Technology

• Scavengers Reign will not reportedly be renewed for a second season
• The series co-creator confirmed the news on Instagram
• The fanbase are devastated by the news

Scavengers Reign fans are devastated to hear that Netflix has canceled one of its best animated shows after one season.

The critically acclaimed anime series gained a cult following when it first aired on Max in October 2023, becoming one of the best Max shows before being removed. Netflix later picked it up earlier this year and many fans were hoping that it would attract a wider audience and be renewed for a second season. However, despite its 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, Scavengers Reign will not be getting another series.

On Tuesday (November 5), co-creator Joe Bennett confirmed the sad news in an Instagram post (see below) along with a teaser of what we could have expected in season 2, which makes the announcement even harder for fans to digest.

A post shared by Joe Bennett (@joe_bennett_animation)

A photo posted by on

What is Scavengers Reign about?

Scavengers Reign follows the survivors of a damaged deep space cargo ship who are stranded on the beautiful but dangerous planet, Vesta. The crew are separated into three groups: Azi and her robot friend Levi, Sam and Ursula, and the isolated Kamen, who is accompanied by a telepathic creature named Hollow. Throughout the series, their paths intersect towards the wrecked Demeter 227.

The best Netflix show was met with huge praise, with The New York Times calling it a "gorgeous, hypnotic space trip". While there's been no official confirmation on why the adult animated science-fiction series was canceled, What's On Netflix has cited that it was low viewership that made Scavengers Reign fall victim to the Netflix ax. "It missed out on the global top 10 weekly stats and the daily TV top 10s in the United Kingdom or the United States," the publication reported.

Fans are understandably distraught that Scavengers Reign has been quietly canceled and took to Reddit to voice their frustrations.

'Scavengers Reign' Not Getting Renewed for Season 2 at Netflix from r/scifi

Unfortunately, Scavengers Reign isn't the only show to be shelved by the best streaming service as Netflix canceled My Dad the Bounty Hunter, another animated show with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. We can only hope Scavengers Reign will be picked up by another streamer, but for now it will have a place on our canceled Netflix shows you should still watch in 2024 list.

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• Security researchers from UK's NCSC share more details about the tools used in Pacific Rim
• Pygmy Goat is a competent backdoor likely used by the Chinese
• Even the FBI is asking for help to identify the crooks

For the past five years, the Chinese have been targeting edge devices belonging to government agencies and departments in the US and elsewhere in the West in an operation dubbed “Pacific Rim” - and we now have more details about the tools they used, and what those tools allowed the attackers to do.

Pacific Rim mainly targeted Sophos XG firewalls with the goal of cyber-espionage and data exfiltration, and it was most likely conducted by multiple Chinese-speaking threat actors, including the infamous Volt Typhoon.

In late October 2024, the UK National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) published a report in which it claims that a new Linux malware named “Pygmy Goat” was used in these attacks. “Pygmy Goat is a native x86-32 ELF shared object that was discovered on Sophos XG firewall devices, providing backdoor access to the device,” the document’s summary reads.

Pygmy Goat

Being a sophisticated network malware, Pygmy Goat was able to disguise malicious traffic as legitimate Secure Shell (SSH) connections, and thus evade detection. Furthermore, it enabled covert communication through encrypted Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets, adding an additional obfuscation layer. As for its capabilities, Pygmy Goat provided its attackers with persistent remote access and control, allowing them to manipulate infected devices stealthily, and potentially compromise broader network infrastructure.

Technical details about the code, infections, and more, can be found in the paper here.

While the document does not discuss the threat actors using Pymgy Goat, BleepingComputer reminds that the techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTP) align with that of a piece of malware called “Castletap”, which was used by Chinese state-sponsored groups. Sophos, on the other hand, said the same rootkit was used in 2022 by another Chinese group dubbed “Tstark”.

Pacific Rim was a major hacking operation that even drew the attention of the FBI, who recently asked the public to help them identify the attackers.

Via BleepingComputer

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• A possibly intentional delay with the Control Panel has been found
• Presumably, it was necessary as a workaround in the distant past
• But it may not inspire confidence in those facing odd bugs in Windows 11

A rash of recent issues with the Windows 11 24H2 update has left many users frustrated with their systems, and it probably won’t be any comfort for those folks to learn that Microsoft has reportedly tampered with old Windows versions to make them run slower (albeit in the distant past, and with one relatively small aspect).

As spotted by German tech site WinFuture (via Neowin), Oerg866 on X posted to reveal that Windows 95 and 98 had a ‘hard-coded 8 second delay’ when using the ‘Add New Hardware’ wizard in the Control Panel.

In an attempt to further speed up Windows 9x QuickInstall, I have patched SYSDM.CPL to remove the hard-coded 8 second delay(!!!) when new hardware is found and reduced it to 300 milliseconds. pic.twitter.com/BfGNpSjMfwNovember 4, 2024

While it isn’t at all clear why this occurs on the now-ancient operating systems, it’s worth wondering why Microsoft decided to implement this delay.

It seems a baffling move on the face of it, but there’s presumably a reason why the long pause was added in by programmers (unless it was just a mistake - which seems unlikely, and it’d be quite the blunder if it was).

What seems most likely is that the delay was introduced due to hardware limitations at the time, meaning there must have been some issues with devices back in the day which required this pause as a workaround. Why the delay had to be so lengthy is anyone’s guess, though.

It also makes you wonder if Microsoft introduced any other similar stalling tactics in these old versions of Windows - or indeed in more modern operating systems like Windows 10 or Windows 11.

(Image credit: Microsoft) Should we be worried about the Control Panel in Windows 11?

It goes without saying that we don’t need to worry about Windows 9x versions anymore (Windows 95 and 98 are older than me). There should be no reason for a similar delay to occur in Windows 11, either, unless it really was an error - which could prompt the question: are there other such blunders still hanging around in the legacy Control Panel?

That thought wouldn’t exactly bolster the confidence of anyone currently using the 24H2 update and running into some of the aforementioned problems with the upgrade.

The ton of bugs that come with Windows 11 24H2 include problems that have left PCs with Intel motherboards suffering from BSODs (Blue Screen of Death crashes). Also, a good few of these glitches are really odd affairs - like a File Explorer menu disappearing off the top of the screen - admittedly not nearly as head-scratching as the reported hard-coded delay, mind you.

The old Control Panel won’t be around forever, of course. Microsoft is planning to gradually migrate the legacy Control Panel’s functions into the new Settings app in Windows 11 with its modern user interface.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft to ask the company about the discovered delay in Windows 95 and 98, and whether it might be able to shed any light on what was going on behind the scenes here. We’ll be sure to update this story if we hear back.

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• Synology has patched a zero-click flaw found in multiple NAS products
• This type of flaw can be exploited with no victim interaction, making it particularly dangerous
• Technical details were not disclosed to give customers time to react

Top network-attached storage (NAS) makers Synology has patched a critical severity vulnerability which could have allowed threat actors to remotely execute malicious code on affected endpoints.

The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2024-10443, and was found in DiskStation and BeePhotos. It was showcased during the recent Pwn2Own Ireland 2024 hackathon, where it was described as a zero-click flaw, and dubbed RISK:STATION.

A zero-click flaw is a security vulnerability that can be exploited without any interaction from the victim, like clicking a link or opening an attachment. Attackers can use zero-click flaws to remotely compromise devices simply by sending a malicious message or file, making them particularly dangerous and difficult to detect.

No evidence of abuse

RISK:STATION was found affecting multiple versions of the above mentioned products:

BeePhotos for BeeStation OS 1.0
BeePhotos for BeeStation OS 1.1
Synology Photos 1.6 for DSM 7.2
Synology Photos 1.7 for DSM 7.2

As the vulnerability can lead to device takeover, loss of data, and worse, the details have been withheld to give the majority of users time to react, and to prevent hackers from easily exploiting it.

Since the patch was already made available, users are advised to apply it immediately, or risk losing sensitive data to threat actors. So far, there has been no evidence of in-the-wild abuse or Proof-of-Concepts (PoC), so it’s safe to assume the crooks haven’t picked the trail up just yet.

NAS instances are an attractive target for cybercriminals because they often hold vast amounts of sensitive data, including personal files, business documents, and backups.

Since NAS devices are frequently connected to networks and sometimes accessible over the internet, they can be vulnerable to ransomware, data theft, and other attacks if not properly secured, providing attackers with potential leverage for extortion or data exploitation.

Via The Hacker News

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• The Apple Watch tracks a wide range of health metrics
• Future Apple Watch models could have health sensors in the strap
• Apple might also bring this tech to the Vision Pro’s headband

The Apple Watch is one of the best smartwatches you can buy, and part of the reason is its strength at measuring and improving your health. But Apple isn’t resting on its laurels, and it looks like the company is planning to embed medical sensors into the straps of future Apple Watch models – echoing a handy blood pressure feature we've seen recently in the Huawei Watch D2.

That info has come to light in a recently published patent (number 12133743, spotted by Patently Apple). The patent, titled “Fabric-based items with stretchable bands,” describes how sensors can be embedded into a stretchable fabric band, and that these sensors could measure anything from blood pressure and electrocardiogram readings to respiration rates and more. Apple already sells stretchy fabric bands for use as Apple Watch straps, suggesting that this idea could be coupled with the Apple Watch in the coming years.

And it’s not just healthcare that Apple has in mind. The patent also explains that the circuitry inside the fabric could be used to receive wireless power, potentially letting you juice up your device entirely remotely.

Or it could be used to “communicate wirelessly with external electronic equipment,” perhaps allowing the device to send and receive info when paired with an iPhone or a Mac.

Watch this space

(Image credit: Future)

Apple doesn’t just think that this tech might be embedded into a smartwatch. It also says that it could be deployed in almost any other clothing item, including hats, gloves, sportswear and belts.

Most interestingly of all, the patent also notes that the technology might work well in “a head band with elastic fabric.” That sounds very similar to the band used in the Vision Pro headset. Is it possible that Apple will weave health-measuring circuitry directly into the Vision Pro’s head band? It can’t be entirely ruled out.

We know that Apple is considering building healthcare features into its other devices, with rumors swirling that upcoming versions of the AirPods will be able to measure various health metrics of the user. And the Apple Watch seems to gain more medical abilities with every new version, so it doesn’t seem unusual that Apple is considering expanding these properties to other devices.

Apple is not the only company that’s working on adding health tracking to its smartwatch’s strap – as we mentioned previously, the Huawei Watch D2 can track your blood pressure directly from its band, for example.

While this latest revelation from Apple is only a patent – meaning Apple might simply be exploring ideas that never actually get implemented – it may not be long before Apple follows in Huawei’s footsteps and brings some noticeable health benefits to its users.

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The new generation of advanced bots is now on everyone’s radar. The rise of high-quality IPs and generative AI has led to the emergence of today’s ‘super bots’. These bots can forge fingerprints, enact distributed attacks at scale, mimic human behavior using machine learning, and fool traditional CAPTCHAs up to 100% of the time.

There’s a lot of discussion about how organizations' cybersecurity strategies must now rapidly evolve to keep up with these increasingly advanced bots. But beneath this narrative lies another truth: most organizations still haven’t even nailed down simple bot protection yet.

Recent research, which tested over 14,000 of the largest websites worldwide, discovered a staggering 2 in 3 (65.2%) have no protection against even simple bots. The research also revealed the rate of bot protection is struggling to keep pace with the rapid growth of digital businesses: only 8.44% of websites are fully protected against all bots, a drop from last year’s 10.2%. Not only are bots becoming more advanced, but organizations' defenses against them are becoming weaker.

How even simple bots can have a catastrophic impact

What’s in a name? Simple bots might sound like they don’t have the potential to cause a great deal of damage - but in fact the opposite is true. Simple bots, like curls or fake Googlebots, can carry out a number of malicious tasks and cause significant financial and reputational damage for businesses. Simple bots are also often used to test out a website or app’s defenses to help cybercriminals fine tune their attacks - in much the same way as a burglar might ‘scope out’ a house before breaking in.

Simple bots can perform credential stuffing, taking a list of usernames and passwords (usually purchased from other malicious actors) and plugging them into a website to gain access and take over accounts.

Similarly, fraudsters can use simple bots for carding and card cracking. A cybercriminal might only have a credit card number and expiration date they need to carry out a transaction, but not have access to the security code. They can use a simple bot to try out all possible combinations until the correct value is found.

‘Worst offender’ industries

While media and gambling are leading the pack as the most protected industries (with 46.30% and 40.48% full bot protection respectively), others are falling behind. Our research uncovered that e-commerce and health are the two worst-protected industries worldwide - despite arguably being the two most in need of robust protection.

For the e-commerce sector, this is particularly damning. 69.29% of e-commerce pure players - businesses without any brick & mortar retail locations - have no bot protection whatsoever. A shocking statistic for organizations who make all of their revenue via online sales.

E-commerce businesses simply can’t afford the reputational risk that comes with bot activity on their websites, particularly as we approach the holiday season, when e-commerce sites will host more frequent and higher value transactions. Last year, e-commerce spending over the holiday season amounted to $1.17 trillion. The stakes are high - both for cybercriminals and the retailers they are targeting.

The health industry was another top offender, with 70.44% health domains completely unprotected against simple or advanced bot attacks. The health industry holds a huge amount of confidential and sensitive information, which, without adequate bot protection, is wide open to data breaches. Cyber attacks put organizations' reputations at risk, reduce patient trust, and make organizations vulnerable to regulatory penalties.

Shrinking barriers to bot entry

The rise of Bots-as-a-Service means bots are now more accessible than ever, even for fraudsters with little technical expertise. It’s never been easier or cheaper to craft sophisticated attacks. In the past, hackers needed coding skills to develop and execute cyberattacks. Now, cyber criminals can buy or lease bots-as-a-service on the black market. A simple bot can be purchased online for less than $50.

Generative AI’s emergence into the mainstream has also lowered the barriers to bot entry. Cybercriminals with some technical understanding can leverage AI to create bots that are easier to scale and harder to detect. For instance, AI can generate bots that mimic human behavior more convincingly. This is particularly useful in the case of phishing attacks, where AI bots can mimic human tone and use NLP to generate personalized phishing messages.

Nailing the basics first

While many organizations are asking how they can best protect themselves from the bots of tomorrow, they can start by assessing if they even have the basics in place. Most organizations will need to start from the ground up, making sure they’ve protected themselves and their customers against simple bots.

There are some essential techniques every organisation needs in their bot protection toolkit. One is honey trapping - which allows bots to operate as usual, but feeds them with fake content/ data to waste its resources. There’s also throttling and rate-limiting, which allows bots to access your site, but slows down their bandwidth allocation to make them operate less efficiently - leading fraudsters to give up. There are some attack vectors where blocking bot activity altogether is the best approach, for instance if bots are obviously spreading malware or performing a DDoS attack.

Once organizations have got the basics down with solid bot protection, they can start to bolster their defenses for tomorrow’s increasingly advanced bots.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

When Notre-Dame erupted in flames in 2019, many feared that all the details of the centuries old cathedral would be lost to history and that any effort to restore the building would fail to capture the many unique features that wowed millions of visitors every year.

The story goes that an unlikely helping hand came to the rescue in the form of Ubisoft, the French video game studio behind the runaway success story that is the Assassin's Creed series. Each incarnation of the game is set in a different historical world, allowing players to explore everywhere from Ancient Egypt to Renaissance Italy. The anthology has won millions of fans across the globe thanks in no small part to the incredibly accurate and life-like replicas it features of real-world buildings, allowing players to scramble over the Pyramids of Giza, London’s Bank of England, and Florence’s Uffizi Gallery.

With Notre-Dame – captured in all its glory – at the heart of its 2014 Revolutionary France entry, Ubisoft were quick to offer the 3D-modelled designs it captured as part of efforts to restore the cathedral.

Whoever said “never let the truth stand in the way of a good story” might have been onto something. As it happened, while 3D modelling proved critical in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame, the real helping hand came from US software firm Autodesk, which developed a full 3D model of the cathedral. It created the model by comparing laser scans of the structure taken pre-fire and comparing them with scans after the fire, combining them to create a 3D BIM model of the 12th-century building.

Yet the very fact that Ubisoft believed its technology held an answer is a telling reflection of just how far the gaming industry has come in shaping how we view and interact with the world around us.

Potential beyond gaming

Contributing over £10bn to the UK economy and growing steadily by 15% annually, the gaming sector is a booming industry that’s constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with its technology. From expansive open-world games to immersive platforms like Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), gaming technology is among the most cutting-edge available. Its potential beyond entertainment has long been overlooked, but now we’re seeing a shift as organizations start to use this technology to solve real-world challenges.

In healthcare, we’re starting to see the latest developments in VR technology being used to assist real-time surgeries and improve precision, while sophisticated databases developed for the game Football Manager are being used by real coaching staff to understand player profiles.

The creative and inventive application of gaming technology in real world environments has the potential to not only help tackle productivity and efficiency challenges head on, but invites us to look for solutions in unexpected places to power the future of business.

These are just a few ways businesses are infusing their strategy with gaming innovation.

How large scale virtual worlds help us map complex real worlds

The biggest open world game to exist is No Man’s Sky – a game that is the size of 18 quintillion planets, which tallies up to 31,7000,000,000,000,000,000,000 km2. The scale of building virtual worlds is literally galactic, and the technology developed to build these worlds can also be used to create digital twins of existing environments, down to the micro detail.

Digital twins have long been used in corporate environments to manage warehouses, businesses and even entire cities, but the advent of AI enhances their capabilities. With AI, digital twins can make predictions about events that will impact its physical counterpart, using real-time data to support decision making and avoid potential disruptions.

This is perhaps most critical in the world of supply chains, where disruptions cost the UK £12 billion in lost sales every year. Indeed Amazon - one of the world’s most expensive and intricate supply chains - has adopted AI and simulation technology to support the function of its highly complex automated warehouses, uncovering increased efficiencies, reducing costs, and improving performance.

Taking inspiration from large scale virtual worlds for computer games, business leaders can leverage AI-powered simulations to broaden their periphery and anticipate how external factors, like extreme weather or political unrest, might impact their operations. This foresight is crucial in today’s fast-paced interconnected world, where the ability to rapidly anticipate disruptions and adjust strategy accordingly is essential for navigating the complexities of global business.

Using the concept of “multiple lives” in a business setting

In the gaming world, mistakes help players improve and think tactically to get to the next level. In the business world, however, companies don’t have “multiple lives”.

When it comes to major projects that uphaul company systems, or expand into new markets, decision makers need to carefully weigh risks and make decisions with confidence but this is difficult to do when consultants only paint one half of the picture.

Gartner estimated that 55% to 75% of all ERP projects fail to meet their objectives, and a major reason for this is because decisions are made in functional silos without anyone having the bigger picture in sufficient detail. For example, manufacturers of robotics systems will tell you the productivity benefits of automating a specific aspect of the warehouse or a particular operational task, but they will struggle to prove the ROI the whole warehouse will deliver, or how a wider roll out across the supply chain will impact your business.

By using an AI-powered digital twin early in the transformation program however, businesses can apply this concept of “endless lives” to a business setting, and can use real-time data to test and rehearse how different decisions impact their business in a safe and controlled environment. Businesses can stress test organizational systems, and see what would happen if they were to plug in automation at different stages. With this foresight, business leaders can identify potential issues and plan to fix them or avoid them accordingly, as well as get a better idea of ROI before making an investment.

Levelling up your team with new abilities

It’s also true that the more advanced you get in a video game, the more your avatar needs the right experience, tools and abilities to overcome obstacles. It’s the same for businesses, in that teams need the right tools and training to overcome complex and evolving challenges in order to take their company to the next level, as well as advance in their own careers.

In highly technical disciplines such as surgery or aviation, the latest advancements in Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) software play a crucial role in training. These simulations allow professionals to practice complex surgeries or operate vehicles in a risk-free environment, helping them hone their skills and build confidence before setting foot into the operating room or cockpit.

From a business operations transformation perspective, using AI and digital twins of business operations is akin to levelling up with X-ray vision. One gains the ability to see into the future and understand if investments made now are likely to deliver on their promise in future, and how best to navigate to the best available outcome.

These technologies are designed for enhanced user experience, and when used in a business setting can enhance stakeholder engagement, collaboration and alignment in decision making by enhancing visibility but also creating a safe space to refine skills and strategy.

Powering up your business for the future

In today's fast-paced, interconnected world, businesses face growing complexity and uncertainty. To stay competitive and address critical challenges - whether boosting productivity or leading the way in AI and automation - organizations must explore emerging technologies across various sectors. The gaming industry, in particular, provides powerful examples of how cutting-edge technology can bring new levels of confidence to strategic investment decision making, and gaming-inspired user experiences deliver much improved stakeholder engagement and collaboration. As more industries adopt similar approaches, they stand to unlock new levels of efficiency, creativity, and growth, propelling their businesses to new heights.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

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• Google is encouraging Cloud customers to enable MFA now
• All users will need to enable MFA by the end of 2025
• 30% of Google users don’t use MFA yet

Google Cloud has confirmed its users will need to enforce multi-factor authentication within the next few months as part of a major security push.

After quietly announcing the change in an October document, Google Cloud VP of Engineering and Distinguished Engineer Mayank Upadhyay revealed the rollout will be in phases, with mandatory MFA for all Google Cloud customers set to arrive by the end of 2025.

Google has promised to smoothen the rollout of the MFA requirement by dropping notifications on enterprise users ahead of time, so that they can enact the change with their employees.

Google Cloud now mandates the use of MFA

“We’ve been strong advocates for our MFA system for over a decade," noted Upadhyay, highlighting how the company will now begin encouraging users to enable MFA through reminders and other information popups in the Google Cloud console.

From 2025, new and existing customers using password logins will need to turn on MFA in their accounts, and by the end of the year, all users who federate authentication into Google Cloud (via third parties) will also need to enable the additional security step.

The company revealed around one in three (30%) Google users still rely on just passwords, highlighting the scale of the work required to drive wider MFA adoption.

Given the recent surge in high-profile data breaches and the amplification of attacks thanks to generative AI, adding MFA to accounts will make it more difficult for hackers to force entry via phishing scams.

Research from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) suggests MFA can make users 99% less likely to be hacked.

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Apple’s recently released iPad mini 7 is the cheapest device in the company’s lineup that offers Apple Intelligence, the new suite of AI tools. Starting at $499, which is $100 less than the next cheapest Apple Intelligence-compatible Apple device, the brand-new M4 Mac mini or the M2 iPad Air, the iPad mini is more compelling than ever and it has piqued my interest.

As TechRadar’s Senior AI Writer and someone who’s either worked for Apple or written about Apple products for a combined decade, I felt a duty to give the new iPad mini a try and see if it’s the perfect entry point to Apple Intelligence, or if you’re better investing in Apple AI elsewhere.

After using the iPad mini for a few days, getting to grips with iPadOS 18 in a smaller form factor, and testing out everything Apple Intelligence offers in iPadOS 18.1, it’s fair to say that I’m impressed with the mighty, but mini, tablet. So, here are three reasons why I think the cheapest Apple Intelligence-compatible device might also be the perfect entry device for you to give AI a try.

The perfect size for Writing Tools

(Image credit: Future / Apple)

Writing Tools is the standout feature of Apple Intelligence’s first wave of features and while it works flawlessly on my iPhone 16 Pro Max, I’ve found that it’s far more useful on the slightly larger display of the iPad mini 7. Interestingly, I never used Writing Tools on my M2 iPad Pro, but I’ve found the iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip to be the perfect form factor for note-taking. Combine the iPad mini with the Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Intelligence Writing Tools and you’ve got the best portable note-taking device Apple has to offer.

I’ve found Writing Tools to be a great addition to Notes on my iPad mini 7, making it very easy to format text into easy-to-read summaries and bullet points. While Writing Tools is identical on this device to other Apple Intelligence-compatible products it really stands out in the mini’s perfect pocketable format.

It’s just as good as my $1000+ iPhone

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

One of the main reasons I wanted to try Apple Intelligence on the iPad mini 7 was to see how it would compete with my more expensive Apple products like the iPhone 16 Pro Max or my M3 Pro MacBook Pro. While I’ve only been testing the tablet for a few days, I’m happy to say that the speed difference between the products is almost imperceptible.

I decided to launch Clean Up in Photos to compare the speed difference between my $500 iPad mini 7 and my $1200 iPhone 16 Pro Max with Apple’s A18 Pro chip. To my surprise, both were able to easily remove subjects from the background of my test photo, and if I didn’t see both side by side I’d never have noticed the speed difference. Yes, my iPhone 16 Pro Max was slightly faster at all the Apple Intelligence features I tried, but it was a far closer contest than I expected and ultimately emphasized just how good a bang for your buck the new mini is.

Try Apple Intelligence for less

(Image credit: Apple)

I touched upon this earlier, but I want to go into more detail about why the iPad mini being the cheapest Apple Intelligence-compatible product is such a big deal. Not only can you pick an iPad mini up for under $500 and get a fantastic Apple Intelligence-powered tablet experience but it’s the perfect trial to see whether or not you really need Apple Intelligence in your life.

Let me explain. Imagine you own a very capable iPhone 15 or iPhone 14 Pro and are a bit annoyed at the lack of Apple Intelligence on your smartphone. You have a few options: Either you upgrade your iPhone which can be costly and often difficult to do due to phone contracts and monthly payment plans, you could opt to wait a few years before getting an Apple Intelligence-compatible device, or you could buy an iPad mini to fill the gap and give you everything Apple Intelligence has to offer without completely breaking the bank. Obviously, $500 isn’t cheap but you could get an incredible tablet with all of Apple AI’s bells and whistles and use it as a test to see if you should upgrade your iPhone when the iPhone 17 comes around next year.

I never thought an iPad mini would fit into my workflow, especially considering the 6.9-inch display of my 16 Pro Max. After using this mini powerhouse for a few days, however, it has given me a new insight into what Apple Intelligence is capable of and also become one of my favorite Apple products to date. Not only is it the perfect device for Apple Intelligence, but it’s the cheapest too, and one I’d recommend to anyone looking to take a leap of faith on Apple AI.

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