TechRadar News

• Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has confirmed the popular historical drama won't come to an end after its upcoming movie.
• Knight appeared on BBC Breakfast and teased that "the world of Peaky will continue".
• The movie will be a follow-up to the series, which ended in 2022.

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has revealed that the popular Netflix crime drama will continue beyond its long-awaited movie.

Peaky Blinders follows the Shelby family gang as they rose to prominence in the violent streets of post-First World War I Birmingham. The award-winning series ran for six seasons until 2022 and it was revealed two years later that one of the best Netflix shows was getting the movie treatment.

Netflix officially announced the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie back in May 2024, where it was also confirmed that Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy would be reprising his role as fearsome gangster Tommy Shelby. Now, showrunner Knight has teased that this isn't the final chapter of the Peaky Blinders story.

Steven Knight isn't finished with the Peaky Blinders

Now that production has come to an end on the new Netflix movie, Knight told BBC Breakfast: "We're putting it together now. I would say this, wouldn't I? But it's fantastic. We've got, I think, the best British actors all in one place, including Stephen [Graham]."

He also added that the movie will prove to be "a very fitting way to end this part of the Peaky story," which sparked questions from the presenters if there will be any future projects. Well, there's a glimmer of hope as Knight reassured fans that the Peaky Blinders story isn't over. He teased: "It's not over, let's just put it like that. I'm not allowed to announce it... but I'm just saying that the world of Peaky will continue."

The Peaky Blinders movie is a continuation of the TV series and is said to be "full on Peaky Blinders at war" according to Knight in an interview with Radio Times. A star-studded ensemble is set to feature with Rebecca Ferguson, Barry Keoghan and Tim Roth among the new cast members.

Knight has recently taken a break from 1920s Birmingham gang warfare and turned his attention to the criminal underbelly of 1880s London in his new Disney+ period drama A Thousand Blows. The historical epic is about the ruthless bare-knuckle boxing world of the Victorian East End during the reign of the legendary all-female crime syndicate, the Forty Elephants.

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• Invincible season 3 episode 5 is out now on Prime Video
• It includes an incredibly cute scene between Rex Splode and Shrinking Rae
• Now I'm fearing the worst for one or both characters' fates after the heart-warming moment

The fifth episode of Invincible season 3 is out now on Prime Video – and, amid everything that happens in this chapter, there's one specific moment that's got me fearing the worst for Rex Splode and Shrinking Rae.

The hit adult animated series' latest entry, titled 'This Was Supposed to be Easy', is unsurprisingly packed with moments ripped right out of the pages of Invincible's source material. However, it's a wholly original scene focusing on Rex and Rae that's not only warmed my heart, but also makes me worried about what could happen to the pair in Amazon's adaptation.

Full spoilers immediately follow for Invincible's newest episode.

Rae and Rex's relationships is one of the stand outs of this season (Image credit: Prime Video)

Invincible season 3 hasn't held back in its suggestion that something of a romantic nature is developing between Rex and Rae. Indeed, the duo have spent much of this season bonding over their shared trauma of that Lizard League attack that almost cost them their lives in Invincible season 2 part 1. They've also grown closer following events that transpired in season 3's second entry, which I tentatively covered in my Invincible season 3 review. Indeed, Rex and Rae – among some other members of the Guardians of the Globe – side with the titular hero after the near-complete breakdown of the latter's working relationship with Global Defence Agency chief Cecil Stedman.

In the two episodes that follow, Rex, Rae, and company establish their own base of operations in the secret location that originally housed the Teen Team. In some ways, the pair become the de-factor leaders and parental figures of the Guardians' breakaway group – and, like any good parent, they decide to go food shopping. Hey, they're no longer bank-rolled by the GDA, so they have to shop and pay for their own groceries.

D'aww, look at Rex trying his best to be a better guy! (Image credit: Prime Video)

But I'm getting off-track. Their grocery store trip is cut short by the appearance of a supervillain that they have to deal with. Before they do so, however, Rae spends much of the excursion lamenting that she longs to cook home-made meals, be an ordinary person, etc etc. It's a conversation that strikes a chord with Rex who, as my fellow fans will know, has undergone the biggest and best character transformation in one of the best Prime Video shows.

That brings us to episode 5, which sees Rex post a colorful drawing under Rae's door that basically asks her to join him for dinner. Confused, she heads to the Teen Team hideout's kitchen, where she finds Rex rustling up a home-cooked meal for them both. The resulting dinner winds up being the first date and, after the truly awful events they've had to contend with since their introductions in Invincible season 1, it's about time that these fan-favorite characters enjoyed some happiness.

Why I'm worried about Rex and Rae's fates in Invincible season 3

Invincible doesn't give us nice things like this unless it's going to emotionally devastate us in the future... (Image credit: Prime Video)

Full spoilers immediately follow for Invincible's comic book series.

Invincible devotees know as well as I do, though, that moments of joy for any character is almost always followed by emotionally devastating ones.

It's for this very reason why I'm so concerned about Rex and Rae in season 3's final few episodes – and it's all down to the forthcoming cataclysmic event known as The Invincible War. You can learn more about it in this piece where I discussed how Invincible season 3's new title sequence is laying the groundwork for one of the graphic novels' bloodiest battles. It's a certainty that Rex and/or Rae will be involved in this near-world-ending, multi-day fight. After all, Earth will need every superhero to help defend it from the aforementioned onslaught.

The problem is that, as superpowered individuals, Rex and Rae are ill-equipped to deal with a battalion of multiversal Invincible variants. If they're forced to go toe-to-toe with one of these Viltrumites in a one-on-one situation, they're simply not going to survive.

Rex Splode's days may be numbered in Prime Video's adaptation, if Invincible's comic book series is anything to go by (Image credit: Image Comics)

There's precedence for this happening in the comics, too. At this point in Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley's literary works, Rae is actually dead. The character perished in the fight with the Lizard League but, considering she defied death in Amazon's TV adaptation, I'm scared that her demise has been delayed to give her a more heroic sacrifice in the show's take on The Invincible War.

But it's Rex that I'm even more afraid for because he dies while fighting one of Mark Grayson/Invincible's multiversal variants in the graphic novels. In a 'Hail Mary' movie, he uses his own skeleton when he runs out of objects to imbue with his kinetic energy powers. He manages to kill his foe in the resulting blast but, unsurprisingly, he also dies as, well, he blows himself up to save his allies.

Prime Video's adaptation has altered and/or improved certain storylines and characters from the comics. There's every chance, then, that beloved characters like Rex and Rae may live to fight another day. However, I can't shake the feeling that one or both of them won't make it past season 3 episode 7, which is when I expect The Invincible War to take place.

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• Dune Awakening is coming to Steam on May 20, 2025
• Players can now download the character creator and Benchmark Mode ahead of the game's release
• Players who download both will receive an exclusive skin that can be redeemed in the game at launch

Funcom has announced that Dune Awakening will officially launch on May 20, 2025, for PC via Steam.

The open-world multiplayer survival game, inspired by Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel Dune, and the hit movies from Legendary Entertainment, will also be coming to PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. However, a console release date has not been revealed at this time.

Ahead of the game's PC launch, Funcom has now released the official Benchmark Mode, which will allow Steam users to test their hardware performance and system compatibility.

This mode will also feature some scenes from the game to preview, "including soaring with an ornithopter and a dramatic encounter with a colossal sandworm."

Players can now also download the game's character creator and once a character is made, they can be saved and later imported into the game at launch.

You'll be able to "fine-tune every aspect of your looks", Funcom confirmed, and then select your home planet, caste, as well as mentor, be it Swordmaster, Bene Gesserit, Mentat, or Trooper.

"The final choice determines your starting abilities, but you will gain access to every School eventually, and can even mix and match abilities from any of them," Funcom said.

Players who download Dune Awakening's full character creator and Benchmark Mode today will receive a code for the exclusive Frameblade knife skin that can be redeemed in the game at launch.

The base game will cost $49.99 / €49.99, with preorders starting soon. We don't have a date just yet, but players who preorder will receive the Terrarium of Muad’Dib, an in-base decoration that houses the iconic desert mouse featured in the book and movie.

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Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, February 20 (game #1123).

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

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

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

Quordle today (game #1124) - 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 #1124) - 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 #1124) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1124) - 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 #1124) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• P

• S

• D

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

Quordle today (game #1124) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1124, are…

• STIFF
• PRIZE
• SCOWL
• DONUT

Today’s puzzle could not have gone better as I breezed through without any wrong guesses.

Key to my success was three start words that used 15 letters and helped minimize the options, even though at first glance it looked as if I’d only scored a couple of hits.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #1124) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1124, are…

• GUSTY
• LOGIC
• SLUSH
• CAROL

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1123, Thursday 20 February: HASTY, DRAPE, FICUS, CRAZE
• Quordle #1122, Wednesday 19 February: ABATE, TROVE, VENUE, DRAPE
• Quordle #1121, Tuesday 18 February: TAMER, SCRUB, BRICK, DRIFT
• Quordle #1120, Monday 17 February: SADLY, WAFER, LITHE, IDIOM
• Quordle #1119, Sunday 16 February: GHOUL, AFIRE, COVEN, FIERY
• Quordle #1118, Saturday 15 February: CREEP, CONDO, GRILL, FANCY
• Quordle #1117, Friday 14 February: MEDIA, ELUDE, THUMB, WIDOW
• Quordle #1116, Thursday 13 February: SCALP, DWELL, AMPLE, TRUNK
• Quordle #1115, Wednesday 12 February: SHOOK, GRADE, POLAR, SEEDY
• Quordle #1114, Tuesday 11 February: HEAVY, CIRCA, PESKY, SCION
• Quordle #1113, Monday 10 February: TWIXT, FRESH, GUISE, TABBY
• Quordle #1112, Sunday 9 February: TAPIR, SHAKE, TOKEN, SEVEN
• Quordle #1111, Saturday 8 February: AFOOT, ALIKE, HUMUS, TOWEL
• Quordle #1110, Friday 7 February: PETAL, ABASE, AMONG, CORER
• Quordle #1109, Thursday 6 February: MADAM, SCAMP, FAUNA, TRACK
• Quordle #1108, Wednesday 5 February: SIXTH, VERVE, BLURB, CACTI
• Quordle #1107, Tuesday 4 February: BIRTH, DRAWN, MILKY, JOIST
• Quordle #1106, Monday 3 February: SLEET, TENSE, SEIZE, SCAMP
• Quordle #1105, Sunday 2 February: LOUSY, PENNE, CHUMP, SALVE
• Quordle #1104, Saturday 1 February: FACET, BLISS, FLUFF, FRANK

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, February 20 (game #354).

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… "To infinity and beyond!"

NYT Strands today (game #355) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SELL
• LINE
• HEED
• YELLOW
• BLUE
• ZEST

NYT Strands today (game #355) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Starring Buzz Lightyear

NYT Strands today (game #355) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 6th row

Last side: 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 #355) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #355, are…

• WHEEZY
• SLINKY
• TWITCH
• BUZZ
• WOODY
• ALIEN
• BULLSEYE
• SPANGRAM: TOY STORY

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

A collector’s item for me today, as I got the Spangram first, something I can’t remember doing before. Then again, the theme clue featuring Buzz Lightyear’s singular catchphrase made it obvious what we were looking for.

I am sure there are some people who have never seen a Toy Story movie, for whom today’s puzzle was a test. But for most of us it was as relaxing as a tea party with Mrs Nesbitt – my favorite scene in the entire franchise, possibly because it reminds me of all the times I drank cold tea from a teeny-tiny plastic cup in my role as gullible parent of two daughters.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 20 February, game #354)

• DIAMOND
• GOLD
• FIRST
• PAPER
• FIFTIETH
• SIXTIETH
• SPANGRAM: ANNIVERSARY

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.

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, February 20 (game #620).

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 Connections hints.

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 #621) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• GUITAR
• PICK
• EYEDROPPER
• SOLUTION
• HARVEST
• FIX
• CAN OPENER
• ERASER
• BASEBALL
• GLOVE
• MAGIC WAND
• ANSWER
• REAP
• GATHER
• GOLF CLUB
• LASSO
• REMEDY

NYT Connections today (game #621) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Working it out
• GREEN: Ways to bring in the crops  
• BLUE: Image editing icons
• PURPLE: For lefties too

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 #621) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: WAY OF SOLVING A PROBLEM 
• GREEN: COLLECT, AS FROM AN ORCHARD 
• BLUE: PHOTOSHOP TOOLS 
• PURPLE: OBJECTS THAT MAY BE RIGHT- OR LEFT-HANDED 

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

NYT Connections today (game #621) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #621, are…

• YELLOW: WAY OF SOLVING A PROBLEM ANSWER, FIX, REMEDY, SOLUTION
• GREEN: COLLECT, AS FROM AN ORCHARD GATHER, HARVEST, PICK, REAP
• BLUE: PHOTOSHOP TOOLS ERASER, EYEDROPPER, LASSO, MAGIC WAND
• PURPLE: OBJECTS THAT MAY BE RIGHT- OR LEFT-HANDED BASEBALL GLOVE, CAN OPENER, GOLF CLUB, GUITAR

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 3 mistakes

I used up three Mistakes today trying to wrangle PHOTOSHOP TOOLS (I convinced myself PICK was one of them) and getting that muddled up with a vague idea of “making things vanish” (ERASER, MAGIC WAND, FIX, REMEDY – it sort of made sense).

Seeing as I’ve only used Photoshop a couple of times, I’m pretty pleased to have eventually solved it, but that said all these tools can be found in Paint as well.

Had OBJECTS THAT MAY BE RIGHT- OR LEFT-HANDED also included scissors, I may have got there, but I could have stared at the four items forever without knowing their cunning connection. Congrats if you got it.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, 20 February, game #620)

• YELLOW: ALERT ALARM, FLARE, SIGNAL, SOS
• GREEN: SPEND THE NIGHT (AT) BUNK, CRASH, SLEEP, STAY
• BLUE: ASSOCIATED WITH EARLY MORNING DEW, ROOSTER, SUNRISE, WORM
• PURPLE: COOKIE CUTTER SHAPES IN "SQUID GAME" CIRCLE, STAR, TRIANGLE, UMBRELLA

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.

The data management landscape is undergoing a serious transformation. While traditional relational databases have been the “go-to” data storage tool for some time, their limitations in handling complex, interconnected data have become clear. As the volume and complexity of data continues to increase, organizations are looking for more efficient and agile solutions to extract meaningful insights.

This is where graph databases and NoSQL come into play. Unlike relational databases, which work particularly well with structured data, graph databases are designed to model and store data as interconnected nodes and relationships. Graph databases focus on the relationships within the data and, more importantly, can reveal relationships you might not have known existed. NoSQL also works to think outside the traditional “data box” and enables the storage and querying of data outside the traditional structure found in relational databases. Compared to traditional solutions, these fundamentally different approaches offer significant advantages when dealing with complex queries that span multiple data domains.

Solving complex queries

While relational databases work effectively with simple tables of rows and columns, performance can struggle with more complicated questions that involve combining many different data pieces across several tables. For example, if an organization wants to know the answers to seemingly straightforward questions such as, “Who are all our customers in London? How much did they spend in October, and how did their spending change when the weather was warm?”, multiple tables would need to be joined, leading to lengthy query times and exponential costs.

In contrast, graph databases are designed to handle complex, interconnected questions more efficiently. They can traverse the data and relationships between customers, purchase history, location and weather data, delivering faster and more cost-effective results.

The differences between traditional relational databases become even more evident as the number of tables involved in a query increases. Each additional table deepens the complexity of the relational database query, impacting performance. Graph databases, on the other hand, have a more linear relationship between query complexity and performance, increasing and improving speed.

While newer cloud relational database providers have attempted to mitigate query speed issues by scaling resources to handle tasks, this can lead to high costs. Moving to graph database methods for these complex, multi-table queries is a more cost-effective option in many cases, saving time and money over simply scaling the resources.

Organizations looking to reduce costs will need to weigh the price of having new technology in their portfolio versus significantly reduced query times that reduce operational costs and change the user experience. In many cases, penny-wise, organizations will look to reduce costs by not adding the technology and instead will forgo the order of magnitude operational cost savings in reduced compute.

Supporting AI applications

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) among organizations is placing more pressure on data management systems. Large language models (LLMs) and generative AI (genAI) require vast amounts of interconnected information and data to function effectively. Knowledge graphs – which organize data sources into domains and forge relationships between the different entities – are becoming essential for training and powering these AI models.

The use of knowledge graphs stored as graph databases provides the ideal platform for building and maintaining these knowledge graphs as data complexity continues to grow.

The significant performance improvements to AI applications by graph and NoSQL databases in queries involving multiple levels of relationships make them the better option compared to cloud-based relational databases. This is especially true for organizations with complex data structures and large datasets. For example, e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Walmart can use this process to analyze the interactions of customers with technology and social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Meta to quickly extract behavioral insights from this interconnected data. This information is critical for understanding customer experiences and what action to take to improve them. These companies have all realized the potential of graph databases and currently leverage them for highly performant queries.

Unlocking data potential

As data complexity continues to grow and the demand for real-time insights increases, the move away from traditional relational databases and towards the adoption of graph databases will become vital. By embracing graph databases, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data, reduce costs and time, become more efficient and gain a competitive advantage.

We've featured the best cloud database.

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

France's human rights NGO, Ligue des droits de l'Homme, has accused Apple of violations of privacy, unlawful processing of personal data, and deceptive commercial practice, as first reported by Radio France and Le Monde.

The privacy complaint is based on information provided by a former employee who has supposedly shared proof of the massive collection and processing of Siri's voice recordings without user consent.

The French complaint – filed with the Paris prosecutor on Thursday, February 13, 2025 – comes only weeks after the Big Tech giant agreed to pay $95 million in settlements for a similar lawsuit in California, despite not admitting wrongdoing.

Invasion of privacy and GDPR violations

Frenchman Thomas Le Bonniec began working for Globe Technical Services (GTS) in Cork, Ireland, in the spring of 2019. He was part of a team tasked to improve Siri's multilingual chatbot response by listening, transcribing, and tagging the recordings triggered by Apple's vocal assistant.

"On the very first day, we were told we were going to work on recordings of people talking to their assistant Siri or on recordings captured without their knowledge when the machine was triggered by mistake," Le Bonniec told Radio France.

His job mainly involved checking Siri's transcriptions for accuracy and determining whether they were accidental recordings. During his time at GTS, Le Bonniec said he and his colleagues listened to a considerable number of very private conversations triggered by mistake.

Some in the team, Le Bonniec explained, were also tasked with labeling duties. "They had to compare the keywords spoken during a recording and relate them to the data stored in the devices to which we had access such as contacts, geolocation, music, films, brands, etc. They tagged this personal data with keywords," he added.

As consulted by Radio France's investigation unit, the LDH's complaint accuses Apple's practices of going against GDPR rules on data protection and informed consent.

La @LDH_Fr dépose plainte contre Apple et son assistant vocal "Siri" pour violation de la vie privée, traitement illicite des données personnelles et pratique commerciale trompeuse. Pour lire l'enquête de Stéphane Pair à lire dans son intégralité ⬇️ https://t.co/GFQGaF5oBe pic.twitter.com/3MqY9b5P00February 14, 2025

Talking to a French TV channel, LDH president Nathalie Tehio said the complaint focuses on two main offenses: the invasion of privacy through recordings made without individuals’ consent, and the violation of EU personal data protection law.

"It's not just spied on, it's recorded. There is listening, recording, and even sending," said Tehio. "There is recording without people's knowledge. This is an infraction. On the other hand, there is a violation of the GDPR, that is to say, the fact that we have not given our informed consent for this aspiration of personal data. These are two crimes."

Contacted by TechRadar, an Apple spokesperson pointed out how the French case is only a privacy complaint at the time of writing and no investigation has been opened yet.

Apple also explains it made some changes in 2019 to ensure Siri's compliance with the company's privacy commitment. These include no longer retaining audio recordings of Siri interactions. Users can also opt in or opt out of allowing Siri to improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests.

As per Apple's statement published in January 2025, "Apple has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose. We are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private, and will continue to do so."

What's next?

Whether the LDH complaint will open up a wider investigation into Apple's data handling practices is too early to know for certain.

As mentioned earlier, however, Apple is currently dealing with similar issues back home. The California class action lawsuit, Lopez et al v. Apple Inc, accuses Siri of disclosing private conversations to advertisers.

Despite not confirming such allegations, Apple decided to settle for $95 million "to avoid additional litigation so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019," a company spokesperson told TechRadar at the time.

Considering that, as research from one of the best VPN providers Proton VPN shows, Big Tech needed less than three weeks this year to pay off over $8 billion in 2024 fines, the California lawsuit's settlement seems to be set to pile up among the costs of doing business rather than having a real impact.

• Palo Alto Networks is warning of an ongoing attack against its firewalls
• The threat actors are chaining multiple flaws together
• The goal is to download configuration files

Palo Alto Networks has warned its users of an ongoing attack that chains multiple vulnerabilities together to download configuration files and other sensitive information.

The cybersecurity company warned its users about CVE-2025-0111, a 7.1/10 (high-severity) file read vulnerability plaguing PAN-OS firewalls. This bug allows an authenticated attacker with network access to access the management web interface and read files usually readable by the “nobody” user.

The bug was fixed on February 12, 2025, when Palo Alto released a fix and urged users to apply it.

Diversion

On the same day, the company addressed a separate vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-0108. This one is an authentication bypass in PAN-OS that enables an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the web interface to bypass the authentication otherwise required by the PAN-OS interface, and invoke certain PHP scripts.

Finally, in mid-November 2024, Palo Alto fixed a privilege escalation bug tracked as CVE-20204-9474. Now, researchers are saying that these three are being chained together in ongoing attacks.

"Palo Alto Networks has observed exploit attempts chaining CVE-2025-0108 with CVE-2024-9474 and CVE-2025-0111 on unpatched and unsecured PAN-OS web management interfaces," it was said in the security advisory.

The company did not discuss the details of the attack, but BleepingComputer found that they are being used to download configuration files and other sensitive information.

So far, at least 25 different IP addresses were observed targeting CVE-2025-0108, up from just two a week ago. The top sources of the attacks seem to be the US, Germany, and the Netherlands, although this doesn’t necessarily mean the threat actors are located there.

While the community rushes to apply the patch and mitigate potential risks, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added CVE-2025-0108 to its 'Known Exploited Vulnerabilities' (KEV) catalog, giving users until March 11 to patch up.

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• Microsoft has announced new AI project called Muse in partnership with Xbox Game Studios’ Ninja Theory
• The generative AI model has a "detailed understanding of the 3D game world" that could help game developers
• Muse could also preserve classic games for future generation

Microsoft has unveiled its new generative AI project called Muse which it says will be used to help studios create gameplay and preserve classic titles.

In partnership with Xbox Game Studios’ Ninja Theory and Microsoft Research, Muse was trained on the developer's multiplayer battle arena game, Bleeding Edge, and is said to have a "detailed understanding of the 3D game world" that is aware of game physics and players' controller actions.

"This allows the model to create consistent and diverse gameplay rendered by AI, demonstrating a major step toward generative AI models that can empower game creators," Microsoft said in its announcement post.

The company is already using Muse to develop a real-time playable AI model that is being trained on other first-party games and provided footage showing the model's capabilities in the blog post.

Microsoft also believes it can one day benefit players and developers and even preserve classic games.

"Today, countless classic games tied to aging hardware are no longer playable by most people," it said. "Thanks to this breakthrough, we are exploring the potential for Muse to take older back catalog games from our studios and optimize them for any device.

"We believe this could radically change how we preserve and experience classic games in the future and make them accessible to more players."

Xbox boss Phil Spencer expanded on what this means in the attached announcement video, saying that Muse has the potential to "learn about older games" from older hardware.

"...I think about an opportunity to have models learn about older games, games that were maybe tied to unique pieces of hardware where that engine on that hardware..." Spencer said. "Time will erode the amount of hardware that's out there that can actually play a game.

Spencer also suggested that AI could make older games "portable to any platform where these models could run."

"...We've talked about game preservation as an activity for us, and these models and their ability to learn completely how a game plays, without the necessity of the original engine running on the original hardware, I think opens up a ton of opportunity."

It's still early days, according to Microsoft, but more information about Muse is expected at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2025.

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Apple has arguably delivered a lot of artificial intelligence in the roughly 8 months since it unveiled Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, but it's also failed to deliver the most promising aspect of its AI strategy: a smarter, more useful, and far more aware Siri.

Siri hasn't been entirely left out. It's more conversational but the limits of its capabilities are still painfully apparent. Virtually all difficult questions are handed off to ChatGPT, OpenAI's far more powerful generative chatbot. And it's not even a particularly smooth or fast handover.

When I was on vacation, I started taking pictures of the stars with the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. At one point I realized I couldn't easily identify some of the star clusters and constellations. I captured a screenshot and asked Siri to identify the stars in the image I shared. There was a pause and then Siri told me, "To answer that, I'll need to send this photo to ChatGPT. Should I go ahead?"

While I guess I'm glad Apple has a way to answer these questions, I still can't get over the fact that Apple hasn't figured out how to natively support them. I get that Apple is not a generative, large language model leader like OpenAI or Google (Gemini support has been promised but has yet to arrive), but this feels like it's not even trying.

Okay, perhaps I can get over the fact that Apple Intelligence will never produce one-stop shopping for all my generative AI needs, but my disappointment goes further than that.

(Image credit: Future) The long wait

Apple promised that by this year we'd have all of Apple Intelligence's features including the ones I've been waiting for: Siri's situational awareness (using what it knows about you from the phone) and its ability to see what's going on on your screen, understand it, and act on your behalf based on that knowledge.

Some believed we might see the full realization of this promise with iOS 18.4 but that update appears delayed. No one knows why and Apple certainly isn't talking about it but I'm concerned that this is another by-product of Apple's overly cautious approach.

Yes, I get that Apple is the most privacy-aware and secure consumer platform and ecosystem. A portion of their AI strategy revolves around Private Cloud Compute. But what is that locked-down vapor actually doing for us? I worry that Apple is so afraid of breaking this ironclad security promise that it's falling way behind the AI competition, which happily runs roughshod over most of these privacy and data concerns, and usually does mop-up after the fact when someone cries foul. It is the "move fast and break things" style of development that Facebook (now Meta) once ascribed to and eventually left behind when the company grew up. But that was then and this is now – and by now, I mean the AI revolution. The only way to stay ahead of it is to move as fast as it's developing around you.

AI Time

Apple appears locked in an old model of long-term software upgrade cycles. I won't claim that Apple is working on the old 18-month model, but the promises for Apple Intelligence stretched out over almost a year. It's as if Apple doesn't fully comprehend the AI development pace.

OpenAI and its competitors are not working on 12-, 9-, or 6-month cycles. We're getting significant model updates every three months, and sometimes in bunches. It feels like a free-for-all because it is. I think everyone in this space understands this as a race and it's only Apple that appears stuck near the starting line.

You might argue that Apple has delivered a lot of Apple intelligence since June. There are features like Genmojis, Image Playground, and Writing Tools that vary on the scale of utility. Most are not very useful at all. Why do I need to spend time creating silly images of me or my friends, or whimsical Genmojis featuring animals that I can share in messages? I'd honestly prefer Apple get to work on generative image creation that produces more usable images. Even writing Tools is not something I tap into very often (if at all). and don't get me started on summaries, most of which are word salads of important information, slamming together disparate ideas in a way that makes them more confusing than actionable.

Meanwhile, Siri remains the disappointment it's long been, trailing so far behind Gemini and ChatGPT that it's clear they're not in the same class.

It's time for Apple to stop being so cautious and officially join the fight. I think Siri is still a massive opportunity for on-device intelligence, instant information, and automation. Now it's time for Apple to let go, hurry up, and do its thing.

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• UK healthcare organization HCRG reportedly hit by ransomware attack
• Over 2.5TB of data offered for sale by Medusa ransomware gang
• Latest in a series of ransomware attacks targeting healthcare orgs

A private health and social services provider, the HCRG Care Group, has reportedly suffered a cyberattack at the hands of the Medusa ransomware gang.

The Register reported the gang is threatening to leak the information, which it claims to be stolen internal records. It seems the data was not encrypted by the gang, so the healthcare organization is still operational.

The Medusa gang’s dark web site claims the group has stolen 2.275TB of data, and the information is for sale for £1.6 million ($2 million), or offering to delete data for the same amount. They then threatened to leak the information online if the ransom isn’t paid by February 27.

Ongoing negotiation

Samples of the stolen data have been leaked, and of the 35 pages posted, the information seems to be passport and driving license scans, birth certificates, background checks, and staff rotas. These could put those affected at risk of identity theft, fraud, or social engineering scams.

"We can confirm that we are currently investigating an IT security incident and have recently identified a post on the dark web by a group claiming responsibility," a spokesperson for HCRG told The Register.

"Our team has not observed any suspicious activity since the implementation of immediate containment measures, and we are working with external forensic specialists to investigate the incident. Our services are continuing to operate and safely see patients, and those with appointments or who need to access our services should continue to do so."

Medusa has also offered to delay the release of the information for a fee of £8,000 per day to keep negotiations open.

Healthcare organizations are increasingly the target of cyberattacks, particularly ransomware - and are forced to pay millions in recovery, with the average successful attack costing over $2.5 million to resolve.

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• Google’s Career Dreamer tool is in testing now
• It’ll translate your skills and experiences into job recommendations
• You can even use the AI to generate your personalized Career Identity Statement

Google is trying out a new AI-powered career exploration tool that helps users discover their ideal and optimal career paths based on things like experiences, education, skills and interests.

Describing it as an “experiment,” Grow with Google Founder Lisa Gevelber explained how Career Dreamer can turn a few AI chatbot prompts into fully personalized guidance.

The experiment comes as WEF research reveals that the average worker will hold 12 different jobs over their lifetime – a number that’s expected to rise to 18 (across six career types) among Gen Z workers.

Google tests AI-based Career Dreamer

Gevelber wrote: “The less traditional your career path is, the harder it can be to frame your previous experiences into one cohesive narrative, or to understand what careers align with your particular skills and strengths.”

Career Dreamer is designed to help users identify their own skills and talents to suggest jobs that could be a good fit for them.

Particularly exciting is the Career Identity Statement that the tool will generate – a brief summary of the value a worker can bring and the skills they possess that can be shared in bios or as part of a resume.

Armed with the information and a sense of direction, users can hop on over to Gemini to get help with drafting important recruitment documents such as a cover letter or resume.

Unlike LinkedIn or Indeed, which have also been injecting AI into various parts of their experiences, Google doesn’t directly connect candidates with specific jobs. It’s designed to tackle an earlier stage that those platforms deal with, streamlining career exploration rather than actual applications.

It’s an ideal solution for students, new graduates, people looking to change careers and people who have been out of work for a period of time, including veterans.

The tool is available to try at grow.google/careerdreamer.

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• Ring Outdoor Cam Plus is the first Ring camera with 2K footage at launch
• It also offers improved low-light capability and wide viewing angles
• The camera is weather-resistant, and can be used indoors or outside

Ring has launched a new home security camera that can capture footage at 2K resolution – a big boost from previous cameras, which could only record 1080p at launch. Two of Ring's outdoor security cameras (the Ring Floodlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro) received a software update earlier this year that boosted them to 2K resolution, but this is the first Ring camera that has been able to record at such a high resolution right from day one – and it's one of the most affordable too.

The new Ring Outdoor Cam Plus has an updated camera with a wide field of view and Low-Light Sight, which should provide crisp color footage in conditions where even the best home security cameras may normally struggle – and without the need for a distracting floodlight.

Like the Floodlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro, the Ring Outdoor Cam Plus uses the company's Ring Vision post-processing to improve balance and contrast, and provide motion-smoothing so the video footage looks as clear as possible on your phone.

The Ring Outdoor Cam Plus uses Ring Vision post-processing with motion-smoothing (Image credit: Ring) Fully flexible

The Ring Outdoor Cam Plus has a weatherproof design, and despite its name, can be used indoors or out, making it a high-resolution alternative to the Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen). It doesn't have the physical privacy shield of the Ring Indoor Cam, but it does offer customizable privacy settings and privacy zones, so you can exclude certain areas from monitoring and recording. A blue indicator light shows when the camera is recording.

The new camera is also available with various different power options, including battery, solar, and wired, the latter of which supports 24/7 video recording. The solar panel is sold as a separate accessory, and is supplied with a wall mounting that offers 180 degrees of tilt. The camera itself can be mounted on a wall, or on a ceiling thanks to its flexible fittings.

You can use the Ring Outdoor Cam Plus without a subscription to watch live footage on your phone, but as with all Ring video doorbells and security cameras, some features (such as package detection) are exclusive to Ring Home members. There are three different subscription levels to choose from, depending on how many Ring devices you have and which features are most important to you. For more details, check out our guide do I need a Ring subscription.

The Ring Outdoor Cam Plus is available to pre-order now from Amazon for $99.99 / £99.99, and should start shipping next month. At the time of writing, Australian prices have yet to be confirmed.

We're hoping to test the Ring Outdoor Cam Plus ourselves very soon, and bring you a full review so you can see how it compares to the company's other security cameras, and those from rivals like Blink and Wyze.

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• Nvidia's RTX 5050 GPU has been spotted in gaming laptops alongside the RTX 5060
• Incoming HP Victus 15 notebooks will feature these Blackwell GPUs
• The RTX 5050 is likely to be a laptop-only graphics card, as with the previous Lovelace generation

Away from the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, and the continued stock woes around these GPUs, we've had another sighting of the RTX 5050 (and 5060) at the other end of the Blackwell line-up.

In this case, though, these are mobile graphics cards for notebooks, not desktop models.

VideoCardz managed to get hold of a specifications sheet for HP's Victus 15 (model FA2) gaming laptops which reveals that these devices will feature Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5050.

This appears to confirm the existence of these graphics cards, but as ever, we must be cautious around leaked material which may turn out to be using outdated information (or even be faked).

The new Victus 15 spec also features Intel's 13th-generation CPUs, complementing the Blackwell laptop GPUs with enough processing power for good performance. However, this is in contrast to the higher-end RTX 5090 and RTX 5080-powered laptops, which will use some of Intel's newer Core Ultra processors.

Note that both the RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 GPUs have not been officially confirmed by Nvidia (for desktop PCs, or laptops), and they were missing from the Blackwell announcements made at CES 2025.

It seems likely that they're coming at some point, of course, but the RTX 5050 will probably be a laptop-only GPU, based on the rumors we've heard thus far. (They are all about the mobile part, and there's nothing really to suggest a desktop graphics card - though that doesn't rule out the possibility).

(Image credit: Future) The RTX 5050 GPU has a trump card in DLSS 4

Considering the RTX 5050's (which I reiterate isn't officially confirmed by Nvidia) position as the lowest tier option for a Blackwell laptop GPU, it's going to face some stiff competition. Particularly from AMD's Strix Halo APUs, which pack some serious grunt with their integrated graphics for gaming laptops (or handhelds).

However, Nvidia does have a secret weapon here - namely DLSS 4, which will certainly come in handy to give the RTX 5050 some more oomph. I've already highlighted how much of a game changer the upscaling tech is, improved by leaps and bounds thanks to its new transformer model and Multi Frame Generation (MFG), which enhance image stability and quality, and boost frame rates respectively. (With PC games that support the tech, of course).

That's not to say that the RTX 5050 won't perform well enough at a resolution like 1080p, but reports suggest it will only use 8GB of VRAM, which is now looking shaky for AAA games today (and certainly in the future). The old Frame Generation tech introduced with RTX 4000 GPUs had ghosting issues coupled with input latency headaches - these drawbacks have both been improved with MFG.

For those on a budget, the RTX 5060 and RTX 5050-powered HP Victus 15 gaming laptops may end up being a reasonable option.

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• A US Army soldier is facing charges linked to the Snowflake hack
• The accused faces $500,000 in fines and 20 years behind bars
• The soldier intends to plead guilty to all charges

A US army soldier accused of two counts of unlawfully transferring confidential phone records has said he intends to plead guilty.

The soldier attempted to “knowingly and intentionally sell and transfer, and attempt to sell and transfer, confidential phone records,” US prosecutors said [PDF].

Cameron John Wagenius, the accused, informed a federal court in Seattle of his plea on Wednesday following his arrest in January 2025. Prosecutors have also found links between Wagenius’ attacks against AT&T and Verizon, with the 2024 Snowflake hack that saw upwards of 150 accounts compromised.

Up to 10 years in prison

Wagenius faces a fine of up to $250,000 and a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for each of the two counts, according to documents filed by his lawyer. Wagenius’ involvement in the Snowflake hacks, alongside Connor Moucka and John Binns, was confirmed by prosecutors in January, who linked methods used the AT&T and Verizon attacks to the Snowflake account breaches.

U.S. attorney Tessa Gorman said the breaches “arise from the same computer intrusion and extortion and include some of the same stolen victim information.” The attack against Snowflake was among the worst cyberattacks of 2024, with corporate accounts linked to AT&T, Santander, and Ticketmaster compromised, with Moucka and Binns reportedly making upwards of $2 million through extortion.

In the underground world, Wagenius used the pseudonym ‘Kiberphant0m’, the same alias that threatened to leak sensitive US government call logs when one of his co-conspirators in the Snowflake attack was arrested.

Kiberphant0m demanded comms with AT&T, writing on a dark web forum that, “In the event you do not reach out to us, [AT&T], all presidential government call logs will be leaked. You don’t think we don’t have plans in the event of an arrest? Think again.”

Moucka, who was arrested in Canada, and Binns, who was arrested in Turkey, are both awaiting extradition to the US, where they face 20 counts of various crimes, including conspiracy, computer fraud and abuse, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

Via TheRegister

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Okay, I know I’ve probably upset a bunch of people with that headline. If you’ve made it this far and didn’t just click this article to copy the URL and immediately post it to Reddit with a scathing remark about the low IQ of tech journalists, thanks for giving me a chance. I’m serious, though: it’s long past time for my DisplayPort cables to receive an honorable discharge.

Let me give you some context: I’ve been a gamer for decades, and I’ve seen plenty of display connection standards come and go. I’ve played games over DVI, VGA, SCART, the works. I’ve still got a box in my cupboard with a dusty collection of cables that may or may not be supported by my current hardware selection. These days, I primarily play on PC, and that generally means that it’s DisplayPort or bust.

I want to be clear: I don’t hate DisplayPort. In fact, it’s a solid connection standard for gaming with a good physical connector - the simple button-controlled clasp is far less annoying than the twin thumbscrews found on VGA and DVI cables, and for a long time, DisplayPort was the de facto best option for PC gaming, offering superior resolution and refresh rate support compared to the more readily accessible HDMI. But with the dawn of HDMI 2.2 this year, that gap has finally closed, and I’m left wondering if we really need DisplayPort anymore.

Cables vs interfaces

I have to make one key point of order here. I’m not proposing that we do away with DisplayPort as a digital display interface, only that we kill off the physical pinout connector. For the uninitiated, this is an unclear but vital distinction; DisplayPort’s digital interface protocol is integrated with Thunderbolt cables to deliver audio and video data over a USB-C connection, and that’s totally fine. I’m very pro-USB-C (despite my misgivings about the new Mac Mini), and I’m very happy to see it appearing on more monitors as a connection option alongside more conventional ports like DP and HDMI.

HDMI and USB-C are already more widespread, and at this point, it feels like it's only GPU manufacturers who are doggedly clinging to DisplayPort - even though HDMI 2.2 can now handle high-end stuff like 16K resolutions and 96Gbps bandwidth (actually faster than DP 2.1’s 80Gbps). Every new GPU from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel invariably comes with three DP ports and a single HDMI these days - but why?

Bad. Ugly. Four USB-C ports would look so much nicer. (Image credit: Future)

If you’ve read any of my previous work on TechRadar, you might have clocked that I’m a fierce decrier of e-waste and poor sustainability practices in tech. That hasn’t changed; I was over the moon to see Apple finally ditch Lightning connectors and unify under the glorious banner of USB-C. Industry bodies like the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) and the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) have been hard at work standardizing connection formats for years, and that’s an extremely good thing. It reduces e-waste, prevents closed tech ecosystems, and generally makes our lives easier.

A beautiful utopian future?

In fact, why don’t we go one step further, and get rid of HDMI too? I’ve been complaining for years about laptops ditching HDMI video output and USB-A in favor of a handful of USB-C ports and nothing else, but what if USB-C could actually do everything, without the need for a connection hub? What if a single cable could handle full connectivity, covering everything from audio and video to file transfers and power delivery?

Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself, but the path to unification is taken in gradual steps. If HDMI 2.2 means that there’s no longer a meaningful difference between the performance capabilities of HDMI and DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C cables can handle the audio-video requirements of either interface, why shouldn’t we just get rid of the chaff and consolidate everything under a single physical connection standard? I could certainly stop whining about every new ultrabook only coming with USB-C ports then.

I hate to see a laptop with a port selection that begins and ends with USB-C, but maybe I don't need to. (Image credit: Future)

I’ve been building PCs for more than a decade now, and while I don’t think the internal processes of that are ever going to be simplified to this level, the external cable situation has so much room for improvement. I’m not going to share a photo of it because I’m embarrassed by how ugly it looks, but the custom desktop in my home office has a veritable mess of cables coming out the back of it, and I don’t even want to bring up my Box Of Cable Shame again (although I realize that I just did). Can we not make things simpler?

So here’s my proposal, GPU makers. You’re the ones really holding us back now. It’s time to let go of DisplayPort, make nice with the monitor brands taking steps to implement Thunderbolt connectivity in their products, and lead us forward into a glorious USB-C future. Nothing lasts forever; VGA and DVI had to go, and now it's DisplayPort's time. Make it so.

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As March dawns on us, that can only mean one thing; another wave of movies and shows are lined up to leave Hulu in March 2025. Though we love Hulu and uphold it as one of the best streaming services, this is its slight downside however, it makes up for it by adding more movies and shows than what it subtracts.

Luckily the best Hulu movies and best Hulu shows are more often than not untouched, and the same goes for the titles leaving Hulu in March 2025. Movies bear the brunt of those getting the chop and, thankfully, they're not the big blockbuster titles we love to stream. Instead, Hulu is getting rid of lesser-known titles with a large majority of them having rather poor Rotten Tomatoes scores. By the sounds of it, Hulu is pulling a Marie Condo and having a major clear-out of titles that simply no longer spark joy.

Everything leaving Hulu in March 2025

Leaving on March 1

Rubikon (movie)

Leaving on March 2

Simulant (movie)

Leaving on March 3

Benedetta (movie)

Leaving on March 4

Lantern’s Lane (movie)

Leaving on March 5

Mark, Mary & Some Other People (movie)

Leaving on March 6

97 Minutes (movie)
Rabbit Academy: Mission Eggpossible (movie)

Leaving on March 7

India Sweets and Spices (movie)

Leaving on March 11

Multiverse (movie)

Leaving on March 14

Bad Therapy (movie)
Bayou Caviar (movie)
Changeland (movie)
Flux Gourmet (movie)
Wetlands (movie)
You Can’t Kill Meme (movie)
You Laugh But It’s True (movie)

Leaving on March 15

Official Competition (movie)

Leaving on March 16

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (movie)

Leaving on March 18

Captains of Za’atari (movie)
Manifest West (movie)

Leaving on March 22

Section 8 (movie)

Leaving on March 24

Arts, Beats & Lyrics (documentary)

Leaving on March 25

American Siege (movie)
Mass (movie)

Leaving on March 31

Insomnium (movie)
Night Raiders (movie)
Snakehead (movie)

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• Canon PowerShot V1 quietly announced on the Canon Japan website
• It features an all-new 22.3MP sensor that's effectively Micro Four Thirds size, and a 16-50mm F2.8-4.5 lens
• Its price converted from Japanese Yen is roughly $990 / £785 / AU$1,550

We've been following rumors of an exciting new Canon compact camera for some time, and that camera – the PowerShot V1 – has just been unveiled on the Canon Japan website.

Canon's latest PowerShot is primarily a vlogging compact camera, and on paper it looks like a Sony ZV-1 II-beating rival. It features a 16-50mm F2.8-4.5 lens and new stabilized 22.3MP sensor that's essentially the same size as Micro Four Thirds, save for its narrower 3:2 aspect ratio.

Users are equipped with 4K / 30p video and Canon's C-Log color profile, or 4K /60p with a heavy 1.4x crop – but that latter shouldn't be much of an issue considering the ultra-wide perspective of the 3.1x optical zoom lens.

There's also a built-in 3-stop ND filter, 5EV in-body image stabilization, mic and headphones ports, plus record times with a heat limit that starts at 25 minutes, but which can be extended to unlimited with the built-in cooling fan in action.

Photographers won't find features such as a viewfinder or built-in flash, but that doesn't mean they should ignore the PowerShot V1, because it has some incredibly powerful photo features. These includes burst shooting at rates of up to 15fps with the mechanical shutter (that's incredibly fast – only a handful of cameras can go that fast using a mechanical shutter), or up to 30fps with the electronic shutter.

Overall, the PowerShot V1 has a solid feature-set squeezed into a compact body with comfortable-looking hand grip, and here's where I think it'll be a hit: it's likely list price. At the time of writing, we only have the 148,500 Japanese Yen price, which converts to around $990 / £785 / AU$1,550 – that's pretty competitive considering the features on board.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Canon)Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Canon)Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Canon)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Canon) Could the Canon Powershot V1 be the one compact camera to rule them all?

From the Sony ZV-1 II compact to the gimbal stabilized DJI Osmo Pocket 3 and the Fujifilm XM-5 / Nikon Z30 mirrorless cameras, there's no shortage of sub $1,000 vlogging cameras. And it's into this market that the Canon PowerShot V1 steps in.

We haven't tested the feature-stacked PowerShot V1 yet – it is set for an April / May 2025 launch – but on paper it looks super impressive, and it's likely to enter the market at an enticing price point that I expect to make it very popular.

It's stabilized sensor is larger than the 1-inch type used by Sony and DJI rivals, while users still enjoy the convenience of a built-in lens that you don't get with mirrorless cameras such as the Nikon Z30.

And its image-making capabilities are supported by what looks like a complete user experience for video; in-body image stabilization rated up to 5EV, a built-in ND filter, cooling fan, mic and headphone ports and a hotshoe for accessories such as external flashguns.

At 15oz / 426g with card and battery inserted, the PowerShot V1 is a little weightier than I expected, but it's the complete package idea for video-first users who also want a highly competent photography tool.

We'll be sure to run our expert in-depth review as soon as the camera is available to develop our verdict, but even at this early stage the PowerShot V1 looks set to trouble our best vlogging cameras guide.

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• Zoom's new Workflow Automation looks to save you time on repetitive tasks
• It won’t cost you any more, and is available now
• Zoom AI now alsosupports even more languages

Zoom has lifted the wraps off a new AI-powered tool designed to assist workers with repetitive and administrative work, freeing them up more time to produce meaningful outcomes.

The new Workflow Automation service centers around no-code automation templates that users can select and tweak to get certain tasks done for them, promising support for third-party apps as well as the company’s own software.

Head of Team Chat, Wei Li, described the feature as easy to use for workers who aren’t technically minded, adding: “Empowering people with AI to help them get more done is core to what we do at Zoom.”

Zoom on AI-powered productivity software

In its announcement, Zoom described how Workflow Automation could be used to generate summaries after meetings, and have that summary added directly into a Zoom Doc, Google Doc or Word document, before automatically sharing that document in a Team Chat channel, all without the involvement or direction of a worker (beyond the initial setup).

Zoom slated its competitors for requiring workers to possess a certain amount of technical knowledge, adding that its no-code technology can be used by virtually anyone for pretty significant productivity boosts.

At the same time, the California-based company previously known for its video conferencing software – which now wants to be known for its AI-enhance Workplace software – added new features to its AI Companion tool.

With hybrid working still commonplace in many industries, companion audi in Zoom Rooms promises to enhance the experience by using workers’ individual laptops as additional microphones for clearer audio, rather than requiring companies to invest in multiple in-room mics.

Zoom is also adding a YouTube app within Zoom Meetings “soon,” promising native and lag-free video sharing for each individual participant rather than a cumbersome screen sharing experience.

Furthermore, support for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Indonesian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese and Dutch (Netherlands) have all been added to extend the company’s reach into many of the world’s most populous countries.

Paying Zoom subscribers can now access Workflow Automation at no additional cost with versions 6.3.10 and above of the desktop app.

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