News
- Wear OS 6 will be released for Android watches later this year
- It's said to get two new unannounced features: firstly, a dedicated Water Lock for Pixel Watch
- Secondly, Adaptive Charging will improve your watch's long-term battery health
Wear OS 6 has been revealed, and it's making a lot of changes that users of the best Android smartwatches are quite excited about. Changes to the user experience, a visual redesign, adding Google Gemini's AI assistant to your wrist... there's going to be plenty for wearers of the best smartwatches (that aren't for iPhone) to get their teeth into. You can read our Wear OS 6 feature breakdown here.
However, there are two more features rumored to arrive with Wear OS 6, either on launch or as a future update.
Firstly, according to Android Authority, you can expect a new adaptive charging feature. Adaptive charging is often used for devices to extend the battery's lifespan, preventing the battery from being over-charged too often, which can cause the battery to degrade.
Android Authority found the strings of code, unveiling a feature similar to that on the best Pixel phones: pausing the charge at 80% completion and resuming an hour before you unplug your device. Samsung watches will reportedly get a similar feature with Samsung's Wear OS-adjacent system, One UI Watch 8.
Water Lock on Pixel WatchesPixel Watches have a touch screen locking feature, which enables itself automatically during swimming workouts, but it can't eject water from crevices in the same way Samsung and Apple watches can. Nor does it have a dedicated labelled Water Lock, which disables the touch screen during rainfall, showers, or baths.
Current Pixel Watches are expected to get a Water Lock feature at least, again via Android Authority's recent examination of code in the Wear OS 6 developer preview.
The code doesn't actually detail what this new feature will do, so while there's always an outside chance that it will indeed eject water, it's more likely this is an update for existing Pixel Watches, restricted to a touchscreen-locking hot key under a more logical name for dealing with wet screens.
Touchscreens are notoriously jumpy and flawed when wet, and trying to operate a watch in heavy rain or the shower could prove challenging if a water lock feature isn't available. While this is unlikely to change the way swimming and similar workouts operate on Pixel Watches, they will at least become more usable in the rain.
You might also like...- Microsoft Edge has two smart new features in beta testing
- AI will help you find websites in your browsing history
- A new media control center provides a hub for all media playback activity
Have you ever found a useful web page, forgot to bookmark it, then remembered about it later, and had to go hunting through your browser history to try and find the site? This can be a frustrating experience, but Microsoft Edge is aiming to remove the pain from such a scenario.
Neowin reports that as of the beta release of Edge 138 for testers (version 138.0.3351.14 to be precise), there’s a new AI-powered web history search.
Of course, you already get a search facility in Edge’s history (and the other best web browsers out there), but the new feature gives your search query a wider scope and the ability to use synonyms (and more besides).
Microsoft explains: “Enhanced search finds sites in your History even when you use a synonym, phrase, or typo.”
In short, you can type something only vaguely related, and possibly make mistakes or typos when doing so, and AI will still be able to work out what you’re looking for – and hopefully surface the correct website.
Elsewhere in the beta of Edge 138, Microsoft has introduced a media control center. This is a central hub that allows for controlling any video or music playback that’s currently underway within the browser, or other activity such as casting media to another device.
Whatever’s happening media-wise, you can deal with it from here, and the control center is opened by clicking the music note icon along from the address bar in Edge.
Analysis: On-device model(Image credit: Future)Remember that these features are just in testing for the moment. On top of that, the AI-powered web history search is a limited rollout among testers, so even if you do run the beta of Edge, you may not see it for a while.
In short, it may be some time before this functionality progresses to the release version of the browser, but it’s inbound. And with Microsoft keen to expand AI powers however it can, I can’t imagine this is a feature that’s in any danger of being discarded.
For those worried about privacy in terms of AI hooking its tendrils into your web history, Microsoft is using an “on-device model” and the company promises that none of your data is ever sent off the device into the cloud, or to Microsoft’s servers. Furthermore, the feature needs to actively be enabled, rather than being on by default.
You might also likeSecurity and data protection are no longer separate concerns. Instead, they are two sides of the same coin, one inextricable from the other. If not considered as such, then a revaluation of your cybersecurity strategy is in order.
Backups are widely seen as an “insurance policy”. If an organization is the target of an attack, with data deleted or encrypted for ransom, restored backups can make this far less catastrophic to operations.
As always, threat actors have wised up and shifted their tactics. They now target backups in 93% of cases, and succeed 57% of the time.
This is why security and data protection need to merge, creating a singular idea of “resilience” that unifies robust security measures with comprehensive data protection. Thanks to changing threat tactics, the security of backup infrastructure and the immutability of backup data are not just best practice, but essential requirements.
The need for backup and data protectionMicrosoft 365 is one of the most commonly used office suites, but the need for third-party backup is often overlooked. This is partly because it has a built-in backup solution, but also an assumption that as a service it is “safe”. This could be a costly mistake. Critical data is often centralized in OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and Outlook—making Microsoft 365 services a tempting target for attackers.
Microsoft does recommend third-party backups in its service agreements, and we are starting to see this advice being followed. A 56% increase in recovery events related to Microsoft 365 domains in the last year shows the necessity of Microsoft 365 backups and that many are heeding this recommendation.
Microsoft 365 isn’t the only service where backups are required, of course, but it’s a good example of where this need can be easily missed, and why thinking about “resilience” is key.
Diversifying for watertight insuranceRansomware groups are targeting backups, and they’re not subtle about it. Both research and public claims by threat actors make it clear: disabling the ability to recover data is a key objective of modern cyberattacks. To counter this, cyber resilience must go beyond reacting after the damage is done. It must include prevention, early detection, and well-practiced recovery.
The first step is isolating the backup infrastructure, the metadata and storage, keeping it off the primary network. This significantly reduces the attack surface, ensuring backups remain secure and harder to reach.
Second, access to backup systems must be tightly controlled. Enforcing multifactor authentication and following the principle of least privilege is essential. Ideally, unique, dedicated accounts should be used exclusively for backup access, never shared with other systems or users.
Third, organizations should maintain immutable copies of their backup data. These tamper-proof versions cannot be altered or deleted, providing a powerful safeguard against ransomware and other threats that aim to corrupt or destroy recovery points.
Fourth, cyber-ready organizations don’t just trust their backups—they test them. Regular, full-scale recovery drills conducted in a clean, isolated environment are vital for verifying that data can be restored reliably in the event of an incident.
Finally, even with multiple layers of defense in place, true resilience requires ongoing vigilance. Continuous monitoring for anomalous activity—such as deleted backups, altered retention policies, unexpected job selections, or unusual file modification patterns—can help surface early signs of compromise.
Feeding these alerts into a security team’s preferred SIEM tools ensures a swift, coordinated response. Increasingly, AI-powered anomaly detection is enhancing this process by automating threat identification and reducing the need for manual troubleshooting or recovery interventions.
Compliance sets the standardThe merging of security and backup into “resilience” will be driven by compliance. Compliance standards are prioritizing cyber resilience, blending prevention, detection, and recovery into unified frameworks. Examples of frameworks that recognize BDR as best practice include NIS2, Cyber Essentials, CMMC, and Essential Eight, and it is also common regulations targeting specific sectors such as financial services.
These industry-specific and global regulations require organizations to demonstrate both preventative measures to stop an attack and their robust recovery plans should these barriers be breached. For businesses that have not fully implemented their plans, perhaps because of internal resistance to the cost or uncertainty around exactly what action needs to be taken, new regulations will force their hand.
Cyber insurance is yet another driver. A simple backup is often not enough to attain a cyber-insurance policy. The cyber-insurance industry increasingly expects and demands immutable backups as a non-negotiable item. Insurers are also more hands-on and will also play an increasingly central role in incident response, coordinating legal, forensic, and ransomware negotiation efforts.
What to do next?When thinking about backup and data protection, compliance is a good place to start. Aligning to compliance frameworks means following best practice guidance and the ability to prove due diligence to cyber insurers. But it’s important to think beyond compliance and look at where attackers will take opportunities to attack backup along with other systems—and build in resilience whenever possible.
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Apple’s yearly developer conference, WWDC 2025, is mere hours away from kicking off with a keynote presentation featuring CEO Tim Cook – and of all the rumors I’ve heard so far, the one I really hope ends up being true is a minor Apple Intelligence appearance.
This year’s WWDC sees Apple in a rather odd spot, with the company largely being seen as behind some of its key competitors, especially Microsoft and Google, when it comes to artificial intelligence, and many commentators will no doubt crow about this loudly if WWDC 2025 goes by without much mention (if any) of Apple Intelligence, Apple’s AI tool that was announced at last year’s WWDC.
However, after more than a year of companies trying (and failing) to convince me that AI is the next big thing for laptops, I’d actually love it if Apple Intelligence is barely a footnote at WWDC 2025.
I feel like I’m being gaslighted(Image credit: Future)Now, let me first say that I am not completely against AI, or at least the modern tech that a lot of companies are calling AI. The actual technology behind it is incredibly impressive, and for some industries, such as scientific research and healthcare, the transformative potential is genuinely exciting.
The problem I have is that a lot of companies are pushing AI into products where the user benefit is less clear. Earlier this year I attended the huge computing show Computex 2025 in Taiwan, and whilst looking out for potential candidates for best laptops of the next 12 months, pretty much every laptop maker was eager to tell me how great the AI features of its laptops, while seeming to ignore all the cool technical advancements I was actually interested in, such as slimline designs, powerful performance and long battery lives.
These are the things that will make big differences to how we use our laptops, but instead I was told how great it would be to use Copilot (the AI tool Microsoft has stuffed into Windows 11) to generate images in Paint, write up my work in Word or summarize emails that until now I never realized that I had trouble reading.
While the companies excitedly listed off all these AI features, I was left wondering what all the fuss is about. I tried generating images in Paint a while back, and while it was mildly diverting for a few moments, it’s something I’d never do again. Meanwhile, reading and writing emails, something I was repeatedly told was a time-consuming, difficult, and boring task, has actually never been an issue.
(Image credit: Microsoft)It felt like I was being gaslighted, to be honest. When a spokesperson for a company that is heavily pushing AI said that they now never write emails themselves, they get AI to do it, rather than being excited and inspired, I just felt a bit depressed. It never takes me that long to write an email, and the idea that someone I’m talking to doesn’t take that same time, but just generates a response, didn’t feel great. It certainly meant that if I ever got an email from that person, I’d be less inclined to spend time engaging with the email.
These kinds of disconnects between what the laptop makers were telling me to be excited about and what I was actually interested in are becoming ever more common, I feel.
I felt it again during my recent Surface Pro 12 review. This is the latest tablet from Microsoft, and as a high-profile ‘Copilot+ PC’, which is the company’s name for Windows 11 devices that feature an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) capable of on-device AI tasks, Microsoft is using it to showcase its vision of AI in Windows.
Now, to be fair to Microsoft (maybe something you’d never expect me to write), the company’s AI integration is a lot more ambitious than many of its competitors, going beyond the usual image generation/asking questions/writing and rewriting text. Unfortunately, while these tools are trying something different, they remain the least interesting aspect of the Surface Pro 12, with tools like Recall still feeling a little creepy and intrusive, while Click to Do just feels pointless at the moment.
So, if the rumors are true and Apple won’t be talking about AI that much, it would actually make me very happy.
Apple’s AI woes(Image credit: Apple)There have been quite a few reports that allege that Apple is struggling to keep up with the AI competition. We’ve not seen much of what Apple Intelligence can do outside of image and text generation, which are as uninspiring to me as similar tools from Microsoft, Google, and the like.
Apple’s overhauled virtual assistant, Siri, which is supposed to feature AI, has also been missing in action since it was first announced. This has led to a general feeling that Apple might not know what to do with AI – and that’s the most relatable I’ve ever found this trillion-dollar company.
Weirdly, Apple was ahead of the game in many respects – the M1 chip that launched in 2020 and ushered in a new age of the best MacBooks and Macs was based on Arm architecture (like many flagship Copilot+ PCs are), and came with an NPU (named the Neural Engine) many years before Microsoft and the like got all hot and bothered about it.
But if Apple is struggling to find a way to integrate AI into its products, maybe that’s a sign that, at the moment, there’s no real benefit to including it in many consumer devices, especially laptops. One suggestion about why Apple might be wary of showing or talking about AI is that the tech is still not ready, and the company has already been burned by announcing the all-new Siri and then failing to release it.
However, I’d much rather Apple held off any AI announcements until it has a clear vision on how these tools can improve their products (and our lives), and offer tools that work well and showcase the full potential of AI.
The alternative is to do what Microsoft did, which was to initially delay tools such as Recall, then roll out both Recall and Click To Do as early ‘preview’ releases in a bid to assure people they are still being worked on. The problem is, during my time with the Surface Pro 12, neither Recall nor Click To Do felt remotely finished (both lacked features and even crashed the system). Rather than a tantalizing taste of an AI-powered future, it put me off the features altogether.
Not talking about AI would be the brave thing to do at WWDC, as it would inevitably lead to commentators declaring it proof that Apple is behind the curve when it comes to artificial intelligence, but it would be the right thing to do – it would give the company space to talk about its current technology and the exciting, actually useful, features coming to iOS and macOS. It could even change the narrative – rather than Apple trying to keep up with competitors, it’s instead choosing not to chase a bandwagon and do its own thing instead.
The problem is, deep down, I think what will really happen is that we’ll get a few half-baked AI tools and some nonsense platitudes about how AI will change our lives, then some deja vu-triggering examples of someone using AI to generate an ugly looking image and summarize an email that should take five seconds to read. Please prove me wrong, Apple.
You may also like- Indian police conducted raids at 19 locations to target scammers
- Six people were arrested, and numerous equipment seized
- The operation targeted elderly Japanese victims
Indian and Japanese law enforcement, with the help of Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), have taken down a major financial fraud network and arrest six people suspected of running the entire operation.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently conducted raids at 19 locations across the country and dismantled a large network that includes tech support schemes.
The network mostly targeted older adults in Japan (aged 60 and above) and included two illegal call centers. Besides the arrests, both digital and physical infrastructure was seized, including computers, storage devices, digital video recorders, and phones.
Chakra VThe fightback started with the Japan Cybercrime Control Center (JC3), a Japanese nonprofit dedicated to combating cybercrime, which identified the cybercriminal operation impersonating Microsoft, flagging it to the tech giant.
The operation, known as Chakra V, was large and well-organized, the report notes - it revolved around fake pop-ups tricking people into thinking their computers were broken, and providing a phone number to “call Microsoft” and have the issues fixed.
However the calls were actually being made towards the scammers, who would trick the victims into installing remote desktop software, or malware, and use this to steal sensitive files and money.
The operation included pop-up creators, search-engine optimizers, lead generators, logistics and technology providers, payment processors, and talent providers.
Microsoft also said that the introduction of Gen AI made scaling the operation infinitely easier and thus - more dangerous.
“These actors used generative AI to scale their operations, including to identify potential victims, automate the creation of malicious pop–up windows, and perform language translations to target Japanese victims,” Microsoft explained.
“This activity highlights the increasingly sophisticated tactics employed by cybercriminals and underscores the importance of proactive global collaboration to protect victims.”
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- Take a look at our guide to the best authenticator app
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Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference - aka WWDC - is upon us once more, and the 2025 edition looks like it could ring in some big changes for Apple. The rumor mill says that there are major redesigns planned for iOS on the iPhone, as well as iPadOS, macOS, WatchOS for the Apple Watch, and even tvOS for the Apple TV streaming box. Lots of people will be hoping for news on Apple Intelligence too (although I wouldn’t hold my breath on that if I were you).
But, in the words of the immortal Spice Girls - I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want – and that’s more games for the Mac. I am that rare breed of creature known as the Mac Gamer. It’s a small, select group, mainly consisting of me and Whoopi Goldberg, but it’s growing all the time and after decades of completely ignoring games on the Mac it looks as though Apple is finally showing some interest.
Game OnApple has never liked games. John Carmack, one of the creators of Doom and Quake at id Software, once said that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs “didn’t think very highly of games”, and Jobs’ attitude meant that Apple effectively ignored gaming on the Mac for decades (“I never took it personally,” said Carmack).
That state of affairs didn’t really change until WWDC in 2023. After making headlines with the debut of the Vision Pro headset, Apple very quietly released a new software tool called the Game Porting ToolKit (GPT) that was designed specifically to help developers produce Mac versions of their PC games.
Apple's MacBooks can play the latest games - though you might need to do a bit of graphical tweaking if you're not running the latest Apple Silicon, (Image credit: Apple)This seemed to mark a real change in Apple’s attitude towards games, and the launch of GPT did help to bring a few AAA titles to Mac for the first time, including Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Control, Death Stranding, and multiple Resident Evil games. But the fact remains that most A-List PC games never get released on the Mac at all, so here’s my wishlist for the Mac games scene at WWDC in 2025.
More Powerful HardwareEven the best Macbooks and Macs have often been mocked for lacking the power to play games with modern 3D graphics – in fact, Macs couldn’t even handle ray-tracing until Apple introduced its M3 processors about 18 months ago.
Even now, many Mac games still require very expensive, top-of-the-range Mac models in order to run at high graphical settings. There are some pretty good gaming PCs available for less than £1000/$1000, and Apple needs to bring real gaming power to more Mac models in order to create a larger audience for new Mac games.
In Apple's defense, though, there's no denying that the best gaming laptops can get pretty expensive - and many people need a single lightweight system for work as well as gaming, not a desktop-replacement powerhouse machine that can't last more than two hours away from a wall outlet. So the potential is there; Apple just needs to step up.
More Tools For Games DevelopersThe Mac operating system (aka macOS) relies on a piece of Apple software called Metal to handle 3D graphics in games. In contrast, PC games generally rely on Microsoft’s DirectX graphics software instead, and converting – or ‘porting’ - DirectX games to run on Macs is a huge technical challenge for game developers.
Sonic Dream Team was a major recent Apple Arcade release. (Image credit: Sega / Sonic Team)That’s where the Game Porting Toolkit comes in, as it is specifically designed to help with this conversion process. Apple did introduce GPT 2.0 at WWDC in 2024, so releasing another update at this year’s WWDC would reaffirm Apple’s commitment to gaming. Apple could also simply buy Codeweavers, the developer of the open-source CrossOver software that GPT is partly based on (codeweavers.com). The CrossOver team has enormous experience in getting Windows games to run on Macs, and that could help Apple to smooth the path onto the Mac for many PC-based games developers.
Open Up The App StoreAt the moment, many Mac games are only available via Apple’s own Mac App Store. Even if you’ve already bought Control: Ultimate Edition on Steam or the Epic Games Store then you’ll find that you still have to buy the Mac version separately on the Mac App Store – so you’re effectively paying twice for a game that you already own. Games on the Mac App Store also tend to be more expensive than on Steam or Epic – where the PC version of Control: Ultimate Edition is currently on sale at a bargain price.
Baldur's Gate 3 was a big win for Mac gamers, but it's not as if Windows players can't enjoy the iconic title. (Image credit: Larian)This applies to lots of other Mac games too, so Apple really needs to allow developers more freedom to sell their Mac games outside the Mac App Store. Unfortunately, Apple’s long-running legal battle with Epic over selling Fortnite on the App Store suggests that this is pretty unlikely. However, games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hades 2 do allow you to buy the game once on Steam and then download either Mac or PC versions as required, so that’s something I’d like to see from more games in the future.
Revamp Apple ArcadeApple makes billions of dollars from its subscription services, and Apple Arcade was meant to provide an Apple alternative to gaming services such as Microsoft’s Game Pass for Xbox and PC. But while Game Pass tempts players with newly-released hit titles such as Oblivion Remastered and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Apple Arcade is full of aging mobile games like Angry Birds that were originally designed for the iPhone or iPad.
The selection of 'Role-Playing Games' currently on Apple Arcade is... feeble at best. (Image credit: Apple)The selection of Mac games is seriously underwhelming, so Apple needs to work with game developers to bring some heavyweight A-list titles to Apple Arcade. Mac users know that Apple often makes splashy announcements at WWDC about forthcoming games for the Mac, but it needs to continue that commitment for the other 51 weeks of the year if it really wants the Mac to be taken seriously as a gaming platform. Zigazig ah!