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Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for May 24, #1435

CNET News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 15:00
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,435 for May 24.
Categories: Technology

Today's NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 24, #447

CNET News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 15:00
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 447 for May 24.
Categories: Technology

Trump seeks to boost nuclear industry and overhaul safety regulator

NPR News Headlines - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 14:57

A series of executive orders aims to promote new kinds of nuclear reactors while restructuring the body in charge of nuclear safety.

(Image credit: Mike Stewart)

Categories: News

DOJ confirms it has a deal with Boeing to drop prosecution over deadly 737 Max crashes

NPR News Headlines - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 14:45

The Justice Department says it has reached an agreement in principle with Boeing to drop criminal charges over two fatal crashes of 737 Max jets, despite objections from some victims' family members.

(Image credit: Shelby Tauber)

Categories: News

I can't believe Crucial managed to squeeze 8TB into something barely bigger than a stack of credit cards

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 14:32
  • Crucial’s X10 SSD fits 8TB in a drive barely larger than your credit card
  • Read speeds hit 2,100 MB/s, but only under ideal conditions few users will replicate
  • Crucial T710 boasts Gen5 speeds up to 14,900 MB/s - on paper, at least

Large-capacity SSDs packed into compact designs continue to attract attention, as users look for storage solutions that combine portability, performance, and enough space to handle growing digital demands.

At Computex 2025, Crucial’s parent company Micron unveiled two new portable SSDs: the Crucial X10 and the Crucial T710 PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD.

The Crucial X10 is part of the company’s push into high-capacity portable drives, offering 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB of storage, even though the device is barely larger than a stack of credit cards.

Crucial adds high-capacity storage options

It claims read speeds of up to 2,100MB/s, similar to the older but larger Crucial X10 Pro. It uses the SM2322 controller, has an IP65 dust and water resistance rating, and is drop-tested to nearly 10 feet.

According to Crucial, the X10 can store up to 500,000 4K photos, more than 100 large video games, or over 2 million MP3 files - although these numbers depend heavily on file types and compression.

Still, an 8TB drive this small is uncommon and will likely appeal to anyone tired of juggling multiple smaller SSDs or external HDDs.

“Our X10 portable drive is a powerhouse, effortlessly handling massive backups, games and photo libraries - no matter where life takes you or what it throws your way. These innovations from Crucial underscore our relentless effort to exceed our customers’ storage needs,” said Dinesh Bahal, corporate vice president and general manager of Micron’s Commercial Products Group.

Meanwhile, the internal Crucial T710 targets the performance segment with PCIe Gen5 support and speeds reaching 14,900MB/s read and 13,800MB/s write.

It uses Micron’s G9 NAND and Silicon Motion’s SM2508 controller and is clearly designed with AI workloads and high-end gaming in mind.

Random IOPS figures reach 2.2 million for reads and 2.3 million for writes, though, as Crucial notes, these results were achieved under ideal conditions using CrystalDiskMark with write cache enabled and Windows features disabled to reduce system overhead. Real-world performance will vary.

Crucial claims the T710 offers up to 67% more IOPS per watt than previous models and can load large language models like Llama 2 into memory in under a second.

The T710 will be available in capacities up to 4TB and will include an optional heatsink for systems with limited thermal headroom. The Crucial X10 is available now, while the T710 is expected to ship in July 2025.

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Categories: Technology

Return of the OG? AMD unveils Radeon AI Pro R9700, now a workstation-class GPU with 32GB GDDR6

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 14:28
  • Radeon AI Pro R9700 targets local AI workloads and multi-GPU setups
  • The new workstation-class GPU shares its name with a 20 year old ATI card
  • New GPU features 128 AI accelerators and 32GB GDDR6 RAM

At Computex 2025, AMD announced the Radeon AI Pro R9700, a workstation GPU aimed at local AI tasks and multi-GPU compute environments.

For those familiar with the history of graphics cards, the name might ring a bell. Over 20 years ago, the original Radeon 9700 Pro marked a turning point for ATI. It was one of the first GPUs to beat Nvidia convincingly in both performance and delivery, and its launch back in 2002 helped shift market dynamics.

Fast forward to today, and AMD, which acquired ATI for $5.4 billion in 2006, is reusing the 9700 name for a very different card. The AI Pro R9700 is not for gamers, but for developers and professionals working with large-scale AI models.

Tuned for AI

The Radeon AI Pro R9700 features 128 dedicated AI accelerators, 32GB of GDDR6 memory, and a PCIe Gen 5 interface. Power draw is rated at 300W.

AMD says it can hit 96 teraflops of FP16 performance and deliver 1531 TOPS for AI inference.

Unlike GPUs built for rendering or gaming, this one is tuned for local inference and training. AMD claims it can run models with up to 32 billion parameters without cloud offload.

In a system with four cards, that scales up to 123 billion. The AI Pro R9700 is optimized for multi-GPU configurations and workloads like LLM training, simulation, and AI-accelerated rendering.

It ships with ROCm support on Linux, with Windows support expected later. Availability is set for July 2025.

While the AI Pro R9700 was AMD’s headline release for professional AI workloads at Computex, the Ryzen Threadripper 9000 Series and RX 9060 XT GPU rounded out the line-up with options aimed at creators, enthusiasts, and gamers.

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Categories: Technology

Inside a Drone Factory in Ukraine

NPR News Headlines - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 14:00

Throughout the more than three years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, drones have been a key tool and weapon used by both sides in the conflict. Because of this, Ukraine is at the cutting edge of drone innovation, churning out some two million unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, last year. These flying drones come in all sizes and they're produced in factories large and high-tech, as well as small and shoestring. In today's episode, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley takes us inside a drone-making operation in Kyiv.

Categories: News

AMD insists it was right to make an 8GB version of RX 9060 XT GPU, but PC gamers are finding it easy to be cynical about this model

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 14:00
  • AMD has received quite a lot of flak for making an 8GB version of the RX 9060 XT
  • A Team Red exec has argued that this VRAM loadout is fine for 1080p
  • Some gamers remain unconvinced and also feel AMD has badly named this new pair of 8GB and 16GB GPUs

AMD has shot back at critics after coming under fire for producing a version of its newly revealed RX 9060 XT graphics card that has an 8GB loadout of video RAM (VRAM).

The RX 9060 XT was revealed earlier this week in both 16GB and 8GB versions. The latter is causing anger, as some argue it is not enough for modern PC gaming, and there are other worries here, too.

Michael Quesada, who runs a Spanish YouTube channel on the topic of PC gaming, aired an indignant post on X asking why AMD (and Nvidia) keep making GPUs with 8GB of VRAM, questioning how that’s justified in 2025.

VideoCardz noticed that Frank Azor, AMD’s head of consumer and gaming marketing, was drawn to reply, as you can see below.

Majority of gamers are still playing at 1080p and have no use for more than 8GB of memory. Most played games WW are mostly esports games. We wouldn't build it if there wasn't a market for it. If 8GB isn't right for you then there's 16GB. Same GPU, no compromise, just memory…May 22, 2025

Azor observes that most gamers are still running at 1080p resolution and, therefore, don’t need more than 8GB of VRAM. The AMD exec notes that the most popular games are esports titles, which are less demanding, and that Team Red wouldn’t make an 8GB graphics card if there wasn’t a demand for it.

Azor concludes: “If 8GB isn’t right for you then there’s 16GB. Same GPU, no compromise, just memory options.”

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)Analysis: No compromise, but plenty of cynicism

To be fair to Azor, there’s some truth to what the executive says here. Certainly, for a more casual level of gaming, as well as esports titles that are built for fluid frame rates in general, as that’s more important than graphical bells and whistles to competitive players, 8GB is likely enough.

As others point out, it’s not enough for all PC games, even at 1080p resolution. Although tweaking graphics details suitably and making some compromises, you can generally get by, albeit there are notable exceptions even at 1080p.

But despite the noise made by the ‘8GB just isn’t enough these days’ camp on social media – and it is a fair old racket, make no mistake – some of the negative feeling here is more about deceptive naming.

Rather than having the RX 9060 XT 8GB and RX 9060 XT 16GB, there should have been a clear naming delineation between these two variants. The most prevalent suggestion is that AMD should’ve called the 8GB spin the plain old RX 9060, dropping the XT suffix.

Why is making that naming distinction important? Because what can happen with both graphics cards being called the ‘RX 9060 XT’ is that system builders simply list that as the GPU in any given PC, with no accompanying memory details. Less informed consumers may not even be aware that there are two different variants of the RX 9060 XT.

They may have perused opinions or reviews of the 16GB flavor and assume that’s what they are getting in their shiny new PC, when in fact it has the somewhat inferior 8GB GPU.

PC builders may deliberately not make that clear, because the system is cheaper to produce with the RX 9060 XT 8GB, but they won’t drop the price to consider that. In other words, this is a knowledge trap for the unwary and a way for system makers to take advantage of them. And it’s an avenue AMD could have shut off with different names for the 8GB and 16GB cards.

AMD might argue that it intends to have an RX 9060 vanilla GPU in the future, so it couldn’t use that name, but surely it could’ve found some suitable way of denoting the difference. Such as calling the 16GB version the 9060 XTX (although that’s a suffix reserved for the flagship GPU, you get the idea).

There’s a level of unhappiness and cynicism around the naming here, in short, and we should note this applies to Nvidia as well as AMD (with Team Green’s xx60 Ti models that have both 8GB and 16GB versions in the same vein).

AMD does get some credit here for ensuring it hasn’t further hamstrung the RX 9060 XT for some gamers with older motherboards by halving the number of supported PCIe lanes. Still, I won’t go into that here, as it’s getting sidetracked really (and it’s something I’ve discussed elsewhere).

(Image credit: Getty Images / luza studios)

To summarize: 8GB should be okay for a lot of games at 1080p resolution, with some down-tuning of graphics details as appropriate – but it won’t work well for everything, and the level of future-proofing feels wonky indeed.

On top of that, be careful of prebuilt PCs that list an RX 9060 XT graphics card with no accompanying spec info – it’s almost certainly going to be the 8GB version, and you may be paying more for it than you should.

For those buying a standalone RX 9060 XT, it makes sense to pay the premium for the 16GB version. It’s worth doing so for future-proofing alone, and it promises to be an excellent graphics card for the money overall.

That said, this assumes the premium is roughly 15% extra as per the MRSPs and that demand for the 9060 XT 16GB doesn’t considerably inflate the price. If it does, then that muddles the value equation a lot more. Hopefully, stock won’t be a problem, though, if the rumors are right. It’s only if supply is thin that jacked-up prices start to rear their ugly heads.

If another rumor is correct, the 16GB board will be the RX 9060 XT model predominantly stocked at retailers, so that’ll be the one you mostly see if you’re on the hunt for an AMD GPU, anyway.

Although that also brings the suggestion that the 8GB flavor is being kept more to PC builders, which could fan the aforementioned flames of cynicism around this whole affair – assuming this is anything more than empty chatter.

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Categories: Technology

DOGE created a 'survey of surveys' for a push to cut some government data collection

NPR News Headlines - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 13:57

DOGE's push to cut some federal surveys conducted by the Census Bureau may be duplicating a White House agency's oversight work and weaken U.S. data infrastructure, experts warn.

(Image credit: Etienne Laurent)

Categories: News

Goodbye Windows 11 – Valve's SteamOS is now available on the Legion Go S, with some support for other AMD-powered handhelds

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 13:35
  • Valve's SteamOS 3.7 stable has official support for the Lenovo Legion Go S
  • It also features limited support for other AMD-powered handhelds
  • It's promised future support for other devices

Microsoft's Windows 11 has been present on most handheld gaming PCs, notably the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go. However, that may be on the verge of changing, with Valve's Linux operating system first making its way to a new handheld.

As reported by VideoCardz, Valve's SteamOS 3.7 stable has been released with full Lenovo Legion Go S support, along with other AMD-powered handheld gaming PCs. While solutions like preview drivers or beta builds have been available, this is the first time Valve has provided gamers with installation instructions (specifically for the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally).

Compatibility includes other AMD-powered handheld gaming PCs, but it's important to note that Valve has stated that only the Legion Go S (and, of course, the Steam Deck) will have official SteamOS support. However, it highlights that it's continually working on improved support for other handhelds.

Fortunately, gamers still have other options such as Bazzite, which is essentially a SteamOS clone with additional features like Handheld Daemon for greater handheld functionality; most importantly, it arguably has more support through updates for desktop PCs, laptops, and handhelds.

It could be a while before we see SteamOS at its full capacity on non-Steam Deck devices, so Bazzite, ChimeraOS, and other SteamOS or Linux distros ideal for handheld gaming are certainly ones to look towards in the meantime.

(Image credit: Future)Another reason for Microsoft to step it up for handhelds with Windows 11...

Besides the issues with anti-cheat games not running on Linux (specifically SteamOS), running Microsoft's Windows 11 on handheld gaming PCs has few benefits.

Even with tools like Armoury Crate on the Asus ROG Ally, Microsoft has yet to acknowledge and support portable devices. Further, with the run of game-breaking bugs from Windows 11 24H2, I was convinced to install Bazzite.

I must say, I'm glad I did, as the SteamOS user experience for handhelds is significantly better than Windows 11. It helped me further appreciate the sleep function on the Steam Deck, which is a pain to deal with on Windows, as games can crash completely upon waking up your device. It's not an issue now since it's possible with other handhelds using SteamOS via distros or Valve's SteamOS distribution.

There are plenty of reasons why Microsoft should step it up with better Windows 11 features for handhelds, but now is the best time to act. Once devices other than the Legion Go S and Steam Deck have greater SteamOS support, I suspect even more PC gamers will turn away from the popular operating system...

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Categories: Technology

Has AMD bypassed mainstream PC vendors to sell Ryzen AI Max+ 395 PCs? New model has a mysterious performance switch button

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 13:32
  • Bosgame M5 mini-PC features an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor
  • Integrated Radeon 8060S Graphics, up to 128GB of RAM, dual PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs
  • There's also a performance switch, but what it actually does is a mystery for now

A new mini PC featuring AMD’s high-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip has surfaced, but this one didn’t come from a major brand like HP, Dell, or Lenovo.

The Bosgame M5 AI Mini Desktop has quietly gone up for pre-order, priced at $1,699 (a saving of $1,000 off its usual MSRP of $2,700), and it's raising some interesting questions about AMD’s rollout strategy for its powerful Strix Halo processor line.

The compact M5 comes with integrated Radeon 8060S Graphics and includes support for up to 128GB of RAM, dual PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD slots, a USB 4.0 front port, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.4. A dual-fan cooling setup and three heat pipes aim to keep thermal performance under control.

Performance switch

As Notebookcheck observes, the M5 has already appeared in Geekbench results. The listing shows a single-core score of 2,852, which is in line with expectations, but a lower-than-average multicore score of 16,044. This likely points to early firmware or software issues, as the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 typically averages around 21,000 in multicore tests.

One curious detail about the M5 is the inclusion of a "performance switch" button, shown briefly in Bosgame's promotional material. It’s unclear what this toggle actually does. It might be linked to TDP profiles, fan curves, or some kind of AI workload optimization, but for now we have no idea.

The Bosgame M5 AI Mini Desktop includes dual USB4 Type-C ports, multiple USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 ports, full-sized HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 outputs for multi-monitor setups, and a 2.5Gbps RJ45 LAN port for stable wired networking.

A full-size SDXC card slot offers convenient media transfer for photographers and videographers, while dual audio jacks ensure flexible sound input and output.

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Categories: Technology

Serie A Italian Soccer Livestream: How to Watch Napoli vs. Cagliari From Anywhere

CNET News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 13:15
A win in Naples for Gli Azzurri will see it seal the title.
Categories: Technology

I tested out the Tribesigns mobile standing desk and its compact minimalism is ideal for small spaces

TechRadar Reviews - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 13:02

Standing desks have become increasingly popular over the last several years, especially as working from home grows. The quality and features have grown along with that popularity. Some of the desks I am testing right now are well into $3,000, and that's not even fully featured or the most expensive that specific desk can get.

The point is that the best standing desks are getting larger in terms of size, feature sets, and price. For those who have one of those and want another workspace, or those who wish to have just a simple, bare-bones workspace that isn't their kitchen table, counter, or slumped over on their couch, the TribeSign Mobile Height Adjustable Desk may be an excellent option for you.

It's designed to be a cart you can roll in front of a couch, for example, to provide a workspace to place your laptop and get some work done without staring down at your lap. It's great for that, but I have actually found use for this desk as a heavily used workspace where I have been able to get some serious work done.

I won't say that this desk compares to some of the premium standing desks, because it doesn't. But what it does well is the bare-bones basics, for a very low cost. With that in mind, and the caveat of budget pricing, I'll give this desk a 4/5. But let me explain further...

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Tribesigns Mobile Height Adjustable Desk: Pricing and Availability

The TribeSign Mobile Height Adjustable Desk retails at around $129.99 through the company's website by clicking here and a few other retailers like Amazon.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Tribesigns Mobile Height Adjustable Desk: Unboxing & first impressions

The desk came in compact packaging with the basic tools and components needed. I built this desk in 16 minutes from start to finish, and it was incredibly easy to do.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

Once I got this desk together, I could see how simple and lightweight it was. It's minimalistic and has simple controls to raise and lower the desk, albeit manually. It is not easy to do if you have things on the desk weighing it down, but regardless, it has the ability.

I also noticed the simple grommet power solution, and immediately noted how it could be used with an upgraded grommet, if desired or needed.

Tribesigns Mobile Height Adjustable Desk: Design & Build QualitySpecs

Dimensions: 35.4" W x 17.7" D x 27.6"–43.3" H
Materials: 0.6" thick particleboard with a metal frame
Features: Wireless charging grommet, USB ports, sliding keyboard tray, lockable wheels

The TribeSign Mobile Height Adjustable Desk is compact and made for small or multi-use spaces. The materials are budget-grade, though the desk is solid for the price point. The keyboard and mouse sliding tray works well and is easy enough to use. It's pretty shallow, but I can fit a standard Logitech MX Keys and a Logitech MX Anywhere mouse.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Tribesigns Mobile Height Adjustable Desk: In use

As I mentioned, this desk is designed to roll out in a living room scenario and be a temporary or simple workstation. However, without intending it, this desk has become a heavily used workstation for me in the last month. I set this up upstairs in my house to try it out when my basement office overruns guests.

Since then, I have found myself needing to use this desk quite a bit, so much so that I have added a 32" Dell monitor I am testing (review coming soon), a Logitech MX Keys, Logitech MX Anywhere, a Grovemade iPad Stand I love using with my MacBook, and even a BenQ Laptop Light Bar that I have behind the monitor to bouce light off the wall at night.

I use the monitor as a hub to charge my lightbar, iPhone/iPad if needed, and, of course, my MacBook Pro while plugged in. Occasionally, I will charge my AirPods on the wireless charger, but I'm more tempted to upgrade this grommet with a nicer one that gives me better output.

This desk works even with this setup, as you can see in the pictures. It feels like it shouldn't, but it has been working for months. It's simple. It's minimal, not expensive, nor bougie, but it works. And, sometimes, that's all you need.

I still greatly prefer my fancy desks, which I get to build and use daily. Those are still my primary workstations and the ones I like. But if you are short on space and only have a little room to fit in a workstation, this one is shockingly impressive.

I'll admit, I have yet to mess with the height settings manually I have this desk on right now, but setting the height in the first place has given me a great height to use a mouse and keyboard with the tray and see my monitor at the height I want.
All around, as a secondary desk space, smaller desk space, or even this makeshift minimalist desk, the TribeSigns Mobile Height Adjustable Desk has surprised me.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

Minimal, compact

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ease of use

Easy to use

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Practicality

Right for small spaces

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Price

Cheap Price, Cheap material

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tribesigns Mobile Height Adjustable Desk: Final verdict

TribeSigns Mobile Height Adjustable Desk is a budget-friendly and versatile option for anyone looking for a space-saving workstation. Though it won't replace a full desk for intensive use, its mobility and built-in features make it a great addition to any home or office environment.

Categories: Reviews

Serie A Italian Soccer Livestream: How to Watch Como vs. Inter Milan From Anywhere

CNET News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 13:00
It's win or bust for Simone Inzaghi's men in the last game of the Italian season.
Categories: Technology

Volvo’s cars will be the first to get Google Gemini’s ‘conversational’ AI – and I think the in-car tech has massive potential

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 13:00
  • Volvo will be one of the reference hardware platforms for Google's dev work
  • Volvo cars will be the first to receive Google Gemini in the vehicle
  • The Swedish company showcased an EX90 with Gemini at Google I/O

Volvo has announced that it will be a key player in Google’s delivery of Android Automotive updates, acting as one of the tech giant’s reference hardware platforms to speed up the introduction of new in-car features.

Showcasing the partnership at Google’s recent I/O 2025 event, the Swedish marque said that it will be among the first in the world to debut Gemini’s ‘conversational’ AI in its vehicle, highlighting what that could look like with an EX90 demonstration vehicle.

Volvo, alongside sister company Polestar, were among the first automakers to use an Android Automotive operating system, introducing the Google platform into the car and allowing for a more seamless, tablet-like infotainment experience.

Now, Volvo customers will be among the first in the world to be able to make use of Gemini, which harness the power of AI to offer a more conversational approach to the typical voice assistant.

Alongside being able to ask detailed questions about the vehicle (‘how do I change a tire?’ or ‘when is my next service due?’ are just a few examples), drivers will be able to easily navigate to locations based on conversational requests.

Navigating to a charging point that’s close to a highly-rated cafe will be as easy as posing that question, rather than having to make several clunky inputs into Google Maps.

Reducing driver distraction is arguably the key driver behind the technology, negating the temptation to search the web for suggestions when behind the wheel or interacting with a cumbersome touchscreen.

Volvo says that this kind of natural conversation can help reduce “your cognitive load so that you can stay focused on driving, reducing distractions for everyone onboard”.

Analysis: Gemini has the potential to revolutionize navigation

(Image credit: Google)

The announcement is great news for drivers, as it means Volvo – arguably the final word in automotive safety – will have an active input into the new connected experiences provided by Google.

A heavy use of Gemini AI will not only reduce the amount of distractions that modern automotive infotainment systems suffer from, but should also limit the amount of clunky voice inputs that are currently required to send a message or navigate to anything other than a very precise destination.

Particularly in the world of electric vehicles, where quickly navigating to nearby charging stations is often required on-the-fly, Gemini will be able to whittle these results down to the fastest outlets, those near public conveniences or even points with the lowest cost per kilowatt.

Plus, the ability to plug into Google’s ratings and reviews platform also means it will be easier to quickly locate and even book the best places to visit, while greater integration with G Drive, Calendars and more will hopefully make those hours on the road slightly more productive.

Above all else, all of these features will hopefully reduce the temptation for drivers to resort to picking up a smartphone in frustration, increasing safety on our roads.

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Categories: Technology

Your favorite restaurant is probably really bad at passwords

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 12:57
  • Hospitality businesses are among the worst at maintaining good password health
  • 123456789 and P@ssw0rd were among the top 20 most used
  • Using better passwords and MFA is the best advice

A new study by NordPass has revealed just how widespread weak and predictable passwords can be, particularly within the hospitality industry.

According to the research, hotels, restaurants and other similar businesses are failing to secure critical systems like reservation platforms, POS systems and even staff accounts by opting for weak passwords that could put guest data and business operations at risk of cyberattacks.

NordPass also realized that many businesses are reusing similar or outdated passwords across systems, meaning that if a hacker can gain access to one platform, they may be able to move laterally within the business.

Hospitality businesses are really rubbish at passwords

Five password categories were highlighted as common options for businesses in this industry, including simple numeric sequences (123456789), general terms (Reservattions2021!), brand-related terms (Ramada@123), easy-to-guess patterns (P@ssw0rd) and developer or role-related terms (developer2). The five examples given aren't simply examples – they appear in NordPass's top 20 most commonly used passwords in hospitality.

"In hotels and restaurants, guests expect great service – not for their personal data to be on the menu," Head of Business Product Karolis Arbaciauskas commented. "The presence of multiple 'reservations' variants and brand-related terms suggests that many businesses still lack clear password hygiene policies," the notice reads.

The company, known for its password manager, shared four pieces of advice, beginning with the most obvious – to avoid predictable passwords that can be easily guessed or extracted via social engineering, which continues to be the most common method of entry for attackers.

Businesses should also implement multi-factor authentication for further protection, store their credentials in password managers, and build a security-aware culture with frequent and comprehensive training.

NordPass has three separate business-focused plans – Teams, Business and Enterprise – which offer features like SSO, secure sharing and compliance features.

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Categories: Technology

World's largest SSD is on sale for almost $12,400 and yes, it is quite a bargain - if you can afford it of course

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 12:32
  • Solidigm’s monster 122.88TB D5-P5336 SSD is now officially available
  • It's designed to meet demands of modern hyperscale data infrastructure
  • Initial estimates suggested $14,000, but you can order it for "just" $12,399

Originally announced in November 2024, the 122.88TB model of Solidigm’s D5-P5336 SSD has officially gone on sale.

If you’ve ever wondered how much one of these giant-capacity SSDs might set you back, the answer is: maybe not quite as much as you’d expect, as although early estimates placed its price close to $14,000, but you can actually pick up the drive from Tech-America for a much more affordable $12,399.

Obviously, this isn’t a drive for your typical PC rig - it uses a PCIe 4.0 interface and comes in U.2 (available now) and E1.L (expected later this year) form factors. It’s aimed at enterprise storage environments handling large-scale AI, machine learning, and data-intensive workloads.

Longer lasting QLC

The drive is built with 192-layer QLC NAND. With endurance rated at 0.60 drive writes per day and a total of 134.3 petabytes written over five years, the 122.88TB model is designed to last longer than earlier QLC offerings.

Solidigm, a US-based subsidiary of SK Hynix, reportedly tested the drive under extreme conditions. Running 32KB random writes at full load, the drive operated continuously for five years and retained around 5 percent of its life.

Performance claims include up to 930,000 IOPS for 4K random reads and 7.4GBps for sequential reads.

Solidigm markets its large SSD as a solution to space and power constraints in data centers, claiming that replacing traditional hybrid systems with its all-QLC drives could reduce rack usage from nine to one and cut power consumption by around 90 percent.

The drive joins other high-capacity SSDs announced in 2024, including models from Phison, Samsung, and Western Digital. Phison’s SSD supports PCIe Gen5 and offers faster peak throughput, though the D5-P5336 delivers a higher endurance rating and greater storage density.

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Categories: Technology

Kioxia's new 61.44TB SSD uses surprising tech that almost doubles write performance compared to previous gen

TechRadar News - Fri, 05/23/2025 - 12:29
  • Kioxia CM9 Series SSDs use 8th gen BiCS FLASH for enterprise performance
  • Faster NAND speeds and power efficiency support AI and data centers
  • Offers 61.44TB max, dual-port design, and massive write improvements

Kioxia has announced its CM9 Series PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs, marking the first enterprise drives built using its 8th generation BiCS FLASH 3D TLC memory.

With PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 2.0 support, the CM9 SSDs are designed to meet modern standards for data center storage by offering high-efficiency storage capable of supporting AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing.

These new SSDs feature CMOS directly bonded to array (CBA) architecture, an update designed to improve performance, power efficiency, and memory density. Kioxia’s use of CBA-based flash architecture promises faster NAND interface speeds and lower latency, which helps the drives deliver quicker data access and improved power efficiency.

Top-tier bit density

Compared to the previous CM7 series, the CM9 line shows increases of about 65% in random write speeds, 55% in random read, and 95% in sequential write speeds.

The CM9 SSDs, currently sampling to select customers, are built to handle read-intensive and mixed-use workloads in enterprise data centers and offer capacities of up to 61.44TB in 2.5-inch form and 30.72TB in E3.S configurations.

The drives are compatible with both the NVMe-MI 1.2c and OCP Datacenter NVMe SSD 2.5 specifications, and support dual-port configurations, making them suitable for enterprise environments where reliability and continuous access are critical.

Kioxia, which recently helped Linus Tech Tips smash the Pi calculation world record, says gains in power efficiency include roughly 55% better sequential read and 75% better sequential write performance per watt.

Although it’s early in the lifecycle of the CM9 Series, the specs and performance numbers suggest the company is aiming to strengthen its position in high-performance enterprise storage.

Axel Stoermann, Vice President and CTO for Embedded Memory and SSD, Kioxia Europe GmbH, said, “Alongside processing power and energy efficiency, memory is fundamental to enable AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing applications. The CM9 Series powered by our BiCS FLASH generation 8, is designed to address these storage demands, providing top-tier bit density, rapid data transfer, and outstanding power efficiency, all of which contribute to the superior performance of our SSDs."

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