Cryptocurrency hardware wallet maker Trezor says an August data breach at its shipping and logistics provider, ShipMonk, affects an additional 67,000 U.S. customers.
In total, the breach has affected 81,000 customers after Trezor initially disclosed on August 13 that attackers accessed the data of nearly 14,000 customers, including their full names, shipping addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
As the company explained at the time, the incident also affected customers in Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom who received orders between May 10 and August 8, 2026.
On Friday, it published an update to confirm that the breach impact has expanded after ShipMonk failed to delete the exposed data from its systems as required by Trezor’s contract and data policy.
“Another 67,000 customers from the US who ordered between November 2019 and August 2021 were affected, with their full details (name, email, phone number, shipping address, order number) exposed,” Trezor said.
“Throughout our entire relationship with ShipMonk, we repeatedly requested and received written assurance confirming the deletion of the data, in line with our contract, data policy, and past communications. We are very disappointed that, despite receiving this confirmation, the data was not deleted in their systems.”
The company added that the breach did not affect its operations or services, that its systems were not compromised, and that all Trezor devices are secure.
It also warned affected customers to be wary of any messages requesting personal information, as they may be targeted in phishing attacks.
“Be aware of the increased risk of phishing. The leaked information could be used for scam emails, fraudulent calls or letters, and could potentially expose affected individuals to physical security risks,” Trezor said.
While the company has yet to share how ShipMonk’s systems were breached, breach notification emails sent to affected customers and seen by BleepingComputer said the attackers exploited a vulnerability in the third-party analytics platform Metabase.
As BleepingComputer previously reported, Metabase revealed that the threat actors exploited a critical SQL injection zero-day vulnerability to breach customer instances and carry out data theft attacks after gaining administrator access to the compromised instance.
BleepingComputer has also learned that ShipMonk has received extortion emails from the ShinyHunters extortion gang.
The list of affected companies in the Metabase campaign includes online form-building platform Tally and laptop maker Framework, which have also notified customers of data breaches after their instances were hijacked.
In January 2024, Trezor disclosed another data breach after threat actors compromised its third-party support ticketing portal and accessed data (e.g., names, usernames, and email addresses) from roughly 66,000 users.
This stolen data was later used in phishing attacks attempting to steal recipients’ 24-word wallet recovery seeds.
Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.
The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.
According to the standard model of cosmology, that expansion rate should be the same no matter how you measure it. But in recent years, scientists have found that the expansion rate of the early universe and that of the more recent universe vary by approximately 9 percent.
That discrepancy, or tension, “has provoked heated debates in the cosmology community about whether this difference could be due to systematic errors or whether it is a signal of new physics,” Teixeira and her co-authors wrote. Their model posits that in a world where dark energy and dark matter interact, what seemed to be a crisis caused by disparate expansion rates instead becomes something to be expected.
If dark energy and dark matter do interact, it could mean that they have a common origin, Khoury said.
Ongoing work in string theory—the idea that our universe, at its smallest, most fundamental level, is made up of vibrating strings—suggests a way these concepts might be connected. In 2019, building on the idea in string theory that dark energy is naturally varying, Vafa and two collaborators concluded that the mass of dark matter particles may also vary over time. This led them to propose in 2022 that dark matter and dark energy could share a link with a so-called dark dimension.
String theory posits the existence of six or seven extra dimensions in addition to our familiar three dimensions of space and one of time. All of these dimensions are thought to be as small as physically possible—close to the Planck scale (10-35 meters)—but the researchers proposed that the dark dimension could be significantly bigger than the others—on the order of a micron (10-6 meters).
Gravitons, theoretical particles that impart the force of gravity, could leak into this enlarged dark dimension. If they did, they would pick up mass and become what are called dark gravitons. These massive gravitons would reside in the dark dimension, but their gravitational effects could be felt in other dimensions, allowing them to fulfill the role that is normally ascribed to dark matter.
In this scenario, “there is a very natural coupling between dark energy and dark matter,” said Georges Obied, a physicist at the University of Chicago. Changes in the size of the dark dimension would affect both dark energy and dark matter.
In a July 2025 paper, Obied and Vafa, along with Alek Bedroya of Princeton and David Wu of Harvard, found that the scenario proposed in 2019 was consistent with the DESI data. Their model predicts that the strength of dark energy and the mass of dark matter will decrease over time and that the rate at which dark energy changes will be proportional to its energy density. Because astrophysical measurements tell us that the energy density of dark energy is extraordinarily small, “it won’t change fast,” Vafa said.
“It’s not surprising that we didn’t see it until now,” he said, because the rate of change is so tiny. “We had to wait the entire age of the universe to detect something that small.”
The new research from Irish Life explores how increased longevity is impacting finances, working life and retirement planning.
Irish Life has published the results of the Life100+ ‘Exploring Ireland’s Longevity Opportunity’, report, which takes a closer look at how an increasing lifespan is transforming life patterns, financial planning and career paths.
In partnership with independent researcher Big Window Consulting, Irish Life collected data from 2,000 adults in Ireland and also carried out an employer round table, geared around the topic of challenges and opportunities that longevity presents to their organisations and their people.
What was noted in Irish Life’s report is that only one out of every five who participated in the research, expects to fully retire in what is seen as the traditional way. Nearly three in four said they will have to work longer to support themselves in their later years and this figure rose close to nine out of ten for those aged 65 and older.
Younger groups aged 18 to 24, said that they expect to extend their retirement age by making only minimal adjustments, adding around three years, while the older than 65 cohort said it would take at least four additional years. All other categories added around one year.
Comparable research carried out with a UK-based workforce found that harsher adjustments to future plans might be a wiser long-term goal, as the research found those in the UK were more open to substantial changes.
Young people aged 18-34 expect to increase their planned retirement age by five years on average. The report argued that in Ireland, those closest to retirement appear to be willing to make the smallest adjustments, reflecting the constraints of changing long-established plans.
For many of the participants who contributed their insights to the research, financial preparation and longevity go hand in hand. Roughly eight in 10 adults are aware of the financial planning that is needed, 77pc have regular retirement plan reviews and 70pc said they would save or invest more.
Two in three would seek to transition into part-time or flexible work later in life and a similar proportion would work for longer before retiring altogether (63pc).
Almost 60pc of young people under 34 expect to have to retrain or pursue multiple careers, thereby extending and diversifying their working lives. This group also expects to save and invest more. Comparatively, 72pc of 35 to 44 year olds are also considering future saving and investing.
Older groups were shown in the research to have a preference for a phased retirement plan that involves moving into part time and flexible roles (78pc).
There was also a clear gender gap as men (52pc) were found to be more likely to anticipate pursuing multiple careers compared to women (45pc), as well as starting a business (52pc versus 42pc), undertaking freelance work (55 versus 48pc), or participating in the gig economy (48pc versus 36pc).
Despite the interest in working towards the future, Irish Life’s research also identified areas in which those looking to prepare for retirement should study further, as more than two in every three respondents said that they had little or no experience of investing.
A similar number of respondents said that they preferred bank deposits to riskier investments, particularly those aged 65 and older (75pc) and 58pc said they were uncomfortable with stock market swings. This discomfort was higher among those aged 65 and older and for women more than men (61pc versus 55pc).
The report said, “The findings point to a tension at the heart of the 100-year life. People know longer lives require greater financial resources, but few have plans in place or are confident in their ability to generate them.
“A savings gap exists between what people believe they will need and what they actually have. Most understand the need to save more, but relatively few feel confident about investing, despite the role that long-term investment growth can play in funding extended retirements.
“The challenge is about building confidence and financial capability. Professional advice, financial education and accessible investment solutions may be key to turning awareness of longevity into meaningful financial plans.”
Organisations will also have to commit to making the workplace a more suitable environment for an ageing workforce. The report said, “As expectations around work and retirement evolve, there is widespread recognition that workplaces will need to change. Almost all adults in Ireland believe organisations will need to adapt to a future in which people work later into life (95pc).
When asked how workplaces should respond, cultural change emerges as the most important priority. This includes a focus on a more age-friendly culture, increased flexibility in working arrangements, health and well-being support and support for phased retirement.
Declan Bolgere, the CEO of Irish Life said, “The 100-year life is a really positive prospect. A well lived later life means more years with the people we love, pursuing ambitions and new experiences. Preparing for longer lives goes beyond individual responsibility and extends to the State, policy makers, employers and providers.
“The importance of acting today holds true. Navigating what lies ahead is a shared undertaking to support people and workplaces across Ireland to unlock the benefits of longer, well lived lives.”
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The history of European space exploration is a long and distinguished one, with many decades and whole families of launch vehicles. It might therefore come as a surprise that despite all this, it’s taken until 2026 for a European rocket to be launched into orbit from European soil rather than from somewhere close to the Equator. The German company Isar Aerospace launched one of their Spectrum rockets from Andøya Space in Norway and deployed its CubeSat payloads to orbit.
The five satellites were a selection of projects from the German space agency’s Microlauncher Competition, which offers the chance of a launch to start-ups and educational institutions. The press release doesn’t name them, but Wikipedia has the following list: TriSat-S (University of Maribor and SkyLabs); FramSat-1 (NTNU SpaceTeam); Sat1 (TU Wien Space Team); CyBEEsat (TU Berlin); Platform 6 (EnduroSat) and Let It Go (experiment, Dcubed).[46].
Interestingly, the company is also working on a space launch facility in Nova Scotia, Canada, to gain access to lower inclination orbits and to provide Canadians with their own launch capability. More is evidently yet to come.
We’ve mentioned Isar before, when we reported on the building of the spaceport.
Leaked files contains identity documents, payslips and employment references among other personal data.
Cybercriminals claiming to be from a group called ‘Rhysida’ leaked nearly 6TB of sensitive data from the Berlin state administration after hacking the government department late last month. The attack comes just weeks before Berlin is set to conduct state elections.
Rhysida claimed responsibility for the attack on its leak site on August 28, posting an entry titled ‘Berlin, Germany’, which contained nearly 1.5m files – sized 5.79TB, including personal information on more than 12,000 individuals.
The data was leaked last Friday (4 September) after the German state refused to pay a 30 bitcoin ransom, equivalent to around €2m.
The Berlin Senate Chancellery and security authorities said they are conducting a thorough review of the data following the leak on Friday.
“IT forensic experts working on behalf of the State of Berlin are working around the clock to examine the published data. Appropriate measures will be taken based on the findings,” an official statement from the Senate Chancellery said. Affected individuals will be notified on a risk-based basis, it added.
Citizens who, independently of this, become aware “that their data has been published or is being used for criminal offenses such as fraud or identity theft should file a criminal complaint,” the statement read.
The leaked files reportedly contain scanned identity documents, payslips, employment references and contract documents, as well as sensitive data on critical infrastructure. Rhysida is already sharing lists of filenames on social media, according to news publications.
Meanwhile, Hamburg-based investigative journalist and weapons expert Lars Winkelsdorf said that the leaked files contain plans concerning national defence “ranging from the federal government’s secret communication channels in the event of an apocalypse to defence-related companies and emergency plans developed by government agencies”.
Last month, France disclosed a cyberattack on its tax authority in June and July that resulted in the theft of tax data belonging to around 678,000 French individuals and businesses.
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— Aneesh Raman has taken the role of chief economic opportunity officer at Microsoft. He previously held the same title at LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary where he worked for five years.
The job is focused on “helping companies, including our own, build and deploy AI tools in ways that will unlock new levels of economic opportunity and human capability for workers and workforces alike,” Raman said.
Raman, who is based in San Francisco, began his career as a TV journalist and served as a speechwriter for President Obama and other political leaders. More recently he was an adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom and led economic impact for Facebook.
— Jenny Lay-Flurrie was promoted to corporate vice president of Microsoft‘s Trusted Technology Group. In February, she had taken the role of vice president and head of Trusted Technology, which focuses on privacy, safety, regulatory compliance, responsible AI use and related topics.
Lay-Flurrie announced the change on LinkedIn, saying that she was “honoured, humbled and a little lost for words (yes,, it does occasionally happen ;)).”
The tech leader has been with Microsoft since 2005, and led the company’s efforts on accessibility and disability inclusion for more than a decade.
— Brian Gill has resigned as chief product and technology officer for DAT Freight & Analytics, a Beaverton, Ore.-based freight company. Gill was with DAT for more than three years and previously served as CPO for Nordstrom.
In a LinkedIn post, Gill did not give specifics on his next move but said he would be “rolling up my sleeves and building the many ideas that are suddenly so much easier to bring to life.”
Gill’s other past roles include executive positions at Hotwire and nearly a decade at Expedia. Last month DAT announced multiple promotions and hires to its leadership team.
— Colin Newman has joined Zillow Group as head of public policy. He was previously director of U.S. public policy for Amazon, leading initiatives on employment, workforce transformation, AI, transportation and economic development. He first took a government affairs role with Amazon’s Audible business in 2015 and moved to Amazon five years ago.
“I look forward to leveraging my government, legal, and public policy experience to support our efforts to simplify and democratize the housing process for everyone,” Newman said. His background includes legal counsel for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
— Lisa Finnegan is returning to Microsoft as vice president and human resources business partner for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Finnegan, who is based in Dublin, was previously with LinkedIn for more than eight years, departing in March 2025. Her interim role was with Lumera HR Consulting.
“It’s a pretty incredible time to (re)join Microsoft and the opportunity to help shape the people and organisation agenda across EMEA at this critical moment is incredibly compelling,” she said.
— James Lau, chief product officer at Hiya, announced this is his last week at the Seattle startup, which battles fraudulent calls and provides technology to protect voice identity. He’s been in the role for three years and previously worked at Microsoft over multiple stints.
Lau is launching a company called Entrovox, which he describes as an AI phone team that helps insurance agencies land new customers through state-of-the-art AI voice agents, branded caller ID and smart campaigns.
“There has never been a more exciting time for building, and I am deeply passionate about voice AI. Making AI sound genuinely human is a challenge I find irresistible,” Lau said.
— Jason Wilbur has left Oracle to join OpenAI‘s Seattle office as a leader in cloud partnerships.
Wilbur was with Oracle over two stints spanning more than six years and leaves the role of senior director of product management. Past jobs include CEO at Aarno Labs, co-founder of Require Security, and senior product manager at Amazon.
— Julia Liuson was appointed to Elastic’s board of directors. Earlier this year, Liuson resigned from Microsoft after more than 34 years. She was most recently president of Microsoft’s Developer Division. San Francisco’s Elastic bills itself as the “search AI company.”
— Dan Walter was promoted to vice president of fission technology for Everett, Wash.-based Zap Energy. Walter joined Zap earlier this year as the clean power startup announced it was expanding to pursue fission micro-reactors as well as fusion-based nuclear energy. Zap is No. 11 on the GeekWire 200, a ranked index of the Pacific Northwest’s top startups.
Walter was previously at TerraPower for nearly a decade, most recently in a director role for the nuclear power company.
— Kelsey Wolf has joined next-gen battery company Group14 Technologies as director of communications and marketing. Wolf was previously the communications lead for Rad Power Bikes, the Seattle-based e-bike startup that went bankrupt and was acquired this past spring. Group14 is No. 34 on the GeekWire 200.
“I’ve spent my career telling exciting stories about technology that changes how we work, how we find home, and how we move around the world. Up next, I will get to tell stories about the technology and materials powering our world,” she said.
— Tin Can, a Seattle startup selling Wi-Fi-enabled landline phones for kids, announced three hires:
Tin Can, which launched last year, is No. 153 on the GeekWire 200.
— EchoMark, the Bellevue, Wash., startup using forensic watermarking to identify the source of information leaks, has named Alex Gamoran vice president of enterprise sales. Gamoran was previously at Smartsheet for nearly a decade, leaving as regional vice president of commercial sales for North America.
“It struck me that every security-conscious enterprise is going to need a solution to the types of information leaks that conventional security software is blind to — and that’s when I knew I wanted to be part of EchoMark,” Gamoran said via email.
— Sara Dutta was named director of AI innovation and partnerships for Seattle biopharmaceutical company Omeros. She previously founded the life sciences consultancy Ocilisni and was a director at Novo Nordisk, focused on external partnerships and emerging technologies.
Last year, Omeros struck a deal worth up to $2.1 billion with Novo Nordisk, giving the latter exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize a clinical-stage drug candidate that treats rare blood and kidney disorders. Omeros won Deal of the Year at this year’s GeekWire Awards.
— Rebekah Bastian announced that she is leaving mpathic as chief marketing officer. She joined the Bellevue, Wash., startup working to make AI safe in December. Bastian previously launched and was CEO of the life-and-career social platform OwnTrail. She was with Zillow Group for more than 14 years and also worked at GlowForge.
“I’m giving myself some intentional time to explore ideas and let them incubate before deciding where they lead,” she said. That could include new companies or initiatives within existing companies, and her areas of focus span “human agency, creative entrepreneurship, economic opportunity, and generally how humans find meaning and thrive in the age of AI.”
— Seattle-area wine recommendation startup Theodora has appointed Heather Stephens founding marketing lead. Stephens has worked for more than a decade in consumer and B2B marketing, demand generation, and go-to-market strategy development.
— Marc Brown, former global head of M&A and strategic investments at Microsoft and now managing director of venture capital coverage at JPMorgan, has joined the board of trustees of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, an organization supporting civic engagement for young people.
— Adrienne Lopez, a Seattle-based marketing leader who has worked on initiatives with organizations including Meta, WhatsApp, the Gates Foundation and Microsoft, was named executive vice president of WH Inc.
— Washington Research Foundation announced its new cohort of venture analysts: Jessica Ayers, Ankit Azad, Nello Gu, Michael Malone and Elya Shamskhou. The program helps graduate students and postdoctoral fellows gain expertise in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.
I was yelled at by a rooster this morning. And no, I don’t live on a farm. The culprit was a newly launched iPhone app I downloaded.
Meet Clucky, a new alarm app for habitual snoozers that gives you the option of being woken up by a rooster and then requires you to complete a mission before you can turn the alarm off.
Clucky joins a growing category of alarm apps, including Alarmy and Awake, that use challenges to keep people from simply turning off their alarms and going back to sleep. Its funniest selling point is arguably the rooster option, but the app’s broader strategy is to make dismissing an alarm just irritating and ridiculous enough that users have no choice but to fully wake up.
For those who prefer something a little more conventional, though, it also offers options like gentle chimes, peaceful birds, and the classic digital beeping noise. There’s also an “Extra Loud Mode” that cranks up the volume as soon as the alarm goes off.
Clucky’s wake-up missions include solving math problems, memorizing and tapping tiles in the correct order, typing what Clucky says, shaking your phone, walking, doing push-ups, tilting a ball toward a goal, and completing an AI camera challenge.
Additionally, there’s a detailed stats section that tracks the average number of seconds your alarm rings before you complete a mission, how many missions you’ve beaten, and your total number of wake-ups. You also get what the app calls a “Rooster Report,” which grades your wake-up performance for the week.
Another neat feature is the ability to create a “Nest” or “Flock” with friends or family. These private alarm groups let people wake up at the same time and keep each other accountable.
Clucky was founded by Adrian Angelo Abelarde, a former software engineer at Fanatics. Abelarde did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
The app is currently available to download on the App Store. There’s a pro subscription priced at $39.99 per year.
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Motorola could be the latest phone maker to jump on the wide foldable trend, with leaked sketches pointing to a new book-style device that looks designed to open into a broader, more tablet-like screen.
The sketches, spotted by Android Headlines, reportedly come from an anonymous source and show a foldable that follows the general design of other wide foldables. There’s no word on its exact dimensions yet, but the overall shape is clear: a conventional-looking phone that unfolds horizontally into a wider display.
There are a few interesting details in the drawings, too. The rear appears to feature a horizontal camera module with what looks like two lenses, alongside a flash or additional sensor. The layout resembles the camera bar used on some Pixel phones, and could also help prevent the phone from rocking when it’s placed on a flat surface.
Motorola also appears to be paying attention to how the phone feels when it’s being opened. The sides have rounded edges, giving users a more curved surface to grip, while the sketches refer to this design as the “Easy Open Profile.” It sounds like a small detail, but anything that makes a large foldable easier to open could be useful in everyday use.
Inside, there’s a punch-hole camera cutout, while the display is shown without an obvious crease. That last point is worth treating cautiously, though. A sketch can suggest a crease-free screen, but it won’t tell us how well Motorola has actually managed to hide the fold in a finished device.
Motorola’s potential move comes as wide foldables appear to be gaining momentum. Samsung has already entered the category with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, while Huawei has its Pura X Max, and Apple is also rumoured to be preparing an iPhone Ultra with a wider foldable design.
According to Android Headlines, Motorola’s device could arrive “in the coming months”, although there’s no specific launch date yet. There’s also no confirmed name, price or hardware specifications.
So for now, this is very much an early look rather than a confirmed product. But if Motorola is indeed preparing a wide foldable, these sketches suggest the company is at least thinking beyond the usual tall, narrow foldable format.
SECURITY
Defending against cyber foes is among factors hitting food price inflation, report finds
A UK watchdog is warning that cyber criminals making moves against online systems in the food supply chain could cause serious upset, following damaging attacks on the Co-op and Marks & Spencer last year.
The National Audit Office (NAO) named cyber-attacks as one of the major threats to the food supply chain and said the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) should work closely with industry to help prevent severe shocks.
“Recent disruptions have shown the resilience of the UK’s food supply chain, but risks are increasing in likelihood and severity. Defra should learn from approaches taken in other countries, and strengthen preparedness for emergencies by testing plans with local government and industry,” said Gareth Davies, head of the NAO.
In its report published late last week, the NAO said the sector had shown some resilience to cyber-attacks, but the government needed to work with the sector to help mitigate their impact.
The report found businesses in the food supply chain have faced increased costs and, in some cases, disruptions to day-to-day operations, for example following 2025 cyber-attacks on retailers such as Marks & Spencer and the Co-op.
Leading UK retailer Marks & Spencer estimated the cyberattack that took place in April last year will cost it around £136 million ($177.2 million) in total. The retailer said one of the earliest actions it took in its incident response was to disconnect its warehouse management systems, which in turn meant online and in-store orders were adversely impacted.
Food retailer the Co-op confirmed that thieves stole data from 6.5 million of the organization’s members during a cyberattack last year.
In its report, the NAO said: “The way the food supply chain has developed over time has prioritized efficiency, which reduces costs for businesses, and therefore for consumers. However, it leaves the supply chain more vulnerable to disruptions. Defra and food supply chain stakeholders see risks increasing, and businesses are investing to address growing risks such as increased threats of cyber-attacks. Defra is less confident about the ability of businesses to withstand shocks without government intervention in the next five to 10 years because of increasing risks and the potential for more severe disruptions.”
The NAO found cyber-attacks were among the disruptions that had increased operating costs for businesses and disrupted day-to-day operations, affecting their core digital systems.
Several food supply chain organizations cited the substantial investments businesses are making to manage the threat and incidence of cyber-attacks. However, some said overall economic pressure on businesses is making this and other resilience investments more difficult, the NAO added.
Defra said it undertook specific food-related exercises which, since 2023, have focused on testing responses to a cyber incident affecting the food sector.
However, the government department may not be best placed to offer tech advice. In 2023, it admitted two-thirds of its interactions with its 21 million customers still require paper-based forms, after decades of digital government initiatives. Meanwhile, 30 percent of its applications were out of support. ®
The Clavichord needs no introduction to fans of Early Music, and a lengthy one to literally everyone else. Even classical music buffs who have heard of Bach’s works for the “Well-Tempered Clavier” — another word for clavichord — will mostly have heard them performed on Piano. That is perhaps fitting, as the clavichord is a distant ancestor of the modern piano. It has keys — though fewer of them than a piano — whose action strikes strings — though much, much fewer of those than a piano, as each string is required to generate multiple notes. [Ian Summers] has an excellent guide on how he built his, though be warned that that link goes to a PDF and the SSL certificate was having problems as of this writing. If you aren’t comfortable grabbing a PDF over old-style HTTP, we’ve embedded the demo/build video below so you can give a listen to what this pre-piano instrument sounds like.
[Ian]’s Clavichord isn’t a pure reproduction of a historical example, which makes it unusual in the world of Early Music where most obsess over authenticity. That means [Ian] was able to document his design decisions and why he built the instrument the way he did. There are two octaves and ten strings, which means each string is expresses two or three notes since this instrument is fully chromatic– that means there are ‘dark’ keys for the sharps/flats. Like a piano, the keys whack the strings to make sound, but unlike a piano, they do so directly: no mechanism and no hammers, which makes for some interesting differences in the sound. You can add vibrato, for instance.
[Ian] accomplished this build entirely with traditional woodworking, unlike the 3D printed piano mechanism we saw recently. There’s enough meat in the guide, and the instrument is simple enough that we suspect it would be easy enough to adapt the design to make it with extruded plastic or laser-cut parts, like this Zither.
Since arriving on shelves in 2023, Wi-Fi 7 routers have enticed consumers with promises of lightning-fast internet access and other benefits. However, while Wi-Fi 7 delivers on many of its selling points, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to spend extra money on a premium Wi-Fi 7 router. Even if you decide to buy one of these routers, a mid-range model is often all you need for most households. That said, you may not even be able to take advantage of the benefits Wi-Fi 7 offers just yet.
It’s true that Wi-Fi 7 routers are an upgrade over their previous iterations. Although results vary based on numerous factors, they can offer throughput speeds up to about three times faster than their Wi-Fi 6 equivalents. Tests also reveal that Wi-Fi 7 routers tend to beat routers of previous generations when it comes to maintaining signal strength. CNET‘s testing reveals that the 15 Wi-Fi routers in its lab averaged 515 Mbps at 50 feet across all three bands, outperforming the Wi-Fi 6 routers by a significant margin, as those averaged 383 Mbps. The 6GHz band plays a big part here, though that band isn’t new to Wi-Fi 7.
Those benefits are all real, so if you’re considering upgrading to a Wi-Fi 7 router, that makes sense. You just need to make sure you’re not breaking the bank when doing so, as premium models aren’t worth it for most people.
First, it’s worth noting that not all devices support Wi-Fi 7. That doesn’t mean a device that doesn’t support the technology won’t be able to connect to the internet via a Wi-Fi 7 router, but it does mean that it may be unable to take full advantage of the tech.
This factor alone shouldn’t make or break your decision to get a Wi-Fi 7 router. Even if your current devices don’t fully support the technology, newer, upgraded ones likely will. However, if you’re hoping for instant improvements across every piece of tech you own, that’s probably not going to happen.
Not all Wi-Fi 7 routers are created equal. Some Wi-Fi 7 routers are tri-band, while others are only dual-band, which means they don’t offer the fastest 6GHz option. Tests have shown that only the tri-band models are the better buy, as they’re the ones that offer a true performance uplift.
Lastly, be aware that your internet plan is most likely the ceiling, no matter how capable the router. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tested the advertised download speed across several ISPs, and the weighted average came out to 467 Mbps. You might not need a router that exceeds what your plan offers. On top of that, the 6 GHz band that Wi-Fi 7 offers may be fast if you’re near the router, but since it can’t penetrate walls and other obstacles as well as other frequencies, it might not properly serve your household.
Ultimately, a Wi-Fi 7 router isn’t necessary for everyone, and the same is true about premium models. You should assess your needs if you’re not sure whether making the upgrade is worthwhile. If you live in a household where the Wi-Fi connection needs to support multiple devices, gaming, video calls, large file downloads, etc., you’re the target consumer for this technology. If your Wi-Fi needs are fairly standard, you can probably wait to make the switch.
If you do decide to go ahead with buying a Wi-Fi 7 router, it’s still important to understand that you might not need to spend hundreds of dollars on a high-end model. You’re likely in the market for one of these routers because speed is a priority. Fortunately, tests indicate that you can find Wi-Fi 7 routers that deliver on this front for around $200 or less. Similarly, rankings of Wi-Fi 7 routers on websites like RTINGS indicate that, while the top-performing models may technically be the premium ones, the mid-range units tend to be more than good enough for the average household.
If you’re still unsure whether Wi-Fi 7 is right for you, you might want to do more research into the features that differentiate Wi-Fi 7 from Wi-Fi 6 before making a decision. It may also be necessary to learn about how to upgrade your devices so they’re more compatible with Wi-Fi 7.
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