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The influencer economy’s invisible workers are first in line for the AI chop

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The creator economy loves a neat little fairy tale: one magnetic person, one camera, one lucky break. It’s a great story. It’s also nonsense.

A lot of so-called organic growth has been industrialized for years. The Hollywood Reporter recently showed how major creators and media companies relied on armies of clippers to carve long videos into viral bait, turning audience growth into a volume game. And that operation never stopped with clippers. It sprawled into a wider layer of digital labor, from editors and thumbnail makers to virtual assistants handling scheduling, posting, inbox cleanup, and brand admin.

Many of those workers sit in the same countries that power global remote services, including the Philippines and India, where outsourcing still employs millions. The Philippines’ IT-BPM sector closed 2024 with 1.82 million jobs and $38 billion in revenue, while India’s tech sector workforce reached 5.43 million in FY24.

The creator economy didn’t invent this setup. It simply borrowed it, gave it ring lights, and called it hustle.

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The creator economy built a labor pipeline it could underpay

What looked like spontaneity was often logistics with good lighting. Influencers didn’t just appear everywhere on TikTok, Reels, and Shorts by force of personality. They paid for a production chain that could cut clips, resize videos, write captions, schedule posts, and keep the content conveyor belt moving.

That arrangement worked because the labor was affordable and mostly invisible. Now the same businesses that benefited from it are turning to tools like OpusClip, which promise to turn long videos into short clips and publish them across platforms with a click. The factory floor was always there. AI just wants fewer people on it.

AI usually doesn’t kill the job first. It cheapens it

This is the part the booster crowd likes to skip. A job usually doesn’t disappear in one dramatic moment. It gets stripped for parts first.

The editor becomes the person checking AI cuts, fixing captions, swapping thumbnails, cleaning timestamps, repackaging clips, and posting them across five platforms because the software still does a few things badly enough to be embarrassing. Upwork’s 2026 skills report puts a number on the shift: demand for AI video generation and editing rose 329% year over year.

That doesn’t mean human labor is gone. It means human labor is being pushed into babysitting the machine that’s learning how to absorb more of the work.

The next shock lands in outsourcing hubs, not just creator mansions

The easy version of this story is a rich influencer replacing an editor in Los Angeles. The more honest version reaches much farther. In Latin America, regional platforms such as Workana grew by serving workers shut out by language and market barriers on global platforms, with the World Bank describing Workana as the largest freelance and remote work platform in the region.

So when AI starts squeezing this layer of work, the fallout won’t stop at a few creator agencies or freelance editors in big US cities. It’ll hit the remote workers in outsourcing economies who were told digital work was the safer future. The same system that turned customer support and back-office tasks into globally tradable labor did the same thing to creator work. It chopped the job into repeatable pieces, sent them abroad, and rewarded whoever could do them fastest and cheapest.

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That’s why the clipping story matters beyond creator gossip. AI isn’t crashing into some pristine meritocracy. It’s tightening the screws on a system that was already built to make workers interchangeable.

The creator economy was perfectly happy with invisible human labor when it was cheap and easy to ignore. Now it’s discovering that the cleanest version of “organic reach” is one that no longer has to pay the army behind it.

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OpenAI introduces ChatGPT Pro $100 tier with 5X usage limits for Codex compared to Plus

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OpenAI is making moves to try and court more developers and vibe coders (those who build software using AI models and natural language) away from rivals like Anthropic.

Today, the firm arguably most synonymous with the generative AI boom announced it will begin offering a new, more mid-range subscription tier — a $100 ChatGPT Pro plan — which joins its free, Go ($8 monthly), Plus ($20 monthly) and existing Pro ($200 monthly) plans for individuals using ChatGPT and related OpenAI products.

OpenAI also currently offers Edu, Business ($25 per user monthly, formerly known as Team) and Enterprise (variably priced) plans for organizations in said sectors.

Why offer a $100 monthly ChatGPT Pro plan?

So why introduce a new $100 ChatGPT Pro plan, then?

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The big selling point from OpenAI is that the new plan offers five times greater usage limits on Codex, the company’s agentic vibe coding application/harness (the name is shared by both, as well as a lineup of coding-specific language models), than the existing, $20 monthly Plus plan, which seems fair given the math ($20×5=$100).

As OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman wrote in a post on X: “It is very nice to see Codex getting so much love. We are launching a $100 ChatGPT Pro tier by very popular demand.”

However, alongside this, OpenAI’s official company account on X noted that “we’re rebalancing Codex usage in [ChatGPT] Plus to support more sessions throughout the week, rather than longer sessions in a single day.”

That sounds a lot like OpenAI is also simultaneously reducing how much ChatGPT Plus users can use its Codex harness and application per day.

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What are the new usage limits for the new $100 ChatGPT Pro plan vs. the $20 Plus?

So, what are the current limits on the $20 Plus plan? The new Pro plan gives you 5X greater than…what?

Turns out, this is trickier than you’d think to calculate, because it actually varies depending on which underlying AI model you are using to power the Codex application or harness, and whether you are working on code stored in the cloud or locally on your machine or servers.

OpenAI’s Developer website underwent several updates today, so we’ve only reflected the latest pricing structure and offerings below as of Thursday, April at 10:45 pm ET. It notes that for individual users, Codex usage is categorized by “Local Messages” (tasks run on the user’s machine) and “Cloud Tasks” (tasks run on OpenAI’s infrastructure), and those limits share a five-hour rolling window.

It also says additional weekly limits may apply. The current Codex pricing page now shows lower displayed usage ranges than the older version, and it measures Code Reviews in a five-hour window rather than per week. For Pro 5x specifically, OpenAI says the currently shown limits include a temporary 2x usage boost that ends May 31, 2026.

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ChatGPT Plus ($20/month)

  • GPT-5.4: 20–100 local messages every 5 hours.

  • GPT-5.4-mini: 60–350 local messages every 5 hours.

  • GPT-5.3-Codex: 30–150 local messages and 10–60 cloud tasks every 5 hours.

  • Code Reviews: 20–50 every 5 hours.

ChatGPT Pro 5x ($100/month)

  • GPT-5.4: 200–1,000 local messages every 5 hours.

  • GPT-5.4-mini: 600–3,500 local messages every 5 hours.

  • GPT-5.3-Codex: 300–1,500 local messages and 100–600 cloud tasks every 5 hours.

  • Code Reviews: 200–500 every 5 hours.

Note: The limits shown for Pro 5x include a temporary 2x usage boost that ends May 31, 2026.

ChatGPT Pro 20x ($200/month)

  • GPT-5.4: 400–2,000 local messages every 5 hours.

  • GPT-5.4-mini: 1,200–7,000 local messages every 5 hours.

  • GPT-5.3-Codex: 600–3,000 local messages and 200–1,200 cloud tasks every 5 hours.

  • Code Reviews: 400–1,000 every 5 hours.

  • Exclusive access: Includes GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark in research preview for ChatGPT Pro users only. OpenAI says it has its own separate usage limit, which may adjust based on demand.

And as OpenAI’s Help documentation states:

“The number of Codex messages you can send within these limits varies based on the size and complexity of your coding tasks, and where you execute tasks. Small scripts or simple functions may only consume a fraction of your allowance, while larger codebases, long running tasks, or extended sessions that require Codex to hold more context will use significantly more per message.”

The larger strategic implications and context

OpenAI’s sudden move toward the $100 price point and expanded agentic capacity comes amid the unprecedented financial ascent of its chief rival, Anthropic.

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Just days ago, Anthropic revealed its annualized run-rate revenue (ARR) has topped $30 billion, surpassing OpenAI’s last reported ARR of approximately $24–$25 billion.

This growth has been fueled by the massive adoption of Claude Code and Claude Cowork, products that have set the benchmark for enterprise-grade autonomous coding.

The competitive friction intensified on April 4, 2026, when Anthropic officially blocked Claude subscriptions from being used to provide the intelligence for third-party agentic AI harnesses like OpenClaw.

To be clear, Anthropic Claude models themselves can still be used with OpenClaw, users just must now pay for access to Claude models through Anthropic’s application programming interface (API) or extra usage credits, rather than as part of the monthly Claude subscription tiers (which some have likened to an “all-you-can eat” buffet, making the economics challenging for Anthropic when power users and third-party harnesses like OpenClaw consume more than the $20 or $200 monthly user spend on the plans in tokens).

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OpenClaw’s creator, Peter Steinberger, was notably hired by OpenAI in February 2026 to lead their personal agent strategy, and has, since joining, actively spoken out against Anthropic’s limitations — advising that OpenAI’s Codex and models generally don’t have the same restrictions as Anthropic is now imposing.

By hiring Steinberger and subsequently launching a Pro tier that provides the high-volume capacity Anthropic recently restricted, OpenAI is effectively courting the displaced OpenClaw community to reclaim the professional developer market.

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Musk, Bezos, Both Cry To Trump’s FCC In Bid To Dominate Satellite Broadband

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from the dominating-the-skies dept

Elon Musk is desperate to dominate the Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellite broadband market. So is Jeff Bezos. And now the two billionaires are engaged in proxy fights at Trump’s FCC over who’ll get the honor.

Amazon’s LEO offering, Project Leo, is significantly behind Musk’s Starlink, and has been rushing to build out its LEO satellite constellation. To slow down their pace, Musk’s Starlink has started complaining to the FCC, insisting that Amazon violated orbital debris requirements by launching satellites into orbital altitudes that are too high, increasing the risks to other satellites and spacecraft.

Amazon has responded by basically saying Musk’s Starlink is lying to slow the arrival of a competitor to market:

“SpaceX only objected to the launch parameters after moving its Starlink satellites into nearby altitudes, Amazon said. Changing the altitude of a recent Leo launch would have delayed it by months, according to Amazon. Both Amazon and SpaceX have accused each other of using Federal Communications Commission proceedings to delay the other’s satellite launches at various times over the years.”

Hoping to avoid harming “free market innovation,” it took years for the FCC to finally recently implement some bare bones “space junk” LEO collision guidance, though enforcement has been sporadic, and I’m doubtful two billionaire Trump donors will ever see much in the way of accountability.

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Both billionaires are hoping to leverage their ongoing support of Trump to their own benefit. Both have already had significant success on that front; Musk and Bezos convinced the Trump administration to redirect billions in infrastructure bill subsidies (earmarked for reliable, faster fiber) over to their LEO satellite broadband businesses for service they already planned to deploy.

I’m not inclined to believe either billionaire or their companies. Nor am I inclined to believe that FCC boss Brendan Carr has the integrity or competence to manage this dispute or to protect the public longer term. Starlink has recently seen several satellites blow up in orbit and has been very murky about the reasons for it. Tens of thousands more LEO satellites are slated for launch in the next few years.

The grand irony is that the mad dash toward LEO satellite broadband doesn’t really deliver on the promise of significantly better broadband. LEO satellite connectivity is great for folks who have no other option, but the technology comes with a long list of caveats.

The resulting networks will be too congested to truly scale or provide real competition for local telecom monopolies. The resulting services are also routinely too expensive for the folks who currently can’t afford access. Then there’s the problem of LEO satellite launches harming astronomy research and the ozone layer, issues I suspect won’t be a priority for Bezos, Musk, or Carr.

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I’d expect to see much more orbital (and terrestrial consumer) chaos in the years to come, given absolutely none of these folks tend to think too deeply about the public interest.

Filed Under: brendan carr, elon musk, fcc, jeff bezos, leo, leo satellites

Companies: amazon, project leo, spacex, starlink

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Microsoft starts removing unnecessary Copilot buttons in Windows 11

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Microsoft has rolled out a Notepad update for Windows Insiders that removes the Copilot branding and icon from within the app, Windows Central has reported. The old Copilot menu has been replaced with “writing tools,” but it’s worth noting that the tools are still powered by AI and are pretty much identical to the selection found in the old menu. Microsoft has just replaced the Copilot button with a pen icon. In addition, the company has removed mentions of AI in the Settings menu and has placed the option to disable the AI-powered writing tools within the “Advanced features” section.

The company first announced that it was dialing back its Copilot branding last month, most likely in response to all the criticisms against the AI assistant. It’s not very well-liked, with people complaining that Microsoft is forcing them to use the assistant inside all its apps and that Copilot doesn’t provide a consistent experience across different applications. “You will see us be more intentional about how and where Copilot integrates across Windows,” said Windows and Devices EVP Pavan Davuluri. Microsoft also promised to remove “unnecessary Copilot entry points,” starting with Notepad, Snipping Tool, Photos and Widgets. According to The Verge, Microsoft has already stopped showing the Copilot button when selecting areas to capture with the Snipping Tool, as well. Clearly, the company has been making good progress on yanking at least the visual reminders of Copilot from its apps.

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Aventon Current ADV Electric Mountain Bike Review: Feels Just Like the Real Thing

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While Aventon is known first and foremost as an ebike brand, the company started by making fixies in 2013. That gives it some bona fides when it comes to making enjoyable rides for experienced cyclists. (In addition to the Current ADV, there’s also a higher-end model, the Current EXP, with a more expensive carbon frame and better components.) Since its first venture into e-MTBs with the Ramblas in 2024, the company has continued to develop very nicely specced electric mountain bikes for the price.

The designers behind the newest iterations did a masterful job. The Current ADV looks 100 percent the part of contemporary mountain bike. With its 6061 aluminum frame, SRAM Eagle groupset, tubeless-ready Maxxis Minion tires wrapping a pair of double-walled 29-inch wheels, a 170-mm X Fusion Manic dropper post, a Rockshox Psylo Gold front suspension that boasts 150 mm of travel, and a Rockshox Deluxe Select+, it’d be easy to confuse the Current ADV for a traditional analog mountain bike.

Image may contain Machine Spoke Wheel Coil Rotor Spiral Bicycle Transportation and Vehicle

Photograph: Michael Venutolo-Mantovani

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It’s worth noting that while the motor is proprietary to Aventon, the components are not. It might be difficult to get your local bike shop to look at the battery and motor, but assuming those are fine, it won’t be hard to swap anything else out should you need to repair it.

Despite its design and ride feel, all of which can make you easily forget you’re riding electric, the Current ADV is a class 1 e-MTB (which can be toggled to a class 3 via the brand’s app), and one that gives hours and hours of riding on a single charge.

The 800-watt-hour battery is tucked neatly into the bike’s relatively small downtube, giving a claimed range of up to 105 miles. Of course, I didn’t get nearly that, as I was constantly switching through any of the Current ADV’s five power modes (Auto, Eco, Trail, Turbo, and a new, 30-second Boost Mode for extra torque on big hills). Still, the longest day I spent in the bike’s super-comfy Selle Royal SRX saddle was about three hours. In that time, the battery dropped only about 20 percent.

Eyes Up

The biggest flaw I found in the Current is small and seemingly simple, but it nonetheless had a major impact on my rides. That is the fact that, when clicking through power settings, the bike beeps, and all those beeps sound the same.

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When I’m mountain biking (and probably when you’re mountain biking, too), the last thing I want to do is to take my eyes off the trail. Having those beeps be the exact same tone meant I instinctively kept looking down at the top-tube-mounted display to see which mode I was in.

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Clarus Concerto MKII Power Conditioner Debuts at AXPONA 2026 With Ultra Premium Design and Price to Match

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Clarus isn’t chasing the budget crowd at AXPONA 2026, and with the debut of the Concerto MKII power conditioner, it’s making that crystal clear. Clean, stable power isn’t an audiophile myth; it directly impacts noise floor, dynamic range, and the overall coherence of a system. Your AC power isn’t perfectly clean. It can carry noise from other devices on the same circuit; dimmers, refrigerators, and switching power supplies, along with voltage fluctuations, spikes, and grounding issues that can impact how your system performs.

Clarus has built a serious reputation in high-performance audio, particularly with its well-regarded cable lineup, and the Concerto MKII leans into that credibility with a no-compromise approach to power delivery and conditioning. It’s not cheap—far from it. In fact, the price lands well beyond what most people have ever considered spending on an entire hi-fi system. But for those running upper five-figure or six-figure setups, where every upstream variable matters, this is exactly the kind of component that could make sense—and one worth hearing before dismissing outright.

Building on the original Concerto, the MKII increases current capacity, refines the filtering architecture, improves grounding, and optimizes power distribution. The goal is lower noise without restricting current delivery or altering the electrical behavior that high-performance audio systems rely on.

clarus-concerto-mkii-front-panel

The Concerto MKII is built on the idea that reducing noise should not come at the expense of dynamics or tonal integrity. Rather than chasing maximum attenuation, its design focuses on the types of noise that actually propagate through real-world audio systems, aiming to lower interference while preserving musical coherence and ensuring unrestricted current delivery for analog, digital, and high-current components.

Clarus Repositions the Concerto MKII for a Different Class of System

The original Concerto launched in 2019 at $4,000, but rising material, manufacturing, and development costs would push that same design closer to $8,000 today. Rather than simply reissue it at a higher price, Clarus chose to develop the MKII as a redesigned successor with updated performance goals. The result is a significantly more expensive product at $12,000, positioned not as a direct replacement, but as a step up aimed at higher-end systems where incremental improvements in noise reduction and power delivery are more likely to be realized.

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Many power conditioners reduce noise by constraining current,” says Jay Victor, Concerto MKII power conditioner design engineer. “The MKII takes a different approach by targeting acoustically destructive noise while preserving the dynamics and harmonic structure that make music feel alive.”

clarus-concerto-mkii-front-back

Inside the Concerto MKII

At the core of the Concerto MKII is an application-specific filter architecture that tailors its approach to the electrical demands of connected components. Sensitive analog gear is fed through high-permeability common-mode “Clarus FluxCore” filtering, designed to reduce ground-referenced noise without restricting current or compressing dynamics.

Digital Optimized Power Outlets: Four outlets labeled “Digital” use a combination of differential-mode and common-mode “Clarus FluxCore” filtering to suppress high-frequency noise generated by digital sources.

High Current Power Outlets: Two outlets labeled “High Current” are equipped with “Clarus FluxCore-HC” filtering, engineered to reduce noise while supporting large transient current demands and limiting both conducted and radiated interference.

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Analog Power Outlets: Two outlets labeled “Analog” utilize high-permeability “Clarus FluxCore” nanocrystalline inductor technology to deliver low-noise power tailored for sensitive analog components.

FluxCore Filtering: Designed to address common AC line imperfections such as noise and interference, Clarus’ FluxCore filtering aims to stabilize incoming power without restricting current delivery, helping reduce variables that can impact system performance.

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Oil-Filled Capacitors: Newly added oil-filled capacitors are used to improve thermal stability and long-term reliability in the analog and high-current sections.

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High Current Tolerance: The Concerto MKII features full 20-amp internal circuitry, allowing it to operate on both 15-amp and 20-amp residential lines without introducing current limitations. A star-ground architecture and isolated-ground outlets are employed to reduce ground noise and minimize circulating currents.

Internal Power Distribution: Power is distributed via heavy-gauge copper bus bars to reduce voltage drop and support high transient current demands.

System Protection: Protection is handled by a hydraulic-magnetic circuit breaker designed to tolerate high inrush currents without nuisance tripping. Constrained-layer damping is applied within the chassis to reduce mechanically induced vibration from internal components, helping maintain stable operation.

Low Noise Performance: Together, these design elements aim to provide a stable, low-noise electrical foundation that allows connected components to operate consistently under real-world conditions.

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By addressing electrical noise based on its source and how it propagates, and by aligning filtering, grounding, and current delivery with the needs of each connected component, the Concerto MKII is designed to reduce interference without imposing a distinct sonic character. The intended result is lower background noise, improved low-level detail, greater dynamic contrast, and better clarity during complex passages—without restricting system performance.

Clarus Concerto MKII Specifications

Clarus Model  Concerto MKII
Product Type Power Conditioner
Price $12,000
Applications High-end audio, home theater, analog and digital systems
Power Rating 1800 Watts  / 15 Amps (20 Amps Max)
Number of Power Outlets  8 Outlets Total
Power Outlet Zones 2 High Current Optimized
4 Digital Optimized
2 Analog Optimized
Filtering Technology Clarus-Core C-Core and HC-Core inductors
Line Voltage 120VAC 15A, 50/60 Hz
Spike Protection Modes L-N, N-G, L-G
Maximum Surge Current 80 kA (Line-to-Neutral)
Spike Clamping Voltage (VMAX) 395V
Max Spike Energy (Joule) L-N = 960 Joules
Voltage Monitoring Under/over-voltage shutdown with auto reset
Safety Features  TMOV (Thermally Protected Metal Oxide Varistor) surge suppression, thermal breaker, fault indicators
Chasis Construction Vibration-controlled housing with cable support bar
RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Yes
Dimensions (HWD) 3.5” X 19” X 12.75”
Net Weight 19 lbs.
Warranty  3 Years (Limited)
Package Contents 1 x CLARUS CONCERTO MKII
1 x Installation & Operation Guide
1 x Rear Cable Support Bracket

NOTE: Power Cable not included

The Bottom Line 

Power conditioning sits in that uncomfortable gray area between necessity and obsession, and the Concerto MKII doesn’t try to pretend otherwise. What Clarus is offering here is not a universal upgrade, but a highly targeted solution for systems where power quality is already a known variable and the rest of the chain is resolving enough to expose it.

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What makes the Concerto MKII stand out is its application-specific filtering approach, separation of outlet types, and focus on maintaining current delivery rather than restricting it. That’s a meaningful distinction in a category where some designs can choke dynamics in the name of noise reduction. The inclusion of 20-amp internal architecture, star grounding, and heavy-duty power distribution shows that this is built for serious systems, not entry-level setups.

Who is this for? Not the average listener. Not even most enthusiasts. This is aimed squarely at owners of upper five-figure and six-figure systems, in environments where electrical noise, grounding issues, or inconsistent power are real concerns—not theoretical ones.

Is it worth $12,000? For most people, no. For a small group chasing the last few percent of performance and already invested deep enough that power delivery becomes part of system tuning, it might be. The key is knowing which side of that line you’re on before writing the check.

Price & Availability

The Clarus Concerto MKII Power Conditioner has a suggested retail price of $12,000 (not including power cable). It will become available during Q2 2026 through authorized Clarus retailers.

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The Clarus Concerto MKII will be debuting at AXPONA 2026, April 10 – 12, in support of the Harman Luxury Group.

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Amazon pledges its satellite internet starts this year

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Amazon’s satellite-based internet service, Leo, will enter service by mid-2026, so says company CEO Andy Jassy. Writing in his annual letter, Jassy claimed Leo would offer download speeds of up to 1Gbps, far more than what Starlink presently offers. Sadly, Amazon declined to offer any more details about what that mid-2026 service would look like. But given select partners have already been kicking Leo’s tyres for a while, we can only hope.

The mega-retailer is making some grand promises, including faster up and download speeds, cheaper cost and direct integration with Amazon’s other products. Of course, the company can also sell itself on the fact it’s a satellite internet provider not owned by Elon Musk. But it will have to buck its ideas up fast, given how far behind in its deployment of satellites it is.

— Daniel Cooper

The other big stories this morning

It’s a showcase for the Snapdragon X2 Elite.

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ASUS

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

ASUS’ ZenBook A16 is a 16-inch ultraportable designed to go toe-to-toe with LG’s Gram Pro 16. It’s equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and designed to address the flaws Devindra Hardawar found in last year’s ZenBook A14. Did it succeed? You’ll have to read his review to get the full story, but he’s certainly happy to have spent the last week using this thing.

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It will begin at the start of 2027.

Greece will ban under 15s from accessing social media, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced. Like many nations both in Europe and beyond, officials are concerned about the effect social media is having on children’s mental and physical health. The big platforms will be in charge of enforcing the ban, backed up by the hefty punishments enabled by the Digital Services Act.

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Know what doesn’t lose support after a few years? Books.

Promotional image of the old Kindle and Kindle DX

Amazon

If you’re still using a Kindle or Fire tablet made in 2012 or before, then it’s going to get a little less useful on May 20. Amazon is discontinuing support for those earlier models on that date, removing the ability to purchase, borrow or download new titles. Thankfully, whatever is on the hardware already will remain, so don’t fret if you’re only a third of the way through Remembrance of Things Past.

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Fancy, but heavy.

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Image of the Fender Elle speakers

Billy Steele for Engadget

Billy Steele has been putting Fender Audio’s new speakers through their paces to find what can only be described as a mixed bag. Excellent audio quality and a wide variety of inputs get high praise, but the heavy weight, exposed wood and limited battery life all dent the paintwork.

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About time too.

Image of the WhatsApp Logo

WhatsApp

WhatsApp’s CarPlay interface isn’t the most elegant or easy way to keep in touch with your friends while driving. Meta has, however, given the UI a little polish to help make it a little easier to get something useful done without pulling your attention from the road.

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Bacteria Marching To The Beat Of A Tiny Drum

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Traditionally, identifying a bacterium requires peering through a microscope. Researchers from TU Delft want to trade your eyes for your ears when identifying bacteria. This is possible because they’ve crafted nanoscale drums that convert bacteria’s movement into sound.

The technique originated when Delft researchers noticed something odd. If a living bacterium were on a graphene sheet, it would beat a distinctive pattern that you can detect with a laser. Each drumhead consists of two graphene sheets laid over an 8-micrometer-wide cavity. The sheets are less than a nanometer thick.

The sounds are due to the subtle motion of the tiny lifeform. Scientists have known about these motions, but previously had to measure them en masse. The tiny drums can respond to a single organism, typically about 1 to 10 micrometers in size.

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Graphene makes this sensor possible because it is thin enough to behave like a drum with such a tiny force, yet also strong enough to support the bacterium. At first, the technique was simply to determine if antibiotics were killing the bacteria. However, they found that specific bacteria produced audio with unique spectrograms.

It is foolproof, but machine language models can identify among three common bacteria with nearly 90% accuracy. The next step is to reduce the high-tech research setup to something practical for a hospital or doctor’s office. Early prototypes are now in use in two hospitals.

We’ve seen the benefits of automated microscopes that can detect a particular disease. This technology, refined, could go even further.

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Revolut launches its new AI assistant AIR to UK customers

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Revolut, the British virtual bank platform, has just launched its new AI financial assistant named AIR (AI by Revolut) to its more than 13 million customers in the UK. 


The new AI assistant allows customers to manage their finances through in-app chat, their spending insights, investment tracking, subscription monitoring, and card management. It also provides travel assistance capabilities, such as trip budgeting and Revolut eSIMs purchases in-app. 

This new innovative service is designed to evolve the concept of chatbot, simplifying the digital bank experience from multi-step navigation and clicks.  Customers can chat with the copilot by swiping down from the middle of the screen on the Revolut app landing page, or go to Profile → Chats → AIR. 

The company emphasizes how AIR has a strict zero-data retention policy and can only access the data customers already see like transactions, investments and cards.

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However, this is not the first Fintech company launching an agentic AI assistant. Klarna has implemented it for customer service purposes, while Danish competitor Lunar says that around 75% of its customer calls are being managed by its AI voice assistant. 

More importantly, UK’s main competitor Starling bank launched what they called the “UK’s first Agentic AI financial assistant” last March, offering similar capabilities than Revolut’s AIR assistant.

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Julia Ponomareva, director and general manager of CX and AI products at Revolut, highlighted how AIR is not just an AI assistant, “We believe the era of navigating through endless tabs and menus is over. With AIR, we’re delivering a new level of money intelligence that’s both powerful and effortless. It’s not just an assistant; it’s a co-pilot that elevates everyday life, making financial management as easy and natural as sending a text.”

Emphasizing how this new tool delivers a new level of money intelligence without risking customers privacy.

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Best Smart Shades, Blinds, and Curtains (2026): Motorized, Tailor-Made, and More

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What Do You Need to Know Before Buying Smart Shades?

Tailor-Made vs. Off-the-Shelf: Few things look smarter than perfectly fitted shades in a window frame, and few things look worse than shades that don’t quite fit. If you’re lucky enough to have window sizes that match the exact proportions of off-the-shelf shades then go for it, but most folks will be better served by going the made-to-order route. The downside is that tailor-made options are always going to be more expensive.

Measure Properly: Look at your chosen manufacturer’s website to find their measuring guide and take your time. You should measure, measure, and measure again, then ask someone else to measure and compare your results. The only way to avoid unsightly gaps or the horrible discovery that your shade is just a bit too wide for the space is to measure up properly. This is less of an issue if you decide to go the outside mount route.

Inside or Outside Mount: For the cleanest look, you should install your shades or blinds in the window frame. Measure the depth and account for window handles or anything else that might collide with the shade. Think about where you can drill holes to fit the mounting brackets and whether your chosen spot can handle the weight of a shade. An outside mount doesn’t look as good, but it is easier to install and can cover the window completely to block more light. Inside-mounted shades always have small gaps that light can get through. If you are after a pitch-dark bedroom, combining inside mount shades with curtains is the best way to go.

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Material and Finish: You can get shades and blinds in so many different styles. Take your time choosing the material and color you want and think about the opacity. If you just want a privacy shade for a street-facing living room, then choose something that lets a lot of light through. If you’re trying to conserve or block heat or reduce noise, a thicker shade can help. For the neatest look, it’s worth thinking about a valance that will cover the top of the shade (some manufacturers offer these as an added extra).

Power: Smart shades and retrofit smart blinds and curtains all require power. Most come with a rechargeable battery and they can generally be charged in situ with a long enough cable (if you don’t have an outlet close, use a power bank). Some shades take standard batteries you can swap in and out, though we recommend rechargeable batteries for these. Small solar panels are another common option that will keep your shades topped up, but you might not like how they look from the outside. In any case, always fully charge the battery before installation.

Connectivity: Most shades come with a remote control. But to put the smart in smart shades you need a hub that your shades can connect to. This will allow you to control the shades from your phone or using voice commands. Think about your current smart home setup and preferred voice assistant when you are shopping for shades to ensure compatibility. You can sometimes connect to shades via Bluetooth, but it is flaky, low range, and slow compared to Wi-Fi or Zigbee.

Automation: The number one reason to get smart shades is automation, so make sure you research what is possible when shopping. While any smart shade can be automated to open and close at set times, some can adjust to close at sunset and open at sunrise. You can also have motion sensors to trigger some shades to open when you walk into the room in the morning, or have your shades close automatically when a certain temperature is reached in the room. You may need some extra gadgets for more complex automation.

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Having tested several smart shade brands now, it’s clear that many have virtually identical designs, use the same internal motors and control systems, and give you the same choice of fabrics and styles. SmartWings, Yoolax, Kincmo, Weffort, and Bringnox have a lot in common. Sometimes all that’s different is the brand name and software. I recommend running through the customization process for each brand to find out how much your tailored shade will cost and then just go with the best price.

Other Smart Shades to Consider

We have tested a few other smart shades and retrofit devices. Here are a few that narrowly missed out on a place above.

Image may contain Home Decor Indoors Interior Design Curtain and Window Shade

Photograph: Simon Hill

Kincmo Motorized Blinds With Remote for $116: A reasonable alternative to our top pick, Kincmo’s choice of styles and finishes, motor functionality, and smart home connectivity was virtually identical, though you must opt for the Matter over Thread motor or hub if you want scheduling and voice-command support. I tried a long blackout shade for a doorway, and it worked very well. It is slow to open and close but also quiet, never breaking 40 decibels.

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Weffort Motorized Roller Shade for $120: Another brand that offers smart shades very much like our top pick, Smartwings. The Weffort shade I tried for my office window worked in exactly the same way, with a simple remote and a Matter over Thread motor that enabled me to add it to Google Home and control and schedule through the app. The operating noise level is around 40 decibels.

Bringnox Motorized Blinds with Remote for $118: With a very similar range of options to SmartWings and some of the other brands above, I found Bringnox shades to be on par. You’ll need the Matter over Thread motor if you want smart home control and scheduling (or a separate hub), but you get a wee remote with every shade. I regret not opting for a better valance and bottom bar, because the shade I tested looks very blocky, and the top section covers part of the window. One interesting option Bringnox offers is no-drill shades with a kind of adjustable and lockable spring section at one end that could be very handy for installing a shade inside the frame of a window where drilling holes is a problem.

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Best Smart Shades Blinds and Curtains  Motorized TailorMade and More

Courtesy of Ryse

Ryse SmartCurtain for $150: Another retrofit device for your window coverings, the Ryse SmartCurtain is super easy to fit. It works fine with rod rail curtains and is reasonably quiet at around 36 decibels, but you will need two if you have a pair of curtains, and it’s relatively expensive. Consider also that you need the Ryse SmartBridge ($50) hub to schedule, connect smart home devices for voice control, or even control multiple devices. Without the hub, you can only connect via Bluetooth to one curtain at a time. The two rechargeable 18,650 Li-Po batteries are supposed to last up to eight months. There’s no charger in the box, though you can apparently request one for free. While it’s a decent product, it’s also more expensive, less versatile, and generally inferior to the SwitchBot Curtain 3.

Aqara Curtain Driver E1 for $80: With separate models for rod or track curtains, this is very much like the SwitchBot Curtain 3 above, but not quite as good. It is bigger, which leaves more room for a larger battery, so you can expect up to a year of battery life. Unfortunately, it is also louder (over 50 decibels), more expensive, and requires an Aqara hub to unlock voice commands and smart home automation.

Don’t Bother

Ryse SmartShade a white rectangular box attached to a small chain dangling in a window ledge with a plant nearby

Courtesy of Ryse

Ryse SmartShade for $200: This is a retrofit gadget to convert any roller shade with a beaded chain into a smart shade. It’s easy to fit, but you will need a roller shade with an uninterrupted chain because a plastic spacer joining the two ends of a chain can cause problems (my chain came apart), and it’s noisy in operation. The removable battery pack is a smart idea, but if you want to remote control the shade from your phone, you must be in Bluetooth range. To get scheduling and voice controls, you need to buy the Ryse SmartBridge ($50), and I had issues with connectivity dropping in and out. After testing a couple of these retrofit designs for the beaded chain roller blinds (I also tested the Aqara E1) and having problems both times, I can’t recommend them. This one is also way too expensive.

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OPPO F33 Series to Launch With IP69K Rating and 7,000mAh Battery

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The OPPO F-series has always focused on the durability side of things, with some of the toughest phones I’ve ever tested. With the new F33 series, the Chinese smartphone maker is bringing a new type of durability-focused smartphone to India. Based on details shared ahead of launch, the company is positioning the lineup as a solution to everyday smartphone problems like cracked screens, water damage, and battery anxiety.

Built for Indian Conditions

Design of the OPPO F33 series

Durability seems to be the core focus here. The OPPO F33 series is said to come with IP69K certification, which is a step above the usual IP67 or IP68 ratings seen in most mid-range phones. In practical terms, this means the device can handle high-pressure, high-temperature water jets and provide complete dust protection. It’s designed to survive not just accidental splashes, but harsher environments like heavy rain, kitchens, or dusty outdoor conditions.

Beyond certifications, OPPO says the F33 series has undergone military-grade durability testing. This includes extreme temperature tests ranging from freezing cold to high heat, salt exposure for coastal conditions, and even simulations of strong winds and heavy rainfall. The devices are also tested for drops, with thousands of simulated falls and immersion tests to ensure real-world reliability.

Structurally, the phones feature a 360-degree armor body, built using an aerospace-grade aluminium frame, reinforced internals, and thicker protective materials for both the display and back panel. There’s also an internal cushioning system designed to absorb shocks during impact.

Long-Term Battery Health

Battery life is another major highlight of the F33 series. OPPO is introducing a 7,000mAh battery that’s designed to retain up to 80% of its capacity even after five years of usage.

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The company is using a self-repairing electrolyte technology, which is said to help maintain battery health over time. Combined with 80W fast charging, reverse charging, and bypass charging support, the F33 series aims to reduce both charging time and long-term battery degradation.

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