Google has accidentally leaked details about an unfixed issue in Chromium that keeps JavaScript running in the background even when the browser is closed, allowing remote code execution on the device.
The flaw was reported by security researcher Lyra Rebane and acknowledged as valid in December 2022, as per the thread on Chromium Issue Tracker.
An attacker could exploit the problem to create a malicious webpage with a Service Worker, such as a download task, that never terminates. Rebane says that this could allow an attacker to execute JavaScript code on the visitors’ devices.
“It’s realistic to get tens of thousands of pageviews for creating a ‘botnet’, and people won’t be aware that JavaScript can be remotely executed on their device,” Rebane says in the original bug report.
Potential exploitation scenarios include using compromised browsers to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, proxying malicious traffic, and arbitrarily redirecting traffic to target sites.
The issue impacts all Chromium-based browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and Arc.
On October 26, 2024, a Google developer noticed that the issue was still open and described it as a “serious vulnerability” that needed a status update “to ensure that there’s progress.”
This year, on February 10, the issue was marked as fixed and reopened just a few minutes later due to several concerns.
Since it was a security problem, the labels for the bug were updated so it could go through the Chrome Vulnerability Rewards Program (VRP) Panel, and the issue was marked as fixed on February 12, although a patch had not been shipped.
An automated email informed Rebane that she had been awarded a bug bounty of $1,000.
All access restrictions on Chromium Issue Tracker were removed on May 20, since the bug had been closed for more than 14 weeks and marked as fixed in the system.
On the same day, Rebane tested the fix and noticed that the problem was still present in Chrome Dev 150 and Edge 148.
“Back in 2022, I found a bug that would let me, with no user interaction, turn any Chromium-based browser into a permanent JS botnet member,” the researcher said in a post yesterday.
“In Edge, you wouldn’t even notice anything out of place, and would stay connected to the C2 even after closing the browser.”
After noticing that the exploit still worked, the researcher realized that Google had likely published the details by mistake.
To make matters worse, the download pop up that appeared when triggering the exploit previously no longer comes up in the latest Edge, making the exploit even stealthier.
“OH NO I JUST REALIZED THIS IS NOT ACTUALLY PROPERLY FIXED AND STILL WORKS,” posted Rebane on Mastodon.
“Even worse, Edge no longer even makes the download menu pop up, so it’s completely silent JS RCE that keeps running even after you close the browser !! all from just visiting a single website once !!”
Although the issue was made private again, the exposure lasted long enough for the information to leak.
Rebane told Ars Technica that Google’s exposure would make exploitation “pretty easy,” however, scaling it into a large botnet is more complicated.
She also clarified that the bug does not bypass browser security boundaries and doesn’t give attackers access to the victim’s emails, files, or the host OS.
Given that the issue details have been leaked, the risk to a large number of users is significant, and Google will most likely treat this as urgent, releasing emergency fixes soon.
BleepingComputer has reached out to Google for a comment on this exposure, but we have not received a response by publication.
Automated pentesting tools deliver real value, but they were built to answer one question: can an attacker move through the network? They were not built to test whether your controls block threats, your detection rules fire, or your cloud configs hold.
This guide covers the 6 surfaces you actually need to validate.
ClickUp cut 22 per cent of its workforce and introduced $1 million salary bands for remaining staff. CEO Zeb Evans says the company is restructuring around a “100x org” model where AI agents outnumber employees 3:1.
TL;DR
ClickUp, the $4 billion productivity platform, has cut 22 per cent of its workforce. CEO Zeb Evans announced the layoffs in a post on X, framing them not as a cost-cutting exercise but as a structural bet on AI. The savings, he said, will flow back to the employees who stay in the form of million-dollar salary bands.
Evans called the new structure a “100x org.” The premise is that AI agents have changed what it takes to build software, and the roles required to operate at the highest level are now fundamentally different. Incremental improvements to existing systems will not get ClickUp there, he argued. The company needs to rebuild rather than iterate.
The restructuring follows months of aggressive AI adoption inside ClickUp. A Fortune profile published days before the layoffs revealed that the company now runs roughly 3,000 internal AI agents across its departments, a 3:1 ratio of agents to employees. Evans had already mandated that staff go through an AI agent trained to stand in his place before contacting him directly.
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Evans outlined three categories of employee he sees as essential to the new model. The first is “builders,” which he splits into 10x engineers and 10x product managers. His claim is blunt: the best engineers are not writing code any more. They are directing agents that write code. The skill that matters is judgment, the ability to orchestrate and review. AI makes the best engineers wildly more productive, he wrote, while everyone else using AI slows them down.
He called this the “great reckoning of AI coding” and said every company will face it soon. Companies celebrating 500 per cent more pull requests are generating volume, not outcomes. More code, in his view, is just another bottleneck.
The second category is “system managers,” or agent managers. These are people who automate their own jobs with AI and then become owners of the systems they built. Evans argued that anyone who automates their role will always have a job. The underlying systems, not the individual tasks, are what matter.
The third is “front-liners,” the people who spend their time with customers. In a world saturated with AI communication, Evans said, human contact becomes the one bottleneck companies should not try to replace. Front-liners should spend nearly 100 per cent of their time in meetings with customers, while the systems around those meetings are fully automated.
Product management and design, he added, are merging. Designers with customer focus become more like product managers. Product managers with UX intuition become more like designers. The bottleneck of user research is gone, he claimed, because a single mention to an agent can kick off and analyse a research cycle.
The most provocative element is the compensation model. ClickUp is introducing salary bands that reach $1 million per year in cash. The path is available to nearly anyone in the company who produces “100x impact” by creating or managing AI systems. In a world where the best people create 100 times more output, Evans argued, companies cannot afford to lose them and should aim to retain them for decades.
The announcement lands in the middle of a brutal stretch for tech workers. The industry has shed more than 100,000 jobs across roughly 250 events in 2026 so far. Meta cut 8,000 roles the same week despite record revenue. Oracle eliminated up to 30,000 to fund AI infrastructure. GitLab restructured for the “agentic era.” The pattern is consistent: companies report record performance and cut headcount simultaneously, redirecting savings into AI.
Evans’s framing is more explicit than most. Where other CEOs use euphemisms about efficiency and realignment, he is making a direct argument that the roles being eliminated are structurally obsolete. Whether that is candour or hubris will depend on whether the 100x org delivers the outcomes he is promising.
ClickUp reported roughly $300 million in annual recurring revenue as of 2025 and has been eyeing an IPO. The company acquired AI coding platform Codegen late last year. With AI reshaping the economics of developer tools and productivity software, Evans is betting that a smaller, better-paid workforce directing thousands of agents will outperform the company it replaces.
Not everyone is convinced. In China, courts have ruled that replacing workers with AI is not legal grounds for dismissal. In the US, no such protection exists. For the 22 per cent of ClickUp employees who lost their jobs this week, the distinction matters.
Photograph: Jordan Michelman
4222 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood, (818) 980-8000
“The Valley” isn’t just one place, either—a collection of unique cities and subcultures that occupy the environs north of LA proper, this is the land of Paul Thomas Anderson films, immortalized in the music of Tom Petty and Frank Zappa. If you’re in the Southlands for events in and around the television and film industry, or to check out the Universal Studios theme park complex, you’ll save time and money by staying close.
The Garland is your Valley adventure home port. This place manages the neat trick of being both hip and eminently utilitarian: You could come here to lounge by the pool, take in the gardens, and hang out at the busy bars and restaurants, or you could use this place as a spot to drop your bags between all the other things you’re in town to do. There’s an impressively beautiful outdoor pool (with a massive fireplace), guided neighborhood tours (the Brady Bunch house is nearby), and ample parking. The whole thing has a Spanish colonial flair with flashes of 1970s tiki. This place gets double points if you happen to be traveling with your family—kids love the Garland.
Photograph: Jordan Michelman
8221 Sunset Blvd., (323) 656-1010
I don’t know what you’re here in town for, or what qualifies to you, personally, as a business trip. The hotels I’ve recommended so far are all swell, but I’ve included them first and foremost for reasons of practicality and geography. That’s not why you stay at the Chateau. You come here instead for the myth and the history, the infamy and the iconic status of it all: here, where Duke Ellington composed “Swingin’ Suites,” where Stephen Stills wrote “For What It’s Worth” (“stop, hey, what’s that sound”), where Jim Morrison swung from the chandeliers, where Dominic Dunne lived while reporting the OJ Simpson trial for Vanity Fair. God only knows what’s gone on in these elevators, to say nothing of the guest rooms, which are appointed more like apartments and come swathed in spectral haunted metaphysical atmosphere, baked in California sunshine.
You can work here; so much incredible work has happened here! Nicholas Ray and James Dean rehearsed Rebel Without a Cause here! Whatever project it is you’ve got cooking—a novel, a screenplay, a symphony, or just a humble pitch deck—I don’t think there’s a concept in the world that can’t be improved by injecting a little Chateau mystique into its DNA. You will see celebrities; you will find quiet moments to yourself among the ghosts; you will find yourself quietly reflecting to yourself, alone in your room, “Holy shit, I can’t believe I’m really here!” There’s no other hotel in the world that is remotely like it.
LA is freelancer central, and the sort of place where working on your screenplay (or whatever) from the bar or coffee shop has attained a kind of mythical status. The city has plenty to offer in the form of traditional coworking spaces, private clubs, and laptop gardens. Here are some of my favorites.
360 E. 2nd St., 8th floor, (213) 433-2400
The Centrl Office chain of coworking spaces is well-represented across Los Angeles, with locations in Downtown and Marina Del Ray, and two spots in the South Bay city of El Segundo, aka “Silicon Beach” (at least one part of the wider massif known by this moniker). Each location has its own way of leaning into the “creative campus” vibe, offering a variegated array of services from suites and meeting rooms to day offices, drop-in coworking open plan spaces, and virtual office options that allow for mail and package delivery. Centrl Office does what it says on the tin—this is a classic approach to the coworking space model, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need, with supersonic Wi-Fi and printers and kitchens and lounges.
1370 N. St Andrews Place, (323) 381-5996
Part coworking space, part event venue, the Preserve feels uniquely LA. Truly a campus take on coworking, the facility boasts more than 6,000 trees and plants, a very cool series of indoor/outdoor working spaces, a library, bungalows, studio offices, and meeting rooms, plus an on-site cafe and soundproof phone rooms. Wi-Fi here is 1 GB per second; there’s valet parking and nursing rooms and wellness classes and Corian desks; people run whole companies out of this facility, and also they host weddings. The building, which underwent a multimillion-dollar, award-winning renovation in the late 2010s, was originally designed by Paul Revere Williams, a patron saint of Los Angeles architecture and design whose other works include the iconic LAX spaceship tower and the Beverly Hills Hotel. If you’re looking for a Los Angeles experience for your coworking needs—perhaps with an intent to hunker down for multiple days, so as to truly absorb the entirety of what goes on here—the Preserve is for you.
5971 W. 3rd St., (323) 933-2112
Like the Preserve, the Rita House could only be here, in Los Angeles, but the two spaces couldn’t feel more different. Rita is located inside a 1927 Spanish colonial building originally constructed for prop and costume design for the film studio industry in Hollywood. The building’s unique history goes back to the roots of coworking as a creative pursuit. There are monthly membership options, day rates, and a real focus on content production, with dedicated rooms for self-tape auditions and podcast taping, as well as larger meeting and screening rooms. You’ll find the requisite high-speed Wi-Fi and business center amenities here, but it’s inside a space that feels more like classic Hollywood Boulevard than Sand Hill Road. Every great city has a coworking space that doubles as a people-watching and networking hub, and in LA I think that’s here.
4334 Sunset Blvd., (213) 200-0969
I love working from Los Angeles coffee shops, and Dinosaur is one of my favorites for this particular pursuit. Located on the border between Silver Lake, Los Feliz, and East Hollywood, this place is a creative laptop melee of people whose names you’ve seen in the writers’ credits at the end of various films and television shows—or those who’d like to someday be. The coffee comes from Woodcat Coffee, whose flagship store is over on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, and the store is bright and full of that good California light. It just feels creative here—get shit done on the front patio, or eavesdrop on the interesting conversations all around you. I visit nearly every time I’m in LA.
How could I pick 10 places to eat in Los Angeles? How could anyone pick 20, or 50, or 101 like they do each year at LA Times Food? That section’s weekly (daily!) reporting on food across LA should be something you start scouting now, in the weeks before your trip, so as to stay hip to the most interesting new stuff happening across the region. For me, these are 10 restaurants I’ve personally visited and enjoyed, running the gamut across price, location, and experience. They aren’t even necessarily my 10 favorite LA restaurants, but they’re all spots I’d gladly go back to, and in a city so thoroughly spoiled for choice, that’s saying something.
2736 W. Sunset Blvd., (213) 913-6850
Avish Naran cracked some heretofore unknown atom when he opened Pijja Palace in 2022. I guess it is an Indian sports bar? But it is also sort of a red sauce Italian joint, a cocktail destination working more or less entirely in its own creative idiom, a really swell place to watch the Lakers lose their way through the dregs of the executive-produced-by-LeBron-James era, and so forth. There’s green chili pickle masala wings and korma curry pizzas and dosa onion rings (a required order) and plenty of beer from near and far to enjoy it all with. Do not miss ordering a cocktail here—this is quietly one of the more inventive cocktail programs in the city, which is saying something, because nothing is really quiet about Pijja Palace. Go here with a big group, or sneak in solo at the bar. I wish it were three times as big, but also I don’t want to change anything about it at all.
‘We have been advised that the highest restrictions will be in place for users that have not verified their age,’ the DPC said.
SiliconRepublic.com understands that an Irish launch of ads in WhatsApp could be moving forward after plans were previously delayed over data protection concerns.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has had “ongoing engagement” with WhatsApp Ireland, it said in a statement to SiliconRepublic.com.
“The DPC has made a number of recommendations for improvements. Our understanding is that many of these have been implemented and improvements have been made around transparency.
“We have been advised that the highest restrictions will be in place for users that have not verified their age.”
It is understood that ongoing discussions with Meta have concluded and that the DPC is satisfied with its engagements with the company.
Meta, meanwhile, has said that its planned global rollout for WhatsApp ads is progressing gradually. It is not known precisely what changes the DPC recommended to Meta. The company did not respond to a SiliconRepublic.com query on the details of changes suggested by the DPC.
First unveiled last June, the new ads, where allowed, appear in WhatsApp’s ‘Updates’ tab, home to both its ‘Channels’ and ‘Status’ features. For a monthly fee, users can subscribe to Channels – for example, a news network – for “exclusive updates”, according to Meta. The company said it will also promote channels that it detects would be interesting to users.
Meta said that the ads will use “limited” information, such as a user’s country, city, language, device or browser used, the channels they already follow and how they interact with ads.
Additionally, the company will also use activity information such as the channels people view, the content they engage with in channels, if users have added their WhatsApp account to the ‘Accounts Center’ or if the company knows them to be over 18, Meta said.
The announcement last year prompted a sharp response from data privacy advocacy group NOYB, which said that data from Meta’s various platforms gets linked and “users are tracked for advertising without any genuine choice.”
The DPC told the press last year that the rollout would be discussed with other national data protection authorities before an EU launch in 2026.
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Few pieces of tech hold their ground several years after launch the way this one does. Creators who picked up DJI Osmo Pocket 3, priced at $419 (was $499), when it first arrived still reach for it on trips, family outings, and quick daily shoots. Even with a newer model now available, plenty of people choose the original because it simply works well without extra fuss.
Portability is the most important factor in determining how often someone will take out their camera and start filming, because let’s be honest, this thing is light as a feather and fits snugly in your jacket pocket or small bag, making it a no-brainer to carry around every day without even realizing it’s there. With continual access to a camera, it becomes second nature to capture those odd, ephemeral moments that would otherwise go undetected and unrecorded. Moments that you wish you had actually captured, and frequently would have, if you’d had a little more notice to pull the heavier equipment out of storage.
Sale
Vibrant 4K footage, with built-in three-axis stabilisation, will render your house, or even a walk through the woods, as level and smooth as silk. There is no sense of a shaky, handheld appearance whatsoever, not even during those action-packed stunts that would completely wreck a phone video or a basic action camera. The mechanical stabilizer keeps everything under control, whether you’re banging about the streets or taking a quick turn up a mountain bike route.
Then there’s the sharp detail, colors, and low noise found in this bad boy, as the 1-inch sensor takes 4k footage that can easily compete with larger devices on the market. It gets even better: the screen rotates so you can simply point it at your subject in whatever direction you wish to video; no need to fiddle with vertical and horizontal settings; just point and shoot. The screen is completely clear and tells you exactly what’s going on, allowing you to make those all-important adjustments on the go, without trial and error. Touch controls are direct and responsive, allowing you to start filming in seconds.
The battery life is likewise impress, providing a whole day of shooting without the need to recharge continually, as many owners have logged up solid hours of use on a single charge, which is a blessing for travel, a long event, or whatever your thing is. The recording settings are very extensive without being overly confusing; active tracking follows your subject with ease, time-lapse condenses extended sequences, and the built-in audio captures clear sound for all you vloggers out there. If you desire even higher sound quality, you may always connect an additional microphone. Software updates have been flowing thick and fast, introducing minor upgrades and modifications that have undoubtedly extended the life of this camera.
What’s the most overlooked factor in a high end audio system? It’s not cables. It’s not room treatment. It’s power. And most people don’t give it a second thought until something sounds wrong.
The Clarus Concerto MKII (model CP-8MKII) Power Conditioner exists because the electricity coming out of your wall is rarely the pristine 120V at 60Hz sine wave we like to imagine. EMI, RFI, voltage fluctuations, harmonic distortion, line noise, sags, surges, transients, and ground loops can all affect sensitive audio gear. Utilities are not designing power delivery for your DAC, preamp, or integrated amplifier. They are trying to keep the grid stable, your appliances running, and the heat pump from going full Chernobyl in January.
Much like 87 octane fuel is good enough for most cars on the road, unconditioned wall power is good enough for most everyday devices. Computers, radios, appliances, and basic electronics are designed to tolerate imperfect AC power, convert it to DC, and clean things up enough to keep operating without drama.
But high performance audio is not the family minivan. Race teams do not fill up at the local Stop and Rob before heading to the track, and serious audio systems should not be expected to perform at their best when fed whatever polluted electricity happens to be coming out of the wall.
The most common power protection device is the surge suppressor, not because surges are the most frequent problem, but because a serious one can turn expensive gear into a very sad insurance claim.
UPS units are also common, especially with computers and network gear, but they serve a different purpose. Most consumer UPS products provide just enough battery power to ride out a brief outage or shut equipment down safely. They are not backup generators, and pretending otherwise ends badly.
High end online UPS systems go further by converting incoming AC to DC, storing it in battery banks, and then converting it back to AC for connected equipment. That approach can solve many source power problems, but it can also introduce its own noise, cost, weight, heat, and maintenance headaches. Clean power matters, but nobody wants a utility substation squatting beside the audio rack.
A line conditioner sits between a basic surge bar and full power regeneration. It still relies on incoming utility power and does not function as a UPS, but its job is to reduce noise, manage interference, and help protect sensitive equipment before that power reaches the system.
The Clarus Concerto MKII Power Conditioner is designed for that middle ground. It is not trying to replace the power company or impersonate a battery backup. It is there to filter EMI, RFI, line noise, surges, transients, and other garbage riding along with the AC signal before it reaches your source components, preamp, amplifier, or DAC.
For high end audio, the safest assumption is simple: interference is bad. Audio components are designed around the expectation of reasonably clean power, not the random electrical circus that happens when a neighbor backs into a transformer or a lightning storm decides to audition for Zeus. Most components include some internal power filtering, but that is rarely the core focus of the design.
A good real world example is my Astell&Kern KANN Alpha. When I listen while charging over USB, it produces an obvious hum. Disconnect the USB cable and the hum disappears immediately. That does not require a lab coat or a $40,000 analyzer to understand. Dirty or poorly managed power can introduce noise, and once you hear it, you stop pretending the wall outlet is innocent.
So if power conditioning is not the main focus for most electronics manufacturers, and it is not a priority for the utility company, whose job is it to make sure your high-end audio system is being fed properly?
That one is rhetorical. It is yours.
The right solution depends on the system, the room, the available space, and the budget. As a rough starting point, spending around 10% of the total system cost on proper power protection and conditioning is not unreasonable. If you have a $500 system from a big box store, a $50 power strip makes sense. Not every setup needs a power conditioner that looks like it was removed from the Red October.
At the other end of the spectrum sits the Clarus Concerto MKII, a $12,000 power conditioner designed for high-end systems where protection, isolation, and clean power are not optional accessories.
The Concerto MKII provides eight outlets: two optimized for analog components such as turntables and tube preamplifiers, four optimized for digital sources such as DACs and transports, and two high current outlets for power amplifiers. Each outlet receives Clarus’ full suite of line conditioning, noise reduction, surge suppression, over and under voltage protection, and vibration control.
Clarus also includes a cable support bar, which sounds minor until you start using heavy audiophile power cords that behave like they were trained by bridge engineers. For systems built around serious amplification, delicate source components, and expensive analog front ends, that kind of physical stability is not just tidy. It is practical.
The front panel of the Clarus Concerto MKII keeps things straightforward. You get LED indicators for each outlet bank, an AC voltmeter, polarity, ground, and fault indicators, an LED dimmer control, and a front power switch that controls the rear outlets. The main power switch for the unit itself is located on the rear panel above the power inlet.
Across the back, Clarus lays things out logically: ground connector, alarm switch, high current outlets, digital outlet banks, and the analog outlet bank. Nothing cute. Nothing confusing. Just the business end of a $12,000 power conditioner.
The all metal chassis feels solid but is lighter than expected at around 26 pounds. Many power conditioners use large isolation transformers and end up weighing as much as small amplifiers with a gym membership. The Concerto MKII avoids that approach.
Clarus included one of its Crimson MKII High Current AC power cables with the review sample, which makes sense given the brand’s cable heritage and the Concerto MKII’s position at the top of its power conditioning lineup. However, the Crimson cable is not included and would add an additional $3,520 to $6,670 into the final cost, depending on length.
The Concerto MKII can connect to either a 15 or 20 amp circuit, providing up to 1,800 or 2,400 watts of available output power depending on the circuit. That is serious current delivery, and serious current usually means heat. Fans would solve that problem while creating another one: noise. Clarus wisely avoids that route and instead uses a five stage cleaning approach designed to reduce noise without adding more of it.
Clarus’ first line of defense is its C-Core technology, which is designed to reduce magnetostriction. That mouthful refers to the way ferromagnetic materials can change shape when exposed to changing magnetic fields. In power products, that movement can contribute to mechanical vibration and electrical noise. Reduce the movement, and you reduce one more source of unwanted junk riding along with the power.
The second part is additional damping. AC current passing through windings can create vibration, and vibration can cause tiny changes in the magnetic field around the component. In a high end audio system, that is not helpful. The Concerto MKII is designed to control those physical vibrations before they become another way for noise to creep into the system.
The third piece is voltage protection and regulation. Within a 90V to 135V AC range, the Concerto MKII is designed to help maintain a stable 120V output to the connected components. If incoming voltage drops below 90V or rises above 135V, the unit shuts down and blocks power from reaching the attached equipment. That gives the Clarus both line conditioning and a meaningful layer of safety, which is the whole point unless you enjoy using expensive gear as sacrificial offerings.
Fourth is the use of Thermal Metal Oxide Varistor devices, or TMOVs, which are designed to reduce small voltage spikes before they reach connected equipment.
Those spikes can happen when other devices on the same circuit turn on or off. Motors are a common culprit. Fans, hair dryers, refrigerators, HVAC equipment, and anything else with a motor can create an initial inrush of current that is higher than its normal operating draw. When that happens, other devices on the circuit can see a brief sag, followed by a rebound spike when the demand settles.
The Concerto MKII is designed to keep those spikes away from your audio gear. If the TMOVs overheat, which can indicate excessive current demand or an unsafe condition, the unit shuts down to protect itself and the connected components.
That matters because even a serious power conditioner has limits. Plug 3,200 watts of equipment into the Clarus Concerto MKII and it is not going to salute and carry on. It will object, loudly and correctly, before your system becomes an expensive lesson in electrical arrogance.
Finally, and perhaps most important, the front panel LEDs confirm whether incoming power is properly phased and grounded.
That might sound basic, but it matters. A surprising number of wall outlets are wired incorrectly, poorly grounded, or not grounded at all behind that harmless looking white cover plate. The Clarus Concerto MKII gives users a clear visual warning before expensive components are asked to trust bad wiring.
Reviewing a power conditioner is tricky because the best results are often about what you no longer hear.
To give the Clarus Concerto MKII a fair workout, I first removed my existing power conditioning and ran the system directly from the wall. That required a small act of faith, because my local utility is not exactly a model citizen. Even LED bulbs seem to live shortened, nervous lives in this neighborhood.
After what felt like an eternity, but was closer to 30 minutes, I inserted the Clarus Concerto MKII into the system and reconnected the gear. The change was immediate. The noise floor dropped, and I was able to turn the volume up noticeably higher on my PrimaLuna preamp before hearing any noise through the large Magnepan loudspeakers.
With the Concerto MKII in place, I gained roughly another 20% of travel on the volume knob with no music playing before any noise became audible at the speakers. That is not subtle. That is the kind of improvement that makes you look at the wall outlet like it has been lying to you for years.
With music playing, the first obvious improvement was soundstage. Spatial information lives in the smallest details, and those are often the first things buried by noise and distortion. In this system, it became clear that dirty power had been shaving off performance in ways that were not obvious until the Clarus Concerto MKII cleaned up the mess.
Transient response also improved. That may have come from lower noise, more stable power delivery, or some combination of both. Either way, the system sounded quicker, cleaner, and more controlled with the Concerto MKII in the chain. The wall outlet had been doing the system no favors.
The Clarus Concerto MKII (model CP-8MKII) is expensive, but it does something that matters in a serious high-end system: it lowers the noise floor, improves system stability, and protects expensive gear from the questionable electricity coming out of the wall. In this system, the gains were not theoretical. Soundstage improved, transient response tightened up, and the system stayed quieter at higher volume settings with no music playing. That is the kind of difference you notice before the audiophile committee arrives with clipboards.
What makes the Concerto MKII unique is the complete package: eight optimized outlets for analog, digital, and high current components, over and under voltage protection, surge suppression, vibration control, a useful cable support bar, and a supplied Clarus Crimson power cable that is built like it owes someone money. It is not a budget accessory, and it makes no sense for a modest system. But for listeners with serious money invested in amplifiers, DACs, transports, turntables, tube gear, and big loudspeakers, the Concerto MKII is both a performance upgrade and an insurance policy. The only real downside is the price. Clean power is not cheap, but neither is replacing your system after the utility company has a bad day.
If you are lucky enough to own a high-end audio system, then the Clarus Concerto MKII provides what is needed to ensure it is well fed and well cared for. The beauty of the unit lies in how well it works, how compact it is, and how little heat it adds to the gear rack. The Clarus Concerto MKII earns an Editors’ Choice 2026 award for power conditioning in the cost-no-object category, as I fully believe you cannot find better without spending a good bit more on a whole home system.
★★★★★★★★★★ Performance
★★★★★★★★★★ Usability
★★★★★★★★★★ Build Quality
★★★★★★★★★★ Value
For more information: claruscable.com
“These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities,” he added.
The move is the latest in a series of attempts by the Trump administration to intervene in the market, offering grants to companies in strategic sectors, such as semiconductors and critical minerals, in exchange for equity stakes.
Last year, the commerce department took a 10 percent stake in Intel, by converting $2.2 billion in grants under the Joe Biden-era Chips Act as well as $8.9 billion in federal grants that had been awarded but not yet paid.
Since then, several companies have received smaller sums, including Vulcan Elements, a little-known rare earths startup with about 30 employees, in which Trump Jr’s venture capital firm has invested.
Notably absent from the list of companies that signed letters of intent with the commerce department on Thursday was IonQ, a leading quantum company that has attracted significant investment from Cerberus, a firm co-founded by Donald Trump’s deputy secretary of war, Stephen Feinberg.
The US quantum announcement comes as other countries such as the UK are increasing their investments in technology and other related fields.
The ability of quantum computers to exploit the unusual properties of matter at the atomic and subatomic levels makes them theoretically capable of performing complex calculations much faster than existing machines.
But significant engineering hurdles remain, such as in making the machines less prone to errors, while companies are still dueling over which technical approaches work best.
The deals unveiled on Thursday are not final, and the administration said it was still soliciting proposals from other advanced tech firms. Intel is facing a shareholder lawsuit over its deal with the US government.
Additional reporting by Alex Rogers.
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Google recently published – and then quickly hid – a potentially dangerous bug found in the Chromium web browser. The security vulnerability was originally discovered in 2022 and still needs to be fixed in Chromium’s codebase. According to researcher Lyra Rebane, who first identified the bug four years ago, Google…
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Sometimes, AI helps you fine-tune weather forecasts or improve the lives of people with disabilities. Other times, well, it loses a fight with a bottle of peppermint syrup. That’s the situation Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol finds himself in after the coffee chain reportedly told staff that it’s scrapping an AI inventory program after only nine months.
Starbucks rolled out the “Automated Counting” software to its North American stores in September 2025. Developed in partnership with NomadGo, the AI-powered tool was supposed to speed up inventory tracking. Employees (likely fearing that they were holding their replacements) would use mobile devices to scan items on shelves.
The idea was simple: Automate the tedious task of counting milks and syrups, increase accuracy, and optimize the supply chain. Welcome to the AI revolution, baby.
A since-deleted September blog post by CTO Deb Hall Lefevre laid on the hype as thick as the whipped cream on a mocha Frappuccino: “With a quick scan using a handheld tablet, partners can instantly see what’s in stock — ensuring cold foam, oat milk, or caramel drizzle are always available,” it read. “Customers can enjoy beverages their way, every time — and partners spend less time in the backroom and more time crafting and connecting.” (“Partners” is Starbucks’ term for its employees.)
Well, things didn’t quite turn out that way. Reuters reports that the tool frequently mislabeled and miscounted items. It was known to mix up similar milk types or skip them altogether.
The video above, embedded in Starbucks’ September blog post, foreshadowed the tool’s struggles. The clip inadvertently showed the system missing a bottle of peppermint syrup as a worker scanned the shelf. (Did Starbucks deploy a half-baked AI video editor, too?)
So, Starbucks “partners” will now go back to the good ol’ days of manually counting inventory. “Beverage components and milk will now be counted the same way you count other inventory categories in your coffeehouse,” an internal company newsletter, viewed by Reuters, said. Apparently, workers won’t miss it much. “Thanks for discontinuing Automatic Counting!” one employee reportedly wrote in response to the change. “The thought behind it was great, but the execution was proving difficult.”
With AI ballooning memory prices, it seems like the budget segment in India has been abandoned by almost all brands. All you can find these days are older models. HMD, the brand behind Nokia’s resurrection, has decided to change that notion up with the launch of the new HMD Vibe 2 5G. The phone arrives as the successor to last year’s Vibe 5G, focusing heavily on battery life and basic everyday performance.
The new Vibe 2 5G features a 6.7-inch HD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. While the resolution stays at HD+, the higher refresh rate should still make scrolling and general navigation feel smoother compared to traditional 60Hz panels.
Under the hood, the phone runs on an octa-core Unisoc processor clocked at up to 2.3GHz paired with 4GB RAM and up to 128GB storage. On the camera side, HMD has added a 50MP AI-backed primary rear camera along with an 8MP selfie shooter. The phone also carries an IP64 rating, meaning it should survive basic dust exposure and light splashes.
The biggest selling point here is probably the battery. The HMD Vibe 2 5G packs a massive 6,000mAh battery with support for 18W wired charging, and HMD is including the charger inside the box as well. That honestly matters more than ever now, especially as many brands have started removing chargers entirely. For connectivity, the phone supports 5G, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 5, and USB Type-C. There’s also a side-mounted fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication.
The HMD Vibe 2 5G starts at Rs. 10,999 for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant. Meanwhile, the 4GB + 128GB version costs Rs. 11,999.
Waymo has suspended robotaxi service on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami as it works to improve performance in construction zones, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday.
Waymo said it’s in the process of integrating “recent technical learnings into our software and expect to resume these routes soon.” Waymo robotaxis are still operating on surface streets in those cities.
The decision to pull robotaxis off of freeways follows Waymo’s decision to pause operations in Atlanta and San Antonio, Texas to address problems with flooding in those cities. The company announced a software recall last week that was supposed to help its fleet avoid flooded areas in San Antonio, in which service has been halted for weeks, while it worked on a more permanent fix. At least one robotaxi was spotted getting stuck in Atlanta this week, causing Waymo to suspend operations there, too.
These service interruptions come as Waymo is pushing to expand to a number of new cities around the globe this year, with the goal of offering as many as one million paid rides per week at the end of 2026. Waymo is also currently testing its new Zeekr-built robotaxi, which it calls Ojai, and is expected to start offering rides in that vehicle in the coming months.
Waymo started offering highway rides in late 2025. Putting its robotaxis on these higher-speed roads has been crucial to its expansion in large metro areas, as it helps the company better connect riders to local airports, and reduces ride times by skipping surface streets.
In the Bay Area in particular, freeway travel has helped Waymo dramatically cut trip times across the peninsula that previously took anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour.
Waymo didn’t cite a specific incident behind its decision to suspend freeway driving this week. But the company’s robotaxis have been spotted struggling with highway construction zones. On May 19, X user @Elliot_slade posted a video claiming that his Waymo ride “blasted through cones” and claimed the vehicle was “chased” by police.
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