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Apple TV+ has announced a new series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, yet we know almost nothing about it. We first heard about the new series through a social media post of a smiley face in a petri-dish, we then got our (very vague) first look at what was revealed to be called Pluribus after a fake countdown was posted online. While we do know that the show will star Rhea Seehorn, who I can now assume will play a woman called Carol (more on that later), what Pluribus is actually about is open to interpretation.
Here’s a rundown of what we see in the seconds-long Pluribus teaser. It opens with a wide shot of what appears to be a prison with a guard standing in the frame, then zooms in for an up-close look at the guard licking doughnuts and then placing them in a box. Linking back to the original teaser image shared on social beforehand, which featured the tagline 'Happiness is contagious' accompanied by a Petri dish containing a smiley face, we see a sign that reads 'Help Yourself' with the same smiley face.
And that’s literally all we know… until now. Apple TV+ has released a phone number without explanation, showing Carol being asked to call it under “no pressure”. It’s not even a message meant for me, but I couldn’t help calling it to find out more. What I found, amazingly, was even more shocking and baffling than what I’d already seen.
I still don’t understand what Apple TV+’s new show from Breaking Bad is about after calling its ominous phone numberI’ve taken on the burden so you don’t have to. If you were to call the phone number from the above advert, here’s exactly what you’d hear:
It begins: "Hi Carol. We're so glad you called. We can't wait for you to join us. Dial 0 and we'll get back to you via text message." Obviously, I’m not Carol, but I did dial “0” to get the next part of the message.
"Please know your life is your own, Carol. You have agency!" (Again, my name is not Carol.) "That being said, Reply YES to sign up for updates from AppleTV+ and agree to our terms of use and Privacy Policy. Freq varies, consent not a condition of purchase, msg & data rates apply. Reply STOP to cancel, HELP for help."
Slightly more boring, but even for a fictitious marketing stunt, Apple has to get its boilerplate T&Cs for SMS marketing in there somehow. I replied “Yes” and got this response:
"You must have so many questions for us! Understand, we only want to make you happy. We'll be in touch soon. Text STOP to stop, HELP for help.”
So logic tells me I’m going to be hearing from the mysterious Pluribus voice at some point in the future. What it will say, I do not know. When it will arrive, I cannot say. Who is Carol? Maybe I’ll never find out. Maybe she never called the number back. Maybe I’m Carol and my parents read my birth certificate wrong.
Currently, the only clue for what on earth is going on is the title itself. ‘Pluribus’ is a Latin word meaning ‘many’ or ‘more’. It's most famously used in the phrase ‘E pluribus unum’, which translates to ‘Out of many, one’. If we apply this to what we’ve seen, Carol is our one… but one of what, we’ve got no idea.
I’d bet any money that Apple TV+ and Gilligan are going to eke this marketing campaign out as much as they can. Clearly, I’ll be getting part of it sent directly to me, and I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry in anticipation.
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- Russian airline Aeroflot confirms suffering an IT incident
- More than 40 flights were allegedly grounded following attack
- Silent Crow and Cyberpartisans both claimed responsibility
Aeroflot, Russia’s largest airline, has suffered a cyberattack which disrupted its operations and grounded dozens of flights.
The news was confirmed by the airline, as well as by the Kremlin itself - and also by two cybercriminal groups who claimed responsibility for the attack - Silent Crow, and Cyberpartisans.
The former is a Ukrainian group, while the latter - Belarusian.
"War on all fronts"In a Telegram group, Silent Crow apparently said its “prolonged and large-scale operation” - “completely destroyed” the airline’s IT system. As a result, more than 40 flights were canceled, the BBC reported, mostly domestic flights inside Russia, but also a few routes to Belarus and Armenia.
Cyberpartisans also confirmed taking part in the hack, noting, "We are helping Ukrainians in their fight with the occupier, carrying out a cyber strike on Aeroflot and paralysing the largest airline in Russia."
Reliable information from Russia is hard to come by, but some media are reporting that the airline confirmed having issues with its information system.
"We must not forget that the war against our country is being waged on all fronts, including the digital one,” the BBC cited Anton Gorelkin, a Russian MP.
Since the war between Russia and Ukraine started in 2022, cybercriminals, hacktivists, and state-sponsored hacking groups have been active more than usual, trading blows across the internet, disrupting critical infrastructure organizations, spying on military, defense, government, and IT organizations, and stealing sensitive data.
Conti, which was a major ransomware operator at the time, publicly sided with Russia, stating they would retaliate against any attacks on Russia in cyberspace. This angered its affiliates, many of which were Ukrainian. Soon after, an unidentified hacker leaked Conti’s chat logs which, although indirectly, resulted in the group’s disbanding.
In June 2024, one person was arrested in Ukraine, under suspicion that they developed encryptors for Conti.
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- Windows 11 has a useful change for multiple monitors in a new preview
- You'll be able to access notifications and the calendar flyout on the secondary monitor
- Previously that wasn't possible, even though it is in Windows 10
If you use multiple monitors with Windows 11, there's a change in the pipeline with the taskbar that you're really going to appreciate.
Windows Central noticed that Microsoft has brought in the ability to access the notification center and calendar flyout in the taskbar on a secondary display. This has happened with the latest preview release of Windows 11 in the Dev channel (build 26200.5722).
It's currently the case that if you're running two monitors with Windows 11 you can only access these details on the main display. With the secondary display, the active elements of the system tray – on the far right-hand side of the taskbar – don't work, meaning all you can do is look at the time and date.
If you want to access the calendar panel (by clicking on the date), you need to mouse across to the primary monitor to do so (and the same is true for checking on notifications).
However, with the new preview build, it's possible to click on those parts of the taskbar and access the mentioned panels on the secondary monitor.
(Image credit: Hellooodesign / Unsplash)Analysis: the return of another Windows 10 feature that was ditchedThis is another tweak for Windows 11 which sounds like a relatively small move, but it'll actually be a major convenience for those whose PC setup includes two monitors (or perhaps more). That might be a niche set of people, granted, but it'll be quite a boon for them – the move has already been welcomed with open arms by some (Windows Central included).
Indeed, you might be wondering why this wasn't possible in the first place – especially because in Windows 10 you've always been able to access these parts of the taskbar on a secondary monitor.
Well, that's a good question, and it's not the only piece of functionality that fell by the wayside when Windows 11 arrived. There were quite a few key pieces of the interface and options therein that were mysteriously dropped from Windows 10 in the shift to Windows 11.
They included the ability to move the taskbar away from the bottom of the screen to pick an obvious example (or to 'never combine' apps on the taskbar, though that functionality has since been added back).
The reason these decisions were made was apparently down to some of the complexity involved in the changes under the hood with Windows 11 – or at least those were the vague noises Microsoft made some time ago now, by way of a rather unsatisfying explanation.
At any rate, Microsoft acknowledged in the blog post for the new preview build that this change is being made to "address your feedback", so clearly there have been a fair few complaints about the missing functionality in question.
Note though that this change is only rolling out in testing for now, so not all Windows Insiders will see it (though it is possible to force an enablement, as leaker PhantomOfEarth explains on X).
It'll probably be a while before this arrives in the finished version of Windows 11, and the feature seems a likely pick for inclusion in the big Windows 11 25H2 update arriving later this year.
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