Technology

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• Creative's Pebble Nova is the latest in the brand's Pebble series
• Coaxial drivers; Bluetooth 5.3; USB audio; Aux-in
• A premium offering, priced £239.99 (so around $305 or AU$478)

Not so hot on the heels of its highly successful Creative Pebble Plus offering (which launched in early 2022), Creative Technology is back with some new desktop speaker Pebbles, with the launch of the Creative Pebble Nova.

What Creative calls a "unique angled design" looks to me for all the world like two lawn bowling balls with RGB halo lighting at their base plus included stands – and I say that as high praise. I want that; I want their coaxial tweeter/woofer drivers either side of my desktop PC… if they sound good.

The new speakers also represent a significant step towards a more premium range from Creative (yes, there's quite a price hike over the 2022 Plus-suffixed model) but if they sound as good as they look, I'm very interested.

The elevated drivers are positioned at 45-degrees to achieve a sweet-spot to each of the listener's ears, and you love to see it.

Pebble Nova is available priced at GBP 239.99 and is available at Creative.com.

Champagne Pebble Nova

To clarify, you get two of them (Image credit: Creative)

According to Creative, that RGB lighting spans 'the full color spectrum', but glows different colors to denote how you're connecting them. On that, your options include Bluetooth 5.3 streaming, USB audio playback, and a universal 3.5 mm AUX input, so they're potentially a good shout for multi-media stereo speakers.

To me, they don't look dissimilar to Cabasse's very high-end Pearl speakers, or even Devialet's also-more-pricey Mania solo speaker option, so despite the new pricing bracket for Creative, there's a very good chance of value-for-money here too.

Its makers tell me the Creative app also unlocks access to the company's proprietary Acoustic Engine audio tech, including Surround, Smart Volume, Bass, Dialog+, and Crystal Voice, enabling users to tweak the audio settings and lighting to suit their preferences.

Pebble Nova is available priced £239.99 (which is approximately $305 or AU$478, although pricing and availability for these regions isn't yet set in concrete).

Are they about to become some of the best computer speakers, the best stereo speakers or indeed among the best Bluetooth speakers we've ever tested? We're working on that. Watch this space.

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• Amazon has revealed Alexa's most asked questions during 2024 in the UK
• Some unexpected entries include Henry VIII and cake pops
• The 'surprise' interactions list has left us deeply concerned

Amazon has just revealed the most popular Alexa questions that UK fans have asked the voice assistant during 2024 – and it's an often unnerving peek inside the strange minds of Alexa users.

The questions, which Amazon's split into categories such as 'people', 'net worth', 'spouses', 'recipes' and more, naturally contain some highly predictable entries that are similar to last year's. No-one will be surprised to hear that Taylor Swift topped the queries list, or that 'happy birthday' was the most popular song request.

But nestled in among the bland entries are some telling and concerning details. For example, the top three entries in the 'surprise' Alexa interactions are 'fart', 'roast me' and 'marry me'. If this is a hint of how we're going to be interacting with the likes of ChatGPT Voice Mode, it points to a dark, troubled future for our poor voice assistants.

On the plus side, the Konami code ('Up up down down left right left right B A') does make the top 10 in its category, so there is hope for us yet. But if we aren't taken down by a toxic, co-dependent relationship with voice assistants, the most popular Alexa recipe questions suggest that calorific intake may yet be our undoing.

This year, pancakes took the number one spot from Yorkshire puddings on the recipe front. But new entries this year are 'cake pops' (a trend we thought had fizzled out in 2023) and 'mango ice cream'. Clearly, 2024 has been a year for comfort food.

Perhaps most concerning, 'scrambled eggs' also makes the list, suggesting that we aren't going to going to be troubling an episode of Chef's Table anytime soon.

An innocent voice assistant age

(Image credit: Amazon)

While there are some strange entries in these Alexa 'most asked' questions, and accepting that they do only reflect the warped minds of UK users, I suspect that these queries will soon seem quaint compared to the conversations we'll soon be having with AI-powered assistants.

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said "that kind of obsession is possible" when asked about the potentially worrying prospect of "perfect" AI girlfriends, and there's very much a dark side to AI friendships that claim to cure loneliness. Perhaps it's a good thing that Alexa AI has been delayed until 2025.

Still, on balance, this year's most-asked Alexa questions show a largely positive relationship with Amazon's voice assistant, with "sing a song about dogs" coming in second on the most-requested songs and "thank you" incredibly topping the 'personality' charts.

Geographical quirks still exist, too, despite our increasingly globalized world, with Henry VIII beating Cat Deeley and Ed Sheeran in the UK to the top of questions about 'spouses' (possibly helped by a new series of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light on BBC iPlayer).

But the biggest takeaway is that Yorkshire puddings, last year's number one most-requested recipe, need to up their game in 2025 is they're to regain the top spot against new upstart queries like 'roasted cauliflower' and 'halloumi stuffed peppers'.

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• TikTok is facing a ban in the US over national security concerns
• TikTok has warned this may have huge consequences for US small businesses
• President-elect Trump may yet reverse the ban, although his position remains unclear

The US’s deadline on the proposed TikTok sell-off is fast approaching, and it looks like there may actually be a possibility the social media giant could disappear from US users' devices in January 2025.

As it stands, TikTok is set to be banned in the US on January 19 2025 - or its Chinese parent company will be forced to sell due to national security concerns. President-elect Trump could reverse the ban, but as his administration doesn't take office until January 20, so there is potential for a pretty disruptive gap.

TikTok insists the US does not face imminent threat of harm in regards to national security, but does point out that many US businesses would be ‘irreparably harmed’ by a loss of audience and advertising opportunities.

De-influenced

With a shocking 12 million full-time ‘influencers’ in the US, many of whom will use TikTok as a large source of income, there could be some massive backlash against the ban.

This could have wider reaching consequences than expected for the US economy. The platform has over 170 million users in the US, and it been estimated that small businesses and content creators could suffer huge losses if the ban is enforced,

"Estimates show that small businesses on TikTok would lose more than $1 billion in revenue and creators would suffer almost $300 million in lost earnings in just one month unless the TikTok Ban is halted," TikTok's spokesperson said.

Previously, Donald Trump has vowed to save the platform in order to ‘preserve competition in a market dominated by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta’, but with Elon Musk, (owner of rival social media company Twitter), by his side during the campaign trail, this may have shifted his view.

Via ArsTechnica

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• God of War Ragnarok's former art director Raf Grassetti has joined Naughty Dog
• Grassetti was at Sony Santa Monica for 10 years before leaving to work at Netflix Games' Team Blue, which shut down in October
• Grassetti will likely be working on Naughty Dog's next, as yet unannounced, game

Ex-Sony Santa Monica developer Raf Grassetti has joined Naughty Dog to presumably work on the studio's new game.

The announcement comes from Grassetti himself over on X / Twitter, where he simply wrote "New chapter" accompanied by an image of the Naughty Dog logo.

Grassetti has previously worked as the principal art director on Sony Santa Monica's God of War and then the art director on God of War Ragnarok.

The developer left the studio in 2023 after 10 years to lead the art department on a AAA game at Netflix Games studio codenamed Team Blue, alongside industry members like Halo Infinite's creative director Joe Staten and Chacko Sonny, who previously worked as an executive producer on Overwatch.

In October, Team Blue was shut down following a wave of layoffs, ultimately killing the mystery AAA project.

It's unclear at this time what game Grassetti will be working on for Naughty Dog, or in what role he will be serving.

Naughty Dog co-president and The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann confirmed earlier this year that there are "multiple single-player" projects in development at the studio.

Development remains quiet, however, new insider information about the secret project was reported by MinnMax founder Ben Hanson in October who claimed that a source "very in the know, who worked on the game" told him that the game will feature "a lot of player freedom".

The studio was also expected to release a new The Last of Us Online game, a multiplayer spin-off that was in development for four years, but it was canceled in December 2023 following concerns that it would impact the studio’s future single-player games.

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It's finally here! I'm so excited about the follow-up to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, which happens to be one of my favorite zombie movies of all time. It joins the likes of Prime Video's number one movie Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End as recent undead tales we've been excited to watch.

It's got everything you could want: an impressively desolate London cityscape, a bit of humor, and plenty of dark moments too, with the always brilliant Cillian Murphy leading the cast. So imagine my surprise when he popped up in the 28 Years Later trailer. Only this time he looks very different.

When we last saw Murphy's Jim character, he had survived to the end of the first movie, 28 Days Later. While he didn't appear in the second, 28 Weeks Later, he's made a surprise cameo appearance in the third movie. And, well, he has certainly seen better days!

Take a look at the trailer for the new movie below.

What do we know about 28 Years Later?

Cillian Murphy makes a surprise return in 28 Years Later. (Image credit: Sony Pictures)

28 Years Later will release in theatres on June 20, 2025, so we've got a bit of a wait! But don't worry, there's plenty coming up and you can check out the most exciting new movies coming to theaters in December 2024 while you wait for the horror movie to arrive.

The plot follows a group of survivors who must navigate the terrifying world that has once again been ravaged by those infected with the now iconic Rage Virus, which spiraled out of control in the first movie and apparently isn't going anywhere.

This time, the cast is led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, and Ralph Fiennes, so we've got another star-studded line-up to look forward to. I'm so excited to dive back into this universe again.

While it's too early for a streaming release, in an ideal world the sequel would arrive on Disney Plus alongside 28 Weeks Later, but that's not guaranteed considering the original movie is not available to stream there. So, we'll have to see if it arrives on one of the best streaming services over the coming months.

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• Nvidia’s acquisition of Mellanox Technologies is being investigated by China
• The second-biggest company in the world will cooperate with regulators
• China’s probe comes just days after the US intensifies restrictions

The recent run of high-profile antitrust investigations could be set to intensify even further with the launch of a Chinese-backed anti-monopoly investigation into Nvidia.

The country's probe focuses on alleged violations linked to Nvidia's near-$7 billion acquisition of networking company Mellanox Technologies in 2020.

While tech giants across the globe are all facing regulatory scrutiny, the timing of the investigation handily lines up with tightened US restrictions on China's access to advanced semiconductors, marking the escalation of the ongoing US-China tech war.

China launches its own Nvidia investigation

The news was announced by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, with Beijing’s State Administration for Market Regulation saying the chipmaker failed to provide new product information to rivals within 90 days of availability to Nvidia, something it was required to do as part of the deal.

The probe comes not long after the US added even more Chinese companies to its entities list. In response, the country has curbed some mineral exports, including antimony, gallium and germanium, which are all used in the production of advanced semiconductors in the US.

Center for Strategic and International Studies researcher James Lewis said (via BBC): “The timing is not a coincidence… It's mainly a message to the US government - the Chinese have decided they're not just going to take sanction after sanction.”

Nvidia has already confirmed it would be “happy to answer any questions regulators may have about our business.”

A company spokesperson added: “Nvidia wins on merit, as reflected in our benchmark results and value to customers, and customers can choose whatever solution is best for them… We work hard to provide the best products we can in every region and honor our commitments everywhere we do business.”

After becoming the world's most valuable company on two separate occasions, Nvidia has slipped back into second place, with a market cap of $3.399 trillion, second only to Apple.

The company’s early entry to the AI chips market has allowed it to benefit from off-the-scale interest in the technology, with Nvidia shares rising from $16.27 prior to ChatGPT’s public preview launch to $138.81 now, marking a colossal 753% increase.

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