Month: August 2024

Denon launches a more affordable model of A-series AVR

Denon has launched a brand new A series AV receiver that takes inspiration from its flagship A1H. That means high-quality components, advanced audio processing and some seriously powerful bass: why hook up a single subwoofer when you can have up to four instead?

The new Denon AVR-A10H is relatively affordable for such a high-specification AV receiver: it’s $2,000 less than the firm’s flagship AVR-AH1, which is currently $6,499. The new AVR-10H is $4,699. But while the price is lower the specification is still very impressive. 

Denon AVR-A10H: key features and specifications

The Denon AVR-A10H has seven 8K HDMI inputs and has built-in HEOS for multi-room audio across multiple devices. It has Audyssey XT32 room calibration and it’s compatible with Dirac Live Room Correction and Bass Control, enabling it to tune the audio output to match the characteristics of your space. And it’s capable of some serious low-end thump courtesy of its four independent subwoofer pre-outs.

The A10H is a 13.4-channel AVR capable of powering systems with up to 7.4.6 or 9.4.4 speaker configurations. It supports Dolby Atmos, DTS:X Pro, IMAX Enhanced, AURO-3D, and more. Next-gen gaming is fully supported at 4K/120Hz and the HDMI ports support pass-through at up to 8K/60Hz or 4K/120Hz.

Denon’s new AVR boasts a host of upgraded components including a new ESS DAC array – featuring nine audiophile-grade 2-channel DACs – and an OFC wound transformer. It’s made at the famous Shirakawa Audio Works in Japan, and it’s hand-tuned by Denon’s Sound Master, Shinichi Yamauchi.

The Denon AVR-A10H will be available from 1 October for $4,699 and comes with a 3-year warranty. 

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Massive 32 million document data leak exposes businesses using Businesses using cloud-based field service management platform ServiceBridge.

Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler has uncovered a massive database belonging to field service management platform ServiceBridge was left freely available online.

In total, the database numbered 31,524,107 files, dated back to 2012 and primarily belonging to companies from the US, UK, and Canada, Fowler shared in a report with Cybernews.

The documents, which were not password protected, and did not require security authorization, included sensitive and confidential information such as contracts, invoices, inspections, partial credit card numbers, and HIPAA consent forms – as well as personally identifiable information such as full names, addresses, and phone numbers.

Invoice fraud

Some files, labelled ‘site audit reports’, contained images of the interior and exterior of properties and businesses, as well as gate access codes and other access material. This poses a serious physical security risk for those exposed, some of whom were private homeowners, as well as large chain restaurants, casinos, and medical providers to name a few.

The companies affected by this leak are particularly vulnerable to spear phishing attacks and invoice fraud, due to the specific details available. This type of fraud is on the rise as it is, with 31% of UK businesses falling victim to invoice fraud over the last year. Fowler outlined the dangers in his report,

“The potential risks of invoice fraud are a double-edged sword that affects both business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) transactions” He said. “Exposed invoices and internal business documents can potentially serve as a template for criminals to target victims using internal information that only the business and the customer would know.

The database has since disappeared after a disclosure notice was sent to ServiceBridge, and it’s not clear how long the information was available, or who accessed it.

However the incident demonstrates the need for effective security audits and access controls. All companies who store and handle sensitive information have a responsibility to their clients to protect data – we’ve featured the best encryption software to keep your information secure.

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This is a Windows 11 preview update that you’ll be sorely tempted to grab – if you have a modern Ryzen chip, that is.

Windows 11 users with Ryzen 7000 or Ryzen 9000 processors can get some purportedly huge boosts in PC games right now, as work to seriously optimize AMD CPUs has landed in the OS sooner than expected.

As Tom’s Hardware observes, the latest optional update for Windows 11 23H2, which is KB5041587, actually packs the necessary improvements to branch prediction code for modern Ryzen CPUs (from the Ryzen 5000 series onwards, we’ve been told previously) that have been tested in Windows 11 24H2. Those boosts are to the tune of 10% on average, based on extensive tests run by Hardware Unboxed.

The 24H2 update is, of course, still only in preview (with the slight complication that a version is live with Copilot+ PCs only, though it isn’t the fully finished 24H2). It wasn’t expected that we’d get this change until 24H2 arrived for everyone later this year, but we’ve suddenly got it backported and live on Windows 11 23H2 now.

However, there is an obvious caveat, namely that this optional update for 23H2, KB5041587, is also only in preview – so there may still be wrinkles to iron out.

AMD tells us: “We expect the performance uplift to be very similar between 24H2 and 23H2 with KB5041587 installed.”

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Analysis: Similar but not identical

So, that’s the other caveat here – the performance boost should be ‘very similar’ meaning PC gamers on 23H2 may not get quite the same uplift as has been observed with testing using the preview of Windows 11 24H2.

However, even slightly slower performance of around a percent or two off the pace will still be excellent – you’ll still be getting an 8% boost or so. Indeed, even half the effect would be a 5% boost to frame rates which is still well worth having.

With that gaming performance carrot dangling in front of them, it’s likely that AMD Ryzen processor owners will leap on this optional update, and we wouldn’t blame them.

You don’t have to risk downloading a preview update on your everyday PC, mind you, as remember that KB5041587 will become the cumulative update for September next month. That finished patch will arrive in less than two weeks, in fact, complete with the gaming boosts for Ryzen 5000 and onwards.

As a reminder, we know – or at least have seen it demonstrated – that Ryzen 7000 and 9000 get major boosts in the area of 10% for gaming frame rates, but Ryzen 5000 should benefit too, it’s just that we’re awaiting testing to determine exactly what impact the optimizations will have in this case.

As has previously been theorized, Intel CPUs apparently won’t benefit from these optimizations – or fixes for broken stuff in Windows 11, perhaps, to look at it another way – as they are specific to AMD Ryzen chips. That said, we’d like to see more testing to that end, but Hardware Unboxed’s limited findings for a Core i5 chip appear to indicate that 24H2 has no effect on gaming performance.

If this is the case, it will of course throw something of a spanner in the works for Intel in terms of the battle of the best CPUs, with all modern Ryzen processors getting a hefty free gaming speed uplift out of nowhere.

We should also note that the 10% average boost that Hardware Unboxed observed did include some regressions – frame rate drops – balanced against some huge leaps of 20% (or even more) to produce that overall average. This is to say that results might vary across different PC games considerably – and different PC configurations too, obviously (plus scenarios where games are GPU bottlenecked, and CPU performance reflects that).

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These five critically acclaimed movies will be available to stream on Netflix from September.

Netflix has revealed that there are some great new titles arriving next month. Looking at everything new on Netflix in September, we’ve spotted plenty among the lineup that we’re excited to watch, including several new Netflix movies that were all well-received by critics and viewers alike. 

We all know the struggle: Netflix’s library is big and ever-growing, making it difficult to actually settle in and find something to watch, which is why we’ve done the hard work for you to pick out the most highly rated movies that are coming to the best streaming service in September.

I’ve pulled together a real mix of genres in this list, so no matter whether you’re after sci-fi, animation or a Steven Spielberg classic, there’s something for everyone. Here are my top five acclaimed movie picks on Netflix, along with why I think they’re worth your time. Plenty of other critics would agree, too!

Edge of Tomorrow 

(Image credit: HBOMax)

Netflix release date: September 7
RT Score: 91%
Length: 113 minutes
Director: Doug Liman
Main cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson

If you’re after a gripping action flick that’s as funny as it is thrilling, Edge of Tomorrow is the perfect choice. Set in a future where most of Europe is being invaded by an alien race, a public relations officer with limited combat experience is forced by his superiors to fight against the aliens, only to find himself experiencing a time loop in the process. We’ve got our fair share of time loop movies now, like Happy Death Day and, of course, Groundhog Day, but this one is definitely up there.

Not to mention, it’s got a brilliant cast too. Action royalty Tom Cruise is joined by A Quiet Place‘s Emily Blunt, The Sinner‘s Bill Paxton and The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Brendan Gleeson, so you’re in for a real treat performance wise. Entertainment writer Grace Morris also says that the movie is one of her favorite sci-fi movies – to find out why, read her article about why Edge of Tomorrow deserves a sequel. 

Jaws

(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Netflix release date: September 1
RT Score: 97%
Length: 124 minutes
Director: Steven Spielberg
Main cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw

Jaws is one of those movies you shouldn’t confess you’ve never seen otherwise you’ll get a chorus of “what do you mean you haven’t seen Jaws?!”. But hey, I’m not here to judge if you haven’t seen one of the best Netflix movies. Luckily, you’ll be able to soon stream the Spielberg classic, so you can rectify that situation – and trust me, you really should, especially if you caught the terribly rated Netflix shark movie Under Paris in June.  Or, if you’re anything like me, you can decide you want to watch it for the millionth time now it’s part of Netflix’s library. Here are five more fun Netflix monster movies to watch after you’ve caught up with this classic.  

In this masterpiece that blows other shark movies out of the water, Sheriff Brody teams up with a marine biologist and a local fisherman to hunt down a great white shark who has been attacking locals. But it’s so much more than that, and considering you barely see the shark, it’s more about the dynamic between these three very different men, and the quirks of Amity Island. There’s also a very punchable mayor character too, if that takes your fancy. 

Midnight Run

(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Netflix release date: September 1
RT Score: 95%
Length: 126 minutes
Director: Martin Brest
Main cast: Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton

Robert De Niro isn’t just about gangsters and hard-boiled roles, he’s also a very effective comedic actor. Personally, I loved him most in Stardust but I digress, he’s just as good in Midnight Run. He’s a bounty hunter here, who is hired by a bail bondsman to find an accountant and bring him to Los Angeles. This accountant has got himself in heaps of trouble involving money and the mob, which we all know never ends well. 

If you like unlikely duos, De Niro’s bounty hunter and Charles Grodin’s embezzling accountant are sure to deliver laughs, and Danny Elfman provides a banging soundtrack as always, so it’s a very well-rounded piece indeed.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

(Image credit: Aardman)

Netflix release date: September 1
RT Score: 95%
Length: 85 minutes
Director: Nick Park
Main cast: Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Kay

We’ve really come a long way from A Grand Day Out, where one man and his dog flew to the moon in search of cheese. Like, they could’ve just gone to the corner store I guess, but that wouldn’t have been a very good short film. 

Ever since then, Wallace and Gromit have gone global and advanced from shorts to feature-length movies, with The Curse of the Were-Rabbit being their first proper big screen appearance. Parodying monster movies with classic British hilarity, this labor of love took five years to make, because stop-motion animation is no easy medium. It was worth it though, and a second feature-length movie about everyone’s favorite feathered outlaw Feathers McGraw, Vengeance Most Fowl, hits the streamer in December.

Grave of the Fireflies

(Image credit: StudioCanal)

Netflix release date: September 16
RT Score: 100%
Length: 89 minutes
Director: Isao Takahata
Main cast: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi

If you’ve been through our list of every Studio Ghibli movie ranked, you’ll know that Grave of the Fireflies is considered the studio’s darkest movie. Indeed, you’ll need your tissues for this one. This haunting animated movie follows two siblings who are orphaned by an air raid during World War II, and have to try and survive in Kobe, Japan, most of which had been destroyed during the close of the Pacific War.

While it’s not an easy movie by any means, it is an essential watch as it’s widely regarded as one of the best war movies of all time. If you’re in the mood for further devastation, both emotionally and literally on screen, I would also recommend When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs, a British movie which follows a similar premise, seeing an elderly couple trying to survive a nuclear war. For more anime, here’s where to watch Studio Ghibli films from anywhere.

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