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In the face of seabeds becoming valuable real estate and corroding bombs polluting the oceans, teams are turning to technology to clean up this dangerous and expensive problem.

MacworldFebruary tends to be a pretty slow month for official Apple releases. The big fourth quarter is over, and any new Spring hardware usually launches in March or April. Theres an outside chance that Apple direct to the website launches the M4 MacBook Air this month, ahead of other springtime products were not expecting until March or April, but other than that, the new iOS/macOS betas and scrutiny on Siri is going to be what February is all about.New hardware releasesWeve heard for some time now that the new M4MacBook Air is in production and should ship soon. Bloombergs Mark Gurman suggested Apple could launch the new laptop as a standalone release in February, but might hold it for a bigger event in March to go along with other expected spring products like the iPhone SE 4, new iPads, and maybe that mysterious new HomePad thing we keep hearing about.This is expected to be a relatively minor update, just upgrading the processor to an M4 and probably the camera to the 12MP Ultra Wide Center Stage FaceTime camera like you find in the M4 MacBook Pro.Apps and software updatesApple just released iOS 18.3 and macOS 15.3 (and related updates), but as January closed out, Apple hasnt yet released the first iOS 18.4 or macOS 15.4 betas. We expect them soon (possibly this week) because they will need lots of testing. There will probably be a few minor tweaks, but the big component is the big Siri update.When Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC last June, it showed a coming in a later update Siri that would build a personal profile of you based on the information on your phone, so it can understand your requests and perform actions while understanding your own individual personal context. It also could take actions within apps, thanks to a huge increase in developer hooks called App Intents.Getting this in the hands of developers so they can update their apps to use these new App Intents is critical, so this is probably going to be a long beta test that goes into wide release in April (Apple has already announced that additional language support for Apple Intelligence is coming in April. Just as importantly, it will be our first look at a new smarter Siri, and lets face it, Siri needs big improvements.Apple is also rumored to release an update to the Calendar app that lets you keep track of event invites. It was hidden in the iOS 18.3 beta and could be released this month.ServicesApple TV+Here are the shows, series, and movies we expect to release on Apple TV+ in TK. If you want to know whats coming later, check our full guide to upcoming Apple TV+ content.Love You to Death (A muerte): Tells the story of the cautious Ral, who reconnects with free-spirited and newly pregnant Marta following his heart cancer diagnosis. They resume a friendship that began in childhood, and in a relationship brought together by fate, begin to test their beliefs about love. February 5The Gorge: Two highly-trained operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. February 14Surface (season 2): Sophie is a woman who has suffered a traumatic head injury that has left her with extreme memory loss, believed to be a result of a suicide attempt. As Sophie embarks on a quest to put the pieces of her life back together with the help of her husband and friends, she begins to question whether or not the truth she is told is in fact the truth she has lived. February 21Berlin ER: A German-language drama about managing a chaotic emergency room in the toughest and most overcrowded hospital in Berlin. February 26Apple ArcadeApple releases most Apple Arcade games on the first Friday of each month. Check our Apple Arcade FAQ for a full list of Apple Arcade games and more details on the service. Occasionally, games are released with no forewarning, but youll usually see next months releases listed in the Coming Soon section.Doodle Jump 2+: The classic endless jumper returns. February 6My Dear Farm+: A youth-oriented cute garden farming game. February 6PGA Tour Pro Golf: A high-end, realistic golf sim with PGA licensing. February 6

MacworldHow long can Apple keep relying on the iPhone? Nobody knows, because theres never been another product quite like it. But the plumpest golden goose in history isnt going to keep laying eggs forever.Apple, to its credit, is fully aware of this. With its enthusiastic hyping of the latest cautious iPhone update, the company might occasionally sound faintly deluded: a little like the man in the old joke who falls out of a building and says to the people on each floor as he passes, Everythings fine so far! But Apple is doing its best to find a cushion to land on.In the companys latest financial results, we got an idea of how the cushion hunt is going, and the answer is pretty well. Tim Cook named Q1 2025 as Apples best quarter ever, with record revenue of $124.3 billion despite a small year-on-year dip in the iPhones fortunes. Who needs the iPhone when you have consistent growth in services to make up for any shortfalls?Its certainly gratifying for the company to record its highest-ever quarterly revenue after launching one of its most boring iPhones (which didnt even have its flagship feature at launch). But there are concerns we should discuss before we break out the champagne.One is that regardless of growth in other areas, the iPhone remains Apples most important product by an unhealthy margin. That burgeoning Services division, a portmanteau category combining various tenuously related revenue streams, brought in a total of $26.3 billion, compared to the iPhones $69.1 billion. Wearables, Home, and Accessories brought in a combined $11.7 billion, the iPad just $8.1 billion, and Macs $7.8 billion. In first place, theres the iPhone. In second place is daylight. And only then do we get to the other products.In that light, it becomes a little clearer that simply growing services isnt the straightforward solution to the iPhones eventual decline that it might sound like. This quarter, solid growth in services and iPads was just about enough to make up for a tiny drop for the iPhone. Were still at a point where if the iPhone sneezes, Apple catches a cold. This wasnt a sneeze. It was barely the first AaahhAt some point, the iPhone will suffer a real setback, and we dont yet know how Apple will handle that. Last week, research found that buyers of premium iPhones are becoming less inclined to pay extra for more storage, which could become a headache if it turns into a long-term trend. Apple has historically made a lot of money from iPhone storage upgrades, but with the rise of music streaming and cloud photo storage, there doesnt seem to be quite the same demand.For a company of Apples size, it isnt easy to pivot, and it should be applauded for trying its best to do so. By building a mixed-reality headset and an AI platform Apple has positioned itself for two possible post-smartphone futures, and by growing Apple TV+ and its other subscription services it has shored up revenues in the short to medium term. These are all positive steps. But the pivot hasnt yet been tested. Dip or not, this was another epic quarter from the iPhone, and we dont yet know what will happen when the good times finally come to an end.FoundryWelcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but its cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.Trending: Top storiesDeepSeek is making everyone look silly except Apple, reckons the Macalope.Have you restarted your MacBook this week? You should, pleads Michael Simon.Stephan Wiesend explains why your VPN isnt as secure as you think.Your next iPhone and Mac might cost a whole lot more thanks to political factors.Apples push into the smart home is a decade late but right on time.Apple should smarten up the HomePod mini 2 with these 5 upgrades.This MacBook Pro was too busted for even AppleCare+ to repair!Apple honors Black History Month with color-morphing Apple Watch band.Podcast of the weekApple released an update to iOS, so what should you expect? In the latest episode of the Macworld podcast we take a look at whats in iOS 18.3, plus talk about the latest Apple news.You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify,Soundcloud, thePodcasts app, orour own site.Reviews cornerMullvad review: A VPN thats all about privacy.Mac Backup Guru review: A utility worth looking into.LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 review: Blazing back-up performance.The rumor millNew leak gives us a clear look at the iPhone SE 4with a notch. It seems rumors of a Dynamic Island were mistaken.Software updates, bugs, and problemsSLAP and FLOP browser vulnerabilities threaten nearly every Apple device since 2021.Whoops! Apple accidentally breaks watchOS updates on older devices.The latest iPhone update patches a security flaw exploited since 2023.We round up 5 small (but still kinda big) changes coming to your iPhone in iOS 18.3.On which subject, some iPhone users will soon get a secret addition after upgrading to iOS 18.3.The latest iPhone update patches a security flaw exploited since 2023.And with that, were done for this weeks Apple Breakfast. If youd like to get regular roundups, sign up forour newsletters. You can also follow uson Facebook, Threads, or Twitter for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.

Seven out of 10 US organizations are struggling to find skilled workers to fill roles in an ever-evolving digital transformation landscape, and generative AI (genAI) has added to that headache, according to a new ManpowerGroup survey.The AI skills gap is driven by the rapid growth of AI technologies and the increasing demand for adoption across industries, according to Kelly Stratman, Ernst & Youngs global ecosystem relationships enablement leader.By 2030, companies are expected to spend $42 billion a year on genAI projects such as chatbots, agents, research, writing, and summarization tools. Currently, 50% of companies with over 5,000 employees use AI, with many more planning to do so. Meanwhile, job postings for AI skills surged 2,000% in 2024, but education and training in this area havent kept pace, according to Stratman.As formal education and training in AI skills still lag, it results in a shortage of AI talent that can effectively manage these technologies and demands, she said. The AI talent shortage is most prominent among highly technical roles like data scientists/analysts, machine learning engineers, and software developers.As AI adoption spreads across industries, the skills gap is growing to include IT, cybersecurity, automation, and more, Stratman pointed out. To address the shortage, organizations must partner with AI leaders to access talent, training, resources, and technology solutions.ManpowerGroupA new survey by training platform Revature showed that 77% of US organizations have been negatively impacted by the IT skills gap, and 56% are choosing upskilling or reskilling as their biggest priority for closing that divide. More than eight in 10 decision makers (84%) are concerned about finding tech talent in 2025, and 57% of respondents said IT staffing companies cant deliver talent quickly enough.In Revatures survey, 29% of respondents ranked AI, genAI, and machine learning as the most important hard skill out of seven capabilities. Data and analytics and cloud computing and infrastructure ranked second and third.While the majority of companies have been affected by the IT skills gap, its clear that IT and HR respondents have clear goals and priorities as we head into 2025 but may not have the tools or the knowledge to execute them effectively, said Revature COO Tan Moorthy.Accenture reports that by 2027, 61% of workers globally will need retraining. While 94% are willing to learn new skills, only 5% of organizations are actively reskilling at scale. The demand for skills like AI, machine learning, and cloud computing is growing even faster.A new report from Forrester Research indicated that in the age of AI, CIOs have to invest in three roles to stay competitive: AI developers and engineers, cloud-related roles, and data-specific roles such as data management and data engineers. The stakes are high. Forresters report states that 75% of firms building AI agentic systems in-house will fail, and 25% of AI projects will be stalled by implementation challenges. srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?quality=50&strip=all 1200w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=244%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 244w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=768%2C945&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=833%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 833w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=567%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 567w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=137%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 137w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=68%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 68w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=390%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 390w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=293%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 293w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plauralsight-grphic.png?resize=203%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 203w" width="833" height="1025" sizes="(max-width: 833px) 100vw, 833px">PluralsightA new study from freelance employment firm Upwork shows that 80% of executives prioritize skills over degrees when hiring, with half planning to boost freelance hiring this year to address gaps in AI and other skills. However, the skills needed, particularly for AI, are constantly evolving.The deepening threat landscape and rapidly evolving high-momentum technologies like AI are forcing organizations to move with lightning speed to fill specific gaps in their job architectures, and too often they are stumbling, said David Foote, chief analyst at consultancy Foote Partners.To keep up with the rapidly changing landscape, Gartner suggests that organizations invest in agile learning for tech teams. In the context of todays AI-fueled accelerated disruption, many business leaders feel learning is too slow to respond to the volume, variety and velocity of skills needs, saidChantal Steen, a senior director in Gartners HR practice. Learning and development must become more agile to respond to changes faster and deliver learning more rapidly and more cost effectively.Studies from staffing firm ManpowerGroup, hiring platform Indeed, and Deloitte consulting show that tech hiring will focus on candidates with flexible skills to meet evolving demands. Employers know a skilled and adaptable workforce is key to navigating transformation, and many are prioritizing hiring and retaining people with in-demand flexible skills that can flex to where demand sits, said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup chair and CEO.Another wrinkle? Many organizations dont have a clear idea of what skills their employees have. Online learning platform Pluralsight recently surveyed 1,200 executives and IT professionals to explore AIs impact and how organizations can prepare. The study showed that while AI adoption is speeding up, most organizations dont know what AI skills their employees have or have a plan to upskill them. And with81% of IT professionalsstating they can leverage AI in their roles but only 12% reporting significant experience working with AI, its evident theres a disconnect. Last year, Accenture launched LearnVantage, a platform that enables organizations to discover what tech gaps they have and where to find online learning platforms to upskill employees. A recent partnership with startup Workera has provided Accenture with a worker skills evaluation platform that can be used by both employers and employees to measure their current skills status.Kishore Durg, global lead of Accenture LearnVantage, said clients are worried about how technology will disrupt their workforce and are asking: How many people will be impacted, and where should they focus their learning to stay relevant?Theyre all very focused on certifications. They want their people to be credentialed when theyre doing something. Theyre all getting very, very picky, he said. And our clients are expecting employees to refresh their skills every three to six months.Organizations top priorities in reskilling or upskilling involve AI, cloud data, security, and full stack engineering, according to Durg. For AI, there are multiple skill domains that include regulation, security/privacy, optimization, initialization, tuning, and loss function. Within those domains are additional subcategories, such as AI model simulation.The point? As more AI models are brought to market and others continue to evolve, the skills needed to develop and deploy AI are continually changing.When discovered, however, the ROI can be significant. What may have taken four people to develop a marketing campaign can now be created with two or even one person using AI, Durg said. We are seeing 40% to 50% increase in productivity within that field through the use of AI, he said.And workers who get certified in needed hard skills can earn an average of $10,000 more a year, according to online learning platform JobSkills.I think this process is very iterative. It has to continue to happen, Durg said. Assessments need to happen every year, because as technologies change, you have to keep refreshing yourself. The mindset needs to be one where youre always open to learning new things.

OpenAI has launched a new agent capable of conducting complex, multi-step online research into everything from scientific research to personalized bike recommendations at what it claims is the same level as a human research analyst.The tool, called Deep Research, is powered by a version of OpenAIs o3 reasoning model thats been optimized for web browsing and data analysis. It can search and analyze massive amounts of text, images and PDFs to compile a thoroughly researched report.OpenAI claims the tool represents a significant step towards its overarching goal of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) that matches (or surpasses) humans. It says that what takes the tool tens of minutes would take a human many hours.In response to a single query, such as draw me up a competitive analysis between streaming platforms, Deep Research will search the web, analyze the information it encounters, and compile a detailed report which cites its sources. Its also able to draw from files uploaded by users.OpenAI developed Deep Research using the same chain of thought reinforcement learning methods it used to create its o1 multistep reasoning model. But while o1 was designed to focus primarily on mathematics, coding, or other STEM-based questions, Deep Research can tackle a far broader range of subjects. It can also adjust its responses as it goes in reaction to new data it comes across in the course of its research.This doesnt mean that Deep Research is immune to the same pitfalls as other AI models. OpenAI says the agent can sometimes hallucinate facts and present its users with incorrect information, albeit at a notably lower rate than ChatGPT. And because each question may take between five and 30 minutes for Deep Research to answer, its very compute intensivethe longer it takes to research a query, the more compute required.Despite that, Deep Research is now available at no extra cost to subscribers to OpenAIs paid Pro tier, and will soon roll out to its Plus, Team, and Enterprise users.

Certain iPhone components including circuit boards and accessories such as chargers will no longer face import taxes in India as the country positions itself to weather changes in global trade.Mumbai, IndiaIn 2024, the Indian government reduced its import taxes on chargers, printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) and smartphones themselves, from 20% to 15%. That 5% cut was estimated to mean Apple would earn between $35 million and $50 million more annually.According to Reuters, though, India has now entirely dropped import taxes on certain components and accessories, although not on smartphones. India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the removal of the tax during her annual budget speech and the government has prepared a list of affected components. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Following last weeks visit toLos Angeles-based ORA, we are moving ourMeet Your Next Employerseriesto New York City this week, where we meet Bespoke Only.Founded in 2012 by Melissa Lee, the interior design firm describes its mission as "creating spaces with a unique experience-focused approach for understated luxury." Since its establishment, the firm's portfolio has expanded to a collection ofhospitality and residential projects in the Northeast, California, and beyond.Over onArchinect Jobs, the firm iscurrently hiringfor their New York office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning more about life at a design studio, we spoke with the BespokeOnly team for a behind-the-scenes look at the firm.Upper West Side Landmark, NYC by Bespoke Only. image credit: William Jess LairdHow did Bespoke Only get started?In 2012, our founder and principal Melissa Lee started Bespoke Only as a multi-disciplinary design firm. Originally, Bes...

While the wait continues for the next Resident Evil mainline title, its predecessors are still selling very well. According to Capcoms Platinum Titles list, which tracks games that sold over one million units, Resident Evil 7: biohazard reached 14.4 million sales as of December 31st, 2024. Its up by 400,000 since its last milestone.Of course, the more recent sequel, Resident Evil Village, is also doing quite well at 10.9 million copies sold (also up by 400,000 since the last milestone). Both titles are available on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch, and received extensive acclaim for their visuals, first-person gameplay, and more.As for the next Resident Evil, its led by Koshi Nakanishi, who also directed Resident Evil 7: biohazard, Resident Evil 5, and Resident Evil Revelations. Further details have yet to be revealed, though rumors allege a possible launch in late 2025 or early 2026. That would mean a potential unveiling this year, maybe at Capcoms upcoming Spotlight showcase on February 4th. Stay tuned for updates until then.