TechRadar News

It’s only been 10 days since Verizon’s major network outage took out service across the United States, but it seems that the big-red-themed carrier is having yet another service disruption, potentially another major outage.

We’ve been tracking reported outages via Down Detector, which have also been fluctuating over the past 24 hours. However, for about the last hour, dating back to 1PM ET, there has been a steady increase, hitting over 1,500 reported outages. This means that Verizon customers are noticing no connectivity bars, trouble making or receiving calls, and even spotting SOS at the top of their phones. 

Ahead, we’ll be reporting live on this outage and its potential impact of us, so stick with TechRadar for the latest on what might be Verizon’s second major outage in less than two weeks. We’ve also reached out to Verizon to ask for a comment and to see if this is an official outage.

As of 2:01PM ET, Down Detector's outage map for Verizon is showing the most reports within New York, Washington DC, Dallas, Kansas, and Los Angeles. I'm based out of New Jersey, right across the river from New York, and still see a full four bars and 5G on Verizon as of now. 

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Regarding current reported outages on Down Detector, as 1:56PM ET the site is showing 1,277. That's less than the peak of 1,500 reported outages at 1PM, and less than Verizon's September 30, 2024 outage.

Impacted customers are leaving comments on Down Detector and taking to social as well, though this does not seem as far-reaching of an outage as the previous one.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

AMD has announced the AMD Ryzen AI Pro 300, an enterprise-focused lineup that will bring more powerful AI chips to businesses and organizations to improve collaboration, security, and more.

The new lineup will feature three chips for Copilot+ PCs, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 375, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 370, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 Pro 360.

These new chips are a significant step up from the previous Pro generation, the AMD Ryzen Pro 8040 series, and are the first processor series explicitly designed for enterprise users to be Copilot+ compliant.

In addition to a much more powerful NPU (up to 55 TOPS for the Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 375), AMD says the underlying Zen 5 cores in the CPU offer substantially more multithreaded performance compared to Intel’s competing Core Ultra 7 vPro chips, based on the Intel Meteor Lake architecture.

Intel Lunar Lake processors launched last month, and at the moment there are no vPro versions of these chips, so a more direct comparison isn’t possible yet, but these new Lunar Lake vPro chips are expected to launch before too long.

In addition to the claims of improved performance, AMD says laptops running its new Ryzen AI Pro 300 series chips will get up to 23 hours of battery life, a substantial increase over previous generations of chips, and that the NPU in these new Ryzen AI Pro 300 chips will empower new multi-layer security features for the kind of protection that enterprise devices need.

Can AMD make headway in Intel’s backyard?

While Intel has undoubtedly been on the ropes lately, one area where it retains an absolutely dominant position is with its laptop chips. While the numbers fluctuate every quarter, Intel’s laptop market share currently sits at just below 72%, so it is a crucial revenue source for Team Blue when it is facing strong headwinds elsewhere.

That said, it has already lost substantial market share to AMD over the past five years, and given the nature of enterprise procurement channels, AMD making headway among businesses with laptops powered by its chips could further erode Intel’s position.

It remains to be seen what Intel Lunar Lake vPro chips will do when they launch in the months ahead, but any advantage that AMD can gain now with Ryzen AI Pro 300 will help it claw its way to parity with Intel, while also providing customers with more options and better innovation through competition.

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AMD has revealed an upgraded data processing unit (DPU) as it looks to stake its claim to power the next generation of AI.

The new Pensando Salina DPU is the company's third-generation release, promises 2x performance, bandwidth and scale compared to the previous generation.

AMD says it can support 400G throughput, meaning faster data transfer rates than ever before, a huge advantage as companies around the world look for quicker and more efficient infrastructure to keep up with AI demands.

Pensando Salina DPU

As with previous generations, AMD's latest DPU is split into two parts: the front-end, which delivers data and information to an AI cluster, and the backend, which manages data transfer between accelerators and clusters.

Alongside the Pensando Salina DPU (which governs the front-end), the company has also announced the AMD Pensando Pollara 400 to manage the back-end.

The industry’s first Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) ready AI NIC, the Pensando Pollara 400 supports the next-gen RDMA software and is backed by an open ecosystem of networking, offering customers the flexibility needed to embrace the new AI age.

The AMD Pensando Salina DPU and AMD Pensando Pollara 400 are sampling with customers now, with a public release scheduled for the first half of 2025.

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We already knew a lot about AMD’s next generation accelerator, the Instinct MI325X, from an earlier event in June 2024 - but the company has now revealed more at its AMD Advancing AI event.

First, we knew the Instinct MI325X was a minor upgrade from the MI300X, with the same CDNA 3 architecture, but just enough oomph to make it a viable alternative to the H200, Nvidia’s AI powerhouse.

Eagle-eyed readers will also notice that AMD has cut the onboard HBM3e memory capacity from 288GB to 256GB with the memory capacity now only 80% more than Nvidia’s flagship rather than the more enviable 2x improvement.

Preparing the grounds for the MI355X

To make things a bit more murkier, AMD also mentioned another SKU, the MI325X OAM which will have, wait for it, 288GB memory - we have asked for clarification and will update this article in due course.

AMD provided some carefully selected performance comparisons against Nvidia’s H200:

• 1.3X the inference performance on Mistral 7B at FP16
• 1.2X the inference performance on Llama 3.1 70B at FP8
• 1.4X the inference performance on Mixtral 8x7B at FP16

The company also revealed the accelerator has 153 billion transistors, which is the same as the MI300X. The H200 has only 80 billion transistors while Blackwell GPUs will top the scale at more than 200 billion transistors.

The star of the show though had to be the MI355X accelerator, which was also announced at the event with an H2 2025 launch date. Manufactured on TSMC’s 3nm node and featuring AMD’s new CDNA 4 architecture, it introduces FP6 and FP4 formats and is expected to deliver improvements on 80% on FP16 and FP8, compared to the current MI325X accelerator.

Elsewhere, the Instinct MI355X will offer 288GB HBM3E and 8TB/s memory bandwidth, a 12.5% and 33.3% improvement on its immediate predecessor. An 8-unit OXM platform, which will also be launched in H2 2025, will offer a staggering 18.5 petaflops in FP16, 37PF in FP8, 74PF in FP6 and FP4 (or 9.3PF per OXM).

The MI355x will compete against Nvidia’s Blackwell B100 and B200 when it launches in 2025, and will be instrumental in Lisa Su’s attempt to supercharge AMD’s aspirations to catch up with its rival.

Nvidia remains firmly in the driving seat, with more than 90% of the world’s AI accelerator market, making it the world’s most valuable company at the time of writing, with its share price at its all time high and a market capitalization of $3.3 trillion.

AMD also unveiled its new family of EPYC 9005 series CPU with a 192-core model that costs nearly $15,000.

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Another bug in the Windows 11 24H2 update has been found, which causes sfc /scannow to detect corrupt files on every run.

Many users will know the incantation sfc /scannow. You type it into your Windows Terminal, and it runs for a very long time, reporting on corrupt or missing files it finds, and whether it was able to repair or replace them.

The new bug causes sfc to find corrupt files, fix them, and then when it is run again, find another “corrupt file” and “fixes/replaces it” again. It doesn’t matter how many times you run it, Windows File checker will repair something.

This indicates that the problems found are false positives. Users use sfc to perform system maintenance, so seeing recurrent corrupt files on every scan will cause confusion, and cause them to keep trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.

Users first flagged up the issue in Microsoft’s Windows 11 Feedback hub posts.

One user wrote:

"With the latest Windows 11 updates, when I try to do SFC /scannnow, it shows errors every time even though it should have fixed them already."

Another wrote:

"SFC Scan on the new 24H2 shows errors and does not correct itself despite repeated attempts to correct it. Each time I run the SFC Scan, it shows “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.”

Windowslatest.com ran tests to see the bug in action. After running sfc /scannow, they were met with this message:

"Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag."

When they ran the scan again, the same message, saying the exact same thing popped up again.

It’s not unusual for large software updates like this to experience bugs. In the Windows 11 22H2 update, File Explorer had a bug that would frequently cause freezes or crashes. And we’ve previously reported on two bugs found so far in the Windows 11 24H2 update: the first, disappearing cursors; the second, an undeletable 8.63 GB update cache.

Microsoft is aware of the bugs and is probably working on some patches as we write. So, keep your eyes peeled.

In what must be one of the more unusual PCIe cards we’ve seen recently, Japanese company Kuroutoshikou has introduced a PCI Express adapter that adds an antiquated parallel port to modern PCs.

Named the 1P-LPPCIE3, this device allows users to connect older parallel port devices, such as legacy printers, through a PCIe x1 slot.

Despite its vintage functionality, the card is surprisingly compatible with a range of Windows operating systems, from Windows XP up to Windows 11.

Insert the CD-ROM

Spotted by PC Watch, the 1P-LPPCIE3 is equipped with the ASIX AX99100 chipset and features a single external D-sub 25-pin female port (IEEE 1284) for parallel connections - a common standard for older printers like the HP LaserJet series and various dot matrix models. It has dimensions of 82 x 67 x 14 mm and weighs approximately 70 grams.

While PCIe cards are generally associated with high-speed data transfer and advanced capabilities, the 1P-LPPCIE3 stands out by reviving a nearly obsolete standard. For those who’ve held onto an old printer in the loft for two decades, this PCIe card might be the perfect excuse to finally dust it off - just don’t be surprised if the ink has long since dried up.

The driver for the card comes on a CD-ROM - a nostalgic throwback to an era when software was commonly distributed this way. For users who don’t have an optical drive, which is pretty much everybody now, drivers can also be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website.

The card is on sale now, with an expected retail price of around 4,000 yen (approximately $27). The package includes a low-profile bracket, making it suitable for slimline PCs, and the device comes with a one-year warranty.

We can’t imagine the 1P-LPPCIE3 becoming a best seller, but Kuroutoshikou clearly believes there is enough demand in Japan for a card that bridges the gap between modern and legacy tech, likely in industrial or niche applications that still rely on older hardware.

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Home security cameras are no longer content to sit in the background and watch for burglars – they want to be your family video cameras, and Ring has just announced a Smart Video Search feature to track down special moments in your Ring video history.

Naturally, the feature is AI-powered and only available to those with a Ring subscription (specifically those on the priciest Ring Home Premium tier, which costs $19.99 / £15.99 a month), because otherwise recorded clips aren't available. But if that includes you, it certainly looks like a helpful addition to the security cams – if you're happy with the camera nosing into your home life.

Smart Video Search is apparently powered by Visual Language Modeling (VLM), which can quickly match text queries to images. If you tend to scroll through your footage a lot, the benefit is potentially saved time – and maybe some helpful reminders about where you left your keys or the cat might be hiding.

Ring's example use cases show that the feature is clearly aimed at those who use the best home security cameras as a broader family camera rather than a burglar deterrent. It suggests you could use it to "figure out who ate the last of the ice cream" or to work out "why the garbage cans are knocked over."

If those sound a little niche, Ring also suggests searches like "red bicycle in the driveway" to track down the moment your kid first learned to ride a bike. Again, the real benefit is going to be for those who are happy to sacrifice privacy for searchable memories.

The Smart Video Search function is rolling out now in public beta to "select customers" and works with all Ring video doorbells and cameras. A wider rollout will occur from November 5 when Ring says it's launching a "revamped subscription service" called Ring Home. That new service will bring features including Smart Video Search and 24/7 recording to Ring Home Premium subscribers, initially only in the US.

Nudging ahead of Nest

While Google beat Ring to announcing AI-powered video search for its Nest home security cameras back in August, Ring has become the first to roll out the feature – if only to a select few beta customers.

Google previously said it would preview a similar feature for Nest later this year ahead of a full release in 2025, so the two rivals are on a roughly similar timeline. Yet the popularity of the feature might depend on how many see value in a searchable family video history.

AI-powered search is being pushed as a powerful replacement for our ailing memories across everything from Google Photos (with its new 'Ask Photos' feature) to Apple Intelligence (like its Memory Movies feature).

That puts these features in a controversial, sensitive spot that could leave many weighing up the potential benefits with the undoubted privacy invasion. Clearly, the tech giants see AI-powered search inside our personal photos and videos as a subscription cash cow, but we'll find out how popular they are when the likes of Ring's Smart Video Search and Google's Nest equivalent get proper rollouts later this year.

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While Apple and Amazon compete in the world of earbuds, smart speakers, and streaming set-top boxes, the two technology behemoths are partnering on the best streaming services. Later in October 2024, Apple TV Plus will be available through Prime Video as an add-on subscription at $9.99 a month (USD).

That’s the same price as a subscription to Apple TV Plus, but the addition to Prime Video is a big one. Amazon’s streaming service and application is already home to a boatload of its own content, but the big appeal – and the company’s hope – is that it’s the one-stop shop for all of your streaming needs. You can already add on subscriptions for Showtime, Max, or Paramount Plus, among others, so Apple TV Plus is a welcome addition.

Prime Video already has subscription add-ons for more than 100 streaming services, so from a billing perspective, it all happens in one place and in one application. Meaning that, if you’re setting up a new TV or traveling, you don’t need to worry about downloading several apps. The big appeal is that it’s all housed within Prime Video, allowing you to have one destination to find the content you want and start streaming quickly… regardless of who’s hosting it.

(Image credit: Apple)

In the accompanying release, Apple’s SVP of Services, Eddy Cue, states: “We want to make Apple TV Plus and its award-winning library of series and films from the world’s greatest storytellers available to as many viewers as possible.” Considering Prime Video and Apple TV Plus are both available in a large area, this seems more about convenience. For folks already in Amazon’s ecosystem, it could be easier to get subscribers streaming Ted Lasso, Shrinking, or The Morning Show – if you’re new to Apple TV Plus, check out our seven top picks to start with on Apple TV Plus here.

Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President and Head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios said in a statement, “As we continue to expand our offering and make it easy for customers to personalize their streaming experience directly in one app, we are proud to welcome Apple TV Plus and its popular and critically-acclaimed shows, films and events to Prime Video.” He also called Prime Video “a first-stop entertainment destination offering a wide selection of premium programming,” both from Amazon’s own studios, streaming live events like Thursday Night Football, and from partners like Apple TV Plus – and that has us thinking about the future.

Could Prime Video be preparing a bundle or super bundle?

(Image credit: Future)

We’ve seen countless bundles emerge in the world of streaming services – the ‘mega Disney bundle gives you Disney Plus, ESPN, and Hulu, while Comcast’s StreamSaver gives Netflix, Apple TV Plus, and Peacock, but it’s only available for select folks. You can even get Disney Plus and Max together. Suffice to say it’s a cluttered space.

But with Apple TV Plus joining Prime Video as an add-on and Amazon clearly aiming to court all of the streaming services into one place, redesigning the app to focus on letting you find the content you want when you want it all while reducing buffering and continuing to harness the power of its infrastructure and backbone – a hat tip to AWS – we have to wonder if a bundle, set of bundles, or even a super bundle is on the horizon.

Prime Video could offer a plan at potentially any price – maybe $15, $25, or $30 a month – giving you access to the larger libraries of Apple TV Plus as well as Max, Paramount Plus, Discovery Plus, Showtime, and Stars. It might not be that far-reaching, but imagine bundling ‘Channels’ – the name Amazon dubs its add-on streaming services – for a compelling price, all available in one app that’s on all the major platforms. Pretty sweet.

There is no guarantee that’s the case, but Amazon’s Prime Video continues to be one to watch as it brings more Channels to the table in a move that seems to aim at increasing convenience and lowering confusion. Either way, it’s nice to see Apple TV Plus joining Prime Video, and it should let you watch Ted Lasso, catch a Thursday Night Football game, watch Messi on MLS Season Pass, and then maybe try out the musical show Schmigadoon!

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Any time I try to explain the merits of Qobuz to a friend who's not quite so obsessed with music quality as I am, I keep coming back to this: Qobuz does things in hi-res for everyone, and it has been doing things a little differently since 2007 (although it didn't choose to branch out into the US until 2019 I grant you – see 'differently' in my point above). 

And now Qobuz has added Direct Stream Digital (DSD) and Digital eXtreme Definition (DXD) audio formats to its high-fidelity download platform. Beginning today (Thursday, October 10) listeners can enjoy more than 22,500 tracks now available mainly in DSD format, adding to the more than 100 million songs already available on the streaming service.

Yes, that emphatically makes Qobuz one of the best music streaming platforms I know for hi-res audio. Spotify is the popular choice, of course, but popular taste doesn't always echo that of the connoisseur, does it? Qobuz doesn't go in for AI DJs or Wrapped-style roundups. But unlike the big green streaming machine, it does offer hi-res music in abundance, along with human-curated playlists, a download store you don't have to be a member to use (although you get up to 60% discounts if you do have a subscription), and an online community forum called Qobuz Club that's nearly 18 months old filled with actual humans giving each other advice, kudos and tips.

Intrigued? Excellent, feel free to discover Qobuz' DSD catalog and its DXD catalog DXD catalog – you're very welcome. 

Why you need DSD audio in your life

We've got an audio file format explainer if you need further clarification, but in a nutshell, DSD and DXD are high-resolution audio formats that are distinctly different from the traditional PCM system used in formats like WAV, FLAC, ALAC, and AIFF. Why? Sony and Philips actually co-designed DSD in the 1990s as an archival format (imagine warehouses of cassette tapes, all gradually going back to nature) based on 1-bit Sigma Delta Modulated (SDM). 

So where CD-quality is often said to refer to "16-bit recordings", DSD only ever uses "single-bit" values, at a sampling rate of 2.8224 MHz. This is 64 times that of 44.1 kHz, aka CD audio sampling rate, but with 1-bit samples instead of 16-bit. DSD is the format used for Super Audio CD (SACD) releases (hey, they were big for a moment), and many CD players support SACD now – although not all. 

Other high-resolution audio formats, like PCM, sample sound at rates up to 192,000 times per second (192 kHz). DXD pushes this even further, sampling at 352,800 times per second, offering even greater detail. However, DSD goes beyond both, with an astonishing 2.8 million samples per second. So, it's good quality? Yes, although it also can make for pretty big file sizes – and I love the detail I hear in them. 

If you've got (or are considering getting) one of the best hi-res audio players to make the commute easier, you'll want to get the most out of it with some hi-res music. Prefer to listen at your desk? A good headphone DAC plugged in to your laptop and a set of the best wired headphones or best wired earbuds is the way to go. Cue up a hi-res Qobuz album and boom, you're ready to unlock the joys of audio as you've rarely heard it – and if you're downloading, there's no need to worry about wi-fi. 

Know this: for the music portion of this recipe, I cannot recommend Qobuz's hi-res catalog highly enough.

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Intel announced its newest desktop processors this week, the Intel Core Ultra 200 series, which is the first desktop processor with a built in NPU for AI workloads.

The new processor series, previously known by its codename, Intel Arrow Lake, has been entirely rearchitected to focus on efficiency and performance-per-watt and features the same multi-module die architecture as Intel Meteor Lake laptop processors.

The new processors are a major change for Intel's desktop portfolio, featuring new performance and efficiency core architecture.

The new Skymont efficiency cores have a claimed 32% instruction-per-clock (IPC) increase over the previous generation Gracemont cores featured in Intel Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh.

Intel also says that its Lion Cove performance core architecture has a 9% IPC uplift over its previous-gen Raptor Cove performance cores.

In addition to the new P-core and E-Core architecture, the new Core Ultra 200 series processors will feature Intel Xe-LPG graphics architecture, the same architecture that powers Intel's Arc Alchemist graphics cards.

This gives the CPU's integrated GPU powerful new hardware-accelerated ray tracing support, as well as Intel XeSS support built right into the CPU.

While this won't replace the best graphics cards in a desktop system, for more budget-oriented desktops or all-in-one PCs, the new Core Ultra 200 series processors will bring significantly better graphics performance than the iGPU found in Intel Raptor Lake processors currently on the market.

The Core Ultra 200 series will also be the first desktop processors to feature integrated neural processing capabilities that previously required a dedicated graphics card. And while the 13 TOPS NPU in the Intel Core Ultra 200 series isn't as powerful as the recently released Intel Lunar Lake laptop processors, for AIO desktops, this NPU will empower a number of new features that simply aren't possible on a previous-gen Intel desktop chip.

The entire chip architecture is capable of 36 TOPS spread across the CPU, NPU, and iGPU, and the sky is the limit when you factor in dedicated GPUs, which have much more powerful neural network capabilities.

The new processors will go on sale on October 24, with five SKUs available at launch.

Significantly improved power efficiency without sacrificing performance

(Image credit: Intel)

One of the biggest issues with the past few generations of Intel desktop processors has been their relatively high power consumption. The Intel Core i9-14900K, the best processor of the previous generation, regularly pulled down more than 300W of power during intensive workloads.

While this translates into best-in-class performance (as well as record-breaking speeds in excess of 6.0 GHz out of the box), for many this level of performance wasn't worth the extra investment needed in terms of cooling and PSU support.

In terms of performance, recent benchmark leaks have shown that the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor likely won't beat the gaming performance of the previous-gen Core i9-14900K, but it will come within a hair of that previous-gen performance at a substantially lower TDP.

Intel says that the new flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor will deliver about 8% better single-core performance over the Core i9-14900K, and about 4% better performance than the recently released AMD Ryzen 9 9950X.

In terms of multi-core workloads, the new Core Ultra 285K will deliver up to 15% faster performance over the 14900K, and up to 13% better performance over the Ryzen 9 9950X. The latter is especially notable as the 9950X features two threads per core, compared to the single thread per core of the Intel Core Ultra 200 series.

Intel says it will be able to deliver this performance at substantially lower power. For lightly-threaded workloads like Zoom calls, the new Core Ultra 9 285K will use up to 58% less power, with up to 42% less power on intensive single-core tasks like video and 3D rendering (as tested in CineBench R24).

Intel says that the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K will be able to deliver about 95% of the gaming performance of the Intel Core i9-14900K with up to 188W lower power consumption and about 15° C lower temperature, meaning a quieter system with a smaller cooling solution.

A new chipset means a new motherboard socket

(Image credit: Intel)

While there is going to be a lot of excitement around the new Intel Core Ultra 200 series processors, there is also going to be some pain for those hoping to upgrade from a previous-gen system.

The new Core Ultra 200 series processors will require the new Intel 800 series chipset on LGA 1851 socket motherboards, which are going on sale this month from major manufacturers like NZXT, MSI, Asus, and more.

If you have a 12th-, 13th-, or 14th-Gen Intel system, you'll need to buy a new motherboard as well as the new processor. And since the new chip design will require different CPU cooler mounting, your existing CPU will need new mounting hardware to ensure that it is cooling the chip effectively.

What you get for the new chipset, however, is more maximum memory capacity (192GB, with support for 48GB DDR5 RAM modules, integrated WiFi 6E and Thunderbolt 4 support (with WiFi 7 and Thunderbolt 5 support as discrete add-in components), and enhanced overclocking with 16.67MHz stepping for more precise tweaking and stable performance.

Can the Intel Core Ultra 200 series keep AMD at bay?

(Image credit: Intel)

The Intel Core Ultra 200 series processors come at a good time for Intel, as the new processors will be able to blunt any residual momentum AMD built up with its earlier Ryzen launch a couple of months ago.

AMD's recent Ryzen 9000-series launch also wasn't the best, as the new chips have been met with some disappointment, especially from enthusiasts who were hoping for significant performance gains over the well-received Ryzen 7000-series processors.

Those same enthusiasts will likely be just as disappointed with the Intel Core Ultra 200 series, and Intel is already tempering performance expectations.

Users shouldn't expect 15-20% better performance gen-on-gen as we saw with the 13th-gen Intel Raptor Lake chips, but I've extensively tested, retested, and tested all of these chips yet again for old time's sake, and the only people who would even notice the performance improvements from the last-gen processors are people like me who are obsessing over CPU benchmarks.

(Image credit: Intel)

For everyday users, the performance of the Intel Core Ultra 200 series will be more than enough for their needs, and the energy efficiency of these new chips—assuming they live up to Intel's claims—will make smaller form factor PCs more powerful and make larger desktop systems more efficient, which will ultimately save users money in long-term energy costs.

I've long argued that AMD, Intel, and Nvidia needed to call a truce on the performance race (which was far more about industry bragging rights than actual value for customers) and focus more on making their products more efficient and practical.

While I am just now finishing up my Ryzen 9000-series reviews, I can tell you that AMD's latest chips won't blow the roof off your PC any more than the Ryzen 7000-series will performance-wise, but the new Ryzen chips deliver better performance at a much lower power draw.

Intel's Core Ultra 200 series, then, is making the right move at the right time, since Intel would have been ill-served by releasing even more power-hungry chips that delivered more high-end performance that very few people would actually need, even for very resource-intensive workloads like video editing or gaming.

With the Intel Core Ultra 200 series, along with the recent launch of Intel Lunar Lake, Intel has an opportunity to stem some of its financial bleeding that has been dominating the news in recent months, giving it a stable foundation to try and claw itself back to its previous position as an industry leader. Whether it will succeed remains to be seen, but if the Intel Core Ultra 200 series delivers on its promise, Intel will be off to a good start.

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Nintendo has released a day-one update for its adorable new device, the Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo.

Earlier this week, instead of announcing the long-rumored Nintendo Switch 2, the Japanese company unveiled its new hardware, an interactive alarm clock that detects movement and plays sounds to make waking up more bearable.

Now, Nintendo has released the device's first software update, which aims to add improvements to the system. With Version 2.0.0, Alarmo now features a brand-new mode called Moderate Mode, a new Records feature that will display if you go to bed on time, as well as a new max distance of 50cm for King/Super King size beds.

Nintendo noted that the users will receive a notification if a system update is available. All they have to do is press the 'Notification Button' when the envelope icon is displayed on Alarmo to see recent notifications. You can check out the full patch notes below.

Alarmo is now available to purchase for $99.99 / £89.99. If you're thinking about getting your hands on one, you can check out our Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo buying guide.

Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo - Version 2.0.0 Patch Notes

• Added Moderate Mode as a new mode option.
• Added Movement Records as a new Records feature.
  - This data will automatically display in Records if you go to bed within your set bedtime.
  - You can set this to On or Off in the Records menu on the clock.
• The clock's distance from the bed can now be set to 50cm max for King/Super King size beds.
• When a sensor zone check is run, an estimated position of movement will now be displayed.
• General system stability improvements to enhance the user's experience.

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Google and Microsoft may be pushing AI advancements with their Gemini and Bing chatbots, but when it comes to web browsers Chrome and Edge might be trailing behind a lesser known alternative following a new content drop. We’re of course talking about Opera One, which just got a new AI tab management tool to help those of you who currently have far too many open.

The Opera One assistant Aria can be used like other AI chatbots – using prompts to generate written responses like a content plan for your next stream or an on-the-fly DnD character – and it can also help manage your actual web browsing. Which is where the newly added Tab Commands come in.

You can ask Aria to help group your tabs so they’re better organized, linking together tabs based on the website, or you can ask Aria to close all but certain tabs – like those long-forgotten pages you haven’t visited in a day.

And best of all, Opera says these new tab commands won’t sacrifice your privacy if you try them out. According to Opera only the prompt is ever processed by servers, no information about the tabs themselves leaves your device.

(Image credit: Opera) How to use Opera AI tab management

Unfortunately the new feature isn't available in the public or mobile release of Opera One, but it's not too much hassle to give it a try today if you don't want to wait for it.

You’ll need to download the developer stream of Opera for desktop. Just head to official page and hit the button, you don't need any developer credentials to give it a whirl.

Once you’ve installed the Developer version of Opera One you can access the AI tab management tools either by opening the Command Line (by Ctrl + / on Windows and Cmd + / on Mac) or right clicking a tab and selecting ‘AI Tab Management’ if you have five or more tabs open.

There's no word yet on when similar abilities will make it to Opera's rivals, but given that AI is the main focus for so much oif the tech industry we wouldn't be surprised if other entires in our best web browser list started to follow Opera One's lead.

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Claustrophobia and barely contained panic were my two overriding emotions as I experienced Apple’s first-ever immersive narrative short film on its Vision Pro mixed reality headset.

The aptly titled Submerged, which arrives on Vision Pro headsets around the world today, tells the harrowing 17-minute tale of a World War II submarine tasked with tracking ships in enemy waters.

If you’re even remotely a World War II history buff or film fan, you’ve heard of or seen tales like this before but I doubt you've seen it in this fashion.

Written and directed by award-winning director Edward Berger, the film tells a tight tale of a submarine crew under siege. It’s remarkable not necessarily because the story is new or nuanced but because of how it employs immersive video techniques to put you in the middle of the action.

When I watched the film, I could look around the tight cabin – an expertly built set that, owing to the Vision Pro’s high-resolution displays and the close confines – used all metals to make the recreation remarkably realistic.

The story starts slowly to, perhaps, help introduce you to the main protagonist, crewman James Dyson (expertly played by Jordan Barton), his shipmates, and the mundanity of their existence some 400 ft below the surface of the sea.

One thing I noticed was how Berger switched back and forth between using the 360-degree view capabilities of a VR headset (all shot on Apple’s proprietary camera) like the Vision Pro, and pulling the focus in tightly to direct your gaze. The closeups of Barton were tight enough that I could make out the pores on his face.

(Image credit: Apple)

I often find the experience of watching a movie in Vision Pro calming almost to the point of sleepiness. As the early minutes of the short film plugged along, I found my attention waning – that is, until the ship was struck by something and shook wildly. I was so startled that I almost jumped off the couch I was sitting on.

From that moment forward, the film seemed to press in on me and its characters. I enjoyed Berger’s varied propositioning of the camera. At one point a 20-ft torpedo was essentially loaded into my chest – at least from my point of view. At another, the main character was staring warily right into my eyes.

When one of the torpedo tubes burst open and flames and sparks formed overhead, all hell broke loose. Within seconds there were geysers of water shooting into my and the main character’s faces.

As the water poured in and rose around us – yes, I soon felt like a part of this – my unease grew. It was clear the water was just below my nose. I’m a little claustrophobic in real life so I was soon repeating a mantra of “no no no no” in my head. To achieve some of this effect, they shot the film in a giant custom-built tank and in open water where they slowly submerged some parts of the set.

There’s virtually no exposition so I never entirely understood how [spoiler alert] the enemy found them, attacked, and eventually destroyed their sub. Miraculously, all the crewmen survived. This being an Apple immersive film, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple is still mainly interested in delivering relatively brief immersive experiences. It’s queued up a new NBA All-Star weekend movie that, while just four minutes or so long, truly puts you in the middle of the three-day event. I don’t even follow basketball but found it entertaining (the basketball to my face was a nice touch).

Apple is also lining up more Adventure and Elevated episodes, including one for Maine. There are more concert experiences on the way, like one from The Weekend and another from R.A.E.

I’ve enjoyed most of my immersive experiences and, if you have a Vision Pro, it’s one of the coolest ways to use your mixed-reality headset. Are they and this entertaining and somewhat anxiety-inducing film reason enough to spend $3,500 for a Vision Pro? I’ll leave that up to you.

I naturally had a lot of questions about the creation of this immersive, short film, so I turned to the director Edward Berger, who also directed the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front, for a deeper look at how he created Submerged and the choices he made to bring it to Vision Pro. Our conversation has been edited and shortened for clarity.

A conversation with the director

I saw the behind-the-scenes video short, and what I noticed is that during the making of the film, you appeared to be wearing the Vision Pro headset. So I guess I was curious if that was designed so you would have a feed and know exactly what the scene was going to play out like for people who were wearing headsets themselves.

Berger: In our shooting experience, we designed the pipeline so that we were able to watch the take through the Vision Pro and experience life as the actors were doing it.

I started changing my habit a little bit during production because you learn your brain rewires very quickly to the Apple Vision Pro. It learns the tools, it learns the visuals, it learns the techniques, very quickly how it feels, what what you can use. And so maybe halfway through the shoot, I sort of alternated between just watching the actors on my monitor, [we had] two monitors. One was just the field division and one was the entire 180 degrees sort of whatever was in the frame everywhere.

So, I watched those just to – sometimes it felt a little bit more direct to me and I could imagine the effect that I would have in the Apple Vision Pro because I had learned it within the previous three weeks of using this tool.

Were there any technical surprises as you were preparing to do this or even as you were doing it?

Absolutely. I mean, not surprises so much because we tested it extensively, but certain things that we knew, we're gonna have to push the limit here in terms of movement, camera movement. How much can you shake it? What kind of dolly moves, crane moves can you make? Can you do a three-axis move, or is it better just to move on one axis? Just do push-ins or trackbacks or things like that.

So just all these things you need to test to know how is it gonna feel when you put on the put on the glasses, but also, you know, very quickly it became clear to us, okay, well where are we gonna hide the equipment? You know, where are we gonna put the lights? Where are we gonna put the microphones? Very quickly we realize, okay, we're gonna have to integrate everything into the set.

The set looked great, by the way. It looked looked realistic. Had you ever shot a VR film before?

No. First experience, first stereoscopic experience. I'd never even put on any VR glasses. I mean, except for in a museum, maybe for a few minutes, when there's a long line behind a view, so it was a wonderful way of getting to the technology diving into it, exploring ways of telling a story in a different way.

Do you now own a Vision Pro?

Absolutely, and I use it a lot. It's a great great way to watch movies.

How long was the entire shoot?

I think we shot for 10 days. Tested maybe for a week and then shot for 10 days.

It sounds like it took more planning maybe than a traditional movie because of things like having to hide equipment.

Yeah, it did take a lot of planning. It took quite a while – but you know, also we had a tight timeline. So in a way, it was like we had to work around the clock to make this film to be able to premiere it right now for you. I mean, we shot it in April and it has a long post-production process. Yeah, a lot of planning, but a lot of around-the-clock work as well.

Did you get to show it to Tim Cook?

I mean, I know he watched it. I wasn't present in the room when he watched it.

With the amount of preparation and the way you had to manage things, was there any room for improvisation?

No. I'm not, in general, I'm not a big fan of improvisation. I like movies where I can see that the filmmaker has put a lot of thought into the design of it, into the making of it. To then react on the day, I don't call improvisation where I said, okay, let's make it better. We have this shot planned, but actually it would be much better from here with the actors doing this, let's react to that. But I like when movies are well thought through and precise and so I'm not the right person to ask that question.

I'm sure there's somebody else, an improvisational filmmaker who will put the Apple Vision Pro to great use.

I noticed in the shooting in the movie that sometimes I could look around and see a lot of stuff, and other times my view was directed, narrowed in a way focused. So I was just curious how you decided to make that choice where sometimes we were experiencing it fully and sometimes we were just like – the main character was really in our face and that was kind of what you saw. If you look to the edges, they were kind of darkened.

It is. I mean, it's in a way like in a traditional movie, I would say it's the use of a closeup. When you say, okay, I really want it to have an emotional impact for the viewer, have them be very close to our character to experience what they are experiencing. And so you direct the eyes, the gaze like that, but usually, I mean, this device, the great thing is that the audience can design their own experience.

It's almost like theater in a way. You have very wide shots, not your field of vision necessarily, but to the left, right, up and down, there's a lot beyond the frame that you can see, and hear, and to then use that entire frame, the entire 180 degrees to fill it with sound or other action like a bursting pipe or steam coming somewhere, was super interesting to us, and therefore you also need more time to explore these things. You can let the shots linger so that you, Lance, can look around, you know, that we can give you the time and space to do that.

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If you logged in for work this morning and found you couldn't access your emails - don't worry, it wasn't just you - Microsoft Outlook had a major blip today.

Thousands of users across the world reported issues with the email service, with complaints of failed launches, memory-intensive running and more.

Microsoft has found a solution, and is urging users to refresh or restart their Outlook instance - you can read all the advice below...

Users began reporting issues with Microsoft Outlook around 9am ET, with reports rising as more and more people log on for work.

The latest figures from outage tracking site DownDetector show a sharp spike in reports throughout the day.

(Image credit: DownDetector)

Microsoft has acknowledged the issue, saying it is attempting to replicate it internally in order to find out more...

We've identified a potential memory management issue which may be responsible for causing impact. We're obtaining memory dumps and logs from Outlook client telemetry data for analysis to determine our next steps. For more information, see MO907654 within the admin center.October 10, 2024

The issue was initially thought to only affect users in Europe (with Microsoft's own tweet even stating this) - but as this DownDetector heat map shows, it is now spreading across the US, as people log in to work for the day.

(Image credit: DownDetector)

Reports have now topped the 2,000 marker, which means it is continuing to grow - we're still waiting on the latest update from Microsoft though...

The end may be in sight - we're seeing a slight drop in reports, and over on Twitter, the complaints are dwindling for sure...

(Image credit: DownDetector)

However it seems like Microsoft itself is still struggling to find a concrete fix, with its latest tweet saying it is "focused" on trying to find out what has gone wrong....

We're focused on isolating the source of a potential memory management issue which may be responsible for causing impact. We're working with organizations and are replicating the issue internally to develop a mitigation. For more information, see MO907654 within the admin center.October 10, 2024

We may finally have a breakthrough!

Microsoft says it is about to roll out a possible solution, having hopefully identified the issue - let's see how this goes....

We’re working on a potential solution and are preparing to apply a targeted configuration update that we suspect will alleviate the impact. For more information, see MO907654 within the admin center.October 10, 2024

We have a fix! Microsoft has confirmed it has a solution, and users should restart or refresh their Outlook sessions - hopefully this works.

We've applied a config change and telemetry confirmed we've mitigated impact. Users should refresh/restart their Outlook sessions. For more information, see MO907654 within the admin center.October 10, 2024

Initial feedback looks good, and outage reports on DownDetector are falling, so this could well be the end of the Outlook outage - if you're still having trouble, drop us a line on news@techradar.com - we'll stay vigilant for a little while longer to see if anything else happens!

Mozilla has just patched a major vulnerability in its Firefox browser that was apparently being abused in the wild.

In a short security advisory, the company said it discovered a use-after-free vulnerability in Animation timelines.

This bug, tracked as CVE-2024-9680, does not yet have a severity rating, but is being abused to achieve remote code execution (RCE), which means crooks can use it to deploy malware on vulnerable devices, and possibly even take them over, entirely.

Drive-by, XSS, and more

"We have had reports of this vulnerability being exploited in the wild,” Mozilla said in the advisory, adding both Firefox and Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) are vulnerable, so users are advised to patch to these versions immediately:

Firefox 131.0.2
Firefox ESR 128.3.1, and
Firefox ESR 115.16.1.

There are currently no reports on who, or how, is exploiting this bug, but looking at similar recent issues, there are several ways the vulnerability could be abused, including a watering hole attack targeting specific websites, or a drive-by download campaign that tricks people into visiting the wrong website.

Browsers are an indispensable part of every computer these days, and as such, they are basically omnipresent. This makes them an extremely popular target for cybercriminals looking for a way onto a network and into a device. Firefox, with more than 250 million monthly active users, is one of the most popular products in its category, having been downloaded more than 2 billion times globally.

By hosting vulnerable code, the browser allows threat actors to conduct, among other things, drive-by download attacks. Hackers can inject malicious code into websites or ads they previously compromised. When a user visits such a site, they download malware without even realizing.

Other types of attacks made possible via compromised browsers include cross-site scripting (XSS), buffer overflows, and man-in-the-middle attacks.

Via The Hacker News

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Halloween is not far away now – it’s just a few short weeks until spookiness abounds – but if you want a real scare, this rumor of Nvidia’s potential pricing for RTX 5000 graphics cards is truly frightening.

What’s nothing short of a shocking revelation – add seasoning, as with any leak – comes from Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID) on YouTube, but in fairness, it also has a bag full of caveats in tow, which we’ll come on to shortly.

But first, the rumored prices themselves, which apparently come from one of the leaker’s best sources for Nvidia info.

All of this is US pricing – though it’ll be theoretically proportional to this wherever you live, plus the ever-present import charges and relevant taxes – and we’re told that the RTX 5090 will land at between $1,999 and $2,499. MLID further observes that the likelihood is that it’ll be closer to the latter, than the best-case scenario – yikes, in a word.

With the RTX 5080, Nvidia is supposedly looking at $1,199 to $1,499, again with more likelihood of a $1,300 or more asking price. And apparently when it comes to the RTX 5070 – which, as per other rumors today, MLID says has 12GB of VRAM – Nvidia might plump for between $599 and $699.

We’ll come back to discuss those prices in a moment, but the leaker has a few other details to share, including that the launch of these graphics cards is scheduled for early 2025, and not late 2024 as some past rumors had indicated. Pretty much all signs are pointing to a CES 2025 launch at this stage.

In terms of performance, MLID also adds that the RTX 5070 is expected to offer similar frame rates to the RTX 4070 Ti in rasterization (non-ray tracing), perhaps a touch faster, and it will only be meaningfully better than that last-gen model in ray tracing (where the new Blackwell GPU could be maybe 10% to 20% faster). Remember, that’s the plain 4070 Ti version, not the Ti Super.

Analysis: Let Nvidia know – if this rumor is right, it’s so, so wrong

This rumor is pouring more misery on the disappointment around the RTX 5070’s spec, reinforcing the 12GB of VRAM speculation, and suggesting a price to performance ratio that’s galling... to put it mildly.

The best-case scenario for the RTX 5070 appears to be a graphics card which clearly lacks in VRAM, and doesn’t offer much above the RTX 4070 Ti in many games, and yet carries the banner forward for excessive pricing, matching the RTX 4070 in that respect. The latter GPU also came in at $599, a 20% generational price hike compared to the RTX 3070 at launch – and indeed Nvidia might even push it a hundred bucks further up the pricing ladder with the 5070.

The RTX 5090 pushing north of two grand – maybe a long distance north – is another daunting prospect, and one which could guarantee Blackwell GPUs a frosty reception (or indeed a downright frigid one). Ditto for the RTX 5080 with its 16GB of VRAM, though we’ve heard predictions that this might tip $1,200 before.

Okay, so let’s put the brakes on for a moment. As MLID makes clear, these are just prices Nvidia is (supposedly) considering currently, and they’re far from set in stone. Indeed, the leaker raises the prospect that part of this contemplation could be wrapped up in the expectation of these prices leaking, in order to gauge the reaction.

Does Nvidia really need to guess what the reaction to these Blackwell pricing rumors might be, though? As is noted by MLID, the feedback from retail partners has been that these theorized price points are nothing short of disastrous.

What can we do, then, in this situation? Well, it’s obvious – everyone needs to take to their favorite social media outlets or forums and make their feelings known. We can but hope Nvidia will listen, and maybe readjust things.

For us, the RTX 5070 performance and pricing rumors as they stand don’t make any sense – so we’re hoping this pans out very differently.

Sadly, we can actually well believe the RTX 5090 speculation – mainly because Nvidia can afford to charge a massive premium on these kind of flagship graphics cards.

With the focus of the GB202 chip being heavyweight AI GPUs, where the real profits are, Team Green may not want to make that many Blackwell GeForce flagships anyway. Given that, pricing them stratospherically is kind of a no-brainer in that there’ll be a hardened core of enthusiast buyers that will pick up these graphics cards whatever the cost (within some kind of vague, remotely sane ceiling – and Nvidia is pushing it with 2.5K it has to be said). Really though, if priced like this, the graphics card should be a Blackwell RTX Titan, rather than a 5090.

Broadening our perspective, perhaps one of the biggest problems with all of this might just be if Nvidia’s pricing pans out along the lines suggested here, it leaves a whole lot of room for AMD to be less competitive, price-wise, with RDNA 4 graphics cards when they also arrive early in 2025. It takes all the fire out of that battle, and in this case, everyone loses (or looks to Intel Battlemage for salvation: a somewhat forlorn hope, perhaps, especially as Arc’s 2nd-gen may be budget level only – not that this sector of the GPU market couldn’t use the help, we might add).

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Marriott International has agreed to pay a huge sum to settle cybersecurity-related charges brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Fines aside, it also agreed to implement a more robust IT program and grant its customers better ways to manage their data, following multiple data breaches over the last ten years that have resulted in millions of customer data records being exposed, stolen, and otherwise compromised.

The FTC also argued that Marriott tried to hide the fact that it suffered the breaches, and “deceived consumers by claiming to have reasonable and appropriate data security.”

Robust IT infrastructure

“Marriott’s poor security practices led to multiple breaches affecting hundreds of millions of customers,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC’s action today, in coordination with our state partners, will ensure that Marriott improves its data security practices in hotels around the globe.”

The hospitality chain was charged by the FTC, and after years of back-and-forth, agreed to settle the charges by making certain changes to its systems, and paying a fine. That being said, Marriott agreed to pay a $52 million penalty to 49 states and the District of Columbia.

Furthermore, it will have to implement significant changes to its IT practices: it will have to tell the customers why it’s collecting their data, and is allowed to retain it for only as long as reasonably necessary; it will have to establish, implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program and certify compliance to the FTC annually for 20 years; it will have to allow consumers to review unauthorized activity in their Marriott Bonvoy loyalty rewards accounts; it will have to restore any loyalty points stolen by malicious actors and ultimately - it will have to must provide a link for customers to request deletion of their personal data.

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DJI appears to have all-but confirmed the launch date for the leaked Air 3S drone in a teaser for an event on October 15. And new leaks suggest the mid-range flying camera could be more interesting than originally expected.

The date and times for your gadget diary, according to DJI's social media teaser, are October 15 at 9am ET / 2pm BST, or 12am on October 16 in you're in Australia. That's when DJI's 'Chase the View' event will kick off – and while there are no explicit mentions of drones in the teaser, it does show a camera sensor and aerial view of the northern lights.

We've also seen leaks on an almost daily basis for the DJI Air 3S in recent weeks, including an unboxing video, so the drone is almost certain to land on that date. What's been slightly less expected is that the Air 3S, despite being a smaller 'S' update rather than an Air 4, appears to be more than a minor upgrade.

The #DJIRCTRACK will be great for your #Air3S being able to track above #50km/h, and likely will also work with your #Mini4Pro in the future as the specs reveal. I don't think it will O4 link to the Neo though. As it needs omnidirectional sensors for complicated returns. Cheers pic.twitter.com/10KGRjdWjAOctober 10, 2024

According to the leak, the RC Track accessory will track "moving subjects, such as vehicles and cyclists". It'll also seemingly let you do a lot of things – including takeoff, switching camera angles, setting 'Return to Home' for a predefined location, and landing – that typically need a larger, clunkier controller. Handily, it'll also apparently support voice controls.

There could be good news for existing DJI owners too – Ellens claims that, alongside being able to track objects at speeds of over 50km/h, the RC Track accessory will "likely also work with your Mini 4 Pro in the future". On the downside, it may not work with the smaller DJI Neo, though, as it could require omnidirectional sensors for return-to-home functions.

Should you wait for the Mavic 4?

(Image credit: DJI)

As always with DJI, there's usually another new drone around the corner – and while specifics about a possible DJI Mavic 4 are thin on the ground, there were some leaks in September that suggest that drone could be coming later this year (and perhaps more likely) in early 2025.

While the Air series is DJI's mid-range offering, the Mavics are its flagship for pro photographers and videographers – which typically means more powerful cameras with larger Four Thirds sensors (and higher price tags).

Deciding between the two will likely come down to what kind of camera you need. The latest Air 3S rumors suggest it'll be upgrading its main camera with a larger 1-inch sensor, which will sit alongside its 1/1.3-inch telephoto camera).

If you're an amateur shooter who's looking to shoot epic travel snaps and videos, the incoming Air 3S will likely be more than enough – and could well land in one of the top spots in our guides to the best drones, barring any major technical clangers.

Either way, DJI's event on October 15 will be well worth tuning into for fans of flying cameras – and we'll be bringing you all of our early thoughts as soon as it takes off.

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Nikon has announced an entirely new series of binoculars, called Stabilized, with two new models to choose from; Stabilized 10x25 S and Stabilized 12x25 S. The key selling point is the image stabilization tech inside, which promises an 80% steadier image than comparable binoculars, along with Nikon's optical know-how in this field.

Nikon is a prominent name in binoculars, with a huge range of binoculars covering all types, budgets and magnifications. Now it adds its Stabilized range, which can counter vibrations caused by hand movement by up to 80% for a clearer, judder-free view.

Judder is a real pain when viewing at such high magnifications that binoculars offer, and can cause eye strain especially over extended periods of observation. A stabilized image is, therefore, a godsend, whether your observations are of stationary landmarks, if you're tracking the movement of a bird in flight or if you're panning with wildlife on the move.

Optical stabilization – which means the lens elements inside move precisely to counteract vibrations – is powered by two AA batteries, which will provide up to 12 hours of use. Both pairs of binoculars are fitted with an auto power-down function when they're not in use in order to conserve battery life.

The 10x25 S model costs $639.95 / £699, while the 12x25 S model is $649.95 /£719. Both models go on sale on November 12.

Stabilization over AI smarts

(Image credit: Nikon)

Being on the pricier end of the scale, both Stabilized models complement stabilization smarts with high-quality optical performance for viewing distant subjects with clarity, each with a different field of view.

The 10x25 S model has a 283 yds / 94m field of view measured at a distance of 1,000m, while the 12x25 S's field of view is a tighter 236yds / 79m. In short, you can view distant subjects with a closeup clarity. At the opposite end of the scale, both models can focus as closely as 9.8ft / 3m.

Design-wise, both models are compact and fold-down, measuring just 4.1in / 103mm (10x25 S) and 3.9in / 100mm (12x25 S) in length and are lightweight at just 14.3oz / 405g or 13.9oz / 395g respectively. Neither models are waterproof, but Nikon says they offer an extremely comfortable viewing experience with adjustable eyecups and a large focusing ring.

You don't get any AI-subject recognition smarts as we've seen in some extremely pricey new binos hitting the market, like Unistellar's Envision binoculars. However, Nikon's Stabilized binos offer what is possibly the most useful feature of all, a steady viewing experience that could radically improve your wildlife observation experiences.

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When Google launched the Google TV Streamer back in August, some of its features were promised for other Google TV devices too – and one of the best such features has now arrived. Google's AI screensaver generator is now rolling out worldwide.

As always with Google feature updates, the rollout isn't arriving on every device simultaneously. Here's how to see if the feature has landed on your streamer or TV, and where you can find the AI-generated screensavers.

How to find the AI screensavers on your Google TV

(Image credit: Google)

Google has posted a new support document explaining how to access the feature:

• From the Google TV home screen, select Settings > System > Ambient mode.
• Choose what you want to show: Google Photos, Art Gallery or Custom AI Art.

If you don't see the Custom AI Art option, that means the new AI feature hasn't arrived on your device just yet. But if Custom AI Art is there, you can then choose from a gallery of pre-made, AI-generated images or add your own.

You can add new wallpapers in three ways: by providing a descriptive prompt telling Google TV what you want it to create, either by typing it in or by using the microphone in your remote; by using 'Inspire Me' to generate something randomly; or by selecting a particular art style and letting Google TV take you step by step through the rest.

Early results look very impressive, and if you don't like what Google TV has created you can either click on Edit to tweak it or on Generate Again to create a whole new image. Naturally, there's also a Save option you can use to store wallpapers in your gallery, too.

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