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An NPR listener is graduating soon with her MBA. She wants to know if it's OK celebrate her achievement by asking loved ones to buy her gifts from a registry, similar to what people do for weddings.

Google Maps wants to do more than just give you directions. A new update coming to Android and iOS Google Maps apps will bring AI recommendations powered by Gemini and conversational reporting to Waze.

Google Maps doesn't want to give you just directions anymore.

Chinese hackers have been dwelling on computers, networks, and other IT infrastructure of the Canadian government for five years, monitoring - and stealing - sensitive information, experts have warned.

This is according to “National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026”, a paper published by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre), the country's technical authority on cybersecurity, and part of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE).

The paper claims, the state-sponsored threat actors were engaged in cyber-espionage with the goal of gaining strategic, economic, and diplomatic advantages.

Targeting political enemies

“PRC state-sponsored cyber threat actors persistently conduct cyber espionage against federal, provincial, territorial, municipal, and Indigenous government networks in Canada,” the paper reads. “PRC cyber threat actors have compromised and maintained access to multiple government networks over the past five years, collecting communications and other valuable information.”

The paper concludes that “all known federal government compromises” have been resolved, but stresses that the threat actors dedicated “significant time and resources” to learn about the target networks, suggesting that there may be remnants of the attacks.

The Chinese were not just looking, either. When they saw an appropriate target - they struck. Apparently, government officials critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were attacked, back in 2021. Namely, members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) were targeted with emails designed to place trackers onto the victim’s devices, for network reconnaissance.

The Chinese seem mostly interested in advanced robotics, quantum computing, 6G networks, intelligence computing centers, Web3 (blockchain), and advanced aviation. The report also concludes that private sector organizations (mostly in these industries) were also in the crosshairs.

The news is hardly shocking, as the Canadian government recently issued a statement saying Chinese threat actors ran “multiple reconnaissance scans” throughout 2024, targeting “Government of Canada departments and agencies, and includes federal political parties, the House of Commons and Senate.”

“They also targeted dozens of organizations, including democratic institutions, critical infrastructure, the defense sector, media organizations, think tanks and NGOs,” the statement said.

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The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released its plan for international co-operation on strengthening the security of critical infrastructure.

US critical infrastructure has been subject to constant attacks from Russia, China, and Iran over the past year as state-sponsored groups look for vulnerabilities and weaknesses to exploit.

US allies have also experienced similar attacks, with the UK government stepping up classifications of critical national infrastructure in the face of rising threats from Russia and China, and CISA’s 2025-2026 International Strategic Plan now looks to improve international cooperation for critical infrastructure security.

Bolstering resilience

The plan rests upon three main goals; bolstering the resilience of foreign infrastructure on which the U.S. depends; strengthening integrated cyber defense; and unifying agency coordination of international activities.

The critical infrastructure CISA is looking to protect includes pipelines, telecommunications, and essential supply chains both in the US and within the territories of US allies across the globe, with the document outlining the main threats as “cyberattacks, chemical and improvised explosive devices, threats to supply chain interdependencies, foreign malign investments, and climate change.”

In light of the increasing geopolitical tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the escalating trade war with China, CISA has already spearheaded multiple programs collaborating with international partners to combat attacks against infrastructure. The new plan seeks to open new lines of communication and improve information exchange to improve the accuracy and responsiveness when defending against attacks.

It’s not just state sponsored cyber threats that are prioritized for defense. The plan extends beyond cyber defense, with CISA also looking to support “emerging technology, chemical security, emergency communications, school safety, bombing prevention, and more to ensure that systems, infrastructure, government, business, and the public can withstand and recover from deliberate attacks, accidents, and natural hazards.”

“In following this plan, CISA will improve coordination with our partners and strengthen international relationships to reduce risk to the globally interconnected and interdependent cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every day," noted CISA Director Jen Easterly.

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Marvel's Wolverine creative director is now the lead of The Initiative's Perfect Dark's reboot.

As reported by GameFile, two sources familiar with the project told the publication that developer Brian Horton, who was named Wolverine's creative director in 2021, left the project this summer.

Horton, who has also worked as creative director on Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, is now the new creative director of Xbox's Perfect Dark, which is being developed by The Initiative and Embracer-owned Crystal Dynamics.

According to an Xbox representative, Horton will be "bringing his wealth of experience to the upcoming reboot of the classic secret agent series.”

Meanwhile, Insomniac's upcoming PS5 superhero game is now being led by creative director Marcus Smith, a Sony representative confirmed, while Mike Daly will serve as the new game director.

Both Smith and Daly have previously worked on Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart as creative director and game director respectively.

Wolverine's previous game director, Cameron Christian, will remain at the studio but in a different role.

The two sources told the publication that the changes on the project come as a result of "creative decisions around the game" but Sony's representative was unable to comment on the reason for the switch-up in roles.

Marvel's Wolverine was announced during Sony's PlayStation Showcase in September 2021, with a brief teaser trailer, but Insomniac has kept the project under wraps ever since. We don't even have a release date or release window for the game, just yet.

As for Perfect Dark, fans received a brand new gameplay trailer during the Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2024. Unfortunately, there's still no release date for first-person shooter, but we do know that it's coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.

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Prime Video's hit action thriller Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is getting the movie treatment with John Krasinski set to reprise the role as the titular CIA analyst. Deadline reported that Amazon MGM Studios is developing a new feature film as "the next stage in the evolution of the franchise" after the popular Prime Video series came to an end in 2023.

Jack Ryan co-executive producer and season 2 director Andrew Bernstein is set to direct the movie spin-off from a script written by Aaron Rabin, who was a co-executive producer and writer on Jack Ryan season 4. Wendell Pierce (The Wire) and Michael Kelly (The Penguin) are also in talks to reprise their roles as former CIA boss James Greer and CIA station chief Mike November in the upcoming movie.

Jack Ryan is based on the iconic character created by author Tom Clancy and has been the subject of 21 books. The Prime Video TV adaptation was a modern-day reiteration of the classic novels before Amazon called time on the action-packed series after four seasons. Jack Ryan was one of the streamer's most-watched series globally, with the final two episodes of season 4 earning 1.15 billion minutes of viewing according to Nielsen.

What is Jack Ryan about?

Krasinski stars in one of the best Prime Video shows as the former US Marine who is an up-and-coming CIA analyst. However, when he's flung into a dangerous field assignment for the first time, he constantly finds himself in the firing line as he uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that threatens the world.

Since the Jack Ryan movie is still in development, there are currently no plot details regarding the future film, but we can imagine that we'll get some much-loved Jack Ryan action as he takes down bad guys all across the world.

This isn't the first time Jack Ryan has been adapted into a feature-length film. In fact, Krasinski is the fifth actor to play Jack Ryan in a movie, with Alec Baldwin being the first to portray the spy in the 1990 flick The Hunt for Red October. After that, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine all took on the role in various films, before being rebooted as the first episodic series by John Krasinski and Prime Video in 2018.

If you can't wait for the Jack Ryan movie to start streaming on one of the best streaming services, check out these adrenaline-pumping spy thrillers on Prime Video in the meantime.

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Samsung has seemingly confirmed that its XR hardware was delayed after all, but simultaneously revealed that its long-awaited VR/AR device will still land “in the future” – with its inclusion in Samsung’s 2025 outlook suggesting a launch sometime next year. However recent comments have us convinced the headset is dead and the rumored gadget will be a pair of simple AR specs instead.

Initially, it was rumored the South Korean tech giant was working on a Samsung XR headset – something like the Meta Quest 3 or (perhaps more appropriately) the high-end Apple Vision Pro. This project faced two setbacks – reportedly because of the Vision Pro. Once from the hype around the Apple headset scaring Samsung into rethinking the project, and again following the eventual unpopularity of the headset, showing that chasing the Vision Pro might not have been a smart move.

More recently there’s been talk around Samsung AR glasses. It’s been unclear if these specs will launch as well as the headset (perhaps a little later to compete with the Meta Orion AR glasses) or if they’ll launch instead of the XR headset – however, conversations are pointing toward the latter.

When talking about the Samsung and Google XR device back in September, Qualcomm CEO Cristian Amon, (who is also collaborating on the project) said that the product would make consumers rethink their relationship with their smartphone, and make everyone with a phone “go buy companion glasses to go along with it.” Amon didn’t outright say the Samsung device is a set of companion glasses, but it certainly sounds like that’s the sort of tech Samsung is teeing up.

Will the Samsung glasses be like Xreal's? (Image credit: Future)

Then there’s the general popularity of smart glasses – like the Ray-Ban Meta specs – and the accessibility of mixed reality compared to the more isolating VR. The industry trend seems to be pushing towards these more casual wearables rather than a full-on headset, so Samsung would likely want to adapt.

Samsung Glasses also make a lot of sense from a business perspective. The likes of the Xreal Air 2 glasses and non-AR Meta Ray-Bans are very reliant on smartphones (especially the former) – something Samsung is very well known for.

What we want to see

So if Samsung is launching AR companion glasses, what should we expect?

Well ideally, it’ll opt for something wireless. The wired Xreal specs are fine, but their lack of an internal battery means they have to rely solely on the device they’re connected to – and they drain the charge very fast.

They’re not really ideal for using if you’ll be traveling away from a reliable plug socket (or don’t have a Beam Pro add-on), but an internal battery would mean the Samsung glasses could power themselves and not leave with a phone on 0% – albeit at the cost of some added weight.

We’re also expecting 4K screens. This depends how Samsung implements the AR aspect of its specs, but if it follows the design of Xreal’s glasses (and other similar companion glasses) then we’re hoping it’ll opt for 4K resolution instead of the industry standard full-HD. Our thinking here is that Samsung's display expertise (as demonstrated by its phones and stunning TVs) make us believe it might face public ridicule if it opts for merely an HD resolution – ridicule it might want to avoid.

Lastly, we want interactability. While some companion specs have started to include hand-tracking, most still don’t, but Samsung will want its specs to land in that former camp. Whether as a direct competitor or as something entirely different, Samsung’s first XR project will either way be seen as its Apple Vision Pro rival.

Much like how it needs 4K visuals, some level of interactability feels equally necessary, alongside unique AR apps or well-made ports of existing software that make the companion glasses feel like a necessary upgrade (and not simply a device for demonstration purposes).

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Sophos went so far as to plant surveillance “implants” on its own devices to catch the hackers at work—and in doing so, revealed a glimpse into China's R&D pipeline of intrusion techniques.

Toys, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics are suspected to be among the noncompliant products available to the Chinese shopping platform’s 90 million European users.

The critically acclaimed Cyberpunk 2077 from developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR) is making its way to Apple Silicon Macs next year - and I’m starting to wonder if Apple’s newly announced M4 Mac mini ($599 / £599 / AU$999) could compete with next-gen consoles like Sony’s PS5 Pro with more triple-A title additions like this.

The first-person action-RPG proved to be a monumental success on console and Windows PCs, despite a rocky launch that sent the developer back to the drawing board. With the game now stable in terms of bugs and performance and boasting a kick-ass major expansion in the form of Phantom Liberty, it appears that now is the perfect time for it to be ported to Macs.

Apple’s list of triple-A games is continuously expanding, as we’ve seen with the Resident Evil 4 remake, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, and Baldur’s Gate 3. Among this lineup, CDPR’s Cyberpunk 2077 is possibly the most demanding of all in terms of hardware requirements - but it seems like even the base M4 version of the new Mac mini will be able to handle all those virtual car chases and Braindances, based on its specifications.

(Image credit: CD Projekt Red) Sony could be in big trouble if the cheaper M4 Mac mini outperforms the PS5 Pro

A big part of this is the fact that Apple has finally moved away from 8GB of unified memory as the baseline for Mac devices - a nightmare for the gaming performance on the cheaper configurations of previous M-series Macs, since that RAM was shared between the CPU and integrated GPU. Now with the base M4 Mac mini rocking 16GB, high performance while gaming looks like a stronger possibility (though it’s still clear that Apple’s primary focus isn’t gaming right now).

Now, there is still a long way for Apple to go with gaming on Macs - specifically with games landing on the platform far later than on Windows PCs and consoles, and many gamers simply not recognizing it as a legitimate gaming brand. Despite this, Cyberpunk 2077’s addition is a huge indication of how great the new M4 chips could be for gaming.

The entry-level configuration of the M4 Mac mini is not only far more compact and also a bit cheaper than Sony’s PS5 Pro (which starts at $699 / £699 / AU$1,119.95), but on paper, it looks like it could potentially outperform the enhanced console. Of course, this might not translate into real-world superiority; optimizing a game for the PS5 is easier for developers, and the console’s bulky chassis means it has far better cooling than the tiny Mac mini. Still, Apple’s Macs are well within reach of providing strong competition in the gaming hardware scene, especially if game devs continue to port big titles to the platform.

We’ve already seen the level of backlash that came from the announcement of its price - there are a plethora of Windows gaming PC builds, that can perform closely to the PS5 Pro within a similar price bracket, so Apple’s Mac mini may leave many reconsidering the Pro console’s value and contemplating this tiny computer as their new living-room gaming machine…

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Tourists often visit sites marked by death, tragedy, and disaster out of macabre curiosity. What they typically find there is enlightenment, empathy, and a connection to history.