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Squarespace website builder review

Squarespace is a top website builder known for its elegant designs and robust features. With over 100 premium, mobile-optimized templates, it’s a favorite for creatives and businesses seeking visually stunning, professional websites.

For

• Built-in email marketing
• Essential e-commerce features with most plans
• Lots of lovely, mobile-responsive templates
• Free trial with no credit card info required
• Helpful link in bio tool
• Free SSL certificate
• Helpful 24/7 customer support and well-supplied knowledgebase
• A solid set of features

Against

• Can't switch templates without starting from scratch
• No telephone support
• Low level of customization

GoDaddy website builder review

GoDaddy Website Builder is a popular choice for beginners, offering a user-friendly interface and quick setup. With customizable templates and integrated marketing tools, it’s designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs create functional websites with ease.

For

• 30-day free trial
• 24/7 phone and live chat support
• AI-powered tools for website optimization
• Easy-to-use editor
• Solid range of simple customizations
• Over 100 good-looking templates to choose from
• Marketing and SEO tools included

Against

• AI-generated sites lack creativity and individual touch
• Limited level of customization
• Ecommerce with top-tier plan only
• No app marketplace for additional integrations

Creating a website is easier and more affordable than ever before. From no-code website builders to finding cheap domains and hosting plans, it seems like you can do it all for a couple of bucks. But, among countless brands, two stand out. Both Squarespace and GoDaddy are well known as two of the best website builders on the market, but with many similar tools and features, it is no surprise potential customers often get confused about which one is best for them.

Squarespace primarily offers a drag-and-drop website builder, dynamic website templates, and even multiple products targetting specific businesses such as dedicated templates for sellers, Bio Sites, creator tools for freelancers/ influencers, and SEO tools for digital marketers.

GoDaddy's primary business is the sale of domains, and not very long ago, it started providing additional services like website building, logo making, and more. But this isn’t to say that GoDaddy isn’t a strong competitor in the website building space. In fact, in a short time, it has become one of the key players with powerful tools that are comparable to the likes of Squarespace.

In this guide, we take a look at the most important areas of website building and offer a comparison between what is offered by the two players. The goal isn’t to give a generic answer to ‘which is the best website builder’, but instead provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision on which platform best suits your unique needs and goals.

Squarespace vs GoDaddy: Pricing

(Image credit: Squarespace)

Squarespace pricing is straightforward, starting with the Personal plan. For $16/month (billed annually) you get features like a custom domain, SSL security, unlimited bandwidth, and Squarespace AI.

If you need more, the Business plan for $23/month adds advanced website analytics, free invoices, promotional pop-ups, banners, and a nominal 3% transaction fee on sales. For ecommerce, the Basic Commerce plan at $27/month includes customer accounts, product waitlists, and low stock alerts and the Advanced Commerce plan adds advanced shipping, discounts, and abandoned cart recovery for $52/month.

You can also save on your Squarespace subscription by signing up for an annual plan over monthly billing and using one of the best Squarespace promo codes at checkout.

(Image credit: GoDaddy)

GoDaddy, on the other hand, starts with the Basic plan at $9.99/month, ideal for small businesses that need SSL, unlimited social media platforms alongside unified inbox and website chat. On top of this, the Standard plan adds additional marketing tools like built-in SEO and social posts for $11.99/month.

Next up, the Premium plan at $14.99/month includes all the benefits of the Standard plan, plus recurring appointments. Lastly, if you just want to build an online store, the Ecommerce plan at $24.99/month is the best choice as it covers all the essentials like product listings, shipping, and abandoned cart recovery.

My Verdict: Squarespace is a premium option with higher pricing, ideal for businesses and creatives needing strong design and e-commerce features. GoDaddy offers more affordable, simple plans, perfect for beginners or businesses looking for a quick and easy website setup.

Squarespace vs GoDaddy: Setup & page editor

(Image credit: Squarespace)

Squarespace’s setup and editing process are both minimalist and visually appealing. With a Fluid Engine drag-and-drop editor, Squarespace offers real-time previews of your edits and even offers many AI features to improve your website. You get dedicated theme patterns, tons of templates distributed on an industry basis, and limited yet versatile font options to fulfill your brand’s persona. If you plan on running an online store, Squarespace has dedicated e-commerce themes and well-organized sections for payments, shopping carts, and products.

(Image credit: GoDaddy)

GoDaddy’s layout may be less visually appealing, but its editor is simpler than Squarespace's, particularly for non-technical users. With a guided walkthrough to set up your site, you can add pictures, design pages, etc., using the swipe-to-style editor both from your desktop or even your phone. Plus, GoDaddy Airo AI creates your website, logo, and more by just using details of your business. Likewise, once your ecommerce store is ready, you can upgrade to start selling and connect with top marketplaces like Instagram, Google, Etsy, eBay, Facebook, and Amazon.

My Verdict: Squarespace is perfect if you want a visually-driven, customizable setup, while GoDaddy is better for beginners who value ease of use and speed over advanced design and customization.

Squarespace vs GoDaddy: Ecommerce

(Image credit: Squarespace)

Squarespace lets you send invoices and sell content like online courses, videos, blogs, memberships as well as physical products. Further, you can use your own domain for checkout and connect with different Point-Of-Sale (POS) systems, helping create a seamless experience for your customers.

If you want to go all in with your store, Squarespace provides product reviews for your customers, features for selling your products and services on Facebook and Instagram, limited availability labels, and abandoned cart recovery. On high-tier plans, you get advanced options for shipping, discounts, and access to Commerce APIs.

(Image credit: GoDaddy)

With the GoDaddy Ecommerce plan, you can create dedicated websites to sell products. Just integrate your online store to add products and services, set up payment methods, manage shipping options and return policies, warranties, and guarantees.

Plus, you can highlight featured products, integrate Square, PayPal, and Stripe, and keep subscribers informed about sales, coupon offers, and online events along with email marketing tools. GoDaddy also lets you customize your online store with WordPress and WooCommerce integration.

My Verdict: Both platforms have extensive ecommerce features and support flat-rate, calculated, and free shipping, along with a range of third-party app integrations. In a nutshell, consider Squarespace if you want a neatly designed and stunning-looking online store and GoDaddy if you’re a beginner on a tight budget who just wants to get started with a simple yet effective ecommerce website.

Squarespace vs GoDaddy: SEO tools

When it comes to SEO, both Squarespace and GoDaddy let you edit tags and meta descriptions, add image alt text, customize URLs, and access keyword support. But there are a few things to consider.

Squarespace site comes with a site map using the .xml format, so you don't need to create one manually. Squarespace also lets you add Meta Pixel & Ads for targeted advertising. Plus, you can explore keywords with time filters and access an SEO Checklist making optimizing your site a breeze..

On the other hand, GoDaddy has a step-by-step wizard that guides you through optimizing your homepage, and if you've used it before, you can revisit tasks to refine any page, blog post, or image. Similarly, you can track your site's performance using Google Analytics and return to optimize further as needed.

My Verdict: While Squarespace comes with an integrated sitemap and Meta Pixel for users who prefer simplicity, GoDaddy’s SEO wizard provides a more guided, step-by-step approach for beginners. Since both offer quite basic SEO tools, you can try their free trial to see which one suits your business better.

Squarespace vs GoDaddy: Verdict

Both Squarespace and GoDaddy are solid website builders, but they cater to different needs. GoDaddy is the cheaper and faster option, perfect for those who want to get online quickly without fussing over too many details. It’s great for beginners with its straightforward email marketing process and essential features at an affordable price. GoDaddy’s guided approach is ideal for those who want to get things up and running with minimal hassle.

Squarespace, while more expensive, excels in aesthetics and creative control. Its beautiful templates, drag-and-drop editor, and powerful tools like built-in SEO and automatic sitemaps make it a top choice for creatives, artists, and anyone wanting to build a visually stunning online presence. A generous student discount also makes it a great option for young entrepreneurs and creators looking to save while building something professional.

In the end, if speed, simplicity, and cost are your main concerns, GoDaddy wins. But if you're after elegance, customization, and appealing aesthetics, Squarespace is a better choice.

The Apple Intelligence release date has been leaked, and when Apple said its AI features would arrive in October, it meant… Late October.

According to top insider Mark Gurman in Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, Apple Intelligence’s first wave of AI features will be coming to iPhone, iPad, and Mac on October 28, more than a month after the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro launch.

Apple Intelligence arrives as part of iOS 18.1 and will be accessible on a small selection of the best iPhones including the iPhone 16 lineup and the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. iPhone 15 users will sadly miss out on Apple’s first venture into the world of AI.

While October 28 will see the arrival of Apple Intelligence, it only spells the start of Apple’s AI rollout. This first batch of Apple Intelligence features will include Writing Tools for proofreading and rewriting, Smart Replies to quickly reply to messages, Notification Summaries, Clean Up in Photos, and a redesign of Siri.

A new era

(Image credit: Future / Apple )

Other features like ChatGPT integration, Genmoji, and Image Playground are expected to arrive with iOS 18.2 before the end of the year with Siri’s major Apple Intelligence overhaul due around March 2025.

Apple’s AI rollout has been met with some skepticism considering the iPhone 16 lineup is currently on sale advertised as the ‘first iPhone built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence.’ By the time early adopters finally get their hands on Apple Intelligence, the phones will be over a month old, despite all of Apple’s marketing heavily focused on AI.

It’s also worth noting this October 28 release date will only be for US English, users in the UK who don’t want to change their device language will need to wait until later this year to use Apple Intelligence and EU iPhone owners might not be getting AI features at all.

Our iOS 18.1 Apple Intelligence hands-on will give you all the information you need on what to expect when Apple AI finally becomes available later this month. You can also check out our iPhone 16 Pro review for early impressions on Apple Intelligence.

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The number of attacks targeting critical infrastructure, banking and financial services, government and utilities sectors across Europe and the Middle East has increased 55% in the last four years, new research has claimed.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are particularly worrying, rising by almost a third (30%) in the first half of 2024, compared to the same peiod in the previous year, to a new cybersecurity paper published by NETSCOUT SYSTEMS.

Based on DDoS attack data harvested from 216 countries and territories, 470 vertical industries, and over 14,000 ASNs, the paper argues that hacktivists are one of the key groups to be blamed for the increase in attacks.

Widespread disruptions

With the emergence of the Zergeca botnet, the number of bot-infected endpoints rose by 50%, the researchers further explained, adding that the “continued evolution” of the DDoSia botnet, used by a group called NoName057(16), also played a pivotal role.

The attacks resulted in “widespread disruptions”, NETSCOUT concluded, adding that industries were affected on a global scale. “Service slowdowns or outages can cripple revenue streams, delay critical operations, hinder productivity and significantly elevate organizational risks,” they concluded.

The researchers also added that more than 75% of newly established networks have been involved in DDoS attacks, both as targets, or as unwilling attackers, in the first 42 days of their inception. When splitting off a part of a network to a new ASN, organizations need to keep DDoS protection in mind, NETSCOUT says, adding that assuming automatic protection from upstream service providers can only lead to trouble.

“Hacktivist activities continue to plague global organizations with more sophisticated and coordinated DDoS attacks against multiple targets simultaneously,” said Richard Hummel, director of threat intelligence at NETSCOUT. “As adversaries use more resilient, take-down-resistant networks, detection and mitigation are more challenging. This report gives network operations teams insights to fine-tune their strategies to stay ahead of these evolving threats.”

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2024 might have heralded the new Samsung Galaxy Ring and the long-awaited Oura Ring 4, but a new report says that tech giant Apple isn't planning to join the fellowship anytime soon.

Patents and rumors of an Apple Ring have been swirling for years and the popularity of other discrete fitness trackers on the market makes the industry an enticing proposition.

However, top Apple insider Mark Gurman says that Apple isn't working on one right now, and doesn't have plans to start anytime soon.

Writing in the paywalled email version of his Power On newsletter this week, Gurman revealed that "Apple isn’t actively developing a ring and has no plans to launch one."

But why would Apple pass on the chance to release an innovative new product in an emerging market? There's one simple reason – Apple Watch.

Apple is keeping fitness on the wrist, for now...

(Image credit: Future)

As Gurman notes, introducing an Apple Ring "would detract from the Apple Watch." He reveals that Apple has "no reason to cannibalize a product that still has room to grow and is the envy of the fitness-tracking industry."

While both Samsung's Galaxy Ring and the new Oura Ring 4 are impressive bits of kit, there's not a ton they offer over Apple Watch right now. Both types of device feature broadly similar fitness and health features such as exercise tracking, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and more.

While a ring might be a more discrete bit of kit than the best smartwatches on the market, it's an extra for most people who likely already wear a watch of some description.

The Samsung Galaxy Ring and the Oura Ring 4 also both cost broadly the same as an Apple Watch Series 10, but the latter delivers a more immersive experience thanks to its touchscreen display and features like music playback, calls and messages, and more.

It's possible that smart rings and other more discrete devices could one day surpass the smartwatch as the king of fitness tracking and wearable tech, but right now it seems Apple doesn't have any intention of upsetting its growing smartwatch business.

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Apache's HTTP Server is a critical component for hosting web applications worldwide. Recently, two significant vulnerabilities CVE-2024-40725 and CVE-2024-40898 have surfaced, raising alarms across industries.

These vulnerabilities present a severe risk to organizations that rely on Apache HTTP Server especially the systems using versions 2.4.0 through 2.4.61. There are over 7.6 million instances exposed to potential attacks, experts have said.

According to a recent report from CYFIRMA, while CVE-2024-40725 affects the mod_proxy module of the Apache HTTP Server, CVE-2024-40898 targets the mod_ssl module.

HTTP request smuggling & SSL authentication bypass

HTTP Request Smuggling attacks see an attacker send multiple crafted HTTP requests, which the server misinterprets due to its flawed handling of HTTP headers. The attacker exploits this misinterpretation to bypass security checks. In the case of CVE-2024-40725, the ProxyPass directive, when misconfigured, can make the server vulnerable to this type of attack.

When the ProxyPass directive is enabled with specific URL rewrite rules, it can lead to HTTP Request Smuggling attacks. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to restricted parts of the server, disclose sensitive information, or hijack active user sessions.

The CVE-2024-40898 vulnerability stems from improper SSL client authentication verification. If SSLVerifyClient is not configured correctly, attackers can bypass the SSL authentication mechanism. This allows them to access sensitive systems without requiring a valid client certificate thereby compromising the security posture of affected organizations.

The existence of PoC exploit codes for both vulnerabilities makes it easier for attackers to target organizations that have not yet applied the necessary patches or updated their configurations. These tools allow attackers to send specially crafted SSL requests to affected servers, which can lead to unauthorized access.

There are already discussions about these vulnerabilities on Dark Web forums, where hackers are actively sharing technical details, targeting information, and exploits, signalling a growing interest in exploiting these vulnerabilities in the wild. These discussions indicate that IP addresses of vulnerable systems are actively being circulated, heightening the urgency for prompt action.

These vulnerabilities present a high-level threat to organizations, making it imperative for system administrators to apply patch updates and review configurations immediately. Without proper mitigation, affected servers could become targets for exploitation, compromising both sensitive information and the integrity of critical systems.

To mitigate the risks, the first and most crucial step is to apply the latest patch by updating the Apache HTTP Server to version 2.4.62 or later. This update addresses both vulnerabilities, providing essential fixes to prevent exploitation.

Additionally, a thorough review of server configurations is necessary, particularly within the mod_proxy and mod_ssl modules. Ensuring that the ProxyPass directive and URL rewrite configurations are securely set up will minimize the risk of HTTP Request Smuggling, while properly configuring SSLVerifyClient will prevent authentication bypass attacks.

By deploying a Web Application Firewall (WAF), organizations can filter malicious HTTP and SSL traffic, providing an extra layer of protection against attack attempts. Moreover, conducting regular security assessments, including vulnerability scans, helps proactively identify and address any configuration issues or new vulnerabilities.

Organizations in sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, retail, and technology are particularly vulnerable due to the sensitive data they handle. Geographically, regions such as the United States, Germany, India, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are considered high-risk areas, given the widespread use of Apache HTTP Server in these locations.

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The past few years have been tough for the average consumer. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices have risen by 3%, 5%, and 6% over the last three years. The consumer industry isn’t the only industry impacted either.

Just look at the world of enterprise tech, for example. In November of 2022 — back when the consumer price index was busy setting records of the worst kind imaginable — enterprise tech prices were quietly climbing at a rate 4 times higher than that of overall market inflation. What’s worse, this came at a time when organizations were setting records for average SaaS portfolio size. For a time, 1 in every 8 dollars spent by modern organizations went directly to SaaS costs.

Gathering Economic Storm Clouds Cast Towering Tech Stacks in a New Light

That is, until, some sudden economic headwinds caused the powers that be in the business world to second guess their towering tech stacks (and the eye-watering expenses associated with them). And so, today, we find ourselves in a period of “stack streamlining” — or, for those that view the situation with a bit more vitriol, “trimming the tech fat.”

No matter what you call it, it’s a wise move for most businesses to cast a critical eye on their SaaS expenditures. However, it’s important to remember that not all SaaS solutions are built equally. While some tools undoubtedly fall into the category of fluff, others are downright indispensable. Unfortunately, it’s not always readily apparent which applications fall into which categories.

That’s why, in this article, we’ll take a look at some tips for how to conduct a measured, effective tech audit; and also make the case for why almost anything in the cybersecurity space should be considered absolutely last on the list of expendable enterprise apps in today’s rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape.

As the Consumer Price Index Cools, Enterprise Tech Costs Continue to Climb

Back in 2022, when enterprise tech prices were busy blowing overall consumer inflation out of the water, the eternal optimists of the world were probably reassuring their peers that this would be a flash in the pan. However, over the ensuing 12-month period ending in November of 2024, nearly two-thirds (73%) of all SaaS vendors raised their prices even further, at an average year-over-year increase of over 12%. Worse yet, more than a few vendors made those double-digit price hikes look like modest adjustments. Webflow, for example, hiked the price of their flagship software by a jaw-dropping 23% in 2023 alone.

Although SaaS prices continued to outpace overall market inflation by more than 200% — the size of the average corporate SaaS portfolio reached an all-time high of over 370 applications. However, this highwater mark for enterprise SaaS adoption was short-lived.

Executives Call Bloated Enterprise Tech Stacks into Question

As you’ve probably already imagined, it didn’t take long for the average business decision-maker to look upon SaaS costs (along with practically every other source of capital expenditure) with a critical eye — and they weren’t exactly pleased with what they saw.

Just as SaaS portfolios were reaching all-time highs in size, another study from the same period revealed that less than half (44%) of companies’ SaaS applications were actually being regularly used by employees. At the same time, studies showed that the U.S. IT departments were wasting roughly $85B per year on bad tech. Due in part to revelations like these (along with other internal and external forces), by year’s end 2023, the average SaaS portfolio size had suddenly fallen in size by over 10% YoY.

As Your Business Considers Tightening Its Purse Strings, Beware Sacrificing Security Posture

In case you’ve missed it, the past few years have brought about some profound changes in the world of cybersecurity. With massive increases in advanced phishing attacks — such as business email compromise (BEC), spear phishing, and advanced social engineering — along with the arrival of generative AI, deepfakes, and a slew of other cutting-edge threats, CISOs and their teams are feeling the heat, to say the least.

In fact, in Splunk’s 2024 State of Security survey report, when asked what types of cyberattacks are most concerning, “AI-powered attacks” topped the list as the number one most anxiety-inducing type of attack. In the same report, 32% of respondents were most concerned about attackers using generative AI to optimize existing attacks, such as crafting more realistic phishing emails or refining malicious scripts. Another oft-cited concern is the possibility of less skilled, opportunistic hackers exploiting generative AI to drive a significant uplift in social engineering attacks — contributing to the 28% of respondents that worry that generative AI will help adversaries increase the volume of existing attacks.

While I’d argue that this is not the time to skimp on any form of cybersecurity, the fact that email still represents the number one threat vector, playing a role in upwards of 96% of all breaches today, if one slice of your security architecture must be prioritized it ought to be protecting your employees’ inboxes, and, increasingly, security professionals are coming to the conclusion that the only way to effectively fight these new, AI-enabled threats is by leveraging the adaptive intelligence of AI themselves.

Whether Budgets Are Set to Fall or Stall, Security Postures Will Be Put at Risk

As businesses look to assess the worth of various tools in their technology stacks, you will inevitably hear calls for compromise in the form of budget freezes — that is, rather than cutting budgets, simply freezing the current state of one’s stack in order to prevent any further cost increases.

While this may sound reasonable at first blush, not every part of your stack is in a position to be frozen in time. And that holds especially true in the field of cybersecurity. As we cited earlier, the modern threat landscape is changing at breakneck speed — with new, much more advanced (and often AI-enabled) attack types being discovered by the day. In such an environment, simply sticking with one’s legacy security solutions — such as secure email gateways (SEGs) — is often just as problematic as making active cuts; as these types of tools are fundamentally unfit to defend against today’s modern, AI-driven cyberthreats.

At the end of the day, the future of cybersecurity will be a battle between offensive and defensive applications of AI. And as of today, most security professionals are torn as to which side of the battlefield will emerge victorious. In the aforementioned State of Security Report from Splunk, just 43% of respondents felt that AI would benefit defensive capabilities the most, while 45% felt adversaries would win the day with AI. This marks an encouraging uptick from just eight months ago, where a similar report found only 17% of respondents thought AI would advantage defenders.

Strap In, CISOs: Cost-Cutting, Complacency Join AI on the Rapidly-Expanding List of Existential Threats to Organizational Cybersecurity

In 2020 and 2021 — just as remote work, endless Zoom meetings, and the use of sketchy public wi-fi networks at your local Starbucks were becoming facts of life — business leaders across the private sector recognized the very real and immediate need for increased investment in cybersecurity.

And so, for two triumphant years, double-digit budget increases became the norm throughout the field of cybersecurity. But, not for long. According to research from IANS and Artico, by 2023, the average cybersecurity budget increase had fallen to just 6%. And yet, for a sizable percentage of organizations, matters were even worse. In the same study, well over a third (37%) of survey respondents said their organizations’ cybersecurity budgets had either remained flat or were reduced in fiscal year 2023.

While we’ve most certainly seen purse strings tighten as of late, most of today’s analysts are forecasting that tech budgets will in fact continue to grow — rather than contract — over the next 12 to 24 months — albeit at slower rates than we’ve seen in the past.

Perhaps most importantly, cuts and freezes won’t be instituted uniformly across operations. That’s why, as cost-cutting initiatives continue to gain steam, it’s up to the cybersecurity community to make the case to leadership that their budget is one that simply cannot be skimped on — and leading vectors such as email should be bolstered at any costs.

And for those not well-versed in the art of internal advocacy, hopefully this article gives you a good place to start.

We've listed the best secure email providers.

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

Numerous leaks have suggested that the iPad mini 7 is fast approaching, with the most telling sign perhaps being the clearance of iPad mini 6 stock, and now we have a specific date for when Apple’s next mini slate might ship.

According to Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg, the iPad mini 7 could ship on Friday, November 1, following an announcement around the end of October. So in other words this tablet could be announced in just a few weeks, and ship in less than four weeks.

While we’d always take release date leaks with a pinch of salt, Gurman has a solid track record for reporting Apple information, and this isn’t the first time we’ve heard mention of an October Apple event.

So we’d say there’s a high chance this date is accurate – and if so it’s welcome news, as the iPad mini (2021) is long overdue a successor.

No sign of the iPad 11

If you’re interested in new models of other Apple tablets though you’ll probably have to wait until the first half of 2025, when Gurman says Apple might launch new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models, along with the iPhone SE 4.

He makes no mention of new iPad Pro models, but with the iPad Pro (2024) having only landed this year that’s not too surprising. What is slightly more surprising is that there’s also no mention of the iPad 11, despite the current standard iPad model – the iPad 10.9 (2022) – being almost two years old.

So if you’re hoping for a new model in Apple’s base or high-end iPad lines, it looks like you might be waiting a while yet.

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The official Android app for Kaspersky antivirus software have been removed from the Google Play app store in the latest blow for the company.

BleepingComputer notes the move appears to have happened over the weekend, with Kaspersky's developer accounts also disabled and removed following a recent ban by the US government.

"The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security recently announced a variety of restrictions on Kaspersky. As a result, we have removed Kaspersky’s apps from Google Play," a Google spokesperson said.

Kaspersky Android app removed

In a post on its official forums, Kaspersky said it was aware of the issue, and was investigating why its software is no longer available on Google's app store.

"The downloads and updates of Kaspersky products are temporarily unavailable on the Google Play store," a Kaspersky employee posted.

"Kaspersky is currently investigating the circumstances behind the issue and exploring potential solutions to ensure that users of its products can continue downloading and updating their applications from Google Play."

The company said users could still download its apps from alternative app stores, such as Galaxy Store, Huawei AppGallery, and Xiaomi GetApps, or install the apps by downloading the .apk installation file from Kaspersky's website.

The move is the latest problem to hit the security giant, which has faced mounting issues in recent months as it faces US sanctions following concerns over national security. The US has long argued Kaspersky software is at risk of being manipulated by the Russian government to hand over secrets and control of the computers, and ordered a full ban on the sale of its products earlier in 2024.

The Russian firm was added to the US Entity List, which comprises “foreign individuals, companies, and organizations deemed a national security concern,”, with a ban on the sale of Kaspersky products starting July 20, 2024.

Subsequent updates to Kaspersky software also ceased from September 29, but the company did offer free security products and safety tips to its customers for six months.

This was followed by further controversy in September 2024 when Kaspersky customers in the US found their antivirus software replaced without warning with a new solution called UltraAV.

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Deepfake technology is rapidly emerging as AI’s latest ‘Pandora’s box. No longer limited to producing parodic content of politicians (who’ll ever forget the Pope sporting Moncler?), we are now seeing generative AI being actively weaponized, from misleading political deepfakes, clickbait celebrity advertisements, to school children deep-faking explicit pictures of classmates.

As the capabilities of AI tools race ahead of regulation, many are growing concerned of the very real threat it poses. New legislation is coming in – but much of it is too narrow, or too vague to protect people comprehensively. And on the flip side, these new rules have implications that could easily catch out professionals trying to utilize generative AI in legitimate ways.

So, what legal protection in the UK currently exists around deepfake technologies, and what behaviors are prohibited?

The Varieties of Visage

First, it’s important to actually define what makes a deepfake, a deepfake. After all, similarities exist in nature – there’s the old adage that seven people in the world look like you - but to what extent of similarity are you protected by regulation – and where can you slip up as a business? A useful example is the 2019 ruling against vape company Diamond Mist. The business’ adverts included one with the strapline “Mo’s mad for menthol” accompanied by imagery of a male model with a bald head and thick eyebrows.

Mo Farah took to Twitter to complain about the potential confusion, concerned people would think he had endorsed the product. Ultimately, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruled that the advert did indeed gave a “misleading impression”: while ‘Mo’ is a common moniker, the model’s head and eyebrows were “reminiscent” enough of the athlete that viewers would associate it with Mo Farah as one of the most well-known figures in the UK by that name.

Herein lies the crux: while the image wasn’t a deepfake, it was similar enough to confuse viewers, and the same applies to deepfakes. If it’s misleading enough to confuse someone else, you have grounds to consider litigation.

Conversely, as a business, you need to consider all potential interpretations of imagery to ensure you can use generative AI without getting caught up in legal complications. Just because the stock gen-AI photo you’re using to head up a LinkedIn article seems generic, doesn’t mean it is. Voice, gestures, and context are all factors taken into consideration., but ultimately the question is: did it confuse viewers?

Current Legislation around Deepfakes

To date, there is no single piece of legislation within the UK that provides blanket protection against deepfakes. Instead, individuals are protected under an assortment of regulations depending on the nature of the deepfake.

Online Safety Act 

The Online Safety Act has one main provision against deepfakes. While it has been illegal to share intimate or explicit images of someone without their consent since 2015, the Online Safety Act has compounded this ruling to make it illegal to also share intimate AI-generated images of someone without their consent. Crucially, unlike the ruling about genuine intimate content, you do not need to prove that the creator intended to cause distress in the case of deepfake imagery, although it is considered a further serious offence if a sexual intention can be demonstrated. It’s vital to note that this ruling does not criminalize the creation of an explicit deepfake, only the sharing. The Online Safety Act is also primarily focused on removing offensive content; many are concerned that provisions will prove ineffective while the creation of intimate deepfakes continues to be unregulated, while perpetrators escape punishment.

Advertising Standards Agency 

The ASA steps in when advertisements contain misleading content. In terms of deepfakes, this mostly arises in the case of scam adverts or clickbait; it’s unlikely to affect everyday people, and those running businesses should know not to use celebrities, who have usually trademarked their likeness, gestures, and voice, for example.

More interestingly, however, is the grey area of similarity that deepfakes are set to exacerbate. One thing that the Mo Farah case particularly highlighted was that likeness doesn’t need to be identical, it just needs to confuse the viewer enough to create reasonable doubt. With generative AI drawing from copyrighted material, there is now a danger that businesses could accidentally infringe ASA regulations by using gen-AI output that is accidentally similar enough to real-life celebrities to cause confusion. Intent in this case isn’t relevant: all that matters is whether viewers have been misled, and it could land businesses in hot water with the ASA.

Civil Law

The final recourse for UK citizens is under civil law. While there is no specific legislation addressing deepfakes, individuals could seek recourse in the following situations:

• Privacy: a deepfake could be considered a violation of one’s right to privacy, especially if they are able to prove the creator used personal data to create it, which is protected under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. 
• Harassment: multiple deepfakes with intent to cause alarm or distress could form the basis of a harassment suit 
• Defamation: if a deepfake has an adverse effect on one’s reputation by portraying them in a false or damaging way, there is the potential for a defamation case

In such cases, an individual would be best to seek legal guidance on how to proceed.

Future of deepfake legislation

So, where does legislation go from here? Hopefully, forward. The UK government took a considerable step back from the issue in the run-up to the election, but with the EU AI Act leading the way it’s likely we’ll see new regulation coming down the track soon.

The greater issue, however, is enforcement. Between the three bodies we’ve discussed above, the Online Safety Act, the Advertising Standards Agency, and UK civil law, all are centered on regulating output on a case-by-case basis. Currently, the UK has no regulation in place or proposals to input greater safety measures around the programs themselves. In fact, many are celebrating the lack of regulation in the UK following the EU AI Act, hoping it leads to a boon in AI industries.

Current strategies, however, remain inefficient. Victims require legal support to make any headway in cases, and creators continue to escape repercussions. Widespread control of technology is similarly impractical – one only need look at GDPR to get a sense of that. Efforts to do so, such as the EU AI Act, still fail to tackle the problem with open-source generative technologies remaining completely unregulated.

It appears that an independent adjudicator will be required – an Ofcom for AI – but how independent, or effective, this will prove remains to be seen. Let’s just hope that the new Government manage to strike some kind of balance between industry, personal protection, and business innovation.

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Mylio has announced its new platform for personal, family, or business cloud storage needs.

Mylio SecureCloud is available with a base subscription starting at $11.98 per month for 2TB of storage, which the company hopes will make it an accessible option for a wide range of users, from individuals to small businesses.

For those already subscribed to Mylio Photos+, SecureCloud can be easily managed directly within the Mylio Photos app, but the company also provides complimentary personalized setup and backup guidance sessions to help users optimize their media management.

Offline access, fast search, privacy, and a unified library all in one package

Mylio SecureCloud provides offline access to all files, thus internet connectivity is not always needed, meaning it should come in handy for frequent travelers or professionals who need to access important documents or presentations during flights or in areas with limited internet access.

In addition to offline access, Mylio also offers a search tool that enables users to find specific files quickly and efficiently. It supports search with keywords, dates, or advanced features like AI SmartTags, which is designed to locate files across a user's entire media library in seconds.

All data stored within the service is protected by encryption, ensuring that only authorized users can access it, and Mylio SecureCloud ensures data is never used for advertising, AI training, or shared with third parties. For businesses handling sensitive documents, Mylio SecureCloud offers a secure environment for storing and transferring critical files between local devices and the cloud without losing their metadata or organizational structure.

Unlike many other cloud storage services, the platform does not force users to upload all their data to the cloud. Instead, it offers flexible syncing options that allow users to decide what data stays on local devices and what is stored in the cloud.

Powered by Backblaze, Mylio SecureCloud ensures fast and efficient data synchronization. Users can upload high-resolution photos or large video files, ensuring that media is always backed up and available when needed. Moreover, quick recovery options are available in case of data loss or device failure. Media libraries can be accessed across multiple devices and operating systems, including iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows.

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Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

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

NYT Connections today (game #484) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• KING KONG
• WHOOP
• ВЕЕР ВЕЕР
• YAHOO
• DING-DONG
• HAR-HAR
• КОКО
• HOOT
• SKRRT
• BUBBLES
• DODO
• PURR
• YUK
• YO-YO
• VROOM
• GEORGE

NYT Connections today (game #484) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Idiot
• Green: Sounds like a car sounds
• Blue: Laughter noises
• Purple: Great apes (and monkeys)

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #484) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: KNUCKLEHEAD
• GREEN: CAR ONOMATOPOEIA
• BLUE SOUNDS OF LAUGHTER
• PURPLE: FAMOUS PRIMATES

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

NYT Connections today (game #484) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #484, are…

• YELLOW: KNUCKLEHEAD DING-DONG, DODO, YAHOO, YO-YO
• GREEN: CAR ONOMATOPOEIA BEEP BEEP, PURR, SKRRT, VROOM
• BLUE SOUNDS OF LAUGHTER HAR-HAR, HOOT, WHOOP, YUK
• PURPLE: FAMOUS PRIMATES BUBBLES, GEORGE, KING KONG, KOKO

• My rating: Difficult
• My score: Fail

Wow, this was really tough. I failed to solve it – in fact, I failed to solve all but one of the groups – but I don't feel particularly upset with myself, because it was just too difficult.

The one I did get was purple, FAMOUS PRIMATES. This was supposedly the hardest of the four, but I found it far more manageable than the other three (obviously, given that I failed them all). I did make a start on the others – for instance I spotted that CAR ONOMATOPOEIA was probably one, with BEEP BEEP and VROOM, but had never heard SKRRT and thought that HOOT was probably one too. The others all just baffled me a bit, but I doubt I'm the only one to struggle here.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 6 October, game #483)

• YELLOW: TURN TAIL FLEE, LEAVE, RETREAT, WITHDRAW
• GREEN: THINGS CATS DO KNEAD, PURR, SCRATCH, SHED
• BLUE: PAGES ON A WEBSITE ABOUT, CONTACT, HOME, LOGIN
• PURPLE: ___ CHEESE COTTAGE, CREAM, GOAT, STRING

What is NYT Connections?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NYT Strands today (game #218) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Most excellent

NYT Strands today (game #218) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SALE
• STALE
• BLAND
• SHOT
• SCOT
• SLEW

NYT Strands today (game #218) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Good words

NYT Strands today (game #218) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: left, 5th row

Last: right, 7th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #218) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #218, are…

• CHOICE
• GROOVY
• SWELL
• DANDY
• BOSS
• RIGHTEOUS
• HYPE
• SPANGRAM: THATSCOOL

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Who knew there were so many words that essentially mean THAT'S COOL? I guess I did, because I found them all – though I'll admit that I've never used the terms HYPE, RIGHTEOUS, SWELL, GROOVY, CHOICE, BOSS or DANDY myself to describe something that's good. Always just cool.

Anyway, this is a pretty easy Strands puzzle, beyond RIGHTEOUS being annoyingly difficult to spell (that might just be me).

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday 6 October, game #217)

• BACON
• CHICKEN
• TOMATO
• VINAIGRETTE
• GREENS
• EGGS
• SPANGRAM: COBBSALAD

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now nearly 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.

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

Quordle today (game #987) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

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

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

Quordle today (game #987) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #987) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #987) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #987) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• C

• H

• A

• H

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

Quordle today (game #987) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #987, are…

• CAULK
• HALVE
• APING
• HEATH

Hands up if you remember CAULK appearing in Wordle and causing no end of problems soon after that game went viral? I certainly do; I was writing about it for our sister site Tom's Guide at the time and remember being swamped with emails complaining that it wasn't a fair word. It is a fair word, of course, albeit one that you might not be familiar with if you're not into DIY. I'm not, but fortunately I remembered it from then, so was able to find it easily enough here.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #987) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #987, are…

• SMITH
• VIGIL
• THIRD
• FACET

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #986, Sunday 6 October: FUDGE, TENOR, BEGAT, ROUSE
• Quordle #985, Saturday 5 October: ELECT, CROAK, FRISK, JAUNT
• Quordle #984, Friday 4 October: ELFIN, GRAIL, PATIO, RECAP
• Quordle #983, Thursday 3 October: TENTH, REMIT, CURVE, TOAST
• Quordle #982, Wednesday 2 October: ARGUE, CRANE, TOKEN, PRINT
• Quordle #981, Tuesday 1 October: FRILL, MADLY, GRANT, NYLON
• Quordle #980, Monday 30 September: CRUSH, TARDY, TEACH, STUMP
• Quordle #979, Sunday 29 September: SERIF, BORNE, WRITE, SLEEK
• Quordle #978, Saturday 28 September: BUSHY, CIVIC, SNOUT, EQUIP
• Quordle #977, Friday 27 September: GUEST, CHASM, ROOST, BASAL
• Quordle #976, Thursday 26 September: STAGE, VOGUE, CLUMP, HEATH
• Quordle #975, Wednesday 25 September: UMBRA, DADDY, GLAZE, PRANK
• Quordle #974, Tuesday 24 September: SPACE, INNER, SPAWN, BEGAT
• Quordle #973, Monday 23 September: GUILT, STERN, ANNEX, FIELD
• Quordle #972, Sunday 22 September: ZESTY, MEATY, ALIVE, DRAWN
• Quordle #971, Saturday 21 September: VITAL, FRAIL, SPEAR, EERIE
• Quordle #970, Friday 20 September: ELIDE, DITTO, SHAWL, BONUS
• Quordle #969, Thursday 19 September: MARRY, OWING, DICEY, LUCKY
• Quordle #968, Wednesday 18 September: CEDAR, VENOM, MIGHT, MEDIC
• Quordle #967, Tuesday 17 September: ETHOS, COUNT, PRINT, THREE

A group of AI researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have developed an advanced tool that can solve Google’s CAPTCHA system with 100% accuracy, raising serious concerns about the future of CAPTCHA-based security.

CAPTCHA, an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart," has been a primary defense mechanism against bots for years, with Google’s reCAPTCHA being the most widely used.

This system uses image-based challenges and tracks user behavior to differentiate between humans and machines, however, advances in AI have led to these systems becoming increasingly vulnerable.

The CAPTCHA race is on

Andreas Plesner, Tobias Vontobel and Roger Wattenhofer recently modified the You Only Look Once (YOLO) image-processing model, successfully solving Google’s reCAPTCHAv2 human-testing system. The study they conducted focused on evaluating the effectiveness of reCAPTCHAv2, which has become a critical part of website security by blocking automated bots from accessing forms, purchasing products, or participating in online interactions.

This project revealed that the modified YOLO-based model achieved a 100% success rate in solving reCAPTCHAv2 image challenges, compared to earlier systems that only managed success rates of 68-71%. Additionally, the researchers found that bots required roughly the same number of challenges to solve CAPTCHAs as human users, leading to doubts about the system’s reliability in distinguishing between bots and real people. It was also discovered that reCAPTCHAv2 depends heavily on browser cookies and history data to evaluate whether a user is human, meaning that bots can bypass security features if they appear to have human-like browsing behavior.

As AI technology continues to evolve, the boundary between human and machine intelligence narrows. CAPTCHAs, designed to be solvable by humans but difficult for bots, may soon be rendered obsolete. This research underscores the challenge of creating new CAPTCHA systems that can outpace AI’s rapid advancement or the need to explore alternative forms of human verification.

The study, available on the arXiv preprint server, calls for the development of future CAPTCHA systems capable of adapting to AI advancements or the exploration of alternative methods of human verification. It also emphasizes the need for further research into refining datasets, improving image segmentation, and examining the triggers that activate blocking measures in automated CAPTCHA-solving systems.

These findings are significant because they point to an urgent need for innovation in digital security. As AI continues to progress, the traditional methods of distinguishing humans from machines become less reliable, forcing the tech industry to rethink security protocols and human verification methods in the near future.

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Well, it’s finally happening. Qualcomm could be merging its Snapdragon processors for mobile and PC under one consolidated ‘Elite’ brand, bringing us one step closer to the product I’ve always wanted - the perfect union of phone and PC.

Despite the sad downfall of Windows Phone, the divide between phones and PCs has been getting less and less rigid over the years, with the introduction of Windows- and ChromeOS-powered tablets further muddying the waters. The smartphone in your pocket is almost certainly more powerful than a desktop PC from 20 or even 10 years ago, and today’s top-end mobile chips are even more impressive.

Doing work on a phone is pretty common nowadays - especially for crowded commutes. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Plenty of us - myself included - have grown more comfortable with working from phones and tablets, and software has also evolved to meet these needs: when I was in school, the idea of being able to edit Microsoft Word documents on my crappy flip-phone felt like a distant dream, yet now I’m able to work in Google Docs on my Pixel 8 with ease.

It makes me excited for an entirely new type of product, something that doesn’t exist yet, but could: a device that I can carry around with me and use like a phone, but then slot into a display or keyboard and use as a fully-fledged PC at home.

Strategy shifts

As reported by Wccftech, Qualcomm evidently isn’t the only company working on this, either - since divorcing itself from Intel CPUs for Mac devices, Apple has been hard at work behind the scenes unifying its M-series and A-series chips (the latter of which power the best iPhones). Although Intel remains the dominant force in the PC processor market, it doesn’t make chips for phones, and Qualcomm is coming for Intel’s lunch - even if it won’t be buying Intel out any time soon.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip is plenty powerful, even capable of some light gaming. (Image credit: Future)

Thanks to Qualcomm’s impressive Snapdragon X Elite chip, Microsoft has finally managed to make Windows on Arm-based chips work, with Prism emulation working wonders for x86 app support (even though it’s not perfect yet). We called the Snapdragon-powered Surface Pro 11 ‘the best Surface ever’ in our review, and I’m here to stand on that.

In fact, Microsoft and Qualcomm’s recent successes mean I’m going to go one step further with my predictions about the future of phone/PC technology: it’s time for Windows Phone to make a comeback, baby!

Rise from the grave, Windows Phone

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon described the Snapdragon X Elite chip as ‘the most disruptive thing in computing since Windows 95’ when he unveiled a new range of Windows laptops with Snapdragon chips at Computex 2024, and I’m inclined to say that he was absolutely right: being able to run Windows on Arm (properly, not the terrible watered-down Windows RT seen on older Surface devices) really is a game-changer.

That’s what I’m asking for, Microsoft: I want a phone that runs a sleek, tile-based Windows OS, preferably with an app store that isn’t totally awful this time around, with the ability to plug it into any monitor (or a specialized docking station) to transform it into a tiny desktop PC capable of doing all my regular daily work tasks. Yes, you can arguably already do this with some finagling, but I want it to be a seamless, effortless switch.

I'm thinking of something like the classic iPhone speaker docks, but for work instead of music. Well, maybe both?

I know that’s a big ask. For starters, the app store is an immediate stumbling block; asking Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella to kiss and make up so I can have a full-fledged Google Play Store on a Windows device probably isn’t going to happen any time soon. We’re also not about to see Qualcomm putting the X Elite chip in a smartphone; the merging I mentioned earlier is likely more of a branding maneuver and an effort to bridge the gap between Qualcomm’s internal chip development teams, probably with the goal of bringing better AI performance to its upcoming Snapdragon phone processors.

Of course, Google has the opportunity to do something absolutely hilarious here and steal this concept right out from under Microsoft. Some of the best Chromebooks already use mobile-standard chips; the rather excellent Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook, while sadly now discontinued, used a Snapdragon 7c chip - essentially a modified version of the Snapdragon 7 chip found in many smartphones released around the same time. ChromeOS is already well-suited to lower-powered touchscreen devices, too, and Play Store access wouldn’t be an issue.

So the ball’s in your court, Google. I’ll be waiting…

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Meta's impressive demo of its Orion AR glasses has got us interested in augmented reality specs again, and a small tidbit of rumored information has come our way that suggests Apple could have its own device in this category by 2026 – with microLED tech included.

This comes from tipster @Jukanlosreve (via Wccftech), who has a decent record for leaks (though that was under a different username). The source says Apple "has not given up" on microLED tech, which it's been exploring for several years now.

The tech combines the brightness of microLED with the deep blacks of OLED, making it superior to both existing display technologies. It's also very difficult and expensive to manufacture, which is why we haven't seen it on smaller gadgets to date.

As our feature on microLED TVs will tell you, this is an innovation that has shown potential for years – but again the problem is in getting the prices down to a point where people are actually going to be available to afford these devices.

Specs appeal

Apple has not given up on Micro LED technology.1. They are preparing Micro LED for AR glasses, with mass production expected in 2026.2. The plan to include Micro LED in the Apple Watch Ultra is also still in place, with a target launch in 2026.October 5, 2024

The Apple Watch Ultra should also get a microLED display, according to this tipster. Somewhat surprisingly, we didn't get an Apple Watch Ultra 3 this year, so we're not sure what number Apple might be up to in a couple of years.

When it comes to the Apple Glasses, we've had several waves of rumors around these AR specs in recent years. The previous estimate for a launch window was 2027 – so it's possible that Apple has accelerated development on this new device.

Last year there was word that Apple's AR glasses had been delayed indefinitely, with focus switching to a cheaper VR headset. It's possible that Meta's success with the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have shifted Apple's thinking in this respect.

There's also the Apple Vision Pro of course: the mixed reality headset is very powerful and very expensive, and hasn't sold in huge numbers, and perhaps Apple wants to get something smaller and more affordable out of the door next.

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AMD's Instinct MI300X is a beast of an AI accelerator - built on the company's third-generation CDNA architecture and TSMC's advanced 5nm and 6nm processes, it features 19,456 stream processors, 192GB of HBM3 memory, 304 compute units, 1,216 matrix cores, and a thermal design power (TDP) of 750 watts. In one of the first benchmark tests it absolutely obliterated Nvidia's RTX 4090.

Vultr, a leading privately held cloud computing platform, has announced plans to integrate AMD's high-performance hardware with its scalable cloud infrastructure. The aim is to manage GPU-accelerated workloads more effectively, offering seamless performance across both data centers and edge computing.

“Innovation thrives in an open ecosystem,” said J.J. Kardwell, CEO of Vultr. “The future of enterprise AI workloads is in open environments that allow for flexibility, scalability, and security. AMD accelerators give our customers unparalleled cost-to-performance. The balance of high memory with low power requirements furthers sustainability efforts and gives our customers the capabilities to efficiently drive innovation and growth through AI.”

GPU-accelerated Kubernetes

Vultr’s collaboration with AMD seeks to provide enterprises access to a world-class AI development environment. AMD’s architecture, combined with Vultr’s platform, will enable businesses to work with open-source, pre-trained models, streamlining AI project development.

“We are proud of our close collaboration with Vultr, as its cloud platform is designed to manage high-performance AI training and inferencing tasks and provide improved overall efficiency,” said Negin Oliver, corporate vice president of business development, Data Center GPU Business Unit, AMD.

“With the adoption of AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators and ROCm open software for these latest deployments, Vultr’s customers will benefit from having a truly optimized system tasked to manage a wide range of AI-intensive workloads.”

This partnership also optimizes Vultr's infrastructure for GPU-accelerated Kubernetes clusters, capable of handling complex workloads globally. Vultr hasn't revealed exactly how many Instinct MI300X units it has ordered, only that the initial cluster is in the "thousands."

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Microsoft and Quantinuum claims to have made significant strides in the field of quantum computing through their a joint Azure Quantum project.

The companies say they have successfully created a new generation of highly reliable logical qubits, which are essential for achieving practical applications of quantum computing.

A few months ago, Microsoft and Quantinuum pioneered the creation of highly reliable logical qubits by applying Microsoft’s qubit-virtualization system to Quantinuum's H-Series ion-trap qubits.

Azure Quantum

Initially, the companies managed to produce four logical qubits from 30 physical qubits. The logical error rate for the production was 800 times better than the physical error rate. Although Microsoft considered this feat as impressive, it kept pushing its boundaries and it paid off.

Now, the collaboration has expanded, resulting in the creation of 12 logical qubits from 56 physical qubits on Quantinuum’s H2 machine, showcasing a remarkable 99.8% fidelity in two-qubit operations.

The teams demonstrated the entanglement of these logical qubits in a complex arrangement known as a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state, which is more intricate than previous Bell state preparations. This entanglement resulted in a circuit error rate of 0.0011, significantly lower than the physical qubits' error rate of 0.024. Such advancements not only highlight the potential for deeper quantum computations but also pave the way for fault-tolerant quantum computing, a crucial step towards realizing the full capabilities of quantum technology.

The collaboration between Microsoft and Quantinuum is also a milestone in the application of quantum computing to real-world problems, particularly in the field of chemistry. By integrating logical qubits with artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud high-performance computing (HPC), they successfully tackled a complex scientific problem of estimating the ground state energy of an important catalytic intermediate.

The process began with the identification of the active space of the catalyst through HPC simulations. Following this, the logical qubits were employed to simulate the quantum behaviour of the active space. The measurement outcomes from these simulations were then utilized to train an AI model, which ultimately provided an accurate estimate of the ground state energy. This end-to-end workflow represents the first instance where quantum computing, HPC, and AI have been combined to solve a scientific problem, demonstrating the practical utility of quantum technologies.

While the current results do not yet represent a full scientific quantum advantage—defined as the ability of quantum computers to solve problems beyond the reach of classical computers—they showcase the potential for quantum systems to outperform classical methods in specific scenarios. The hybrid approach employed in this study illustrates how quantum computing can enhance the accuracy of chemical computations, particularly for complex problems that are challenging for classical systems.

The successful demonstration of this hybrid workflow not only highlights the capabilities of the logical qubits but also emphasizes the importance of integrating quantum computing with other advanced technologies. By combining the strengths of quantum, AI, and HPC, researchers can develop innovative solutions to pressing scientific challenges.

The Azure Quantum platform serves as a central hub where quantum computing, AI, and high-performance computing (HPC) converge. This ecosystem is designed to facilitate seamless interactions between different hardware architectures, enabling researchers to leverage the strengths of each technology. By combining quantum capabilities with AI, researchers can utilize machine learning algorithms to analyze vast datasets and extract meaningful insights, significantly speeding up the research and development process.

Looking ahead, Microsoft claims that it is committed to advancing its Azure Quantum platform to support a variety of qubit architectures, including neutral-atom qubits and topological qubits. The integration of these diverse technologies aims to enhance the reliability and scalability of quantum computing, ultimately leading to the development of systems capable of addressing some of the world's most significant challenges.

“The ability of our systems to triple the number of logical qubits while less than doubling our physical qubits from 30 to 56 physical qubits is a testament to the high fidelities and all-to-all connectivity of our H-Series trapped-ion hardware," said Rajeeb Hazra, CEO of Quantinuum.

"Our current H2-1 hardware combined with Microsoft’s qubit-virtualization system is bringing us and our customers fully into Level 2 resilient quantum computing. This powerful collaboration will unlock even greater advancements when combined with the cutting-edge AI and HPC tools delivered through Azure Quantum."

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Intel has confirmed that the well-documented stability problems with its 13th and 14th-gen CPUs have been fully fixed.

As you may recall, Intel recently recapped the four mitigations (including three microcode updates) that have been applied to resolve these instability issues – the final one of which has only just started being deployed – and from the wording Team Blue used, it seemed as if this would be the end of the matter.

The thing is, Intel didn’t actually formally state that, even though the company made it seem clear enough that its investigation had been concluded.

If there was any doubt, though, Intel has clarified that the issue has indeed been definitively put to bed.

The Verge reports that Intel confirmed that the ‘Vmin shift instability’ was the root cause here (the tech site emphasizes it being the root cause, though there were other issues as noted), and spokesperson Thomas Hannaford said in no uncertain terms: “Yes, we’re confirming this is the cause and that it is fixed.”

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Analysis: Remaining point of concern

It’s good to get confirmation that a full fix is in place for anyone worried about their Raptor Lake or Raptor Lake Refresh processor (Core i5 models and upwards are potentially affected).

If you buy a 13th or 14th-gen chip – and it should be noted we’re seeing some heavy discounts on the former now, as next-gen Arrow Lake CPUs are imminent – you just need to ensure that you update your BIOS to the latest version with all these Intel microcode updates packed within (including the most recent 0x12B update). That being the case, the CPU should not suffer from any kind of degradation or instability gremlins.

In the case of those who have had their affected 13th or 14th-gen processor for some time, the damage caused by the bugs here won’t be reversed by Intel’s patches – they are only mitigations to prevent any further degradation. So, if you’re experiencing any kind of instability or crashing on your PC, you should return your CPU and get a new one.

However, some folks may remain concerned about possible degradation under the hood which might not have been causing the PC to crash – meaning it’s effectively invisible wear and tear – but could still eventually result in a chip with a reduced lifespan, potentially.

Intel has, of course, extended the warranty on these chips to five years to help give CPU owners some further protection, but if something happens outside of that period, well, let’s say that could be pretty frustrating. You won’t know whether any fault pertains directly to these issues, of course, but that’ll be the nagging suspicion, no doubt. Not a pleasant thought.

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The iPhone SE 4 could well be the next iPhone we see from Apple – it's rumored to be breaking cover at the start of next year – and a well-placed industry source suggests it could borrow a specific component from the iPhone 14 that launched in 2022.

According to the usually reliable Ross Young, the iPhone SE 4 will use the same display as the iPhone 14: a 6.1-inch, 1170 x 2532 pixel, Super Retina XDR OLED screen. The current 3rd-gen iPhone SE (2022) sports a 4.7-inch LCD screen, so this would be a big upgrade.

If this comes to pass it would mean the iPhone SE 4 will be joining the modern era: it's set to be the first iPhone SE to ditch the home button and use Face ID instead of Touch ID. However, it will most likely use a display notch rather than the Dynamic Island.

What we almost certainly won't get with this phone is an always-on display option and support for the ProMotion variable refresh rate, which remains exclusive to the Pro and Pro Max models (though that might change with the iPhone 17).

Coming soon

Same display as iPhone 14. BOE and LGD are the suppliers. Panel shipments from October…October 6, 2024

This isn't actually a completely new rumor: for a while now, the talk has been that the iPhone SE 4 would resemble an iPhone 14, and it certainly saves Apple money if it can reuse components that have appeared on previous models.

At the moment you can actually still buy the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Plus direct from Apple – yours for $599 / £599 / AU$1,049 and $699 / £699 / AU$1,249. You can expect the iPhone SE 4 to come in significantly less than that.

Earlier this week we heard rumors that the iPhone SE 4 is going to arrive with an A18 chip (matching the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus), better cameras (that are along the same lines as the iPhone 15), and a new 5G modem designed by Apple.

Some of the most reliable tipsters in the business are saying the iPhone SE 4 is going to show up early in 2025, so it shouldn't be too long before we know for sure what Apple has been working on – and whether it's worth a place on our best iPhones list.

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