High in the Swiss Alps, frozen lakes hide risks that surface checks often miss. Snow piles up, presses the ice sheet down, and new layers form on top. Thin spots or cracks stay invisible until someone or something falls through. For more than a century people have cut holes by hand, measured with tape, and hoped the ice held for skating, racing, or simple crossings. In 1907 St. Moritz turned that hope into spectacle with skijoring, horses pulling skiers across the ice. The tradition continues, yet the dangers remain. In 2017 a crack swallowed horses during an event. Manual surveys still demand hours of chainsaw work and firefighters on standby, and they only sample a few points while ice thickness can change across short distances.

A group of 10 ETH Zurich students, including eight mechanical engineers and two electrical engineers, determined that the best view of an alpine lake is from the bottom. Their main project, Polaris, is the result of a five-month race to create a small autonomous underwater vehicle that can fit thru a single hole in the ice and survey the thickness from below. They hoped to make it safer for people to recreate on these lakes throughout the winter while also gathering additional data for climate models that try to forecast how the ice will react to warmer winter weather.

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Polaris is basically a 30-kilogram torpedo robot with all electronics contained inside a watertight hull. It contains six motors that provide it complete control in all directions, forward, back, up, down, left, and right, allowing it to keep its position, climb up, or slide sideways rather than drifting aimlessly. Two huge concrete weights are placed to the bottom to keep the center of gravity stable, and Polaris is somewhat positively buoyant, so when the motors stop, it simply floats upward rather than sinking to the bottom. The autonomy software is operated by an NVIDIA Jetson computer, and the batteries are twice as powerful as usual, allowing the vehicle to travel a long distance before returning to the surface.

Getting a fix on the location under the ice is difficult since GPS signals simply stop working once the vehicle is fully submerged. The crew solved this problem by inserting a GPS antenna thru a clear dome on top of the hull. When Polaris is pressed against the underside of the ice, the antenna is close enough to the surface to provide a usable fix at times, but the rest of the time it relies on an acoustic system that sends sound pings down to the bottom, and three hydrophones on a surface antenna determine where it is based on the time it takes for the pings to bounce back. This enables Polaris to navigate a grid of waypoints, stopping at each one to take readings.

Two methods of measuring ice thickness were built-in. The first approach employs an upward-looking sonar, which shoots a sound pulse up into the ice and then determines how thick the ice must be by measuring how long the sound pulse takes to bounce back off the underside of the ice. We tested it with 50cm of ice in St. Moritz, and it appeared to be promising. Unfortunately, on the real lakes, the ice got so thick that the returns became audible and the reflections became distorted. The team devised a simpler backup plan: they simply drove the vehicle straight up until it hit the ice, then measured the water pressure to compute the depth of the water, deducting the vehicle’s length and computing the thickness of the ice at that location. Following the run, they stitch all of the dots together to form a beautiful color-coded map of the ice’s thickness.

Field tests were conducted late in the season at some stunning Swiss lakes near Zermatt. Theodul Gletschersee, located at over 3000 meters just behind the renowned Matterhorn, is a great challenge. Another spot, Schwarzsee, was slightly more accessible, but still required cutting thru a significant amount of ice. The problem was that snow had squeezed the original layer of ice, causing new ice to build on top, leaving this filthy slushy mess in the middle that took hours to cut thru with the chainsaw. Then, once they’d cut a hole, they had to get the vehicle in, configure all of the equipment, and complete the first several short swims. It basically performed a little lap between two holes that were about 10 meters apart and popped up exactly where it should. Later, it followed a large grid measuring 10 x 10 meters, touching down at all corners and halfway points. Then post-processing produced two maps: one based just on the pressure data and another that attempted to incorporate sonar information, but the sonar data is quite noisy, making it difficult to get working effectively. Nonetheless, the pressure map revealed some rather obvious variances in the area they had examined.

It’s still not perfect because the depth recorder only measures the entire thickness of all the layers piled on top of each other. In alpine lakes, the true vital safety layer is typically just the thinnest top sheet; the older ice beneath may be waterlogged or fragmented in some way. Sonar is still not really sorting out that top layer clearly. The vehicle is however not entirely autonomous for long runs because a team is still need to sort out the acoustic placement and assist with getting it back out at the finish. Of course, at high altitude, the cold air drains the batteries quickly, and the mechanics can freeze up if the seals aren’t up to par.

Despite this, the first few missions were a huge success, proving the concept works. Once that initial hole is bored, the Polaris can survey a very useful region in a fraction of the time it would take to collect dozens of individual hand-drilled measurements. And it can link specific thickness measures to precise places, which manual approaches cannot match. The same data also helps climate experts monitor how lake ice responds to changing winters, and students are already discussing larger grids and tighter autonomy for the following season.
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Lamborghini has pushed the Revuelto deeper into supercar territory with the new Revuelto SV, adding more electric power, sharper handling and a new driving mode developed around one very specific goal: making the car more entertaining when the road gets twisty.

Revealed ahead of Monterey Car Week at Pebble Beach, the Revuelto SV brings the brand’s Super Veloce badge into Lamborghini’s electrified era. Production will be limited to 1,963 examples, a nod to the year Lamborghini was founded.

The plug-in hybrid V12 remains at the heart of the car, but Lamborghini has increased total system output by 50 horsepower to 1,050 hp. Torque rises to 1,051 lb-ft, while the high-voltage battery now stores 7.3 kWh, up from 3.8 kWh. The added energy density allows the electric motor system to produce an additional 190 kW without physically increasing the battery’s size.

More power matters, but Lamborghini wants you to feel the difference in corners

The extra output cuts the 0-60 mph time to 2.4 seconds, a tenth quicker than the standard Revuelto. Top speed exceeds 214 mph, although Lamborghini has not provided a precise figure.

Straight-line numbers, however, are only part of the SV formula. Lamborghini has fitted racing-inspired adjustable passive dampers, next-generation carbon-ceramic brakes and model-specific Bridgestone Potenza Race R tires. The company says the combination delivers 10% more lateral grip from the dampers alone and 13% more overall grip, while traction improves by 5% at full throttle.

Brake cooling has also been improved, with Lamborghini claiming 23% better heat dissipation and a 12% reduction in brake-disc temperatures. Those changes should matter far more on a circuit than shaving another tenth from a launch.

The biggest change for drivers may be the new Pilota mode. Developed with what Lamborghini describes as “genuine fun to drive” in mind, the mode recalibrates the ABS, traction control and stability systems. It is designed to improve braking into corners, balance and responsiveness while giving the car greater capability over curbs and jumps.

A dedicated steering-wheel rotary control activates Pilota and unlocks a five-stage traction-control system derived from Lamborghini’s GT3 race car.

The SV looks as serious as it drives

Lamborghini has also given the Revuelto a more aggressive aerodynamic treatment, with sharper bodywork, deeper creases, red detailing and a fixed rear wing. Staggered 20-inch front and 21-inch rear wheels are available with center-lock hardware.

Inside, lightweight carbon-fiber door panels and racing seats continue the weight-saving theme. Standard sport seats use carbon shells, while full carbon-fiber monocoque race seats will be available as options.

Lamborghini has not announced pricing, but with production capped at 1,963 cars, availability is likely to be a bigger concern than the sticker price. For buyers who can get one, the Revuelto SV represents something more interesting than another horsepower upgrade: a V12 hybrid supercar designed to make its driver work, play, and grin a little harder.

All eyes are on the Netherlands men’s team and the Belgium women’s team at the 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup, as each side has a golden opportunity to end their respective droughts in this competition. The Oranje last tasted World Cup glory in 1998, while the Red Panthers’ best result was third, way back in 1978.

Not only are they amongst the top-ranked teams at this edition of the tournament, the sides will enjoy home advantage as the World Cup is being co-hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium, in Amstelveen and Wavre respectively.

It manages both of these things thanks to a selection of analog and digital outputs. On the device’s front, along with some physical controls and a rather small OLED display, there’s a 3.5mm headphone socket powered by Texas Instruments TPA6120 amplification. But it’s on the rear of the machine where the bulk of the action is.

Dutch officials have warned that a high-severity macOS vulnerability that allows attackers to execute malicious code is under active exploitation.

“The NCSC has received a notification indicating that active abuse of this vulnerability has been observed on multiple systems on which port 5900 was accessible from the Internet,” the Netherlands National Cyber Security Centrum warned earlier this week. “In all these cases, root had been accessed on the affected system and a Monero crypto miner had been placed.”

Do you know if your screen sharing is on?

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-65400, received a patch from Apple last week for macOS Tahoe, Sequoia, and Sonoma. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 7.1 out of 10, stems from a bug in the macOS screen sharing capability, which allows a remote party to view the screen and control the keyboard and mouse while a machine is turned on. A flaw in the “state management,” which keeps track of preceding events, user interactions, variables, and other system states, is the underlying cause.

A video of the exploit in action can be found here. Details of CVE-2026-65400 became public at last week’s Black Hat security conference. Apple said last week that CVE-2026-65400 “may” allow an attacker without credentials to gain access to a Mac. It’s unclear why Apple hedged, but softening language is common among most tech developers when disclosing vulnerabilities.

This week Google debuted its Pixel 11 tech, and Honor wowed us with a Robot Phone. Though we doubt it’s the next iPhone revolution.

To catch up on all this and more scroll down for the week’s seven biggest tech news stories, plus links to the wider picture if you’re desperate to learn more.

NAND May Cry: AI data centers and hyperscale operations are coming for everyone’s NAND chips – and then some. In fact, the manufacturing industry is already realigning much of its production capacity around the needs of Big Tech and AI startups looking to sell chatbot-like experiences to subscribers.

A recent study by Counterpoint Research highlights the seismic shift the NAND flash industry is undergoing because of generative AI and chatbot services. While AI training workloads are increasingly being replaced by inference tasks, enterprise SSDs are consuming around half of the world’s entire NAND supply.

Enterprise SSDs include high-performance storage units used in data centers and AI hyperscale facilities. During the second quarter of the year, these types of solid-state storage products accounted for 48% of global NAND shipments. Enterprise shipments nearly doubled compared to 2025, when they accounted for 26%, and are expected to grow even further over the next few months.

SSDs are now in high demand for AI operations, as Big Tech looks to leverage high-capacity, high-performance storage solutions to cache the massive datasets required for AI inference workloads. Needless to say, this shift is having a significant impact on companies manufacturing NAND flash chips and the eSSDs they are ultimately used to power.

Counterpoint said Samsung retained its position as the largest NAND flash maker, with a 25% market share, while SK Hynix came second with a 22% share. The Korean device manufacturer benefited from a 40% year-over-year increase in shipments from its subsidiary Solidigm and is now looking to grow its enterprise NAND business even further.

Chinese maker Yangtze Memory Technologies saw a 22% increase in shipments, capturing 14% of the NAND flash market. YMTC is currently expanding its domestic operations thanks to its in-house manufacturing capabilities, producing 267-layer 3D NAND chips based on its proprietary Xtacking technology.

Kioxia ranked third with 14% of NAND shipments, while Micron and SanDisk followed with 13% and 11% of the market, respectively. However, Counterpoint warns that shipment volumes don’t necessarily translate into actual revenue. While YMTC ranked third in terms of chip shipments, it was only fifth in terms of revenue, behind Micron and Kioxia.

The Chinese corporation can currently benefit from the global chip shortage but is still manufacturing a mix of consumer and enterprise solid-state products. Like everyone else in the industry, YMTC is eventually expected to focus much of its upcoming production on eSSDs as it seeks to capitalize on the AI-driven spending boom.

from the chutzpah dept

We’ve talked a great deal about the Stop Killing Games movement and those discussions have typically traveled along two paths of importance.

On the one hand, the movement is very important to those of us that care about the preservation of video games. A huge problem with allowing developers and publishers to simply shutdown backend servers needed to run games that were designed to require those same server is that those games simply disappear in their original form. If we accept that video games are both art and culture, and I don’t think either is particularly arguable at this point, allowing shared culture to disappear before it enters the public domain is an unacceptable violation of the bargain that is copyright to begin with. In those instances, developers and publishers got their monopoly, but negated the part where said monopoly is supposed to be limited in nature, with the art ending up in the public domain.

The second path of importance is that of the rights of the individual consumer. The public in large part believes it’s buying a game when it makes these purchases. And, yes, the truth buried in terms of service and other legal documents is that in many cases the public is only buying a limited license to play the game, one which the publisher can revoke in part or whole at any time by shutting down support for the product. But if you think that this fact somehow makes none of this a problem, you’re a corporate boot-licker and you should be ashamed of yourself. Sometimes these shutdowns happen very shortly after the game is released and promises of refunds to those that paid for them can be fleeting.

But, man, if you think it’s bad for a developer or publisher to not make good on refunds of a purchased game it shut down, wait until you get a load of Cold Iron Studios, which recently shutdown the cloud-only version of Aliens: Fireteam Elite on the Nintendo Switch.

Following its announcement in March, game developer Cold Iron Studios has shut down the servers for the cloud version of Aliens: Fireteam Elite on the Nintendo Switch. The game originally cost $30 (or $60 for an “Ultimate” version with additional content).

Cold Iron Studios hasn’t offered customers refunds.

TheGamer reported that affected players are entitled to a discount for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game, which is a 2021 co-op, third-person shooter based on the Alien film franchise. However, that would mean paying money for a game that you have already paid money for once.

There’s chutzpah, and then there’s fucking chutzpah. The developer ripped away the ability to play a game that people spent money on. Then, rather than offering refunds, they instead offered to sell the game again to those same customers on the new console for a slightly lesser price. That isn’t giving your customers the middle finger. It’s gather up an entire city’s worth of middle fingers and jamming them up your customers’ noses and then asking them to pay for it.

Now, nobody thinks that this version of the game was bought in massive numbers on the original Switch. But I don’t really see how that matters. If you sell something to someone, then take it away, you should return the money you got for it. If you’re hiding behind the “it’s just a license” mantra, then you’re telling the public not to trust you. And maybe simply to not trust digital purchases entirely. And, given some other recent news, that becomes a pretty big problem.

When companies erase digital copies from people’s libraries and make games harder to access, the recent uproar over the announcement that there won’t be physical discs made for PlayStation games as of January 2028 makes sense.

The folks at Stop Killing Games have this exactly right, because situations like this are not only untenable, but the lack of action is making these companies all the more brazen. The audacity of taking something away from a customer and trying to get them to pay for it again is breathtaking.

As is the unwillingness to act on the part of our government and consumer rights groups.

Filed Under: aliens: firestorm elite, ownership, stop killing games, video games

Companies: cold iron studios