Technology

In the mid-1990s, former Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée founded Be Inc., a company best known for its BeOS operating system.

Despite its technical strengths, which included a responsive multitasking kernel, symmetric multiprocessing, and a 64-bit journaling file system called BFS, BeOS struggled to make a dent in a market dominated by Microsoft Windows. Apple briefly considered buying it but ultimately decided the price was too steep, and went on instead to acquire Steve Jobs' NeXT and use its OPENSTEP OS as the basis for what became Mac OS X. In 2001, Be Inc. was scooped up by Palm, and BeOS quietly disappeared.

That should have been the end of the story, but shortly after, a community-driven project called OpenBeOS surfaced, aiming to keep the spirit of BeOS alive. In 2004, it rebranded as Haiku, complete with a new logo to mark the fresh start. Since then, the Haiku project has been steadily chugging along, and Haiku R1 Beta 5 has just been released. Yes, it's still in beta - even after nearly 22 years - but it's edging ever closer to that elusive first stable release.

So what's new?

Haiku R1 Beta 5 follows on from R1 Beta 4, which came out over a year and a half ago. In that time the developers have resolved nearly 350 bugs and enhancement tickets, but it’s still not problem free. As the team warns, "Please keep in mind that Haiku is beta-quality software, which means it is feature complete but still contains known and unknown bugs. While we are increasingly confident in its stability, we cannot provide assurances against data loss."

You can download the latest release for both x86 32-bit and 64-bit platforms from the project's website (BeOS R5 compatibility is only available on the 32-bit version). The minimum system requirements for the 32-bit edition are pretty modest: an Intel Pentium II or AMD Athlon processor, 384MB of memory, an 800x600 monitor, and 3GB of storage. If you're looking at the 64-bit version, the recommended specs bump up to an Intel Core i3 or AMD Phenom II processor, 2GB of memory, a 1366x768 monitor, and 16GB of storage.

So what's new in Haiku R1 Beta 5? The standout addition is the simplified color selection in the Appearance preferences. Instead of wading through 30 different color options, you now only need to adjust three core colors, and the system calculates the rest. This is especially handy for dark mode enthusiasts, as it dynamically tweaks text and background colors for optimal readability. Advanced users can still manually adjust the full set of colors if they wish, but the new system makes customization more accessible.

The native icon editor, Icon-O-Matic, has also gained a significant upgrade including the addition of "reference images," allowing you to import bitmap images and trace vector paths over them. Along with perspective transformations and improved copy-paste functionality, creating and editing icons has become more intuitive. Other notable updates include enhancements to PowerStatus, which now auto-detects batteries on first startup and provides more accurate notifications, and improvements to Tracker, the file manager, which better handles read-only volumes with clearer visual cues. Haiku now supports basic input and output for USB audio devices and has made strides in TCP performance and network stack optimizations.

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Celebrity endorsements can do a lot for a product, but Meta is making several celebrity voices the literal ones of its Meta AI assistant. John Cena, Kristen Bell, Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key, and Judi Dench may not be your real friends, but you'll be able to chat with their synthetic voice clones as much as you want soon, according to a report from Reuters. Meta is expected to announce those celebrities and, potentially, more to be who you hear when conversing with the AI chatbot. 

If celebrity voices for an AI chatbot seem like a gimmick, well, that's because it is. But, as generative AI assistants continue to sprout in an already crowded field, gimmicks might help Meta attract interest as it jockeys for position against OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. 

The agreement with the celebrities will see them all as options for the AI's voice, joining the more generic options. The reported mix is interesting because all are at or near the heights of fame, all have roles children would recognize, and all have made plenty of appearances in more adult films and shows. 

 It's unclear if the famous voices will require payment, though the celebrities are reportedly getting hefty paychecks for the project. Those checks ensure Meta won't face the rancor OpenAI did over accusations that one of ChatGPT's synthetic voices sounded like Scarlett Johansson in the movie Her. 

That's no small matter, as actors and writers went on strike last year in no small part because of concerns about AI replacing them. SAG-AFTRA is rumored to have a deal with Meta for using actors' voices, but there's been no announcement of whether it might be connected to this celebrity voice plan. 

Famous or Folly?

Even if the celebrity voices make Meta AI a hit, the company won't be able to rest on its laurels for long. Google has plans for setting up AI chatbots of famous people and fictional characters on YouTube. Even Meta's plan to offer you the chance to make a custom AI chatbot based on yourself is something Google, Character.ai, and others are pursuing. 

Meta's eagerness to bring celebrities into its AI projects makes sense, but the company has had some problems on the front not long ago. Meta's Celebrity AI chatbots used celebrity likenesses for the text-based Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp feature when it came out earlier this year. If you look now, though, the chatbots remain, but without any celebrity branding. 

Famous voices also tempted Amazon, who gave Alexa the voices of first Samuel L. Jackson, followed by Melissa McCarthy, Shaquille O’Neal, and Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan. A few years after the first test, Amazon removed the voices from Alexa. 

Still, Meta is expected to showcase a lot of AI news at the Connect conference this year so this may be only the cherry on top of the other news, boosted by the likely enthusiastic endorsement of the celebrities we'll all be hearing speak to us soon. 

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If you’ve been a Spotify premium subscriber eager to try out the music streaming service’s AI chops at building playlists based on prompts, we have good news. After rolling out AI Playlist to Premium subscribers in the UK and Australia earlier in 2024, the feature is now expanding to the United States, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand in English.

So, you can now use Spotify’s AI to create a playlist based on a prompt that can be as short as a single word. You will need to be a Premium member, though, which in the United States starts at $11.99 a month for an individual, $16.99 per month for Duo (aka two accounts), or $19.99 a month for a family subscription.

The feature, dubbed AI Playlist, can be found on the Spotify app for Android or iOS – not on desktop or the web. Just ensure you’re running the latest version of the app. For instance, I have no updates, and I’m not yet seeing it.

Using AI to build a playlist

Once the feature arrives in your Spotify app associated with the right subscription, you’ll open the app and tap “Library” in the bottom right corner. Then, hit the plus sign in the top right and find AI Playlist as an option.

From there, you’re off to the races as you enter a prompt and watch as a playlist is created. Spotify notes that the more detail provided the better, but you can also refine it further after its first list is made and give it another prompt. You can use words, numbers, or emojis, but Spotify won’t allow offensive words. It also suggests when you’re first playing around with this feature, be specific – potentially with a genre, location, or even characters.

As with any AI, specifically a chatbot, which is close to what this is, results will vary, and Spotify is quick to repeat that AI Playlist is in beta. Considering Spotify is already pretty spot on with music recommendations, adding in this level of customization and personalization via AI is a cool feature that we’re eager to try out.

It’s rolling out now in English for Premium subscribers in United States, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand now after being available for several months in the UK and Australia. If you’re keen to try it, keep your Spotify app updated on your mobile and check to see if “AI Playlist” appears. Until then, you’ll need to create your next fire playlist the old-fashioned way … manually.

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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 Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

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 #472) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• HAT TRICK
• HOME RUN
• BROIL
• PAINT
• SOAP BOX
• TRIPLE CROWN
• DROP CLOTH
• WINGS
• ROLLER
• KENTUCKY
• SPROUTS
• TRIFECTA
• DEMOLITION
• TAPE
• THREEPEAT
• CHEESESTEAK

NYT Connections today (game #472) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Sporting win Sporting win Sporting win
• Green: Just add paint
• Blue: Eaten in a certain place?
• Purple: Blank [word for a contest between rivals]

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 #472) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: TRIO OF SPORTS ACHIEVEMENTS
• GREEN: NEEDS FOR PAINTING A ROOM
• BLUE: FOOD NAMED AFTER CITIES
• PURPLE: ___ DERBY

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

NYT Connections today (game #472) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #472, are…

• YELLOW: TRIO OF SPORTS ACHIEVEMENTS HAT TRICK, THREEPEAT, TRIFECTA, TRIPLE CROWN
• GREEN: NEEDS FOR PAINTING A ROOM DROP CLOTH, PAINT, ROLLER, TAPE
• BLUE: FOOD NAMED AFTER CITIES BROIL, CHEESESTEAK, SPROUTS, WINGS
• PURPLE: ___ DERBY DEMOLITION, HOME RUN, KENTUCKY, SOAP BOX

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 3 mistakes

I nearly failed today's Connections puzzle, only completing the final group on my final guess. But in my defence, a couple of them were very US-centric connections that I couldn't be expected to solve, given that I'm not in the US and have never lived there.

Those groups were blue and purple, and blue in particular was simply impossible; I've heard of a Philly CHEESESTEAK but have no idea what SPROUTS, WINGS and BROIL refer to. Similarly, on the purple group I was able to correctly find the __DERBY group via DEMOLITION, KENTUCKY and SOAP BOX, but guessed ROLLER rather than HOME RUN. I presume the latter is related to baseball in some way, so probably should have spotted it as a possibility sooner.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, 24 September, game #471)

• YELLOW: INSPIRED CREATIVE, FRESH, NOVEL, ORIGINAL
• GREEN: PROCURE IN ADVANCE BOOK, CHARTER, RESERVE, SECURE
• BLUE: BIT OF PARTY DECORATION BALLOON, BANNER, CONFETTI, GARLAND
• PURPLE: ONLINE PERSONALITY AMBASSADOR, INFLUENCER, MODEL, STREAMER

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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Claim your steak

NYT Strands today (game #206) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SCRIBE
• LEAF
• RUNE
• FAIR
• SICK
• BITE

NYT Strands today (game #206) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Have a cow, man

NYT Strands today (game #206) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: right, 3rd row

Last: left, 4th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #206) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #206, are…

• ROUND
• BRISKET
• FLANK
• SIRLOIN
• SHANK
• CHUCK
• RIBEYE
• SPANGRAM: BEEFCUTS

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I'm a vegetarian these days, but in my meat-eating days a good steak was among my greatest culinary pleasures. But maybe I'm not that much of an expert even so, because I'd never heard of ROUND in this context. That was a slightly unfortunate fact, given that it was the first answer I found today – but didn't do much to clarify what it was I was looking for.

Fortunately I came up with BRISKET not long afterwards, and that I had heard of. All that was needed after that was to find the other words, including the spangram of BEEFCUTS, and I was able to dig in and finish this meaty puzzle.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday 24 September, game #205)

• MARTIAN
• CYBORG
• DROID
• MUTANT
• ROBOT
• ALIEN
• SPANGRAM: SCIENCEFICTION

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.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now nearly 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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.

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 #975) - 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 #975) - 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 1.

Quordle today (game #975) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #975) - 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 #975) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• U

• D

• G

• P

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

Quordle today (game #975) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #975, are…

• UMBRA
• DADDY
• GLAZE
• PRANK

According to Merriam-Webster, the dictionary that now owns Quordle, UMBRA means "a conical shadow excluding all light from a given source". I didn't know that before playing today's game, but I do now – so in that sense, Quordle is doing its job! The fact that I solved it without knowing it was an accident. I had the letters U, R, B and A in the top-left of the board, but couldn't assemble them into a word. But I wanted to play something that might at least change some yellows into green, so played around with letter combinations until I found one that the game would accept as a guess. I had no real expectation that it would be right, but all five letters turned green and I solved what was probably the toughest of today's quartet.

Not that the others were easy; DADDY contains a rare triple letter, GLAZE an uncommon Z, so anyone solving today's Quordle can give themselves a pat on the back.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #975) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #975, are…

• BAYOU
• SMART
• POLYP
• GIANT

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #974, Tuesday 24 September: SPACE, INNER, SPAWN, BEGAT
• Quordle #973, Monday 23 September: GUILT, STERN, ANNEX, FIELD
• Quordle #972, Sunday 22 September: ZESTY, MEATY, ALIVE, DRAWN
• Quordle #971, Saturday 21 September: VITAL, FRAIL, SPEAR, EERIE
• Quordle #970, Friday 20 September: ELIDE, DITTO, SHAWL, BONUS
• Quordle #969, Thursday 19 September: MARRY, OWING, DICEY, LUCKY
• Quordle #968, Wednesday 18 September: CEDAR, VENOM, MIGHT, MEDIC
• Quordle #967, Tuesday 17 September: ETHOS, COUNT, PRINT, THREE
• Quordle #966, Monday 16 September: ROUGE, SWAMP, FUGUE, UNDUE
• Quordle #965, Sunday 15 September: VILLA, SMOKE, BULKY, THRUM
• Quordle #964, Saturday 14 September: ESSAY, GENRE, WIMPY, CHUTE
• Quordle #963, Friday 13 September: LEANT, ORGAN, FILLY, PLAIT
• Quordle #962, Thursday 12 September: ARBOR, STARK, LEAVE, GOOFY
• Quordle #961, Wednesday 11 September: ROUGH, CACTI, SAVOY, ODDER
• Quordle #960, Tuesday 10 September: PLUMB, SEIZE, EARLY, ASSET
• Quordle #959, Monday 9 September: CHIRP, BEADY, THETA, MINUS
• Quordle #958, Sunday 8 September: TEASE, AGATE, PRIDE, PLATE
• Quordle #957, Saturday 7 September: LASSO, TILDE, BUNCH, PRONG
• Quordle #956, Friday 6 September: FARCE, WOOLY, LOCAL, NIGHT
• Quordle #955, Thursday 5 September: SNIDE, EGRET, AMONG, SHINY

Have a question about a YouTube video you didn't understand or just didn't want to sit through? You can ask the AI chatbot rolling out from the video platform to answer all those questions, at least if you're a Premium subscriber on an Android device. The AI, likely fueled by Google's Gemini AI models, can summarize and expand upon any aspect of the video on your screen, like a friend who just memorized every video on the platform. 

The chatbot incorporates AI into your viewing on the YouTube app through a card in the comments section. You can swipe through them to find the Ask card, opening up a place for texting with the chatbot. There, you can ask for a summary or engage in a conversation about the video. YouTube envisions people asking the AI to explain what the video is about, clarify any details, and recommend more videos. Theoretically, it could help video creators who would otherwise have to moderate the comment section for people asking questions or looking for more information.

AI Video Expertise

The chatbot fits right into both YouTube and Google's overall strategy to make Gemini-powered AI tools ubiquitous in your life, especially on your smartphone. YouTube has released or is working on releasing features like AI-powered chatbots mimicking famous people and fictional characters and a tool to help you skip to the most popular part of a video.

That's on top of the avalanche of creator AI features like an AI music generator, which ties together with one that can remove copyrighted music from your video without taking it down completely. You can even ask an AI chatbot for inspiration for your next video and use the upcoming Dream Screen AI to create backgrounds for the video. At the rate Google is moving, AI will become as central to making and watching videos on YouTube as the standard plea to like and subscribe heard at the end of 99% of videos on the platform.

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Kaspersky customers in the US have found their antivirus software has been replaced without warning with a new solution called UltraAV.

The US government recently passed a law banning the sale of Kaspersky security software and the subsequent updates for installed software, resulting in the company’s exit from the US market.

Customers reported on social media that the update was pushed without the ability to accept or decline UltraAV, despite notification emails supposedly being sent at least a few weeks prior to the update.

Demonstration of Kaspersky danger

The US has long argued Kaspersky software is at risk of being manipulated by the Russian government to hand over secrets and control of the computers it is installed on, with an initial ban on Kaspersky products from being used within federal agencies being followed by a complete commercial sales ban from July 20, and finally with a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ban on the use of Kaspersky software within telecommunications equipment at the beginning of September 2024.

At around the same time as the FCC ban, Axios reported that Kaspersky had offloaded its antivirus customers to the Pango Group, which owns UltraAV.

Kaspersky confirmed the transition in a post by Vadim M. on the company’s forum, stating, “Kaspersky has additionally partnered with UltraAV to make the transition to their product as seamless as possible, which is why on 9/19, U.S. Kaspersky antivirus customers received a software update facilitating the transition to UltraAV. This update ensured that users would not experience a gap in protection upon Kaspersky’s exit from the market.”

Former National Security Agency director of cybersecurity, Rob Joyce, commented on the transition on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “This is why handing root-level access to Kaspersky was a huge risk. Users were "migrated" - software uninstalled and a totally different product was installed automagically. They had total control of your machine.” It is worth noting that some antivirus products and anti-cheat software commonly use root-level access to scan for harmful files or software used to cheat in games.

TechRadar Pro reached out to UltraAV to provide additional context on the nature of the transition, but the company did not immediately respond. Any subsequent updates will be posted here.

Via TechCrunch

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Helping you keep on top of your phone notifications is something Android and iOS have struggled with for years – but it looks as though Android 15 is going to come with a couple of new features that might finally help you get on top of these alerts for good.

As per Android Authority, the latest beta version of Android 15, currently in testing, won't show notifications older than two weeks. That's something that can be an issue for people who jump around between different Android phones and tablets.

Another improvement in the Android 15 beta, also spotted by Android Authority, suggests that notification syncing across different devices might be improved, too – so new notifications wouldn't necessarily appear on all your Android gadgets.

Taken together, it should mean less time swiping through notifications that you shouldn't have to deal with, whether they were originally delivered weeks ago or because you've already looked at them on another device.

Coming soon

The Pixel 9 will get Android 15 soon (Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)

It also seems as though Google engineers are working to make notification alerts less intrusive on the screen, which should improve the experience when you're playing a game or watching a film and notification pop-ups come in.

As always with beta testing, there's no guarantee that any of these features will make it into the final version of Android 15, but there's a good chance that they will, and they may well get refined further before they're pushed out to the masses.

A fixed version of Android 15 has actually already been distributed to developers, but different hardware makers still need to customize it: Google for Pixel phones, Samsung for Galaxy phones, OnePlus for its phones, and so on.

Google Pixel handsets such as the Google Pixel 9 will be first in line for Android 15, and an October launch seems very likely. If you're using a different kind of Android phone, you might be waiting for a few more months to get it.

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