News

Report comes as Microsoft has apparently declined to take more AI resources from billion-dollar AI startup Google has already pledged to invest tens of billions in capital expenditure in FY 2025, most likely in AI hardware In other news, the Nvidia-backed CoreWeave lost nearly a quarter of its value in 48 hours amidst wider stock malaise

It’s interesting times for Nvidia-backed CoreWeave, which provides cloud infrastructure optimized for AI workloads.It was labelled a “turkey” and “the WeWork of AI” by Jeffrey Emanuel, whose prescient article warning about DeepSeek famously wiped $2 trillion off global markets and cut Nvidia’s market capitalization by $600 billion in day.Around the same time, Microsoft walked away from a nearly $12 billion option to purchase additional data center capacity from CoreWeave. That same capacity ultimately went to the Microsoft-backed OpenAI. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have been wreaking havoc on the stock market, particularly in the tech sector, have impacted the AI hyperscaler as well. The company lost nearly a quarter of its value within 48 hours.

A significantly smaller investment

Still, it’s not all bad news, as a report from The Information claims Google is in advanced talks with CoreWeave to rent Nvidia Blackwell chips from it after struggling to meet growing demand.Google CFO Anat Ashkenazi said during the company’s recent earnings call, “We exited the year with more demand than we had available capacity. So, we are in a tight supply-demand situation, working very hard to bring more capacity online. As I mentioned, we've increased investment in capex in 2024, continue to increase in 2025, and we'll bring more capacity throughout the year."There’s no word yet on how much Google might spend with CoreWeave, but The Information reports that the amount will be “significantly smaller” than the $10 billion Microsoft plans to spend by the end of the decade, or OpenAI’s new $12 billion five-year contract.Google and CoreWeave are also reportedly in “preliminary discussions” about leasing space in CoreWeave’s data centers to house Google’s custom TPU chips, The Information adds.If true - Google and CoreWeave have not commented on The Information’s story which cites “two people briefed about the situation” as its source - this would be a welcome boost for CoreWeave, which had to scale back its initial public offering and reportedly receives 77% of its revenue from just two customers, one of which is Microsoft.

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It could be considered tremendously geeky to fuss over, or to even discuss, the remote control that comes with your TV. But a solid, well-designed remote is a key feature of the best TVs, and if you spend several hours every day watching, it’s something you’re getting plenty of hands-on time with.As someone who reviews TVs and other AV gear regularly, remote controls are something I pay close professional attention to. When I reviewed the Hisense U8N TV, I’m not ashamed to admit feeling a sense of delight when I held its solid, well-designed remote, which even featured a backlit keypad.It was a huge upgrade over the cheap, plasticky, and basic remote that came with the Hisense U8K that preceded it, and it added more value to an already high-value TV.Conversely, I nearly shuddered when I saw the remote control that came with the Panasonic Z95A, the company’s 2024 flagship OLED TV, and one that marked the brand’s triumphant return to the US market. In my Panasonic Z95A review, I generously called it “disappointing given the Z95A’s otherwise premium build quality (and price!).”The Z95A’s remote was essentially the same one you’d get with any cheap Fire TV set you’d buy on Prime Day for a bargain price from Amazon, which supplied the Fire TV smart TV interface for Panasonic’s new 2024 TVs.

The new-old hybrid AI Magic Remote (shown above) boasts a very different design than the fully re-designed AI Magic Remote (shown at top) (Image credit: Future)

LG’s Magic Remote control is a long-standing feature of its TVs, including many of the best OLED TVs over the past decade. The Magic Remote differs from other TV remotes in that it has both a scroll wheel and a pointer wand control that lets you hover a cursor over items in the TV’s webOS smart interface and click on them to make a selection.The Magic Remote operates like a wireless computer mouse, and I’m sure that was a deliberate design choice back in the days when companies like LG were first adding a web browser and other computer-like features to their TVs, thinking people were going to eagerly use them for web-surfing and work.The Home Office Quick Card in webOS 25 provides strong evidence that LG still thinks people want to use their TV as an oversized computer monitor for work, which is something I can’t ever see myself doing.I’ve always found LG’s Magic Remote to be fine to work with, even if I’m not using it to actually do work on a TV. But it’s certainly a divisive design, even among longtime fans of LG OLED TVs. Fans such as TechRadar contributor Dave Meikelham, who said this of the Magic Remote: “The aging peripheral now possesses about as much sorcery as a drunk magician unsuccessfully trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat at a crestfallen child’s birthday party.”

Magical thinking

LG's Home Office hub wants to help with your productivity (Image credit: Future)

Part of the resistance to LG’s Magic Remote is a feeling that the cursor function is inaccurate, with the arrow whizzing randomly around the screen when you attempt to select an item on the smart interface or in a menu (the cursor’s speed can be adjusted in the TV’s setup menu, a setting critics may not have bothered to mess with).But another big part is that LG hadn’t updated the basic design in years, and worse, the remote had a cheap build quality that seems out of step with a premium, pricey TV.When I recently reviewed the LG G5, the brand’s flagship 2025 OLED, I was very happy to see that it came with a redesigned Magic Remote. Finally! This new AI Magic Remote version abandons the old shoehorn-like design for a more modern flat form factor with gently rounded corners and a streamlined keypad with a limited button count.Yes, the scroll wheel is still there, and as with the previous version, clicking on it will trigger the cursor control to use that function. But the new design appears to favor the more conventional navigation disc control option, which works perfectly well on the speedy, responsive webOS 25 smart interface.The new design also adds a few buttons that previously weren’t found on Magic Remotes, specifically Accessibility, Home Hub, and AI shortcut buttons. That last one also facilitates voice commands, which is clearly something LG now wants us to be using on its TVs.What’s missing in the new-look AI Magic Remote are number buttons and, crucially, an input select control, which is something I griped about in my G5 review. Yes, you could use voice commands to create a shortcut for selecting a specific input on the TV (which supports Google Home and LG’s own ThinQ smart home protocols), or you can, as I found myself doing, jump to the Home Hub and select an input from there.But I guess I’m old school that way: I want an input button on my TV remote control (and backlighting too, thanks).

Regional realities

In the absence of an input select button on the AI Magic Remote, a visit the Home Hub on LG TVs will let you switch between sources (Image credit: Future)

Now that I’ve pumped up LG’s AI Magic Remote (for the most part), I need to step back and share that the new design isn’t available in all regions – the UK, for instance.Certain regions have legal requirements that prevent TV manufacturers from removing buttons such as a numbered keypad from remote controls, and for those regions, LG is retaining the same old Magic Remote design.The good news here – if you see it that way – is that this design is a new-old hybrid AI Magic Remote that includes the AI and Home Hub buttons. The bad news? The input select button has been removed from this one as well.I wish it didn't have to be this way – there's been a history of companies such as Samsung including two remotes in the box to get around these rules – but for those of use who get the stylish new remote, I think it's a much-awaited step forward.

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Unofficial renders of the Pixel Watch 4 have leaked onlineThe design looks similar to the Google Pixel Watch 3Wireless charging and a bigger battery could be added

We've not heard much so far about the successor to the Google Pixel Watch 3, but considering that wearable came out last September, a follow-up shouldn't be too far away – and newly leaked, unofficial renders may offer our first look at the Pixel Watch 4.These renders come from seasoned tipster @OnLeaks and 91mobiles, and are apparently based on information sourced from Google's supply chain. They show a smartwatch that doesn't vary too much from the current design in terms of its looks.There are some small changes to talk about though: the Google Pixel Watch 4 is said to be slightly thicker than its predecessor, possibly indicating a larger battery and longer battery. The display bezels are also reportedly going to be slightly smaller than they are on the Pixel Watch 3.The leak also mentions that wireless charging could be introduced for the Pixel Watch 4, something we haven't seen on Google's smartwatches so far – which would potentially mean it could be charged via a bigger range of third-party accessories.

New buttons, two sizes

We've also got two tiny buttons either side of the speaker, on the left of the watch as you look at the screen. It's not clear what these buttons are for yet, but they're nowhere near as prominent as the digital crown on the other side.According to this new leak, the Pixel Watch 4 will be available in two sizes, as the Pixel Watch 3 was. Those sizes will "possibly" be 41 mm and 45 mm, matching the current model, but we'll have to wait and see on all these details.Leaks and rumors around the Google Pixel Watch 4 have been thin on the ground so far. We have heard murmurings that Google will aim to improve repairability on its next smartwatch, which would be welcome, but that's about all we've heard – though more details may emerge between now and September.Head over to our Google Pixel Watch 3 review and you'll see we were mostly impressed with what it's got to offer, including its running tools. If the Pixel Watch 4 can add some substantial upgrades, it should make our best smartwatches list.

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For smartphone manufacturers, competing with Apple must feel like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Every. Single. Quarter.The best iPhones aren’t necessarily the best phones outright (read: they’re not), but the Cupertino giant has undoubtedly managed to cordon off a large swath of smartphone-owning consumers (perhaps indefinitely so) through its decades-long focus on building a watertight product ecosystem. Heck, even Samsung, Apple’s biggest competitor, has seen its own home country fall victim to iPhone fever, and Apple remains a force to be reckoned with in China, too.What, then, are Apple’s rivals to do? According to OnePlus’ Senior Product Marketing Manager Rudolf Xu, there’s only one thing for it: push for greater compatibility with iOS.“I think the key thing is to build a bridge with iOS,” Xu told TechRadar during a recent visit to OnePlus HQ in Guangdong, China. “That’s why, for example, on OxygenOS 15, we have a feature called Share with iPhone, and people love it – we are getting very positive feedback, because it makes file transfer [between Android and iOS] a lot easier. That’s something that Android devices have always struggled with.“Another thing is the sharing of live photos,” Xu continued. “If you capture a live photo with the OnePlus 13, you can actually still see the live photo effect on an iPhone [if you transfer it]. That’s because we’re using the latest format to package live photos.“These are all the efforts we’re putting in to build a bridge between OnePlus products and the iOS ecosystem. We don't want to build an ecosystem that shuts the door for other customers. We want to make [our ecosystem] as open as possible, so that we can attract more users.”

iOS 18 partially improved the messaging experience between iPhone and Android users (Image credit: Apple)

In person, Xu’s comment about “an ecosystem that shuts the door for other customers” wasn’t made in reference to Apple directly, but it does rather nicely highlight the crux of the issue at hand. Apple won’t willingly open up its operating system to rival software developers (and why would it?), so there’s only so much that brands like OnePlus can do to improve compatibility between Android- and iOS-based devices.

We want to make [our ecosystem] as open as possible, so that we can attract more users.Rudolf Xu, OnePlus

Indeed, Apple would never make the process of connecting AirPods to one of the best Android phones as seamless as connecting AirPods to an iPhone, but OnePlus can at least ensure that its own smartphones aren’t totally incompatible with Apple handsets.Of course, compatibility does not equal homogeneity, and OnePlus has found other ways to differentiate the best OnePlus phones from iPhones (not to mention other Android phones) in recent years.We recently reported that consumers are growing tired of modern smartphone design, and while, in our interview, OnePlus’ Xu acknowledged that there is logic behind the industry’s current sameness, he affirmed his brand’s commitment to standing out from the crowd.

The OnePlus 13 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

“When it comes to design language, [there’s a reason] why more and more products look alike,” Xu explained. “Basically every [manufacturer] is putting a camera in the upper-left corner of the phone, and actually, from an R&D perspective, this has the highest efficiency for component stacking. By ‘component stacking’, I mean how a phone’s battery [is arranged in relation to] its chipset, and so on.“Most [manufacturers] like to put the battery [in the bottom half of the phone], the chipset [adjacent to the camera], and the camera [in the upper left corner]. In terms of R&D, this is the most effective and efficient way to stack the components. So, maybe that’s why we’re seeing more and more similarly designed phones. There is reasoning behind that.“But on the other hand,” Xu continued, “we also try to maintain our unique design language. That’s why there’s consistency across the OnePlus 10 Pro, the 11, the 12, and now the 13. I mean, it is a challenge [to develop devices that are both unique and popular], but we want to maintain our unique identity across all OnePlus products.”As far as we’re concerned, this approach is working – in our OnePlus 13 review, we described the company’s latest flagship as “one of the best-looking phones you can buy.” Now, OnePlus has the not-so-small task of putting such an impressive phone in the hands of Apple’s iPhone-owning faithful.

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Looking for a different day?A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, April 13 (game #672).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #673) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

HUNTCHECKGAMEFORDPRESIDENTPLAYCARSTOPOXENBLOCKMOVIEACTORDAMDYSENTERYDIRECTORCONCERT

NYT Connections today (game #673) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: Prevent GREEN: Sold outBLUE: Pioneer life strategyPURPLE: A word in the blue group is the common thread

Need more clues?We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #673) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: RESTRICT GREEN: TICKETED EVENTS BLUE: ASSOCIATED WITH THE GAME THE OREGON TRAILPURPLE: WHAT "FORD" MIGHT REFER TO

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #673) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #673, are…

YELLOW: RESTRICT BLOCK, CHECK, DAM, STOPGREEN: TICKETED EVENTS CONCERT, GAME, MOVIE, PLAYBLUE: ASSOCIATED WITH THE GAME THE OREGON TRAILDYSENTERY, FORD, HUNT, OXENPURPLE: WHAT "FORD" MIGHT REFER TO ACTOR, CAR, DIRECTOR, PRESIDENT

My rating: HardMy score: Fail

I crashed out today, after getting the yellow and green group. RESTRICT was easy enough, although I did hesitate over DAM, thinking that it could be in a water-based group with FORD, but I took the leap.I got the green group without thinking tickets was the common thread, just that they were all things people paid for.After this I was utterly clueless and tried random groupings with little logic. For my final guess I did almost make it, as I got “one away”, but it was too late. I should have realised that FORD was both an answer and a connector.In my defense, The Oregon Trail is not something that really crossed the Atlantic to the UK, although I do have vague recollections of “You have dysentry” T-shirts going viral a couple of decades ago – not that I understood why.How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 13 April, game #672)

YELLOW: STEAL NICK, PINCH, POCKET, SWIPEGREEN: ATTENDANCE STATUS ABSENT, EXCUSED, LATE, PRESENTBLUE: FONT-MODIFYING WORDS GOTHIC, ROMAN, SANS, TYPEWRITERPURPLE: __BERRY CAPER, ELDER, GOOSE, LOGAN

What is NYT Connections?NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Looking for a different day?A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, April 13 (game #406).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #407) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?• Today's NYT Strands theme is… April showers …

NYT Strands today (game #407) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

STOPFILLSNOWSHIRTGRINFOLD

NYT Strands today (game #407) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?• Spangram has 13 letters

NYT Strands today (game #407) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?First side: bottom, 3rd columnLast side: top, 4th column

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #407) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #407, are…

IRISDAFFODILTULIPHYACINTHLILYCROCUSSPANGRAM: SPRING FLOWERS

My rating: ModerateMy score: 1 hint

At first I thought we were looking for synonyms for rain – I even found “snow” hidden in the puzzle – but thankfully this wasn’t the case.Drawing a blank and spotting lots of words that actually were not in the game, I took a hint to get me going and didn’t look back.The first word I got myself was DAFFODIL – a flower which doesn’t carry the same gravitas as the others in our SPRING FLOWERS search.At least that’s the case in the UK, where they’re the lowest-cost flowers you can buy and as a consequence are great for a bit of cheap and cheerful color but don’t really cut it if you’re buying flowers to send some a romantic message.They don’t so much say ‘I love you’ as much as ‘I’d rather not spend too much money on you’.How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday, 13 April, game #406)

HELLOFLEWPILOTQUEENHEIGHTPLAQUESPREADSPANGRAM: COLOR RHYMES

What is NYT Strands?Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Looking for a different day?A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Sunday, April 13 (game #1175).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1176) - hint #1 - Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1176) - hint #2 - repeated letters

Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #1176) - hint #3 - uncommon letters

Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1176) - hint #4 - starting letters (1)

Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1176) - hint #5 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?• D• C• A• L

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1176) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1176, are…

DRAWLCROOKACTORLANCE

I began with one word where I had all five letters in incorrect positions, W-R-A-L-D. I got DRAWL after deciding DR was the perfect starting combination, but in hindsight I don’t think any other word would have been possible.It was a similar story for the second word, but with just four incorrect letters. After a process of elimination I dismissed the only other words I could think of with R-A-O-T in them (ROAST and ABORT) and decided ACTOR was the only possibility.A nice mental work out.How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1176) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1176, are…

SHINYSNOOPWRESTMERCY

Quordle answers: The past 20

Quordle #1175, Sunday 13 April: SHALE, KINKY, SHORN, WHOOPQuordle #1174, Saturday 12 April: BLIND, OVOID, CACHE, THINGQuordle #1173, Friday 11 April: FOLLY, PITHY, SCOWL, CURLYQuordle #1172, Thursday 10 April: LEAST, SEWER, UNTIE, NOOSEQuordle #1171, Wednesday 9 April: LITHE, LEFTY, KNOLL, MULCHQuordle #1170, Tuesday 8 April: WIDTH, VISOR, MEDAL, BROOKQuordle #1169, Monday 7 April: BROTH, SHOUT, BRUTE, CABINQuordle #1168, Sunday 6 April: AMBER, GAUZE, STORE, SLICKQuordle #1167, Saturday 5 April: GUSTY, VAULT, WHINE, BEGATQuordle #1166, Friday 4 April: OAKEN, LOOPY, CURIO, BUTTEQuordle #1165, Thursday 3 April: ASCOT, JETTY, DRUNK, JOLLYQuordle #1164, Wednesday 2 April: INDEX, QUEEN, INCUR, STOLEQuordle #1163, Tuesday 1 April: HUMUS, BALMY, WORRY, ERECTQuordle #1162, Monday 31 March: RECUT, MOODY, WHERE, BRACEQuordle #1161, Sunday 30 March: CRIME, DRINK, CLOVE, TRUERQuordle #1160, Saturday 29 March: LATER, ODDLY, CUMIN, AGREEQuordle #1159, Friday 28 March: TERSE, MUSHY, PROVE, FRONDQuordle #1158, Thursday 27 March: CRONE, APNEA, LIGHT, AWOKEQuordle #1157, Wednesday 26 March: LEFTY, NOOSE, NOISE, TRIADQuordle #1156, Tuesday 25 March: SNEER, WATCH, FLORA, STAIN

Look, Microsoft, we need to talk. It’s no secret that you’ve been nagging me (and everyone else) to upgrade to Windows 11 for a while now, with everything from ads to in-OS reminders pushing me towards the settings menu to check if my PC is eligible for an upgrade. But here’s the thing, Microsoft: this path you’re on isn’t sustainable.I mean this in a few different ways. Firstly, the extremely literal sense; Windows 11 forces a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 requirement, which for the uninitiated is a specific chip on your laptop or desktop’s motherboard enabling enhanced security features. No TPM 2.0? No Windows 11. Yes, I know you can technically upgrade to Windows 11 without TPM 2.0, but I wouldn’t recommend it.Is that enhanced security good? Yes, absolutely - but it effectively means that many older computers literally can’t run Windows 11, which combined with the impending Windows 10 End of Life is eventually going to result in a lot of PCs headed to the ever-growing e-waste pile. That’s a real problem in itself. But I’m not here to rant about e-waste (though it’s really bad). I want to talk about how users perceive Microsoft’s nigh-omnipresent operating system, and how its current trajectory could result in serious issues further down the line.

Chop and change

See, Windows is constantly evolving - from humble beginnings as an MS-DOS interface in the mid-Eighties to beloved iterations like Windows XP and 10 (and widely panned versions, such as Vista and RT). But over the years, there have long been whispers of a ‘final’ version of the OS; a ‘Windows Perfected’ if you will, designed to last forever with continual updates - or at least, designed to last for a very long time.In a sense, what those hunting for this ‘last’ Windows iteration want is the same experience that macOS users get: an operating system that just continually gets free updates adding new features, rarely changes in a hugely significant way, and isn’t chock-full of annoying ads. Of course, it’s not quite that simple for Microsoft; Apple has incredibly tight control over the macOS hardware ecosystem, while Microsoft theoretically has to make Windows run on a near-limitless selection of custom- and pre-built PCs as well as laptops from numerous different manufacturers. Then again, keeping ads out of Windows should be as simple as it is for macOS, and that hasn’t happened…

I'm no Apple lover, but there's no denying that macOS is in many ways better-maintained than Windows. (Image credit: Apple)

At the end of the day, Microsoft doesn’t need to keep creating entirely new versions of Windows - it does so because outside of an Apple-esque closed ecosystem, that’s profitable, as system manufacturers will need to keep buying new OS keys and users will need to keep buying new systems.Sure, there might need to be major overhauls now and then that leave some people behind - the TPM 2.0 debacle is perhaps one such example. But there are cracks in this methodology that are slowly starting to show, and I suspect it won’t end well unless Microsoft changes course.

Time for some defenestration?

If upgrading to a new OS is a lot of hassle for an individual (I’ve personally been putting it off for years, still using Windows 10 on my personal desktop), imagine how much work - and how much money - it takes for a large business to do it. Although Windows 11 adoption is finally on the rise, plenty of private businesses and public sector organizations are still stuck on Win10 or older, despite Microsoft’s insistence for us all to upgrade.A 2021 report by Kaspersky suggested that 73% of healthcare providers globally are still using equipment with an outdated OS for medical purposes. Now, this isn’t just talking about Windows computers, but it’s a damning figure - a more recent investigation by Cynerio claimed that 80% of imaging devices are still using operating systems that have been officially EoL’d and are now unsupported, like Windows 7 and XP.

I learned a lot about the tech used in hospitals when I was undergoing cancer treatment back in 2021. Spoiler alert: it's almost all horribly outdated. (Image credit: Christian Guyton)

Healthcare is just one such sector, but it’s felt widely, particularly in sectors and countries where funding for hardware and software upgrades often isn’t readily available. Running an out-of-support OS can lead to a variety of issues, not least with security and compatibility. It’s not that these organizations don’t want to upgrade, it’s that they literally can’t - not without the significant expenditure of completely replacing the computer, and sometimes the entire machine it’s hooked up to.

Annoying ads

Lastly - and I’m going to be a bit brutally honest with you here, Microsoft - the slow but inexorable enshittification of Windows has got to stop. Ads, bugs, pestering notifications, the constant forcing of Copilot AI down our throats; just stop it, guys. Please.I have Windows 11 on my laptop, and also the ROG Ally I used for handheld PC gaming. I’m no stranger to how bad it’s become. My dislike of Apple hardware is well-documented, yet macOS’s year-on-year consistency and total lack of ads is beginning to look mighty appealing.Win11 feels less like a product you buy and own and more like an ‘OS as a service’ - something you pay for but don’t really own, and can be snatched away or heavily modified at a moment’s notice. It’s already a serious issue in the game industry, with triple-A games increasingly becoming less about providing a good, fun experience and more about extracting as much value from the player as possible.

I don't hate Windows 11, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Even Windows 10 isn’t safe from Microsoft’s meddling. At this point, I’m half looking forward to the EoL purely so that Microsoft will take its grubby little fingers out of my desktop OS. No, I don’t care about how great Windows 11 supposedly is now. No, I don’t care about Copilot and how it’s going to fix my digital life and cure all my worldly ailments.Let me create a little analogy here. Imagine if you bought a car. It’s a good car, it runs fine and doesn’t give you any major issues. Then, a few years later, a new model comes out, and every morning, no matter where you park, the dealership sends someone to put a flyer on your windshield advertising the new car, or some other new offer the dealership is running. Every now and then, they also take away a small part of your car, like a wiper blade or a single tire nut. The kicker? You don’t want the new car, and you might not even be able to afford it anyway.I just want a straightforward OS that runs smoothly and doesn’t become outdated every five years. Is that really too much to ask, Microsoft?

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Apple hasn’t abandoned its previously rumored plans to release a less expensive Vision Pro, according to Bloomberg. Mark Gurman reports in the Power On newsletter this weekend that the company has two new models in development: one that’s lighter and cheaper than the first generation headset, and one that would tether to a Mac. While Apple had once considered the latter setup for AR glasses, it shifted the idea over to the Vision Pro so it can “create an ultra-low-latency system for streaming a user’s Mac display or for connecting to high-end enterprise applications,” according to Gurman.

Apple’s ultimate goal, though, is reportedly to create AR glasses that are practical and comfortable enough to be worn like regular glasses, and the next iterations of the Vision Pro are seen as steps toward getting there. Gurman reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook is “hell-bent on creating an industry-leading product before Meta can.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/apple-is-reportedly-working-on-two-new-versions-of-the-vision-pro-153536984.html?src=rss

Researchers from top US universities warn extending pre-training can be detrimental to performance Too much pre-training can deliver worse performance due to something akin to the butterfly effect The more they are pre-trained, the more they become sensitive to small changes that could disrupt the end result

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton are challenging one of AI development’s accepted core beliefs - that the more pre-training data the better the performance.As reported by HPCwire, a new paper discuses the concept of “catastrophic overtraining,” whereby extended pre-training can harm a model’s performance after fine-tuning.The researchers compared two versions of the OLMo-1B model, one trained on 2.3 trillion tokens and another on 3 trillion. Despite the larger training set, the more extensively trained model reportedly performed up to 3% worse on benchmarks like AlpacaEval and ARC.

Reaching the inflection point

This performance drop, the study claims, is linked to a phenomenon called “progressive sensitivity.”As the token count increases, the model becomes more fragile. Even small tweaks, like adjustments during fine-tuning, or the introduction of noise, can reverse earlier gains.The authors demonstrated this by injecting Gaussian noise into pre-trained models, noting that performance degraded more sharply the longer the model was trained.The point where this additional training starts to degrade performance is called the “inflection point.”Once reached, the benefits of training start to become outweighed by the risk of internal instability. The study found that this tipping point often occurs beyond 2.5 trillion tokens in smaller models, like OLMo-1B.“Catastrophic overtraining may be inevitable... especially when the pre-training and fine-tuning tasks are misaligned,” the authors warn in their paper, which you can access through the arXiv pre-print server.While the researchers are not suggesting an end to pre-training, they do feel that developers should consider just how much pre-training is enough. As the paper concludes, “Our findings call for a renewed focus on model scaling that considers the entire training pipeline.”For AI developers chasing scale, the message seems clear: sometimes, less really is more.

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Apple is said to be readying some big improvements for iPadOS that could bring it more in line with macOS. According to Mark Gurman in the Power On newsletter, Apple’s iPadOS 19 will “focus on productivity, multitasking and app window management — with an eye on the device operating more like a Mac.” It won’t quite be macOS for iPad, but Gurman notes that “the changes will likely go far enough” to please those users who are looking to get more out of the tablet’s software.

It's expected to arrive later this year. Chances are we'll hear all about it at WWDC 2025, which Apple has set for the second week of June. This year is rumored to be bringing some major changes to iOS and macOS as well, as Gurman previously reported. It all reportedly comes as part of Apple’s push to make its software look more consistent across its devices.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/ipad-software-will-reportedly-get-more-mac-like-with-the-ipados-19-redesign-200759136.html?src=rss