DoubleU Games acquires Paxie Games for up to $67mDeal expected to close in Q1 2025Image credit: Paxie Games News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Jan. 2, 2025 DoubleU Games has acquired Turkish studio Paxie Games for up to $67 million.The South Korean firm has obtained a 60% stake in the Merge Studio: Fashion Makeover developer for $27 million.The remaining 40% will be acquired over the next three years for up to $40 million, according to Pocket Gamer.The deal will be financed through cash and treasury shares, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025."We believe the acquisition of Paxie Games represents a significant move to secure an expanded portfolio of new mobile gaming titles, driving growth and unlocking new opportunities," said DoubleU Games CFO Jay Choi.Paxie Games CEO Diren elik added: "Through our full-scale collaboration with DoubleU Games, we are set to achieve even greater growth by expanding our portfolio with exciting games, reaching a broader audience, and further growing our business."By leveraging DoubleU Games' established marketing network in the US, we plan to drive substantial growth and expand our reach."

Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks has officially relaunched as Tango Gameworks Inc. under the stewardship of new parent company Krafton."We're excited to continue crafting games that bring joy to players around the world," reads a post on X. "Thank you for your continued support as we embark on this new journey."It's a moment that marks a fresh start for the studio. Tango was shuttered by former owner Microsoft in May 2024 amid layoffs and closures at the Xbox maker, which also resulted in the demise of Alpha Dog Games and Arkane Austin.Tango was deemed surplus to requirements by the company despite launching Hi-Fi Rush a year earlier. The title was called a "break out hit" by one Xbox exec, but that couldn't save the studio from closure.It was, however, granted a second chance by PUBG maker Krafton, which acquired the Japanese company from Microsoft in August 2024months after Tango looked dead in the water.At the time, Krafton said it intended to "maintain continuity at Tango Gameworks, allowing the talented team to continue developing the Hi-Fi Rush IP and explore future projects."Speaking to Game Developer about the acquisition a few weeks later, Krafton CEO Changhan 'CH' Kim said the move was about preserving the legacy of Tango Gameworks and described it as a "last minute deal."Kim acknowledged that projects like Hi-Fi Rush might not rake in cash, but suggested studios like Tango should be encouraged to experiment with new ideas regardless."We wanted to maintain their legacy," said Kim. "Although they did not have a big success in their games, we saw many creatives worth pursuing. That's why we wanted to work with that organization."Krafton acquired the Hi-Fi Rush franchise alongside Tango, and a sequel is very much on the cards. Discussing how Tango would look under Krafton, Kim claimed the studio would look to hire "a minimum of 100 people," including many former employees."Perhaps they'll need a bigger team. We haven't decided on that, but we don't plan to reduce the size of the team at all," added Kim. "They have to work on new projects as well, so there is a great possibility the team will scale up even further."

Graph Neural Networks GNNs have become a powerful tool for analyzing graph-structured data, with applications ranging from social networks and recommendation systems to bioinformatics and drug discovery. Despite their effectiveness, GNNs face challenges like poor generalization, interpretability issues, oversmoothing, and sensitivity to noise. Noisy or irrelevant node features can propagate through the network, negatively impacting performance. To address these challenges, dropping strategies have been introduced, which improve robustness by selectively removing components such as edges, nodes, or messages during training. While methods like DropEdge, DropNode, and DropMessage rely on random or heuristic-based criteria, they lack a systematic approach to identify and exclude components that degrade model performance. This highlights the need for principled methods that prioritize explainability and reduce over-complexity during training.Recent work has explored explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) as a foundation for improving GNN-dropping strategies. Unlike existing random or heuristic-based methods, XAI-based approaches leverage instance-level explainability techniques to identify and exclude harmful graph components. These methods use saliency maps or perturbation-based explanations to pinpoint noisy or irrelevant nodes, ensuring that the retained graph structure aligns with meaningful contributions to the models predictions. XAI-based methods have significantly improved performance and robustness compared to traditional dropping techniques. This framework integrates seamlessly with gradient-based saliency methods but is adaptable to various explainability techniques, providing a more principled and effective approach for enhancing GNN training and generalization.Researchers from the University of Trento and the University of Cambridge have introduced xAI-Drop, an explainability-driven dropping regularizer for GNNs. xAI-Drop identifies and excludes noisy graph elements during training by leveraging local explainability and over-confidence as key indicators. This approach prevents the model from focusing on spurious patterns, enabling it to learn more robust and interpretable representations. Empirical evaluations on diverse benchmarks demonstrate xAI-Drops superior accuracy and improved explanation quality compared to existing dropping strategies. Key contributions include integrating explainability as a guiding principle and showcasing its effectiveness in node classification and link prediction tasks.The XAI-DROP framework enhances the training of GNNs by selectively removing nodes or edges based on explainability and confidence. For node classification, nodes with high prediction confidence but low explainability (measured by fidelity sufficiency) are identified and assigned dropping probabilities using a Box-Cox transformation. A Bernoulli distribution determines whether these nodes and their edges are removed, producing a modified adjacency matrix for training. The approach can also target edges for link prediction, evaluating edge-level confidence and explainability. XAI-DROP effectively reduces noise during training, improving model performance in transductive and inductive settings.The experimental results show that XAI-DROP consistently surpasses random and XAI-based strategies across all datasets and GNN architectures. It effectively identifies and removes noisy components within graphs, improving performance. XAI-DROPNODE achieved the highest test accuracy and explainability for node classification tasks compared to other methods. Similarly, XAI-DROPEDGE demonstrated superior AUC scores and enhanced explainability for link prediction tasks. These outcomes underline the methods robustness and effectiveness in optimizing GNN performance across diverse scenarios.In conclusion, XAI-DROP is a powerful framework for graph-based tasks that combines predictive accuracy and interpretability. Its ability to enhance explainability through saliency maps while maintaining or improving classification and prediction performance sets it apart from existing approaches. XAI-DROP proves its versatility by excelling across various datasets, architectures, and tasks, offering a promising solution for tackling challenges in graph-based learning applications.Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our60k+ ML SubReddit. Sana Hassan+ postsSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions. [Download] Evaluation of Large Language Model Vulnerabilities Report (Promoted)

The boss of Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science has pointed the finger at the Xbox Series S over the lack of an Xbox version of the game.In a post on Chinese social media website Weibo, Game Science co-founder and CEO Feng Ji celebrated PC and PlayStation 5 action game Black Myth: Wukongs Game of the Year win at the 2024 Steam awards, and in doing so lamented the lack of an Xbox version of the game, which he blamed on optimization trouble with the Xbox Series S.The only thing missing is the Xbox, he said, per machine learning translation, which somehow feels a bit wrong, but that 10GB of shared memory without years of optimisation experience is really hard to make work.Thats a reference to the Xbox Series S power relative to the Xbox Series X. The Series S has 4TF of GPU compute compared to the Xbox Series Xs 12.2TF, but the killer is the drop in memory allocation, from 16GB down to 10GB.Microsofts Xbox release policy means publishers and developers must release their games across Xbox Series X and S. They are unable to release a game for Xbox Series X only, for example. This has caused difficulty for some studios in the past, perhaps most notably Baldurs Gate 3 developer Larian. Baldur's Gate 3 was originally released on PC and PS5 only, with the Xbox version delayed due to issues with the Xbox Series S specifically struggling to perform splitscreen co-op. In the past, Xbox had committed to parity between Xbox Series S and X for all games, but it ultimately made an exception for Baldur's Gate 3 so the game could launch later in 2023.In 2023, Remedy communications director Thomas Puha talked openly about the challenge the studio faced getting Alan Wake 2 running well on the Xbox Series S, saying the consoles GPU is an issue and having less memory is a pretty big problem. Before then, a VFX artist who had worked on an Xbox Series X and S game said in a now-deleted tweet that many developers have been sitting in meetings for the past year desperately trying to get Series S launch requirements dropped.Studios have been through one development cycle where Series S turned out to be an albatross around the neck of production, and now that games are firmly being developed with new consoles in mind, teams do not want to repeat the process, the developer said.In interviews with press including IGN, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has deflected questions about whether Xbox Series S is holding developers back, and rejected calls for developers to be allowed to release their games on Xbox Series X only. In an interview with Eurogamer, Spencer said: "Having an entry-level price point for a sub-$300 console is a good thing for the industry. I think it's important. The Switch has been able to do that, in terms of kind of the traditional plug-into-my-television consoles. I think it's important. So, we're committed."The situation with Black Myth: Wukong, however, is further muddled by Microsofts insistence that the games delay on Xbox has nothing to do with development issues. In a number of statements issued to IGN, Microsoft has suggested an exclusivity deal with Sony was the cause of the delay."As we have said before, were excited for the launch of Black Myth Wukong on Xbox Series X and S and are working with Game Science to bring the game to our platforms, Microsoft has told IGN.We'd prefer not to comment on the deals made by our partners with other platform holders but we can confirm that the delay is not due to Xbox platform limitations that have been raised to us."Black Myth: Wukong launched on August 19 and sold an eye-watering 18 million copies in just two weeks across PC and PS5, reportedly making over $700 million in revenue in the process. That was enough to put Black Myth: Wukong up there with Grand Theft Auto 5 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as one of the fastest-selling games of all time, and is an astonishing return for a game that had a reported budget of $70 million over six years of development. It did so well that Sony pointed to Black Myth: Wukong as making a significant contribution to revenue during its last financial quarter, making up for the Concord disaster.DLC is set to follow. In September, Game Science investor Hero Games confirmed plans to release an Elden Ring-style expansion for Black Myth: Wukong ahead of any sequel.IGNs Black Myth: Wukong review returned an 8/10. We said: Despite some frustrating technical issues, Black Myth: Wukong is a great action game with fantastic combat, exciting bosses, tantalizing secrets, and a beautiful world.While youre here, IGN has plenty more Black Myth: Wukong guides to help you out, including Essential Tips and Tricks, Things Black Myth: Wukong Doesn't Tell You, and our Boss List and Guides.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

In 2017, Brendan Greene (aka PlayerUnknown) pioneered the Battle Royale genre of games with the early access release of PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds. The game has since gone on to become a massive hit, spawning countless more games like it, including some of the most successful games of all time.Next year, 2025, Greene wants to pioneer something new. He wants to make a metaverse. No, not the one youre thinking of. Greene doesnt think those count as actual metaverses.I hesitate to talk about this, because it's just such a dirty word, but I want to build a metaverse because I don't think anyone else is, he tells IGN. I think everyone's building IP bubbles that might talk to each other at some stage in the future, maybe if we're lucky, but it's not the metaverse. See, the Metaverse is a 3D internet. You should be able to create your own worlds and just have them all operating on the same protocol, like HTTP. So a world is a page, and that's what I'm trying to do with Artemis.Artemis, aka Greenes metaverse, is actually the third of three games hes currently cooking up at his studio, PlayerUnknown Productions. The first two are testing grounds for the technology Greene eventually wants to use to build his metaverse. Theyll each be games in their own right, but their real purpose is to work out the kinks in Greenes most ambitious ideas before they hit primetime in Artemis.Final Chapter PrologueThe first game, Prologue, is already being tested by players in Greenes Discord (in an early format Greene refers to as Preface) and is planned for a wider release in 2025. Its a fairly basic survival game, Greene says, with a simple loop of trying to reach an objective while dealing with typical survival mechanics. Theres weather, hunger, crafting, discoverable loot, and other such elements to deal with, but the real meat of Prologue is its terrain generation tech. Thats what Prologue is really about: testing high-tech terrain generation at a small scale, before implementing it more broadly in Artemis.Greene calls the terrain generation tech used by his studio Melba, and its basically a world generation machine. Melba uses machine learning, and is trained on NASA data of real-world Earth terrain. With that information, Melba is able to spit out entire maps, or even worlds, that have realistic geological features, and is able to do so either randomly or based on instructions, such as a request for a world with tons of mountains. These worlds are then filled with textures, assets, and other elements designed by actual artists, and are able to be customized in a similar fashion to have more forests, rivers, or whatever other elements are desired.PlayIGN's Twenty Questions - Guess the game!IGN's Twenty Questions - Guess the game!To start:...try asking a question that can be answered with a "Yes" or "No".000/250There's a new terrain every time you press play, Greene explains. The seed system gives us, I think 4.2 billion possible maps, but maybe millions of those would be interesting, I'm not sure yetBut this kind of tech is really cool because we're seeing it shaped day to day with the artists. They're going, Let's try this, let's update the masks we use for the river to this so we generate that slightly differently. And they're learning how to use this tech along with us, which is just great to see.It's more an emergent space to test our terrain tech, and we're going to work with the community to try to figure out: how can we make this test interesting? How can we make this game mode fun? What can we add to it that's systemic, and then will help us moving forward going into game two, and three, and building these bigger systems using the foundations we built in Prologue?Building the World MachinePrologue is just game one. Game two, which is currently unnamed, will come once the terrain tech is solidified. For Game Two, Greene wants a world thats 500 million square kilometers, earth scale to test a different sort of tech ahead of the release of Artemis: gameplay with a whole awful lot of characters all in one space together.Greene wont say much about this one. He tells me about his end goal for Artemis, which is to fit not thousands, but millions of players in a space together and have everything still work. In Game Two, Greene will test that via both multiplayer gameplay as well as AI character interaction. Youll be controlling an army, basically, is all I can really get out of him. Game Two will focus on multiplayer while controlling lots of assets...which, when combined with Melba, will lead to the massive, multiplayer metaverse that Greene is dreaming up for Artemis.The internet was empty when it first started, and it was just the way of sharing data, and I look at this the same.The metaverse has to have millions of people, and server client-side, you'll never get that. You'll maybe get a few thousand, maybe 10,000 if you're lucky, but it's attacking the problem at the wrong end, which is to solve the simulation locally, which we've done with Preface and then you can scale to hundreds of thousands, millions of people, hopefully.As for what all those millions of people will be doing in Greenes metaversethats largely up to them, he says. He compares it at one point to a Star Trek Holodeck, and then later to Minecraft Survival. In the tradition of the latter, Artemis will have a sort of basic game experience everyone can play, but then those users will be able to go off and make their own worlds, freely mod them, share them with others, and essentially treat them like 3D webpages and experiment, build, and create totally new things within these spaces. He says hes already seeing some of the beginnings of that within his Discord community as they tool around with and mod the early release of Prologue.The internet was empty when it first started, and it was just the way of sharing data, and I look at this the same, he says. This is probably going to be empty for the first few years, but then eventually you'll start to see the possibility of what you can do with this kind of world generator that it's like a multiverse of worlds.Critically, Greene wants Artemis to eventually be like the open internet in the sense that no one can really control whats on it, not even him. I ask him how content moderation will work in that case, and while Greene believes Artemis will need moderation, he wants that power to stay in the hands of the users.Prologue: Go Wayback! ScreenshotsI've been thinking a lot about this and what I want to do within this multiverse of digital spaces, you give the power to the community, that if someone acts like an asshole then they're locked out of spaces. And it comes down to identity. We have to solve the identity problem because anonymity online kind of breaks the social construct. But if on our network or on our system, it's tough for you to reenter it or to create an identity twice, you could still be anonymous, but at least there will be consequence to action.Greene also suggests that instead of outright banning people who cause issues, one path might be to turn miscreants into ghosts that cant interact with anyone. They can see everything happening and browse the world, but they are incapable of speaking or otherwise engaging with anything in it. If you look at Covid, there were 12 people that generated something like 96% of the misinformation that was online. [Authors note: The actual number was 65% of disinformation posts on Facebook, and 72% of all anti-vaccine content.]...If you shut out this small group of people that really actively try to upset the information space and deliver propaganda, then you've solved the problem kind of holisticallyI think that the future will be local. Everything will be local. You will have your identity locally and you will share it as you see fit, and it won't be stored by people across the world. At least I hope.I press Greene on this - what if people are doing illegal things in this metaverse? What about copyright violations, or worse, everything Roblox has been accused of? At what point does he become responsible? Greene admits he doesnt have an answer yet.That's where we're going to have to figure it out. As I said, I want to build games with the community, rather than for them, and I think with their help and finding out what tools they need to better do this, then we can figure out how to do this in a way better way for everyone. Thankfully we have good AI regulation in the EU as well so there are checks and balances there already, at least this side of the planet to help with this, right? I mean, let's see how long they last, but at least there are people smarter than me thinking about it already. So I'm happy to follow guidance, and work with the community to figure this out because it's important to get right.Long Road AheadGreenes vision is incredibly technically complex, and he mentions several times that he doesnt expect well see its final form Artemis for ten, maybe even 15 years. Hes already highlighted a number of the challenges ahead of the team, but I ask him about another one he hasnt yet mentioned: is Artemis going to be PC-only? No, he says. Itll be on everything, eventually.It has to. I mean, the device is just an access point to the world. It has to be. Kids in Africa on their mobile phones have to be able to access it the same as gaming PCs on the West Coast. The experience of the world might be slightly different, but because it's not a game, that's okay. It just has to run on every device.And theres another technological issue I need to raise with Greene: NFTs. Previously, its been reported that Artemis will implement them, but Greene says that was a misunderstanding stemming from an interview he did with Hit Points back in 2022.We need a platform where people can just create and not worry that you've got an exec team shooting it.[Nathan Brown] asked me about blockchain because it was the hype thing at the time, Greene says. And I explained that blockchain, I thought, was an interesting financial instrument, as a layer within a digital world. But that was it. I said maybe some future iteration of blockchain or hashgraph or that tech is interesting. Ultimately it's a digital ledger and if we can use a digital ledger, we'll find the best one and use it. But that's really it. The next day after I did that interview, [headlines were] PUBG Guy Making Blockchain Game, and that's not what I said. It's an interesting tech and I think it can be used if it's useful, but otherwise we'll use what is the best at the time.So hes not currently thinking about NFTs in Artemis, then?No, not even thinking about it. Our concern is about getting the engine to a state that we can make things in it and then as I said, Game Two, we'll test ideas then, but really now not even thought about it. More just getting some fun games made.Between the length of time Greene needs to build Artemis and the sheer amount of questions still looming about its final form, Greene and his studio have a difficult road ahead. Hell need time and personpower, which also means money, and the games industry is currently going through a funding drought amid layoffs, closures, and project cancellations. Greene says his project is fine, having gotten funding for Prologue early on and used it thoughtfully thus far. But that doesnt mean Artemis is guaranteed. He says theyll still need people to buy Prologue so they can sustain development long-term.Still, Greene isnt daunted by the fact that hes basically claiming he wants to build an entire second internet in a time of mass game and tech instability. In the same way that PUBG started out as a fairly barebones game but became a smash hit that launched a genre, he believes his new vision can grow to something massive with the help of a creative community. And maybe, he suggests, a successful Artemis could even help prevent the current games industry situation from happening again.Games are driven a lot by data points on Excel spreadsheets rather than making fun games and it's a little depressing, he says. So that's why I want to stick to my vision because I think we need a platform like this. We need a platform where people can just create and not worry that you've got an exec team shooting it.I want to find the next PlayerUnknown. I was really lucky to have been given this chance and providing people with a platform that can help do that, why wouldn't I do that? And yes, it's a big vision, but I've got a good team of industry professionals and they don't think it's that crazy. So yeah, I'm filled with confidence.Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Earlier this year we announced were giving you more options than ever before when it comes to joining console gaming with Xbox and now is the best time yet to dive in and experience everything Xbox has to offer!Available now, you have the choice of a variety of storage and design options with the Xbox Series S 512GB, Xbox Series S 1TB (White), Xbox Series X 1TB Digital Edition, Xbox Series X 1TB, and Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition (console availability will vary by country).These consoles offer the best way to enjoy the diverse experiences crafted by game creators with console gaming with Xbox!Each of these consoles support many unique elements that make gaming with Xbox great, like access to thousands of Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Original Xbox games through Backward Compatibility. Theyre also the first game consoles to support gaming in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and contain powerful features like Quick Resume, letting you seamlessly switch between different titles instantly; faster load times thanks to their powerful SSD drives; and framerates up to 120 FPS.There have also been an exciting slate of game launches on Xbox this year like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, andSenuas Saga: Hellblade II, as well as several amazing experiences on the way like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and Avowed this is one of the best times ever to jump in and experience Xbox gaming to its fullest with these new Xbox Series X|S console options !Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black Special EditionExperience the fastest, most powerful Xbox with the new Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition. Featuring the same speed and performance of the Xbox Series X, the console also comes with an optical disc drive and double the storage with a 2TB SSD.Drawing inspiration from constellations and the spirit of exploration and adventure that outer space evokes, the special edition console in Galaxy Black features a silver, grey, and green celestial effect representing thousands of games and millions of gamers playing on Xbox.It also includes a matching Xbox Wireless controller with a Galaxy Black D-pad and Velocity Green back case only available with this special edition console. Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition is available now in limited quantities in select markets for $599.99 USD ERP.Xbox Series X 1TBThe Xbox Series X, with its 1TB SSD in Carbon Black, offers an immersive gaming experience with true-to-life characters, brighter worlds, and sharper details in 4K. More time gaming and less time waiting with features like Quick Resume, lightning-fast load times and gameplay up to 120 FPS. Plus, the ultra-low latency improves your controllers response time, making every second count. Included is the Xbox Wireless Controller, designed for ultimate precision and comfort. The Xbox Series X 1TB is available now in select markets for $499.99 USD ERP.Xbox Series X 1TB Digital Edition in Robot WhiteThe new Xbox Series X 1TB Digital Edition in Robot White, features the same speed and performance of the Xbox Series X with a 1TB SSD, now all-digital. Just like all Xbox Series X|S console options, it includes a matching Xbox Wireless Controller, featuring our highest level of precision with a dedicated Share button and enhanced ergonomics. The Xbox Series X 1TB Digital Edition in Robot White is now available in select markets for only $449.99 USD ERP.Xbox Series S 1TB / 512GB in Robot WhiteThe Xbox Series S console line-up offers the best value in gaming, offering access to thousands of digital games across four generations of gaming. The Xbox Series S comes with an Xbox Wireless Controller and features Quick Resume and speeds of up to 120 FPS, all in a sleek, compact design. Available in Robot White, the Series S comes in two storage options: the Xbox Series S-512GB for $299.99 USD ERP and the Xbox Series S-1TB, which offers double storage, for $349.99 USD ERP. Both the Xbox Series S-512GB and Xbox Series S-1TB are now available in select markets.

A leaker with a mixed track record has claimed that this years iPhone SE will be getting an upgraded name to reflect its new design: the iPhone 16E.We are expecting the budget model to get its biggest ever upgrade this year, finally dropping the large chin with Home button for a modern form factor based on the iPhone 14 The iPhone SEThe iPhone SE was conceived by Apple as a more affordable entry point into the companys ecosystem. The first model back in 2016 was based on the iPhone 5s, a classic design which stood the test of time well.While the company was focused on the affordability of the model, some of us technically downgraded to it from flagship iPhones because we preferred either the compact size, the slab-sided design (at a time when Apple was in its rounded edges phase), or both.The 2020 model was based on the iPhone 8, the last flagship device to have a Home button. The 2022 version was a very minor update on this, and is still on sale today. But more than seven years after Apple changed its iPhone design language with the iPhone X, the iPhone SE 3 now looks very dated.The iPhone SE 4, or iPhone 16EThis years model is set to change that. Based on the iPhone 14, it will for the first time offer a design which looks far more in keeping with current and recent flagship models. While it will have a notch rather than a Dynamic Island, it will be a night-and-day difference from its predecessor.Leaker Majin Bu is now suggesting that the new look may be accompanied by a new name: the iPhone 16E, perhaps styled as the iPhone 16.Based on what my source has reported, it seems that the new iPhone that Apple will unveil in 2025 will not be called iPhone SE4, but iPhone 16E. It should feature a design similar to the iPhone 14, with an OLED display and an action button. The available colors will be white and black.9to5Macs TakeMajin Bu was right about the Desert Titanium color of the iPhone 16 Pro, and also about the vertical alignment of the base model iPhone 16 camera layout though the latter had already reported on by other sources by that time.But theyve also been wrong on other things, like other iPhone colors and interchangeable magnetic tips for the Apple Pencil.The design has of course been so widely-reported that its effectively a given at this point, and the colors indicated simply reflect the existing model (which also has a PRODUCT(RED) version).One could certainly argue that such a big update should be reflected in a new name, but iPhone 16 branding for a somewhat older design might be confusing especially when launching after the rest of the line-up. For now, then, were viewing this with a fairly large pinch of salt.Image: 9to5Mac collage of images from Apple and Pawel CzerwinskionUnsplashAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Apple has launched a rare Chinese New Year discount promotion in China, running from January 4 through January 7. This includes up to ~$70 savings on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, as well as discounts on other iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15, iPhone 14, MacBook Air, iPad Pro, iPad Air, Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Pencil.The atypical sales promotion on the latest iPhone 16 lineup arrives as investors question the stability of iPhone demand in the region. It may be interpreted as Apple feeling the pressure from domestic phone manufacturers like Huawei. The discounts are available when customers buy through Apple using select payment methods, like WeChat or Alipay. The promotion is notable as Apple generally doesnt advertise discounts on the latest iPhone models, if it can help it. For instance, in the US, the Black Friday promotions exclude the new iPhone models altogether from the gift card promotion. However, Apple has run similar New Year promotions intermittently in China in the past.Apple has been facing a weakening grip on the Chinese smartphone market for a while, with local Chinese brands taking hold. This impact has also reflected in its financials. Apples total reported revenues in China were down 3% year-over-year last quarter. Apple will officially announce earnings results for the just-gone holiday quarter in about a months time, which will give investors a clearer picture about how well the iPhone 16 is faring in the marketplace.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Jan 02, 2025The Hacker NewsCloud Security / Threat IntelligenceIn the past year, cross-domain attacks have gained prominence as an emerging tactic among adversaries. These operations exploit weak points across multiple domains including endpoints, identity systems and cloud environments so the adversary can infiltrate organizations, move laterally and evade detection. eCrime groups like SCATTERED SPIDER and North Korea-nexus adversaries such as FAMOUS CHOLLIMA exemplify the use of cross-domain tactics, leveraging advanced techniques to exploit security gaps across interconnected environments. The foundation of these attacks is built around the exploitation of legitimate identities. Today's adversaries no longer "break in"; they "log in" leveraging compromised credentials to gain access and blend seamlessly into their targets. Once inside, they exploit legitimate tools and processes, making them difficult to detect as they pivot across domains and escalate privileges.The Current State of Identity SecurityThe rise in cross-domain and identity-based attacks exposes a critical vulnerability in organizations that treat identity security as an afterthought or compliance checkbox rather than an integral component of their security architecture. Many businesses rely on disjointed tools that address only fragments of the identity problem, resulting in visibility gaps and operational inefficiencies. This patchwork approach fails to provide a cohesive view or secure the broader identity landscape effectively. This approach creates gaps in security tools, but also can create a dangerous disconnect between security teams. For example, the divide between teams managing identity and access management (IAM) tools and those running security operations creates dangerous visibility gaps and exposes weaknesses in security architecture across on-premises and cloud environments. Adversaries exploit these gaps to perpetrate their attacks. Organizations need a more comprehensive approach to defend against these sophisticated attacks.Transforming Identity Security: Three Essential Steps To protect against cross-domain attacks, organizations just move beyond patchwork solutions and adopt a unified, comprehensive strategy that prioritizes identity security:1. Identity at the Core: Laying the FoundationModern security begins with consolidating threat detection and response across identity, endpoint and cloud within a unified platform. By placing identity at the core, this approach eliminates the inefficiencies of fragmented tools and creates a cohesive foundation for comprehensive defense. A unified platform accelerates response time and simplifies security operations. It also reduces cost by improving collaboration across teams and replacing disconnected point solutions with a streamlined architecture that secures identity against cross-domain threats.2. Identity Visibility: Seeing the Whole PictureRobust identity protection requires end-to-end visibility across hybrid environments spanning on-premises, cloud and SaaS applications. Unifying security tools eliminates blind spots and gaps that adversaries like to exploit. Seamless integration with on-premises directories, cloud identity providers like Entra ID and Okta, and SaaS applications ensures a complete view of all access points. This full-spectrum visibility transforms identity systems into fortified perimeters, significantly reducing adversaries' ability to infiltrate.3. Real-Time Identity ProtectionWith identity as a focal point of unification and visibility, organizations can pivot to real-time detection and response. A cloud-native platform, like the AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity platform, uses cross-domain telemetry to secure identity, endpoints and cloud environments by identifying, investigating and neutralizing threats. Features like risk-based conditional access and behavioral analysis proactively protect identity systems, blocking attacks before they escalate. This unified approach ensures faster responses than fragmented systems and a decisive edge against modern adversaries.Putting Identity into Practice: CrowdStrike Falcon Identity ProtectionWhen it comes to comprehensive protection against cross-domain attacks, CrowdStrike sets the industry standard with the Falcon platform. It uniquely combines identity, endpoint and cloud security with world-class threat intelligence on adversary tradecraft and real-time threat hunting for a holistic defense against identity-based attacks. CrowdStrike's approach relies on:Unification: The Falcon platform enables security teams to oversee all layers of security identity threat detection and response (ITDR), endpoint security, cloud security, and next-gen security information and event management (SIEM) all through a single agent and console on one unified platform. With the Falcon platform, CrowdStrike customers on average realize up to 84% improvement in operational efficiency in responding to cross-domain threats.24/7 Visibility with Managed ITDR: Many organizations facing resource constraints turn to managed service providers to handle security operations. CrowdStrike provides the best of both worlds pairing top-tier ITDR capabilities with industry-leading expert management to implement a robust and mature identity security program without the work, cost and time required to develop one internally.Real-Time Protection: With CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection, organizations can detect and stop identity-driven breaches in real-time across entire hybrid identity landscapes. CrowdStrike's industry-leading team of elite threat hunters monitor 24/7 for suspicious activity across customers' environments and proactively scour the dark web for stolen credentials. CrowdStrike customers on average get up to 85% faster threat responses driven by full attack path visibility.The Future of Identity SecurityAs adversaries exploit the seams between identity, endpoint and cloud environments, the need for a unified security approach has never been greater. The CrowdStrike Falcon platform delivers the integration, visibility and real-time response capabilities necessary to combat cross-domain threats head-on. By combining cutting-edge technology with world-class threat intelligence and expert management, CrowdStrike enables organizations to fortify their defenses and stay ahead of evolving attack tactics. Found this article interesting? This article is a contributed piece from one of our valued partners. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Water, power, sewage, banking, education, you name it -- all these life essentials have something in common: they rely on information technology. Increasingly complex andinsecuretechnology. Meanwhile, threat actors have the means to launch ever-rising numbers of attacks on critical applications. The revelation this past August of the huge data breach at National Public Data of Americans Social Security numbers, and other personal data, is a stunning Exhibit A.The number of reported vulnerabilities has skyrocketed over the last 10 years. In fact, the number of new software vulnerabilities cataloged in the federal National Vulnerability Database has increased an average of 29% per year over the last seven years.Every year sets a record high, and with the introduction of malicious code-writing and security hole-finding AI models, theres no reason to think that trend will reverse.The federal government's contribution to cybersecurity has thus far been through guidance and influence or by wielding its purchasing power as a huge IT consumer. Those have some value but clearly aren't having much impact.The public is quite unaware of how low the bar is presently set in software security. Modern software is never written entirely from scratch. Instead, developers use an assembly approach that pulls together existing code packages, often using open-source software built and maintained by developers not beholden in any way to the company making the final product.Related:As security vulnerabilities and active malware become increasingly common, all companies find themselves shouldering increasing security risk. Such government organizations as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have spent a great deal of time, money, and effort over the last few years trying to convince software vendors to adopt basic security practices and Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs).A vendor's SBOM tells the customerwhatis in the software -- but not whether the contents are secure.CISAs actions have not moved the needle at stopping breaches. US cybercrime costs reached an estimated $320 billion as of last year.Between 2017 and 2023, costs grew by over $300 billion.Companiessaythey're doing more about cybersecurity, but breaches continue, and the private market is not correcting poor behavior. Stock charts barely register a blip when companies report breaches now. Congress has not yet stepped in, hampered, perhaps, by an inadequate understanding of the issue.Related:Urgent action is, consequently, needed.Government stepped in to protect our food and medicine by establishing the Food and Drug Administration, intervened to make our automobiles safer by establishing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and acted to ensure job safety by establishing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.When new technology or industrial development has threatened public health and safety, the government has created new regulatory bodies to protect that health and safety.And according to public polling, while Americans may be largely dissatisfied with the federal government in broad terms, they still desire it to help keep the populace safe, including providing protection from unsafe products.The upshot is that Congress should establish a new regulatory body to evolve the guidance currently provided by CISA and presidential executive orders, coupled with oversight powers based on an expanded definition of critical software and hardware. What specifically defines critical here will of course need to be determined, but the current definition in use by CISA simply does not provide a sufficient scope to ensure Americas cybersecurity. The current patchwork of industry self-regulation -- with each federal department doing their best to oversee their respective industry areas -- leaves too many gaps and will not even scale to the challenges we already face.The new regulatory bodys charter should establish enforceable minimum standard security practices for private companies that are deemed critical to the nation. Those standards should go beyond CISAs currently used definition of critical infrastructure, which doesnotinclude companies essential to our everyday lives, such as Microsoft, Google, payment providers, and cybersecurity firms like CrowdStrike. Related:This new regulator will also need the power to audit companies against those standards, selectively publish findings publicly, share findings with other regulators such as the SEC, establish fines, and in egregious cases, be able to pull products from the market. These powers follow the established scope of current agencies, such as the FDA and NHTSA. Without these powers of regulation over essential software, any new agency will be reduced to providing guidance and our nation will continue to be at risk.As CISA is already under the Department of Homeland Security, the above could be accomplished either through expanding their jurisdiction and giving them the above powers and responsibilities, or through the establishment of a new agency.The need for robust cybersecurity regulation and oversight has become essential if we are to protect American citizens, companies, and governments from cyberattacks. Our unpredictable technological and geopolitical environments will demand no less.