Numerous major social platforms including Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap say they will submit to a new external grading process that scores social platforms on how well they protect adolescent mental health. The program comes from the Mental Health Coalition’s Safe Online Standards (SOS) initiative, which comprises about two dozen standards covering areas like platform policy, functionality, governance and transparency, content oversight and more. The SOS initiative is led by Dr. Dan Reidenberg, Managing Director of the National Council for Suicide Prevention.
In announcing these companies’ participation, the Mental Health Coalition writes “SOS establishes clear, user-informed data for how social media, gaming, and digital platforms design products, protect users ages 13–19, and address exposure to suicide and self-harm content. Participating companies will voluntarily submit documentation on their policies, tools, and product features, which will be evaluated by an independent panel of global experts.”
After evaluation, the platforms will be given one of three ratings. The highest achievable safety rating is “use carefully,” which comes with a blue badge that compliant platforms can display. Despite being the highest rating, the requirements seem fairly run-of-the-mill. The description includes things like “reporting tools are accessible and easy to use,” and “privacy, default and safety functions are clear and easy to set for parents.” As for what actions the standards ask of the companies being rated, the “use carefully” rating says “platforms and filters help reduce exposure to harmful or inappropriate content.”
The other ratings include “partial protection” which is described in part as “some safety tools exist on the platforms, but can be hard to find or use,” and “does not meet standards” which would be given if “filters and content moderation do not reliably block harmful or unsafe content.”
The Mental Health Coalition, founded in 2020, has mentioned Facebook and Meta as partners since the early days of the organization. In 2021 the organization said it would bring together “leading mental health experts partner with Facebook and Instagram to destigmatize mental health and connect people to resources” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022 the nonprofit published a case study with “support from Meta” that found “mental health content on social media can reduce stigma while increasing individuals’ likelihood to seek resources, therefore positively impacting mental health.”
In 2024, the MHC “in partnership with Meta” launched a campaign called the Time Well Spent Challenge. In it, the group urged parents to have “meaningful conversations” with teens about “healthy” social media use, focusing less on whether teens should be on these apps at all and more on keeping them on-platform in a “time well spent” way, from reduced screen time to “using social media for good” and reviewing their feeds together.
That same year it partnered with Meta again to establish “Thrive,” a program that allows tech companies to share data regarding materials that violate self-harm or suicide content guidelines. The Mental Health Coalition lists Meta as a “creative partner” on its website.
Last year it was alleged that Meta buried internal data showing the ill effects of its products on users’ mental health. The internal research, dubbed “Project Mercury,” began in 2020. Since then the company has introduced some bare-minimum attempts at addressing mental health concerns, such as Instagram teen accounts. Meta is now on trial in California facing allegations over child harm from addictive products, the first in a series of upcoming lawsuits against the social media giant.
Other companies participating in the rating program include Roblox, which has recently faced stiff accusations over the wellbeing of children on the platform, and Discord which has beefed up its age-verification processes in response to its own serious child endangerment concerns.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-tiktok-and-snap-are-participating-in-an-online-safety-ratings-system-162921333.html?src=rss
Matthias Clasen has published a short summary of the GTK hackfest held prior to FOSDEM 2026. Topics include
discussions on unstable APIs, a decision to bump the C runtime
requirement to C11 in the next development cycle, limiting changes in
GTK3 to crash and build fixes, as well as the state of
accessibility:
On the accessibility side, we are somewhat worried about the state
of AccessKit. The
code upstream is maintained, but we haven’t seen movement in the GTK
implementation. We still default to the AT-SPI backend on Linux, but
AccessKit is used on Windows and macOS (and possibly Android in the
future); it would be nice to have consumers of the accessibility stack
looking at the code and issues.
On the AT-SPI side we are still missing proper feature negotiation
in the protocol; interfaces are now versioned on D-Bus, but there’s no
mechanism to negotiate the supported set of roles or events between
toolkits, compositors, and assistive technologies, which makes running
newer applications on older OS versions harder.
Apple is once again (reportedly) preparing to equip the upcoming AirPods Pro 4 with infrared cameras designed to let the earbuds “see” the world around you. Most likely, and assuming if this rumor holds out, this could enable hand gestures and enhanced spatial audio capabilities with VR integration being a possibility.
Vans are something most of us don’t think about much, since we rarely interact with them directly in our day-to-day lives. But the van is an unseen hero that keeps the world moving, delivering packages all over the country and transporting food from farm to stores. They haven’t changed much in decades, though. A van is generally a big box with a gas or diesel engine (depending on where you are in the world), and that’s… kinda it, bar a dent or two in the bodywork. Kia’s engineers, riding high on the success of their recent electric vehicles, took notice and did some new things with the PV5, the company’s first electric van.
You can spec your PV5 in a number of configurations, and the company already has conversion partners lined up to turn them into just about anything. Of course, camper converters are eyeing them as well, eager to create electric “vanlife” setups. Off the shelf, you can choose between a PV5 Passenger for moving people, a PV5 Cargo for moving things, a PV5 Crew for moving things and people, and a PV5 Chassis Cab to do with as you please.
Beneath its modular cabin is the Electric Global Modular For Service, which is part of Kia’s rather fancy-sounding “PBV” strategy. “PBV” means “Platform Beyond Vehicle,” a potential hint at where the brand sees itself going. In this case, it can house a range of battery sizes.
CodeWeavers just announced CrossOver 26, the newest version of their commercial software built atop Wine for running Windows games and applications under Apple macOS and Linux…
Building a new PC these days can be a financial challenge due to soaring memory prices, though if you’re willing to bite the bullet anyway or already have RAM that you can apply to a new build, then do yourself a solid and check out this deal on an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X processor. Available at Woot (owned by Amazon), we’ve never seen it listed
With iOS 26, Apple made it easier for users to reduce spam and overall clutter in their Messages inbox. Your iPhone will detect and hide spam messages, and with the Screen Unknown Senders feature, you can filter out texts from anyone you don’t know. You can also disable push notifications for these conversations to reduce how often you’re alerted for messages you don’t need to see.
Note that this feature works only on iOS, so if you have Messages synced on your Mac, you’ll see everything and receive notifications for all messages unless you mute specific conversations.
How to reduce clutter in Messages on iOS
To send messages from numbers you don’t know to a separate folder, go to Settings > Apps > Messages and toggle on Screen Unknown Senders. You can also get here through the Messages app on your iPhone by tapping the three horizontal menu lines in the top-right corner and selecting Manage Filtering. Enabling Screen Unknown Senders will hide notifications and move messages to your Unknown Senders list. If you want to allow (or disallow) certain types of notifications, tap Allow Notifications and toggle categories on or off:
Time Sensitive includes alerts, verification codes, and urgent requests.
Personal includes messages identified as not sent by a business or organization.
Transactions include order updates, receipts, and confirmations.
Promotions include general offers and updates sent to multiple recipients.
Most users will want to enable time-sensitive notifications to receive messages that include time-based one-time passwords (TOTPs) and other urgent alerts. You may also want to allow personal notifications so you don’t miss messages directed to you individually from real people who aren’t saved in your contacts.
When you allow notifications, texts identified in those categories will appear in your Messages list for only 12 hours before being moved to Unknown Senders—a behavior that keeps your primary inbox streamlined. If you want to make an unknown sender a known sender to prevent future messages from being filtered out, open the conversation and tap Mark as Known at the bottom or add the number to your contacts. A known sender is anyone you’ve added to your Contacts, sent a message to, or marked as known in the conversation.
Finally, if you enable Filter Spam under the same menu in your device settings, Apple will send messages identified as spam to a separate Spam list and hide notifications. You can view these and conversations from unknown senders at any time via Messages > Menu.
Apple and Google have agreed to a set of commitments to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority that will prevent them from giving preferential treatment to their own apps and require greater transparency around how third-party apps are approved for sale.
The CMA announced the measures on Tuesday, seven months after it declared that the two companies held an “effective duopoly” over the UK’s mobile app ecosystem. Both companies also committed to not using data gathered from third-party developers in ways the regulator deems unfair. The CMA granted both app stores “strategic market status” in October 2025, a designation that gave it the authority to demand changes.
CMA head Sarah Cardell called the commitments “important first steps” and said the regulator would “closely monitor” implementation. Technology analyst Paolo Pescatore described the announcement as a “pragmatic first step” but noted some may see it as “addressing the low-hanging fruit.” The UK’s app economy is the largest in Europe by revenue and number of developers, generating an estimated 1.5% of the country’s GDP.
The internet is ripe with horrible violations of people’s privacy, including non-consensual explicit images. A new tool from Google won’t do much in the way of prevention, but can help you remove this media from Search.
Now, you can choose an image and quickly request its deletion. Just click on the three dots that appear on the image. From there, choose “remove result” and then “It shows a sexual image of me.” Other choices include the picture shows a person under 18 and that it has your personal information. If you choose the initial option then you will also be asked whether it contains a real image or deepfake. There’s also an option to submit multiple photos at once.
Google claims that, upon submitting your request, you will “immediately” see links to emotional and legal support organizations. Plus, you can opt-in to safeguards that filter out similar results in Search — though it seems these unreported images will still be available for other users to see. This feature should be available in most countries over the coming days.
You can go on Google’s “Results about you” hub to track your request. To use the tool, you will have to add in your personal contact information and government ID numbers. Google already had the hub to track if any of that information appears on Search, but now it will also look for your social security number, drivers license and passport information. The company should notify you if any of that information comes up in Search results and allow you to take removal steps.
Results about you’s updates should roll out to US users in the coming days. Notably, it arrives as Google shutters its dark web reports. They would alert you if your name, number, or email address appeared on the internet — typically because of a data breach. However, Google found it didn’t help users take next steps to fix the problem, something these new features will hopefully do.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/googles-new-tool-helps-you-remove-non-consensual-explicit-images-from-search-155352248.html?src=rss
Scientists at the University of Trento have uncovered the first direct evidence of a subsurface feature beneath Venus: a massive underground lava tube on the most volcanically active planet in the Solar System.
Published this week in the Nature journal, the finding was actually made by re-analyzing archival radar data from NASA’s Magellan
In an unexpected bit of news, Toyota has unveiled a proprietary game engine called Fluorite. Nope, this doesn’t mean the company is entering the game development any time soon, but rather, is something we could likely see powering its future cars.
Developed by Very Good Ventures and Toyota Connected North America, Fluorite was introduced
Kids’ bicycle company Frog Bikes faces administration after a turbulent few years that have been reflective of many other brands’ experiences across the cycling industry.
The company filed an intention to appoint an administrator on Friday, which provides temporary protection from creditors.
Frog Bikes said this was a “precautionary measure” while it explores “potential funding and restructuring solutions”, The Telegraphreported today.
The Welsh company was founded in 2013 by husband and wife Jerry and Shelley Lawson after they struggled to find suitable bikes for their children.
It quickly found success and, like many cycling brands, grew significantly during the Covid pandemic before facing tougher trading conditions.
Frog Bikes made a pre-tax profit of £249,016 in 2021 but that dropped to a loss of £530,476 the following year, which it attributed in part to the “friction” caused by Brexit.
Jerry Lawson blamed Frog Bikes’ situation on a “series of significant and well-documented challenges”, which included higher employee taxes, Brexit and lower consumer confidence.
In its most recent accounts for the year ended February 2024, Frog Bikes reported a pre-tax profit of just under £200,000, but said the year had been “one of continued headwinds for Frog Bikes, and the industry as a whole”.
It said sales had dropped further as retailers continued to grapple with surplus stock and consumers remained cautious with their spending.
Brompton is another British cycling company that experienced a boom during the Covid-19 pandemic. But in January this year, it reported losses of £2m and a drop in sales.
This followed a crash in profits the previous year, which CEO Will Butler-Adams said was due to global economic uncertainty and challenges in cycling, such as overstocking, which he described as evidence of an “industry in turmoil”.
Raleigh reported losses of £30m in 2025, which it said was due to the overstocked market after Covid.
In January, Alpkit entered administration before quickly announcing its new financial structure and investment. The outdoors company, which owns Sonder bikes, said it faced rapid cost inflation, a challenging retail environment and trade barriers.
Frog Bikes’ Jerry Lawson told The Telegraph that: “All parties are committed to securing a positive outcome for the business, its employees and wider stakeholders.
“Frog Bikes’ priority remains supporting its employees, customers, suppliers, and retail partners while working with its advisers to determine the best possible outcome for all stakeholders.”
With recently having carried out benchmarks and finding the Intel Xeon 6780E “Sierra Forest” performance has improved ~14% since launch day thanks to open-source/Linux software improvements plus also recently having carried out Xeon 6980P Granite Rapids vs. EPYC 9755 128-core benchmarks using the latest upstream software, here is a look at how the Xeon 6780E “Sierra Forest” dual socket server is comparing up against the AMD EPYC 9965 Turin Dense flagship when both are running up-to-date software.
Vee Tire Co has announced the release of three new RAD-CORE radial-casing tyres, which will retail from £64.99.
The tyres, spotted at the iceBike* show, use the brand’s new RAD-CORE casing technology.
All three models on display retail for only £5 more than Vee Tire Co’s tyres with traditional cross-ply casing and they’re all available in 27.5in and 29in sizes.
Vee Tire Co calls its radial casing technology RAD-CORE. Jack Luke / Our Media
Vee Tire Co’s RAD-CORE is its own radial construction technology, which aligns casing threads perpendicular to the direction of travel. The brand says this technology boosts grip and reduces rolling resistance at the same time.
The tyres unveiled at iceBike* are Vee Tire Co’s first to use the new radial casing.
Rich Wood, brand manager at distributor Madison, says the benefits are “you have a much more supple casing because the threads are oriented at 90 degrees to the direction of travel”.
This means, theoretically, you can run radial tyres at a higher pressure and get the same supple feel.
“The bike feels a lot smoother to ride,” says Wood, explaining that riders may feel greater bump absorption. “Plus you get a bigger contact patch with the ground and much lower rolling resistance because you’re running such a high pressure.”
Wood suggests: “You find that because of the higher pressure you get much more accuracy with your steering. I would liken the difference to that of riding a bike with a QR front axle and a thru-axle.”
Vee Tire Co RAD-CORE tyre details
Three Vee Tire Co tyres are available with RAD-CORE radial casing: the Attack FSX, Attack HPL and WCE Mk2. Jack Luke / Our Media
There will be three tread patterns offered in radial casing to start with: The Attack FSX, Attack HPL, and WCE Mk2.
The first of the tyres is the Vee Tire Co Attack FSX RAD-CORE. Vee Tire Co designed this tyre for for maximum rolling speed on hardpack conditions, and says it has “aggressive cornering” capabilities. Wood describes it as a “Hard-pack bike park tyre” and it is recommended for front or rear use.
The second Vee Tire Co tyre to get the RAD-CORE radial casing treatment is the Attack HPL, a hardpack and mixed-terrain tyre.
The third tyre is the Vee Tire Co Snap WCE RAD-CORE. Vee Tire Co describes this tyre’s tread pattern as “an all-rounder for mixed trail conditions with deep tread design and even spacing to dig into loose dirt”.
All three tyres are available in 42a (Shore A scale) rubber, which Vee Tire Co calls its “Full 40 Compound”, utilising its softest ultra-tacky rubber. They’re all available in 27.5×2.5in and 29×2.5in options from £64.99.
The non-radial casing GXE-Core versions of these same tyre models are available for £59.99.
What are radial tyres?
Vee Tire Co’s radial casing tyres will all be available in 27.5in and 29in sizes. Jack Luke / Our Media
Radial refers to a different method of tyre-carcass construction.
The carcass is the woven fabric that makes up the structure of the tyre beneath the rubber tread.
On traditional ‘cross-ply’ (non-radial) tyres, the individual threads run diagonally across the tyre at a 45-degree angle. On a radial tyre, the threads are arranged at a much more obtuse angle.
The theoretical benefits are increased compliance and cornering grip, and potentially the ability to run higher pressures with the same level of compliance.
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Wifi problems tend to reveal themselves at the worst times—laggy Zoom calls, buffering mid-binge, or a smart device that refuses to connect. The Eero Pro 7, named the best mesh wifi system of 2025 by PCMag, is built to solve exactly that. Right now, the two-pack is down to $449.99 on Amazon from its usual $549.99, its lowest price to date according to price trackers.
This is a tri-band mesh system, which means it uses three separate frequencies (2.4GHz, 5GHz, and the newer 6GHz band) to keep your internet fast and stable across multiple rooms. Setup is handled through the Eero app, which guides you through everything with a QR code and a few simple steps, notes this PCMag review.
This pack covers up to 4,000 square feet. You get two identical routers in the box, each with two 5-gigabit Ethernet ports and support for wired backhaul—useful if you want to hardwire specific devices or connect the routers directly for stronger performance. Inside, you’ll find five antennas and hardware that supports Wi-Fi 7 tech like MU-MIMO, beamforming, and 320MHz channels, all of which work behind the scenes to reduce lag and keep multiple devices running smoothly. It’s also smart-home-ready, with support for Thread, Matter, and Zigbee, so you can use it as a hub for devices like lights, locks, or sensors without needing extra gear.
That said, it’s not without its limitations. For one, there are no USB ports, if you were hoping to plug in storage or a printer directly. And while it supports parental controls and network security features, you’ll need to pay extra for those—about $10 a month via the Eero+ subscription. That plan adds tools like VPN access, malware blocking, ad filtering, and a password manager, but it does feel like a bit of a nickel-and-dime moment after shelling out nearly $450. Still, if your wifi struggles are more than a minor annoyance, the Eero Pro 7 is a serious upgrade, and with this price drop, a bit easier to justify.
If you’re an iPhone user who likes to keep tabs on where your stuff is, you can’t go far wrong with an AirTag. The second-gen model that Apple just released outpaces the original in every way (aside from the galling lack of a keyring hole, that is). While it’s easy enough to replace the battery in both versions of the AirTag, you might not want to have to worry about the device’s battery life for a very long time. Enter Elevation Lab’s extended battery case for the AirTag, which is currently on sale at Amazon for $16.
The case usually sells for $23, so that’s a 30 percent discount. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this deal, but it’s a pretty decent one all the same.
This is arguably one of the more useful AirTag accessories around for certain use cases. It won’t exactly be helpful for an AirTag that you put in a wallet or attach to your keys, as it’s too bulky for such a purpose — and it doesn’t have a hole for a keyring anyway. Still, if you’re looking for an AirTag case that you can place in a suitcase or backpack and not have to touch for years, this could be the ticket.
Elevation Lab says that, when you place a couple of AA batteries in the case, it can extend the tracker’s battery life to as much as 10 years (the brand recommends using Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries for best results). The AirTag is slated to run for over a year on its standard CR2032 button cell.
The case gives the AirTag more protection as well. It’s sealed with four screws and it has a IP69 waterproof rating. What’s more, it doesn’t ostensibly look like an AirTag case, so someone who steals an item with one inside is perhaps less likely to realize that the object they pilfered is being tracked.
There are some other downsides, though. Since the AirTag is locked inside a case, the sound it emits will be muffled. Elevation Lab says the device’s volume will be about two-thirds the level of a case-free AirTag. However, the second-gen AirTag is louder than its predecessor, which should mitigate that issue somewhat.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/elevation-labs-10-year-extended-battery-case-for-airtag-is-back-on-sale-for-16-151215952.html?src=rss
There was a time when cutting the cord could save you big money versus paying for a satellite or traditional cable TV package. Those days are gone, perhaps for good, though one of the best streaming services is rolling out more affordable plans. That would be YouTube TV, and streaming subscribers now have several new tiers to choose from,
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
The Blink Mini 2K+ (2-pack) is currently down to $44.99 on Amazon, half off its usual $89.99 price and the lowest it has ever been, according to price-trackers. That makes it one of the cheapest ways right now to add basic indoor security with sharper video than the older 1080p models. Blink, which is owned by Amazon, has always leaned toward simple and affordable cameras, and this one follows that formula closely. It records in 2K resolution, so faces and fine details come through more clearly than on earlier Minis. It also adds a built-in spotlight, which allows for color night footage instead of grainy black-and-white clips when motion is detected.
This is a wired camera, so it needs to live close to a power outlet. The upside is size. The Mini 2K+ is tiny at roughly two inches wide and about three inches tall with the stand attached. It is light enough to move around easily if you want to keep an eye on different rooms at different times. Set-up is straightforward through the Blink app. That said, it only works on a 2.4GHz network, which is worth noting if your home is set up around 5GHz. Video quality is solid for the price, and two-way audio is clearer than before thanks to better noise filtering.
There is also a built-in siren and support for Amazon Alexa, letting you view the camera feed on Fire TV devices or get alerts on Echo speakers. As for its storage and smart features, live viewing is free, but recorded clips, smart alerts like person detection, and cloud storage require a Blink subscription. That starts at $4 per month for one device or $12 per month for unlimited devices. You can avoid cloud storage by adding the Blink Sync Module 2 ($49.99) and a USB drive, but that is another piece of hardware to buy and manage. And while the Mini 2K+ is meant for indoor use, you can place it outdoors with a weather-resistant power adapter ($9.99), which is also sold separately.
The American economy’s most valuable companies are now worth trillions of dollars more than their predecessors were a generation ago, yet they employ a fraction of the workers — and a new analysis by the Wall Street Journal argues that this widening gap between capital and labor is the defining economic story of our time.
Labor received 58% of gross domestic income in 1980; by the third quarter of 2025, that figure had fallen to 51.4%. Corporate profits’ share rose from 7% to 11.7% over the same period. Nvidia, the most valuable US company in 2026, is nearly 20 times as valuable as IBM was in 1985 in inflation-adjusted terms and employs roughly a tenth as many people. Since the end of 2019, real average hourly wages have risen 3% while corporate profits have climbed 43%.
Household stock wealth now equals almost 300% of annual disposable income, up from 200% in 2019. Yale economist Pascual Restrepo predicted that AI integration will shrink labor’s share of revenue further, just as factory automation did for blue-collar workers in decades past.
The Basso Palta III follows a familiar path trodden by many contemporaneous do-it-all gravel bikes, but its ‘liveability’, custom build options, tasteful design details and made-in-Italy provenance could make it a compelling choice in a crowded marketplace.
Compared to the outgoing model, Basso has boosted the Palta III’s tyre clearance to 52mm front and 50mm rear, refined the geometry to improve comfort and added down-tube storage, resulting in a bike that it says straddles gravel racing and adventure without compromising too heavily in either area.
“We know it’s never going to be the fastest bike on the road or the fastest on mountain bike trails,” says product and marketing manager Leonardo Basso. “So for us it’s about giving riders the most versatile bike to define what gravel means for them.”
Although it’s backed up by extensive customisation options, prices in the UK start at £3,999 for the base-level GRX 1×12 build, rising to £5,399 for the top-spec SRAM Force XPLR AXS build.
The Palta III doesn’t quite match these chonky extremes, but it’s not far off, with capacity for 52mm at the front and 50mm at the rear.
Given that it defines the intent and ride feel of a bike, how does a brand settle on a final figure, particularly for a bike designed to satisfy most riders?
“50mm was a good balance to still have a lively and animated bike,” says Basso. “We didn’t want something sluggish on the road or fast trails.”
Basso adds that increasing clearance further would require longer chainstays, changing the bike’s character.
“We didn’t want to lengthen the chainstays too much – we still wanted to keep the wheel close to the pedalling. But on the other hand, we wanted enough tyre clearance for riding that crosses the line with mountain biking.”
The bike strikes a good balance with its accessory mounts. Basso
Outside of suitably versatile tyre clearance, to say credibly that it straddles both adventure and gravel racing requires an appropriate mix of accessory mounts.
The Palta III does’t have the Action Man-crotch-smooth silhouette of a truly race-oriented gravel bike, nor is it festooned in Surly levels of barnacle-like protrusions.
It strikes a balance that’s appropriate for the bike’s intent, with mounts on the top and bottom of the top tube, three bottle mounts inside the main triangle and two mounts under the down tube.
Some will rue the lack of fork bosses or rack mounts, which are often used by ultra racers looking to carry extra luggage or water.
But Basso points to other bikes in the brand’s line-up to meet those needs: “The Palta has always been a bike capable of carrying luggage or additional accessories, but it’s never been a full-on bikepacking bike, like the Terra,” it says.
“[For the Palta III], we didn’t want to add too many bolts. It adds weight, and we wanted to keep really clean lines.”
The matching bags from Apidura are a highlight. Basso
Basso has partnered with Apidura to develop a range of bags designed to complement the bike.
Rather than use straps, these bolt on, which Basso says offers a more secure fit, while protecting the frame’s paintwork from abrasion.
The range includes two frame-bag options and top-tube storage, designed specifically around the Palta III’s tube shapes and mounting points.
Basso says the bags are shaped to enable continued access to bottles and the bike’s internal down-tube storage compartment – more on that in a moment.
Like most of the brand’s range, Apidura’s waterproof construction is used throughout, with welded seams and weatherproof zips.
Basso is not the first brand to work with a specialist to produce bags for a new bike, but this is a notably well-executed collaboration – the bags look super-clean when mounted and add to the credibility of Basso’s claim that it has designed this to be a bike for all gravel riders.
‘Rental and hire is important for us’
The bike is available with three cockpit options.
Basso offers three cockpit options on the Palta III: two one-piece cockpits (the Fuga and Levita) and a traditional two-piece setup using the new Strato alloy stem.
The Strato stem is available in lengths from 80mm to 130mm and routes cables underneath through a channel. It’s paired with a conventionally shaped carbon gravel bar.
Beyond providing riders with flexibility to customise cockpits as they please, Basso is unflinching in explaining how it supports another key, and unexpected, part of the brand’s business: “This stem supports what we’re doing in the area of Bassano [Basso’s hometown]. There are not enough possibilities for people who want to buy our bikes to test them,” says Basso.
“So this is how we view the rental and hire side of our business – it’s a way to get people trying bikes.
“The whole goal of what we do is to give the best riding quality to the riders… and this stem is really versatile for that.”
Levita stem and bar
Bar widths: From 400 to 460mm at the tops, and 420 to 480mm at the drops
Bar flare: 12 degrees
Stem lengths: 80 to 130mm
The Fuga cockpit is the performance-oriented option, with an aerodynamic profile and a racey fit.
Fuga cockpit
370mm wide at hoods, 400mm in the drops
6-degree flare
Stem sizes: 80 to 130mm
Claimed weight: 300g, +/- 3%
The Levita cockpit offers a more classic road-bike fit, with slightly wider fit options and less flare.
Levita cockpit
Bar widths: From 380 to 440mm at the tops, and 400 to 460mm at the drops
4-degree flare
Stem sizes: 80 to 130mm
Claimed weight: 330g, +/- 3%
Carbon – but not for the reasons you think
The Palta now features down-tube storage. Basso
Following many of its peers, the Palta III features internal frame storage in the down tube.
However, unlike other bikes, Basso uses a painted carbon cover instead of injection-moulded plastic – a point of genuine difference that’s more complex to pull off than you might assume.
“A carbon cover gives a really rigid mounting point for the bottle, and it’s lighter,” explains Basso, but that’s not the key reason the brand opted for carbon.
The real benefit comes when painting. Generally speaking, paint adheres more easily to the carbon, but crucially, the carbon cover has the same texture as the rest of the frame, lending the bike a very clean finish.
The down-tube cover sits among a wider suite of well-considered components and accessories designed for the bike. Basso
Basso says manufacturing using carbon is “really complicated”, and that maintaining tolerance between the two parts is very difficult, but any minor imperfections can be accommodated by the adjustability built into the magnetic Fidlock latch.
Compared to those found on the early generation of down-tube storage hatches, this clasp is easy to use and, crucially, secure.
I did my best to boot it out of place, belting the bike into volcanic lumps on my test rides, but it stayed steadfast. The mechanism also feels very positive, with a more pleasant tactile feel than some designs.
A specially designed, seam-welded water-resistant pouch lives inside the down tube, with enough space for a small pump, TPU tube and other small spares.
A familiar frameset
The kicked-forward fork is a defining feature of Basso’s bikes. Basso
Although they share similar overall silhouettes, the profile of every tube on the Palta III has been updated for the new bike.
Some familiarly Basso-esque features remain – key among these is the kicked-forward fork crown. The same design is used on the Astra and SV road bikes, among others.
“With this layout, we can keep weight down and allow compliance while maintaining torsional rigidity,” says Basso.
For the Palta III, Basso says the torsional stiffness at the fork crown has been reduced slightly compared to previous versions, to improve comfort and front-end confidence on rough terrain.
Basso’s patented 3B Clamp system houses the seatpost in a sleeve, with a humped clamp slotting into a groove moulded into the back of the post. Basso says this provides a secure grip on the post, while enabling it to flex more, improving comfort.
Vibram x Basso
A wee bit daft, but unquestionably practical – I love this collaboration with Vibram. Basso
On the underside of the down tube is my personal highlight of the bike – the rubberised down-tube protector produced in collaboration with Vibram.
Made close to the brand’s headquarters, Basso says the thick, plastic-backed rubber-coated bolt-on plate protects the bike from impacts better than a typical stick-on protector, and there are more collaborations between the brands to come.
Reactions to this at the bike’s launch were mixed, but I think it’s a fun point of differentiation on an otherwise perfunctory part – memorable cycling marketing campaigns are increasingly dominated by collaborations, so why not extend this to an overlooked part of a bike?
Other small but welcome details include the solid oil bearings used in the headset and Basso’s novel sliding wedge-style expander.
Familiar, but no worse for it
The Palta III presents nothing out of the ordinary – and that’s not a problem. Basso
I rode the bike for several days at a press camp in Sicily.
The riding covered a mix of farmland tracks over unexpectedly high cols; forested trails carpeted with pine needles, infested with mushroom hunters; and a long grind up the treacherously slippery slopes of Mount Etna, interspersed with extended road transfers.
Overall, the Palta III doesn’t present any surprises – the neutral and confidence-inspiring handling is what you’d expect from a bike of this ilk. The relatively short rear end gives it a more animated feel on tighter or technical terrain, but it’s no handful on rowdier descents.
Tyre pressure and volume have a far greater impact on ride quality than any bump-taming layup ever could, so I’m loath to draw conclusions here.
However, my brief observation is that the Palta leans into the firmer end of the riding spectrum – it’s by no means a tooth rattler, but it’s also no bendy wrist-protecting carbon hammock. Given the bike is designed to be raced hard and accommodate a decent bikepacking load, this gives me no cause for concern.
I appreciate that Basso’s bikes can be customised to suit your taste. Basso
With a 590mm stack, my size-56cm equivalent test bike had a relatively generous – but by no means tall – front end.
Tastes differ in this area, but I prefer the slightly more luxuriant fit of a tall(er) stack because it enables you to use the drops more confidently when descending off-road, and languish on the tops when gasping for breath on a savage extended steep climb.
My bike was equipped with a 2x GRX Di2 drivetrain, which almost all bikes will accommodate without issue. However, while some brands have shunned the humble mechanical 2x drivetrain, Basso retains compatibility with the new Palta III – a very welcome move.
On that, dwelling on the specs is not important because the Palta III is offered as a custom build to all customers. Backed up with a commendably wide range of cockpit options that will satiate even the fussiest gravel diva – this is something that should always be celebrated.
In a world where gravel-bike design has largely converged around familiar features, ‘liveability’, accessories and provenance matter more than ever. Basso
It’s fair to say the Palta III doesn’t push boundaries, and it joins the ranks of many well-designed and perfectly handsome gravel bikes.
However, where these often feel overlooked on other bikes, the Palta III’s neat details and tasteful accessories help it stand out – and that’s key if Basso wants to win new riders given gravel-bike design has largely settled on a proven formula.
That the frameset is manufactured in Italy – but doesn’t cost an outrageous amount of money – will also be a draw for those who wish to support more local supply chains than is typical of the wider cycling industry.
Mature, well-considered and versatile, the Palta III is a connoisseur’s choice for the do-it-all gravel rider.
