Daily News Stuff 15 April 2026

• China's leading flash memory producer, YTMC, is constructing two new factories in addition to the one already in progress. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Each factory will produce 100,000 wafers per month - equal to 50% of the company's current production - once it reaches full capacity, but that will take a while. The first of the new facilities will come online this year but will take another year to reach 50% of planned capacity.
  
  In an interesting twist, half the capacity of the first of these factories will be assigned to DRAM rather than NAND, which is what YTMC normally produces.
  
  It won't be enough to fill the current shortage but every bit helps.

• Speaking of which, Microsoft is increasing prices of its Surface laptops by between 25% and 50%. (Windows Central)
  
  This makes them worse value in almost every respect than Apple.
  
  
  
• The Internet Archive has started hosting a collection of 10,000 recordings of live concerts going back 40 years. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Until they get sued. So if you see something you like, download it now.
  
  
  
• Speaking of the Internet Archive, major news outlets are cutting off its access because it inconveniently reports exactly what they said. (Wired) (archive site)
  
  And we can't have that.
  
  
  
• The PocketTerm35 is a handheld device with a 3.5" 640x480 display, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a Raspberry Pi Pico. (Liliputing)
  
  The only shortcoming is that the Pi Pico just controls the, well, the controls. It's powered by a full Raspberry Pi - model 4 or 5 - which costs as much as the PocketTerm itself.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile the Pilet, another Pi-powered handheld, is switching to using the Pi Compute Module rather than the regular Pi. (Liliputing)
  
  The Compute Model is designed to be integrated into devices like this. There's just one problem: Lots of people already have the Pi, and hardly anyone has the Compute Module, because it gets integrating into devices.
  
  Like this.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

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