Startups face more exit options — and more uncertainty — than ever before. That’s why we’re bringing this essential conversation to the Going Public Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27-29 in San Francisco’s Moscone West. Whether you’re already eyeing a liquidity event or just starting to scale, this is your chance to hear what top VCs are looking for and how to set up your company for long-term success.
Two of the best in the business — Roseanne Wincek of Renegade Partners and Jai Das of Sapphire Ventures — will break down the decision-making process, from when to make a move to how to be ready when the moment comes.
Why this session belongs on your calendar
Startups can no longer afford to treat exit planning as an afterthought. Between tighter capital markets, shifting investor expectations, and growing regulatory complexity, founders need a smarter playbook — and this conversation delivers just that.
You’ll get real talk on key timing considerations, market signals to watch, and how to structure your business for optionality, whether you’re thinking IPO, acquisition, or just keeping your head down and building. It’s a candid, high-level look at how the best founders are preparing for every possible outcome.
Meet the experts leading this conversation
Roseanne Wincek is a venture capitalist, early-stage founder, and co-founder of Renegade Partners. A veteran of IVP and Canaan Partners, she’s invested in game-changers like Glossier, MasterClass, Looker, Spekit, and Daily — and brings a sharp lens for what makes companies truly ready for scale and exit.
Jai Das is co-founder, president, and partner at Sapphire Ventures. He’s led investments in more than a dozen IPOs and two dozen acquisitions, with a deep focus on enterprise tech and AI-driven SaaS. His portfolio includes Netskope, ThoughtSpot, MuleSoft, and CircleCI, among many others.
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Most microSD cards are fast enough for boosting storage space and making simple file transfers, but some provide a little more value than others. If you’ve got a device that still accepts microSD cards — whether it’s an older gaming handheld, the new Nintendo Switch 2, an action camera, a drone or an Android tablet — we’ve scoured the market and put close to 20 top contenders through a number of benchmark tests. You can find our recommendations for the best microSD cards below, alongside some general shopping advice before you buy.
A good UHS-I card is quick enough for most people’s needs, and the Lexar Professional Silver Plus is the best value of the ones we’ve tested. Paired with Lexar’s USB card reader, it consistently delivered faster sequential reads and writes than any other UHS-I model across our benchmark tests. It’s rated for read speeds up to 205 MB/s and write speeds up to 150 MB/s, both of which are relatively high to begin with, but we found the latter to reach into the 180-190 MB/s range in synthetic benchmarks like CrystalDiskMark, ATTO and AJA.
Our 12GB test folder wrote to the card in 76 seconds on average, which was roughly 30 seconds quicker than the Samsung Pro Plus and Samsung Pro Ultimate, our two previous top picks. It effectively tied the Pro Ultimate to lead all UHS-I cards we’ve tried in reading that test file back to our PC. (That one averaged about 67 seconds, if you’re keeping score at home.) Both Samsung cards and a few others beat the Silver Plus in some random performance benchmarks, though it was still plenty competitive in that regard. Either way, it has all the requisite ratings — U3, V30, A2 — and it’s more than speedy enough for working with 4K videos or moving files between devices without major delays (so long as you have a reader and/or host device that can enable those max speeds).
The card itself is waterproof with an IPX7 rating, and Lexar backs it with a lifetime warranty. Sizes range from 128GB to a spacious 1TB. The optional reader — which you can buy separately or as part of a bundle — is a bit large, but it conveniently includes both USB-A and USB-C ports, so you shouldn’t need any dongles to connect it to a phone or PC.
What puts the Silver Plus over the top is its price. At the time of writing, a 128GB model is available for $13, while the 256GB, 512GB and 1TB variants were going for about $23, $41 and $82, respectively. Those aren’t the cheapest prices we’ve ever seen, and the math will change a bit if you need to factor in a card reader, but they either undercut or match competitors like the Pro Plus, Pro Ultimate or SanDisk Extreme despite the Silver Plus being the more performant card overall. So, to recap: It’s fast, it’s durable and it’s reasonably affordable. That’s the recipe for an easy recommendation.
Pros
Fastest sequential read/write performance of any UHS-I card we’ve tested
Cheaper than many slower alternatives
Has a 1TB option
Lifetime limited warranty
Cons
Needs USB reader to reach maximum speeds (as expected)
Storage prices tend to fluctuate, however, and the Samsung Pro Plus — our former “best for most” pick — is still worth considering if you see it available for several dollars less than the Silver Plus in the capacity you want. Its sequential read and (especially) write performance was slower than Lexar’s card across the board but still on par with or better than nearly every other UHS-I card we’ve tested. Its random reads and writes were generally second to the pricier Samsung Pro Ultimate, but only by a little, so it’s well-suited for a portable game console or any other setup where it’d be asked to access tiny bits of data scattered throughout a device. It’s held up perfectly fine in our long-term testing as well. That said, the Silver Plus is the better card when it’s in the same price range, plus Samsung’s has a shorter 10-year warranty.
If you do end up grabbing one, though, make sure you get the newest model with read speeds rated at 180MB/s. An older-generation model with slower sequential reads and random performance may still be hanging around at some online retailers, so avoid that one. Samsung also sells Sonic the Hedgehog-themed versions of the Pro Plus with identical performance ratings, but those usually cost a few bucks extra.
Pros
Quick sequential and random speeds
Readily available at trusted retailers
Has a 1TB option
Cons
Slower than our top pick, especially with sequential write performance
Storage capacity: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB (“new generation” model only) | Speed classes: U3, V30, A2, Class 10 / (64GB) U1, V10, A1, Class 10 | Warranty: 10-year limited
The Samsung Evo Select is a clear step behind our top picks, particularly when it comes to sequential write speeds (just under 70 MB/s on CrystalDiskMark). So we don’t recommend it for any sort of camera. Still, it’s perfectly usable for simple storage expansion, and its sequential and random read speeds were still respectable in our benchmarks.
Most importantly, it’s usually inexpensive: We’ve previously seen the 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB models fall as low as $13, $18, $33 and $67, respectively. The latter two capacities could be particularly fine values if you just want a giant chunk of space from a reputable brand on the cheap. That said, you should still grab the Lexar Professional Silver Plus or Samsung Pro Plus instead if either one is anywhere close in price.
Pros
Often discounted
Acceptable performance if price is chief concern
Has a 1TB option
Cons
Slower than other top picks, particularly in sequential write and random performance benchmarks
Let’s be clear about this: Unless you plan to own a Nintendo Switch 2 in the near future, you do not need a high-speed microSD Express card just yet. Nintendo’s gaming handheld is the only popular device that natively supports this standard right now, and microSD Express cards themselves are highly expensive compared to more traditional options.
Still, if you do want to increase a Switch 2’s storage, they’re your only choice. Fortunately, determining exactly which model to buy for the console is pretty straightforward: Get whichever one you can find in stock, in the capacity you want, at a price you can stomach.
We benchmarked several microSD Express cards for a separate Switch 2 guide, and for the most part, the performance differences between them weren’t great enough to justify paying much extra for any particular model. Loading times weren’t quite identical with every test we ran, but the cards were extremely close in most games. When there was a gap — fast-traveling to a particularly resource-heavy region in Cyberpunk 2077, for instance — the gulf between the slowest and fastest card was only ever about 3 seconds at most. That’s not nothing, but it’s not something you’re likely to fret over unless you have a stopwatch handy.
The SanDisk microSD Express Card and Lexar Play Pro.
(Jeff Dunn for Engadget)
The only time you’d notice a major speed difference is if you transfer games to your Express card from the Switch 2’s internal storage (and vice versa). In that case, the SanDisk microSD Express Card and Lexar Play Pro were generally the quickest, while PNY’s microSD Express Flash Memory Card had particularly slow write speeds.
Moving Mario Kart World to the SanDisk and Lexar models, for example, took around four minutes and 35 seconds on average; with the PNY card, it took a little over seven minutes. That said, the PNY model was the fastest when it came to moving games back to the system storage. Either way, most people aren’t constantly shuffling their games back and forth like this. Performance in actual games is more important, and in that regard the results were consistently much tighter.
What matters most is getting the most space for your budget. Unfortunately, stock for all microSD Express cards has been spotty since the Switch 2’s launch. For your convenience, we’ll list out all of the models we’ve seen at retailers thus far and their respective list prices below. The only one we haven’t tested is the Walmart Onn model, which also happens to be the most affordable. Also note that some lower-capacity versions — the 128GB SanDisk card, for one — advertise slower speeds than their more spacious counterparts.
The Lexar Play Pro on top of Lexar’s RW540 microSD Express card reader.
(Jeff Dunn for Engadget)
Broadly speaking, we recommend getting at least 256GB of storage, as Switch 2 games tend to have much larger file sizes than games for Nintendo’s previous handheld. But we also recommend holding off upgrading for as long as you can, if only because all of these cards should (tariff shenanigans aside) come down in price as time goes on.
There’s no point in buying a microSD Express card for anything besides the Switch 2, but we did run the models above through our usual PC benchmarks as well. Unsurprisingly, they are miles faster than any traditional card on the market.
With the 256GB SanDisk card, for instance, sequential read speeds checked in just under 900 MB/s in CrystalDiskMark and ATTO, while sequential writes topped out around 650 MB/s. Sustained writes speeds were slower (around 210 MB/s), but that was still fast enough to move our 12GB test file to the card in 52 seconds on average. It took a mere 20 seconds to read the file back to our PC. The write test with our smaller 1.15GB test folder, meanwhile, averaged just 4.5 seconds.
It all adds up to performance that’s at least twice as fast as the best UHS-I models we’ve tested in terms of sequential reads and writes, with three or four times the speeds in some cases. The gulf in random reads and writes is similar, and in some benchmarks even greater. But you need a pricey SD card reader to even see those increases on a PC, so only those with a Switch 2 in hand or serious cash to burn should consider one of these things.
Other notable microSD cards
Samsung Pro Ultimate
The Samsung Pro Ultimate was the closest competitor to the Lexar Professional Silver Plus across our benchmark tests, but it’s tangibly worse in terms of sequential write speeds, typically costs more and doesn’t offer a 1TB option. The Samsung Pro Plus is a bit slower for sequential reads, but it’s close enough otherwise and usually easier to find at a lower price.
Lexar Professional Gold
We haven’t used it ourselves, but if you’re willing to pay for a more powerful UHS-II card built for heavy-duty video recording, the Lexar Professional Gold has tested well elsewhere and should deliver significantly faster sequential write speeds than our UHS-I picks above. It’s one of the few UHS-II cards we could actually find in stock, but it’s pricey, with a 128GB model normally priced in the $35 to $40 range.
SanDisk Extreme
The SanDisk Extreme effectively matched the Pro Plus in a few of our sequential tests, but that was partly due to us only being able to secure the 256GB model, which is higher-rated than the 128GB version. It’s a fine choice if you see it on sale at a reputable seller, but it’s broadly slower than our top pick and often costs more.
SanDisk GamePlay
The SanDisk GamePlay performs similarly to the SanDisk Extreme but costs a good bit extra as of our latest update. We couldn’t get it to reach its advertised speeds with the company’s own “Pro” card reader or other third-party options, so it fell short of our top picks.
SanDisk Pokémon
The SanDisk Pokémon does outperform its advertised read and write speeds, but not by enough to outpace the Lexar Silver Plus or Samsung Pro Plus. It essentially charges extra for having a picture of Pikachu (or Gengar, or Snorlax) on a product you’ll never look at.
SanDisk Extreme Pro
The SanDisk Extreme Pro is a close analog to the Samsung Pro Ultimate but, as of this writing, is either unavailable at most trusted retailers or priced too high by comparison. The Lexar Professional Silver Plus has faster sequential write speeds as well.
PNY XLR8 Gaming
The PNY XLR8 is an affordable card that comes with up to 512GB of space. Its sequential and random writes speeds checked in a little bit above those of Samsung’s Evo Select, plus it comes with a lifetime warranty. But its sequential reads were much, much slower, putting it out of contention.
PNY Elite-X
The PNY Elite-X often goes for cheap and wasn’t too far off the random read/write performance of Samsung’s Pro Plus in CrystalDiskMark. Like the XLR8, it’s also slightly above the Evo Select in write speeds. But its sequential reads were too far behind all of our top picks, and it no longer appears to be available in capacities above 256GB.
What to look for in a microSD card
Capacity
The first thing to figure out when buying a microSD card is how much storage space you need. Modern cards are commonly available in sizes ranging from 32GB to 512GB, with several models now available in 1TB or 1.5TB capacities as well. The first 2TB cards from major brands have started to arrive as well, which is exciting, but those are still fairly rare (and very expensive) by comparison.
For many, a 128GB or 256GB model should be a sweet spot between price and storage space. But if you need more room — say, for stashing a bunch of games on a Steam Deck — a 512GB card or greater could make more sense and often provides a better cost-per-GB ratio. These days, you can find a decent 128GB card for around $15, a good 256GB card for less than $30 and a solid 512GB card for around $40 (with faster models priced a little higher). There’s a starker increase when you go up to 1TB cards, which often cost closer to $100, though we’ve seen some fall into the $70 to $80 range more frequently over the last year. The first 2TB cards are a bigger leap: the 2TB SanDisk Extreme, for example, now has a list price around $200, which is down a bit from its original MSRP but still far from cheap.
Note that a microSD card’s performance may differ depending on what capacity you buy. SanDisk says its 128GB Extreme card delivers sequential write speeds up to 90 MB/s, for example, while the higher-capacity models in the same line offer up to 130 MB/s.
When we talk about microSD cards today, we generally refer to cards that use the microSDXC (eXtended Capacity) standard, which have a capacity between 32GB and 2TB. Your device needs to support this for it to work with a microSDXC card. This will almost never be an issue these days, but some older devices (a Nintendo 3DS, for instance) are only compatible with microSDHC (High Capacity) cards, which range from 2GB to 32GB.
Read and write speeds
MicroSD cards are primarily judged on their read and write speeds, which are usually measured in megabytes per second (MB/s). Generally, most microSD cards have faster read speeds than write speeds.
These metrics can then be broken down into sequential and random performance. Sequential read and write speeds matter when you’re trying to access (read) or save (write) long, constant streams of data, such as opening a large video or copying a big batch of files from a PC. If you want to use a microSD card for media storage, this is particularly important. Random performance, meanwhile, is about how quickly a card can read and write small files scattered throughout the device.
Since random read/write speeds are much lower than sequential ones, storage device makers tend not to advertise them as loudly. But they’re important if you use a card with a gaming device or a single-board computer like the Raspberry Pi, where it often has to rapidly save and access small bits of data in random locations.
Speed ratings
If you look at a microSD card, you’ll see a buffet of numbers, letters and symbols. Most of these refer to the card’s speed class and performance ratings, which are determined by the SD Association.
A card’s Video Speed Class, or V-rating, details its minimum sequential write speed, which is especially important when recording video from a camera. It ranges from V6 to V90. Most of the cards we tested had a V30 rating, so they have a sequential write speed of at least 30 MB/s. This should be enough to support up to 4K video at lower bitrates. Higher-rated V60 and V90 cards are usually better for capturing 8K, but they come at a much higher cost.
The UHS Speed Class, or U-rating, also refers to a card’s minimum sequential write speed. It comes in two varieties: U3, which mandates a minimum of 30 MB/s, and U1, which is rated for 10 MB/s.
The older Speed Class rating overlaps with the other two systems. It’s signified by a C symbol and goes from Class 2 to Class 10, with the number (again) indicating minimum sequential write speed. This rating is less relevant nowadays, but you may still see a “C10” logo on some cards.
The Application Performance spec, marked by an A symbol, is an indicator of random read/write speeds. This is measured in IOPS, or input/output operations per second, rather than MB/s. There are two categories here: A1 cards offer a minimum random read speed of 1,500 IOPS and a minimum random write speed of 500 IOPS, while A2 cards bump those up to 4,000 IOPS and 2,000 IOPS, respectively. Both ratings also guarantee sequential write speeds of at least 10 MB/s.
To keep it simple, most people should look for a card with V30, U3 and A2 ratings. It’s totally possible to get a solid card without those: A U1 card might be worth it if you just need a cheap, high-capacity option, for example. V60 and V90 cards are worth a look if you’re serious about shooting high-resolution photos and video as well. But overall, cards with the certifications above should provide the best blend of price and performance today.
It’s important to emphasize that these ratings are baselines. Most V30 cards offer significantly higher write speeds than 30 MB/s, for instance, and some A1 cards can outperform some A2 models in practice. The speeds advertised by manufacturers aren’t always 100 percent accurate, either: Sometimes the card will be slower in real-world use, other times it may actually be a bit faster.
The Samsung Pro Plus microSD card.
(Samsung)
UHS bus speeds
The other spec to note is the card’s bus interface. Most microSD cards available today are UHS-I, which has a theoretical maximum speed of 104 MB/s. There are also UHS-II cards, which have an extra row of pins on the back and can reach up to 312 MB/s. (A UHS-III standard technically exists as well but hasn’t seen wide adoption.) These are labeled on the card with a Roman numeral I or II.
UHS-II cards are typically the ones with those higher V60 or V90 ratings. If you shoot lots of 4K to 8K video or frequently use burst mode to capture ultra high-res photos, the performance gains of a good UHS-II card can save you time.
However, these are typically much more expensive than UHS-I cards: This 128GB Lexar Professional Gold model, for instance, is a relative bargain at $35. While that’s less than many UHS-II models we’ve seen in the past, it’s still more than double the common street price of our top pick above. You need a device that’s compatible with the UHS-II interface to see any benefits, too, and stock for UHS-II cards is often spottier. For now, the higher speeds aren’t worth the price premium for most people, so we stuck mostly to UHS-I cards with our recommendations.
Unlike traditional UHS-I cards, a microSD Express card like the SanDisk model on the right comes with a second row of pins to enable its improved performance.
(Jeff Dunn for Engadget)
microSD Express and the Nintendo Switch 2
The absolute fastest microSD cards you can buy, however, are based on a different interface called SD Express. This has technically been around for several years and now includes its own subset of speed classes, but the gist is that it’s much faster than UHS-I or UHS-II: SanDisk’s recently released microSD Express card, one of the first commercially available models, advertises sequential read speeds up to 880MB/s. That’s quicker than some older SSDs.
It’s a substantial upgrade that has largely held up in our testing, but very few popular devices natively support SD Express today. The first major exception is the Nintendo Switch 2, which is only compatible with the newer standard, as it’s needed to keep up with the performance demands of new handheld games.
Besides SanDisk, manufacturers like Samsung, Lexar and PNY have already launched microSD Express cards to go with the console. The presumption is that having such a popular device embrace the tech will only further its adoption and drive prices down.
But it’s still early days, and right now all microSD Express cards cost much more than the best UHS-I or even UHS-II options. Beyond the Switch 2, it’s possible to take advantage of these cards’ superior speeds with a dedicated SD Express card reader, but that adds even more to the final cost. It’s also worth noting that SD Express cards are not backwards compatible with UHS-II (or UHS-III), so if you try to plug one into a device with a UHS-II slot, it’ll be limited to UHS-I speeds. Still, they’re a must for Nintendo fans going forward, and the tech should have plenty of appeal if more gadgets that support the interface do arrive.
For more on how the first wave of Express cards perform on the Switch 2, we’ve put together a dedicated buying guide just for Nintendo’s console.
A note on card readers and reaching advertised speeds
While the UHS-I interface has a theoretical maximum of 104 MB/s, some UHS-I cards can exceed that speed through proprietary extensions. However, you need a compatible card reader and host device to take advantage of that extra performance. If you find a UHS-I card advertising speeds higher than 104 MB/s, this is what’s going on. You can see these limits in action with an original Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck: Both of those gaming devices support the UHS-I interface but don’t go beyond its official speed, flattening any sequential gains some cards may have elsewhere. (Differences in random read and write speeds can still matter, though.) The same thing will happen if you plug a more powerful UHS-II or SD Express card into a device that doesn’t accept those interfaces.
The takeaway: Your microSD card will only be as fast as the slowest link in your chain.
Warranty
Many microSD cards are designed to be durable, with protection from water, extreme temperatures, X-rays and drops. Still, in case of catastrophe, a long warranty is always good to have. Many manufacturers offer lifetime or 10-year limited warranties, though we’ve noticed that “endurance” cards marketed to withstand more hours of writing are usually covered for a shorter period of time. For example, Samsung’s Pro Endurance, a model aimed at security cameras and other monitoring devices, comes with a five-year warranty.
Avoiding counterfeits
The memory card market has had a particular problem with scammers selling fake products. To guard against this, only buy from a known brand and a reputable retailer such as Best Buy, B&H Photo or Adorama. If you shop at Amazon, only buy if the shipper and seller is Amazon.com. (That said, a handful of users have reported receiving counterfeits even from Amazon directly in the past, so exercise caution.) Remember: If a price seems too good to be true, it probably is. Be wary of any retailer offering a significantly lower price than everyone else.
Once you receive a card, check its packaging for any irregularities. You can run benchmark tests like CrystalDiskMark or BlackMagic Disk Speed Test to verify its speeds aren’t drastically lower than what’s advertised (or possible, given its specs). You can also use software that’s designed to verify the true capacity and performance of your card, such as H2testw and FakeFlashTest.
A few of the microSD card readers we’ve used for testing.
(Jeff Dunn for Engadget)
How we test microSD cards
We’ve put about 20 microSD cards through a series of tests to verify their sequential and random performance. These included benchmarks like CrystalDiskMark, BlackMagic Disk Speed Test, ATTO Disk Benchmark and AJA System Test, as well as a few “real-world” tests. We copied and pasted a small folder of photos about 1.15GB in size to and from each card, then did the same with a larger 12.2GB folder containing multiple file types and subfolders, timing the process each time. We also checked how each card performed on the Steam Deck, downloading games of varying sizes — including Stardew Valley, Aperture Desk Job, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Apex Legends— then timing how long it took to launch each game and load save files. We do multiple runs of each test to verify our findings and account for potential outliers.
Where applicable, we used a Kingston USB 3.2 UHS-II reader to test each card on both Windows 11 and macOS Sequoia. However, if a card could be bundled with (or is specifically advertised to use) a proprietary reader, we mainly tested with that, since we figure that’s the one most interested buyers will end up using. For Windows testing, we used an Alienware gaming PC with an Intel Core i9-10900F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. For macOS, we used a 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro with an Apple M1 Pro chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. If a reader couldn’t connect over USB-C, we used CalDigit’s TS4 dock to test the corresponding card on the MacBook.
We tested the 128GB version of each card whenever we could, though we were only able to test higher-capacity models for a few options. We also reformatted each card before testing with the SD Association’s Memory Card Formatter tool.
For microSD Express cards, we ran each model through a series of tests specific to the Switch 2, since that is the only popular device that actually supports the tech. You can read more about that process in our separate buying guide linked above.
Recent updates
August 2025: We’ve fleshed out our advice on buying a microSD Express card for the Nintendo Switch 2. We plan on testing a few more recent releases from Kingston, SanDisk, Lexar and PNY in a future update.
May 2025: We’ve updated this guide to ensure our advice is accurate and to reflect the new Nintendo Switch 2’s use of microSD Express cards. We’ve also added testing notes for the Lexar Play Pro microSD Express card and the more standard PNY XLR8. We’ve removed mentions of a few cards that have seemingly been discontinued, including the original Kingston Canvas Go Plus, the Lexar Professional 1066x and the 2021 Samsung Evo Select. We plan to test more new microSD Express cards for a future update.
February 2025: We’ve updated this guide with a new top pick: the Lexar Professional Silver Plus. The Samsung Pro Plus, our previous recommendation, stays as a runner-up. We’ve also added SanDisk’s recently released microSD Express card as a pick for those who want the absolute fastest card possible, albeit with heavy caveats. This is one of the first microSD cards to use the SD Express bus interface, so we’ve included more details on what that entails in our “what to look for in a microSD card” section. Lastly, we’ve removed our write-up for SanDisk’s Apex Legends card, as it appears to have been discontinued, and included testing notes for a couple of the company’s more recent releases.
November 2024: We’ve checked back with this guide to ensure our recommendations are still accurate and made light edits for clarity.
August 2024: We’ve updated this guide to note the recently released 1TB models for three of our top picks: the Samsung Pro Plus, the Kingston Canvas Go Plus and the Samsung Evo Select. We’ve also made sure all pricing details are as up to date as they can be.
The latest Pixel Watch 4 leak reveals how Google will be advertising the 2025 Wear OS 6 device and Gemini plays a big role.
Evan Blass this evening shared marketing material of the upcoming wearable. Just like the phones, it’s now “Google Pixel Watch 4 with Gemini.” The tagline is “Precision crafted. Performance ready.”
Last year’s wearable brought “Actua” from phones to your wrist. The Pixel Watch 4 has an “Actua 360” display with up to 3,000 nits peak brightness. Meanwhile, the new charger is officially called the “Quick Charge Dock” and is 25% faster than before.
Another new Pixel Watch 4 spec from this leak is dual-frequency GPS that allows for a more accurate signal and location tracking especially in busy environments. This matches the Galaxy Watch 8, while the Apple Watch only offers that on the Ultra model.
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The specs table also confirms 30 hours (41mm) and 40 hours (45mm) of battery life with the always-on display enabled. The “40+ exercise modes,” ECG, SPO2, breathing, HRV, and Loss of Pulse Detection are unchanged from today.
Google says this is the “watch built for Gemini.” You can “raise your wrist for quick AI assistant responses and personalized help,” while you can “keep the conversation going with AI text suggestions that sound like you.”
Google will continue to offer 2 years of data for the Pixel Watch 4 LTE. This is available through Google FI Wireless for “messaging, navigation, and music on the go.” Calling is not supported.
More on Pixel Watch 4:
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Desperate to escape abuse as a teenager, Shawn Shea fled to Springfield with a friend, hoping for safety and a fresh start.
But instead of refuge, he found himself surrounded by fear and violence — living on what he called the “most dangerous street in Springfield.”
Without anywhere else to go, Shea found himself on a path that would end in unimaginable tragedy: the death of a 14-year-old girl.
Yet it’s the weight of those experiences that now drives Shea to want to help others like him and the young girl — once a friend — he killed.
“I want to deal with at-risk youth and just try to give them the hope and the access to role models that I didn’t have,” Shea, now 35, said during his May 27 parole board hearing. “Because I think that’ll not only save lives physically, but it’ll keep a lot of the emotional trauma that’s happening from happening in the first place.”
Shawn M. Shea is seen during his arraignment on a murder charge in 2007.File photo by Don Treeger / The Republican
May 10, 2007
Four men, including 17-year-old Shea, associated with the Springfield street gang “SWAT Team,” drove toward a house that was a known hang-out spot for a rival gang on May 10, 2007.
Before they arrived, they stopped and got a .40 caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol.
When they arrived at the house, located at 338 Wilbraham Road, a group of people were standing on the porch. Shea leaned out the passenger window and fired six shots.
Fourteen-year-old Dymond McGowan was among the group. But she wasn’t associated with a gang. She was a neighbor girl that Shea knew who had recently left her foster home and had been reported missing.
But that night, she was caught in the crossfire of a street gang rivalry and was killed after being shot in the stomach.
Family members described McGowan as a teen who was “trying to find her way,” but still had close family ties and was making progress toward getting her life back on track. She enjoyed dancing, knitting and taking care of younger children.
“When she was born, she was so bright and shiny,” her mother, Jacquelyn Ballard, previously said, explaining why she chose the unique name of Dymond for her daughter.
Shea was arrested by the Springfield Police Department on May 16, 2007 for unrelated warrants. At that time, he was asked about his role in the shooting that killed McGowan, and he admitted to being the shooter.
Shea was convicted of first-degree murder and related charges in Hampden Superior Court in December 2008, after jurors deliberated for a day. His mother sobbed, and Shea, looking younger than his years in a suit and glasses, hung his head after the verdict was read.
As he was led from the courtroom during a recess before his sentencing, he burst out, “I didn’t even kill that girl,” and became agitated later as Ballard addressed Judge Peter A. Velis.
“I heard him as he was going out: I didn’t kill ‘that girl,’” Ballard told the judge before Shea’s sentencing. “He doesn’t even know her name.“
“I know her name. Her name is Dymond. I’ve known for five years,” he shot back.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In 2011, the state Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Shea’s first-degree murder conviction and life sentence.
Judge Ralph D. Gants said he reviewed the record of Shea’s case and found no error that “produced a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice, nor any other reason to order a new trial or to reduce the defendant’s murder convictions to a lesser degree of guilt.”
However, Shea was later allowed to ask for parole due to a law change that prohibits teenagers from being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
He first went in front of the parole board in 2022 after serving 15 years. But he was denied.
Shea described McGowan as a friend. He said he originally denied killing her to everyone, including himself, until at least 2015.
The board was also concerned with his nearly 40 disciplinary reports.
“Mr. Shea presented well during his initial parole hearing; however, the Board remains concerned that he needs to display a longer period of positive adjustment,” the parole board wrote, also encouraging him to enroll in other programs over the next few years.
Change
Shea said he’s not the same person he was three years ago.
“I was creating harm constantly because I was harmed and hadn’t dealt with all the things that I had done,” he said.
Leah Johnson, a friend of Shea’s, was sitting next to McGowan when she was shot. She blames their childhood and the adults in their lives for contributing to what happened. Johnson, Shea and McGowan were just children trying to survive together, Johnson said.
“There were even nights where we shared the same bed or a plate of food. And it was never at any of our homes. There was no mother or father present to save Shawn, to save Dymond or myself. We were all left prey to the street by neglectful parents, along with other lost kids in the neighborhood. We laughed and joked and cried and survived together,” she said during the May parole board hearing.
She recalled the older gang members telling her, Dymond and another girl that it wasn’t safe to be on the porch that night. But where else were they to go?
“My mother no longer lived in the neighborhood. Dymond’s grandmother said she couldn’t come inside, and Katie’s mother said we couldn’t stay at their house,” Johnson said. “So we remained on that porch, supporting each other and refusing to leave one another alone.”
She remembered Shea being a “nerdy kid looking for acceptance.” He was quiet, kind, and a good person, she said, adding that she believes the gang took advantage of his need for love after a childhood of being in and out of foster care and experiencing multiple kinds of abuse.
“If Dymond, Shawn or I had proper care, none of us would have been out that night,” she said.
She asked the parole board to judge Shea on the man he’s become, not the lost 17-year-old boy he was when he fired those shots.
“Judge him now for the man he is today. He’s a good person. He’s prudent, forward looking and deliberate in everything he does. He’s a thoughtful person with sound judgment and good moral character,” she said.
Ultimately, she lost two friends that night, she said. But there’s still hope.
“I can’t have Dymond back. And I know it’ll always hurt, but I’m still praying that I can have Shawn back,” she concluded.
Forgiveness
In May, there were multiple voices absent from the hearing that should’ve been there. But their grief didn’t go unnoticed.
Shea wished Dymond’s family, including her father, would’ve been at the parole board hearing in May to once again apologize. But he was grateful they were there in 2022.
“I listened and took in what he said. I heard pain, pain that he had that had not lessened in the years since I took his daughter’s life. I heard his grief over an inability to make up for time lost and have his own second chance with his daughter,” Shea said.
He hopes to take their grief and his own and one day turn it into something to better society.
“I have an obligation to Dymond, to her family, friends and the community to repair a harm that cannot ever be fully repaired. I will be living out that obligation for the rest of my life,” he said.
He said he’s been able to talk with some of McGowan’s friends over the years about the pain and trauma he caused them.
He took it to heart and they forgave him.
“I still don’t understand your forgiveness, but I am so grateful for it. Thank you,” he said. “Every day I’ll be working to earn the forgiveness that you have gifted me.”
Being part of various programs while incarcerated have also given him the opportunity to hear from other survivors of trauma caused by people in their communities.
Those stories, Shea said, became a lifeline — helping him begin to understand the hurt he caused and rebuild his life. But amid the healing, there’s a silence that can never be filled. One voice, forever missing.
“I wish I could sit with Dymond and hear her survivor story every day,” he said.
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Robert Keele said this week that he has stepped down as xAI’s head of legal after just over a year, saying he wants to spend more time with his children. In his announcement, Keele also acknowledged “daylight between our worldviews” with boss Elon Musk, who hasn’t commented on Keele’s exit.
“I love my two toddlers and I don’t get to see them enough,” Keele wrote, posting the news on both X and LinkedIn. Despite calling his time at the AI startup “incredible” and working with Musk “the adventure of a lifetime,” he said he couldn’t keep “riding two horses at once — the family and the job.”
Keele’s news prompted an outpouring of support on social media from xAI colleagues as well as parents. When he joined xAI in May 2024 as its first legal head, he had just launched his own, very short-lived fractional legal outfit. “Keele Law had a good run (~3 weeks!), but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to run legal at xAI,” he wrote at the time, calling himself “beyond stoked, and insanely lucky.”
Keele arrived just before xAI announced a massive $6 billion Series B funding round in May 2024, backed by heavy hitters like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, valuing the company at $24 billion. Soon after, xAI began experiencing rapid growth and, in March of this year, acquired X, Musk’s social media company, in a deal that, said Musk at the time, valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion.
Before his entrepreneurial stint, Keele had been head of legal at autonomous aircraft maker Elroy Air and general counsel at Airbus’s Silicon Valley innovation center.
Taking over is Lily Lim, who, before becoming a lawyer, was a rocket scientist at NASA, working on spacecraft navigation for the project that mapped Venus’s surface. She joined xAI in late 2024 as a privacy and IP specialist after legal stints at numerous firms and companies like ServiceNow.
Keele’s departure fits an ongoing pattern of executive turnover across Musk’s empire. X CEO Linda Yaccarino left last month, and Tesla has lost several top executives recently. Musk — who also has numerous longstanding lieutenants — openly expects employees to work long hours, even if it means sleeping at the office, as happened when he acquired X, formerly Twitter.
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Some newer companies appear to have adopted a similar mentality to get ahead of rivals, including AI coding startup Cognition, which is looking to aggressively shrink its team. In fact, its CEO recently told employees in an email that he doesn’t believe in work-life balance.
Meta some of its latest virtual reality prototypes this week, with concepts that are compelling on the specs and long on the design. Literally. The company shared some details on its Tiramisu project, dubbing it “hyperrealistic VR.” This set promises three times the contrast, 14 times the maximum brightness and 3.6 times the angular resolution of the Meta Quest 3. In actual stats, that’s up to 1,400 nits of brightness and an angular resolution of 90 pixels per degree.
One of the goals for Reality Labs Research’s Optics, Photonics and Light Systems (OPALS) team is to create a virtual reality experience that is indistinguishable from the real world, or what it calls a visual Turing test. “Our mission for this project was to provide the best image quality possible,” said Xuan Wang, an optical research scientist with OPALS. But the team achieved that quality with some tradeoffs; Tiramisu has a limited field of view of just 33 degrees by 33 degrees compared to the 110 degrees horizontal and 96 degrees vertical FOV in the Meta Quest 3. And the form factor is currently a pretty bulky beast, as you can see above.
Meta researcher wearing the Boba 3 headset
(Meta)
The other prototypes detailed in the company’s blog post are Boba 3 headsets. These mixed and virtual reality headsets offer an ultrawide field of view. All three projects will be on display during the SIGGRAPH 2025 conference in Vancouver next week.
After debuting in 2022, the Steam for Chromebook Beta will stop working in early 2026. At the time, it was a big ChromeOS effort, but there hasn’t been an update in ages.
Entering “Steam” into the ChromeOS Launcher starts the install process like before, but there’s now an intermediary message: “The Steam for Chromebook Beta program will conclude on January 1st, 2026. After this date, games installed as part of the Beta will no longer be available to play on your device. We appreciate your participation in and contribution to learnings from the beta program, which will inform the future of Chromebook gaming.”
At the time, this was part of a sizable gaming push for ChromeOS. Steam joined Android apps and cloud streaming to provide a third way to play games on Chromebooks. Later in 2022, Google announced the first Gaming Chromebooks.
Steam for Chromebooks launched in Alpha that March before reaching Beta in November with lower hardware requirements: Intel Core i3 and AMD Ryzen 3 with 8 GB of RAM. However, Core i5 or Ryzen 5 and 16 GB is recommended. It uses the Linux version of a game, with Google maintaining a list of compatible titles, which is currently at 99.
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When support ends at the start of next year, existing games that are already installed will be removed. With hindsight, the fact that Steam for Chromebook never entered stable was a pretty good indicator of the effort’s standing.
Google alludes to there being a future for Chromebook gaming. This comes as the technical underpinnings of ChromeOS eventually get migrated to Android. In that regard, there will always be Android apps from the Play Store for local games, as well as streaming services.
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SPRINGFIELD — As the state grapples with a work stoppage over pay for private attorneys who represent indigent defendants, the system that ensures representation for those in federal court is also in crisis.
The program that pays private attorneys to represent those who can’t afford a lawyer in federal court ran out of money last month and won’t be able to pay lawyers until the new federal fiscal year in October, according to a statement from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
“Not only are lawyers not getting paid, but the investigators and experts we use won’t get paid either,“ said Peter Alexander Slepchuk, a Springfield lawyer who is on the panel of private attorneys who takes the cases. “It does create a problem.”
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Eddie Palmieri, seen here performing in 2009 at the Theatre de la Mer in southeastern France.
Frans Schellekens/Redferns/Getty Images
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Bandleader and pianist Eddie Palmieri, whose pounding rhythms forged a new style for Latin music, died Wednesday at the age of 88.
Fania Records, the renowned Latin jazz label that released several of Palmieri’s classic recordings, announced his death in a statement.
“Today, Fania Records mourns the loss of the legendary Eddie Palmieri, one of the most innovative and unique artists in music history.”
In the 1960s and early ’70s, Palmieri released a string of albums with his orchestra La Perfecta. They fused syncopated Afro-Caribbean beats and jazz stylings.
Songs like “Bilongo,” “Café” and “La Malanga” featured Palmieri’s signature, highly percussive piano playing. His was a full-bodied technique, employing forearms, elbows and even an occasional growl from the maestro himself.
Palmieri was born to Puerto Rican parents in New York City’s Spanish Harlem. It was a musical home. Palmieri got his start in his uncle’s ensemble, playing drums and timbales, his first instruments. His brother Charlie Palmieri would also go on to become a celebrated salsa and Latin Jazz musician.
As the Puerto Rican diaspora grew in the city in the 1950s, so did the circuit for Latin dance music. In an era marked by mambo, big bands and ballrooms, Palmieri soon found a home as a pianist in Tito Rodriguez’s Orchestra.
Known for his warmth and spirit, Palmieri was emphatic when asked on NPR’s Piano Jazz in 1997 to describe his explosive musical mix. “It’s definitely going to excite you,” he told host Marian McPartland. “I don’t guess I’m going to excite you with my music. I know it.”
His knack for spotting legendary singers began with La Perfecta’s longtime lead voice, Ismael Quintana. Then, in 1974, Palmieri teamed up with a teenager from Puerto Rico named Lalo Rodriguez. The result of that collaboration was his first Grammy-winning album, The Sun of Latin Music. Palmieri would win more than half a dozen Grammys over the course of his career.
Palmieri became an elder statesman of Latin jazz, holding forth on its history, usually with a long cigar clasped in his hand. His song “Azúcar Pa’ Ti” was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2009. In 2013, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded him a Jazz Master Fellowship, one of the highest honors in jazz.
Palmieri would often dig into the history of the Caribbean to break down the rhythmic patterns that formed the basis of his music. “In a 300-year span, there was approximately 12 million Africans that were brought to the New World,” he told Piano Jazz. “They were never allowed their drums out of fear of communication. Fear of revolt. And these complex rhythmical patterns united in a compositional form called jazz.”
The Puerto Rican experience in New York City was for him a central theme. He protested against systemic inequalities in his seminal 1971 album, Harlem River Drive. His song “Puerto Rico” from his 1973 album, Sentido, is an enduring anthem for salsa aficionados all over the world. It’s also a testament to the inspiration Eddie Palmieri drew from his island roots throughout his storied career.
Financial services provider Brex on Thursday announced that it achieved a major milestone: It is now licensed in the European Union. That means it can now directly issue credit and debit cards and offer its spend management products to any business in all 30 EU countries with “no workarounds required,” as co-founder and CEO Pedro Franceschi wrote in a blog post.
While the corporate spend management startup previously supported 60 currencies in 200 countries, it could only sell its products to companies with a U.S. presence.
With the expansion, Brex is now authorized to sell spend management (complete with issuing cards) and other tools like embedded payments to EU companies and startups, a spokesperson tells TechCrunch. However, there’s a caveat: Banking and bill pay will not be initially available. The company hopes to roll those services out in the future.
While this is good news for Brex, it may also be good news for European startups. Brex’s claim to fame is offering startups expense management cards for their employees even if they wouldn’t yet qualify from traditional banks. Without a bank account offering, the youngest EU startups will still have to weigh their options.
Next up, Franceschi says he wants to expand Brex in the U.K., though he offered no specifics on those plans.
Franceschi said in December that Brex is on track to stop burning cash in 2025, “an important milestone to our future IPO.”
In February, sources told various news outlets that Brex was on track for $500 million in revenue this year as well. That’s quite the turnaround from a shaky moment in 2023 when Brex conducted layoffs and reportedly told employees that its cash burn was too high. There has been no hint yet as to when that IPO may take place, though.
Brex’s competitive win in the international market comes as its U.S. fintech competitors are having an overall moment. Ramp has been raising money from VCs like mad, hitting a $22.5 billion valuation just 45 days after a round with a $16 billion valuation. In March, Mercury raised a fresh $300 million and doubled its valuation to $3.5 billion.
Brex has not publicly announced new equity VC funding since 2022, when it raised $300 million in a Series D-2 round at a $12.3 billion valuation. It did, however, secure a fresh $260 million worth of debt in March 2024, backed by its spend management products, to help it pay for its cash-intensive business.
