According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, 27-year-old Ukrainian national Yurii Nazarenko (also known by several aliases, including “John Wick”) was charged and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud involving identification documents and authentication features. Read Entire Article Source link
One of the unfortunate knock on effects of being generally insufferable is that many people don’t want to be associated with you in any way. And when you’re both insufferable and happen to be the most divisive American political figure in modern history, all the more so. And that is certainly why, during both of the Donald Trump presidential campaigns, it became common practice for musical artists to complain about his “unauthorized” use of their music at his campaign events.
Now, as this site has posted out a zillion times in the past, many of the complaints from artists are unfounded. Often, the use of the music in question was authorized through blanket performance licenses held by the venues for the rallies. While it should be obvious that best practice would be for candidates like Trump to seek permission to use music just to avoid any public complaining and backlash for that use, there is no real copyright claim to be had in those instances. Lots of people get this wrong.
Where that gets thrown for a loop is when it comes to sound recordings from before 1972. Here’s how Mike described it all back in 2016.
Copyright law is so screwed up that there actually may be a case where the law does require permission. And it has to do with pre-1972 sound recordings. If you’ve been reading Techdirt for any length of time, you know that we’ve discussed this issue many times in the past. Historically, while compositions were covered by copyright, under the 1909 Copyright Act sound recordings were not. This resulted in a patchwork of state laws (and state commonlaw) that created special forms of copyright at the state level. Eventually, sound recordings were put under federal copyright law, but it only applied to works recorded after February 14, 1972. Works recorded before that are not under federal copyright law, but remain basically the only things under those state copyright laws (the 1976 Copyright Act basically wiped out state copyright laws for everything but that one tiny thing).
The issue is not that simple, because nothing around this particular issue is simple. However, based on at least some of the rulings in pre-1972 sound recording copyright cases, federal copyright law doesn’t apply at all to those songs (other court opinions have come out otherwise). And thus, there’s an argument that the requirements involving blanket licenses for pre-1972 sound recordings may not apply, because the use of the sound recording may require a special public performance license from the copyright holder
Advertisement
And so now we have a decade or so of courts trying to figure this out. The outcomes of court cases are every bit as patchwork as the state laws that inform their outcomes. Add to all of this that even some of the blanket licenses from the likes of ASCAP include opt-outs for political campaigns and the like and it’s easy for all kinds of mistakes to be made.
Mistakes don’t really explain the rash of instances of artists complaining about Trump’s usage, however. He’s been through this so many times, in fact, that it seems obvious that he and his people simply don’t care to try to secure permission. I doubt they even looked into whether they needed to. And the onus to understand what licensing is needed is certainly on their shoulders and nobody else’s. That’s how you get Pharrell clapping back on Trump’s use of his music at an insane rally shortly after a nationalist murdered 11 people in Pittsburgh (the venue didn’t have a license from the artist’s rights management of choice). Or his campaign losing a copyright suit to Eddy Grant for the use of his music in a campaign video.
And, now, it’s also how you get the Trump campaign to settle a suit brought by the estate of Isaac Hayes over the song he co-wrote, Hold on, I’m Comin’, performed by Sam & Dave.
Hayes’ son and estate manager, music producer Isaac Hayes III, says in a Monday (Feb. 23) Instagram statement that the lawsuit “has been mutually resolved, and we are satisfied with the outcome.” Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
“This resolution represents more than the conclusion of a legal matter,” writes Hayes III in his statement. “It reaffirms the importance of protecting intellectual property rights and copyrights, especially as they relate to legacy, ownership and the responsible use of creative works.”
Advertisement
It will surprise nobody that I would love to debate most of what appears in that quote from Hayes III, but that is a separate matter entirely. Instead, my focus is on two undeniable realities. First, the chaos that has been created with these older, pre-1972 song recordings is insane, complicated, and needlessly convoluted. Whoever thought this setup was a good idea should be placed in a facility under constant care.
Second, Trump almost certainly committed copyright infringement, the above complaint notwithstanding. And he’s been through enough of these that he could very easily tell his people to just go get the proper permissions for any music that is played at his little fascism pep rallies. While the settlement terms go undisclosed, which is always annoying, I’ve seen enough of these to be able to read between the lines. The Hayes estate got its pint of blood, at a bare minimum.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to get artists that like you to let you play their music at your events, Donald? There were at least a few artists at that emotional support half time show that nobody watched that you could choose from.
Supabase, a popular developer database platform, is facing disruptions in India — one of its key markets — has been blocked in India, TechCrunch has learned. New Delhi ordered internet providers to block its website, resulting in patchy access across networks.
The blocking order was issued on February 24 under Section 69A of India’s Information Technology Act, according to a source familiar with the matter. The provision empowers the government to restrict public access to online content.
The Indian government did not publicly cite a reason for the move, and it was not immediately clear whether the action was linked to a cybersecurity concern, copyright complaint, or another issue. It was also unclear how long the restrictions would remain in place.
Access to Supabase has been inconsistent in India over the past several days, with the San Francisco-based company acknowledging the issue in posts on social media starting Wednesday. While the restrictions were first reported by Supabase on Reliance Industries’ JioFiber network, users have since flagged similar problems across multiple internet providers and telecom networks. In one post on Friday, Supabase tagged India’s IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, asking him to intervene and restore access, though the company later removed the message and said in a subsequent update that the site remained blocked for many users in the country.
Advertisement
We understand many users in India continue to be blocked from accessing Supabase. We acknowledge the difficulties this is causing for our users there. Supabase continues to follow up through all available channels to resolve this issue.
An Indian founder, who asked not to be named to avoid potential repercussions, told TechCrunch they had stopped seeing new user sign-ups from India over the past two to three days. A technology consultant working with local startups, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were unable to reliably access Supabase for both development and production purposes.
While Supabase suggested workarounds such as switching DNS settings or using a VPN (which reroute internet traffic to bypass local restrictions), the founder said such steps were not practical for most end users.
Advertisement
At the time of publication, TechCrunch was able to verify that supabase.co remained inaccessible on ACT Fibernet, JioFiber and Airtel connections in New Delhi. However, two users on ACT Fibernet in Bengaluru said they were still able to access the service, suggesting the restrictions may be unevenly implemented.
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA | June 9, 2026
Advertisement
A screenshot showing Supabase’s access blocked on ACT FibernetImage Credits:Screenshot / Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
Notably, Supabase’s main website remained accessible in India — but its underlying developer infrastructure did not.
India is Supabase’s fourth-largest source of traffic, accounting for about 9% of global visits, according to data from Similarweb, highlighting the potential fallout for the country’s developer ecosystem. The platform’s global traffic jumped more than 111% year over year to about 4.2 million visits in January. In India, visits rose roughly 179% to about 365,000, compared with a 168.5% increase in the U.S. to about 627,000.
The incident highlights broader concerns about India’s website blocking regime, said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia Pacific policy director at Access Now.
“This is a simple fact that has grave consequences for developers and others,” he told TechCrunch. “You don’t know where you can safely run projects without the danger that something might happen where it gets blocked, and suddenly you’re scrambling to find a way.”
Advertisement
India has previously faced criticism over broad website blocking measures. In 2014, authorities briefly restricted access to developer platform GitHub, along with services such as Vimeo, Pastebin and Weebly, during a security probe. Users on some Indian networks in 2023 also reported that a key GitHub content domain had been blocked by certain ISPs, according to earlier reports.
Founded in 2020 by CEO Paul Copplestone and CTO Ant Wilson, Supabase positions itself as an open-source alternative to Firebase built on PostgreSQL. The startup has gained traction amid rising interest in so-called “vibe coding” tools and AI-driven app development, and has raised about $380 million across three funding rounds since September 2024, lifting its valuation to $5 billion.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT, as well as telecom providers including ACT Fibernet, Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Jio, did not respond to requests for comment. Copplestone and Wilson also did not respond.
As Apple hits 50 years old, AppleInsider recounts the pivotal role of each of its CEOs, starting with the very first one, Michael Scott. He made bold choices, but he made them badly.
Michael Scott, age unknown — image credit: Business Insider
Steve Jobs was not Apple’s first Chief Executive Officer. While he founded the company on April 1, 1976, with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, Jobs had no experience running what was aiming to become a large company. So a CEO was needed, but actually Apple’s first two chief executives are tightly interlinked. Mike Markkula would become the second one, but he hired the first — and then later persuaded that first to leave. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
BenQ’s W2720i projector proves that you actually can be a jack and master of all trades
Excellent built-in smarts
Impressive picture performance with all sources
Strong value for money
Occasional HDR clipping
Lacks a straightforward Game preset
Integrated sound system is rather perfunctory
Key Features
DLP LED lighting
Using LED lamps to light the W2720i is claimed to deliver a huge 30,000 hours of uninterrupted viewing without any lamp replacement. Cooling noise is claimed to be reduced, too.
4K HDR support
Advertisement
The W2720i uses DLP’s XPR technology to play 4K sources, and supports the HDR10, HLG and even HDR10+ HDR formats.
Built-in Android TV smarts
The ‘i’ bit at the end of the W2720i’s name alerts us to the fact that it is a ‘smart’ projector, in this case powered by Android TV.
Introduction
Most projectors fall pretty squarely into one of two camps.
Advertisement
They’re either serious home cinema projectors designed for dark rooms and shorn of such ‘froth’ as built-in sound and smart streaming systems, or else they’re living room projectors designed to work in less than ideal viewing conditions with lots of convenience features but potentially compromised picture performance.
And experience suggests that projectors such as the BenQ W2720i that try to cross that divide tend to come a bit of a cropper.
Advertisement
So can this £1799 BenQ mid-ranger buck that unfortunate crossover trend? Or is it more proof that when it comes to projection you really do need to pick a side and stick with it?
Advertisement
Design
Clever blend of lifestyle and ‘serious’ features
Backlit buttons on the remote
Recessed lens to reduce potential damage
The W2720i’s design cunningly straddles the dedicated theatre and living room projector worlds. It’s a bit bigger than most living room projectors, but not as enormous as many of the best home theatre projectors, while its gloss-free mid grey exterior with its textured top and sides treads a tidy line between no-nonsense seriousness and living room appeal.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The W2720i’s rounded edges and corners give it a soft but not frivolous look, and the projector is weighty enough to feel like it has some quality innards inside without being so heavy that you can’t pretty easily move it around your home or put it away and get out again if you only want to use it from time to time.
Advertisement
The remote control continues the mix of serious and lifestyle by combining an attractive rounded shape and glossy white finish with a thoughtful button layout and backlighting behind the buttons that means you can still see what they do even in a blacked out movie room.
User Experience
Ergonomic and backlight remote control
Google Voice search and Google Assistant enabled
Familiar Android TV core interface
The W2720i is more straightforward and flexible to use than many projectors. For starters, as well as its remote being comfortable to hold and sporting backlit buttons it carries a built in mic so that you can send spoken search terms to the projector using Android TV’s Google Assistant system.
The Android TV menus will be familiar to many through the system’s popularity as a TV smart platform, and they’re visual enough in their approach to be fairly straightforward for novices to learn their way round.
Android TV is not as clever at tracking your viewing habits and making relevant recommendations as some smart systems, but it’s still more than you find on most ‘serious’ projectors.
Advertisement
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Advertisement
BenQ’s own projector set up and control menus can be accessed separately to the Android TV interface, saving you from having to go through Android TV for every little tweak, and they’re pretty straightforward in structure and rich in options.
One final way of controlling the W2720i is a row of control buttons at the back of the projector’s right hand side for those times when the remote control has been swallowed by a black hole again.
Features
4K HDR playback
4K/120Hz gaming support
LED lighting with 30,000 hours of lamp life
The W2720i has a lot going on for a projector you can buy at the time of writing for £1799 / $2499.
Starting with its use of an LED lighting system to illuminate its DLP-type optics. This yields such advantages as a 30,000-hour claimed maintenance-free lifespan, reduced cooling fan noise, and a few startling specifications including a claimed 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and coverage of up to 90% of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum used in most HDR mastering.
The W2720i’s maximum brightness is quoted at 2500 lumens. That’s down a fair bit on the sort of figures I’m seeing from more single-mindedly living room focused projectors these days – but it’s very in line with the sort of figures we tend to get with dedicated home theatre projectors.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The W2720i’s home theatre appeal is further bolstered by its provision of a Filmmaker Mode, designed to meet the requirements of the UHD Alliance to provide consumers with a simple shortcut to seeing content as it was designed to look by its creators. The projector even ships having already received a factory calibration, too.
In keeping with the W2720i’s apparent desire to be all things to all AV fans, it also has plenty of appeal to casual users. On the picture front there’s a series of presets that target a more dynamic, richly saturated picture presentation than the Filmmaker Mode provides, and a handy HDR Pro option works, like the HDR dynamic tone mapping systems found in TVs, to continually optimise the presentation of HDR images to the projector’s capabilities.
Unusually, the W2720i’s bid to fit into the casual as well as home theatre projector worlds sees it carrying an AI Cinema Mode option that takes ambient room conditions into account as well as analysing image content when figuring out how best to display whatever you’re watching.
Set up is simplified, meanwhile, by a screen fit system that automatically matches the projector’s images to the size of your screen. Manual focus and (1.3x) zoom facilities are provided under a sliding cover above the lens barrel, along with a vertical optical image shift wheel. The projector’s menus further provide the option to correct the image’s geometry via eight adjustable points.
Advertisement
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Advertisement
A CineMaster submenu provides a selection of image processing options for enhancing colours, sharpness, motion fluidity, and contrast. These features work with varying degrees of success, and all need to be approached with caution since they can start to have a detrimental effect on picture quality if pushed too hard. Overall, though, they’re worth at least experimenting with.
The W2720i’s connections include an impressive three HDMI ports rather than the two most projectors are limited to, as well as two useful USB ports (one offering power for video streaming sticks), an optical digital audio output, a 3.5mm audio output, plus RS-232C and 12V trigger ports to aid integration of the W2720i into a wider integrated control system.
There’s also built-in Wi-Fi support to feed the Android TV smart system, and it turns out that one of the three HDMI inputs can handle 4K/120Hz game feeds from PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles – though the HFR support doesn’t extend to variable refresh rates. You can also use one of the HDMI inputs to pass sound, even Dolby Atmos soundtracks, to audio devices compatible with HDMI’s audio return channel (ARC) feature.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Android TV is better implemented on the W2720i than it is on most projectors. It’s slicker and more stable, and features better integration of the main streaming apps than most projectors manage. In other words, most of the key apps are aware of the capabilities (4K, HDR, HDR10+) of the projector they’re installed on and can adapt their performance accordingly.
Such integration is actually a key feature when it comes to getting a consistently good performance from an online projector.
Advertisement
Advertisement
While the W2720i’s Android TV system supports most of the big global streaming services, such as Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV, it doesn’t carry all of the UK terrestrial broadcaster catchup apps. There’s no BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 or ITVX support. If you want these you’ll need to add an external streaming device.
Wrapping up a generally impressive ‘crossover’ projector feature count are support for 3D for anyone still invested in that, and HDR support that extends, as noted in passing earlier, to the HDR10+ HDR format. HDR10+ provides compatible devices with extra scene by scene image information to help displays deliver more accurate results.
Picture Quality
Impressive contrast and colour
Outstanding sharpness and detail
Unusually excellent streaming picture quality
Concerns that the W2720i’s apparent desire to appeal to both premium home theatre fans and living room users might leave its picture performance stuck between two stools evaporate almost instantly. This really is a projector that can deliver the goods pretty much wherever you want to use it.
The first thing that struck me about the W2720i’s pictures was how phenomenally sharp and detailed they look. Its optical engine doesn’t deliver a ‘true’ 4K performance in the sense of a dedicated DLP mirror for each pixel in a 4K picture, but the Texas Instruments XPR pixel shifting/repeat mirror ‘flashing’ per frame system yields such dense, sharp and detailed images that it’s hard not to agree with the Consumer Technology Association’s assertion that what you’re seeing is actually 4K.
Advertisement
The purity and density of the image means it holds up well at really large screen sizes, as well as helping to paint an impressively three-dimensional world even when you’re not actually making use of the projector’s 3D capabilities.
Advertisement
There’s nothing forced about this sharpness either, so long as you don’t become too enthusiastic with the CineMaster Pixel Enhancer feature. Instead it just feels like the natural result of multiple elements of the W2720i’s pictures working in perfect harmony.
Colour, for instance, as well as being vibrant and rich are also full of nuance and tonal shifts so subtle that they’re able to achieve the same sort of finesse you might hope to see on a top quality 4K TV screen. All without any noise or striping/banding interference.
This helps objects in a picture take on a more solid, authentic look, as well as underlining the sense of fine detail and texture.
Advertisement
Credible colour saturations are retained in dark sequences too, avoiding the washed out effect or green tinge that some projectors suffer with when showing such scenes, while skin tones look consistently impressively natural and nuanced regardless of whether they’re appearing in a bright or dark setting.
No colours feel out of kilter with any others, either. They all seem to be singing from the same colour spectrum hymn sheet, with no tone feeling too strong or weak. This again plays a big part in enabling the W2720i’s pictures to achieve as much subtlety and insight as they do.
Advertisement
Calman Ultimate HDR ColorChecker tests reveal a DeltaE 2000 average error score of 4.61 in the all-round most engaging HDR10 picture preset, which is admirably close to the three or less average error level where even a trained eye can’t detect deviations from the established industry video standards. This DeltaE 2000 average error figure drops to just 3.4 with SDR content, too.
Advertisement
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The W2720i’s handling of light is exemplary for a sub-£2k projector. Bright HDR scenes look if anything more punchy than you might expect from the claimed 2,500 lumens of maximum brightness – an impression bolstered by the projector’s ability to retain deeper black colours during dark scenes than most HDR-friendly projectors while simultaneously retaining plenty of subtle shadow details.
This combination of bright HDR, convincing black tones and subtle dark details really is a hard mix for projectors to achieve, yet the W2720i makes it look easy.
The W2720i also handles motion well, even with the 24fps films that might well make up much of such a talented projector’s content diet. Judder never looks exaggerated even with no motion processing in play – though if you do fancy making things look a little smoother, the gentlest of BenQ’s motion options takes the edge off judder without smoothing things out so much that films start to look like Eastenders.
The W2720i adapts to SDR effortlessly if no HDR version of something you want to watch is available, and turns out to be a fantastically enjoyable big-screen gaming display – despite the fact that it doesn’t support variable refresh rates and, oddly, doesn’t provide a dedicated Game preset. Its innate crispness and vibrancy plays perfectly with today’s game graphics, and if you set the projector’s processing system to Fast and then follow the further instructions the projector issues regarding essentially turning off as many processing options as possible, the time the W2720i takes to render images drops to just 17.8ms – a very game-friendly result by projector standards.
Advertisement
Advertisement
One final area where the W2720i’s pictures stand out is with the quality of its streaming. I’ve never seen images from a built-in projector smart system that look as clean, 4K (where a 4K stream is available), precise and natural. Netflix in particular looks gorgeous. This is a big deal considering how many people now use streamed video as their main movie source.
The W2720i’s picture are so good for its money that it seems almost churlish to mention its one or two limitations. But I guess I wouldn’t be doing my job right if I didn’t, so…
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
First, while the W2720i’s HDR presentation does look HDR, it isn’t as full on bright looking as it is with some more aggressive projectors out there. Though I’d argue that, actually, presenting a more compelling light range like the W2720i does, in the sense that there are decent black colours to go with the vibrant colours and peak whites, is overall preferable to just pumping out more brightness.
The ‘hard’ upper limit to the W2720i’s brightness can cause the very brightest, whitest parts of the picture to sometimes suffer with clipping, though, where subtle shading information is essentially bleached out of the picture. Especially if you’re watching in the Filmmaker Mode. Though the sort of content areas that cause this don’t crop up all that often.
Finally, while the W2720i’s dynamic light controls are mostly remarkably assured, consistent and effective without being distracting, just occasionally the projector’s usually impressive black levels can suddenly jump up into greyness if a particularly intense bright highlight suddenly pops into view against a dark backdrop. Especially if you’re using one of the projector’s relatively dynamic picture presets.
Advertisement
Advertisement
That pretty much wraps up everything I managed to put in the W2720i’s negative column, though – and it’s barely a drop in the ocean of everything the projector gets right.
Sound Quality
2 x 5W system
Limited bass
While building a speaker system inside the W2720i is a nice touch from a convenience perspective, you should only think of it as an audio option of last resort. For one thing it just can’t get very loud. Even cranked up to its maximum setting it sounds too muted and faint to adequately accompany the sort of epic images the projector can produce.
Bass during heavy action scenes or punchy musical moments tends to sound more trapped inside the W2720i’s belly than mid-range and treble sounds, too, leaving it sounding a bit dislocated from the rest of the mix.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
There are a couple of positives to report as well, though. Starting with the fact that while it doesn’t rumble its way out of the W2720i’s ‘cage’ as expansively as I’d like, bass does have a quite rounded tone that stops it sounding thin and wimpy, and also tends to avoid the sort of crackling and drop out issues so rife with underpowered speakers.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Also, while bass might suffer with locked in syndrome, other frequencies are cast fairly nicely beyond the projector’s chassis, creating a decently substantial and detailed soundstage that’s just missing that key element of heft.
Should you buy it?
Its all-round picture quality is excellent
Regardless of whether you’re watching 4K Blu-rays, streamed video or playing games, or whether you’re watching in a darkened theatre room or regular living room, the W2720i produces beautifully sharp, richly coloured and natural looking images.
Advertisement
While the W2720i is a good gaming projector, it strangely doesn’t carry a dedicated Game preset – even though it provides you with instructions of how to essentially manually set one up yourself!
Advertisement
Final Thoughts
The W2720i is arguably the best crossover projector released to date, delivering all the features, set up options and, best of all, picture quality tools and flexibility it needs to straddle the serious home theatre and fun living room gap.
It’s not quite perfect, of course. Its built-in sound doesn’t really do its pictures justice, and every now and then a very bright image highlight might bleach out a bit, or cause surrounding dark areas to momentarily look grey.
A projector this good really deserves to be partnered with an external audio set up, though, and its picture issues, such as they are, are rare enough to be rendered almost meaningless in the context of how good the W2720i is for its money.
How We Test
The BenQ W2720i was tested over two weeks with HDR and SDR content. Image quality was checked objectively with Portrait Displays’ Calman Ultimate software and G1 signal generator, plus the Klein K10-A colorimeter.
Tested for two weeks
Tested with real world content
Also tested with industry-respected objective testing equipment
FAQs
Which HDR formats does the BenQ W2720i support?
As well as the basic HDR10 and HLG formats, the W2720i supports HDR10+, with its extra scene by scene image data.
Advertisement
What type of projector technology does the BenQ W2720i use?
The W2720i uses LED lighting and a DLP optical system.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Test Data
BenQ W2720i
Input lag (ms)
17.8 ms
Full Specs
BenQ W2720i Review
UK RRP
£1799
USA RRP
$2499
Manufacturer
BenQ
Size (Dimensions)
420 x 305 x 143 MM
Weight
6.5 KG
Release Date
2025
Resolution
3840 x 2160
Projector Type
DLP projector
Brightness Lumens
2500
Lamp Life
30000
Contrast Ratio
2,000,000:1
Max Image Size
300 inches
HDR
Yes
Types of HDR
HDR10, HLG, HDR10+
Refresh Rate
120 Hz
Ports
Three HDMI inputs, 12V Trigger port, three USB-A ports (one powered, one Service only), RS-232C port, optical digital audio output, 3.5mm line out
Considering that the Buds 2a alone cost $129, that means you’re saving quite a fair bit on what you would have paid otherwise, making this the perfect pick for anyone who’s agreeably content with their existing phones and earbuds but is looking to make a more premium upgrade.
This payday deal gets you the Google Pixel 10a plus free Pixel Buds
Pick up the Google Pixel 10a during this payday promo and you’ll get a complimentary set of Pixel Buds.
Even though the ‘a’ series devices from Google are technically meant to be the more affordable line of phones, there’s still a lot to love about the Pixel 10a that separates it from rivals at this price point, and it actually goes a lot further thanks to the value of the Pixel Buds.
On the phone itself, you’re getting a slick design that feels even more premium than its price tag suggests, with seven years of updates, a 30+ hour battery life, a great camera and a vibrant 6.3-inch display.
Advertisement
Advertisement
That’s alongside a huge 128 GB of storage to keep all your favourite apps, photos and videos stored locally (without having to delete things to make space constantly).
Where Google’s hardware really shines, though (and where the Pixel 10a excels) is in the ability to showcase its software in the best light possible.
Google software integrations and feature sets really need to be seen in-person to be understood, but needless to say, it offers so much more to try than the traditional Android experience you might have grown accustomed to.
For the Buds 2a, you’re getting a simple, albeit effective set of wireless earbuds that can deliver quite the punch when listening to your favourite tunes.
Advertisement
TL;DR – if your existing phone and earbuds combo are a little worse for wear, then you deserve an upgrade, and it just so happens that you can now get Google’s latest hardware for a steal, and it might be a worthy entry to our best budget phone buying guide.
For the past year, the enterprise AI community has been locked in a debate about how much freedom to give AI agents. Too little, and you get expensive workflow automation that barely justifies the “agent” label. Too much, and you get the kind of data-wiping disasters that plagued early adopters of tools like OpenClaw. This week, Google Labs released an update to Opal, its no-code visual agent builder, that quietly lands on an answer — and it carries lessons that every IT leader planning an agent strategy should study carefully.
The update introduces what Google calls an “agent step” that transforms Opal’s previously static, drag-and-drop workflows into dynamic, interactive experiences. Instead of manually specifying which model or tool to call and in what order, builders can now define a goal and let the agent determine the best path to reach it — selecting tools, triggering models like Gemini 3 Flash or Veo for video generation, and even initiating conversations with users when it needs more information.
It sounds like a modest product update. It is not. What Google has shipped is a working reference architecture for the three capabilities that will define enterprise agents in 2026:
Advertisement
Adaptive routing
Persistent memory
Human-in-the-loop orchestration
…and it’s all made possible by the rapidly improving reasoning abilities of frontier models like the Gemini 3 series.
The ‘off the rails’ inflection point: Why better models change everything about agent design
To understand why the Opal update matters, you need to understand a shift that has been building across the agent ecosystem for months.
The first wave of enterprise agent frameworks — tools like the early versions of CrewAI and the initial releases of LangGraph — were defined by a tension between autonomy and control. Early models simply were not reliable enough to be trusted with open-ended decision-making. The result was what practitioners began calling “agents on rails”: tightly constrained workflows where every decision point, every tool call, and every branching path had to be pre-defined by a human developer.
This approach worked, but it was limited. Building an agent on rails meant anticipating every possible state the system might encounter — a combinatorial nightmare for anything beyond simple, linear tasks. Worse, it meant that agents could not adapt to novel situations, the very capability that makes agentic AI valuable in the first place.
Advertisement
The Gemini 3 series, along with recent releases like Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6, represents a threshold where models have become reliable enough at planning, reasoning, and self-correction that the rails can start coming off. Google’s own Opal update is an acknowledgment of this shift. The new agent step does not require builders to pre-define every path through a workflow. Instead, it trusts the underlying model to evaluate the user’s goal, assess available tools, and determine the optimal sequence of actions dynamically.
This is the same pattern that made Claude Code’s agentic workflows and tool calling viable: the models are good enough to decide the agent’s next step and often even to self-correct without a human manually re-prompting every error. The difference compared to Claude Code is that Google is now packaging this capability into a consumer-grade, no-code product — a strong signal that the underlying technology has matured past the experimental phase.
For enterprise teams, the implication is direct: if you are still designing agent architectures that require pre-defined paths for every contingency, you are likely over-engineering. The new generation of models supports a design pattern where you define goals and constraints, provide tools, and let the model handle routing — a shift from programming agents to managing them.
Memory across sessions: The feature that separates demos from production agents
The second major addition in the Opal update is persistent memory. Google now allows Opals to remember information across sessions — user preferences, prior interactions, accumulated context — making agents that improve with use rather than starting from zero each time.
Advertisement
Google has not disclosed the technical implementation behind Opal’s memory system. But the pattern itself is well-established in the agent-building community. Tools like OpenClaw handle memory primarily through markdown and JSON files, a simple approach that works well for single-user systems. Enterprise deployments face a harder problem: maintaining memory across multiple users, sessions, and security boundaries without leaking sensitive context between them.
This single-user versus multi-user memory divide is one of the most under-discussed challenges in enterprise agent deployment. A personal coding assistant that remembers your project structure is fundamentally different from a customer-facing agent that must maintain separate memory states for thousands of concurrent users while complying with data retention policies.
What the Opal update signals is that Google considers memory a core feature of agent architecture, not an optional add-on. For IT decision-makers evaluating agent platforms, this should inform procurement criteria. An agent framework without a clear memory strategy is a framework that will produce impressive demos but struggle in production, where the value of an agent compounds over repeated interactions with the same users and datasets.
Human-in-the-loop is not a fallback — it is a design pattern
The third pillar of the Opal update is what Google calls “interactive chat” — the ability for an agent to pause execution, ask the user a follow-up question, gather missing information, or present choices before proceeding. In agent architecture terminology, this is human-in-the-loop orchestration, and its inclusion in a consumer product is telling.
Advertisement
The most effective agents in production today are not fully autonomous. They are systems that know when they have reached the limits of their confidence and can gracefully hand control back to a human. This is the pattern that separates reliable enterprise agents from the kind of runaway autonomous systems that have generated cautionary tales across the industry.
In frameworks like LangGraph, human-in-the-loop has traditionally been implemented as an explicit node in the graph — a hard-coded checkpoint where execution pauses for human review. Opal’s approach is more fluid: the agent itself decides when it needs human input based on the quality and completeness of the information it has. This is a more natural interaction pattern and one that scales better, because it does not require the builder to predict in advance exactly where human intervention will be needed.
For enterprise architects, the lesson is that human-in-the-loop should not just be treated as a safety net bolted on after the agent is built. It should be a first-class capability of the agent framework itself — one that the model can invoke dynamically based on its own assessment of uncertainty.
Dynamic routing: Letting the model decide the path
The final significant feature is dynamic routing, where builders can define multiple paths through a workflow and let the agent select the appropriate one based on custom criteria. Google’s example is an executive briefing agent that takes different paths depending on whether the user is meeting with a new or existing client — searching the web for background information in one case, reviewing internal meeting notes in the other.
Advertisement
This is conceptually similar to the conditional branching that LangGraph and similar frameworks have supported for some time. But Opal’s implementation lowers the barrier dramatically by allowing builders to describe routing criteria in natural language rather than code. The model interprets the criteria and makes the routing decision, rather than requiring a developer to write explicit conditional logic.
The enterprise implication is significant. Dynamic routing powered by natural language criteria means that business analysts and domain experts — not just developers — can define complex agent behaviors. This shifts agent development from a purely engineering discipline to one where domain knowledge becomes the primary bottleneck, a change that could dramatically accelerate adoption across non-technical business units.
What Google is really building: An agent intelligence layer
Stepping back from individual features, the broader pattern in the Opal update is that Google is building an intelligence layer that sits between the user’s intent and the execution of complex, multi-step tasks. Building on lessons from an internal agent SDK called “Breadboard”, the agent step is not just another node in a workflow — it is an orchestration layer that can recruit models, invoke tools, manage memory, route dynamically, and interact with humans, all driven by the ever improving reasoning capabilities of the underlying Gemini models.
This is the same architectural pattern emerging across the industry. Anthropic’s Claude Code, with its ability to autonomously manage coding tasks overnight, relies on similar principles: a capable model, access to tools, persistent context, and feedback loops that allow self-correction. The Ralph Wiggum plugin formalized the insight that models can be pressed through their own failures to arrive at correct solutions — a brute-force version of the self-correction that Opal now packages some of that into a polished consumer experience.
Advertisement
For enterprise teams, the takeaway is that agent architecture is converging on a common set of primitives: goal-directed planning, tool use, persistent memory, dynamic routing, and human-in-the-loop orchestration. The differentiator will not be which primitives you implement, but how well you integrate them — and how effectively you leverage the improving capabilities of frontier models to reduce the amount of manual configuration required.
The practical playbook for enterprise agent builders
Google shipping these capabilities in a free, consumer-facing product sends a clear message: the foundational patterns for building effective AI agents are no longer cutting-edge research. They are productized. Enterprise teams that have been waiting for the technology to mature now have a reference implementation they can study, test, and learn from — at zero cost.
The practical steps are straightforward. First, evaluate whether your current agent architectures are over-constrained. If every decision point requires hard-coded logic, you are likely not leveraging the planning capabilities of current frontier models. Second, prioritize memory as a core architectural component, not an afterthought. Third, design human-in-the-loop as a dynamic capability the agent can invoke, rather than a fixed checkpoint in a workflow. And fourth, explore natural language routing as a way to bring domain experts into the agent design process.
Opal itself probably won’t become the platform enterprises adopt. But the design patterns it embodies — adaptive, memory-rich, human-aware agents powered by frontier models — are the patterns that will define the next generation of enterprise AI. Google has shown its hand. The question for IT leaders is whether they are paying attention.
Alongside the investment, OpenAI and Amazon have also reached a deal in which OpenAI will utilise 2GW of computing capacity powered by Amazon’s in-house Trainium chips.
US artificial intelligence platform OpenAI has today (27 February) announced a $110bn funding round, reportedly a record for the private technology company, with a figure that is double that of its previous funding round.
Amazon invested $50bn, Nvidia invested $30bn and SoftBank invested $30bn. The investment brings OpenAI from a $500bn valuation to a $730bn pre-money valuation and OpenAI has stated that the organisation expects additional investors to join as the round progresses.
Commenting on the news, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, told CNBC: “We’re super excited about this deal. AI is going to happen everywhere. It’s transforming the whole economy and the world needs a lot of collective computing power to meet the demand.”
Advertisement
OpenAI also confirmed that the funding announcement will not impact the terms of a current partnership it holds with tech giant Microsoft, which was established in 2019. In a joint statement, both organisations agreed that the deal is “strong and central” to operations. CNBC also reported that Microsoft has the option to participate in OpenAI’s funding round.
Amazon’s $50bn investment in OpenAI will begin with an initial commitment of $15bn, followed by another $35bn over the course of the next few months when “certain conditions” are met. OpenAI also has an additional deal with Amazon in which the organisation will utilise 2GW of computing capacity powered by Amazon’s in-house Trainium chips.
The announcement comes at a time when many of the globe’s most influential technology companies are vying for dominance in the AI space. Earlier this week, Intrinsic, an Alphabet-owned software and AI company, announced that it was joining Google, as a means of enabling Google to move further into the physical AI space.
Japan’s SoftBank was also recently announced as the first to deploy SambaNova’s new SN50 chips within its data centres in Japan, while Intel is also partnering with SambaNova to roll out an Intel-powered AI cloud.
Advertisement
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Electronics pose such a unique and interesting problem for DIY’ers itching to fix things. Most of your household electronics equipment won’t experience major faults or damage regularly, but every once in a while, the need to repair one of these surprisingly sophisticated elements comes into focus. You might have a chewed lamp wire that needs replacing, or a child’s toy may have been thrown one too many times, jarring loose an integral component. Breaking the lid off these electronic products and seeing what the guts inside look like is the dream of many tinkerers and home improvers. These kinds of operations become even more routine for people who like to customize their equipment after the fact or DIY their entire PC build. Guitarists represent yet another subset of the gearhead world where integrated electronics and the occasional soldering need meet an entirely separate hobby area.
Getting your first soldering iron can seem like a daunting task because of the amount of options in size and scale to consider. Experts generally suggest veering toward a unit that produces at least 30 watts to ensure consistent and even heating, but many have had great experiences with smaller, weaker soldering systems, too. Your ideal soldering tool will be heavily dependent on the tasks you anticipate facing. I’ve frequently dabbled in the process myself, and used both station setups and basic plug-in irons before.
Advertisement
These five soldering tools run the gamut of what’s out there, and represent some of the best options in their categories.
Advertisement
X-Tronic 3020-XTS 75W Soldering Station
The X-Tronic 3020-XTS 75-Watt Soldering Station is a full-service station-style option. The tool goes far beyond the basic layout you might expect from a simple soldering unit, but it’s available at Amazon for $55, making it a tool that remains firmly in the camp of cost-effectiveness. The unit comes with some required soldering accessories and two grabber arms to hold a workpiece in place while you solder. This means buyers can get started on their repair projects with the tool right away, without requiring any additional purchases for basic soldering tasks. The unit has an average rating of 4.5 stars from 4,464 buyers.
The X-Tronic features a 75-watt total output with 60 watts of power directed to the soldering iron itself. It features a wide temperature range from 194 degrees Fahrenheit to 896 degrees Fahrenheit and can reach its maximum temperature from around 400 degrees in less than 30 seconds for fast augmentation to the output when needed. It includes an LED digital display with a central control panel that makes dialing in settings easy. The station also features a 55-inch power cord and a 40-inch tether for the iron. Solderers who plan to remain in place while working on electronic repair tasks can gain significant value from a solution like this.
Advertisement
Weller 60W Soldering Iron
Soldering iron users demanding mobility should use a tool like the Weller 60-Watt Soldering Iron. It’s a 60-watt iron that comes without the added heft and stationary nature of soldering stations. You simply plug the tool in and wait for it to achieve operating temperature. This makes it incredibly mobile and allows users to achieve their goals in a wide range of usage conditions. There’s no need to maintain a dedicated soldering space with a unit like this, instead you’ll bring your soldering iron to the application demanded of it.
This is a straightforward implementation, but it features some important integrations that make for an experience going beyond the basics. It doesn’t appear to provide a temperature range, but instead simply heats up to 880 degrees Fahrenheit when engaged. It comes with a range of soldering tips and features a quick tip change capability that makes swapping them out simple. The tool also utilizes an integrated safety rest and an LED halo ring around the front end of its ergonomic body.
The tool is available from Amazon for $33, and it has received a 4.2-star average rating from 422 buyers. It’s also listed at Home Depot for $44, and here buyers have given it a similar rating, with a 4.1-star average across 559 reviews. You can also find the tool on Weller’s website, listed for $41.
Advertisement
Ryobi ONE+ 18V Hybrid Power Soldering Station
Ryobi is a brand with plenty of value for users of all backgrounds. Ryobi makes a USB Lithium soldering pen that stands among its small-scale cordless tools that rival the full-sized 18-volt catalog. However, the Ryobi ONE+ 18-Volt Hybrid Power Soldering Station offers something that isn’t typically built into the platform of a station layout. This sets it apart as a dynamic solution that can serve numerous functions. The tool features a hybrid power model that allows it to be plugged into the wall or operated for over four hours of continuous runtime with a ONE+ 18-volt battery pack for cordless soldering production. The tool features an integrated temperature control that ranges from 300 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The iron comes with a three-foot cord for maximum mobility and includes a range of tips and other accessories.
Advertisement
The tool is available at Ryobi’s website for $63, and here it has received 166 reviews with a 4.8-star average rating. It’s also available at Home Depot ($63) and Amazon ($57), and at these outlets, it has garnered 4.7 stars from 455 reviewers and 4.6 stars from 427, respectively. The tool delivers 45 watts of power and utilizes a neatly arranged onboard storage design for sponges, tips, and other key accessories and materials.
Advertisement
Hakko FX-888D 70W Soldering Station
The Hakko FX-888D 70-Watt Soldering Station takes the footprint of a soldering station and breaks it into separate components. This enables mobility improvements and additional functionality. The tool comes with a rotary encoder and an improved interface over its previous model. The unit is available on Amazon for $121, and it has an average rating of 4.8 stars from 238 buyers. It delivers a 70-watt power rating and utilizes an ergonomic soldering pen with a detachable cord to make storage simpler when the tool is not in use.
Unlike most soldering stations, the iron holder and accessory elements are separated from the main power source and control unit. This allows you to organize your workspace more flexibly. The tool features a temperature range between 120 degrees and 899 degrees Fahrenheit. It can also achieve a 660-degree output in just 26 seconds. The tool also offers five preset temperature modes, enabling faster switching between the temperatures you frequently use. The tool also maintains an idle temperature within 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit of its setting and is compatible with more than 30 unique tip shapes for versatile soldering across project types.
Advertisement
Milwaukee M12 Cordless Soldering Iron
The Milwaukee M12 Cordless Soldering Iron isn’t the only cordless soldering tool on the market, but it is the only one from a primary tool brand that runs on the same battery platform as its main line. This is a key integration in Milwaukee’s M12 lineup, whereas a kind of gimmicky nature often characterizes the typical cordless soldering pen. The tool weighs less than half a pound and features a maximum temperature of 750 degrees Fahrenheit, underpinned by a 90-watt heater within the tool body. It features a three-stop pivoting head that allows for greater access in tight spaces. The tool also delivers a heat-up time of just 18 seconds, making it lightning fast to transition from the preparation phase to fully functional usage during a project.
Milwaukee’s soldering iron is available from Amazon as a bare tool for $109. It’s listed as an “Amazon’s Choice” product with over 400 bought in the past month. It has received a 4.7-star rating from 1,189 buyers. The tool is also available from Home Depot in a kit variety for $319. Here, it has received a 4.4-star average rating from 612 buyers. The kit includes the same pair of soldering tips that come with the bare tool, along with two batteries and a charger.
Advertisement
Methodology
Danchooalex/Getty Images
We selected these soldering irons based on user reviews. Each one has been reviewed by at least 200 buyers, with many racking up over 1,000. The lowest-rated product has a 4.1-star average. These five soldering tools also offer different experiences for the user. They range from small-scale tools and cordless options to a full-sized soldering station. Therefore, these solutions include something that can deliver value to just about any kind of user need.
Sick of your smart ring’s battery not holding up? Ultrahuman’s new $479 Ring Pro smart ring, unveiled on Friday, offers up to 15 days of battery life on a single charge. The Ring Pro joins the company’s $349 Ring Air, which boosts health tracking, thanks to longer battery life, increased data storage, improved speed and accuracy and a new heart-rate sensing architecture. The ring works in conjunction with the latest Pro charging case.
Ultrahuman also launched its Jade AI, which can act as an agent based on analysis of current and historical health data. Jade can synthesize data from across the company’s products and is compatible with its Rings.
“With industry-leading hardware paired with Jade biointelligence AI, users can now take real-time actionable interventions towards their health than ever before,” said Mohit Kumar, CEO of Ultrahuman.
Advertisement
No US sales
That hardware isn’t available in the US, though, thanks to the ongoing ban on Ultrahuman’s Rings sales here, stemming from a patent dispute with its competitor, Oura Ring. It’s available for preorder now everywhere else and is slated to ship in March. Jade’s available globally.
Ultrahuman says the Ring Pro boosts battery life to about 15 days in Chill mode — up to 12 days in Turbo — compared to a maximum of six days for the Air. The Pro charger’s battery stores enough for another 45 days, which you top off with Qi-compatible wireless charging. In addition, the case incorporates locator technology via the app and a speaker, as well as usability features such as haptic notifications and a power LED.
The ring can also retain up to 250 days of data versus less than a week for the cheaper model. Ultrahuman redesigned the heart-rate sensor for better signal quality. An upgraded processor improves the accuracy of the local machine learning and overall speed.
It’s offered in gold, silver, black and titanium finishes, with available sizes ranging from 5 to 14.
Advertisement
Jade’s Deep Research Mode is the cross-ecosystem analysis feature, which aggregates data from Ring and Blood Vision and the company’s subscription services, Home and M1 CGM, to provide historical trends, offer current recommendations and flag potential issues, as well as trigger activities such as A-fib detection. Ultrahuman plans to expand its capabilities to include health-adjacent activities, such as ordering food.
Some new apps are also available for the company’s PowerPlug add-on platform, including capabilities such as tracking GLP-1 effects, snoring and respiratory analysis and migraine management tools.
Block, which Dorsey founded in 2009, is the US market leader in point-of-sale systems. It operates Square, Cash App, and Tidal, boasting over 60 million users. Read Entire Article Source link
