DIGITAL LIFE

Maldita.es: "Brigitte Macron is a man," this narrative has been circulating for years and is amplified by disinformation accounts and pro-Russian websites

On May 26, 2025, Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron landed in Hanoi, Vietnam, for the first stop on their Southeast Asian tour. The couple's arrival was documented by the Associated Press (AP), which published a video showing Brigitte Macron turning her face away from the French president. News outlets around the world reported that she had slapped him, although Macron himself stated hours later that it was just a joke between the couple.

These images brought to light a conspiracy theory used against other first ladies: that Brigitte Macron was born a man named Jean Michel Trogneux (which is actually her brother's name). Now, social media users, disinformation accounts, and Kremlin-linked websites have seized the moment to revive a narrative that has been circulating since 2017.

Two people were convicted in 2024 and another ten in January 2026 for spreading this narrative against the French first lady. Even so, a year later, it continues to go viral. In fact, on that day, the number of tweets (now X) with her name skyrocketed: it went from zero results between 4 am and 5 am on the 26th to 173 tweets between 2 pm and 3 pm. At the time of publication, they are still available and most have thousands of views.

This disinformation theory uses montages, images manipulated with artificial intelligence, and photographs of when her brother was little.

"She is a trans woman." This is the claim of the narrative that the wife of the current president of France was born a man. According to this content, the name she received at birth was Jean-Michel Trogneux, but she later changed it (without specifying when) to Brigitte. The only "proof" presented in this narrative consists of current photographs of the First Lady of France compared with supposed images from her adolescence and childhood, whose authenticity is unknown. Now, after the images of the Macron couple arriving in Vietnam, several of these posts have gone viral again.

In some cases, these are forgeries. For example, in 2024, we at Maldita.es warned that a 2011 publication from Mediafax, a Romanian website, had been used as if it were a "before" photo of Brigitte Macron. A reverse image search revealed that her face had been altered, but the body position and background coincided. The authentic image of Macron (with which this forgery is compared) is real: it was cropped from a photograph taken at the Louvre Museum in Paris on June 7, 2023.

Another image used to claim that the First Lady of France is a man shows signs of having been manipulated with artificial intelligence (AI). It has been circulating on social media for over a year. The image depicts a man, supposedly the wife of the French president before her gender transition. However, it contains details that suggest it may have been altered with an AI tool.

The mouth, teeth, nose, and wrinkles around the eyes are exactly the same as in the real image of Brigitte Macron, but there are distorted elements in the neck area. The right ear is also not clearly visible, and the background is blurred, making it impossible to identify any real features. In addition, the image depicts an elderly man. This contradicts the theory that she underwent sex reassignment surgery some years ago.

The real photograph of the First Lady of France was published on the Alamy image service and, according to them, was taken on June 4, 2019, during her visit to the training center of the French national football team in Clairefontaine, therefore, it appears to be a montage.

On other occasions, real photographs of Brigitte Macron's brother as a child have been used to claim that it was her "before her gender transition." Several manipulated images circulated on social media and websites, comparing photos of Jean-Claude Trogneux as a child with current photographs of the French president's wife. Fact-checkers from the Full Fact website (United Kingdom) explained that the image of the child had been cropped from an old photograph of the Trogneux family. She also appears in this image, in the center, sitting on her mother's lap.

This is not the only image of Brigitte Macron as a child. The Irish newspaper Daily Mail published an article in 2022 about this narrative, titled "Proof that the First Lady of France was not born a man," which included a photograph of her making her First Communion as a child and another from when she was even younger. Insider also compiled other photographs of Emmanuel Macron's wife when she was a little older: at her wedding to her first husband, André-Louis Auzière, and another with Auzière years later.

Eight years with the same narrative: it emerged in 2017 and is revisited from time to time...The origin of this narrative dates back to 2017, when Emmanuel Macron was running for president of France for the first time. At that time, content began circulating claiming that the then-presidential candidate was gay and that his marriage to Brigitte Macron was a sham. Macron's team denounced that his campaign was being targeted by "fake news" and cyberattacks originating from Russia. They accused Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, two media outlets funded or controlled by the Kremlin, of spreading "fake news" against Macron.

In fact, in February 2012, the Russian state news agency Sputnik published a text insinuating that Macron led a double life: the "official" one with Brigitte Macron and the "true reality" which, according to them, consisted of "an affair with the president of Radio France, Matthieu Gallet."

In 2021, a few months before the French presidential elections, self-proclaimed journalist Natacha Rey claimed, in a YouTube interview with Amandine Roy, who identifies as a medium, to have conducted a three-year investigation into the identity of Brigitte Macron. She claimed that Macron was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux. Her claim was based on alleged inconsistencies in official documents and the absence of certain public records. Rey published a series of articles supporting this theory on Faits & Documents, a website founded by Emmanuel Ratier, a "far-right journalist and essayist who died in 2015 and devoted particular attention to Jewish and Masonic organizations," according to the French newspaper Libération.

That same year, the narrative accusing Emmanuel Macron's wife of "being a man" gained traction thanks to the hashtag #JeanMichelTrogneux, created on November 7th by the anti-Emmanuel Macron account Journal de la macronie (currently suspended), as reported by Libération. In this context, Brigitte Macron filed a lawsuit in the French courts, which ended up being judged in her favor in 2024, condemning Rey & Roy to pay Brigitte Macron and her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, €8,000 and €5,000, respectively, for defamation.

Since then, the subject has resurfaced occasionally on social media. In those four years, Faits & Documents published up to seven additional articles related to this narrative about Brigitte Macron, the last one in 2024. In February 2025, Candace Owens (an ultraconservative and pro-Donald Trump influencer, according to the French newspaper Le Monde) published the first video in a series called "Becoming Brigitte" on YouTube, where she has over 4 million subscribers. The series consists of eight videos in which she presents the "proof" that, according to her, proves that Brigitte Macron was born a man.

In the BBC podcast "Fame Under Fire," Tom Clare, Macron's lawyer in the US lawsuit against Candace Owens, promised in September 2025 to present "photographic and scientific evidence" to an American court proving that Owens is a woman. This evidence included "expert testimony with scientific backing" to demonstrate that Owens was not born a man.

In May of the same year, this narrative resurfaced on social media after the publication of AP images showing the French First Lady turning her face away from her husband on an airplane. Indeed, on the day the images were published (May 26) and in the following days, there was a significant increase in the number of posts circulating on X containing the words "Jean Michel Trogneux," according to a content monitoring tool on Elon Musk's platform.

On January 5, 2026, ten more people (eight men and two women) were found guilty of "spreading or relaying insults and rumors related to the gender" of the French First Lady and "the age difference with her husband." The Paris Correctional Court sentenced them to prison terms of four and eight months (which will only be served in case of recidivism) and ordered the payment of €10,000 in compensation for moral damages.

Several pro-Russian websites continue to disseminate this narrative...This misinformation has been present on Russian websites since their creation in 2017 and was subsequently amplified by Pravda, a Russian propaganda and disinformation network that, according to NewsGuard, deliberately introduced false information into the training data of Western AI chatbots to influence their responses. In the last year, Pravda published at least three pieces of content that mention or insinuate that Brigitte Macron "was born a man." The first, published in the French version in March 2024, includes a YouTube video from a website called Géopolitique Profonde. It is almost half an hour long and has over 123,000 views at the time of publication of this article. The second, published in Czech in February 2025, claims that a Google search for Jean-Michel Trogneux returns photos of Brigitte Macron. In this case, the "source" is a Telegram channel with Czech content that currently has almost 13,000 followers.

The third is an alleged conversation between Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, in which the latter asks to "talk man to man" and the Russian president replies: "Put Brigitte on the line." This time too, a Telegram channel with over 32,000 followers is mentioned as the source of the misinformation.

There are other Russian websites that have also disseminated this theory. One of them, found by Maldita.es, published an article in January 2025 entitled "American journalist promises to publish proof that Macron's wife is transgender," which references Candace Owens' podcast. This publication includes several of the images mentioned in the article, comparing real photographs of Brigitte Macron with photos of her brother as a child and even manipulated images.

The information also circulated on a Russian social network called Pikabu, where false information about the blackout of April 28, 2025 in Spain and Portugal was disseminated.

There are also reports of misinformation that frequently revive the narrative... María Pilar Baselga Calvo, whose Telegram channel, with more than 16,000 followers, debunks rumors and false information about COVID-19, also shared this theory, claiming that Begoña Gómez, the prime minister's wife, is a man. For these messages, she had to appear in court in 2023, accused of defamation and slander, although she refused to testify.

He also published this same narrative about Brigitte Macron. He did so on May 27, a day after the release of images of Emmanuel Macron on the plane, after his arrival in Vietnam. He posted several messages that said: “Macron gets slapped by his partner, who is neither a woman nor his wife. Her name is Jean Michel Trogneux.”

However, this is not the only time Baselga has referenced this theory. Among the content still available on his Telegram channel, there are at least four other posts suggesting that Brigitte Macron “was born a man.” The first, found by Maldita.es, dates back more than two years, when he published a message about the alleged investigation of Natacha Rey. On the same day, he published another message stating that the French judicial system had “dismissed” the transgender identity case. The next traceable post dates from March 2024, in which Baselga claims that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson would publish “the truth” about Emmanuel Macron’s wife. As a “source,” he cites a tweet with over 760,000 views, which, at the time of this publication, is still available and has no community notes. To this day, more than a year after these posts, Carlson has not published anything related to Brigitte Macron and her alleged transgender status. In July 2024, he posted another message in this Telegram group, redirecting to a video from a platform called Oysee, a small social network with little moderation where misinformation and conspiracy theories have been shared in the past.

Rafael Palacios, better known as Rafapal for his Telegram channel with over 126,000 followers, where he has also shared false information on several occasions, also echoed this theory. In March 2023, he posted a message with a Daily Mail article that debunked the narrative that Brigitte Macron had "been born a man." On other occasions, he posted messages that encouraged interpretations about the alleged transgender status of the French First Lady.

Brigitte Macron is not the only woman victim of disinformation campaigns accusing her of being transgender. In fact, the website Maldita.es identified a borderless conspiracy theory that accuses the wives of heads of state or government of having "been born men." Some of those affected include Britta Ernst, wife of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz; Michelle Obama, partner of former US President Barack Obama; and Kamala Harris, US Vice President and Democratic Party candidate for the US presidency in 2024.

In Spain, several fake images have also circulated claiming that the Prime Minister's wife, Begoña Gómez, is a transgender woman. Since 2021, at least two manipulated images have circulated online comparing a current photograph of Gómez with an alleged image of her "before her gender transition." In both cases, the images are fake. One was generated using the FaceApp application and the other was manipulated.

Women in politics are not the only ones accused of being transgender. We have also seen content with this same narrative and approach related to American singer Taylor Swift; Clara Chía, current partner of soccer player Gerard Piqué; Algerian boxer Imane Khelif; and pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.

Author: Maldita.es

TECH

New semiconductor etching process achieves five-fold speed improvement

After more than a decade of research and development, Tokyo Electron Miyagi Ltd. has introduced an innovative semiconductor etching method that achieves etch rates up to five times faster than conventional processes. Now, a collaborative research team from Nagoya University and the company has examined the underlying etching mechanisms responsible for this enhanced performance.

This new method employs plasma etching with hydrogen fluoride (HF) at very low temperatures. In contrast to conventional fluorocarbon etching gases, which have high global warming potentials (GWPs), HF has a substantially lower GWP.

The study demonstrated that this process significantly reduces processing time and enhances energy efficiency, particularly for etching complex three-dimensional (3D) structures in advanced devices, such as gate-all-around (GAA) transistors and 3D NAND flash memory chips. The findings were published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.

Challenges in semiconductor etching technology...Semiconductor etching is an essential chip-manufacturing process that selectively removes material from a wafer surface to form precise circuit patterns. Reactive ion etching technologies have played a pivotal role in wafer fabrication through synergistic reactions between chemical gases and ions.

However, ongoing miniaturization of semiconductor devices poses substantial challenges for etching techniques, especially in delivering chemical species deep into complex 3D structures with high aspect ratios, where the depth is much greater than the width. These difficulties have led to a considerable decrease in "etching throughput," the amount of etching work done in a particular period of time.

To address these challenges, a Nagoya University research team, led by Professors Shih-Nan Hsiao and Masaru Hori of the Center for Low-temperature Plasma Sciences, collaborated with Tokyo Electron Miyagi Ltd., a manufacturer of plasma etching equipment, to verify that this new etching process mechanism significantly enhances throughput.

          Synergy of ion-enhanced and surface adsorbed HF/H2O for etching. Credit: Shih-Nan Hsiao

Breakthroughs in low-temperature plasma etching...Previous studies have indicated that cooling the substrate to ultra-low temperatures substantially increases etch rates in silicon-based materials, such as silicon dioxide (SiO₂) films. Furthermore, it has been suggested that co-absorption of HF and the etching reaction product, water (H₂O), significantly enhances surface reactions at very low temperatures.

"However, precise synergistic interactions between HF ions, surface-adsorbed HF and H₂O, and the material surface being etched for cryogenic plasma etching remain unclear," stated Professor Hsiao. "Therefore, we assessed the performance of etching SiO₂ films using HF plasma at very low temperatures."

The researchers cooled the semiconductor substrate to −60°C and then exposed it to an HF plasma. They observed that both HF and H₂O adsorbed onto the SiO₂ surface and found that H₂O acts as a catalyst, reducing the etching activation barrier to nearly zero.

The study also demonstrated that increasing ion irradiation energy promotes the generation of H₂O, which subsequently adsorbs onto the surface, accelerating a self-catalytic cycle that attracts HF. Interestingly, this process, referred to as an ion-enhanced surface autocatalytic reaction, resulted in an exponential increase in the film etching rate per unit of ion energy.

Implications for industry and sustainability...The study confirmed that this new process achieves an etching throughput for SiO₂ films approximately 100 times greater than that attained under conventional room-temperature and low-ion-energy conditions.

"Furthermore, the use of HF plasma instead of conventional fluorocarbon gases, which typically exhibit high global warming potentials, eliminates the carbon footprint associated with the etching process," stated Professor Hsiao.

"Through this industry collaboration, we are advancing verification in an environment similar to actual manufacturing equipment. We aim to apply this process to semiconductor manufacturing lines and extend its use to broader production processes."

Provided by Nagoya University 

TECH

The UK is being advised to disconnect from American tech giants as fears grow over digital sovereignty

The Open Rights Group is warning politicians that the UK is relying too heavily on American tech companies to operate critical systems and wants the Cybersecurity and Resilience Bill to force a reconsideration.

The digital rights organization says the bill, due to be read for the second time in the House of Commons today, represents a rare opportunity to force the government to confront what it considers a strategic blind spot: the UK's reliance on companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and data analytics firm Palantir for everything from cloud hosting to sensitive public sector systems.

"Just as relying on a single country to supply the UK's energy needs would be risky and irresponsible, so too would relying excessively on American companies to provide the bulk of our digital infrastructure," said James Baker, energy program manager for platforms at the Open Rights Group. He argued that digital infrastructure has become an extension of geopolitical power and that the UK is increasingly vulnerable to decisions made far beyond Westminster's control.

"Now, more than ever, the UK needs to build and protect sovereignty over its digital infrastructure and not become vulnerable to the policies and actions of foreign powers like the US and China," Baker added. While the US remains a close ally, he stated that its growing willingness to use economic and technological influence to achieve political and military objectives should give British lawmakers pause for thought.

"The Cybersecurity and Resilience Bill is an opportunity to improve the UK's control over its infrastructure," he added.

The ORG points to several recent cases where control over digital infrastructure has been used as an instrument of political pressure.

One of the cases cited in its report involves the International Criminal Court, which reportedly found itself affected by US sanctions policy. After former US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the court due to the arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reports emerged that Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan's email account had been blocked. Microsoft denied cutting off access, but the ICC later confirmed that, in October 2025, it had stopped using Microsoft services altogether, migrating to openDesk, a European open-source platform.

Another episode dates back to 2022, when the American agricultural giant John Deere remotely disabled tractors stolen by Russian forces from a Ukrainian dealership. The action was widely celebrated at the time, but it also revealed that the same remote "security button" could, under political pressure, be used against customers anywhere in the world.

Closer to home, the ORG points to the UK's own experience with Huawei. Equipment from the Chinese networking giant is being removed from British networks after strong pressure from the US government. The episode, argues the ORG, shows how strategic dependencies can quickly turn into problems.

The ORG states that ministers need to think more about what happens when things go wrong, such as a major supplier dropping out or foreign laws preventing UK access to data. The organization argues that these risks should be considered from the outset, when the government approves key digital systems.

The group's argument is that security often seems adequate until politics enters the picture. Systems can be extremely secure and fully certified, but still have flaws if they rely on certain foreign suppliers, closed platforms that cannot be quickly replaced, or cloud services that ultimately answer to legislators from another country.

The proposed solution is nothing extravagant. The ORG wants the government to more strongly adopt open-source software and interoperable systems, reducing dependence on suppliers and making it easier to replace them when relationships deteriorate. The advantage, according to the organization, is that more UK companies would finally have the chance to compete for public sector contracts, instead of seeing the same multinationals, such as AWS and Microsoft, being automatically chosen.

The timing of this choice is no accident. Similar arguments are occurring throughout Europe, where governments are increasingly apprehensive about the amount of digital infrastructure that is now in the hands of American hyperscalers.

Whether the UK views this as a warning sign or simply the price of convenience is a question that parliamentarians will now have to answer.

Reporter: Carly Page is a freelance technology journalist, editor, and copywriter with more than a decade of experience in the industry. Bylines include Forbes, IT Pro, TechCrunch, TES, Uswitch, WIRED, and more.

TECH

Q&A: Developing a sustainable power grid in the era of AI

Le Xie, Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), wants to know how we can modernize the electric grid to support rapid electrification and the growing demands of AI infrastructure. His research at SEAS focuses on the intersection of power systems, artificial intelligence, and decarbonization. We spoke to him about his work and the challenges facing the electric grid today. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

-Why is this a pivotal moment for the power grid and energy research?

We are living through one of the largest infrastructure buildouts in human history: the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Like past infrastructure revolutions, it presents enormous societal and economic opportunities—but also profound technical challenges.

When people think about AI infrastructure, they often focus on compute, GPUs, fiber optics, and communications. But electric power is just as fundamental. Without a reliable and scalable power system, none of this infrastructure can function.

-What is limiting AI infrastructure growth today?

In many parts of the world, the bottleneck is a lack of chips or technical talent. In North America, the primary constraint is increasingly electric power.

Electricity demand in the U.S. was largely flat for decades—growing just 1% to 1.5% annually since the late 1970s. Now, almost overnight, we are seeing gigawatts upon gigawatts of new demand, driven by hyperscale data centers, electrified transportation, and building heating. The grid was simply not designed for this pace or scale of growth.

-Why is operating the power grid becoming more complex?

The grid must balance supply and demand in real time, on a second-by-second basis. That task is becoming harder for several reasons.

On the supply side, a growing share of electricity comes from variable renewable sources such as wind and solar. On the demand side, electrification and AI computing are driving unprecedented growth. These changes are layered on top of aging infrastructure, making grid operation one of the most complex engineering systems in existence.

-How does climate change factor into this challenge?

Electrification is not only about supporting AI—it is also central to addressing climate change. Decarbonizing the economy depends on our ability to electrify transportation, buildings, and industry using clean and reliable power.

In the Xie Lab, we think about these challenges together: how can we expand the electric grid, make it low-carbon, and keep it reliable at the same time? Since renewable energy and AI infrastructure both represent fast-growing supply and demand of electricity, decisions about how we build and operate the grid will simultaneously shape both climate outcomes and the future of AI. Therefore, climate mitigation and AI infrastructure are deeply intertwined problems.

-What role can AI play in addressing these challenges?

AI is both a driver of electricity demand and a powerful tool for managing the grid more effectively.

Research in generative and agentic AI can significantly improve the productivity of the electricity sector. These tools can reduce the number of human engineer hours needed to maintain reliability, lower operational costs, and help accelerate the interconnection of new generation and data centers—one of the biggest bottlenecks facing the grid today. The goal is to augment human expertise with real-time intelligence, not replace it.

-Can you give an example of AI-enabled grid solutions in practice?

A powerful example comes from my time working in Texas. Over the past 15 years, Texas grew from virtually zero renewable generation to roughly 50 gigawatts of wind and solar—enough to rank among the top electricity producers globally. On average, renewables now supply more than half of the electricity Texans consume.

But that growth created a serious operational challenge. Fluctuating wind and solar power introduced instability and oscillations in the grid, forcing operators to underutilize transmission capacity—like building an eight-lane highway but only being able to use four lanes.

Using AI-driven real-time detection, localization, and control tools, we were able to mitigate these oscillations as they occurred. This allowed operators to fully utilize transmission capacity and deliver gigawatts more clean power from West Texas to load centers like Dallas and Houston. These tools are now deployed in ERCOT's control rooms, delivering tangible, large-scale societal benefits.

-What is the Power and AI Initiative at Harvard SEAS?

The Power and AI Initiative at Harvard SEAS brings together researchers from electrical engineering, computer science, climate science, materials science, and the social and behavioral sciences to take a holistic approach to grid modernization.

The initiative is designed to bridge the power sector and the technology sector—helping the grid support rapid AI growth while using AI to make the grid cleaner, more reliable, and more efficient.

-What impact do you hope this work will have?

This work is about enabling the next generation of infrastructure—one that supports AI innovation, accelerates decarbonization, and delivers reliable electricity at scale.

If we get this right, AI and power systems can reinforce one another. AI can help modernize the grid, and a modern grid can support the computing demands that will shape the future of science, industry, and society.

Provided by Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences 

MICROSOFT

Killjoy Microsoft shuts down Windows 11 activation without an internet connection

Microsoft has seemingly disabled phone call activation for Windows 11, and perhaps older versions as well, making it impossible to activate Windows without an Internet connection.

This is an unwelcome development for users that want to airgap their systems and enthusiasts who want to activate older versions of Windows on retro hardware. There are some conflicting reports which suggest that select regions may still offer phone activation, but for users in the United States, early reports indicate other Windows versions are impacted by this change as well.

Ben Kleinberg suggested phone activation was no longer possible in a Dec 18th YouTube upload, where an attempt to activate Windows 7 failed. In the weeks since, other reports (thanks, Neowin) have emerged related to Windows 10 and Windows 11, claiming phone activation was unavailable, with an automated response stating that "Support for product activation has moved online. For the fastest and most convenient way to activate your product, please visit our online activation portal at aka.ms/aoh." This is despite the official support documentation page for Windows phone activation still being live and suggesting this method is still an option.

This is just the latest in a multitude of moves from Microsoft lately, that won't sit well with users and will likely be another reason for some people to switch to Linux. Enthusiasts and enterprise users are in an unenviable position, though—even if you feel Windows 11 is changing for the worse, certain games and workloads simply are not feasible on Linux. Even if a Linux distro has everything you need, enterprise customers also have to worry about training employees and compatibility with proprietary applications, and by and large, corporate decisionmakers are more focused on pushing AI than pivoting to Linux anyway, even if there may be some long term cost savings.

Hopefully, Microsoft reverses course on this decision. Microsoft can do what it wants with its OS, but having such a strong monopoly position for costly OS software and silently discontinuing phone activation for said software (at least for specific regions), simply hurts customers who have come to expect the option. If MS can afford record-breaking investments ($13 billion!) in OpenAI, maintaining automated phone lines it's been running for decades should not be a problem.

Key changes to offline activation(below):

Phone Activation Disabled: The automated phone system, which previously allowed users to activate by calling a regional number and providing an installation ID, now redirects callers to an online portal.

Mandatory Internet/Account: These updates further enforce existing requirements for Windows 11 Home and Pro (for personal use) to have active internet connectivity and a Microsoft account during initial setup.

Patching Workarounds: Microsoft has progressively removed command-line workarounds (like the BypassNRO.cmd script) that allowed users to skip internet requirements during the Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE).

Impact on users:

Air-gapped Systems: Users maintaining isolated systems without internet access for security or privacy reasons must now find alternative ways to validate licenses.

Retro Hardware: Enthusiasts trying to activate older versions like Windows 7, whose online servers were already shuttered, can no longer use the phone fallback.

Self-Service Portal: While the automated phone line is gone, users may still be able to use a separate internet-connected device to visit the Microsoft Product Activation Portal to manually enter installation codes

mundophone

SAMSUNG

Galaxy S26 Ultra: Surprising colors according to teaser leak, eyewitness confirms "better" camera design

In Indonesia, a very early Samsung teaser for the upcoming Galaxy camera flagship has just been discovered on Instagram, revealing not only the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor in the international model but also the names of the four planned color options. Meanwhile, an eyewitness has confirmed the new and, in his opinion, improved camera design.

Only around 7-8 weeks to go until the Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco if the latest information from South Korea proves correct, but an initial Samsung teaser for the successor to the Galaxy S25 Ultra has just surfaced, apparently in Indonesia, where an X user was able to take some screenshots from an Instagram teaser, assuming their information is accurate.

We cannot be certain whether this is a fake, but reliable leaker Ice Universe has commented on the leak and pointed out a detail that may spark further discussion. According to the alleged Samsung promo (machine-translated below right), the flagship smartphone with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will be available in four color options: Black Shadow, White Shadow, Galactial (perhaps "Galatial" Blue) and Ultraviolet. The slightly brightened and AI-upscaled render above also alludes to the Ultraviolet color.

What Ice Universe is alluding to in his tweet below is the absence of the word "Titanium" in the color options, which possibly suggests that Samsung may imitate Apple in this case and switch back to pure aluminum for the housing material.

Meanwhile, Ice Universe claims to have seen a Galaxy S26 Ultra test device with his own eyes and has confirmed via X that Samsung will indeed be moving away from the grooved camera design of its predecessor to classic camera rings like those on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is also hinted at in the image above. He concludes that the camera rings are smaller than Apple's, but look significantly more premium and minimalist than on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

While the launch date is a fair bit later this year, leaks continue to detail Samsung’s plans for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. In the latest leak, we’re getting a better look at the hardware and how the Galaxy S26 design is changing.

The overall shape of the Ultra looks just about identical to last year’s Galaxy S25 Ultra with its rounded corners, but this time around the camera module is updated with a design that looks a lot like the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s camera bump. The three main lenses sit on a small raised island over the rest of the back of the device.

And, just from this first glance, it’s pretty obvious that an existing problem is about to get worse. As many have noted in recent years, Samsung’s design choice of placing the camera bump to the far left side of the device leads to the whole device wobbling on a table. It’s not an unusual trait in smartphones, but the doubly-raised bump on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 only makes this all the more frustrating. As our friends at Droid-Life hilariously pointed out a few months ago, the Fold 7 could double as an old-school telegraph with how much the camera makes it wobble when used on a table.

Samsung’s choice to extend this to the Galaxy 26 Ultra, and the rest of the series, means we’ll probably be seeing this problem get a bit worse on the new generation. The reason for the bigger camera bump is presuambly due to the thinner chassis Samsung is supposedly building this year.

mundophone

 

CES 2026

LG gram 2026 line incorporates Aerominum and Dual AI

LG Electronics presented its new LG gram 2026 Line during CES 2026, marking a significant upgrade in the physical construction and processing capabilities of its ultra-portable devices. The new generation stands out for the introduction of a proprietary material called AeroMinum and the implementation of a hybrid artificial intelligence system that combines local and cloud execution.

The central element of the physical renewal of the LG gram 2026 Line is AeroMinum. This material, developed by LG, consists of a high-strength, low-density metallic composition. Its application has allowed for a reduction in the overall weight of the chassis, while reinforcing the structural rigidity of the computers.

According to the technical specifications, the new models meet military-grade durability standards, exhibiting superior resistance to scratches and impacts. Aesthetically, AeroMinum allows for a metallic finish with a technical brushed texture, maintaining the sober look characteristic of the range.

Dual AI Architecture and Local Processing...In the processing domain, LG has implemented a "Dual AI" architecture. This solution segments artificial intelligence tasks to optimize performance and data privacy:

On-Device Processing: Uses the EXAONE 3.5 small-scale language model (sLLM). This mechanism allows for assistance and automation tasks to be performed directly on the hardware, ensuring the operation of productivity tools even without an internet connection.

Copilot+ Integration: The systems are prepared for the Microsoft Copilot+ ecosystem, taking advantage of cloud processing capabilities for more complex tasks.

This hybrid approach ensures that sensitive user data can be processed locally, minimizing the exposure of information on external servers.

The top-of-the-line model, LG gram Pro 17 (17Z90UR), has been configured to handle demanding workloads in the field of visual editing. This device integrates the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 graphics card, equipped with 8GB of GDDR7 memory.

The adoption of the GDDR7 standard represents a technical advancement in video memory bandwidth, allowing for more efficient texture management and high-resolution rendering in an ultra-portable format. The 17-inch screen uses a WQXGA LCD panel with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, maintaining a 16:10 aspect ratio for greater vertical productivity.

LG Gram Pro 16 and Gram Link ecosystem...The LG gram Pro 16 (16Z90U) variant opts for a WQXGA+ OLED panel with a resolution of 2,880 x 1,800 pixels. This screen is characterized by colorimetric accuracy and pure blacks, making it suitable for design and photography professionals. Both Pro models are powered by the latest generation Intel Core Ultra processors.

Interconnectivity between devices has been enhanced through gram Link. This tool acts as a universal hub that allows file transfer and screen mirroring between LG gram computers and devices with different operating systems, including Android, iOS, and webOS (used in LG TVs and monitors).

LG's strategy for 2026 focuses on consolidating extreme portability through materials science and data security via local processing. The introduction of AeroMinum and GDDR7 memory in the Pro models indicates an engineering effort to equip lightweight devices with hardware capabilities usually found in larger devices. The success of this line will depend on the practical integration of these new technologies into professional workflows.

LG's transition to the 2026 line represents a qualitative leap in graphics subsystem bandwidth and hardware durability. While the 2025 version focused on the initial integration of Neural Processing Units (NPUs), the 2026 model decentralizes the execution of language models and adopts next-generation video memory standards.

The Leap to GDDR7...The main difference in rendering performance and visual data processing lies in the adoption of GDDR7 memory in the 2026 model. Unlike the GDDR6 standard present in the previous generation, GDDR7 uses PAM3 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation) signaling, which allows for more data to be transmitted per clock cycle.

Bandwidth: The GDDR7 memory in the LG gram Pro 17 (2026) offers significantly higher bandwidth, reducing latency in 8K video editing tasks and in handling large datasets for local AI models.

Energy Efficiency: Despite the increased performance, GDDR7 offers higher power consumption per bit transferred than GDDR6, a crucial factor in maintaining battery life in a lightweight chassis.

Innovation in Materials Science: AeroMinum vs. Magnesium...While the magnesium alloys used in 2025 allowed LG to achieve record lightness, the new AeroMinum material introduced in 2026 solves the issue of surface integrity. This new metal alloy is less prone to permanent deformation under pressure and has a hardness coefficient that mitigates the appearance of deep scratches, common in ultralight notebooks of past generations.

The LG gram Pro 17 (2026) sets itself apart from its predecessor by transforming the laptop into a more resilient and technically autonomous workstation. The ability to run the EXAONE 3.5 sLLM model locally, coupled with the speed of GDDR7 memory, positions this equipment as a superior tool for professionals who demand data sovereignty and consistent graphics performance without the added weight.

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