Technology

One of the biggest selling points of LG's best 2024 OLED TVs is Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode, a world first – the standard was only recently finalized by the UHD Alliance and LG was the first manufacturer to implement it. Only now, there's a second manufacturer embracing the standard: Philips.

The new feature is in all of Philips' 2024 OLEDs, according to FlatpanelsHD, who asked Philips whether it was in more models than just the Philips OLED809 TV. Philips said that yes, it's been working closely with Dolby and the mode will be available in all 2024 Philips OLED TVs as well as coming to 2023 OLED TVs from the firm.

Why Filmmaker Mode matters (and why it took so long to reach Dolby Vision HDR)

Filmmaker Mode is, as the name suggests, designed to show you movies as the filmmakers intended them to look. It was developed because many movie-makers were pretty unhappy with how their movies looked on smart TVs, especially when they were presented with crappy color accuracy and overly aggressive motion smoothing. Filmmaker mode turns off the toys and focuses – pun fully intended – on the film.

Filmmaker Mode is already a familiar sight in many of the best TVs, because it's been a key selling point for movie buffs since it was launched four years ago. But it wasn't available in Dolby Vision HDR until this year. That's partly because many Dolby Vision IQ presets use the very techniques that Filmmaker Mode was made to fight against. 

That means if you already had your TV set to Filmmaker Mode but switched to a Dolby HDR title, your TV would turn off Filmmaker Mode and go into a Dolby Vision preset such as Dark or Normal instead. Now it's here that won't happen, and it should mean much more accurate reproduction of movies not just from sources such as Blu-Ray but also from the best streaming services that support Dolby Vision HDR. 

We've already tested the HDR Filmmaker Mode in our review of the LG G4 and found it very impressive – it's a key part of what makes the LG G4 one of the best TVs our reviewer had ever laid eyes on. So it's great to see the same option coming to more TVs, and no doubt we'll be hearing similar announcements from more manufacturers soon.

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Canadian speaker firm Kanto Audio has revealed its extremely striking new active loudspeakers, the Kanto Audio 100W Ren (stylised to REN) and our love for the product is not wholly tied to our love for the animated TV series Ren & Stimpy – although that helps. 

There are five different colors including the absolutely stunning orange option shown in the promo pic above; your other choices are matte black (boo!), matte gray and matte white (OK) and matt blue (hmm!), so if, like me, you're a bit bored with monochrome audio kit, the orange one will seem like a citrus ray of 'Oh, joy!' sunshine (sorry).

But of course what matters here is the sound, and while the 100W RMS / 200W peak of class D amplification here means they'll go loud, the spec suggests they'll sound good too – as does recent form (see our Kanto Ora review for evidence). They're made from acoustic grade MDF with rear ports, 1-inch silk dome tweeters and 5.25-inch aluminium concave cone drivers, and their frequency response is 50Hz to 22kHz – impressively low for their relatively small size.

Kanto Audio 100W Ren Active Speakers: key features 

For wireless connectivity, there's Bluetooth 5.3, but for the best audio you'll really want a cabled connection – and your options here include HDMI ARC with CEC (a first for Kanto's speakers, so something you won't find in the company's January 2024 ORA4 lineup, for example), USB-C and optical inputs supporting up to 24-bit/96kHz sound sources. There are also RCA and 3.5mm connections, a subwoofer output and a USB port to charge small devices.

The Ren speakers also include a digital signal processor with two special modes: Vocal Boost for better dialog clarity and Night Mode for ensuring harmonious relations with your neighbors or roommates. 

We haven't heard these new speakers yet but, as mentioned above, we reviewed the  firm's Kanto Ora speakers and found them to be very impressive: while they're very loud for their size that's not at the expense of sound quality or clarity. So we're looking forward to getting our ears, and our eyes, on these. 

The new Kanto 100W Ren Active Speakers have recommended pricing of £499 / €579 / $599 / CA$799 (which is around AU$974) and will be available imminently.

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One of the leading VPN providers, Mullvad, now offers post-quantum protection across all its applications, namely Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and finally bringing its iPhone VPN apps into the fray. The Swedish provider is one of the very few in the market to have already implemented a mix of quantum-safe and traditional encryption – kicking off its post-quantum strategy back in 2017 on Linux. 

Quantum computers are improving every day, and we may only be a few years away from them breaking traditional RSA encryption altogether. While the wider industry is catching up, the transition to post-quantum VPNs is crucial to secure your privacy.

How Mullvad's post-quantum encryption works

Mullvad's solution works on its WireGuard protocol, harvesting the secret of two quantum-resistant algorithms: Classic McEliece and Kyber. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just officially included the latter in its first set of quantum-safe encryption standards – now renamed ML-KEM.

As the provider explains in its blog post: "A WireGuard tunnel is established and is used to share a secret in such a way that a quantum computer can’t figure out the secret even if it had access to the network traffic."

Quantum-Resistant Tunnels Now Available on iOS!https://t.co/arWEsu0n3nAugust 30, 2024

Post-quantum encryption doesn't come as default just yet, meaning you have to actively enable it to benefit from PQ encryption. 

To activate the added protection, you need to head to your app's Settings, click on VPN settings, and toggle on the button next to Quantum-resistant tunnel. Once the connection is established, you should see a "QUANTUM SECURE CONNECTION" status in green text on the main view of the app,

"If it turns out to work as well as we hope it will, we will enable this by default on all platforms in the future," added Mullvad.

Why do we need post-quantum VPNs?

A virtual private network (VPN) is a security tool that protects your internet connections to ensure third parties cannot access users' data in transit. To do so, VPNs use encryption to scramble the data into an unreadable form that can be decoded only by using the assigned encrypted key. 

Today's VPN protocols often leverage RSA-based key exchanges to ensure only you and your receiver can encrypt and decrypt the information. Yet, this way of protecting people's online activities is set to become obsolete with the advent of quantum computers.

This is because quantum computers are expected to process computations that today's computers can't handle, within minutes. In the future, attackers could use these machines to crack into today's encryption algorithms and compromise people's data.

Check the explainer from Veritasium below if you want to know the technical details of how these machines can break encryption:

As Mullvad explains: "Although strong enough quantum computers have yet to be demonstrated, having post-quantum secure tunnels today protects against attackers that record encrypted traffic with the hope of decrypting it with a future quantum computer."

Cybercriminals, state hackers, and more are already conducting what's called "store now, decrypt later (SNDL) attacks," in fact. Put simply, they collect vast amounts of encrypted data from the internet so they can crack it in the future when quantum computing is finally up to the task.

As mentioned, Mullvad was among the first in the industry to think about future threats and begin its PQ transition - way before NIST selected the algorithms that would later get standardized. In 2022, the team switched to one of the finalists (Classic McEliece), while continuing to follow the ongoing work at NIST.

"As Kyber (one of the standards) now has been updated (ML-KEM) we are planning to migrate to this in the near future," Jan Jonsson, CEO at Mullvad, told me.

Which VPNs are already quantum-resistant?

While the majority of VPN providers are still figuring out how to correctly implement quantum-resistant algorithms within their products, there are a few services alongside Mullvad that already offer such protection.

• Windscribe is another early adopter of quantum-resistant encryption. The company's aim is not just to meet PQ encryption standards, but rather surpass them to keep offering its users the best protection against future threats. The team is now in the process of boosting their KEM (Key Encapsulation Mechanism) in TLS and OpenVPN protocols. 
• ExpressVPN added quantum-safe encryption based on the Kyber algorithm to its WireGuard-inspired protocol Lightway in October last year. Back in 2020, the in-house built VPN protocol was exactly designed to make the PQ transition easier. "Other VPN protocols would need extensive changes to support post-quantum,"  Pete Membrey, Chief Engineering Officer at ExpressVPN, told me at that time.
• PureVPN partnered with quantum computing company Quantinuum in 2022 to introduce a quantum-resistant feature on its OpenVPN protocol. At the time of writing, you can benefit from this extra protection only when connected to six server locations (US, UK, Australia, Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands).

A new era for VPN security

As mentioned earlier, NIST officially released the first three quantum-resistant encryption standards on August 13, 2024, after over a decade of testing more than 80 algorithms. This move is set to shape the future of cryptography, opening up a new era for VPN security.

These standardized algorithms come, in fact, with instructions on how to implement them and their intended uses. All this is crucial to support VPN providers in their PQ transition, de-facto raising the bar for VPN security standards.

"The strength of a standard lies in the fact that it is open and gets audited and reviewed in a way that makes it secure," Jonsson told me. "This increases trust and usage, which means the world can tackle the risks posed by quantum computers in a better way."

NIST now calls on all developers to start the post-quantum transition as the "full integration will take time."

Last weekend several authors cut ties with National Novel Writing Month after the nonprofit issued a statement seemingly greenlighting the use of AI in writing.

Microsoft has introduced a new PowerToy for Windows users to have a more consistent organized application structure, and it’s called Workspaces.

Described as “a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity,” Microsoft already offers a number of PowerToys, such as Advanced Paste (for custom formatting), Always On Top and Image Resizer.

Workspaces adds the ability to create, save and launch sets of applications in customized desktop configurations, enabling workers to pick up where they left off.

Windows gains a new PowerToy – Workspaces

With Workspaces, users can save the precise layout and configuration of open applications. Then, when the Workspace is relaunched, all applications will open in the same positions as before.

Users can either open the Workspaces editor from the PowerToys setting or use the Win+Ctrl+` shortcut. A ‘Create Workspace’ option will be available within the editor, where users can then ‘Capture’ their preferred settings.

Microsoft summarized in a support article: “You can capture your desktop state as a new workspace using the editor, add arguments to apps to configure their state on launch, and pin the workspace as a desktop shortcut for quick-launching.”

Redmond also noted that, where a window may already be open prior to initiating the Workspace, it may either be reused or a new instance will open. Settings for this can be configured by using a CLI argument.

PowerToys can be installed via GitHub or Microsoft Store and require Windows 11 or Windows 10 v2004 (19041) or newer using x64 and Arm64 architectures.

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Dell has unveiled a range of new AI PCs, including the XPS 13, powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors, along with the Inspiron 14 and the Latitude 5455, featuring new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processors.

The company first announced the series in May 2024, with all of the new devices are available to customers around the world now. Microsoft recently took the wraps of its AI PCs strategy, which includes adding a new Copilot AI button to laptops to help summon AI-powered digital assistants.

Despite some first impressions suggesting that AI PCs aren't all that exciting right now, every new technology has to take first steps, and manufactures like Dell getting on board can only boost the growing segment of Windows laptops. 

Dell XPS 13 

Starting with the Dell XPS 13, the company has added a new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors to ensure that the thin and light laptop has the power to match up with other AI PCs as well as the MacBook Pro. Intel has built in a dedicated NPU capable of up to 48 TOPS, ensuring access to top-end AI features. 

Dell has also given the XPS 13 an OLED tandem display, which helps the laptop reach higher brightness while using less battery than its rivals, with the company saying there is a staggering 26 hours of usage on offer. 

The XPS 13 is on sale now, starting at $1,399.99 for the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. 

Snap-dragon, crackle, and pop 

(Image credit: Dell)

Arguably more exciting is the introduction of two new Dell laptops powered by Snapdragon hardware instead of Intel. 

The Inspiron 14, which starts at $899, offers Snapdragon X Plus 8-core and 10-core options, alongside an integrated GPU and NPU delivering 45 TOPS for AI workloads. Running Windows 11 Pro, it also boasts a 14-inch display, 16GB of RAM, and up to 1TB SSD, all of which are thoroughly modern. 

The final laptop that Dell plans to release is the Latitude 5455, which sadly does not yet have pricing details. It's designed for maximum portability, for students and other professionals moving from place to place to work, and includes Snapdragon X Plus 8-core and 10-core options. Dell says the Latitude 5455 can also hit 27 hours of usage. 

Of course, Dell has a fair amount of competition for the best laptop and best business laptop crown, namely from the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, the Acer Travelmate P4, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop. 

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This Copilot Plus PC offers an unprecedented runtime inside all-metal design at an affordable price.

The Dataset Providers Alliance calls for creators and rights holders to be able to opt in to having their material used for training purposes.

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The next big mobile product launch from Samsung could well be the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 tablet series – and a freshly leaked rendering has possibly revealed the super-sized 14.6-inch Ultra version of the slate.

This comes from well-known tipster Evan Blass (via Android Authority), and we can see that not much has changed in terms of design from the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. There's still a notch cut out of the front display for the forward-facing camera, and two cameras around the back.

We get a very brief look at the back of the tablet, enough to tell us that the magnetic charging ports are in the same place as well (an S Pen stylus is shown snapped to the back). It looks as though the bezels around the edges of the display might be slightly smaller this time around, but it's difficult to be sure.

The render matches up rather nicely with other leaked images we saw last month. Apparently, the dimensions of the Ultra tablet are 326.4mm x 208.6mm x 5.45mm – the same as its predecessor, but a little bit thicker.

When will they land?

The smallest tablet in the series could get dropped this year (Image credit: Samsung)

Rumors around the existence of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10 Plus have been swirling for months at this point, but it appears there isn't going to be a standard 11-inch version of the Tab S10, which would be a surprise.

If the standard model is indeed left out of the range this year, your screen size choices would be 12.4 inches for the Plus and 14.6 inches for the Ultra. All the indications are that the displays are going to be the same size as they were last year, though we're expecting a bump in terms of the internal components.

What isn't changing, it seems, is the 45W charging speed of the current models. Considering all of these leaks, which have also included what look like marketing images, the launch of these tablets shouldn't be too far off – the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series was launched in August 2023, so a 2024 refresh should be imminent.

Apple has already updated two of its tablets this year – see our iPad Air 2024 review and iPad Pro 2024 review for details – and a refresh for the entry-level iPad is likely to be on the way, too. Pretty soon we should see some new competition from the Android side.

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Developer Far Out Games and publisher Konami have unveiled Deliver At All Costs, a comedic indie driving game set in a colorful 1950s-inspired world.

The story of the upcoming game follows Winston Green, a down-on-his-luck scientist who takes on a job as a courier at a local delivery company. Missions see you attempting to complete a series of increasingly absurd deliveries, ranging from a giant flopping live Marlin to an actual atomic bomb.

It’s a good premise that is only elevated by the game’s vibrant, larger-than-life world. It features fully destructible environments too, allowing you to plow through nearby buildings and sit back as they satisfyingly collapse into big piles of rubble. You can also explore the world outside of missions, which is the perfect opportunity to track down hidden collectibles or just take some time to mess around at your own pace. 

I went hands-on with an early build of Deliver At All Costs at a recent Konami event and, while there were some obvious rough edges, had quite an enjoyable time. The delivery missions were a great challenge and clearly designed with the destructible environments in mind. 

Driving around with a giant flopping fish is just as fun as it sounds, especially when its every movement can send you hurtling into the side of a nearby family home. As the first title from Far Out Games, a Swedish indie developer, it’s definitely a promising start.

Deliver At All Costs is set to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. There’s no official release date yet, but pre-orders for the physical PS5 and Xbox Series X editions are currently available in Europe. 

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Lenco has unveiled three new belt-driven turntables ranging from budget to mid-range options, and as we've come to expect from the hi-fi brand, they offer a lot of features for the money.

The new turntables are the LBTA165, which is fully automatic and has Bluetooth transmission (not too dissimilar to the Victrola Eastwood II, then – although that model also includes speakers and amplification) ; the LBT-215BK, which has both Bluetooth and USB output; and the L455BK, which also has USB output for digitising your delicate records so you'll never lose the music etched upon them.

Introducing Lenco's trio of new turntables

(Image credit: Lenco)

The most affordable new turntable here is the LBTA-175, which has an RRP of £199 / €219 (so around $260 or AU$389, but the decks have just been unveiled at the annual tech event known as IFA in Berlin, so prices for these regions weren't immediately forthcoming). The LBTA-175 is fully automatic and comes with an Audio-Technica AT3600L moving magnet cartridge and a switchable pre-amp. It's available in a choice of two finishes, wood or black wood, and it'll be available from October.

(Image credit: Lenco)

Also shipping in October, the LBT-215BK also has Bluetooth and a switchable pre-amp; the cartridge this time is an Audio-Technica AT-VM95E moving magnet cartridge on a metal tonearm with fully adjustable counterweight and anti-skating. The platter is metal too. You can have this one in any color you like as long as it's black gloss, and the RRP is £299 / €329 (so roughly $390 or AU$585).

(Image credit: Lenco)

Last but not least there's the most premium model of the three, the L-455BK. Once again it's belt-driven (with a belt external to the platter) with a metal platter, tonearm and adjustable counterweight, but this time the cartridge is the highly rated Ortofon 2M RED moving magnet cartridge. The L-455BK also has automatic rotation speed checking and correction for pitch-perfect playback, and there's a switchable phono stage so you can use it with an amp or with powered speakers, making it a potential rival for the Victrola Hi-Res Onyx at the level. 

The L-455BK will also be available from October, with an RRP of £449 / €499 (which is around $589 or AU$879). The finish is black with a brushed aluminium frame.

Will any of the trio make it to our best turntables buying guide? Watch this space, because we wouldn't be surprised… 

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It was Oscar Wilde who said "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", so it would seem the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 has some admirers in the Google engineering team – as one of the foldable's best features is now available on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

As spotted by Android Authority, the new Google foldable – the successor to the Google Pixel Fold launched in 2023 – adds built-in support for app pair functionality, which means you can save pairs of apps to run side-by-side on the main display.

So, for example, if you often have Instagram up on one side of the foldable screen and Google Chrome up on the other, you can save this combination as a pair, and get back to it whenever you need to with a couple of taps.

It's something we've seen on the best foldables from Samsung for several years, and it's a welcome addition to the capabilities of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold – making it easier to take full advantage of that extra-wide, 8-inch display.

Saving an app pair

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 from Samsung (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

To save an app pair on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, first get your pair up on screen, then launch the recents menu by swiping up from the bottom of the display and holding your finger in the center of the screen. Then, tap Save app pair.

This puts a quick link to the app pair on your home screen, ready to relaunch at any time. For a more detailed look at the foldable, including its software capabilities, head over to our full Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold review.

In the interests of balance, our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review is also well worth diving into too: Samsung has of course been making foldable phones for a lot longer than Google has (and maybe one day in the future, Apple will join in, too).

The same app pair functionality is coming to more devices soon, with the introduction of Android 15. The operating system update has now been released to developers, but we're still waiting for it to arrive on actual smartphones and tablets.

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Multiple important refinance rates climbed this week, so it might be worth waiting.

ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode hasn’t even been out for very long, yet OpenAI could be set to add eight more voices to the incredible technology that lets you naturally converse with artificial intelligence.

These new ChatGPT voices offer a range of new styles that could add to the four preset voices: Juniper, Ember, Cove, and Breeze currently available. Advanced Voice Mode gives you the most humanly possible ChatGPT experience similar to Google’s Gemini Live on the new Pixel 9 smartphones.

Originally reported by TestingCatalog, eight new voices were found in recent reverse engineering reports. The voices, called Fathom, Glimmer, Harp, Maple, Orbit, Rainbow, Reef, Ridge, and Vale, bring new abilities to express sounds more naturally, like dog barks.

While these voices are linked to ChatGPT’s text-to-speech, their impressive nature makes them the perfect fit to expand on Advanced Voice Mode’s options. As it stands these new voices aren't currently accessible but you can hear what they sound like thanks to Tibor Blaho on X.

Preview of the new ChatGPT voices (animal sounds)h/t to @stevelizcano https://t.co/hkT7wMU4VF pic.twitter.com/5Tre8eeKqwSeptember 1, 2024

OpenAI’s hardware shift?

OpenAI could be working on more than just ChatGPT voices, however, with a report suggesting the company may enter the hardware market. Taiwanese website United Daily News claims OpenAI has been in talks with TSMC, the chip manufacturer known for its work with Apple on the best iPhones. The source of the news has an unknown track record for chipset scoops, so this is still currently pure speculation.

The rumor implies that OpenAI wants to produce its own custom AI chipset similar to Apple’s Neural Engines and other Neural Processing Units. The custom chip would be based on TSMC’s A16 Angstrom process which Apple could use in the future potentially hinting at future collaborations between the companies. Apple will integrate ChatGPT on iPhones as part of the next generation of Siri, powered by Apple Intelligence. iPhone users will be able to send prompts to OpenAI’s servers should they choose to do so. This allows the iPhone to not only benefit from Apple Intelligence on device but also from ChatGPT’s incredible abilities. 

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Rumors are again flying about Nvidia’s next-gen Blackwell graphics cards and purported power usage, as well as a nugget on the performance of the RTX 5080 – which is going to be seriously speedy (if this pans out).

The speculation again comes from Kopite7kimi on X, a regular for GPU leaks, who as we reported yesterday indicated the power usage for the RTX 5090 would exceed 550W.

When later asked by another well-known leaker, Raichu, on X, whether that means: “600W for 5090 and 400W for 5080 is right?” Kopite7kimi responded to say yes (cover your power supply’s ears now).

VideoCardz, which picked up on this further questioning, also tells us that Kopite7kimi privately confirmed to them that the RTX 5080 has a performance projection of being 10% faster than the RTX 4090, Nvidia’s current flagship graphics card.

Analysis: Performance and power worries – but let’s not forget pricing

What we don’t have confirmed, as VideoCardz observed, is what that 10% performance boost over the RTX 4090 relates to – is it rasterization (not ray-traced), or frame rates with ray tracing on, or an overall measure of both? We’re guessing it’s rasterization, as normally that’s what performance figures relate to – that’s what most gamers are still interested in – but it is just that, a guess.

The RTX 5080 being 1.1x more powerful than an RTX 4090 (in rasterization, we assume) is a good boost for the next-gen xx80-class GPU from Nvidia, and one that’d please gamers looking to buy the second-best Blackwell graphics card. However, knowing the potential performance increase – and it is just a ‘prediction’ at this point, the leaker says – doesn’t mean a great deal when you don’t know the pricing. It will all hinge on that really.

Will Nvidia pitch such an RTX 5080 at a thousand bucks, perhaps? At the theorized performance level, it’s probably more likely to sit at more towards $1,200 in the US (and equivalent in other regions), possibly, but you get the point – whether there’s a rush to buy the RTX 5080 will depend entirely on its value proposition at the high-end, not raw performance as such.

As for power usage, the RTX 5080 tipping in at 400W would be somewhat painful, though, given that the RTX 4080 is at 320W – that’d be a substantial increase of 25%. It’s not that far off the RTX 4090 at this level, which is 450W, as you may recall.

(Image credit: Future)

On the Blackwell flagship’s rumored power usage of 600W, cast your mind back to before the RTX 4090 came out and you might recall exactly the same rumor about that graphics card hitting a 600W power consumption. In the end, it pitched in at 450W, so we must add a great deal of seasoning here.

Rumors are unreliable by their very nature, which is why we’re careful to pepper (ahem) these reports with references to seasoning, and particularly when it comes to power usage, these figures can be up in the air. Is the leak referring to TDP or TGP, the Thermal Design Power (actual heat generated by the graphics card, that the cooling system must cope with) or Total Graphics Power (actual power cap limit for the GPU, as Nvidia defines it – bearing in mind also that it often runs a good deal below that, even when gaming)?

We’re assuming the leaks are talking about TGP (as was the case with the RTX 4090 rumor), but suffice it to say there are nuances here, and when considering GPUs still in development – where these values can be constantly adjusted and tuned – and given the noise and unreliability of the rumor mill in general, let’s just say we’ll stay very skeptical here.

The better news on these current power rumors is that the theory is only the higher-end RTX 5000 GPUs will get bigger bumps for power use, with the mid-range and below seeing some increase, but on a smaller scale. And, of course, these are the next-gen graphics cards most people will buy – when they eventually arrive. We might see the RTX 5090 and 5080 turn up early in 2025, with other models debuting later in the year, if the grapevine is right on the release timeframe for Blackwell gaming cards.

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Two major wars. A rising China. Hackers everywhere. He’s the US secretary of state, and he says he’s here to help.