Volkswagen teased its tiny, affordable electric city car last month, when it released a series of gloomy images that hinted at a sportier, more aggressive EV to kickstart its line-up of battery-powered passenger cars.
Dubbed the ID.EVERY1 (we know, it’s a terrible name), the show car has now been revealed in all its boxy, flared-arch glory.
Standing at 3,880mm in length, it measures slightly longer than the old Up! (3,600mm) and is designed to sit between the upcoming ID.2all and the current Polo.
Aside from making us want to start a petition against utterly ridiculous vehicle names, the ID.EVERY1 looks slick, with animated front and rear lamps “welcoming” owners, lower front bumpers that offer a "smile" and massive 19-inch wheels that are engulfed by chunky, flared wheel arches.
It certainly moves the game on from the slightly weedy-looking Up! or yesteryear and it offers more interior roominess, too, with space for four people and a luggage compartment volume of 305 liters.
Image 1 of 6(Image credit: Volkswagen)Image 2 of 6(Image credit: Volkswagen)Image 3 of 6(Image credit: Volkswagen)Image 4 of 6(Image credit: Volkswagen)Image 5 of 6(Image credit: Volkswagen)Image 6 of 6(Image credit: Volkswagen)“A secret sauce element is the roof drawn in in the middle, as is usually known from sports cars,” says Volkswagen Head of Design Andreas Mindt.
Although this is a show car and isn’t the model that will make it on sale, VW has said that the concept reaches a top speed of 130 km/h (80mph) and is powered by a "newly developed" electric motor with 70 kW (95hp). The range is at least 250 kilometers - or around 155 miles in old money.
Very much aimed at the affordable small city car segment, which is currently dominated by things like the Fiat 500e, or the even cheaper Dacia Spring and recently-announced Leapmotor T03, it is designed to offer low-cost motoring without scrimping on VW’s reputation for quality.
Made "in Europe for Europe", the ID.1 - as we hope it will be badged - will start at around €20,000, or around £17,000 in the UK ($21,600 roughly converted).
This will see it kick off a range of nine new models by 2027 including the production version of the ID.2all and updated versions of the ID.3, ID.4 and ID.5.
VW gets back to doing what it does best (Image credit: Volkswagen)Despite the fact that the ID.EVERY1 will likely change considerably for this funky looking concept, it already boasts a number of neat and convenient features that help it stand out from the current crowd of basic, budget EVs.
There’s a large central infotainment system, complete with a neat row of physical buttons below that inside. The two-spoke steering wheel is also festooned with multi-function buttons that ensure not everything is committed to a fiddly touchscreen display.
Volkswagen also says that the front passenger side of the dash panel is designed to be ‘variable’. In essence, designers have created a dedicated rail that allow things, such as a tablet or a tray table, to be snapped into place.
The concept images also appear to show a small speaker system that can be clicked into place in the center console – or presumably removed and used as a Bluetooth sound system when picnicking or partying outside.
Taking a leaf out of Kia’s recent design book, the center console can also be used as an arm rest, or slid backwards and offered up as a handy stowage space for rear passengers.
Practical, useable and stylish, the ID.1 will hope to mimic the success of the long-standing Polo, perhaps not in the epic sales numbers but in the fact that it can introduce a fresh new audience to the brand with good looks, a modern interior and an attractive price.
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Eurocom, known for its powerful but expensive laptops, such as the Sky X4C, has released the Raptor X17, a mobile workstation which supports up to 24TB of NVMe SSD storage across three M.2 slots, including two PCIe 4.0 x4 and one PCIe 5.0 drive.
On the Raptor X17's configuration page, Eurocom says its new laptop is designed for professionals handling intensive workloads such as AI tools training, cybersecurity, and large-scale simulations.
At its heart is Intel’s Core i9-14900HX, a 24-core, 32-thread processor built for exceptional computational power, as the Intel HM770 PCIe 4.0 architecture enables high-speed data processing.
Eurocom Raptor X17 gets a power-packed upgradeThe Raptor X17 features Nvidia’s RTX 4090 mobile GPU with 9,728 CUDA cores and 304 Tensor AI cores. While the absence of an RTX 5090M may be disappointing, the RTX 4090M remains one of the most powerful mobile graphics cards available.
Users can configure storage with RAID 0, 1, or 5, optimizing for speed, redundancy, or a balance of both. The laptop also supports up to 128GB of DDR5 RAM, with speeds up to 5600MHz, ensuring smooth performance for memory-intensive applications.
Eurocom offers two display options: a 17.3-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) panel with a 240Hz refresh rate or a UHD (3840 x 2160) option with a 144Hz refresh rate.
The chassis is made from an aluminum-magnesium alloy, but this does not reduce its weight, as it comes in at 3.29 kg and 24.9 mm thick. While on the heavier side, it serves those who prioritize ruggedness and power.
For connectivity, this business laptop includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports, USB-C 3.2, three USB-A ports, HDMI 2.0, and dual Mini DisplayPort 1.4. It also features a built-in 2.5GbE Ethernet port with support for an additional LAN connection via Thunderbolt 4.
To sustain peak performance under heavy workloads, Eurocom has integrated an advanced cooling system to prevent thermal throttling. The laptop ships with a 780W AC adapter.
With a starting price of $12,000, the Eurocom Raptor X17 makes the MacBook Pro M4 Max, Apple’s most expensive laptop, seem reasonably priced by comparison. However, this mobile workstation is a premium option for users who need extreme performance and configurability.
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BYD has recently announced a new partnership with China’s top drone-maker DJI, stating that it has created an innovative launch pad that can be built into a number of its electric vehicles, allowing for drone take-offs and landing directly from the vehicle.
The Ling Yuan system, as it is known, consists of a bespoke ‘hangar’ system that is housed on the roof, which folds open to reveal a built-in DJI drone, as well as an automated system that both charges and swaps out depleted battery packs.
According to CNEV Post, the unit also has on-board positioning module, which we assume allows for greater accuracy when landing back in the hangar, as well as a bespoke Ling Yuan app that allows for quick movie edits on the go.
Apparently, the system supports ‘dynamic take-offs and landings”, with the drone able to be deployed and called home while the vehicle is traveling at 25km/h (or around 15mph). The drone can then follow the vehicle at speeds up to 54km/h (33mph) to snare dynamic footage.
A video posted by Shanghai Eye on YouTube (see above) shows the drone in action, with the driver of BYD’s electric SUV simply tapping a button on the infotainment system, whereby the Ling Yuan drone hangar opens on the roof and what appears to be a DJI Air 3 shoots into the sky.
The idea is that adventurous BYD owners can capture their various road trips and automotive escapades via the drone, whether that’s action-packed video clips or drone-based group shots with epic vistas in the background.
Analysis: BYD knows what gets tech-heads excited (Image credit: BYD)BYD is slowly making science-fiction a reality, whether that’s through its jumping Yangwang U9 supercar, which can leap over potholes, or its recently announced Blade Runner-inspired drone system that can automatically launch from the roof of an SUV.
It's all good fun, but there’s zero word on the legality or related safety implications of launching a drone from a moving vehicle, or the potential issues with multiple drones being launched at once to work out the cause of a traffic jam up ahead, for example.
It’s also not clear whether the Ling Yuang drone system has to be ordered at the point of purchase as an optional extra, or whether customers can retrofit it to existing BYD vehicles.
Either way, it’s a slightly madcap look at the future and proof that China is constantly innovating when it comes to ensuring the next generation of electric vehicles fit into increasingly tech-heavy lifestyles.
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While LLMs are used in natural sciences, their role in scientific discovery remains largely unexplored, and unlike many validation tools, LLM4SD explains its reasoning, making its predictions more transparent (and hopefully cutting down on hallucinations).
PhD candidate Yizhen Zheng from Monash University’s Department of Data Science and AI explains, “Just like ChatGPT writes essays or solves math problems, our LLM4SD tool reads decades of scientific literature and analyses lab data to predict how molecules behave - answering questions like, ‘Can this drug cross the brain’s protective barrier?’ or ‘Will this compound dissolve in water?’”
Simulating scientistsLLM4SD was tested over 58 research tasks across physiology, physical chemistry, biophysics, and quantum mechanics, and outperformed leading scientific models, improving accuracy by up to 48% in predicting quantum properties crucial for materials design. Zheng said, “Apart from outperforming current validation tools that operate like a ‘black box,’ this system can explain its analysis process, predictions and results using simple rules, which can help scientists trust and act on its insights.”
PhD candidate Jiaxin Ju from Griffith University said, “Rather than replacing traditional machine learning models, LLM4SD enhances them by synthesizing knowledge and generating interpretable explanations”.
The team views the tool as essentially “simulating scientists”. Professor Geoff Webb from Monash University stressed the importance of AI’s role in research. “We are already fully immersed in the age of generative AI and we need to start harnessing this as much as possible to advance science, while ensuring we are developing it ethically,” he said.
The research, published in Nature Machine Intelligence and available to view on the arXiv pre-print server, was a collaboration between Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Griffith University.
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The shot craft in PGA Tour 2K25 is exquisite and remains the best feature of the golf sports game from 2K in a series that has excelled in that area. The multi-layered parts of creating a shot, shaping it, thinking about contact and spin, and potentially utilizing specialist shots make the gameplay of 2K25 extremely enjoyable.
Review infoPlatform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: February 28, 2025
However, the game is not as strong in other areas, and still remains firmly in the shadow of its competition, namely EA Sports PGA Tour. There are some familiar frustrations when it comes to repetitive, underwhelming commentary and strange animation execution. There are also new annoyances like an abundance of obnoxious transition screens, but also oddities in things such as bag building and skill acquisition, while the absence of some major competitions and the most famous courses is still hard to ignore.
Having said that, 2K25 still represents a closing of the gap between it and its main rival a little bit, and the games may be even closer in years to come, especially if 2K25 can continue to build around its awesome shot craft and golf play.
(Image credit: 2K) The shot craft is strong in this oneShot craft is at the very core of what makes PGA Tour 2K25 fun and kept me devouring hole after hole, and tournament week after tournament week.
The series’ TrueSwing and EvoSwing features are quality and offer a high level of shot planning, execution, and feedback. In short, you can tailor your shots to conditions nicely and factor in strike, spin, and shaping, while EvoSwing’s feedback meter provides you with results in an instant covering contact, rhythm, transition, and swing path.
Throw in the fact that your golfer can smash 300-yard bombs off the tee right from the beginning, and you have the tools necessary to take on all the courses the game has to offer immediately. What helps this are the intuitive controls too: the analog sticks on the controller provide an intuitive way to swing your club, and the three-click method is present once again allowing for users to use one button and timing through visual prompts to nail their shots.
It’s worth mentioning here that although bombing drives for miles straight away is fun, the default difficulty of the game does make it easy to succeed at first: in my second round I shot a 58, 14 under par score. As a result, it’s definitely worth tinkering with the settings to find the right level of challenge; there’s plenty of customization here and it’s worth getting stuck into such as overall swing difficulty, swing bias settings, and even how many times you can use the putt preview line.
(Image credit: 2K) Career steps - and misstepsThe career mode in 2K25 offers more than its predecessor and begins with the option to choose from five different archetypes that will govern what kind of player you are. These are pretty broad brush stroke types like ‘magician’ for those good at recovery and ‘big hitters’ for those who crush the ball. There’s a good level of character customization on offer too so you should be able to bring your ideal golfing avatar to life.
The overall means to get into the MyCareer mode is straightforward, and you’ll soon be choosing where to start - in the amateur championships, or diving straight into the PGA Tour for example. Your player is pretty competent from the off and you’ll be competing in no time which is a real plus point of the game and its career mode if you value getting stuck into competitions with real players fast.
Player rivalries make a return but also in message form with other pros dropping you a line offering to create a friendly rivalry. This can add a bit of extra fun to succeeding rounds of golf, and you’ll get a reward for engaging them and winning - often a cosmetic. You’ll also get more social media followers too - though I am still to determine what the benefit of more followers actually is apart from it being a general measure of progression.
PGA Tour 2K25’s personality system is an interesting extra addition and your choices in conversations or interviews allow you to be more confident, bordering arrogant, about your game, or allow you to be a more humble or reserved person. From my time with the game, I haven’t seen any huge tangible benefit to either yet. Feeding into that are the aforementioned rivalries, but also sponsorships, and the game’s interview system.
This - along with the new chats with your agent - is another largely welcome one, but again, something that has its own oddities to raise an eyebrow. In one sense it’s great to see an expansion of the career to include media duties and make choices on how you want your avatar to behave and act in the world. On the other, it is strange to get asked questions about being the best of all time after three tournament wins, and, once again, see the same questions repeat quite often.
Best bitNailing a perfectly struck shot is incredibly satisfying in PGA Tour 2K25, and getting every single element of it right is as good as it gets. When you hit your first well-planned and thought-out shot to approach a tricky green by also hitting all of the sweet spots in contact, clubface, tempo, and wing path, the feeling is immensely satisfying.
Sponsorship agreements share this kind of double-edgedness too: it’s welcome to see your player get wooed and approached by big-name brands, but it’s also very jarring to get strange offers such as noted footwear and apparel brand FootJoy offering to provide my clubs. It might not mean much to most casual players, but those who will recognize brands and maybe even want their avatar to use them, are the same ones who will find it offputting.
These additions also give way to one of my particular gripes with PGA Tour 2K25: the sheer number of transition and loading screens. After every single action - be that a round, a chat with your agent, or an interview - you’ll have a transition screen pop up for a few seconds. The frequency is incredibly annoying, and having them pop up so regularly - especially when you’re in the groove of moving swiftly between tournament weeks because you want to play the golf part of the golf game - is incredibly disappointing.
The week of a tournament consists of a practice session and pre-tournament events which help to make each week feel more fulsome. Practice sessions can be used to hone specific skills in the week of the tournament if you wish, and pre-tournament events like practice rounds can familiarize you with some of the tournament's holes before the event. Sponsor events can then boost your progression with those sponsoring your apparel, clubs, and balls too. As a result, every week in the career mode is full of stuff to do which is excellent - especially as much of it is the wonderful shot-to-shot gameplay.
(Image credit: 2K) What's in the bag?There’s plenty of customization and development to get into in the area of skills and equipment. As you play you’ll acquire experience and skill points which you can use to unlock skills in broad-brush parts of your game such as shots from the tee, recovery play, and more. A lot of these skills are more about increasing forgiveness than anything but the ability to progress that they represent is welcome and satisfying.
Some attributes will be maxed out in line with your archetype which is broadly agreeable, but some skills and shots seem to be totally blocked off by that same choice. This also undermines the role-playing aspect of the game a little. You can bomb 300-yard drives straight away, but a power drive or shot has to be learned - or is unlearnable because I’m not the right archetype. My wedges are as effective as the tour professionals, but my player has to learn a choke down shot (gripping the club a little lower down the shaft). I chose ‘technician’ as my archetype and that meant a power shot or knockdown shot was just flat-out off the table for my player which seems like needless gatekeeping.
In terms of equipment, you can build several bags (like loadouts in shooters, for example) and simply playing with your clubs more and more leads to an increase in proficiency in them. The maximum for each skill is limited by your archetype, which is an interesting way of making you stick to a set of clubs to get more out of them. You can upgrade clubs and balls with bolt-on fittings to upgrade them and their qualities, and also evolve them into clubs of a new level over time too.
The level of flexibility in building your bag is good, though doesn't allow for complete and absolute choice. For example, I couldn’t pick a 58-degree wedge for my bag or even see any driving irons to pick. Spending a practice session on a driving skill can boost all of your clubs which is strange and negates the choice to focus on a single club a little - but I do wish my proficiency with one club making the rest of them better is something that would translate to my real-world game.
My experience with the amount of branded clubs to choose from has been disappointing as the range of club types is pretty small. In 2K23 I could recreate my own golf bag with all the 2022 clubs which allowed me to make my avatar more like myself. I can’t do that in 2K25.
(Image credit: 2K) One stroke forward, two strokes backSadly, the largely improved career mode and the moreishness of the gameplay and shot craft is held back by some familiar - and new - frustrations.
The commentary is still odd, repetitive, and underwhelming. I even had one time where the commentators were talking about a replay of a highlight clip over an entire hole that I subsequently played which had the commentary totally out of sync. It’s boring, low-energy, and - the cardinal sin in sports games - often repeats itself to the point of annoyance.
While pre-tournament practice sessions are welcome and the boosts to attributes offer something more, they’re subject to awkwardness; your character will do the same animations like they’ve just won a championship when saving par on a practice round hole, for example. On this note, I find that a golfer’s wrist on the trailing arm looks quite odd at address, as well, almost appearing as if it bulges forward strangely and is overpronounced.
The appearance of microtransactions isn’t too egregious or aggressive but it’s a shame they are deemed necessary in a golf game in which its other elements promote you and your player improving and getting better by simply playing.
For casual golf game fans, PGA Tour 2K25 still scratches many an itch, and the jump-in-and-play aspect is excellent, especially given the satisfaction of crafting great shots. Throw in some fun multiplayer modes like TopGolf, ongoing daily, weekly, and seasonal challenges and quests, and course design modes may well keep committed fans and players may well keep coming back for me with 2K25. For golf game fans like me who grew up with EA’s Tiger Woods series, however, 2K25 is better, but still not quite the right fit for those wanting a full role-playing experience.
As a result, the game still feels firmly in the shadow of its competitor, EA Sports PGA Tour. But, this isn’t a terminal comparison: there is much fun to be had with PGA Tour 2K25, and if you’re after an accessible, pick-up-and-play golf game for the current generation then this is it.
Should you play PGA Tour 2K25? Play it if...You want the best version of a great pick-up-and-play golf game
The fact that you can take on pretty much any golf course in PGA Tour 2K25 straight after booting is one of PGA Tour 2K25’s most compelling qualities; you can be crafting shots and winning tournaments minutes after starting the game.
You want excellent shot craft
The shot craft in PGA Tour 2K25 is its best and most polished quality. With a more restrained UI this time around, there’s still plenty to get into to prepare the best shot in your armory for each and every situation - and the payoff is oh-so-sweet when it goes well.
You want to tailor and customize your golf experience
While it lacks in some areas, the tinkering you can do in PGA Tour 2K25’s settings to find the right level of challenge is very welcome and will help committed players get more out of the game as the hours pile up.
You want some fun online golf multiplayer modes
Going online and competing against other real-life players in PGA Tour 2K25 is both exceptionally fun and easy to do; you can find some neat games to play against others efficiently.
You want to fully role-play as a golfer from hack to pro
You can boot up PGA Tour 2K25 and hit 300+ yard drives from the off, and some skills are totally locked depending on your archetype, so if you’re looking at something where you go on a full journey as a golfer, then you’re better off looking at EA Sports PGA Tour to scratch that itch.
You hate abundant transition and loading screens
The amount of transition screens in between, well, everything in PGA Tour 2K25 is frankly infuriating. Especially when one of the game’s strengths is how enjoyable the core golf play is once you’re in it, this really detracts from the experience.
You want to play all of the best courses and biggest tournaments
Once again PGA Tour 2K25 falls short here compared to its competition and if playing the likes of the Masters and all the other most famous courses are a priority for you then PGA Tour 2K25 won’t offer you that.
You can’t stand bad commentary
While the graphics are improved in PGA Tour 2K25 the commentating is (once again) repetitive, lacking enthusiasm, often badly timed, and seriously underwhelming.
PGA Tour 2K25’s main suite of accessibility features lies in its extensive difficulty options that can be tinkered with. There’s also the ability to choose between holding or toggling buttons for the swing mechanic and a host of display and HUD, camera, and audio options to choose from. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a setting to change the text size on screen or any colorblind options.
(Image credit: 2K) How I reviewed PGA Tour 2K25I played PGA Tour 2K25 for nearly 15 hours for this review, taking my created golfer deep into a second PGA tour season having started in the Korn Ferry Championship. While playing through the seasons, I toyed with all the possible ways to play a tournament’s game week and also dipped into several of the online multiplayer modes.
I tried both Performance and and Quality graphics modes - performance was my preference for the smoothness of swings and shots - tinkered with the difficulty settings to tailor my experience, snooped about the shop and store, and interrogated the skill trees and equipment options, while also going out of my way to compare it to EA Sports PGA Tour which I still dip into every now and then.
I reviewed the game on my two PlayStation 5 setups: a PS5 Slim with an Acer X32QFS gaming monitor and Yamaha SR-C20A soundbar; and a PS5 Pro with a Samsung Q6F 55-inch 4K QLED TV and Samsung soundbar. When needing to play with a headset, I played with a SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 on the PS5 Slim and a SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless with my PS5 Pro (there are no special settings for the Pro). I used a regular DualSense Wireless controller on both machines.
First reviewed March 2025