Vehicles long ago began to incorporate electronics and software, to the point that modern vehicles increasingly have a sort of architecture problem. The software end of things evolves ever more rapidly, but vehicles and their centralized architecture are poorly-suited to continuous updates. As a result, the automotive industry is moving away from static, hardware-defined designs and more toward dynamic, software-defined platforms. In short, the era of software-defined vehicles looms nearer every year.
There are very good reasons vehicles are the way they are, however inconvenient it may be for pushing updates. A vehicle may be in service for decades, with safety and reliability a prime concern over that lifetime. Reflecting this, automobiles are built around centralized SoCs (System-on-a-Chip) supported by tried and true components and assemblies. As mentioned, this architecture isn’t terribly well suited to meshing with a rapidly evolving software world that may also have changing computing needs. How can one accommodate this without increasing safety risks?
Some new designs are moving away from monolithic SoCs to more modular systems; ones that can support and optimize safety-critical functions and other workloads independently. Computing requirements are chosen to prioritize consistent performance and low-latency sensor fusion over raw processing power, and modern design focuses less on individual components and more on integrated hardware and software assemblies that ease manufacture and reduce design complexity.
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The main goal is to design vehicles in a way that can more easily take advantage of rapid developments in software and allow easy updates, without compromising safety or reliability. Automakers haven’t completely settled on what architecture will do this best, but the era of software-defined vehicles is certainly coming closer.
America “is facing what’s projected to become the largest labor shortage in its history,” according to experts interviewed by the Washington Post:
Economists warn that the worsening labor problem, due in part to a skills shortage and population shifts, will be vast and reach beyond tech. It “could hobble the American economy for years to come,” predicts the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Lightcast, a labor market data company, calls it “the largest labor shortage the country has ever seen.” JPMorgan Chase warns of a national security risk from “a pervasive talent deficit that constrains the nation’s capacity to build, compete, and protect its interests.” There will be shortages in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of nurses, physicians, teachers, engineers, pharmacists, mental health counselors, construction worker and airplane mechanics — jobs AI generally can’t do…
Among the trends that have been leading to this moment: a mismatch between the careers college graduates are pursuing and the jobs employers are struggling to fill. Far fewer students are majoring in health care fields than are needed to meet demand, for instance. “We have pumped so many young people into business and finance” when what’s really in demand are graduates in other fields, [said Ron Hetrick, Lightcast’s principal economist]. “It’s like a factory producing these workers like widgets, even though society is saying, ‘We really don’t need them.’ And the factory just keeps pumping them out.” But the principal reason for the looming workforce shortages is much more basic. A protracted decline in birth rates is coinciding with a record wave of retirements, data shows.
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From 2024 to 2032, when the last baby boomers sign up for Social Security payments, more than 18 million college-educated workers will leave the labor force while fewer than 14 million enter it, according to the Georgetown center. Meanwhile, even as the number of people with associate and bachelor’s degrees falls, the number of jobs requiring them will grow, the center forecasts. That will leave a gap of 4.6 million workers. Lightcast puts the deficit at an even higher 6 million… The effect of population shifts on the supply of talent, with or without degrees, has been compounded by a drop in the proportion of high school graduates choosing to go to college, a sharply reduced rate of immigration, and a growing number of Americans leaving the workforce altogether because of such issues as lack of child care, early retirement, incarceration and substance addiction, according to the Chamber of Commerce.
Three interesting statistics from the article:
U.S. college/university enrollment in 2023 was down by nearly 2 million students since its peak in 2010, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Education Department.
America’s low birth rate since 2010 “means the number of college-age Americans is forecast to decline by another 13 percent through 2041.”
South Dakota has just 41 workers for every 100 open jobs… while California and nine other states have more workers than jobs, the Chamber of Commerce found.
The AI build-out has done something the fossil-fuel industry could not do for itself. It has set off the largest-ever construction boom in natural gas-fired power plants, the Associated Press reports.
Aging coal plants are being kept alive past their retirement dates too. Utilities, plant owners, and the federal government have all pushed to postpone the shutdowns.
The reason is unglamorous arithmetic. Some data centres consume more electricity than a mid-size city, and wind and solar cannot be built at that speed.
The states drawing lines
Several states are trying to force the issue through law. A bill on New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk would make large data centres hit renewable benchmarks from 2030, reaching at least 90% renewable energy by 2040.
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Its author, state Senator Kristen Gonzalez, thinks the targets are achievable. These are the wealthiest companies on earth, she argued, and firms able to spend billions on data centres can afford to build the power to run them.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
Michigan, Oregon, and Minnesota moved first. All three passed laws in the last 18 months to defend existing commitments to emissions-free electricity by 2040.
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Michigan tied it to money, requiring hyperscale data centres to reach 90% clean energy within six years to keep a lucrative sales tax exemption. Similar bills have appeared in California, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
An honest admission from the other side
The most useful quote in the story is not a triumphant one. Bob Jenks of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board conceded the 2040 target was hard to meet with data centres, and hard to meet without them.
That is the shape of the problem. The clean-energy goal was already stretching, and AI has arrived and pulled it further out of reach.
Unable to outbuild the boom, advocates have gone after the rules instead. The tactic is to get regulators to let large power users build their own clean generation and plug it into the grid.
Colorado ordered Xcel Energy to create such a programme. In an April filing Xcel accepted it could benefit customers, citing Google projects connecting 115 megawatts of geothermal in Nevada and 1,900 megawatts of wind, solar, and storage in Minnesota.
Google’s deal with NV Energy is seen as the first of its kind, and the company says similar arrangements are approved or pending in eight more states. The Corporate Energy Buyers Association struck a comparable deal with Georgia Power and is now working on North Carolina.
The pitch to utilities is commercial, not moral. They gain a huge long-term customer who pays to expand the grid, rather than watching that customer build standalone generation and leave.
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Why this is the real fight
Grid access is where the outcome gets decided, not the legislature. Regulators have been fast-tracking data-centre grid connections, and whoever controls that queue controls what gets built.
CEBA’s policy chief reckons the decisions being taken now will set energy policy for two or three decades. That is probably right, and it is why a technical argument about grid interconnection is worth more attention than it gets.
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The gas plants are being poured in concrete while the rules are still being written. Concrete tends to win those races.
WhatsApp for Windows and Mac lets you access your WhatsApp account from your desktop, with chats synced across your phone and linked devices. You can send messages, share files, make voice and video calls, use Status, and screen share from a larger display.
Download and install WhatsApp on your computer and you’ll also be able to make voice and video calls, and share files with your contacts from your PC and Mac.
Can I use WhatsApp on my computer and phone at the same time?
Yes, WhatsApp Desktop and the web version work as linked devices for your WhatsApp account. You can link up to four devices to your primary phone, including computers, tablets, and companion phones. Messages stay synced across your linked devices, while your primary phone is still used to register your account and add new devices.
What happens if my phone is offline?
You only need your phone to be online when you register WhatsApp for the first time or pair new devices. After signing up, your phone doesn’t need to stay online to use WhatsApp on linked devices, but your linked devices will go offline if you don’t use your phone for more than 14 days.
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Can I use WhatsApp without sharing my phone number?
WhatsApp is rolling out usernames, which will eventually let people contact you without seeing your phone number. This feature is still rolling out. WhatsApp says there will be no public username directory, and people will need to know your exact username to contact you.
Why use WhatsApp on Windows/Mac?
Using WhatsApp on a computer is very useful if you prefer to have a larger screen for messaging, the ability to multitask while still being able to message on WhatsApp, and the ability to send and receive messages even when your phone is not nearby are some of the key benefits. Additionally, it can be more convenient to type on a physical keyboard rather than a small touch screen.
Can I make video calls using WhatsApp Desktop?
Yes. The desktop app supports voice and video calls, including group calls. Calls are end-to-end encrypted, and you can use your computer’s webcam and microphone, speakers, or headset. WhatsApp has supported group video calls with up to 8 people and audio calls with up to 32 people on desktop.
Is WhatsApp secure?
WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption as a default for all private communication, this includes messages and calls, group and one-on-one chats as well as any photos or files you send. However, WhatsApp is owned by Meta which makes many wonder about privacy. More security-conscious users often prefer to use Signal or Telegram for sharing personal or sensitive information.
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You can use up to four linked devices and one phone at a time. Each linked device connects to WhatsApp independently while maintaining the same level of privacy and security through end-to-end encryption.
Your phone doesn’t need to stay online to use WhatsApp on linked devices, but your linked devices will be logged out if you don’t use your phone for over 14 days.
With WhatsApp Desktop, you can seamlessly sync all of your chats to your computer so that you can chat on whatever device is most convenient for you.
Security by Default
Some of your most personal moments are shared on WhatsApp, which is why we built end-to-end encryption into the latest versions of our app. When end-to-end encrypted, your messages and calls are secured so only you and the person you’re communicating with can read or listen to them, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp.
Desktop calling
You can make free voice and video calls to your contacts on WhatsApp Desktop if you have the app installed on your computer.
What’s New
It’s time to reserve your WhatsApp username
When someone new walks into your life – a classmate, a neighbor, someone you meet at an event – sharing a phone number can feel like a big step. That’s because a phone number is personal and it’s tied to so many parts of your life. Sometimes you just want to chat without handing over your digits.
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This is also true for group conversations. You want to join the parent chat for the soccer team but you’re not ready to give your phone number to people you’ve never met.
That’s why we’re introducing usernames for WhatsApp. Starting this week, you can reserve a username to use later this year when we launch this feature. With over three billion people on WhatsApp a lot of names overlap, which is why we’re opening reservations early so everyone has the opportunity to select the username that matters to them.
For most people, choosing a WhatsApp username should be something unique that only people you want to contact you will know. If you need help picking one, we have a username generator to make one work just for you.
We also know that some people like creators, small businesses, and organizations may want to maintain a consistent presence online. For them, we reserved an option to claim their existing Instagram or Facebook username on WhatsApp.
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Usernames are our latest step to make WhatsApp even more private. There’s no directory to browse and no suggestions – people will need to know your exact username to contact you for the first time. To help control who can reach you on WhatsApp with your username, we’ve built an optional username key that others will need to know to message you.
Once we launch usernames, when you message a person or business for the first time they will no longer see your phone number, if you enabled your username.
Reserving your optional username takes just a few seconds on the latest version of WhatsApp – go to Settings > Account > Username.
We’ll be rolling out usernames gradually over the coming months and will notify you in WhatsApp when they’re available in your country.
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Introducing Incognito Chat with Meta AI: A completely private way to chat with AI
Chatting with AI has quickly become a critical part of how people get information and ask important questions. And many of these questions can be deeply sensitive, or include situations where people are including private financial, personal, health or work data with their questions.
Ten years ago we brought the world end-to-end encryption and now we are extending this privacy to chats with Meta AI.
Today we’re launching Incognito Chat with Meta AI, a new way to have completely private conversations with AI. Built on top of our Private Processing technology, Incognito Chat lets you talk to Meta AI in a way that is invisible to anyone else.
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Other apps have introduced incognito-style modes, but they can still see the questions coming in and the answers going out. Incognito Chat with Meta AI is truly private – no one can read your conversation, not even us.
Since we started exploring bringing AI to WhatsApp, we’ve been focused on how to deliver this power privately, at a global scale.
When you start an Incognito Chat with Meta AI, you’re creating a private, temporary conversation that only you can see. Your messages are processed in a secure environment that even Meta cannot access. Your conversations are not saved and by default, your messages disappear – giving you a space to think and explore ideas without anyone watching.
We believe this private way of chatting has potential to be part of several ways people chat with AI on WhatsApp. In the coming months, we’ll also introduce Side Chat protected by Private Processing. Side Chat with Meta AI will give you private help with any chat, with context of what’s being discussed, without disrupting the main conversation.
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We remain committed to delivering privacy for the world. Incognito Chat with Meta AI is rolling out on WhatsApp and the Meta AI app over the coming months. You can learn more about how Incognito Chat with Meta AI works here.
New Feature Roundup: Free up space, multiple accounts, cross-platform transfer and more
Over time, our chats become a record of the moments that matter: conversations with family, laughs with friends, the photos and videos we couldn’t stop sharing. To help you make the most of all of it, we’re rolling out new ways to make WhatsApp even easier to use – whether you’re staying organized, juggling work and personal, or getting more out of every chat.
Free up space, keep what matters: As your chats fill up, so can the clutter. Now you can find and delete large files directly within any chat, so you can clear what you don’t need without wiping your entire conversation. Simply tap the chat name and select Manage Storage. You can also choose to clear just media files when clearing a chat – keeping your chat history intact.
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Cross-platform chat transfer made easy: Our chat transfer feature now supports moving your chat history from iOS to Android, in addition to within the same platform. Changing phones shouldn’t be complicated. Now, with just a couple taps, your conversations, photos, and videos easily come with you.
Two accounts, one phone – now on iOS: You can now have two WhatsApp accounts logged in at the same time on iOS – just like on Android. No more carrying two phones to keep work and personal separate. You’ll always know which account you’re in because your profile picture will now be visible in the bottom tab.
Stickers that match your mood: Stickers can bring bigger, bolder expressions to your chats – and now WhatsApp will make it easier to use them by suggesting them as you type emojis. With just a tap, you can swap an emoji for a sticker that captures exactly how you’re feeling.
Photo touch-ups with Meta AI: You can now use Meta AI to touch up photos directly in your chat before sending, making it easy to remove something distracting, swap in a new background, or apply a fun style. Meta AI features may not be available to all users.
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AI Writing Help is even more useful: Writing Help can now draft a suggested response based on your conversation, so you can get your message just right – all while keeping your chats completely private.
Introducing parent-managed accounts on WhatsApp
WhatsApp is the trusted way families communicate because it’s simple, private, and reliable. With input from families and experts, we’re rolling out new parent-managed accounts that allow parents or guardians to set up WhatsApp for pre-teens, with new controls to limit their WhatsApp experience to messaging and calling.
To begin, parents will need the phone they have bought for their family member and their own device, side by side to link their accounts. Once set up, these accounts are controlled by the parent or guardian who will be able to decide who can contact the account and which groups they can join. In addition, parents can review message requests from unknown contacts and manage the account’s privacy settings.
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The new parental controls and settings are gated by a parent PIN on the managed device. Only parents can access and change privacy settings, ensuring they are empowered to tailor their family’s experience.
All personal conversations remain private and protected with end-to-end encryption, meaning no one – not even WhatsApp – can see or hear them. We’re providing more tools and insights for parents, particularly around groups, which you can learn more about here.
WhatsApp is already an important part of family life – whether updating extended family on big milestones, keeping up with after school plans or just letting loved ones know you’re home safe. As we gradually roll out parent-managed accounts over the coming months, we look forward to getting your feedback so we can continue building WhatsApp to provide the safest and most private way for families to connect.
At WhatsApp, we think you should be able to have a private conversation online, just like you would in-person. We will always defend that right to privacy for everyone, starting with default end-to-end encryption. But we also know that a few of our users – like journalists or public-facing figures – may need extreme safeguards against rare and highly-sophisticated cyber attacks.
That’s why today we’re announcing a new, lockdown-style feature called Strict Account Settings.
If you turn this on, certain account settings will lock to the most restrictive settings, and it will limit how your WhatsApp works in some ways, like blocking attachments and media from people not in your contacts. You can enable Strict Account Settings – which is rolling out gradually over the coming weeks – by going to Settings > Privacy > Advanced.
Strict Account Settings is one of many ways we’re working to protect you from the most sophisticated of cyber threats. We’ve also rolled out a programming language called Rust behind the scenes to help keep your photos, videos, and messages safe from things like spyware, so you can share and chat with confidence. To go deeper in the tech, click here.
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Level Up Your WhatsApp Group Chats With New Member Tags, Text Stickers, and More
It’s a new year and a great time for some upgrades to your group chats. Group chats on WhatsApp make it easier to stay connected with the people in your life no matter what device they own – whether it’s sharing New Year’s resolutions, preparing for that special celebration you have coming up, or planning to win your football league.
Today, we’re introducing new features that make staying connected and expressing yourself in group chats even better.
Member tags: We all wear different hats and sometimes you want to give that more context in a group chat. Now you can give yourself a tag that tells the group what your role is, and can be customized for each group you’re in. So you can be “Anna’s Dad” in one group, and “Goalkeeper” in another.
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Text stickers: For the messages you want to really stand out, you can now turn any word into a sticker by typing your text into Sticker Search. You can also add newly created stickers directly to your sticker packs instead of having to send them in a chat first.
Event reminders: Now when you create and send an event in your group chat you can set custom early reminders for your invitees. This helps everyone remember to commute to the party you’re hosting or hop on the call at the right time, depending on the event type.
These new updates join a bunch of great features we’ve launched over the years to bring groups closer together – like sharing large files up to 2GB, HD media, screen sharing, voice chats, and more. We believe WhatsApp offers the best group chat experience, and we’re committed to making it even better.
Get the Tone of Your Message Right with Private Writing Help
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Sometimes you know what you want to say, but just need a little help with how to say it.
That’s why today we’re introducing Writing Help. It’s our latest AI feature powered by Private Processing that keeps your messages completely private. You can review the suggestions from AI in various styles such as professional, funny, or supportive that you can select or continue editing to deliver that perfect message.
To use Writing Help, just start drafting your message in a 1:1 or group chat, and tap the new pencil icon.
Is this really private?
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Yes. Writing Help is built on top of Private Processing technology, which allows you to leverage Meta AI to generate a response without Meta or WhatsApp ever reading your message or the suggested re-writes.
For those interested in learning more about the technical details behind Private Processing, we invite you to read our engineering blog and technical white paper that explains how this and other features we’re building work. From the start, we worked with our peers in the security community to stress-test and validate the architecture of Private Processing to help us continue to harden it. Today, independent researchers at NCC Group and Trail of Bits published their audit reports on the steps we’ve taken to evolve this privacy-preserving technology.
As always, we believe that you should be in control of your experience on WhatsApp. That’s why using Private Processing features like Writing Help and Message Summaries are optional and are off by default.
Writing Help is rolling out in the English language, starting with the United States and several other countries. We hope to bring it to other languages and countries later this year.
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New Feature Roundup: Missed call messages, new Status stickers and more
We’re introducing another bundle of features just in time for the holidays. This edition is packed with exciting new updates including missed call messages, fun Status stickers, improved Meta AI image generation, and more – making it easier than ever to connect with those who matter most.
Calls
Missed call messages: The holidays are a busy time packed with catching up with loved ones and sometimes you may not catch someone right away. If they don’t answer, you can now record a voice or video note, depending on the call type, in one tap for them to listen to later. This new approach will make voicemails a thing of the past.
Reactions in voice chats: Voice chats help you quickly shift between messaging and talking live without ringing the whole group. Now you can react during a voice chat, so you can share a quick ‘cheers!’ without interrupting the conversation.
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Group call speaker spotlight: On video calls, the speaker is automatically prioritized to help you easily follow along.
Chats
Meta AI image creation improvements: Meta AI has delivered new image generation model capabilities from Midjourney and Flux on WhatsApp so you’ll notice huge improvements when creating annual holiday greetings to share in your chats or status.
Animate your images with Meta AI: You can now animate any photo into a short video to add more fun and festivity in chats or to your status.
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New media tab on desktop: Search for your documents, links, and media across chats all in one organized place – so it’s easier to find files and get more done faster on Mac, Windows and Web.
Cleaner link previews: We’ve improved the look of link previews, streamlining long URL links to avoid disrupting the chat and keep the conversation flowing.
The French have never suffered from a shortage of self-confidence. Their cars, cinema, food, and hi-fi tend to arrive with a point of view, and the Advance Paris A10 Classic is no exception. With illuminated VU meters, two ECC81/12AT7 tubes glowing behind its front panel, and a Class AB output stage rated at 130 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 190 watts into 4 ohms, it looks less like another anonymous black box and more like something intended to command the room. This is not amplification for the light and fluffy croissant crowd.
The A10 Classic is not a new integrated amplifier. It has been part of the Advance Paris lineup for several years, preceding both the company’s anniversary APEX models and the flagship NOVA electronics that we experienced at AXPONA 2026. That does not make it irrelevant. If anything, the A10 Classic helps explain how Advance Paris arrived at its current formula: bold industrial design, tubes where they can influence the character of the presentation, solid-state output stages where current and control matter, and enough connectivity to anchor an entire two-channel system.
Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 at AXPONA 2026
At AXPONA, Advance Paris placed the spotlight on the NOVA A-i130 and A-i190 integrated amplifiers, which push that concept further with DSP, more sophisticated subwoofer management, modular streaming, and optional bi-directional Bluetooth. The A-i190 was one of our Best in Show selections because it balanced vintage-inspired styling with genuinely useful system flexibility and a surprising amount of power driving a pair of Vienna Acoustics floor standing loudspeakers. The A10 Classic is a simpler and older interpretation of that philosophy, but the family resemblance is unmistakable.
Its continued relevance also says something about why integrated amplifiers have become so popular. Listeners increasingly want fewer boxes, but they are not necessarily willing to surrender vinyl playback, digital inputs, television connectivity, subwoofer support, or enough power to drive demanding loudspeakers.
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On paper, that promises some of the tonal body associated with tubes, the control and current delivery of transistors, and enough flexibility to replace several separate components. The newer NOVA models may represent where Advance Paris is going, but the A10 Classic reveals a great deal about how the company got there. The question is whether all that established French muscle still delivers sufficient finesse or merely a very convincing accent.
Related Reviews:
From Jadis Romance to Advance Paris Muscle
There was a time when French hi-fi had a fairly recognizable personality. The better examples from Jadis and YBA could sound delicate, spacious, and beautifully saturated through the midrange, with a sweet top end that made strings and vocals especially inviting. The trade-off was sometimes a slight softening of low-level detail and bass that emphasized warmth and texture over speed or absolute control. Think red Burgundy rather than a chilled Sancerre: richer, rounder, and not especially interested in showing you every sharp edge.
It also reminded me of driving around Paris in an old Citroën with my cousin, who worked as a researcher at the Institut Pasteur. The car’s famously compliant suspension floated over damaged pavement and insulated us from nearly everything happening beneath the tires. It was wonderfully comfortable, but you did not always receive a detailed report from the road. Some older French amplifiers could behave the same way, smoothing over rough recordings and delivering a more romantic presentation while sacrificing a little grip, transparency, and bottom-end precision.
The newer French approach is rather different, although Devialet and Advance Paris do not arrive there by the same technical route. Devialet’s patented ADH architecture operates its Class A analog and Class D switching amplifiers simultaneously in parallel. The Class A section determines the output voltage but is relieved of supplying the corresponding current; the Class D stage provides that current and performs most of the heavy lifting. The objective is to preserve the linearity of Class A while gaining the power density, efficiency, and loudspeaker control of Class D. It is considerably more sophisticated than placing two different amplification technologies in consecutive stages.
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Advance Paris A10 Classic
The A10 Classic follows a more conventional, and arguably more serviceable, division of labor. Its ECC81/12AT7 tubes operate in the preamplifier stage, where they handle the low-level signal before passing it to a Class AB push-pull transistor output section. The tubes are therefore not driving the loudspeakers or sharing output duties with the transistors; they are used upstream, where they can influence gain structure and tonal character, while the solid-state section supplies the current, control, and 130 watts per channel into 8 ohms. It is hybrid amplification in series rather than Devialet’s parallel ADH topology, and the distinction matters.
Which approach is superior? That depends on whether you prioritize tonal beauty and forgiveness or speed, resolution, control, and system flexibility. Having owned both Jadis and YBA components, I understand the attraction of the older school. I also experienced enough operational eccentricity to distinguish charmingly French from utterly weird. There is quirky, and then there is wondering whether your amplifier has decided that electrical consistency is merely an Anglo-Saxon suggestion. I have been there. I will not be going back.
As this is being written, France are two victories away from winning the 2026 World Cup and will face Spain in the semifinal on July 14. Their attacking group of Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise, and Bradley Barcola has been dangerous not simply because of its pace, but because it understands when to press, when to create space, and when to strike. France reached the semifinal after beating Morocco 2–0, with Mbappé and Dembélé supplying the goals.
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The A10 Classic leans much closer to that newer French philosophy. It is forceful, quick, and capable of delivering genuine low-frequency authority, but its tube preamplifier stage keeps it from becoming sterile or relentlessly clinical. It retains some of the tonal color associated with the older French school while providing the control, power, build quality, and day-to-day reliability that I would now demand from an integrated amplifier. The older approach could be seductive. The A10 Classic is more interested in winning the match.
The A10 Classic is less Cyrano and more Nikita: unmistakably French, outwardly stylish, and capable of delivering considerably more force than its polished appearance suggests.
Technology and Specifications
The A10 Classic is designed as the center of a serious two-channel system rather than another amplifier pretending to be a tablet. It delivers 130 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 190 watts into 4 ohms, with a High Bias setting that increases the standing bias of the output stage for the first few watts. Advance Paris does not publish the precise Class A operating range, but it definitely results in a warmer top panel.
The amplifier also requires approximately 30 seconds to warm its two ECC81/12AT7 tubes after startup, with a countdown displayed on the front panel before operation begins. High Bias mode produces additional heat, so placement matters: Advance Paris recommends at least 50 mm, or 2 inches, of clearance on each side and 100 mm, or 3.9 inches, above the chassis. This is not an amplifier to bury inside a tightly packed cabinet beneath a cable box and three years of unopened mail.
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Its analog connectivity is unusually comprehensive. Five line-level RCA inputs are joined by a balanced XLR input and an MM phono stage with selectable capacitance settings of 100, 200, or 320 pF. The phono input does not support moving-coil cartridges, but the adjustable capacitance makes it more useful than the fixed MM stages fitted to many integrated amplifiers.
Pre-out and amp-in connections allow the two sections to be separated, while a fixed record output, two mono subwoofer outputs, two switchable speaker zones, a trigger connection, and a front-panel headphone jack cover most conventional system requirements.
The digital section is built around an ESS9018 DAC and includes three optical inputs, one coaxial input, USB-B for computer audio, USB-A for MP3 playback, HDMI ARC for a television, and a second HDMI audio input for a compatible source. USB-B supports PCM up to 32-bit/384 kHz and DSD256 through DoP; coaxial reaches 24-bit/192 kHz and optical is limited to 24-bit/96 kHz. Bluetooth is optional through Advance Paris’s X-FTB01 aptX or X-FTB02 aptX HD module rather than being built into the amplifier.
There is no Wi-Fi, Ethernet, native streaming platform, app control, room correction, moving-coil phono stage, or HDMI eARC. The subwoofer outputs also lack adjustable crossover, high-pass filtering, and time alignment, so bass management remains the responsibility of the subwoofer. The HDMI inputs provide a convenient route for stereo television and source audio, but the A10 Classic is not an AV receiver and Advance Paris does not document Dolby or DTS decoding. Its appeal is hardware longevity: add the streamer of your choice today and replace that source when the software industry moves the goalposts again.
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Advance Paris A10 Classic Specifications
Type: Hybrid stereo integrated amplifier
Tubes: 2 x ECC81/12AT7 in the preamplifier stage
Power output:
130 watts per channel into 8 ohms
190 watts per channel into 4 ohms
Amplification: Class AB with switchable High Bias mode
DAC: ESS9018
Analog inputs: 5 x stereo RCA, 1 x balanced XLR
Phono: MM; 47 kΩ; 100, 200, or 320 pF capacitance
Digital inputs: 3 x optical, 1 x coaxial, USB-B, USB-A, HDMI ARC, HDMI Audio In
Maximum digital resolution: PCM 32-bit/384 kHz and DSD256 via USB-B
Bluetooth: Optional aptX or aptX HD module
Outputs: Pre-out, amp-in, fixed record out, 2 x mono subwoofer, Speaker A/B, headphone, trigger
Frequency response: 20 Hz to 80 kHz, ±3 dB
Dimensions (W x H x D): 430 x 175 x 385 mm (16.9 x 6.9 x 15.2 inches)
Weight: 14.5 kg / 32 pounds
Listening
I have lived with the Cambridge Audio Edge A integrated amplifier for close to five years, and at no point have I felt any desire to replace it. It has been consistently reliable, is built to an exceptionally high standard, remains relatively cool even when driven hard, looks appropriately substantial, and can power a wide range of loudspeakers without sounding strained. More importantly, it continues to sound excellent.
In several respects, the Advance Paris A10 Classic feels like a distinctly French interpretation of the same basic idea: a powerful, full-featured integrated amplifier designed to serve as the foundation of a serious two-channel system. For this review, I used it with the Q Acoustics 5040, Magnepan LRS, Acoustic Energy AE100 MK2, Wharfedale Diamond 12.3, and Wharfedale Super Denton loudspeakers.
The analog front end included Thorens turntables fitted with cartridges from Ortofon, Goldring, and Sumiko, while network playback was handled by components from Bluesound, WiiM, and Cambridge Audio. System cabling came from Advance Paris, QED, Analysis Plus, and Clarus Audio.
Anyone expecting the A10 Classic’s tubes to produce a soft, velvety, or overtly romantic tonal balance should think again. The amplifier sounds comparatively linear, with good control, clarity, and extension at both ends of the frequency range. The tubes contribute additional texture, prevent the presentation from becoming sterile, and give instruments greater body and dimensionality, but they do not dominate the amplifier’s overall character.
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Think of it as a very French friends-with-benefits arrangement with Léa Seydoux: sophisticated, textured, and never overplayed, provided you remember the galette, carrot salad, and a bottle of wine good enough to avoid ending the relationship.
As much as I love the Magnepan LRS, they need an amplifier with more than an impressive power rating on paper. Their 4-ohm impedance and relatively low 86 dB sensitivity place greater demands on current delivery as playback levels increase, even though their largely resistive load is easier to manage than the severe impedance swings presented by some conventional loudspeakers.
It has always seemed slightly unusual that my Schiit Ragnarok 2 drives them as well as it does. Its 100-watt-per-channel rating into 4 ohms is hardly excessive by modern standards, but it remains composed and sounds convincing as long as I am prepared to push the volume control farther than usual. The Cambridge Audio Edge A drives the LRS with considerably less apparent effort, and the A10 Classic proved similarly comfortable with them.
Advance Paris A10 Classic (off)
The Advance Paris added greater texture, firmer control through the upper bass, and more tonal color than I generally hear from the LRS with the Ragnarok 2. Nobody buys these loudspeakers for subterranean bass; their specified response begins at 50 Hz (which I think I think is being overly generous) but the A10 Classic gave what was available more shape, weight, and definition. I like color in my food, music, movies, and, yes, in the women who have tolerated me. The A10 Classic understood the assignment.
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Nick Cave’s “Avalanche” and “Comancheria,” the latter from his and Warren Ellis’s superb score for Hell or High Water, require an amplifier capable of reproducing tonal weight without sacrificing speed or clarity. “Avalanche,” in particular, depends heavily on the physical presence of Cave’s piano. If the notes lack body, resonance, and convincing decay, the performance loses much of its impact, darkness, and emotional weight.
The A10 Classic got all of this right. Piano notes arrived with the necessary mass and initial attack, followed by a natural sense of resonance and decay rather than disappearing abruptly or lingering without definition. “Comancheria” was equally convincing, with the amplifier preserving the score’s tension, space, and low-level texture without making it sound overly polished.
Cave’s voice on “Avalanche” is an equally important test. Some amplifiers smooth over its rough edges and diminish the authority of the performance. That is simply wrong. His delivery needs to sound gravelly, bold, and unsettling, or much of the song’s character disappears. The A10 Classic retained that texture while keeping the vocal clear and intelligible, demonstrating that its strong tonal density does not come at the expense of transparency.
Three very different tracks highlighted two of the A10 Classic’s strongest qualities: its ability to give voices convincing body and texture, and its refusal to sound slow when the music becomes more rhythmically or dynamically demanding.
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Jonatan Alvarado’s “Amargura (El Floridense)” has a more ethereal presentation, with his voice floating within a spacious and carefully recorded acoustic. Through both the Magnepan LRS and Q Acoustics 5040, the A10 Classic gave his vocal greater fullness and dimensionality without making it sound heavy or overly forward. The soundstage extended almost wall to wall, which was impressive for me and considerably less appreciated by the rest of the house.
Kefaya and Elaha Soroor’s “Gole Be Khar” and “Jama Narenji,” from Songs of Our Mothers, were a completely different proposition. Soroor’s voice comes at you with far more weight and authority, and the arrangements are packed with percussion, strings, and shifting textures that can turn into a traffic jam through a slower amplifier.
The A10 Classic never lost its footing. It kept Soroor firmly in the center, let the instruments breathe around her, and gave the music the pace and muscle it needed without blurring everything together. This is not an amplifier that moves through dense material in soft shoes. It can get up and go.
Electronic music has become more of a thing for me with age. I know. Act my age. Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Boards of Canada, deadmau5, and Aphex Twin all need an amplifier with a firm bottom end, but also enough definition to make the bass lines easy to follow. Synths need pace, space, and real energy through the midrange and top end. Nothing kills this kind of music faster than flat, lifeless synthesizers.
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The A10 Classic handled all of this rather well. Bass had grip and definition, the soundstage remained open as the mixes became denser, and it never sounded slow or congested. It did not have quite the same low-end impact or midrange punch as the Cambridge Audio Edge A, but we are also talking about an amplifier that costs roughly twice as much. Getting about 90 percent of the way there for a lot less money is nothing to sneeze at.
I have heard amplifiers deliver more decay and considerably more top-end sizzle. The latter is often passed off as “more detail,” which can sound impressive for the first 15 minutes and increasingly unbearable after that, especially with speakers that already lean bright. The A10 Classic does not make that mistake. It has enough energy and clarity to keep electronic music lively, but it knows when to stop thinking you are at some rave in a dingy warehouse in Porte de la Villette.
Restraint is probably the wrong word. Control feels more accurate. My French teacher once suggested that restraints might be required when I was a child, but that is an entirely different conversation. The A10 Classic sounds confident with almost every genre of music without trying to dominate the recording.
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The MM Phono Stage Is No Afterthought
It would have been useful for the A10 Classic to include moving-coil support, but its MM phono stage is no slouch. It was quiet with the Ortofon, Goldring, and Sumiko cartridges used during the review, and offered good clarity, tonal weight, and texture without sounding overly warm or soft.
Advance Paris specifies a 47-kilohm input impedance, 2.5 mV sensitivity, and selectable capacitance of 100, 200, or 320 pF. The company does not publish a gain figure, RIAA accuracy, overload margin, or phono-specific signal-to-noise ratio.
A better external phono stage will deliver more space, detail, and dynamic contrast, but most MM users will not feel pressured to upgrade immediately.
The Bottom Line
The Advance Paris A10 Classic stands out because it combines real power, extensive analog and digital connectivity, and a tube preamplifier stage without turning into either a soft-sounding nostalgia piece or a software-dependent lifestyle product. It sounds linear, confident, and controlled, but the tubes add enough texture, body, and tonal color to keep instruments and voices from becoming sterile. It can also drive a wide range of loudspeakers, including the current-hungry Magnepan LRS, without losing its composure.
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It is not fully equipped for every modern system. The phono stage supports moving-magnet cartridges but not moving-coil designs. Bluetooth requires an optional module, and there is no built-in Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or native streaming platform. The two subwoofer outputs are useful, but there is no adjustable crossover, high-pass filtering, room correction, or more advanced bass management. Buyers looking for an all-in-one streaming amplifier may find those omissions significant.
The A10 Classic is for listeners who want one substantial integrated amplifier to handle vinyl, digital sources, television audio, external streamers, headphones, and demanding loudspeakers without becoming obsolete when the next streaming platform changes direction. It offers much of the authority and refinement of more expensive integrated amplifiers while retaining a distinct tonal personality of its own.
An Editor’s Choice recommendation? Mais oui—and bring the good Bordeaux, not the bottle you use for cooking.
Pros:
Powerful, stable Class AB amplification
Tube preamplifier stage adds texture and body without excessive warmth
Strong bass control and consistently clear midrange
Drives a wide range of loudspeakers with confidence
Excellent analog and digital connectivity
Adjustable MM phono stage is quiet and genuinely useful
HDMI ARC and separate pre-out/amp-in connections
Substantial build quality and distinctive industrial design
Strong value compared with more expensive integrated amplifiers
Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Cat-lovers, today’s NYT Connections puzzle is purr-fect for us. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Get caught up on the latest technology and startup news from the past week. Here are the most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of July 5, 2026.
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Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
In March, Bluesky’s longtime CEO, Jay Graber, stepped down from that role to become its chief innovation officer. Graber was immediately succeeded by Toni Schneider, the founding CEO of Automattic, which is the company behind WordPress and Tumblr.
Schneider, who has led the company as interim CEO for the past four months, is now dropping the “interim” status and becoming its permanent chief executive.
“I’m four months into my interim CEO role at Bluesky, and it’s time for an update,” Schneider wrote on his personal blog. “Most importantly, as of today, the interim part of the title is gone. I’m loving the mission and the job, and I’m all in as Bluesky’s official CEO.”
In the post, Schneider said that one of his first orders of business is to “create smaller spaces and more private communities,” which he said would “unlock the next wave of growth and innovation.”
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Automattic and True Ventures, which is a venture capital firm where Schneider is a partner, are both investors in Bluesky.
Bluesky, which was originally spun off from Twitter, became a haven for those who wished to avoid the changes Elon Musk brought to the platform after he took it over in 2022 (the site was eventually renamed X and now it is a subsidiary of Musk’s combination rocket and AI company, SpaceXAI).
Under Graber, the site grew to 43 million users, while the site’s underlying technology, the AT Protocol — a system that lets Bluesky and other apps share the same social network — was significantly expanded.
Lately, though, the site has struggled to retain or grow its user base. Some have questioned whether it is dying — pointing to apparent declines in both engagement and its overall community of users. Bluesky saw a sharp rise in users in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election (when Elon Musk was most active in politics), but the site appears to have seen a drop-off since then.
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In short: Schneider will have his work cut out for him. He seems game for it, though. “We’re at the very beginning of this story,” he wrote Friday.
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While smart TVs have become the standard for households across the U.S., some people prefer to stick to regular models, or “dumb” TVs. But there are ways to turn an old dumb TV into a smart TV and one of the most popular solutions is the Roku streaming stick. Because there are so many streaming options out there, it’s worth looking at what Roku offers and if it still stands out among the rest.
Roku streaming players start at a very affordable $29.99, making it an appealing option if you want to upgrade without having to replace your existing TV. Roku is also easy to set up, along with thousands of apps that cover everything from sports to news and more, including the best TV streaming apps. Certain models also have handy features like voice search, customizable recommendations, and support for casting from other devices. Independent testing and reviews continue to place Roku among the top streaming devices available in 2026.
But Roku is changing how the platform works, with a bigger focus on advertising and personalized recommendations. While Roku says these changes make it easier for viewers to find content, the increased ad presence has negatively impacted the streaming experience for some consumers. Roku owners have complained about hardware reliability and customer service as well, creating frustration for some long-time users. In the end, Roku is still worth buying for its value and capability, but it’s important to understand the trade-offs before making that purchase.
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The next era of Roku streaming
Tada Images/Shutterstock
The future of Roku streaming may look very different after Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of the company. The deal was announced in June of 2026, and it’s expected to bring together Fox’s live sports, news, and entertainment content with the Roku streaming platform, the Roku Channel, and connected TV technology. Both companies state their merger will create a larger media platform, with access to over 100 million global streaming households. Advertising and content distribution opportunities are both expected to expand as a result.
The acquisition could also change how Roku users interact with the platform moving forward. While Roku and Fox have both said the service will remain open to other partners, the deal gives Fox control over both produced content and the platform itself. This could possibly lead to deeper integration between the two companies, including changes to content recommendations or app placement. However, the full impact of this merger will likely not be felt until everything is finalized.
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In terms of what Roku users should expect in the short-term, the deal is not expected to close until 2027. This means that current devices should continue to operate normally, at least for now. But once the merger is finalized, the most obvious way to know if changes have been implemented is through the home screen. If Fox takes more real estate on the screen, or if advertising expands beyond what it is now, it could be due to the new deal.
[Irving John Good] was at Trinity College, Oxford back in 1964. His paper, “Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine” could have been a topic for today, as we deal with machines that aren’t really ultraintelligent, but appear smart and think they are even smarter. He starts off with a bold thesis: “The survival of man depends on the early construction of an ultraintelligent machine.”
He also admits that we’ll need to understand more about the human brain and human thought to make a breakthrough. This is still true today. However, we still don’t fully understand how our brains work, but it seems unlikely that we are just super-large LLMs. Not that [Good] anticipated the modern chatbot. Perhaps his comments will apply more to a future AI software that actually thinks like a human, if there will ever be such a thing.
Then again, there are many parallels. One theme in the paper is that a smart machine will design a smarter machine. Unless, of course, it is afraid of being replaced. If a machine were actually sentient, what are the ethics of turning it off and tearing it apart?
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It is hard to be a visionary. [Good] remarks that by 1980, progress in human/computer symbiosis will encourage more investment in the field and that by that time, there would be “great advances in microminiaturization” and “frequencies of one billion pulses per second,” might be common in “large computers.”
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