The UK Ministry of Defence recently published its Global Strategic Trends report which sets out the developments that will shape the world over the next five years. These provide an insight into some of the challenges that CISOs and cyber security teams will face.The first threat is that of global and regional political instability. As regional and global power competition intensifies, we may see growing authoritarianism and a decline in democracy. The capabilities of violent extremist organisations and organised crime groups to cause harm will increase. Access to data will become a key component of global power for both state and non-state actors, all of which will require greater vigilance from cyber teams.The second area of concern comes from the expanding attack surface, The exponential reliance on data and connectivity across states, organisations, and individuals in an increasingly connected world will significantly expand the attack surface. With stretched resources from dealing with an ageing population and climate change, nation states may not be able to provide the increasing level of direct support needed for cyber defence operations.A further trend driving cyber threats is the technological arms race. The increased reliance on data and connectivity, coupled with advances in Quantum and AI, will escalate the arms race between cyber exploiters and victims. This shift is already being seen in the rise of zero-day attacks. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), in collaboration with cyber security agencies from the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and others, identified that most of the top 15 vulnerabilities exploited in 2023 were initially targeted as zero-day attacks. This trend has continued into 2024, highlighting the evolving tactics of cyber adversaries and the increasing availability of advanced exploitation tools.Given these trends, the most pressing challenges for CISOs in the next five years will be related to the rise of AI, building a culture that fosters secure behaviours, the threats from insiders, data management and patching and monitoring, as well as the ongoing need for operational resilience.The rise and risk of AI is increasing as adversaries weaponise AI for malicious purposes, using it to create undetectable malware, automate reconnaissance, and execute deepfake-based scams. Organisations are rapidly chasing the AI dream, looking at ways in which it can deliver significant business benefits and CISOs will need to make their voice heard at the planning stage to avoid security being seen as a secondary consideration.Organisations invest heavily in protecting their digital systems, physical assets, and people from adversaries with software solutions to detect cyber threats, restrict access to buildings and safeguard sensitive employee information. However, up to 95% of security incidents typically result from human actions, whether through unintentional errors or intentional breaches. A technical solution alone is not going to keep the future organisation safe. To protect what matters most CISOs should look to leverage the power of their people by embedding the right security behaviours into organisational culture to create an effective first line of defence. A robust security culture ensures every individual within the organisation understands their role in maintaining security and takes proactive steps each day to enhance it.Insider threats, whether stemming from intentional actions by malicious employees and contractors or unintentional mistakes by negligent staff, remain a significant source of security breaches. These risks are further amplified by the rise of hybrid work models, which reduce organisational control over devices and network environments. These create additional vulnerabilities that security teams must address through more joined up approaches to physical and cyber security.Data management and protection is ever more critical as there is more data and greater connectivity to manage. CISOs need to know what their critical data is, where it is located, who has access to it, how it flows, how it is protected, and where it is vulnerable. Understanding their own systems and their residual risks, as well as the risks to their data when it is in the hands of others, is crucial. CISOs also must have confidence in their supply chain and its ability to protect assets properly. Networks and data sources must be appropriately protected both in transit and at rest. Ransomware and phishing remain a persistent and evolving danger, with attacks becoming more targeted and destructive. Meanwhile, the advent of quantum computing poses a looming threat to traditional encryption methods, compelling organisations to prepare for a transition to post-quantum cryptographic standards.The increasing use of effective zero-day exploits means that we need to stay on top of patching and monitoring, which itself will occur at a faster pace. CISOs must get smarter with protective monitoring so that they can identity suspicious system behaviour as early as possible. They should also make better use of AI and machine learning tools as they develop.As all these threats increase, security teams will have to prioritise operational resilience so they can respond to natural disasters, geopolitical instability, and supply chain disruptions that can compromise infrastructure and data availability. The growing reliance on third-party vendors and services heightens the risk of supply chain attacks, exposing organisations to vulnerabilities that lie beyond their direct control. Ensuring rapid recovery and effective business continuity will increasingly become central to security strategies.Many of these threats are not new but their number and impact is growing and it is clear that the task of the CIO is only going get harder in the next five years.The Computer Weekly Security Think Tank looks aheadMike Gillespie and Ellie Hurst, Advent IM: CISOs will face growing challenges in 2025 and beyond.

The big news from online marketplace Notonthehighstreet.com (NOTHS) in the build-up to peak trading is its new partnership with delivery platform Deliveroo, announced in September.NOTHS is one of the early wave of non-food-specific retail businesses partnering with Deliveroo to add speedy fulfilment options to their offering. Screwfix led the charge in 2023, and others such as B&Q, Ann Summers, Wilko, and The Perfume Shop have followed suit in 2024, opening up rapid delivery via the Deliveroo app to London consumers who need their items pronto.Launching with 15 brands under the umbrella of NOTHS, the partnership enables Deliveroo customers to order personalised gifts on-demand for the first time via the presence of luxury jewellery and accessories retailer and NOTHS partner Hurley Burley on the app as well as access to goods from a variety of small non-food businesses.Paul Wilkinson, Deliveroo product director, paid compliment to his companys integrations team on a LinkedIn post in October, saying their work means consumers have up-to-date product and availability information at their fingertips from launch.These use a new dedicated API [application programming interface] that we have designed from the ground up for grocery and retail partners, and it has taken a whole village of amazing people to build and ship this, he wrote. Contrastingly, the direct tech integration with NOTHS is non-existent at present, according to Dan Lake, vice-president for technology at the online marketplace. The hardware and software integrations are through the NOTHS brand partners, with a NOTHS logo accompanying brand pages on the Deliveroo app to signify the connection.Its an obvious brand partnership that is beneficial to the business, Lake says of the Deliveroo tie-up, which he says generates unprompted NOTHS brand awareness.Weve not invested anything from a tech point of view, but if it goes very well and we want to scale across the UK, there will be some tech investment needed. This approach buys us time to make our platform easier for integrating into third parties.And therein lies the crux of the technology challenge NOTHS faces right now. So much of the focus for the business in its 18 years of operating, since being founded by Holly Tucker in 2006, has been on the consumer experience and its front-end capabilities.But in the past two years, since Lakes arrival from high-flying fitness brand and retailer Gymshark, simplifying behind the scenes and exploring where a buy, not build approach to technology might be more appropriate has been the name of the game.Weve underinvested in the back end, Lake says.In the two years Ive been here, weve gone through a lot of change and been purposeful. Its about going back to what the company was about in the first place shouting about and supporting small businesses in the UK.From a tech perspective, he says, it has been important to articulate NOTHSs definition of customer is a dual definition encompassing the end consumer, but also the small brands selling through the platform.It sounds obvious and it is obvious internally but it can get missed on how we decide what were going to focus on and invest into, he says.Lakes senior leadership position reports directly to CEO Leanne Osbourne, and he has the responsibility of looking after tech products across the organisation. He acknowledges he joined NOTHS primarily for the tech challenge, identifying it as a reverse job to what he faced at Gymshark, where he was engineering director.When Gymshark went through its exponential growth period, which resulted in its 2020 unicorn status as a 1bn-valued privately-owned business, it needed to internally build out tech to support its core Shopify foundations. At NOTHS, theres a need to more comprehensively work with tech partners and stop relying on building everything in house.At NOTHS, were trying to end up in the same space but from the opposite end, Lake says, adding that the business is looking to buy more tech rather than build it in house.My view is we should only invest in or own things that are strategically important to us or we would have operational challenges without we have too much stuff that falls into the commoditised bracket.In what might be welcome news for the retail technology ecosystem, NOTHS is now looking for products on the market where there is commoditisation. Albeit, there is not a bottomless pit for investment.Lake talks of the need for products within a retail organisations tech stack to contribute to strategic and operational performance. With so much built in house, NOTHS finds itself with components that are no longer contributing to either and are holding us back its a typical retail legacy system tale of entanglement.Everything is owned and maintained, so my focus is on identifying whats now been commoditised and what have other people done a better job of building and we can then think about what we can chop away at.After all, were not a tier one tech company.NOTHS has already started its journey of modernisation under Lakes stewardship. The marketplace has migrated promotional capabilities to a third-party engine platform Talon One.Although pretty simplistic in approach compared to most businesses, it represents the first time weve gone out and bought a capability and integrated it in a composable MACH tech way, Lake says.Its a fundamental shift in thinking internally for the engineering and product teams. We deprecated and removed the old promo engine which surprise, surprise we had built. It did one thing and we had the age-old problem that you never come back to it you go on to the next priority and it becomes a problem for people.This change will support in the running of campaigns, but is also set to be a capability utilised as NOTHS explores its options around building a loyalty proposition.This takes a number of things the tech team shouldnt need to be involved in off their plate, so we can focus in the investments we want to make, Lake adds.With e-commerce stack technology, the most commoditised area of retail tech, according to Lake, theres lots of focus on what to bring in to the NOTHS business in this area:Were headless already, but some better decisions probably could have been made you should own the user experience as it can contribute to strategic differentiation.What we hadnt done in the move to headless was consider the service or integration layers just under that, so we built a load of microservices, some with thin veneers into the monolithic platform. We hadnt thought about how to take off parts we shouldnt really own which can be a distraction and they take time with maintenance on bugs.NOTHS is using Contentstack from a headless content management system point of view, but a stream of work currently well under way with Kin + Carta and Valtech is focused on better optimising the digital experience.Lake says the NOTHS search and discovery process starts with its brand partners putting product data in and this is an area where improvements are sought.For trade reasons, we focused on very outer edge of search and discovery and how results had ranked and reranked and were using Google Vertex AI, he adds.Search went live last year and there have been marked improvements there. Were doing tests on browse currently.We have circa 450,000 products on the platform, and surfacing the most relevant of those is a big challenge and we have built a load of tech that doesnt really lean into surfacing the most relevant thing.That is being addressed using Google Vertex, and the work with Kin + Carta involves improving data quality and product information management processes so NOTHS can augment the effects of the AI.In terms of AI strategy, a lot will depend on finding the most suitable partners.A lot of the third-party companies we might buy into will be bringing AI to us because they are integrating it into their products and thats great, Lake says.Thats the benefit you find yourself in as a D2C or online business. You can see the pressure on fellow CTOs working for SaaS businesses because there is a race to market and there will be a number of misses, but we can benefit from that.Lake admits NOTHS was looking at how to use AI for search and discovery, but then Google Vertex came along. He predicts this type of situation will continue to happen for a while as the AI hype and focus continues.Once we have solved some problems and operational issues and removed friction for partners and internally we can think about how to utilise AI for something that is really interesting, he says.Lake describes his team as a lean 40-45 people covering tech and product, and says his leadership style follows a teach-a-man-to-fish mentality.Its no good me steaming in and saying, Cut that out, remove this, and go and buy this, as it wont build the sustainability in the approach we need, he says, adding that the team is realising this new working method is aimed at making their lives easier as much as it is part of a method for driving the business forward.The team covers IT infrastructure, cyber security, and support, with delivery managers, and an engineering team overseeing online, back and front-end, and mobile work across iOS and Android. There are members of the team focused on data analytics and data science, and those looking after platform infrastructure and product management.Good people get bought into the culture, Lake adds.It is their job to ensure the tech serves the five to six million customers NOTHS has in the UK, but under Lakes leadership, they are also increasingly focused on making the lives of circa 5,000 marketplace sellers some of which have started their journeys with Deliveroo this autumn easier and more fruitful.Read more about retail technologyRetail tech leaders from Sweaty Betty and Selfridges discuss levers to pull and tactics to adopt when influencing the boardroom on transformation projectsNew tech from supply chain companies, M&A activity among logistics firms, and H&Ms new fees show product returns is the retail industry debate that keeps coming back

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Use generative AI to establish and improve your humblebragging skills.gettyIn todays column, I examine the nowadays expected humble brag and how generative AI such as ChatGPT can aid you in sharpening your essential humblebragging skills. Society has decided that outright bragging is no longer culturally permitted. You must make sure to tone down any semblance of bragging, even the most tangential of perceived boastful or bragging-related remarks. Otherwise, you will face a conflagration of condemnations, finger-pointing, and accusations that you are spoiled, egotistical, and entirely out-of-touch.Doing humblebragging is both an art and a science.Fortunately, it turns out that generative AI can be your humblebragging coach and guidance counselor. This can be done for free if you are using a generative AI that is available without charge. A crucial element is that generative AI is highly interactive. By dialoguing with generative AI, you can go far beyond simply reading online about how to be proficient at the vaunted humble brag.Practice makes perfect when it comes to humblebragging.Heres the deal. I will explain what humble bragging consists of as a behavioral strategy. After doing so, I will venture into the easy-peasy ways to use generative AI to improve your humblebragging prowess. The widely popular ChatGPT by AI maker OpenAI will be the tool used for the examples shown here. Most of the other major generative AI can be used in a similar fashion, including Anthropics Claude, Google Gemini, Metas Llama, and others.This is part of my ongoing Forbes.com column coverage that showcases how AI and especially generative AI can have impacts on all aspects of our daily lives (see the link here).Fundamentals Of The Humble BragImagine that you are excited about having bought a new car. You innocently tell a work colleague about your purchase. The assumption on your part is that this fellow human will relish your excitement and be keenly interested in what kind of car you bought. This is the smiley face version of our modern world.MORE FOR YOUIn the past, the reaction might have been one of congratulations and backslapping. No more. The fact that you have mentioned the purchase of a car is going to set off numerous socio-cultural alarm bells. First, you are presumably boasting that you could afford a car, suggesting you are bathing in money. Second, you are presumably hoarding this glory over the heads of others who cannot afford a new car. Third, your motivation is assumed as seeking ego-boosting platitudes and simply is intended to stoke your self-image. Sad face.Wow, thats a lot of shadowy baggage associated with something that might have been a somewhat innocuous remark.Welcome to the real world.What are you supposed to do?If you feel it necessary to tell someone about your new car (best to think twice these days), make sure to use a behavioral approach that sidesteps the suggestion of being boastful. You must cloak your words in other culturally accepted words that will take the potential sting out of what you are going to say.The bottom line is that you must transform a potentially perceived brag into one of a seemingly humble nature.Boom, drop the mic.Composing A Suitable Humble BragOkay, the first step of doing humble bragging consists of thinking before you speak aloud. Do not blunder into a situation of getting caught with a brag afoot. Filter your thoughts.Mull over what you are about to say. Can the comment or remark be even remotely perceived as self-flattering? If so, hold your tongue, and immediately go into a humble brag conversion mode in your mind.Your goal is to transform the proposed not-yet-spoken comment into something connoting a humble nature.There are three main approaches to humblebragging conversions:(1) Be humility-based. Convert a self-flattering remark into being humility-based.(2) Be complaint-based. Convert a self-flattering remark into being complaint-based.(3) Use both. Convert a self-flattering remark into a mixture of both humility-based and complaint-based.The humility-based avenue is usually the safest. You are trying to semi-apologize for bringing up the remark and want to make it seem extremely low-key. If you are willing to do so, perhaps cast your eyes in a fluttering manner, look oh-so-humble, and deliver the remark in a soft and reticent voice. I say this because even a tremendously worded humble brag can get undercut by the delivery of the converted remark.The rule of thumb is this time-tested bit of wisdom the best of humble brags will be completely decimated if you say it with loud assurance and overly strident vigor. Shift instead into low gear. Provide an off-the-cuff semblance as though the remark is nothing other than a plain vanilla construction.Be forewarned that the complaint-based path is dicey.The idea is that you seed a subtle or at times brazen complaint into the remark. For example, I bought a new car, but the vehicle is a lemon. The complaint that the automobile is a lemon will help eclipse the fact that you got a new car. Chances are that the listener will respond with sympathy for your plight. You have successfully distracted them from the possible perception that you are bragging about having gotten a new car.A worrisome problem with the complaint-based approach is that it might seem blatantly overstated and thus backfire on you. The person hearing your complaint might say that you got a lemon because you deserve it since you can afford a new car, and they cant. They will summarily attack you with your very own complaint.Another response might be that your complaint seems inconsequential. Suppose that I say that I bought a new car, and to my dismay the entertainment system controls are confusing. A likely response is the person will play the worlds smallest violin for you in the sense that you are complaining about something tiny and ought to be overjoyed that you can afford a new car.I dont want to leave an impression that the humility-based approach in contrast is always a winner. It isnt.One of the biggest weaknesses of the humility-based approach is that the humility might seem forced or fabricated. I bought a new car, doing so by having laboriously saved money for twenty years including delivering newspapers on my bicycle in the dead of winter in freezing cold snow. Whether this is true or not, it smacks of being an exaggeration. The reaction is that the humility is a fakery.Blending humility with a complaint is a tempting approach, if you can get the best of both worlds while avoiding the dreadful downsides. Gotchas loom. The humility might be overtaken by the complaint. The two together might seem overly apparent and trigger a realization that you are invoking a fakery. A delicate balancing act is required.On top of all those mind-numbing considerations, the final straw challenge is that society expects you to do humblebragging but do so without tipping your hand that you are doing so. Humblebragging has to be seamless, nearly invisible to the receiver of the humble brag.In our current culture, you are supposed to word things via a humble brag. Period, end of story. But you arent supposed to be using a humble brag per se. You are only supposed to always speak genuinely and from the heart. So, the conundrum is that the wording and the delivery must work hand-in-hand to achieve the desired result of a humble brag without radiating the slightest hint of a humble brag.Thats a conundrum, for sure.Generative AI To The Rescue On HumblebraggingHumblebragging works with nearly any utterance that might be viewed as being self-flattering.Sometimes a person doesnt realize they are saying something that can be perceived as self-flattering. Buying a new car is such an example, as vividly illustrated earlier. Sure, some people might be indeed outrightly bragging about a brand new million-dollar Maserati, but others might merely be excited to have a new car that works reliably and will daily serve their harried transportation needs.You need some means of training yourself to think about what you say and equally learn how to convert everyday remarks into suitable humble brags.The answer to those needs is the judicious use of generative AI.You can use generative AI in these five ways to enhance your humblebragging skills:(1) Learn about humblebragging. Generative AI can answer your questions about what humblebragging entails.(2) See examples of humblebragging. Generative AI will tirelessly generate as many examples of humblebragging as you might want to ever see.(3) Assess a humblebrag. Generative AI can assess for you a remark that purports to possibly be a humble brag and inform you as to the strengths and weaknesses thereof.(4) Train you on humblebragging. Generative AI can dialogue with you and aid you in becoming proficient at humblebragging.(5) Other humblebragging possibilities. Generative AI can do other actions such as pretending to be someone who does humblebragging poorly, and you must identify what is wrong or pretend to be someone who gripes about humblebragging and tells you why your attempts at humblebragging are ineffective. These simulations are known as personas (Ive covered the use of AI-based personas at the link here).Using ChatGPT As Your Humblebragging TutorLets take a quick look at some examples of how generative AI can help you with your humblebragging endeavors. I am going to use ChatGPT. You might be aware that ChatGPT is being used by over 200 million weekly active users and remains one of the most popular and highly acclaimed generative AI apps.I went ahead and logged into my regular ChatGPT account. Nothing special is needed to invoke humblebragging training other than to mention your interest via a conventional prompt.Here we go.My entered prompt: I need some help improving my humblebrag skills.ChatGPT generated response: I can help with that. Humblebragging is an art form. What are you trying to subtly show off?My entered prompt: I just got promoted, but I don't want to sound too braggy when I talk about it.ChatGPT generated response: Lets turn that into a humblebrag. How about this: "Ugh, I barely have time for myself anymore. Ever since the promotion, it feels like everyone expects me to handle all the big projects!"As you can plainly see, ChatGPT took my mentioned promotion and gave me a humblebrag version that I can readily use.The humble brag consists of a starting point that I barely have time for myself anymore. This will possibly spur sympathy for me. Also, the person I say this to might be right away wondering why I dont have time for myself. What has changed in my life? The next point in the humblebrag is that I got a promotion. Bang, thats the brag.The brag is astutely sandwiched between the opening point of not having time anymore and the subsequent point that everyone expects me to handle all the big projects. Usually, embedding the brag portion is a handy means of somewhat hiding the brag. You want to make sure it doesnt outplay the rest of the remark. At the same time, it cant be so hidden that the listener will miss the brag entirely. Thats not good either.What I dont like about this humblebrag that ChatGPT concocted is the aspect that I have been assigned all these big projects. I would argue that the big projects part of the humble brag is a double brag in the remark. One brag is the promotion. Saying that I am getting big projects is another brag. Two in one is going to undoubtedly set off alarm bells.Be Wary And Be Highly InteractiveMy point is that just because generative AI recommends a particular humblebrag does not mean you should accept it without reservations. Scrutinize the recommendation. Is it any good? Are there aspects that seem questionable? Always be skeptical of any answers provided by generative AI (other concerns are the potential of AI confabulations or referred to as AI hallucinations, see my discussion at the link here).An additional point to keep at the top of your mind is that generative AI is designed to be interactive. If you get a response that you dont like or believe could be improved, speak up. Dont be shy. Tell the AI what is on your mind. Get the AI to try again.I did so.My entered prompt: That sounds good! But I feel like I could be even more subtle about it.ChatGPT generated response: Lets dial it back. Try: "Its been so overwhelming lately. I thought things would calm down after the promotion, but its just been nonstop." Now, it sounds like youre venting about the workload, but the promotion is still front and center.The feedback that I provided has paid off and the new version of the humblebrag seems a lot safer. ChatGPT removed the portion touting the big projects. Whew, we got rid of the double brag.You should note that I didnt have to directly tell the AI to nix the big projects. All I said was to be more subtle. I mention this because some people assume they must be exhaustively detailed about what they want the AI to do. Nope. You can make broad feedback and often get the AI to follow your drift. That being said, you can certainly be detailed if thats how you prefer to do things.If you are interested in lots of insightful prompting techniques and tips, see my coverage at the link here.Generative AI Teaches You About HumblebraggingThe example above showcased that you can interactively proceed to work with generative AI on devising humble brags. If you do this repeatedly, you will get better at humble brags. The aim is to practice so much humblebragging with the AI that the self-generation within you of humble brags becomes second nature. You can do it. As they say, the right path to Carnegie Hall and to doing consistent humble brags is three words, namely practice, practice, practice.I wondered what ChatGPT would say about behavioral strategies associated with being able to craft good humble brags. Lets give generative AI a moment to teach us something about the frothy topic.Heres what I got.My entered prompt: In general, how can I come up with humble brags that are convincing and do not seem insincere?ChatGPT generated response: The key is to frame your achievements as inconveniences or unintended consequences. Focus on the struggle, not the achievement. Frame your success as an unintended side effect of something difficult or frustrating. This way, you appear humble while still getting your brag across. Keep the tone casual and dont overuse humblebrags, as they can come across as insincere if done too frequently.Your Mightiest TakeawaysA crucial point in that response by ChatGPT is the noted factor of becoming over-reliant on the use of humble brags. The humble brag is a new shiny toy for some people. They start using the humble brag in every remark or comment they make.This becomes irksome to others. It becomes obvious to others. Make sure to savor the humble brag and use it when needed, as needed. Use humblebragging humbly.Ill close this discussion with a mind-bending humble brag instance.Are you ready?You meet someone who tells you that they never need to use humble brags. They say that they are so genuinely sincere and utterly humble that they never brag about anything.Give that some duly considered weighty thought.

Tom Emrich is an immersive media industry veteran who previously programmed Augmented World Expo, ... [+] and most recently was an executive at Niantic.WileyTom Emrichs The Next Dimension is a timely, comprehensive guide for leaders seeking to leverage augmented reality (AR) as a transformative tool. Emrichs background as a pioneer in wearable technology and spatial computing lends authority to his insights and advice. The book begins by contextualizing AR within the broader history of technological revolutions, from the dawn of the personal computer to the mobile era, and now to spatial computing. Emrich argues convincingly that AR is not just an extension of the digital age but the cornerstone of a new paradigm where physical and digital realities merge.Tom Emrich, Author. Tom EmrichThis historical lens gives the book a solid foundation, helping readers appreciate the significance of ARs trajectory while offering a forward-looking framework. Emrich identifies the key pillars of spatial computingperception, presence, and personalizationand connects them to tangible business strategies.An experienced executive with leadership roles at Augmented World Expo, 8th Wall, and Niantic, Emrich provides a detailed reakdown of how AR is already transforming industries, from retail and healthcare to entertainment and education. Case studies punctuate each chapter, showcasing how companies like IKEA and Snap have successfully integrated AR to drive customer engagement and business growth.MORE FOR YOUFor instance, the book highlights IKEA's AR app, which allows users to visualize furniture in their homes before purchase. This example illustrates how AR not only enriches customer experiences but also addresses pain points in the buyers journey, such as uncertainty about fit and style. These real-world applications make Emrich's arguments tangible and relatable.Emrich excels in making AR accessible to business leaders, many of whom may feel daunted by the technical complexities of spatial computing. He introduces concepts like the "AR Funnel," a reimagining of the traditional marketing funnel that incorporates AR-driven engagement at every stagefrom awareness to purchase and retention. The book also offers actionable advice on integrating AR into marketing strategies, product design, and customer service.Emrich is refreshingly candid about the challenges facing AR adoption. From technical hurdles like device compatibility and battery life to societal issues like privacy and data security, the book doesnt shy away from addressing potential pitfalls. This balanced perspective strengthens the book's credibility, demonstrating that Emrich is not just an advocate but a thoughtful critic.The book concludes with a compelling call to action: businesses must embrace AR now or risk being left behind. Emrich provides a step-by-step guide for building an AR strategy, from assembling the right team to experimenting with pilot projects. His message is clear: the era of spatial computing is here, and early adopters will reap the rewards of innovation.

Something to look forward to: Following months of rumors, AMD has stopped just short of confirming plans to launch two Radeon RX 8000 graphics cards early next year. While the company hasn't officially named the GPUs, recent firmware code and comments from AMD leave little doubt of an impending CES announcement. A recent update on AMD's ROCm GitHub page contains the company's first direct mention of the Radeon RX 8800 and 8600, two graphics cards from the upcoming RDNA4 lineup. The company has also announced that it will discuss gaming and other subjects at a January 6 CES keynote, stoking anticipation for a GPU unveiling.A commit from last week on AMD's public xla development page lists the two cards under the label "gfx12," which follows a "gfx11" designation assigned to RX 7900, indicating that "gfx12" is a codename for the company's next-generation GPUs. Rumors have long suggested that RDNA4 will see an early 2025 launch, but a complete picture of AMD's plans is still materializing.During the company's earnings call for the third quarter of 2024, CEO Lisa Su confirmed that the first RDNA4 cards are set for early 2025, promising new AI features and dramatic increases in ray tracing performance. The comments substantiate earlier reports that AMD is working to catch up with Nvidia in those two areas.Ray tracing runs significantly faster on Team Green's RTX GPUs, and tests show that Nvidia's machine learning-based DLSS upscaling technology handles lower resolutions better than AMD's spatial FSR method. These gaps are a likely factor behind Nvidia's commanding 88 percent market share in the discrete graphics sector.Jack Huynh, senior vice president of AMD's Computing and Graphics Business Group, previously confirmed that the next stage of FSR, FSR4, will incorporate AI-based upscaling and frame generation. The technology aims to enhance energy efficiency, possibly in order to improve battery life on handheld PCs using the company's upcoming Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU.Furthermore, leakers recently described an RX 8800 XT that outperforms the 7900 XTX by around 45 percent in multiple games featuring ray tracing. The so-called "epic" improvement allegedly makes the 8800 XT a match for Nvidia's RTX 4080 Super and possibly the upcoming 5070. The RDNA4 card includes 16GB of VRAM, draws 220W, and enters mass production later this month.The company intends to focus on the mid-range and mainstream GPU sectors, conceding next year's enthusiast race to Nvidia's RTX 5080 and 5090, which are also expected to appear at CES. So an RX 8900 seems unlikely for now. However, a three-way mainstream graphics card competition is brewing between RDNA4, the RTX 5060, and Intel's recently unveiled Arc Battlemage lineup. // Related Stories

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took its 24th flight on Wednesday, a record for the first-stage booster.Lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:13 a.m. ET, SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket launched 24 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit. About eight minutes after launch, the rockets first stage performed a flawless landing on a drone ship waiting off the coast of Florida, paving the way for a 25th flight once its been checked over and refurbished.Recommended VideosPrevious flights for the booster, listed by SpaceX as B1067, involved the CRS-22, CRS-25, Crew 3, Crew 4, TelkomSat-113BT, Turksat-5B, Koreasat-6A, Eutelsat HOTBIRD-F2, Galileo L13, mPOWER-A, and PSN MFS missions, along with 13 Starlink mission deploying internet satellites to low-Earth orbit. Before Wednesdays record-breaking flight, B1067 last launched on November 11, while its first flight took place in June 2021.RelatedTwo other first-stage Falcon 9 boosters have taken 23 flights to date, while many others have also taken multiple flights, so B1067 now leads the pack.Reusing the rockets in this way allows SpaceX to cut the cost of space missions and operate launches more frequently, a setup that makes orbital missions affordable for a greater number of companies and organizations than before.SpaceX first achieved an upright landing of a 41.2-meter-tall Falcon 9 first-stage booster in 2015, and following a few mishaps during subsequent landing attempts, it soon managed to perfect the procedure.SpaceX engineers are now eyeing a much bigger challenge bringing home the considerably larger Super Heavy booster, which forms the first stage of the Starship rocket. At 71 meters tall, its much harder to land on the ground, so the company added giant mechanical chopstick arms to the launch tower that secure the booster as it returns to base, just before the vehicle touches the ground.SpaceX achieved the feat in spectacular fashion on its first attempt during the rockets fifth test flight in October, but it was unable to repeat the maneuver on its sixth test last month. Still, with more practice, SpaceX is expected to perfect the landing of the Super Heavy as it prepares the rocket for launches toward the moon, Mars, and beyond.Editors Recommendations

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsThe right techImmediate aftermathMore helpful than gas generatorsPreparation is keyElectric vehicles have many obvious benefits, chief of which is the reduced reliance on fossil fuels. But thats not the only thing EVs are good for. EVs are essentially giant batteries on wheels, which makes them perfect for powering devices, appliances, and even your home.Thats something that many EV owners discovered over the course of one of the worst hurricane seasons on record. To be clear, if youre facing a hurricane, its vital to follow evacuation orders and make other preparations. But even those who dont need to evacuate might still find themselves without power for a matter of days following a major storm and its becoming increasingly clear that owning an EV can be very helpful for those people.Recommended VideosWe spoke to a few EV owners who found themselves in this exact situation and who were able to reduce the effects of power outages post-hurricane.RelatedIts important to note that not all electric vehicles can be used to power a home. In order to make use of this kind of technology, youll need an electric vehicle that supports bidirectional charging. From there, with the right adapters, youll be able to plug certain appliances around your electric vehicle straight into the car to keep them powered.Schumacher ElectricIn a best-case scenario, however, you might go a step further. Thats with an EV charger that supports Vehicle to Load, or V2L, charging. These chargers can accept power from your car and use it to deliver electricity to your home. Its worth double-checking with the manufacturer of your car and charger to make sure they support this kind of tech. For now, vehicles like the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Ford F-150 Lightning can supply power for use in your home.Those are the kinds of vehicles that the EV owners we spoke to have. I have a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 SEL RWD and Ive had it for about three months, said Rob Barnett, a Savannah, Georgia, resident, in an interview with Digital Trends. I actually got it less than a week before Helene hit.Assuming you have the right technology, how you make use of it in the aftermath of a disaster matters especially if youre unsure how long you might be without power. If youre concerned that the power could be out for more than a few days, youll likely want to be conservative with how you use energy to help ensure that you can use your EV to power appliances for as long as possible.Thats on top of the fact that your EV cant necessarily output unlimited power at once, so theres a limit to how many things you can actually plug into your car. You may need to be selective with the kinds of appliances you power and prioritize those that keep your food safe and your home a livable temperature.Joel Patel / Digital TrendsI used the V2L to power the fridge, lights, fans, and the TV. It was very easy to use, I just plugged the V2L adapter into the charging port and ran a 12-gauge extension cord into the house through a window. I then ran more extension cords off of that to different rooms, said Barnett. I didnt have any way to measure the amperage draw aside from the car, so I had to run outside from time to time to check it. I had to unplug the fridge to use the microwave or the electric kettle for hot water, which wasnt that big of a deal.Barnett estimates that he and his wife were able to keep around $400 worth of groceries from spoiling by using his EV to power a fridge,. This simultaneously allowed them to retain a sense of normalcy in a stressful time by still enjoying a hot coffee in the morning. I work in news, so it was a busy, stressful few days for me and having some of the comforts of home was fantastic, Barnett said.Tim Ro is a resident of Houston. Hes another Ioniq 5 owner who also happened to get set up with his vehicle and charger mere days before a hurricane hit this time Hurricane Beryl, which hit Houston on July 8. Ro found the entire process of powering appliances using his car to be straightforward.I am by no means competent with electricity, but I did a quick bit of research before the storm about what kind of load I could put on the car. I was able to effectively run all necessary items in my home no-stop for a projected five or six days, said Ro in an interview with Digital Trends. If needed, I could have likely gone longer by powering less items that are more essential.Of course, being able to power appliances in the event of an outage after a major disaster isnt necessarily a completely new concept. Traditionally, however, its done through gas generators, which serve that purpose in the aftermath of an event like a hurricane. While gas generators may not have the same limitations around limited power that EVs have, they do have other issues. Notably, in order to really use them more than you could an EV, youll have to seriously stockpile on gas, as gas pumps at a gas station still require power to operate. Typically, gas generators can run for between 10 and 20 hours on a tank of gasoline, which is a far cry from the multiple days that you could get out of an EV battery.Christian de Looper / Digital TrendsWe dont have a generator and we honestly werent prepared for the damage we sustained. We were without power for four days and we were lucky, said Barnett. My wife and I are from Colorado and we moved to Savannah about four years ago, so we didnt have any experience with this kind of storm.There are other issues too, though. After natural disasters, it can be difficult to find gas if you dont already have it. Even if a pump is properly working, youll likely have to contend with everyone else who wants to get gas for their own generator.I have been considering a gasoline generator for years; many problems I had with them is the overall maintenance, constant fueling during use, and scarcity of gasoline during natural disasters, said Ro. Also noise and carbon monoxide are something I am really glad I dont have to contend with.Again, gas generators have their place in post-disaster recovery, but using an electric vehicle could prove to be a much better option. EV batteries will last longer than even a few tanks of gas on a generator, while being quieter and requiring less maintenance. Thats on top of the fact that a gas generator really only serves one purpose, while you may already have an EV, or plan on buying one, for reasons completely unrelated to dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster.If you dont already have an EV, but plan on buying one, and like the idea of being able to use its battery in the event of an outage, there are some things to keep in mind. For example, Barnett says he was a little limited by the fact that the Ioniq 5 was only able to output power at 120 volts, so it couldnt supply power to 240-volt appliances like a washer, dryer, and hot water heater.While you might assume that youre good to go if you have the right electric vehicle and a charger that supports V2L, its still important to be prepared. As mentioned, youll likely want to be at least somewhat selective with how you use power in your home after a natural disaster, so that you can maximize how long your EVs battery lasts.Preparedness needs vary widely depending on individual circumstances, preferences, and needs, so we encourage everyone to assess how they can best meet their needs before, during and after disasters. FEMA recommends families and individuals to prepare according to their transportation needs, [and] its important to do so ahead of an emergency and disasters, said FEMA spokesperson Jayce Genco. EV owners should also aim to maintain their battery between 50% and 80% capacity to account for potential power outages or extended travel needs.Mercedes-BenzOf course, in addition to making sure that your car is charged up before a disaster hits (assuming you know it will hit beforehand), there are other things that you can do to prepare. Its a good idea to make a tiered list of the appliances and accessories that are most important to you. A common example of a tier 1 appliance would be the fridge, as it will help maintain the safety of any food that you might need over the days following a disaster. Appliances further down the list might include things that arent necessarily crucial, but could still help you maintain your sanity, like a coffee machine which obviously wont need to be powered all the time, so is unlikely to put a major dent in how much power you have.Always test your plan, making sure things work the way they should before a natural disaster hits and overall have a plan ahead of time, said Ro. Having an EV or not, having a plan in place is always best. I had family members laugh at me when I purchased my EV because they know we get storms and lose power often, but after the power went out and gas stations couldnt pump gas (because the power was still out), they came to me to store their food in my fridge and freezer and stay cool by my fan, all powered by our EV. So, depending on the infrastructure around you, an EV could be more practical than an ICE vehicle during a natural disaster.Editors Recommendations

Venture firm Cadenza closed its first fund for early-stage artificial intelligence startups with $50 million last week. It is also raising its third blockchain-focused fund, according to Managing Partner Max Shapiro.