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Kessler Syndrome Alert: Satellites’ 5.5-Day Countdown

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Thousands of satellites are tightly packed into low Earth orbit, and the overcrowding is only growing.

Scientists have created a simple warning system called the CRASH Clock that answers a basic question: If satellites suddenly couldn’t steer around one another, how much time would elapse before there was a crash in orbit? Their current answer: 5.5 days.

The CRASH Clock metric was introduced in a paper originally published on the Arxiv physics preprint server in December and is currently under consideration for publication. The team’s research measures how quickly a catastrophic collision could occur if satellite operators lost the ability to maneuver—whether due to a solar storm, a software failure, or some other catastrophic failure.

To be clear, say the CRASH Clock scientists, low Earth orbit is not about to become a new unstable realm of collisions. But what the researchers have shown, consistent with recent research and public outcry, is that low Earth orbit’s current stability demands perfect decisions on the part of a range of satellite operators around the globe every day. A few mistakes at the wrong time and place in orbit could set a lot of chaos in motion.

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But the biggest hidden threat isn’t always debris that can be seen from the ground or via radar imaging systems. Rather, thousands of small pieces of junk that are still big enough to disrupt a satellite’s operations are what satellite operators have nightmares about these days. Making matters worse is SpaceX essentially locking up one of the most valuable altitudes with their Starlink satellite megaconstellation, forcing Chinese competitors to fly higher through clouds of old collision debris left over from earlier accidents.

IEEE Spectrum spoke with astrophysicists Sarah Thiele (graduate student at Princeton University), Aaron Boley (professor of physics and astronomy at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada), and Samantha Lawler (associate professor of astronomy at the University of Regina, in Saskatchewan, Canada) about their new paper, and about how close satellites actually are to one another, why you can’t see most space junk, and what happens to the power grid when everything in orbit fails at once.

Does the CRASH Clock measure Kessler syndrome, or something different?

Sarah Thiele: A lot of people are claiming we’re saying Kessler syndrome is days away, and that’s not what our work is saying. We’re not making any claim about this being a runaway collisional cascade. We only look at the timescale to the first collision—we don’t simulate secondary or tertiary collisions. The CRASH Clock reflects how reliant we are on errorless operations and is an indicator for stress on the orbital environment.

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Aaron Boley: A lot of people’s mental vision of Kessler syndrome is this very rapid runaway, and in reality this is something that can take decades to truly build.

Thiele: Recent papers found that altitudes between 520 and 1,000 kilometers have already reached this potential runaway threshold. Even in that case, the timescales for how slowly this happens are very long. It’s more about whether you have a significant number of objects at a given altitude such that controlling the proliferation of debris becomes difficult.

Understanding the CRASH Clock’s Implications

What does the CRASH Clock approaching zero actually mean?

Thiele: The CRASH Clock assumes no maneuvers can happen—a worst-case scenario where some catastrophic event like a solar storm has occurred. A zero value would mean if you lose maneuvering capabilities, you’re likely to have a collision right away. It’s possible to reach saturation where any maneuver triggers another maneuver, and you have this endless swarm of maneuvers where dodging doesn’t mean anything anymore.

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Boley: I think about the CRASH Clock as an evaluation of stress on orbit. As you approach zero, there’s very little tolerance for error. If you have an accidental explosion—whether a battery exploded or debris slammed into a satellite—the risk of knock-on effects is amplified. It doesn’t mean a runaway, but you can have consequences that are still operationally bad. It means much higher costs—both economic and environmental—because companies have to replace satellites more often. Greater launches, more satellites going up and coming down. The orbital congestion, the atmospheric pollution, all of that gets amplified.

Are working satellites becoming a bigger danger to each other than debris?

Boley: The biggest risk on orbit is the lethal non-trackable debris—this middle region where you can’t track it, it won’t cause an explosion, but it can disable the spacecraft if hit. This population is very large compared with what we actually track. We often talk about Kessler syndrome in terms of number density, but really what’s also important is the collisional area on orbit. As you increase the area through the number of active satellites, you increase the probability of interacting with smaller debris.

Samantha Lawler: Starlink just released a conjunction report—they’re doing one collision avoidance maneuver every two minutes on average in their megaconstellation.

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The orbit at 550 km altitude, in particular, is densely packed with Starlink satellites. Is that right?

Lawler: The way Starlink has occupied 550 km and filled it to very high density means anybody who wants to use a higher-altitude orbit has to get through that really dense shell. China’s megaconstellations are all at higher altitudes, so they have to go through Starlink. A couple of weeks ago, there was a headline about a Starlink satellite almost hitting a Chinese rocket. These problems are happening now. Starlink recently announced they’re moving down to 350 km, shifting satellites to even lower orbits. Really, everybody has to go through them—including ISS, including astronauts.

Thiele: 550 km has the highest density of active payloads. There are other orbits of concern around 800 km—the altitude of the [2007] Chinese anti-satellite missile test and the [2009] Cosmos-Iridium collision. Above 600 km, atmospheric drag takes a very long time to bring objects down. Below 600 km, drag acts as a natural cleaning mechanism. In that 800 km to 900 km band, there’s a lot of debris that’s going to be there for centuries.

Impact of Collisions at 550 Kilometers

What happens if there’s a collision at 550 km? Would that orbit become unusable?

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Thiele: No, it would not become unusable—not a Gravity movie scenario. Any catastrophic collision is an acute injection of debris. You would still be able to use that altitude, but your operating conditions change. You’re going to do a lot more collision-avoidance maneuvers. Because it’s below 600 km, that debris will come down within a handful of years. But in the meantime, you’re dealing with a lot more danger, especially because that’s the altitude with the highest density of Starlink satellites.

Lawler: I don’t know how quickly Starlink can respond to new debris injections. It takes days or weeks for debris to be tracked, cataloged, and made public. I hope Starlink has access to faster services, because in the meantime that’s an awful lot of risk.

How do solar storms affect orbital safety?

Lawler: Solar storms make the atmosphere puff up—high-energy particles smashing into the atmosphere. Drag can change very quickly. During the May 2024 solar storm, orbital uncertainties were kilometers. With things traveling 7 kilometers per second, that’s terrifying. Everything is maneuvering at the same time, which adds uncertainty. You want to have margin for error, time to recover after an event that changes many orbits. We’ve come off solar maximum, but over the next couple of years it’s very likely we’ll have more really powerful solar storms.

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Thiele: The risk for collision within the first few days of a solar storm is a lot higher than under normal operating conditions. Even if you can still communicate with your satellite, there’s so much uncertainty in your positions when everything is moving because of atmospheric drag. When you have high density of objects, it makes the likelihood of collision a lot more prominent.

Graph: collision chance vs. days. Danger, caution, safe zones. Red dashed line at June 2025. Canadian and American researchers simulated satellite orbits in low Earth orbit and generated a metric, the CRASH Clock, that measures the number of days before collisions start happening if collision-avoidance maneuvers stop. Sarah Thiele, Skye R. Heiland, et al.

Between the first and second drafts of your paper that were uploaded to the preprint server, your key metric, the CRASH Clock finding, was updated from 2.8 days to 5.5 days. Can you explain the revision?

Thiele: We updated based on community feedback, which was excellent. The newer numbers are 164 days for 2018 and 5.5 days for 2025. The paper is submitted and will hopefully go through peer review.

Lawler: It’s been a very interesting process putting this on Arxiv and receiving community feedback. I feel like it’s been peer-reviewed almost—we got really good feedback from top-tier experts that improved the paper. Sarah put a note, “feedback welcome,” and we got very helpful feedback. Sometimes the internet works well. If you think 5.5 days is okay when 2.8 days was not, you missed the point of the paper.

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Thiele: The paper is quite interdisciplinary. My hope was to bridge astrophysicists, industry operators, and policymakers—give people a structure to assess space safety. All these different stakeholders use space for different reasons, so work that has an interdisciplinary connection can get conversations started between these different domains.

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Broadcom bets on 2nm stacked silicon to rival Nvidia in AI

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The technology is based on a vertically integrated design that bonds two chips into a single stack. By tightly coupling these silicon layers, Broadcom’s engineers aim to increase data transfer speeds while reducing energy consumption – a critical advantage as AI workloads become more computationally intensive.
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Smart TV apps are quietly scraping web data for AI training

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Bright Data operates a global proxy network designed to collect publicly available web content, and customers are voluntarily joining the network so that they can spare a few dollars on their TV viewing experience. According to a recent report, code associated with Bright Data has appeared in certain smart TV…
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The global RAM and SSD shortage crisis, explained

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A global shortage is responsible for every electronics and computer manufacturer in the world — including Apple — paying twice as much for RAM and flash storage as it did in 2025, and 10 times more than it paid in 2020. Here’s why there is little hope of that improving anytime soon.

Two small SK hynix memory chips resting on a colorful, grid-patterned silicon wafer background with vertical rows in gradients of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue
Memory is in short supply globally — Image credit: SK Hynix

Apple has historically been able to closely control the cost of its components. Buying in huge numbers, from multiple suppliers has historically given an economy of scale that made Apple a sought-after customer for everything from display makers to storage vendors.
But that dynamic has changed. A global shortage of key components like memory and storage has seen the price of both skyrocket. Apple is far from the only company impacted.
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Galaxy S26 vs. iPhone 17: Which entry-level flagship is right for you?

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For 2026, the comparison between baseline iPhone and Android flagships comes down to two phones that are closer than they’ve ever been — the Galaxy S26 at $899 and the iPhone 17 at $799. Same form factor, same screen size, very different philosophies.

We’ve broken down everything that actually moves the needle — design, display, performance, cameras, battery, and software — because the right phone isn’t the one with the longer spec sheet. It’s the one that fits how you actually use it.

Price and availability

The iPhone 17 kicks off at $799 with 256GB baked in from the start — no arguing with that. The Galaxy S26 lands at $899 for 256GB. Last year’s S25 was $859, so Samsung snuck in a $40 increase, and the ongoing memory shortage got the blame.

So there’s a $100 gap sitting between these two phones right out the gate. Whether the S26 justifies it over the iPhone 17 — or whether Apple’s just quietly winning on value before the comparison even starts — is what the rest of this piece is for.

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Design

Pick up the S26 and the iPhone 17 back-to-back and the first thing you think is: did these two companies share a blueprint? Heights are dead-even at 149.6mm. Width differs by 0.2mm — which doesn’t make a different in real life.

Apple’s phone is thicker at 7.95 mm versus Samsung’s 7.2 mm, and heavier too, tipping the scales at 177 grams against the S26’s 167 grams. What gives away Samsung’s entry-level flagship is its boxy corners, which are immediately recognizable against the rounded corners on the iPhone 17.

Both phones use aluminum frames, so nobody’s winning a materials fight there. The glass is where they split — Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front and back on the S26, and Apple’s Ceramic Shield 2 on the iPhone 17’s front, which Apple says scratches three times less easily than regular glass.

Dunking either one is fine either way; IP68 on both. The S26 comes in Black, Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, and White — pick one and people will notice. The iPhone 17 gives you Black, White (my personal favorite), Mist Blue, Sage, and Lavender — tones quiet enough that your phone practically whispers.

Display

Both screens measure 6.3 inches, so that argument ends before it starts. Where things get interesting is everything underneath that number.

The iPhone 17 sports a 2622 x 1206 pixel OLED panel at 460 ppi, sharper than the Galaxy S26’s panel, which maxes out at FHD+ with 2340 x 1080 pixels (411 ppi). The S26’s display is fine, looks good, and frankly most people won’t lose sleep over it. Side-by-side though, the difference shows (I hope Samsung sees it as well).

The S26 peaks at 2,600 nits outdoors, which handles most sunny days well enough. The iPhone 17 pushes to 3,000 nits — and upon using it side by side with the Galaxy S25 (which shares its peak brightness with the S26), I found the iPhone to be noticeably brighter, especially under direct sunlight.

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Both do 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rates, so scrolling feels equally fluid on either one. Then there’s always-on display — both phones keep your notifications visible without fully waking the screen, which sounds minor until you’ve used it for a week and then picked up a phone without it.

While I’ve grown accustomed to the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 17, you might not like it in the first glance, especially if you’re upgrading from an Android phone with a punch-hole camera — that’s something to keep in mind as well.

Performance

Specs-wise, Samsung shows up with more — Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 3nm, 12GB RAM. Apple brings the A19 and 8GB. On a spec sheet that reads as a clean Samsung win, but phones aren’t spec sheets.

Benchmarks tell a messier story. The S26 pulls ahead when multiple cores are working together, which is relevant for heavy multitasking. The scores are almost similar in the single-core test, which is what your phone actually leans on for most things — launching apps, typing, switching between tasks. All-in-all, both phones offer similar (read excellent) day-to-day performance.

The RAM gap is where it gets more practical. Twelve gigabytes means more apps stay open in the background without reloading. If your phone use involves juggling a lot at once, the S26 has more headroom. And yes, both are perfectly capable of handing the most demanding games at high frame rates, it’s just the matter of whether the developer has included support for it or not.

I’ve been using the iPhone 17 for about six months now, and I haven’t, for once, felt that the phone doesn’t offer enough CPU or GPU performance, especially when needed. That’s the thing with top-tier mobile chipsets; they’ve got more horsepower than most people can use upfront, but it helps maintaining the performance in the long-term.

Operating System

The S26 runs One UI 8.5 on Android 16 — the most put-together version of Samsung’s skin yet. Rounder, cleaner, and stuffed with settings you’ll spend a Sunday afternoon exploring.

Galaxy AI actually pulls weight now: Now Nudge suggests replies by reading your screen context, Call Screening stops unknown callers before your phone buzzes, and Audio Eraser finally works inside YouTube and Instagram, not just Samsung’s own apps. Bixby gets Perplexity as backup for the questions it used to fumble.

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iOS 26 got a full face-lift with Liquid Glass — translucent menus and icons that split opinion pretty cleanly between “stunning” and “bit much.” Apple Intelligence handles real-time translation across calls, Messages, and FaceTime, though it’s not as useful as Galaxy AI. The ecosystem perks, however, are still superior.

Samsung commits to seven years of operating system and security updates, while Apple usually provides around five to six years of software support.

Cameras

The S26 has a 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, and a dedicated 10MP 3x telephoto. The iPhone 17 runs a 48MP main at f/1.6, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 2x “zoom” that’s just the main sensor being cropped — not a real telephoto lens.

Daylight shots on both look great, full stop. Where they differ is taste. Samsung cranks up the saturation and contrast — your photos come out looking like they’ve already been edited, ready to post. Apple mostly shows you what was there, i.e., the camera reproduces natural, neutral colors.

After dark, the iPhone quietly holds its own. Apple’s Night Mode has been one of the best in the business for years (along with the f/1.6 aperture). Zoom goes the other way. A real 3x optical lens on the S26 versus Apple’s cropped 2x is a clear hardware win for Samsung.

The most unique thing about the iPhone 17’s camera system is its selfie shooter — an 18MP (f/1.9) square-shaped camera sensor that can capture super wide selfies in multiple aspect ratios. Apple surely needs to bump up the resolution for the visual area the sensor covers, but even so, Samsung’s 12MP sensor is no match for it.

Video on both is strong at 4K/60fps with good stabilization. Apple’s color science gives it a slight edge in footage quality, plus the sensor-shift stabilization works like a charm, but the S26 shoots 8K if that’s something you need. Most people don’t, but the option exists.

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Battery

The S26 has a bigger tank — 4,300mAh versus the iPhone 17’s 3,692mAh — and Samsung claims 31 hours of video playback to Apple’s 30. One hour in it, with a notably smaller cell on Apple’s side. That gap says more about the A19’s efficiency than it does about the S26’s battery.

Charging is where iPhone pulls ahead. With 40W wired charging, the handset reaches 50% in roughly 25 minutes. The S26 still sits at 25W — same as its last two predecessors. Wireless is where the gap reopens. The iPhone 17 does 25W via MagSafe; the S26 base model caps at 15W standard wireless.

Conclusion

The S26 makes a stronger case on paper. More RAM, a bigger battery, a real telephoto lens, 8K video, and One UI 8.5 giving you enough customization to keep a hobbyist busy for weeks. It’s the better phone for power users, Android loyalists, and anyone who shoots a lot of zoom photos or wants their phone to last the full day.

The iPhone 17 wins on the things that are harder to put in a spec sheet. Faster charging, better low-light photography, smoother sustained performance under load, the refreshing iOS 26 experience, and an ecosystem so tightly integrated it borders on a lifestyle choice. If you own a Mac, iPad, or AirPods, the iPhone 17 doesn’t just work well — it works together in a way the S26 can’t replicate.

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I’m thrilled by Wednesday’s star-studded third year, here’s everything we know about season 3

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Netflix’s mystery series Wednesday reinvigorated the Addams Family for the modern age, becoming one of the streaming giant’s most-watched shows. It’s only natural that Netflix keep the hype running with Wednesday‘s upcoming third season.

There’s a lot we can expect to see from Wednesday after season 2. It’s unclear what Wednesday and her peers will encounter in the next season, but what makes the show so fun is watching the mystery unfold. In all fairness, we don’t like waiting years for more episodes. Don’t fret. We’ve got you covered with everything you need to know about Wednesday season 3.

What’s the story of Wednesday season 3?

Netflix Tudum wrote that in season 3, “a new wave of insidious interlopers will be darkening the doors of Nevermore Academy.” Wednesday showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar said to Tudum that the third season will also “excavate some long-rotting Addams Family secrets.”

“Our goal for Season 3 is the same as it is for every season: to make it the best season of Wednesday we possibly can,” said Gough. “We want to continue digging deeper into our characters while expanding the world of Nevermore and Wednesday.”

These statements fit with what we saw as Wednesday left Nevermore with Uncle Fester and Thing in search of her alpha werewolf bestie, Enid. In this ending to season 2, Wednesday had a vision of her Aunt Ophelia, imprisoned by Grandmama Frump and writing in blood, “Wednesday Must Die,” suggesting some of the Addams family’s skeletons will come out of the closet.

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When will Wednesday season 3 come out?

Since Wednesday season 3 is so early into production, there is no release date set at this time. We can’t see into the future like Wednesday Addams, but it is likely she will return in 2027. Though the second season premiered three years after the first, the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strike stalled production for several months. Barring any future delays, the wait for season 3 should last a total of two years rather than three.

When and where is Wednesday season 3 filming?

Production for Wednesday season 3 started in February 2026, according to Netflix Tudum. Like with season 2, filming will take place near Dublin.

Who will return in Wednesday season 3?

As usual, Wednesday will feature a vast, quirky cast of characters in season 3, including members of the Addams Family and Wednesday’s classmates at Nevermore Academy.

  • Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams
  • Luis Guzman as Gomez Addams
  • Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams
  • Joana Lumley as Grandmama Hester Frump
  • Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay
  • Georgie Farmer as Ajax Tanaka
  • Moosa Mostafa as Eugene Ottinger
  • Evie Templeton as Agnes DeMille
  • Victor Dorobantu as Thing
  • Winona Ryder as Tabitha
  • Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair
  • Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin
  • Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester
  • Billie Piper as Isadora Capri
  • Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Santiago
  • Oscar Morgan as Atticus
  • Kennedy Moyer as Daisy
  • Noah Taylor as Cyrus
  • Chris Sarandon as Balthazar
  • Eva Green as Ophelia Frump

Who’s new to Wednesday season 3?

Just like season 2, Wednesday‘s third season will welcome plenty of new characters to Nevermore Academy. Actors joining the cast next season include Winona Ryder (Stranger Things), Chris Sarandon (Dog Day Afternoon, The Princess Bride), Noah Taylor (Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones), Oscar Morgan (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), and Kennedy Moyer (Task, Roofman).

In an interview with Netflix Tudum, Gough and Millar shared a statement praising Eva Green and her performance as Wednesday’s Aunt Ophelia:

“Eva Green has always brought an exhilarating, singular presence to the screen — elegant, haunting, and beautifully unpredictable. Those qualities make her the perfect choice for Aunt Ophelia. We’re excited to see how she transforms the role and expands Wednesday’s world.”

Green also said to Tudum, “I’m thrilled to join the woefully twisted world of Wednesday as Aunt Ophelia. This show is such a deliciously dark and witty world, I can’t wait to bring my own touch of cuckoo-ness to the Addams family.”

Winona Ryder’s casting is also particularly noteworthy. The actor has frequently starred as a main player in producer Tim Burton’s films. Most recently, she starred alongside Jenna Ortega in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Whether or not Ryder’s new character will support Wednesday on her journey, it will be exciting to see the former reignite her on-screen chemistry with Ortega.

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Are there any trailers for Wednesday season 3?

On February 23, Netflix shared a fiendishly flamboyant video announcing that production for Wednesday season 3, all while revealing the cast. The trailer also featured a “?” to label one of the season’s cast members, suggesting this mystery character plays an important role that would spoil the story.

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Google and OpenAI employees sign open letter in ‘solidarity’ with Anthropic

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Hundreds of employees at Google and OpenAI have urging their companies to in its standoff with the Pentagon over military applications for AI tools like Claude.

The letter, titled “We Will Not Be Divided,” calls on the leadership of both companies to “put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War’s current demands for permission to use our models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight.” These are two lines that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei should not be crossed by his or any other AI company.

As of publication, the letter has over 450 signatures, almost 400 of which come from Google employees and the rest from OpenAI. Currently, roughly 50 percent of all participants have chosen to attach their names to the cause, with the rest remaining anonymous. All are verified as current employees of these companies. The original organizers of the letter aren’t Google or OpenAI employees; they say are unaffiliated with any AI company, political party or advocacy group.

The open letter is the latest development in the saga between Anthropic and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who to label the company a “supply chain risk” if it did not agree to withdraw certain guardrails for classified work. The Pentagon has also been in talks with Google and OpenAI about using their models for classified work, with earlier this week. The letter argues the government is “trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in.”

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told his employees on Friday that the ChatGPT maker will draw the same red lines as Anthropic, according to an internal memo seen by . He told on the same day that he doesn’t “personally think the Pentagon should be threatening DPA against these companies.”

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Smartphone Market To Decline 13% in 2026, Marking the Largest Drop Ever Due To the Memory Shortage Crisis

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to decline 12.9% year-on-year (YoY) in 2026 to 1.1 billion units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. This decline will bring the smartphone market to its lowest annual shipment volume in more than a decade. The current forecast represents a sharp decline from our November forecast amid the intensifying memory shortage crisis.

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Global smartphone shipments expected to fall 13% amid memory supply crunch

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According to a new report from market research firm International Data Corporation, global smartphone shipments are expected to total around 1.1 billion units this year, down from 1.26 billion in 2025. This marks a significant downward revision from the company’s November 2025 forecast, which projected a decline of between 0.9…
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Perplexity launches Computer, wants AI to run tasks for months, not minutes

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Rather than relying on a single model, Perplexity AI’s Computer system functions as an orchestrator across multiple models. Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 serves as the primary reasoning engine, while Gemini handles deep research tasks. Nano Banana generates images, Veo 3.1 produces video, Grok executes lightweight, speed-optimized tasks, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT…
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Loewe’s Vega TVs give you slick design in smaller sizes

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Loewe has announced the Vega, a new range of compact 4K Ultra HD smart TVs available in 32 and 43-inch sizes.

The Vega sits below Loewe’s flagship Stellar OLED line, which spans 42 to 97 inches and starts at £1,699, but uses VA LCD panels with full-array Direct LED backlighting rather than OLED, a technology choice that allows Loewe to hit higher peak brightness figures across a smaller and more affordable chassis.

The 43-inch model carries 390 LED dimming zones and reaches a peak luminance of 880 cd/m², while the 32-inch version uses 260 dimming zones and reaches 550 cd/m², both figures sitting above what most competing LCD televisions at this screen size typically deliver to living rooms in bright daylight conditions.

Both models support the full range of HDR formats, including Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10, and HLG, with the Vega marking the first time Loewe has offered a 4K Ultra HD panel in a 32-inch format, a size that most manufacturers continue to supply only in Full HD resolution.

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The integrated soundbar delivers 60 watts of Class-D amplification developed and tuned by Loewe’s in-house audio team, supporting Dolby Atmos and connecting to external sound systems through HDMI eARC, a configuration that competes more directly with premium soundbar bundles than with the basic speakers typically built into televisions at this screen size.

Smart features and connectivity

Loewe’s os9 smart platform, built on the VIDAA operating system, handles streaming access across Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, and Apple TV, with Apple AirPlay, Miracast, DLNA, and Matter connectivity expanding the Vega’s integration with both Apple and broader smart home ecosystems.

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The 43-inch model carries two HDMI 2.1 ports supporting 4K at up to 120Hz alongside VRR and ALLM for low-latency gaming, while the 32-inch version supports 4K at up to 60Hz through its HDMI 2.1 ports, with both models also offering cloud gaming access through Blacknut and Boosteroid via the VIDAA platform.

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A brushed aluminium frame, rotatable metal table stand with chrome finish, and integrated cable management with magnetic rear covers reflect the same design discipline Loewe applies across its higher-end OLED TV range, placing the Vega closer in aesthetic approach to Bang and Olufsen than to mass-market LCD televisions at comparable screen sizes.

The Loewe Vega 32-inch is priced at £1650 and the 43-inch at £1900, with both models available through selected Loewe retail partners from March 2026.

For a closer look at how the Vega’s LCD panel compares against the best screens on the market, our guide to the best OLED TVs rounds up the top picks from every major brand.

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