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• Teacher uses cheap laser and solar panel to transmit wireless sound — iPad powers home project that was inspired by solar panel making noise when attached to speaker

  YouTube creator and high school teacher ChemTeacherPhil demonstrated how to use light to transmit sound wirelessly to a solar panel and utilize it to play music.

• Carry your favorite apps wherever you go with PortableApps

  The family IT support season is upon us, and this project will have all the tools that you need to solve family IT problems, communicate with loved ones, and get some work done.

• Hackers slip malware inside blockchain to steal cryptocurrency — EtherHiding embeds malicious JavaScript payloads in smart contracts on public blockchains

  Google says DPRK group UNC5342 is using EtherHiding to deliver backdoors and steal crypto, marking the first nation-state adoption of a tactic built for takedown-resistant attacks.

• be quiet! System Power 11 550W power supply review

  A budget-friendly power supply that balances fundamental reliability with modern connectivity, though its aging platform reveals itself under stress.

• Nvidia and TSMC produce the first Blackwell wafer made in the U.S. — chips still need to be shipped back to Taiwan to complete the final product

  Nvidia and TSMC have produced the first Blackwell wafer at TSMC’s Arizona fab, marking a historic step in bringing advanced AI chip manufacturing to the U.S.. However, the chip still relies on Taiwan for final CoWoS-L packaging, which leaves the achievement largely symbolic for now.

• 'Budget' portable CD player for audiophiles launches at $319 — built-in CD ripping support, high-quality DAC, and amplifier

  Hi-Fi audio company Shanling just released a "budget" portable CD player for audiophiles.

• Optical drive demand surges amid Windows 10 retirement — Japanese users switching to Windows 11 are buying up Blu-ray drives

  Windows 10 reaching end-of-life has apparently breathed new life into optical disc drives, which have seen a sudden rise in demand in shops across Tokyo. People upgrading to Windows 11 want internal Blu-Ray (BD-R) disc drives to continue using their physical media, even if they're being forced to upgrade systems.

• Jensen says Nvidia’s China AI GPU market share has plummeted from 95% to zero — the Chinese market previously amounted to 20% to 25% of the chipmaker's data center revenue

  Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last week that the company’s share of China’s advanced AI accelerator market has collapsed from roughly 95% to zero as US export controls continue to bite.

• Secret SpaceX satellites are transmitting mysterious signals on the wrong spectrum — a classified network caught sending data on the uplink frequency

  An amateur satellite tracker stumbled upon classified SpaceX satellites that are sending data down a frequency band reserved for uplinks.

• Score a 17-button mouse on the cheap – the Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite is 33% off on Newegg

  The Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite mouse features a sturdy build, fast sensor, and 17 programmable buttons.

• Jensen Huang personally delivers DGX Spark Mini PCs to Elon Musk and Sam Altman — separately

  We spotted both Elon Musk and Sam Altman being handed cute glittering DGX Spark mini PCs by Jensen Huang this week.

• Power bricks and wall warts for EU market must include detachable USB-C cables by 2028 — New legislation also adds power rating labels for cables

  EU mandates USB-C for most power bricks and wall warts by 2028

• Second-gen Phison SSD controllers hit the market with 14.9 GB/s speeds — TeamGroup Z54E spearheads a new army of PCIe 5.0 drives

  TeamGroup has announced the T-Force Z54E, a PCIe 5.0 SSD that leverages Phison's speedy E28 controller.

• Intel Foundry secures contract to build Microsoft's Maia 2 next-gen AI processor on 18A/18A-P node, claims report — could be first step in ongoing partnership

  Intel Foundry will reportedly produce Microsoft's next-generation Maia processor for AI applications on its 18A process technology, which could mark a big win for the company both in terms of earnings and goodwill.

• AMD's gaming-optimized Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPU hits all all-time low price, finally makes sense — now just $50 more than a 9800X3D

  AMD's Ryzen 9 9900X3D 12-core 3D-VCache CPU is on a 17% discount, fixing its biggest problem that we complained about during our review. At just $499, the 9900X3D is just $50 more expensive than a 9800X3D and has the same price-per-core ratio as the Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

• Anthropic targets gigantic $26 billion in revenue by the end of 2026 — eye-watering sum is more than double OpenAI's projected 2025 earnings

  Claude AI developer Anthropic has released its revenue projections for the next year, and they are ambitious. Off the back of what it claims is a plan to reach $9 billion in revenue by the end of 2025, it's now targeting as much as $26 billion by the end of 2026, more than double OpenAI's 2025 revenue projections.

• MSI's new AI-powered PC building assistant recommends the 9800X3D as a budget CPU — EZ PC Builder spec'd out over $1,700 of parts for a $1,000 build

  MSI's new AI chatbot, "EZ PC Builder," is here to get you started on your first gaming computer. It's in beta, so there are some quirks, well, a lot of quirks, such as suggesting the 9800X3D as a budget CPU and building a $1,700+ PC when asked for something under $1,000. It also tries to suggest MSI products at literally every point it can.

• Micron is preparing to exit China’s data center memory market completely, report claims — Beijing banned company's chips from 'critical information infrastructure' in 2023

  Micron is reportedly preparing to halt sales of server memory chips to data centers in mainland China, after its business there failed to recover from a 2023 cybersecurity ban.

• Get a 27-inch 180Hz FHD display for just $95 at Newegg — Asrock gaming monitor price slashed by 40%

  The ASRock Phantom Gaming PG27FFT1B is a great budget gaming monitor, and it's even greater now that its price is below $100.

• TP-Link Deco BE65-Outdoor review: Blanketing your outdoor areas with high-speed Wi-Fi 7 coverage

  The Deco BE65-Outdoor offers excellent outdoor performance to blanket a yard or outdoor shed with internet connectivity.