Sony is making the most of music streaming with its latest Walkman, the NW-A306, featuring a new sound engine that can enhance your favorite tracks from your chosen streaming service.
Digital music has made it incredibly convenient to carry your entire audio library with you, and using one of the best music streaming services takes that convenience a step further – now your songs don’t even need to take up virtual space so you can listen to them anywhere you want (provided you have internet access).
However, streaming tracks are both a curse and a blessing for serious audiophiles – compressed music files may lack the dynamic range and acoustic subtleties of the original tracks. The Sony NW-A306 can change that with Edge-AI and DSEE Ultimate (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine), which are designed to upscale compressed digital music files in real time for a much richer and more dynamic playback experience.
These new tools join the Walkman’s existing high-definition features, such as LDAC – which allows anyone using the best wireless headphones to enjoy high-quality sound without wires – and 360 Reality Audio, which allows the player to immerse themselves in a 3D soundscape.
The Sony NW-A306 is a compact audio player running Android 12 (Image credit: Sony)
We’ll have to see the Sony NW-A306 in action for ourselves to know how capable it really is. But Sony’s audio expertise has seen its devices pop up – and dominate – several of our buying guides (including our list of the best wireless earbuds), so we expect this new gadget to be no different.
That being said, there are a few potential downsides.
First, there is not much space. The Sony NW-A306 has 32GB of storage, but when you factor in all the software you need to install, you’re only left with around 18GB to play with. This is certainly enough to hold more than a few albums, but those of you with a huge music library may find that you run out of space pretty quickly.
Then there’s the price. The NW-A306 costs £350 / US$499 (about US$425). There’s no word yet on a North American release date or official pricing, but it’s set to launch in the UK and Europe later in January 2023, with a February 2023 release for those living downstairs.
Compared to the best MP3 players around, it’s a very affordable price – the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP2000T, which tops the list in the guide above, costs $2,399 / £1,999 / AU$3,599 – but if you’re content with satisfactory portable phone sound, you may underestimate the entry cost of the NW-A306.
However, if you’re looking for an audio player that’s rated much better than “that’s enough,” the Sony NW-A306 might be the gadget for you.
A new sustainable power saving method has just arrived on the Xbox Series X that promises to be up to 20x more efficient than existing power consumption modes without impacting performance.
The new shutdown update, which has reached all Xbox Insiders on Xbox Series X, aims to reduce power consumption when the system is turned off. Dubbed “the first carbon-inclusive console,” this sustainability mode means you can download updates and Xbox Series X Games through the night using significantly less power than in normal sleep mode.
As a reference system, Xbox Series X consumes about 10-15W in sleep mode. The new power-off mode consumes just 0.5W of power while providing the same basic functionality.
(Image credit: Microsoft/Xbox)
It’s not just Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S Insiders who can take advantage of the new shutdown mode as this update is also available for Xbox One platforms. This means that if you’re looking to save money on older Microsoft systems and you’re an Xbox Insider, you’re also catered for. Note that boot times will be slower when this setting is enabled on older systems.
The Carbon Aware update also adds functionality for active hours. Once Power Off Mode is enabled, you can manually configure the times your Xbox has a start and end point to go to full power. This means you can adjust the time you use the system to make it more strict on a daily basis.
There’s no official word on when this update will roll out to everyone on Xbox platforms, but we’ll let you know when that changes. Microsoft has tried hard Xbox Sustainability Actions (opens in a new tab) since March, as we previously discussed considering new graphics modes to save money as well. If you’re worried about your electricity bills while gaming for an extended period of time, these modes can help in the long run.
If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, you’ve probably seen countless videos showing the types of things ChatGPT can do.
Launched in late 2022, OpenAI has provided ChatGPT for free in research preview format.
However, while the company only offers it as an online tool, experts are now warning of the many scammers who package ChatGPT into a useful app with a mobile-friendly interface – but many of these unofficial apps are fraught with problems.
Fake ChatGPT apps
In our case, a quick search for “GPT” in the iOS app store brought up one app at the top of all results: Ads. It states it’s powered by free OpenAI GTP-3 technology, however offers a monthly subscription costing £7.99 a month to unlock “one month full access” to an essentially free service.
Another app lower in the search results has an average of 4.7 stars in over 900 reviews. It too is powered by GPT-3 and offers paid subscriptions ranging from Lite to Pro and Advanced; the most expensive is £12.99 per month. We found the same app on the Google Play Store offering paid subscriptions and boasting a similarly high rating of 4.5 stars (in nearly 300 reviews).
Apart from applications that explicitly claim to be based on GPT technology, MacRumors (opens in a new tab) reportedly found one app that he claimed: “[gave] impression that this is an official app for the ChatGPT bot, but there seems to be no connection to Open AI, the developers of ChatGPT, or the bot itself.”
It charged $7.99 a week for ad-free access, ranked second in the App Store productivity charts, and had over 12,000 reviews.
The app has since been removed; TechRadar Pro contacted Apple for further comments on how it vets apps that make it to its App Store and then to its charts. OpenAI did not immediately respond to our request for more information on its thoughts on such applications.
Apple made perhaps the biggest change to iPhone design in years with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, as those phones finally got rid of the notch and replaced it with Dynamic Island’s innovative island. But the ultimate goal could be to completely hide Face ID and camera components, and we may see the next step in that direction with the iPhone 16 Pro.
This is evident from the report on electric (opens in a new tab) (by Pocket Lint (opens in a new tab)), which states that the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will have Face ID components hidden under the screen, similar to how many Android phones now have fingerprint scanners under the display.
This won’t completely eliminate the camera cutout as the camera itself will reportedly still be visible, but it may allow Apple to reduce its size to a small hole; as we’ve seen on many Android phones (which don’t have Face ID components to fight with).
The Elec says this change will only come to the Pro models initially, and that this too is just an adapter, with the ultimate goal of also hiding the selfie camera under the screen, so there’s no notch or other break in the display.
The website does not indicate when Apple might achieve this. It’s something we’ve already seen on some Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, but there the implementation is imperfect, the camera is still hard to see and image quality suffers (the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra does a better job of stealth, but still does not meet the quality requirements). Apple will likely wait until the technology is perfected.
It’s unclear what these changes would mean for Dynamic Island’s functionality. Technically, Apple could still have a black bubble “island” at the top of the display, but since the current implementation was created out of necessity to hide and use the existing camera cutouts, doing so on a future iPhone doesn’t seem redundant.
Of course, we’d take these claims with a grain of salt anyway, but it’s likely Apple’s goal to reduce – and eventually remove – the notches, it’s just a matter of when. Other sources, such as credible analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, previously pointed to 2024, adding fuel to the fire around the idea that the iPhone 16 Pro would be the first to have underexposed Face ID.
Notch may be retired soon (Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)
Analysis: Updates are likely to come to vanilla models as well
Although it seems that initially only the Pro models will have an underexposed Face ID, Apple is unlikely to forget about the Standard and Plus models.
This report in The Elec states that the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will launch this year with Dynamic Island, meaning all four models will have this design before the Pro versions of the iPhone 16 will take the next step next year.
The exact same claim was recently made by Mark Gurman, who has a good track record on Apple information, so it’s likely to be the case.
This would mean the standard iPhone models would get Dynamic Island just one year after the Pro models, so we could see the same thing happening with the move to Face ID below the display – in which case you can expect the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Plus to get it. However, we wouldn’t expect any of these changes in the iPhone SE 4.
More and more people around the world are using the best VPN services every day. Whether they want to bypass online censorship, increase their online privacy, unblock foreign streaming platforms, or combine everything, connection speed will always be critical for all users.
As for how it works, a VPN encrypts all data leaving your device and then decrypts it once it reaches its destination.
And while you’re unlikely to notice a huge difference when using the fastest VPN services available, the encryption process will inevitably affect your internet connection – even if it’s only a few Mbps.
At the same time, there are situations where using a VPN can actually help increase your overall online performance.
Let’s take a closer look at both scenarios.
Why a VPN can slow down your connection
We have already mentioned that the main factor that affects VPN speed is encryption. This is because the data encryption process inevitably takes time.
Every time you turn on the VPN, so does all your data it goes through one of its servers. This adds an extra step that can negatively impact your internet connection performance. However, don’t worry too much, because the decrease in speed is often imperceptible here.
Further factors that can slow down your VPN speed include:
VPN server location. The distance between you and your chosen server is often the biggest reason for slow connection speeds. Seeing that all traffic has to go from your device through the VPN server, the connection will obviously be faster if the physical gap between them is reduced.
VPN server load. Unless you get a dedicated IP address that only you can use (some services like NordVPN and CyberGhost offer this for an additional fee), multiple users will be connected to the same network while you are. If it becomes overloaded, a connection drop may occur. Free VPN services are more prone to this problem.
Protocol. We have already said that encryption is the main reason why a VPN will slow down your internet speed. Then the security protocol that determines the type of encryption used is a huge defining factor here. Modern protocols like WireGuard and Lightway are much faster than older protocols like OpenVPN.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
When a VPN can speed up your connection
Using a VPN does not necessarily mean a decrease in internet speed. If you choose a reliable service, remembering to choose the best server and encryption protocols according to your needs, it is unlikely that you will feel any difference compared to a normal connection.
Moreover, a VPN can sometimes even help improve your overall internet speed.
This is because once you enable it, your ISP will not be able to track your online activity. This will avoid ISP throttling or bandwidth throttling, which will ultimately speed up your internet.
Throttling is the practice where your ISP deliberately slows down your internet connection. This can be used, for example, to manage network congestion. Therefore, using a gaming VPN can help you get better performance metrics when playing online.
Internet throttling can also occur when you reach your monthly data limits, and authoritarian countries often throttling the Internet to enforce online censorship of unwanted content.
How to improve VPN speed
If your internet connection gets slower when using a VPN, there are some hacks you can use to improve your overall online performance.
However, before you start fiddling with the settings, make sure that it is your VPN that is slowing you down. That’s why we recommend starting by running some speed tests, with and without the software.
speed test (opens in a new tab) is one of the best speed testing tools out there and one of the services we use when browsing VPN. Check out our dedicated broadband speed test explanation for all the details.
Once you’ve determined that the VPN app is causing your poor connection, try these tips:
Change the VPN server: As we said before, the VPN server you choose can have a huge impact on your connection – whether it’s distance or congestion. Switching servers may be just what you need to enjoy better performance. Don’t worry though, as all the top providers offer a huge range of international servers – our favorite provider ExpressVPN, for example, boasts over 3,000 servers in 94 countries.
Change the encryption protocol: Since encryption is another major factor in Internet speed, changing your VPN protocol can be beneficial here as well. Just go to the settings in the VPN app and customize your choice. Among all available WireGuard is the fastest option you can choose right now.
Enable split tunneling: Many VPN services also offer an interesting feature that can be helpful in boosting your internet speed. As the name suggests, split tunneling allows you to decide which traffic to route through an encrypted tunnel and which to skip. This practice can be very useful if your broadband speed is already quite slow to begin with.
(Image credit: NordVPN)
Restart your device: The old and easy way to troubleshoot tech, restarting your device or home router may be just what you need to spice it up. It’s possible that your hardware’s memory buffer needs to be cleared, or there are some heavy programs running in the background. Similarly, you can try the same with a VPN app.
Please update your operating system: Sometimes the device you are using is the cause of your slow connection. Make sure your operating system is up to date. If not, updating to the latest version may help.
Use a wired connection: A Wi-Fi connection is much more convenient, but it can also be more unstable at times. If your broadband speed isn’t the best, try switching to a wired connection instead to stabilize your internet connection.
Amid shocking internal revelations about content moderation practices and massive data breaches, Twitter is finding it hard to stay out of the public eye.
This time the culprit is last week’s cyberattack, which is over 200 million Twitter user logins (opens in a new tab) be compromised. In particular, email addresses used to set up accounts were stolen and given away for free on a hacker forum.
This is especially worrying for those vulnerable users who may regularly use security tools such as top VPN services and feel that their online anonymity is effectively protected.
Recent events are certainly not the first – or worst – case that the bird icon has been caught up in such a troubling data breach. Twitter vulnerabilities actually existed long before Elon Musk took over.
However, similar incidents are likely to increase in the near future given the dramatic spate of layoffs that followed the new leadership.
That’s why some privacy experts shared some useful tips with TechRadar to help you better protect your Twitter profile. Here’s what they say.
Twitter database leaks for free with 235,000,000 records. The database contains 235,000,000 unique records of Twitter users and their email addresses and unfortunately leads to many hacking attacks, targeted phishing and doxxing. This is one of the most significant leaks in history. pic.twitter.com/kxRY605qMZJanuary 4, 2023
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Twitter Leaks – What’s at stake for users?
“The leaking of the email addresses of over 200 million Twitter users is a serious and dangerous cybersecurity breach with the potential for the perpetrators to gain access to further sensitive information,” said Ceri Shaw, Chief Delivery Officer at the Scottish Digital Skills Academy Code Clan (opens in a new tab).
These stolen email addresses can be used for target victims in larger phishing campaigns, for example. Phishing attacks have indeed gained momentum over the past few years.
Doxxingthe act of posting private and personally identifiable information about a particular person online is another huge risk of such a significant leak, according to a cybercrime firm Hudson’s Rock (opens in a new tab).
Legal director of a British data protection company Hayes Connor (opens in a new tab) he also believes that hacked accounts may suffer more identity theft, credit fraud as well as banking or financial fraud.
However, money, privacy and reputation are not the only things users are exposed to.
Public disclosure of such personal information may also lead to greater emotional stress and bow. All of this can then have a more lasting impact on the victims’ overall mental health.
“The news of one of the biggest data breaches of all time is extremely disturbing, especially of this scale,” Forrest explained.
“The public places great trust in social media platforms such as Twitter, expecting their data to be handled securely. It is worrying that Twitter has yet to comment considering how many people this may be affected.”
How to protect your Twitter account
Whether you’re concerned that your personal information has been exposed or want to secure your Twitter profile from future data breaches, there are a few actions you should take now to secure your most sensitive information.
First, you should find out if your data has been compromised through sites like haveibeenpwned.com.
Hayes Connor’s lawyers advise victims beware of fraudulent emails, texts and calls because they may be phishing scams. They also recommend that you do not provide any personal information or click on links.
You should also consider contacting your bank to investigate suspicious activity. Similarly, experts recommend initiating a fraud alert with your credit company.
(Image credit: image library)
Shaw from CodeClan also said pay attention to any suspicious activity like password reset emails, unusual pop-ups on their devices, and targeted phishing emails. If so, you really should review your security settings and update your passwords with hard-to-guess combinations as quickly as possible.
“Passwords should contain a combination of special characters, letters and numbers and should not be related to any personal information,” Shaw explained, advising you to buy one of the best password management tools to help you create and manage more secure logins over time.
“Looking forward, Twitter needs to thoroughly investigate how this was allowed to happen and implement measures to minimize the impact of any possible future cybersecurity breach.”
Imagine being trapped in a commercial hell where the only escape is your voice. Who would cook something like that?
According tweet (opens in a new tab) viewed over 18 million times, it was a brilliant idea from Sony. I almost spat when the tweet showed up in my feed. This is not a full patent, just an illustration from one that shows someone sitting on a couch watching a TV show where one person shoots someone else (weird to have such unnecessary violence in a patent). The McDonald’s ad, represented of course by a giant hamburger, appears on the screen with the message “Say ‘McDonald’s’ to end the ad.” The TV viewer enthusiastically jumps to his feet and shouts “McDonald’s” before returning to the on-screen violence.
This if look like someone ends an ad with their voice. But that’s not the whole story.
Sony owns a patent that would force viewers to shout the brand’s name during commercials to end them. pic.twitter.com/DC3rcKvzlLJanuary 9, 2023
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I was intrigued by the complete lack of context around the tweet and the patent drawing. Where did this image come from? After reviewing hundreds of patents over the years, I was convinced that this was in fact a genuine patent drawing (which doesn’t mean someone couldn’t intentionally draw something to imitate it).
I decided to investigate if this was from a real patent. It’s not so simple. According to my friends at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, there are over 11.5 million patents (not counting the patents lost in the fire of 1836).
The US Patent Office has search engine (opens in a new tab)but it doesn’t always make it easy to find what you need. I tried searching for “Sony” and “Ads” but couldn’t find anything resembling this patent or image.
I switched to Google and searched for “brand name Sony End Commercials”. The first result was for a popular tweet. Thanks, Google.
Scrolling down, however, I noticed articles from 2014 2013 (opens in a new tab). They all emphasized the same image and offered the same lack of context. on reddit, picture post (opens in a new tab) was removed by the moderators because it “had no proof/source”. Nobody seemed to know where to find the original patent.
But it turns out there is proof and a source, and I found it on Google Patents. The frequently shared image is just one of 21 images from Patent No. US8246454B2 (opens in a new tab)“A system for turning TV commercials into interactive online video games” by inventor Gary M. Zalewski.
Sony applied for a patent as early as 2009. The application was granted in August 2021.
The patent is not supposed to trap consumers in a commercial hell until they jump up and shout the brand name. Here is part of the summary:
“In one broadcast or streaming method, the ad is accompanied by an interactive segment. A media player connected to a broadcast or streaming source identifies the existence of an interactive segment and presents the user with an enhanced and interactive mini-game ad that can be played with other “viewers” in a common or dispersed demographic.”
Based on the description and images, this patent is for interactive and practical advertisements. You could play games there and even order products. In one illustration, the system shows a TV connected to both a “Media Streaming Computer” and a PlayStation (looked like a PS3). The game console connects to an interactive commercial service, which then communicates with the advertiser or one of nearly a dozen networks, including NBC, CBS, Hulu, and, yes, MySpace.
More details on how this patent can really work. (Image credit: USPTO)
Each parent illustration, or “Drawing” as it is called in the patents, has a small caption. Here is how the key image is described.
“FIG. 9 depicts a user interacting verbally with an advertisement, according to one embodiment.”
I know there’s nothing else.
However, the more detailed description of the patent explains exactly what is going on in this illustration, and it’s even weirder than I thought.
Original patent illustration worthy of a meme. (Image credit: USPTO)
I won’t post the whole description here because it’s too long and clearly written by someone who has no interest in elegant prose. Instead, I’ll list the steps:
Someone is watching a movie
The video’s progress bar shows that an ad break is imminent (something you see on services like Hulu these days).
The ad begins
It is interactive and triggers the on-screen message “Tell McDonald’s to end the ad”
The viewer says “McDonald’s (we will never know why he decided to jump up and raise his hands).”
The viewer’s words are recorded by a microphone in the TV
Voice recognition readers answer
The system skips the rest of the advertisement
The viewer resumes watching the show
The viewer may receive a prize or voucher from a commercial sponsor, McDonald’s
The only downside is that it’s not about trapping anyone in an endless loop of ads, but about inducing user engagement with a carrot of possible reward. That is, I joyfully shouted: “Subway!” or “Cialis!” to end the ad sooner.
And that’s the key. It was never an invention to create a Morbius ad bar that could only be left if you spoke up. It was partly an interactive incentive system, perhaps the first in the history of live television broadcasts.
I sent inquiries to Sony and the inventor to find out more about the status of this patent. If I get back to you, I’ll update this story.
It’s always fun to post, share, and laugh at these individual photos, but it’s just as important to remember that they rarely, if ever, tell the whole story. For me, the patent is now much more interesting, if even a little weirder.
I really can’t wait for all of us to shout our best TV of 2023 with a real purpose.
The global PC market has seen a marked decline amid economic concerns on a global scale in 2022, according to new analyst data.
Latest numbers from Channels says total worldwide desktop and notebook sales fell year-on-year to 285.1 million, down 16% from 2021.
However, the figures for 2021 were among the highest in almost a decade, in line with the trend seen, and the year before there was a significant increase in the market.
PC sales in 2022 and earlier
More broadly, the figures for 2022 were higher than before the 2019 pandemic, representing similarly steady growth as in the years leading up to 2019.
This has led some to believe that the figures for 2020 and 2021 have been artificially inflated as a result of many people’s sudden demand for working from home or hybrid work, meaning companies have been forced to invest in more mobile infrastructure.
(Image credit: Canalys)
Lenovo topped the charts in the last quarter of 2022 with 15,470 laptops and desktops sold, down 28.9% from the fourth quarter of 2021. HP and Dell followed in second and third with both a 29% and 37.2% decrease, respectively.
While overall PC shipments in the fourth quarter fell by an average of 28.7% in 2022 compared to 2021, it is clear that some companies were better off than others, with Dell at the worse end of the scale.
While Apple saw a less significant decline, it was still down 7.5% year-on-year, bringing total Mac shipments to 7,229 in Q4 2022. Overall, Apple PC shipments fell 6.2% over the full year.
Looking ahead, it is difficult to say whether the numbers will return to pre-pandemic lower levels or decline less sharply. While there is always the possibility that even more computers will be sold in 2023 than the year before, at least for now, the tough forecasts make the future look quite uncertain.
A large spoofing campaign aims to distribute Vidar’s information theft tool to as many endpoints as possible.
A cybersecurity researcher at SEKOIA, going by the pseudonym crep1x, discovered the campaign and raised the alarm on Twitter. In a short Twitter threat, the researcher said he had uncovered over 1,300 domains all impersonating major software brands to push malware (opens in a new tab).
Brands impersonating this campaign include AnyDesk, MSI Afterburner, 7-ZIP, Blender, Dashlane, Slack, VLC, OBS, and cryptocurrency trading apps. All these impersonating brands lead to the same website, an AnyDesk clone.
Theft of passwords and cryptocurrencies
For the uninitiated, AnyDesk is a remote desktop application that gives users remote access to their personal computers and allows them to transfer files and use them as a VPN.
Victims who visit these websites and attempt to download the application are redirected to the Dropbox folder where the Vidar information stealing tool is located. A variant of the Arkei infostealer, Vidar, is capable of stealing credit cards, login details, files, and downloading screenshots. It is also capable of stealing cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or ether from the victim’s hot wallets (software wallets).
According to BleepingComputer, which reported the crep1x findings earlier this week, the campaign is still active and many of the typosquat domains are still active. Some have since closed. Dropbox has also been notified of its services being used to distribute malware and has since removed the link.
However, given that all malicious sites point to the same place, cyber criminals can easily survive by simply updating the download URL.
The best way to protect against such attacks is to be extra careful when downloading software and to ensure that your applications come only from verified sources. That said, going to the AnyDesk website (as opposed to clicking on a supposed AnyDesk link in an email or social media post) is a good place to start.
Google Meet presented three new face filters for some reason videoconferencing software and all without exception are quite off-putting.
behind announcement (opens in a new tab) on Google Workspace Blog updates, Google Meet users can now choose a diary or a strawberry instead of a head if they wish, or be cast as a bunny in the office.
If you insist on bringing boundless joy to hybrid encounter, you can find these effects along with the rest of the pod effects panel in Google Meet (opens in a new tab)available before and after the meeting.
Oh Lord no
Administrative tools are thankfully here to save the day, with the ability to control whether the effects are available across your organization. They are automatically disabled for Google Workspace Education users, but enabled by default for all other Google Workspace plan users who get what they deserve.
The new effects are part of an extended fifteen-day rollout that began on December 21, so while you might think you’re safe, you’re not. Not quite.
These bizarre and disturbing effects are at the very end of what Google Meet has to offer. There are also virtual backgrounds, allowing users to pretend they are working on a beach or in the middle of a blizzard, and even plain blurs, allowing users to hide the clutter in their crowded studios.
We’re not saying the new filters are bad (they really are), it’s just that it would be best to get through the Q4 revenue report meeting in a year of recession without our bosses breaking the tension with some obligatory fun.
