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Prime Video has released a new trailer for Secret Level and it stands out to a non-gamer like me.

Although I’m not a gamer, the Prime Video trailer for the new videogame anthology series Secret Level has certainly piqued my interest.

Secret Level is based on some of the world’s most famous gaming franchises and while the only videogames I’ve played are the likes of Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, there’s no doubt that the trailer is completely mesmerizing. It’s no surprise though as the adult animated anthology show is from the mind of Netflix‘s Love, Death and Robots creator Tim Miller, which I’m a big fan of.

The first teaser trailer for Prime Video’s new videogame anthology show was unveiled at Gamescom on August 20 and now one of the best streaming services has released a new trailer (see below) which showcases the visually striking art and animation styles that’ll be shown in Secret Level.

Each episode tells an original short story set in a number of beloved videogame universes such as God of War, PAC-MAN, and Dungeons & Dragons. Secret Level is a “celebration of games and gamers”, and now I definitely want to be in on the party.

What is Secret Level about?

Secret Level is a groundbreaking gaming anthology series that tells individual stories set within the worlds of some of the most legendary videogames. The potential best Prime Video show will also include relatively new game franchises like the team-based shooter Concord, which you can play on PlayStation 5 and PC.

Alongside the ones mentioned above, the games included in the 15-episode series are: Armored Core, Crossfire, Exodus, Honor of Kings, Mega Man, New World: Aeternum, various PlayStation Studios games, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament and Warhammer 40,000.

Secret Level, which debuts on Prime Video on December 10 along with additional episodes on December 17, also has a star-studded cast, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Merle Dandridge, Claudia Doumit and more.

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Amazon’s mandatory ‘captive audience’ meetings were found to be in violation of the law.

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled against AmazonAmazon can no longer hold mandatory anti-union meetings The meetings were found to violate worker’s rights

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled Amazon can no longer impose mandatory ‘captive audience’ meetings on staff, as it were found to be using these events to ‘coerce’ employees with anti-unionization objectives.

The decision passed 3-1, with the NLRB General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, arguing the meetings violated worker’s rights, as they were forced to attend and be subjected to the company’s anti-union messaging.

Abruzzo affirmed companies should be free to make their case against unions, but workers shouldn’t be forced to listen.

Wins for workers

This is the latest development in a string of conflicts between Amazon and its workers, with the retailer aggressively opposing organizing efforts and unionization in its warehouses.

Tech workers have some of the lowest union membership rates of any industry, and efforts by Amazon to dissuade workers from organizing have proved effective. However, the law states that workers must be able to freely choose whether to debate union representation, and when and how they do it.

“Ensuring that workers can make a truly free choice about whether they want union representation is one of the fundamental goals of the National Labor Relations Act. Captive audience meetings—which give employers near-unfettered freedom to force their message about unionization on workers under threat of discipline or discharge—undermine this important goal,” said Chairman Lauren McFerran.

“Today’s decision better protects workers’ freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights under the Act, while ensuring that employers can convey their views about unionization in a noncoercive manner.”

Despite the considerable opposition from the retail giant, workers in Staten Island won a historic victory by voting to create the Amazon Labor Union, a huge step in their struggle for better working conditions and protections.

Via Engadget

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AMD’s new Ryzen 7 9800X3D has surmounted its predecessor, receiving heaps of high praise for its gaming performance, but a new user’s report suggests issues of burning out could occur once again.

AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D has just burnt out on an MSI X870 motherboardThe user on Reddit reports an error code of ‘00’, indicative of a CPU issueThere’s currently no confirmation from AMD on whether this is an issue on its end

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D has been the recipient of much acclaim thanks to the upgraded 3D V-Cache for gamers, placing it at the top of our best gaming CPUs ranking. However, one troubling user report has revealed the processor burned out on an AM5 motherboard socket. Could this be an error on AMD’s part?

The unlucky Reddit user shared images showcasing the new 9800X3D processor with burn damage, along with the MSI Tomahawk X870 motherboard socket burnt out with bent pins. The user also mentioned a ‘00’ error code that appeared when attempting to post (power-on self-test) their new chip.

The 00 error code can indicate a random boot or CPU issue (it’s a fairly common error code), and Wccftech noted that other users had posted about the same code on the Tomahawk X870 over on MSI’s own forums, though it’s unlikely those users had the same issue. We’ve seen a familiar matter occur with the 9800X3D’s predecessor (the 7800X3D), which left users with burnt processors and motherboards (eventually fixed via BIOS updates for multiple mobo partners).

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Wccftech claims the motherboard could hold responsibility for the burnout issue in this instance, with the assumption that the X870 pushed voltages through the gold contact pads ‘excessively’, leading to the CPU burning out. However, some commenters in the Reddit thread have also speculated that the board itself was defective based on the images provided by the affected user, since it appears that part of the socket’s plastic casing is chipped – therefore preventing the chip from being properly seated in the socket.

There’s ultimately no confirmation as to whether the blame for this lies with AMD, MSI, or the PC user themself. Still, one thing we can say is that this certainly wouldn’t be unfamiliar territory for users of newly launched AMD processors.

Should you still buy the Ryzen 7 9800X3D now?

Aside from the supposed burning issue, getting your hands on the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is already a tough mission – it’s currently sold out completely and new stock isn’t expected to arrive until December. Not only are you up against high demand, but scalpers have already made the new processor their latest target.

If there is a serious underlying issue here, stock delays could actually work in your favor if you’re hoping to pick up this speedy new gaming CPU. If Wccftech is correct and the burnout was indeed caused by excessive voltage, we could see it fixed via a BIOS software patch by MSI by the time a new batch of stock arrives.

We’re hoping that this is just an isolated issue that doesn’t indicate more serious problems, as spending hundreds of dollars on new hardware just for it to die on you almost immediately isn’t ideal, to say the least…

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The Night Agent season 2 has a release date.

The Night Agent arrives on Netflix on January 23, 2025An official teaser trailer has been released A third season will begin production at the end of 2024

The Night Agent is one of the best Netflix shows and fans have been waiting for news of when its next chapter might arrive on the best streaming service. Finally, the wait is over and we now know it will arrive on January 23, 2025.

Previously, there was some confusion around the exact release window after Netflix confirmed that The Night Agent season 2 would return in 2025, but said that it would “this winter”, which prompted some confusion.

We have good news, though, as we now know it’s going to be in January next year and not later in the year like some originally thought it might be. Now that that’s all cleared up, I’m so excited to tune in to The Night Agent season two. If you’re just as excited as me, we’ve been given a quick teaser to get us hyped up.

Take a look below.

What do we know about The Night Agent season 2?

According to Netflix’s Tudum, the new episodes pick up after the high-octane events of the first season, where we’ll once again follow Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) after his successful mission.

Netflix‘s plot synopsis for season 2 says: “Now he’s earned the opportunity to become a Night Agent. Working in the secretive organization Night Action in Season 2 will push Peter into a world where danger is everywhere and trust is in short supply.”

We also know this is far from the end of Peter’s story, as The Night Agent has also been renewed for a third season. We’re glad it didn’t end up on the list of shows canceled by Netflix in 2024, and that there’ll be plenty to watch over the coming months.

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EA has revealed how Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s hair strand technology was brought to life.

EA has shared how BioWare and Frostbite created Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s hair strand technologyThe hair technology features 50,000 individual strands per characterStand hair technology is present in other EA games, but BioWare had to push the limits further for The Veilguard

EA has revealed how Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s hair strand technology was brought to life.

In a new blog post, the development team at BioWare and the Frostbite Engine provided a deep dive into the technology that was able to give the characters of The Veilguard the best hair the series has ever seen.

In total, 50,000 individual strands make up one hairstyle per character for over 100 hairstyles in the game, allowing for natural motion and adaptability to various character movements and environments.

“Harnessing the power of the Frostbite engine, Strand Hair technology transforms your character’s locks into a living tapestry of thousands of individual strands,” EA said. “Strand Hair technology combines physics with real-time rendering to simulate believable modeling of human hair.”

Frostbite spent years advancing its hair-rendering tech and has been featured in previous EA titles like EA Sports FC and Madden NFL, however, for The Veilguard, BioWare was required to push the limits even further.

“With hair attachments that move seamlessly, and the decoupling of simulation and render tessellation, this is the first EA game to offer such detailed physics-driven long hairstyles,” EA explained. “The Frostbite team increased maximum hair length from 63 points to 255, and implemented a new system for complex hair structures like braids.”

A character’s build and physical traits also played a role in how the hair tech was implemented, as well as all sorts of different lighting that was considered. Frostbite and BioWare also worked together to make sure hair was accurately responsive to shadows and environmental lighting.

“The collaboration between Frostbite and the BioWare engineering team was key to supporting complex hairstyles. Advancing the technology for intricate styles and optimizing performance ensured that specific moments, like when hair covers a large percentage of the screen in certain cinematics, run smoothly,” said BioWare’s studio technical director, Maciej Kurowski.

The post goes into greater detail on how Frostbite and BioWare were able to counter some of the difficulties that came with creating realistic hair when dealing with other semi-transparent objects.

BioWare developed a new technique for blending hair with transparent visual and environmental effects, like volumetric fog and other participating media.

“We first render the opaque part of strand hair, and then we render transparent objects,” said BioWare’s senior rendering engineer James Power noted. “The shaders for the transparent objects use the transparent hair depth texture to determine whether the shading pixel is ‘under’ or ‘on top’ of the strand hair. If it’s below, it renders the hair and marks a stencil bit (think of it as a masking texture).”

It’s a complicated process and the post even goes into how each Strand Hair asset, each with high strand counts and tessellation settings, has a “high memory footprint” which is why the game offers players the option to turn the feature off for better performance.

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Salt Typhoon’s espionage campaign has been confirmed by the FBI and CISA.

FBI and CISA confirm networks have been compromised by Salt TyphoonDevices and networks used by government individuals also hitThe group also successfully breached a network used by US authorities

A joint statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has confirmed “broad and significant cyber espionage campaign” with links to the People’s Republic of China successfully breached numerous commercial telecommunications organizations.

The infiltration of these communications networks, believed to be the group tracked as Salt Typhoon, has allowed the threat actors to gain access to customer call records data as well as the private communications of a limited number of individuals within the US government.

The joint statement has also confirmed the group managed to successfully infiltrate a US wiretap system used by authorities to submit requests pursuant to court orders.

ISPs and telecoms compromised by Salt Typhoon

In late September 2024, Salt Typhoon targeted several US internet service providers in a reconnaissance scan that is believed to assist in vulnerability hunting for potential use in later attacks. In early October 2024, it was also reported the compromise affected a number of telecommunications companies such as AT&T, Lumen Technologies, and Verizon.

Now, it appears that the issue is more widespread than first thought, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the group may have had access “for months or longer,” citing people familiar with the matter.

This access may have allowed them to harvest “internet traffic from internet service providers that count businesses large and small, and millions of Americans, as their customers.”

Salt Typhoon has also been targeting Canadian organizations, with wide sections of the government also subjected to reconnaissance scans, as well as “dozens of organizations, including democratic institutions, critical infrastructure, the defence sector, media organizations, think tanks and NGOs,” the Government of Canada said in a statement.

“The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) continue to render technical assistance, rapidly share information to assist other potential victims, and work to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector,” the joint statement concluded. “We encourage any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage its local FBI field office or CISA.”

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Amazon adds new products to its Fire TV range, with a new mini-LED in its Omni series and a new soundbar – plus a refresh of an old favorite.

Amazon announces its first mini-LED TV in its Fire TV rangeAlso adds new soundbar to range called Fire TV Soundbar Plus Amazon Fire TV 4-Series gets a refresh too

Amazon has announced it’s adding all-new products to its Fire TV range, the Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED series TV and Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus. Additionally, the Amazon Fire TV 4-series is getting a refresh.

Both the Amazon Omni Mini-LED and Amazon Soundbar Plus will be available starting today, November 14, 2024 – starting at $819 for a 55-inch TV and $249.99 for the new soundbar.

The Omni Mini-LED series is Amazon’s first foray into the competitive mini-LED TV market and joins its range of Fire TVs, including the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED series, one of the best TVs for those looking for a budget TV.

The Omni Mini-LED series is said to deliver 1,400 nits of peak brightness, which would put it in a similar range to the Hisense U7N, one of the best mini-LED TVs of 2024, and is said to have 1,344 local dimming zones for improved backlight control over standard LED and QLED models in the Fire TV range. It will also feature what Amazon calls ‘Intelligent Picture Technology’ which is said to combine AI and the new mini-LED backlight to optimize and analyze scenes on screen and adjust color, detail and more, as well as a light sensor, reminsicent of ‘AI TVs’ from the likes of Samsung.

It also has support for both Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, as well as support for Dolby Atmos audio and a speaker system consisting of two speakers and two subwoofers.

The Omni Mini-LED also comes with an extensive list of gaming features up there with the best gaming TVs including 144Hz refresh rate, VRR with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and ALLM in Gaming Mode, a step-up on the 60Hz refresh rate of the Omni QLED.

It will also support Amazon’s list of Fire TV features such as the Ambient Experience, which displays static and dynamic art and photos when the TV enters idle mode, replacing blank screens, the Fire TV smart TV platform and Alexa voice support.

Coming soon will also be support for the Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) protocol which enables streaming of the TV’s audio to compatible ASHA hearing-aid devices.

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus and 4-series refresh

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus brings Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support to the Fire TV soundbar range for the first time. (Image credit: Amazon )

Amazon has also announced a new soundbar, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus series, a step-up model on last year’s Amazon Fire TV Soundbar. The new model has a 3.1 channel speaker array and supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, something the company’s Soundbar series did not.

There’s also the option to upgrade the Soundbar Plus with a new wireless subwoofer and wireless rear speakers for those looking to expand the soundbar to a home theater system like the Hisense AX5125H, a budget 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos system and one of the best soundbars around.

In the United States, the Fire TV Soundbar Plus is $249.99 on its own, but with a wireless subwoofer, it is $374.99, and with that, plus two surround sound speakers, it is $489.99. Once we confirm pricing in the UK and Australia, we will update this story.

Finally, the Amazon Fire TV 4-series will be getting a design update with a new ultra slim bezel designed to give more space to the picture on screen. Amazon will offer the 4-Series in three sizes – 43-inches for $329.99, 50-inches for $399.99, and 55-inches for $459.99.

Another competitor vying for the mini-LED crown

The Hisense U7N looks set to be the Amazon Omni Mini-LED’s major competitor. (Image credit: Future)

It’s been a busy year for Amazon in the TV world, as it entered a partnership with Panasonic to bring the Fire TV smart TV platform to Panasonic’s TVs as Panasonic re-entered the US market for the first time in over a decade. This brought Fire TV to elite-level TVs such as the Panasonic Z95A, one of the best OLED TVs of 2024, for the first time.

Now, Amazon has decided to enter one of the most competitive, crowded TV markets around – mini-LED TVs. An area that has been dominated by the likes of Hisense, TCL and Samsung over the past few years has seen Sony shock the TV world by opting for mini-LED in its 2024 flagship, the Sony Bravia 9.

On paper, the Amazon Omni Mini-LED isn’t going to take on top-level mini-LEDs such as the Hisense U8N or TCL QM851G based on its number of dimming zones and peak brightness. Still, it sounds like it will be taking on more budget and mid-range models like the Hisense U7N and Samsung QN85D. While this would usually be a bold move considering Hisense, TCL and Samsung’s dominance of the market, if anyone can do it, it’s Amazon.

The Fire TV smart TV platform is a solid interface that’s already widespread thanks to the inexpensive Fire TV Stick range. Also, its TVs are already very popular and it appears to have gone the right way with pricing. So, if Amazon can nail the mini-LED part, as it did a pretty good job with QLED in the Omni QLED, then we could be looking at a new powerhouse in the mini-LED market. We can’t wait to get our hands on it.

Amazon is taking orders now for its Fire TV Omni Omni Mini-LED TVs in four sizes. In the United States, they cost $819.99 for a 55-inch, $1,089.99 for a 65-inch, $1,499.99 for a 75-inch, and $2,099.99 for an 85-inch.

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A cautious approach and varying priorities is making it hard to measure AI ROI, but UK companies are more eager.

Businesses don’t know whether to prioritze productivity gains or revenue growthGenAI is being favored over automation and predictive AIMore UK businesses are experimenting with GenAI than the global average

Although businesses are actively investing in artificial intelligence, new research from Gong has revealed many are struggling to quantify the value they’re getting from new technologies.

Part of the struggle to identify the benefits is the inconsistency in priorities – 53% are prioritizing productivity gains, and a further 53% are focusing on revenue growth for their key success metrics.

However, as AI becomes more integrated into daily workflows, three in five (61%) CIOs are now recognizing increased revenue alone as a justification for the additional costs. A similar number (60%) are just as happy to use time savings as a justification.

How do businesses measure AI ROI?

In terms of the technologies being deployed, 54% of tech leaders are prioritizing generative AI, which Gong suggests could be the result of the ongoing buzz. However 51% prioritize automation and a further 31% prioritize predictive AI, which arguably has more power to generate meaningful outcomes. Data-driven predictive AI can help a company analyze previous trends and prepare for the future, which brings along with it significant efficiency improvement potential.

The vagueness continues with the underlying technologies used – nearly three-quarters reportedly use off-the-shelf LLMs despite the availability of more customized models and the ability to create industry- and workplace-specific applications with minimal coding.

“Over the last two years, the AI hype and pace of innovation has created incredible excitement and confusion for CIOs and tech leaders about its potential and where to focus,” noted Gong CPO Eilon Reshef.

Smaller companies were found to be among the most likely to focus on ROI, likely due to their more limited resources. Two in five (40%) small US firms (identified as those with 250-500 employees) are willing to pause projects lacking a clear ROI, compared to just one-fifth (19%) of larger companies.

Over the pond in the UK, there seems to be more acceptance of trial and error, as separate research from CGI found 87% of UK businesses are experimenting with GenAI, compared to 79% globally.

The study found a strong alignment between business and IT operations when it comes to strategy execution, suggesting that departments are finally cooperating to maximize their returns.

A third (35%) of CGI’s British respondents stated that delivering value and insight through AI and data is a key IT focus, with a similar number (32%) optimizing their processes through digitisation, automation and AI.

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‘Operator’ AI agent could be here in January

OpenAI is rumored to be launching new AI agent tool in JanuaryReport claims it’s codenamed Operator and can control your browserThis help could help it write code or book travel on your behalf

Forget chatbots – AI’s next big trick is expected to be artificial intelligence agents that can carry out computer-based chores on your behalf, and a new report claims OpenAI’s version will be landing very soon.

OpenAI’s new tool, codenamed ‘Operator,’ could be released in January, according to Bloomberg and its two internal sources. It will apparently be released as a research preview initially and through the company’s application programming interface (API) for developers to get their hands on.

AI agents are designed to operate your computer on your behalf without supervision. Like Anthropic’s similar ‘computer use’ tool for Claude, OpenAI’s Operator is expected to be able to carry out actions like writing code or booking travel.

The space is shaping up to be the next big AI battleground, with Google recently leaking its so-called Jarvis AI tool that can browse the web for you. According to The Information, it could beat OpenAI to the punch by landing in December.

Like Google’s solution, OpenAI’s equivalent is expected to be a “general purpose tool that executes tasks in a web browser,” according to Bloomberg’s source. So, while it might not be quite ready to pilot desktop apps on your behalf, OpenAI’s Operator sounds like another pretty powerful browser extension.

How much do you trust AI?

ChatGPT search (above) landed in October and effectively automates Google searches for you. OpenAI’s Operator is expected to do the same with web-based actions. (Image credit: OpenAI)

There’s no doubt that tech giants think AI agents are the next big computing platform – in a recent Reddit AMA, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “I think the thing that will feel like the next giant breakthrough will be agents.”

This apparent breakthrough will come soon, too, with Altman adding, “IMHO this is going to be a big theme in 2025.” Recent announcements and leaks from Anthropic, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI certainly support this.

However, given that AI agents are expected to work autonomously without supervision, they could also demand a large amount of trust. A significant asterisk on tools like ChatGPT Search – which already searches the web for you – is that they’re early releases that can still make mistakes.

In October, OpenAI released a new benchmark called ‘SimpleQA‘ to measure the accuracy of its own AI models – and its recent o1 preview model performed pretty poorly, only getting a 42% success rate in the new benchmark.

So, while AI agents might be the next big hype feature in 2025, it could still be a while before we entrust them with automating our computer-based chores – at least without some careful supervision.

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Windows 11 is becoming a fix-a-thon for Microsoft lately, with new preview build being almost entirely about resolving issues.

New preview for Windows 11 is almost entirely about bug fixesBugs, especially weird glitches, seem to be more prevalent since 24H2Microsoft is trying hard to cure all these various issues

Microsoft is busy fixing a whole host of bugs with Windows 11, and that’s clearly illustrated with the work in the latest preview build for the OS, which is almost entirely focused on squashing glitches – of which we’ve seen plenty with the new 24H2 update, of course.

In fact, Windows 11 build 27749 for the Canary channel only has one change that isn’t a bug fix, with Narrator getting a new keyboard shortcut combo (‘Narrator key + control + X’) which copies what was last spoken by the screen-reading tool to the clipboard. Also, Narrator now works to auto-read emails in the new Outlook app, as it did with the classic app.

Let’s cover Microsoft’s raft of troubleshooting work in this build next, then, bearing in mind that the Narrator capabilities are just in testing, as are the bug fixes – albeit with a notable exception.

That’s the fix for a bug where Task Manager errantly tells the user that zero processes and apps are running – which is, of course, impossible, given that the OS itself is built on a load of background processes – as this is also resolved with the cumulative update for the full version of Windows 11 in November. That Patch Tuesday update fixes another weird bug where Alt-Tabbing to switch between apps causes a lengthy pause and a black screen before the app you’re changing to is presented on the desktop – and a problem where the internet connection was failing on some PCs.

Back to preview build 27749, which also shores up a bunch of glitches with the core parts of the Windows 11 interface. That includes File Explorer having the contents of its navigation pane spread out too much (with extra space between them), and also some fine-tuning for the taskbar. Microsoft notes it has: “Made a change so you will now see a search box if the taskbar auto-hides when the setting for search on the taskbar is set to ‘Search box; (rather than an icon).”

On top of that, there’s a cure for an odd issue where a blank entry is present in the Privacy panel in the Settings app, and if clicked, it causes Settings to crash. Microsoft has also fixed an issue where Windows 11 would crank the volume to maximum on “certain audio devices” which doubtless made for a rude awakening after your PC returned from sleep (or it could happen on the first boot-up, too).

Narrator got some fixes as well, including the resolution of an issue where it would slow down after 15 minutes of continuous use in a single app.

There’s a clutch of other miscellaneous fixes here which Microsoft lists in the usual blog post.

(Image credit: Marjan Apostolovic / Shutterstock)

Analysis: The current prevalence of weird bugs

What’s clear is that there’s a growing theme with Windows 11 being hit by some very strange bugs since the 24H2 update hit the scene. The weird spacing in the interface seen in File Explorer, zero processes showing in Task Manager, that blank entry in Settings that causes a crash, your audio suddenly being ramped to full volume, and many more oddball glitches besides (that menu disappearing off the top of the desktop springs to mind, too).

Normally, these kinds of bizarre issues are relatively rare, but seem to have become more common since the release of Windows 11 24H2, both in the update itself, and as we see here, in preview builds. It’s our theory that the major change to a new underlying platform in Windows 11 – Germanium – might have some side effects that we’re seeing manifested in these stranger kinds of bugs.

Hopefully, this run of quality assurance turbulence will start to calm down soon enough, and as we can see with this long laundry list of fixes in the latest preview, Microsoft is busy doing a lot of firefighting to resolve these multiple issues. We’ve already seen other preview updates where a lot of the work is bug fixing in recent times, and indeed in fairness, this era of heightened bugginess does go back further than the new version 24H2. Overall, 2024 has been something of a rocky year for Windows 11.

All of this seems to broadly point to the need for Microsoft to get a better handle on QA and testing processes for Windows 11, something that some people have been banging on about for some time now (ourselves included). The good news with 24H2, at least, is that it’s a major piece of work – in terms of the mentioned new Germanium platform underpinning the OS – and we haven’t seen any huge showstopping bugs (yet – touch wood). Just a lot of weird little cockroaches scurrying about.

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