Amazon is ending support for third-party integrations on its Luna cloud gaming service. The most immediate changes mean that it’s no longer possible to buy Ubisoft+ and Jackbox Games subscriptions or standalone games through Luna.

Amazon will automatically any cancel active subscriptions bought through Luna at the end of customers’ next billing cycle. If you have a Ubisoft+ subscription that you bought directly from Ubisoft instead, you’ll still be able to access games on that service through Luna until June 10.

The Bring Your Own Library option — which allows users to play games they own on the likes of EA, GOG and Ubisoft on Luna — is going away too. You won’t be able to access games from on those storefronts via Amazon’s streaming service after June 3.

If you bought any games outright on Luna, you’ll still be able to play them there until June 10. Unlike Google did when it shut down Stadia, Amazon isn’t offering refunds for those purchases. However, you’ll still have access to them through the respective third-party platform that’s linked to your account, be it the EA App, GOG Galaxy or Ubisoft Connect.

That doesn’t exactly help folks who don’t have powerful-enough systems to play more demanding games and were relying on Luna. As such, some people might need to turn to the likes of GeForce Now in order to keep playing games they bought through Luna (and they’ll need to hope GFN actually supports their specific games).

Amazon has been reshaping Luna over the last several months. It rolled out a revamped version of the service back in October, with more of a focus on GameNight party games that you can play with a smartphone.

Prime subscribers will still be able to claim PC games and stream games on the Luna Standard tier at no extra cost. The Luna Premium subscription, which includes a wider range of third-party games, is still available too.

“We’re doubling down on a broad range of gaming experiences, including strong third-party titles, delivered in ways that make great games more accessible, as well as new and unique gaming experiences like GameNight,” Amazon wrote in an email to Luna users. The company also said it will offer some folks a free Luna Premium subscription.

Claude creator Anthropic is considering designing its own chips as advanced AI systems cause a shortage, sources told Reuters.

Anthropic continues to grab the headlines this week, as it fights the US administration in the courts and the power of its unreleased Claude Mythos model strikes fear into the hearts of much of the industry, given its ability to exploit security vulnerabilities.

Now Reuters is citing sources that say Anthropic is looking closely at the possibility of building its own chips, amid industry concerns that the supply of sophisticated chips required for new AI systems from itself and its competitors may not keep pace. Rivals Meta and OpenAI already have such projects underway.

Earlier this week, Anthropic announced a new expanded agreement that will allow it to tap 3.5GW of Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU) capacity from Broadcom.

In a regulatory filing on 6 April, Broadcom said that Anthropic’s consumption of TPU capacity is dependent on its continued commercial success. The multi-gigawatt capacity is expected to come online in 2027.

Last October, Anthropic and Google announced a deal worth “tens of billions of dollars” for 1m of Google’s TPUs. The deal is expected to bring more than 1GW of AI compute capacity online for Anthropic this year. The new agreement deepens that relationship, Anthropic said. Broadcom said that it is in a long-term agreement with Google to develop and supply custom TPUs.

Anthropic already has multibillion-dollar deals for compute capacity with companies such as Nvidia and Microsoft. It runs Claude on a range of AI hardware, including Amazon Web Sevices’ Trainium, Google TPUs and Nvidia GPUs. Amazon is Anthropic’s primary cloud provider and training partner.

Anthropic said that a vast majority of the new compute will be situated in the US, expanding on its $50bn commitment to strengthening the country’s computing infrastructure.

Demand for Anthropic’s AI tools has accelerated in 2026. Recent data shows that Anthropic is now capturing more than 73pc of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, while its rival OpenAI is down to around 27pc.

According to the company, revenue run rate has already surpassed $30bn, up from around $9bn at the end of 2025. More than 1,000 of Anthropic’s business customers spend more than $1m on an annualised basis, doubling in less than two months, it added.

Given the growing fight for compute power, and the well-reported chips shortage, it would not be a surprise for Anthropic to look into the albeit extremely costly business of designing its own chips, but the sources admitted that no project team has yet been set up, and plans have not yet been set in place.

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

In short: Estonia and Belgium are the only two EU member states to have declined the Jutland Declaration, an October 2025 pan-European commitment to restrict children’s access to social media. Estonia’s ministers argue that age-based bans are unenforceable, that children will find ways around them, and that the correct approach is to enforce the GDPR against the platforms themselves and invest in digital literacy rather than restricting young people’s participation in the information society.

The declaration most EU countries signed

On 10 October 2025, digital ministers from 25 of the European Union’s 27 member states signed the Jutland Declaration at an informal gathering in Horsens, Denmark. Norway and Iceland also signed. The declaration is a non-binding political commitment to introduce privacy-preserving age verification on social media platforms, protect minors from addictive design features and dark patterns, and work toward what the document describes as a “digital legal age” for access to online services. Estonia and Belgium were the two EU members that declined. Belgium’s refusal came from a veto by Flemish Media Minister Cieltje Van Achter, who described the declaration’s age verification requirements as disproportionate and objected to requiring children to use national identity systems such as Itsme to access services like YouTube or Instagram. Estonia’s refusal was substantively different: principled rather than procedural, and rooted in a broader argument about where Europe’s regulatory effort should be directed. The political momentum the declaration reflects is considerable. Europe’s social media age shift accelerated through 2025 and into 2026, with Australia implementing the world’s first ban on under-16s from December 2025, France passing legislation in January 2026 to prohibit under-15s, Spain enacting restrictions for under-16s in February 2026, and Austria moving to restrict children under 14. Greece announced it would ban under-15s from social media from 2027, part of a six-country EU grouping that also includes Denmark, France, Austria, Portugal, and Spain. On 20 November 2025, the European Parliament backed a non-binding resolution calling for an EU-wide digital minimum age of 16 by 483 votes to 92, with 86 abstentions, and called on the European Commission to incorporate the measure into the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act.

Why Estonia said no

Estonia’s dissent is articulated by two ministers who have approached the question from different but complementary angles. Kristina Kallas, Minister of Education and Research, has been the more outspoken critic of the ban consensus. At a Politico forum in Barcelona, Kallas argued that age restrictions place responsibility on the wrong party. “The way to approach this, to me, is not to make kids responsible for that harm and start self-regulating,” she said. Her corresponding argument is that the responsibility should fall on the platforms. “Europe pretends to be weak when it comes to big American and international corporations,” she told the forum, challenging the EU to “actually take this power and start regulating the big American corporations.” She was also direct about the practical limits of ban-based approaches: “kids will find very quickly the ways to go around and to still use social media.” That argument connects to Europe’s broader effort to assert its regulatory power over American technology companies, a project that has gathered considerable momentum since 2025 but has not yet been applied with comparable force to social media content governance. Liisa-Ly Pakosta, Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs, has framed the positive case for Estonia’s preferred approach. “Estonia believes in an information society and including young people in the information society,” she has said, emphasising digital participation rather than exclusion. Pakosta has pointed to the General Data Protection Regulation as the enforcement mechanism already available: the GDPR prohibits platforms from processing children’s personal data without appropriate consent and carries fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover for violations. Estonia’s argument, in essence, is that Europe has not exhausted its existing tools before reaching for a new and unproven one.

The enforcement problem Estonia is pointing to

Estonia’s critique of the ban model has a concrete reference point. Australia became the first country in the world to enforce a social media ban for minors on 10 December 2025, prohibiting anyone under 16 from holding accounts on platforms including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, X, and Facebook. Platforms face fines of up to approximately A$50 million for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent underage access. In the months after the ban came into force, the eSafety Commissioner found Meta, TikTok, and YouTube were not complying with the ban, with the regulator proceeding to court action against the platforms. The compliance picture was bleak: seven in ten children who had held social media accounts before the ban still had active accounts after it took effect. Workarounds including VPNs, false birth dates, and the transfer of accounts to adult relatives proved straightforward and were widely adopted. Whether the Australian experience represents the definitive verdict on the ban model, or merely an early implementation struggle that stricter enforcement will eventually resolve, remains contested. What is not contested is that the world’s first and most closely watched age ban produced a high rate of non-compliance within months of introduction, and that this outcome was predicted in advance by critics who argued the compliance burden would be met by creative circumvention rather than by genuine restriction.

What comes next in Brussels

The practical arena for the contest between Estonia’s platform-enforcement approach and the ban-majority’s position is the Digital Fairness Act, the European Commission’s forthcoming legislation targeting addictive design, dark patterns, and manipulative commercial practices in digital services. The European Parliament’s November 2025 vote made explicit that it wants a 16-plus digital minimum age incorporated into the DFA text, along with bans on engagement-based recommender algorithms for users who are minors, restrictions on loot boxes, and a default-off requirement for infinite scroll, autoplay, and pull-to-refresh mechanisms on services used by young people. The Commission is expected to table the DFA proposal in the fourth quarter of 2026. That timeline gives Estonia a legislative window in which to argue for a platform-accountability framework to sit alongside, or in place of, an age-based access restriction. The two approaches are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but they reflect genuinely different theories of where regulatory leverage is most effectively applied: against the commercial platforms that build and profit from the systems in question, or against the young people who have grown up treating social media as ordinary infrastructure. 2025 established AI as the defining technology of the decade, and as AI-powered recommendation systems become the primary mechanism by which young people encounter content online, the question of who bears legal and regulatory responsibility for what those systems serve to a 14-year-old is one that Europe will have to answer in law, not just in declarations.

Apple’s iPhone 5C is apparently getting a second life, and this time it is not because it was a hidden gem that was slept on.

In an NBC News segment, the network highlights a small but noticeable social media comeback for Apple’s old iPhone 5C. The sudden popularity is largely driven by Gen Z users who seem drawn to its colorful design, “throwback” camera quality, and overall retro charm.

The story is less about raw utility and more about the vibes. So after the iPod, the colorful iPhone is the next to get a revival.

Why Gen Z is suddenly into the iPhone 5C again

The appeal behind the iPhone 5C is pretty simple. Gen Z is drawn to how different it feels from modern phones. Today’s smartphones mostly look like polished slabs of metal and glass. The iPhone 5C, on the other hand, is bright, plastic, cheerful, and a little awkward in a way that now reads charming rather than cheap.

NBC notes that another reason for the renewed interest is the camera. One of the on-screen captions specifically notes that the iPhone 5C is trending thanks to its grainy photo quality. The softer and lower image quality fits neatly into the broader social media obsession with imperfect digital aesthetics, particularly with older digital cameras.

So what used to feel outdated now reads as character.

Nostalgia plays a big role

Back when it was first released in 2013, the iPhone 5C failed to meet sales expectations because it failed to be affordable, despite its “budget iPhone” pitch. It lacked the popular Touch ID, and the plastic was perceived as “cheap”.

The segment brought in Clay Routledge, an existential psychologist and author of Past Forward, to explain the deeper pull behind retro tech. He also gives the story a broader cultural frame. The comeback is not just about one old iPhone model. It is about how younger users are increasingly drawn to gadgets that feel less optimized, less overwhelming, and less trapped in today’s hyper-polished digital culture.

At AXPONA 2026, where six-figure systems are aplenty and it’s not unusual to stumble into rooms pushing past $500,000 or even flirting with $1 million, most of what’s on display exists for a very small slice of the population. That’s part of the spectacle, but it’s not always where the story is. The Dynaudio Legend bookshelf speakers stopped me cold because they don’t rely on excess to make their point. Compact, handcrafted in Denmark, and built around real-world usability, they deliver the kind of scale, detail, and physical presence that makes a lot of those megabuck systems feel like overkill. In a show full of gear chasing perfection at any cost, this is the rare product that actually makes you question where that line should be drawn — which is $7,000 in this particular case.

Danish Craft, No Shortcuts: Why the Dynaudio Legend Stands Out

Listening to music should feel like a break from everything else. At a busy show, that’s harder than it sounds—but the Dynaudio Legend made a convincing case without trying too hard. That was clear before I even realized they’re using Dynaudio’s best tweeter here, which explains a lot about the control and refinement I was hearing.

Dynaudio doesn’t cut corners. It never has. That shows up here in a straightforward way: consistent parts, consistent tuning, and a compact design that doesn’t try to overreach. What changes from pair to pair is the finish.

Each cabinet uses natural rosewood veneer that’s selected and matched by eye, paired with Jatoba hardwood corner pieces that complement the grain. Final assembly is done by hand in Denmark. No two pairs look exactly the same, but they’re all built to the same standard.

The finish deserves mention because it’s noticeably better in person than in photos—more depth, more texture, less “factory uniform.” It’s the kind of detail you notice up close, not from across the room. And for those losing their minds online because they don’t look like $7,000 loudspeakers—the reality is they look sensational in person, and that’s what actually matters.

I’ll admit they got my attention for practical reasons as well. As I think about building out a home office and splitting time between New Jersey, Florida, and Texas; this is the type of speaker that makes sense: compact, well-built, and visually distinct without being over the top.

There’s nothing complicated about the pitch here. Every pair is unique in appearance, but the approach is consistent. And that consistency is really the point.

Specifications and System Context

The Dynaudio Legend is a compact two-way, rear-ported bass reflex bookshelf speaker designed for smaller spaces and more focused listening setups. It uses a 28mm Esotar 3 tweeter with Hexis; Dynaudio’s top-tier high-frequency driver paired with a single 15cm MSP (magnesium silicate polymer) mid/bass unit. The crossover is set at 3,500Hz with a second-order topology, and the rated impedance is 6 ohms.

On paper, the sensitivity is a modest 83 dB (2.83V/1m), with frequency response specified from 60Hz to 28kHz. Power handling is rated at 150 watts, which tells you everything you need to know: these are not speakers you throw on the end of a budget integrated and call it a day. They need current, and they respond to it.

That explains the rather serious MOON by Simaudio network amplifier used in the demo system. Even in a relatively small room: think den, bedroom, or office, the pairing made sense. This wasn’t about filling a cavernous space; it was about control, headroom, and getting the most out of that low sensitivity.

Physically, the Legend measures 31.1 cm (12 1/4 inches) tall, 18.6 cm (7 1/3 inches) wide, and 27.1 cm (10 2/3 inches) deep, with a weight of 6.3 kg (14 lbs) per speaker. In practice, that translates to an easy fit on proper stands or a solid shelf setup.

The system I heard leaned into nearfield listening from a leather sofa positioned fairly close to the speakers. In that context, the Legend’s scale and control made a lot of sense—this is a speaker designed to work in real rooms, not just showrooms pushing six figures.

The Danes Heard the Internet Naysayers and Carried On Anyway

Right off the bat, what stood out was how composed they stayed at higher listening levels. These are passive bookshelf speakers, and while Dynaudio offers a dedicated stand, it felt a bit too low in this setup. I preferred them on a media credenza, which brought the drivers into a better position and made the overall presentation more convincing.

You can push these harder than you probably should. Not that you need to because they’re engaging at lower levels, but when the volume goes up, they don’t lose their grip. With electronic tracks that lean on impact and control, the Legend held together without sounding strained or thin.

That also puts to rest one of the louder online takes floating around from people who haven’t actually heard them: that there’s no meaningful bass below 60 or 70 Hz. That’s not what I heard. In-room, with proper amplification, there’s usable, convincing low-end extension. No, they’re not replacing a subwoofer on paper, but the idea that they fall off a cliff down low doesn’t line up with reality.

In fact, I found them to be rather hard hitting. For my listening; electronic, metal, new wave, and progressive synth rock, I wouldn’t feel the need to add a subwoofer.

The midrange leans warm, but it’s controlled and doesn’t drift into thickness. Vocals have weight, instruments have body, and nothing feels pushed forward just to grab attention. It sounds intentional, not romanticized.

Up top, this is where things separate quickly. Dynaudio is using its best tweeter here, and it shows. The treble is open and extended with real air, plenty of energy, and strong detail retrieval, but it never turns hard or brittle. You get resolution without edge, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.

What caught me off guard was the overall sense of scale. These don’t sound like small bookshelf speakers. The presentation is wider than expected, with a soundstage that stretches well beyond the cabinets and holds together even when things get busy.

And yes, there were moments where I actually laughed out loud with familiar tracks. Not because I forgot my meds, though thanks for the reminder, but because they delivered something I wasn’t expecting. These are better than they have any right to be based on size alone, and they make that point pretty quickly.

In the context of AXPONA 2026, where it’s easy to get desensitized by six-figure systems, the Dynaudio Legend stands out for a simpler reason: it makes sense. Solid engineering, real-world size, and performance that holds up under scrutiny. At $7,000, it’s not inexpensive, but most certainly one of the few speakers that I listened to so far that I would consider buying.

For more information: Dynaudio Legend

Related Reading:

Geshelli doesn’t do “launch hype.” Maybe a little. They build something, tear it apart, rebuild it again, and only then let it out into the world. The $699.99 TORC DAC that showed up at AXPONA 2026 isn’t some carryover from last fall; it’s the version that survived that process. And it shows. After spending time with their gear at CanJam NYC 2026, we were already paying attention. The TORC gave us a reason to stop and then stay while it took control of the room with some Metallica and a rather large pair of SVS floorstanders. Add one of the most colorful setups at the show and it felt less like a demo and more like a full-blown music party under the sea.

Which is impressive, considering we’re in Schaumburg. Closest thing to an ocean here is Lake Wazzapamani and even that’s a rather heavy ask.

Because this isn’t just another DAC with a new chip and a slightly shinier faceplate. The TORC is Geshelli doubling down on what they do best: practical engineering, modular thinking, and pricing that doesn’t assume you just sold a kidney to be here.

And here’s the part that makes some of the room a little uncomfortable; it’s a family operation, it’s built in the U.S., you can actually afford it, and it’s not cutting corners to get there. That combination isn’t supposed to exist. But here we are.

Finally a DAC That Doesn’t Expire the Second a New Chip Drops

The TORC is built around a genuinely modular architecture and not the usual marketing version where “upgradeable” really means “buy the next model.” At its core is a swappable DAC module (the GDAC card), which lets you choose between different conversion paths; AKM, ESS, Burr-Brown, even R2R, and change them later without replacing the entire unit. Each module has its own onboard power regulation, so you’re not just swapping chips, you’re changing how the DAC behaves at a fundamental level.

Geshelli didn’t stop there. The TORC uses four socketed mono op-amps instead of the typical dual configuration, which improves channel separation and gives you direct control over the output stage. If you want to tweak the sound, you physically swap op-amps. No menus. No DSP tricks. Just hardware doing the work.

On the digital side, inputs are relay-switched—an old-school approach that physically disconnects unused inputs to reduce noise. It’s more complex to implement, but it works better than the shortcuts most DACs take. You get a solid baseline of connectivity with dual coaxial and dual Toslink inputs supporting up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM, and there’s an optional Amanero USB interface that pushes things much further; up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512, depending on the DAC module installed.

Power is handled internally with a 20W AC/DC supply using a standard IEC connection, and it’s not just a single rail feeding everything. The TORC separates digital (7V, 5V, 3.3V) and analog (±11V) power rails, each with its own filtering, plus an isolated supply for the optional expansion card. That kind of separation keeps noise where it belongs—away from the signal path.

Output options are equally flexible, with both RCA (unbalanced) and XLR (balanced) connections standard. And if that’s not enough, the optional GIO (Geshelli Input/Output) expansion adds AES input, additional SPDIF connections, extra RCA output, and even a 4.4mm balanced output.

Which brings us to the part most companies conveniently ignore longevity. The TORC is designed to evolve. You can swap DAC modules, change op-amps, upgrade inputs and outputs, and update firmware as needed. At $699.99, it’s not trying to be disposable and it doesn’t behave like it either.

Most DACs are a dead end. New chip drops, new box shows up, and your “investment” becomes a paperweight.

What Is This Going to Cost Me?

The Geshelli Labs TORC starts at $699.99, and that gets you a fully functional DAC with your choice of standard DAC modules; AKM4493, Burr-Brown PCM1794, or ESS ES9039Q2M along with OPA1655 or OPA1641 op-amps. At that price, you’re not getting a stripped-down entry point; you’re getting the core experience with balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA) outputs, multiple SPDIF inputs, and the modular platform already in place.

Where things get interesting—and more expensive—is when you start customizing. Upgraded DAC modules range from about $128.99 to $259.99 if installed at purchase, including options like the ESS ES9026PRO, ES9039PRO, AKM4499 (single or dual mono), and even the AD1862R R2R module at $249.99. If you want to own multiple DAC boards to swap later, those run separately between $178.99 and $309, depending on the configuration. That’s the whole point of the TORC—you’re not replacing the DAC, you’re swapping its personality.

Op-amp rolling is another rabbit hole. Since the TORC uses four mono op-amps and all four must match, your upgrade cost lands between roughly $159.60 and $240 depending on whether you go with Sparkos, Sonic Imagery, Staccato, or Burson options. It’s not mandatory, but if you’re chasing a specific sound signature, it’s part of the appeal.

Add-ons are relatively painless by comparison. The optional Amanero USB input is $50, and the GIO expansion board, adding AES, additional SPDIF, RCA, and even 4.4mm balanced output—is another $50. Cosmetic choices like case color, LED ring, and feet don’t appear to impact pricing, but they do let you personalize the unit far more than most gear in this category.

So where do you land? Stick with the base unit and you’re in at $699.99. Add a better DAC module and USB, and you’re realistically in the $850 to $1,000 range. Go all-in with multiple DAC boards, premium op-amps, and expansion options, and you can push past $1,200 without trying too hard. The difference here is that you’re building one DAC that evolves with you and not replacing it every time something new drops.

For Whom the DAC Tolls and It Hits Hard

Nothing like some older Metallica requested by a couple of listeners in their 20s to get things moving. The TORC was feeding a pair of G-BLOK monoblocks, each a fully balanced Class A/B differential design rated at 200 watts into 8 ohms, and they didn’t exactly ease into For Whom the Bell Tolls. The presentation was robust, clean, and tight right out of the gate, with real grip in the low end and no sense of strain as the volume climbed. If there was a slight dryness to the overall balance, it was hard to pin on one culprit; the amps were clearly in control, but the TORC wasn’t adding any extra warmth to soften the edges either.

What makes the TORC unique is simple; it doesn’t expire. Modular DAC boards, swappable op-amps, and expandable I/O mean it evolves instead of getting replaced.This is a platform, not a dead end. And after hearing it here, we’re absolutely down to get one into the home system and see what it can really do.

For more information: geshelli.com

Related Reading:

from the this-is-all-extremely-stupid dept

In case you’ve been asleep, what appears to be an increasingly mentally unstable Donald Trump has further destabilized the middle east with a war nobody asked for or wanted. Most U.S. media coverage of Trump’s disastrous Iran war hasn’t been great, but they’ve still occasionally managed to communicate the pointlessness of the endeavor to the electorate (which speaks more of the unpopularity of the war than their reporting chops).

Trump recently announced a “cease fire” with Iran (which apparently isn’t even a cease fire), but refused to state what the conditions of the cease fire or long term peace actually are. The Iranian Security Council issued a list of ten demands that, if agreed to, would leave Iran in a stronger position than when this whole idiocy started:

Some news outlets, like CNN, simply reported directly on what Iran had claimed. This, as you might expect, upset Donald Trump and his top FCC censor Brendan Carr, who are now threatening an “investigation” of CNN for simply repeating what was publicly stated:

Not mentioned (of course) is the fact that Fox News also reported the Iran statement, yet avoided being called out by the president:

Trump later would issue another statement over at his right wing propaganda website, calling for criminal action against CNN (and CNN only), while making up a whole bunch of nonsense (he may or may not believe is actually true):

Trump’s sensitivity here suggests they’re well aware that a massive, superior military has been getting dog-walked by Iranians because Trump and his advisors were too stupid to understand modern, cheap drone warfare and how shipping in the Straight of Hormuz actually worked. The shipping logjam is driving up gas prices and making life difficult for Republicans ahead of the midterms.

There is, of course, absolutely zero basis for any meaningful criminal action against CNN here of any kind that wouldn’t be laughed out of court on free speech grounds. As we’ve seen with corporate media that doesn’t mean they won’t still capitulate embarrassingly, but so far CNN is standing its ground. As it should, since again, all it did was report on an Iranian statement in a very basic way alongside dozens of other news outlets.

The bigger threat, as I keep noting, is CNN’s looming acquisition by Larry Ellison as part of the Paramount Warner Brothers merger. CNN under current management is already very friendly to right wing ideology (see its enthusiastic platforming of MAGA bullshitter Scott Jennings). Under Ellison’s ownership (see: Bari Weiss at CBS) there’s little doubt CNN will be converted into yet another Trump agitprop network.

At which point, Trump will move on to threatening any remaining U.S. corporate media outlets that haven’t either embarrassingly capitulated or been purchased by a right wing billionaire. This is, as I keep repeating, an exact copy of Victor Orban’s autocratic media policy in Hungary, which involves having party-loyal oligarchs buy up all corporate media outlets and pummel the public with propaganda while the government strangles what’s left of real, independent reporting just out of frame.

Filed Under: brendan carr, donald trump, first amendment, free speech, iran, iran war, journalism, reporting, straight of hormuz, trump

Companies: cnn

With each new game console, there’s an effort to get around whatever restrictions exist to run your own software on it. In the case of the Nintendo Wii, the system was cracked through one of its most popular games — The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. How this hack works was recently covered in detail by [Skawo].

The key for this ‘Twilight Hack‘ is to use a modified game save that allows you to run arbitrary code from an SD card, something which was first patched out of the Wii firmware with version 3.3. As shown in the video using the source code, the basic concept is that the name of Link’s horse in the game is changed in the save file to be longer than the allocated buffer, which leads to a buffer overflow that can be used to reach the application loader code.

Interestingly, while the horse’s name can only be 8 characters long, and the buffer is 16 bytes (due to ShiftJS two-byte encoding), the save file loading code allocates no less than 100 bytes, for some reason. Since the code uses strcpy() instead of strncpy() (or C11’s strncpy_s()), it will happily keep copying until it finds that magic 0x00 string terminator. Basically the horse can have any name that fits within the save file’s buffer, just with no null-byte until our specially crafted payload has been copied over.

Although it took Nintendo a few months to respond to this hack, eventually it was patched out in a rather brutal fashion by simply searching for and wiping any modified save files. Naturally this didn’t stop hackers from finding ways to circumvent this save file check, which led to more counter-fixes by Nintendo, which led to more exploits, ad nauseam.

Even with firmware update 4.0 finally sunsetting the Twilight Hack, hackers would keep finding more ways to get their previous Homebrew Channel installed, not to mention so that they could keep watching DVDs on a Wii.

$99,999 is a lot of money for almost anything. Let alone a pair of loudspeakers. It’s a king’s ransom. The ATC EL50 Anniversary Active loudspeakers roll into AXPONA 2026 carrying that number like it’s no big deal, but let’s not pretend otherwise.

I have a weird allergy to most speakers over $20,000. I’ve heard plenty, and once you get anywhere near six figures, I stop being impressed by specs and start looking for something that actually justifies the insanity. So far at this show, only two systems in that range have managed to do that. Everything else? Expensive, competent, and ultimately forgettable.

ATC doesn’t usually play the hype game. Their reputation is built on studio-grade accuracy and engineering that actually shows up in the listening. But at $99,999, none of that gets a free pass. The ATC Statement EL50 Anniversary loudspeakers needed to be mindblowing. Did they succeed? Let’s take a look.

Press breakfasts are part of the routine at trade shows like AXPONA 2026, but let’s not confuse hospitality with influence. I’m always up for a proper English breakfast minus the bacon or bangers because kosher rules still apply. Coffee, eggs, maybe some toast. That’s not a payoff. That’s survival.

What it actually is: “Morning, boys. You spent a few grand to get here. Here’s something so you don’t pass out before noon.” Fair enough. We appreciated it and moved on.

Let’s get one thing out of the way before anyone starts sharpening knives on social media. Breakfast doesn’t buy coverage. It doesn’t buy opinions. And it definitely doesn’t buy a pass on a $99,999 loudspeaker that better deliver something more than a polished sales pitch.

There was some noise last week from a certain Editor and Publisher on Facebook suggesting otherwise. That we’re all somehow in the pocket. That access equals allegiance. That’s a convenient narrative if you’re not actually in the room doing the work. And was he including himself in that rant? I have stories.

But here’s the reality. If a plate of eggs is enough to sway your editorial integrity, that says a lot more about you than it does about anyone sitting at that table.

Now that the air is clear, back to the part that actually matters. The gear.

Why the ATC EL50 Anniversary Costs $99,999

The ATC EL50 Anniversary is expensive for a very specific reason. It is not a passive loudspeaker that needs to be matched with external amplification. It is a fully active 3 way system with amplification, crossover, and drivers all engineered to work together as a single platform. The crossover is handled at line level using a fourth order Linkwitz-Riley active design with crossover points at 380Hz and 3.5kHz, which allows each driver to be controlled more precisely than in a traditional passive speaker. Each driver has its own dedicated amplifier channel with 200 watts for the bass, 100 watts for the midrange, and 50 watts for the tweeter, all using ATC’s discrete grounded source MOSFET Class A/B amplification running fanless with convection cooling.

ATC also builds its own drivers in house, and that has been central to its design philosophy for decades. The system is designed to cover a frequency range from 32Hz to 25kHz within a -6dB window, which is sufficient for full range reproduction in most rooms without relying on a subwoofer. Distortion is kept extremely low, with THD around 0.0015 percent just below rated power, and matched pair tolerance is held to ±0.5dB, which ensures consistency between channels. Maximum output is rated at 112dB per pair at one meter in anechoic conditions, which gives it enough headroom for larger spaces without strain.

The cabinet design follows the same thinking. The curved enclosure and softened edges are intended to reduce diffraction and improve off axis behavior, while the multi layer construction increases rigidity and reduces unwanted resonance. Each speaker stands just under 56 inches tall, over 18 inches wide, and nearly 14 inches deep, and weighs 139 pounds. This is a physically large and heavy loudspeaker, and that mass contributes to overall stability and reduced cabinet interaction.

Connectivity is straightforward but purposeful. The EL50 uses a balanced XLR input with switchable input sensitivity, along with a bass shelf adjustment from -2dB to +3dB to help with room integration. There is also a 12V trigger input and link for system control, and built in protection circuits for DC offset and thermal management with active limiting to maintain reliability under load.

In practice, you are paying for a system where the major variables have already been addressed at the design stage rather than left to system matching. That approach has long been part of ATC’s presence in professional studios, and it carries over directly into a product like the EL50.

The room at AXPONA 2026 was not especially large, which likely worked in its favor. The rest of the system included a balanced ATC preamplifier, along with an Innuos ZENith NG network player and a Playback Designs MPD-8 DAC. That digital front end alone totals close to $50,000, with cabling handled by WireWorld.

No Place to Hide at $99,999

Where do you even begin with something like this? Fine. Here goes.

I was the first one in the room. Of course I was. I’ll show up early for my own execution. Expectations were high, borderline unreasonable, but that comes with the territory at this level. I’ve been burned before by speakers in this price range. Big promises. Impressive specs. And then…nothing. Polite. Safe. Forgettable. I wasn’t in the mood for that again. I was still hungry.

There’s a moment most speakers completely fumble. That split second before the music actually starts. The air shifts, the room tightens, and you’re waiting for something to happen. Your brain knows what’s coming, but your body hasn’t caught up yet. When it’s done right, your heart skips. When it’s not, you’re already checking out before the first note lands.

ATC didn’t miss.

That first transient hit and something locked in. Not exaggerated. Not hyped. Just there—with a sense of presence and control that felt immediate and real. It didn’t creep up on you. It arrived. And it hit with the kind of conviction that makes you sit up without thinking about it.

It’s hard to explain without sounding ridiculous, but it felt like the first time you finally kiss someone you’ve been thinking about for way too long. There’s anticipation, sure, but then there’s that moment where it actually happens and it’s better than you built it up to be. More intensity. More weight. More passion. And suddenly you’re not analyzing anything anymore. You’re just in it.

And that was the first 20 seconds.

At that point, I wasn’t thinking about price, specs, or whether this was “worth it.” I was just trying to keep up.

Another huge positive? The bass is actually under control.

Not polite. Not neutered. Controlled. And that’s a big deal because this is where a lot of speakers in this category fall apart. They either overdo it to impress in five minutes or they hold back and sound like they’re afraid of their own capabilities.

The EL50 doesn’t do either.

If the bass is in the recording, it shows up with authority. If it’s not, the speaker doesn’t invent it. The midbass in particular is doing a lot of heavy lifting here—resolute, tight, well defined, and absolutely critical to how this speaker holds everything together. There’s no bloom, no excess weight hanging around where it shouldn’t be, and no sense that the room is being pushed past its limits.

And let’s be clear, this is not a small speaker. It looks imposing. The bass driver looks like it has a job to do and zero interest in compromise. But the presentation never tipped into something disproportionate or overblown. It sounded big, yes—but in a way that felt grounded. Real, for lack of a better word.

That’s the part that stuck with me.

It never overloaded the room. It never tried to dominate the space just because it could. It just scaled naturally with the music, which is harder to pull off than most designers would care to admit.

At some point, I realized I was mentally rearranging my entire review schedule for May and June just to figure out how to spend more time with these. That’s not normal behavior.

I will never be able to afford these. And that’s fine.

No, it isn’t. But it’s what I’ll be telling myself for a very long time. Bugger.

For more information: atc.audio

Related Reading: