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De'Longhi has launched a new manual coffee machine that gives you full control over the coffee-making process, helping you make your drinks exactly the way you like them, and do so consistently.

The company is best known for its bean-to-cup coffee makers, but its new La Specialista Opera machine offers only a light guiding hand. It has a smart grinder that automatically adjusts the grinding duration and dose for a single or double espresso, and a smart tamping station that helps you apply even pressure (up to 20kg) for a well formed puck.

That's important - cracks or irregularities in the puck will affect the way water is passed through the grounds, and therefore the flavors that are extracted (if you ever see a friend knock their portafilter on the table after tamping, cracking the puck, feel free to stop them).

The La Specialista Opera will also pre-infuse your coffee to one of three temperature profiles, so you can pick the option that gives the taste you prefer. Pre-infusion involves saturating the coffee puck in the portafilter before brewing. Like proper tamping, this helps ensure the bed of coffee is perfectly level, allowing water to flow through at a steady pressure during the brewing process. Different temperatures will have different effects on the flavor profile of the extracted coffee, so experiment to find out what you like best.

(Image credit: De'Longhi) Silky milk

Many of the best coffee makers have automatic milk foaming systems that work fine with certain types of milk, but not others, and often product large bubbles rather than a silky microfoam. The La Specialista Opera has a manual steam wand so you can steam dairy or plant milk exactly the way you like, and adjust your technique depending on how well it's stretching and warming in the jug. The wand is cool-touch, so you can safely position it in the jug without burning yourself.

Answering the age-old question of how you should store your coffee beans, the La Specialista Opera comes with a vacuum sealed canister to keep them fresh after they've been opened, and a hot and cold glasses collection (so you can see if you've got the right balance of coffee, steamed milk, and foam), and a knock box for removing used pucks from the portafilter in the most satisfying way possible.

The La Specialista Opera is available now direct from De'Longhi and from third-party stores for £799.99 (about $1,000 / AU$1,600).

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The Premier League is a cut-throat environment where even minor advantages can mean the difference between glory and disappointment (new Manchester United board member and serial sporting winner, Sir Dave Brailsford, for example, is known for his ‘marginal gains’ theory).

Now Artificial Intelligence (AI) is helping football clubs to get ahead of the competition, offering teams a powerful tool to gain a competitive edge through data-driven insights.

Here's how AI tools are transforming top-level football in England:

1. Tactical superiority

AI can analyze mountains of data from past matches, including player movements, formations, passing patterns and shot locations. This match analysis allows coaches to identify weaknesses in their own team's play and exploit vulnerabilities in their opponents' tactics. Earlier this year, Google DeepMind unveiled its prototype AI football tactician, developed in collaboration with Premier League club, Liverpool, that recommends positional changes for players standing at corners – potentially leading to fewer goals conceded.

AI models can now go beyond analyzing past performance with predictive analytics. By factoring in player fitness, weather conditions, and even psychological factors, AI can predict how opponents might react to different strategies, allowing coaches to develop tailored game plans that maximize their chances of success.

AI can also simulate different tactical scenarios during a match, allowing coaches to test formations and substitutions before they’re implemented on the pitch. This "what-if" scenario planning helps coaches to make informed decisions in the heat of the moment.

2. Performance optimization

AI is already assisting with scouting and recruitment through its ability to analyze data on young players from around the world, identifying hidden gems who might have been flagged up by traditional scouting methods. This helps clubs recruit talent that fits their playing style and fills the necessary gaps in their squad.

AI can analyze a player's technical skills, physical attributes, and even psychological data to predict their future performance. This performance prediction helps clubs when it comes to deciding on contract renewals, playing time and potential loan deals.

AI can also analyze player data from training sessions to identify areas for improvement. With squad sizes increasing, this allows coaches to create a personalized training program that targets each player's specific weaknesses – ensuring that each member of the squad gets the attention they deserve.

3. Injury prevention

AI is playing a significant role in risk assessment. It can analyze training data, such as heart rate and movement patterns, to identify if a player is at risk of injury or burnout. This early detection allows teams to implement preventative measures that keep their star players on the pitch.

In their own way, Premier League footballers are finely tuned machines and – as with any other machines – they need to be looked after and have their workloads managed. AI can help to optimize player training schedules, ensuring they aren’t overtrained or underprepared. This reduces the risk of injuries and keeps players at peak performance throughout the season.

4. Enhanced fan engagement

Personalized content is now taking off in numerous walks of life. AI chatbots can interact with fans, answering questions, providing personalized content and offering exclusive, behind-the-scenes access. AI is also being used to enhance things like Premier League fantasy football, which engages many thousands of football lovers on a weekly basis. 

These developments foster even deeper connections with fans and increase revenue streams. AI-powered tools can also provide fans with in-game tactical analysis, in real-time, helping them understand the game beyond just the score line and increasing their overall enjoyment.

5. Organizational change: AI-assisted draws

This year’s Champions League, featuring Premier League teams Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Liverpool, has seen an expansion, from 32 to 36 teams, with a new more complex format – and this means that the traditional manual process of drawing teams ‘from a hat’ can no longer be relied upon.

The old group stage, where eight groups of four teams would play each other ‘home’ and ‘away’, has been replaced by a single 36-team league phase. This means that clubs will now play eight different teams. This year’s draw, in August 2024, saw the teams seeded and put into four pots of nine – with AI then used to select the appropriate fixtures, based on multiple variables. This data-led approach increases the propriety of fixture selection, and has reduced the draw time, from around four hours to just over half-an-hour.

AI is not a silver bullet

There are still a number of limitations to consider around the technology. The effectiveness of AI models heavily relies on the quality and quantity of data they’re trained on. Biased or incomplete data can lead to inaccurate insights, so it’s vital that clubs consider data quality. And, while AI can provide valuable data, human coaches and analysts are still essential for interpreting this data, making decisions, and adapting to unforeseen circumstances during a match – sometimes a coach’s intuitive feel for a match situation or the potential impact a player might have will be far more effective than an AI’s cold, data-driven approach.

Then there are the ethical considerations. There are some concerns about the potential for AI to widen the gap between rich and poor clubs who have access to vast amounts of data and resources. At the moment though it seems that, in the Premier League, it might be that those smaller clubs are actually the ones using new technology to elevate their status.

Artificial intelligence in football is here to stay

AI is revolutionizing the Premier League by providing data-driven insights that give teams a competitive edge. While a number of clubs are using the technology, some are guarded about exactly how they are employing it. This is likely because – in the case of smaller clubs like Brighton and Brentford – it is allowing them to punch above their weight to maintain their position in the top-flight. While some limitations exist, AI is here to stay, continuously evolving and offering new possibilities for the beautiful game.

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Midjourney’s AI image creator is adding major new editing options to its platform, as announced by CEO David Holz on Discord. You'll be able to edit an uploaded image using generative AI, as you could only do with images that AI has created until now. Notably, this will be a web-based tool, expanding Midjourney's Discord-centered and exclusive features.

While AI editing tools for images have been around for a bit, they are almost always restricted to images created with the same AI model doing the editing. Midjourney is taking the leap into allowing you to edit an image you want to edit rather than having the model make the initial creation.

That's technically impressive since it means the model must understand more about an image that it didn't design from scratch. However, it may also be risky since other models may have held back from providing it as an option due to concern over people using it to mess with pictures of real people without their permission or to employ the AI for less-than-benevolent purposes.

Once the image is uploaded, you can edit it in several ways. You can zoom in or out, adjust the angle, and otherwise play with the image without needing Discord and with just a single command. You can also use a digital brush for inpainting, allowing for more precise modifications. The most notable new element is the Retexture feature, which lets you precisely alter colors and other details while keeping the image's shapes and objects intact.

Midjourney Edits the Future

Questions about the ethics of the creation and editing of AI images have led to heated debates, lawsuits, and other arguments. That makes Midjourney's decisions important for how its rivals and regulators figure out rules to set up internally and for the industry. Midjourney has agreed to embed metadata in AI-generated images so that they can always be identified, though not the more comprehensive C2PA standard as of yet. These are issues that Midjourney is well aware of.

"Because these new features are so powerful we're going to restrict the deployment of them to a subset of the current community and increase our human moderation over the outputs (there's also new more advanced AI moderators which we feel will do a great job)," Holz wrote. "Honestly, we're not sure how to precisely restrict deployment of this feature, so we want to put a survey out there and get your opinions. We'll use these results to calculate what percentage of the userbase we'll reach with different restrictions and try to balance accessibility vs volume."

For the average user, the ability to easily manipulate images with AI could make using Midjourney more appealing and make photo editing a lot easier. And as AI image makers become more common Midjourney wants to be more accessible. That's why the company decided to abandon Discord as its only outlet, though it's still a major center for the company's creations. Midjourney likely doesn’t want to be left out simply because some don’t want to sign up for Discord.

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Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

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

NYT Connections today (game #499) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• DESIGNER
• ENGINEER
• HATCH
• TAG
• GALILEO
• MARCO POLO
• MASTERMIND
• VIKING
• BINGO
• PIONEER
• LUXURY
• CONCOCT
• HAUTE
• VOYAGER
• UNO
• HIGH-END

NYT Connections today (game #499) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Check the label
• Green: Come up with a plan
• Blue: For all mankind
• Purple: The clue's in the name

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #499) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: BRAND-NAME
• GREEN: DEVISE
• BLUE: NASA SPACECRAFT
• PURPLE: GAMES WHERE YOU SAY THE GAME’S NAME

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

NYT Connections today (game #499) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #499, are…

• YELLOW: BRAND-NAME DESIGNER, HAUTE, HIGH-END, LUXURY
• GREEN: DEVISE CONCOCT, ENGINEER, HATCH, MASTERMIND
• BLUE: NASA SPACECRAFT GALILEO, PIONEER, VIKING, VOYAGER
• PURPLE: GAMES WHERE YOU SAY THE GAME’S NAME BINGO, MARCO POLO, TAG, UNO

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

There are days when the NYT's difficulty scale for Connections seems a little off. It's all a matter of opinion, of course; one person's impossible-to-solve group could be someone else's cakewalk. But today I felt like all four were roughly the same toughness, and the supposedly worst one, GAMES WHERE YOU SAY THE GAME’S NAME, was one of the easiest.

Not that I got the connection as such – and indeed, it was the one I solved by default – but I could clearly see that all four were games, and the fact that they were specifically games where you say the name wasn't really enough to obfuscate matters. After all, the only red herring was MASTERMIND, and that went nicely into the green group anyway.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, 21 October, game #498)

• YELLOW: KINDS OF BEANS KIDNEY, MUNG, NAVY, PINTO
• GREEN: ATTRACT DRAW, GRAB, HOOK, PULL
• BLUE: AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFTER POSITIONS DRIVE, LOW, NEUTRAL, REVERSE
• PURPLE: ___POOL CAR, DEAD, LIVER, WHIRL

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.

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

Quordle today (game #1002) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.

* 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 #1002) - 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 #1002) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1002) - 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 2.

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 #1002) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• A

• S

• A

• L

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

Quordle today (game #1002) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1002, are…

• ADORE
• SMITH
• AFOOT
• LUCID

This was another relatively easy Quordle, with a repeated O in AFOOT but not much more to complicate matters. My trio of start words again came up trumps, there were no major decisions to make between two similarly spelled words and the whole thing only took me about two minutes. If only they were all so simple, eh?

As if to counteract the simplicity of the main Quordle, the Daily Sequence was a fair bit harder today, serving up LLAMA and its two repeated letters, COCOA and its two repeated letters, TITAN and its one repeated letter and the far-from-obvious RAMEN. Quordle giveth and it taketh away.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #1002) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1002, are…

• LLAMA
• COCOA
• RAMEN
• TITAN

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1001, Monday 21 October: TREAD, NINTH, GRIEF, UNSET
• Quordle #1000, Sunday 20 October: CORAL, WHOSE, HEIST, SOAPY
• Quordle #999, Saturday 19 October: GUSTY, BROKE, ENJOY, HAZEL
• Quordle #998, Friday 18 October: PUPIL, MOCHA, EGRET, NATAL
• Quordle #997, Thursday 17 October: BUILD, BIRTH, LURCH, SASSY
• Quordle #996, Wednesday 16 October: EERIE, SMIRK, HUNCH, EMBED
• Quordle #995, Tuesday 15 October: UMBRA, BRIEF, GRAVY, TORUS
• Quordle #994, Monday 14 October: ROGUE, STORY, EMCEE, AUNTY
• Quordle #993, Sunday 13 October: UNFIT, NYMPH, THUMB, PUREE
• Quordle #992, Saturday 12 October: SAUCY, UNDUE, EGRET, HELLO
• Quordle #991, Friday 11 October: RINSE, ANIME, PUSHY, ZEBRA
• Quordle #990, Thursday 10 October: UNTIL, MARSH, METAL, WINDY
• Quordle #989, Wednesday 9 October: TRIAL, HUSKY, DOWNY, TRADE
• Quordle #988, Tuesday 8 October: TROUT, HATER, BARGE, DOZEN
• Quordle #987, Monday 7 October: CAULK, HALVE, APING, HEATH
• Quordle #986, Sunday 6 October: FUDGE, TENOR, BEGAT, ROUSE
• Quordle #985, Saturday 5 October: ELECT, CROAK, FRISK, JAUNT
• Quordle #984, Friday 4 October: ELFIN, GRAIL, PATIO, RECAP
• Quordle #983, Thursday 3 October: TENTH, REMIT, CURVE, TOAST
• Quordle #982, Wednesday 2 October: ARGUE, CRANE, TOKEN, PRINT

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

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

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

NYT Strands today (game #233) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Cool color!

NYT Strands today (game #233) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• BEAN
• BEES
• SAGE
• BOLT
• COAT
• WIRE

NYT Strands today (game #233) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Sky and sea

NYT Strands today (game #233) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: right, 5th row

Last: left, 5th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #233) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #233, are…

• COBALT
• AZURE
• TURQUOISE
• INDIGO
• NAVY
• PERIWINKLE
• SPANGRAM: THEBLUES

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

The theme clues for Strands can sometimes give away too much, and today was one of those days. 'Cool color!' screamed the hint, so clearly it was going to be shades of a particular color; 'cool' made it obvious it would be blue.

That didn't make finding them all that simple of course, because though I got COBALT and AZURE near the top of the board early, then uncovered TURQUOISE by focusing on what the Q could go with, I got a little stuck for a while after that. I could see the word BLUE in the middle of the board and figured it would be part of the spangram, but it took me a while to establish that I needed THEBLUES. The other answers slotted into place fairly easily after that.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, 21 October, game #232)

• PACK
• HERD
• FLOCK
• SWARM
• SCHOOL
• PRIDE
• KNOT
• COLONY
• SPANGRAM: GROUPNAME

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.

Tons of reports and rumors have gone flying around concerning the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, including release dates, clock speeds, and more. But thanks to a new leak from the motherboard manufacturer, we may now have a good idea of the specs it’s packing.

Maxsun, which manufactures the motherboard for the processor, has seemed to reveal some juicy information regarding the chip. Interestingly enough, it’s referred to as the AMD Ryzen 9 9800X3D in the leak but most likely it’s the Ryzen 7. According to the listing, it has a TDP of 120W and 96MB of cache, including 32MB of L3 cache and 64MB of 3D V-Cache. This means the cache size is still the same as in previous models, which honestly isn’t great.

The leaked document also reveals that the base clock speed is 4.7 GHz — 900 MHz faster than the 9700X. Most likely this is due to the TDP being higher in the 9800X3D. The leak also states that it’ll have a boosted clock speed of 5.2 GHz, which would oddly be 300MHz slower than the 9700X. This all lines up with an earlier leak that confirms the same information. As for single-core clock speed, that hasn’t been revealed at this time but it’s assumed to be 5.4/5.5GHz.

If past reports are to be trusted, then we should have official confirmation of the 9800X3D’s specs on October 25, 2024. Though most likely the actual launch date would be sometime in November 2024.

Disappointing rumored performance

Though base clock speeds seem to be promising enough (while boosted not so much), a recent report from a German tech site seems to point to rather unimpressive benchmark scores. In gaming comparisons, the Ryzen 9800X3D is 11% faster than the 7800X3D in Far Cry 6. Shadow of the Tomb Raider sees an uptick of only 4% and Black Myth: Wukong a dismal 2%.

Cinebench does look a bit more promising in this regard, with a huge performance increase of around 18% and 28% faster than its predecessor for single-core and multi-core, respectively. But still, considering this is supposed to be a next-gen chip, the overall results are rather lackluster.

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Looking to beef up server capacity? The Inventec 96 DIMM CXL box could be what you’re looking for. Unveiled at OCP Summit 2024 alongside Astera Labs, the CXL expansion box allows users to connect up to 96 DDR5 DIMMS to a single server, providing enormous memory capacities ranging up to the tens of terabytes per memory server.

As reported by ServeTheHome, the expansion box can connect to the upcoming eight-way Intel Xeon 6 Granite Rapids-SP server, offering an even bigger punch.

Combined with the Intel Xeon 6 server, which boasts a total of 128 DDR DIMM slots, this means users could harness a massive 244 DIMM slots for a single server, providing significant memory capacity.

What you can expect from the 96 DIMM CXL expansion box

So what does this announcement mean exactly? Well, we’re talking about significant memory capacity boosts for servers.

The DDR5 DIMMS in question here are DDR5-4800, and the expansion box uses the Astera Labs Leo. Elsewhere, users are able to draw up 24 CDFP ports, each of which boasts a PCIe Gen5 x16 connection linking the CXL boat and the servers themselves.

As Servethehome noted, the launch shows users can draw upon a sizable 20TB of memory in a single server, which has massive long-term implications for server capacities and marks a huge development.

Underpinning all of this is the growing potential of compute express link (CXL) technology.

In 2023, Meta announced a partnership with AMD to showcase a memory type that can be added onto servers and capable of recycling petabytes worth of RAM.

As part of the collaboration, the two firms showed CXL can be used to markedly improve memory efficiency, in turn reducing costs and enhancing performance.

The demo board showcased by AMD and Meta included an AMD EPYC 9004 Genoa, boasted four dual in-line memory module (DIMM) slots, and a heat sink and fan.

Astera Labs’ involvement here marks the second major announcement from the semiconductor company so far this year. In April 2024, Astera Labs showcased its Aries 6 PCIe retimer board, which TechRadar Pro reported at the time could unlock significant benefits for hyperscalers ramping up AI development.

This retimer board can help maintain data signal integrity over the PCIe interface.

These high-speed data transfers typically suffer from degradation over long distances or due to interference.

The Aries 6 retimers marked the first in Astera Labs’ PCIe 6.x portfolio, and are aimed specifically at enhancing networking capabilities for next-generation GPUs, accelerators, CPUs, and CXL memory controllers.

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Picture the scene: you jump on an important work call, fresh-faced and ready to confidently deliver your trademark “nothing from me” line, only to discover that the light (or lack thereof) in your work-from-home office has left you looking less like a serious businessperson and more like a seedy Omegle user from 2010. Don’t worry – we’ve all been there.

Thankfully, Qualcomm knows we’ve all been there, which is why the American semiconductor giant has seen fit to equip its newly announced Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile chipset with an AI-powered, real-time lighting tool that could banish terrible video call lighting to the annals of internet history.

AI Portrait Video Re-lighting lets you add a virtual, moveable light source that maps to the contours of your face to better illuminate it in heavily backlit environments. This lighting can be adjusted manually, or you can let your phone’s AI do the work for you, and the entire process takes place on-device, with no added latency. Wait a minute, did Qualcomm just kill the ring light?

Qualcomm debuted the new tool at Snapdragon Summit 2024, demonstrating its potential in a nameless dummy phone, though we could conceivably see AI Portrait Video Re-lighting feature (albeit with a different name) in some of the best Android phones of 2025 – think the much rumored Samsung Galaxy S25, OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15 Ultra, and so on.

That’s because all of those upcoming flagship phones are expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, meaning their respective OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) will have the option of implementing this new AI technology as they see fit.

Indeed, as Qualcomm’s Senior Director of Product Management, Judd Heape, confirmed to TechRadar in a roundtable interview at Snapdragon Summit (with reference to Limitless Segmentation, another Snapdragon 8 Elite-specific camera feature): “Limitless Segmentation is embedded into the [Snapdragon 8 Elite] camera framework – it’s shipping with the baseline camera. So, it will be up to OEMs as to how they integrate it [and other AI features] into the main products.”

Limitless Segmentation segments an image into over 250 layers, optimizing and enhancing each layer (including faces, hair, clothing, objects, and backgrounds) in the process, so presumably Qualcomm’s AI Portrait Video Re-lighting technology could be applied to still portraits, too. Might we see a “Portraits by Qualcomm” label added to images taken with the best Samsung phones in the near future? It’s certainly a possibility.

In any case, we’re glad to see Qualcomm using the power of its Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset to develop practical generative AI tools like this one. Sure, bespoke emoji creators are great – but they’re not going to help you save face when your video call lighting just ain’t it.

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Microsoft might have debuted its major Windows 11 24H2 update only recently, but it’s already becoming infamous due to its habit of appearing in headlines for causing user issues. This time, there have been reports of a bug that causes devices to crash and show the blue screen of death (BSoD). This comes after previous reports of problems that were serious enough that Microsoft ended up blocking 24H2 from being installed on affected devices.

Today, we can add another glitch to the list - a system crash that apparently occurs on PCs with the Voicemeeter app installed. Voicemeeter is a popular app that helps people manage their PC’s audio, and according to Neowin, Microsoft has published a note in Windows 11 24H2’s official documentation describing the problem. Unfortunately, it seems like the driver software (which enables the app to “talk” to your system) is incompatible with Windows 11’s memory manager.

This incompatibility results in many users’ systems becoming unresponsive, leading to the dreaded blue screen with the MEMORY_MANAGEMENT error code - a rather nasty bug, as it could mean people’s unsaved work is lost if the PC suddenly reboots.

To prevent this from happening, Microsoft has put a hold on rolling out update 24H2 to PCs that are running Voicemeeter. If you want to continue using the app in Windows 11, you won’t even be able to see the option to update to 24H2 in Windows Update when you check for new updates.

(Image credit: Future) What Windows 11 Voicemeeter users can expect next

It does seem like Microsoft is aware of the problem and, as reported by Neowin, it advises users not to force their devices to update to 24H2 using methods like the Installation Assistant or the Media Creation tool. I’m fairly sure this means that Microsoft is working on an update that delivers a fix that will allow users to update to 24H2 and continue using Voicemeeter trouble-free.

If you can give up Voicemeeter, then apparently you can remove the app altogether, and the 24H2 update will become available again for you to download after around 24 hours. So far, it seems like this compatibility issue only impacts PCs running 24H2, and earlier versions of Windows 10 and 11 aren’t affected.

This is yet another potential issue to consider if you’re looking to upgrade to Windows 11 24H2, and you can read some of the other problems users have been bumping into after trying to update here.

A BSoD isn’t fatal, but it can be incredibly frustrating and annoying. Along with all of the other errors and problems, 24H2 is shaping up to be pretty disruptive to some people. It also brings back bad memories of Windows 10 suffering from numerous update problems a few years ago.

This draws attention away from any actual quality and functionality improvements that Microsoft has included in 24H2. Still, it’s worth staying updated on issues that arise so you can know how to deal with them. It shows how difficult it can be when trying to roll out major updates across a wide range of software and hardware – and how Microsoft is still struggling to overcome those difficulties, even after decades of experience.

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Some cloud storage providers offering end-to-end encryption (E2EE) are largely operating a broken ecosystem which could, in very realistic theory, allow threat actors to tamper with the files in a way that should not be possible, experts have claimed.

In an in-depth analysis, recently published on the brokencloudstorage.info website, cybersecurity researchers Jonas Hofmann and Kien Tuong Truong from ETF Zurich noted if a threat actor compromises a company server, they can “inject files, tamper with file data, and even gain direct access to plaintext."

During their research, the two experts analyzed five major providers in the field - Sync, pCloud, Icedrive, Seafile, and Tresorit, concluding, “many of our attacks affect multiple providers in the same way, revealing common failure patterns in independent cryptographic designs."

Nation-state targets

On Sync and pCloud, a compromised server could be abused to break the confidentiality of uploaded files, inject files, and tamper with their content, while for Seafile such a server could be used to speed-up brute-force attacks, inject files, and tamper with the content.

For Icedrive, hackers could use a compromised server to break the integrity of uploaded files, inject files, and tamper with their content, while for Tresorid, a broken server could be used to present non-authentic keys, when sharing files. Crooks would also be able to tamper with some metadata in the storage.

The researchers stress that this doesn’t mean that the service providers are malicious, but that these flaws make them a major target for threat actors. More importantly - nation-state threat actors. They also added that compromising a server belonging to an E2EE cloud storage provider isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem at first.

In fact, they argue it’s the “most realistic” adversary model for E2EE cloud storage.

The majority of the service providers mentioned in the report - Sync, Seafile, and Tresorit, were said to have acknowledged the report. Icedrive is yet to address the issue, while there are no reports for pCloud just yet.

Via The Hacker News

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Apple Intelligence is set to release next week, as Apple has confirmed that iOS 18.1 and AirPods Pro 2' hearing health features will begin rolling out next week at some point.

Apple confirmed in a press release that the AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid upgrade, which requires iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, will be available to the public beginning next week. Putting two and two together means we'll be ushering in the Apple Intelligence era for iPhone and iPad very shortly.

You'll be able to access the first batch of Apple Intelligence features in these software updates, including Writing Tools for proofreading and rewriting, Smart Replies to quickly reply to messages, Notification Summaries, Clean Up in Photos, and a redesign of Siri.

Plus, if you have AirPods Pro 2, the earbuds can perform a hearing test and even act as FDA-approved over-the-counter hearing aids for those with mild to moderate hearing loss. Of course, you'll need to install that firmware update for AirPods alongside iOS 18.1 on your iPhone.

Apple Intelligence will work on some of the best iPhones, including the iPhone 16 lineup and the iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max. Unfortunately, iPhone users of devices as recent as the iPhone 15 will not get access to any of the features Apple Intelligence offers.

Apple had previously announced that Apple Intelligence would become available in October, but for owners of the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max, waiting over a month to get the features on their new iPhones might still sting a little.

That said, now that we've got a better idea of when to expect Apple Intelligence, we can start to get excited about everything Apple's AI has to offer.

A new era

Siri's redesign on an iPhone 16 Pro Max (Image credit: Future / Apple )

If you're waiting for some of the more exciting Apple Intelligence features like ChatGPT integration in Siri and the voice assistant's major overhaul with on-screen awareness and personal context, then you'll need to stay patient as we won't be using those for a while.

Genmoji, Image Playground, ChatGPT integration, and Visual Intelligence are set to arrive as part of iOS 18.2, which should enter beta in the next month or so. Apple has said all of these features are coming "later this year," so considering there are only about two months left in 2024, we should get our hands on these AI tools soon. Siri's overhaul, on the other hand, won't be available until 2025.

Next week's release date is only for US English, with other parts of the world needing to wait until December to get their hands on Apple Intelligence. While you can easily change your device's language, you might find Apple Intelligence will struggle – trust me, it doesn't cope well with Scottish slang! As for Apple users in the EU, we still have no information on whether you'll be getting AI features.

Check out our iOS 18.1 Apple Intelligence hands-on to get a rundown of everything you'll be able to use at some point next week, as well as our deep dive into the AirPods Pro 2's hearing health features here. If you're looking for a new Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone, check out our iPhone 16 review.

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It’s that time of year again: Qualcomm has debuted its new-and-improved flagship mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, at its annual Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii.

Essentially a renamed version of the much rumored Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (though Qualcomm isn’t ready to confirm as much just yet), the 8 Elite is a de facto successor to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and will likely power the Samsung Galaxy S25, OnePlus 13, and many more of the best phones we expect to see released in 2025.

“Our flagship mobile platforms are now taking on the Elite name, showcasing the remarkable progress it represents for the industry,” Qualcomm said in a statement announcing the launch, which comes just a month after Apple and Meditek unveiled their latest flagship chipsets – the A18 Pro and Dimensity 9400, respectively.

The 8 Elite is the first Snapdragon mobile chipset to feature Qualcomm’s second-generation Oryon CPU, and has been designed to “handle the complexities of multi-modal AI” better than any mobile chipset before it. In other words, next year’s best Android phones will surely rank among the best AI phones, too.

Forgive us for getting technical, but the Oryon’s two prime CPU cores boast peak speeds of 4.32GHz – supposedly the fastest in the industry – and six new performance cores that each boast peak speeds of 3.53GHz. Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset also does away with efficiency cores, two of which feature in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

The key specs of the Snapdragon 8 Elite (Image credit: Qualcomm)

What does all that mean in layman’s terms? Well, since the CPU in mobile chipsets is used for application processing, any phones equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite should deliver faster app launches, more seamless multitasking, and more powerful generative AI capabilities than their Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-equipped predecessors.

Mobile chipsets also feature a GPU for graphics processing (read: gaming – more on this below) and an NPU for machine learning (ML) applications, though Qualcomm is most jazzed about the addition of its Oryon CPU, saying: “The Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform represents the pinnacle of Snapdragon innovation. With Qualcomm Oryon CPU debuting in our mobile roadmap, we are delivering unprecedented performance. This significance deserves a new, special, most premium variant of our leading 8 series.”

A gift for gamers

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

When it comes to gaming, next year’s flagship Android handsets could threaten the iPhone 16 Pro Max as the best gaming phone.

The Andreno GPU in the Snapdragon 8 Elite boasts Qualcomm’s first-ever sliced architecture, which facilitates a higher clock speed, higher frame rate, and better battery efficiency – that means sharper images, smoother gameplay, and longer gameplay sessions – than the GPU in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The Andreno can also store 12MB of data directly on the GPU, sending less graphical data to the chipset’s DDR memory.

What’s more, the Snapdragon 8 Elite supports Unreal Engine’s Chaos Physics system, which allows for the rendering of up to 9,000 unique objects and the destruction of up to 1,000 objects in under 5ms of latency. Similarly, support for Unreal Engine’s Nanite solution will supposedly facilitate a “massive increase” in geometric complexity and the rendering of “film-quality environments in your mobile game” – let’s just hope Qualcomm isn’t referring to recent Marvel movies there, eh?

There is, of course, plenty more to say about the Snapdragon 8 Elite – and we’ll be reporting on several never-before-seen features throughout our week on the ground at Snapdragon Summit – but for now, all you need to know is that the next wave of flagship Android phones will pack a serious punch; provided, that is, Samsung et al can make good use of all that lovely power. Here’s hoping!

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The OnePlus 13 is set to be one of the final flagship phones of 2024, though it will probably only be a 2024 release in China, with the rest of the world likely to get it in 2025.

Either way though, it could be worth the wait, as between leaks and teasers we have a good idea of what to expect, and that includes an extremely powerful and efficient chipset, a huge battery, and a striking design.

Below then, you’ll find everything we’ve heard about the OnePlus 13 so far, including its confirmed announcement date and design, and leaked specs and features.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The next OnePlus flagship
• When is it out? October 31 in China, maybe early next year globally
• How much will it cost? Likely upwards of $799.99 / £849 (around AU$1,200)

A rumored price increase

The OnePlus 12 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• Landing in China on October 31
• Could cost more than the OnePlus 12

The OnePlus 13 will be unveiled on October 31 at an event in China. The company itself has confirmed this, with the event kicking off at 1am PT / 4am ET / 8am GMT / 7pm AEDT.

This event will most likely just be the Chinese launch of the phone though, with a global launch probably happening in early 2025 based on past form.

The OnePlus 13 might also cost more than the OnePlus 12, with one leak suggesting a 16GB model with 512GB of storage will cost ¥5,299 in China, which is up from ¥4,799 for the equivalent model of the OnePlus 12. That’s a difference of around $70 / £55 / AU$105.

For reference, the OnePlus 12 cost $799.99 / £849 (around AU$1,200) at launch for a 12GB / 256GB model, and rose to $899.99 / £999 (roughly AU$1,350) for a 16GB / 512GB version. So the OnePlus 13 might have a higher price than that.

Oh, and don’t count on being able to buy it in Australia, because the current model isn’t available there.

Can you trust these rumors?

We've only heard one price leak so far so we'd take it with a pinch of salt. But it's believable that the OnePlus 13 would cost more than the OnePlus 12, especially as the Snapdragon chipset we're expecting it to use reportedly costs more than its predecessor.

A familiar design and a new screen technology

The OnePlus 12 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• A familiar design in new colors
• The screen has an interesting refresh rate technology
• Might get an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor

We know exactly what the OnePlus 13 looks like – at least from the back – because OnePlus has already shown it off in three different colors, as you can see below.

The phone will be available in White Dawn (white), Blue Moment (blue), and Obsidian Secret (black) shades, with the blue one apparently having a skin-like feel and the black one having an “ebony wood grain” textured finish.

The design of the back otherwise looks somewhat similar to the OnePlus 12, but the circular camera block doesn’t extend out to the edge here, and instead there’s a silver line running across the rear.

The OnePlus 13 in three colors (Image credit: OnePlus)

We haven’t yet had a complete official look at the front of the phone, but you can see glimpses of it in a OnePlus 13 teaser video, showing what appears to be a flat display with a punch-hole camera in the top center.

We’ve also seen actual photos of the OnePlus 13, from where it was spotted at a Chinese esports event, as you can see below.

Images of the OnePlus 13 at an esports event (Image credit: Weibo)

And prior to all this we also saw another OnePlus 13 teaser image, and a teaser for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset which seemingly shows the phone too, though neither of these provided a clear look at it.

And we’ve also seen what might be the full front of the OnePlus 13, though it has not been confirmed whether the pictured phone is indeed the OnePlus 13 or not.

Still, it shows a seemingly flat screen with a punch-hole camera, similar to other teasers above.

A possible image of the OnePlus 13 (Image credit: OnePlus)

In any case, leaks suggest the OnePlus 13 might have a 6.82-inch display, which is the same as the OnePlus 12. An early leak also suggested the OnePlus 13 would have a curved screen, but based on more recent leaks and teasers that doesn’t appear to be the case, unless it’s a very subtle curve.

We’ve also heard that the OnePlus 13’s display may have a 2K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, which would be as expected.

The company has also teased on Weibo that its screen will be able to deliver different refresh rates in different sections, so for example static text could be at 10Hz while a video playing elsewhere on the screen could be 120Hz. This is something we haven’t seen from other Android phones, and it might allow for improved battery life.

Finally, leaks suggest the OnePlus 13 might have an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor in the screen, which should work better than the optical one of its predecessor.

Can you trust these rumors?

Most of the design has now been confirmed, and the leaked screen specs are all in line with what we'd expect. The one real question mark here is whether the OnePlus 13 will have an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, but it sounds believable.

A mix of old and new cameras

The OnePlus 12 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• Could have the same main camera as the OnePlus 12
• Might have two new 50MP snappers

We haven’t heard loads about the OnePlus 13’s camera yet, but one leak suggests the OnePlus 13 will have the same main camera as the OnePlus 12. That’s a 50MP f/1.6 camera with an LYT808 sensor.

It would be a shame not see any upgrades there, but in an earlier leak the same source claimed OnePlus was working on the OnePlus 13’s periscope camera, so that at least might differ from the 64MP 3x zoom of its predecessor.

As for exactly how it might differ, well, both that source (Digital Chat Station, via Android Authority) and leaker Yogesh Brar have claimed that the OnePlus 13 might have three 50MP cameras. In which case that would also mean changes to the ultra-wide, as that’s 48MP on the OnePlus 12.

Can you trust these rumors? 

The cameras are one of the things we're least sure about, as we haven't heard all that much about them. But the leaks we have heard generally all point in the same direction, so the specs above have a good chance of being accurate.

An efficient chipset and a huge battery

The OnePlus 12 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• Likely to have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset
• Could have a 6,000mAh battery

One area where the OnePlus 13 might be a big upgrade on its predecessor is the chipset, as it will almost certainly use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 – though it’s possible this chipset will instead be called the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Numerous OnePlus 13 leaks have pointed to it having a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset, and since the OnePlus 12 has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, that’s what we’d expect.

But reportedly the OnePlus 13 has a custom version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 – one that beats the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro for efficiency.

That should help improve battery life, as should the ability to deliver different refresh rates to different parts of the screen, as mentioned further up in this article. And that’s on top of the OnePlus 13 reportedly having a massive 6,000mAh battery, so it’s likely to excel for stamina.

Leaks also suggest the OnePlus 13 will charge quickly, at up to 100W wired and 50W wireless – though based on past form the US might get slightly lower 80W wired charging speeds.

As for other specs, we’ve heard from leaker Digital Chat Station that the OnePlus 13 could come with up to 24GB of RAM, though the OnePlus 12 also did, but only in China, so there’s every chance international models will once again top out at 16GB.

Can you trust these rumors? 

There are no red flags among the leaked battery or chipset details, and in fact we're almost certain the OnePlus 13 will use the successor to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

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Intel recently launched its 128-core "Granite Rapids" Xeon 6900P processor family, finally offering some true competition to AMD’s EPYC 9004 Genoa/Bergamo server line.

The first reviews praised Intel's new chips, with the overall consensus being that the 6900P range successfully heralded Intel's long-awaited resurgence in the server CPU arena.

While Intel must have been pleased with the reception to its new processors, there was an elephant in the room. The Xeon 6900P processors were pitted up against aging rivals - Genoa is almost two years old now - and AMD had its 5th Gen EPYC "Turin" CPUs in the starting blocks.

(Image credit: Phoronix) Not plain sailing

AMD's new processors have now arrived and the first reviews for the EPYC 9575F, 9755, and 9965 Turin server CPUs are in. As was widely expected, these place AMD right back on top. As Phoronix notes in its review, “The new top-end AMD EPYC Turin processor performance can obliterate the competition in most workloads and delivers a great generational leap in performance and power efficiency."

Phoronix added, “The tested AMD EPYC 9575F high-frequency Turin 64-core processor, EPYC 9755 128-core Turin processor, and EPYC 9965 192-core Turin Dense processors dominated across the wide variety of server, technical computing, and HPC workloads tested. The dual 128-core EPYC 9755 Turin processor was 40% faster than the dual Xeon 6980P Granite Rapids server with MRDIMMs. Even a single EPYC 9755 (and EPYC 9965) effectively matched the dual Xeon 6980P processors in this larger selection of benchmarks than what was initially run for Granite Rapids.”

In its glowing review, Storage Review said, “What sets the EPYC 9005 series apart is its ability to meet the diverse needs of modern enterprises with configurations that scale from entry-level, high-frequency models to super cache-dense chips to multi-core powerhouses. Whether real-time AI inferencing, computational fluid dynamics, large-scale data analytics, or high-resolution 3D rendering, the EPYC lineup delivers single-threaded responsiveness and multi-threaded efficiency. Advanced features like 12-channel DDR5 memory support, PCIe 5.0 lanes, and AMD’s secure, confidential computing make this series a performance upgrade and a comprehensive solution for data centers focused on the future.”

In its review, ServeTheHome said AMD EPYC 9005 Turin delivered a “transcendent” performance, noting that “AMD’s formula was simple: Increase TDP by 25%+, increase core counts by 50%, use new process technology, and update its server processors to Zen 5/ Zen 5c architecture.”

Although the site was hugely impressed by the new chips, STH’s Patrick Kennedy made an interesting observation. “In terms of competing directly with Intel for the top-end sockets vying for the top AI nodes, the situation is a bit more nuanced than one might think. At 192 cores, the Zen 5c-based AMD EPYC 9965 is great for throughput and excellent for virtualization and cloud workloads. Still, at 128 cores with the Intel Granite Rapids-AP versus 128 cores with the AMD EPYC 9755, AMD does not have the same outright leadership that it had before. Or better to say, AMD is no longer competing at the top-end just with itself.”

It isn’t only Intel that AMD has to worry about either. Arm is also challenging in the data center, and its impact in the future shouldn’t be overlooked.

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The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have grown on me. I liked them a fair bit when I first reviewed them, but the addition of the Meta AI – which has now rolled out beyond the US officially – has made them easily the best AI wearable out there, and one of the best smart glasses you can buy. And it turns out I’m not alone when it comes to being impressed by them.

That’s per EssilorLuxottica's CFO Stefano Grassi who in the company’s Q3 2024 earnings call revealed that the smart specs are the best-selling glasses at 60% of the Ray-Ban stores in the EMEA region (via UploadVR). EssilorLuxottica is Ray-Ban’s parent company, and EMEA stands for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

It’s no wonder then that Grassi called the smart glasses “a success,” and that Meta and EssilorLuxottica have extended their partnership to continue working together on smart specs.

Now, there are a few factors to consider here. Firstly, because we don’t know their total share of sales, the Ray-ban Meta Smart Glasses will still likely be a minor player compared to the company's traditional sunglasses. The Meta-powered specs might be the best-selling model in some Ray-ban stores, but the vast majority of sales will still likely come from the many different shades of standard sunglasses.

Also, Ray-Ban glasses aren’t inexpensive. If you’re already the sort of person who can confidently stroll into a store ready to drop over $100, even $200, on a pair of shades, paying that bit extra for a $299 / £299 / AU$449 pair with speakers and cameras added-on is borderline an impulse buy. Being popular among Ray-Ban purchasers doesn’t make them widely popular.

Despite this, even if you have cash to splash that additional cost isn’t nothing, and it’s interesting – and perhaps a tad worrying – to hear that these wearable recording devices are clearly not as off-putting as the tech was even a decade ago.

Are we ready for a smart glasses revolution?

(Image credit: Future)

When Google Glass launched it was billed as a technological revolution. In reality, they didn’t quite stick the landing.

Price was a factor but I remember a lot of talk about how creepy the specs were if you thought too hard about them. Not just for wearers, who had to adjust to a camera that was (even if it’s not always active) seeing where they were looking at all times, but also for members of the public.

There were several published stories about owners of the camera- and microphone-equipped Google Glass being assaulted because the tech agitated others so significantly. The seemingly less niche Ray-Ban smart glasses don’t seem to have caused a similar or proportional surge in crime.

There are going to be a few reasons for this. The more discrete design of the Ray-Bans plays a part I’m sure, as will the fact that (for better or worse) we’re simply more comfortable with people carrying and using cameras around them every waking moment – you can’t wander around a busy part of a major city for more than 30 minutes and not feature in a dozen or so live streams, vlogs, or viral TikTok dance videos in the making.

For whatever reason, it does seem that smart glasses aren’t just experiencing a technological revolution right now, but a public perception one, too. We probably should be at least a little concerned about big tech companies having access to more or our personal data than ever thanks to smart glasses, and how they might use it (such as training their AI). But from a purely technological perspective, this renewed interest in smart glasses from consumers could spur companies to come up with exciting and competing designs in the coming years.

We’ll have to wait and see what exactly comes from the burgeoning smart glasses space, but news like today’s is starting to convince me that it might actually be a matter of when, not if, we’ll one day all be wearing a pair – as awesome and slightly frightening as that all sounds.

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One of the things I really love about Alien and its sequels is their distinctly low-tech take on high technology: this was a universe of interstellar travel, cryogenic freezing and other wonders run on 1970s computer tech with big clacky buttons and green-hued CRT displays, a design decision that was also carried across to the Alien Isolation video game.

So it's nice to see that Alien: Romulus is committed to the retro-futurist vibe too – so much so that it'll be released on "fully functioning VHS tape" in December with a 4:3 aspect ratio and a vintage-style sleeve.

The news comes via The Verge, which hasn't been able to confirm how many copies of the tape there will be or how much it's going to cost. It's clearly intended to be a collector's item rather than something you'll watch more than once, if at all.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios / Disney) How to watch Alien: Romulus if you don't buy the VHS

The age of the VHS officially ended in 2008 when JVC stopped making VHS players, but it went into steep decline in the 1990s when DVD and later, Blu-Ray came along. It's the format I watched the original Alien on, and Aliens too, so it's really nice to see Romulus going onto the format too.

If you'd prefer to watch the latest Alien movie with more current home theater tech, it's obviously going to look much better in its 4K UHD steelbook physical release on one of the best 4K Blu-ray players – this is due for released on 3 December 2024, along with the VHS version (and DVD and regular Blu-ray).

It'll also obviously look better on streaming – the date hasn't yet been announced for it to arrive on Hulu/Disney Plus, but late November or early December seems likely, possibly alongside the physical releases.

But it's not about what it looks best on, it's about what it looks most atmospheric on. What could be more atmospheric than starting this movie with the clunk of the video cassette player taking this movie in.

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The US Treasury has announced machine learning AI is being used as part of its fraud detection process, helping it save a record amount of money for the department.

Through this, the department claims to have recovered over $4 billion in improper payments, and $1 billion of that is said to be as a direct result of the machine learning AI that identifies likely instances of check fraud.

Also included, the department claims to have prevented $2.5 billion by identifying and prioritizing high risk transactions, and by expanding risk-based screening which resulted in $500 million in prevention.

Enhanced capabilities

Government departments across the country are adopting AI in their processes. For example, the Nevada state employment department is using AI in the benefit appeals process, which critics say could be less effective but just as time consuming.

Recent reports have revealed AI has made financial fraud significantly easier, so using AI to combat criminals does seem to be the natural next step.

“Treasury takes seriously our responsibility to serve as effective stewards of taxpayer money. Helping ensure that agencies pay the right person, in the right amount, at the right time is central to our efforts,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

The AI process are likely inspired by similar fraud detection used in the banking industry, which the Treasury department has been quietly utilising for the last two years.

This is likely to be just the start of a new era of machine bureaucracy, as the Treasury and Department of Labor announced a data-sharing partnership,

“We will continue to partner with others in the federal government to equip them with the necessary tools, data, and expertise they need to stop improper payments and fraud.” added Adeyemo.

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We all love a good thriller, and Netflix has an abundance of them. There's usually a good selection added among the new Netflix movies and this month we've got the Russell Crowe psychological thriller movie Unhinged.

While Crowe is known for his Oscar-nominated heroic protagonists in The Insider, A Beautiful Mind and of course the historical epic Gladiator, Unhinged proves that he can steal the screen as a menacing villain.

We've all had some interaction with the universal experience of getting impatient on the road and beeping at other drivers. Well, Unhinged may make you think twice before hitting the horn next time as Crowe stars as a sadistic psychopath who catches a case of deadly road rage and targets an impatient driver to teach her a lesson.

What is Unhinged about?

Unhinged was first released in theaters in 2020, but is now available to stream on the best streaming service. In Unhinged, single mother Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is having the worst day ever. Running late for work and stuck in standstill traffic during the school drop-off, Rachel is fired from her job over the phone. But soon her incredibly bad day turns into a full-blown nightmare when she gets into an argument with Tom Cooper (Crowe) after she honks at him for stalling at a green light. Unable to let it go, Tom spirals into a violent rage and pursues Rachel in revenge. As Rachel tries to protect her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman), she's forced to confront Tom as he becomes even more unhinged and off the rails.

While it wouldn't be considered the best Netflix movie due to its 48% Rotten Tomatoes score, its action-packed carnage that bounces between terror and silliness make it a great Netflix watch, with Variety writing that Unhinged "delivers exactly the nasty B-movie thrills you expect". It adds: "the carnage is the point here, not any of the reasoning behind it, and Borte and Crowe bring it to a suitably frothing, furious head."

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Cisco has taken its DevHub website offline following a cyberattack and a data leak incident. It also played down the value of the breach and said it shut down the site “out of an abundance of caution”.

Recently, a known data leaker, alias IntelBroker, posted a new thread on the infamous BreachForums, offering Cisco data for sale.

In the thread, the hacker credited EnergyWeaponUser and zjj for the breach, and stated that the archive includes Github projects, Gitlab projects, SonarQube projects, source code, hardcoded credentials, certificates, customer SRCs, confidential documents, Jira tickets, API tokens, AWS private buckets, Cisco Technology SRCs, Docker builds, Azure Storage buckets, private & public keys, SSL certificates, and more.

Exposed API token

Cisco responded by saying it was investigating the breach, and has now come forward with additional information.

“Based on our investigations, we are confident that there has been no breach of our systems,” Cisco said. “We have determined that the data in question is on a public-facing DevHub environment—a Cisco resource center that enables us to support our community by making available software code, scripts, etc. for customers to use as needed. We have determined that a small number of files that were not authorized for public download may have been published.”

The announcement also states there is no evidence of personally identifiable information (PII) or financial data being exposed this way, but Cisco is continuing its investigation.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have disabled public access to the site while we continue the investigation.”

But IntelBroker disagrees that there was no breach. Speaking to BleepingComputer, they said they gained access to a Cisco third-party developer environment through an exposed API token. They also told the publication that they had access to Cisco’s developer environment, and even shared screenshots as proof.

“While Cisco continues to say that no systems were breached, everything we have seen does indicate that a third-party development was breached, allowing the threat actor to steal data,” the publication concluded.

Via BleepingComputer

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