Kris Guyer – Page 20

Samsung’s “Micro RGB” TV proves the value of RGB backlights for premium displays

Micro LED, oled, samsung, Tech, TVs / Kris Guyer / August 22, 2025

The $30,000 TV brings a new, colorful conversation to home theaters.

Samsung’s 115-inch “Micro RGB” TV. Credit: Scharon Harding

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, New Jersey—Micro LED is still years away, but the next best thing is taking shape right now. A $30,000 price tag and 114.5-inch diagonal size makes the Samsung “Micro RGB” TV that I demoed this week unattainable for most. But the unique RGB backlight and Micro LED-sized diodes it employs represent a groundbreaking middle ground between high-end Mini LED and true Micro LED, expanding the possibilities for future premium displays beyond the acronyms we know today.

Micro RGB isn’t the same as Micro LED

To be clear, Samsung’s Micro RGB TV is not a Micro LED display. During Samsung’s presentation, a representative described the TV as sitting “squarely in between” Mini LED and Micro LED.

Unlike true Micro LED TVs, Samsung’s Micro RGB TV uses a backlight. The backlight is unique in that it can produce red, green, and/or blue light via tiny RGB LEDs. Most LCD-LED backlights create just blue or white backlighting, which is applied to color filters to create the different hues displayed on the screen.

And differing from a true Micro LED display, the pixels in the Samsung TV I demoed aren’t self-emissive and can’t be shut off individually for virtually limitless contrast. Like some of the best Mini LED TVs, this TV delivers enhanced contrast through the use of thousands of local dimming zones. Without getting specific, Samsung said the Micro RGB TV has roughly four times the number of dimming zones as its 115-inch QN90F TV, a $27,000 Mini LED TV that uses quantum dots. Samsung hasn’t confirmed how many dimming zones the 115-inch QN90F has, but the 75-inch version has 900 dimming zones, according to RTINGs.

The Micro RGB TV loses to Micro LED and OLED when it comes to light bleed and contrast. The new TV’s biggest draw is its large color gamut. The backlight’s “architecture enables precision control over each red, green, and blue LED,” according to Samsung’s announcement of the TV earlier this month. Samsung claims that the backlight tech enables the TV to cover 100 percent of the BT.2020 color space (also known as Rec.2020), which is a wider color space than DCI-P3. As is typical for Samsung, the company hasn’t disclosed any Delta E measurements but claims high color accuracy.

I’m still concerned about the Micro RGB name, which carries the risk of being confused with true Micro LED. In the past, Samsung has contributed to display-market confusion with terms like QLED (an acronym that looks awfully similar to OLED). The new display technology is impressive enough; its marketing doesn’t need to evoke associations with a markedly different display type.

Hands-on with Samsung’s Micro RGB TV

Seeing the Micro RGB TV in person confirmed the great potential RGB backlight tech represents. The image quality didn’t quite match what you’d see with a similar OLED or Micro LED display, but what I saw in my short time with the TV surpassed what I’d expect from the best LCD-LED TVs.

I demoed the TV in a mildly lit room, where the screen’s lively colors quickly leaped out at me. I mostly watched pre-selected, polychromatic videos on the TV, making it hard to discern color accuracy. But during the brief demo, I saw colors that are rare to see on even the most expensive TVs.

For example, part of the demo reel (shown below) featured a building in a shade of teal that I can’t recall ever seeing on a TV. It was a greener-leaning teal that had just the right amount of blue to distinguish it from true green. Many displays would fail to capture that subtle distinction.

The demo video also showed a particular shade of pinkish-red. Again, this was the first time I had seen this video, making me wonder if a purer red would be more accurate. But I also saw strong, bright, bloody reds during my demo, suggesting that this unfamiliar pinkish-red was the result of the Micro RGB TV’s broad color gamut.

Samsung's Micro RGB TV — Unsurprisingly, the TV packs in AI, including a feature that’s supposed to automatically recognize scenes with dull lighting and make them look more lively. Credit: Scharon Harding

Another top standout from my demo was the smooth gradient effects that the TV showed. I could detect no banding in a sunset-like background, for instance, as deep oranges effortlessly transitioned to paler shades before seamlessly evolving into white. Nuanced shades also appeared to enable unique textures on the TV. When the TV was set to display a painting, the screen seemed to mimic the rough texture of canvas or the subtle strokes of paintbrushes. Of course, the TV’s massive size helped emphasize these details, too.

Because it lacks self-emissive pixels, the Micro RGB should have poorer contrast than a good Micro LED (or OLED) TV. The differing prices between Samsung’s 115-inch Micro RGB TV and 114-inch Micro LED TV ($30,000 versus $150,000) hint at the expected performance discrepancy between the display technologies. You won’t get pure blacks with an RGB LED TV, but Samsung’s TV makes a strong effort; some may not notice the difference.

Unlike OLED TVs, the Samsung TV also has potential for the halo effect (also known as blooming). In instances when the TV was showing bright, near-white colors near dark colors, it was hard to notice any halos or gradation. But I didn’t see enough of the right type of content on Samsung’s TV to determine how much of a potential blooming problem it has. Light bleed did seem to be kept to a minimum, though.

The TV also appeared to handle the details of darker images well. A representative from Sony, which is working on a somewhat different RGB LED backlight technology, told Wired that the use of RGB LED backlights could enable displays to show an “expression of colors with moderate brightness and saturation” better than today’s OLED screens can, meaning that RGB LED TVs could be more color-accurate, including in dark scenes. Generally speaking, anything that helps LCD-LED remain competitive against OLED is good news for further development of LED-based displays, like Micro LED.

Samsung specs the Micro RGB TV with a 120 Hz standard rate. The company didn’t disclose how bright the TV can get. Bright highlights enable improved contrast and a better experience for people whose TVs reside in rooms that get bright (yes, these people exist). Display experts also associate properly managed brightness levels with improved color accuracy. And advanced mastering monitors can enable content with brightness levels of up to 4,000 nits, making ultra-bright TVs worth long-term consideration for display enthusiasts.

More RGB LED to come

Samsung is ahead of the curve with RGB backlights and is expected to be one of the first companies to sell a TV like this one. A Samsung spokesperson outside of the event told Ars Technica, “Samsung created an entirely new technology to control and drive each LED, which has different characteristics, to provide more accurate and uniform picture quality. We also worked to precisely mount these ultra-small LEDs in the tens of microns on a board.”

As mentioned above, other companies are working on similar designs. Sony showed off a prototype in February that Wired tested; it should be released in 2026. And Hisense in January teased the 116-inch “TriChrome LED TV” with an RGB LED backlight. It’s releasing in South Korea for KRW 44.9 million (approximately $32,325), SamMobile reported.

Notably, Hisense and Sony both refer to their TVs as Mini LED displays, but the LEDs used in the Hisense and Sony designs are larger than the LEDs in Samsung’s RGB-backlit TV.

Good news for display enthusiasts

Samsung’s TV isn’t the Micro LED TV that display enthusiasts have long hoped for, but it does mark an interesting development. During the event, a third Samsung representative told me it’s “likely” that there’s overlap between the manufacturing equipment used for Micro LED and RGB-backlit displays. But again, the company wouldn’t get into specifics.

Still, the development is good news for the LED-LCD industry and people who are interested in premium sets that don’t use OLED displays, which are expensive and susceptible to burn-in and brightness limitations (these issues are improving, though). It’s likely that RGB-backlit TVs will eventually become a better value than pricier types of premium displays, as most people won’t notice the downsides.

The Samsung rep I spoke with outside of the event told me the company believes there’s room in the market for RGB Micro TVs, QLEDs, OLEDs, Mini LEDs, and Micro LEDs.

According to the press release of the Micro RGB TV, Samsung has “future plans for a global rollout featuring a variety of sizes.” For now, though, the company has successfully employed a new type of display technology, creating the possibility of more options for display enthusiasts.

Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She’s been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK.

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After successes like Severance and The Studio, Apple TV+ gets a price hike

Apple, Apple TV, culture, streaming video, Tech, TV / Kris Guyer / August 22, 2025

To confront all that, streamers have to turn any knobs they can to balance costs with revenue to satisfy the market. Some have turned to ads as an additional source of revenue, others crack down on password sharing or offer different subscription tiers. But virtually all of them have hiked subscription prices, because the previous price ensured short-term losses for long-term growth.

Apple TV+ does not have ads in any plan, and it hasn’t broken its offering into multiple tiers. (For example, some other streaming services charge more for 4K content.) Because of that, the monthly cost is the only knob it can turn to confront these realities, passing new costs to consumers.

Despite all this, it’s still very possible that even with successes like Ted Lasso, The Studio, and Severance, Apple TV+ is losing some amount of money every year. When reporting to investors each quarter, Apple bundles TV+ into a larger “services” category that includes Apple Music, the App Store, iCloud, AppleCare, and more, making it difficult for outsiders to estimate how well Apple TV+ is doing specifically.

Certainly, its shows have been critically well-received. Both Severance and The Studio in particular have gotten the streaming service positive attention. But the landscape is brutal for a relatively new entry like Apple, so expect Apple’s approach to continue to evolve.

After successes like Severance and The Studio, Apple TV+ gets a price hike Read More »

America’s fragile drug supply chain is extremely vulnerable to climate change

health, hurricane helene, medical supply chain, natural disaster, supply chain shortages, supply chains / Kris Guyer / August 21, 2025

Vulnerabilities

Using data from the Food and Drug Administration, the researchers identified 10,861 drug facilities that were active for at least one year between 2019 and 2024. These facilities represent the array of manufacturing stages of a drug, from analyzing raw drug materials, to manufacturing active ingredients, to packaging drug products. The researchers then looked at the county location of each of these facilities and whether any federally declared weather emergencies occurred in those counties during the period. Weather-related emergencies included those from fires, hurricanes, storms, tornadoes, and floods.

During the six-year span, 6,819 facilities (63 percent) faced at least one weather-related emergency. Per year, an average of 2,146 facilities (33 percent) experienced such an emergency.

The researchers noted that there was no statistically significant difference in the likelihood that counties with or without a drug facility would experience a weather-related emergency. That is, it’s not the case that drug facilities have been built in areas uniquely vulnerable to climate-related disasters.

Still, with a third of US facilities at risk of weather disasters each year, the study clearly shows how fraught it is to have flimsy supply chains—like having a single plant produce 60 percent of the country’s supply of an essential drug product.

“These findings underscore the importance of recognizing climate-related vulnerabilities and the urgent need for supply chain transparency, for strategic allocation of production, and for disaster risk management strategies to prevent health care disruptions in the US,” the authors conclude.

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Having recovery and/or SSD problems after recent Windows updates? You’re not alone.

microsoft, Tech, Windows 10, windows 10 22h2, Windows 11, windows 11 22h2, windows 11 23h2, windows 11 24h2 / Kris Guyer / August 21, 2025

The other issue some users have been experiencing is potentially more serious, but also harder to track down. Tom’s Hardware has a summary of the problem: At some point after installing update KB5063878 on Windows 11 24H2, some users began noticing issues with large file transfers on some SSDs. When installing a large update for Cyberpunk 2077, a large game that requires dozens of gigabytes of storage, Windows abruptly stopped seeing the SSD that the game was installed on.

The issues are apparently more pronounced on disks that are more than 60 percent full, when transferring at least 50GB of data. Most of the SSDs were visible again after a system reboot, though one—a 2TB Western Digital SA510 drive—didn’t come back after a reboot.

These issues could be specific to this user’s configuration, and the culprit may not be the Windows update. Microsoft has yet to add the SSD problem to its list of known issues with Windows, but the company confirmed to Ars that it was studying the complaints.

“We’re aware of these reports and are investigating with our partners,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars.

SSD controller manufacturer Phison told Tom’s Hardware that it was also looking into the problem.

Having recovery and/or SSD problems after recent Windows updates? You’re not alone. Read More »

Google unveils Pixel 10 series with improved Tensor G5 chip and a boatload of AI

Google, pixel 10, smartphones, Tech / Kris Guyer / August 20, 2025

The Pixel 10 series arrives with a power upgrade but no SIM card slot.

Google has shifted its product timeline in 2025. Android 16 dropped in May, an earlier release aimed at better lining up with smartphone launches. Google’s annual hardware refresh is also happening a bit ahead of the traditional October window. The company has unveiled its thoroughly leaked 2025 Pixel phones and watches, and you can preorder most of them today.

The new Pixel 10 phones don’t look much different from last year, but there’s an assortment of notable internal changes, and you might not like all of them. They have a new, more powerful Tensor chip (good), a lot more AI features (debatable), and no SIM card slot (bad). But at least the new Pixel Watch 4 won’t become e-waste if you break it.

Same on the outside, new on the inside

If you liked Google’s big Pixel redesign last year, there’s good news: Nothing has changed in 2025. The Pixel 10 series looks the same, right down to the almost identical physical dimensions. Aside from the new colors, the only substantial design change is the larger camera window on the Pixel 10 to accommodate the addition of a third sensor.

From left to right: Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Credit: Google

You won’t find a titanium frame or ceramic coatings present in Samsung and Apple lineups. The Pixel 10 phones have a 100 percent recycled aluminum frame, featuring a matte finish on the Pixel 10 and glossy finishes on the Pro phones. All models have Gorilla Glass Victus 2 panels on the front and back, and they’re IP68 rated for water- and dust-resistance.

The design remains consistent across all three flat phones. The base model and 10 Pro have 6.3-inch OLED screens, but the Pro gets a higher-resolution LTPO panel, which supports lower refresh rates to save power. The 10 Pro XL is LTPO, too, but jumps to 6.8 inches. These phones will be among the first Android phones with full support for the Qi 2 wireless charging standard, which is branded as “Pixelsnap” for the Pixel 10. They’ll work with Qi 2 magnetic accessories, as well as Google’s Pixelsnap chargers. They can charge the Pixel 10 and 10 Pro at 15W, but only the 10 Pro XL supports 25W.

Specs at a glance: Google Pixel 10 series
	Pixel 10 ($799)	Pixel 10 Pro ($999)	Pixel 10 Pro XL ($1,199)	Pixel 10 Pro Fold ($1,799)
SoC	Google Tensor G5	Google Tensor G5	Google Tensor G5	Google Tensor G5
Memory	12GB	16GB	16GB	16GB
Storage	128GB / 256GB	128GB / 256GB / 512GB	128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB	256GB / 512GB / 1TB
Display	6.3-inch 1080×2424 OLED, 60-120Hz, 3,000 nits	6.3-inch 1280×2856 LTPO OLED, 1-120Hz, 3,300 nits	6.3-inch 1344×2992 LTPO OLED, 1-120Hz, 3,300 nits	External: 6.8-inch 1080×2364 OLED, 60-120Hz, 2000 nits; Internal: 8-inch 2076×2152 LTPO OLED, 1-120Hz, 3,000 nits
Cameras	48 MP wide with Macro Focus, F/1.7, 1/2-inch sensor; 13 MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 1/3.1-inch sensor; 10.8 MP 5x telephoto, f/3.1, 1/3.2-inch sensor; 10.5 MP selfie, f/2.2	50 MP wide with Macro Focus, F/1.68, 1/1.3-inch sensor; 48 MP ultrawide, f/1.7, 1/2.55-inch sensor; 48 MP 5x telephoto, f/2.8, 1/2.55-inch sensor; 42 MP selfie, f/2.2	50 MP wide with Macro Focus, F/1.68, 1/1.3-inch sensor; 48 MP ultrawide, f/1.7, 1/2.55-inch sensor; 48 MP 5x telephoto, f/2.8, 1/2.55-inch sensor; 42 MP selfie, f/2.2	48 MP wide, F/1.7, 1/2-inch sensor; 10.5 MP ultrawide with Macro Focus, f/2.2, 1/3.4-inch sensor; 10.8 MP 5x telephoto, f/3.1, 1/3.2-inch sensor; 10.5 MP selfie, f/2.2 (outer and inner)
Software	Android 16	Android 16	Android 16	Android 16
Battery	4,970mAh, up to 30 W wired charging, 15 W wireless charging (Pixelsnap)	4,870 mAh, up to 30 W wired charging, 15 W wireless charging (Pixelsnap)	5,200 mAh, up to 45 W wired charging, 25 W wireless charging (Pixelsnap)	5,015 mAh, up to 30 W wired charging, 15 W wireless charging (Pixelsnap)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6e, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, USB-C 2.0	Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, UWB, USB-C 2.0	Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, UWB, USB-C 2.0	Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0, sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G, UWB, USB-C 2.0
Measurements	152.8 height×72.0 width×8.6 depth (mm), 204g	152.8 height×72.0 width×8.6 depth (mm), 207g	162.8 height×76.6 width×8.5 depth (mm), 232g	Folded: 154.9 height×76.2 width×10.1 depth (mm); Unfolded: 154.9 height×149.8 width×5.1 depth (mm); 258g
Colors	Indigo Frost Lemongrass Obsidian	Moonstone Jade Porcelain Obsidian	Moonstone Jade Porcelain Obsidian	Moonstone Jade

You may notice some minor changes to the bottom edge of the phones, which now feature large grilles for the speaker and microphone—and no SIM card slot. Is it on the side? The top? Nope and nope. There is no physical SIM slot on Google’s new phones in the US, adopting the eSIM-only approach Apple “pioneered” on the iPhone 14. It has become standard practice that as soon as Apple removes something from its phones, like the headphone jack or the top bit of screen, everyone else will follow suit in a year or two.

Google has refused to offer a clear rationale for this change, saying only that the new SIM-less design is its “cleanest yet.” So RIP to the physical SIM card. While eSIM can be convenient in some cases, it’s not as reliable as moving a physical piece of plastic between phones and may force you to interact with your carrier’s support agents more often. Google has a SIM transfer tool built into Android these days, so most of those headaches are over.

The Pixel 10, 10 Pro, and 10 Pro XL all have the pronounced camera bar running the full width of the back, giving the phones perfect stability when placed on a table. The base model Pixel 9 had the same wide and ultrawide sensors as the Pro phones, but the Pixel 10 steps down to a lesser 48 MP primary and 13 MP ultrawide. You get the new 10.8 MP 5x telephoto this year. However, that won’t be as capable as the 48 MP telephoto camera on the Pro phones.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold also keeps the same design as last year’s phone, featuring an offset camera bump. However, when you drill down, you’ll find a few hardware changes. Google says the hinge has been redesigned to be “gearless,” allowing for the display to get a bit closer to that edge. The result is a small 0.1-inch boost in external display size (6.4 inches). The inner screen is still 8 inches, making it the largest screen on a foldable. Google also claims the hinge is more durable and notes this is the first foldable with IP68 water and dust resistance.

Strangely, this phone still has a physical SIM card slot, even in the US. It has moved from the bottom to the top edge, which Google says helped to optimize the internal components. As a result, the third-gen Google foldable will see a significant battery life boost to 5,000 mAh versus 4,650 mAh in the 9 Pro Fold.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold gets a camera array most similar to the base model Pixel 10, with a 48 MP primary, a 10.5 MP ultrawide, and a 10.8 MP 5x telephoto. The camera sensors are also relegated to an off-center block in the corner of the back panel, so you lose the tabletop stability from the flat models.

A Tensor from TSMC

Google released its first custom Arm chip in the Pixel 6 and has made iterative improvements in each subsequent generation. The Tensor G5 in the Pixel 10 line is the biggest upgrade yet, according to Google. As rumored, this chip is manufactured by TSMC instead of Samsung, using the latest 3 nm process node. It’s an 8-core chip with support for UFS 4 storage and LPDDR5x memory. Google has shied away from detailing the specific CPU cores. All we know right now is that there are eight cores, one of which is a “prime” core, five are mid-level, and two are efficiency cores. Similarly, the GPU performance is unclear. This is one place that Google’s Tensor chips have noticeably trailed the competition, and the company only says its internal testing shows games running “very well” on the Tensor G5.

Tensor G5 in the Pixel 10 will reportedly deliver a 34 percent boost in CPU performance, which is significant. However, even giving Google the benefit of the doubt, a 34 percent improvement would still leave the Tensor G5 trailing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite in raw speed. Google is much more interested in the new TPU, which is 60 percent faster for AI workloads than last year’s. Tensor will also power new AI-enhanced image processing, which means some photos straight out of the camera will have C2PA labeling indicating they are AI-edited. That’s an interesting change that will require hands-on testing to understand the implications.

The more powerful TPU runs the largest version of Gemini Nano yet, clocking in at 4 billion parameters. This model, designed in partnership with the team at DeepMind, is twice as efficient and 2.6 times faster than Gemini Nano models running on the Tensor G4. The context window (a measure of how much data you can put into the model) now sits at 32,000 tokens, almost three times more than last year.

Every new smartphone is loaded with AI features these days, but they can often feel cobbled together. Google is laser-focused on using the Tensor chip for on-device AI experiences, which it says number more than 20 on the Pixel 10 series. For instance, the new Magic Cue feature will surface contextual information in phone calls and messages when you need it, and the Journal is a place where you can use AI to explore your thoughts and personal notes. Tensor G5 also enables real-time Voice Translation on calls, which transforms the speaker’s own voice instead of inserting a robot voice. All these features run entirely on the phone without sending any data to the cloud.

Finally, a repairable Pixel Watch

Since Google finally released its own in-house smartwatch, there has been one glaring issue: zero repairability. The Pixel Watch line has been comfortable enough to wear all day and night, but that just makes it easier to damage. So much as a scratch, and you’re out of luck, with no parts or service available.

Google says the fourth-generation watch addresses this shortcoming. The Pixel Watch 4 comes in the same 41 mm and 45 mm sizes as last year’s watch, but the design has been tweaked to make it repairable at last. The company says the watch’s internals are laid out in a way that makes it easier to disassemble, and there’s a new charging system that won’t interfere with repairs. However, that means another new watch charging standard, Google’s third in four generations.

The new charger is a small dock that attaches to the side, holding the watch up so it’s visible on your desk. It can show upcoming alarms, battery percentage, or the time (duh, it’s a watch). It’s about 25 percent faster to charge compared to last year’s model, too. The smaller watch has a 325 mAh battery, and the larger one is 455 mAh. In both cases, these are marginally larger than the Pixel Watch 3. Google says the 41 mm will run 30 hours on a charge, and the 45 mm manages 40 hours.

The OLED panel under the glass now conforms to the Pixel Watch 4’s curvy aesthetic. Rather than being a flat panel under curved glass, the OLED now follows the domed shape. Google says the “Actua 360” display features 3,000 nits of brightness, a 50 percent improvement over last year’s wearable. The bezel around the screen is also 16 percent slimmer than last year. It runs a Snapdragon W5 Gen 2, which is apparently 25 percent faster and uses half the power of the Gen 1 chip used in the Watch 3.

Naturally, Google has also integrated Gemini into its new watch. It has “raise-to-talk” functionality, so you can just lift your wrist to begin talking to the AI (if you want that). The Pixel Watch 4 also boasts an improved speaker and haptics, which come into play when interacting with Gemini.

Pricing and availability

If you have a Pixel 9, there isn’t much reason to run out and buy a Pixel 10. That said, you can preorder Google’s new flat phones today. Pricing remains the same as last year, starting at $799 for the Pixel 10. The Pixel 10 Pro keeps the same size, adding a better camera setup and screen for $999. The largest Pixel 10 Pro XL retails for $1,199. The phones will ship on August 28.

If foldables are more your speed, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold won’t arrive until October 9, but it won’t see a price hike, either. The $1,799 price tag is still quite steep, even if Samsung’s new foldable is $200 more.

The Pixel Watch 4 is also available for preorder today, with availability on August 28 as well. The 41 mm will stay at $349, and the 45 mm is $399. If you want the LTE versions, you’ll add $100 to those prices.

Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he’s written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards.

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In Xcode 26, Apple shows first signs of offering ChatGPT alternatives

AI, Anthropic, Apple, chatgpt, Claude, coding, IDE, openai, Opus, Programming, software development, Swift, Xcode / Kris Guyer / August 20, 2025

The latest Xcode beta contains clear signs that Apple plans to bring Anthropic’s Claude and Opus large language models into the integrated development environment (IDE), expanding on features already available using Apple’s own models or OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Apple enthusiast publication 9to5Mac “found multiple references to built-in support for Anthropic accounts,” including in the “Intelligence” menu, where users can currently log in to ChatGPT or enter an API key for higher message limits.

Apple introduced a suite of features meant to compete with GitHub Copilot in Xcode at WWDC24, but first focused on its own models and a more limited set of use cases. That expanded quite a bit at this year’s developer conference, and users can converse about codebases, discuss changes, or ask for suggestions using ChatGPT. They are initially given a limited set of messages, but this can be greatly increased by logging in to a ChatGPT account or entering an API key.

This summer, Apple said it would be possible to use Anthropic’s models with an API key, too, but made no mention of support for Anthropic accounts, which are generally more cost-effective than using the API for most users.

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Physics of badminton’s new killer spin serve

badminton, computational fluid dynamics, fluid dynamics, Physics, physics of sports, Science, sports science / Kris Guyer / August 19, 2025

Serious badminton players are constantly exploring different techniques to give them an edge over opponents. One of the latest innovations is the spin serve, a devastatingly effective method in which a player adds a pre-spin just before the racket contacts the shuttlecock (aka the birdie). It’s so effective—some have called it “impossible to return“—that the Badminton World Federation (BWF) banned the spin serve in 2023, at least until after the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

The sanction wasn’t meant to quash innovation but to address players’ concerns about the possible unfair advantages the spin serve conferred. The BWF thought that international tournaments shouldn’t become the test bed for the technique, which is markedly similar to the previously banned “Sidek serve.” The BWF permanently banned the spin serve earlier this year. Chinese physicists have now teased out the complex fundamental physics of the spin serve, publishing their findings in the journal Physics of Fluids.

Shuttlecocks are unique among the various projectiles used in different sports due to their open conical shape. Sixteen overlapping feathers protrude from a rounded cork base that is usually covered in thin leather. The birdies one uses for leisurely backyard play might be synthetic nylon, but serious players prefer actual feathers.

Those overlapping feathers give rise to quite a bit of drag, such that the shuttlecock will rapidly decelerate as it travels and its parabolic trajectory will fall at a steeper angle than its rise. The extra drag also means that players must exert quite a bit of force to hit a shuttlecock the full length of a badminton court. Still, shuttlecocks can achieve top speeds of more than 300 mph. The feathers also give the birdie a slight natural spin around its axis, and this can affect different strokes. For instance, slicing from right to left, rather than vice versa, will produce a better tumbling net shot.

Chronophotographies of shuttlecocks after an impact with a racket. Credit: Caroline Cohen et al., 2015

The cork base makes the birdie aerodynamically stable: No matter how one orients the birdie, once airborne, it will turn so that it is traveling cork-first and will maintain that orientation throughout its trajectory. A 2015 study examined the physics of this trademark flip, recording flips with high-speed video and conducting free-fall experiments in a water tank to study how its geometry affects the behavior. The latter confirmed that shuttlecock feather geometry hits a sweet spot in terms of an opening inclination angle that is neither too small nor too large. And they found that feather shuttlecocks are indeed better than synthetic ones, deforming more when hit to produce a more triangular trajectory.

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Tiny, removable “mini SSD” could eventually be a big deal for gaming handhelds

gaming, nintendo switch 2, SSD, steam deck, Tech / Kris Guyer / August 16, 2025

The Mini SSD card isn’t and may never be a formally ratified standard, but it does aim to solve a real problem for portable gaming systems—the need for fast storage that can load games at speeds approaching those of an internal SSD, without requiring users to take their own systems apart to perform upgrades.

Why are games getting so dang big, anyway?

A 2023 analysis from TechSpot suggested that game size had increased at an average rate of roughly 6.3GB per year between 2012 and 2023—games that come in over 100GB aren’t the norm, but they aren’t hard to find. Some of that increase comes from improved graphics and the higher-resolution textures needed to make games look good on 4K monitors and TVs. But TechSpot also noted that the storage requirements for narrative-heavy, cinematic-heavy games like The Last of Us Part 1 were being driven just as much by audio files and support for multiple languages.

“In total, nearly 17 GB of storage is needed for [The Last of Us] data unrelated to graphics,” wrote author Nick Evanson. “That’s larger than any entire game from our 2010 sample! This pattern was consistent across nearly all the ‘Godzilla-sized’ games we examined—those featuring numerous cinematics, extensive speech, and considerable localization were typically much larger than the rest of the sample in a given year.”

For another prominent recent example, consider the install sizes for the Mac version of Cyberpunk 2077. The version of the game on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG runs about 92GB. However, the version available for download from Apple’s App Store is a whopping 159GB, solely because it includes all of the game’s voiceovers in all of the languages it supports. (This is because of App Store rules that require apps to have all possible files included when they’re submitted for review.)

It’s clear that there’s a need for fast storage upgrades that don’t require you to disassemble your console or PC completely. Whether it’s this new “mini SSD,” a faster iteration of microSD Express, or some other as-yet-unknown storage format remains to be seen.

Tiny, removable “mini SSD” could eventually be a big deal for gaming handhelds Read More »

Anti-vaccine RFK Jr. creates vaccine panel of anti-vaccine group’s dreams

anti-vaccine, childhood vaccines, health, mRNA, robert f kennedy jr, vaccines / Kris Guyer / August 16, 2025

Immediate concern

It’s possible that Kennedy did not immediately set up the task force because the necessary leadership was not in place. The 1986 law says the task force “shall consist of consist of the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention].” But a CDC director was only confirmed and sworn in at the end of July.

With Susan Monarez now at the helm at CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that the task force is being revived, though it will be led by the NIH.

“By reinstating this Task Force, we are reaffirming our commitment to rigorous science, continuous improvement, and the trust of American families,” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said in the announcement. “NIH is proud to lead this effort to advance vaccine safety and support innovation that protects children without compromise.”

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group cheered the move on social media, saying it was “grateful” that Kennedy was fulfilling his duty.

Outside health experts were immediately concerned by the move.

“What I am concerned about is making sure that we don’t overemphasize very small risks [of vaccines] and underestimate the real risk of infectious diseases and cancers that these vaccines help prevent,” Anne Zink, Alaska’s former chief medical officer, told The Washington Post.

David Higgins, a pediatrician and preventive medicine specialist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, worried about eroding trust in vaccines, telling the Post, “I am concerned that bringing this committee back implies to the public that we have not been looking at vaccine safety. The reality is, we evaluate the safety of vaccines more than any other medication, medical intervention, or supplements available.”

Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, worried about a more direct attack on vaccines, telling CNN, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an anti-vaccine activist who has these fixed, immutable, science-resistant beliefs that vaccines are dangerous. He is in a position now to be able to set up task forces like this one [that] will find some way to support his notion that vaccines are doing more harm than good.”

Anti-vaccine RFK Jr. creates vaccine panel of anti-vaccine group’s dreams Read More »

Here’s Acura’s next all-electric RSX crossover

Acura RDX, Cars / Kris Guyer / August 15, 2025

“The Acura RSX has a sporty coupe style that expresses the performance that comes from excellent aerodynamics,” said Yasutake Tsuchida, Acura creative director and vice president of American Honda R&D. “Starting from this all-new RSX, we will redefine the Acura brand around timeless beauty and a high-tech feel that is essential for a performance and unique brand.”

I have to admit, when I saw a teaser shot a week or two ago, my first thought was that it looked like someone had taken a McLaren Artura and given it the Urus treatment, at least based on the nose. But Acura has also been using an arrow-like prow for some time, too. I’m also getting some Lotus Eletre from the other views, but as ever, looks are subjective.

When the RSX hits the street in the second half of next year, it will do so running ASIMO OS, the new software-defined vehicle operating system that Honda announced at CES earlier this year. Among the things ASIMO OS can do is learn a driver’s preferences and driving style “to deliver an ultra-personal in-car experience,” Acura says.

Here’s Acura’s next all-electric RSX crossover Read More »

Polestar sets production car record for longest drive on a single charge

Cars, Guinness World Record / Kris Guyer / August 15, 2025

Wait, are you sure that’s a record?

Booker, Clarke, and Parker drove an impressive distance on a single charge, but “longest EV drive on a single charge” is a slightly more nebulous thing. In this case, the Polestar 3 was entirely standard, on stock tires. But if you’re prepared to start tweaking stuff around, longer drives are possible.

Last week, Chevrolet revealed that it took one of its Silverado WT trucks—with a gargantuan 205 kWh battery—and then fitted it with worn-down, massively over-inflated tires and drove it around the Detroit area for 1,059 miles (1,704 km). That required a team of 40 drivers, and like the Polestar 3, the average speed was below 25 mph (40 km/h).

Squeezing 4.9 miles/kWh (12.7 kWh/100 km) out of something the size and shape of a full-size pickup is probably more impressive than getting slightly more out of an SUV, but we should note that the Silverado drivers kept the air conditioning turned off until the final 59 miles.

And in July, Lucid announced that it, too, had set a new world record for the longest drive on a single charge. In its case, it took a Lucid Air Grand Touring from St. Moritz in Switzerland to Munich in Germany, covering 749 miles (1,205 km) on a single charge. That’s significantly farther than the Polestar, and the Lucid drivers achieved more than 6 miles/kWh (10.4 kWh/100 km), but the route also involved going mostly downhill.

Polestar sets production car record for longest drive on a single charge Read More »

Misunderstood “photophoresis” effect could loft metal sheets to exosphere

engineering, materials science, photophoresis, Physics, Science / Kris Guyer / August 14, 2025

Photophoresis can generate a tiny bit of lift without any moving parts.

Image of a wooden stand holding a sealed glass bulb with a spinning set of vanes, each of which has a lit and dark side.

Most people would recognize the device in the image above, although they probably wouldn’t know it by its formal name: the Crookes radiometer. As its name implies, placing the radiometer in light produces a measurable change: the blades start spinning.

Unfortunately, many people misunderstand the physics of its operation (which we’ll return to shortly). The actual forces that drive the blades to spin, called photophoresis, can act on a variety of structures as long as they’re placed in a sufficiently low-density atmosphere. Now, a team of researchers has figured out that it may be possible to use the photophoretic effect to loft thin sheets of metal into the upper atmosphere of Earth and other planets. While their idea is to use it to send probes to the portion of the atmosphere that’s too high for balloons and too low for satellites, they have tested some working prototypes a bit closer to the Earth’s surface.

Photophoresis

It’s quite common—and quite wrong—to see explanations of the Crookes radiometer that involve radiation pressure. Supposedly, the dark sides of the blades absorb more photons, each of which carries a tiny bit of momentum, giving the dark side of the blades a consistent push. The problem with this explanation is that photons are bouncing off the silvery side, which imparts even more momentum. If the device were spinning due to radiation pressure, it would be turning in the opposite direction than it actually does.

An excess of the absorbed photons on the dark side is key to understanding how it works, though. Photophoresis operates through the temperature difference that develops between the warm, light-absorbing dark side of the blade and the cooler silvered side.

Any gas molecule that bumps into the dark side will likely pick up some of the excess thermal energy from it and move away from the blade faster than it arrived. At the sorts of atmospheric pressures we normally experience, these molecules don’t get very far before they bump into other gas molecules, which keeps any significant differences from developing.

But a Crookes radiometer is in a sealed glass container with a far lower air pressure. This allows the gas molecules to speed off much farther from the dark surface of the blade before they run into anything, creating an area of somewhat lower pressure at its surface. That causes gas near the surface of the shiny side to rush around and fill this lower-pressure area, imparting the force that starts the blades turning.

It’s pretty impressively inefficient in that sort of configuration, though. So people have spent a lot of time trying to design alternative configurations that can generate a bit more force. One idea with a lot of research traction is a setup that involves two thin metal sheets—one light, one dark—arranged parallel to each other. Both sheets would be heavily perforated to cut down on weight. And a subset of them would have a short pipe connecting holes on the top and bottom sheet. (This has picked up the nickname “nanocardboard.”)

These pipes would serve several purposes. One is to simply link the two sheets into a single unit. Another is to act as an insulator, keeping heat from moving from the dark sheet to the light one, and thus enhancing the temperature gradient. Finally, they provide a direct path for air to move from the top of the light-colored sheet to the bottom of the dark one, giving a bit of directed thrust to help keep the sheets aloft.

Optimization

As you might imagine, there are a lot of free parameters you can tweak: the size of the gap between the sheets, the density of perforations in them, the number of those holes that are connected by a pipe, and so on. So a small team of researchers developed a system to model different configurations and attempt to optimize for lift. (We’ll get to their motivations for doing so a bit later.)

Starting with a disk of nanocardboard, “The inputs to the model are the geometric, optical and thermal properties of the disk, ambient gas conditions, and external radiative heat fluxes on the disk,” as the researchers describe it. “The outputs are the conductive heat fluxes on the two membranes, the membrane temperatures, and the net photophoretic lofting force on the structure.” In general, the ambient gas conditions needed to generate lift are similar to the ones inside the Crookes radiometer: well below the air pressure at sea level.

The model suggested that three trends should influence any final designs. The first is that the density of perforations is a balance. At relatively low elevations (meaning a denser atmosphere), many perforations increase the stress on large sheets, but they decrease the stress for small items at high elevations. The other thing is that, rather than increasing with surface area, lift tends to drop because the sheets are more likely to equilibrate to the prevailing temperatures. A square millimeter of nanocardboard produces over 10 times more lift per surface area than a 10-square-centimeter piece of the same material.

Finally, the researchers calculate that the lift is at its maximum in the mesosphere, the area just above the stratosphere (50–100 kilometers above Earth’s surface).

Light and lifting

The researchers then built a few sheets of nanocardboard to test the output of their model. The actual products, primarily made of chromium, aluminum, and aluminum oxide, were incredibly light, weighing only a gram for a square meter of material. When illuminated by a laser or white LED, they generated measurable force on a testing device, provided the atmosphere was kept sufficiently sparse. With an exposure equivalent to sunlight, the device generated more than it weighed.

It’s a really nice demonstration that we can take a relatively obscure and weak physical effect and design devices that can levitate in the upper atmosphere, powered by nothing more than sunlight—which is pretty cool.

But the researchers have a goal beyond that. The mesophere turns out to be a really difficult part of the atmosphere to study. It’s not dense enough to support balloons or aircraft, but it still has enough gas to make quick work of any satellites. So the researchers really want to turn one of these devices into an instrument-carrying aircraft. Unfortunately, that would mean adding the structural components needed to hold instruments, along with the instruments themselves. And even in the mesosphere, where lift is optimal, these things do not generate much in the way of lift.

Plus, there’s the issue of getting them there, given that they won’t generate enough lift in the lower atmosphere, so they’ll have to be carried into the upper stratosphere by something else and then be released gently enough to not damage their fragile structure. And then, unless you’re lofting them during the polar summer, they will likely come floating back down at night.

None of this is to say this is an impossible dream. But there are definitely a lot of very large hurdles between the work and practical applications on Earth—much less on Mars, where the authors suggest the system could also be used to explore the mesosphere. But even if that doesn’t end up being realistic, this is still a pretty neat bit of physics.

John is Ars Technica’s science editor. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. When physically separated from his keyboard, he tends to seek out a bicycle, or a scenic location for communing with his hiking boots.

Misunderstood “photophoresis” effect could loft metal sheets to exosphere Read More »

Author name: Kris Guyer