The Wisconsin gubernatorial race was one of the most closely watched Democratic primaries in the country this year, pitting a democratic socialist, state Rep. Francesca Hong, against Milwaukee Democrat David Crowley, who received the endorsement of the state’s sitting Democratic governor, Tony Evers.
Tech & AI
How Delhi Cut Electricity Loss from 50 to 5 Percent
It’s 6 a.m. on a cold January morning in 2002 in New Delhi. It’s still dark outside, and I’m in the kitchen preparing breakfast, packing lunches, and getting my two children ready to catch the school bus when, for the third time in a week, the power goes out. No lights, no mixer to finish my daughter’s puttu—her favorite rice dish—no kettle, no toaster. The bathroom is dark, and the kids are upset.
It will probably be hours before the power comes back on, so I grab a flashlight and light the candles that are set up around the house for these occasions. We’re behind schedule now. We pack the food we have, bundle up as the house turns chilly, and head outside, leaving a mess in the kitchen. We make our way to the bus stop in the dark—the streetlights are out, too—only to discover my daughter has missed her ride. Again. I’ll be late for work at Jamia Millia Islamia, a university where I am a professor of electrical engineering and teach power systems and smart grids. I just hope the power is on there.
This was a common scene for my family and all of Delhi in the early 2000s. Power outages happened almost daily and lasted hours. When the power was on, the quality was so poor that it would dim lights, flicker screens, and wreak havoc on appliances. Customer service at the power utilities essentially didn’t exist.
A child walks in July 2007 past a store in New Delhi specializing in reconditioned generators. The fear of power cuts during summer heat spurs demand for these generators so that residents can produce their own power.Nicholas Bradley/AFP/Getty Images
These problems had been getting worse through the 1980s and 1990s. The cause: an aging distribution grid bereft of crucial technologies, and electricity providers with little accountability. The situation became so bad that the city was losing more than half of its power through obsolete equipment and theft. These staggering losses meant that utilities got paid for only a fraction of the electricity they were trying to deliver. And the lack of funds prevented them from investing in better grid infrastructure.
But over the last quarter century, a remarkable effort by the government and the city’s distribution utilities has turned Delhi’s grid into a reliable, modern system. Power losses have shrunk from over 50 percent in 2002 to 5 to 6 percent in 2026—on par with France and Belgium, and better than Greece and Serbia. Delhi’s grid reliability index, a measure of how often electricity can be counted on, stood at around 70 percent in 2002 and has now topped 99.9 percent.
The bustling Main Bazar in the Paharganj neighborhood of Delhi increasingly uses more nighttime electricity, but reductions in electricity loss help counter demand. iStock
With reliable power, businesses across the city have blossomed. The streetlights are bright. The number of electric vehicles, including city buses, is growing daily. Quality of life has improved. Today, my family is comfortable year-round in our home despite Delhi’s scorching summers and cold winters. The chaos of losing power no longer hinders me from getting to work. The city still has problems—pollution, overcrowding, noise—but thankfully, reliable power is no longer among them.
The transformation of Delhi’s grid can serve as a model for other cities that suffer from decrepit power infrastructure. Regions of Albania, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Estonia, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and Venezuela are reeling from heavy losses in their distribution grids. Their problems look like Delhi’s 25 years ago. I believe it’s possible to improve electricity in these places by adapting the changes Delhi made. Here’s an inside look at how the city accomplished it.
Delhi’s Power Grid and Energy Mix
The city of Delhi hosts the capital of the Republic of India, and sits along the Yamuna River in the northern part of the country. It’s home to about 23 million people and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Delhi’s grid includes thousands of kilometers of power lines, and peak electricity demand reached an all-time high this year of 8,748 megawatts. The city currently buys 76 percent of its power from central generating companies and private players from neighboring states. Energy generation within the city is restricted to natural gas and renewable sources. Nearly 48.5 percent of the city’s power comes from coal, about 26.5 percent from natural gas, and the rest from carbon-free sources, led by hydropower at 15.6 percent.
Tata Power replaced about 5 kilometers of overhead lines with underground cables, which reduced electricity loss and improved the aesthetics of Delhi’s streets, such as the Janta Flats in the Shalimar Bagh neighborhood.Tata Power-DDL
By the early 2000s, Delhi’s nearly 100-year-old power distribution system was in serious disrepair. Everything was old—lines, transformers, circuit breakers, switches. New grid technologies were needed to keep up with new kinds of electricity loads, but there was little money to upgrade components.
The shabby state of the grid caused many problems, most notably high electricity losses, where electricity vanishes primarily as heat. The cause of the losses was a classic electrical problem: too much current flowing through a network that wasn’t designed to carry it efficiently.
To understand the problem, it helps to understand how modern power grids work. Typically, they include generation, transmission, and distribution. After power is generated, transformers convert the electricity to high voltage levels—typically 132, 220, 400, or 765 kilovolts in India. Transmission lines then carry the power over long distances to receiving substations that are closer to where customers need electricity. Transformers then step down the voltage (to 66, 33, or 11 kV in India) and distribution lines branch out, carrying the power to customers. The whole grid works primarily on alternating current.
Distribution networks carry both active and reactive power. Active power is the energy used to perform useful work (and is measured in watts). Reactive power is the power that flows back and forth in an electric circuit, building electric and magnetic fields (measured in volt-ampere-reactive, or VAR). Although it doesn’t perform useful work, reactive power is necessary for many devices, such as induction motors, transformers, and computers (typically any circuit or device with inductance or capacitance elements).
When there are a lot of devices consuming reactive power on the same line, the overall current carried by the line—the sum of the active and reactive current—must increase. The more current in the line, the more the line heats up and the more energy that’s wasted as heat.
In addition to current, resistance in the line will increase losses as well. Resistance is when electrons encounter opposition as they move through the conductive material (typically aluminum in a power grid). Longer lines with many branches and connection points will increase resistance. The rule of thumb is that line loss equals the square of the current multiplied by the resistance.
Reactive power creates a second problem: It causes the voltage along the line to drop. And when the voltage falls, many modern electrical devices try to maintain roughly the same level of performance by drawing more current. That higher current produces even greater losses in the line and causes the voltage to fall further.
In a healthy grid, the utility will take compensatory measures to lower the current and maintain the voltage all the way to the ends of the lines. But in Delhi, this wasn’t happening. The result was a vicious cycle. Reactive loads increased the current, the higher current increased energy losses and lowered the voltages, lower voltages forced devices to draw more current and further increased the losses.
In some parts of Delhi, the effect was so severe that residents took matters into their own hands. A colleague of mine who lived in a different part of the city constantly experienced voltage that was too low for her appliances to operate reliably, so she had to install her own voltage stabilizer. At my home, we bought an inverter and battery system to keep a fan and a few lights running during the many outages.
Electricity Loss and Theft in Delhi
The losses in Delhi weren’t caused solely by technical problems. Theft of electricity was rampant, by both the powerful and the powerless (in both senses of the word). Businesses, residential customers, and utility employees with vested interests would siphon electricity from the grid. It was easy to illegally hook into a streetlight or a distribution line running close to one’s house or factory. Utilities didn’t have the resources to identify theft or penalize offenders. Even if they could, the courts were already overburdened, and an electricity regulatory commission that could push for reforms had not yet fully formed.
Updated meters have made billing easier and more accurate. Tata Power-DDL
Making matters worse, the utilities and their employees were rarely held accountable for their actions, and so corruption plagued the system. Junior engineers and line workers, many of them lacking appropriate technical skills, were tasked with handling nearly every issue, including outages, flickering, and bill payment. This was too much authority in the hands of people with too little training.
On top of that, customers didn’t pay their bills. Meters were old, frequently faulty, and easily tampered with. Utility employees would take a meter reading by visiting the customer’s property, noting the reading in a book, entering it in a ledger or on a computer back at the office, and converting it into an electricity bill that would get dropped off at the customer’s property. This process left a lot of room for incorrect billing.
To pay a bill, customers had to stand in long queues at the utility offices, which had limited business hours. Not wanting to take off a half day of work for this, many customers simply didn’t pay. And there was no penalty for not paying—there were no regulations allowing the utilities to cut off a customer’s power. (I paid my bill by having a family member stand in line for me.)
The combined commercial and technical losses left Delhi’s utilities collecting payment for less than half of the electricity they were supplying in the early 2000s.
India’s Electricity Act and Power Reforms
Such problems weren’t unique to Delhi. On average in 2002, state utilities across India experienced electricity losses of nearly 37 percent. My country desperately needed systemic reforms, but authority over electricity was split between the central and state governments so any decision-making was fractured. States managed most of the generation, as well as transmission and distribution, while the central government oversaw generation that supplied multiple states, such as hydropower, fossil fuel plants, and nuclear plants. The central government could push reforms, but the states determined whether those reforms would succeed. Making matters worse, most states put a single organization in charge of generation, transmission, and distribution, giving that entity too much control and reducing transparency and competition.
A team of technicians with BSES Rajdhani Power maintains an insulator string on a large power transformer in 2011. BSES Rajdhani Power
In 2001, India’s central government began writing some historic legislation that became the landmark Electricity Act, 2003. Among the grand reforms aimed at transforming the country’s power industry, it unbundled state oversight of grid networks, creating separate entities for generation, transmission, and distribution. It also opened up the power sector to privatization. It allowed large electricity customers to bypass local distribution companies and purchase electricity from competitors or build their own power plants. It created a central regulatory agency responsible for determining interstate tariffs and promoting market competition in the power sector. And it created mechanisms for prosecuting electricity theft.
Hundreds of capacitor banks have been installed in Delhi to supply reactive power at strategic locations and help stabilize voltage.Tata Power-DDL
In 2002, Delhi was already taking drastic action to fix its grid. The organization overseeing Delhi’s distribution, the Delhi Vidyut Board, was broken up and two private companies—BSES (now Reliance Infrastructure), and Tata Power—took over distribution. They faced a Herculean task. Tata Power, serving the northern half of Delhi, would have to tackle a combined commercial and technical electricity loss of 53.5 percent. BSES, whose territory was split between two subsidiaries, was facing 51.5 percent losses in South Delhi and 63.1 percent losses in East Delhi.
“The company inherited a deteriorated and overloaded network, massive power theft, weak billing and collection systems, inaccurate consumer records, and an aging, largely untrained workforce,” Dwijadas Basak, CEO of Tata Power, told me. There were over 100,000 unresolved billing complaints, 20,000 pending connection applications, and frequent supply failures, which had severely eroded consumer trust, he added. Both Tata and BSES devised sweeping reforms and human resource development initiatives. The companies followed their own paths over the years, but ultimately implemented similar changes, with similar results.
Delhi’s Electricity System Overhaul
Fixing Delhi’s grid was a journey that involved all stakeholders, including customers, city authorities, and utility employees at all levels. The utilities revamped their organizational structures, diminishing the power of junior staff and creating separate teams to focus on specific tasks. Long-term employees of the erstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board received training from the up-and-comers at the new companies.
On the technical side, both companies installed digital control systems that let them monitor and operate the grid from a central location. Known as SCADA, or supervisory control and data acquisition, the systems offered a bird’s-eye view of the infrastructure, including the status of equipment, voltage, current, power flow, and switch positions, with updates in seconds. This helped the companies identify areas of high loss and theft and make faster decisions based on accurate information.
The SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system at Balaji Estate in Delhi’s Kalkaji neighborhood serves as the nerve center of BSES Rajdhani Power’s distribution network in South and West Delhi. It enables real-time visibility, remote control of grid operations, fault identification and isolation, and load management. BSES Rajdhani Power
The utilities also replaced aging transformers and circuit breakers and created extensive maintenance plans for equipment. In 2002, 11 percent of the transformers in the region were failing at any given time. That rate is less than 1 percent today, according to Tata. Crucially, the companies installed hundreds of capacitor banks, including some mobile ones, to supply reactive power at strategic locations. This improvement reduced the total current flowing in the distribution lines and helped stabilize the voltage. They also installed voltage regulators at points in the system where voltage tends to drop.
To reduce theft, the companies replaced bare distribution wires with insulated lines—a single cable for three phases—which made it harder to tap into the lines. The cables also reduced outages because they’re better at preventing ground faults, which can occur when, say, a tree branch falls on the line.
Workers received better sensors and tools to do their jobs safely and accurately. For instance, they were given helmet-mounted voltage sensors, which are safer than handheld ones, and thermal scanning tools to detect hidden defects in the insulation of high-voltage equipment that could otherwise have led to catastrophic failures.
To reduce inaccurate billing and meter tampering, the companies replaced the old electromechanical meters with digital ones that are read with handheld devices. In some locations, radio-frequency-based group metering systems were installed by Tata to consolidate multiple customers’ meters into one. The data is then wirelessly transmitted to a central database, eliminating the need for individual meter readings. The companies are now trying smart meters, which give consumers more control over their electricity bills and give utilities remote control of some equipment (with the customer’s consent).
To encourage people to pay their bills, the utilities installed kiosks that are available 24 hours a day, and they created a web-based payment system and mobile app. Incentives for early bill payment and community-engagement programs also helped. Assistance from Delhi’s law enforcement considerably reduced electricity theft.
Tata Power hired women living in the 223 slums it serves in the northern parts of the city to knock on neighbors’ doors and remind them to pay their power bills. These payment collectors [left and center], known as abhas, were photographed while speaking with a customer [right] in the Sanjay Basti area of New Delhi in 2017. Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg/Getty Images
In areas where theft was particularly rampant and losses were as high as 83 percent, according to Tata, the companies took a different strategy. These pockets of Delhi were predominantly occupied by low-income families. Tata Power, and later BSES, worked to improve the water supply for these residents and provide educational opportunities, such as instruction in reading and writing in Hindi as well as financial literacy. These efforts focused on the women, who were at home more, and paid them to collect electricity payments from their neighbors. Bill payment rates from these areas are now on par with those of other parts of Delhi.
In recent years, some customers have been installing rooftop solar panels to take advantage of subsidies and incentives. This trend can reduce electricity losses further because the energy generated at the customer end reduces current in the distribution lines. Customers are also installing more LED lights and energy-efficient appliances, reducing the load in the system.
BSES is using AI to help detect theft. The algorithms analyze consumption patterns in pockets where losses are higher than they should be. The company is also using AI to forecast demand, fine-tune operational efficiency, and provide chatbots for customers.
Quality of Life Improves in Delhi
Life in Delhi is better than it was 25 years ago. I’m not worried that the power may go out and force me to reschedule my activities. My uninterrupted Wi-Fi gives me peace of mind, and my heating and cooling systems keep me and my family comfortable. I rarely need to use our old inverter and battery.
The sharp rise of e-rickshaws in Delhi has increased demand on the power grid. Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
The number of businesses in Delhi has increased substantially, in part because of the access to quality power. People can confidently buy products that depend on electricity. In fact, the city’s peak electricity demand has tripled since 2002 due to the increase in population, commercial activity, and use of electrical gadgets.
And then there’s the benefits to the planet. One unit of electricity that isn’t frittered away is one less unit that must be generated, not to mention the reductions in carbon emissions.
Still, there’s work to do. Some areas of Delhi continue to have high losses, driven partly by the illegal charging of e-rickshaws. Elsewhere in India, the states of Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Telangana still experience losses of about 17 to 23 percent despite the sweeping Electricity Act, 2003. There are many reasons for the ongoing losses: long distribution lines to remote villages, less digitization, and inefficiencies in billing and collection of payments.
These regions, and others around the world, can learn from Delhi’s grid comeback. Recently, power losses have increased substantially in countries such as Argentina, Greece, Jamaica, and Morocco, according to the World Bank, and some of the causes are similar to those that Delhi faced back in 2002.
Meanwhile, Australia, most countries in North America and Europe, and a few countries in Asia and Africa experience low electricity losses as they invest regularly in their distribution infrastructure and the ethical enforcement of rules. In China, for example, losses have gradually been cut in half, from 7.1 to 3.4 percent. In Latvia, losses plummeted from 25 to 5.8 percent.
What’s important is a comprehensive approach. Technologies like smart metering, AI, and analytics certainly help, but equally important is that people in the field are trained and take responsibility for their jobs, and that laws are enforced and payments collected.
“Sustainable loss reduction cannot happen through technology alone,” Abhishek Ranjan, CEO of BSES Rajdhani Power told me. “Technology is an important enabler, but long-term success comes from combining it with disciplined execution, operational accountability, and strong consumer engagement.”
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Hong lost the race, setting up Crowley to face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the general election this fall. But she’s already back on the campaign trail, this time trying to help Democrats win a trifecta in the state: the governor’s race and both legislative chambers.
Unifying the state’s voters to achieve that won’t be easy, though. Hong spoke with America, Actually host Astead Herndon about her own loss, Evers’s role in it, and whether or not the voters who felt so passionate about her own campaign would find enough to love in Crowley’s campaign — in particular on the increasingly important issue of data centers.
Astead and Hong also talked about what Wisconsin means for the Democrats nationally, and what lessons the party should take from her race, including her loss.
“I said this, and I will continue to say it — the person who is most electable is the person who ended up getting the most votes, and that was Crowley this time around,” Hong said. “But I think there’s a disservice when you have the most powerful Democrat in the state choosing to ignore a lot of voters and people who were inspired and energized and coming out to participate in politics for the first time through our campaign. I think it was shortsighted to use electability almost as a fear tactic.”
Below is an excerpt of Astead’s conversation with Hong, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full show, so listen to America, Actually wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Vox’s YouTube channel.
Part of the reason we wanted to come here was because we saw you were getting back on the campaign trail, and specifically around that idea of energizing Wisconsin toward a trifecta.
Now, just tell me the difference in terms of the importance of Democrats winning it all — not only the governor’s mansion, but both houses of the state legislature — versus just the governor’s mansion. How does that change the possibilities of what the party could do?
For the last 16 years, a Republican majority in the state legislature has meant that passing the types of policies that we know can drastically improve the lives of everyday folks here in Wisconsin stalled. And we have a historic opportunity to flip the assembly and the state Senate and hold the governor’s mansion and the entire executive branch to a Democratic majority, meaning the opportunity to pass the policies that the majority of our state supports — things like increasing minimum wage, things like legalizing marijuana, codifying abortion.
We also need to repeal Act 10 [which dramatically restricted collective bargaining rights for public-sector employees]. Wisconsin is where workers’ rights, things like unemployment insurance, Social Security were born, and we moved backwards with the Republican majority. That’s all on the table with the Democratic trifecta.
It also, though, raises the political standard of what Democrats would have to do to achieve that, and some of it goes through these more rural communities.
Why do we think the party has fallen behind in more rural communities, and what could be done to reverse that?
I think it’s important to look at what’s happened in the rural communities when we’ve seen manufacturing jobs leave the state, when we’ve seen fewer and fewer supports for our small farmers.
And so much of this — what connects it — is actually the growth of massive wealth and corporate control and corporate greed, and more people feeling the impacts of that. There’s an opportunity right now to say, ‘Hey, Republicans have been in the legislature, they’ve been in power, and things have not improved for you or your community … Now’s the opportunity to make sure that we’re actually able to see our shared Wisconsin values of working hard and taking care of our kids be reflected back in Madison through laws.’
So much of your campaign was focused on data centers, stopping data centers. Should I think of that as a rural issue?
I think the issue around data centers is an everyone issue. It’s a democracy issue. It’s people wanting to feel like there are folks who care about what happens to communities, and that they have control and an actual say in what happens in their communities.
To that point, is it a mistake for David Crowley, the Democratic nominee, to have not gone as far as you did and say, “We won’t be building more data centers for a period of time”?
He’s fighting for communities and community control when it comes to data centers.
But it’s not a moratorium.
But it’s not a moratorium. It isn’t, but he’s also committed to 100 percent renewable energy, clean energy to power data centers.
And achieving that is going to be incredibly difficult, and it is going to be the developers having to pay their own way, and these are things that he’s committed to that we know can slow down the growth and development of data centers.
Have you had time to reflect on your primary loss? If you had to diagnose, why do you think you lost?
I’m still doing a lot of reflection. But I think that I want to continue to look forward. And what I’ve learned from our election is that it’s so important to continue to stay grounded in becoming accessible to people. I think that as an organizer and an elected official, it’s my responsibility to continue to go to the people and remain very in touch with what’s going on on the ground.
I have a couple more questions about the nature of the loss. Evers’s endorsement changed that race, so much so that your opponent David Crowley was able even to win in some smaller communities, like places where you were pitching yourself as the voice of more rural communities.
Does that disprove any of this thesis around, say, data centers? If that was the top priority for Wisconsin voters, wouldn’t you be the nominee?
I think it wasn’t all rural communities. It wasn’t all suburban communities. We saw certain demographics but also ZIP codes where we outperformed David significantly.
And I think that where the governor’s endorsement played a bigger role was areas where he was also more popular.
Did it surprise you when Evers endorsed Crowley?
I was disappointed because I was getting a lot of feedback from folks who hadn’t committed to any candidate yet that this felt like the governor was putting his thumb on the scale.
I wanted to ask about electability, because it seemed as if Evers’s endorsement was about a fear that maybe you couldn’t win in November.
So much of the primary concern was around the DSA label, even campaigning with folks like Hasan Piker. In retrospect, was any of that a mistake?
We knew going in that we would have to encourage new voters to come out, folks who typically do not come out for primaries, quote-unquote low-propensity voters. And we knew that we would have to campaign in places where folks weren’t expecting to see a gubernatorial candidate. And those included Twitch streams.
Those also included going to dive bars and bowling alleys and making sure that we were accessible and shaping our policies based on what the people were telling us they wanted to see happen and also what they wanted to see out of their governor. I think electability… I said this, and I will continue to say it — the person who is most electable is the person who ended up getting the most votes, and that was Crowley this time around.
But I think there’s a disservice when you have the most powerful Democrat in the state choosing to ignore a lot of voters and people who were inspired and energized and coming out to participate in politics for the first time through our campaign.
I think it was shortsighted to use electability almost as a fear tactic, when Democrats need to be inspiring and project a vision where everyone can see themselves in it as everyday working-class folks.
When you’ve got a party that has struggled with elitism to then cave to an establishment narrative … being more afraid of labels when I’m hearing from people on the ground that they’re interested in solutions and solving problems, maybe somebody who knows the hustle of the service industry and running restaurants and has worked across the aisle to pass bipartisan legislation. There are ways that we can maneuver around labels and what the loudest narrative might be.
I wish our governor hadn’t fed into that.
To be fair, to your point, the establishment label doesn’t fully fit even someone like Crowley, who comes from a working-class background. But am I hearing that you think Evers’s move made your life in the general election more difficult?
Is it harder to re-inspire if young people who are invested in the Hong campaign think that the establishment squashed them out?
We still had over 300,000 votes. We lost by fewer than 4,000 votes. I had more votes than Evers did during his primary. That’s not squashing our voices.
We’re still here, and it’s so important that people find avenues to continue to exercise their voice and their new organizing power. And I’m definitely going to continue to work to make sure that we get results and that we win the trifecta, and that’s the most important thing we should be focusing on right now.
I hear why a trifecta matters in the state context, particularly the state policy.
If I’m someone, though, who’s not in Wisconsin, who’s just worried about Donald Trump running amok in Washington, why should I care if Democrats win the governor’s mansion and the state legislature? Does that matter for folks outside of the state?
Because we will start to see that when you feel government actually working and you see change happening in your lives, these are then voters who are going to continue to come out and vote for Democrats.
We’re a pivotal state when it comes to the federal elections as well. We’re actually in a swing district right now.
We have an opportunity, through Wisconsin, to actually start improving the brand for Democrats. And if we do that here, this trickles out to the rest of the country.
The premise being that delivering creates a connection for Democrats that is helpful in the presidential election, and it’s helpful in all these other ways too.
Yeah. We’re not going to be fighting every single midterm and presidential for our lives based on what’s happening in just one state.
But I think if we can start showing durable power for Democrats in a state like ours because of the policies that we’re prioritizing, and you have more folks coming out to vote for Democrats, that’s good for the health of democracy.
Elon Musk’s reach spans multiple global industries, placing the billionaire (sometimes trillionaire, depending on the stock market) at the center of the electric-vehicle industry, space exploration, artificial intelligence and national politics. He’s already involved in telecommunications through his company SpaceX and its global satellite internet service, Starlink, but recent developments may soon expand his influence with satellite-to-cellular coverage.
SpaceX announced on X Thursday that it has agreed to acquire nationwide 800 MHz low-band spectrum to help build Starlink Mobile into a major US cellular carrier. By acquiring these low-band airwaves, SpaceX said it aims to improve signal propagation, allowing satellite coverage to bypass physical obstacles like building walls, dense foliage, and hilly terrain
“This is the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America,” Musk posted on X.
A SpaceX representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under the terms of Thursday’s announcement, SpaceX will acquire investment firm Grain Management’s nationwide 800 MHz low-band spectrum portfolio for an estimated $8 billion. The deal gives the satellite operator up to 14 megahertz of paired airwaves, enabling two-way data transmission between satellites and mobile devices. The acquisition remains subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission, which has not yet set a timeline for a decision.
Acquiring the low-band spectrum is crucial for Starlink Mobile’s cellular ambitions. Unlike the high-frequency beams used currently, these low-band airwaves possess the physical properties required to pierce concrete walls, dense foliage and urban infrastructure, effectively solving the indoor dead zone problem that has long limited satellite-to-phone connectivity.
Also this week, the FCC gave SpaceX the go-ahead to launch 15,000 satellites, which the company said can deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of its current satellites. These satellites are direct to device, meaning that they can transmit phone calls, texts and other data straight from space to devices on the ground. SpaceX said the new satellites will bring “high-speed service directly to unmodified devices anywhere in the world.”
What does it mean for consumers?
For people looking for an alternative to the big three cellphone carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, Starlink Mobile could eventually be an option.
If and when the FCC approves the deal with Grain Management, Starlink Mobile will combine its newly acquired low-band spectrum with a massive, freshly approved fleet of 15,000 next-generation satellites. This hybrid network will use a mix of satellite beams and ground infrastructure to penetrate walls and eliminate indoor dead zones across the US while leveraging its high-bandwidth frequencies to deliver high-speed data directly to ordinary mobile devices. SpaceX plans to accelerate deployment of the new system next year.
But according to analyst Tim Farrar, an industry expert with research firm Telecom, Media and Finance Associates, simply acquiring low-spectrum bandwidth in this week’s deal won’t be enough to compete strongly against AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, which uses thousands of cellphone towers.
“It’s still a very limited amount of spectrum, and to get reliable building penetration in urban areas, SpaceX would have to deploy towers on the ground,” Farrar told CNBC.
Last month, T-Mobile’s chief financial officer, Peter Osvaldik, dismissed the idea that Starlink’s satellite-to-cell service could adequately compete with the traditional wireless coverage offered by the major carriers. “It’s not a competitive threat,” Osvaldik said at the Global TMT Conference.
“By the time the signal has gotten to your phone, you have no signal strength left,” he added. “You can have a million satellites up there with all the spectrum in the world, you can’t break the fundamental laws of physics.”
PC shipments saw a steep drop of about 20 percent in Q3 2026, analysts reported this week.
The industry saw its “sharpest decline since “Q1 2023,” Omdia said in an announcement toady. Global shipments of laptops, desktops, and workstations fell 21.2 percent year over year (YoY) to 58.1 million devices, the analyst said.
Desktop PC shipments (including desktop workstations) decreased 23.5 percent to 11.7 million units, and laptop shipments (including laptop workstations) declined 20.6 percent to 46.4 million, per Omdia.
IDC shared similar findings. The analyst said this week that PC shipments fell 20.1 percent YoY to 62.7 million units, compared to 78.5 million in Q3 2025.
The industry also shipped 9.1 percent fewer PCs in Q3 2026 than it did in Q2 2026, when 68.2 million units shipped, per IDC.
The 20.1 percent YoY decline is the biggest drop that the IDC has ever recorded during a year’s third quarter, the IDC said, per PCMag.
The drop in shipments is also notable considering that Q3 PC shipments usually surpass Q2’s numbers.
“If looking at all quarters, then we have seen other quarters in recent years with larger declines, such as 2022 Q4, which was -28.2 percent, and 2023 Q1, which was -28.7 percent. Both were coming off pandemic highs,” Jitesh Ubrani, research director for consumer devices at IDC, told PCMag.
In its announcement this week, IDC said that many PC vendors and sales channels stocked up on PC shipments earlier in the year in anticipation of memory price hikes. That meant minimal demand remained during Q3.
“[Sales] channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand,” Ubrani said in a statement.
PDFBear is a broad browser-based PDF toolkit that covers common jobs such as converting, merging, splitting, compressing, signing, and organizing files without installing desktop software. Its standard tools can be useful for occasional PDF work, but the free-plan limits, cloud file handling, Premium-only AI features, and a few unclear product details are worth understanding before you upload important documents or pay.
This is a research-based review, not a hands-on performance test. The verdict therefore focuses on what PDFBear currently offers, what its published policies say, where those policies create practical trade-offs, and which claims cannot be independently confirmed from the available evidence.
Quick Take
PDFBear makes sense if you want a convenient browser toolkit for routine PDF work and your files fit its current limits. Look more carefully before using it for sensitive documents, large automated workloads, or AI-heavy work, because files are processed online, AI features can involve third-party providers, and Premium AI use is still subject to fair-use limits.
Is PDFBear Worth Using?
PDFBear is worth considering for occasional browser-based PDF work because its standard toolset covers many everyday tasks without requiring a paid subscription. The current free plan includes standard conversion, merge, split, compression, and signing tools, with files up to 50 MB.
The main question is not whether PDFBear has enough tools. It does. The more useful question is whether its operating model fits the documents you handle.
If you mainly need to convert a Word document, combine a few PDFs, compress an attachment, rotate pages, or sign a document from a browser, the free tier may cover the job. A registered free account currently supports unlimited conversions with up to 30 pages or images per conversion, while guests are limited to five conversions per day with up to 10 pages or images each.
Premium becomes more relevant when you need optical character recognition (OCR), AI document tools, larger page batches, priority processing, or longer file availability. OCR is the technology that turns text inside scanned pages into searchable and selectable text.
The biggest caution is privacy rather than basic functionality. PDFBear is an online service, so documents are uploaded for processing instead of remaining entirely on your computer. That does not automatically make the service unsuitable, but it matters if the file contains information you would normally avoid sending to a third-party cloud service.
How This PDFBear Review Was Researched
That distinction matters because feature availability does not prove quality. A service can offer PDF-to-Word conversion without that establishing how accurately it reproduces a difficult document. Likewise, PDFBear advertises priority processing for Premium users, but that does not provide an independent benchmark for how much faster it is.
Independent review evidence is also limited. G2 currently shows six PDFBear reviews with a 2.4 out of 5 average. Six reviews can surface individual experiences, but the sample is too small to support a broad conclusion about reliability, support quality, or typical user satisfaction.
What PDFBear Can Do
PDFBear is more than a single converter. Its current tool catalog covers conversion, organization, optimization, editing, signing, security, OCR, and AI-assisted document work.
The standard tools include familiar jobs such as converting Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, and other formats to PDF; converting PDFs back to common formats; merging and splitting documents; compressing files; rotating or organizing pages; signing PDFs; filling forms; and applying basic document-security tools. PDFBear says these standard tools are available without Premium.
The service also includes more specialized tools such as OCR, Chat with PDF, summarization, translation, and a PDF question generator. These are materially different from a normal file conversion because some depend on artificial intelligence and are reserved for Premium accounts.
That separation is useful when deciding whether you actually need a subscription. Someone who occasionally merges invoices and converts Office files has a very different workload from someone extracting text from hundreds of scanned pages or asking an AI system to summarize long reports.
PDFBear operates through a web browser, so its core tools do not require desktop installation. That cross-device convenience is one of the service’s clearer strengths, especially when you move between computers or only need a PDF tool occasionally.
PDFBear Free vs Premium: Limits and Pricing
The free plan handles routine PDF work, while Premium mainly raises processing allowances and unlocks OCR, AI features, batch processing, priority service, and an ad-free experience. The distinction is easier to understand when the limits are placed side by side.
| Feature | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Standard PDF tools | Included | Included |
| Maximum file size | 50 MB | 50 MB |
| Guest use | 5 conversions per day, up to 10 pages or images each | Not applicable after upgrading |
| Registered-account conversions | Unlimited conversions, up to 30 pages or images each | Unlimited tasks, up to 200 pages or images per conversion |
| OCR | Not included | Included, subject to applicable fair-use limits |
| AI document tools | Not included | Included, subject to fair-use limits |
| Batch processing | Not included | Included |
| File retention | 30 days after last activity | While subscribed, then 30 days after the subscription ends |
| Priority processing | No | Yes |
| Current price | $0 | $13.99 monthly or $99.99 yearly; the yearly plan is shown as $8.33 per month |
PDFBear currently offers a 7-day Premium trial and a $99.99 yearly plan. Its FAQ also lists a $13.99 monthly option. Prices and promotional terms can change, so check the checkout page before subscribing.
There is an important qualification behind the word “unlimited.” Standard Premium tasks may have no daily conversion limit, but PDFBear’s AI features remain subject to fair-use controls. The Terms describe per-file page limits, a monthly AI allowance, a maximum upload size of 50 MB per file, and restrictions on automated or unusually high-volume processing.
Premium is therefore better understood as a higher-capacity individual plan than an unrestricted bulk-processing service. If your workflow is automated, shared across many people, or processes unusually large numbers of documents, a normal Premium account should not be assumed to cover it.
Warning
PDFBear’s official documentation currently conflicts regarding watermarks on free conversions. Its pricing page lists watermark-free PDF output as a Premium-only feature, and its developer documentation states that free conversions receive a small “PDFBEAR.COM – Free Ver.” badge. Conversely, its FAQ states converted files carry no watermark. If clean, unbranded output is essential for client-facing documents, portfolios, or resumes, run a sample test on the exact tool before relying on the free tier.
Because those first-party statements conflict, do not assume one rule applies uniformly to every free website workflow. Testing your specific file path beforehand prevents unexpected formatting revisions when submitting time-sensitive files.
How PDFBear Handles Your Files and Privacy
Uploading a PDF to an online converter means the document leaves your device for processing. For routine files that may be an acceptable trade-off for convenience, but sensitive documents deserve a closer look at storage, deletion, sharing, and AI processing.
Files are transferred through encrypted HTTPS connections while moving between your device and PDFBear. HTTPS protects data in transit, but it is not the same as an independent guarantee that no security incident can occur.
For a free account, a file is removed 30 days after its last activity. Downloading the file or opening its share link counts as activity and resets that timer. Premium files remain available while the subscription is active and are removed 30 days after the subscription ends.
Signed-in users can also delete files manually from the file manager. PDFBear’s Privacy Policy states that uploaded and converted files may be stored on S3-compatible infrastructure such as Wasabi or Amazon Web Services.
Sharing creates another consideration. A shared page is configured so search engines should not index it, but anyone who has the share link can view the file until it is deleted. A no-index setting reduces search-engine discovery; it does not restrict access to one named recipient.
AI tools add another data path. When you use Chat with PDF, summarization, translation, the question generator, or other AI-assisted functions, relevant file content or text may be sent to a third-party AI provider to generate the result. Ordinary conversion should not be described as the same process simply because AI tools are available elsewhere on the service.
If a document contains confidential business information, identity documents, medical information, financial records, private legal material, or another category your organization restricts from external AI services, that distinction matters. Follow the applicable data policy rather than assuming an online AI feature is suitable because the underlying website uses HTTPS.
PDFBear states that human review is not part of its normal automated document-processing workflow. That is a provider statement about its operating practice, not an independent security certification, so it should not be treated as proof that every possible privacy or security risk has been eliminated.
Where PDFBear Falls Short
The first limitation is structural: PDFBear is primarily an online workflow. If your requirement is that a confidential document never leave your own computer, a remote processing service is the wrong model regardless of how convenient its interface may be.
The 50 MB per-file ceiling can also become restrictive with high-resolution scans, image-heavy reports, design files, or long archives. Premium raises the number of pages or images allowed in a conversion, but the current Terms still cap an uploaded file at 50 MB.
Premium’s AI tools also come with limits behind the headline feature list. OCR, Chat with PDF, summarization, translation, and the question generator are included with Premium, but AI usage has monthly and per-file fair-use controls. Heavy AI users should not interpret Premium as unlimited automated document analysis.
There is also no basis for promising flawless output. PDFBear’s Terms state that conversions and AI outputs are not guaranteed to be error-free and advise users to keep backups of important files. That matters most for complex tables, uncommon fonts, scanned text, forms, and intricate layouts, where a converted result should be checked before you rely on it or discard the original.
Free-output watermarking remains unclear because PDFBear’s own current pages disagree. If an unbranded PDF is essential to your workflow, confirm the result with the specific free tool before relying on it repeatedly.
Independent review evidence is too limited for a strong reliability verdict. G2 currently lists only six PDFBear reviews. That is enough to justify reading individual complaints or praise before subscribing, but not enough to establish how the service performs for most users.
PDFBear Alternatives
The most useful alternative depends on why PDFBear does not fit. Replacing it with another cloud converter does not solve much if your actual concern is keeping documents off third-party servers.
If your main task is Merge PDF, compare free PDF merger tools by processing location, free-use restrictions, offline support, and document controls. That comparison is more useful than paying for a broad PDF suite when combining files is the only job you regularly perform.
If you still want another browser-based conversion and editing service, CocoDoc PDF Converter is another option to evaluate. The important comparison is not simply which site has more tools. Check the current free limits, processing model, privacy policy, pricing, and the exact functions you need before moving a sensitive or repeated workflow.
For documents that must stay local, prioritize an offline desktop application or a browser-local tool whose processing genuinely occurs on your own device. Dedicated desktop software such as PDFgear or open-source editors like LibreOffice Draw process files entirely on local hardware without sending document bytes across the network. Choosing a true offline tool or a client-side WebAssembly processor changes the privacy model far more meaningfully than switching between two competing cloud converters.
Who Should and Shouldn’t Use PDFBear
PDFBear is a reasonable fit for people who occasionally need common PDF tasks from a browser and do not want to install dedicated desktop software. The free account is especially relevant when your files stay below 50 MB and your conversions fit within the current 30-page or image allowance.
Premium makes more sense when OCR, AI document tools, batches of up to 200 pages or images, priority processing, or longer file availability are part of your regular work. Even then, the AI fair-use policy should be checked if you expect unusually heavy use.
PDFBear is a weaker fit if you require local-only processing, routinely work with files above 50 MB, need independently benchmarked conversion accuracy, or plan to automate high-volume PDF processing through a normal consumer Premium account.
It also deserves extra scrutiny when the documents are highly sensitive. The service publishes information about HTTPS, retention, deletion, storage providers, and AI subprocessors, which gives you useful policy details to evaluate. Those disclosures still do not remove the basic fact that an online workflow transfers document data to external infrastructure.
If your decision comes down to privacy, start with the data rather than the tool list: identify what the document contains, whether external processing is permitted, whether an AI feature is involved, and how soon you need the result removed. That will usually tell you more than a long feature comparison.
Verdict
Our Verdict
PDFBear is most convincing as a convenient browser toolkit for ordinary PDF jobs rather than as an unrestricted professional document-processing platform. Its free standard tools, 50 MB file allowance, and registered-account conversion limits should cover many occasional tasks, while Premium adds OCR, AI, batch, and priority features. The decision changes when privacy, local-only processing, very large files, or heavy AI usage matters: documents are processed through online infrastructure, AI features can involve third-party providers, and Premium AI use remains subject to fair-use limits. Use PDFBear when its convenience and published controls fit the sensitivity and size of your files; choose a local or more specialized workflow when they do not.
Canadian cybersecurity executive Edward Dubrovsky has been arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with alleged extortion activity that multiple reports have linked to the FBI’s ongoing crackdown on the ShinyHunters hacking group.
Dubrovsky, 54, has had senior roles at cybersecurity firms that help data breach and ransomware victims negotiate extortion payments with cybercriminals.
Yesterday, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that agents had arrested “another suspected co-conspirator of the ShinyHunters group”. The New York Times reported that the suspect was a Canadian citizen arrested in Pennsylvania and believed to be a primary co-conspirator in the recent ShinyHunters FBI Jobs hack.
Last night, both Politico and KrebsOnSecurity reported that Dubrovsky was arrested in Pennsylvania, where he was attending a cybersecurity conference.
Publicly available court records show that Dubrovsky appeared in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after being taken into custody. A later court order says he was transferred to the Eastern District of Texas, where the charges were filed, with the order stating that he remains in custody.
While the complaint is currently under seal, the docket lists conspiracy and extortion-related charges.
“18:371 AND 1030(a)(7)(B) – CONSPIRACY TO THREATEN TO IMPAIR THE CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION WITH THE INTENT TO EXTORT MONEY; 18:1951(a) AND (b)(2) – INTERFERENCE WITH COMMERCE BY THREATS (HOBBS ACT EXTORTION AND CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT HOBBS ACT EXTORTION),” reads the case docket.
While the FBI has not publicly confirmed that Dubrovsky is the suspected ShinyHunters co-conspirator, KrebsOnSecurity reports that multiple sources linked Dubrovsky’s arrest to the ShinyHunters investigation.
Dubrovsky previously co-founded Canadian cybersecurity company CYPFER and has also been associated with CyberSteward, another firm specializing in ransomware negotiation and cyber-extortion response.
Politico reports that CyberSteward is a trade name used by CYPFER and that the firms help organizations negotiate and send extortion payments to cybercriminals.
Dubrovsky also recently published a book, “Cyber Extortion Strategic Response,” about handling cyber extortion.
According to KrebsOnSecurity, Dubrovsky had previously posted on LinkedIn that he planned to attend the NetDiligence Cyber Risk Summit in Pennsylvania with the CyberSteward team.
ShinyHunters is an extortion group known for stealing data from web applications and cloud-based SaaS platforms, then demanding ransom payments from victims or the stolen data would be published.
Over time, the ShinyHunters name has been used by numerous threat actors involved in data theft and extortion campaigns worldwide.
In addition to conducting its own breaches, the group has also operated as an extortion-as-a-service operation, helping other hackers extort organizations they had already compromised into paying ransom demands.
More recently, ShinyHunters has increasingly targeted cloud environments and enterprise SaaS platforms, often using stolen credentials, authentication tokens, phishing, and social engineering to gain access to corporate systems and steal data.
According to the FBI, ShinyHunters and associated actors have breached more than 140 organizations and collected more than $70 million in extortion payments over the past year.
The FBI has stepped up pressure on the group since the breach of its jobs portal, with multiple arrests and detentions linked to alleged ShinyHunters members in recent weeks.
Because the complaint against Dubrovsky remains sealed, it is still unclear what he is accused of doing or whether the case is connected to the FBI breach.
Join Mikko Hyppönen and security leaders from the NFL, CHANEL, and Atlassian for a two-hour digital summit on what AI-speed attacks change, what defenders should stop doing, and how to validate, decide, fix, and re-validate at machine speed.
The Telegraph reports that the nutritional value of fruit and vegetables has fallen by up to 50% since the Sixties, according a new study from researchers at startup studio Deep Science Ventures.
The study “found that humans needed to consume twice the number of vegetables to get the same level of minerals such as potassium, magnesium or copper as would have been present in their food 60 years ago.”
The study found that many crops had lost 20% to 50% of several key nutrients… The decrease in nutrient and vitamin value is thought to be down to declining soil quality and crops being selectively bred for their ability to grow quickly, rather than there being any focus on their health benefits… It raises the prospect that the advice to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, introduced in the UK in 2003, may need to be updated. The report added that people on weight-loss drugs could be most at risk from the lack of nutrients, as the treatments could cause them to consume less food…
Nature-friendly farming techniques, such as planting crops that restore nutrients to the soil, could help improve the health benefits of vegetables, according to the researchers.
In short, according to
Will Summers, a senior associate at the firm, “we’ve been quietly hollowing out what’s inside our food.”
Thanks to Slashdot reader Bruce66423 for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
3D scanners are useful for everything from reverse engineering and automotive work to creating digital models of physical objects. However, many professional scanners still rely heavily on a connected computer, which can make scanning large objects or working in the field more cumbersome. To address this problem, Creality launched the Sermoon P1S. The scanner has onboard processing, 256GB of storage, and a 6-inch touchscreen, letting users capture objects, check scan coverage, and do common processing tasks without constantly connecting to a computer.
Four Scanning Modes & High-End Hardware
The Sermoon P1S combines 34 cross laser lines, seven parallel laser lines, a blue laser line, and NIR structured light. These modes are designed for different types of objects and surfaces. The 34 cross laser lines focus on larger surfaces, while the seven parallel lines target finer details. The single blue laser line can help capture recessed areas such as grooves and deep holes. NIR structured light is designed for smaller and medium-sized objects and detailed surface capture.
For blue-laser scanning, Creality claims up to 0.02mm accuracy, with volumetric accuracy of 0.02mm + 0.08mm/m. Blue-laser scanning reaches up to 60fps in standalone mode and 100fps when connected to a PC.
The scanner weighs 807 grams with its battery and runs on an 8-core Qualcomm CPU clocked at up to 3.36GHz, an Adreno 740 GPU, and an FPGA. It also has 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 storage. Users can operate the scanner independently or connect it to a PC wirelessly or through USB 3.0. Wi-Fi 7 enables wireless connectivity, while two replaceable 3,300mAh batteries and PD 3.0 fast charging support longer scanning sessions. The P1S can also operate outdoors, with blue-laser scanning supporting environments up to 110,000 lux. With the included NIR filter, NIR scanning supports up to 80,000 lux.
Creality’s software supports scanning, optimization, and basic model processing, with support for STL, OBJ, and PLY formats. It also includes AI-assisted hole filling to help repair missing surfaces. Users can then move the resulting models into CAD, 3D modeling, or fabrication software. Creality says it will continue updating the scanner through OTA updates. The Creality Sermoon P1S is available worldwide from September 22, 2026, through the Creality Store. It normally costs $2,299, but an early-bird price of $2,099 is available through October 12, offering a $200 discount.
Keep track of important updates without having to open the app every two minutes.
At a time when most Android phones had already switched to tiny hole-punch cutouts to house their front-facing cameras, the iPhone 14 Pro launched with a long pill-shaped cutout. Apple has used this as its standard since then, aside from the budget “e” phones and iPhone Duo, and even made it smaller for the iPhone 18 Pro series.
This is because iPhones pack more than just a camera inside the cutout; there are additional sensors required for Face ID to work. Instead of hiding the pill with cleverly designed wallpapers, Apple leaned into it with the Dynamic Island, using the surrounding area to turn an otherwise awkward design constraint into a useful part of the iOS experience.
Your iPhone’s Live Activities show up on the Dynamic Island when using your phone. They display information you might want to keep an eye on without having to constantly switch back to the associated app: timers, navigation directions, music playback and sports scores can be displayed as Live Activities. Many third-party apps like food delivery and flight tracking services have also adapted to use the Dynamic Island.
Live Activities should be enabled by default, but if you don’t see them for certain apps, check if they’ve accidentally been turned off. On your iPhone, navigate to Settings > Apps and select any app that’s been giving you trouble. Make sure the Live Activities slider is enabled. Though Live Activities work independently of regular notifications, you might want to also enable notifications for the app if you’re not seeing the expected updates.
These activities will also appear on the Lock screen when you’re not using your device. To make sure this is enabled, visit Settings > Face ID & Passcode. Confirm your passcode, then scroll down to the Allow Access When Locked section and be sure Live Activities is on.
Using Live Activities on CarPlay
CarPlay makes it easy to access vital info from your iPhone without getting too distracted while driving. As part of this, it can display Live Activities so you can track the status of a food delivery or updates for an upcoming flight.
Live Activities from your iPhone are automatically displayed on the CarPlay Dashboard, the split-screen view to the left of your app list. If you’re using an app that covers the entire screen, Live Activities will still be shown as notifications at the bottom of the display. If they become too distracting, you can always turn the feature off in CarPlay or disable Live Activities for specific noisy apps, as above.
In case you’re not seeing them, open the Settings app in CarPlay, scroll down and make sure the Live Activities toggle is enabled. You should also confirm the Suggestions in CarPlay (or Suggestions in Dashboard) option is turned on. If they still don’t appear, try turning off Driving Focus if it’s running.
Besides this, you can add widgets to CarPlay for quick controls and information from apps without having to open them. Widgets live in the leftmost section of the CarPlay Dashboard. Spend a little more time in the Settings app, and you’ll discover more ways to customize how CarPlay looks on your car’s display.
Apple could add a personal touch to its upcoming iPhone Duo launch, letting buyers see their names on the screen the first time they turn on their new phones. According to Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, Apple retail stores in the US will have a system to customise the device’s initial greeting, so it displays a message such as “Hello, Mark” instead of the usual generic welcome.
The feature is expected to be exclusive to the iPhone Duo and limited to the US, with support for English and Spanish. It is a small change, but one that could make unboxing a new iPhone feel a little more personal.
Apple is adding a personal touch to the iPhone Duo experience
The custom greeting is a small software detail, but it fits Apple’s broader approach of making its products feel personal from the moment users start using them. Instead of seeing the same welcome screen as everyone else, buyers could see their own names appear during the initial setup.
According to Gurman, the feature will be available only at Apple retail stores in the US, and only on the iPhone Duo. Customers can choose between English and Spanish. Apple has not announced whether the personalisation will extend to online orders or other iPhone models.
The feature is also a reminder that Apple’s first foldable iPhone is being treated as a special launch. The iPhone Duo opens into a 7.6-inch display and has a 5.4-inch outer screen when folded. Apple has positioned it as a device for multitasking, gaming, and watching content, rather than simply a conventional iPhone with a hinge.
iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 in the US
The timing is notable because Apple’s first foldable iPhone is approaching its retail launch. The company says US pre-orders begin on October 16, with availability starting October 23. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, with higher-capacity versions costing more.
The device opens into a 7.6-inch inner display and has a 5.4-inch outer screen when folded. Apple is pitching it as a device for multitasking, gaming and watching content, combining the flexibility of a larger screen with a phone-sized design.
For US buyers considering a $2,000 phone, a personalised greeting will hardly be the deciding factor. Still, it is a memorable flourish for a product that marks Apple’s entry into the foldable-phone market. The bigger questions remain how well the folding design holds up, how useful the larger display proves in everyday use, and whether buyers think the price is justified.
For now, the name-on-screen feature remains an unconfirmed retail detail. Apple has yet to explain exactly how stores will set it up or whether the option will expand to other devices.
RELATED COVERAGE:
[This is a sponsored article with MDEC, but the editorial team had full control over the content. ]
If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’d know that Malaysia is now at the centre of Southeast Asia’s AI infrastructure boom.
New data centres are continuously being announced across Johor and the Klang Valley, with the most recent ones being China’s Alibaba and Singapore-based Digital Decarbonization Solutions Platform (DDSP).
As more and more global technology firms expand their cloud and AI capabilities here, it’s easy to get awed by the billion-ringgit investment flowing into our digital economy. These investments also reflect Malaysia’s growing strengths under the Malaysia Digital (MD) national strategic initiative, which is accelerating the development of a robust digital and AI ecosystem.
But have you ever wondered why Malaysia is chosen for these expansions?
Out of all our SEA-blings, why Malaysia?
Today, Malaysia is one of the few countries in the Southeast Asia region that has built something worth betting on before the hyperscalers arrived.
NationGate, a Penang-based manufacturer, had spent years quietly qualifying for one of NVIDIA’s most exclusive global partnerships. They’re currently one of only four companies across all of Asia that have earned the right to assemble NVIDIA’s most advanced AI servers.
Similarly, SNS Network in Cyberjaya is making high-performance GPU computing accessible to businesses that would otherwise struggle to afford the hardware themselves.
MDEC’s Founders Center of Excellence (FOX) programme has also assembled a cohort of high-growth Malaysia Digital (MD) status software companies, giving them the strategic support to scale, expand regionally and contribute to Malaysia’s growing AI ecosystem.
So how does each layer actually work? Let’s break it down.
The hardware layer: Building the machines that power AI
You probably won’t see NationGate’s name on your AI tools, but their systems run on the infrastructure the firm helped build.
Founded in 2010 by Datuk Ooi Eng Leong and his wife Tan Ah Geok, NationGate started as a general electronics manufacturing services provider before pivoting into AI server assembly. That pivot proved timely.
As demand for AI infrastructure accelerated worldwide, NationGate emerged as one of its beneficiaries. In just 2024 alone, the firm’s revenue reportedly surged from RM638 million to RM5.27 billion, an increase of more than eightfold.
Beyond the NVIDIA partnership, what makes NationGate’s position defensible is its operational depth. The company assembles servers using NVIDIA’s H200 and B200 AI GPU chips—among the most sought-after in the world—and ships them primarily to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
It also offers servers using the older H100 chips and Intel rack servers, positioning NationGate to serve both cutting-edge AI workloads and more cost-sensitive enterprise deployments. This diversification is highly important as AI infrastructure demand continues to expand faster than supply can keep up.
The access layer: Putting GPU power within local (and global) reach
As one of Malaysia’s leading ICT distributors and super server suppliers, SNS Network is far from a new player in the AI boom.
The Ipoh-founded company built its name in the local tech supply chain as a distributor of hardware and servers to businesses. But as competition in AI server distribution grew, SNS Network shifted its focus into GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS).
Called SNS AI Factory, it’s a fully managed AI cloud infrastructure service built with NVIDIA and Dell Technologies. Instead of buying expensive hardware, companies can rent computing power for workloads across industries like financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and telecommunications.
Its GPUaaS also addresses another challenge facing AI adoption: data sovereignty.
For banks, hospitals, and government agencies, sensitive data often cannot be freely stored or processed overseas due to regulatory and security requirements. By keeping the infrastructure in Malaysia, companies can easily overcome these barriers to adopting AI.
Pricing starts at around RM35,000 per GPU per month, as SNS Network aims to offer more companies access to AI infrastructure without large upfront costs. “[This] allows (companies) flexibility to scale their computing needs on demand,” stated its Managing Director, Ko Yun Hung.
The intelligence layer: What gets plugged in
Hardware alone doesn’t build an AI economy. Data centres and GPU clusters are only the foundation. What matters is what gets built on top of them.
That’s where Malaysia’s MD status ecosystem and the MDEC Founders Centre of Excellence (FOX) programme come in. An invitation-only initiative, FOX provides Malaysian companies with strategic support, investor access, and regional expansion opportunities to scale up.
Three MD status companies show how this plays out.
Glem.ai tackles the deployment gap. Its AI platform helps large organisations, regulated industries, and government users scale AI deployments without being locked into a single vendor.
This addresses the practical roadblocks that often prevent AI projects from moving past the pilot stage. As its CEO, Ryan Tay, puts it plainly: “Our focus has always been on solving the real barriers that stop enterprises and institutions from deploying AI at scale: data sovereignty, governance, and production reliability.”
Since its launch last year, the company has won the Talent Innovation Award at ITEC 2025 in Beijing, showing what’s possible when local innovation is nurtured with the right support and opportunities to scale internationally.
On the other hand, DeltaSpike addresses the blind spot that tends to get discovered too late. As AI becomes more integrated in critical business workflows, it also becomes a target. This gap is what DeltaSpike aims to fill with its Agentic SOC: an intelligence-drive, automation-first security operations model designed to proactively contain security threats.
“Our goal is to embed intelligent, proactive protection into the DNA of business growth. This investment serves as a mandate to accelerate Malaysia’s cybersecurity capability while providing a robust security anchor for Southeast Asia,” shared its Chairman,Taufik Othman.
DeltaSpike’s vision has since attracted institutional backing. In April 2026, DeltaSpike secured a strategic investment from VentureTECH to accelerate its capabilities and regional expansion across Southeast Asia.
Last but not least is Cloud Space, a cloud and AI infrastructure solutions provider focused on helping businesses deploy scalable digital systems across regional markets.
As Malaysia’s 2025 Google Cloud Country Partner of the Year, Cloud Space helps enterprises modernise legacy systems, migrate to cloud infrastructure, and deploy AI-enabled applications at scale.
Google Cloud’s President of Global Partner Ecosystem, Kevin Ichhpurani, commended the firm in 2025, stating, “Cloud Space’s commitment to delivering innovative cloud solutions and measurable outcomes for clients has made a significant impact over the past year.”
More than the sum of its parts
Taken on their own, NationGate, SNS Network and MD status companies Glem.ai, DeltaSpike, and Cloud Space are already strong stories. But what makes Malaysia’s position interesting is how they connect.
Each layer feeds the next. Easier access to GPU infrastructure lowers the barrier for enterprises to experiment with AI, which drives demand for local AI applications. As adoption grows, it increases the need for more computing capacity underneath.
Over time, this builds a full ecosystem that continues to attract foreign investment, accelerate AI adoption and reinforce Malaysia’s position as a regional digital hub.
As Malaysia’s AI ecosystem continues to grow, the capabilities being built today will help advance the aspirations of Malaysia Digital 2030 (MD2030) while laying the foundations for Malaysia’s vision of becoming an AI Nation by 2030.
- Learn more about MDEC and the MD Status here.
Featured Image Credit: NationGate / Pixabay
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