Sony is refreshing the more affordable end of its wireless headphone lineup. The company has launched the WH-CH730N and WH-CH530, successors to the WH-CH720N and WH-CH520 respectively.
We first heard about both headphones in July, when import documents revealed their model numbers and several expected colors. At the time, there was no information about battery life, audio upgrades, or connectivity changes. Now Sony has filled in those blanks.
The WH-CH730N offers up to 50 hours of battery life with noise cancellation switched on and as much as 75 hours without it. Its predecessor topped out at 35 hours, so Sony has made a sizeable improvement here.
Sony has also added a foldable design while keeping the weight at about 207 grams. Dual Noise Sensor technology handles ANC, while Ambient Sound, which is what Sony calls its transparency mode, can be adjusted across 20 levels. Adaptive Sound Control can also change those settings based on where the headphones are being used.
Sound customization includes DSEE, a 10-band equalizer, Game EQ presets, and 360 Reality Audio. Bluetooth 6.0, LE Audio, Auracast, multipoint, Fast Pair, and Swift Pair are also supported. Call quality gets some attention too. Precise Voice Pickup uses beamforming microphones and AI processing to isolate the wearer’s voice, while a redesigned microphone structure helps cut wind noise.
The WH-CH530 remains an on-ear pair without active noise cancellation. Battery life rises from 50 hours on the WH-CH520 to 55 hours, while a three-minute charge provides up to 1.5 hours of playback. The older model already offered multipoint, EQ controls, DSEE, and the same quick-charge figure.
Sony has added Bluetooth 6.0, LE Audio, Auracast, a 10-band EQ, Game EQ, and AI-based noise reduction for calls. The headphones weigh about 150 grams and come in Black, Cobalt, Mint, White, Pink, and Coral.
The WH-CH730N costs $179.99, while the WH-CH530 comes in at $69.99. Both are available from September through Sony, Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers. Oat for the WH-CH730N and Coral and Mint for the WH-CH530 are limited to Sony and Amazon.
The Brave web browser published a new round of benchmarks claiming its desktop browser uses less system resources than Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox — and also loads pages faster.
The blog Linuxiac reports:
According to Brave’s testing, the browser used 44% less CPU, 28% less memory, and 10% less energy on average compared with the three competing browsers. It also completed page loads 20% faster while transferring 26% less inbound data and 39% less outbound data…
– Brave averaged about 33% CPU usage, while Chrome used 47%, Edge 53%, and Firefox 78%.
– For memory, Brave used about 1.2 GB, compared to 1.75 GB for Chrome, 1.62 GB for Edge, and 1.65 GB for Firefox.
By stopping ads, analytics scripts, tracking pixels, and other third-party requests from loading, the browser has less network traffic and less work to do. In page-loading tests, Brave took about 4.4 seconds to fully load a page. Chrome took 5.1 seconds, Firefox 5.3 seconds, and Edge 6 seconds. However, when measuring Largest Contentful Paint, which is when the main content appears, Brave and Chrome both averaged about 2.4 seconds, with Edge and Firefox just behind at 2.5 seconds. This means Brave’s main advantage comes after the main content is visible, since there are fewer background ads, trackers, analytics requests, and delayed scripts to process.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A zero-day vulnerability dubbed “StyleSmuggler” affecting all versions of Magento and Adobe Commerce is being exploited in attacks to deploy a backdoor.
The first exploitation incident was recorded on September 4 on a target running the latest security updates.
E-commerce security company Sansec says that Adobe Enterprise Support confirmed earlier today that it was working on a fix but did not provide a timeline for its release.
Magento is a popular open-source e-commerce platform by Adobe installed on more than 160,000 websites, including 14,000 of the top 1 million sites.
The exploit Sansec observed in the wild abuses Magento’s template system through PHP code injection to generate a fake “failed-payment” email, which triggers code execution.
Successful exploitation installs a small Rust-based backdoor as a background process, disguised as [kworker/u:8:0]. Newer versions disguise the process as fc-cache and copy it to ~/.cache/fontconfig/fc-cache.
According to Sansec researchers, the attacker also adds a cron job configured to repeat every 30 minutes for persistence.
Although Sansec did not observe any follow-on activity, the malware can communicate with remote infrastructure and receive commands.
The researchers note that earlier samples of the backdoor used TLS/WebSockets to communicate with the command-and-control (C2) address, while newer versions disguise their traffic as Network Time Protocol (NTP).
They send UDP packets to port 123 and use hostnames that resemble time-syncing infrastructure, helping to mask malicious traffic as NTP and get through firewalls.
The malware also determines the server’s public IP using services including ipify, icanhazip, ident.me, and ipinfo.io, and checks Linux’s TracerPid value to detect tracing. If tracing is active, the malware still installs, but does not beacon.
Sansec says an unexpected surge of Magento “Payment Transaction Failed Reminder” emails may indicate exploitation, and also recommends monitoring for ‘kworker’ or ‘fc-cache’ processes, suspicious cron entries, and temporary files.
If there is suspicion of compromise, it is recommended to rotate Magento credentials.
At the time of writing, Adobe has not released fixes for StyleSmuggler, but the firm’s next scheduled security release is tomorrow, September 8.
Until fixes are made available, Sansec recommends that website administrators disable GraphQL as a mitigation measure.
BleepingComputer has contacted Adobe to ask if a fix for StyleSmuggler is planned for rollout tomorrow, but the company has not yet responded.
Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.
The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.
Arm debuted its new CSS for Mobile 2 technology for chipmakers to include on future silicon powering smartphones. The primary upgrade is around the GPU, which has been redesigned to allow AI to upscale graphics and improve the framerate for a better mobile gaming experience on premium Android phones coming next year. Arm has also improved its CPU clusters for AI agent processing.
Every smartphone needs a CPU and GPU, but more processing power is needed at the top end of the phone market. Phones using MediaTek chips often have Arm CPU cores and GPUs, with last year’s Oppo Find X9 Pro packing a MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chip that uses a Mali G1-Ultra GPU to render graphics.
Now, Arm is announcing the Mali G2-Ultra NX, which the company says is its first AI-native GPU, using AI to improve rendered visuals directly in the graphics pipeline, lowering latency and improving power efficiency. Typically, graphics data is ported to and from other AI-dedicated areas, such as the neural processing unit, to enable AI acceleration, but integrating this directly into the GPU reduces travel time and energy used.
The Mali G2-Ultra uses a trio of AI methods to perform this. Neural super sampling turns low-resolution renders into higher-resolution images with Arm, suggesting a jump from 540p to 1080p, while neural frame rate upscaling generates frames between rendered ones — for example, to jump from 30 frames per second to 60. Neural super sampling and denoising takes the former technology and scrubs out “noise” (dot artifacts in an image) for graphically demanding scenes like ray-traced reflections and complex lighting.
By having the phone render graphics in lower resolution and fewer frames that can be boosted with AI, smartphones can be made smaller and potentially cheaper, said Chris Bergey, executive vice president of Arm’s Edge AI Business unit.
“If we can provide an amazing 540p, 30 frames per second experience, and it allows you to use a smaller battery, that allows for a smaller form factor and potentially allows for a lower-cost handheld,” Bergey said.
During a briefing ahead of the announcement, Arm showed off a game it co-developed with Sumo Digital to showcase those AI methods. Amid scenes of a fantasy character descending into a cave system illuminated by neon-bright giant mushrooms, Arm explained that the game was a proof of concept for how developers could use the AI methods to deliver 4x higher performance efficiency and up to 70% lower external memory traffic (e.g. data transferring out from and back to the GPU) compared with conventional graphics rendering.
All these improvements lead to a 24% improvement in benchmark performance along with a 14% improvement in ray tracing.
Arm announced new C2 CPU cores designed for AI agent workflows on devices. Compared to last year’s C1 cores, the new C2 cores have up to 15% higher single-thread and 12% higher multi-thread performance and 1.7x performance across AI models while using 38% less power. They also launch apps and browse the web faster.
Higher single-thread performance reduces latency, while multi-thread performance helps multiple tasks progress concurrently, Arm explained in a press release. Across a sample agentic workflow combining several tasks — speech processing, memory retrieval, reasoning, application execution and web browsing — C2-ultra cores completed the workflow 24% faster than last year’s cores.
Each chipmaker decides the type and number of cores to include in their system-on-chip, balancing performance, efficiency and cost. The aforementioned MediaTek Dimensity 9500, released last year, has an eight-core CPU: one C1-Ultra, three C1-Premium and four C1-Pro.
systems
Resistance is futile
Huawei has launched a new processor it claims is free of US technology and is using it to drive a new three-screen folding phone.
The Chinese giant dubbed the new processor the Kirin 950 Pro and says its LinxiCore processor cores, GPU, and neural processing unit all feature its own designs.
The SoC into which Huawei added them uses the “Tau Scaling” architecture that Huawei says arranges components closer to each other to reduce die size and improve performance without needing the kind of advanced chipmaking processes practiced by TSMC and Intel.
As The Register wrote when Huawei announced Tau Scaling last May, analysts think Huawei has done interesting things with its silicon but don’t think the company has made any breakthroughs.
Huawei begs to differ and says its new silicon offers 42 percent higher performance than the chip it used in the three-screen phone it delivered last year.
The Chinese company uses the Kirin 950 Pro in its new three-screen phone, the $2,979 Mate XT2.
Analyst firm Counterpoint thinks Huawei will exit 2026 with 24 percent of the total folding phone market, which it believes accounted for 1.6 percent of smartphone sales last year.
Huawei therefore has itself a chip that targets the high end of a market niche – and announced it a couple of days before pundits believe Apple will debut a folding iPhone that Counterpoint predicts will win 25 percent of the folding phone market by the end of the year.
Huawei’s Kirin 950 Pro will therefore hardly make a dent in the smartphone market.
At its launch event, Huawei execs pointed to its totally-not-Android versions of HarmonyOS now running on 85 million devices. That’s strong uptake since Huawei delivered the OS in October 2024. Again, however, it is a fraction of the overall smartphone and smart device market.
If Huawei can use the tech it created for the Kirin 950 Pro in other roles that would allow mean Chinese to avoid comparable products from AMD, Intel, or Nvidia, its new chip will show that Chinese firms can create tech that reduces the nation’s reliance on imports.
But amid all the hoopla of a phone launch, Huawei hasn’t said anything about its intentions to adapt its new chip for different roles.
The Tau Scaling architecture is therefore not going to upset Huawei’s rivals for some time, although western chipmakers do know that Beijing is steering local buyers away from their products and encouraging adoption of local alternatives.
Whether any of those Chinese chipmakers succeed beyond the Middle Kingdom is the wider question. China emphasizes export of consumer products as a tactic to fuel domestic growth, and its smartphone makers Xiaomi, Oppo, and Honor have delivered on that mission by winning solid sales across Europe, Africa, and Latin America – with phones running Android and tied to Google services.
Huawei’s hardware and HarmonyOS ecosystem, by contrast, have not racked up notable success outside China. ®
The recommendations ‘do not introduce new obligations, but support institutions in understanding and implementing relevant existing responsibilities in a proportionate manner’.
Ireland’s research ecosystem will be subject to new national guidelines on research security to safeguard the sector against intellectual property theft and misuse, foreign interference, and emerging security threats.
‘Research Security Guidelines for Ireland’, created by the Irish Government and published today (7 September), is aiming for alignment with international best practice while protecting innovation and strengthening global research partnerships.
The guidelines outline Ireland’s national approach to research security, and how the risks associated with international research and innovation collaboration are identified, assessed and managed in a proportionate and context-sensitive manner, according to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
The framework is intended as enabling guidance – rather than a regulatory or enforcement document – for Ireland’s research performing organisation (RPOs), funders of research and other stakeholders in the country’s research ecosystem.
The guidelines “do not introduce new obligations, but support institutions in understanding and implementing relevant existing responsibilities in a proportionate manner”, according to the document, and are based on key principles of: risk management rather than risk avoidance; proportionate responses based on institutional autonomy; clarity of roles and responsibilities; and avoidance of bureaucratic complexity that stifles innovation.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless, TD said: “Ireland’s research system is among the most internationally connected in the world. That openness is one of our greatest strengths but it must be matched by an ability to identify and manage emerging security risks.
“These guidelines represent a significant step forward in ensuring that Ireland remains both open and secure as a global leader in research and innovation.
“This is about protecting valuable knowledge, supporting our researchers and making sure our research system remains open and trusted.
“Many institutions are already doing good work in this area. What these guidelines do is provide a common framework so that research organisations across the country can build on that experience and take a consistent approach.”
The guidelines are the product of collaboration between Government departments, research funders and RPOs, and originate from a May 2024 EU recommendation that member states develop national research frameworks with clear roles and responsibilities.
RPOs retain autonomy and decision-making on how to implement the new guidelines, according to the Government, which said it will act as a coordinator and support mechanism during the implementation phase of the initiative that is now underway.
The guidelines are available to the public on the Government’s website.
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The data center backlash has entered the midterms conversation.
Politicians from across the spectrum have changed their minds — or at least their policy positions — about data centers in the past few months as public resistance to their construction has skyrocketed. A major example is Texas, where just about one year ago, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was proclaiming that his state was the “epicenter of AI development.”
Now, after months of grassroots organizing and community outcry, Abbott is pushing to slow the roll of new data centers in Texas. He’s imposed a statewide moratorium on new construction pending an audit over the new connections to Texas’s power grid. While he hasn’t explicitly said the change is tied to his reelection campaign this November, the pause is expected to last through the election.
As dramatic as Abbott’s about-face has been, he’s not alone: Democrats and Republicans alike are following suit.
Jeremy Merrill, a data reporter at the Washington Post, analyzed thousands of social media posts and newsletters to see what elected officials on both sides of the aisle are saying about data centers. He spoke with Today, Explained co-host Noel King about his findings, what they say going into midterm elections, and how the backlash might change the way we think about what politicians owe to their constituents.
Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Data centers didn’t used to be a big deal. And now, almost all of a sudden, they’re a big issue. Candidates are falling over themselves to sound tough about data centers. And data centers are overwhelmingly portrayed as a problem rather than an opportunity or a benefit.
A great example is Sen. Jon Husted, who’s a Republican senator from Ohio, who’s up for election this November. He used to praise data center projects that were coming to Ohio when he was lieutenant governor because it would help establish Ohio as “an important tech hub in America.”
He said that data centers are essential to our digital lives. And now he’s saying he’s trying to “protect Americans from having to foot the bill for data centers.”
He’s really emblematic of a shift that happened all across the Republican Party in about February of this year. That’s when the bulk of messages from Republicans about data centers flipped from focusing on them as bringing benefits to their states and communities, to talking about their downsides.
This is really a case of the anger and unhappiness bubbling up from everyday people up to political elites. And that grassroots anger was all across the political spectrum over a whole range of issues: power bills, claims about how much water data centers may use, air pollution, eminent domain, taxes, subsidies, and a generalized, physical manifestation of the anxiety that people feel about what AI is going to do to our society, to our brains, to our kids and to our jobs.
We know that it’s not just one single candidate, maybe even not just a handful, because you reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned that, “Data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck.”
That’s pretty strong language. Is the National Republican Senatorial Committee admitting that the wrong position on data centers is enough to lose a candidate a race at this point?
I think it’s something that they’re certainly worried about. He’s in a tough race. It’s a tossup. And presumably you’re looking for an edge, or to prevent your opponent from getting an edge over you.
What about President Donald Trump’s messaging on data centers? He, initially at least, was very bullish on AI investment in the US. What has Trump been saying?
This is a story in two or three parts. As President Trump took office again last year, he was overall trying to portray his second term as president as “inaugurating a golden age for American manufacturing and technological dominance.”
As part of that, he issued an executive order trying to make it easier to build data centers in the United States. And I think that’s probably why last year most Republicans across the board were talking about data centers as a benefit to the country and to the communities where they were being built — talking about jobs, talking about investment.
But like I said, the tide turned. And so on the one hand, you have President Trump promoting this bill that would protect people from having data centers cause their power bills to go up. But on the other hand, he just wrote earlier this week on Truth Social, “If [communities] want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign.”
He’s saying if they don’t want data centers, they’re going to “end up being backwards and poor.” So he’s still very pro-data center, which is fascinating.
Let’s talk about the Democrats. Which Democrats in particular are we seeing change their minds?
There are a lot of governors who used to be very positive on data centers in their states because these bring jobs. These bring construction investments, some amount of permanent jobs, some amount of construction jobs. Examples of folks who are now limiting data centers in their states include Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and [Gov.] J.B. Pritzker of Illinois.
The most striking case of a Democrat whose rhetoric has shifted so much is Rep. Ro Khanna of California, whose district actually includes Silicon Valley. In 2025, he was calling for building more data centers in the United States versus overseas. When the Trump administration did an AI deal with the United Arab Emirates, he said, “Why are we putting data centers and research hubs in Dubai?”
But now he’s more critical, calling for an end to data center extraction, taking communities’ water and jacking up their bills, sucking all the money into the hands of a few tech billionaires.
Is anyone in either party still coming out strong for data centers?
My favorite example of this is Rep. Eric Burlison, who’s a Republican from Missouri. He’s really focused on the need to build data centers in order to compete with China. In June, he wrote, “Ask yourself who benefits when Americans turn against data centers? China does.”
He’s making the point that I think a lot of people in tech are making, which is, “This is coming whether you like it or not.” And part of politics is dealing with reality.
In this day and age, it seems constituents don’t want to deal with that reality, but clearly there are people who hold office, or who hope to hold office, who are going to maintain the line that this is something we’ve just got to do.
This is a classic political science dispute about what a politician’s job is supposed to be. If you accept the premise that we need data centers to build a wonderful technological future or keep pace with China or whatever the argument is, is the job of a politician to just do what their constituents want, to be their tribune in Washington? Or is it to be the wise, thoughtful leader who’s willing to push back when constituents are missing something important?
This is one thing I keep in mind when analyzing — particularly some of these governors who shifted more recently — is that they’re talking about the downsides of data centers. They’re talking about mitigating those downsides. They’re saying, “Oh, we need to get data centers to pay their fair share. We need to make sure that data centers don’t screw up our water. We need to make sure they don’t raise your power bills. We need to make sure they give back.”
But then it’s so that we can build them and still reap the benefits while mitigating the costs.
What is it about this issue, do you think, that has got us to this place? We’re polarized, but we’re not polarized in the same way that we’re often polarized.
One possibility is that this is coming from the grassroots so much and bubbling up to politicians and political elites, that everybody got the signal at the same time that this was something that they ought to oppose.
The other possibility is people have for a while been saying, “Are we living through a generational political realignment in the United States where a lot of things are up for grabs?”
You don’t see a lot of the libertarian-adjacent pro-business, free markets, free trade Republican Party. And so when all these issues are up for grabs, politicians see opportunity in being innovative rather than sticking with the same traditional views of their party.
Imagine you’re settled in the backseat of a car, ready to enjoy some Apple TV on your iPhone or iPad during a long road trip or your daily commute. Don’t let a poor wireless signal reception or a limited data plan ruin your viewing experience.
Instead, download your favorite TV shows and movies before you hit the road. Whether you want to catch up on the latest dramas or keep the kids entertained with quality children’s content, we’ll guide you through the simple steps to download everything you need.
Are you searching for the best content to watch with your Apple TV subscription? Be sure to check out our updated guides that highlight the most underrated shows on Apple TV and everything new coming to the platform.
Apple TV subscription
An iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Vision Pro
Most people download movies and TV shows to watch them on the go, and there’s no better place to do it than on your iPhone or iPad. Here’s how to download your favorite Apple TV shows and movies on your iPhone or iPad.
Step 1: Open the Apple TV app and search or browse for the movie, show, or event you want to save for later.
Step 2:Tap the download button in the top-right corner. If it is a TV show, you can download the whole season at once.
Step 3: To download an individual episode, tap the three-dot menu and select Download.
Step 4: Head to the Library tab and select Downloaded to find and play everything you have saved.
If the Download button is missing or greyed out, do not panic just yet. It usually means one of two things: either you have hit your download limit, or the channel providing that particular show simply does not allow downloads. I will explain both of these further down.
I personally prefer to watch content on my Mac. Not only does it offer a bigger screen, but it also has better speakers that improve the media experience. Thankfully, unlike Netflix or other popular streaming platforms that don’t offer a native app, Apple TV not only has a native Mac app, but it also lets you download content for offline viewing.
Step 1: Open the Apple TV app and find the movie, show, or event you want to download.
Step 2: For movies and events, click the Download button in the top-right corner.
Step 3: For TV shows, open the episode, click the three-dot button, then select Download.
Step 4: You can find your downloads under the Library section.
That’s it. Now you are ready to watch your favorite shows and movies without an internet connection.
If you are one of a few hundred Apple Vision Pro owners, you will be happy to know that you can download Apple TV shows and movies for offline viewing on your Vision Pro. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Open the Apple TV app.
Step 2: Find the TV show, film, or event you want to watch offline.
Step 3: Pinch and hold the title until the Download option appears, then tap it.
Step 4: Open the sidebar, tap Library, then tap Downloaded to find your saved content.
Here is something worth knowing before you go hunting for the download button on your living room setup: downloading is not available everywhere. If you are using an Apple TV 4K, Apple TV HD, a smart TV, a streaming device, or watching through tv.apple.com on a browser, you are limited to streaming only. There is no offline option for these platforms, so plan accordingly if you are relying on your big-screen setup for travel prep.
This is the part that trips a lot of people up, so pay attention. Downloads are not permanent, and the expiration rules can vary depending on what you are watching.
For most Apple TV channels, your downloaded content sticks around for up to 30 days before it disappears. Some channels are stricter and might expire their downloads sooner, so do not assume every show follows the same 30-day rule.
Content downloaded through your Apple TV subscription has an additional twist. Once you press play, the clock starts ticking, and you only get 48 hours to finish watching before it expires. Alternatively, if you never start watching it at all, it will still expire 30 days after you download it. Whichever limit hits first is the one that applies, so if you download something and forget about it for a month, do not be surprised when it is gone.
Beyond expiration dates, there are also caps on how much you can download at once. Some Apple TV channels restrict how many titles you can download simultaneously, and there might also be a limit on how many devices you can download the same content to.
Your overall Apple TV subscription might also cap the total number of titles you can have downloaded at any given time. If you bump into this limit, the app will let you know with an alert. You can learn more about the limits on Apple’s support page.
The fix is simple: delete some episodes or movies you have already finished watching from your device, or from another device tied to your account or family sharing group, to free up space for new downloads.
If you are streaming instead of downloading, there are limits here too, and they are worth knowing if you have a household full of people trying to watch different things at once.
With a standard Apple TV subscription, you typically get 6 simultaneous streams for most content, though some specific titles might restrict that number further.
If you have an Apple Music student subscription that includes Apple TV access, you are limited to only one device streaming at a time, so you cannot stream on your phone while your roommate has it up on the TV.
For Apple TV channels specifically, most allow up to three simultaneous streams, but this number can change slightly depending on the individual channel rules.
Downloading content from the Apple TV app is genuinely one of those features that quietly makes life easier once you actually start using it. Whether you are prepping for a long flight or just want a backup for when your Wi-Fi decides to act up, knowing exactly how to download, where you can do it, and how long you actually have before things expire will save you from a lot of frustration later. Just remember to plan your downloads a little ahead of time, given the 30-day and 48-hour windows, and you should be set for your next binge session.
The Astell & Kern HC5 wants to make your smartphone sound like one of the company’s super-expensive digital audio players – and it gets quite a long way towards it. With a little more low-end heft and substance to go along with its excellent soundstaging and sky-high levels of detail, it could be the complete article
Spacious, organised and impressively detailed sound
Specification, build and finish all impress
Small and light enough to be genuinely portable
Slightly short of low-frequency body and impact
The few physical controls don’t feel anything special
No EQ adjustment
Review Price:
£399
DAC
AK4191EQ digital processor, AK4499EX DAC
Audio support
Up to 32-bit/768kHz, DSD512
Astell & Kern has nothing to prove when it comes to implementing brilliantly effective digital-to-analogue conversion hardware – its range of witheringly expensive digital audio players make that point in some style.
So bringing its expertise to bear in a much smaller, much more affordable product that’s much more focused in its functionality seems to make sense. The HC5 portable DAC/headphone amp certainly looks (and, to a lesser extent) feels the part – but does it have the performance to do justice to the brand’s reputation?
Unlike some portable DAC/headphone amplifiers, the ones that are really only fit to be ported to and from a desktop for use with a laptop, the Astell & Kern HC5 is small and light enough to go out and about without demanding a bag or a reinforced pocket in which to travel.
Its aluminium construction is smooth and clean, and the standard of build and finish of the box is everything I’ve come to expect from Astell & Kern. At 64 x 32 x 16mm (HWD) the HC5 is intuitively palm-shaped, and the concave sides only add to the impression of handiness. 46g is not a burden, even if you decide it needs to travel in the pocket of a T-shirt.
There’s a knurled dial at the top of the HC5 (I’ve decided the end with the USB-C input slot is the top – the bottom is where the 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone outputs are), and a single control button taking care of everything except volume control along one side.
Neither feels super-substantial in operation, and in use the sensation is not exactly that of a premium product. The screen that occupies a good portion of the front of the HC5 is bright and crisp, though, and despite containing a fair amount of information at times it’s never less than legible.
Astell & Kern is not shy when it comes to explaining the AKM’s flagship AK4191EQ digital processor and AK4499EX digital-to-analogue converter combination has never appeared in a product this small or affordable before.
Splitting the all-important decoding into two stages, says AKM, maintains greater signal integrity during the journey from digital to analogue. There’s certainly no arguing with support for 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512…
By way of an encore, Astell & Kern has also deployed its proprietary DAR (digital audio remaster) upsampling technology – switch it on (it functions with both PCM and DSD files) and the sampling rate increases more than somewhat. Then there are the six user-selectable filters (low dispersion, sharp roll-off, slow roll-off and so on) that help (in a very minor way) trim the sound of the HC5 to your taste. This is all the input the end-user gets, though – unlike some rival devices, there’s no EQ adjustment available here.
The HC5 features a variant on the ‘high driving mode’ technology Astell & Kern has deployed in some of its priciest DAPs. Horizontal op-amps help reduce the physical size of the device – but it also allows for uncommon driving power. It’s worth bearing in mind the HC5 is powered by your source device, though, so the amount of amplification power it can muster is something of a double-edged sword.
There are 150 steps of volume adjustment available, which I can’t help thinking seems like overkill. Of course it’s nice to be able to trim the volume carefully, but for the first 20-odd stages the HC5 is basically inaudible. It feels a little like an item of specification that’s flashy pretty much for the sake of it.
No one should be surprised that a dedicated off-board DAC does a better job than the DAC chipset in an overworked smartphone or laptop – after all, there are plenty of products costing a fraction of the £399 Astell & Kern wants for the HC5 that prove the point.
But what is remarkable about the HC5 is, if used in conjunction with some equally capable headphones, just how significant and obvious the sound-quality improvements are.
The contrast between a Tidal-derived 24-bit/192kHz FLAC file of Ball and Biscuit by The White Stripes when played out of the 3.5mm headphone socket of an Apple MacBook Pro and when heard via the HC5 plugged into one of the laptop’s USB-C socket is night-and-day, black-and-white, hot-and-cold – choose your metaphor.
The Astell & Kern brings order to bear – the soundstage snaps into focus, and as well as being far more confidently laid out it’s also bigger in every direction. The spaces between the competing elements are made more apparent and are better defined.
There’s greater dynamism, too, and in every respect. The difference between verse, chorus and guitar solo in this recording, both in terms of volume and intensity, are far more apparent when explained by the HC5 – and the same is true with the lower-level dynamics of tonal and harmonic variation. On first acquaintance this might sound like a fairly ramshackle recording – but, in fact, it’s quite painstaking and deliberate, and the amount of fine detail the Astell & Kern can reveal and contextualise makes this apparent.
Nowhere does the uptick in detail levels make itself more obvious than in the midrange. The HC5 is a deft and eloquent communicator, able to bring a sensation of character and attitude to a voice along with the more obvious stuff regarding timbre and texture. The overall frequency response is quite balanced and even, but the midrange gets just a little nudge forwards in the interests of intelligibility – and the result is a direct and positive account of voices.
Tonality is equally consistent, with the HC5 maintaining a quite carefully neutral attitude from the top of the frequency range to the bottom. There’s no additional colour to the bright, substantial top end any more than there is in the midrange, and the bottom end is rapid and well-controlled – the attention paid to the attack and decay of bass sounds is such that rhythmic expression is confident and coherent.
There’s not a whole lot of substance to the low frequencies the HC5 describes, though. There’s a reasonable amount of punch, and undeniable momentum – but when it comes to body and heft, the Astell & Kern is more whippet than labrador. Which means there’s manoeuvrability and agility at the bottom, but not a huge amount of the out-and-out wallop some listeners are undoubtedly primed to expect.
But where energy and unity are concerned, the HC5 is back on much surer ground. There’s a well-supervised liveliness to the way it presents music, a sensation of togetherness and performance that ultimately goes a long way to illustrating how much more capable than a sub-£100 USB DAC this Astell & Kern is. Which, by extension, explains just how much better it is than the unassisted sound of your laptop or smartphone.
You take portable listening seriously enough to have invested in proper wired headphones.
You’re expecting a lot of low-frequency heft and substance.
That Astell & Kern should turn out a tactile and good-looking device when it decides to enter a specific product category doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. That the product should be high-achieving doesn’t come as much of a shock either.
But the reminder that the company has not forgotten how to create a product that sells for a vaguely real-world price is perhaps the best thing about the HC5 (for me, at least).
I connected the Astell & Kern HC5 to an Apple iPhone 15 Pro, a FiiO M15S digital audio player, and an Apple MacBook Pro using the supplied USB-C / USB-C cable.
Not only does this allow me to – access lots of content of different file types and resolutions, but it also allows me to compare the HC5 to the very impressive D-to-A abilities of the FiiO DAP.
At the other end I connect a pair of Sennheiser IE900 in-ear monitors to the 4.4mm balanced output, and also a pair of Austrian Audio The Arranger open-backed over-ear headphones to the 3.5mm unbalanced socket.
Just one – A&K calls it satin silver but it’s basically the colour of the aluminium the HC5 is made from.
A&K provides USB-C / USB-C and USB-C / Lightning cables in the packaging – so yes, you can.
The HC5 has 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs – so headphones that use anything else will need an adapter.
| Astell & Kern HC5 | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Astell & Kern |
| Size (Dimensions) | 32 x 16 x 64 MM |
| Weight | 46 G |
| DAC | AKM AK4191EQ; AKM AK4499EX |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Resolution | x |
| Connectivity | USB-C |
| Outputs | 3.5mm unbalanced; 4.4mm balanced |
| UK RRP | £399 |
| USA RRP | $489 |
| EU RRP | €495 |
| CA RRP | CA$629 |
| AUD RRP | AU$779 |
The launch is a key step in Europe’s goal to compete with US-based organisations for commercial space missions.
A rocket developed and controlled by German start-up Isar Aerospace has made history by becoming the first commercial launch to reach orbit from continental Europe.
As part of the ‘Onward and Upward’ mission, the uncrewed Spectrum rocket lifted off from Isar Aerospace’s launch complex at Andøya Space in Norway carrying a payload of satellites and reached orbit in around four minutes.
The achievement marks a major step in Europe’s ambitions to rival US counterparts for commercial space missions.
This was Isar’s second launch attempt, as there had previously been a range of factors causing delays, such as weather conditions, technical difficulties and disruption by a rogue boat. The first attempt saw the rocket launch for only 30 seconds before experiencing a crash.
Commenting after the successful launch, Daniel Metzler, the CEO and co-founder of Isar Aerospace, said: “Today, Isar Aerospace opened space from continental Europe. Launch continues to be the largest bottleneck for the global space industry and from today on, there is a true alternative for commercial and institutional customers.”
He added: “We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before. Europe now has sovereign access to space. We have entered into a new chapter for European spaceflight.
“I am incredibly proud of our team, that has made this success story from Europe possible. We will now focus on rapidly scaling launch vehicle production, deliver on our order pipeline, and meet surging global demand.”
According to a statement released by Isar Aerospace, the company’s model is designed to build scalable launch capabilities. There is also a keen focus on building the “machine behind the machine”, which includes a vertically integrated manufacturing model and a high degree of automation in production.
And with the opening of a new 40,000 sq m production facility near Munich, Isar Aerospace will eventually have the capacity to manufacture up to 40 launch vehicles per year.
“All launches are special, but what Isar Aerospace achieved today is historic, the first European company to reach orbit with their own launch vehicle” said Géraldine Naja, ESA’s director of space transportation.
“A huge congratulation to the teams involved, who with this launch also complete the first milestone of ESA’s European Launcher Challenge, looking forward to seeing many more European launches, including from Andøya Spaceport in Norway in the near future.”
In July, Isar Aerospace was included in new data from Crunchbase that explored how organisations fared financially in Q2 of 2026, with European start-ups reporting the strongest quarter in four years for venture funding. Isar made the list for its successful late-stage funding efforts.
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software
Commission reportedly seeks third-party views, although no formal investigation is underway
The European Commission (EC) may be laying the groundwork for an investigation into Oracle’s software licensing practices, according to reports.
The scrutiny follows the EC’s investigation into fellow enterprise software vendor SAP, which ended with the Commission accepting legally binding commitments from the German company to abolish reinstatement fees and reduce back-maintenance fees, among other concessions.
MLex is now reporting that the EC – the EU’s executive arm – has started to examine Oracle’s licensing practices ahead of a possible formal investigation. One source told the publication that the EC was seeking views from third parties.
An EC spokesperson told The Register it had concluded an investigation into SAP, and “will continue to monitor possible further anti-competitive practices and abusive conduct in this sector. At this stage however, there is no formal investigation into any company.”
The Register invited Oracle to comment.
Big Red’s licensing practices have attracted criticism for years, although the vendor maintains they are fair. One frequently criticized example is its treatment of Java, which came under Oracle’s stewardship after it agreed to buy Sun Microsystems in 2009.
OpenJDK, the reference implementation of the Java platform, is open source, but vendors can charge for proprietary development kits, runtime environments, and support.
Oracle announced a new licensing regime for Oracle Java SE in January 2023. It said Java SE Universal Subscription would offer customers “a simple, low-cost monthly subscription that includes Java SE Licensing and Support for use on Desktops, Servers or Cloud deployments.”
Industry experts pointed out that even businesses with limited use of Oracle Java could have to pay according to their total employee count under the model, a dramatic departure from Oracle’s previous licensing terms. Gartner estimated the per-employee subscription model to be two to five times more expensive than the legacy version.
Another licensing mechanism that has attracted criticism is the Unlimited License Agreement. Some licensing advisors claim the all-you-can-eat option offers poor value, locks users in, and limits their choice of alternative products. Oracle maintains that the agreement offers flexibility and good value.
The EC accepted SAP’s commitments in July after opening an investigation into concerns that the German vendor may have restricted competition in the aftermarket for maintenance and support of its on-premises ERP software.
Gartner welcomed the commitments, saying they gave customers more options for their legacy SAP applications by making third-party support a more viable alternative to migration. Vendor support for some older SAP products is due to end in 2027. ®
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