Technology

Amnesty International has issued a report charting the supply chains and human rights due diligence policies of 13 major EV manufacturers. The results are a world away from the clean, safe future that electric vehicles promise.

• Some TV firms are losing money on hardware in order to profit from ads
• The trend is particularly prominent in North America
• We can't see the future because it's stuck behind an unskippable ad

If you've been thinking that your smart TV is awfully keen on showing you ads, you're not imagining it. The TV market is changing, and that's both good news and bad news for buyers.

As recently highlighted by market research firm Omdia (via FlatpanelsHD), the good news is that TVs are getting cheaper – so much so that some firms are actually losing money on the sets they sell.

The bad news is that they need to get that money back from somewhere or something. And increasingly, that somewhere is your living room and the something is you.

As Omdia notes, the business model for many TV firms is shifting away from making profit from physical sales and towards making money from ads (and while they didn't mention it specifically, from user data) instead.

The research firm's consumer electronics research director Paul Gray says that "People are happy to sell TVs below cost. You just have to look at the finances of Vizio or Roku to see they’re selling TVs at somewhere between -3 and -7% margin, just in that scramble for users."

Ads entertainment

In 2023, tech startup Telly (above) 'gave away' 500,000 4K TVs in the US – with the catch being a second screen for ads. (Image credit: Telly)

Those manufacturers aren't doing what Telly did in 2023, which was giving away dual-screen TVs completely free in the hope of making money back from very visible ads. But in North America especially, ads are an increasingly important part of the money mix for TV manufacturers.

That could mean US buyers in particular will increasingly have to make a choice: get the TV for a low price and put up with more ads, or pay more for a comparatively ad-free experience.

I'm not against ads; I'm writing this for an ad-supported website, of course. But the problem with firms betting the farm on ad income is that the more of them who do it, the less lucrative the payouts become – and that can cause an arms race where lower and lower per-ad revenues are compensated by higher and higher numbers of ads.

You can get around that to some extent by using a dongle or box such as a Google TV Streamer or Apple TV 4K instead of the manufacturer's own interface, but perhaps not for long.

And of course, that doesn't affect the ads that appear on the streaming services themselves. But I think we can already predict the next step: paying more for an ad-light or ad-free experience. What we save on the up-front cost may be repaid many times during the life of our TVs.

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In a first, Russia's APT28 hacking group appears to have remotely breached the Wi-Fi of an espionage target by hijacking a laptop in another building across the street.

• Microsoft Store apps can’t be updated or uninstalled due to a bug
• Thankfully Microsoft has now fixed the problem related to WinAppSDK
• The cure is in a Windows 10 optional update, so you may want to wait

Some Windows 10 users have been experiencing an odd bug with the operating system having problems running updates for apps from the Microsoft Store – but this issue has now been sorted.

Neowin reports that Windows 10 22H2 had a bug which meant that in some cases, apps from the Microsoft Store couldn’t be updated – or uninstalled, either – but a resolution for this has now been applied (as of November 21).

Microsoft explains that this wasn’t an issue with Windows 10 itself, but rather with the latest version of WinAppSDK. Those who received version 1.6.2, on November 12, or later – which may have been installed by an app that requires WinAppSDK, as it’ll pull down the latest version – may have been hit by the bug.

Those who’ve seen the issue will have noticed that updates fail with an unhelpful error message (‘Something happened on our end’) displayed in the downloads panel of the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft clarified that “this issue is not caused by a Windows security or preview monthly update,” while informing users that the fix for this is in the new Windows 10 update, KB5046714, which has just been released.

(Image credit: Worawee Meepian / Shutterstock) Analysis: Something happened… or not

Note that KB5046714 is an optional update for Windows 10, so it could have some bugs itself. If you’re worried about installing a preview release, you can always wait for the full version of the patch, which will be here next month (on December 10, to be precise).

Still, in this case, if you’re hit by the Microsoft Store bug and you aren’t getting any updates for your software from the store, grabbing the optional patch may be worth the risk (find it under Windows Updates, as ever).

Elsewhere, KB5046714 provides some other fixes for issues including a bug where dragging and dropping a file from a cloud provider’s folder (like OneDrive) may result in that file being moved over, rather than copied as it should be by default. Also, there’s an important solution for a problem where Windows 10 fails to activate after the PC’s motherboard has been replaced.

While you’re fixing bugs, Microsoft, you might want to do a bit of tweaking to that error message as well: ‘Something happened on our end’ is not very useful, and indeed nonsensical, really. The problem here being an update failing to apply, so in fact, the correct message should be ‘Something didn’t happen on our end,’ namely the app patch that should’ve gone through. Or ‘Nothing happened on our end,’ perhaps?

How about a simple rewording to ‘Something went wrong on our end’ – that fits better, right, Microsoft? That’s this month’s visit to ‘Pedantry Corner’ over, stay tuned for December’s ever-so-thrilling nitpicking observation.

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• Fitbit has replaced Google Fit on the Oppo Find X8 series
• It's a first for a non-Pixel Google handset
• This could be the norm for Android phones from here

The end is nigh for the Google Fit app on Android phones, it would seem: It looks as though the Fitbit app is going to replace it on these devices going forward, with Google making the most of its 2021 acquisition of the fitness company.

As spotted by 9to5Google, the newly-unveiled Oppo Find X8 comes with Fitbit installed rather than Google Fit. It's the first time we've seen that on a non-Google Android phone, and could well be the norm in the future.

If you've bought one of the Google Pixel 9 phones you'll notice Fitbit has replaced Google Fit here as well. If it's happening on handsets made by Google's manufacturing partners as well, the transition from one app to the other is just about complete.

Should you have a lot of data already in Google Fit, Google's Health Connect service can sync it to Fitbit, if needed: Tap Profile then the gear icon in the Google Fit app to set this up. You can also export your Google Fit data from inside the app by tapping your Google account avatar (top right), then Fit data and privacy.

Fitbit (and AI) is the future

The Pixel Watch 3 is Fitbit-focused (Image credit: Future)

While it's disappointing to see yet another Google app killed off, Google does at least seem to be investing in new features and upgrades for the Fitbit app – even if it did recently abandon the web interface for your Fitbit data.

Google has previously announced an AI health coach that's now in testing and is likely to soon make an appearance in the Fitbit app proper. It's not clear when everyone will get it, but it could show up before the end of the year.

The Gemini-powered feature can answer questions about your health and give you personalized insights into your activity patterns and workouts. We'll have to wait until we can test it out for ourselves to see just how accurate it is.

In recent weeks we've also heard that an AI-driven Sleep Journal is also on the way for the Fitbit app, which will give you detailed feedback on your sleep health and ways in which you might try and improve it. Whether or not these extras will be exclusive to Fitbit Premium subscribers remains to be seen.

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Bluesky will never be Twitter. YouTube is no longer about funny videos made with your friends. The old internet is gone, but it can be remade. The website IMG_0001 proves it.

• The new Kia EV9 GT will sprint from 0-60mph in 4.3 seconds
• GT button unleashes full power, firms suspension and makes noises happen
• It's the first Kia SUV to receive electronically-controlled adaptive suspension

While this year's LA Auto Show has been disappointingly bereft of exciting new launches, Kia chose it as the platform to showcase the upcoming EV 9 GT – a model that will delivers 501hp from twin electric motors and a 0-60mph sprint time of just 4.3 seconds… despite weighing 5,886lbs (or 2.6-tonnes for imperial fans).

Based on the enormous, three-row electric SUV that was released late last year in some markets, the GT version, which will go on sale in 2025, sees a 160kW motor drive the front wheels and a 270kW motor bolted to the rear.

It’s tipped to use the same 100kWh battery as the Long Range model, which can manage around 300 miles on a single charge when driven sensibly.

But driving sensibly won’t exactly be the order of the day, as Kia has introduced a very tempting and very shiny GT button to the steering wheel that firms up the suspension, thanks to the introduction of electronically-adjustable dampers, sharpens the steering and throttle response, while adding more heft to the brake feel.

(Image credit: Kia)

Not purely a straight-line drag champion, Kia says the EV9 GT will be able to handle the twistier routes and disguise some of its planet-like mass with clever calibration of the suspension and steering. Customers are also treated to heavily bolstered sports seats and flashes of ‘GT’ throughout the cabin.

The brake calipers have also been sprayed in a fetching neon green, similar to the Kia EV6 GT, while the electronic Limited Slip Differential (e-LSD) from that model, which senses a loss of traction at each wheel and reduces torque for improved handling, has also been borrowed and implemented.

The final party piece is what Kia refers to as Virtual Gear Shift (VGS), which simulates the thumps of a traditional step-shift automatic transmission and is operated by paddles mounted to the steering wheel.

To compliment this, Kia has also been inspired by the Ioniq 5 N from sister company Hyundai and has seen fit to kit the EV9 GT out with similar fake engine noises (electric Active Sound Design) that are mapped to the accelerator pedal and virtual gear shifts, with the resulting soundtrack pumped in to the cabin.

Analysis: Fast, fun but probably very juicy

(Image credit: Kia)

Efficiency was never the big EV9’s strong point, as a potent cocktail of massive kerb weight and its blunt, un-aerodynamic styling means the electric range gets eaten into fast, especially when driving at constant motorway speeds or like a bit of a hooligan.

This hot GT version is only going to tempt the inner driving devil further, which will inevitably mean more time spent charging. Thankfully, the EV9’s 800V fast charging architecture means a 10-80 percent top up takes less than 25 minutes from a DC fast charger.

Plus, as of May or June next year (there is no firm date yet), Kia has also stated that all EV9 models sold in the US will come fitted as standard with Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) port, with CCS adaptors available as an optional extra for those who want the widest possible network coverage.

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• Norton has unveiled its Small Business Premium plan
• Provides SMB teams with antivirus, firewall, VPN, password manager, and cloud backup
• Plan also offers 24/7 support, and financial and social media monitoring

Norton, one of the best antivirus providers around today, has launched a new offering for small businesses looking to protect themselves.

Recent government statistics have claimed small businesses account for 36% of the UKs economic turnover, but are being increasingly targeted by cyber attacks, with 58% reporting an attack or breach in the last year.

Norton’s new Small Business Premium plan is built to help weather the storm while also keeping them running in the event of a breach.

Small Business Premium from Norton

The plan provides a suite of security solutions to help protect businesses from a wide range of threats, while also offering support in financial and social media monitoring. Beyond this, the plan also offers 24/7 business tech support not only for security issues, but also for your devices, network, and software.

Small Business Premium is primarily an antivirus, as may be expected, but also includes a firewall, a VPN to keep your networks secure, along with a password manager for encrypted credential storage, and a 500GB cloud backup to keep your data safe in the event of a ransomware attack or system crash.

Suspicious transactions and unauthorized logins to social media are constantly monitored and immediately alerted to prevent fraud, scams and account takeovers. It doesn’t require any security expertise to install and quietly protects devices in the background.

The plan can be customized to support 10 or 20 devices, with the 10 device plan at £149.99 for the first year, and the 20 device plan at £199.99 for the first year. For entrepreneurs or smaller teams, the standard Small Business tier can cater to 6, 10, or 20 devices, and is £ £54.99, £69.99, and £99.99 respectively for the first year.

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• Apple’s Siri virtual assistant is currently bested by competitors like ChatGPT
• Apple wants to change that by developing an “LLM Siri” chatbot
• It might not launch until 2026, though

Siri has long lagged behind rivals like Google Assistant, and with the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs), that gap has widened. But when Apple Intelligence appeared on the scene, it looked like Siri was finally turning a corner – and a new report claims Apple is planning its own LLM upgrade for Siri. Before we get too excited, though, there might be a while to wait until it arrives.

The rumor comes from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, who has earned a reputation for accuracy when it comes to Apple leaks and rumors. In a new report, Gurman claims that Apple has been internally tested a version of Siri infused with LLM powers (predictably, it’s been dubbed “LLM Siri”), and the result is a more conversational, powerful version of Apple’s virtual assistant.

This new Siri will be able to conduct natural-feeling back-and-forth conversations, Gurman says, and it can also “handle more sophisticated requests in a quicker fashion” compared to the current Siri iteration.

Other new features will include the ability to “interact more like a human and handle tasks in a way that’s closer to ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini,” and it will make extensive use of Apple’s App Intents feature to precisely control third-party apps. It will also be able to use Apple Intelligence features, such as generating and summarizing text.

Coming in iOS 19?

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple will announce the upgraded Siri in 2025 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16, the report predicts.

However, as with the current slow implementation of Apple Intelligence, the new Siri won’t immediately be ready to use. Instead, it will be rolled out in spring 2026, according to Gurman.

Will that be too late for Apple, considering rivals like ChatGPT are already far ahead of Apple’s best efforts? Time will tell, but LLM Siri will need to be a monumental effort to close the gap. If Apple can pull it off, the firm’s fans will have a lot to look forward to.

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• Palo Alto Networks releases patch for two serious flaws impacting its firewalls
• The flaws were being abused in the wild to drop malware
• CISA added them to its KEV catalog

Palo Alto Networks has revealed it fixed two major vulnerabilities plaguing its firewalls.

The bugs are an authentication bypass in the PAN-OS management web interface (CVE-2024-0012), and a privilege escalation flaw in PAN-OS (CVE-2024-9474). The former has a severity score of 9.3 (critical), and grants crooks the ability to gain admin privileges on the target endpoint, and the latter has a lower score, 6.9 (medium), but helps run commands on the firewall.

Cybercriminals were chaining the flaws to gain admin privileges and run commands on exposed endpoints, it confirmed. Therefore, users are advised to apply the patches as soon as possible.

Added to CISA's KEV

Palo Alto said it was looking into ongoing attacks in which the two bugs were chained to strike “a limited number of device management web interfaces” with malware and arbitrary commands.

"This original activity reported on Nov. 18, 2024 primarily originated from IP addresses known to proxy/tunnel traffic for anonymous VPN services," the company said in an advisory. "At this time, Unit 42 assesses with moderate to high confidence that a functional exploit chaining CVE-2024-0012 and CVE-2024-9474 is publicly available, which will enable broader threat activity."

Both vulnerabilities have since been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, confirming in-the-wild abuse. Federal agencies have until December 9 to patch the bugs, or stop using the affected firewalls altogether.

Palo Alto said that only a “very small number” of firewalls is being targeted. However, citing data from the threat monitoring platform Shadowserver, BleepingComputer reported that there are more than 2,700 vulnerable PAN-OS instances.

Since a working exploit is already available, and evidence of abuse exists, Palo Alto “strongly” advises its customers to patch up, and restrict access to trusted accounts only.

"Risk of these issues are greatly reduced if you secure access to the management web interface by restricting access to only trusted internal IP addresses according to our recommended best practice deployment guidelines," the company said.

Via BleepingComputer

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• Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti has joined the roster of leaked Blackwell GPUs
• It will purportedly use the GB203 chip that’s in the RTX 5080
• Obviously it would be a cut-down GB203, possibly with 8,960 CUDA cores

Nvidia’s next-gen GPUs are supposedly arriving at CES 2025, and we’ve just caught a fresh rumor about a new model – a purported RTX 5070 Ti.

So far, the rumor mill has been sharing details about the RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070, so the 5070 Ti is a fresh leak, coming from one of the more regular providers of GPU-related rumors on X, Kopite7kimi.

In this case, Kopite7kimi hasn’t posted any details on X, but instead shared some info directly with VideoCardz.

We’re told that the RTX 5070 Ti is going to have 8,960 CUDA cores, which would mean 70 SMs (Streaming Multiprocessors), and indicates that the graphics card will use a cut-down take on the GB203 chip from Blackwell.

That’s the same chip as the RTX 5080 is rumored to run with (with the GB202 being the flagship GPU for the RTX 5090 alone).

Kopite7kimi also claims power usage will be pitched at 300W for the RTX 5070 Ti, but it isn’t clear what metric the mentioned figure might be (TGP or TDP). At any rate, this is only speculation, so season it liberally.

There’s no info provided about clock speeds at this point, or the crucial video memory loadout. The RTX 5070 has been rumored to run with 12GB of VRAM in the past, worryingly, but other gossip has suggested that a higher-tier variant – like a 5070 Ti or Super – could run with more (to the tune of 18GB).

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Analysis: The ever-swirling rumors around Blackwell

It’s certainly interesting to see the RTX 5070 Ti popping up in leaks now.

It remains unclear if, as per original rumors, Nvidia might just launch a pair of Blackwell GPUs at CES 2025, the RTX 5090 and 5080 - or whether Team Green might just squeeze in another model, such as the RTX 5070, as is already rumored. Or perhaps this RTX 5070 Ti is a possibility? We doubt it, on balance, and Kopite7kimi couldn’t be drawn to comment on that speculation (VideoCardz did pose the question).

If the core count mentioned is correct, it’d be a 16% uplift on the RTX 4070 Ti (as was before Nvidia discontinued that model). Previous leaks around the RTX 5070 have suggested its core count could be relatively low – a 6,400 CUDA core count has been mentioned in the past, for example – and so that looks a bit shakier in light of this latest leak.

It’d be a pretty hefty jump from the 5070 to 5070 Ti if that was the case, a more pronounced leap than with their predecessor graphics cards – although that could be Nvidia’s plan. Either that, or the previous RTX 5070 speculation is off the mark.

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• A Galaxy tri-fold is coming in 2025, according to a South Korean tipster
• Could launch alongside Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7
• Tri-fold will apparently fold inwards to rival Huawei Mate XT

We've already heard murmurs that a Samsung Galaxy tri-fold phone – a foldable with three screens and two hinges – is being prepared for a 2025 launch, and now another well-placed source has added more credibility to the claims.

South Korean tipster Yeux1122 (via Android Authority) reckons that a Galaxy tri-fold is indeed in the pipeline, ready to launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 – so presumably around July 2025.

And... that's all the information we've got from this particular leak. We don't get any more details in terms of specs or design, just another piece of evidence in the case for Samsung releasing a competitor to the Huawei Mate XT.

The Huawei Mate XT, which was unveiled to the world in September, is the first tri-fold phone to be made available to consumers (well, consumers in China at least). It's unlikely to be the last though, as other manufacturers will want to copy the form factor.

More foldables

We can expect a successor to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 next year too (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Back in October we heard that Samsung had plans for a tri-fold foldable in 2025, which would apparently be launching alongside a budget version of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 (see our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 review for details of this year's model).

While none of these rumors are confirmed just yet, it seems as though Samsung is ready to mix up its foldables strategy in order to get more market share – extra hinges, cheaper prices, and whatever else it can try to tempt more people to make the switch to a foldable.

Google's latest effort in this category has been pretty well received – see our Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold review for details – and it seems inevitable that we'll eventually see a foldable iPhone (or iPad), even if it takes Apple a few years to catch up.

That means Samsung, which has been something of a pioneer as far as foldables go, will have to keep upping its game. We can expect to hear more rumors about this tri-fold – which is apparently going to fold inwards – between now and its launch.

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• 300,000 emails from EnamelPin, owner of gs-jj.com, exposed online
• Many originate from .gov or .mil sources, which are used by military or government workers
• The leak exposed the sites links to China

Researchers at Cybernews recently discovered over 300,000 emails from EnamelPin customers were exposed for months thanks to an open Elasticsearch instance.

EnamelPin Inc is the owner of popular gift site gs-jj.com, which sells medals, lapel pins, emblems, and more.

The leaked emails contained personal information such as full names and email addresses, around 2,500 were from .gov and .mil domains. The site is unsurprisingly popular amongst US government officials and military officers, who had ordered products such as coins, patches, and medals.

National Security Concerns

“The emails and attachments exposed sensitive information about high-ranking military officials. They could be used to determine their position in certain Army units, phone numbers, email addresses, and shipping addresses,” Cybernews researchers said.

Other security issues were discovered on the site, such as the exposure of hidden git repository configuration, folder, and file structure of the website.

The data was left exposed for months, according to researchers. The information was publicly accessible from April 22 until December 5, which left many customers at risk, particularly of identity theft.

Whilst EnamelPin Inc is registered in California and aimed at civilians, the leak exposed previous unknown links to China. Researchers found a publicly accessible Git configuration file which revealed the website’s source code repository is hosted on a Chinese server.

The company also has an ‘complete expert team in China’, long delivery times suggest overseas fulfilment, and the customer support team communicate in broken English.

“Due to the Chinese government’s broad powers to access data, it may be risky for US Government and Military officials to use Chinese services, especially in the official settings," Cybernews added.

“This leak raises OPSEC concerns, as ordering patches, emblems, and other items can inadvertently expose ranks, divisions, and personal information.”

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