TechRadar News

Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Tuesday, February 4 (game #1107).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1108) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* 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 #1108) - 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 3.

Quordle today (game #1108) - 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 #1108) - 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 #1108) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• V

• B

• C

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

Quordle today (game #1108) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1108, are…

• SIXTH
• VERVE
• BLURB
• CACTI

Not exactly a SIXTH sense, more of a hunch, but I just knew there was going to be an X today, so when I got stuck on a word with an “S”, an “I”, and a “T” I took a gamble and it paid off.

This was also a day of double letters and getting the two Es in VERVE helped me across the line.

I think we can officially say that it was a tricky game.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1108) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1108, are…

• DIMLY
• ASSET
• TOPIC
• SWORN

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1107, Tuesday 4 February: BIRTH, DRAWN, MILKY, JOIST
• Quordle #1106, Monday 3 February: SLEET, TENSE, SEIZE, SCAMP
• Quordle #1105, Sunday 2 February: LOUSY, PENNE, CHUMP, SALVE
• Quordle #1104, Saturday 1 February: FACET, BLISS, FLUFF, FRANK
• Quordle #1103, Friday 31 January: PARER, SYNOD, BRAWN, BANJO
• Quordle #1102, Thursday 30 January: WEEDY, CHIRP, STALE, SUGAR
• Quordle #1101, Wednesday 29 January: CROWN, SCENE, AGILE, CRANK
• Quordle #1100, Tuesday 28 January: TOKEN, DAISY, INANE, PLIED
• Quordle #1099, Monday 27 January: ANGEL, GLOBE, MAYOR, BRAVE
• Quordle #1098, Sunday 26 January: WATER, ORBIT, BRIDE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1097, Saturday 25 January: GIVER, GROOM, GUSTO, MAKER
• Quordle #1096, Friday 24 January: GRIND, STOCK, SERVE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1095, Thursday 23 January: RUGBY, SASSY, WORRY, BANAL
• Quordle #1094, Wednesday 22 January: SLANT, TRUNK, WOOZY, EATEN
• Quordle #1093, Tuesday 21 January: CHART, VIGOR, PRINT, SPAWN
• Quordle #1092, Monday 20 January: SIXTY, THONG, TATTY, ROBIN
• Quordle #1091, Sunday 19 January: WREST, RINSE, SCOUR, CANNY
• Quordle #1090, Saturday 18 January: BLARE, ITCHY, BICEP, PIPER
• Quordle #1089, Friday 17 January: CATCH, WEARY, SWOON, LATHE
• Quordle #1088, Thursday 16 January: PARTY, BLUNT, TWEED, PLANT

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, February 4 (game #338).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #339) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… What's your reaction?

NYT Strands today (game #339) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• DUEL
• NUDE
• POKE
• LUST
• NOSE
• GLAD

NYT Strands today (game #339) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Aversions

NYT Strands today (game #339) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: top, 3rd column

Last side: 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 #339) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #339, are…

• LATEX
• SMOKE
• DUST
• MOLD
• DANDER
• POLLEN
• FRAGRANCE
• SPANGRAM: ALLERGENS

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 2 hints

As an extremely sensitive type, I suffer from several of the ALLERGENS in today’s Strands – DUST and SMOKE triggering asthma and POLLEN triggering hayfever.

In fact, who am I kidding. I suffer from all of them. Many a perfume FRAGRANCE makes me sneeze, MOLD exposure would lay me up with a cold for a week and LATEX would likely give me a rash if I stood within a yard of anyone wearing it. DANDER I had never heard of, but after Googling it I discovered I was allergic to that too – despite owning two cats.

Thankfully, I’m not allergic to bacon or chocolate.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, 4 February, game #338)

• PIXIE
• FAIRY
• SPRITE
• HOBGOBLIN
• GREMLIN
• LEPRECHAUN
• SPANGRAM: IMPISH

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.

• Acemagic F3A mini PC is designed for high-performance computing
• Offers up to 96GB DDR5 RAM and 4TB SSD
• There are also advanced cooling solutions for heavy workloads

Acemagic has announced its latest mini PC, the Acemagic F3A, powered by the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU. This powerful, 12-core, 24-thread chipset is based on the Zen 5 architecture and integrates a 16-core RDNA 3.5 GPU.

This device also supports an onboard neural processing unit (NPU) for AI-related tasks, with a combined performance rating of up to 80 TOPS when the CPU, GPU, and NPU are active.

The F3A supports up to 96GB of DDR5 RAM with clock speeds of 5,600 MHz as well as a single M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe SSD slot, which can accommodate drives of up to 4TB. To manage the heat generated, the F3A uses dual fans and a copper heat sink that cools both the CPU and SSD.

Memory and storage capabilities

It also supports up to four 4K monitors or a single 8K display at 60Hz. It also offers a robust range of video output ports including HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.0, and USB4 Type-C ports.

Acemagic is yet to announce an official price or sales date, but has hinted that pre-orders for the F3A will be open by the end of the month, and that early-bird discounts will be available via email subscription.

The company has been in the mini PC market for nearly two years since launching its first-ever mini PC, the Acemagic F1A.

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• Zero-water evaporation system will virtually eliminate water usage across Microsoft-owned data centers
• This will save tens of billions of liters of water over the lifetime of Microsoft's parc of data centers
• The key to delivering this solution was implementing chip level cooling solutions at scale

Microsoft has introduced a new data center design which eliminates the need for water evaporation in cooling, addressing concerns about water usage in regions facing shortages and droughts.

This new cooling system, launched in August 2024, optimizes AI workloads while conserving water, and forms part of Microsoft's Datacenter Community Pledge, helping to support local communities and reducing environmental impact.

The system works by using chip-level liquid cooling, which provides precise temperature control without relying on water evaporation. While water is still used for administrative needs such as restrooms and kitchens, the cooling system itself does not require fresh water.

Pilot sites will be live next year

The system operates on a closed loop, meaning water is circulated continuously between servers and chillers without needing to be replenished. Closed-loop liquid cooling has been used by overclockers (including me) for years to keep temperatures stable during resource-heavy workloads, making it a natural fit for modern data centers with their intensive AI demands.

Water efficiency in data centers is measured using Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), which calculates water consumption relative to energy use. Microsoft says by moving to closed loop liquid cooling it expects to save over 125 million liters of water per year, per data center.

"We have been working since the early 2000s to reduce water use and improved our WUE by 80% since our first generation of data centers,” said Steve Solomon, Vice President, Datacenter Infrastructure Engineering, Microsoft.

“As water challenges grow more extreme, we know we have more work to do. The shift to the next generation data centers is expected to help reduce our WUE to near zero for each data center employing zero-water evaporation. As our fleet expands over time, this shift will help reduce Microsoft’s fleetwide WUE even further."

New data centers in Phoenix, Arizona, and Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin, will serve as pilot sites for this technology in 2026. All future Microsoft data centers will adopt this cooling approach going forward, with the first sites expected to be operational in 2027.

Eliminating evaporative cooling does increase power usage effectiveness (PUE), as mechanical cooling requires more energy. However, the use of high-efficiency economizing chillers and elevated cooling temperatures will offset some of this demand.

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• Rumor has it there’ll be a press event for AMD RX 9070 GPUs at the end of February
• This should be a big reveal, hopefully complete with pricing details
• It makes sense that it’d come just ahead of a confirmed on-sale date of March for the RX 9070 and its XT sibling

AMD’s RX 9070 models might be formally announced later in February, a new rumor suggests, ahead of the scheduled March arrival for these graphics cards.

Harukaze5719 on X noticed that Benchlife, a Chinese tech site, posted this info in a story that was primarily about Nvidia’s incoming RTX 5070 GPUs, which will be direct rivals for the RX 9070 cards. (Although AMD’s next-gen GPUs are potential RTX 5070 killers, if some rumors are right).

AMD will hold a press conference for the RX 9000 series based on the RDNA 4 GPU architecture at the end of Februaryhttps://t.co/FfHPjpawVbFebruary 4, 2025

We’re told that the current plan is for AMD to “hold a press conference for the Radeon RX 9000 series” at the end of February, but the exact details are still to be confirmed.

I’d advise a thick coating of seasoning with this one due to the way the nugget of info is crowbarred in at the end of the article, and the fact that this is translated. Also, Benchlife isn’t top of our list of reliable sites for rumors, but that said, it has got things right in the past – and this makes some sense, as I’ll discuss next.

(Image credit: Shutterstock) Analysis: Pricing details for RDNA 4, ASAP, please

The way this rumor is phrased (again, remember the translation leaves some room for doubt) is that things still sound rather up in the air for RDNA 4. However, it is AMD’s intention to debut these RX 9070 GPUs in March as that has been formally announced as an on-sale date, not just a reveal.

Team Red subsequently noted that more time was being taken to hone elements like GPU drivers and FSR 4 support, as well as ensuring healthier stock levels for the RX 9070s, which sounds like a good idea to me, particularly given how the Nvidia Blackwell launch has gone (terribly, stock-wise).

If we are looking at March for the RX 9070 graphics cards to be on shelves, some kind of formal announcement should come before that (AMD has promised a launch event too – indeed, it was rumored for late January at one point). And so a late February timeframe does make sense in that light, but we still need to maintain an appropriate level of skepticism here.

The big hope is that we’ll get some pricing details with that reveal in possibly a few weeks’ time, as those MSRPs will be absolutely key in how these RDNA 4 graphics cards stack up to Nvidia’s RTX 5070 models. Although AMD has made another promise here, too, namely that RDNA 4 will be very competitively priced, and so we can hope the RX 9070 models will really pack a value punch in the mid-range of the GPU spectrum.

Right now, all we have is a lot of promises, though. We just need to hope that they manifest into a reality of AMD gunning for Nvidia’s mid-range Blackwell offerings in a big way, as that should force Team Green to be more competitive, too.

Via VideoCardz

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• Valve is rumored to be working on a Steam console
• The rumors suggest that the console will utilize AMD’s upcoming RDNA 4 Radeon RX 9070 GPU
• This could provide some much-needed competition within the home console market

Valve’s Steam is the topic of the day yet again - and no, it’s not regarding the Steam Deck 2 rumor that was recently shot down by Valve - but rather another rumor that further hints at the gaming giant becoming a true force in the hardware market.

As reported by Wccftech, the new rumor stems from HandleDeck on X (relayed by a Spanish leaker known as extas1s) and suggests Valve is currently working on a 'Steam console', which could use AMD’s new RDNA 4 Radeon RX 9070 GPU. No, this probably isn't a triumphant return of the failed Steam Machines.

This would be huge, as it could mean gamers would have the option of a hybrid gaming console/PC experience since it would likely adopt the Steam Deck’s SteamOS - the PS5 and Xbox Series X already both use RDNA 2 architecture, so this would be great competition for both Sony and Microsoft - if it's true, of course. Based on the rumors of FSR 4 being exclusive to RDNA 4 GPUs, it could spell great news for those looking for the latest and greatest away gaming performance from Nvidia’s hardware.

The reasoning behind this suggestion is that Valve is reportedly working on driver support for the RX 9070 GPU - considering that GPU's supposedly midrange market position (which, granted, we can't clarify until it actually launches), it wouldn’t be too far of a possibility here. Again, this is still just a rumor so take it with a hefty pinch of salt, but since the Steam Deck 2 isn’t coming anytime soon, it would make sense that this is what Valve is targeting next.

This could be the necessary push Sony needs regarding the PlayStation 5

For a long while now, Sony has pushed forward with certain decisions that haven’t sat well with fans - notably its recent mid-generation upgrade with the PS5 Pro, with many gamers upset by its $699.99 / £699.99 / AU$1,199 price tag. In my opinion, there haven't been many truly jaw-dropping games during the PS5 era (especially compared to the PS4’s large collection of blockbuster titles), and this is doubly evident with the numerous remasters and remakes for games that simply don’t need that treatment.

With a Steam console, players would have access to a bigger library of games (thanks to the Steam storefront), and this even includes some former PlayStation exclusives that have now made their way to PC. We’ve heard rumors and suggestions that highly anticipated titles like GTA 6 aren’t guaranteed to run at 60fps on the PS5, too.

If a Steam console launches with a powerful CPU to tag alongside AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 GPU, this will certainly give the PS5 a run for its money, and leave Sony forced to step up its game - so I'm really hoping that there's a grain of truth to this particular rumor.

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With the Samsung Galaxy S25 series now here we’re looking ahead to Samsung’s next big smartphone launch, which in all likelihood will consist of the brand's 2025 foldables.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be the most high-end of these, though there are also reports of a tri-fold model in the works, which might have it beat. Either way though, the Z Fold 7 is likely to be an impressive phone.

We don’t know anything for sure about it yet, but leaks and rumors have revealed some possible specs, features, and other details, so you’ll find all of that below.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The next big-screen Samsung foldable
• When is it out? Probably July
• How much will it cost? Likely upwards of $1,899.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,749

Likely landing in July

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

• Based on past form it will probably launch in June
• The price is reportedly unchanged from last year

So far there’s no news on exactly when the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 might launch, but given that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 were both announced in July of their release years, July is our best guess, with the phone probably shipping either in late July or in August.

We can confidently say that this phone is in the works though anyway, especially as multiple sources have come across codenames and model numbers for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. Plus, leaker @PandaFlashPro claims that production of the phone will start in May, which would likely work for a July launch.

As for the price, according to one source the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will cost the same amount as its predecessor. That would mean a starting price of $1,899.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,749.

Can you trust these rumors?

Based on past form we’re fairly confident of a July or August launch for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

We’d take the price rumor above with a pinch of salt, since so far it only comes from one source. But given that the pricing of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series was for the most part identical to that of the S24, there’s a good chance prices will stay the same here too.

A bigger screen and a slimmer build

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

• Reports suggest the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will have bigger screens than the Z Fold 6
• It may also be slightly slimmer
• The crease could be smaller this year too

During an earnings call (via @Jukanlosreve), Samsung itself said that its upcoming foldable phones would have “improved form factors, durability”, so we can probably expect some changes to the design and build of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

As for exactly what changes, we heard from one source that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 could have the same screen sizes as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition. That would mean an 8-inch foldable screen and a 6.5-inch cover display, up from 7.6 inches and 6.3 inches for the foldable and cover screens respectively on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.

While we’d take this with a pinch of salt, another source has more recently echoed the claim that the Z Fold 7 will have Z Fold Special Edition-sized screens.

We’ve also heard that Samsung is considering not putting a digitizer on the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s screen, which might allow the phone to be around 1.5mm thinner, but would also mean the S Pen would likely be thicker and require a battery (and therefore need charging), as without a digitizer in the display, the stylus would instead have to generate an electric current to interact with the screen.

Finally on the design front, leaker @PandaFlashPro has claimed that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will have a smaller display crease than its predecessor, and a more smooth and durable hinge mechanism.

Can you trust these rumors?

Until we’ve seen renders of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 we’d take any design claims with a pinch of salt. But with Samsung itself saying that at least some of its foldables will be in for a change, there’s a good chance the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will be among them.

There’s also a fair chance the claims of larger screens are accurate, since multiple sources have said as much.

A big 200MP upgrade

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

• The Galaxy Z Fold 7 could have a new 200MP main camera
• There's no news yet on the other cameras

So far the only Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 camera claim we’ve heard is that it will have the same 200MP main camera as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, which would be quite an upgrade on the 50MP main camera of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.

There’s no word yet on the other cameras, but for reference the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition both have a 10MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, a 12MP ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view, a 10MP cover screen camera, and a 4MP camera on the foldable screen. So there’s a good chance the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will stick with at least some of these.

However, the Z Fold 6 uses an under-display camera for that 4MP sensor, while on the Z Fold Special Edition the lens isn’t hidden under the screen, so it remains to be seen whether the Z Fold 7’s camera will be under-display or not.

Can you trust these rumors?

Since only one source has really shared any camera details yet we’d remain skeptical until we’ve heard more, but we certainly hope the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will get that rumored 200MP camera.

An Elite chipset

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

• Likely to use a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset
• Could have 12GB of RAM, just like the current model

According to one source, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will use a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which is what we’d expect since that’s what the Samsung Galaxy S25 series uses. If it does, then it should be significantly more powerful than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, which uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

The same source though says to expect 12GB of RAM and a choice of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB of storage, all of which are the same specs as the current model.

Another source has similarly said to expect a faster chipset than the Z Fold 6, and both they and @PandaFlashPro have pointed to a bigger vapor chamber (which could help with sustained performance) and better speakers.

We haven't heard anything about the battery yet, but for reference the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 has a 4,400mAh one, so it's likely to be at least that big.

Can you trust these rumors?

We’d be very surprised if the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 didn’t use a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, since that’s the next model on from the chipset used by the Z Fold 6, and since it’s also used by the Galaxy S25 series.

The storage and vapor chamber claims also sound believable, and sadly so does the claim that it will stick with 12GB of RAM, since even the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra only has that much in most regions.

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• Apple just dropped an app that’s all about creating event invites
• It includes Apple Intelligence features like Image Playground and Writing Tools
• You can easily create a shared photo album with all guests

Apple’s been slowly but surely making enhancements to its Calendar app across platforms – iOS, iPadOS, and macOS – but if you were hoping for an easier way to plan events within the ecosystem, your wish is being granted.

In fact, it’s in the form of a whole new app – dubbed Apple Invites – and it’s all about event planning. It’s designed to be a one-stop shop for creating the event invite – maybe even using Apple Intelligence’s Image Playground to create the image – from setting a description to building a guest list and sending invites.

The app itself will be for creating, sending, and receiving invites. Like Partiful or Evites, it will allow invited folks to RSVP and see all event details while the host can curate the experience on the backend.

iCloud+ is a central part of this, as you need it to send invites and create an event. However, the onboarding for Apple Invites does note that anyone can receive the invites. Hence, why there is also a web interface for Apple Invites and that means folks with an Android phone can join in on the party going.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The advantages of Apple Invites likely lie within the ecosystem, though. For one, when you create an event within the iOS app, you’ll start with a name and a description. With either of these fields, you can use ‘Writing Tools’ to spice up your writing.

Then, considering an event needs a photo or graphic, you can choose a preset from three themes – Emoji, Photographic, or Colors – snap a photo with the camera, select one from your library, or jump right into Image Playground to make one with Apple Intelligence.

Maybe the most handy, though, is that you can create a shared album through iCloud Photos when you create the event. This way, you can potentially solve the problem of having all your guests send and share photos after the event. This can solve a major pain point, and could be plenty handy for a birthday or graduation party as well as a baby shower or a housewarming event.

Furthermore, if it’s a costume party or has a big, bold theme like the 80’s – disco time, right? – you can also set the mood and share some photos before the deadline. Though, truly, the win here might be after the fact

(Image credit: Future)

Similar to a shared photo library, you can also create an Apple Music Playlist that is helpful for setting the scene but also one that invited guests can use to add their favorites to the DJ mix for the night.

Like Partiful and other apps that make it easy to find the spot, Apple Invites will automatically help guests get directions once you add a location. Based on the time and location, it will also give a preview of the expected weather.

Now, in terms of sending the invites, you can select guests from your contacts or create a public invite link. With the latter, anyone who gets the link could RSVP, but you can turn on an “Approve RSVPs” setting to go over the guest list manually. That way, you don’t have any party crashers … at least super organized ones.

If you’re inviting someone without an iPhone, the web experience is designed to be pretty on par with the iPhone app. And that’s the case if you have an Android device – you still get full access to the collaborative aspects like the shared playlist and photos, assuming you have or make an Apple account.

How much does it cost?

Apple Invites splash screen on iCloud.com (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The only requirement is to be an iCloud+ subscriber, which starts at $0.99 in the United States, £0.99 in the United Kingdom, or $1.49 in Australia. Apple Invites is the latest addition to iCloud Plus, which also provides cloud storage (starting at 50GB), HomeKit Secure Video, Private Relay, and the ability to hide your iCloud email when creating other accounts.

Apple Invites does have some benefits over, say, Partiful or other event-planning apps. It likely seems like a good option – one that we’ll need to test – for those in the Apple ecosystem who have friends with or without an iPhone. The fact that you can still collaborate with the shared photo library, even with an Android phone, is a good step for Apple and might encourage eventual iMessage sharing.

Still, the fact that iCloud Plus is required shows that services is still of the utmost importance to Apple. I, for one, am happy that this might make it easier to share photos, which is a struggle.

Similar to services, Apple Intelligence is critically important for the company, and Invites seems to be making the case that two of the standout features can be useful here. Writing Tools is being pitched as a way to spice up event descriptions, and Image Playground hopes you’ll use generative AI to create event images.

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• Nintendo has confirmed that it's already preparing for Switch 2 scalpers
• Nintendo's president Shuntaro Furukawa said it will be taking "all possible measures" to counter resellers
• Furukawa said last year that Nintendo will make more Switch 2 units compared to its predecessor

Nintendo has confirmed that measures will be put in place to prevent Switch 2 scalpers from buying up stock on launch day.

Nintendo's president Shuntaro Furukawa recently spoke to the Japanese publication Nikkei (translated via VGC), and when asked how the company plans to ensure a smooth launch regarding stock shortages, he explained that plans are already in the works to counter potential resellers.

"We will take all possible measures based on the experience we have accumulated to date (regarding scalpers and the like). We are making preparations," Furukawa said.

When the original Switch launched in March 2017, stock was low and was made worse by scalpers who went on to resell the device at an inflated rate. During a July 2024 interview, Furukawa confirmed that the company will be making more Switch 2 units compared to its predecessor.

"As a countermeasure against resale, we believe that the most important thing is to produce a sufficient number to meet customer demand, and this idea has not changed since last year," Furukawa said at the time.

"In addition to this, we will also take into account the circumstances of each region and make decisions within the limits permitted by law. We are currently considering whether any countermeasures can be taken in this area."

After months of leaks and rumors, the Nintendo Switch 2 was officially revealed in January. There's no release date just yet, but we can expect the console to launch in 2025.

A Nintendo Direct showcase is also scheduled for April 2, 2025, which will hopefully provide us with a release date and an in-depth look at the hardware and new software.

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• The Nothing Phone 3a may come with a camera button
• If implemented, it could become the cheapest shutter button-equipped phone on the market
• Nothing has reiterated an announcement date of March 4

Just last month, I wrote that I wanted to see shutter buttons become standard-issue on smartphones in 2025. Now, it seems that we could be getting the first-ever capture button-equipped budget phone.

Nothing has released a new teaser for its next budget handset, the upcoming Nothing Phone 3a, which strongly hints at the phone getting a new shutter button in the style of the iPhone 16’s Camera Control.

The teaser was shared to X (formerly Twitter) and contains a clear outline of the side of the phone, featuring a new button mounted underneath the power button.

Though Nothing hasn’t confirmed whether this is a shutter button, the post’s caption certainly suggests so; the post reads: “Your second memory, one click away. Power in perspective.” The post then reiterates the phone's previously announced reveal date of March 4.

The teaser shared by nothing, showing a new button on the side of the upcoming Nothing Phone 3a (Image credit: Nothing)

Second memory? One click? Sounds like photography talk to me. If this does turn out to be a shutter button, the Nothing Phone 3a may launch as the cheapest phone of its kind on the market, as the feature has previously been reserved for specialist or flagship devices.

Currently-available phones that come with a shutter button include the iPhone 16 series, which starts at $799 / £799 / AU$1,399, and regionally available models like the Sony Xperia 1 VI and Oppo Find X8 Pro.

In comparison, the current-generation Nothing Phone 2a starts at $349 / £319 / AU$675. Even the higher-end Nothing Phone 2 costs less than the iPhone 16, at a starting price of $599 / £579 / AU$1,049.

Though pricing has yet to be announced, we expect that the Nothing Phone 3a will be considerably cheaper than the iPhone 16 at launch. As such, it’s unlikely that the shutter button found on the Phone 3a will be as powerful as the iPhone’s Camera Control, which offers control via pressure and touch sensitivity.

We’d realistically expect a shutter button on a $350 phone to do little more than take pictures and video, but that's nothing to complain about at such a cheap price point.

Still, a shutter button on the Nothing Phone 3a would be a welcome reflection of high-end smartphone trends, and if the phone does launch with a camera button, it’ll be getting my vote for a spot on our list of the best cheap phones.

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• Anthropic unveils new proof-of-concept security measure tested on Claude 3.5 Sonnet
• “Constitutional classifiers” are an attempt to teach LLMs value systems
• Tests resulted in more than an 80% reduction in successful jailbreaks

In a bid to tackle abusive natural language prompts in AI tools, OpenAI rival Anthropic has unveiled a new concept it calls “constitutional classifiers”; a means of instilling a set of human-like values (literally, a constitution) into a large language model.

Anthropic’s Safeguards Research Team unveiled the new security measure, designed to curb jailbreaks (or achieving output that goes outside of an LLM’s established safeguards) of Claude 3.5 Sonnet, its latest and greatest large language model, in a new academic paper.

The authors found an 81.6% reduction in successful jailbreaks against its Claude model after implementing constitutional classifiers, while also finding the system has a minimal performance impact, with only “an absolute 0.38% increase in production-traffic refusals and a 23.7% inference overhead.”

Anthropic’s new jailbreaking defense

While LLMs can produce a staggering variety of abusive content, Anthropic (and contemporaries like OpenAI) are increasingly occupied by risks associated with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) content. An example would be a LLM telling you how to make a chemical agent.

So, in a bid to prove the worth of constitutional classifiers, Anthropic has released a demo challenging users to beat 8 levels worth of CBRN-content related jailbreaking. It’s a move that has attracted criticism from those who see it as crowdsourcing its security volunteers, or ‘red teamers’.

“So you’re having the community do your work for you with no reward, so you can make more profits on closed source models?”, wrote one Twitter user.

Anthropic noted successful jailbreaks against its constitutional classifiers defense worked around those classifiers rather than explicitly circumventing them, citing two jailbreak methods in particular. There’s benign paraphrasing (the authors gave the example of changing references to the extraction of ricin, a toxin, from castor bean mash, to protein) as well as length exploitation, which amounts to confusing the LLM model with extraneous detail.

Anthropic did add jailbreaks known to work on models without constitutional classifiers (such as many-shot jailbreaking, which entails a language prompt being a supposed dialogue between the model and the user, or ‘God-mode’, in which jailbreakers use ‘l33tspeak’ to bypass a model’s guardrails) were not successful here.

However, it also admitted that prompts submitted during the constitutional classifier tests had “impractically high refusal rates”, and recognised the potential for false positives and negatives in its rubric-based testing system.

In case you missed it, another LLM model, DeepSeek R1, has arrived on the scene from China, making waves thanks to being open source and capable of running on modest hardware. The centralized web and app versions of DeepSeek have faced their own fair share of jailbreaks, including using the ‘God-mode’ technique to get around their safeguards against discussing controversial aspects of Chinese history and politics.

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• Meta has reportedly ended all software updates to the Oculus Quest
• This sets the shelf-life for Quest headsets at just under six years, which suggests the Quest 2 would lose all support in 2026
• The Meta Quest 2 might last until 2028 based on Meta's CTO's comments

Meta looks to have put the final nail in the coffin of the original Oculus Quest VR headset – and it gives us some idea of the life expectancy for the company's other current headsets.

Meta discontinued the original Oculus Quest, which was released in 2019, in 2020, stopped updating it with new features in February 2023, ended security updates in August 2024, and cut support for new apps on the system in April 2024. Now it’s being reported (via UploadVR) that the system can no longer receive updates for older games from developers either, effectively meaning the headset has reached the end of its life.

You can continue to use your Quest if you wish – though given the lack of security updates we’d recommend exercising caution if you do. More significantly, this reported development would put the official lifespan of the original Quest at six years, which in turn gives us an idea of how long Meta might continue to support its other Quest headsets for – and it might be bad news for Meta’s most popular VR hardware, the Quest 2.

That’s because if Meta follows a similar policy with the Meta Quest 2 we can expect that headset to receive software updates until mid/late 2026, then the Meta Quest 3 to be supported until 2029, and the Meta Quest 3S until 2030 – though Meta may choose to end support for the Quest 3 later or 3S earlier given that the headsets share the same chipset so it would be odd to end support for one and not the other.

There’s still hope for the Quest 2 yet

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Boumen Japet)

Meta has already taken the first steps towards sunsetting the Quest 2. The headset was officially discontinued in September last year – though it began disappearing from retail in July – and the first Meta Quest 3 exclusives have already arrived (titles such as Batman: Arkham Shadow) as software developers begin to abandon the Quest 2’s aging hardware. So a 2026 end-of-life date would certainly make sense; however, there’s potentially good news if you're hoping to keep using your Quest 2 for a bit longer.

In a no-longer-available Instagram Story (which was shared to Reddit), Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said the Quest 2 would receive support for "three years from the last date of sale.” That would mean it should last until 2027, with its incredible popularity (it has reliably topped Steam VR headset usage charts for years) likely helping to extend its life a little beyond that off its older sibling.

What’s more, if Bosworth is just talking about Horizon OS security updates, and not app updates from developers, then following the timeline Meta took for the original Quest, your Meta Quest 2 could claw its way to eight years of support before it’s stuck in software stasis, which isn't too shabby given the lifespan of other tech like your smartphone.

If the Quest 2 does indeed survive until 2028, by then we’ll hopefully have a Meta Quest 4S for Quest 2 holdouts to sink their teeth into as a new affordable VR headset alternative, but for exact details of Meta's plans for its existing headsets, and future ones, we'll need to wait for some official announcements.

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• Food delivery service GrubHub has been breached through a third-party vendor
• The incident left Personally Identifiable Information exposed on users and others
• GrubHub has launched a full investigation

GrubHub has confirmed suffering a ‘security incident’ involving a third-party contractor which resulted in the unauthorized access to a set of user contact information.

The breach was detected after the firm noticed unusual activity within its environment, which it traced back to a third-party vendor that provides services for its Support Team. Once discovered, GrubHub reportedly launched an investigation and found unauthorized access to an account associated with the vendor.

The company says it took ‘immediate action’ to contain the situation and is now confident the incident is ‘fully contained’. The leaked data includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, and partial payment information for a group of users. It’s also believed the threat actor had access to hashed passwords for legacy systems.

Know your vendor

Following the incident, GrubHub said it enhanced its security by implementing enhanced monitoring services, as well as strengthening credential security and engaging forensic experts to complete a comprehensive investigation.

This incident proves just how crucial monitoring your systems and your vendors is for businesses of all sizes. Third-party data breaches have become a major security concern thanks to the vast number of vendors most firms will use, many of which are smaller companies with smaller cybersecurity budgets.

“If you want to get into a big organization you go through [third-party vendors]. You go for the low hanging fruit. We've got 14,000 vendors globally providing everything from uniforms in retail branches to large scale data centers,” Standard Chartered Bank’s Benedict Peet told TechRadar Pro.

“You've got to have a scalable security questionnaire to ask them, but the risk is still the same, whether it's a mum and pop shop in the back streets of Seoul or it's at Atos Origin or someone like that.”

Data breaches put victims at risk of identity theft, so take a look at our choices for best identity theft protection if you're concerned you might be affected.

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• Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden doesn't think Sony "can get away with" a disc-less PS6
• Layden thinks Xbox has had more success following the all-digital strategy
• He explains that making a disc-less console could damage the market that relies on an internet connection

The PlayStation 6 is likely years away, and according to former Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios CEO, Shawn Layden, players shouldn't expect a disc-less console.

Speaking to Kiwi Talkz in a recent interview, when asked if Sony could make the next generation PlayStation console all-digital, like the recently released PS5 Pro, Layden said he doesn't think it could be done due to the many players who would need to rely on an internet connection.

"I don't think Sony can get away with it now," Layden said. "I think Xbox has had more success in pursuing that strategy, but Xbox is really most successful in their business in a clutch of countries: the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. Coincidentally enough all English-speaking countries.

"Sony, which is the number one platform in probably 170 countries around the world, has an obligation or a responsibility to say, 'If we go discless, how much of my market is not able to make that jump? Can users in rural Italy get a decent connection to enjoy games?'"

Layden continued, speaking more about how there's a significant market for PlayStation consoles with athletes who like to take their hardware on the go while they travel, as well as in military bases around the world where there isn't an internet connection.

The ex-CEO explained that going digital-only could affect these players and there is potential damage to the market if this were to happen.

"Which part of your market will be damaged by going to disc-less market?" Layden said. "I'm sure they're doing their research on it. And there will be a tipping point, where there's some percentage where you can say, 'Okay that's fine, we can turn our back on that part of the market.' But Sony's market is globally so huge, I think it would be hard for them to go fully disc-less, even with the next generation."

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• Nvidia’s RTX 5090 has run into trouble with the latest graphics driver
• There are numerous reports that GPUs are no longer being recognized by PCs after the driver has been installed
• The problem could be wrapped up in PCIe 5.0 compatibility

Nvidia’s new graphics driver, which brings in support for the RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs, has been causing problems with games crashing – and on top of that, now there are reports from some Blackwell flagship graphics card owners that they’re encountering some serious difficulties.

We should clarify right off the bat that the specter of cable melting that famously hit the RTX 4090 is not a thing with the RTX 5090, despite some rumors that were recently circulating. Those reports totally got the wrong end of the stick (or the power connector, rather).

These fresh bugbears seemingly affecting the RTX 5090 are mostly about the GPU failing to work (not being recognized by the PC), additionally with a claim that two of these Nvidia graphics cards have been bricked (posted on Goofish). Apparently, part of the issue here is a ‘very small probability’ of internal components ‘burning’ although the translation may well be an issue here, I should note. Furthermore, we should be very cautious around those particular anecdotal reports at this stage (I’ll come back to that shortly).

As VideoCardz flagged up, these issues have apparently hit some RTX 5090 buyers, and also those who’ve purchased an RTX 5090 D over in Asia (the variant of the flagship made for that region).

While almost all of these reports have surfaced in Asia – popping up on the likes of Chiphell, Baidu, and Bilibili, as Wccftech noticed – and involve graphics card makers such as Manli or Colorful, there are two reported issues on Reddit from owners of an Asus RTX 5090 (the original poster, and a follow-up claim in that thread).

It’s worth noting that RTX 5080 graphics cards aren’t affected by these apparent issues.

(Image credit: Shutterstock) Analysis: PCIe compatibility woes?

What’s going on here? Well, that’s a tricky one to unpick, and for now, we have to give Nvidia the benefit of the doubt, at least regarding the tales of RTX 5090 graphics cards being fried somehow – take that with a whole heap of seasoning.

However, the problems with the new graphics driver causing the RTX 5090 to not be recognized by the system certainly seem very real. Indeed, this problem was observed in some reviews of the flagship, and it’s something that could be wrapped up in PCIe 5.0 compatibility.

The solution for some, as noted in the Reddit thread with the Asus RTX 5090, is to head to the BIOS and drop down to PCIe 4.0 instead. Yes, that’ll mean a slight performance loss, but it’s not that big a drop (and it’ll only be temporary hopefully, as when things are ironed out, you’ll be able to switch back).

This drop to-PCIe-4.0 plan isn’t helping everyone, though, and the trick didn’t work for the RTX 5090 owned by the original poster on Reddit. They’ve had to send their board back to Nvidia, with Team Green now investigating the problem, we’re told.

This remains one to keep a close eye on, then, for the time being. Of course, with there being very few RTX 5090 graphics cards out there – due to seriously limited stock – any issues aren’t likely to be that widely reported, anyway.

We’ve reached out to Nvidia to see if the company can shed some light on this matter, and will update this story with any response.

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• A phishing campaign is targeting X users, experts warn
• Fake login emails are sent to victims
• The aim is to take over accounts and advertise a fraudulent crypto scheme

High-profile accounts on the social media network X (formerly known as Twitter) are being targeted by a phishing campaign, experts have warned.

A report from SentinelLabs outlined how prominent accounts belonging to US political figures, large tech organizations, leading international journalists, and even an X employee, have been attacked via a phishing campaign.

Although the primary targets are large accounts with a high follower account, everyone should be on the lookout for this attack: here’s what we know so far.

Financial objectives

In its report, SentinelLabs notes the aim of the attack is to compromise an account, lock out the legitimate owner, and post fraudulent cryptocurrency opportunities or links to external sites, which are designed to ‘lure additional targets’, most commonly with a crypto-theft related theme.

It seems the attack originates from a range of phishing tactics, one being the notorious login notice. This works by sending the victim an email to notify them their account was accessed from a new device, and that the location of the device was in a foreign city.

From there, a link is provided for users to ‘secure’ their accounts and provide their username and change the account password. This page is fake, and the victims have then unwittingly provided their credentials to a threat actor.

The campaign uses several phishing domains for this, like x-recoversupport[.]com and securelogins-x[.]com, and in some cases, researchers observed the campaign abusing Google’s ‘AMP Cache’ domain in order to bypass email detections and reroute the user to a phishing domain.

The criminal then takes over the account and begins using the accounts audience to advertise cryptocurrency scams. The high profile accounts allow criminals to maximise their financial profit by reaching a wider audience and collecting more victims.

Crypto scams are incredibly dangerous, and lucrative, with the FBI recently estimating in 2024 alone, the scams cost victims more money than ransomware.

Staying safe

To avoid such fraudulent schemes, investors should be ultra-careful that their investment is legitimate. The cryptocurrency market is largely unregulated, which makes it the perfect environment for scammers and criminals - so be sure to heavily research any investments before handing over your data or money.

The key part of this attack is the initial phishing email. Social engineering attacks like phishing are dangerous because they catch users off guard, naturally staying alert is the best defense.

Phishing attacks will prompt victims to reveal their personal information, like logins, credentials, financial information, and more. This puts victims at risk of identity theft or fraud.

It is true that some platforms will email you if there’s an unrecognized sign-in to a new device, which is what makes this campaign so convincing. It’s easy to say that users should be extra careful, but sometimes that’s just not enough, so here are some extra tips to stay protected.

First of all, create a strong and secure password, and crucially do not reuse passwords from one site to another - this helps by quarantining any account that has been breached.

Next, enable multi-factor authentication or MFA, especially for sites that hold medical or financial information. Although this can be a bit of a faff, it's a great extra layer of security and gives you a peace of mind knowing that criminals would struggle that bit more to access your data.

Another thing to look out for is mismatched or suspicious domains. If you receive an email you’re not expecting, especially one prompting action and including a link. Check the spelling of the domain, e.g. Faceb00k rather than Facebook. It’s never a bad idea to Google what the legitimate domain would be, either.

The final thing to look for is odd attachments - if the sender is unknown and the email contains links, images, or documents - this is a red flag. Qr codes are particularly dangerous, so don’t scan anything you’re not certain is safe.

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• The Apple Music Recap for 2025 has begun
• You can now see your listening stats for January
• A full recap appears at the end of the year

Spotify Wrapped famously drops for music fans towards the end of each year, but if you're an Apple Music subscriber you don't need to wait until December to get a look back over your listening history – and the platform's first monthly recap for 2025 has just appeared.

The feature is called Replay 2025, and you can find your January playlist by opening up the Home tab in Apple Music on the desktop, on the web, and on mobile. Scroll all the way down to find the Replay 2025 songs, and you can then tap to open the playlist and add it to your library.

Not everyone on the TechRadar team has seen Replay 2025 show up yet, so it may take a little while to reach you. As 9to5Mac reports though, plenty of listeners are seeing their song selections show up, so you shouldn't have to wait too long to get it.

You can also head to the dedicated Apple Music Replay microsite to access your latest charts on the web, which should work even if you aren't seeing an entry for the playlist appear on the app's Home tab yet.

How Apple Music Recap works

Apple Music Recap keeps track of your listening history (Image credit: Future)

The playlist updates with your most listened to tracks as you go through the year, month by month – so just the stats for January are available now. There is an entry for February shown, but there are no stats available yet.

You'll be shown how many listening minutes you've banked, together with your top tracks and top artists. Number of plays and the amount of time spent listening are both taken into account, Apple says.

As the year goes on, Apple Music Recap will note the milestones you pass as well: total minutes listened for example, or that total number of artists you've listened to. These will be split up by month in the same way as the listening stats.

Towards the end of the year you get a full recap of the last 12 months, covering everything you've listened to – so you don't miss out on the final round-up. You can also find playlists built from previous annual recaps at the bottom of the Home tab in the Apple Music apps.

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Today’s businesses are drowning in data from IT systems, applications and digital platforms. It’s a situation that’s been accelerated by the post-pandemic pivot towards home working and the popularity of AI, which has seen the volume of global data rise from 2 zettabytes in 2010 to a forecasted 394 zettabytes by 2028.

Managing this flood is overwhelming for IT teams, whose current approaches to data management simply can’t keep up with the exponential growth in scale and complexity. Without a digital life raft, they’re at risk of an information overload that could obscure data analysis, delay decision-making and impede commercial growth.

Enter AIOps, which can help businesses manage vast amounts of data by surfacing the most critical issues in real-time – allowing IT teams to address problems faster and allocate resources where they’re needed most. Ultimately, this technology converts having an excess of data into a significant competitive edge.

Why traditional methods fall short

It’s likely that the businesses struggling to cope with the complex demands of modern IT environments are those still relying on legacy software, siloed data sources and rigid monitoring tools. The problem is, these traditional approaches typically require manual input, which is time-consuming and prone to error.

By design, they also fail to provide a holistic view of the IT ecosystem – a lack of transparency that makes it difficult to identify patterns or predict potential issues in a world where data is everywhere. What’s left is an overreliance on under-resourced IT teams that are tasked with locating, protecting and utilizing a completely unmanageable amount of information.

Updating or replacing these existing solutions involves considerable time and money. However, persisting with inefficient and outdated systems will likely incur ‘tech debt’ – the financial burden of constantly needing to update aspects of a digital estate to meet the demands of new projects. Essentially, neglecting digital transformation will result in repetitive and costly business expenses moving forward. Therefore, businesses need a more proactive solution.

Achieving clarity with AIOps

AIOps has the power to transform organizational IT management thanks to the way it harnesses machine learning and advanced analytics.

By allowing these platforms to oversee their data, organizations can effortlessly deal with the technical disruptions that would otherwise be buried within increasingly complex digital estates.

AIOps doesn’t just react to issues; it predicts them too. By analyzing real-time and historical data, it detects patterns that signal future interruptions, allowing teams to act before problems impact users. Automating repetitive tasks frees IT professionals for strategic initiatives while streamlining processes and optimizing budgets, and platforms offering AIOps for observability provide a single window into IT ecosystems – reducing blind spots and generating insights that protect performance across applications.

AIOps enables organizations to cut through the chaos, offering a comprehensive view of digital operations and helping them focus on the information that truly matters to them.

The increasingly vital role of data stores

For businesses to integrate technology that helps them comprehensively monitor the behavior of IT systems, their information needs to be easily accessible – which is exactly why data stores are another key part of the AIOps equation.

Imagine that an organization's IT infrastructure is like an office block. Just like every office space would store its own paperwork, each department in this virtual building contains different stacks of unique data. If an IT team was told to examine every bit of this information, they’d have to carefully search every siloed location to find it.

Having a data store is like putting all those siloed datasets into a ​​virtual warehouse, within which an organization's information is immediately more accessible, analyzable and trackable. A digital asset of this nature can be the difference between a failed and a successful AI strategy.

However, an inability to build a repository large enough is often a major stumbling block for many businesses, particularly as datasets become more immense than ever before. ​​With the help of pre-built infrastructures, IT teams needn’t worry about finding more capacity. Instead, they can reap the scalable, secure and accessible rewards of having a unified data ecosystem.

Why a successful AIOps strategy matters

In today’s digital economy, data isn’t just an operational byproduct. Rather, it’s a strategic asset that can support businesses to outpace their competitors by identifying trends faster, providing superior customer experiences and innovating at a higher level than the rest.

By automating the handling of data streams and consolidating disparate systems, AIOps can turn organizations into agile, data-driven enterprises. Indeed, decision-makers across all industries believe in its potential, with a recent survey revealing that 91% of businesses agree that AI provides a competitive advantage.

Take customer service as an example. A public-facing business that integrates AIOps – like a retailer, bank or airline – can swiftly resolve any data bottlenecks that would usually cause website downtime or slower transactions. Customer retention levels rise as the brand establishes itself as a reliable digital presence in the industry – as does the financial bottom line.

Surviving and thriving in the age of information

As data continues to flood the IT landscape at an overwhelming rate, it’s a challenge for businesses still deciding what action to take. AIOps can be a life saver, by prioritizing proactive problem-solving, optimizing resources and adopting solutions like unified observability and data stores.

In fact, in an era where information is power, organizations that embrace the transformative power of AIOps can not only survive but thrive. These digital platforms unlock heightened levels of security, efficiency and innovation, shifting the strategic focus from merely coping to growing; turning the stress of being inundated by data into a competitive advantage.

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In 2022, the AI boom took the world by storm, sparking up conversations about its impact on society and asking the burning question: Does it have the power to take our jobs?

McKinsey conducted a study on the topic of AI and its potential consequences for the human workforce, concluding that 15% of the global workforce may have their job replaced by AI come 2030. This justifiably raised concerns about job displacement, particularly in sectors where generative AI has shown significant potential, such as customer service, digital marketing, and data entry. Two years down the line, the initial buzz and clamor has calmed down — but the question still stands. While headlines continued to paint a grim picture of a workforce rendered obsolete, this narrative overlooks a crucial element; the potential for AI to empower humans and free them up to fully apply their creativity to create new opportunities.

The truth is: there’s no black-and-white answer. The reality is a more nuanced picture. To truly unlock the potential of AI in the working world, there needs to be a shift in perspective in how we think about work.

What does AI mean for workforces?

Historically, technological advancements have led to new jobs and industries. For instance, when the internet was first formed, 500,000 jobs had been destroyed, but generated a net total of 1.2 million new opportunities — more than doubling the number of roles lost. The same logic applies to AI.

The momentum to push AI as a tool for businesses is timely, as the dust settles on the Autumn Budget Statement which disappointed many UK tech leaders. With AI investment initiatives already pausing earlier this year, the announcement once again neglected to fulfill its promise set out in the last statement, running the risk of stalling and falling behind in the race to harness the power of AI. With the government slow to step up, ultimately, the buck stops with businesses — not government spending — to drive AI adoption. This means reimagining the future workforce, applying AI’s immense potential to augment human capabilities, rather than simply replacing them, as fear-mongering media narratives suggest.

The reality of AI

AI and automation are working hand-in-hand, transforming the workplace by significantly reducing repetitive, manual tasks. Arduous data entry processes can be automated, complex calculations can be performed in seconds, and reports can be generated. Though minimal human intervention is required, it’s key to recognize that this doesn’t take specialists out of the picture; it only works to empower them further. By allowing employees to focus on higher-level strategy, creativity, and relationship building, the impact of AI is fundamentally changing how existing jobs are performed, making them more efficient and productive, rather than bogged down in manual data analysis.

What’s more, AI is already creating new job opportunities, particularly in fields related to AI development, implementation and maintenance. We're seeing a rise in new roles like AI trainers, ethicists, and prompt engineers, jobs that didn't exist just a few years ago. This highlights how AI isn’t merely automating existing tasks but also creating entirely new avenues for employment.

The trifecta for success: AI, no-code and the human workforce

Alongside the rise of AI, another workforce transformation is brewing: No-code technology.

AI has offered tremendous advantages for breakthroughs in innovation, but many businesses have been slowed because of the required technical experience and a shortage of AI-trained developers. No-code essentially takes a less technical approach to AI software development that democratizes technology, allowing non-IT employees to build AI-powered applications without extensive programming skills. With enhanced accessibility, businesses are empowered to take coding and development into their own hands. Individuals can build and deploy flexible AI applications that automate workflows, build custom solutions, and enhance overall efficiency, regardless of their programming background.

Automation equals time saved, freeing both developers and business users up for higher-value tasks and fostering a stronger culture of innovation. The combination of AI plus no-code is also tilting the balance away from shrink-wrapped, vanilla off-the-shelf software and increasing the trend again towards highly customized AI-infused apps. Customers have been trained to avoid customizing packaged software because they wanted to lower the cost and complexity they would face if they did so. However, AI + no-code represents a new alternative that offers the best of both worlds – you can tailor the process and app to your needs, but without the cost and risk.

John Bratincevic, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research puts it this way: “There are good reasons for this. When practical, fit-to-purpose software is best. And the lower cost, risk, and lead time of low-code development — coupled with an expanded developer pool, easier integration, management of apps on a common platform, leveraged licensing, etc. — makes it much harder to justify off-the-shelf software licenses and vendor sprawl. AI-powered enterprises will “build” software instead of “buy” it — and many applications in enterprise portfolios will consolidate onto low-code AppGen platforms.”

While no-code makes complex technology accessible, AI also brings new intelligent automation and data-driven insights to the table. By forging these two tools together, businesses can form a powerful combination that reshapes and transforms the capabilities of the human workforce. This synergy can play out in a variety of ways. One example includes data visualization dashboards, where AI analyses data and extracts valuable insights to be displayed on a no-code-built dashboard; then acts upon this by having an AI agent or AI-powered workflow automate the necessary updates to systems, documents or taking action on the user’s behalf. While AI and no-code may accelerate developing new apps, the role of human analysts play a crucial role in interpreting those insights, identifying patterns, and making strategic decisions and actions (supported by AI) that strengthen the organization's bottom line.

By embracing technologies like AI and no-code, organizations can unlock greater potential from the workforce and work toward a future where technology and people thrive together — not compete for the flag at the top of the mountain.

The future is now

While the uncertainty surrounding AI’s role in replacing jobs remains strong, the future of work is not pre-determined. This is just the beginning of a long journey ahead. The onus is on businesses to lead the way in ethical and strategic AI development, while embracing new technologies such as no-code to unleash an unprecedented level of efficiency and enable the workforce to flourish.

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• Meta makes its Frontier AI Framework available to all
• The company says it is concerned about AI-induced cybersecurity threats
• Risk assessments and modeling will categorize AI models as critical, high, or moderate

Meta has revealed some concerns about the future of AI despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s well-publicized intentions to make artificial general intelligence (AGI) openly available to all.

The company's newly-released Frontier AI Framework explores some “critical” risks that AI could pose, including its potential implications on cybersecurity and chemical and biological weapons.

By making its guidelines publicly available, Meta hopes to collaborate with other industry leaders to “anticipate and mitigate” such risks by identifying potential “catastrophic” outcomes and threat modeling to establish thresholds.

Meta wants to prevent “catastrophic” AI outcomes

Stating, “open sourcing AI is not optional; it is essential,” Meta outlined in a blog post how sharing research helps organizations learn from each other’s assessments and encourages innovation.

Its framework works by proactively running periodic threat modeling exercises to complement its AI risk assessments – modeling will also be used if and when an AI model is identified to potentially “exceed current frontier capabilities,” where it becomes a threat.

These processes are informed by internal and external experts, resulting in one of three negative categories: ‘critical,’ where the development of the model must stop; ‘high,’ where the model in its current state must not be released; and ‘moderate,’ where further consideration is given to the release strategy.

Some threats include the discovery and exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities, automated scams and frauds and the development of high-impact biological agents.

In the framework, Meta writes: “While the focus of this Framework is on our efforts to anticipate and mitigate risks of catastrophic outcomes, it is important to emphasize that the reason to develop advanced AI systems in the first place is because of the tremendous potential for benefits to society from those technologies.”

The company has committed to updating its framework with the help of academics, policymakers, civil society organizations, governments, and the wider AI community as the technology continues to develop.

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