Technology

• The iPhone SE 4 could come in under $500
• Pricing will vary between countries
• A slight price hike over the iPhone SE 3 is likely

As we wait patiently for the iPhone SE 4 to appear – March 2025 is looking likely as a launch window – we've just got some more information on a potential price, information which lines up neatly with previous rumors.

According to well-known tipster yeux1122 (via @Jukanlosreve), the price is going to be under $500 in the US. That would be a bump of some 16-17% over the starting price of the current model, and its a price prediction we've heard before.

The TechRadar iPhone SE (2022) review will tell you that the 3rd-gen version of this phone started at $429 / £419 / AU$719, although it's not unreasonable to expect some kind of pricing fluctuation if its successor is arriving three years later.

And that's for the 64GB model – it's possible that the new iPhone SE 4 will start with 128GB of storage inside. An iPhone SE (2022) with 128GB of storage inside costs $479 / £469 / AU$799, which is perhaps a fairer comparison with the latest price leak, and would mean a much smaller price bump.

A modern iPhone SE

The iPhone SE 4 could borrow some design cues from the iPhone 14 (Image credit: Future)

Of course, the international currency conversion rates will play a part here, as usual. The same tipster predicts a South Korea starting price of over 800,000 won – substantially more than the current starting price of 650,000 won.

In other words, you may end up paying more or less for the iPhone SE 4 depending on the country you're living in and its current financial situation. Clearly Apple will do its best to keep prices down – what with this being the affordable iPhone option.

It seems this will be the first iPhone SE with a modern look – with Face ID rather than Touch ID and a home button – and the rumors are that the upcoming handset will closely follow the iPhone 14 design from 2022.

The handset has also been tipped to come with an Apple-made chip for Wi-Fi and 5G, something yeux1122 backs up in this latest leak. That should mean the phone costs Apple less, with another own-brand part inside, but we'll have to wait and see if that saving gets passed on to consumers.

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• 800,000 VW Group models affected in breach, 300,000 of which from Germany
• More than half were sharing precise GPS location data
• Volkswagen responded promptly and responsible

Cariad, a subsidiary of Volkswagen’s automotive software reportedly left the sensitive data of 800,000 electric vehicles exposed in an unsecured Amazon cloud storage folder, reports have claimed.

The concern comes after Nadja Weippert, Mayor of Tostedt, Lower Saxony, delved into the app she was required to download to use the remote functionality of her Volkswagen ID.3.

She found that it was collecting precise geolocation data every time the car was turned off, creating a detailed picture of where she had been.

VW collecting customer data insecurely

The vulnerability was first discovered by a European ethical hacking organization, Chaos Computer Club (CCC), which was informed by a whistleblower. CCC confirmed the issue on November 26 and notified Cariad, giving the company 30 days to make the data inaccessible.

Cariad acknowledged the issue stemmed from poor configurations in two IT applications, responding within just hours and thanking the CCC for its work. CCC spokesman Linus Neumann praised VW’s software firm (via Spiegel, translated with Google Translate): "The Cariad technical team responded quickly, thoroughly and responsibly.”

German publication Spiegel revealed that more than half of the vehicles (460,000) were sharing precise GPS data. Most of the 800,000 affected models were located in Germany (300,000), with Norway, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Austria also being home to tens of thousands of affected electric vehicles.

Because Volkswagen is the parent company of other popular European brands, Audi, SEAT and Skoda models were also reportedly affected. It’s unclear whether CUPRA, Porsche and VW Group’s other subsidiaries were also affected.

Spiegel called the blunder a disgrace, noting that Volkswagen is already lagging behind rivals in the software space.

Despite VW’s unfortunate mistake close to a decade after the automotive giant was caught lying about the emissions of many of its diesel cars, it’s not the only company collecting customer data. In September 2023, we covered Mozilla research revealing that 25 major car manufacturers were collecting more data than they needed.

As the boundaries between tech and cars draw ever nearer, customers and researchers are rightly raising more and more security concerns.

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I’ve been a PC gamer for basically my entire life. Even as a young kid on my dad’s boxy beige work computer, I spent hours playing the only game it had installed: Microsoft Golf 1998 Edition. I loved the glorious Flash era of browser games, and bought plenty of magazines purely for the demo disks.

Growing up, I had my dalliances with console gaming, but once I got my first gaming laptop as a teen, we were back in familiar territory. It wasn’t long before I built my first gaming PC, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I never thought I’d abandon my trusty gaming desktop - perhaps the fourth or fifth PC I’ve built purely for myself over the years, discounting the literal dozens I built while working at Maximum PC magazine - and yet nowadays, I find myself using it less and less for gaming. I used to spend hours seated at my desk grinding away in my live-service game du jour, yet now I mostly just sit in that chair to write articles like this one. The reason for that? I got myself an Asus ROG Ally.

The handheld revolution

PC gaming handhelds have been floating around for a while in early forms, but it wasn’t until Valve released their successful and popular Steam Deck handheld that interest really started to pick up. It wasn’t long before other manufacturers wanted to muscle in on the scene; Asus was the first major rival to Valve with its ROG Ally (and the new ROG Ally X), then more started to appear: the MSI Claw, Lenovo Legion Go, and most recently the Zotac Zone all deliver quality handheld gaming experiences beating anything in the existing console space.

I do love my Switch, but it's just not the same as having a PC I can play in bed. (Image credit: Shutterstock/Wachiwit)

I’m not ragging on consoles here; I have a Nintendo Switch, and it was thanks to that (and a second Switch for my fiancé, and two copies of Animal Crossing: New Horizons) that I made it through both lockdown and cancer treatment in one piece. I’ve owned every Game Boy, and I was one of the eight people who actually bought a PS Vita back in 2011 - a horribly misunderstood handheld, by the way.

But the ROG Ally is a different beast entirely; my huge game libraries across Steam, Epic, GOG, and more mean that I can enjoy a vast variety of games, with better graphics than anything offered by the Switch. Plus, as a fan of indie games, I get the added bonus of getting to play all the great stuff on Itch.io, the majority of which isn’t available on consoles.

What makes PC handhelds so great?

My love for the ROG Ally has grown so much that I’ve taken to actively recommending it and its ilk - forsaking my usual advice about gaming laptops and PC-building. The first reason, quite simply, is pricing. The ROG Ally can routinely be picked up for around $400 / £400 if you keep an eye on sales - and frankly, good luck finding a gaming laptop capable of offering the same performance for that price, even during sale events.

Speaking of performance: the Z1 Extreme APU chip inside the ROG Ally and some other handhelds performs great, offering strong 1080p gaming performance. Sure, you’ll likely need to tone down the graphics in some more demanding games to hit that coveted 60 frames per second, but the performance for such a compact device is truly excellent and would’ve been unprecedented just a few years ago.

Valve's Steam Deck is a cool handheld, but in terms of raw performance it doesn't quite measure up to many other models on the market right now. (Image credit: Unsplash)

And of course, it’s that compact nature that makes the Ally so much more appealing to me than a desktop PC or a chunky gaming laptop. I sit at my desk all day long; why would I continue to sit there during my free time after work, when I could take my handheld and go lounge on the couch while playing the exact same games? It’s a benefit you don’t notice until you have the option. During a recent storm here in the UK, I stayed warm and cozy in bed with a hot water bottle and the rather excellent Afterparty, and it was great. Although the Ally is a bit heavy, it’s comfortable design and sturdy thumbsticks are a lot easier on my hands than a mouse and keyboard.

So yes: I’m done with gaming laptops, and while I’m not about to toss my powerhouse desktop in the garbage anytime soon, I’m certainly putting a lot less mileage on it now. That’s probably good for my electricity bill too, now that I think about it - the RTX 4080 sure is a power hog.

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• Researchers create a form of carbon with an incredible surface area
• This could allow the material to trap more substance including various chemicals
• Hypergolics are widely use in jet propulsion

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a nanoporous carbon material with the highest surface area ever reported.

The breakthrough uses a chemical reaction akin to rocket fuel ignition and could be used to improve carbon-dioxide capture and energy storage technologies, potentially advancing the next generation of batteries.

Increasing the porosity of carbon is key to enhancing its performance in applications such as pollutant adsorption (where pollutants stick to the surface of the material) and energy storage. The new material boasts a surface area of 4,800 square meters per gram - comparable to the size of an American football field, or 11 basketball courts, condensed into a single teaspoon.

A bright future for batteries

“Having more surface per mass is very important, but you can get to a point where there is no material left. It’s just air,” said senior author Emmanuel Giannelis from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, in Cornell Engineering. “So the challenge is how much of that porosity you can introduce and still have structure left behind, along with enough yield to do something practical with it.”

Giannelis collaborated with postdoctoral researcher Nikolaos Chalmpes, who adapted hypergolic reactions - high-energy chemical reactions typically used in rocket propulsion - to synthesize this carbon.

Chalmpes explained that by fine-tuning the process, they were able to achieve ultra-high porosity. Previously, such reactions were used solely in aerospace applications, but their rapid and intense nature proved ideal for creating novel nanostructures.

The process, detailed in ACS Nano, starts with sucrose and a template material, which guides the formation of the carbon structure. When combined with specific chemicals, the hypergolic reaction produces carbon tubes containing highly reactive five-membered molecular rings. A subsequent treatment with potassium hydroxide removes less stable structures, leaving behind a network of microscopic pores.

The researchers say the material adsorbs carbon dioxide nearly twice as effectively as conventional activated carbons, achieving 99% of its total capacity in under two minutes. It also demonstrated a volumetric energy density of 60 watt-hours per liter - four times that of commercial alternatives. This makes it particularly promising for batteries and small power cells, where efficient energy storage in compact spaces is critical, and opens pathways for designing electrocatalysts and nanoparticle alloys.

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Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 30.

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I've only become a regular user of YouTube relatively recently.

The video platform, which first launched in 2005, wasn't something I spent much time with for its first decade of existence. I'd heard how it got bought by Google, and how it was something that was popular with kids.

I watched parents stick a tablet in their kids hands at the mall or at the airport and let them watch whatever kids watch on YouTube (a whole other discussion for another time), and heard about the first YouTube influencers who started making real money on the platform. But, it was the aughts and early 2010s, and there was a lot of that going around, so it was just background noise for the most part.

It wasn't until my first computer science courses in 2015 that I first started using the platform with any kind of regularity, almost entirely for programming tutorials to help me navigate C++ memory allocation, or how to program a game in Unreal Engine.

Back then, I was a free user, and you know the adage: if you aren't paying for a product, you are the product. The ads weren't too bad at first, but once YouTube got a sense of who I was (a thirty-something male living in the US with an interest in computers), that quickly changed.

YouTube ads are some of the worst I've ever seen

(Image credit: Future/YouTube)

If you know, you know. The kinds of targeted ads my demographic gets can be laughably bad at best, and downright offensive and maddening at worse (I'm looking at you Evony: The King's Return).

For close to a decade as a casual YouTube user, it never occured to me to pay for a premium subscription. After all, ads are the price you pay for free media and always has been. They're annoying, sure, but without ads, that media you're consuming can't exist without you paying for it.

But, boy howdy, there's only so many misogynistic mobile game ads you can watch on repeat before you break. At the start of 2024, I started watching various artisan crafting videos far more regularly than even my computer science and programming content.

Initially, this was just a form of white noise that I used when I was working or testing out computer hardware on a testbench in our NYC office, but soon, I found there was a certain meditative quality to watching someone make a Damascus steel kitchen knife without commentary, or using shop tools and a lathe to carve out a stunning wooden vase.

As you can imagine, my algorithm was now truly, properly wrecked, and the targeted ads I got weren't for normal things like, I don't know, woodworking tools or maybe shop equipment. Hell, try and sell me some Carhart outerwear, and I just might buy it.

No, my demo as a middle-aged man fully identified, my meditative background watches of a bunch of dudes quietly putting together a deck in their backyard was interrupted every few minutes by ads for mobile games that look like it was put together by the absolute worst people on 4chan.

I won't detail what exactly was so bad about these ads (leaving aside the fact that none of the gameplay shown is ever what you'd get if you played these cash-grab, social city builders that are microtransactioned to the hilt). But for a lot of you out there, you know exactly the kind of gross, juvenile BS I'm talking about. If you don't, count yourself lucky.

YouTube Premium saved my sanity

(Image credit: Shutterstock / JRdes)

I don't know how exactly I came across YouTube Premium, but I do remember the only thing I saw was that it meant ad-free viewing of all YouTube content.

I signed up for YouTube Premium on the spot, and I haven't looked back ever since. I don't even know what other features come with the subscription. I don't really care.

Before I get bombarded with emails, yes, I know there are ad blockers out there, but I won't use them. Monetization for YouTube creators is a complicated thing, but blocking ads doesn't help them keep doing what they do, and an ad blocker can always be disabled, or introduce security vulnerabilities into your browser, and on, and on.

Here's the thing. We've all probably got more streaming subscriptions than we ever really use. So, if you're like me and you spend a lot of time on YouTube, consider switching one of those out for YouTube Premium. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle, headache, and sanity in the process.

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 #1071) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* 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 #1071) - 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 2.

Quordle today (game #1071) - 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 #1071) - 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 2.

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 #1071) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• T

• G

• G

• V

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

Quordle today (game #1071) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1071, are…

• TODDY
• GROIN
• GROWN
• VERVE

I guessed close to the edge today, completing the four words in my 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th goes – although I was helped considerably by GROIN and GROWN having just one letter difference. How kind of Quordle.

TODDY was today’s seasonal word, although I was interested in Merriam-Webster telling me that it isn’t just a hot drink consisting of liquor, water, sugar, and spices but also the fresh or fermented sap of various chiefly Asian palms.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Daily Sequence today (game #1071) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1071, are…

• MOUND
• ODDER
• TOXIN
• TWEET

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1070, Sunday 29 December: PURER, SPLAT, RABID, EMCEE
• Quordle #1069, Saturday 28 December: BUNCH, LABOR, TRIPE, BUNNY
• Quordle #1068, Friday 27 December: BRAWL, LYING, ORGAN, CRONY
• Quordle #1067, Thursday 26 December: TATTY, OVERT, FLOUR, SWEPT
• Quordle #1066, Wednesday 25 December: LIVER, CRIER, SHORE, MURKY
• Quordle #1065, Tuesday 24 December: TIPSY, SCALE, FLYER, VALVE
• Quordle #1064, Monday 23 December: SNAKE, SAVVY, ELBOW, TWEED
• Quordle #1063, Sunday 22 December: DOUBT, SLURP, PAPER, CIVIL
• Quordle #1062, Saturday 21 December: STRIP, BUDGE, SAPPY, SHELF
• Quordle #1061, Friday 20 December: PENAL, EAGLE, DILLY, QUITE
• Quordle #1060, Thursday 19 December: JEWEL, GNOME, TRAMP, IDLER
• Quordle #1059, Wednesday 18 December: LITHE, BIRTH, HUMID, ROBOT
• Quordle #1058, Tuesday 17 December: DOING, ENJOY, SNAKY, AMPLE
• Quordle #1057, Monday 16 December: HYDRO, CREAM, CHIDE, SLIME
• Quordle #1056, Sunday 15 December: DROVE, STILT, LINEN, GIANT
• Quordle #1055, Saturday 14 December: SPIEL, ONSET, TIGER, DITTO
• Quordle #1054, Friday 13 December: ERECT, REBAR, MOIST, IDIOM
• Quordle #1053, Thursday 12 December: MILKY, CRIER, STORK, DRIER
• Quordle #1052, Wednesday 11 December: BRIAR, NASAL, SHARD, FLUFF
• Quordle #1051, Tuesday 10 December: BEGAN, TRIAL, IDEAL, GUIDE

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Keep it classical

NYT Strands today (game #302) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• TOUR
• COME
• PRESS
• NICE
• CORE
• LOSER

NYT Strands today (game #302) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Musical pieces

NYT Strands today (game #302) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 4th row

Last side: right, 6th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #302) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #302, are…

• SONATA
• PRELUDE
• CONCERTO
• SYMPHONY
• OVERTURE
• SPANGRAM: COMPOSITION

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 1 hint

I admit that I always thought a few of these descriptions for classical music pieces meant the same thing. That saying something was a CONCERTO was the same as saying something was a SYMPHONY and that a PRELUDE was just a shorter OVERTURE that came at the start of the aforementioned Concerto or Symphony.

Despite my deep research into the topic (hello, Wikipedia) I’m still a little unsure, but I am 100% certain they are all types of COMPOSITION.

Regardless of my terrible ignorance, today’s Strands was a relative breeze once I gave up on trying to make Composers the spangram. Twelve minutes when I would have been better off listening to the fourth movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday, 29 December, game #301)

• KUGEL
• LATKES
• BRISKET
• CHALLAH
• APPLE SAUCE
• SPANGRAM: HANNUKAH FOODS

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.

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 #568) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• PINK
• PONY
• CLUB
• AIRPLANE
• GRINDER
• WATER
• ANTE
• HERO
• WRAP
• SETTLE
• JEOPARDY
• BEANS
• YAHOO
• FILTER
• MELT
• COUGH

NYT Connections today (game #568) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Sandwich types
• GREEN: Cup of Joe
• BLUE: Top level finance
• PURPLE: Missing punctuation

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 #568) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: LUNCH ORDERS 
• GREEN: USED TO MAKE COFFEE 
• BLUE: PAY, WITH "UP" 
• PURPLE: NAMES FEATURING "!" 

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

NYT Connections today (game #568) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #568, are…

• YELLOW: LUNCH ORDERS CLUB, HERO, MELT, WRAP
• GREEN: USED TO MAKE COFFEE BEANS, FILTER, GRINDER, WATER
• BLUE: PAY, WITH "UP" ANTE, COUGH, PONY, SETTLE
• PURPLE: NAMES FEATURING "!" AIRPLANE, JEOPARDY, PINK, YAHOO

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 3 mistakes

According to Branding Magazine, putting an exclamation mark at the end of a name “brings energy and enthusiasm to the brand identity system”, which makes you wonder why all companies don’t just add an exclamation mark.

Part of the reason why not is what the experts call “tonality” – it wouldn’t work for a funeral care business, for example. When some people see an exclamation mark they imagine the word being shouted – in the newspaper industry they used to call them screamers.

All four NAMES FEATURING “!” employ the mark in different ways – ironic, excited, enthusiastic, and in the case of P!nk, an upturned i.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 29 December, game #567)

• YELLOW: SHADES OF RED BRICK, CHERRY, MAROON, RUBY
• GREEN: APPOINTMENT SPECIFICATIONS DATE, DURATION, LOCATION, TIME
• BLUE: DIFFERENT AMOUNTS OF HAIR HEAD, LOCK, STRAND, WISP
• PURPLE: TREE HOMOPHONES BEACH, FUR, PAIR, YOU

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.