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Admit it, the sleeper hit of Apple's big Glowtime event in Cupertino on Monday was not the iPhone 16's Camera Control button, it was AirPods Pro 2's new clinical-grade, over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid technology – in a trio of new features coming to your AirPods Pro 2. That was the moment I heard audible shock and unbridled applause, anyway. 

I have been accused in my home of having poor hearing. My hearing, as far as I know, is fine, I just have a focus problem. Maybe. In truth, I haven't been tested since I was a child. Now that I've reached a certain milestone age, most healthcare professionals recommend I have my ears tested at least every couple of years, if not more often. In the very near future, I might use my AirPods Pro 2 Bluetooth earbuds to test my hearing and then use them to adjust the sounds I hear based on the results.

Glowtime was the moment when your best earbuds officially transformed from your go-to music and podcast delivery device to an in-ear health system. The future updates, which include hearing protection, hearing loss, and hearing assistance are not surprising coming from Apple. A decade after Apple introduced its original wearable, the Apple Watch has transformed from a smartwatch that could ably deliver news, info, notifications, and support some exercise tracking to a full-blown health tracker (note the sleep apnea update). It's no wonder Apple's AirPods Pro 2 is on the same path.

These clinical-grade hearing tests and OTC hearing aid technology are not, interestingly enough, arriving on the new AirPods 4. The tests require the true seal of the AirPods Pro 2, which is now two years old but still capable of supporting Apple's innovative hearing assistance technology.

Apple airPods Pro 2 as hearing aids (Image credit: Future)

Since the company is still working on gathering FDA approval for the hearing test and OTC hearing aid feature, this update isn't expected immediately. However, when it does gain approval, the hearing test and hearing aid will arrive in over 100 countries and regions (hearing protection will initially only be available in the US and Canada).

Apple's approach to hearing health is pretty much the same as your doctor's: first test and then offer adjustments through in-ear technology. I got a chance to experience the hearing test, or at least a beta of the test, which requires AirPods Pro 2 and an updated iPhone or iPad.

The test will live under AirPods Pro control in settings on an iPhone or iPad. The software walks you through the process of first making sure that you have a proper fit on your AirPods Pro 2. If the earbuds are constantly falling out of your ears, that fit is not snug enough. Each pair of buds ships with a few different tip sizes. The app will play a tone that you hear and then tell you if your fit and seal are good enough to take the hearing test.

This being a demo, my fit test was good. Next, I started the hearing test. It immediately took me back to my childhood where a doctor put big earphones over my ears and told me to raise my hand when I heard a tone. I remember being nervous about what would happen if he played a tone and I failed to raise my hand.

In the app, a series of high-pitched tones played and I tapped the screen for each one I heard. Since this was a canned demo, my results, which appeared in seconds, told me I had moderate hearing loss. It was represented in left and right ear measurements that showed 41dbHL and 44 dbHL, respectively.

Apple airPods pro 2 hearing tests (Image credit: Future)

The app offers to link you to additional reading material about hearing loss or use the results to build a personal hearing profile that lives only on your devices but is shared across those you've signed into with your Apple account. This means that any Apple device you listen to will adjust to tones that make it possible for you to hear properly. You can aslso share the profile with your doctor.

If your hearing loss is progressive, you might take another test a year later and, if the results are different, Apple will update the hearing profile.

The work Apple does in the AirPods to adjust for hearing loss does not impact battery life, by the way, mainly because it's really just adjusting various features it already uses, like ANC, and transparency mode to support your hearing profile settings.

That said, AirPods 2 might have just 5 hours of battery life (up to 30 with the case). A traditional hearing aid could last up to 10 days. Of course, Apple isn't trying to replace prescribed hearing aids. The focus here is on moderate hearing loss, much of which goes untreated (undiagnosed, too expensive, the person doesn't want to go to a doctor to take a test).

I have no idea if I have hearing loss (my family is reading this right now shaking their heads in dismay) but I look forward to taking the test and knowing for sure. Perhaps I will start wearing my AirPods Pro 2s as OTC hearing aids and no one, not even my family, will be the wiser.

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The CrowdStrike update outage reinforced a number of concerns companies in the endpoint computing space have been voicing for some time. We’ve watched IT leaders greenlight major investments in modernizing security including identity and access management, secure accesses service edge (SASE), and network micro segmentation. Those are important investments but caused businesses to take their eyes off the prize: making sure that computing at the end user level, or endpoint device, is always available and secure.

We have grown somewhat numb to the steady stream of data breaches. This latest incident of a security vendor tasked with protecting users, their devices and data, and instead causing the largest cyber event in history, outlines that it’s not just security risks we must prepare for, but also update outages. To mitigate risks of all types at the endpoint, we must consider approaching the problem differently. We need to rethink the way Windows is delivered and managed, embrace SaaS (software-as-a-service), DaaS (desktop-as-a-service) and VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) where applicable, and deliver a safe, endpoint desktop workspace that is much more in tune with how people work today. Equally important is examining the benefits of a purpose-built Linux OS, and its proven ability to deliver the most secure application environment.

Retooling windows

The CrowdStrike outage is compelling proof that Windows at the endpoint has reached a level of unmanageable complexity. Windows endpoints are inherently insecure, requiring a complex and costly security stack to be added to protect users, and their data. But the more agents you add – EDR, XDR, AV, backup, and recovery, DLP etc. – the more layers of security sprawl IT must manage, patch and monitor. This increases the chances of an outage event causing businesses to have to stop work and watch the productivity, reputational and financial losses add up.

Organizations that run their business applications at the Windows endpoint are highly vulnerable to these disruptions since they cannot quickly or easily recover their applications and data when a bug or outage occurs. A solution gaining traction is the movement of Windows to the cloud. Using SaaS or DaaS, both now very well-established technologies, enables organizations to rethink and modernize their Windows deployment strategy, making Windows installed at the endpoint unnecessary. It gives IT a means of centralizing desktops, applications and data in the cloud and greatly reduces the time-to-recovery for a breach or outage that previously impacted the endpoint.

As desktops and some applications move away from being locally installed on the endpoint, a simpler, secure by design endpoint OS can deliver the same workflows while maintain a great user experience, remove layers of added complexity and reduce the administrative burden on IT. Should an event occur, a centrally delivered cloud-based Windows OS, enables IT to rapidly recover critical applications and restore access for end users.

Windows 11 migration is another timely reason for considering moving Windows applications to the cloud. Leaving Windows at the endpoint, with the upgraded Windows 11 platform, will only continue the risk and leave end users once again open to productivity outages.

Alternative to windows

If there was a silver lining to the CrowdStrike outage, it highlighted and reinforced that allowing security vendors and their tools deep access to the Windows operating system can have severe consequences. We find in practice that Linux based OSes tend to fare better in mitigating many of these concerns and can be easier to recover if an event does occur. Many businesses, fortunately, are seeing the benefits in moving to a Linux based endpoint OS. Linux market share on the desktop is growing at an accelerated rate. Market research shows Linux adoption was 3% in July 2023, 4% in March 2024 and 4.45% in July 2024. Chrome OS is a distant 1.41%.

It should be noted that Linux and Windows are compatible. IT administrators use Linux-based endpoint devices to connect to Windows and Windows applications in the cloud. This leaves the Windows environment to be more centrally managed and controlled without the exposure and gaps that can be created when running Windows physically on endpoint systems. This reduces complexity and cost, while also significantly reducing the management burden on IT staff.

Linux natively supports web-based SaaS platforms like Office 365 and Salesforce; DaaS offerings like Microsoft AVD and Windows 365 Cloud PC, and VDI platforms such as Citrix and Omnissa.

Practices in prevention

The CrowdStrike outage is not a ‘who’s to blame?’ event. It could be repeated by any software vendor who has deep access into the OS. It is simply symptomatic of businesses lacking a comprehensive approach to their endpoint business continuity planning and placing too much trust in automatic updates working without critical change control and robust in-environment testing. In the case of this outage, the response and recovery were highly reactive. Each endpoint needed to be restored, which was a costly exercise. A more preventative approach is required and should start with an endpoint OS that is more secure, and more quickly recoverable in the event an incident does occur. Taking the weeks or months needed in today’s Windows model and reducing it to minutes.

As a preventative strategy against the next unintentional outage or ransomware attack, a purpose built and secure by design Linux OS is the answer. It must be fully centrally managed, and capable of supporting business continuity to rapidly get businesses up and running again. Using a Linux-based secure OS, such as IGEL OS, can also be rapidly recoverable with the ability to reset to a known good state on a reboot, mitigating many of the challenges with today’s Windows endpoint model. Read-only and fully encrypted, such Linux OS solutions can recover critical applications first and when paired with a cloud-based Windows computing environment can be the most effective preventative strategy.

Looking ahead, the proliferation of new applications, AI development and the constant need to be digitally competitive, will continue to add even more complexity and security challenges to IT operations. Despite best efforts, issues can and will occur. IT teams will welcome a change to more robust, simplified, and resilient systems that can prevent disruption and support recovery when needed.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

Near the end of the first quarter of 2023, Google and Yahoo! updated their bulk (5,000+ messages a day) email requirements with the intention of keeping inboxes safer and more spam-free.

Among the new requirements were making it easier to unsubscribe with a single mouse click and making sure their sending domains/IPs have valid forward and reverse DNS records.

This posed an issue for many marketers who thought they were already pursuing best practices with their existing one-click unsubscribe feature. These one-clicks are typically, an unsubscribe or an opt out link in the footer, which takes the subscriber to a landing page hosted on that sender's website that, for example, says, “Thank you. You have been unsubscribed, and we will opt you out within seven to 10 business days.”

They may have met the anti-spam and GDPR requirements, but not those of RFC 8058. Google and Yahoo! want insight into who is unsubscribing and that that unsubscribe is essentially being honored and being passed over in real time and through the ISP itself. RFC 8058 requires a specific email header called a List-Unsubscribe-Post header. This header field contains a URL that, when clicked, triggers the unsubscribe process on the sender's server.

So the unsubscribe now is in the header content of the email on delivery. The user has the ability, much like they did years ago when Gmail added the spam complaint button up in the header of messages, to opt out within the inbox, not just from the email itself.

Gmail, and Yahoo! recognize the "List-Unsubscribe-Post" header and present the unsubscribe link to the recipient in a clear and prominent way. Senders still have the option to return a landing page, but it can’t quite follow the familiar process of a preference page.

Though Gmail and Yahoo! are the first large email systems to require such a change, other platforms such as Microsoft (Hotmail and Outlook), MSN and other email platforms are expected to follow suit in 2025.

Marketing opportunity

With the unsubscribe button being so prevalent, recipients are going to be clicking “unsubscribe” much more frequently. So, the overall universe that marketers have to send out their messages will be much smaller. But rather than seeing that a detriment, marketers should look at it as an opportunity.

When it comes to deliverability, email engagement is very important. How your subscribers engage with your email is what matters most. For example, Google does not care if email recipients are going to your brand's website. What Google, Yahoo! and other email platforms care if a brand is sending daily emails, that are ignored, left in the spam folder or are deleted without being opened. Those results will affect delivery and sender reputation.

Marketers should also note if there is a significant difference in how unsubscribe is rendered from spam complaint. If an email recipient manually unsubscribes, it doesn’t affect a sender’s reputation and how the delivery of future messages. However, if the message is flagged as spam, the brand’s reputation (for emails) will be negatively impacted.

If the sender continues to saturate users who aren’t engaging with the emails, over time the sender will see declining open rates, yet the delivery rates look healthy on the surface. However, in these instances, many of the emails are going to spam and junk folders, so the recipients aren’t noticing them, even if they would be of interest.

Additionally, you may see an increase in your deferral percentage, meaning that Gmail and other platforms are sending everything through, effectively throttling your volume. So while you may be sending out 900,000 messages on a specific day, the email platform may parse that volume over three days. That’s a problem for time-sensitive material.

Automation to the rescue

Marketers should be using an email service provider (ESP) that provides detailed metrics that makes it easy to pinpoint any issues and how to rectify them. The ESP should provide details on your delivery rates in comparison to open rates, block rates, spam complaints, SMTP errors, etc.

It’s best to work with an ESP that uses dedicated IPs, making it relatively easy to troubleshoot any deliverability issues. There should be automated alerts for any identified issues. If you’re sending from a shared IP environment, then you are not just looking at your performance, gut also the performance of everyone that is using that set of IPs, which makes it more difficult to pinpoint any issues that are specific to you rather than to issues for the entire group of IP users.

Automation, by itself, isn’t enough to get the job done. A “human in the loop” is necessary as well. Every good sending platform has at least one employee who is managing the inbox performance or the delivery of the campaigns and messages, as well as the server-to-server connection for their clients. These EPS will provide proactive recommendations on how to avoid any current email issues in the future. Note that while some ESPs provide the human management “out of the box,” others require and additional fee for such a service.

A moving target

Marketers need to remember that the rules for email marketing is a constantly shifting target. Learning today’s rules and best practices serves as a knowledge base, but it isn’t the final word. Knowing email spam, opt-out and other rules and best practices is an ongoing process, not a “doing it once and you’re finished” exercise. As you’re reading this article, new rules are already being considered or are already being written.

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OpenAI reportedly counts one million paying business customers on its ChatGPT Enterprise, Team and Education subscriptions, the company has claimed.

The significant growth, as of September, marks a considerable increase from the 600,000 reported in April, and has been credited to continual advancements in the large language models powering the conversational generative AI chatbot, including the launch of GPT-4o earlier this summer.

Alongside paid business plans such as Team ($25 per month), personal plans like Plus ($20 per month) and the free tier look not to be included in the figure above.

ChatGPT has one million business customers

According to Bloomberg, many of the company’s million business users are located in the US, with the UK, Germany and Japan also contributing to the overall figures.

Moreover, OpenAI is reportedly exploring higher prices for subscriptions accessing upcoming, more advanced LLMs such as Strawberry and Orion. Early internal talks suggest prices could extend as high as $2,000 per month, according to an unnamed source familiar with the matter (via The Information).

On the lower end of the scale, the free ChatGPT tier is believed to be accessed by hundreds of millions of users every month.

As OpenAI continues to grow its ChatGPT services, more companies are paying closer attention. Joining Microsoft’s early multibillion-dollar investment in the startup, Apple and Nvidia are reportedly exploring investing in the company.

The latest fundraising round could see OpenAI reach a valuation of more than $100 billion, up from an estimated $80 billion in February when the ChatGPT-maker was planning to sell shares to Thrive Capital.

Despite occasional boasts, OpenAI remains a largely private company. The split of paying customers and how many users the platform has attracted on its consumer-focused subscriptions are not entirely known.

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Oracle and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced the launch of Oracle Database@AWS in the hope customers of both platforms can access a single, unified database service.

The new offering includes access to Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Exadata Database Service on AWS infrastructure.

The move should also mean enterprises will be able to access Oracle databases with applications running on Amazon EC2, AWS Analytics services and AWS’s AI and ML services, such as Bedrock.

Oracle and AWS announce unified database

Oracle Database@AWS promises a low-latency network connection between Oracle databases and AWS applications, allowing customers to use Oracle’s databases alongside AWS applications for better security and scalability.

Oracle CTO Larry Ellison noted the upgrade comes in response to growing customer demand for multicloud environments: “With Oracle Cloud Infrastructure deployed inside of AWS datacenters, we can provide customers with the best possible database and network performance.”

AWS CEO Matt Garman added: “This new, deeper partnership will provide Oracle Database services within AWS to allow customers to take advantage of the flexibility, reliability, and scalability of the world’s most widely adopted cloud alongside enterprise software they rely on.”

With the package, customers will also benefit from Amazon’s zero-ETL (Extract, transform, and load) integration between Oracle Database services and AWS Analytics services, integration with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), enhanced AWS Marketplace options to purchase Oracle Database services and enhancements for migrating Oracle databases to the cloud.

Speaking about the collaboration, early adopter Vodafone said that Oracle Database@AWS has enabled the company to develop secure, resilient and innovative services faster and at scale, benefitting both customers and developers.

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Mojang Studios has shared its updated development plan for Minecraft, confirming that players will get more frequent content drops in the future.

In a new blog post, the developer explained that after 15 years since launch, it will be making improvements to its popular survival sandbox game by introducing new features more regularly moving forward.

"We know that you want new Minecraft content more often, which is why we’re changing our feature development rhythm," Mojang said. 

The developer confirmed that instead of providing one free update during summer, it will now release "a number of free game drops throughout the year", all of which will vary in size and bring new features more frequently.

Mojang revealed that the first of these dropped in December 2023 with the arrival of visual changes and new functional storage containers, followed by the Armored Paws update in April 2024, which introduced armadillos, wolf variations, and wolf armor.

In addition to more regular content drops, the studio announced that it will now be focusing on "long-term initiatives to ensure we can continue to evolve Minecraft long into the future", although it stopped short of revealing these plans.

Mojang also touched on the native PlayStation 5 version of Minecraft, which was revealed earlier this year as a limited preview, and confirmed that the current-gen version of the game is still in the works. 

Unfortunately, the studio didn't share an estimated release date, but it did confirm that over the coming year, it will be exploring ways to improve Minecraft’s multiplayer experience and "make it easier to find and connect with friends."

Minecraft Live, the game's annual celebration live stream, will be getting some changes, too. Instead of a single October broadcast, Mojang will provide two streams per year and explained they will become "more focussed" by retiring the mob vote and also feature details on what the development team is actively working on.

"We are excited for a future of Minecraft in which we get to share more features with you more regularly, and in which your suggestions continue to become a reality," Mojang said. "We hope you’ll join us for another fifteen years - and hopefully, even more."

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Focus Entertainment has released the first details for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's first post-launch update.

After spending a few days in early access, Space Marine 2 is officially out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC, but players can already expect a new patch to be released sometime this week.

That's according to a new Steam post following the game's launch, where Focus Entertainment shared a teaser for the upcoming patch, which will include multiple fixes for crashing issues during the start of the game and during the first cutscene, which have remained persistent since early access.

Saber Interactive's shooter will also see some optimizations to performance, improvements to servers following some reports of disconnections, and a bug that has prevented some players from joining entirely.

"I have about 6 hours in the game, I've only played the tutorial and have managed to get into about 4-5 Eternal War matches and 1 Operation," one user said. 

"Whether I'm trying to play with my friends or play solo most of the time I get stuck on Joining Server and it won't load me into the game. So much for 4 day early access, can't even take advantage of it and play multiplayer."

The same bug has also caused some players to lose out on rewards after being disconnected from the server after completing missions, but the issue should be resolved with the upcoming patch. You can take a look at the minor list of fixes below.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's first patch details:

• Multiple crash fixes (start of the game, 1st cutscene crash, etc...)
• Optimized CPU usage
• Server improvements
• Render bug improvements

The publisher also made sure to remind players of Space Marine 2's post-launch roadmap, which will see several free updates, the first of which will arrive this month and introduce private PvE lobbies, ultrawide support, and the Battle Barge Sparring Arena.

Season 2 is planned for Fall 2024 and will include new PvE missions, a new lethal difficulty, and new cosmetics, while Season 3 and Season 4 will arrive in 2025 and feature additional missions, new arenas, a Horde Mode, and more.

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As the dust settles on the rather busy iPhone 16 launch event, more and more details are coming to light about the new devices and software that Apple is now rolling out – including the iOS 18 update due next week (Monday, September 16).

The team at 9to5Mac has done some digging and discovered the ability to pause video recordings in the iOS 18 Release Candidate (that's the finalized testing version that immediately precedes a public launch).

This ties in with a demo we saw at Apple's show, in which the iPhone 16 (and its new Camera Control button) was shown pausing a video midway through the recording – very handy for doing jump cuts between scenes in a single video file.

The new discovery suggests the feature is also coming to every other iPhone that's able to run iOS 18. When recording a video, a pause button appears in the lower left-hand corner, and you can tap to temporarily stop and restart the recording.

iOS 18 and the AirPods Pro 3

The AirPods 4 come with a hearing aid feature (Image credit: Apple)

Some further investigation into the iOS 18 code by 9to5Mac has revealed a reference to wireless earbuds with a heart rate sensor: "wear both earbuds during workouts to track and send your heart rate to Apple Health" reads part of the message.

As verified with insider sources, this means health sensors are likely on the way to both the AirPods Pro 3 and the next-gen PowerBeats Pro earbuds. Both those devices are expected to launch at some point during 2025.

Yesterday we got the unveiling of the AirPods 4 wireless earbuds, featuring a number of useful upgrades: improved sound (as you would expect), a refreshed design, and active noise cancellation on the more expensive of the two pairs.

Thanks to the iOS 18 code we now know there's more on the way for the more expensive version of Apple's wireless earbuds – in addition to infrared cameras, perhaps. The Apple AirPods Pro 2 were launched back in 2022, with a small refresh in 2023.

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US clean energy company, Beam Global, has just announced its latest innovation, which it hopes can replace the archaic streetlight network with something genuinely useful, particularly as we enter an age of increasing EV adoption.

The BeamSpot sustainable curbside electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure system, to give it its full title, replaces a standard street lamp with a module that harnesses solar, wind and utility-generated electricity to top up an integrated 15 kWh battery pack.

As a result, Beam Global claims that each unit can provide up to 220 "e-miles" to vehicles every day, with the 5.76kW outlet able to provide admittedly very slow battery top-ups while EV owners pop to the shops, park up for work or leave their vehicles curbside for the evening.

Perhaps the biggest draw is the fact that Beam Global says it can tap into the existing infrastructure, with its BeamSpot units requiring no "new or upgraded utility grid circuits, trenching, construction, easements, leases or complex permitting".

However, Beam Global will require a fair amount of space and some fairly lenient town planners, as the units measure 40 ft tall with the wind turbine option, or 30 ft without it installed. They also look a little bit like an alien invasion.

Beam Global hopes to rollout its innovative solution to those areas that require it most, such as multi-unit communities, where residents don’t have access to to a garage or off-street parking, as well as public venues where space isn’t perhaps so much of an issue.

Keen to be green 

(Image credit: Beam Global)

Curbside charging, where EV owners can plug into lampposts and other existing infrastructure, is nothing new, but Beam Global has added an another element by creating its own energy via wind and solar.

The presence of onboard battery packs allows BeamSpot to charge and discharge when required, while tapping into an existing low-circuit feed when the batteries run dry, or solar and wind power isn’t enough to meet demand.

Despite being a great idea, we can imagine some of the planning meetings surrounding the installation of these things could get pretty heated, seeing as they are such a blight on the surrounding landscape.

Plus, the addition of onboard battery packs, as well as expensive green charging tech, is likely to see the unit cost for each BeamSpot far outweigh those more compact options that tap into an existing grid.

As much as we agree with the fact that more needs to be done for those EV owners that don’t have access to home charging systems, we’re not sure 40 ft wind turbines lining residential streets is the answer.

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Adobe has announced a series of updates for Premiere Pro and After Effects designed to add studio-style polish to video content for beginner and experienced editors. 

Ahead of IBC 2024, the company is beginning to roll out a set of beta tools and features that will enhance editing workflows and streamline post-production processes. Highlights include all-new color management tools and improved UI and navigation, as the company aims to make one of the best video editing software tools even better for new and existing users. 

In addition to super-charging Pro’s color management system, users can also expect to see better integration with After Effects and Substance 3D. With on-going collaborations with editors and content creators, the company also teased generative AI video editing tools coming to the software in the future. 

What's new from Adobe?

• Color management tools

A new color management system is the headline update in this beta release. Letting editors take control of on-screen colors, the new tools offer end-to-end color processing in the video editing app without requiring LUTs. With six presets available, the company was keen to note that it’s “invisible and automatic”, with operations occurring in the background, making it more accessible to those who need color correction tools but lack the experience. And for the first time, the software will also boast a wide gamut working color space. Users will also find greater format support for RED, ARRI, Sony, Canon, and ProRes RAW videos, and log format support for RED, ARRI, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Fujifilm, Nikon, Leica, DJI, and GoPro. 

For those concerned about legacy projects being affected, Adobe has stated the default preset mirrors the standard Premiere Pro setting, so older projects still look the same. In a similar vein, color accuracy will be maintained across Premiere Pro and After Effects using Dynamic Link. 

• Context-sensitive properties panel

With the new Properties panel, editors of all skill-levels are able to access all of Premiere Pro’s most popular tools, effects, and quick actions without fumbling through menus and panels and disrupting the editing flow. As part of this update, Adobe has now directly built the Crop tool into the program monitor. And, for rapid adjustments at scale, the tool supports the adjustment of multiple clips at once.  

(Image credit: Adobe)

• Performance & UI

Users familiar with the video editing tool will notice a few changes to the software’s appearance, with rounded corners and cleaner, clearer fonts. This refreshed UI is, according to Adobe, designed to make it more comfortable sitting inside the program for hours at a time. And just as comfortable is the inclusion of two dark modes, a light mode, and a more accessible high-contrast mode. Alongside this, the beta also brings performance improvements including faster and more responsive media playback, hardware-accelerated AVC and HEVC, and three-times faster exports when rendering ProRes footage.  

• After Effects & Substance 3D

Premiere Pro isn’t the only tool to get updated, with After Effects – our pick for best VFX software – also receiving the same UI improvements. However, it’s also improving 3D workflows, with AE now natively supporting 3D models with embedded animations, more realistic shadow casting, and over 30 animation presets for speeding up production (and letting creators create). Performance has also been improved and users will also find it easier to send files directly from the company’s 3D modeling software Substance 3D, which now boasts over twenty-thousand fully licensed assets. 

During a demo of the new tools, we were impressed to see how animations can be used and re-used whether it’s for a five-second clip or a thirty-second commercial. In the example we saw, an animated mobile phone cover opened and closed – rapidly in a five-second slot. By extending the required length of the footage, simply by dragging the handles in the timeline, the same animation was repeated to fill the longer time-frame, smoothly and without loss of frame-rate.

• Firefly Services

Businesses keen to make use of Adobe’s enterprise-focused AI tools will find a few video production extras coming online. The Enhance Speech API, which will be familiar to some, is now available via Firefly Services, cleaning up audio, repairing speech, and removing unwanted background noises. Meanwhile, the Dubbing & Lip Sync API is tailored to global businesses who need to localize content for different territories. Effectively, this tool automates translation and alters a subject’s lip movements to match the language. 

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Canadian payment gateway provider Slim CD was hit by a cyberattack which has affected almost 1.7 million US and Canadian users.

The company first detected suspicious activity in its system on June 15 2024, however an investigation revealed the system had first been breached on August 17 2023, meaning hackers had access to its network for almost a year.

Slim CD insists that hackers only had access to credit card information for two days of the period, between June 14 and June 15, but the information accessed may include full names, credit card numbers, expiration dates, and customer’s physical address.

No additional protection

As a payment processing service, Slim CD stores credit card information to allow users and businesses to access card payments online.

The company has reassured users it has taken "steps to implement additional safeguards" and review its policies relating to data security and privacy, as well as reporting the incident to federal law enforcement and regulatory authorities.

Slim CD did not offer those affected any free of charge identity theft protection services. Instead, the firm recommended customers to take steps to protect themselves,

“We encourage you to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by reviewing your account statements and monitoring your free credit reports for suspicious activity and to detect errors.”, the firm said in a statement.

This is the latest in what seems to be a never ending string of data breaches, with threat actors gaining access to millions of people's information through various security breaches in recent times.

There are dedicated identity theft protection services which can help those affected by the ever-present threat of data breaches.

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BOE, a consumer electronics maker that is also one of the world's biggest display manufacturers from China, has released a new OLED prototype that can show 95% of the Rec.2020 (also known as BT.2020) color gamut, which is better than LG and Samsung OLED displays.  

According to OLED-Info, the new prototype, which is currently intended for phones, tablets and laptops, was shown off at the company's Innovation Partner Conference on September 4. As you can see from the below post on X (formerly Twitter), the new OLED tech improves the accuracy and richness of the colors displayed significantly.  

BOE shows its first TADF OLED prototype, with a green hyperfluorescence emitter system and a tandem architecture:https://t.co/6F9KLKlYN7#OLED pic.twitter.com/zlac760zDISeptember 5, 2024

To give some numbers (like FlatpanelsHD first pointed out), LG's W-OLED, found in TVs like the LG B4, shows about 70% of the Rec.2020 color gamut. Meanwhile, Samsung's AMOLED tech, found in some of its smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, displays roughly 70-80% and its QD-OLED tech shows up to 90%, which we found to be the case when we tested one of its best TVs, the Samsung S95D – it achieved a result of 87.9%. 

At the time of writing, BOE's OLED screens can be found in some of the best phones on the market, such as the Honor Magic V3, which uses BOE's f-OLED (flexible folding display screen) tech. 

There is currently no word as to whether this new OLED prototype will come to TVs, but BOE is also a TV display manufacturer, covering sizes from 26- to 110-inches including 8K Super IPS-ADS technology, so hopefully it may look to expand this new tech into its larger display screens. 

More colorful TVs?

The Samsung S95D (pictured) currently hits the highest Rec.2020 color gamut coverage we've measured.  (Image credit: Future)

The Rec.2020 color space, which we refer to as BT.2020 in our TV reviews, is said to show more color visible to the human eye than both the older Rec.709 and DCI-P3 color spaces, which we refer to as UHDA-P3 in our TV testing – the latter is used in the movie industry. 

In general, most TVs display below 75% of the Rec.2020 color space. For instance, some of the best OLED TVs such as the LG C4 hit 72.7% in our tests. Even budget mini-LED TVs like the the Hisense U6N hit 73.1%, while 8K TVs such as the Samsung QN900D hit lower than 75%, with the QN900D tapping out at 70.5%. 

The Samsung S95D, which uses QD-OLED technology, hits over 87% as we've stated above and this is just one contributing factor to why it earned five stars out of five in our review, with its bold, vibrant colors being one of its highlights. It proves that good color gamut coverage can add an extra layer to a TV.

Although BOE hasn't said whether its 95% Rec.2020 OLED displays are coming to TVs, we're hoping it will. OLED is already the arguably most popular TV panel tech available and the possibility of adding even more color into its already dynamic picture is only good news. 

At the very least, BOE's colorful displays could encourage LG and Samsung to improve on its own OLED tech, although QD-OLED is close already. Hopefully, we may see the likes of more entry-level OLEDs like the LG B4 displaying even more vivid colors. There's nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition. 

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How do Apple's and Samsung's biggest, best phones compare? Here are all the specs.

Apple and Google both have big, expensive phones. But how do they measure up? Let's take a look at the specs.