Category: Technology

Framework’s Laptop 13 Pro may be the star of today’s launch, but it is by no means the only product the company is unveiling. We’re also seeing some quality-of-life upgrades for the Laptop 16, a new wireless keyboard and a carrying case. Plus, it’s addressing something a vast number of its own users have demanded for a while: A 10GB Ethernet expansion card.

Laptop 16

The top deck of the Laptop 16 is sufficiently customizable that you can cram in any number of modules alongside the keyboard and trackpad. If you want an area blank, then you can just put in the requisite spacer, but that creates an unintended problem for some users. CEO Nirav Patel admitted the areas where the modules sit side-by-side can trap some people’s arm hairs, leading to some unplanned depilations when they move away from the deck. To solve this, the company is releasing a new all-in-one trackpad and all-in-one keyboard cover. The trackpad has also been updated to the same haptic model found in the 13 Pro. Plus, it’s now available with a lower-end Ryzen 5 340 mainboard as a more affordable entry level model.

OCuLink Dev kit

At the back of the Laptop 16 is an expansion module slot that either holds a blank unit or the discrete graphics hardware. Last year, the company launched a module with an RTX 5070 inside and, now, it’s started thinking about using it for eGPUs as well. The OCuLink Dev Kit (pictured, above) is a prototype board using OCuLink 8i which can connect directly to your mainboard over its native PCIe lanes.

If you already own a blank module, you won’t need to buy a replacement either. Framework has ensured you can simply drop the OCuLink board into the slots of your existing one. As well as the board, the kit includes an OCuLink Dock that’ll let you slot in any off-the-shelf PCIe card — including GPUs, 100Gb Ethernet and video capture — and run it as if you had your very own desktop.

Sadly, it’s not yet ready for prime time and so far all the company has said is we’ll see more about the hardware “later this year.”

Wireless Touchpad Keyboard

“There’s one living room keyboard that everyone owns, that Logitech keyboard they haven’t updated in 15 years,” said Patel. “I’ve got two of them, polled the team, and a bunch of them all have the same keyboard,” he added. But Patel’s frustration drove him and his team to build their own, better model, which has been an idea since development work started on the Framework Desktop. It was only when the team learned that the Desktop was being used as a living room PC, however, that they actually brought it to market. It is, in fact, using the same excellent keyboard hardware as found on the Framework Laptop 12, repackaged for its all-in-one form.

Laptop Sleeve

Framework’s built a laptop sleeve containing extra pockets for your spare expansion cards and screwdriver. Patel said that the real focus was on ensuring the materials used had as small a carbon footprint as possible.

10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card

Rounding out the announcements is a 10Gb Ethernet expansion card for users who want a faster wired internet experience than the current 2.5Gb model. But this isn’t a Framework product per-se, but was designed and developed by hardware makers Wisdpi. Patel said the community is so passionate that they’re constantly looking at new chip and hardware announcements. They then head to the company’s forums to ask “Hey, like, can we get a Framework version of this?” he explained. The advent of a slender 10Gb Ethernet chip was enough to inspire one third-party developer to build an Expansion Card module to harness it. “Basically, we got in contact with them,” said Patel and offered some guidance to help build the module. And once it was finished, Framework is now acting as a reseller to enable the whole community to easily buy it. Patel admitted that a 10Gb Ethernet Card would inevitably cater to a fairly niche customer, but “love to see a third party come in and fill that gap.”

Elbowing for attention alongside Vivo and Xiaomi, Oppo has finally launched its long-teased “ultra” version of its flagship smartphone. The Find X9 Ultra is another camera-first smartphone from Oppo, with an even more impressive spec sheet and a new array of accessories. We’re not even halfway through 2026 and we’ve been spoiled with choices, whether it’s the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra (with or without Leica livery) or Vivo’s X300 Ultra.

The Find X9 Pro was already a powerful, capable camera phone. So, what’s changed with the Ultra? We’ve had the base device for over a week, but we’re waiting on the upgraded telephoto converter kit to land before we tackle a more in-depth review.

There are several design changes, starting with the two color options. Canyon Orange looks similar to Oppo’s recent flagship phones, with a subtle etched finish meant to replicate the Grand Canyon. Meanwhile, Hasselblad fans might prefer the other option: a woodland-themed Tundra Umber, inspired by the camera maker’s X2D. Oppo says this colorway channels “Scandinavian minimalism and the raw elegance of glaciers.” Together at last.

Perhaps due to all the camera hardware, it’s a big, thick phone with the camera unit protruding noticeably from the back. The camera array on the Ultra now has a subtle hexagonal design, apparently a nod to camera history — and that Hasselblad partnership. That area has a circular, metal frame, like many of Oppo’s rivals. The edges of the camera unit are knurled, which helps you to grip the device when taking photos. Unlike Xiaomi’s recent Ultra phone, the ring doesn’t act as a zoom control, but Oppo and Hasselblad’s “Earth Explorer Kit” for the Find X9 Ultra adds a very understated camera grip with a zoom lever.

Putting last year’s Find X9 Pro next to the X9 Ultra, the Ultra model looks more modern, more advanced and more powerful. And it is. The Ultra has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, a notable step up from the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chip found on last year’s Find 9 Pro.

There’s also a 7,050mAh silicon-carbon battery that supports 100W SUPERVOOC charging. Oppo says it has included the “industry’s first” encapsulated thermal unit to keep temperatures under control when pushing the device hard, such as recording high-resolution video for extended periods. The display screams expensive Android flagship, too. The 6.82-inch 144Hz display can reach up to 3,600 nits of peak HDR brightness and drop to 1 nit in low-lit situations.

It’s all about the cameras, however. The Find X9 Ultra’s main camera is a 200-megapixel sensor. At 1/1.12 inches, Oppo says it’s the largest 200MP sensor in a phone yet. It has a low f/1.5 aperture, too. This was my ‘main’ camera when I first started taking the X9 Ultra out to shoot sample photos. After all, bigger sensors mean more detail, and more ability to crop for tighter zoomed shots. With a mixture of streetlights, neon signs and more, I was impressed by the color accuracy. Oppo has embedded a new True Color Camera into the Find X9 Ultra’s camera module, which works across stills and video. Still, if you’re demanding punchy, high-contrast images, there’s an array of Hasselblad filters and effects for playing with, too.

There’s also a 3x Telephoto camera, with another (different!) 200MP sensor and f/2.2 aperture. This is the camera that the new teleconverter lens attaches to. There’s something appealing about having an instant 3x zoom camera, even though it gets a little lost among the cropped focal-length equivalents in the camera app. In fact, Oppo claims that the Find X9 Ultra offers the equivalent of eight focal lengths. Sadly, I noticed some differences in color temperature and light sensitivity as the Find X9 Ultra hopped between all those camera sensors while I tested different zoom levels.

The next camera is another telephoto, with an impressive 10x zoom with a 50 megapixel sensor. We’ve seen 10x zoom on phones before, like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, but never at such high resolution. Oppo added support for its Portrait mode here, even at full zoom. You can also crop in for a 20x zoom, but the results didn’t blow me away in early testing. At 10x zoom, though, I was impressed. That’s a lot of zoom before even thinking about attaching a teleconverter.

Oppo isn’t going quite as hard on video as its rival (and distant corporate relative) Vivo, but the Find X9 Ultra can capture 4K 60 fps video with Dolby Vision. It’s also the first Oppo smartphone capable of recording 8K video at 30 fps. For those looking to dig into video detail, Oppo has launched a new log profile, O-Log2. The company says this will help reveal greater shadow detail and reduce image smearing — it’s something else I’m itching to try once the teleconverter lands.

Like Vivo’s X300 Ultra, Oppo’s newest phone is certified for the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), so videographers can integrate its footage into professional workflows. You can also load third-party LUTs (look-up tables) directly onto the device to monitor custom color grades in real time and see how they look in the on-device preview.

As is often the case with Chinese phone makers, there’s a lavish accessory kit to build on the smartphone’s shooting talents. Oppo’s Hasselblad Explorer case adds a two-stage focus button and the aforementioned zoom controls. The case has the same muted black and clay colors as the Tundra Umber edition of the Find X9 Ultra. Then there’s the new Hasselblad 300mm Explorer Teleconverter. The magnification ratio of the teleconverter has been increased from 3.28x on Find X9 Pro to around 4.3x on the Find X9 Ultra. The lens mounts directly onto the 200-megapixel 3x telephoto lens, upgrading it to a heady 13x optical zoom.

This is also the biggest smartphone telephoto lens yet, dwarfing both the Find X9 Pro’s add-on and Vivo’s not-petite 400mm teleconverter. The companies chose different combinations of camera sensors and lenses, making spec sheet comparisons a little trickier, but Oppo’s latest accessory is certainly the largest thus far. I can’t wait to see how the Find X9 Ultra’s photos fare against images from the Vivo X300 Ultra, though. In the Find X9 Ultra’s favor, it has an iPhone 17 Pro-like touch-sensitive button for quickly launching the camera, something I missed on Vivo’s new flagship.

Unfortunately, there is no cross-compatibility among previous Oppo teleconverters and phones. The company says this is to ensure optimal image quality, but it’ll disappoint faithful Oppo fans hoping to carry over the expensive camera accessories from previous years. The company has learned some lessons from the Find X9 Pro, with a new telephoto adapter that can be left mounted on the phone without obscuring the other camera lenses.

On first impression, the Find X9 Ultra is shaping up to be another powerful camera phone, with another hard-to-actually-buy caveat. The Find X9 Ultra will arrive in parts of Asia and Europe. In the UK, it’s set to launch on May 8th, priced at £1,449 (roughly $1,959). While there’s no US release planned, we’ll update this story when we hear more details on the global launch. Once the telephoto add-on arrives, I’m excited to put it through its paces. I’ve got its rival from Vivo too, so it’s time for the battle of the teleconverters.

The relatively long wait for the third season of Silo is nearly over. Apple TV just announced the dystopian sci-fi hit returns on July 3, with episodes airing each Friday until September 4. We have long championed this show, calling it “another gem” for the platform.

The streamer has dropped a short teaser for the upcoming season and it confirms rumors of an increased focus on the “before times” via a storyline that was introduced in the finale of season two. The trailer depicts scenes from both time periods, as protagonist Juliette, played by Rebecca Ferguson, speaks in voiceover.

“Before we can know why we’re here. Before we can know everything is as it is. Before we know how it all will end, we need to understand how it all began,” she says, alluding to the creation of the various bunkers littered throughout the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

For the uninitiated, Silo is an adaptation of Hugh Howey’s Wool series of books. It’s primarily set in the titular silo, a society of around 10,000 people living deep underground. The show is sort of like Fallout, but without the radioactive monsters and nihilistic sense of humor.

Silo stars Ferguson, along with Tim Robbins, Common and Steve Zahn. Cast members joining the show for season three include Colin Hanks, Jessica Henwick and Ashley Zukerman. The show has already been renewed for a fourth and final season.

This is a busy summer for sci-fi on Apple TV. The second season of Dark Matter premieres on August 28, which is uncharted territory as the first season was based on a book that doesn’t have a sequel. Star City, a spinoff of For All Mankind, premieres on May 29. This is the same day that For All Mankind concludes its fifth and penultimate season.

The single most impressive piece of technology I saw at CES this year was LG’s revamped Wallpaper TV, AKA the OLED evo w6. It’s about as thin as a typical pencil, it’s completely wireless and it packs in all of LG’s latest OLED technology, giving it incredibly rich colors and anti-reflective capabilities. We ended up giving the Wallpaper set our best TV of CES 2026 award, simply because it looked so damn good. Now, we finally know how much it costs: LG announced the 77-inch evo w6 will go for $5,500, while the 83-inch model will sell for $7,500.

Both sets are a $1,000 premium over the OLED evo G6 models, which are LG’s highest-end TVs without the company’s super-thin Wallpaper tech. While the thicker sets are obviously a better deal, there’s still something inherently impressive about the Wallpaper models. For many people, the simple “wow factor” of the evo W6’s design will be worth the extra $1,000.

If that all sounds too rich for your blood, LG’s mainstream OLED sets are far cheaper, starting at $1,399 for the 43-inch C6 set. And if you don’t need the latest OLED panels around, it’s worth keeping an eye out for deals around older models. I’ve seen 65-inch C5 sets for near $1,000, and 77-inch TVs for around $1,500. Those older sets will be a bit less bright, and probably show more reflections, but in a dim room they’ll still have all the benefits of OLED: Incredibly high contrast, and ridiculously dark black levels.

Xbox is cutting the prices of both Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, effective immediately, but there’s one big caveat. First, the good news: Game Pass Ultimate now costs $23 per month, down from $30. PC Game Pass will now run you $14 a month instead of $16.50. The Xbox team noted in a blog post that prices may vary by region.

That’s a smart, much-needed decision. In a memo that leaked last week, new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma expressed concern over the high price of Game Pass, stating that it “has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation. Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around.” Sharma reiterated that publicly in a post on X.

In October, Microsoft increased Game Pass Ultimate to $30 per month, which was a 50 percent price hike. It was the second time in 15 months that the company had jacked up the monthly fee, making it an unjustifiable expense for many. The price of a PC Game Pass subscription also rose by $4.50 per month, and now Microsoft is bringing that back down a bit too.

“Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far,” the Xbox team wrote. “ We’ll continue to listen and learn.”

There is one giant tradeoff here: new Call of Duty games will no longer be available on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass on day one. They’ll eventually hit those tiers about a year later, during the following holiday season. That means Call of Duty titles will be the only first-party Xbox games that don’t hit Game Pass on their release date.

This, of course, is an attempt to generate more revenue from one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world. Call of Duty is a major reason why Microsoft shelled out $68.7 billion to buy Activision Blizzard a few years back. While Call of Duty fans on PlayStation still had to pay full price for the last few annual releases to play them as soon as possible, Xbox and PC players have been able to hop in to them via Game Pass. (There’s still no sign of Call of Duty on Switch or Switch 2 as yet!)

There had been rumors that Microsoft would carve out Call of Duty from the current versions of Game Pass and give those tiers a price cut. Chatter suggests that the company may introduce yet another, higher-level Game Pass tier (or an add-on) that will include day-one Call of Duty games, but there’s no official word of that as yet.

Nintendo has padded out the Switch 2 release slate for this summer by revealing that Splatoon Raiders is coming to the console on July 23. This is the first spinoff in the series and while it’s a “single-player-focused Splatoon game,” there is a multiplayer element. Nintendo announced Splatoon Raiders (the title of which is a soft pun on Tomb Raider) last June.

You play as a mechanic and after customizing your character’s appearance, you’ll go hunting for treasure across the Spirhalite Islands. You’ll be working with Deep Cut — a fictional band that appeared in Splatoon 3 — and upgrading your weapons as you take on enemy sea creatures.

The colorful, inky action and wacky weapons in the latest trailer remind me a bit of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. You can mount Deep Cut member Big Man (a manta ray) as you venture into battle and it seems as though you’ll be able to cut through swarms of bad guys by firing a shark at them. Alongside Splatoon Raiders, Nintendo will release an Amiibo pack featuring the three members of Deep Cut.

The company also confirmed there’s a multiplayer mode in Splatoon Raiders. You’ll be able to team up with as many as three friends locally or online to take on raids together.

Chipolo has built a name for itself as the independent tracking company which happily integrates its products with both Apple and Google’s item-finding networks. Today, it’s announcing a partnership with wallet maker Secrid that, if you haven’t guessed already, sees the pair launch a compatible miniwallet. The Chipolo x Secrid Miniwallet Trackable is tailor-made to suit Chipolo’s Card tracker and accentuate all of its positives.

For instance, the tracker sits on the back of the wallet, with the Find button accessible from the outside to make it easier to find your phone. If you misplace your device, you can simply press the button and follow the noise back to whichever couch cushions it slid between. Even better, the wallet is designed to amplify the Card’s speaker, ensuring you’ll never not hear it when it goes off. The pair claim that the unit will boost the sound by up to 3dB, for the far more likely these days event you misplace your wallet.

The pair are also buffing the hardware’s sustainability credentials, made in the EU from responsibly sourced materials. And the tracker itself is made from 50 percent recycled plastic and has a wirelessly rechargeable battery that’ll regain all of its mojo after just two hours sat on a Qi pad. If any, or all of that, appeals, then you can order it from today for $140, €120 or £120, depending on your local currency.

Rob Bonta, the Attorney General of California, has released an unredacted copy of a legal document that the state filed in relation to its lawsuit against Amazon, containing details of the company’s alleged price fixing scheme. In it, the state of California accuses the e-commerce company of reaching out to brands and asking them to “fix” the retail prices of their products on competitors’ websites. Due to Amazon’s “overwhelming bargaining leverage” and out of fear of punishment, the brands agree to raise their products’ prices on other retailers like Walmart and Target or to remove them altogether, the filing reads.

California filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing Amazon of price fixing back in 2022. It said the company prevented sellers from offering lower prices on other sites and that vendors risked losing buy buttons and prominent listings if they defied Amazon. In February this year, Bonta filed for a preliminary injunction, asking the court to put a stop to Amazon’s “illegal conduct” while the state’s lawsuit is ongoing and waiting to go to trial next year.

In the unredacted filing, California said that Amazon instructs vendors and brands to increase their prices on other retailers and threatens them with “significant penalties for failure to comply.” State officials gave several examples in the filing, including one incident wherein Amazon allegedly emailed security systems provider Arlo.

The company talked to Arlo about “external price matching,” along with a screenshot of one of its cameras on Walmart, noting that its price of $549.93 “did not go back up.” Arlo reportedly responded that it would get it addressed, and Amazon told the company to “get [it] corrected by EOD.” Afterward, Arlo sent Amazon a screenshot, showing the same Walmart page now listing the camera’s price at $649.99. Amazon ended the conversation by thanking Arlo for its “quick action.” Other samples include Amazon asking Levi’s to “resolve” the lower prices of its khaki pants on Walmart and Hanes to increase the prices of its clothing items on Walmart and Target.

Amazon shrugged off the filing’s release and called California’s case against the company weak. “The Attorney General’s motion is a transparent attempt to distract from the weakness of its case, coming more than three years after filing its complaint and based on supposedly ‘new’ evidence it has had for years,” an Amazon spokesperson told Engadget. “Amazon is consistently identified as America’s lowest-priced online retailer, and we’re proud of the low prices customers find when shopping in our store. Amazon looks forward to responding in court at the appropriate time.”

Every business seems to think that its customers want more AI. Yelp is the latest to add more artificial intelligence tools. The review site has upgraded its Yelp Assistant, an agentic AI chatbot, to work across all of Yelp’s categories. Yelp Assistant was initially launched in 2024 with a limited scope and then expanded in 2025.

With the latest update to its chatbot, Yelp Assistant can handle natural language queries for finding a specific local business. It can also be used to take some additional actions, such as making a restaurant reservation or ordering takeout. Yelp’s spring product updates introduced new third-party integrations with Vagaro, ZocDoc and Calendly. Yelp Assistant can also use these integrated services for booking appointments in related fields. The chatbot now has a dedicated Assistant tab in the iOS and Android apps, and it can also be accessed directly from business pages for certain fields, such as restaurants and retail shops. Support for all business types and a desktop version are planned for later in 2026.

Other AI features coming to Yelp include a personalized home page on mobile and extra photo discovery tools.

Apple’s current SVP of hardware engineering John Ternus will take over as the new CEO when Tim Cook steps down this September. Cook said in a statement: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company.”

Following the death of co-founder Steve Jobs, Cook led the charge for Apple’s post-iPhone and iPad era, launching the AirPods, Apple Watch and Vision Pro. He also turned the company into a service provider with the launch of Apple TV, Apple Music and several other subscription services. Cook will transition to a new role as executive chairman of Apple’s Board of Directors.

Ternus joined Apple in 2001 and became VP of hardware engineering in 2013, later transitioning to a senior executive role in 2021. You might have spotted Ternus being prominently featured at the MacBook Neo launch a few months ago. Expect to see a lot more of him.

— Mat Smith

The other big stories this morning

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Who else has seen an Earthset? Apollo 17.

We’ve seen a few beautiful moments from the Artemis II crew’s history-making trip around the Moon. Now, Reid Wiseman, the mission’s commander, has something to share. While mission specialist Christina Koch was using a Nikon camera to snap stunning still images of the Earthset, Wiseman used an iPhone 17 Pro Max to film the moment. “I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window, but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view.”

This was the first time that human eyes had witnessed an Earthset in 54 years, since the Apollo 17 mission.

Continue reading.

And far less embarrassing results.

This year’s edition of the robot half-marathon hosted more than 100 competitors, with first place going to Honor and its red-clad robot named Lightning. Last year’s event featured many bipedal robots receiving assistance from human operators who ran alongside them, along with some comical mishaps. According to the BBC, around 40 percent of the robots competed autonomously this year, while the rest were remote-controlled.

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Almost the perfect floor cleaner for tiny apartments.

The PencilVac is light, mobile and easy to use, making it great for smaller living spaces and quick clean-ups. However, it struggles with thicker carpet and rugs. It could be perfect for a future-forward witch costume next Halloween, though.

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