Thursday, January 25, 2024

Splatoon 3 Side Order DLC has an official release date

Nintendo has finally announced the release date for Splatoon 3's Side Order expansion.

After receiving a 'spring 2024' launch window last year, it's been revealed that Wave 2 of the Splatoon 3: Expansion Pass - Side Order - will officially launch on February 22 for Nintendo Switch.

The news was shared on social media this afternoon (January 24) with the official Splatoon Twitter account noting in a post that players will be able to "Join up with new faces and old friends to escape the world of order!"

The release date arrived alongside a brand-new trailer - which you can check out below - that teases the player falling asleep on a train before awakening in a strange city.

The single-player campaign has previously been said to be designed to "be replayed over and over," which suggests the downloadable content (DLC) will have roguelike elements. 

The Splatoon team also unveiled some beautiful new artwork showcasing several characters including Agent 8 and her robot companion who are "trying to navigate the strange new sector" called the Spire of Order.

"Climb a spire crawling with creepy creatures, and unlock the truth behind this colorless world," the post reads.

Splatoon 3 launched in September 2022 and later received the Expansion Pass in February 2023. The pass costs an additional $24.99 (£20 / AU $37.87) on the Nintendo eShop and gives players access to Wave One - which brought players back to Inkopolis Plaza from the first Splatoon game - and the upcoming Wave Two: Side Order.

TechRadar Gaming's hardware editor Rhys Wood gave the four out of five stars in his review, calling it the "finest" entry in the series yet that offers "an excellent multiplayer suite, a vastly improved campaign and some much-needed quality-of-life upgrades."

For more, why not check out our top picks for the best Nintendo Switch games you can play right now, as well as the best co-op games to play with friends? 



source https://www.techradar.com/gaming/nintendo-switch/splatoon-3-side-order-dlc-has-an-official-release-date
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The growing threat of data breaches in the age of AI and data privacy

It’s not unknown that artificial Intelligence (AI) has contributed significantly to innovation within the cybersecurity industry. AI offers enhanced benefits to existing security infrastructure due to its ability to automate tasks, detect threats and analyze swathes of data. Specifically, it can be used to identify trends in phishing attacks and is effective in spotting critical coding errors missed due to human oversight. The technology can also simplify complex technical concepts, and even develop script and resilient code. Ultimately, helping to keep cybercriminals at bay.

However, AI is a double-edged sword, as bad actors also have access to these tools and can leverage them for malicious purposes. Following the recent AI Safety Summit in the UK, questions around AI and its impact on data privacy have become more pressing than ever before. As the technology evolves in real-time, so does the fear surrounding AI as it becomes difficult to predict how it will continue to develop in the future.

AI-powered systems rely largely on personal data to learn and make predictions, raising concerns about the collection, processing, and storage of such data. With easy access to AI tools like chatbots and image generators, tactics such the use of deepfake technology to bypass data privacy regulations are becoming more prevalent. In fact, recent research from Trellix has shown that AI, and the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs), is drastically changing the social engineering strategies used by bad actors.

With the fast-growing adoption of AI by cybercriminals, organizations need to stay ahead of the curve to prevent falling victim to these attacks and losing vital data. So how can organizations do this?

Malicious use of Generative AI

The internet is filled with tools that use AI to make people's life easier. Some of these tools include ChatGPT, Bard, or Perplexity AI which come with security mechanisms to prevent the chatbot from writing malicious code.

However, this is not the case for all tools especially the ones being developed on the dark web. The availability of these tools has led to the rise of ‘Script Kiddies’. These are individuals with little to no technical expertise using pre-existing automated tools or scripts to launch cyberattacks. It’s important that they are not dismissed as unskilled amateurs, as the rise of AI will only make it easier for them to execute sophisticated attacks.

It’s clear that today’s AI applications offer potent and cost-effective tools for hackers, eliminating the need for extensive expertise, time, and other resources. The recent developments in AI have led to the emergence of Large Language Model (LLMs) which can generate human-like texts. Cybercriminals can leverage LLM tools to improve the key stages of a successful phishing campaign by gathering background information, extracting data to craft tailored content. This makes it easy for these threat actors to generate phishing emails quickly and at scale with low marginal costs.

Infiltrating businesses through AI voice scams

Our recent research found that social engineering tactics are the number one cause of major cyberattacks according to 45% of UK CISOs. Cybercriminals are increasingly turning to technology to automate social engineering making use of bots to gather data and deceive victims into sharing sensitive information like one-time passwords. AI generated voices play a huge role in this.

These AI voice scams mimic human speech patterns, making it difficult to differentiate between real and fake voices. This approach reduces the need for extensive human involvement and minimizes post-attack traces.

Scammers make use of these voices alongside psychological manipulation techniques to deceive individuals. They instil trust and urgency in their victims making them susceptible to manipulation. In our November Threat Report, we found that Al-generated voices can also be programmed to speak multiple languages, allowing scammers to target victims across diverse geographic regions and linguistic backgrounds.

As a result, phishing and vishing attacks continue to rise as threat actors leverage these tactics on live phone calls to manipulate businesses to share company data. Amid ever-evolving phishing threats, organizations need to remain one step ahead of cybercriminals or risk exploiting their system, employees, and valuable data to threats.

Security teams must build more resilient threat environments

Organizations need to use AI themselves, not only to protect again AI tactics used by cybercriminals but also to reap the benefits it will have on day-to-day processes. AI can be used to enhance operational efficiency and productivity, integrated into the decision-making process and helps organizations stay competitive in the rapidly evolving landscape.

Given that these AI-based cyberattacks can make it increasingly difficult for organisations to detect them, it’s increasingly important that they implement the right technology that can anticipate and respond to these threats. This is where implementing an Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solution is key.

XDR, at a fundamental level, revolutionises threat detection and response. Our research found that, when there is a data breach, 44% of CISOs believe that XDR can help to identify and prioritise critical alerts, 37% find that it can accelerate threat investigations and 33% have fewer false positive threat alerts. It also allows security teams to have improved visibility over the wider threat attack surface and a clearer prioritisation of risks. As a result, of the global CISOs that dealt with a data breach, 76% agree that if they had XDR, the major cybersecurity incident would have had a lesser impact.

Staying on top of AI in the age of data privacy

Overall, organizations need to approach AI with an air of caution. It is no secret that its benefits have revolutionized the way people work today through simplifying complex technical concepts however due to its dual nature, care should be taken when implementing it. Cybercriminals are no stranger to AI and have recently been using it to their advantage manipulating and creating fake data to create confusion or impersonate officials for example the recent Booking.com attacks.

To avoid becoming a victim to these AI attacks businesses need to embrace the evolving cybersecurity landscape and invest more in methods that defend against sophisticated cyberattacks. With a combination of the right technologies, talent and tactics, security operation (SecOps) teams will be well equipped to mitigate cyber threats from their organization.

We've featured the best encryption software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro



source https://www.techradar.com/pro/the-growing-threat-of-data-breaches-in-the-age-of-ai-and-data-privacy
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Wednesday, January 24, 2024

The OnePlus 12 has gone global, alongside the new OnePlus 12R

The year’s second major phone launch has now occurred, as hot on the heels of the Samsung Galaxy S24 line’s launch, the OnePlus 12 has just had its global unveiling. That said, it was announced in China back in December, so there’s not much new information here – the exciting element is simply that you’ll soon be able to buy it.

Specifically, we now know that the OnePlus 12 is up for pre-order already, and will ship on February 6. It will start at $799.99 / £849 (around AU$1,215 but with no current Australian availability).

As for the specs and features, these things were already known, but the headlines include a 6.82-inch 1440 x 3168 120Hz screen that can reach 4,500 nits of brightness. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra can only manage a peak brightness of 2,600 nits.

The OnePlus 12 also has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, just like Samsung’s top phone (albeit not the overclocked ‘for Galaxy’ version), and it comes with a choice of 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage.

There’s also an unusually large 5,400mAh battery with 100W wired charging and 50W wireless, and the cameras include a 50MP main sensor, a 48MP ultra-wide with a 114-degree field of view, and a 64MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, while on the front there’s a 32MP snapper for selfies. It also has an IP65 rating, which makes it more waterproof than the OnePlus 11 but less than most rival phones.

Overall, the OnePlus 12 sounds like a promising flagship, though we won’t know how good it really is until we’ve put it through a full review. But it hasn’t landed alone, as the OnePlus 12R has also been unveiled.

A relatively affordable alternative

The OnePlus 12R in blue

The OnePlus 12R (Image credit: OnePlus)

This is a completely new phone (well, at least as far as the name goes, though it’s basically a rebranded version of the China-only OnePlus Ace 3).

This has a 6.78-inch 120Hz 1264 x 2780 screen with a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, a 5,500mAh battery with 100W wired charging (but no wireless charging), last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage.

Its cameras include a 50MP main one, an 8MP ultra-wide (with a 112-degree field of view), a 2MP macro snapper, and a 16MP front-facing camera. The OnePlus 12R also has an under-display fingerprint sensor, a glass back, and an aluminum frame, but no official water resistance rating.

It’s a lower end phone than the OnePlus 12 then, but still has a reasonable assortment of specs, and it’s priced accordingly, starting at $499.99 / £649 (roughly AU$760 but this isn't available in Australia). The price difference there is because you can only get a version with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage in the UK, while in the US there's also an 8GB/128GB version.

This phone ships on February 6, with pre-orders open now, though as with the OnePlus 12 we won’t know exactly how good the OnePlus 12R is until we’ve reviewed it, so you might want to wait before buying it.

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source https://www.techradar.com/phones/oneplus-phones/the-oneplus-12-has-gone-global-alongside-the-new-oneplus-12r
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X finally brings video and voice calls to Android users

Video and voice calls will now be available to Android users on X (formerly Twitter), however, they will require either a Premium or Premium Plus tier subscription. 

iOS users gained this function in October 2023, and now Android has finally caught up. Only Twitter users willing to pay for the aforementioned subscription tiers will be able to active call other users, but there's still some call functionality for non-premium users.

Any X user can receive video or voice calls and they can control who they can receive calls from in the direct messages settings. Users can receive calls from accounts they follow or have in their address book by default. However, if they want to call another user they will need to have received a direct message from said person at least once before. Users will also need to have push notifications enabled so they won’t miss when they are being called.

Audio and video calls can be found in the DM settings tab. Call preferences can then be managed in the settings page allowing users to choose from contacts, verified users, and followed accounts. Additional details on audio and video calls can be found in the X Help Center.

 How much will it cost? 

A screenshot of calling options on Android

(Image credit: Future / James Ide)

Premium tier membership to X starts at $8.00 / £8.00 / AUS$10 per month or $84.00 / £84 / AUS$105 per year and will give users access to video and voice calls as well as other features like editing, longer posts, and the infamous blue checkmark. 

The Android app of X is currently sitting at a 3.6 rating on the Google Play Store with some recent reviews criticizing the stability of the app. Some users are questioning adding these features when WhatsApp, Discord, and (i)Message offer something like this already.

Their inclusion could be part of Elon Musk’s strategy to make X a “a single application that encompasses everything,”, and to evolve it into a single multi-functional app like Facebook.

While an interesting option, it is unclear if it will tempt more users to purchase the Premium subscriptions but it would only really be useful to connect with strangers and those you don’t already have contact information for.  

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source https://www.techradar.com/phones/x-finally-brings-video-and-voice-calls-to-android-users
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These Pastel Pink Joy-Con controllers are seriously adorable and they're launching just in time for Princess Peach Showtime

Nintendo has revealed a new set of Pastel Pink Joy-Con controllers for the Nintendo Switch that will be released to coincide with the arrival of the upcoming Princess Peach Showtime.

Revealed in a recent Tweet by Nintendo of America, the new Joy-Con colorway is an adorable shade of pink that seems pretty clearly inspired by the design of everybody’s favorite colorful monarch Princess Peach.

Although a Pastel Pink left Joy-Con is already available in a different set (where it is paired with an equally eye-catching Pastel Yellow right Joy-Con), this seems like it’s going to be the only way to get your hands on the Pastel Pink right Joy-Con that would be required for a complete matching pair.

The controllers will be released on March 22, 2024, alongside the Princess Peach Showtime game, and will be available either directly from the My Nintendo Store or at select third-party retailers for a limited time.

A price of $79.99 also appears on the online store listing for the controllers, which matches the cost of other existing Joy-Con colorways. The controllers have also been announced over on social media in Japan and Europe, which is great news for international fans.

For those who need a quick refresher, Princess Peach Showtime is an upcoming action platformer that stars the Mario character Princess Peach. With a theatrical theme dominating its charming visuals and a range of alternate power-up costumes that give Princess Peach all kinds of special abilities from sword fighting to kung-fu, it looks like it’s shaping up to be a real treat.

These Pastel Pink Joy-Con controllers seem like the perfect way to customize your Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch OLED console to match the game’s aesthetics as you play.

For some top Nintendo Switch accessories, see our guides to the best Nintendo Switch accessories or the best Nintendo Switch controllers.



source https://www.techradar.com/gaming/these-pastel-pink-joy-con-controllers-are-seriously-adorable-and-theyre-launching-just-in-time-for-princess-peach-showtime
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