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AI experts say this is likely the first time that AI has been used in the U.S. to create an impact statement read by an AI rendering of the deceased victim

• Spotify has announced some new app features, including a 'Snooze' button
• This lets you ban a track from your recommendations for 30 days
• It, along with other new features, is being tested with Premium users

Spotify has been busy making small tweaks to its mobile app, like finally giving you the option to disable its Smart Shuffle feature – and it's just announced several more, including a potential godsend addition called '30-day Snooze'.

While Spotify's music algorithm is one of the things that's kept me with the music streaming service for over a decade, it also has infuriating blind spots, like continually recommending the same song across automated playlists like Discover Weekly or Smart Shuffle.

The new '30-Day Snooze' button is designed to fix this, letting you temporarily remove a track from your recommendations (without completely eradicating it from your musical life). Unfortunately, Spotify is only "starting to test this for Premium users" but says it's "planning to bring it to more listeners soon".

30-Day Snooze will be a bonus option among the tracks that you've chosen to 'hide' from playlists – this is done by tapping the three dots next to a song and hitting 'Hide in this playlist'. The 'Snooze' feature will give you a "don't suggest this song anywhere for 30 days" option, which will apply to all personalized playlists.

If the feature hasn't rolled out to you yet, Spotify has pushed out some other new tweaks to keep you happy while you wait. The Queue button (the three lines in the bottom-right of the 'Now Playing' view) now gives you handy shortcuts to Shuffle, Smart Shuffle, Repeat, and Sleep Timer.

In a tweak related to 30-Day Snooze, Spotify will also now show you the recommended songs it plans to play at the end of your queue, so you can eject any unwanted ones in advance. Spotify's 'Hide' button is also now more powerful – when you tap it, the song will be hidden from that playlist across all your devices, not just the one you're listening on.

Training the algorithm

For Premium subscribers, the Queue section in the 'Now Playing' view (above) now has shortcuts to Shuffle, Smart Shuffle, Repeat and the Sleep Timer. (Image credit: Spotify)

These changes are an admission from Spotify that its algorithms don't always get everything right, and I can definitely see myself using 30-Day Snooze when it eventually reaches my Premium account.

For some reason, Spotify has persistently recommended Yo La Tengo's 'Autumn Sweater' across all of my automated playlists. Despite it being the least offensive song ever committed to recorded music, the opening drums now send me into a mild fit of rage, even though it's a perfectly pleasant track.

It's my prime candidate for a 30-Day Snooze, and others on the TechRadar team have enthusiastically submitted theirs, including Mk.gee's 'Are You Looking Up' after an unfortunate incident where our team's shared playlist was remotely co-opted by our cameras editor's son.

One other new feature I'll likely use to escape the algorithm is a tweak to 'Liked Songs'. It's now possible to use this to build playlists: tap on a genre in the 'Liked Songs' playlist, and you'll now see a new 'Make this a playlist' option.

We may still not have Spotify HiFi (will it ever arrive?), while both price hikes and optional add-ons are seemingly on the cards – but at least Spotify is still making small, free improvements to save us from persistent earworms.

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Rumors of a handheld gaming device made by Asus in collaboration with Xbox got a shot in the arm after an alleged prototype surfaced in leaked photos.

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• Shazam is launching a new global playlist and a version for 42 nations
• 'Viral Chart' will update daily with tracks that are on the rise from Shazam's unique sources
• It'll include the tracks that users are identifying with Shazam

Shazam already offers several different charts to track popular songs and the most discovered ones for many countries across the globe. And yes, many of those tracks are likely ones that users – maybe even you – have identified with Shazam on your phone.

I mean, we’ve all been there, when we’re out and a song hits, that we can’t quite remember the name of, but we really need to know what it is. That’s where Shazam still hits as an excellent music recognition app.

Now, though, it wants to do a better job tracking the music of the moment and the various feeds that could mean a new number-one hit is coming. The Shazam Viral Charts are launching today and are available right now on Shazam’s site and as a playlist on Apple Music.

(Image credit: Future)

The collection will consist of an updated daily ‘Global’ playlist with 50 tracks and 42 national charts with 25 songs each. Shazam’s twist here is that it will use unique signals, which likely include what people are recognizing with the app, to highlight and recognize popular, up-and-coming, or classic songs that are on the rise.

Shazam is a bit cheeky in the Viral Chart description, noting that it’s not just what is trending on TikTok but taking a full view of the landscape. It says that it will track and identify the songs that are gaining popularity across “streaming, social, and TV placements,” but also tracks that are played in spaces like bars and restaurants.

That’s a lot to track—but then again, it’s likely using data that Shazam already has. It also suggests that Shazam’s Viral Charts will feature a mixture of old and new songs across all genres.

If you’re keen to listen to a wide variety of music or curious about what songs might be gaining streams in a specific location, Shazam’s Viral Charts are likely worth a try.

You can view and listen to song previews on the platform’s site under ‘charts,’ but considering Apple owns Shazam, it’s also no surprise that these are integrated as playlists you can follow on the music streaming platform.

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Qualcomm's trio of new commercials humously take on Intel-based laptops and make a seemingly salient point: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Series chips will run at max performance even unplugged, while Intel-based systems will only operate at 55%. But there's some nuance in there that makes these claims somewhat less than clear-cut.

While two of the ads, "The Max Performance You Deserve," and "Office Tripped," lean heavily into humor to make their case, the first ad, "What's the Intel?", is more pointed and uses the line, “Here’s a little intel on what’s really inside"

Clever, right? Qualcomm squeezed the brand name and the "Intel Inside" marketing campaign into one well-crafted dig.

It's in this ad where Qualcomm clearly lays out its core premise, stating that the SnapDragon X Elite PC "runs at max performance when it's unplugged." The ad then shows the Intel-based system and says, "that PC drops to as little as 55%".

Another ad, "The Max Performance You Deserve," focuses on the humor of asking people in various situations to "give 55%" of performance of love, of a bonus, of devotion to a country. The video does close with a Qualcomm rep telling a consumer, "Yup, PCs powered by Intel can cut performance up to 55% when unplugged, but with Snapdragon X Series, max performance when unplugged."

The last ad, "Office Tripped," shows how "when PC's powered by Intel perform at 55% when unplugged, it's like your whole team does." The ad comically depicts employees half-dressed, tables with half their legs gone, and signage half-lit. You get the idea.

A measure of what?

Of course, at no point in any of these ads does Qualcomm say that 55% of Intel's performance is worse than Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Series max performance. In fact, based on the systems they used to come up with those numbers, I'm not sure they could.

In the fine print, Qualcomm explains the numbers came from a Cinebench 2024 Multi Core benchmark run in Windows 11. The Qualcomm system was a Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon Elite running at 3.8Hz (unless it's been overclocked to 4.3GHz). It's compared against a Dell XPS 13 running an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V, which is Intel's top-of-the-line Ultra processor running at 5.1 GHz.

Considering Qualcomm chose a system running Intel's most powerful Ultra processor, it might be difficult to draw direct comparisons to the Snapdragon X Elite chip.

Of course, that's not really what Qualcomm did here. There are no direct performance comparisons. Instead, this is just a measure of how the systems, or rather the CPUs, perform when unplugged. The Intel system slows down its high-end Core Ultra 9 to, I bet, Core Ultra 5 processor-level performance.

I would be curious to see what sort of performance hit an Intel Core Ultra 5 (245T) takes when unplugged. It might perform at something far higher than 55%, if not "max" performance.

Sure, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Series ads are cutting and funny, but I'm not sure they're entirely fair to Intel. I want my laptops to maintain as much performance as possible when unplugged, but I also want them to maintain battery life.

Higher performing chips will draw more power, and the system, depending on how Intel and OEMs configure it, knows enough to reduce that power draw when you unplug the laptop.

Snapdragon X Series CPUs were built with mobile in mind. They run at a lower GHz than the fastest-performing X86 chips, and with a lower power draw, of course, they do a better job of maintaining max power.

In general, I love the mobile chip in laptops and desktops revolution that was kicked off by Apple Silicon. These mobile SoCs (system on chips) have transformed mobile computing and are a net positive for consumers and the industry, but let's not cloud the issue with ads that seem to make a direct comparison when, in fact, they really don't.

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• beWanted, a major European job seeker platform, kept an open Google database online
• Database contained more than 1.1 million records, mostly CVs and resumes
• Data belonged to people all over the world, and could now be at risk

A major European employment platform was reportedly leaking sensitive data from as many as a million users, researchers have claimed

Cybernews has revealed its researchers discovered an unprotected Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket belonging to beWanted, described as “one of the largest employment platforms in Europe”.

The bucket contained more than 1.1 million files, mostly CVs and resumes belonging to job seekers, from people all over the world, including Spain, Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, and more.

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That being said, anyone that might have found the database beforehand would obtain people’s full names, phone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses, dates of birth, national ID numbers, nationalities, places of birth, social media links, employment history, and educational background.

This is more than enough information to run bespoke phishing, identity theft, or wire fraud attacks. Job openings are often the topic in phishing emails, and knowing the identities of people looking for a new position presents a unique opportunity for cybercriminals to create convincing phishing emails.

Through those, they could deliver malware, steal login credentials, break into their current employers’ IT network, and more.

Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, with offices in Mexico, Germany, and the UK, beWanted is described as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) enabled business, connecting job seekers with potential employers.

Cybernews’ researchers said they tried contacting beWanted and getting the company to lock the database down, but the firm never responded to any of their inquiries. As a result, “the data remains publicly accessible,” they said.

The team discovered the unprotected GCS bucket in November 2024, so it’s been sitting wide open on the internet for at least half a year now.

Anyone who knew where to look (by using specialized search engines like, for example, Shodan) could have found it already. However, without forensic analysis, it’s impossible to determine if that already happened or not.

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• Anker announces Soundcore Liberty 5 wireless earbuds
• They launched today: May 7, 2025
• They cost $129.99 / £99.99 / AU$169.99 but boast premium features

Anker has just launched a brand new pair of affordable wireless earbuds: the Anker Soundcore Liberty 5, and just like their predecessors they look like a cheap way to access premium features.

The Liberty 5 buds boast some useful features including active noise cancellation, an 12-hour battery life with active noise-cancellation (ANC), which can be extended up to 32 more hours with their charging case.

The new buds also offer improved bass performance thanks to dual bass-enhancing tubes that amplify the low frequencies resonance while increasing air flow, which according to Anker leads to more powerful, yet balanced, bass reproduction.

What’s more if you’re using an Android device you can access higher quality audio transmission via LDAC – so you should find your audio sounds more complete than it does on non-LDAC earbuds.

If you like the sound of these new earbuds they’re available to buy right now on Amazon.com, Soundcore.com, and from select retailers for $129.99 / £99.99 / AU$169.99.

(Image credit: Anker)

This means the buds aren’t quite as affordable as other recent cheap wireless earbuds like Panasonic’s new RB-F10 over-ear headphones, but with a premium suite of features a higher price is to be expected.

We haven’t been able to test these earbuds yet, but previous Anker audio products scored well; we gave the Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro three-and-a-half stars, and the older Anker Soundcore Liberty Air buds earned four stars – though both could have been better.

The more recent Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 buds (which we haven’t tested) appeared to score well with reviewers, though you may find you’ll want to wait and see how well the latest Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 buds fare before you buy them – or maybe wait for a discount to make their $129.99 / £99.99 / AU$169.99 asking price is even more affordable.

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• Google's Android 16 beta includes new battery health tools
• It has seemingly confimed they'll be exclusive to Pixel 8 and newer devices
• We might learn more at Google I/O on May 20, 2025

One of the most useful features coming to devices with Android 16 will be new battery health tools found in your Pixel phone’s settings app – and we now know which devices will get them when they launch for everyone.

Android 16 will likely get detailed at Google I/O, but before then some software betas are cluing us into some of its features.

This includes new battery health capabilities.

The main tool is a stat at the top of the battery health page, which represents your phone’s current max battery capacity as a percentage of what a new standard battery’s capacity would be. For example, if it reads 93% that’s Google saying that your phone’s 100% charge is equivalent to a new battery (that is otherwise identical) being 93% charged.

It also highlights if your phone’s battery health is normal or not – all batteries degrade over time, but you’ll know if it’s degrading faster than it should be – as well as links to articles which could improve your battery health.

Better battery, better life

Android 16 should be detailed soon (Image credit: Google / Future)

It doesn’t necessarily add new protective measures – like the Google Pixel 9a’s Battery Health assistance – but it should nevertheless be a handy tool for contextualising why battery health measures are useful, and offer you useful tips if you are struggling to look after your phone’s battery.

So it’s a shame to discover that, according to Google in an Android 16 beta bug report (via, the feature which is currently “supported in Beta 3 on Pixel 8a and Pixel 9 products including 9 Pro Fold” won’t be coming to older Pixel devices due to “product limitations.”

Google’s phrasing strongly suggests only Pixel 8 phones and newer will get the latest battery health tools – it does leave open the door for it to come to older devices when Android 16 launches in full, though we aren’t holding our breath.

(Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)

Battery health is one of the least flashy but most useful tools software updates can provide.

Whether you replace your phone every two years or every five, knowing your device will be as reliable as possible for as long as possible is something we all appreciate. Afterall, no one likes those moments of terror as your phone’s battery ticks down at the worst possible time.

Alongside battery changes Android 16 will include a major visual refresh, a new and improved desktop mode, and USB hack protections.

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