TechRadar News

• Apple Fitness Plus is kicking off 2025 with a bunch of new classes.
• Apple is also working with Strava to let your workouts easily sync.
• More 'Time to Walk' and 'Artist Spotlight Series' are incoming.

In what’s become an annual drop, Apple Fitness Plus is starting 2025 off strong with new features, workout types, and programming, plus a new integration that should make folks pretty darn happy. It also comes after a pretty big redesign that launched in 2024, which makes classes easier to find.

So let’s start there – after completing your workout in Fitness+, you’ll be able to export all of the data right into Strava, one of our best fitness apps. This way, you can see, log, and review all of the workout metrics alongside your other statistics. You’ll also be able to view the exact title and episode number of the workout, the genre, and even the Fitness+ Trainer.

Beyond that integration, though, you’ll start to see some members of the Strava community in the Fitness+ studio during workouts. Apple says "celebrated athletes from the Strava community will join the Fitness+ trainer team as special guests in workouts throughout the year".

Who those athletes are is being kept under wraps, but given Strava's so ubiquitous throughout the fitness community, we're likely to see sessions similar to ultrarunner Scott Jurek's "Yoga for Runners" collaboration with Fitness+ trainer Jessica Skye. Who knows, you might see Bradley Wiggins drop into a cycling class with trainer Emily Fayette.

Plus, if you’re a Strava subscriber – brand new or already one – you get three months of Apple Fitness Plus for free – meaning you can jump right into using this integration, stream a class in 4K UHD, or dive into a new program.

(Image credit: Apple)

If you’re looking to dive into a program, something a little more regimented that lays out a schedule, ‘3 Perfect Weeks of Strength’ might be up your alley. It’s the newest Fitness Plus program and is all about building and maintaining strength with twelve 30-minute workouts spread across three weeks in these categories: Progressive Overload, Time Under Tension, and Dynamic Power.

Similarly, Apple’s hopping on the pickleball wagon with a dedicated program led by Catherine Parenteau, a champion of the sport. She’ll lead the class alongside Fitness+ trainers with a focus on strength, endurance, and agility for playing your best in the sport.

There is also an ‘Introduction to Breath Meditation’ program arriving, which seems like a great way to reduce stress as the new year takes effect. It’s also a good reminder that meditation and yoga classes are good to mix in among core, strength, and other workout types. These are also a bit more bite-sized in ten-minute-long classes.

(Image credit: Apple)

If you’re keen to start on your yoga journey as well, there are classes focusing on individual poses. This might be one that I give a go – Yoga Peak Poses are billed as an ‘intimate workout’ experience focused on poses like Dancer, Twisted Hand to Big Toe, and Crow.

(Image credit: Apple)

While my favorite Artist Spotlight Series in the Fitness Plus library would have to be the Bruce Springsteen-focused ones, several new ones have also been announced. A quick point is that while much of this content, including the new programs and Strava integration, takes effect on January 6, 2025, their music classes will be on a schedule.

Artist Spotlight Series dedicates the entire playlist used during the workout to one artist or band, and aims to tell a story with the picked tracks. On January 13, 2025, Janet Jackson drops as the first one of the year. Coldplay swiftly follows that on January 20 and Kendrick Lamar on February 3, timed to the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show as he is headlining.

If dancing is more your speed, So You Think You Can Dance star Alex Wong is leading a special 20-minute dance workout that drops on January 6, 2025.

Time to Walk, Fitness+'s series of audio-only guided walks, is back with new episodes from Adam Scott, Maddie Ziegler, Tiffany Haddish, Steve Aioki, Lana Condor, Rita Ora, and Daddy Yankee, all set to arrive this year. With these, you’ll be asked to walk through stories and even favorite tracks as the host walks through stories. It’s a cool experience that works great on the Apple Watch.

As a whole, Fitness Plus is offering new programs that I think existing users will find rewarding and continues to expand its offerings for people who might try Apple’s streaming workout service for the first time. As a reminder, it’s deeply integrated with the Apple Watch, but you can stream and take the classes on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV 4K streaming box. I’m still waiting on a Mac app.

Fitness Plus starts at $9.99 a month or $79.99 for an annual subscription, but alongside the Strava promotion, you can also score free trials by purchasing an Apple device like an Apple Watch, iPhone, or iPad. Additionally, if you’re already subscribed to Apple One Premier, you get access to Fitness Plus for you and your family. In fact, any subscription is for up to six members in total.

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• Despite recent growth, PC shipments are set to slow down in 2025, Canalys predicts
• Proposed Trump tariffs and Windows 11 upgrade costs are to blame
• Import tariffs could increase PC prices by as much as 46%

New research from Canalys has confirmed recent healthy growth in the US PC market, with shipments rising 7% year-over-year to 17.9 million units in the third quarter of 2024, however the outlook for the near future isn’t quite so positive.

The firm stated market recovery could slow down in the months ahead due to potential headwinds related to macroeconomic policies – a result of Trump’s upcoming presidency.

Further factors, like weaker momentum in the Windows refresh cycle despite the outgoing OS, Windows 10, losing support in October 2025, are also set to impact the market.

US PC market facing upcoming challenges

With quarterly growth set to continue into the first quarter of 2025, Canalys is predicting a shrinking market in the second quarter, with third- and fourth-quarter growth barely in single-digit figures.

The predicted 2% growth for 2025 as a whole will be significantly less than the 6% expected in 2024. Last year's figures have not yet been released.

Despite slowing growth, buyer splits remain fairly consistent, with consumers accounting for around 37% of purchases and commercial customers taking 43-44% of the market. Government and education customers make up the remaining buyers.

Canalys Analyst Greg Davis commented: “With the 2024 US Presidential election coming to a close, macroeconomic conditions in the US are not expected to be as stable in the near-term as they have been over the last year or two.”

The company’s release cites recent Consumer Technology Association research, which suggests that proposed tariffs under Trump’s upcoming leadership could increase laptop and tablet prices by as much as 46%. Smartphones could also see a 26% price hike following proposed tariffs of 10-20% on imports from most countries, and 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.

A struggling market and rising costs mark a significant change from Canalys’ expectations from September 2024, when the company declared that US PC shipments could grow by 6% in both 2024 and 2025.

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• Taylor Sheridan's Western movie Hell or High Water is available to watch on Paramount Plus
• The movie has become a streaming hit eight years after its release
• Hell or High Water follows the desperate attempts of two brothers trying to save their family ranch

There's no doubt that Paramount Plus has become the home of neo-Western dramas thanks to the work of TV hitmaker Taylor Sheridan. It all started with his Paramount behemoth Yellowstone, which then spawned into a number of spin-offs like 1883, 1923 and now there are even more in the works.

While Sheridan has mastered the craft of TV making, he's also an acclaimed film writer with the likes of Sicario, Wind River and Hell or High Water all sharing similarities to his small-screen dramas. But if you're looking for more cowboy chaos after the Yellowstone season 5 finale, Sheridan's hit Western movie Hell or High Water was one of the new December arrivals on Paramount Plus in the US.

Eight years after its release, Hell or High Water has now become a streaming hit and has been climbing the top 10 most-watched movies on Paramount Plus, according to MovieWeb. Hell or High Water was also a major success outside of the streaming world as the film earned Sheridan an Oscar nomination for his script, as well as a nomination for Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actor for Jeff Bridges.

What is Hell or High Water about?

Hell or High Water follows two struggling brothers, Toby (Chris Pine) and ex-convict Tanner (Ben Foster) who plan a series of heists against the bank that's about to foreclose on their family ranch. Trying to stop them is Texas Ranger Marcus (Jeff Bridges), but as the pair plot their final robbery, they must also contend with a cunning lawman who isn't ready to back down.

Stories revolving around crime and the challenging lives of the oppressed are Sheridan's signature angles for some of the best Paramount Plus shows. Both Hell or High Water and Yellowstone prove his expertise within the Western genre and his ability to reinvent it in a modern setting. There's plenty of compelling performances, heart-pounding action, and gripping themes of economic desperation to keep you hooked after the Yellowstone finale.

With a 97% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, Hell or High Water goes down as one of the best Paramount Plus movies, but you don't need a subscription to one of the best streaming services to watch this Sheridan spectacle as it's available on Netflix in both the UK and Australia too.

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• Noble The Knight IEMs just unveiled, with triple-driver configuration
• You're also getting an 8-strand OFC silver-plated cable
• Available from today, with arguably 'entry-level' pricing

Reader, all these years I've traipsed to work every day, put in my 8.5 hours (plus overtime) for the powers that have always been, hoping The Knight of my dreams is poised ready to whisk me off my feet and take me away from all this. And now – oh Noble steed! – it has happened. Sort of.

Audio specialist Noble (see the Noble FoKus Apollo wireless headphones and Noble Audio IXM1 in-ear monitors for further example's of the company's oeuvre) has just unveiled a triple-driver in-ear monitor (IEM) headphone option called The Knight. And it's pitching them at what it calls the "entry-level market" – if $289 (around £269/€309/AU$465) counts as entry-level in your book.

For the money, you're getting an admittedly beautiful pair of IEMs with a premium 8-strand woven OFC silver-plated upgrade cable to boot. The Knight also comes with an aluminum shell (it really is a Knight in shining armour!), with what Noble calls a "3D effect acrylic faceplate in an eye-catching combination of deep purples and rich blues".

The Knight drivers

The Knight's drivers aren't trivial pieces of kit (or Kitt! Sorry) either. The dual magnet 10mm dynamic driver in each earpiece promises deep, controlled bass, while the Sonion balanced armature (BA) driver handles the mid-range frequencies. Finally, the Piezo driver takes care of the high frequencies.

For me, the look here is not dissimilar to something Campfire Audio might unveil (see the Solaris Stellar Horizon, the Moon Rover or Trifecta to see what I mean) and to do this for the fee above is no small achievement.

When done well, triple-driver designs can provide notably clearer and more detailed audio over solo-driver options – but I must stress the 'done well' part of that statement. Those drivers must be well integrated so that timing doesn't become an issue, resulting in a slightly cluttered experience where certain sounds seem to lag or 'stick out'. But there's no reason whatsoever to suspect that could happen here. I truly hope Noble The Knight become some of the best wired earbuds on the market – and I hope I get to hear them soon.

This Noble Knight is available to buy from today (January 3, 2025) at nobleaudio.com and select retailers worldwide. Looking for over ears instead? Our best wired headphones guide is the place to go, but know this: none of them has a name quite so intriguing or fun as 'Noble The Knight'…

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Grok, the AI chatbot that’s built into X.com, has quietly added the ability to analyze images. I’ve been testing it, and it does seem to do a pretty good job, until you reach the usage limit on a free account, which is set to a pretty low three uploads at the time of writing.

To use Grok’s new image analysis features on mobile just load up the X app, then tap on the Grok tab at the bottom of the screen (a square with a line through it) then the + button to upload an image. In a browser, go to X.com and click on Grok in the left-hand menu, then use the paperclip button to attach an image to upload. Once it's uploaded you can then ask Grok some questions about it

Analysing images

To start things off I uploaded a cartoon drawing of Odysseus, a king from Greek mythology who featured in Homer’s Odyssey (I’d just watched The Return, so bear with me) to see if Grok could recognize him. Grok did a very good job of recognizing that it was an historical figure from the style of the cartoon, and I could even get it to generate more images of a similar nature by just typing prompts like “redo the image but make it of a cartoon woman instead”.

Being able to analyze the content of an image so that it can reproduce it with changes is a useful ability, but not something that its rivals like ChatGPT can’t do equally as well. But what about understanding text in images?

Grok can generate images as well as analyzing them (Image credit: X) Analyzing text in images

I uploaded the image of a flyer for a local fitness class, and asked Grok to tell me what text it had found in the image. It extracted all the text perfectly, and even provided clickable links to the web addresses it found. It didn’t seem to provide a link to an Instagram account name though; however ChatGPT didn’t do that either when I tested it.

Being able to extract text from an image is one thing, but Grok needs to be able to analyze that text too. To test out Grok I uploaded a timetable for my local martial arts gym and asked it if there was a BJJ class on Thursdays I could go to. It replied with the perfect answer: “Yes, there is a BJJ class on Thursday at 7:00 AM (BJJ Gi for Adults & Teens) and at 8:00 PM (BJJ No Gi for Adults & Teens).” A feature like that could be genuinely useful for people who have trouble processing visual information.

To take Grok's image analysis even further I tried to upload an academic text as a PDF to see what it made of that, but it turns out that PDF upload isn’t available on Grok unless you upgrade to Premium. Unperturbed, I took a screenshot of the first page of the document, and asked Grok to summarize the text. Again it did an exemplary job, breaking its answer down into sub headings like “Research findings”, "Scholarly contribution” and “Historical context”, whereas ChatGPT simply produced a couple of paragraphs of summary. It seems that Grok has the edge over ChatGPT here.

Grok vs ChatGPT

The biggest issue with Grok currently is that you very quickly hit the free usage limit for uploading images – and again to be fair, you also hit it fairly quickly on the free tier of ChatGPT too. Three uploads isn’t much to go on a day. Aside from that, Grok is impressively good at analyzing images, even beating ChatGPT in some areas, and well worth investigating if the feature sounds like it would be useful to you.

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Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing festive season, even if you weren't celebrating and/or observing a religious holiday, such as Christmas.

The holidays are in the rear view mirror now but, thankfully, you can deal with the fact that you're back in work by watching one of the following new movies and TV shows on the world's best streaming services. There's plenty to enjoy, including the long-awaited return of British animated icons in Wallace and Gromit, as well as the first awards ceremony of 2025. So, read on to learn more! – Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix)

20 years on from their last big adventure (yes, Curse of the Were-Rabbit came out in 2005!), Wallace and Gromit are back on our screens in their latest claymation caper Vengeance Most Fowl. This time, the mild-mannered inventor and his favorite pooch are forced to contend with the return of iconic villain Feathers McGraw, who uses Wallace's latest creation – a robotic garden gnome called Norbot – to try and steal the infamous Blue Diamond once more.

Vengeance Most Fowl makes its international debut on Netflix today (January 3), but it aired on BBC One in the UK on Christmas Day, so I've already seen it and can vouch for how utterly brilliant it is. It's laugh out loud funny, wonderfully animated as usual, and doesn't outstay its welcome with its perfectly paced 80-minute runtime. One best enjoyed with a side of Wensleydale and some crackers, and one to add to our best Netflix movies list in due course. – TP

The Rig season 2 (Prime Video)

Supernatural thriller The Rig became a global hit after its January 2023 debut. Now, the Prime Video drama is back for a second season as it continues the story of the Kinloch Bravo crew, who were due to return to the mainland when a mysterious fog descends and supernatural forces take hold.

In The Rig season 2, the survivors (now on a new high-tech rig deep in the Arctic Circle) take on a dangerous mission that sends them across the perilous frozen sea and towards dark threats hidden below it. While The Rig may not be one of the best Prime Video shows, it tackles important themes about the future of the planet and has lots of gripping action. Also, it stars Martin Compston, who is brilliant in Line of Duty, so that's one reason why I'll be tuning into this Amazon TV Original. – Grace Morris, entertainment writer

The Front Room (Max)

With Robert Egger's highly-anticipated Nosferatu remake in theaters, you may be itching for more horrors to sink your teeth into. If that's the case, there's a new A24 movie streaming on Max in The Front Room this weekend that just so happens to be a directorial debut from Robert's twin brothers Max and Sam.

Unlike this month's other Max horror releases, it takes a more psychological thriller tone with its plot centered around a pregnant woman (Brandy Norwood) dealing with an in-law from hell (Kathryn Hunter). Reviews were decidedly mixed upon its theatrical release, so I don't expect it to join our best Max movies list, but many agree that Hunter is a standout and considering the trailer terrified TechRadar's macabre expert Lucy Buglass with its creepy mom-in-law vibes, I'd say you've been warned. – Amelia Schwanke, senior entertainment editor

Missing You (Netflix)

Having binged Netflix's other Harlan Coben TV adaptations, I was excited to learn that the streaming titan would be turning two more Coben novels into series and now his next mystery hit has finally arrived in the form of Missing You. It follows detective Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar), whose life is turned upside down when she finds her estranged fiancé Josh (Ashley Walters) on a dating app after he vanished 11 years ago. This unexpected reappearance leads Kat to reopen the unsolved mystery surrounding her father's murder, and see if there's a connection between her fiancé's disappearance and her father’s death.

During my interview with Missing You's creator Victoria Asare-Archer, she told me it's the most emotional Harlan Coben adaptation yet, but we can also expect the signature twists and turns of a Coben series that we all love the most. Coben’s mystery-thriller novels have been the keystone for a number of the best Netflix shows, so we'll have to wait and see if Missing You also makes it onto the list. – GW

Lockerbie (Peacock/Sky)

A new limited five-episode series based on the real-life bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie is now available on Peacock in the US, and Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth tells the story of one of the world's worst terrorist attacks through the perspective of a grieving father Dr Jim Swire (Colin Firth) and mother Jane (Catherine McCormack) as they and their family mount a three-decade long campaign for truth and justice. Part political thriller, part grieving drama, this is a heart-breaking story filled with tragedy and tension. – AS

The Fall Guy (Prime Video)

Having missed it in theaters last May, The Fall Guy is one of three new Prime Video movies I'm excited to watch in January 2025. Inspired by the 1980s TV series of the same name, it tells the story of stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), who accidentally becomes embroiled in a dangerous criminal conspiracy after the actor he performs stunts for is kidnapped.

While I unfortunately didn't get to experience this crazy popcorn action movie on the big screen, I'm sure The Fall Guy is still going to be a fun watch and perfect for some at-home weekend entertainment. It's already one of the best Prime Video movies based on its Rotten Tomatoes score, so I can't wait to tuck in to some silly comedy capers. – GW

The Golden Globes 2025 (Paramount Plus)

We're less than a week into 2025, but the first glitzy awards ceremony of the year is already here. That's right, the 2025 Golden Globes are upon us – and you can catch all of the action as it happens live on CBS (US) and Paramount Plus (internationally).

If you missed them before the festive season got underway, you can read up on all of the nominees in our 2025 Golden Globe nominations guide (or relive the announcements via the near-30-minute video above). I'm already doing my best to watch as many of the nominated films and TV shows before the event takes place on January 5, so join me in frantically streaming as many as possible before the big day arrives! – TP

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• Windows 11 24H2 is seriously bad news for action RPG Path of Exile 2
• Bugs cause the game to bog down and eventually require the PC to be reset
• Assassin’s Creed Origin buyers are also up in arms about 24H2’s problems, review bombing the game on Steam

Windows 11 24H2 has run into more trouble on the gaming front, suggesting that 2025 may not be all that different to last year for PC gamers who’ve installed the latest update for Microsoft’s OS.

At least in the early stages of this new year, anyway, as there are already reports of major problems with Windows 11 24H2 and a new game – issues compounded by a separate development in the form of review bombing of Microsoft and Ubisoft going on in Steam.

We’ll come back to the reviews later, as the main concern here is the fresh bug which has hit Path of Exile 2, and boy, it’s a nasty one, basically locking up the PC entirely according to some reports.

Windows Latest noticed this one, describing several complaints on Microsoft’s Feedback Hub (and Valve’s Steam forums), pointing out that when loading a new area in Path of Exile 2, the game essentially becomes unresponsive in Windows 11 24H2, needing a restart to fix things.

Others say the action RPG is freezing on the loading screen, and then requiring the PC to be rebooted to get the system working again.

There are multiple complaints on Reddit, too, such as this one: “I have seen a few posts about performance issues most specifically when the game crashes in a loading screen and the PC is unresponsive and a reset is required.

“I had no issues with the game until I updated Windows 11 from 23H2 version to 24H2. Apparently it is a widespread issue with the newest build of W11 and causes this to other games as well.”

Or indeed this report, or there’s another here – it seems to be a fairly widespread issue as the comment above notes.

Microsoft is apparently investigating this bug, because as Windows Latest noticed, one post on the Feedback Hub has been flagged with a ‘we’re looking into it’ panel.

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games) Analysis: Path to ruin for Windows 11’s gaming reputation?

What can you do if you’re affected by this? One option for Path of Exile 2 players is to roll back to Windows 11 23H2 and abandon 24H2, although that’s not exactly ideal (as reverting your system to a previous installation is a big step to take).

Rather than go that route, another possible solution as advised on the above Reddit threads is to turn off ‘engine multithreading’ in the game’s options, which apparently resolves the issue entirely. However, it creates another problem in that leaving multithreading out of the mix will seriously slow down your processor’s performance, so you might find Path of Exile 2 is a lot more jittery – but that said, it’ll (hopefully) be stable (hat tip to Jims-Garage on Reddit for this tip). And that might be preferable to rolling back your PC, as a temporary fudge while Microsoft concocts a fix (again – hopefully).

The other possible fudge is achieved via Windows 11’s Task Manager, where you can right click on Path of Exile 2 (while it’s running) and select ‘Set Affinity’ and then disable CPU 4 (hat tip to Embinyu on Reddit for this one). With any luck, one of these CPU-related workarounds might do the trick without destroying the smoothness of the game so much it becomes unplayable.

At this point, gamers are clearly losing faith in Windows 11 24H2. Too many bugs have cropped up with either specific games, or just general jankiness affecting PC gamers – including random crashes – and gremlins in the works with various bits of hardware. It all adds up to a bad taste in the mouth, particularly for Assassin’s Creed players, and other Ubisoft games as well which have been hit hard by glitches with 24H2.

This brings us back to the review bombing on Steam we mentioned earlier, which is happening to Assassin’s Creed Origins (as Windows Latest noticed). This is due to Ubisoft giving it a huge discount (90% off) in the recent Steam sale, luring in a bunch of new buyers – but failing to warn that 24H2 doesn’t play nice with the game.

So, while if you have Origins installed, your PC will be blocked from updating to 24H2 due to the presence of the mentioned bugs, if the situation is reversed – you already have 24H2, but not Origins – you’re out of luck. You’ll be allowed to buy and install the game, and only then will you find out it’s a disaster on 24H2.

Unsurprisingly, Steam gamers in this boat feel they should’ve been warned about the major gremlins in the works with Origins and 24H2 ahead of their purchase, and that’s completely understandable. As one reviewer put it: “Steam says I played for 1.5 hrs, but thanks to Windows that is 1.5 hrs of screen stuck at the game start!”

Assassin’s Creed Origins has an all-time review rating of ‘very positive’ on Steam, but the recent reviews have dropped to ‘mixed’ thanks to the influx of negative feedback from 24H2 gamers.

Is there a risk of this bad feeling starting to spill over and trash the reputation of Windows 11 as a gaming platform? I believe that at this point, we’re at least coming close to that being a reality, and that Microsoft should really be considering bolstering efforts to smooth over issues that PC gamers are encountering with the latest update.

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• Nick Clegg announces Meta departure in a Facebook post
• The news comes weeks ahead of President-elect Trump inauguration
• Clegg will assist with handover to former Republican Joel Kaplan for several months

Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has confirmed he will be stepping down from his global affairs position at Meta after a six-year tenure.

“As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta," Clegg wrote in a Facebook post to his profile.

Clegg’s deputy Joel Kaplan has been confirmed as his successor, with Kevin Martin taking over Kaplan’s role as VP for Global Policy.

Clegg steps down from Meta role

The news comes weeks before Trump takes office, with the President-elect a hostile opponent to Meta in the past.

Trump previously threatened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with imprisonment if he interfered with the election, and even called Meta an “enemy of the people” despite having ties to Elon Musk and his social networking platform, X.

In the Facebook post announcing his departure, Clegg described Zuckerberg as “one of the most consequential innovators and business leaders of our times.”

Clegg also highlighted a shift in the relationship between big tech and “the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms” during his time with the company.

Prior to his role at Meta, Kaplan served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff under President George W Bush.

Clegg stated: “Joel is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time - ideally placed to shape the company’s strategy as societal and political expectations around technology continue to evolve.”

Clegg will continue to work with Meta for “a few months” in order to ensure a smooth transition.

Zuckerberg commented: “You've made an important impact advancing Meta's voice and values around the world.”

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• A royalty-free alternative to Dolby Atmos for TVs and soundbars
• Coming to all 2025 Samsung TVs and soundbars
• YouTube is the only big streamer currently committed to the format

Back in 2023, Samsung and Google announced that they would launch a new Dolby Atmos-rivalling immersive audio format in 2024. That launch was delayed, but not by much: it's going to be shown off at CES 2025, and will arrive in Samsung's 2025 TVs and be available on YouTube too.

The format was originally given the unmemorable name of IAMF, short for Immersive Audio Model and Formats. But the branding folks have been in, and the format is now called Eclipsa Audio, which is… well, it's a bit of an improvement.

As Samsung explains, the new format is coming to every one of its (currently unannounced) 2025 models "from the Crystal UHD series to the premium flagship Neo QLED 8K models". Samsung has a number of entries on our list of the best TVs and best soundbars, so we'd expect the same from its 2025 range.

A total Eclipsa for art

Eclipsa is part of a wider effort by Google and Samsung to take on Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision by using Eclipsa Audio and HDR10+ instead.

Dolby's technologies require paid licenses for manufacturers, but these audio and video tech options are intended to be royalty-free, and the underlying tech is open source, enabling others to freely use and modify it. Given the absolutely tiny profit margins in the TV manufacturing industry, you can see why royalty-free audio and video tech might be appealing to TV makers.

The hard bit isn't the tech, though. It's getting the world to adopt it. And for now, only some of the world can. For the time being, you'll only be able to experience Eclipsa on a 2025 Samsung device. And while Samsung is going to sell a lot of TVs and soundbars in 2025, the total number of Eclipsa-compatible devices is still going to be tiny compared to the number of Dolby Atmos ones.

The format also needs to be adopted by streaming firms. For now, the only one on board is YouTube – and the big follow-up question is whether production companies will start producing shows and movies in the new format even if streamers support it. It's all very chicken-and-egg.

It's a challenge, but Samsung is optimistic: in a press release it points out that "with the largest market share over 75 inches worldwide, Samsung TVs are poised to make this groundbreaking technology accessible to more consumers than ever before."

Samsung and Google will be demonstrating their new TV audio tech at CES next week and of course, we'll be there to tell you all about it.

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TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

• Apple has agreed to settle class-action lawsuit over Siri complaints
• Victims reported brands mentioned in private conversations later appearing in targeted advertisements on their Apple devices
• Tens of millions may be affected, but Apple didn't admit wrongdoing

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit after its device owners claimed Siri disclosed private conversations to advertisers.

Per Reuters, the case in the Oakland, California federal court, Lopez et al v. Apple Inc, revolves around unintentional activation of Siri during phone calls, resulting in Apple disclosing snippets of conversation to advertisers.

Despite voice assistants usually only activating with a wake word or phrase (think “Alexa” or, here, “Hey, Siri”), plaintiffs in the lawsuit claimed they had been served advertisements for brand name products in what they believed were confidential conversations.

Siri privacy lawsuit

The class action period ranges from September 17, 2014, the introduction of the “Hey, Siri” wake phrase, through to December 31, 2024. Tens of millions of people could receive up to $20 per Siri-equipped device, including iPhones and Apple Watches.

Apple was tight-lipped when approached for comment on the settlement, though it has explicitly denied wrongdoing in court.

Reuters notes $95 million is just nine hours worth of profit for Apple, making this latest class action against a big tech company yet another example of such actions being factored in as a business cost.

Elsewhere, a case against Google in relation to its own Voice Assistant is ongoing in the San Jose, California Federal Court, and it’s hard to imagine that the outcome won’t be similarly inconsequential.

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• The Call of Duty Squid Game event has arrived
• It features new modes and operator skins
• There is also an Event Pass with free skins to earn

A new Squid Game crossover event has arrived in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in collaboration with Netflix. It introduces new in-game multiplayer modes, free rewards, and plenty of cosmetic skins.

The highlight for me is the introduction of the Red Light, Green Light multiplayer mode which lets you recreate the iconic death game from the show. It’s divided into three rounds, with players attempting to reach a finish line under the watchful eye of the creepy Young-hee doll.

You can only move when the doll says ‘Green Light’, with unlucky players immediately executed if they fail. Interestingly, weapons are introduced in rounds two and three allowing you to speed up the game by eliminating other players yourself.

It’s not the only new mode, however, as there is also Pentathlon - which mixes Domination, Kill Confirmed, and Hardpoint with the all-new Piggy Bank Team Deathmach and Roulette. Piggy Bank Team Deathmatch sees each elimination contribute to a Mega Piggy Bank, which rewards a massive payout during the match.

Roulette rewards players for scoring eliminations with the Roulette Handgun, which has a small chance of killing you every time it is fired.

The Squid Game Moshpit seems to offer a more traditional multiplayer experience, though it does have some interesting twists. It includes Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Hardpoint but with new Squid Game inspired mechanics. This includes the Red Light, Green Light Scorestreak, a Piggy Bank which can drop on eliminations for added score, and the Roulette Handgun.

Zombies is also getting the Squid Game treatment with new Squid Game variants of Liberty Falls and Citadelle des Morts. These feature distinct Green Light and Red Light phases, with the latter draining Essence from players that move. There’s also a Dead Light phase, which spawns more powerful enemies.

Things are getting squiddy over in Call of Duty: Warzone too, with new Squid Game challenges for players to master.

(Image credit: Activision)

Earned XP across Black Ops 6 and Warzone contributes to the new Squid Game Event Pass, which is free for all players. There is also an optional Premium Track, which costs 1,100 COD Points. The free path contains two operator skins (the ‘Player 006’ skin for Niran and the ‘Player 115 Skin’ for Maya) in addition to a new melee weapon. Those who purchase the Premium Track can bag new weapon Blueprints, plus the exclusive Front Man operator.

Finally, three new Squid Game bundles are dropping in the in-game store. This includes the Squid Game 2: Pink Guards Tracer Pack, Squid Game 2: The VIPs Tracer Pack, and the Squid Game 2: Young-hee Tracer Pack. The latter gives you the seriously creepy Young-hee operator, plus a new finishing move and some other digital goodies.

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• Expect more improvements to the PlayStation Portal experience as Sony plans "incremental steps" to make game streaming better
• PlayStation Classics port studio Implicit Conversions appears to be researching PS3 emulation
• GTA 6 is predicted to be “one of the biggest entertainment launches in history"

• The Galaxy S25 is rumored to come with lots of new AI features
• Details of these features don't appear to have leaked yet
• Four new phones are due to launch later this month

We're patiently counting down the days to the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S25 – Wednesday, January 22 is rumored to be the big day – and a fresh leak around the handset suggests there are plenty more AI features arriving with the new phone.

This comes from @UniverseIce, who is right about mobile industry predictions more often than not. The tipster says the Galaxy S25 "will tell Apple what leading AI is" and that "many new AI functions of S25 have not been leaked so far".

Of course, it wouldn't come as a surprise if Samsung introduced new AI features at the same time as its flagship phones for 2025 – it's been busy pushing Galaxy AI for the past year, after launching a range of features alongside the Galaxy S24 handsets.

But the mention of a lot of as-yet-unrevealed AI features is intriguing. What could Samsung be planning to add to its handsets for 2025, on top of what we've already heard about (the upgraded version of Bixby, for example)?

Galaxy AI for 2025

Samsung Galaxy S25 will tell Apple what leading AI is.Many new AI functions of S25 have not been leaked so far, which is very surprising to me.January 3, 2025

Samsung has already covered a lot of the obvious ground when it comes to AI. You can already create AI images and get live translations between languages on the Samsung phones that are currently available, for example.

That makes it difficult to predict what this leak could be talking about – especially as it specifies that the Galaxy S25 rumors haven't previously covered it. More camera enhancements are a possibility, as are more text creation tools.

We could potentially get more AI agent features, in terms of tools that actually take control of your phone and do jobs for you – like queueing up a Spotify playlist or ordering an Uber. There may also be features to help you better manage your digital information.

Samsung has already said that One UI 7 (Samsung's take on Android 15) will be launching alongside the Galaxy S25 phones, which may well have some AI upgrades included – and which could eventually make their way to older handsets as well.

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• Nvidia RTX 5090 and 5080 are rumored to have increased power usage
• RTX 5090 may demand 575W, slightly less than some previous rumors
• RTX 5080 could hit 360W, which unfortunately is slightly up from past speculation

Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and 5080 are expected to be revealed at CES 2025 – likely alongside RTX 5070 models, too – and we’ve just heard more about the possible power consumption of these next-gen GPUs.

VideoCardz noticed that two regular hardware leakers on X, Hongxing2020 and Kopite7kimi, have chimed in with purported power figures for these Blackwell GeForce graphics cards.

2025.1.3 updatenext gen 90 ->575WJanuary 3, 2025

Assuming their beliefs are on the money, the former leaker put forward the assertion that the RTX 5090 will demand 575W in terms of power consumption, and then Kopite7kimi replied with the claim that the recently spotted RTX 5080 is going to chug 360W of power.

No clarification is provided as to how big these GPUs might be, and whether the RTX 5090 will be kept down to a two-slot graphics card, which is the follow-up question that several denizens of X posed on the above thread.

(Image credit: Future) Analysis: Sizing up next-gen options

The reason folks are asking about the size of the next-gen flagship graphics card – apart from that it’s an obvious point of curiosity, anyway – is that previous buzz from the grapevine has suggested we might see a miraculously slim RTX 5090 kept down to two slots in size by Nvidia. (Whereas the RTX 4090 takes up three slots in a PC, at least – or four in many cases).

Essentially, with the mentioned 575W figure, folks are leaping to the conclusion that this won’t be a two-slot board as per that previous rumor. (Unless Nvidia really has worked some magic with a slim cooling solution to keep a power-hungry graphics card in check). So, this is why the question is being asked.

In fact, 575W is a slight drop in a previous prediction from the rumor mill that we’ll see the RTX 5090 use 600W, and in that respect, it’s a bit of positive news. Well, kind of – Kopite7kimi also hinted that the flagship’s power consumption would drop slightly in recent times – but clearly, this is still set to be a demanding GPU. From what we’ve heard elsewhere, it’s likely to be more targeted at professional usage than PC gaming, and could be extremely pricey – though as a GeForce model, it is still officially a consumer (gaming) card, in theory.

If all this pans out, of course, the RTX 5080 is looking hefty on the power side of the equation here, too. Indeed, Kopite7kimi has indicated that it could sit at around 350W in the past, so their prediction has been revised slightly upwards to 360W here.

That could be bad news for anyone using a PC power calculator to work out whether their power supply can cope with a new RTX 5080, as pushing closer to the 400W mark could mean that even a relatively beefy PSU could be driven closer to the borderline of whether it’ll work out or not.

It certainly would put the RTX 5080 out of reach of my 650W power supply, but I’m still hoping that the RTX 5070 is going to come in considerably leaner, and will be a good fit for an upgrade to my gaming PC – or the RTX 5070 Ti, with any luck. In all honesty, I’m not expecting the RTX 5080 to be within my price range anyway, especially given the rumors around the cost of these next-gen graphics cards – other options will be on the table from AMD in RDNA 4 launches, so there’s that to consider as well.

Whether all these forecasts turn out to be accurate or not, we’ll just have to see come Nvidia’s big reveal on January 6 – but whatever the case, everything from the rumor mill is suggesting that we will see increased power consumption for Blackwell graphics cards.

As well as next-gen desktop graphics cards at CES 2025, we may also be treated to the launch of mobile versions, and perhaps DLSS 4 to boot.

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• PlayStation Classics porters Implicit Conversions is "dreaming about" PS3 emulation - potentially for PS5
• That's according to the developer's roadmap
• PS3 games are currently only available via cloud streaming on PS5

Retro game port developer Implicit Conversions appears to be looking into proper PS3 emulation - likely for the PlayStation Classics collection available via PS Plus on PS5.

That's according to the developer's roadmap which was spotted over at the r/GamingLeaksandRumours subreddit (via VGC).

The Trello-esque roadmap has a section on the far left labeled 'Dreaming About' and this is where we see a card for the "Researching and prototyping the possibility of a PlayStation 3 emulator package for Syrup." Syrup being the developer's own emulation engine with which it brings classic games to modern hardware.

As it stands, PS3 games are playable on PS5, but only via cloud game streaming. This often leads to a less than optimal play experience especially for folk without speedy internet connections. At present, it is the only Sony console generation that doesn't have some form of native support on PS5, as PS4 and a collection of PS1 and PS2 games can be downloaded on the system.

It's a shame, too, as there's no shortage of excellent PS3 games that remain exclusive to the console without any form of re-release. That includes Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Tokyo Jungle and - one of my personal faves - Ridge Racer 7.

Just to keep expectations in check, we shouldn't be expecting PS3 emulation on PS5 anytime soon. Implicit Conversions has it in a unique 'dreaming about' tab separate from an 'in progress' tab on its roadmap which means the tech likely isn't in active development.

Still, the fact the roadmap is available for public viewing is a bit of a silver lining in all this. It does at least show that those responsible for porting classic games to modern hardware do have PS3 emulation on the radar, and they're likely aware of the demand. It probably won't happen for a good few years, though.

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• GTA 6 is set to release this year
• It is expected to be one of the biggest entertainment launches ever
• It could generate $1 billion in pre-orders alone

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2025.

The information comes from market research firm DFC Intelligence (via the Financial Times), which states that it is likely to generate more than $1 billion in pre-orders alone. DFC Intelligence predicts that the game will hit a total revenue of $3.2 billion in its first 12 months, which is roughly double what its predecessor Grand Theft Auto 5 achieved in the same time period.

Yoshio Osaki, CEO of IDF Consulting is also optimistic. “We think it’s going to be one of the biggest entertainment launches in history, not just in games but for all of media,” he said. As for why this could be the case, he suggested that the “pent-up demand is greater than anything we’ve seen before.”

The first trailer for GTA 6 debuted on December 4, 2023 and has since been watched over 231 million times on YouTube. The game will focus on the fictionalized state of Leonida, which contains the iconic Vice City featured in previous games. It follows protagonist Lucia and her partner as they go on the run from the law.

Developer and publisher Rockstar Games has confirmed that it will launch in 'fall 2025' though has not provided a firm release date. We do know that the game is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S, though.

Even aside from the release of GTA 6, 2025 is already shaping up to be a huge year for gaming. The long-awaited Nintendo Switch 2 is set to be revealed and is expected to sell well when it arrives. This is on top of a barrage of major releases like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

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• Telegram’s new verification programme allows third-party consortiums to independently verify business accounts
• The move is aimed at “prevent[ing] scams” and “reduc[ing] misinformation”
• Additional changes to the platform for January 2025 include gift-to-NFT conversions and a search bar filter

Popular messaging platform Telegram has introduced a “decentralised” verification system, allowing large, already verified organizations to verify entities in their sector.

In a blog post, the company noted while accounts verified under the original system will retain their standard blue checkmark, those that have secured third-party verification will have a unique logo that reflects their respective industries (a fast food chain gets a carrot, for example) alongside a note as to what organization verified the account and why.

The move, which Telegram says sets a “new safety standard”, does, on paper, seem like a safer way of outsourcing verification than, say, X Premium, the introduction of which on the platform formerly known as Twitter notoriously removed centralised verification ticks in favour of being able to pay for one outright.

More Telegram updates

The flipside of decentralization is that it’s the core concept of electricity-guzzling, climate-heating technologies like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which gifts received on Telegram can now be turned into - head off fraud on your platform by introducing a means by which you could, theoretically, launder money.

“Collectible gifts have special attributes and can be transferred to other users or auctioned on NFT marketplaces,” says the blog post. “Collectibles also receive a random set of secondary traits [...] every collectible gift is a unique work of art - and that some will be more rare than others.” Anyway, it’s not interesting.

Elsewhere, you can now react to service messages, and the search bar lets you filter between chats, channels, media and more; which is, to be fair, useful.

Via TechCrunch

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• Some Google smart speakers recently stopped responding to questions
• Users reported the problem with a variety of different devices
• Google investigated, and says the issue should now be fixed for most users

If you've noticed that your Google Nest smart speaker or hub appears to be ignoring voice commands, you're not alone – but Google says it has identified the problem, and is rolling out a fix to stop your devices giving you the silent treatment.

The problem was highlighted by, among others, Rita El Khoury of Android Authority, who returned from her Christmas vacation to find that her Google Nest Hub and Google Nest Audio would no longer respond to requests to tell her the weather. She was able to use the speakers to control her smart home devices, but functions like setting timers were hit and miss.

She wasn't alone, and it seems those two devices weren't the only products affected. Several other device owners have reported similar problems on the company's support forums.

"All of my Nest speakers suddenly got dumb; all were working, but as of yesterday, they all freeze up when I [try] to get past 'Hey Google'." explained Thom Drewke, who found himself faced with a similar issue. "That is, 'Hey Google are you there' gets a response, but 'What's the weather' gets no response. All of my speakers did this at the same time. Bizarre!"

Another person explained that they had nine Google Home speakers – a Google Nest Hub Max display, and a mix of various first-generation devices – and all of them had stopped responding to questions.

"I have a lot of devices connected to Google Home and I can control all of them still, I just can't ask certain questions," they wrote. "I have tried rebooting the google home devices, I have tried rebooting the router a dozen times and still nothing."

Hey Google...

Google was quick to act, and told Android Authority via email that although its team was still investigating the root cause of the problem, it had resolved the problem "so all users should be up and running now".

That should come as a relief to anyone who's looking forward to the arrival of Gemini for Google Assistant, which should allow your existing smart speakers to give you more comprehensive answers – but only if they're willing to talk to you.

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• Unofficial renders of the iPhone SE 4 have emerged
• The phone is expected to look a lot like the iPhone 14
• Apple may decide to rebrand the device as the iPhone 16E

If the leaks are to be believed, Apple will be launching the iPhone SE 4 – or should that be the iPhone 16E? – in March, and we now have some unofficial renders of the handset to give us an idea of what it's likely to look like.

These come from concept renderer @kanedacane (via Android Headlines); they're not leaked images of the phone itself, but rather an educated imagining of how the iPhone SE 4 will look based on all the information that's leaked out so far.

To sum it up: this phone is expected to look more like the iPhone 14 than the iPhone SE 3 (both of which were launched in 2022). For the first time, the SE series is set to ditch the old Touch ID look and lose the home button.

It should make for a sleeker, more modern-looking smartphone, as these renders show. Reading about the changes to the iPhone SE 4 is one thing, but seeing them is quite another – and these renders are likely to be pretty accurate.

All change

How the iPhone SE 4 may look (Image credit: @kanedacane / Android Headlines)

As you can see from the unofficial renders above, the iPhone SE 4 is expected to come in white and black options, matching the shades that the current model is available in (there's also a Product Red version of the iPhone SE 3).

There's lots more to talk about when it comes to the iPhone SE 4 besides the redesign. The leaks suggest that the device will have a single rear camera, as well as a new Wi-Fi and 5G chip that's been manufactured by Apple (and which should mean better battery life).

We're also expecting to see the A18 chipset and 8GB of RAM inside the iPhone SE 4, making it powerful enough to cope with the demands of Apple Intelligence. What with the new materials and bumped-up specs, we might also see a modest price hike this time.

As for that rumored rebranding to the iPhone 16E, we'll have to wait and see. It sounds like a somewhat clumsy name, but it would bring the phone into line with the iPhone 16 series, and would mirror what Samsung has done with the Galaxy S24 FE.

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Meta is dreaming of its social platforms brimming with helpful AI-generated profiles and content fueled by the models underlying Meta AI, according to recent comments by Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta in an interview with the FT.

Of course, logging onto Facebook and seeing a "user" named Clara_ChefBot_9000 posting AI-generated pie recipes might sound like a great way to drive engagement to Facebook's bosses, but it isn't quite the same as scrolling through your Aunt Susan’s baking photos. Regardless, Meta's vision of a platform brimming with relatable AI personalities is already beginning to roll out and if that doesn’t make you want to power down your devices and take a walk outside, let's look closer at what this might actually entail.

The charm of social media has always been people. The whole point is seeing people sharing their lives. The oversharing, humble bragging, and dumb arguments about pineapple on pizza can irritate you, but at least you're rolling your eyes about real people. AI-generated profiles, no matter how sophisticated, will always lack that authenticity. Sure, Clara_ChefBot_9000 might be able to generate recipes, but she’ll never know the joy of burning her first batch of cookies or the embarrassment of a recipe flop posted to a very judgmental audience.

Then there’s the issue of trust. We’re already grappling with deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation, not to mention people sharing a curated view of their lives as artificial as any algorithm. Do we really need bots with profile pictures trying to convince us of their “personal” opinions? Imagine arguing with a bot about politics, sports, or the aforementioned pizza topping, only to realize it’s been programmed to needle you into buying a product.

Meta AI is expanding everywhere. (Image credit: Meta) AI optimism

When AI assists humans in creative efforts, it can pull off some amazing feats, but when AI tries to mimic human creativity, it rapidly becomes dull slop or simply nonsense. Do we really need our newsfeeds clogged with bots sharing AI-generated memes or supposedly relatable status updates? And that's if they don't just go off the rails with errors. Imagine a feed full of AI profiles posting “Happy Mother’s Day” in the middle of November.

Meta AI can be fun (especially once you know how to turn it off), and there's real value in an AI capable of entertaining you with conversation. Maybe Clara_ChefBot_9000 can offer you some cooking tips at midnight. That's not a real, human connection, though. A chatbot might tell you how to bake a souffle, but it won’t commiserate with you when it collapses.

Meta might argue that these bots could help users with practical tasks, but that doesn't mean there should be a million AI characters on the platforms. Social media platform SocialAI is attempting to sell people on that idea. Its mobile app connects each user only to AI chatbots they are supposed to interact with; they won't encounter other humans there. That might be okay in limited contexts, but it makes no sense for Facebook or Instagram.

Social media exploded because it was a fantastic way to connect with people and make friends. AI can’t completely replace that. Instead of filling the platform with fake users, Meta should focus on enhancing the experience for the real ones. Otherwise, they risk creating a digital ghost town.

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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 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 #1075) - 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 #1075) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #1075) - 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 #1075) - 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 #1075) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• P

• Q

• N

• S

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

Quordle today (game #1075) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1075, are…

• PERKY
• QUARK
• NAVEL
• SHEEN

I should have realized quicker that a U as a second letter was likely to trigger a word beginning with Q, but I got there in the end and was helped by the fact that I’d used a T in an earlier guess, meaning the word was not going to be Quart. Still, it took me a good few minutes of staring at the screen to come up with QUARK.

I momentarily thought Quordle was going to be very mean today and hit us with a J word too, but my guess of Jerky ended up being the much more gettable PERKY.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #1075) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1075, are…

• IONIC
• SWEET
• SEWER
• TRUCE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1074, Thursday 2 January: UNIFY, SWORE, DEPOT, INTRO
• Quordle #1073, Wednesday 1 January: CLING, SUITE, WORRY, TONIC
• Quordle #1072, Tuesday 31 December: PLUMP, TUBER, IRATE, ICILY
• Quordle #1071, Monday 30 December: TODDY, GROIN, GROWN, VERVE
• Quordle #1070, Sunday 29 December: PURER, SPLAT, RABID, EMCEE
• Quordle #1069, Saturday 28 December: BUNCH, LABOR, TRIPE, BUNNY
• Quordle #1068, Friday 27 December: BRAWL, LYING, ORGAN, CRONY
• Quordle #1067, Thursday 26 December: TATTY, OVERT, FLOUR, SWEPT
• Quordle #1066, Wednesday 25 December: LIVER, CRIER, SHORE, MURKY
• Quordle #1065, Tuesday 24 December: TIPSY, SCALE, FLYER, VALVE
• Quordle #1064, Monday 23 December: SNAKE, SAVVY, ELBOW, TWEED
• Quordle #1063, Sunday 22 December: DOUBT, SLURP, PAPER, CIVIL
• Quordle #1062, Saturday 21 December: STRIP, BUDGE, SAPPY, SHELF
• Quordle #1061, Friday 20 December: PENAL, EAGLE, DILLY, QUITE
• Quordle #1060, Thursday 19 December: JEWEL, GNOME, TRAMP, IDLER
• Quordle #1059, Wednesday 18 December: LITHE, BIRTH, HUMID, ROBOT
• Quordle #1058, Tuesday 17 December: DOING, ENJOY, SNAKY, AMPLE
• Quordle #1057, Monday 16 December: HYDRO, CREAM, CHIDE, SLIME
• Quordle #1056, Sunday 15 December: DROVE, STILT, LINEN, GIANT
• Quordle #1055, Saturday 14 December: SPIEL, ONSET, TIGER, DITTO