TechRadar News

• Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is looking at Gemini to power Siri
• Apple Intelligence's best bits are still delayed until possibly 2026
• No confirmation from either company, and the report put discussions at the earliest stages

Apple's efforts to deliver the smarter Siri and full Apple Intelligence we were promised "in the coming year" might get a boost from an unlikely third party if Bloomberg's latest report is true. The iPhone maker is reportedly in early-stage exploratory talks about integrating Gemini in Siri.

There aren't many details beyond that, though Bloomberg's Mark Gurman contends that the shift to these Google chats happened after Apple couldn't reach financial terms with Anthropic (maker of Claude AI).

The possibility of Apple using Gemini's much more accomplished generative AI and one of its models (Gemini Pro, Flash, Lite?) to bring the conversational intelligence lacking in Siri would immediately transform Apple's nearly 15-year-old digital assistant into a more able AI tool, but it would also mean that Apple is ceding control in what is a key digital arms race.

How we got here

While working with third parties has always been a part of Apple Intelligence's strategy, Apple's CEO Tim Cook and the company's development leadership have never mentioned ingesting someone else's generative AI models. It's also a fact that Apple Intelligence's rollout has not gone exactly according to plan.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

In TechRadar's conversation at WWDC 2025 with Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, who is also now running Apple's AI development efforts, he explained why the company hadn't delivered full Apple Intelligence and a smarter Siri on time. After struggling to get V1 architecture working as they wanted to, Apple had a decision to make:

"...fundamentally, we found that the limitations of the V1 architecture weren't getting us to the quality level that we knew our customers needed and expected." He added, "As soon as we realized that [...] we let the world know that we weren't going to be able to put that out, and we were going to keep working on really shifting to the new architecture and releasing something."

Gurman, though, contends that Apple is still not fully committed to using its own architecture and models and will soon make the decision about whether or not to outsource to a third party like Google for at least some of the necessary intelligence. Again, the discussions he describes are in the earliest stages. And whatever comes of them, assuming they exist, it's unlikely they will have any impact on the upcoming release of iOS 26, which features a smattering of Apple Intelligence updates but virtually none to Siri.

(Image credit: Shutterstock/rafapress)Far from strangers

Apple and Google are already search partners (Google is Safari's default search engine), and in Apple's Visual Intelligence, where you can choose to use Google to search on captured images (or you can ask OpenAI's ChatGPT about them).

Still, Gemini inside Siri would mark a major turning point for Apple and an admission that it's simply not up to the task of competing in the AI sphere, at least not at the level of an OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, or Google.

This approach, though, is not unheard of; Microsoft's Copilot is essentially a reskinnning of ChatGPT (though there are questions if Microsoft will continue getting access to OpenAI's best models).

Even so, Apple put a lot of effort and marketing into Apple Intelligence. The question is, can it still be called that if a big chunk of it is powered by Google?

We contacted Apple and Google for comment. Google had no comment. We'll update this story if and when Apple replies.

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• Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is looking at Gemini to power Siri
• Apple Intelligence's best bits are still delayed until possibly 2026
• No confirmation from either company, and the report put discussions at the earliest stages

Apple's efforts to deliver the smarter Siri and full Apple Intelligence we were promised "in the coming year" might get a boost from an unlikely third party if Bloomberg's latest report is true. The iPhone maker is reportedly in early-stage exploratory talks about integrating Gemini in Siri.

There aren't many details beyond that, though Bloomberg's Mark Gurman contends that the shift to these Google chats happened after Apple couldn't reach financial terms with Anthropic (maker of Claude AI).

The possibility of Apple using Gemini's much more accomplished generative AI and one of its models (Gemini Pro, Flash, Lite?) to bring the conversational intelligence lacking in Siri would immediately transform Apple's nearly 15-year-old digital assistant into a more able AI tool, but it would also mean that Apple is ceding control in what is a key digital arms race.

How we got here

While working with third parties has always been a part of Apple Intelligence's strategy, Apple's CEO Tim Cook and the company's development leadership have never mentioned ingesting someone else's generative AI models. It's also a fact that Apple Intelligence's rollout has not gone exactly according to plan.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

In TechRadar's conversation at WWDC 2025 with Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, who is also now running Apple's AI development efforts, he explained why the company hadn't delivered full Apple Intelligence and a smarter Siri on time. After struggling to get V1 architecture working as they wanted to, Apple had a decision to make:

"...fundamentally, we found that the limitations of the V1 architecture weren't getting us to the quality level that we knew our customers needed and expected." He added, "As soon as we realized that [...] we let the world know that we weren't going to be able to put that out, and we were going to keep working on really shifting to the new architecture and releasing something."

Gurman, though, contends that Apple is still not fully committed to using its own architecture and models and will soon make the decision about whether or not to outsource to a third party like Google for at least some of the necessary intelligence. Again, the discussions he describes are in the earliest stages. And whatever comes of them, assuming they exist, it's unlikely they will have any impact on the upcoming release of iOS 26, which features a smattering of Apple Intelligence updates but virtually none to Siri.

(Image credit: Shutterstock/rafapress)Far from strangers

Apple and Google are already search partners (Google is Safari's default search engine), and in Apple's Visual Intelligence, where you can choose to use Google to search on captured images (or you can ask OpenAI's ChatGPT about them).

Still, Gemini inside Siri would mark a major turning point for Apple and an admission that it's simply not up to the task of competing in the AI sphere, at least not at the level of an OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, or Google.

This approach, though, is not unheard of; Microsoft's Copilot is essentially a reskinnning of ChatGPT (though there are questions if Microsoft will continue getting access to OpenAI's best models).

Even so, Apple put a lot of effort and marketing into Apple Intelligence. The question is, can it still be called that if a big chunk of it is powered by Google?

We contacted Apple and Google for comment. Google had no comment. We'll update this story if and when Apple replies.

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This month's departures from HBO Max have a color in common: red. It's the color of Hellboy and the color of Mars – and it's also the color of that famous scene in the horror classic Carrie.

My three catch-em-while-you-can recommendations for HBO Max this month have something else in common too: stunning central performances. Ron Perlman is a wisecracking delight as a hellishly powerful superhero, adding a very welcome dose of grumpiness to a genre that was starting to feel somewhat stale. Matt Damon is utterly believable and completely compelling as a scientist stranded millions of miles from home. And Sissy Spacek in Carrie is truly exceptional, delivering a performance that's heartbreakingly fragile and truly terrifying.

These are very different movies, but they're all exceptional. If you've seen them already they're well worth revisiting. And if you haven't, you're in for a movie masterclass on one of the best streaming services.

Carrie

Two Carries are leaving HBO soon: the 1976 original and the 2013 remake. The older film is vastly superior to the newer one – the remake scored just 51% with the critics on Rotten Tomatoes and has variously been called "remarkably redundant", "terrible pointless junk" and "one of the worst remakes ever made". But the original film based on Stephen King's horror classic is tremendous, with an astonishing central performance by Sissy Spacek as the titular teen who starts to suspect she has supernatural powers. It's currently sitting with a whopping 94% rating from the critics.

Carrie "is a terrifying lyrical thriller," legendary New Yorker critic Pauline Kael wrote. "The director, Brian De Palma, has mastered a teasing style – a perverse mixture of comedy and horror and tension." Looking back from the 2020s, Total Film wrote: "Brian De Palma transcends the pulpy horror feel by emphasizing the awakening-sexuality metaphor, and using some glorious trickery," while The Fright File called it "One of cinema's ultimate operatic teenage melodramas. I have seen "Carrie" more times than I can count, and yet it never loses its uncommon heartbreak and blood-curdling dramatic power."

The Martian

Matt Damon spent a lot of time in spacesuits in the 2010s: there was (mild spoiler alert) Bad Space Matt in Interstellar, and Good Space Matt in this impressive solo performance. Damon is Mark Watney, left behind on Mars after a fierce storm leads his fellow explorers to think he's dead and leave the red planet without him. But he's not dead, and he'd really like to get home.

The 91% critic rating is well deserved. Empire Magazine gave the film four stars: "Instantly joining E. T. and Bruce Dern’s Freeman Lowell (Silent Running) in the pantheon of cinema’s greatest space gardeners, Damon’s Watney is the actor at his most engaging, by turns flip and desperate... The Martian mixes smarts, laughs, weird character bits and tension on a huge canvas. The result is (Ridley) Scott’s most purely enjoyable film for ages."

Hellboy

Like Carrie, there's more than one Hellboy movie and the original is vastly better than the remake: the 2019 reboot of Hellboy got a frankly embarrassing 17% critic rating. That's partly because it didn't have Guillermo Del Toro in the director's chair or Ron Perlman in the Hellboy prosthetics. The film is "a unique romp," The New Yorker said, "with an exciting yet vulnerable superhero at the center who just happens to be the spawn of Satan."

NPR raved about it too. "Anyone can send an immense, computer-generated vegetable monster rampaging at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, but it takes a special kind of imagination to do it in a way that's thrilling, emotionally complex, and rapturously beautiful all at once." Time Out agreed. "Del Toro, in love with his source but never overawed by it, keeps things moving; Perlman ties it together with some of the driest witticisms this side of Indiana Jones."

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This month's departures from HBO Max have a color in common: red. It's the color of Hellboy and the color of Mars – and it's also the color of that famous scene in the horror classic Carrie.

My three catch-em-while-you-can recommendations for HBO Max this month have something else in common too: stunning central performances. Ron Perlman is a wisecracking delight as a hellishly powerful superhero, adding a very welcome dose of grumpiness to a genre that was starting to feel somewhat stale. Matt Damon is utterly believable and completely compelling as a scientist stranded millions of miles from home. And Sissy Spacek in Carrie is truly exceptional, delivering a performance that's heartbreakingly fragile and truly terrifying.

These are very different movies, but they're all exceptional. If you've seen them already they're well worth revisiting. And if you haven't, you're in for a movie masterclass on one of the best streaming services.

Carrie

Two Carries are leaving HBO soon: the 1976 original and the 2013 remake. The older film is vastly superior to the newer one – the remake scored just 51% with the critics on Rotten Tomatoes and has variously been called "remarkably redundant", "terrible pointless junk" and "one of the worst remakes ever made". But the original film based on Stephen King's horror classic is tremendous, with an astonishing central performance by Sissy Spacek as the titular teen who starts to suspect she has supernatural powers. It's currently sitting with a whopping 94% rating from the critics.

Carrie "is a terrifying lyrical thriller," legendary New Yorker critic Pauline Kael wrote. "The director, Brian De Palma, has mastered a teasing style – a perverse mixture of comedy and horror and tension." Looking back from the 2020s, Total Film wrote: "Brian De Palma transcends the pulpy horror feel by emphasizing the awakening-sexuality metaphor, and using some glorious trickery," while The Fright File called it "One of cinema's ultimate operatic teenage melodramas. I have seen "Carrie" more times than I can count, and yet it never loses its uncommon heartbreak and blood-curdling dramatic power."

The Martian

Matt Damon spent a lot of time in spacesuits in the 2010s: there was (mild spoiler alert) Bad Space Matt in Interstellar, and Good Space Matt in this impressive solo performance. Damon is Mark Watney, left behind on Mars after a fierce storm leads his fellow explorers to think he's dead and leave the red planet without him. But he's not dead, and he'd really like to get home.

The 91% critic rating is well deserved. Empire Magazine gave the film four stars: "Instantly joining E. T. and Bruce Dern’s Freeman Lowell (Silent Running) in the pantheon of cinema’s greatest space gardeners, Damon’s Watney is the actor at his most engaging, by turns flip and desperate... The Martian mixes smarts, laughs, weird character bits and tension on a huge canvas. The result is (Ridley) Scott’s most purely enjoyable film for ages."

Hellboy

Like Carrie, there's more than one Hellboy movie and the original is vastly better than the remake: the 2019 reboot of Hellboy got a frankly embarrassing 17% critic rating. That's partly because it didn't have Guillermo Del Toro in the director's chair or Ron Perlman in the Hellboy prosthetics. The film is "a unique romp," The New Yorker said, "with an exciting yet vulnerable superhero at the center who just happens to be the spawn of Satan."

NPR raved about it too. "Anyone can send an immense, computer-generated vegetable monster rampaging at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, but it takes a special kind of imagination to do it in a way that's thrilling, emotionally complex, and rapturously beautiful all at once." Time Out agreed. "Del Toro, in love with his source but never overawed by it, keeps things moving; Perlman ties it together with some of the driest witticisms this side of Indiana Jones."

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• More range, faster charging and a lower price
• NACS support means it can top up at Tesla Supercharger stations
• The Leaf arrives at a time when demand for EVs is waning in the US

Nissan has revealed pricing for its US-bound Nissan Leaf model and it claims it will be the cheapest EV on sale when it hits roads in 2026.

The updated Leaf, which the Japanese marque hopes will prove even more popular than the ground-breaking original, will start at $29,990 for the Leaf S+ and rise to $38,990 for the top spec Platinum+ trim, which manages 259 miles on a single charge.

The entry-level model is around $3,000 cheaper than the 2011 original and undercuts the outgoing 2025 version, but Nissan will also reveal pricing for the cheapest S model later this year, which could well start at under $28,000.

Redesigned from the ground up and sharing its platform with the Nissan Ariya, the US-spec Leaf S+ features a 75kWh battery pack that is capable of 303 miles on a single charge. The outgoing 2025 model managed a max range of 212 miles.

Despite now adopting the more popular SUV/crossover body shape, the new Leaf is actually a bit shorter than the outgoing hatchback and only 10mm taller, but engineers have somehow managed to declutter to the interior so there is more space to comfortably transport passengers.

Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) charging port has been added, allowing users to gain access to the vast Supercharger network. Charging from 10% to 80% takes around 35 minutes from the faster chargers.

Other notable new features include an electronically-dimming panoramic roof, which Nissan says is a first in the segment, a Google-based infotainment system and advanced camera technology that provides a 360-degree view of the vehicle and offers an 'Invisible Hood' view to make parking easier.

Nissan needs a big hitImage 1 of 6

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(Image credit: Nissan)

Despite rapid growth over the past few years, EV sales have slowed in the US in recent months, with Inside EVs reporting that America’s EV market share dropped from 7.4% to 6.6% in April of this year.

Consumer confidence has been shaken by the US government’s decision to remove subsidies, while funding for EV-related industries continues to be attacked. The support to ensure the technology goes mainstream just isn’t in place.

Nissan is also facing a crisis of its own, as its share price continues to tumble due to the continuing losses it has been posting. As a result, it has already announced deep cuts to the workforce and the closure of several plants.

The new Leaf needs to be a big hit in the US, while the upcoming all-electric Micra also hopes to have a successful run in Europe – seeing as it shares most of its components with the hugely popular Renault 5 E-Tech.

Priced as it is, the new Nissan Leaf comes about as close as the US will get to the mythical $25,000 EV (with a useable range) that the internet has been pining for.

Seeing as Tesla looks to have killed that idea, Nissan might be in the perfect position win over new customers.

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There are some very interesting Philips Hue products on the way, including new Gradient Strips, Festavia string lights, and a Philips Hue Bridge Pro that can support up to 150 devices, but one rumored release has had me scratching my head - Philips Hue Essential.

These appear to be slightly lower-spec versions of standard Hue smart light bulbs, and will presumably have a more modest price tag to match – but why? Who, exactly, is Philips Hue Essentials for?

The budget end of the smart lighting market is already dominated by the likes of Govee, Ikea, and WiZ – and that’s where things get interesting. You see, WiZ lights are made by a company called Signify – the same company that makes Philips Hue products under license. Why would it pit its two brands against one another with a low-cost version of Hue?

WiZ smart lights (such as this WiZ Gradient Floor Lamp) are made by the same parent company as Philips Hue products, but for different users (Image credit: Abigail Shannon)

Well, it isn’t – not quite. Aside from price, one of the key differences between WiZ and Philips Hue is connectivity. WiZ lights connect directly to Wi-Fi, meaning there’s no need for a hub, and they’re easier to set up. They’re a good option if you just want one or two bulbs and aren’t planning to build a sophisticated lighting system with switches and sensors.

Although you can control individual Philips Hue lights from your phone using Bluetooth, most people will use them with a Philips Hue Bridge, which plugs into your router and uses the Zigbee wireless protocol to create a mesh network that links all your devices together. No Wi-Fi necessary.

Using Zigbee rather than Wi-Fi means you can have a lot more smart lights in your home (a typical home Wi-Fi router isn’t really intended to communicate with more than a couple of dozen devices), with better range without the need for a Wi-Fi extender. (Zigbee devices also use less power, though LED bulbs aren’t huge energy-hogs to begin with, so you’re not likely to notice a huge difference on that front.)

Philips Hue Essential and WiZ bulbs, therefore, aren’t filling quite the same niche. If you only ever intend to own a couple of smart lights, then WiZ would be just fine, but Hue Essential will give you the option to expand your setup much further in the future, should you choose to.

A bright idea?

"Hue stretches across indoor and outdoor, and has different variants of products in all those categories," Giuliano Ghidini, Business and Marketing leader at Signify, told me in a recent interview.

"Hue offers a more comprehensive range so you can cover all rooms, and thanks to the technology it’s based on, Zigbee, with a Hue hub, you have very good coverage indoor and outdoor, and very high reliability without putting too much stress on your Wi-Fi network."

Pick up a couple of Philips Hue Essential bulbs with a Hue Bridge, and you'll have the option to extend your setup much further at a future date if you want to (Image credit: Philips Hue)

That makes Hue appealing if you have a generous budget and can afford to deck out your entire house, but the high entry price can be off-putting otherwise. A starter kit of two White & Color Ambiance bulbs bundled with a Hue Bridge might cost as much as $140 / £130 / AU$190. When you can pick up four Govee bulbs for a quarter of the price, with no hub necessary, it’s easy to see why homeowners with more modest needs would write off Hue.

The Philips Hue Essential series, depending on how it’s priced, sounds like it could offer the best of both worlds, with a palatable asking price and the ability to expand your smart lighting setup as much as you like later on, or just keep it simple and not feel like you’re under-utilizing it.

Essential? Perhaps not quite, but certainly more tempting.

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• Hackers claim to be selling millions of PayPal logins, but experts suspect foul play
• The dataset allegedly includes passwords, emails, and URLs for automated attacks
• Experts say the leaked sample is too small to confirm authenticity, and its low pricing casts doubt about its legitimacy

Hackers recently announced on a well-known forum that they were selling a dataset of 15.8 million stolen PayPal credentials, allegedly including login emails and plaintext passwords.

The cybercriminals claim the information was stolen in May 2025, and the dataset contains not just emails and passwords but also associated URLs, making it easier for criminals to automate credential stuffing attacks and launch identity theft scams.

They also claim that while many of the leaked passwords appeared unique and “strong-looking,” a large portion were reused. If true, the value of the dump may be smaller than suggested.

Doubts over the breach claims

However, experts who examined the small sample released to the public concluded it was insufficient to verify the attackers’ claims, noting if the breach really occurred in May 2025, much of the usable data might already have been exploited.

Interestingly, the price set for the alleged database is surprisingly low, raising further doubts about its authenticity.

Historically, high-quality stolen data commands far higher prices on the dark web.

However, PayPal quickly denied any new breach, instead pointing to a “security incident” from 2022, which involved credential stuffing attacks and resulted in regulators fining the firm earlier this year.

That event saw only 35,000 accounts exposed, a far cry from the millions now claimed by attackers.

Skeptics argue the resemblance between the alleged PayPal dataset and the structure of infostealer malware logs from an older event suggests foul play.

Infostealers quietly harvest passwords, cookies, and other details from infected devices, often packaging the data with a URL followed by login information.

It is quite common to find credentials listed in stealer logs that circulate on dark web marketplaces, but these are not directly from PayPal’s system; they are from compromised user devices.

Regardless of whether this new claim proves genuine, the situation underscores how easy it is for user information to circulate once stolen.

Leaked login details can enable identity theft and financial fraud long after the original compromise.

Users who have reused PayPal credentials on other platforms remain vulnerable to attack.

How to stay safe

• Change your PayPal password and avoid reusing it across other services.
• Enable multi-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security.
• Monitor accounts regularly for signs of identity theft or unusual activity.
• Use a strong internet security suite with firewall protection.
• Be cautious with links and attachments that may carry infostealer malware.
• Consider dedicated identity theft monitoring services for added protection.

Via Cybernews

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• Google Gemini Live now provides visual guidance with real-time cues on your screen when you share your camera
• The feature is designed to help users solve tasks visually and identify objects by sight
• Gemini Live has also expanded its app integrations and introduced expressive voice upgrades

Google is continuing its quest to get people to use its Gemini AI assistant at all times and in all places with a new set of upgrades launched alongside the Pixel 10 series of smartphones. The centerpiece of the new and improved Gemini Live is a set of AI eyes, a feature called visual guidance.

Basically, you can give Gemini Live access to your camera, and it will look at the same things you're looking at and help you figure out things like the right tool to use, the best choices to coordinate an outfit, or other tasks. The solutions will be right on the screen, with arrows or circles around the correct answer. For now, the feature will only be available on the Pixel 10, but other Android phones and even iOS devices will be able to use the feature in the near future.

Visual guidance might sound like a party trick, but it could prove to be a major draw for Gemini Live. Instead of receiving a flat, spoken answer when you ask Gemini to help assemble a new piece of furniture, you can now show the parts to your camera and have the assistant visually indicate which goes where. It doesn’t require special hardware; it's like showing a friend who's good at DIY what you have and asking for help.

Google clearly sees it as a way to bridge the awkwardness that sometimes happens when you ask an AI for help and it gives you vague or overly generic answers. “Use the blue-handled pliers,” might not help much if your toolbox has three tools with blue handles. A glowing circle over the right one is much more helpful. As someone who has tried to follow a YouTube tutorial while simultaneously wielding a screwdriver, I get the appeal.

Sweet talk and multitasking

Gemini Live will also sound better when it's showing you things, thanks to new speech models capable of adjusting the tone, and even the character of the voice. So, Gemini might use an especially calm voice to talk about a stressful topic, speed up when you're in a hurry, or perhaps tell you a story about pirates in the stereotypical pirate accent.

Gemini Live is also going to be better at multitasking thanks to new links to apps like Google Calendar, Messages, and Maps. So, when you're chatting with Gemini, you could get it to handle your personal appointments and send texts to your friends with directions.

The revamp of Gemini Live fits with Google's broader approach to AI, positioning it as an ambient, always-on platform rather than a standalone feature. AI assistance that is flexible enough for any event, while using context to be specifically valuable for individuals, is what Google and other AI developers have promised for a while. And while the visual guidance and other tools aren't going to be perfect, the adaptability could make up for it. You don’t need to learn a new system or talk in commands. You just show Gemini what you see, ask it what you need, and get a reply that’s tuned to the topic.

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• China web traffic was blocked from accessing outsider websites
• No political or sensitive events appear to have coincided
• Pakistan also suffered an outage hours before

China appears to have shut itself off from the internet world for over an hour earlier this week, but could it have just been a mistake?

The country's "Great Firewall" disrupted all traffic on TCP port 443, used for HTTPS, for 74 minutes on August 20, 2025, but with most citizens asleep during the outage (00:34-01:48 Beijing time), was this intended behavior?

Interestingly, only port 443 was affected, leaving other ports like 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP and 8443 (alterative HTTPS) unaffected.

China just had a partial internet outage

By injecting forged TCP RST+ACK packets to cut connections on port 443, the Great Firewall blocked access to most websites outside China and also disrupted services that rely on offshore servers, including Apple and Tesla.

A report explained the Great Firewall of China is not a single entity, but a “complex system composed of various network devices that perform censorship.” The device involved did not match fingerprints of known GFW equipment, suggesting the 74-minute outage could have come from a new censorship device, a misconfigured known divide or a test of port-blocking capability.

The Great Firewall also has a history of glitches, leaks and other technical errors.

Unlike past censorship events, no major political or other sensitive events were identified during this outage, making the reason more obscured.

Coincidentally, Pakistan also saw a large drop in internet traffic hours before the Chinese outage. The two countries both have similar histories of web censorship, and China has even been linked with sharing censorship technology with Pakistan, potentially drawing a link between the two events.

More broadly, the granular and more complex censorship that China chooses (compared with total shutdowns observed in Turkey, Sudan and Egypt) strikes a fine balancing act between restricting access to foreign information while avoiding economic harm.

With the community responding to the report’s comments with suspicions that this could have been a test, we’re left with little more evidence than to believe either this is the case, or it was a mistake.

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• Raspberry Pi shrinks the size of its touchscreen while keeping the same resolution
• It's cheaper and smaller, but it does not introduce new capabilities
• Retailers are already listing the new screen at higher prices

Raspberry Pi has announced a new addition to its display range, a 5-inch version of the Touch Display 2.

The company saysits new offering is a compact, low-cost option for hobbyists and developers who want to embed touch interfaces into projects.

At $40, it undercuts the 7-inch Raspberry Pi model which launched in 2024, although both share the same 720x1280 resolution.

A smaller screen for Pi projects

Apart from its reduced size, the 5-inch variant carries essentially the same specifications as the larger display.

It supports multi-touch input, connects via the DSI port, and draws power directly from the Raspberry Pi board.

Integration with Raspberry Pi OS is designed to be smooth, with no calibration steps or third-party drivers needed.

"Its capacitive touch screen works out of the box with full Linux driver support, no manual calibration required, no hunting through device trees, and no wrestling with incompatible touch controllers," said Gordon Hollingworth, CTO of Raspberry Pi software.

For users already accustomed to working with RPi distros, the device should feel straightforward to set up.

To illustrate the display’s capabilities, Raspberry Pi’s Gordon Hollingworth demonstrated a slideshow application built with the assistance of AI.

The process highlighted how AI can speed up development and provide a foundation for interactive coding, with multi-touch support ultimately working smoothly after fine-tuning.

The screen is being presented as a good fit for compact smart home controls, portable kiosks, or integrated dashboards.

In theory, mounting a Pi board on the back of the display offers an all-in-one system without external peripherals.

For casual projects, this could reduce clutter compared to juggling keyboards, monitors, and portable HDD storage devices.

Yet the hardware itself does not represent a leap forward, as resolution remains fixed at 720p, and touch responsiveness still depends heavily on software layers that may introduce quirks.

As with many Raspberry Pi peripherals, the new display will find an audience among tinkerers eager to explore interactive projects.

However, it is worth noting that the announcement reflects refinement rather than revolution, as the product is cheaper and smaller, but it does not introduce new capabilities.

For those already invested in the Raspberry Pi ecosystem, it may be another piece of the puzzle - but for others, it risks being just another component destined to sit in a drawer after the initial excitement fades.

This device is now available from several Pi retailers. PiShop and CanaKit list it at $50.95, while Vilros is selling it for the MSRP.

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• GPD Win 5 is an unusual gaming handheld and ultra mobile workstation hybrid
• It's powered by AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU with 16 cores and Radeon 8060S
• Compact 565g device includes 7-inch 120Hz touchscreen and dual-fan cooling system

GPD has unveiled the Win 5, a handheld PC that straddles the line between portable gaming console and mobile workstation.

With its compact form factor, the device is powered by AMD’s powerful Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU (Strix Halo), a processor that so far has mostly appeared in mini PCs and only a handful of laptops, including HP’s ZBook Ultra 14 G1a, Asus’s ROG Flow Z13 and Emdoor’s EM-959-NM16ASH-1.

While the Win 5 looks good and packs a lot of power, its expected price tag - around $2000 - will put it firmly in enthusiast territory.

Dual-fan cooling

The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is built on TSMC’s 4nm process and features 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 32 threads, clocking up to 5.1GHz. There’s a Radeon 8060S GPU with 40 compute units running at 2.9GHz.

The chip also offers AI acceleration, with 16 TOPS from its NPU and 38 TOPS combined with CPU performance.

To keep that hardware under control, the Win 5 uses a dual-fan cooling system, which delivers consistent thermal management even under heavy loads, which would otherwise be a concern for a device this small.

The handheld supports up to 128GB of LPDDR5X RAM at 8000MHz and NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD storage options ranging from 1TB to 4TB.

Storage can be swapped from the rear panel, and microSD plus mini SSD expansion slots are included.

The display is a 7-inch H-IPS touchscreen at 1920x1080 resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate and FreeSync Premium support.

Wireless connectivity includes WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Ports include two USB-C (one at USB 3.2 speeds and another at USB 4 with support for external GPUs), a 3.5mm audio jack, and card slots.

Despite its undoubted power, the device weighs just 565 grams and measures 267 x 111mm, making it smaller than a Steam Deck.

The 80Wh battery supports fast charging up to 180W.

The Win 5 looks like a standard handheld games system, with dual analog sticks, a D-Pad, triggers, and action buttons, but includes extras like a fingerprint reader.

GPD Win 5 mobile workstation PC will be available to buy globally from October 17 2025.

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• Sixunited joins HP and Asus in offering a Strix Halo-powered laptop
• There are 15 AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 mini PCs in the world right now...
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• Max, a Russia-developed messaging app, must be pre-installed on every new device from September 1
• The domestic RuStore app store is also to be forced onto Apple devices, after already being mandatory on Android
• Authorities are reportedly considering blocking WhatsApp, today's most popular messaging app in Russia

A Russia-developed messaging app must be pre-installed on every new smartphone and tablet sold in Russia starting from September 1, 2025 – the government confirmed on Thursday, August 21.

So-called Max, the WhatsApp rival, is also integrated with government services and has already reached 18 million registered users, according to Interfax.

Privacy experts have been raising the alarm, arguing that Max could spy on its users. Something that the Kremlin strongly denies, arguing that "it has fewer permissions to access user data than rivals WhatsApp and Telegram," Reuters reported.

As per the government announcement, on September 1, the domestic RuStore app store will also become mandatory on all Apple devices, having been forced only on Android gadgets so far.

Can people in Russia still use WhatsApp?

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Tada Images )

WhatsApp is currently the most popular messaging service across Russia, and the only Meta-owned app not blocked in the country.

This could soon change, however, as authorities have recently confirmed their intention to ban WhatsApp in Russia.

Talking to Reuters on Friday, July 18, Deputy Head of the Russian parliament's Information Technology Committee, Anton Gorelkin, said that "it's time for WhatsApp to prepare to leave the Russian market," while reminding that Meta has been designated as an extremist organization in Russia.

Two more government sources have then confirmed to Meduza, a Russian Independent media outlet, that "there’s a 99-percent chance" the WhatsApp block will happen.

Fast-forward to August 13, Interfax confirmed that authorities partially restrict calls on both Telegram and WhatsApp, allegedly as a measure to combat criminal and terrorist activities.

The looming WhatsApp ban comes as the Kremlin also recently passed a law to punish online searches for so-called 'extremist' content, while adding new penalties to those using VPN services.

This means that using one of the best VPN services to bypass a potential ban on WhatsApp, or any other app for that matter, has suddenly become ever more challenging.

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• Russia demands over 200 VPNs are removed from the Play Store – but Google is resisting
• Russia to invest over half a billion US dollars in its battle against VPN usage
• Russia disconnects several regions to test its sovereign net

• Max, a Russia-developed messaging app, must be pre-installed on every new device from September 1
• The domestic RuStore app store is also to be forced onto Apple devices, after already being mandatory on Android
• Authorities are reportedly considering blocking WhatsApp, today's most popular messaging app in Russia

A Russia-developed messaging app must be pre-installed on every new smartphone and tablet sold in Russia starting from September 1, 2025 – the government confirmed on Thursday, August 21.

So-called Max, the WhatsApp rival, is also integrated with government services and has already reached 18 million registered users, according to Interfax.

Privacy experts have been raising the alarm, arguing that Max could spy on its users. Something that the Kremlin strongly denies, arguing that "it has fewer permissions to access user data than rivals WhatsApp and Telegram," Reuters reported.

As per the government announcement, on September 1, the domestic RuStore app store will also become mandatory on all Apple devices, having been forced only on Android gadgets so far.

Can people in Russia still use WhatsApp?

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Tada Images )

WhatsApp is currently the most popular messaging service across Russia, and the only Meta-owned app not blocked in the country.

This could soon change, however, as authorities have recently confirmed their intention to ban WhatsApp in Russia.

Talking to Reuters on Friday, July 18, Deputy Head of the Russian parliament's Information Technology Committee, Anton Gorelkin, said that "it's time for WhatsApp to prepare to leave the Russian market," while reminding that Meta has been designated as an extremist organization in Russia.

Two more government sources have then confirmed to Meduza, a Russian Independent media outlet, that "there’s a 99-percent chance" the WhatsApp block will happen.

Fast-forward to August 13, Interfax confirmed that authorities partially restrict calls on both Telegram and WhatsApp, allegedly as a measure to combat criminal and terrorist activities.

The looming WhatsApp ban comes as the Kremlin also recently passed a law to punish online searches for so-called 'extremist' content, while adding new penalties to those using VPN services.

This means that using one of the best VPN services to bypass a potential ban on WhatsApp, or any other app for that matter, has suddenly become ever more challenging.

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• Russia demands over 200 VPNs are removed from the Play Store – but Google is resisting
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• One of Final Fantasy 14's most popular mods, Mare Synchronos, has shut down
• The plug-in's creator blamed a "legal enquiry"
• The game has since been review-bombed on Steam

Following a "legal enquiry", a popular third-party tool used for Final Fantasy 14 has shut down and now players are furious.

The tool, Mare Synchronos, was a plug-in that allowed users to sync and view other players' mods in-game, such as character customization, hair, clothing, and more, and had over 20,000 users.

Modding in Final Fantasy 14 has always been against the game's terms of service, though it is well-known in the community that it's best not to advertise the use of them if you want to avoid the ban hammer.

Unfortunately, it seems one of the most popular mods wasn't able to escape Square Enix's legal team.

The mod's creator announced the shutdown on their Discord (in a message that was posted to Reddit), saying, "See the sun set, the day is ending. With a heavy heart, I have to announce the end of Mare Synchronos as you know it. I've received a legal inquiry concerning the project. After reviewing my options with counsel, I'm winding down" (via GamesRadar).

The modder has explained that, effective immediately, registration to download the mod will be closed and bot services will be shut down, repositories for client, server, and api will be removed, and all Patreon/Ko-Fi memberships will be removed.

Since Mare was used by many players who mod the game, particularly those in the role-playing community, the announcement hasn't gone down well.

"Square Enix messing with their freaky fanbase is a bold strategy, let's see if it pays off," said one user in the Reddit thread.

"More reasons to never come back," another wrote. "People say mare was just for the ERPers, which sure lotsa people used it for that. But lemme say this... mare legit made it so I could get my character to actually present how I wanted him for my friends to see... warmer more diverse skin tones, hair editing, better hair colors, personally altering face bones and height etc and having that show up."

Mare's shut down has also resulted in Final Fantasy 14 being review-bombed on Steam. As of writing, the game is now sitting at "Mixed" reviews, with plenty of angry posts relating to the mod's takedown.

"I never messed with mods, but i had no issue with people using them because people really enjoyed their character creation mod options," one player said. "Square never had a problem with it before and now suddenly they rip this away from people. wont be coming back. if square wants to burn their game to the ground then let them."

"RIP Moon [Mare Synchronos], canceled my sub I've been paying for," said another. "Without Moon, it's not worth it for me personally."

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• One of Final Fantasy 14's most popular mods, Mare Synchronos, has shut down
• The plug-in's creator blamed a "legal enquiry"
• The game has since been review-bombed on Steam

Following a "legal enquiry", a popular third-party tool used for Final Fantasy 14 has shut down and now players are furious.

The tool, Mare Synchronos, was a plug-in that allowed users to sync and view other players' mods in-game, such as character customization, hair, clothing, and more, and had over 20,000 users.

Modding in Final Fantasy 14 has always been against the game's terms of service, though it is well-known in the community that it's best not to advertise the use of them if you want to avoid the ban hammer.

Unfortunately, it seems one of the most popular mods wasn't able to escape Square Enix's legal team.

The mod's creator announced the shutdown on their Discord (in a message that was posted to Reddit), saying, "See the sun set, the day is ending. With a heavy heart, I have to announce the end of Mare Synchronos as you know it. I've received a legal inquiry concerning the project. After reviewing my options with counsel, I'm winding down" (via GamesRadar).

The modder has explained that, effective immediately, registration to download the mod will be closed and bot services will be shut down, repositories for client, server, and api will be removed, and all Patreon/Ko-Fi memberships will be removed.

Since Mare was used by many players who mod the game, particularly those in the role-playing community, the announcement hasn't gone down well.

"Square Enix messing with their freaky fanbase is a bold strategy, let's see if it pays off," said one user in the Reddit thread.

"More reasons to never come back," another wrote. "People say mare was just for the ERPers, which sure lotsa people used it for that. But lemme say this... mare legit made it so I could get my character to actually present how I wanted him for my friends to see... warmer more diverse skin tones, hair editing, better hair colors, personally altering face bones and height etc and having that show up."

Mare's shut down has also resulted in Final Fantasy 14 being review-bombed on Steam. As of writing, the game is now sitting at "Mixed" reviews, with plenty of angry posts relating to the mod's takedown.

"I never messed with mods, but i had no issue with people using them because people really enjoyed their character creation mod options," one player said. "Square never had a problem with it before and now suddenly they rip this away from people. wont be coming back. if square wants to burn their game to the ground then let them."

"RIP Moon [Mare Synchronos], canceled my sub I've been paying for," said another. "Without Moon, it's not worth it for me personally."

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• Australian CommBank announced 45 workers would be replaced with AI
• However the decision has now been reversed after the AI failed to live up to humans
• Workers have received an apology from CommBank

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has provided a useful example of how not to introduce AI tools after being forced into an embarassing clim-down.

The bank had recently announced 45 customer service workers would be cut and replaced with an AI-powered 'voice bot' in an effort to reduce call volumes and automate less complex replies - leaving a small number of employees to handle the remaining more complex enquiries.

As it turns out, these bots were not capable of handling the tasks that the workers could - and now, those cut employees will now be rehired.

The ‘backflip’

The bank claimed the ‘voice-bot’ led to a reduction in calls, but Australia's Finance Sector Union disputes this claim, noting, “Members told us this was an outright lie and did not reflect the reality of what was happening in Direct Banking. Call volumes were in fact increasing and CBA was scrambling to manage the situation by offering staff overtime and directing Team Leaders to answer calls."

The bank issued an apology to the staff who were affected by the proposed job cuts and reversed the decision. A spokesperson from the bank told TechRadar Pro that it's initial assessment 'did not adequately consider all relevant business considerations and this error meant the roles were not redundant.'

"We have apologised to the employees concerned and acknowledge we should have been more thorough in our assessment of the roles required. We are currently supporting affected employees and have provided them with choice regarding continuing in their current roles, pursuing redeployment within CBA or to proceed with leaving the organisation."

That being said, CommBank is not denouncing the tech entirely, having recently announced a partnership with OpenAI to develop scam and fraud detection solutions, as well as ‘deliver more personalized services’ for its customers.

For months, concerns about job losses at the hands of AI were dismissed, with companies assuring that only the most basic and mundane admin tasks would be handled by bots, leaving workers to focus on the more creative aspects of their roles.

Those in administrative positions who handle almost exclusively mundane tasks have warned that these models, although sometimes useful, cannot replace human experience and understanding.

It’s undeniable that AI is replacing workers, with hundreds of jobs at firms like IBM and Crowdstrike disappearing as humans have been made more dispensable thanks to the tech.

But, not all of these cost-cutting decisions are working out. In the UK, over half of all businesses who replaced workers with AI already regret their decision, and are not less likely to believe that AI will replace human workers.

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• Australian CommBank announced 45 workers would be replaced with AI
• However the decision has now been reversed after the AI failed to live up to humans
• Workers have received an apology from CommBank

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has provided a useful example of how not to introduce AI tools after being forced into an embarassing clim-down.

The bank had recently announced 45 customer service workers would be cut and replaced with an AI-powered 'voice bot' in an effort to reduce call volumes and automate less complex replies - leaving a small number of employees to handle the remaining more complex enquiries.

As it turns out, these bots were not capable of handling the tasks that the workers could - and now, those cut employees will now be rehired.

The ‘backflip’

The bank claimed the ‘voice-bot’ led to a reduction in calls, but Australia's Finance Sector Union disputes this claim, noting, “Members told us this was an outright lie and did not reflect the reality of what was happening in Direct Banking. Call volumes were in fact increasing and CBA was scrambling to manage the situation by offering staff overtime and directing Team Leaders to answer calls."

The bank issued an apology to the staff who were affected by the proposed job cuts and reversed the decision. A spokesperson from the bank told TechRadar Pro that it's initial assessment 'did not adequately consider all relevant business considerations and this error meant the roles were not redundant.'

"We have apologised to the employees concerned and acknowledge we should have been more thorough in our assessment of the roles required. We are currently supporting affected employees and have provided them with choice regarding continuing in their current roles, pursuing redeployment within CBA or to proceed with leaving the organisation."

That being said, CommBank is not denouncing the tech entirely, having recently announced a partnership with OpenAI to develop scam and fraud detection solutions, as well as ‘deliver more personalized services’ for its customers.

For months, concerns about job losses at the hands of AI were dismissed, with companies assuring that only the most basic and mundane admin tasks would be handled by bots, leaving workers to focus on the more creative aspects of their roles.

Those in administrative positions who handle almost exclusively mundane tasks have warned that these models, although sometimes useful, cannot replace human experience and understanding.

It’s undeniable that AI is replacing workers, with hundreds of jobs at firms like IBM and Crowdstrike disappearing as humans have been made more dispensable thanks to the tech.

But, not all of these cost-cutting decisions are working out. In the UK, over half of all businesses who replaced workers with AI already regret their decision, and are not less likely to believe that AI will replace human workers.

You might also like

• Almost all GenAI pilots companies deploy are failing - so are they really worth the hype?
• Check out our choice for best endpoint protection software to keep you safe
• 70% of people are sick of talking to AI – where did all the humans go?

It's been three and a half years since Peacemaker took the world by storm.

The Suicide Squad spin-off series, which saw John Cena reprise his role as the jingoistic anti-hero from that 2021 flick in the character's self-titled TV show, was a big hit. Armed with the usual trappings of a James Gunn project, the arrival of the season 1 finale in February 2022 broke the at-the-time record for the highest single day viewership of an HBO Max original episode. Not bad going for a show starring a C-list tier metahuman from DC Comics.

But Peacemaker's first season had a trick up its sleeve that supercharged its success weeks prior to the launch of its last episode: a dance number-inspired title sequence. The 80-second long intro, which saw its full cast amusingly perform a highly-polished, choreographed routine set to Wig Wam track 'Do You Wanna Taste It?', was surprising as it was delightful. Four billion views on TikTok later, and writer/director James Gunn, Cena, and company had an unexpected viral sensation on their hands.

With a second season – one set in the rebooted DC Universe (DCU) overseen by Gunn and fellow DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran, rather than the now-defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU) – greenlit not long after its forebear's finale, one question dominated fans' minds. Well, the one that has nothing to do with whether events from Peacemaker season 1 would be deemed canon in season 2 and the wider DCU, anyway: would the show's sophomore outing have its own similarly dance-infused intro?

The short answer is: yes. And, with the first episode of Peacemaker season 2, titled 'The Ties That Grind' out now, viewers can finally watch it in all of its glory.

What many fans won't realize and/or potentially underappreciate, though, is the amount of time, effort, and energy that went into this season's more intricate and more ambitious opener. And, after three gruelling years of putting said sequence together, Gunn and the show's ensemble are finally ready to reveal all.

'Julian, it's a hungry world...'

John Cena and company dance along to 'Oh Lord' by Foxy Shazam during this season's intro sequence (Image credit: HBO Max)

Last season's intro owed much to Gunn's uncanny knack – nay, superpower – to select the right track for any given scene or sequence in projects he writes, directs, and/or produces. A self-confessed music nerd, almost every one of Gunn's works, such as the Guardians of the Galaxy film trilogy he wrote and directed for Marvel, are full of catchy yet underrated songs who've become part of the cultural zeitgeist following their use in said productions.

The pressure to select the perfect ditty to set season 2's dance opener to, then, was certainly on. And, while Gunn tells me this season's song of choice – 'Oh Lord' by glam-rock outfit Foxy Shazam – was eventually settled on because its lyrics tie into the themes of season 2, it wasn't the only option he umm-ed and arr-ed about.

"I don't know if any other songs came close [to being chosen]," Gunn admits. "[But] there were a couple of others I considered. There was another Foxy Shazam track and I also thought about using 'Do You Wanna Taste It?' again. But, at the end of the day, I picked 'Oh Lord' because it was the best fit for this season's tone, much like 'Do You Wanna Taste It?' was the right fit for season 1."

"You think hearing the same song over and over for 10 hours straight would get old, but it never did for me," Steve Agee, who plays John Economos, reveals with a laugh. "I really like the song, and some of the guys from Foxy Shazam came over while we were shooting the actual thing, so it was a lot of fun."

Going again from the top

The show's cast spent weeks preparing to film this season's opening sequence (Image credit: HBO Max)

With its title track locked in, work soon began on the actual dance that the cast would need to perform on the day (or, as you'll learn later, days).

Just as he did for one of the best HBO Max shows' first season, Gunn teamed up with Charissa Barton to create a completely new, multi-tiered sequence. Workshopping it with her husband Alan Tudyk, who's voiced various characters in the first two DCU Chapter One projects Superman and Creature Commandos, Barton soon settled on the movements that this season's near-20-strong cast would need to master.

An incredible amount of effort was put into the opening dance sequence of #Peacemaker this season. They made everyone, even Frank Grillo, look great. pic.twitter.com/oAAdye7rTwAugust 22, 2025

"Charissa worked it out ahead of time before getting approval from James," Agee explains. "Then, she meets with us one-on-one, or in groups of two or three, because there are sections to the dance. So, we'd go in with her to rehearse it, she'd record it, and then send the file to you so you can practise at home."

"We had a lot of individual and group rehearsal," Frank Grillo, who reprises his role as Rick Flag Sr from Gunn's Superman movie and Creature Commandos season 1, adds. "We were given plenty of homework to do, and I'm glad I got to work on it at home because the idea of being on stage with so many people, and being in sync, was something I didn't think I'd be comfortable with."

I've had the time of my liiiiiife! (Image credit: HBO Max)

Peacemaker 2's opening credits are certainly more complex than its predecessor's. Indeed, more people are involved this time around and, with the first season's dance sequence being so well received, there's an inevitable demand to make it bigger, bolder, and better than what's come before.

For Jennifer Holland, the gymnast-turned-actor who returns to play Emilia Harcourt, season 2's routine provided some particularly tricky moves for her to get right. Indeed, with this season further examining Harcourt and the titular character's 'will they, won't they' dynamic, Barton felt it was crucial to lean into this aspect of the story with a Dirty Dancing-inspired lift.

"There's a piece where I get to go on wires and do this little spin in the air, which was like a little Cirque du Soleil moment," Holland tells me, "But that lift was the most challenging thing I had to do. I didn't get to rehearse that much with John because he's so busy – you never know if you'll get to practise with him from one day to the next! But, his stunt double, Spencer Thomas, was so amazing. He made sure I was prepared so, by the time I got on set with John, I knew exactly what was expected of me."

Dance like everybody's watching

Peacemaker season 2's dance routine asked a lot of some of its cast (Image credit: HBO Max)

That prep work – "we rehearsed for weeks", Sol Rodríguez, who plays Sasha Bordeaux, admits – was, as the cast alludes to, was critical when it came to shooting the actual thing.

Unlike last season's single day shoot, the cast and crew were given two full days to get the new title sequence in the can. However, even with the extra time afforded to them, everyone involved faced some sort of challenge.

"We have many more bad dancers this season," Gunn says with a laugh. "Robert Patrick [who plays Auggie Smith] was the only one we had last time, so shout out to Frank, Tim Meadows [who plays Langston Fleury], and Michael Rooker [who portrays Red St. Wild] for stepping up and doing their best!"

"I had to dance in the Captain Triumph costume," David Denman, who plays Keith Smith, reveals. "That was a big challenge, but thankfully I didn't have to do much in it, especially with the helmet on."

"Dancing in a mask is trickier than you think," Freddie Stroma, who reprises his role as Adrian Chase/Vigilante, adds. "You can't really see, so most of the time you're worried you'll bump into someone or, if you're about to head off stage where it's really dark, you're trying to figure out where the edge is so you don't fall off.

The saying goes that "practise makes perfect", though, and it certainly pays off here. Well, unless you're Rooker, Gunn says a grin. "Re-watch it enough and you'll see what I mean," he teases.

Rooker's issues with staying in sync with his fellow actors aside, there's little doubt that season 2's title sequence is as wonderfully entertaining as last season's was – indeed, I said as much in my Peacemaker season 2 review. Despite its cast having to wear serious looks on their faces as part of the routine, it's evident they all enjoyed themselves, too.

"It was my last two days on set," Stroma explains. "I didn't get to do it last season, either, so I had nothing to compare it to. But, it was really fun to drop the accent I use in the show, relax, and just have a great time dancing."

"The whole shoot was amazing," Rodríguez says. "Having the full cast and James there, and all of these big personalities who love having a laugh, filming on a big soundstage and having music blasting away – I've never experienced anything like it."

"It's a full production," Danielle Brooks, who plays Leota Adebayo, adds. "James takes it all very seriously, but we had a blast. I can't wait to see all of our fans learning it."

Peacemaker season 2 episode 1 is out now on HBO Max and more of the world's best streaming services. Read my Peacemaker season 2 release schedule guide to see when new episodes will air.

It's been three and a half years since Peacemaker took the world by storm.

The Suicide Squad spin-off series, which saw John Cena reprise his role as the jingoistic anti-hero from that 2021 flick in the character's self-titled TV show, was a big hit. Armed with the usual trappings of a James Gunn project, the arrival of the season 1 finale in February 2022 broke the at-the-time record for the highest single day viewership of an HBO Max original episode. Not bad going for a show starring a C-list tier metahuman from DC Comics.

But Peacemaker's first season had a trick up its sleeve that supercharged its success weeks prior to the launch of its last episode: a dance number-inspired title sequence. The 80-second long intro, which saw its full cast amusingly perform a highly-polished, choreographed routine set to Wig Wam track 'Do You Wanna Taste It?', was surprising as it was delightful. Four billion views on TikTok later, and writer/director James Gunn, Cena, and company had an unexpected viral sensation on their hands.

With a second season – one set in the rebooted DC Universe (DCU) overseen by Gunn and fellow DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran, rather than the now-defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU) – greenlit not long after its forebear's finale, one question dominated fans' minds. Well, the one that has nothing to do with whether events from Peacemaker season 1 would be deemed canon in season 2 and the wider DCU, anyway: would the show's sophomore outing have its own similarly dance-infused intro?

The short answer is: yes. And, with the first episode of Peacemaker season 2, titled 'The Ties That Grind' out now, viewers can finally watch it in all of its glory.

What many fans won't realize and/or potentially underappreciate, though, is the amount of time, effort, and energy that went into this season's more intricate and more ambitious opener. And, after three gruelling years of putting said sequence together, Gunn and the show's ensemble are finally ready to reveal all.

'Julian, it's a hungry world...'

John Cena and company dance along to 'Oh Lord' by Foxy Shazam during this season's intro sequence (Image credit: HBO Max)

Last season's intro owed much to Gunn's uncanny knack – nay, superpower – to select the right track for any given scene or sequence in projects he writes, directs, and/or produces. A self-confessed music nerd, almost every one of Gunn's works, such as the Guardians of the Galaxy film trilogy he wrote and directed for Marvel, are full of catchy yet underrated songs who've become part of the cultural zeitgeist following their use in said productions.

The pressure to select the perfect ditty to set season 2's dance opener to, then, was certainly on. And, while Gunn tells me this season's song of choice – 'Oh Lord' by glam-rock outfit Foxy Shazam – was eventually settled on because its lyrics tie into the themes of season 2, it wasn't the only option he umm-ed and arr-ed about.

"I don't know if any other songs came close [to being chosen]," Gunn admits. "[But] there were a couple of others I considered. There was another Foxy Shazam track and I also thought about using 'Do You Wanna Taste It?' again. But, at the end of the day, I picked 'Oh Lord' because it was the best fit for this season's tone, much like 'Do You Wanna Taste It?' was the right fit for season 1."

"You think hearing the same song over and over for 10 hours straight would get old, but it never did for me," Steve Agee, who plays John Economos, reveals with a laugh. "I really like the song, and some of the guys from Foxy Shazam came over while we were shooting the actual thing, so it was a lot of fun."

Going again from the top

The show's cast spent weeks preparing to film this season's opening sequence (Image credit: HBO Max)

With its title track locked in, work soon began on the actual dance that the cast would need to perform on the day (or, as you'll learn later, days).

Just as he did for one of the best HBO Max shows' first season, Gunn teamed up with Charissa Barton to create a completely new, multi-tiered sequence. Workshopping it with her husband Alan Tudyk, who's voiced various characters in the first two DCU Chapter One projects Superman and Creature Commandos, Barton soon settled on the movements that this season's near-20-strong cast would need to master.

An incredible amount of effort was put into the opening dance sequence of #Peacemaker this season. They made everyone, even Frank Grillo, look great. pic.twitter.com/oAAdye7rTwAugust 22, 2025

"Charissa worked it out ahead of time before getting approval from James," Agee explains. "Then, she meets with us one-on-one, or in groups of two or three, because there are sections to the dance. So, we'd go in with her to rehearse it, she'd record it, and then send the file to you so you can practise at home."

"We had a lot of individual and group rehearsal," Frank Grillo, who reprises his role as Rick Flag Sr from Gunn's Superman movie and Creature Commandos season 1, adds. "We were given plenty of homework to do, and I'm glad I got to work on it at home because the idea of being on stage with so many people, and being in sync, was something I didn't think I'd be comfortable with."

I've had the time of my liiiiiife! (Image credit: HBO Max)

Peacemaker 2's opening credits are certainly more complex than its predecessor's. Indeed, more people are involved this time around and, with the first season's dance sequence being so well received, there's an inevitable demand to make it bigger, bolder, and better than what's come before.

For Jennifer Holland, the gymnast-turned-actor who returns to play Emilia Harcourt, season 2's routine provided some particularly tricky moves for her to get right. Indeed, with this season further examining Harcourt and the titular character's 'will they, won't they' dynamic, Barton felt it was crucial to lean into this aspect of the story with a Dirty Dancing-inspired lift.

"There's a piece where I get to go on wires and do this little spin in the air, which was like a little Cirque du Soleil moment," Holland tells me, "But that lift was the most challenging thing I had to do. I didn't get to rehearse that much with John because he's so busy – you never know if you'll get to practise with him from one day to the next! But, his stunt double, Spencer Thomas, was so amazing. He made sure I was prepared so, by the time I got on set with John, I knew exactly what was expected of me."

Dance like everybody's watching

Peacemaker season 2's dance routine asked a lot of some of its cast (Image credit: HBO Max)

That prep work – "we rehearsed for weeks", Sol Rodríguez, who plays Sasha Bordeaux, admits – was, as the cast alludes to, was critical when it came to shooting the actual thing.

Unlike last season's single day shoot, the cast and crew were given two full days to get the new title sequence in the can. However, even with the extra time afforded to them, everyone involved faced some sort of challenge.

"We have many more bad dancers this season," Gunn says with a laugh. "Robert Patrick [who plays Auggie Smith] was the only one we had last time, so shout out to Frank, Tim Meadows [who plays Langston Fleury], and Michael Rooker [who portrays Red St. Wild] for stepping up and doing their best!"

"I had to dance in the Captain Triumph costume," David Denman, who plays Keith Smith, reveals. "That was a big challenge, but thankfully I didn't have to do much in it, especially with the helmet on."

"Dancing in a mask is trickier than you think," Freddie Stroma, who reprises his role as Adrian Chase/Vigilante, adds. "You can't really see, so most of the time you're worried you'll bump into someone or, if you're about to head off stage where it's really dark, you're trying to figure out where the edge is so you don't fall off.

The saying goes that "practise makes perfect", though, and it certainly pays off here. Well, unless you're Rooker, Gunn says a grin. "Re-watch it enough and you'll see what I mean," he teases.

Rooker's issues with staying in sync with his fellow actors aside, there's little doubt that season 2's title sequence is as wonderfully entertaining as last season's was – indeed, I said as much in my Peacemaker season 2 review. Despite its cast having to wear serious looks on their faces as part of the routine, it's evident they all enjoyed themselves, too.

"It was my last two days on set," Stroma explains. "I didn't get to do it last season, either, so I had nothing to compare it to. But, it was really fun to drop the accent I use in the show, relax, and just have a great time dancing."

"The whole shoot was amazing," Rodríguez says. "Having the full cast and James there, and all of these big personalities who love having a laugh, filming on a big soundstage and having music blasting away – I've never experienced anything like it."

"It's a full production," Danielle Brooks, who plays Leota Adebayo, adds. "James takes it all very seriously, but we had a blast. I can't wait to see all of our fans learning it."

Peacemaker season 2 episode 1 is out now on HBO Max and more of the world's best streaming services. Read my Peacemaker season 2 release schedule guide to see when new episodes will air.

• Gamescom congress broke its attendance record this year
• The conference featured over 1000 guests and over 180 expert speakers
• This year's event focused on three topics: Games and WellBeing, The Next Level of Immersion, and Games and Responsibility

Gamescom congress, Europe's leading conference on the potential of computer and video games for society and the economy, has broken its attendance record this year.

Gamescom 2025 is almost at an end and was filled with plenty of new game announcements, trailers, and updates. Meanwhile, the annual Gamescom congress conference has broken record attendance with over 1,000 guests and featuring over 180 experts in business, science, politics, and media who gave talks and panel discussions on how games promote social and technological progress.

This year's conference focused on three topics: Games and WellBeing, The Next Level of Immersion, and Games and Responsibility. To highlight these subjects, Gamescom congress 2025 offered a diverse program of talks and panel discussions on the role of games across the entire social spectrum.

Renowned names such as the founder and former CEO of Unity and climate activist David Helgason, CEO of ThrivePal Y-Lan Boureau, Celia Hodent, PhD in game UX, Soihtu DTx CEO Jukka Laakso, and others revealed the potential of computer and video games in a wide variety of areas, such as serving as technological and economic drivers, educating people about migration and democracy, enhancing well-being, and promoting environmental and climate protection.

"Games are perfect entertainment, and it is precisely thanks to this unique power that they also have a positive impact in numerous other areas – whether in political education, medicine, industry, or science," said Felix Falk, managing director of game – the German games industry association, co-organizer of the Gamescom congress.

"With record participation among speakers and visitors, as well as numerous high-profile keynotes and panels, the Gamescom congress once again impressively highlighted the strength of games with international appeal."

In addition, a panel called "Get ready, get set, go! How Germany wants to compete at the top worldwide" was also held in an effort to debate how Germany can benefit from games.

"The Gamescom congress definitely demonstrated how diverse and socially relevant the debates surrounding games are," said Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse GmbH. "It brings together players from a wide variety of fields and makes Cologne an international meeting place for forward-looking ideas in computer and video games. The congress has once again proven its role as a bridge between industry, business, and society."

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