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Gamers Nexus (2.46M subscribers) June 7, 2025 Video length: 30m 53s In this hardware news episode, we talk about the AMD RX 9060 XT launch embargo issues, ASUS' router vulnerabilities and malware, the RTX 5050 rumors, and Lian Li's new Vector V100 case. We also cover GPU market share of AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel, per a new Jon Peddie Research (JPR) report, plus the Unreal Engine 5.6 updates. 00:00 - Recap for the Week 01:07 - AMD RX 9060 XT Post-Mortem 11:49 - AMD RX 9070 Falls in Price in Europe 15:52 - NVIDIA RTX 5050, Which is Probably 5030, Rumored 17:46 - Lian Li Vector V100 Case Launches at $60 19:58 - AMD GPU Market Share Continues to Dwindle 24:05 - ASUS Routers Compromised with Botnet 28:04 - Unreal Engine 5.6 Update for RT Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The Summer Game Fest showcase today ended with a bang as Capcom delivered the announcement trailer for its next mainline Resident Evil game, finally showing off what it has in store for the ninth entry. Aptly dubbed Resident Evil Requiem, the game is described as a "heart-stopping experience that will chill you to your core." Watch the newly revealed announcement trailer above. The single-player horror game will follow Grace Ashcroft as a protagonist, an FBI agent investigating a series of unusual murders at a hotel named the Remnant Hotel, all linked to her mother's mysterious death. While a new face to the series, she may be related to a character from another Resident Evil game, Outbreak, from back in the day, though Capcom is yet to confirm any ties just yet. Rumors have suggested that Leon is returning in this entry as a playable character too, but the debut trailer did not drop any hints about this project being a dual-protagonist adventure. "A new era of survival horror begins in 2026," says Capcom regarding its latest Resident Evil experience. "Technological advancements combined with the development team's depth of experience combine in a story with rich characters and gameplay that's more immersive than ever before." It looks like the title is returning to its survival horror roots after going for more action-orientated entries in recent times. The original Raccoon City seems to be the setting again too, letting players return to ground zero of the virus outbreak, just in time for the series to hit its 30th anniversary. Resident Evil Requiem is launching across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on February 27, 2026. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Some review-in-progress thoughts on GameChat, mouse mode, Welcome Tour, and more. As consumers around the world have gotten their hands on the Switch 2 in the last day or so, we're still working hard to fully test the system here at the Ars Orbiting HQ. As we do, we thought we'd share some initial impressions after having Nintendo's new console in hand for 48 hours or so. Consider these first thoughts an extended version of our notes from a review in progress and a starting point for discussion of the first completely new Nintendo platform in over eight years. The Switch 2 Joy-Cons feel great There's something incredibly satisfying about the magnetic "snap" when you plug the new Joy-Cons into the Switch 2 horizontally, and the handy release lever makes it much easier to disconnect the controllers from the tablet with one hand. Even without a physical rail holding the Joy-Cons to the system (as on the Switch), the magnetic connection feels remarkably sturdy in portable mode. The Switch 2 Joy-Con (left) and a right-side original Switch Joy-Con. Though the Switch 2's expanded Joy-Cons generally feel more comfortable for adult hands, I have noticed that the analog stick encroaches a little more on the space for the face buttons on the right Joy-Con. I've found myself accidentally nudging that analog stick with the bottom of my thumb when pressing the lower "B" button on the Joy-Con, a problem I never recall encountering on the original Switch. The system is a little less comfortable in portable mode The additional quarter-pound of weight on the Switch 2 over the original Switch (with the Joy-Cons attached) might not sound like much, but I've already started to notice the extra heft during extended portable play sessions. And because the Switch 2 is a lot thinner than heavier systems like the Steam Deck, the added weight ends up digging more into your palms when supporting the system from the (pleasantly rounded) corners. Better start working our those wrist muscles if you want to lift the Switch 2. Credit: Kyle Orland I've already found myself subconsciously hooking my pinkies under the bottom of the Switch 2 tablet to help relieve the pressure on my hands at points. That's not a great sign for a system designed to be held for hours at a time. Mouse mode can be awkward The most amazing thing about the Joy-Con mouse mode is how it manages to be functional on so many different surfaces. We've tested it on a thigh (both cloth-covered and bare), couch upholstery, a mattress, a lapdesk, and the back of a hardcover book and gotten a usable mouse sensor signal out of each. The only test that failed completely was a glass-covered tabletop, since the clear surface gives the digital camera nothing to pick up. That said, using the mouse on softer and more rounded surfaces leaves something to be desired when it comes to accuracy, especially in games that require quick movements. There's just not enough surface to support your entire palm for comfortable mousing. Credit: Kyle Orland Mouse mode also tends to get a bit uncomfortable during extended play sessions. The thin side of a Joy-Con is just not wide enough to support your entire palm, meaning you have to force your hand into a claw-like horizontal grip just to get a good hold on the "mouse." While some enterprising users are already 3D printing solutions to this problem, Nintendo or some smart accessory maker should make a more official mouse holster to support this unique control scheme. Switch 2 Welcome Tour is quite tedious Imagine a hybrid Switch 2 sales brochure and detailed manual stretched into a lightly interactive five-hour slog and you'll have something approaching Switch 2 Welcome Tour. While there are a few interesting tidbits buried in its plethora of informational slides and quizzes—did you know the Switch 2 touchscreen can detect 10 fingers at once?—they're buried in an ocean of self-congratulatory PR speak and technical discussions aimed at people who have never even heard of a CPU. Running around this giant replica hardware is more annoying than revelatory. Credit: Nintendo There are a few engaging minigames buried in there as well, including an especially fun one that asks you to mimic on-screen faces in front of an optional webcam. But unlocking those games means going on an especially annoying scavenger hunt for hidden stamps identifying every last little piece of the Switch 2 hardware, which gets incredibly annoying after a while. As an included freebie with the Switch 2 system, this would merely be tedious. As a game with a $10 asking price, it's a little insulting. GameChat is cute, but screen-sharing is rough After a lengthy initial setup, starting a casual GameChat session with people on your Switch 2 friends list is pretty simple (though, oddly, there seems to be no way to add new people to a GameChat after it starts). The system's internal microphone does a pretty good job picking up your voice even across a big room, and the head-tracking feature for the camera does a good job keeping you in frame even as you move. The frame rate on those shared screens is rough. Credit: Kyle Orland GameChat struggles a bit when it comes to screen sharing, though, sending a grainy video of your gameplay at a rough-to-watch rate of about 10 or 15 fps. This is fine if you're just glancing at what your chatmate is doing occasionally to offer some hints or support. Just don't expect it to replicate the experience of watching your favorite streamer on Twitch or anything of the like. The internal storage doesn’t go very far The Switch 2's 256GB of built-in storage is plenty if you're mainly using it to play upgraded old Switch games; even an epic like Tears of the Kingdom is only about 20GB with the upgrade pack. But high-end games designed specifically for the Switch 2 can be a lot bigger: 48GB for Street Fighter 6, nearly 60GB for Cyberpunk 2077, and a whopping 69.2GB for Split Fiction, to cite a few examples. If you plan to download games like these, you'll need to invest in a MicroSD Express card before too long. Switch games run a lot better We'll have more in-depth coverage of this in the near future, but for now, suffice it to say that Switch 2 upgrades make a lot of the less performant Switch games much more bearable. This can be especially true for late-era Switch software that pushed the old hardware to its limits; after seeing Tears of the Kingdom running at a silky smooth 60 fps on the Switch 2, it will be hard to go back to playing the original version ever again. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Over 250 million people use the Microsoft Store each month, many of whom open it on purpose. The Microsoft Store has another wave of changes on the way that will help you find relevant apps. The updated store will feature a personalized homepage, faster search, and integrate with Copilot to help you learn about apps. The Microsoft Store will also integrate with Windows, allowing you to search for apps through Windows search and find relevant applications. The Microsoft Store now shows a personalized homepage with relevant apps for you. (Image credit: Microsoft) Here's a quick rundown of the changes on the way to the Microsoft Store: Personalized homepage with recommendations based on your preferences. Rearchitected search that factors in app updates and ratings. Copilot within the Microsoft Store to answer questions about apps and perform comparisons. A "Discover More" section that shows content you may be interested in. Product page badges that indicate which apps have AI features or that are optimized for Copilot+ PCs. Soon, Windows search will be able to show apps and games that you can install through the Microsoft Store. Microsoft is also testing app suggestions for opening specific types of files. According to the tech giant, the Microsoft Store now launches two times faster than it did six months ago. Reliability and speed within the store have also improved in that time. Improving the Microsoft Store The Microsoft Store has received a lot of criticism over the years, including my own jabs. But it's clear the tech giant has made improving the Microsoft Store a priority. Microsoft announced over 150 changes to the Microsoft Store earlier this year. Those improvements range from a better process for updates to a section of the store for themes. Many of the upgrades to the Microsoft Store are the result of user feedback. "The Microsoft Store on Windows is used by over 250 million users each month – and we take the responsibility we have to you, our customers, seriously," said Giorgio Sardo, Vice President of the Microsoft Store. "We use the feedback you send to ensure we’re focusing on the most important things our customers care about." The direction of the Microsoft Store changed for the better when Microsoft hired well-known developer Rudy Huyn to be principal lead architect of the Microsoft Store in 2019. The current Microsoft Store is vastly improved when compared to the experience years ago. Microsoft struggled to convert big-name developers to embrace the Microsoft Store for a long time, but things have improved steadily. The latest wave of updates is relatively small, but builds on years of significant upgrades to the Microsoft Store. I just wish the current store shipped years ago. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Microsoft and its partners are now quite actively and regularly promoting the upgrade to Windows 11. Asus, for example, recently published blog posts about the "mandatory Windows 11 upgrade" that is coming as the Windows 11 end of support date nears. Microsoft itself, from time to time, urges users to upgrade to its newest OS. Back in February 2024, Microsoft released an advert highlighting the best things about Windows 11 over Windows 10. Later, in June in the same year, the tech giant busted "myths and misconceptions" surrounding a Windows 11 upgrade. And towards the end of 2024, in December, Microsoft put up a blog post outlining the gaming features a user enjoys on 11 if they were to upgrade from Windows 10. While technically there is nothing wrong with a company promoting its own product, sometimes these campaigns make little sense and they fall flat. For example, in January earlier this year, Microsoft shared a blog post headlined "Free Upgrade to Windows 11 (For a Limited Time Only)" which did not make sense as it offered little information about it being a "free upgrade," and it was rightfully, later taken down. The company is back again with a new commercial about Windows 11. This time it is aimed mainly at IT professionals and enterprises as the advert talks about upgrading to Windows 11 Pro from Windows 10. This landed a few days after Microsoft released a new backup tool for organizations for such a purpose. What is interesting is that the company is promoting Intel's vPro processors and there is no mention of AMD's Ryzen PRO parts. The commercial is posted on the Windows official YouTube channel and has been titled "Right side of risk | Windows 11 Pro and Intel". The video description says, "Windows 10 support ends October 14. Stay on the right side of risk—upgrade now to the power of Windows 11 Pro PCs with Intel vPro®." AMD does have a support article about the subject headlined "Support Your Customers’ Move to Windows 11, With AMD Ryzen™ PRO Processors" and you can find it here. This is not the first time Microsoft has promoted Intel CPUs over AMD ones. Back in 2021, the company also put up a full page explaining how users should "look for the Intel EVO badge" on a new device before making a purchase decision because such PCs are "verified wonderful" which was a bit of an odd language. Like the limited upgrade time article, the page above was taken down after we reported on it (can be viewed via the archive) and replaced with something else. The new commercial was published about a couple of days ago, and it is possible that Microsoft may have a dedicated AMD advert too in the pipeline scheduled for a later release, and that would only be fair if both companies get a similar treatment. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Microsoft is testing a feature in Windows 11 Insider builds that could help your laptop's battery last longer. Windows will automatically throttle your computer if it is idle. The feature, which was first spotted by Windows Latest, was described in a recent blog post on the Windows Insider blog. Microsoft terms it User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management, it is an OS-level enhancement that helps reduce power consumption. When Windows detects that your PC is idle, i.e., there is no keyboard or mouse or touch-input activity, the operating system will conserve power by automatically applying efficient power management policies. In layman's terms, it may be activated like how a screensaver kicks in. The amount of power saved will depend on various factors such as the power mode, battery state (plugged in or on battery), and the manufacturer-defined Processor Power Management (PPM) settings Windows already has Power Saving features, but the upcoming change will reportedly be different. The report says that Windows will lower the clock speeds or voltages to drop to a lower performance state, and activate a sleep-like mode similar to a C-State. Windows will probably detect when you are gaming or when a video is playing, for example, in full-screen, while you watch a movie or video, and prevent the User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management settings from being applied in such scenarios. Microsoft's article says that the feature will not affect the performance of apps and games, as Windows 11 will restore, i.e. stop throttling the CPU, when it detects input from the user, via the keyboard or mouse, or touch. While it sounds useful, it remains to be seen how it actually works, and whether users will be able to disable the feature or make changes to it according to their needs. Windows Latest says that since Microsoft is testing the new power-saving feature in Windows 11 Build 26200.5603, it is expected to come to Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

We expect to see new designs, new branding, and more at Apple's WWDC 2025. Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off on Monday with the company's standard keynote presentation—a combination of PR about how great Apple and its existing products are and a first look at the next-generation versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and the company's other operating systems. Reporting before the keynote rarely captures everything that Apple has planned at its presentations, but the reliable information we've seen so far is that Apple will keep the focus on its software this year rather than using the keynote to demo splashy new hardware like the Vision Pro and Apple Silicon Mac Pro, which the company introduced at WWDC a couple years back. If you haven't been keeping track, here are a few of the things that are most likely to happen when the pre-recorded announcement videos start rolling next week. Redesign time Reliable reports from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman have been saying for months that Apple's operating systems are getting a design overhaul at WWDC. The company apparently plans to use the design of the Vision Pro's visionOS software as a jumping-off point for the new designs, introducing more transparency and UI elements that appear to be floating on the surface of your screen. Apple's overarching goal, according to Gurman, is to "simplify the way users navigate and control their devices" by "updating the style of icons, menus, apps, windows and system buttons." Apple's airy, floaty visionOS will apparently serve as the inspiration for its next-generation software design. Credit: Apple Any good software redesign needs to walk a tightrope between freshening up an old look and solving old problems without changing peoples' devices so much that they become unrecognizable and unfamiliar. The number of people who have complained to me about the iOS 18-era redesign of the Photos app suggests to me that Apple doesn't always strike the right balance. But a new look can also generate excitement and encourage upgrades more readily than some of the low-profile or under-the-hood improvements that these updates normally focus on. The redesigned UI should be released simultaneously for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The Mac last received a significant facelift back in 2020 with macOS 11 Big Sur, though this was overshadowed at the time by the much more significant shift from Intel's chips to Apple Silicon. The current iOS and iPadOS design has its roots in 2013's iOS 7, though with over a decade's worth of gradual evolution on top. An OS by any other name With the new design will apparently come a new naming scheme, shifting from the current version numbers to new numbers based on the year. So we allegedly won't be seeing iOS 19, macOS 16, watchOS 12, or visionOS 3—instead, we'll get iOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26. The new numbers might be a little confusing at first, especially for the period of overlap where Apple is actively supporting (say) macOS 14, macOS 15, and macOS 26. But in the long run, the consistency should make it easier to tell roughly how old your software is and will also make it easier to tell whether your device is running current software without having to remember the number for each of your individual devices. It also unifies the approach to any new operating system variants Apple might announce—tvOS starts at version 9 and iPadOS starts at version 13, for example, because they were linked to the then-current iOS release. But visionOS and watchOS both started over from 1.0, and the macOS version is based on the year that Apple arbitrarily decided to end the 20-year-old "macOS X" branding and jump up to 11. Note that those numbers will use the upcoming year rather than the current year—iOS 26 will be Apple's latest and greatest OS for about three months in 2025, assuming the normal September-ish launch, but it will be the main OS for nine months in 2026. Apple usually also waits until later in the fall or winter to start forcing people onto the new OS, issuing at least a handful of security-only updates for the outgoing OS for people who don't want to be guinea pigs for a possibly buggy new release. Seriously, don’t get your hopes up about hardware Apple showed off Vision Pro at WWDC in 2023, but we're not expecting to see much hardware this year. Credit: Samuel Axon Gurman has reported that Apple had "no major new devices ready to ship" this year. Apple generally concentrates its hardware launches to the spring and fall, with quieter and lower-profile launches in the spring and bigger launches in the fall, anchored by the tentpole that is the iPhone. But WWDC has occasionally been a launching point for new Macs (because Macs are the only systems that run Xcode, Apple's development environment) and occasionally brand-new platforms (because getting developers on board with new platforms is one way to increase their chances of success). But the best available information suggests that neither of those things is happening this time around. There are possibilities, though. Apple has apparently been at work behind the scenes on expanding its smart home footprint, and the eternally neglected Mac Pro is still using an M2 Ultra when an M3 Ultra already exists. But especially with a new redesign to play up, we'd expect Apple to keep the spotlight on its software this time around. The fate of Intel Macs It's been five years since Apple started moving from Intel's chips to its own custom silicon in Macs and two years since Apple sold its last Intel Macs. And since the very start of the transition, Apple has resisted providing a firm answer to the question of when Intel Macs will stop getting new macOS updates. Our analysis of years of support data suggests two likely possibilities: that Apple releases one more new version of macOS for Intel Macs before shifting to a couple years of security-only updates or that Apple pulls the plug and shifts to security-only updates this year. Rumors suggest that current betas still run on the last couple rounds of Intel Macs, dropping support for some older or slower models introduced between 2018 and 2020. If that's true, there's a pretty good chance it's the last new macOS version to officially support Intel CPUs. Regardless, we'll know more when the first betas drop after the keynote. Even if the new version of macOS supports some Intel Macs, expect the list of features that require Apple Silicon to keep getting longer. iPad multitasking? Again? The perennial complaint about high-end iPads is that the hardware is a lot more capable than the software allows it to be. And every couple of years, Apple takes another crack at making the iPad a viable laptop replacement by improving the state of multitasking on the platform. This will allegedly be another one of those years. We don't know much about what form these multitasking improvements will take—whether they're a further refinement of existing features like Stage Manager or something entirely new. The changes have been described as "more like macOS," but that could mean pretty much anything. Playing games People play plenty of games on Apple's devices, but they still aren't really a "destination" for gaming in the same way that a dedicated console or Windows PC is. The company is apparently hoping to change that with a new unified app for games. Like Valve's Steam, the app will reportedly serve as a storefront, launcher, and achievement tracker, and will also facilitate communication between friends playing the same game. Apple took a similar stab at this idea in the early days of the iPhone with Game Center, which still exists as a service in the background on modern Apple devices but was discontinued as a standalone app quite a few years ago. Apple has been trying for a few years now to make its operating systems more hospitable to gaming, especially in macOS. The company has added a low-latency Game Mode to macOS and comprehensive support for modern wireless gamepads from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. The company's Game Porting Toolkit stops short of being a consumer-friendly way to run Windows games on macOS, but it does give developers of Windows games an easier on-ramp for testing and porting their games to Apple's platforms. We'll see whether a unified app can help any of these other gaming features gel into something that feels cohesive. Going home Might we see a more prominent, marketable name for what Apple currently calls the "HomePod Software"? Credit: Jeff Dunn One of Apple's long-simmering behind-the-scenes hardware projects is apparently a new kind of smart home device that weds the HomePod's current capabilities with a vaguely Apple TV-like touchscreen interface. In theory, this device would compete with the likes of Amazon's Echo Show devices. Part of those plans involve a "new" operating system to replace what is known to the public as "HomePod Software" (and internally as audioOS). This so-called "homeOS" has been rumored for a bit, and some circumstantial evidence points to some possible pre-WWDC trademark activity around that name. Like the current HomePod software—and just about every other OS Apple maintains—homeOS would likely be a specialized offshoot of iOS. But even if it doesn't come with new hardware right away, new branding could suggest that Apple is getting ready to expand its smart home ambitions. What about AI? Finally, it wouldn't be a mid-2020s tech keynote without some kind of pronouncements about AI. Last year's WWDC was the big public unveiling of Apple Intelligence, and (nearly) every one of Apple's product announcements since then has made a point of highlighting the hardware's AI capabilities. We'd definitely expect Apple to devote some time to Apple Intelligence, but the company may be more hesitant to announce big new features in advance, following a news cycle where even normally sympathetic Apple boosters like Daring Fireball's John Gruber excoriated the company for promising AI features that it was nowhere near ready to launch—or even to demo to the public. The executives handling Apple's AI efforts were reshuffled following that news cycle; whether it was due to Gruber's piece or the underlying problems outlined in the article is anyone's guess. Apple will probably try to find a middle road, torn between not wanting to overpromise and underdeliver and not wanting to seem "behind" on the tech industry's biggest craze. There's a decent chance that the new "more personalized" version of Siri will finally make a public appearance. But I'd guess that Apple will focus more on iterations of existing Apple Intelligence features like summaries or Writing Tools rather than big swings. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Google has shaped the Internet as we know it, and unleashing its index could change everything. Google wasn't around for the advent of the World Wide Web, but it successfully remade the web on its own terms. Today, any website that wants to be findable has to play by Google's rules, and after years of search dominance, the company has lost a major antitrust case that could reshape both it and the web. The closing arguments in the case just wrapped up last week, and Google could be facing serious consequences when the ruling comes down in August. Losing Chrome would certainly change things for Google, but the Department of Justice is pursuing other remedies that could have even more lasting impacts. During his testimony, Google CEO Sundar Pichai seemed genuinely alarmed at the prospect of being forced to license Google's search index and algorithm, the so-called data remedies in the case. He claimed this would be no better than a spinoff of Google Search. The company's statements have sometimes derisively referred to this process as "white labeling" Google Search. But does a white label Google Search sound so bad? Google has built an unrivaled index of the web, but the way it shows results has become increasingly frustrating. A handful of smaller players in search have tried to offer alternatives to Google's search tools. They all have different approaches to retrieving information for you, but they agree that spinning off Google Search could change the web again. Whether or not those changes are positive depends on who you ask. The Internet is big and noisy As Google's search results have changed over the years, more people have been open to other options. Some have simply moved to AI chatbots to answer their questions, hallucinations be damned. But for most people, it's still about the 10 blue links (for now). Because of the scale of the Internet, there are only three general web search indexes: Google, Bing, and Brave. Every search product (including AI tools) relies on one or more of these indexes to probe the web. But what does that mean? "Generally, a search index is a service that, when given a query, is able to find relevant documents published on the Internet," said Brave's search head Josep Pujol. A search index is essentially a big database, and that's not the same as search results. According to JP Schmetz, Brave's chief of ads, it's entirely possible to have the best and most complete search index in the world and still show poor results for a given query. Sound like anyone you know? Google's technological lead has allowed it to crawl more websites than anyone else. It has all the important parts of the web, plus niche sites, abandoned blogs, sketchy copies of legitimate websites, copies of those copies, and AI-rephrased copies of the copied copies—basically everything. And the result of this Herculean digital inventory is a search experience that feels increasingly discombobulated. "Google is running large-scale experiments in ways that no rival can because we’re effectively blinded," said Kamyl Bazbaz, head of public affairs at DuckDuckGo, which uses the Bing index. "Google’s scale advantage fuels a powerful feedback loop of different network effects that ensure a perpetual scale and quality deficit for rivals that locks in Google’s advantage." The size of the index may not be the only factor that matters, though. Brave, which is perhaps best known for its browser, also has a search engine. Brave Search is the default in its browser, but you can also just go to the URL in your current browser. Unlike most other search engines, Brave doesn't need to go to anyone else for results. Pujol suggested that Brave doesn't need the scale of Google's index to find what you need. And admittedly, Brave's search results don't feel meaningfully worse than Google's—they may even be better when you consider the way that Google tries to keep you from clicking. Brave's index spans around 25 billion pages, but it leaves plenty of the web uncrawled. "We could be indexing five to 10 times more pages, but we choose not to because not all the web has signal. Most web pages are basically noise," said Pujol. The freemium search engine Kagi isn't worried about having the most comprehensive index. Kagi is a meta search engine. It pulls in data from multiple indexes, like Bing and Brave, but it has a custom index of what founder and CEO Vladimir Prelovac calls the "non-commercial web." When you search with Kagi, some of the results (it tells you the proportion) come from its custom index of personal blogs, hobbyist sites, and other content that is poorly represented on other search engines. It's reminiscent of the days when huge brands weren't always clustered at the top of Google—but even these results are being pushed out of reach in favor of AI, ads, Knowledge Graph content, and other Google widgets. That's a big part of why Kagi exists, according to Prelovac. A Google spinoff could change everything We've all noticed the changes in Google's approach to search, and most would agree that they have made finding reliable and accurate information harder. Regardless, Google's incredibly deep and broad index of the Internet is in demand. Even with Bing and Brave available, companies are going to extremes to syndicate Google Search results. A cottage industry has emerged to scrape Google searches as a stand-in for an official index. These companies are violating Google's terms, yet they appear in Google Search results themselves. Google could surely do something about this if it wanted to. The DOJ calls Google's mountain of data the "essential raw material" for building a general search engine, and it believes forcing the firm to license that material is key to breaking its monopoly. The sketchy syndication firms will evaporate if the DOJ's data remedies are implemented, which would give competitors an official way to utilize Google's index. And utilize it they will. Google CEO Sundar Pichai decried the court's efforts to force a "de facto divestiture" of Google's search tech. Credit: Ryan Whitwam According to Prelovac, this could lead to an explosion in search choices. "The whole purpose of the Sherman Act is to proliferate a healthy, competitive marketplace. Once you have access to a search index, then you can have thousands of search startups," said Prelovac. The Kagi founder suggested that licensing Google Search could allow entities of all sizes to have genuinely useful custom search tools. Cities could use the data to create deep, hyper-local search, and people who love cats could make a cat-specific search engine, in both cases pulling what they want from the most complete database of online content. And, of course, general search products like Kagi would be able to license Google's tech for a "nominal fee," as the DOJ puts it. Prelovac didn't hesitate when asked if Kagi, which offers a limited number of free searches before asking users to subscribe, would integrate Google's index. "Yes, that is something we would do," he said. "And that's what I believe should happen." There may be some drawbacks to unleashing Google's search services. Judge Amit Mehta has expressed concern that blocking Google's search placement deals could reduce browser choice, and there is a similar issue with the data remedies. If Google is forced to license search as an API, its few competitors in web indexing could struggle to remain afloat. In a roundabout way, giving away Google's search tech could actually increase its influence. The Brave team worries about how open access to Google's search technology could impact diversity on the web. "If implemented naively, it's a big problem," said Brave's ad chief JP Schmetz, "If the court forces Google to provide search at a marginal cost, it will not be possible for Bing or Brave to survive until the remedy ends." The landscape of AI-based search could also change. We know from testimony given during the remedy trial by OpenAI's Nick Turley that the ChatGPT maker tried and failed to get access to Google Search to ground its AI models—it currently uses Bing. If Google were suddenly an option, you can be sure OpenAI and others would rush to connect Google's web data to their large language models (LLMs). The attempt to reduce Google's power could actually grant it new monopolies in AI, according to Brave Chief Business Officer Brian Brown. "All of a sudden, you would have a single monolithic voice of truth across all the LLMs, across all the web," Brown said. What if you weren’t the product? If white labeling Google does expand choice, even at the expense of other indexes, it will give more kinds of search products a chance in the market—maybe even some that shun Google's focus on advertising. You don't see much of that right now. For most people, web search is and always has been a free service supported by ads. Google, Brave, DuckDuckGo, and Bing offer all the search queries you want for free because they want eyeballs. It's been said often, but it's true: If you're not paying for it, you're the product. This is an arrangement that bothers Kagi's founder. "For something as important as information consumption, there should not be an intermediary between me and the information, especially one that is trying to sell me something," said Prelovac. Kagi search results acknowledge the negative impact of today's advertising regime. Kagi users see a warning next to results with a high number of ads and trackers. According to Prelovac, that is by far the strongest indication that a result is of low quality. That icon also lets you adjust the prevalence of such sites in your personal results. You can demote a site or completely hide it, which is a valuable option in the age of clickbait. Kagi search gives you a lot of control. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Kagi's paid approach to search changes its relationship with your data. "We literally don't need user data," Prelovac said. "But it's not only that we don't need it. It's a liability." Prelovac admitted that getting people to pay for search is "really hard." Nevertheless, he believes ad-supported search is a dead end. So Kagi is planning for a future in five or 10 years when more people have realized they're still "paying" for ad-based search with lost productivity time and personal data, he said. We know how Google handles user data (it collects a lot of it), but what does that mean for smaller search engines like Brave and DuckDuckGo that rely on ads? "I'm sure they mean well," said Prelovac. Brave said that it shields user data from advertisers, relying on first-party tracking to attribute clicks to Brave without touching the user. "They cannot retarget people later; none of that is happening," said Brave's JP Schmetz. DuckDuckGo is a bit of an odd duck—it relies on Bing's general search index, but it adds a layer of privacy tools on top. It's free and ad-supported like Google and Brave, but the company says it takes user privacy seriously. "Viewing ads is privacy protected by DuckDuckGo, and most ad clicks are managed by Microsoft’s ad network," DuckDuckGo's Kamyl Bazbaz said. He explained that DuckDuckGo has worked with Microsoft to ensure its network does not track users or create any profiles based on clicks. He added that the company has a similar privacy arrangement with TripAdvisor for travel-related ads. It’s AI all the way down We can't talk about the future of search without acknowledging the artificially intelligent elephant in the room. As Google continues its shift to AI-based search, it's tempting to think of the potential search spin-off as a way to escape that trend. However, you may find few refuges in the coming years. There's a real possibility that search is evolving beyond the 10 blue links and toward an AI assistant model. All non-Google search engines have AI integrations, with the most prominent being Microsoft Bing, which has a partnership with OpenAI. But smaller players have AI search features, too. The folks working on these products agree with Microsoft and Google on one important point: They see AI as inevitable. Today's Google alternatives all have their own take on AI Overviews, which generates responses to queries based on search results. They're generally not as in-your-face as Google AI, though. While Google and Microsoft are intensely focused on increasing the usage of AI search, other search operators aren't pushing for that future. They are along for the ride, though. AI Overviews are integrated with Google's search results, and most other players have their own version. Credit: Google "We’re finding that some people prefer to start in chat mode and then jump into more traditional search results when needed, while others prefer the opposite," Bazbaz said. "So we thought the best thing to do was offer both. We made it easy to move between them, and we included an off switch for those who’d like to avoid AI altogether." The team at Brave views AI as a core means of accessing search and one that will continue to grow. Brave generates AI answers for many searches and prominently cites sources. You can also disable Brave's AI if you prefer. But according to search chief Josep Pujol, the move to AI search is inevitable for a pretty simple reason: It's convenient, and people will always choose convenience. So AI is changing the web as we know it, for better or worse, because LLMs can save a smidge of time, especially for more detailed "long-tail" queries. These AI features may give you false information while they do it, but that's not always apparent. This is very similar to the language Google uses when discussing agentic search, although it expresses it in a more nuanced way. By understanding the task behind a query, Google hopes to provide AI answers that save people time, even if the model needs a few ticks to fan out and run multiple searches to generate a more comprehensive report on a topic. That's probably still faster than running multiple searches and manually reviewing the results, and it could leave traditional search as an increasingly niche service, even in a world with more choices. "Will the 10 blue links continue to exist in 10 years?" Pujol asked. "Actually, one question would be, does it even exist now? In 10 years, [search] will have evolved into more of an AI conversation behavior or even agentic. That is probably the case. What, for sure, will continue to exist is the need to search. Search is a verb, an action that you do, and whether you will do it directly or whether it will be done through an agent, it's a search engine." Vlad from Kagi sees AI becoming the default way we access information in the long term, but his search engine doesn't force you to use it. On Kagi, you can expand the AI box for your searches and ask follow-ups, and the AI will open automatically if you use a question mark in your search. But that's just the start. "You watch Star Trek, nobody's clicking on links there—I do believe in that vision in science fiction movies," Prelovac said. "I don't think my daughter will be clicking links in 10 years. The only question is if the current technology will be the one that gets us there. LLMs have inherent flaws. I would even tend to say it's likely not going to get us to Star Trek." If we think of AI mainly as a way to search for information, the future becomes murky. With generative AI in the driver's seat, questions of authority and accuracy may be left to language models that often behave in unpredictable and difficult-to-understand ways. Whether we're headed for an AI boom or bust—for continued Google dominance or a new era of choice—we're facing fundamental changes to how we access information. Maybe if we get those thousands of search startups, there will be a few that specialize in 10 blue links. We can only hope. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Intel Arc driver 32.0.101.6877 (non-WHQL) fixes "audio glitches" on gaming handhelds using Core Ultra Series 2 processors. The latest Intel Arc graphics driver for desktops, laptops, and gaming handhelds, version 32.0.101.6877 (non-WHQL), was released on June 5, 2025, and is now . It's one of the smallest GPU driver updates I've seen, but it contains a critical fix for PC handhelds that use Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 mobile processors, like the previously reviewed MSI Claw 8 AI+ and its sibling, the MSI Claw 7 AI+. If you've experienced glitches with stuttering audio or any other unusual behaviour from your Claw handheld, then Intel is pushing this driver specifically to remedy the problem. Otherwise, if you're playing on a previous-generation MSI Claw 7 (A1M), then you shouldn't necessarily need to apply this update. Patch notes Fixed Issues: Intel Core Ultra Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs: Certain handheld devices may experience audio glitches and lower than expected performance while audio is playing. The same advice goes for those running Intel Arc hardware on desktops, like the B-Series "Battlemage" B570 and B580 graphics cards; you likely wouldn't notice any difference here, so you might as well wait for the next GPU driver update. Any laptops using Core Ultra Series 2 chips, like the Core Ultra 7 256V in Lenovo's Yoga 7i 2-in-1 that I just tested, are technically using the same graphics architecture as the handhelds targeted by the fix, so it wouldn't hurt to apply this update if you're experiencing similar audio oddities. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Twenty-six years ago this week, Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker launched Napster, a music sharing platform that disrupted a global industry. After being sued and declaring bankruptcy, today's Napster is a legal streaming brand. Yet, in a recent complaint, a royalty collection outfit accused Napster of "massive" copyright violations. The aim was to have the site's domain blocked by every ISP in Italy, effectively denying its ability to do business there. The original Napster service was launched by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker on June 1, 1999. Had it not been sued into oblivion by the record labels, it would’ve celebrated its 26th anniversary last Sunday. In reality, Napster didn’t live for very long at all. The service was shut down by court order in July 2001 and in this month 23 years ago, Napster Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Napster Brand Lives On, Legally For more than two decades, the Napster brand has lived on. The company’s assets were initially acquired by Roxio, which led to its PressPlay music service relaunching in 2003 with Napster branding. After a fresh start as a legal music store, Napster was later acquired by Best Buy. In 2011, streaming service Rhapsody became Napster’s new owner and a few years later, Rhapsody itself reappeared with Napster branding. These changes in Napster’s ownership offer very little excitement, a sign perhaps that Napster’s pirate roots were ancient history. Yet, starting in early 2017, the RIAA began sending DMCA notices to Google containing requests to have Napster URLs deindexed from search results. In January 2022, that suddenly stopped, only to suddenly start back up again, exactly two years later. What exactly triggered these complaints is unknown but, earlier this year, a complaint filed in Italy went further still. Characterizing Napster as a platform of mass infringement, the complaint requested measures that would effectively prevent Napster from doing business anywhere in the country. “Massive Copyright Violations” The Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE) is one of the world’s largest collection societies. According to its website, it represents over 100K members, administers 62 million Italian and international works, and has “reciprocal representation agreements” with 184 authors’ societies around the world. On March 24, 2025, SIAE filed a complaint with Italian telecoms regulator AGCOM, containing a long list of allegedly infringing URLs linking to songs by mainly local artists. The complaint described the list as an example of infringing content offered by Napster, so should not be considered exhaustive. A sample of the allegedly infringing tracks (translated) SIAE’s complaint noted that “the massive nature of the copyright violations” is highlighted when SIAE’s repertoire index is used as a reference. Having confirmed that the content reported by SIAE was actually available on Napster.com, these alleged violations of copyright (Law 633/41 (pdf)) were sufficient for AGCOM and any linked bodies to examine the complaint more closely. In this case and those similar, a step-by-step process resulting in an adverse decision usually leads to domains being blocked by ISPs nationwide. Pirate sites tackle blocking with new domains and other circumvention tactics. Legal streaming sites aren’t typically confronted with that kind of problem. AGCOM Launches Investigation Checks revealed that the domain Napster.com was registered at Cloudflare “on behalf of an unidentifiable customer” with hosting services for the platform also provided by Cloudflare. A preliminary investigation carried out by the Directorate for Digital Services and Protection of Fundamental Rights confirmed the alleged violations, so the complaint wasn’t considered inadmissible or unfounded. Since Napster’s servers were deemed to be located overseas, “personal communication” advising the start of a procedure against it was described as “overly burdonsome”. Instead, a notification via AGCOM’s website and via email (most likely to Cloudflare) were considered sufficient. The communication raised the possibility of Napster “spontaneously complying” with SIAE’s requests, which usually means taking down the content in question. No Defense by Napster, Disaster Looms AGCOM reports that no counter-arguments were received in response to its notifications and the recorded music listed in the site blocking application remained accessible on the pages reported by SIAE. Of course, that’s potentially problematic in copyright cases generally, so when AGCOM found that under Italian law no exceptions applied to the content in question, its continued online presence was “believed to be unjustified.” All of the above taken together, especially in light of the overseas servers, led to the conclusion that service providers could be instructed to block access to Napster in Italy, to prevent ongoing copyright infringement. Or rather, that’s typically what happens to pirate sites. Here, various factors took the matter in a different direction. Before issuing a blocking order, AGCOM must consider adequacy, necessity, and proportionality; i.e whether the measure is suitable for the task in hand, is necessary or can the same effect be achieved by less restrictive means, and is a reasonable response under the circumstances. Blocking Would Be Disproportionate Based on the report of AGCOM commissioner Elisa Giomi, who happens to be an outspoken opponent of Italy’s Piracy Shield blocking system, AGCOM concluded that disabling access to the entire Napster website was not an option. [T]he website http://napster.com reported by the applicant is a paid music streaming service which features a very high number of songs (110 million, as reported on the site’s homepage ) which are not limited exclusively to the sound works referred to [in the blocking application],” AGCOM’s decision reads. “Considering that the violation ascertained concerns a limited number of works compared to the content of the reported site, the adoption of a measure to disable access to the entire website would be a disproportionate measure on the basis of the principles detailed above.” The Right Decision But a Very Strange Case In borderline cases, subjective assessments could go either way but, in this case, it’s obvious that AGCOM made the appropriate decision under the circumstances. However, there’s an unusual element to this blocking application that raises the question of why it even exists. Under Italian copyright law, two entities are responsible for “preventing and ascertaining” certain violations within their competences. The first entity is telecoms regulator AGCOM, the second is the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, the same entity listed as the applicant in the blocking case against Napster. Even after a fleeting view of the paperwork, blocking was always the incorrect response in these circumstances. Miracles aside, the application was always likely to fail against a substantially non-infringing licensed music streaming service based in the United States, where a failure to license usually ends in a mauling from the major labels. So, on the basis that AGCOM came to the same conclusion very easily, that raises a question; Why did a public economic body founded 140+ years ago, with a key role in Italy’s Permanent Advisory Committee on Copyright, and recognized as the institution representing the interests of Italian authors, press ahead with a blocking application that had virtually no chance of success? More fundamentally, success would’ve prevented the alleged infringement, but presumably would’ve denied the artists and companies behind Napster’s 110 million track library any opportunity to make money via that platform in the Italian market. Any responses to our requests for comment will appear here in due course. AGCOM’s decision, which denies the blocking request but refers the alleged violations of copyright to the judicial police, is available here (pdf) Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Piles of rumors and speculations about Apple's upcoming UI overhaul across its operating systems have been released, though only some of them have given us a sneak peek into Apple's next OS for iPhones, dubbed iOS 26. However, a new report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman gives us a clear idea of what to expect from the upcoming iOS 26 and its various applications. As the report reads, the iOS UI overhaul also affects the Messages and Phone apps, two of Apple customers' most used applications. According to Gurman, the Messages app on iOS 26 allows users to create polls and set a background image for a specific conversation. Interestingly, the background image set by one side of the conversation will be visible to the other side as well. With the recent changes to its Messages app, Gurman says Apple aims to compete with Meta's WhatsApp and other messaging platforms. He writes: "The two main changes are the ability to create polls and set a background image. The backgrounds will sync between devices, including those of other users, meaning that you and the people you are chatting with have the same look." However, the scope of changes on the Phone app is limited. Gurman says the Phone app in iOS 26 gets a new view that combines favorite contacts, recent calls, and voicemails into a single, scrollable window. Of course, the new design is optional for users, and they can still opt for the legacy interface. Changes to the Messages and Phone apps on iOS 26 focus on providing a personalized experience to iPhone users and moving them away from rival messaging apps. Apple's 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off on June 9. The Cupertino tech giant is gearing up to unveil its revamped operating systems with a glass-like UI and new names, representing 2025-2026 release cycle. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Apple has issued a warning to Australia, essentially telling the country not to follow the European Union's lead in making iPhone app sideloading a requirement. This communication comes as the Australian federal government considers new rules that could force Apple to open up its iOS ecosystem, much like what happened in Europe with recent legislation. Since iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 18, users in the EU have been able to get apps from outside the official App Store, a direct consequence of the DMA designating Apple as a "gatekeeper". The Australian government floated a proposal in a paper released late last year. The paper suggested "designating" digital platforms like Apple's App Store. Being designated this way means these platforms would have to follow new rules intended to keep them from limiting competition. The government pointed to Apple's in-app payment system, which usually comes with a commission, and the lack of sideloading as likely targets for regulation. Right now, apps like Netflix and Spotify can't let users subscribe through their iOS apps without giving Apple a big cut, and they're not even allowed to tell users where to find a better deal. Apple, in its response to this Australian paper, stated that Australia should not use the EU's Digital Markets Act "as a blueprint". The company's core argument is that the changes mandated by the EU's DMA, which came into full effect in March 2024, introduce serious security and privacy risks for users. Apple claims that allowing sideloading and alternative app stores effectively opens the door for malware, fraud, scams, and other harmful content. The tech company also highlighted specific concerns from its European experience, alleging that its compliance there has led to users being able to install pornography apps and apps that facilitate copyright infringement, things its curated App Store aims to prevent. Apple maintains that its current review process is vital for user protection, and that its often criticized 30% commission applies mainly to the highest earning apps, with most developers paying a lower 15% rate or nothing. It is worth noting that Apple's implementation of DMA requirements in the EU, which includes a "Core Technology Fee" for apps distributed outside its store, has already drawn scrutiny from European Commission officials who question if these measures truly comply with the DMA's idea of keeping the market fair. The Australian government has not yet detailed its next steps in this process, and the Treasury still needs to publish the full submissions to its proposal paper, including Apple's complete arguments. Source: The Guardian Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

"It’s not impossible, so how do we overcome our hurdles?" A robotic lander developed by a Japanese company named ispace plummeted to the Moon's surface Thursday, destroying a small rover and several experiments intended to demonstrate how future missions could mine and harvest lunar resources. Ground teams at ispace's mission control center in Tokyo lost contact with the Resilience lunar lander moments before it was supposed to touch down in a region called Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of Cold, a basaltic plain in the Moon's northern hemisphere. A few hours later, ispace officials confirmed what many observers suspected. The mission was lost. It's the second time ispace has failed to land on the Moon in as many tries. “We wanted to make Mission 2 a success, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to land," said Takeshi Hakamada, the company's founder and CEO. Ryo Ujiie, ispace's chief technology officer, said the final data received from the Resilience lander—assuming it was correct—showed it at an altitude of approximately 630 feet (192 meters) and descending too fast for a safe landing. "The deceleration was not enough. That was a fact," Ujiie told reporters in a press conference. "We failed to land, and we have to analyze the reasons." The company said in a press release that a laser rangefinder used to measure the lander's altitude "experienced delays in obtaining valid measurement values." The downward-facing laser fires light pulses toward the Moon during descent, and clocks the time it takes to receive a reflection. This time delay at light speed tells the lander's guidance system how far it is above the lunar surface. But something went wrong in the altitude measurement system on Thursday. "As a result, the lander was unable to decelerate sufficiently to reach the required speed for the planned lunar landing," ispace said. "Based on these circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface." Controllers sent a command to reboot the lander in hopes of reestablishing communication, but the Resilience spacecraft remained silent. "Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause," Hakamada said in a statement. "We will strive to restore trust by providing a report of the findings to our shareholders, payload customers, Hakuto-R partners, government officials, and all supporters of ispace." Overcoming obstacles The Hakuto name harkens back to ispace's origin in 2010 as a contender for the Google Lunar X-Prize, a sweepstakes that offered a $20 million grand prize to the first privately funded team to put a lander on the Moon. Hakamada's group was called Hakuto, which means "white rabbit" in Japanese. The prize shut down in 2018 without a winner, leading some of the teams to dissolve or find new purpose. Hakamada stayed the course, raised more funding, and rebooted the program under the name Hakuto-R. It's a story of resilience, hence the name of ispace's second lunar lander. The mission made it closer to the Moon than the ispace's first landing attempt in 2023, but Thursday's failure is a blow to Hakamada's project. "As a fact, we tried twice and we haven’t been able to land on the Moon," Hakamada said through an interpreter. "So we have to say it’s hard to land on the Moon, technically. We know it’s not easy. It’s not something that everyone can do. We know it’s hard, but the important point is it’s not impossible. The US private companies have succeeded in landing, and also JAXA in Japan has succeeded in landing, so it’s not impossible. So how do we overcome our hurdles?" The Resilience lander and Tenacious rover, seen mounted near the top of the spacecraft, inside a test facility at the Tsukuba Space Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. Credit: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg via Getty Images In April 2023, ispace's first lander crashed on the Moon due to a similar altitude measurement problem. The spacecraft thought it was on the surface of the Moon, but was actually firing its engine to hover at an altitude of 3 miles (5 kilometers). The spacecraft ran out of fuel and went into a free fall before impacting the Moon. Engineers blamed software as the most likely reason for the altitude-measurement problem. During descent, ispace's lander passed over a 10,000-foot-tall (3,000-meter) cliff, and the spacecraft's computer interpreted the sudden altitude change as erroneous. Ujiie, who leads ispace's technical teams, said the failure mode Thursday was "similar" to that of the first mission two years ago. But at least in ispace's preliminary data reviews, engineers saw different behavior from the Resilience lander, which flew with a new type of laser rangefinder after ispace's previous supplier stopped producing the device. "From Mission 1 to Mission 2, we improved the software," Ujiie said. "Also, we improved how to approach the landing site... We see different phenomena from Mission 1, so we have to do more analysis to give you any concrete answers." If ispace landed smoothly on Thursday, the Resilience spacecraft would have deployed a small rover developed by ispace's European subsidiary. The rover was partially funded by the Luxembourg Space Agency with support from the European Space Agency. It carried a shovel to scoop up a small amount of lunar soil and a camera to take a photo of the sample. NASA had a contract with ispace to purchase the lunar soil in a symbolic proof of concept to show how the government might acquire material from commercial mining companies in the future. The lander also carried a water electrolyzer experiment to demonstrate technologies that could split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, critical resources for a future Moon base. Other payloads aboard the Resilience spacecraft included cameras, a food production experiment, a radiation monitor, and a Swedish art project called "MoonHouse." The spacecraft chassis used for ispace's first two landing attempts was about the size of a compact car, with a mass of about 1 metric ton (2,200 pounds) when fully fueled. The company's third landing attempt is scheduled for 2027 with a larger lander. Next time, ispace will fly to the Moon in partnership between the company's US subsidiary and Draper Laboratory, which has a contract with NASA to deliver experiments to the lunar surface. Track record The Resilience lander launched in January on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, riding to space in tandem with a commercial Moon lander named Blue Ghost from Firefly Aerospace. Firefly's lander took a more direct journey to the Moon and achieved a soft landing on March 2. Blue Ghost operated on the lunar surface for two weeks and completed all of its objectives. The trajectory of ispace's lander was slower, following a lower-energy, more fuel-efficient path to the Moon before entering lunar orbit last month. Once in orbit, the lander made a few more course corrections to line up with its landing site, then commenced its final descent on Thursday. Thursday's landing attempt was the seventh time a privately developed Moon lander tried to conduct a controlled touchdown on the lunar surface. Two Texas-based companies have had the most success. One of them, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, landed its Odysseus spacecraft on the Moon in February 2024, marking the first time a commercial lander reached the lunar surface intact. But the lander tipped over after touchdown, cutting its mission short after achieving some limited objectives. A second Intuitive Machines lander reached the Moon in one piece in March of this year, but it also fell over and didn't last as long as the company's first mission. Firefly's Blue Ghost operated for two weeks after reaching the lunar surface, accomplishing all of its objectives and becoming the first fully successful privately owned spacecraft to land and operate on the Moon. Intuitive Machines, Firefly, and a third company—Astrobotic Technology—have launched their lunar missions under contract with a NASA program aimed at fostering a commercial marketplace for transportation to the Moon. Astrobotic's first lander failed soon after its departure from Earth. The first two missions launched by ispace were almost fully private ventures, with limited participation from the Japanese space agency, Luxembourg, and NASA. The Earth looms over the Moon's horizon in this image from lunar orbit captured on May 27, 2025, by ispace's Resilience lander. Credit: ispace Commercial travel to the Moon only began in 2019, so there's not much of a track record to judge the industry's prospects. When NASA started signing contracts for commercial lunar missions, the then-chief of the agency's science vision, Thomas Zurbuchen, estimated the initial landing attempts would have a 50-50 chance of success. On the whole, NASA's experience with Intuitive Machines, Firefly, and Astrobotic isn't too far off from Zurbuchen's estimate, with one full success and a couple of partial successes. The commercial track record worsens if you include private missions from ispace and Israel's Beresheet lander. But ispace and Hakamada haven't given up on the dream. The company's third mission will launch under the umbrella of the same NASA program that contracted with Intuitive Machines, Firefly, and Astrobotic. Hakamada cited the achievements of Firefly and Intuitive Machines as evidence that the commercial model for lunar missions is a valid one. "The ones that have the landers, there are two companies I mentioned. Also, Blue Origin maybe coming up. Also, ispace is a possibility," Hakamada said. "So, very few companies. We would like to catch up as soon as possible." It's too early to know how the failure on Thursday might impact ispace's next mission with Draper and NASA. "I have to admit that we are behind," said Jumpei Nozaki, director and chief financial officer at ispace. "But we do not really think we are behind from the leading group yet. It’s too early to decide that. The players in the world that can send landers to the Moon are very few, so we still have some competitive edge." "Honestly, there were some times I almost cried, but I need to lead this company, and I need to have a strong will to move forward, so it’s not time for me to cry," Hakamada said. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend