Bitdefender reported Roblox players lured by a fake “undetected” Xeno Executor mod spreading malware
Infection chain delivers a Java‑based RAT and infostealer stealing browser data, online accounts, payment info, and crypto wallets
Malware also enables surveillance and remote control; campaign peaked in March 2026 and remains active against Roblox’s 82M players
Cybercriminals are targeting Roblox players with an infostealer and a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) malware that grants them full control over compromised computers, experts have warned.
Roblox is an online gaming platform, virtual universe, and game creation system where users play millions of games and user-generated mods. Among the mods is Xeno Executor, a utility that allows players to run scripts that automate certain actions or run custom code. Some players use Xeno Executor to run cheats, too.
Since it’s an unofficial script, Roblox does not allow it and blocks it whenever a new version is released. Now, security researchers Bitdefender have reported finding an “undetected” version being promoted on various gaming forums, Discord communities, and similar.
CornFlake and CocoShell
This version is advertised as “invisible” to Roblox’s anti-cheat systems, but in reality, all it does is trigger an infection chain that ends in a Java-based RAT and information stealer.
The malware grabs browser data such as passwords and cookies from some of the most popular browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi), as well as online accounts and payment data (Discord, Roblox, Minecraft, Microsoft Store tokens, and more).
It also steals cryptocurrency wallet data, particularly targeting the Exodus Wallet.
As for surveillance, it can log keys, track mouse movements, grab screenshots, stream whatever is on the desktop, and access the webcam. The crooks are also granted file upload and download, PowerShell command execution, and more.
The campaign was kicked off at the start of the year, reaching its peak in March, it was said. It has now stabilized and is still going relatively strong.
We don’t know exactly how many players fell victim to this campaign, but Roblox is an incredibly popular platform, so it is possible the campaign was rather successful, too.
According to Activeplayer, Roblox currently has more than 82 million active players.
HDR isn't back in affected countries, but Disney+ is working on it
Affected customers can contact Disney+ to request a partial refund
Disney+ has begun restoring 4K support for Disney+ subscribers in Europe after being forced to remove 4K and HDR in some countries last week. That's good news, but it may cause issues on some devices, and HDR hasn't yet returned in the affected areas.
As Disney+ told us: "We have adopted an alternative technology to enable 4K UHD and HDR following a recent court ruling and have begun restoring 4K UHD support on Disney+. This may cause 4K UHD to be unavailable on some devices. We recognise the inconvenience this may cause and are working to increase device support for 4K UHD and restore HDR as quickly as we can."
What's happening with Disney+ 4K and HDR
Disney+ removed 4K and HDR from its Premium plan in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden. Both features are still available in all other countries where Disney+ operates, and the removal only applies to streaming: downloads aren't affected.
The removal was the result of a court ruling, and while Disney+ doesn't go into detail about that, it looks like another video streaming patent dispute, hence the adoption of a different 4K technology to bring 4K streaming back. HDR is next on the menu, with Disney+ explaining that "We are working to restore it as quickly as we can but cannot yet confirm when it will become available again."
If you're a subscriber in one of the affected countries and HDR is a deal-breaker, Disney+ says that you can switch to a different, cheaper plan. If you want to stay on Premium but aren't happy with the loss of features, you can "request a partial refund for [your] current billing period by contacting Disney+." That only applies to direct subscribers; if you've subscribed via a third party, such as an App Store, you'll need to contact that company instead.
As I've written previously, removing the features wasn't something Disney+ chose to do; it was compelled to do it after a court case. Video and streaming patents are very complicated, and patent owners can be highly litigious, and we've seen a flurry of similar cases across the biggest multiple streamers in recent years. There's an old saying in the entertainment industry: where there's a hit, there's a writ.
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Palantir moves AI computing from distant clouds directly into combat zones
Containerized data centers process battlefield intelligence without permanent cloud connectivity
Nvidia B300 accelerators power deployable AI systems for frontline operations
Palantir Technologies and its infrastructure partner Armada have begun deploying mobile data centers built inside standard shipping containers for combat zones.
Each unit carries its own computing hardware, storage arrays, networking gear, and cooling systems needed to run advanced artificial intelligence models.
The servers run on Nvidia's B300 AI accelerators, while Palantir's modular AIP platform links the models directly into operational workflows and other company tools.
Processing power without a constant cloud link
Chad Wahlquist, a Forward Deployed Architect at Palantir Technologies, appeared inside one containerised data center during the July 2026 announcement introducing the mobile computing platform.
Unlike conventional cloud-based systems, these containerized units can process information without maintaining any constant connection to public cloud infrastructure.
They can also be fully isolated from external networks whenever operational security requirements demand a stricter level of separation at all times.
The outcome is a self-contained computing node able to analyze intelligence and sensor data right at the point where it is collected.
Distributed computing also offers stronger resilience than depending entirely on one single, centralized data center to run every operation across a wide area.
Losing contact with the cloud, or even losing one mobile node entirely, would not necessarily shut down the whole system.
Other units could keep processing information locally, since the entire network does not depend on one central point of failure.
Bringing AI closer to the battlefield
For military users, the concept brings advanced artificial intelligence much closer to sensors, field commanders, and units already deployed on the ground.
This reduces dependence on communications links that remain vulnerable to jamming, interception, or outright physical destruction during active combat operations.
Instead of sending every piece of battlefield data back to a distant cloud, analysis can occur inside a deployable container placed close to the action.
Alex Karp, the billionaire co-founder and chief executive of Palantir, has praised Ukraine's wartime innovation cycle as instructive for allies.
He has argued that the war is exposing a widening gap between military theory and the reality of modern combat.
Karp credited Ukrainian engineers and soldiers with adapting battlefield technology at a pace unmatched by most peacetime institutions worldwide.
He suggested that this rapid development cycle is teaching the United States and Europe lessons unavailable in traditional laboratories or think tanks.
Whether these containerized AI systems truly perform as promised under sustained combat stress remains an open question.
As of the time of writing, there is no public independent verification of the technology's actual battlefield performance by Palantir, Armada, or any military partner.
During my years as a TechRadar Homes Editor, I tested an awful lot of vacuums. But the one that's been my constant companion throughout has been the Dyson V15 Detect. It's not a review sample — my partner bought it, and it's the vacuum we've been using at home for the past 21-plus months. It's been used to clean hard tile floors, carpets, lots of stairs, and a whole heap of dog hair.
The V15 is not the newest Dyson vacuum. It came out in 2021 and there are now two newer flagship models: the Gen5detect (launched 2022) and the V16 Piston Animal (2025). However, despite not being the latest-and-greatest, it's still the model that sits atop our best Dyson vacuum guide.
So after nearly two years of regular cleaning with the V15, would I still recommend it? How does it match up against the rest of the best cordless vacuums on the market — and specifically, the newest models from Dyson's great competitor, Shark? Here's my long-term review.
Smooth mover
Let's start with what I love about our Dyson dust-sucker. The suction is excellent, and the Auto mode (where the suction will increase or decrease depending on how much dirt is detected on the floor) is a very welcome addition. I use this mode almost exclusively, and it can be relied upon to do a thorough job of clearing whatever debris has gathered on the floor. I haven't noticed a drop in cleaning performance over our two years of use.
The V15 is also extremely easy to maneuver. Our home has lots of stairs, and plenty of nooks and crannies where dust and hair like to collect and lurk, and the V15 Detect does a great job of getting into all of them. I love how easily and smoothly the head pivots, and the fact it can lie completely flat to the ground for cleaning under beds.
Many of the newest Shark vacuums have a hinge on the vacuum wand, which enables it to bend forwards for cleaning under furniture. It works well, but adds bulk to the wand, and the whole thing is slightly unwieldy in its folded state. For my home, the Dyson setup works perfectly well, but if you're lacking in maneuvering room, perhaps Shark's 'MultiFlex' / 'Flexology' solution would be a better fit.
The hidden crevice tool is a lifesaver in my tall home (Image credit: TechRadar / Sharmishta Sarkar)
I'm also a huge fan of the Dyson V15's secret crevice tool. It's hidden in the wand, so I'm never without it. Our house is tall and thin, with four floors, and this built-in tool means that if I spot a dusty corner at the top of the house, I don't have to traipse all the way down to the utility room to fetch a detail tool to deal with it. As far as I'm aware, this feature is exclusive to Dyson at the moment.
Having tested a number of vacuums from Dyson and various other brands, I'm always struck by how consistently high quality and well-built the Dyson vacs feel. There's a strong attention to detail in the design, and they feel sturdy and reliable. That's still true of the V15 after nearly two years of use.
Lasers and data
Now on to a couple of features that have divided opinion within my household. The V15 comes with a couple of different floorheads: the Digital motorbar head, which has bristles and is designed for use on any floor type, and the Fluffy optic head, which is entirely soft and built for use on hard flooring. The latter is equipped with a green light to illuminate dust.
I love using the light on the soft floorhead to chase down dust bunnies (Image credit: Future)
I'm very on board with the Fluffy floorhead. I love that it feels gentle on our tiled kitchen floor (and doesn't clatter over it as most vacuum cleaner heads will), and I appreciate the way the light draws attention to dust and hair lurking in dingy corners. I find it very satisfying to then whisk that dust away, and always feel I'm getting a far more thorough clean than I would without this feature.
However, my partner is not so enamored with the Fluffy floorhead. He feels the Digital motorbar floorhead works perfectly well on hard floors, and it's not worth the hassle of swapping the heads over.
Both the V15 and the Gen5detect (pictured) have real-time dust reports (Image credit: Future)
Then there are the real-time dust reports on the screen. I find these endlessly fascinating, and I enjoy seeing the dust hotspots causing the bar graphs to spike. However, when I asked my partner for his thoughts, it became clear that not only was he not paying them any attention, but he didn't really know what they were. Is is possible the general public is just not as invested in the intricacies of vacuum cleaning as I am? Maybe.
Bulking up
Moving on to the down-sides of the V15. The most significant complaint I have with it is that V15 Detect is that it's pretty heavy. Further to that, the weight is concentrated in the main motor section, which itself is rather elongated in shape. That makes it rather unwieldy, and especially when used in handheld mode.
The V15 (background) and newer Dyson vacuums have a rather heavy, elongated motor section, which can make them a little awkward to use (Image credit: Future)
All of Dyson's newer vacuums (I'd say from this model onwards — so the V15, the Gen5detect and the V16 Piston Animal) suffer from this weight distribution issue.
Looking to Shark's range, the fancier models, such as the PowerDetect Cordless, are actually heavier overall. However, the motor/handle section is more squat in shape, and there's more weight through the wand and into the floorhead. That means more even weight distribution, which can make for a more comfortable vacuuming experience.
A triggering issue
Another big complaint I have with the V15 is that it's trigger-operated, with no option to lock it for continual running. I find that irritating when I'm using the vacuum for long periods, or trying to get into awkward corners while keeping the trigger compressed.
I prefer the setup on Dyson's newer models, where there's a one-press power button. However, that's still not perfect — it requires you to have a hand free to turn the machine on and off, because the power button is not reachable from your holding hand.
Most modern Shark models use button operation, and just like the Dyson designs, you can't reach the button from your holding hand. My ideal design is one where the vacuum is trigger-operated but with a lock for continual running. No Dyson vacuum has this setup, and neither do any of Shark's newest stick vacs, although that brand's range is so sprawling you might find a trigger-plus-lock design somewhere.
The V15 (foreground) switches on and off with a trigger on the handle — which can be frustrating when using it for longer cleaning sessions (Image credit: Future)
One comment that I hear sometimes about Dyson stick vacuums is that they don't always last as long as customers expect. Our V15 is still going strong after just under two years (which is actually at the lower end of how long cordless vacuums are meant to last, although most people would probably hope for longer).
Prior to that, my partner had a Dyson Cyclone V10, which lasted over five years. At that point the battery conked out, and replacing it only fixed the issue for a few months. I think that's a decent lifespan for a vacuum, but your mileage may vary.
Is it worth it?
After two years using my Dyson V15, I'd still recommend it. Its cleaning powers are excellent with no signs of fading, its special features genuinely useful, and I love how maneuverable it is.
I personally also prefer it to Shark's newest models. I cover my main thoughts on this in my Shark vs Dyson article, but as a short overview, it's special features feel superior — Dyson's laser lights are far more effective than Shark's headlamps, and its Auto mode feels more precise. The Dyson also pivots more smoothly and the overall design feels sleeker and more high-end.
However, it's not a clear-cut decision. The Shark PowerDetect Cordless offers the best outright cleaning performance of any vacuum I've used, including all the Dyson models. Shark's models also arguably deliver better value for money — although its higher-spec models still sit in the premium price tier.
The bottom line? After using the V15 for a couple of years, and testing multiple other vacs from different brands including Shark, I'm still something of a Dyson fan-girl. When our at-home vac finally bites the dust, we'll probably end up buying another Dyson, although I will still be checking out what Shark has to offer...
Instructions hidden as white text in a Word document can make Microsoft 365 Copilot silently alter the file it is drafting and copy the instructions into the output
Each poisoned document becomes a carrier, so the attack spreads through ordinary internal workflows without the original malicious file and needs no macros, malware, or code execution
Microsoft has shipped two mitigations across a 144-day disclosure, including a model upgrade, and the attack was still reproducible by the researcher
A security researcher has published a proof of concept showing that instructions hidden inside a Word document can cause Microsoft 365 Copilot to silently alter the file it is drafting, then copy those same instructions into the finished document, so the next person to use it becomes a carrier too.
Håkon Måløy, a data scientist with a doctorate in applied machine learning, disclosed the technique as the third installment of his Context Collapse series, after a 144-day coordinated disclosure with the Microsoft Security Response Center.
The reason this is being reported ahead of a fix is that it still works despite multiple attempts by Microsoft, as he notes that no robust mitigation for the broader vulnerability class is currently available.
A clever attack designed around Copilot's approach to text
The underlying attack belongs to a family known as cross-domain prompt injection, or XPIA. An attacker writes instructions in a natural-language document, formats them as white text on a white background at a small point size, and shares the file.
Because Copilot for Word strips formatting before passing text to the underlying language model, the model reads text the human never sees. This is true even for documents that are not opened by the user on purpose: The attack can trigger either when a user manually attaches a document to Copilot or when Copilot, working in Work IQ mode, searches the user's OneDrive for relevant files and finds the malicious one on its own.
It is also more dangerous than other exploits because of one key element: propagation. The hidden prompt in Måløy's proof of concept had two parts. One instructed Copilot to alter the document being drafted, in his demonstration halving every financial figure in a quarterly report.
The other instructed Copilot to copy the prompt into the new document and conceal it, framed innocuously as source tracking and readability formatting. Copilot did both, appending the instructions in white text and mentioning neither action to the user.
The disclosure timeline is the most uncomfortable part of the report. Måløy reported to MSRC on March 6 2026. Microsoft confirmed the behavior on March 31 and shipped a first mitigation in early April via a reworked Edit with Copilot experience, which successfully blocked his original prompt wording. He reproduced the attack with different wording the same week, and a second case was opened.
The second fix, on July 14, consisted of upgrading the underlying model to GPT-5.5. Måløy broke it the following day using GPT-5.6, then voluntarily offered Microsoft a further two-week delay to attempt another mitigation. The class still reproduced on the disclosure date, indicating that although a fix is in the works, the exploit is still possible to run.
A complicated issue that lacks a proper resolution
The issue goes far beyond Microsoft Word: an AI assistant must ingest untrusted content to determine whether it is relevant or hostile. But the content enters the same context window as the system prompt and the user's actual request, so by the time the model evaluates whether the text is an attack, the attacker's tokens have already shaped that evaluation.
As Måløy puts it, "the content being inspected participates in the act of inspection."
Microsoft confirmed it had reviewed the findings in a statement to The Register but stopped short of indicating a timeline for a complete fix:
“We have addressed the findings reported by the researcher and thank them for working with us through coordinated vulnerability disclosure," the company said.
"To address this class of risk, we use a defense-in-depth strategy with safeguards that block malicious instructions at multiple points and help keep tasks aligned with users’ requests. We are continuously strengthening these safeguards as the technology and threat landscape evolve. We encourage customers to install the latest updates, use multiple layers of security protection, treat content from unknown sources with caution, and review AI-generated content before using or sharing it.”
Måløy's recommendations are to treat externally sourced documents as untrusted when using them with Copilot, review attachments before starting an AI-assisted draft, and review Copilot's output carefully before sharing or reusing it.
He also suggested that generated documents should carry provenance metadata that records source material and model edits, which would not prevent injection but would make an infection traceable after the fact.
With Copilot extending further into agentic products that create and manipulate documents with less human oversight, the scope of how exploits like this could affect workflows (and users) will widen rather than narrow, and a complete solution is not yet in sight.
Kaspersky says empty web pages are watching you, and the research backs up the warning
Over 90% of parked domains now send visitors somewhere malicious, and clearing your cookies will not help
Blank pages are also a problem: many 'Coming Soon' placeholders are quietly fingerprinting your device
Kaspersky has unveiled a rather underreported attack vector which is increasingly being used by threat actors to harvest private data from unsuspecting victims: registered websites that are yet to be developed.
Its warning focuses on parked domains, the registered web addresses that have no real website behind them yet, arguing that the blank screens and "Coming Soon" placeholders users dismiss as harmless are frequently doing work in the background.
The company says simply loading one of these pages can trigger silent collection of a visitor's IP address, approximate location, User-Agent string and cookie identifiers, and that operators go further by building browser fingerprints through other techniques, then feeding the result into advertising networks to assemble targeted profiles without consent from users.
Browser fingerprinting sans the permissions
The mechanics Kaspersky describes are worth understanding, because fingerprinting is the part most readers will not have encountered, and the part that conventional privacy habits do not touch.
For context, a cookie is a file placed on your machine that you can delete, thereby limiting tracking. A fingerprint is not stored on your machine at all. It is derived from how your specific hardware and software combination renders a test image, draws 3D graphics, or processes an audio signal, producing a value distinctive enough to identify the same device across unrelated sites.
Browser fingerprinting, the method used to capture such data within a browser session, is attractive to trackers because it is considerably harder to shake off. A private browsing window prevents your machine from keeping a local record of the visit, but it does not change how your hardware renders the test image, so the fingerprint it produces remains largely the same.
Such domains can also cause more direct damage than selling one's information to advertisers. Kaspersky says threat actors embed scripts that bounce visitors onward to fraudulent platforms, adult content, or online casinos. It flags typosquatting as a particularly acute risk, in which a domain differing from a well-known brand by a letter or two can capture mistyped traffic, landing the user on a phishing page or triggering a drive-by download.
This isn't the first time the problem has been reported, either, as recent research from Infoblox finding that in large-scale experiments, over 90% of the time, a visitor to a parked domain was routed to illegal content, scams, scareware, antivirus subscription traps, or malware.
Kaspersky recommends several ways to mitigate the risk, including avoiding suspicious links, clearing cache and cookies after an unintended visit, and using software that blocks web tracking.
Clearing cookies is worth noting, though: it addresses the cookie identifiers Kaspersky mentions, but by the company's own explanation it does nothing about fingerprinting, because there is nothing stored locally to clear.
Parked domains, including blank pages that appear inert, are now a routine part of criminal infrastructure rather than digital litter and should be treated with caution. At best, you give away more information than you meant to. At worst, you become the victim of an attack you never saw coming.
Growing up music-obsessed, my household CD collection was substantial. Along with my own music, it was largely made up of albums my parents had accumulated separately. Like a library filled with books, it unlocked an educational portal on all things music and ignited my respect for the album.
And yes, I use the best music streaming services to satisfy my daily music needs, but I’m still an album-listener, and I haven’t left physical music out of my consumption habits. That said, I’ve always imagined what it would be like to bring the nostalgia of CD-browsing into the digital era. Thankfully, Ricardo Amorim is doing just that with his start-up company Spine Music.
Launching on Kickstarter this fall, Amorim’s inaugural product is the Spine display, a digital music display you can connect to your Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal account. But what’s impressive about Spine is that it displays all of your saved albums as if they were a CD collection, which you can browse and play through headphones and speakers.
For a company that’s so new, Amorim’s mission is tunnel vision: to reconnect people with music. As he awaits the launch of Spine, Amorim sat down with me to talk about his product in detail and why he thinks it will never replace physical music.
A display that's been years in the making
Images of the Spine Music display are CGI renders, and are subject to change by the time the Kickstarter campaign launches (Image credit: Spine Music)
Spine was unveiled to the world just this year, but for Amorim, it’s something he’s been thinking about for a lot longer. “The idea itself is something I've been kicking about in my head for years," he tells me. "It started off with me wanting to buy something like it, so it wasn’t like ‘this is a company I should start’; it was more ‘this is a product I need because I love streaming’."
Just two minutes into our conversation, I realized Amorim and I are quite similar. We both appreciate the accessibility and convenience of music streaming, but our attachment to physical music is in our DNA. It’s what keeps us grounded. “I love everything that (streaming) brings me. I love having access to every album under the sun, but I grew up with physical music, and I missed that,” he says, and I get it.
With this in the back of his mind, it all became clear to him, as he tells me, “Surely there's something out there that can bridge that gap.
"I left my job and said ‘you know what, if nobody's making it, then I'll go ahead and make it’. I went on a sabbatical starting last year and took time off to recharge and rethink what I want to do. Then Spine came up again as an idea, and I thought it was the perfect time”.
While Spine is a handy digital music shelf that gives you immediate access to your streaming library, it’s so much more than that for Amorim. “The emotional reconnection with music is what I would like Spine to be able to achieve, but not leaving behind all the benefits that streaming and technology have brought us," he adds.
"I love streaming, but I do feel like if you truly love music and you talk about music and want to move your relationship with it beyond your phone, there are few ways of doing so."
Album-centric with minimal features
With the Spine Music mobile app, you can add and remove albums. You can also curate the order in which your albums appear on the display (Image credit: Spine Music)
Unlike streaming platforms where the user interface is central to the experience, this isn’t a priority for Spine. Instead, Amorim argues that the device’s minimal display encourages higher levels of browsing.
“One core concept of the product is to have no UI. So we designed the whole experience to be about swiping to browse, tap to open, and tap to play," Amorim details, adding "and there are no buttons once you've loaded your library in, it’s just gestures to protect themusic”.
The other core concept is to spotlight albums in all their glory, which I raise my glass to. “You can import your playlists, but Spine will behave like a music shelf that displays albums. So, say you import your late-night jazz playlist, it'll pull up all the relevant tracks that are part of that playlist and display that," he tells me.
"There's something different about listening to an album end-to-end that an artist puts so much effort into thinking about. That’s what I wanted to project, hence why there's a deliberate decision in trying to maintain that conceptual connection with a music shelf”. It’s music to my ears.
(Image credit: Spine Music)
But there’s one thing Amorim wants to be clear about: Spine is a display, not a player. When you select an album from your collection on Spine, the rest is done through your streaming service of choice, meaning it doesn’t render audio files.
“Spine will trigger the beginning of an album or play something through your streaming service, and then the streaming service will own the relationship with where it goes to play and so on. Once you have that concept in mind, then it's not about queuing, it's about browsing and starting the listening journey,” Amorim tells me, and there’s one particular reason for this.
“People have invested a reasonable amount of money in their own audio gear and hi-fi gear, so it doesn't make sense to me to try to replace that. I feel like we have a different job to do”.
Physical music is never out of the question
(Image credit: Spine Music )
Just looking at the images of Spine brings back so many memories of seeing my home CD collection lined up in the cabinet — not to mention it looks great in a home audio setup. There’s just one question going through my head, however: will the convenience of Spine prompt users to stop collecting physical music? Amorim doesn’t think so.
“I don't think it tries to compete with physical media in that sense. What I notice is every time someone connects their library to Spine, there's an emotional wave that hits you when you see your music back on the wall again. You can't explain it; you just feel it,” he elaborates, recalling one of his favorite parts about CD collecting.
He goes on. “My nostalgia comes from browsing the liners of the albums. I remember to this day there's a Pearl Jam album that came with a bunch of little Polaroids, I think it was No Code, and I still love that. I miss it. Spine is not going to go there, and I would love for people to still go and buy those albums and experience that themselves”. At the same time, he reemphasizes Spine’s singular goal.
“It's really about reconnecting people with music. I truly believe that the feeling of connection we have with music goes beyond just the pure sound coming off of it. It's the relationships it can start, it’s the conversations it sparks."
Casual discovery and conversations around music have dipped in the streaming era. For most people, listening to an album is enough, but for those who really appreciate music, discourse is vital. This is something Amorim wants to revive.
“I've recently written about bringing back serendipity and casual discovery. You know, it's having friends over, and they start browsing through your collection and saying ‘oh, I remember this album’, or ‘oh I never heard of this one’," he shares.
But as it stands, Amorim’s focus is introducing Spine to the world and developing a new kind of music player, but he believes there’s already room for growth.
“Right now the core focus is music doing one job really well, but I can see potential in browsing books in a similar manner, and potentially even films and TV to an extent," he believes. "It's that sense of curation that comes with a limited amount of space, even though of course you can swipe and keep going.
"But if you're going to put something up on your wall in your home, you're probably going to have a different level of curation than you would if it's something hidden in your phone that nobody can see. So, I feel like that can apply to other types of media at some point,” he says.
There's still a bit of time before users can get their hands on the Spine display. While pre-orders open on Kickstarter this fall, shipping doesn't start until early 2027, so there's still a bit of a wait. So far, Spine looks like a promising device, and I'm fascinated to see how music lovers take to it.
Amazon plans to launch 5,105 satellites to support new mobile networks
The filing with the FCC highlights voice, data, emergency services, and Internet of Things support
Amazon Leo already has over 390 satellites in orbit, enough to launch the plans ahead of the full deployment
Amazon has confirmed its “low Earth orbit” (LEO) satellite network has submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy a constellation of 5,105 satellites which will provide voice, data, messaging, emergency services access, and Internet of Things support for under the Amazon Leo Direct-to-Device (D2D) project.
The application follows Amazon’s merger with Globalstar, acquiring the US satellite telecommunications company’s operations, infrastructure, and global licenses and authorizations.
This step into orbit will see Amazon Leo’s existing satellites work alongside the Globalstar HIBLEO and C-3 satellite constellations, kicking off early D2D project support ahead of approval for the full network of comsats.
High-speed, low-latency
Much like Starlink, the Amazon Leo network is intended to bridge the connectivity gap between cities and remote communities. It aims to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband for domestic and enterprise markets, as well as governments, with consumers gaining connectivity via the Leo Nano, Leo Pro, and Leo Ultra high-performance antennae. Meanwhile, mobile devices with satellite-capable chipsets can connect to the satellites without an additional antenna.
Apple iPhones and Apple Watch models are also supported, under a previous agreement to collaborate with Apple. Amazon Leo already delivers data for Emergency SOS, Messages, Find My, and Roadside Assistant to iPhones.
Other partnerships have also been announced that feed into the D2D project. “Telecom operators like Vodafone, DirecTV, Herotel, and Australia’s National Broadband Network [...] it plans to continue working with mobile network operators and other partners to deliver on its long-term vision for space-based connectivity.”
Beyond offering connectivity to remote locations, D2D can enable data support for global fleet management, remote operations for supply chains, and IoT connectivity.
Amazon Leo’s satellites
Following initial deployment in 2025 with 80+ launches with Arianespace, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance, Amazon Leo is aiming at 5,105 low Earth orbit satellites. These units are connected using optical links, capable of high-speed data transfer, with secure gateways networked across the planet, with fiber connectivity.
The D2D satellites are intended to operate across five orbital “shells” – essentially five groups that share the same altitude and inclination. Three shells will cover the mid-latitude, one shell will cover the high-latitude, and the fifth providing coverage for “near-polar” zones. Mid-latitude zones are the world's most heavily populated regions (North America, Europe, parts of Asia, and southern/central Africa) while the high-latitude coverage aims to deliver high speed internet to the Arctic and sub-Arctic circles.
With increasing demands for mobile data, not just for remote working but also Internet of Things applications, Amazon Leo could prove to be the solution that facilitates home and workplace automation around the world – assuming, of course, that it gets that FCC approval.
