Steve Thomas - IT Consultant

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The BBC have released a new look at Joy to the World, the 2024 Doctor Who Christmas Special and it looks every bit the bonkers brilliance we’d expect from the The Doctor’s (Ncuti Gatwa from Sex Education) festive outings.

The new trailer gives us a much bigger glimpse of the 'Time Hotel', a secret venue in which guests can stay in rooms throughout the hotel’s history, bending the rules of time and space to spend a night or two in the past. We also meet Nicola Coughlan’s (Derry Girls) Joy, a one off companion and mysterious guest of the hotel. As Joel Fry’s (Game of Thrones) concierge Trev puts it, it’s “Christmas, everywhere, all at once”. There’s also runaway trains, a hungry T-Rex, ancient tombs, and the small matter of a second Doctor.

The special will air on BBC One and be available to stream on BBC iPlayer on Christmas Day in the UK, with international viewers able to stream on Disney Plus. And it promises to be quite the present to unwrap as “the episode introduces Joy, who checks into a London hotel in 2024, only to discover that her quiet stay is anything but ordinary. When Joy opens a secret doorway to the Time Hotel, she discovers danger, dinosaurs and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas. Where has the Doctor been? What is going on in Joy’s hotel room? An old enemy of the Doctor’s is lurking in the wings and all of human history hangs in the balance. Can the Doctor save Christmas?”

While Russell T. Davies is now back on board as showrunner for this new era, the 2024 special is penned by another former head honcho – Steven Moffat. Moffat ran the show during the tenures of the Eleventh (Matt Smith) and Twelfth (Peter Capaldi) Doctors, producing what many fans would argue are the best Christmas specials the show has aired. Add that to the fact that a Christmas Day visit from the Doctor only made its return last year after somewhat of a hiatus (although there were a few New Years episodes during that time), and it’s safe to say excitement is out of this world.

The new special continues somewhat of a reboot phase for the show, which rebranded to season one when Ncuti Gatwa took the reins for his first full season earlier in the year. The return of Davies as showrunner signaled an attempt to recapture the heights of the David Tennant era, even going so far as to sneak the actor back in as the Fourteenth Doctor, a short tenure between Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor and the current incarnation that lasted through just the three 60th Anniversary Specials.

Gatwa took over after the bi-generation in that mini-run’s finale and had his debut proper in last year's Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.” But with an entire season under his belt, it’s all now business as usual for Gatwa, who excelled in the role throughout the eight-episode run, delivering one powerhouse performance after another. The Christmas specials are normally fluffier affairs than the likes of space racists and vengeful ancient gods, so this should be an opportunity for Gatwa to have some fun with the role. Although if the adventures of the Fifteenth Doctor so far are anything to go by, while snow may not fall this Christmas, tears certainly will.

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  • Cyber Monday spend hits $13.3bn in 2024 as the season total draws in on $240.8bn
  • American consumers spent $15.8 million every minute at its peak
  • Generative AI is starting to play a bigger role in purchasing decisions

American consumers pushed Cyber Monday spend to $13.3 billion in 2024, making it the biggest such event in history and surpassing initial predictions by over $100 million, new figures have claimed.

Adobe’s analysis found sales were up 7.3% year-over-year, meaning Cyber Monday has now become the largest online shopping day of the year, building on the hype of the preceding Black Friday deals.

In two hours alone between 8pm and 10pm, US buyers spent a whopping $15.8 million every minute, or about $1.9 billion in 120 minutes.

Cyber Monday is America’s favorite shopping day

The report claimed the five-day 2024 "Cyber Week" – beginning on Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday – brought in $41.1 billion in sales, up 8.2% year-on-year. Current predictions estimate that the two-month holiday season, from November 1 to December 31, will bring in $240.8 billion in sales. If this is true, it would mark an 8.4% yearly rise, but already this season sales stand at $131.5 billion, up 9.0%.

Continually tough economic conditions have kept some consumers thinking twice about their spending, however generous discounts countered this and kept up spending. Electronics saw an average markdown of 30.1%, toys at 26.1%, and clothing at 23.2%.

Surprisingly, while the true power of artificial intelligence is yet to be realized outside of the office, GenAI-powered chatbots helped consumers make purchasing decisions more than ever this year, boosting traffic to retail sites by a staggering 1,950%. Social media influencers also saw their share of revenue increase 6.8% year-over-year.

Most consumers (57%) purchased via mobile, with Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services accounting for $991.2 million in transactions – about 7.5% of Cyber Monday’s purchases from a financial perspective.

“Early discounts were strong enough that many consumers felt comfortable hitting the buy button earlier on during Cyber Week, with Cyber Monday becoming ‘last call’ for shoppers to take advantage of big holiday deals," noted Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya.

Looking ahead, Adobe predicts discounts to become less attractive through December 2024, but key categories like electronics, toys and appliances are still likely to offer healthy savings, enabling buyers to purchase higher ticket items and driving total spend up.

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  • Epic Games has released new details regarding Fortnite OG
  • Fortnite OG will bring back the game's original weapon pool and iconic locations
  • Building and traversal mechanics present in the base game will be featured in Fortnite OG

Epic Games has shared new details on Fortnite OG ahead of its long-awaited release tomorrow.

Fortnite will finally return to its roots on December 6 with the addition of Fortnite OG, a permanent game mode that will take players back to the game's vanilla form, and was first introduced last year for a limited time.

In a new blog, posted today, Epic Games revealed the details for the highly-anticipated update, confirming that all original loot, locations, and gameplay will make a return in Fortnite OG Chapter 1 - Season 1.

"To start, Fortnite OG will run through the original initial Seasons of Chapter 1, recreating those early days, right down to loot pool changes and feature introductions," Epic explained.

Fortnite OG seasons will be shorter than they are in Battle Royale currently, so players can expect Season One to end on January 31.

While Solos, Squads, and Zero Build will be available right away, Ranked mode will be "coming soon".

Epic also made it clear that although Fortnite OG will be returning to its original state, quality-of-life changes that have been implemented over the years will still be present.

For instance, building mechanics will stay the same, and traversal will still feature all the latest abilities like sprint, slide, mantle, door bash, and healing while moving.

"Some of the rough edges from that era have been preserved, while others have been polished," the developer added. "For example, you’ll find Reboot Vans and be able to see the glare from a sniper scope, but max building resources are set to 999 and double pump is enabled for Shotguns (for now)."

As previously mentioned, the original loot pool will be available, meaning all weapons featured in the game seven years ago will be accessible, like the Assault Rifle, Burst Assault Rifle, Scoped Assault Rifle, Pump Shotgun, Tactical Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, Damage Trap, and more.

Like every new mode, Fortnite OG will also have its own Battle Pass. This version will feature 45 tiers of "retro rewards with a modern twist on classic items and Outfits" and players will be able to earn Renegade Rebel, Aerial Assault Bomber, and Skull Commander, with an unlockable alt style for each.

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  • Chrome for Android is testing a new feature to easily reorder tab groups with a long-press function
  • The new feature allows users to drag-and-drop tab groups more easily, improving tab management and organization in Chrome
  • This update follows other enhancements like color-coding, syncing across devices, and sharing tab groups for better organization

Google’s Chrome team is currently testing a new feature for the Android version of the browser, namely a new way to reorder tab groups more easily. A tab group allows you to organize your open tabs into collections, which can make them easier to manage and to keep track of.

It’s reported that a reference to the new feature, the experimental tag #tab-strip-group-reorder-android, was found in a preview version of Chrome for Android. MSPowerUser explains that the flag adds a new functionality to this feature that enables you to enter ‘reorder mode’ in the browser by long-pressing the tab group indicators. Once in this mode, you can then drag-and-drop the tab group into a new position.

Previously, you would have had to tap and hold the group name or colored circle of the tab group to do this.

Chrome Tab Groups

(Image credit: Google)

Glimpses for what lies ahead for Chrome

Savvy observers spotted recent Chromium Gerrit changes seemingly related to the new feature, with Chromium being Google’s open source browser project on which many browsers are based on (Chrome included) and Gerrit being a code review tool used by Chromium developers. Here, a message describing the #tab-strip-group-reorder-android flag explains the long-press function that would allow users to reorder tab groups.

The hope is that those of us who get overwhelmed and overrun with tabs can get a handle on them by being able to sort them into groups.

This change follows other recent updates that have made tabs easier to track and manage, including color-coding which allows you to assign colors to a tab group, syncing across devices so you can see tab groups created on other devices with the same Google account, and sharing tab groups with others.

Google Chrome is still the market leader when it comes to browsers – in fact, so much so that US regulators are pressuring Google to spin it off into a separate company. However, I’m glad to see that Chrome developers are continuing to improve the experience for users and I think their efforts are a huge reason why people continue to use Chrome. Since this new long-press feature is already in previews with users, I expect that we’ll see it in an update including it pretty soon.

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But several states are putting up a fight.

  • Expressive Captions add feelings and [gasp] emotions to Android's Live Captions
  • Google Lookout gets new Gemini enhancements
  • Gemini on Pixel phones will now remember more information about you and your interests

Google has released a number of new AI features for most Android phones, plus a couple that work only on its Pixel range of devices.

Some of the new features work in Google Gemini, Google’s AI app, but most of them work throughout the whole Android operating system, which means there will be some big changes for Android users. Let’s break it down.

Expressive Captions

Expressive Captions on and off.

Here's how the same football game looks with Expressive Captions turned off and on (Image credit: Google)

First up are Expressive Captions, which are a way of bringing more emotions into the rather dull and lifeless world of subtitles and captions. Google introduced Live Captions to Android back in 2019, so if anything plays audio on your phone, it also has captions. They work much the same way that automatic subtitles do on YouTube videos – your phone generates them live, based on what it interprets the person is saying.

Live Captions, however, remain rather lifeless. With Expressive Captions, Google is utilizing the power of AI to help you get more of the context of what's happening. You’ll see comments in square brackets like [whispers] and [cheers and applause] appearing amongst captions, giving you a better understanding of the feelings and emotions being conveyed.

Intense vocalizations will be written in [ALL CAPS], while vocalizations like [sighing], [grunting] and [gasping] will also appear. Ambient background sounds will also be tagged. Because Live Captions are part of the operating system you’ll now get Expressive Captions with most things you watch, so look out for them.

Gemini in Lookout

Lookout on an Android phone.

(Image credit: Google)

Google Lookout is an assisted-vision app that’s available on Android devices via the Play Store. It uses AI to help people with low levels of vision, or sight loss, explore the world around them using their phone’s camera. You can use it for reading out text, scanning food labels, currency identification, and even scanning your surroundings to identify things like doors and windows and find out how far away they are.

Now Gemini AI is part of the Lookout app, which means it has much richer, more helpful descriptions. If you take a photo in the app you’ll now hear its description read aloud in a natural-sounding voice, and you can ask Loopout follow-up questions about it.

New Gemini extensions

Google Gemini app on a smartphone.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The more extensions that Google Gemini has, the more apps it can bring its AI magic to. Now Gemini has a new Spotify extension, which means you can play your favorite songs or discover playlists from within Gemini.

Gemini will now also connect to your phone and messages app, meaning you can call contacts and send messages from within Gemini. Google says that “soon” you'll be able to use Gemini to control your smart home devices. Finally, Gemini will now also connect to Maps, which means you’ll get more information about places.

More Android features

Pizza Kitchen on Android.

Pizza-themed sticker combos available in Emoji Kitchen. (Image credit: Google)

Also in the December update you’ll find new pizza-theme sticker combos that you can share with friends using Emoji Kitchen in Gboard, Google’s keyboard app. You can also use QR codes in Quick Share, which makes it easy to share pictures, videos and documents without having to add people as contacts or verify devices. Now you just generate a QR code for people to scan. Documents you scan using your phone will also now be improved, with better contrast and white balance.

Pixel-only features

Circle to search on a Pixel phone

Circle to search on a Pixel phone. (Image credit: Google)

If you’ve got a Google Pixel phone then you get some extra features in the December Android update. There are a lot of small updates to things like the camera and security settings, but the most important feature is Gemini Saved Info. This means you can ask Gemini to remember more about you, what you’re interested in, and what you like, so that it can tailor its responses to more of what you’ll be interested in.

Pixel users will also get some updates to the Pixel-exclusive app, Pixel Screenshots. Pixel Screenshots uses Gemini to analyze and recall the information embedded in your screenshots. Now you can use Pixel Screenshots to save things when you’re using Circle to Search with just one tap.

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A little more intelligence, helpfulness, and intuitiveness are on the way to various Pixel phone models.

  • iVerify has asked volunteers to scan devices for spyware
  • Of the 2,500 scanned, 7 were infected
  • The Pegasus spyware found is notoriously used against high-value targets

Spyware risks have been rising fast in recent years, and although security firms always advise caution, the consensus has been that only a very small number of people are affected by the attacks.

However, new research from iVerify shows that high-powered spyware may be more common than previously thought. The mobile security firm scanned the devices of 2,500 users who volunteered to use the iVerify Mobile Threat Hunting feature - and seven instances of high-powered Pegasus spyware were discovered.

This might not seem like a high number, or even a high percentage, but at a rate of 2.5 infected devices per 1,000 scans - this is "far higher than any previously published reports," iVerify confirmed.

High risk targets

Given the nature of the spyware and threat detection users, Mobile Threat Hunting software users are more likely to be those who are at a higher risk of spyware, such as government officials, journalists, and corporate executives.

The Pegasus software was developed by the Israeli NSO group in 2011, and can be used to remotely surveil individuals on both Android and iPhone devices. The spyware has been linked to so many instances to target political opponents, journalists, and dissidents, that the US halted the visas of anyone involved in its misuse earlier this year.

By offering a mobile threat scanner, iVerify is working to ‘democratize’ the mobile threat landscape, hoping to reveal the true scope of malware and protect mobile users.

“Traditional security models fail to capture the nuanced threats facing mobile devices.” iVerify confirmed in a statement.

“In the past, Pegasus detections have been rare due to a lack of effective detection solutions, but with improved detection and remediation methods, we believe there is more compromise than is currently understood.”

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