TechRadar News

• Amazon is fixing the Kindle Colorsoft screen issue
• A switch of materials may be to blame
• We noticed minimal problems on our review unit

Amazon has previously acknowledged a yellowing screen issue with a "small number" of Kindle Colorsoft devices, and told us a fix is in the works – and now we have a bit more information about what might have gone wrong.

Well-known industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has weighed in on the issue to say the problem has been traced to Amazon switching to a different OCA (optically clear adhesive) from the one used in the best Kindles with a monochrome display.

Presumably, that adhesive is what's causing the yellowing issue. A significant number of users have reported a yellow band across the screen of their Colorsoft unit, though in our very positive Amazon Kindle Colorsoft review we found the issue was barely visible unless you're specifically looking for it.

According to Kuo, the switch of materials was partly down to the lower contrast of the color screen. The analyst says "component suppliers have developed several hardware solutions" but "Amazon seems to be leaning toward a software-based fix".

The best Kindle yet?

According to recent reports, Kindle Colorsoft displays are showing yellow discoloration bands along their bottom and sides - an issue traced to Amazon's use of a different OCA than that used in grayscale e-paper displays. This change was implemented to enhance the limited…November 7, 2024

Based on what Kuo has said, it would seem that Amazon has solved the problem by tweaking the software on the Kindle Colorsoft, rather than changing anything to do with the hardware – so any models sold from now on should be fine.

Amazon has told us that "appropriate adjustments" have been made to solve the issue, and that anyone who finds the yellowing a problem on their Colorsoft device can get in touch with Amazon support for a replacement or a refund.

The new e-reader, the first Kindle with a color screen, will set you back $279.99 / £269.99 (with pricing in Australia still to be announced). In our review, we said it "might be the best Kindle yet" – and suggested that once you make the switch to color, you're likely going to find it difficult to go back.

While this screen issue doesn't seem to be too widespread, and has apparently been quickly fixed, it's obviously something Amazon could have done without – especially as it marks a new color era for the Kindle.

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A hospital in Pittsburgh has become the latest medical center to join a ground-breaking Apple Watch trial in the US that's helping patients with atrial fibrillation ditch blood-thinning medication.

The REACT-AF trial began in July 2023 and is led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Randomized patients (half of the overall participants) wear an Apple Watch for 14 hours a day, paired with an iPhone pre-programmed to monitor irregular heart rhythms.

If patients can go more than 30 days without an episode of erratic heartbeats lasting longer than an hour, they can stop taking their anticoagulant medication.

It's a trial that could transform cardiovascular healthcare, reduce the risks of complications associated with the medication, and save a whole lot of money in the process.

Apple breaks more ground in health

(Image credit: Future)

The Allegheny General Hospital recently announced that it was among the nation's top enrollment sites for the trial, and its principal lead on the trial is full of praise for the initiative.

"The purpose of this trial is to better understand how to personalize anticoagulation safely and effectively, especially for patients with isolated atrial fibrillation episodes," Amit Thosani, MD, remarked, noting that blood thinners prescribed to reduce stroke risk in Afib patients is also associated with increased risk of internal bleeding.

As noted, patients monitored can come off blood thinners if they go 30 days without an episode, a benefit keenly felt by Pittsburgh local Arthur Schiebel. “I’m not used to taking all this stuff," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "I just want to get off all this medication."

After two years of treatment to get Afib under control, Thosani enrolled in the REACT-AF study, and says he has been off his blood-thinning medication since February "with no issues." “I never wore a watch in my life but if this thing will keep me off the medication, I’m wearing it," he said.

Afib tracking is just one of the Apple Watch's suite of health features, which were recently bolstered by the introduction of sleep apnea detection to the best Apple Watch models, the Apple Watch Series 10 and Series 9, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Along with features like Fall and Crash Detection, the Apple Watch is fast becoming an indispensable health-monitoring tool that can help to prevent disease and injury for wearers.

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• Nvidia RTX 5000 and 6000 GPUs have been filed at the EEC
• These filings from a Chinese GPU brand are speculative by nature
• They do, however, hint that the RTX 5000 series is close to debuting

Nvidia’s RTX 5000 GPUs have been spotted in trademark filings, along with RTX 6000 models – which really is getting ahead of the game.

VideoCardz noticed that leaker Harukaze5719 on X posted the details of trademark registrations for Nvidia graphics cards, which have been filed by Sinotex – owners of the Ninja GPU brand in China – with the EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission).

RTX 60, RTX 50, RTX 40...It's just a trademark registrationhttps://t.co/stNKemJcyK pic.twitter.com/w2VUJiix36November 7, 2024

These filings are typically made just ahead of the release of new hardware products, though they are speculative in nature – as the RTX 6000 models show quite clearly. Those GPUs being mentioned at this stage is a total shot in the dark, of course.

Also mentioned here is an RTX 5090 Ti and RTX 5090 Super, and in fact the full raft of Super and Ti options down the Blackwell range – the same is true for the RTX 6000 models in the filings, too. This is Sinotex simply covering its bases as to the up-and-coming graphics cards it may need to manufacture.

(Image credit: Future) Analysis: Heavy on the seasoning here – but with a hint of hope

So, why is this even worth talking about? Well, we must be heavy with the seasoning – and ignore the mention of RTX 6000 GPUs for starters. We don’t even know yet if Nvidia’s following generation after next-gen Blackwell GPUs will be RTX 6000, or something different – or maybe Nvidia won’t even be making GeForce graphics cards in 2027. Maybe AI will have shoved gaming GPUs entirely to the sideline at that point for Team Green.

The fact that a Chinese GPU maker is now moving to register RTX 5000 models is, however, a weighty hint that we’re on track for the purported reveal of Blackwell graphics cards at CES 2025. (And the company has thrown in a bunch of RTX 6000 filings for good measure, at the same time).

As to any hint of this meaning Nvidia will have an RTX 5090 Super or Ti version, we wouldn’t read anything into the mention of those GPUs here – as noted, this appears to be a broad blanket move by Sinotex to cover all its bases.

The expectation is that Nvidia will reveal the RTX 5090, 5080 and possibly 5070 desktop graphics cards at CES 2025, with a potential launch of Blackwell mobile GPUs for gaming laptops alongside those GPUs. Although perhaps this fresh leak could be another hint that we might get a revelation from Team Green earlier, towards the end of 2024, as a recent rumor suggested. This might only be a teaser, though – if anything at all.

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• Voting for the Golden Joystick Awards closes soon
• You can vote for your Ultimate Game of the Year and Best Game Adaptation
• Nominees include Balatro, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and Silent Hill 2

If you've yet to vote for your Ultimate Game of the Year choice at this year's Golden Joystick Awards, you've got until later today to cast your vote!

This year's Golden Joystick Awards takes place on November 21 and will be presented by Ben Starr and a host of well-loved voice actors and developers. Right now, only the final two categories are open for voting: Ultimate Game of the Year and Best Game Adaptation. You'll have until 3pm PST / 6pm EST / 11pm GMT today to get your votes in.

You can vote over at our sister site, GamesRadar+, on their dedicated Golden Joystick Awards page. There's no need to sign up for anything, but as a nice little bonus, those who do vote can claim a free gaming eBook usually worth $18.99 / £12.99. To claim it, simply enter your email while casting your votes to be contacted about your free eBook selection.

Then, you can head on over to YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, X / Twitter, or Steam to watch the Golden Joystick Awards live on November 21. GamesRadar, PC Gamer, and ourselves at TechRadar Gaming will also be streaming the event live as it happens.

Without further ado, the nominees for each of those final two categories you can vote for are as follows:

Ultimate Game of the Year

• Animal Well (Billy Basso, Bigmode)
• Astro Bot (Team Asobi, PlayStation Studios)
• Balatro (LocalThunk, Playstack)
• Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Activision)
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare)
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Square Enix)
• Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios, PlayStation Studios)
• Metaphor: ReFantazio (Atlus)
• Satisfactory (Coffee Stain)
• Silent Hill 2 (Bloober Team, Konami)
• Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco)

Best Game Adaptation

• Borderlands
• Fallout
• Halo Season 2
• Knuckles
• Like a Dragon: Yakuza
• Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

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Apple, like most phone makers, puts a lot of focus on improving the cameras from one model to the next, and we now have an idea of what the next two generations of camera updates might look like.

Numerous leaks have already pointed to 48MP telephoto cameras for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, with the whole iPhone 17 line possibly getting 24MP front-facing cameras. But with the iPhone 18 line, Apple might focus on the aperture rather than megapixels.

This is according to reputable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who in his latest post on Medium (via @Jukanlosreve) claimed that Apple will be equipping the main camera on the “high-end” iPhone 18 models with a variable aperture.

By high-end he presumably means the iPhone 18 Pro Max and likely also the iPhone 18 Pro, but he doesn’t mention the phones by name.

What Kuo does say is that this variable aperture would "significantly" enhance the photography experience. The aperture – the size of the lens opening – on most cameras is fixed, and having a variable aperture means you can control how much light reaches the sensor. This in turn gives you more control over exposure – you can open the aperture to its widest setting for better low-light shots, for example – and it also enables you to create optical depth-of-field effects to blur backgrounds, rather than relying on software processing.

So this sounds like it would be a worthwhile upgrade, and while we’d take Kuo's reporting with a pinch of salt for now – especially as this is a very early leak – he does have a great track record for Apple information.

Not the first variable-aperture phone

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a variable aperture (Image credit: Future / Roland Moore-Colyer)

If this claim does prove to be accurate, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max wouldn't be the first smartphones with a variable-aperture lens. Samsung equipped the Galaxy S9 series with variable-aperture cameras way back in 2018, and also used variable aperture-cameras in the Samsung Galaxy S10 line.

We were quite taken with the tech in our Samsung Galaxy S9 review, noting that it particularly aided low-light shots, but it wasn’t something Samsung stuck with beyond the S10 series, so it presumably didn’t lead to increased sales.

More recently, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra also has a variable aperture camera, which coupled with a 1-inch sensor resulted in “fantastic low-light performance and unrivaled image quality” according to our Xiaomi 14 Ultra review.

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• 51% of respondents quizzed by CyrusOne felt positive about data centers
• Two in three see job opportunities and potential for local economic growth
• However, only half were able to correctly identity a data center’s primary functions

New research from CyrusOne suggests there’s strong support from the public for data centers across Europe as businesses and consumers demand more compute and cloud services.

More than half (51%) of the 13,000 individuals questioned felt positive about data centers, with a further 42% expressing neutrality, leaving only a small percentage of negative perception remaining.

However, even those with positive attitudes towards data centers expressed concerns about the environmental impact of energy- and resource-hungry data centers.

The public are on board with data centers

Despite the positive outlook, a clear understanding of a data center’s purpose was not so common. Only 52% were able to correctly identify a data center’s primary function, and fewer than half (45%) associated data centers with online tools like video conferencing, social media and digital messaging.

Moreover, only 38% of British respondents understood their primary purpose, which is below the average and significantly below German residents (66%).

The lack of understanding didn’t detract from the hope for economic benefits – more than three in five acknowledged that data centers create job opportunities (66%) and accelerate local economic growth (62%). Those living closer to data centers were more likely to feel this way.

“It’s clear from the research that public opinion of data centers is more positive than expected and that perhaps the sector is not always presented in a way that accurately portrays how people really perceive the sector," noted Emma Fryer, Director of Public Policy for Europe at CyrusOne.

Speaking about increased local support, Fryer added: “It is therefore really important that we, as developers and operators, listen carefully to people in our host communities, while continuing to educate, identify their needs and act accordingly to deliver meaningful local benefits.”

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

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

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

Quordle today (game #1019) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

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

Quordle today (game #1019) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

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

Quordle today (game #1019) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

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

Quordle today (game #1019) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

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

Quordle today (game #1019) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• D

• N

• M

• S

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

Quordle today (game #1019) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1019, are…

• DELAY
• NAVAL
• MOLAR
• SWARM

There's very little to worry about in today's Quordle. NAVAL contains a repeated A and also an uncommon letter V, SWARM has a W, and that's about it. The Daily Sequence, though, is a lot harder – both Q and X feature among the answers (in QUEST and OXIDE), while GLOSS has an alternative solution (FLOSS) and BAYOU is both a relatively uncommon and unusually spelled word.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #1019) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1019, are…

• QUEST
• OXIDE
• GLOSS
• BAYOU

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1018, Thursday 7 November: REPAY, SYNOD, LOATH, PITHY
• Quordle #1017, Wednesday 6 November: SASSY, DRUID, THREW, SLOSH
• Quordle #1016, Tuesday 5 November: BEGET, AMUSE, STONY, LOUSY
• Quordle #1015, Monday 4 November: CHILL, TACKY, GRAPH, PLAZA
• Quordle #1014, Sunday 3 November: QUIRK, HEART, ELBOW, KNOWN
• Quordle #1013, Saturday 2 November: SWUNG, FLOOR, PARER, CRUST
• Quordle #1012, Friday 1 November: FIFTY, GULCH, RECUT, TWEET
• Quordle #1011, Thursday 31 October: TWINE, RIGID, BELCH, AMEND
• Quordle #1010, Wednesday 30 October: SLOOP, BRINE, BROOD, FLUID
• Quordle #1009, Tuesday 29 October: CLIFF, BURNT, SNAKY, POLYP
• Quordle #1008, Monday 28 October: MACAW, LIEGE, GOUGE, CARGO
• Quordle #1007, Sunday 27 October: STUNG, CLOUT, SOWER, BASIS
• Quordle #1006, Saturday 26 October: DUCHY, CANNY, BLOCK, SMART
• Quordle #1005, Friday 25 October: PRANK, EXIST, RUDDY, PICKY
• Quordle #1004, Thursday 24 October: DAIRY, RALLY, CURLY, LABEL
• Quordle #1003, Wednesday 23 October: DROSS, ANNEX, GRAVE, BROKE
• Quordle #1002, Tuesday 22 October: ADORE, SMITH, AFOOT, LUCID
• Quordle #1001, Monday 21 October: TREAD, NINTH, GRIEF, UNSET
• Quordle #1000, Sunday 20 October: CORAL, WHOSE, HEIST, SOAPY
• Quordle #999, Saturday 19 October: GUSTY, BROKE, ENJOY, HAZEL

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

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

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

NYT Connections today (game #516) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• BLUE
• CHEESE
• SPICY
• MUSTARD
• SWEET
• CAPER
• DILL
• DECK
• EXPLOIT
• SOUR
• ADULT
• ANTIC
• SUGGESTIVE
• STUNT
• KOSHER
• CORD

NYT Connections today (game #516) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Up to something
• Green: Gherkin is another
• Blue: That's rude!
• Purple: [Divide] blank

Need more clues?

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

NYT Connections today (game #516) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: ESCAPADE
• GREEN: KINDS OF PICKLES
• BLUE: RISQUÉ
• PURPLE: CUT THE ___

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

NYT Connections today (game #516) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #516, are…

• YELLOW: ESCAPADE ANTIC, CAPER, EXPLOIT, STUNT
• GREEN: KINDS OF PICKLES DILL, KOSHER, SOUR, SWEET
• BLUE: RISQUÉ ADULT, BLUE, SPICY, SUGGESTIVE
• PURPLE: CUT THE ___ CHEESE, CORD, DECK, MUSTARD

• My rating: Hard
• My score: Fail

Oh dear. This is my second fail in only a few days, so it's back to the drawing board for me, streak-wise. Not that I feel too bad about losing today's game – I'd never heard of several of the elements mentioned, or at least not in the context in which they're used here.

Things started off well enough, with ADULT, BLUE, SPICY and SUGGESTIVE all ordering themselves in my mind into the blue group, RISQUÉ. Yellow – ESCAPADE – was also easy enough. But there I stalled. I'm not a pickle eater, so didn't really have a chance with the green group. And though I should probably have made some progress with the purple group, I've never, ever heard the phrase CUT THE CHEESE. You learn something new every day, I guess…

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, 7 November, game #515)

• YELLOW: FOOD-RELATED JUMBLES HASH, SALAD, SCRAMBLE, STEW
• GREEN: PUBLIC STANDING CHARACTER, IMAGE, NAME, REPUTATION
• BLUE: INFO ON A MUSEUM PLACARD ARTIST, MEDIUM, TITLE, YEAR
• PURPLE: ANAGRAMS OF FAMOUS PAINTERS DIAL, EGADS, MONTE, YOGA

What is NYT Connections?

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

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

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

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

• Edge-lit LEDs appear to develop visible problems very early
• Problems are particularly obvious with larger-sized displays
• Shop around for discounts on better-quality panels

Late last year, we published a warning for Black Friday TV buyers: avoid big TVs with cheap edge-lit panels. The main reason was the visual quality, as edge-lit panels aren't great for big sizes. But a new report suggests another reason you should steer clear. Big edge-lit panels appear to fail more quickly than other types of TV displays.

That's according to Rtings' ongoing TV longevity tests, as reported by FlatpanelsHD.com. The tests feature 100 different TVs from multiple brands and with multiple technologies – edge-LED, direct LED, full array local dimming, and OLED – and the results for edge-LED aren't great.

What's the problem with edge-lit panels?

There are multiple problems, though. First, they don't generally deliver great uniformity in how they light up the display. That's because their backlight is usually positioned at the bottom with a diffuser film to spread the light over the panel. The bigger the panel, the more obvious the design's shortcomings become.

According to Rtings, over 25% of the LCD TVs they tested exhibited visible light uniformity issues. But among edge-LED LCD TVs, that figure rocketed to 64% – so you've got a one in three chance of getting a TV with consistent lighting.

To be fair, the number of sets affected is small: seven out of 100 TVs. However, three of those seven started showing problems before or after 2,200 hours of testing. That's the equivalent of one year's viewing in the typical US household.

According to Rtings, the results of their tests demonstrate that "edge-lit TVs are inherently prone to significant durability issues, including warped reflector sheets, cracked light guide plates, and burnt-out LEDs due to concentrated heat."

That's the bad news. But the good news is that with Black Friday nearly here, you won't necessarily have to plump for edge-lit if you want a nice big TV that fits your budget: this is, of course, one of the best times to buy a new TV because they're a big part of every Black Friday, and even high-spec models such as LG's C4 OLED get big discounts.

Naturally, we're tracking those deals, so check out our guide to the best Black Friday TV deals here.

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Genmoji is finally available to the public thanks to the new iOS 18.2 public beta, which was released this week. I’ve been using Apple’s generative AI emojis for the last few weeks, and after my initial testing period, I’m not only hooked, but I’m now convinced Apple Intelligence will be a huge success.

Why? Well, aside from how much fun it is creating emojis of anything that comes to mind, including a frog drinking beer or a French bulldog riding a skateboard, Genmoji feels like the kind of feature that will instantly impact society and our online lives.

It’s fun, cute, and the perfect way to entice users into investing in Apple Intelligence.

What even is Genmoji?

(Image credit: Apple)

Genmoji is one of the main Apple Intelligence features coming to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS later this year. It’s an easy-to-use image generator that might be one of the best AI image generators, just because of how accessible it is.

Built into your iPhone’s emoji keyboard, Genmoji is always just a tap away and allows you to create useful emojis that work just like your standard yellow smiley face. So not only can you use Genmoji in a text, but you can also react to messages and even use it with Apple’s message effects. Third-party apps like Messenger and WhatsApp should also be compatible when the feature launches in December.

Many software features built into the best smartphones these days are fun to use but quickly become gimmicks that never make it into your day-to-day life. Others, like Genmoji, make sense as soon as you use them for the first time and you start to incorporate them into your everyday.

I’ve found Genmoji to be one of the most accessible and easy-to-use AI features, not just because of its UI but because it makes sense to whoever tries it out. I’ve shown Genmoji on my iPhone 16 Pro Max to the least tech-literate friends and elderly family members, and all of them just “got it.” Within a few moments of trying Genmoji out, everyone had the same reaction: hysteric bouts of laughter followed by asking how they could use it on their iPhones, too.

That reaction is often when you know that something will take off, that first exposure where people show interest and flock to the Apple Store to test it out. I previously worked at the Genius Bar in my local Apple Store, and you could always sense when a feature would be a success based on how many normal folks walked in to ask about it.

I imagine Apple Stores worldwide are bombarded with Apple Intelligence questions nowadays, and I suspect that the best way to showcase what AI on an iPhone looks like is with Genmoji – it’s just that good.

A gateway into Apple Intelligence

(Image credit: Apple)

Genmoji is the perfect gateway into Apple Intelligence, a friendly and easy-to-use feature that quickly becomes part of communicating with your friends. Apple’s strategy with Apple Intelligence is very clever: Add a fun Apple-specific instant messaging tool like Genmoji with viral potential, and then watch as everyone scrambles to get a new Apple-Intelligence compatible device to be just as cool as their friends.

With viral culture a staple in today’s world and sites like TikTok spreading consumerism like never before, Gen Z is going to fall in love with Genmoji and, by doing so, enter into a world of Apple Intelligence that they may not have been interested in otherwise. Try telling a teenager that Writing Tools are cool, and they’ll most likely shrug their shoulders. But show a teenager Genmoji, and they’ll instantly want to show their creations to their friends.

If Genmoji does pick up in the way I think it will, it does open up some questions about cyberbullying. For instance, one of the best ways to use Genmoji is by creating emojis based on photos of people you have on your phone. In high school, this could be used to humiliate classmates, and that could cause huge concern.

This issue isn’t limited to Genmoji, though; it’s a problem with AI image generators in general. So far, from my testing, I’ve noticed Apple won’t edit my likeness, which could be to combat issues like bullying. For example, if I ask Genmoji to create me as an ogre (Shrek), it will just turn my t-shirt green, leaving the human elements as is. I’m also yet to see any use of Genmoji that would flag up as concerning, and that makes me hopeful that Apple has found a way to combat the dangers of image generation.

Genmoji is due to launch in early December and will be available on all the best iPhones and iPads, like the iPad mini 7, the cheapest device that offers Apple Intelligence.

If my gut feeling is correct, I think we’ll see a lot about Genmoji and, in turn, hear more about Apple Intelligence as mainstream consumers flock to AI as the perfect holiday gift. Apple is onto something with Genmoji, and it might just be the best Apple Intelligence feature, ready to expose other AI tools to the average customer.

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• Google TV will need 2GB of RAM in new TVs and related hardware
• Android TV is unchanged with a 1GB minimum spec
• It won't affect your current streamer in the short term

One of the most common criticisms of Google TV is that it isn't always very smooth on more modestly priced televisions. That's largely because Google's system requirements aren't very demanding, so a TV can meet the minimum spec with some pretty unimpressive components. That's about to change, though, which is good news for new buyers but a possible worry for existing owners.

As Android Authority reports, Google has submitted a change to the Android open-source project regarding Google TV minimum requirements. The change says that the minimum RAM must be 2GB, which is more than the RAM in the Chromecast with Google TV.

What does this change mean for your TV or streaming device?

Right now, it won't have any effect at all. But going forward, it could be an issue because if there's one thing we've learned in the decades we've been covering hardware, it's that when you up the hardware spec, the software becomes more demanding very soon afterward.

That's one reason why identical versions of iOS or Android can run so differently on different models of the same devices: the newer ones have more horsepower, and the operating system tends to be optimized for the newer spec rather than the oldest devices.

For most budget devices, Android TV may be the preferred OS since it only needs 1GB of RAM. Google's approval process also seems more generous, and Android Authority points out that we're only just seeing more projectors get approved for Google TV. Still, there are tons of Android TV ones available.

It's unclear whether the change is already in effect or if Google is phasing it in at a later date, but we should see TVs reflecting the change very soon.

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• Cisco issues urgent patch for worrying security flaw
• Vulnerability could have allowed hackers to run malicious code
• Industrial systems and platforms particularly affected, so update now

Cisco has patched a critical vulnerability in some of its software which could have allowed threat actors to run malicious code remotely.

In a security advisory, Cisco said it discovered a flaw in the web-based management interface of Cisco Unified Industrial Wireless Software for Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) Access Points.

These access points are designed for industries that require highly dependable and robust wireless connections in challenging environments. They are particularly popular among industries where maintaining consistent connectivity is critical for operations, such as transportation and logistics, public safety and emergency services, utilities and energy, or mining and construction.

Cisco says update now

The bug that was discovered is tracked as CVE-2024-20418, and has a top severity score - 10/10.

"An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests to the web-based management interface of an affected system," Cisco said in the advisory. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on the underlying operating system of the affected device."

Cisco products vulnerable to this flaw are Catalyst IW9165D Heavy Duty Access Points, Catalyst IW9165E Rugged Access Points and Wireless Clients, and Catalyst IW9167E Heavy Duty Access Points. Products that are not working in URWB mode are not affected by vulnerability, Cisco said.

To defend against potential compromises, users are advised to upgrade their Cisco Unified Industrial Wireless Software to version 17.15.1. All those using versions 17.14 and earlier are advised not to stall with the patching.

Cisco did not mention finding any evidence (or lack thereof) of abuse in the wild. It said it discovered the flaw during internal security testing, so it could be that miscreants haven’t yet picked up on it. However, now that the cat is out of the bag, it’s only a matter of time before they start hunting for vulnerable endpoints.

Via TheHackerNews

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• Apple’s MacBook Air may not get OLED until 2028 or even later
• Previous rumors suggested the screen upgrade could come in 2027
• It seems Apple is having difficulty balancing cost and supply chain issues

Apple’s plans for introducing OLED screens with its laptops seem to be a constant churn of rumors, and here’s another which claims that as far as the MacBook Air is concerned, it may not get this display upgrade until well into the future.

While the MacBook Pro is still expected to make the move to OLED in 2026 – bearing in mind this is just rumored, although it’s been put forward quite strongly at this point – the MacBook Air might have to wait until 2028, or possibly even later.

That’s the word from a new report published by Korean tech site The Elec – again, add skepticism appropriately – which asserts that, according to industry sources, the MacBook Air won’t get the OLED treatment in 2027 as previously rumored.

Why not? Well, the reason is wrapped up in pricing, as well as issues with the supply chain.

The MacBook Air is, of course, Apple’s mainstream laptop targeted at the consumer, and its pricing is quite different to the MacBook Pro, which is aimed at professional usage (and creatives, or enthusiasts, or others with deeper wallets when it comes to spending on tech).

Introducing OLED is a fair old hike on the cost of the laptop, as you might expect – fancy screens do not come cheap. And while this isn’t such an issue for the more weightily priced MacBook Pro, it’s more of a problem with the MacBook Air, which can’t take so much strain put on its affordability.

What this means is that Apple needs to suss out how to make the MacBook Air and OLED work, price-wise. Rather than using two-stack tandem OLED tech – panels with two emission layers, offering better brightness, and longevity of the screen – as rumored for the MacBook Pro, Apple could look at a single-stack OLED panel for the MacBook Air.

Essentially, a cheaper approach, one that would also differentiate between the quality of these laptops, and product segmentation that Apple would obviously want to maintain. There must be a reason to pay a lot more money for the MacBook Pro, after all.

A tricky balancing act

(Image credit: Future)

The long and short of it is that it sounds like Apple is exploring its OLED options here, and finding that supplies and choices are currently scarce on the ground in terms of more affordable routes forward. The result being that working out the reality of a MacBook Air OLED could take a deal longer than anticipated, waiting for the supply chain to be in better shape to hammer out an affordable deal for the screen upgrade – hence the possible delay to 2028, or further out.

Just to underline we should be cautious about this chatter, but that said, all of the above does make some sense. Furthermore, as MacRumors, which spotted the report, also observes, the iPad Pro OLED has not pulled the sales Apple had hoped for, and shipment numbers have dropped substantially this year – from an anticipated 10 million units of the tablet, reportedly down to 6-7 million. Which may stoke worries for Apple regarding the appeal of OLED on the MacBook Air, in the nearer term.

As far as the consumer is concerned, we guess the obvious worry from their perspective is that if we’re starting to talk about compromises for cheaper OLED – and losing the longevity benefits of the two-stack tandem solution for the MacBook Pro screens – how might MacBook Air OLEDs fare well down the line into their life? We are getting well ahead of ourselves here, though, into deeply speculative territory.

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ChatGPT just stunned me. Almost two years after I first asked an early version of the generative AI chatbot to help me code a game, I returned to ChatGPT 4o with the exact same prompt, and the results blew me away.

Ever since OpenAI's generative AI platform arrived, people have been turning to it to handle tasks they'd rather not do or, in some cases, to attempt things even they're not capable of. I can write, so I usually don't ask ChatGPT to compose prose, and I'm an OK artist so I only use generative image creation for entertainment. However, I am not a programmer. I've done some HTML, Javascript, and even BASIC coding in the past, but my skills are beyond rusty; they're calcified.

I wrote last year about asking ChatGPT to help me build a new game called Tic-Tac-Go. It's like Tic-Tac-Toe but on steroids. I envisioned the playing field to be a 12x12 grid. Winning would take six "X" marks or six "O" marks in a row.

Here's the original prompt:

I want to create a variant on the game tic-tac-toe, but I need it to be more complex. So, the grid should be 12-by-12. It should still use "x" and "o". Rules include that any player can block another by placing their "x" or "o" in any space around the grid, as long as it is in one of the spaces right next to the other player. They can choose to place their "X" or "o" in any space, as well, to block future moves. The goal is to be the first one to have at least six "x" or "o" in any row, column, or diagonal before the other player. Remember, one player is "x" and the other is "o". Please program this in simple HTML and JavaScript. Let's call this game: Tic-Tac-Go.

I get that there's no Wordle-grade cleverness here, but my idea still requires nested tablets and in-browser interactivity, which is immediately out of my skill set.

Things started off well in my first attempt, with ChatGPT providing CSS, JavaScript, HTML files, and a lot of explanations for almost every bit of code. However, most of what it gave me was incomplete because of a built-in character limit (4096). I kept asking ChatGPT to provide the rest of the code, but it kept losing track of what it already told me. I made my share of mistakes but also realized how ill-equipped ChatGPT 1.0 was to help me fill in the blanks. Ultimately, we never built the completed game, and after hours of trying, I gave up.

This is about as far as I got last year. (Image credit: Future) Return of the AI coder

In the intervening 20 months, ChatGPT has made vast leaps in capabilities. I recently started using ChatGPT search and have been impressed at how much more effective it is than Google at getting me useful answers. ChatGPT 4o suffers from few, if any, of the limits I found in the first version. I began to wonder what else I could do. Separately, an office Slack conversation mentioned how some new AI-powered distributed computing platforms, like Oasis AI, were helping coders quickly build games. I didn't think it would be useful, but it reminded me of my failed ChatGPT game coding attempt. When I shared the post with a coworker, he wrote, "Wonder whether it would be any easier now with some of these new AI tools."

It was a good thought. Could ChatGPT 4o succeed where the original ChatGPT and I failed?

Instead of polishing my prompt – and because I am lazy – I simply copied and pasted the above prompt text into ChatGPT 4o.

It didn't take me long to realize that this was not even close to my first ChatGPT coding collaborator. If ChatGPT 1 had grade-school-level intelligence, ChatGPT 4o is college-level, at least.

ChatGPT 4o started by synthesizing my game idea into a more intelligent brief:

Creating a complex variant of Tic-Tac-Toe, called "Tic-Tac-Go," on a 12x12 grid, can be achieved with HTML and JavaScript. In this game, players take turns placing their markers ("X" or "O") to try and create a line of six markers in a row, column, or diagonal. The ability to block nearby moves adds an extra layer of strategy.

(Image credit: Future)

It then quickly spit out the HTML and Javascript code, and not just part of it. I got everything from the "html" at the top to the "/html" at the end. It looked complete. After the code, ChatGPT dropped in a four-point explanation of its work and the game's related features. Alongside HTML and Javascript, there was a "copy code" button. I copied the code and asked ChatGPT how I would test it in a Web browser, even though I pretty much knew how to do this, or at least I thought I did.

It recommended I open a text editor like TextEdit on the Mac, paste the code, and save it with an ".html" extension. I did this but when I loaded the file in Chrome and Safari, it was not the game, just a bunch of code and a "Restart the game" button.

I told ChatGPT this and asked if I needed to separate the Javascript into a separate file. It told me no and reminded me to check that the file had the right extension and disable RichText. It also gave me a few other suggestions, like using developer tools to check that the Javascript code was working.

(Image credit: Future)

I had a different idea. I took a screenshot of the broken page and dropped it into ChatGPT, asking if it could analyze the image. This multimodal use was not possible in the first ChatGPT, but it turned out to be a game changer.

"It looks like your file is displaying RTF (Rich Text Format) markup instead of HTML. This typically happens if the file was saved as an RTF document rather than plain text," wrote ChatGPT and then explained why it was happening and how to fix it.

I repasted the code, set TextEdit for PlainText, and resaved it as an HTML file. Then, I opened the file with Chrome.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future)

It worked. The game was exactly as I envisioned it, with 144 empty boxes and a two-player system for marking "X's" and "O's"

I realized that someone looking at this grid would have no idea how to proceed, so I asked ChatGPT if we could add rules below the game. ChatGPT spit out new code that included the game rules.

In the first chatGPT, when I asked it to redo any of the code, something would invariably get lost in the process. Not this time, though. There was a level of efficiency, clarity, and recall that was missing 20 months ago.

(Image credit: Future)

Feeling bold and maybe a little bit like I suddenly knew how to code, I asked for the next logical game update: the ability to play online. Sure, this was a web-based game, but as it was designed, you could only play against someone sitting next to you. I wanted online competition.

"To make this a multiplayer online game, you'll need to set up a server to manage game state and player interactions in real-time. Here’s a high-level overview of the steps required and some code examples to get you started..."

ChatGPT gave me detailed instructions and all the necessary code for setting up servers. It called for things like Node.js and WebSockets, and as I read it, I felt the water rising above my ears; I was way out of my depth. But not out of ChatGPT's. It clearly knows what it's doing and really doesn't need my assistance to code. Yes, I came up with the idea, but ChatGPT 4o did everything else.

We've come a long way in a short time, AI. The future for AI-assisted coding is very bright, but I'm not sure the news is as good for human programmers.

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• Minisforum MGA1 boosts graphics with AMD Radeon 7600M XT
• Supports three displays, 8K at 60Hz via HDMI and DisplayPort
• Features OCuLink, USB 3.2, USB-C ports; requires OCuLink connectivity

Minisforum, best known for its range of mini PCs like the AtomMan Series and EliteMini, has launched the MGA1, an external GPU docking station. Powered by the AMD Radeon 7600M XT GPU and backed with 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, the MGA1 gives users a straightforward way to boost a connected device's graphics capabilities.

Built with advanced RDNA 3.0 architecture and a 6nm production process, and functioning as both an eGPU and a docking station, the MGA1 is ideal for use with compatible laptops and mini PCs. The substantial upgrade in graphics performance it provides makes it ideal for graphics-intensive tasks like video editing, 3D rendering and even gaming.

The MGA1 supports up to three displays through its HDMI 2.1 and dual DisplayPort 2.0 connections, each capable of 8K at 60Hz for ultra-high-resolution and smooth refresh rates. It also features three USB 3.2 ports with 10Gbps transfer speeds, an OCuLink 4i port, and a USB-C 3.1 port with 65W Power Delivery, making it suitable for charging devices like - you guessed it - Minisforum’s own mini PCs.

OCuLink port required

As Tom’s Hardware notes, “By adding an eGPU like the MGA1 to your system, you’d get the best of both worlds - a mini-PC that won’t take up much space on your desk and easy to carry anywhere, and a gaming PC that will give you the performance you need to play AAA titles.”

The docking station includes high-speed data transfer through its OCuLink 4i port with PCIe 4.0 x4 compatibility, ensuring reliable performance for demanding tasks.

But - and it will be a deal breaker for many - USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity are missing, so you'll need to make sure you have an OCuLink port on your laptop or mini PC before buying the MGA1.

Priced at a rather steep $559, the MGA1 provides a balanced mix of power and connectivity in a compact form, though there are more versatile eGPUs available that may be better suited for use with a broader range of devices, such as GPD's newly upgraded G1.

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If you’re the kind of person who lives your life on the go, exploring the outdoors and taking in what the world has to offer, getting clean video footage of your adventures can be surprisingly difficult. Advancements in cell phone and digital camera technology have combined to create a world where anybody, anywhere can produce stunning, high-quality videos and films in an instant. Unfortunately, the innovations in portability and functionality often come at the cost of image stabilization.

Few things are more frustrating than pulling out your camera to capture a can’t-miss moment only to replay the video later and discover your hands were shaking and the footage was a mess or the pictures were blurry. The iSteady V3 gimbal is a lightweight, extendable, AI-powered solution that is ready to go whenever and wherever you are and ensures that your photos and videos are always at their best.

(Image credit: Hohem) Elevating photos and videos with a gimbal and AI

Whether you’re exploring the trails of the mountains, offroading in a UTV, or fishing the depths of local lakes for monster catfish, you want the freedom to capture high-quality videos of your adventures. You don’t want to have to come to a standstill to get the best shot, though. The iSteady V3’s gimbal boasts an advanced 3-axis support system that ensures videos are smooth and photos are crisp, while the extended roll arm allows for unobstructed wide-angle shots.

The smooth iSteady 8.0 anti-shake system is made even better with the help of AI. You don’t always have an extra pair of hands to help you record footage of your adventures, and you certainly don’t want to have to worry about camera framing while you’re reeling in a big fish or biking down a mountain trail. The iSteady V3 is equipped with magnetic AI tracking and a vision sensor that you can easily activate or deactivate with simple gesture controls. The sensor uses the power of AI to ensure that the camera is tracking your face and body – no more action shots where your head is out of the frame!

(Image credit: Hohem) A powerful image stabilization tool in your pocket

The iSteady V3 is lightweight and portable, so you can have an advanced 3-axis stabilization tool complete with an extendable rod and tripod tucked right inside your pocket, ready to go when you are. The gimbal’s rod extends out to a whopping 205mm and features a retractable tripod. Even with all that, the gimbal still weighs just 420 grams, making it ideal to fold up and toss into a backpack or purse. The axis is capable of panning -120° to 210°, rolling -195° to 135°, and tilting -35° to 45°.

(Image credit: Hohem)

Setting up your perfect shot has never been easier, and combined with gesture controls or the gimbal’s innovative detachable remote control, you don’t have to worry about downloading additional apps. A magnetic fill light with adjustable color temperature also helps set the scene. The gimbal has a 13-hour battery life and takes just 2.5 hours to fully charge with a Type C charging cable. It also works with a wide variety of phones that fit within the gimbal’s 58 mm-98 mm frame and weighs less than 300g.

Wherever your filmmaking and video creation adventures take you, take the iSteady V3 from Hohem with you.

ChatGPT search (the new search engine built into ChatGPT that combines conversational AI with real-time information straight from the web) has recently launched for everybody who was signed up to the waitlist, or is a ChatGPT Plus subscriber.

What's more, OpenAI recently leveled up ChatGPT search with a shiny new Google Chrome extension that means you can use it from the address bar. If you're already using Google Chrome, this makes for a much more useful way to find and gather up-to-date information while simultaneously giving you more personalized filters and a way to leverage that information for new and fun activities.

Here are three practical and creative ways to take full advantage of ChatGPT search.

1. Trend spotting

Keeping up with every new trendy hobby, TV show, book, or game that I might enjoy is impossible. Add in the things my friends and family care about that I want to be aware of for conversation (and birthday present planning), and no one who isn't a teenager could keep up, even with hours on social media.

ChatGPT search can handle that for me now. The AI can look up all of the latest news on subjects of interest to me and explain the latest buzz about those I am just curious about. As the AI adds more about me to its memory, it's going to be even better at curating those details. Asking “What’s trending today?” will get me the new video game buzz for games I might like as well as the conclusion of the latest episode of Survivor, which I need to know to be able to keep up when going to dinner with my in-laws.

2. Recipe roulette

I like looking up new recipes to try, especially if I don't want to go shopping and just use ingredients I have on hand. ChatGPT has always had the ability to come up with meal ideas, but the hallucinations and offline database meant I never really trusted what the AI wrote. Now, when I ask for specific kinds of dishes using ChatGPT search, like vegetarian meat sauce for pasta or the best methods for making gravlax, ChatGPT will not only remember previous requests and either reshare them or ask if I want new ideas, but it will actually use recipe websites to find them for me.

Even if I ask for recipes based on random ingredients like sweet potatoes, quinoa, and a mixed bag of herbs, ChatGPT search will find options that fit my palette without me worrying that it will suggest rocks as an appetizer.

(Image credit: Shutterstock) 3. Instant trivia host

Have you ever been hanging out with friends and felt like playing a trivia game without having to go to a bar? Well, ChatGPT search can use web search to pull together facts on everything from recent Oscar or Grammy award winners to the latest TikTok dance trends and act as your host for the night. I've found the right prompt can even get the AI to inject some humor into the game, while the web search keeps it from making up answers.

Even if you're not playing a game, having your own personal fact-checker is nice. Sure, there's Google, but ChatGPT search means you don't have to open a new tab or click through multiple websites (assuming Google AI Overview doesn't have an answer). And, because it looks online, you don't have to worry nearly as much about the response being a hallucination.

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• Courts across Washington state forced to shut down IT infrastructure
• There is no word on the attackers, or type of cyberattack
• Not all courts were affected in the same way

Unnamed hackers have attacked court systems across the US state of Washington, forcing the judicial organization to shut down parts of its infrastructure to prevent further damage.

"In an abundance of caution, we proactively took down our systems to secure them and are working around the clock with leading experts to restore services as quickly as possible," AOC associate director Wendy Ferrell told local media.

Washington’s court systems include multiple municipal and district courts, and it seems that not all have been affected in the same manner, or to the same extent. For example, courts in Bainbridge Island, Monroe, Puyallup, Milton, and Thurston County, are operating with limited services.

Limited operation

Pierce County Superior Court Clerk's Office still offers online access, saying the impact on its systems and operations was limited.

"The Pierce County Clerk of Superior Court's Office is experiencing service interruptions due to unauthorized activity detected on the Washington Courts network," the Pierce County Clerk of Superior Court said.

"The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has taken immediate action to secure critical systems and is actively working to safely restore services."

Speaking to the Seattle Times via phone, King County District Court Chief Presiding Judge Rebecca C. Robertson said superior and district courts in King’s County weren’t significantly affected since they operate a separate case management system.

“We are prepared for at least a week,” Robertson said. “To protect the extremely sensitive data, (state officials) decided to shut everything down and rebuild it.”

There is no word on who the attackers are, or what kind of attack this was, however judicial organizations are no strangers to ransomware attacks.

In summer 2024, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the largest in the United States, suffered a ransomware attack which forced it to close down its entire operation for a day.

Via Seattle Times

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Password-sharing crackdowns – they're the three words that users of the best streaming services dread, as such crackdowns mean they can’t as cheaply or easily share their account with friends or family. Disney and Netflix have already launched their password restrictions – much to everyone’s annoyance – and now Max is preparing to clamp down too.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) confirmed its password crackdown intentions back in March this year, but at the time WBD's streaming head J.B. Perrette only vaguely said it was going to start the process “later this year.” Now Gunnar Wiedenfels, CFO of WBD, has said the process will begin with “very soft messaging” this year, which he described as “asking members who have not signed up, or multi-household members to pay a little bit more.”

This softball start – which was discussed on the company’s recent Q3 earnings call (via The Verge) – follows in the footsteps of the approach Netflix and Disney originally took. They began by nudging people to sign up for their own accounts in a few regions at first, before rolling out tighter restrictions everywhere as time passed.

While there’s no confirmation as to what the final stages of Max’s password crackdown will look like, we expect Max will continue to follow Disney and Netflix until users are left with three options – leave the streamer, pay for their own account, or pay to be an additional user on another account.

Will The Penguin convince you to stay with Max? (Image credit: HBO) Price rises coming too

Account-sharing restrictions like these are the carrot-and-stick approach without the carrot – and Max might be serving up extra stick, as despite Wiedenfels describing this crackdown as “a form of price rises” he later added that there’s still “a fair amount of room to continue to push a price we’ve been judicious about.”

So not only might you soon have to pay for your own Max account, you’ll have to pay extra for the privilege too.

As always, we’re left asking when or if the camel’s back will break. When Netflix announced password-sharing plans we thought it might be the end of the streamer, but it’s now doing better than ever financially speaking – so it's no surprise that Disney and now Max would follow suit after threats of mass cancellations rang hollow.

It feels like there will still come a point where users say enough is enough, but until then expect password-sharing crackdowns and price rises to continue. And if you are thinking of saying goodbye to Max, you'll want to check out our list of the best Max shows to watch before you unsubscribe.

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• Nvidia GeForce Now Priority membership is now ‘Performance’
• Price will remain the same, with 1440p resolution and ultrawide support additions
• The playtime limit will come into effect on January 1, 2025

Nvidia’s GeForce Now has been an inexpensive cloud gaming alternative for PC gamers out for a high-end experience, and now its ‘Priority’ membership tier has been upgraded to ‘Performance’ with a host of upgrades.

Previously, the Priority membership’s resolution was limited to 1080p while lacking support for ultrawide resolutions (21:9 or 32:9 aspect ratios) and was priced at $9.99 (£9.99 / AU$19.99). Nvidia will change this by adding a 1440p resolution and ultrawide support (previously exclusive to Ultimate members), and the good news is that the new Performance membership will not change from the $9.99 price despite the improvements made (which we love to see from Nvidia).

Starting January 1, 2025, both Performance and Ultimate members will have a monthly playtime limit of 100 hours, which will help shorten queue times - this includes the option of saving your in-game graphics settings, which will go a long way to help you pick up where you left off without tinkering for better performance or visual quality.

While the playtime limit won’t come into effect until January 1, 2025, all active paid memberships will maintain unlimited playtime until January 1, 2026. The new tier is active now, and Nvidia is letting you test the new benefits with a Day Pass which is 25% off on both Performance and Ultimate, in a limited special time offer until November 22, 2024.

(Image credit: Nvidia) A positive step in the right direction for Nvidia

This is a move from Nvidia that I’m pleased to see - not all PC gamers have the opportunity to get their hands on the best graphics cards on the market, and GeForce Now has always been a great alternative. While cloud gaming has its cons, Team Green has taken the right steps to ensure quality and connection speeds are high.

It’s also worth noting that up to 15 hours of unused playtime will be carried into the next month - you can always keep your eye on the number of hours played via the ‘Account Portal’.

I believe this is a prelude to the long-awaited GeForce RTX 5000 series reveal, and if recent rumors are true, we could be seeing Nvidia’s new GPUs within a matter of weeks…

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