TechRadar News

• Severance star Tramell Tillman has teased what's in store for Seth Milchick in season 2
• This season's premiere revealed that Milchick had been installed as the Severed Floor's new boss
• Tramell says his character "doesn't know if he's ready" to fill predecessor Harmony Cobel's boots

Severance actor Tramell Tillman has teased what we can expect to see as part of Seth Milchick's season 2 arc.

Speaking to me around one month before Severance season 2's debut on January 17, Tillman hinted that the Apple show's next chapter will be a high-stakes affair for his character.

Major spoilers immediately follow for Severance season 1's finale and this season's premiere. Turn back now if you're not caught up.

Season 2 has already shown that Milchick may not be up to the task of Severed Floor manager (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

In the first episode of the hit Apple TV Plus series' sophomore outing, it was revealed that Milchick had been promoted by Lumon Industries in the supposed five-month gap between season 1's ending and this season's opening entry. Indeed, after Harmony Cobel was ousted as Severed Floor manager last season, Milchick has been installed as her replacement, so he's now overseeing the division that Mark and other members of the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) team work in. You can remind yourself what else happened in this season's first installment via our Severance season 2 episode 1 recap.

But I digress. Last season, the charming but menacing Milchick had Cobel to hide behind if anything went wrong on his watch. Now that he's the Severed Floor's new boss, though, the buck stops with him – and that, according to Tillman, will present numerous challenges to his authority and skillset. Oh, and likely drive up his stress levels significantly.

This new position of leadership is a foreign one to him

Tramell Tillman, Severance actor

"He's got a lot of work to do," Tillman mused. "You know, he's been thrust into this position very rapidly. At the end of season 1, there's no Severed Floor manager, so I'm the only one left [that Lumon can turn to]. Seth has been tapped to step in so, as great a mentor as Harmony has been to him, Seth has to take up the reins and we'll see how he deals with that.

"The stakes are incredibly high. This new position of leadership is a foreign one to him, and I think there's a part of him that doesn't know if he's ready. So, we'll see if he rises to the occasion."

If you've only just found out that Severance's latest season is out now on one of the world's best streaming services, you'll want to read all about it in my Severance season 2 guide, especially with episode 2 releasing tomorrow (January 24). Alternatively, read my Severance season 2 review for some clues about the mystery-thriller's next few chapters, or check out more of my coverage in the articles linked below.

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Cybercrime continues to be a major global concern. Cybercriminals are using ever more sophisticated approaches and exploiting every possible means to intercept valuable data or disrupt IT systems. Organizations targeted and impacted by these attacks, including businesses, critical entities, governments and entire economies are being left facing serious financial consequences and operational disarray. According to estimates from Statista’s Market Insights, the global cost of cybercrime is expected to surge in the next four years, rising from $9.22 trillion in 2024 to $13.82 trillion by 2028.

One channel used by hackers that is fast becoming a key concern is the IT supply chain. Cybercriminals are exploiting vulnerabilities at third parties of an organization's supply chain such as vendors, suppliers and logistics and transportation companies in order to infiltrate the organization’s IT systems or access physical components destined to be implemented in products. Speculation that the recent device attacks in Lebanon were the result of third-party tampering highlights the crucial need to better secure not only software supply chains but also hardware. But how much of a threat does the IT supply chain really pose and what can be done to minimize the risks?

The weakest link

The SolarWinds cyberattack in 2020 which compromised the systems, data, and networks of thousands of organizations including the US government is the most notorious example of a wide-scale software supply chain attack. But despite the exposure of the case and acknowledgement of the need to address the issue of securing the supply chain, there have been numerous others. These include attacks on Okta, Norton, 3CX, JetBrains, Airbus and Microsoft, all of which have been equally crippling to the enterprises affected. Since 2021, cyberattacks targeting supply chains have surged 431%, according to a report published last year by insurance provider Cowbell. And industry analysts see little signs of the issue abating; Gartner predicts that the costs from these attacks will rise from $46 billion in 2023 to $138 billion by 2031.

For organizations and enterprises, the threat of exposure to attack through the supply chain is a major cause for concern. Unlike the full visibility and control they have over their own systems, to date organizations have had little reassurance that their suppliers and partners have implemented the same high standards of security. Indeed, a recent white paper published by Reuters and Cargowise, highlighted how 94% of supply chain executives were concerned about vulnerabilities in their technology stack, with 24% very or extremely concerned.

Regulators seek to bring standardized security to the supply chain

Such is the concern around the threat posed by the IT supply chain that authorities are starting to bring in regulation to curb the number of incidents. In October this year the new EU Network and Information Security version 2 (NIS2) Directive came into force. This new legislation was brought in to establish a uniform and improved level of cybersecurity across European Union countries. Critically, along with organizations operating in sectors such as public administrations, transport, energy, health and banking, companies supplying goods or part of IT supply chains must also adhere to NIS2.

NIS2 will surely help to raise greater awareness of the need to secure network infrastructure and ensure security measures are adhered to throughout the IT supply chain. However, beyond compliance with the new ruling, organizations and technology providers ultimately need to take responsibility for ensuring their prized data - and that of their customers - has the highest level of protection against theft or system attack. But how do they go about this?

Mitigating the risk of attack via the supply chain

Each enterprise or organization has its own unique supply chain composed of relevant third parties required to bring its specific solutions or services to market. As such there is no ‘one way’ of securing the supply chain, however there are measures that all enterprises should undertake to ensure their supply chains - both for software and physical components or products - are as watertight as possible, these include:

Screening suppliers: before selecting suppliers, comprehensive vetting should be undertaken to verify security practices and ensure trustworthiness Periodic audits: Carrying out regular audits and checks on supply chain partners will ensure they are maintaining the expected security measures SLAs: Implementing contractual security requirements with logistics providers to ensure they have appropriate security measures in place such as tamper-proof seals on trucks Monitoring status of goods in transit: Technologies such as RFID and AI can help to track the location and status of goods throughout the logistics flow.

The use of Gen AI to better monitor location of hardware during transit

The integration of Gen AI into logistics operations is proving not only to make IT hardware supply chains more effective, but also more significantly more secure. Thanks to its ability to extract data, process and structure unstructured data, like emails, it provides an unprecedented level of visibility into the flow of goods, tracking both their location and ownership at every stage.

The integration of Gen AI means that logistics teams are always aware of where shipments are, who is responsible for them, and can quickly respond to potential security threats even before an incident occurs. This level of insight and control is invaluable for organizations seeking peace of mind that all elements in their supply chain are well protected at every stage of production and transfer and that they do not pose any risk of being intercepted or tampered with.

As cybercrime continues to evolve in sophistication and scope, the threat posed by vulnerabilities within the IT supply chain cannot be overlooked. Organizations must confront the reality that their security will only ever be as strong as the weakest link in their supply chain. New regulations such as NIS2 will be critical to ensuring an adequate and standardized approach to security across the supply chain. However, for their own peace of mind and to ensure the integrity of their products and safeguard their valuable data, organizations should look to diligently select supply chain partners, create a culture of transparency and use advanced technologies to ensure accurate tracking and monitoring of sourced components and products. In light of the unrelenting levels of cybercrime today, investing in supply chain security and resilience in order to protect themselves from attack is a relatively small price to pay.

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• A security researcher discovered a way to abuse how Cloudflare cached certain images
• The method could allow outsiders to partially de-anonymize people
• The bug was quickly fixed, Cloudflare assures users

Experts have found a way to partially de-anonymize a person and find out their general location by simply sending them a picture on certain messaging platforms.

This is according to a 15-year-old cybersecurity researcher named Daniel, who recently found a vulnerability in Cloudflare’s content delivery network (CDN).

In theory, the vulnerability is simple. Cloudflare wants people to receive their messages, and multimedia, as quickly as possible. For that reason, images that are being sent go through a data center that’s nearest to the recipient. If the attacker could learn which data center that is, they could get a solid picture of their target’s location.

A 200-mile radius

“One of Cloudflare's most used feature is Caching. Cloudflare's Cache stores copies of frequently accessed content (such as images, videos, or webpages) in its datacenters, reducing server load and improving website performance,” Daniel explained.

“When your device sends a request for a resource that can be cached, Cloudflare retrieves the resource from its local datacenter storage, if available. Otherwise, it fetches the resource from the origin server, caches it locally, and then returns it. By default, some file extensions are automatically cached but site operators can also configure new cache rules.”

“If you live in a developed country, there's a good chance the nearest datacenter to you is less than 200 miles from you.” Since some apps, like Signal, or Discord, show the image’s thumbnail in the notification, it makes this a zero-click vulnerability.

Daniel further explained Cloudflare returns information about a request’s cache status in the HTTP response, including the airport code for the closest airport to the data center.

Next, he used a bug in Cloudflare Workers, and used a tool called Cloudflare Teleport, forcing requests through a specific data center.

A few months after the bug was discovered, Cloudflare patched it up, telling BleepingComputer it was disclosed in December 2024, and “immediately resolved.”

“The ability to make requests to specific data centres via the "Cloudflare Teleport" project on GitHub was quickly addressed – as the security researcher mentions in their disclosure. We believe bug bounties are a vital part of every security team’s toolbox, and continue to encourage third parties and researchers to continue to report this type of activity for review by our team."

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• Elementor announced Site Planner, a new AI-powered tool
• It allows users to create sitemaps, wireframes, and more
• It is currently free to use

Elementor, one of the best website builders, just announced a new Artificial Intelligence-powered (AI) tool that will help users plan new websites faster than ever before. It is called Site Planner, and it is currently free for everyone to use.

In a brief shared with TechRadar Pro, Elementor explained that Site Planner leverages AI technology to generate the site brief, sitemap, and wireframe - three key pillars to every website’s design process.

The brief also outlines the shared project goals, key messages, and desired outcomes, Elementor explained. “With Site Planner, you can upload your own brief or generate it in several ways with AI helping to guide you toward a strong, professional brief that sets the foundation for building successful websites.”

Elementor's site map tool offers an easy to use interface. (Image credit: Elementor ) Google Meet integrations

A sitemap is a hierarchical representation of all the pages within a website, outlining their relationships and structure. It is an essential part since both users, and search engines, use the sitemap to understand and navigate the site effectively. Ultimately, a wireframe is a basic skeletal framework of a website page, showing the placement of key elements like headers, navigation, content areas, and calls to action without visual design elements.

As is standard practice with AI-powered website generators these days, designers can simply talk to the tool to get going. However, Elementor goes a step further, integrating the tool with Google Meet, and allowing AI to capture key details of client discussions in real-real time, and transform them into actionable briefs.

“The notes serve as input to Site Planner for creating a professional brief,” the company explained.

Websites built this way can be hosted either with Elementor, or with a third-party website hosting provider. Elementor notes that the tool is "currently free", suggesting that this may become a premium product once the initial promotional stage ends.

Comment from the expert

AI is the name of the game in the website building space, with practically all of the best website building platforms racing to integrate artificial intelligence into tools and features.

This latest announcement by Elementor is certainly an exciting one, at least for some users. Businesses and individuals creating single sites will likely fail to see any real benefit from using this tools - although it could certainly inject a little fun into an otherwise dull part of the website creation process.

On the other hand, businesses that create multiple websites stand to make the biggest gain from this update, with the new tool helping to drastically reduce the time investment required to complete the website planning stage. This could help Elementor better position itself as one of the best website builders for agencies and freelancers.

Wix recently launched a similar tool, but Elementor's ability to connect with Google Meet makes this a stand-out feature in the website building space.

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• Aokzoe is ready to compete with other gaming handhelds this year with the A1 X
• Uses the new AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 APU, which uses the same iGPU as the Z2 Extreme
• There's no confirmation of a release date or pricing

If CES 2025 wasn't enough of a hint that 2025 could be one of the best years for gaming handhelds, then feast your eyes on this: the Aokzoe A1 X has been announced and it looks set to compete with Lenovo's Legion Go 2 and the Asus ROG Ally X, and could outperform the Nintendo Switch 2 based on rumored specs.

As highlighted by VideoCardz, the Aokzoe A1 X will use AMD's new Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU which uses the Radeon 890M integrated GPU (the same present in the upcoming Z2 Extreme chip) - and it also has 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, with an 8-inch 120Hz VRR screen, and a 72.7Whr. While it doesn't quite match up to the Legion Go 2 or the Switch 2's ergonomics with the detachable controllers, it certainly makes up for it with its processing power.

We still haven't seen how AMD's Ryzen Z2 Extreme will perform as there aren't any handheld gaming PCs using this processor - but, the AMD HX 370 APU uses the same integrated GPU with more CPU cores and threads (12 and 24), and it’s already present in the OneXFly F1 Pro and shown to provide great performance in several games like Cyberpunk 2077 and God of War Ragnarok via ETA Prime on YouTube.

This should be a good indication of how the Ryzen Z2 Extreme-powered Legion Go 2 may perform (depending on its final specs as it's still a prototype), compared to the recently-announced Nintendo Switch 2 (if rumored specs are legitimate) - but it's also worth noting that pricing (which hasn't been confirmed nor a release date) will most likely determine these handhelds’ success in the market.

(Image credit: AOKZOE) Is 8 inches the ideal screen size for handheld gaming devices?

With handheld gaming devices like the Acer Nitro Blaze 11, which boasts an 11-inch screen, questions regarding the ideal screen size for these systems must be addressed. As my colleague Christian Guyton stated previously, 11-inch screens on a handheld gaming device is way too large, and I absolutely agree with this sentiment.

Having tested the Lenovo Legion Go (which has an 8.8-inch screen) and spent most of my time with the Asus ROG Ally (uses a 7-inch screen), I can say that 8-inches is the sweet spot. Many of the criticisms that came with the Legion Go from users (and myself included) was that the device is too heavy to hold, especially after long hours of playtime.

Devices like the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the Lenovo Legion Go S (which both use an 8-inch screen) could provide different results concerning how comfortable they are to hold while gaming, as their designs will vary rather drastically. However, I fully believe 8-inch displays should become the standard for new handhelds, as 7-inches (at least to me) is too small, especially for competitive games. Fortunately, it looks like the majority of upcoming handhelds in 2025 will get the balance right between having a screen big enough to see what's happening in games, without making a device that's too big and bulky to comfortably play on for long.

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• Patchstack found two bugs in a WordPress theme and a plugin from InspiryThemes
• The bugs were not addressed in three latest versions
• Users are advised to disable the products or limit new account creation

A popular WordPress theme and plugin have been found carrying vulnerabilities that allow malicious actors to elevate their privileges to admin.

WordPress security researchers Patchstack revealed the theme and plugin in question are called RealHomes and Easy Real Estate, both designed by InspiryThemes, and designed to be used in the real estate industry. The vulnerabilities are tracked as CVE-2024-32444, and CVE-2024-32555, and both have a severity score of 9.8/10 - critical. Both flaws allow malicious actors to elevate their privileges to admin, gaining full control of the WordPress site, and allowing them to install, delete, or modify plugins, tamper with the content, exfiltrate sensitive data, and more.

Citing data from Envanto Market, Patchstack says RealHomes was purchased 32,600 times, suggesting that the attack landscape is quite large.

No response from InspiryThemes

Patchstack warned website admins to disable the resources immediately, since the bugs have been around for months and still have no patch in sight.

The researchers also claim they tried, on multiple occasions, to get in touch with InspiryThemes and warn them about the flaws. The company allegedly did not respond to their inquiries but has, in the meantime, released three new versions for the flawed software. In all three versions, the vulnerabilities were not addressed.

Since they are present in the newest versions as well, Patchstack urged users to disable the theme and plugin immediately, to mitigate potential risk of site takeover. Alternatively, admins could restrict user registration, since the bug cannot be exploited in an environment where new accounts cannot be generated.

Usually, when a bug is made public, threat actors start hunting for vulnerable websites, since they can easily be exploited.

WordPress plugins and themes continue to be one of the most popular targets for cybercriminals, given the website builder platform’s enormous popularity around the world.

Via BleepingComputer

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• New PowerSchool data, allegedly found in the ransom demand, now puts the number of affected students at 62 million
• More than nine million teachers also affected
• The victims are located in the US, Canada, and elsewhere

The PowerSchool hack seems to have been much worse than originally believed, as new reports now claim more than 62 million students, and nine million teachers, were actually affected by the attack.

In late December 2024, an unidentified threat actor used stolen credentials to access its PowerSchool Student Information System (SIS) platform. From there, they were able to use the “export data manager" customer support tool to exfiltrate “Students” and “Teachers” database tables to a CSV file, which was then stolen.

The information grabbed in this attack included names, and postal addresses, and in some districts, the threat actors also obtained Social Security numbers (SSN), personally identifiable information (PII), medical information, and grades.

Ongoing investigation

It has since been reported the attackers stole the personal data of 62,488,628 students and 9,506,624 teachers, citing both the attacker, and multiple other sources. In total, it was said, 6,505 school districts in the US, Canada, and other countries, were affected. The numbers are allegedly coming from the extortion demand sent to the breached company.

Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board, and Dallas Independent School District seem to be most impacted.

PowerSchool did not want to comment on the new findings, it was said, especially since its investigation is still ongoing. However, the company did tell the publication that the type of exposed data varies per district. This is because school districts decide what information they will store in the SIS database, based on district, or State policy requirements.

“For this reason, it is expected that less than a quarter of impacted students had their Social Security Number exposed in the breach,” BleepingComputer said, citing the company.

“We care deeply about the students, teachers, and families we serve and are wholeheartedly committed to supporting them. PowerSchool will be offering two years of complimentary identity protection services and two years of complimentary credit monitoring services for all applicable students and educators whose information was involved,” the company told BleepingComputer in a written statement.

Via BleepingComputer

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With questionable Y2K fashion choices returning in recent years, I suppose it was inevitable – thin phones are back. I'm old enough to remember the original Motorola RAZR V3 in 2004 and just over twenty years on Samsung has tapped the early 2000s design trend with the new Galaxy S25 Edge. Only this time, it doesn't really make sense.

When the Motorola RAZR V3 launched, it was a genuine marvel. People would come down to the store room of the technology magazine I worked at just to look at it. Of course, it had an advantage that the Galaxy S25 Edge doesn't have – phones back then were largely ugly bricks.

But the RAZR V3 also actually fulfilled its design promise. Because of its clamshell design, it was under 14mm when closed – and almost worryingly-slim at its thinnest point. Its aluminum body and keyboard (made from a single sheet of metal) made it different and genuinely desirable.

The Galaxy S25 Edge badly wants to be a modern-day equivalent of the RAZR V3. We know very little about its specs, but rumors suggest it's about 6.4mm thick – which looks about right based on our brief glimpses at the S25 Unpacked launch.

But there's a problem – smartphones now need to have powerful cameras and pesky physics can't make them the same size as the RAZR V3's VGA module. So Samsung's done the only thing it can and stuck a huge protruding camera module on the back.

From the side, the Galaxy S25 Edge's camera module really stands out against its impressively slim body (Image credit: Future)

What's the point of having a 6.4mm thick body with large protruding cameras, if there's no design innovation to make that work? I'm still none the wiser. Samsung says the phone is a "culmination of Samsung’s most-innovative technology" and that this is “packed into a form that is sleek, powerful and unlike anything you’ve seen before".

Unfortunately, the history of phones is littered with examples of designs that we hadn't seen before, but also made no sense (see the new Nokia Design Archive). The main aim of the S25 Edge seems to be bursting the rumored iPhone 17 Air's bubble. But for phones buyers, it seems Samsung also forgot to do anything beyond reanimating the corpse of a design trend that has no real benefit in 2025 – and that Motorola has already successfully reprised in the Motorola Razr Plus.

Slim pickings Image 1 of 1

Photos of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge from Samsung Unpacked 2025. (Image credit: Future)

I'm sure the Galaxy S25 Edge will be a technological marvel, in many ways. It's expected to pack in a 6.7-inch display – and there's a chance it could even be the first Samsung phone to feature a tandem OLED display.

It's also expected to pack in two cameras, which will probably be a main one (perhaps with a 200MP resolution) and an ultra-wide. Samsung could get away without a telephoto camera by going big on the resolution of the main camera and touting its AI-assisted cropping potential. That's not as good as a telephoto, but it could be enough.

These kinds of specs make the RAZR V3 look like the dinosaur it is. But a truly classic phone captures the zeitgeist in a way that goes beyond specs and dimensions – and from what I've seen so far, I doubt that the S25 Edge will achieve that.

Unlike in 2004, the majority of phone buyers use a case with their phone – particularly ones that cost as much as the S25 Edge is likely to (probably somewhere between the S25 and S25 Ultra). Alongside the camera bump, that largely negates the Edge's thinness claims or practical benefits.

Perhaps I'm being unduly harsh, but the Edge also seems to represent the laziest interpretation of phone innovation. At CES 2025, I was enamored by the TCL 60XE, which can switch its screen from color to grayscale with a button-press.

Sure, it's not true E Ink and only works with certain apps, but it was a piece of design that tapped into modern-day phone needs – namely, a need to escape from our always-on apps and a clever way to extend battery life. I didn't see anything at the S25 Unpacked event that beguiled me in the same way – just a tidal wave of AI features and the S25 Edge.

Of course, I'll reserve final judgement on the Edge until we get one in for review. But so far, it looks like nothing more than a reheated design trend that doesn't make much sense in 2025.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked 2025 event yesterday had no shortage of new AI tools, but one little audio tool – Audio Eraser – really stood out for me, and surprisingly I think it also got the biggest cheer from the crowd out of all the new AI tools on show.

At the Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung demoed some truly groundbreaking advancements towards the age of agentic AI, which are the first steps towards using your phone as a true virtual assistant that can perform all the tasks you tell it to without your direct involvement. But while the ability to get your phone to book you a restaurant, add it to your calendar, and invite your friends via text message is a game changer, it feels like it’s asking a lot of people to embrace this right now.

We’re still in the phase where people don’t know exactly why they need AI and have concerns about its safety and adopting AI agents wholesale will involve a significant change to how we live our lives that I’m not sure people are quite ready for.

There’s a lot to worry about in the world at the moment. There are wars, inflation, starvation, and political and economic uncertainty. With this general background of chaos, the idea of giving up even more control over our lives to make them a little bit easier, which is the big promise of AI agents, can make things seem even more uncertain.

Enter Audio Eraser

Contrast this with a simple AI tool like Audio Eraser. Dubbed by Samsung as “A sound studio at your fingertips”, it has one job to do and it does it very well. It listens to your video clips and identifies background sounds like wind, music, nature, noise, voice and crowd, then lets you change the volume of each one so that the person speaking in the video is much easier to hear.

Watch its section in the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event video from 1.48.52.

With Audio Eraser Samsung is using AI to make a complex task simple in such an easy and accessible way. As somebody who records interviews myself, often in noisy environments this would be perfect for me. I love the idea of being able to have complete control of the different types of background noise in the clip.

At the moment I sometimes use Enhance Speech in Adobe’s AI podcast studio to accomplish the task of removing background noise from recordings, but it’s not customizable to the degree that Audio Eraser is, not to mention being able to do it all on the phone is a lot more convenient than having to upload audio clips to be worked on in the cloud.

TechRadar got hands-on with Audio Eraser to try it out, too. You can see Lance Ulanoff our US Editor in Chief and our US Managing Editor of News, Jacob Krol using it at 2.14 in this video:

You can see how quick and easy it is to use. Audio Eraser is a perfect example of how you can get people excited about AI tools without scaring them. It’s not complicated and it fits into your life without you having to change anything. I think it’s no coincidence that it got a bigger audience reaction during its demo at the event than even the most impressive AI tools involving Gemini, Gemini Live, One UI, and Galaxy AI did.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that AI assistants will be truly life-changing when they can seamlessly integrate with absolutely everything on our phones, but we’re not quite there yet, and companies like Samsung, Google, and OpenAI need to find a way to get us there in a way that makes sense with the way we live our lives now.

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• A 410MP sensor smashes previous pixel records for full-frame, and is equivalent to a 24K resolution
• It's capable of 410MP stills up to 8fps, or 100MP up to 24fps
• It's designed for surveillance, medicine and industry applications, and unlikely to ever land in a consumer Canon camera

Try this for size – Canon has announced a new 410MP full-frame sensor that smashes any previous records for resolution. It packs 24,592 x 16,704 pixels to be precise, which is roughly equivalent to 24K resolution.

Canon points out in its global announcement that 24K is 12 times the resolution of 8K and 198 times the resolution of HD, and suggests that the unprecedented resolution "enables users to crop any part of the image captured by this sensor and enlarge it significantly while maintaining high resolution".

The newly developed back-illuminated stacked sensor is capable of a super-fast 3,280MP p/s readout speed, meaning it's possible to shoot those 410MP stills at up to 8fps, a rate that can be upped to 24fps by selecting a pixel binning function that reduces resolution to 100MP.

It's a staggering and presumably incredibly pricey sensor that, sadly, is unlikely to ever make it to consumers, even if a trickle-down effect from its tech is possible – Canon has positioned this lens for surveillance, medicine and industry applications, for which the capacity to heavily crop into highly-detailed images is paramount.

Do we need it in the age of upscaling?

In 2024, Sony impressed us with a new 247MP medium-format sensor that offers much more detail than any sensor found in a consumer camera. However, that's far fewer pixels, in a much larger sensor format, and Sony's sensor has now been put in the shade by Canon's newly-developed marvel.

More so, the best-in-class resolution for full-frame cameras available to consumers is 61MP, a sensor utilized by the Leica SL3 and Sony A7R V. This sensor isn't stacked like Canon's, and therefore can't match the readout speed – it's slower and less detailed. Put simply, we've not seen sensor tech like this before.

Canon's in-camera upscale function in action with the EOS R5 Mark II – increasing image resolution from 45MP to 180MP. (Image credit: Future | Tim Coleman)

Recently, Canon has been pushing what's possible with camera tech. We loved its new in-camera upscale function that's capable of increasing image size by 400 percent. Upscaling debuted in the Canon EOS R5 Mark II and Canon EOS R1, and in the case of the EOS R5 Mark II it increases resolution from 45MP to 180MP, with impressive results.

I'm now imagining this upscale tech coupled with Canon's new 410MP sensor, we'd be talking a resolution of 1.64 gigapixels! That potential level of detail is mind blowing, but whether or not there are the necessary lenses with the optical quality to fully support this potential is another matter – and, sadly for my own curiosity, I'll unlikely ever see the new sensor in action.

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• Hiscox study finds most firms who pay ransoms don't get their data back in full
• Victims also suffer reputational damage
• Many companies report losing customers and business partners

With ransomware attacks becoming ever more common, a firm’s response can be crucial to recovery and mitigating the damage of the attack.

A new study from Hiscox has revealed a good reason not to pay attackers, finding in the vast majority of cases, even when a ransom is paid, companies don’t get their information back.

The company found only 7% of firms recovered their data in full - and in fact, 1 in 10 of the businesses who pay the ransom still had their data leaked.

Reputations to ransom

Aside from the obvious impacts of financial loss and stress to those involved, ransom attacks also affect reputations of companies who fall victim.

The study found of those who experienced a ransomware attack in the last 12 months, a staggering 47% reported greater difficulty in attracting new customers, and 43% have lost customers.

“Hackers are holding reputations to ransom – and no business is too small to be at risk,” said Alana Muir, Head of Cyber at Hiscox UK.

Most businesses are worried about this too, with 61% of organizations believing that the reputational damage from a cyberattack would ‘significantly damage’ their business.

In 2024, the survey found over a third (38%) of companies that fell victim to a cyberattack also suffered bad publicity resulting in damage to brand reputation, and 21% also lost business partners, showing just how detrimental attacks can be, even beyond the attack itself.

The news comes shortly after the UK Government opened a consultation to consider banning the payment of ransoms by public institutions in the event of a ransomware attack, in efforts to make critical infrastructure a less attractive target, and to disrupt criminal’s sources of income.

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• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 launches on January 28
• It adds loads of new Zombies content, including new map The Tomb
• This is in addition to a new Wonder Weapon, fresh GobbleGums, and more

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 launches on January 28 and brings a wealth of new content for Multiplayer. Black Ops 6 Zombies is also receiving some love, with plenty of big new additions.

The most significant is a whole new Zombies map, The Tomb. Set after the events of the Citadelle des Morts map, The Tomb sees protagonists Weaver, Maya, Carver, and Grey venture into a mysterious lost catacomb in the ongoing fight against the Dark Aether.

Throughout the adventure, you will be guided by a comms team of returning favorites S.A.M., Ravenow, Peck, Raptor One, and Strauss. They will be joined by the ghost of Sir Archibald, a deceased explorer from a doomed 1908 expedition into the area.

The map begins at the overground dig site, which soon gives way to ancient Neolithic Catacombs, imposing Tombs, a trap-laden Shrine, and finally a subterranean temple with a doorway to the otherworldly Dark Aether Nexus.

(Image credit: Activision)

You will have to face off with new enemies, including the Shock Mimic. It can disguise itself as key items, grabbing you for a powerful electric bite if you get too close. The usual legions of hostile zombies have also received a new look, dressed as ancient laborers, worshippers, and guards.

The Tomb will feature a new Wonder Weapon, the Staff of Ice. It creates a powerful freezing magic attack and can even revive downed teammates with a ranged restorative blast. Those who manage to complete the map’s main quest will obtain the X91 Ice-Pick Wonder Weapon Skin for the staff in addition to 5,000 XP and a unique Calling Card.

Death Perception, a perk machine from Black Ops 4, is also returning. As before it lets you see enemies through walls, but has been augmented by “new abilities” for Black Ops 6. Three new GobbleGums are on the way too. Dead Drop dramatically increases the drop rates for salvage and equipment, while Modified Chaos reduces Ammo Mod cooldowns. Finally, there’s Quacknarok - which doesn’t do anything other than give every zombie a hilarious rubber duck pool lounger.

Directed Mode, which guides you through the events of the Main Quest, is expected to launch alongside the Season 2 mid-season update.

Want to give Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 a try? The game is available now for PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

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• Nvidia has commanding lead over rivals in latest Adobe After Effects benchmarks
• Even lower-performance Nvidia GPUs outpace Intel and AMD cards
• But to Apple's credit, the M3 Max pulls ahead in 2D significantly despite its laptop form factor

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40-Series GPUs has shown off some significant advantages when it comes to dealing with 3D workflows over comparable Intel and AMD cards, new figures have claimed.

The latest Puget Systems After Effects benchmarks say Nvidia’s flagship GeForce RTX 4090 delivered up to 20 times the performance of Apple’s MacBook Pro M3 Max in 3D tasks; reflecting the card's technical design focus on GPU-intensive workloads.

The 4090, equipped with 24GB of GDDR6X memory and 16,384 CUDA cores, nearly doubles the performance of its own mid-range RTX 4060 in the Advanced 3D tests that utilize Adobe’s Advanced 3D rendering engine which is heavily dependent on GPU acceleration.

Nvidia RTX 4090 outperforms its rivals

Comparatively, the RTX 4060, featuring 8GB of GDDR6 memory and 3,072 CUDA cores, outpaces AMD’s flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which boasts 24GB of GDDR6 memory and 6,144 stream processors.

Despite its superior memory capacity, the Radeon GPU trails the RTX 4060 by 25% in overall 3D performance.

Intel’s Arc GPUs, such as the Arc B580 with 12GB of VRAM and 3,456 cores also fall short of Nvidia’s mid-range offerings, trailing the RTX 4060 by approximately 22%.

Apple’s M3 Max, equipped with 40 GPU cores, performs roughly 10 times slower than the RTX 4060 in GPU-accelerated 3D tasks.

However, while Nvidia leads in 3D rendering, Apple’s M3 Max performs well in 2D workflows due to its CPU efficiencies. The MacBook Pro excels in projects emphasizing 2D layers and effects, where GPU performance plays a secondary role. Nevertheless, for CPU-dependent tracking tasks, Nvidia and Apple systems perform similarly.

Nvidia owes its dominance in After Effects 3D workflows to its advanced GPU architecture and software integration. The RTX 4090, for instance, comes with technologies like the Ada Lovelace architecture and CUDA framework which optimizes 3D GPU performance.

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Netflix has just dropped its February 2025 schedule, and as a follow-up to its first streaming list of the year, I can't say that it packs a punch quite like what we saw last month. However, there's still a number of movies and shows that have caught my eye that I'm confident will find a place among the best Netflix movies and the best Netflix shows.

Despite it being on the sparse end this month, we still think that Netflix is one of the best streaming services out there, especially if you're big into reality TV. This month in particular, Netflix is doubling down in its reality TV content with the premiere of Love Is Blind season 8, and the brand new competition reality show Celebrity Bear Hunt. Reality TV aside, we also shelved Netflix's upcoming thriller series Apple Cider Vinegar as one of one-to-watch titles which will land on February 6.

On the upside, with February being as short as it is, it won't be much longer before Netflix switches up its catalog of entertainment again. In that case, I'm not dwelling on its slightly underwhelming list too much, and I'm hoping that March will be inundated with even more titles to welcome the spring.

Everything new on Netflix in February 2025

Arriving on February 1

SAKAMOTO DAYS (Netflix anime)
Cult of Chucky (movie)
From Prada to Nada (movie)
Happy Feet (movie)
Happy Feet Two (movie)
Home Improvement seasons 1-8 (TV show)
It (movie)
Magic Mike XXL (movie)
Miss Congeniality (movie)
The Nice Guys (movie)
Parasite (movie)
Queen & Slim (movie)
Richie Rich (movie)
Space Jam (movie)
Spanglish (movie)
Two Weeks Notice (movie)
The Wedding Planner (movie)

Arriving on February 2

The Founder (movie)

Arriving on February 3

Bogotá: City of the Lost (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 4

The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: The Week of January 24, 2025 (TV show)

Arriving on February 5

Alone Australia season 1 (TV show)
Celebrity Bear Hunt (Netflix original series)
Envious season 2 (Netflix original series)
Grimsburg season 1 (TV show)
Kinda Pregnant (Netflix original movie)
Prison Cell 211 (Netflix original series)
Sintonia season 5 (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 6

Apple Cider Vinegar (Netflix original series)
The Åre Murders (Netflix original series)
Cassandra (Netflix original series)
Golden Kamuy -The Hunt of Prisoners in Hokkaido (Netflix original series)
Supreme Models: Limited Series (TV show)
Sweet Magnolias season 4 (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 7

A Different World seasons 1-6 (TV show)
The Conners season 6 (TV show)
The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan (Netflix original series)
Pokémon Horizons: Season 2—The Search for Laqua part 1 (Netflix original series)
Wrong Side of the Tracks season 4 (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 8

SAKAMOTO DAYS (Netflix anime) (new episode)
Spencer (movie)

Arriving on February 10

Aftermath (movie)
American Pickers season 16 (TV show)
Rambo (2008) (movie)
Rambo: Last Blood (movie)
Surviving Black Hawk Down (Netflix documentary)

Arriving on February 11

Felipe Esparza: Raging Fool (Netflix comedy special)
The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: The Week of January 31, 2025 (TV show)
Peninsula (movie)
Train to Busan (movie)
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 12

Death Before the Wedding (Netflix original movie)
Honeymoon Crasher (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 13

Cobra Kai season 6 part 3 (Netflix original series)
Dog Days Out (Netflix original series)
The Exchange season 2 (Netflix original series)
La Dolce Villa (Netflix original movie)
Resident Alien season 3 (TV show)
Trial by Fire (movie)

Arriving on February 14

I Am Married...But! (Netflix original series)
Love Is Blind season 8 (Netflix original series)
Melo Movie (Netflix original series)
Valeria season 4 (Netflix original series)
Dhoom Dhaam (Netflix original movie)
Love Forever (Netflix original movie)
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (Netflix original movie)
Umjolo: There is No Cure (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 15

SAKAMOTO DAYS (Netflix anime) (new episode)

Arriving on February 16

Don't Let Go (movie)
Gold (movie)
Ted 2 (movie)

Arriving on February 17

Gabby's Dollhouse season 11 (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 18

Court of Gold (Netflix original series)
The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: The Week of February 7, 2025 (TV show)
Offline Love (Netflix original series)
Rosebud Baker: The Mother Lode (Netflix comedy special)

Arriving on February 19

My Family (Netflix original series)
To Catch a Killer (movie)

Arriving on February 20

Operation Finale (movie)
Zero Day (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 22

SAKAMOTO DAYS (Netflix anime) (new episode)

Arriving on February 23

The 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (Netflix live event)

Arriving on February 25

Full Swing season 3 (Netflix original series)
The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: The Week of February 14, 2025 (TV show)
Really Love (movie)
Watcher (movie)

Arriving on February 26

Brooklyn Nine-Nine seasons 5-6 (TV show)
Miss Italia Mustn’t Die (Netflix original documentary)

Arriving on February 27

Demon City (Netflix original movie)
Running Point (Netflix original series)
Toxic Town (Netflix original series)
The Wrong Track (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 28

Aitana: Metamorphosis (Netflix original documentary)
Despicable Me 4 (movie)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (movie)
Squad 36 (Netflix original movie)

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• Nvidia has said it isn’t ‘expected’ that cable melting issues will happen with the RTX 5090
• The company reminded us about the changes made to the 16-pin power connector after the RTX 4090 ran into issues
• However, a California-based repair shop has flagged up separately that it still fixes melted RTX 4090s on a ‘daily’ basis

Nvidia has assured us that the RTX 5090 GPU is “not expected” to have any issues with melting power connectors, as seen with the RTX 4090 (and we’ll come back to dive into the history, and current situation with the Lovelace flagship, later in this article).

South Korean tech site Quasarzone published an article detailing Nvidia’s ‘RTX AI’ day which includes a Q&A session (noticed by VideoCardz), and one of the questions asked was on the subject of the 16-pin power connectors used by the RTX 4090, and also employed in the imminent RTX 5090.

An attendee at the event noted that there was an issue with the connector melting due to overheating with the RTX 4090, and asked: “Has this been resolved with the RTX 5090?”

An Nvidia representative replied: “It is expected that such issues will not occur with the RTX 50 series. In response to the issue at the time, some changes were made to the connectors, and after about two years, we believe these problems have been resolved.”

I should note that this is translated from Korean, and we should bear that firmly in mind in terms of the accuracy of what’s been said here, and the exact meaning, but the gist is clear enough.

Analysis: Power paranoia

Okay, time to hit the rewind button for a moment. You might remember the melting cable affair with the Lovelace flagship GPU when it first came out, but it’s worth indulging in a quick recap. (Or if you want the full background, head here first).

In a nutshell, this was a problem with the 16-pin connector (12VHPWR) from the PC’s power supply to the RTX 4090 graphics card not being seated properly in the card, and overheating as a result. If that overheating got to a critical enough level, the plastic would start to melt (and a poor connection was more likely if the adapter had to be bent round at a sharper than ideal angle, due to space issues inside the PC case).

Following the emergence of these reports of melting adapters, Nvidia brought in a new 16-pin power connector design (12V-2x6, a revision of 12VHPWR) to mitigate the possible fire risk of a loosely seated connector.

Essentially, Nvidia put the problem down to a user error (not ensuring the connector was plugged in fully), then moved to change the connector to minimize any chance of that happening. This connector revision involved making changes to the length of the pins, including making the ‘sense’ pins shorter, so that if the connector isn’t fully seated, or it loosens and starts to fall out, the graphics card will power down and not work (rather than continue to operate and cause the overheating issue).

This will be the same situation for the RTX 5090, so the safety aspect should be fine, or that’s the assertion Nvidia is making here. Except that there’s a notable nuance in the (translated) language here having been couched in terms of it being ‘not expected’ that any melting issues will happen with the RTX 5090.

That’s not a cast-iron ruling out of any problem, but of course we must be wary around the translation from Korean, as already noted. The additional worry with the RTX 5070 is that it seriously ups the power usage to 575W (at least, compared to 450W with the RTX 4090), but despite that, Nvidia is saying it doesn’t expect to see any problems with melting connectors.

The other concern here, as VideoCardz points out, is that while the Nvidia rep observes that after two years the melting cable problems with the RTX 4090 appear to have been resolved, there were still reports of this happening throughout 2024 – and even as recent as this month, January 2025. That’s according to NorthridgeFix (a tech repair shop in California, US), which claims to be getting RTX 4090 boards with melted connectors on a daily basis still.

So, there’s a level of paranoia here, and that’s not unexpected in itself, particularly given, as noted, how much further the RTX 5090 pushes with its power consumption compared to its predecessor.

Ultimately, the proof will be in the power cable pudding (there’s an unenticing sounding dessert), and how folks get on with the new flagship GPU when it’s released. Until then, we obviously can’t judge the RTX 5090 on the melting score, but you’d hope that one way or another, this is an issue that it would’ve been an absolute priority for Nvidia to design against and fully put to bed.

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• The FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano is DAC/amp with playback controls
• 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm headphone sockets
• $59.99 / £59.99 / about AU$117

When is a music player not a music player? The new FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano is being pitched as a music player, but it really isn't.

So what is it? Well the first clue is it having the words BLUETOOTH AMP plastered across the front of its wonderfully Walkman-esque casing, and the words "Bluetooth and DAC Headphone Amplifier" printed on the back. What we have here, I say from underneath my deerstalker hat while puffing on a pipe, could well be a Bluetooth and DAC headphone amplifier.

So it's not a music player. But it is a well-specified amp and DAC that can upgrade the sound of, control the playback from, and make and receive calls via your phone or your laptop.

(Image credit: FiiO) FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano: key features and pricing

The FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano has a CS43131*2 DAC and supports PCM sampling of up to 16-bit/96kHz. There's Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX, aptX Adaptive and LDAC for streaming from your phone, and there's a little 0.96-inch TFT display that can make it look like you're listening to a very small cassette, which is a lovely touch.

It's very small – 55.1 x 37.5 x 13.7mm, much smaller than a credit card – and very light too, coming in at 28.3g with its removable battery included. That way smaller a lot of the best portable DACs with wireless skills.

Connection-wise there are both 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs as well as USB-C. And the physical buttons enable you to skip tracks, adjust the volume, change the mode and navigate the menu.

You can kind of think of it a way to take the best wired headphones and go wireless, adding playback controls that they may not have built-in.

The FiiO Control app works with both iOS and Android and you can use the device with your laptop via USB. We've been consistently impressed with FiiO's value audiophile gear, from its FiiO FT5 headphones to the FiiO M11S portable music player – and that one is, for sure, a music player, topping our list of the best hi-res music players.

The Snowsky Retro Nano is available now for $59.99 / £59.99 / about AU$117.

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• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 arrives on January 28
• It introduces loads of new maps, weapons, and modes
• This is on top of balance changes, fixes, and a Terminator crossover event

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 is almost here, with the upcoming batch of live service content for the popular multiplayer shooter set to arrive on January 28. With a wealth of new maps, modes, and weapons, it comfortably has some of the most exciting additions yet.

For me, the new multiplayer maps are the highlight here. There will be three available at launch, Bounty, Dealership, and Lifeline. All three are brand-new environments built for Black Ops 6 and seem like a nicely varied selection. Bounty is set at the top of a fancy skyscraper, with a nightclub, rooftop, office, lobby and more.

As the name would suggest, Dealership then takes place in a car dealership - but with an interesting twist. The dealership is actually a front for an arms smuggling gang, its large showroom giving way to a sinister weapons black market. While both of these maps are geared towards 6v6 matches, Lifeline is something of a more compact environment that can be played in both 6v6 and 2v2 modes. It’s a small boat, named the Lifeline, which is moving quickly through choppy waters.

That’s not all, however, as two other maps are also being added throughout the season. The all-new Bullet is easily the coolest looking to me, letting you fight through a speeding bullet train which feels like a scene ripped straight out of a Bond movie. Playable in both 2v2 and 6v6, its tight corridor layout looks absolutely perfect for XP grinding too so I’m looking forward to putting in the hours to level up my gear.

(Image credit: Activision)

The final map is a remaster of Grind, which was first featured in Black Ops 2 though I am most familiar with the Black Ops 4 version. This arena-style skatepark map is decent enough, but I personally prefer exploring layouts that we haven’t seen before.

Of course, no Call of Duty season would be complete without a smattering of new modes too. Overdrive is a brand new mode that will be available at launch, challenging you to earn stars through eliminations, headshots, and takedowns. Collecting set numbers of stars activates bonuses, such as the ability to see enemies through walls, increased movement and reload speed, or improved handling.

The classic Gun Game is also coming back, improving your gear through up to 20 different loadouts with every kill. Two limited time modes are dropping in time for Valentine's Day, the aptly named Third Wheel Gunfight and Couples Dance Off.

Two new Perks, a new Wildcard, and a new Scorestreak are being added throughout Season 2. Enforcer Perk Hunter’s Instinct increases your sprinting speed, while cutting down your Tac Sprint. Activision hasn’t revealed the name of the other perk yet, but we do know that it will highlight the next closest enemy with each successful elimination.

The new Wildcard, Flyswatter, is going to be a blessing for those sick of dying to chopper gunners or other Scorestreaks, as it lets you replace your melee weapon with a launcher. As for the new Scorestreak, War Machine is coming back - letting you call in a powerful cluster grenade launcher that’s perfect for clearing out campers.

This is all on top of four newly revealed weapons, the fast-firing PPSh-41 SMG, the reliable Cypher 091 assault rifle, the remarkably compact Feng 82 LMG, and the precise TR2 marksman rifle. These are joined by a variety of new weapon attachments, most interestingly a whole crossbow that you can stick to the bottom of your gun, plus plenty of balance changes, fixes, new bundles, a fresh battle pass, and even a Terminator crossover event.

If you’re interested in diving into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 just in time for Season 2, the game is available now for PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

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• Reggie Fils-Aimé, former Nintendo of America CEO, had positive things to say about Astro Bot
• The PS5 exclusive took Game of the Year at the New York Game Awards
• It was also awarded Best Kids Game and Best Music in a Game

Former Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé has praised Team Asobi's PS5 hit Astro Bot as it claimed yet another Game of the Year accolade - this time at the New York Game Awards 2025.

“So I have to admit it, Astro Bot almost outdid Nintendo at its own game,” said Fils-Aimé (via VGC), who played host at the New York Game Awards. Not only did Astro Bot take 'Best Game of the Year' at the event, it also scooped up awards for 'Best Music in a Game' and 'Best Kids Game'.

Across all three categories it won, Astro Bot beat some stiff competition from the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Black Myth: Wukong and Metaphor: ReFantazio. Other winners included UFO 50 for 'Best Indie Game', Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree for 'Best World' and Zenless Zone Zero for 'Best Mobile Game'.

Remedy's Sam Lake, previously responsible for games like Alan Wake 2, Control and Max Payne, was also presented with the 'Andrew Yoon Legend Award'.

It's not the first time Astro Bot has come up in conversation in relation to Nintendo. When the game took the coveted Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2024, Team Asobi creative director Nicolas Doucet said the game was greatly inspired by classic Nintendo titles like Super Mario Bros.

Astro Bot has also been receiving plenty of free post-launch content since release. This includes a set of speedrun challenge levels, as well as a unique Christmas-themed stage which threw in a bunch of new costumes and classic PlayStation cameos.

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• Google is planning to tweak its Emergency SOS feature on Pixel Watch
• Code suggests it plans to introduce an extra gesture to the process
• This appears to be aimed at reducing the frequency of accidental emergency calls.

New code spotted in the latest Pixel Watch app appears to suggest that Google is working on a tweak to its Emergency SOS feature that will make pocket-dialing emergency services less likely in the future.

While the Emergency SOS features on the best iPhones, smartwatches, and devices like the Google Pixel Watch 3 can be indispensable in life-or-death situations, adding easy access to emergency calling from a smart device inevitably leads to some accidental calls. A quick glance at Reddit will show you both Pixel Watch and Apple Watch users struggling with the problem.

To that end, Android Authority reports that Google is preparing a new 'Touch & hold to call' option that should reduce those accidental calls. Specifically, strings (lines of code) reveal the feature's name and how it works: "On your watch, quickly press the crown 5 times, then touch & hold the screen for 3 seconds to call for help."

It seems this new feature will be one of two options for emergency call settings because there's also an "automatic call" option listed that will still dial 911, 999, or the emergency number wherever you are, after you press the crown five times.

Combatting rogue emergency calls

Apple Watch models are also vulnerable to pocket dials (Image credit: Future)

As mentioned, pocket-dialing the emergency services from your smartphone or smartwatch isn't a new phenomenon.

When Apple first introduced Crash Detection to the iPhone 14 back in 2022, the company quickly found itself dealing with complaints of calls being triggered in non-emergency situations. Notably, a 911 dispatch center near a Cincinnati amusement park received six such calls from iPhone owners riding rollercoasters.

Later that year, a Colorado ski town dispatch center fielded 71 automated calls from iPhones and Apple Watches in a single weekend.

As you can imagine, the problem is a massive drain on emergency resources. The calls take up the airwaves for dispatch centers, and emergency responders are usually sent to accidental calls to check the location. “We are not in the practice of disregarding calls," a dispatch director told The Colorado Sun in 2022.

In 2021, a Wisconsin county sheriff's office revealed it had taken more than 700 accidental 911 calls triggered by iPhones in a single year, revealing in the process the one thing you should never do if you accidentally call 911.

Next time you accidentally dial 911, stay on the line and let the dispatcher know you're alright – don't hang up the phone.

There's no timeframe for the release of this leaked feature, but with code present in the latest Pixel Watch app beta, it's unlikely to be far away.

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• The M4 MacBook Air could offer improved external display support
• It may connect to two external displays without you needing to close its lid
• We can work this out by looking at the M4 MacBook Pro

Lots of people connect their laptops to an external display in order to extend their workspace, yet this is one area where the MacBook Air struggles. Sure, you can connect two screens to this computer, but only if you close the lid – without doing that, it only works with a single monitor. That’s less than ideal.

Fortunately, that could all be about to change with the imminent launch of the M4 MacBook Air. When the M4 chip lands in Apple’s most affordable laptop, it could finally allow for more flexible external display setups.

To understand why, we need to look at the MacBook Pro. As noted by 9to5Mac, the M4 MacBook Pro supports up to two external displays (if you have the M4 Max model, it will support up to four external screens). The M3 MacBook Pro could also support two monitors, but at lower resolutions and frame rates. In contrast, the M2 MacBook Pro only worked with one external display. That’s progress with each chip generation.

The improved external monitor support in the step up from the M2 to M3 chip was mirrored in the MacBook Air, which is able to support an additional screen as long as the laptop’s screen is closed. The implication here is that because the M4 chip improved display support in the MacBook Pro, it will do the same for the MacBook Air, as has happened with chip upgrades in the past.

Better bandwidth

(Image credit: Bryce Hyland / Future)

The likely reason why the M3 MacBook Air could only connect to two displays when its lid was closed came down to bandwidth: the laptop’s chip couldn’t support the required video throughput for three screens at once.

Now that the M4 MacBook Pro works with higher resolutions and frame rates, the suggestion is that it has greater video bandwidth than the M3 chip. And if that’s the case, there’s a chance that the MacBook Air could make use of that.

That means we could see the M4 MacBook Air support three screens in total: its built-in display, plus two external monitors, all without having to close its lid. That would potentially make it a very attractive device to prospective buyers.

Much of this is speculation and guesswork at the moment. But with the M4 MacBook Air expected to launch soon, it won’t be long until we find out whether it’s received this significant display upgrade.

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