Month: August 2024

Marvel has finally revealed the first footage for three of its 2025 projects after it leaked its own video days earlier.

Marvel has finally released the first official footage for forthcoming Disney Plus shows Daredevil: Born Again and Ironheart, plus one of its 2025 threatrical offerings, Thunderbolts.

The blink and you’ll miss them clips, which you can see in the video below, were released today (August 29) as part of Marvel’s 85th birthday celebrations.

The footage in question starts at the 1:57 mark, with a brief glimpse of some of Thunderbolts‘ main players, such as Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, and Sebastien Stan’s Bucky Barnes, as they prepare to exit an elevator. The Marvel Phase 5 movie’s expected lead trio are joined by Wyatt Russell’s US Agent and Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, but we don’t know where the quintet are, or why they’re working together yet. 

Seconds later, we get our first official look at Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil, who’ll star in his own Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV series after making a number of cameos in other Marvel movies and TV shows. Unsurprisingly, the footage from Daredevil: Born Again doesn’t reveal too much about the spiritual successor to Daredevil, which originally aired on Netflix, but at least it shows Murdock wearing his iconic superhero suit – one complete with blood red eye mask protection – that’ll surely excite fans.

Meanwhile, Ironheart‘s first footage also makes its debut in the 85th anniversary video. Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams can be seen flying through the streets of Chicago – dodging traffic as she does so – in her custom built Iron Man-like suit while screaming “Let’s go!”.

Thunderbolts will storm its way into theaters next May (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

The trio’s first-look clips come days after Marvel accidentally leaked the aforementioned video on its own social media channels. As reported by the likes of GamesRadar/Total Film, the comic book giant shared and then deleted a sizzle reel of the above material last Thursday (August 22). Clearly, someone jumped the gun and published the video before they were supposed to.

Regardless, it’s good to have some high-definition footage to pore over, especially in light of other leaks surrounding some of these MCU projects. On August 14, we reported on a leaked Thunderbolts trailer that revealed our first look at Lewis Pullman’s Sentry and the Marvel movie’s paranoid thriller vibes. That teaser, which was debuted exclusively at D23 Expo 2024 days earlier, made its way online without Marvel’s consent. 

Elsewhere, plenty of on-set Born Again images and videos were plastered across the internet when this series was being filmed in New York at the start of the year. One batch of leaked Daredevil: Born Again footage had Marvel fans fearing for the fate of an beloved character, but we’ll have to wait until its release in March 2025 to find out if our worst fears will be realized.

Like Daredevil: Born Again, Ironheart is expected to launch on Disney Plus sometime next year. Thunderbolts, meanwhile, is set to arrive in theaters worldwide on May 2, 2025.

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Nintendo has officially ended repair support for the New Nintendo 3DS.

Nintendo has officially ended repair support for the New Nintendo 3DS.

In a new X / Twitter post shared today to the Japanese Nintendo account, which has been machine translated, the company announced that repair services for the New Nintendo 3DS have now ended due to a lack of parts required to maintain the handheld console.

Earlier this year, Nintendo announced that when replacement parts for the Nintendo 2DS, Nintendo 2DS XL, and the New Nintendo 3DS were gone, its repair services would end. 

Support for the Nintendo 3DS XL and standard Nintendo 3DS has already ended and now it’s the New Nintendo 3DS’s turn to lose the service. 

“We are now discontinuing repair services for the Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, and New Nintendo 3DS LL systems as the period for retaining repair parts as stipulated in the repair service regulations for each product has expired,” Nintendo explained in a support post at the time.

“As a result, we will end repair services for the Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, and New Nintendo 3DS LL systems as soon as our current stock of parts is depleted.”

The company has now amended the post with an updated notice, which reads: “We have run out of parts necessary for repairs, so we are no longer accepting repairs for the New Nintendo 3DS system.”

The only consoles part of the DS family that are still available for repair support are the Nintendo 2DS and Nintendo 2DS XL, but given the notice it’s likely services will come to an end for both soon.

In July, Nintendo also ended repair support for the Wii U, explaining that it had “run out of parts necessary for repairs” and “will no longer be accepting repairs for Wii U consoles and peripherals”.

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The new Hisense A85N has the same panel as the LG C4, but it’s much more affordable

If you fancy the LG C4 OLED TV but can’t stretch to the asking price, Hisense has just the TV for you… well, if it gets a release where you live. The new Hisense A85N has the same 2024 W-OLED panel made by LG Display that’s used in the LG C4 and the excellent Philips OLED908, but where the LG launched in Germany for €2,399 for 55 inches, the Hisense will be €1,600. There’s also a 65-inch model and that’s cheaper too, with a suggested selling price of €2,200.

So far the launch details are for Germany only, but the same model will also be sold elsewhere in Europe. We’ve reached out to Hisense to find out details of those launches and any price variations, so we’ll keep you up to date when the information becomes available.

Here’s what you need to know in terms of specifications.

Hisense A85N: key features and specifications

The new Hisense A85N is OLED – which is interesting because the firm has been a key promotor of mini-LED tech and is a founding member of the QLED alliance – and its panel is rated to deliver 1,000 nits of peak brightness, which is basically what you get from the LG C4. The panel has a 144Hz refresh rate, and is accompanied by two 6W speakers.

The four HDMI ports include two with HDMI 2.1 features including ALLM and VRR for gamers, so that’s one area where the LG has the edge and rates among the best gaming TVs – LG’s sets have four HDMI 2.1 ports. However, the TV supports a wide range of HDR formats including HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision IQ, so it has the LG model beaten by support all forms of HDR (though Philips and Panasonic OLEDs also offer this). There’s also support for IMAX Enhanced, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound. 

The operating system is Hisense’s own Vidaa, which delivers most of the popular streaming apps. According to the specs published by FlatpanelsHD it supports AirPlay 2 but not Chromecast, and it also works with Alexa. 

The German launch is scheduled for September 2024 with a cashback promotion; we’d expect the other European launches to happen shortly afterwards.

We haven’t tested this TV yet but we’ve tested the LG C4, so we know what the panel delivers. And for an OLED panel it’s very impressive, gaining 4.5 out of 5 in our tests. The Hisense TV will of course have a different processor and firmware to the LG, but to get the same panel at a much lower price means this could be a very impressive, comparatively affordable buy that challenges the best OLED TVs on the market for price.

We recently published our LG B4 review, and that model is a good 30% less bright than the Hisense promises to be, and costs €1,899 for the 55-inch model in Germany, so the Hisense would be far brighter, and yet still cheaper. Here’s hoping it comes to more countries.

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Mirai is one of the most infamous DDoS botnets.

A widely-used surveillance camera has been found carrying a high-severity vulnerability that allows threat actors to take over the device.

Researchers from Akamai recently reported cybercriminals started exploiting the flaw in the AVM1203, a surveillance camera model designed and sold by Taiwanese manufacturer AVTECH, to hijack the endpoints and assimilate them into the Mirai botnet.

Since the model reached its end-of-life status long ago, AVTECH will not be patching the bug, so the best course of action for any owners would be to replace the device with a newer model.

CISA recommendations

The vulnerability in question is tracked as CVE-2024-7029. It has a severity rating of 8.7 (high-severity), and is described as an “improper neutralization of special elements used in a command (‘Command Injection’)”.

CISA’s technical description states that the flaw allows commands to be injected over the network, “and executed without authentication.”

Those who are unable to replace the device, should take defensive measures, CISA recommends. Those include minimizing network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems (making sure they’re not accessible from the public internet), and locating control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls, and isolating them from business networks.

Ultimately, if it is absolutely necessary for the endpoint to be accessible via the internet, CISA recommends using secure methods such as VPNs, while still stressing that many VPNs may have vulnerabilities, as well.

Mirai is a popular botnet that primarily targets Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It was first discovered in 2016, and has since grown to be almost synonymous with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. The Mirai botnet gained notoriety in October 2016 when it was used to launch one of the largest DDoS attacks in history against Dyn, a major DNS provider. This attack disrupted websites like Twitter, Netflix, and Reddit.

Mirai’s source code was eventually released publicly, leading to the creation of many variants by other cybercriminals. These variants have continued to exploit vulnerabilities in IoT devices, making Mirai a significant ongoing threat in the cybersecurity landscape.

Via Ars Technica

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Apple’s Clean Up feature for removing unwanted people or objects photos is now part of iOS 18.1 beta 3 for developers, and I’m sharing my first impressions of using it on an iPhone 15 Pro Max.

It’s only been three years since Google first rolled out Magic Eraser on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, but as someone who uses an iPhone daily, it has felt like an eternity. I’ve long thought the iPhone has an excellent camera delivering delightful shots. My iPhone 15 Pro Max has captured countless photos of Bruce Springsteen, family shots including dogs, travels worldwide, and even selfies. 

Even so, these shots are never perfect, and I’ve often fretted that I can’t remove an odd person in the background or some object that’s floated its way into the shot. So when Apple announced its “Clean Up” feature for Photos, which arrives with Apple Intelligence, I eagerly waited to get my hands on it. 

That happened this week with the third developer beta of iOS 18.1, which is available to download now. As the name suggests, it’s a beta, and bugs, speedbumps, and other issues are to be expected. Still, I downloaded it and am happy to report that the iPhone is no longer a peg-down from the Pixel or the Galaxy regarding cleaning up photos.

Clean Up is super simple

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Apple’s notion of “it just works” is in full force here, and unlike “Writing Tools,” “Reduce Interruptions,” or even the ability to create your own photo memory, this feels like the first Apple Intelligence feature – available in developer beta – that’s being shown off. 

When you open up a photo in Photos and tap edit, aka the three lines at the bottom, you’ll see a new “Clean Up” icon with an eraser at the end of the row next to Crop. From there, on the first try, it will say downloading clean up and then preparing clean up. Then, you’re off to the races.

If the AI in use here recognizes items, like a person in the background or some object, it’ll glow with a rainbow hue, allowing you to simply tap it, wait a few seconds, and see it removed. It’s as simple as that, but if there is something else you’re hoping to remove, you can draw a circle around it. 

Apple’s deployment of object removal is quite intuitive and works similarly to competing features on Google Pixels or Samsung Galaxy phones; it even reminds me of the tool in Adobe Photoshop.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

It also works well after a few hours of use, and that’s a good thing considering how long it took for this feature to arrive and that it has some tough competition. I especially like Apple’s chosen color scheme here. The rainbow effect not only has me wishing for the future custom emojis and image playground functionality, but it also fits with the theme of Apple Intelligence. Also, it hints that your iPhone, iPad, or Mac is working some magic. 

I fully expect “Clean Up” to be showcased at Apple’s “It’s Glowtime.” special event on September 9, 2024. Considering it’s working on the iPhone 15 Pro Max with iOS 18.1, it should be ready when this software version arrives for the next-generation iPhones – likely the 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max. Of course, it’ll also arrive on iPads with an M1 chip or newer running iPadOS 18.1 and M1 or newer Macs with macOS Sequoia 15.1.

In my testing thus far with Clean Up on my iPhone, using photos shot today and older ones in my library, it works well, and I’d say it’s on par with the experience other smartphones have set. It generally removes people or a subject it identifies quite well, marching the background smoothly, and even works wonders when you circle something more specific or more significant. 

As my sister-in-law put it, she’s shocked it took this long and is still surprised, but it works here. I have a feeling most people will be happy to find it in Photos on iOS 18.1, but I’m not entirely sure this alone will cause a massive upgrade cycle … maybe if you’ve been waiting for it like me, you might just do it. 

Of course, if you want to try it now, you can access Clean Up on iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, as well as M1 Macs and iPads as part of the latest iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia Developer Betas.

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Motorola has launched the Motorola Edge 50, the Edge 50 Neo, the Moto G55 5G, and the Moto G35 5G.

To say Motorola has had a busy year is something of an understatement. After launching the Google Pixel-rivaling Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, Edge 50 Pro and Edge 50 Ultra back in April, the Lenovo-owned smartphone maker turned its attention to foldables with the excellent Motorola Razr 2024 and Razr Plus 2024.

Almost all of those devices sit at the sharper end of the price spectrum, but now Motorola is bolstering its mid-range and budget offering with four – yes, four – new smartphones: the Motorola Edge 50, the Edge 50 Neo, the Moto G55 5G, and the Moto G35 5G.

The first two of that quartet are positioned as more affordable alternatives to Motorola’s flagship Edge 50 devices, but they’re no less attractive on the specs front (nor on the aesthetic front, given Motorola’s ongoing collaboration with color specialists Pantone). In fact, based on what we’ve seen of the two new phones so far, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo, in particular, could be among the best cheap phones of 2024.

For starters, the Edge 50 Neo’s £399.99 price undercuts that of the Samsung Galaxy A55 (£439 / AU$699) and Google Pixel 8a ($499 / £499 / AU$849), and Motorola’s phone also offers more base storage than both of those models (256GB instead of 128GB).

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo in Pantone Nautical Blue (Image credit: Motorola)

The Edge 50 Neo boasts a potentially Samsung and Pixel-beating camera setup, too. You’ll get a 50MP main snapper, a 13MP ultra-wide camera, and a 10MP telephoto snapper on Motorola’s latest mid-ranger, with the first of that number being an AI-packed Sony LYTIA sensor.

Granted, the Pixel 8a is one of the best AI phones money can buy in 2024 – and it’s unlikely that Motorola’s ‘Moto AI’ software can lay a finger on Google’s excellent AI feature suite – but you do at least get a cold, hard telephoto sensor on the Edge 50 Neo, which is something that both the Galaxy A55 and Pixel 8a miss out on. It’s worth noting that last year’s Motorola Edge 40 Neo didn’t have a telephoto sensor, either.

Cameras aside, the Edge 50 Neo gets a 6.4-inch pOLED display with an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. Again, that latter figure bests the peak brightness offered by both the Galaxy A55 and the Pixel 8a, though if you’re not a fan of compact phones, you may be better off with the 6.7-inch (though more expensive) Motorola Edge 50, or indeed the 6.6-inch Galaxy A55.

Under the hood, the Edge 50 Neo sports a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset and a 4,310mAh battery. That’s the same mid-range chipset as you’ll find in the Oppo Reno 12 Pro, and while you shouldn’t expect it to deliver blazing performance, we found it to be a perfectly sufficient power source for everyday scrolling, streaming, and light gaming in our Oppo Reno 12 Pro review.

You do, however, get a larger – and potentially longer-lasting – battery in Oppo’s comparably priced Reno model, as well as faster wired charging (80W versus the Edge 50 Neo’s 68W). That said, the Edge 50 Neo boasts 15W wireless charging, which is a rarity at this price point.

Differentiating the Edge 50 series

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo series (left) and Motorola Edge 50 series (right) (Image credit: Future)

As for the differences between the Edge 50 Neo and its standard sibling, the Edge 50, the latter phone boasts a larger 5,000mAh battery and an arguably superior Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset. The issue? That device costs €499 (UK pricing has yet to be confirmed), which puts it in the awkward no man’s land between mid-range and flagship. By contrast, the Edge 50 Neo is more attractively priced alongside its mid-range competition, and it’s also the only phone in the Edge 50 line to offer five years of OS and security upgrades.

In any case, you’ve now got five Motorola Edge 50 phones to choose from in 2024. That sounds like a lot, but with single configurations and prices for almost every model, Motorola argues that its mobile product offering is actually smaller (read: more accessible) than that of, say, Samsung, which makes each of its phones available in a multitude of configurations.

We’re currently putting the Edge 50 Neo – as well as the standard Edge 50 and the aforementioned (though decidedly lower-spec) Moto G55 5G and Moto G35 5G – through its paces for a full review, so stay tuned to TechRadar for our verdict on Motorola’s latest phone.

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