Technology

The real competition in AI isn’t about foundation models. It’s about apps built on top of those models.

• IKEA has launched a version of its smart home app for Apple Watch
• The app lets you control your IKEA smart lights from your wrist
• Support for other smart devices may be added at a later date

IKEA has released a new version of its smart home app for Apple Watch. The app hasn't been announced officially yet, but has appeared in the App Store and lets you control your IKEA smart lights from your wrist.

As Polly Allcock of Notebookcheck notes, the change log for the IKEA Home Smart app doesn't mention the new watchOS app, but screengrabs show that it will let you toggle your smart lights on and off, adjust their brightness, choose lighting scenes, and pick custom colors from a palette.

IKEA Home Smart for iPad, iPhone and Android also lets you control other devices, including smart speakers, blinds, and air purifiers, but the screengrabs of the WatchOS version only show options for smart lights. It's possible that more devices will be added with a future update.

To use the app, you'll need watchOS 10.6 or later, plus an IKEA Dirigera hub, which lets you connect your IKEA devices to one another, and works as a Matter bridge.

You may only be able to control IKEA smart lights through your Apple Watch at first, but support for other devices could be added later (Image credit: IKEA) More bright ideas

Don't have IKEA lights? Not to worry, you can use your Apple Watch to operate any smart bulbs and lamps that are compatible with Apple HomeKit. The exact options available will depend on which lights you own, but you'll usually be able to turn them on and off, dim them, and change their color with a tap and a swipe. See Apple's guide for full instructions.

Govee makes some of the best smart lights we've tested, and its Govee Home app for Apple Watch lets you toggle lights on and off, tweak their brightness, and check the status of other devices like smart thermostats and thermometers.

There's no longer an official Philips Hue app for Apple Watch (Signify, the company behind Hue, dropped it a few years ago), but you can still operate your Hue lights from your wrist using Apple HomeKit, or one of the many third-party apps on the App Store such as Hue for Watch.

How do you prefer to control your smart lights, and which apps do you recommend? Let us know in the comments.

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• New legislation could ban DeepSeek from government devices
• DeepSeek poses a threat to US national security, experts say
• US Navy and NASA have already banned the app

DeepSeek's AI app, which recently sent waves through the global AI market by offering a seemingly more powerful model developed at a comparatively lower cost than its competitors, should be banned from US government devices, lawmakers have said.

Two congress members are seeking to introduce a bipartisan bill to ban the app from government devices as it poses a national security threat to the US.

The bill, introduced by US Representatives Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Darin LaHood (R-IL), is titled the “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act.”

Protect US AI market by banning DeepSeek

The two representatives are both senior members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, with the bill being introduced after the DeepSeek app was branded a threat to US AI stocks, with recent research from Feroot Security alleging the app is feeding user information to companies under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“Our personal information is being sent to China, there is no denial, and the DeepSeek tool is collecting everything that American users connect to it,” Feroot analyst Ivan Tsarynny told the WSJ.

Some bans have already been introduced, with the state of Texas already banning the app from government devices, and the US Navy and NASA banning the app from their employee devices. If the bill is passed, the US would be following in the footsteps of countries such as Australia, Italy, and South Korea which have already introduced similar legislation.

“We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security,” Gottheimer said. LaHood echoed these sentiments, stating, “This commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation will ban the app from federal workers’ phones while closing backdoor operations the company seeks to exploit for access.”

“It is critical that Congress safeguard Americans’ data and continue to ensure American leadership in AI,” La Hood said.

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• Spotify has inked a new deal with Warner Music Group
• That could include a long-awaited Hi-Fi tier for super-fans and audiophiles
• Competing services have begun offering Hi-Res Audio as standard, though

Spotify is about to get more complicated, if a new announcement from the music streaming service is anything to go by.

On February 6, Spotify and Warner Music Group announced a new partnership deal to "deliver new fan experiences, a deeper music and video catalog, further paid subscription tiers, and differentiated content bundles."

The deal is likely to see even more music and video content added to Spotify's 80,000 track library, with support for a new 'superfan' premium tier expected to launch some time in 2025.

While this may finally give Spotify subscribers access to Hi-Res Audio – something that Tidal and Apple Music have offered for years – it also represents another complication in Spotify’s increasingly sprawling content offering.

A strength of Spotify has been its simplicity: it hasn’t split up its user base between various pricing options, other than ‘free’ and ‘paid’, and casual users don’t have to contend with whether to opt for Hi-Fi audio their smartphone speakers and budget headphones are incapable of recreating anyway.

Spotify also doesn’t need you to suss out various other content services at the point of subscription, as with Apple One or Amazon Prime’s group offerings. And if you stuck to the free tier, it’s very very easy to just pick a song and start playing.

But, as the service has ballooned in its scope and ambition, pursuing high-profile podcast hosts and expanded video content, Spotify has only got more complicated. There are now, in some countries, separate tiers without access to audiobooks, alongside various options for individuals and families, and a new superfan tier is only going to lengthen the list of options and bundles on offer.

(Image credit: Future) Cash grab

I’m also irritated by the suggestion of a further paywall for Hi-Res music. These days, both Apple Music and Tidal include Hi-Res Audio as part of its basic package, which does not seem to be Spotify’s strategy here – higher-quality audio is something to be further paywalled, rather than something to draw users to the platform in the first place.

Given that Spotify offers notably less money per stream ($0.00437) to artists than either Apple ($0.0056-0.0078) or Tidal ($0.013), let alone Qobuz (a plush $0.022), it’s hard to imagine those well-monetized superfans will funnel more cash to artists rather than Spotify's coffers.

But Spotify’s market position means that it’s unlikely to be punished for paywalling a feature included by default in its competitors’ standard plans.

Spotify is the dominant music streaming service, aided by a free, ad-supported streaming tier that brings its subscriber count to over 650 million – many hundred times larger than that of Apple Music or Tidal. Spotify is simply the place most people listen to music today.

I’m happy for Spotify users who’ve been waiting too long for Hi-Res Audio to hit the service. But this new strategy would only make me wonder why I haven’t moved over to another platform yet.

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• Global tablet market is now up 9.2%, PC market up just 3.8%
• The middle of 2024 saw 18% and 11% quarterly increases, Canalys finds
• Apple sells two in five tablets globally

The global tablet market had a much-needed boost in 2024, growing by 9.2% after a challenging year of decline in 2023, new figures from Canalys have claimed.

The firm noted although tablet shipments in the first quarter only rose by 1% year-over-year, the market then saw significant quarterly increases of 18%, 11%, and 5.6% in the subsequent quarters.

It also marks spiked consumer interest in affordable tablets, with the PC market growing just 3.8% throughout 2024.

Tablet sales are booming… finally

Although we’re still not at the pre- and intra-pandemic levels of 2020, total shipments by volume have been dropping in the world of tablets every year since, but 2024 marked the first year in the positive. In fact, with the exception of 2020, 2024 was the only other year of tablet sector growth since at least 2016.

Back then, Canalys Research Manager Himani Mukka commented: “The tablet industry has had a positive start to 2024, and the rest of the year should bring further relief after a difficult 2023.”

This year, Mukka added: “As the PC market pivots toward a commercial refresh cycle, there is also a recovery in demand for tablets.”

More than half (52%) of the channel partners selling commercial tablets expect shipments to continue rising in 2025, but Canalys predicts a more “constrained performance.”

Canalys tracked over 16,800 Apple tablet shipments in the fourth quarter, highlighting the prevalence of the iPad within the market. Its 42.3% market share, up from 39.2% in 2023, is more than double Samsung’s 17.8% share in second place.

2024 was an extremely busy year for Apple, with a refreshed iPad Mini launching in October and the M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro launching side-by-side in May. iPadOS also brought new Apple Intelligence features to the beloved devices in the final few months.

Though it may be propped up by Apple, Canlays also noted the effect of Chinese manufacturers on the tablet market. Huawei and Xiaomi took a combined 13% of the market in 2024.

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• Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6 is still on track for a fall 2025 release
• Many fans had feared a potential delay
• Take-Two CEO said the company “feel really good” about being able to hit it

Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive has stated that Grand Theft Auto 6 is still on track for a fall 2025 release.

In its most recent financial results, Take-Two listed GTA 6 as a fall 2025 PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S release. Many users on social media had speculated that the game would receive a delay, but this does not appear to be the case for the time being.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick also spoke to IGN ahead of the release of the report and stated that while “there’s always a risk of slippage” the company “feel really good” about being able to stick to that fall 2025 window.

Zelnick was also asked how development of the game was going. “I think the game is eagerly anticipated both internally and externally,” he replied. “We know that Rockstar seeks perfection. I never claim success before it occurs.”

GTA 6 is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year, with market research firm DFC Intelligence predicting that it will be “one of the biggest entertainment launches in history" and could generate more than $1 billion in just pre-orders alone. Game publishers are also reportedly not announcing firm release dates in order to try and avoid releasing new titles around the GTA 6 launch fearing that the buzz would drown them out.

Even so, Zelnick went on to say that “arrogance is the enemy of continued success [...] and we know that the competition is not asleep.”

The first trailer GTA 6 was officially unveiled by Rockstar Games on December 4, 2023. It showed that the game would take place in the fictionalized state of Leonida around the sun-drenched Vice City first seen in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Leaks indicate that it will star two protagonists, one named Lucia, who will pull off criminal capers together.

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• CISA adds an Outlook improper input validation bug to KEV
• The deadline to patch is February 27 2025
• Criminals are using it for remote code execution

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a 2024 Outlook flaw to its catalog of known vulnerabilities, warning users about in-the-wild abuse, and giving federal agencies three weeks (until February 27) to patch up or stop using the tool entirely.

CVE-2024-21413 is an improper input validation flaw plaguing Microsoft Outlook. It was discovered in 2024 by Check Point’s researcher Haifei Li, and was given a severity score of 9.8/10 (critical). Cybercriminals could craft special email messages, loaded with a certain type of hyperlink, that would allow them to run arbitrary code remotely. By exploiting this vulnerability, attackers can bypass Outlook's Protected View (a feature designed to open potentially harmful files in read-only mode) and instead open malicious files in editing mode.

Microsoft patched the bug in late 2024, and warned users that the Preview Pane can also be used as an attack vector. In other words, victims don’t even need to open the email to get infected - previewing it in Outlook would suffice.

Significant risk

The vulnerability was found in different Office products, including Microsoft Office LTSC 2021, Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, Microsoft Outlook 2016, and Microsoft Office 2019.

While there was no evidence of in-the-wild abuse at the time the patch was released, its addition to KEV means the vulnerability is now being actively used by miscreants.

"These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise," CISA says.

Aside from the Outlook vulnerability, the agency added another four bugs, including a 7-Zip Mark of the Web bypass flaw, a Dante discovery process control flaw, a CyberoamsOS SQL injection flaw, and a Sophos XG Firewall buffer overflow bug. Federal agencies need to patch all of these before March 2025.

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• Microsoft Edge's uninstall document promotes the browser over Google Chrome, without any actual removal instructions
• It features a checklist on supposed advantages over Google Chrome
• There's no official way to uninstall Microsoft Edge, as the control panel only allows for a 'repair'

It's no surprise that Microsoft is making more attempts to shift PC users away from other browsers in favor of its own Edge option yet again - but its latest scheme could be a new low point.

As spotted by Windows Latest, a new 'uninstall document' was released by Microsoft, supposedly explaining how to remove Microsoft Edge from your PC, but surprisingly, it doesn't. Instead, it compares Edge to Google Chrome with a checklist (pictured below) of features that it claims are available on Edge but not Chrome (which isn't completely true) - essentially, it's doing the opposite of what most people would expect a document about uninstalling an app to do..

It’s a shame that this comes after Microsoft’s well-received privacy updates for Chrome incognito mode, which is a huge positive for its users. However, it’s now hit a low with this 'uninstall' document that users won't like at all. Microsoft already aggressively pushes Edge via pop-ups and ads in Windows 11, which many users consider to be invasive and annoying. Meanwhile, Chrome remains the most popular browser despite Microsoft’s boasts of Edge’s high user numbers in 2024, so it’s not a surprise that many may want to uninstall Edge.

It shouldn't come as a big surprise, since Microsoft has used numerous tactics to win users over to its browser - but this feels particularly disingenuous.

(Image credit: Microsoft) Reminds me of membership cancellation pages...

Trying to get rid of something, only instead to be bombarded with reasons for not getting rid of it, will feel awfully familiar to many people who have tried to cancel a subscription. Try to cancel your PlayStation Plus subscription, for example, and Sony will try to tempt you to stay with an offer on a 12-month premium subscription.

Amazon is also notorious for this - if you try to cancel Prime, you have to click through multiple pages convincing you to stay - and it was actually sued for this, mainly because its marketing tactics were viewed as deceptive and coercive by the FTC (US Federal Trade Commission).

So, Microsoft is far from the only company that is trying to change the minds of its customers wanting to ditch a product. However, there’s no denying that this move seems particularly strange - you'd expect a document which is supposed to give you instructions to uninstall a program to do just that, rather than the opposite by trying to get you to keep using it. It also feels a bit cheeky using the word ‘uninstall’ if there’s literally no way to officially uninstall Edge.

Personally, I think that essentially forcing users to keep a program installed on their PCs will instead push them further away from using it. Saying one thing but doing another could come back to bite Microsoft...

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• Caselani’s Type-Ami adds retro charm to one of the smallest EVs on sale
• Complete vehicle costs $13,400, or DIY kits come in at $5,200
• Nine different color options are available

For all of the Citroen Ami’s many charms, striking good looks don’t exactly rank top of the list. But one Italian coach builder has a solution for the awkward little quadricycle.

Based in the tiny town of Sospiro, Italy, coach builder and fabricator Caselani takes modern Citroen products and clads them in fiberglass so they look just like the iconic Type-H Van panel vans of the late 1940s.

The corrugated metal outer body panels and angular lines will forever go down in the history books as a classic piece of industrial design, but the plucky panel vans have recently enjoyed a resurgence thanks to swathes of hipster coffee and food trucks that have used them as a base for tasty operations.

Caselani will fabricate a modern interpretation of one of those (based on Citroen Berlingo, Relay and Dispatch vans) but it is the Ami project that really stands out from the crowd.

For a start, it takes a brave soul to use an Ami as a food truck, which means the Type-Ami is purely designed to raise smiles.

(Image credit: Caselani)

For €13,900 (around $13,400 / £11,600 / AU$21,300), Caselani will sell you a complete vehicle, including the option to swap the plastic seats and steering wheel trim for diamond-quilted faux leather.

That’s about $3k more than the standard Ami, but customers can choose from six classic 1950s colors, or opt for one of three more modern metallic hues. Oh, and you get jazzy 'steelie' style wheels thrown in, too.

If you already own one of the diminutive 8bhp, 28mph top speed city-slickers, you can option the DIY body kit for €4,440 (around $4,500 / £3,700 / AU$7,200), which adds the corrugated side panels, gloriously pug-nosed front end and a rear with ‘Type-Ami’ stamped in period correct white lettering.

It all comes with the right screws and brackets to self install, if you fancy many scraped thumbs and lots of swearing.

The lovable Ami gets even more appealing

(Image credit: Caselani)

As a reminder, the Citroen Ami is classed as a heavy quadricycle in France and, thanks to its 8hp electric motor and limited top speed, it can legally be driven by 14-year-olds... for around 46 miles before the 5.5-kWh lithium-ion battery dies or mom texts to warn that dinner is on the table.

But far from simply being a young teenager’s ticket to freedom, the Ami has gained popularity in Europe as cheap urban mobility, featuring on a number of inner-city car sharing schemes and finding homes with private buyers that want a fuss-free way to get to the shops and back.

The H-Van project is clearly a bit of fun that started as a one-off for the company’s founder, Fabrizio Caselani, but was soon made publicly available when the customer enquiries started flooding in.

Is the H-Van body kit completely pointless? Probably. But has that stopped me from wanting one? Absolutely not.

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• British engineering company IMI plc notifies London Stock Exchange of a recent cyberattack
• The company did not share the details, but this seems to have been a data breach

Top British engineering company IMI has confirmed suffering a cyberattack, filing a new report with the London Stock Exchange, notifying the securities exchange of “unauthorized access”.

“IMI is currently responding to a cyber security incident involving unauthorized access to the Company's systems,” the filing reads. “As soon as IMI became aware of the unauthorized access, the company engaged external cyber security experts to investigate and contain the incident.”

Other than that, the company did not share any details. It said it was taking “necessary steps” to comply with regulatory obligations, and that it will provide an update “when appropriate”.

Data breach

When reached out by TechCrunch, the company did not want to discuss the matter further, so we don’t know the nature of the attack, who the miscreants are, or how they managed to break into IMI’s infrastructure.

However the publication did find out, from the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office, that the company provided it with a data breach report, so it’s safe to assume that at least some company data was stolen.

The ICO is currently “assessing the information provided,” it was said.

IMI was founded in 1862 as Imperial Metal Industries. Its core business areas include precision engineering (advanced motion and fluid control solutions for industrial automation), critical engineering (valves and actuators for the energy and power industries), and hydronic engineering (heating, cooling, and climate control solutions for buildings).

The company serves sectors like oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, power generation, and transportation. In fiscal 2023, the company reported $398 million in profits before tax, up 6% compared to the year before.

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