In the United States, building a data center now polls roughly as well as abolishing the police. If current trends continue, server warehouses may soon be less popular with Americans than pizza topped with pineapple and shattered glass.
Tech
Why the data center backlash won’t stop the AI buildout
In an August survey from Heatmap Pro and Embold Research, just 15 percent of Americans said they would support a data center being built in their area, while 75 percent expressed opposition. One year earlier, 43 percent of respondents in the same poll had approved of nearby data center development, while just 42 percent opposed it.
- Data center projects are increasingly unpopular and vulnerable to local opposition.
- Nevertheless, the AI infrastructure buildout remains massive.
- The economic forces driving the data center boom are extremely strong.
- Since AI data centers can be located almost anywhere, it’s difficult to stop them from being built somewhere.
This soaring backlash is visible in other surveys — and in the actions of elected officials. In recent weeks, Wisconsin’s gubernatorial candidates sparred over who hates data centers more, Pennsylvania’s center-left Gov. Josh Shapiro enacted new restrictions on AI infrastructure projects (after previously championing such investment), and even Texas’s staunchly pro-business Republican government announced a temporary moratorium on new approvals.
Meanwhile, data center projects are being canceled at a record rate, as local opposition mounts.
This has led some in the pro-tech minority to worry that the data center buildout is about to collapse — and take the US economy down with it. Anti-AI commentators, for their part, are cheering the industry’s impending crisis.
But such panic and celebration are both premature.
In truth, despite exploding opposition, the data center boom is still going strong. Interviews with industry experts and recent construction data suggest that the economic forces driving the buildout remain more powerful than the political winds blowing against it. And unless Congress enacts a national moratorium, AI companies will almost certainly be able to continue finding jurisdictions willing to tolerate hyperscale campuses, in exchange for sufficient revenue and incentives.
America’s data center boom can be slowed and geographically shifted. But it probably can’t be killed, absent a collapse in demand for computing power or a much bigger revolution in American politics.
The boom is bigger than the backlash
There are two fundamental facts about today’s data center boom: 1) The backlash against it is huge, and 2) the buildout is even bigger.
The climate news outlet Heatmap has kept a tracker of new data center restrictions and cancellations. As of late July, it found that more than 500 jurisdictions had enacted severe constraints or bans on data center construction. The vast majority of these measures had been enacted since the beginning of this year.
The publication also found that contested data center projects face a skyrocketing cancellation rate. In late 2024, 20 percent of disputed developments were canceled; in the first half of 2026, that figure was closer to 50 percent. By Heatmap’s tally, more than 100 data center projects have been nixed this year in the face of local opposition, while more than 200 are currently being fought.
This surge of mass resistance is remarkable. And yet, it is also nowhere near sufficient to end the AI buildout.
Although the number of places with severe restrictions (or outright bans) on server farms is rapidly rising, more than 90 percent of US counties had no significant constraints on data center development at July’s end.
What’s more, many of the most eye-catching recent policy changes are less significant than they appear. For example, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s pause does not actually halt data center construction in the Lone Star State. Rather, it essentially establishes a more thorough screening process, when server farms apply for electricity from the state’s grid. Projects that supply all of their own power through on-site natural gas — as a rising share of new data centers do — are exempt.
Pennsylvania and New York’s recently enacted restrictions on data center development are more substantial. Yet neither of those states are particularly important to the AI buildout. Taken together, New York and Pennsylvania host only about 6.5 percent of America’s data centers, according to Data Center Map.
And their share of all pending developments is even more negligible, as the trade publication Construction Connect has illustrated:
Meanwhile, although half of contested data center projects are now failing, many still go undisputed. In the aggregate, cancellations have not kept pace with construction or new development. In the first quarter of this year, at least 3.5 gigawatts of data center capacity were canceled amid local opposition, in Heatmap’s tally. During the same three months, at least 36 GW of capacity were added to the US pipeline of proposed and active projects, according to the analytics firm Wood Mackenzie. As of April 1, that pipeline contained a total of 106 GW worth of developments that had already survived the permitting gauntlet.
To be sure, cancellations have risen sharply since March. By Heatmap’s count, at least 13 gigawatts of capacity have been nixed so far this year. But the capacity of permitted projects has also grown since April 1. And the ratio between blocked and active developments has not radically changed, according to industry analysts.
“At this point, we do not think the recent wave of opposition and policy intervention has materially changed our national capacity growth trajectory,” Maya Barkin, an analyst at the AI industry research firm SemiAnalysis, told me.
Indeed, monthly construction spending on data centers in the US hit a record high this June.
In short, data centers are marching forward despite taking heavy fire, like a pack of gut-shot zombies.
The secrets of the AI buildout’s success
Why has the AI buildout proven so resilient? There are at least two reasons.
First, and most importantly, demand for computing power remains astronomical. As frontier AI companies have built out larger models — and consumers and companies have increased their use of artificial intelligence and digital services — our economy’s appetite for computation has far outstripped supply. According to a recent report from the commercial real estate firm JLL, 99 percent of North America’s data centers are occupied. What’s more, of the 66 GW of data center capacity currently being constructed in JLL’s count, 95 percent has already been reserved.
Second, data center projects are unusually location-flexible. If a housing developer gets chased out of San Francisco’s suburbs by zoning rules and local opposition, it can’t relocate its condo tower to a mostly uninhabited stretch of Nevada desert. By contrast, data centers can — and do — operate in the middle of nowhere.
For certain purposes, these facilities need some proximity to the users they serve; you can’t adequately support online gaming in New York City with data centers on the West Coast. But even in such cases, servers merely need to be in the same broad region. The hyperscale facilities used to train AI models, meanwhile, can be located virtually anywhere with land, fiber optic cables, a modicum of labor, and electricity (and now that many data centers are powering themselves through on-site natural gas plants, even the latter is potentially expendable).
Taken together, these two realities make data center construction extremely difficult to choke off. Sky-high demand for compute means that hyperscalers can afford to throw a lot of money at localities, in order to secure a project’s approval. And location flexibility makes it very difficult for data center developers to run out of host jurisdictions, particularly when so many rural counties throughout the United States are starving for revenue and investment. Thus, unless Congress imposes a national moratorium, development deals will almost certainly keep getting struck.
“I think companies will need to open up their wallets and make sure that communities receive clear benefits,” John Arnold, a billionaire investor and philanthropist who sits on Meta’s board (and whose foundation has given funding to Vox), told me. “There will be places that raise their hands and say, ‘For X amount of benefit, we will welcome you into the community.’”
Just this week, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signaled that he was moving forward with plans to encourage data center development and use the consequent revenue to slash the state’s income tax.
Municipal permitting won’t preempt the robot apocalypse
On one level, all this may seem to validate anti-data center activism: If there are countless potential locations for these facilities, then why should any community host one it doesn’t want?
This said, many oppose new data centers out of concern for their aggregate impacts, rather than their local ones. Climate activists fear that the AI buildout will generate perilous increases in carbon emissions. Populists on the right and left, meanwhile, want to slow the progress of artificial intelligence, so as to prevent the technology from causing mass unemployment — and/or human extinction.
For these factions, the buildout’s resilience has more complicated implications. If state and local bans are unlikely to end the boom, then green groups might be unwise to push for such measures in relatively climate-conscious areas. After all, doing so could shift development toward jurisdictions with less renewable energy, and/or fewer restrictions on carbon pollution. Given that risk, blue-state environmentalists may do more to mitigate AI’s climate impacts by regulating data center development than by banning it. Specifically, climate groups could demand that hyperscalers help bankroll the vast expansions of clean energy and transmission infrastructure that the green transition has always required.
For AI doomers, on the other hand, local bans may have some instrumental value. Moratoria and other restrictions are surely slowing the data center buildout at the margin. Still, as long as hyperscale facilities remain location-flexible — and tech companies stay well-capitalized — AI infrastructure will get built somewhere. A national moratorium could buy significant time. But ultimately, humanity’s security from the risks of AI hinges less on whether data centers get built than on what companies are allowed to do with them — and how the wealth they generate is distributed.
The data center rebellion is among the most remarkable popular movements in recent memory. But it is arrayed against one of the largest investment frenzies in human history. Unless or until the AI industry’s alleged “bubble” bursts, its buildout will be exceptionally difficult to stop. Yet where that buildout happens, how it’s powered — and what communities extract from it — are all up for grabs (and, increasingly, being grabbed).
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Seattle-based cannabis data analytics company Headset has agreed to pay more than $1 million to resolve allegations that it improperly received and obtained forgiveness for a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan.
The settlement, announced Monday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, stems from a May 2024 whistleblower lawsuit filed by Sidesolve LLC under the False Claims Act. Sidesolve is a data analytics company that uses AI algorithms to hunt for potential pandemic loan fraud across public records.
The government alleged that Headset was ineligible for the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan it received in February 2021 — and had forgiven in August 2021 — because its work supporting the marijuana industry conflicts with federal law.
Under the terms of the deal, Headset paid $100,000 within 30 days of signing the agreement in early August and will pay the remaining balance of more than $900,000 over four years through August 2030. The company made no admission of wrongdoing, stating it agreed to the payments to avoid the risks and expense of litigation.
Headset was founded in 2015 by Cy Scott, Brian Wansolich, and Scott Vickers. The trio previously co-founded Leafly, the popular online cannabis strain database and marketplace, which was acquired by Privateer Holdings in 2011. After departing Leafly, they launched Headset to bring business intelligence and real-time sales metrics to the legal pot industry.
The startup functions like a Nielsen for the cannabis sector, aggregating point-of-sale data from dispensaries and retailers to provide market trends, pricing insights, and consumer demographics.
Over the years, the company has raised $29.4 million in total funding from investors including Poseidon Asset Management and Canopy Rivers, expanding its data coverage across legal state and international markets.
from the lots-of-staffing-for-‘field’-offices dept
As the Trump administration continues to chase away actual talent in order to staff federal agencies with loyalists and/or people who don’t know any better, it has had to lower hiring standards to keep the federal cupboards stocked.
ICE went on a hiring surge following the imposition of impossible arrest quotas and a few billion tax dollars. To keep ICE staffing at the level required to arrest 1,500-3,000 non-criminals a day, ICE had to lower its standards and drastically reduce the amount of training these new officers — many who were promised $50,000 signing bonuses — received.
The combination of bonuses and lowered standards not only saw ICE cannibalizing US law enforcement agencies, but also belatedly discovering that a lot of applicants weren’t even capable of meeting standards so low they had to trip over them.
The same thing is now happening at the FBI. Plenty of talent has fled/been bled since Trump took office for the second time. A large percentage of the remaining workforce has been tasked with providing support for Trump’s mass deportation efforts, which means there’s barely anyone left to do the work that still needs to be done by the FBI.
The standards have been lowered at the FBI. And the new standards are so low, they’d possibly even embarrass ICE HR personnel, as CBS News reports:
The FBI previously refused to hire job applicants if they admitted to hiring sex workers or stealing from an employer — or engaging in acts of bestiality.
[…]
In June, the FBI quietly lowered some of the standards it uses when it conducts background checks on would-be federal agents and other personnel. According to multiple sources briefed on the matter, the FBI did so to facilitate hiring in some cases, even if candidates acknowledged they engaged in sexually deviant activities or stole from an employer.
Um…
Well, I’m not going to insult sex workers or sex purchasers, so long as everything is consensual. That this remains a criminal act in most places in the nation is a failure of policy, rather than a leading indicator of criminal proclivity.
But then we have to move on to the other stuff. Stealing from employers tends to be a deal breaker for new hires across both the public and private sector. And you would think an agency with plenty of expensive/sensitive stuff in its possession would be more wary than most when it comes to admissions of theft from former employers.
And that’s probably going to be a problem for the FBI as it moves forward with these relaxed-to-the-point-of-comatose standards.
But it is weirdly specific that the FBI has decided to soften its stance on bestiality. I mean, the FBI wouldn’t be removing this standard if it was such a rare occurrence that it rarely prevented securing a new hire. That it’s being removed now strongly suggests the FBI is being prevented from hiring a lot of… shall we say… otherwise qualified candidates.
It also says something about the hiring pool, which must be loaded with bodily fluids and animal hair. I have never been asked specifically about my animal-fucking activities when applying for any job during my past 33 years of full-time employment. It says something about the FBI that this question even needs to be asked, even indirectly. And it says something else entirely about the FBI now that it’s decided being charged or convicted for bestiality is no longer worrying enough to take a hard pass on a candidate.
That being said, there’s something about the FBI’s new hiring standards that actually suggest it might be willing to forgive and forget, which isn’t a bad thing.
The new standards also specifically address applicants who have engaged in past acts of bestiality or animal cruelty – saying they may still be considered for the bureau as long as the incidents took place before the age of 18, the sources said.
So, it’s not as immediately disturbing as it first appears, although you’d still think the FBI would have enough qualified applicants that it could leave the “no bestiality” requirement in place, no matter what age the person was when they performed these acts. Also, it seems like a lifetime moratorium on animal cruelty convictions should probably remain in place, since those actions tend to predict future acts of violence and are generally (if not entirely factually) associated with, you know, serial killers.
The caveats make this less awful than my headline would suggest. But, on the other hand, we expect federal agencies to hire the “best of the best” because they’re supposed to be the ne plus ultra of law enforcement. Under this administration, though, we’re apparently willing to settle for anyone who can fog a mirror.
Filed Under: bestiality, doj, fbi, kash patel, lowering standards, moral turpitude ftw, party of law and order, trump administration
Before joining Sequoia Capital in 2020 as chief digital and information officer, Avon Puri spent over a decade running infrastructure at Rubrik and VMware. Three years ago, as large language models began showing their true potential, Puri, alongside another Sequoia IT leader, Sudheer Dhurjati, recognized that AI could help autonomously solve a major challenge for infrastructure engineers—preventing tech outages before they occur.
The two tech veterans realized that instead of reacting to system failures after the fact, they could build a tool to predict them. This insight led them to build Empirik, a product that tracks system changes and infers their potential ripple effects across the entire infrastructure.
Sequoia recognized that Empirik could be a new type of observability tool that helps prevent and resolve incidents. After incubating the startup in 2023, Sequoia recruited former Quantum Metric CPO and Salesforce observability VP Kartik Chandrayana as CEO earlier this year.
Empirik announced Tuesday that it is spinning out as an independent company after raising $21 million in seed funding from Sequoia, Canapi, and Alumni Ventures.
“There has always been a lot of money spent in keeping systems up and running,” Sequoia partner Bogomil Balkansky told TechCrunch, adding that most existing observability tools fail to understand complex system dependencies. Empirik, he claims, is one of the first dedicated tools focused on tracking changes across massive environments. It acts as an autonomous “traffic cop”—permitting low-risk changes, setting guardrails on larger ones, and flagging the most dangerous updates for human review.
By serving as an autonomous infrastructure engineer, Empirik allows busy DevOps and site reliability engineering teams to offload routine troubleshooting and focus on higher-value priorities.
Since launching earlier this year, Empirik has already brought on customers ranging from startups to several Fortune 500 players, including S&P Global, Guardant Health, and a major consumer packaged goods (CPG) company.
Empirik’s goal is to do for infrastructure engineers what Cursor and Claude Code did for software developers: automate certain tasks so they can work significantly faster.
As AI accelerates the pace of software development, tools that help infrastructure engineers keep up with constant system changes are more vital than ever, Chandrayana told TechCrunch.
“What agentic AI did for software, Empirik wants to do for infrastructure engineering,” he added.
As for competition, Balkansky claims Empirik is in a category of its own for now, acting as a complementary layer to AI SRE platforms like Resolve and Sequoia-backed Traversal.
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WTF?! Remember those halcyon days when the RTX 5000-series was announced and we were all shocked by the prices, especially the $1,999 RTX 5090. Now, the average price for the consumer flagship is pretty much $5,000, with one regular model hitting an actual $5,090.
As we noted in our recent graphics card pricing feature that shows just how quickly prices are rising, the RTX 5090 was around $4,900 in the US recently.
Prices for the card were up 20% over the past month and are now 41% higher than in February, by far the largest six-month increase of any card in the list. The massive increase since launch means it’s now 145% above MSRP.
Just days later, RTX 5090 prices have climbed even further. It’s at the point now where even regular cards have reached an apt $5,090 – the price of an Asus TUF Gaming OC.
There has already been a $5,090 RTX 5090 announced, but it’s far from normal: The special-edition MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z, a 1,000W card that some describe as essentially an RTX 5090 Ti. The spec list includes two 12V-2×6 power connectors, a 3 oz copper PCB, a 40-phase VRM, and a carbon fiber backplate. It also has an attached AIO liquid cooler and an 8-inch display panel.
Now, though, that price has become the standard for many RTX 5090 cards.
But there’s an even pricier RTX 5090: the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Edition 20. Another special edition card, Newegg lists it for $5,740. We recently covered the story of someone who paid $10,000 for an Asus anniversary bundle that included the card, only for the order to be inexplicably canceled, forcing them to pay an extra $500 for another one.
The question now is whether anyone even buying these cards? As we pointed out in our feature, the RTX 5090 is no longer fast enough, at least not when it comes to gaming at 6K on a monitor that supports the resolution.
What’s just as concerning is the prospect of the RTX 5090’s price, and that of pretty much every other graphics card, continuing to rise. It’s little wonder that the RTX 5000 Super series seems to have been canceled indefinitely. And who knows how much RTX 6000-series cards will cost. An RTX 6090 for $6,090, presumably.
Hackers delivered malicious updates to the Virtualizor VPS management software after hijacking BGP routing for its update infrastructure and redirecting update requests to malicious servers.
Virtualizor is a legacy web control panel from Softaculous that hosting providers use to create, sell, and manage virtual private servers (VPS).
An urgent notice from the vendor warns that between 20:57 UTC on August 28 and 06:10 UTC on August 30, an attacker rerouted a block of Hetzner-hosted IP addresses in a BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) hijacking attack.
This enabled the threat actor to divert traffic from Softaculous software update systems and the client/billing portal.
BGP hijacking occurs when a network operator falsely announces a route to IP addresses belonging to another organization. Other organizations may accept the fraudulent route as the preferred one.
An attacker receiving traffic this way can modify or redirect it to malicious destinations.
Softaculous says that the BGP hijacking allowed the hackers to deliver a malicious Virtualizor update to a small number of installations.
“We have confirmed that a malicious Virtualizor update package was delivered to a small number of installations that checked for updates while their traffic was being diverted,” the vendor says.
“This affected a handful of servers rather than the general Virtualizor user base.”
Because the requests were redirected to the attacker, the software vendor does not have logs. Softaculous recommends that Virtualizor operators check for the service:
/etc/systemd/system/java-jre-update.service
If found, admins should rotate and restrict API credentials, and audit systems for unauthorized SSH keys, accounts, scheduled tasks, and outbound connections.
Also, users who accessed the Softaculous client area or entered payment information during the incident window should reset their passwords, review account activity, and monitor card statements.
Softaculous’s investigation into the incident is still underway, but there are no indications that any of its other products were impacted.
Softaculous says routing has now been restored, the fraudulent certificate was reported for revocation, and a new version of Virtualizor, number 3.2.9.9, was released on September 1 with a “Security Analyzer” tool in the admin panel.
The company also plans to implement cryptographic signing for all software packages going forward and migrate to better infrastructure.
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.
from the big-giant-babies dept
Our full-diapered mad king is at it again, this time urging FCC boss Brendan Carr to go after media companies for the crime of….simply pointing out his terrible, crashing polling numbers:
Trump last week also posted a long, rambling screed on his personal propaganda website, vowing that NBC News‘ Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker would be “reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment” for the crime of accurately pointing out Trump’s political endorsements don’t carry the weight they used to.
The comment Welker actually made, as is par for the course for corporate media shows like Meet the Press, was just about as timid as you can get, simply stating Trump endorsements have seen “mixed results”:
“He’s going to loom large over these midterms. There’s no doubt about that. He, of course, has endorsed a slate of candidates in the primaries. He’s had some mixed results, but most recently, his pick of Senator Darline Graham, of course, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, was successful in her primary battle, so now she takes on Dr. Annie Andrews in South Carolina.”
The irony is that these are simply timid corporate media outlets that can often barely muster the courage to tell the truth (which, in this case, is that Trump’s endorsements will likely be toxic during the whole midterms). If Meet the Press offends Trump so deeply, it would be interesting to see his response to a healthy and vibrant media (if we had such a thing) firm in its conviction to the truth.
It goes without saying that the FCC has no authority to police accurate polling, journalism, or analysis of factual reality. Though overconfident Brendan Carr may certainly try.
As we’ve explored at length, the Trump FCC has been engaged in multiple overlapping manufactured investigations into ABC for a variety of “offenses,” ranging from comedian Jimmy Kimmel making fun of the president’s wife, to the morning talk show The View hosting politicians that Trumpism is clearly worried could erode Republican control of the Senate.
In the latter case, the Carr FCC appears to have colluded with right-wing local broadcast companies to falsely make it appear that a local ABC affiliate violated dated FCC “equal opportunity” rules by hosting Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico last February. Carr used this to try and justify an unprecedented early review of ABC’s eight local affiliate broadcast licenses.
ABC, in response, recently filed suit against the FCC for broad First Amendment violations, suggesting that as Trump’s health, political power, and influence wanes, the empty threats designed to chill media outlets’ desire to accurately criticize the president simply don’t carry the same weight.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, brendan carr, donald trump, fcc, free speech, kristen welker, polls
Sonos has a new soundbar in its streaming-centric lineup: the Dolby Atmos-capable Beam Ultra. It falls between the existing Beam and the flagship Arc Ultra.
The Beam Ultra is the Dolby Atmos upgrade of the Beam Gen 2 — which remains in the lineup– and adds physical, upfiring drivers and “warmer bass” to become a 7.1.2-channel soundbar.
Sonos says it has redesigned the center channel for clearer dialogue, and the speaker comes with four different levels of AI Speech Enhancement as well as a Night Sound mode. The Beam Ultra also comes with the Trueplay feature for tuning the soundbar to any room.
See Also: Best Sonos Speakers for 2026
Connectivity on the Beam Ultra includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HDMI eARC, while the new version of the Sonos app includes Sonos 27voice — the company’s own music assistant — and Sonos 27mcp for connecting an outside AI assistant. The Sonos ecosystem includes compatibility with dozens of streaming apps as well as the ability to add surround speakers and multiroom options.
The Beam is one of CNET’s favorite soundbars, but it has always been limited by its software emulation of Dolby Atmos — something which the Beam Ultra fixes. Adding this option between $500 and $1,000 gives Sonos users more flexibility when building their own home theater systems.
The Beam Ultra is available for preorder starting today for $699, with general availability on Sept. 29, 2026.
Recap: While popular manufacturer Keychron offers partially open-source keyboards and is working to open-source its mouse firmware, modder Juho T’s fully open-source Silakka54 design has been inspiring affordable ergonomic split keyboards for some time. A new fork from another tinkerer adds Hall-effect switches.
Fans of minimalist ergonomic split keyboards and users familiar with the Silakka54 might be interested in a new Hall-effect variant. If it catches on with resellers, it could become one of the more affordable Hall-effect keyboards available, while its open-source hardware and firmware allow for unrestricted modding.
Juho T’s original Silakka54 design first emerged on GitHub in late 2024. The 54-key split keyboard draws inspiration from the REVIUNG41 and Corne, supports 5-pin MX-style switches, and uses firmware based on the open-source QMK and VIA standards.
While the project’s GitHub repository includes instructions for building the PCB and firmware from scratch, pre-built models from unaffiliated resellers are available on stores such as AliExpress for as little as $50. As a fully open-source project, forks were to be expected, and a recent creation from modder Hanthebot introduces a useful Hall-effect option.
The Silakka54-HE mostly retains the original design and firmware support. However, in addition to adding Hall-effect switches, it supports Wooting cases and features a reversible design, with its firmware and PCB schematics based on Choi Byungyoon’s TrueStrike42. Other features include adjustable actuation points (APC), rapid trigger, full-duplex communication, and much more.
Currently available only as a DIY project, the Silakka54-HE requires the following off-the-shelf components:
- PCB x2
- SOT-23 SS49E x54
- 0805 0.1uf capacitor x62 (0.1~1uf)
- PJ320A TRRS socket x2
- RP2040 Zero x2
If the Hall-effect model proves popular with resellers, budget-friendly pre-built models might emerge for those unaccustomed to building keyboards.
DIY keyboards like the Silakka54 take customization much further than Keychron’s partially open-source offerings. Like the Silakka54, the popular manufacturer has long supported the open-source QMK and VIA firmware. Keychron also recently open-sourced its cases, plates, and keycaps, but only for use with its PCBs, stopping just short of allowing users to build its designs from scratch.
Open-sourcing mouse firmware is the next step for Keychron. The company’s upcoming ZGM firmware aims to do for mouse sensor tuning, polling behavior, and click processing what QMK did for keyboard firmware. Set to arrive in the first quarter of 2027, ZGM will feature a modular architecture designed to facilitate deep customization. Perhaps it could lead to unique, affordable mouse designs that fill a role similar to the Silakka54.
Verdict
It’s not going to win awards for its technical performance, but the MovingStyle is a charming lifestyle TV that’s easy to like if you’ll make use of its unique functionality.
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Unique, portable design
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Responsive touchscreen
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Sturdy
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Has most apps you’ll need
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Only Quad HD
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Gaming specs could be better
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Sound lacks solidity
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Poor contrast and elevated black levels
Key Features
Introduction
The television is having a bit of a PR crisis among younger buyers. As a millennial, I have organised whole rooms around where the TV can go, but research shows Gen Z prefer to watch their favourite shows on their phones or laptops, with only 10% choosing a TV.
With TV watching now as mobile as the devices we own, kitchens, bedrooms and even bathrooms are increasingly becoming the places to catch up on shows. Manufacturers have adapted to this with a new breed of portable and movable TVs, and Samsung’s MovingStyle is very much part of that trend.
The 27-inch model I’m testing is a rollable, portable, shape-shifting touchscreen TV and while it’s not going to blow the socks off anyone looking at its on-paper specs – particularly when paired with its £1,000 price tag – there’s something about it that is very likeable indeed.
Design
- 27-inch display
- Flexible, moveable design
- Three hours of battery life
If you hadn’t guessed it, the MovingStyle looks a lot different to a regular TV. The 27-inch Quad HD screen sits high, on a wheeled stand, mounted onto an adjustable arm that lets you change its height and also its orientation. It also has a built-in battery that’s good for three hours away from a plug, meaning you aren’t fixed to a specific viewing location – a big part of its charm.
While that in itself is pretty cool, where it really moves things forward from competition like LG’s StanbyME 2, is the ability to remove the screen from the stand entirely. The display has a built-in handle that doubles up as a kickstand, meaning you can take it off and place it on a piece of furniture for even more flexibility.
Considering the wheelable base is very heavy (about 20kg), having this as an option is handy for moving it up or down the stairs, or even into the garden, without having to relocate the stand too. That three-hour battery life is the same whether it’s on the stand or not.
Getting the MovingStyle set up is pretty straightforward – just make sure you read the instructions first to avoid lugging the hefty stand out of the box prematurely. In fact, it needs to be slotted into a rest in the packaging, which then allows you to secure the pole into the base with four screws. You can then hoist it out and stand it up. The screen just clicks on to a circular attachment on the adjustable arm.
This all works well but I do wish the stand had a brake – I have to either hold the stand with one hand or put a foot on the base while reconnecting the screen to ensure it doesn’t roll backwards in the process.
As for colour, the MovingStyle is currently only available in white, which means it’s a little more “look at me” than some people might like. But a TV on a pole is never really going to blend in, so I guess why not lean into it?
It’s worth mentioning that there are two versions of the MovingStyle – a 32-inch 4K version called the MovingStyle Essential (not officially for sale in the UK), and the 27-inch Quad HD version I’m testing.
While the Essential gets the extra resolution, it loses out on a lot of the functionality that makes the MovingStyle so great, namely its ability to run on battery power, the ability to remove the screen from its base, its touchscreen interface, and it only has a 60Hz refresh rate.
Connectivity
- A single HDMI 2.1
- 2 x USB-C
- Bluetooth 5.3
While some people may use it as such, the connectivity on the MovingStyle doesn’t really scream “main TV”. It only features one HDMI 2.1 port (eARC), and two USB-C ports.
The base can be charged via the included power cord, but if you need to charge the display independently, while it’s off its base, you can use one of the USB ports for that.
It also has Bluetooth 5.3 on board, allowing you to connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones to the TV should you wish, while wi-fi allows AirPlay 2, Google Cast and things like screen mirroring.
User Experience
- Tizen OS
- Remote or touchscreen
- Good app selection
The MovingStyle features Samsung’s Tizen OS, which will look familiar to anyone who has used a Samsung TV before, and is generally well laid out and easy to navigate.
You can do this using the included small, solar-rechargeable remote or the touchscreen interface, meaning my kids found their way around it almost embarrassingly easily.
It’s responsive no matter which way you do things. However, you’ll find that not all apps work with the touch interface once you’re in them, meaning you’ll need to grab the remote for those, or use the on-screen controller that pops up. That’s a bit clunky in an otherwise smooth experience, but I’d guess is something that’s out of Samsung’s hands. Netflix and Prime Video work just fine with touch, though.
Finding something to watch is very easy indeed. On the home screen, you have some featured and suggested content from a range of apps, alongside options for live content from Samsung TV Plus. Scroll down and you get a rail of streaming apps, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, ITV X and Apple TV among others. Keep scrolling and you’ll find more rails of themed suggestions, like family favourites, live events and top movies.
On the left hand side, there is a slim vertical menu with some icons. These expand when highlighted, and take you to Samsung’s Gaming Hub, a lifestyle, work and smart home hub called Samsung Daily+, the Samsung Art Store for choosing display art when the TV is not in use (membership required) and a search function.
You can also access the connected devices menu here and all the settings, as well as a shortcut to Samsung’s privacy notices in case you want to review them.
Gaming
- Cloud gaming options
- Slow input lag
- Some gaming specific features
The MovingStyle has a single HDMI 2.1, so you can hook up a games console if you feel so inclined – but I suspect that only casual gamers will be happy with the specs on offer here.
For example, while the MovingStyle offers a 120Hz refresh rate and supports ALLM, there’s no support for VRR. Input lag also sits at around 17ms, which is pretty sluggish for a TV at this price, even if Samsung’s Game Mode will shave off a bit of that when it’s enabled.
There is also Samsung’s Game Bar, which offers a number of settings that will help give you the edge in a game, or otherwise tailor the gaming experience more closely to your taste.
If you don’t have a console, or you’d rather not use up that single precious HDMI port, Samsung’s Game Hub has access to cloud gaming from the likes of Xbox, Amazon Luna and GeForce Now.
Features
- Samsung Vision AI
- Bixby or Alexa voice assistants
- Support for HDR10+
Samsung’s Vision AI leads on the artificial intelligence here, with a shortcut on the remote to load up the Vision AI homescreen, complete with suggested questions and commands. It’s fun to mess around with but I’ve yet to find any compelling reason to use it like this on a telly.
You can set up Bixby or Alexa as your voice assistant of choice, and that is more successful. With Bixby it integrates with Vision AI, and you can navigate the Samsung TV settings a little deeper, but I find Alexa to generally be better in results for content suggestions. I also like that it offers suggestions and nudges for voice activation when you do things via remote.
You can also use it “hands free” if you want to (you can also opt against it if you prefer), whereas Bixby requires you to hold down the mic button.
Samsung’s SmartThings smart home hub is installed on the TV so you can control, view and add any compatible smart home devices on screen. If you already use Alexa for smart home stuff, choosing that as your voice assistant also gives you access to Amazon’s smart home hub.
The processor behind the MovingStyle is the NQ4 AI Gen 2, which was a flagship processor a couple of years ago, and now generally powers their mid to upper-mid range. It’s a very respectable processor indeed, and it shows in an incredibly smooth performance.
The MovingStyle features a matte filter on its screen, which helps to diffuse light in bright rooms and in unconventional viewing positions. There’s an expected pay off in contrast because of this, but it does really work. I’ll talk about picture quality in a moment, but I think it’s the right compromise in a product like this.
It supports HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos, though natively through the TV you wouldn’t really know about the latter. Of course, connecting a soundbar is possible here, but its form factor and use case doesn’t really lend itself to it being a simple solution. Making use of the 2-channel 10W built-in system is going to be something you’re probably going to have to make peace with.
Picture Quality
- Quad HD (2560 x 1440) display
- Could be brighter
- Matte screen filter impacts contrast
It’s fair to say that you probably shouldn’t buy the MovingStyle if you’re incredibly discerning over picture quality, or want the best picture for your money. You are undoubtedly paying a good chunk of the MovingStyle’s asking price for its rather quirky functionality, and you’re going to want to really appreciate and make use of that for the pay offs you make in picture quality.
First off, the screen is Quad HD (2560 x 1440), so not even 4K. Even the most budget TVs pack a 4K display these days, so that’s worth considering.
However, on this 27-inch display, that loss of resolution doesn’t feel incredibly problematic. Images on streaming services are sharp and detailed enough that I don’t necessarily find myself longing for 4K, though it would make this offering all the more solid.
It’s in the nuance that you miss out – there isn’t quite the same feeling of depth to images as you’ll get on a 4K display and there’s a lack of finer detail that makes the textures of fabrics, hair and skin all the more life-like. But I still think the majority of people plonking themselves down in front of this will be more than happy with the detail and sharpness levels on offer here.
That said, it is somewhat reliant on the quality of content you give it to work with. Older terrestrial TV streams that you’ll find on Samsung TV Plus can look particularly soft without the extra pixels and upscaling to play with. But Full HD streams of Sky News on the same service look clear, clean of noise and perfectly watchable – and with that as the baseline for most of the TV you’ll be watching, you shouldn’t come into much trouble.
The MovingStyle has a handful of viewing modes, including Standard, Movie, Eco, Vivid and Filmmaker Mode. I opt for the latter, but switch on the Brightness Optimisation setting to ensure the screen adapts to how bright the room is – at its default brightness level, it’s almost unviewable.
This means that for most situations, the screen brightness ends up being maxed out – and I’d take a bit more brightness still if I could, to really help HDR highlights to stand out more. As it stands, they aren’t as impactful as you would notice on a brighter screen.
Still, colours look good – skin tones are well judged and brighter colours manage to look vivid yet natural.
As I mentioned before, the biggest issue this TV has from a picture perspective is contrast. That matte screen filter feels like an important thing to have on this kind of product, but it does make for less-than-stellar black levels, also not helped by the fact you really have to have this screen at its max brightness most of the time. Very dark scenes can suffer with a lack of distinction and shadow detail too, and even those with mixed light levels don’t have the talent to balance both extremes out to equal abilities.
It’s fair to say that this is a TV for casual viewing, but even as someone who watches TV with a critical eye, I can find plenty to like about the picture quality here when balancing out the other things it offers. Still, there are limitations here, so you’ll want to manage your expectations appropriately.
Sound Quality
- 10-watt sound system
- Standard and Amplify sound modes
- Lacks bass but no sharp edges
As a 10-watt system, sound quality here is not the best. It’s certainly not the most expansive performance, and it lacks some solidity too, with very little bass to speak of and the full presentation overall sounding a bit hollow.
However, it does balance out what it can do pretty well. In Standard sound mode, there are no sharp edges to busy action scenes, and dialogue is clear. This holds true up to a pretty decent volume, even if pushing the volume just makes a relatively small sound louder, rather than any bigger. That of course has a ceiling, but I think you’ll hit a volume that you’re happy with before you get to one where things sound really strained.
The Amplify sound mode is also there if you want to add a bit more oomph to the mid-range and higher frequencies, but I find it makes things sound a bit processed and introduces some sharpness at volume.
While the advice for a TV like this would usually be “add a soundbar”, its form factor makes that a little tricky – though not impossible. You could also hook up a Bluetooth speaker for a bit of a boost, though integration with the screen might be a bit off.
Should you buy it?
A fun, flexible lifestyle TV
If you have a household that will find the MovingStyle’s unique design and capabilities useful, there is something very likeable about this TV.
You’re paying for that fun
The price of the MovingStyle doesn’t match its capabilities from a picture and sound perspective, so you’ll need to be fine with paying a premium for its portable/moveable capabilities.
Final Thoughts
The Samsung MovingStyle feels a bit like when the first Frame TV came out. Specs were lower but prices were about the same as some of Samsung’s upper range TVs, and for some people that just didn’t make sense. But its design focus resonated with people who liked how it fit into their homes, and it’s now one of Samsung TV’s biggest success stories.
Ultimately, you have to really want the MovingStyle, to get the MovingStyle. Paying £1,000 for a 27-inch screen that isn’t even 4K, with picture and sound performances that you’ll find much better elsewhere, won’t make sense to a lot of people.
But then wheeling the MovingStyle from the dining room to the kitchen while I’m cooking, or taking it upstairs so my kids give me the main TV downstairs back for an hour – those things really make a difference to how my household runs. A really very charming lifestyle TV.
How We Test
We test every television 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.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy
- Tested for more than a week
- Tested with real world use
Test Data
| Samsung MovingStyle | |
|---|---|
| Input lag (ms) | 17 ms |
Full Specs
| Samsung MovingStyle Review | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Samsung |
| Screen Size | 27 inches |
| Size (Dimensions) | x x INCHES |
| Size (Dimensions without stand) | 335 x 596 x 47.4 MM |
| Weight | 5.2 KG |
| Operating System | Tizen |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Resolution | 2560 x 1440 |
| HDR | Yes |
| Types of HDR | HDR10, HLG, HDR10+, HDR0+ Adaptive |
| Refresh Rate TVs | 50 – 60 Hz |
| Ports | HDMI 2.1, two USB-C |
| HDMI (2.1) | eARC, ALLM |
| Audio (Power output) | 10 W |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2, Google Cast |
| Colours | White |
| Display Technology | LED |
| UK RRP | £1199 |
| USA RRP | TBC |
Tech
John Ternus starts his first day as Apple CEO with a foldable iPhone on deck and a long list of problems to solve
The big picture: Apple is entering its fall product cycle with a foldable iPhone, a voice-aware smart display, and an updated Siri platform positioned as core parts of its artificial intelligence strategy. The launches will also provide the first major test for John Ternus, who becomes Apple’s new chief executive on September 1.
Ternus is regarded inside Apple as a leader who can move between broad product planning and the technical details of a device, a skill Tim Cook highlighted when he announced the succession. His test now is whether he can apply that hardware focus to a company facing more than product decisions: Apple is dealing with a memory shortage, pressure on App Store revenue, employee departures, and an AI effort that has yet to match rivals. How he handles those problems while Cook remains executive chairman will shape how quickly he can establish his own authority.
Ternus arrives from the hardware organization at a moment when Apple is trying to turn AI from a software catch-up effort into a broader device strategy. The company is preparing products designed to put AI into more settings: in the home, through a display that can identify speakers and adjust information accordingly; in wearable devices, through planned camera-equipped AirPods and smart glasses; and in product-development systems used internally by Apple’s engineering teams.
The foldable iPhone is expected to be among the most closely watched products in the coming rollout. It continues a multiyear redesign of Apple’s most important device, following last year’s thinner Air model and preceding a glass-focused iPhone planned for the product line’s 20th anniversary in 2027.
Ternus has argued to Wall Street analysts that the iPhone will remain central to customers’ lives and Apple’s product strategy, despite persistent industry speculation about whether phones could eventually be displaced by glasses or other AI hardware.
That position helps explain Apple’s more cautious approach to mixed reality. The Vision Pro has struggled commercially, and Ternus had concerns about whether its weight and price would allow it to become a mass-market product, according to people who discussed the matter with Bloomberg. Apple has recently cut jobs tied to Vision Pro work, particularly in gaming and immersive-video content, while also reducing roles across functions including security, audio engineering, Siri integration, testing, and the operating system that will be shared with future glasses.
The company still intends to introduce non-augmented-reality smart glasses, code-named N50, next year. But Ternus is open to scaling back Apple’s work in head-worn computing if the category does not gain traction. That could affect the longer-term prospects for an updated Vision Pro, code-named N224, which is slated for possible release as early as late 2028.
For Apple, the larger issue is AI. Its Apple Intelligence rollout has been uneven, and the company has reorganized leadership for both its AI work and Siri. After struggling to advance with internally developed technology alone, Apple began rebuilding the models behind Siri using Google’s Gemini technology. The decision unsettled members of Apple’s large language model group and contributed to departures, including the unit’s leader.
A fuller deployment of Siri AI is expected in September. Apple wants the system to compete more directly with ChatGPT and eventually create revenue opportunities, either through paid access or integrations with third-party apps. Before that can happen, Siri will have to overcome a reputation for unreliable performance and limited usefulness. Early reviews of the new AI version have been positive.
Ternus has also promoted AI as an engineering tool. Before leaving the chief hardware role, he introduced an internal platform intended to speed product development, improve testing, and strengthen device reliability. “We’re going to be able to solve even harder problems,” Ternus told employees during an all-hands meeting, describing AI as a way to apply lessons from previous products to devices still in development.
Some of the devices now on Apple’s roadmap depend on whether that software improves. The company has repeatedly delayed its camera-equipped AirPods and its flagship home display because of shortcomings in AI features.
Apple is also developing a home security product, a robotic-arm display, and a wearable camera pendant. Its planned AirPods cameras and home-security cameras would not produce conventional viewable video. Instead, they would send information to AI systems for environmental analysis, an approach intended to reduce privacy concerns.
That distinction matters for Apple, whose brand has long emphasized privacy. A growing number of AI devices depend on cameras, microphones, and sensors placed in homes or worn on the body. Apple will need to persuade customers that AI-powered awareness can be useful without becoming intrusive.
Ternus inherits other challenges that extend beyond product design. Apple is confronting a continuing memory shortage and higher component costs, areas in which Cook built much of his reputation. Ternus is expected to lean on Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan, finance chief Kevan Parekh, procurement teams, and operations leadership to manage supply constraints and limit disruption.
Services also face pressure from weaker game purchases, regulatory changes to App Store fees and the European Union’s requirement that Apple permit independent app stores. Meanwhile, Apple has lost hardware talent to competitors offering higher compensation and opportunities to develop new products from the ground up. Hundreds of former Apple employees now work in OpenAI’s hardware division, which Apple has accused in a lawsuit of taking trade secrets.
Cook, who led Apple from 2011, will remain executive chairman and plans to continue handling relationships with the Trump administration and the Chinese government. He told employees, “there can only be one CEO at a time.” Even so, his continued presence will make Apple’s transition gradual rather than abrupt.
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