• Apple's upcoming A20 Pro phone CPU could be the company's first chip to use LPDDR6 memory - and to increase the bus width from 64 bits to 96 bits.  (WCCFTech)
  
  The 96-bit width is actually a natural result of DDR6 architecture, which instead of having two 32-bit subchannels (each with optional ECC) is broken down into four 24-bit channels (each comprised of two 12-bit subchannels) with extra ECC bits coming from a multi-word burst.  If you read twelve 12-bit words from memory, for example, you get four 32-bit words plus 16 bits of error-correcting data.
  
  Which means that while all DDR5 memory has on-die ECC, all DDR6 memory has both on-die and end-to-end ECC.
  
  And 50% more bandwidth.  Actually more than that in time, as DDR6 will support higher speeds than DDR5.
  
  
  
• Though you won't be able to afford it.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Budget phones are expected to disappear for at least a couple of years as memory prices simply push them out of the market.  If manufacturers have to spend $200 for 8GB of RAM, saving $5 on the CPU makes no sense.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Retail memory price increases are set to slow for the simple reason that nobody can afford it anymore.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The third derivative of distance is called jerk, just like Sam Altman.
  
  
  
• Smaller electronics companies will be turning to products that use minimal amounts of memory, like this fancy typewriter-styled keyboard from Epomaker.  (WCCFTech)
  
  But does it have the Four Essential Keys?
  
  Yes?
  
  Very good then.  Carry on.
  
  
  
• Score one for Bluesky?  (Tech Crunch)
  
  The denizens there were properly scornful of a Google ad showing the Founding Fathers using Gemini to draft the Declaration of Independence.
  
  They might hate America, but they hate AI even more.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, Grok has started illustrating answers to questions...  Some of the time.  Helpful - well, not actually helpful, but notable - in illustrating a geodesic through a four dimensional planetary structure.
  
  Thankfully it didn't illustrate the question I posed about the plausibility of decapitating an Amphicyonid with a single sword blow.
  
  (I am probably on a list somewhere simply titled "Huh?")
  
  
  
• Lenovo has started including YMTC-manufactured SSDs in its mainstream computers.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Not available in the US, as the Chinese memory makers CXMT and YMTC are both under sanctions.  I actually have a couple of YMTC SSDs I bought early this year, as they are not under sanctions here in Australia, and they were the last models to increase in price.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which wars are blurring the lines between corporate and national security.  (MSN)
  
  The link to this article posed it as a question so I was planning to hit it with an inverse Betteridge's Law, but the article simply states it as fact, with good reason.
  
  
  
• Italian investment group Bending Spoons has held a successful IPO giving it a valuation of $18 billion.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Who?
  
  You might not have heard the name, but they own the remnants of former high-flying American tech companies like Meetup, Eventbrite, Vimeo...  And AOL.
  
  
  
• Supergirl is not the box office disaster suggested by its disaster at the box office.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Even the comments are suggesting the Ars staff need to go a little lighter on the shrooms.
  
  
  
• In the big Amazon Prime Day sale I picked up a subscription to anime streaming service Hidive at 75% off.
  
  Wow.  That stuff is bad.  Mostly.
  
  They do at least have Gate.
  
  Worth the A$2.25 I paid, but not worth keeping once it reverts to full price.