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Most people understand “digital identity” as all the online information linked to humans, such as usernames and passwords, that allow us to access services and apps. Today – with our lives increasingly playing out online – this identity is crucial for almost every action we take, from online security to seamless transactions.

However, a critical aspect of digital identity that’s often overlooked within organizations is the identity of machines. Machines, from IoT devices to servers, and even the workloads that run on them – like containers, microservices, or bash scripts – all require identities. These identities can be hacked and exploited just like human ones, revealing critical information and posing significant risks if not managed consistently across environments.

Maintaining identity consistency

As multi-cloud environments and cloud-native architectures have become standard, the number of machine and workload identities is soaring. In 2023, workload identities alone outnumbered human identities 10 to 1, and this gap is expected to widen, set to reach 100 to 1 soon. Understanding and managing these identities is vital for maintaining organizational security in the digital age – but how do businesses ensure consistency across their identities?

With the rise in cloud adoption, workloads are increasing exponentially, turning identity into a business-wide issue. Everything operating within your business, from a simple script to a complex workload, requires the same security considerations as a human identity. It's not enough for workloads to just have an identity; they need one that is consistent, secure, short-lived, and thoroughly vetted. Much like people who often face challenges managing multiple logins, locations, and passwords – leading to frustration, risk, and productivity slowdowns – workloads can encounter similar issues. Maintaining consistent identities for these workloads is essential to safeguarding them against threats.

Building the workload identity pyramid

Consider workload identities as a pyramid. First, at the foundation we have workload identities and managing their entire lifecycle. Moving up, the next level is authentication, ensuring each entity is correctly identified and verified. The next level is authorization, which dictates what resources or actions the entity is permitted to access. At the top of the pyramid is governance, overseeing and managing the rules of authentication and authorization. Only when each level of the pyramid is reached can we begin to consider the next step, then move towards the final goal of standardization.

As development platforms like Kubernetes become ubiquitous, it's essential to establish an open-source standard for consistently and securely identifying software systems – as all workloads need verifiable IDs. When all vendors adopt the same standard, tools and systems from different sources can better integrate and communicate, which will improve compatibility and extend the reach of solutions. By establishing governance standards, organizations can better protect themselves from increasing risks. This ensures that security and IT teams can identify, manage, and govern workloads, regardless of where they are running. One example of an open-source standard is SPIFFE, the Secure Production Identity Framework For Everyone. SPIFFE is in the same foundation as Kubernetes – the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) along with many of the other projects it’s likely to interoperate with. Although it's built for and designed with Kubernetes in mind, it can also be applied to traditional, proprietary on-premises solutions which makes it powerful for Platform Engineers and Infosec teams alike.

Securing digital workloads

Identity security isn't just about protecting human identities anymore. The perimeter is dead, and services are now running everywhere – from on prem to the cloud and beyond. Just as employees must verify their identities to keep your business secure, machines and workloads interacting with one another need to do the same. This helps IT teams manage and secure workloads across various cloud environments more effectively.

Without this, the risk of exposure, compliance violations, and security breaches increases. Open standards like SPIFFE ensure consistent and verifiable IDs for all entities, enhancing compatibility and security. As cloud adoption and multi-cloud environments grow, addressing the identity security of both machines and workloads is crucial. This is key to reducing risks and boosting overall organizational security.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

Nimble has launched new features which the company promises will help fuel growth across organizations, and not just specific departments. A move further supporting the company's efforts to be one of the best CRM software providers on the market.

In a press release shared with TechRadar Pro earlier this week, the company announced the release of Email Sequence Automation, a feature that integrates the recently launched Email Sequences, with key functionalities such as Web Forms, Webhooks, and Workflows. The integrations are bi-directional, the company explained, and should help different teams such as marketing, PR, customer support, HR, accounting, and others.

“By linking Workflow pipelines with Email Sequences, Nimble fully supports the customer journey, from capturing leads to closing deals,” commented Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble. “This enhancement helps teams save significantly by consolidating their tech stack.”

The new feature will come with industry-specific email sequence templates, automated lead and contact management, comprehensive customer journey support, and scalable contact engagement. More details about the intricacies of the new offering can be found on this link.

Capturing leads and closing deals

For those who are unaware, Nimble is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to help businesses manage contacts, communications, and sales pipelines. It integrates with popular productivity tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and social media platforms to gather and organize customer information from multiple sources.

The CRM comes with a myriad of features such as contact management, email tracking, and task automation, streamlining both sales and marketing efforts. Finally, it consolidates all data into a single platform, helping teams collaborate better, and improve customer engagement.

The features are already available for use, Nimble said, adding that users can get all of them in a single payment plan.

In the near future, Nimble is planning on releasing more updates, including Lead Engagement Automation, which should be announced today, and Marketing Automation at scale, to be announced later this month.

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Companies are rushing to address IT and business challenges by implementing AI strategies. But their roadmaps are leading in dozens of directions amid a barrage of AI hype and hope. We’re fast realizing that putting AI to work, including machine learning and generative AI, in an effective and cost-efficient way requires accurately diagnosing deep-seated enterprise problems.

While the depth of problems can vary from organization to organization, enterprises experience considerable friction due to cloud migration complications and constantly evolving core technologies, platforms, and ITSM tools. Diving deeper, cross-enterprise challenges also include a broad lack of maturity in automation adoption, digital labor, systems-driven operational models, and AI-enabled tools themselves. All of this is often wrapped up in failures to understand core process issues that have stalled digital transformation and acceleration initiatives.

Enterprises can become frustrated with little measurable success, despite major investments of time and money. The future of IT service management depends on the accurate examination of this impasse — and fine-tuning AI, guided by human oversight and evaluation, to navigate processes better and achieve higher quality results faster than we currently do.

Challenges multiply when enterprises fail to understand process issues

When organizations fail to fully identify and understand issues with their business and technical processes, they also waste time and resources trying to identify and implement the right solutions for the organization, at the right time. While executives and management often have a solid awareness of the impact of technology adoption and process problems on the business, they typically lack visibility into the root causes of, say, skyrocketing cloud spend, poor data management, or inefficient workflows and tooling.

A lack of process and procedural “hygiene” is responsible for much of the inefficiency and noise. That bad hygiene can manifest as a lack of discipline in organizations to log tickets for every issue handled, to capture proper issue-related details in the tickets, and to capture proper work notes and resolution notes. These seemingly small details can wreak havoc on the health of enterprise systems and larger business objectives. This is a manifestation of the “watermelon effect” at work: everything may look green on the outside, but the issues surface in red when you cut deep. Intentionally or unintentionally, a healthy assessment might be conveyed to higher tiers of management and to the public, while rot is taking hold deep in the system.

What’s more, many organizations focus on operational-level KPIs rather than business-level KPIs, which means the needle may not be moving toward better business performance. Organizations can also suffer due to inadequate technical expertise, domain expertise, and staffing relative to capacity. Undocumented and “tribal” knowledge locked within incumbents inside the organization contributes to siloed IT approaches and solutions that detract from achieving business objectives. Tribal knowledge may also, at times, be locked in archaic approaches and technologies which further hinder modernization.

Other factors that can drag enterprises down include inefficiencies in hybrid or work-from-home models, the ongoing tightening of compliance and regulatory standards, and a lack of unity and clarity across the organization in long-term growth and modernization strategy.

AI: Extracting intelligence and solving problems for optimized services

Generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing (NLP) and other forms of AI can be of great help in revealing, simplifying, and solving these pain points. AI can aid in extracting intelligence that can be used to eliminate challenges with process issues, technology adoption, meeting business-level KPIs, and increasing team productivity.

Specifically, with ITSM, generative AI can drive positive results by addressing historic contexts as well as issues in real time. It can help humans identify trends and patterns, formulate insights, determine better processual steps, and even generate summaries of incidents and events with respect to both infrastructure needs and customer needs. AI can quickly summarize triage across the incidents and generate overall resolutions implemented by directly fetching inputs from mail chains if needed. Humans can then review those AI-generated summaries and take corrective action that saves the organization time and money. These comprehensive insights across tickets and systems issues can provide clarity on the nature, impact, and volume of challenges the organization faces. That data helps in prioritizing automation and resolution efforts.

Importantly, AI-summarized triage notes and resolution notes across tech teams and tech stacks offer a more holistic view of events flow across teams, which helps provide an end-to-end picture of the ITSM environment and can reveal any process inefficiencies. Also useful is AI’s ability to generate concise management reports, while enabling more thorough and comprehensive documentation for future reference.

Better configuration, proactive prediction, and a reduced skills gap

Additionally, predictive AI, platform AI, NLP, and AI in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) can be used to assist in a wide variety of ITSM work to define the processes and methodology of operations. For example, by consuming metrics, logs, and traces, AI can enhance its predictive capabilities, helping an organization prevent incidents before they occur. With data unique to an organization, AI can be trained to differentiate between positives, false positives, and negatives. It can help in event correlation among historic incidents and unearth patterns, volumes, and impact metrics — which will later be matched up with real-time metrics to proactively predict incidents.

AI-driven infrastructure-as-code (IaC) and configuration-as-code (CasC) can help in streamlining and standardizing infrastructure provisioning and maintenance, reducing the burden on humans. AI can also help predict the impact of configuration changes and automate configuration optimization, which helps reduce management efforts. And AI tools can aggregate the best reference material and provide it to the right teams — reducing the skill gaps where that’s most needed.

Not least, AI can help to team up individuals working on the same issue across different organizational silos. It can unearth process-related issues in those silos and across the teams. It can “artificially” merge siloed services across teams for a more comprehensive view of the overall health of IT services and systems, while helping reduce costs by eliminating idle resources, duplicated work, and over-provisioning.

Looking forward

In ITSM, AI will have a profound, long-term impact. It will help to bridge talent gaps in the global workforce, and in the next five to ten years, we will see increasing use of digital labor and a meaningful shift in how human labor is levied.

As AI matures, it will become capable of solving increasingly complex problems, and even more comprehensively and independently identify root causes of technical and process issues across enterprises. Predictive analytics will facilitate proactive and preemptive systems maintenance. Industry-specific AI engines, trained for particular domains, will increasingly have the ability to quickly or near instantaneously learn and adapt to the needs of the organizations where they are deployed, minimizing the maturity curve. All of this will reduce systems downtime, while improving stability and security across the enterprise IT landscape.

The next generation of IT professionals will also be affected, and in order to bolster their careers, they must prepare for a period of transition. Developing an understanding of the IT landscape, as well as how to use, confirm, measure, and enhance the effectiveness of AI engines within organizations will become critical. A key part of their jobs will involve training AI engines and accounting for latest enhancements, as they strategize AI-to-business outcomes.

Right now, business leaders seeking to understand the intersection of AI and IT service management must define the most effective strategies and timelines around why and how to implement AI. Having the right AI solutions, knowing how AI engines can be effectively adopted across an organization for best ROI, and securing the right talent and partners to build and manage AI are collectively an uphill task. It’s worth the effort in the long term, due to cost efficiencies and performance improvements that AI can deliver at scale.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

It's a clash of the comic book titans this week as Marvel and DC go head-to-head in a TV bout for the ages. Indeed, the Disney- and Warner-owned comic giants have released new shows this week, so you'll be incredibly unsurprised to learn that the duo lead our streaming recommendations for the weekend.

It isn't just Disney Plus and Max who are coming out swinging this week, though. Two more of the world's best streaming services have some new movies and TV shows to bring you on the stay-at-home watching front, too, so if you're not a fan of superheroes or cinematic comic book franchises, one of this article's other five suggestions should take your fancy. Enjoy!

Agatha All Along (Disney Plus)

Just when I thought I'd finally got WandaVision's incredibly catchy (and popular!) original song out of my head, Marvel has only gone and named an entire TV spin-off after it. That's right, Kathryn Hahn's delightful and morally complex Agatha Harkness is back, with the calculating witch's own series – Agatha All Along – finally launching in time for spooky season.

Stripped of her powers by Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision's final episode, Harkness must cobble together her own coven of misfit witches to traverse the Witches' Road, a dangerous realm that, if successfully navigated, will turn a traveler's long-held dream into reality. No pressure, then, gang.

Based on its numerous trailers, this Marvel Phase 5 show looks like it could be another MCU TV project that dominates online discussions throughout its nine-episode run. I can't wait to see more after its campy, catty, chilling, and cackle-inducing two-episode premiere – although, as I noted in my Agatha All Along review, I wished it leaned more into its horror roots. Anyway, altogether now: It was Agatha all alooooooong!

Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

• Watch Agatha All Along on Disney Plus

The Penguin (Max)

Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb/The Penguin was one of many highlights of mine in 2022's The Batman (you can read more on the others in my review of The Batman). Even so, considering his screen time – in a near-three-hour long movie, no less – totalled a curt eight minutes, I was hesitant about the prospects of this sleazy, cunning criminal being able to star in one of the best Max shows ever made. (NB: The Penguin is available to stream on Sky/Now TV in the UK and Binge in Australia.)

I need not have worried. The Penguin is an absolute blast from start to finish, with Farrell and co-lead Cristin Milioti's (she plays Sofia Falcone) performances making this unmissable miniseries. By the time it came to penning my thoughts on the latest Batman live-action project, I'd only watched the first two episodes. Even then, though, I could tell The Penguin deserved to sit alongside The Sopranos in HBO's crime drama pantheon. Now, having finished the full series, I'm tripling down on that opinion – it's just that epic. Give Farrell and Milioti their 2025 Primetime Emmys trophies now, please and thank you.

Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

• Watch The Penguin on Max

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (Netflix)

Ryan Murphy's got quite a dark portfolio. From American Horror Story to Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, he's taken viewers down some twisted paths. His foray into true crime continues with the latest in his Monster series, which focuses on Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who were convicted of the murder of their parents.

This double-murder resulted in a huge investigation that has gone down in American history, largely due to Court TV broadcasting the trial. With some big names like Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny involved, this dramatization is well worth the watch if you've got the stomach for it.  A third instalment of Monsters will explore the life of serial killer Ed Gein, portrayed by Sons of Anarchy lead Charlie Hunnam.

Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer

• Watch Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix

His Three Daughters (Netflix)

His Three Daughters already promises to be one of the best Netflix movies of 2024 with its 99% Rotten Tomatoes score – and that's before it has even started streaming on Netflix. His Three Daughters features a star-studded cast of Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon, and Natasha Lyonne, who play three estranged sisters that reunite in New York City to care for their ill father. As the sisters wait at their father's bedside during his final days, they confront past resentments and face fresh struggles in their relationships.

I can tell this bittersweet portrayal of sisterhood in all its happiness and pain will have me laughing and crying until the very end, so I'm ready to strap in for the emotional rollercoaster ride with one of September's new Netflix movies.

Grace Morris, entertainment writer

• Watch His Three Daughters on Netflix

A Very Royal Scandal (Prime Video)

Just like Netflix's Scoop, which aired earlier in the year, A Very Royal Scandal on Prime Video is another bombshell drama about Prince Andrew's explosive 2019 Newsnight interview. A Very Royal Scandal is a retelling of Newsnight journalist Emily Maitlis' journey leading up to her interview with Prince Andrew on the BBC Two news and current affairs programme.

Michael Sheen takes on the role of Prince Andrew, while Ruth Wilson plays Maitlis, so if the two leading stars are anything to go by, there's a possibility that this could end up as one of the best Prime Video shows.

Grace Morris, entertainment writer

• Watch A Very Royal Scandal on Prime Video

Twilight of the Gods (Netflix)

Zack Snyder needs no introduction around these parts, but the beloved/divisive director's (delete as applicable) partnership with Netflix got off to an inauspicious start with the arrival of his two-part Rebel Moon movie. Despite pulling in viewers when Rebel Moon Part 1 aired last December, both films' critical and commercial receptions left a lot to be desired, and it's unclear if Snyder's epic sci-fi franchise will be given the time, effort, and money it demands to turn its fortunes around.

The former DC Cinematic Universe (DCEU) filmmaker, then, will hope this Norse mythology-inspired, R-rated animated series will fare better. Twilight of the Gods stars Sylvia Hoeks as Sigrid, an iron-willed warrior who, after assembling a ragtag group of crusaders, embarks on a death-defying mission of revenge after Thor murders her betrothed – and on her wedding day, no less. One to join similar adult animated fare like Arcane and BoJack Horseman on our best Netflix shows list? I guess it depends on how bloody and thunderous it is.

Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

• Watch Twilight of the Gods on Netflix

I Saw The TV Glow (Max)

I Saw the TV Glow is still my favorite horror of the year. My colleague Rowan Davies agrees, too, in his *ahem* glowing personal piece on I Saw The TV Glow, where he explains how it made him re-watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's easy to see why, as this powerful coming of age story does explore topics of identity, fandom, and more, with the help of a creepy fictional TV show called The Pink Opaque.

Horrors like this are special and don't come around all the time. This isn't jump scares galore or full of over the top gore (as much as there's a space for that) – instead, it's subtle yet eerie throughout. Indeed, one of September's new Max movies not only relies on this sense of dread and discomfort, but a general deeply unsettling feeling that something is missing. Two unlikely teenagers bond over this slightly campy, 80s-esque supernatural series, and the result is something as beautiful as it is haunting. To say too much would spoil it but I can't recommend it enough, so you can expect to see it on our best Max movies list very soon.

Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer 

• Watch I Saw The TV Glow on Max

For more streaming coverage, read our guides on the best Hulu shows, best Paramount Plus movies, best Apple TV Plus shows, and best Disney Plus movies.

A critical path traversal vulnerability, recently discovered in Ivanti’s Cloud Service Appliance (CSA), is being actively exploited in the wild to grant access to restricted product functionalities. This is according to the security advisory Ivanti published earlier this week, in which it said it was “aware of a limited number of customers” who have been exploited by this vulnerability.

CSA is a gateway solution that allows secure communication between Ivanti software products (such as Ivanti Endpoint Manager) and devices outside the corporate network. It acts as a secure bridge for remote devices, enabling them to connect to internal services without the need for a VPN.

The bug is being tracked as CVE-2024-8963, and carries a severity score of 9.4. Ivanti says hackers can chain it to CVE-2024-8190, an OS command injection vulnerability, to bypass admin authentication and run arbitrary commands on the vulnerable endpoint.

End of life

The company did not say which companies were targeted, or by whom.

The bug was “incidentally addressed” as part of CSA 4.6 Patch 519, and CSA 5.0: “Ivanti is disclosing a critical vulnerability in Ivanti CSA 4.6 which was incidentally addressed in the patch released on 10 September (CSA 4.6 Patch 519),” the company said. It stressed that CSA 4.6 is past its end-of-life date, and as such no longer receives patches for OS or third-party libraries.

“Additionally, with the end-of-life status the fix released on 10 September is the last fix Ivanti will backport to that version,” the company concluded. “Customers must upgrade to Ivanti CSA 5.0 for continued support. CSA 5.0 is the only supported version of the product and is not affected by this vulnerability.”

Since the bug is actively exploited, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog recently, forcing government agencies to patch up by October 10, The Hacker News found.

Via The Hacker News

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Microsoft has launched a new service for macOS, iOS, Android devices, web browsers, and Windows PCs allowing users to run Windows and Windows apps as a platform for streaming a copy of Windows from a variety of sources.

With a customizable home screen, multi-monitor support, and USB redirection, the app will allow customer to use local devices like printers, webcams, and storage devices as if they were plugged directly into a cloud PC,

“This unified app serves as your secure gateway to connect to Windows across Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Remote Desktop, Remote Desktop Services, Microsoft Dev Box, and more," Microsoft's Windows 365 Senior Product Manager Hilary Braun noted.

All in one place

The app doesn't just consolidate multiple services, Microsoft says, but will bring better device management for IT administrators, easier account switching, and includes support for both Microsoft’s Relayed RDP Shortpath and Windows 365 for frontline workers.

By providing a gateway to connect to Windows across multiple services, the app will aim to enhance the user experience by providing a single streamlined interface.

Not everyone is enthused about the new app, most citing the confusing name. Primarily, people are frustrated that searching for solutions or help with Windows apps will be much more complicated with so many services with a similar name.

The news comes days after an announcement that the Windows 11 app will be getting some major upgrades, which hopes to enable apps to use less memory and enable 50% faster loading. The firm hopes updates will bring better performance for a range of apps, and improve the user experience across the board.

Via ArsTechnica

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Have you ever had a nightmare where you're being chased by a killer and can't move no matter how hard you try? Well, this horror story comes true in the trailer for new Netflix movie Don't Move.

With legendary Evil Dead director Sam Raimi producing the upcoming thriller, there's a high possibility that Don't Move could become one of the best horror movies. The best streaming service released the new trailer (see below) as part of Netflix's Geeked Week and my horror-phobic self is ready to be frozen in fear just this once.

In the heart-pounding new trailer, Iris (Kelsey Asbille) fights for her life as a sinister killer pursues her in the forest. It already sounds like anyone's worst fear, but the ordeal is made even more terrifying when she has to contend with her entire body shutting down after being injected by a paralytic agent. In another bone-chilling twist, the trailer never reveals the killer. We only hear his voice as he ominously warns her what's to come as the agent gradually takes over her body in 20 minutes.

Frozen in fear, literally

In Don't Move, grieving mother Iris is hoping to find solace in the woods as she navigates a difficult time in her life. However, her journey to healing turns into a desperate fight for survival when she meets a stranger deep in the forest of the Big Sur who injects her with a paralytic agent. With only 20 minutes until the drug kicks in, Iris must face the deadly battle of her nervous system shutting down and escaping a pursuer hot on her tail. 

With an 85 minute runtime, the potential best Netflix movie unfolds along the same amount of time as the characters are experiencing, so the audience feels like they're there moment by moment. This idea is something directors Brian Netto and Adam Schindler conceived alongside the film’s writers, T.J. Cimfel and David White. “The challenge we said to them was, ‘we would love for it to be real time,’ ” Netto told Tudum. “We love films that do that.” 

Throughout those 85 minutes, Iris must navigate a new, unimaginable obstacle with very limited range of movement. “It’s a propulsive, stripped-down thriller that manages to feel very personal at times. That’s what resonated with me, fighting desperately to overcome something that has left you feeling paralyzed,” Asbille added.

Don't Move stars Asbille (Yellowstone), Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story: Hotel), Moray Treadwell (The Witcher: Blood Origin), and Daniel Francis (Bridgerton), and will debut on Netflix on October 25, so make sure to stay put till then. 

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Citrix has unveiled an important update to its Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) suite – support for macOS desktop sessions on any device.

Yesterday’s introduction of Citrix VDA for macOS enables access to Macs hosted through virtualization platforms like MacStadium and Amazon’s EC2 Mac instances.

By supporting macOS, Citrix hopes to appeal to media workers and software developers who rely on the Apple operating system by eliminating the need to invest in physical Mac hardware.

Citrix adds VDA for macOS

Developers using Xcode to write apps for iOS, macOS, and visionOS can access Apple’s software without having the associated large expense for the latest hardware, while those in the design, illustration and video industry can use Mac-specific applications via the virtual desktop.

By accessing macOS through Citrix’s virtualization, a broader spectrum of devices is supported, allowing companies to explore cheaper hardware options.

Citrix VDA for macOS also includes SSO, USB device redirection, HDX screen sharing and webcam redirection to enable hybrid workers to connect more easily.

However, despite listening to customer feedback and offering new macOS access, Citrix hasn’t been without criticism. Many have expressed frustration over limited contractual flexibility, rigid terms and challenges in negotiating volume changes.

Citrix also recently bundled its products into two categories, leaving some customers with access to tools they don’t need and ultimately challenging the perceived benefits of spending as you go.

Regardless, Citrix’s macOS expansion marks an important step in its product portfolio, addressing the needs of a broad range of users. It also serves as a necessary upgrade for the platform, which faces stiff competition from the likes of AWS, Microsoft, Parallels and VMware spinout Omnissa.

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Wednesday season 2 and Stranger Things season 5 have been hot topics since they were confirmed, but Netflix subscribers have been waiting a while for updates. With no trailers released yet for either, it's understandable if you were expecting these to drop during the big Netflix Geeked Week announcements.

Sadly, the best streaming service doesn't have full trailers or even release dates for us. Instead, we've been given some behind-the-scenes looks at both shows, which admittedly does include a release window for Wednesday season 2. As nice as it is to take a look around, I know I'm definitely hungry for some more information so it's a shame this wasn't confirmed after building up the hype for so long.

Nevertheless, it's worth checking them both out if you're curious about the production but we'll have to wait a little longer for any footage or exact release dates for these best Netflix shows, it seems. All we know is, they're arriving next year... at some point!

What behind-the-scenes footage was shown at Geeked Week?

(Image credit: Netflix)

Starting with Tim Burton's Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega as the iconic Addams Family daughter, the cast and crew were on hand to show us some of season 2. As we can see, alongside Ortega key cast members like Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia), Luis Guzman (Gomez) and Emma Myers (Enid) are all back, including everyone's favorite sentient severed hand, Thing. Check out the hand actor, Victor Dorobantu if you're curious how he brings it to life, he's very cool.

But there's not a lot to go off, including plot details, with Wednesday herself making a joke at the end saying: "If we showed you any more your eyes would bleed, and I'm not that generous". In character, sure, but not very fair for us! 

FIRST LOOK: behind-the-scenes of Wednesday season 2. Coming 2025. #GeekedWeek pic.twitter.com/NlucwUWdzLSeptember 20, 2024

Elsewhere, the Stranger Things cast took us on a tour of the iconic Hawkins set. Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), and Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) showed two lucky fans around in a 7-minute video, but there's no confirmed release beyond 2025 for this show either.

Attention Nerds: We went back to set and brought the biggest Stranger Things geeks to check it out for #GeekedWeek! pic.twitter.com/j7Zv7TMyOBSeptember 20, 2024

Considering shows like Squid Game season 2 and Black Mirror season 7 got some big announcements around casting and trailers, the lack of content for these big shows may frustrate fans. I guess we'll have to wait a little longer to find out what's in store, but 2025 is shaping up to be a big year.

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Soulslike Lies of P now has an official merch store where you can buy all kinds of apparel including hoodies, shirts, and caps. Plus, publisher Neowiz has partnered with iam8bit to create a set of limited-edition vinyl records featuring the game's incredible soundtrack.

The Lies of P Gear Store, as it's known, is currently stocked with nine products, though the website also states that more items will be coming soon. The website also ships worldwide, though be aware that delivery costs may vary between regions. The currently available products are as follows:

• Logo Graphic Hoodie: $55 / $39.99 / AU$80
• Black Rabbit Brotherhood Hoodie: $55 / £39.99 / AU$50
• Legion Arm Aegis Graffiti T-Shirt: $34 / £24.99 / AU$50
• Legion Arm Puppet String Graffiti T-Shirt: $34 / £24.99 / AU$50
• Legion Arm Flamberge Graffiti T-Shirt: $34 / £24.99 / AU$50
• Legion Arm Pandemonium Graffiti T-Shirt: $34 / £24.99 / AU$50
• Legion Arm Fulminis Graffiti T-Shirt: $34 / £24.99 / AU$50
• Puppet of Geppetto / Deux Ex Machina T-Shirt: $34 / £24.99 / AU$50
• Lies of P Cap: $34 / £24.99 / AU$50

(Image credit: Neowiz)

In addition to the official merch store, Neowiz has partnered with creative outlet iam8bit for a set of limited edition Lies of P vinyl records. First up, the Lies of P 3xLP features the entire game soundtrack on black and gold vinyl. It also comes with a trifold jacket with some truly stunning artwork. It'll be available on the iam8bit website for $74.99 (around £56.99).

A separate vinyl, Lies of P 7", highlights the fan favorite vocal track 'Feel' which will be available for $14.99 (around £11.99). For fans who want both, a special edition bundle packs in all these vinyls for $84.99 (around £64.99), though this will only be available until October 4.

That's plenty of solid new merch, then, but developer Round 8 Studio isn't quite done with Lies of P just yet. We know that the team is working on DLC for the game as well as a potential sequel if the surprise post-credits scene is anything to go by.

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Every now and then, software updates for popular operating systems break other programs installed on these devices, and this time around, it’s Apple’s turn.

TechCrunch is reporting that the latest macOS update, Sequoia (AKA macOS 15) broke many major cybersecurity solutions. This, understandably, caused both frustration and fear among the Apple community since, after all, not having endpoint protection places many organizations at serious risk.

In its writeup, the publication mentions some of the most popular security solutions today: CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft, ESET, and others. Most of these companies alerted their users that they would not be able to support macOS Sequoia and advised against updating the OS until the matter is resolved.

Four more bugs

“I’m very sorry to report that we will not be supporting Sequoia on day 1 in spite of our intention (and previous track record) to support the latest OS within hours of [General Availability],” a CrowdStrike engineer said in a Slack message seen by TechCrunch.

Furthermore, the developers are under the impression that they will have to be the ones addressing the issue, and not Apple. The company is yet to address the problem.

“I get it, that writing bug-free software is challenging, but maybe if Apple spent less time and money on marketing, and more time on actually testing their software, we’d all be better off!” Patrick Wardle, the founder of Mac and iOS security startup DoubleYou, and a longtime expert on macOS security, told TechCrunch.

While yet unconfirmed, the problem seems to be related to firewalls and DNS on the OS, since two separate researchers reported these issues, per Apple Insider. One of the researchers, Will Dormann, said blocking incoming connections in the macOS Sequoia firewall can also block replies to DNS requests. "Depending on your firewall config, silly things like DNS may stop working for some apps.”

Via TechCrunch

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Apple this week released its watchOS 11 software to the public, and the surprise absence of several old Watch faces has got enthusiasts up in arms over their removal. 

Users noticed the move earlier this week after watchOS 11 rolled on Monday for all of the best Apple Watch models. One poster on Reddit noted that the Chronograph and Explorer Watch faces had been removed, with commenters quickly pointing out that Numerals had also been removed, along with the Siri face. 

"I'm super disappointed that they've taken away both the Explorer and the original Chronograph faces," the user lamented. "These were my two favorite, and quite a bit more functional than most of the new faces that have been introduced over the last couple of years." 

watchOS 11 arrives with a slew of new health and fitness features, but there was the expected sprinkling of new Watch faces too. Apple has updated the Photos face, which now features AI-powered recommendations to give you the best results possible. There's also a new Flux face that takes advantage of the new 1Hz display of the Apple Watch Series 10, and a new Reflections face to complement the finish of the new titanium version. 

These news faces don't seem to be landing with enthusiasts though, who are more concerned about getting some of their old favorites back. In fact, users in the Apple Watch subreddit are filling in feedback at Apple.com, asking for the return of the removed faces. 

watchOS 11 strikes a cruel blow

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

There doesn't seem to be any technical or functional reason as to why Apple would remove these Watch faces. So it's likely that Apple has made this shift to refresh and enhance the overall aesthetic and design language of watchOS, which is certainly more artsy and abstract than it used to be. 

The removal of the Chronograph face seems to have especially irked some users, given that it was one of the original faces that debuted when the Apple Watch was launched in 2014. 

Another post in the same subreddit calling the removal of Watch faces unacceptable has garnered a lot of traction this week, one user slamming the move as "totally anti-consumer in every way."

The obvious solution, also proposed by users on Reddit, would be to implement downloadable Watch faces on Apple Watch. Until then, it looks like lovers of Chronograph, Explorer, and the old Numerals face are out of luck on watchOS 11. 

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The Huawei Watch D was one of the weirdest wearables of 2022, and now the airbag-packing, blood-pressure-tracking marvel is back. 

Released this week as one of six new Huawei Watch models, the D2 builds on the ground-breaking blood pressure tracking of the first D model. In a world-first for any smartwatch, its ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) system is now certified by China's National Medical Products Administration and the EU's Medical Device Regulation body. 

The blood pressure monitoring tech is housed inside a revised chassis that's slimmer and lighter than the original Huawei Watch D. Say what you want about the cool health tech, the last one was pretty ugly. The new version is a lot more Apple Watch-esque and features a 1.82-inch AMOLED display. While not a stunning design by any means, it's at least more agreeable on the eye and a much less offensive housing for some otherwise smashing health gear. 

The Huawei Watch D2 paradox

(Image credit: Huawei)

The advent of Huawei's Watch D2 continues this device's heritage as a bit of an enigma. Including blood pressure technology in a device the size of a wristwatch is a marvelous technological feat. Like the previous model, the D2 houses a narrow mechanical airbag in its strap, and on paper, this is the ultimate wearable for anyone with blood pressure issues. 

However, Huawei remains banned in the U.S., vastly limiting its reach, and precluding the inclusion of Google's Mobile Services. As such, even where you can buy Huawei devices, the ecosystem is incredibly limited and requires the use of a lot of alternative services. 

Still, Huawei has taken the best of the Watch D and repackaged inside a much more amiable second iteration. Sadly, it seems the innovative (and arguably life-saving) blood pressure tech will continue to be held back by Huawei's usual issues. 

Blood pressure monitoring in more mainstream smartwatch models remains out of reach. Behind the scenes, Apple has been working on blood pressure monitoring on the Apple Watch for years. Most recently Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that the Apple Watch Series 10's redesign caused a delay with the feature due to problems during testing. The best Apple Watch is now available in stores, with a new titanium finish and a larger display in tow, but no BP technology. 

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Hot on the heels of Snapchat’s newly-announced AI Creative Tools, which include the ability to create AI Selfies alongside new AI Snaps tools for Snapchat+ subscribers, a few users have noticed that the setting for Snapchat to use your AI Selfie in adverts is turned on by default.

In Snapchat, your AI Selfie is created from an image of your face, and is a cartoon-like representation of what you look like. You can change the outfit your MySelfie is wearing or regenerate it if you don’t like the results.

Me, myself and MySelfie

(Image credit: Snapchat/Google)

We’ve checked the settings screens in Snapchat, and can confirm that by default you’re agreeing to have your own personal AI Selfie appear in ads the app shows you.

This has prompted some to worry about how secure their data is. In a statement to The Verge, Snapchat said, “Advertisers do not have access to Snapchatters’ Gen AI data in any capacity, including My Selfies nor do they have access to Snapchatters’ private data, including Memories, that would enable them to create an AI generated image of an individual Snapchatter.”

Snapchat's statement is reassuring, but there’s no harm in turning the setting off, for extra security. To turn off the ability for Snapchat to use your My Selfie image in ads, tap on your profile in the top-left corner. This will show your AI-generated My Selfie. Now tap on the settings cog. Scroll down until you see My Selfie, then tap that, and toggle off ‘See My Selfie in Ads’. That’s it, all done. While you’re there you might also want to make sure that ‘Generate with My Selfie’ is set to ‘Only Me’.

While Snapchat’s AI Tools require a subscription to Snapchat+, which costs $4.49 (£4.49, AU$5) the ability to chat to an AI chatbot, called My AI, is available on the free tier. Just tap the Chat button then choose My AI from your list of contacts and you enter into a chatbot type exchange with the AI. It’s a great way to have an AI chat on your mobile.

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Video game classifications are set to be overhauled in Australia starting from Monday, September 22 to help curb the exposure of “gambling-like” content. This includes loot boxes and could affect some of the biggest games like NBA2K, EA Football Club and Madden.

First introduced last year, the changes to Australia's Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games 2023 include two new mandatory classifications – one for games "containing elements of chance" that will be classified as 'M' (Mature or not recommended for children under 15 years of age), while games "containing simulated gambling" will receive an R 18+ rating.

According to these new guidelines, the 'M' classification is an advisory rating, while the R18+ classification is a legal restriction, meaning only people meeting that age requirement can be sold that game. Here is a quick breakdown of how these new classifications will affect video games going forward:

• M (Mature – not recommended for children under 15 years of age): Games containing "elements of chance" loot boxes or random rewards that can be purchased with real-world currency, either directly or through in-game currency
• R 18+ (Restricted to adults only): Games that solely consist of "simulated gambling" activities, such as slot machine simulators or roulette wheels and those that have interactive activities such as slot machine simulators, roulette wheels or other age-restricted gambling or betting services (like an RPG with slot machines players can use)

(Image credit: Future)

According to the Australian government, these guidelines will now be in line with those of the rest of the world. The ESRB ratings in the United States (and Canada and Mexico) don't work off the same system as Australia, although its E (everyone), E+ (everyone 10+), T (Teen), M (Mature 17+) and A (Adults Only 18+) classifications provide a similar result.

While the two ratings systems are similar, the new Australian classifications are actually stricter than that of the ESRB, as they will restrict "simulated gambling" to adults only, while gambling with real money earns the 18+ rating under ESRB classification.

Thankfully only new game releases will be subject to updated classifications, although some existing titles will be reclassified if they’ve added gambling-related content after the guidelines come into effect on September 22. 

What does this actually change?

It's clear that social casino games like Zynga Poker and Slotomania – which solely simulate real-life gambling – will be classified as R 18+. But what about a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which has an MA-15+ rating? It has a very realistic Poker game that doesn't use or require real currency. There are also several futuristic ways to gamble in the recent M-rated Star Wars Outlaws. 

While, as with any restrictions, there is room for leniency and rule-bending – as there are no actual poker machines – if the guidelines are strict, they would be R 18+ if rated after September 22.There will undoubtedly be stories of games fighting against the Australian ratings board in the coming months, but any step against the normalization of gambling is a positive one. Adults can do as they please, but gambling has long been a societal issue, and Australian children are constantly being bombarded with advertisements from betting agencies. 

The real change will come to games aimed, or previously aimed, at children and young teenagers. Previously mentioned sports games like Madden and FIFA have long-used loot boxes as well as kid-friendly mobile games like Super Mario Run, but it was really Overwatch and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 in 2016 and '17 that brought them into a negative spotlight. In fact, according to a 2020 study published in the Plos One journal, the amount of gamers exposed to loot boxes rose from just 5.3% in 2010, to 71.2% in 2019. 

There is some proof that loot boxes and similar systems have a negative impact on children and the gaming industry is only getting bigger, which means there will only be more little ones playing video games. How well the new classification will help curb them risking 100 virtual coins on a 1% chance to get a golden donkey through a loot box remains to be seen. 

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Full spoilers follow for The Penguin's opening episode and The Batman.

The Penguin has premiered on streaming services worldwide – and its first episode has already filled Batman fans with glee or dread after the inclusion of a specific reference to the Dark Knight's 80-plus year history. 

Episode 1, titled 'After Hours' reintroduces audiences to Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb, i.e. the titular character, as he begins to make a play to become Gotham's new crime kingpin following Carmine Falcone's death in The Batman. In a wild 15-minute opening before the devious mobster can even put his plan into motion, though, he a) steals some expensive jewels from Carmine's secret vault, b) impulsively guns down Carmine's son Alberto after he insults Cobb, c) almost has his car's hubcaps stolen by a bunch of teen criminals, and d) uses one of them – Victor, played by Rhenzy Feliz – to help him dispose of Alberto's body. Talk about a busy night, eh, Oz?

It's on route to getting rid of Alberto's corpse that the Max crime drama series' most intriguing Batman Easter Egg is revealed. Indeed, as Cobb inspects Alberto's phone, he opens up its calendar, which includes a meeting with a group called... Gotham Knights.

Now, fans of the Caped Crusader don't need me to discuss the significance of this DC Comics reference. But, for anyone who's not as fanatical about the Bat and the decades-long mythos surrounding one of the most iconic superheroes ever created, here's what you need to know about the Gotham Knights.

Who are the Gotham Knights? And why are they mentioned in The Penguin?

The Gotham Knights are a crime-fighting family that were first introduced in the year 2000 (Image credit: DC Comics)

Essentially, the Gotham Knights are a superteam of Batman sidekicks and allies who fight crime alongside, and in the absence of, the Dark Knight himself. The group's first outing came in March 2000 in 'Batman: Gotham Knights' #1, with the intent of this multi-year comic book run being used to feature the exploits of the Dark Knight and the extended Bat-Family – that being his closed confidant Alfred Pennyworth, as well as crime fighters Batman trained (Robin, Nightwing, and Batgirl) and other characters allied to the legendary vigilante, including Oracle and Catwoman. Devin Grayson, the first ongoing female writer to helm a Batman comic series, was the brains behind the operation.

'Batman: Gotham Knights' ended in April 2006, but a new team – simply titled 'Gotham Knights', which was created by James Tynion IV and Eddy Barrows – made their literary debut in 'Detective Comics' #934 in June 2016. This supergroup was formed by Batman and Batwoman, with the latter eventually leading her fellow vigilantes (minus Batman) on numerous missions to clean up the streets of Gotham. The team's original line-up consisted of crime fighters like Robin, Spoiler, Orphan, Azrael, Batwing, and Clayface.

As for why they're referenced in The Penguin, I have no idea. It's possible that it's just one of my Easter eggs that Batman fans will want to keep an eye out for throughout the HBO miniseries' eight-episode run. It's also plausible that the Gotham Knights is the name for a group of vigilantes who, following events that play out at the end of The Batman, decide to follow in his footsteps and start fighting crime to rid Gotham of its deeply entrenched criminal community. That, though, would be something of a disservice to the Gotham Knights as they're depicted in the comics.

Of course, the other and most obvious option is that we'll see a version of the Gotham Knights in The Batman Part 2. After all, plot details concerning the sequel to one of the best Batman movies ever made are a closely guarded secret and, with filming not due to begin until early 2025 ahead of The Batman 2's October 2026 release, we won't know anything about the Gotham Knights' potential involvement for some time.

That said, I'd be very surprised if they show up in The Batman Epic Crime Saga's next movie. Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader is only in the early stages of his crime-fighting career, so he's not experienced enough to train anyone, let alone a whole team of fellow vigilantes. It's for that reason, then, that I can't see the Gotham Knights (as we know them, anyway) appearing in the next Matt Reeves-directed Bat-Flick.

Why would a Gotham Knights reference make Batman fans happy or sad?

2022's Gotham Knights game wasn't widely praised upon release (Image credit: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)

On the 'yay, Gotham Knights!' front, it would be thrilling to see Reeves' take on the supergroup. As my review of The Batman and review of The Penguin make clear, I loved this iteration of the Dark Knight's universe, so I'd be very keen to see how the Gotham Knights would be interpreted in its more down-to-earth, gritty, and grimy world.

As for why the term 'Gotham Knights' might send shivers down some Batman fans' spines, there are two main reasons. The first and more obvious one is the bang-average Gotham Knights game that was released on PC and consoles in October 2022. The action role-playing game wasn't exactly the fun-filled multiplayer experience that many gamers wanted, even though, in our review of Gotham Knights, we said it was a "great crime-fighting game that will remind you what you loved about Gotham and the bat family". Even so, our reviewer's opinion was the exception to the norm, with the general consensus being that the videogame wasn't the thrill ride that others hoped it would be.

The game adaptation, though, wasn't as panned as The CW's Gotham Knights TV series. Premiering on the US cable network in March 2023, Gotham Knights was a critical and commercial failure – the superhero show earning a paltry 21% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes before it was unceremoniously canceled, after a single season, just three months on from its debut.

Unless The Batman Epic Crime Saga finds a novel and fan-adoring way to introduce the Gotham Knights at some stage, then, I wouldn't want them to be shoehorned into the Pattinson-starring franchise and further tarnish their reputation. If that's what would happen, I'd prefer it to be nothing more than a crowd-pleasing Easter egg in the opening chapter of The Penguin, aka one of the best Max shows of 2024.

The Penguin's first episode is out now on Max and HBO (US), Sky and Now TV (UK), and Binge (Australia).

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Squid Game season 2 arrives in a few months and we've finally got a clearer picture of what the anticipated new instalment will bring to the table. With the first season setting new records for Netflix, aka the world's best streaming service, fans, myself included, have been desperate to see what happens next. They've already got us excited with a big The Platform 2 update, and now Squid Game has a huge new trailer. 

The season 1 finale of this worthy entry into the best Netflix shows hinted that Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) would go back to the games, but, after enduring some truly horrifying stuff among other desperate hopefuls who were desperate for money, he's clearly had enough. It seems he's on the warpath, ready to take down the games from the inside but, considering the heartbreak and twists of the first season, anything's possible.

Thankfully, Netflix Geeked Week has answered our prayers when it comes to Squid Game season 2's story, with an actual first-look teaser (see below) and Netflix press release giving us our best insight into the wildly popular show's sophomore outing. 

What is the plot of Squid Game season 2?

Gi-hun will have to participate in the games once more in Squid Game's second season (Image credit: Juhan Noh/Netflix)

Set three years after winning season 1 of Squid Game, sole survivor Seong Gi-hun decides against visiting his daughter in the US. Instead, he finds himself pulled back into the twisted children's games, with a new group of desperate contestants ready to compete to the death for a huge 45.6 billion won prize. (which is about $34 million).

The trailer itself is largely wordless, but teases a lot in its 30-second runtime. The guards are once again closely watching participants, while a bird's eye view suggests Gi-hun (and us as viewers) are returning to the games' blood-soaked island again. Unsurprisingly, specific game details aren't clear, but the trailer hints at some pretty dark stuff, including pushing coffins tied with ribbons into an incinerator, omnious countdowns, guards with guns around every corner, and more.

The final shot confirms that Gi-hun is once again player 456, with the cycle repeating itself, as a large group of contestants in tracksuits walk out into a courtyard featuring big rainbow circles. That's the closest real glimpse of any game we have so far, but we'll have to remain patient. Squid Game season 2 isn't out until December 26, so we've got – at the time of publication – another three months until we're reunited with Gi-hun, Young-hee, and more. The festive season can't come soon enough.

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Netflix has announced some big-name additions to the season 2 casts of its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender and One Piece adaptations.

Revealed as part of Netflix Geeked Week 2024's live event, the streaming giant confirmed that three actors – one for Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2, and two for One Piece season 2 – will join those shows' cast rosters for their next chapters.

Who is Avatar: The Last Airbender's Toph? And who's playing them?

On the Avatar front, US actress Miya Cech, who some readers might recognize from The Santa Clauses on Disney Plus and/or Netflix's Beef, aka one of the best shows of 2023, has been hired to play fan-favorite character Toph. In the animated original, the blind earthbender – one of the most naturally gifted and powerful of her generation, we'll have you know – joins Aang and the rest of Team Avatar on their quest to put an end to the Fire Nation's quest to become the world's tyrannical rulers.

Cech's hiring wasn't the only Avatar-related announcement made by one of the world's best streaming services during Geeked Week Live. Netflix also confirmed that production had officially started on season 2, with principal photography beginning just six months after Netflix announced two more seasons of its Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action retelling. It's unclear if the series' final two installments will be filmed back-to-back, but the revelation that season 2 has entered full production suggests they won't.

Who are Miss All Sunday and Mr. 0 in One Piece? And which actors will portray them?

As for One Piece, Netflix confirmed that its adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's beloved manga series, which has also been turned into one of the best anime, has added two more names to its extensive cast list. Lera Abova and Geeked Week Live host Joe Manganiello are its newest hires, with the pair set to play Miss All Sunday and Mr. 0/Crocodile in the one of the best Netflix shows' sophomore outing.

Abova, who starred in Peacock comedy series Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, will play All Sunday, whose real name is Nico Robins and who's the vice president of the Baroque Works, a covert criminal syndicate set up with the sole aim of destabilizing and then conquering the Arabasta Kingdom. Manganiello, whose credits range include 2002's Spider-Man movie, True Blood, How I Met Your Mother, and a brief cameo as Deathstroke in the now defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU), will play the Baroque Works' mob boss/warlord.

Ironically, fans already knew that Abova and Manganiello would be part of season 2's cast. Yesterday (September 19), Netflix's PR team accidentally leaked the pair's hiring on its in-house Tudum website. The information was removed not long after the error was spotted, but not before What's on Netflix noticed and reported on the faux-pas.

Those weren't the only One Piece-focused unveilings that had fans salivating at Geeked Week Live and at home, though. Per the YouTube video above, Netflix also released a behind-the-scenes recording of season 2's first table read, which teased the arrival of beloved character Chopper. With Netflix strongly suggesting that season 2 of One Piece season 2 would cover the Arabasta Saga from its manga namesake, we already had an inkling that Chopper would show up at some point. This, though, confirms the half-reindeer, half-human hybrid will make his grand entrance next season.

As part of an earlier Geeked Week reveal, Jeff Ward, who plays the villainous Buggy the Clown, invited fans on a brief behind-the-scenes tour of One Piece season 2's various sets, too, before hinting that the series would return sometime in 2025. If both shows return next year, it could be another successful 12-month period for Netflix on the iconic anime adaptation front.

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It finally happened. Nearly three years Arcane's first season drew to a close, the hit Netflix show's second and final chapter has a release date – and, fittingly, it's set to arrive around its forebear's three-year anniversary.

Announced during Netflix Geeked Week 2024's live event, Arcane season 2 will officially debut on Netflix on Saturday, November 9. That's... an unusual day for one of Netflix's most successful animated series to return, but hey, I'm not complaining. I'll be seated, bowl of cereal in hand, to get my Saturday morning cartoon (albeit one of the adult-themed variety) fix as soon as it drops.

But wait, there's more. Netflix, in conjunction with its Arcane partners Riot Games and Fortiche Productions, had even more surprises in store at Geeked Week Live. First, the trio revealed that, just like Arcane season 1, one of the best Netflix shows' sophomore seasons will be released in three parts: Act 1 will debut in November, Act 2 arrives on November 16, and Act 3 will wrap up the show on November 23. There's no word on how many episodes there'll be in each volume, but I suspect it'll be three apiece, which is how many season 1's trio of acts had.

We're not done yet, folks. Showrunners Christian Linke and Alex Yee took to the Geeked Week Live stage to unveil a brand-new clip from season 2, too, which shows Vi – or, as this version of the character is known in Arcane fan circles, Pit Fighter Vi – engaging in some bruising, well, pit-fighting shenanigans. It certainly looks like she's in her emo phase, too, judging by her monochromatic attire and make-up. My guess? Someone awful happens in Season 2 Act 1, which forces Vi to go underground and disguise herself in Act 2. But, as Arcane season 2's official trailer teased earlier in September, she'll have to overcome her self-imposed exile and/or slump to protect Piltover and Zaun as Season 2 progresses.

Like Jinx, we're staring into the abyss waiting for November to roll around... (Image credit: Netflix/Riot Games/Fortiche)

Lastly on the unveiling front, Netflix and Riot also announced Afterglow. An after-show that'll be hosted by Vi and Jinx voice actors Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell, it'll go behind the scenes on each act of Netflix's adaptation of Riot's League of Legends videogame franchise. More details on when and where Afterglow will be available to watch are coming soon, but don't be surprised if you can check them out on the world's best streaming service after you've seen each volume.

Phew, that was a lot to catch you up on! If it isn't coming across in my writing, though, I am super pumped for Arcane's return. It's felt like a lifetime has passed since we last visited Runeterra and I simply can't wait to go back to watch the epic conclusion to one of the best animated shows in living memory. Can it be November 9 already, please? No? Oh, alright then. Well, while we continue to count down the days to Arcane season 2, read more of my coverage about the series' next chapter below.

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If you’re feeling overwhelmed ahead of Amazon Prime Day, a new AI feature from the e-commerce giant may help you score everything you want, even the items you don’t yet know you want to buy. Amazon announced this week that customers will have a more personalized experience when shopping by employing large language models (LLMs) to match individual preferences and provide more relevant product information.

The most useful, though subtle, change is the recommendation system. The list of products under “more like this” has always been based on the current product page you’re looking at, as well as your previous searches and purchases. With the updated system, you’ll see ideas for things to buy that rely on specific details of your searches. Amazon's examples describe how you might see gift suggestions based on a holiday that you’ve bought gifts for previously or recent deals on gear for a sport your history suggests you like to play. 

The actual descriptions of those recommended products will also now reflect your search history. A particular attribute or adjective you include in your search, such as vegan food or a particular color of furniture, will translate to seeing those aspects highlighted in the title of the product. The point is to help you make informed decisions without having to scroll through tons of details you don’t care about, which, on a mobile device, saves valuable screen space. Combined, you should see better products and why they are recommended immediately. 

(Image credit: Amazon) Prime Plan

“If the primary LLM generates a product description that is too generic or fails to highlight key features unique to a specific customer, the evaluator LLM will flag the issue,” Amazon director of personalization Mihir Bhanot explained. “This feedback loop allows the system to continuously refine suggestions, ensuring that customers see the most accurate and informative product descriptions possible.”

This year, Amazon has been steadily deploying new AI features for shoppers. The biggest addition is its Rufus chatbot, which uses AI to research products and recommend purchases through conversations rather than keyword searches. As with much of the rest of Amazon’s shopping experience, that will now include advertisements, but the general idea is still making your shopping experience specific to your interests.  

In the future, Amazon wants its customized advice to pull from more than just your Amazon history. The company has plans for extensions to pull data from sources like Gmail and YouTube Music that would further enhance shopping personalization. For now, you can expect your Prime Day to be a little more efficient and the products you see recommended a little more like exactly what you didn’t know you were searching for.  

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