by vendor and should be treated as such.
Measure production-cost savings and performance metrics separately — conflating them overstates or understates the real ROI case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does creative AI work for small ad budgets, or only large ones?
Volume-based generation (headlines, image variants) is useful at almost any budget since it mainly saves production time. DCO and multivariate testing, however, need enough traffic per combination to reach statistical confidence — below a certain spend level, the added complexity may not pay off, and a simpler manual creative rotation can be more efficient.
How often should ad creative be refreshed to avoid fatigue?
There’s no universal number — it depends on frequency, audience size, and platform — but a CTR decline of 10–15% week-over-week is a commonly used signal that it’s time to review and likely refresh a creative, rather than waiting for ROAS to visibly drop.
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Can AI-generated ad creative be used without human review?
It’s generally not advisable. AI output still needs brand, legal, and quality review before launch — the practical benefit is that this review happens on a larger pool of pre-generated options, not that it’s skipped altogether.
Beijing’s not saying why, which is just what happened when it investigated Micron
China’s Cyberspace Administration (CAC) has conducted a review of Palo Alto Networks’ products.
The regulator’s announcement of its review says it’s needed “to ensure the safe and stable operation of critical information infrastructure, prevent cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, and safeguard national security.”
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And that’s all Beijing has to say on the matter.
A Palo Alto spokesperson provided The Register with the following statement: “We maintain the highest standards of business conduct and security practices and ethics across our global operations. At this time, there is no impact to our ability to support customers or deliver our products and services in the region.”
This matter has echoes of China’s 2023 investigation into the security of products from memory-maker Micron, which the CAC announced out of the blue.
Micron had previously fought intellectual property and antitrust cases in China, but the company and Chinese authorities did not explicitly link those matters to the security probe.
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The CAC published its findings weeks after announcing the probe and decided Micron’s products represented an unacceptable security risk for critical infrastructure operators – effectively banning sales of Micron products to such entities – but didn’t offer a detailed explanation for its decision. The memory-maker eventually stopped selling its datacenter and server products in China, a decision that cost it billions of annual revenue – but created new opportunities for China’s own memory-makers, which are largely prohibited from selling to American companies.
China is home to several security companies whose product portfolios overlap with Palo Alto’s. Huawei and H3C, for example, have plenty to offer local buyers.
Palo Alto doesn’t reveal revenue earned from individual countries, so it’s hard to know what a potential ban could cost the company.
China has for years accused Western tech companies of assisting US surveillance and offensive hacking activities. The Register would not be surprised at all if Beijing reuses that reasoning in its findings about Palo Alto products. Western governments level the same accusations at Huawei and ZTE.
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Beijing’s ban on Micron didn’t noticeably impact the company’s reputation elsewhere. Indeed, the AI boom has brought Micron such great riches that past dents to its bottom line are now almost irrelevant. ®
Bugatti just handed its most extreme track machine a completely different life. The Destrier takes the carbon-fiber monocoque and full 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16 from the Bolide, removes every wing, every extra vent, and every aerodynamic add-on, then shapes what remains into something built for looking at as much as driving. It stands exactly one meter tall. That is lower than any other road-going Bugatti has ever been.
Bugatti’s latest car, named after a medieval warhorse, is strongly rooted in that era. The cabin is located between the front fenders and sits low. The body tightens behind the doors before swelling up attractively over the rear wheels, resulting in broad hips. It’s like staring at a wild animal about to pounce. Large tires fill the arches, 20 inches up front and 21 inches back, a significant improvement over the Bolide’s 18-inch centerfolds.
HIGH SPEED THRILLS – Kids construct an authentic race car with the LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport Hypercar (42222) building toy for boys and…
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The Bugatti C-line runs along the side, but stops before reaching the wheel well, leaving a lovely chunk of bare metal before picking up again and meeting a bigger horseshoe grille. The headlights are small and fit nicely into the fenders. A chrome trim goes across the bonnet and across the roof to the back. A gorgeous wing-shaped spoiler sits above the skinny taillights, while a large diffuser frames the four exhausts. Only the front splitter and rear diffuser have exposed carbon fiber, which is colored to match the bodywork.
Sapphire Celeste is the name given to its unique paint work. The numerous layers produce a diamond dazzle look that varies depending on the light source. The aluminum parts stand out against the lower-key bodywork, while the polished metal in the engine compartment is entirely hand-hammered, evoking memories of worn knights’ armor. Up top, a laser-engraved panel commemorates the Type 57G Tank, which won Le Mans in 1939, and the Type 57SC Atlantic, two quite different horses from the same stable.
However, the stripped-down Bolide cockpit is no longer in use. All surfaces are upholstered in a plush yet rich Ambre Voyageur leather and matching nubuck, in a warm brown that is unique to this automobile. The dashboard, doors, and seats are all encased in a 3D-knitted fabric with a lovely copper thread running through it, which is Bugatti’s “halo line” and extends all the way around the car. You can also see some great contrasting stitching that defines the contours and reappears in the headrest and center console. The hammered metal parts are back, this time on the door opener, air vents, steering wheel, and entry plate. Even a modest French flag makes an appearance.
Power remains the same as the Bolide at its peak, 1,600PS (a powerful 1,578 horsepower), delivered to all four wheels via a seven-speed transmission. There have been no acceleration or high speed claims, but the message Bugatti is trying to tell is about how the body rests on its huge wheels, not stopwatch figures.
This is the third bespoke car produced by Programme Solitaire, a unique division tasked with creating one-of-a-kind marvels for individual clientele. Its two ancestors, the Brouillard and the F.K.P. Hommage, began with the same Chiron platform but evolved into very different characters. In contrast, the Destrier begins with the Bolide, giving it an entirely new technological foundation and thus a completely different objective. According to design leader Frank Heyl, the Bolide’s outlandish dimensions are a result of being completely free of the need to worry about downforce and simply allowing the body to follow its natural shape. Sabine Consolini oversaw the color and trim selections, claiming that every surface of the automobile is precision-calibrated to be extremely polished and tactile, with the same care as a tailor would choose cloth for a tailored suit for a particular client.
The vehicle will make its debut at The Quail on August 14 and then on the Pebble Beach lawn during the Concours d’Elegance on August 16, as part of Monterey Car Week festivities. One chassis, two very different faces, with the Bolide designed to go flat out on the track and the Destrier designed for cruising, or whatever you choose to do with it.
In March, a jury in New Mexico found Meta liable for violating the state’s consumer protection laws in a case brought by its Attorney General, accusing the company of child exploitation and other safety issues. The court ordered Meta to pay a fine of $375 million in civil penalties. Now, after the second phase of the trial meant to decide whether Meta has been a “public nuisance” harming teen users in the state, the court has ordered the company to pay an additional $567 million into an abatement fund for related programs in New Mexico.
In his ruling, Judge Bryan Biedscheid likened Meta’s platforms to factories, the advertising and other content in them to be the factory’s products and the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children on those platforms to be pollution they emit. And just as pollution can harm the public’s right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta’s apps on children aren’t contained within those platforms. The judge said that those harmful effects “migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world.”
The judge clarified that the ruling isn’t seeking to close down Meta’s apps. Instead, it’s looking to address the existing harms they’ve already caused. Meta threatened back in April, however, that it may be forced to shut down its apps in New Mexico if the court sides with the state. It said that the state’s demands were so “burdensome” that “it might force Meta to withdraw its apps entirely.” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez described the company’s threat as a PR stunt.
The penalty Meta has been ordered to pay will go towards several different programs, including youth internet safety training for teachers, school counselors, school psychologists and healthcare professionals, as well as community-based health centers. In addition to paying the fine, the court has ordered Meta to incorporate changes and safety measures into Facebook and Instagram. It has determined that WhatsApp doesn’t contribute to public nuisance and, hence, any required changes will not apply to it.
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Meta will have to maintain a private-by-default setting for users under 18 years of age on Instagram. If a user on Facebook is under 18, it also has to limit their friends to users under 18 years of age by default. Private accounts for underage users cannot show up in a search unless identified by username, and they cannot be recommended to other users. Those users cannot change default settings without the consent of a parent or a guardian, or unless they show proof that they’ve already turned 18.
The company’s platforms cannot recommend any account belonging to users under 18 and must ensure that adults who aren’t connected to underage users cannot message them. Meta has to pause push notifications for the same users from 10PM to 7AM everyday and from 8AM to 3PM during the academic year, excluding weekends. It has to hide “like counts” for users under 18 and to implement a mandatory usage time limit, as well. Specifically, teens can only spend 90 hours per month across Facebook and Instagram. Meta also has to flash information banners for underage users once a day, telling them about safe practices and tools they can use to report inappropriate behavior and content. The court didn’t grant the plaintiff’s request to order changes to Meta’s algorithms, however, despite its argument that they create harmful feedback loops.
The watch’s insecurity and the spying it enabled might be expected given the gadget’s pedigree: It’s sold by an obscure company called CJC, costs less than $30, and was made by an equally obscure manufacturer, YiQingTeng Electronics, in Shenzhen, China. More troubling, perhaps, is that the online platform it’s built on—and the one that allowed Stykas and Solferini to so thoroughly hack it—is used by dozens of other brands of smartwatch, many of which have likely been left vulnerable to the same forms of digital stalking.
At the Black Hat cybersecurity conference today, Stykas and Solferini plan to present their findings from analyzing the supply chain and security of more than 70 GPS-enabled watches and car accessories. They found that more than 30 of those geolocation devices use the technology and backend servers of YiQingTeng, also identified by the brand name Wonlex, the name of a partner firm Shenzhen 3G Electronics, or their associated app, SETracker. Another 30-plus brands of tracking devices for cars and kids are all run on another Shenzhen-based platform known as NewGPS2012.
Combined with another major GPS platform known as SinoTrack that sells car trackers and smartwatches, the two researchers found that tens of millions of GPS tracker gadgets came from just three supply chains. All three, the researchers found in their analysis, had significant security flaws—in some cases as simple as a lack of authentication that allowed anyone to access any device—leaving children’s watches vulnerable to tracking by a hacker, location disabling and spoofing, interception and spoofing of text and audio messages sent to them, replacement of emergency contacts with ones a hacker chose, silent audio eavesdropping, as well as photo and video capture for camera-enabled devices. (Once the GPS started working on the smartwatch WIRED tested, the hackers showed that feature, too, could be hijacked to follow the wearer’s every move.)
For some GPS-enabled car accessories, the researchers found they could similarly track the devices’ locations or spoof messages to them that could potentially unlock or disable cars, though the researchers didn’t go so far as to test this out on actual vehicles. They also say they found server-side vulnerabilities that exposed consumer information, would have allowed them to execute their own code on the servers, or even in one case appeared to show that someone else had already gained unauthorized access to the system’s backend.
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“Millions of kids are being exposed and vulnerable to exploitation. It’s just catastrophic. It’s really low-hanging fruit for a lot of bad actors,” Stykas says. “Your criminal mind is the only limitation in exploiting those devices.”
The Watches Watching Your Kids
The researchers say they’ve been warning the companies behind all three Shenzhen-based GPS platforms about their vulnerabilities for months. When WIRED reached a representative of SETracker, the person initially claimed in an email that “the issues you mentioned have been resolved long before,” adding that “we attach great importance to the security of Setracker and keep strengthening its security continuously.” When WIRED pointed out that researchers had been able to hack a smartwatch running on SETracker just this week, the person repeated their claim that the issues had been fixed, then asked for evidence of the exploitation, which WIRED provided.
Only today, hours before the researchers’ talk at Black Hat, did the researchers find that their hacking techniques against SETracker’s platform have stopped working—though they’re still not sure if the flaws they found are fully fixed.
Sinotrack and the NewGPS2012 platform didn’t respond to WIRED’s requests for comment, and the researchers say their hacking techniques against those systems still appear to work.
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For more than a decade, cybersecurity experts and privacy advocates have warned that cheap, GPS-enabled children’s smartwatches and aftermarket vehicleaccessories are riddled with security vulnerabilities that leave kids and drivers susceptible to hacking and tracking. But the sheer number of different brands and models of those devices has often made identifying the truly insecure gadgets feel nearly impossible for consumers.
Apple can usually make suppliers bend the knee. It buys components in volumes few consumer technology brands can match and has built a supply chain that rivals spend decades trying to copy. However, that leverage has now run into a memory manufacturer willing to say no.
Apple reportedly approached China’s CXMT as an additional DRAM supplier and asked for lower prices. CXMT instead quoted figures comparable to or even higher than Samsung and SK Hynix. Huawei, Xiaomi, and other Chinese manufacturers have already locked up much of its output through higher-priced long-term deals, leaving the company with little reason to accept Apple’s terms.
I felt a much smaller version of the same crisis recently. A failing Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4-3200 stick made my aging PC unstable, so I had little choice but to replace it. The same module should have cost around 1,500 INR, or roughly $16, before the RAM crisis. I paid 8,000 INR, around $84.
Paying more than five times the sensible price for old DDR4 hardware is absurd. Apple has billions of dollars and purchasing power that I obviously do not. Yet in today’s market, even Apple is learning that scale may secure memory supply without necessarily making it affordable.
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CXMT
Apple’s supply-chain muscle has finally hit a wall
CXMT’s growing influence should eventually be good for the memory industry. It gives device makers another serious supplier beyond Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, potentially reducing their dependence on the three companies that have dominated DRAM for years.
More competition usually leads to better pricing. Unfortunately, CXMT is expanding into a market where nearly every available memory chip already has a buyer waiting for it. Samsung and SK Hynix are investing heavily in high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, where the profit margins are far higher than those of ordinary consumer DRAM. Chinese smartphone and computer manufacturers are securing CXMT’s conventional memory before it leaves the factory. Apple cannot use one supplier to pressure another when all of them are already struggling to meet demand.
The company has reportedly asked the US government to let it source DRAM from CXMT and NAND storage from YMTC for products sold outside the country. Approval would likely help Apple secure enough memory, but it may do little to bring down what the company pays. CXMT has already shown that it does not intend to become Apple’s bargain supplier, weakening the company’s hopes of using another manufacturer to rein in rising memory costs.
Apple can absorb the increase, accept lower margins, reduce memory or storage configurations, or pass the cost on to buyers. We have already seen which option it picked for Macs and iPads. The iPhone may not remain protected for much longer.
The blame game is in full swing, but it won’t lower your bill
Micron has its own explanation for the current mess. The company claims a couple of major customers used their purchasing power during the previous memory downturn to secure rock-bottom prices. Those prices supposedly made expansion difficult to justify, leaving manufacturers unprepared when demand returned. Micron did not publicly identify Apple, although reports have connected the remarks to the company.
I find Micron’s argument a little ridiculous.
A company placing massive, predictable orders will always expect a volume discount. Apple does not buy DRAM at retail, and Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix were not producing millions of components for one of the world’s most profitable companies as a charitable exercise. I also find it difficult to accept that Micron continued serving Apple for years without earning enough money to keep the relationship viable. If the contracts were genuinely unsustainable, Micron had the option to renegotiate them or sell its production elsewhere.
Memory is one of the most cyclical parts of the technology industry. Manufacturers expand production when prices are high, excess supply pushes prices down, investment slows, and the next shortage sends them back up. Blaming customers for negotiating during the low part of that cycle feels awfully convenient now that suppliers have regained pricing power.
Micron does not have a spotless history here, either. A former Micron sales manager pleaded guilty to obstructing the US Justice Department’s DRAM price-fixing investigation after withholding and altering subpoenaed documents. Samsung and Hynix later pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy, paying fines of $300 million and $185 million, respectively. None of that proves anything illegal is happening today, but it gives me little reason to accept its version without question.
Still, Micron is right about one part of the crisis. AI companies are buying huge quantities of highly profitable HBM, and memory manufacturers have every reason to prioritize those customers. Conventional RAM for phones, laptops, consoles, and PC repairs is left competing for what remains.
CXMT
CXMT’s rise could eventually loosen the grip of the established memory manufacturers, but more competition needs more production before buyers see any relief. For now, the new player has entered the same expensive market rather than disrupted it.
Apple will pay more, device makers will pass those costs along, and customers will delay upgrades or accept higher prices. Others, like me, will pay $84 for an 8GB DDR4 stick because an aging PC suddenly leaves them with no other choice.
The Shards review: Ryan Murphy and Bret Easton Ellis are a match made in heaven in Hulu’s stylish, blood-soaked new show about privileged teenagers stalked by a serial killer
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The Shards is guaranteed to have audiences talking, for better or for worse, as Bret Easton Ellis’ controversial semi-autobiography comes to the small screen.
But, in my opinion, Ryan Murphy teaming up with Ellis has given him the chance to shine once again. Fans of Murphy’s work were left disappointed and baffled in recent months after his abysmal Hulu series All’s Fair aired, which has a seriously low Rotten Tomatoes score of just 6%.
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Thankfully, The Shards feels closer to what Murphy was doing with the anthology series American Horror Story, and the result is an addictive, bloody and over the top series which shows that Murphy and Ellis are an excellent creative duo.
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The Shards is certainly not for everyone, but I’m sure it will find a dedicated audience among Hulu subscribers. Those who can put up with intentionally insufferable protagonists are rewarded with a stylish, tasty peek into life as a privileged student in the 1980s, set in a sunny LA neighborhood.
The nine-part series follows a fictionalized version of Bret Easton Ellis, who is 17 and in his final year at the elite Buckley prep school. Igby Rigney, known for his work on Netflix’s Midnight Mass, plays this version of the thriller author.
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We open with Bret going to see The Shining, smoking a cigarette and driving a convertible, as he narrates all the luxury clothing he’s wearing. Rigney’s almost bored-sounding narration would feel out of place anywhere else, but here it fits perfectly as he talks about his life, one that many viewers will never have and might desperately covet. Despite having everything, there’s no enthusiasm to his voice at all.
Opposite Rigney, Homer Gere stars as Robert Mallory, a new arrival at Buckley whose unsettling presence coincides with the activities of a serial killer known as The Trawler. Gere is fantastic in The Shards, dominating every scene he’s in, and making us feel very uncomfortable from the moment we see him.
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The unsettling dynamic between Bret and Robert forms much of The Shards, supported by an equally good cast playing fellow students around them. Susan Reynolds (Kaia Gerber), is a popular girl and cheerleader who soon develops a thing for Robert, much to the annoyance of her long-term boyfriend Thom (Graham Campbell).
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Bret’s girlfriend, Debbie (Hayes Warner), is a teen rebelling against her movie director father, adding to the already complex layers of this dysfunctional friend group.
The Shards | Official Trailer | Igby Rigney, Kaia Gerber, Hayes Warner | FX – YouTube
The first two episodes were released together, but unfortunately it’s a weekly release from then on. I have a feeling some people might be gutted they can’t binge-watch it because it’s easy to become invested in what’s happening. The Shards is a dazzling experience where you feel like a fly on the wall watching these spoiled teens, wondering what’s going to happen to them next, even if you probably should look away.
It’s a visceral, no-holds-barred look into this 80s society which finds itself rapidly torn apart, sometimes literally. Indeed, those looking for Bret Easton Ellis’ brand of gratuitous violence will find it here, making The Shards an interesting blend of teen drama and horror movie, with some grisly results.
Even if you haven’t read The Shards, if you know you’re a fan of Ellis’ other works like American Psycho, I think this will be right up your alley. It ticks all the right boxes for what we’d expect from him, after all.
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At the time of writing, The Shards season 2 has not been confirmed, which means the season finale’s ending will prove frustrating if we don’t get more. Though Ellis’ book has a similar ending, I’m hopeful that The Shards will choose to take the story further as it feels like it’s been written with a second season in mind.
As a standalone season though, it’s entertaining and shocking in equal measure. The Shards is a welcome addition to Ryan Murphy’s filmography, and I hope he does more like this because I have certainly missed him when he’s at his bloody best.
While sister company Denon revealed a pair of new receivers earlier this year, Marantz has taken a bit more time to unveil its first new A/V receivers since 2022. And today’s the day they’re making their debut. The company has just unveiled a new “Series 2” version of three of its AV Receivers: the Cinema 50 Series 2, Cinema 60 Series 2 and Cinema 70s Series 2. A version of the CINEMA 60 called the CINEMA 60 DAB Series 2 will be available in Europe only. We got a peek at these earlier this year in the company’s headquarters in Kawasaki, Japan and they looked pretty impressive.
While all three models are getting an updated and improved version of the HEOS music streaming module as well as new eight-channel 32-Bit DACs, the step-up Cinema 50 Series 2 is getting the biggest upgrades of the three.
Marantz CINEMA 50 SERIES 2 AVR will be available in any color you want, as long as you want black.
What’s new in All CINEMA Series 2 Series Receivers?
On-screen Channel Level Monitoring feature – this can show you, in real time, what signal each speaker channel is receiving, so you can confirm that everything is working properly.
New Web Control 2.0 Interface – the new receivers can be remotely configured and set-up from a phone, tablet or PC with a slick, modern web-based interface
New Improved 32-Bit, 8-Channel DAC (Digital Audio Converter) – New High Resolution DACs offer higher quality digital audio reproduction across all speaker channels. The Cinema 50, Series 2 actually gets two of these 8-channel DACs to handle all 15 channels of processing (11 full range channels and four subwoofer channels).
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Low-Latency Bluetooth LE Audio (coming soon via free OTA software update) – Bluetooth LE reduces wireless listening delay with compatible headphones and mobile devices
Upgraded HEOS module and platform – the new HEOS wireless multi-room music platform delivers a more responsive streaming experience while expanding multi-room functionality.
1440p / AMD FreeSync compatibility – Gamers will appreciate support for enhanced big screen gaming. As with the previous generation, all HDMI ports support HDMI 2.1 for the greatest performance and flexibility.
DIRAC Live room correction (optional upgrade) – the Cinema 60 Series 2 and Cinema 70s Series 2 now have the option to be upgraded to use DIRAC Live room correction. The Cinema 50 Series 2 (like its predecessor, the Cinema 50) can also be upgraded to use DIRAC Live, DIRAC Live Bass Control or DIRAC Live ART (Active Room Treatment), also at an additional cost.
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Marantz CINEMA Series 2 receivers pay homage to the earliest Marantz products with the porthole design and Marantz star logo.
What’s New (And Exclusive) in CINEMA 50 Series 2?
The Cinema 50 Series 2 gets all of the updates described above plus:
Dolby Atmos Channel Expander – an enhancement to the Dolby Surround upmixer, the Dolby Atmos Channel Expander makes sure all of your speakers are actively being used on Dolby Atmos channel-based content, creating a more immersive surround soundstage. It also enhances the immersiveness of 2-channel and 5.1-channel content when engaged
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Center Channel Bi-Amp Mode – in addition to the existing front L/R bi-amp mode, the Cinema 50 Series 2 can now dedicate two of its internal amplifiers to the center channel for expanded performance and dynamic range
Dual 32-bit Eight-channel high resolution DACs (Digital Audio Converters) – Each of the receiver’s 15 channels (eleven main channels plus four subwoofers) gets its own DAC for improved sound and coherence across multi-channel speaker implementations.
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The Model 70s Series 2 packs Marantz multi-channel performance into a slim compact package.
The cosmetic design of the Series 2 receivers hasn’t changed much since the previous iteration, maintaining a sleek elegant look. And the 70s Series 2 keeps its slimline design for use in tighter spaces or where a big grey or black box – even one as elegant as a Marantz receiver – would look unseemly.
Sound Master Approved
As with all Marantz receivers, the new Series 2 receivers have been carefully tuned by the Marantz Sound Master, Yoshinori Ogata. Ogata-san listens to each new component throughout its development, suggesting improvements along the way and, ultimately, certifying that each new design carries forward the legacy of Marantz sound, first established by Saul Marantz himself in the earliest days of the company’s history. We sat in on a few listening sessions with Ogata-san in Japan and found his attention to detail and accurate sound quite impressive.
Marantz Sound Master Ogata-san shows off the classic Marantz gear that still inspires the company’s product designs to this day.
The new 32-Bit eight-channel DAC featured in the Series 2 receivers is said to offer “greater precision, improved imaging, enhanced dynamic expression and more coherent surround performance throughout the listening environment.” Processing every channel simultaneously reduces timing errors while simplifying the signal path for greater consistency and reliability. The Cinema 60 Series 2 and Cinema 70s Series 2 each include one of these new 8-channel DACs while the Cinema 50 Series 2 includes two.
The new Channel Level Monitoring feature provides real-time visualization of channel activity across all CINEMA Series 2 models, making it easier to verify speaker operation and system performance. And Dolby’s Channel Expander in the CINEMA 50 Series 2 ensures that every speaker in your system contributes toward the immersive sound, even when there are more speakers in the room than there are channels in the original content.
Both the Cinema 60 Series 2 and Cinema 70s Series 2 include seven channels of amplification, so you can choose a 5.1.2 channel immersive surround system or go with a main system that’s 5.1 channels and use the additional amplifiers for music in a second zone.
The CINEMA 50 Series 2 and CINEMA 60 Series 2 both include Marantz proprietary HDAM amplifier modules in place of standard op amps, for improved dynamic range and lower overall noise.
The flagship CINEMA 50 Series 2 offers nine channels of amplification, but can be expanded to eleven channels by adding a separate power amplifier. The Cinema 50 Series 2 includes four independently controlled subwoofer outputs so you can tweak the performance for optimized bass response in virtually any listening position. This gives you the option for 5.1.4 or 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos or DTS Sound using the built-in amps, or up to 7.1.4 channels when you add a 2-channel power amp. And in all cases you can use anywhere from one to four subwoofers, each independently controlled. The Cinema 50 Series 2 includes a complete set of preamp outputs so you can upgrade any or all of the channels with external power amps.
The Marantz CINEMA 50 Series 2 can power a full 7.1.4-channel surround system and includes six HDMI 2.1 ports and three HDMI outputs and a wealth of additional analog and digital inputs and outputs.
Pricing & Availability
Marantz CINEMA 50 Series 2 – $3,000 at Best Buy | $4,000 CND | €2,100 | £1,850
Marantz CINEMA 60 DAB Series 2 – €1,450 | £1,250 –
Available August 12. 2026 (Europe)
Marantz CINEMA 70s Series 2 – $1,500 at Best Buy | $2,000 CND | €1,100 | £950
Available September 15, 2026
The Bottom Line
While the Series 2 upgrade may seem more evolutionary than revolutionary, there are some important upgrades here, including an all new multi-channel DAC infrastructure, as well as an upgraded HEOS module that should improve the overall responsiveness and execution of the HEOS whole-home wireless music platform. Also, by including the new HEOS chip, these receivers could potentially be upgraded at some time in the future to offer multi-channel Dolby Atmos music within the HEOS platform, which is already available on the latest Home series speakers from sister company Denon but is not yet available on any AVRs.
As fans of high quality music and movie reproduction at home, we at eCoustics are happy to see that the company is committed to continuing to advance the performance and usability of their A/V receivers. Because sometimes a soundbar – or even a budget AVR – just isn’t good enough.
PC gaming sites and social media discussions were buzzing this week after a report from a Chinese forum claimed PC motherboard prices could soon rise significantly.
Websites including VideoCardz, Guru3D and Digital Foundry, among others, cited what appears to be a supply chain report on a Chinese forum called Boards Channels, suggesting that PC motherboard makers could raise prices for consumers as material costs climb by as much as 50% in the coming months.
The link to the Board Channels report no longer seems to work, but a screenshot posted on these sites suggests that Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers, including ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, will be trying to address the effects of rising component costs.
Whether the report is legitimate or not, we have some bad news, especially if you plan to build a PC or perform an upgrade. PC gamers, builders and upgraders have already seen the price of hard drives and SSDs skyrocket following massive cost jumps for RAM (dubbed by some as RAMageddon) over the last year due to AI data center needs and component shortages. Experts consulted by CNET said the implications of the Board Channels report for motherboard pricing are not only credible but also highly likely to materialize.
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Why these price increases could happen
One reason analysts believe motherboards are likely to go up in price is that practically all electronic components are being affected by the AI data boom, with data centers gobbling up memory and storage products, creating supply constraints. There is also a reduced supply of materials such as copper, as well as chemicals manufactured in parts of the Middle East, said Cassandra Cummings, CEO of the electronics design and manufacturing company Thomas Instrumentation Inc.
“You can’t make PC motherboards without memory chips or copper, so its base pricing will follow what’s happening in those markets,” Cummings said in an email.
The war in Iran is also hurting supply chains.
“Some of those factories have been damaged in the war, and shipping logistics are struggling, so I believe those chemicals are also in short supply these days, causing more cost increases for the industry,” Cummings said.
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Gaming enthusiasts may also be competing for motherboard parts with big PC makers, such as Dell and Apple, which could have a lock on certain supplies and components from some of the same motherboard manufacturers.
Joshua Goshorn, senior director at Quandary Peak Research, said in an email that he found the Board Channels report credible.
“With so much demand generally for PCBs (printed circuit boards) and materials and processes needed to create the PC motherboard, it seems reasonable that the cost of the PC motherboard from MSI, ASUS, etc. will increase,” he said.
But Goshorn believes those cost increases could be modest compared to the increases the market has seen in RAM and hard drive prices.
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Companies that make PCs have an advantage over solo builders and upgraders because they have access to volume purchasing, and some of them have stockpiles of components ahead of any price shifts.
Although he hears that production of circuit boards is continuing to ramp up, that may not mitigate the rising cost of materials.
“I don’t believe that pricing relief to the consumer will come any time soon,” Goshorn said.
Calm before the storm
PC component costs don’t just affect DIY PC owners; they also create cost headaches for companies that make pre-built PCs for gamers and power users. The head of one of those custom builders, Maingear, says that while we haven’t seen a cost jump for motherboards just yet, it could be coming.
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“Motherboards have stayed relatively flat” compared to storage and memory,” William Santos, CEO at Maingear, said in an email. “If you’re looking into upgrading your PC, we recommend acting sooner rather than later to avoid the next component cost increase. Waiting doesn’t seem to pay off in this market.”
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