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Amazon received warrants to buy up to 1.69 million Generac shares at $200.93 each, potentially worth up to $8 billion, as part of a deal for Generac to supply backup power generators to Amazon's data centers. Generac shares jumped more than 40% in after-hours trading following the news, with initial generator deliveries expected to total $2.4 billion between 2027 and 2028.
WIRED's roundup of the best Android phones for 2026 includes guidance for shoppers considering models outside the main recommendations, covering display type, screen size, processor, RAM, cooling and refresh rate. It notes that OLED screens are now common even in budget phones, that Qualcomm Snapdragon 7-series or MediaTek Dimensity 7000-series chips or better offer reliable performance, and that 8GB of RAM (ideally 12GB) suits multitasking and AI features.
Boox has unveiled the Palma 3, its latest phone-shaped E Ink reader, alongside the larger Note Air6 C and Note Mini C. The Palma 3 keeps the same 6.13-inch, 300ppi E Ink Carta screen as its predecessor but adds a new aluminum-and-fiberglass build, a Qualcomm Q-6690 processor, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, a 16MP camera, and support for an optional active stylus. It ships with Android 16, a major jump from Android 13 on the Palma 2.
MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9600 Pro, its new flagship smartphone processor, as the first chip manufactured using TSMC's 2-nanometer N2P process, beating Qualcomm to the milestone. The chip promises significant gains including a 61 percent drop in multi-core power draw, a 17 percent single-core speed boost, and improved gaming and AI performance through a new dual-NPU architecture.
MediaTek announced its Dimensity 9600 Pro and 9600M mobile processors, both built to handle demanding gaming and on-device AI tasks. The Pro variant is MediaTek's first chip built on TSMC's 2-nanometer process, promising better efficiency and performance than last year's Dimensity 9500, while the 9600M offers similar AI and gaming capabilities as a more affordable option. Both chips can reportedly sustain console-quality gaming at 185 frames per second.
Valve has released the Steam Frame, a VR headset that runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and offers up to 1TB of storage, letting it play games independently without a connected PC. The device is significantly lighter than the older Valve Index, weighing 440 grams versus 809 grams, and uses six cameras for tracking, passthrough, and eye-tracking. It arrives as the third major hardware release from Valve in 2026, following the Steam Controller and Steam Machine.
Valve has released the Steam Frame, a VR headset that can run games independently using an onboard Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and up to 1TB of storage, rather than relying solely on PC streaming like its predecessor, the Valve Index. The device weighs roughly half as much as the Index thanks to lighter materials, and uses six cameras for tracking, passthrough, and eye-tracking, with a price tag exceeding $1,000.
Valve's new $1,059 Steam Frame VR headset ships with a native ARM64 version of Half-Life: Alyx, letting the 2020 PC VR game run standalone on the device's Snapdragon chip without needing a desktop PC. The port preserves mods and save files and, according to Valve, was made possible by combining the headset's eye-tracking-driven foveated rendering with 16GB of VRAM.
WIRED published a guide identifying nine Windows laptops that compete with Apple's MacBooks on quality and performance, alongside broader advice on choosing a laptop. The guide recommends spending $750 to $1,000 for a 13- or 14-inch machine with at least 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and modern chips like Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series or Intel's Core Ultra lineup. It cites models such as the Dell 14 Plus and HP OmniBook 5 14 as strong examples in this price range.
Apple's new iPhone 18 Pro uses its own C2 modem, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max sticks with a Qualcomm modem despite otherwise similar specs like mmWave support. Meanwhile, battery life improved for both models, but the Pro Max jumped by six hours of video playback to 45 hours total, compared to just a three-hour gain to 36 hours for the standard Pro.
Fairphone has released the Gen 6+ version of its repairable Android phone in the United States for $650. The device keeps most of last year's Gen 6 design but adds a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor, 12GB of RAM, and a new cobalt-blue color that honors cobalt miners and the Fair Cobalt Alliance nonprofit Fairphone co-founded.
Corning shares jumped 8% after announcing a multibillion-dollar partnership with Verizon to build fiber-optic cables for AI data centers, extending its 2025 gain to 90%. Qualcomm also rose after disclosing it issued Amazon warrants worth up to $4 billion in stock as part of a deal where AWS will buy up to $60 billion in Qualcomm server chips, with revenue starting in the December quarter. The news lifted other AI infrastructure stocks including Intel, AMD, HPE and Coherent.