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Showing posts from April, 2025

Panasonic’s new cheap wireless earbuds offer the open ear style I adore at an affordable price

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Panasonic just launched its new RB-F10 earphones They'll cost just £79.99 (around $110 / AU$165) They boast Bluetooth 5.4, a seven-hour battery life, and solid audio Panasonic has just announced a new pair of cheap wireless earbuds with its open ear Panasonic RB-F10 earphones. Like other open ear designs, rather than sitting inside your ear, these earbuds sit over your ear canal. This allows you to hear your music clearly, but also, because your ear isn’t blocked, you can hear what’s going on around you. The Panasonic RB-F10s specifically come with a few handy features. They boast Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint, so you can easily switch their connection between two different devices. They also feature built-in microphones for voice calls with automatic background noise removal, allowing you to be heard more clearly. Additionally, they have a seven-hour battery life, which can be extended by a further 18 hours using their charging case. (Image credit: Panasonic ) ...

Another Ryzen 395 workstation PC launches with 128GB of RAM and yes, it is squarely aimed at AI professionals (and Nvidia's DGX Spark)

FAVM unveils its FA-EX9 mini PC with AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 chip 96GB GPU memory and 128GB total RAM makes it ideal for creative professionals Compact AI-focused mini PC is a challenger for Nvidia DGX Spark Chinese hardware manufacturer FAVM has announced the FA-EX9, a compact AI-focused mini PC powered by AMD’s latest Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor. Based on the Strix Halo platform, the chip features 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units (Radeon 8060S). The diminutive device measures just 192 x 190 x 55mm and with a total chassis volume of just 2 liters, FAVM claims the system is among the smallest of its kind. The FA-EX9 is squarely aimed at AI professionals and is positioned as a challenger to platforms like Nvidia’s DGX Spark . It supports the MAX+ 395 processor at a sustained 120W power draw, which the company says offers performance comparable to a Ryzen 9 9955HX paired with a GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. OCuLink connector The system uses LPDDR5 memory across a...

Perplexity will make AI images for you, but ChatGPT is the one doing the work

Perplexity has added AI image generation to its platform The images are produced using the OpenAI model, which was recently released for ChatGPT Perplexity also made OpenAI's o3-mini and xAI's Grok-3 models available AI conversational search engine Perplexity can now add some AI visuals to your answer. And if those images look a lot like what ChatGPT would make, well, that's because they use the same model. If you're unconvinced, the left image was generated using Perplexity, while the one on the right was created by ChatGPT, both with the same prompt. It's like an AI ghostwriter, but for fantasy landscapes with dragons instead of a legal thriller sold in an airport. Perplexity quietly added the feature to its web platform this week, offering three image generations per day for free users and unlimited generations for Perplexity Pro users. It's pretty straightforward to use it. Like with ChatGPT, you just have to ask the AI to "generate an image...

Thousands of businesses at risk worldwide as new data exfiltration technique uncovered - here's what you need to know

Browsers are the new frontline, but today’s DLP can’t see the real threats Data Splicing Attacks break through enterprise browser security Angry Magpie reveals how fragile the current DLP architecture is in a browser-first world A newly uncovered data exfiltration technique known as Data Splicing Attacks could place thousands of businesses worldwide at significant risk, bypassing all leading data loss prevention ( DLP ) tools. Attackers can split, encrypt, or encode data within the browser, transforming files into fragments that evade the detection logic used by both endpoint protection platforms (EPP) and network-based tools - before these pieces are then reassembled outside the protected environment. By using alternative communication channels such as gRPC and WebRTC, or secure messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram, threat actors can further obscure their tracks and avoid SSL-based inspections. Threat actors now splice, encrypt, and vanish The growing reliance o...

Google has tuned up its AI Music Sandbox for musicians and producers

Google DeepMind has enhanced and expanded access to its Music AI Sandbox The Sandbox now includes the Lyria 2 model and RealTime features to generate, extend, and edit music The music is watermarked with SynthID Google DeepMind has brought some new and improved sounds to its Music AI Sandbox, which, despite sand being notoriously bad for musical instruments, is where Google hosts experimental tools for laying down tracks with the aid of AI models. The Sandbox now offers the new Lyria 2 AI model and the Lyria RealTime AI musical production tools. Google has pitched the Music AI Sandbox as a way to spark ideas, generate soundscapes, and maybe help you finally finish that half-written verse you’ve been avoiding looking at all year. The Sandbox is aimed mainly at professional musical artists and producers, and access has been pretty restricted since its 2023 debut. But, Google is now opening up the platform to many more people in music production, including those looking to create...

The impressive Beats Pill portable speaker is landing in two gorgeous new colors, ready for summer

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Beats is launching its Pill speaker in Blush Pink and Navy Blue It's also announced that the Pill is Beats best-selling speaker ever You'll still get bold sound and all-day battery life from the Pill Last summer, Beats brought back its Pill speaker, and after testing it, we found it to be an impressive offering with robust sound and excellent bass. Further, in typical Beats fashion, it launched in a few different shades: Champagne Gold, Matte Black, and Statement Red. Now, ahead of summer travel in 2025, Beats is expanding the selection of colors for the Pill, and both are stunners. Introducing the Beats Pill in ‘Blush Pink’ and ‘Navy Blue.’ Better yet, these don’t come with a price increase either. You will need to track down each shade at a specific retailer, though. In the United States, fans of pink will need to visit Target, while those looking for blue will need to head to Walmart . Easier than heading out the door, though, is locking in an order online – both...

iQOO Neo 10 Pro+ Specifications Leak Ahead of China Debut; iQOO Neo 10 Reportedly Bags SDPPI Certification

iQOO Neo 10 Pro+ is rumoured to be in development as the latest addition to the iQOO Neo 10 Pro series in China. Ahead of its anticipated debut, a tipster has leaked specifications of the purported smartphone. It is tipped to be powered by the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and may come with a 2K resolution display. Meanwhile, the purported iQOO Neo 10 is reporte... from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/m8l2huy

Nothing makes sense: why the company's new (3a) Pro is my favorite affordable premium smartphone over the Google Pixel 9a

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I’ve come around on Nothing. Since its first device in 2022 , the smartphone startup has provided an interesting but limited range of phones, mimicking the Google Pixel catalog in its small but mighty lineup. Nothing’s handsets are led by a strong commitment to aesthetics, both inside and out – and for a long time I thought it was extra and a bit cringe. That’s all changed with the brand’s latest release. I’ve come to love the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro – and consider it a proper Pixel A rival. Let me set the scene for why the (3a) Pro impresses me so much. For the past four years, Google has dominated the affordable-premium segment of the phone market. The company’s Pixel A range of devices, released typically around five to six months after its Pixel flagships, have long been considered so good that they've been worth placing alongside the top end Pixel Pro device. In 2024, with the Pixel 8a, the phone entered the premium segment after a price rise in some territories, though in o...

Realme GT 7 India Launch Teased; Confirmed to Deliver Up to Six Hours of Stable 120 FPS BGMI Support

Realme GT 7 debuted in China last week and is now said to make its way to the Indian market too. The company has teased its arrival in the country via a microsite while also boasting its gaming prowess. The Realme GT 7 is confirmed to support up to six hours of BGMI gameplay at 120 frames per second (fps). from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/sBznG1Y

Largest DDoS attack of 2025 hit an online betting organization with 1Tbps brute force: here's what we know

A massive DDoS attack was recently detected during a major NHL event Attack grew from 67Gbps to nearly 1Tbps in twenty minutes Multivector strike used UDP, SYN, IP, and TCP flood techniques Cybersecurity firm Qrator Labs has claimed it successfully mitigated the largest DDoS attack so far recorded in 2025. The April 3 attack targeted an unnamed online betting organization, lasting around 90 minutes, starting at 11:15 with a surge of 67Gbps, before escalating sharply to 217Gbps by 11:23, and peaked just short of 1Tbps at 965Gbps by 11:36. Activity then slowly decreased to 549Gbps by 12:41, with the attack ending shortly afterwards. The DDoS attack was multivector in nature, featuring a peak of 965Gbps in UDP flood, 229Gbps in SYN flood, 214Gbps in IP flood, and 169Gbps in TCP flood. Sporting events are major targets Qrator notes that the attack happened on the same day that NHL star Alexander Ovechkin scored his 892nd goal, tying Wayne Gretzky's long-standing record. Ove...

I bought a cheap refurbished Steam Deck, and it’s convinced me to skip the Nintendo Switch 2

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The Steam Deck is pretty cool, isn’t it? You may be wondering where I’ve been all this time, if I’m only just finding out about the brilliance of Valve’s handheld gaming PC. The truth is that I was waiting to see what the Nintendo Switch 2 had to offer before deciding if I’d get aboard the hype train. Now, after seeing exactly what’s coming on June 5, I think I’m happy to skip Nintendo’s upcoming console. Very briefly, a word on prices. Because while I feel the backlash is entirely valid (especially when it comes to the cost of Switch 2 games), it’s been said more than enough times already. And it’s not the main reason my interest in the new console has plummeted. It’s more the fact that the Steam Deck is just too damn good. It also helped that I paid £249 (about $370) for it through the Certified Refurbished Steam Deck program. There’s always a concern with buying secondhand that you'll end up with an inferior product. But, as I found with my experience of the eBay Certified ...

Adata unleashes the fastest memory card ever - but you will need a special card reader to make the most of it

Adata Premier Extreme SD 8.0 Express memory card needs a special reader for full performance 1,600MB/s speeds push this SD card beyond UHS and Express 7.0 ECC error correction and durability features protect data in harsh conditions Adata has introduced the world’s first SD 8.0 Express memory card, alongside a high-speed USB flash drive and a tool-free M.2 SSD enclosure, targeting mobile professionals and content creators who demand top-tier portable performance. The Premier Extreme SD 8.0 Express memory card features a PCIe Gen3 x2 interface and adopts the NVMe protocol. It offers 512GB of storage and delivers read speeds of up to 1,600MB/s and write speeds of up to 1,200MB/s. Those numbers aren’t just high for an SD card - they put it in direct competition with many of the best portable SSDs on the market. It also easily outpaces high-performance microSD cards . Designed for 4K, RAW, multitasking Adata says the card doubles the speed of the SD Express 7.0 standard and l...

Faster than SRAM! New flash memory tech from China is millions of times faster than NAND rivals from US, Japan or Korea - but please change its name

Chinese researchers have developed super-fast non volatile flash memory Graphene channel enables 400 picosecond write speed and persistent storage "PoX" device targets AI bottlenecks with low power, high speed performance A research team in China has developed what claims is the fastest reported non-volatile semiconductor memory device to date, with a write speed of one bit every 400 picoseconds. The unfortunately named “PoX” (Phase-change Oxide), is a two-dimensional graphene-channel flash device developed at Fudan University in Shanghai. The team built the device using a Dirac graphene channel combined with a charge-trapping stack. It operates faster than the system-level access times typically associated with volatile memory types like SRAM and DRAM, which usually fall between 1 and 10 nanoseconds. A picosecond is one-thousandth of a nanosecond. Paving the way for its future applications Volatile memory like SRAM and DRAM offers high speed but loses data when p...

The AI That Cried AAAAAAHHH!

AI voices usually aim to be realistic in a friendly way, mimicking relaxed, happy, helpful people. But a new open-source model named Dia is leaning into the more emotional spectrum of voices, including some really intense screaming. Dia’s creators at Nari Labs are a tiny group, but have given AI voices the option to sound like a somewhat melodramatic performer, capable of making realistic laughing, coughing, throat-clearing, sniffing, and yes, yelling. You might not think that yelling is a big deal for AI at this point, but screaming is hard to fake. It can't just be talking loudly; it's an entirely different speech mode. Emotionally expressive speech is a gap in most AI voices. It’s easy for a voice model to read a bedtime story. However, it’s much harder for it to sound like it’s trying to calm a friend down, or like it just saw something shocking. Most commercial models avoid sounding robotic by smoothing the tone of the voice, which doesn't leave room for the kind ...

This SSD just smashed the 15 GBps speed barrier to become the fastest ever tested, but you won't be able to run it on a normal PC

Phison Pascari X200E sets a new benchmark with PCIe Gen5 and extreme throughput X200E becomes the first flash SSD to break the one million IOPS milestone Built for AI, not gaming, X200E dominates data center workloads effortlessly Phison has set a new benchmark in enterprise storage performance with its Pascari X200E 6.4TB SSD , breaking records in sequential read speed, well beyond what even the fastest external hard drives can deliver. TweakTown lab tests found the drive achieved a sequential throughput of 15,025MB/s, the highest ever recorded. In the 8K 70/30 test, which simulates database traffic, the X200E also became the first flash-based SSD to surpass 1 million IOPS. The X200E is part of Phison’s Pascari Performance X-Series, designed specifically for extreme write intensity in data-heavy environments. It ships in U.2 and E3.S form factors, with capacity options ranging from 1.6TB to 30.72TB. Enterprise DNA means enterprise demands Built around the 16-channel Phis...

North Korean hackers are using advanced AI tools to help them get hired at Western firms

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North Korean hackers are using GenAI to hold jobs in western firms New research from Okta reveals AI written CVs and messages This is an escalation from an existing fake interview campaign New research from Okta has revealed that hackers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), are using generative AI in its malicious interview campaign - a series of tactics that involve gaining employment in remote technical roles in western firms, usually in industries with sensitive security data like defense, aerospace, or engineering. This isn’t the first time North Korean fake job hackers have gone the extra mile with their campaigns, but the new research has found that GenAI is playing an integral role in the employment schemes. The AI models are used to “create compelling personas at numerous stages of the job application and interview process” and then, once hired, GenAI is again used to assist in maintaining multiple roles, all earning revenue for the state. ...

WhatsApp says forcing blue Meta AI circle on everyone is a ‘good thing’ despite fierce backlash

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WhatsApp has commented on its controversial new Meta AI assistant The messaging app says it's a "good thing" despite a mixed reception WhatsApp has separately rolled out a new 'Advanced Chat Privacy' tool WhatsApp has defended the wider rollout of its Meta AI assistant inside the popular messaging app, despite some significant pushback from users. Earlier this month, Meta rolled out the AI assistant – represented by a blue ring in the bottom-right corner of your WhatsApp chats – across several new countries in the EU, the UK, and Australia. Because WhatsApp is very popular in those regions – more so than the likes of Apple's iMessage – there was a vocal backlash to its arrival on platforms like Reddit , particularly as it isn't possible to turn the feature off. But WhatsApp has now commented on those concerns for the first time. In a statement to the BBC , WhatsApp said: "We think giving people these options is a good thing and we're a...

Act fast – if you're lucky, you can get a free limited-edition Apple Watch pin at the Apple Store today

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April 24, 2015 – ten years ago today was the day the Apple Watch was launched. It changed the company’s product lineup forever, ushering in a compelling smartwatch for the masses. In the years that followed, it got wearers to try to close their rings daily. I’m one of them – in fact, I’ve worn an Apple Watch for ten years straight since my original 42mm Apple Watch Sport. While you can earn a limited-edition award today on your Apple Watch, if you’re lucky enough and manage to make it to an Apple Store, you can score a physical piece of history: a pin that celebrates “Global Close All Your Rings Day,” and that looks mighty fine. Similar to the enamel pins Apple distributes to in-person developers at WWDC or the ones you can purchase and then trade at Disney Parks around the world, this is a sizable pin adorned with colors and a graphic matching the limited-edition digital award. (Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future) Much like the Activity Rings on your Apple Watch for Move, Exe...