Toshiba has announced plans to bring 30TB+ hard drives to the commercial market in 2025.

The large capacities have been made possible through two magnetic recording technologies: Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) and Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR). 

HAMR technology significantly enhances writing capabilities by heating the disk material with a near-field laser. HAMR does have its critics, with questions regarding the technology’s readiness, quality, reliability and compatibility, but all of the major drive manufactures are adopting it, and Seagate recently announced the results of an experimental test in which one of its Mozaic 3+ HAMR-equipped drives ran continuously, and problem free, for over 6,000 hours.

Yo MAMR!

Using HAMR, coupled with Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR), which increases storage capacity by overlapping data tracks, allowed Toshiba to successfully achieve a drive capacity of 32TB over 10 x 3TB platters.

The second technology, MAMR, uses microwaves to boost magnetic recording abilities. Toshiba was a pioneering champion of this technology, having started mass production of the first-generation drives back in 2021. With the combination of SMR technology, improved signal processing, and the stacking of 11 platters, the company says it achieved 31TB capacity. 

Larry Martinez-Palomo, Toshiba's Vice President and Head of Storage Products Division, said "Toshiba is concurrently advancing the development of future generation high-capacity HDDs using both HAMR and MAMR technologies. Mass production of hard disk drives incorporating HAMR will commence after the validation phase is completed. In the interim, Toshiba will continue to satisfy the demand for high-capacity, high-reliability storage devices with hard disk drives employing the field-proven MAMR technology.” 

Toshiba expects to begin shipping test HAMR HDDs, with a capacity ranging from 28 to 30TB, in 2025.

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Today's Quordle is pretty easy. Not quite as simple as today's NYT Strands game, immediately, but still not too bad. Then again, that comparison isn't entirely fair, because an easy Quordle is still pretty difficult, so you may well need the clues that I've assembled below. Help yourself to as many as you need.

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

Quordle today (game #846) - hint #1 - Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #846) - hint #2 - repeated letters

Quordle today (game #846) - hint #3 - uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #846) - hint #4 - starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #846) - hint #5 - starting letters (2)

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

Quordle today (game #846) - the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #846, are…

• ALIKE
• USHER
• FLAKE
• SUAVE 

As Quordles go, this was on the easier side. Or at least it was on the easier side for me, because my three set start words – STARE, DOILY and PUNCH – did a lot of the hard work for me. In fact, I'm thinking of trying a new strategy just because it's not typically much of a challenge playing it this way, and I'll never be able to score better than a 7 out of 9. We'll see.

Anyway, as far as today went, the only tricky one was FLAKE, because the -LA-E pattern I'd uncovered could also have been the likes of FLAME or BLAME. But once I solved that it gave me the K for ALIKE, the other potentially difficult one given how my board was looking at that stage, so I completed the puzzle with one guess spare.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #846) - the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #846, are…

• WHOOP
• AZURE
• REFIT
• CHAMP

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #845, Saturday 18 May: HUMPH, SHARD, LABOR, CROWD
• Quordle #844, Friday 17 May: DREAD, USUAL, LOVER, SPEAK
• Quordle #843, Thursday 16 May: COVEY, TWEAK, DITTO, DECAY
• Quordle #842, Wednesday 15 May: ABUSE, MANGY, WAGER, AHEAD
• Quordle #841, Tuesday 14 May: FLUTE, CARRY, BULLY, PURSE
• Quordle #840, Monday 13 May: CRASS, NICHE, CHEST, PRIZE
• Quordle #839, Sunday 12 May: BLAST, FRONT, CLACK, EAGLE
• Quordle #838, Saturday 11 May: SPINY, FRAME, GOOEY, FERAL
• Quordle #837, Friday 10 May: QUASH, PERKY, ENSUE, HARPY
• Quordle #836, Thursday 9 May: WOUND, IGLOO, MEALY, PASTY
• Quordle #835, Wednesday 8 May: SEVER, GLORY, RADAR, SMALL
• Quordle #834, Tuesday 7 May: DEFER, BOUGH, MISER, MAGMA
• Quordle #833, Monday 6 May: STAIN, GENIE, LEVEL, RELAY
• Quordle #832, Sunday 5 May: GAZER, TWEET, FERRY, THUMB
• Quordle #831, Saturday 4 May: WAGON, QUICK, MURAL, LIEGE
• Quordle #830, Friday 3 May: NUDGE, CLASH, KNAVE, AGENT
• Quordle #829, Thursday 2 May: TULIP, PLAZA, DAILY, SINGE
• Quordle #828, Wednesday 1 May: ROUGH, SYNOD, POSSE, PARRY
• Quordle #827, Tuesday 30 April: STASH, FUSSY, REEDY, WALTZ
• Quordle #826, Monday 29 April: STAKE, PURGE, PECAN, PLANT

If you're looking for an easy Strands puzzle today, then read on, read on… because that's exactly what you'll get. Frankly, I'd be amazed if you needed my clues, but you'll find them below anyway, because I'm helpful like that. 

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

NYT Strands today (game #77) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #77) - hint #2 - clue words

NYT Strands today (game #77) - hint #3 - spangram

NYT Strands today (game #77) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #77) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #77, are…

• EYES
• FIRE
• SKULL
• ROSE
• SPARKLES
• BOUQUET
• STARSTRUCK
• SPANGRAM: EMOJIS

• My rating: Easiest word puzzle in the history of word puzzles
• My score: Perfect

I don't really get what the point of this was. The theme is a good one; emojis are fun, I use them often, they make for a good Strands puzzle. But, but, but, BUT, BUT… why give away the answers in the theme clue? Why, Mr and Mrs NYT, would you do that? The entire game simply because an exercise in saying what you see. There were ways to avoid this. Maybe just have one emoji as the clue, and challenge people to find various emoji words in the grid. But this was so easy as to be pointless.

As you might expect, I spotted EMOJIS, the spangram, immediately, then ticked off the others one by one with a minimum of fuss. The whole thing took me about one minute. One minute I'll never get back.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday 18 May, game #76)

• DIVIDE
• MULTIPLY
• CALCULATE
• SUBTRACT
• DERIVE
• SPANGRAM: MATHEMATICS

Images of Samsung’s upcoming laptop, the Galaxy Book4 Edge, have recently surfaced online. Prior leaks mentioned the kind of hardware it’ll run, but this is the first time we've been given an idea of what the device will look like. The first set comes from tech news site WinFuture and appears to be marketing photographs. According to the publication, there will be two models at launch: a base 14-inch laptop and a 16-inch Pro version.

What’s interesting about them is they have a lighter color scheme compared to the rest of the Galaxy Book4 lineup. It’s referred to as “Artic Blue” in the report and comes with gray keys. The other devices are a darker shade of silver housing an entirely black keyboard. And sticking true to its “Edge” moniker, the new Galaxy Book4 looks significantly thinner than its counterparts although we don’t know by how much. WinFuture’s leak didn’t include information on the laptop's size.

The slimmer design, unsurprisingly, reduces the amount of ports available. The 14-inch laptop has two USB inputs, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Images of the 16-inch laptop show the same array but with the addition of a USB-A port and an SD card slot.

Hardware specs

There are a handful of similarities between the pair. Both are said to sport AMOLED displays outputting at 3K resolution. Each has a cooling vent near the bottom and a Copilot key for instant access to Microsoft’s AI. It’s important to mention that WinFuture’s source claims there will be a third Galaxy Book4 variant, but they didn’t provide any information about it.

Another image set of the Book4 Edge duo was found on the Korea Certification Mark website and subsequently posted to the Korean social media website Naver. They show the 14-inch and 16-inch models in more natural lighting, but the color is different. They aren't as blue; rather it’s a more neutral-looking silver. There is no word on when the laptop will launch. Samsung is scheduled to hold its next Galaxy Unpacked on July 10. At that time, we could see the two laptops make their debut alongside other Galaxy hardware like the Z Flip 6.

Pricing for the laptops is unknown. although they’re slated to be expensive. WinFuture states one of the laptops will cost around €1,800 (about $2,000/£1,540).

Powerful hardware

Older leaks have provided an interesting insight into the Galaxy Book4 Edge’s performance. Back in early March, WinFuture claimed the laptop will run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chipset and not something from the more ubiquitous Intel Core Ultra series. There’s been a fair amount of hype surrounding the Snapdragon X because it’s been shown to outperform Apple’s M3 chipset by a wide margin. Samsung may finally have a laptop actually capable of being a “MacBook killer”.

Whether this is the case or not remains to be seen. The Snapdragon X Elite tests were done in a closed environment and Samsung's final product may run differently. Of course, take everything you read here with a grain of salt. Things can always change.

Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best laptops for 2024.

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According to a new report, AMD may streamline its mobile CPU brand names by discontinuing the HS, H, and U designations for its 15-45W TDP (Thermal Design Power) chips.

Instead, the designation will be changed to the ‘Ryzen AI’ name starting with the upcoming Zen 5 Strix Point processor generation, according to Weibo (reported by igor'sLAB). There are several reasons AMD could be making such a bold move for the branding of its mobile chips, with the biggest one being to promote a better understanding of the tech giant’s products.

Simplifying the old branding to ‘Ryzen AI’ makes it easier for consumers and partners to know a chip’s classification, instead of needing to memorize several unrelated letters. Ryzen AI also allows for different performance levels to be covered under the 15-14W range. And using ‘AI’ in the new brand demonstrates that AMD is committing itself to AI-powered APUs.

The report states that certain branding will remain the same. For instance, the “successor to the Ryzen 7040 ‘Phoenix’ series (HS/H) will be called ‘Ryzen AI HX’.” It also clarifies that because the transition to this new branding may cause initial confusion, AMD will provide information and tools to allow for a clearer understanding and breakdown of how the new naming system will work.

Strix Point will mix things up

A shiny new name designation for the chips powering the upcoming Strix Point isn’t the only thing the new APUs have to look forward to, to go by the rumors surrounding it. An engineering sample had been reportedly benched through Blender, revealing a score of 270.92, which means that a mobile CPU beat out two desktop processors — the Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

There was another rumor claiming some surprising specs for an Asus laptop that would feature a Strix Point APU, specifically the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 that has 12 cores and 24 threads, an NPU running at 77 TOPs (trillions of operations per second), a boost clock of up to 5.1GHz, and 36MB of L3 cache.

But the move to AI could mean some users getting left behind. Another rumor claims that the upcoming APUs will drop support for Windows 10. Despite the OS being far more popular than Windows 11, the latter is tailor-made for AI, while the much older Windows 10 would definitely struggle with components that use it.

It seems that, if even half of these rumors and reports turn out to be true, Strix Point will be an interesting turning point for AMD in terms of both aesthetics and performance.

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Cybersecurity researchers from Intego have discovered new variants of the dreaded Cuckoo malware that targets macOS users.

For those unfamiliar with the name, Cuckoo is an infostealer targeting Mac devices running both on Intel and ARM silicon. 

Intego’s researchers now say they have found a new variant that was pretending to be Homebrew, a popular macOS software package manager. The attackers set up a fake landing page, seemingly identical to the authentic Homebrew page, which deployed the infostealer.

Poisoning Google Ads

In early May 2024, Mac security provider Kandji said the malware “queries for specific files associated with specific applications, in an attempt to gather as much information as possible from the system." Apparently, Cuckoo was looking for hardware information, currently running processes, and installed applications. 

Among its key features are the ability to take screenshots, harvest data from iCloud Keychains, Apple notes, web browsers, different apps (Discord, Telegram, Steam, and more), and grab cryptocurrency wallet data.

The threat was being distributed via fake software, a program claiming to be able to rip music from streaming services into .MP3 files.

While setting up a fake website is easy, getting people to visit it is infinitely harder. Intego believes that to get people to visit the website, the attackers engaged in Google Ads poisoning, obtaining access to Google Ads accounts with cleared and running campaigns, and modifying them (or running new campaigns) to generate traffic.

“We recommend that consumers get out of the habit of “just Google it” to find legitimate sites,” the researchers said. “Such habits often include clicking on the first link without giving it much thought, under the assumption that Google won’t lead them astray, and will give them the correct result right at the top. Malware makers know this, of course, and that’s why they’re paying Google for the number-one position.”

Instead of Googling popular websites, users are advised to type in the address themselves, or to bookmark the sites.

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It's Friday, the sun is shining (where I am at least) and it's a fine day to play Strands, the NYT's new-ish word game. If you haven't played before and have landed here curious to see what it's about, check out my What is NYT Strands? hub. If you already know all about it, read on for my hints and to see how I did today.

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

NYT Strands today (game #75) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #75) - hint #2 - clue words

NYT Strands today (game #75) - hint #3 - spangram

NYT Strands today (game #75) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #75) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #75, are…

• CHOPSTICK
• MITTEN
• PLIER
• BOOKEND
• TONG
• WING
• EARPLUG
• SPANGRAM: PAIRED

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: Perfect

It took me a while to make a breakthrough here, but once I had the concept it wasn't too bad. The theme clue of 'Looking for a mate' is nicely cryptic; it makes sense once you know that the spangram is PAIRED or identify an answer or two, but could be several other things until then. For instance, I thought it was a chess reference at first, so was delighted when I spotted 'rook', but that was either a coincidence or a deliberate red herring.

It was only when I randomly uncovered CHOPSTICK that I realized what was going on. Even then, it was quite hard to find other answers, because 'things that go in pairs' is not as obvious as some other recent Strands puzzles. However, finding the spangram made the task a bit simpler by virtue of reducing the number of permutations for many of the letters, and I eventually managed to find the other solutions.  

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday 16 May, game #74)

• BITTER
• SALTY
• SWEET
• SOUR
• UMAMI
• PIQUANT
• SPICY
• TART
• SPANGRAM: FLAVORS

Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery are entering a joint venture as the three companies have revealed their new streaming service Venu. Reportedly pronounced as “venue,” the platform will focus entirely on offering live sports. 

Variety states it’ll combine content from ESPN Plus and live events from several of “the three companies’ linear TV networks.” This includes but is not limited to, ABC, ESPN2, FS1, TNT, and TBS. If you look at the initial partnership announcement from February, you’ll see everything Venu will offer at launch. Pro football, baseball, basketball, and even Formula 1 racing are all on the table. 

There is still a lot we don’t know about the service. Presumably, it will have a back catalog of past games available on demand. Additionally, no one knows when it’s going to launch. The companies are aiming for a Fall 2024 release when it’ll be available as a standalone app, although this could change. 

If you go to the platform’s official website, you’ll see a notice at the bottom stating that the “launch is conditional on receiving regulatory approval.” This means they’re waiting for the United States government to give them a green light before moving forward. 

Unknown details

Pricing is unknown at the time as the three brands are saying they’ll reveal this information at a later time ... likely closer to launch. However, that hasn't prevented industry experts from making predictions. 

According to Deadline, “most Wall Street analysts and industry observers” predict Venu will “cost at least $40 a month.” Interested audiences can also purchase the service in a bundle that can include either Disney Plus, Hulu, or Max, potentially raising prices even more.

Live sports seem to be the new frontier for streaming services. Netflix recently announced it will broadcast NFL games on Christmas Day for the next three years. NBCUniversal has exclusive rights to air the Paris 2024 Olympics “with coverage likely to spread across [its streaming platform] Peacock TV” and its linear channels. 

It’ll be interesting to see if viewers are willing to leave behind established services for these new avenues. There is a chance they might because of how more affordable Venu could be. YouTube TV, for example, offers live sports and costs $72.99 a month or $57.99 if you’re a new user.

For sports fans, be sure to check out TechRadar's best TV for 2024 if you want to enjoy upcoming games in the highest quality possible. 

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Hackers have been observed combining spam, a classic IT tech support scam, and Windows built-in remote control and screen-sharing tool, Quick Assist, to deploy the Black Basta ransomware variant. 

Reports from both Microsoft, and cybersecurity researchers Rapid7 outlined how the attack is also quite creative and not something that’s often seen in the cybercrime space. 

Before the actual attack, the threat actors (which Microsoft identified as Storm-1811) need to obtain two things: the victim’s email address, and phone number. 

Deploying Black Basta

After that, the attackers will sign the victim up for countless email subscription services. As a result, the victim’s inbox will get absolutely hammered with newsletters, email notifications, and similar unwanted messages. 

Then, they will call them on the phone, and impersonate either a Microsoft IT technician, or the IT help desk of the company the victim works for. They will offer to help sort out the problem, and will ask the victim to grant them access to their Windows devices through Quick Assist. Once the victims grant access, it’s practically game over:

"Once the user allows access and control, the threat actor runs a scripted cURL command to download a series of batch files or ZIP files used to deliver malicious payloads," Microsoft said. "In several cases, Microsoft Threat Intelligence identified such activity leading to the download of Qakbot, RMM tools like ScreenConnect and NetSupport Manager, and Cobalt Strike."

These tools help the attackers move laterally throughout the target network, map it out, and ultimately - deploy the Black Basta ransomware variant.

Besides deploying Black Basta, Rapid7 added that the attackers would also steal as many login credentials from the victim as they can.

"The credentials are gathered under the false context of the 'update' requiring the user to log in. In most of the observed batch script variations, the credentials are immediately exfiltrated to the threat actor’s server via a Secure Copy command (SCP)," Rapid7’s researchers said.

"In at least one other observed script variant, credentials are saved to an archive and must be manually retrieved."

Via BleepingComputer

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NVIDIA GeForce NOW’s claim to fame is its ability to let just about any computing device — a phone, Chromebook, or a smart TV — tap into its cloud gaming hardware to play the latest games with supreme performance. And since the service taps into libraries of games that players already own, there are no extra purchases. 

With school about to end for the summer and plenty of extra time to game, NVIDIA has an exciting update in store for GeForce NOW. NVIDIA has acknowledged the prevalence of handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, both excellent ways to tap into games on the go. However, these portables are making the most of integrated graphics, which conserves power and avoids heat, but there’s still plenty of uplift available through the use of more powerful hardware, which can better deliver the top-notch graphics, high resolutions, and smooth frame rates that gamers crave. So NVIDIA is giving them a helping hand. And since all the heavy lifting for GeForce NOW is done in the cloud, the handheld consoles get to relax, so you’ll still get great battery life.

GeForce NOW is geared up for easy use with the Steam Deck thanks to a new browser configuration. A quick beta installation brings a pre-configured Google Chrome installation to the Steam Deck, offering special settings that let players get up and running with GeForce NOW in the browser with ease. This setup allows the browser version of GeForce NOW to run in the Steam Deck’s Gaming Mode, allowing for simple navigation with the built-in gamepad. Beyond that, it also provides access to advanced graphics settings like DLSS and RTX real-time ray-tracing to substantially upgrade visuals. And this update isn’t just for the Steam Deck. It also allows for convenient navigation with the ASUS ROG ally, Logitech G Cloud, Lenovo Legion Go, MSI Claw, and Razer Edge.

With GeForce NOW, these portable handhelds can get a big boost from powerful computers in the cloud. You’ll be able to enjoy advanced graphics features like RTX real-time ray tracing and DLSS to enhance your game visuals. GeForce NOW supports high resolutions and frame rates up to 240 fps, letting you max out the gaming handhelds. 

When you’re not on the move, it’s easy to pick up where you left off with GeForce NOW, since you can also run it on other devices. You can switch to a PC, Mac, NVIDIA SHIELD TV, or any of the many devices that support GeForce NOW.

For the Steam Deck, GeForce NOW also allows you to tap into other game libraries outside of Steam, such as Epic Games, GOG.com, Ubisoft Connect, and Xbox. You can even run PC Game Pass games through GeForce NOW on the Steam Deck. This is a big flexibility upgrade. With access to over 1,900 games and counting and no need to install each, storage on these small handhelds becomes a non-issue when you want to try a new game, and so does the handhelds’ ability to actually run the games on their own hardware. So when the next big game comes along or a hot new indie, you can jump right in. GeForce NOW will let you step aboard Honkai: Star Rail, blast through the wasteland in the Fallout series, explore other realms in Baldur’s Gate 3, tackle darkness in Alan Wake 2, and dig through your game backlog.

GeForce NOW’s list of supported games is constantly expanding, and NVIDIA is regularly adding new features. To stay up to speed with all the latest from GeForce NOW, you can tune into the weekly GFN Thursdays blog, which covers all the new games coming, feature updates, game sales, and plenty more.