With the 1.6 release, the Matter smart home standard is becoming more capable with streamlined setup, improved multi-ecosystem support, and expanded user preferences.

Starting the week of June 15th, the Connectivity Standard Alliance has been hosting its first ever Unify conference in Austin, Texas. It’s there the CSA made the announcement around Matter 1.6.

As a precursor, Matter is a fairly new smart home standard that is intended to unify the various platform ecosystems. Matter devices can largely work seamlessly between Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, Apple Home, and more.

Matter 1.6

With this update, NFC-based commissioning is improving compared to the initial 1.4.1 implementation. Previously, after tapping a NFC tag, the commissioning was then carried out over Bluetooth.

Now, Matter 1.6 can complete the entire commissioning process via bi-directional NFC communication. That removes the need for BLE at all and it even works before the accessory is fully powered on.

In use, we expect to see devices like light bulbs or in-wall switches that can set up before ever being plugged into a socket or wired into a wall.

For multi-ecosystem homes, the CSA is releasing Joint Fabric. Instead of each ecosystem having its own network of devices, 1.6 creates a standardized Matter network that different ecosystems can tap into.

Devices can be added to a Joint Fabric once, and automatically appear in each of the ecosystems. This removes the need for fresh setup in each ecosystem.

The final major update with this release is for thermostats. Instead of sending a contextually blind command directly to a thermostat, Thermostat Suggestions standardizes the communication of commands by adding context.

For example, if a user manually adjusted the thermostat but moments later, a new command arrives from a previously-set schedule. The thermostat is able to ignore that command, recognizing it’s likely not what the user intended to happen just after making a manual adjustment.

If a Thermostat Suggestion is ignored, the thermostat can send back a response with a reason for the action.

Other changes include event history for security sensors, unmounted states for smoke and CO alarms, and standardized capability communication.

Product Security 1.1 update

Also developed by the CSA, we got version 1.1 of the Product Security certification program.

Version 1.1 has a more wholistic view of the smart home, offering security certifications for the whole ecosystem, from the app to the accessories.

“With this announcement, the Product Security Certification Program advances our goal to make compliance with external product security standards and regulations practical for the global IoT industry,” said Steve Hanna of Infineon, the Chair of the Product Security Working Group Steering Committee. “Version 1.1 expands the scope of the program and introduces higher-confidence pathways for certification, reflecting emerging trends in global regulations.”

The new version of Matter is available to developers and accessory makers now. We now have to wait for Apple Home and other ecosystems to adopt it.

As global investors race to fund the infrastructure underpinning the artificial-intelligence boom, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s CPP Investments has committed up to ₹70 billion (about $741 million) to Indian data center operator CtrlS, betting on India’s growing role in the global buildout of cloud and AI infrastructure.

Under the partnership announced on Wednesday, CPP Investments will invest ₹40 billion (around $423 million) to acquire an 8.2% stake in CtrlS and commit up to ₹30 billion (about $317 million) to a joint venture to develop hyperscale data center campuses across India.

CPP Investments will own 48% of the joint venture, while CtrlS will hold the remaining 52%, the companies said in a joint statement.

Founded in 2007, CtrlS operates more than 15 data centers across India. The Hyderabad-based company has been expanding its footprint to meet rising demand from cloud providers, enterprises, and AI workloads.

India has become a major destination for data center and AI investments as global technology companies and investors ramp up spending to meet surging computing demand. Companies including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Uber have announced investments in the country in recent months, while operators are rapidly expanding capacity amid a broader global race to build AI infrastructure.

“As one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets, India represents an important pillar of our global data center strategy,” said CPP Investments’ global head of real assets Max Biagosch in a statement.

CPP Investments, Canada’s largest pension investor, has been investing in India since 2009 and had net assets of about $20 billion in the country as of March 31, making it one of the largest foreign institutional investors in the market.

The investment builds on CPP Investments’ broader push into digital infrastructure. The pension fund said it has invested in the data center sector since 2017 and has built a portfolio of assets and joint ventures across major markets worldwide.

The partnership will help CtrlS expand capacity and build infrastructure tailored for AI workloads, said CtrlS founder and chief executive Sridhar Pinnapureddy.

The CPP-CtrlS deal is the latest in a string of investments targeting India’s data center sector. Earlier this month, Blackstone-backed AirTrunk said it would invest $30 billion to build five gigawatts of data center capacity in India by 2030. Meta, meanwhile, partnered with Reliance Industries last week on a 168-megawatt AI-enabled data center in the western state of Gujarat.

New Delhi has sought to position India as a global hub for digital infrastructure through a range of policy measures, including tax exemptions for foreign cloud providers on services sold overseas through 2047, provided those workloads are run from data centers located in the country.

Indian conglomerates have also accelerated expansion plans to capitalize on the opportunity. Adani Group and Tata Consultancy Services are among the companies that have unveiled major data center projects aimed at supporting AI and cloud workloads. In 2023, CtrlS announced plans to invest $2 billion over six years to expand its data center footprint across India.

India’s growing role in AI infrastructure has not yet been matched by similar progress in developing frontier AI models. While the country has a handful of startups building indigenous AI models, including Sarvam, much of the underlying AI technology used by Indian companies continues to be supplied by U.S. firms.

The rapid buildout of data centers is also expected to increase pressure on electricity and water resources, highlighting some of the challenges that could accompany India’s ambitions to become a major AI infrastructure hub.

Few energy sources can top geothermal’s potential, with at least 42 terawatts of capacity available worldwide, according to the IEA, more than twice the world’s energy use last year.

The technology is shaping up to be the energy world’s dark horse, even though investment in the tech pales in comparison to startups in advanced nuclear fission and fusion power.

That makes the $19 million in seed funding raised by a startup called Critical Energy especially notable. Critical Energy hopes to fill a major gap for geothermal power plants by building modular turbines tailored to them. The funds are earmarked to build its first 2.5 megawatt project, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch.

Meanwhile the darlings of the investment world, those working on nuclear fission and fusion, are targeting the early 2030s for their first commercial deployments. By that time, geothermal startups could be building gigawatt-scale power plants.

“Geothermal is going to beat them to it. By a lot,” Spencer Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Critical Energy, told TechCrunch. “In four or five years, I hope that we’re doing many gigawatts a year.”

Even modest expansion of geothermal could pay off to serve the world’s — and especially the tech industry’s — growing energy needs. A recent report said that advanced geothermal could power nearly two-thirds of new data centers by 2030.

But Jackson said there’s a looming shortage of compatible turbines. Many projects today are specifying large turbines, which can take months to years to assemble on site, he said. “It’s still way faster and cheaper to make it the other direction, to built it in a factory.”

Critical Energy hopes to fill the gap with modular turbines. To design them, Jackson leaned on his experience at SpaceX, where he worked on Falcon Heavy, Starship, and the Raptor rocket engine. To build them quickly, Critical Energy is working with machine shops to make the turbomachinery and other turbine components, which resemble rocket engines. It’s buying other parts off the shelf for now. In the future, the startup may decide to bring other pieces in house, similar to how Tesla and SpaceX have done, Jackson said.

The first power plant to use Critical Energy’s turbines is scheduled to be completed by 2027 and will be installed at an existing geothermal site similar to those found in Iceland or at The Geysers in Northern California. Critical Energy is also designing a larger, 5 megawatt module targeted at enhanced geothermal companies like Fervo Energy, which drill deeper into the Earth to withdraw more heat.

By the early 2030s, Jackson hopes Critical Energy will be making gigawatts worth of turbines. “We are looking for the fastest path to gigawatts of scalable power on the grid,” he said. “Long term goal is 300 gigawatts a year in 2045.”

Though geothermal development has been quietly proceeding, Jackson expects that once the technology is more mature, oil and gas companies will dive in, speeding things up considerably. 

“Geothermal is great because the oil and gas industry has the replicability to do hundreds and then thousand of wells. They’re very, very good at drilling wells,” he said. “But they need turbines and there’s going to be a massive shortage of those.”

The seed rounds were led by Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures with participation from MaC Venture Capital, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Humba Ventures, Scribble Ventures, and Underground Ventures. The startup also nabbed $3 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank bringing its total early capital to $22 million.

Nathaniel Nifong grew tired of the same scene repeating every day. Toys lay scattered near the couch. Socks and shirts dotted the floor after his kids finished playing. The mess demanded constant attention, yet it always returned. Most robot arms stay fixed to one workbench or table. Rolling robots must weave around furniture and adapt to a floor that changes constantly. Nifong wanted something that could reach anywhere in the room without those headaches.

He secured four motorized units to the four corners of a rectangular space. All of this was held together by a thick braided fishing line that ran from each anchor to a central platform. By carefully shortening or lengthening the cables in near-perfect timing, the platform may travel to any location in three dimensions below the ceiling. There is also a fifth cable that drops straight down from that platform, carrying the gripper itself. When the task is completed, the gripper retracts upward, and the entire assembly parks high and out of the way.

LEGO City Heavy-Duty Recovery Tow Truck with Crane Building Toy – Dump & Tow Truck Toys for Boys & Girls…

• CLEAR THE ROAD! – Builders 8 years old and up can pretend to operate professional tow truck equipment with the LEGO City Heavy-Duty Recovery Tow…
• WHAT’S IN THE BOX? – Includes a powerful tow truck with a working crane, a dump truck with boulder cargo, a restraining chain, and 3 tow truck…
• WORK LIKE THE PROS– Kids can deploy stabilizing outriggers, rotate the crane, and use the rear lifting system and winch to load vehicles for…

Each corner anchor houses a small computer, a camera, and a motor that rotates a spool. But the motors work together to share the load, so none of them require a lot of power on their own, and one of the support lines also delivers current down to the gripper, so it never needs a battery. The entire system is always powered up and ready to go, with no need for anyone to swap cells or dock at a charging station.

The gripper features two fingers joined by a four-bar linkage, which allows it to pick up a wide range of things, from a soccer ball to a crumpled up shirt. When the motor opens them wide, the fingers extend in a broad arc. As they close, the motion changes so that they travel parallel to one other, which is ideal for picking up smaller or flatter items such as socks or even a coin. A pressure sensor in one of the fingers alerts the system when it hits anything and then switches control to a basic loop that maintains a constant force rather than simply crushing whatever it is hanging onto. There is also grip tape on the contact surfaces, which provides dependable friction without leaving any sticky residue or causing any harm.

The four anchors contain cameras that provide a 360-degree view of the area while also locating the gripper and any target objects on the floor. Along with this, there are little printed markers that you place in crucial locations, such as the rim of a washing basket, to provide the system with accurate reference points for dropping items. The gripper also includes a camera, a laser distance sensor, and a motion sensor to determine its final approach and assure a secure hold before lifting.

The system was trained using hundreds of real-life household examples, and the model learnt whether forms and textures correspond to toys, clothes, or trash, as well as how to approach each one. All of the processing takes place on a home computer, with no data being sent to outside servers unless the owner chooses to pass some data over for future enhancements. The same arrangement allows you to manually manipulate the item with a gamepad or run fully automatic cycles that last around an hour before returning everything to its resting position.

In the real world, the crane glides across the open space above the furniture with ease, only lowering to catch something. It then rises and carries the load to the appropriate bin. Demonstrations show how it collects scattered laundry or stray toys and neatly places them without bumping against walls or knocking down lamps. Because of their form, flat books occasionally slip through, but most common detritus is easily picked up.
[Source]

Focal did not show the Diva Alta Utopia at High End Vienna 2026. There was no private-room tease, no covered prototype, and not even the usual carefully vague French whisper over espresso that something ruinously expensive was hiding behind the curtain. Same story at AXPONA 2026, although perhaps we should have paid more attention when Focal and Naim suggested that something was coming that would push wireless hi-fi into far more serious territory.

Now we know what that something is: the Focal Diva Alta Utopia, a new flagship wireless loudspeaker system for 2026 and the third model in the company’s rapidly expanding Diva Utopia family. Following the original Diva Utopia in 2024 and the larger Diva Mezza Utopia in 2025, the Diva Alta Utopia takes the same basic promise; a high-end Focal loudspeaker with Naim electronics, streaming, amplification, and system control built in, and pushes it into the kind of price category where most people start checking property taxes.

At $210,000 per pair, the Diva Alta Utopia is not a lifestyle speaker unless your lifestyle involves gated driveways, dedicated listening rooms, and debating whether to turn grandma’s guest room into a pickleball court. But the price also needs some context. A passive Focal/Naim system built around Utopia loudspeakers, high-end Naim amplification, cabling, racks, source components, and proper installation can easily live in the same financial neighborhood.

Looked at that way, the Diva Alta Utopia may be outrageous, but it might also be the cleaner, smarter, and possibly less expensive route in the long run for someone who wants a no-compromise Focal/Naim system without a stack of boxes.

You will still need a turntable. Civilization has limits. Bugger.

Related News:

Directly inspired by Focal’s flagship Grande Utopia EM Evo passive loudspeaker, the Diva Alta Utopia adapts several of its core acoustic ideas for an active wireless platform rather than simply duplicating the passive design. Its architecture includes a four-way driver layout, Focal’s Focus Time technology, fine-tuned filtering, and a new M-profile “W” midrange driver developed for this model. Focal says the Diva Alta Utopia is optimized for rooms ranging from 538 to 1,292 square feet.

Pro Tip: For comparison, the original Diva Utopia is optimized for rooms up to 861 square feet, while the Diva Mezza Utopia is rated for spaces up to 1,076 square feet.

What’s New Inside The Diva Alta Utopia

Although the Diva Alta Utopia draws heavily from its predecessors, it also incorporates new technologies that represent Focal’s most advanced loudspeaker engineering to date.

New PRISM Tweeter: The Diva Alta Utopia introduces a new-generation Focal PRISM tweeter. According to Focal, this tweeter combines a multi-material substrate with an advanced micro-structuring process, delivering greater rigidity than beryllium while maintaining a careful balance of lightness, damping, and rigidity. Developed through a major research program, patented, and manufactured in France, PRISM allows Focal to sculpt tweeter membranes with unprecedented precision. More than 20 years after the introduction of the company’s beryllium tweeter, PRISM marks a major step forward in Focal loudspeaker driver development.

New M-profile “W” Midrange: Previously used primarily in Focal’s Utopia M monitors, the M-profile “W” midrange driver makes its debut in the Diva Utopia range with the Diva Alta Utopia. Focal says the new driver improves midrange precision and transparency, while added carbon reinforcement in the Diva Alta Utopia is designed to push performance even further.

Streaming, Inputs, and High-Resolution Format Support

Beyond its advanced acoustic architecture, the Diva Alta Utopia is designed as a complete Focal/Naim wireless hi-fi system with integrated amplification, streaming, and physical connectivity built in. Inputs include HDMI eARC, optical, RCA, and USB, giving owners the ability to connect a TV, digital source, analog component, or computer without building a traditional rack-based system around the speakers.

Wireless support includes Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2, Google Cast, UPnP, Bluetooth 5.3, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, and QQ Music via QPlay. Bluetooth codec support includes aptX Adaptive, SBC, and AAC.

The Diva Alta Utopia also supports internet radio through HLS, DASH, and OGG streaming containers, with MP3, AAC, Vorbis, and FLAC codec support, along with Icecast, Shoutcast, and Xperi Extended Metadata.

File support is extensive, including WAV, FLAC, AIFF, and ALAC up to 24-bit/384kHz, MP3 and AAC up to 48kHz/320kbps, OGG up to 48kHz, and DSD64/DSD128. Focal also specifies smooth gapless playback across all supported formats.

UWB Inter-Speaker Connection: To simplify setup between the primary and secondary speakers, the Diva Alta Utopia uses Ultra Wideband, or UWB, technology. This allows the two speakers to communicate wirelessly at 96 kHz/24-bit, with no compression, no signal loss, and very low latency.

Pro Tip: For 192 kHz/24-bit playback between the two speakers, Focal provides a wired inter-speaker connection. Wireless UWB tops out at 96 kHz/24-bit.

Control Options: Like its Diva Utopia predecessors, the Diva Alta Utopia can be controlled using the supplied remote, the Focal & Naim app, supported voice assistants including Google Assistant and Siri, and smart home control systems such as Control4, Crestron, Savant, and RTI.

ADAPT Technology: You can have the most luxurious speaker system, but it can’t perform at its best unless the speakers work well with your room. With this in mind, the Diva Utopia wireless speaker line provides the ADAPT room acoustic correction system, incorporating each user’s individual hearing perception.

What’s On The Outside

The Diva Alta Utopia is not only packed with the technology needed for a serious wireless, and wired, high-end listening experience; it is also designed to make a very visible statement in the room.

Focal gives the Diva Alta Utopia sculptural lines, balanced proportions, and a commanding, almost architectural presence. At 58 1/4 x 18 1/8 x 24 3/8 inches, or 148 x 46 x 62 cm, and 236 pounds, or 107 kg, per speaker, this is not a compact lifestyle product pretending to be high-end hi-fi. It is a full-scale luxury loudspeaker system that happens to remove the need for a traditional stack of electronics.

The Diva Alta Utopia also features interchangeable floating side panels, allowing owners to change the speaker’s appearance without altering the speaker itself. Finish options include felt panels in Grey or Ivory, along with lacquer panels in Black High Gloss, Off-White High Gloss, and Dune High Gloss.

Focal has clearly designed the Diva Alta Utopia to elevate both the listening experience and the living space it occupies. Just make sure the living space is ready for a pair of 236-pound French loudspeakers that do not exactly disappear behind a ficus or your collection of Charlotte Gainsbourg records.

Comparison 

Features in Common

• Primary loudspeaker inputs:
  • HDMI eARC, CEC
  • Optical TOSLINK
  • Analogue RCA
  • USB 2.0 Type A
  • RJ45 Ethernet
  • RJ45 Speaker Link
• Secondary loudspeaker:
• Audio formats:
  • WAV, FLAC and AIFF – up to 24 bits/384 kHz
  • ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) – up to 24 bits/384 kHz
  • MP3 – up to 48 kHz/320 kbps (16 bits)
  • AAC – up to 48 kHz/320 kbps (16 bits)
  • OGG and AAC – up to 48kHz (16 bits)
  • DSD64 and DSD128
  • Bluetooth – aptX Adaptive, SBC, AAC
  • Note: support for smooth, continuous playback on all formats
    Multiroom Synchronizes up to 32 Focal & Naim streamers,
    controlled from the Focal & Naim app
• Wireless streaming:
  • AirPlay
  • Google Cast
  • UPnP
  • Bluetooth 5.3
  • Spotify via Spotify Connect
  • TIDAL via TIDAL Connect
  • QQ Music via QPlay
  • Qobuz via Qobuz Connect
• Music streaming services via the Focal & Naim app:
  • TIDAL
  • Qobuz
  • Internet radio
  • Podcasts depend on services available in each country
• Network: Ethernet (1000/100/10 Mbps), Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6)
• Wireless connection: UWB 96kHz/24bits
• Connection with Hi-Res Link: 192kHz/24-bits
• Handheld:
  • Integrated remote control
  • Dedicated control app on iOS and Android
• Remote control: Zigbee

The Bottom Line 

The Focal Diva Alta Utopia is not merely a larger, more expensive version of the Diva Utopia formula. It is Focal and Naim pushing the active wireless loudspeaker concept into true ultra-high-end territory, with a four-way architecture, new PRISM tweeter, new M-profile “W” midrange driver, UWB inter-speaker connectivity, extensive streaming support, and 600 watts of Naim Class A/B amplification inside each speaker.

Based on our experience listening to the earlier Diva Utopia models at recent shows, including AXPONA, the promise here is not theoretical. Those systems filled a large hotel ballroom with surprising ease, even with a crowd in the room and multiple display areas competing for attention. If the Diva Alta Utopia delivers greater dynamic headroom, higher resolution, a larger soundstage, more refined low-end control, and even better midrange presence, it is clearly aimed at larger rooms and buyers who want scale without the traditional tower of electronics.

The earlier models were already as impressive as some of the $250,000 systems we heard at the show, which makes the Alta’s price easier to understand, even if it still requires a very deep wallet and possibly a quick lie-down afterward. How French.

The price might be the hard part. At $210,000 per pair, the Diva Alta Utopia three times than the Diva Mezza Utopia and over five times more than the original Diva Utopia. That puts it in the same conversation as the Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90, not the usual premium wireless speaker category. But a passive Utopia-based Focal system with high-end Naim amplification, source components, cabling, racks, and installation can also become a six-figure exercise very quickly. In that context, the Diva Alta Utopia may be outrageous, but not automatically irrational.

What is missing? Vinyl listeners will still need a turntable and a proper phono stage unless their deck already has one built in. This is also not a replacement for a full multi-channel home theater system, and at 236 pounds per speaker, nobody is casually repositioning them after dinner. The Diva Alta Utopia is for the buyer who wants ultra-high-end Focal/Naim performance without the traditional tower of electronics. Everyone else can admire it from a safe financial distance.

Price & Availability

The Focal Diva Alta Utopia will be available beginning August 2026, exclusively through the Focal Powered by Naim network of authorized retailers for $210,000 USD and $260,000 CAD per pair.

Finishes include grey and ivory felt, three lacquered and varnished finishes, Black High Gloss, Off-White High Gloss, and Dune High Gloss. All finishes are hand-crafted in the Focal Ebénisterie Bourgogne workshop.

The Diva Utopia ($39,000/pair) and Diva Mezza Uptopia ($69,000/pair) are also currently available through Focal Powered by Naim Network and authorized dealers.

Related Reading:

Kodak’s quirky Charmera camera is getting a nostalgic refresh with the new Charmera Millennium Edition.

It swaps the original’s retro disposable-camera styling for a collection of shiny Y2K-inspired designs. These designs look like they came straight from the early 2000s.

The update introduces seven new finishes, all inspired by the technology and aesthetics of the millennium era.

At $34.99/£35, the new models retain the same affordable price point. This helped make the original Charmera a hit among collectors and fans of lo-fi photography.

OS PLaTFORMS

There was a time when Microsoft cared about every KB

Microsoft’s latest Windows update might or might not have improved performance for the company’s flagship operating system, but there was a time when its engineers cared about performance. A lot. 

Veteran Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen on Monday hearked back to that time by telling another war story from the glory days of Windows, when a team was working on an x86-32 emulator for an unnamed processor (though it isn’t particularly difficult to identify potential candidates).

The emulator used binary translation – native code was generated for the original x86-32 code. Chen explained, “This offered a significant performance improvement over emulation via interpreter. You can imagine that x86-32 is just a bytecode, and the emulator is a JIT compiler.”

The team came across a function that needed to allocate 64 KB of memory. Simple enough stuff – check that there is enough memory available, subtract 65536 from the stack pointer, and then initialize the memory in a loop.

Use the comments to correct me, but this sounds like loop rolling, where repetitive code gets condensed into a loop.

However, it appeared that a compiler had … optimized … the code “by unrolling the loop into 65,536 individual ‘write byte to memory’ instructions, each 4 bytes long.”

Perhaps a bit quicker, but goodness – quite the memory hog. “All in all,” wrote Chen, “it took this program 256 kilobytes of code to initialize 64 kilobytes of data.”

Almost like a glimpse into a future where operating systems don’t appear to give two hoots about efficient use of storage. What would that look like?

As for the engineers working on the CPU emulator, Chen said, “This offended the team so much that they added special code to the translator to detect this horrible function and replace it with the equivalent tight loop.”

It would be interesting to know what that same team would make of the internals of some Windows binaries today, but it is heartening to know that, at one point, engineers cared about memory efficiency enough to reroll something. Sure, there might, just might, have been a performance hit, but spitting out 256 KB of code just to initialize 64 KB of data?

Naughty. Very naughty. The much younger version of this hack, optimizing the heck out of code to fit within the confines of computers from yesteryear, would have been horrified. ®