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Hybrid work is the ‘new normal’ for many workers

ONS statistics show how hybrid work is evolving in the UK.

Hybrid work is becoming more common, ONS figures showOver 30s are more likely to work hybridWorkers with no qualifications are less likely to WFH

New research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has claimed although the number of people working from home has declined since 2021, hybrid working is the new normal for over a quarter of working adults in the UK (28%).

Hybrid working is most common for workers over 30, with 29% enjoying such a pattern, compared to just 19% of those aged 16-29. There are a few reasons likely to be behind this, with over 30s more likely to be parents and hold managerial positions, which both make them more likely to work a hybrid pattern.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the IT industry has the highest share of hybrid workers (49%), followed closely by ‘professional, scientific, and technical activities workers (42%). Those least likely to work from home are construction, transportation, and food services.

Time for a lie in?

The report found much of the time hybrid workers saved when not having to commute is spent either sleeping and resting, or with exercise, sports, and well-being.

Workers who have children are more likely to have a hybrid schedule, so the extra time for sleep is probably much needed.

Graduates or workers with a degree equivalent are ten times more likely to chose hybrid work than those with no qualifications (42% compared to 4%), and senior professionals like managers and directors (45%) are also much more likely than their service occupation counterparts to work hybrid patterns (3%).

Reports of hybrid working becoming the standard for a number of professions aren’t new, but research has shown that one of the obstacles to this is a lack of proper tech.

Splashing out on tech tools for employees may not be a priority for many companies, but hybrid work can improve productivity and happiness amongst workers, so it’s a worthwhile investment.

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Instagram just fixed its worst habit, and I couldn’t be happier

Instagram will no longer refresh every time you open the app – meaning less frustration for users.

Instagram will no longer refresh when the app is openedThe change was confirmed in an Instagram story by Instagram head Adam MosseriThis solves a frustrating long-term issue with the app

Instagram has finally fixed its most annoying issue after years of frustration for its billions-strong user base.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed (via Instagram Stories, naturally), that the app will no longer refresh the feed as soon as you open it up, and instead show you a feed that doesn’t disappear after new content loads.

The previous system displayed cached or previously loaded content in the feed while new images and videos loaded in, and then refreshed the feed to show the new stuff. This was apparently good for engagement but highly frustrating for users, who’d start watching a video or reading a post, only to have it disappear into the digital ether, never to be seen again.

As it turns out, the previous behavior was entirely intentional, despite how frustrating it could be to experience.

Mosseri confirmed the intentional nature of the so-called “rug pull”, as well as the coming change to the app’s behavior, in an ask-me-anything (AMA) conducted via Instagram Stories.

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This will be a welcome change for many, especially as Instagram continues to increase its focus on longer, denser forms of user-generated content.

In August, we reported that Instagram had started to allow slideshows of up to 20 images, doubling the previous cap of 10. And earlier this year, Instagram increased the maximum length of a Reel – the app’s answer to TikTok-style vertical short-form videos – to 3 minutes.

Along with the fixed refresh behavior, these changes suggest Instagram could be placing renewed emphasis on meaningful engagement, rather than gauging success by screen-time alone.

However, this is a fairly broad speculation, and it could be the case that screen time, and therefore advertising revenue, simply increases with this way of doing things.

For the latest news, be sure to check out our dedicated Instagram coverage, as well as our phones coverage for the latest on other essential apps.

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New Prime Video movie My Old Ass is a hilarious comedy with a time-travel twist that I can’t wait to watch – and it has 90% on Rotten Tomatoes

Top 10 Prime Video movie My Old Ass is a hilarious comedy with 90% on Rotten Tomatoes that could become my new favorite film.

Currently sitting on Prime Video‘s top 10 movies list is the sci-fi comedy My Old Ass, which has become a huge hit since it was added to the streamer on November 8 following its limited theatrical run.

My Old Ass is yet another top 10 title I can’t wait to watch alongside Prime Video’s #1 movie, Spanish zombie thriller Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End. With nearly 200 movies being added to Prime Video this month, My Old Ass has managed to see off tough competition to become one of the most-watched movies on one of the best streaming services .

As a fan of the undead, I quickly devoured the new Prime Video movie Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End after it was released. However, I’m planning to give myself a break from all the zombie horror and watch this coming-of-age dramedy with a sci-fi twist. With my favorite comedic actress, Aubrey Plaza, involved, my expectations are high.

What is My Old Ass about?

Plaza was a hit with viewers in her role in Marvel‘s WandaVision spin-off series Agatha All Along on Disney Plus, and she’s set to win more fans in My Old Ass, a movie with an outrageous plot.

In My Old Ass, an 18th birthday mushroom trip introduces Elliott (Maisy Stella) to her witty 39-year-old self (Plaza). When Elliott’s “old ass” starts issuing warnings to her younger self, young Elliot realizes that she has to rethink everything about family and love, over a life-changing summer before she heads off to college in Toronto.

My Old Ass has swiftly become one of the best Prime Video movies with its 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s also garnering rave reviews. The Guardian wrote that My Old Ass “looks as glossy and poppy as a studio comedy from the 2000s, a rich treat at a time when that has become the rare exception rather than the rule. It deserves to find an equally big audience, for asses both young and old.”

Meanwhile, Christy Lemire said on RobertEbert.com: “Plaza looks nothing like Stella, which is part of the joke, but the two actresses match each other with their sardonic wit. Plaza’s deadpan meets Stella’s effervescence, and somewhere in that giddy mix, you quickly believe these two are one.”

After falling in love with Plaza’s performance in The White Lotus season 2, it was a pleasure to watch her show off her dramatic side once again in Emily the Criminal. Now, I can’t wait to see her bring her signature deadpan humor to what looks like a refreshing new comedy.

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DJI rumors predict another 5 big launches soon– here’s what’s coming

A flurry of new DJI rumors suggest it’s planning a big end to 2024 – here are all the rumored launches coming soon.

DJI rumors suggest it has three new product launches in the pipelineA Mavic 4 drone, Osmo Mobile 7, and Mic Mini have all seen leaksIt could also reveal the rumored RC Track accessory for drones

DJI has already been pretty prolific with its new launches this year, but it’s showing no signs of slowing down – with the latest rumors and leaks suggesting it’s preparing to launch another three new products.

The accessory that’s closest to becoming official soon appears to be the DJI Mic Mini, which looks like a much smaller (and cheaper) version of the existing DJI Mic 2. Another leaked image from the ever-reliable @Quadro_News (below) shows just how small it’ll likely be, acting as a tiny 10g pendant for content creators.

A few days ago, the same leaker gave us a hint of the Mic Mini’s potential pricing in a separate post on X (formerly Twitter). If those rumors are correct, the Mic Mini could be around half the price of the Mic 2, costing €99 (around $60 / £50 / AU$95) for the transmitter alone or €169 (about $180 / £140 / AU$275) for the full bundle including two transmitters, one receiver, and a charging case.

Unfortunately, there’s no sign of an exact release date yet but based on leaks, we’d expect it to land in 2024 which could make it a sure-fire winner for Christmas stockings. Another annual DJI tradition is an update to its OM series of phone gimbals – and it looks like we could get a DJI Osmo Mobile 7 soon, according to a separate leak.

👉Stylish and functional.#dji #djimicmini pic.twitter.com/Z7jHmEoqO6November 11, 2024

As spotted by @JasperEllens the Osmo Mobile 7 has been registered with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US, which typically happens a few weeks before an official announcement.

That certification doesn’t give us too many hints about what to expect, but intriguingly there are three products mentioned – alongside the usual gimbal, there’s also an ‘Osmo Mobile 7P’ and an ‘OM Multifunctional Module’.

Exactly what those extra products are remains unclear, but it also seems likely that DJI will add support for the iPhone’s DockKit in its phone gimbal. This feature lets you use gimbals with the iPhone’s stock camera app (rather than restricting you to DJI’s app) and is something we saw earlier this year on the Insta360 Flow Pro gimbal.

Incredibly, the Mic Mini and Osmo Mobile 7 are far from the only rumored DJI products we could see soon.

Preparing for lift-off

The DJI Mavic 3 Pro (above) could soon get a Mavic 4 successor according to the latest rumors, but probably not until 2025. (Image credit: DJI)

Of course, DJI is best known for its drones – and despite launching the affordable DJI Neo and mid-range DJI Air 3S this year, it appears that a flagship DJI Mavic 4 is edging closer.

Some new footage and images unearthed by @JasperEllens and @OsitaLV on X (formerly Twitter) appear to show a crashed Mavic 4 Enterprise drone. DJI’s Enterprise versions of its drones are designed for pro flyers who use them for activities like commercial mapping, firefighting, and search and rescue.

But the apparent emergence of an enterprise model of the unreleased Mavic 4 suggests a consumer one is in the pipeline. Unfortunately, reliable leakers like @Quadro_News have suggested that it won’t be until 2025, so there’s a slightly longer wait for this one.

Whether we’ll need to wait that long for the DJI RC Track accessory, which seemed destined to launch alongside the Air 3S as a simpler way for the drone to track you, remains to be seen. But a separate leak from @drone_nr, which reveals new unseen press images of the device, suggests the controller is “coming soon”.

And that’s before we even get to the recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing for the DJI Osmo 360, which has been tipped to be DJI’s answer to the best 360 cameras like the Insta360 X4. However, the rumors for that camera have since died down – so like the Mavic 4, it could be one for 2025.

Why the rush, DJI?

DJI’s latest remote controller form-factor, RC Track is coming soon…exciting!#dji #djirctrack #djidrones #drones pic.twitter.com/OwDqqKFn6cNovember 9, 2024

Why might DJI be firing out so many product launches? Despite a lack of competition, the Chinese tech giant has always been prolific – sometimes even making products in its own lineup redundant with a big new launch.

But there’s a chance that the looming political situation could also be a factor in what could be a prolific end to 2024 and start to 2025. There has never been an outright ban on DJI drones in the US, but the company was placed on its ‘Entity List’ back in 2020 (the same one that Huawei found itself on in 2019). This prevents US companies from exporting their technology to Chinese ones.

Of course, the US president back then was Donald Trump – and there’s a chance that Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 could again see a ramping up of policies hostile to China-made products like drones, particularly those considered a security threat.

After all, DJI recently told The Verge that new drones like the Air 3S were being blocked by US customs in October. And while that was officially down to a “customs-related misunderstanding”, it’s symptomatic of the kind of atmosphere that DJI could encounter in the US starting in 2025.

This hasn’t previously affected DJI’s non-drone products like its action cameras or gimbals, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens in 2025. In the meantime, gadget fans can seemingly expect to see a flurry of DJI launches.

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Broadcom launches new SMB-friendly VMware subscription tier – but is it too little too late?

Customers can now choose between two vSphere subscriptions if they don’t want to go all-in on VMware bundles.

Broadcom acknowledged “strong customer momentum” for VCF and VVFVMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and Standard subscriptions availableToo little, too late? This comes 12 months after the Broadcom takeover

Just days short of the one-year anniversary of Broadcom’s wildly controversial takeover of VMware, the company is now looking to offer more cost-effective options for small businesses that were previously priced out of the virtualization giant’s revised pricing structure.

After it transitioned to a subscription-only model, Broadcom VP of Product Marketing Prashanth Shenoy confirmed the next stages of VMware Cloud Foundation.

The company now offers VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and VMware vSphere Standard, both of which are available to all end-user customers directly from Broadcom as well as via distribution channels.

Broadcom-VMware finally caters to SMBs again

Besides ending the sale of perpetual licenses, pushing customers into ongoing subscriptions, Broadcom also reduced the VMware lineup, grouping software into fewer and more expensive bundles. Both of these changes made it especially expensive for smaller companies to continue using VMware services, leading to widespread uproar.

Shenoy wrote: “To round out the portfolio, for customers who are focused on compute virtualization, we will now have two options, VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and VMware vSphere Standard.”

Companies wanting only vSphere virtualization can now select from two subscriptions following what’s been described as “strong customer momentum” for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF).

Suggesting that the company “continue[s] to listen to [its] customers and partners,” Shenoy said: “This combination of added customer choice among our product offerings, along with flexible subscription length, price, and payment flexibility within our per-core subscription model highlight Broadcom’s commitment to our customers.”

However, Broadcom’s efforts could be a case of ‘too little, too late.’ The efforts to pacify smaller businesses with limited budgets come close to 12 months after the company completed its acquisition of VMware.

Just two months ago, we reported that 52% of customers were looking to move to an alternative provider. Six months before that, we revealed that customers were jumping ship, with open-source alternatives like KVM-based and Xen-based proving popular.

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Fallout season 2 lands Macauley Culkin for mystery role as Percy Jackson season 2 adds Andra Day to its Mount Olympus-sized cast

Fallout and Percy Jackson and the Olympians are returning for their second seasons next year, and both have big new additions to their casts.

When it comes to the best Prime Video shows and best Disney Plus shows, Fallout and Percy Jackson and the Olympians sit comfortably on our lists. With both expected to return for second seasons both platforms have unveiled a brand new cast member for each show, with Macauley Culkin joining the post-apocalyptic drama and Andra Day joining Disney’s Greek deity fantasy.

Premiering on Prime Video just this year, Fallout proved to be an authentic adaptation of the popular video game, making it one of Prime Video’s top three most-watched titles. But although details of its second season have yet to be unveiled, Macaulay Culkin’s addition to the cast is confirmed and he’ll allegedly be playing a “crazy genius-type character”, according to Deadline.

Ella Purnell as Lucy in Prime Video’s Fallout. (Image credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video)

Culkin’s new character will join an already star-studded cast featuring Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, and Walton Goggins – whose Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy nomination was just one of 17 that Fallout accumulated this year. Given the successful run of its first season which attracted 65 million viewers in its first 16 days, Fallout season two sure does have a reputation to live up to.

However, Fallout is just one of the shows on the best streaming services returning with an updated cast as Oscar nominee Andra Day is set to play the role of Athena in the next season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney Plus. Day will step into the shoes of the Greek goddess of wisdom – an integral character in Rick Riordan’s series of novels – playing the mother of Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries), one of Percy’s (Walker Scobell) closest friends.

The news that Day would be joining the cast of the Disney Plus show was announced at the D23 event in Brazil, followed by a video (see below) posted to social media with Day in character. Disney also announced more cast members for season two including Tamara Smart and Daniel Deimer, who are lined up to play Thalia Grace (the daughter of Zeus) and Percy’s half-brother Tyson.

Despite the absence of release date details, we know that season two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians will be based on Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, the second book in Riordan’s fantasy series. One year after the events of the first season, Percy returns to Camp Halfblood to find that it’s under threat from Kronos. Along with his shifting friendships and the missing case of his friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri), Percy learns that he has a long-lost half-brother Tyson, who happens to be a cyclops.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is expected to return for a second season sometime in 2025 on Disney Plus.

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Marvel’s new trailers for Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts suggest MCU Phase 5 will go out with a bang, rather than a whimper

Marvel has released new teasers for two of its three films that’ll arrive in 2025.

Marvel has released new teasers for Captain America: Brave New World and ThunderboltsCap 4’s trailer reveals our best look yet at Harrison Ford’s Red HulkThe pair will close out Phase 5 of the comic book giant’s cinematic universe

2025 is going to be one of the busiest 12-month periods in Marvel Studios’ history – and, if trailers for two of its new movies are anything to go by, the comic-book giant could be in for another stellar year.

Fresh off announcing a packed 2025 Disney Plus TV show lineup in late October, Marvel debuted new looks at two of the three films it’ll release next year at last Saturday’s (November 9) D23 Brasil Expo presentation. The movies in question? Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts, which will arrive in theaters on February 14 and May 2 respectively.

With Sam Wilson’s first big-screen outing as Captain America leading the charge, it’ll come as no surprise to learn that this Marvel Phase 5 film’s latest batch of footage came by way of an official trailer. It’s one of the more creatively original teasers that the Disney subsidiary has spliced together in a long time, too, with conflicting snippets of footage, which show off its largely duplicitous cast of characters (Wilson notwithstanding), speaking to its political-thriller vibes. Cap 4‘s latest teaser comes four months after Brave New World‘s initial trailer debuted a first look at Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk, who’s revealed in all his glory in this new round of footage.

As for Thunderbolts, the second of three Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) flicks received a lengthy special-look teaser. The three-minute-long video opens with an extended clip from the film, which shows Bucky Barnes appearing to save Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, US Agent, and Ghost from some unidentifiable bad guys, only for Bucky to turn the tables on the supposed rescuees.

The teaser, which arrives less than two months after Thunderbolts‘ first trailer unveiled an official look at Lewis Pullman’s Bob and Yelena Belova’s anti-hero squad, evolves into a more traditional trailer after that, with quick-cut footage that shows its morally complex characters working together as they trade quips and sarcastic barbs. The video also confirms who owns Avengers Tower now, with Valentina Allegra De Fontaine having bought the New York landmark in the wake of Tony Stark’s demise in Avengers: Endgame.

Ending on a high?

Weird as it is to say, Thunderbolts could be a surprise hit for Marvel in mid-2025 (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Anyone who’s frequented these parts will be aware that, ever since MCU Phase 5 began with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in February 2023, my confidence in Marvel has waned.

Yes, there have been customary successes for the comic titan. In 2024 alone, Marvel has given us one of the best Disney Plus shows of all time in X-Men 97. That animated series was recently joined on the TV front by highly-rated WandaVision spin-off Agatha All Along, whose popularity grew week-on-week. Add in the box-office juggernaut that was Deadpool and Wolverine, an MCU movie I really enjoyed even if some didn’t, and 2024 has seen Marvel succeed in its attempts to course-correct after a – by its lofty standards – terrible 2023.

Indeed, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Loki season 2 notwithstanding, small- and big-screen duds in the form of Secret Invasion and The Marvels continued to showcase Marvel’s inconsistent creative approach to its cinematic juggernaut since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Yes, there were also great films and series that followed Avengers 4 between July 2019 and January 2023 – including WandaVision, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Shang-Chi to name just three.

For every good project, though, there was a bad and/or divisive one, such as Thor: Love and Thunder and – although I liked it – She Hulk: Attorney at Law. Throw in the 2023 Hollywood strikes and other issues that have plagued the studio, and Marvel has not only been fighting fires for years now, but also suffered numerous hits to its previously untouchable reputation.

Based on Cap 4 and Thunderbolts‘ new teasers, though, it seems the MCU’s latest phase will end with a bang, rather than a whimper. And even if it does go out on a low note, it won’t sound the MCU’s death knell, with eagerly anticipated films like The Fantastic Four: First Steps and two more Avengers movies, plus exciting Disney Plus shows including Daredevil: Born Again, also on the way. Even so, Marvel can’t afford to keep churning out critical and commercial duds, so it’ll hope 2025 doesn’t start as badly as 2023 did.

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Sony plans to release ‘major’ single-player games every year with Ghost of Yōtei and Death Stranding 2 coming in 2025

Ghost of Yotei could be one of many upcoming PS5 exclusives as Sony plans to release ‘major’ single-player titles every year.

Sony seems to be redoubling efforts on single-player game outputThe company claims it will release “major” single-player games every yearGhost of Yōtei and Death Stranding 2 are coming in 2025

Sony has pledged to continue its single-player game output on PS5 and – seemingly – future PlayStation hardware.

As reported by IGN, Sony finance and IR head Sadahiko Hayakawa expressed the desire to keep up single-player game release on PlayStation consoles during an investor call.

According to Hayakawa, Sony plans to “continue releasing major single-player game titles every year from next fiscal year onwards.” To back this up, Hayakawa highlighted Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yōtei and Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding 2: On the Beach – both of which are slated to launch in 2025 exclusively for PS5. We also can’t neglect to mention Astro Bot, which launched this year to near-universal acclaim.

As for what we can expect in 2026 and beyond, well that’s a little up in the air. We know that Insomniac Games is hard at work on its Wolverine title, and beyond that, PlayStation Studios has no shortage of development houses including Guerrilla, Naughty Dog, Bluepoint Games, Bend Studio, Housemarque, and Bungie to name but a few.

It is a bit of a relief to hear that Sony plans to keep up with single-player games releases especially after its form on live-service titles. While Helldivers 2 continues to enjoy a healthy playerbase, the same cannot be said of the canceled The Last of Us multiplayer game or Concordwhich abruptly shut down two weeks after it launched. That said, Bungie’s Marathon and the Horizon multiplayer title are also still in development, so expect even more stabs at the live service model in the future.

It’s also very likely that future first-party PS5 games will receive PS5 Pro enhancement features such as better framerates at higher resolutions and support for PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) which dynamically adjusts image quality as you play for the smoothest possible experience.

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Wondering why the M4 Mac mini’s power button is on the bottom? Apple says it’s because people ‘hardly use it’

Apple’s choice of leaving Wi-Fi 7 out of the new M4 Mac family was odd, but does the new Mac mini’s power button placement top this?

The new M4 Mac mini’s power button is placed underneath the chassisIt’s not the only strange design choice made by Apple recentlyApple VP Greg Joswiak states that it’s due to the reduced size of the Mac mini

The new M4 Mac mini will be Apple’s smallest Mac ever and wields plenty of power, but not without a few odd design choices – and one that seems to have particularly upset some users is that the power button has been moved to the bottom of the tiny PC.

However, Apple seems ready to defend its decision. As noted by IT Home (in Chinese), a video posted on the Chinese social media platform Bilibili shows Apple’s VP Greg Joswiak address the matter when questioned, revealing the reasoning behind the design choice – it was simply down to the reduced size of the Mac mini and the idea that “you pretty much never use the power button on your Mac”.

Joswiak also said “I can’t remember the last time I turned on my Mac,” which suggests that Apple’s official position is that most users should leave the system in sleep mode instead. While this is certainly an option for Mac mini owners, it may not sit well with some users (especially considering most traditional desktop PCs and their prominent power button positions).

(Image credit: gizmochina)

Will this impact the M4 Mac mini in any capacity?

There’s no doubt that the new placement of the power button is a bit of an odd choice, and we noted as much in our M4 Mac mini review, but it’s nowhere near as strange as what we’ve seen with the new Magic Mouse’s charging port still on the bottom and brand-new M4 Macs omitting Wi-Fi 7. Besides a minor change to how you power on your M4 Mac mini, this shouldn’t impact your experience in any significant manner.

Considering the reduction of the Mac mini’s size coming from the 2023 M2 chip version, this seems to be a small but worthy sacrifice – if placing the power button in a more convenient area meant losing out on the smallest Mac ever, then I stand by Apple’s decision here.

Despite this, I must say that leaving your Mac mini (or any of the best computers, for that matter) in sleep mode constantly probably isn’t the best idea – while it may be more convenient to dive right back into your tasks, it isn’t ideal for saving power (even if it isn’t using much in sleep mode) and periodically shutting down and restarting your devices is good for their performance as it enables you to apply any updates and refreshes your system cache.

While some of the design choices made in the new Mac mini may be worthy of scratching your head at, the power that the M4 chip provides in performance across the board and a price tag starting at just $599 (£599 / AU$999) still leaves this being one of the best Macs ever made.

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New Asus ROG 9 Phone benchmark leak hints at Galaxy S25-beating performance

A leaked benchmark suggests the next gaming phone from Asus will excel in terms of AI tasks.

A leaked benchmark has appeared for the ROG Phone 9The score points to a jump in AI processing performanceAsus will unveil the gaming phone on November 19

The Asus ROG Phone 9 is likely to be one of the best gaming phones of the year, and we know it’s being officially launched on November 19. Now a new benchmark leak gives us some idea of just how powerful this handset could be.

As spotted by MySmartPrice, the Asus ROG Phone 9 has shown up on the Geekbench ML database. The ML (machine learning) benchmark tests how well a phone can handle a variety of artificial intelligence tests, and the Asus device scored 1812.

For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S24 scored 1243 in the same test, so we’re looking at a pretty substantial leap forward as far as AI goes – even if the Asus ROG Phone 9 won’t have all of the Galaxy AI software tricks offered by Samsung.

We’ll have to wait and see if the phone comes with Gemini Nano on board – that’s the local AI model developed by Google, which helps run AI tasks (such as image and speech recognition) on-device without sending anything to the cloud.

Specs appeal

The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro launched in 2024 (Image credit: Future)

The benchmark listing also confirms that the Asus ROG Phone 9 will run the new Snapdragon 8 Elite processor from Qualcomm – something we already knew – and will boast a huge 24GB of RAM to further improve performance.

Those spec bumps help to explain the high AI processing score: if you read our Asus ROG Phone 8 review, you’ll see it tops out at 12GB of RAM, and has the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor inside, which launched at the start of 2024.

However, the current Pro model does hit the same 24GB of RAM mark – see our Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review for details – so it’s likely that we’re looking at the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro here, rather than the standard version.

We were particularly impressed with what the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro had to offer, so we’re eager to see what its successor is going to bring with it – and as soon as Asus makes all the details official, you’ll be able to read about it on TechRadar.

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