Technology

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PC gaming has been a bright spot in an industry that has struggled against stagnation.

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• A more expensive Raspberry Pi may not please everyone, so I looked for an alternative x86 model
• The Pi is still great for tinkerers and for enthusiasts
• But I feel that RPi did "An Apple" - 50% more expensive for 2x RAM is quite unexpected

The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently introduced the Raspberry Pi 5 with 16GB of RAM, with the increased memory set to benefit heavyweight distributions such as Ubuntu for desktop use cases. But the new model is priced at $120 - nearly twice as expensive as the 8GB one, and very pricey for a single-board computer, which raises the question: could a better device be found for the same price? The answer is a resounding yes.

The Dreamfyre Mini PC (DR02) offers a competitive x86 option with superior specifications and an actual case for $120 on Amazon. Designed for home, educational, and professional use, it is powered by a 12th Gen Intel Celeron N95 processor, capable of reaching speeds of up to 3.4GHz.

The mini PC, which comes with Windows 11, measures 116 x 116 x 46mm, weighs only 0.5kg, and is equipped with 16GB of LPDDR4 RAM and a 512GB M.2 SSD. You can expand the storage to up to 2TB if you need extra capacity. The inclusion of a silent fan cooling system ensures solid performance with minimal noise when under load, making it ideal for quiet environments like offices or study spaces.

No flashing lights

The device can drive three 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) screens via its triple HDMI 2.1 ports. There are three USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a single USB-C port, a 1000MB/s LAN port and a headphone jack. The fuss-free design of the mini PC omits distracting LED lights, making it suitable for professional settings. Wireless connectivity is provided via Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.

While the Dreamfyre Mini PC is clearly not a direct alternative to the Raspberry Pi 5 - lacking the Pi's GPIO pins and extensive community support essential for hardware projects, prototyping, and educational use - it is a versatile and powerful alternative for those seeking an affordable mini PC for general computing tasks, and it looks good.

There are only two reviews for the Dreamfyre Mini PC on Amazon at the moment, but both are five-star.

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• Turntable with Bluetooth streaming output
• Dual 50W wireless speakers with multiple inputs
• £299 (about £366 / AU$588) – US and Aus pricing not confirmed

If you're looking for an affordable all-in-one turntable system, MIXX may have just the thing. Its new Analog System 5 is a Bluetooth turntable with powerful wireless speakers included, and a decently low price.

The system is built around a turntable with an aluminum tonearm and an Audio-Technica AT3600L moving magnet cartridge, and it's bundled with a pair of 50W speakers.

Because it's Bluetooth, you can also stream to other speakers or to a set of Bluetooth headphones. And the speakers are also designed to be used with other inputs for maximum musical mileage.

(Image credit: MIXX) MIXX Analog System 5: key features and pricing

The belt-driven turntable plays both 33 and 45rpm records, and it also has a pitch control for extra speed adjustment – something you don't usually see in affordable all-in-ones. If the quality holds up, this really could rival the best turntables for those getting into the hobby, because it's such a simple and tempting package.

The speakers are Bluetooth and also have line-in, optical, coaxial and USB inputs. That's handy if you're short of space: the same speakers can stream from your smartphone or get audio from other sources as well as playing your vinyl records.

There are two color options here, white or black, and the UK and Ireland prices are £299 and €299 respectively. You can buy now from Amazon in the UK and Harvey Norman in Ireland, or directly from MIXX.

This record player set will also come to the US and Australia, but pricing and exact availability hasn't yet been confirmed – but we'll update you when we've got it.

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• Security researcher finds large unsecured online database belonging to Willow Pays
• The database contained plenty of sensitive customer information
• It is now locked down, but users should still be cautious

Bill payment platform Willow Pays kept a huge database full of sensitive customer information unprotected online available to anyone who knew where to look, an expert has claimed.

Researcher Jeremiah Fowler, known for hunting down misconfigured and non-password-protected databases on the internet, revealed he recently discovered a database containing more than 240,000 records.

“There were folders inside the database indicating bills, mailing lists, account inconsistencies, repayment schedules, screenshots, settings, and snapshots,” he said. “In a limited sampling of the exposed documents, I saw records that included names, email addresses, credit limits, and other internal information. One single spreadsheet document contained the details of 56,864 individuals, indicating if they were prospects, active customers, or blocked accounts.”

Missing details

Soon after, Fowler was able to attribute the database to Willow Pays, a financial service which helps users manage their bills by paying them upfront. The service allows users to repay the amount in four interest-free installments, making it easier to handle expenses. This service also supports building credit by ensuring timely repayments.

Fowler reached out to Willow Pays, which locked down the database soon after. However, the company did not reply to his emails, and did not say if it manages the database in-house, or if the job was outsourced to a third-party. Furthermore, we don’t know for how long the database remained unlocked, or if any malicious actors accessed it before Fowler did.

Misconfigured databases remain one of the most common causes of data leaks and spills on the internet. Many security researchers are warning that companies do not properly understand the shared security model of most cloud service providers these days, and that they mistakenly place too much trust on them, instead of protecting their assets themselves.

Via Website Planet

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• EA Sports FC 25's latest gameplay refresh update has been released
• Title Update 8 is "the most significant mid-season gameplay overhaul" yet
• "Major updates" to core gameplay systems have been added based on player feedback

EA has released the patch notes for EA Sports FC 25's latest gameplay refresh update.

The mid-season update, or Title Update 8, is now live across PC and console and is "the most significant mid-season gameplay overhaul we've ever made", based on player feedback, according to EA.

With this update, EA has implemented "major updates" to core gameplay systems that affect matches, like passing, shooting, goalkeeping, and defending.

It's also made gameplay "more offensively fluid" to enable more control over the ball, reduced the frequency of tacklebacks, and AI interceptions, as well as addressed issues like defenders catching up to dribblers too often.

As detailed in the lengthy patch notes, Title Update 8 has now made balance adjustments to attacking and defending, and now made them more "effective and fun".

Some of the ways this was achieved were by improving AI teammates' attacking run quality when trying to beat the offside line, increasing intelligence of attacking and supporting runs made by AI teammates, and improving the effectiveness of Inside and Advanced Forwards.

Offensive players will also find that they can now operate in attacking spaces near others better, instead of stopping their runs, and players are now able to provide quicker support when they are familiar with their roles.

The patch notes also go further into detail about the aforementioned gameplay system tweaks, which EA said were added because it wanted to "reward intelligent and quick thinking passing plays".

For example, the speed and accuracy of normal Ground Passes have now been slightly increased, along with the effectiveness of Semi Assisted Through Passes.

"While some of these changes might sound small in a vacuum, when combined with other passing changes they are designed to enable players to move the ball easier across the pitch," EA explained.

Among many other adjustments and bug fixes, players can also find that the accuracy and shot speed from inside the box have been increased, while goalkeepers' handling of near-post shots has been changed after discovering they could sometimes incorrectly step away from the near post in tight angle shooting situations.

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• Asus will launch the ROG NUC 2025 this year, using Nvidia's RTX 5080 laptop GPU
• Its laptop GPU will utilize 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM
• It’s expected to have a high cost compared to the current ROG NUC 970

Nvidia's RTX 5000 series of graphics cards were officially unveiled at CES 2025 earlier this month, and while we don’t yet know when the RTX 5080 laptop GPU will start appearing in gaming laptops, Asus has confirmed one of its next-gen mini-gaming PC will be powered by Team Green's new hardware.

As reported by Edge Up Asus, the Asus ROG NUC 2025 mini gaming PC will utilize Nvidia's RTX 5080 laptop GPU alongside the Intel Core Ultra 9 (Series 2) ARL-HX processor boasting 24 cores and 24 threads. This is a build for a top-tier mini-gaming PC, which should outdo the likes of Apple's M4 Mac mini when it comes to gaming, but likely at a high cost.

The current ROG NUC comes packed with RTX 4000 series GPUs, and this year's model will step performance up to a new level - we'll be seeing benchmarks of the desktop RTX 5080 and 5090 series GPUs at the end of this month, with the laptop GPUs likely coming a short time after.

(Image credit: Edge Up/Asus) What can we expect in terms of its pricing?

I've never been a betting man, but I'm almost certain that the new Asus ROG NUC will be an expensive offering with configurations now offering up to the RTX 5080 and 64GB of DDR5 RAM - 2023's NUC 970 utilizes the RTX 4070 with a $1,399 / £1,629 starting price, so expect this year's model to be around the same figure… or even much higher.

Compared to the M4 Mac mini, the ROG NUC 2025 will excel in terms of performance, but this doesn’t mean it’s a straight knock out for the NUC. The M4 Mac mini will undoubtedly be much cheaper as it starts at $599 / £599 / AU$999, and the performance it offers at that price is hard to beat.

A more realistic comparison between Apple's Mac devices compared to the upcoming ROG NUC is the M4 MacBook Pro, especially the model that comes with the M4 Pro chip with a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, along with 24GB of unified memory, but of course, it isn't a mini-PC. Even with this, it would still lose out as Asus' system runs Windows 11, while the MacBook uses macOS, and Apple still has a long way to go with games on its operating system in terms of optimizations (especially at higher resolutions).

The ROG NUC will also benefit from Nvidia's new DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Generation, which will drastically improve performance across multiple games, besides the GPU's raw performance alone - so while it will be an expensive mini-PC, it will still likely be a better choice for gaming over the M4 Mac mini and the MacBook Pro.

Should you buy it though? I would say no, as it will likely be far too expensive compared to much cheaper standard-size gaming PCs that are powerful enough for smooth performance.

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• Researchers spotted hackers creating phishing pages on Google Sites
• The pages are then advertised on Google Ads
• Victims are locked out of their accounts, which are either used or sold

Cybercriminals have found a way to abuse and impersonate Google, run malicious ads on the search engine’s ad network, and steal login credentials from people looking to promote their businesses.

The warning comes from cybersecurity researchers at Malwarebytes, which warned users to be careful even when clicking on ads coming from the Google itself.

The threat actors start by creating a fake Google Ads homepage on Google Sites, the company’s website builder that also provides users with a Google URL (something like https://sites.google.com/view/sitename) - then, they create a fake ad, communicating a promotion or a new deal, and place it on the Google Ads network.

Three threat actors

"Indeed, you cannot show a URL in an ad unless your landing page (final URL) matches the same domain name. While that is a rule meant to protect abuse and impersonation, it is one that is very easy to get around," explained Jérôme Segura, Senior Director of Research at Malwarebytes.

"Looking back at the ad and the Google Sites page, we see that this malicious ad does not strictly violate the rule since sites.google.com uses the same root domains ads ads.google.com. In other words, it is allowed to show this URL in the ad, therefore making it indistinguishable from the same ad put out by Google LLC."

Victims who fall for the trick and click on the ad are redirected to a web page asking them to log in. Once they do, the phishing page collects their login credentials, unique identifiers, and cookies, and relays the data to the attackers, who then log in from a separate Google account.

The final step is to lock the victim out of their account and use it to fund additional campaigns, purchase other services, and more.

Malwarebytes believes at least three threat actors are currently deploying this tactic: a Brazilian group, an Asian-based attacker, and a group from somewhere in Eastern Europe.

Via BleepingComputer

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Ruben Amorim's Red Devils look to build on last weekend's big FA Cup win against Arsenal.