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These healthy and delicious treats are safe for both you and your pup.

If you're upgrading from an M1 or want the best Mac AI performance, the M4 MacBook Pro is a no-brainer, and so is spending a bit extra for the Nano-texture display.

Formlabs is branching out from its business roots to offer its resin expertise to the masses.

Apple’s basic desktop computer is now a bit smaller and slightly more powerful, but it’s not for everyone.

The M4 Pro CPU pushes the performance envelope. But when the only real competition you have is with yourself, what then?

• The UK Government is introducing an AI safety platform
• It hopes the move could unlock £6.5 billion of growth in the next 10 years
• The Government wants to make the UK a global hub of AI expertise

A new AI safety platform for businesses in the UK has been announced as part of the latest government plan to make the country a hub for technological development.

The platform will provide organisations with tools to develop and use AI safely, hoping to build trust in the technology.

The platform will include guidance and practical resources which will assist businesses with impact assessments and evaluations, as well as reviewing data used in AI systems to identify bias.

A boost for the British market

The AI boom isn’t going anywhere, but a lack of public and business trust in AI products is still a major shortcoming, so the safety framework will look to reassure business leaders by identifying and mitigating the potential risks posed by AI.

The Government has predicted using such tools will help contribute to £6.5 billion in growth by 2035, kickstarting UK tech advancement. The adoption of AI systems in the UK could certainly use a foundation of trust, so the new platform hopes to address uneasiness amongst business leaders.

“AI has incredible potential to improve our public services, boost productivity and rebuild our economy but, in order to take full advantage, we need to build trust in these systems which are increasingly part of our day to day lives,” said Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology.

“The steps I’m announcing today will help to deliver exactly that – giving businesses the support and clarity they need to use AI safely and responsibly while also making the UK a true hub of AI assurance expertise,” he continued.

The government is pushing for technological development across the board, with the designation of data centers as critical infrastructure and the potential for a streamlined process for AI expert’s visa applications all part of a vision for the UK in the global tech world.

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Mortgage rates have increased rapidly over the past month. Today's Fed rate cut won't be a cure-all.

The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rate by 0.25% today. Here's what that means for mortgage rates.

A lot could change in the economy in the next year.

The iPhone’s native note-taking app has leveled up with live audio transcriptions, calculations, and organizational features.

Grab amazing sets including Minecraft, Mario, Star Wars and more with big discounts at Target right now.

Read and take notes on the go with the Book Palma. It's currently the cheapest it's ever been.

The latest Android updates are rolling out to Google Pixel devices, and while the leaked details Verizon had shared talked about the bug fixes and security improvements the patches would provide one thing the leak missed, the inclusion of a much anticipated battery feature: charging limits.

Rather than needing to completely fill your phone’s battery every time you plug it in, this Android 15 tool would allow your device to limit charging once it reaches 80%. The advantage here is that overcharging your phone can be detrimental to its battery health – causing it to run dry faster as time goes on. Over time, stopping charging early means your phone at 80% might last a lot longer than an identical device that is left charging to 100% overnight every night.

The feature was spotted by a Pixel user and shared by Android Authority with an image that shows the new feature in the user’s phone’s Settings – it’s in the Battery settings menu, in the Charging Optimization sub-section if you want to look for it on your device.

We’ve updated a Google Pixel 7 to the now live software AP3A.241105.007 version (it’ll be version AP3A.241105.008 for Google Pixel 9 phones) and don’t see it unfortunately, so it could be this tool is still being gradually released – or was accidentally shared with some users early. It’s one to look out for though once you’ve updated your Pixel device as this battery optimization tool could help you greatly in keeping your smartphone’s battery healthy for a long time.

Other AI updates on the way?

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

While we’re waiting to hear more about what features are coming in future Android 15 updates, one upgrade we might see from Google soon is its Jarvis AI assistant. Google accidentally leaked its AI that browses the web for you on the Chrome extension store before quickly removing it.

While not much is known about Jarvis, it’s expected to be a more automated version of Gemini that can perform tasks in Chrome with less frequent user input – like researching flight and travel options for your next trip or looking up holiday gift options while you’re doing something else.

Chrome extensions are reserved for Chromebooks and PCs but we wouldn’t be surprised if a mobile version of Jarvis came to Android and iOS fairly quickly – with the app researching and performing tasks in Chrome in the background while you play another round of Marvel Snap or binge YouTube videos.

Even if Jarvis doesn’t come to mobile right away we expect Android 15’s next update will pack at least a few AI updates. As soon as we know more we’ll be sure to share the details with you.

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• It was recently reported that Apple had stopped worked on a smart ring
• A new leak suggests it might still be developing one
• It is also apparently working on a new band-type wearable and smart glasses

Just weeks after we were told that Apple is no longer developing a smart ring, a fresh leak suggests that there might still be hope for Apple's fabled next wearable.

Apple has reportedly been working on a smart ring for years, possibly buoyed by the success of the best smart rings on the market, notably the Oura Ring 4 and Samsung Galaxy Ring.

However, a top Apple insider put paid to those rumors recently, with Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reporting in October that "Apple isn’t actively developing a ring and has no plans to launch one."

Now, according to leaker yeux1122, writing on the South Korean blog Naver, there might still be hope. Apparently, "Apple is also still developing a ring-type wearable," and two more secret products besides.

Don't give up on the Apple smart ring just yet

(Image credit: Future)

The report claims that alongside this "ring-type wearable", Apple is also attempting to develop "band-type and smart glass-type wearable devices", the former of which could point to some kind of iteration on the Apple Watch or a more dedicated fitness tracker.

While not exactly a household name, the yeux1122 account is a known Apple leaker with a previous track record of accurately reporting Apple's plans ahead of time. Most recently, the account shared images ahead of the launch of the new Milanese Loop band for its new best Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Series 10. Unfortunately, yeux1122's word is up against that of Mark Gurman here, who is undoubtedly the world's premier Apple insider.

That being said, Gurman has been wrong before, so we can definitely hold on to at least a glimmer of hope that the Apple smart ring might one day see the light of day.

In the meantime, the company continues to focus on health when it comes to its Apple Watches, the latest of which brought with it advanced sleep apnea notifications that can detect early signs of the disease and encourage users to seek medical care.

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• Sorry, there's no way Apple is canceling its rumored smart ring plans
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• Security researchers observed a new threat campaign dubbed SteelFox
• It uses fake activators and cracks to deploy a vulnerable driver, an infostealer, and a cryptominer
• The victims are found all over the world, from Brazil to China

Hackers are targeting Windows systems with malware that mines cryptocurrencies and steals sensitive information from the devices, experts have warned.

A new report from Kaspersky claims to have spotted tens of thousands of infected endpoints already, as the cybercriminals have started advertising fake cracks and activators for different commercial software, such as Foxit PDF Editor, JetBrains, or AutoCAD.

The fake cracks come with a vulnerable driver called WinRing0.sys. By adding this driver to the system, the victim reintroduces CVE-2020-14979 and CVE-2021-41285, three- and four-year-old vulnerabilities that grant the attackers highest possible privileges.

SteelFox

Through these vulnerabilities, the crooks are able to drop XMRig, one of the most popular cryptojackers out there. XMRig uses the victim’s computing power, electricity, and internet, to mine Monero and other cryptocurrencies, but renders the device practically useless for the owner. Crypto-mining aside, the hackers also drop an infostealer that can pull data from 13 web browsers, system information, data about the network it’s connected to, as well as RDP connection.

The browser data the infostealer grabs includes browsing history, session cookies, and credit card information. Although not specifically mentioned, it’s safe to assume the malware also steals information related to cryptocurrency wallet browser addons.

Kaspersky named the campaign “SteelFox” and claims to have observed and blocked SteelFox attacks 11,000 times so far - so we can speculate the number of attacks is a lot, lot higher.

The victims seem to be scattered all over the world, meaning that SteelFox operators are casting a wide net, with the majority of compromised endpoints found in Brazil, China, Russia, Mexico, UAE, Egypt, Algeria, Vietnam, India, and Sri Lanka.

Malicious cryptocurrency miners have been around for as long as blockchain itself, but with Bitcoin surging in price after the recent US presidential elections, we can probably expect to see more infections in the months to come.

Via BleepingComputer

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• Notepad is getting a rewrite feature and generative fill is coming to Paint
• There are a fair few more AI abilities coming too, including generative erase
• One of the most impressive, generative fill, will only come to Copilot+ PCs

Windows 11’s Paint and Notepad stock apps have been worked on considerably in the recent past, and are getting some new AI features – albeit they’re only in testing for now.

Microsoft tells us that updates for these apps have started to roll out to testers in the Canary and Dev channels (which are the two earliest test channels).

Let’s start with Notepad which is getting a new ‘Rewrite’ ability. This works as you might imagine – you select some text, then fire up the tool which uses generative AI to do what it says on the tin, rewriting those words.

You get three different rewrites to choose from, and it’s possible to fine-tune the AI’s responses, so you can ask for something longer, for example, or in a different tone.

This ability is rolling out to testers in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Italy. As with most of the new features here, it’ll require you to be signed in with a Microsoft account.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

There’s another non-AI benefit for Notepad here in that the app will launch faster. Microsoft claims that Notepad will open more than 35% more swiftly, with some Windows 11 users seeing a speed boost of 55% or maybe even more. So, Notepad should be considerably nippier when appearing on your desktop.

Painting clever

Moving on to Paint, this core app is getting a feature called ‘generative fill’ which can be used to easily add an AI-generated element to an image.

The example Microsoft shows is a person making a landscape who decides they want a castle in the picture. So, they simply select the area where they want it situated, and feed the AI a prompt – in this case ‘medieval castle’ – and Paint goes through its processing for some seconds before the castle appears.

It’s nice and seamlessly integrated into the landscape, too, although we guess as ever with AI, the results could be variable. If you don’t like what Paint has provided, you can ask it to try again, and generative fill will run once more to deliver a different take on a castle (or whatever it is you want).

Moving from creation to destruction, we have ‘generative erase’ also inbound for Paint. This lets you highlight an element in an image – a person in the foreground for example – and it’ll be removed, with Paint filling in the empty space left to match the background. Again, it’s clever stuff.

In this case, you brush over the area to be erased, allowing for a more fine-tuned selection than generative fill where you draw a box.

(Image credit: Microsoft via Unsplash ) Analysis: Copilot+ caveats

These are some pretty nifty AI-powered abilities with some slight caveats. The main one being that Paint’s generative fill is only going to be available with Copilot+ PCs that have a Snapdragon (Arm) CPU initially. We presume it’ll come to other (non-Arm) Copilot+ PCs soon enough – but as to whether Windows 11 users with a ‘normal’ PC will ever get it, that might not be the case (as it may require the beefy NPU which is a requirement for a Copilot+ machine).

All the other features are coming to non-Copilot+ devices, mind, but there’s another bonus here for Copilot+ PC owners. This is that Cocreator in Paint – which is also exclusive to these Windows 11 devices, and creates AI-generated images from scratch – has been made faster, with fine-tuning to its “underlying diffusion-based model” as Microsoft explains. So, everything you do with Cocreator should happen more swiftly.

The other potential catch, we guess, is that this is more fuel to the fire of discontent for some users who think that Notepad is getting beefed up too much with features – those folks would no doubt say bloated – and that this is at odds with its core philosophy. That said, at least the freshly introduced sizeable performance boost for booting the app will go down well.

All of these features are still in early testing, as noted, so it could be some time before they hit PCs running the release version of Windows 11. Microsoft sounds like it’s being cautious with the rollout in testing, as it’s going to “monitor feedback and see how it lands” before pushing these updates to more Windows Insiders. Even if you’re a tester, then, you may not see these new features for a while yet.

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(Image credit: Evan Vucci)

Evercade Alpha: one-minute review

If you’re looking for a way to replicate that classic arcade experience at home, then the Evercade Alpha is very easy to recommend. This bite-sized countertop arcade cabinet comes in two flavors, each with its own set of classic Capcom arcade titles. There are also two slots for existing Evercade cartridges - all of which are compatible with the Alpha in addition to the Evercade EXP and Evercade VS consoles.

The cabinet itself is awash with delightful design flourishes, from the swappable marquee cards up top to the official artwork which wraps around the central 8-inch IPS screen. Said screen is simply gorgeous, too; its 8-inch size and 4:3 aspect ratio proved to be perfect for most of the games I tested. Controls are also responsive, whether that be via the onboard arcade stick and buttons or through a third-party controller via the two USB ports on the unit.

It does err on the expensive side, though, making the Evercade Alpha a bit tougher to recommend for folks who aren’t enthusiasts for this kind of thing or don’t already have a decently-sized Evercade cartridge collection. It’s also worth mentioning that most of these games lack any kind of difficulty options, which especially makes fighting games exceptionally hard to clear. You do of course have infinite continues via free play, but this will be irksome to players after a quick, casual arcade session.

Even still, the Evercade Alpha is one of the best retro games console units released this year, and I highly recommend it to anyone chasing a nostalgic arcade experience. Especially with all its quality-of-life additions.

(Image credit: Future) Evercade Alpha: price and availability

• $229.99 / £199.99 pre-order price
• Will be $249.99 / £229.99 after launch
• Available from November 28, 2024

The Evercade Alpha launches on November 28, 2024, coming in at a retail price of $249.99 / £229.99. However, those who pre-order the unit will be able to get it at the discounted price of $229.99 / £199.99. You can purchase one from a variety of big box retailers including Amazon and Best Buy in the US as well as Funstock, Argos, and Game in the UK.

An Evercade Alpha Deluxe Edition will also be available exclusively at Funstock in the UK. Coming in at £249.99, this version features industry-leading Sanwa arcade buttons, an Evercade Alpha controller, and various goodies including a certificate of authenticity, a poster, and five marquee cards.

You’ve got the choice of two separate units for the Evercade Alpha. The Street Fighter model includes Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo. Meanwhile, the Mega Man model packs in Mega Man: The Power Battle, Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, Carrier Air Wing, Final Fight, Knights of the Round, and Strider. 

(Image credit: Future) Evercade Alpha: specs Evercade Alpha: design and features

• Exceptional cabinet-like build
• Has options for controller play and a headphone jack
• Small enough to fit on a countertop

If you’ve ever laid eyes on a traditional arcade cabinet at any point in your life, then you roughly know what to expect from the Evercade Alpha. The unit replicates that angular silhouette, albeit small enough to comfortably fit on top of a counter or a decently-sized gaming desk.

There are lots of lovely design flourishes on the Evercade Alpha. The power switch (situated between the two Evercade cartridge slots at the base of the unit) is shaped like an arcade cabinet coin slot. The marquee card at the top can be swapped out with the extra ones included in the package and, when the unit is switched on, a backlight illuminates the marquee. My review unit is the Street Fighter Edition, and it’s great to see classic arcade unit character artwork wrapped around the central IPS display.

Below the screen are the Evercade Alpha’s on-board controls. This is a six-button setup that’s ideal for fighting games alongside an eight-way octagonal gate stick and three buttons used for starting games, inserting coins for play, and accessing the unit’s built-in menu.

Two side-firing speakers are situated on either side of the unit, and at the bottom below those cartridge slots are a pair of USB ports for controllers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a switch for adjusting volume. All in all, it’s a rich yet no-nonsense feature set that’s cleverly implemented into the bite-sized arcade machine design.

(Image credit: Future) Evercade Alpha: performance

• Accurate and faithful play experience
• No difficulty options means games can be very hard
• Super effective CRT filters included

The overall play experience on Evercade Alpha is pretty strong. Controls were responsive across all games tested here, both with the on-board arcade stick controls and more standard controller options via USB. In that regard, I tested the Xbox Wireless Controller, DualSense Wireless Controller, and the 8BitDo Ultimate with the Evercade Alpha, and all worked with the unit after diving into the settings and mapping the controls for each.

The games themselves are of course the stars of the show. Just like with the Evercade EXP and VS consoles, the games feel decently accurate and responsive in comparison to their arcade counterparts. The arcade stick and buttons did take some getting used to, admittedly, though this isn’t the fault of the Alpha itself. Your mileage may vary here, of course, if you’re used to using some of the best fight sticks on the market. But more casual players may need some time before they can reliably throw out Sonic Booms and Shoryukens in Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

One gripe I do have is that these Evercade versions don’t have options for difficulty, neither within the ROMs themselves nor within Evercade’s own operating system. That’s definitely a bummer - difficulty levels are typically available via arcade machine dip switch menus, and these have been emulated on similar devices. It makes many titles pretty difficult to play at a casual level. Hopefully, this is something Blaze Entertainment can implement in a future firmware update for the Alpha.

On the plus side, I was pleasantly surprised by the CRT filter options available on the Evercade Alpha. You can choose a subtle or a strong filter (or turn it off entirely) via the Evercade Alpha menu. This applies to all games, too, so there’s no need to keep reapplying the filter as you cycle through titles. I found the subtle mode to add a good bit of depth to the scene and avoid feeling intrusive or overdone, as is the case with many a CRT filter in old game compilations.

(Image credit: Future) Should I buy the Evercade Alpha? Buy it if...

You want an authentic arcade experience at home
Beautiful cabinet design, decently compact size, and a wide selection of games without needing to constantly pop in quarters? The Evercade Alpha is a fantastic and accessible arcade experience from the comfort of your own home.

You already have a decently sized Evercade collection
All of those Evercade cartridges also work on the Evercade Alpha, and they look fantastic on the unit’s phenomenal 8-inch IPS screen.

Don't buy it if...

You don’t have much space
While certainly small compared to a real arcade cabinet, the Evercade Alpha still takes up a good chunk of room in any gaming setup.

You’re on a budget
The Evercade Alpha is expensive, even in its pre-order phase. On top of that, you’ll have to buy any other Evercade cartridges separately and that can add up. I’d only recommend picking one up if you’re planning on starting an Evercade collection.

Also consider...

If the Evercade Alpha doesn’t quite have what you’re looking for, be sure to check out a couple of other Evercade devices that are a bit more budget-friendly. 

Evercade EXP
The Evercade EXP is the brand’s portable console. While it does have some games built-in, it’s also compatible with all Evercade cartridges, making this a cost-effective and portable retro gaming solution.

For more information read our full Evercade EXP review

Evercade VS
The Evercade VS is a dedicated home console for use with your TV at home via HDMI. It’s definitely better suited to smaller screens due to the low-res nature of most Evercade-compatible games, but it’s a solid option if you’re after a cheaper way to build an Evercade collection at home.

For more information read our full Evercade VS review

How I tested the Evercade Alpha

• Tested for two weeks
• Used onboard controls and some controllers via USB
• Played a wide variety of arcade games

I tested the Evercade Alpha Street Fighter Edition over the course of around two weeks. I played games both built-in and via a handful of Evercade cartridges both in my collection and supplied by Blaze Entertainment, including the Toaplan Arcade Collection 3 and the Data East Arcade Collection 2.

While I primarily used the onboard arcade stick controls during testing, I also tried playing games on the Evercade Alpha with a variety of controllers including the DualSense, Xbox Wireless Controller, and the 8BitDo Ultimate.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed November 2024