Bowers & Wilkins isn’t pretending this is a breakthrough and that’s exactly the point. The British luxury audio brand has expanded its flagship Pi8 true wireless earbuds and Px7 S3 noise-cancelling headphones with a slate of new premium finishes, leaning into a trend that’s been quietly reshaping the high-end audio category: color as innovation. The Pi8 now arrives in Dark Burgundy and Pale Mauve, bringing the total to six finishes, while the Px7 S3 adds a new Vintage Maroon option to its growing lineup.
If that sounds familiar, it should. Last year, I pointed out how a long list of premium audio brands had started treating industrial design and colorways not as afterthoughts, but as a legitimate product cycle strategy; extending relevance without touching the underlying acoustics. Bowers & Wilkins is now fully committed to that playbook. The hardware hasn’t changed and it didn’t need to, but the visual refresh keeps both models firmly in the conversation in a market that’s running out of meaningful spec-sheet upgrades.
Available starting March 19, the new finishes don’t come cheap: $499 for the Pi8 in Pale Mauve or Dark Burgundy, and $479 for the Px7 S3 in Vintage Maroon. Same award-winning sound, new wardrobe. Whether that counts as innovation or just smart business depends on how easily you’re seduced by a better shade of red.
What Are the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8?
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 in new Dark Burgundy color for 2026
The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 are the company’s flagship true wireless earbuds, positioned as a no-compromise attempt to deliver genuine high-end sound in a category that usually prioritizes convenience over fidelity. In our review, the Pi8 stand out for their refined tuning, clarity, and sense of control, offering a presentation that feels closer to a compact hi-fi system than a typical pair of wireless earbuds. They’re designed for listeners who actually pay attention to what they’re hearing and not just how easily it connects.
At their core, the Pi8 combine carbon cone drivers, advanced DSP, and support for aptX Lossless to push beyond the limitations that have traditionally defined Bluetooth audio. Bowers & Wilkins also includes a smart charging case with retransmission capability, allowing wired sources to be streamed directly to the earbuds; an unusually practical feature that adds real-world flexibility. It’s a more thoughtful approach than most, focusing on how people actually use their gear rather than chasing feature checklists.
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Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 in new Pale Mauve color for 2026
That said, the Pi8 don’t try to win on every front. As we noted in our review, the emphasis is clearly on sound quality, materials, and overall refinement, rather than class-leading noise cancellation or mass-market pricing. If overall sound quality, comfort, and strong but not class leading ANC matter most, these are among the best options available.
What Are the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3?
The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 are the brand’s latest over-ear wireless noise-cancelling headphones, sitting just below the Px8 S2 but very much aimed at the same crowd that shops Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser at the top of the category. In our review, they come across as a deliberate refinement of what Bowers & Wilkins has been building for over a decade; premium materials, a more mature design language, and a clear focus on sound quality first. This isn’t a lifestyle headphone trying to fake it. It’s a high-end hi-fi product that just happens to be wireless.
Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 in new Vintage Maroon color for 2026
Where the Px7 S3 separates itself is in how it sounds relative to its competition. As noted in the review, it delivers audiophile-grade clarity, deep and controlled bass, and a level of detail that outpaces most rivals in this price range, including the usual suspects from Sony, Bose, and Apple. Bowers & Wilkins has also refined the internal driver design and overall tuning, while adding modern essentials like aptX Lossless and a more flexible EQ. The result is a presentation that feels more composed and revealing than what you typically get from mainstream ANC headphones.
That said, like the Pi8, the Px7 S3 doesn’t try to dominate every category. The review makes it clear that while ANC is improved and competitive, it’s not the class leader, and comfort is very good without being the lightest or most effortless in the segment. This is a headphone built around priorities: sound quality, build, and long-term listening satisfaction. If that’s what matters most, it’s one of the strongest all-around options available right now and one of the few that still feels like it was tuned by people who actually prioritise sound quality over ANC and connectivity features.
The Bottom Line
New colors are not innovation, but they do make the Pi8 and Px7 S3 feel fresher and harder to ignore. More importantly, this kind of refresh signals longevity these models are not going anywhere. Same excellent sound, now with a little more swagger.
Where to buy:
Tip: These new finishes add to the existing colors which include back, white, blue and jade green. Currently the new colors are only available at the Bowers & Wilkins website.
All iPhone users running iOS 13 or iOS 14 need to update now. Apple has confirmed routine browsing can trigger attacks on outdated iOS versions.
Apple advises iPhone users about iOS 15 update
Apple revealed on March 19 that malicious web content can exploit older iOS versions and expose personal data through compromised sites or unsafe links. Apple released security updates on March 11 for both newer and older devices, including iOS 15.8.7 and iOS 16.7.15. Users on iOS 13 or iOS 14 should upgrade to iOS 15 to receive those protections. Updating iOS closes those gaps and protects against these web-based attacks. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
“In January 2026 Broadcom signaled the termination of its VMware Cloud Service Provider program in Europe,” CIPSE said in a statement. This unilateral decision removed all but a tiny minority of hand-selected partners and excluded most European CSPs from selling VMware products.”
In its complaint, CISPE also accused Broadcom of “ongoing abuse,” citing sharp price hikes—up to tenfold, with some customers reporting as much as 900 percent increases—along with product bundling and commitment requirements based on projected rather than actual use, The Register reported.
“After imposing outrageous and unjustified price hikes immediately following the acquisition of VMware, Broadcom is now applying the ‘coup de grâce.’ We need urgent intervention to force them to change,” CISPE Secretary General Francisco Mingorance said, according to the publication.
In a statement responding to CISPE’s antitrust complaint, Broadcom said:
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Broadcom strongly disagrees with the allegations by CISPE, an organization funded by hyperscalers, which misrepresent the realities of the market. We continue to be committed to investing significantly in our European VMware Cloud Service Provider partners… helping them offer alternatives to the hyperscalers and meet the evolving needs of European businesses and organizations.
CISPE currently has 50 members. It also names hyperscalers Amazon Web Services and Microsoft as “adherent members,” which CISPE claims don’t have voting rights and are prohibited from participating in certain activities.
In July, CISPE filed an appeal with the European General Court in an attempt to annul the EC’s approval of Broadcom’s VMware acquisition. That case is ongoing.
Rivr, a Zurich-based autonomous robotics startup known for its stair-climbing delivery robot, has been acquired by Amazon in a deal that signals the e-commerce giant’s interest in doorstep delivery. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Rivr co-founder and CEO Marko Bjelonic, who once described the four-legged wheeled robot to TechCrunch as a “dog on roller skates,” shared the acquisition news on LinkedIn. The Information was first to report the deal.
Bjelonic said in his LinkedIn post that the acquisition will “accelerate our vision of building General Physical AI through doorstep delivery, bringing robotics and AI closer to real-world deployment at scale,”meaning, in plain terms, that Amazon’s resources should help Rivr get its robots onto more doorsteps, faster.
Last year, Rivr launched a pilot program in Austin with Veho, package delivery company. Bjelonic said, at the time, he hoped to learn from the partnership with Veho and eventually scale to 100 bots by 2026. It’s unclear if the company was ever able to reach that milestone.
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TechCrunch has reached out to Rivr for comment.
Rivr got the attention of Amazon long before its pilot program. The Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Bezos Expeditions invested in Rivr as part of a $22.2 million seed round that closed in 2024, according to Pitchbook. The startup, which had raised a total of $25 million, was last valued at $100 million.
Jeff Bezos is reportedly seeking $100 billion for a new fund, the likes of which will be used to buy up companies in major industrial sectors and, ultimately, modernize and automate them with AI, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal.
The effort is related to Bezos’ AI startup, Project Prometheus. Bezos, whose involvement with the company was originally reported in November, is serving as co-founder and co-CEO, alongside former Google executive Vik Bajaj.
Prometheus, which launched with $6.2 billion in funding, is focused on creating high-level AI models to improve manufacturing and engineering in aerospace, automotive, and other sectors. The new manufacturing fund will support that mission by buying up companies that will ultimately use Prometheus’ models.
According to the WSJ, Bezos recently traveled to Singapore and the Middle East in his mission to raise funds for the effort. The plan is to acquire companies in areas like aerospace, chipmaking, and defense.
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TechCrunch reached out to Bezos via Amazon for more information.
Until now, if you were seated at your Sega Genesis and wanted to check your stock portfolio, you were out of luck. You had to get a smartphone, or a computer, or maybe even a television to look up stock prices and understand your financial position. Thankfully, though, Sega’s neglect of its hero platform has finally been corrected. [Mike Wolak] has given the 16-bit console the real-time stock ticker it so desperately needed.
The build runs on a MegaWiFi cartridge, which uses an ESP8266 or ESP32 microcontroller to add WiFi communication to the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive). [Mike] wrote a custom program for the platform that would query the Finnhub HTTPS API and display live stock prices via the Genesis’s Video Display Processor. It does so via a clean console-like interface that would be familiar to users of other 16-bit machines from this era, though seeing so much textual output would have been uncommon.
By default, the stock ticker is set to show prices for major tech stocks, but you can set it up to display any major symbol available in the Finnhub data stream. You can configure up to eight custom stocks and input your holdings, and the software will calculate and display your net worth in real time.
All the files are available for those eager to monitor their portfolios on a Sega, as the financial gods intended. [Mike] notes it took a little work to get this project over the line, particularly as the ESP32-C3 doesn’t support HTTPs with stock firmware. A few other hacks were needed to keep the Genesis updating the screen during HTTP queries, too.
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If you have a concentrated portfolio and a spare Sega Genesis, this could be a fun retro way to keep an eye on your holdings. Alternatively, you might prefer to go the classic paper tape route.
According to recent statements by SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, ongoing issues in the memory and silicon supply chain are unlikely to improve for another four to five years. SK Group owns SK Hynix, the world’s third-largest semiconductor manufacturer and an integrated device manufacturer with in-house foundry capabilities. While SK… Read Entire Article Source link
As everyone waits for the new Apple Foundation Models trained by Gemini, Google is pushing ahead on bringing a native Gemini app to the Mac. It’ll be similar to those offered by Anthropic and OpenAI.
If you aspire to a career in engineering then make sure you are keeping an eye on the professional lives of these six women.
During the month of March, SiliconRepublic.com is paying particular attention to careers and skills in the engineering space, and what better way to continue that coverage than with an exploration of some of the most exciting women in this field.
The following engineers have contributed greatly to their industries, through their work, discoveries, builds, and advocacy for themselves and others.
Áine Brazil
A managing principal at structural engineering company Thornton Tomasetti, Salthill’s Áine Brazil holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Galway and a master’s degree in engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. She was the first president of the Structural Engineers Association of New York and is a member of the American Concrete Institute, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Engineers in Ireland.
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In her 30-plus-year career she has overseen several crucial projects; for example, she led the structural engineering team for the design of more than 3m square feet of high-rise office development in the Times Square area, as well as the expansion of New York Hospital spanning the FDR highway, the 60-storey 731 Lexington Avenue mixed-use project, and the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
She has been included on the list ‘New York’s 100 Most Influential Women in Business’, by Crain’s New York Business, and has authored numerous technical papers and lectured at universities throughout the US including Cornell, Princeton, and Columbia.
Justine Butler
A chemical engineer with more than 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical space, Justine Butler is currently the director of engineering at Jacobs Life Sciences for Ireland, the UK and the Nordic region. She has significant experience in leading teams and is responsible for the engineering design of a wide-ranging project portfolio.
She is the first woman to hold this position at the organisation and is also among its youngest people working in a leadership capacity in her region. Butler was also the first young engineer to serve on Engineers Ireland’s council and executive committee after first chairing its young engineers committee. In 2024, she was honoured with the ‘Women in STEM – Engineering’ award, given by Engineers Ireland.
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Dervilla Mitchell
A former deputy chair of Arup Group, Dervilla Mitchell is a civil engineer with a background in the design of the built environment. She has led a number of major projects, including the Athletes’ Village for the London 2012 Olympics, Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport, Dublin airport’s Terminal 2, and Abu Dhabi airport’s Midfield Terminal. She is the co-chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering and also chairs the UK’s National Engineering Policy Centre’s decarbonisation group.
Georgina Molloy
A programme manager for energy performance at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), Georgina Molloy is also the chair of the Engineers Ireland Women in Engineering group. As part of her role there, Molloy chairs a committee of 12 engineers with the aim of achieving better gender balance and supporting women who have chosen a career in the engineering space.
She is a chartered structural engineer with more than 20 years of experience working in consulting engineering practices large and small, and has spent a considerable portion of that time in scaffold and temporary works design and construction. Molloy is particularly passionate about working on refurbishment projects and enjoys being part of teams that bring old builds of historical importance back to life.
Norah Patten
Set to be the first Irish person in space, Norah Patten is an aerospace engineer and bioastronautics researcher at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS). She has received multiple recognitions for her contributions to the industry, such as a 2015 ’emerging space leader’ award, an appearance in Limerick’s ‘top 40 under 40’ for 2018, and an IIAS ‘science educator’ accolade, among others.
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She is a regular keynote speaker, an author and an advocate for other women in the industry. Later in the year, Patten will join Kellie Gerardi of the US and Dr Shawna Pandya of Canada as crew members aboard Virgin Galactic’s new Delta vehicle for a space mission organised by the US-based IIAS.
Anisa Pjetri
A former senior structural engineer and project manager at AtkinsRéalis, Anisa Pjetri is now an associate director at the company. She earned a BSc in civil engineering in Albania and an MSc in structural engineering in London before relocating to Ireland, where she earned a chartership from Engineers Ireland and took up a position at AtkinsRéalis.
Pjetri has 12 years of international expertise in designing, planning and overseeing the construction of a wide variety of buildings, structures and infrastructure for residential, commercial, medical, industrial and hospitality projects. In 2025, she was a finalist for the Chartered Engineer of the Year award.
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The finalists for Deal of the Year at the 2026 GeekWire Awards. Clockwise from top left: Temporal co-founders Samar Abbas and Maxim Fateev; Protect AI co-founders Badar Ahmed, Daryan Dehghanpisheh, and Ian Swanson; Kestra Medical Technologies’ cardiac monitoring device; the ribbon cutting at OpenAI’s new Bellevue office, home to the former Statsig team; an Omeros lab. (GeekWire / Company Photos)
The finalists for Deal of the Year at the 2026 GeekWire Awards include two major acquisitions, a landmark licensing deal, a big funding round, and a rare IPO — collectively representing billions of dollars in transactions.
This award, presented by Wilson Sonsini, recognizes the transactions that made the biggest impact in tech and innovation in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. The Deal of the Year finalists this year are Kestra Medical Technologies, Omeros, Protect AI, Statsig, and Temporal.
Now in its 18th year, the GeekWire Awards is the premier event recognizing the top leaders, companies and breakthroughs in Pacific Northwest tech, bringing together hundreds of people to celebrate innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. It takes place May 7 at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle.
Seattle startup Lexion was the Deal of the Year winner last year after being acquired by Docusign for $165 million, a successful exit for the AI-powered contract management company, which got its start in 2018 at the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle.
Continue reading for information on Deal of the Year finalists, who were chosen by a panel of independent judges from community nominations. You can help pick the winner: Cast your ballot here or in the embedded form at the bottom. Voting runs through April 10.
Statsig was acquired by OpenAI for $1.1 billion in an all-stock deal announced in September, in a surprise exit for the Bellevue, Wash.-based product experimentation platform. The deal also landed Statsig CEO Vijaye Raji, a former Facebook engineering leader, in the newly created role of CTO of Applications at OpenAI.
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Founded in 2021, Statsig powers A/B testing, feature flagging, and real-time decisioning for major companies. It had raised more than $153 million, including a $100 million Series C round at a $1.1 billion valuation just months before the acquisition, with backing from Sequoia and Madrona. Statsig now forms the nucleus of OpenAI’s new Bellevue engineering office.
Kestra Medical Technologiesraised $202 million in its IPO in March 2025, pricing shares above the expected range in a strong debut for the Kirkland, Wash.-based maker of wearable cardiac devices. Shares began trading on the Nasdaq at more than 30% above the IPO price.
Founded in 2014, Kestra makes devices that detect and respond to sudden cardiac arrest. Its IPO marked the end of a long dry stretch with no traditional IPOs for Seattle-area tech companies since 2021.
Omeros Corporation, a Seattle-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, struck a deal worth up to $2.1 billion with pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk for zaltenibart, its clinical-stage drug candidate in development for rare blood and kidney disorders. Announced in October, the agreement gives Novo Nordisk exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize the drug.
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Founded in 1994 by orthopedic surgeon Gregory A. Demopulos, who still serves as CEO, Omeros went public in 2009 and recently received FDA approval for its lead drug Yartemlea, the first therapy for a rare post-transplant complication.
Protect AI, a Seattle startup that helps companies secure machine learning systems, agreed to be acquired by cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks in a deal announced in April. Terms were not disclosed, but sources familiar with the deal said it was valued north of $500 million.
Founded in 2022 by former engineering leaders at Amazon and Oracle, Protect AI serves Fortune 500 companies across finance, healthcare, and government. Palo Alto Networks said the deal will bolster its ability to secure the new attack surfaces created by AI.
Temporalraised $300 million in a Series D round at a $5 billion valuation in February, doubling its valuation from just months earlier. The Bellevue, Wash.-based company builds open-source software and a cloud service that helps companies run complex workflows reliably — what it calls “durable execution.” The rise of AI agents has amplified demand for its platform, with customers including OpenAI, ADP, and Block.
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Founded in 2019 by co-founders Samar Abbas and Maxim Fateev, who previously built an internal orchestration engine at Uber, Temporal has raised $650 million to date, with backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and Madrona.
The event will feature a VIP reception, sit-down dinner and fun entertainment mixed in. Tickets go fast. A limited number of half-table and full-table sponsorships available. Contact events@geekwire.com to reserve a spot for your team today.
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An analyst at Barclays believes that if the iPhone Fold launches in 2026, it will be in December, months after the iPhone 18 Pro. He’s the only one saying this.
iPhone Fold could launch in December
Many rumors point to the iPhone Fold launching in late 2026 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, though no parts have leaked yet. It will be an incredibly expensive device and Apple’s first attempt at a foldable. A note from Barclays analyst Tim Long, viewed byMacRumors suggests the iPhone Fold will release in December 2026. He offers no detail as to why it would come out three months after its announcement other than supply chain sources. Rumor Score: 🙄 Unlikely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By default, the stock ticker is set to show prices for major tech stocks, but you can set it up to display any major symbol available in the Finnhub data stream. You can configure up to eight custom stocks and input your holdings, and the software will calculate and display your net worth in real time.
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