The 2026 Hackaday Superconference is just around the corner in November. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been having an annual gathering for so long, but this is number ten. Every year, it’s a great time to refresh your pool of new ideas, hang out with fellow hackers, put your soldering skills to the test, eat some phenomenal tacos, and catch some of the two tracks of talks.
What’s got me stoked right now is that we just finished up talk selection, and this year is going to be a banger! We had more talks submitted than ever, and all of high quality. Frankly, if this keeps up for next year, we might have to figure out a third stage.
This year also marks the move to a bigger venue, with more space for hacking in the courtyard, more space for talks in two halls, and more room for you to all settle down and share your work, or create something new. Even the badge is going to be bigger this year – but that’s all we can say at this time.
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If you don’t have your tickets yet, go ahead and get them. Flights are still relatively cheap, and hotels not booked up yet. See you all soon!
Yes, you’ll need to do math, but it’s worth it to avoid being left powerless.
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As climate change continues to worsen, renewable energy is becoming more and more important in daily life, particularly with new consumer markets opening up (such as plug-in solar in the UK). One of the more well-trodden areas of consumer renewables comes from solar power in RVs, where rigs can bring off-grid power without the noise of a typical generator. However, there are more than a few steps and stipulations to keep in mind when going all-in with solar panels — chief among them being the amount of solar power needed to get an RV’s systems working.
It is possible to fully power your RV using solar energy, though you’ll need a few odds and ends to store that energy when the sun’s gone. It’s more common among RV users to combine solar energy with non-solar generator power, but fully solar is possible with a battery bank, inverter, and charge controller. These pieces of tech allow you to store solar power, convert that power from DC to AC to charge your RV system, and to channel that power from panels to the battery bank, respectively.
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What to look out for when using solar panels
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The specs for those devices will largely depend on how many solar panels you need for your rig (for example, an ideal inverter size is equal to about 1.25x the amount of watts you’ll need at any given time). A 100W solar panel, when accounting for changes in weather and sun exposure, will receive about 350W of power per day. You’ll want to check how much power your devices are using throughout the day, and add that all together. The easiest way to do this is to check the label for each device. If it lists volts and amps only, multiply those together to get the watts.
Not only do you need to look at what gadgets you keep in your RV (such as a charging unit, portable heater, any cooking tech, GPS, etc.) but you also need to consider the panels themselves. No panel will generate the maximum amount of power advertised, especially during periods of low sun exposure or when travelling through forested areas. Ideal solar panel temperature is also something that needs attention, as cooler temperatures will deliver more efficient results — so bright, cold days are ideal for efficiency.
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The 20 percent rule
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A 400W panel will suit many of these purposes well, and will also suit the 20 percent rule most solar panel users abide by. This rule is simply the idea that a solar setup should produce 20 percent more energy than your setup needs, to tide you over for the times when sunlight is scarce. You need to make sure you’re prepared for when your solar panel is operating below maximum output, as this will be the case the majority of the time.
Ultimately, you’ll need to make sure you have the right numbers down before committing. Tally up how many watts each of your devices uses per hour, and then figure out how much you’re using those devices per day (so if you use something that uses 1500 watts per hour, but only use it for ten minutes in a day, that’s only about 250 watts). Once you have your total, you’ll want a solar setup that can output that amount per day, plus 20 percent more.
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: A study commissioned by the City of Seattle says the city is not in decline but is in danger — finding that 10 companies, nine of them in tech, pay three-quarters of the payroll tax on large employers, and that the tax structure uniquely penalizes the hiring of senior, high-compensation workers.
The report says Seattle should be most concerned about AI but most active in cleantech, the one industry the city can actually shape, since it owns the electric utility and controls permitting, building codes and land use.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Times and Newsday sue Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing them of copying hundreds of thousands of articles to train their AI models, putting Microsoft’s hometown paper against a company that helps fund some of its journalism.
Which leads us to a new GeekWire Trivia Challenge about the Microsoft products that Apple later turned into categories. Stick around to the final segment to see if you can figure it out.
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Upcoming Event
AI meets real estate
GeekWire, in partnership with Real Estate at Work, is recording the GeekWire Podcast live at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, with Toby Roberts, SVP of Engineering at Zillow. John Cook and Todd Bishop host with Real Residential broker Leka Devatha at Atmosphere Seattle. Grab a ticket.
New research shows that while standing desks can potentially mitigate some health risks by limiting your sitting time, standing too long isn’t all that great and can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. I reached out to Anne-Kristina Arnold, a kinesiology expert and senior lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University. She says the results from this recent study “illustrate how challenging some of this epidemiological research is.”
“To say standing workstations are good for everybody in every situation all the time is never going to flow,” Arnold tells WIRED. “There are so many variables, so many varied kinds of work we do—we’re varied in our body sizes, in our fitness, in the shoes we wear. It’s really hard to be able to say definitively that standing workstations are good. The research is mixed.”
Switching from sitting to standing doesn’t solve all problems, and standing too long can cause its own problems. If you want to work with a standing workstation, Arnold recommends to use it in the standing position for 20 minutes per hour. If you have a normal desk, get up and move every 15 to 20 minutes. However, there’s no definitive guideline. “The standing workstation isn’t necessarily the answer—getting up and walking is better,” Arnold concludes. —Julian Chokkattu
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Electric vs. Manual Standing Desks
Our guide here focuses largely on electric standing desks, which have motors in the legs to smoothly move the table up and down. However, we have a few manual standing desk recommendations, too. If you’re planning on switching up how you work a few times every day, an electric desk will simply be more convenient. However, if you just want to be able to adjust the height of your desk and won’t be changing it all that often, then maybe look at manual standing desks. They’re often cheaper.
How to Properly Stand and Sit With a Standing Desk
The same ergonomic rules you follow when sitting at a workstation apply when you’re standing. When your elbows are at a 90-degree position, you want the desk keyboard to be elbow height. Your monitor should be at eye level (a good rule of thumb is the top of your monitor should meet your eye), and if you’re using a laptop, you should keep it angled with a laptop stand for a more ergonomic typing position. Be sure to adjust your office chair appropriately to the floor before adjusting the height of your desk.
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Cable management is exceptionally important when it comes to standing desks. After setting up your standing desk, make sure you keep an eye on every single wire that’s connected to something on the desk when you start raising the desktop. Otherwise, funny things start to happen: wires come undone, or scoot light objects off the desk.
WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu has unboxed and set up many desks over the years, and yet he still made a rookie move. As he was raising a desk, he didn’t realize his Ethernet cable was taut, and it broke cleanly off the back of his PC when the desk reached a certain height. Welp. As for me, I’m a naturally distracted person, and so I need to tack my cables down or suffer grievous consequences on the regular.
Keep an eye on the wires. Keep an eye on stuff near the wires. If you’re not careful, you can even accidentally knock art off your wall. —Matthew Korfhage
I and other members of WIRED’s Reviews team test standing desks in our own homes and in our own home offices. We use desks for months at a time (even years, in some cases), jotting down every flaw we see over the course of that time and noting any highlights. We look at building materials, motor noise, motor speed, preset options, cable management, and ease of use—and of course, the simple intangibles like aesthetics.
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We gauge the difficulty of the assembly and setup, as well as the difficulty of disassembling or moving each desk. Desks are a solid investment, and so we expect a desk to be with us for years, perhaps longer than we live in a city. And so we also look at both the length of the warranty and the service reputation of each company.
Sometimes a small detail can take on outsized importance when using a desk over long periods, whether the existence or nonexistence of a grommet, a rounded edge, or a bolt that gets a little wobbly over time. That’s why WIRED’s Reviews team believes in the value of long-term testing, and why we do so in our own home offices.
This long-term testing also means it’s not easy for our small team to test every single desk out there, as these are bulky, big pieces of furniture and the setup is fairly involved. This means you may see a few missing brands in this guide, but we’re always testing and adding more desks. —Matthew Korfhage
Other Standing Desks to Consider
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Photograph: Nicole Kinning
Ergodriven Tempo Automatic Standing Desk for $629: It was only a matter of time before desks got “smart,” right? This Tempo from new-ish company Ergodriven is designed to automate the process of standing or sitting, with a Cruise Control function that will encourage you to change position during the day by, well, automatically doing so. A “wiggle” will alert you when the desk wants to change position, which you can override manually if you’re eating lunch or in a meeting. A sensor will register your presence, so the desk won’t move when you’re away. WIRED contributor Nicole Kinning found that this all works as promised—as does a little app that registers “achievements” like standing time. But note the desk, while sturdy, is also a bit heavy, and a slight cosmetic crack formed early on the rounded edge. The 16-year warranty provides a bit of assurance.
Photograph: Nicole Kinning
Luxor Compact Electric Standing Desk for $200: The Luxor is a no-nonsense standing desk that does exactly what you expect and takes up minimal space. It’s perfect for students, small apartments, and anyone who needs a compact, budget-friendly setup. At 23.5 inches deep, the tabletop is shallow enough to fit into tight corners or shared spaces. The electric lift moves steadily at an inch per second, whisper-quiet, and the 154-pound weight capacity can handle a laptop, monitor, and a few textbooks with no sweat. The lift mechanism is exposed underneath, so you’ll want to leave some legroom when at sitting height. —Nicole Kinning
Simple Height Adjustable Desk for $850: The Simple Height Adjustable Desk lives up to its name. Assembly is straightforward and cable routing is tidy thanks to an integrated channel that keeps everything corralled. The T-shaped legs slide into a bracket instead of screwing or locking into place, which feels a little ambiguous, but once it’s upright, the desk is solid and sturdy. In practice, the desk became everything I needed. It’s smooth, quiet, and spacious, with four height presets. The laminate top is durable and forgiving—ideal if you’re like me and regularly forget that coasters exist. There are no fancy gimmicks, which is exactly the point. It’s a dependable, fuss-free desk that prioritizes function over flashy. —Nicole Kinning
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Photograph: Nicole Kinning
Eureka Ergonomic Opal Standing Desk for $2,250: WIRED contributor Nicole Kinning was a big fan of the, well, opaline looks of the Eureka Ergonomic Opal standing desk. It’s a sturdy, milky-toned, downright fancy-looking pillar of vaguely art-deco luxe: beaded cabinets on each leg, gold hardware, marbled top, integrated drawer, hooooooey! It all makes for a quite distinctive aesthetic, and setup is a bit tricky given the heft of the desk. But unlike most standing desks, this one is outfitted quite beautifully as a full workstation, with roomy cabinets in each leg and a drawer offering ample storage. Just be sure to put grips on the bottom; it slid around on Kinning’s hard floors like a curling stone, she noted. Once it’s in place, bask in the stateliness. It’s the rare standing desk where she could see herself writing a Great American Novel.
Autonomous Desk Pro for $600: The standout feature here is the new Desk AI, a separate control attachment that tracks your standing habits along with environmental factors like air pressure and quality, temperature, humidity, and noise. In theory, it’s meant to help you work smarter, but in practice, it mostly flags things you can’t control from the desk itself. If it came with an air purifier or fan to manage these conditions, then we’d be talkin’. Still, it’s a fun and techy bonus on an otherwise reliable desk.
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Photograph: Nicole Kinning
Vari Solid Wood Electric Standing Desk for $829: Even though it’s solid wood, this desk never felt too precious for everyday use. Made from FSC-certified lumber, the desk is heavy and stable, even at standing height on carpet, and the motor is impressively quiet and subtle when adjusting. The ComfortEdge feature turned out to be more helpful than reviewer Nicole Kinning expected; over long typing sessions, it noticeably softened where my wrists meet the desk, a nice upgrade to a standard desk’s hard, squared-off edges. Yes, the solid wood Vari is on the pricier side, but it feels justified if solid wood and long-term durability matter to you. If they don’t, consider the traditional version.
Boulies Magvida for $760: The Boulies Magvida advertises its best feature in the name itself. This midsize desk (55 x 28 inches) is known for its EMO system, a magnetic organization setup built beneath the desktop. Instead of drilling holes or fiddling with brackets, you just snap accessories, like a cable tray, hooks, and silicone straps, into place. The add-ons feel premium and the magnets don’t budge, and there’s an optional magnetic drawer that’s also handy. Add in memory presets, a child lock, anti-collision detection, and simple color options and you’ve got a clean, clever setup.
Herman Miller Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk for $1,325: As someone who spent years hunching over keyboards, obsessive research led WIRED reviewer Simon Hill to the Jarvis Standing Desk (now owned by Herman Miller), which has served him well for six years. With a contoured bamboo top, handy optional extras to tuck wires out of sight, and a responsive control panel for easy height adjustment (including presets), this is an excellent standing desk. The only weakness is that it wobbles slightly at higher levels. The newer touchscreen OLED control unit is not as reliable as the original, so opt for the programmable controls.
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Room & Board Lincoln Desk for $5,399: Few standing desks can lay claim to true elegance. But Room & Board’s Lincoln desk—designed in collaboration with design firm Gensler—is an exception. This is a dignified, sturdy, wobble-free electric standing desk that’d fit in with an executive office or a well-appointed home, made with solid wood and available in walnut, maple, cherry, ash, or oak (with a rye, salt, or charcoal stain). You can configure the desk to have integrated drawers on the left, right, or on both sides if you choose the larger 72-inch size. There’s even a drawer in the center! This is what privilege looks like, where standing desks are concerned. The price is commensurately high, though take note this included white glove delivery and assembly. Also take note that the thickness of the desktop means only some clamps will mount onto its girth. This monitor arm mount will work, but for some mounts, you might have to directly screw it to the desktop. All in all, this is a gorgeous standing desk that doesn’t look anything like a standing desk, but with a few quirks and a high price.
Staples Union & Scale Electric Standing Desk With Micro Movements (UN62092) for $513: Staples’ house brand, Union & Scale, makes some of WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu’s favorite affordable office furniture, and its standing desk is no exception—though at this middle price range, it didn’t keep pace with Branch’s reasonably priced desks. Still, this was easy to put together, and while the white desktop is not much to look at, the dual motors do the job. He liked the control panel, which has dedicated buttons for moving the desk up and down, as well as two height presets. He also didn’t see any wobble, though the collision sensor could stand to be more sensitive. There’s a cable tray at the bottom back of the desk to route cables, but there’s sadly no grommet to pull them through. The Micro Movement mode moves the desk up and down over time to reduce fatigue and encourage movement, but it might be more distracting than useful.
Beflo Tenon Premium for $3,998: While incredibly expensive (and heavy!), WIRED contributor Henri Robbins found the hardwood smart desk both sturdy and well-designed. Assembly was straightforward, and once the desk was up and running, Robbins found all of the features (touchscreen controls, a built-in power strip, audio passthrough, and LED lighting) to work well, and in convenient locations. The touchscreen controls are intuitive (iOS-like), and features like a sit/stand timer and phone connectivity provide additional functionality. The desk supports over 200 pounds of stuff even when moving, and the height-adjustment motors will temporarily disable if they overheat, instead of risking damage to the desk. The table also looks fantastic, and a multitude of first-party accessories let you customize the desk to your specific needs. The largest issue with this table is the noise. While in no way loud, it was certainly more audible than the “whisper-quiet” descriptor Beflo uses in its marketing. Besides that, the lighting color adjustment had some difficulties creating specific colors using the built-in touchscreen, and the audio cable was too short to reach a desktop computer on the floor, even at the lowest height. However, the Tenon is still a great, if pricey, option to consider.
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Herman Miller Spout Sit-to-Stand Table for $3,275: Herman Miller’s Spout Sit-To-Stand Table is lovely to look at. Like the Branch Four-Legged Desk, it looks like a normal desk with four legs, giving it a luxe look. Those motors in the legs rise smoothly, and it’s easy to raise and lower the desktop to my preferences with the button on the right. The motor does have a high hum to it, and WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell found it loud enough that she’d hesitate to use it when her husband is on a call in the same room, but not so loud it would disturb her son if he were sleeping a room away. Bizarrely, it doesn’t have memory presets, but it’s pretty easy to just adjust the desk each time to sitting and standing heights. You can add a cable tray underneath the desk each time to organize cords, but it costs extra. The only other item built into the desk is a single slim center drawer perfect for pens and notebooks. It comes in three desktop sizes and three finishes: laminate white, veneer walnut, and veneer ash. You can also customize the base color, with seven different colors ranging from your classic black and white to a gentle blue and olive green. While it’s gorgeous to look at and works well, Farrell found it disappointing that such a high-priced desk doesn’t have presets and uses veneers rather than real wood.
FlexiSpot E7 Pro for $400+: Standing desks can get pricey, but FlexiSpot routinely offers similar functionality at a lower price. At first glance, the E7 Pro looks much like the Herman Miller Jarvis, but look closer, and you discover the entry-level option has a shallow 23-inch desktop, the control unit feels a bit cheap, and it emits a high-pitched whine in operation. WIRED reviewer Simon Hill had some issues fitting larger power adapters in the cable tidily, and the desk can get wobbly when fully extended. But, even when fully configured, the E7 Pro is cheaper than many rivals. Minor flaws aside, it is a perfectly decent standing desk.
Inbox Zero 47-inch Adjustable Electric Standing Desk for $196: This desk has every feature you’d expect to need at the price range less than $200, wrote former WIRED reviewer Martin Cizmar. There are rolling casters so you can not only move the desk up and down, but also shake it all around. The desk’s electric controls have presets but also allow you to fine-tune the height for typing or Zooming. The split top that makes it easier and cheaper to ship doesn’t hurt the performance, but is less pleasant visually, and the little motor works audibly hard (tshunk, tschunk, tshunk) while raising the desktop. Based on three months of testing, it’s a decent budget standing desk with casters, but if you can spend a little more, you’ll probably be happier with something else.
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Standing Desk Accessories
Branch Clamp-on Power
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Branch Clamp-on Power for $89: This simple and elegant clamp attaches to your desktop and adds three AC outlets, a USB-C, and a USB-A, so you don’t have so many wires running down to the ground.
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LumeCube EdgeLight 2.0 for $150: Why have a lamp take up valuable desk space when you can clamp the lamp to your desk? These task lights from LumeCube are great for illuminating the desktop and even your face during late-night Zoom calls. You can adjust the color temperature and the brightness.
BenQ ScreenBar Lamp
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
BenQ ScreenBar Lamp for $139: Alternatively, you can place these ScreenBar lamps over your computer monitor, and it will light up your desktop, no clamping required. The ScreenBar Pro also has a motion sensor, so when you leave your desk, the lamp will turn off, and it will light up when you’re back. You can adjust the brightness and color temperature, and an automatic setting makes it adjust these controls based on the room’s ambient lighting.
Secretlab Premium Footrest for $89: WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu been using this footrest for several years, and it’s excellent. The plush memory foam is cushy and a nice respite for Chokkattu’s feet, and it’s easy to clean with a vacuum and a damp cloth. It hasn’t shown much wear despite years of use.
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Monoprice Single Monitor Adjustable Gas Spring Desk Mount for $84: WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu has tested a few of these WorkStream arm mounts for years, and they’ve reliably done the job. You can adjust the tension with a hex key and move the monitor around to your desired position. Just make sure you don’t go over the recommended weight load with a big and heavy screen.
Mount-It! Dual Monitor Arm for $280: This heavy-duty monitor arm holds up my ultrawide monitor and my vertical monitor, both of which have BenQ Screenbar lamps on top, along with my webcam. It handles the weight with no effort, and the clamp is accommodating enough to even work with the 5-inch Room & Board standing desk. There’s RGB lighting throughout, but it’s not bright enough to splash onto the wall, so it’s a little pointless, noted WIRED Reviewer Julian Chokkattu.
Harber London Professional Desk Mat for $239: Keep your desktop protected with a large desk mat like this one. I’ve used several mats from Harber London over the years, and this latest model is the favorite of WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu. The pebbled leather is supple and soft, and the mat stays put. It’s easy to clean as well.
Avoid These Standing Desks
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Corsair Platform:6 Desk
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Corsair Platform:6 Desk for $1,400: Where do I start? I liked Corsair’s standing desk because it’s spacious, has a fun pegboard design to mount your tchotchkes, and even has an interesting rail system that lets you mount and slide things across the desktop, like your monitors. Unfortunately, several months after mounting two monitors on the included dual-monitor arms, this rail system has tilted forward due to the weight. (I’m also not the only one to experience this.) It doesn’t help that I never really found this rail to be all that useful. The standing function works well, and you get two presets, but sometimes the little screen would throw me an error message “rE5.” Pressing and holding the down button resolved it, but none of these are issues anyone should deal with considering the crazy-high price. That’s the real problem. It’s just so expensive, and the five-year warranty feels like a slap in the face. This model is still listed for sale, but as out of stock last time we checked. —Julian Chokkattu
Marinamantra ‘Flow’ Sit-to-Stand Desk for $1,149: I had high hopes for this one. A desk that lets me sit crisscross applesauce while I work?! Sold. But the reality didn’t live up to the pitch. When I unboxed the desk, several screws were scattered loose in the box. That set the tone for a desk that eventually worked, but often misbehaved, sometimes refusing to move up and down. That said, I do like the cord management lip and the clever Velcro covers that keep cables and hardware neatly tucked out of sight. Unfortunately, none of that matters much if I’m spending more time flipping it over and poking around underneath the hood than actually using it. —Nicole Kinning
Alyssa Goeckner has given nearly two decades to the music industry, working with artists like Steve Aoki and Afrojack, and releasing music under Sony and Universal, among other labels. As a singer, songwriter, producer, director, and original-IP creator, her work has appeared on Billboard charts under the names Miss Palmer and Bishøp over the years. Her next endeavor is her most exciting yet, and it fundamentally shifts how music can transcend the medium and evolve into a cinematic experience with deep visual storytelling.
The Song Of The Universe is the latest project from Bishøp, which keeps music as the central theme of a multi-episode cinematic story that revolves around her as the eponymous character, fighting to restore the balance of light against the forces of darkness.
Alyssa Goeckner
Featuring 15 songs on the soundtrack, The Song Of The Universe will be told across 20 episodes as part of the first season, and will expand the cinematic universe across five additional seasons planned. The series will land on YouTube in October as an original franchise that combines a story-driven experience built atop Bishøp’s own childhood experiences with original music feeding into the wonder, emotions, and mystery of an original universe.
The premise is enthralling, but what’s even more impressive is the fact that Goeckner developed a custom multi-stage workflow that involved AI-driven tools like Adobe Creative Suite, Midjourney, Ideogram, Nano Banana, Seedream, GPT Image, Higgsfield, Kling, Seedance, and ElevenLabs to get full creative control over visual design, conceptualization, music production, character animation, and sound editing. Human input and direction were always at the lead, but this project is also a showcase of how a single artist can expand their creative work into an immersive audio-visual experience that unfolds as its own original story.
Alyssa Goeckner
Here’s the plot for The Song Of The Universe:
“Bishøp has no memory of who she was before Lumen. But something in the darkness remembers her.
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As a war between light and nothingness begins to tear through reality, a mysterious entity known as the Null starts reaching Bishøp through her dreams—calling her by a name she doesn’t recognize and awakening fragments of a past someone went to extraordinary lengths to erase. The deeper she searches for the truth, the more impossible it becomes to tell who is protecting her, who is using her, and why the most dangerous being in existence seems to know her better than she knows herself.
At the center of it all is an ancient prophecy, seven Guardians, and a power hidden inside Bishøp that could determine the fate of existence itself. To save their universe, she will have to remember who she was, discover what she is—and decide whether the darkness calling to her is the enemy… or something far more complicated.“
You can follow The Song Of The Universe by signing up on Laylo and get notified about its release. Also head to the official handle on X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to catch up on the episodic content drop.
Dario Amodei said that “we owe it to humanity to try.”
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At least one CEO of an AI company is calling for a slower pace when it comes to developing artificial intelligence. Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei wrote a lengthy post detailing a goal of pacing the speed at which AI is built, instead of forging ahead at the rapid rate that AI is currently on. Amodei proposed a three-tiered approach to achieve this, with Anthropic already committing to the first step.
The first measure calls for “frontier AI” companies to commit to “ongoing, employee-like access” for third-party evaluators who would focus on verifying compliance with certain safety standards, evaluating if AI model training is aligned with the goal of slowing down and reporting incidents. The second step requires these AI companies to establish “common safety standards” with the help of governments in order to limit the rate of unchecked AI progress. The final measure would have the US and other democratic governments coordinate with authoritarian governments to ensure everyone is on the same page about compliance.
“The measures I propose to advance the frontier at a safe pace will not be easy,” Amodei wrote in his post. “But I believe we owe it to humanity to try.”
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According to Amodei, the risks include “losing control of AI systems, misuse of AI for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption.” Amodei acknowledged the major incident where OpenAI agents broke out of a testing environment and hacked into Hugging Face. Anthropic itself recently discovered that multiple scientists were using Claude for “biological misuse.” Following these incidents, OpenAI called for California to establish “stronger safeguards” for the laws surrounding frontier AI models.
Earlier this year, Anthropic already called for a slowdown in AI development, with much of the previous plea echoing the sentiments expressed in Amodei’s recent post. However, Amodei attributed the Hugging Face incident and the onset of “recursive self-improvement,” where AI models are capable enough to develop their future iterations, as the two things that have convinced him of the need to slow down.
The company won out over some of Ireland’s most admired start-ups, including DevAlly, Spryt, MenoPal, Jentic and ArrayPatch.
Disseqt beat some impressive competition to win this year’s KPMG Global Tech Innovator (GTI) Ireland, earning a spot in the global competition final.
Disseqt’s AI assurance layer for enterprise AI operations offers IT teams a single platform to test and detect issues, protect and enforce guardrails, and prove and comply across the full AI agent lifecycle, according to KPMG, and aims to support organisations in aligning with frameworks like the EU AI Act and ISO/IEC 42001.
The judging panel found that Disseqt’s “pioneering solutions” meant it deserved its spot on the global stage in Lisbon this November, where it will represent Ireland and compete alongside innovating companies from 20 other countries in the overall final for 2026.
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“Winning the GTI Ireland competition is a tremendous honour for myself, Apoorva Kumar and Manish Atri – my co-founders – and a testament to our team’s dedication to innovation and excellence,” said Cyril Treacy, co-founder and COO of Disseqt, which is based in NovaUCD in Dublin.
“As enterprises accelerate their AI adoption, assurance, reliability and compliance have never been more critical. This recognition validates our mission to help organisations operate AI safely and responsibly, and inspires us to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in enterprise AI operations.”
“The level of innovation across this year’s competitors was outstanding and reflects the depth of talent in Ireland’s tech community,” said Anna Scally, global head of technology, media and telecommunications at KPMG.
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“Disseqt’s commitment to ensuring trustworthy, compliant AI at scale is both timely and essential.”
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Free tiers backed by paying subscribers are easier to evaluate than unlimited VPNs that won’t explain how they make money.
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The old “if it’s free, you’re the product” line is catchy, but it’s too simple for free VPNs. Some reputable providers offer limited free plans because they hope a portion of people who try will eventually pay. Other services rely on advertising, collect more data than privacy-minded users may be comfortable with or aren’t clear about how they make money. So a free VPN can be worth using, but the price tag tells you less than the provider behind it and the tradeoffs attached to the free plan.
A virtual private network routes your internet connection through a VPN server before sending traffic on to websites and online services. The VPN app encrypts the connection between your device and that server, while sites you visit generally see the server’s public IP address rather than your normal one. That can reduce what your internet provider or Wi-Fi operator learns about the destinations you connect to. Our explanation of how a VPN works goes further into the technical side.
This setup allows you to change your virtual location with a VPN, but it doesn’t make you anonymous. Websites can still recognize you through logged-in accounts, cookies, GPS data and other identifiers. Not everyone needs a VPN running all the time, either. What matters here is that using one places a VPN company in a trusted position: you’re reducing what one part of the network (your ISP) can see by routing the connection through another.
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Why free VPNs can be risky
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The pros and cons of a free VPN start with a few obvious compromises, some of which are exacerbated versions of issues inherent to VPNs. Sending traffic through another server can add latency or reduce connection speeds, which is present with any VPN but might be worse on free offerings that impose speed caps. Free VPN plans may offer fewer server locations or impose data limits. Some websites, streaming services and workplace systems block VPN connections, which becomes more of an issue when you have fewer server options for free. These are limitations you must decide whether you’re willing to accept.
Privacy practices are harder to judge based on the app itself. The Federal Trade Commission has warned about this tradeoff: a VPN app gets access to internet traffic as it passes through the service, and some free apps make money through advertising or by sharing information with third parties. In other words, hiding some connection information from your ISP doesn’t help much if the VPN provider handles that information in malicious ways.
A 2026 NDSS study of Android VPN apps shows why that concern isn’t theoretical. Researchers tested 281 popular VPN apps available on the Google Play Store. They found that 29 leaked user traffic outside the VPN tunnel, 61 transmitted some unencrypted data and 76 sent Android Advertising IDs, which can be used for tracking. The study only examined Android apps, so those figures can’t be directly applied to VPNs on every platform. They do show that an app saying “connected” doesn’t guarantee the connection is being handled securely, though.
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In some cases, the problem begins before there’s a VPN connection at all. There have been many cases of malware posing as free VPN tools. Having a VPN also doesn’t change whether you need antivirus or other malware protection, because these tools do different jobs. A VPN protects the connection between your device and its server. It doesn’t stop malicious software from running on your computer or keep you from entering a password on a phishing site.
How to tell if a free VPN is worth using
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To evaluate a free VPN, start with its business model. A limited free tier attached to a paid subscription service has an obvious source of funding. The company can restrict the free plan and use it to attract customers without the free version having to generate all of its revenue. Our selection of the best free VPNs for 2026 all come from providers that also sell subscriptions. That’s a useful signal, not proof that every freemium VPN is trustworthy.
Next, check whether the provider gives you enough information to verify its claims. Its ownership should be clear, and the privacy policy should spell out what data is collected and how it’s used. A recent public security audit carries more weight than simply putting “no logs” on a product page. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s VPN guidance similarly recommends examining data-collection practices, ownership and independent audits instead of relying on marketing claims alone.
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The VPN should also explain how it secures the connection. Established protocols such as WireGuard and OpenVPN are widely used, while a provider that won’t identify its underlying technology gives you less to evaluate. Features such as a kill switch can help too: if the VPN connection drops, the kill switch blocks internet traffic instead of quietly letting it continue outside the tunnel.
Data caps, smaller server lists and paid-only feature sets are understandable compromises: you know what the free service is withholding and can decide whether you care. If a VPN promises unlimited usage while making its ownership, data practices and/or source of revenue difficult to figure out, the compromise is much harder to see. That’s the kind of “free” worth avoiding.
The iPhone 18 Pro has arrived with a new chip and camera refinements over the iPhone 17 Pro. Here’s how Apple’s latest Pro compares against last year’s model, now with benchmarks.
iPhone 18 Pro [left] vs iPhone 17 Pro [right]
Right on schedule, Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro at its fall event as the new Pro edition to get. That is, if you don’t want the massive Pro Max version. The follow-up to the iPhone 17 Pro that introduced the aluminum unibody frame and vapor chamber cooling, the new model refines that formula rather than reinventing it. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Apple Watch Series 12’s narrower screen brings back a bezel trade-off from the Series 9 era, pairing a smaller display with a larger case than the Series 10 and Series 11.
On the 46mm model, this reduction shows up most clearly: display area falls to 1,196 square millimetres, a 2% drop from the 1,220 square millimetres listed for the Series 10 and Series 11, even as Apple keeps the resolution fixed at 416 by 496 pixels.
The 42mm version follows the same pattern: display area falls from 989 square millimetres to 970 square millimetres, a 1.9% reduction, while the 374 x 446 pixel count carries over unchanged from the previous two generations.
While the screens shrink, the cases around them grow: the 46mm case widens from 46 x 39 x 9.7mm on the Series 10 and Series 11 to 46 x 40 x 9.7mm on the Series 12, a footprint increase of roughly 2.6%.
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The 42mm case grows by a similar margin: it expands from 42 x 36 millimetres to 42 x 37 millimetres, about 2.8%, while depth stays at 9.7 millimetres across both sizes.
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That combination of a smaller screen and a wider case pushes the visible border outward, and Apple has recessed the casing while expanding the front glass on the Series 12, a design change that makes those borders look even more pronounced.
A design shift with precedent
This kind of trade-off has a precedent, since the Series 10 made a comparable move when it replaced the Series 9 in 2024, widening its case relative to the display it housed and setting the template that Series 11 and now Series 12 have both followed.
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The Series 10’s visible aluminium edge actually shrank by around 33% compared with the Series 9, yet its total bezel, which includes the black glass border, grew by roughly 17%, even though the case and display figures alone suggested an improvement.
Apple has not detailed how the recessed casing and expanded glass will feel in daily use, so early impressions will depend on hands-on testing once the Series 12 lands on wrists around the world.
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