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AMD has confirmed it's working closely with Activision to bring the FSR 4 upscaling tool to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in 2025 - further clarifying the purported shift to AI for FSR.

This comes from Team Red’s Vice President, Jack Huynh, in a video that unveils the new Ryzen 7 9800X3D (spoiler: the rumors and spec leaks we reported earlier this week were accurate). In addition to the new chip, Huynh confirmed AMD’s plans to optimize FSR 3.1 further in Black Ops 6. Following this, the AMD VP mentioned a collaboration with Activision to bring the ‘next generation of ML-based FSR’ to the long-running shooter franchise next year.

We’re still waiting to hear more about how the newly AI-driven FSR 4 will work - especially versus DLSS and now PSSR, both of which notably use AI for resolution upscaling, while AMD has avoided the use of AI for FSR thus far. According to Huynh, handheld gaming PCs will enjoy a significant battery life improvement stemming from AI-based frame interpolation.

While this could drastically improve power efficiency for handhelds, it’s also potentially great news for desktop PC gamers who use mid-range GPUs. Fluid Motion Frames (AMD’s frame-gen software) has already improved smoothness and reduced latency across multiple games, and with AMD fully focusing on machine learning for FSR 4, we can expect a performance leap in both FMF and the resolution upscaling tool itself.

Will this help AMD GPUs compete with Nvidia’s?

It’s clear that frame generation and AI upscaling are becoming prominent factors in producing smooth gaming experiences on PC. Nvidia’s DLSS has consistently outperformed AMD’s FSR, which is more than likely one of the RTX 4000 series’ pull factors for PC gamers (since the next-gen DLSS 3 is only available on RTX 4000 cards).

With a new generation of upscaling tech on the horizon, this is a great opportunity for Team Red to compete in the GPU market - high-end GPUs are no longer its focus, so FSR 4 may be the savior needed to lock in strong but affordable performance for its mid-range and budget cards.

If AMD’s leaked CES 2025 lineup is accurate, we could see the brand put up a great fight within the GPU department but also deliver a complete landslide across multiple other next-gen hardware arenas… watch this space, folks.

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The upcoming Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro gaming phone will break the record for the highest display refresh rate reached by a globally released phone, according to a new rumor.

Notable leaker Digital Chat Station shared a Weibo post on October 31 claiming that they had got hands-on with the upcoming phone, adding that it’s the “first to launch [with] a 185Hz extremely high refresh rate screen”.

If this tipoff is true, the ROG Phone 9 Pro will boast the fastest refresh rate found on a globally released smartphone.

Note the “globally released” prefix, though – the actual fastest refreshing phone screen is found on the Japan-exclusive Sharp Aquos Zero2, which comes equipped with a blazing-fast 240Hz panel.

Nevertheless, 185Hz is nothing to shake a stick at – the current industry standard for flagship phones is 120Hz, with some 144Hz models from the likes of Xiaomi. Apple, on the other hand, still fits the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus with a measly 60Hz display.

For those not in the know, Hz is short for 'Hertz', which in turn means how many times per second a display can refresh the image presented. A higher number means objects on screen will appear to move more smoothly.

By any current measure, 185Hz is extremely fast. It tracks that Digital Chat Station suggests the ROG Phone 9 Pro will feature the best heat dissipation efficiency presently possible, though we haven’t seen any metrics to support this claim nor any details on which tech enables it.

Asus has a track record of making phones with very high-refresh rate displays, which adds some credibility to this rumor. The current-generation Asus ROG Phone 8 sports a 165Hz panel, for example.

Digital Chat Station also shared some other potential specs for the upcoming ROG Phone 9 Pro, suggesting the phone will be IP68 certified and feature a centrally-positioned Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a placement likely intended to assist with heat distribution.

The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro and standard ROG Phone 9 are due to launch on November 19, following the reveal of the two phones last month, and we expect that both phones will have a chance of joining our list of the best gaming phones.

Until then, most of the above is based on rumors, so be sure to keep up with our Asus phones coverage for the latest official updates as we hear them.

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AMD’s Strix Point Halo chips have been the subject of a major leak underlining the potential power of these processors, and when they’re expected to arrive – which isn’t in the near future for gaming laptops, sadly.

Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID) on YouTube had the scoop on these Strix Halo APUs, and as per an apparently official render leaked from AMD showing a chip, the processors will be called the Ryzen AI Max Pro series. (A bit of ‘kitchen sink’ style naming there, with an element of one-upmanship in terms of the models seen in Apple’s M series silicon, no doubt).

We’re given spec details too, which mirror what we’ve heard from the rumor mill previously – namely that the flagship Strix Halo CPU will have 16 cores, and the integrated graphics will be RDNA 3.5 (refreshed RDNA 3) with a mighty 40 CUs.

This means that the flagship chip will be around the same level of power as a discrete RTX 4070 laptop GPU, at the least, so the integrated graphics might even outdo the RTX 4070. Let that sink in for a moment – remember, this is integrated graphics. We’re also apparently looking at a TDP of 120W.

We can expect to see Strix Halo launched at CES 2025 – as already rumored, and AMD will seemingly have a pile of stuff to reveal at the show – and workstation laptops with Ryzen AI Max Pro chips are going to be first on the shelves in Q1 of 2025.

After that, gaming laptops will arrive with Strix Halo in the second quarter, although we may see a smattering of those notebooks in Q1. MLID sounds pretty sure that most of the gaming launches will be in Q2, however, with creators and other heavyweight users being targeted for the initial silicon here. This makes sense in terms of poaching MacBook sales with these ‘Max Pro’ processors, of course.

A third outlet for Strix Halo might eventually be APUs produced for small form-factor PCs, depending on how successful the chips are in laptops (and we guess how much resources Team Red has behind them, too).

Analysis: Concerns about gaming laptops

These Strix Halo processors are set to be nothing less than a revelation for thin-and-light gaming laptops (and of course, workstations as mentioned – which will be the priority for AMD, perhaps to the annoyance of gamers, but there are plentiful profits to be had in the world of svelte MacBook-style laptops for creatives and other power users).

As MLID points out, though, the slight snag is that by the time Ryzen AI Max Pro notebooks pitch up, we will likely have a range of new laptop GPUs from Nvidia. With next-gen Blackwell GPUs rumored to be a considerable step up in power – we may see these at CES 2025 too – the comparison between Strix Halo’s integrated graphics and discrete laptop video cards isn’t going to be quite as striking.

Of course, this means at Strix Halo launch time, we’ll likely be looking at the equal of the RTX 5060 mobile, rather than the RTX 4070 as mentioned in the comparison drawn by the leak – and that doesn’t sound quite as eye-opening. However, remember that the sort of laptops Strix Halo can be packed into will not play host to a discrete Nvidia GPU and related cooling, which will require a bigger chassis.

In short, these are still some heavyweight APUs to look forward to that are going to pack quite a punch for more compact notebooks. If anything, the worry for us might be that workstations are favored over gaming laptops to more of a degree than we’d ideally like – we shall see. It’s possible that more modest variants of the Strix Halo CPUs will be the engines of gaming laptops, and as VideoCardz, which spotted the leak, also points out, most of the spillage (benchmarks) around Ryzen AI Max Pro thus far has related to workstations.

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Amazon has reported an 11% growth in revenue in its latest quarterly results as profits continue to soar for the ecommerce and cloud giant, which is teetering towards a $2 trillion valuation.

The strong growth is largely down to the company's cloud computing succes, with AWS reporting a 19% year-over-year growth in revenue.

At $27.5 billion, Amazon Web Services’ third-quarter revenue equates to nearly a fifth (17.3%) of the company’s entire revenue.

AWS pushes Amazon revenue

Operating income for AWS reached a new milestone of $10.45 billion, accounting for more than three-fifths of the overall company’s profit, with an operating margin of 38.1%, the highest in a decade.

In the same period, Google Cloud revenues increased 35%, marking much healthier growth than that of Amazon’s, however Google’s cloud division revenue is only $11.4 billion – less than half of AWS’.

Since Amazon’s previous earnings call, AWS has launched a series of new genAI products, including its Rufus shopping assistant in Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain and the UK; AI Shopping Guides; Project Amelia for sellers; and video generation and live image capabilities for advertisers.

It also added Anthropic’s upgraded Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Meta’s Llama 3.2, Mistral Large 2, and multiple Stability AI models to Bedrock and signed agreements with global companies like Capital One, T-Mobile and Toyota.

“We’ve seen significant reacceleration of AWS growth for the last four quarters," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy summarized on the company’s earnings call.

While cloud shows no signs of slowing down, Amazon is also anticipating growth across its ecommerce business in the next three months. The busy festive period, driven by a handful of major consumer sales, will be met by the temporary hiring of seasonal staff globally.

Jassy added that “there’s so much more coming” including “over 100 new cloud infrastructure and AI capabilities,” which will be shared at the upcoming re:Invent conference in December 2024.

Via Geekwire

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• Amazon is working to get Alexa to ChatGPT levels
• The launch was originally planned for early 2024
• Bugs, hallucinations, and simple tasks are still issues

Amazon Alexa was originally launched alongside the very first Amazon Echo speaker back on November 6, 2014 – but as the voice assistant approaches its 10th birthday, it's struggling to keep up with next-gen AI bots like ChatGPT and Gemini.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, "technical challenges" mean that Alexa's upcoming upgrade has now been pushed back to 2025. Originally, a beta version of the updated bot was planned to arrive earlier this year, Bloomberg says.

There was also apparently a plan to unveil Alexa 2.0 alongside the new Kindles that appeared last month, but again the launch got pushed back. Now, some unspecified point in 2025 is the target deadline.

With the likes of Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and many other bots pushing their way into every aspect of digital life, Amazon knows that it's lagging behind – Alexa has effectively been overtaken by its rivals.

Bugs and hallucinations

There was a plan to launch Alexa 2.0 alongside the latest Kindles (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

There's no doubt that a generative AI upgrade for Alexa is a challenge. The assistant is currently available on around half a billion devices, and rolling out an update for all of them isn't a straightforward task.

Bloomberg's report says the souped up version of Alexa in testing still has a tendency to "drone on with irrelevant or superfluous information", while also struggling with basic tasks, such as switching on smart lights.

While there has been some progress towards a ChatGPT-style Alexa, the sources speaking to Bloomberg say there's a long way to go, with bugs and hallucinations causing problems. There has been talk that Amazon could get help from another AI model, in the same way that Apple has supercharged Siri with ChatGPT.

There's also a lack of a "compelling vision" according to insiders, with "management bloat" around Alexa another issue. So, even if you've got one of the best Alexa speakers, it looks like it's going to be a while before you get one of the best AI bots built into it.

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Eight years on from its initial launch, Amazon has introduced multi-factor authentication (MFA) to its business cloud-hosted email service, WorkMail.

Better late than never appears to be the justification behind the near-decade delay, especially for one of the most basic forms of identity verification that has been standard practice for several years now.

However there are still hurdles to enabling MFA for WorkMail, as it will not be enabled by default and system administrators will have to manually add each user to the AWS Identity Center.

MFA at last

Amazon launched WorkMail as a competitor to Microsoft Exchange, and over the past years has built a modest customer base but still struggles to compete despite many businesses migrating to Amazon provided services and continuing to use Microsoft Exchange.

In late 2023, Amazon signed a $1 billion deal with Microsoft to provide Microsoft 365 licenses to one million of Amazon’s corporate and frontline workers, including Outlook.

In a response to questioning by TheRegister, an Amazon spokesperson said MFA was available for WorkMail through other methods, stating, “It was previously possible to configure MFA via AWS Directory Service, but setup was complex for customers and it only supported AWS-managed Microsoft ADs.”

“WorkMail continues to adhere to general security updates consistent with AWS standards, such as moving TLS minimum versions to 1.2, expanding audit logging support, and providing guidance to customers [on] how to implement overarching protections against a wide range of potential compromises,” the spokesperson said.

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• Benchmark results for Apple’s M4 Pro chip have appeared on Geekbench
• They suggest the M4 Pro’s performance tops the Mac Pro’s M2 Ultra
• It’s an impressive result for Apple’s brand-new M4-series Macs

When Apple revealed its new M4 Macs, it generally contrasted their performance to the M1 and M3 chips that came before. Those comparisons showed a fairly impressive step up, but a new Geekbench benchmark has shown that the M4 Pro chip can square up against Apple’s powerful Mac Pro – and absolutely dominate the encounter.

The Geekbench result shows the M4 Pro achieving a single-core score of 3925 and a multi-core result of 22669. The machine running the rest was configured with 48GB of memory and that fact, combined with its model identifier number of Mac16,7, suggests that it was a MacBook Pro.

Likewise, there are plenty of results for an M4 Pro Mac identified as Mac16,11, which is likely to be the Mac mini.

One example on Geekbench sees this machine score 3618 for single-core performance and 22113 on the multi-core test. Like Mac16,7, this computer was outfitted with 48GB of memory.

What those scores mean

(Image credit: Apple)

Now, what do these scores mean? Well, let’s compare them to the latest Mac Pro with the M2 Ultra chip. There are a lot of results for this machine on Geekbench, but the most recent one sees that Mac score 2868 for single-core performance and 22065 for multi-core output.

That means that the M4 Pro pulls ahead in the multi-core test and totally demolishes the M2 Ultra in terms of single-core performance. That’s all the more remarkable because of the price you’ll pay to get each of those chips.

The Mac Pro starts at $6,999 / £7,199 / AU$11,999 for a model configured with an M2 Ultra chip with a 24-core CPU, a 60-core GPU and 64GB of memory. In contrast, you can get a Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip with a 12-core CPU, a 16-core GPU and 24GB of memory for a mere $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,199. Boost it up to the same 48GB of memory that the benchmarked model had and you’ll still only pay $1,799 / £1,799 / AU$2,799, yet get far better performance than the Mac Pro.

It leaves the Mac Pro in something of an awkward spot. While it will eventually migrate to the M4 series of chips, that’s not expected to happen until the second half of 2025, potentially forcing interested buyers to wait a year for updates.

While the Mac Pro has plenty of its own strengths – far superior expansion options and vast memory capacity being two of them – it’s not a good look to have its performance overshadowed by Apple’s own machines, all for a fraction of the cost.

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We only just got Android 15, but rather than having to wait until late 2025 for Android 16, Google has confirmed that its next major software release will land in the second quarter of 2025 – so somewhere between April and June.

The company revealed as much on its Android Developers blog, claiming that it’s releasing Android 16 earlier than usual so that more devices can get the latest Android release earlier.

In other words, phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25, for example, will probably get Android 16 within a few months of launch, rather than having to wait six months or more. The likes of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, and Google Pixel 10 will surely ship with Android 16, too.

(Image credit: Google)

Interestingly, Google says that there will also be a “minor” Android release in the final three months of 2025. This will include feature updates, optimizations, and bug fixes, but won’t include any app-impacting behavior changes.

The company hasn’t actually named either of these updates, but as the only “major” Android release in 2025, the first of these will surely be Android 16, while the second sounds like it might be Android 16.1.

On top of that, we’ll see “incremental updates” in the first and third quarters of 2025.

Smaller updates, more often

With most of the highest profile Android phones landing in the first half of the year, it makes sense to launch new versions of Android at around the same time or shortly after, but this change does mean that Google will have less time to develop Android 16 than it's typically allowed for.

That, in turn, might mean that this is a smaller update than we've seen from previous years, though that’s just speculation for now. And even if it is, the release of Android 16.1 (or whatever it ends up being called) later in the year should bring additional changes.

So, if Google sticks with this approach in future years, it could simply mean that there’s a more regular drip-feed of Android improvements throughout each year, rather than a single massive overhaul once a year. We're certainly on board with that approach.

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Sophos has revealed details of a five year battle with Chinese hackers who targeted networking devices across the globe.

The ‘Pacific RIm’ reports outline clusters of activity that cybersecurity venders and law enforcement can attribute to known threat actors Volt Typhoon, APT31 and APT41/Winnti - with ‘varying degrees of confidence’.

Included in the list of targets were prominent manufacturers such as Fortinet, NetGear, Sophos, Check Point, Cisco, and more. The attacks were aimed at high value targets primarily in the Indo-pacific region, and included nuclear energy suppliers, telecoms, military, and government agencies.

Critical infrastructure attacks

"For more than five years, Sophos has been investigating multiple China-based groups targeting Sophos firewalls, with botnets, novel exploits, and bespoke malware," Sophos explains in the report.

The state actors are not exclusively aiming at high value espionage targets though, as Sophos observed actors using tightly connected digital ecosystems which form part of the critical infrastructure supply chain to disrupt critical services.

“This community is believed to be collaborating on vulnerability research and sharing their findings with both vendors and entities associated with the Chinese government, including contractors conducting offensive operations on behalf of the state. However, the full scope and nature of these activities has not been conclusively verified." said Ross McKerchar, Sophos X-Ops.

Researchers believe that the attacks started in 2018 when they hit the Cyberoam headquarters, which is an India-based Sophos subsidiary.

Critical infrastructure is increasingly at the receiving end of state-sponsored cyberattacks, with some estimates putting this figure at 420 million in 2023, which is 13 attacks per second.

One of the groups, Volt Typhoon, has already been found lurking on US critical infrastructure networks for years, so this news won’t come as much of a surprise. The state sponsored group were positioned to steal sensitive information, monitor activity, and disrupt the infrastructure.

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Sony Interactive Entertainment CEOs Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino have revealed some interesting tidbits about the company’s overall strategy in a newly published interview with Variety.

Responding to an early question about the release timing of the PlayStation 5 Pro, Nishino explained that the company “learned a lot” from the launch of the PS4 Pro. He said “20% of customers actually got the PS4 Pro,” suggesting that there’s quite a lot of interest in high-end PlayStation devices. He also claimed that the company saw new users coming over to PlayStation “to get PS4 Pro, as well.”

As a result, Sony “started working on the PS5 Pro even before [the] PS5 launches.” Nishino goes on to say that “it was another five-year project for us.” 

As for whether a mid generation refresh like the PS5 Pro is truly necessary, the CEO drew parallels to the world of mobile phones and PCs where annual iterations are common. “Phones are updating every year, PCs are updating every year,” he said. “I don’t think we’d go every year updates, but there are things we can package together to bring the great things into [the] game console segment range.” 

Nishino also commented on the early reception to the PS5 Pro, with pre-orders for the console beginning last month. “We’re kind of happy to see, like most engaged gaming users are interested in the PS5 Pro,” he began, “and then I’m pretty sure new users will grab the PS5 Pro as well.”

“We design everything with having one ahead in our mind,” he added. “It’s not like we just make a next step and we don’t know about the two steps ahead.” This last detail might not come as much of a surprise for those who have been keeping up with the latest PS6 rumors, which have already begun to circulate.

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• The One UI 7 beta program is about to launch
• Lots of new features have already leaked
• The full version of the software is arriving in 2025

Android 15 has now been pushed out to Pixel handsets, and a major leak has revealed more about Samsung's own One UI 7 take on the software – with Galaxy owners possibly getting the chance to try it out later this month.

This major leak comes from Android Headlines, and it's a comprehensive rundown of the features in One UI 7. There are redesigned icons for a start, which now look more modern and easy on the eye, as well as a revamped and tidier quick settings panel.

We also get a look at the updated lock screen here, with live widgets showing playback controls, timers, and so on. Notifications are moved to a separate panel as well, making them easier to access and manage.

Other improvements include maths and physics support in Circle to Search, extra health insights in Energy Score, a full suite of parental controls, and a stack of photo-editing upgrades too, such as AI-powered restyling of portrait shots.

One UI 7 availability

It will take another half month before Beta startsNovember 1, 2024

A lot of the leaks mentioned by Android Headlines have been previously rumored, so we've now got a very good idea of what's on the way to Galaxy phones. The next question is, when are we going to get it?

According to well-known tipster Ice Universe, the beta will be available in "another half month", which puts it right in the middle of November. Anyone with a compatible Samsung phone should then be able to try out the early version of the software.

SamMobile has spotted new sub-forums on the Samsung site dedicated to the One UI 7 beta, and speculates that the beta program might be announced at a developer conference in South Korea scheduled for November 21.

As for the final version of One UI 7 that will be pushed out to everyone, Samsung has confirmed that it'll arrive early in 2025 – very probably in January, at the same time as the Galaxy S25 series of flagship phones.

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A popular online animation tool was abused to trick people into handing over access to their cryptocurrency wallets, with at least one individual losing close to $700,000.

LottieFiles is a platform that provides tools and a library for creating, editing, and sharing lightweight, scalable animations in the Lottie format. These animations, together with the plugin LottiePlayer, are commonly used in websites and mobile applications with 94,000 weekly downloads and has been downloaded more than 4 million times since its launch.

Recently, an unnamed threat actor somehow obtained a session cookie from one of the developers of LottieFiles, and used that access to push three new versions of LottiePlayer (2.0.5, 2.0.6, and 2.0.7) to npmjs. Websites that use LottiePlayer and were configured to always use the latest version have had the malicious versions downloaded automatically.

New version released

These new versions prompted website visitors to connect their cryptocurrency wallets, which basically gives the site access to the stored funds. We don’t know how many people fell for the trick and connected their wallets, but we do know that at least one person did, and it cost them 10 BTC, which is $696,960 at press time. This information came from Scam Sniffer, a Web3 anti-scam platform.

"On October 30th ~6:20 PM UTC – LottieFiles were notified that our popular open source npm package for the web player @lottiefiles/lottie-player had unauthorized new versions pushed with malicious code," the project’s co-founder and CTO, Nattu Adnan, wrote on GitHub. "This does not impact our dotlottie player and/or SaaS services. Our incident response plans were activated as a result. We apologize for this inconvenience and are committed to ensuring safety and security of our users, customers, their end-users, developers, and our employees."

The attacker was quickly ousted, and a new version - 2.0.8, pushed live. This is a copy of the last safe version, which was 2.0.4.

"We have confirmed that our other open source libraries, open source code, GitHub repositories, and our SaaS were not affected."

Via The Register

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OnePlus has spent weeks teasing the OnePlus 13, and at long last, the phone has been fully unveiled at an event in China.

Highlights of this impressive-sounding handset include a huge 6,000mAh battery with 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging. That makes the OnePlus 13's battery both bigger than the 5,400mAh one in the OnePlus 12, and also bigger than the vast majority of other smartphone batteries.

Elsewhere, the OnePlus 13 also has a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, making this one of the first phones to come equipped with Qualcomm’s latest silicon. We’re expecting to see the same chipset in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series next year, so it should be a top performer.

That chipset is paired with up to 24GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage – though based on past form, this configuration might just be for China, with other regions perhaps topping out at 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

(Image credit: OnePlus)

That’s still a lot, though, and the OnePlus 13 also has better water resistance than most phones, with both an IP68 and an IP69 rating – this detail was confirmed ahead of launch, mind.

The phone has a 6.82-inch 1440 x 3168 AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, and it has an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint sensor, which should perform better than the optical one used by the OnePlus 12.

As for the cameras, the OnePlus 13 has a 50MP f/1.6 main snapper, a 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide (with a 120-degree field of view), and a 50MP f/2.6 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. There’s also a 32MP camera on the front, and of these, the ultra-wide and telephoto sensors are new.

OnePlus had already shown off the design of the OnePlus 13, but you can see that it looks a bit different from the OnePlus 12, with a new camera block design and a much less curved screen. In fact, the display looks almost flat, but in fact it has tiny curves on all four sides.

(Image credit: OnePlus) The global launch could still be months away

There’s a lot to like here, then, but this initial launch was just for China, so you can’t buy the OnePlus 13 just yet. Based on past form, we’d expect the global launch to happen within the next few months, and that’s when we’ll also learn the global pricing. In China, the OnePlus 13 starts at CNY 4,499. That translates to roughly $630 / £490 / AU$960 and gets you a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

The top model (which, again, may well not be available internationally) costs CNY 5,999, which is around $840 / £650 / AU$1,280, though we wouldn’t expect direct price conversions to be accurate.

For comparison, the OnePlus 12 starts at $799.99 / £849 (around AU$1,215), so in reality, you’ll probably be paying at least that much for the OnePlus 13. Oh, and don’t count on being able to get it in Australia, as the OnePlus 12 isn’t available there.

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The first official trailer for Squid Game season 2 has debuted online, and it really seems like Seong Gi-hun's got his work cut out to stop the titular fatal games for good.

Unveiled yesterday (October 31) at the Lucca Comics & Games convention, the wildly popular Netflix show's next installment looks like it'll be even more thrilling and blood-soaked than its predecessor. With contestants literally putting their bodies on the line to win the games' $4.56 million cash prize, the latter is par for the course for Squid Game. Where the former is concerned, though, the addition of a new, between-rounds game is going to completely upend the titular gameshow as we and Gi-hun know it.

As the teaser reveals, those participating in this season's edition of the games will need to survive all manner of perils, including Squid Game's iconic 'Red Light, Green Light' trial that'll pit Gi-hun against Young-hee once more. With Gi-hun successfully navigating the games in one of the best Netflix shows' first season, his experience will be invaluable for his fellow contestants as they take on Young-hee and similarly lethal games. Well, if they listen to him, anyway.

It doesn't appear as though many of them will, mind you – and that's where Squid Game 2's new stratagem comes into play. At the end of each round, survivors cast a vote on whether to continue the titular games or not. If the majority vote to walk away, all remaining participants will apparently receive a share of the cash they've won so far. However, should the masses decide to continue playing, they can add to their prize pool by playing more games, but they obviously run the risk of losing their life. Based on what the survival drama series' latest teaser shows, Gi-hun's pleas to end the games go unheeded, though I suspect there'll be some individuals who either take his side or eventually realize the errors of their ways in continuing to play in later episodes. Regardless, Squid Game season 2's new ploy is going to stress me – and, I imagine, many of you – out later this year.

This is far from the only Squid Game 2 footage that's teased huge surprises to come in the hugely popular show's next chapter. In September, another new Squid Game season 2 trailer teased other big plot details, such as contestants being forced to push coffins (likely containing some of their fellow, and likely, deceased players) into an incinerator. One month earlier, a different Squid Game 2 teaser gave us our first look at the contestants, albeit by way of their participant numbers only, who'll play an integral role in this season's plot.

What is the plot of Squid Game season 2?

Extending a heartfelt welcome to all of you. Squid Game Season 2 is arriving December 26th. pic.twitter.com/KYTeoAsVOuOctober 31, 2024

Until now, Netflix hadn't released an official story brief for its most-watched TV Original's second entry. Thankfully, the world's best streaming service has lifted the lid on what to expect from Squid Game season 2, which will be released on Netflix on December 26.

"Season 2 raises the stakes," its official plot synopsis reads, "with Lee Jung-jae reprising his role as Seong Gi-hun, also known as Player 456. With a hardened demeanor and the scars of past games, Gi-hun is on a desperate mission to expose the deadly truth of the competition. Yet, his warnings go unheeded, and tensions rise as fellow players question his intentions."

Elaborating further on what the latest trailer teases, a Netflix press release also added: "The teaser also shows the return of Lee Byung-hun as the mysterious Front Man, whose true motivations remain cloaked in secrecy, while Wi Ha-jun’s Hwang Jun-ho is back, driving the narrative forward as the relentless detective on a mission of his own."

Joining Jung-jae, Byung-hun, and Ha-jun on the season 2 cast list are newcomers Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-uk, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, Jo Yu-ri, and Won Ji-an. Lastly, Gong Yoo, who plays the enigmatic Recruiter, is also back to, well, recruit more individuals for the life-threatening gameshow.

Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game's creator, has penned season 2's scripts and directed all eight episodes. He's joined on the executive producing team by Kim Ji-yeon, too. Oh, and the pair are already deep in production on Squid Game season 3, which will arrive sometime in 2025 and wrap up Gi-hun's story. At least we know he'll make it out alive in season 2, then!

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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 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 #1012) - 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 #1012) - 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 #1012) - 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 #1012) - 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 #1012) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• F

• G

• R

• T

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

Quordle today (game #1012) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1012, are…

• FIFTY
• GULCH
• RECUT
• TWEET

I needed a lucky guess to solve today's Quordle. I'd completed the other three quadrants without too many problems, but was left with the top left. At that stage the answer could have been BITTY, KITTY or FIFTY, so really I should have narrowed it down. But I was impatient, played FIFTY, and got it right.

I then repeated the trick on the Daily Sequence, solving each one on the first guess when I probably didn't deserve to. That kind of attitude will surely come back to haunt me at some point, but sometimes you have to just go for it, eh?

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

Daily Sequence today (game #1012) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1012, are…

• RETRY
• PARTY
• FLANK
• BEGET

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1011, Thursday 31 October: TWINE, RIGID, BELCH, AMEND
• Quordle #1010, Wednesday 30 October: SLOOP, BRINE, BROOD, FLUID
• Quordle #1009, Tuesday 29 October: CLIFF, BURNT, SNAKY, POLYP
• Quordle #1008, Monday 28 October: MACAW, LIEGE, GOUGE, CARGO
• Quordle #1007, Sunday 27 October: STUNG, CLOUT, SOWER, BASIS
• Quordle #1006, Saturday 26 October: DUCHY, CANNY, BLOCK, SMART
• Quordle #1005, Friday 25 October: PRANK, EXIST, RUDDY, PICKY
• Quordle #1004, Thursday 24 October: DAIRY, RALLY, CURLY, LABEL
• Quordle #1003, Wednesday 23 October: DROSS, ANNEX, GRAVE, BROKE
• Quordle #1002, Tuesday 22 October: ADORE, SMITH, AFOOT, LUCID
• Quordle #1001, Monday 21 October: TREAD, NINTH, GRIEF, UNSET
• Quordle #1000, Sunday 20 October: CORAL, WHOSE, HEIST, SOAPY
• Quordle #999, Saturday 19 October: GUSTY, BROKE, ENJOY, HAZEL
• Quordle #998, Friday 18 October: PUPIL, MOCHA, EGRET, NATAL
• Quordle #997, Thursday 17 October: BUILD, BIRTH, LURCH, SASSY
• Quordle #996, Wednesday 16 October: EERIE, SMIRK, HUNCH, EMBED
• Quordle #995, Tuesday 15 October: UMBRA, BRIEF, GRAVY, TORUS
• Quordle #994, Monday 14 October: ROGUE, STORY, EMCEE, AUNTY
• Quordle #993, Sunday 13 October: UNFIT, NYMPH, THUMB, PUREE
• Quordle #992, Saturday 12 October: SAUCY, UNDUE, EGRET, HELLO

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 #509) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• DRAG
• DRAFT
• DOODLE
• DOMINO
• BALL
• BUTTERFLY
• CURL
• CRAWL
• PUFF
• INCH
• HALO
• BOTTLE
• TAP
• PLACEBO
• CAN
• CREEP

NYT Connections today (game #509) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: You'll get there in the end
• Green: Thanks, bartender
• Blue: Not a chip, but serves the same purpose
• Purple: Blank [reaction to something]

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 #509) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: PROGRESS SLOWLY
• GREEN: WAYS TO ORDER A BEER
• BLUE: CHEESY CORN SNACK UNIT
• PURPLE: ___ EFFECT

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

NYT Connections today (game #509) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #509, are…

• YELLOW: PROGRESS SLOWLY CRAWL, CREEP, DRAG, INCH
• GREEN: WAYS TO ORDER A BEER BOTTLE, CAN, DRAFT, TAP
• BLUE: CHEESY CORN SNACK UNIT BALL, CURL, DOODLE, PUFF
• PURPLE: ___ EFFECT BUTTERFLY, DOMINO, HALO, PLACEBO

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I like beer, I like cheesy corn snacks, I liked this Connections puzzle, which was definitely at the easier end of the spectrum. Admittedly, that spectrum runs from 'Fairly tough' to 'Absolutely impossible', so it's all relative; what I call an 'easy' Connections game still represents one of the best brain workouts I get each day.

Unusually, I solved purple first today, which goes some way to indicating why I didn't find it too tricky. The [blank] variety of answers can be tricky, but once you know to look for them – which I always do, right at the start – they're really not too bad. The trick is to say the word out loud in your head (an oxymoron, yes) and see what naturally feels like it should go before or after. If I say the word BUTTERFLY my mind instantly completes it with EFFECT. Do the same for PLACEBO, DOMINO and HALO and you have your answer. With the hardest one done, the other three were all relatively easy solves.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, 31 October, game #508)

• YELLOW: TERMS OF ENDEARMENT DARLING, LOVE, PUMPKIN, TREASURE
• GREEN: THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR EYELIDS BAT, BLINK, FLUTTER, WINK
• BLUE: SPORTS CARS DIABLO, MUSTANG, SPIDER, VIPER
• PURPLE: ___ HUNT EGG, JOB, SCAVENGER, WITCH

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Strategy game

NYT Strands today (game #243) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• COOK
• TIME
• RUNG
• SING
• SHIP
• SHIN

NYT Strands today (game #243) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Grandmaster's move

NYT Strands today (game #243) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: top, 3rd column

Last: bottom, 5th column

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

NYT Strands today (game #243) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #243, are…

• QUEEN
• KING
• ROOK
• TIMER
• BISHOP
• PAWN
• KNIGHT
• BOARD
• SPANGRAM: CHECKMATE

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I'd love to really get into chess one day, to learn the various openings and strategies to be able to hold my own. Until then, I'll have to content myself with completing this chess-themed Strands game in record-quick time. It really was very easy. As soon as I found QUEEN it was obvious what the others words would be, and I've played chess often enough that I didn't have to wrack my brains to recall KING, ROOK, BISHOP, PAWN and KNIGHT. CHECKMATE indeed.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 31 October, game #242)

• GHOST
• MUMMY
• WITCH
• CLOWN
• PUMPKIN
• PRINCESS
• PIRATE
• SPANGRAM: COSTUME

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.

Ever send a picture of yourself trying on clothes to a friend to see what they think of how you look? Now, imagine doing the same from the perfume and cologne counter. AI could make that happen in the not-too-distant future after a breakthrough in 'Scent Teleportation.' Osmo, which bills itself as a "digital olfaction" company, has succeeded in using AI to analyze a scent in one location and reproduce it elsewhere without human intervention.

Scent teleportation uses sensors to collect and analyze a scent with a Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS). The data is then transmitted to a specialized molecular printer, which can synthesize and combine the chemicals necessary to exactly reproduce the scent. Osmo has previously performed scent teleportation, but only with humans helping the process at every step.

That's no longer necessary. Osmo has successfully used AI to map the processed scent onto its Principal Odor Map (POM), a database that predicts how specific combinations of molecules correspond to particular smells. AI models can then communicate the molecular profile of the scent to a robotic system to create and mix a replica of the aroma. The video demonstration by Osmo CEO Alex Wiltschko below shows how it works.

Smells like AI

"Well, we actually did it. We digitized scent. A fresh summer plum was the first fruit and scent to be fully digitized and reprinted with no human intervention. It smells great. Holy moly, I’m still processing the magnitude of what we’ve done. And yet, it feels like as we cross this finish line we are instantly at a new starting line," Wiltschko shared on X. "I don’t know if this is embarrassing, but I carry the plum scent with me a lot of places and smell it constantly. It makes me smile."

AI makes it possible for Osmo to better process huge amounts of data about a scent, making it more accurate and streamlining the process significantly, even when there are very subtle odor components. Osmo claims to have the largest AI-compatible scent data bank, which in turn helps train the AI to understand and reproduce scents. Scent teleportation isn't Osmo's only AI project. The company has also used AI to design entirely new scents, offering them to the fragrance industry.

Inhale the future

While it may seem a bizarre application of AI, scent teleportation could be an enormous boon to multiple industries. Imagine putting on a VR helmet and not only seeing the virtual environment but smelling it, too. Maybe it's not ideal for some games, but watching a VR cooking show would be much more immersive with some olfactory assistance. Osmo also points to the potential health implications of scent recreation in therapy for conditions like anosmia (loss of smell) or as a way of diagnosing conditions where changes in your sense of smell are a symptom.

As for the sharing of perfumes to get a distant friend's opinion, companies might look askance at the idea of you replicating their proprietary scents. But you could certainly enhance a romantic message with a picture of a flower the recipient can actually smell. Then again, the most popular suggestion for how to use AI-assisted scent teleportation might turn you off to the whole idea.

Guys if you keep asking me to use our cutting edge scent teleportation technology to send farts I freaking will and then who’s laughingOctober 30, 2024

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The US Army has conducted tests in Saudi Arabia featuring an armed and AI-powered robot dog able to shoot down drones.

The Vision 60, developed by Ghost Robotics, is equipped with a range of high-tech features designed to enhance battlefield capabilities.

Primarily aimed at anti-drone operations, the Vision 60 is equipped with a turret and an AR-15/M16 rifle, and is able to detect and engage aerial targets.

Vision 60 testing

The test in Saudi Arabia, reported by Military.com, is part of a broader effort to develop and deploy effective anti-drone systems. As drones become more prevalent in warfare, the need for reliable defense mechanisms has grown.

The footage released by the US Army shows the robot dog in action, targeting drones with precision thanks to its electro-optical targeting system, engraved with the words "Lone Wolf," - the same as that used in recent US Army "Hard Kill" operations.

In military parlance, active defense systems are generally categorized into "hard kill" and "soft kill." Hard kill systems, like the one used by the Vision 60 robot dog, physically destroy incoming threats, such as missiles or drones, by intercepting them mid-air. Soft kill systems, on the other hand, focus on disrupting or disabling an enemy’s equipment through non-destructive means, such as electronic interference.

Ghost Robotics, the company behind Vision 60 Q-UGV, says it is designed to be highly adaptable and capable of operating in various terrains and environments. I

t has already been deployed by several militaries worldwide for different purposes, including surveillance, reconnaissance, and search and rescue missions. While the robot dog has been utilized in combat scenarios, this marks one of the first public demonstrations of a weaponized version being tested for anti-drone purposes.

The United States military is taking major steps in advancing its defense technologies, particularly in the realm of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

The use of weaponized robots, often referred to as "killer robots," remains a controversial subject. However, the US is not alone in its pursuit of armed robotic systems. Other countries, including China, Russia, and the United Kingdom, are also actively developing similar technologies.

While robotic systems have been employed in various military roles, the deployment of fully autonomous, armed machines in combat is rare. Critics argue that the ethical implications of such technologies must be carefully considered, as the introduction of autonomous lethal force raises serious moral and legal questions. Nevertheless, there is an active global race to develop AI-powered, weaponized robots that will reduce human involvement in high-risk combat situations and improve the efficiency of defensive systems.

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Google Maps is becoming more of a tour guide thanks to Google’s Gemini AI models. The AI assistant will offer suggestions for places to visit, sum up reviews, and answer your questions about locations from the Maps app on Android and iOS devices in the U.S., based on insights culled from data about millions of locations worldwide. The update shows that Google's infusion of Gemini AI across its services, especially on mobile devices, is accelerating, as Google Maps sees more than 2 billion users a month and is updated 100 million times a day.

The most notable update melds Google Maps with Gemini's flexible conversational interface to provide ideas for places to go based on your queries. You might ask for family-friendly spots to visit on a Saturday or cheap restaurants to eat at that are near a concert you're attending at night. Gemini will sort through data from Google Maps to curate recommendations.

The idea is that Gemini will not only have a list of spots but AI-generated information that goes as deep as you want it to. That's why Gemini will also summarize reviews of locations you're interested in. Instead of scrolling through what people have said, you can see a Gemini-written composite that spotlights elements, good and bad that reviewers have highlighted. Google suggests this will speed up decision-making as it is a more concise snapshot of how people feel about a place.

(Image credit: Google) AI guidance

Should the review summary not be enough, Google Maps is also leveraging Gemini to answer your specific questions about a location. You can ask about any facet of a venue, whether factual, like its opening time, or more opinion-based, like how people feel about the atmosphere. Gemini will dive into the information available from the location and people's reviews to answer. The response will also use Gemini to be conversational, even throwing in extra details you might not have asked for but that are relevant to your initial question. This feature won't be limited to Maps for long, either, according to Google.

"All of these features are made possible thanks to Gemini’s powerful creation, reasoning, and summarization capabilities — grounded in our trusted data about 250 million places around the world and insights from the Maps community," Google wrote in a blog post. "You’ll also see similar experiences in the coming months on Search — including AI-powered review summaries and the option to ask detailed questions about places."

The Gemini AI upgrades complement several other new Google Maps tools now rolling out. You can now use the app to look at route stops before you leave, see detailed visual navigation guides for when an intersection has complex entrances and exits, and even see weather disruptions along your route as they develop. Google Maps is also taking up a more holistic approach to managing your arrival, showing parking spots, and walking directions to the entrance of your destination.

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