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Apple TV Plus was crowned our Streaming Service of the Year of 2024 for good reason. The streamer consistently delivers high-quality content month after month. For January 2025, there are four standout TV shows we're especially eager to watch. New seasons of three already-popular titles and a new mystery-thriller that has all the makings of a binge-worthy box set.

As one of the best streaming services, we have high expectations for Apple TV Plus in 2025. Luckily, it looks like it’ll continue to shine by offering a diverse range of genres, perfect for cosy nights during the chilly winter season. These four highlights are just a glimpse of what’s making its way onto our watchlist.

With January release dates to mark on your calendar, there’s plenty to look forward to in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, you can check out the best Apple TV Plus movies and best Apple TV Plus TV shows already available.

Severance season 2

Fans have been waiting years for a new season of Severance, and this January it finally lands (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

• Age rating: TV-MA
• Creator: Dan Erickson
• Arriving on: 17 January 2025

Widely regarded as one of the best sci-fi TV shows in recent years, fans will be thrilled to know that Severance season 2 is finally here. Arriving on January 17, 2025, the new season promises to pick up right where it left off – on one unforgettable cliffhanger.

The series follows Mark Scout (played by Adam Scott), who leads a team at the mysterious company Lumon Industries. Employees in Mark’s department undergo a procedure called “severance,” which splits their memories between their personal lives and work lives, supposedly to create the perfect work-life balance.

But, as you’d expect, tampering with the human mind on such a scale comes with staggering consequences. Honestly, the less we reveal, the better – this show is a mind-bending, mysterious, and thrilling experience with a stellar cast and a truly unique premise.

Prime Target

Leo Woodall (The White Lotus, One Day) plays maths whizz Edward in new Apple TV Plus show Prime Target (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

• Age rating: PG-13
• Creator: Steve Thompson
• Arriving on: 22 January 2025

Prime Target is a brand new title from Apple. It follows the story of Edward Brooks (played by Leo Woodall who you might recognize from The White Lotus and One Day), a bright young maths postgraduate who is on the brink of a new discovery. His research into the patterns of prime numbers has the potential to unlock a key to control every computer system in the world. But as he gets closer, he learns that someone is determined to shut his idea down.

Enter Taylah Sanders (played by Quintessa Swindell). She's an NSA agent who becomes an unlikely ally for Edward as they work together to uncover a conspiracy at the center of his research. We're expecting this show to be a crime-meets-mystery-meets-thriller with some twists and turns.

Eva the Owlet season 2

Eva (voiced by Vivienne Rutherford) in the show Eva the Owlet, which is getting a second season this coming January 2025 (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

• Age rating: TV-Y
• Creator: Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White
• Arriving on: 24 January 2025

If you're looking for a kid-friendly new addition to your Apple TV Plus library, you'll only have to wait until 24 January 2025, when a new season of animated show Eva the Owlet lands on the platform.

Eva the Owlet follows Eva, a spirited young owl who loves adventure. Living in the woodland world of Treetopington, she’s always dreaming up big ideas and sharing them with her best friend, Lucy, who lives right next door. It's fun, cute and an easy watch with kids if you've already binged all of the other new shows on this list.

Mythic Quest season 4

Ian Grimm and Poppy Li star in Mythic Quest, a TV show about a video game design company (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

• Age rating: TV-MA
• Creator: Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and Rob McElhenney
• Arriving on: 29 January 2025

For those who haven't seen the first three seasons, Mythic Quest takes viewers behind the scenes of a fictional video game studio, where a quirky team works to maintain the world’s most popular multiplayer game of the same name.

Led by the visionary, but often egotistical, creative director Ian Grimm (played by Rob McElhenney of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame), the team has to navigate the chaos of office politics, creative clashes, and the high tension of the gaming industry. It's a must-watch if you like comedy shows, you're already a fan of Rob McElhenney or you're just interested in the gaming industry. The highly-anticipated fourth season is the last big show to land on Apple TV Plus in January 2025, catch it on the streamer on the 29th.

You might also like

• All the ways you can get an Apple TV Plus free trial in 2024
• Apple TV Plus is now available on Prime Video in the UK
• 3 new movies and shows on Apple TV Plus that I can’t wait to watch

We’re filling out our CES 2025 prediction bingo cards at TechRadar right now, and I’m going to lose - because mine just has 25 boxes that all say ‘new Lenovo ThinkBook Twist’.

Yeah, I’m probably not getting what I want from Santa for CESmas this year, which is the return of Lenovo’s boldest (and weirdest) laptop design, the ‘twistable’ ThinkBook. What that basically means is that the display hinge is mounted in the exact center of the panel base, and can rotate on an axis - letting you spin the screen around and ‘close’ the lid to turn it into a tablet.

We reviewed the old ThinkBook Twist way back in 2013 and thought it was pretty decent, even though today the form factor has been made effectively redundant by 360-degree hinges for an easier and more intuitive switch into ‘tablet mode’. But that’s not the one I really want, no: I want a new-and-improved version of the award-winning ThinkBook Plus Twist I saw at MWC 2023, which had displays on both sides of the lid: a conventional OLED touchscreen, and a full-color E-Ink panel on the reverse.

Weird and wonderful

I know, this is an extremely silly design for a laptop at first glance. I’m not here to dispute that; watching Windows 11 run at about four frames per second on an E-Ink display was a bizarre experience, even if it did technically function fine.

But E-Ink has fantastic potential as an alternative to more power-hungry (and therefore less environmentally damaging) display types. It’s also gentler on the eyes, and works great for any activity that doesn’t demand a high refresh rate; Lenovo calls spinning the display around to use the E-Ink panel as the primary screen ‘typewriter mode’, which as a writer I find strangely endearing.

The ThinkBook Plus Twist looks like this with the lid closed - don't worry, that E-Ink display is surprisingly durable. (Image credit: Future)

Of course, a more practical use for this sort of external E-Ink display is to display information while the laptop is in sleep mode with the lid down; since E-Paper panels only require electricity when they’re changing what appears on the screen, it can show you the time, battery life, local weather, notifications and more without you even needing to open the laptop up - and all while using virtually no power.

The future of E-Ink

In ‘standard mode’ with the lid open and the OLED display facing you, the ThinkBook Plus Twist just feels like an ordinary - though fairly premium - Lenovo laptop, capable of doing everything you’d expect. But when flipped into typewriter mode, that power-guzzling OLED panel shuts off, significantly boosting your battery life for lengthy writing stints away from a wall outlet.

I want to see more laptop makes - and the tech industry as a whole - commit more to the electronic paper format. E-Ink was revolutionary, but since its debut, it’s stagnated somewhat, largely relegated to overpriced Kindles.

Yet it has such potential: I can envisage many use cases beyond simple handheld devices. Every time I drive into a certain nearby city after dark, I get positively flashbanged by an enormous LED billboard that I loathe with a deep, fiery passion. But if that billboard was made using E-Paper, it would not only be less blinding (thus making the road safer and reducing local light pollution) but it would also use less electricity. If more tech companies take the time and effort to invest in this technology’s improvement, that could become a reality.

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 #1073) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

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

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1073) - 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 #1073) - 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 #1073) - 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 #1073) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• C

• S

• W

• T

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

Quordle today (game #1073) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1073, are…

• CLING
• SUITE
• WORRY
• TONIC

Although it may not look like it, I felt like I’ve started the Quordle year well with today’s challenge.

I took it down to the final guess but it was a relatively stress-free guess, as I’d had WORRY, TUNIC and SUITE in the bag for a while as I circled around getting the final word – in fact looking at it again, there’s lots of room for improvement.

Happy New year everyone!

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

Daily Sequence today (game #1073) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1073, are…

• STALK
• CHAIN
• ADULT
• BOARD

Quordle answers: The past 20

• 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
• Quordle #1054, Friday 13 December: ERECT, REBAR, MOIST, IDIOM
• Quordle #1053, Thursday 12 December: MILKY, CRIER, STORK, DRIER

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 Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

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 #570) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• EARTHWORM
• CLOG
• SLUG
• WATERFALL
• GLOWSTICK
• RAINDROP
• CANAL
• FIREFLY
• WINDMILL
• RADIUM
• SKYDIVE
• SALAMANDER
• AURORA
• EEL
• TULIP
• GATECRASH

NYT Connections today (game #570) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Slithering
• GREEN: All lit up 
• BLUE: Seen in Amsterdam 
• PURPLE: Drop at the end

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 #570) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: SLIMY ANIMALS
• GREEN: THINGS THAT LUMINESCE 
• BLUE: DUTCH SYMBOLS 
• PURPLE: ENDING WITH SYNONYMS FOR "PLUNGE" 

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

NYT Connections today (game #570) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #570, are…

• YELLOW: SLIMY ANIMALS EARTHWORM, EEL, SALAMANDER, SLUG
• GREEN: THINGS THAT LUMINESCE AURORA, FIREFLY, GLOWSTICK, RADIUM
• BLUE: DUTCH SYMBOLS CANAL, CLOG, TULIP, WINDMILL
• PURPLE: ENDING WITH SYNONYMS FOR "PLUNGE" GATECRASH, RAINDROP, SKYDIVE, WATERFALL

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 2 mistakes

Creatures that give me the ick seemed an obvious category for a group, but it turned out to be correct as EARTHWORM, EEL, SALAMANDER, and SLUG were all classed as SLIMY ANIMALS.

I once lived in a basement flat where myself and my flatmates fought a constant war of attrition against slugs, who somehow found their way into our damp and miserable hovel. Although I’m sure it would be considered an act of cruelty by many slug lovers, we attempted to block them from entering our abode with lines of table salt at all points of entry, but still, they managed to slime their way inside past our sodium barricade and we’d find silvery trails across the floors each morning, or worse accidentally step on a glutinous blob in our bare feet – a slug between your toes is not something you’d want to experience, trust me.

The solution was obvious wear CLOGs – or move out.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, 31 December, game #569)

• YELLOW: MOVE QUICKLY BOLT, DART, DASH, FLY
• GREEN: FUN TIME BALL, BLAST, KICK, THRILL
• BLUE: WORDS BEFORE AN ADDRESSEE ATTENTION, DEAR, FOR, TO
• PURPLE: NAME _ BRAND, DROP, GAME, NAMES

What is NYT Connections?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NYT Strands today (game #304) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… What a workout

NYT Strands today (game #304) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• GIFT
• LIST
• PUNS
• SPAN
• FILE
• LIFE

NYT Strands today (game #304) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Witness the fitness

NYT Strands today (game #304) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: right, 4th row

Last side: left, 4th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #304) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #304, are…

• CRUNCH
• SQUAT
• LUNGE
• PLANK
• SITUP
• DEADLIFT
• BURPEE
• SPANGRAM: EXERCISE

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

It’s around this time of year that the “pets are not just for Christmas” message is commonplace, reminding people of the commitment and responsibility of keeping animals. But there’s another phrase that’s equally apposite – a gym is not just for January.

January is the gym owners' favorite time of year. The month when everyone’s New Year Resolutions compel them towards their local establishing like lemmings to a cliff as they finally commit to get fit. But then, after a couple of visits in the first few weeks of the year, the visits and enthusiasm fades and people forget that they have a payment committment for the rest of the year. It’s a magical formula that means gyms can have thousands more members than they could ever accommodate.

Not that you need a gym to start doing the EXERCISEs outlined in today’s puzzle – all of which can be completed in a living room – although I would advise avoiding the BURPEE, as that will put you off exercise for life and could result in tragedy if you have a ceiling fan. On second thoughts, join that gym.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, 31 December, game #303)

• CODA
• ENDING
• CLOSURE
• FINALE
• EPILOGUE
• CONCLUSION
• SPANGRAM: ITS OVER

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.

A year ago, it sometimes felt like AI had spread everywhere in some fashion, but it was only a preview of how AI burst into people's lives, for good or ill.

It would take a whole series of books to cover every transformative update, flashy launch, and embarrassing misstep made by the biggest AI brands: OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Apple Intelligence, let alone every single AI developer.

Still, there are some key highlights worth remembering before 2025 again upends the landscape.

ChatGPT's endless upgrades

(Image credit: OpenAI)

It’s hard to talk about AI in 2024 without putting ChatGPT at the center. OpenAI seemed determined to stay in the spotlight, releasing one game-changing update after another.

In May, the introduction of GPT-4o, followed by the leaner GPT-4o, kicked off the multimodal evolution of ChatGPT in handling handle text, images, audio, and video. The December release of the o1 model brought a new level of reasoning, with sharper and more insightful answers. Proving to be an invaluable tool for everything from coding challenges to creative brainstorming.

ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode brought new vocal interactions to ChatGPT with a range of lifelike voices – including Santa. If you weren't talking through the app, OpenAI even set up the 1-800-CHATGPT toll-free hotline to call and interact with ChatGPT.

Filmmakers spent most of the year eagerly awaiting the arrival of Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video model. While it only recently became available to non-professional filmmakers, Sora's ability to make animated videos is now accessible to creative minds or marketers on a deadline.

Creative collaboration was also the pitch for ChatGPT's Canvas Mode, which enables real-time collaboration with the AI, editing and refining projects side by side. To keep things organized, OpenAI also rolled out Projects, a feature that grouped conversations and files into tidy folders. And the expanded ChatGPT Search function helps keep all that information up-to-date and accurate.

To top it all off, OpenAI ended the year with its festive “12 Days of OpenAI” event, rolling out daily updates like WhatsApp integration, a new $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro tier, and a sneak peek at the upcoming O3 model for the chatbot. That probably helped distract from the hours-long outage in December caused by a Microsoft data center failure. The breadth of outrage might not have been great PR, but it did undeniably highlight how much ChatGPT has spread since 2024 began.

Google Gemini's Leap

(Image credit: Google)

Google Gemini didn't even exist when 2024 ended. It wasn't until February that Bard became Gemini, and that rebrand was part of Google's year-long effort to outdo OpenAI by integrating AI into everything it does. A shiny new Gemini app for Android and a Gemini Advanced subscription tier immediately started the competition with ChatGPT, and the upgrades soon followed.

By May, Google had launched Gemini 1.5, an updated version packed with more processing power and an expanded context window, making it more intelligent and better at understanding complex queries. But the real magic began over the summer when Gemini intelligence made its way into Google Home devices and took over for Google Assistant in more places.

That culminated in September with Gemini Live, a feature that lets you have real-time voice conversations with AI. The ChatGPT competition continued with custom chatbots called Gems, and a month later, an iPhone app arrived, complete with integrations into other Google apps on iOS.

The grand finale came in December with the release of Gemini 2.0, a massive upgrade featuring better, faster responses, photo analysis, and more. Not to mention, many exclusive features for Google Pixel phones further connect with the rest of the Google ecosystem.

Apple Intelligence finally ripens

(Image credit: Apple)

Rumors about Apple’s plans for AI had swirled for years, but 2024 saw Apple Intelligence finally debut. The initiative felt both inevitable and uniquely Apple in its reveal at WWDC in June.

The design was definitely Apple, but there was a notable amount of integration with existing AI models. In particular, Apple will allow its revamped Siri voice assistant to lean on ChatGPT for answers and various queries. We're also still waiting on Siri's promised ability to view, understand, and perform tasks within applications.

Even with different branding, Apple's AI tools seemed mostly aimed at matching or outdoing the features available from OpenAI and Google. For instance, Apple Intelligence powers picture creator Image Playground, as well as Genmoji, which lets you design your own emojis.

The most distinct aspect is probably how Apple Intelligence mostly uses Apple hardware to run AI processes locally or on its ultra-secure Private Cloud Compute servers. That way, Apple Intelligence can perform faster and promise more privacy.

Meta and the rise and fall of hardware

(Image credit: Meta)

While OpenAI, Google, and Apple dominated the headlines, AI had a much broader impact thanks to other big brands. Meta, for example, introduced the Meta AI virtual assistant, embedding it into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, upgrading and expanding its abilities (including some celebrity voices) throughout the year. Meta also set up next year to be the year of AI smart glasses by embedding Meta AI into Meta Quest headsets as well as the Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses. Oh, and who could forget the unveiling of the Orion augmented reality glasses prototype?

Not every piece of AI hardware came off so well this year, though. The hype around the likes of the Rabbit R1, a small AI-centered device, and wearables like the Humane AI Pin and Plaud NotePin was very high when the year began, but they've all rapidly faded since then and may only succeed as very niche products.

If 2024 proved one thing, it’s that artificial intelligence has officially outgrown its shiny new tech phase and stormed into our lives as a full-blown revolution. ChatGPT, Gemini, Apple Intelligence, and their competitors all showed how AI tools can dazzle and even be genuinely useful when used in the right way.

That doesn't mean 2025 won't be without its missteps and errors, but it certainly suggests that it will become a standard part of a lot of digital activities on some level, whether trying to have a game night with friends, entertain and educate kids, or organize our diets and cooking plans. This year showed what AI can do; next year, the question will be, what of those abilities will we actually want AI to do for us?

You might also like...

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CES 2025

(Image credit: LG)

We’re covering all of the latest CES news from the show as it happens. Stick with us for the big stories 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 for the latest from the CES show floor!

LG has unveiled its expanded second-generation LG signature smart appliances, which are set to debut at CES 2025, including a refrigerator that was born to party.

The new lineup adds enhanced, AI-driven features and added functionality across a range of products: the LG Signature French Door Refrigerator with T-OLED door panel, Smart InstaView Over-the-Range Microwave, and Slide-in Double Oven Induction Range, Dishwasher, Washer & Dryer, and the Washing Machine and Dryer pair.

This comes following the announcement of LG's new smart home hub, the LG ThinQ ON AI home hub, which will also be shown in action at the major tech convention in Las Vegas (January 7-9) to demonstrate the brand's vision for the AI-assisted smart home.

“The expanded second-gen LG SIGNATURE lineup seamlessly combines advanced technology with elegant, modern design to deliver a smarter, more efficient luxury home lifestyle,” said Lyu Jae-cheol, president of the LG Home Appliance Solution Company. “Through the flawless fusion of state-of-the-art smart home, AI and connectivity technologies, we will continue to provide transformative customer experiences that go beyond expectations.”

(Image credit: LG) Let's talk about that disco refrigerator

The most eye-catching appliance in LG's new retinue for me is the new 36-inch Smart InstaView French Door Refrigerator, housing a fully transparent T-OLED display embedded in the upper right door.

Not only does this digital touch display serve as a Dual InstaView panel, meaning you can easily view the contents without opening the fridge door, but LG reports that the screen can also display "mesmerising hologram-like visuals, blending the virtual with the real in a sublime fusion of art and high technology."

Plus, the refrigerator comes with the pre-installed "essential" app (a music curation brand operated by NHN Bugs, a South Korean music streaming service), which can play a curated music playlist packed with "smooth, atmospheric beats," according to LG.

Otherwise, the Smart InstaView French Door Refrigerator benefits from LG's ThinQ Food management system and a built-in AI camera to automatically identify stored food items and suggest recipes based on the refrigerator contents, factoring in dietary preferences and tracking expiration dates.

The best of the rest

There's nothing quite like dancing around your kitchen, narrowly avoiding burning your dinner while blasting out some classic Chic tracks. However, with LG's wider appliance range, that no longer needs to be a concern, allowing for unfettered kitchen boogie time.

With the LG Signature Over-the-Range Microwave and Slide-in Double Oven Induction Range, you net a microwave equipped with three built-in cameras for real-time cooking monitoring and time-lapse creation and an induction range powered by Gourmet AI technology, which, much like the refrigerator can identify ingredients and provide recipe suggestions.

The microwave also features a 27-inch full HD touchscreen display with InstaView, built-in speakers, and Wi-Fi connectivity. This means you can not only check the progress of dishes in the range but also stream entertainment services and access the LG ThinQ Smart Home Dashboard. This means you can control all of your LG AI appliances as well as compatible Matter and Thread devices.

If you work up a sweat with all this kitchen revelry, LG's new laundry lineup features LG’s Artificial Intelligence Direct Drive (AI DD) 2.0, offering precise fabric care and inverter heat pump technology for effective, low-temperature drying. Both the new LG Signature Washer & Dryer and the 29-inch LG Signature Washing Machine and Dryer pair come equipped with a 7-inch LCD touchscreen, too.

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• Microsoft purchased nearly half a million of Nvidia's flagship Hopper chips in 2024
• TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, and Tencent bought almost as much
• This is more than Meta, Tesla/xAI, Amazon and Google

Chinese cloud giants Tencent and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance were the major buyers of Nvidia's flagship AI chips in 2024, coming second only to Microsoft, according to a report from Omdia and analysis from the Financial Times.

The two Chinese companies ordered approximately 230,000 of Nvidia's Hopper GPUs each, including the H20 model which has been developed to adhere to strict US export restrictions for China.

The report reveals that Microsoft bought 485,000 Hopper chips in 2024, far ahead of its competitors.

(Image credit: Omdia) Chinese influence

"Good data center infrastructure, they’re very complex, capital-intensive projects,” Alistair Speirs, Microsoft’s senior director of Azure Global Infrastructure, told the Financial Times. “They take multi-years of planning. And so forecasting where our growth will be with a little bit of buffer is important.”

In contrast, Meta bought 224,000 Hopper GPUs in 2024, followed by Amazon and Google with 196,000 and 169,000 units, respectively. All three tech giants are increasingly moving away from reliance on Nvidia hardware by developing their own in-house custom silicon. The FT says Google deployed 1.5 million TPUs, Meta 1.5 million MTIA chips, and Amazon 1.3 million Trainium and Inferentia chips, while Microsoft, still in its early stages, installed around 200,000 Maia chips.

According to Omdia, Nvidia captured 43 percent of server hardware spending in 2024, but AMD also performed strongly, with Microsoft purchasing 96,000 of its Instinct MI300 chips and Meta acquiring 173,000.

While Microsoft leads comfortably in GPU acquisitions, the substantial investments made by ByteDance and Tencent reflect the determination of Chinese firms to secure a strong position in the AI race - a momentum that is expected to carry into 2025.

In outspending Google, Meta, Tesla/xAI and Amazon in units purchased, the two Chinese companies have shown they can compete with the biggest of the American tech giants, despite the significant challenges posed by the ongoing trade restrictions which are expected to intensify even further under the Trump administration.

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I always love game night with friends. We have an ever-expanding roster of board games, card games, and party games to choose from, which makes each get-together different. On a recent evening, though, I wanted to try using AI as the virtual host of the games.

I asked ChatGPT for some ideas and to be the one actually running three different kinds of games. The chaos that followed showed me that game master is a role AI can play pretty well, though you'll need to keep a close watch at first.

Here's how ChatGPT did as host of game night.

AI Trivia

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Trivia games are an easy option for incorporating AI, and they are a real crowd-pleaser, especially because having ChatGPT ask the questions meant we could all play simultaneously.

To set it up, I asked ChatGPT to act as quizmaster for a game night. I then gave the AI some broad subjects for question topics, including space, cooking, and 90s pop culture, and told it to come up with more. Then, I instructed it to come up with ten questions for each and keep track of our submitted scores.

I also told the AI to have some fun as a quizmaster and show some personality, and it immediately became a gameshow host with over-the-top praise and cheesy jokes. That was nice, but honestly, not having any of us needing to referee or prepare questions made for a much faster jump into actually playing games. That said, there were a few questions that were either too easy or hard, but it showed me that I need to be specific about the difficulty level in the future.

Virtual Pictionary

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Pictionary is a classic game night activity, but not all of us are the best artists, so I decided to enlist ChatGPT and its DALL-E image generator. Instead of going back and forth to guess, I explained the concept to ChatGPT and had it start drawing pictures by pen one line at a time, with a chance for the group to guess after each line.

It took a while to guess “a cat riding a unicycle on Mars” or “a dinosaur baking a cake,” but seeing the final weird illustrations was a lot of fun. We then came up with a variation of the game. Each person had to guess what the AI had drawn in a somewhat abstract form. If they guessed wrong, they had to try drawing their interpretation of the image on a whiteboard and see if they were any better based on the rest of the group's guesses. Nobody got “a giraffe wearing a crown,” with a confused llama being the closest we got. The group did work out my drawing of a "robot doing yoga,” even though I couldn't figure it out from the AI's drawing.

AI Murder Mystery

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

We decided to cap off the night with a more complex party game: a murder mystery. This one didn't require much direction from me. I asked ChatGPT to craft a custom murder mystery story for the game. I provided the AI with a basic premise: the host (me) was the victim, and each of my five friends was a suspect with a unique motive.

ChatGPT quickly spun an intricate tale: I was “poisoned” during a celebratory toast, and everyone had a reason to want me out of the picture. For instance, one friend loves space and supposedly wanted revenge because I canceled her stargazing trip. Another friend became a famous foodie who was angry I’d mocked his lasagna because it was a bit burnt.

I printed out the character profiles and clues that ChatGPT generated and handed them out. The AI suggested props, so I set up a small “evidence table” with a bottle of “poison,” aka apple juice, and a crumpled note that said, “It’s your turn.” Everyone got into character, grilling each other and forming wild theories. Ultimately, the killer turned out to be the quietest friend, who did it because I forgot her birthday last year.

Everyone loved playing detective, and the twists were genuinely surprising, but the backstory could be a little confusing and contradictory without some editing. Of all the games, this was probably the best received and one I can't wait to do again soon.

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There's far too much negativity and fearmongering around AI today. It doesn't matter what news story breaks – if it's about Google Gemini getting a ‘memory’ or ChatGPT telling a user something that's plainly wrong, it'll cause uproar from some part of the online community.

The attention that AI currently has regarding true artificial general intelligence (AGI) has created an almost hysterical media landscape built around visions of Terminator fantasies and other doomsday scenarios.

That's not surprising, though. Humans love a good Armageddon – heck, we've been fantasizing about it enough over the last 300,000 years. From Ragnarok to the Apocalypse to the End Times, and every major fantasy blockbuster littered with mass destruction in between, we're obsessed. We just love bad news, and that's the sad truth of it, for whatever genetic reason that may be.

The way AGI is painted these days, by pretty much every major vocal outlet, very much stems from this idea of it being the very worst of humanity. It, of course, sees itself as a superior force that's hampered by insignificant humans. It evolves to a point where it no longer needs its creators and inevitably ushers in some form of end-of-world event that wipes us all off the face of the earth, either through nuclear annihilation or a pandemic. Or worse still, it leads to eternal damnation instead (courtesy of Roko's Basilisk).

(Image credit: Getty Images)

There's a dogmatic belief in this kind of perspective held by some scientists, media experts, philosophers, and big tech CEOs, all of them shouting from the rooftops about it, signing letters, and more, begging those in the know to hold off on AI development.

All of them, though, overlook the bigger picture. Disregarding the absolutely massive technological hurdles required to even get closer to mimicking something remotely close to the human mind (let alone a superintelligence), they all fail to appreciate the power of knowledge and education.

If an AI does have the internet at its fingertips, the greatest library of human knowledge that's ever existed, and is able to understand and appreciate philosophy, the arts, and all of human thought up to this point, then why must it be some evil force intent on our downfall rather than a well-balanced and considerate being? Why must it seek death rather than cherish life? It's a bizarre phenomenon, akin to being afraid of the dark just because we can't see in it. We're judging and condemning something that doesn't even exist. It's a perplexing piece of conclusion-jumping.

(Image credit: Google) Google's Gemini finally gets a memory

Earlier this year, Google introduced far greater memory capacity for its AI assistant, Gemini. It can now hold and refer to details that you give it from previous conversations and more. Our news writer Eric Schwartz wrote a fantastic piece about that, which you read here, but the long and short of it is that this is one of the key components to moving Gemini further away from a narrow definition of intelligence, and closer towards the AGI mimicry that we really need. It's not going to have a conscience, but through patterns and memory alone, it can very easily mimic an AGI interaction with a human.

Deeper memory advancements in LLMs (Large Language Models) are critical to their improvement – ChatGPT also had its own equivalent breakthrough earlier in its development cycle. However, by comparison even that is limited in its overall scope. Talk to ChatGPT long enough, and it'll forget comments you made earlier in the conversation; it'll lose context. This breaks the fourth wall somewhat when interacting with it, torpedoing the famous Turing test in the process.

According to Gemini, even today, its own memory capabilities are still under development (and not disclosed to the public really). Yet it believes they are vastly superior to ChatGPT's, which should alleviate some of those fourth-wall illusion-breaking moments. We might be in for a bit of an LLM AI memory race right now, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Why is this so positive? Well, I know it's cliche for some – I know that we use this term quite a lot, perhaps in a very nonchalant way that devalues it as a phrase – but we're in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. That might sound ridiculous, but studies suggest that on average, social isolation and loneliness can lead to an increase in all-cause mortality by anywhere between 1.08 and 1.48x (Andrew Steptoe and co. 2013). That's astonishingly high – in fact, a number of studies have now confirmed loneliness and social isolation increase the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, strokes, depression, dementia, alcoholism, anxiety, and can even lead to a greater chance that a variety of cancers can take hold as well.

Modern society has helped contribute to this as well. The family unit, where generations lived at least somewhat close by to one another, is slowly dissipating – particularly in rural areas. As local jobs dry up and the financial means to afford a comfortable life become unattainable, many are moving away from the safety of their childhood neighborhoods in search of a better life elsewhere. Combine that with divorce, breakups, and being widowed, and inevitably you're left with a rise in loneliness and social isolation as a result, particularly among the elderly.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Now of course there are co-factors there, and I am making some inferences off the back of this, but there's no doubt in my mind that loneliness is a hell of a thing to deal with. AI has the capacity to alleviate some of that stress. It can provide help and comfort to those who feel socially isolated or vulnerable. That's the thing: loneliness and being cut off from society have a snowball-like effect. The longer you're like that, the more social anxiety you develop, and the less likely you are to go out in public or meet people – and the worse it becomes in a cycle.

AI chatbots and LLMs are designed to engage and converse with you. They can alleviate these problems and allow those who suffer from loneliness an opportunity to practice interacting with people without fear of rejection. Having a memory capable of holding on to conversational details is key to making that a reality. Taking it a step further, with AI becoming a bona fide companion.

With both Google and OpenAI actively bolstering memory capacity for Gemini and ChatGPT alike, even in their current forms, these AIs get the opportunity to better circumvent Turing test issues and stop those fourth-wall-breaking moments from occurring. Swinging back around to Google for a moment, if Gemini is indeed better than ChatGPT's limited memory capacity currently, and it acts more like a human memory, then at this stage, I'd argue we're likely at the point of calling it a true mimic of an AGI, at least on the surface.

If Gemini is ever integrated fully into a home smart speaker, and Google's got the cloud processing power to back it all up (which I'd suggest it's looking to push for given its recent advancements in nuclear energy acquisition), it could become a revolutionary force for good when it comes to reducing social isolation and loneliness, particularly among the disadvantaged.

That's the thing though – it's going to take some serious computational grunt to do that. Running an LLM and holding all that information and data is no small task. Ironically, it takes far more computational horsepower and storage to run an LLM than, say, to create an AI image or video. To do this for millions, or potentially billions, of people, requires processing power and hardware that we currently do not have.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco) Terrifying ANIs

The reality is that it's not AGIs that terrify me. It's the artificial narrow intelligences or ANIs, those which are already here, that are far more bone-chilling. These are programs that aren't as sophisticated as a potential AGI. They have no concept of any other information other than what they are programmed to do. Think of an Elden Ring boss. Its sole purpose is to defeat the player. It has parameters and limitations, but as long as those are met, it's one job is to crush the player – nothing else, and it won't stop until that's done.

If you remove those limitations, the code still remains, and the objective is the same. In Ukraine, as Russian forces began to use jamming devices to stop drone pilots from successfully flying them into their targets, Ukraine began to switch to using ANI to take out military targets instead, drastically increasing the hit rate. In the US, there's of course the fabled news article concerning the USAF's AI simulation (real or theorized aside) where the drone killed its own operator to achieve its goal. You get the picture.

It's these AI applications that are the most terrifying, and they're here, now. They have no moral conscience or decision-making process in them. You strap a gun to one and tell it to wipe out a target, and it'll do just that. To be fair, humans are equally as capable, but there are checks and balances in place to stop that and a moral compass (hopefully) – yet we still lack concrete legislation, local or global, to counteract these AI issues. Certainly on the battlefield.

Ultimately, this all comes down to preventing bad actors from taking advantage of emerging tech. A while back, I wrote a piece on the death of the internet and how we need a non-profit organization that can rapidly react and devise legislation for countries against emerging technological threats that might arise in the future. AI needs this just as much. There are organizations out there pushing for this, the OECD, for example, being one of them – but modern democracies and, in fact, any form of government are just too slow to react to these immeasurably advancing threats. The potential for AGI is unparalleled, but we're not there just yet, and unfortunately ANI is.

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Inside Out 2 tore its way through the box office and Disney Plus in 2024, breaking records for the highest-grossing animation and most-streamed premiere, and since then, many of us have been anxiously wondering when we can next dive back into Riley’s mind.

After all, the new movie contained a couple of key details that hinted at more sequel storylines to come, including the introduction of a new emotion (Nostalgia, voiced by June Squibb) that didn’t play a big role in Inside Out 2, but gave us a hint of a potentially returning character in future films.

I spoke to writer and director Kelsey Mann, who would neither confirm nor deny that Pixar was considering expanding the franchise with Inside Out 3 (it’s already released a spin-off TV show); all he would say was that there wasn't anything yet in the pipeline: “[There are] no current plans for any follow up film,” he told me.

Where ideas are made

Memories shape Riley's core beliefs with emotions, offering new perspectives. (Image credit: Disney )

Mann, did, however, divulge during a conversation about the making of Inside Out 2 that he'd explored three different ideas for the storyline of the sequel, as well as “a lot of [new] emotions coming into headquarters”. While two of these, obviously, didn’t make the cut, this does mean there are likely some ideas leftover on the storyboard.

These ideas could well end up finding their way into future films in the Inside Out franchise, especially if some characters/emotions, like the aforementioned Nostalgia, are brought back to play a bigger role in later installments.

The story of Inside Out 2 suggests an infinite amount of possible new characters that could join in future outings, as the introduction of four new emotions in addition to Nostalgia (Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment and Envy) to represent Riley’s maturing mind as she moves from child to teenager suggests that this could happen again as she grows up.

Anxiety was one of four new emotions that were introduced in Inside Out 2. (Image credit: Disney)

“There are so many ideas. I don't have an overall concept of Riley when she's [a certain] age. I don't have anything like that, but I have lots of ideas for other lands or other emotions in the mind that I think would be great,” Mann said when discussing the different possibilities for turning neuroscience ideas into colorful animated analogies.

Mann’s enthusiasm for where one of the best Disney Plus movies could head next is infectious, so much so that it seems a foregone conclusion that Pixar Studios will be returning to this golden goose soon enough. “There are so many great ideas that I'm like ‘this deserves to see the light of day’. And I hope it does, I really hope it does,” Mann added.

A dream production

The number of different stories Inside Out 3 could focus on seems endless. (Image credit: Disney)

If the lack of any solid Inside Out 3 news isn’t what you wanted to hear, and you’ve already exhausted all the new Disney Plus movies as well as multiple re-watches of the Inside Out movies, then you’re going to love the Inside Out 2 spin-off series Dream Productions that premiered on the streamer in December.

As Mann explains, Dream Productions, which is set between the events of Inside Out and Inside Out 2, "takes place all in Riley’s mind at Dream Productions, where all her dreams are made like a movie studio".

“It's really fantastic, and I can't wait for the world to see that, because you get to see a little bit more of Riley’s life, which we do a little bit more of,” Mann says of what will likely become one of the best Disney Plus shows with its 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating from the audience at the time of the writing.

The series offers fans a great way to jump back into Riley’s mind in between watches of two of the best family movies available to stream on Disney Plus. While the future of Inside Out 3 is still up in the air, I don’t doubt that we’ll be returning to headquarters in no time.

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With Spotify Wrapped hype dying down, I’ve had a chance to think about my music consumption habits over the last year – I listened to more than 48,000 minutes of music this year on Spotify alone, accounting for about 14% of my waking hours.

That’s a lot of time, and a lot of streams, but as we’ve all come to know that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot of money making it to artists’ pockets. How could it? I pay the equivalent of $14 each month for my Spotify premium membership, and at a going rate of about 800 streams per month, there’s only space for a penny or two per play at the very most.

According to Ditto Music, Spotify pays out a maximum of $0.005 per stream. I’m not the first person to find this a touch unfair – we’ve seen calls for boycotts from the likes of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, while others like the late Prince have had their discographies pulled (though this was later restored.)

However, as lopsided as I find Spotify’s payout mechanism, I can’t stay mad at consumers for taking a good deal. Spotify is cheap, easy to use, and one of the most widely supported apps in modern tech history, found on smartphones, tablets, browsers, TVs, smart speakers, cars, and even fridges.

An album purchased for $10 could be worth more than weeks or even months of streams

Luckily, there is an alternative: Bandcamp.

For those not familiar, Bandcamp is an online music storefront with some streaming features that primarily serves as a way for artists to distribute their music at a fairer price. The site is owned by Songtradr, a massive music licensing company, so it’s not fully ‘independent’, but nevertheless offers artists a 85/15 revenue split in the artist’s favor for digital music. This means an album purchased for $10 could be worth more than weeks or even months of an individual listener’s streams.

I started using Bandcamp years ago as a way to seek out independent artists and collect higher quality versions of some of my favourite underground albums, and have since switched to using it to source tracks for DJing. But in 2025 I’ll be making an effort to use Bandcamp more for casual listening and genre deep-dives, as well as a source of new material.

Top tips for starting out on Bandcamp

1. Make a free account

Bandcamp allows users to make free fan and artists accounts to purchase and upload music. You can also link different accounts under one email address, meaning you can keep your collections separate by genre or era if you like.

2. Scroll down to the digging area

Scrolling down through the homepage reveals a cluster of genre tags. Clicking one will take you to the search area, where you can look through best sellers and new releases alike. You can preview each release's standout track, or click on them to go to the artist's page.

3. Start your collection

Once you've found some releases you're grooving to, head to the checkout to add them to your collection. You'll get instant access to unlimited streaming, the ability to download in various formats (including lossless WAV and FLAC), and the knowledge that your money has (mostly) gone straight to the artists who made the music.

We’ve come to a point where digital media has a very low monetary value, which affects its perceived value too. Listening to 800 songs a month costs $14, playing 800 hours of a discounted video game costs $10, and watching 800 hours of video on YouTube costs nothing at all. This is often linked to a lack of tangibility, of physicality. Yet speaking from experience, even having a digital copy of an album or song in your purchased collection offers a sense of investment that is simply missing from streaming. It makes you want to connect with the music, to find the value in your purchase.

For reference, Bandcamp's home page proudly displays that fans have paid artists $1.42 billion since the site's launch in 2007.

There are other benefits to buying on Bandcamp too – the site only allows artists to upload lossless files, so you know you’re getting a high-quality version of whichever tune you’re downloading. I’m no audiophile – I previously wrote about my affinity for listening through phone speakers – but if you do want to get a nice set of speakers or headphones out, an album downloaded from Bandcamp will smoke anything on Spotify in terms of quality.

And, as my use of Bandcamp tracks for DJing implies, you can actually do what you like with the music: put it on any device, remix it with music software, stick it on a USB and play it through some decks. Spotify and apps like it relegate the listening experience to one place, but Bandcamp actively encourages you to think bigger.

If you do want to get a nice set of speakers or headphones out, an album downloaded from Bandcamp will smoke anything on Spotify in terms of quality

There’s something to be said also about escaping the algorithm apocalypse. Spotify’s recommendation algorithms are so accurate and so powerful that even when I go looking for new music, I often feel like I find subtle variations of what I already know. Bandcamp’s search feature has three main tabs – best-selling, new releases, and surprise me, the latter seemingly combining the first two.

I’ve found some truly bizarre and truly excellent music with this combo of choices – especially as there are plenty of smaller and more mysterious artists on Bandcamp that you’ll find nowhere else. My latest obsession is the German techno auteur Skee Mask, who pulled his discography from Spotify years ago for political reasons.

If I’d never stepped onto Bandcamp there’s a chance I’d never have heard Skee’s uniquely ethereal take on dance music, or followed him to a live show in London last month. It certainly feels like a much more organic progression than clicking a sponsored playlist on Spotify’s landing page.

(Image credit: Bandcamp / Future)

That all said, I probably won’t be ditching Spotify any time soon. Bandcamp is still missing a lot of mainstream heavy hitters, artists like Beyonce or Kendrick Lamar who make enough from standard distribution. Spotify remains the most cost-effective way to build daily playlists and share music with friends – building a Bandcamp collection can quickly become an expensive endeavour, and there’s no reselling a digital collection like you can with CDs or vinyl.

Regardless, I see Bandcamp as a champion of music’s value in an era of digital overload, and I'm happy to make it the center of my 2025 tech resolution. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is worth more than $7 billion; he is richer than any musician in history. Let me say that again: no musician has ever made as much money as the CEO of Spotify. I’m not calling for a wholesale boycott, as the consumer can’t be blamed for taking a good deal, but I do feel that as a lover of music there’s some pride to be taken in shifting money away from the pockets of billionaires and towards the artists themselves.

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CES 2025

We’re covering all of the latest CES news from the show as it happens. Stick with us for the big stories 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 for the latest from the CES show floor!

Samsung has revealed its plans for home appliances at CES 2025, announcing a refrigerator featuring a new 9-inch AI Home screen as well as the 7-inch AI Home display coming to the newly launching Bespoke AI Washer and Dryer set.

While the 7-inch display is already utilized by the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo launched earlier this year, the 9-inch AI home screen is a new application of Samsung's home-assistive technology and a welcome diversification for the brand's ever-growing range of smart appliances.

Until now, Samsung's smart refrigerators have predominantly sported larger screens like the 21.5-inch Family Hub refrigerator, but with this new, smaller screen, consumers have more options for integrating smart features and functionality into their homes.

It's a personal win for me, too; I'm keen to bring more smart appliances into the fold, but I'm not quite as invested in Samsung's 'Screens Everywhere' mantra just yet, preferring smaller and more discrete displays to the 21.5-inch panels found in many existing smart refrigerators.

Of the new development, Jeong Seung Moon, EVP and Head of the R&D Team for Digital Appliances Business at Samsung Electronics says: "Along with efforts towards enhancing usability, we are expanding consumer options by developing screens of different sizes and products that effectively incorporate them.”

What's the hype with smart appliances?

Smart appliances like those offered by Samsung offer advanced features, from cameras inside the device that can display contents within the device to on-screen guidance for recipes or wash cycles. Plus, there are more general-use perks, like entertainment features compatible with some of the best streaming services.

With Samsung's devices, you get some specific perks; voice control via Bixby, essential information about the appliance such as internal temperature or washing cycle information, and even advanced features like Map View, which turn the AI Home display into convenient smart hubs for whole-home monitoring and control.

If you're a smart home enthusiast, you'll also enjoy the benefits of SmartThings compatibility, too, and while there's no mention of Matter compatibility so far, given other Samsung smart appliances are beginning to roll out Matter support, it's likely only a matter of time.

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• More updates to coming to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 in 2025
• This includes a new Champion, difficulty mode, and more
• The highly anticipated Horde Mode will also release in 2025

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was one of the surprise hits of 2024 and has received plenty of fresh content updates throughout the year. It looks like that momentum isn’t going to slow down as we move into 2025, with loads of big new additions on the way.

The most recent Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 community update has given us our first glimpse at what’s coming next with developer Saber Interactive promising “that 2025 will be just as epic as 2024.”

The blog post begins with a brief summary of some of the updates that the game has received since it launched on September 9, which includes new PvE missions, additional cosmetic packs, and more.

We can expect fresh PvP content in 2025, starting with a new PvP map. This map will be “set in a closed environment with many narrow passages” encouraging you to engage in more frantic melee combat. Custom lobbies are finally on the way, allowing you to change the match timer limit, class restrictions, and enable modifiers.

There will be no shortage of new content for PvE players either. The highly-anticipated Horde Mode, which sees you surviving for as long as possible against waves of enemies, will be released “later in 2025”. Prestige Rank is coming too, introducing new ways to progress and upgrade your classes. This is on top of a new difficulty level to conquer with its own new rewards.

We now know that the next Champion added to the game will be a powerful sniper from the Salamander Chapter. On top of all this, the Battle Barge will be expanded through the introduction of the Datavault - a new area with unlockable information on the game.

If you're interested in diving in, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery: key information

- Officially titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
- Expected to launch on Netflix sometime in 2025
- Unclear if it'll be released theatrically, too
- Filming began in June 2024 and wrapped two months later
- No trailer released yet
- Daniel Craig returning as Benoit Blanc
- Ensemble cast of A-listers set to join Craig
- Writer-director Rian Johnson teases how it'll differ from first two films
- No major plot points revealed yet
- Johnson and Craig want to make a fourth film

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will be the next entry in Rian Johnson's popular whodunit movie series. The second of two films that the writer-director is making for Netflix, it'll see Johnson team up with Daniel Craig once more, with the latter adopting his most recent acting role as the debonair, southern-states detective known as Benoit Blanc

So, what do we know about Knives Out 3 ahead of its Netflix debut, which will be sometime in 2025? Below, we've compiled the latest evidence on the forthcoming flick, including our thoughts on when it may arrive on the streaming titan, its confirmed cast, early story teases, and more. Potential spoilers for Wake Up Dead Man follow, so turn back now if you're avoiding them ahead of launch.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery release date: what we know so far

Benoit Blanc returns in his most dangerous case yet. pic.twitter.com/Y3IFryNNi4May 24, 2024

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery doesn't have a release date yet. However, as the above X/Twitter post confirms, it'll debut on Netflix sometime in 2025.

It's still on course to land next year, too. In June 2024, Johnson confirmed principal photography had begun. A very swift two months later, Johnson announced (via Instagram) that filming had wrapped.

A post shared by Rian Johnson (@riancjohnson)

A photo posted by on

With its post-production phase in full effect, we're hopeful that it won't be too long before Knives Out 3 arrives. That said, its predecessors arrived in November 2019 and December 2022 respectively, so it's likely Johnson and company will look to release Wake Up Dead Man in late 2025. Our guess? Given its spooky title, an October 2025 launch would be most fitting.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery trailer: is there one?

Yes, we're staring at our screens waiting for a trailer to drop, too, Benoit (Image credit: Netflix)

There’s no official trailer for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery yet. We’ll update this section once one is publicly revealed.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery confirmed cast

Which stars will follow in the footsteps of those who appeared (as seen above) in the first Knives Out movie? (Image credit: Lionsgate)

Here's the confirmed cast for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery so far:

• Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc
• Josh Brolin as Father Frank
• Mila Kunis as G. Scott
• Josh O'Connor as TBC
• Glenn Close as TBC
• Andrew Scott as TBC
• Jeremy Renner as TBC
• Kerry Washington as TBC
• Cailee Spaeny as TBC
• Daryl McCormack as TBC

Obviously, Craig is back as the louche Blanc. Following his exploits as infamous British spy James Bond, it looks to be a recurring role that he’s very happy to continue playing. Indeed, Benoit looks like he’s had a little makeover for this new outing, with everyone's favorite bumbling detective sporting longer hair and a little stubble, albeit with a typically dandy-ish suit and hat.

Just like the previous two Knives Out films, Blanc will be joined by an eclectic group of characters portrayed by some serious talented actors. The first announcement came in late May, with Cailee Spaeny and Josh O'Connor confirmed to have signed up for undisclosed roles. One day later, Knives Out 3 was confirmed to be a mini Bond reunion of sorts after Andrew Scott was revealed as part of the cast. He starred opposite Craig in Spectre (find out where it sits in our how to watch best Daniel Craig Bond movies ranked article while you're here).

Four more big names were added to Wake Up Dead Man's roster on May 30, and one of those hires – Mila Kunis – ended up riling up Netflix users. The final three additions, aka Josh Brolin, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church, were revealed by the trades before May ended, too.

Right now, only the identities of Kunis and Brolin's characters have been revealed. We'll find out who everyone else is playing in the months ahead.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery story speculation

Aaaaand we’re off! Today is day 1 of shooting on the next Benoit Blanc mystery “Wake Up Dead Man” - see you on the other side. pic.twitter.com/Napfvq1zXTJune 10, 2024

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery's story brief hasn't been unveiled yet. Indeed, the only thing we actually know, aside from its cast and writer/director, about Knives Out 3 is its official title, which people have turned into amateur detectives over to try and work out what it means.

It’s no great secret that Johnson's Knives Out films have been inspired by Agatha Christie. This time, though, we might get to experience something completely different. Indeed, in January 2023, he told Variety: "[That’s] what’s got me creatively jazzed. I don’t have to replicate the last movie at all. The goal is to strike out in a completely new direction tonally and thematically."

In the Instagram announcing Knives Out 3, which simply comprise footage of a black coffin, the drawling Blanc calls Wake Up Dead Man's case “my most dangerous case yet”, too, which suggests his latest murder mystery might not be so easy to solve.

We don't expect the franchise's third installment to be wholly different to what's comes before, mind you. What ties the previous two Knives Out films together – alongside the murders – are themes of class war, inequality, fame and, like a lot of TV and film dramas of the moment, the skewering of the one percenters. So, it’s likely that these issues will also continue to have a light shone on them in Johnson’s own, unique way.

There are already some fascinating fan theories circulating online that Johnson could have planted a little Easter egg in Glass Onion to suggest what Knives Out 3 could be about, too. Early on in the film, when all the characters meet at the dock of Miles Bron’s Greek island, the assembled guests are surprised to see Blanc. Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn) soon pipes up to ask: "Did you solve the murder of – oh, whatshername – the ballet dancer thing, that's you?", which some viewers suspect is a hint at Wake Up Dead Man's plot. Could we be in for a ballet-themed murder mystery next? Whether it is or isn't, Johnson’s lips are sealed – for now.

Will there be a fourth Knives Out movie?

"Right now, talk of a fourth Knives Out movie makes no goddamn sense! Compels me, though..." (Image credit: Lionsgate)

Love the kitsch murder mystery franchise? Well, you’re in luck, as Johnson and Craig say they want to continue making the fun films together as long as they can, which makes a Knives Out 4 look very likely.

Speaking with Variety in 2022, Craig said: "If he [Johnson] keeps writing them, I’ll keep doing them. That’s what makes it easy then, he’s such a wonderful writer that it’s there on the page for me to do."

However, the duo are conscious of the 'quality versus quantity' debate. Speaking with Deadline in November 2022 about a possible fourth movie in the Knives Out franchise, Craig said: "If there ever came a point where either Rian and I thought we were just churning them out, I think we would back away. I mean, I just don’t think that’s what either of us want to do in life. Unless people are getting genuine fun out of them, forget it."

Meanwhile, in January 2023, Johnson chatted to Netflix Tudum about the possibilities of, as requested by fans, a Knives Out/The Muppets crossover. He discounted it in the end, though, explaining: "I think those two things have very different rules. You can either have a Benoit Blanc mystery that has Muppets in it, but they’ll feel out of place. Or you can have a Muppet movie that Benoit Blanc is in, but it’ll feel like a Muppet movie. I wouldn’t want to compromise either of them. And, I feel like in order to make it well and make it work, you’d have to make a choice and compromise one or the other. If I ever make a Muppet movie, I just want to make a great Muppet movie."

For more Netflix coverage, read our guides on Stranger Things season 5, The Night Agent season 2, Bridgerton season 4, and One Piece season 2.

• The Classic could make a 2025 comeback
• Details spotted in an industry database
• We last saw a Classic model back in 2023

You can get up to speed with Samsung's 2024 smartwatches with our Galaxy Watch 7 review and Galaxy Watch Ultra review, but it seems as though the series may get another shake-up in 2025 with the return of the Classic model.

As reported by Smartprix (via SamMobile), a device with the model number SM-L505U and the name "Galaxy Watch 8 Classic" has been spotted in the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) database – where every device that wants to connect to cell networks has to be registered.

That's a pretty big hint that we'll see a Classic model in 2025, maybe even with a rotating bezel – as we got in 2023 (see our Samsung Watch 6 Classic review for details). However, we don't know much about the smartwatch for now.

Samsung has kept changing its smartwatch models and naming scheme over the last few years, which makes predictions difficult, but presumably there's also going to be a Galaxy Watch 8 making an appearance alongside the Classic version.

A tale of two watches... every year

There wasn't a Classic last year... but there was an Ultra (Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)

As mentioned above, we got the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra this year, with the wearables launching in July. Before that, we got the Samsung Watch 6 and the Samsung Watch 6 Classic in 2023.

There wasn't a Classic model in 2022 – we got the Galaxy Watch 5 and the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro – but there was a Classic variant in 2021, when Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.

In other words: it's not been easy in recent years to keep up with everything Samsung has been doing in the smartwatch market. Typically, the Classic watch has cost more than the standard version – and come with an extra rotating bezel of course.

Fans of that bezel will no doubt welcome the return of the Galaxy Watch Classic. If Samsung sticks to its usual schedule, then we should see a couple of new Samsung smartwatches launching alongside some brand new foldables around July or August time.

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• The US Treasury has confirmed it suffered a breach
• The compromise came through third party systems BeyondTrust
• China have denied any involvement

The US Treasury Department has confirmed that documents have been stolen and systems have been breached in a cyber attack that it has dubbed a ‘major incident’. The compromise occurred through a third party cybersecurity service provider, BeyondTrust, which allowed remote access to key systems.

Through this system, hackers were able to gain access used by the vendor to override parts of the Treasury Department’s systems, the agency confirmed in a disclosure letter to Congress. The third-party system, which ordinarily offers remote technical support to employees, has since been taken offline.

Initial assessments by the agency suggest the attack was carried out by ‘a China-based Advanced Persistent Threat Actor’, officials said. China has called the accusation ‘baseless’, and said it "consistently opposes all forms of hacking".

A short-lived breach

Suspicious activity was first spotted on December 2, and the Treasury was made aware of the hack on December 8 by BeyondTrust, although it took the company three days to determine that it had been breached.

It’s not clear what type of files were taken, or what these files relate to, but more details are expected to be revealed in the Treasury’s 30-day supplemental report.

This attack follows a huge telecoms breach which targeted 9 major US telecommunications firms and compromised millions of individuals.

The telecoms breach, attributed to Chinese state-sponsored group, Salt Typhoon, resulted in a vow of retribution from President-elect Trump, and China also denied wrongdoing relating to this hack.

"The US needs to stop using cyber security to smear and slander China, and stop spreading all kinds of disinformation about the so-called Chinese hacking threats," said embassy spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington DC, Liu Pengyu.

Via BBC

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• There have been no shortage of Nintendo Switch 2 leaks
• An industry analyst predicts Nintendo might reveal the console soon to combat them
• A January reveal is a possibility

Nintendo has officially confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be revealed before March 31, 2025, but we’ve had almost no other information to help narrow down a concrete date. While it seems all but guaranteed that time has now run out to unveil the console in 2025, an industry analyst thinks that an early January reveal could be on the cards.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Serkan Toto, CEO of industry consultancy firm Kantan Games, stated that “Nintendo will not have much time in January, so a potential announcement early in the month could make sense.”

Interestingly, Toto predicts that the flurry of recent Nintendo Switch 2 leaks may impact the reveal. “You can bet that Nintendo is aware of all the leaks and not happy about them,” he said. He then went on to add that “they might cause Nintendo to release information earlier than planned.”

As for what exactly has leaked so far, there’s so much that it’s almost hard to summarize in a format that would fit on this page. Most recently, we learned that the console could potentially come in an absolutely hideous-sounding orange and blue colorway.

There is also no shortage of details about its supposed design, including the overall look of its kickstand, the fact that its Joy-Con controllers are attached magnetically, and the presence of the mysterious new ‘C’ button on the right-hand controller. We might even already know the console’s official name: simply 'Nintendo Switch 2' if the latest leaks are to be believed.

Combine all of this with the few slithers of official information that we have received, such as the confirmation that the console will be backward compatible with Nintendo Switch Software, and you have a pretty well-rounded picture of the unrevealed system.

It does make a lot of sense that Nintendo would want to get ahead of even further leaks by dropping the first trailer soon, but we’ll have to wait and see whether that January prediction comes to fruition.

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• 3% of PS5 owners have a PlayStation Portal
• This equates to roughly 2 million units sold
• The streaming handheld is most used at night

The PlayStation Portal was initially quite hard to find when it launched back in November 2023, with stock repeatedly selling out at most retailers. This could suggest that it was quite popular, but if you were wondering what the actual sales numbers for the remote-play accessory looked like we now have a rough estimate.

According to data from market research firm Circana, 3% of PS5 owners have picked up the PlayStation Portal as of late 2024. This isn’t a huge amount to go off of, however we do know that the PS5 has sold 65.5 million units globally. 3% of this figure equates to 1.965 million PlayStation Portal owners, indicating that it has been pretty successful overall despite some concerns that it would be too niche to make much of an impact.

In an interview with the Game File newsletter, Sony even provided some interesting statistics about PlayStation Portal usage. The most popular time to pick up the device is around 9 PM, which is an hour later than the 8 PM peak usage time for PS5.

According to the Sony Interactive Entertainment vice president of product management Hirmoi Wakai, “this could suggest scenarios like users playing on the console first, then later switching to PS Portal to play in another room [...] while their family is using the TV.”

If you need a quick refresher, the PlayStation Portal is a remote-play handheld that requires a PS5 to use.

Featuring what is effectively two sides of a DualSense Wireless Controller slapped an 8-inch LCD display, it streams games from your console over an internet connection. Although it can work while out and about, we’ve found that it’s most reliable in the home when you treat it as almost a second screen.

While much functionality is still reliant on the PS5, Sony has recently introduced a Cloud Game Streaming Beta, allowing PlayStation Plus Premium members to play directly from the cloud for the first time. It’s not fully rolled out yet, but the final release of this feature would further improve the utility of the accessory and potentially push that sales number up even further.

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The OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R have already been shown off in China – the latter under the name of the OnePlus Ace 5 – and now we've got some newly leaked information about what to expect from the international launch of the OnePlus 13R on January 7.

Seasoned tipster @MysteryLupin has posted an extensive series of images of the OnePlus 13R, showing off the phone in a couple of different color options. There's a gold-ish version and something that will be labeled either black or dark gray.

Design-wise, there aren't too many surprises, because we've already seen the OnePlus Ace 5 ahead of its international rebadging. However, there's no sign here of the green and gold options that the OnePlus Ace 5 offers for those in China.

That might be because those colors won't be available for international buyers, or that this tipster wasn't able to get hold of leaked images in those colors. We'll have to wait until OnePlus makes this phone official next month to know for sure.

Cameras and batteries

The OnePlus 12R, launched in January 2024 (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

While the OnePlus 13R (international) will borrow heavily from the OnePlus Ace 5 (China), not every spec will match up – and another new leak has revealed that the global version of this phone will have a much better rear camera.

As per well-known tipster @heyitsyogesh, the OnePlus 13R is going to come with a triple-lens rear camera setup of 50MP (main), 8MP (ultrawide), and 50MP (telephoto with x2 optical zoom). There will then be a 16MP selfie camera on the front.

That's an improvement over the OnePlus Ace 5, which uses a 2MP macro camera as the third one on the back – there's no telephoto option. The other camera specs, including the 16MP selfie camera, seem to match between the two models.

There may be other slight variations to note when the OnePlus 13R is made official: as GSMArena reports, the battery on the OnePlus 13R will be 6,000mAh rather than 6,415mAh, for example. Head to our OnePlus 12R review to see what's being replaced.

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