Technology

A wet and dry vacuum is a great choice if you're dealing with lots of mud or spillages on your hard floor and don't want to be mopping every other day. However, while they can be excellent for tackling tough stains, they often have fairly bulky designs, and can struggle to get close to the edges of rooms. So I was particularly interested to get some hands-on time with the Dreame H15 Pro, which has a clever solution to this issue.

This wet-floor cleaner has a chip in the front of the floorhead that can sense when it's approaching a wall. This triggers the mop roller to shift forward so that it's as close to the wall as possible, and at the same time a barrier along the front of the floorhead drops, so the mop isn't actually mopping your wall or baseboard or skirting. Dreame calls this 'triple edge coverage', and it's an idea I haven't seen before, even amongst the best wet and dry vacuums on the market.

(Image credit: Future)

In fact, it's closer to something we tend to see on hybrid mop-and-vacuum robovacs. Some of today's best robot vacuums have mop pads that can kick out when the bot is traversing along the edge of a room, so there isn't an un-mopped gap.

While it's still chunkier than, say, a stick vacuum, Dreame has made further design tweaks to make the H15 Pro as maneuverable as possible. The handle can drop down completely flat to the ground, enabling you to clean underneath furniture. On some wet-dry vacuums, suction will drop when the cleaner is laid down flat, to prevent water getting into the motor, but the H15 Pro is designed so there's no loss of suction. Speaking of which, it can achieve up to an ultra-powerful 21,000Pa.

Rub a dub dub

Another innovation that caught my eye on this cleaner is its self-cleaning process. Many higher-end wet-dry vacuums have some kind of self-cleaning cycle to make maintenance easier, but the H15 Pro is the first one I've seen that gives its mops a bath after use.

When the self-clean cycle is activated, a tray in the base fills with hot (212F / 100C) water that immerses the rollers, rather than just dampening them. The rollers then spin to clean off any dirt and grease. Once that's complete, the space is sealed and they're blasted with hot air for five minutes to dry them.

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

I got to check out the H15 Pro at the grand opening of Dreame's new flagship UK store in Birmingham, and I was impressed. The lie-flat design, in particular, works very well, and the cleaner is comfortable to use and easy to maneuver. The triple-edge cleaning seemed a little more temperamental during my hands-on time, but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until we're had a chance to try it out properly.

The Dreame H15 Pro is due to go on sale in the UK in March. We've enquired about pricing and launch information for the US and Australia, and we'll update this article when we get that.

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• Google opens “voluntary exit program” for Platforms & Devices workers
• Android, Chrome, Pixel, Fitbit and more programs affected
• Could this spell out more layoffs?

Google has opened up a voluntary exit deal for employees working on Pixel and Android projects after recently merging the hardware and software divisions into one.

9To5Google has confirmed US employees in the newly formed Platforms & Devices group received a “voluntary exit program” memo from SVP Rick Osterloh.

It means that Googlers responsible for Android (Auto, TV, Wear OS, XR), Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Photos, Google One, Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest could all be at risk of losing their jobs.

Google asks Platforms & Devices workers to resign

It’s believed the voluntary exit program only affects workers in the US, and it’s being framed as a move to support workers who feel they’re no longer suitable for their roles post-amalgamation. It also allows those who are not on-board with the company’s return to office mandate to leave with some additional financial support.

Details of the severance package have not been confirmed, and Google did not respond to TechRadar Pro’s request for more information.

However, some workers are worried that this is a sign of things to come. Previous layoffs were criticized for not being preceded by voluntary resignation offers – this new exit program could lead to layoffs if too many workers stay on. TechRadar Pro has also asked for Google’s take on this.

Google’s Q3 2024 revenue from subscriptions, platforms, and devices stood at $10.7 billion, up from $8.3 billion in the same period of 2023. We’re four days away from finding out how the company’s final quarter and full-year figures looked.

On the workers’ front, jobs have been fairly insecure since Google started its cost-cutting journey. In 2023, 12,000 workers were made redundant in one blow; at least 11 other rounds of layoffs followed in 2024.

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• Intel has confirmed its CPU roadmap for the near future
• Panther Lake is due later in 2025, and Nova Lake in 2026
• It’s still not made clear if Panther Lake will skip desktop, but it seems likely that next-gen desktop CPUs won’t be here until next year

Intel has confirmed its future CPU plans and how the firm’s intended roadmap will pan out across 2025 and 2026, albeit while leaving question marks over certain specifics.

We got confirmation of existing plans – that Panther Lake is due this year, and Nova Lake next year – but there’s still no certainty over whether we’ll get a new generation of desktop CPUs later in 2025 (in other words, whether Intel will stick to its usual yearly cadence).

As VideoCardz reports, what Intel’s current (interim) co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus revealed during a recent earnings call is that we can expect Team Blue to release Panther Lake silicon, its next generation, in the second half of 2025.

Holthaus then observed: “2026 is even more exciting from a client perspective as Panther Lake achieves meaningful volumes and we introduce our next-generation client family codenamed Nova Lake.

“Both will provide strong performance across the entire PC stack with significantly better cost and margin for us, enhancing our competitive position and reinforcing our value proposition to our partners and customers.”

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Analysis: Form of the Panther

Okay, so next-gen Panther Lake is still due later in 2025, and 2026 will be the year of Nova Lake, the following generation. Good to know, or rather, to have that confirmed again.

The question is: what form will Panther Lake and Nova Lake take, exactly? The current rumor is that Panther Lake will be mobile chips only, meaning just laptops, not desktop PCs. The sightings of next-gen desktop chips via the rumor mill have been confined only to Nova Lake (so far, and it’s getting late in the day now).

Based on what Intel’s co-CEO says here, there’s no specific mention of desktop CPUs, so that isn’t helpful. However, what we do get from Holthaus is an assertion that “both will provide strong performance across the entire PC stack” and the key word here is ‘both’ of course.

The “entire PC stack” means mobile and desktop, the works, and what appears to be stated here is that both Panther Lake and Nova Lake together will cover the entire PC stack between them. This is still true if Panther Lake doesn’t have a desktop incarnation.

Alternatively, you could read this as both Panther Lake and Nova Lake will separately cover the full stack, both desktop and mobile, in their own right – but that doesn’t feel like the intention here. By which I mean, for me, this seems to be a way of phrasing things that’s deliberately ambiguous to gloss over whether or not Panther Lake will have a desktop presence.

Take that for what you will, of course, and we absolutely don’t know for sure. Maybe Intel does have Panther Lake desktop chips in the works, but based on the rumors, it seems relatively unlikely.

Another alternative could be that Panther Lake is laptop only, but Intel could bring out an Arrow Lake Refresh on desktop later this year alongside it, as a stopgap before Nova Lake desktop CPUs in 2026. Remember, that’s what happened with Raptor Lake, and it was a very minor generational bump – but past rumors have claimed Intel is not going to carry out such a refresh with Arrow Lake for desktops.

Ultimately, for now, it seems to me that the likelihood is that Intel’s next-gen desktop silicon won’t be here until 2026 when Nova Lake blazes into town.

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ExpressVPN is offering a lucky new customer the opportunity to win a once-in-a-lifetime Tottenham Hotspur experience.

ExpressVPN's Dare to Dare competition includes flights to London, three nights in a 4-star hotel, a premium ticket to a Spurs match, and £500 of spending money during your stay.

The VPN provider launched its digital privacy partnership with the Spurs in November, calling on fans to "dare to do more."

You have time until February 28, 2025, to enter the competition and try your luck in winning this exclusive trip for you and a mate.

ExpressVPN: from $4.99 + 4 months FREE
Perhaps the easiest-to-use VPN service out there, ExpressVPN offers a security and privacy powerhouse within a few clicks. Whether that's boosted privacy, streaming unblocking, or stable gaming performances, the provider gets you covered. Sign up for its 2-year plan for as little as $4.99 a month to have the opportunity to win an incredible Spurs experience. Try it risk-free with its 30-day money-back guarantee.View Deal

ExpressVPN Dare to Dream: what is it and how to join

ExpressVPN's Dare to Dream campaign seeks to reward some lucky new customers who decide to boost their digital privacy with either a 1 or 2-year VPN plan.

The exclusive 3-day trip to London (available for one winner with the option to invite a guest) includes:

• Flights to London,
• Three nights accommodation,
• £500 of spending money – the winner will require a PayPal account to get this,
• A premium Spurs matchday package. This includes two top-drawer seats, food, drink, locker room access, entertainment with Club Legends and more,
• VIP Tour of the stadium with a Tottenham Legend,
• Signed Merch,
• Dare Skywalk or F1 Drive experience,
• Free Aircove Go router – the provider's own router with built-in VPN to bring everywhere with you every time you travel.

Not only that, but everyone signing up for one or two years of ExpressVPN coverage will also receive four months of free protection and 51% off the regular monthly price. Here are all the terms and conditions for participating in the initiative.

Is ExpressVPN worth it?

Football fans will probably be glad to know that signing up to ExpressVPN isn't just a matter of winning an incredible experience – the provider takes its users' privacy and security very seriously.

Test after test, TechRadar's reviewers keep loving ExpressVPN for its many security features, stable and fast connections, easy-to-use apps, and string encryption protocols.

Talking about encryption, ExpressVPN was one of the first providers to adopt the new post-quantum encryption standards recently to ensure you can be protected even against new threats.

ExpressVPN even dropped its prices for the first time in fifteen years a few months ago, making it even more value for money.

• New York Blood Center announces it was hit by a ransomware attack
• It has notified the police, but said its operations were hindered
• No details about the attackers or the consequences just yet

One of the largest independent, community-based blood centers in the world has suffered a ransomware attack which crippled its operations.

In a public announcement, the New York Blood Center (NYBC) said it was working on restoring its systems, and had notified police about the attack.

“On Sunday, January 26, New York Blood Center Enterprises and its operating divisions identified suspicious activity affecting our IT systems. We immediately engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate and confirmed that the suspicious activity is a result of a ransomware incident,” the announcement reads. “We took immediate steps to help contain the threat and are working diligently with these experts to restore our systems as quickly and as safely as possible.”

Blood firms in the crosshairs

Other details are not known at this time. We don’t know who the threat actors are, or how they managed to access NYBC’s IT infrastructure. Since ransomware attackers usually steal sensitive information, it is safe to assume the same happened here. However, we don’t know how many people are affected, or what kind of information might have been stolen.

NYBC serves over 75 million people across the United States. Annually, it collects approximately 400,000 blood donations and distributes more than 1 million units of blood and blood components to nearly 200 hospitals. Therefore, the number of potentially affected people could be quite large, and the information stolen could be sensitive.

Blood donation firms seem to be in the crosshairs these days. Earlier this month, news broke that OneBlood, a nonprofit medical organization crucial for the operations of healthcare firms across the Southeastern US, lost sensitive donor information in a ransomware attack that happened last summer.

The move disrupted services across multiple US states, with the organization operating at a ‘significantly reduced capacity’.

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• The limited-time PS5 themes will be removed today
• Sony thanks fans for the "fantastic response" to them
• As a result, they will be coming back in future

Sony has confirmed that the limited-time console themes, which allow you to deck out your PS5 UI in an original PlayStation, PS2, PS3, or PS4 aesthetic, will be removed today.

In a recent X / Twitter post, Sony thanked fans for the "fantastic response" to the themes but confirmed that they will be "leaving" today. This is bad news if you were a fan of the unique looks, but there is a silver lining here.

Thanks to the "positive response on these four themes" Sony is now "doing some work behind the scenes" to bring them back in the "months ahead." There's no clear timeframe yet, but this will presumably involve making them a permanent option on PS5 sometime later this year.

In spite of this, Sony also stated that there "aren't plans to create additional themes in future," which is a massive shame. Many PS4 owners loved the ability to personalize their console's home screen, which has a wide range of both free and paid options available inspired by top games. Although it has been a much-requested feature for PS5, it looks like we won't be seeing anything as comprehensive as that old system implemented any time soon.

Given the rather sparse look of the PS5 home screen, I definitely wouldn't mind the ability to spice things up a little bit. At least the future return of these four retro themes is better than nothing.

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