Hisense’s super-bright 85-inch QLED TV is ready to take on OLED TVs

TV maker Hisense held an event in NYC this week to announce its new partnership with the National Basketball Association. Along with the NBA sponsorship news, the event gave the company a chance to announce that they are now the number two TV brand in North America based on unit share according to data supplied by the Circana retail tracking service.

Hisense has made great strides in the North American TV market over the past few years, heightening its visibility with a lineup of affordable QLED sets. Last year’s U8H series, the first model with mini-LED backlighting to arrive from the company, impressed us with its high brightness and rich contrast, earning a spot on our list of the best 4K TVs and best 120 Hz TVs for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Mini-LED in general has given QLED tech a shot in the arm, with top new Mini-LED backlit TVs like the Samsung QN95C starting to rival the best OLED TVs when it comes to performance aspects like shadow detail and black uniformity. As it previously announced at CES, Hisense will offer four series of mini-LED TVs in 2023, starting with the budget U6K line and topping out with the flagship limited edition UX series.

As part of its NBA partnership, Hisense will sponsor X-Factor Moments, a weekly series of game highlights from the 2023 postseason on the NBA’s social media channels. The NBA League Pass live game subscription service will also be available in the NBA TV app on Hisense smart TVs.

ULED X: The Official Television of the NBA 

While the sponsorship arrangement extends to all Hisense TVs and appliances, the flagship ULED X model has been designated as The Official Television of the NBA.

The limited edition ULED X, which will only be available in an 85-inch screen size, boasts impressive specs. Its backlight consists of over 20,000 mini-LEDs that are controlled by 5,000-plus local dimming zones. Peak brightness is 2,500 nits, according to Hisense, with a claimed two times higher contrast range than OLED TVs. The ULED X also features a built-in 4.1.2 Dolby Atmos and DTS:X speaker system powered by 80 watts.

The other new mini-LED models in the Hisense lineup are the U8K, U7K, and U6K series. These are all available in 55-, 65-, 75-, and 85-inch screen sizes and have a peak brightness spec ranging from 600 nits on U6K series up to 1,500 nits on the U8K series. Both the U8K and U7K also have 144Hz-capable panels, making them a good choice for gaming, while all models feature a built-in ATSC 3.0 digital TV tuner.

Hisense's L9H laser TV ultra short throw projector comes with 100 and 120-inch screen options. (Image credit: Future)

L9H Laser TV ultra short throw projector 

Hisense’s top ultra short throw projector for 2023 is the L9H. This comes paired with either a 100- or 120-inch ambient light rejecting screen and uses an RGB laser light engine that’s capable of 107% BT.2020 color space coverage. Dolby Vision high dynamic range is supported by the L9H and it runs the Google TV smart interface for streaming and voice control.

Other features of the L9H include a built-in 40-watt Dolby Atmos sound system and an ATSC 3.0 tuner for viewing next-gen digital TV broadcasts.

Hisense was also showing its L5H ultra short throw projector at the event, a step-down model that uses a blue laser light source with reduced BT.2020 color space coverage.

Hisense USA CEO David Gold announcing the brand's NBA sponsorship. (Image credit: Future)

TVs and sports: a winning combination 

There’s no surprise in Hisense becoming the official partner of the NBA, because the high visibility that sports sponsorship nets a brand literally brings it into the living room of millions of viewers. That’s why TCL, Hisense’s main competitor in the budget TV space, is the official partner of NFL football, and OLED TV maker LG is an official partner of NCAA basketball.

For Hisense to compete with TCL it needs to expose its brand to as many eyeballs as possible. And while this sponsorship should do precisely that, the upside to Hisense’s competition with TCL for consumers is that the company’s TVs are seeing year-over-year picture quality improvements, while their prices remain affordable. 

Hisense hasn’t yet announced specific pricing for its new TVs, all of which should arrive around June. At that time, we’ll see just how good they look when we get the new U8K model in for review.

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Google Photos is getting a major new feature on Chromebook

ChromeOS has been getting plenty of upgrades to its video editing since 2022, and now it's getting even more from Google Photos. 

According to a new Google support page post, Google Photos will be empowering the best Chromebooks everywhere with even more new features. Jumping off from Chromebook’s Gallery app integration in 2022, Google Photos has added more support for Gallery and Files by allowing you to “seamlessly” use photos and images saved on the Chromebook and edit them in Google Photos. 

Another major edit comes in the form of revamped movie creation tools on the Photos app, which lets you create a movie from scratch using a suggested theme. After you choose a theme from the Photos app, as well as the people or pets you want to be included in the movie, the video editor uses video clips and photos you have stored that match that theme and strings them together into a custom movie. If you want a more hands-on approach instead, Google Photos has a search feature that lets you find and arrange all that media yourself.

Google has a full how-to on creating movies, as well as editing photos and videos, through the app on ChromeOS. But it’s a simple process that involves the following:

• Install the Google Photos app 
• Open up the media you want to be edited and select Edit. 
• From there you choose whichever editing tool you want to use. 

If you want to create a movie:

• Select Creations on the Google Photos app
• Choose either the suggested movie option or New movie

Chromebooks are getting more recognition

ChromeOS, once the oft-ignored child of Google that's been the platform for the best cheap laptop option for school kids and nothing more, has been growing in both popularity among users and in support by its own creator. 

Last year, we saw the debut of the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, considered by our standards to be the best Chromebook and one that can stand toe to toe with plenty of the best Ultrabooks out there.

More features like the aforementioned updates to Google Photos and the addition of more Apple support via one of the best video editors, Apple’s LumaFusion app, have become commonplace in the last several years. We even have gaming Chromebooks like the Acer Chromebook 516 GE that are specifically designed to handle high-end gaming via the cloud.

And, unlike even the best Windows laptop, ChromeOS simply doesn’t see the kinds of viruses and malware plaguing other operating systems, meaning you don’t need to worry about constantly protecting and scanning your machine for threats (or cleaning it out if something nasty does worm its way in).

It’ll be interesting to see how much more support Chromebooks get in the future, but it’s an exciting time for Chromebook fans.

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Quordle today - hints and answers for Friday, March 31 (game #431)

It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints. And you might need them - because this popular online game takes the Wordle format and quadruples the difficulty. So if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you'll probably need some for Quordle too. 

I'm a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who's been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #431 and bookmark this page so you can easily return. 

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers. 

Quordle today (game #431) - hint #1 - Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). 

Quordle today (game #431) - hint #2 - total vowels

What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?

• The total number of vowels across today's Quordle answers is 7.

Quordle today (game #431) - hint #3 - repeated letters

Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #431) - hint #4 - total letters

How many different letters are used in Quordle today?

• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 13.

Quordle today (game #431) - hint #5 - uncommon letters

Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #431) - hint #6 - starting letters (1)

Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #431) - hint #7 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• C

• T

• S

• P

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #431) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #431, are…

• CHOIR
• TUBAL
• SCOUR
• PARRY

Hmmm! Today's Quordle answers might prove difficult to find - or at least one of them might. TUBAL - relating to a tube - is not a common word at all, and it took me a long time to stumble upon it. I'll be honest here, I spent about 10 minutes trying things that might fit until I found one that Quordle accepted, but it would never have occurred to me to play it otherwise.

That aside, they aren't too bad. PARRY has a repeated R, but CHOIR and SCOUR are both pretty straightforward and there are no uncommon letters to worry about today. 

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

---

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #430, Thursday 30 March: ALIBI, REACH, ACRID, QUARK
• Quordle #429, Wednesday 29 March: MOIST, BRAND, FAITH, ADMIN
• Quordle #428, Tuesday 28 March: SUGAR, FIBRE, DITTY, TRIAD
• Quordle #427, Monday 27 March: READY, REVUE, BELOW, HASTE
• Quordle #426, Sunday 26 March: AWAIT, DROVE, MORAL, REEDY
• Quordle #425, Saturday 25 March: AWOKE, THESE, LEASE, DITTO
• Quordle #424, Friday 24 March: COUCH, APRON, BROTH, TITHE
• Quordle #423, Thursday 23 March: CROSS, SAUCE, DOING, USUAL
• Quordle #422, Wednesday 22 March: FAULT, ADAGE, SOOTH, HABIT
• Quordle #421, Tuesday 21 March: WRING, SCRAP, THIRD, NOBLE
• Quordle #420, Monday 20 March: BISON, BOTCH, ABHOR, GLINT
• Quordle #419, Sunday 19 March: KNEEL, COBRA, LINER, DEBUG
• Quordle #418, Saturday 18 March: CLUED, STAVE, CRANE, EMPTY
• Quordle #417, Friday 17 March: STUFF, DEBUT, FORCE, RUPEE
• Quordle #416, Thursday 16 March: GRUNT, ODDLY, UNWED, AVOID
• Quordle #415, Wednesday 15 March: SINCE, USURP, RADIO, SWORN
• Quordle #414, Tuesday 14 March: SATIN, SCOFF, CRASH, SMIRK
• Quordle #413, Monday 13 March: CHOCK, MAXIM, LOOPY, ERODE
• Quordle #412, Sunday 12 March: TENOR, BOULE, ELOPE, SHOWY
• Quordle #411, Saturday 11 March: BEVEL, SONAR, EXILE, RENEW

Quordle FAQs: Everything you need to know

What is Quordle?

Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar. 

It's played online via the Quordle website and you can also get to it via the Merriam-Webster site, after the dictionary purchased Quordle last year. 

As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.

The website also includes a practice mode - which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! - and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements - specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.

Oh, and it's difficult. Really difficult.

What are the Quordle rules?

The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.

1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.

2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow. 

3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…

4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two. 

5. Answers are never plural.

6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.

7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.

8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle's Hard mode.

9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.

10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.

What is a good Quordle strategy?

Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can't blindly throw letters at it and expect to win - you'll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.

That's the case in Wordle too, of course, but it's even more important in Quordle.

There are two key things to remember. 

1. Use several starting words

Firstly, you won't want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words. 

The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.

For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options - you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe - but something like that should do the trick.

If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!

2. Narrow things down

Secondly, if you're faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options - for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH - you'll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options. 

In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It's risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it's the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure - you simply don't have enough guesses.

In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.

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AMD Ryzen 7000 successor statement is 'genuine mistake', says server firm

TechRadar Pro has reached out to Giga Computing, the enterprise arm of Gigabyte, to clarify a statement found in a recent press release announcing new AMD Ryzen-based servers that alludes to the launch of the next generation of Ryzen CPU in 2023. 

Towards the end of the document, one can read how, "Even though these new products are entry-level servers, CPU support does not end here and the AM5 platform is supported until at least 2025."

"The next generation of AMD Ryzen desktop processors that will come out later this year will also be supported on this AM5 platform, so customers who purchase these servers today have the opportunity to upgrade to the Ryzen 7000 series successor."

Simple mistake?

In an email, Gigabyte spokespeson Liam Quinn confirmed the wording was a mistake,  and that the company “do not know when the Ryzen 7000 successor will be released”, adding it will “make a comment on the press release to clarify but keep our original wording”.

OEMs like Gigabyte will keep a keen eye on any improvements AMD make, especially if it goes beyond IPC tweaks. 

Ryzen currently tops at 16 cores (and 32 threads) compared to Intel’s 24 cores (eight power, 16 efficient and 32 threads). It’s worth noting that all the 24-core processors (11 in all) support ECC, which is useful for business applications (VDI, web hosting etc). More processor cores would enable Ryzen to expand its influence in the entry-level, low-cost server market or high performance NAS.

Ryzen 8000 series primed for 2024 launch?

AMD followed a schedule for the launch of its mainstream desktop, non-APU, Ryzen processors that has only recently been disrupted. There’s no Ryzen 4000 or Ryzen 6000 series for desktop CPUs for example and the initial annual cadence extended to almost two years (between the 5000 and the 7000 series).

The Zen 5 architecture may come in as Ryzen 8000 (if it includes mobiles and desktop) or Ryzen 9000 if it skips even numbers. AM5, the current platform, will be supported till 2025 as per Giga computing’s statement and Granite Ridge, as AMD has called the Zen 5, will be a new “grounds-up microarchitecture”. This is, of course, assuming that it will not be a minor improvement on the current Zen 4 architecture.

• These are the best mobile workstations around

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New FiiO portable music player offers desktop-grade hi-res audio on the go

Having recently impressed us with their mid-range FiiO M11S portable digital audio player, Chinese audio firm FiiO is back with a decidedly high-end offering for its next on-the-go device.

The new M15S portable player comes packed with two desktop-grade ES9038PRO digital-to-analog converters, with individual DAC chips dedicated to the left and right stereo channels.

Each chip makes use of four D/A converters for what FiiO claim to be extremely high-quality decoding, with the device able to support playback of audio files up to 384kHz/DSD256. 

The new M15S also supports MQA, allowing listeners to directly stream TIDAL Masters as well as MQA files stored locally, while further Hi-Res audio options come in the form of aptX HD Bluetooth, alongside LDAC and LHDC wireless codecs. 

There's onboard 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi allowing for support of Apple AirPlay and DLNA streaming, as well as compatibility with the increasingly popular multi-room music software platform Roon.

(Image credit: Fiio)

Weighing 345g, the device runs on Android 10, which allows for lossless access to Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music, and it's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor - the same CPU which features on FiiO's flagship M17 hi-res audio player.

Along with a regular 3.5mm headphone jack and both 2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs, there's a 5.5-inch multi-touch HD display with 64GB of onboard storage that can be expanded up to 2TB of extra storage via the microSD card slot.

The FiiO M15S is available now to order for $999/£979 from the FiiO website, and set to ship later this month.

We can't wait to put it through its paces and see how it matches up to best MP3 players currently out there. Watch this space… 

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New outreach program urges Gen Z to come clean about its vinyl fetish

Okay, Gen Z, you’ve discovered vinyl records, find them cool, and maybe even bought one of the best turntables to play them on. But how much do you know about the proper handling and cleaning of your precious vinyl stash?

If the answer to that question is “I didn’t know I had to clean it,” here’s some news that will help set the record straight. 

Spin-Clean, manufacturer of the long-running Spin-Clean record cleaning system, has announced a consumer outreach program to teach vinyl newbies about proper vinyl LP maintenance. According to the company, the program’s launch coincides with the first major upgrade to the Spin-Clean system in 50 years, and will include “digital and print ads; pop-up banners on vinyl user forums and record collector sites; and social media that specifically targets young vinyl enthusiasts.” There is also a white paper with info on vinyl care and playback basics.

The inspiration for the consumer outreach program apparently stems from recent research conducted by US-based MusicWatch, with a press release issued by Spin-Clean to announce its updated system citing the following statistics:

• 18 million consumers purchased vinyl in 2021, a 27% boost over the previous year
• 46% of these were between 18 and 34 years of age
• 43% of respondents to the MusicWatch survey said “they want to preserve or keep [records] in pristine condition for their collections”

This is all obviously music to the ears of a record cleaning system manufacturer, which may have been at one time worried about its primary market – boomers – aging out, and a lack of new customers for its products as the best music streaming services started to overtake physical media.

But a vinyl revival has been a real and ongoing thing over the past few years, with record sales experiencing record-breaking year-over-year increases in 2020 and 2021 – the height of the pandemic. That meteoric rise stalled out in 2022, however, when sales rose a mere 4.2% according to the U.S. 2022 Luminate Year-End Music Report, with a good chunk of it driven by the release of Taylor Swift’s Midnights.

So, what’s new about this upgraded Spin-Clean system that the company is targeting at the next generation of LP collectors?

Along with simple snap-in rollers for 7-, 10-, and 12-inch records, it has a new streamlined basin design that’s easier to clean, a higher-precision brush alignment, and improved stability from new self-adhesive rubber feet. The company says these changes should make the record cleaning process more approachable for newbies, and they apparently won’t come at an increased cost since the new Spin-Clean will sell at the same $79 / £79 / approximately AU$120 price as its predecessor.

(Image credit: Spin-Clean)

Analysis: The vinyl revival keeps on spinning 

If the growing number of record stores in my hometown is any indication, vinyl continues to be very much a viable medium. There are regular events like Record Store Day that drive consumer demand and interest, and major artists like Taylor Swift continue to max out the capacity of existing record-pressing plants in the US with their new releases.

For many newcomers to collecting, playback apparently isn’t an issue – that same Luminate 2022 year-end report cited that 50% of consumers who had bought vinyl over the previous 12 months don’t even own a record player. Reading into that data, some people are buying vinyl LPs simply to own a physical token that gets them closer to their favorite artists. Streaming may be convenient, but it’s clearly not enough of an experience for serious music fans.

As someone who owns a record cleaning machine and uses it to scrub the LPs that I pick up from garage sales, record fairs, and on occasion those local record stores, I can vouch for the sound quality improvements proper record cleaning brings. At $79, the Spin-Clean system counts among the more affordable options on the market, and with a 50-year history, it’s obviously one that has plenty of satisfied users.

New vinyl records can be expensive (and sometimes not exactly what you expect in the case of reissues of older titles). Gen Z, Millennial, Boomer, whomever, if you are actually playing LPs on a turntable, you will benefit from giving them a semi-regular cleaning. Spin-Clean is on the right track with its outreach program, so let's hope it locks in groove with its target market.

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Watch out - that Tor browser install could just be malware

Criminals have been discovered distributing fake Tor browsers that are designed to steal cryptocurrency, and so far, have been quite successful, raking in roughly $400,000 in various tokens from unsuspecting victims, experts have warned

Cybersecurity researchers from Kaspersky are warning users to watch out for Tor browser installers from third-party stores. 

They’ve spotted one such executable sitting in a password-protected RAR archive which, when extracted and installed, monitors the Windows clipboard for cryptocurrency wallets. If it spots one, it will replace it with one controlled by the attacker. 

Complicated addresses

When a person tries to send funds from one address to another, they would usually copy and paste the recipient’s address, as these are a long string of seemingly random characters which are almost impossible to remember.

If the malware replaces the copied address with a different one, chances are the victim won’t see the difference and will just send the funds to the wrong address. 

The method actually works quite well, as these attackers stole some $400,000 from roughly 16,000 users, just this year. Most of the stolen cash is in Bitcoin ($380,000), Litecoin ($10,000), Ethereum ($4,800), and Dogecoin ($517). Due to the way the malware is designed, the researchers can’t be absolutely certain about the amount of money stolen, and speculate that the final figure is probably even bigger. 

Read more

 > Nearly $200m in crypto stolen in Euler Finance attack

> North Korean APT43 hackers target organizations to launder crypto using cloud

> Keep your business safe with the best endpoint protection for small business

While the victims are scattered all over the world (52 countries) the bulk of them reside in Russia, followed by Ukraine, and the US. The researchers believe Russians were the biggest targets as Tor was first banned, and later censored, in the country. That made Russians look for alternative places to grab the famed browser from.

"The Tor Project called to help keep Russian users connected to Tor to circumvent censorship," said Vitaly Kamluk, head of Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team for APAC. "Malware authors heard the call and responded by creating trojanized Tor browser bundles and distributing them among Russian-speaking users."

• Check out the best firewalls right now 

Via: The Register

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OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Confirmed to Feature 108-Megapixel Main Rear Camera: All Details

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is all set to launch on April 4 in India. It is still a few days away from its debut, but the company has been teasing the specifications and design of the phone via its landing page. OnePlus has now confirmed the camera specifications of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite.

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Quordle today - hints and answers for Thursday, March 30 (game #430)

It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints. And you might need them - because this popular online game takes the Wordle format and quadruples the difficulty. So if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you'll probably need some for Quordle too. 

I'm a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who's been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #430 and bookmark this page so you can easily return. 

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers. 

Quordle today (game #430) - hint #1 - Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). 

Quordle today (game #430) - hint #2 - total vowels

What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?

• The total number of vowels across today's Quordle answers is 9.

Quordle today (game #430) - hint #3 - repeated letters

Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #430) - hint #4 - total letters

How many different letters are used in Quordle today?

• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 12.

Quordle today (game #430) - hint #5 - uncommon letters

Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #430) - hint #6 - starting letters (1)

Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #430) - hint #7 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• A

• R

• A

• Q

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #430) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #430, are…

• ALIBI
• REACH
• ACRID
• QUARK

I found today's Quordle to be a little harder than most, though I was never in any real danger of failing it. While one of the answers, REACH, doesn't really have any complications, the other three all do.

ALIBI, for instance, has a repeated I - a letter that you don't expect to appear more than once. QUARK has that Q in it. And though the five letters in ACRID are all common ones, I struggled to spot it (to the extent that I guessed, um, CARDI, before I finally realized what the answer was).

Still, I got there in the end, and solved today's Quordle with one guess remaining. 

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

---

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #429, Wednesday 29 March: MOIST, BRAND, FAITH, ADMIN
• Quordle #428, Tuesday 28 March: SUGAR, FIBRE, DITTY, TRIAD
• Quordle #427, Monday 27 March: READY, REVUE, BELOW, HASTE
• Quordle #426, Sunday 26 March: AWAIT, DROVE, MORAL, REEDY
• Quordle #425, Saturday 25 March: AWOKE, THESE, LEASE, DITTO
• Quordle #424, Friday 24 March: COUCH, APRON, BROTH, TITHE
• Quordle #423, Thursday 23 March: CROSS, SAUCE, DOING, USUAL
• Quordle #422, Wednesday 22 March: FAULT, ADAGE, SOOTH, HABIT
• Quordle #421, Tuesday 21 March: WRING, SCRAP, THIRD, NOBLE
• Quordle #420, Monday 20 March: BISON, BOTCH, ABHOR, GLINT
• Quordle #419, Sunday 19 March: KNEEL, COBRA, LINER, DEBUG
• Quordle #418, Saturday 18 March: CLUED, STAVE, CRANE, EMPTY
• Quordle #417, Friday 17 March: STUFF, DEBUT, FORCE, RUPEE
• Quordle #416, Thursday 16 March: GRUNT, ODDLY, UNWED, AVOID
• Quordle #415, Wednesday 15 March: SINCE, USURP, RADIO, SWORN
• Quordle #414, Tuesday 14 March: SATIN, SCOFF, CRASH, SMIRK
• Quordle #413, Monday 13 March: CHOCK, MAXIM, LOOPY, ERODE
• Quordle #412, Sunday 12 March: TENOR, BOULE, ELOPE, SHOWY
• Quordle #411, Saturday 11 March: BEVEL, SONAR, EXILE, RENEW
• Quordle #410, Friday 10 March: ENJOY, SPOOF, NASTY DEALT

Quordle FAQs: Everything you need to know

What is Quordle?

Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar. 

It's played online via the Quordle website and you can also get to it via the Merriam-Webster site, after the dictionary purchased Quordle last year. 

As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.

The website also includes a practice mode - which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! - and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements - specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.

Oh, and it's difficult. Really difficult.

What are the Quordle rules?

The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.

1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.

2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow. 

3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…

4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two. 

5. Answers are never plural.

6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.

7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.

8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle's Hard mode.

9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.

10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.

What is a good Quordle strategy?

Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can't blindly throw letters at it and expect to win - you'll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.

That's the case in Wordle too, of course, but it's even more important in Quordle.

There are two key things to remember. 

1. Use several starting words

Firstly, you won't want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words. 

The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.

For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options - you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe - but something like that should do the trick.

If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!

2. Narrow things down

Secondly, if you're faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options - for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH - you'll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options. 

In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It's risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it's the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure - you simply don't have enough guesses.

In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.

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Calm down folks, ChatGPT isn't actually an artificial intelligence

Alan Turing, one of the foundational figures in computer science, was obsessed with artificial intelligence towards the end of his tragically short life. So much so, in fact, that he came up with an unofficial test for when a computer can be said to be truly intelligent like a human, what we now call The Turing Test.

The test is pretty simple. Have someone communicate with a computer and if they cannot tell that they are talking to a computer — that is, it is indistinguishable from a human to another human — then the computer would have risen to the level of human intelligence.

Well, ChatGPT sure seems to pass that test with flying colors. In fact, it's not just passing Turing's test, it's passing med school exams, law school exams, and pretty much does the homework for every kid in the United States at the very least.

And if you don't know what ChatGPT is, it can seem overwhelming. So much so that people are starting to project onto ChatGPT, and generative AI in general, qualities and human characteristics that it actually doesn't have.

Normally, this wouldn't be too big a deal. People misunderstand all kinds of things all the time, but because ChatGPT-like AIs are only going to become more widespread in the coming months, people are going to invest in them powers that they don't actually have, and if misused under that assumption, they can be far more harmful than they are helpful. 

What is an adversarial generative AI?

The foundational technology behind ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and all the other AIs that are producing imagery, test, music, and more is what's known as a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). I won't get too in the weeds here, but essentially a GAN is two software systems working together. One is producing an output, the generator, and the other is determining if that data is valid or not, the classifier.

The generator and classifier in a GAN move word-by-word or pixel-by-pixel and essentially fight it out to produce a consensus before moving on to the next segment. Bit by bit (literally), a GAN produces an output that very closely replicates what a human can do, creatively. 

The generator relies on an obscene amount of input data that it "trains" on to produce its outputs, and the classifier relies on its own inputs to determine if what the generator produced makes sense. This may or may not be how human intelligence "creates" new things — neurologists are still trying to figure that out — but in a lot of ways, you can tell the tree by the fruits it bears, so it must be achieving human-level intelligence. Right? Well...

ChatGPT passes the Turing test, but does that matter?

(Image credit: Wikipedia)

When Turing came up with his test for artificial intelligence, he meant having a conversation with a rational actor such that you couldn't tell you were talking to a machine. Implicit in this is the idea that the machine was understanding what you were saying. Not recognizing keywords and generating a probabilistic response to a long set of keywords, but understanding. 

To Turing, conversing with a machine to the point where it was indistinguishable from a human reflected intelligence because creating a vast repository of words with various weights given to each depending on the words that precede it in a sentence just wasn't something anyone could have conceived of at the time. 

The kind of math required for that kind of calculation, on machines that took an entire day to perform calculations the cheapest smartphone can do in nanoseconds, would have looked as intractable as counting the number of atoms in the universe. It wouldn't have even factored into the thinking at the time.

Unfortunately, Turing didn't live long enough to foresee the rise of data science and chatbots or even the integrated circuit that powers modern computers. Even before ChatGPT, chatbots were well on their way to passing the Turing test as commonly understood, as anyone using a chatbot to talk to their bank can tell you. But Turing would not have seen a chatbot as an artificial mind equal to that of a human. 

A chatbot is a single-purpose tool, not an intelligence. Human-level intelligence requires the capacity to go beyond the parameters that its developers set for itself, of its own volition. ChatGPT is preternaturally adept at mimicking human language patterns, but so is a parrot, and no one can argue that a parrot understands the meaning behind the words it is parroting.

ChatGPT passing the Turing test doesn't mean that ChatGPT is as intelligent as a human. It clearly isn't. All this means is that the Turing test is not the valid test of artificial intelligence we thought it would be.

ChatGPT can't teach itself anything, it can only learn what humans direct it to learn

US Senator Chris Murphy is wrong. ChatGPT can't teach itself anything on its own. (Image credit: @ChrisMurphyCT/Twitter)

This week, US Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy said on Twitter that ChatGPT taught itself chemistry of its own accord without prompting from its creators. Unless Sen. Murphy knows something that hasn't been made public, ChatGPT as we know it can do no such thing.

To be clear, if ChatGPT or any other GAN sought out and learned something on its own initiative, then we have truly crossed over into the post-human world of Artificial General Intelligence since demonstrating independent initiative would unquestionably be a marker of true human-level intelligence. 

But if a developer tells a bot to go out and learn something new and the bot does as it's asked, that doesn't make the bot intelligent. 

Doing as you're told and doing something of your own will may look alike to an outside observer, but they are two very different things. Humans intuitively understand this, but ChatGPT can only explain this difference to us if it has been fed philosophy texts that discuss the issue of free will. If it's never been fed Plato, Aristotle, or Nietzsche, it's not going to come up with the idea of free will on its own. It won't even know that such a thing exists if it isn't told that it does.

There are reasons to worry about ChatGPT, but it becoming 'intelligent' isn't one of them

I've gone on for a while about the dangers of ChatGPT, mostly that it cannot understand what it's saying and so it can produce defamatory, plagiarized, and downright incorrect information as fact.

There is a broader issue of ChatGPT being seen as a replacement for human workers, since it sure looks like ChatGPT (and Stable Diffusion, and other generative AIs) can do what humans can do more quickly, more easily, and for much cheaper than human labor. That's a discussion for another time, but the social consequences of ChatGPT are probably the biggest danger here, not that somehow we're building SkyNet.

ChatGPT, at its core, is a system of connected digital nodes with averages assigned to each that produces a logical output given an input. That isn't thought, it's literally just math that humans have programmed into a machine. It might look powerful, but the human minds that made it are the real intelligence here, and that shouldn't be confused.

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This Siri replacement may be the closest thing to having ChatGPT on your iPhone

Siri’s 11-year reign may be drawing to a close as a new generative AI rival called Perplexity has just landed on the Apple App Store.

Note that Perplexity is not based on ChatGPT and has its own AI. However, it does function in a similar manner to ChatGPT. You ask it a question, like who designed the Golden Gate Bridge, and it’ll churn out a response in a few seconds. From there, you can either type in a follow-up question, use the voice command feature to verbally ask questions, or choose one from the generated selection. Responses can then be shared via a messaging app or social media platform. It’ll even save “your thread history so you can pick up where you left off,” according to the App Store listing. But unlike ChatGPT, Perplexity actually provides the sources it used to generate content. Underneath, you will see citations from Wikipedia, local news sites, and national newspapers like NPR accompanied by a brief piece of text providing context. 

To use Perplexity, you will need an iPhone supporting iOS 16 or later to install the app or an M1 Mac sporting macOS 13.0 or later.

As for an Android version, it doesn’t appear the developers behind Perplexity have any plans to make one at the time of this writing. We reached out to the team via the official PerplexityAI Discord channel, but haven’t heard back yet. The closest thing you can do is use the AI through a web browser on your Android device or Windows computer. There’s also a Chrome extension available if you prefer more direct access.

Perplexity on an iPhone (Image credit: PerplexityAI/Twitter)

Siri's future

With the introduction of Perplexity on iPhone, you essentially have some form of ChatGPT-like AI on every Apple platform and we don’t mean accessing the generative AI through a web browser. Mac computers have MacGPT, a native app offering quick access on desktops that saw a big update recently. A couple of weeks ago, the Apple Watch got Petey as an easily accessible, on-device assistant to replace Siri.

So we can’t help but wonder what’s cooking behind the scenes at Apple Inc. The company has been suspiciously quiet, allowing the likes of ChatGPT to roam on its platform unfettered as third-party apps. It's unlike Apple to just leave this new trend in the tech industry alone so it must be up to something. The closest indication we currently have is Apple enacting some new rules on its App Store for generative AI. According to a report by CNBC, it recently rejected an update to the BlueMail app due to concerns about the software’s ChatGPT feature not including a filter to protect minors from inappropriate content.

The date for Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2023 has been set for June 5. We’re looking forward to seeing what changes, if any, Siri may get. It'll be interesting to see if the long-standing virtual assistant will get a revamp allowing it to go toe-to-toe with its newfound rivals or be thrown out for a brand new AI model. 

Until then, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best virtual assistants for 2023. 

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Tools like ChatGPT could lead to major job losses across the world

Investment bank Goldman Sachs has echoed the fears of worker around the world that generative AI, like ChatGPT and Google Bard, could very soon replace our jobs.

Despite the technology having a respectably healthy effect on global GDP, the bank's report highlights that 300 million jobs are at risk, and that “significant disruption” is on the horizon as artificial intelligence becomes more accurate.

Some hope is portrayed in the mention that generative AI can ultimately boost workers’ productivity, making the news more of a shift in work patterns rather than total redundancy, however how the world adapts to AI remains pivotal to the livelihood of millions.

Will AI take my job?

As we have come to expect, AI’s effects are far-felt, extending to an estimated two-thirds of US and European jobs, with office and administrative support, and legal both likely to be heaviest affected. Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; installation, maintenance, and repair; and construction and extraction are all among the least likely to be affected.

A smaller, but no less worrying, percentage of people are deemed to be working in high-risk roles. As many as 7% of US workers could see at least half of their work replaced by generative AI, presenting a significant risk to their roles.

Read more

> These are the best AI writers around

> The NCSC warns of the dangers of ChatGPT

> AI generations can be copyrighted now - on one condition

Goldman Sachs’s predictions haven’t come from nowhere, though. OpenAI, the company behind popular generative AI ChatGPT, recently announced the findings of a study on the effects of such models on the labor market. It found that four in five workers would see at least 10% of their work tasks affected by GPTs, while almost one in five would see at least half of their work affected.

While many have likened this new era to the transition from industrial to technological, others argue that even more people are at risk of being left behind, highlighting the urgency for countries and organizations to carefully consider - and even reconsider - the implications of AI.

• Considering a career change? Here are the best job sites

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This devious malware looks like it has a whole load of new tricks up its sleeve

Two new variants of the infamous IcedID malware have been spotted, however both are lacking certain distinctive features, making security experts curious as to their purpose.

Cybersecurity researchers from Proofpoint revealed since February, they have been tracking two versions of IcedID, one called “Lite”, and the other called “Forked”. 

Both come without the usual online banking fraud features, instead supposedly working more as a dropper for more elaborate campaigns.

Stealth malware tactics

Proofpoint says that it’s seen at least three different hacking groups using these two versions across seven campaigns since late last year. Apparently, these groups have been using IcedID as a stepping stone toward ransomware infections.

Why exactly threat actors decided to strip IcedID of its unique features remains unclear, but some reports have suggested that removing “unneeded” functions makes it stealthier and leaner, helping cybercriminals stay hidden for longer.

The way IcedID is delivered to victims also differs. In some cases, the attackers would distribute phishing emails with Microsoft OneNote attachments. In other cases, they’d use Emotet.

The researchers noted that the existence of two new variants does not mean the original malware is no longer being used.

As recently as March 10, 2023, some threat actors still choose to deploy what Proofpoint calls the “Standard” variant. The researchers believe most threat actors will still opt for the standard variant, even though Lite and Forked might gain some popularity this year.

Read more

> This phishing attack hijacks email chains to power up an ancient botnet

> This sneaky Microsoft Excel malware could put your organization at risk of attack

> These are the best firewalls right now

IcedID is an old, modular banking trojan, usually used to deploy stage-two malware. So far, cybersecurity researchers have seen it used in countless campaigns, mostly used by access brokers to obtain, and later sell, access to high-value networks and endpoints. 

One such group was TA551, a threat actor with no concrete ties to any nation-state. The group was seen selling access obtained via IcedID last April.

• Check out the best endpoint protection out there

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Quordle today - hints and answers for Wednesday, March 29 (game #429)

It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints. And you might need them - because this popular online game takes the Wordle format and quadruples the difficulty. So if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you'll probably need some for Quordle too. 

I'm a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who's been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #429 and bookmark this page so you can easily return. 

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers. 

Quordle today (game #429) - hint #1 - Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). 

Quordle today (game #429) - hint #2 - total vowels

What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?

• The total number of vowels across today's Quordle answers is 7.

Quordle today (game #429) - hint #3 - repeated letters

Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.

Quordle today (game #429) - hint #4 - total letters

How many different letters are used in Quordle today?

• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 12.

Quordle today (game #429) - hint #5 - uncommon letters

Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #429) - hint #6 - starting letters (1)

Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #429) - hint #7 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• M

• B

• F

• A

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #429) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #429, are…

• MOIST
• BRAND
• FAITH
• ADMIN

Well, today's Quordle was a pretty easy one. Not compared to other online games of course - it still got me thinking - but it was simple compared to other Quordles.

Lots of that was due to my strategy, which worked particularly well today. I always start by playing three set words - STARE, DOILY and PUNCH - then fill in the blanks after that. Here, my starter words gave me a real good inroad into FAITH, because I had a green I and H in the format --I-H, with a yellow T and A to play. It was obvious the T would go between the I and H and the A in front of it, making -AITH… which left FAITH as the only possible answer. 

It was a similar story with MOIST, and though BRAND and ADMIN required a little more mental effort on my part, I was able to solve today's Quordle with two guesses remaining.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

---

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #428, Tuesday 28 March: SUGAR, FIBRE, DITTY, TRIAD
• Quordle #427, Monday 27 March: READY, REVUE, BELOW, HASTE
• Quordle #426, Sunday 26 March: AWAIT, DROVE, MORAL, REEDY
• Quordle #425, Saturday 25 March: AWOKE, THESE, LEASE, DITTO
• Quordle #424, Friday 24 March: COUCH, APRON, BROTH, TITHE
• Quordle #423, Thursday 23 March: CROSS, SAUCE, DOING, USUAL
• Quordle #422, Wednesday 22 March: FAULT, ADAGE, SOOTH, HABIT
• Quordle #421, Tuesday 21 March: WRING, SCRAP, THIRD, NOBLE
• Quordle #420, Monday 20 March: BISON, BOTCH, ABHOR, GLINT
• Quordle #419, Sunday 19 March: KNEEL, COBRA, LINER, DEBUG
• Quordle #418, Saturday 18 March: CLUED, STAVE, CRANE, EMPTY
• Quordle #417, Friday 17 March: STUFF, DEBUT, FORCE, RUPEE
• Quordle #416, Thursday 16 March: GRUNT, ODDLY, UNWED, AVOID
• Quordle #415, Wednesday 15 March: SINCE, USURP, RADIO, SWORN
• Quordle #414, Tuesday 14 March: SATIN, SCOFF, CRASH, SMIRK
• Quordle #413, Monday 13 March: CHOCK, MAXIM, LOOPY, ERODE
• Quordle #412, Sunday 12 March: TENOR, BOULE, ELOPE, SHOWY
• Quordle #411, Saturday 11 March: BEVEL, SONAR, EXILE, RENEW
• Quordle #410, Friday 10 March: ENJOY, SPOOF, NASTY DEALT
• Quordle #409, Thursday 9 March: MOLAR, MARRY, OPTIC, DROLL

Quordle FAQs: Everything you need to know

What is Quordle?

Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar. 

It's played online via the Quordle website and you can also get to it via the Merriam-Webster site, after the dictionary purchased Quordle last year. 

As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.

The website also includes a practice mode - which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! - and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements - specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.

Oh, and it's difficult. Really difficult.

What are the Quordle rules?

The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.

1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.

2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow. 

3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…

4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two. 

5. Answers are never plural.

6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.

7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.

8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle's Hard mode.

9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.

10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.

What is a good Quordle strategy?

Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can't blindly throw letters at it and expect to win - you'll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.

That's the case in Wordle too, of course, but it's even more important in Quordle.

There are two key things to remember. 

1. Use several starting words

Firstly, you won't want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words. 

The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.

For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options - you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe - but something like that should do the trick.

If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!

2. Narrow things down

Secondly, if you're faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options - for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH - you'll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options. 

In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It's risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it's the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure - you simply don't have enough guesses.

In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.

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Moto G13 With 50-Megapixel Camera, 5,000mAh Battery Launched in India: Price, Specifications

Moto G13 budget smartphone has been launched in India. The handset is equipped with a MediaTek Helio SoC and comes with a triple rear camera setup headlined by a 50-megapixel primary sensor. The Moto G13 runs on stock Android 13 out-of-the-box and offers a slim and premium design. 

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Nintendo's Zelda-themed Switch OLED is the final link that's pushed me to upgrade

It’s not long until The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is released (May 12) and after months of speculation, Nintendo has finally announced a console to celebrate the upcoming Breath of the Wild sequel… and I, for one, think it’s absolutely beautiful. At the end of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom demonstration, we were given a sneak peak at this console – and I’m tempted to upgrade now that pre-orders have opened in Australia (where I’m located, though it looks like pre-orders are also open in the US and UK too).

Following the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet or Splatoon 3 Nintendo Switch OLED consoles is no easy feat – both delivered great designs that stayed true to the respective franchises. But there’s just something special about Zelda-themed consoles that stands out above the rest, so much so that I’ve been living with the regret of never grabbing the golden Nintendo 3DS XL that came out alongside the re-release of Majora’s Mask back in 2015.

Gold is a mainstay color of the Zelda franchise, those who played the Ocarina of Time back in the ‘90s might recall the golden N64 cartridge, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Edition Nintendo Switch OLED absolutely delivers on this color scheme. The accompanying Joy-Cons are a nice change from typically bright neon options – offering a shimmery muted gold with teal and white graphics on top.

The dock is also on theme, featuring the golden Tri-Force directly in the center of a white background. While recognizable, the design is subtle enough to be pleasant to look at while still delivering the themes of the upcoming new game. In fact, this subtle design is reminiscent of the Animal Crossing New Horizon Nintendo Switch that came out back in 2020, which just so happens to be the console I’d be upgrading from.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo appears to now only be releasing themed OLED consoles (there’s no sign of a Nintendo Switch 2 anywhere), and if previous releases are anything to go by, finding a place to buy the Joy-Cons on their own will be impossible, with the exception of secondhand sellers. So while this is great if you want to upgrade from the Nintendo Switch, it’s not so great for your wallet as these consoles are typically priced at $349.99 / £319.99 / AU$549, though trade-in options exist to help ease the cost a little.

If you don’t want to purchase an entirely new console, but want some new Zelda-themed gear, you’re in luck. From May 12, the same day as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is released, you’ll be able to pick up a themed Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and a carry case as well. Both these feature the Tri-Force and circular motifs that have played heavily into the latest game’s branding, with the controller setting you back $74.95 / £69.85 / AU$109.95 and case costing $24.99 / £19.85 / AU$39.95.

Where to find the Zelda Nintendo Switch OLED

You won’t have to climb any cliffs to find this console. Pre-order pages are already popping across a number of retailers, and here’s where you can find the console or the accompanying accessories. 

After facing many years of regret by not picking up Zelda-themed consoles, no Lizalfos or Lynel can stop me now. I will scale the cliffs in the rain or find all 900 Koroks to get my hands on this beautiful Nintendo Switch OLED.

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Nothing Phone (2) leak hints at a spiritual successor to OnePlus

The Nothing Phone (2) has been spotted on a Bureau of Indian Standards government site, spotted by 91Mobiles, a phone blog covering the local market. This means production may be finalized and a launch could be imminent. 

This is good news for anyone interested in Nothing Phone, not just Indian fans, as Nothing CEO Carl Pei has pledged to bring the upcoming Nothing Phone (2) to more markets, making the US a real priority this time, and not just a late round beta testing zone. 

We'd heard recently from loose-lipped Qualcomm executives that the Nothing Phone (2) would likely use the company's late-2022 flagship mobile platform, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. The current top-of-the-line is the 8 Plus Gen 2 platform, but the latter chipset is powerful enough to run phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 portable tablet. That makes it a serious upgrade for Nothing. 

Nothing Phone (1) with Nothing Ear (1) earbuds (Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)

The 91Mobiles leaks also suggest that the phone could get 12GB of RAM as a standard. Paired with the fast chipset, that would make the Nothing Phone (2) a serious performer. If Nothing can deliver the phone near the bargain price of the original, that would make it an interesting contender.

Other leaked specs for the Nothing Phone (2) include a fast-refresh display with FHD+ resolution. It won't be very sharp, but it should look nice and smooth, especially with that high-performance platform.

There could also be a 5,000 mAh battery, the standard large cell for flagships and big phones. The Nothing Phone (2) could support 67W charging, which is faster than any Samsung, Apple, or Google phone, another indie win for Nothing.

The camera specs haven't been super impressive so far. We're hearing about 50MP sensors, but that doesn't tell us much. The camera could have some sort of image stabilization, but mileage varies greatly. A 32MP seflie camera up front will handle influencer portraiture.

This (2) sounds like one plus one

Nothing Phone is helmed by Carl Pei, the founder of Oppo's OnePlus performance brand. OnePlus started as an indie phone maker offering the OnePlus One, a high-performance handset that cut other corners for bargain pricing. It didn't have a great camera or superior durability. 

While Pei's Nothing Phone (1) was all about design and cool looks and features, it didn't offer much for performance to draw serious phone fans away from flagships. 

If the Nothing Phone (2) boosts the benchmarks significantly, those specs, plus a unique design that Nothing is sure to deliver, could be the right mix for today's budget-conscious phone market. 

We've heard that the Nothing Phone (1) will be launched later this year, and there is no rush, especially with US availability in the cards. We want to see a refined phone that works well on our networks, and nothing less. 

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Watch out AMD: Intel is preparing a massive 120-core CPU

A slide deck allegedly from an Intel presentation, has been leaked on Twitter showing what appears to be the next generation of Xeon processors, Intel’s server and workstation products. 

Of particular interest is a slide titled "Granite Rapids-AP on Birch Stream-AP" that refers to a CPU with a whopping 120 cores, twice the number in Intel’s top of the range processor, the Xeon Platinum 8490H CPU, a $17,000 monster with 60 cores and a TDP of 350W.

These 120 cores will reach a TDP of 500W and will require a new socket called BR with 7529 pins. The leak suggests that the cores used will be Redwood Cove “Performance” ones as opposed to Efficient ones that will fit another product category called Sierra Forrest. Both Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest are expected to launch after Emerald Rapids, the follow up to the current Sapphire Rapids, scheduled for later this year.

Too little, too late?

Xeon processors based on Sierra Forest may end up having a much higher core count as they are simpler, smaller cores geared towards power efficiency rather than absolute performance. 

Of course, it is likely that we will see Xeon CPUs that will combine both Performance and Efficient cores similar to what’s being seen on the consumer desktop processor front. One slice shows four potential SKUs, one of which is likely to end up as the Xeon W for workstation PC.

Bearing in mind that the documents date from 2021 (assuming they are real) and may have been heavily updated since then, it’s always good to take these with a pinch of salt, especially as these products won’t appear until 2024, three years after the purported production of that presentation.

What will AMD do?

AMD has a number of EPYC processors with 96 cores that were launched in 2022 and 2023. We’ve known since November 2021 that a 128-core product, part of the Bergamo family, will come later this year with a modified Zen 4 architecture that maximizes core count, offering as many threads as possible. 

Doing so will allow AMD to catch up with other more niche players like Ampere Computing, which have been pushing high-core, low-power processors (such as the Ampere Altra Max) to hyperscalers and cloud computing services. There’s of course Amazon and its own brand Graviton CPU with 64 cores and in no apparent urge to increase the core counts.

Adding more cores comes with its own set of issues (power dissipation and consumption, yield, various memory bottlenecks etc) which translates into diminishing returns. The latest EPYC CPUs use 350W for 96 cores or a bit less than 3.7W per core. A finer manufacturing process coupled with lower speed/better IPC could slash that even further and, combined with a more generous TDP allocation in a new socket (say 500W), one can see a processor with 256 cores becoming a reality.

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