Framework, the designers and sellers of the modular and repairable Framework Laptop 13 and other products, announced today that it would be " temporarily pausing US sales " on some of its laptop configurations as a result of new tariffs put on Taiwanese imports by the Trump administration. The affected models will be removed from Framework's online store for now, and there's no word on when buyers can expect them to come back.

"We priced our laptops when tariffs on imports from Taiwan were 0 percent," the company responded to a post asking why it was pausing sales. "At a 10 percent tariff, we would have to sell the lowest-end SKUs at a loss."

"Other consumer goods makers have performed the same calculations and taken the same actions, though most have not been open about it," Framework said. Nintendo also paused US preorders for its upcoming Switch 2 console last week after the tariffs were announced.

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Framework, the designers and sellers of the modular and repairable Framework Laptop 13 and other products, announced today that it would be " temporarily pausing US sales " on some of its laptop configurations as a result of new tariffs put on Taiwanese imports by the Trump administration. The affected models will be removed from Framework's online store for now, and there's no word on when buyers can expect them to come back.

"We priced our laptops when tariffs on imports from Taiwan were 0 percent," the company responded to a post asking why it was pausing sales. "At a 10 percent tariff, we would have to sell the lowest-end SKUs at a loss."

"Other consumer goods makers have performed the same calculations and taken the same actions, though most have not been open about it," Framework said. Nintendo also paused US preorders for its upcoming Switch 2 console last week after the tariffs were announced.

Read full article

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Framework, the designers and sellers of the modular and repairable Framework Laptop 13 and other products, announced today that it would be " temporarily pausing US sales " on some of its laptop configurations as a result of new tariffs put on Taiwanese imports by the Trump administration. The affected models will be removed from Framework's online store for now, and there's no word on when buyers can expect them to come back.

"We priced our laptops when tariffs on imports from Taiwan were 0 percent," the company responded to a post asking why it was pausing sales. "At a 10 percent tariff, we would have to sell the lowest-end SKUs at a loss."

"Other consumer goods makers have performed the same calculations and taken the same actions, though most have not been open about it," Framework said. Nintendo also paused US preorders for its upcoming Switch 2 console last week after the tariffs were announced.

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Among the many surprises during last week's wider unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2 was the pricing: $450 for the console itself and $70 to $80 for many first-party games . Now, in a set of interviews posted today (but conducted during last week's unveiling event), Nintendo executives are explaining and defending those prices, even as Trump's tariffs are apparently forcing the company to pause and reassess its whole launch strategy .

Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser was speaking to CNBC just as Trump's tariffs were being announced, and said in the moment that "we're still all trying to really understand [the tariffs] better and understand what possible impacts may rise from that." At the same time, he said that the company "didn't consider tariffs into that equation" when choosing the Switch 2's $450 price and instead went with what "we felt that was going to be the right price point for our consumers and the right value proposition if you will for the device that we're creating."

Elsewhere in that CNBC interview, Bowser suggested that Nintendo isn't following the Wii U example of selling hardware at a loss in order to gain more potential software customers. Instead, Bowser said the company is "trying to find a way to maintain... margins on the hardware even though they may be more slim than they are on software," and then "to make sure that they're seeing the value in their investment in one of our devices" through software.

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Among the many surprises during last week's wider unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2 was the pricing: $450 for the console itself and $70 to $80 for many first-party games . Now, in a set of interviews posted today (but conducted during last week's unveiling event), Nintendo executives are explaining and defending those prices, even as Trump's tariffs are apparently forcing the company to pause and reassess its whole launch strategy .

Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser was speaking to CNBC just as Trump's tariffs were being announced, and said in the moment that "we're still all trying to really understand [the tariffs] better and understand what possible impacts may rise from that." At the same time, he said that the company "didn't consider tariffs into that equation" when choosing the Switch 2's $450 price and instead went with what "we felt that was going to be the right price point for our consumers and the right value proposition if you will for the device that we're creating."

Elsewhere in that CNBC interview, Bowser suggested that Nintendo isn't following the Wii U example of selling hardware at a loss in order to gain more potential software customers. Instead, Bowser said the company is "trying to find a way to maintain... margins on the hardware even though they may be more slim than they are on software," and then "to make sure that they're seeing the value in their investment in one of our devices" through software.

Read full article

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Among the many surprises during last week's wider unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2 was the pricing: $450 for the console itself and $70 to $80 for many first-party games . Now, in a set of interviews posted today (but conducted during last week's unveiling event), Nintendo executives are explaining and defending those prices, even as Trump's tariffs are apparently forcing the company to pause and reassess its whole launch strategy .

Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser was speaking to CNBC just as Trump's tariffs were being announced, and said in the moment that "we're still all trying to really understand [the tariffs] better and understand what possible impacts may rise from that." At the same time, he said that the company "didn't consider tariffs into that equation" when choosing the Switch 2's $450 price and instead went with what "we felt that was going to be the right price point for our consumers and the right value proposition if you will for the device that we're creating."

Elsewhere in that CNBC interview, Bowser suggested that Nintendo isn't following the Wii U example of selling hardware at a loss in order to gain more potential software customers. Instead, Bowser said the company is "trying to find a way to maintain... margins on the hardware even though they may be more slim than they are on software," and then "to make sure that they're seeing the value in their investment in one of our devices" through software.

Read full article

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We're used to updating Windows, macOS, and Linux systems at least once a month (and usually more), but people with ancient DOS-based PCs still get to join in the fun every once in a while. Over the weekend, the team that maintains FreeDOS officially released version 1.4 of the operating system, containing a list of fixes and updates that have been in the works since the last time a stable update was released in 2022 .

FreeDOS creator and maintainer Jim Hall goes into more detail about the FreeDOS 1.4 changes here , and full release notes for the changes are here . The release has "a focus on stability" and includes an updated installer, new versions of common tools like fdisk , and format and the edlin text editor. The release also includes updated HTML Help files.

Hall talked with Ars about several of these changes when we interviewed him about FreeDOS in 2024 . The team issued the first release candidate for FreeDOS 1.4 back in January.

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We're used to updating Windows, macOS, and Linux systems at least once a month (and usually more), but people with ancient DOS-based PCs still get to join in the fun every once in a while. Over the weekend, the team that maintains FreeDOS officially released version 1.4 of the operating system, containing a list of fixes and updates that have been in the works since the last time a stable update was released in 2022 .

FreeDOS creator and maintainer Jim Hall goes into more detail about the FreeDOS 1.4 changes here , and full release notes for the changes are here . The release has "a focus on stability" and includes an updated installer, new versions of common tools like fdisk , and format and the edlin text editor. The release also includes updated HTML Help files.

Hall talked with Ars about several of these changes when we interviewed him about FreeDOS in 2024 . The team issued the first release candidate for FreeDOS 1.4 back in January.

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We're used to updating Windows, macOS, and Linux systems at least once a month (and usually more), but people with ancient DOS-based PCs still get to join in the fun every once in a while. Over the weekend, the team that maintains FreeDOS officially released version 1.4 of the operating system, containing a list of fixes and updates that have been in the works since the last time a stable update was released in 2022 .

FreeDOS creator and maintainer Jim Hall goes into more detail about the FreeDOS 1.4 changes here , and full release notes for the changes are here . The release has "a focus on stability" and includes an updated installer, new versions of common tools like fdisk , and format and the edlin text editor. The release also includes updated HTML Help files.

Hall talked with Ars about several of these changes when we interviewed him about FreeDOS in 2024 . The team issued the first release candidate for FreeDOS 1.4 back in January.

Read full article

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