There have been several stories over the years about different governments creating crime-predicting algorithms, leading to comparisons to the 2002 movie Minority Report – even though that film involved clairvoyant humans. The UK government is the latest to come under the spotlight for working on this technology, but officials insist it is only a research project – at least for now.

Civil liberties group Statewatch uncovered the project through the Freedom of Information Act. It claimed that the tool was developed using data from between 100,000 and 500,000 people. Statewatch says the group includes not only those with criminal convictions, but also victims of crime, though officials deny this is the case, claiming it only uses existing data from convicted offenders.

Modern PC peripherals are jam-packed with features and customization options, so they usually require bloated software tools to express their full potential. Corsair, one of the worst offenders in the bulky software business, is now offering an alternative – at least when it comes to updating a device's firmware.

Corsair Vice President Tobias Brinkmann said they developed the new tool in response to customer feedback. The web-based installer is lightweight and flexible – though accessing a device's low-level hardware over the internet might sound counterintuitive to many. Corsair already offers its iCUE software suite for customizing keyboards, mice, and other compatible gear, including RGB lighting effects.

While supporters argue that the policy will spur growth, attract investment, and create jobs domestically, critics warn that it will lead to significantly higher prices for shoppers.

The new tariff on imported cars will take effect on April 2, while the import duty on car parts will go into effect on May 3. The components subject to the new policy include engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain components, and electrical systems.

Under the plan, imported vehicles will be taxed only on their non-US content.

AMD CEO Lisa Su has confirmed that the company's new Radeon RX 9000 graphics cards have been a massive success, selling 10 times more units than their predecessors in just one week on the market. Su also stated that more RDNA 4 cards are on the way, but did not confirm whether the lineup will include the rumored Radeon RX 9060.

When asked about the limited availability of the new cards, Su said that AMD is ramping up production to ensure greater supply at retailers worldwide. She also expressed hope that increased availability would help stabilize pricing by discouraging scalping and price gouging.

The patient, a man in his 40s from New South Wales, received the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart (TAH) during a six-hour procedure at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney on November 22, 2024. The operation, led by cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon Paul Jansz, was part of the Monash University-led Artificial Heart Frontiers Program, which aims to develop three key devices to treat common forms of heart failure.

Globally, more than 23 million people suffer from heart failure each year, yet only about 6,000 receive a donor heart. To support the development and commercialization of the BiVACOR device, the Australian government has invested $50 million in the program. While still in clinical trials and awaiting regulatory approval, the device's ability to sustain patients for extended periods suggests it could become a long-term solution for those facing heart failure.

You'd be forgiven for thinking TCL is behind LG when it comes to premium TV shipments. TCL, known for its affordable yet high-quality 4K, QLED, and Mini-LED TVs, shipped more than twice as many premium TVs YoY in Q4 2024. It captured 20% of global premium TV shipments. That puts it ahead of LG, which held a 19% share.

The two companies' shipment figures have gone in opposite directions since Q4 2023, when LG held a 26% share and TCL was on 12%.

In reality, the RTX 4090 is, on average, 63% faster than the RTX 5070 across our 16-game sample at 1440p. But the deception gets even worse when we turn to ray tracing, as there are cases where the RTX 5070 doesn't work at all due to its much more limited 12GB VRAM buffer.

We looked at the hardware configurations in each class and compared them relative to the flagship of the era. This allowed us to create a "typical" Nvidia GPU generation – an average of what we saw over the last six generations. Now that we know for sure what the hardware of the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 is, we can slot this into the comparison and see how Nvidia's latest generation is stacking up.

Spoiler alert: it doesn't stack up well at all.

This summary of the six-generation average Nvidia GPU configuration shows the issue perfectly. The GeForce RTX 5080 has a configuration that would normally sit around or slightly below the level of a 70-class GPU, yet the price is more in line with what is charged for a model between the 70 and 80-class. In effect, this makes the RTX 5080 a slightly worse-than-normal 70-class GPU in its hardware configuration, for which Nvidia is charging 70 Ti relative money. This mismatch between hardware configuration – which drives performance – and the price is why most reviewers and many people in the community feel Blackwell is an extremely underwhelming generation.

We may be well past the uncanny valley point right now. OmniHuman-1's fake videos look startlingly lifelike, and the model's deepfake outputs are perhaps the most realistic to date. Just take a look at this TED Talk that never actually took place.

The system only needs a single photo and an audio clip to generate these videos from scratch. You can also adjust elements such as aspect ratio and body framing. The AI can even modify existing video footage, editing things like body movements and gestures in creepily realistic ways.

The watches feature a unique Japanese automatic movement, where three rotating discs replace traditional hands. The smallest disc, featuring the classic Asteroids spaceship, acts as the second hand, while the minute and hour hands are represented by asteroid-filled outer discs.

While they're not smartwatches, the timepieces feature Swiss Super-LumiNova glow-in-the-dark ink sitting underneath a sapphire lens within a stainless-steel case. They're water resistant up to 21 ATM (atmospheres) and have a screw-down crown, so you can show them off while at the beach or diving.

Apple has been secretly collaborating with SpaceX and T-Mobile to integrate Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet into the latest iPhone software. The fruits of the partnership came to light this week with the release of iOS 18.3, which now supports connecting to SpaceX's orbiting Starlink network. Essentially, this functionality allows your iPhone to surf the web and more via satellite when cellular service is out of range.

The Starlink tie-up is an unexpected twist, since T-Mobile had previously only listed Starlink as an option for certain Samsung phones like the S24 models. Meanwhile, Apple already offered its own satellite SOS service through Globalstar that lets users send emergency texts when off the grid.

Identifying which USB standard is being used can be a pain for users looking to purchase cables or docking stations. Terms like "USB 3.2 Gen 2" leave people scratching their heads due to their ambiguity. Thankfully, those names are finally being phased out, thanks to a new USB labeling system.

We've just moved a step toward the 10 GHz CPU milestone that Intel said would be here by the year 2005, though it's a very tiny step and required the usual exotic cooling. A new frequency world record has been set after someone pushed an Intel i9-14900KF above 9.12 GHz.

The new RTX 5090 flagship comes packing significantly more hardware over its predecessor. Not only does this GPU use Nvidia's new Blackwell architecture, but it also packs significantly more CUDA cores, greater memory bandwidth, and a higher VRAM capacity. The SM count has increased from 128 with the RTX 4090 to a whopping 170 with the RTX 5090 – a 33% increase in the core size.

The memory subsystem is overhauled, now featuring GDDR7 technology on a massive 512-bit bus. With this GDDR7 memory clocked at 28 Gbps, memory bandwidth reaches 1,792 GB/s – a near 80% increase over the RTX 4090's bandwidth. It also includes 32GB of VRAM, the most Nvidia has ever provided on a consumer GPU.

On performance:

As for the performance claims... Nvidia has – as usual – used its marketing to obscure actual gaming performance. RTX 50 GPUs support DLSS 4 multi-frame generation, which previous-generation GPUs lack. This means RTX 50 series GPUs can generate double the frames of previous-gen models in DLSS-supported games, making them appear up to twice as "fast" as RTX 40 series GPUs. But in reality, while FPS numbers will increase with DLSS 4, latency and gameplay feel may not improve as dramatically.

... The claim that the RTX 5070 matches the RTX 4090 in performance seems dubious. Perhaps it could match in frame rate with DLSS 4, but certainly not in raw, non-DLSS performance. Based on Nvidia's charts, the RTX 5070 seems 20 – 30% faster than the RTX 4070 at 1440p. This would place the RTX 5070 slightly ahead of the RTX 4070 Super for about $50 less, or alternatively, 20 – 30% faster than the RTX 4070 for the same price.