Enlarge / The Raspberry Pi 5's custom I/O chip, the RP1, is the result of $15M in investment over seven years. It unlocks far more data and storage capabilities in the single-board platform. (credit: Raspberry Pi)

Nearly everything on the Raspberry Pi 5 has improved over the 4 model, particularly the way you can buy it. In a first for the single-board company, the 5 is available for preorder today from approved resellers , before it's generally available by the end of October.

Perhaps most importantly, the 5 is being prioritized for individual buyers rather than commercial partners.

"We’re incredibly grateful to the community of makers and hackers who make Raspberry Pi what it is; you’ve been extraordinarily patient throughout the supply chain issues that have made our work so challenging over the last couple of years," writes Raspberry Pi founder and CEO Eben Upton. "We’d like to thank you: we’re going to ringfence all of the Raspberry Pi 5s we sell until at least the end of the year for single-unit sales to individuals, so you get the first bite of the cherry."

Enlarge / The iPhone 14 Pro. (credit: Apple)

For years now, Apple has wanted to replicate its success in processors with its own in-house cellular modems. The company spent $1 billion to buy Intel's modem technology in 2019, and since then the company has perennially been just a year or two away from replacing Qualcomm's modems in new iPhones (alleged 2021 and 2022 timelines have come and gone, and Qualcomm seems to think that 2023 won't be the year either ).

Undeterred by these setbacks, the company plans to expand its wireless ambitions to encompass Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, according to a Bloomberg report . Apple is supposedly hoping to ship these chips in new products starting in 2025, working toward an eventual goal of building Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular modem capabilities into a single chip.

Apple has relied on Broadcom chipsets for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity across all its products for years. Even when Macs used Intel processors, Apple declined to use or support the Intel Wi-Fi and Bluetooth products that are ubiquitous in most other laptops. Apple and Broadcom last signed three-and-a-half-year supply deals in early 2020 that were said to be valued at $15 billion. Apple is also said to be working on separate RF and wireless charging chips to replace Broadcom-provided parts.

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto )

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal this week told Politico that he expects that diminished access to technology will be the driving force staving off Russia's ongoing attacks. Since invading Ukraine, Russia has spent months burning through nearly half of the critical military technology in its arsenal, and now Politico has shared a leaked "shopping list" of tech that Russia is most urgently seeking to replenish its stockpile.

"According to our information, Russians have already spent almost half... of their weaponry arsenal," Shmyhal told Politico.

Among about two dozen "chokepoint technologies" that Russia "most desperately" needs to stay in the fight are microchips manufactured by eight US tech companies that America hopes to block Russia from accessing through sanctions.

Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of cloud software company VMware is set for a lengthy antitrust investigation in Brussels over regulatory concerns that the deal will harm competition across the global technology industry.

Broadcom is already in preliminary discussions with EU officials who will be looking into worries that the merger may lead to abusive behavior, including potential future price rises by the US chipmaker, three people with direct knowledge of the transaction said.

Many large acquisitions receive similar interrogation, known in EU circles as a “phase 1” investigation, which typically takes a few months to complete.