Amazon hikes hardware prices by 60%, blaming memory shortage

Over the weekend, Amazon significantly raised the prices of its hardware devices, jacking them up by as much as 60% in some cases.

The price explosion impacted Fire TVs, Echos, Kindles, and Eeros. One egregious example that’s been cited is that of the Echo Dot, one of Amazon’s cheapest smart speakers, the price of which jumped 60% overnight, from $49.99 to $79.99. Price-tracking sites like CamelCamelCamel show the stark uptick, which has previously hovered much lower.

When reached for comment by TechCrunch, Amazon shared the following: “The consumer electronics industry is facing significant increases in memory and storage component costs. After absorbing these increases for as long as we could, we recently adjusted pricing across our product lines.”

www.techcrunch.com

 

Windows 11 26H2 is coming in October 2026

I expect Windows 11 26H2 to ship in October 2026 as an enablement package. Based on past trends, it’ll roll out sometime between the last week of September and the last week of October. Windows 11 25H2 shipped in the last week of September, but versions 24H2 and 23H2 were released in October of their respective years.

But is there anything new in this year’s annual update? I’d say nothing major in particular.

Windows 11 26H2 is the annual feature update for the operating system, but it doesn’t come with anything exciting. If you’ve read headlines that claim otherwise, you’ve been clickbaited. Windows 11 26H2 exists only to give you another year of servicing, which means more stability for enterprises.

For example, Windows 11 24H2 support ends on October 13, 2026, but Windows 11 25H2 remains supported until October 12, 2027. That means you have only a year of support remaining if you’re using Windows 11 25H2.

At this point, Microsoft can either release a major platform update, which could potentially cause issues, or ship another minor release, 26H2, which provides another year of support until October 2028. The company is choosing the second route for good reason.

It’s also true that Microsoft has teased major performance and quality improvements throughout the year, with the biggest changes slated to arrive later this year, but it isn’t locking anything to a specific Windows platform release. That means you’ll get everything whether you run Windows 11 24H2, 25H2, or 26H2.

All quality improvements will ship to everyone via monthly cumulative updates, and you don’t have to wait for any specific Windows feature release like 26H2.

www.windowslatest.com

The growing FIRE risk from batteries hidden in our waste

More than 1,200 battery related fires occurred in refuse vehicles or waste facilities over a 12-month period between 2023/24 – which marks a 71% increase year on year. Battery fires currently cost the UK an estimated billion pounds each year and threaten not just vital infrastructure but the lives of essential frontline workers too.

Current collection infrastructure for batteries and waste electrical devices (WEEE) containing batteries is inadequate. Only a quarter of local councils voluntarily offer kerbside services for them, while most rely solely on bring-banks funded through producer responsibility compliance schemes.

A lack of universal, convenient, recycling options not only encourages consumers to take the easier option of binning batteries but makes education and engagement efforts both challenging and inefficient. READ MORE...

Environmental Services Association - Report Download

The National Motor Museum is leaving Beaulieu after 60 years

The National Motor Museum is leaving its home of more than 60 years at Beaulieu – but if you’re planning a trip to the New Forest attraction, there’s no need to panic just yet.

The National Motor Museum Trust confirmed earlier this month that it has begun searching for a “transformational” new home, with its current lease at Beaulieu in Hampshire nearing the end of its 60-year term.

Home to one of the world’s best-known collections of vehicles and motoring memorabilia, the museum sits within the wider Beaulieu attraction – a regular fixture on MCN’s list of must-visit museums you can ride to.

Alongside its cars, it houses a solid selection of bikes, and the site regularly opens its doors to motorcyclists, including the inaugural Beaulieu Bikers’ Day in July 2024, where classic machines such as a 1928 Rudge-Whitworth and Mike Hailwood’s 1961 Isle of Man TT-winning Honda RC162 were fired up in the grounds.

The Trust says the move is the next stage in a long-term plan to secure the museum’s future, engage new generations of enthusiasts and preserve its collection. It also wants to expand its learning and community work, including a vision for a training centre offering heritage engineering apprenticeships.

Over the past two years, the Trust and the Montagu family looked at redeveloping the museum at Beaulieu through major donor investment but concluded that its ambitions are better served by a move elsewhere.

Robert MacGregor, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Motor Museum Trust, said: ‘We are sad that the National Motor Museum will be leaving Beaulieu but are at the same time very excited about this once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the Museum for the future.

“A new home can refresh our whole approach, enable us to make the collection more accessible, expand our educational and community impact, and ensure Britain’s motoring story remains relevant.” READ MORE...

www.motorcyclenews.com

Google is buying all of Spirit Airlines’ data to feed its AI models

Did you ever fly on Spirit Airlines? Or work there? Or send an email to someone who worked there? Then your information will soon be feeding Google’s artificial intelligence model.

The discount airline halted all operations in May, and it’s been selling off its remaining assets through the bankruptcy process ever since. While most of that is planes, equipment, and real estate, there’s other things that are valuable, too.

It was disclosed late Monday that the company agreed to sell its data to Google for $10 million. That includes emails and internal communications, spreadsheets, transactions with the public including bookings and frequent flyer information as well as human resources information on its employees.

The data has been stripped of anything that would allow individuals to be identified, according to the court filing. But it is still a massive amount of useful intelligence. READ MORE...

www.cnn.com

Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

Analysis of historical price data trends indicates that the memory crisis has driven RAM prices to never-before-seen heights.

We're officially in dire straits. There's almost no way, if you're reading this site, that you aren't aware that memory prices have become entirely divorced from reality. Some are calling it the RAMpocalypse; I prefer "RAMageddon." Whatever you want to call it, though, the reality for PC builders right now is just grim.

But why is this the case? The answer is just two letters: AI. How? Read more HERE.

www.tomshardware.com

Mosquito zapping laser. What could possibly go wrong?

Do you love lasers and hate mosquitoes? For $1,000, you can install your very own bug-zapping surface-to-air missile rig at home – no military-grade budget required, provided the startup behind it delivers on its promises.

The Chinese company behind Photon Matrix has opened pre-orders for its consumer-grade mosquito zappers after videos of early prototypes began circulating in July 2025.

The devices resemble home theater projectors in both size and appearance, and can be deployed wherever their owner has an acute mosquito problem. They use LiDAR to locate the pests, a galvo system to track their movement, and a laser to zap the bug in mid-air, according to the vendor.

www.theregister.com