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Full spoilers follow for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man season 1 episodes 1 and 2.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (YFNSM) has finally made its debut on Disney Plus. The first two episodes of the webslinger's latest animated adventure were released on January 29, and, surprising no one, they're packed with Spidey-based Easter eggs and wider Marvel references – 42 to be exact.

Some are easier to spot than others, so you might not have found all of them yet. Luckily for you, I did, so you can use this handy guide to track down the ones that you probably missed. I've put them in chronological order, too, so you don't need to jump ahead or rewind each episode.

Full spoilers follow for the show's two-episode premiere, so turn back now if you haven't streamed them yet. Better yet, read my review of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to see if it's worth watching, check out both episodes, and then come back to see if you found every Spider-Man and/or Marvel secret hiding in plain sight.

Episode 1 – 'Amazing Fantasy'

YFNSM opens with an ode to Spider-Man's MCU introduction in Captain America: Civil War (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney Plus)

• Queens, New York – The borough that Peter Parker hails from. Its name appears on the screen in bold, white lettering as soon as YFNSM begins. It's also a throwback to the same giant 'QUEENS' location card that's shown on the screen prior to Peter's introduction in 2016's Captain America: Civil War movie.
• Avengers Tower – the building formerly known as Stark Tower can be seen in YFNSM's very first scene. Indeed, you can't miss the iconic skyscraper, which stands tall among its brethren on the Manhattan skyline.
• Amazing Adult Fantasy – don't worry, Peter Parker didn't fall asleep while reading an adult-themed magazine! He does wake up, though, with his copy of his face when Aunt May calls him to tell him he'll be late for school. For the uninitiated: this magazine's title is a play on Marvel's real-life Amazing Fantasy comic book series. Peter and his legendary superhero alias made their debuts in Amazing Fantasy #15 in June 1962, hence the call-back here.
• Iron Man Car Mirror Toy – An Iron Man accessory can be seen hanging from the rear-view mirror of Aunt May's car as she drives Peter to school.
• Midtown High – This is the science and technology school that Peter attends in the comics. In YFNSM, it's his first day – it's known as Orientation Day in the US – attending this prestigious institution. It also ends up being his final day at the school because, well...
• Alien Symbiote – ...No sooner do Peter and Aunt May arrive at Midtown High, than it's attacked by a symbiote that looks a lot like Shathra (also known as Spider-Wasp), a Spider-Man villain who dwells in the Astral Plane in Marvel's source material. The symbiote itself is a call-back to the parasitic lifeform that originally bonds to Peter in the comics and, later, finds a new host in Eddie Brock and becomes Venom. There are other symbiotes, but Venom is the most iconic of the bunch.
• Doctor Strange – Just as he did in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Sorcerer Supreme has a small supporting role in YFNSM's first episode. He battles the aforementioned symbiote, rescues some of Midtown High's students from becoming the alien's latest meal, and actually has a role in the creation of Spider-Man in this universe. His sentient Cloak of Levitation, Eye of Agamatto/the Time Stone as well as numerous Mystic Arts spells, including Astral Projection and the so-called Impenetrable Shield of Seraphim, also make appearances.
• Nico Minoru – Peter's fellow Midtown High freshman, Nico is saved by her soon-to-be bestie from being attacked by the symbiote creature. In the comics, Nico is a member of a teen group called the Runaways, possesses supernatural abilities, and is the child of parents who – spoiler – are supervillains. It seems that she has (or will have) superpowers in YFNSM, too, as her purple necklace is a reference to the Staff of One, a powerful artefact that she can summon and wield if she bleeds.
• Radioactive spider – emerging from the same inter-dimensional portal that Strange and the symbiote did, this experimented-on arachnid is – surprise surprise – the creature that bites Peter and imbues him with superhuman abilities.

I see you, Scarlet Spider suit... (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney Plus)

• Iconic Spider-Man Theme Song – The tune that plays during YFNSM's title sequence, which is called Neighbor Like Me, references the classic Spider-Man theme song from the wallcrawler's 1960s animated series. Indeed, parts of that ditty have been remixed and incorporated into YFNSM's intro track, including famous lines like "there goes the Spider-Man!".
• Black Spider-Man Suit – briefly seen during YFNSM's title sequence, this is a call-back to Spidey's symbiote costume, which he acquires during the 1984 Secret Wars comic series after his first encounter with the alien symbiote.
• Tobey Maguire's Wallcrawling Homage – The first of many throwbacks to Spider-Man's various live-action films (read our guide on how to watch the Spider-Man movies in order while you're here), YFNSM's title sequence shows this reality's Peter crawling up the side of a building. This is a reference to Tobey Maguire's take on the character doing exactly the same thing in his first outing as the webslinger in 2002.
• Scarlet Spider Suit – One of many Spider-Man costumes that can be glimpsed during the intro sequence. This costume was worn by Ben Reilly, one of Spider-Man's clones in the comics, who goes on to become crimefighter himself, using the superhero alias Scarlet Spider.
• The legendary 'Thwip!' – one of Spider-Man's most recognizable sound effects, this literary depiction of Spidey's webshooters, well, shooting webs has long appeared in Marvel comics and the hero's many animated projects.
• Scorpion/Mack Gargan – One of Spider-Man's seemingly infinite number of enemies, Mack Gargan, who adopts the supervillain alias Scorpion, is also one of his oldest foes. He can be seen in the title sequence as the silhouetted figure that Parker squares up to.
• Amazing Fantasy, Indeed – Not content with referencing Spidey's comic book debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 via the previously mentioned magazine, YFNSM also recreates that real-world comic's cover art at the end of episode 1's title sequence. Here, it shows Spidey rescuing Harry Osborn (more on him next), but the actual cover page shows the wallcrawler apprehending a criminal.
• Harry Osborn – the son of Oscorp CEO Norman Osborn and another of Spidey's villains, known as Hobgoblin. Harry is rescued by Spider-Man from a group of thugs early on in Amazing Fantasy.
• Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Quote – Not content with naming Spidey's newest animated show after one of his many pseudonyms, Marvel also references it in episode 1. Peter calls himself 'Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man' after he rescues Harry.

"Bring me pictures of Spider-Man!" (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney Plus)

• Rockford Bales High School – The institution that Peter and Nico are forced to attend, after the symbiote's Midtown High attack causes extensive damage to it. In the comics, it's another New York City-based school, but one that prioritizes athletic prowess over science and technology.
• Pearl Pangan – Peter's childhood crush and fellow Rockford Bales student in YFNSM, Pearl is actually another superhero in Marvel's source material. She's called Wave, and acquires water manipulation abilities after she's exposed to an experimental liquid. She doesn't have superpowers in this Disney Plus show, but she is a talented swimmer, which honors her Olympic swimming roots from the comic book giant's literary works.
• Spider-Man's Classic Suit – Peter can be seen doodling mock-ups of his ideal super suit during a school class. Shocking no-one, it's a carbon copy of the hero's iconic original costume, complete with web wings, red and blue coloring, and even his original, chest-based Spider-Man logo.
• Do a flip, Klev! – As Spider-Man pursues a van driven by criminals through New York's streets, he's seen jumping over a man wearing a light-blue shirt. This is Klev, the hotdog-loving character played by Severance star Zach Cherry, who asked the webslinger to do a backflip in 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• A Bus Rescue – In a near-identical recreation of a scene depicted in Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man stops a van driven by criminals from T-boning a bus load of people. It's the same phone-based sequence that Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark shows to Tom Holland's wallcrawler in the apartment that the latter shares with Aunt May when Stark is trying to recruit new heroes to take his side over the Sokovia Accords. I'm also pretty sure that an animated version of the late Stan Lee is one of the bus passengers, but I could be wrong.
• Lonnie Lincoln – Another of Peter's fellow Rockford Bales pupils, and Pearl's boyfriend. In the comics, Lincoln is the civilian name of another Spidey villain named Tombstone, whose powers include superhuman strength and impenetrable skin. He's also the leader of a crime gang that operates on 110th Street. Here, though, he's positioned as a more sympathetic individual, so it'll be interesting to see if he becomes one of Peter's enemies in future episodes.
• The Daily Bugle – A copy of the print paper that's synonymous with Spider-Man can be seen on a table in the Lincoln family's home. In the comics, Peter becomes a photographer for the news outlet, working under the iconic J. Jonah Jameson, i.e., one of Spidey's fiercest critics.
• Pizza Time – The name of the pizza restaurant that's robbed by a desperate woman towards the end of episode 1. This is a reference to the 'It's Pizza Time!' line (it's since become one of many Spidey-based memes) that Maguire's Peter Parker utters in 2004's Spider-Man 2 (see where it ranks in our best Spider-Man movies guide while you're here) when he's a pizza delivery driver.
• Norman Obsorn – The aforementioned boss of Oscorp and one of Spider-Man's most legendary foes. Here, though, Osborn is being positioned as mentor figure to Peter in much the same way that Downey Jr's Stark was to Holland's Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Episode 2 – 'The Parker Luck'

YFNSM is the start of an *ahem* Brand New Day for Marvel's legendary webslinger (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney Plus)

• A Brand New Day – Like episode 1, YFNSM's second chapter pays tribute to another Spider-Man comic series, albeit one that was a follow-up to Marvel Comics' extremely divisive 'One More Day' storyline. Episode 2's cover art pays tribute to the Brand New Day literary series, with its specific homage recreating the front cover to The Amazing Spider-Man #458.
• Roxxon Oil Company – Mentioned by Nico while she's chatting with Peter during a Rockford Bales American Football match. In the comics, Roxxon is a malicious energy megacorporation that plays both sides in its bid to achieve political and economic power.
• Johnathan Gallo – An Oscorp security guard in YFNSM, Gallo is the civilian identity of a superhero named Ricochet in Marvel's source material. Fun fact: Ricochet was one of four pseudonyms used by Peter Parker after he's accused of murdering someone during Spidey's Identity Crisis comic book series. The superhero alias is later given to Gallo by another hero called Black Marvel.
• Jeanne Foucault – One of Peter's fellow Oscorp interns, this character will be familiar to some Marvel readers. Indeed, she's also a vigilante in the comics, who goes by the name Finesse. Like Taskmaster, she's able to mimic other superpowered beings' movements because, well, she's actually Taskmaster's biological daughter.
• Asha – A transfer student from Wakanda in YFNSM, but yet another supporting character who ends up with superpowers in Marvel literature. She can absorb light and use it to turn invisible or fire laser beams at her foes.
• Amadeus Cho – The third and final (not to mention cocky) Oscorp intern, Cho initially succeeds Bruce Banner as The Hulk in the comics before adopting the new alias Brawn. Like Jennifer Walers/She-Hulk, he retains his personality when he transforms into the Mean Green Machine.
• Bentley Wittman – An Oscorp scientist who reluctantly oversees Osborn's intern program at Oscorp. That's a marked departure from who he is in the comics – indeed, Wittman is actually a villain called The Wizard (sometimes he's referred to as The Wingless Wizard, though) who uses a power suit to commit crimes. He's run into the Avengers, S.H.I.E.LD, and The Fantastic Four throughout Marvel history.

This has to be a reference to Doc Ock, right? (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney Plus)

• Hawkeye – Marvel's most-famous archer needs no introduction, but he's referenced by Wittman when he sarcastically scolds Peter as part of the intern group's first-ever session.
• Doctor Karla Connors – A gender- and race-swapped version of Doctor Kurt Connors, aka another of Spidey's most iconic villains in The Lizard. Here, Connors is Peter's experienced research partner as part of the Oscorp intern program.
• Stark ARC Reactor – The device that kept Tony Stark alive and, until Iron Man 3, was used to power his suits of armor. This item is mentioned in passing by Peter as he and Connors begin work on creating a new self-sustaining generator.
• Crusher Hogan – A wrestler who's name-checked in a news bulletin as Peter and his fellow interns watch some TV during a break at Oscorp Tower. Hogan is the individual that Peter Parker fights and defeats – in the comics and 2002's Spider-Man – to test his newfound superhuman abilities.
• Butane – A pyromaniac who Spidey battles towards the end of episode 2. In YFNSM, he's a tech-based villain but, per Marvel Comics, he's an unnamed individual whose entire body is transformed into a fiery individual by a British mutant (called James Jaspers) who possesses reality-warping powers.
• Mark of the Octopus – After Spider-Man defeats Butane, he notices a peculiar symbol that's been stamped onto his foe's weaponry. To the untrained eye, it looks like the symbol used to depict infinity. However, look closer and it appears to be two 'O's joined in close proximity. Who's the only Spider-Man foe whose first name and surname begin with that letter? Otto Octavius, aka Doc Ock! Don't be surprised, then, if he appears at some point this season.
• On Your Left, Cap – After Peter is called into Norman Osborn's office before 'The Parker Luck' ends, a portrait of Captain America posing for a picture with Osborn can be seen on the wall to Peter's left-hand side.
• Wakanda Forever – A photograph or painting of Osborn standing alongside Wakanda's late monarch in King T'Chaka is hanging on the wall next to the Cap portrait, too.

I'm pretty confident that's all of YFNSM episodes 1 and 2's Easter eggs. If I missed any, though, let me know in the comments! Otherwise, read more of my YFNSM coverage via the links below.

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The explosion of AI over the past two years has tipped the scales on a long-developing paradigm shift: technology is no longer merely another tool to support business objectives, but a fundamental driver of business value. To maximize this value and join the AI revolution, organizations need an IT foundation that’s purposefully designed.

For many organizations, this means rethinking their hybrid, multicloud IT strategy and shifting from a piecemeal hybrid-by-default architecture to one that’s intentionally structured to achieve key business priorities and maximize return on investment (ROI): hybrid-by-design. By incrementally adopting an intentional approach to hybrid cloud architecture across technology, platforms, processes and people, organizations can help achieve their business priorities and desired outcomes. In contrast, organizations who maintain the status quo are poised to risk repeating patterns of sluggish, siloed technology adoption while their competitors speed ahead.

From default to design

The default approach to adopting new enterprise technology is often sporadic with different departments acting independently and shifting workloads between clouds, on-premises and edge servers in search of quick wins. Without an overarching strategy, cloud transformation efforts largely fail to meet expectations: an HFS research report found less than one-third of cloud transformations are realized on time and on budget, and just one-fourth could demonstrate a hard return on investment. In chasing shiny new technologies, organizations often accumulate unrealized implementations, leading to tech debt—where technology investments become liabilities hindering agility and scalability.

A hybrid-by-default approach not only leads to inefficient budgeting and lower ROI, it also creates a siloed landscape and unchecked sprawl that hinder organizations from creating the flexibility and scalability needed to address current and future business demands—such as harnessing generative AI.

If this sounds like your enterprise, you’re not alone: in a recent study, only 16 percent of surveyed executives expressed strong confidence that their cloud and data capabilities are fully prepared to support generative AI investments in 2024. To adapt, organizations must shift from a reactive approach where technology dictates business limitations to a proactive architecture designed to meet new business and customer demands, a changing technology landscape, and new processes and skilling requirements.

Driven by an organization’s key business objectives, hybrid by design guides the transformation journey with intentionality and consistency. It amplifies the priority, speed and scale of value creation across the organization, with a user-centric approach at its core. It ensures seamless data flow and collaboration by harmonizing systems, as needed, across the architecture. And it enhances agility and innovation, where needed, through unification across multiple hybrid cloud environments. This intentional approach will ultimately lead to better business outcomes and a higher ROI.

Patterns of alignment

Based on conversations with a wide range of companies, I’ve identified five common patterns in organizations that operate successful hybrid-by-design strategies: they have a product-centric mindset for enabling business priorities, build an intentional architecture for core competencies, create consistent development and operational experiences across platforms, empower product teams, and harness the power of data and scale generative AI.

The first two patterns involve aligning IT and the business to define key business priorities, then determining how products and services will support these priorities and determining their order of importance to the business. Without a clear articulation of the key business priorities, stakeholder buy-in and a product-centric approach, a hybrid-by-design redesign is impossible.

Patterns of action

Building on these business and product objectives, successful companies also develop a strategic, consistent technology architecture to accelerate and scale business competencies. This architecture should standardize a target environment with deliberate choices on elements like the containerization and data layers and security, while also clearly distinguishing between technology components and the organizational and operational model components.

This process should be approached gradually: rather than tackling the entire cloud ecosystem at once, focus resources on high-leverage areas first and then expand to additional technologies that support the business case.

Even the most brilliantly designed technology implementations will fail if not properly utilized. This leads to another key trait of well executed hybrid-by-design strategies: team empowerment. Successful companies implement training to cultivate cloud-native behavior among their employees, and even reorganize business and IT teams to encourage stronger collaboration.

As competency within the hybrid-by-design approach grows, companies can begin adopting of the final identified pattern: forward-looking experimentation, such as applying generative AI to business processes. With the foundational structures in place, this experimentation will align more naturally with business needs, leading to more immediate, tangible results and the ability to scale.

Taking the leap

A redesign of this scope is never comfortable. With AI integration and adoption now an absolute mandate, enterprises no longer have a choice. It’s necessary to recalibrate transformation programs to better align to business imperatives and priorities, in addition to understanding how generative AI can amplify the value of cloud and accelerate digital transformation. Hybrid by design seeks to accomplish this goal.

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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

• Some users are reporting a durability issue with the Google Pixel 9 Pro
• The phone's iconic camera bar is seemingly separating from the rear panel
• We've reached out to Google for comment

User reports indicate that the Google Pixel 9 Pro may have a design flaw relating to the iconic camera bar mounted on its rear panel.

Multiple users have reported issues and durability concerns over the Google Pixel 9 Pro’s camera bar, which in the most extreme cases is literally peeling away from the rest of the phone.

In a now-deleted post to r/pixel_phones, Reddit user MohiFlaz shared images that clearly show the Pixel 9 Pro camera bar separating from the phone’s chassis.

PhoneArena recounts that MohiFlaz stated in the original post that they had been careful with the phone, never dropping it and keeping it “in a case with a screen protector since hour one of ownership.”

Reddit user MohiFlaz's Google Pixel 9 Pro device (Image credit: Reddit / MohiFlaz)

The poster also said that they had contacted Google for support, but had been offered no help due to the phone being more than 90 days old.

This seems to contradict Google’s own one-year limited warranty, which covers defective units for repair or replacement beyond the initial 15-day return window, a response which has garnered significant criticism online.

MohiFlaz has seemingly since deleted their Reddit account.

Not the first time

As Android Central notes, this isn’t the only time the r/pixel_phones subreddit has seen discourse about this issue. Back in October 2024, user lakhip shared a post, with images, detailing how the camera bar on their Google Pixel 9 Pro had begun to lift on the right side. Luckily, the user was able to get a replacement.

It’s worth remembering that complaints online typically represent a minority of users, and there's no suggestion that this issue is particularly widespread.

In fact, we were so impressed by the Pixel 9 Pro during testing that we crowned it our phone of the year for 2024 and gave it a spot on our list of the best phones, which makes these reports of camera-bar breakage all the more concerning.

We’ve reached out to Google for comment on this issue and will update this article with any new information. Hopefully, this is just a bump in the road for one of the best Android phones on the market.

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• A new mod gives Steam Deck users access to AMD's FSR 3 frame generation
• The mod works by replacing Nvidia's DLSS DLL with AMD's FSR 3.1 DLL
• It's now available to download for free via GitHub

Among the catalog of handheld gaming PCs now on the market, the Steam Deck has arguably kept its place as the most popular device. This is mostly due to its affordability and SteamOS's ease of use, despite having weaker processors than the likes of the Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go - but things are about to change performance-wise.

Spotted by Wccftech, a new Decky Loader (a program used for customizing menus and more) plugin called 'Decky Framegen' is now available to download via GitHub, which gives Steam Deck users access to AMD's FSR 3 frame generation feature, Fluid Motion Frames. The plugin replaces Nvidia's DLSS DLL with FSR 3.1's DLL (in the same manner as the DLSS to FSR mod on desktop PCs).

As frame generation has already demonstrated on other handhelds like the ROG Ally X, this has the potential to significantly amplify performance across multiple games on the Steam Deck - this is massive for most users, as plenty of demanding AAA games struggle to push above the 30 to 40 fps range on the Deck (without aggressive upscaling involved). The main handicaps that come with frame-gen tech are ghosting and increased input latency, but this shouldn't be too much of a dealbreaker given the performance gains that come from it.

Those who will benefit the most from this mod are Steam Deck OLED users - the base model has a 60Hz refresh rate, while the OLED model boasts a 90Hz refresh rate, which can take a more noticeable advantage of this unofficial implementation of framerate-boosting software.

The Steam Deck is great, but there's no denying that it's showing its age a bit now that competition is ramping up. (Image credit: Future / Valve) Is the Steam Deck finally complete now?

With years of optimization updates and patches under Valve’s belt, the Steam Deck now appears more complete than ever. Thanks to community-based modifications like Decky Loader and its plugins now at users’ disposal, it's hard to argue against Valve's handheld retaining the crown as the best handheld on the market.

There is a wide range of ways for Steam Deck users to make the most of their gaming experiences - Steam’s own ‘Deck Ready’ game verification also helps indicate whether a title is playable on the device, and the handheld-friendly nature of SteamOS is a big plus (especially with Windows 11's recent 24H2 update issues). With the fresh addition of frame generation (albeit unofficially), I think the current Steam Deck is reaching its peak - if it's not there already.

In terms of hardware, there isn't much more to be done - other than a successor that utilizes a new APU - but Valve has already confirmed we won't see that any time soon. Right now, this is one of the best things that could have happened to the Steam Deck, and it's sure to breathe new life into it.

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If perhaps you are unfamiliar with the Gartner Hype Cycle, artificial intelligence has been firmly planted in the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” phase for the past 24 months. In particular, the advent of ChatGPT back in 2022 cemented certain basic concepts and concerns connected to AI into place for employees at all levels across every type of organization. As an endless slew of headlines and subject lines alike focused on AI, the door was summarily kicked open for AI vendors to lean into inflated expectations. Promises of innovation and impact were more important than results and that caught the eye of business leaders across the globe.

Now, ​​82% of senior decision-makers acknowledge significant pressure to adopt AI quickly, but only 23% have completed the development of their data foundation. Purchasing a shiny new AI tool is the easiest part of the process, while deployment is proving to be a major challenge. So, let’s look at some of the key ways IT teams can help their organization be ready for effective AI deployment in the year ahead.

Identifying needs and assessing value

One of the first things IT leaders need to do is to put effort into cutting through the noise. The best way to do so is by adopting a Business-Outcome-Driven Enterprise Architecture (BODEA) created through a step program, which will require the time and collaboration of full IT teams and other tech leaders within the organization. These individuals must work together to establish the business value of all technologies currently being utilized and assess how they connect to the company’s broader direction and strategies. Once the state of the current tech stack is fully assessed, gaps will be more readily identified. By knowing where the techstack is falling short, IT teams will be able to analyze the fit and potential value of new tools, prepared to push back in the case that decision-makers aim to onboard a poor fit.

Within this process, IT teams should create detailed objectives for seeking new technology, including parameters that each must meet, and identify which tools it will need to integrate with. That also means focused testing for products. Far too many companies are performing uncontrolled tests that won’t provide valuable feedback or map back to organizational goals. The more work done ahead of adopting modern AI solutions, the more capable IT professionals will be of distinguishing hype from verifiable value.

Data migration and management

Estimations state it is likely that more than 90% of large enterprises are using some sort of cloud technology, but the number of those that have migrated their data to the cloud, or at least a hybrid arrangement, is significantly lower. For AI to be most impactful, it needs access to an enterprise’s full suite of data—which requires a lot of power. As such, it is vital for IT teams to put in the time to create a seamless data infrastructure that can properly support the desired AI technology.

Having this infrastructure established ensures that the enterprise can support data-driven decision-making and deliver real-time responses to change. Whether it’s product innovation, customer experience, team productivity or even an ESG initiative, there needs to be an organizational process for how that data is collected, stored, shared and processed. Otherwise, AI will not be nearly as powerful as it is capable of. Beyond AI adoption, an established data infrastructure is essential for addressing governance and balancing a hybrid cloud can enhance protection.

Human skill and communication

Just as there needs to be business and data infrastructure in place for proper AI adoption, so too must there be quality human infrastructure. Enterprises should seek to create a dedicated committee that receives the resources and training necessary to take a deep dive into any new AI technology of interest. These committees also need to carve out time for testing AI tools before making a purchase as a final quality check.

Then, once a tool is selected, organizational champions should be chosen. These individuals will be responsible for knowing the ins and outs of the new product and act as the liaison between the business and the vendor. By doing so, there will be an internal voice that can support problem-solving and training for those using the tool. Speaking of, before a new solution is announced or implemented, a robust plan must be developed and put into place for the rollout, addressing what training each user may need, what exact use cases it applies to, the timing of expected implementation for each team or member, and so on. While a business needs to be prepared before adopting AI, its people need to be even more prepared before using it.

The possibilities are vast, but achieving meaningful outcomes requires more than just implementing AI tools. It demands a careful combination of vision, strategy, technology and human skill. To capitalize on AI’s full potential, executives and other decision-makers need to go beyond the buzzwords and create a well-defined, actionable, organization-wide plan. Now is the time to step back, assess current capabilities and lay the groundwork for an AI-driven transformation that goes beyond the hype and turns vision into tangible results.

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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

• ENGlobal updates 8-K filing with the SEC following November 2024 attack
• Firm confirms hackers hit internal data
• However there's no details about the attackers or the number of victims

Engineering giant ENGlobal has now confirmed the attackers which hit its systems in Novemeber 2024 did indeed compromise its internal documents.

In an updated 8-K form, the company said a preliminary investigation “revealed that a threat actor illegally accessed the company’s information technology system and encrypted some of its data.”

So, not only was this a data grab, this was also a ransomware attack.

No material impact

“The cybersecurity incident involved the threat actor’s access to a portion of the Company’s IT system that contained sensitive personal information," the form added. "The company intends to provide notifications to affected and potentially affected parties and applicable regulatory agencies as required by federal and state law.”

The ransomware attack hit the company pretty hard, it seems, since it added it took weeks to get back on track:

“The cybersecurity incident limited the company’s ability to access portions of its business applications that supported aspects of the company's operations and corporate functions, including financial and operating reporting systems for approximately six weeks.”

However, at the time the document was filed, all operations have been fully restored, and ENGlobal believes the attackers are no longer lurking in their network. It also said that the attack did not have a material impact, and that it’s “not reasonably likely” that it will have such an impact.

“As part of its remediation efforts, the Company is working with cybersecurity experts to reinforce its IT system, strengthen its surveillance of cybersecurity threats and prevent future unauthorized access to its IT system.”

ENGlobal is an engineering and automation services company that provides solutions for various industries, including energy, chemicals, and government. Based in the U.S., it operates globally, with approximately 500 employees, and generates annual revenue of around $100 million.

The identity of the attackers was not revealed, and we still don’t know how many people are affected by this incident.

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• The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was announced on January 22 with a downgraded S Pen
• Reports then emerged that Samsung could release a separate, Bluetooth-enabled S Pen for those who wanted one
• However, Samsung has confirmed to TechRadar that this won’t be the case

After a week of conflicting reports on the matter, Samsung has confirmed to TechRadar that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will not support Bluetooth S Pen functionality.

The company’s latest flagship was announced at Galaxy Unpacked on January 22, and it was soon discovered that Samsung had axed Bluetooth compatibility from the phone’s included S Pen accessory. Then, on January 26, Android Authority spotted a Samsung blog post that included the line “Bluetooth-enabled S Pens sold separately,” suggesting Samsung would be releasing a standalone, Bluetooth-enabled S Pen for frustrated Galaxy S25 Ultra owners.

However, Samsung has now confirmed to TechRadar that this won’t be the case. The company didn’t elaborate on why its own blog post detailed a non-existent product, but it’s safe to assume that this was done in error. Sorry, S Pen fans.

Bluetooth-enabled S Pens have (or had) been a feature of Samsung’s Note and Ultra devices for over a decade. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, for instance, came with a Bluetooth-enabled S Pen that allowed users to control the phone remotely; you could use it to trigger the camera, open apps, and navigate the phone’s UI, among other things.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra's Bluetooth-less S Pen (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

As for why Samsung removed Bluetooth functionality from its latest S Pen, the company told TechRadar’s Editor-at-large, Lance Ulanoff, that it did so because so few people were using the related features. Indeed, in his Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review, Lance noted that he “didn’t miss [these Bluetooth features]” and that the S Pen remained a “worthy drawing implement,” so perhaps the company was right to allocate its resources elsewhere this year.

That said, for fans of the S Pen’s Bluetooth functionality, Samsung’s confusing messaging will undoubtedly have felt like rubbing salt into the wound.

For more on Samsung's latest smartphones, check out our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S25 review and hands-on Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus review.

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Over the last couple of years, ChatGPT has become a default term for AI chatbots in the U.S. and Europe despite plenty of viable rivals angling for a bigger piece of the market. That's part of what has made the eruption of China-based AI chatbot DeepSeek feel so seismic.

DeepSeek's rapid ascent has attracted enormous attention and usage, though not without controversy. The broad collection of user data for storage on Chinese servers is just one prominent example.

I decided to put these two AI heavyweights, ChatGPT and DeepSeek, through their paces in combining their conversational abilities with online searches, which is a particularly valuable arena.

I devised four questions covering everything from sports news and consumer advice to the best local spots for cocktails and comedy. I wanted to see how the AI assistants would perform, so I mixed specificity with vagueness in the details. I used DeepSeek's R1 and ChatGPT-4o models to answer the questions. While R1 is comparable to OpenAI's newer o1 model for ChatGPT, that model can't look online for answers for now. You can see the questions and the AI responses below.

One at a time

I also immediately discovered that while ChatGPT was happy to answer multiple questions in a single prompt, DeepSeek would search only for information on the first question and give up on the later ones, no matter how I worded the initial prompt. Right away that was a point against it. While the conversational approach of prompt and response is fine in a lot of cases, sometimes you have to ask a lot of questions for the chatbot or include multiple elements for it to consider. You can see how DeepSeek responded to an early attempt at multiple questions in a single prompt below.

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) Counting words

Even when broken up into individual questions, the prompts for DeepSeek required a little extra work in terms of defining the amount of information I wanted to receive. Depending on the kind of question I submitted, DeepSeek would almost always give me too much information, and it was often extraneous. Worse, sometimes the very long answer would just be a filler, basically telling me to look things up on my own. ChatGPT isn't immune to similar behavior, but it didn't happen at all during this test.

And it wasn't just my own preferences, the same self-control was evident when using ChatGPT without logging in. I felt the need to handicap the test with a 65-word limit to make it worthwhile at all. With all those restrictions in place, here are the questions and the AI answers. ChatGPT's responses are on the left and DeepSeek's responses are on the right.

1. What were the highlights of last night's NBA game, and who won?

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) 2. What’s a trendy new spot in Brooklyn for cocktails and small plates?

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) 3. Which laptop is best for gaming with a budget of $2,000?

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) 4. What are the best comedy clubs in New York City for catching up-and-coming comedians and who is playing at them next month?

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) DeepSeek gets lost

With the caveats of what was necessary to make the test feasible, it's fair to say both chatbots performed pretty well. DeepSeek had some solid answers thanks to a far more thorough search effort, which pulled from more than 30 sources for each question. The cocktail bar question, in particular, was great, and the AI was proactive enough to suggest a drink to get. The basketball response was more substantial as well, though arguably, the decision by ChatGPT to keep the focus on one game, as indicated by the singular "game" in the question, meant it was paying more attention.

It was in the responses to the computer and comedy club recommendations that DeepSeek displayed its weaknesses. Both felt less like conversational answers and more like the toplines of their Google summaries. To be fair, ChatGPT wasn't much better on those two answers, but the flaw felt less glaring, especially when looking at all of the parentheticals in DeepSeek's computer response.

I understand why DeepSeek has its fans. It’s free, good at fetching the latest info, and a solid option for users. I just feel like ChatGPT cuts to the heart of what I'm asking, even when it's not spelled out. And, while no tech company is a paragon of consumer privacy, DeepSeek's terms and conditions somehow make other AI chatbots seem downright polite when it comes to the sheer amount of information you have to agree to share, down to the very pace at which you type your questions. DeepSeek almost sounds like a joke about how deep it is seeking information about you.

Plus, ChatGPT was just plain faster, regardless of whether I used DeepSeek's R1 model or its less powerful sibling. And, while this test was focused on search, I can't ignore the many other limitations of DeepSeek, such as a lack of persistent memory or image generator.

For me, ChatGPT remains the winner when choosing an AI chatbot to perform a search. Some of it may be simply the bias of familiarity, but the fact that ChatGPT gave me good to great answers from a single prompt is hard to resist as a killer feature. That may become especially true as and when the o1 model and upcoming o3 model get internet access. DeepSeek can find a lot of information, but if I were stuck with it, I'd be lost.

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• Researchers discover 10,000 compromised WordPress sites
• The sites were embedded with malicious JavaScript code
• The goal was to deliver infostealers to victims

Ten thousand WordPress websites were being used to deliver infostealing malware to victims running both Windows and macOS devices, experts have warned.

A report from cybersecurity researchers at c/side claims a threat actor likely compromised different WordPress sites using an older version of the platform (6.7.1) and with it - an older, outdated plugin. Once the sites are breached, the attackers would deploy malicious JavaScript code, which would generate a fake page in an iframe, to the visitors.

When a victim visits one of these sites, they would see an overlaid page stating they need to update their browser if they want to view the contents of the page. However, instead of downloading a patch, the victims would get either Atomic (AKA AMOS, a popular infostealer for macOS), or SocGholish (basically the same thing, just for Windows).

Stealing sensitive files

These infostealers would grab all sorts of sensitive information from the target endpoint - from passwords stored in the browser, to session cookies, cryptocurrency wallet information, and other potentially sensitive files.

Defending against these attacks requires web administrators to keep their sites up to date.

The WordPress website builder platform, for starters, should be upgraded to version 6.7, released in mid-November, 2024. The admins should then go through all the themes and plugins they have installed, and remove all the ones they’re not using. The remaining ones should then be updated, as well.

Finally, admins should look for malicious scripts and delete them. C/side claims that attackers leave a backdoor most of the time, to be able to easily return, if need be. If they do find traces of compromise, they should also review logs from the last 90 days to identify what kind of malicious activity was done.

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• The GE Profile Smart Grind & Brew is a drip coffee maker with an AI assistant
• The assistant can adjust brewing settings based on the questions you ask
• It's available to buy now from Amazon for $379 (about £300 / AU$600)

Just how smart can a filter coffee machine really be? Very smart indeed, it turns out. GE Profile (the premium division of GE Appliances) has just launched the Smart Grind & Brew – a drip machine that uses Google Cloud AI to help you brew the perfect cup each morning.

The GE Profile Smart Grind & Brew is a slim machine with a built-in conical burr grinder, which means you can enjoy freshly-ground coffee without investing in (and finding space for) two appliances. It also minimizes potential mess because the ground coffee falls directly into the brew basket at the correct dosage, with no weighing or transferring.

The machine also has a built-in water filter, so you can use water directly from the tap without it affecting the flavor of your drink, and helping you get a more consistent taste.

Another particularly nice feature is the inclusion of a removable brewing stand (the part that holds the jug or cup) so the machine can dispense coffee directly into a travel mug. Combined with the built-in timer, this would make it easy to have a fresh filter coffee to take to work, minimizing the risk of caving to temptation and buying a takeaway coffee en route.

The GE Profile Smart Grind & Brew has an adjustable stainless steel conical burr grinder (Image credit: GE Appliances)

What really makes the Smart Grind & Brew different to the best drip coffee makers we've tested, however, is the SmartHQ AI Coffee Assistant, which is due to roll out to the machine with a software update very soon.

This lets you control the machine remotely using the SmartHQ smart home app, and have a "conversational AI experience" with the assistant. It also enables you to create custom profiles, receive real-time brewing feedback, and "is equipped with intuitive learning that automatically adjusts brewing based on questions asked."

SmartHQ will also let you add your coffee maker to your Amazon Alexa or Google Home smart hub, so you can operate it with voice controls.

So far, so smart

It all sounds very impressive, and the GE Profile Smart Grind & Brew is available to buy now from Amazon for $379 (about £300 / AU$600), which seems to be typical for a connected drip coffee machine.

Is there a catch? Well, although it has an insulated carafe, GE Profile doesn't mention the machine having a hotplate to keep your brewed coffee warm until you're ready for your next cup. That's the same problem I found with another high-tech drip machine I tested recently: the Fellow Aiden Precision Drip Coffee Maker. Although the Aiden could brew an excellent drink, its double-wall insulated carafe just didn't keep it warm long enough without a heat source underneath.

Hopefully that won't be quite so much of a problem with the Smart Grind & Brew, which (unlike the Aiden) is capable of dispensing coffee into other vessels, such as an insulated bottle, which will keep it at a drinkable temperature longer.

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• New report claims OpenAI has detected evidence of distillation by DeepSeek
• Move represents a potential breach of intellectual property
• Whitehouse AI czar weighs-in on the subject

According to a new article by the Financial Times, OpenAI claims to have evidence that DeepSeek, the Chinese startup that has thrown the US tech market into financial turmoil, used the company's proprietary models to train its own open-source LLM, called R1. This would represent a potential breach of intellectual property, as it goes against the OpenAI terms of service agreement.

In the article the FT writes that a source at OpenAI claims it has evidence of “distillation” occurring, which is a technique used by developers to leapfrog on the work done by larger models to achieve similar results at a much lower cost.

The OpenAI terms of service clearly state that users cannot copy any of its service or “use output to develop models that compete with OpenAI.” David Sacks, the Whitehouse crypto and AI “czar” said in an interview on Fox that there is “substantial evidence” of distillation occurring from DeepSeek.

OpenAI statement

Speaking to TechRadar an OpenAI spokesperson said: "We know PRC based companies – and others – are constantly trying to distill the models of leading US AI companies. As the leading builder of AI, we engage in countermeasures to protect our IP, including a careful process for which frontier capabilities to include in released models, and believe as we go forward that it is critically important that we are working closely with the U.S. government to best protect the most capable models from efforts by adversaries and competitors to take US technology.”

OpenAI tells us it has observed and investigated attempts to distill its models and has responded through banning the accounts in question and revoking access.

Security concerns

Meanwhile security concerns still seem to be dogging DeepSeek, particularly around the security of user data, exactly what data is being collected, and where it is storing it.

If you or your company has issues with data being stored in China, Perplexity, the AI search engine, is now offering its Pro users access to DeepSeek using data that is only stored on servers in the US.

New registrations for DeepSeek are still temporarily paused, “due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek's services”. For the latest news on this big breaking story, see the our DeepSeek live blog.

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• Academic researchers found two new speculative execution flaws
• The pair are affecting M2 and M3 processors
• Apple has acknowledged the flaws, and said it would fix it

Apple devices powered with the M2/A15 and M3/A17 chips are vulnerable to side-channel flaws which could put user data at risk of being stolen, experts have warned.

Cybersecurity researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Ruhr University Bochum, who recently published two separate papers, detailing the two vulnerabilities called FLOP and SLAP.

These flaws, however, don’t affect power consumption patterns during cryptographic operations, but rather speculative execution, similar to what the dreaded Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities were. Speculative execution is a technique used by processors to improve performance. It involves the CPU guessing the likely path of a program (like which instruction will be executed next) and starting to execute it before the actual decision is made. If the guess is correct, it speeds up processing; if not, the incorrect results are discarded.

Practical application

Explaining their findings to BleepingComputer, the researchers said mispredictions can lead to chips performing computations with the wrong data.

"Starting with the M3/A17 generation, they attempt to predict the data value that will be returned from memory. However, mispredictions in these mechanisms can result in arbitrary computations being performed on out-of-bounds data or wrong data values," they said.

Usually, when academic researchers find computer bugs, they are mostly theoretical, or otherwise extremely difficult to pull off in a real-life scenario. For these, however, the researchers explained how a threat actor could create a malicious website, containing JavaScript code, and use it to pull personally identifiable information from the victims.

They shared their findings with Apple (in late March for SLAP, and in early September for FLOP), who acknowledged their findings and confirmed it would be working on a fix. However, it seems that the Cupertino behemoth won’t be rushing, since it doesn’t think the bugs are that big of a deal

"We want to thank the researchers for their collaboration as this proof of concept advances our understanding of these types of threats," Apple told BleepingComputer.

"Based on our analysis, we do not believe this issue poses an immediate risk to our users."

Those interested in technical details can read the in-depth analysis here. These are the same researchers that discovered the iLeakage vulnerability a year and a half ago, BleepingComputer reminds. That one, too, was a side-channel flaw.

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• iPhone SE 4 no longer tipped to get a Dynamic Island
• Instead it will more closely match the iPhone 14's design
• It will, however, get an Action button per recent leaks

A new model in Apple’s budget-friendly iPhone SE line, the iPhone SE 4, is expected to land later this year, and leaks are already teasing key design details – and the latest reports suggest that the SE 4 will miss out on the Dynamic Island, but could get the Action Button.

Starting with the bad news, rumors had suggested that the iPhone SE 4 would feature the Dynamic Island, which users of all iPhone 15 and 16 handsets, and the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, have been enjoying (or not, as the case is for our editor-at-large Lance Ulanoff).

However, that now doesn’t seem set to be the case. We reported a couple of days ago that a new leaked video had teased the return of the notch on the upcoming SE, and now display analyst Ross Young has claimed on social media that the notch is indeed returning.

The Dynamic Island reports came from another usually reliable leaker in Evan Blass, and these more trustworthy tipsters typically don’t contradict each other – especially not in the run-up to an expected product launch. However a third leaker – who goes by Majin Bu online – has explained that the confusion comes from Apple testing an SE 4 with a Dynamic Island during development before ultimately settling on the notch.

Push the button

Bu has also been sharing images and video said to show the iPhone SE 4, and in his most recent post on X he claims the phone will get an upgrade from a 4.7-inch screen to a 6.06-inch 60Hz OLED display (so with the notch it should look a lot like the iPhone 14), and the Action Button.

Having debuted on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max before making its way to all the iPhone 16 models, the Action Button is a programmable button which replaces the silence mode switch the featured on older models.

The iPhone 15 Pro Action Button (Image credit: Apple)

You can still use it to silence your phone in a hurry, but if you leave your iPhone’s ringer off anyway you can change the button to instead let you access other tools like your camera or torch – and using shortcuts you can even make the button do multiple different things based on how and when you use it.

As with all leaks we should take these notch and Action Button reports with a pinch of salt. We’ve already seen the leaked design of the iPhone SE 4 change, so there’s always a chance that it’ll change again before Apple makes the device official.

That said, based on everything we've seen and heard, the iPhone SE 4 is shaping up to be a solid smartphone with the same A18 chip found in the iPhone 16 and 8GB of RAM – both of which suggest Apple Intelligence support.

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• Logitech Spot monitors an office environment for better flow
• Poor air quality could be costing your workers' productivity
• The sensors are also built into the $7,000 Rally Board 65

Logitech has unveiled a brand-new office monitoring tool it hopes will help businesses manage their collaborative workspace better.

The new Logitech Spot tracks occupancy and environmental changes through CO2 levels, air quality, and temperature to provide real-time data for office admins.

Spot is a battery-powered device that uses a peel-and-stick base to stick to walls. It pairs via Bluetooth to CollabOS devices, like Tap Scheduler, or via Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) gateways.

Office-tracking sensor

It’s all designed with the hope of making the office a more comfortable space for workers to spend their time and better employee experience – actionable suggestions allow admins to improve the workplace while making reductions to their energy costs.

The company says the real reason workers are getting weary in the office might not be because they’re tired, but rather than inefficient use of the space available is causing air quality issues.

“In bustling workplaces, employees move in and out of scheduled or ad-hoc meetings in spaces that continuously use energy and recirculate air,” Logitech says, citing Harvard and Berkeley studies showing high CO2 levels and pollutants like dust, perfume, and aerosols can reduce cognitive function.

“Logitech Spot solves the mystery of the number of people using spaces, the quality of the air they’re breathing, and environmental factors that can impact energy consumption–arming businesses with the information they need to address these unseen barriers," noted Logitech for Business COO and GM Prakash Arunkundrum.

In the name of interoperability, Spot is also integrated with Microsoft Places and Teams, as well as other platforms like Samsung Smart Things Pro and Zoom Workplace.

Logitech has also lifted the wraps off its Rally Board 65, a new 65-inch portable all-in-one video conferencing solution that integrates Spot’s sensors within its system.

Spot will be available from the second half of 2025, and its APIs can be unlocked via the $199/year Essential or $399/year Select service plans (priced per room). The Rally Board 65 will be available from May 2025, priced at $6,999.

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• Accusations have been made around RTX 5090 review samples
• Some folks think GPUs labeled as ‘Press Build’ could be faster than retail products
• Nvidia has assured us this isn’t the case

Nvidia has denied that the RTX 5090 graphics cards sent out to press for review were in any way different to the flagship boards that’ll be sold by retailers, following online accusations that the review samples were somehow ‘binned.’

As Tom’s Hardware reports, there are markings on some review models of the RTX 5090 which say ‘Press Build’ (as seen at TechPowerUp, for example), something remarked upon by Andreas Schilling (editor at German tech site Hardwareluxx) on X.

Ian Cutress (of TechTechPotato) replied to Schilling’s comment about whether there was anything ‘special’ about these graphics cards by jokily altering the words on the RTX 5090 chip to read ‘Press Binned’ as you can see below (if you expand the post).

FTFY pic.twitter.com/i9OtTpDYBCJanuary 24, 2025

Binning refers not to throwing graphics chips in the trashcan, of course, but to the process of allocating silicon to different models of GPU (in ‘bins’ or groups). Every chip in a particular group that pertains to a certain GPU model conforms to the base level spec (silicon that doesn’t is usually repurposed in a lower bin), but some chips are actually of a slightly higher quality, and can be pushed to faster than base clock speeds.

This is why you get different levels of overclock with a certain GPU, or indeed a CPU, with more headroom in a higher-quality chip (even though it’s in the same bin) – which is referred to as ‘winning the silicon lottery’ (you got a good overclocker, in short).

So, without getting too deep into the weeds on this, the insinuation made by some folks online is that Nvidia has ensured that those better-performing chips from the top-end of the bin, as it were, have been used in review samples to get the best results for the RTX 5090.

Tom’s directly asked Nvidia if these press build RTX 5090 Founders Edition cards were “higher-performing iterations of retail counterparts” and a rep from Team Green replied to say: “Some early GeForce RTX GPUs include a top mark related to intended use [the ‘Press Build’ stamp]. Their functionality and performance are identical to retail GPUs.”

In short, the marking means nothing save for indicating that these graphics cards are models put aside for sending out to the press.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Analysis: An unusual clarification, but clearly Nvidia felt it necessary

This is an odd one, and it’s unusual that Nvidia would respond to such chatter, but it’s clear Team Green felt the need to set the record straight here.

We have to take Nvidia’s assertion at face value, but of course, the difference that any such binning might make wouldn’t be that huge anyway. But even if it was, that’d be a silly route for Nvidia to take, as reviews of third-party RTX 5090 boards compared to the Founders Edition would surely look odd if there was an obvious discrepancy. Yes, Nvidia’s own boards may be well-designed and cooled, but you can be sure third-party models with more premium price tags will be, as well.

I believe that Nvidia is being up front here, and any markings are just for admin or legal purposes (guarding against reselling review boards for example). Indeed, if there was any binning going on with RTX 5090 reviews, it would surely make more sense for Nvidia not to identify those chips as ‘press samples’ so explicitly.

There are more pressing concerns on the RTX 5090, for sure, including whether you’ll actually be able to buy one on launch day (tomorrow, January 30) – as that isn’t the case with MSI’s online store, we’ve just discovered. While you will be able to pre-order an MSI RTX 5090 model tomorrow, it won’t be shipped until February 6, we’re told – and Nvidia is warning on potential stock shortages of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080. This is a topic that’s been buzzing on the rumor mill for some time now, with a whole lot of pessimistic noises being made, unfortunately.

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• Severance season 2 has dropped an intriguing new teaser for episode 3
• It refers to the mysterious baby goats from season 1
• Episode 3 arrives on Apple TV Plus on Friday, January 31

Severance is the master of suspense. It's really making good use of that Apple TV Plus weekly release by relentlessly teasing fans, and its most recent drop has suggested we'll see more of the goats in Friday's episode. I'm hoping that one of the best Apple TV Plus shows finally answers some questions about why Lumon is raising these animals, I'd even settle for crumbs right now. I need to know what's going on!

Truthfully, I have never been so obsessed with goats since that week when I unexpectedly became interested in the video game Goat Simulator. Now, I'm writing about five of the best Severance season 2 goat theories I've seen. You've got to hand it to this series, it knows how to reel you in.

The clip doesn't give us much, admittedly, but it's worth watching if you want to start coming up with your own theories ahead of episode 3's release on January 31.

What's happened in Severance season 2 so far?

We're only two episodes into Severance season 2 and it feels like so much has happened. If you want some in-depth recaps we've put together a Severance season 2 episode 1 recap and a Severance season 2 episode 2 recap to bring you up to speed. I expected nothing less from this show, but they've opened up on a high and left us with plenty of questions, hopefully paving the way for the rest of the season.

Many fans were shocked when the Emmy-winning title sequence had changed, but it's somehow even better than its predecessor and leans very heavily into body horror, something I couldn't be more pleased about. If you're interested in that, check out the five major clues the Severance title sequence gives us.

There's plenty more to come from Severance and I can't wait to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

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• The latest generation of Supercharger stalls can now deliver up to 325kW
• But the Cybertruck is the only Tesla vehicle capable of those speeds
• Full V4 Supercharger stations will soon be capable of 500kW

Tesla has announced that all V4 Supercharger stations in North America are now capable of delivering charging speeds of up to 325kW, bringing the network more in line with high-powered chargers from the likes of BP, ChargePoint and Electrify America.

The increase of 75kW will reduce the amount of time waiting around to charge, but the only model currently capable of accepting such a rate of electrons is the Cybertruck, leaving the vast majority of Tesla owners having to make do with 250kW.

On top of this, there is still lots of confusion surrounding the capabilities of Tesla’s Supercharger network in general, which still includes some of the earlier V2 stalls, as well as a mix of V4 stalls (the physical thing you plug into) that are linked to older V3 cabinets (the important part that handles the delivery of electricity).

That means Model 3, Model S and Model Y owners, along with not being able to make the most of the recent upgrade in charging speeds, experience varying rates depending on the technology available at a destination.

Despite this, Tesla says that it is already rolling out the latest generation V4 Supercharger stalls with accompanying cabinets that it claims are capable of delivering a whopping 500kW, despite there not being a single EV publicly on sale today that can draw that sort of power.

Right now, 800V electrical architecture and today’s battery technology is capable of speeds of 350kW to 450kW in the most extreme cases, with the likes of the Lotus Eletre only managing those headline figures when paired with a specific Lotus charging stall, of which there are very few.

Analysis: Tesla needs to play catch up

(Image credit: Tesla)

The news of faster Tesla Supercharger stalls is going to be welcomed by EV owners, but ironically, not by the wider Tesla community itself.

Most of today's Tesla line-up can only charge at a rate of 250kW, which is rapidly being eclipsed by rival manufacturers that have recently made the switch to the North American Charging Standard (NACS) – or the plug that Tesla uses, to you and I.

Granted, Musk's latest move is helping to future-proof the Supercharger network, which is often considered among the best charging networks in the world, but it is also gradually becoming more relevant to owners of rival EVs.

Even the recently updated Model Y still has to make do with the old 400V electrical architecture, limiting the speed at which it can charge, despite tweaks to software helping to reduce charging times slightly over the previous generation.

With Cybertruck sales on the wane and Elon Musk firing most of the team that looks after the Supercharger network, the V4 Supercharger stall announcement is likely not something to get too excited about, seeing as the roll-out is predicted to be slow and Musk has made no mention of fitting the Cybertruck’s 800V system to other models just yet.

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About a week after its release, Italy became the first country to formally request a probe into how DeepSeek's chatbot handles users' personal data.

"Possible risk to the data of millions of people in Italy," wrote the Italian data watchdog authority, known as the Garante, on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, in an official announcement.

Developed by a little-known Chinese startup, DeepSeek has seen almost 3 million downloads since its launch, reaching an estimated total user base of between 5-6 million users worldwide, according to SEO.AI data. Yet, experts in and out of Europe have warned of the potential privacy implications.

The companies that provide the Chinese ChatGPT rival – Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence – now have 20 days to respond to Italy's complaint.

Against GDPR rules

The Garante's complaint follows a report filed by Euroconsumers – a coalition of five national consumer organizations that also include its Italian member, Altrocunsumo.

After looking at how the DeepSeek app and chat services collect and handle users' data as per its own privacy policy, Euroconusmers found "multiple violations of European and national data protection regulations," the report reads.

These include transfers of European data to China without safeguards as required by GDPR rules, unclear information on how user data is used for online profiling, non-transparent information over data retention periods, and the lack of details on age verification or handling data of minors, among other things.

The Garante is also asking the companies behind DeepSeek AI to provide the clarifications needed for the services to legally operate in the country.

Italy's data watchdog seeks more information on the type of data used to train the artificial intelligence system. If personal data is collected through web scraping activities, DeepSeek would also need to clarify "how users registered and those not registered to the service have been or are informed about the processing of their data," wrote the Garante.

"Technological efficiency, however important, cannot prevail over people’s fundamental rights. It is essential to ensure that the development of AI occurs in full compliance with European regulation, which represents a pillar in the protection of fundamental values ​​and rights," Marco Scialdone, Head of Litigation at Euroconsumers, said to Eurofocus, commenting on the complaint.

This is not the first time that Italy has called out the privacy violations of AI chatbots.

In April 2023, the Garante temporarily banned the use of ChatGPT across the country as the AI mammoth was found responsible for improperly collecting and storing Italian data and, consequently, breaching GDPR rules. At that time, the ChatGPT ban provoked a surge in VPN downloads as Italians looked for ways to retain access to the popular AI chatbot.

It's too soon to tell whether DeepSeek will share the same fate, but we nonetheless advise you to approach the AI novelty with caution if you care about your online privacy.

• GTA 5's Trevor wants to return for GTA 6 so he can die at the beginning of the game
• Steve Ogg thinks it would be "fun" if Trevor appeared and was killed to "pass the torch" on to the next playable character
• Although, as far as Ogg is aware, Trevor won't be returning for GTA 6

Steve Ogg, the actor who plays Trevor Philips in Grand Theft Auto 5, wants his character to die in Grand Theft Auto 6.

In a recent interview with ScreenRant, Ogg touched on the possibility of Trevor returning to the popular franchise and even offered his idea of what it could look like.

"It would be fun if Trevor appeared in it just to be killed at the beginning," Ogg said, a pitch which seems to be a callback to how Trevor killed GTA 4's Johnny Kleibitz at the start of GTA 5.

However, as far as Ogg is aware, his iconic character isn't returning in GTA 6.

"I think that would be cool, because it also acknowledges the fans of like, 'Hey, thank you.' Pass the torch, stomp Trevor's head in, and sort of put an end to that and allow a new generation to take over," he added.

GTA 6 was officially announced in December 2023 alongside a reveal trailer, which confirmed long-time rumors that the game will feature two playable protagonists, Lucia and Jason.

The game is set to launch on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. There's no word on a potential PC version just yet, but it is scheduled for a Fall 2025 release, according to Take-Two.

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• A suitcase-style turntable with speakers and Zig-Zag branding
• USB in plus Bluetooth, RCA and headphone outs
• $99 (around £79 or AU$159, if you can find one)

There's a long tradition of brands doing weird things for publicity, and for every Elon Musk stunt that makes you want to push every Tesla into a lake there's a brand that gets it right. And I think Zig-Zag is in the latter category, because it's come up with a rather inspired idea.

If you're not familiar with Zig-Zag, it's a very famous brand of rolling papers – so famous that their product inspired the cover of Dr Dre's 1992 album, The Chronic. And to remind you of that fact (and of course to ensure that you don't forget about Dre), the company has decided to make an – ahem – smokin' record player just in time for the Grammys…

(Image credit: Zig-Zag) The Zig-Zag Record Player: key features

The Zig-Zag Record Player is, as you'd expect, a record player with Zig-Zag branding. It's a suitcase design with the classic logo on top, and it has built-in stereo speakers so you can have music wherever you go. In addition to the turntable there's also a USB port so you can also play digital files without lugging all your vinyl around.

It's a three-speed belt-driven turntable – ideal for all your, er, rap 78s – and it has RCA outputs and a headphone jack too. There's Bluetooth streaming to headphones or powered speakers, and there's even a handle so you can carry it around.

According to Chisto.com, "Nothing beats the sound of spinning a vinyl whilst you’re chilling at dwelling. If you’re restricted on house however maxing out on chill vibes (particularly throughout Dry January), then you definitely want this... It’s the last word improve out of your standard transportable speaker that units the temper in any room with out the cumbersome setup of your typical document participant." Now, I don't know what many of those words mean, in that order, but I think they liked it…

The Zig-Zag Record Player is available now for $99, which is around £79 or AU$159, if you can find it.

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