Technology

• Spyzie was found to be vulnerable to the same flaw as Cocospy and Spyzie
• More than half a million Android users were exposed
• Roughly 4,900 iOS users were exposed as well

Hundreds of thousands of Android users, as well as several thousand iPhone users, have had their sensitive data compromised by a spouseware app, called Spyzie.

The apps were found leaking email addresses, text messages, call logs, photographs, and other sensitive data, belonging to millions of people who, without their knowledge or consent, have had these apps installed on their devices. The people who installed those apps, in most cases partners, parents, significant others, have also had their email addresses exposed in the same manner.

The researcher who found all of these flaws is not sharing the details just yet, claiming they’re quite simple to exploit and haven’t been addressed yet.

Email addresses and more

Spyware apps, often also called “spouseware”, are apps that people covertly install on mobile devices belonging to their partners, children, or similar. They are advertised as legitimate monitoring apps, but are essentially operating in the grey zone and are not allowed on major app stores, such as the App Store or Play Store.

This is the third such app with the same flaw, after a cybersecurity researcher recently analyzed Cocospy and Spyic, two other popular spyware apps whose code apparently has significant overlaps, allowing the researcher to pull sensitive information from their servers.

The researcher managed to exfiltrate 1.81 million of email addresses used to register with Cocospy, and roughly 880,000 addresses used for Spyic. Besides email addresses, the researcher managed to access most of the data harvested by the apps, including pictures, messages, and call logs.

For Spyzie, the researcher managed to collect more than 510,000 unique email addresses of Android users, and sensitive data on at least 4,900 iPhone and iPad users.

The operators did not respond to media inquiries and have not, at press time, addressed the vulnerabilities.

Via TechCrunch

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• The Rings of Power season 3 has added actors from two popular Netflix shows to its cast ranks
• Stranger Things' Jamie Campbell Bower and Heartstopper's Eddie Marsan have signed on in mystery roles
• I think two particular roles are tailor-made for them

The Rings of Power season 3 just got a serious cast upgrade with the additions of actors from two of Netflix's biggest TV Originals.

Just two weeks after The Rings of Power's third season was officially announced, the first of many (potentially, anyway) new cast additions have been revealed by Amazon MGM Studios. Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays the villainous Vecna in the hugely popular Netflix series, and Heartstopper supporting actor Eddie Marsan have signed on to appear in season 3 of Amazon's high-fantasy prequel show.

Jamie Campbell Bower and Eddie Marsan have joined the cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for the series’ upcoming third season, currently in pre-production with filming scheduled to begin this spring. pic.twitter.com/04iCb7Q6AvFebruary 27, 2025

Amazon hasn't confirmed who they'll be playing in the Prime Video series' next chapter, but did reveal that Campbell Bower will be a series regular and Marsan will feature in a recurring role. The tech giant's entertainment division also reiterated that filming will begin in the spring (that's autumn for southern hemisphere readers).

The Rings of Power season 2's final episode set up some fascinating events – ones depicted in JRR Tolkien's legendarium and wider The Lord of the Rings (TLotR) works – to come. You can remind yourself what happened in that explosive entry by reading my The Rings of Power season 2 ending explained article. Be sure to read my dedicated guide on The Rings of Power season 3, too, to learn more about its cast, potential storylines, and more.

Who could Jamie Campbell Bower and Eddie Marsan play in The Rings of Power season 3?

Campbell Bower will be a familiar face to Stranger Things fans (Image credit: Netflix)

Full spoilers follow for The Rings of Power season 2 Potential season 3 spoilers are also discussed.

We may not know who they'll portray yet, but that won't stop me from speculating. Bear in mind that I have no insider knowledge, so everything from this point on is just me having some fun.

Where Marsan is concerned, he seems tailor-made to play a dwarven character. We already expect that there'll be one new dwarf in one of the best Prime Video shows' third season – that being Durin IV's brother, who's mentioned in season 2 episode 8. Apparently, he's going to make a play for the Khazad-dûm throne following the death of King Durin III. He has the support of some key dwarf lords, too, so it would be fascinating to see Marsan's unnamed character go toe-to-toe (verbally and physically) with Owain Arthur's Durin IV as they battle to become Khazad-dûm's next ruler.

Campbell Bower's role is less clear. He's most well-known for playing Vecna/Victor Creel in Stranger Things season 4 and he'll reprise that role in Stranger Things season 5, which is set to debut on Netflix sometime in 2025.

Given his experience playing a terrifying villain, some readers may expect him to be another commanding, antagonistic figure in The Rings of Power. So, he could be another of Sauron's disguises – indeed, while Charlie Vickers has primarily played Middle-earth's Dark Lord in the show, Jack Lowden briefly portrayed Sauron during a flashback sequence in season 2 episode 1. There's previous form for other actors playing Sauron in The Rings of Power, then. Could Campbell Bower play Sauron upon his return to Númenor? I wouldn't rule it out.

That said, Campbell Bower could also play a more heroic character. Since the cast announcement was made, TLotR fans have flocked to The Rings of Power and The Rings of Power on Prime Reddit pages to say Campbell Bower has the air and appearance of an elf. Maybe he'll play one of this race's most interesting and/or important characters, then, such as Glorfindel or – whisper it quietly – Celeborn, aka Galadriel's husband.

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• Waze 5.4 adds support for heads-up displays
• It works on selected cars
• The update is rolling out across Android and iOS

Waze version 5.4 is rolling out now for drivers across Android and iOS devices, and it comes with a useful new feature that may just convince you to switch over (or switch back) from Google Maps: support for heads-up displays behind vehicle steering wheels.

Many cars now come with two screens, one for the main infotainment panel (which is where you'll find Android Auto or Apple CarPlay), and one directly in front of the driver, showing key details like speed, mileage, gas levels, and so on.

It's this second screen that Waze has now expanded to on select vehicles (via 9to5Google). It means you can see where you're going without glancing across at the main Android Auto or Apple CarPlay display, making it easier to keep your eyes on the road.

As you might expect, this only works on select vehicles for now – those with a graphical heads-up display, for a start. Waze hasn't said which cars are supported, but some BMW, Ford, and Polestar drivers have reported seeing the feature in action.

On the road Waze now shows on my instrument cluster after latest update from r/waze

Some photos posted to Reddit show Waze navigation instructions on a heads-up display – you can see that the graphics stick to the basics, most likely to minimize distractions and adapt to the limited space on this second screen.

This kind of deeper integration has previously been possible on a few car models with Google Maps and Apple Maps as well – but with Waze 5.4, we now have another mapping app that can provide a more seamless driving experience.

Even though it's been owned by Google for more than a decade at this point, Waze continues to hold its own as a separate app from Google Maps: it offers a simpler, friendlier interface and more in the way of community features.

As for fuller heads-up display integration, that's a whole other story. Apple and Google are keen to do more with this screen, while car makers would rather have control over the software experience – which goes some way to explaining the CarPlay 2 delay.

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• The new iPhone 16e misses out on MagSafe
• According to a notable tech blogger, Apple says this is because the phone's target audience doesn't use wireless charging
• However, we're not sure what this claim is based on

The iPhone 16e is finally here, joining the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max as the latest and cheapest addition to Apple’s current-generation smartphone lineup.

However, the iPhone 16e misses out on some of the best features from its predecessors, chief among them being MagSafe, Apple’s proprietary system of in-phone magnets that facilitates a range of charging and accessory options.

The disappointment in the iPhone fanbase surrounding this omission must have been clear to Apple, as the company has apparently given a statement about the iPhone 16e’s lack of MagSafe (which, for reference, has been standard on all numbered iPhones since 2020’s iPhone 12 series).

This is according to notable tech blogger John Gruber (via his blog, Daring Fireball, who paraphrases a statement supposedly supplied by unnamed Apple representatives: “But according to Apple representatives, most people in the 16e’s target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging cable”.

It seems Apple’s opinion is that if you’re looking to buy an iPhone 16e, you probably didn’t even want MagSafe to begin with – whether that reflects actual consumer opinion is another matter.

As GSMArena notes, who exactly Apple thinks iPhone 16e buyers are remains unclear from this paraphrased statement, as do the figures and research upon which you’d imagine Apple would base its claim.

Rather than gaining MagSafe, like the iPhone 16 (right), the iPhone 16e (center) lacks the feature, much like the iPhone SE (left) (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Priced at $599 / £599 / AU$999, the iPhone 16e is now the cheapest iPhone Apple sells directly, replacing the iPhone SE as the company’s budget handset and booting the iPhone 14 off of its price point and into the archives; both the iPhone SE and iPhone 14 (and iPhone 14 Plus) have been discontinued.

You might expect that Apple would replace a pair of three-year-old phones with a handset that can do everything these models could do and more – but as our iPhone 16e review notes, this isn’t quite the case. As well as MagSafe, the iPhone 16e misses out on the iPhone 14’s ultra-wide camera and ultra-wideband connectivity.

The iPhone 16e also replaces the iPhone SE’s Touch ID-enabled Home Button with Face ID, though this feels less like a loss and more like a natural progression that brings the phone's design in line with its peers.

What do you think about the iPhone 16e’s lack of MagSafe? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to join our WhatsApp community to vote in our poll.

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• Meta has fired "roughly 20" employees for apparent leaks
• The company has seen a rise in leaks in recent months
• Company information and project plans have been leaked

Meta has announced it has fired “roughly 20” employees for leaking confidential company information.

Speaking to TheVerge, Meta spokesperson Dave Arnolds said, “We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent.”

Recently, Meta’s internal meetings and product plans have seen a sharp increase in leaks, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently stating “Everything I say, leaks” in a leaked memo.

Meta leaks

“We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential information outside the company, and we expect there will be more. We take this seriously, and will continue to take action when we identify leaks,” Arnolds continued.

Meta employees have been warned not to leak company information and internal memos, with comments from Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth stating that the company was “making progress on catching people,” subsequently leaking.

Zuckerberg has aligned himself closely with President Trump, calling on him to stop the European Union from levying fines against the company, of which Meta has faced $2.67 billion in GDPR fines since 2022, and a $813.71 million fine for violating anti-trust regulations.

Meta has also cut back heavily on content moderation for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, and has ended diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, with Zuckerberg stating companies need “more masculine energy” on the Joe Rogan podcast. Other recent layoffs from Meta have been targeted at “low-performers.”

At an internal meeting in February 2025, Bosworth said, “There’s a funny thing that’s happening with these leaks. When things leak, I think a lot of times people think, ‘Ah, okay, this is leaked, therefore it’ll put pressure on us to change things.’ The opposite is more likely.”

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• A new exploit can track any Bluetooth device using Apple’s Find My network
• The attack can be done remotely in just a few minutes
• Apple has been notified, but it’s unknown when a fix will come

Apple’s Find My app is a handy way to keep track of your important items, whether that’s one of the best iPhones or an AirTag attached to a set of keys, and while there have been concerns surrounding the privacy implications of devices like Apple’s AirTag, the Find My concept itself has remained relatively impervious to attack – until now.

That’s because researchers from George Mason University in Virginia say they’ve discovered a serious flaw in the Find My network that could allow hackers to track almost any Bluetooth-enabled device’s location without its owner knowing.

On the face of it, it’s a deviously clever exploit. Dubbed “nRootTag,” it manipulates Find My’s cryptographic keys to trick the network into believing that a regular Bluetooth device is actually a trackable AirTag. That means that any Bluetooth device could feasibly be located by a person with access to the exploit.

The researchers found that their method had a 90% success rate. What’s more, it only took them a few minutes to locate a targeted device. It’s a scary combination when those kinds of capabilities are in the wrong hands.

Remote access

The Apple AirTag (Image credit: Apple)

People have worried about the nefarious tracking potential of AirTags and the Find My network before, but in past cases, a stalker has had to physically place an AirTag close to their victim. In the case of the George Mason University exploit, that’s not necessary because it can be triggered remotely. For instance, the university team was able to track a games console that had been placed on an airplane throughout its entire journey, all from many miles away.

The only small comfort is that this method requires a lot of power behind it, as the researchers had to deploy hundreds of powerful GPUs in order to swiftly find cryptographic keys to exploit. Still, they noted that it would be possible to do using rented GPU banks, which do not necessarily require significant funds.

The researchers say they notified Apple about the vulnerability in July 2024. While Apple has acknowledged the issue, we don’t yet know if or how it will be fixed – and it could take years to end the threat if people don’t update their devices right away.

If you want to stay safe, the best advice for now is to regularly update your devices and be cautious about granting apps access to Bluetooth. If you don’t know why an app needs Bluetooth, do further research before simply opening the door.

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• The Waiting For Ideas PP-1 is carved from a single aluminum block
• Also available with 80W companion speakers
• €5,800 (about $6,000 / £4,788 / AU$9,700)

It's safe to say you won't see the new PP-1 turntable in Best Buy or on Amazon: it's as much an art statement as it is a turntable, and it has a price tag to match. But if you can spare around $6K you'll have a turntable that you'll spend as much time looking at as listening to.

The PP-1 comes from the design studio Waiting For Ideas, and it's very different to anything in our list of the best turntables. There's no tonearm for starters: instead, you place the record face down and the stylus emerges from inside to play it. And it's made very differently from typical turntables too.

(Image credit: Waiting For Ideas) Waiting For Ideas PP-1: key features

As noted by our colleagues at Wallpaper.com , each made-to-order PP-1 is carved from a solid block of aluminum, and the design is extremely minimalist: there are just two controls on top, one for speed selection (including an auto-detect setting, and it will switch between 33rpm or 78rpm automatically) and one for controlling playback and volume.

There are matching speakers too, and they've been designed to have the same footprint as the record player – so you can stack them up in a column with the turntable on top, stereo separation be damned.

The goal, says studio boss Jean-Baptiste Anotin, is to capture the "ritual nature of record playing" – although the absence of a tonearm means that one of the most obvious parts of the ritual, putting the needle on the record, is done differently here.

The PP-1 is available now either on its own for €5,800 (about $6,000 / £4,788 / AU$9,700) or with a speaker pair for €9,000 (about $9,365 / £7,430 / AU$15,065). Each PP-1 is made to order and you can find out more from the Waiting For Ideas website.

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• Meta will release a new stand-alone Meta AI app in Q2 this year
• Sam Altman has responded by suggesting OpenAI could release its own social media app in retaliation
• Meta will release more AI-related products this year

According to new rumors posted by CNBC, Meta has announced that it is going to release a stand-alone app version of Meta AI to take on ChatGPT this year, prompting OpenAI CEO Sam Alman to respond with, “Ok fine maybe we'll do a social app”, on the X social platform.

The prospect of OpenAI creating a social media app in retaliation may have been a joke from Altman – his follow-up post on X said “lol if facebook tries to come at us and we just uno reverse them it would be so funny” followed by a laughing emoji, but it garnered some serious responses from users on X.

“Drop the GPT – just ‘chat’” said @not_a_vc, and “Have you thought about merging with X?” asked Bojan Tunguz. However, most users seemed to think the world didn’t need yet another social media app. “A social chatGPT app would probably start a new paradigm. No telling how the consequences would play out from that”, said RexMonte, “Social networks are now obsolete”, said Mark Lindsay, and “How many social media apps have been tried yet everyone keeps coming back to this dumpster fire?” asked another user.

ok fine maybe we'll do a social app https://t.co/663VkHN4qBFebruary 27, 2025

Meta AI everywhere

According to CNBC, “people familiar with the matter” say the new Meta AI app is expected in the second quarter of this year.

The Meta AI chatbot launched in September 2023, and can currently be accessed from its own website, or from inside Meta apps like Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram, where you can chat with the AI as if you were talking to a friend. Separating the AI out into a stand-alone app would pitch it directly against dedicated AI chatbot apps like ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

In January this year, Zuckerberg responded to a post on Threads (another of Meta's social platforms) with a '100' emoji after a user suggested that Meta should have its own AI chatbot app, which could tie together MetaAI through all its different platforms, apps, and products like Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Meta has strong AI ambitions this year. Zuckerberg has described 2025 as being the “defining year” for Meta’s smart glasses plans and a leaked internal memo allegedly penned by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has teased some big things in XR and AI tech from its Reality Labs division, including six new AI hardware devices.

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• CrowdStrike's Global Threat Report highlights worrying threats
• Chinese state-sponsored actors have increased activities, report claims
• Generative AI is also allowing attackers to evolve quickly

We’re still in the early days of 2025, but CrowdStrike’s Global Threat Report has laid out what cybersecurity teams should expect for the coming year. The latter half of 2024 saw the vulnerability threat landscape evolve, with the adoption of generative AI giving a huge boost to social engineering attacks across the world.

CrowdStrike identified seven new ‘China-nexus’ adversaries in 2024, with Chinese sponsored attacks surging 150% overall. Some industries suffered a 200%-300% increase in attack activity year-on-year, most significantly in financial services, media, manufacturing, and engineering sectors.

Worryingly, critical targets like government agencies, technology, and telecommunications sectors also suffered a 50% increase in Chinese threat actor incidents compared to 2023. That won’t come as too much of a surprise for most, especially given the high-profile Salt Typhoon attack which breached 9 major telecom firms in late 2025.

AI attacks

Generative AI is lowering the barrier to entry for cybercriminals, and is a tool which makes cybercrime more accessible. Most cybersecurity teams will tell you the frequency of attacks that criminals are able to leverage has skyrocketed with AI, but the tech also allows for the creation of more and more convincing scams, especially social engineering scams.

CrowdStrike’s research shows deepfake video and voice clones are used to scam companies and individuals, so cybersecurity teams will likely need to shift some focus to tackling the threat of deepfakes in the workplace.

Looking forward, the vulnerability exploitation landscape “remains a critical concern”, with threat actors expected to aggressively target flawed devices and end-of-life products, so CrowdStrike reaffirms the importance of being proactive with patches, software updates, and hardware upgrades.

These trends are expected to continue to evolve into 2025, given rising geopolitical tensions and the development of new technologies which will more than likely allow cybercriminals to carry out more frequent and sophisticated attacks.

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• Microsoft is shutting down Skype in May 2025
• The company urges users to move over to Microsoft Teams instead
• Skype has been in steep decline since 2020

Microsoft has confirmed that Skype, the iconic video conferencing program, will shut down in May 2025. That means you've only got three months left to swap over - if you haven't already jumped ship already.

As reported by XDA Developers, a hidden message inside the HMTL code for the Skype for Windows program reads: "Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available. Continue your calls and chats in Teams." The statement is definitive, capping off the program's two-decade-long run by saying: "Move to Teams today" and "{userCount} of your friends have already moved to Teams".

Since its launch in 2003, Skype has been the de facto way of messaging, video conferencing, and audio calls across computers, later adopting mobile platforms, too. It was purchased by Microsoft in 2011, replacing some of the company's services for Skype, such as Windows Live Messenger and others. The program was later attempted to be integrated directly into Windows in 2015, a plan that was never fully realized.

However, Skype ran the risk of being cannibalized alongside Microsoft Teams, the company's newest communications venture, which debuted in 2017. Since its release, Teams has been heavily promoted by the company as the new way to communicate casually and professionally, with a lighter user interface and seamless integration between devices. As a consequence, Skype for Business was officially retired in 2021 after Microsoft announced it would be sunsetting the service in 2019.

The final nail in the coffin for Skype was its steep decline that happened during 2020. Despite a rebrand and a facelift from Microsoft, the Zoom alternative saw its numbers slipping significantly from the most popular conferencing program a decade prior, to only around 36 million monthly users, a decrease of 75% percent. While these numbers sound impressive, that's before realizing that Microsoft Teams was averaging anywhere from 250 to 300 million users a month from 2020 onwards and has remained steady since (via CNBC).

The end of Skype has finally arrived

The news of Skype's closure should not be surprising for many, as the bulk of its users had already long since transitioned to a newer (and likely faster) alternative that could do more. Skype was primarily billed around one-on-one communication, which is now something we've been able to do through Apple's FaceTime, WhatsApp, Discord, Facebook Messenger, and dozens of other programs for desktops and smartphones for a while now. Skype simply has not been needed for a long time, especially once the cracks in its functionality began to show.

Microsoft purchased Skype for $8.5 billion in cash with a 300% markup from its original valuation in 2007, when eBay purchased the program for $2.6 billion back in 2007. The service was thought of as the next big thing, which was later integrated into the company's ill-fated Windows phones and was even (briefly) a mandatory part of Windows 10. However, 2011 was a lifetime ago in the age of social media, where so much has arrived to replace it.

For all its faults, Microsoft Teams is a frontrunner for professional business use alongside the likes of Zoom and Google Meet. If you're having a video meeting in 2025, it's almost a certainty that you'll be using one of these three instead of booting up Skype, which feels primitive by comparison. Retirement for the program was a long time coming, and frankly, it's surprising that it even lasted this long in the first place.

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Nvidia has launched the new Game-ready driver 572.60 on its app, which is said to rectify the black screen issues that some users have had since upgrading to the latest hardware.

The new Game-ready driver also sees DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation for Naraka: Bladepoint and Monster Hunter Wilds, as well as G-Sync support for 29 new gaming monitors from Acer, AOC, Asus, Dell, LG, and Phillips models.

According to the patch notes, several gaming and general bugs have been fixed with the latest Game-ready driver, including "Various black screen issues" denominated as [5088957], [5100062], and [5089089], as well as "Audio issues when GPU is connected with DisplayPort 1.4 w/ DSC at very high refresh rates". If you've experienced black screens and audio problems, try the new driver out and see if these specific error codes are finally fixed for you.

Ongoing issues that Nvidia is aware of, but doesn't appear to have fixed yet, include a problem where the "PC may boot to black screen on certain monitors when connected via DisplayPort". It seems that DisplayPort could be an issue with the RTX 50 series, so you may be better off using HDMI 2.1 in the meantime to see if that makes any difference. We've previously argued against DisplayPort cables in the past.

Despite the promised fixes, some users of the Nvidia Forum have voiced their concerns that things are a long way from perfect on their new Blackwell hardware. One user simply writes: "Please fix your drivers so we can use DisplayPort". Another states how they're still having black screen issues with DisplayPort enabled, needing to use HDMI instead, and how they're "really contemplating switching to AMD". There are dozens more dissenting voices in response to the controversial thread.

The RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 launched on January 30, 2025, with the RTX 5070 Ti joining the roster on February 20, 2025. While it’s early days for Blackwell hardware, the latest GPU generation has not been without its problems. As well as black screens, DisplayPort issues, and audio problems, some users have claimed their power connectors are melting. However, the latter issue does not seem anywhere near as widespread as the milder problems some users are suffering from.

A silver lining amidst a rocky launch

While it's argued that early adopters are always the ones to experience teething problems, the various issues that the RTX 50 series cards have had are not the best look. No one wants to invest in one of the newest and best graphics cards on the market only to suffer from black screens and audio issues and be forced to use HDMI instead of DisplayPort.

Some users may still be having problems, but we're hopeful that this new Game-ready driver could mitigate the worst of things for you. We should note that none of the RTX 50-series GPUs that we’ve been using and testing have had these problems, so hopefully the issues are rare - and now also fixed with these new Nvidia drivers.

However, it's part of a wider problem: the RTX 50 series cards have been near-impossible to find. The RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 sold out in mere minutes (arguably seconds) with an incredibly limited stock of not only the Founders Edition models from Nvidia but also the partner cards from US and UK retailers. Unfortunately, things were even worse with the lack of stock and availability of the RTX 5070 Ti when it debuted earlier this month. It was gone almost instantly, dashing the hopes of those who wanted DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation for $749.

In many ways, it mirrors the paper launch of the RTX 30 series from 2020, which itself was largely blamed on the semiconductor shortage (a symptom of the COVID-19 pandemic) and the cryptocurrency mining operations at a time where GPUs were being bought up in bulk to mine Etherium (and other blockchain-based coins).

We're hopeful that the RTX 50 series does eventually become more available, but this likely will not happen until towards the end of 2025. In the meantime, you can read where to check for RTX 5090 stock, RTX 5080 stock, and RTX 5070 Ti stock as it comes in. At least when availability is increased, hopefully, the problems plaguing the cards will be long gone, too.

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• Apple has been hit with a class action lawsuit
• The dispute is over the company's claims that its Apple Watch Ultra 2, SE 2, and Series 9 are carbon neutral
• Plaintiffs say these claims are "false and misleading"

Apple has been hit with a class action lawsuit over claims that many of its best Apple Watch models are carbon neutral, which plaintiffs say are "false and misleading."

The suit, filed in the Northern District of California on February 26, seeks to represent "all persons in the United States" who bought the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch SE 2, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

These are all models that Apple advertises as "carbon neutral", a designation introduced in September 2023 with the arrival of the Series 9 and Ultra 2, and one that was added to the SE 2 launched the year before.

The suit notes Apple's strategy of reducing the overall carbon emissions of these products by 75%, and offsetting the remainder through "high-quality carbon credits from nature-based projects."

The two projects named are the source of the dispute. From the suit: " Apple claims to have retired 485,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents primarily through two offsetting projects: the Chyulu Hills Project in Kenya and the Guinan Project in China." According to the plaintiffs, Apple's carbon neutrality claims are "false and misleading."

"The Chyulu Hills Project purports to generate carbon credits by preventing deforestation on land which has been legally protected from deforestation since 1983," the suit reads, "while the Guinan Project claims to have planted trees on 'barren land' that was already heavily forested before the project began."

The lawsuit says that in both cases "the carbon reductions would have occurred regardless of Apple’s involvement or the projects’ existence," and as such Apple's carbon neutrality claims, which are "predicated on the efficacy and legitimacy of these projects," are false and misleading.

The suit goes on to claim that consumers have suffered economic injury and would not have bought the products, or paid as much for them, if they had known "that Apple’s 'carbon neutral' representations were false."

Apple hits back

Here's how Apple demonstrates the reduction in emissions for the Apple Watch Series 9, including using carbon credits to achieve 'net zero'. (Image credit: Apple)

"We are proud of our carbon neutral products, which are the result of industry-leading innovation in clean energy and low-carbon design," Apple told TechRadar in a defiant statement. "We’ve drastically cut emissions for Apple Watch by over 75 percent, and we are investing significantly in nature-based projects to remove hundreds of thousands of metric tons of carbon from the air. That innovation and progress is important to us and to the planet, which is why we detail our work prominently and transparently for our users."

Apple, as is to be expected, did not address the specific claims about the efficacy and legitimacy of the two named projects in the lawsuit, a discussion that will play out in court should the case come to fruition and end up going to trial.

As we've previously noted, there's plenty of public information about the questions around carbon credit programs. A report from The Guardian has previously suggested that some such programs are "worthless." Similarly, the New Climate Institute claimed that "Carbon credits cannot be considered an equivalent alternative to the reduction of companies’ own emissions," dubbing the practice "highly contentious." The NCI claims "the use of certificates from such projects is simply not a feasible solution for truly neutralising emissions," noting that carbon storage in forestry and land-use projects "is likely to only be temporary" because of forest fires and other disturbances.

The lawsuit lays bare the main issue with Apple's carbon neutrality claims. Any product that requires manufacture and distribution will have a carbon footprint that is impossible to eliminate totally, so any 'carbon neutral' push will inevitably have to rely on offsetting. As such, the efficacy and integrity of those programs will always underpin whether using a carbon neutral claim is justified.

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• HP confirms plans to remove around 90% of its US manufacturing from China
• The company acquired more stock in recent months, allowing the move
• Total company revenue is up 2.4%

HP has announced that by the end of fiscal year 2025 the company will have moved almost all (90%) of its production for North America away from China.

The change means that, from October 31, 2025, only one tenth of HP products destined for North America will come from China, with HP turning to a more diverse supply chain to both reduce its reliance on China amid ongoing trade wars and enhance its resilience more generally.

The Trump administration has recently placed a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports, which accounts for a significant majority of laptops shipped to the US.

HP pulls US manufacturing out of China

Supply chain shifts are just some of the steps being taken by HP to mitigate the effects of ongoing changes affecting nations globally.

Apart from pulling nearly all of its manufacturing for the States out of China, HP has also increased its inventory during the most recent quarter as a strategy to minimize the impacts of potential US tariff hikes. The company confirmed in its earnings release: “Inventory ended the quarter at $8.4 billion, up 9 days quarter over quarter to 72 days.”

Even in a three-month period of acquiring more inventory, HP also managed to increase revenue by 2.4% to $13.5 billion.

“We are pleased with our Q1 performance, achieving revenue growth for the third straight quarter and advancing our strategy to lead the future of work," noted HP CEO Enrique Lores. "We are focused on taking decisive action to address evolving market conditions in the near-term, while investing in our long-term growth.”

The CEO thanked strong commercial performance, particularly in its Personal Systems business, including AI-capable PCs. The most recent Canalys figures for the final three months of 2024 gives AI PCs a 23% market share of the entire PC market, with HP occupying 12% of the sub-market – considerably behind Apple’s 54% share.

Canalys Analyst Kieren Jessop commented “looming trade policy shifts in the US threaten to disrupt the market that accounts for around one in three shipped PCs and could hamper the upcoming commercial refresh cycle and dampen an already muted consumer outlook.”

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