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The question of where we work has become a pervasive debate. How often do people need to share space to do their job well? How do we make a world of hybrid work productive?

It’s an important topic, which needs to be considered alongside the equally significant issue of how we work.

How can we make the most of the time we spend together, wherever it may be? How can we maximize people’s time and optimize the collective capacity to drive progress on a given project or problem?

This came to mind during a recent mentoring session. My mentee was a project manager overseeing a complex IT program, bringing together multiple teams from across the business, including a number of people senior to them. A workshop was in the diary, and they were worried about getting everyone on the same page.

“Have you considered pre-calls?”

It was a simple suggestion, but in the circumstances a relevant one. I suggested that they approach the various team leaders and ask for 15 minutes discuss the project, their perspective, and what they hoped to get out of the workshop.

Next time we spoke, they had done this and were delighted with the results. Senior people had been much more approachable than they had feared. The differences had been smaller than expected. With the right groundwork in place, the workshop had been a success.

This was not only a good example of proactive project management – and indeed ‘managing up’ – but a lesson in how small interventions can make all the difference, and of the importance of closing the gaps that can open up in complex projects.

Over my career, I have been involved in enough of these to know that even minor misalignments can lead to considerable friction. When someone comes in from the outside to review progress and make recommendations, they will often conclude that the two camps are not so far apart. Yet within those camps, a siege mentality has set in and they believe that the differences are huge. They think that they disagree much more than they do.

Building bridges in three steps

This kind of issue is particularly relevant today, when physical distance often serves to entrench people in their silos, and makes it harder to achieve the kind of consensus you need. People start to work in a bubble comprising themselves and their immediate team. Tunnel vision sets in, and it becomes harder to see a shared problem from other perspectives.

That’s why I believe it’s more important than ever that teams work to break down these silos, and take a deliberate approach to pursuing consensus. The steps to achieve this are simple, but in my experience across multiple organizations, they are often not taken.

The first thing needed is a clear problem statement. Something that sets out what a team or group of teams is trying to achieve. The language really matters, because small differences in terminology can hide major variances in perspective. Until you can agree on the words, you won’t be able to set a direction for the project. This is worth investing time in as early as possible. Whatever you agree then becomes a North Star for the project.

The second necessity is preparation, especially for time spent together. As I advised my mentee, if you are hosting a workshop or group meeting of any significance, then don’t leave things to chance. Talk to the attendees, get their perspective and anticipate issues. Build relationships so you are not starting from scratch in an important meeting. Make sure people feel heard and understood, and no-one is sitting on a problem they will only reveal later.

Finally, if you do encounter a genuine stumbling block, don’t assume you have to tackle it there and then. Be prepared to shelve a difficult issue if it will allow you to make progress on other fronts. Once you have advanced a project past a certain point, your problem may solve itself, or it may help to bring in an independent third-party to act as arbitrator. The one thing you shouldn’t do is get stuck on a single issue and allow it to undermine the project as a whole. (I wish I had known this earlier in my career: as I often tell my mentees, the learnings I share are often based on what I should have done rather than what I actually did).

High value on time

These straightforward techniques are more important than ever when we work in a way that promotes distance, and which can inadvertently embed divisions. If you want consensus, then you may need to work harder than before to plan for it, encourage it, and carry it through to the finish line. If we diverted just a little of the energy committed to thinking about where people should work, and invested in it facilitating how they work with one another, I believe everyone would benefit – whether at home, in the office, or somewhere in between. But this doesn’t happen by accident. You have to plan for it, invest time in it, and make it a priority. If you are managing the project, coordinating the people and putting a high value on people’s time, you will be amazed how many problems start to look after themselves.

We've featured the best WFH app.

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The new Atlantic Technology Nexa 1 is a Bluetooth speaker with a useful difference: it has a microSD card slot to expand your audio options and enable you to listen to music without having to stream it to the speaker. Although, naturally, you can stream to it too.

As you can see above, it's a good-looking thing, and it's sitting by a pool because it has the confidence that comes from IPX5 water resistance. We wouldn't recommend chucking it in for a swim, but it's more than capable of resisting splashes and the odd bit of rain.

Atlantic Technology Nexa 1 Bluetooth speaker: key features and pricing

The Nexa 1 has twin 2.5-inch aluminum full range drivers and a rear passive oval radiator for bass. The amplifier can put out 60W of power, which is a lot for a mid-size speaker – the JBL Charge 5 is 40W, and that's no slouch. In addition to the microSD port, there's also a 3.5mm aux connector and the obligatory USB-C charging port. If you have a second Nexa, you can use that USB-C port to charge one speaker from the other.

The Bluetooth version here is 5.3, and battery life is a claimed 15 hours between charging. There's support for one-touch stereo pairing with a second speaker, and there's a built-in mic for hands-free calling. Frequency response is 20Hz to 20kHz.

The Nexa 1 has an RRP of $199 but there's currently an introductory offer that brings the price down to $149 on the Atlantic Technology website, although right now there appears to be a glitch that means the product page disappears after a few seconds. Hopefully that'll get fixed quickly. 

The discounted rate is significant because the market for the best Bluetooth speakers is incredibly crowded and incredibly competitive: when you're buying in the  $150 to $250 price bracket you're also looking at some of the heaviest hitters including our current favorite, the Sonos Roam 2. At the time of writing, that's currently also on promotion, taking it down from the usual $179 to $143.

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Developer Arc System Works has announced that the critically acclaimed fighting game Guilty Gear Strive is finally coming to Nintendo Switch and the package might just be enough to make me pick up the game for the second time.

Guilty Gear Strive Nintendo Switch Edition will include the game’s current roster of 28 characters, even those that were previously included in the last three season passes. That’s a huge amount of content right out of the box and means that you can play as the likes of Bridget, Elphelt, A.B.A and more at not additional cost. You can browse the full roster of this edition below:

Base game:

• Sol
• Ky
• May
• Axl
• Chipp
• Potemkin
• Faust
• Millia
• Zato
• Ramlethal
• Leo
• Nagoriyuki
• Giovanna
• Anji
• I-No

Season Pass 1:

• Goldlewis
• Jack-O’
• Happy Chaos
• Baiken
• Testament

Season Pass 2:

• Bridget
• Sin
• Bedman?
• Asuka R#

Season Pass 3:

• Johnny
• Elphelt
• A.B.A
• Slayer

The Nintendo Switch port will also feature rollback netcode for smoother online play. Considering the game’s striking anime 3D visuals, I was quite concerned that this edition might be compromised given the lower power of the Nintendo Switch. Thankfully, a recently released trailer (which you can see for yourself below) suggests that the experience will be pretty close to the PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4 version. There are some obvious visual cuts, especially with regards to background model quality and overall resolution, but it all looks very playable.

In addition to a digital release, the game will be receiving a physical edition which can be pre-ordered now via the Guilty Gear official website. It will launch on January 25, 2024 and costs $59.99 which might seem steep for a title that originally launched back in 2021, but is actually quite a good deal when you factor in the addition of three season’s worth of characters.

If you’re a Nintendo Switch owner who has been waiting for a chance to try out one of the best fighting games right now, then this is your chance. It would also be a great fit for those who own any of the best fight sticks for Nintendo Switch, like the brilliant 8BitDo Arcade Stick.

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Capcom veteran Hideaki Itsuno is leaving the company after three decades to develop a new game.

The Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma series director took to X / Twitter to share a statement regarding his leaving the company. Itsuno thanks fans for their long-term support and confirms that he'll be getting to work on a brand new game outside of Capcom.

"From September, I will start developing a new game in a new environment," wrote Itsuno. "I hope to create fun, beautiful games that are as memorable as, or even more memorable than, the ones I have created so far. Please stay tuned for my next creation!"

Itsuno's most recent role in a directorial role was for this year's Dragon's Dogma 2. Despite the game's poor optimization and performance at launch, it would go on to ship over 2.5 million units within its first two weeks on sale. The game also set a record concurrent player count for a Capcom game on Steam on its launch day.

While Itsuno will be known mostly for his work on the Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma series, he also acted as director for some of Capcom's best fighting games including Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Star Gladiator, Project Justice and the Power Stone series. Some of these names may sound familiar to you, as they'll be appearing on the recently-announced Capcom Fighting Collection 2 which is currently slated to launch sometime in 2025.

You can of course tide yourself over until then with the soon-to-launch Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, which is due to release on September 12 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam.

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Cleer Audio's engineers have been busy: the firm has revealed not one, not two but six new Arc 3 open-ear wireless headphones. They come with touchless, head-tilt controls; waterproof ear clip designs; hi-res and Dolby Atmos audio; and in some of the more premium models, AI-powered active noise cancellation, too.

All of the models in the range are built around 16.2mm drivers and driven by the Qualcomm QCC5181 chipset. That supports aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Audio, LDAC and Snapdragon Sound over multi-point Bluetooth 5.4. The aptX adaptive delivers up to 24-bit 96 kHz streaming and the LDAC offers up to 16-bit, 44.1kHz lossless streaming.

Cleer Audio Arc 3: key features and prices

There are some interesting features in these new headphones, such as dynamic bass enhancement to compensate for the comparatively bass-light sound you get from the best open-ear headphones. There are also noise and wind-cancelling mics for clearer calls.

For active users, the Arc 3 offers head-tilting controls: instead of fiddling with your earphones you can skip tracks or answer calls with a dip of the head, although they work with touch operation too. The charging case includes UV sterilization (like the LG Tone Free T90S), has an LCD touchscreen with a clock (kind of like the JBL Live Beam 3), and recharges the headphones up to four times.

The standard models are the Arc 3 Music and Arc 3 Sport. The Arc 3 Gaming and Max models come with a USB dongle for lower latency in gaming, and the gaming models are also tuned for gaming audio. Sport models have additional EQs while the Sports Pro model also has motion analysis to help you analyze your performance. The Music Pro and Max models have supposedly AI-powered noise cancelling.

Battery life depends on the model you go for: the gaming, music and sport versions have ten hours, the Pro has eight and the Max has four. 

The Arc 3 range will be released in three stages. The Music Black, Sport Black & Red and Gaming White & Red models will go on sale on 13 September for roughly $248 to $274; the Music Pro and Sport Pro will be available from September 28 for around $303; and the Arc 3 Max will go on sale from 31 October for around $379. All of the models will be available via Cleer's Amazon store.

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Cybercriminals were, once again, spotted impersonating legitimate businesses, as they try to steal valuables from software developers. This time around, researchers from Checkmarx saw fake Roblox npm packages, whose true purpose is to deploy a remote access trojan (RAT) called Quasar.

Roblox is an online platform where users can create and play games made by other users, using a game creation system called Roblox Studio. It features a virtual currency called Robux for in-game purchases and has over 214 million monthly active users.

In this campaign, crooks were using typosquatting (giving malware a name similar to a legitimate file that developers could download and run by mistake), and deployed multiple packages to the npm repository, in hopes that someone will pick it up.

Quasar Remote Access Trojan

It’s an old strategy that worked well in the past, and seems to have worked well in this instance, too. According to the researchers, the four malicious packages that were identified, have had almost 200 downloads, combined, before being spotted and removed.

The noblox.js-async package had 74 downloads, noblox.js-thread 117 downloads, noblox.js-threads 64 downloads, and noblox.js-api 64 downloads.

“By mimicking the popular 'noblox.js' library, attackers have published dozens of packages designed to steal sensitive data and compromise systems," Checkmarx researchers said in a report.

"The attackers of this campaign have employed techniques including brandjacking, combosquatting, and starjacking to create a convincing illusion of legitimacy for their malicious packages."

To further improve the perceived legitimacy of these packages, the crooks also listed the source repository as noblox.js.

Developers that don’t spot the ruse and download these packs will receive the Quasar Remote Access Trojan, which is hosted on a GitHub repository. At the same time, they will lose their Discord tokens, and have their Microsoft Defender Antivirus updated to not spot the malware.

"Central to the malware's effectiveness is its approach to persistence, leveraging the Windows Settings app to ensure sustained access," the researchers added. "As a result, whenever a user attempts to open the Windows Settings app, the system inadvertently executes the malware instead."

Via The Hacker News

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Nebula is Anker's smart entertainment brand, and it's just unveiled two brand-new and very different projectors: one portable that's barely bigger than a soda can, and a 4K laser model capable of 200-inch displays. Both projectors run Google TV with built-in Netflix and the usual range of apps.

The bigger of the two is the Nebula Cosmos 4K SE. It's 4K with Dolby Vision and Nebula's own NebulaMaster image processing engine, which the brand says delivers improved contrast and color accuracy. It delivers 1,800 ANSI Lumens and can create an image of up to 120 inches in normal lighting conditions and a huge 200 inches in darker conditions. The brightness and color reproduction is achieved via a hybrid lighting system that combines LED and laser light, which Anker says delivers higher brightness and better color.

The audio system here is 2x 15W full-range drivers with Dolby Audio, and the projector has auto setup and a bunch of automatic corrections for screen fitting, obstacle avoidance and wall color adaptation. It looks like an interesting addition to the best 4K projectors, since it's large and quite serious, but still designed to be somewhat portable, with a carry handle on top.

It costs $1,299 and is available to buy now – we're waiting on information about a release in other countries, and will update this article when we can.

Pocket-sized projection power

The Nebula Capsule Air is soda-can shaped and only slightly taller than one. Despite its tiny size it can deliver up to 150 ANSI Lumens for up to two hours from its built-in battery. Resolution is 720p and it's capable of delivering a 60-inch image in normal lighting and 100 inches in the dark. Its USB-C port supports PD (power delivery) so it can be used with a power bank or wall charger as well as on battery.

For the $399 asking price, that seems like a very tempting option among the best portable speakers – it's less than half the price of the Samsung Freestyle Gen 2 projector, for example, which doesn't have a battery built-in.

There are three new accessories to go with the Capsule Air. The snap-on base is included with the projector and enables you to tilt the projector up to 30 degrees or 90 degrees when wall mounted. One use case is for parents to use it to project cooking videos while they and their kids cook.

That one's exclusive to the Air, but Nebula has also created a gimbal stand ($49.99) for 360-degree angle adjustment, and a tripod with a power bank inside to double the playback time as well as deliver more viewing angles. That one's $129.99. Both accessories are compatible with the whole Capsule range, not just the Capsule Air.

Like the Cosmos 4K SE, the Capsule Air is available to buy now – and Anker is offering a $200 early discount on the Cosmos if you order early. Obviously, we can't tell you how good they are just yet, but we plan to review both as soon as we're able.

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Huawei's upcoming tri-foldable phone has been spotted several times in the wild, and the company has now announced an unveiling date of Tuesday, September 10, as rumors continue to swirl around this intriguing device.

You can see the event teaser over at GSMArena, and while the phone isn't specifically mentioned, that sure looks like a Z-shape folding handset in the background. New smartwatches and an electric car could also be unveiled.

The event is scheduled to get underway at 2.30pm in China on the afternoon of September 10 – which works out as 11.30pm PT on September 9, and 2.30am ET / 7.30am BST / 4.30pm AEST on September 10.

For those living in California and along the US West Coast, the Huawei tri-foldable is actually going to launch on the same day – just – as the iPhone 16 series, as September 9 is also the date of Apple's 'It's Glowtime' event, which is perhaps a deliberate move on the part of Huawei.

The most expensive panel ever

10” before folding…most expensive smartphone panel…September 2, 2024

Even though we've caught a glimpse or two of the phone in public, we don't know too much about it, other than that it'll have two hinges rather than one (which is the standard on handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6).

Industry analyst Ross Young, who is usually reliable when it comes to predictions, says the phone is going to have a 10-inch main screen, and that it'll be the most expensive smartphone yet – which is unsurprising considering the tech built into it.

It seems that the extra screen space will be used to run "PC-level applications", so we could be looking at a device that blurs the boundaries between phone, tablet, and laptop. High-end internal specs have also been rumored.

How easy it'll be to buy this phone outside of China remains to be seen – Huawei is banned from selling its devices in the US, don't forget – but it's still going to be a notable first for the mobile industry, marking the introduction of a new foldable form factor.

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Philips will soon roll out four new effects for your Philips Hue smart lights, including space-themed and aquatic options to help you relax at home.

Fabian at Hueblog reports that the new options will be named Cosmos, Enchant, Sunbeam, and Underwater. They will sit alongside the Sparkle, Glisten and Opal effects that arrived earlier this year, the Prism setting that was introduced in 2023, and the Fireplace and Candle effects from 2022.

To use effects with your Philips Hue bulbs, just open a room in the Hue app, select the Play bar, and then choose the Effect button that's displayed beside the color selection buttons. You can also create custom scenes, with multiple bulbs playing the same effect.

Not all Philips Hue lights are compatible with all effects though, so check the documentation to find out which options your bulbs support.

The new lighting effects sound well suited to the Philips Hue Twilight lamp, which is designed for use on your nightstand (Image credit: Philips Hue) Rise and shine

Although there are no previews of the modes available yet, their names suggest they should work well with the new Twilight sleep and wake-up light, which started arriving on nightstands around the world this summer. We've been testing it ourselves, and will be publishing our review very soon.

The Twilight has two LED sources: the main light, with an adjustable shade that can be tilted left and right, and a rear light that illuminates the wall behind the lamp. This can paint your room with a subtle glow, and would be well suited to a sunbeam effect in the morning, or a shimmering underwater scene.

The downside is the price tag of $279.99 (about £210 / AU$410), but you should be able to use the new effects with other Hue products too, letting you enjoy the feeling of floating in the ocean without splashing quite so much cash. Our guide to the best smart lights includes several more affordable options to consider.

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Right now, if you have a model in Apple’s entry-level iPad line then you won’t be able to use it with a true Magic Keyboard, with the most recent – the iPad 10.9 (2022) – only supporting a lower-end Magic Keyboard Folio.

While this still has Magic Keyboard in the name, it’s a rather different product, with a different design that makes it more awkward to use on your lap, as you can see in the images below. But now a true Magic Keyboard could be in the works for this line.

This is according to reputable leaker Mark Gurman, who, writing in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg (via Apple Insider), claimed that Apple suppliers are working on a new Magic Keyboard, and that it's likely to launch by the middle of next year.

This new model is apparently a low-end version of the accessory, which could be designed for either the entry-level iPad or the iPad Air line (or perhaps both). The iPad Air line already has access to a Magic Keyboard, but not to the revamped version that Apple so far exclusively offers for the iPad Pro series.

Image 1 of 2

The Magic Keyboard Folio (Image credit: Apple)Image 2 of 2

The Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro (Image credit: Apple) Function keys and other changes

Of course, no low-end version would match the iPad Pro’s Magic Keyboard with its aluminum palm rest, but according to Gurman this model will have some new features, which he speculates might include a row of function keys. That row of keys is already present on the iPad Pro’s Magic Keyboard, but not on the iPad Air's.

It would also most likely have a similar stand design to true Magic Keyboards, rather than the flimsier design of the Magic Keyboard Folio.

We’d take all of this with a pinch of salt for now of course, but Gurman has a good track record for leaks, so there’s a good chance that this information is accurate. And if so, we’d speculate that there’s a chance this new Magic Keyboard could land alongside the iPad 11 – after all, the current latest model came out in 2022, so a new version is due.

If so, then based on this leak the iPad 11 could arrive by June – but before that that we're expecting to see the iPhone 16 series, among other devices, at Apple's September 9 'It's Glowtime' launch event.

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We're expecting both an iPhone 16 series unveiling and a full release of iOS 18 at Apple's September 9 event next week – and it looks like the new iPhone software is set to downgrade the functionality of Live Activities in one important way.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple is restricting the rate at which these widgets can refresh themselves – which is going to cause problems for apps that want to show real-time activity information, such as cycling speed as you've moving.

These Live Activities widgets were introduced with iOS 16 in 2022, and they work like enhanced notifications on the lock screen or in the Dynamic Island: they can keep you up to date with sports scores, for example, or the estimated arrival time of an approaching cab.

In feedback sent to one developer, Apple says Live Activities were "never intended to be used to create real-time experiences", despite a mention of real-time fitness metrics on the official Live Activities guide for iOS developers.

The write idea

So it is official now. LiveActivities were never designed for real-time experiences :/ https://t.co/Zc1musx6ae pic.twitter.com/IjOq8uV2J7August 28, 2024

Apple goes on to explain that each update from a Live Activities widget requires data to be written to the storage on the iPhone – which, if it's happening constantly, can contribute to wear and tear inside the handset.

What's more, with iOS 18, each of those updates needs to be synced to an Apple Watch, if one is connected. While the downgrade will disappoint some, it should improve battery life and the lifespan of the internal iPhone storage.

It seems that update intervals are now set at 5-15 seconds, though this won't affect anything with a timer (like a notification showing a delivery driver arrival time): in this case starting the timer is just one action, with no refreshes needed in order for the timer to count down.

Apple announced a wealth of new features that will be arriving with iOS 18 at its WWDC 2024 event in June, and next Monday the beta-testing process for the software should be coming to an end – which means it'll then be pushed out to all compatible iPhones.

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A recent study of 1,200 IT decision-makers (ITDMs) from the UK, US, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore found that many businesses are simply integrating artificial intelligence into their operations due to a fear of missing out (FOMO).

The ABBYY State of Intelligent Automation Report revealed that three in five (58%) UK IT leaders had only invested in AI technologies out of fear that their business would be left behind.

This is despite leaders expressing concern over misuse by their staff (37%), associated cost (37%), data protection (36%), AI hallucinations (35%) and compliance (32%).

Are companies only investing in AI because of FOMO?

The study also revealed that the average AI investment across UK organizations stood at nearly three-quarters of a million (£730,000), with virtually all (95%) respondents expressing plans to increase investment over the next 12 months. However, more than one in three (37%) remain worried about the financial implications of deploying artificial intelligence in the workplace.

Compared with the other nations, UK workers were more likely to use AI, with three-quarters (77%) using GenAI compared with two-thirds (65%) globally.

Key areas of focus for future development include the ethical use of AI, responsible AI policies, and understanding AI’s regulations.

However, despite expressed concerns about the evolving technology, trust in AI seems to be rising, with decision-makers displaying the highest confidence in small language models (SLMs) and purpose-built AI (92%).

Maxime Vermeir, ABBYY’s Senior Director of AI Strategy, said that it was “no surprise to [him] that organizations have more trust in small language models due to the tendency of LLMs to hallucinate and provide inaccurate and possibly harmful outcomes. We’re seeing more business leaders moving to SLMs to better address their specific business needs, enabling more trustworthy result.”

ABBYY’s report serves as a stark reminder of the costs of implementing AI technologies, and therefore the importance of establishing proper strategies before investing out of fear.

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If you were hoping for a physical release for the upcoming Nintendo Switch version of Yakuza Kiwami, then we've got some bad news.

As spotted by Nintendo Everything, the official Japanese X / Twitter account of developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio posted that the game will be "download distribution only" (translated from Japanese with X / Twitter's in-built translation tool). The developer's English account posted soon after that Yakuza Kiwami will be available "on the Nintendo eShop", without mention of a physical release.

『龍が如く 極』がNintendo Switchにシリーズ初登場！✅発売日：2024年10月25日（金）✅価格：2,980円（税込） ✅ダウンロード配信専用▼公式サイトhttps://t.co/dfSNS8vHHz#龍が如く極 pic.twitter.com/pLV3ZZZfSVAugust 27, 2024

This is definitely a shame for those hoping to add Yakuza Kiwami to their physical Switch collection. But there is some good news in that the highly-praised remake, which is launching on October 25 for Nintendo Switch, will be priced at around $19.99 / £14.99. If you've yet to properly dive into the Yakuza / Like a Dragon franchise, this is an ideal starting point and a very reasonable price to boot.

Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the original Yakuza title which came out for the PlayStation 2 all the way back in 2005. The game introduced the world to protagonist Kazuma Kiryu - an officer of the Tojo Clan criminal organization - whom in this initial outing takes the fall for his boss's murder. After a decade in jail, Kiryu must acclimate to modern life in the city of Kamurocho and save the clan from a dark fate.

While certainly rough around the edges, the very first Yakuza title introduced the world to its gripping and heavily political storytelling, balanced out with a gut-busting sense of humor and a wide range of incredible and memorable characters that appear in the series to this day. Having no physical release on Nintendo Switch is definitely a bummer, but we highly recommend the game nonetheless. Especially if you can work your way up to modern releases such as the brilliant Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

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