Epic Aircraft builds single-engine turboprops that move fast and carry serious loads for their size. The newest version, the E1000 AX, keeps every bit of that performance edge while folding in deeper Garmin automation than the company has used before.

The Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67A engine still produces 1,200 shaft horsepower. That’s plenty of power to match the all-carbon-fiber airframe, which has a maximum cruise speed of 333 real airspeed knots. It can climb at a whopping 4,000 feet per minute and still reach 34,000 feet. With full tanks, it can travel 1,560 nautical miles and still carry 1,150 to 1,177 pounds of payload, depending on how you rig it up.

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These numbers placed the E1000 GX at the top of the single-engine turboprop class in terms of speed and usable load. The AX retains the same reliable engine, prop, and basic aerodynamics. What has changed significantly is the cockpit, as well as all of the new safety features. Garmin’s G1000 NXi flight deck is now the focal point of the entire system. The GFC 700 autopilot features envelope protection, a one-button level mode, and tighter connectivity throughout the panel. Then there’s Autothrottle, which is a significant addition to the AX’s capabilities because it manages power from takeoff to landing, maintains commanded speeds, and monitors engine limits so pilots don’t have to keep a close eye on torque, temperature, or overspeed conditions because they’re all handled behind the scenes, and it considers flap and gear position when adjusting thrust, so you don’t have to worry about those details either.

The real show stopper, however, is Garmin’s Autoland technology. If you activate it, either by pressing the ceiling button or because the system detects the pilot is in trouble, the aircraft will level the wings, select the best airport based on distance, runway length, fuel, and weather conditions, fly the approach, configure the plane, land, stop on the runway, and turn off the engine. It also follows proper air traffic control procedures and keeps passengers informed. The certified aircraft now has all of the necessary hardware and integration in place, but full operational activation is still pending regulatory certification, which is expected in the near future.

Even beyond that, several other modifications cut pilot workload even further. To keep the plane coordinated, an auto yaw damper is activated after takeoff and deactivated before landing. When you need to take a break, electronic brake hold prevents the aircraft from drifting about on the ground, and a radar altimeter allows you to see where you are in relation to the surface. If you want to go the extra mile, there is optional StormOptix weather radar and 3D SafeTaxi routing, which provide you with even more situational awareness on the ground and in the air. PlaneSync handles database updates automatically and allows you to monitor your aircraft remotely with no effort.

Inside the cabin, the aircraft has a lot of space for its class, especially when compared to its competitors in the six-seat single turboprop sector, which can sometimes seem tight. People who are 6’8″ or taller can fit rather comfortably up front. The CoolView windows across the cockpit and cabin have a specific gold coating that effectively blocks 73% of infrared heat. This also effectively reduces glare and UV exposure. It also includes high-speed internet via Starlink, making it an excellent choice for anyone looking to stay connected while in the air. Furthermore, True Blue Power lithium-ion batteries are an excellent improvement over outdated battery systems, providing improved performance, a longer lifespan, and less maintenance for the owner.

A well-specced E1000 AX will cost between 4.7 and 4.85 million dollars, depending on the options you choose. That puts it on par with other high-end single turboprops and some smaller light jets, but it does have some advantages. For one thing, it is much less expensive to operate than some of its competitors, and the fact that it just has one engine makes it much easier to manage for owner-pilots or pilots in small corporate flight departments.

FUJIFILM India recently concluded its Spectrum India Tour 2026, a nationwide initiative designed to bring photographers, content creators, and visual storytellers closer to the company’s latest imaging technologies. Built around Fujifilm’s “Click to Print” philosophy, the event showcased the brand’s imaging ecosystem through hands-on experiences, product demonstrations, workshops, and interactive sessions.

The tour kicked off in Delhi-NCR at Museo Camera between June 18 and June 20, where attendees had the opportunity to explore Fujifilm’s latest cameras, lenses, and imaging solutions. The event featured interactive Touch & Try zones, live product demonstrations, and exhibitions highlighting Fujifilm’s portfolio across photography, videography, and printing.

Hands-On Experience Across Fujifilm’s Imaging Ecosystem

One of the major highlights of the Spectrum India Tour was the opportunity for visitors to experience Fujifilm’s products firsthand. Dedicated Touch & Try zones allowed attendees to test cameras and lenses across a variety of creative scenarios, including vlogging, cinematography, portrait photography, travel photography, and street photography.

Visitors also explored Fujifilm’s premium GFX medium-format ecosystem alongside products from the broader Fujifilm lineup. The exhibition further showcased binoculars and other imaging products from Fujifilm’s partner brands, giving attendees a comprehensive look at the company’s imaging technologies.

Industry Expert Insights & Interactive Activities

Beyond product showcases, the Spectrum India Tour focused heavily on learning and skill development. The event hosted multiple masterclasses and visual storytelling sessions led by renowned Fujifilm X-Mentors, including Ashish Chawla, Abhimanyu Pandey, Dinesh Khanna, and Tarun Khiwal. These sessions covered both technical and creative aspects of photography, providing participants with practical insights into lighting, composition, portraiture, storytelling, and professional workflows.

FUJIFILM also introduced the Experience Passport Challenge during the event. Attendees could collect stamps by participating in various activities and exploring different experience zones throughout the venue. Those who completed the challenge became eligible for giveaways and other rewards. The initiative helped create a more engaging environment while encouraging visitors to explore every aspect of the exhibition.

Amazon has issued a steeper price drop on AirPods Max 2 leading up to Prime Day, with the over-ear headphones plunging to a record-low price of $399.

You can pick up AirPods Max 2 at a $150 discount at Amazon when you opt for the Starlight finish, which is the lowest price on record for the 2026 release. If you prefer another color option, Walmart is matching the $399 price across the line.

Buy AirPods Max 2 for $399

AirPods Max 2 features

• Powered by Apple’s H2 chip
• Up to 1.5x more Active Noise Cancellation than the first-gen AirPods Max
• Transparency mode
• Adaptive EQ
• Lossless Audio and ultra-low latency audio via a wired USB-C connection

Best early Prime Day AirPods deals

Easily compare prices across both in-ear and over-ear models in our AirPods and Beats Price Guide.

The world of premium all-in-one music systems has grown significantly in the past few years, with some of the biggest names in hi-fi adding their own take into their line-up.

Dali is the most recent of those brands, with its announcement of the Vega all-in-one wireless system. Now, I’ve had the chance to have a listen to it, and it’s got some pretty interesting tricks up its sleeve – but I think one of them in particular makes it really interesting.

You spin me right round

For a start, as well as sitting on a piece of furniture, it can be wall mounted – and not just horizontally, but vertically too. Dali says there has been a lot of work done to ensure the Vega retains it character no matter how you listen to it, which is all down to something the company is calling its Adaptive Orientation Adjustment.

Developed in-house by Dali engineers, this uses a built-in accelerometer to detect the Vega’s position, with its stereo channel mapping automatically reconfigured on the fly if this changes. Custom EQ settings for each orientation have been created to ensure very similar sound across all orientations. 

And it works. Or certainly, that was my experience when I heard it on the show floor at High End Vienna. Therefore the usual trade show caveats apply, but as it was rotated for me on moving wall-mount (a party trick for the show – the wall-mount that comes in the box is fixed), I was really impressed with not just how steady it holds its sonic profile, but how uniformly its sound is pushed out into the room too.

Considering how drastically the layout of the Vega’s left and right channels change as its position moves, that feels like an achievement. I’m still not wholly convinced that many people are looking at installing this vertically, but if you’re short on furniture and wall space, perhaps…

Vega only loves in stereo

However, I was also suitably impressed by another bit of Dali-developed technology, namely its Adaptive Stereo Enhancement (ASE) – but perhaps not for its main use case.

The aim of ASE is to ensure all recordings can fill a room, by dynamically applying stereo widening depending on the details of the input signal. It does this by upmixing the stereo input into five channels, then analysing the results to decide how much – or little – ASE is required.

That means that if you’re listening to a jazz trio, for example, the ASE would – if switched on, it is optional – kick in stronger to make that more simple sound have a similar stereo presence to a full orchestral arrangement.

While certainly effective in a show floor environment, I generally don’t like any additional processing on my music, so on the surface I’m not sure how much use I would get from it at home. Where I think it could be much more interesting is with movies.

While Dali is very clear it does not consider the Vega a soundbar, it does have an HDMI eARC input, meaning connecting it to your TV is a possibility. And when I got to hear the ASE effect switched on for a Netflix stream of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,it made all the more sense to me. The immersive widening effect was really quite convincing, and only makes the Vega more compelling as a soundbar replacement.

It’ll take a full review to see if these first impressions ring true in a home environment, of course, but if the Dali Vega can take over a number of jobs in my living room, it’ll certainly make its £2,599 asking price all the easier to swallow.

Ripple effect: If you own a current-gen console, there’s a chance you’re one of many people who have booked time off work on November 19. That’s when GTA 6 launches, and one company is apparently going to be so impacted by the number of missing employees on that day that it’s issuing an operational pause.

Automotive parts and tuning company Burger Motorsports posted what it says is an Internal Company Notice on Instagram recently.

Addressed to all staff, customers, dealers, and partners, it states that after reviewing multiple employee scheduling conflicts, management has decided that normal business operations may be impacted due to the release of Grand Theft Auto 6.

The message adds that several team members have already notified management that they will be unavailable, unreachable, and/or “in Vice City” for the duration of the day.

The letter ends thanking readers for their patience and understanding during this “unprecedented cultural event.”

Given that Burger Motorsports chose to publish this notice on Instagram, there is a chance that it’s merely a publicity stunt (which has worked). But there’s no denying that plenty of businesses will be short-staffed come November 19.

In related news, a new GTA 6 teaser has dropped, though the only things it reveals are the game’s cover art and the preorder date. Anyone who wants to secure a copy ahead of time – and there are likely to be plenty – can do so from June 25.

The cover art, meanwhile, follows the same design and style as the other titles in the series, going all the way back to GTA 3 in 2001. Interestingly, one element that has remained in place for the last quarter of a century is the inclusion of a helicopter in the top-left panel of the grid – though it wasn’t included in international versions of GTA 3.

For PC players, of course, November 19 is going to be like any other day. A version for the platform still hasn’t been announced. According to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, the reason is because PC gamers aren’t the series’ “core” audience and they spend less on GTA Online.

Like other online travel booking services, Priceline helps you compare offerings and rates for everything travel-related, like airline tickets, and hotel stays. Growing up, I always referred to singer/starship captain William Shatner as the annoying guy from Priceline, much to my grandmother and father’s horror. But, you have to admit, the ads were memorable and convincing, even if it did become Shatner’s legacy to a new generation. No celeb endorsement is needed to save with our Priceline promo codes, though. We update our Priceline coupons regularly to help you be a budget-friendly traveler, with Priceline coupon codes for dollars off car rentals, last-minute hotel bookings and other select discounts for (nearly) everything travel-related.

Priceline Coupon Code: $20 Off Your Next Booking

Summer means vacay and the best summer sports events are in full swing. With Priceline’s Fan Fest Getaways, you can get up to 60% off stays in host and watch party cities for the world cup, as well as various discounts in sports-centric cities, for stays as short as one match-day, to weekend-long celebrations. You can get $20 off your next trip when you use Priceline coupon code FANFEST, on everything travel-related, including hotel, flight, or rental car deals.

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One of the easiest ways to save big on travel with Priceline is to sign up for VIP rewards. Sign up is free and includes tons of perks like best price guarantee, exclusive savings on hotels, rental car discounts, insider coupons, and more.

Early on, Priceline first became known for its “Name Your Own Price” system, where travelers would set their budget for airline tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals, and vacation packages. Details like the exact hotel were only shared after your credit card was charged, with no ability to cancel. This lives on, sorta, with Priceline’s Express Deals promo which shows up in the results for certain searches. Where, right now, you can get 10% off Express Deals when you sign up for VIP rewards.

Express Deals give you limited-time rates of up to 60% off on hotels, flights, and car rentals. Like the “Name Your Own Price” system, because of the extremely discounted rates of these deals, some details are hidden until after booking and are non-refundable.

How to use a Priceline Coupon Code

To get the 10% off Hotel Express Deals, all you have to do is simply sign-up for Priceline emails. Your custom code will be sent straight to your inbox. For these Priceline Hotel Express Deals, the customer must sign in, use the search tool to find valid hotels with the Express Deals badge, and apply code at checkout to save big (and stay bad and bougie) on your next vacay.

Deals You’ll Love With This Priceline Coupon (Verified by WIRED!)

We know travel can be egregiously expensive. That’s why we at WIRED rigorously test each Priceline coupon to make sure you’re getting those promised discounts on important travel details like flight, rental cars, and hotel bookings. Priceline sometimes had blanket deals, like 10% off promo codes when you sign up for emails. But some of Priceline’s best discounts are tied directly to the booking type you select. Savings fluctuate between Hotel Express Deals, Flight Express Deals, bundles, and VIP-exclusive rates, so make sure you’re checking to get the best deal for the type of booking you want to make.

The most effective method this month is the WIRED Priceline Booking Type Check:

1. Start from a verified offer card on this page.
2. Select your category (Hotel, Flight, Car, Package, or Cruise).
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4. Review travel dates, cancellation policies, and the final price before confirming.

Save on Priceline Discount Code Deals for Express Bookings

If you’re like me, someone who wants to book for way less but doesn’t necessarily care about brand type, you may want to check out Priceline express deals. With this, there are exclusive Priceline discount code deals which offer “blind-booking” savings. This means that to get express deals, which often save 40-60%, you’ll book your room or flight without knowing the specific brand until after purchase.

How to Use Priceline Hotel Promo Code for Hot Deals Like 99% Off Cancun

With a ‘Hot Deal’ Priceline discount, you can get massive discounts on your next warm weather getaway. This means up to 99% off hotel bookings for destinations like Cancun and Maui. If you’re like me and in desperate need of sandy beaches at a fraction of the cost, explore the ‘Hot Deals‘ available right now, like $1,000 off hotels in Cancun and Maui (expires July 8), or if you want to stay within the Lower 48, Priceline has a deal for $500 off stays in LA hotels (expires July 6).

Find Priceline Cruise Promo Code Savings on Your Next Trip

Make sure you check back often as we’re continuously updating Priceline promo codes, including massive savings with flash events like the “4-Day Cruise Flash Deal,” which give up to $1,250 to spend at sea after you book on top cruise lines. Happy sailing!

Apply Priceline Discount Code Rental Cars and Get $10 off

Oftentimes, the thing that makes travel pricey are the smaller expenses that stack up over time, like rental cars. You can greatly reduce upfront booking costs with a Priceline rental car promo code for immediate savings on vehicle bookings, including this Priceline coupon for $10 off your rental car booking.

Discover Priceline Student Discount and VIP Rewards Perks

When you’re a student, you’re often not in the position to have extra funds to travel. Priceline wants to close that gap of inaccessibility, by providing a Priceline student discount through verification by Student Beans. And there are tons of student-specific Priceline discount codes for specific Spring Break travel destinations and dates. Plus, students can maximize benefits through Priceline’s VIP Rewards program.

Priceline Military Promo Code: Up to 50% Off

Priceline wants to reward members of the military, with Priceline promo code for American Forces Travel members. Once you verify your military service membership, you can save up to 50% on your next hotel stay and other exclusive travel discounts.

How to Contact Priceline Customer Service for Questions

Booking travel and figuring out logistics, including flight delays and car rentals, can be a lot. That’s where Priceline customer service steps in. You can contact Priceline customer service securely anytime. Make sure you contact Priceline through official communication channels only, which are listed on the website and within apps directly. The fastest method of support is the 24/7 chat.

Get 10% Off in the Priceline App

One of the best ways to save on your vacation this summer is by using the Priceline app. With the Priceline app, you can get 10% off when you purchase in-app, and 5% off on-site when you purchase any Hotel Express Deals (up to $50 in savings) with Priceline promo code SUMMERSTAY. Act now to save big on primo summer destinations like Florida, California, and Tokyo.

Priceline Offer: 40% Off Near the Biggest Matches

Soccer (or futbol) fans, rejoice! The World Cup is upon us yet again, and Priceline is offering 40% off stays near the world cup matches. With up to 40% off stays, these savings are based on “the average nightly price of hotels in nearby cities compared to the average nightly price of hotels in the primary city for the same travel period.” You can get massive savings on select package deals sitewide when you book a hotel and flight or car together. So whether you’re watching the World Cup games in Atlanta or Los Angeles, you can save big while you cheer on the beloved game.

Looking ahead: Two quiet moves – one from EA, one from Ultima’s creator – could end up reshaping what the series looks like in the years ahead. Electronic Arts recently filed new trademarks tied to Ultima, the long-running RPG series it acquired in 1992 and has mostly left dormant since. The filings don’t point to a specific project, but they do show EA is still actively protecting the Ultima name. Around the same time, Ultima creator Richard Garriott has been working to a different kind of schedule, one set by the quirks of US copyright law.

Garriott says he has tried several times over the years to bring Ultima back with EA’s help, but each effort stalled before anything concrete happened. “Every decade or so, I tried to work with EA on a revival of Ultima,” Garriott told Inside Games’ Brian Gaar. “They always seemed interested enough to start talking, then abandoned talks just as quickly.” Beyond those stalled talks, he’s now looking at other ways to move forward.

Under US law, creators can move to reclaim certain rights to their work 35 years after they transferred them. EA acquired the rights in 1992, making 2027 the first year Garriott can act on that 35-year rule. “And so, I have been waiting… finally, the time has come!” he said.

A young Richard Garriott at his Apple II setup in the early days of Ultima’s development, surrounded by the same kind of machine that powered the series’ earliest entries.

The wrinkle – and the part that matters most for how any future game actually gets built – is the way copyright and trademark split in this case. Even if Garriott regains the underlying rights to his original work, EA would still control the Ultima name and associated branding through trademark protection.

In practice, that could leave Ultima heading in two directions at once.

Garriott could build a new project based on elements he originally created for the series, but he wouldn’t be able to release it under the Ultima name. EA, for its part, would remain free to launch or license games under the Ultima brand, with or without Garriott’s involvement.

A screenshot from Ultima Underworld, the series’ pioneering first-person dungeon crawler.

Garriott has hinted at how he’s thinking about that challenge: “‘Lord British’s Ultima’ will regain all the copyrights of my original work. What it will become is the next challenge.” Taken at face value, he seems more interested in reworking his old ideas than simply slapping the same logo on a new box.

That distinction matters. Ultima has been around for more than 40 years, and the series has already gone through long stretches of quiet followed by resurfacing in new forms. If Garriott does move ahead, he’ll need to decide what “Lord British’s Ultima” actually looks like in practice, a question he hasn’t yet answered publicly.

At the same time, EA’s trademark activity raises a separate set of possibilities. If EA does more with the trademarks, any new Ultima-branded project could look very different from the older games, though the company hasn’t said what it has in mind. Whether that happens remains unclear, but the filings suggest the IP hasn’t been shelved for good.

For now, neither side has laid out concrete plans. Garriott is expected to appear at Dragon Con later this year, where he said he hopes to have “more thoughts together about what that will actually mean.” Until then, both paths remain speculative.

Still, the setup is hard to ignore. It’s rare for a legacy franchise to reach a point where its original creator and its current owner can move forward at the same time, but under entirely different constraints. If both efforts materialize, Ultima could end up existing in two forms – one tied to its name, the other to its original design philosophy.

Whoop’s bracelet-style trackers deliver exhaustive activity tracking and biometric data compared to standard fitness trackers. The Whoop band is also an excellent tool for monitoring sleep and overall health. Our WIRED testers have been reviewing Whoop trackers since the Whoop 3.0, and have watched as the product has evolved into an AI-enabled personalized service.

But for most people, the Whoop may feel like an overinvestment, which is why Whoop is particularly popular among elite athletes. The company’s tiered subscription model can also be quite expensive for devices that are not medical instruments. Nonetheless, in the realm of biohacking, the gamification of health tracking is quite appealing. If you’re on the fence, we have a Whoop promo code and Whoop discount here, including a free trial before you commit to a purchase.

Whoop Promo Code: 1 Month Free

Whoop offers a free trial membership to new customers, no Whoop promo code needed, for anyone not sure about committing. It’s a one-month subscription to Peak, the company’s mid-tier plan that includes core features such as readiness scores and advanced features like health and stress monitoring. The Whoop free trial includes a pre-owned Whoop 5.0 device and wired charger, along with a brand-new band of your choice. According to Whoop, the pre-owned device is thoroughly tested to ensure it works, but it may have slight cosmetic flaws.

Once the trial ends, your membership will automatically renew for $239 per year unless canceled beforehand. Monthly financing with a one-year commitment is available, and you can also switch to a One or Life plan—just make sure to do so before your free trial ends. If you do decide to cancel, you’ll have to return your device and battery pack for the cost of shipping ($6).

Redeem Your Whoop Coupon Code for Free Trials

Whoop’s annual memberships are not cheap. Fortunately, Whoop’s referral program lets you earn free months to offset future membership fees. For each friend you refer, you receive one month of membership credit, and your friend receives one free month when they join. If you have a month-to-month plan, referral credits apply to the next monthly charge until fully used. If you have a 12- or 24-month prepaid plan, credits will extend your renewal date. Referral credits are applied only after your friend has passed their return window or made their second payment, whichever occurs first.

Get the Whoop Military Discount Today: 10% Off

Active and retired military members, as well as first responders, are eligible for a 10 percent Whoop discount code on Peak ($239/year) and Life ($359/year) memberships. You must verify your status through ID.me to receive the Whoop promo code.

Unlock 10% With the Whoop Student Discount

Like the above discount, students can save 10% at Whoop. This 10% Whoop student discount applies to Peak, Life, and One memberships. All you need to do is verify your student status through StudentBeans to get the Whoop promo code for 10% off.

Give the Gift of Better Health With Whoop

Say what you will about gift cards, but in the world of biohacking, a Whoop gift card is practically a love language. Instead of purchasing a Whoop device outright, which involves personal preference for both the membership and band, a gift card is a thoughtful alternative. The available amounts are $25, $50, $75, $100, $250, or $1,000. The gift card numbers are delivered by email along with instructions for redeeming them at checkout. You can either choose a specific gift recipient or send it to yourself to print and give in person. Please note that gift cards cannot be returned or exchanged, so I recommend this only if you know your friend has been dying for a Whoop.

Save More With the Whoop Family Plan

Whoop offers a Whoop family plan to help everyone reach their goals more affordably. The Whoop family plan helps with multiple people’s daily accountability, competition, or motivation, with plans for up to keep costs down. When you choose a Whoop family plan, every member gets their own device and access to the app; each also comes with a complimentary band and a charger that keeps devices juiced for 14 days. With this, you’ll also get a lifetime warranty and 24/7 support. The Whoop Family Plan is for two to six people, and instead of members each paying an individual membership, each family has a single annual bill. Be sure to check out Whoop family memberships and see if it’s right for your clan.

The American dream is “very dead” for millennials and Gen Z, according to financial influencer Haley Sacks, better known as Mrs. Dow Jones. In an interview with Business Insider, Sacks argued that traditional markers of middle-class success, homeownership, stable careers, retirement savings, have become functionally inaccessible to younger Americans, pushing them toward gambling and side hustles as alternative paths to wealth.

The claim lands against a backdrop of record-breaking numbers in the US gambling industry. The American Gaming Association reported that US commercial gaming revenue hit nearly 79 billion dollars in 2025, an all-time high, with sports betting revenue reaching nearly 17 billion dollars, up roughly 23 percent year over year, and iGaming revenue exceeding ten billion dollars for the first time.

Young Americans are driving a significant share of that growth. A 2026 Northwestern Mutual survey found that 32 percent of Gen Z respondents and 24 percent of millennials either participate in or are considering sports betting, rates far above older age groups.

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Sacks, a Fortune 40 Under 40 honouree and founder of the financial education company Finance is Cool, frames the shift as rational rather than reckless. Her argument is that when a starter home costs multiples of a young worker’s annual salary and student debt averages roughly 33,000 dollars for millennials and 22,000 dollars for Gen Z, gambling starts to look like one of the few available shots at a life-changing sum of money.

The economic data offers some support for the underlying frustration. A Beyond Finance survey from March 2026 found that more than 70 percent of Gen Z and millennial respondents described their spending as “survival mode,” covering essentials with little left for saving or investing. The economic anxiety is showing up in other ways too, with university graduates booing commencement speakers who tell them AI will transform their careers while the entry-level job market contracts around them.

But the leap from economic frustration to gambling as a wealth strategy is where the argument runs into trouble. A joint study by researchers at UCLA, USC, and Harvard found that the introduction of online sports betting in a state was associated with a ten percent increase in the likelihood of bankruptcy among young adults. States that added mobile wagering saw a 25 percent increase.

The researchers found that the convenience of phone-based betting, available around the clock and requiring no trip to a casino, was a key driver of financial distress. The pattern is particularly concentrated among men under 35, the same demographic most aggressively targeted by sportsbook advertising.

Gambling addiction among young Americans is rising alongside the revenue. NPR has reported on a growing number of young adults presenting with gambling-related debt, with counsellors noting that many entered sports betting through free-bet promotions and social media advertising that framed wagering as a skill-based investment rather than a game of chance.

Sacks acknowledged in the Business Insider interview that gambling is not a financial plan, but argued the impulse behind it reveals something real about how disconnected traditional financial advice has become from the economic reality facing people under 40. She pointed to the gap between the advice young people receive, save consistently, invest in index funds, buy a home, and a housing market and labour environment that make following that advice feel impossible.

The tension between those two realities is not new, but its scale is. Tech layoffs framed as AI transformation have eliminated tens of thousands of entry-level and mid-career roles across the industry since 2024, compounding the sense among younger workers that the system is not built for them.

The financial services industry has noticed the shift. Betting platforms and fintech apps increasingly market themselves to younger users with language borrowed from investing, offering “portfolios” of bets and “research tools” that blur the line between trading and wagering. European regulators have started cracking down on prediction markets that straddle that same boundary, with Spain blocking Polymarket and Kalshi for operating without gambling licences.

In the US, the regulatory picture is more permissive. Thirty-eight states and Washington DC now allow some form of legal sports betting, up from just one state in 2018. The expansion has been driven by state governments attracted to tax revenue and by a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the federal ban on sports gambling.

It is worth noting some caveats about the framing. Sacks is a financial influencer and content creator, not an economist, and her conclusions are based on anecdotal observation and her audience’s experience rather than peer-reviewed research. The gambling industry’s record revenue does not by itself prove that young people are gambling instead of saving, it could reflect broader population growth in legal markets, more states coming online, or increased spending by existing bettors across all age groups.

The correlation between economic anxiety and gambling behaviour is well documented in academic literature, but correlation is not causation. Some young adults may gamble because they feel economically hopeless, others may gamble for entertainment, and the two groups likely overlap in ways the available data does not cleanly separate.

What the numbers do show clearly is that a generation facing record housing costs, significant student debt, and a contracting entry-level job market is also gambling at historically high rates, and that the financial consequences of that gambling are falling disproportionately on the youngest and most economically vulnerable bettors. Whether that represents a rational response to an irrational economy, as Sacks argues, or a dangerous coping mechanism being exploited by a rapidly expanding industry, depends on which side of the bankruptcy statistics you are standing on.

OS platforms

Bird-branded AI will ride on Stonking Stingray

Canonical has published more details about the local speech-to-text engine that will take dictation in the forthcoming Ubuntu version 26.10, aka “Stonking Stingray.”

In a post on the company’s Discourse forums on Wednesday, the outfit named one of the most significant new elements that’s coming in the next version: Myna: Speech to Text for Ubuntu Desktop.

Earlier this month, we reported from the Ubuntu Summit that Canonical was going big on AI and that one of the first signs would be speech-to-text input via locally run speech-recognition models. After the Summit, the company then published the Ubuntu Desktop 26.10 “Stonking Stingray” Roadmap, as we mentioned towards the end of our review of MX Linux 25.2.

The announcement explains – and illustrates – what the plan is, how it will work, and the user interface that the team is aiming for in the initial release:

For Ubuntu 26.10, we’re deliberately focusing on the basics: a reliable desktop dictation.

The initial experience will be simple: Press a keyboard shortcut, speak naturally, and see the resulting text appear in the application you’re using. Myna is designed to provide speech recognition with clear visual feedback while dictation is active.

This is good stuff. Although it won’t be an accessibility revolution on its own, it’s an important step and will help desktop Linux catch up with the commercial competition. Speech recognition is built into Apple’s macOS in a tool called Voice Control. On modern Macs with Apple Silicon processors, the recognition engine is on-device and works offline. For a few months in 2023, The Reg’s FOSS desk was unable to use his right arm, and when he returned to work, he dictated his articles into an M1 MacBook Air using this feature.

Register columnist Colin Hughes knows much more about such matters than we do. He wrote about how Voice Control needed more work later that same year, and he returned to the subject on Global Accessibility Awareness Day – May 21.

Microsoft’s current offering is called Voice Access, which is replacing the Windows Speech Recognition tool that Microsoft introduced with Windows Vista in 2006.

The Myna project will be open source, and there’s already a GitHub repository for it, but there’s not very much there yet beyond some planning notes. There’s time: although the October release of 26.10 is only about four months away, this is not a major new pioneering technology. Various tools can already do similar things.

One of the first was Mycroft, although it is no longer around: some three years ago, The Register described how the creator of the Linux virtual assistant blamed a “patent troll” for the project’s death. There is also Michal Kosciesza’s Speech Note tool, which you can install from Flathub.

Last August, we reported on the release of FFmpeg 8, which can use the local whisper.cpp version of OpenAI’s Whisper model to do on-device speech-to-text, enabling it to automatically add subtitles to video files.

Although this writer is unconcerned about being labelled an AI hater, we do feel allowing voice control of a PC is an acceptable and beneficial role for the technology. Or as the author of jqwik and noted AI skeptic Johannes Link put it, an Ethical Use of Generative AI. ®