Tiny 2.2.0 All the tiny (but very impactful) quality of life changes coming to Diablo 4 next week with patch 2.2.0 and Season 8 The start of every new season in Diablo 4 always arrives alongside a major patch, and this latest one brings several quality of life tweaks worth highlighting. Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment. News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on April 25, 2025 We’re just days away now from the end of Diablo 4’s Season 7, and the start of Season 8: Belial’s Return. The new season kicks off on Tuesday, April 29 right alongside patch 2.2.0, now that it’s been through the PTR fires. We’ve known pretty much everything there is to know about Belial’s Return for a while, thanks to the initial, pre-PTR reveal, and the PTR itself. But Blizzard recently solidified a few of those suggested changes, and revealed a new battle pass system being introduced with the new season. But anyone who plays a lot of Diablo 4 knows that some of the more exciting stuff is often found in the patch notes that don’t get a lot of attention. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Following the final pre-Season 8 livestream for Diablo 4, Blizzard published the full change log for patch 2.2.0 (Build #64236), complete with all the changes made based on PTR feedback. Now that we have the whole thing, we get to see what smaller changes will be making it into the game. Blizzard loves to implement undocumented changes into its patches, and players have developed a habit of hunting for them the first time they launch the game after installing the patch. We’re going to have to wait until next week to see how many (if any) are included in the Season 8 patch. For now, let’s dig deep into the patch notes we have for some of the items that didn’t generate a lot of noise in all the pre-launch hype. Helpful when facing the updated boss ladder. | Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment. Starting off with the Party Finder, inarguably one of the best features introduced to the game post-launch. The state of it at release was… functional, but clearly in need of a lot of work. Blizzard has been building upon that, and the work continues in 2.2.0. The Party Finder menu will now automatically close after you successfully join a party, and the party listing will now automatically go back up if the party leader changes, or if the difficulty level changes so it’s more clear to players what’s actually going on. Something Blizzard barely put any work into since launch, however, is the behaviour of automatic sorting in players’ Stash. Now, hitting that button will push “the most relevant items to the front”, which the developer says will take into account rarity - and crucially - whether Greater Affixes are present on those items. A big feature in patch 2.2.0 is the ability to teleport directly to party members, which I cannot believe took the developer this long to implement. This is something Blizzard actually touched on in earlier streams, so we’re glad to see it finally in the game. A couple of other miscellaneous changes will help out those of us with a lot of anxiety. The ever-present pip on your Map tab that never seems to go away no matter what you do, will no longer appear if it’s only trying to alert you about a new cosmetic. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. And, on that subject, you can now activate/unlock cosmetic items regardless of the class you’re currently playing as. In other words, you won’t have to switch to Barbarian (for example) to “consume” their class-specific cosmetic when you’re playing as a different class. Now, the big one: Conduit Shrines. Any longtime Diablo 4 player will tell you how practically useless these have been for months. Blizzard made a few tweaks here and there, but never really got them into a state that made you feel powerful when you activated one, so players just avoided them. It doesn’t sound like the developer has found a solution quite yet, either, because patch 2.2.0 takes Conduit Shrines out of the game entirely! “We have heard feedback on the Conduit Shrines. We are disabling them until further notice while reworking them,” a note from the development team reads. Hopefully that means far fewer Reddit posts from players complaining about activating a Shrine, only to find out it’s a Conduit.

Image: CapcomCapcom has released updated sales figures for its most recent entries in the Resident Evil series, proving just how darn popular the survival horror franchise continues to be. Headlining the bunch is Resident Evil 4, the remake of the 2005 classic which has yet to see a release on Nintendo platforms. Capcom has confirmed that it has now surpassed 10 million sales and is the fastest entry in the series to achieve such a lofty milestone. Elsewhere, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard have both hit over 15 million cumulative units sold. Resident Evil: Village has reached over 11 million, and Resident Evil 3 over 10 million. These four titles all have Cloud Versions on the Nintendo Switch, but if we're being honest, we can't imagine that they contributed significantly to the overall sales figures.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube810kWatch on YouTube Needless to say, we're itching to play the games natively on the Switch 2, and given Capcom's support of the Switch (not to mention its immediate support of the Switch 2 with Street Fighter 6 at launch), we're confident that fresh releases will be in store for the future. At the very least, we can probably expect a Resident Evil 4 port at some point. It seems almost ironic, doesn't it; the original Resident Evil 4 started life as a Nintendo exclusive on the GameCube, and yet here we are, still waiting for a Nintendo release of the remake. No complaints, of course, it's better than a sodding Cloud Version, so take all the time you need to get it right, Capcom. If nothing else, we're hoping the folks over at Capcom see posts such as this that reinforce our desire to play more Resident Evil on Nintendo platforms. So if you feel the same way, then be sure to let it be known with a comment down below. "P-Payback Time, Thorndikkke..." "2005... I'll never forget it" Do you own any of the RE Cloud Versions on Switch? What do you make of them? Let us know. [source capcom.co.jp] Related Games See Also Share:0 1 Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Is Out Now, But Switch 2 Is Unconfirmed It looks so nice, too Nintendo Confirms Upgrade Pack Price For More 'Switch 2 Edition' Titles Update: Some US prices also confirmed Where To Pre-Order Nintendo Switch 2 Where to buy Switch 2 consoles, accessories & games Nintendo Removes Worrying Cloud Save Note From Select Switch 2 Game Pages Update: This Cloud had a silver lining Feature: 27 GameCube Games We'd Love To See On Nintendo Switch 2 NSO Born to Play... on Switch 2

Troubled electric vehicle startup Faraday Future’s board of directors has appointed founder Jia Yueting as the company’s co-CEO, three years after he was sidelined following an internal probe into allegations of fraud — a probe that led to a investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission that remains ongoing. Jia will serve alongside current CEO Matthias Aydt and will oversee Faraday’s finance, legal, and supply chain teams, the company announced in a press conference Thursday. Aydt is a longtime Faraday Future employee who was once placed on probation after he offered to pay a Faraday Future board member up to $700,000 to resign in the middle of a months-long power struggle over the company. Jia’s appointment comes just one month after Faraday Future named Jia’s nephew Jerry Wang as president of the EV startup. Wang resigned in 2022 as a result of the internal probe because of a “failure to cooperate with the investigation” according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Faraday Future was founded by Jia in 2014 as he looked to build on what was at the time a successful electronics and media streaming empire in China. That empire collapsed, and Jia self-exiled to the U.S. to focus on Faraday Future. The company has spent the last decade and over $3 billion to develop an ultra-luxury EV called the FF91. But it has only sold around a dozen of them to date, and has been accused in lawsuits of misrepresenting some of those sales.

Additive manufacturing for functional ceramics continues to push the limits of material science and process engineering, particularly at the intersection of microelectronics, optics, and advanced packaging. At the 2025 AMUG Conference, experts from HRL Laboratories, Lithoz, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) dissected the underlying challenges holding back broader adoption of 3D printing with ceramics. Insights into functional 3D printed ceramics Photopolymer chemistry is a balancing actOptical distortion from high-refractive fillers needs to be understood.Compensating for shrinkage and porosity to achieve small features or electrical performance is important.Debinding is an often-hidden bottleneck.Process iteration is intensive and material-specific.Vast market opportunity for those who master ceramic 3D printing  Opening the afternoon session, Russell Maier, who leads the ceramics AM programme at NIST, underscored the critical role of feedstock rheology in shaping viable ceramic parts. He warned that differences in equipment and measurement techniques can yield inconsistent rheological data, making standardisation an urgent concern for industry players. “You can measure the yield stress on one instrument and get a value that’s two to three times different than on another,” Maier said. “That’s a huge variability when it comes to deciding if a feedstock is even printable.” Yield stress is especially important for shaping electroactive ceramics, where high solids loading in slurries must be carefully controlled to ensure structural integrity post-printing. Traditionally, dense ceramics are formed via tape casting and gel casting, where binders and solvents are removed to leave packed ceramic particles. These processes are now being reimagined in additive methods, but still require deep domain expertise. “Even if you become an expert in ceramic AM, you still have to know how to fire and densify it properly. You still need to be a ceramic engineer,” Maier emphasised. He also pointed to the market opportunity for AM in multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), which are ubiquitous in smartphones, automobiles, and industrial equipment. According to Maier, more than 1,000 MLCCs are used in a modern smartphone, and tens of thousands in a single truck. The MLCC market alone is expected to hit $16 billion this year, yet additive methods are just beginning to penetrate this space. Shawn Allan of Lithoz America provided a closer look at lithography-based ceramic manufacturing (LCM), a DLP-driven printing method that enables the high-resolution fabrication of functional ceramic parts. “We’re essentially replacing the forming step of ceramic manufacturing with 3D printing. Everything else, debinding, sintering, follows traditional processes,” Allan explained. He presented 3D printed parts made from materials such as yttria-stabilised zirconia, alumina, and transparent ceramics like yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG), which are relevant in optics and laser applications. Notably, LCM allows micron-level feature resolution and tolerances tight enough for components like surgical instruments or dielectric resonators used in 5G and satellite communications. Allan’s team has worked with federally funded research centers and manufacturers on piezoelectric ceramics, such as PZT, optimizing slurry formulations to match traditional densities and dielectric coefficients. They’ve printed Gaussian transducer arrays and negative Poisson ratio lattices for potential use in sonar, underwater communications, and directional acoustic sensors. “Eventually, we were able to manufacture a transducer based entirely on a computationally designed lattice. That kind of structure would be extremely difficult to fabricate using conventional methods,” Allan said. Functional ceramic development is now extending into multi-material printing, including co-sintered systems that combine ceramics with metals like copper or stainless steel. This raises challenges in matching thermal expansion and densification profiles during sintering. According to Allan, future success will hinge on leveraging known, industry-validated materials from traditional processes, “not developing something new, but taking advantage of what already works.” The path forward is clear: greater industry collaboration on feedstock standards and expanded use of AM for complex, functional ceramics that traditional techniques cannot match in terms of geometry or integration potential. HRL Pushes Boundaries of Curved Microelectronics with Preceramic 3D Printing and Metal Infiltration At HRL Laboratories, a cross-functional programme bridging ceramic materials and semiconductor engineering has yielded a functional, curved electronic interposer with high-resolution, high-aspect-ratio electrical vias, manufactured via additive methods. The breakthrough aims to meet the growing demand for compact, high-performance imaging systems and next-generation curved sensor arrays. Kayleigh Porter, a ceramics specialist at HRL, outlined the lab’s efforts to print complex three-dimensional via arrays with preceramic polymers, using lithography-based 3D printing and a proprietary metal infiltration process. These vias form electrical connections between curved sensor surfaces and planar readout electronics, an architecture that traditional planar microelectronics cannot address. “Standard microelectronic vias are limited to vertical or horizontal paths, and every directional change introduces signal loss,” Porter said. “With 3D printing, we can design curved or angled vias, embed passive elements, and even coolant channels directly into the part.” The team used a photosensitive preceramic polymer, a siloxane functionalised with silicon in the backbone, which forms a silicon oxycarbide matrix after pyrolysis. Unlike conventional binders that burn off, this binder becomes part of the ceramic structure, improving material stability and opening up possibilities for functional filler materials.  One of the main goals was to preserve the resolution of a 2 million-pixel curved detector. To achieve this, HRL employed a 2K DLP projection system with a two-micron pixel pitch and tailored the resin’s cure characteristics using photoinitiator blends and kinetic modelling. Maintaining image fidelity across a non-planar geometry required deactivating certain pixels to preserve uniform pitch on the curved surface, essential for optical accuracy. Filling the tiny vias, some just 10 microns in diameter, posed a metallurgical challenge. Standard electroplating techniques were unsuitable for high-aspect-ratio and curved geometries. HRL developed a copper-indium alloy with trace amounts of titanium to facilitate capillary-driven melt infiltration, achieving a 98% fill rate across a one-millimetre-thick interposer section. “For the vias to function electrically, they must be continuous from top to bottom,” Porter said. “Incomplete fill leads to dead pixels, so we validated via continuity through imaging and resistance measurements. The successful parts showed strong signal transmission across the entire stack.” Material compatibility was also a critical consideration. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) needed to match that of the semiconductor substrates, typically silicon or gallium arsenide. Particle additives such as alumina and mullite were screened for shrinkage control and CTE tuning, and para-silica particles were used to minimise refractive distortion during curing. The interposer’s final metal network was polished to expose a clean metallised interface, then integrated with a thinned gallium arsenide detector chip via spike bonding and fan-out methods. A full electrical test confirmed signal integrity, validating the concept for scaled applications. While still in the prototype stage, the technology suggests a viable path to compact, high-performance imaging electronics, particularly where conformal packaging and optical curvature offer design advantages. The additive process also allows HRL to rapidly iterate sensor geometries without long lead times or retooling. “You just redesign the part and print it. That’s a huge benefit,” Porter said. Industry Pushes for Precision in Ceramic Additive Manufacturing as Resolution, Chemistry, and Debinding Remain Obstacles Russell Maier of the National Institute of Standards and Technology highlighted the material sensitivity required to access the lucrative MLCC market. “You have to be worried about trace concentrations of sodium, titanium—lightweight transition metals can ruin electrical properties,” he warned. Even residual carbon from photoresins, he said, can pose risks when sintered into a dielectric material. In photopolymer-based ceramic AM, the resin’s optical behaviour and chemical load must be tightly controlled. HRL’s Kayleigh Porter described the complex trial-and-error process of photoinitiator tuning. “We had to mix four or five different resins to really dial in what would work. It’s about pulling multiple levers at once (absorbers, initiators, reflections) and that gets tricky fast,” she explained. Reflection from high-refractive-index particles also proved problematic. Alumina, a common ceramic filler, scattered light during exposure, limiting HRL’s via resolution to 80 microns. In contrast, Porter noted, using para-silica matched to the matrix index enabled 10-micron feature fidelity. “The trade-off is less mechanical customisation, but you get the resolution,” she said. Shrinkage, another perennial issue in ceramics, was discussed across multiple speakers. Lithoz America’s Shawn Allan acknowledged the need for compensation, especially in high-resolution prints. “As features approach the pixel or layer size, you can’t rely on the STL anymore. You have to print, measure, and adjust,” he said. Allan also pointed out the challenges with partial densification: “The dielectric constant is coupled with porosity. If there’s trapped gas or incomplete sintering, the value drops.” Debinding emerged as a critical step with high stakes. “The print might take hours, but the debinding process takes a week or more,” Maier said. “It’s a black box. You go too fast, and you’ve just destroyed a week of work.” NIST typically errs on the side of caution. Gradual burnout helps preserve part geometry, especially where thick and thin sections coexist in the same structure. Porter noted that HRL’s use of active binders that convert to ceramic reduced porosity but introduced a different issue. “When we load over 25% filler, the matrix shrinks while the particles don’t. That creates internal stress, tension between particles, which can lead to cracking,” she said. HRL has previously published findings on this phenomenon, underscoring the importance of matrix-particle balance. As ceramic additive manufacturing moves closer to high-value applications, success hinges on managing micro-scale process variability and chemistry with extreme precision. Whether it’s controlling trace contaminants, compensating for shrinkage in vias, or ensuring debinding doesn’t undo a week’s worth of work, the field demands interdisciplinary expertise and deep iteration.  What 3D printing trends should you watch out for in 2025? How is the future of 3D printing shaping up? To stay up to date with the latest 3D printing news, don’t forget to subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter or follow us on Twitter, or like our page on Facebook. While you’re here, why not subscribe to our YouTube channel? Featuring discussion, debriefs, video shorts, and webinar replays. Featured image shows a 3D printed ceramic casting core produced on the S320. Photo via Lithoz.

Abington, Massachusetts was first settled by Europeans in 1668 and was officially incorporated in 1712. Its namesake was is said to have been set by Governor Joseph Dudley as a tribute to Anne Bertie Venables, Countess of Abingdon, wife of the second Earl of Abingdon, who helped Dudley secure the governorship of the Colony of Massachusetts from Queen Anne. Governor Dudley noted in its decree that, “the Town be named Abingdon”. A marginal note on the document gave the spelling as “Abington” with a “t”, which has served as the spelling ever-since. At the center of town, this handsome church is the fourth edifice of the Congregational Church Society in Abington, Massachusetts, and replaced the third church, which was occupied for just thirty years until 1849, when this Greek Revival structure was built. Located a stone’s throw from its former home, this church showcases the increase in membership and relative wealth of the congregation by the middle of the 19th century. The structure with its flushboard siding and bold Doric pilasters, features an arched center entrance and multi-stage tower containing a clock and enclosed belfry.

close Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 makes hearing tests as easy as a tap Checking your hearing just got much easier. When AirPods first hit the scene in 2016, they revolutionized the way we listen to music on the go. Not only did they seamlessly integrate with the Apple ecosystem, but some models also delivered sound quality and noise-canceling capabilities that gave traditional audio brands a run for their money. But what really sets AirPods apart is the array of innovative features that go way beyond what you'd expect from typical earbuds, features that might just surprise you.Join the FREE "CyberGuy Report": Get my expert tech tips, critical security alerts and exclusive deals, plus instant access to my  A woman wearing AirPods (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Top 10 hidden features of AirPodsBelow are features that you may or may not know about to take your AirPods experience to the next level. The features below are for original, second-generation and first-generation AirPods Pro. Apple Watch and AirPods (Apple)1. Go hands-free and pair your AirPods with your Apple WatchIf you want to use your AirPods but don’t want to lug around the extra weight of your iPhone, you can use your AirPods with your Apple Watch. In order to get your AirPods set up to use with your Apple Watch:Go to your Apple WatchPress the crown on the right side of your Apple WatchTap SettingsScroll down to Bluetooth and tap itThe watch is now searching for your AirPodsGrab your AirPods and lift the lid. Press and hold the button at the back of the case. This will put the AirPods in discoverable modeTap where it says AirPods are not paired on your Apple Watch. It should now say connected2. Use your AirPods as a microphoneWhen recording audio (e.g., Voice Memos, calls) or using voice-enabled apps, you can prioritize specific AirPods as the microphone. To turn on this feature:Go to settings on your iPhoneClick BluetoothUnder My Devices, tap the (i) info icon next to your AirPodsSelect MicrophoneSelect Automatically Switch AirPods (default), Always Left AirPod or Always Right AirPodWHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? Control panel on iPhone (Apple)3. Share Audio with someone elseWith iOS 13.1 or later (required for full functionality), you can temporarily share audio from your iPhone to two sets of AirPods or Beats headphones with H1, H2 or W1 chips (e.g., AirPods Pro). Both devices must be iPhone 8 or later, iPad Pro 2nd Gen or newer, iPad Air 3rd Gen or later or iPad mini 5th Gen or later.Wear your AirPods (connected to your iPhone) and start playing audio (optional but recommended for visibility)Open Control CenterTap the AirPlay icon (triangle with circles)Select Share AudioBring the other person’s headphones near your iPhone and place AirPods in their caseOpen the lidHold the pairing button until the prompt appearsIf undetected, ensure their headphones are in pairing mode (Hold case button)Select their headphones from the Share Audio menuThe friend may need to tap Join on their device if sharing via iPhone proximityAdjust volumes separately via Control Center’s volume slider4. Find your lost AirPodsThe challenge of wireless earbuds is how easy it is to misplace or lose them or the case they are housed in. Apple has provided an easy way to help you keep track of both your case and AirPods with the "Find My" feature. To use this feature to find your AirPods or case:Open the Find My app on your iPhoneSelect the Devices tabChoose your AirPods. Under each device, you see a location or "No location found"If you think your AirPods are near you, click Play Sound5. Announce callersInstead of fumbling to find your phone to find out who is calling you, you can have your AirPods announce who is calling you. To turn on this feature:Go to Settings on your iPhoneTap on AppsTap PhoneTap Announce CallsSelect Headphones Only6. Customize controls on your AirPodsMost users know that double-pressing the AirPods stems once or twice plays or pauses whatever audio you’re listening to or answers a call. You can, however, customize AirPods settings to provide a different function. If you want to customize each stem to do something else:Go to Settings on your iPhoneTap your AirPodsUnder Press and Hold AirPods, select Left or Right and choose what happens when you double-press that AirPod: Noise Control, Siri, Answer Call, Mute & Unmute or End Call Steps to customize controls on AirPods (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)7. Find out what the different colored lights meanThe status light on your AirPods case uses colors and flashing patterns to indicate battery levels, charging status and pairing states. Location varies by model (front for AirPods Pro/3/4/Wireless cases; inside for Lightning cases on AirPods 1/2).Steady lightsGreen (AirPods in case, lid open): Both AirPods and case are fully chargedGreen (AirPods out of case, lid open): The case alone is fully chargedAmber/Orange (AirPods in case, lid open): AirPods are currently charging (not yet full)Amber/Orange (AirPods out of case, lid open): Case has less than one full charge (not necessarily "one charge left")Flashing lightsFlashing White: AirPods are in pairing mode (ready for setup)Flashing Amber/Orange: Indicates a pairing error requiring a reset, not just re-setupNo Light: Case or AirPods are completely drainedGET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERECharging behaviorPlugged in/Wireless charging: Amber = actively charging; Green = fully chargedOptimized Charging (Pro/3/4): Pauses charging at 80% if enabled (Settings > Bluetooth > AirPods)8. Use AirPods as a hearing aidOne of the most impressive features of AirPods is the ability to turn your iPhone into a remote listening device and AirPods into hearing aids. If you’re in a loud environment and can’t hear the person standing next to you, you can place the iPhone near the person you want to hear and the iPhone microphone will transmit whatever they say to the AirPods connected to the iPhone, making it easier for you to hear them. To enable this feature:Open the Control Center on your iPhone (usually accessed by swiping down on your phone’s screen)Tap the Hearing iconTap Live ListenPlace the iPhone near the sound source (works up to 50 feet) Step to use AirPods as a hearing aid (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)9. Reach Siri without pulling out your phoneMost AirPods let you access Siri hands-free when connected to an Apple device with Siri enabled. If your hands are full, or you don’t want to use your iPhone, just say, "Hey, Siri," to send texts, check battery life, skip songs, set timers and more. Note: On AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4, you can also just say "Siri" without needing to say "Hey, Siri." To use Siri with AirPods:Make sure Siri is enabled on your device (Settings > Siri)With AirPods in your ears, say "Hey Siri" (or just "Siri" on supported models)You can also activate Siri by pressing or tapping your AirPods (double-tap, press-and-hold or Digital Crown (depending on model)10. Answer or decline calls without making a sound or pressing a buttonYou can answer or decline calls without saying a word or pressing any buttons by using the Head Gestures feature with your AirPods. When this feature is on, you can nod your head up and down or shake it side to side to accept or decline calls while wearing your AirPods. To enable Head Gestures once your AirPods are connected to your iPhone:Go to SettingsTap your AirPods name at the topTap Head GesturesToggle Head Gestures onChoose your preferred motion for Accept/Reply (Up and Down or Side to Side)Choose your preferred motion for Decline/Dismiss (Up and Down or Side to Side)Now, when you get a call, Siri will announce the caller, and you can nod to answer or shake your head to decline without touching your phone or AirPods.Kurt’s key takeawaysApple has truly revolutionized the wireless listening experience with AirPods. Not only does it elevate your experience seamlessly within the Apple ecosystem, but it also makes your life better with plenty of hidden features. Whether you want to hear others more clearly or simply make your life easier, AirPods include an incredible number of features that pack a punch.Have you explored all these hidden features of AirPods? Which hidden features are your favorites? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPFor more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you'd like us to cover.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Apple's M4 MacBook Air (2025) brings a little more power to the thin and light form factor, while optimizing what made it great in the first place.

In a world where consumers are bombarded with choices and marketing messages, the only way for businesses to truly stand out is by making every interaction feel personal.

The world's biggest video sharing platform, YouTube, just turned 20. What started inauspiciously in February 2005 as a modest experiment by three former PayPal employees – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim – has since reshaped media, culture, and entertainment on a global scale. The first-ever upload on YouTube was a grainy, 19-second clip of Karim at the San Diego Zoo – hardly a sign of the media giant it would become. At the time, YouTube's impact on the media landscape was so minimal that it wasn't even mentioned in The Guardian's coverage of TV's digital revolution at the Edinburgh TV Festival. Editor's Note: Guest author Alex Connock is a Fellow at the Said Business School, University of Oxford and Lecturer at St Hugh's College Oxford. He also is Professor of Practice at Exeter University, and Head of the Department of Creative Business at the National Film and Television School. He is Vice Chair of UNICEF UK and a trustee at the Halle Orchestra. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.Twenty years on, it's a different story. YouTube is a massive competitor to TV, an engagement beast, uploading as much new video every five minutes as the 2,400 hours BBC Studios produces in a whole year. The 26-year-old YouTube star MrBeast earned US$85 million in 2024 from videos – ranging from live Call of Duty play-alongs to handing out 1,000 free cataract operations. As a business, YouTube is now worth some $455 billion. That is a spectacular 275 times return on the $1.65 billion Google paid for it in 2006. For the current YouTube value, Google could today buy British broadcaster ITV about 127 times. YouTube has similar gross revenue to streaming giant Netflix – but without the financial inconvenience of making shows, since most of the content is uploaded for free. YouTube's first video: a 19-second look at the elephants of San Diego Zoo. YouTube has 2.7 billion monthly active users, or 40% of the entire global population outside China, where it is blocked. It is also now one of the biggest music streaming sites, and the second biggest social network (to Facebook), plus a paid broadcast channel for 100 million subscribers. YouTube has built a video Library of Babel, its expansive shelves lined eclectically with Baby Shark Dance, how to fix septic tanks, who would win a shooting war between Britain and France … and quantum physics. The site has taken over global children's programming to the point where Wired magazine pointed out that the future of this genre actually "isn't television." But there are flaws, too: it has been described as a conduit for disinformation by fact checkers. So how did all that happen? Eight key innovations have helped YouTube achieve its success. 1. How new creativity is paid for Traditional broadcast and print uses either the risk-on, fixed cost of hiring an office full of staff producers and writers, or the variable but risky approach of one-off commissioning from freelancers. Either way, the channel goes out of pocket, and if the content fails to score with viewers, it loses money. YouTube did away with all that, flipping the risk profile entirely to the creator, and not paying upfront at all. It doesn't have to deal with the key talent going out clubbing all night and being late to the set, not to mention other boring aspects of production like insurance, cash flow or contracts. 2. The revenue model of media YouTube innovated by dividing any earnings with the creator, via an advertising income split of roughly 50% (the exact amount varies in practice). This incentivises creators to study the science of engagement, since it makes them more money. MrBeast has a team employed just to optimise the thumbnails for his videos. MrBeast has a whole team dedicated to optimizing his thumbnails. 3. Advertising Alongside parent company Google/Alphabet, and especially with the introduction of YouTube Analytics and other technologies, the site adrenalised programmatic video advertising, where ad space around a particular viewer is digitally auctioned off to the highest buyer, in real time. That means when you land on a high-rating Beyoncé video and see a pre-roll ad for Grammarly, the advertiser algorithmically liked the look of your profile, so bid money to show you the ad. When that system works, it is ultra efficient, the key reason why the broad, demographics-based broadcast TV advertising market is so challenged. Also see: YouTube by the numbers: uncovering YouTube's ghost town of billions of unwatched, ignored videos 4. Who makes content About 50 million people now think they are professional creators, many of them on YouTube. Influencers have used the site to build businesses without mediation from (usually white and male) executives in legacy media. This has driven, at its best, a major move towards the democratization and globalization of content production. Brazil and Kenya both have huge, eponymous YouTube creator economies, giving global distribution to diverse voices that realistically would been disintermediated in the 20th century media ecology. 5. The way we tell stories Traditional TV ads and films start slow and build to a climax. Not so YouTube videos – and even more, YouTube Shorts – which prioritize a big emotive hit in the first few seconds for engagement, and regular further hits to keep people there. MrBeast's leaked internal notes describe how to do sequential escalation, meaning moving to more elaborate or extreme details as a video goes on: "An example of a one thru three minute tactic we would use is crazy progression," he says, reflecting his deep homework. "I spent basically five years of my life studying virality on YouTube." 6. Copyright Back in 2015, if someone stole your intellectual property – say, old episodes of Mr Bean - and re-broadcast it on their own channel, you would call a media lawyer and sue. Now there is a better option – Content ID – to take the money instead. Through digital rights monetization, owners can algorithmically discover their own content and claim the ad revenue, a material new income stream for producers. 7. Video technicalities Most technical innovations in video production have found their way to the mainstream via YouTube, such as 360-degree, 4K, VR and other tech acronyms. And now YouTube has started to integrate generative AI into its programme-producing suite for creators, with tight integration of Google's Veo tools. These will offer, according to CEO Neal Mohan, "billions of people around the world access to AI". This is another competitive threat to traditional producers, because bedroom creators can now make their own visual effects-heavy fan-fiction episodes of Star Wars. 8. News YouTube became a rabbit hole of disinformation, misinformation and conspiracy, via a reinforcement-learning algorithm that prioritizes view time but not editorial accuracy. Covid conspiracy fans got to see "5G health risk" or "chemtrail" videos, because the algorithm knew they might like them, too. How can the big, legacy media brands respond? Simple. By meeting the audience where the viewers are, and putting their content on YouTube. The BBC has 14.7 million YouTube subscribers. ITV is exploiting its catalogue to put old episodes of Thunderbirds on there. Meanwhile, as of February 2025, Channel 4 also announced success in reaching young viewers via YouTube. Full episode views were "up 169% year-on-year, surpassing 110 million organic views in the UK".

Table of Contents Table of Contents OnePlus 13T: global launch date and price OnePlus 13T: design and display OnePlus 13T: specs OnePlus 13T: battery OnePlus 13T: cameras After a long wait filled with leaks and rumors, the OnePlus 13T has officially made its debut in China. It’s a smaller, more compact alternative to the main OnePlus 13 lineup, and despite initial guesses, it’s called the 13T — not the OnePlus 13 Mini. It’s a smaller phone for those that prefer subtle devices over pocket-busters, but that doesn’t mean it lacks power. Unlike devices like the now-defunct iPhone Mini, the OnePlus 13T doesn’t sacrifice power for size. It’s currently only available in China, but there is hope for a global launch. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest handheld from OnePlus. Recommended Videos OnePlus The OnePlus 13T launched in China today, and although a global launch is largely expected, it hasn’t been confirmed. There is no official word on when or if the smaller handheld will make its way to the United States or other markets. That said, OnePlus tends to release its devices globally within a few months of the Chinese launch. Related Without knowing whether the phone will release in other areas, all we can do is guess at the price. That said, its price in China is enticing: just CNY 3,399, which is roughly $470 for the base model. That’s not bad at all, although western pricing could be more due to the ongoing tariffs. OnePlus In terms of overall design, the OnePlus 13T isn’t a drastic departure from the rest of the OnePlus 13 lineup, but there are a few notable changes. The biggest and most surprising is loss of the alert slider. The slider has been a part of the OnePlus brand since the first device launched in 2014, so it’s a big change. Taking its place is a shortcut button that can be programmed to perform specific tasks, suggesting this might be a permanent change for all OnePlus phones going forward. It has a screen size of 6.32 inches versus the 6.82 inches of the OnePlus 13. That’s still large in comparison to other devices (even an iPhone 16 is only 6.1 inches), but it is notably smaller for OnePlus. The phone is also an ounce lighter than the OnePlus 13 at 185 grams. The AMOLED display has a 120Hz refresh rate, 1,600 nits peak brightness, and has Crystal Shield Glass to give it an edge against drops and scratches. There’s also an in-display fingerprint scanner and Face Unlock available, so no need to worry about it lacking modern conveniences. OnePlus The OnePlus 13T is literally just a smaller version of the OnePlus 13, at least as far as internal specs are concerned. It has the same 4.32GHz processor, the same 12GB/16GB of RAM, and the same 256GB/512GB internal storage. On this front, the two phones are identical. Battery size is where the compact phone stands out. You might think it would have a smaller battery because of its tinier frame, but the opposite is actually true. It’s powered by a 6,260mAh silicon-carbide battery — bigger than the OnePlus 13’s 6,000mAh battery — and charges at speeds up to 80W through the SuperVOOC charging system. And despite its thin size, OnePlus has somehow managed to cram a 4,400mm square vapor chamber into the phone to help manage temperature, especially if you’re pushing the phone to its limits. The OnePlus 13T doesn’t slouch in terms of cameras, either. It has two 50MP rear lenses, one for the main camera and another for the telephoto camera. It also has a 16MP selfie cam on the front. However, OnePlus hasn’t made mention of Hasselblad tuning, so it isn’t clear whether the cameras are quite on-par with the OnePlus 13. Editors’ Recommendations