Its a very low-budget, very simple, modest project, notes Steve Fox, director at Manalo & White, about the new classroom block at Heathlands School in St Albans that the practice has designed in collaboration with deaf-led architecture firm Richard Lyndon Design and which is intended to set a new benchmark for design in deaf education.Despite greater awareness about deafness and accessibility, specialised educational facilities for deaf children, particularly in the UK, continue to disappear. In recent years, one in 10 of these facilities has closed, resulting in one in four local councils lacking any dedicated resources for deaf students. At present there are only 22 schools for deaf children across the UK.As one of the largest, Heathlands caters from nursery-age pupils up until sixth form, with some students living on the premises. Given the national decline in resources, theres growing pressure on facilities like Heathlands to further increase capacity. AdvertisementIn its case, intake has had to expand from 110 to 153 over the past five years, added to which the school is also having to address the deaf attainment gap. In an Education Policy Institute paper last year focusing on English and Maths at GCSE, this was estimated to have been as much as 17.5 months in 2019 similar to that faced by socio-economically disadvantaged pupils. With scant resources available, many students have to travel from far and wide to attend Heathlands. There are few other places for students to go, sighs co-headteacher Lesley Reeves Costi.The new Heathlands extension is stitched into the existing complex with a perceptive understanding of the senses at the crux of its conception. Located in a quiet suburb of St Albans, the original 1970s building is a purpose-built deaf school consisting of a collection of low-rise, two-storey buildings, their sandy-coloured brick and pitched roofs evoking a sense of quaint domesticity.Inside, Reeves Costi points out the shortcomings of the original design. Despite being intended for deaf use, the limitations imposed by the architecture are clear: bottlenecks, harsh lighting and sharp corners make it hard to maintain eye contact and to lip-read. It is an inconvenience which is amplified when the school is at full capacity. The original brief called for a first-floor extension to be added to an existing single-storey block. However, going back to the drawing board, the initial concept was reimagined in the context of the whole site, which resulted in a new stand-alone building, which, Fox says, offered an opportunity to better utilise the space, with less disruption. Matching the scale of the surrounding architecture, the new two-storey building provides six new classrooms but with radically updated ideas about designing for deaf use. The design takes a profoundly sensory approach to the detailing, which is not immediately easy to identify but which forefronts tactile experience.DeafSpace principles are at the core of the design, a set of guidelines developed at Gallaudet University in Washington DC, the worlds first university for deaf people, and a leading institution in advocating for better design for those with disabilities. The principles aim to create environments that are not only accessible to people who are deaf but also to accommodate those with varying levels of sensory reach. On entering the grounds of the school, for instance, bright yellow railings flicker through the foliage, their vivid colour finish easily visible from a range of distances. AdvertisementReeves Costi explains: For a deaf person, colour is really important, as a lot of students also have a sensitivity to light. In like manner, yellow-framed windows pop against the new buildings soft green faade panels, while its pitched roof draws upon a visual language of domesticity, recalibrated here in a playful and contemporary form.Taking cues from artists Bernd and Hilla Bechers Fachwerkhuser series of photographs of half-timbered houses from the 1960s and 70s, decorative timber batons are spaced to match the standard sizes of the green fibre cement panels on the elevations, speaking to an ethos of simplicity. Using humble materials, the faade treatment breaks down the volume of the building into digestible parts. It is a useful cue for pupils with visual impairments, helping them recognise the depth of the buildings by the linear patterns which break up the massing. The new addition sits detached from the existing building but is linked via a semi-covered outdoor space, which acts as an external corridor, allowing for visual connection to the outside and varying levels of enclosure.Fox says that, while he avoided the temptation to maximise the built area, it does require a certain amount of room to gather and a certain amount of distance to gesticulate and use your hands for signing. As a result, the built architecture prioritises visual connection and clear sightlines by placing value on transitional spaces. As Fox notes, The liminal spaces are equally as necessary as the building itself.Leading up to the top floor, an elevated balcony walkway screened off with polycarbonate links the new building with the pre-existing art block. A new lift makes the previously inaccessible accessible to those unable to use stairs. In accordance with DeafSpace principles, generous double-width stairs and wide walking routes allow pupils to communicate while traversing the site, encouraging spontaneous meetings to take place outside the classroom.Fox remarks: This gets said a lot, but we were really focused on how light works in the building. In particular, we were concerned with the quality of light in the spaces and the positioning of the windows. As it is a building that is only a single room deep, each classroom benefits from a dual aspect, encouraging diffuse light from multiple angles. This helps to reduce glare and silhouetting within the classrooms, conditions which prevent pupils from lip-reading effectively. Classroom interiors are finished in a soft blue, which allows occupants to see different ranges of skin tones with the best clarity. Classrooms are sized to allow for a horseshoe arrangement of classroom tables, so pupils are face-to-face and no one is sitting at the back of the class. Control of sound is critical. Using new technology, the ceiling-mounted natural ventilation with heat recycling (NVHR) systems ventilate each classroom silently, eliminating the auditory strain that is caused by background noise from open windows.There are few examples of architecture that fully integrate DeafSpace principles, and Reeves Costi emphasises the importance of incorporating these considerations into design more broadly. How many children are affected by conditions like glue ear? Or how many individuals lose their hearing later in life? Its crucial to have those natural elements in buildings, she says. Many of the design principles also have broader application in making spaces more accessible to a wider range of users. Such subtle architectural interventions can have profound impacts on the day-to-day experience of socialising and also navigating spaces independently.Heathlands Schools new block incorporates many subtle features that can be implemented in design not just for deaf people but for the sake of offering a wider scale of inclusion. They could easily read solely as aesthetic flair to the untrained eye. But in its quiet style the architecture here reconciles both inclusivity and aesthetics in an earnest and honest support to the senses.Teshome Douglas-Campbell is an architectural designer, alumnus of the New Architecture Writers programme and founding member of PATCH CollectiveProject dataStart on siteJuly 2023CompletionMarch 2024Gross internal floor area250m2 (includes new and adapted existing)Construction cost850,000Construction cost per m23,400ArchitectManalo & WhiteClientHeathlands SchoolStructural engineerengineersHRWM&E consultantXCO2Quantity surveyorOmniumMain contractorGemstone

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NetEase's spin on the hero battler is complex and moreish, but rarely much actual fun. Its biggest impact is a renewed appreciation for the rivals that do it better.Sometimes, you don't quite know what makes something work until you experience another version of it that doesn't. This is, unfortunately, my experience of Marvel Rivals, a team battler that is eminently playable and moreish, but also never quite properly good.Marvel Rivals reviewDeveloper: NetEasePublisher: NetEasePlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam, Epic), PS5, Xbox Series X/SIn this case, it's a matter of many, many little things holding Marvel Rivals back, as opposed to one major error, the result being a game that's much a lesson as anything else: that competitive games, perhaps more than any other, are games that live and die by their attention to detail.The setup here is brisque and simple enough. Two teams of six heroes slog it out over the usual array of objectives: take and hold a central capture zone until a progress bar hits 100 percent; or escort a payload through three checkpoints to an endzone; best of three rounds wins. Before matches you pick from a surprisingly wide range of Marvel characters, from your classic A-listers like Iron Man and Wolverine all the way to, it says here, Squirrel Girl, Namor, and Jeff the Land Shark. There are some decent tutorial bits, a well kitted-out practice arena and a spot of light PvE in a slightly perfunctory arcade mode, but ultimately this eternal 6v6 competition is the crux of it. It isn't reductivist to just say this really is Marvel Overwatch.I should preface all this by saying I really haven't had a terrible time with Marvel Rivals. It is not a disaster, and despite its very obvious free-to-play trappings it is still somewhat inoffensive there (albeit perhaps only because the sheer, maximalist opacity of its UI is too busy getting in the way for me to ever really engage with its many forms of in-game currency - more on that soon). The problem is it just fails to ever, really, be particularly enjoyable. I've experienced something while playing Marvel Rivals. Some frustration, some competitive urge, a few fleeting moments of satisfaction, a few more moments of boredom and disappointment. But none, when I really think about it, that ever really landed on fun. Image credit: NetEase / EurogamerLet's get into it then. Marvel Rivals' single biggest issue from the long list of little ones is probably the hardest to explain, but also the most important. It's the lack of strategy, which is really a result of something else: Marvel Rivals is overcomplicated, lacking the clear archetypes, obvious complimentary picks, readable environments, and broad character strokes that all combine to give more successful team battlers their special sauce. Which is this: a sense of ongoing, organic, ever-changing tactical narrative.Rarely in Marvel Rivals will a round, or wider match, have a specific turning point or strategic moment that you remember after it's over. It's hard to pin down why that really is, but I figure it's a bit of a combination, which is normally the case when no single reason stands out. For one, Marvel Rivals' visual, environmental, and level design has some issues. Maps lack clear shape, structure and flow, with structures often seemingly only existing as deliberate obstacles (an obvious example: all those random chunks of wall that stand between where you respawn and where the battle's taking place, sitting in some aircraft hanger or cursed arena for no reason other than to make you jump over them or walk around them, breaking up the bland and overlong trudge that's seemingly only there to make your death cooldown seem artificially shorter). Of Hell's Heaven for instance, a Hydra Base, the several arenas that make up its multiple rounds are all identical in my mind: grey walls, dark corridors off the side, open air to either the left or right, and a square control zone in the middle with some pillars or walls that sometimes go up and down. A separate point really, but many areas of many maps are also just far, far too dark.Compounding this is a similar lack of visual clarity and identity to the heroes' abilities. Take Hulk for example: Hulk has two ranged abilities (which feels inherently wrong - he's the guy who smashes stuff! With his fists! It's his catchphrase! - but that's another separate point I'll get to). The point here is that these two ranged abilities, amidst the chaos of Marvel Rivals' frenetic, incredibly fast-paced battles, look and feel almost identical. One is a kind of sonic boom Hulk makes from clapping his hands together, dealing a little chunk of damage to those it hits. Another is a kind of gamma blast that stuns an enemy it hits until you punch them again. These are functionally completely different, but the lack of truly emphatic, distinguishing visual, animative, and audio design to them means they can quite literally get lost in the noise. Why is this barrier here? | Image credit: NetEase / EurogamerThat might seem minor, but picture the fastest-paced team shooter you've played, with all of this going on in the melee of 12 players - some of whom playing characters who can create two or three clones of themselves and blip, dash, transform and teleport - and all with just one or two too many abilities each all piling into one another, and hopefully you can start to see the issue. The nuances of Marvel Rivals' design - of which there are actually quite a few - are quickly overwhelmed.One of those nuances, which is a fun and pretty novel idea in itself, is the concept of team-ups. In selecting characters - which you can change whenever you respawn - you'll see a visual indicator showing which other characters you might form a kind of combo with for a special predetermined bonus. To stick with Hulk, if your team also has an Iron Man and/or a Captain America, their abilities will get a special Gamma buff. Or if you have a Wolverine, Hulk can pick him up and wing him through the air at opponents. Every character has at least one of these, many of them multiple, and at times these can really sing.The Asgard team-up is a nice example. Hela - the green spikey one played gamely in the MCU by Cate Blanchett - can team up with Loki and Thor for a nicely synergistic buff. Whenever Hela gets a kill, she can revive either of Loki or Thor if they're currently dead and waiting to respawn. Hela, being a frankly rather overpowered carry right now, tends to get a lot of kills, while Loki is a powerful healer and Thor a frontline tank. When switched on and playing with the team in mind, the combination can be lethal. Likewise Rocket Racoon can lob a special buff at the Punisher and Winter Soldier, two other Dudes With Guns, to give them a burst of rapid fire and infinite ammo - used in the right place and the right time it can be fantastically potent. Image credit: NetEase / EurogamerThe problem again is that there are just too few of these really clear, decisive moments when it might work. The battle is constant, no moments of ebb and flow, no waiting to pounce, no respite. Crucially, I reckon: no chokepoints. Gosh, how I miss a good chokepoint here in Marvel Rivals. My mind keeps darting to that big, horrible wall in the first Overwatch's Hanamura. For much of a game the attacking team would throw themselves at this chokepoint, crashing against it, testing for weaknesses in the enemy defense, until eventually something broke and they flooded through. Chokepoints, along with being incredibly satisfying to defend, are also a test of your team's real ability to understand and play the game well: how hard can you concentrate? How well can you coordinate, and stay organised with this group of strangers? How well do you know the map, its flanking routes and intricacies, and the ways they combine with certain characters? How well can you time and aim your ultimate? In what must be 50-plus games of Marvel Rivals, I've yet to find a single moment that gets close to this.The last point on this comes back to the characters, and is that point about the broadness of their design. Remember how Hulk, surely the most pure of all melee tanks in concept (and yes I know he has that sonic clap thing in the comics), has two ranged abilities? This extends to much of Marvel Rivals' too-many heroes. Take the aforementioned Jeff the Land Shark. Jeff is a support healer, on the surface, categorised as a 'strategist' (support) class in-game and absolutely played as one. But in addition to ranged healing and also passive healing from dropping health bubbles for allies, he also has a quite respectable ranged damage attack, and the ability to 'swim' on any flat land, becoming near-invulnerable and therefore capable of rapidly escaping any attacks in an instant, on demand. And he also has a hugely powerful ultimate that lets him swim up and gobble down all heroes in a massive area after a brief pause, doing damage to them over time, and also letting him carry them off and spit them out elsewhere.This is too many things! And aside from just feeling very strong, it blurs the lines unnecessarily between classes, smearing together too many archetypes. It's also not just Jeff; it's a clear design philosophy across the roster. Supports can do 'nuke' damage with ultimates; carries can become almost invulnerable; tanks can regularly dash and pick people off at range. Coupled with the fact there are just too many heroes at launch - several dozen, some of which are present in every game and some that are almost never, ever seen - each of whom has multiple layers of extraneous abilities, passives, and dedicated resources stacking on top of each other - and that the combat itself, another casualty of strangely lightweight animation and sound, feels weirdly flimsy and rudimental - and the battles themselves just turn to a kind of relentless, swirling, cel-shaded soup. Too many areas are variations of grey sludge. And too many are far, far too dark. | Image credit: NetEase / EurogamerUnfortunately the little issues don't end there. Marvel Rivals' writing, performances and general characterisation are sadly quite poor. Each character has just a couple of lines of dialogue, blurted out in near-unison at the start of each round and almost always bland. There are also pre-set interactions, such as Punisher and Luna Snow: the former asking what she is, the latter responding, flatly, "a famous pop singer", to which Punisher replies, "I don't listen to music. I punish criminals". This would be wonderfully funny if it were in any way intentional, but the absolute deadpan blandness of the delivery strongly suggests otherwise. Another involving Luna Snow has her mentioning Magik's flaming sword and worrying about it melting her, to which Magik will bluntly reply, "it's not actual fire it's soulfire". Sheesh! Talk about a conversation killer, Magik! For a game based on comics it's deeply depressing to not find a single good pun or one-liner in sight.The wider characterisation is related: there are no 'talk' prompts, which I personally love in a good hero shooter. And likewise little in the way of emotes (though I have spotted plenty of premium ones on the battle pass). These are the little things - I know, little things again - that make these games what they are. The things that breathe life into a genre that can, if you're not careful - and especially when free-to-play - feel just a little dead behind the eyes. Speaking of, beyond the battlefield there is an entire world of monetisation and metaprogression going on here, as you'd expect. Too much of this is premium for my taste, with one too many currencies and several too many layers of UI for me to have ever felt tempted to engage with it. This is a blessing in a way - this part of this kind of game is always the most grotesque, much as they need to pay for the servers somehow - but a mild, sensible, smartly interwoven metagame can actually work nicely for a game, encouraging healthier engagement over time, when done clearly and with intent. Matches are often heavily one-sided, while the lack of custom banners before mid-tier competitive games shows the ratio of people interacting with the metagame elements - not many. The premium elements are what you'd expect; this skin bundle costs around 17. | Image credit: NetEase / EurogamerMarvel Rivals accessibility optionsColour blind modes; custom colours for allies, enemies, HP, shield HP and warnings; remappable controls, look sensitivity sliders. Separate audio sliders for sound, music, etc. Subtitles and voiceover settings. In-game tutorial pop-ups.Frankly I could go on. The explainer pages for heroes' abilities are poorly written, often missing key bits of information on how to actually implement an ability in the proper way. Battles themselves are too often painfully one-sided, one team getting absolutely pasted over and over, while there's no surrender function to let you resign in those cases without punishment for leaving early. The walk back from each death is too long, and too boring, and deaths in this game are plentiful - I've had matches with upwards of 40 kills, or where teammates have all had more than 20 deaths. It's patently derivative in places - far from a crime in itself, this genre in particular is built on borrowed ideas - but all its borrowed ideas here land just slightly less successfully than their originals.I'll leave it at that. I should emphasise, one last time, that I don't really mind Marvel Rivals. I like the invention of special character team-ups, which feels perfectly Marvel in itself. I like the enduring sense of competition it inspires. I just don't truly like much else. The end result is a game that, above all, makes the success of its own rivals much more clear to me. Suddenly the lectures I sat through at Riot Games' HQ on sight lines, colour palettes, box heights and map lanes during its preview for Valorant back in the day ring especially true. And Blizzard's purity of thought, its crystal clear characterisation (Widowmaker and Solder 76, for instance, strangely feel more perfect assassin and guy-with-gun archetypes than Black Widow or Punisher ever could here), its broader brush strokes and smaller roster stand out all the clearer. Making a successful hero-based team battler, as we've seen time and time again, is just very difficult work. Making a truly brilliant one is perhaps even harder.A copy of Marvel Rivals was independently sourced for review by Eurogamer.

Dead DeadJust in case you had any hope the horror series wasn't dead, EA said no to a Dead Space 4 pitch from the original co-creatorRemember when EA managed to fool us into thinking that maybe it's ready to really bring back Dead Space? Well, that was fun while it lasted. News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Dec. 23, 2024 For a little while there, it seemed like EA felt jealous of Capcoms immense success with its Resident Evil remakes. The publisher had its own horror franchise laying dormant, so it decided to do something with it.Out of that short-lived initiative, we got a remake of the first Dead Space that expanded the original narrative, updated the gameplay and brought visuals up to modern standards. A remake of its follow-up, Dead Space 2, was the next logical step. Except, of course, that never happened.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In fact, forces internally at EA, and the remakes developer, Motive, wanted to continue working on Dead Space, but EA reportedly passed on that and decided to instead put the series back on ice.And just now, we find out that EA is really serious about that plan to pretend Dead Space does not exist. According to co-creator Glen Schofield, the company turned down a fresh pitch for a Dead Space 4 hed made to them.Schofield, a games industry veteran, revealed in a lengthy and wide-reaching interview with Dan Allen Gaming that himself, Bret Robbins, and Christopher Stone were part of the pitch. According to Schofield, EA wasnt even interested in hearing out the whole pitch.We didnt go too deep, Schofield revealed. They just said Were not interested right now, we appreciate it blah blah blah and we know who to talk to, so we didnt take it any further. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Schofield added that he understood why EA didnt let them go through with it, indicating that it may have had something to do with the games sales potential. This is particularly relevant, as reports suggest the Dead Space remake wasnt as successful as EA had hoped, which is why the publisher pivoted from the initial plan of remaking the trilogy, and is likely the reason why we may not see a new Dead Space game for a while.We respect their opinions, Schofield added. They know their numbers and what they have to ship and all that, soIn a sense, Schofield did get to make a new Dead Space after departing the series original team at EA. The veteran designer went on to direct The Callisto Protocol, a spiritual successor to the horror classic that underperformed and received middling reviews from fans and critics, leading to his eventual departure from Striking Distance, the studio he co-founded.

UK Charts: Nintendo Can Be Proud Of Its Last Christmas Before 'Switch 2'Top 40 is chock full of Switch gamesby Ollie Reynolds 4m agoShare:0Image: NintendoWell folks, in what is presumably the last Christmas period before Nintendo unleashes its next major hardware, Switch games have performed admirably as folks look to fill those stockings come Wednesday morning.In fact, let's look at the numbers here: 8 games in the top 10 are either Switch exclusive or can be played on the Switch, and the same can be said of 26 titles from the complete top 40 charts. That's impressive, and it really goes to show just how popular boxed Switch games really are at this time of year.Naturally, digital sales may paint a different picture, but it's at least a good result for Nintendo in terms of the physical retail space. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the best-selling first-party Nintendo title, followed by Super Mario Party Jamboree, Nintendo Switch Sports, Minecraft (third-party), Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Lots of what we would probably call "evergreen" titles, then.It'll be interesting to see how things shake out in the new year as we inch toward a new hardware announcement, currently due before the end of March. Will Switch games maintain their current momentum..? Only time will tell.Here's a look at this week's top 40 in full, with platform breakdowns for all of the titles available on other consoles alongside the Switch:Last WeekThis WeekGamePlatform Split31Call of Duty: Black Ops 622Hogwarts LegacySwitch 48%, PS5 21%, PS4 20%, Xbox 10%13EA Sports FC 25PS5 41%, Switch 28%, PS4 17%, Xbox 15%44Mario Kart 8 Deluxe55Super Mario Party Jamboree66Nintendo Switch Sports107Minecraft148Super Mario Bros. Wonder139Animal Crossing: New Horizons1210Astro Bot911Mortal Kombat 11 UltimatePS5 57%, PS4 42%, Switch 1%, Xbox 0%812The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom913Sonic X Shadow GenerationsPS5 38%, Switch 34%, Xbox 16%, PS4 12%1114Marvel's Spider-Man 2-15Mortal Kombat 1PS5 87%, Switch 8%, Xbox 4%1716Grand Theft Auto V717Black Myth: Wukong-18Star Wars Outlaws3419Lego Harry Potter CollectionSwitch 73%, PS4 11%, PS5 8%, Xbox 7%1520MySims Cozy Bundle1921Just Dance 2025 EditionSwitch 97%, PS5 3%1622Mario & Luigi: Brothership2823Lego Horizon AdventuresPS5 70%, Switch 30%2324The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom3225StraySwitch 53%, PS5 37%, Xbox 5%, PS4 4%2526Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker SagaSwitch 50%, PS5 30%, PS4 16%, Xbox 4%-27Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle-28Undisputed-29Bluey: The VideogameSwitch 78%, PS5 13%, PS4 7%, Xbox 2%3330Silent Hill 22731Super Mario Odyssey3732The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition3633My Universe: Pet Clinic Cats & Dogs-34Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 22035Luigi's Mansion 2 HD2136Gran Turismo 74037Luigi's Mansion 3-38Tomb Raider I-II-III RemasteredPS5 41%, Switch 36%, PS4 23%2439Dragon Age: The Veilguard-40Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon[Compiled by GfK]< Last week's chartsPlease note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.Did you pick up anything new this week? Let us know what you think of the latest charts in the comments below.Related GamesSee AlsoShare:00 Nintendo Lifes resident horror fanatic, when hes 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 ArticlesToby Fox Shares Another Development Update On Deltarune Chapter 3, 4 & 5"Progress has still been steady"46 Games You Should Pick Up In The Nintendo Switch eShop Holiday Sale (Europe)Every game we scored 9/10 or higher'Switch 2' Is Projected To Be The "Clear Winner" In The Next Console GenerationWhile either Sony or Microsoft will "struggle mightily"PSA: Switch 2 Is Getting Revealed In The Next 100 DaysSet your Alarmos

Apple will warn you of a suspected hacking attackNurPhoto via Getty ImagesUpdate, Dec. 23, 2024: This story, originally published Dec. 21 now includes advice for checking to determine if your iPhone has been infected by spyware using an app called Am I Secure? There is also additional information on how this works to protect governments from nation state eavesdropping on the iOS platform.Apple has been sending users warnings of suspected spyware attacks by way of an iPhone hacking notification system for years. The chances are that you didnt know, especially if youve never received one. Heres another surprise: Apple doesnt offer to help but directs the victims to a non-profit organization instead. Heres what you need to know.Apples iPhone Spyware Hacking Notification System ExplainedIf you were to get a notification from Apple warning you that spyware hackers were targeting your iPhone, youd rightly be more than a little concerned. But how about if that warning didnt offer direct help from Apple itself but rather directed you toward a non-profit organization for advice instead? That, not would appear, iOS precisely what has been happening according to a new report published in TechCrunch. An example of just such a notification was shared with the publication: Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple Account. This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although its never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning please take it seriously.MORE FOR YOUIn a posting explaining the system, Apple said: Since 2021, we have sent Apple threat notifications multiple times a year as we have detected these attacks, and to date we have notified users in over 150 countries in total.Why You Will Probably Never See An iPhone Spyware WarningConfirming that the vast majority of iPhone users will, thankfully, never see such a notification, Apple explained that the notifications are designed to inform and assist users who may have been individually targeted by mercenary spyware attacks, and, importantly, have been so targeted likely because of who they are or what they do. With these kind of spyware hacking attacks being vastly more complex than your standard cybercriminal activity, and most consumer-facing malware, Apple said, mercenary spyware attackers apply exceptional resources to target a very small number of specific individuals and their devices.The notifications themselves come in two parts: a threat notification after the user signs into their Apple account page and a combination of email and iMessage notifications sent to the addresses and phone numbers associated with that account.How To Check If Your iPhone Has Been Infected By SpywareAs already stated, unless you are in a particularly vulnerable occupation and/or have access to highly sensitive data, it is highly unlikely that you will be targeted by spyware. That doesnt mean the chances are zero, however, so being able to quickly check your iPhone for any signs of such malicious activity is a recommended bit of knowledge to possess.As my colleague Kate OFlaherty recently reported, always keeping your iPhone up to date with the latest software and restart your iPhone regularly, as this can disrupt spywares access to your device temporarily, is good advice. As is using an app to run a quick check. One option is iVerify which has been around for the longest time, but Ive been trying out a newer alternative. The standalone on-premises version of the Am I Secure? app is that is used by government clients to ensure no device data at all, even if not sensitive or private, leaves government control and that they control all discoveries of spyware, such as which users were hit and when, for political and investigatory reasons, Colin Caird, the founder of Numbers Station which developed the app, said.The consumer version is very easy to use, with installation taking moments and a standard scan just a few seconds. The app is capable of detecting even nation-state level implants or spyware like NSO Groups Pegasus, Caird said, and provides the same level of detection capabilities as our government clients. Although the app is free to use for standard scanning, to use the advanced scanning functionality requires a subscription. Theres no access to contacts, camera, microphone etc required, although for the advanced scan Am I Secure? does require you to run an iPhone system diagnostic and share that with the analyzer servers running an AI-powered analysis. This looks for:Existing indicators of compromise that the Numbers Station threat-hunting team has previously discovered.And, via the AI capabilities, anomalies in your devices system diagnostic information that deviate from a known good or expected baseline so they can be triaged for a manual analysis.So far, I must say, Im very impressed with the capabilities of this app. See the screenshot below for an idea of the information presented to the user. However, we recommend users that have a compromise and work in media or human rights contact Access Now, Amnesty Tech or Citizen Lab to perform the forensic work required to determine the vulnerabilities that were exploited, Caird still concluded.Am I Secure? app checks for spyware at a forensic level Davey WinderHow Numbers Station Protects Governments From iPhone Spyware AttacksAs already mentioned, the Am I Secure? app and other Numbers Station tools are already well-known to governments around the world. Our solutions currently protect the personal and state-owned mobile devices of heads of state, prime ministers and cabinet officials from the most advanced cyber threats, Caird said, and in particular is used by multiple NATO governments. As well as protecting senior leadership, various Numbers Station developed security solutions also protect against threats to agency and department staff. Our government clients have already discovered active operations against their devices running the latest versions of iOS, Caird said, although providing evidence of these claims is not possible due to the confidential nature of such threats.This is important, Caird said, because most network monitoring security solutions focus on Linux and Windows threats, and thanks to the extensive use of transport layer security certificate pinning by mobile apps there is zero visibility of the threats posed by iOS and iPadOS devices. Now consider that initial exploitation vectors are oftentimes delivered by way of end-to-end encrypted messaging apps and you start to realize that all these layers of encryption, while good, are also bad: from the detection of threat and compromise perspective at least.Not, of course, that there arent already a number of apps and other security solutions on the market, despite what Caird said. However, he has a defense against this argument, or should that be an attack, whatever: these cannot detect advanced implants/spyware used by nation states, Caird said, if they could you wouldn't see the attacks in the news. Partly, Caird said, this is down to the iOS sandboxing security feature which, perhaps ironically, means that most solutions cannot access the data that would be required to perform meaningful security analysis in the first place. Instead, most will just look to ensure compliance with security policies, test a device that has a passcode enabled, isnt jailbroken and is running the very latest updated version of the operating system, is still vulnerable to nation-state threat actors as multiple headlines over the years should have taught us by now.The Numbers Station iOS/iPadOS Standalone Analyzer used by various NATO governments was developed to address just these requirements. The tool can run on a fully air-gapped network as well as a laptop with no external network access, Caird said, with the results tailored to varying levels of sensitivity as required, ranging from alerts for non-expert users right through to cyber security forensic experts. The way this works is that, rather than relying upon known indicators of compromise, checks use system diagnostic data analysis to uncover anomalies. We do not require a list of already known IoCs Caird said, since they would standout as anomalous anyway. Staff at one government agency, for example, upload sysdiagnose files to an internal file share. Then, on a daily basis, a batch analysis is performed, the results being delivered to in-house cyber security experts to review.I have reached out to Apple for clarification as to why iPhone users are directed to contact a non-profit organization, Access Now, rather than its own security engineers.

Fantasy Alien Exo Planet isolated galaxy spacegettyComplex life here on earth is largely thought to be possible due to the geophysics of earths plate tectonics. That is, how our planets tectonic plates enable large amounts of carbon dioxide to be continually removed from earths atmosphere and recycled back into its crust.In contrast, Venus-like planets on the inner edge of extrasolar habitable zones are thought to have what is known as stagnant lid geophysics in which there is no systematic carbon recycling of the planets atmosphere. The result is an early onset of a hellish runaway greenhouse.Yet a paper accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics posits that planets on the inner edge of a solar systems habitable zone might remain habitable for up to two billion years longer than previously thought. That is, if life had evolved on the planet early enough to avoid a runaway greenhouse.If so, that might mean that planets which heretofore would never have been seen suitable for the evolution of complex life might become tenable for the evolution of intelligence.We explore a new and unconventional way to identify life on exoplanets: by searching for low CO2 levels in atmospheres where wed normally expect much higher concentrations, Dennis Hning, a planetary scientist at Germanys Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the papers lead author, told me via email.Planets close to their stars typically experience runaway greenhouse effects, leading to CO2-rich atmospheres, Hning said. However, life could counteract the rising temperatures by enhancing weather, removing CO2, and extending habitability for billions of years, he said.MORE FOR YOUTiming Is EverythingIn our paper, we compared the onset time of the runaway greenhouse between planets of the same composition with and without a biosphere, said Hning. We found that the biotic planet remained habitable for one to two billion years longer compared to the abiotic planet, he said.This study is the first to directly link the atmospheric CO2 signature of planets near the inner edge of the habitable zone to the presence or absence of a biosphere, Hning and colleagues note in the paper. We find that planets with low atmospheric CO2 in this region are more likely to be inhabited, as biological processes efficiently regulate CO2 levels through enhanced weathering and thereby postpone the runaway greenhouse and the accompanying dramatic rise of atmospheric CO2, they write.Biology Helps Regulate ClimateWe raise and explore the hypothesis that low atmospheric CO2 levels on planets near their stars can serve as an indirect biosignature, said Hning. On earth, the biosphere effectively helps to regulate the climate because vegetation strongly contributes to weathering by which CO2 eventually gets bound in rocks, which works against heating up the planet, he said. We find that life can delay the runaway greenhouse by up to 1-2 billion years compared to abiotic planets, said Hning.Complex EvolutionA longer habitable period gives life more time to evolve complexity, said Hning. Developing complex or even intelligent life is not a linear process, he said. This extended timespan could increase the chances of a planet developing intelligent life, said Hning.As for how to look for such planets?I would look first for rocky planets at least 4 billion years or older; systems where the host star shows signs of aging by becoming brighter with age, Ludmila Carone, a planetary scientist at the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the papers second author, told me via email.I would then check the location of the planet with respect to the habitable zone of their star, Carone said. As the star ages, the habitable zone is pushed outwards, she said. Such planets receive just a bit too much energy over time, so the surface warms up such that their water oceans - if they ever existed in the first place - start to evaporate, she said.The Bottom Line?This study shows that a biosphere can compensate for a stagnant lid and lengthen the duration of habitable conditions, Stephen Kane, a planetary geophysicist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the study, told me via email. This study demonstrates the intricate interdependence of a biosphere with the environment in which it forms, said Kane.For future telescopes, context will be key.Its not sufficient to detect single molecules, said Carone. Methane as a biomarker can be "simply" blocked by thick clouds or scrubbed out of the atmosphere with too much humidity, she said. Ultimately, we may need a multi-telescope strategy to truly identify habitable exoplanets, said Carone.Complex PlanetsThe exciting thing about rocky planets is their complexity, which demands highly interdisciplinary approaches, said Hning. Bridging geophysics, atmospheric science, astronomy, and even biology is a challenging endeavor, but I believe that its the key to unlocking the next breakthroughs in finding extraterrestrial life, he said.

Tarkov is about to get a big patch. Credit: Battlestate GamesThe next Escape From Tarkov wipe is only a few days away, which means a major Tarkov patch is also right around the corner. While this one won't be quite as many expect, there is still a lot being added and changed in the next few days. So, to make sure you are fully prepared for the 0.16.0 patch, heres everything we know is coming.Just like any Tarkov patch that arrives alongside a wipe, everyones progress will be reset, unless you are playing the PvE mode. This means you will lose all your gear, skills and character and will have to start from scratch, but dont worry too much as this is the same for everyone, and makes the first few weeks of a wipe quite chaotic and fun.The other major thing to note is that this end of year Tarkov patch is smaller than previous years, and that is because the team is preparing content for the 1.0 full release of Escape From Tarkov, which is now expected to hit next year. It may feel a little underwhelming for returning players, but know that an even bigger patch is just around the corner.New Weapons In TarkovThe 0.16.0 patch is set to add some major new weapons to Escape From Tarkov, including a rocket launcher. The RPG-26 is expected to arrive this patch, with its primary focus being on taking out the BTR that roams maps such as streets and woods. Chances are it can probably also take out a few other PMCs as well.Then theres a massive new sniper rifle in the form of the Sako TRG M10 bolt action rifle. This massive gun will contain .388 Lapua ammo and should pack quite the punch. The other new weapon we know for sure is coming is a new MCX submachine gun, but others have also been teased by the dev team so that might not be it.MORE FOR YOUCustoms Map ReworkThe best map in Tarkov, Customs, is getting a rework with this patch that should make it feel more like a real place. Much like the Factory rework earlier this year, a lot of the changes will be visual to add more variety to the map, however there will also be some new areas to explore as well.Right next to fortress and attached to the mechanics shop, in the middle of the map is a massive warehouse that often has a sniper scav on top of it. This is currently inaccessible, but once the update drops this will be a fully explorable building that likely resembles the other big warehouses in the other corner of the map.Recoil ChangesPerhaps the most controversial change coming this wipe is the new recoil system. Nikita has said this is just a visual change to make it look better, and the tiny bits of information we are getting from the ETS test sound positive, but when it was shown off for the first time fans were not too pleased. However, we cant really make a decision on it until everyone gets to play it, and making something look better is always going to be a good thing.Unity 2022 Engine UpgradeAnother small but important change is the upgrade to the Unity 2022 engine, which has been coming for a long time. Initially fans may not notice too much of a change with the new engine, as the plan has been to mirror the game as closely as possible just with new tech. However, as the months pass this new tech will allow the Escape From Tarkov team to have greater controls over certain areas of the game and potently add new systems that were not possible before.