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New X5 launches this fall as a 394 hp 40 xDrive; 483 hp 50e PHEV lands in 2027.

More variants, including V8-powered M Performance and iX5 Hydrogen, come later.

Door handles replaced by little metal wings; interior gets optional real slate trim.

The first X5 ’s combination of sports sedan agility and SUV space and ride height blew the market wide open when it debuted in 1999. BMW’s been refining the concept ever since, but the fifth-generation model makes the biggest leap since the first, with crisp Neue Klasse design and more powertrain variety than ever. We’re talking combustion, plug-in hybrid, full electric, go-faster V8s, and eventually hydrogen. That’s a lot of ways to move one SUV.

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Let’s start with the way it looks, because this is a very different-looking X5. Naturally, the smaller 2027 iX3 that dropped last fall lends plenty of Neue Klasse design cues, including the clean surfacing and visor-like face. But BMW’s designers did far more than simply punch out a 120-percent iX3. The US-built X5 brings its own ideas, like the new double X light icons that combine headlights, indicators, and daytime running lights into one element.

Also: BMW iX5 Hydrogen Teased With 385 Miles Of Range

Round the side, and you’ll spot new door handle tabs built into the pillars, hidden window seals, and chunky wheel arches that look like they’ve been cut clean through by a salami slicer in a Munich deli. This time, those arches get 21-inch wheels as standard and can be filled with rims up to 23 inches across without requiring a trip to the aftermarket. Adaptive dampers are standard, but you’ll pay extra for air springs.

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Shift to the rear end, and you’ll notice slim but wide running lights that echo that double-X theme up front. Overall, it’s a clean, confident shape that still looks unmistakably like an X5, just sharper, sportier, more car-like, and way more modern. It’s definitely going to be a major headache for Mercedes’ recently updated, but far less exciting MY27 GLE .

Inside, BMW’s gone heavy on both materials and tech. There’s genuine slate trim on the center console as part of the optional Clear and Bold package, for instance, paired with glass elements on the gear selector and volume controls. A backlit ambient light strip wraps from door to door, and a massive panoramic glass roof fitted to every model covers about 28 square feet (2.6 sqm) up top.

The iX3’s controversial vertical-spoke steering wheel is the default choice, even with the M Sport package, but upgrading to M Sport Professional gets you a more conventional-looking rim. And although all X5s come with soft-close doors, if you want to pretend you’re a Tokyo cab driver, you’ll also need to visit the option list to get the fully automatic door-closing feature.

Screens Everywhere

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You’re probably familiar with the X5’s basic digital setup already, BMW having debuted BMW Panoramic iDrive in the iX3 and since rolled it out to the i3 sedan and facelifted 7-Series . The 5-Series will also inherit it soon. The core elements are a centrally mounted tablet, in this case measuring 17.9 inches, and a pillar-to-pillar digital display at the base of the windshield. Projected above that is a 3D head-up display, and you can also opt for a 14.6-inch front passenger screen for streaming movies on the move.

So that’s the design and tech covered, but what about the real hardware? Well, contrary to what the Neue Klasse design suggests, neither the X5 nor the iX5 is built on the BMW Neue Klasse platform, which is the foundation of the iX3 and i3. Both X5s use an updated version of the old model’s CLAR architecture.

The Combustion X5

Kick things off on the ICE side as before is the rear-drive X5 40 and its xDrive all-wheel-drive brother. Each SUV’s engine bay is home to a turbocharged 3.0 liter inline six making 394 hp (400 PS) and 428 lb-ft (580 Nm) of torque, helped along by a 48V mild hybrid system. Those numbers are up 19 hp (19 PS) and a chunky 45 lb-ft (61 Nm) from the MY26 X5 40, and bring the 0-60 mph (97 kmh) time down a tenth (or two in the RWD 40’s case) to 5.1 seconds.

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Want a plug-in hybrid instead? The X5 50e AWD pairs that same inline six with a 194 hp (197 PS) electric motor for a combined – and unchanged vs MY26 – 483 hp (490 PS) and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm). It’ll do 0 to 60 in the same 4.6 seconds as before, but can run up to 44 miles (71 km) instead of 39 miles (63 km) on electric power alone, because the battery is upsized from 19.2 kWh to 26.5 kWh.

The Electric iX5

But the headline act is the first-ever BMW iX5, the brand’s first fully electric X5. It’s almost identical to the ICE X5, but misses out on the air intakes between the dual kidney grille and license plate.

The iX5 60 AWD uses two motors for a combined 570 hp (578 PS) and 593 lb-ft (804 Nm), sprinting to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds. Not bad, but it’s how far the X5 can go, rather than how fast it gets there, that’s the real showstopper here. BMW estimates the EPA range at an impressive 435 miles (700 km) thanks to a massive 144 kWh battery built from taller versions of the same clever cylindrical cells used in the iX3. The curb weight is likely to be less clever – we’re guessing at 6000+ lbs (2,720 kg).

The 800V system supports up to 460 kW DC charging, taking the battery from 10 to 80 percent in just 22 minutes. BMW reckons you can add around 170 miles (274 km) of range in only 10 minutes flat. There’s also bidirectional charging, so the iX5 can power your house or even another EV in a pinch.

Prices Rise By $1,500

More: BMW’s Hottest X1 Is Getting The iX3’s Face And Maybe A New Name

Pricing kicks off at $71,250 for the base X5 40, climbing to $73,550 for the AWD version. The plug-in hybrid 50e xDrive starts at $78,950, while the electric iX5 60 AWD will set you back $81,250. All of those prices are up $1,500 over MY26, but at least the $1,450 destination fee (included in those prices) hasn’t grown.

The combustion X5 40 xDrive arrives first in October, with the rear-drive X5 40, the 50e PHEV, and the iX5 following in early 2027. A V8-powered M Performance version and the fuel-cell-powered iX5 Hydrogen which should deliver 385 miles (750 km) of range will join the lineup later on, by which time BMW will have covered almost every base. And judging from the way it’s been racking up iX3 sales, this fifth-gen X5 looks like it’s going to be a huge hit. Drop a comment below and let us know what you think of the new X5.

BMW

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Anthropic, the artificial intelligence firm, on Tuesday announced the availability of Claude Science, an application that optimizes the company’s large language model for use in scientific laboratories and, especially, within the research operations of pharmaceutical companies.

The product is a beachhead in Anthropic’s larger battle for the future of biology. The firm has ambitions so big they would seem caricaturish were it not for its financial means. A month ago Anthropic said it had reached annualized sales of $42 billion — about as much as the drug giant GSK — and that it is valued, based on a $65 billion funding round, at $965 billion, far more than any health care company except Eli Lilly.

In the last year, Anthropic’s Claude Code application fundamentally changed the way the computer programming industry works. Eric Kauderer-Abrams, Anthropic’s head of life sciences, told STAT in an interview that the company expects the application unveiled Tuesday to fundamentally change the life sciences in the same way. He also stated that the he feels the company’s efforts in biology are “the single most important thing” at Anthropic.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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Bitcoin Magazine

One Year Later: How Coldcard Q’s Key Teleport Delivers Secure Remote Key Management for Bitcoin Treasuries

Have you ever been travelling, had to make a big payment and realised you left your hardware wallet back home? Perhaps you are a key holder in a business’s Bitcoin treasury, or an emergency came up, and a big payment has to be made, some cold storage Bitcoin has to move, but the keys are elsewhere.

Key Teleport, a feature developed by the hardware wallet manufacturer Coinkite, may be the most secure way to handle key material at a distance. The feature is only available to the Coldcard Q, the premium, feature-rich Bitcoin hardware wallet developed by the company.

Before Key Teleport, the most paranoid, secure way to move a private key over the internet was not to send it over WhatsApp or Signal. These apps, while end-to-end encrypted on the surface, are running on top of very complex hardware and operating systems, in many cases with very intrusive firmware embedded deeply by manufacturers . Smartphones today, as with most of mainstream technology, are simply not designed to secure highly valuable secrets that can transfer irreversible money like Bitcoin.

Had you asked me how I might go about sending a private key with life-changing money on it, across the wire, I would have told you this: You need to boot Tails OS , a slim, highly paranoid Linux distribution, into hardware you know to be secure, ideally a burner laptop. You then need to generate a fresh set of PGP keys to encrypt the secret with the power of asymmetric cryptography. The recipient needs to do the same, Tails-OS and PGP. Then, a classic encrypted message is made to the recipient’s public key, and the encrypted secret is sent over Tor, probably wrapped by another VPN just in case. Having done this once, I can tell you, it’s a mission.

This Tails-OS plus PGP combo is the kind of setup that Edward Snowden used to get in contact with journalist Greenwald originally, to leak the 2014 NSA surveillance secrets. If the 90’s cypherpunks had some kind of secret society, through which they coordinated the creation of technologies like Bitcoin or Wikileaks, this is the kind of setup they might have used.

The Key Teleport by Coldcard Q makes tasks of this sort far easier. You can now easily send encrypted messages across the internet without having to worry about your hardware or what other software might be installed on it that could spy. It also solves key management dilemmas; a partially signed Bitcoin multisig transaction can be transmitted as an encrypted note to the recipient Coldcard Q, for example. Or a whole wallet set up, with its metadata, key material and custom settings, backed up, encrypted and sent across the world to its unique recipient. I got a couple of these devices recently for a test run of the feature, and not even Opus 4.8 High could figure out how to crack the encrypted blurb.

The Hardware

The Coldcard Q — which now comes in a wide range of colored cases — has a very specific set of tools necessary to enable this kind of airgapped communication. First of all, it inherits the dual secure element model developed in the Mk4 series of Coinkite devices. Where two closed source chips made by different manufacturers are used in combination with an open source MCU chip to generate keys, encrypt, decrypt and store sensitive data. A combination of the components would need to be compromised by an attacker with physical access to get the wallet. These chips are, of course, used by the Key Teleport feature, handling the encryption and decryption of whatever message the user is dealing with.

The screen is a 3.2-inch LCD screen with enough resolution to show the BBQr code. BBQr is a QR code standard developed by Coinkite that has no dependencies or third-party libraries, is backwards compatible with standard QR code readers, and can contain larger messages than traditional QR codes.

The Coldcard Q is also able to read QR codes. It has a dedicated QR code scanner with a red strobe indicator light that guides the user as to what the scanner is pointed, and a small flash light that can be activated with a button to help in low light environments. This optimised hardware set solves common problems with QR code payments, where variation in screen resolutions, camera quality and lighting can make scanning a payment QR code difficult.

The Cryptography

TWO OR THREE IMAGES SIDE BY SIDE, QR CODE, PIN SHARING, SCANNING.

A multi-layer cryptographic protocol is used to encrypt the data to be transmitted by Key Teleport. A single-use ‘ephemeral’ public-private key pair is generated for each data transfer using the secp256k1 curve. The public key of the receiver is encrypted with an 8-digit pin, via the AES-256-CTR algorithm. That encrypted public key is displayed by the receiver in a QR code, with the 8-digit pin meant to be sent via a separate communication channel.

As an example, the recipient would do a video call with the sender, show them the QR code, and use Zoom. Then send the 8-digit PIN code using Signal. This operational security practice means that dedicated attackers would have to compromise two separate communication channels to get the recipient’s public key.

Sender scans the QR code, enters the pin code and in the back end, the sender device derives a shared session key via ECDH, using the receiver’s public key and its own ephemeral keypair. The user was asked to select what data they want to transfer, from three options: “Quick Text Message”, “Master Seed Words” and “Full COLDCARD Backup”. Once the user chooses, the data is encrypted by the recipient’s public key, and that encrypted blurb is encrypted once more with a new PIN code. Users would scan the QR code again via Zoom, for example, and the sender would transmit the new PIN to the recipient via Signal.

There is a deep set of careful cryptographic details involved in how this Key Teleport is integrated that is well documented in the Coinkite GitHub repository , but as far as the user experience is concerned, the process is now complete. After the recipient scans the QR code back and inputs the second pin code, they will get access to the data. Both Coldcard Q devices would have been entirely airgapped, not connected to computers via USB cables, as QR codes and scanners were used to transmit data, powered by three AAA batteries.

Last but not least, users can also share the encrypted data via NFC, which creates a special link at keyteleport.com for users to easily scan the QR code and get the encrypted data, replacing the hypothetical Zoom call.

Opus 4.8’s Conclusion

In my test of the Key Teleport feature, I tasked Opus 4.8 High, one of the most powerful AI coding models from Anthropic, to try and decrypt the message. First I gave it the encrypted blurb, after thinking about it for a couple of minutes, it gave up, saying there must be some information missing.

I then gave it one of the pins, which helped, but ultimately was not sufficient for it to crack the cryptography. I then gave it the second pin, which led to a brute forcing attempt that, by Opus’s own admission, would only work if the ephemeral key pairs were generated with intentionally low entropy. Ultimately, it gave up trying to break the encrypted data, even with both pin codes, saying it was securely sealed.

I asked the model to write one paragraph about its conclusions. Here’s what it wrote:

“I’m Claude Opus 4.8 (Anthropic), running in Cursor.

We took a scrambled QR code from COLDCARD’s Key Teleport feature — the kind meant to move a secret like a seed phrase between two wallets — and tried hard to break it open without the missing piece. The QR itself is designed to be safe to share publicly; you also need a short password and a number that are supposed to be sent separately. Even with that password and number in hand, we still couldn’t read the secret, because the real lock is a one-time random key that only exists on the receiving device and was never published anywhere.

We threw dictionary guesses, math tricks, and large-scale computer searches at it; a few things looked promising at first but turned out to be false alarms, which is actually a good sign that the checks work. Bottom line: Key Teleport did what it’s supposed to do — the QR plus the side-channel codes are not enough to steal the secret without the receiver’s private key. For a real transfer, you’d scan the code on the receiving COLDCARD and type in the password there; that’s the intended, secure path.”

Final Thoughts

The Coldcard Q’s Key Teleport feature opens the door to an otherwise very difficult to achieve level of secure communication over the internet. The scrutiny dedicated to the hardware and firmware process likely outmatches that of even high-security mobile phone operating systems like Graphene OS. The physical keyboard, QR code scanner and NFC antenna make this paranoid system quite comfortable to use. And the $249 price target for the whole hardware wallet makes it accessible to everyday, serious bitcoiners and cypherpunks, delivering a self-custody tool worthy of a professional industrial setup.

Disclaimer: Coinkite provided Bitcoin Magazine with a couple of free Coldcard Q devices to use for the purpose of testing their product for review.

This post One Year Later: How Coldcard Q’s Key Teleport Delivers Secure Remote Key Management for Bitcoin Treasuries first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt .

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Star Fox 64 is the Nintendo game that refuses to fade away, and we're not complaining, especially when the new Switch 2 remake — simply titled Star Fox — amplifies its replay value and expands the original vision with a bunch of new content.

Roughly a decade ago, Star Fox Zero almost killed the franchise for good. The ill-fated Wii U entry's structure and plot stuck staggeringly close to Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars for us PAL gamers), but no one could definitely answer if it was a remake, reboot, reimagining, or something else entirely.

It being a remake wouldn't have mattered, except that Star Fox 64 3D (for the little brave 3DS) had already done that with strong results. Now in 2026, we're still flying around the same planets with 'Star Fox'.

Considering Fox McCloud's secondary role in the recent Super Mario Galaxy Movie , you'd expect Nintendo to push onward with an all-new game in the enduring science fiction rail shooter series, yet Star Fox seems fated to play the greatest hits again and again. Fortunately, it nails what made Star Fox 64 so enduring and is the most complete take on Team Star Fox's greatest adventure.

The story is the same: The mad scientist Andross is exiled to the unwelcoming planet of Venom by General Pepper for almost destroying Corneria, the fourth planet of the Lylat system.

(Image credit: Nintendo) When suspicious activity is detected on the doomed world a few years later, Team Star Fox goes to investigate and – spoiler alert – James McCloud is killed by Andross following a betrayal from inside the team. Some time passes, and Andross launches an all-out attack against Lylat's forces, so it's time for Team Star Fox (now captained by Fox McCloud, James' son) to set things right.

And yes, his last name is Fox, and he is a Fox. If you're new to the series, there are no humans in this universe, only anthropomorphic animals.

While Star Fox doesn't sacrifice the original's arcade-y nature (you can 'beat it' in under two hours), it makes space for meatier cutscenes which better define the characters and the high stakes of the story.

It's all simple stuff with no real room for twists and turns that never gets in the way of the game's fast pace, but Velan Studios ' effort is a commendable reminder that even extremely faithful remakes can add to a classic formula. Shoutout to the new arrangements of memorable musical themes from the original, too; the orchestral refresh simply sounds amazing.

(Image credit: Nintendo) The character redesigns will no doubt be a point of contention. Fox McCloud doesn't look nearly as stylish as in past Star Fox games — or as he does in this year's Mario Galaxy flick — while team members like Slippy Toad (who seems slippery ) and Falco Lombardi land right in uncanny valley territory. There's a distinct charm to Star Fox's art direction — and the conversation surrounding the toons proves it — but the presentation no doubt raises the question of how much realism is too much realism for a property as cartoony as this.

The Arwings, enemy ships, and other vehicles look absolutely dashing and move with a smoothness that would've made Nintendo kids in the 1990s levitate, though. Both during missions and in cutscenes, there's speed and weight to the stars of the show, and smaller touches like laser beams briefly illuminating the environments remind us how far graphics have come.

The same could be said about the colorful levels; from Corneria to Solar, there's a vividness to Star Fox's many space locales that sometimes can be even distracting when the screen is filled with foes and incoming attacks.

(Image credit: Nintendo) Star Fox 64's 'pick up and play' nature remains untouched and only lightly upgraded. The control scheme could be more intuitive, but it's not too complex; moving around the screen, executing evasive maneuvers, and shooting down enemies feels snappy. Some of the latter levels weren't as 'tight' as I'd hoped for, but maybe that's just me still adjusting to the unavoidable nuances that come with a full tech rework under the hood.

The highlight, though, may be Switch 2's unique mouse mode, which is put to great use here; playing through the campaign with it plus the cockpit view feels transformative (It was impressive in Metroid Prime 4 ). Of course, the action runs at 60 frames per second with sharp image resolution in both docked and handheld modes, helping you achieve high scores, no matter which control option you use.

Blasting through the short (but highly replayable) campaign is just the beginning. There are hidden routes to discover, medals to obtain, new challenges to tackle, and the brutal Expert difficulty to clear. Ultimately, Star Fox is all about perfecting high scores and mastering a new iteration of a classic that's been dominated over the decades by the most dedicated pilots. It's Nintendo offering "one last ride" (hopefully) and inviting vets to reexperience the Lylat Wars in new, more demanding ways beyond the first run. On that front, Star Fox is a resounding success.

(Image credit: Nintendo) But it's hard to usher in a future for a dormant series without betting some chips on the casual crowd and newcomers, and I'd say most folks without an already established connection to the series (rail shooters are incredibly niche nowadays) are likely to go through Star Fox's campaign once or twice and then complain about the price tag.

There's actually a lot to Star Fox, but it mostly boils down to replaying the same missions in different ways. It's a retro sensibility that older gamers find captivating, but times have changed, and you have to wonder whether Nintendo should've gunned for an all-new game instead.

The multiplayer offerings shouldn't be ignored, though. Co-op (local or via the wireless GameShare function) lets two players go through the campaign by splitting the Arwing controls into movement and shooting, which is a nice offbeat bit of fun. Online, things get more interesting with a 4v4 competitive mode across three maps with different objectives and plenty of chaos, with NPC starfighters also fighting for control of objectives alongside players.

Matches are fast and intense, with free flight and plenty of power-ups adding to the spectacle and scale of the action. There's not much variety here, but the bones are strong. If they add more maps and modes, it could be something, but as it stands, it feels like one of those obligatory multiplayer modes every game had in the Xbox 360 era

(Image credit: Nintendo) Players willing to pick up the Switch 2 camera can also 'wear' the look of their favorite Star Fox characters VTuber -style while playing online, which is a silly little extra with incredible comedic potential in the right hands. Hardly a game-selling addition, but it's the kind of playful, family-friendly addition we expect from Nintendo.

Star Fox bets big on already established fans and hopes for the best when it comes to onboarding newbies. Will it pay off? Maybe, but 'nostalgia gains' are declining everywhere, and I'm worried that if this doesn't perform, we may be stuck waiting for a new entry that never comes... again.

Star Fox is available now for purchase on Nintendo Switch 2.

A review code for Star Fox was provided by Nintendo.

Blast off on a high-octane adventure to save a star system from invasion. Step into the cockpit and fly across the stars and skies with Fox McCloud and team!

This cinematic take on the Star Fox 64 story features fully voiced dialogue and cutscenes, an epic orchestral soundtrack, mouse control support, and a complete visual overhaul that takes advantage of the enhanced performance of the Nintendo Switch 2. View Deal