Demand for Apple’s iPhone and MacBook product lines surged during the third quarter of 2026, signaling record-breaking revenues for June. This was the toplining statement from Apple’s outgoing CEO, Tim Cook, during his final earnings call for the company on Thursday.

This news, which found iPhone sales increasing by 22% to $54 billion, Mac sales of $10 billion (thanks, in large part, to the popularity of its entry level MacBook Neo), the iPad at $6 billion, wearables, home and accessories at almost $8 billion, and services at $31 billion, was relayed with a celebratory tone as Apple raked in roughly $109 billion in net sales for almost $30 billion in net income during the quarter.

“It’s an incredibly strong iPhone and Mac product cycle that has really yielded demand beyond our expectations,” Cook said.

Yet concerns about future price hikes dampened the discussion, given the ongoing global memory shortage and potential supply constraints ahead.

Apple raised prices on many of its products in June due to the ongoing RAM shortage caused by the high memory needs of AI tools and products. As supply chain constraints on memory chips persist, a large portion of the questions asked of Cook centered on price uncertainty, product availability and a potential drop in product sales going forward, depending on economic conditions and customers’ comfort with how much they’ll spend.

“On the pricing front, we reluctantly raised prices,” Cook explained. “I would say we did it because we’re in what I would characterize as a 100-year flood on the memory pricing, with exponential increases in memory prices, and so that was the rationale for it in terms of our philosophy on dollars or percentages.”

What’s the move going forward? Cook said Apple is looking at the bigger picture and thinking about the situation over the long term, rather than treating the next quarter as “a 90-day clock.”

That said, he expects memory pricing to continue its upward trend over the next few months, which means a price hike could be on the horizon. He was cagey in giving any solid details on the matter, which he called “unclear.”

“We’re evaluating all options,” Cook added.

Cook is ending his 15-year run as Apple’s CEO, and before he took questions from members of the press, he took time to express his gratitude, optimism for the company’s future and praise for incoming CEO John Ternus, who will take over on Sept. 1.

“He is truly one of a kind, and there is no better person to take the helm of the company,” Cook said. “I couldn’t be more confident in his leadership, in our executive team and in the extraordinary people at Apple who are determined to enrich the lives of our users all over the world.”

Aaron covers what’s exciting and new in the world of home entertainment and streaming TV. Previously, he wrote about entertainment for places like Rotten Tomatoes, Inverse, TheWrap, Washington Post and The Hollywood Reporter. Aaron is also an actor and stay-at-home dad, which means coffee is his friend.

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• Washington wants Ukraine’s drone tech without signing a formal partnership deal
• Ukrainian drones now hit targets even after losing operator control entirely
• Six agreements signed already, ten more contracts reportedly still in the works

Ukraine’s drone program has become one of the most closely watched defense innovations of the current war, drawing global attention.

Analysts now argue that Washington is seeking direct access to that technology’s intellectual property rather than a formal partnership agreement.

The Commission hopes to unlock at least €30bn in collective public and private funding.

The EU is pushing forward with its plans to become the “AI continent” with a fresh call for tenders to set up seven AI Gigafactories across the bloc.

The initiative is expected to help the EU develop advanced AI on its own infrastructure in line with the bloc’s rules and standards around model safety.

The Commission today (30 July) said it is setting aside $10bn in EU and national funding, and hopes to tap at least $20bn from the private sector.

Interested consortia or Special Purpose Vehicles (legal entities) have until 12 November to make their bid. Awards will be announced in early 2027, the EU authority said.

The fresh call comes as the EU ramps up efforts to compete with the US in the AI space.

The additional compute capacity is expected to give European enterprises, academia and public authorities access to the infrastructure needed to train and fine-tune advanced AI models. The bloc has an existing network of 19 AI Factories.

Funding is divided into into two consecutive development phases across two lots, with the 18 participating member states, including Ireland, Germany, France and Sweden, matching EU funding, the Commission said.

The first lot of the initiative will support four AI Gigafactories, with each one eligible to receive as much as €100m in EU funding in the first phase, and up to €400m in the second.

A second lot will support three projects, with each receiving up to €200m from the bloc to begin with, and up to €800m per project in a second phase.

Selected AI Gigafactories are expected to begin operations within 18 months after the consortia makes a successful bid.

The EU’s AI Continent action plan, announced in April last year, is a wide-ranging initiative to transform Europe’s strong traditional industries and its talent pool into “powerful engines of AI innovation and acceleration”.

“The opening of the AI Gigafactories call represents a milestone in our AI Continent ambitions. Access to the raw scale of computing power within AI Gigafactories is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates,” said EU executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy Henna Virkkunen.

“I am pleased to see member states, industry and the Commission coming together to work on these facilities that are key to our technological sovereignty.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

The Samsung surge continues. The company confirmed on its earnings call this week that it will launch the Galaxy S26 FE phone and Tab S12 Android tablet later this year. The announcement comes a week after a Galaxy Unpacked event in London, where Samsung introduced the eighth-generation Galaxy Z foldable phones and new smartwatches.

The Galaxy S26 FE phone will be the final model of Samsung’s S26 series, which includes the Galaxy S26 Ultra, S26 Plus and S26. The Tab S12 will be the flagship of the next Galaxy tablet series.

The S26 FE phone could launch in August or September, and the Tab S12 tablet might come out in September or October, according to reports.

Read more: Samsung Expects the Chip Shortage to Get Worse Before It Gets Better

Samsung typically unveils several devices each year across product categories and prices. At its July Unpacked, the Seoul-based giant launched the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and Galaxy Watch 9. These phones and watches are now available for preorder.

Putting the S26 FE phone on sale will help the company “maintain S26 momentum,” said Daniel Araujo, head of Samsung’s strategic planning group for mobile experience. He also said on the earnings call that the company saw increased smartphone sales in the second quarter of the year, led by the S26 models.

Araujo confirmed that the Tab S12 tablet would go on sale in the second half of 2026, along with the new foldable phones and Watch Ultra 2.

Speculations about the specs

A significant amount of information has been leaked about the design and specs of the S26 FE. Samsung news site SamMobile says the phone could have an Exynos 2500 chip — Samsung’s advanced mobile processor for powerful AI and high-end graphics — as well as the Android 17-based One UI 9 for the software interface.

SamMobile reports that the screen will be the same as the S25 FE, at 6.7 inches. There could be three cameras, a 4,900 mAh battery — good for an entire day after a full charge — and 45-watt wired charging. Prices could be around $800, and the product could go on sale in August or September.

As for the Tab S12, tech site Android Police reported there may be only two tablets in the series — the Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra and the Galaxy Tab S12 Plus — with no base model.

The Plus version could have a 12.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, a Dimensity 9500 chip with 12GB RAM, up to 512GB storage and a 10,500mAh-plus battery.

A Samsung representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more: How to Nab Samsung’s New Galaxy Foldables for Less

Samsung strong

Despite industry-wide price hikes and intensifying competition — such as Apple’s widely rumored iPhone foldable coming this fall — Samsung consistently distinguishes itself from rivals, says CNET reporter and video producer Abrar Al-Heeti.

“Samsung was a pioneer in the foldable phones market and continues to be a leader there, and its display innovations always stir up a lot of hype at tech events and launches,” Al-Heeti said.

Al-Heeti said the Unpacked event, which she covered for CNET, was another example of Samsung trying to keep one step ahead of the competition, especially with Apple’s foldable looming on the horizon.

“Samsung decided to debut its own 4:3 foldable, the Z Fold 8, which is garnering plenty of buzz and earning several positive reviews,” she said.

Ever since being admittedly fascinated by the Cambridge coffee webcam from the 1990s, I’ve written about VPNs, the NFL, smartphones, living wages, over/unders and everything in between.

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Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

BYD sells more electric cars than anyone. Next month, it wants to sell you one using a robot.

China’s biggest EV maker will unveil its first humanoid robot in August, at its Di Space experience centres in Zhengzhou, the company told the South China Morning Post. It will be a working prototype, not a concept, and it will mingle with visitors.

The robot reportedly has a name and a job. According to Chinese outlet KrASIA, citing a since-deleted BYD post, it is called “Xiao Di,” a service humanoid that stands 1.61 metres, weighs 58.5kg and can translate between six Chinese dialects and six foreign languages in real time. BYD has not officially confirmed the specs.

Cars first, then everything else

The plan starts in the showroom. Executive vice-president Stella Li wants two or three robots in every BYD store, greeting customers and explaining cars. She insists they will assist human staff, not replace them.

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From there, the ambition widens: supermarkets, malls and warehouses in the medium term, and eventually homes, doing the cleaning, cooking and companionship. BYD says it will build an open platform that makes both its own robots and models co-developed with others.

Its pitch is manufacturing. BYD already builds its own batteries, motors and electronics at huge scale, and Li argues cars and robots share the same roots. That, in theory, lets it build robots more cheaply than a standalone startup can.

Everyone with a car factory wants one

BYD is not early. It is late. Tesla’s Optimus is the headline rival, but China’s carmakers are swarming in. Xpeng is trialling its Iron robot, Li Auto is exploring designs, and Chery’s Aimoga is already selling to consumers.

The backdrop is a humanoid boom. China made about 20,000 humanoids in 2025 and more than 40,000 in the first half of 2026 alone, with the government pushing for far more. Some forecasts stretch to tens of millions of robot workers within a decade.

The catch, and the timing

There is a reason for the robot rush, and it is not entirely rosy. BYD’s car business is under strain, with first-half sales down about 16% amid China’s brutal price war. A new growth story is welcome.

But a slick demo is not a business. Investors still have no price, no production timeline and no paid deployments to judge. BYD has also denied separate reports of a factory robot line, so much remains unconfirmed.

And the overseas door is closing. The move lands just as the US moves to bar imports of Chinese robots, which could keep Xiao Di out of one of its biggest potential markets. For now, BYD’s robot has one job: sell cars, in China, from a showroom floor.

Viaim RecDot

MSRP $199.00

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“The Viaim RecDot’s are the perfect balance between great sound and AI transcription”

Pros

• Simply, one-touch recording
• Detailed, balanced sound
• Excellent battery life
• Multiple charging options

Cons

• Average noise canceling
• Bass could be better
• Plasticky build

Quick Take

The Viaim RecDot grabbed my attention because they offer a truly unique feature to wireless earbuds. Rather than chase the best possible sound or the best noise cancellation, they’re built to capture, transcribe, and summarize everything you hear. Simply hit the record button (located on the case) and choose a record mode to turn calls, lectures, and in-person meetings into searchable transcripts. The Viaim app’s AI then gives you summaries and to-do lists within seconds. If you spend your day in back-to-back conversations and are ok giving up your AirPods, then the RecDot can be a very helpful companion.

The Viaim RecDot is a decent set of earbuds in their own right. The 11mm titanium-coated drivers produce fairly good, detailed, balanced sound that produces great vocals and acoustic tracks, and battery life runs up to nine hours per charge, or 36 with the case. Calls came through clearly for me in most calls, and the recording and transcription features are fast and dependable. Translation covers more than a dozen languages, and the whole system is easy to live with once you accept that the app is doing most of the work.

On the other hand, they’re not perfect. Noise cancellation is good, not great, and bass gets muddy on some deep house or hip-hop tracks. The build feels plasticky, and at full price they sit uncomfortably close to more polished all-rounders from Apple, Soundcore and Samsung. But if your main goal is capturing and organizing what’s said around you, the RecDot does it very well. For the right buyer, these are a great choice that I would recommend.

Viaim RecDot specifications

Viaim RecDot design, build & comfort

The RecDot follows the long-stem template Apple made famous, but these sit a touch chunkier in the hand than the AirPods 4 that I use on a regular basis and the AirPods Pros that I borrowed to compare these against – and you notice it. That extra bulk makes room for the recording hardware, so it’s easy to understand why it’s there. The build leans more plastic than premium, and the sliding lid on the charging case feels flimsier than the rest of the package at times. Everything else about the case is genuinely good. The buds snap into their magnetic cradles with a satisfying click and stay put no matter how hard you shake the thing.

Best of all is a physical record button on the outside of the case, which starts a meeting recording with a single press. It’s a smart, tactile touch, though the tiny blinking light that tells you recording is live could be far more obvious in direct sunlight. Viaim throws in five sizes of eartips, which is more generous than most, and an in-app fit test runs frequencies through the earbuds to check your seal. Swapping tips is a little fiddly, but once you land on your size, the fit holds up for long sessions. These aren’t gym buds, though.

The fit isn’t tight enough for running or hard training, but for sitting at a desk, commuting, or grinding through a day of meetings. Controls live on the stem as a touch sensor that handles play, pause, volume slides, and track skips. Overall, it works. There’s no haptic confirmation, though, so you sometimes can’t tell whether your tap registered, and the triple-press to jump back a track takes practice. If you plan on switching earbuds for different occasions (like running, flying, etc), then you might have a tough time remembering the tap sequences.

Viaim RecDot app, transcribing & features

This is where the RecDot earn their name and why you would buy them. There are three ways to record: call recording that transcribes system or VoIP calls in real time, audio or video recording that transcribes a clip, and live recording for face-to-face conversations and small meetings. Starting a recording was fairly straightforward for me, whether you press the button on the case or hold the stem until you hear “recording start.” Pressing the button on the case was simpler for me.

You can choose to have every call auto-record as well. When you have this turned on, you will hear a voice telling you and the person on the other end that the call is being recorded. Everything winds up in the Viaim app, and this is the one thing I had to learn. Viaim markets recording on the buds themselves, but the transcription and AI features live in the app. Simply put, the app isn’t optional. You have to use it.

Once your audio is in, the AI does the work. Transcription was pretty reliable and thorough for me in my testing, picking up speech with few errors. The meeting assistant extracts concise summaries and pulls out actionable to-do items, and it does so quickly and with surprising accuracy about who owns what. There’s even a mind-map view, and the app taps large language models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for its AI tools. Transcripts can be translated into more than a dozen languages, though translation is laggy, the way it is on rival systems.

Note: I only used Spanish in my translation testing.

Two quirks jumped out for me. A long pause makes the software insert a full stop or start a new sentence, so you’ll do some light cleanup afterward, and speaker separation is inconsistent, nailing it in some sessions and merging voices in others. My hope is that future firmware updates will fix this. You get 600 free transcription minutes a month, which most people won’t use up. If you want more minutes, you’ll need to spend extra per month for those (I listed them above in the specs, and below in the FAQs). One practical note the marketing skips: recording conversations carries legal and etiquette obligations that vary by location, so know the consent rules where you are before you hit record.

The rules depend on where you and the other person are. Federal law and most states use one-party consent, meaning if you’re part of the conversation, you can record it without telling anyone else. That covers states like New York, Texas, and Virginia. A minority of states like California require all-party consent, where everyone must be informed and agree before you record. In those states, quietly recording a meeting or call can be a crime even if you’re a participant.

Viaim RecDot sound quality

For a product built around AI, the RecDot sounds better than I expected it to. The 11mm titanium-coated drivers put out a vibrant, detailed, crisp presentation that leans balanced rather than bass-heavy, great for vocals. Ed Sheeran’s Azizam (a recent favorite of mine, make fun all you want) serves up a dance beat that punches through without trampling the vocal, and the soundstage runs surprisingly wide for earbuds. Orchestral material holds up too, with clear separation between flutes, piano, and the rest of the sections.

Where the RecDot’s struggled for me is during dense, heavy music. Rock tracks can turn muddy and cluttered at times, the loudest sections sounding squashed rather than powerful. Bass occasionally feels stuck and short on depth, and percussion can lean tinny. Sparser genres like acoustic, singer-songwriter, soul, and ambient electronic are where these buds shined for me. There’s an EQ in the app with pop, bass boost, and electronic presets, and while a few nail specific tracks, none held up reliably across a broad library, so the default balanced profile is the one that I thought worked best for me. Audiophiles looking for next-level detail will want a dedicated pair of earbuds, or straight-up over-the-ear headphones. Everyone else will find the sound more than pleasant.

Viaim RecDot active noise cancellation

Viaim’s Smart ANC claims up to 48dB of reduction, and in daily use it does a decent job of quieting an office or a commute on a plane or bus. It isn’t class-leading, and I felt like it was on par with my AirPods 4 in most instances. To be fair though, I think the AirPods 4 do an OK job. I have been on plenty of calls where the person on the other end had ANC turned on, and they were difficult to hear during that call. Put the RecDots side-by-side with the best buds at this price, and the RecDot let more low-frequency rumble through, and jet-engine noise on a long-haul flight would test its limits. There are low, middle, and high manual modes, but none of them stayed reliable as environments changed, so the auto setting is the one I would recommend. Auto occasionally colors the sound in the process, but that beats fiddling with presets every time you move rooms. For everyday commuting and open-plan offices, the ANC is more than good enough.

Viaim RecDot call quality

The RecDot’s call quality is clear and dependable. In my tests, callers said my voice came through cleanly, with only a slight fuzziness on sharp sibilant sounds, and the mics keep background noise off the line. In a busy environment, you can still make out a caller’s words without straining. As I mentioned before, it’s not the best on the market, but it’s perfectly reliable for the meetings and 99 percent of the calls you will make.

Viaim RecDot battery & charging

Battery life really surprised me. Coming from my AirPods 4, I was expecting to get about 4 hours of continuous use, but was able to push beyond that in the 7-9 hour range with the RecDots. You get up to nine hours from the buds themselves and an extra 36 hours with the case as a charger, which comfortably outlasts AirPods Pro and Samsung’s Galaxy Buds. In my testing, eight hours of listening drained the buds to 80 percent, which is a lot given all the recording and processing happening in the background. The case charges over USB-C or wirelessly, which is a nice convenience at this price. Cheaper rivals push past 40 hours, but for a pair doing this much processing, the RecDot’s battery life is more than competitive.

Viaim RecDot comparison & alternatives

Apple AirPods Pro remain the pick for anyone in the Apple ecosystem who cares most about noise cancellation, fit, and easy device switching, and they now do basic live translation, though they can’t come close to matching the RecDot’s structured summaries and to-do lists. Samsung Galaxy Buds are the equivalent choice for Galaxy owners, with strong ANC and longer battery than Apple, and they only cost a little more than the RecDot. For pure recording on the cheap, dedicated AI note-takers like the Plaud NotePin capture and summarize conversations for less, but you lose the everyday earbud. The RecDot’s whole argument is that it does both jobs in one device, and for the right person that combination justifies the premium. And I’d say for the average person, the premium is worth it.

Verdict: Should you buy them?

The Viaim RecDot are a forward-looking pair of earbuds that do the one thing they set out to do, and they do it extremely well. Recording and transcription are fast, accurate, and super useful. The sound and battery life are much better than I expected. Holding them back from being a perfect 10 for me is the ANC that trails the best in class, bass that struggles with heavier music, a plasticky build, and a premium price. If your days are full of meetings, lectures, or interviews, nothing else at this price captures and organizes them as neatly. I found the RecDot to be the perfect companion for my work and play schedule. Score: 4 out of 5.

How I tested the Viaim RecDot earbuds

I tested the Viaim RecDot over three weeks of daily use, wearing them for meetings, calls, drive-time and plane commutes, and focused desk work, with listening sessions running well past two hours at a stretch. I streamed music from Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music across an iPhone and a laptop, listening to EDM/House, Rock, classical, acoustic, and podcast material, and leaned on the recording and transcription features across real calls and in-person conversations. I compared them directly against Apple AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro for sound, ANC, and call quality.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Do the Viaim RecDot record phone calls?

Yes. Call recording transcribes system and VoIP calls in real time. You either hold the stem or press the button on the case to start. I found the button on the case to be the simplest. The transcript, summary, and any to-do items appear in the Viaim app afterward.

Do I need a subscription to use the AI features?

You get 600 free transcription minutes a month, which covers most people. Heavy, all-day recorders may hit that cap; the AI tools themselves run through the Viaim app. Viaim offers a Pro plan, which is $9.99/month or $79.99/Year and comes with 1800 minutes, and an Ultra plan, which is $19.99/month and $159.99/year and has unlimited minutes.

How many languages does translation support?

Transcripts can be translated into more than a dozen languages, including English, Chinese, French, and German. Translation works but lags in real time, much like it does on Apple and Samsung buds (from what I have researched).

Are the RecDot good for working out?

Not really. The IPX5 rating shrugs off sweat and light rain, but the fit isn’t tight enough for running or hard training. They’re built for desks, commutes, and meetings. You’ll want dedicated earbuds for that.

Should I buy the RecDot over AirPods Pro?

Buy the RecDot if automatic transcripts, summaries, and to-do lists genuinely save you time. Choose AirPods Pro if you mainly want stronger noise cancellation, a snugger fit, and tight integration with Apple devices.

Winamp will use Deezer technology to launch a premium streaming service in 2027, combining subscription music with local files, radio, podcasts and cloud libraries. It sounds useful, but the important details remain missing.

Before Spotify, Apple Music and recommendation algorithms decided what everyone should hear next, millions of listeners stored their music on a computer. Those collections were assembled from ripped CDs, purchased downloads and MP3 files acquired through methods best left between the listener and their internet service provider.

Winamp was the software that made those libraries manageable.

The Windows music player let users organize playlists, adjust an equalizer, install plug-ins, run visualizations and completely change the interface through downloadable skins. It was fast, flexible and considerably more personal than most of the streaming apps that eventually replaced it.

Now Winamp wants another opportunity to shape digital music playback.

The company announced on July 29, 2026, that it has formed a strategic partnership with Deezer to develop a new Winamp Player. Scheduled for the first half of 2027, the software will combine a Winamp-branded premium streaming service with locally stored music, internet radio, podcasts, personal cloud collections and other audio sources.

That is considerably more interesting than launching yet another streaming service. The world already has enough of those, along with enough annual price increases to make renting the same albums indefinitely feel like a retirement strategy.

What Was Winamp?

Winamp first appeared in 1997 and was developed by Justin Frankel through his company Nullsoft. It arrived as the MP3 format was beginning to change how music could be stored, shared and played on personal computers.

Winamp did not invent digital music, but it helped make large computer-based libraries practical for ordinary users. AOL acquired Nullsoft in 1999 after the software had attracted millions of listeners.

Its popularity was about more than playback. Winamp gave users control over how their music was organized and how the software looked. Thousands of skins and plug-ins turned it into something that felt personal rather than another corporate storefront.

The player later drifted through ownership changes and uncertain development. AOL announced plans to discontinue it in 2013, although the shutdown did not happen as expected. Belgian internet radio company Radionomy acquired Winamp and Shoutcast in 2014.

Winamp never completely disappeared. A legacy Windows version remains available, while newer mobile applications have been released for iOS and Android.

Calling the 2027 product a full comeback is therefore not entirely accurate. Winamp has been trying to rebuild itself for several years. The significant change is the addition of a complete subscription streaming service powered by Deezer.

What Are Winamp and Deezer Building?

Deezer will supply its catalog and white-label streaming technology, but the service will be presented as a native Winamp subscription rather than Deezer wearing someone else’s jacket.

Winamp says the new player will bring together streaming music, local files, internet radio, podcasts and personal cloud libraries within one customizable interface. The company is also promising social features and new tools for music discovery and organization.

The existing desktop player will eventually gain access to the premium subscription.

Winamp and Deezer also claim that more than 40 million people still actively use the desktop software worldwide. That is an extraordinary figure for an application many listeners assumed had disappeared alongside dial-up modems, although neither company has provided independent verification.

Deezer is a logical infrastructure partner. It already operates a global streaming service and supplies music technology to telecommunications companies, hardware manufacturers and other third-party businesses.

For Deezer, Winamp creates another way to distribute its catalog without having to persuade Spotify and Apple Music subscribers to switch directly to the Deezer brand.

Why Deezer?

Deezer enters the Winamp partnership from a stronger financial position than its smaller market share might suggest.

The French streaming company reported revenue of €268.2 million for the first half of 2026, adjusted EBITDA of €8.5 million and net income of €6.7 million, reversing a €7.6 million loss from the same period one year earlier. Direct subscribers increased 8.7% to 5.8 million, although Deezer’s total subscriber base declined 3.5% to 8.9 million as subscriptions supplied through outside partnerships continued to fall.

Deezer is not remotely close to challenging Spotify or Apple Music on scale, but it has a licensed global catalog, lossless streaming technology and an expanding business supplying music infrastructure to other companies. Winamp does not need Deezer to become the world’s largest streaming platform. It needs Deezer to make the plumbing work.

What Are the Alternatives to Winamp?

Winamp will not be the first platform to combine locally stored music with subscription streaming.

Roon is the most obvious alternative for audiophiles. It merges local files with services including TIDAL and Qobuz, adds extensive metadata and discovery tools, supports bit-perfect playback and works with more than 1,000 compatible audio devices. It is also priced at $14.99 monthly, $149.88 annually or $829.99 for a lifetime subscription, before anyone buys a dedicated Roon server.

Audirvāna Studio also combines local files stored on computers, USB drives and NAS devices with TIDAL, Qobuz, Presto Music, HIGHRESAUDIO and internet radio. Its emphasis is more firmly placed on high-resolution playback and computer-based audio than mainstream discovery or social features.

Plexamp is another strong option for people who primarily want to organize and stream their own music collection. It offers gapless playback, loudness leveling, smart playlists, CarPlay, Android Auto, AirPlay and Chromecast, but it does not merge that library with a full subscription music catalog in the same way Winamp is proposing.

Winamp’s opportunity is therefore not proving that local and streamed music can coexist. Roon and Audirvāna already do that rather well. Its challenge is making the experience simpler, cheaper and more accessible to people who do not own a dedicated server or use “bit-perfect signal path” in casual conversation.

Why Does This Matter?

Streaming services have made access to music remarkably convenient, but they have also separated many listeners from the music they already own.

Someone with 2,000 ripped CDs, purchased FLAC downloads, independent releases, live recordings and carefully organized playlists often needs one application for local files and another for streaming. Internet radio, podcasts and cloud storage may require additional software.

Winamp wants to put those sources inside one player.

That could be genuinely useful because streaming and locally owned music serve different purposes. Streaming is excellent for discovery and immediate access. Local files offer permanence, specific masterings and control over recordings that may disappear when licensing agreements change.

Winamp is not the first company to attempt this. Roon combines local libraries with several streaming platforms, while music servers from companies such as Innuos merge stored files with subscription catalogs. Apple Music also allows listeners to manage local music alongside its streaming library.

The difference is that those solutions are either tied to specific ecosystems, require another subscription or work best with dedicated audio hardware.

A properly designed Winamp application could offer a broader software-based alternative for listeners who want one library without purchasing a dedicated music server.

The word “could” is carrying a rather large loudspeaker up the stairs.

Who Would Use It?

The most obvious audience consists of listeners who built substantial digital music libraries during the CD-ripping and download eras and never deleted them simply because Spotify arrived.

That includes people with MP3, AAC, ALAC, WAV and FLAC collections stored on computers, external drives or cloud accounts. It also includes listeners who buy music directly from artists, collect alternate masterings or own recordings unavailable through mainstream services.

Existing Winamp users are another natural audience, assuming that 40 million figure is remotely close to reality.

The player could also appeal to people who dislike the increasingly uniform design of major streaming applications. Customization was central to Winamp’s original appeal, and the company says users will again be able to modify layouts and create skins.

Audiophiles should remain cautious.

Deezer currently offers lossless streaming, but neither company has confirmed that the Winamp subscription will include lossless audio. There is also no information about bit-perfect playback, exclusive audio modes, automatic sample-rate switching, USB DAC support or compatibility with network streamers.

Until those details emerge, this is a promising library-management concept rather than an audiophile playback platform.

What We Don’t Know

Winamp has not announced the price, launch countries or which operating systems will be supported at launch. There are no confirmed details about streaming quality, offline downloads, family plans, playlist transfers or whether existing Deezer subscribers will have any upgrade path.

The company has not identified which cloud-storage platforms will work or whether the player will index NAS drives and shared network folders.

Hardware support is another large blank space. Winamp has not confirmed AirPlay, Google Cast, UPnP, DLNA, smart-speaker integration, automotive support or direct playback through connected audio components.

It has also not demonstrated the finished software.

At this stage, Winamp and Deezer have announced a partnership, a concept and a 2027 release window. That is not the same thing as delivering a stable player capable of merging a complicated local library with millions of streamed tracks.

The Bottom Line

Winamp and Deezer are pursuing an idea that deserves attention.

Major streaming services have spent years improving discovery and recommendation systems while often treating locally owned music as something listeners abandoned with CD binders and beige computers.

Millions of people still own large digital collections and should not require a separate archaeological expedition every time they want to play them.

Deezer gives Winamp a catalog, licensing relationships and streaming infrastructure. Winamp brings a recognizable brand and decades of experience with local music playback and customization.

That combination could produce a genuinely useful alternative to conventional streaming apps. It could also become another Deezer-powered service with a different logo, several customizable buttons and a marketing department leaning very heavily on the past.

The difference will come down to pricing, audio quality, hardware support and whether Winamp can combine local and streamed music without turning library management into unpaid technical support.

The llama may still whip the llama’s ass.

It also needs to support your DAC.

For more information: winamp.com

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