e2Value co-founder Todd Rissel argues that AI-powered property valuation only works when grounded in decades of historical context, construction trends, economic cycles, and shifting cost environments, that shape what replacement cost actually means today.
TL;DR
For many participants across insurance and property ecosystems, current valuation challenges did not emerge from a single moment or event. Multiple economic cycles, demographic shifts, evolving construction practices, and changing consumer expectations have accumulated over time, creating a landscape that can sometimes feel difficult to fully trace. Limited visibility into how these layers developed has made present-day valuation conversations increasingly nuanced. Within this environment, e2Value has focused on studying the long arc of property intelligence, using historical context alongside modern technology to support a more informed view of valuation.
Current discussions around property valuation often begin with present conditions, although a broader historical lens offers an important perspective. “In earlier decades, people generally saw homeownership through a simpler financial lens,” Todd Rissel, co-founder and CEO of e2Value, says. “A house was viewed as simply a place to live, and estimating its value tended to feel more straightforward because prices, replacement costs, and household budgets usually stayed closer together.”
Over time, economic expansion, rising residential values, and changing patterns of household wealth introduced additional layers of complexity. According to Rissel, during the 1980s and 1990s, evolving building standards, energy-related considerations, and increased private investment into residential markets contributed to an environment where homes became larger financial commitments for many families. Property ownership increasingly carried dimensions extending beyond shelter and into long-term wealth accumulation.
As these changes unfolded, distinctions between purchase price, market value, replacement cost, and appreciation became more difficult for consumers to separate. A home’s purchase price could reflect market demand and neighborhood dynamics, while replacement cost involves an entirely different calculation based on the availability of labor, quality of materials, and local market conditions.
Rissel offers a broader perspective on this evolution. He says, “Every economic era leaves behind a set of assumptions that people tend to hold onto. Those assumptions can keep shaping decisions long after the conditions that formed them have shifted.”
Additional economic developments introduced another layer of complexity. For many years, rising incomes and broad access to capital moved alongside increasing property values. Following the financial disruption of the late 2000s, that relationship entered a different phase. Property values remained elevated across many regions while access to capital moved through a period of recalibration, creating a longer-term adjustment across housing and financial systems.
Valuation standards increasingly became part of a larger conversation involving affordability, underwriting, and risk assessment as those conditions continued to develop. Consumers often encountered difficulty distinguishing between the value associated with purchasing a home and the cost associated with rebuilding that same structure.
Present conditions reflect the accumulation of these historical developments. According to Deloitte’s 2026 Insurance Industry Outlook report, insurers are navigating expanding complexity linked to catastrophic events, changing customer expectations, and rapidly evolving technology environments. The report also notes that technology priorities are increasingly focused on strengthening data foundations and creating systems capable of supporting meaningful AI implementation.
This progression naturally brings AI into the discussion. Across insurance ecosystems, AI has generated significant interest because of its ability to process extensive amounts of information and identify patterns across large datasets. EY reports that many senior leaders are reevaluating enterprise AI strategies with greater emphasis on long-term value creation, data quality, and future adaptability.
Still, technology itself represents only part of the equation. AI systems rely heavily on the information used to train and guide them. Historical context becomes particularly important because valuation is influenced by decades of construction practices, regional patterns, economic cycles, and changing cost environments.
Rissel explains this relationship through a broader lens. “Technology can organize and process information at remarkable speed, although meaningful insight often begins with understanding where the information originated and why it matters,” he says. “Data gains value when context travels alongside it.”
This perspective aligns closely with e2Value’s own role within the valuation ecosystem. Since its founding in 2000, the company has focused on preserving historical property intelligence while integrating modern modeling capabilities into its valuation platforms. That role extends beyond creating software designed to generate estimates.
“We’ve spent years examining how structures behave as economic assets that are influenced by construction practices, local market dynamics, material costs, labor conditions, and broader macroeconomic patterns,” Rissel shares. Through that work, the company developed valuation methodologies intended to reflect the larger environment surrounding a property instead of viewing a structure only as an isolated collection of components.
That perspective has also influenced how e2Value interacts with different parts of the insurance ecosystem. Across underwriting, risk evaluation, claims environments, and portfolio management discussions, valuation increasingly functions as a source of insight that supports larger decisions. Replacement cost estimates can influence coverage discussions, portfolio assessments, and broader conversations surrounding risk exposure. As data expectations continue expanding across the industry, connecting those elements within a unified framework has become increasingly important.
Overall, the long arc of valuation shows that today’s complexity is a product of decades of shifting economics, construction practices, and consumer expectations. As Rissel emphasizes, assumptions formed in earlier eras still shape how people interpret value, even as conditions evolve. In this environment, e2Value helps insurers, underwriters, and property stakeholders navigate a landscape where replacement cost, market value, and risk are increasingly intertwined by grounding advanced modeling in the context that gives data meaning.
This article is adapted by the author with permission from Tech Policy Press. Read the original article.
South Africa is not just another developing country struggling to govern artificial intelligence (AI); it is the exception with leverage, and the window to act on it is closing. It holds approximately 88% of global platinum-group metal reserves, critical inputs to parts of the semiconductor and data center supply chains that make AI infrastructure possible. It hosts the largest data center market on the continent. Its existing hyperscaler relationships give it procurement leverage that most African states will never have. And a major geopolitical contest over AI infrastructure is being fought on its soil right now, between Chinese and American technology companies competing for control of the systems that will underpin an entire continent’s public sector.
In physics, leverage requires three things: a fulcrum, a lever arm and the ability to apply force. The Bushveld Complex, the world’s largest platinum-group metal deposit, is the fulcrum: a mineral endowment that gives South Africa a position in the semiconductor supply chain that no other African state holds. The since-withdrawn draft policy is the lever arm. The unresolved “OPTION” provisions in the policy are where force would be applied. Without a policy that specifies what South Africa wants in return for market access, the lever arm sits unused, and the weight of two of the world’s largest technology ecosystems settles exactly where those ecosystems want it to settle.
This makes South Africa a global test case. Not because its proposed means of governance is exemplary, but because it is the one developing country with enough structural leverage to negotiate genuinely different terms, and the one that is choosing, through inaction, not to. The recent announcement of a new panel to update the draft policy is an important opportunity. But the deeper failure is not that an AI policy contained bad references. It is that no verification process caught them before the document entered the public domain. That is a systems problem, not merely a political one. It points to a missing layer in how governments are adopting AI.
Last year, Huawei, pitched an emerging product bundle to tech executives across the continent. Huawei was now bundling access to the DeepSeek’s large language model with its own cloud and storage infrastructure. The price differential was stark: in some cases by more than 90%.
At the same time, Microsoft announced plans to spend ZAR 5.4 billion ($300 million) by the end of 2027 on cloud and AI infrastructure in South Africa, building on a prior ZAR 20.4 billion investment. Google, AWS and Oracle already have cloud regions in the country. According to one analysis, the country’s data center market was valued at $2.16 billion in 2024, the largest in Africa.
These are not commercially neutral investments. Huawei’s infrastructure reach has been explicitly linked to Chinese strategic objectives, including a documented track record of providing governments with surveillance infrastructure through its Safe Cities network. US hyperscaler investment comes with its own dependency structure: closed models, pricing set unilaterally and terms of access that no African government has meaningfully shaped. South Africa is being asked to choose between these dependency models without a policy that specifies what it wants in return.
There is a particular irony in South Africa’s position. The country whose mines supply platinum-group metals essential to semiconductor manufacturing, and through them to AI compute, has drafted a policy that treats it as a consumer of AI systems rather than a stakeholder in their governance. South Africa digs up the minerals that make AI possible. It has no say over the AI built from them.
The AI triad framework covers algorithms, compute, and data. South Africa has no frontier model development capacity. South Africa holds significant data assets in financial services, healthcare and agriculture, with no clear framework for their sovereign management. South Africa possesses PGM leverage of global significance on the compute axis, currently being transferred without meaningful condition. It also has exceptionally high solar irradiance and significant renewable energy potential. A country that can offer both critical mineral inputs and the energy to power the infrastructure those minerals help build occupies a negotiating position of unusual strength.
The Draft Policy proposes no minimum terms for hyperscaler investment, no data sovereignty requirements, no technology transfer conditions and no compute visibility mechanism. Multiple provisions are explicitly left unresolved, marked “OPTION”, including the most consequential choices about how governance will function. Infrastructure decisions made now determine what is renegotiable later, and the answer is: very little.
The three infrastructure futures on offer each create a structurally different form of dependency, and only one creates sovereign capability. The Huawei-hosted DeepSeek integration offers low cost and open-source weights, but with data stored on infrastructure potentially accessible under Chinese legal frameworks, creating surveillance dependency in a pattern already documented across Africa. The second is US closed-model dependency: higher capability, more reliable data protection, but complete API dependency on developers abroad. The third is locally hosted open-weight infrastructure: models governed under South African data sovereignty rules, on infrastructure subject to minimum terms, developed with South African data. As Nathan Lambert at Interconnects has observed, open-weight models are likely the only realistic way to get sovereign AI off the ground as a real effort, enabling local communities and economies to integrate meaningfully with the technology. But this requires procurement conditions, not goodwill.
The GovAI “Governing Through the Cloud” framework identifies four roles compute providers should accept as conditions of operating at scale: securers (protecting model weights and training data), record keepers (maintaining infrastructure usage logs), verifiers (confirming customer compliance with safety standards) and enforcers (restricting access when violations occur). These are operational requirements, not theoretical categories — specific, enforceable, and well within the bargaining power of a market of South Africa’s size and mineral position.
A detailed policy analysis submitted to the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) identifies the specific provisions the final policy must contain: mandatory minimum terms for foreign compute infrastructure investments above ZAR 500 million (~$30 million); a compute reporting threshold; a National AI Safety Institute mandate covering defensive monitoring of AI capability accumulation; and National AI Champion Sector designations to create data assets for domestic model development. Each provision converts a structural advantage into a governance instrument before that advantage is foreclosed by market reality. Just as modern software security increasingly depends on knowing what components are inside a system—model provider, training data, compute environment, evaluation methods, update cadence, human review points, and failure-reporting procedures—public-sector AI governance requires a clear account of the stack before deployment, not after a problem surfaces. A public institution that cannot verify the sources in its own AI policy is unlikely to be ready to verify the AI systems it procures, deploys, or regulates.
South Africa’s choices will establish a regional precedent for what is commercially negotiable in AI infrastructure. If South Africa negotiates data sovereignty guarantees and technology transfer conditions as requirements for hyperscaler investment, it creates a replicable model. If Microsoft’s $300 million investment and Huawei’s infrastructure expansion proceed on standard commercial terms, as they are currently, it normalizes extractive AI infrastructure across the continent. The lesson is not specific to Africa. Governments everywhere are producing AI strategies while lacking AI assurance infrastructure. South Africa is an early warning, not an isolated case.
The public comment period closed when the policy was withdrawn. But a parallel process remains live: the National Treasury’s Draft General Public Procurement Regulations—the legal instrument that will govern every government AI contract—closes for comment on June 15. Those regulations contain no AI-specific provisions.
South Africa has more AI leverage than any country on the continent. Some argue, with force, that governance requirements risk deterring the infrastructure investment South Africa urgently needs: compute capacity, reliable energy, venture capital, and talent retention. That concern deserves a direct answer. Minimum procurement terms, compute reporting thresholds, and technology transfer conditions are not barriers to investment. They are the conditions under which investment serves the host country rather than extracting from it. Infrastructure built without minimum terms produces dependency. Infrastructure built with them produces leverage. To serve the public interest, its AI policy must use it.
When late last month News24 reported AI-hallucinated references in the draft AI policy, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi withdrew the draft policy. That was a mistake that could cost South Africa and the rest of the continent the initiative on this urgent issue. His more recent constitution of an independent panel is a belated step in the right direction, if it can turn South Africa’s leverage into policy. The panel—chaired by Prof Benjamin Rosman of the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery Institute, and including Profs Vukosi Marivate and Alison Gillwald of Research ICT Africa, and Dr Jabu Mtsweni of the CSIR—has the technical and governance credibility to produce a stronger document. What it has not yet produced is a timeline. No revised draft has been scheduled. South Africa remains without a formal AI governance framework in the interim.
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Today is the final day to apply or nominate a startup for Startup Battlefield 200. Once the clock strikes 11:59 p.m. PT, the window closes on your chance to compete for $100,000 in equity-free funding, gain global visibility, connect directly with investors, and launch on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage.
If you’re building a breakout startup — or know a founder who is — this is the moment to move.
Apply now for the opportunity to join 200 of the world’s most promising early-stage startups at TechCrunch Disrupt.
Founders, this is it. The application window closes tonight.
The strongest startups are already in the arena, and applications always surge in the final hours. If your company has been nominated but you haven’t completed your application yet, don’t risk missing your shot by waiting until the last minute.
And if you know a startup that deserves investor attention, media exposure, and a global stage, nominate them now while there’s still time to apply before the deadline.
Some of the most influential companies in tech history didn’t begin with perfect pitches or massive funding rounds. They started by taking a chance.
Dropbox demoed to skeptics before cloud storage was mainstream. Cloudflare pitched before most people understood edge infrastructure. Discord entered as a scrappy gaming startup called Hammer & Chisel.
All of them came through Startup Battlefield.
That’s because Startup Battlefield 200 has never been about rewarding the most polished companies. It’s about identifying the most promising ones. Pre-launch is fine. Early traction is fine. No revenue is fine. What matters is whether you’re building something that genuinely changes an industry.
The application itself is your first pitch. And today is your final opportunity to make it.
Startup Battlefield 200 is where breakout startups get discovered.
Selected companies will showcase at TechCrunch Disrupt in front of 10,000+ attendees, leading venture capital firms, global media, and the broader TechCrunch audience. Founders gain direct investor access, live exposure, and the opportunity to prove they belong among the next generation of category-defining companies.
Every selected startup receives:
Every selected company pitches live, whether on the Disrupt Stage or the Pitch Showcase Stage. Both put founders directly in front of investors, media, customers, and partners looking for what’s next.
You do not need to win the competition for this experience to change your company’s trajectory. The exposure you get from this alone could be what pushes the needle.
More than 1,700 startups have participated in Startup Battlefield over the years. Together, they’ve raised over $32 billion and produced more than 250 exits, including acquisitions by Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Uber, and Amazon.
Alumni include companies like Dropbox, Cloudflare, Discord, Fitbit, Mint, and Trello.
Behind every one of those success stories was a founder willing to put their company forward before the rest of the world caught up.
We’re looking for ambitious early-stage startups building innovative, potentially category-defining products.
Applications are open globally across industries. Most selected startups are pre-Series A, though select Series A companies may qualify.
To apply, startups should have:
Thousands apply every year. Only 200 are selected. Just 20 finalists pitch on the main Disrupt Stage. One startup wins $100,000 in equity-free funding.
The founders who change industries rarely wait until they feel completely ready. They apply before certainty exists.
If you’ve been debating whether to submit, this is your final chance. The deadline closes tonight, 11:59 p.m. PT.
If you’re building something category-defining — or know a startup that deserves the spotlight — submit your nomination and complete your application before time runs out.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
RedMagic’s latest gaming phone is going all-in on battery life and cooling.
The gaming-focused RedMagic 11S Pro has now launched globally, bringing Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Leading Version chip alongside RedMagic’s dedicated RedCore R4 gaming processor. That combination is designed to push smoother frame rates, faster AI features and more stable performance during longer gaming sessions.
But the bigger story here is what RedMagic is doing to keep all that power under control.
The RedMagic 11S Pro introduces a revamped AquaCore Cooling System. This system combines a 24,000 RPM internal turbo fan, a larger vapour chamber and what the company calls an industry-first “flowing fluorinated liquid cooling” setup. It’s clearly built with sustained gaming performance in mind, especially for demanding titles that tend to turn phones into hand warmers after 20 minutes.
Battery life also sounds seriously impressive, packing a huge 7,500mAh battery paired with 80W fast charging that should comfortably outlast most flagship phones on the market. For gamers who spend hours on titles like Call of Duty Mobile or Genshin Impact, that could end up being one of the phone’s biggest selling points.
Around the front, the 11S Pro uses a 144Hz BOE full-screen display with an under-display selfie camera that helps keep the screen free from punch-hole interruptions while gaming. RedMagic is also bringing back its shoulder triggers for extra control in competitive games.
The design stays true to RedMagic’s usual style too, with transparent finishes available on selected models that show off some of the internal detailing.
Outside of gaming, the phone runs RedMagic OS 11.5 based on Android 16, with Google Gemini AI integration included as part of the software experience.
The RedMagic 11S Pro will be available globally from June 10, with pricing starting at $799. Early Bird sales begin June 9, while voucher sales open from June 3.
For passionate bikers, having a support system can be a great way to take your biking experience to the next level. When it comes to community, Harley-Davidson knows what it’s doing. If you own a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, you can join the Harley Owners Group or H.O.G. To register as a member, you’ll need to sign up on the Harley-Davidson website. Depending on your country, there are slightly different membership packages that offer different benefits. However, for those based in the United States, you have two options to choose from: the Harley Owners Group and Harley Owners Group Passenger (requires H.O.G. member sponsorship), which both cost $59 a year. According to Harley-Davidson, the key difference is that the passenger membership swaps out the roadside assistance benefit for $30 worth of reward points.
To register as part of the Harley Owners Group, you’ll first need to select your country from the drop-down menu. Next, find the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), which you can locate either on your frame, engine, or insurance card. Afterward, you’ll need to supply your name, home address, language preference, and email address. Bear in mind that even an H.O.G. Passenger will need to share their sponsoring member’s number during the registration process. Either way, if you’re set on committing to the H.O.G. community, Harley-Davidson also offers promotions for setting up auto-renewal, including free merchandise. For women, there’s also the option to join Ladies of Harley, which holds community events specifically for women.
One of the most straightforward benefits of being an H.O.G. member is free access to the Harley-Davidson Museum. It’s located at 400 W. Canal St., Milwaukee, WI 53203, open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and has regular programs and special exhibits. Without the membership, the standard ticket price is $25 for adults or $21 for senior citizens (65+), students, and U.S. military members. There’s also an $11 ticket for children aged 5 to 17, while children under 5 are free. With this, all you have to do is visit three times a year to be able to make up the price of an annual H.O.G. membership.
To use this benefit, you’ll need to show your H.O.G. membership card and photo ID. If you suddenly realize that your U.S. membership has expired, renewing it at the museum also gives you the added benefit of a $20 gift card. Even H.O.G. members need to pay extra for guided tours, which cost anywhere from $15 to $135 and require advance booking. If you realize that you just really want an annual pass to the museum, they also offer individual passes ($50), family passes for two people ($75), and VIP passes ($150) for up to 4 people. All Harley-Davidson Museum annual passes also include free admission for children under 18, 50% of accompanied guests, and other discounts on-site.
With your H.O.G. membership, you get free Deluxe roadside assistance benefits for up to two Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It covers one of each type of service every seven days, which includes battery jumpstart service, lost key assistance, flat tire assistance, and extrication assistance. While it does cover fuel, oil, fluid, and water delivery, you’ll still need to pay for the cost of these separately, and they’re not covered by the Harley-Davidson warranty. The service also includes towing to the nearest dealership, which it recommends for issues related to its battery.
Alternatively, if you want some added flexibility, you can opt to upgrade to the Ultra Plus package, which is $69.95 per year. Similar to the complimentary benefit, it lets you use unlimited services per year, with each type of service every seven days. Some key differences include towing to any destination up to 35 miles, so you’re not limited to the dealership. Aside from your motorcycles, you can also request to cover an additional light-duty auto or truck. There’s also emergency travel reimbursement for the motorcycles of up to $1,000. Regardless of which option you choose, both Deluxe and Ultra Plus require registration with Agero. One caveat is that both offers are only covered in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Issued by the U.S. Bank National Association, Harley-Davidson offers two types of Visa cards: the Harley-Davidson Visa Signature card and the Harley-Davidson H.O.G. Elite Visa Signature card. While you still need to apply, H.O.G. members have added benefits for both of them once approved.
For the Harley-Davidson Visa Signature card, which doesn’t have an annual fee, you can get 1 point for every mile you’ve ridden. To be considered valid, you have to be a H.O.G. member in good standing and in good standing. Additionally, you have to have your odometer read at a dealership or authorized recording center. You can earn up to 50,000 points in this way. For every dollar spent on eligible Harley-Davidson purchases, you also get three times as many points. Lastly, for each use, you’ll also have double the amount of entries for its daily $500-A-Day Giveaway Sweepstakes, which runs until December 31, 2026.
While the Harley-Davidson H.O.G. Elite Visa Signature card does have a $99 annual fee, you do get a $59 H.O.G. membership credit that can cover an entire year, a $10 SiriusXM credit, and a $30 dealership credit. This tier also offers twice as many points for every mile, but with the same maximum 50,000 points per calendar year. It also has a much higher 5x points multiplier for Harley-Davidson purchases, plus gas stations, and shares the same rules for the $500-A-Day Giveaway. Both credit cards also enjoy point multipliers for partner establishments, like restaurants, bars, and hotels.
In the past, we’ve mentioned how going to the Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival should definitely be on your bucket list. Not only is it a unique opportunity to learn more about what goes inside your bike, but the pilgrimage is also the perfect place to meet other riders from all over the world. But even if you can’t make it, being a member of H.O.G. lets you experience community in other ways.
Along with access to exclusive events, you can also add a +1 and take advantage of discounted prices for paid experiences. One of the most exciting parts of being part of the H.O.G. community is the global rallies that happen in North America, Latin America, and Europe. In 2026, some rallies span weekends to extended tours that can last more than a week. While there are national events, there are also more than 1,400 H.O.G. global chapters that organize their own experiences. Apart from group rides, they also host competitions, safety courses, and charity events. While you may have to pay a separate chapter fee, there is no limit to the number of chapters you can join.
You’ll also have access to exclusive content and merchandise, such as annual gifts like pins and patches, the publication, and even T-shirts. For orders above $99, you’ll also have the option for free expedited shipping, which can be perfect for snagging gifts for Harley-Davidson fans. In addition, you get additional discounts from partners, such as Hilton, EAGLERIDER, KOA, and Insta360.
Among so many other technological advances, the Cold War saw the advent of the ballistic missile submarine. The concept was simple—pack enough nuclear warheads to destroy a small civilization into a compact metal tube, and then hide it underwater. The oceans would act as a cloak for your fleet of world-enders, and keep your enemies forever on their toes. A terrifying machine that could both start and end a war with the push of a button.
Most nation states are populated by humans with the will to live. Thus, there has been a great incentive to find ways to keep tabs on these sunken doombringers. Great efforts have gone into improving sonar and magnetic detection methods over the decades, which are the bread and butter of sub hunting to this day. However, military researchers have also explored the prospect of whether submarines could be detected via their effect on the gravitational field alone.
The simple matter is that every object with mass has its own gravitational field. We don’t typically think about it, because gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces. On anything less than a planetary scale, it’s generally not obvious to us in our daily lives. However, submarines are quite heavy and large, particularly those that are armed with a complement of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. Thus is raised the prospect of detecting these massive objects via their perturbations to the local gravitational field. This has been a hot-button news item in military commentary circles of late, with much bluster that advanced measurement equipment could potentially render the ocean transparent and reveal the locations of submarines at great distances.
Naturally, it’s difficult to comment accurately on top-secret military capabilities from a civilian viewpoint. Such a technology would be game-changing in a strategic sense, to the point that any nation state with such a capability would have great reason to keep its existence strictly hidden. However, there is some literature on the topic that is in the public domain, which discusses just how hard this feat would be to execute in practice. A great example is a report prepared by the Pacific-Sierra Research Corporation in 1989, under the sponsorship of the Naval Air Development Center.
When it comes to detecting the gravitational anomaly of a submarine, you might think it would be easy given the sheer mass of such a craft. However, the way submarines operate frustrates this at a very fundamental level. In normal operation, a submarine is neutrally buoyant, displacing an amount of water roughly equal to its own mass. Thus, the submarine is not really distinguishable from the water around it in terms of its first-order effect on the gravitational field, being roughly as heavy as the water that would otherwise be there.
There is a wrinkle, though, in that a submarine is bottom-heavy for the sake of stability. This does create a variance in the gravitational field versus the otherwise uniform field in open water, and it’s one that could theoretically be detectable with a sensitive enough apparatus.
The device used for measuring gravitational variation is called a gravimeter. They are essentially a special-case variant of accelerometer, specifically designed to very accurately measure the local acceleration due to gravity at a single point. Then there is the gravity gradiometer, which measures the spatial rate of change of gravitational acceleration. By virtue of measuring acceleration gradients, a gradiometer is not sensitive to the acceleration perturbations of a moving platform, making it particularly useful for use in a moving frame of reference such as towing behind a ship or aircraft. Various types of each instrument exist, from portable units to high accuracy laboratory instruments; creating an exhaustive list of all variants is outside the scope of this article. The real question is, based on the gravitational anomaly generated by a large submarine, to what useful range could a gravimeter or gradiometer detect one?
Unfortunately, the maths says that you have to get very, very close. In the 1989 study, calculations suggested the best gravimeters and gradiometers in the world would maybe be able to pick up a large submarine from a distance of tens of meters, at best. The simple problem being that the gravitational anomaly generated by an underwater submarine, and the gradient of that anomaly, are both so small, that even highly sensitive instruments would struggle to pick it up when the submarine is practically in visual range. Even if the problem were simplified, and one were trying to detect a submarine as a heavy point mass in empty space, detection ranges would stretch to somewhere in the range of 100 meters at most. Of course, this would be largely irrelevant due to the neutral buoyancy considerations explained above.
It’s true that technology has moved on since 1989. We have more advanced gravimeters and gradiometers available now, including quantum units with greater sensitivity than ever. And yet, even with these advances, it would be still be a struggle to detect a submarine at useful range. Sensitivities would have to jump by four or five orders of magnitude to enable detection at ranges of 1000 meters. Even still, if this were achieved with some highly classified system, it would still be relatively limited in capability versus more established techniques in magnetic or acoustic detection.
The parameters of the problem, combined with the sheer weakness of gravitational forces, means that gravitational detection is not some silver bullet for tracking enemy submarines at great range. While it would be desirable to have some kind of sensor that could reveal where these nuclear weapon platforms are lurking at all times, that technology seems beyond the reach of even the most capable navies at this time. For now, strategic planners will continue to sweat over the threat these weapons pose, never quite knowing whether they’re lurking just off the coast or half a world away.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s low-earth-orbit satellite business may be able to acquire some European mobile satellite spectrum next year, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday. But they said two-thirds of the satellite spectrum that allows mobile devices and vehicles to communicate seamlessly even in remote locations, would be reserved for European companies.
U.S. companies Viasat and EchoStar hold licenses that are due to expire in May 2027 and the European Commission has been considering how to allocate future spectrum at the same time as the bloc pushes to reduce reliance on U.S. tech. The European Union’s IRIS2 multi-orbit array of 290 satellites, a response to Starlink, will be among the European companies to receive some spectrum, the sources said. British and Norwegian companies can also bid for a license, the people said. Details of the proposal, set to be announced on Wednesday, could still change at a meeting of commissioners on the day, one of the sources. Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said EU-wide satellite connectivity was “synonymous with resilience, security, and capability” given the current geopolitical context.
“Satellite connectivity is a key piece of our technological sovereignty, our security, and our defense, as also highlighted by IRIS2,” he added.
What do you do when you’re one of the world’s top Smart TV and Connected TV platforms? You double down on what people love about your system while making the whole user experience even more streamlined and personalized for each individual viewer.
While Android TV/Google TV may lead the global streaming TV platforms in overall market share, Roku is #1 in North America, with more than a third of all streaming viewers. With a combination of streaming sticks which can turn any TV into a Smart TV, Roku branded Smart TVs and partnerships with TV makers such as Hisense, Philips, and ONN, Roku has established itself as the go-to streaming platform for over 100 million TV viewers and movie lovers.
While alternative Smart TV platforms like Amazon’s Fire TV and Google TV tend to push certain streaming services or shopping services over others, Roku has earned high marks from its users for providing a more service-agnostic user experience. And the company seems to be leaning into this philosophy with significant updates to its user interface.
At an event in New York City this morning, Roku unveiled a new version of their Home Screen which promises a more dynamic, smarter experience. Featuring more relevant recommendations and faster pathways to content, the new Roku Home Screen is designed to reduce friction, maintain Roku’s signature simplicity, and help viewers find their next favorite movie or TV show with ease.
While Roku typically makes running tweaks to their user interface and home screen to improve the overall user experience, today’s update to the Home Screen is the most substantial and significant update we’ve seen to the platform in the past ten years.
Company reps told us that the change wasn’t made just for the sake of change, but was informed by direct customer feedback as well as detailed analysis of viewer behavior, with the end goal of streamlining and optimizing the user experience. The new personalized Home Screen tackles the biggest challenges in streaming, while offering a tailored, content-forward way to start watching.
Roku executives at the event stressed that they wanted to make sure they maintained the snappy, responsive feel that Roku users love while improving every element of the user experience. The company has done extensive testing with employees, and actual customers over its development, even allowing customers to opt in early to explore the new features and provide feedback. to the development team along the way.
“When we set out to rethink the Home Screen, we knew we should listen to the people who use it every day,” said Anthony Wood, Roku’s Founder and CEO. “So we talked to the viewers, we tested extensively, and we pushed until the design and the data lined up for a meaningful update. Now, our new Home Screen puts entertainment at the center of everything, while staying true to Roku’s simple, intuitive roots. More than 100 million households will feel the difference the moment they turn on their TV—and it opens up a better, more powerful experience for our partners as well.”
To take things from abstract to actual, one specific data point was critical in inspiring this set of changes: A majority of Roku customers (82%) said they would love it if they turned on their TV and the show they wanted to watch was right on their Home Screen. The new Roku Home Screen does just that, recommending content based on the viewer’s past activity and interests, helping the viewer get up and watching the content they crave quicker. Out of the billions of potential Home Screen layouts, the new system is designed to offer just what you want to see, when you want to see it, for each individual viewer.
Preston Smalley, Roku’s Vice President of Viewer Product, told event attendees that the net effect of the change has been moving from a static Home Screen to a fluid experience that is more dynamic and personalized around each individual user and which changes based on evolving tastes and needs. In Preston’s words, “We want the UI to recede into the background. We want the content to really shine.”
Highlights of the New Home Screen Include:
The new Roku Home Screen begins rolling out today (May 27, 2026) across all Roku TVs and streaming devices in the United States. Expansion to additional countries will follow in the coming months.
Any time we hear about a major user interface redesign rolling out to all devices, we wonder whether it will be a home run, which users of the platform embrace, or it will lead to the disaster that plagued Sonos just a few years ago. From what we saw at the event, we believe the new Home Screen redesign builds on the simple service-agnostic user interface that has built up Roku’s loyal fan base over the years. If the rollout goes well, these changes should help cement the platform’s popularity in the coming years.
The Portal app lets you stream PS5 games to Apple Vision Pro in stereoscopic 3D with 4K upscaling. Here’s how it works, what I’ve been playing, and whether it’s worth the premium subscription.
Apple Vision Pro is an excellent gaming platform, at least when you can find games to run on it. While I’d prefer to have a great selection of VR games, the ability to use PlayStation Remote Play is a decent middle ground.
I’ll say up front that playing PlayStation 5 is still best on a home entertainment system with good audio and video. However, the Portal app makes Apple Vision Pro a close second option.
The app is available on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro. There is a premium subscription, and it is a bit pricey, but it’s totally worth it for the functionality.
The app will let you stream from the PS5 in 1080p at 60fps for free. If you want all of the bonus features, you have to pay $5.99 a month, $59.99 a year, or $199.99 lifetime.
I’m fairly tempted by that lifetime offer, but for now I’m paying monthly when I know I’ll have time to use the app. Perhaps this developer would benefit from adopting Apple’s new annual lock-in subscription option.
Portal can be used to access PlayStation and Xbox cloud gaming, PlayStation Remote Play, and even UVC play via the Apple developer strap. This story is focused on PS Remote Play.
The reason I’m writing about Portal is because it has some unique features just for Apple Vision Pro that I haven’t seen in any other app.
Its premium features include:
You can absolutely use 4K upscaling and stereoscopic 3D in tandem. However, try to activate 3D and Super Frame Rate and you’ll hard crash the Apple Vision Pro, so don’t do that.
So, using these settings, I am able to stream my PS5 Pro to Apple Vision Pro in a 4K-equivalent stream while viewing the content in stereoscopic 3D. It’s quite the experience, especially in the immersive view.
Generating a 3D depth map on the fly with AI processing
I do wish the immersive view included the ability to have the display hover over the lake in Mount Hood, but I’m sure that’s a limitation due to it not being video.
The 3D effect isn’t perfect, but it’s enough for now and will likely get better in the future. I’ve had worse 3D experiences on actual 3D TVs with active glasses, to be fair.
I tested the features in Minecraft. Yes, the 15-year-old game that I still play regularly on my PS5 Pro. Fight me.
The 3D rendering was interesting. It made the UI pop out as the top level, and everything else gained some depth.
You can control the depth settings, so set it to the point that looks best for your eyes. I’ve found that less is more when it comes to the depth intensity slider.
‘Lego Batman’ looks great with 4K upscaling and 3D depth
I also played the new Lego Batman game with the 3D setting. Since this is a newer game with incredible details in the Lego bricks (sounds silly, but trust me), the 4K 3D really popped.
While I’m not going to go out of my way to play PlayStation games this way, I do think this is an excellent alternative to playing in my den. Perhaps if I want to play in my bedroom or if the den TV is otherwise occupied, I know I’ll have a way to enjoy my PS5 games with a whole new dimension added on top.
Portal is an excellent example of what can be accomplished on Apple Vision Pro, and I’d love to see more apps like it. Let’s hope Apple can attract more developers to the platform with WWDC 2026.
If anything, this has made my desire for a native version of Minecraft specifically for Apple Vision Pro even greater. I know Microsoft won’t bother, but at least I have a good way to play it in the meantime.
For more on Vision Pro gaming, watch for Mike Wuerthele’s piece on Steam streaming — including a 3D SteamVR test with a new video card.
According to a new survey from GBAO Strategies distributed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 65% of American voters think ESLs will cause grocery prices to increase, while 68% think surveillance pricing will have the same result.
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UK Visa Portal, a third-party website separate from the official government offering, has reportedly left thousands of highly sensitive documents exposed in a major data leak.
Affected documents and details include passports, photos, verification selfies and other application information, leaving victims widely open to identity theft and potential financial fraud.
The issue happened as a result of documents being stored on an unsecured server without password protection, meaning anyone with a direct link could access and view them.
The data exposure was caused specifically by a misconfigured cloud storage repository that was entirely public – but worse than that, it’s also been revealed that the file directory structure allowed used a predictable URL, meaning attackers could easily guess or work out the link even if they didn’t have it in the first place.
Most evidently, primary passport pages exposing full names, passport numbers, nationalities, dates of birth, places of birth, and issue and expiry dates were included in the leak, but accompanying documents providing home addresses, contact numbers, email addresses and more provided attackers with even more PII.
TechCrunch reports at least 100,000 documents were available without restrictions, and as of May 26 2026, the issue had still not been addressed.
Many victims likely accessed the third-party website erroneously, believing this was the correct way to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization – a process that the UK government offers in-house for a £20 fee.
Individuals who may have used the platform are being advised to monitor and protect their credit accounts and to secure online accounts with additional layers like multi-factor authentication and passkeys. Data protection laws also legally require affected individuals to be notified – it’s unclear if contact has already been made.
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