Catch the Canadian Grand Prix live on a service that isn’t Apple.
Netflix
Heads up, racing fans. May 22-24 is the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix and for the first time, Netflix viewers in the US can tune in live to watch the high-speed action.
Streaming services are typically pretty protective of their exclusive deals, but Apple has taken a different approach with F1 programming. Even though Apple TV is the primary source for watching F1 content this year, in February the company agreed to grant Netflix the rights to air select races. The partnership makes sense, considering Netflix has seen success with its Formula 1: Drive to Survive documentary series, and this deal will allow Apple TV to also air that show’s eighth season.
Live events have become a bigger portion of Netflix’s programming in recent years, from Major League Baseball events to the return of BTS.
Redis built its name as the caching layer that kept web applications from collapsing under load. The problem it is targeting now has the same structure but is harder to solve: production AI agents failing not because the models are wrong, but because the data underneath them is scattered, stale and structured for humans rather than machines. Retrieval pipelines built for single queries cannot absorb the volume agents generate.
The gap Redis is targeting is structural: agents make orders of magnitude more data requests than human users, but most retrieval layers were built for the human-scale problem. Redis Iris, launched Monday, is the company’s answer: a context and memory platform that sits between an agent and the data it needs to act. The platform combines real-time data ingestion, a semantic interface that auto-generates MCP tools from business data models, and an agent memory server built on Redis Flex, a rewritten storage engine that runs 99% of data on flash at a tenth of the cost of in-memory storage alone.
The announcement lands as enterprise RAG infrastructure is in active transition.VentureBeat’s Q1 2026 VB Pulse RAG Infrastructure Market Tracker found buyer intent to adopt hybrid retrieval tripling from 10.3% to 33.3% between January and March. Retrieval optimization surpassed evaluation as the top enterprise investment priority for the first time. Custom in-house retrieval stacks rose from 24.1% to 35.6% as enterprises outgrew off-the-shelf options. Redis is not the only infrastructure vendor reading those signals — several data platform providers have repositioned around agent context layers in recent weeks.
The scale mismatch is the structural argument behind the launch.
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“Companies will have orders of magnitude more agents than human beings,” Rowan Trollope, CEO of Redis, told VentureBeat. “Orders of magnitude more agents than human beings means orders of magnitude more load on back end systems.”
From cache to context
Trollope traces the parallel back to the mobile era: When legacy backends built for branch tellers suddenly had to serve a million smartphone users, Redis became the caching layer that absorbed the load without a full rebuild.
What is different this time is that agents cannot write their own middleware. In the mobile era, a developer would sit with a database administrator, identify the queries an application needed and hard-code the caching logic into a middleware layer. Agents cannot do that. They need to find the right data at runtime, through interfaces built for them in advance, or they stall.
“This is like the analogy of the grocery store in the fridge,” he said. “If every time you have to go make your sandwich, you have to run to the grocery store to get the food, that’s not very efficient. You put a fridge in every house, you store a little bit of food there. And that’s kind of where we still tend to exist in the infrastructure stack.”
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What Redis Iris includes
Iris ships five components that together cover data ingestion, semantic access, memory and caching.
Redis Data Integration. Now in general availability. RDI uses change data capture pipelines to sync data from relational databases, warehouses and document stores into Redis continuously, with connectors for Oracle, Snowflake, Databricks and Postgres.
Context Retriever. Now in preview. Developers define a semantic model of business data using pydantic models and Redis auto-generates MCP tools agents use to query it directly, with row-level access controls enforced server-side. Trollope describes the shift from classic RAG as a directional inversion. “It’s just a flip to let the agent pull the data instead of presupposing and stuffing it into the pipeline,” he said.
Agent Memory. Now in preview. Stores short and long-term state across sessions so agents carry context without re-deriving it on each turn.
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Redis Flex. A rewritten storage engine that runs 99% of data on SSDs and 1% in RAM, delivering petabyte-scale retrieval at sub-millisecond latencies.
Redis Search and LangCache. The retrieval and semantic caching backbone underneath the platform. LangCache reduces redundant model calls by caching prompt responses.
What analysts say
The data industry is generally heading in the same direction now. Every major database vendor is making a context layer argument.
Traditional database vendorsincluding Oracle are integrating context and memory layers to bring relational databases into the agentic AI era. Purpose-built vector database vendors includingPineconeare doing the same, building out a new knowledge layer for agentic AI context. Standalone context layers likeHindsight are also part of the emerging landscape.
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Trollope frames Redis’s position as structurally different from that competition.
“For us to win, no one else has to lose,” he said. Many Redis deployments already run MongoDB or Oracle as the backend system of record. Iris reflects and caches from those systems rather than displacing them. Redis is launching Iris in the Snowflake marketplace with native connectors.
Stephanie Walter, Practice Leader for AI Stack at HyperFRAME Research, puts the market context plainly. “The market is converging on the same conclusion: agents don’t just need more tokens or better models. They need governed, current, low-latency context,” Walter said.
Her read on Redis’s differentiation focuses on where Redis already sits in the stack, which is close to runtime, latency-sensitive operational state, and real-time data.,
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“The pitch is not ‘better RAG’ as much as ‘agents need live context, memory, and fast retrieval while they are actually working,” she said.
Whether it’s Redis or another vendor, every context layer technology will face a governance challenge to be successful.
“Agentic AI will not scale in the enterprise if every agent becomes a new cost center, a new data access risk, and a new governance exception,” she said. “The winning context layers will be the ones that make agents faster, cheaper, and safer to run.”
For real-time clinical AI, getting context wrong is not an option
Mangoes.ai is one company that has already had to answer those questions in production, under conditions where the cost of getting context wrong is measured in patient outcomes.
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Amit Lamba, founder and CEO of Mangoes.ai, runs a real-time voice AI platform deployed across large healthcare facilities where patients and clinicians ask live questions about treatment, scheduling and case history. Mangoes.ai built its stack natively on Redis from the start.
“Retrieval, memory, and session state all run through Redis, so we’re not stitching together separate tools and hoping they talk to each other,” Lamba said.
The problem Iris’s dynamic memory capability addresses is what happens across a complex session.
“Think about a one-hour group therapy session,” Lamba said. “You need to know who said what, when, and be able to surface the right information to the therapist in the moment. That’s not a simple retrieval problem.”
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The platform runs multiple specialized agents in parallel, one for entity identification, one for relationship reasoning and one for integrating case history.
“The dynamic memory capability maps almost perfectly to the problem we’re solving,” Lamba said.
What this means for enterprises
For enterprises that built their AI stack around RAG, the retrieval layer that got them to production is no longer enough to keep them there
The RAG era is giving way to context architecture. The classic RAG model pushed data into the agent before the model was called. Production deployments are flipping that: agents pull what they need at runtime through tool calls, treating the data layer as a live resource rather than a pre-loaded payload. Teams still optimizing RAG pipelines are solving last year’s problem.
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The semantic layer is now production infrastructure. The model that defines business entities, their relationships and the access rules between them needs to be built, versioned and maintained with the same discipline as a data pipeline. Most organizations have not staffed or structured for that work. The enterprises that define their context architecture now are the ones that will not have to rebuild it when agent workloads scale.
Budget is already moving. VB Pulse Q1 2026 data shows retrieval optimization investment rising from 19% to 28.9% across the quarter, overtaking evaluation spending for the first time. Organizations that spent the previous year measuring their retrieval quality are now spending to fix it. The context layer is an active procurement decision, not a roadmap item.
“The first buyer question should not be ‘Do I need a vector database, long context, memory, or a context engine?’ It should be ‘What does this agent need to know, how fresh must that knowledge be, who is allowed to access it, and what does every retrieval cost?’” Walter said.
Trucks tend to hold their value well compared to passenger cars, but inevitably some hold their value better than others. While Toyota’s Tacoma and Tundra trucks depreciate slower than virtually any other truck on the market, brand loyalty and practicality considerations mean that most existing GM truck owners won’t be looking to switch to a Japanese brand. Instead, they’ll most likely be considering a truck from either Chevy or GMC, with the Silverado and Sierra respectively being each brand’s signature nameplates.
The Silverado and the Sierra are virtually identical under the hood, and they’re even built in the same factory. It therefore shouldn’t come as a surprise that their depreciation rates are very similar. Across every variant, the Sierra is forecast to hold slightly more of its value over the long run, although estimates of exactly how much extra value it might hold vary between sources.
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Starting with the 1500 variants of both trucks, CarEdge says that the Silverado and Sierra will depreciate an identical 43% after five years on the road. After ten years, the GMC will hold around 1% more of its initial value, according to its data. Meanwhile, iSeeCars is slightly more positive about the predicted resale value of each truck, forecasting that the Silverado will lose 39.3% of its value while the Sierra will lose only 38.2% after five years.
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A similar picture emerges with HD and EV models
Sierra also comes out on top for the 2500HD and 3500HD variants, with CarEdge forecasting that a Silverado will shed 31% of its initial value after half a decade, around 1% more than an equivalent Sierra.
It predicts the 3500HD trucks will lose an even smaller percentage of their value but again places the Sierra ahead in percentage terms. Estimates from iSeeCars tell the same story, giving high value retention estimates to the 2500HD and 3500HD variants of both models, but placing the GMC marginally ahead of its Chevy sibling by a couple percentage points.
Meanwhile, it’s notoriously difficult to predict the depreciation rates of EVs, because battery technology is still developing very fast and pricing structures for some models change regularly. Still, the 2026 GMC Sierra EV is forecast to hold onto a higher percentage of its value over an equivalent Chevrolet. According to iSeeCars, the GMC will lose 54.1% of its value over five years, while the Silverado EV will lose 56.2%.
Strangely, CarEdge suggests that the electric GMC will retain almost 20% more of its value than the Chevy over the same five years. It’s possible that this anomaly has been caused by GMC dropping the base price of the Sierra EV by $28,000 for the 2026 model year, which may have artificially deflated its average new MSRP and made its depreciation appear temporarily less severe than in reality.
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GMC trucks cost more but hold value better
It’s impossible to predict what further price changes Chevy and GMC might make to their EV truck lineups over the next few years, so it’s worth taking any predictions about their future valuations with a few extra grains of salt. Both the Sierra EV and the Silverado EV are likely to suffer much higher levels of depreciation than their ICE cousins, regardless of the brand they’re sold by.
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Leaving aside the turbulent EV market, the pattern for combustion-engine Sierras and Silverados is clear: GMC’s trucks retain a slightly higher percentage of their value than Chevy’s trucks as they age. But GMC buyers tend to pay more on average for their trucks in the first place.
To take an example, the cheapest new 2026 Silverado 1500 is a regular cab, standard bed model and starts from $39,695 (including a $2,795 destination fee) without incentives, while the cheapest 2026 Sierra 1500 starts from $41,095. At the other end of the range, a Silverado 1500 High Country with a crew cab costs at least $69,595, while an equivalent Sierra 1500 Denali retails for $73,190. Step up to a Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate, and you’ll be paying at least $86,190. That’s a big investment by any metric.
VMware has quietly debuted a technology preview of its flagship ESX hypervisor that is capable of running on Arm processors and servers.
The virtualization giant teased its new tech in a Xeet which piqued our interest and led to the discovery of this document [PDF] on the public internet that explains the hypervisor supports guests running RHEL, Ubuntu, and SUSE, on servers from HPE and Gigabyte powered by Ampere processors, or Supermicro’s ARS-221GL model with an Nvidia Grace processor.
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The document offers slightly contradictory advice to the effect that “Arm host clusters must be managed by a separate, standalone vCenter running on x86. We do not recommend managing x86 installations and Arm installations from the same vCenter.”
The tech preview appears to be a very basic affair, as it lacks support for vSAN hyperconverged storage, NSX virtual networking, and plenty of other features VMware offers in its x86 hypervisor and Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud suite.
VMware has also made it possible to access Arm guests from its desktop hypervisors. As disclosed last week in release notes for new versions of the Workstation and Fusion products that add “the ability to connect to remote ARM-based ESXi, allowing users to manage VMs on remote ARM servers directly from VMware Workstation or Fusion on any supported platform.”
Virtzilla is therefore making good on its promise to bring its hypervisor and VCF to the Arm architecture.
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The Broadcom business unit is porting its products because it thinks customers will increasingly turn to Arm servers on the network edge, perhaps for AI workloads. VMware is also aware that Arm processors can be more energy-efficient than x86 CPUs, and must also know that its hyperscale partners AWS, Microsoft, and Google aggressively promote their home-brew Arm processors as delivering superior performance-per-watt.
In its announcement of its new desktop hypervisors, VMware offers another reason: “As development environments diversify, cross-architecture connectivity is essential.”
VMware hasn’t offered a timeline to get ESX on Arm ready for a full release, but the company has previously told us it’s in no rush because customers are currently Arm-curious rather than in a rush to shift workloads onto the architecture.
While VMware explores a new architecture, its rivals continue to prepare products they hope will prize away some users who feel Broadcom’s licensing regime isn’t to their liking.
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Platform9 last week debuted “Platform9 OS”, a cut of Linux that encapsulates its Private Cloud Director in an appliance-like format so that users don’t need Linux administration skills to adopt its stack. Platform9 is going after VMware’s top 10,000 customers with a promise it won’t try to lock them in with licensing or restrictive hardware compatibility lists.
Australian outfit Netframe takes a similar approach with its wares and has chosen to walk down a well-worn path by creating a free version of its eponymous product that allows users to run up to three hosts. The company thinks that offering will attract home lab operators and small shops who will be sufficiently impressed by the product to upgrade and sign up for support. ®
All eyes are on South Korea today as officials bid to avert a strike by more than 45,000 Samsung workers that could impact global semiconductor supply chains.
With a planned walkout set to begin on 21 May, Samsung Electronics and its workers’ unions began what could be a final round of talks today (18 May), following the collapse last week of a first round of South Korean government-mediated negotiations, according to Reuters.
The threatened 18-day strike comes amid an already severe global shortage in memory chips – essential components in AI data centres, smartphones and laptops – that has fuelled massive profits at Samsung and its peers in recent months.
The dispute centres on Samsung’s performance-based bonus system. According to CNBC, the union is seeking bonuses equivalent to 15pc of Samsung’s operating profit, plus other measures, while Samsung’s management has countered with an offer of 10pc of operating profit.
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The economic stakes could hardly be higher. CNBC quotes prime minister Kim Min-seok, who estimates direct strike losses at 1trn won ($664.7m), potentially rising to 100trn won if chip production disruptions force Samsung to scrap wafers already in production.
The company accounts for 22.8pc of South Korea’s exports and revenue equivalent to 12.5pc of GDP, according to CNBC. Kim described Monday’s talks as the last opportunity to avert the strike, warning that “the economic losses we will face will be beyond imagination”.
Pressure on the unions mounted further today when the Suwon District Court partially granted Samsung’s injunction request against two unions, ordering that staffing levels required for safety, facility protection and product quality must remain at normal levels during any industrial action.
The Financial Times cited corporate lawyer Hyeseop Sim, who said the ruling “will significantly weaken the scope of the strike and the negotiating power of the unions”, adding that chip production was therefore unlikely to be significantly disrupted.
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Samsung chip division executives have also warned that key customers including Nvidia indicated they might temporarily halt shipments during a strike over product quality concerns, according to Reuters. President Lee Jae-myung called for balance on Monday, posting on X that “labour must be respected as much as corporations, and corporate management rights must be respected as much as labour rights”.
“Workers must be able to receive fair compensation for the labour they provide, and shareholders who have invested while bearing risks and losses have a share in corporate profits,” he continued.
Samsung chairperson Lee Jae-yong issued a rare public apology to customers worldwide on Saturday for causing “concern and anxiety”, according to local Korean media.
All eyes will be on the talks that are reportedly due to finish tomorrow, as the industry fears yet another hit to the global chip supply chain.
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Valve, the team behind Steam and the much loved Steam Deck, has recently unveiled three new additions to its hardware lineup.
Alongside the Steam Controller and Steam Frame headset, Valve has introduced the Steam Machine, a PC optimised for gaming on the big screen.
While the Steam Machine hasn’t officially launched yet, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know about the upcoming gaming PC. Read on to see what you should expect from the Steam Machine.
Last updated: 18th May to include rumours for gaming titles
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Steam Machine at a glance
According to Valve, the Steam Machine is set to launch within the first half of 2026, although exact date and pricing is still unconfirmed
Delayed announcements blamed on RAM prices and shortages crisis
Available in two sizes: 512GB and 2TB
Leaks suggest the Steam Machine will start at around $950/£710 for the smaller model while the 2TB size may be $1070/£800
Six-inch cube-shaped PC
Customisable LED strip at its front
Powered by SteamOS, potentially SteamOS 3.8.1 which is the first to offer initial support for the Steam Machine
AMD desktop class CPU and GPU for 4K gaming at 60 fps
What are the Steam Machine specs?
CPU
Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T
GPU
Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs
RAM
16GB
Storage
512GB or 2TB
Dimensions
152 mm tall (148 mm without feet), 162.4 mm deep, 156 mm wide
Weight
2.6kg
Operating System
SteamOS (potentially version 3.8.1)
Desktop
KDE Plasma
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 5.3 dedicated antenna
When is the Steam Machine release date?
Although Valve announced the Steam Machine, alongside the Steam Frame and Steam Controller, back in November 2025 and promised all devices would launch in “early 2026”, the exact launch date is still currently unknown. Not only that but, at the time of writing, the pricing is still unconfirmed too.
However, in a statement published back in February, Valve promised that although it has needed to “revisit” its shipping schedule for the hardware, the “goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed”. With this in mind, we can reasonably hope to see a launch by July 2026 latest.
Steam Machine. Image Credit (Valve)
Why has the Steam Machine been delayed?
So, what has actually happened for Valve to need to reassess its launch date? Perhaps unsurprisingly, Valve has revealed that the ongoing RAM crisis is to partly to blame.
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Essentially, the fact that there’s limited RAM availability and prices are continuing to rise, Valve has reported that it’s needed to reassess its initial shipping and pricing strategy.
In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Valve’s Lawrence Yang addressed the obstacles including “RAM shortages, memory shortages, price hikes” which have gotten in the way of the launch. Despite those unavoidable issues, Valve has confirmed the team are “doing [their] best” to ensure the product will still be available at “as good and competitive a price” as possible.
How much will the Steam Machine cost?
But what does this mean for pricing? Although Valve hasn’t revealed any clues as to how much the Steam Machine will likely cost, internet sleuths did apparently manage to track down a listing for the console online. Although the listing, which was found on Czech retailer Smarty’s website back in January, didn’t publicly show a price, internet detectives worked out that if you inspect the site via the browser developer console then the hidden price is there.
Seriously, there’s no hiding anything from internet sleuths.
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For the 512GB model the price is listed as 19,826 CZK which is roughly $950, while the larger 2TB model is listed for 22,305 CZK, which is around $1070.
The OP on Reddit disclaims that you should keep in mind that this pricing is from an external retailer, so the “final price directly from Steam could be lower”.
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Steam Hardware line-up. Image Credit (Valve)
However, do keep in mind that this so-called discovery was found before Valve gave its statement addressing the ongoing RAM prices issue. With this in mind, it’s not unreasonable to assume the cost of the Steam Machine might end up being higher, as Valve is still discussing the best possible pricing strategy.
Fans have also found evidence that could point to the hardware costing upwards of €1000. As shared on Reddit, an update in the source code chunk containing the hardware reservation system indicates that they have prepared the system for hardware that requires over €1000. However, we should note that it’s unclear whether or not this price refers to the Steam Machine or Steam Frame, and whether this is a bundle or not.
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While there’s plenty of rumours and supposed leaks circulating the internet, at the time of writing we simply don’t know how much the Steam Machine will cost.
Steam Machine design
Although Valve hasn’t confirmed neither the release date nor price of the Steam Machine, the company has certainly managed to build intrigue by revealing its design and specifications.
At its surface, the Steam Machine looks like a neat, fuss-free console thanks to its roughly six-inch cube design. It doesn’t look dissimilar to the Fire TV Cube, and is designed to blend into your home entertainment or desk set-up.
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Despite its compact size, the Steam Machine is impressively well equipped with plenty of ports. There’s a total of four USB-A ports available, plus a USB-C, HDMI, Ethernet and a DisplayPort. Not only that but regardless of whether you opt for the 512GB or larger 2TB version, you’ll benefit from expandable storage thanks to the microSD card slot too.
There’s also a customisable LED strip at its front, which is fitted with 17 individually addressable LEDs. This, Valve explains, can be customised to suit your preferences, used as a visual indicator to determine a download’s progress, or turned off altogether.
LED strip on Steam Machine. Image Credit (Valve)
At the rear is a nifty fan that promises to ensure the Steam Machine stays cool and runs quietly, even during the “most demanding games”.
Steam Machine performance
Before we dive into the Steam Machine’s specs, it’s worth noting that they might look a bit different after launch. According to PC’s official listing, some of the specifications are “subject to change ahead of availability”.
Otherwise, considering that it’s promised to be up to six times more powerful than the Steam Deck, these initial specs undoubtedly sound promising.
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Steam Deck in hand. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
As is to be expected, the Steam Machine is optimised for gaming and promises up to 4K gaming at 60fps with FSR. However, Valve has disclaimed that there are some titles that require more upscaling than others, and advises that “it may be preferable to play at a lower framerate with VRR to maintain a 1080p internal resolution”.
Valve continues that it’s working on HDMI VRR, investigating improved upscaling and optimising ray tracing performance in the driver.
Otherwise, although the Steam Machine is a gaming device, thanks to its semi-custom AMD desktop class Zen 4 CPU and RDNA 3 GPU, it lends itself to be a pretty decent PC too – allowing you to install your own apps or even another operating system if you like. Plus, the Steam Machine’s NVMe 2230 or 2280 SSD and memory are both accessible and upgradeable too.
Finally, although it is hailed as being “made for Steam Controller”, as the Steam Machine comes with a built-in wireless adapter specifically for pairing with the Controller, you can also pair other PC and gaming accessories to the Machine too.
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Steam Machine software rumours
Unsurprisingly, the Steam Machine will come equipped with SteamOS. There’s much to love about SteamOS as it’s designed to offer a plug-and-play experience without a needlessly complicated set-up. Valve also states that it’s expanding the Verified program to include ratings for Steam Machine, which means you’ll be able to see how well a game will run on before committing.
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We actually have a bit more detail on what SteamOS version the Steam Machine will likely come running on. On April 10th, Steam released SteamOS 3.8.1 in beta, which is currently available for those who have opted in via their device’s Settings. The OS update includes general fixes and improvements to features, such as better support for screencasts in Game Mode and resolved issues in certain titles where the game window would have an incorrect position or could crash. However, what’s really caught our attention is the addition of “Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware” listed in its feature updates.
With this in mind, it certainly seems as if we’re edging closer to the launch of Steam Machine, as Steam’s latest OS offers support for the hardware. However, remember this software update is still in beta and we don’t know when it’ll become readily available.
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Will Half-Life 3 be a Steam Machine launch title?
While Valve has stated that it’s expanding the Verified program to include ratings for Steam Machine, we don’t have a direct list of titles. However, one title that has particularly drummed up attention is the possibility of the long-awaited sequel to 2004’s Half-Life 2: Half-Life 3.
Although former Valve writer Chet Faliszek stated he had “no interest” in working on Half-Life 3, there are still plenty of rumours surrounding the possibility that the title will launch for Steam Machine. As exciting as this rumour is, we should disclaim that this is pure speculation at this point.
Opinion
The Steam Machine is already set to be one of the most exciting gaming launches of 2026, thanks to its impressive specs, fuss-free design and a generous selection of connectivity ports.
However, as its exact price is still at large, it’s looking likely to end up being a pricey PC, it’s difficult to determine just how appealing the Steam Machine really is. With this in mind, we’ll have to wait until its official launch to see whether the price is right.
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While we patiently wait for more updates, visit our guide to the best game consoles to see our current favourites.
Most consumer-grade night vision devices are basically a standard camera without the usual filter to block near infrared (NIR) light, which are then paired with a NIR light source that’s not visible to the human eye. Unlike the passive night vision provided by a photomultiplier tube, these can’t resolve objects beyond the beam of their illumination source. On the other hand, if, as [Project 326] did, you use an infrared laser to illuminate the scene, you can still get a very long range out of these devices.
[Project 326]’s device consists of a previously-built reflecting telescope focusing a distant scene in to a webcam with the infrared filter removed, with the infrared laser illuminating the scene. Finding a suitable laser took some effort: the first option, a secondhand fiber-coupled industrial laser, was accidentally over-volted and destroyed during testing. The second had a fiber output which proved extremely hard to terminate, and a third laser couldn’t be collimated correctly. The final laser was a Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VSEL) diode array element driven at about two Watts and collimated by a small lens.
This illumination setup is safe at a long range, but only at a long range. The laser was strong enough to burn cardboard at close range, but out at about 500 meters, the beam had spread until it was less than a hundredth of the standard safety limit. To make sure that nothing else would get in the way of the beam, it was shone down from the top of a tall building. Testing with a power meter also showed that at a long range, the beam was weaker than expected. It turned out that the wavelength used (940 nm) is attenuated by water vapor, to the point that up to 70% of the beam’s strength was lost before reaching the target. Despite this, and despite a rather linear beam profile, a somewhat dark image was still visible at 650 meters.
Current users reach for this tablet first thing in the morning and keep it close until lights out. The 11th generation iPad brings the A16 chip, priced at $299 (was $349), into the mix, and the difference shows up right away in how quickly apps open and switch. Scrolling through photos, editing a quick document, or jumping between notes and a browser feels immediate, without any lag that pulls you out of the moment.
Screen size lands at a comfortable eleven inches, measured diagonally across a sharp Liquid Retina panel. Colors look natural under different room lights thanks to True Tone, and brightness hits enough nits to stay clear even near a sunny window. Whether watching a show on a long flight or reading an article in bed, the display draws you in without tiring the eyes after hours of use.
WHY IPAD — The 11-inch iPad is now more capable than ever with the superfast A16 chip, a stunning Liquid Retina display, advanced cameras, fast…
PERFORMANCE AND STORAGE — The superfast A16 chip delivers a boost in performance for your favorite activities. And with all-day battery life, iPad…
11-INCH LIQUID RETINA DISPLAY — The gorgeous Liquid Retina display is an amazing way to watch movies or draw your next masterpiece.* True Tone…
Even if you use it heavily, the battery will easily last the entire day. You can watch movies, check your email, sketch up ideas, and still have enough juice for some nighttime reading. The capacity works out to roughly twenty-nine watt-hours, which translates to practical endurance that matches how most folks actually spend their time with a tablet.
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The A16 chip is more than capable of handling daily tasks. So, whether you’re using many apps at once or doing something more demanding, everything works smoothly as silk. Even photo changes and video clips seem faster than you’d expect from a tablet like this. Casual games also load quickly and play smoothly, allowing you to use it for genuine work when the first joy of unwrapping has gone off.
Both the front and back cameras are 12 megapixels, and the front one does an excellent job of keeping you in focus during video conversations. The back camera may capture clear photos of whiteboards, receipts, or even family interactions, as well as video suitable for a quick social media post. These cameras simply perform what most people expect from a tablet camera, without going overboard.
Accessories transform this item into a completely new tool. Use the Apple Pencil, either the new USB-C version or the old one with its simple adaptor, and writing or drawing becomes effortless. The Magic Keyboard Folio transforms the iPad into a full-fledged portable workstation, ideal for those extended typing sessions. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 provide up-to-date connectivity, allowing you to quickly get files and downloads while keeping your wireless accessories linked. Because it is USB-C, you can charge it with a single cable and transfer files to a laptop if necessary.
The Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9-Quart Air Fryer is an excellent choice for those who love the convenience of cooking two different types of foods at different temperatures. No more waiting for one item to finish baking so you can take it out and load in the second item, or resorting to using another appliance to cook the rest of your meals at the same time. Having presets for some of the most popular foods are an additional convenience that takes the guesswork out of preparing meals. However, if you tend to make a lot of food, the two 4.5-quart baskets may be too small for your needs. And if you need a temperature that exceeds 400 degrees, this may not be the air fryer for you.
Two air fry baskets
Cook two foods at different temperatures
Eight presets
Shake/flip reminders at halfway point
No window to view cooking progress in the 9-quart model
Max temperature is 400°F
Key Features
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Dual baskets
Cook meat on one side, and veggies on the other, at different temperatures – and have them finish cooking at the same time.
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Shake/flip reminders
If you’re not paying attention to the countdown timer, the air fryer beeps when it’s time to shake or flip food – with separate reminders for each basket.
Introduction
Air fryers are quite a life-changing invention. (Okay, I’m sure they said that about regular ovens, and microwaves as well.) The ability to cook a complete meal in a small box that sits on your countertop, instead of having to heat up an entire oven (and your kitchen) is not only more convenient, but also faster. There’s only one thing that has kept air fryers from being perfect: if you’re preparing two types of foods, you’ll either need to crank up the regular oven, use the microwave, or wait until your air fryer finishes with the first item, and then insert the second one.
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Admittedly, there are air fryers with dividers for cooking two meals at the same time, for example, back in 2023, my colleague David Ludlow, reviewed the highly-rated Ninja Foodi FlexDraw Air Fryer, which uses a removable divider. However, if you prefer a slightly smaller (9-quart vs 10-quart) option with two separate baskets, the Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual Air Fryer is definitely worth a look. The two baskets can cook two foods at different temperatures and times, or you can sync the baskets to mirror each other, and/or sync them to finish at the same time. Combined with the presets and user-friendly design, this air fryer is a winner.
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Design and features
User-friendly display
Independent controls
Dual baskets
The Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9-Quart Air Fryer arrived in a brown cardboard box, and inside of that, a white, branded cardboard box with a convenient carry handle on top, which made it much easier to transport the appliance up the stairs to the kitchen. The air fryer is 20” W x 13” H x 10” D. It’s bigger than the average air fryer – but since it has dual baskets, that’s to be expected. However, I was pleasantly surprised that it’s not heavy, weighing only 16.3 pounds.
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The air fryer consists of the main body, 2 baskets with handles, and 2 basket racks. There’s also a quick start guide and a user manual.
The control/display panel is easy to read and very user-friendly. It includes general selections, and also specific selections for each basket.
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The general controls are as follows:
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The Start/Stop button is used for both baskets. If only using one basket, the number (1 or 2) will be illuminated.
The Cooking Preset buttons will automatically set both the time and temperature for 8 foods (which are displayed as icons): fries, chicken, fish, bacon, burgers, steak, vegetables, and shrimp.
The Sync Baskets button programs both baskets to cook at the same time and temperature.
The Sync Finish button ensures that the two baskets finish at the same time, even if they have different cooking times and/or temperatures.
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Each basket also has its own controls:
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The Time/Temp buttons select the time and temperature.
The + and – buttons are used to increase or decrease the time and temperature.
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The Shake Lights illuminate at the halfway point as a reminder to shake the basket or flip/turn the contents.
The Running Lights illuminate when the basket is in use.
I only had one concern with the design of the Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9-Quart Air Fryer: There’s no window, so I couldn’t view my food to see how it was progressing (without pulling out the baskets). However, Chefman also makes two 6-quart models – one with a window, and one without it.
Performance
Temp tops out at 400 degrees F
Shake/flip reminder
Food turned out great
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Although the Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9-Quart Air Fryer tested nearly flawlessly, I discovered that the maximum temperature is 400°F.
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Initially, I didn’t think this was such a big deal. However, after perusing some of my other air fryer reviews, I noticed that when I air-fried wings in the Chef iQ MiniOven, the instructions were to set the temperature to 450°F. The Ninja French Door Premium Air Fryer Oven Toaster recommends setting the temp to 450°F when making Cheesy Bread with Marinara Sauce, and Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza.
However, I don’t think any of the foods that I tested in the Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9-Quart Air Fryer suffered from being cooked at a lower temperature, although it probably increased the cooking times. However, I wanted to bring this to your attention, in case the temperature range is a factor that you consider when choosing an air fryer.
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In my first test, I cooked steak-cut fries in the left basket at 400°F for 20 minutes, and chicken breast in the right basket at 375°Ffor 30 minutes. I used the presets for Fries and Chicken (adjusting accordingly), and chose the Sync Finish setting. The Sync Finish delays the start time on the basket with the shorter cooking time – in this case, the fries.
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At the halfway point for each (which was at different times), the Shake lights came on (not that I saw them since I wasn’t standing close by), and the air fryer also beeped, which I did hear. I flipped the fries, and later, I turned the chicken over. (Note: the shake lights and beep will occur regardless of what you’re cooking. If you don’t need to shake, flip, or turn anything over, you can just ignore the alerts.)
The fries came out perfectly. They were slightly crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside.
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The chicken was very crispy around the edges, but moist and tender on the inside. Both baskets have a removable basket rack (with a center grip bar that makes it easy to remove). One advantage of the racks is that they keep food off the bottom of the basket – which means that oil drains off, so food is not greasy.
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If you look at the photos, sometimes, the control panel displays the remaining time, sometimes it displays the temperature, and other times, it displays the status lights. That’s because every few seconds, the controls cycle through each of the indicators. And they don’t necessarily sync, so you may see the temperature on the left side, and the remaining time on the right side.
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In my second test, I air fried chicken legs in the left basket, and tossed some frozen veggies in the right basket. I selected the Chicken and Veggies presets, adjusted accordingly, and selected Sync Finish. As you can see, one basket can easily hold four legs.
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The chicken legs cooked perfectly, and they were tender and delicious.
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However, the veggies were rather dry (I knew this was a possibility, but wanted to test my theory), and a few of the veggies were singed.
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In another test, I cooked frozen Alaskan Seafood coho salmon in one of the baskets. It cooked perfectly, and was so soft that it fell apart when I tried to pick it up.
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On another occasion, I toasted bread. One of my concerns with having 2 baskets that were only 4.5 quarts each was that some families would find it too small to hold enough bread. However, I was able to fit 2 slices of bread into each basket. And since they were both cooking for the same time and at the same temperature, I selected Sync Baskets.
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The toast in both baskets came out perfectly browned and was slightly crunchy. In the photo above, I flipped one piece of toast so you can see the other side.
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No test is complete without testing the air fryer’s ability to make cookies. TheNestle Tollhouse Cookies came out crunchy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside.
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In another test, I cooked chicken wings. I was able to put 10 wings in one basket, with room enough for several more. The chicken wings came out well. They were crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and quite flavorful.
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Cleanup is also relatively easy, as the nonstick baskets are dishwasher safe.
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Should you buy it?
You want to cook two items simultaneously
Steak and potatoes, chicken and fries, this air fryer is great for preparing two items – and you can cook them at the same or different temperatures.
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You need to cook large items
While it’s a 9-quart air fryer, each basket is only 4.5 quarts, so you won’t be cooking a whole turkey or pizza.
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Final Thoughts
The only thing better than one air fryer is two air fryers. Admittedly, most people complain of not having enough countertop space, so two of these appliances are impractical. However, the Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9 Quart Air Fryer has dual baskets – and they can operate independently, or be synced to cook at the same temperature/time and/or to finish cooking at the same time. There are eight presets: chicken, fries, burger, bacon, fish, veggies, steak, and shrimp, making it super easy to cook these popular foods. The digital display is user-friendly and easy to read.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every air fryer we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
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Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main air fryer for the review period
We cook real food in each air fryer, making chips, frying sausages and cooking frozen hash browns. This lets us compare quality between each air fryer that we test.
FAQs
What’s the maximum cooking temperature on the Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9 Quart Air Fryer?
It can reach 400°F, which is a little lower than the competition. That might make some food not quite as crispy and extend cooking times, but overall results in my tests were very good.
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Test Data
Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9 Quart Air Fryer
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Full Specs
Chefman TurboFry Touch Dual 9 Quart Air Fryer Review
More than 200 individuals were arrested for cybercrime activities during INTERPOL’s Operation Ramz, which focused on the Middle East and North Africa.
Law enforcement also identified another 382 suspects across 13 countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, and the UAE).
In addition to the arrests, authorities seized 53 servers used for phishing, malware, and online fraud that affected at least 3,867 confirmed victims, as determined from nearly 8,000 intelligence packages retrieved from the equipment.
“The operation focused on neutralizing phishing and malware threats, as well as tackling cyber scams that inflict severe cost to the region,” reads the INTERPOL announcement.
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Seized devices in Jordan Source: INTERPOL
INTERPOL collaborated with several private cybersecurity firms to track the malicious infrastructure, including Kaspersky, Group-IB, The Shadowserver Foundation, Team Cymru, and TrendAI.
Some highlights of ‘Operation Ramz’ include:
securing compromised devices unknowingly used to spread malware in Qatar
dismantling an investment scam operation in Jordan, where 15 trafficked workers from Asia were forced to run fraud schemes; two organizers were arrested
disabling a vulnerable malware-infected server containing sensitive data in Oman
shutting down a phishing-as-a-service platform in Algeria and arresting one suspect
seizing devices and banking data linked to phishing operations in Morocco, with multiple suspects under judicial investigation
This is the third major cybercrime crackdown operation INTERPOL has concluded this year.
In March, the authorities announced ‘Operation Synergia III,’ which resulted in sinkholing 45,000 malicious IP addresses, the seizure of 212 devices and servers, and the arrest of 94 individuals across 72 countries, for participating in phishing, hacking, fraud, and malware distribution.
Earlier, in February, INTERPOL announced the arrest of 651 suspects across 16 African countries, as part of ‘Operation Red Card 2.0,’ targeting investment fraud, mobile money scams, and fake loan apps linked to more than $45 million in losses.
Automated pentesting tools deliver real value, but they were built to answer one question: can an attacker move through the network? They were not built to test whether your controls block threats, your detection rules fire, or your cloud configs hold.
This guide covers the 6 surfaces you actually need to validate.
SpaceX has raised prices on every consumer Starlink plan by $5 to $10 per month and doubled Standby Mode from $5 to $10, effective immediately for new customers and from 18 June for existing subscribers. The increases come as Starlink crosses 10 million users and SpaceX prepares for its IPO.
SpaceX has raised the price of every consumer Starlink plan in the United States, adding $5 to $10 per month across its residential and mobile tiers while doubling the cost of its budget Standby Mode from $5 to $10. The increases, which took effect immediately for new subscribers and will apply to existing customers from their next billing cycle on or after 18 June, come as SpaceX prepares for what would be the largest initial public offering in history and as its only serious competitor, Amazon’s satellite internet service, approaches commercial launch.
What changed
The new pricing touches every consumer tier except the recently introduced Roam 300GB plan, which remains at $80 per month. Residential plans, designed for fixed-location use at homes, rose across the board: the 100 Mbps tier went from $50 to $55, the 200 Mbps tier from $80 to $85, and the MAX tier, which offers the fastest available speeds, from $120 to $130. Roam plans, which allow mobile use at speeds of up to 100 mph and work across international borders, also increased: Roam 100GB moved from $50 to $55, and Roam Unlimited from $165 to $175.
The most notable change is to Standby Mode, a feature introduced in 2025 that allows subscribers to pause their active service while maintaining a minimal 500 Kbps connection for emergency use, firmware updates, and basic connectivity. At $5 per month, Standby was an attractive option for seasonal users, RV owners, and anyone who wanted to keep their Starlink hardware alive without paying for full service. At $10, the calculus shifts: the doubled price, combined with recent restrictions that removed in-motion use from Standby in March and eliminated the demand surcharge shield in April, makes the feature substantially less appealing than when it launched.
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SpaceX’s justification was terse. The company told customers in an email notification that the adjustment “supports ongoing improvements and investment in affordable, high-performance products and services as global operating costs continue to rise.”
The business context
The price increases arrive at a moment when SpaceX’s satellite internet business has never been stronger. Starlink crossed 10 million subscribers worldwide in February 2026, roughly doubling its user base in a single year. The constellation now consists of more than 10,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, representing approximately 65 per cent of all active satellites, and covers between 125 and 155 countries and territories. Revenue for 2025 reached $11.4 billion, with EBITDA margins of 63 per cent.
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SpaceX’s public IPO filing targets a valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion and a raise of $75 billion, which would make it the largest public offering in history. A February 2026 all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s AI company xAI valued the combined entity at $1.25 trillion but also imported xAI’s cash burn onto SpaceX’s balance sheet for the first time, with the merged company posting a net loss of $4.94 billion in 2025 despite $18.67 billion in combined revenue.
The price increases, applied across more than 10 million accounts, could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional annual revenue, a meaningful contribution to the revenue growth story that SpaceX will need to tell public market investors. Notably, SpaceX actually reduced prices for its business-focused Local Priority plans earlier this month, suggesting a strategic decision to test consumer price elasticity while keeping enterprise rates competitive.
The competition question
For most of its existence, Starlink has operated without meaningful competition in the consumer satellite broadband market. That is about to change. Amazon’s satellite internet service, rebranded from Project Kuiper to Amazon Leo, entered enterprise beta in April 2026 with commercial availability targeted for mid-2026. Amazon has authorisation to launch more than 3,000 broadband satellites and has signed beta partnerships with Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone, JetBlue, and NASA.
European alternatives like Eutelsat are also building competing constellations, though none has yet reached the scale or coverage that Starlink offers. The timing of SpaceX’s price increases, just months before Amazon Leo’s commercial launch, suggests either confidence that its first-mover advantage is durable or a calculation that it needs to extract maximum revenue now before competitive pressure constrains pricing.
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Early analysis of the satellite broadband market projected that low-earth-orbit internet could save American consumers $30 billion a year by introducing competition into markets dominated by a single terrestrial provider. That projection assumed competitive pricing among satellite operators. If Starlink raises prices in the absence of competition and Amazon matches those prices upon launch, the savings may never materialise.
What it means for users
The increases are modest in isolation, $5 to $10 per month, but they follow a pattern. SpaceX has changed Starlink’s pricing, plan structure, or feature availability at least five times in 2026 alone: the Standby in-motion removal in March, the demand surcharge shield removal in April, the new Roam 300GB plan introduction in May, the business plan price decreases in May, and now the consumer price increases. The company also introduced a new travel registration policy in May requiring passport and selfie verification for international roaming.
For residential customers in areas with no terrestrial broadband alternative, the increases are an unavoidable cost of being connected. For mobile users who rely on Starlink’s Roam plans for RV travel, maritime use, or remote work, the combination of price increases and feature restrictions makes the service incrementally less attractive at a time when cellular networks are expanding rural coverage through T-Mobile and SpaceX’s own direct-to-cell partnership.
The Standby Mode doubling is particularly significant for seasonal users. At $5 per month, keeping a Starlink dish alive during the off-season was effectively a rounding error. At $10, some users may choose to cancel entirely and reactivate when needed, a process that currently carries no additional fee. SpaceX may be betting that the friction of reactivation, or the risk that it introduces one, will keep enough subscribers on Standby to justify the higher price.
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The broader picture is a company that has built an extraordinary product, satellite broadband that genuinely works, delivered to 10 million people in places that no terrestrial provider had any commercial interest in serving, and that is now monetising its monopoly position before competition arrives. Whether the pricing reflects the genuine cost of maintaining and expanding a 10,000-satellite constellation or simply the leverage of being the only option, the answer for most Starlink customers is the same: there is, for now, nowhere else to go.
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