Technology

If you're ready to upgrade your TV for better sound, we've gathered a number of top-tier audio systems for your home theater.

When the cosmetics brand decided to make a Bluetooth speaker, it didn’t know how hard it would be to make it sustainably. The next challenge: Will anyone actually buy it?

• GPU-like PCIe card offers 10PFLOPs FP4 compute power and 2GB of SRAM
• SRAM is usually used in small amounts as cache in processors (L1 to L3)
• It also uses LPDDR5 rather than far more expensive HBM memory

Silicon Valley startup d-Matrix, which is backed by Microsoft, has developed a chiplet-based solution designed for fast, small-batch inference of LLMs in enterprise environments. Its architecture takes an all-digital compute-in-memory approach, using modified SRAM cells for speed and energy efficiency.

The Corsair, d-Matrix’s current product, is described as the “first-of-its-kind AI compute platform” and features two d-Matrix ASICs on a full-height, full-length PCIe card, with four chiplets per ASIC. It achieves a total of 9.6 PFLOPs FP4 compute power with 2GB of SRAM-based performance memory. Unlike traditional designs that rely on expensive HBM, Corsair uses LPDDR5 capacity memory, with up to 256GB per card for handling larger models or batch inference workloads.

d-Matrix says Corsair delivers 10x better interactive performance, 3x energy efficiency and 3x cost-performances compared with GPU alternatives, such as the hugely popular Nvidia H100.

A leap of faith

Sree Ganesan, head of product at d-Matrix, told EE Times, "Today’s solutions mostly hit the memory wall with existing architectures. They have to add a lot more compute and burn a lot more power, which is an unsustainable path. Yes, we can do better with more compute FLOPS and bigger memory, but d-Matrix has focused on memory bandwidth and innovating on the memory-compute barrier."

d-Matrix’s approach eliminates the bottleneck by enabling computation directly within memory.

"We’ve built a digital in-memory compute core where multiply-accumulate happens in memory and you can take advantage of very high bandwidth - we’re talking about 150 terabytes per second," Ganesan explained. "This, in combination with the series of other innovations allows us to solve the memory wall challenge."

CEO Sid Sheth told EE Times the company was founded in 2019 after feedback from hyperscalers suggested inference was the future. “It was a leap of faith, because inference alone as an opportunity was not perceived as being too big back in 2019,” he said. “Of course, that all changed post 2022 and ChatGPT. We also bet on transformer [networks] pretty early on in the company.”

Corsair is entering mass production in Q2 2025, and d-Matrix is already planning its next-generation ASIC, Raptor, which will integrate 3D-stacked DRAM to support reasoning workloads and larger memory capacities.

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Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 26.

Need home internet service in Miami? Our CNET experts have found the best ISPs in the area based on cost, speed and coverage.

Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab.

Dyson tends to make quite a fuss when it releases a new vacuum (and rightly so). But towards the end of 2024 we spotted what looked like a brand new cordless vacuum that had been stealth-launched, with no fanfare: the Dyson Digital Slim.

It's not a flagship model, and at the time of writing it was only available direct from Dyson in the US, although there are Amazon listings in both the US and AU. It looks to be a pared-back, slimmed-down, more budget-friendly alternative to the brand's flagship models. (It's not to be confused with the Dyson V12 Detect Slim, another non-flagship model, which launched alongside the Dyson V15 Detect in 2021.)

We haven't had a chance to test this one out ourselves yet, so ahead of our official review, here's everything we know about the Dyson Digital Slim, and how it compares to the rest of the best Dyson vaccums...

Dyson Digital Slim: design & features

As you might have guessed from the name, one USP here is that this is a more streamlined stick vacuum option. The Digital Slim is lighter than any of the flagship Dyson stick vacuums, with a shorter overall height. It also has the smallest dust cup – one that's small enough to be annoying if you have a larger home or are dealing with lots of dirt or pet hair. Although one saving grace is that the bin-emptying mechanism is the current, simplified design found on the newest models.

Dyson is widely considered to be one of the best cordless vacuum brands, and you're getting all the standard benefits of other stick models. Namely, it's easy to maneuver with a super-pivotable floorhead, it comes with an optional wall dock for charging, there's no cord to fuss around with, and it can easily be converted into a handheld by removing the wand and adding a detail tool.

The Digital Slim has a straightforward emptying mechanism, and can be charged directly or via a wall dock (Image credit: Dyson)

It's operated via a trigger, which needs to be continuously depressed. Only the newest Gen5detect replaces this with a more finger-friendly one-touch button. You can choose between three suction modes – low, medium and high.

Information is conveyed via a small LCD screen on the main body of the vacuum. This will tell you how much battery you have left (in hours and minutes) and which mode you're using, as well as alerting you of any maintenance tasks that need doing – for example, if the filter needs cleaning. That screen is a relatively modern addition in the Dyson vacuum range, first introduced in 2019 with the Dyson V11.

An LDC screen provides information, and there's a multi-floor floorhead with anti-hair wrap features (Image credit: Dyson)

The Digital Slim has an inline design, where the wand, bin, cyclones and motor are all stacked one after the other. This was introduced with the Dyson V11, and is designed to maximize suction efficiency.

Under the hood, there's a Hyperdymium motor that rotates at 120,000rpm. That's actually a better motor than you'll find on the Dyson V8, the oldest flagship model in the current lineup, although Dyson says it generates slightly less suction than that model overall. Filtering is in line with older flagships – designed to capture 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns.

At a maximum of 40 minutes, the battery life matches the V8. That increases to 60 minutes on the V11 and V15, and to 70 minutes on the Gen5detect, but it's important to note that the extra power comes with the payoff of extra weight. 40 minutes of cleaning (or less, if you need to amp up to medium suction model) should still be plenty for most smaller homes.

The Digital Slim typically comes with a Multi tool (left) and Crevice tool (right) (Image credit: Future)

In terms of Dyson tools and floorheads, it's a minimal selection included with the Digital Slim. The floorhead is a Motorbar with hair-detangling features, and suitable for use on both hard floor and carpet (there's no extra Fluffy floorhead, specialized for hard floor use). You'll also get a Combination tool, which includes a smaller nozzle and brush for general detail cleaning, and a longer Crevice tool for getting into narrow spaces. Other tools may be compatible, and the extras can vary depending on retailer, so it's worth double-checking what's included before you buy.

As you'd expect, you're not getting the fancier features that come with the newest Dyson stick vacs. There's no automatic suction adjustment based on floor type or dirt levels, no real-time reports on what's being sucked up, and no laser-equipped Fluffy floorhead for illuminating dust on your hard floors. However, for many, these kinds of features aren't essential.

Dyson Digital Slim: price & availability

The Dyson Digital Slim started appearing online in fall/winter 2024. At the time of writing, it was only available to buy direct from Dyson in the US, at a list price of $499.99 but discounted to $249.99 (also at the time of writing). It's also on sale via Amazon US, with the same discount. In Australia, it's not available to buy direct from Dyson, but does have an Amazon AU listing, with a price of AU$813.26. It's currently not available in the UK.

At list price, that places the Digital Slim between the V8 (at $469.99) and the V11 (at $569.99). However, if we take the discounted price, it's the cheapest Dyson cordless stick vacuum option by some margin.

At TechRadar, our mid-range price bracket for vacuums is $250-$500. Anything above that is premium, and below is budget – so at it's discounted price, the Digital Slim would be considered a budget model. It's more advanced than most of today's best cheap vacuums, with features like the LCD screen for information.

Dyson Digital Slim: specs

Below, we've compared the Digital Slim with the least advanced Dyson stick vacuum in the current lineup (the Dyson V8), the newest and most advanced (the Dyson Gen5detect), and a mid-range model (Dyson V11).

Should I buy the Dyson Digital Slim? Considering buying it if...

You have a small home

The Digital Slim is smaller and nimbler than other Dyson vacuums. That, and the fact it has a smaller dust cup and shorter runtimes, make it more suited to smaller homes. View Deal

You're on a budget

At full price the Digital Slim is roughly in line with the Dyson V8, but it's regularly discounted to half price, dropping it into the budget price bracket (just!) and making it excellent value for money for what you're getting. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You have shedding pets

The small dust cup and relatively low power compared to other Dyson stick vacuums means we wouldn't recommend this model to pet owners. Our guide to the best vacuums for pet hair has plenty of alternative recommendations. View Deal

You have a large home

The small dust cup and shorter runtimes mean the Digital Slim isn't the best choice for larger homes – you'll find your cleaning sessions interrupted by bin-emptying and recharging.View Deal

Here are some hints — and the answers — for Connections: Sports Edition No. 125 for Sunday, Jan. 26.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1098) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1098) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.

Quordle today (game #1098) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1098) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1098) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• W

• O

• B

• T

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1098) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1098, are…

• WATER
• ORBIT
• BRIDE
• TOUCH

I decided to change my start words today and it resulted in a fail. Usually I start with AUDIO and STEER, but today I went with RADIO and SURGE. My thinking – which, on reflection, is totally illogical – was that I was wasting a letter by using a double E, but I still wasted a letter anyway by using R twice. D'oh!

Tomorrow, I’m returning to my tried and trusted start words, even though I feel there must be a better pair out there.

Completing the Daily Sequence made me feel better.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1098) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1098, are…

• ENSUE
• STAID
• DETOX
• RELAX

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1097, Saturday 25 January: GIVER, GROOM, GUSTO, MAKER
• Quordle #1096, Friday 24 January: GRIND, STOCK, SERVE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1095, Thursday 23 January: RUGBY, SASSY, WORRY, BANAL
• Quordle #1094, Wednesday 22 January: SLANT, TRUNK, WOOZY, EATEN
• Quordle #1093, Tuesday 21 January: CHART, VIGOR, PRINT, SPAWN
• Quordle #1092, Monday 20 January: SIXTY, THONG, TATTY, ROBIN
• Quordle #1091, Sunday 19 January: WREST, RINSE, SCOUR, CANNY
• Quordle #1090, Saturday 18 January: BLARE, ITCHY, BICEP, PIPER
• Quordle #1089, Friday 17 January: CATCH, WEARY, SWOON, LATHE
• Quordle #1088, Thursday 16 January: PARTY, BLUNT, TWEED, PLANT
• Quordle #1087, Wednesday 15 January: RISEN, PLATE, RURAL, ENVOY
• Quordle #1086, Tuesday 14 January: SWARM, SCRAP, ONION, BELCH
• Quordle #1085, Monday 13 January: EYING, GIDDY, CHEAP, PETAL
• Quordle #1084, Sunday 12 January: BRIEF, PETAL, WOMAN, FELON
• Quordle #1083, Saturday 11 January: ASCOT, FIBER, ROGUE, SMELL
• Quordle #1082, Friday 10 January: BIGOT, INLET, LEECH, TUNIC
• Quordle #1081, Thursday 9 January: RESET, HUMOR, TENOR, IMAGE
• Quordle #1080, Wednesday 8 January: MINCE, SADLY, RISEN, VOUCH
• Quordle #1079, Tuesday 7 January: CREED, FILET, ROUTE, TAPER
• Quordle #1078, Monday 6 January: PIVOT, WOOLY, GRUNT, GROOM

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #595) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• RAVEN
• SILO
• HITCH
• PROMO
• TRAILER
• DISCOG
• FISH
• TRACTOR
• BALLY
• FARM
• CLOISTER
• GATHER
• SEPARATE
• HUNT
• AXLES
• SECLUDE

NYT Connections today (game #595) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Nourish ourselves 
• GREEN: Segregate 
• BLUE: 18-wheeler 
• PURPLE: Places to boogie 

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #595) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: WAYS TO GET FOOD 
• GREEN: KEEP APART 
• BLUE: PARTS OF A BIG RIG 
• PURPLE: DANCE EVENTS PLUS A LETTER 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #595) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #595, are…

• YELLOW: WAYS TO GET FOOD FARM, FISH, GATHER, HUNT
• GREEN: KEEP APART CLOISTER, SECLUDE, SEPARATE, SILO
• BLUE: PARTS OF A BIG RIG AXLES, HITCH, TRACTOR, TRAILER
• PURPLE: DANCE EVENTS PLUS A LETTER BALLY, DISCOG, PROMO, RAVEN

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: Perfect

Pure luck got me over the line without making any mistakes today. I had no idea what a BIG RIG is, but AXLES, HITCH, and TRAILER all sounded like they must be part of something mechanical and I took a chance on adding TRACTOR.

I would never have got DANCE EVENTS PLUS A LETTER. I’m trying to rewire my Connections thinking process so I see these tricky groups, but I always go to the most obvious links – and in this case I was thinking PROMO and DISCOG had something to do with music; back in the day when I was a music journalist we’d called an artist’s Discography their Discog, and a Promo was a record you’d be sent ahead of official release. The actual connection was, inevitably, a little more complicated!

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, 25 January, game #594)

• YELLOW: SCHOOL PERIODS CLASS, HOMEROOM, LUNCH, RECESS
• GREEN: FEATURES OF A SKI RESORT LIFT, LODGE, MOGUL, SLOPE
• BLUE: WORDS DERIVED FROM JAPANESE EMOJI, GINKGO, KARAOKE, TYCOON
• PURPLE: WORDS AFTER THE PREFIX "TRI-" ANGLE, CYCLE, DENT, POD

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #329) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Ore so they say

NYT Strands today (game #329) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• PAIN
• COMA
• CLAD
• MULE
• TEAL
• BELL

NYT Strands today (game #329) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Vital elements

NYT Strands today (game #329) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: top, 3rd column

Last side: bottom, 4th column

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #329) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #329, are…

• NICKEL
• IRON
• COBALT
• CADMIUM
• ALUMINUM
• TITANIUM
• SPANGRAM: PURE METAL

• My rating: Easy
• My score: 1 hint

It was pretty obvious from the theme clue what we were looking for today and, of course, my biggest fear was that I would have to spell out ALUMINIUM – or rather, ALUMINUM as those of you in the United States would have it. A few very obvious – and much easier to find and spell – PURE METALs were left out of the puzzle, including Gold, Copper, Zinc and Silver.

As I was completing the game my mind wandered to the heavy metal genre, and the thought that it was named that after IRON Maiden – iron being a particularly heavy metal. But actually, Google tells me it comes from the song Born to Be Wild by the '70s band Steppenwolf, which includes the phrase “heavy metal thunder”. So today I learned two things – that, plus how to spell ALUMINUM.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, 25 January, game #328)

• BALLOON
• COFFEE
• SUCCEED
• COMMITTEE
• WHIPPOORWILL
• SPANGRAM: LETTERS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Here are some hints -- and the answers -- for the Jan. 26 Strands puzzle, No. 329.

Here are some hints — and the answers — for Connections No. 595 for Sunday, Jan. 26.

Here are some hints and the answer for Wordle No. 1,317 for Sunday, Jan. 26.

As expected, OpenAI has released its first autonomous AI agent, called Operator this week. Operator can act independently from you on your computer using a web browser doing pretty much anything that can be done in a web browser.

So, it can perform tasks like booking a restaurant table or buying groceries. You just tell it what you want it to do, and off it goes like a faithful Internet-enabled butler that potters away until the task is complete or it needs to come back to you with a question. Say, there’s no table available at 7.00pm, would Sir or Madam mind a 7.45pm table instead?

Of course, Operator doesn’t call you Sir or Madam, but it might as well. For all intents and purposes, this is the Internet butler that we were promised almost 30 years ago when Ask Jeeves was around.

Do you remember Ask Jeeves? It was a search engine from 1997 that had an image of an actual butler who stood ready and willing to find things for you online. The character was named after Jeeves, Bertie Wooster's valet in the fictional works of P. G. Wodehouse. Instead of typing in search terms, Ask Jeeves encouraged you to search for things using natural language questions, like “Find me the perfect accompaniment to a roast dinner.”

Of course, we all know that Google won the search engine war, and in 2006, Ask dropped the Jeeves persona and just became Ask.com. But somehow, we’ve come full circle with AI, and thanks to technologies like ChatGPT search and Perplexity, searching using natural language requests is back in fashion. As our Internet butlers, except now we call them AI agents...

The Ask Jeeves search engine. AGI is the real goal

It’s no secret that Sam Altman and OpenAI are really interested in AGI, artificial general intelligence, also often referred to as superintelligence. This is the ultimate goal for OpenAI, and why it was founded. Chatbots like ChatGPT might have taken the world by storm, but their popularity is almost like an unintended consequence (a theme I’ll return to later) of the race toward AGI.

In a video to promote the release of Operator, one of the OpenAI employees sitting next to Sam Altman comes right out and says, [Operator is] "about removing one more bottleneck in our path to AGI.”

While agents are clearly exciting, they’re not the destination for OpenAI; they’re just one more step along the path. AGI has the potential to change our world radically. Once we have created an artificial intelligence that’s smarter than we are, logically it should be able to construct even smarter versions of itself, and the level of intelligence rises rapidly.

We’ve just got to hope that it doesn’t decide to wipe us out. Not to worry you, but Geoffory Hinton, often referred to as the ‘Godfather of AI,’ recently upped his odds of technology wiping out humanity to 20%.

OpenAI's Operator in action. (Image credit: OpenAI)

And this is where we return to the theme of unintended consequences. Many experts see AI agents as a threat. While speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, artificial intelligence pioneer Yoshua Bengio warned that AI agents could be catastrophic for humanity.

Speaking to Business Insider, he said, "All of the catastrophic scenarios with AGI or superintelligence happen if we have agents." Bengio would rather we continue towards building AGI without using agents, which allows them to do things autonomously. "All of the AI for science and medicine, all the things people care about, is not agentic," Bengio said. "And we can continue building more powerful systems that are non-agentic."

Humanity's downfall

So, could it really be that something designed to act like an Internet butler and do menial tasks like help me buy my groceries accidentally gives AI the power to take over the world?

For now, it’s hard to imagine how an automated program that slowly plods through the process of booking me a table at a restaurant using a web browser is going to end in humanity's downfall, but AI agents will live or die by one thing - if people actually use them – and I’m not entirely convinced they will.

Personally, I don’t feel ready to hand over my credit card details to a computer program that will buy things for me to save me time because I’m just not sure I’m ever going to trust it not to make a mistake. Would you?

Perhaps OpenAI needs to give its Operator a more human face if it wants me to trust it, and as it turns out, I believe that good old Jeeves might be looking for a job these days...

You might also like

• What is Artificial General Intelligence? Can AI think like humans?
• Entering the next era of AI: AGI is closer than you think
• ‘Well the end of aging and death wouldn’t be bad’: Professor who coined the term AGI for superintelligence thinks we’ll get human-level AI in ‘three to five years’

Can Los Blancos claim its first La Liga win of 2025?

Black Mirror season 7: key information

- Launching on Netflix in 2025
- Will be six episodes
- No official trailer, but a 30-second teaser released
- New and returning cast confirmed
- First ever sequel episode based on season 4’s USS Callister
- No official plot synopsis revealed
- Brooker “in it for the long haul” for future seasons

Black Mirror season 7, the highly-praised and darkly satirical anthology Netflix series, will return in 2025. In true puzzling and curious fashion in keeping with the show’s ethos, we don’t have an exact release date or official plot details, but we have managed to gather intel about season 7 that’ll be sure to excite.

It's one of the best Netflix shows, offering a wealth of sci-fi scenarios spanning dystopias and tackling themes of surveillance, AI, and societal issues, to name but a few. For season 7, the show looks set to return with more chaotic and thought-provoking tales on the best streaming service.

Plus, there's an all-star cast already confirmed, which features returning characters in an unprecedented move for Black Mirror with the first-ever sequel. With a show like this, you're never quite sure what to expect, but we've scoured high and low for everything you need to know about Black Mirror season 7 from release date, to confirmed cast, to plot synopsis, and more news and rumors.

Black Mirror season 7: is there a release date?

Black Mirror S7 - coming 2025. #GeekedWeek pic.twitter.com/dZcfNQHc4cSeptember 19, 2024

While there’s no official release date just yet for the new season of Black Mirror, we know that Black Mirror season 7 will be released on Netflix in 2025.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in May 2024, Brooker revealed they were: “in mid-production at the moment, and it’s all quite mad right now.” While the first four seasons of Black Mirror released in differing months, season 5 and season 6 both came out in June. While we wouldn’t want to predict anything Brooker does, we’ll take a rough guess and say (hope) that we may see Black Mirror season 7 in the summer.

Black Mirror season 7: has a trailer been released?

This is by no means an official trailer, but we’ll even watch a 30-second teaser that pretty much shows a loading screen the entire time just to get a hint of what Black Mirror has in store next.

The clip reveals six episodes loading up for season 7, as well as a brief glimpse of a file titled: “INFINITY” and the USS Callister logo. We’ll delve into more on what this means in our cast and plot synopsis below. Full trailers for Black Mirror usually arrive mere weeks before the new season’s release, so we’ll be sure to update here when we can.

Black Mirror season 7: confirmed cast

The biggest Black Mirror season 7 news so far - the return of USS Callister (Image credit: Netflix)

Potential spoilers follow for Black Mirror season 7.

Black Mirror is renowned for its stellar cast list, which changes in every episode, thanks to its anthology style. And, during Geeked Week 2024, the Black Mirror season 7 lead cast was revealed and Brooker calls it: “embarrassingly stacked”:

• Milanka Brooks as Elena Tulaska
• Waleed Hammad as Po
• Osy Ikhile as Nate Packer
• Jimmi Simpson as Walton
• Paul G. Raymond as Kabir Dudani
• Cristin Milioti as Nanette Cole
• Edward Pishiyski Chlerich as Walton Clone
• Billy Magnussen as Valdack
• Siena Kelly as Maria
• Rosy McEwen as Verity
• James Nelson-Joyce as Kano
• Awkwafina as TBC
• Peter Capaldi as TBC
• Emma Corrin as TBC
• Patsy Ferran as TBC
• Paul Giamatti as TBC
• Lewis Gribben as TBC
• Rashida Jones as TBC
• Chris O’Dowd as TBC
• Issa Rae as TBC
• Tracee Ellis Ross as TBC
• Harriet Walter as TBC

Thanks to What’s On Netflix, we know a little more about some of the roles listed above, but the rest it seems we’ll have to wait to see. The report reveals that two of the characters, Verity (Rosy McEwen) and Maria (Siena Kelly) will play old schoolmates, who weren’t really mates at all, working together at the same company - an international snack company called Savorita. This episode will reportedly be titled: “Ring of Truth”.

We also know that Milanka Brooks, Billy Magnussen, Paul G. Raymond, Cristin Milioti, Osy Ikhile, and Jimmi Simpson are all cast members from season 4’s USS Callister episode. And why are their names here again? Well, we’ll delve into that exciting plot news below.

Black Mirror season 7: story synopsis and rumors

The crew of the USS Callister - minus two - star in Black Mirror season 7 (Image credit: Netflix)

Full spoilers follow for previous Black Mirror seasons below.

The biggest announcement for Black Mirror season 7 so far was made during Geeked Week 2024 where creator Charlie Brooker revealed: “We’ve got six episodes this time, and two of them are basically feature-length. Some of them are deeply unpleasant, some are quite funny, and some are emotional.”

The last time fans were treated to six episodes was back in season 4 and that is very relevant when it comes to what Brooker said next: “Fans of the show will recognize the cast of a certain spaceship from one of our episodes reappearing. We’ve done a sequel for the first time in Black Mirror history. Normally, I kill off all the characters at the end of an episode, and I kept some of ‘em alive. I’m growing as a human.” And, that episode is season 4’s USS Callister.

It’s no secret that Brooker loves to utilize shock and awe in his story-telling and in USS Callister he killed off Robert Daly, played by Jesse Plemons. Plemons’s name being vacant from the season 7 cast list all but confirms his death was final. Plus, the official synopsis for the episode is: “USS Callister will return… Robert Daly is dead, but the crew of the USS Callister, their problems are just beginning.”

Creator Charlie Brooker has more sci-fi tales to tell (Image credit: Netflix)

But, why now? According to Brooker who spoke to THR, it’s always been on the cards: “It was something we were looking at for quite a long time. There were various iterations it went through, various versions we wanted to do and were discussing on and off for several years. But there are a lot of schedules to sort out, and then the pandemic got in the way. It was something that looked like it wasn’t going to happen, and so I was delighted when it did.”

While we know about one episode of season 7, news on the ground regarding the others is, in true Black Mirror style, kept mysteriously under wraps. Though Brooker teased in May 2024: “We are doing something really cool right now that we’ve never done before - but I can’t say what it is.” We wouldn’t want to guess given how unique and perpetually shocking each Black Mirror episode is, but it's true to form for the sci-fi series.

When it comes to season 7 as a whole, Brooker revealed to Tudum, that it will feel: “a little bit OG Black Mirror.” He said: “It’s back to basics in many ways. They’re all sci-fi stories, but there’s definitely some horrifying things that occur, but maybe not in an overt horror-movie way. There’s definitely some disturbing content in it.”

The beauty of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror is the wealth of directors brought on to tackle different episodes and amidst the cast list reveal, there's Ally Pankiw (season 6's, Joan is Awful), Luke Taylor & Chris Barrett (Cautionary Tales), Haolu Wang (Bodies), Toby Haynes (season 4's, USS Callister), and David Slade (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) all listed. While that doesn't tell us the plot, it gives us an idea of the kind of directors and style we can expect for Black Mirror season 7.

Will there be more seasons of Black Mirror?

We'd love to see more Black Mirror, and so would Charlie Brooker (Image credit: Netflix)

With six seasons under his belt and a seventh on the way, the question emerges as to how much more there is to come from Brooker, but thankfully The Hollywood Reporter posed this very question to the man himself. With an anthology series, the possibilities are seemingly endless, though he said: “I’m sure I’ll find out when we’re not doing any more seasons! It will be made apparent to me at some point, I’m sure. But I’m in it for the long haul. I’m not going anywhere.”

After taking over Black Mirror from Channel 4 in 2015, the fate of the show now belongs to Netflix - though there’s been no official news from them yet as to whether a season eight is coming.

For more Netflix-based coverage, read our guides on 3 Body Problem season 2, Stranger Things season 5, Arcane season 2, and One Piece season 2.

• GeneralPurpose.8xlarge delivers 32 virtual cores and 128GB memory plus 275GB storage
• This is far cheaper than Azure or Google Cloud, but more expensive than onprem if you plan to keep it for 6 months or more
• You will - of course - need a separate computer to access that virtual workstation

AWS has expanded its WorkSpaces desktop-as-a-service offering with the introduction of two new workstation-grade instance types.

The company says these new instances will provide its customers with powerful cloud desktops for resource-intensive Windows workloads.

The new instance types, GeneralPurpose.4xlarge and GeneralPurpose.8xlarge, feature 16 and 32 virtual CPUs (vCPUs) with 64GB and 128GB of memory, respectively. Both include a 175GB root volume and 100GB for user file storage.

Windows-only

Amazon is positioning the two new offerings as being ideal for developers, scientists, financial analysts, and engineers who need to run demanding applications.

“Developers can handle large compilation and development tasks with tools like Visual Studio, IntelliJ, and Eclipse, while engineers and scientists can run complex simulations with MatLab, GNU Octave, R, and Stata,” the company says.

The GeneralPurpose.8xlarge instance is AWS’s first to offer 32 vCPUs but it’s not cheap. With Windows licensing, the 32 vCPU version costs $590 per month, while the 16 vCPU model is priced at $295 monthly. Hourly rates of $4.56 and $2.28 are also available for an additional $19 monthly fee.

Three’s no mention of pricing for Linux users, so it looks as if this is a Windows-only offering for now. Users with their own Windows licenses (BYOL) can save a small amount – the 32 vCPU version drops to $544 ($4.40 an hour) while the 16 vCPU model is $272 ($2.20 an hour).

Although AWS’s 32-core virtual workstation offers competitive hourly rates compared to Azure and Google Cloud, it remains pricier than on-premises options for extended use. Additionally, users will obviously still require a separate device to access these cloud desktops.

In parallel to this announcement, AWS also introduced updates to its EC2 Image Builder, allowing Microsoft Windows ISO files to be directly converted into Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), simplifying the process of using existing Windows licenses with Amazon WorkSpaces.

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• Apple has some catching up to do in AI
• Siri upgrades are reportedly a priority
• Apple also wants improved AI models

We've seen Apple Intelligence launched with a whole lot of hype over the last 12 months, and it seems there's a lot more to come in this area – with a newly leaked memo revealing Apple's top two AI priorities for the rest of 2025.

The memo was reported in an article by Bloomberg (via 9to5Mac), which states that highly rated Apple executive Kim Vorrath has been moved to the AI division with the task of "whipping artificial intelligence and Siri into shape".

John Giannandrea, Apple’s head of AI, announced the news in an internal memo that also apparently reveals two key goals for the division in the coming months: improving the Siri digital assistant and building better in-house AI models.

There is an acknowledgement that Apple is still some way behind when it comes to AI. We've just seen the AI-packed Galaxy S25 phones launched by Samsung, while Google is pushing its advanced Gemini AI into just about all of its apps and devices.

AI upgrades

Siri has already had some Apple Intelligence added (Image credit: Apple)

The two aims reportedly highlighted by Giannandrea make sense. Siri was ahead of its time when it made its debut back in 2011, but since then its been overtaken by its rivals – and it's an Apple product that users often complain about.

OpenAI's ChatGPT is an example of an AI assistant that's much more versatile and far-reaching, and Apple has added a ChatGPT extension to Siri with iOS 18.2 – an admission that Siri currently isn't up to par.

Eventually, Apple will want to cut ties with rival AI assistants, and improving its own Large Language Models (LLMs) will help with that – the second goal. The likes of OpenAI, Google, and Meta all have extensive LLMs powering their AI technology.

We've previously heard that Apple's own LLMs might have developed sufficiently by next year for a truly next-gen Siri 2.0 to emerge – so expect more news to appear when Apple unveils its plans for iOS 19 sometime in June at WWDC 2025.

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