Wondershare Filmora 13 releases update with a better video editing experience for users at all levels

Creating content and sharing our lives online has become the norm, but not everybody can just sit down at their computer and put together high-quality video footage. Editing can be complicated even for advanced users. With Wondershare Filmora, it doesn’t have to be. Filmora 13.1.0, the latest update to the video editing suite from Wondershare, was designed to make content creation accessible to all, regardless of skill level. Ease of use doesn’t mean lacking in functionality, though, and Filmora is packed with useful features to give your videos an extra kick. 

AI Music Generator and Text-to-Speech 

(Image credit: Wondershare)

Sometimes we just want to create and share videos about our day-to-day lives, but we want to make those videos more interesting with background music. If you’ve taken an incredible vacation and want to share video footage of your adventure, you’re going to need music to accompany that, even if you’re just planning to share the footage with family and friends. However, finding the right music for your videos can be time-consuming. 

Filmora offers a solution with their AI Music Generator tools that can help you create soundtracks for your videos that fit your vibe and are safe to commercialize. With Filmora you can easily make those shareable moments in your life look and sound good without worry. Filmora’s latest slate of enhancements makes it even easier to use, as well, allowing you to utilize Text-to-Speech to add voice-overs to your vlogs with natural-sounding tones that are categorized by scene type. 

Vlogs are not the only content that can benefit from these new features, either. Many of us have taken our educational endeavors online in recent years. Teachers and professors have had to find new ways to engage their students via video, becoming content creators in the process. Soundtracks created with Filmora’s AI Music Generator can help set the tone for your lectures. Text-To-Speech to translate your lesson, giving your students clear, natural-sounding audio that is easy for them to understand and easy for you to create.

Special effects for everybody 

Some stories are too good not to be told, but not everybody has the backing of a major motion picture studio at their disposal. Filmora 13.1.0 features improved professional caliber tools that allow you to easily create short films and music videos with ease, regardless of skill level (or production teams.)

Special effects have traditionally been thought of as an extremely skill-dependent part of content creation and cinematography. Filmora demystifies special effects. With just a few clicks of your mouse, your video’s action sequences can be taken up a notch with realistic motion blur that can be customized to suit your specific needs. Want to draw extra attention to a particular element in a scene? Filmora features a Lens Zoom Effect to simulate camera zoom, giving you creative freedom to hone in on a part of a scene and further enhance your storytelling. Get ready for your close-up, a well-timed zoom-in can set the scene and change the tone of your video. 

With the ability to digitally zoom also comes the option for digital magnification. The Magnifying Glass Tool in Filmora makes it easy for you, as an editor, to examine a scene in your video by getting up close and personal with it. Zoom in, make adjustments, correct your footage as necessary, and then return the frame to its proper size with the corrections intact. That’s professional-quality editing with no more effort than a few clicks of your mouse.

Create with the power of the cloud 

Whether you’re creating with the power of a production team or you’re a personal creator looking to share your life, one thing remains true: video content is a resource hog. If you’re working on projects that involve others, you may find that harnessing the power of the creative cloud can streamline the process and make it more accessible for everybody involved. 

Filmora 13 features improvements to Cloud Resource Management and Beautification tools, making it easier to enable migration of custom LUTs to cloud storage. Seamless synchronization allows you and your collaborators to color-grade assets across multiple devices, streamlining remote work and improving your workflow. Custom LUTs can even allow for the direct import of media files from cloud storage. If your video content features episodic content and color grading is important, the cloud-based custom LUT feature of Filmora 13 can streamline that process by allowing you to enhance and color grade your footage with the power of the cloud.

Every day editing at a professional scale 

With Filmora from Wondershare, creators of all skill levels can create professional quality videos and content with ease. From the DIY homemaker creating short content for YouTube to full-scale production teams working on episodic content, Filmora’s suite of tools can help you put out the best content with less work. Wondershare continues to work and improve Filmora with each upgrade so that you can spend less time editing and more time creating.  

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Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra withstands brutal scratches and bending in a gruelling test

Samsung has made a big deal of the new materials used in the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – namely a titanium frame and new Gorilla Glass Armor – and now a YouTube video has given us some idea of just how durable those materials actually are.

YouTuber and repair expert Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything put the upgraded endurance of the Galaxy S24 Ultra to the test as part of his smartphone durability test series, with the Galaxy S24 Ultra not only surviving but passing with flying colors.

The phone's all-new titanium frame and Corning Gorilla Armour glass front should make the Galaxy S24 Ultra among the toughest phones ever and a notable upgrade over its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Tough as a Gorilla 

Corning Gorilla Armour is a unique addition to the S24 Ultra. Corning claims that Gorilla Armour is superior to the Gorilla Glass Victus and Victus 2 used in most other flagship phones, and says that in addition to being tough, it reduces screen glare by 75%, as seen in the video, in which the Galaxy S24 Ultra is compared to the much older Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus.

The resistance of the screen was tested by using progressively harder tools rated on the Mohs scale of hardness, which runs from 1 to 10. The screen is then divided from 1 to 10 with corresponding harder tools used as the number progresses resulting in initial no marks, then light grazes to eventually deep cuts and gouges.  

The Galaxy S24 Ultra appears unyielding to the first several levels of hardness, with lines only beginning to appear on the screen at level 7, however, they appear faint and shouldn’t impact the phone's operation much.

Nelson then comments on how the new glass even feels slightly different, stating his tools began to feel the depth of fracturing at much later levels than usual, at around levels 7 and 8.

The video shows that the Corning Gorilla Armour does seem to resist the micro-scratches that you’d typically see from key scratches and day-to-day use, providing an improved level of protection over previous types of Gorilla Glass. And even with level-7 scratches on the screen, the fingerprint scanner still functioned well.

I am titanium

(Image credit: Corning )

Using the same tools scratches and deep cuts are then administered to the titanium frame, with Nelson noting that titanium resistance begins to show damage at around level 6 and that more typical aluminum frames are usually rated around level 3, which suggests the S24 Ultra’s frame offers a significant improvement in terms of durability.

Samsung doesn’t list the grade of titanium used, although these test results suggest it’s a significant upgrade on the aluminum used in the previous Samsung phones. Titanium is graded for strength on a scale from 1 to 12, with lower grades being weaker, and 12 being noted for its extreme heat and corrosion resistance.

Samsung has likely used grade 5, which is the same grade as the titanium used in Apple's iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. It's also commonly used in spacecraft, naval ships, and racing cars as one of the hardest metals known to man, however, it is also much more expensive to produce.

When Nelson attempts to bend the Galaxy S24 Ultra with his hands, the phone gives very little, not bending or breaking under pressure. I recommend watching the video for a detailed breakdown of the Samsung S24 Ultra's incredible resistance.

Resistance isn't futile

While the overall look and design of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra haven’t changed much over its predecessor, it seems clear that the upgraded materials will make a big difference to the phone’s durability. 

And its ability to withstand severe punishment as well as everyday wear and tear, may just set a new standard for ultra-premium devices that could last much longer, making them a much better investment.

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Japan finally gives up on 1.44MB floppy disk drives, 50 years after they went on sale — but there's no sign of Microsoft removing the iconic 'Save' floppy icon from Office just yet

Even though floppy disks have long since gone the way of the dodo, the ghost of the ancient recording media still haunts the digital world. As a great example, when you go to save a file in Microsoft Office, you'll see the save icon still appears as a floppy disk, even though there’s a good chance you’ll be saving your content in cloud storage, rather than to a slow, clunky plastic square with extremely limited storage capacity.

Japan is known for being at the forefront of technology, but the country's government is still somewhat reliant on floppy disks.

As reported by Tom’s Hardware, there were about 1,900 official governmental application procedures that stipulated businesses must submit floppies or CD-Roms (specifically) containing supplementary data until last week. Finally, however, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is looking to abandon this outdated practice.

Updating the rules

METI has issued a "Ministerial Ordinance to Amend Some of the METI Ordinances for Promoting Regulatory Reforms to Foster a Digital Society", which aims to review and update rules that dictate the use of obsolete media like floppy disks. According to PC Watch, this initiative is part of a broader review of analog regulations (digital principles) across various ministries, spearheaded by the Digital Agency. 

The current law not only mandates the use of outdated recording media, but it also leaves ambiguity about whether cloud-based actions – such as creating and saving documents online – are even permitted. 

It's astonishing that it has taken this long for the Japanese government to take action, but METI is finally on the case. In an effort to modernize the regulations, it will eliminate any references to specific media types like "floppy disk" or "CD-Rom" and replace them with more contemporary terms, such as “electromagnetic recording media.”

This move follows a series of initiatives in Japan aimed at reducing dependence on outdated technology, but it is proving to be somewhat challenging. For instance, the fax machine continues to be widely used in the land of the rising sun. A survey conducted in May 2022 revealed that 54% of companies were still utilizing this antiquated mode of communication.

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This giant, 27-inch digital calendar is here to organize your family’s life

Smart frame brand Skylight is expanding beyond digital photo frames by launching a new 27-inch calendar monitor, aptly named the Calendar Max or Cal Max for short.

It functions similarly to the older 10-inch and 15-inch models with several key differences. The biggest change is its size, and with size comes a higher resolution. The Cal Max outputs a Quad HD resolution (2,560 x 1,440 pixel) image, making it easy to quickly glance at everyone’s schedules for the week. It can be placed horizontally on a wall, or if space is tight, vertically thanks to Portrait Mode. Additionally, the screen is covered in an anti-glare coating ensuring its viewability even under direct sunlight. 

(Image credit: Skylight)

Design-wise, the Cal Max resembles the previous 10-inch model due to its rounded corners. This time, however, the frame surrounding the screen can be swapped out. Interested customers can choose between a plastic frame in either black or white and an aluminum Shadow Box frame. The latter is available in charcoal gray or a plain metallic finish. You can choose a frame at the Cal Max's checkout page. However, there isn’t an option to buy the two borders at the same time or separately down the line.

Features

When it comes to features, Skylight’s new monitor has every single tool the older devices have on board. It can display scheduled events from multiple calendar services like Google Calendar and Outlook. Of course, you can always create your own directly on the Cal Max itself or via the official mobile app on Android and iOS. Once you’ve created an event, you can assign it to certain people in your household with the Color Coding tool.

The Cal Max also has specialized tools for specific use cases. The Chore Chart gamifies doing chores by rewarding users with accomplishments whenever one is completed. Customized Views lets you switch between certain views; be it daily, weekly, or monthly. Then there’s Sleep Mode, allowing users to set a schedule for the display so it turns off at night and turns back on in the morning. 

Other notable features include 32GB of storage as well as two four-watt speakers for audio.

Availability

The Calendar Max monitor is currently available for pre-order in the US on the company’s website. Prices differ depending on which frame you choose. The plastic option sells for $599.99 while the aluminum one has a $629.99 price tag. Orders will begin shipping out this June. Supplies are limited, although you can reserve a Cal Max by paying a $100 deposit.

We reached out to the company asking for information on an international launch. It seems there aren’t any plans for a wider rollout. This story will be updated at a later time.

As alluded to earlier, Skylight cut its teeth in the tech industry by producing digital picture frames such as its flagship Skylight Frame device. They’re a niche tech great at displaying a slideshow of photographs from your recent vacation or a series of family portraits. 

If you want to know more, check out TechRadar’s guide to the best digital photo frames for 2024. 

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LIfe's beyond consumers for Life's Good — LG is looking to transform itself into a B2B giant as it eyes smart factories for its future growth

LG  is set to expand beyond consumer goods, transforming itself into a business-to-business (B2B) giant as it eyes smart factories for future growth.

According to The Korea Economic Daily, LG recently launched a smart factory business division under its research and development center, signaling a significant shift from its traditional home appliances brand.

The South Korean giant has identified B2B services, specifically for smart factories, as its new growth area. It aims to leverage its domestic and overseas plants in conjunction with its operating expertise. Smart factories offer the promise of fully automated production processes, from assembly to packaging, while also utilizing big data and deep learning technology to enhance work and power usage efficiency.

Turnkey services

The company's smart factory division, comprising dozens of employees, will spearhead automated technology development. This includes mobile robot systems to manage the sales process, from automated factory design to construction and management know-how. 

Market tracker Statista predicts the global smart factory market will grow to $244.8 billion this year, up from $153.7 billion in 2019. LG is set to tap into this market growth by offering turnkey services for smart factories, covering the entire automation process from planning, designing, building, and operating them. 

Currently, most smart factory projects focus on consulting and upgrading parts of production lines. However, LG's approach is holistic, extending beyond mere construction to provide ongoing consulting at the factory upgrade level. 

Smart factories collect and process data in real time through the Internet of Things (IoT), analyzing the information to control each process. With companies globally seeking to enhance production efficiency through digital transformation, the demand for smart factories is on the rise. 

The Korea Economic Daily reports that LG has already converted part of its six home appliance production lines into smart facilities at its main production base in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, as well as at its home appliance plant in the US state of Tennessee.

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Scam for gold — the FBI is warning tech support criminals are now sending couriers to your house in brazen attempt

“Tech support” scammers are getting more audacious, and are now even sending couriers to victims’ houses to pick up the cash and various precious metals, the FBI has warned.

In its alert, the FBI says the scammers mostly target the elderly and other technologically unsavvy people, sometimes impersonating a bank, sometimes a major IT company, sometimes the US government, and sometimes all of the above (in a multi-layered attack). 

The victims would be informed that their financial accounts were either targeted, or already compromised, and that their money wasn’t safe any more. To protect their funds, the victims were enticed to liquidate all, and either withdraw the cash, or acquire precious metals such as gold or silver.

Millions of dollars in damages

The attackers would convince the victims that they can keep their belongings safe, and should the victims agree, the attackers would send a courier to pick up the belongings. They would even direct their victims to authenticate the transaction with the courier using a passcode, such as the serial number of a US dollar bill, the FBI added. 

Obviously, that would be the last time the victims would ever see their money or their gold. 

While one might think that the scam is obvious and that most people would never fall for the ruse, the campaign seems to be quite successful. The FBI says that from May to December 2023, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) saw an uptick in this activity with aggregated losses of over $55 million.

Protecting against these attacks means not rushing into action blindly. The US Government and other legitimate businesses will never ask citizens to purchase gold or precious metals. Also, all consumers should keep their data, especially home addresses, private. 

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A video of GitHub's extraordinary deep-freeze archiving project has emerged — millions of projects were saved on 02/02/2020 and there's a good reason why that date was chosen

The idea of preserving Earth's most essential elements to keep them safe in the event of a catastrophe is not new - the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, for example, serves as a backup for over a million seeds to prevent their extinction. 

Not far from there, another crucial backup exists: the Arctic World Archive (AWA), a joint initiative between Norwegian state-owned mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani (SNSK) and very-long-term digital preservation provider Piql AS.

The AWA is a collection of data-filled containers stored inside a sealed chamber within a decommissioned coal mine, about 250 to 300 meters underground. These containers resemble film reels, except they are filled with data not movies.

A lucky date

On 02/02/2020, GitHub captured a snapshot of every active public repository and preserved that data in the Arctic Code Vault within the AWA.

This capture includes every repo with any commits between the announcement at GitHub Universe on November 13th 2019 and 02/02/2020; every repo with at least 1 star and any commits from the year before the snapshot. As well as all repos with at least 250 stars. (It also included gh-pages for those repositories.) 

GitHub's contribution to the vault consists of 186 film reels, written to 1,000-year hardened film. Each reel contains 65,000 frames, most of which are QR codes, totaling approximately 21TB of data. A human-readable index and guide found on every reel explains how to recover the contents.

Featured projects in the Arctic Code Vault include:

• dotnet/core
• torvalds/linux
• python/cpython
• bitcoin/bitcoin
• rails/rails
• docker/machine
• openssl/openssl
• nodejs/node
• Homebrew/brew
• php/php-src
• twbs/bootstrap
• microsoft/TypeScript
• apache/hadoop
• Alamofire/Alamofire
• v8/v8

As to why the date of 02/02/2020 was chosen, there are a couple of possible reasons. For one it's a palindrome, meaning it's the same written forward or backward. Also, if you add up the numbers (0+2+0+2+2+0+2+0) you'll arrive at 8, which in numerology represents assertion, determination, and responsibility. It's also viewed as lucky in certain cultures.

The team behind the archive  project says “We plan to evaluate the program, and the state of the art of archival technology, every five years. Depending on the results of each evaluation, we may then decide to take another snapshot of GitHub’s public code and archive it in cold storage."

You can watch the Arctic Vault Video below.

There’s also a brand new video on TikTok showing GitHub's contribution in the vault.

@arcticworldarchive ♬ original sound - World Heritage on Svalbard

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Microsoft’s Copilot obsession strikes again when sharing Word documents - but it could actually be useful

A new feature is coming to Microsoft Word for people using Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. It will soon allow users to add an AI-generated summary to their documents when sharing them via OneDrive. 

Microsoft’s file-hosting service is widely used within businesses and by consumers to allow people to share documents, large files, and presentations straight from the Microsoft 365 software suite. According to MSPowerser, the feature will be exclusively available to users with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, for which you need a specific paid license (unlike OneDrive itself).

While this might be disappointing for those who wish to try the feature out without having to pay for it, there is some hope that we may see it trickle down to Microsoft’s free Office for Web suite (formerly known as Office Online), which includes Microsoft Word and 5GB of OneDrive storage.

Quick and Easy

It may seem like quite a basic addition to Copilot’s nifty AI-powered skill set, but the new feature can be very helpful. If you work in an industry where you’re bombarded with new documents from different people every day, for different tasks or projects, it can be difficult to not only keep track of but also remember what everything is about!

With that in mind, having a quick automated summary for each document means you can grasp what the document is about at a glance. It also saves time for the person sending you the Word documents as they won’t have to write a summary themselves - Copilot will do it for them. The summary will be part of the notification email you’ll get when the document is shared, so you can immediately get the gist of what you’re looking at before you open the document. 

While it’s a bit disappointing to see this feature locked behind the license, it’s not surprising - Microsoft has been building out Copilot’s capabilities gradually, giving professional 365 users the first taste of each new feature. Regardless, it does offer a glimmering look at the future of Microsoft’s steady implementation of AI tools - and we hope to see more that prove to be just as simple and helpful as this one. 

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Quordle today – hints and answers for Monday, January 29 (game #735)

It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off. 

Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I'm still playing now, around two years after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it's fun, but also difficult.

What's more, its makers (now the online dictionary Merriam-Webster) are also keeping it fresh in the form of a variant called the Daily Sequence, which sees you complete four puzzles consecutively, rather than concurrently. 

But Quordle is tough, so if you already find yourself searching for today's Wordle answer, you'll probably need some hints for this game 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 #735 and the answers to the main game and Daily Sequence. 

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 #735) - 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 #735) - 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 8.

Quordle today (game #735) - 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 2.

Quordle today (game #735) - hint #4 - total letters

How many different letters are used in Quordle today?

• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 11.

Quordle today (game #735) - 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 #735) - 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 #735) - hint #7 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• E

• S

• D

• T

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

Quordle today (game #735) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #735, are…

• EASEL
• STAIN
• DODGE
• THONG

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

---

Daily Sequence today (game #735) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #735, are…

• SEIZE
• CLONE
• SHUSH
• BRAVE

---

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #734, Sunday 28 January: SHOWY, LAGER, CHANT, FAUNA
• Quordle #733, Saturday 27 January: WORSE, FAUNA, SPOUT, FREAK
• Quordle #732, Friday 26 January: ONION, SHONE, KNOLL, PARRY
• Quordle #731, Thursday 25 January: SIGMA, SHALT, SPREE, EAGLE
• Quordle #730, Wednesday 24 January: YOUTH, PENCE, CRAZE, LUNAR
• Quordle #729, Tuesday 23 January: BEZEL, MEALY, SLUNG, FREER
• Quordle #728, Monday 22 January: APPLE, TRAIN, ABBEY, SPELL
• Quordle #727, Sunday 21 January: PERCH, FIEND, THREW, MEDAL
• Quordle #726, Saturday 20 January: SCOOP, RELAX, LAYER, TEETH
• Quordle #725, Friday 19 January: SMELT, VENOM, SMALL, CHEEK
• Quordle #724, Thursday 18 January: BAWDY, SCOUT, COCOA, SPECK
• Quordle #723, Wednesday 17 January: TONAL, RAVEN, CURVE, DECAL
• Quordle #722, Tuesday 16 January: STUNG, THETA, PAPAL, VAUNT
• Quordle #721, Monday 15 January: QUAIL, NAVEL, FREER, SPLAT
• Quordle #720, Sunday 14 January: WINCE, WOMEN, SMOKY, BADLY
• Quordle #719, Saturday 13 January: SHRUB, ASCOT, COMMA, SHAWL
• Quordle #718, Friday 12 January: VOWEL, EXILE, FUDGE, SMART
• Quordle #717, Thursday 11 January: COUNT, HALVE, RARER, DALLY
• Quordle #716, Wednesday 10 January: FLECK, CREAM, GUMMY, UPPER
• Quordle #715, Tuesday 9 January: GHOUL, THINK, BLARE, TOPIC

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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"An AI Stephen Hawking would look like him": Holographic avatars of long-dead celebrity scientists could work with — or compete with living university lecturers

It used to be when popstars died, or retired from performing, that you could no longer see them live, but holographic technology has changed all that. 

A growing number of deceased celebrities, from Tupac to Elvis, have been brought back to life as holograms, and the technology firms may also be set to enliven the education sector.

Loughborough University in the UK is pioneering the use of holographic technology, with plans to introduce holograms of renowned scientists, such as the late Stephen Hawking, into the curriculum by 2025.

AI Stephen Hawking

This revolutionary approach aims to engage students more effectively than traditional 2D presentations or video calls.

The university has been exploring the use of holography in various fields, from sports science to fashion and the technology, provided by LA-based firm Proto, allows for a more immersive and interactive learning experience.

Proto's founder, David Nussbaum, explained that the technology could resurrect some of the 20th century's greatest thinkers in a realistic and engaging manner.

He told the Guardian: “Proto has the technology to project an image of Stephen Hawking, or anybody, and make it look like he’s really there. We can hook it up to books, lectures, social media – anything he was attached to, any question, any interaction with him. An AI Stephen Hawking would look like him, sound like him and interact like it was him. It’s awe-inspiring, it’s jaw-dropping, I’ve been in shock at how amazing the interactions are. AI is part of our life, whether people like it or not.”

Although there are legal hurdles to overcome, the technology's AI capabilities could potentially create avatars resembling anyone in the world - living or dead - potentially ushering in a new era of immersive learning.

Nussbaum's vision extends beyond educational institutions, with plans to introduce affordable, smaller units for home use in the next 18 months. These units, priced under $1,000, will project a shrunken image that Nussbaum likens to "Wonkavision" from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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Two of the best RTX 4060 gaming laptops you can buy are $500 off right now

Best Buy's most recent sale has yielded some superb gaming laptop deals - so many, in fact, that I'm having trouble deciding which is the best right now.

There are two deals in particular that have caught my eye - this MSI Stealth 14 for $999 (was $1,499) and this Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 for $1,049 (was $1,599). 

Both of these gaming laptops are at least $500 off right now, feature speedy RTX 4060 graphics cards, and come in bag-friendly 14-inch form factors. Put simply, they're both fantastic choices if you're looking for a sleek machine that won't weigh you down too much.

Which is best? Well, it's close - first, let's take a look at each model in full, including the components each one is featuring:

RTX 4060 gaming laptop deals

MSI Stealth 14 gaming laptop: was $1,499 now $999 at Best Buy
Processor: Intel Core i7-13620H
Graphics card: RTX 4060
RAM: 16GB
SSD: 1TB

With a powerful configuration of components wrapped in a sleek, lightweight package, the MSI Stealth 14 is back down to its lowest price at Best Buy today with a deal that matches the one we saw over Black Friday. With a 13th gen Intel Core i7 chipset, RTX 4060 graphics card, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD, this machine is more than capable of maxing-out the graphical settings on most games at 1080p resolution. View Deal

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop: was $1,599 now $1,049 at Best Buy
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9-7940HS
Graphics card: RTX 4060
RAM: 16GB
SSD: 512GB

One of the best gaming laptops money can buy, the Asus Zephyrus G14 has always been a favorite of ours here at TechRadar. Not only does it look fantastic, but the combination of an RTX 4060 graphics card, a Ryzen 9 chipset, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD gives it plenty of power for a 14-inch laptop. If you're looking for a mix of performance and portability, then the G14 is never a bad choice - and today's deal brings this model down to its Black Friday price again. View Deal

• See more: check out all of today's gaming laptop deals at Best Buy

Which is the better buy right now?

(Image credit: Future)

So, we've got two gaming laptop deals here at Black Friday-level record-low prices. Of the two, I'd say the Asus has the more stacked line-up of specs with its Ryzen 9 chipset and 1440p display, but the MSI does have the advantage of a 1TB SSD straight out of the box. The 512GB SSD on the Asus can suffice, but you'll probably want to upgrade sometime down the line if you're planning on having a large library of games installed at once. If you're happy with upgrading the SSD (a very easy install), then the Asus could be a great all-around option for you.

That said, both laptops will perform similarly in most games due to the RTX 4060 graphics card, which is a respectable GPU for 1080p gaming; depending on the game, you may also get decent performance at 1440p - although only the Asus' display supports this higher resolution. 

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Seagate's newest hard disk drive has a feature that could save you thousands of dollars — shame other HDD vendors do not offer it yet

Seagate has unveiled a new, large capacity hard drive designed to cater to the ever-growing data demands of SMBs and NAS environments.

The latest Seagate IronWolf Pro drive offers a whopping 24TB of storage. With sustained transfer rates of 285MB/s, a user workload rating of up to 550TB per year, and 2.5 million hours mean time between failures (MTBF), Seagate says its new drive promises 24/7 performance, reliability, and dependability in multi-user collaborative environments and multi-bay systems.

The IronWolf Pro 24TB comes equipped with Seagate’s AgileArray technology, optimizing them for NAS systems. This technology uses dual-plane balancing and time-limited error recovery (TLER) to deliver top-tier performance in multi-bay systems.

Seagate Rescue Data Recovery Services

A standout feature of the Seagate IronWolf Pro 24TB is its IronWolf Health Management system. This system aids in data protection by providing prevention, intervention, and recovery recommendations to maintain optimal system health on compatible NAS systems.

However, the real game-changer here is unquestionably the provision of three years of free Seagate Rescue Data Recovery Services. Data recovery can be a costly affair if you lose content, so this free inclusion is very welcome, especially as it's not something other HDD vendors like Western Digital and Toshiba provide.

While Amazon does offer this kind of service on certain data storage components, it charges extra for it.

Should disaster strike, the free Seagate Rescue Data Recovery Services gives you access to a team of world-class data recovery experts, one in-lab data recovery attempt, and an encrypted storage device containing your data if recovery is successful.

The Seagate IronWolf Pro 24TB is available now for $649 and it comes with a five-year limited warranty.

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Quordle today – hints and answers for Sunday, January 28 (game #734)

It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off. 

Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I'm still playing now, around two years after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it's fun, but also difficult.

What's more, its makers (now the online dictionary Merriam-Webster) are also keeping it fresh in the form of a variant called the Daily Sequence, which sees you complete four puzzles consecutively, rather than concurrently. 

But Quordle is tough, so if you already find yourself searching for today's Wordle answer, you'll probably need some hints for this game 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 #734 and the answers to the main game and Daily Sequence. 

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 #734) - 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 #734) - 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 #734) - 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 #734) - hint #4 - total letters

How many different letters are used in Quordle today?

• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 15.

Quordle today (game #734) - 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 #734) - 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 #734) - hint #7 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• L

• C

• F

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

Quordle today (game #734) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #734, are…

• SHOWY
• LAGER
• CHANT
• FAUNA

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

---

Daily Sequence today (game #734) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #734, are…

• DONUT
• MERGE
• STYLE
• ROCKY

---

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #733, Saturday 27 January: WORSE, FAUNA, SPOUT, FREAK
• Quordle #732, Friday 26 January: ONION, SHONE, KNOLL, PARRY
• Quordle #731, Thursday 25 January: SIGMA, SHALT, SPREE, EAGLE
• Quordle #730, Wednesday 24 January: YOUTH, PENCE, CRAZE, LUNAR
• Quordle #729, Tuesday 23 January: BEZEL, MEALY, SLUNG, FREER
• Quordle #728, Monday 22 January: APPLE, TRAIN, ABBEY, SPELL
• Quordle #727, Sunday 21 January: PERCH, FIEND, THREW, MEDAL
• Quordle #726, Saturday 20 January: SCOOP, RELAX, LAYER, TEETH
• Quordle #725, Friday 19 January: SMELT, VENOM, SMALL, CHEEK
• Quordle #724, Thursday 18 January: BAWDY, SCOUT, COCOA, SPECK
• Quordle #723, Wednesday 17 January: TONAL, RAVEN, CURVE, DECAL
• Quordle #722, Tuesday 16 January: STUNG, THETA, PAPAL, VAUNT
• Quordle #721, Monday 15 January: QUAIL, NAVEL, FREER, SPLAT
• Quordle #720, Sunday 14 January: WINCE, WOMEN, SMOKY, BADLY
• Quordle #719, Saturday 13 January: SHRUB, ASCOT, COMMA, SHAWL
• Quordle #718, Friday 12 January: VOWEL, EXILE, FUDGE, SMART
• Quordle #717, Thursday 11 January: COUNT, HALVE, RARER, DALLY
• Quordle #716, Wednesday 10 January: FLECK, CREAM, GUMMY, UPPER
• Quordle #715, Tuesday 9 January: GHOUL, THINK, BLARE, TOPIC
• Quordle #714, Monday 8 January: GOODY, MURAL, LORRY, ERROR

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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France vs Denmark live stream: watch men's EHF Euro 2024 handball final online

It all comes down to this. After two frantic semi-finals, France and Denmark will play each other in the EHF Euro 2024 handball final. It has been a while since both these sides have made it to this showpiece game. Neither will want to leave empty-handed. Read on as we explain how to watch a FREE Handball EURO 2024 live stream – no matter where you are in the world.

• Just want to get watching? Watch FREE on EHFTV (may require a VPN)

EHF EURO 2024 live stream: France vs Denmark

Date: Sunday, January 28

Time: 4.45pm GMT / 11.45pm ET / 8.45am PT / 3.45am AEDT (Jan 29) 

Venue: Lanxess-Arena Cologne

Live stream: watch FREE on EHFTV

Watch anywhere: try ExpressVPN 100% risk-free

France needed extra time to see off Sweden. Elohim Prandi converted a free throw at the end of normal time and his side went on to win 34:40. It means they remain unbeaten in this year’s EHF Euro. Denmark, meanwhile were two goals down at half-time in their semi-final against hosts Germany but fought back to win 29:26. 

The final will feature some top scorers. Frenchmen Dika Mem goes into the game joint second in the table, having netted 47 times. He will have to overcome top goalkeeper Mikkel Hansen to add to that. Denmark’s Mathias Gidse has scored 46 times himself.

This match is a replay of the 2014 final. More presciently, these sides also met in last year’s World Championship final. On that occasion, the Danes came out on top. Can they do it again, or will the French get their revenge? Read on to find out how you can watch all of the EHF Euro 2024 action live and for FREE.

• More sport: watch Australian Open tennis 2024

How to watch Handball European Championships: France vs Denmark live stream FREE of charge

While the TV rights to EHF Euro 2024 have been sold to paid-for streaming services in many countries, it's worthing noting that a few lives streams are available, notably:

• RTVE (Spain)
• RTS / SRF (Switzerland)

We have the full list of other EHF 2024 broadcasters below. If your country isn't listed, though, you can watch FREE on EHF TV. Full details just here:

The EHF has made it super easy to tune into the European Handball Championships in most regions by showing live streams of all the EHF EURO 2024 tournament games on FREE EHFTV streaming service.

All you need to do is register with EHFTV and away you go.

EHFTV is completely FREE to watch. However, the free EHFTV live stream is not available in Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, France, US, UK and other regions where a broadcaster has picked up the rights. Fans in Ireland, for example, can watch free on EHFTV.

If you're an Irish handball fan abroad, you will need to use a VPN to log into your EHFTV account while away from home.

NB: If you have any problems logging in, you may need to empty the cache on your browser.

How to watch EHF EURO 2024 from outside your country

EHFTV is easily accessible in many countries around the world. However you may find yourself geo-blocked from EHFTV free live streams when travelling abroad. If you'd like to access EHFTV, or any of your regular home streaming service as normal, then use a good VPN.

A good VPN can let you get around these digital borders legally, while also offering robust protection from cybercriminals and government snooping, making everyday tasks like online shopping and banking much safer.

Use a VPN to live stream 2024 Handball European Championships from anywhere:

ExpressVPN is the world's top VPN right now
We've taken the time to try out all the biggest VPN providers and we found ExpressVPN to be the pick of the bunch. It works with lots of devices and offers super fast connections across its many servers. 

Throw in its robust set of security features and ExpressVPN is the best all-round VPN for streaming - and perhaps best of all, it has a 30-day money back guarantee when you subscribe for a year.

Access ExpressVPN via your laptop, iPhone, tablet, Android phone, PlayStation, Xbox and plenty more. Express is a do-it-all service that also benefits from 24/7 customer support.

- Try ExpressVPN 100% risk-free for 30 days

How to use a VPN

Using a VPN is as easy as one-two-three...

1. Download and install a VPN - as we say, our top choice is ExpressVPN

2. Connect to the appropriate server location - open the VPN app, hit 'choose location' and select the appropriate location.

3. Go to the broadcaster's stream - head to your home broadcaster's site or app and watch as if you were at home - so that's EHFTV for most places.

2024 European Handball Championships TV rights

You can find the 2024 European Handball Championships matches streamed on the following TV services and platforms according to the TV rights listed below.

You can also watch all of the games for FREE on EHFTV although geo-blocks for certain regions may apply. Anyone travelling abroad can use a VPN to avoid this and access their regular streaming service as usual. Full details in the VPN section above.

• Albania: Arena Sport
• Austria: ORF, DYN
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Arena Sport 
• Canada: DAZN
• Croatia: RTL, Arena Sport 
• Czechia: AMC, Czech TV
• Denmark (incl. Faroe Islands): TV2 Denmark
• Faroe Islands: KVF
• France: beIN Sports, TF1
• Finland: Viaplay
• Georgia: Silknet
• Germany: ARD, ZDF, DYN
• Greece: Cosmote
• Hungary: MTVA
• Iceland: RUV
• Israel : Charlton 
• Italy: pallamano.tv
• Japan: DAZN
• Montenegro: RTCG, Arena Sport
• Netherlands: Ziggo
• North Macedonia: MKRTV, Arena Sport
• Norway: Viaplay
• Poland: Eurosport 
• Portugal: RTP
• Romania: PrimaTV, Digi
• Serbia: RTS, Arena Sport 
• Slovakia: AMC, RTVS
• Slovenia: RTVSLO, Arena Sport
• South and Central America: ESPN
• Spain: TVE
• Switzerland: SRG, DYN 
• Sweden: Viaplay
• Türkiye: beIN Sports
• UK: Viaplay
• Ukraine: Poverkhnost 
• USA beIN Sports

EHF EURO 2024 schedule

Friday, January 26

• France vs Sweden - 40:34
• Germany vs Denmark- 26:29

Sunday, January 28

• France vs Denmark - 5.45pm CET / 4.45pm GMT / 11:45pm ET / 3.45am AEDT

What is the EHF?

The European Handball Federation (EHF) is the umbrella organisation for all things European handball. Founded on 17 November 1991, it is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and comprises 50 member federations and two associated federations (England and Scotland).

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Sony's excellent free cloud storage service for creators gets some outstanding upgrades — support for Dolby Atmos and a snazzy desktop app to accelerate transfers

Sony has announced significant upgrades to its Ci Media Cloud platform, a cloud-based media management and collaboration service. The updates include a new plan tailored for small and medium businesses, the introduction of a desktop file transfer app, and enhanced support for Dolby Atmos audio files.

The new Ci Transfer desktop app (available to download for free for all Ci users) allows for high-speed transfer of files and folders to and from the Ci Media Cloud platform. 

Available for both Mac and PC, the app supports multi-gig speed transfers, retries transfers after interruptions, and is optimized to handle hundreds of files. It also features pause and resume functions, transfer reports, and can be paired with a new sidecar ingest workflow for larger organizations migrating archive libraries.

Enhanced Dolby Atmos support

In addition to the Free, Pro, and Team online plans, there's a new Business Plan for small and medium organizations which Sony says is a step up from Ci's initial Team subscription. 

Priced at approximately $249 a month, it offers unlimited Workspaces, 1TB of active storage, 4TB of archive storage, and 500GB of monthly data transfers. The plan also includes advanced features such as custom branding and usage analytics.

The platform's enhanced support for Dolby Atmos audio files allows users to upload and play video and audio files with immersive, authentic sound. 

Integrated with Dolby.io, the platform supports ADM BWF Atmos audio, and users can visually see Loudness Unit Full Scale (LUFS) and True Peak levels in Ci’s built-in media analysis tool. This enables creative and quality assurance teams to work with immersive content as it was intended to be heard. 

“We’re continually evolving our Ci platform to better address users’ needs and become an even more intrinsic part of their daily workflow,” said David Rosen, Vice President of Cloud Applications and Services, Sony Electronics.

“With the addition of a plan created to address the requirements and budget of small and medium businesses, a rich new desktop app experience, and Dolby Atmos audio for immersive, authentic sound, we’re making Ci even more accessible, easy to use, and powerful for creatives and organizations in every facet of the industry.” 

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Google’s upcoming Chrome release could be good for Windows on ARM devices taking on MacBooks and Chromebooks

Google Chrome is coming to Windows 11 devices running on ARM processors. A new version of the browser has been released through the Canary release channel which will allow users with ARM-based devices to run Chrome natively - rather than having to use an emulator (which brings its own complexities and performance issues). 

ARM-based mobile devices are very common already, and ARM processors and ARM-based chips (like Apple’s M1, M2, and M3 silicon chips) are becoming more commonplace in devices like PCs. Unfortunately, those running Windows on a device with an ARM chip couldn’t use Chrome natively and would have to use a workaround like running Chrome in emulation mode. 

This isn’t the end of the world, but if you’re emulating a virtual device within your device, you’re relying on the processing constraints of the virtual device. This limited how well Chrome performed on ARM-64 processor devices, until now, thanks to the latest release in the Canary channel, which is for very early and potentially unstable versions of Google Chrome, and which users can download and test at their discretion.

(Image credit: Arm)

Chromium, an open-source web browser project mainly developed and maintained by Google, has supported ARM-64’s architecture for many years. Oddly enough, Google Chrome itself (which is based on Chromium) has been available for most ARM-oriented operating systems – except Windows. It’s uncertain why Google Chrome has taken this much time to support Windows on ARM-based computers. Google has two operating systems that are designed to run on ARM hardware – Android for mobile devices and ChromeOS for Chromebooks – and Windows on ARM is a direct competitor, which could be one (rather cynical) reason.

MSPowerUser investigated for itself if this Canary version actually worked on a machine with an ARM processor that runs a recent version of Windows 11, and found that it worked on at least one such device that had an older Snapdragon 835 SoC processor. 

(Image credit: Unsplash)

What to consider before downloading and installing 

It’s worth remembering that even if you have an ARM-based Windows 11 device, this is a Canary channel build that you should carefully consider before downloading and installing. It's prone to instability and is specifically intended to be the first round of external testing by Google for Chrome. It will probably make its way down through the slightly less frequent, but more tested and more stable, release channels. If you have an ARM-based Windows 11 device, and you're not a tester or developer, it’s probably worth waiting for one of these later releases. 

This release is not far from Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon X Elite chip debut and this is forecasted to significantly step up the performance of ARM64-based devices, which could see a resurgence in Windows on ARM devices to take on Apple’s ARM-based MacBooks.

With more devices on offer with ARM processors that run Windows, we could see ARM processors continue to play an important part in PCs and laptops - and challenging the dominance of Intel and AMD. Google extending Google Chrome support to these devices could help make this happen, and I'm betting that other processor manufacturers (cough, Intel) are paying attention.  

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