TECH

Refractory satellites: a radical proposal to reduce space pollution

According to a mundophone report, European researchers are advocating a profound change in how satellites are designed, aiming to reduce a little-discussed side effect of the commercial space race: chemical pollution of the Earth's atmosphere. The idea is simple and controversial at the same time. Instead of creating satellites designed to disintegrate upon re-entry into the atmosphere, why not make them resistant enough to survive the fall?

Today, thousands of satellites reach the end of their useful life every year and are deliberately launched on re-entry trajectories. As they burn up in the atmosphere, they fragment completely, preventing the formation of space debris in orbit and reducing the risk of debris hitting the ground. This concept, known as design for demise, has become standard in the space industry.

However, with the increasing number of satellites, this practice has come to have a significant environmental cost.

When satellites become chemical pollution...As satellites disintegrate during reentry, they release microscopic particles of aluminum oxide into the stratosphere. These compounds catalyze chemical reactions that accelerate the destruction of ozone, a layer essential for protecting Earth from ultraviolet radiation.

A study published in 2024 showed that a typical satellite, weighing about 250 kilograms and composed of approximately 30% aluminum, can generate about 30 kilograms of aluminum oxide nanoparticles when it burns up in the atmosphere. According to the researchers, the increase in the number of reentries contributed to an eightfold increase in the concentration of these harmful oxides over just six years.

It is in this context that engineers at MaiaSpace, a European company linked to the Ariane group, propose a path opposite to that adopted so far.

Making satellites “indestructible”...In a recent article, researchers Antoinette Ott and Christophe Bonnal advocate for the so-called design for non-demise. The proposal is to design satellites capable of withstanding the extreme heat of atmospheric reentry, performing a controlled descent to remote ocean regions, such as isolated areas of the Pacific.

This strategy would drastically reduce the release of chemical particles into the atmosphere, but it raises new dilemmas. More robust satellites would be more expensive, require additional propulsion and fuel systems, and increase the risk, albeit controlled, of debris reaching the Earth's surface.

For the authors, the central question becomes a risk assessment. Is it better to accept a small risk of impact on the ground or to continue accumulating long-term chemical damage in the atmosphere?

The answer is far from consensual, but the debate indicates that space pollution is no longer just an orbital problem. It is beginning to literally enter the planet's climate equation.

mundophone

CES 2026

LG CLOiD: LG's home robot

LG Electronics is preparing to unveil the LG CLOiD, a new home robot designed to take over some of the routine tasks at home, at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, from January 6 to 9. The company frames this launch within its "Zero Labor Home, Makes Quality Time" vision, which seeks to reduce the effort associated with household chores through advanced automation and artificial intelligence.

According to LG, the LG CLOiD is designed to act as a home assistant in an indoor environment, focusing on convenience and natural interaction with users. The robot will be demonstrated in "Zero Labor Home" scenarios at the brand's official booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the company intends to illustrate how robotics integrates into the ecosystem of connected appliances and smart home services.

LG also indicates that it is accelerating its investment in robotics as a new growth area, through the creation of the HS Robotics Lab in the Home Appliance & Air Solution unit and research partnerships with robotics companies in Korea and other markets, reinforcing its ambition to make robotics a natural extension of its premium home appliance offering.

The most distinctive element of the LG CLOiD is its manipulation system. The company describes the robot as having two articulated arms, with motors that provide seven degrees of freedom in each arm, bringing the movements closer to human gestures. This design theoretically allows for greater flexibility in handling objects of different shapes and positions, compared to domestic robots limited to very simple movements.

Each hand integrates five individually acting fingers, which, according to LG, offers finer dexterity for tasks that require precision, such as grasping small objects, adjusting positions, or operating physical controls. In practice, the type of tasks that the LG CLOiD will be able to consistently perform will depend not only on this hardware, but also on the control models, visual perception, and the ability to adapt to the highly variable home environment.

In the head module, LG integrates a chipset described as the “brain” of the LG CLOiD, accompanied by a screen, speaker, camera, and additional sensors, forming the core of the robot's perception, communication, and decision-making. The brand says the system uses artificial intelligence to learn from repeated interactions with residents, gradually adjusting the type of help and responses offered.

This concept is presented as “Affectionate Intelligence,” an approach in which the robot seeks to adapt its behavior to the preferences and routines of each home, rather than simply offering pre-programmed responses. However, the statement does not go into detail about where this data is processed (locally or in the cloud), nor about privacy policies, data retention, or consent mechanisms, critical aspects when discussing sensors and image and sound capture in the domestic context.

Potential, limitations, and open questions...The announcement positions the LG CLOiD as a central piece of LG's smart home strategy, but leaves several essential elements open for evaluating technological maturity and practical relevance. Information regarding battery life, continuous operating time, navigation capabilities on complex floor surfaces, drop resistance, physical safety mechanisms, or software update protocols is not disclosed.

Price, commercial launch schedule, or target markets are also not mentioned, indicating that, at this stage, the focus is on demonstrating the concept and asserting leadership in home robotics, rather than on a product with a fully defined commercial roadmap. For users and smart home integrators, the immediate value lies in following the evolution of the platform – especially the combination of five-fingered arms, sensors, and AI – to see if the LG CLOiD will be a viable consumer product or an intermediate step in a broader portfolio of home robots.

by mundophone

 

APPLE

Leaker that Apple sued doubles down with a huge iPhone foldable leak

Ever dreamt of an iPhone that transforms into an iPad? If you have, the iPhone Fold renders leaked by Jon Prosser, aka YouTube's fpt., will be of interest. Jon uploaded a video showcasing the some official-looking renders of the upcoming device, which when folded, appears similar to a standard 5.5-inch iPhone with 9 millimeters of thickness.

While the thinnest parts of iPhone Air are only 5.6 millimeters thick, keep in mind that the camera bump on that device substantially increases that number—in comparison, the purported iPhone Fold justifies its thickness by unfolding into a gorgeous 7.8-inch OLED screen, similar to the iPad Mini's 7.9-inch screen size. If real, it's a gorgeous-looking device, and if Apple actually achieves its rumored goal of removing the visible crease from the unfolded screen, it would mark a first for foldable smartphones.

The rumored price range for the iPhone Fold is between $2000 to $2500 USD, which would make it the most expensive iPhone ever. Considering the high cost of Android-based foldables compared to other phones, we suppose this makes sense, but that's a steep ask for even the most ardent Apple fan.

In any case, Prosser seems confident in his sources. Since he's previously been sued by Apple for leaking iOS 26 and has a long history of reputable Apple leaks, he's about as reliable an Apple leaker can get. The leaks of the iPhone 17e from earlier this month are also lent some legitimacy through South Korean news outlet The Elec, so Apple's got some non-foldable goodness on the way, too.

Based on the model, Apple has decided to prioritize the form factor of the iPhone Fold when it is unfolded, where the aspects closely resemble those of an iPad mini. That means that when folded, the iPhone Fold’s shape is a lot more square than a regular iPhone. That’s a different approach from Android folding phones, which often have tall, skinny outer displays to maintain the folded form as a more traditional rectangular shape. Thus, the inside of the folding iPhone will be more widescreen than foldable offerings from Samsung and Google.

We could get a sense of how real this square-ish form is at WWDC in June. Though Apple won’t specifically address this new form factor, the company could introduce methods for developers to vary app UI designs so that their apps will be able to adjust and maintain usability. It could also go so far as to preview the folding phone months before it releases, as it did with the original iPhone back in 2007.

Are you interested in the iPhone Fold or (slightly) more affordable foldable smartphones? Do you hope this marks the beginning of truly crease-less foldables?

mundophone

 

DIGITAL LIFE

Generation Z created its own “digital detox”: turning off their cell phones and going back to writing letters, thankfully...

The history of communication seemed to follow a straight line towards total instantaneity. First came emails, then social networks, messaging apps, and finally, AI-generated automatic responses. But something curious is happening in 2025: a growing segment of Generation Z has decided to take a step back. Instead of another screen, they chose paper, pen, and time.

For decades, writing letters was the main way to maintain long-distance connections. With the arrival of the internet, this ritual became a relic. MSN Messenger, social networks, and instant messaging promised to shorten any distance—and they delivered. Today, photos, audios, and video calls cross the planet in seconds.

The problem is that speed has taken its toll. Messages accumulate, emails demand a response “yesterday,” and cell phones constantly warn that there is no more space. Communication has become abundant, but also noisy. For many young people, this constant flow has ceased to be liberating and has become exhausting.

The return of pen pals... It is in this context that pen pals—friends by correspondence—are resurfacing. According to data from Stamps.com, about 48% of Generation Z sends physical mail at least once a month. The number breaks the stereotype of the young person incapable of stepping away from the screen.

On social media, the phenomenon is visible. The hashtag #penpal has already surpassed 1.3 million posts on Instagram, while TikTok has become a showcase for calligraphy, wax seals, and handmade notebooks. It's not just about writing—it's about transforming the act into an experience.

Platforms like Pinterest have helped to boost this movement. Creative stationery has become a type of "performance art": special pens, personalized envelopes, decorative stamps, and hand lettering are part of the package.

In this scenario, the letter ceases to be just a means and becomes an object. A unique, physical item, impossible to copy or "forward." In an era where everything can be replicated infinitely, value lies precisely in the unrepeatable.

There is also a strong symbolic component. In times of artificial intelligence capable of producing thousands of texts in seconds, human handwriting gains the status of cultural resistance. A handwritten letter is not efficient — and that is exactly what makes it special.

It requires time, attention, and presence. It cannot be sent in a hurry or corrected after sending. It is the opposite of the logic of the attention economy, which competes for every second of our focus.

This rescue of paper also appears in hybrid formats. Platforms like FutureMe allow users to write messages today to be delivered years later. The proposal mixes technology and introspection, betting on a "realistic optimism": recording expectations, fears, and desires as a way to get through uncertain times.

For many young people, writing — whether for another person or for themselves in the future — has become an emotional survival strategy amidst climate, economic, and social crises.

A detox that doesn't reject technology...Interestingly, this movement isn't a total rejection of digital. Generation Z remains hyper-connected, but has begun to choose when and how to connect. The letter functions as a conscious pause, a space where there are no notifications, likes, or metrics.

Some things don't disappear—they just go on hold. In 2025, it seems that the sealed envelope has returned to offering something that fiber optics couldn't deliver: silence, anticipation, and the feeling that someone dedicated real time to saying "I'm thinking of you."

Source: Xataka

TECH

Rainbow Six Siege hack forces Ubisoft to shut down servers after players receive free R6 credits

Servers for Ubisoft’s popular first-person shooter game are currently offline on consoles and PC. A suspected hack granted some Rainbow Six Siege players huge bundles of in-game currency. Other players have witnessed mass bans, prompting Ubisoft to take action while investigating.

Rainbow Six Siege players with free time during the holidays are having to change their plans. An apparent hack has rewarded some gamers with massive amounts of R6 credits or rare skins. Other fans found their accounts banned after attempting to log in. The situation is so grim that Ubisoft has completely shut down the servers and the Rainbow Six Siege marketplace.

On Rainbow Six Siege X social media, the publisher first announced that it was investigating reports of unusual activity. Two hours later, it explained that both servers and the marketplace had been intentionally taken offline. At the moment, fans await more news, as the company looks for the cause of the mayhem.

The game’s service status page confirms limited or no connectivity on multiple platforms. Still, critics are asking for more transparency from Ubisoft. Even though the events have all the telltale signs of a hack, it has yet to be confirmed as a security breach. Other followers believe the drastic measure should have come earlier in the day.

The hacker may have had evil intentions, but some players rejoiced after a sudden influx of R6 credits. While it’s tempting to spend that currency, veterans of the tactical shooter game urge caution. Players risk account bans if Ubisoft later decides that gamers exploited the state of affairs. In fact, they advise against signing into accounts at all for the time being.

New details about Rainbow Six Siege security breach...Cybersecurity resource Vx-Underground has uncovered details about the Rainbow Six Siege hack. One group may have “exploited a Rainbow Six Siege service allowing them ban players, modify inventory, etc.” It’s estimated that it handed out a staggering $339,960,000,000,000 to gamers.

Meanwhile, another group executed a database hack that could have wide-ranging implications. The individuals may have access to the source code of multiple Ubisoft games.

The last major threat to the shooter franchise was a 2023 cyberattack. Thieves targeted 900GB worth of internal data before Ubisoft halted their efforts. Fortunately, they were unsuccessful in acquiring information from Rainbow Six Siege accounts.

Adam Corsetti

 

DIGITAL LIFE

Fake videos made by AI: AI tools show how easy it is to manipulate public perception, creating an alternate 'reality' in seconds

A TikTok video from October appeared to show a woman being interviewed by a television reporter about the use of food assistance. The women weren't real. The conversation never happened. The video was generated by artificial intelligence. Still, people seemed to believe it was a real conversation about selling food assistance for cash, which would constitute a crime.

In the comments, many reacted to the video as if it were real. Despite subtle warning signs, hundreds began labeling the woman a criminal—some with explicit racism—while others attacked government assistance programs, just as a national debate intensified around President Donald Trump's planned cuts to the program.

Videos like this fake interview, created with OpenAI's new app, Sora, show how public perception can be easily manipulated by tools capable of producing an alternate reality from a series of simple commands.

In the two months since Sora's arrival, misleading videos have skyrocketed on TikTok, X, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, according to experts who monitor this type of content. The deluge has raised concerns about a new generation of misinformation and fabrications.

Most major social media companies have policies requiring disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence and broadly prohibit content intended to deceive. But these safeguards have proven utterly insufficient in the face of the technological leap represented by OpenAI's tools.

Video of a mother holding the hand of a newborn baby — Photo: Reproduction/Sora

While many videos are silly memes or cute—but fake—images of babies and pets, others aim to incite the kind of hostility that often marks online political debate. They have already appeared in foreign influence operations, such as Russia's ongoing campaign to demoralize Ukraine.

Researchers who track misleading uses say it is now up to companies to do more to ensure people know what is real and what is not.

“Could they do a better job moderating misinformation content? Yes, clearly they are not doing that,” said Sam Gregory, executive director of Witness, a human rights organization focused on the threats of technology. “Could they be more proactive in seeking out AI-generated information and labeling it themselves? The answer is also yes.”

The video about reselling food stamps was one of several that circulated as the standoff over the U.S. government shutdown dragged on, leaving actual beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the United States struggling to feed their families.

Fox News dropped a similar fake video, treating it as an example of public outrage over alleged abuses of the food stamp program in an article that was later removed from the site. A Fox spokesperson confirmed the removal but did not provide further details.

The hoaxes have been used to ridicule not only poor people but also Trump. A video on TikTok showed the White House with what appeared to be a narration in Trump's voice reprimanding his cabinet for releasing documents involving Jeffrey Epstein, the discredited financier convicted of sex crimes.

According to NewsGuard, a company that monitors misinformation, the video — which was not labeled as AI — was viewed by more than 3 million people in just a few days.

Until now, platforms have relied primarily on creators to inform viewers that published content is not real — but they don't always do so. And while there are ways for platforms like YouTube and TikTok to detect that a video was made with artificial intelligence, this isn't always immediately signaled to viewers.

"They should have been prepared," said Nabiha Syed, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, the technology security organization behind the Firefox browser, referring to social media companies.

The companies responsible for the AI ​​tools claim they are trying to make it clear to users what content is computer-generated. Sora and Google's competing tool, Veo, incorporate a visible watermark into the videos they produce.

Sora, for example, adds the label "Sora" to each video. Both also include invisible, machine-readable metadata that indicates the origin of each fake.

The emergence of realistic videos has been a boost for disinformation, hoaxes, and foreign influence operations. Sora videos have already appeared in recent Russian disinformation campaigns on TikTok and X.

One of them, with its watermarks crudely obscured, sought to exploit a growing corruption scandal among Ukraine's political leadership. Others created fake videos of frontline soldiers crying.

Two former members of a now-defunct State Department office that combated foreign influence operations, James P. Rubin and Darjan Vujica, argued in a new article in Foreign Affairs that advances in AI are intensifying efforts to undermine democratic countries and divide societies.

They cited AI videos in India that attacked Muslims to inflame religious tensions. One recent one, on TikTok, appeared to show a man preparing biryani rice in the street with water from a sewer. Although the video bore Sora's watermark and the creator claimed it was AI-generated, it was widely shared on X and Facebook, disseminated by accounts commenting as if it were real.

“They are creating things, and will continue to create things, that make the situation much worse,” Vujica said in an interview, referring to the new generation of AI-generated videos. “The barrier to using deepfakes as part of disinformation has crumbled, and once disinformation spreads, it’s difficult to correct the record.”

mundophone

 

TECH

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 with 192MB L3 cache spotted in multiple benchmarks

The long-awaited "double X3D" CPU, which AMD once denied would ever happen, has finally confirmed its existence with new leaks over at Geekbench and Passmark. We'll cut to the chase: neither benchmark result is particularly interesting, as both show performance nearly identical to the extant Ryzen 9 9950X3D in these specific benchmarks. However, the confirmation of this chip's existence is the more interesting detail, as it hadn't appeared in leaks until now.

As expected, the most significant improvement is in the L3 cache — capacity increases from 144 MB to 192 MB, a record number for a consumer processor. The secret, as rumored, lies in the use of the company's special technology in the two CPU chiplets that equip the 9950X3D2, instead of just one as the current generation offers.

This can be seen in Geekbench: the tool indicates 96 MB x2, reinforcing the presence of an additional chip at level 3 cache. This could also justify the lower clock speed, since memory is sensitive and still has overheating restrictions.

Regarding benchmark performance, the scores are as expected. In Geekbench, the new chip scores 3,456 points in single-core and 21,062 points in multi-core. In PassMark, the total is 71,585 points. As comparisons from the tests themselves demonstrate, we are in error territory compared to the 9950X3D, with speed losses in the range of 2%, reaching 8% compared to the conventional 9950X.

The lack of more significant gains is not surprising, since the extra cache usually only shines in games and specific professional tasks, such as file compression and decompression. We will have to wait for the chip's debut and the availability of independent reviews to know what the upgrade will really be able to provide.

To back up a moment, we're going to assume that you're familiar with AMD's 3D V-Cache. If you're not, check out our past coverage. People have been hoping for a Ryzen 9 processor with V-Cache on both CCDs for some time despite the somewhat questionable merits of such a processor. In terms of consumer workloads, gaming is the only thing that really benefits from the extra cache, and a single-CCD configuration with one stack of 3D V-Cache is typically the best performer in that arena.

Still, having doubled-up V-Cache does mean that you can enjoy a full sixteen-core CPU without ever having to worry about whether your game is running on the "correct" CCD. With the extant Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D, only half of the cores benefit from the 3D V-Cache, and so it can happen that games end up on the "wrong" cores, drastically reducing performance. That wouldn't be an issue with this chip, and it may also provide real performance benefits in tasks like code compilation, database analysis, computational fluid dynamics, and finite element analysis.

The leaks clearly come out of China, as the Geekbench result (at least), was run on a "Galaxy Microsystems" motherboard, better known as GALAX. Interestingly, GALAX hasn't actually released any motherboards based on the B850 chipset yet, so this is actually a motherboard leak, too. Nothing in the result is particularly surprising; the chip exactly matches the specifications that were leaked back in October by chi11eddog (@g01d3nm4ng0 on Xwitter.) Geekbench doesn't list TDP, but given that the rest of the specifications match up we wouldn't be surprised if this chip tops 200W for the first time since AMD's Centurion.

The Passmark result (hat tip @x86deadandback) is less informative, but it does confirm that the "X3D2" part doesn't seem to lose any performance versus the currently available part. The peak boost clock appears to be 100 MHz lower, at 5.6 GHz instead of 5.7 GHz, but the actual effect that has on the chip is a margin-of-error modification, and the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 actually beats the older chip in multi-core, suggesting that the higher TDP is helping out there.

It will be fascinating to test this chip, even if we don't expect the results to be all that different for most users. It will be the sort of product where you need to find the use case, rather than the sort of thing that accelerates everything. For the few users who can really make use of such a chip, it will likely be a game-changer, but for everyone else, it's most likely going to be an expensive halo product for those with deep pockets.

mundophone