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CertiK: France sees 33 of 52 crypto wrench attacks as H1 2026 exposure hits $124.1 million

CertiK, a blockchain security firm, said on Wednesday that 52 confirmed physical attacks on crypto holders occurred in the first half of 2026. The amount of money at risk was ~$124.1 million, up from $10.5 million the previous year.

Nowadays, there is a much more common and much more expensive threat to anyone with a known identity who has real crypto.

There were 52 confirmed incidents, a 33.3% increase year over year from the 39 cases in H1 2025. CertiK defines a wrench attack as any form of violence, intimidation, or credible threat used to force someone to transfer digital assets, provide private keys, or unlock a wallet.

The tactic is an “established threat vector for cryptocurrency holders,” CertiK said. It works on even strong digital security because it attacks the person, not the software.

France drives Europe’s wrench attack wave

Of the 52 confirmed incidents, 39 were in Europe. France alone was home to 33 of them, according to CertiK. Europe was already highlighted as the riskiest region for crypto holders in CertiK’s 2025 wrench-attack report.

Increasingly, victims are being confronted in their own homes by attackers. CertiK reported that the number of crypto-related home invasions soared from one publicly reported case in H1 2025 to 20 in H1 2026. Kidnappings also increased, from 12 to 16.

Elsewhere, there was little movement. There were four cases of torture, as in the year before. Each period had one murder in association with a crypto coercion event.

The rise was attributed to home invasions. The attackers are now finding out where the targets live instead of waiting to catch them somewhere else.

$124 million exposure figure isn’t stolen crypto

The ~$124.1 million number is an estimated exposure, not a confirmed theft. It includes ransom demands, money victims paid, and assets later frozen by authorities or providers. Some of this money was never lost.

The average recorded exposure per incident rose from ~$270,000 in H1 2025 to ~$2.39 million in H1 2026. CertiK says its totals understate the true picture. Attack victims often don’t report them because they’re afraid of getting hurt, being taxed, or having their reputations hurt.

The half-year total obscures two different phases. The increase was led by Q1 2026, with 35 incidents compared to 22 in Q1 2025. January saw 15 cases compared to 9 a year ago, March had 13 compared to 7, and April shot up to 8 from 2. Then May and June were down below 2025. CertiK attributes that to a combination of better holder security, reporting delays, and law-enforcement pressure. Q2 2026 ended with 17 incidents, the same as Q2 2025.

Extrapolating the first half in a straight line would indicate about 100 incidents for the entire year. CertiK warns that this is not a prediction, especially given the differences between the two quarters.

Cryptopolitan reported this month that 63% of the 164,538 traders active in Robinhood Chain’s top memecoins were underwater. Wrench attacks target a different profile. Holders whose money and location are sufficiently obvious that it is worth the trouble to coerce.

CertiK’s advice is to break the link between a person’s public identity and their holdings. It proposes limiting data that links a name, location, or daily pattern of a holder to ownership of a crypto. Significant assets should be stored so that no one person can move them on demand.

Crypto holders should keep their wallets, signing tools, and recovery data separate. The company also says that people should make their homes secure, talk to their family about what to do in an emergency, and avoid using sensitive accounts on any devices they take with them when they travel.

July 22, 2026
Plaintiffs Object To Nexstar Executives Serving On Tegna Board, Claiming Violation Of Judge’s Injunction In Antitrust Case

A federal judge is being asked to clarify that Nexstar is prohibited from having its executives serve on the board of Tegna, as plaintiffs contend that it violates an injunction that has out a pause on the merger of the two broadcast station groups.

A coalition of state attorneys general, as well as DirecTV, filed a motion in federal court on Wednesday to clarify that the injunction “does not permit Nexstar to appoint its current or recent former employees, executives, consultants, or other personnel to Tegna’s Board.”

In April, U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley issued a preliminary injunction to halt the merger for the time being as the legal proceedings play out. But Nexstar had already closed the Tegna transaction, meaning that they were required to hold their operations separately.

In their filing, the plaintiffs, which include the states of California and New York, cited the judge’s order that Tegna had to operate as a “separate and distinct, independently managed business unit from Nexstar,” and that Nexstar “must place and maintain internal controls and procedures to prevent the sharing of competitively sensitive information.”

The plaintiffs pointedto the presence of Nexstar CEO Perry Sook and others on the board of Tegna.

“These Nexstar executives have already taken part in managing Tegna’s strategy: They have approved Tegna’s budget, which was developed from forecasts that surely contain Tegna’s competitively sensitive information and which would not have been shared with Nexstar is the two companies were independent competitors.” They also said that Sook has “openly touted” that Tegna operates as a “subsidiary of Nexstar,” which “In his view means that Tegna senior management must ‘report to the Board’ and can ‘have conversations’ with Nexstar executives.”

In response to the filing, Nexstar said in a statement that it “has scrupulously complied with the Court’s hold-separate order. Tegna continues to operate independently, and Nexstar has no involvement in Tegna’s retransmission consent negotiations, content decisions, staffing, or other day-to-day operations. Nexstar’s executives’ service on Tegna’s Board is consistent with the Court’s order and is critical to ensuring that Nexstar can continue to satisfy its financial reporting obligations while the hold-separate requirements are in place.”

July 22, 2026
Inside the Gen Z Film Publicity Stunt That Had Manosphere Poster Boy Kyle University Stationed Outside L.A., London Studios (Exclusive)

School’s officially out for summer at Kyle University.

The 7-foot muscle-head has spent the last four weeks making the rounds on social media, accruing more than 60 million views and 30,000 Instagram followers and becoming the manosphere’s latest “high-value” poster boy. His Tate brothers-esque content — built around seducing women, “looksmaxxing” and collecting “aura points” — swiftly got him banned from TikTok.

But it turns out, Kyle’s entire red-pill brand is actually just some savvy film publicity.

The Hollywood Reporter can reveal that the costumed “manosphere recruiters” galavanting around the industry’s most renowned studios and offices across Los Angeles and London this week are indeed the finale act of this viral sensation. All along, Kyle University has been an anti-manosphere satirical campaign using social media as an elaborate Trojan horse to draw Hollywood’s attention to Impressionable, the debut film from 22-year-old British director Noah Caplan.

Kyle, the faux character and self-proclaimed “lion in a world of dolphins” (played by U.S. bodybuilder Mike O’Hearn), has captured Instagram, YouTube and Facebook users. He’s fooled a sizable chunk of the manosphere, including several well-known red-pill commentators who hurled abuse at feminist creators Izzy Taffs and Maia Wall.

Since Caplan’s elaborate bit went live, studios and talent reps swept in to express interest — momentum that the young filmmaker wanted to jump on. The bait-and-switch culminated in a stunt outside major entertainment hubs in Los Angeles and London on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Kyles have popped up, enrollment papers in hand, pitching a made-up online course to top executives outside the likes of the BBC, Lionsgate, the British Film Institute, UTA, Working Title, WME, Channel 4, and major streamers. On the L.A. hit list was Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment, where a Kyle asked security if he could “talk to the Ken in charge.” The targets are hand-picked by Caplan as his “dream collaborators” on Impressionable — from Warner Bros. Clockwork division to U.K. distributor True Brit — which is currently seeking packaging, financing and distribution.

A slew of young, digital talent coming up through the ranks of social media were enlisted for the stunt. Comedians Rufus Rice, Auden Barnes (“UncleBenMyBrudda”), Tommy Solemn, “Toshua,” “Panchbantz” and Ben McGuinness all appeared as various manosphere characters across the campaign, with some of them even playing the Kyle University recruits this week.

Another Kyle hands out leaflets outside the BBC.

Courtesy of YOOF

Inside the leaflets flung at reception desks and staff was a heartfelt pitch from Caplan about Impressionable, a satirical coming-of-age comedy-drama following a teenage boy’s idolization of a manosphere influencer, which manifests as a fictional mentor. The feature aims to “tackle toxic masculinity while positively spotlighting the real, everyday men who actually shape a young boy’s life.”

Caplan, who founded his own talent management agency YOOF, has no inherited network or contacts in the film industry. At 17, he persuaded British star Danny Dyer to star in his 30-minute mental health awareness drama (later acquired by ITV) by DM’ing hundreds of the actor’s friends on social media. THR caught up with Caplan about talking Dyer into the film last year, where he elaborated on getting his film education through YouTube, Curry Barker and Kane Parsons-style.

He gave up on cold-emailing studios about Impressionable and decided to get more creative. “I was always going to find a way, even if it took another three years,” Caplan tells THR. “What we’ve built with Kyle University though is a stronger pitch than any email I could ever have sent.”

“Kyle is bait, and that’s the whole point. We’ve replicated the manosphere’s entire ecosystem with a character who’s dangerous yet entertaining. You could stumble on a harmless clip of this douchey frat-bro, find it funny, and hit follow. It might not be until a few posts in that his real agenda creeps in: the misogyny, the bigotry, the peddling of self-hatred for profit.”

Caplan, however, is careful not to mock the young men who fall for it.

Kyle (Mike O’Hearn, left) and ‘Impressionable’ director Noah Caplan.

Courtesy of YOOF

“We’re not here to vilify the audience who get pulled in,” he says about his captive audience. “I’ve had mates pulled in, and some of it even skimmed close to me in the most vulnerable moments of my own adolescence. But hopefully Impressionable can expose that mad old monopoly, and show young men there’s a more whimsical way to figure out who you are, without leaning on some parasocial stranger to tell you who that is.”

Caplan admits the stunt was “cheeky.” He continued: “We want our project noticed by the industry we admire so greatly. Coming from Essex, England, there aren’t too many talent scouts or film and TV power-brokers hanging around. Emails get ignored, cold calls are outdated and annoying. We thought this could not just get us in front of the right people, but also generate a bit of fun in such a madly busy town for a couple of days.”

And if nothing else, he hopes it brightened a few people’s Tuesday or Wednesday.

Says Caplan: “For the executives […] coming face-to-face with a 7ft, 300lb man in neon headbands and multi-colored bicep tassels might just be the midweek pick-me-up they needed. I hope it caught people’s interest, or at least intrigued them. And if not, I hope we managed to entertain a few people on their daily commute.”

July 22, 2026
After Trump Threat, FCC Chairman Says ABC’s Decision Not To Carry POTUS Speech Likely To Be Raised In Early Review Of Broadcast Licenses

FCC chairman Brendan Carr said that he expected that ABC’s decision not to carry President Donald Trump’s speech last week to be part of the agency’s early review of its broadcast licenses.

During the speech itself, Trump said that ABC and NBC, which did not carry the address, should lose their broadcast licenses. They did telecast the speech on their streaming channels.

“I think when you have the president of the United States standing inside the White House delivering an important speech, I think that’s something that broadcasters should be carrying. And so, obviously, this is an issue,” Carr told reporters Wednesday. “There have been lots of concerns raised, including by members of Congress, about whether broadcasters and their decisions there comply with the public interest.”

The FCC does not license broadcast networks. It does license their affiliated stations, including those that the networks own.

The FCC already has ordered an early review of ABC broadcast station licenses for eight outlets, citing an investigation into its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. But the review looks into public comments on whether broadcasters have met their public interest obligations more generally. No such early review has been ordered yet for NBC.

Carr pointed to the FCC’s current proceeding on the early renewal of ABC-owned broadcast station licenses.

“I’m sure that there are going to be points raised in that proceeding that relate to Disney’s decision” not to carry the speech, he said. “Again, we’re going to hold all broadcasters to the public interest obligations, and we’re always looking to make sure they do exactly that.”

The network has objected to the FCC’s order that it submit its licenses for early renewal, calling it “an extraordinary demonstration of power and coercion directed at disfavored editorial voices which sends a clear warning to every broadcaster in America.”

The networks declined to carry certain speeches by Trump’s predecessors, Joe Biden and Barack Obama, even after time was requested by the White House. The topic of Trump’s speech — election security — raised concerns that it would be overly political and that he would repeat unfounded stolen election claims.

Carr also cited a report that “one or more of the networks have been in communication with … Democrat[ic] aides about their decision not to carry the president’s remarks.”

A spokesperson for ABC did not immediately return a request for comment.

A spokesperson for NBC did not have an immediate comment. The network also did a broadcast special report on the speech and offered the streaming feed to affiliates to take live if they wanted. Sinclair-owned network affiliated stations did that evening.

Commissioner Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, said that the agency “has no authority to punish broadcasters for exercising their First Amendment right to choose what is newsworthy. They made these decisions under presidents of both parties without any complaints, and in this case, the remarks were freely available online to anyone who wanted to watch them.”

She added that the “vague public interest standard is being used just to punish speech this administration doesn’t like, and to reward speech that it does like, and that’s inappropriate, and it is contrary to the law and the Constitution.”

July 22, 2026
‘Seinfeld’ Actor Jason Alexander Apologizes to Courtney Stodden for “Inappropriate” Sketch Filmed When She Was Underage

Jason Alexander has issued an apology to Courtney Stodden for an inappropriate 2012 Funny or Die sketch, in which the Seinfeld actor rubbed a cellphone on Stodden’s breasts when she was a mere 17.

“Looking back at the comedy sketch in which Ms. Stodden and I participated in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it,” Alexander said in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter. “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”

However, in a follow-up statement shared with THR after Alexander’s apology was widely reported on by the press, Stodden said, “I appreciate Jason Alexander’s public apology. People keep asking if he’s apologized privately, and he hasn’t. A private apology would be meaningful, but meaningful action would be even more powerful.”

“If he truly regrets what happened, I’d invite him to support Unchained At Last and the fight to end child marriage through AB 1267,” she continued. “That’s how we turn accountability into lasting change.”

In a Monday Instagram post, Stodden shared a photo from the sketch, where she was wearing a red bikini top and Alexander had a phone over top her breast. In the caption, she explained that she was underage when it was filmed. She wrote, “Jason Alexander repeatedly rubbed his phone across my breasts while saying there was ‘no signal’ in my head but ‘plenty of signal’ in my chest.”

“Later in the sketch, he joked that when I turned 18 he’d like to take me behind the couch and ‘have his way’ with me. IMDb credits him as one of the writers of the episode. As an adult, that fact has become harder — not easier — for me to understand,” she continued. “I was a minor. I didn’t have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults. The paycheck went to Doug [Hutchison]. The production moved forward. I was the only child in the room. I felt so alone.”

The model wed her ex-husband The Green Mile actor Doug Hutchison when she was 16. He was 51. In her Instagram post, she said, looking back, she questions how any adult allowed the sketch to occur.

“Looking back now, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke. People still say, ‘You chose to be there.’ Legally, I couldn’t make those decisions for myself. That’s the point. I can’t change what happened to me but I can ask myself: How did so many adults look at a minor and decide this was acceptable?” she wrote. “That’s exactly why I speak out today. Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn’t have to become adults before realizing the law should have protected them all along.”

July 22, 2026
How To Preorder Samsung’s New Galaxy Phones: The Galaxy Z Flip 8, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Samsung Unpacked might’ve just wrapped up, but the company left us with quite an array of products to keep unboxing. The gadgets we’re most excited about are the company’s brand-new foldables: the Galaxy Z Flip 8, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Preorders are officially live, and many carriers and companies are offering their own special perks when you choose them to deliver your new device. You can wait until August 7 to score one when general availability kicks in, but these discounts and deals might fly off the shelves before the phones even hit them.

Here’s your guide to the best preorder offers on the new foldable Galaxy phones.

Samsung’s Preorder Perks

Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

It’s never a bad move to preorder an unlocked phone straight from the manufacturer, and the preorder pages are now live on Samsung for the Galaxy Z Flip 8 (starting at $1,199), Galaxy Z Fold 8 (starting at $1,899.99), and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (starting at $2,099.99). The Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are both $100 more than their predecessors, which is likely due to the memory crisis—because not even global manufacturers are safe from the price hikes.

If you have an older device from Samsung, Apple, or Google, Samsung is offering up to $600 in instant trade-in credit for the Galaxy Z Flip 8 or up to $1,200 for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. It all depends on the model and condition of the device, but it can knock a pretty penny off a brand-new foldable—especially one of the Fold 8 models. Even without a trade-in, you’ll still receive $150 or $200 in Samsung Credit, depending on which phone you buy.

Trade-in deals for Samsung phones are available year-round, but they’re particularly good during the preorder period. The preorder window is live from July 22 to August 7!

Amazon’s Preorder Perks

Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8

(Eric Zeman)

How could a tech preorder deal exist without Amazon sticking its hands in the cookie jar? The online retailer is offering gift cards for preordering one of the Galaxy Z8 phones on its website.

When you preorder the Galaxy Z Flip 8, you’ll receive a $200 Amazon gift card with it. Meanwhile, when you preorder either the Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Amazon will send you a $350 gift card instead.

AT&T’s Preorder Perks

Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

AT&T is taking preorders for Samsung’s new Galaxy Z8 series right now. Both new and existing customers can get their hands on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for as little as $0 with an eligible trade-in (and qualifying unlimited plan), plus score a Watch 9 and Tab A11 with 5G for $1.99 per month each. You can also score $1,000 off the Galaxy Z Flip 8 or up to $1,900 off the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra with trade-ins, too!

Best Buy’s Preorder Perks

Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

Best Buy’s preorder deals on the Galaxy Z8 line are similar to Amazon’s: straightforward gift card goodness. When you preorder any of the Galaxy Z8 foldables from (Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8, or the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra) from Best Buy, you lock in a $200 gift card with your purchase. No bells, no whistles—just simple savings.

T-Mobile’s Preorder Perks

Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

T-Mobile is also accepting preorders for the Galaxy Z8 line. The best deal is securing the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for free when you trade in an eligible device on the carrier’s Experience Beyond or Go5G plans, but you can also snag the Galaxy Z Flip 8 for $100 (and save over $1,100) if you activate a new line or trade in an eligible device on its Experience More, Experience Beyond, Go5G, or Go5G Next plans. Finally, you can get the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for only $200 ($1,900 off) by activating a line on the carrier’s Experience More, Experience Beyond, and Go5G plans.

Verizon’s Preorder Perks

Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

Verizon is in on the preorder fun, too. If you want to get your hands on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, you can get the 256GB model for just $30 per month (for 48 months) when you switch to the carrier’s new Simplicity Plan, which saves you $420 in the long run. But if the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is more your style, you can earn a lower monthly rate ($35 per month over 48 months) just by adding a new line or upgrading on the Simplicity Plan. There is currently no preorder offer on the Galaxy Z Flip 8 from Verizon.

Recommended by Our Editors

When it comes to trade-ins, Verizon is offering up to $1,100 off the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra when you trade in an eligible phone on either its Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Ultimate plan.

Xfinity’s Preorder Perks

Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

If you’re an Xfinity customer and want one of Samsung’s new foldables, you’re in luck: the company is running preorder promotions on all three Z8 phones.

You can score up to $600 off the Galaxy Z Flip 8 by either adding a new Mobile Plus line and transferring your phone number over (or upgrading an existing line), or through trade-in credits if you’re already an existing Mobile Plus customer. Now, for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra, you can slash up to $1,000 off (over the course of 36 months) during the preorder period through a combination of trade-in credits and the company’s “Mobile Plus” promotions.

To max out the $1,000 discount, you need to trade in a qualifying device and then either upgrade to an existing line or add a new line on the Mobile Plus plan. If you don’t have a device to trade in, you can still save up to $600 just by upgrading an existing line or adding a new Mobile Plus line to your account. Unfortunately, the discount is capped at $1,000, so even if your trade-in value and line-upgrade add up to more than that, you’ll still only receive $1,000 off.

Wherever you choose to preorder from, you’ll pocket a superb new foldable with a gorgeous, crease-free screen loaded with powerful AI features and everything else we love about Samsung’s Galaxy phones.

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July 22, 2026
Ridley Scott, Hugh Jackman’s ‘Treasure Island’ Setting Sail to Sony

Ridley Scott and Hugh Jackman are taking their Treasure Island movie to Sony, which is in talks to acquire the package from the duo.

Scott will direct from a script by Jack Thorne, with Jackman starring in the feature based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel. The classic book told the story of a boy, Jim Hawkins, who sets sail to a remote island after discovering a treasure map.

More to come.

July 22, 2026
New Provisions Added to the Anticipated Cryptocurrency Bill, the Clarity Act—Could Be Critical

New provisions limiting the ability of presidents and other federal officials to profit from digital assets have been added to the CLARITY Act, a bill under consideration in the US Senate that includes comprehensive regulations targeting the cryptocurrency market.

According to updated draft legislation obtained by CNBC, US presidents, federal officials, and certain public officials will not be able to issue cryptocurrencies or other digital assets, or sponsor such projects.

Senate Republicans, in an update to the CLARITY Act on Wednesday, included the first legal limits on how US presidents can earn income from the cryptocurrency sector.

Related News Flash Analysis of Four Altcoins: “Two Are Bullish, Two Are Bearish”

The CLARITY Act, which aims to comprehensively regulate the digital asset market, seeks to determine which institutions will oversee the cryptocurrency sector and under what rules. Newly added ethical provisions aim to prevent public officials from using their positions to profit personally from cryptocurrency or digital asset projects.

If the bill becomes law, U.S. presidents and other federal officials serving in office will face significant restrictions on issuing cryptocurrencies in their own names, sponsoring a digital asset project, or directly profiting from such ventures.

Previously, US President Donald Trump launched his own TRUMP token, which has recently experienced significant declines.

*This is not investment advice.

July 22, 2026
Bose Wants to Be the Centerpiece of Your Living Room Again With the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.

Bose is reviving one of its most recognizable product names with the launch of the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, the flagship wireless speaker in the company’s reimagined Lifestyle Collection. The new release is currently a bestseller on Best Buy, where it’s available in its Black and White Smoke colorways for $299.

The speaker arrives alongside the new Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer, marking Bose’s return to the Lifestyle branding after retiring the line in 2022. With the line, customers can start with one speaker and expand into a multi-room setup or a full home theater over time. Best Buy also boasts an exclusive bundle with the soundbar and subwoofer for $1,699 (an $199 discount).

BESTSELLER

Bose Ultra Lifestyle Speaker

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker packs three drivers — including an upward-firing driver designed to create a taller, more immersive soundstage using Bose’s TrueSpace (or TrueSpatial) audio processing. The company says its proprietary CleanBass technology delivers fuller low-end performance without requiring a separate subwoofer, while the compact form factor is intended to fit comfortably on a bookshelf, kitchen counter or side table.

The speaker is built around streaming flexibility. It supports Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth and a 3.5mm auxiliary input, allowing users to play music directly from their preferred apps instead of relying exclusively on Bose’s software. Alexa voice control is built in, and Bose says it’s the first third-party speaker to ship with Amazon’s Alexa+ assistant in the U.S.

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is also designed to grow with users’ setups. Two speakers can be paired together for stereo playback, while owners can later add the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer to create configurations ranging from a simple multi-room system to a Dolby Atmos-equipped 7.1.4 home theater. Plus, the updated Bose app walks users through setup and lets them group speakers across rooms.

Perhaps most impressive, it packs these high-tech specs into a sleek shell, with softer curves, fabric-wrapped grilles and premium finishes.

Shop Bose’s new Lifestyle Ultra Speaker on Best Buy.

July 22, 2026
Alibaba’s New Qwen Image 3 AI Wants to Be Useful, Not Just Pretty
In brief

Qwen-Image-3.0, released July 21 by Alibaba’s Qwen team, accepts 4,500 tokens of instructions.

This enables single-pass generation of complex layouts like newspapers, storyboards, and dense infographic grids.

Unlike its predecessor, the release shipped without open model weights, benchmarks, or a technical report; it’s available at chat.qwen.ai with API pricing not yet disclosed.
Alibaba’s Qwen team launched Qwen Image 3.0 on Tuesday, and the pitch has nothing to do with how beautiful the output looks. It’s about whether the output can actually be used at work.

Most AI image tools—Reve, Nano Banana, Seedream—are designed to excel at specific areas: creativity, realism, editing capabilities, and so on. Qwen Image 3.0 is going in a different direction. “Qwen-Image-3.0 is not just pursuing ‘good-looking’—it is pursuing ‘useful,’ making image generation a truly deployable productivity tool,” the Qwen team wrote in the official announcement.

The centerpiece is what the Chinese behemoth Alibaba calls rich content. The model accepts up to 4,500 tokens, which is 4.5 times what the previous generation could process. Tokens are the units of text an AI reads; picture a token as roughly one word or part of a word, so 4,500 of them are several pages of detailed instructions

That’s enough to describe nine separate infographic panels in a single prompt and get them back as one complete image.

“The entire image above was generated by Qwen-Image-3.0 in a single pass, rather than being stitched together from multiple images,” Alibaba wrote in its blog. Each panel in the demo contains its own diagrams, formulas, captions, and fine-print text—rendered in one shot, not assembled in post.

This is the only model capable of achieving this without major errors.

The second part is what the company calls authentic details. Per Alibaba, the model “supports precise rendering of text as small as 10px, vividly reproducing details like pores and hair strands with lifelike, micro-level depiction.” Ten pixels is fine print—the kind you’ll see on pharmaceutical disclaimers. The model also handles LaTeX—the notation system researchers use to write complex mathematical equations—accurately across full academic paper mockups.

In our usual tests we give models a few sentences and evaluate how they process them. Qwen Image 3.0 was able to generate the image below, per Alibaba’s official blog.

We tried this feature using the model’s fastest configuration. Qwen Image 3.0 was able to reproduce one full article from Decrypt. The execution was genuinely impressive, but the result was not flawless.

The third pillar of Qwen Image 3.0 is deep knowledge. Per the Qwen team, the model “supports native rendering of 12 languages, simulates mainstream interfaces such as web pages, games, and livestreams, and draws on rich world knowledge.” It also connects to the internet to fetch live data, meaning prompting for a weather forecast visual for a specific city and date returns an accurate graphic, not a guess.

For example, Alibaba shared a photo of an insect on a leaf. The model was able to generate relevant text based on its understanding of the image.

Alibaba is pitching design studios, content teams, e-commerce operations, and educators who need production-ready visual assets in bulk.

It’s worth noting, though, that in Alibaba’s own Qwen-Image-Bench evaluation—a benchmark that scores image quality, aesthetics, and real-world fidelity across 18 models—Qwen Image 2.0 Pro, the previous flagship, placed fifth. OpenAI’s GPT Image 2 led the ranking. The new model may perform better, but the launch offers no measured way to confirm it, because it arrived without a benchmark table, downloadable weights, or technical report.

Qwen Image 1.0 launched with open weights under an Apache 2.0 license and a same-day technical report. This one didn’t. As part of Alibaba’s recent AI push, the evidence here is entirely the hand-picked example images the company chose to publish. API trials are open at chat.qwen.ai. Pricing hasn’t been announced.

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July 22, 2026