Technology

As our Nothing Phone 2a Plus review will tell you, Nothing phones are some of the most distinctive and unusual in terms of their design choices – all glyphs and swirls – and its next handset might go to a whole new level in this regard.

Check the brand's social media and official website pages (via Android Authority), and you'll see an update on the Community Edition of the Nothing Phone 2a. After several months of work, the new edition is going to come with a glow-in-the-dark back panel.

Nothing first encouraged its userbase to contribute ideas for a variation on the Nothing Phone 2a back in March, and the idea of a phosphorescent back – suggested by Kenta Akasaki and Astrid Vanhuyse – is the main one that's been selected.

The idea "feels true to Nothing's vision" Nothing says: it's "playful, meaningful and just the right level of unexpected". It's certainly something your family and friends won't be expecting the first time the lights go out and your phone is on show.

Mark your calendar

Community spirit.Join us for our next big reveal. 30 October, 11:00 GMT. pic.twitter.com/lmsBFRlNQkOctober 15, 2024

This upcoming Nothing Phone 2a Community Edition also features bespoke wallpaper designed by Andrés Mateos, packaging designed by Ian Henry Simmonds, and a marketing campaign designed by Sonya Palma.

All will be revealed in full on Wednesday, 30 October, at 11am GMT – that's 3am PT / 6am ET / 9pm AEST. We will of course be covering all the news as it's announced, including details on availability and pricing (the Nothing Phone 2a launched at $349 / £319 /AU$675).

It's the first time Nothing has worked on a Community Edition phone like this, giving its fans a way of influencing future products. All of the people who've had their ideas picked for the phone are going to be at the launch, Nothing says.

As funky as a glow-in-the-dark phone chassis might be, we'd be very surprised if the same design showed up on the Nothing Phone 3. The next flagship phone from the brand is expected to make an appearance around July 2025 time.

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If you own a Pixel phone, then you don’t need to wait for major new Android releases to get new and improved software features, as Google regularly rolls out Pixel Drops – and this month’s Pixel Drop contains plenty of worthwhile upgrades.

First up, there are some new photo and video features, with the Pixel 8 series getting the Pixel 9’s upgraded Audio Magic Eraser. This now lets you separate voices in videos and individually change their volumes, as well as turn other specific sounds up or down.

Google also claims that photos and videos taken underwater with Pixel 9 series phones will now look richer and more accurate. Plus, if you’re using a Pixel 6 or newer, then the astrophotography feature can manually be toggled from within Night Sight, rather than it only engaging if the phone is held steady. And Night Sight itself is now available direct from the Instagram app.

(Image credit: Google) Smart security and clever calls

Beyond the camera, Google has also made some major security improvements, with a Theft Detection Lock feature that uses AI and motion sensors to detect if your phone has been snatched from your hand, and automatically locks the screen if that happens.

You’ll also be able to use a Remote Lock feature to quickly lock your phone from any device, using just your phone number and a “quick security challenge.” And also on the security front, you can now keep sensitive apps hidden and protected by a PIN.

Other improvements in this Pixel Drop include the ability to use the camera to target exactly what you want to measure with the thermometer on the Pixel 8 Pro, and a pollen tracker being added to the Pixel Weather app.

Google has also made it easier to find useful widgets, with recommendations and previews being displayed when you're customizing your home screen.

If you’re in the UK, you’ll find improvements to Call Screen, too, with it now using a more human-sounding voice and real-time transcriptions of what the caller is saying, as well as offering improved replies, so you can do things like respond to appointment confirmations without answering the phone.

This has all landed alongside the larger Android 15 update, so there’s plenty to get stuck into if you update your Pixel phone.

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According to new data from Confluent, the majority of UK business leaders (86%) find themselves having to make decisions “faster than ever before,” but they’re overlooking key data.

Despite increased pressure, more than half (57%) of the 200 high-level executives included in the survey claim to have less time than they used to.

With nine in 10 agreeing that real-time decision-making has become imperative, around three in five (58%) admit to relying on intuition or gut feel rather than actual data.

C-suite decisions are often made on gut feel

Furthermore, three in five (61%) reported making frequent snap decisions without thoroughly reviewing data, with areas like people management (73%), expanding the workforce (56%), market expansion (53%), new products (52%), budgets and investments (45%) and new processes and technologies (42%) all highly affected.

Even though C-suite leaders are making uninformed decisions, many would prefer to rely on accurate data (84%) or have real-time data accessible to them (85%).

Consequentially, almost all (97%) of the leaders that participated in the ‘Quick Thinking’ survey plan to invest in real-time dashboards and data streaming technologies, with 96% saying this is ‘important’ or ‘essential.’

Richard Timperlake, SVP of EMEA at Confluent, commented, “Across the UK, businesses are having to choose between fast decisions and informed decisions. That shouldn’t be the case. Today’s leaders and CEOs need to know that they can access a full, accurate picture of their organisations in real-time. The move to data streaming is an essential part of that shift.”

Timperlake added: “How data is processed and distributed is no longer just a technical or IT issue, it’s a business-wide decision that can impact everything from profitability to the customer experience.”

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As applications have migrated to the cloud and employees have demanded the flexibility to work from anywhere, maintaining a secure, efficient, and scalable network infrastructure, while providing a consistent user experience, has become a top priority for IT leaders. 

However, many organizations find themselves facing a patchwork of security tools and struggling with the convolutedness and vulnerabilities of legacy Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which were designed for a very different era of remote access computing. Network leaders are looking for clarity on how to enable them to support their businesses to scale and grow while reducing the attack surface exposing their data to risk.

Complexity brings vulnerability

VPNs have long been the backbone of secure remote access, allowing employees to connect to corporate networks from outside the physical security perimeter. In the past, when most applications were hosted on-premises within the company's data center, this approach made sense. However, as businesses increasingly rely on cloud-based applications and services, the traditional VPN model has begun to show its design limitations.

One of the biggest challenges with legacy VPNs is that they can overcomplicate infrastructure. Modern enterprises are no longer confined to a single data center or geographic location. Employees access applications and data from multiple devices and locations, creating a web of connectivity that legacy VPNs struggle to manage. The traditional model of routing all traffic through a central VPN concentrator adds unnecessary complexity, slowing down network performance due to inefficient routing and creating bottlenecks that frustrate users.

This is compounded by the fact that many CIOs are forced to maintain existing legacy technology due to budget constraints or resistance to sweeping changes. As a result, IT leaders often find themselves relying on expensive point products to address specific issues, rather than implementing a more holistic platform solution. This patchwork approach can be costly and inefficient, leading to a fragmented infrastructure that is difficult to manage and prone to security vulnerabilities.

Many IT leaders’ careers can hinge on their ability to maintain network performance while keeping pace with the demands of the modern enterprise. Balancing these often competing priorities is no small task. To remain competitive and secure in today's digital landscape, organizations must be willing to rethink their approach to network security and infrastructure.

From patchwork to platforms

IT leaders are aware that they need to remove dependency on outdated hardware. This shift involves adopting cloud computing platforms that integrate networking and security into a single, cohesive solution, rather than relying on disparate single-purpose solutions to patch up legacy systems.

By embracing a platform approach, IT leaders can streamline their infrastructure and improve overall performance. This shift not only alleviates the burden of maintaining legacy hardware but also positions the organization to better adapt to the evolving needs of the business. Cloud-native platforms are designed with modern networking in mind, offering features like dynamic routing, load balancing, and traffic optimization that are critical to support today’s distributed workforce.

Moreover, these platforms are built to scale with the organization, allowing IT teams to easily accommodate growth without the need for constant hardware upgrades. This agility is particularly important in a world where the pace of business is accelerating, and the ability to quickly respond to new challenges can be a key differentiator.

A key advantage of switching to a cloud-native platform is simplifying cloud access for the end user. In the traditional VPN model, all traffic is routed through a central concentrator, which can lead to inefficient traffic patterns and latency. By contrast, a cloud-native approach allows traffic to be routed more directly, improving performance and providing a better user experience by moving the cloud on-ramp closer to the user. This is especially important in a hybrid work-from-anywhere environment.

Visibility brings trust

One of the most compelling advantages of a cloud-native platform is the enhanced visibility and control it provides to IT leaders. In a legacy VPN environment, it can be difficult to gain a clear understanding of network traffic and to diagnose issues or identify potential security threats when the ultimate destination is somewhere outside the corporate network. The visibility over data, advanced analytics and reporting tools available through cloud-native platforms help monitor all traffic, not just the traffic passing through the VPN, and plays a critical role in security.

A zero trust security approach operates on the principle that no user or device should be trusted by default, even if they are inside the network perimeter. Instead, access is granted based on a verification process that considers contextual factors, including the user's location, device, role and behavior. By giving continuous visibility, cloud-native platforms can provide unmatched contextual awareness, enforce dynamic security policies and allow for adaptive access to users, devices, applications, and data, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches. It delivers on the principle of only giving the right amount of access, to the right people, under the right conditions through a continuous validation model.

As businesses bump into the limitations of legacy VPNs and outdated infrastructure, IT leaders must be willing to embrace a transformative platform approach that brings cloud access closer to the end user, enhances visibility and control, and supports a zero-trust security model. By doing so they future-proof their digital infrastructure and create a platform that enables their business to thrive.

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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

As the transformative power of Generative AI reaches new heights, the technology is reshaping the way nearly every organization around the world works, collaborates and innovates.

However, adoption and progress is uneven, with two cohorts emerging: those organizations that stalled in adopting AI tools, versus those who making progress towards realizing the opportunity. According to a recent study from BCG, only 10% of organizations are scaling AI across one or more enterprise functions, while 40% of organization have taken no action. The BCG study notes that the benefits are clear, as those organizations who are further along in the adoption of AI are observing 2.6x increases in revenue growth and 38% in EBIT growth across three years, as well as substantive increases in market share and customer satisfaction.

There are a range of ways that AI can be applied to simplify and streamline parts of the day to day working process, as well as supporting creative content creation and complex problem solving. However, to truly harness these new capabilities, organizations will need to rethink traditional ways of working and adapt to new paradigms to achieve the business impact noted above.

Through our discussions with leading enterprise customers, numerous analyst briefings and our own independent research, we have found that organizations exhibit a common set of characteristics as they mature their understanding and adoption of AI. Through understanding the indicators, incubators, and inhibitors, organizations can accelerate their path towards realizing the benefits of AI. Let’s walk through these phases to help supercharge the ways organizations leverage AI.

Phase 1: Exploration

Known as the nascent phase where organizations are beginning to understand what AI is and how it can be applied within their context, the exploration phase is entrepreneurial and opportunistic.

For every organization, building a strong foundation with AI emphasizes educating the team with the basics of AI and machine learning, being strategic with the existing
IT infrastructure and data, focusing on the forward momentum in a responsible way and evaluating the existing policies. This approach ensures that the integration of AI aligns with your established protocols for data security, privacy and ethical standards, minimizing risks and maintaining regulatory compliance. 

By grounding AI initiatives in familiar governance practices, organizations will have the opportunity to create a solid foundation for responsible AI deployment while facilitating smoother transitions and fostering trust among stakeholders. It means you’ll also be able to identify gaps or necessary adjustments in policies to better accommodate AI technologies as they evolve.

Phase 2: Experimentation

At this stage, organizations may begin experimenting with AI technologies to upskill their teams and put knowledge into action. It’s a good idea to run pilot projects and proof-of-concept initiatives, encouraging targeted use of AI to address specific opportunities. This user testing will also help teams get first-hand experience of working with AI aligned with their business’ policies and governance in mind. 

Some processes to consider trialing include:

1. Upskill AI “champions” with critical knowledge - these are the key employees that will be the core AI team, providing support across departments and ensuring business-wide alignment 

2. Fund targeted AI applications to address specific challenges or opportunities - by being selective and prioritizing key projects, you can scale up AI implementation and ensure it is fit for purpose. 

3. Either set up or brief the governance team to identify risk, ensure data integrity, and foster accountability throughout AI projects.

Communication is key in this phase so ensure teams and pilot project groups are aligned and led with a central vision or set of objectives. This might include streamlining client communications across the organization so there is full transparency of the developing changes and inclusion of AI to the business, while highlighting how it will benefit the business and the services provided.

Phase 3: Innovation

The innovation phase is arguably the most exciting one. This is when the groundwork and testing is put to good use. Here, organizations may consider establishing new AI roles and reskilling team members, upgrading the existing infrastructure to support long-term adoption of AI, re-engineering the work process and continuously monitoring and updating policies as new processes are officially brought online.

This phase will also demonstrate the immense benefits and learning development opportunities that come with AI adoption. A comprehensive reskilling program is essential to empower existing employees with the knowledge and skills needed to work effectively with AI technologies.

It is also well worth investing in some high-performance computing resources, cloud computing platforms, and advanced data storage solutions that can handle the increased processing demands of AI workloads.

Phase 4: Realization

This next phase is about fully integrating AI into decision-making and operational processes to unlock new opportunities, drive innovation, and maintain a strong competitive position in the market. This is where all that has been learned through the previous phases is formally embedded into day-to-day ways of working.

Similar to the innovation phase of reskilling employees, here, organizations should make sure that their employees are fully equipped with the technology and leadership skills that are necessary to leverage AI technologies. This will be a case of making sure that all employees are skilled to adapt to the new ways of working by benchmarking skills, identifying competency gaps, and implementing training programs to address them accordingly.

Organizations should also evaluate the consolidation or decommissioning of legacy infrastructure and tools, scale work processes across all business functions and units, and empower the governance team to actively monitor progress and update policies.

Overall, as your organization begins adopting AI business-wide, it’s important to remember that it’s not just about using AI to make things faster and more efficient, but about leading with empathy and understanding. If we as leaders focus on emotional intelligence we create working environments where both people and technology can thrive.

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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

For a long time, email phishing scams have often been a poorly-worded, typo-ridden, desperate plea for funds, that will of course be paid back tenfold. Well, now that our guard is down, AI is here to make sure we don’t get too comfortable.

A new, hyper-realistic scam is hitting Gmail users, and the AI-powered deceptions are capable of fooling even the most tech-savvy amongst us. In this new wave of fraud, the classic ‘Gmail account recovery’ phishing attack is paired with an ultra-realistic voice-call to trick users into a panic.

In a recent blog post, Microsoft solutions consultant, Sam Mitrovic, explained how he almost fell victim to the elaborate scam, and he recounts an account recovery notification that was followed by a very real sounding phone call from ‘Google Assistant’.

Don’t get caught out

Mitrovic revealed repeated emails and calls were sent from seemingly legitimate addresses and numbers, and that the way he cottoned on to the scam was by manually checking his recent activity on Gmail.

This is part of a worrying larger trend of a ‘deepfakes’, which are already targeting businesses and consumers more than ever. Criminals can use ultra realistic video or audio footage to trick unsuspecting users into transferring over funds or information.

Almost half of businesses have reported encountering deepfake fraud already in 2024, and the trend looks set to continue.

The key to staying safe from this type of scam is by staying vigilant and taking your time - criminals will almost always try to rush you into a decision or into handing over money or details, but by taking a step back to evaluate, you can get perspective and even an outside assessment from someone you can trust.

Via Forbes

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Athletes gathering with coaches to go over their performance and plan the next game is a time-honored tradition. But the next generation of esports stars may rely on coaches with better wi-fi than whistles.

Esports platform PlayVS and AI-powered game analytics provider Omnic.AI are teaming up on a double-play to help young gamers improve at a range of competitive video games, focusing on high school students in scholastic esports leagues.

AI analytics is becoming a popular tool for gamers to review their performance and identify areas for improvement. Omnic.AI's Omnic Forge platform leverages AI to break down how players perform when playing games like Valorant, Fortnite, Rocket League, and Overwatch 2, with Madden and other titles in the works. Players upload their gameplay footage to Omnic Forge to get analyzed and work out their strengths and weaknesses in detail far faster and cheaper than hiring a human esports coach.

Coach AI

The deal with PlayVS extends Omnic Forge's tools to its user base of young gamers. High school students who use PlayVS get free access to Omnic Forge’s features. It's a way for players in scholastic esports leagues to hear professional insight without exorbitant costs.

Free users get five uploads and two insights per game, though you can pay for unlimited and deeper access to the AI analysis. The platform also allows players to compare their skills with professional gamers who share similar play styles, allowing them to learn from the best players.

The deal shows how AI isn't just changing how games are made but how they are played and even how they are embedded into education and education-adjacent programs. As esports grows in popularity, students of all stripes will likely be eager to use AI analytics to up their game and perhaps even improve their chances to go pro. Or at least strategize other parts of their lives.

Advanced analysis can build skills for specific games and esports in general. Omnic even claims that AI coaching can raise critical thinking, communication, and other skills that translate to the real world.

"Teaming up with Omnic.AI represents a significant leap forward in how we support and develop young gamers," PlayVS CEO Jon Chapman said. "Their innovative technology will help our community refine their skills and stand out among other gamers, empowering them to continue to refine their craft and reach new heights in and out of the world of esports."

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If you're looking for another option for producing videos using AI amid the recent avalanche of AI video generators, there is yet another new one. The latest addition to your stable is Pollo AI, and you can try it out for free right now. Pollo AI's features are noticeably easy to play with, and it can turn both text prompts and still images into high-quality videos.

Pollo is a product of Hix.AI, a developer of generative AI tools for conversation and synthetic media, including the new synthetic music platform Tad.ai. As with many AI video generators, you only need a text prompt to get a short video. The text-to-video generator can turn any script into a fully realized production, including animation and transitions. You don't need a film degree; an informal description will do.

You can also add movement to still images. Uploading a picture will get the AI to animate it in a way the AI deems appropriate to the context of the image, including environmental effects like waves from the ocean on the beach. You can also use text to explain what you want to have happen or how you want to see any people or objects in the image used in a video that might not include any other facet of the picture.

The platform makes the videos from your prompts very quickly, usually taking less than a minute.

How to use Pollo for free

You can try out Pollo AI for free, getting 20 credits a month. However, the videos are all watermarked, and there are limited editing and camera movement options. Should you want more features and credits, there are three price tiers of $15, $30, and $90 a month for 300, 800, and 3,000 credits, respectively.

The apparently insatiable demand for AI video production has spurred a rash of AI video tools for the masses. Depending on your needs, you can get quite a lot of free AI videos from the range of platforms available, including Runway, Pika, Stability AI, Hotshot, and Luma Labs' Dream Machine.

The AI-generated elephant moving across the room is OpenAI's Sora model, which attracted a huge amount of interest when unveiled yet remains limited to certain approved OpenAI partners. The same goes for Meta, which recently introduced the impressive Movie Gen AI video generator but similarly restricted access to professional, approved filmmakers.

Pollo may not push out its rivals, but if the market reflects the real demand even slightly, it will probably do quite well, even with only a small slice of the potential user base.

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Viofo has announced its most advanced dash cam yet, the A329. It is the world's first dash cam equipped with 4K 60fps video and could join our list of the best dash cams.

While other 4K dash cams are limited to 30fps, the A329 doubles the frame rates, ensuring it records smoother video footage with what is essentially double the information. Thus, it increases your chances of capturing vital details should an incident occur, like license plates.

Some other dash cams shoot 60fps video, but until now, they have only been at the less detailed Full HD 1080p resolution. The A329 offers the best of both worlds: 4K resolution and higher 60fps frame rates, which could prove crucial, especially in high-speed incidents.

That's not all. Viofo, one of the leading names in dash cams, also says that the A329 is the first dash cam that supports external SSD recording. We don't know the maximum SSD capacity that is compatible with it. Still, Viofo says recording directly onto an SSD drive rather than a micro SD can get you up to three weeks of continuous footage.

The Viofo A329 is available as a single front camera or dual front and back camera. At the time of writing, the single 4K front camera version is available now at a discount price of $329 / £258 / AU$502 (was $399 / £312 AU$608) at Viofo, while the dual camera version, which also includes a 2K rear camera, costs $399 / £312 / AU$608 (was $469 / £367 / AU$708) at Viofo.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Viofo)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Viofo) The tech behind the features

In addition to 4K 60fps video recording, the A329 can also shoot 4K HDR video up to 30fps. The 4K front camera and the rear 2K camera are equipped with Sony Starvis 2 sensors, which Viofo says capture 2.5x the dynamic range of Sony's previous generation sensors, with better nighttime image quality.

What's really new here though is Viofo's next-gen chipset which is to thank for the A329's improved performance, comprising a Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 processor.

Other standout features include Wi-Fi 6 connectivity – which is a first for a Viofo dash cam – with speedier file transfers: a typical one-minute 4K video should be downloaded in just under 10 seconds. There's also voice control, integrated GPS tracking and a parking mode that provides continuous monitoring.

We're currently conducting a review of the Viofo A329, so if this news has grabbed your attention, be sure to check back and discover if Viofo's A329 turns out to be one of the best dash cams yet.

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