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It only feels like August has just begun, but we're already halfway through the eighth month of 2025. If you're worried that time is going too fast, you might want to console yourself with one of the many new movies and shows that have debuted on the best streaming services this week.

There's plenty for fans of all genres to enjoy, too. Indeed, from sci-fi horrors and crime thrillers, to a pair of animated offerings – one's family-friendly, the other definitely isn't – you'll find something worth watching with our experts' help. – Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

It's high time someone created a TV show set in the Alien universe. Step forward Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion), who's finally delivered on that front for Hulu (US) and Disney+ (internationally).

Set two years before the 1979 original film, Alien: Earth brings the sci-fi horror series' iconic Xenomorphs and a bunch of other nasty creatures to our home world. It's up to Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a Hybrid – an android with the consciousness of a child – to lead the charge in combatting the threat posed by said terrifying organisms.

Episodes 1 and 2 are out now, with new chapters dropping every Tuesday or Wednesday depending on where you live. Before you stream it, read my Alien: Earth guide for a full lowdown on the show and my Alien: Earth review to see what I thought of its first six entries.

• Watch Alien: Earth on Hulu (US) and Disney+ (internationally)

If you're a fan of the crass and explicit humor of The Ren and Stimpy Show, and have been craving more over-the-top 2D animations, one of this month's new Netflix movies Fixed is just the ticket. It's a raunchy tale about a bull dog that's about to neutered after getting a bit too frisky with his owners, but not before one last hurrah with his pals.

Created by Genndy Tartakovsky, who's behind hit animations like Dexter's Laboratory, Primal, and Samurai Jack, the film draws on his high-school friends for inspiration, but hasn't gone down well with critics and audiences alike. Maybe it'll fare better with you? – Amelia Schwanke, senior entertainment editor

• Watch Fixed on Netflix

Prime Video’s new spy thriller Butterfly is a six-part series that's based on the graphic novel series by Arash Amel, and focuses on a former intelligence operative who finds himself pursued by a sociopathic agent due to past decisions he's made.

The series stars Squid Game’s Park Hae-soo, Lost’s Daniel Dae Kim, and Kim Tae-hee, who starred in the Netflix K-Drama Hi Bye, Mama. If you're in the mood for thrills and familial drama, this could be your new favorite Amazon TV Original. – Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer

• Watch Butterfly on Prime Video

It's the unexpected Avengers: Doomsday tide over you didn't know you needed. Thor star Chris Hemsworth is back for another round of gruelling physical punishment that takes him all over the globe. This time, though it's all in the name of learning how to live healthier for longer.

Limitless: Live Better Now bridges the gap between mental and physical health, and it's clear Hemsworth has picked up some new habits for life along the way. Beginning with Hemsworth learning the drums to play for Ed Sheeran's sold-out stadium tour in episode 1, he deftly learns to scale a 600ft artificial climbing wall in Switzerland in episode 2. For the explosive finale, he's entered into one of the strictest SAS training regimes in the world, resulting in him being maced at point-blank range by a South Korean officer. Rather him than me... – Jasmine Valentine, entertainment writer

• Watch Limitless: Live Better Now on Hulu (US) and Disney+ (internationally)

The Legend of Ochi is fun for all the family this weekend. One of August's new HBO Max movies follows a farm girl named Yuri who's been is taught to not go outside after dark, because of fearsome reclusive creatures called the Ochi. However, when she finds a lost and injured baby Ochi, she embarks on a journey to reunite it with its family.

The directorial debut for Isaiah Saxon, this A24 offering on HBO Max has a starry cast including Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson, and Willem Dafoe. Relative newcomer Helena Zengel plays the role of Yuri, following her international film debut in News of the World. – LB

• Watch The Legend of Ochi on HBO Max

Toto, we're not in The Fantastic Four: First Steps anymore. In one of August's new Netflix movies Night Always Comes, Marvel star Vanessa Kirby plays Lynette, an almost-broke former sex worker who's working at a bread factory to try and keep a leaking roof over her family's heads. When her mom decides to spontaneously blow their $25,000 house down payment on a new car, Lynette's at risk of losing their house altogether. In a complete state of panic, she takes off into the night to try and raise the same amount of money by any means necessary.

Lynette really means any, too. We're seeing Kirby in some situations we've never seen her in before, from clobbering strange men to death over a stolen safe to selling illegal drugs in the back room of a shady pawn shop. From that angle alone it might be one of the craziest Netflix original movies of the year, and I really didn't guess what was coming until its closing moments. Shoutout to my favorite performance of the bunch in Julia Fox... with so much personally branded cultural capital, I forget she's actually a dang good actress. – JV

• Watch Night Always Comes on Netflix

Looking for an animation that's more suited to the whole family? I suggest heading over to Apple TV+ this weekend to stream Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang in Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical.

This musical special, which is one of the five new Apple TV+ shows in August 2025, sees the gang break out into original songs by Jeff Morrow, Ben Folds, Alan Zachary, and Michael Weiner as they stumble upon a treasure trove of instruments.

The Apple Original is set to delight fans of the Peanuts comics as it's been more than three decades since the first Peanuts musical was released. I don't doubt it'll fill your weekend with a heavy dose of nostalgia. – AS

• Watch Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical on Apple TV+

• Netflix releases the official trailer for Wednesday season 2 part 2 – and it's a shock-filled teaser worth dying for
• HBO Max reveals final trailer for Peacemaker season 2 – and it might have spoiled one of the popular show's biggest surprises
• Prime Video releases new look at Fallout season 2 in first official poster, but it's not the big reveal I'm hoping we get before the end of August

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Friday, August 15 (game #1299).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

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

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.

* 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).

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

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

• 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:

• O

• Q

• S

• E

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

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1300, are…

• OWING
• QUAKE
• SLIDE
• ELITE

A very tricky round that could have easily gone sideways.

It took me quite a while before I found a letter containing A,U and E from the letters I had left. I could think of plenty using unavailable letters and came close to entering "usage" just to end the misery. Then I thought of QUAKE and the sweet relief of reaching the end.

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1300, are…

• SPEAK
• MORAL
• WIMPY
• SMACK

• Quordle #1299, Friday, 15 August: WHALE, PRISM, DRAKE, TEPEE
• Quordle #1298, Thursday, 14 August: LAPEL, IDIOM, RENEW, LIVER
• Quordle #1297, Wednesday, 13 August: CACTI, HOMER, EMAIL, ALBUM
• Quordle #1296, Tuesday, 12 August: SPOOL, TITLE, JAUNT, OVINE
• Quordle #1295, Monday, 11 August: ADULT, BROOM, PURER, CRUEL
• Quordle #1294, Sunday, 10 August: SCRUM, PIPER, TROLL, SPORE
• Quordle #1293, Saturday, 9 August: NOOSE, INLET, ELEGY, VIRUS
• Quordle #1292, Friday, 8 August: KNEEL, KINKY, RALPH, BOOZY
• Quordle #1291, Thursday, 7 August: PLUNK, PROXY, CURVY, PEARL
• Quordle #1290, Wednesday, 6 August: RISKY, APART, FAUNA, HANDY
• Quordle #1289, Tuesday, 5 August: ROAST, SLICK, AUDIT, BILLY
• Quordle #1288, Monday, 4 August: MACAW, SINCE, COLON, CHIRP
• Quordle #1287, Sunday, 3 August: MOTIF, LEERY, LOFTY, BURST
• Quordle #1286, Saturday, 2 August: WARTY, PUPAL, CLEAR, SLICE
• Quordle #1285, Friday, 1 August: ACTOR, MEALY, WIDTH, ADOBE
• Quordle #1284, Thursday, 31 July: STYLE, VALET, AGONY, ALLOY
• Quordle #1283, Wednesday, 30 July: DEBAR, ADMIN, FOLIO, USAGE
• Quordle #1282, Tuesday, 29 July: BATCH, TOPIC, MURKY, BUNCH
• Quordle #1281, Monday, 28 July: CANDY, TRYST, SHIRT, FORGO

Managing energy consumption is one of the biggest challenges to turn a nation’s AI vision into reality. AI data centers require vast power resources at a time when the national grids are shifting toward renewables. Another major hurdle is talent. With global competition for AI expertise heating up, countries must invest more in education and training. There should also be more industry collaboration to build the skilled workforce needed for a true independent AI vision.

AI workloads, particularly those associated with large language models (LLMs) and advanced analytics, impose varying energy demands. Training AI models is an extremely computationally intensive process, requiring stable, high-energy inputs over extended periods. It involves feeding large datasets into deep learning models, running complex calculations, and iterating repeatedly to refine accuracy.

This process demands high-performance computing resources and an uninterrupted power supply, making it one of the most energy-consuming aspects of AI.

In contrast, AI inference runs models in real-time to make predictions, classify data, or analyze text, images, and video. Though less demanding than training, inference workloads are dynamic and need efficient and steady energy resource allocation for real-time tasks like chatbots, automation, and edge computing.

So how can we manage the energy consumption from these intensive AI workloads?

Renewable energy is central to the UK's AI Action Plan and its ambitions to become a leader in AI data centers. With substantial resources in wind, solar and hydro contributing 36.1% of electricity generation in 2023, the UK can tackle the growing electricity demand in a more environmentally sustainable manner.

The UK's newly established AI Energy Council is expected to explore innovative energy solutions, such as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), to bridge this gap. With AI-driven energy consumption accelerating, a 160% increase in data center power demand is anticipated.

Despite hardware efficiency gains seen in AI adoption and real-world scenarios, increasing demand for the technology outpaces these improvements. Popular AI-driven solutions, such as ChatGPT, have seen rapid user adoption, surpassing 100 million users in 2025 with approximately 464 million visits per month.

The International Energy Agency reports that a single ChatGPT query requires 2.9 watt-hours of electricity, nearly ten times more than a Google search, which only needs 0.3 watt-hours.

As AI continues to scale, the growing energy consumption raises important concerns about environmental sustainability, highlighting the need for strategic solutions.

It is clear that renewable energy alone is insufficient in meeting the UK’s AI Action Plan’s requirements, which presents a chance for AI data centers to adopt intelligent workload scheduling and resource management strategies. AI workloads should be scheduled to coincide with periods of peak renewable energy generation, such as high-wind periods or midday solar peaks.

This approach allows AI training tasks, which require significant power, to be executed when renewable energy availability is at its highest, reducing reliance on non-renewable backup sources or storage technologies such as batteries.

AI requires high levels of compute resources, typically utilizing specialized hardware like GPUs, which handle high levels of parallel transactions essential for AI models and applications. Multi-tenanted GPU virtualization and graphics virtualization solutions effectively consolidate resource utilization, reducing the need for additional hardware and energy consumption.

GPUs are significantly more energy-efficient than CPUs for AI inference tasks—studies show up to 42x greater efficiency—but their increasing cost and energy intensity make strategic allocation crucial. Given the complexity of GPU scenarios, which vary depending on applications, query types, and user volume, ensuring these powerful resources are fully utilized and not left idle is a top priority for reducing environmental impact and maximizing return on investment.

Effective GPU optimization strategies include dynamic sharing and partitioning techniques, enabling better resource allocation, minimizing wastage, and supporting data centers transitioning to renewable energy sources.

AI schedulers should be designed to scale compute resources up or down based on real-time energy availability. This means distributing (within data proximity requirements) workloads across different geographic locations where renewable energy is abundant at any given time and adjusting processing speeds to match fluctuating renewable energy supplies.

Further boosting energy efficiency in data centers requires innovative solutions, like liquid cooling and AI-driven optimization, with advanced designs and hardware that minimize energy consumption. A diversified energy mix is also key, combining renewables with technologies like SMRs to ensure a stable power supply, supported by data center energy monitoring and allocation modelling.

Government agencies can also drive environmental sustainability by financially incentivizing data centers to run on renewable energy while managing growth to protect the energy grid. These strategies ensure consistent power availability while maximizing the use of renewable energy when conditions are favorable.

The UK is well-placed to achieve its AI ambitions without overwhelming the energy grid, provided it embraces a portfolio of efficiency levers across workload, hardware and infrastructure layers. Physical virtualization is one of the most immediate and proven techniques. Deployments of advanced virtualization platforms can cut physical servers by 39 % and trim three-year infrastructure cost by 34 %, according to IDC’s 2024 study.

Fewer racks translate directly into a lower baseload on the grid and quicker alignment with renewable-energy contracts. AI acceleration now benefits as well; tests have shown that virtualization solutions with GPU support delivers AI training performance within 1–6 % of bare metal and inference at 94–105 % yet still leave up to 88 % of CPU cores free for other work. Multi-tenant GPU virtualization therefore drives higher AI throughput per watt, deferring additional hardware purchases and the embodied carbon they carry.

Alongside virtualization, emerging technologies such as liquid cooling, AI-driven energy-optimization software and diversified power sources (including small modular reactors) will further curb data-center consumption. While no single solution is a silver bullet, the strategic combination of consolidated, software-defined infrastructure and intelligent energy management positions the UK to set a global example—demonstrating how cutting-edge AI capability and energy security can advance together on a clear trajectory to net-zero.

By prioritizing environmentally sustainable and sovereign approaches, the UK has a unique opportunity to set a global example – demonstrating how cutting-edge AI and energy security can evolve together.

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The current distribution model is broken.

The channel is flooded with innovation: AI, automation, infrastructure, security. Everywhere you turn, another vendor is promising the future. But most of them won’t make it. Not because their tech isn’t good, but because the legacy route-to-market isn’t built to support them.

The traditional distribution model was designed for scale, but the kind that follows success, not the kind that builds it. It’s focused on process over potential. It rewards predictability, not boldness. And for emerging vendors trying to break into the market, that’s a problem.

Growth-stage vendors don’t need a distributor. They need a distribution partner. They need experts in their corner who can recognize early potential, do the heavy lifting to bring it to life, and move quickly when opportunities arise. That’s not the job most distributors were built to do. But it’s the job that needs doing now.

When Pax8 took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to challenge the legacy distribution model, it raised eyebrows across the channel. It was bold, unapologetic, unexpected, and whether you agreed with the tactic or not, it was a conversation starter.

And that’s the point. Distribution is being disrupted; it’s changing. But it’s not dying.

And no, we’re not talking about changes like a move from hardware to SaaS, or from perpetual to subscription. This new age of distribution is about a new set of expectations. Think real-time analytics, partner orchestration, recurring revenue models, and AI-infused everything.

It is also, most importantly, about the human touch. Vendors and partners need to be able to have live conversations with humans that care and can address any challenges they face. The ability to make a call to your main contact at a distributor can’t be underestimated – the contact that knows your business inside out.

To serve this market, distributors need to behave more like GTM strategists and growth consultants – and behave like they have equal skin in the game. They need to know when to push, where to invest, and how to build momentum from zero.

The channel loves a leaderboard. Gartner. Forrester. IDC. And more often than not, the attention goes straight to the top-right of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant; to the ‘Leaders’ that already have market share, not necessarily those driving the next wave of innovation.

The problem is that innovation rarely starts at the top.

The most exciting technologies today are being built by vendors you won’t find in glossy analyst reports. These companies are small, focused, and fast. They’re solving problems in new ways. They’re thinking beyond incremental change. And they’re ready to scale, if they can find the right partner.

But most distributors aren’t built to serve them. Their KPIs don’t account for emerging vendor complexity. Their teams aren’t structured for market creation. Their onboarding processes weren’t designed for agility, and most distributors require healthy marketing budgets to get attention. As a result, the most promising solutions often get overlooked.

What challenger vendors need is a distributor that moves differently. One that’s selective, strategic, and unafraid to bet early.

The best distributors don’t just move quickly to identify new opportunities. They move with purpose. And that purpose is driven by data.

Emerging vendors don’t have the luxury of guesswork. Every GTM decision and every partnership matters. That’s why the distributors that really add value aren’t the ones offering the broadest line card, they’re the ones doing the best homework.

Before a single contract is signed, the best distribution partners are already elbows-deep in analysis. They’re evaluating financials, scrutinizing product maturity, interrogating GTM plans, and mapping market readiness. This ensures that they’re not dazzled by demos or led by hype. They’re guided by evidence.

And it doesn’t stop at onboarding.

Smart distributors monitor vendor growth signals in real time. They know which channel programs are converting, which partner profiles are selling, and where the real momentum is coming from—not just at the regional or vertical level but at the micro-layer of product features, deal size, and partner behavior.

Data drives every decision here. From which vendors are onboarded, to how they’re launched, developing a marketing plan and to the way pipeline is tracked and optimized over time.

There’s a growing divide between the brands that are truly ready to scale and the ones who just look good on paper. Spotting the difference is hard. That’s why most distributors don’t try. They wait until success is proven, then show up with a cookie-cutter pitch deck.

But that’s not how category leaders are built. Category leaders are backed early, built methodically, and launched with focus, strategy, and a GTM strategy that knows how to win.

If one thing is certain, it’s that the channel is changing. Subscription-first, AI-led, everything-as-a-service. The challenge is that you can’t brute-force legacy systems into this new way of doing things and expect a different outcome.

What this moment demands is a new kind of distributor. Not just another name on a long list, but one that actually understands how to build traction in a saturated market, create meaningful differentiation, and help emerging vendors move from underdog to industry standard.

Because if growth is the goal, you don’t have time for slow ramp-ups or vague strategies. You need someone who’s ready to run with you.

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• A Mac Pro has again been rumored for launch later this year
• It'll come with an M4 Ultra based on clues drawn from Apple's internal code
• M4 UItra could run with a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU in theory

The next iteration of the Mac Pro might see Apple powering the computer with an M4 Ultra chip, we've heard again.

It's been a couple of years since the last incarnation of the Mac Pro, which used the M2 Ultra, so it would be a considerable leap in performance to upgrade to a theoretical M4 Ultra – but Macworld reports that this is what's in the cards.

This is based on Apple's internal code that Macworld caught a glimpse of somehow, which contained the identifier 't8152' – and we're told this suggests the use of the M4 Ultra, codenamed 'Hidra' (a name that's previously been aired on the rumor mill via Bloomberg).

There's not much else to this rumor, and Macworld doesn't have any details on the spec, although it theorizes that the M4 Ultra could run with a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU.

As ever with this kind of leak, it could be genuine and yet never come to fruition. It might just show us that Apple has been testing a Mac Pro configuration along these lines – but it's possible that this machine may never see the light of day, ending up canned at some point in prototyping.

This leak tells us a couple of things. Firstly, that Apple staff can't spell 'Hydra' (well, okay, alternatively let's say Apple engineers can't think up decent codenames). And, being serious, that it does appear increasingly likely that a new Mac Pro design is going to pitch up later this year.

Indeed, the Mac Pro coming out later in 2025, complete with M4 Ultra, was suggested over a year ago now, so this latest nugget of speculation backs up the previous buzz on the grapevine.

On top of the weight of rumors starting to add up, there's also the fact that for Apple, the Mac Pro is in something of an odd predicament right now. This is due to the M4 Pro flexing some considerable performance muscles, and outgunning the Mac Pro's M2 Ultra. The upshot is you can buy a Mac mini (with M4 Pro) and get better performance – at least in terms of raw CPU power – than the Mac Pro, which isn't a good look for the seriously pricey computer.

Not that the Mac Pro is competing with Apple's compact Mac mini, of course – it's a heavyweight pro-targeted PC that offers a lot of advantages in terms of hefty memory loadouts and PCIe expansion options. It is a very different beast indeed, but still, Apple needs to keep the Mac Pro on a reasonable footing in relative performance terms - again meaning that the rumored refresh with an M4 Ultra seems more likely.

A two-year gap also seems a fair enough timeframe for a refresh, and it feels somewhat unlikely to me that Apple would want to wait until the M5 series before pushing out a new Mac Pro given the above reasons.

That said, there are those who've argued that the M4 Ultra isn't going to happen – due to issues around jamming two M4 Max chips together, which is what the Ultra chips do – and that Apple will indeed wait it out for the M5 series to make another Ultra model.

So, everything's rather up in the air for now – but if an M4 Ultra is going to happen, it will surely be in a new Mac Pro, and we're likely to see more leaks soon enough. If the whispers go quiet over the next couple of months, that'll tell its own story.

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