One thing SEGA’s MegaDrive/Genisis and the Commodore Amiga had in common was–aside from the Motorola 68000 processor– being known for excellent music in games. As [reassembler] continues his quest to de-assemble Sonic: The Hedgehog and re-assemble the code to run on Amiga, getting the music right is a key challenge. Rather than pull MIDI info or recreate the sound by ear, [reassembler] has written a program called Sonic2MOD to automatically take the assembly file music from the MegaDrive catridge and turn it into an Amiga-style MODfile. He’s also made a video about it that you’ll find embedded below.
Of course how music gets made differs widly on the two systems. Amiga, famously has Paula, a custom ASIC designed for sampling, allowing you to play four eight-bit voices. The Sega, of course, has that glorious FM-synthesis chip from Yamaha synthesizing five channels of CD-quality sound and one channel of sample. It’s not as well known, but the Sega also has a bonus TI-compatible programmable sound chip (PSG) that can handle 3 square-wave tone channels and one noise channel. That’s ten total channels to the Amiga’s four, and CD-quality to 8-bit voices. Knowing all that, we were very curious how close to SEGA’s original music [reassembler] could get on the Amiga.
Before he could show us, [reassembler] needed to decode the SMPS files used on Sonic: The Hedgehog and many other MegaDrive games. Presumably he could have gotten a MIDI file online somewhere– there are oodles– but the goal was to reverse engineer Sonic from its cartridge for the Amiga, not download a lot of resources from the web. SMPS is a sort of programing language for sound, telling the Yamaha and PSG chips what to do.
In some ways, it’s not unlike the Amiga’s MOD format, which programmatically specifies how to play the sampled voices also stored in the file. Translating from one to another is a matter of reading the SMPS files, extracting the timing, volume, vibrato, et cetera, and translate that into a form the MOD file can use. Then [reassembler] needed to generate samples, which was an added hiccup because the Amiga can only handle 3 octaves vs the seven of the SEGA’s FM synthesizer. He’s able to solve this simply by generating multiple samples to span the Yamaha chip’s range, though, again, at only 8-bit fidelity. It doesn’t sound half bad.
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What about the four-channel limit? That’s where a bit of artistry comes in; the automated tool produces MOD files with more voices, which MOD trackers can handle at increased computational load. Computational load you don’t need when trying to play a game. Scaling down the soundtrack to the Amiga’s limits is something [reassembler] already has practice with from his famous OutRun port, though, so we’re sure he’ll get it done.
All of this effort just to match the Mega Drive makes us appreciate what a capable little computer the Sega console was; why, you can even check your stocks with it! We’ve already featured [reassembler]’s Sonic port once before, but this music tool was interesting enough we couldn’t help ourselves coming back to it. The ability to play MOD files were pretty impressive when the Amiga came out, but nowadays all you need is a ten-cent microcontroller.
Cars come in many shapes and forms. Engine locations, gearing ratios, drivetrain layouts, seating configurations, cylinder counts, brake materials, and so much more are all subject to the will of the designers and engineers behind each automotive creation. A car is only a car when all its parts come together, and each is important in its own way, but if one part is paramount, it has to be the engine. The vast majority of cars are developed with engines designed specifically for them, but as always, there are outliers.
Enter the motorcycle-powered car. This strange realm encompasses a small but fascinating corner of the automotive world, where engineers deem an engine meant for two wheels suitable for their four-wheeled creations. As the following list shows, the reasoning behind this decision can range from fuel economy to track performance. Sometimes this marriage of motorcycle heart and car body is unnoticeable until you pop the hood; sometimes you wonder if the result is more motorcycle than car; and sometimes you get something that opens up a whole new no-man’s-land that bridges the gap between the two. Here are 5 unique cars powered by motorcycle engines.
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1. Ariel Atom 500
Heritage Images/Getty Images
The English have a thing for building strange, lightweight track cars for the road. Before Ariel was building track cars like the Atom and off-roaders like the Nomad, the man behind the company, James Starley, was improving the weird and wonderful Penny Farthing bicycle. In 1898, Starley built the Ariel Tricycle, a motorized three-wheeled bike that would evolve into a four-wheeler called the Quadricycle, a sort of proto-quad bike. Then, in 1901, Ariel built its first motorcycle, powered by a 10-horsepower two-cylinder engine.
Despite the motorcycle engine being woven into the brand’s early days, Ariel decided to outsource a bike engine to power their modern road-going track weapon. The Atom 500 is powered by a V8, so naturally, you might be wondering where Ariel found a V8-powered bike. The short answer is that they didn’t, but they found the next best thing in the Suzuki Hayabusa — one of the fastest bikes in the world. The Hayabusa lineage has been powered by a few editions of mighty four-cylinder engines, so the Ariel engineers did what any good-hearted petrolhead would do and bolted two of them together. The result is a Frankensteinian 10,000-rpm V8 that produces 500 horsepower. This Hayabusa-hearted machine shows the creativity, or insanity, depending on who you ask, that frequents the minds of those who want to build something that goes fast.
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2. Peel P50
GalinaBahlyk/Shutterstock
The Peel P50 looks like something out of a Richard Scarry book. Built on the Isle of Man, a place that knows a thing or two about motorcycles, the Peel P50 was only produced from 1962 to 1965. Most gearheads’ first exposure to this whimsical little three-wheeler came from a Top Gear bit, where Jeremy Clarkson takes the P50 to work and wheels it around the BBC offices behind him like you would a suitcase at the airport. This P50 almost looks like a child’s toy, measuring just 54 inches long and 41 inches wide.
Riding on what looked like a set of bicycle training wheels, the P50 was advertised as the ultimate economy car with the company claiming it was, “almost cheaper than walking.” Under the hood, if you can call it that, is a tiny 49cc single-cylinder, two-stroke DKW motorcycle engine. This little pocket engine made just 4.2 horsepower but could push the little P50 to a top speed of 40 mph. The P50 sold for just £199 and got nearly 100 mpg thanks to being one of the lightest cars ever to hit the road. The P50 is one of the more comical examples of what happens when you stuff a motorcycle engine inside a car.
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3. BMW Isetta
Michel Porro/Getty Images
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine BMW as anything but one of Germany’s finest automakers. The Bavarian marque is known for its high-performance and ultra-luxurious models, and its position and reputation in the car world are unquestioned. However, that wasn’t always the story. After the Second World War, BMW was in shambles. The German economy was wrecked, and most of the brand’s offerings were not the most economical and proved undesirable for the average financially struggling German consumer. With the country split by the Cold War, many of BMW’s facilities were suddenly separated, creating a fractured corporate network.
To pull themselves out of the mud, BMW built the Isetta. To be clear, it didn’t actually come up with the Isetta; it bought it. An Italian firm called ISO dreamt up and created it before selling the manufacturing rights to BMW. BMW scooped up the cutesy bubble design and made it into the poster child of an economy car. Powered by BMW’s own 300 cc motorcycle engine, the Isetta produced just 13 horsepower. The Isetta was so small it didn’t even have traditional doors. To step into the Isetta, one needs only to pull open the front fascia, which reveals a small set of pedals, a tiny steering wheel, and a bench seat. The Isetta went on to sell over 160,000 units, helping to save BMW from bankruptcy.
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4. Morgan 3 Wheeler
Michael Cole/Getty Images
The story of the Morgan Motor Company began in 1909. Henry Fredrick Stanley Morgan founded the company on the principle goal of building lightweight, handcrafted cars made for the enjoyment of the driver. After an on-again, off-again relationship with the U.S. due to regulatory constraints, Morgan finally re-entered the market in 2011 with the Morgan 3 Wheeler, which would enjoy a 10-year production run, with final models coming off the line in 2021.
The street-legal 3 Wheeler lives up to its name in a literal sense. Say what you will about British naming creativity, there’s no denying the 3 Wheeler is a truly unique car. It looks like something out of a Jules Verne novel. A steampunk Spitfire fighter that traded its wings for side pipes. It’s a love letter to British eccentricities that would please a royal family member as well as a lorry driver. The 3 Wheeler is only about as big as a motorcycle, so it’s no surprise that Morgan chose to fit it with a V-Twin engine sourced from American Harley Davidson supplier S&S Cycles. The engine produces a respectable 82 horsepower, which is delivered through a five-speed Mazda gearbox. The result is a creation that balances the best of both four and two-wheeled automobiles, and puts it all together in a package that is as wonderful as it is strange.
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5. Radical SR1 XXR
If you’ve noticed a trend in that most of the entries on this list come from the U.K., you’ll not be surprised to learn that the Radical SR1 XXR is yet another motorcycle-powered creation born of the British mind. Radical started in 1997 in Cambridgeshire, England, with its first car being the Clubsport. The Clubsport would set the standard for Radical’s mission to build the world’s most exciting racecars that don’t come with seven-figure price tags or a brand-loyalty prerequisite. Over the next few years, Radical improved and expanded upon the idea it pioneered with the Clubsport, and the world would see a wide variety of British-made race cars.
Within the current Radical lineup, the so-called entry-level car is the Radical SR1 XXR. You’d be right to feel like that name has too many scary-sounding letters to denote an entry-level car, because even though it’s advertised as “the first step on the Radical ladder,” the SR1 XXR is a serious car. Double wishbones, adjustable roll bars, a brake bias adjuster, a detachable steering wheel, a fire extinguisher, and more onboard goodies on the SR1 XXR show that this is a true track weapon. With a mid-engined configuration, sitting in the heart of the car is a 1340 cc Hayabusa-sourced engine that can rev up to 9,000 rpm, all housed in a package that weighs just 1,124 pounds.
The Dutch National Police (Politie) says a security breach resulting from a successful phishing attack has had a limited impact and hasn’t affected citizens’ data.
It also stated that the incident is still under investigation by the agency’s security experts and that the attackers’ access to compromised systems has been blocked.
“The police have been the target of a phishing attack. The police’s Security Operations Center detected the incident very quickly and immediately blocked access,” the police said in a Wednesday press release.
“The impact is still being investigated but appears to be limited. Citizens’ data and investigative information were not exposed or accessed. The police have also launched a criminal investigation.”
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The law enforcement agency has yet to disclose when the attack was detected and if any employees’ data was exposed during the breach.
A Police spokesperson didn’t immediately reply when BleepingComputer reached out for more information about the incident, including which systems or accounts were affected and whether any police officers had their data stolen, if any.
The Dutch police corps also disclosed a data breach in September 2024 following a cyberattack linked to a “state actor” that stole work-related contact information for multiple police officers, including their names, email addresses, phone numbers, and, in some cases, private data.
A follow-up investigation looking into the “nature, scope, and consequences of the data leak” is still ongoing, and the police have not publicly attributed the attack to a specific threat group or explained how it was carried out.
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Following the attack, the police said they implemented stronger security measures to prevent future incidents, including continuously monitoring all systems for signs of suspicious activity and requiring officers to use two-factor authentication to log in to their accounts more frequently.
In February, Dutch authorities also arrested a 40-year-old man for an extortion attempt using confidential documents mistakenly shared by the Dutch police.
Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other.
This whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic questions for any tool evaluation.
If you watch anime, Apple just made things a bit more convenient. Crunchyroll is now available as a channel inside the Apple TV app, where you can subscribe and watch directly without switching apps. The rollout is live in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia, and it comes just in time for the spring anime season.
Here’s what you get with Crunchyroll inside the Apple TV app
Apple TV users in supported regions can now subscribe to Crunchyroll directly through the app. There is a 7-day free trial, after which it costs $9.99 per month. The subscription is handled entirely through Apple’s billing system.
Apple TV
But there is one important catch. This version is separate from existing Crunchyroll accounts, so you cannot link your current subscription. If you want to use it through Apple TV, you will need a new subscription through the platform.
The channel includes Crunchyroll’s full catalog, depending on availability in your region. Since it is part of Apple TV Channels, you can watch everything inside the app, download content for offline viewing, and even share access with up to six people through Family Sharing.
Recently, Crunchyroll increased its subscription prices, with plans now ranging from $10 to $18 per month. Bringing it to Apple TV adds another way for users to access anime without being locked into a single app.
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For you, it comes down to convenience. If you want everything in one place, Apple TV makes it easier. But if you already have a Crunchyroll account, you might want to think twice before subscribing again.
Apple’s budget-friendly iPhone, the iPhone 17e, was launched just one year after its predecessor, the iPhone 16e.
With that in mind, what are the differences between the two iPhones? Did Apple do a complete overhaul with the iPhone 17e, or is the iPhone 16e still a great choice for most budget-seekers?
We’ve reviewed both the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e, and highlighted the key differences and noteworthy similarities between them below. Keep reading to see what really separates the handsets.
Otherwise, visit our iPhone 17e vs iPhone 17 comparison to decide whether you should splurge on Apple’s standard model instead. Finally, our best mid-range phones list has all our affordable favourites from the past year.
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Pricing and Availability
The iPhone 17e is Apple’s current affordable handset, with a starting price of £599/$599 for the 256GB handset.
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Although it just launched back in 2025, the iPhone 16e is no longer available to buy directly from Apple and can only be purchased through authorised resellers instead. The price will vary depending on the retailer, however you can expect to pay around £499 for its 128GB iteration.
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SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10207301
Design
Both the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e share the same general design
iPhone 17e benefits from Ceramic Shield 2 at its front
Neither are fitted with Apple’s Camera Control button
Put the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e next to one another and you’d be hard-pressed to find a difference. Although the iPhone 17e comes in a Pink shade alongside Black and White, both share the same dimensions, have a back glass and sport the customisable Action Button in lieu of the ringer switch.
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However, the iPhone 17e does benefit from Ceramic Shield 2 at its front, which is promised to offer three times the scratch resistance compared to Ceramic Shield which the iPhone 16e is decked out in. Otherwise, neither handset includes the Dynamic Island nor the Camera Control button found in the iPhone 17 or iPhone 16.
Winner: iPhone 17e
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Screen
Ceramic Shield 2 is the only difference between the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e’s screens
Both have 6.1-inch OLED panels
Neither are fitted with ProMotion
The main difference with the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e’s screens is that the former sports Ceramic Shield 2 for better scratch resistance. Otherwise, both are 6.1-inch OLED panels with a 60Hz refresh rate, as neither boast Apple’s ProMotion technology.
iPhone 17e display. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Overall, both devices have decent screens, however they certainly don’t measure up to the iPhone 17 or even the iPhone 16. In fact, even if you’re upgrading from a three or four-year old iPhone, you’re unlikely to really notice the difference here.
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Winner: iPhone 17e
Camera
Both have a single 48MP Fusion camera at their rear
No selfie camera changes
iPhone 17e has the next-generation portrait mode
There aren’t many changes with the iPhone 17e’s camera hardware compared to the iPhone 16e as both are fitted with just two cameras altogether: a 48MP Fusion lens at the rear and a 12MP selfie lens at the front.
If you enjoy more versatility with your camera, and want to play around with different lenses, then neither iPhone here will likely suit your needs. Instead, you’d be better off with at least the iPhone 16 or iPhone 17, or checking out our best camera phones guide.
iPhone 16e sample image. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Having said that, both the iPhone 17e and 16e have capable and reliable cameras that produce detailed and vibrant shots. Even in darker conditions, both cameras are able to pull in enough light to capture decent shots.
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Portrait on iPhone 17e. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The iPhone 17e also benefits from next-generation portrait shots with focus and depth control too, which the iPhone 16e missed out on. For this reason, we’ll give the win here to the iPhone 17e, however it’s still a close call.
Winner: iPhone 17e
Performance
iPhone 17e runs on Apple’s A19 chip while the iPhone 16e sports the A18 chip
iPhone 17e comes with 256GB by default
iPhone 17e includes Apple’s latest C1X modem
The iPhone 17e runs on Apple’s A19 chip while the iPhone 16e, unsurprisingly, runs on the year-older A18 chip. Although both chips have one-less GPU compared to the iPhone 17 or iPhone 16, we conclude that the two handsets run brilliantly in everyday use. In fact, both the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e took everything from intense gaming to photo editing with ease.
iPhone 17e. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
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Dive deeper under the hood, and you’ll find that Apple uses its own modems within the two iPhones. While the iPhone 16e was the first to include the C1 modem, the iPhone 17e benefits from the newer C1X alternative. Essentially, the modems promise users faster and more reliable mobile connectivity, without using too much power.
While the iPhone 17e promises even faster connectivity, in our review we didn’t really notice that much of a difference between it and the iPhone 16e.
Finally, the iPhone 17e comes with 256GB storage as standard which is double that of the iPhone 16e. This is a welcome upgrade, as games and apps are larger than ever so extra storage is always beneficial.
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Winner: iPhone 17e
Software
Both have the Emergency SOS via Satellite and Crash Detection safety features
Both feature Apple Intelligence
Both support iOS 26
There’s very little difference between the two iPhones’ software. Both support iOS 26, and therefore sport the somewhat divisive Liquid Glass finish, and both surprisingly run the entire Apple Intelligence toolkit.
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While it’s good that both the iPhone 16e and 17e support Apple Intelligence, we wouldn’t say this should be the reason you upgrade. Sure, some features like Live Translation and notification summaries are useful, but overall it doesn’t quite have the same oomph as Samsung or Google’s AI toolkits.
iPhone 16e. Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Otherwise, both handsets also support Emergency SOS via Satellite and Crash Detection too. These features will be a welcome addition for anyone coming from an older iPhone.
Winner: Tie
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Battery Life
We found the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e run for a similar amount of time
iPhone 17e supports MagSafe for faster 15W wireless charging than the 16e
Both support 20W wired charging
The biggest difference between the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e’s respective batteries is the inclusion of MagSafe in the former. Not only does this enable support for plenty of magnetic accessories but it offers 15W wireless charging, compared to the 7.5W on the 16e. Sure, it’s not as fast as the Xiaomi 15T Pro’s 50W, but it’s still an upgrade.
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Otherwise, it’s pretty much business as usual with both iPhones here. Both support 20W wired charging speeds and both can comfortably last for a full day before needing a recharge.
Winner: iPhone 17e
Verdict
Firstly, if you own the iPhone 16e then we’d argue there’s very little reason to upgrade to the iPhone 17e. Although Apple has made a few tweaks, overall the differences are negligible to really warrant splurging on the newer model.
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However, if you’re coming from an older iPhone and want a cheap way to upgrade to a newer iteration, then the iPhone 17e is a brilliant option. Not only will you benefit from a speedy chip, but the camera is solid and Apple Intelligence is present too.
Having said that, if your budget is really tight, then the iPhone 16e is still a great option. Not only will you still benefit from a decent chip, Apple Intelligence support and a solid camera, but you can also pick the phone up with a hefty price drop.
Microsoft has released the KB5079391 preview cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, which includes 29 changes, such as Smart App Control and Display improvements.
The KB5079391 update is part of Microsoft’s non-security preview schedule, which pushes updates at the end of each month to test new features and fixes that will roll out during the next month’s Patch Tuesday. However, unlike regular Patch Tuesday cumulative updates, monthly preview updates do not include security updates and are optional.
With the March 2026 optional update, Microsoft is gradually rolling out improvements to the Windows 11 Smart App Control security feature, allowing customers to toggle it without reinstalling the operating system.
“You can turn Smart App Control (SAC) on or off without needing a clean install. To make changes, go to Settings > Windows Security > App & Browser Control > Smart App Control settings. When turned on, SAC helps block untrusted or potentially harmful apps,” Microsoft said.
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KB5079391 also includes a set of Display reliability improvements, such as support for monitors reporting refresh rates higher than 1000 Hz, native USB4 monitor connections, and improved HDR reliability.
You can install this update either by downloading it from the Microsoft Update Catalog or by opening Settings, clicking Windows Update, and then selecting “Check for Updates.”
Because this is an optional update, you will be asked whether you want to install it by clicking the “Download and install” link unless you have the “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re they’re available” option enabled, which will cause the update to install automatically.
Windows 11 KB5079391 highlights
Once installed, this optional non-security update will upgrade Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2 devices to builds 26200.8116 and 26100.8116, respectively.
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The March 2026 preview update adds further improvements, some of the more important ones highlighted below:
[Performance & Reliability] This update improves stability in Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) when you run x64 apps on ARM64 devices. These apps run more smoothly and respond as expected.
This update improves the reliability of downloading required updates when you’re prompted in Settings > System > Advanced.
[Windows Hello] This update improves the reliability of Windows Hello Fingerprint on certain devices.
This update improves the design of the dialog boxes in Settings > Accounts > Other users to match the modern Windows look and support dark mode. The visibility of the dialog box option depends on whether the device has a domain-joined work or school account.
Microsoft says there are currently no known issues with this update, and the full release notes are available in this support bulletin.
Last month, the KB5077241 optional cumulative update rolled out improvements to the BitLocker Windows security, native System Monitor (Sysmon) functionality, and a new network speed test tool.
Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other.
This whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic questions for any tool evaluation.
– Announced in late March – Release date or trailer yet to be revealed – Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley set to return – Other cast members haven’t been announced – No confirmed plot brief, but should pick up after the season 1 finale – Unclear if there’ll be a third season
Wonder Man season 2 is officially in development. The Marvel TV show, which debuted to critical acclaim in late January, will not only return for another run, but also reunite us with thespian besties Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery.
Those details aside, little else is publicly known about the Disney+ show’s next installment — but when has that ever stopped me from speculating? In this guide, I’ll do just that. Indeed, I’ll offer my prediction on its eventual launch, discuss its possible plot, and try to figure out which other characters may return from Wonder Man‘s first season. Altogether now: lights, camera, aaaaand… action!
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Wonder Man season 2 release date: what we know so far
Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery will return for Marvel Television’s #WonderMan Season 2, co-created by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest, coming to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/XnOBYrYHaAMarch 23, 2026
That’s no great surprise. Its first season only aired on January 28, so it’s likely that very little pre-production work — script writing, cast auditions, et cetera — has been conducted yet. Unless the development pace really picks up in the months ahead, it could be some time before filming begins — and even longer before it returns to our screens.
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My guess? It’ll have to come out before Avengers: Secret Wars. That’s the Multiverse Saga’s final film, whose ending is expected to result in a soft reboot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). With Secret Wars set to arrive in December 2027, Wonder Man season 2 will have to premiere before said reboot, meaning it’ll have to air by November 2027. Better get a move on, then, Marvel.
Wonder Man season 2 trailer: is there one?
Me when I realize we’re in for a long wait for next season’s first trailer (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)
No – and, if past promotional campaigns for Marvel TV shows are anything to go by, a trailer won’t be with us until a month or two before Wonder Man season 2 is released. Once one is revealed, I’ll add it to this section.
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Wonder Man season 2 confirmed cast
Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery will be back for more misadventures in season 2 (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)
Potential spoilers follow for Wonder Man season 1.
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Here’s the confirmed cast for Wonder Man season 2 so far:
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams
Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery
The aforementioned actors were co-leads in season 1, so it’s not shocking that they’ll be back for Wonder Man season 2. However, last season’s finale ended on something of a cliffhanger (more on this later), so it’ll be interesting to see when and where we’ll be reunited with them.
Unsurprisingly, there’s no word on which other actors will reprise their roles from the MCU TV Original’s debut outing. Zlatko Buric’s Von Kovak, X Mayo’s Janelle Jackson, Arian Moayed’s Agent P. Cleary, Shola Adewusi’s Martha Williams, and Demetrius Grosse’s Eric Williams all seem like safe bets. We’ll have to wait for Marvel to say if one or all of these stars are part of the proceedings, though.
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Wonder Man season 2 story speculation
When and where will we see Trevor and Simon in Wonder Man’s second season? (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)
Wonder Man season 2’s story synopsis hasn’t been released yet. However, based on its forebear’s ending, we can infer where things may go next.
Need a reminder of what happened in last season’s finale? My Wonder Man ending explained piece has got you covered. I’ll be expanding on some of the plot elements from that article moving forward, too, so be advised: full spoilers immediately follow for Wonder Man‘s debut season.
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Wonder Man’s first season ended on a cliff-hanger (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)
Last season’s finale episode saw Williams bust Slattery out of the Department of Damage Control’s (DoDC) supermax prison. Slattery was jailed after he impersonated The Mandarin again, which he had done to take the fall for the carnage Williams caused with his powers in episode 7.
Anyway, the very last shot of season 1 episode 8 showed Williams and Slattery flying off to whereabouts unknown.
The best place for its follow-up season to start, then, would be reuniting us with this fan-favorite bromance, and showing if they’ve gone into hiding to evade the DoDC or simply returned to Los Angeles and their acting careers. In my view, the former will be the more likely scenario. Why risk heading back to LA to resume their professional and personal lives if the DoDC will be hot on their heels?
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley are a pitch-perfect pair in Wonder Man, Marvel’s terrific new tragicomedy. https://t.co/UCleqOoR65January 23, 2026
Regardless of which of the above scenarios plays out, Wonder Man 2 will need to address the elephant in the room: how did Williams acquire his superhuman abilities?
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Speaking to TechRadar before season 1 launched, co-creator Andrew Guest said he “didn’t feel the need” to shed light on Wonder Man‘s biggest mystery. With season 2 on the way, though, we’d all appreciate it if a definitive answer was given – even if, as some fans have theorized, Williams is confirmed to be a mutant. That would be a major (and potentially displeasing) departure from his superhero origin story in the comics, but at least it would solve the mystery.
The final big question on my mind is one I touched on in this guide’s release date section: will Wonder Man season 2 arrive ahead of Secret Wars‘ December 2027 release?
Hopefully, the answer will be “yes”. Secret Wars will not only bring down the curtain on the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, but also likely reset Marvel’s cinematic franchise.
Before that reboot occurs, it’ll be in the comic titan’s best interests to wrap up every major storyline and character arc in its remaining Marvel Phase 6 movies and TV shows so the MCU can start afresh. For that to happen, production will have to be completed on Wonder Man 2 by mid-2027 before it potentially airs before next December. Otherwise, MCU 2.0 will need to pick things up where Wonder Man‘s first season left off, which won’t be in Marvel’s best interests if it wants to restart its cinematic universe with a clean slate.
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Will there be a Wonder Man season 3?
Nobody can say if Wonder Man will return for a third season (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)
I don’t know, and I suspect the series’ cast and crew don’t, either.
Again, a lot will depend on whether the MCU undergoes its reported reboot post-Secret Wars. If it does, the chances of Wonder Man season 3 being greenlit are slim. The only ways it would be is if a) season 2 is as highly-rated, popular, and cost-effective as its predecessor, and b) Williams and Slattery continue to exist in version 2.0 of the MCU.
Until Avengers: Secret Wars is out, then, nobody can say for sure if a third season renewal is on the cards.
Offline Coffee Co. co-founders Lucy Kong, left, and Krystal Graylin behind the counter at the cafe in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Sarah Goh Photo)
The meeting was running long, so someone said what they always say: “let’s take this offline.”
For Krystal Graylin, that phrase — hollow corporate shorthand for a problem deferred, not solved — became something else entirely.
She actually did it.
Graylin, a former Microsoft product manager, and her friend from college, Lucy Kong, an auditor at EY, both watched as their industries raced to automate and cut headcount. They responded by betting on the one thing they figured AI couldn’t replicate — handing someone a drink and watching that person’s face light up.
The result is Offline Coffee Co., a new cafe in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood that opened last month, drawing on Chinese cafe culture for its menu and aesthetic, leaning into the “third place,” and serving as a deliberate departure from the corporate world both founders left behind.
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In addition to drinks and pastries, Offline Coffee Co. offers a mix of artwork and crafts for sale. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
In a city full of tech and coffee, Graylin and Kong are an unlikely pair to be running a cafe. Neither had worked professionally as a barista, aside from operating their home machines and hosting apartment cafe parties with friends. One was monitoring the health of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. The other was auditing Amazon’s books at EY.
“Some people we talked to were like, ‘You guys have no business opening a coffee shop. You haven’t been a barista or owned a food business before. What makes you think like you can just quit your job and open a cafe,’” Graylin said, adding, it’s a “fair concern.”
Friends since their days at the University of Washington, Graylin said she and Kong joked for years about the cafe idea, but only started taking it seriously last April. They considered what it would mean to give up a steady income and sign a lease for a retail space.
“Going into this, it was not like, ‘we hate our jobs so much that we want to escape and do something completely different,’” Graylin said. “We knew it would be risky, but we knew that going through this experience, it would make us change in a way that we couldn’t pay someone to teach us.”
Offline Coffee Co. is on a street lined with apartment buildings in Capitol Hill. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
They got the keys to 711 Bellevue Ave E. last July and quit their jobs in August. For several months they worked on building out the space, adding their design touches with light wood finishes, a tiled main bar, and thrifted furniture before opening in February. The menu is built around floral syrups and flavor combinations that Graylin and Kong would bring back from trips to China — cafe ingredients that she said are harder to find in Seattle.
“It feels crazy,” Graylin said. “I cried five or more times the first week we were open, because I was so stressed but also I was so happy to see all the people in here.”
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Friends have been visiting, others work on laptops in the cafe, and neighbors are making Offline a regular stop on their dog walks. Graylin said it’s cool to become part of someone’s routine.
But the leap from tech to coffee wasn’t just about escaping the corporate grind. It turns out, Graylin said, that being a product manager prepared her for more than she expected.
Chinese decor in Offline Coffee Co. accentuates a menu that features unique flavors. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Negotiating contracts, managing people, de-escalating difficult customers, knowing how to prioritize — all of it transferred. So did a comfort with AI tools, which she and Kong have leaned on to close knowledge gaps, whether researching equipment, navigating legal questions, or estimating costs before bringing in an expert.
But it was also AI, and what she saw it do to the people around her at Microsoft, that helped push her out the door.
“So much of the focus was on, how can we use AI to 10x, and cushion the impact of layoffs to avoid losing revenue,” Graylin said. “Rather than, how is everyone on the team doing with all these layoffs? How can we [use AI] to improve the work-life balance on the team?”
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The cafe, she said, felt like an answer to that question — a deliberate bet on what she believes advancing technology can’t touch.
“AI is good for automating things that are really tedious and unpleasant,” she said. “But social interactions — those are things that don’t need to be sped up.”
Every week I talk to enterprise GRC teams who understand exactly what agentic AI can do for their profession. They’ve read the articles, seen the demos, and can articulate the difference between AI that makes a workflow go a little, or even a lot faster, and an agent that replaces it entirely.
Yet still, some remain reluctant to make the shift to agentic GRC.
When I ask why, the conversation moves away from technology pretty quickly. Most of them have the “AI budget” available, but something is holding them back from making the move and they can’t always name what it is.
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The conversations all eventually lead to the same place, even if they can’t say it in so many words: they’re not sure who they are when the operations aren’t theirs anymore. It’s an identity and even value question above all else.
Most GRC practitioners carry an implicit belief about where their value comes from. That belief isn’t wrong, but it’s describing a role that’s being restructured, and those who make the transition the fastest will be the ones leading the industry in the coming years.
The Competence That Got Us Here
GRC professionals built their expertise around operational competence. Knowing how to gather the right evidence, managing audit cycles under pressure and keeping a complex compliance program running when it’s understaffed and under-resourced have been signs of a valuable GRC team member for years.
That competence took years to develop, and the people who have it are genuinely good at what they do and are rightfully valued by their business.
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The problem with agentic GRC is that it doesn’t reward that competence the same way. Agents can gather evidence, open remediation tasks and can manage most of the audit cycle alone. Given that agents can handle those operations, the actual question is what a GRC professional is supposed to be doing instead, and most organizations haven’t asked it yet.
Real GRC Engineers Don’t Live in Spreadsheets. They declare controls in Terraform, version them in Git, and route every update through pull requests and CI/CD pipelines.
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GRC wasn’t designed to be an operational function. It was designed to help organizations understand and manage risk. The evidence collection, the audit cycles, the status updates were always implementations of that purpose, not the purpose itself. The practitioners who got into this field weren’t drawn to it because of the “fun” of evidence collection.
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They cared about whether the organization was actually protected, or just appearing to be, and wanted to provide that insight to the business.
What happened over time is that the tooling didn’t scale with the programs, and the operational burden consumed everything. The people who were supposed to be thinking about risk spent most of their time keeping the machine running, not because it was ever the point of the role, but because someone had to do it and there wasn’t another way.
What Agents Do, and What They Can’t
Agentic GRC doesn’t speed up workflows, it replaces them. Evidence no longer flows through a person; it’s pulled continuously from integrated systems. Controls aren’t checked periodically; they’re monitored in real time. Remediation isn’t tracked in spreadsheets; tickets are opened, assigned, followed up on, and closed automatically.
But agents don’t design themselves.The logic that drives them (what to collect, what constitutes a pass or fail, what triggers an escalation, what the auditor will accept as evidence) comes from a key combination: data context and human insight.
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Someone has to define the risk appetite, decide what “remediated” actually means, know when the output looks right and when something is missing that the system can’t see.
Agentic GRC in Anecdotes is built around exactly this model. The agents handle the operations end to end, based on the robust data foundation we have spent years building, and the logic the GRC team defines.
When agents can handle the evidence chains, control testing, and audit prep, the question of what GRC should actually be doing shifts. And for practitioners with real depth, that answer is what they’ve always known how to do. But that doesn’t make the shift easy.
Redefining a role is hard and comes with real fears. Many people are worried about their jobs because of AI, some more rightfully than others.
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For GRC professionals specifically, this is less a threat than it is the opportunity they’ve been waiting for.
The practitioners who’ve made this shift describe it less like learning something new and more like getting permission to do what they were trained to do.
Their job became telling the agents what matters: setting the right risk appetite, deciding which controls are genuinely protecting something and which ones exist because they always have, knowing when an automated finding is a real problem and when it’s noise, and translating business context into compliance logic in ways no agent can replicate, because that translation requires judgment built from years of experience.
That judgment has been sitting in GRC teams all along, waiting for the operational load to lift.
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The organizations that move first on this won’t win because their teams are better at AI. They’ll win because their GRC teams finally have the time and the mandate to do what compliance was supposed to do: think clearly about risk, act on what actually matters, and stop managing a program and start leading one.
Why Letting Go Feels Like Losing
The reluctance that comes up in these conversations makes more sense when you frame it this way.
Practitioners aren’t afraid of losing their value; they’re afraid of losing the operations that became their identity, even though those operations were never what they wanted. Letting that go feels like losing something, which makes it hard to see what’s waiting on the other side. And what is waiting is far more aligned with why they got into this work in the first place.
The shift, when it happens, is less a transformation than a return to what the role was always supposed to be.
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Learn more about agentic GRC with Anecdotes at anecdotes.ai
The class of 2025 graduated into the worst entry-level job market in five years. Now a growing number of them are using AI tools during live job interviews, and a cottage industry of startups is rushing to sell them the means to do it. Whether that constitutes cheating or common sense depends on which side of the hiring table you sit on, but the numbers behind the trend are not in dispute.
Unemployment among recent college graduates aged 22 to 27 climbed to 5.7 per cent by the end of 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, well above the 4.2 per cent national rate. Underemployment, which measures graduates working in jobs that do not require a degree, hit 42.5 per cent, its highest level since 2020. The tech sector, once the default destination for ambitious graduates, shed roughly 245,000 jobs in 2025, according to tracking data from Layoffs.fyi and TrueUp. Another 59,000 have gone in the first three months of 2026.
The graduates who entered this market did so having watched an older cohort get hired, promoted, and then laid off at companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google in the space of 18 months. The lesson they drew was not subtle: competence and loyalty are insufficient protection. And so they arrived armed with a technology that their universities had spent four years telling them to learn.
The phenomenon surfaced this week in a press release from LockedIn AI, a startup that sells a product called DUO: a service that combines real-time AI transcription of interview questions with a live human coach who can see the candidate’s screen and provide strategic guidance during the conversation. The press release, distributed via GlobeNewswire, was framed as a trend piece about generational resilience. It was, more precisely, a product advertisement.
LockedIn AI is not alone. Its founder, Kagehiro Mitsuyami, also co-founded Final Round AI, a similar product. Both companies have faced questions about the authenticity of their marketing: reviews on Trustpilot appear to be AI-generated, and independent reviewers have noted that the software can be visible to interviewers when candidates switch between windows. A Gartner survey of 3,000 job seekers found that six per cent admitted to interview fraud, including having someone else impersonate them. Fifty-nine per cent of hiring managers suspect candidates of using AI to misrepresent themselves.
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The market for these tools is growing precisely because the conditions that created them are getting worse, not better. The National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 45 per cent of employers characterised the job market for the class of 2026 as “fair,” down from “good” the previous year. Hiring projections for new graduates are essentially flat, at 1.6 per cent growth. For candidates submitting dozens of applications and receiving interview invitations at rates below two per cent, the temptation to use every available advantage is considerable.
The hypocrisy argument
The most effective argument in favour of AI-assisted interviewing is not about fairness in the abstract. It is about a specific inconsistency in how technology companies treat AI.
Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, disclosed during an April 2025 earnings call that more than 30 per cent of the company’s new code is now generated with AI assistance, up from 25 per cent six months earlier. Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta all encourage their engineers to use AI coding tools daily. Applicant tracking systems powered by AI screen and reject resumes before a human ever reads them. The hiring pipeline is automated from end to end, except on the candidate’s side.
For graduates who spent their university years being told that AI fluency would define their careers, being asked to pretend the technology does not exist during a 45-minute interview feels less like a test of competence and more like a test of compliance. The companies asking them to do so are, in many cases, the same ones that will expect them to use AI tools from their first day on the job.
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This argument has real force, but it also has limits. There is a difference between using AI to write code more efficiently and using AI to answer questions about your own experience, judgment, and problem-solving ability. An interview is, at least in theory, a conversation designed to evaluate what a candidate knows and how they think. Outsourcing those answers to a language model, or to a human coach whispering through an earpiece, undermines the purpose of the exercise regardless of how unfair the exercise may be.
The employer response
Companies are already adapting. In-person interview rounds rose from 24 per cent in 2022 to 38 per cent in 2025, according to hiring industry data. Seventy-two per cent of recruiting leaders now conduct at least one in-person stage specifically to combat AI-assisted fraud. Some firms have moved to whiteboard exercises, pair programming sessions, and unstructured conversations that are harder to augment with real-time tools.
The deeper question is whether the interview itself is the right mechanism for evaluating candidates in an AI-saturated labour market. If the goal is to assess what a candidate can produce with the tools they will actually use on the job, then banning those tools during the evaluation makes little sense. If the goal is to assess raw cognitive ability and domain knowledge, then AI assistance defeats the purpose entirely. Most interviews attempt to do both, which is why the current system satisfies no one.
What is clear is that the class of 2025 did not create this problem. They inherited a job market reshaped by pandemic-era overhiring, aggressive cost-cutting, and an AI revolution that is simultaneously creating and destroying opportunity at a pace that neither employers nor candidates have fully absorbed. Their decision to use AI in interviews is not rebellion. It is the predictable behaviour of rational actors in a system that has told them, repeatedly and in every other context, that AI is not optional. The fact that the system now objects to them taking that message seriously is, at minimum, worth examining.
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