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President Trump's promise to crack down on immigration is moving forward today in two ways. And, Oscar nominations will be announced today after delays due to the Los Angeles wildfires.

(Image credit: J. Scott Applewhite)

• Hiscox study finds most firms who pay ransoms don't get their data back in full
• Victims also suffer reputational damage
• Many companies report losing customers and business partners

With ransomware attacks becoming ever more common, a firm’s response can be crucial to recovery and mitigating the damage of the attack.

A new study from Hiscox has revealed a good reason not to pay attackers, finding in the vast majority of cases, even when a ransom is paid, companies don’t get their information back.

The company found only 7% of firms recovered their data in full - and in fact, 1 in 10 of the businesses who pay the ransom still had their data leaked.

Reputations to ransom

Aside from the obvious impacts of financial loss and stress to those involved, ransom attacks also affect reputations of companies who fall victim.

The study found of those who experienced a ransomware attack in the last 12 months, a staggering 47% reported greater difficulty in attracting new customers, and 43% have lost customers.

“Hackers are holding reputations to ransom – and no business is too small to be at risk,” said Alana Muir, Head of Cyber at Hiscox UK.

Most businesses are worried about this too, with 61% of organizations believing that the reputational damage from a cyberattack would ‘significantly damage’ their business.

In 2024, the survey found over a third (38%) of companies that fell victim to a cyberattack also suffered bad publicity resulting in damage to brand reputation, and 21% also lost business partners, showing just how detrimental attacks can be, even beyond the attack itself.

The news comes shortly after the UK Government opened a consultation to consider banning the payment of ransoms by public institutions in the event of a ransomware attack, in efforts to make critical infrastructure a less attractive target, and to disrupt criminal’s sources of income.

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Commentary: A universal AI and better battery life might be previews of what's being announced later this year.

This week, we take a look at Meta's new era of content moderation.

When military personnel fire certain powerful weapons, they may be exposed to blast waves that damage blood vessels in the brain.

(Image credit: Stocktrek Images/Getty Images)

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 launches on January 28
• It adds loads of new Zombies content, including new map The Tomb
• This is in addition to a new Wonder Weapon, fresh GobbleGums, and more

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 launches on January 28 and brings a wealth of new content for Multiplayer. Black Ops 6 Zombies is also receiving some love, with plenty of big new additions.

The most significant is a whole new Zombies map, The Tomb. Set after the events of the Citadelle des Morts map, The Tomb sees protagonists Weaver, Maya, Carver, and Grey venture into a mysterious lost catacomb in the ongoing fight against the Dark Aether.

Throughout the adventure, you will be guided by a comms team of returning favorites S.A.M., Ravenow, Peck, Raptor One, and Strauss. They will be joined by the ghost of Sir Archibald, a deceased explorer from a doomed 1908 expedition into the area.

The map begins at the overground dig site, which soon gives way to ancient Neolithic Catacombs, imposing Tombs, a trap-laden Shrine, and finally a subterranean temple with a doorway to the otherworldly Dark Aether Nexus.

(Image credit: Activision)

You will have to face off with new enemies, including the Shock Mimic. It can disguise itself as key items, grabbing you for a powerful electric bite if you get too close. The usual legions of hostile zombies have also received a new look, dressed as ancient laborers, worshippers, and guards.

The Tomb will feature a new Wonder Weapon, the Staff of Ice. It creates a powerful freezing magic attack and can even revive downed teammates with a ranged restorative blast. Those who manage to complete the map’s main quest will obtain the X91 Ice-Pick Wonder Weapon Skin for the staff in addition to 5,000 XP and a unique Calling Card.

Death Perception, a perk machine from Black Ops 4, is also returning. As before it lets you see enemies through walls, but has been augmented by “new abilities” for Black Ops 6. Three new GobbleGums are on the way too. Dead Drop dramatically increases the drop rates for salvage and equipment, while Modified Chaos reduces Ammo Mod cooldowns. Finally, there’s Quacknarok - which doesn’t do anything other than give every zombie a hilarious rubber duck pool lounger.

Directed Mode, which guides you through the events of the Main Quest, is expected to launch alongside the Season 2 mid-season update.

Want to give Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 a try? The game is available now for PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

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• Black Ops 6 Season 2 release date and what to expect
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 will let you fight on a speeding bullet train in one of the coolest maps I've ever seen
• Former Nintendo CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé had high praise for Astro Bot, saying it 'almost outdid Nintendo at its own game'

• Nvidia has commanding lead over rivals in latest Adobe After Effects benchmarks
• Even lower-performance Nvidia GPUs outpace Intel and AMD cards
• But to Apple's credit, the M3 Max pulls ahead in 2D significantly despite its laptop form factor

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40-Series GPUs has shown off some significant advantages when it comes to dealing with 3D workflows over comparable Intel and AMD cards, new figures have claimed.

The latest Puget Systems After Effects benchmarks say Nvidia’s flagship GeForce RTX 4090 delivered up to 20 times the performance of Apple’s MacBook Pro M3 Max in 3D tasks; reflecting the card's technical design focus on GPU-intensive workloads.

The 4090, equipped with 24GB of GDDR6X memory and 16,384 CUDA cores, nearly doubles the performance of its own mid-range RTX 4060 in the Advanced 3D tests that utilize Adobe’s Advanced 3D rendering engine which is heavily dependent on GPU acceleration.

Nvidia RTX 4090 outperforms its rivals

Comparatively, the RTX 4060, featuring 8GB of GDDR6 memory and 3,072 CUDA cores, outpaces AMD’s flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which boasts 24GB of GDDR6 memory and 6,144 stream processors.

Despite its superior memory capacity, the Radeon GPU trails the RTX 4060 by 25% in overall 3D performance.

Intel’s Arc GPUs, such as the Arc B580 with 12GB of VRAM and 3,456 cores also fall short of Nvidia’s mid-range offerings, trailing the RTX 4060 by approximately 22%.

Apple’s M3 Max, equipped with 40 GPU cores, performs roughly 10 times slower than the RTX 4060 in GPU-accelerated 3D tasks.

However, while Nvidia leads in 3D rendering, Apple’s M3 Max performs well in 2D workflows due to its CPU efficiencies. The MacBook Pro excels in projects emphasizing 2D layers and effects, where GPU performance plays a secondary role. Nevertheless, for CPU-dependent tracking tasks, Nvidia and Apple systems perform similarly.

Nvidia owes its dominance in After Effects 3D workflows to its advanced GPU architecture and software integration. The RTX 4090, for instance, comes with technologies like the Ada Lovelace architecture and CUDA framework which optimizes 3D GPU performance.

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Netflix has just dropped its February 2025 schedule, and as a follow-up to its first streaming list of the year, I can't say that it packs a punch quite like what we saw last month. However, there's still a number of movies and shows that have caught my eye that I'm confident will find a place among the best Netflix movies and the best Netflix shows.

Despite it being on the sparse end this month, we still think that Netflix is one of the best streaming services out there, especially if you're big into reality TV. This month in particular, Netflix is doubling down in its reality TV content with the premiere of Love Is Blind season 8, and the brand new competition reality show Celebrity Bear Hunt. Reality TV aside, we also shelved Netflix's upcoming thriller series Apple Cider Vinegar as one of one-to-watch titles which will land on February 6.

On the upside, with February being as short as it is, it won't be much longer before Netflix switches up its catalog of entertainment again. In that case, I'm not dwelling on its slightly underwhelming list too much, and I'm hoping that March will be inundated with even more titles to welcome the spring.

Everything new on Netflix in February 2025

Arriving on February 1

SAKAMOTO DAYS (Netflix anime)
Cult of Chucky (movie)
From Prada to Nada (movie)
Happy Feet (movie)
Happy Feet Two (movie)
Home Improvement seasons 1-8 (TV show)
It (movie)
Magic Mike XXL (movie)
Miss Congeniality (movie)
The Nice Guys (movie)
Parasite (movie)
Queen & Slim (movie)
Richie Rich (movie)
Space Jam (movie)
Spanglish (movie)
Two Weeks Notice (movie)
The Wedding Planner (movie)

Arriving on February 2

The Founder (movie)

Arriving on February 3

Bogotá: City of the Lost (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 4

The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: The Week of January 24, 2025 (TV show)

Arriving on February 5

Alone Australia season 1 (TV show)
Celebrity Bear Hunt (Netflix original series)
Envious season 2 (Netflix original series)
Grimsburg season 1 (TV show)
Kinda Pregnant (Netflix original movie)
Prison Cell 211 (Netflix original series)
Sintonia season 5 (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 6

Apple Cider Vinegar (Netflix original series)
The Åre Murders (Netflix original series)
Cassandra (Netflix original series)
Golden Kamuy -The Hunt of Prisoners in Hokkaido (Netflix original series)
Supreme Models: Limited Series (TV show)
Sweet Magnolias season 4 (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 7

A Different World seasons 1-6 (TV show)
The Conners season 6 (TV show)
The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan (Netflix original series)
Pokémon Horizons: Season 2—The Search for Laqua part 1 (Netflix original series)
Wrong Side of the Tracks season 4 (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 8

SAKAMOTO DAYS (Netflix anime) (new episode)
Spencer (movie)

Arriving on February 10

Aftermath (movie)
American Pickers season 16 (TV show)
Rambo (2008) (movie)
Rambo: Last Blood (movie)
Surviving Black Hawk Down (Netflix documentary)

Arriving on February 11

Felipe Esparza: Raging Fool (Netflix comedy special)
The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: The Week of January 31, 2025 (TV show)
Peninsula (movie)
Train to Busan (movie)
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 12

Death Before the Wedding (Netflix original movie)
Honeymoon Crasher (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 13

Cobra Kai season 6 part 3 (Netflix original series)
Dog Days Out (Netflix original series)
The Exchange season 2 (Netflix original series)
La Dolce Villa (Netflix original movie)
Resident Alien season 3 (TV show)
Trial by Fire (movie)

Arriving on February 14

I Am Married...But! (Netflix original series)
Love Is Blind season 8 (Netflix original series)
Melo Movie (Netflix original series)
Valeria season 4 (Netflix original series)
Dhoom Dhaam (Netflix original movie)
Love Forever (Netflix original movie)
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (Netflix original movie)
Umjolo: There is No Cure (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 15

SAKAMOTO DAYS (Netflix anime) (new episode)

Arriving on February 16

Don't Let Go (movie)
Gold (movie)
Ted 2 (movie)

Arriving on February 17

Gabby's Dollhouse season 11 (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 18

Court of Gold (Netflix original series)
The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: The Week of February 7, 2025 (TV show)
Offline Love (Netflix original series)
Rosebud Baker: The Mother Lode (Netflix comedy special)

Arriving on February 19

My Family (Netflix original series)
To Catch a Killer (movie)

Arriving on February 20

Operation Finale (movie)
Zero Day (Netflix original series)

Arriving on February 22

SAKAMOTO DAYS (Netflix anime) (new episode)

Arriving on February 23

The 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (Netflix live event)

Arriving on February 25

Full Swing season 3 (Netflix original series)
The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: The Week of February 14, 2025 (TV show)
Really Love (movie)
Watcher (movie)

Arriving on February 26

Brooklyn Nine-Nine seasons 5-6 (TV show)
Miss Italia Mustn’t Die (Netflix original documentary)

Arriving on February 27

Demon City (Netflix original movie)
Running Point (Netflix original series)
Toxic Town (Netflix original series)
The Wrong Track (Netflix original movie)

Arriving on February 28

Aitana: Metamorphosis (Netflix original documentary)
Despicable Me 4 (movie)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (movie)
Squad 36 (Netflix original movie)

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Climate scientist Ben Hamlington works on understanding the impacts of climate change. Losing his house in the Eaton Fire has given that work new meaning.

(Image credit: Ryan Kellman)

From Superman to Captain America, M3GAN and Tron, just how many themed popcorn buckets can one fan buy?

Now-fixed web bugs allowed hackers to remotely unlock and start millions of Subarus. More disturbingly, they could also access at least a year of cars’ location histories—and Subaru employees still can.

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• Nvidia has said it isn’t ‘expected’ that cable melting issues will happen with the RTX 5090
• The company reminded us about the changes made to the 16-pin power connector after the RTX 4090 ran into issues
• However, a California-based repair shop has flagged up separately that it still fixes melted RTX 4090s on a ‘daily’ basis

Nvidia has assured us that the RTX 5090 GPU is “not expected” to have any issues with melting power connectors, as seen with the RTX 4090 (and we’ll come back to dive into the history, and current situation with the Lovelace flagship, later in this article).

South Korean tech site Quasarzone published an article detailing Nvidia’s ‘RTX AI’ day which includes a Q&A session (noticed by VideoCardz), and one of the questions asked was on the subject of the 16-pin power connectors used by the RTX 4090, and also employed in the imminent RTX 5090.

An attendee at the event noted that there was an issue with the connector melting due to overheating with the RTX 4090, and asked: “Has this been resolved with the RTX 5090?”

An Nvidia representative replied: “It is expected that such issues will not occur with the RTX 50 series. In response to the issue at the time, some changes were made to the connectors, and after about two years, we believe these problems have been resolved.”

I should note that this is translated from Korean, and we should bear that firmly in mind in terms of the accuracy of what’s been said here, and the exact meaning, but the gist is clear enough.

Analysis: Power paranoia

Okay, time to hit the rewind button for a moment. You might remember the melting cable affair with the Lovelace flagship GPU when it first came out, but it’s worth indulging in a quick recap. (Or if you want the full background, head here first).

In a nutshell, this was a problem with the 16-pin connector (12VHPWR) from the PC’s power supply to the RTX 4090 graphics card not being seated properly in the card, and overheating as a result. If that overheating got to a critical enough level, the plastic would start to melt (and a poor connection was more likely if the adapter had to be bent round at a sharper than ideal angle, due to space issues inside the PC case).

Following the emergence of these reports of melting adapters, Nvidia brought in a new 16-pin power connector design (12V-2x6, a revision of 12VHPWR) to mitigate the possible fire risk of a loosely seated connector.

Essentially, Nvidia put the problem down to a user error (not ensuring the connector was plugged in fully), then moved to change the connector to minimize any chance of that happening. This connector revision involved making changes to the length of the pins, including making the ‘sense’ pins shorter, so that if the connector isn’t fully seated, or it loosens and starts to fall out, the graphics card will power down and not work (rather than continue to operate and cause the overheating issue).

This will be the same situation for the RTX 5090, so the safety aspect should be fine, or that’s the assertion Nvidia is making here. Except that there’s a notable nuance in the (translated) language here having been couched in terms of it being ‘not expected’ that any melting issues will happen with the RTX 5090.

That’s not a cast-iron ruling out of any problem, but of course we must be wary around the translation from Korean, as already noted. The additional worry with the RTX 5070 is that it seriously ups the power usage to 575W (at least, compared to 450W with the RTX 4090), but despite that, Nvidia is saying it doesn’t expect to see any problems with melting connectors.

The other concern here, as VideoCardz points out, is that while the Nvidia rep observes that after two years the melting cable problems with the RTX 4090 appear to have been resolved, there were still reports of this happening throughout 2024 – and even as recent as this month, January 2025. That’s according to NorthridgeFix (a tech repair shop in California, US), which claims to be getting RTX 4090 boards with melted connectors on a daily basis still.

So, there’s a level of paranoia here, and that’s not unexpected in itself, particularly given, as noted, how much further the RTX 5090 pushes with its power consumption compared to its predecessor.

Ultimately, the proof will be in the power cable pudding (there’s an unenticing sounding dessert), and how folks get on with the new flagship GPU when it’s released. Until then, we obviously can’t judge the RTX 5090 on the melting score, but you’d hope that one way or another, this is an issue that it would’ve been an absolute priority for Nvidia to design against and fully put to bed.

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• The FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano is DAC/amp with playback controls
• 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm headphone sockets
• $59.99 / £59.99 / about AU$117

When is a music player not a music player? The new FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano is being pitched as a music player, but it really isn't.

So what is it? Well the first clue is it having the words BLUETOOTH AMP plastered across the front of its wonderfully Walkman-esque casing, and the words "Bluetooth and DAC Headphone Amplifier" printed on the back. What we have here, I say from underneath my deerstalker hat while puffing on a pipe, could well be a Bluetooth and DAC headphone amplifier.

So it's not a music player. But it is a well-specified amp and DAC that can upgrade the sound of, control the playback from, and make and receive calls via your phone or your laptop.

(Image credit: FiiO) FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano: key features and pricing

The FiiO Snowsky Retro Nano has a CS43131*2 DAC and supports PCM sampling of up to 16-bit/96kHz. There's Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX, aptX Adaptive and LDAC for streaming from your phone, and there's a little 0.96-inch TFT display that can make it look like you're listening to a very small cassette, which is a lovely touch.

It's very small – 55.1 x 37.5 x 13.7mm, much smaller than a credit card – and very light too, coming in at 28.3g with its removable battery included. That way smaller a lot of the best portable DACs with wireless skills.

Connection-wise there are both 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs as well as USB-C. And the physical buttons enable you to skip tracks, adjust the volume, change the mode and navigate the menu.

You can kind of think of it a way to take the best wired headphones and go wireless, adding playback controls that they may not have built-in.

The FiiO Control app works with both iOS and Android and you can use the device with your laptop via USB. We've been consistently impressed with FiiO's value audiophile gear, from its FiiO FT5 headphones to the FiiO M11S portable music player – and that one is, for sure, a music player, topping our list of the best hi-res music players.

The Snowsky Retro Nano is available now for $59.99 / £59.99 / about AU$117.

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• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 arrives on January 28
• It introduces loads of new maps, weapons, and modes
• This is on top of balance changes, fixes, and a Terminator crossover event

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 is almost here, with the upcoming batch of live service content for the popular multiplayer shooter set to arrive on January 28. With a wealth of new maps, modes, and weapons, it comfortably has some of the most exciting additions yet.

For me, the new multiplayer maps are the highlight here. There will be three available at launch, Bounty, Dealership, and Lifeline. All three are brand-new environments built for Black Ops 6 and seem like a nicely varied selection. Bounty is set at the top of a fancy skyscraper, with a nightclub, rooftop, office, lobby and more.

As the name would suggest, Dealership then takes place in a car dealership - but with an interesting twist. The dealership is actually a front for an arms smuggling gang, its large showroom giving way to a sinister weapons black market. While both of these maps are geared towards 6v6 matches, Lifeline is something of a more compact environment that can be played in both 6v6 and 2v2 modes. It’s a small boat, named the Lifeline, which is moving quickly through choppy waters.

That’s not all, however, as two other maps are also being added throughout the season. The all-new Bullet is easily the coolest looking to me, letting you fight through a speeding bullet train which feels like a scene ripped straight out of a Bond movie. Playable in both 2v2 and 6v6, its tight corridor layout looks absolutely perfect for XP grinding too so I’m looking forward to putting in the hours to level up my gear.

(Image credit: Activision)

The final map is a remaster of Grind, which was first featured in Black Ops 2 though I am most familiar with the Black Ops 4 version. This arena-style skatepark map is decent enough, but I personally prefer exploring layouts that we haven’t seen before.

Of course, no Call of Duty season would be complete without a smattering of new modes too. Overdrive is a brand new mode that will be available at launch, challenging you to earn stars through eliminations, headshots, and takedowns. Collecting set numbers of stars activates bonuses, such as the ability to see enemies through walls, increased movement and reload speed, or improved handling.

The classic Gun Game is also coming back, improving your gear through up to 20 different loadouts with every kill. Two limited time modes are dropping in time for Valentine's Day, the aptly named Third Wheel Gunfight and Couples Dance Off.

Two new Perks, a new Wildcard, and a new Scorestreak are being added throughout Season 2. Enforcer Perk Hunter’s Instinct increases your sprinting speed, while cutting down your Tac Sprint. Activision hasn’t revealed the name of the other perk yet, but we do know that it will highlight the next closest enemy with each successful elimination.

The new Wildcard, Flyswatter, is going to be a blessing for those sick of dying to chopper gunners or other Scorestreaks, as it lets you replace your melee weapon with a launcher. As for the new Scorestreak, War Machine is coming back - letting you call in a powerful cluster grenade launcher that’s perfect for clearing out campers.

This is all on top of four newly revealed weapons, the fast-firing PPSh-41 SMG, the reliable Cypher 091 assault rifle, the remarkably compact Feng 82 LMG, and the precise TR2 marksman rifle. These are joined by a variety of new weapon attachments, most interestingly a whole crossbow that you can stick to the bottom of your gun, plus plenty of balance changes, fixes, new bundles, a fresh battle pass, and even a Terminator crossover event.

If you’re interested in diving into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 just in time for Season 2, the game is available now for PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

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• Reggie Fils-Aimé, former Nintendo of America CEO, had positive things to say about Astro Bot
• The PS5 exclusive took Game of the Year at the New York Game Awards
• It was also awarded Best Kids Game and Best Music in a Game

Former Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé has praised Team Asobi's PS5 hit Astro Bot as it claimed yet another Game of the Year accolade - this time at the New York Game Awards 2025.

“So I have to admit it, Astro Bot almost outdid Nintendo at its own game,” said Fils-Aimé (via VGC), who played host at the New York Game Awards. Not only did Astro Bot take 'Best Game of the Year' at the event, it also scooped up awards for 'Best Music in a Game' and 'Best Kids Game'.

Across all three categories it won, Astro Bot beat some stiff competition from the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Black Myth: Wukong and Metaphor: ReFantazio. Other winners included UFO 50 for 'Best Indie Game', Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree for 'Best World' and Zenless Zone Zero for 'Best Mobile Game'.

Remedy's Sam Lake, previously responsible for games like Alan Wake 2, Control and Max Payne, was also presented with the 'Andrew Yoon Legend Award'.

It's not the first time Astro Bot has come up in conversation in relation to Nintendo. When the game took the coveted Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2024, Team Asobi creative director Nicolas Doucet said the game was greatly inspired by classic Nintendo titles like Super Mario Bros.

Astro Bot has also been receiving plenty of free post-launch content since release. This includes a set of speedrun challenge levels, as well as a unique Christmas-themed stage which threw in a bunch of new costumes and classic PlayStation cameos.

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This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

Sometimes, numbers can’t do justice to products. In fact, if you judged this monitor by numbers alone then it wouldn’t even win an award, let alone the Labs Winner gong. No matter how well it might perform in technical tests, there was one number that would always rule them all: the price. It’s more than three times as expensive as the award-winning Iiyama ProLite XUB3293UHSN-B5, despite them sharing the same 4K resolution and 31.5in screen diagonal, and scoring similarly in our tests.

We think the Iiyama is great – and stupendous value – but the Eizo will make you go “wow” in a way that no other monitor on test here can. Much of the credit for this must go to the combination of a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and the color characteristics of an IPS panel. Aside from mini-LED panels, we’ve never been hit so forcefully between the eyes when looking at photos or films. Couple that with gorgeous whites and it’s the best all-round image quality we’ve seen in a monitor this size.

(Image credit: Future)

Naturally, you also benefit from the extras offered by Eizo monitors. Let’s start with the OSD, as this is not only incredibly intuitive and speedy – Eizo provides the best OSDs here by some margin – but also offers the ability to tweak colors to fine margins. Head into the Advanced Settings, for instance, and you can control hue, saturation and gain.

However, you’ll probably find it easier to switch between the presets. Those are sRGB, Paper, Movie and DICOM (for medical environments), plus two user-defined slots. The sRGB preset is particularly impressive, locking the panel down to exactly 94% of the gamut, without any spillover, and with an excellent –albeit not exceptional in this month’s company – average Delta E of 0.61. Switch to Movie and it leaps from 66% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut to 87% – again, with no leakage and strong accuracy.

While you don’t get the high-end color control provided by Eizo’s ColorEdge monitors, nor its ColorNavigator software, Eizo’s InStyle software is worth the 6.6MB download. Connect over USB-C or USB-B and you can save your color preferences (useful if you connect to different Eizo screens in a hotdesking office) and activate the circadian dimming option – this gradually shifts the color temperature over the course of a day. The separate InStyle server tool offers some basic management for IT teams, too, so long as the monitor is connected via the wired network port. Useful if you want to prevent users pushing up the brightness too high or control how quickly its Power Save mode kicks in.

The solid stand offers plenty of adjustment options (Image credit: Future)

There are plenty of ways for users to control how much energy this monitor draws, too. Activate the EcoView mode in the OSD and it will change the brightness based on the ambient light conditions, and if you want to take manual control then it goes all the way from 1cd/m2up to 400cd/m2(despite its official peak of 350cd/m2).

As with the ColorEdge, you also benefit from a generous five-year warranty with the promise of on-site swapouts if something goes wrong. We also love how easy it is to set up Eizo monitors: they come ready assembled, so it’s simply a matter of lifting them into place.

Here, despite what looks like a pair of fixed feet, the stand delivers a huge amount of flexibility. You can rotate through 45° in either direction, tilt it up 35°, adjust the height by an astonishing 195mm and pivot it 90° into portrait mode (imagine having two of these monitors side by side). We love the sleek bezels, too, giving the monitor a more modern look than previous Eizo screens.

Eizo provides a generous number of ports, with a pair of HDMI inputs and a DisplayPort alongside USB-C. Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports sit at the rear, too, with one more to the side next to a USB-C downstream port for connecting peripherals. This delivers up to 15W of power while the main USB-C connector can feed up to 94W.

Eizo provides a generous number of ports, including RJ45 (Image credit: Future)

There are even a pair of 3.5mm jacks, one for a mic and the second for headphones. You may never need this, though, as a pair of impressive 2W speakers round off the FlexScan’s features. While they don’t offer the miracle of a strong bass response, they’re a surprisingly good choice for listening to music. You may even decide you don’t need a separate pair of speakers.

Admittedly, that £50 saving only fills a small part of the nigh-on £1,500 you’ll need to pay for this monitor. Despite the many advantages offered by the FlexScan EV3240X over Iiyama’s far cheaper rival, that’s tough to justify. But trust us when we say that if you find the extra budget for this monitor, you’ll appreciate the purchase years after the pain of paying the bill has gone.

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Hundreds of same-sex couples tied the knot across Thailand on Thursday, as the country becomes the first in Southeast Asia to legally recognize equal marriage.

(Image credit: Chanakarn Laosarakham)

• Google is planning to tweak its Emergency SOS feature on Pixel Watch
• Code suggests it plans to introduce an extra gesture to the process
• This appears to be aimed at reducing the frequency of accidental emergency calls.

New code spotted in the latest Pixel Watch app appears to suggest that Google is working on a tweak to its Emergency SOS feature that will make pocket-dialing emergency services less likely in the future.

While the Emergency SOS features on the best iPhones, smartwatches, and devices like the Google Pixel Watch 3 can be indispensable in life-or-death situations, adding easy access to emergency calling from a smart device inevitably leads to some accidental calls. A quick glance at Reddit will show you both Pixel Watch and Apple Watch users struggling with the problem.

To that end, Android Authority reports that Google is preparing a new 'Touch & hold to call' option that should reduce those accidental calls. Specifically, strings (lines of code) reveal the feature's name and how it works: "On your watch, quickly press the crown 5 times, then touch & hold the screen for 3 seconds to call for help."

It seems this new feature will be one of two options for emergency call settings because there's also an "automatic call" option listed that will still dial 911, 999, or the emergency number wherever you are, after you press the crown five times.

Combatting rogue emergency calls

Apple Watch models are also vulnerable to pocket dials (Image credit: Future)

As mentioned, pocket-dialing the emergency services from your smartphone or smartwatch isn't a new phenomenon.

When Apple first introduced Crash Detection to the iPhone 14 back in 2022, the company quickly found itself dealing with complaints of calls being triggered in non-emergency situations. Notably, a 911 dispatch center near a Cincinnati amusement park received six such calls from iPhone owners riding rollercoasters.

Later that year, a Colorado ski town dispatch center fielded 71 automated calls from iPhones and Apple Watches in a single weekend.

As you can imagine, the problem is a massive drain on emergency resources. The calls take up the airwaves for dispatch centers, and emergency responders are usually sent to accidental calls to check the location. “We are not in the practice of disregarding calls," a dispatch director told The Colorado Sun in 2022.

In 2021, a Wisconsin county sheriff's office revealed it had taken more than 700 accidental 911 calls triggered by iPhones in a single year, revealing in the process the one thing you should never do if you accidentally call 911.

Next time you accidentally dial 911, stay on the line and let the dispatcher know you're alright – don't hang up the phone.

There's no timeframe for the release of this leaked feature, but with code present in the latest Pixel Watch app beta, it's unlikely to be far away.

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