Upscaling software is getting better all the time, but there are still some caveats to be aware of.
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The shift from analogue film to digital video happened quickly. Before you knew it, tape-based video recorders had been replaced with digital video cameras and, later still, smartphones. 4K is now the gold standard for video creation, with 1080p left as its lower-quality sibling.
Despite widespread 4K adoption, there’s still plenty of video being created in 1080p. And that’s not to mention content made in the past, from home videos to old movies, available in standard definition or even lower. That can lead you to thinking about converting video to 4K, giving it a boost to make it look as sharp on a modern 4K OLED display as something you’d shoot today. Converting a video to 4K is possible, but it’s a process with a lot of steps and points to consider first.
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Converting a video to 4K means creating millions of new pixels
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When we talk about 4K and 1080p, or ultra-high and high definition, we’re talking about the amount of pixels contained within each video frame. For ultra-high definition video content, which is what most people usually mean by 4K, that means a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, versus 1,920 x 1,080 pixels for 1080p high definition video. Standard definition video, meanwhile, sits at either 480 or 576 vertical lines depending on your region; width can vary depending on how the content was originally filmed. You can also find cinematic 4K resolutions, so-called ‘true 4K’ or DCI 4K, with a resolution of 4,096 x 2,160.
You can upscale any output file to 4K — 4K is just the frame size. To move from 1080p to 4K, you’re going to need three additional pixels on-screen for every original pixel that was recorded, so four times overall. Managing that without losing any quality is the issue. That is almost impossible and simply changing the resolution won’t reveal a hidden version with extra clarity or sharpness, either.
Traditional upscaling software uses interpolation to manage this, scaling up each frame and figuring out what it should look like. How accurate upscaling software can be is the main question. It has to estimate what the pixels should look like, but it can’t recover the real detail if it wasn’t recorded in the first place.
Often, this means that sizing up will make the footage look softer. The “guess-timation” used to add extra pixels often makes it look smooth as a result. Sharpening can help around the edges, but it’s a Goldilocks dilemma: too much, or not enough, can ruin it. The same is true for noise reduction, which can make the final footage look unnatural.
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Professional 4K restorations often return to high-quality original source files
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If you’re a professional looking to convert a video to 4K, you’re going to want to work from the best source data available to you: the original source files. The better that source data is, the better quality a job you’ll be able to achieve.
The HD restoration of Star Trek: The Next Generation proves how tricky this can be if you want to get the process right. That upgrade, commissioned by CBS in 2011, used the show’s original 35mm film negatives, which were described as having a quality equivalent to a 20 megapixel resolution, to remaster all seven seasons of the show from their original broadcast quality to 1080p for Blu-ray release. 25,000 reels of original film stock were used, with visual effects and CGI upgrades to help the process. It took over three years to complete and reportedly cost the studio over $12 million, according to one of its producers.
Ironically enough, the analog film to digital video conversion here makes this type of job easier. If you’re working with an older digital master file with a set resolution, you’re stuck with a fixed number of pixels to work from. The original negatives used in the Star Trek upgrade capture far more detail that wouldn’t have made it into the original television broadcasts.
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Unfortunately, when the best source files are already low resolution, you’re not able to work from the real data. All of the missing pixels that are created are guesses. The best result is that this will look pretty convincing, but it won’t be 100 percent true to form.
Home upscaling uses interpolation or AI to fill in the gaps
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Unlike CBS, you’re unlikely to have $12 million to convert your videos to 4K. Home users converting video to 4K will instead have to choose between traditional interpolation or newer AI-based tools. Both methods will create the additional pixels needed to fill out an enlarged 4K frame, but not in the same way.
4K upscalers using interpolation rely on good, old-fashioned math. It takes a pixel from a single frame and looks at the color and brightness of the pixels around it. From there, it’ll try to calculate how the pixels surrounding it will look. At a basic level, it might achieve this by sheer duplication, but more advanced algorithms will focus on trying to preserve edges and avoid jagged lines. The end result is pretty predictable, but one problem is softness. Interpolation can’t magically recreate genuine detail or textures, making it seem slightly fake. Your TV might be able to do this automatically too, with varying degrees of success.
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Luckily, AI upscaling looks to solve that problem. These models are trained on examples of low and high-resolution images that allow it to identify how common features should look on your screen. Instead of estimating each pixel, the AI is predicting what a sharper image will look like.
The result can be sharper and more convincing but, like interpolation, it won’t be an exact match for the real world. AI upscalers can also introduce unusual artifacts that interpolation doesn’t. AI models are constantly improving, however, so the quality and consistency you’ll see today might seem antiquated in just a few years’ time.
If you’re working with older video, you may also need to think about interlacing, where video frames were split into two halves by odd and even horizontal lines, with each line refreshing each time the screen refreshes. Modern displays don’t use interlacing, but older broadcasts meant for CRT-like screens would. Converting these kinds of videos will require you to de-interlace before upscaling, although how well you’ll be able to upscale a 480i NTSC video to 4K in a way that maintains a watchable video quality is questionable.
Upscaling tools often feature plenty of configuration to help you get the result you want, whether it’s using AI or interpolation. If a single pass through doesn’t get you the result you’re looking for, you can tweak the settings to have another go (as long as you’ve got the disk space).
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Upscaling a 1080p video to 4K doesn’t automatically improve it
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You can’t just whack a 1080p video into an upscaler and expect a perfect 4K video at the end. You can achieve it in the technical sense, by increasing the size of the video frame, but getting the video to scale up without losing quality is difficult. It may take several attempts to get the result to match up to your expectations.
It’s easier to achieve if you’ve got good source material to work from, and the smaller the leap in resolution, the better. Upscaling from 1440p to 4K, for instance, won’t require as many ‘fake’ pixels as 1080p to 4K, or worse, 480p to 4K. 4K upscaling software can only guess what the missing pieces, those extra pixels, should look like. AI is making the process easier, and potentially better, but a like-for-like match isn’t guaranteed.
Resolution isn’t the only factor at play here, though. To save on disk space, video files can be compressed with a lower bitrate, meaning the amount of data saved for each second of video is lower. Upscaling to 4K won’t undo that, and you can’t just lose common compression artifacts like blocks or banding if you’re working from a low bitrate file. It all comes down to the source, and if that’s good enough, upscaling becomes a whole lot easier to handle.
The amount of gas-fired power in development for data centers in the US has nearly doubled in less than a year, new research released Tuesday shows. The findings illustrate just how heavily tech companies are relying on building private fossil fuel plants to power data centers—and how fast artificial intelligence’s energy demand has grown.
Global Energy Monitor, a research firm, has been tracking gas-powered projects that have been announced, are in development, or are under construction in the US. In January, the group found that there were 97 gigawatts of gas projects in development exclusively for data centers at the end of 2025, a massive increase from just 4 gigawatts tracked in early 2024. Now, in an update to the research released Tuesday, the group says that as of mid-2026, that demand pipeline has jumped to more than 189 gigawatts. (A gigawatt can power roughly a million homes.)
“Increasingly, the US gas power buildout is getting tied directly to the data center buildout—you can’t talk about one without the other,” says Jenny Martos, a research analyst at Global Energy Monitor who worked on the report.
Over the past two years, data center builders have increasingly turned to private power facilities, known as behind-the-meter plants, to bypass lengthy grid connection times. This approach can also potentially help avoid saddling ratepayers with higher bills, an issue that’s become a flashpoint as data center opposition mounts around the country. The Trump administration has encouraged tech companies to bring their own power, introducing a voluntary pledge that’s been signed by the likes of Microsoft, Meta, Google, and OpenAI, as well as several Republican governors and some of the country’s biggest utilities.
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Adding that much natural gas power comes with a hefty climate cost, particularly because many of the facilities are being built with inefficient turbines, which can increase emissions. As WIRED has reported, some of these gas plants are permitted to emit more greenhouse gases each year than many small- and medium-sized countries.
Global Energy Monitor also tracks energy projects in countries around the world, including China, the world’s largest importer of natural gas. Much of that gas is used for producing products like fertilizer and plastic.
But the country does have a modest fleet of natural gas plants, and it’s seen a surge in gas-fired facilities under development in recent years. In the early 2020s, it even outpaced the US in gas plant construction. The data center boom means that the US has again surpassed China as the country with the most gas projects in the pipeline, according to Global Energy Monitor.
The shift illustrates how China, which the Trump administration has repeatedly emphasized as the US’s rival in the AI race, is relying less on gas fueled-sources in its data center buildout.
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“Overall, the data center boom in China is really oriented around renewables,” especially solar and hydropower, says Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Many data centers being built in China are being sited in rural areas that have an excess of renewable energy production. Chan says that while there have been a few attempts to develop private power for data centers, they’re “smaller projects.”
He adds that the Chinese buildout of renewables on the grid is a deliberate choice by the government to ensure energy independence.
The US building gas power for data centers “in the near term might make sense economically, and especially if you want to power these data centers fast, and you don’t have access to the same kind of cheap renewable energy that you might be able to have in China,” he says. “But over the long term, you pay a price for that—obviously, in terms of emissions, but also, I think in terms of not investing in your own clean energy sector.”
Not all of the projects that Global Energy Monitor tracked will get built, Martos notes. Many of the projects the group has tracked haven’t yet begun construction. “There’s a lot of uncertainty: financing, your local opposition, data, your moratoriums, the turbine constraints to supply equipment—there’s so many factors,” she says.
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Still, “if all of these get built, you’re locking in emissions for decades,” she says.
There is a tendency in consumer electronics to justify every new SKU with more features, another chip, three additional listening modes and an app nobody asked for. Meze Audio has gone in the opposite direction with the new ALBA S.
The Romanian headphone manufacturer has taken its existing ALBA wired IEM, removed the bundled USB-C DAC/amp adapter and lowered the U.S. price from $159 to $129. The actual earphones have not been redesigned or retuned. The ALBA S uses the same 10.8mm dynamic driver, 32-ohm impedance, zinc-alloy and anodized-aluminum construction, pearl finish and 3.5mm detachable cable as the original model.
That might not sound especially revolutionary, because it isn’t. What makes the ALBA S interesting is that Meze has removed an accessory rather than compromising the product itself to reach a lower price.
For a lot of headphone enthusiasts, that makes considerable sense.
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What Changed?
The original ALBA was introduced in 2024 as Meze’s entry-level IEM and included a custom 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter with an integrated DAC/amp. That made it particularly convenient for smartphones and tablets that had already sent the headphone jack to the same retirement community as the MiniDisc player. We covered the original ALBA when it launched at $159.
Meze Audio USB-C to 3.5mm Headphone Adapter is NOT INCLUDED with Alba S.
The ALBA S costs $129, and that adapter is no longer included. World Wide Stereo already lists the new model as in stock and ready to ship, confirming that this is not merely a future product announcement.
Inside the box are the ALBA S IEMs, a 1.2-meter braided silver-plated copper cable terminated in 3.5mm, four sizes of silicone ear tips, an eco-leather carrying pouch and documentation. Meze’s USB-C adapter remains available separately for anyone who decides later that they need one.
Nothing about the acoustic specification has been reduced to get there.
Meze ALBA S Specifications
Driver: 10.8mm dynamic
Frequency response: 15Hz to 25kHz
Impedance: 32 ohms
Sensitivity: 109dB SPL/mW at 1kHz
THD: Less than 0.1% at 1kHz
Connector: 2-pin
Cable: 1.2-meter braided SPC, 3.5mm termination
Weight: 14 grams
Included ear tips: S, M, L and XL
Price: $129 USD
Those specifications match the ALBA platform Meze has already been selling, which is the important point here.
Why Does the ALBA S Make Sense?
Anyone already carrying a dongle DAC, portable DAC/headphone amplifier, DAP or laptop with a headphone output was effectively paying for another USB-C adapter with the original ALBA whether they needed it or not.
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That group is not exactly small at CanJam.
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The ALBA S acknowledges that an entry-level IEM buyer and an entry-level audio-system buyer are not necessarily the same person. Someone using an iPhone with no existing audio hardware may still find the regular ALBA package more convenient. Someone with an iFi, FiiO, Cayin, Astell&Kern, Questyle or any number of other portable sources probably doesn’t need Meze to put another dongle in the drawer.
More importantly, Meze did not substitute a cheaper shell, fixed cable or different driver to reach $129. That gives the ALBA S a cleaner value proposition than the usual stripped-down model where the lower price arrives with an asterisk the size of Romania.
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Who Should Consider It?
The ALBA S makes the most sense for listeners who already have a source with a 3.5mm headphone output or own a USB DAC/amp they prefer. It is also a potentially strong first wired IEM for someone moving away from wireless earbuds who cares more about sound quality, replaceable cables and long-term ownership than ANC, touch controls or Bluetooth codecs.
It also drops Meze into an extremely competitive part of the IEM market.
The Sennheiser IE 200 remains $159.95 in the U.S., while models such as the Moondrop ARIA2 sell for $99.99 and the Truthear HEXA for $89.99. Those products take rather different approaches to drivers and tuning, but they demonstrate how crowded the sub-$200 IEM category has become.
Meze’s advantage is familiarity. The ALBA has already been on the market for more than two years, and we have also used it as a comparison point in our review of the much more expensive $899 Meze ASTRU. Our reviewer described the ALBA as an excellent “baby ASTRU,” with a related tonal balance despite the enormous price difference.
The ALBA S therefore isn’t asking buyers to gamble on a new tuning simply because the price moved downward.
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Hear the Meze ALBA S at CanJam SoCal 2026
There is also an excellent opportunity to hear it before buying one.
CanJam SoCal 2026 takes place August 29 and 30 at the Irvine Marriott in Orange County, California, and attendees will be able to try the ALBA S during the show. CanJam remains one of the best places to compare IEMs because dozens of competing products can be auditioned in the same building without ordering six pairs and explaining the resulting credit-card statement to your significant other.
eCoustics will be at CanJam SoCal throughout the weekend, covering the new headphone, IEM, DAC and amplifier launches and getting some listening time with the ALBA S ourselves.
The Bottom Line
The Meze Audio ALBA S is not a new acoustic design and Meze is not pretending otherwise. It is the existing ALBA presented in a way that makes more sense for listeners who already own the hardware required to drive it.
Removing the USB-C DAC/amp adapter saves $30, brings the price down to $129 and leaves the parts that actually determine how the ALBA fits and sounds untouched.
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There is still a strong argument for buying the $159 ALBA if you need the USB-C adapter and want everything in one box. But for the growing number of wired-IEM listeners who already have a better dongle DAC or portable source in their pocket, paying less for the same earphones is not a compromise.
Sometimes the most useful product update is the one where the manufacturer has the good sense to remove something.
When the Buchardt Audio E50 arrived in 2024, it quickly established itself as one of the Danish manufacturer’s most ambitious passive bookshelf/standmount loudspeakers, combining premium drivers, careful cabinet construction, and the neutral, controlled presentation that has become central to Buchardt’s identity.
For 2026, Buchardt Audio is expanding the E Series with the new E50-S, but this is not an E50 replacement or a straightforward upgrade. Instead, the E50-S takes the core engineering and design philosophy of the E50 in a different direction, with changes intended to make the speaker a better fit for listeners whose systems, rooms, or tonal preferences may not have aligned with the original model.
That makes the E50-S more interesting than another routine product refresh. Buchardt is effectively offering two interpretations of the same high-end passive speaker platform, giving buyers a choice based on how they actually listen rather than simply declaring the newest version the better one.
The E50-S
The E50-S retains the core DNA of the E50, but Buchardt has been careful not to position it as an upgrade. Instead, it offers a different approach, with changes intended to broaden the E Series’ appeal and make it better suited to a wider range of systems, rooms, and listening preferences.
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Buchardt E50-S stand-mount speaker in rounded charcoal finish
What’s New
The E50-S (the “S” stands for sensitivity) is slightly larger than the original E50. Its width has been increased by 1 cm (0.4 inches) to accommodate a larger woofer. The new driver is a custom-made 7.5-inch Satori woofer that uses the well-regarded TeXtreme cone material, manufactured by Oxeon AB in Sweden.
In addition to the larger woofer, the E50-S employs a slightly different tweeter and a unique resistor-free crossover.
Another highlight is a custom-designed waveguide tailored specifically to the E50-S cabinet, tweeter, and woofer. Rather than casting the waveguide in aluminum, as Buchardt does with some of its other speakers, the E50-S waveguide is CNC-machined directly into the 28 mm solid-wood front baffle, combining craftsmanship with acoustic precision.
Sonic Differences
Despite the larger woofer, the E50-S delivers slightly less overall bass output, placing greater emphasis on the midrange. Buchardt says this gives vocals greater presence and creates a more textured presentation, allowing the midrange to occupy a more prominent position in the mix.
The high frequencies remain airy and highly detailed, but are tuned to sound smooth and non-fatiguing. Because treble performance has been one of the most praised aspects of the original E50, Buchardt has retained much of the same overall high-frequency character with the E50-S.
Buchardt also describes the E50-S soundstage as more detailed, clear, and engaging than that of the E50. The presentation is more forward, with greater perceived air around instruments and a stronger emphasis on bringing vocals closer to the listener.
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Compared with the E50, the E50-S is intended to sound more energetic, holographic, and responsive, with greater apparent detail and more precise imaging without becoming analytical or cold. The original E50, by comparison, offers a more relaxed and laid-back presentation, with what Buchardt describes as an easygoing “paper-cone” tonal character.
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No loudspeaker excels in every area, and speaker design inevitably involves choosing which characteristics to prioritize. That is ultimately why the E50 and E50-S can exist side by side rather than one simply replacing the other.
Buchardt E50-S Loudspeaker (rear)
Who is the E50-S For?
Buchardt has indicated that the E50-S is intended for listeners who have heard or already own the E50 but want something slightly less bass-heavy in a similar size and form factor. That could make it a better fit for smaller rooms, setups where the speakers need to be positioned closer to walls, environments where excessive bass can become problematic, or listeners who simply prefer greater emphasis on midrange detail and clarity.
Another reason to choose the E50-S over the E50 is amplifier compatibility. Buchardt says the E50-S can be driven by amplifiers starting at just 15 watts, including lower-powered tube designs, while still producing respectable output levels. The E50 is considerably more demanding and is recommended for use with amplifiers rated between 60 and 200 watts.
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The E50 offers the more linear frequency response of the two, although neither follows quite the same tuning approach as the Buchardt S400 Series.
Tuned by Ear
The E Series is designed using objective engineering principles, but the final voicing is ultimately done by ear. Both the E50 and E50-S incorporate a variation of the BBC dip, although it is more pronounced on the E50-S, which also has a slightly lighter bass response. According to Buchardt, this modified tuning is intended to make both speakers easy to listen to over extended periods without becoming fatiguing.
Interestingly, Buchardt has deliberately chosen not to publish performance measurements for the E50-S, despite having done so for the original E50. The company argues that measurements can “color” a listener’s expectations before they have actually heard the speaker.
Buchardt says that during development and A/B testing of the E50-S against its other models, the listening impressions of its team did not always correlate with what the measurements suggested they should be hearing. That experience appears to have reinforced the company’s decision to emphasize listening over published graphs when presenting the E50-S.
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As Buchardt Audio puts it rather directly: “Just trust us: if you want a frequency-linear speaker, the E50-S is not what you are looking for!”Buchardt Audio E50
Small room: 15 watts Medium room: 45 watts Large room: 100+ watts All into 4 ohms
Measurements (HWD)
395 x 190 x 284 mm 15.5” x 7.5” x 11.1”
395 x 200 x 284 mm 15.5” x 7.9” x 11.1”
Weight
8.6 kg each (19 lbs)
9 kg each
Speaker grilles
Included
Black grilles included
Warranty
10 years
10 years
Cabinet
19 & 28mm (front baffle) solid european wood
19 & 28mm (front baffle) solid european wood with internal bracing
The Bottom Line
Buchardt Audio has spent more than a decade building its reputation around compact loudspeakers that combine thoughtful engineering with a direct-to-consumer business model, and the E50-S is a good example of why the company has developed such a loyal following. Instead of replacing the E50 with something supposedly “better,” Buchardt has created a genuine alternative with a larger 7.5-inch Satori/TeXtreme woofer, higher sensitivity, a resistor-free crossover, CNC-machined waveguide, and deliberately different voicing.
The E50-S makes the most sense for listeners who value midrange presence, vocal clarity, imaging, and a more forward presentation over maximum bass weight or strict frequency linearity. Its ability to work with amplifiers starting at around 15 watts also makes it a more practical option for lower-powered tube and Class A designs. The original E50 remains the better choice for listeners who prefer greater bass output, a more relaxed presentation, and a more linear overall response.
Neither model is inexpensive, but Buchardt is competing in a category where compact passive loudspeakers can quickly climb well beyond $5,000 per pair. The Radiant Acoustics CLARITY Series is one obvious alternative in a similar price range, while the $7,000-per-pair Dynaudio Legend would normally merit consideration as well. For U.S. buyers, however, Dynaudio’s decision to exit the North American market in fall 2026 makes the Legend a much less straightforward comparison going forward.
What makes the E50-S interesting is that Buchardt has resisted the temptation to declare it the new flagship and make the E50 obsolete. These are two different interpretations of the same basic idea. Your room, amplifier, and listening preferences should decide which one makes more sense.
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Buchardt E50-S Loudspeaker in natural oak.
Price & Availability
The E50-S Passive Bookshelf/Standmount Speaker is priced at €4,100 per pair and is available directly from Buchardt Audio (contact Buchardt Audio for U.S. pricing). Just as its E50 predecessor, the E50-S is made and assembled in Denmark from in-house and European-sourced parts.
To dig really deep into the Buchardt E50-S story and technologies, refer to the official E50-S product page linked above.
Schematic diagram of the touch-sensitive skin. (Credit: Haofeng Chen et al., ArXiv, 2026)
Hypoesthesia, more commonly referred to as numbness, is one of the more distressing ailments that can affect us humans, primarily because it reminds us of just how much we rely on our sensation of touch in daily life. From experiencing the world around us, handling objects, noticing when you just bumped into that side table again and the comforting hug of a fellow human being, touch is perhaps the most important of our senses.
In that regard the recently published research by [Haofeng Chen] et al. on giving robots a skin that can experience touch seems rather important as it would give especially humanoid robots a more natural way to interact with their environment, using feedback from touch.
Poking the artificial skin. (Credit: Chen et al., arXiv, 2026)
One of the essential parts of biological skin is that it is teeming with sensors, at a density level that provides excellent resolution as required, down to sensing e.g. small surface imperfections with one’s finger tips. Replicating this with an artificial skin for robotics has always been a problem, due to the wiring and/or reliability nightmare this poses with typical approaches. Instead of focusing on many individual sensors, [Chen] et al. focused on effectively creating the equivalent of a resistive touch screen in skin format.
The basic principle underlying the demonstrated artificial skin is electrical impedance tomography (EIT), which uses surface electrodes to form a tomographic image based on measures electrical resistivity. Core here is the flexible TPU layer with electrodes and the conductive fabric patches attached to the top TPU cover layer. The electrodes continuously measure the resistivity, with disturbances from those patches due to touch events on the cover layer altering these values. From this EIT can be used to reconstruct the location and strength of the touch event.
The results from the created prototypes were promising, with only 16 electrodes sufficing to create a fairly accurate pressure map. Hardware-wise this makes it thus quite uncomplicated, with the characterization of the TPU porosity and such along with the EIT algorithm (provided in the paper) probably being the biggest hurdles for hobbyist recreations.
Flashlights used to be relatively simple devices that featured simple on and off switches, a fixed brightness setting, and few other features. Like virtually everything else in the world, technological advances have made flashlights smarter and more effective than ever before. USB rechargeable batteries and upgrades in brightness capabilities have helped brands like our favorite, Fenix, bring new levels of versatility to the flashlight market. Meanwhile, the ability to focus light more directly remains an important feature for many users.
That last advancement isn’t entirely new when it comes to flashlights, of course, as manufacturers have long built that feature into different styles of torches. As the name implies, focusing flashlights do indeed feature the ability to adjust the width and focus of the device’s beam. In essence, it allows users to cast light on specific items and areas in the dark when the need is there. The beam can also easily be adjusted to cast a wider light when you want to illuminate a larger area.
As you can imagine, a focusing feature can be as important as brightness in emergency scenarios, as it allows you to highlight a specific point in the dark. This can help you know exactly what lies ahead if you need to be out and about. The same may be true in a dimly lit basement or crawlspace, or if you’re camping off-grid and need to venture away from the tent in the middle of the night to, well, you know.
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How to focus the light on your flashlight
As noted, the addition of a focusing feature is hardly the result of a recent technological breakthrough. In fact, the design behind the feature is pretty simple in principle and requires little more than the addition of an internal lens or reflector in the flashlight’s headlamp. That feature can then change the focus of the torch based on how far or how close it is to the light source itself.
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The question then becomes how users can move the lens or reflector when the need to focus or unfocus the beam of the flashlight arises. Lights from the market’s top manufactures tend to feature two different styles of flashlights with focusing abilities. The first style allows users to change focus by simply sliding the headlamp of the flashlight forward or backwards on the shaft. The further away from the light the head is, the narrower the beam will be. The principle is the same with the second style of focusing flashlight, though these move the head forward and backward by way of a twisting motion.
There are no major advantages to one style or the other for focusing flashlights, though a push and pull model may be easier for some to adjust with one hand. Versatility aside, there may be a couple of drawbacks to consider with either model, in that the o-rings used in many focusing flashlights can wear out over time, making them less effective at protecting them from dust and moisture. Likewise, the need for moving parts may make focusing flashlights less durable than their fixed head counterparts.
My FanCam works after you record, turning a wider group video into a tighter tracking shot around one person.
Samsung
Samsung’s My FanCam is built for videos where several people are moving through the frame. Instead of trying to keep one person centered while you’re recording, you can capture the wider scene and choose your subject afterward. Galaxy AI then reframes the existing footage around that person in an aspect ratio you select.
Samsung introduced the feature on the Galaxy Z Fold8 lineup. Because My FanCam works on a video you’ve already recorded, there’s nothing special you need to turn on before shooting.
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How to use My FanCam in Samsung Gallery
Samsung
My FanCam lives in Samsung’s Gallery editing tools. On a supported device, start with a video that contains the person you want Galaxy AI to follow.
Open Gallery and select the video you want to edit. Then, tap the Galaxy AI icon and select My FanCam. Wait for Galaxy AI to identify the people in the video and select the person you want to follow. Next, choose an aspect ratio for the new clip. Finally, tap Follow to create the reframed video.
The aspect-ratio choice is useful if you already know where the finished clip is going. A vertical crop makes more sense for platforms built around portrait video, while a wider frame may work better if you want to keep more of the original scene visible. My FanCam handles the tracking either way, so you can make that decision after you’ve recorded the footage.
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Shoot a wider frame if you plan to use My FanCam
Samsung
My FanCam differs from Samsung’s Auto framing feature in one important way. Auto framing adjusts the composition while you’re recording, while My FanCam does its work afterward. That gives you more freedom to capture the whole scene first, but it also means the feature can only reframe footage that made it into the original recording.
Imagine recording a school performance, a soccer game or a group dance. Rather than constantly moving the phone to keep one person centered, you can keep more of the scene visible and decide who you want to focus on when you edit the clip later.
It helps to think of My FanCam as moving a smaller frame around inside the video you already recorded. If you’re filming several people, keeping the shot reasonably wide gives Galaxy AI more room to reposition that crop as your chosen person moves from one side of the scene to the other. If you start with a very tight shot, there’s simply less surrounding image available for My FanCam to use.
The same limitation applies when your subject moves outside the original frame. My FanCam reframes what the camera captured, but it can’t recover parts of a scene that were never recorded. Samsung also says the feature won’t work when it can’t find a subject to track, and it doesn’t guarantee tracking accuracy. So for something unpredictable, such as a sports game or a group performance, keeping the person you care about comfortably within the wider shot gives the feature a better starting point.
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Which Samsung phones support My FanCam?
Jimmy Gunawan/Shutterstock
Samsung currently demonstrates My FanCam on the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra. Both phones launched with One UI 9, which is where Samsung lists My FanCam among its new Galaxy AI features.
One UI 9 isn’t limited to those two phones. Samsung first rolled it out to the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Flip8, with more Galaxy devices set to follow. My FanCam is a little less straightforward, though, since Samsung says individual AI features can vary by device, language and region. So even if your phone gets One UI 9, My FanCam may not come along with it.
The SEC is investigating the near-collapse of AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness, sending subpoenas to major Wall Street banks for details about the fund’s trades, borrowing, and communications with lenders. The fund, founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, managed over $30 billion and borrowed tens of billions more before leveraged bets unraveled, forcing it to sell most of its stock portfolio to Citadel at a discount. The New York Times reports: The subpoenas asked for details on the timing of Situational Awareness’s trades and for its communications with lenders about the money it was borrowing, also known as “leverage,” two of those people said. The subpoenas additionally warned the banks to preserve any information regarding the San Francisco hedge fund. The S.E.C. oversees financial markets with an eye toward protecting small investors, and has brought civil cases regularly against investment firms that produced large losses. Any investigation into Situational Awareness would be at its earliest stages, and it’s no guarantee that it would lead to fines or other punishment. The hedge fund has not been accused of wrongdoing.
[…] Situational Awareness had a fast rise and an even quicker retreat. Founded just two years ago by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former researcher at OpenAI, it rode the A.I. boom to soaring investment returns. To achieve those results, however, the fund relied on heavy borrowing, as well as complicated and expensive financial instruments that magnify gains — and losses. The latter piled up quickly last month when the stock prices of publicly traded, high-flying A.I. companies dipped. At the same time, shares in more traditional technology companies — which the hedge fund had been betting against — rose, compounding the problem. Situational Awareness was forced into a fire sale. It wound up selling most of its stock portfolio to a rival, Citadel, at a discount.
The players are the controller in the play spaces at Immersive Gamebox. (Immersive Gamebox Photo)
Immersive Gamebox, a global interactive group gaming company, is coming to the Seattle region with its first Pacific Northwest location opening this week at Westfield Southcenter mall.
Designed for groups of two to six players, the venue uses projection mapping, touch-sensitive walls, 3D motion tracking, and spatial audio to create controller-free, immersive gaming environments.
Players use their bodies and movements to interact directly with the room to play titles based on major media franchises, including Netflix’s “Squid Game,” “Batman,” “Angry Birds,” and “Floor Is Lava.”
A grand opening celebration on Friday starts at 10 a.m. and includes a 2 p.m. ribbon cutting and giveaways. Bookings are currently open online, with limited availability for opening weekend.
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The Tukwila location marks a strategic shift for the UK-founded company, which operates roughly 20 company-owned venues across the U.S. and more than 35 worldwide. The Southcenter space is its first step into U.S. franchising, partnering with local operators to scale the experiential tech concept across North America.
Founded in 2018 by Tough Mudder co-founder Will Dean, London-based Immersive Gamebox (formerly Electric Gamebox) was acquired and recapitalized by Harlan Capital Partners in early 2025. The company uses proprietary, patented LiDAR tracking tech in its “smart rooms” and counts Index Ventures among its early venture backers.
Pricing varies by game and time. An hour of “Squid Game” for one adult costs $31.99. Thirty minutes of “Floor Is Lava” for a child ages 3 to 11 is $23.99.
Immersive Gamebox will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
I’ve tested about a hundred laptops in my time as a reviewer. Seeing brands cram more powerful hardware into a small machine is always fun. Desktops, on the other hand, are a little different. My last experience with desktops was using one inside the computer lab at school. Sure, gamers still love building desktops, but getting all the components together and then trying to piece the puzzle together has never made me see the appeal. Given the huge increase in RAM prices in 2026, however, desktops make more sense than ever. You can configure them how you like and upgrade them later without replacing the entire machine.
If you’re in the market for a desktop for home use but don’t want the hassle of building it yourself, pre-built desktops are the way to go. And Asus has just released its new V500 SFF (V501SV) in India. You get Intel’s Core 5 210H processor, along with expandable 8GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB M.2 SSD. At ₹71,990, all of that could make it a decent option for home users and students alike. But should you buy? To answer that question, I’ve been using the V501MV for about two weeks and have made it my home computer.
ASUS V500 SFF (V501MV) Review
Hisan Kidwai
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Summary
The Asus V500 SFF (V501MV) is a competent home desktop solution for parents and students alike. You don’t have to deal with the headache of assembling everything yourself, and you’re getting a capable machine without going too far up the price ladder. The design is unassuming, but I actually like the way it looks on a desk. You get a standard keyboard and mouse combo, and there are plenty of ports. Performance isn’t class-leading, especially with just 8GB of RAM, but it’s still good enough to handle all everyday tasks and some photo/video editing on the side.
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Design & Hardware
Usually, when reviewing a laptop, there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to design and hardware. But with desktops, there isn’t much. These towers will generally sit beneath your desk, so design isn’t much of a concern. Still, Asus has given it some sweet details. On the front, you get a wood-like panel in a dark brown finish that adds a sophisticated feel. You can also get the V501 in white to match your interiors, and it replaces the wood with a grey mesh. Whichever you go for, the desktop won’t look out of place in most homes. As for the dimensions, the V501 is 12.15 inches tall and 11.59 inches wide. I wouldn’t call it small. It’s more of a medium-sized desktop and did fit well on top of my desk against a 27-inch monitor.
At a time when almost every laptop is removing ports, desktops are the last saving grace. With the V501, you get two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, and a headphone jack, all on the front. At the back, there’s RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet, one HDMI 1.4, one DisplayPort 1.4, four USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and 7.1-channel audio. This should be plenty for most accessories, since I had no problems connecting everything I needed. Beyond that, there’s also a Wi-Fi 6 card and Bluetooth 5.4 support. I do have one problem with this port selection, though. That’s the lack of Thunderbolt ports, which limits your options for high-speed peripherals and external storage.
Keyboard & Mouse
Asus bundles a keyboard and mouse combo in the box to get you started. And that’s about all the praise I can give it. Don’t get me wrong, you can use the included keyboard for work, but it’s not my favorite thing. The keys have decent feedback, but are a little too noisy for my liking. They are also not that tactile, and the build quality is scratchy plastic. I’d recommend getting another decent keyboard for most office work.
The mouse, on the other hand, is okay to use. It’s wired, so latency isn’t an issue, and the tracking was pretty accurate in my experience. The buttons are also decent, and the scroll wheel was good for navigating long web pages and documents. The build quality is the same as the keyboard, but that wasn’t a big problem at all.
Performance
At the heart of the Asus V501 sits Intel’s Core 5 210H processor, which includes eight cores that can boost up to 4.8 GHz. It’s paired with 8GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD, both of which are expandable. As expected, the everyday performance of the V500 is pretty good. For home use, that is, browsing the web, making presentations, and watching videos, it handled everything perfectly, without any slowdowns or hitches. I was out of the country for a while, so the desktop was my sister’s primary work machine. She’s a student and said the V500 was great for filling out college applications, researching new topics, taking notes, and so on.
Since this is a machine aimed at students, I also installed a few IDEs to test the programming performance. The Asus V501 handled a large Python project in VS Code without any noticeable slowdowns. It can also be used to edit some photos and light videos, but the lack of a dedicated GPU makes editing 4K videos a distant dream. Since this is a review, I also ran a series of benchmarks to test the V500’s raw performance. On Geekbench, it scored 2214 points in the single-core test and 9496 in the multi-core test. In 3DMark TimeSpy, the device reached about 1,150 points. This level of performance should be enough for most household tasks for years to come.
As far as gaming is concerned, you need to set your expectations. The V501 is not a gaming desktop. You don’t get a dedicated GPU, which limits the games you can play. However, it can run esports titles such as Rocket League, Valorant, and CS:GO. I got roughly 60 FPS in Rocket League at medium settings. Valorant delivered a similar experience, regularly hovering around 60 FPS, with 1% lows of around 50 FPS.
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Verdict
At ₹71,990 for the unit I tested, the Asus V500 SFF (V501MV) is a competent home desktop solution for parents and students alike. You don’t have to deal with the headache of assembling everything yourself, and you’re getting a capable machine without going too far up the price ladder. The design is unassuming, but I actually like the way it looks on a desk. You get a standard keyboard and mouse combo, and there are plenty of ports. Performance isn’t class-leading, especially with just 8GB of RAM, but it’s still good enough to handle all everyday tasks and some photo/video editing on the side.
Situational Awareness, the AI focused hedge fund that was Wall Street’s fleeting obsession, is having a very bad month.
The company, led by twentysomething OpenAI alum Leopold Aschenbrenner, went all-in on a variety of AI investments and, for a period, enjoyed phenomenal growth. Then, at the end of July, a downturn in AI stocks erased billions of dollars in value at the firm. Now, federal regulators are reportedly probing the company as well.
The New York Times reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission has been subpoenaing banks that did business with the hedge fund. The subpoenas focus on the banks that supervised the fund’s trading and that channeled funding to support it, the outlet says.
The government reportedly warned the banks to “preserve any information” about the hedge fund, though it noted that Situational Awareness has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
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Situational Awareness did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment but told the Times that scrutiny of high-profile funds is to be expected, and that it would “cooperate to the fullest extent with any regulatory request.”
The company, which very publicly hitched its wagon to AI’s star, may serve as a cautionary tale about the industry’s supposedly unstoppable trajectory.
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