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If you’re going to get serious about money management then it’s a good idea to explore the best budgeting apps and personal finance software. However, if you’re after a free quick fix for your finances then NerdWallet is well worth investigating.

This is a quirky little package that works best in its app incarnation for both iOS and Android, allowing quick and easy access to lots of features and functions on the move. However, the desktop website edition offers another useful perspective on your finances, so to get the best from the NerdWallet arsenal of money tools, it’s probably best to use both from time to time.

This convenience aspect is a big pull factor for NerdWallet users, who once they’ve imported all their financial transactions into the software, can check income and expenditure in one fell swoop.

• Want to try NerdWallet? Check out the website here

Of course, being free means that NerdWallet does have to raise revenue in other ways, which largely revolves around offering financial products and services from within the software itself. If you can live with that aspect, rather than spending money on more complex and ad-free personal finance software, it makes a lot of sense.

NerdWallet comes in desktop and app editions and can be used for free. (Image credit: NerdWallet) NerdWallet: Pricing

NerdWallet is currently free to use, both in its desktop guise and also as the app edition, which is available for both iOS and Android. While there is no fee to pay for enjoying NerdWallet, there is a focus on the software offering finance-related deals and offers, which isn’t at all unreasonable given the overall appeal of the package.

NerdWallet offers a range of financial tools within its slick interface. (Image credit: NerdWallet) NerdWallet: Features

One of the most appealing features of NerdWallet is its capacity for giving you access to your credit score. This can be incredibly useful for checking its current status, but also for learning about how to improve it and, also, for spotting anything that might not be right. Nestling within NerdWallet are nudges towards financial products, but that’s still worth living with for the valuable insight the software gives about your financial wellbeing.

The credit score information is dynamic too, so is useful for getting an up-to-date overview of your current financial situation as well as piecing together a more historical picture. There’s also a neat credit simulator that can help give users an idea of what would happen if a new credit card is applied for and so on. This all works nicely alongside allowing users to keep a close eye on incomings and outgoings from their bank accounts and other financial interests.

NerdWallet rounds out the appeal with a comprehensive helping of advice shop features, which can help shine the light on any aspects of personal finance that you’re not really sure about. Used regularly, the package really can help with becoming more knowledgeable about money matters.

The NerdWallet app experience offers an insight into finances on the go. (Image credit: NerdWallet) NerdWallet: Performance

There’s a lot to like about NerdWallet and one of its most appealing aspects is the slick and simple interface of both the app editions and the desktop website. It all runs very well and, while there are financial deals and offers present on that journey, this is never enough to make you feel like going elsewhere to one of the rivals.

NerdWallet: Ease of use

As you’d expect from a quick and easy app, NerdWallet is equally straightforward to get to grips with. There’s a short sign-up process, which requires users to input personal information including a social security number, along with any relevant bank account details where the system pulls in transactional records from. It’s all well laid-out and NerdWallet follows all the same security protocols as other competitors in the personal finance space.

The app is also wonderfully simple to operate and, unlike some rival products, is easy to pick up and get the hang off. Rather than giving the user too much information, the NerdWallet approach is more minimalist and tailored. This is another aspect that makes NerdWallet useful for anyone who’s time poor and frequently checks their finances while they’re on the go, or in transit.

Meanwhile, the desktop experience is similarly slick, although it’s interesting to note that neither have exactly the same level of features and functions. It therefore makes sense to use the two in tandem where possible, though you don’t need to do this at the same time, obviously.

NerdWallet is easy to use either via the desktop website or the excellent app. (Image credit: NerdWallet) NerdWallet: Support

A big part of the appeal of NerdWallet is the wealth of help that’s on tap, with lots of guides and advice available for no cost at all. Using the app edition, or even the desktop incarnation for that matter, is also very straightforward, so there’s really not too much that can go wrong. Setup is a no-nonsense affair, but if you do run into problems there is plenty of guidance on offer to help get you back on track, plus a support email address for registered users.

NerdWallet: Final verdict

NerdWallet has to make money somehow, so this app and website combination does present users with deals and offers along the way. However, there’s no escaping the usefulness of NerdWallet, both for getting an overview of personal finances but also for getting monetary matters into better shape. Anyone looking for a quick and easy way to do this should investigate it, although there are rivals out there that offer similarly useful options, albeit for a fee.

• We've also highlighted the best tax software

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• Nick Clegg announces Meta departure in a Facebook post
• The news comes weeks ahead of President-elect Trump inauguration
• Clegg will assist with handover to former Republican Joel Kaplan for several months

Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has confirmed he will be stepping down from his global affairs position at Meta after a six-year tenure.

“As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta," Clegg wrote in a Facebook post to his profile.

Clegg’s deputy Joel Kaplan has been confirmed as his successor, with Kevin Martin taking over Kaplan’s role as VP for Global Policy.

Clegg steps down from Meta role

The news comes weeks before Trump takes office, with the President-elect a hostile opponent to Meta in the past.

Trump previously threatened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with imprisonment if he interfered with the election, and even called Meta an “enemy of the people” despite having ties to Elon Musk and his social networking platform, X.

In the Facebook post announcing his departure, Clegg described Zuckerberg as “one of the most consequential innovators and business leaders of our times.”

Clegg also highlighted a shift in the relationship between big tech and “the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms” during his time with the company.

Prior to his role at Meta, Kaplan served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff under President George W Bush.

Clegg stated: “Joel is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time - ideally placed to shape the company’s strategy as societal and political expectations around technology continue to evolve.”

Clegg will continue to work with Meta for “a few months” in order to ensure a smooth transition.

Zuckerberg commented: “You've made an important impact advancing Meta's voice and values around the world.”

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• A royalty-free alternative to Dolby Atmos for TVs and soundbars
• Coming to all 2025 Samsung TVs and soundbars
• YouTube is the only big streamer currently committed to the format

Back in 2023, Samsung and Google announced that they would launch a new Dolby Atmos-rivalling immersive audio format in 2024. That launch was delayed, but not by much: it's going to be shown off at CES 2025, and will arrive in Samsung's 2025 TVs and be available on YouTube too.

The format was originally given the unmemorable name of IAMF, short for Immersive Audio Model and Formats. But the branding folks have been in, and the format is now called Eclipsa Audio, which is… well, it's a bit of an improvement.

As Samsung explains, the new format is coming to every one of its (currently unannounced) 2025 models "from the Crystal UHD series to the premium flagship Neo QLED 8K models". Samsung has a number of entries on our list of the best TVs and best soundbars, so we'd expect the same from its 2025 range.

A total Eclipsa for art

Eclipsa is part of a wider effort by Google and Samsung to take on Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision by using Eclipsa Audio and HDR10+ instead.

Dolby's technologies require paid licenses for manufacturers, but these audio and video tech options are intended to be royalty-free, and the underlying tech is open source, enabling others to freely use and modify it. Given the absolutely tiny profit margins in the TV manufacturing industry, you can see why royalty-free audio and video tech might be appealing to TV makers.

The hard bit isn't the tech, though. It's getting the world to adopt it. And for now, only some of the world can. For the time being, you'll only be able to experience Eclipsa on a 2025 Samsung device. And while Samsung is going to sell a lot of TVs and soundbars in 2025, the total number of Eclipsa-compatible devices is still going to be tiny compared to the number of Dolby Atmos ones.

The format also needs to be adopted by streaming firms. For now, the only one on board is YouTube – and the big follow-up question is whether production companies will start producing shows and movies in the new format even if streamers support it. It's all very chicken-and-egg.

It's a challenge, but Samsung is optimistic: in a press release it points out that "with the largest market share over 75 inches worldwide, Samsung TVs are poised to make this groundbreaking technology accessible to more consumers than ever before."

Samsung and Google will be demonstrating their new TV audio tech at CES next week and of course, we'll be there to tell you all about it.

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TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

• Apple has agreed to settle class-action lawsuit over Siri complaints
• Victims reported brands mentioned in private conversations later appearing in targeted advertisements on their Apple devices
• Tens of millions may be affected, but Apple didn't admit wrongdoing

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit after its device owners claimed Siri disclosed private conversations to advertisers.

Per Reuters, the case in the Oakland, California federal court, Lopez et al v. Apple Inc, revolves around unintentional activation of Siri during phone calls, resulting in Apple disclosing snippets of conversation to advertisers.

Despite voice assistants usually only activating with a wake word or phrase (think “Alexa” or, here, “Hey, Siri”), plaintiffs in the lawsuit claimed they had been served advertisements for brand name products in what they believed were confidential conversations.

Siri privacy lawsuit

The class action period ranges from September 17, 2014, the introduction of the “Hey, Siri” wake phrase, through to December 31, 2024. Tens of millions of people could receive up to $20 per Siri-equipped device, including iPhones and Apple Watches.

Apple was tight-lipped when approached for comment on the settlement, though it has explicitly denied wrongdoing in court.

Reuters notes $95 million is just nine hours worth of profit for Apple, making this latest class action against a big tech company yet another example of such actions being factored in as a business cost.

Elsewhere, a case against Google in relation to its own Voice Assistant is ongoing in the San Jose, California Federal Court, and it’s hard to imagine that the outcome won’t be similarly inconsequential.

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• The Call of Duty Squid Game event has arrived
• It features new modes and operator skins
• There is also an Event Pass with free skins to earn

A new Squid Game crossover event has arrived in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in collaboration with Netflix. It introduces new in-game multiplayer modes, free rewards, and plenty of cosmetic skins.

The highlight for me is the introduction of the Red Light, Green Light multiplayer mode which lets you recreate the iconic death game from the show. It’s divided into three rounds, with players attempting to reach a finish line under the watchful eye of the creepy Young-hee doll.

You can only move when the doll says ‘Green Light’, with unlucky players immediately executed if they fail. Interestingly, weapons are introduced in rounds two and three allowing you to speed up the game by eliminating other players yourself.

It’s not the only new mode, however, as there is also Pentathlon - which mixes Domination, Kill Confirmed, and Hardpoint with the all-new Piggy Bank Team Deathmach and Roulette. Piggy Bank Team Deathmatch sees each elimination contribute to a Mega Piggy Bank, which rewards a massive payout during the match.

Roulette rewards players for scoring eliminations with the Roulette Handgun, which has a small chance of killing you every time it is fired.

The Squid Game Moshpit seems to offer a more traditional multiplayer experience, though it does have some interesting twists. It includes Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Hardpoint but with new Squid Game inspired mechanics. This includes the Red Light, Green Light Scorestreak, a Piggy Bank which can drop on eliminations for added score, and the Roulette Handgun.

Zombies is also getting the Squid Game treatment with new Squid Game variants of Liberty Falls and Citadelle des Morts. These feature distinct Green Light and Red Light phases, with the latter draining Essence from players that move. There’s also a Dead Light phase, which spawns more powerful enemies.

Things are getting squiddy over in Call of Duty: Warzone too, with new Squid Game challenges for players to master.

(Image credit: Activision)

Earned XP across Black Ops 6 and Warzone contributes to the new Squid Game Event Pass, which is free for all players. There is also an optional Premium Track, which costs 1,100 COD Points. The free path contains two operator skins (the ‘Player 006’ skin for Niran and the ‘Player 115 Skin’ for Maya) in addition to a new melee weapon. Those who purchase the Premium Track can bag new weapon Blueprints, plus the exclusive Front Man operator.

Finally, three new Squid Game bundles are dropping in the in-game store. This includes the Squid Game 2: Pink Guards Tracer Pack, Squid Game 2: The VIPs Tracer Pack, and the Squid Game 2: Young-hee Tracer Pack. The latter gives you the seriously creepy Young-hee operator, plus a new finishing move and some other digital goodies.

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• The Galaxy S25 is rumored to come with lots of new AI features
• Details of these features don't appear to have leaked yet
• Four new phones are due to launch later this month

We're patiently counting down the days to the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S25 – Wednesday, January 22 is rumored to be the big day – and a fresh leak around the handset suggests there are plenty more AI features arriving with the new phone.

This comes from @UniverseIce, who is right about mobile industry predictions more often than not. The tipster says the Galaxy S25 "will tell Apple what leading AI is" and that "many new AI functions of S25 have not been leaked so far".

Of course, it wouldn't come as a surprise if Samsung introduced new AI features at the same time as its flagship phones for 2025 – it's been busy pushing Galaxy AI for the past year, after launching a range of features alongside the Galaxy S24 handsets.

But the mention of a lot of as-yet-unrevealed AI features is intriguing. What could Samsung be planning to add to its handsets for 2025, on top of what we've already heard about (the upgraded version of Bixby, for example)?

Galaxy AI for 2025

Samsung Galaxy S25 will tell Apple what leading AI is.Many new AI functions of S25 have not been leaked so far, which is very surprising to me.January 3, 2025

Samsung has already covered a lot of the obvious ground when it comes to AI. You can already create AI images and get live translations between languages on the Samsung phones that are currently available, for example.

That makes it difficult to predict what this leak could be talking about – especially as it specifies that the Galaxy S25 rumors haven't previously covered it. More camera enhancements are a possibility, as are more text creation tools.

We could potentially get more AI agent features, in terms of tools that actually take control of your phone and do jobs for you – like queueing up a Spotify playlist or ordering an Uber. There may also be features to help you better manage your digital information.

Samsung has already said that One UI 7 (Samsung's take on Android 15) will be launching alongside the Galaxy S25 phones, which may well have some AI upgrades included – and which could eventually make their way to older handsets as well.

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A network of Facebook pages has been advertising “fuel filters” that are actually meant to be used as silencers, which are heavily regulated by US law. Even US military officials are concerned.

At $21, this two-in-one charger is sure to make your power needs that little bit easier to fulfil.

• Nvidia RTX 5090 and 5080 are rumored to have increased power usage
• RTX 5090 may demand 575W, slightly less than some previous rumors
• RTX 5080 could hit 360W, which unfortunately is slightly up from past speculation

Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and 5080 are expected to be revealed at CES 2025 – likely alongside RTX 5070 models, too – and we’ve just heard more about the possible power consumption of these next-gen GPUs.

VideoCardz noticed that two regular hardware leakers on X, Hongxing2020 and Kopite7kimi, have chimed in with purported power figures for these Blackwell GeForce graphics cards.

2025.1.3 updatenext gen 90 ->575WJanuary 3, 2025

Assuming their beliefs are on the money, the former leaker put forward the assertion that the RTX 5090 will demand 575W in terms of power consumption, and then Kopite7kimi replied with the claim that the recently spotted RTX 5080 is going to chug 360W of power.

No clarification is provided as to how big these GPUs might be, and whether the RTX 5090 will be kept down to a two-slot graphics card, which is the follow-up question that several denizens of X posed on the above thread.

(Image credit: Future) Analysis: Sizing up next-gen options

The reason folks are asking about the size of the next-gen flagship graphics card – apart from that it’s an obvious point of curiosity, anyway – is that previous buzz from the grapevine has suggested we might see a miraculously slim RTX 5090 kept down to two slots in size by Nvidia. (Whereas the RTX 4090 takes up three slots in a PC, at least – or four in many cases).

Essentially, with the mentioned 575W figure, folks are leaping to the conclusion that this won’t be a two-slot board as per that previous rumor. (Unless Nvidia really has worked some magic with a slim cooling solution to keep a power-hungry graphics card in check). So, this is why the question is being asked.

In fact, 575W is a slight drop in a previous prediction from the rumor mill that we’ll see the RTX 5090 use 600W, and in that respect, it’s a bit of positive news. Well, kind of – Kopite7kimi also hinted that the flagship’s power consumption would drop slightly in recent times – but clearly, this is still set to be a demanding GPU. From what we’ve heard elsewhere, it’s likely to be more targeted at professional usage than PC gaming, and could be extremely pricey – though as a GeForce model, it is still officially a consumer (gaming) card, in theory.

If all this pans out, of course, the RTX 5080 is looking hefty on the power side of the equation here, too. Indeed, Kopite7kimi has indicated that it could sit at around 350W in the past, so their prediction has been revised slightly upwards to 360W here.

That could be bad news for anyone using a PC power calculator to work out whether their power supply can cope with a new RTX 5080, as pushing closer to the 400W mark could mean that even a relatively beefy PSU could be driven closer to the borderline of whether it’ll work out or not.

It certainly would put the RTX 5080 out of reach of my 650W power supply, but I’m still hoping that the RTX 5070 is going to come in considerably leaner, and will be a good fit for an upgrade to my gaming PC – or the RTX 5070 Ti, with any luck. In all honesty, I’m not expecting the RTX 5080 to be within my price range anyway, especially given the rumors around the cost of these next-gen graphics cards – other options will be on the table from AMD in RDNA 4 launches, so there’s that to consider as well.

Whether all these forecasts turn out to be accurate or not, we’ll just have to see come Nvidia’s big reveal on January 6 – but whatever the case, everything from the rumor mill is suggesting that we will see increased power consumption for Blackwell graphics cards.

As well as next-gen desktop graphics cards at CES 2025, we may also be treated to the launch of mobile versions, and perhaps DLSS 4 to boot.

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