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Microsoft said it observed a threat actor known as Storm-2460 abuse a use after free flaw in Windows Common Log File System DriverThe flaw is used to deploy PipeMagic, which is then used to deliver ransomwareUsers are advised to install the released patch immediately

Cybercriminals are abusing a post-compromise zero-day vulnerability in the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) to deploy ransomware.Earlier this week, Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) published a new in-depth report, describing how a flaw tracked as CVE-2025-29824 is being used in cyberattacks.The bug is described as a “use-after-free” vulnerability in Windows Common Log File System Driver that allows threat actors to elevate privileges locally. It was given a severity score of 7.8/10 (high).

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PipeMagic and RansomEXX

The caveat here is that this is a post-compromise vulnerability, meaning that the threat actors already broke into these systems before being able to abuse the flaw. It doesn’t particularly bother ransomware operators, Microsoft claims:“Ransomware threat actors value post-compromise elevation of privilege exploits because these could enable them to escalate initial access, including handoffs from commodity malware distributors, into privileged access,” the blog reads. “They then use privileged access for widespread deployment and detonation of ransomware within an environment.”In any case, at least one group is abusing this flaw in the wild right now. It is tracked as Storm-2460 and apparently, it is using it to deploy the PipeMagic malware.PipeMagic is a backdoor trojan which allows the group to ultimately deploy ransomware. It seems that the group used RansomEXX this time, a variant that’s not particularly popular, or known.Storm-2460 managed to use the flaw to target a “small number” of organizations, Microsoft said. Most of them are in IT, finance, and retail industries, and are located in the United States, Venezuela, Spain, and Saudi Arabia.A security advisory discussing the use after free flaw was published on April 8, Microsoft said.“Microsoft highly recommends that organizations prioritize applying security updates for elevation of privilege vulnerabilities to add a layer of defense against ransomware attacks if threat actors are able to gain an initial foothold,” the blog concludes.

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Samsung's Ballie AI-infused robot will launch this summer in the US and KoreaIt'll now feature Gemini thanks to a partnership between Samsung and Google CloudSamsung says it'll make Ballie more helpful and allow for natural conversations

Samsung finally spilled the beans on Ballie – its bright yellow AI-infused robot companion – at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show, and now just four months later, we’re learning more about the forthcoming product feature set.In a partnership with Google Cloud, Samsung announced that just like the deep integration of Google Gemini on the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25 series, the two technology giants are bringing the AI assistant to Ballie. Ballie will feature Gemini and other generative AI technology from Google Cloud and Samsung’s language models.We already know that Samsung’s Ballie is voice-activated with four far-field microphones on board. At CES 2025, I saw a demo of someone saying, “Hey Ballie,” to control smart home devices and spill information on places in Las Vegas.

Now, though, Samsung and Google Cloud aim to make interacting with Ballie even more natural and for the robot companion to be even more helpful. In a shared release, it’s teased that you could tell the robot, “I feel tired today,” and have it serve up ways to improve energy levels or if you have other Samsung-connected wearables to suggest monitoring sleep patterns. Pretty neat and clearly the promise of weaving Samsung’s tech with Gemini.You can also work with Ballie to build out your personal style and ask the robot how you look. Ballie will then use its onboard cameras to provide style recommendations. Here it’s likely a similar technology to Gemini Live crossed with Google Lens for a multi-modal experience to see what styles could match with whatever you’re wearing.As a reminder, Samsung’s Ballie has a ton of tech built-in, including a front Full HD triple-laser projector that can cast on surfaces near and far, a 4K camera on the front, a 2K camera on the back, a LiDAR sensor stack, Time of Flight (ToF) sensor, speakers, and the microphones as mentioned above.Of course, it also has wheels to move around your home and even follow you. When the onboard battery depletes, it can return to its charging dock, much like a robot vacuum.

Ballie should arrive in the US and Korea this summer

(Image credit: Samsung)

Further, Samsung’s once again reaffirming – and recommitting to – the promised launch of later in 2025. Thankfully, it’s getting more specific, confirming that Ballie will launch in the United States and Korea this Summer. It’s for a completely unknown price, but Samsung has set up a page to register your information that, quite interestingly, asks for city and state. That leads me to think that Ballie might be rolled out in a trial for specific states, potentially linked to Samsung’s SmartThings cities, or just that supplies will be limited at first.Regardless, I’m still eager as ever to see Ballie formally launch and to put it through its paces. And for those keeping track, Samsung’s news today is a very-fast follow to the robot’s appearance at CES. Ballie was first announced in 2020, returned in 2024 with a promise to launch that same year, and then shown off again in January 2025 with a promise launch later this year.Considering this is the most Samsung’s told us about Ballie, I’m leading more faith and the company’s showing more proof that Ballie will indeed arrive, and I can’t wait. You can sign-up to mark your interest in Ballie on Samsung’s site here.Of course, stick with TechRadar for the latest on Ballie, and you can read our first look at the robot from CES 2025 and our chat with Samsung’s Head of Product, Home Entertainment, Lydia Cho here. Remember, she said, “We just think it’s the perfect companion for you to meet all your needs,” and Gemini could help it.I just personally think it’s now the second cutest robot compared to Disney’s BDX Droids. Those are the clear winners.

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BYD, Zeekr and Huawei are all developing EV chargers that deliver 1MW Seeker’s 1.2MW charger is designed for passenger vehicles Early experiences suggests that more power might not be the answer

Several major Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers have recently announced powerful new charging networks that are capable of reaching in excess of 1,000kW rates – or 1 megawatt, as highlighted by numerous attention-grabbing headlines. But early reports from China suggest they might not be the game-changers they sound like on paper.The staggeringly-powerful outlets eclipse the current “ultra fast-charging” offering, which generally sees tops out at around 350kW, allowing a handful of EVs fitted with an 800V electrical architecture to charge from 10-80% in around 20-minutes.However, BYD’s recent Super e-Platform proved that it can add 249 miles of range in five minutes from its proposed 1MW charging outlets.Not to be outdone, Huawei quickly teased its 1.5MW charger and Zeekr introduced a single connector, car-focussed liquid-cooled charger that is capable of delivering 1.2MW of power to its next-generation EVs.But not everyone is convinced that ultra high-power chargers are the answer and early reports surfacing from China suggest that a number of EV owners are failing to achieve the advertised charging rates.According to Car News China, users have reported that even vehicles marketed as capable of charging 80% in 15 minutes usually require closer to 30 minutes or longer in practical scenarios.

(Image credit: BYD)

The article goes on to explain that BYD’s technology requires a sustained delivery of 1000V and 1000A to achieve the proposed “five minute” charge times, which is difficult to achieve in real-world scenarios, where there are fluctuations due to demand on the grid, the performance of the charger’s built-in cooling system, and even the weather.Secondly, these high-powered outlets tend to require a complicated cooling system to prevent them from melting, which makes each individual charger up to five times more expensive than a traditional charger and costlier to maintain over the long term.Finally, there is the important issue of strain on local grids, as the power draw is so high it could massively disrupt supplies to homeowners and local business.The Chinese manufacturers have attempted to combat this by also installing large scale back-up power packs, which can be charged from solar or be trickle-fed form the grid to provide excess power to the charging outlets when demand is high.Car News China points out that the reliance on energy storage, such as the system proposed by BYD, introduces another limitation: once the stored energy is depleted, subsequent vehicles will not be able to benefit from the same ultra-fast charging speeds.

Ultra-fast charging might not be the answer

(Image credit: Tesla)

While range anxiety and concerns around the public charging network are undoubtedly major hurdles facing indecisive EV buyers, simply throwing ever-more powerful charging outlets at the problem likely isn’t the best solution.As EV battery tech continues to improve, owners will be able to achieve greater mileage out of a single charge. A robust, functioning network, like the one offered by Tesla and its Superchargers, provides the peace of mind that you can simply stop, plug in and get on your way.Most regular drivers crave a quick pit stop and a break from driving when covering hundreds of miles and, in my experience, a stop to charge coincides with my natural need to have a rest anyway.By the time I’ve ushered my kids out of a vehicle and into a service station for a toilet break and a drink, most modern EVs will have nailed the 10-80% charge.Granted, the sort of five-minute charge advertised by BYD is attractive and would be ideal for those electric vehicles that can only manage 150 miles on a single charge, but the technology won’t be associated with these “more affordable” vehicles.It will be the reserve of the larger, more expensive EVs with massive battery packs or, as is the case with most 1MW charging technology, heavy duty trucks and commercial vehicles.Siemens, for example, completed the first successful 1MW charge early last year, showcasing the ability to rapidly top up a long-haul prototype eTruck from 20-80% in around 30 minutes.For haulage firms that rely on speed and reliability, this is essential, but for passenger cars, I’m not so sure.The technology is hugely expensive, puts excessive strain on the grid and requires a greater level of planning and infrastructure to install – all factors that will deter anyone investing in a burgeoning charging network.

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Drones have become an important tool in a creator’s bag of tricks, allowing them to capture aerial footage that elevates their videos. And nowadays, they’ve become more accessible as video quality and features have dramatically improved while prices have dropped.Recent budget-friendly models include DJI’s Neo and Flip drones, along with the HoverAir X1 Pro lineup, all under $500. If you’ve got more to spend, the options are similarly plentiful with drones like the DJI Mini 4 Pro and HoverAir X1 Pro Max. And for the price of a good mirrorless camera, you can get DJI’s Mavic 3 Pro that offers awesome image quality, range and other features.Price is obviously key, but you also need to consider features like video quality, obstacle avoidance and tracking. To help you decide which one is best for you and your budget, we’ve assembled this guide to the best drones you can buy right now, complete with models aimed at novices, professionals and filmmakers.

The best drones for 2025

What to look for in a drone

Camera features

For this guide, we're looking only at drones that are basically flying cameras, so you want the best video and photo features possible. Bigger devices like DJI’s Mavic 3 Pro or Air 3S carry relatively large sensors, offering superior picture quality for nighttime cityscapes or other low-light scenes. Smaller models like the Mini 4 Pro and HoverAir X1 Max use smaller camera sensors, so they aren’t as good in dim light.

Field of view and minimum aperture are also important, with most drones typically having a wide-angle focal length, though a few others like the HoverAir X1 Max carry an ultrawide lens. Some models have multiple cameras including a wide and a zoom. As for aperture, lower numbers are better and allow for shooting in dim light. Most DJI models are solid in this regard, while the HoverAir models don’t perform as well.

Video resolution and slow-mo are also essential camera capabilities. Most drones these days can shoot at 4K with a frame rate of at least 30 fps, though some offer 6K or even 8K at up to 30 fps. Higher-end models can shoot 4K at up to 120 fps, allowing you to slow down the action dramatically to create a cinematic look.

Other noteworthy features include log or HDR video that supports higher dynamic range, particularly in bright and sunny conditions. Finally, the camera’s gimbal and stabilization are important factors to keep your footage looking as smooth as possible. Some drones have gimbals that can rotate the camera 90 degrees to give social media creators the maximum resolution for vertical formats.

Drone features: Speed, range, safety, battery life and obstacle detection

By and large, there are two types of camera drones to consider. The first are standard drones (usually with open propellers but not always) designed to fly outside and take scenic shots. Often there’s nothing to stop the props from striking skin or objects, so they can’t really be used indoors or around people. Some models like the DJI Neo and Flip have prop guards that better protect bystanders and property, as well as the drone itself.

Then there's first-person-view (FPV) camera drones, which often have propeller guards and are meant to be used both indoors or outside to capture exciting footage. Standard models don’t need to go particularly fast as they’re mainly used to shoot fun videos for social media, but FPV drones need to move at high speeds to create excitement. Because of that speed, they’re also better in breezy conditions as they can fight gusts and return home more quickly. Acrobatic abilities (often promoted by the manufacturer in ads or packaging) are also important for FPV drones, as it allows the user to perform tricks and zip around obstacles.

Battery life is another important factor. The best drones boast a battery endurance of up to 45 minutes, while FPV drones like the Avata 2 can only fly for about half that time as they tend to be heavier and carry smaller batteries to reduce weight. As a general rule, a single battery isn’t enough for any serious shooting so you’d do well to buy your drone in a kit with a few batteries and a charger.

As for range, DJI tends to dominate in this area, with its latest models able to maintain a video signal at a distance up to 20km (12.4 miles). HoverAir’s models are weaker with the top-end X1 Max model limited to just 1km (0.6 miles) when using the optional beacon system. DJI also offers multiple ways to control its drones including headsets, joystick-type controllers, motion detection controllers and smartphones.

The best drones have sensors to detect obstacles in all directions. Others are limited to only avoiding obstructions coming at them from the front and some only rely on the main camera to prevent crashes. Finally, if you want to have your drone follow you around automatically, you’ll need it to be able to track you around when you’re vlogging, riding a bike or skiing, while also avoiding obstacles.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/best-drone-120046775.html?src=rss

Kaspersky found a new malicious campaign leveraging SourceForgeThe campaign distributed a crypto miner and a clipboard jackerSourceForge said the attack was quickly stopped

Hackers tried using SourceForge to distribute malware, but thanks to the platform’s swift reaction, a major escalation seems to have been averted.Earlier this month, security researchers Kaspersky said they spotted a “rather unique” malware distribution scheme in which a fake Microsoft Office project, called ‘officepackage’, was uploaded to the main website sourceforge.net.Officepackage was advertised as a compilation of Microsoft Office add-in development tools. Its description and files are a copy of the legitimate Microsoft project ‘Office-Addin-Scripts’, it was said, which can be found on GitHub.

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"No malicious files hosted"

In reality, the files serve as a malware dropper, a cryptocurrency miner, and a clipboard jacker. Kaspersky said the threat actors can use the files deployed through the project to drop additional malware on compromised endpoints, or to use their computing power to mine cryptocurrencies. Furthermore the files keep track of the clipboard for copied crypto addresses and replace them with the ones belonging to the attackers, on paste.For those unaware of SourceForge, it is a popular website that hosts open-source software projects, and provides hosting, comparison, and distribution services.Kaspersky said that before being pulled, the malware infected 4,604 systems, most of which are in Russia.SourceForge, on the other hand, says that its platform wasn’t broken into: "There were no malicious files hosted on SourceForge and there were no breaches of any kind,” the project’s president, Logan Abbott, said in a written statement shared with BleepingComputer.“The malicious actor and project in question were removed almost immediately after it was discovered. All files on SourceForge.net (the main website, not the project website subdomains) are scanned for malware and that is where users should download files from. Regardless, we’ve put additional safeguards in place so that project websites using free web hosting cannot link to externally hosted files or use shady redirects in the future."Via BleepingComputer

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Google has started rolling out the loss of pulse detection feature for Pixel Watch 3 devices in the US. The feature does exactly what it describes: It checks for your pulse when the watch is on your wrist and will call emergency services if it determines that your pulse has stopped. It debuted in several European countries last year when the watch launched, but it didn't get approval from the US Food and Drug Administration until February this year.

The feature uses concurrent passive algorithms to check for the presence of a pulse at the rate of once a second. If it detects the absence of a pulse, active sensors kick in to check for signals that could indicate false detections, such as if you're no longer wearing the watch. It's only then that the device will enter the Stage 1 alert phase, wherein it will send you a haptic notification asking you to tap a promp that says "I'm OK." If you're unresponsive, it will ramp up the alerts and add sounds, counting down to give you time to respond before it calls emergency services.

Google says the feature could save you in instances wherein every second matters, such as when you're having a cardiac or respiratory arrest, or when you've gotten poisoned. In cases like those, you can only get immediate help if someone is around to see them happen. That's not always possible: As Google explains, half of all loss of pulse events related to cardiac arrest are unwitnessed. With this feature, you could be attended to much more quickly if you do need help and prevent more permanent damage to your body.

Google

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/google-is-rolling-out-pixel-watch-3s-loss-of-pulse-detection-feature-in-the-us-120038008.html?src=rss

Daredevil: Born Again episode 8 is generating plenty of discussion onlineThe Disney+ show has got viewers debating some of its most interesting story beatsMarvel fans should get some answers in next week's season 1 finale

Daredevil Born Again episode 8 is out now – and the penultimate episode of the Marvel TV show's first season is generating plenty of discussion online.Until now, the Disney+ series has largely kept its main characters apart. That all changes in 'Isle of Joy', which sees Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk, and other key individuals collide in arguably the show's most explosive episode to date. And, predictably, Marvel fans have had plenty to say about events that unfold.Full spoilers immediately follow for Daredevil: Born Again season 1's eighth chapter.

Who really killed Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson – and is he actually dead?

That big fan theory about Foggy Nelson might not be so outlandish after all (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)

The death of Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson, Matt Murdock's best friend and fellow lawyer, was an emotionally devastating way for Daredevil's standalone Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) project to begin. That's particularly true for those of us who watched Netflix's Daredevil TV show, which Born Again is a direct continuation of.However, while we saw Foggy die on-screen, Marvel fans have a wild theory that Foggy isn't dead. After all, one of Daredevil's most famous comic book runs is built around a story where Foggy is supposedly murdered, but actually faked his own death to enter a witness protection program. Born Again is somewhat inspired by that Ed Brubaker-written series, which is why some viewers aren't convinced Foggy has shuffled off his mortal coil.

I know what you did last year, Vanessa (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)

It's looking increasingly likely that fans were right to assume this, too. At the time, we believed Benjamin 'Dex' Pointdexter, aka Bullseye, was responsible for Foggy's death. Indeed, we watched him shoot Foggy in one of the best Disney+ shows' first episode.'Isle of Joy' upends that by revealing Vanessa Fisk was responsible for putting the hit out on Foggy. Bullseye might have pulled the trigger, but it was Vanessa who initiated the plan that led to Foggy's apparent demise.Or, so it would seem. While Vanessa doesn't explicitly confirm Foggy is still alive, she insinuates as much to Matt. Okay, she only tells him "you need to relax", which could be interpreted in numerous ways. I believe, though, that she's telling Matt to calm down because, as long as he takes a few deep breaths, Matt will be calm enough for Vanessa to tell him Foggy isn't actually dead (that's what, like me, Redditor Responsible_Cod_3973 is hoping for, anyway).Vanessa might've told Matt, too, if Bullseye didn't shoot up the Mayor's Ball seconds later. But, more on that later.

Comment from r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers

If Foggy is revealed to be alive in the season 1 finale or Daredevil: Born Again season 2, there are questions that require answering.What spooked him so much that he not only faked his own death, but sought Vanessa's help to do so? When and how did Bullseye become involved in it? As Reddit user cig_sg_throwaway points out, Dex tried to kill Vanessa in the Netflix show's final season. Why, then, would she bring him into the fold to help 'bump off' Foggy?And, most importantly, what will Matt make of this if he learns Foggy is alive, that Foggy lied to Matt and Karen, and that Foggy successfully staged his own death with the aid of criminals?

Why does Matt Murdock save Wilson Fisk's life?

Taking the phrase 'keep your enemies closer' to new extremes, eh, Matt? (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)

Those questions will have to wait, though, because there's a more pressing one at hand. Namely, why did Matt save his archnemesis Wilson Fisk's life at the Mayor's Ball?As I alluded to above, Bullseye – who escaped captivity earlier in 'Isle of Joy' with, according to some fans, Matt's help (more on this fiercely debated topic later) – manages to infiltrate the glitzy black tie event. It appears he has a solitary goal for doing so, too: killing Wilson Fisk.It's not surprising that Bullseye would want to murder him. As directors Julian Benson and Aaron Moorhead pointed in a recent YouTube interview, the pair have a history.For starters, Fisk left Dex paralyzed in the season 3 finale of Netflix's Daredevil series, so they have previous form for *ahem* locking horns. Then there's the fact that Fisk is responsible for getting Bullseye moved from solitary confinement to the prison's 'gen pop' (general populace) area in Born Again episode 8. Effectively, Fisk is throwing Dex to the wolves with the hope that other serial offenders will bump him off.

Smile for the camera! (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)

So Bullseye has two major reasons to seek out and murder Fisk in the Marvel Phase 5 TV show. He would've succeeded, too, if it wasn't for Matt's intervention.Using his superhuman hearing, Matt learns that someone is readying a loaded rifle to shoot Wilson Fisk. As Bullseye pulls the trigger, Matt throws himself in front of the shot; the bullet hitting his chest and severely wounding the titular character.Considering Murdock and Fisk are long-time enemies, some viewers are asking why the former wouldn't let Bullseye kill Murdock's sworn adversary.

Comment from r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers

To me, the answer is a simple one: Murdock (and Daredevil by proxy) has a no-kill rule. It's something he's regularly grappled with in Marvel Comics and his two TV shows, but Murdock's Catholic upbringing always wins out.Sure, he almost broke that rule in Born Again's premiere when he threw Bullseye off a roof for seemingly killing Foggy. Even then, Murdock was so disturbed by his own behavior that he gave up being Daredevil for an entire year. The vigilante doesn't take lives – he saves them, so it makes sense that he wouldn't let Bullseye kill Wilson Fisk.Regardless, on ResetEra, users including Violence Jack, Lonestar, and PlanetSmasher think this moment will shake up the dynamic between Murdock and Fisk again. Hopefully, we'll see the immediate fallout in next week's season 1 finale.

Did Matt Murdock intentionally free Benjamin 'Dex' Pointdexter, aka Bullseye?

Fans can't agree on whether Matt intentionally helped Bullseye escape prison (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)

Perhaps this episode's biggest talking point, though, is whether Murdock intentionally freed Bullseye.Remember, Dex was given a whole life sentence for killing Foggy and numerous other patrons at Josie's Bar in this season's opening chapter. And, after he's moved to 'gen pop' under Fisk's orders, he reaches out to Murdock to enlist the champion lawyer's help to get sent back to solitary confinement for Dex's own safety.As you might expect, Murdock isn't receptive to the idea because, well, by the time the duo meet midway through 'Isle of Joy', Murdock still believes Bullseye killed Foggy. Clearly still furious over his friend's death at the hands of this psychotic killer, Murdock smashes Dex's face into the table he's chained to before calling the on-call pop to lead Dex back to his cell.On the surface, it seems Murdock is simply lashing out at Bullseye for murdering Foggy and then having the audacity to ask for Murdock's help. However, sections of the Marvel fanbase argue that Murdock actually helped Dex escape prison. Indeed, some suggest that, by roughing up Dex, Murdock knew Dex would get sent to the prison's medical unit. With his hand unshackled, the sharpshooting sociopath would be able to break out of jail.

Comment from r/marvelstudios

Indeed, Reddit and ResetEra threads, as well as other social media sites and apps, are full of fans fiercely debating and/or offering their opinions on the above.ResetEra user Grunty said they hadn't even considered that Murdock would help Dex, while Lonestar believes the former purposefully helped the latter.Others were less happy with this possible story beat, though. On Reddit and ResetEra, fans including RealDealAce and Coiote expressed frustration over the possibility that Murdock may have aided one of his biggest foes in escaping jail.Sitting squarely on the fence, PlanetSmasher and Minthara were less sure about the true meaning behind this contentious scene.

If Matt aided Bullseye's escape, it's his own fault he was shot at the Mayor's Ball (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)

Based on the YouTube video I linked to earlier, Benson and Moorhead indicated they left things intentionally vague, so fans can make up their own minds.Will we find out if Murdock helped Dex or not in episode 9? Maybe. For now, one thing is for sure: whether he did or not, he ended up being shot by Dex in 'Isle of Joy'. Chalk up one more bullet-based scar on Murdock's body, everyone!

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Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) driver sync lives onIt was due for deprecation on April 18, but that’s been postponedMicrosoft says it listened to customers who weren’t happy about the change

Azure Compliance Senior Program Manager Paul Reed has confirmed that Microsoft will be continuing to support driver update synchronization to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) servers.The news comes just weeks after Redmond gave users a 60-day warning that it would be ending support, quoting an end date of April 18.Reed added that the company had listened to “valuable feedback,” guiding its decision to postpone the deprecation, however the post lacks any definitive guidance as to what’s next.

Microsoft continuing WSUS support for driver synchronization

Reed noted the definition of deprecation, noting that while a product might not be in active development any more, it can still be used. “Seeing how many of you are already moving to the available cloud-based driver services, we initially proposed the removal of WSUS driver synchronization,” he added, before confirming that feedback from customers made it clear that there’s still a need for WSUS driver synchronization.“Effective immediately, we are postponing the plan to remove WSUS driver synchronization,” he confirmed. The announcement comes just two weeks before the initially proposed end date, offering little time for companies to change plans but a relief for organizations who are not quite ready to make the transition.Microsoft now promises to be working on a “revised timeline,” so it’s unclear whether WSUS driver synchronization will lose support at a later date or whether the company will keep it going in recognition of the continued demand for it.On that note, WSUS remains critical in certain highly restricted networks where companies may have legal or contractual obligations, thus continued support can only be a good thing for them.“Please continue helping us create solutions that meet your needs and expectations,” Reed said, noting that Microsoft appreciates customer feedback on the matter.

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The next time you fly, you could be handed a Meta Quest 3 to keep you entertained with mixed reality experiences and movies following the success of Meta’s recent pilot program. Though it’s somehow already being ruined by being used for some next-gen in-flight advertising.Travel Mode landed on Quest headsets a little less than a year ago to allow you to use your VR device while on a flight (and later while on a train journey). Normally, the vehicle’s movements would confuse your headset’s sensors, but travel mode uses a “tuned” algorithm, according to Meta, that accounts for your airplane’s motion so it doesn’t cause disruption.At the time, Meta announced a partnership with Lufthansa to provide in-flight entertainment to people traveling in their Allegris Business Class Suite (on select flights) so they could enjoy activities like virtual chess, meditation exercises, and virtual sightseeing previews.Now, 4,000 travelers later, Meta and Lufthansa are heralding that trial a success and announced that this service will be expanding to “more airlines and routes” in the near future. Something I’m super excited about.

(Image credit: Meta / Lufthansa)

Beyond more immersive in-flight entertainment – which could lift your movie off that tiny screen on the seat in front of you and suspend it on a giant virtual display instead – I’m particularly interested in those in-flight meditation exercises and other techniques that could help nervous fliers.I’m fine with flying, but I know plenty of people who find the experience stress-inducing. A VR headset that can whisk you away to somewhere more relaxing. Useful mindfulness exercises could be just what they need to make flights a less nerve-wracking experience.One feature I’m not keen on, though, is how the Quest headsets could be used for in-flight advertising – something Meta also just announced in its blog post.

(Image credit: Meta/Lufthansa)

Lufthansa and Cupra (a brand in the Volkswagen Group) have partnered to create an “in-flight test-drive app.” Meta explains that headset users will be able to customize their own Cupra car and “engage with the CUPRA Tavascan” as they explore virtual recreations of the streets of Barcelona and a Cupra garage – where you can learn more about the cars the company offers.Presumably, this will be an opt-in experience rather than a feature that will be forced onto users, but I still can’t help but feel like it’s already cheapening the revolutionary in-flight entertainment system VR headsets could offer by reducing it to another boring way to sell you stuff. A cool Cupra-sponsored in-flight driving sim would be one thing; this is something way more icky-feeling.I still believe in-flight virtual and mixed reality will be an awesome thing – I got a taste when using the Xreal One AR glasses on a few recent trips – but we’ll have to wait and see if it evolves in a fun way or if it just becomes another tool to sell us stuff.

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The 2025 BAFTA game awards took place yesterday in London and were dominated by one of our favorite games this year, Astro Bot. The PlayStation 5 platformer took home prizes in five categories including Best Game, along with Animation, Audio Achievement, Family and Game Design. That's no surprise, considering the game's critical accolades and popularity with fans.

Astro Bot is the first fully-fledged and fully-priced version in the Astro universe. "With precise and responsive controls, adorable characters and an exciting variety of mechanics and environments, Astro Bot is easily one of the best games that Sony has every produced," wrote Engadget's Jessica Conditt. It beat out some strong competition in the Best Game category, including Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Helldivers 2, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Thank Goodness You're Here.

Still Wakes the Deep came in second with three BAFTAs: New Intellectual Property, and Performers in Supporting and Lead Roles. One of those winners, Scottish actor Karen Dunbar (playing Finlay), humorously declared in her acceptance speech that "I'm not even an actor, I'm a gynecologist!"

Other key winners of the evening included Balatro for Debut Game category, Thank Goodness You're Here for Best British Game, Helldivers 2 in the multiplayer and music categories, Neva for Artistic Achievement and Metaphor: ReFantazio for Narrative. For a complete list of winners check here and you can watch the entire ceremony below.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/bafta-game-awards-adorably-dominated-by-astro-bot-130012074.html?src=rss

The warm weather is here, which means saying goodbye to gym memberships and hello to exercising in the fresh air. Without machines measuring your progress, a fitness tracker can ensure you're staying on top of your workout. Now is a great time to pick on up, with the Fitbit Charge 6 down to $120 from $160.

This 25 percent discount brings our favorite fitness tracker down to its lowest price of 2025. We've given the Charge 6 this accolade thanks to features like a more accurate heart rate monitor and it's use of Bluetooth to pair with exercise machines (if you do miss the indoors). It also offers 20 different workout modes for tracking your exercises. Plus, Google, which owns Fitbit, allows for anyone with a YouTube Music premium subscription to skip and control music playback.

Other perks of the Fitbit Charge 6 include using Fitbit Pay or Google Wallet for contactless payments and a great built-in GPS. The Fitbit 6 also offers seven days of battery life, much longer than the day or two you get with an Apple Watch (a much more complex device, but still).

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-fitbit-charge-6-is-25-percent-off-right-now-131620961.html?src=rss

It's almost time for The Triple-i Initiative, a gaming showcase for indie publishers and developers. You can watch the stream on The Triple-i Initiative's YouTube channel at 9AM PT / 12PM PT on April 10. It's also available on Twitch, Bilibili and Steam. This presentation is the second annual edition and, based on the teaser video, it looks like we will see an interesting range of games.

The 45-minute or so showcase should include looks at Enshrouded, V Rising and Deep Rock Galactic. Poncle, the studio behind Vampire Survivors is also set to reveal something, alongside other developers like Sloclap. All in all, the stream should include everything from demo drops to release dates for over 30 games.

The team at Engadget is very excited that Balatro publisher Playstack is also planning something for the event. "We had been saving our big announcement for a special showcase," said Marta Matyjewicz, marketing manager at Playstack, in a statement. "We were amazed by the quality of last year’s Triple-i, so when the opportunity came to be a part of it, we knew we had to take it."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-triple-i-initiative-indie-showcase-on-april-10-133037464.html?src=rss

Samsung's Ballie will go on sale in the US and South Korea this summer, the company announced today. What's more, through a partnership with Google Cloud, the diminutive robot will ship with a Gemini AI model.

Samsung didn't state the specific system that powers Ballie, but in combination with the company's own proprietary language models, it says the robot has multimodal capabilities, meaning Ballie can process voice, audio and visual data from its sensors. According to Samsung, Ballie can also manage your smart home devices and even offer health and styling recommendations, if you're inclined to seek that type of advice from a robot.

Samsung has yet to announce pricing for Ballie, though with the uncertainty around the Trump administration's recently announced tariffs, you can't blame Samsung, can you? The company first demoed Ballie in 2020. The robot has gone through a few iterations since the then, with the version you see above first demoed at CES 2024. Samsung said then Ballie would arrive sometime in 2024, but last year came and went without the robot hitting store shelves. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/samsungs-cute-ballie-robot-arrives-this-summer-with-google-gemini-in-tow-133658886.html?src=rss

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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Wednesday, April 9 (game #1171).

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 #1172) - hint #1 - Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.

* 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 #1172) - 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 2.

Quordle today (game #1172) - 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 #1172) - 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 #1172) - hint #5 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?• L• S• U• N

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

Quordle today (game #1172) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1172, are…

LEASTSEWERUNTIENOOSE

Faced with two possible words – unite or UNTIE – I chose the wrong one, but that was my only piece of misfortune on an otherwise easy run where I was virtually gifted my first two correct words (LEAST and SEWER).The final word – NOOSE – took a little bit of thinking time, but the only other two words I could think of that started N-O and ended S-E were impossible (noise and norse).How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1172) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1172, are…

MAPLEDUTCHBANALHUMPH

Quordle answers: The past 20

Quordle #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, STAINQuordle #1155, Monday 24 March: FLOUT, SMASH, RAZOR, SMALLQuordle #1154, Sunday 23 March: ALLEY, GAMUT, GEESE, RADIIQuordle #1153, Saturday 22 March: PICKY, BRACE, BOOZE, SURLYQuordle #1152, Friday 21 March: DITTY, VALOR, TOWER, AMISS

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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, April 9 (game #402).

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 #403) - hint #1 - today's theme

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

NYT Strands today (game #403) - hint #2 - clue words

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

TIGERTHENSNUGDAMETEAMDATE

NYT Strands today (game #403) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?• Spangram has 9 letters

NYT Strands today (game #403) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?First side: right, 8th rowLast side: left, 8th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #403) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #403, are…

WINGSTHORAXTONGUEABDOMENSTINGERANTENNAESPANGRAM: BUMBLE BEE

My rating: ModerateMy score: 1 hint

The first couple of words I found in today's search were WINGS and THORAX, so I knew we were looking for something to do with insects, but I wasn’t sure which one until I got the Spangram right at the end. A timely theme as we are entering the peak period for bumblebee activity.Some BUMBLEBEEs are extraordinarily buzzy. Generally they come in peace and don’t use their STINGER on humans, as they’re only interested in two things – getting nectar from flowers and getting trapped in window blinds.Interestingly, if you do get stung by a bumblebee then it will be by a female, as male drones have no weapons whatsoever – apart from being annoying.How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, 9 April, game #402)

WATERMELONARUGULAAVOCADOCAULIFLOWERSPANGRAM: FOUR SYLLABLES

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 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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, April 9 (game #668).

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 #669) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

NAUGHTYCANARYCOALMINEMUSTARDSOYRESERVEMAYOGOLDGUSTOGRINCHELLAWELLBAHLEMONSTORE

NYT Connections today (game #669) - hint #1 - group hints

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

YELLOW: Mix red and greenGREEN: Stock BLUE: Yuletide jeers PURPLE: Palabras en español

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 #669) - hint #2 - group answers

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

YELLOW: SHADES OF YELLOW GREEN: SUPPLY BLUE: ANTI-SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS PURPLE: SPANISH WORDS

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

NYT Connections today (game #669) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #669, are…

YELLOW: SHADES OF YELLOW CANARY, GOLD, LEMON, MUSTARDGREEN: SUPPLY MINE, RESERVE, STORE, WELLBLUE: ANTI-SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS BAH, COAL, GRINCH, NAUGHTYPURPLE: SPANISH WORDS ELLA, GUSTO, MAYO, SOY

My rating: ModerateMy score: 1 mistake

Having skipped the obvious trickery – CANARY, COAL, MINE – I fell for one of my own making, thinking that SOY, MUSTARD, MAYO, and LEMON would make an excellent salad dressing. It was wrong, of course. Also I’d add a bit of honey if I was going to make it.Having SHADES OF YELLOW being the yellow group was a cute touch. I can remember them doing the same for green last year (olive, forest, lime and mint) but I don’t think they’ve done blue or purple yet, so I’ll be on the look out for those.If the group felt familiar it could be because yellow shades cropped up as a theme in Strands a few weeks ago, but there we had goldenrod instead of GOLD.The SPANISH WORDS seem quite random and I’m wondering if I’m missing something special about ELLA (she), GUSTO (taste), MAYO (May), and SOY (am) – a common sensation with the purple group, which usually travels a mile over my head.How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 9 April, game #668)

YELLOW: ROUND THREE-DIMENSIONAL OBJECTS BALL, GLOBE, ORB, SPHEREGREEN: PUNCH POP, POUND, SLUG, SOCKBLUE: ANIMALS IN THE WITCHES' BREW IN "MACBETH" BAT, DOG, FROG, NEWTPURPLE: FOX___ GLOVE, HOLE, HOUND, TROT

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.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency confirmed suffering a data breachIt told US Congress it was a "major information security incident"The identity of the miscreants is not known at this time

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a US federal agency that acts as a national banks regulator, confirmed suffering a cyberattack recently.In a short press release published on its website, the OCC said that in February 2025 it “identified, isolated and resolved” a security incident “involving an administrative account in the OCC email system.”Running its due diligence, the OCC analyzed all email logs since 2022 and said it identified a “limited number” of affected email accounts, all of which have since been disabled.

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100 regulators' emails

“The OCC reported the incident to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as required,” the agency concluded. “There is no indication of any impact to the financial sector at this time.”The OCC is an independent bureau of the US Department of the Treasury that regulates and supervises national banks and federal savings associations to ensure they operate safely, soundly, and in compliance with laws and regulations.Its press release is quite vague, but the media managed to dig up a few more details. Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, BleepingComputer reports that the cybercriminals accessed more than 150,000 emails, and around 100 bank regulators’ emails.It also said that OCC told the US Congress that this was a “major information security incident” that was discovered on February 11 and remedied on February 12.The OCC told the body that "the unauthorized access to a number of its executives' and employees' emails included highly sensitive information relating to the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions used in its examinations and supervisory oversight processes."If all of this turns out to be true, this could be the second major government-related data incident since Trump's election. The first happened when The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg was added to the White House Signal group chat in which airstrikes in Yemen were discussed.Via BleepingComputer

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CRM is a brilliant way to boost your business, connect with customers, and generally make life easier. But let's be honest, sometimes CRM implementations can feel a bit like navigating a maze blindfolded. Things like unclear goals, resistance from users, data disasters, and integration headaches can quickly turn CRM dreams into CRM nightmares.CRM needs to work for you, not against you. This guide will tackle those tricky bits head-on and give you practical tips to sail smoothly through the process.

Challenge 1: Lack of clear objectives and strategy

More often than not, jumping into CRM implementation without clear goals will end up costing you time, money, and probably a bit of sanity. Many businesses adopt CRM with a vague idea of "improving customer relationships," but that's not specific enough. This often leads to poor user adoption (because no one knows why they're using it) and a whole lot of wasted investment.The solutionBefore you even think about which CRM to choose, you need to define exactly what you want to achieve and create a roadmap for your CRM journey.Ask yourself:What are our biggest business challenges? Are we struggling with lead management? Do we need better visibility into customer interactions? Are we looking to streamline our sales process?How can CRM help us overcome these challenges? Be specific — instead of "improve customer relationships," think "increase customer retention by 10% within six months".What are our KPIs? How will we measure the success of our CRM implementation? This could include things like increased sales, improved customer satisfaction scores, or reduced support costs.Once you have a clear understanding of your objectives, you can align them with your overall business needs. This will ensure that your CRM implementation is not just an ad-hoc project, but a strategic initiative that drives real business value. And that's where the magic happens.

Challenge 2: Getting everyone on board

When it comes to CRM, one of the biggest hurdles is getting your team to actually use the system. Many businesses invest in a top-range CRM, only to find it gathering dust because employees are resistant to change. This can be due to several reasons — fear of complexity, concerns about workflow disruption, or simply a lack of understanding about the benefits.The solutionGetting your team on board is crucial for CRM success. It's not enough to just roll out the system and expect everyone to embrace it — you need to actively advocate for user adoption and address any concerns.Here’s how:Invest in thorough training. Don't just give your team a quick overview and expect them to become CRM experts overnight.Be there to answer questions, provide guidance, and troubleshoot any issues that arise. A dedicated support team or internal CRM champion can make a huge difference.Don't just tell your team what the CRM does, show them how it will make their lives easier. Will it help them close more deals? Will it streamline their workflows? Will it give them better insights into customer behavior? Focus on the positive impact on their day-to-day work.Encourage your team to provide feedback on the CRM and be willing to make adjustments as needed.Address user adoption head-on and you can transform your CRM from a source of frustration into a powerful tool that empowers your team and drives business success.

Challenge 3: Taming the data beast

Migrating existing customer data into a new CRM can be a messy business. Outdated records, duplicate entries, inconsistent formatting – it's not a pretty picture. And if your data is a mess going in, it's going to be a mess coming out. Inconsistencies and inaccuracies can lead to all sorts of problems, from inaccurate reporting to missed opportunities.The solutionThe key to a successful data migration is preparation. You can't just dump your existing data into the new CRM and hope for the best. You need a structured plan and a commitment to data quality.Here's the playbook:Conduct a thorough data audit. Take a close look at your existing data. Identify any inconsistencies, outdated records, or duplicate entries. This is your chance to clean things up and ensure that you're migrating only the good stuff.Cleanse outdated records. Get rid of any data that's no longer relevant or accurate. This will not only improve the quality of your CRM data but also make the migration process smoother.Ensure a structured migration plan. Don't just wing it! Develop a detailed plan that outlines how you'll migrate your data. This should include timelines, responsibilities, and contingency plans. Think of it as your data migration roadmap.Before you migrate all of your data, test the process with a smaller sample. This will help you identify any potential issues and make sure everything goes smoothly when you do the real thing.Take a proactive approach to data quality and your CRM will be populated with accurate, reliable data that you can actually use to make informed business decisions.

Challenge 4: Integration with existing systems

Your CRM isn't an island. It needs to work in harmony with your other business systems, like your ERP, marketing automation platform, and accounting software. The problem is, sometimes these systems don't speak the same language. Integrating them can be a technical challenge, and if it's not done right, you can end up with data silos and duplicated efforts.The solutionSeamless integration is key to maximizing the value of your CRM. You want a system that can easily connect with your other business tools, allowing data to flow freely between them.Here's what to look for:Choose a CRM with robust integration capabilities. Some offer limited integration options, while others are designed to connect with a wide range of systems. Do your research and choose a CRM that can handle your specific integration needs.Ensure IT alignment early on. Integration is a technical undertaking, so it's essential to involve your IT team from the very beginning.Consider APIs and pre-built integrations. APIs allow different systems to communicate with each other. Look for a CRM that offers robust APIs or pre-built integrations with the systems you use. This will make the integration process much smoother.Once you've integrated your systems, test them thoroughly to make sure everything is working as expected. Then make sure you’re monitoring the integration regularly to identify and address any issues that may arise.

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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

After three years away, Love, Death + Robots is back for an exciting new volume – and its streaming date is just a few weeks away. Volume 4 comes to Netflix on May 15, and if the teaser trailer is any indication it's going to be epic, edge-of-the-seat TV.As with previous seasons of one of the best Netflix shows, volume 4 consists of self-contained animated shorts with their own characters and distinctive visual styles. And as you'll see from the trailer, this looks like it'll be a ton of robot-related fun.

Love, Death & Robots Volume 4: what to expect

Here are some of the things you'll see in volume 4 based on the trailer: an apparently sentient sex toy with googly eyes; what looks like a giant rock concert; a scary, sweary cyborg; a giant baby; dinosaurs fighting; half of the Golden Gate going missing... and that's just the first 12 seconds of the trailer.It's clearly going to be visually stunning, and as ever the changes of style between each short are striking: there's classic comic book-esque action, photorealistic CGI and much more.There will be ten shorts in volume 4, and while Netflix isn't giving too much away it promises "Dinosaur gladiators, messianic cats [and] string-puppet rock stars". The official synopsis says:"The fourth volume, presented by Tim Miller and David Fincher, sees Jennifer Yuh Nelson return as supervising director for 10 startling shorts showcasing the series's signature, award-winning style of bleeding-edge animation, horror, sci-fi and humour. Buckle up."Love, Death + Robots volume 4 will be streaming on Netflix from May 15.

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Today Sony is adding a bunch of new features to the PlayStation Portal's Cloud Streaming option. The beta platform is getting updates such as the ability to sort games by recently added, name in standard or reverse alphabetical order or release date.

Then there's the pause feature, which will stop the game if you open the PS Portal quick menu. Gameplay will also pause if you click the power button. Be warned, you will get disconnected from the cloud streaming session if more than 15 seconds go by without you unpausing it (clicking the power button again). Plus, you'll be paused if there's a system error message on your screen. However, these features don't work, as of yet, in multiplayer mode.

You're also going to have a clearer idea of when it's your turn to play. You will get an estimated wait time if the streamer server is full and then be put right into the game when you're up. Then there's the new create button, which takes a screenshot (when held down) or records a video of the game (when clicked twice). This media will stay in the PlayStation App library under captures for 14 days.

There's two more, minor, updates to Cloud Streaming. You'll now receive an inactivity notification after 10 minutes of no action, just letting you know that the session is about to end. Plus, there's a user feedback screen that will pop up at the end in case there's anything you want PlayStation to know.

Sony first announced the Cloud Streaming trial late last year and its available to all PlayStation Plus Premium members in beta. The experimental system lets you stream select games from PlayStation's servers, regardless of if you own a PS5. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/ps-portals-cloud-streaming-beta-gets-automatic-pauses-and-screen-captures-141945431.html?src=rss

The tech industry is driving civilization forward at a breathtaking pace. In the past 50 years, humanity has witnessed an extraordinary leap in technological evolution, from the early days of personal computing and the internet to the rise of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotechnology, breakthroughs that have reshaped medicine and daily lifeAlongside these advances, society has made significant strides in gender and racial equality, fostering more inclusive workplaces, legal protections and shifting cultural attitudes that empower diverse voices.Yet, for all these laudable advancements, the IT sector continues to struggle with an age-old issue: gender disparity. Despite ongoing conversations around diversity, women remain underrepresented, particularly in leadership roles.According to the World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Gender Gap Report, women make up only 25% of the workforce in the technology sector, with a mere 10% occupying senior positions. The gap is not just a moral issue, it’s a business problem and a significant one at that.The need for gender diversity in tech goes beyond equality, it directly impacts innovation, problem-solving and financial performance. Research has repeatedly shown that companies with diverse teams outperform their homogenous counterparts. To bridge this gap, organizations must actively work to dismantle the barriers preventing women from advancing in the industry.

Innovation and creativity flourish in diverse teams

One of the most compelling reasons for increasing gender diversity in tech is its impact on innovation. A 2023 study by McKinsey found that companies with high representation of women and ethnic minorities in leadership positions had 39% higher financial performance. Furthermore, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability.When teams include people from different backgrounds, perspectives collide in ways that lead to fresh ideas. Women in tech bring unique insights shaped by their experiences, which can lead to innovations that better serve diverse markets. The inclusion of varied viewpoints encourages out-of-the-box thinking, which is essential in an industry that thrives on cutting-edge advancements.In addition to these internal advantages, external investors and other stakeholders are also increasingly considering diversity as a marker of a company’s long-term success. Organizations that actively cultivate diverse leadership teams are perceived as more forward-thinking and adaptable, which strengthens their position in the market.

Better decision-making and problem-solving

Diverse teams don’t just come up with better ideas, they also make better decisions. A white paper by Cloverpop has found that inclusive teams actually make better business decisions up to 87% of the time, and they make those decisions twice as fast within half as many meetings. Cognitive diversity, differences in perspective and problem-solving approaches enable teams to assess situations from multiple angles, ultimately leading to more informed and effective decision-making.In tech, where rapid decision-making is required, the ability to analyze situations through different lenses can be a game-changer. A more diverse team is better equipped to anticipate risks, troubleshoot problems and develop solutions that take multiple user experiences into account. The more perspectives available in a room, the greater the chance of catching flaws before they become costly mistakes.

A stronger connection to a broader market

Gender diversity in tech isn’t just beneficial internally, it also translates to a competitive edge in the marketplace. A diverse workforce allows companies to better understand and connect with a wide range of customers. According to a study by McKinsey, organizations with more diverse teams are better positioned to meet the needs of diverse customer bases, which can translate to improved market share and revenue growth.Women make up nearly half of global consumers, yet when tech teams are male-dominated, products and services often fail to address the needs of female users effectively. The rise of female-driven innovation, such as wearable tech designed for women’s health, illustrates how a gender-balanced workforce leads to products that are more inclusive and marketable. Companies that prioritize diversity are more likely to design solutions that resonate with a broader customer demographic, giving them an undeniable business advantage.

Higher employee satisfaction and retention

A study by Glassdoor found a workplace that values diversity fosters an environment of inclusion and belonging, leading to higher employee satisfaction and retention. When employees feel valued and represented, they are more likely to stay with their employer long-term. In tech, where talent retention is a significant challenge, this is a crucial factor. Women in particular often cite workplace culture and lack of advancement opportunities as key reasons for leaving the industry. Companies that actively support career progression for women, through mentorship programs, flexible work policies and equitable pay, see higher levels of engagement and loyalty across the workforce.

A boost to company reputation and brand perception

Diversity isn’t just good for business, it’s also good for branding. Organizations that foster an inclusive culture enjoy stronger reputations and greater appeal to top talent. Research from Catalyst found that companies with inclusive business cultures are 57.8% more likely to enhance their reputations.In the tech industry, which faces a continuous battle for skilled workers, reputation matters. Companies known for prioritizing diversity attract top-tier talent from a wider pool, giving them a competitive advantage. Additionally, today’s consumers and clients are increasingly aligning with brands that uphold values of inclusivity and social responsibility. By committing to gender diversity, tech companies position themselves as progressive industry leaders.

Kaspersky’s commitment to bridging the gender gap

Acknowledging the importance of gender diversity, Kaspersky has been working to raise awareness and drive an industry-wide change through educational projects. To coincide with International Women’s Day in March 2025, the company launched “Confronting IT’s Career Barriers,” an interactive test designed to explore gender and work-life balance barriers in IT. This initiative invited professionals to navigate common workplace challenges, gaining insight into the real impact of these barriers and discovering strategies for overcoming them.By highlighting these obstacles, Kaspersky aims to spark conversations and inspire meaningful change within the industry. The test also showcases the company’s own diversity and inclusion initiatives, including equal pay policies, mentorship programs and flexible work arrangements designed to support career progression for women in tech.Beyond this initiative, Kaspersky continues to champion gender diversity through projects such as the Empower Women platform, which shares stories of female professionals excelling in the cybersecurity sector. The company is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment where talent is recognized and rewarded, regardless of gender.The road to gender equality in tech is long, but it is a journey worth taking. Companies that embrace diversity will not only drive innovation and profitability, but also help shape a more inclusive and equitable future for the entire industry. By supporting initiatives like Kaspersky’s, organizations can take a crucial step toward creating workplaces where everyone, regardless of gender, has the opportunity to thrive.

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In an incredibly shocking turn of events, more generative AI features are coming to the Google Workspace suite of productivity apps by way of Gemini. Docs, Sheets, Chat, Meet and newcomer Vids are among the tools that are getting new AI capabilities that perhaps some folks will find useful.

Google is taking a cue from audio overviews in NotebookLM to bring new Gemini-powered audio features to Docs. You'll soon have the option of listening to full audio versions of your documents or just the highlights in what Google calls a podcast-style overview. Those enrolled in the Workspace alpha testing program can start trying out these audio features in the coming weeks.

By the end of June, alpha testers will have access to an AI writing coach of sorts. The "help me refine" feature is said to offer suggestions on bolstering an argument, ensuring consistent formatting, enhancing the structure of the text and clarifying key points.

A similar feature is coming to Sheets later this year. The "help me analyze" tool will seemingly point out trends you might have overlooked, offer pointers on where to dig deeper for more insights and whip up charts to visualize the data.

In Meet, you'll soon be able to ask Gemini to recap parts of a meeting you missed because you were running late, clarify certain decisions or topics, generate a recap in the format of your choice and help refine a point before you raise a virtual arm to join the conversation. This so-called "personal in-meeting advisor" will be generally available in Meet before the end of June.

As for Chat, Google will soon offer the option to mention @gemini in a conversation to receive a summary that includes open questions, important decisions that were made and lays out next steps. It could be a useful way to distill everything that happened in a bustling group chat. This capability will be available through the Labs early-access program in the coming weeks.

In Vids, you'll soon be able to generate what Google says are "high-quality, original" clips using the Veo 2 model (perhaps ignoring the fact that generative video AI models mash together footage that they were trained on and arguably don't create anything truly original at all). Workspace alpha can get their hands on this in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere, there's another new feature called Google Workspace Flows. Google bills this as "a brand-new way to automate and orchestrate work across your apps, powered by AI." It employs Gems, customizable AI agents that can be created with Gemini, to take care of specialized tasks, such as researching, analyzing and generating content.

The company says that Workspace Flows can, for instance, address a customer support ticket by analyzing the issue, researching a solution and drafting a reply that the support team can review before sending. Gems can mine your Google Drive files for context. Google's also working with third-party partners to integrate Workspace Flows into their apps and tools. Google is now rolling out Workspace Flows in the alpha program.

Lastly, as of today, Google will allow Workspace users to choose where Gemini processes their data. So if you're in the European Union and don't want your data to travel to the US (or vice versa), that's now an option. Google makes it clear that this is to help comply with regulations such as the EU's GDPR.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/surprise-google-workspace-is-adding-more-ai-tools-to-docs-sheets-chat-and-other-apps-143644125.html?src=rss

We finally have the trailer for Murderbot, the Apple TV+ show based on Martha Wells' seven book series, The Murderbot Diaries. It features Alexander Skarsgård as a security unit that is less interested in protecting humans and more excited about catching up on its favorite soap operas.

As Sarsgaard says in the trailer, "I was built to protect and obey humans. And humans are idiots. But now that I've hacked my programming, I can do whatever I want. As long as they don't find out." But, things take a turn when it gets chosen for a dangerous assignment. The security unit privately refers to itself as Murderbot, a fact that becomes more than awkward once the humans learn about the name.

Apple first announced the sci-fi adaptation, from About a Boy creators Chris and Paul Weitz, in late 2023. The first two of ten Murderbot episodes will come to Apple TV+ on May 16. The next eight episodes will debut every Friday. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-murderbot-tv-show-trailer-is-here-150017588.html?src=rss

Imagine if your gadgets talked to each other over coffee in the kitchen. After pleasantries and “pass the pastries,” what would they discuss? Well, you, of course. “Did Jeremy sleep well last night?” my air purifier might ask my smartwatch, comparing notes about breathing, air circulation, and whatever else. "Can we keep him happier and healthier?" they ask each other. "He’s obviously overstressed… can we help him deal with that?"That oddball vision of the future was presented during Samsung’s big CES press conference in Las Vegas in January, and frankly, it felt a little goofy. The dishwasher doesn’t have googly eyes and a personality, after all. Like the animatronic robots at Disney World, it described a future both wonderfully impossible and as far off as a dream. But here’s the thing: It’s not.On Wednesday, April 9, Samsung unveiled a major update to the SmartThings app (release 3.28.25 – whatever happened to cool code names?). It includes expanded support for Matter 1.4 and energy management devices, a new intercom functionality and expanded Routine functions. And, for the first time, it all integrates directly with the Samsung Health app to help your gadgets make personalized decisions to improve your health and wellbeing.

The amount of data we generate in society today vastly exceeds the amount we are able to useJonathan Gabrio

“The amount of data we are generating in society today vastly exceeds the amount we are able to use,” Jonathan Gabrio, Head of the Connected Experience Center at Samsung, told me a few weeks ago. “How do we use AI and different kinds of connective technologies to make that useful to the average human being? And sleep is one of those huge opportunities.”Gabrio leads the Connected Experience Center, where he examines how AI and IoT technologies come together. Your robovac and smart ring might not have goofy personalities, but they collect enormous amounts of data.One of the biggest challenges the technology world faces is turning all that information into something meaningful and actionable, a fact I’ve seen first-hand: After half a decade, I recently retired my Oura ring. Daily checking into my sleep cycles revealed exactly nothing I felt I could use. Samsung thinks the power of SmartThings can make it easier to learn about our sleep patterns – and by learning, improve them.“How do we not just make better things but make things better,” Gabrio said. “That’s the interesting part of the conversation we’re at as a society now.”

A new bedtime routine

Screen shots show the new Sleep functionality within Samsung Health, enabled by SmartThings (Image credit: Samsung)

SmartThings today lets you create Routines, a way to tie together your devices: You can set the mood for dinner by dimming the lighting and putting on mood music, for example. A sleep Routine might adjust lighting, temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors to optimize for that deep slumber you can’t seem to get any more.With the new update, these Routines can be triggered automatically when your body actually dials down for the evening or wakes up in the morning, rather than on a fixed schedule.A good night’s sleep is dependent on more than just closing your eyes and counting sheep: There are biological factors like when you last ate and how much wine you consumed before bed, for example, as well as environmental factors. Thanks to smart devices, a huge data stream about your environment is possible that simply didn’t exist before. Think lumens, CO2 levels, humidity and temperature, and so on.Samsung’s SmartThings can optimize based on data from all of those things, not just the biometric data from your Galaxy Watch. It can detect if you sleep best when the temperature is between 61-65 degrees Fahrenheit / 16-18 degrees Celsius and adjust your heat pump to actively maintain that range. The same Routine can detect when you wake and automatically warm the room up, brighten the lights, and turn on your morning news.Here’s the best part: Track that info for a few days – you can see it in a new Sleep Environment Report – and a brand new Routine Creation Assistant (at last!) will use generative AI to build a routine for you. You won’t have to mine through the data to figure out what keeps you snoring, in other words. And if you have a newer Samsung TV, which can act as a SmartThings hub, it’ll suggest you turn off the basketball and get ready for bed.

Sleep Science 2.0

Sound a little crazy? It’s more popular than you might think. Sleep tracking has increased 17% since 2020 among younger users of Samsung’s wearable lineup of Watches and Rings, Gabrio tells me. 30% of these folks use the feature, according to Samsung, meaning sleep tracking isn’t just a problem for harried parents and overworked employees. It’s a big concern for everyone. But strangely, our modern obsession with sleep hasn’t really changed the fundamentals.“Interestingly, our understanding of healthy sleep has not really changed even with all this new data,” Vanessa Hill, an Australian sleep researcher, tells TechRadar. “The recommendation remains 7–9 hours for adults, varying by age … What has evolved is our understanding of sleep health as multidimensional (going beyond just duration).

Our understanding of healthy sleep has not really changed even with all this new dataVanessa Hill, sleep scientist

“Recent research suggests that sleep regularity, maintaining a consistent bedtime and wake time, may be more predictive of long-term health than sleep duration alone.”Hill doesn’t recommend poring over your stats on a daily basis, as I had done for years with my Oura ring. For some, continuous data can heighten stress or lead to orthosomnia (anxiety-driven sleep disturbances from obsessing over metrics), she notes. That was me in a nutshell, but thanks to AI, and its broader ability to analyze multiple data points longitudinally, we can gradually improve behaviors.“AI can turn health data (which is often complex) into personalized insights that help make it easier to understand,” she says. Applying those insights and keeping to a new routine can be tough, as anyone who’s tried to diet will tell you. Samsung’s app cleverly sorts people into categories with cute animal avatars – I’m a penguin, apparently. Automated Routines should make it easier to stick to our convictions. And all of it might help you drift off easier and stay asleep longer. Dreamland awaits!

Hackers are increasingly targeting social media influencers and content creatorsTheir accounts have enormous reach, which crooks can use to deploy malwareFollowers are often drawn into crypto scams and identity theft

Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting social media influencers and other popular individuals in an attempt to infect their followers with malware, draw them into crypto scams, or steal their sensitive information.This is according to a new report from cybersecurity researchers Bitdefender, who said the trend was quite widespread in 2024, and has continued in 2025, as well.As per the report, threat actors would first approach social media influencers and content creators in different ways. They might offer fake sponsorship deals, fake advanced AI-powered video software, or through simple phishing attacks. If the victim falls for the trick and downloads malware, the attackers get ahold of the login credentials for the different platforms they’re using (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and others).

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Millions of people at risk

The platforms are then used to target the followers in different ways. For example, Bitdefender says there were more than 9,000 malicious live streams on YouTube alone. “These streams often appear legitimate at first glance, but they are controlled by hackers who have rebranded compromised channels,” they said. Rebrands often spoof major names such as Donald Trump, Elon Musk (a favorite among crypto scammers), Michael Saylor, or Brad Garlinghouse.The researchers believe this is a major problem, with millions of people at risk. In fact, one compromised YouTube account was followed by more than 28 million people, and another compromised account has had more than 12 billion views in total.“The staggering number underscores the global reach that threat actors can access,” Bitdefender added. “If cybercriminals convert just 1% of those views, that equates to a staggering 124 million potential victims exposed to scams, malware, or data theft.”During these live streams, crooks would promote malicious domains, which they can use to steal credentials, people’s cryptocurrency holdings, or personal information. Content creators are advised to tighten up on security, while followers should be skeptical of everything they see online, including information coming from their favorite influencer.

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If Claude Plays Pokémon is supposed to offer a glimpse of AI's future, it's not a very convincing showcase. For the past month and counting, Twitch has watched Anthropic's chatbot struggle to play Pokémon Red. Across multiple runs, Claude has failed to beat the nearly 30 year old game. And yet for David Hershey, the project's lead developer, the showcase has been a success.

"I wanted some place where I could understand how Claude handles situations where it needs to work over a very long period of time," Hershey explains to me over a video call. As part of his day job at Anthropic, Hershey works on the go-to-market team where he helps the company's clients create their own agents (more on those in a moment). He first began working on Claude Plays Pokémon as a side project around the time Anthropic released 3.5 Sonnet last June.

As you can probably guess from the name, the project was partly inspired by Twitch Plays Pokémon, which debuted in 2014 and saw 1.16 million participate in a crowdsourced attempt to beat Pokémon Red using only the inputs viewers typed into the stream's chatbox. Hershey wasn't the first Anthropic employee to try to mold Claude into a Pokémon League Champion, but the project took on a life of its own right around the time he got involved.

In the early days of the project, it was a big deal when Claude managed to leave Red's home and find Professor Oak. "I spent some ungodly number of hours tinkering to get it to make that kind of progress," Hershey tells me. He would update his co-workers on Claude's progress in an internal Slack channel. At that point, most of the company wasn't paying attention, and it wasn't something Anthropic planned to share with the world.

However, Hershey has made it a habit to revisit the project with each new major model release from Anthropic, starting with the upgraded version of Claude 3.5 Sonnet last fall and again more recently with 3.7 Sonnet. "It's the way I go to see 'What is this new model?' 'How does it work?' 'What can I learn about it?'" Hershey explains. And with Claude 3.7 Sonnet, the version of Claude playing the game right now, it was the first time "you could squint and see signs of life."

Antrhopic

Inside Anthropic the hope was that Claude would become better at trying different strategies and adjusting its approach when things didn't go according to plan. With Pokémon Red, the company saw Claude do those things in real-time. "[Claude 3.7 Sonnet] spends less time stuck on assumptions," says Hershey. "You'll still see it make a guess and then spend some number of hours believing that's true and making dumb decisions in the meanwhile, but previous models would kind of go on doing that forever."

And you can, quite literally, see Claude develop and run with those assumptions. Each ploddingly slow move in the game is preceded by a paragraph of text output from the AI — "I've encountered a wild ZUBAT while trying to navigate to (24,24). As per my strategy, I should flee from this battle to conserve resources" — followed by one single button press. Then it reassess the game state and does that all over again.

If you've been watching Claude fumble through Pokémon Red as a fan of the game, a model that spends "less time stuck on assumptions" appears minor, especially when the chatbot will frequently get stuck in areas like Viridian Forest, sometimes for days, due to the maze-like level design. Nonetheless, it is a milestone for the type of AI system that Claude 3.7 represents.

Like a lot of recent frontier AI systems, Claude 3.7 Sonnet is a reasoning model, meaning it's designed to tackle problems by breaking them down into smaller pieces. "A lot of our customers care about how effective Claude is an agent," explains Hershey. For the uninitiated, agents or agentic AIs are systems that are designed to plan and carry out complicated tasks without human supervision. Right now, most people think of AI as a blank chat box waiting to answer a question, but chatbots are only the consumer face of the industry; agentic systems represent an incremental but important step towards the promise of artificial general intelligence.

From that perspective, there are a couple of things that make Claude Plays Pokémon interesting. First, there's the surprising fact Hershey delegated a lot of the programming that made the project possible to Anthropic's coding agent including an overlay that allows Claude to make sense of Pokémon Red's game world.

Second, and more importantly, Claude was not pretrained to play Pokémon Red. The chatbot knows some fundamentals about the game, such as the name of each gym leader and the order the player must beat them in, but it doesn't have hundreds of years worth of game knowledge like some specialized AI systems. "You can throw a model at a game with no preparation, no guidance and it can learn everything itself," he says. "I aim to be as close to that side as possible."

Hershey had to give Claude some help. I already mentioned the overlay that allows it to interpret Pokémon Red's interface. Pixel art is something all AI systems struggle with, and 3.7 Sonnet is no expectation. As humans, our imagination does a great job of filling in the details suggested by just a few pixels. What’s more, Claude doesn't "see" the way we do.

If you watch it closely, you'll notice each time it moves the player character, it will make a few inputs before reevaluating its position. Between those frames, Claude doesn’t have any sensory input. It can't see Red walking, nor does it "hear" when its inputs cause him to crash into a tree or some other obstacle. Claude's "poor vision" is one of the primary reasons it struggles with the game; in fact, Hershey had to give the chatbot a way to read the game's memory so it was less likely to get confused if it misinterpreted the screen.

If the goal of the project was for Claude to beat Pokémon Red, that would have been easy. Hershey could have programmed a route through the game for the chatbot to follow, but at that point all he would have been testing is how well Claude follows a rigid set of instructions. "Claude is pretty good at that," Hershey says. "I knew that. We all knew that."

Instead, in leaving Claude to its own devices, the new model has shown it's better at planning, coming up with new strategies and ultimately trying something different when its assumptions prove to be wrong. One of the more novel solutions Claude developed during its third run through the game was to intentionally cause all of its Pokémon to faint so that it could escape from Mt. Moon.

Still, Claude could be a lot better at both short- and long-term planning. In the same example I just mentioned, Claude deleted all of its notes on Mt. Moon after respawning at a nearby Pokémon Center, incorrectly believing it had successfully navigated the cave. One of its more promising runs ended after Claude failed to recognize it needed to talk to Bill to progress the game. It got stuck in an endless loop of bad decision making.

"Moving forward, I don't know how useful this will be internally as a benchmark. It's possible that with a small, tiny set of skills, Claude gets a little bit better and beats the game, and then the benchmark is not that interesting," Hershey admits. "It could also be the case that there are things I don't quite understand yet about what's going to make our next model good, and then we'll still be learning a lot more incremental things along the way."

As for what happens next, Hershey says he doesn't have a long-term strategy for Claude Plays Pokémon. "I've just spent so much time — my wife would say too much time — staring at this thing," he says, laughing. I also get the sense Hershey's not quite ready to close the book on the project. "I would imagine whenever a new model comes out, I'll be playing Pokémon with it, and I will probably show the world that too."

Until then, Anthropic, following a recent reset, continues to stream Claude Plays Pokémon on Twitch. The project has been successful enough to inspire an independent developer to program a Gemini Plays Pokémon stream, and if I had to guess, we'll see more imitators before long.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/claude-isnt-a-great-pokemon-player-and-thats-okay-151522448.html?src=rss

HBO’s The Last of Us took a riveting action game bolstered by intimate human moments and made a richly human drama supported by terrifying action. In returning for season two, and now using the sequel game as source material, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had quite a bit more work cut out for them. The first season greatly expanded the emotional depth and breadth of Joel and Ellie’s cross-country journey while also fleshing out the stories of many others they meet along the way, and the cast (led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) was outstanding. But some fans felt the balance of action and drama was off, and I had a few issues with the pacing — though the final product was still outstanding in my eyes.

That was over two years ago, and now it’s encore time. Season two premieres on HBO this Sunday, April 13 (you can stream it on Max), and I am once again happy to report that the show does a faithful job of capturing the first part of a complex story while also fixing a few of the minor complaints I had about the first season.

[Editor's note: this story discusses season two broadly but avoids specific plot details and spoilers. There are spoilers for season one.]

The show picks up exactly where season one (and the first game) concluded. Joel and Ellie return to the settlement of Jackson, Wyoming, where Joel’s brother Tommy is part of a peaceful, well-fortified commune — a rare oasis of relative safety in a destroyed world. This comes about a year after the Fireflies — a militia group searching for a cure for the zombie infection — tasked Joel with smuggling Ellie across the country. Over the ensuing journey, Joel bonds with Ellie and comes to treat her as a surrogate daughter, replacing the one he lost at the beginning of the outbreak 20 years prior.

Ellie’s immunity to the infection gave the Fireflies hopes she holds the key to finding a cure — but when Joel learns it would kill her, he wipes out a whole platoon of soldiers and the doctor who was trying to carry out the procedure, before fleeing with Ellie back to Jackson. As far as she knows, there was no way to make a cure and Joel rescued her when raiders descended on the Firefly complex.

Kaitlyn Dever in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

We immediately learn that Joel’s rampage against the Fireflies is going to have major repercussions right from the jump, as we meet Abby (played with furious intensity by Kaitlyn Dever) and her small crew of young Fireflies in Salt Lake City in the days following the massacre. Things then jump forward five years; Ellie and Joel are well-integrated into the Jackson community and living a relatively normal life — though Joel’s therapy sessions with Gail (the wonderful Catherine O’Hara) show that he and Ellie have had some degree of falling out. Whether it’s just her being a 19-year-old or something deeper remains to be seen.

Without spoiling anything, the sequel game, The Last of Us Part II, is a far less linear affair than its predecessor. Events are shown out of order through multiple flashbacks. Perspectives shift. The playable character changes at various points. I’ve spent much of the last year wondering exactly how Mazin and Druckmann would translate that structure to TV — what events would be shown in what order, and what things might get cut or expanded on?

But surprisingly, the show closely mirrors the game’s chronology. The core of the season remains Joel and Ellie, the fallout from season one and how it affects everyone around them. A handful of events, including an infamous town festival in Jackson and the reveal of Abby’s motivations throughout the season, are moved up sooner in the series to give viewers more context for why things are happening. It’s a change the creators said was made to compensate for the change between the interactivity of playing characters like Abby and Ellie versus watching them.

Pedro Pascal and Catherine O'Hara in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

The season’s structure worked — the multi-pronged plot didn’t ever feel hard to stick with, and I think the show did a better job this season at balancing out action and drama. As the cast and creators have alluded to, Ramsey and Pascal don’t get as much time together as they did in season one, which is a shame given their absolutely fantastic chemistry. But both actors make the most of Joel and Ellie’s fracturing relationship, and they also do wonderful work with other scene partners. Both Joel and Ellie spend significant time with Dina (Isabela Merced), who ends up being something of another daughter to Joel and a best friend / love interest for Ellie. She brings a completely different attitude to these scenes — like anyone in the world of The Last of Us, you know she’s seen her fair share of horrible things, but she combines a cool confidence with vulnerability in a way that keeps Ellie delightfully off balance.

One of the key new events in the show that didn’t take place in the game is a massive siege of Infected attacking the town of Jackson (something you see in the show’s various trailers). At first, it felt like an on-the-nose response to complaints that the Infected didn’t feel like much of a threat in season one, but the way the large-scale battle is juxtaposed with a much more intimate threat in the same episode plays out perfectly. That episode was followed by one that was far more peaceful and character-driven, a cadence I appreciated after the siege’s intensity. Naturally, things ramp up as the season draws to a close, but the balance feels measured and thoughtful.

Isabela Merced and Bella Ramsey in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

Overall, the Infected are more present in this season than the last, and they’re as deadly and terrifying as ever. In the game, the player might think nothing of taking on five or six in one go, but in the show even a one-on-one encounter feels fraught with danger. Of course, as in season one, the humans are the more unpredictable and threatening part of the world.

Other new characters and events, like the fate of Gail and her husband Eugene (played by Joe Pantoliano), once again serve to enrich and enhance the world of The Last of Us. And beyond individual characters, the show also delves deeply into bigger warring factions, similar to the Kansas City “liberators” in season one. We get multiple views of how groups band together and try to survive against the Infected, and each other, and the show does a good job of not portraying any one way as right or wrong.

Ellie makes her own judgments as the story progresses, and she starts to lose herself in a cycle that she can’t seem to get out of, even as her friends distance herself from her actions. Ramsey plays this extremely well — though they have a slight and small frame, they play Ellie’s ferocity in a way that’s convincing and frightening. That side of her is flipped on its head in more vulnerable moments when the weight of Elle’s choices start piling up, and it’s fascinating and disturbing to watch. Mazin said that the reasoning behind Ellie’s quiet fascination with violence and being protected would play out in season two, and a lot of small moments definitely start paying off here.

Pedro Pascal in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

Unlike season one, which is a self-contained affair, season two leaves much up in the air. Again, that’s something the creators have told us already; Mazin said that telling the story of the second game would take at least two seasons. There’s a lot of story still to be told here, and thus things end on a very different vibe than season one. I’m hoping that Mazin, Druckmann and the cast can get back to doing season three a little quicker than last time, as another two-plus years will feel like an exceedingly long wait for some resolution.

With only seven episodes, season two has a shorter run time than season one, which already felt a bit rushed to me. The finale in particular blew through some of its script in rapid-fire fashion that felt almost sloppy. It could have easily done with an extra 10 minutes without losing any momentum. And given that Mazin has already said the next season will be “significantly larger,” my hopes for a quick turn-around are probably not realistic.

Bella Ramsey in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

In the end, that might not be a bad thing for most viewers. The Last of Us can be a grueling and emotional watch, season two even more so than the first. There are some moments of extreme violence that are hard to watch. The show does strike a thoughtful balance between implied and graphic violence,, but it can still be harrowing, and a few moments made me feel almost ill (an appropriate emotion, but not the most pleasant one).

It’s a little hard to evaluate season two in a vacuum, given it’s only the first half of some fairly messy, non-linear source material. That’s not a major knock; plenty of shows don’t wrap everything up every year in a tidy package. And given the quality infused in every episode of this show, from the acting to the script to the set design and VFX, I’m confident in saying that anyone who enjoyed season one should get on board for what’s to come here, even if it takes a long time to get any resolution. Just as with the game that it’s based on, the journey of The Last of Us season two is intense and asks a lot from viewers, but it’s still a journey worth taking.

Update, April 9 2025, 11:12AM ET: This review was updated with a modified headline and more details in the introduction.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-season-two-review-more-zombies-and-more-heartbreak-160007479.html?src=rss

There’s a big Xbox showcase event scheduled June 8 at 1PM ET. This is happening the same weekend as Summer Game Fest, which begins on June 6. Xbox has typically held these kinds of live presentations alongside Summer Game Fest ever since E3 was sent to a farm upstate to live with other discontinued industry conferences.

We don’t know what will be shown at the annual Xbox Games Showcase. The company says it will bring us a "look at upcoming titles from across our first-party studios, in addition to incredible new titles from our third-party partners." It’s a digital-only event, so there will be no crowd to hoot and holler at reveals.

As a guess, I’d expect some new info on that new Fable entry, which was recently delayed until 2026. We could also get new trailers for the Perfect Dark reboot and Ninja Gaiden 4. Other possibilities include Gears of War: E-Day and Hideo Kojima’s OD. The sky truly is the limit. Xbox owns a lot of studios and, of course, has numerous partnerships with third-party devs.

One game that won’t be at the official presser is The Outer Worlds 2. That’s because it’s getting its very own livestream that follows the showcase. This game was originally teased all the way back in 2021, so it’s high time for a release date. Xbox promises a look inside developer Obsidian and trailers that reveal "new gameplay, details and developer insights." Interestingly, The Outer Worlds 2 is no longer an Xbox exclusive, as it’s also coming to PS5.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xboxs-big-summer-showcase-is-set-for-june-8-at-1pm-et-152001789.html?src=rss

More than 200 experts urge Sweden to reject a bill that would mandate encryption backdoorsIf passed, the legislation could come into force as early as March 2026The Swedish Army also warns that a backdoor would create vulnerabilities that third parties could exploit

Over 200 experts have called on the Swedish Parliament to reject a proposed law that would force the likes of Signal, WhatsApp, and email service providers to create an encryption backdoor in their software.The draft bill seeks to introduce new obligations on data retention and access to electronic information for law enforcement while "ensuring respect for fundamental rights and freedoms."Yet, the coalition, made up of some of the best VPN and secure email service providers, cryptographers, and digital rights advocates, warns that the new rules "would greatly undermine the security and privacy of Swedish citizens" instead.

The security risk of weakening encryption

As experts pointed out in a joint open letter published on April 8, 2025, "the legislation presents a dangerous approach which would instead create vulnerabilities that criminals and other malicious actors could readily exploit."Encryption refers to the scrambling of data, making it unreadable and preventing third-party access. Specifically, end-to-end encryption (E2E) is the technical infrastructure that encrypted messaging apps use to keep your messages private between you and the receiver, end to end.The proposed Swedish legislation seeks to make it easier for law enforcement to fight crime by forcing companies to store and provide access to people's private communication upon request.However, experts have long argued that this isn't possible without creating a backdoor that fundamentally breaks the security infrastructure upon which encryption is built.It's like building "a master key that unlocks every door in a building," noted the coalition, adding that "compromising encryption would leave Sweden’s citizens and institutions less safe than before."

Sweden wants to #backdoor #encryption. But we, together with 230+ orgs, are saying no.#NoToBackdoors 💪Read our open letter to the Swedish Riksdag: 👉 https://t.co/WhkZcwFrRO pic.twitter.com/fE1Y8raSkiApril 8, 2025

The Swedish Armed Forces also echoed such security concerns, arguing that the proposed new requirements for E2E services "cannot be fulfilled without introducing vulnerabilities and backdoors that third parties can exploit."In February, the Swedish Army even endorsed the use of Signal among its employees to make it more difficult for non-classified calls and messages to be intercepted.Outside Sweden, recent events like the Salt Typhoon attack on all the major US telecoms have also sparked a pledge for all citizens to switch to encrypted services.Ironically, though, Signal President Meredith Whittaker already said the company would rather leave Sweden than undermine its encryption protections.If the bill passes, the new rules could be enforced as early as March 2026.Experts are now calling on the Swedish Parliament to reject the law and prioritize policies that strengthen rather than weaken cybersecurity. They wrote: "Sweden's security, prosperity, and freedom depend on it."

Not only Sweden

Sweden isn't the only EU member striving to make people's data more easily accessible to authorities during investigations.After over three years of trying to pass a law to scan all citizens' messages in the hunt for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) – what's known as Chat Control by its critics – the EU Commission just published a new strategy on encryption backdoors and lawful data access.Outside the EU, Apple is currently facing the UK in court over the request to make iCloud's encrypted data accessible at all times by law enforcement.Once believed to be a privacy paradise, even Switzerland now wants to amend its surveillance law to add new types of monitoring and information collection. A change that would widen the authorities' reach to no-log VPNs and other secure messaging providers.

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Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser has discussed Switch 2 stockHe said that there is already 'some' supply of units in the USThis could be good news for those worried about stock issues or the impact of tariffs

Earlier this week we learned that Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders would be delayed in the US.In a statement provided to TechRadar Gaming, Nintendo stated that "pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the US will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions."Though we know that the June 5, 2025, launch date has not been changed yet, this decision has prompted some fears about potential stock issues with regards to the console and the possibility of steep price increases due to the costs associated with tariffs.In a recent interview with CNBC, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser offered some reassurances. While "it remains to be seen" whether the company will be able to meet demand, Bowser says it "certainly is our goal.""We've had some time to build up inventories on a global basis," he revealed. "They [have] even landed already, some in the United States."In addition to potentially avoid a scenario of consumers struggling to get their hands on a Nintendo Switch 2, this existing stockpile could help prevent some of the biggest impacts of new tariffs from becoming evident - at least in the short term.Goods that are already in the US are not subject to any import tariffs. If this supply is large enough, it could tide US buyers over until the situation changes. We'll just have to wait and see.Once pre-orders do open in the US, the Nintendo Switch 2 will cost $449.99 / £395.99 or $499.99 / £429.99 for a bundle also containing a digital copy of Mario Kart World.

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Framework Computer is stopping sales of its low-tier laptops due to tariffsIt states that it would be selling at a loss as it implies it would prefer to avoid overpricing its products for consumersRazer has also seemingly suspended sales of Blade laptops in the US, likely due to tariffs

Affordability has been a big issue across the board when it comes to PC and gaming hardware lately; Nvidia and AMD's third-party GPUs have been impacted due to inflation, scalping, and tariffs, with prices soaring far above their MSRPs. However, one popular laptop manufacturer has decided to take another route entirely.On its X (formerly Twitter) page, Framework Computer announced that it will be pausing the sale of its cheaper, lower-end laptops in response to the new Trump tariffs that came into effect on April 5. The reasoning for this is that it would be 'selling at a loss' - implying that it would rather avoid charging consumers more and instead halt proceedings until further notice.Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs have effectively forced many companies to take drastic action, like Nintendo pumping the brakes on Switch 2 pre-orders for US customers; there’s a clear uncertainty about how big of an impact there could be on its $449.99 / £395.99 / AU$699.95 MSRP.Back in the laptop market, it's clear that Framework would prefer to maintain its consumer-friendly track record, keeping customers from overspending on less powerful hardware while also avoiding a potential major financial deficit.

(Image credit: Framework)

It's unclear whether this could eventually apply to its more expensive configurations, using AMD or Intel's powerful SoCs - like the upcoming Framework Desktop, for example. But even now, powerhouse laptops aren’t safe from tariff-related complications: it appears that Razer has put a complete halt to sales of its Blade gaming laptops in America, with the official Razer US site showing no Blades for sale at the time of writing.This is perhaps an even more shocking move. Razer is a household name among PC gamers, and to completely suspend sales of its most popular laptop line in the US - right after the launch of its excellent new Razer Blade 16, no less - is honestly a bit wild. Granted, you can still pick them up at third-party retailers, so it’s not a total blackout, and the present assumption is that Razer - like Framework - is simply biding its time until the dust has settled on the current tariff situation.

I have a strong feeling this could happen with GPUs soon...

I don't want to sound like a repetitive robot, but the GPU market is in a shambles right now. If you're looking to buy any of Nvidia or AMD's newest GPUs, one thing is almost certain: you won't find any at the recommended retail price.It's worth noting that inflated prices on these GPUs were already a serious problem before the new tariffs - especially for Nvidia's RTX 5000 series lineup, which it launched in January. For the most powerful GPU on the market, the RTX 5090, you're looking at a price far above its $1,999 / £1,939 / AU$4,039 launch price.I'll admit, not many PC users genuinely need that much processing power for gaming or rendering; however, the same question of halting sales like Framework has done comes into the equation now, specifically with Team Green's upcoming desktop RTX 5060 Ti. It’s not been officially announced, but leaks suggest the GPU is on the horizon and is expected to be cheaper than its RTX 4060 Ti predecessor.It's hard to believe that Nvidia would sell at a loss (as it's literally one of the wealthiest companies worldwide), and I wonder if the tariffs may result in raising the prices of its lower-end GPUs so much that at least AIBs might have to halt sales.There are still a variety of factors in play here, particularly whether the new GPU performs well for gamers: if it doesn't perform well and inflation from board partners on top of tariffs are present, it'll likely be a hard sell for Team Green. It's only ever a matter of time before something new and significant shakes up the GPU market, and these tariffs may just be the catalyst...

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Some days you want a VR game for your Meta Quest 3 that’s bursting with high-octane action, with epic fight scenes and a pumping soundtrack that makes you feel like you’ve been dumped headset-first into a John Wick movie.Other days, though, you just want to kick back with your headset; and when you do, Train Sim World VR: New York could be just what you’re looking for.This charming simulator drops you into the shoes of a fledgling engineer on New York’s Harlem Line, where it’s your job to transport people using one of the two vehicles you’re trained to drive – the MTA M3A and M7A (though, as the game points out, this doesn’t replace professional instruction, so you'll want to leave real-world train driving to the experts).As you travel you’ll take in the sights and sounds of the New York rail network, and you can even hop out of your carriage at times and explore stations to search for collectibles.You’ll want to focus on your job too, mind: as you travel the tracks you’ll need to blow your horn to alert workers on the line or honk hello to rail fans looking on from bridges and platforms, as well as watch your speed, walking the tightrope between ensuring you get to your destinations on time and complete every speed gate challenge, without breaking any speed limits.This balancing act – which is probably better described as a meter-wide plank walk than a tightrope walk given its more relaxed nature – serves as the core gameplay loop of Train Sim World VR, and you’ll either love it or hate it.

Simple controls, simple life (Image credit: Future / Dovetail Games)

In the hate it camp, you’ll become frustrated with the repetitiveness. While each mission in the game’s career mode had its nuances, they did admittedly blend into one as I played.Beyond control layout changes as you swap between train types, and a handful of route alterations, there’s not a lot of difference between levels, but as I mentioned in the intro this isn’t the virtual reality experience you’re looking for if you’re after exhilaration.What you’re coming to Train Sim World VR: New York for is chill train vibes.That’s what I came to adore about this title: being able to just sit back and relax as I drove trains up and down the Harlem line, tooting my train’s horn when needed – and when I just felt like it, frankly.If you’re in the love it camp you’ll be someone who's looking to find joy in this game’s mundanity, or someone who's keen to dip their toes into the world of VR simulators with an exceptionally beginner-friendly title.There’s a large panel, so you can easily see how fast you’re going and how intense your acceleration or deceleration is, and whenever you approach workers or a station there's an obvious reticle reminding you to blow your horn ASAP.The minimalist control scheme for each vehicle and literally on-rails movement means there are only so many factors you have to consider at once. As a result, passing any mission isn’t a challenge, which creates an even more zen-like state as you traverse the tracks.

Where we're going, we don't need roads (Image credit: Dovetail Games)

That isn’t to say people looking for a relaxing time will find this game perfect in every facet.The graphics can leave something to be desired at times – if you stare out of your window you’ll likely see a fair amount of features popping in and out as you pass by – though given the game’s dedication to creating a 1:1 scale with the real-world Harlem Line (which you can explore without loading screens on the Meta Quest 3) some graphical drops are more than forgivable here.Train Sim World VR: New York isn’t for everyone, but that's true of plenty of VR sims. They exist to cater to a very specific audience, and this game’s purpose is to be a delightful, beginner-friendly train simulator – a goal it smashes.If you want to pick up Train Sim World VR: New York it’s available to buy from the digital store on your Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro or Meta Quest 2 today for $31.99 / £24.99 / AU$47.99.

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Sony has announced US pricing for its new high-end Sony Bravia 8 II OLED TV – but unlike in the UK, where the pricing is highly competitive with the LG G5, Sony's US prices are far higher than the G5's.Indeed, they're also much higher than the recently unveiled price of the Samsung S95F, which uses the same QD-OLED panel.When I spoke to Sony at the UK launch of the Bravia 8 II I was told the price of the new TV would be lower than that of the Sony A95L, the company's previous high-end OLED. That appears to have only applied to the UK, though, because the Bravia 8 II is priced higher than the A95L was at launch in the US.

What we don't know is whether this price factors in expected tariff costs or not – it may be that Sony has included them, and that LG and Samsung will soon have to raise prices.However, Sony has a history of its TV and audio products coming with a relatively high price tag for US customers, so these may be the originally planned prices, and they may go up further in the near future, though we don't yet know what the full effect of tariffs on prices will be.Sony hasn't announced a release date for the TV yet either, though it's due for an early-June release in the UK.Sony also released pricing for its new Bravia 5 mini-LED mid-range TV, and its budget Bravia 2 II (yes, that's Bravia 2 mark II, a horrible naming decision) TV.

The Bravia 2 II is a direct-led LED TV, and includes Sony's X1 processor, which used to be in its flagship TVs – although with no local backlight dimming, don't expect amazing contrast.The Bravia 5 is a very interesting TV at its larger sizes, in particular. I've seen it in real life, though only briefly, and it's bright, and a decent mini-LED backlight should ensure solid contrast. But at larger sizes, Sony's excellent processing should help make sure you don't see the imperfections in streaming or HD video when viewing on a blown-up 4K screen.

Another uphill battle for Sony?

The Bravia 8 II (right) with the Sony A95L (left) (Image credit: Future)

In the UK, the pricing of the Bravia 8 II is really exciting – the 65-inch Sony is slightly less expensive than the LG G5, which could really shake up our rankings of the best OLED TVs there, because it means the choice is heavily down to image quality, and Sony gets rated really highly there.But in the US, if the Bravia 8 II stays at $600-$1,000 more than LG's and Samsung's equivalents, it's going to have a very tough time breaking through. Yes, the Sony almost certainly has better built-in sound, but that's not going to matter if you can buy a great soundbar for less than the price difference between them.And I said that the Bravia 8 II looks like it'll have some of the best picture quality on the planet from my early demo, but will the difference be large enough to justify that kind of price gap? I'm having trouble believing it, though we'll be testing the LG G5, Samsung S95F, and Sony Bravia 8 II side by side when they've all launch to decide which is the best TV, so watch this space.

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Sony releases four new products to its 'powerful, bass-heavy' ULT rangeThe lineup includes Tower 9, Field 5, and Field 3 speakers, plus a ULT Mic Prices from $150 (around £120) for the Mic and $200 for the Field 3 speaker

Sony is gradually transitioning all of its XBass-prefixed speakers to its "bass-heavy" and "powerful, huge-sounding" ULT Power Sound range. Having unveiled four ULT-branded products in 2024 (three Bluetooth speaker models, including the Sony Field 7, plus the mid-range Sony ULT Wear headphones), the company has just launched four more ULT-branded buys for 2025.Sadly, there are no headphones in the ULT class of April 2025, but there is a beast of a tower speaker called the Tower 9. It comes in either a battery-powered option boasting 25 hours of stamina or an AC-suffixed model that needs to be plugged into power.This is joined by a medium-sized Field 5 Bluetooth speaker, also with a 25-hour battery and, this time, an IP67 dust and waterproof rating, plus a smaller Field 3 with 24 hours of non-stop playtime and an IP66 rating.Both of the more portable 'Field' models come with a detachable shoulder strap, but all three speaker options feature a new one-stop shop of a companion app to tweak all of the settings: Sony Sound Connect. It essentially does away with the Fiestable and Music Center apps that used to share the job (in somewhat confusing ways).On this, Sony's 360° Party Lights are available in both the ULT Tower 9 and ULT Field 5 to bring the party to life. All speakers include other convenient Sony features, such as Party Connect, Multipoint Connection, Bluetooth Fast Pair 7, and a USB charging port.So that's a summary of what's up. But let's deep-dive into each model a little more – and even add mic(s)…

Sony ULT Tower 9, Field 5, Field 3 and Mic: key specs and pricing

(Image credit: Sony)

The ULT Tower 9 (stylized to 'TOWER' in Sony marketing) and ULT Tower 9AC are built to fill dance floors with 360° Party Sound. The only difference is the onboard battery (the 9AC doesn't have one), so both feature four tweeters that promise clear omnidirectional sound (two on the front, two on the rear), two mid-range speakers, and Sony’s X-Balanced Speaker Unit to deliver the promised powerful low end.And here's where it gets interesting: hitting the Tower 9's ULT button gives access to two distinct bass modes – ULT1 for "deeper, lower frequency bass" and ULT2 for "powerful, punchy bass." There's a handle to carry or lift it, but given its size, I'd use built-in castors to pull this speaker to the best spot.The 360° Party Lights can create a synchronized lighting display that can link up to 100 compatible speakers via the new Sound Connect app to sync music and lighting.Here, you also get karaoke and guitar inputs and Sony's unique TV Sound Booster function to enhance the audio-visual sound experience from your TV.

The Field 3 is the smallest speaker in the new lineup (Image credit: Sony)

Now, the Field 5 and Field 3 feature a new shoulder strap for easy on-the-go tunes. The Field 5 promises "a superior music experience with boosted bass," while the ULT Field 3 boasts "powerful bass from a compact body."You get that ULT button in both models for two different bass-boosted audio flavors. Both are available in Black and off-White, with an additional Forest Gray colorway for the ULT Field 3. The 360° Party Lights are also added to the ULT Field 5 to bring the party to life – or if you want to sync it up to your Tower 9.Lastly, let's talk about the new ULT Mic (or MIC, as Sony calls it). It is designed to pair seamlessly with Sony's ULT Power Sound Series speakers and comprises two wireless microphones and a receiver to plug into the compatible speaker.Pricing? Of course. We're still waiting on official retail figures for the UK and Australia, but the ULT Tower 9AC is available now with a suggested asking fee of $749.99 (the powered Tower 9 is $899.99); ULT Field 5 is available now priced $329.99; ULT Field 3 is available now with an MSRP of $199.99 and the ULT Mic is available now with a guide price of $149.99.Will Sony'ss Field 5 or Field 3 join our best Bluetooth speakers buying guide? Time will tell…

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