Author: Julianne Omamos

Amazon has started telling customers what comes next on tariff refunds. After the company collected about $600 million from the U.S. government, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that threw out Trump-era tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, some customers will get automatic repayments.

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But Amazon is drawing that group pretty narrowly. It says refunds will go only to a limited set of specifically identifiable customers, and it still hasn’t said which orders qualify, how many people are affected, how much any one customer might get, or when those payments will actually go out.

And not all of that money is coming back as cash. Amazon says part of it will instead be used to “invest in low prices.”

The company also says the full $600 million isn’t a direct measure of what shoppers paid. Amazon says it absorbed much of the tariff cost itself, brought in inventory before the tariffs took effect, and doesn’t import most marketplace goods on its own. More than 60% of products sold on Amazon come from third-party sellers, the company says, and those sellers were often the importers of record.

If you shop on Amazon a lot, keep an eye on this. A proposed class action says Amazon passed those costs on to customers and is now holding on to too much of the refund. Similar repayments are also starting to spread across an estimated $166 billion collected from U.S. businesses, including Walmart and Costco.

You don’t need to download anything or take any action right now, but Amazon’s refund process is still vague.

Star Wars Zero Company arrives on August 27, 2026. It’s a cinematic single-player strategy game set in the closing days of the Clone Wars, and it brings Matt Lanter back as Anakin Skywalker, gives Dee Bradley Baker a new part as clone trooper Trick, and builds a new Star Wars story around squad-based tactics.

In Star Wars Zero Company, you play as Hawks, a former Republic officer you can customize, voiced by Jonathan Freeman or Erica Luttrell. Hawks leads a mercenary squad that includes a Clone Trooper, a Mandalorian, a Jedi Padawan, and other specialists as they take on Kundri Fathom. Rekha Sharma voices Fathom, the leader of the Separatist-linked Infinite Coil.

Lanter and Baker aren’t the only familiar names here. JB Blanc plays Kabb Uppercut. Judy Alice Lee voices Jae Mordant, Jim Pirri plays Neesh Renark, D.C. Douglas is M-3VO, or Meevo, and Vic Michaelis plays Runa Blask. Bit Reactor, a studio founded by former Firaxis developers, is pitching Star Wars Zero Company as a solo, turn-based tactics RPG with XCOM-style positioning, ability synergies, mission planning, and a campaign that leans more into story and cinematic presentation than a sandbox war sim.

If you grew up with The Clone Wars, or you’re just into strategy games, Star Wars Zero Company looks like one to pick up when it lands. Its campaign runs about 30 to 40 hours and stays mostly linear. There’s also a Bond System that unlocks abilities through squad relationships, mission-based scene variations, and no New Game Plus at launch.

You’ll be able to play Star Wars Zero Company on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

CISA, the FBI, and their partner agencies have revised the advisory they first put out in July 2026. The new warning says Iran-linked hackers are targeting industrial control system equipment from Siemens, Schneider Electric, and Rockwell Automation.

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The update says organizations in energy, water and wastewater, and government are being hit through internet-exposed programmable logic controllers and other operational technology devices. The attackers are also leaning on legitimate tools, not just malware, including Rockwell Automation Studio 5000 Logix Designer, Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Control Expert, and Siemens TIA Portal, which helps their activity blend in with normal engineering work.

According to the agencies, the campaign has already caused operational disruption and financial loss. Reported activity includes malicious project files, human-machine interface manipulation, altered supervisory control and data acquisition data, and even shutdown and alarm logic being disabled. The updated advisory says that points to a more advanced phase than earlier Iranian activity, including the 2023 CyberAv3ngers Unitronics attacks and the March 2026 Stryker incident.

If you rely on programmable logic controllers or engineering interfaces, this July 2026 CISA update is one to read. The message is blunt: if your systems are reachable online, they may already be in an attacker’s sights.

You can get the updated indicators of compromise and mitigation guidance from CISA right now, including recommendations to disconnect exposed devices from the public internet, harden systems, restrict remote access, and review configurations.

By February 2008, Blu-ray had won the format war with HD-DVD, the other big high-definition disc standard at the time. The decisive stretch came quickly: Warner Bros. said in January 2008 that it would support Blu-Ray exclusively, and in February 2008 Toshiba announced it would stop making HD-DVD players and discs. That left Blu-ray with the stronger support system, even though HD-DVD had initially looked like the more practical option.

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Both formats were pitching the same broad upgrade just as HDTVs were going mainstream, and both had serious backing from electronics companies and Hollywood studios. Still, HD-DVD had a few obvious advantages early on. It was cheaper, easier to produce with existing DVD equipment, and it reached consumers first.

Sony changed the equation by putting a Blu-ray drive into every PlayStation 3. Microsoft handled HD-DVD differently on the Xbox 360, where it was only an optional external add-on. That mattered. Blu-ray ended up with the larger installed base, which made it the safer call for studios, retailers, and buyers. Warner Bros. then went Blu-ray-only in January 2008, and Toshiba stopped making HD-DVD players and discs a month later, in February 2008.

The simple takeaway is that the best product doesn’t always win. Blu-ray’s victory also had a slightly bitter edge, because streaming began cutting into disc use soon after. Even so, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray has kept a niche audience thanks to better picture quality, less compression, and stronger audio.

You can still play Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on current disc players. HD-DVD is discontinued.

Apple appears to have retired the Mac Pro in March 2026 after shelving several follow-up models, including versions said to be built around M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips.

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Reports say the company had looked at a much faster Mac Pro before the desktop quietly disappeared from Apple’s site in March 2026, and there was no replacement waiting behind it. The rumored Extreme setup was supposed to land at roughly twice the power of an Ultra, basically by fusing four Max chips into one design. Apple also seems to have dropped other paths along the way, including the Intel-based J170 and a J190 model that was reportedly set to use an M3 Ultra.

So if you were waiting for a true Apple Silicon halo tower, this clears up why it never showed up. It also makes the 2023 Mac Pro with M2 Ultra look like an even tougher sell in hindsight, since it offered Mac Studio-like performance and, for the most part, PCIe expansion, but at a much higher price.

The Mac Pro’s audience may have narrowed more than Apple expected. High cost , limited demand, and the fact that Apple Silicon doesn’t support third-party GPUs all seem to have worked against it. That leaves the Mac Studio as Apple’s clear pro desktop focus now, with M5 Ultra updates rumored for fall 2026.

You can’t buy a new Mac Pro from Apple anymore. The Mac Studio is still there in Apple’s desktop Mac lineup.

Starlink has updated its residential hardware again, this time with the new Starlink V5 home dish. The company says it’s a smaller, lighter design that also uses a lot less power than the previous version.

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On Starlink’s spec sheet, the V5 draws about 35 to 50 watts, down from the V4’s 75 to 100. It weighs 2.4 pounds instead of 6.5, measures 12.05 by 15.12 inches, and should be easier to move, mount, store, and just live with day to day.

Speed doesn’t seem to be the point here. Starlink rates the V5 at more than 375 Mbps, versus more than 400 Mbps for the V4, so this looks less like a performance jump and more like an efficiency refresh for people using solar generators, battery backups, RV-style power stations, or Tesla Powerwalls.

If lower power draw and easier installation matter more to you than peak throughput, the update looks appealing. Still, Starlink says isn’t meant for in-motion use, and there’s still only limited independent testing on real-world performance, bad-weather reliability, and the bundled Starlink Router Mini.

For now, Starlink is offering the V5 to residential customers in select parts of the US. It comes bundled with the dish, kickstand, Starlink Router Mini, cables, and a pipe adapter, and at the moment it’s tied to the cheaper 100 Mbps residential plan. Higher-tier plans are still shipping with the Starlink V4.