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The world of health and fitness has been rocked by the potentially devastating news that standing desks could be bad for your health.

“Standing desks may be bad for your health, study suggests,” “Experts issue a health warning to anyone who uses a standing desk,” and “Why standing desks could be bad for your health” have all crossed my timeline this morning. So what on earth is going on? And is it time to ditch your standing desk?

The flurry of articles all stem from a new study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology on October 16. The snappily titled ‘Device-measured stationary behavior and cardiovascular and orthostatic circulatory disease incidence’ is a study of more than 83,000 UK adults over the course of nearly seven years.

The research, conducted by Dr Matthew Ahmadi of the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health in Australia, set out to examine the link between sitting, standing, and stationary time, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and orthostatic circulatory disease. The results at first glance appear like a blow to the appeal of standing desks – but there’s much more to it than that.

Standing desks aren’t the silver bullet you might have hoped

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

The study acknowledges that public health strategies and common advice often promote standing “as a sufficient substitute” for sitting in an office environment. However, the results of this mammoth study show that both sitting and standing for too long can be bad for your health. According to the study, doing too much of either can increase the risk of the two aforementioned ailments – CVD and orthostatic circulatory disease such as orthostatic hypotension, varicose vein, chronic venous insufficiency, and venous ulcer.

According to the study, “Every additional hour above 10 h/day of sitting was associated with a 0.26 (0.18, 0.36) higher risk,” of orthostatic circulatory diseases. Crucially, however, the risk of these diseases also increased (although not as much) with every 30 additional minutes of standing for more than two hours per day.

In contrast, the risk of CVD increased with every extra hour of sitting, but “Time spent standing was not associated with major CVD risk.”

As summed up by the study, “Both sitting (above 10 h/day) and standing (above 2 h/day) were directly associated with increased orthostatic circulatory disease incidence risk; standing was not associated with CVD incidence risk.” Furthermore, “Standing alone may not be a sufficient strategy for lowering CVD risk, and may lead to a higher risk of circulatory conditions.”

(Image credit: Future)

The study notes a crucial factor, however. The risks associated with both are linked to time spent stationary. If you combine one of the best standing desks on the market with an under-desk treadmill, the study implies that moving while standing won’t carry the same risks.

Whether you choose to sit or stand at your desk while working, regular breaks and frequent movement are the key. The study “calls into question current intervention strategies that focus on only replacing sitting with standing time without increasing physical activity.” Simply put, buying a standing desk isn’t a silver bullet that will solve your health problems or reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by itself.

As is often the case when it comes to health and wellbeing, The study notes that “up to a certain level, neither sitting nor standing are harmful for orthostatic conditions, suggesting that there may be a healthy balance between these two behaviors.”

Still, the study concludes that “The deleterious associations of stationary time with CVD and orthostatic circulatory disease we observed were primarily a consequence of time spent sitting.” Standing more doesn’t increase CVD risk in the same way sitting does, then, but standing “was associated with substantially higher risk of orthostatic circulatory disease.”

The solution? If you want to continue to enjoy the benefits of a standing desk, such as burning more calories or improving posture, be sure to factor in plenty of movement and breaks into your work day. If you're going to stand for more than two hours a day, maybe consider using an under-desk treadmill. Just remember, sitting for too long continues to carry risks of CVD such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure.

Other tools out there can also help you keep on top of your health and mobility, such as the best fitness trackers or best smartwatches that feature standing alerts or tracking to help you get plenty of steps in each day. Whether you choose to sit or stand at your desk, do both in moderation, sprinkle in plenty of movement, change things up regularly, and do it all as part of a healthy lifestyle.

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Public services across the country have been feeling the pinch for a long while, but staff at NHS hospitals are concerned that this has reached a critical point. The British Medical Association, the UK’s main doctors union, estimated that doctors lost 13.5 million hours a year as a consequence of “inadequate IT systems and equipment”.

IT systems probably aren’t many people’s first thought when it comes to public spending, but they are crucial in keeping the NHS functioning and helping staff save lives. Since the 2010s the UK has spent almost £37 billion less on health assets than neighboring countries, such as France and Germany.

“I am at a top London hospital and yet at times I feel as though we are operating in the Stone Age,” a pediatrician told Forbes. Doctors and nurses have outlined the need for all basic infrastructure to be raised to a minimum standard before new projects are taken on.

Not exactly efficient

According to the NHS’s own estimates, just 20% of its organisations are "digitally mature", with some reporting an "enormous variation in basic infrastructure" within hospitals that slows systems down.

“We have a whole range of paper-based and digital systems, which leads to a huge potential for error,” said Dr Rosie Benneyworth, Head of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body. “We have seen delayed cancer diagnosis because of systems not speaking to one another.”

As well as making systems difficult to navigate and impeding health workers, legacy IT systems can pose serious risks in the form of vulnerabilities. Healthcare providers are attractive targets for cybercriminals, who will often try and leverage stolen data for money, or shut down life saving systems to disrupt operations.

Via Financial Times

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It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen a fresh Xbox Series X wrap, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft had forgotten about the whole endeavor. We now know that this is not the case at least, as the company has just revealed a Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 accessories collection which includes a new wrap and two controllers.

Inspired by the covert spy-thriller theme of the next Call of Duty installment, the Xbox Series X Wrap - Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is quite a striking console accessory. It’s predominantly black and white, with some subtle orange highlights, and has a pattern consisting of layers of secret documents.

It looks like there are loads of hidden details here, which could make it a real treat for long-time fans. The wrap is available to pre-order now for $54.99 / £49.99 via the Microsoft Store and will be released on October 23. Those who pre-order will receive a free one-hour 2XP token to use in Black Ops 6, which is honestly a pretty mediocre bonus all things considered.

If you're not familiar with the concept of Microsoft’s console wraps, they’re sleek fabric covers that seamlessly wrap around your system to give it a new aesthetic. We’ve previously seen a limited design inspired by Starfield and, while not quite as a cool as a full special edition console, they are a good option if you want to give your system a new look without breaking the bank.

The collection also includes two new controller designs, both of which are available now exclusively via Xbox Design Lab. The first is the Xbox Wireless Controller – Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. This features a similar design to the wrap, with a face plate that looks like it’s been covered in top secret documents. By default, it has a metallic orange d-pad and triggers too which introduces some rather nice contrast.

There’s also a more premium Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 variant, with custom rubber grips that incorporate an inverted version of the pattern. Both controllers are fully compatible with Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC with prices starting at $84.98 / £84.55 and $164.98 / £137.98 respectively. As Xbox Design Lab products, you can also further customize the look of your controller at additional cost.

For more on Xbox, you can watch my unboxing of the newly released Xbox Series X Digital Edition below.

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Team Asobi has just released the first Astro Bot DLC level as a completely free update. And better still, there will be more to follow over the next few weeks.

Announced in an official PlayStation Blog post written by director Nicolas Doucet, it's confirmed that the first DLC speedrun level, Building Speed, is available now and should appear in-game when you next update it. In the level, you'll use the Barkster bulldog bot power-up to launch Astro through crates and across precarious platforming challenges.

What's more, Doucet also confirms that four more speedrun challenge levels will arrive one per week over the next month. The release schedule for these is as follows:

• October 17: Building Speed (that's today!)
• October 24: Let it Slide
• October 31: Spring-loaded Run
• November 7: Helium Heights
• November 14: Rising Heat

Being speedrun levels, the goal is naturally to get through them as quickly as possible. Team Asobi has added a new online leaderboard to support this, so you and your PlayStation friends can have fun seeing who can get through each stage the quickest.

Although you will probably want to take your time and smell the mechanical roses on your first outing in these levels, because new bot cameos are being added to each one. In Building Speed, players can expect to run into cute bot renditions of the Helldivers and EVE from Stellar Blade. Doucet teases that more cameos will arrive in future levels, but is remaining understandably tight-lipped on who those could be for now. Though, we may already have an idea if Astro Bot's credits sequence is anything to go by.

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Samsung has announced that it’s cooked up some new faster GDDR7 video RAM that might just power up Nvidia’s next-gen Blackwell GPUs at some point next year.

The innovation comes in what Samsung boasts is the industry’s first 24Gb GDDR7 RAM, which builds on its previous 16Gb GDDR7 memory modules (the latter are strongly rumored to be destined for Nvidia’s initial RTX 5000 GPUs).

Samsung notes that the new 24Gb GDDR7 is built on a (5th-generation) 10nm process, and that allows for cell density to be 50% better in the same package size versus its predecessor. With 24Gb VRAM we can have memory modules of 3GB capacity (rather than 2GB modules as with 16Gb GDDR7).

Not only do we get that capacity benefit, but this VRAM is much faster, offering a speed of 40Gbps, we’re told. For context, the GDDR7 memory currently in the works boasts speeds of either 28Gbps or 32Gbps, so this is a leap of 25% on the latter. Samsung also notes that performance could be pepped up to 42.5Gbps in certain use cases, too.

Another noteworthy addition to the list of improvements with GDDR7 is better power-efficiency to the tune of 30%.

Samsung tells us that validation (testing and sampling) for this new RAM will begin later in 2024, and it’ll be deployed commercially early in 2025.

(Image credit: Samsung) Analysis: A step forward for Samsung – and next-gen Nvidia Super (or Ti) GPUs too?

While 24Gb GDDR7 is expected to be a major boon for heavyweight applications (AI, data centers and so forth), it will also likely find a home in consumer graphics cards – at least to some extent.

While all this remains speculation, Nvidia is expected to use 28Gbps (and 32Gbps) GDDR7 in its next-gen Blackwell graphics cards, leaving the possibility that Team Green may adopt this supercharged 40Gbps VRAM at some point. For an RTX 5090 Ti, perhaps? It’d obviously have to be a high-end graphics card, though we guess another possibility is an RTX 5080 Ti or Super (perhaps the rumored 24GB of VRAM spin on the 5080 – given the 3GB module capacity, as mentioned).

What about AMD or Intel using GDDR7? Rumors around AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs insist that Team Red won’t be making the leap to GDDR7, and instead will stick with current GDDR6, which makes sense given that the next-gen RX 8000 graphics cards are supposedly topping out at the mid-range. AMD will want to make them competitive in this space, no doubt, and steering away from cutting-edge VRAM seems like a plan in terms of keeping costs down, if this is the overall idea.

As for Intel, 2nd-gen Arc Battlemage graphics cards are rumored to be low-end only, so clearly GDDR7 won’t be on the table for those GPUs. It seems only Nvidia is jumping on the next-gen VRAM bandwagon next year, although even that remains a rumor – and we don’t know if Team Green will push as hard as deploying this faster 40Gbps memory in its Blackwell GPUs in 2025 (but we can hope).

Via Wccftech

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Things aren’t looking good if you were hoping to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Xbox or PC for just $1 at launch. It seems as though Microsoft has removed the option to pick up a 14-day subscription for a reduced price just nine days away from the Black Ops 6 launch.

The news comes from a recent post to the X / Twitter account of Call of Duty blog CharlieIntel that claims the offer has vanished. I headed over to the Xbox Game Pass website and wasn’t able to find the deal anywhere, which would lend some extra credibility to this assertion.

Black Ops 6 is the next entry in the hugely popular Call of Duty franchise and is set to launch on October 25. It will be the first Call of Duty title to be added to the Xbox Game Pass service at launch following the completion of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition last year.

It will be available to those with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscription, which costs $19.99 / £14.99 and $11.99 / £9.99 per month respectively. Many players had planned to take advantage of the $1 subscription offer to get two weeks of access to the game for less.

Although it’s incredibly disappointing to see this option disappear just days away from release, I can’t say that it’s particularly surprising. Call of Duty games usually generate a huge amount of sales revenue over their launch periods. The idea of Microsoft sacrificing a large chunk of this by providing consumers with an almost unbelievably cheap way to try out the game seems a little silly in retrospect.

There’s currently no official word on whether the $1 Xbox Game Pass deal will return in the future, but I suspect that it will once Black Ops 6's launch period is out of the way. While the timing is enough to raise some eyebrows, it’s also worth noting that this is not the first time that the offer has disappeared so it might be due to something else entirely.

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Spam and scam calls are an ever increasing nuisance, so a reliable caller ID service – and particularly one that can flag or auto block known scam numbers – is near essential. Sadly, this isn’t something Apple offers natively, and while there are some third-party caller ID services, these can be quite hit and miss, or cost extra. But finally, Apple is taking the first steps towards such a service.

The company has announced (via Engadget) that, next year, it will allow businesses enrolled in Apple Business Connect to register for Business Caller ID. With this, their company name, logo, and department will appear on the incoming call screen when they contact customers.

This should make it a lot easier to differentiate a legitimate call from a spam call since, if there’s no logo shown, there’s a high chance that it’s an unwanted call. If there is a logo, you can judge based on the company that’s calling whether it’s likely to be something you want to answer.

Some Apple Business Connect tools, including Business Caller ID (Image credit: Apple) A good start

This still isn’t a perfect solution – companies will need to enroll, and we can imagine many smaller ones won’t, though it as at least a free service, so there’s not too much of a barrier to entry. And, of course, this only applies to businesses, not personal numbers, so not all genuine calls will be identified.

This system also isn’t designed to specifically flag or block spam and scam calls, so these will still ring on your phone.

Still, it’s a big and overdue step in the right direction from Apple, and one that anyone who frequently gets calls from unknown numbers will probably be very happy about.

It’s not clear exactly when next year this Business Caller ID service will launch, but the sooner the better as far as we’re concerned.

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The growing adoption of generative AI tools across various industries signifies a significant shift in business operations and innovation. This technology, capable of creating content, analyzing data and optimizing processes, is becoming an invaluable asset for enhancing productivity and creativity.

From automating customer support to generating marketing content, AI offers unprecedented efficiencies and personalization. As organizations seek to stay competitive, the integration of AI-driven solutions is rapidly evolving from a cutting-edge novelty to a business necessity, reshaping how products are developed, decisions are made, and customer experiences are crafted.

However, new data from a recent Smart Communications survey suggests that simply implementing generative AI isn’t enough – there’s a clear trend toward growing skepticism in AI use, especially when adopted for communications. Good communication is critical in industries such as healthcare, finance and insurance, where poorly communicated messages or mistakes in the relay of information can have a life-changing impact. Businesses can look to prioritize transparency by making it clear when they're using AI and ensuring human oversight throughout the communication process.

Clear, accurate and timely: what do customers want?

2000 customers across the globe were surveyed worldwide on their opinions regarding customer communications from financial services, insurance and healthcare companies. The responses revealed that four in five (81%) want businesses to employ human oversight and over three-quarters (77%) feel it’s important for companies to explicitly call out when generative AI is used in their communications.

This skepticism stems mainly from ethical (63%) and security concerns (66%) about using generative AI in customer communications. And fewer than half (47%) agree that generative AI actually has the potential to improve the communications they are receiving from businesses. This tells us that many customers don’t see generative AI as worth the risk when it comes to their communications.

The survey also asked customers what they value most when it comes to communications - a majority (71%) said that communications need to be straightforward and easy to understand, while over half (55%) valued accuracy and over a third (38%) valued timeliness. This isn't too surprising, but certainly reaffirms that the need for clear accurate communication prevails now more than ever in today's digital world, and businesses need to embrace digital tools to avoid human error and ensure customers are happy.

Older consumers, comprising 88% of the Silent Generation and 79% of Baby Boomers, prioritized 'clear and easy to understand' communications in significantly greater numbers than their younger counterparts, with 65% of Generation Z and 63% of Millennials valuing this aspect. For younger customers, personalization and delivery via a preferred channel were significantly more important than for their older counterparts. Over a quarter of Generation Z (28%) ranked personalization as the most important factor, compared to 23% of all respondents. It’s clear that different generations have different values when it comes to their communications. For businesses to have successful communication across the board, especially in key industries such as healthcare, they need to accommodate all needs, for each demographic.

So, with growing concerns around its use, what is the value of generative AI in communications?

The use of generative AI in customer communications

The reality is that, despite customers' concerns about generative AI in customer communications, it can provide great value when used correctly, by improving operational efficiency and effectiveness. This is why the latest CCM tools and technologies out there can help companies leverage generative AI in a responsible and impactful way to enhance customer engagement.

In fact, generative AI is shaping communications by automating content creation, enhancing personalization and streamlining workflows. It enables businesses to quickly generate high-quality text, images and audio, making crafting tailored messages for diverse audiences easier. By reducing the time and effort required for content production, generative AI allows organizations the time to focus on strategy and innovation. Its ability to learn and adapt ensures that communications are not only efficient but also relevant and engaging.

What can businesses do to reassure customers?

It’s clear that generative AI can improve communications and build relationships. However, businesses should look to implement it carefully and thoughtfully, especially amid growing concerns about the new technology. There is a clear need to be open, honest and respectful of these attitudes – here, transparency is key and will help to generate customer trust.

Furthermore, businesses need to ensure human oversight throughout the communication process, never leaving the technology to communicate independently. This helps prevent biases, unintended consequences and disseminating incorrect or inappropriate content. Additionally, human input can refine AI outputs, making them more relevant and culturally sensitive, thus enhancing overall communication quality. This is particularly crucial for regulatory compliant communications, which cannot be compromised by AI hallucinations. Such hallucinations pose a serious risk to both customers and businesses and can have significant consequences.

Generative AI can be a fantastic tool for businesses to implement and enhance their customer communications. It helps to personalize, streamline, speed-up and strengthen relationships. However, customer concerns must be considered, and with growing skepticism businesses should prioritize transparency by clearly indicating when AI is being used and ensure human oversight is maintained throughout the communication process.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

A whopping 69% of organizations have reported paying ransoms this year, according to research by Cohesity, with 46% handing over a quarter of a million dollars or more to cybercriminals. It is hardly the picture of resiliency that is often painted by industry. Clearly, there is a disconnect between cyber resiliency policy and operational capability that urgently needs addressing. 

With the advent of Ransomware-as-a-Service platforms and the current global geopolitical situation, organizations face a huge existential threat through destructive cyber attacks that could put them out of business. This gap between confidence and capability needs to be addressed, but in order to do so, those organizations need to recognize there is a problem in the first place.

According to the Global cyber resilience report 2024, which surveyed 3,139 IT and Security Operations (SecOps) decision-makers, despite 77% of companies having a 'do not pay' policy, many have found themselves unable to respond and recover from attacks without caving in to ransom demands. In addition, only 2% of organizations can recover their data and restore business operations within 24 hours of a cyberattack – despite 98% of organizations claiming their recovery target was one day.

This clearly indicates that current cyber resilience strategies are failing to deliver when it matters most. Companies have set ambitious recovery time objectives (RTOs), but are nowhere close to building the appropriate effective and efficient investigation and threat mitigation capability needed to rebuild and recover securely. Most organizations treat a destructive cyber attack like a traditional business continuity incident like a flood, fire or electricity loss - recovering from the last backup and bringing back in all the vulnerabilities, gaps in prevention and detection, as well as persistence mechanisms that caused the incident in the first place. The gap between these goals and actual capabilities is a ticking time bomb, leaving businesses vulnerable to prolonged downtime and severe financial losses.

Equally alarming is the widespread neglect of Zero-Trust Security principles. While many companies tout their commitment to securing sensitive data, less than half have implemented multi-factor authentication (MFA) or role-based access controls (RBAC). These are not just best practices; they are essential safeguards in today’s threat landscape. Without them, organizations are leaving the door wide open to both external and internal threats.

As cyber threats continue to evolve, with 80% of companies now facing the threat of AI-enabled attacks, the need for a robust, modern approach to data resiliency is more urgent than ever. Yet, the continued reliance on outdated strategies and the failure to adapt to new threats sets the stage for even greater risks. It’s not even a question of complacency.

Building confidence or creating false hope?

With 78% of organizations claiming that they are confident in their cyber resilience capability, this infers that a lot of work has already been done in creating the process and technology to not just isolate attacks but also have the ability to recover a trusted response capability to investigate, mitigate threats and recover. This would be great if true, but we are seeing a real disconnect between perception and reality when it comes to cyber resilience.

That’s a big concern. The financial impact of these failures is not limited to ransom payments alone. The true cost of inadequate cyber resilience extends far beyond the immediate outlay. Prolonged downtime, loss of customer trust, criminal prosecutions for false attestations around the quality of security controls or paying ransoms to sanctioned entities, brand damage, and skyrocketing cyber insurance premiums are just a few consequences that can damage an organization. It’s a sobering reminder that investing in and testing robust cyber resiliency measures upfront is far more cost-effective than dealing with the fallout of a successful attack.

Moreover, the report reveals that only 42% of organizations have the IT and Security capabilities to identify sensitive data and comply with their regulatory requirements. This deficiency exposes companies to significant fines and undermines their ability to prioritize protecting the very data that is the lifeblood of their organization and is subject to regulatory obligations.

With the expected rise of AI-enhanced cyberattacks adding another layer of capability to cyber adversaries, organizations with traditional defenses will have their work cut out. They are no match for these effective and high-efficient threats, which can adapt and evolve faster than most organizations can respond. Organizations need AI-tools to counter these emerging AI-driven threats.

Identify a problem to fix a problem

The report ultimately reveals opportunities for improvement. People, processes, and tools do exist to reverse these trends and close gaps to shore up cyber resilience. Still, organizations need to understand where they currently sit regarding resiliency and be honest with themselves.

The right workflow collaboration and platform integration between IT and Security needs to be developed before an incident. Organizations must engage in more realistic and rigorous threat modelling, attack simulations, drills and tests to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This can ensure that the response and recovery process is effective and that all stakeholders are familiar with their roles during an incident or can identify shortcomings and areas for improvement.

In addition, automated testing of backup data can verify the integrity and recoverability of backups without manual intervention. This automation helps ensure that backups are reliable and can be restored quickly when needed.

Finally, maintaining detailed documentation and recovery playbooks helps ensure everyone knows their responsibilities and what steps to take during an incident. These playbooks should be regularly updated based on changes in adversary behavior and the results of testing and drills.

And this is just a start. To fully reduce operational risk, a transition to modern data security and management processes, tools, and practices is required. Perhaps then, we will see a reduction in ransom payments and a cyber resilience confidence built on reality.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

The dawn of the e-reader was a glorious moment for me after years of lugging around dozens of pounds of books to sate my bibliophile needs. Amazon's Kindle line stood out from its early, basic text form onward.

Now, Amazon has augmented its new Kindle Scribe with AI through a couple of very useful and surprisingly intuitive new features. Other companies making e-readers should take note, and conveniently, that's exactly what the Kindle Scribe and its AI tools are built for.

In particular, while Amazon has marketed the Kindle Scribe as an E Ink notetaking device, the new Active Canvas facet of the e-reader lets you write notes on top of printed text, automatically gliding around and ensuring a sticky placement.

Chickenscratch refined

I’ll be the first to admit that my handwriting has never been the neatest. I've been told it's perfect, but only for ransom notes and as a warning to children reluctant to practice their penmanship. It only worsens when I take notes quickly during a speech or interview. Trying to decipher it afterward is an art as much as a science, but the Kindle Scribe seems to have no trouble transforming handwritten notes, even messy ones, into legible text that’s much easier to read.

As someone who has always preferred jotting down notes by hand over typing or transcribing audio, that's a huge deal. The AI keeps the charm of handwriting while keeping it useful. It’s a quiet deployment of AI, but a sign Amazon knows what Kindle Scribe users actually desire from AI tools.

From scattered to summarized

If you take a lot of notes, even having them be readable doesn't mean you have them organized. That's why the AI summarization feature for the new Kindle Scribe is so enticing. As a reporter, I might read and take notes on a PDF announcement for a new product, then go and take notes on the speech given by a company's CEO when it is unveiled, and further write my comments on what I think about testing the product. The Kindle Scribe can distill those scattered notes written over many hours or days into a neat paragraph or two.

Indeed, the AI may not always extract the most relevant points from the notes. There might be extraneous bits left in or valuable data left out, but at least from what I've seen, that's not a major issue with the Kindle Scribe's AI. I would have cheerfully paid through the nose for such a feature when I was a student.

Again, Amazon is using AI in the Kindle Scribe to retain the appeal of digital note-taking while keeping things simple and streamlined. You don't need an avalanche of options and a plethora of possibilities with AI for a digital reader and notebook. Enhancing the core writing and reading experiences with AI is no gimmick.

If the AI wearables struggling for sales this year had such obvious utility, they might not be struggling in the market. You might not think you need handwriting refinement and note summarization, but it's hard to imagine giving them up once you start using them. Amazon's AI may not be smarter than its rivals, but it certainly is employing it more intelligently in this case.

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ChatGPT became much more collaborative when OpenAI released Canvas mode for the AI chatbot earlier in October. Switching to Canvas mode provides a more flexible way to create and edit text. Through AI's code-writing ability, it enables more complex, long-term planning with visualization, spot-editing, and even automation.

Despite OpenAI's bragging about how practical this approach to ChatGPT can be, you might stare at that prompt and ask how to use ChatGPT's Canvas mode to enhance your daily life.

Here are some of the ways I've found ChatGPT's Canvas mode to be useful as a kind of combination of personal assistant and creative partner.

Weekly Planning

You can ask ChatGPT to make a list of tasks or appointments based on the information you supply, but it's still just a somewhat more coherent version of what you already have available. With Canvas Mode, you don't have to redo the list whenever something changes; you can rearrange and edit the plan within the same list.

You just need to ask ChatGPT to create a section for each day or task category. Then maybe details underneath. In Canvas mode, you can drag these items around, prioritize them visually, and quickly edit descriptions as plans change.

For example, if you need to move an appointment from Monday to Wednesday, simply highlight that activity and click the "ask ChatGPT" button, then ask the AI to move it to the right time and day. You can also play with how it looks visually or ask for code blocks to automate reminders from your calendar.

If you have a long list of tasks or a packed schedule, Canvas Mode can generate summaries of each day's tasks if you want a concise overview of what's coming up. Say you have multiple personal and work deadlines in a week. After outlining your tasks, you can highlight key action items with bold text and, if necessary, summarize lengthy task lists to display only the most urgent tasks. If some of these tasks are recurring, you can even use a small code block to automate reminders or set up scripts to send yourself notifications.

Event Planning

Event planning requires juggling many tasks, from managing guest lists to coordinating schedules and activities. By using Canvas mode, the event becomes visible in a single space. Input from many sources can all be uploaded and summarized by regular ChatGPT, but in Canvas mode, the AI can finesse, edit, and combine details within a single outline for an event.

For instance, if you want to plan a birthday party, you can ask ChatGPT to organize the guest list and move people around different categories depending on if you tell it they have RSVP’d.

One of the most powerful features here is the AI’s ability to write code to automate tasks. For example, you might want to invite and track guests automatically. ChatGPT can write a small script for automatically emailing invitations, tracking RSVPs, and updating the list in real-time. It will even edit the code to send reminder emails to those who haven’t responded yet.

Tracking Personal Growth

With so much on your plate, tracking personal development might need AI assistance, too. ChatGPT’s Canvas mode can help you track your fitness goals, your efforts to learn a new skill, or even keep your hobbies organized.

On the fitness front, you can describe your workouts, meal plans, and goals, and the AI will set up charts to match, applying bold font for milestones and other key data. If you need to update your routine or diet, Canvas Mode’s editing feature lets you quickly revise your plans. If you use an app to track your progress and get the raw data, the AI can summarize it, incorporate it into the overall plan, and mark where you are in your milestones.

Suppose you’re trying to learn a new language or other skill. In that case, you can similarly set up a long-term plan, create visual representations of the lessons you’ve completed, and create automated reminders for upcoming study sessions. Should you crave extra studying tools, ChatGPT’s Canvas mode can both write quizzes or practice sets and embed them within your schedule, even if it might not be a while until you get to that section.

Home Project Planning

I wanted to plan a renovation of a room in my home. That's a lot of planning and designing for anyone. While I might ask ChatGPT for help brainstorming ideas, switching to Canvas means I can arrange project elements visually and calculate measurements with embedded code.

I asked ChatGPT to set up a template, and it created sections within Canvas for each phase of the project, such as "Furniture," "Paint Colors," and "Budget." The AI took my vague visions and created detailed descriptions of different furniture options and color schemes, bolding any prospective dimensions and prices. Whenever I asked the AI to update the price or change other details, the plan was revised without being rewritten.

It even worked with images. For instance, I uploaded images of the options to compare two different sets of chairs and told the AI the prices, sizes, and other details for each. The AI then adjusted the information for the options and provided a running total of prices.

If it became overwhelming, I could ask it to summarize everything into a quick-reference section with only the most critical tasks and expenses.

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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 #494) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• PARK
• CAR
• HARVARD
• YARD
• ADDRESS
• GREEN
• JAW
• LEMON
• NATURAL
• CRIMINAL
• FIELD
• SWINGER
• HANDLE
• GOODFELLA
• ANSWER
• LAWN

NYT Connections today (game #494) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Bit of vegetation
• Green: I'll take this
• Blue: Shall we watch Megalopoli tonight?
• Purple: blank [the process by which justice is administered]

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 #494) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: GRASSY AREA
• GREEN: DEAL WITH
• BLUE: MOVIES WITH “S” REMOVED
• PURPLE: ___ LAW

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

NYT Connections today (game #494) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #494, are…

• YELLOW: GRASSY AREA GREEN, LAWN, PARK, YARD
• GREEN: DEAL WITH ADDRESS, ANSWER, FIELD, HANDLE
• BLUE: MOVIES WITH “S” REMOVED CAR, GOODFELLA, JAW, SWINGER
• PURPLE: ___ LAW CRIMINAL, HARVARD, LEMON, NATURAL

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 2 mistakes

My plan to solve the hardest Connections groups first went completely off the rails today – and I'm blaming some classic NYT misdirection. I doubt I'll be the only person who would have thought to combine the wrong four of GREEN, LAWN, PARK, YARD and FIELD – but I did so twice before realizing that the last of those should instead be with ADDRESS, ANSWER and HANDLE to form the green DEAL WITH group. With that out of the way I was able to solve yellow, GRASSY AREA, which meant I had two guesses left and two to solve.

I focused on GOODFELLA, because there's only really one possible connection there – namely that if you add the letter S you get a film title. Doing the same with CAR, JAW and SWINGER gave me MOVIES WITH “S” REMOVED, meaning I didn't need to solve the purple group (and probably wouldn't have done if I had needed to).

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 16 October, game #493)

• YELLOW: AT SOME FUTURE POINT EVENTUALLY, LATER, NEXT, SOON
• GREEN: PARTS OF A TOURNAMENT SETUP BRACKET, BYE, ROUND, SEED
• BLUE: BIT OF BREAKFAST CEREAL CHEERIO, FLAKE, PEBBLE, PUFF
• PURPLE: WHAT THE OUTSTRETCHED INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CAN REPRESENT PEACE, SCISSORS, TWO, VICTORY

What is NYT Connections?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NYT Strands today (game #228) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Dream teams

NYT Strands today (game #228) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SPAN
• FROWN
• FROST
• ROAST
• WAVE
• STAR

NYT Strands today (game #228) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Perfect picks

NYT Strands today (game #228) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: left, 5th row

Last: right, 3rd row

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

NYT Strands today (game #228) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #228, are…

• DRAFT
• WAIVERS
• ROSTER
• MATCHUPS
• STANDINGS
• SPANGRAM: FANTASYLEAGUE

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 4 hints

This was another Strands puzzle that I didn't really enjoy. I don't play FANTASYLEAGUE any more, because I found that it took all the joy out of sport for me. Even if I did, I wouldn't have been familiar with some of the terms here – it's very much based on football fantasy league, I think, with the likes of DRAFT, WAIVERS and ROSTER, rather than the soccer kind that I used to play. As a result, I needed four hints and was never really on top of things. Hopefully tomorrow will be more fun.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, 16 October, game #227)

• DREARY
• PONDERED
• WEARY
• MIDNIGHT
• WEAK
• NEVERMORE
• SPANGRAM: THERAVEN

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.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now nearly 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 #996) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

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

Quordle today (game #997) - 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 #997) - 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 #997) - 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 #997) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• B

• B

• L

• S

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

Quordle today (game #997) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #997, are…

• BUILD
• BIRTH
• LURCH
• SASSY

Quordle seems to be fond of words with multiple repeated letters in right now. After EERIE and its three Es yesterday and EMCEE on Monday, here's SASSY and its three Ss.

SASSY was a very tough Wordle when it appeared in that game last November (average score: 5.0) and is likely to cause as many problems here. The other words aren't too tricky, but I needed a guess to confirm the B in BIRTH and BUILD, then spent another on SAVVY, before completing on the final attempt.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #997) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #997, are…

• TASTY
• TRITE
• LOATH
• ERECT

Quordle answers: The past 20

• 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
• Quordle #981, Tuesday 1 October: FRILL, MADLY, GRANT, NYLON
• Quordle #980, Monday 30 September: CRUSH, TARDY, TEACH, STUMP
• Quordle #979, Sunday 29 September: SERIF, BORNE, WRITE, SLEEK
• Quordle #978, Saturday 28 September: BUSHY, CIVIC, SNOUT, EQUIP
• Quordle #977, Friday 27 September: GUEST, CHASM, ROOST, BASAL

The CEO of Intel has declared that x86 hardware is anything but dead, announcing a new expert partnership that will see it join up with old rival AMD to promote the technology.

Speaking at Lenovo Tech World 2024, Pat Gelsinger took to the stage to announce the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group, an all-star alliance that could go a long way to ensuring it stays popular for some time.

“Some have said, well, you know, is the x86 done?” Gelsinger said on stage. “Well, I’ll tell you, rumours of my death are severely exaggerated. We are alive and well, and the x86 is thriving.”

x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group

The new group is made up of some of the biggest names in the technology sphere today, including leaders from Microsoft, Google, HPE and Dell.

Representatives from Broadcom, HP Inc, Lenovo, Meta, Oracle, Epic Games and Red Hat are also present, alongside Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux.

The move may have been prompted by the growing presence of ARM-based chips from Qualcomm, including the Snapdragon X family, which have looked to target the quick-growing AI PC market.

This had led some industry observers to predict x86 may be on the way out - a notion the new collective is keen to dispel, noting in an accompanying press release, “for over four decades, x86 has served as the bedrock of modern computing, establishing itself as the preferred architecture in data centers and PCs worldwide.”

“The advisory group brings together leaders from across the ecosystem to shape the future of the x86 to simplify software development, to ensure interoperability and interface consistency, to provide developers with standard architecture tools, instruction sets, to have a clear view of the future,” he added.

Among the aims of the new group is boosting compatibility across hardware and software, including simplifying architectural guidelines to enhance software consistency and interfaces.

“We think of it as one of the most significant periods of innovation in front of us, and we see that the x86 architecture, this foundation of computing for decades, is about to go through a period of customisation, expansion, scalability,” Gelsinger declared, highlighting the terrific opportunities offered by the growth of AI, which he said meant, “our ecosystem is robust and growing”.

(Image credit: Lenovo)

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su was also on stage at Lenovo Tech World, and was quick to cheer the new partnership, noting the news shows, “just how unique a time this is in technology.”

“At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is accelerate compute and accelerate the adoption of compute,” she said. “x86 has been the foremost leader in architecture over the last 40 years, and the idea is that AMD and Intel are bringing together all of these founding members (who) can really accelerate the pace of innovation going forward.”

Looking forward, the group will continue to promote x86, and could be the start of a greater co-operation and collaboration among technology giants going forward.

“For once Lisa and Pat agreed on something,” Gelsinger chuckled, “who would have thunk?”

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Minisforum has launched a new lightweight mini ITX PC packed with powerful features and a sleek design.

The 790S7 is a seriously powerful bit of hardware - and what it boasts in features it more than matches in its compact design.

The latest mini PC from the company comes in at just 7 liters, boasting a very small footprint that makes it an ideal, lightweight option for enterprise users aiming to maximize desk space. Better still, the 790S7 comes complete with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX CPU and can be configured with a powerful GeForce RTX 4060 GPU for an additional cost.

Under the hood of the Minisforum 790S7

While it’s bulkier than other mini PCs offered by Minisforum, it nonetheless makes up for this with key capabilities.

These include support for up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM, as well as two PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs capable of up to 4TB in storage. Similarly, the inclusion of a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot to support the RTX 4060 GPU merely adds to the appeal.

“With up to 64GB of memory, typically found in high-end workstations, this ultra-fast 5200 MHz RAM makes multitasking and multimedia rendering a breeze,” the company claims. “Effortlessly switch between tasks like gaming, streaming, and web browsing, all with smooth, high-speed performance.”

What could set the 790S7 apart from the pack is its multi-functional display options. With this device, users are able to attach up to three 8K monitors.

Given its compact design, the 790S7 can sit comfortably on a desk alongside these monitors without absorbing too much space.

Notably, the 790S7 could prove to be a cost effective option for enterprise users, coming in at around $1,000. Minisforum currently has a sale on, meaning users can get their hands on the device for around $939.

A barebones version of this device is also available, normally retailing at $569 - but this will come without an operating system, RAM, or SSD built-in. The sale price for this version comes in at $459.

Not keen on AMD? There’s an Intel option available

While the 790S7 comes complete with an AMD CPU, there are alternative options available with this device. Its sister model, the 129i7, comes with an Intel Core i9-12900 HK processor.

This option is significantly cheaper than its AMD-powered counterpart, normally retailing at $489 but comes with certain limitations. This version can only be configured in a barebones capacity.

Minisforum also has a sale on the 129i7, with this option available for £399 at present.

“The 790S7 is a content creator’s dream machine, powered by the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX,” Minisforum says.

“With 16 cores and 32 threads, it delivers lightning-fast speeds up to 5.2GHz, giving you all the performance you need to unlock your full potential for tasks like video editing and seamless multitasking.”

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XPeng Motors has just lifted the lid on its latest family-orientated electric sedan in the form of the P7+, which garnered over 30,000 pre-orders in less than two hours after its reveal, according to CNEV Post.

The electric vehicle offers up to 441-miles of range on a single charge and a peak power output of 308hp, says Car News China, while the interior features a 15.6-inch infotainment system that’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295P chip and an 8-inch screen in the rear.

So far, so very Tesla, but Xpeng Motors says that it is the ‘AI-defined’ nature of its latest EV offering that stands it apart from the competition. The latest autonomous driving system is dubbed AI Hawkeye Visual Solution and it has been designed to see further, react faster to danger and improve accuracy in poor weather and low-light conditions.

The company says the P7+ integrates advanced AI technology across the chassis, powertrain, driving system, smart cockpit, as well as the aforementioned autonomous safety systems, although details remain scarce.

We do know that the P7+ comes equipped with two ‘8M’ cameras, one at the front and one at the rear, with millimeter-wave radars and ultrasonic radars backing up the visual feed. The Chinese company says this high-definition camera solution does away with costly Lidar systems and the need for HD map coverage – again, there’s a lot of Tesla’s thinking at play here.

Apparently, the AI Hawkeye Visual Solution means the vehicle has a sense of time and space and recognizes various road signs and traffic signal systems across different cities, ensuring functionality in diverse urban environments.

In addition to this, AI plays a big part in the overall infotainment offering, with the system able to adapt based on user behavior and even change preferences based on the journey, time of day, and other criteria.

This, XPeng says, is all made possible by the company’s in-house developed ‘Turing Chip’, which will provide the basic compute power for its future EVs, robots and even eVTOL craft.

Analysis: Autonomous driving needs more than AI

(Image credit: XPeng Motor)

XPeng is already showcasing advanced levels of autonomous driving in its domestic market of China, but the company’s chairman, Xiaopeng He, said that he was committed to expanding the brand’s global presence, including launching more models in Europe in the coming months.

Competing directly with the likes of Tesla, XPeng wants to “capture a larger share of the €40,000 (around $52,000 / AU$78,000) and above segment”, with a long-term plan to achieve half of its annual sales from overseas customers.

However, there is still a big question mark over the capabilities of the company’s AI-powered advanced driver assistance system, with many leading figures in the autonomous driving space stating that Lidar and high-definition mapping are essential for safe operation.

Tesla is still busy convincing legislators that its camera-only system is good enough to warrant an Unsupervised Full Self-Driving moniker in the USA, while Europe is generally taking an extremely cautious approach, with only BMW and Mercedes-Benz offering SAE Level 3 highly automated driving in extremely controlled conditions.

What’s more, XPeng’s P7+ is an enormous car. Measuring over five meters in length, it is the equivalent of owning a commercial vehicle, which for many of Europe’s extremely cramped roads, could prove a problem.

With details as scarce as this at launch, XPeng isn't going to convince both potential owners and legislators that its AI Hawkeye Visual Solution is the silver bullet that self-driving vehicles need to achieve commercial success.

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Now that the dust has settled on Apple's surprise iPad mini 7 announcement, potential buyers have been poring over the tablet's spec sheet with a fine toothcomb – and not all of the findings have been positive.

Yes, the iPad mini 7 is a healthy upgrade for Apple's 8.3-inch tablet – and considering it's been a long three years since the last version, that's something to be celebrated.

But in a few small ways, the mini 7 is also a slightly lackluster update that shows Apple still isn't committed to making a small tablet that can sit at the same table as its two bigger models – the iPad Air 13-inch (2024) and iPad Pro 13-inch (2024).

So, where exactly is the iPad mini 7 slightly underpowered, and should you care about those features at all? Here are the main niggles, based on what we wanted to see when the rumors started building earlier this year.

1. A downgraded A17 Pro chip

(Image credit: Apple)

The iPad mini 7 is more powerful than the iPad mini (2021) thanks to its A17 Pro chip. That spec bump means Apple's mini tablet can now support Apple Intelligence – in fact, it's now the cheapest way to get Apple's AI-powered features.

But, as spotted by Wccftech, that A17 Pro chip isn't actually identical to the one we saw last year in the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. As the iPad mini 7's official specs page shows, its chip has a 5-core GPU rather than the 6-core chip from last year's flagship phones.

This isn't the first time this has happened – when the M2 iPad Air launched earlier this year, Apple later revealed that the tablet has a 9-core GPU rather than the 10-core one that it was originally advertised as having.

Whatever the reasons behind these chipset tweaks, most of us are unlikely to notice a performance difference – a bigger sore point for many is that the iPad mini 7 didn't get the latest A18 or A18 Pro chip for better future-proofing, though that would have also resulted in a price bump.

2. A 60hz screen with no ProMotion

(Image credit: Apple)

Given earlier leaks had suggested that the iPad mini 7 would get a screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, it was a slight disappointment for many to discover that Apple's new tablet still has a 60Hz display.

This spec reveals how many times your screen refreshes each second – a higher refresh rate means a smoother scrolling experience. Naturally, Apple has a fancy name for its 120Hz display tech – ProMotion.

However, the base iPhone 16 and iPad Air M2 (2024) also both have 60Hz screens, so its absence on the iPad mini 7 isn't necessarily a major deal. A bigger one could be whether or not Apple has fixed the 'jelly scrolling' issue that some iPad mini (2021) discovered when scrolling in portrait orientation.

At the time, Apple said that the issue was normal behavior for LCD screens, so we're looking forward to testing the new iPad mini 7 to see if there are still any remnants of it.

3. Touch ID rather than Face ID

The iPad mini 6 (above) added Touch ID for security and the iPad mini 7 has retained the same tech (Image credit: Apple)

Touch ID may be dying out on iPhones, but the iPad mini 7 continues to use the tech for security features like Apple Pay or logging into apps. That's because the new mini has an identical design to its predecessor, aside from a couple of new colors.

With many hoping that the mini 7 might get a Face ID upgrade – like the latest iPad Pro models – that might be considered a slightly retro move. Then again, some iPad users have found that Face ID doesn't work as well on Apple's tablets as well as it does on the iPhone, so its continued reliance on a fingerprint scanner may even be considered a bonus for some.

4. No physical nano-SIM slot

(Image credit: Apple)

If you prefer your iPads to have a cellular connection, you might be interested to learn that – just like this year's iPad Air and iPad Pro – there's no physical SIM card slot in the iPad mini 7. Yep, it's eSIM all the way.

Is that a bad thing? Not for most people – setting up eSIMs or transferring them to other devices shouldn't be a complicated process, perhaps even quicker than physical SIMs.

But only having that single option can present problems if you like to move your SIMs between devices regularly, as that can involve contacting your network carrier – and as we all know, that process is never quite as simple as it should be.

5. No charger included (in the EU)

The final potential iPad mini 7 niggle, as spotted by MacRumors, is that Apple's new tablet doesn't come with a charging brick in the box in European countries, including the UK.

That isn't a huge surprise – the latest iPad Pro and Air models also ditched the bundled charger in the region, as Apple likely looks ahead to new EU regulations around electronic waste that are due in 2026.

A tiny plus is that the USB-C charging cable that comes with the tablet is now braided to make it more durable and protect it from cat-related incidents. If you live in the US or Australia, you can expect to get the usual 20W USB-C charging brick included.

iPad mini 7 – early thoughts

(Image credit: Apple)

Most iPad mini 7 buyers won't consider any of these details to be major issues. While it'd have been nice to get an A18 chip and ProMotion display, that would also have inflated the price tag beyond the tablet's relatively affordable starting point of $499 / £499 / AU$799 (for 128GB of storage).

So while Apple hasn't gone all-out on making a premium mini tablet, it has likely done enough for most fans of the tablet's form factor – namely, future-proofing it with a chip that supports Apple Intelligence, doubling its RAM and base storage, and adding support for the Apple Pencil Pro.

With some other little quality-of-life upgrades like a speedier USB-C port and Wi-Fi 6E also on board, the iPad mini 7 looks more than good enough to be a travel-friendly sidekick for creatives who like digital sketching or editing photos. We'll give you our full verdict soon when we've put one through its paces.

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Nuclear power is increasingly being recognized for its potential to revolutionize energy supply in data centers, a necessity as artificial intelligence continues to drive demand.

Companies like Oracle and Microsoft have both begun investigating nuclear energy (as has former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates), with Microsoft inking an agreement to purchase power from the infamous Three Mile Island reactor.

Micro nuclear reactors are also set to provide clean, safe, and reliable energy to meet the increasing demands of data centers and other industries. We previously wrote how Nano Nuclear Energy is on track to have its first commercial microreactors ready by the early 2030s, with prototypes expected as soon as 2027.

To the moon!

Now, details have surfaced about Westinghouse's eVinci microreactor, after the company revealed it had submitted its Preliminary Safety Design Report (PSDR) to the Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) and in doing so is the first reactor developer to reach this milestone.

“The completion of the PSDR for the eVinci test reactor is an important step toward enabling a micro reactor developer to perform a test in our DOME facility,” said Brad Tomer, acting director of NRIC.

“As a national DOE program and part of INL, the nation’s nuclear energy research laboratory, NRIC is committed to working with private companies such as Westinghouse to perform testing and accelerate the development of advanced nuclear technologies that will provide clean energy solutions for the US.”

NRIC, a key initiative under the DOE, is dedicated to fast-tracking the development and deployment of advanced nuclear technologies like the eVinci microreactor. Its mission includes establishing four new experimental facilities and two large-scale reactor test beds by 2028, with plans to complete two advanced technology experiments by 2030.

The eVinci microreactor, which Westinghouse says “has very few moving parts, working essentially as a battery,” could be used to provide reliable electricity and heating for remote communities, universities, mining operations, industrial centers, data centers, and defense facilities - and, the company says, even on the lunar surface and beyond.

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After Western Digital announced plans to separate its HDD and flash businesses back in 2023, that plan now appears to have come to fruition, with the storage giant dividing its company into two distinct brands.

Despite knowing the move was coming, the timing is interesting, as WD only recently released an 8TB SSD as part of its WD Black SN850X series, joining the existing 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models in the range.

In an announcement, the company explains to customers, “We are now operating as two specialized websites: WesternDigital.com for HDDs and platforms, and SanDisk.com for flash technology, including SSDs, memory cards, USB flash drives, and more.”

What does it mean for buyers?

The company added its creation of separate websites is designed to, “better position each franchise to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalize on unique growth opportunities, extend respective market leadership positions, and operate more efficiently with distinct capital structures.”

Back in March 2024, Western Digital supplied additional information on the reason for the split, which essentially boils down to "creating shareholder value and driving long-term success for its businesses.”

David Goeckeler, CEO of Western Digital, said at the time that the split was “an extremely complex transaction that incorporates over a dozen countries and spans data storage technology brands for consumers, professional content creators, the world’s leading device OEMs, and the largest cloud providers.”

So now that the division is complete, what will it mean for customers? The company says, “On WesternDigital.com, you can shop for all HDD and platform products from the following brands: Western Digital, WD, WD_BLACK, and SanDisk Professional. On SanDisk.com, you can shop for all flash products, such as SSDs, memory cards, and USB flash drives from the following brands: Western Digital, WD, WD_BLACK, SanDisk, and SanDisk Professional.”

There will, of course, be repercussions for customers. If you have a discount code from Western Digital, you’ll only be able to use it to buy products on the WD site. The reverse is true for customers with SanDisk codes.

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