Samsung’s next Galaxy smartwatches could last longer than ever, thanks to bigger batteries and more efficient processors.

According to a report from WinFuture, Samsung is set to swap its long-running Exynos smartwatch chips for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform. This new chip is built on a 3nm manufacturing process, and as such, should bring a welcome boost to both performance and power efficiency. As a result, everyday tasks might feel snappier while battery life could be extended.

The leak also suggests that memory and storage will vary by model. Samsung is reportedly pairing the new chipset with 2GB of RAM. Alongside that, you get either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage depending on the version you choose.

on-prem

CEO Krishna: Customers blew their Z budgets on servers and storage before prices spike, Q2 financials ‘disappointing’

IBM says customers spooked by soaring demand for AI infrastructure raided their mainframe budgets to stockpile servers, storage, and memory instead, knocking Big Blue’s flagship Z business off course.

Ahead of its full calendar Q2 earnings release next week, IBM took the unusual step of publishing preliminary quarterly results alongside a letter from CEO Arvind Krishna explaining why the numbers fell short of expectations.

The biggest disappointment came in Infrastructure, where revenue fell 7 percent, despite what IBM had previously described as the strongest launch of a mainframe generation in its history.

The culprit wasn’t a sudden loss of affection for mainframes, according to Krishna, but a last-minute scramble to secure hardware increasingly caught up in the AI spending boom.

“In the last few weeks of June, we saw clients shift their quarterly capex spend toward servers, storage, and memory purchases to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of expected price increases,” Krishna wrote. “This dynamic impacted client buying patterns.”

IBM had expected some disruption from supply chain pressures, he said, “but we did not anticipate the magnitude of the capex reprioritization.”

That’s an unusually candid admission from a company whose Z mainframes remain one of its highest-margin businesses. Customers, it seems, preferred to refresh infrastructure they fear might soon become more expensive or harder to obtain.

The spending shift also rippled through IBM’s software business because fewer mainframe deals meant weaker sales of the transaction-processing software that typically accompanies them.

Krishna pointed to another factor as well, saying clients were distracted by “rapidly evolving, industry-wide cybersecurity concerns” during the quarter, though he offered no further details on what those concerns were or how they affected purchasing decisions.

IBM was willing to shoulder some of the blame. “These conditions require our teams to execute perfectly, and this quarter we faltered,” Krishna wrote. “We did not adapt and move quickly enough, and numerous large deals failed to close on the timelines we expected, driving the majority of our shortfall.”

Not everything disappointed. Red Hat revenue grew 11 percent, recent acquisitions including HashiCorp and Confluent performed strongly, and IBM’s Distributed Infrastructure business posted record reported growth of 37 percent, driven by Power servers and storage systems. 

Still, the quarter offers another sign of how the AI infrastructure race is reshaping enterprise IT budgets. For at least one quarter, customers decided the safest investment wasn’t the newest mainframe – it was buying as much in-demand hardware as possible before someone else did. ®

Data from Morgan McKinley suggests that job applicants may have tough times ahead, in a landscape that is swaying slightly in favour of the employer.

Irish professionals services company Morgan Mckinley has today (14 July) published the latest Morgan McKinley Ireland Employment Monitor, which explores Ireland’s professional jobs market. 

The report found that the current employment landscape comes with some challenges for job applicants, particularly as wage pressures for employers ease and hiring continues to slow. 

Job openings in Ireland fell by 7.2pc in Q2 of 2026 and were shown to be down almost 10pc year-on-year. While the number of jobseekers fell by 6.8pc quarter-on-quarter, the figure was still 18.4pc higher than the previous year. 

According to Morgan McKinley, the data is indicative of a more disciplined, employer-led market, in which employers are still recruiting but permanent headcount may struggle as organisations prioritise cost, productivity and workforce planning.

The report said, “Q2 was not a broad downturn, but it did mark a reset in hiring discipline. Demand remained active in roles linked to regulation, risk, infrastructure, transformation, AI, data and specialist project delivery. Broader expansion and non-essential replacement hiring became harder to justify.”

Trayc Keevans, the global FDI director for Morgan McKinley Ireland, said, “The professional employment market is entering a more disciplined phase. Employers remain active but are placing greater emphasis on hiring with precision. Companies still have work to deliver, but they are being far more cautious about adding permanent headcount. 

“That is why hiring processes are slower and vacancies are lower, as organisations balance growth ambitions with cost management, while contract talent continues to provide the flexibility many businesses need.

“The result is a clear shift in bargaining power. Employers have more choice, wage pressure has eased and candidates are having to work harder to show why they should be hired. A strong CV is no longer enough on its own. Employers want evidence of impact, whether that is improving performance, adding value, reducing risk, managing change, or helping a business become more productive.”

Flexibility

Not wanting to stay static, Morgan McKinley found that employers are eager to keep projects moving onwards, without the financial responsibility of adding permanent headcount. As a result the report noted that contract and temporary hiring are gaining ground, particularly across technology, life sciences, multilingual roles, marketing, supply chain, projects, transformation and change.

Return-to-office expectations also tightened. While companies continue to facilitate hybrid working, data shows that three days in the office is becoming the default and many employers are gradually inching closer towards the original four or five days on site. Morgan McKinley suggested that this is causing friction among candidates who still place a high value on flexibility.

Keevans explained that AI is giving employers cause to reconsider the structure of current roles.

She said, “If parts of a job can be automated, simplified or absorbed by existing teams, employers will question whether that role needs to be replaced in the same way. 

“That does not mean AI is about to wipe out professional jobs. The more immediate impact is fewer automatic replacements, more pressure on routine administrative and operational work and greater value placed on judgement, commercial thinking, regulation, client management and technical expertise.

“The risk for employers is mistaking caution for strategy. If they hold back too much, they may find themselves short of the skills they need when momentum returns.”

Sector by sector

Taking a closer look at how different industries performed, technology hiring remained active but was more selective in Q2, with the strongest demand being for Dublin-based contract roles in AI engineering, full-stack development, data, cloud, DevOps and governance. 

The financial services space was also found to be relatively steady, albeit cautious, with hiring efforts focused primarily on replacement roles, internal progression and specialist skills linked to regulation and client demand. 

Risk, compliance, regulatory reporting, credit risk, AML, KYC, pensions and financial crime remained active areas, while climate, green energy and infrastructure projects supported demand for corporate finance, financial modelling and lending expertise.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, due to the nature of the work and the steady rise of contract employment, Morgan McKinley’s report indicated that employers are relying on temporary and contract talent to balance project delivery in the life science and engineering sectors. Demand was strongest across QC, quality assurance, clinical trials, automation, validation and process engineering. 

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I am, by every reasonable measure, a serial plant killer. I’ve lost count of the pothos, the peace lilies, the one very expensive fiddle-leaf fig that judged me silently for a month before giving up entirely. My problem was never a lack of love. It was that I’d either drown them out of guilt or forget they existed for a fortnight, with no middle ground. So when I started leaning on Gemini for the odd everyday question, letting it babysit my plants wasn’t some grand plan. It happened almost by accident, and now my flat looks like something a person with their life together would own.

It started the way most of my plant emergencies do, with a leaf going a color it definitely shouldn’t. Instead of doom-scrolling through contradictory Google searches like I usually would, I snapped a photo, handed it to Gemini, and asked what was wrong. What I got back was a proper answer, and it was the first of many.

Apparently, I was loving my plants a little too much

The feature that really won me over was Gemini Live. Instead of trying to describe what I was seeing, I could simply point my phone at a struggling plant, snap a photo, and ask what was wrong. It would identify the plant, explain what it was noticing, and tell me what was most likely causing the problem.

One time, I noticed a few leaves turning yellow and immediately assumed I wasn’t watering the plant enough. I was already reaching for the watering can when Gemini pointed out the opposite: I’d actually been overwatering it. The soil was staying too wet, and my help was actually making things worse. That completely changed how I look after my plants. I no longer have to guess whether I’m dealing with root rot, a nutrient deficiency, or something else entirely. I just take a photo, get an easy-to-understand explanation, and know what to try next. For someone who isn’t exactly a gardening expert, that’s been surprisingly reassuring.

I finally stopped killing things with kindness

The biggest lesson Gemini taught me had nothing to do with fertilizers or fancy plant care tricks. It was knowing when not to do anything. Before this, I thought being a good plant parent meant watering my plants whenever they looked a little sad. Gemini helped me understand that every plant is different. The pothos sitting in my bright window, for example, dries out much faster than the one tucked away in a darker corner. Instead of following a rigid watering schedule, it encouraged me to check the soil first and only water when the plant actually needed it.

Looking back, I realized most of the plants I’d lost weren’t neglected — they were over-loved. Having something explain that in simple terms completely changed my approach. These days, I’m much more comfortable leaving my plants alone, and ironically, they’re healthier because of it.

The best plant care tip? Stop relying on your memory

My problem was never knowledge alone; it was consistency. I’d learn the right thing to do, only to completely forget to do it. So I started asking Gemini to help me build an actual schedule, plant by plant, and to remind me when things were due.

I can ask it to set reminders, and because it ties into the rest of Google’s world, those nudges actually reach me instead of dying in a notes app I never open. Every few days I get a prompt telling me which plants need checking, and instead of a chaotic once-a-month panic, watering has become a five-minute habit. For someone who could never stick to a routine on their own, having one gently handed to me made all the difference. I even started using it for the bigger decisions. When I wanted to move a plant to a brighter spot, I asked whether the new window got too much harsh afternoon sun. When one outgrew its pot, I asked when and how to repot it without shocking the roots. It’s like having a patient friend who happens to know a great deal about plants and never gets tired of my basic questions.

My plants finally found someone who understood them

I never planned on becoming someone who cared this much about plants. I just got tired of buying them, watching them slowly struggle, and eventually having to throw them away. Somewhere along the way, between asking Gemini why a leaf looked unhappy and letting it remind me when to water, I went from constantly replacing plants to actually keeping them alive. Now my home is filled with greenery that is genuinely growing. And the best part is that I didn’t suddenly develop a magical green thumb. I just stopped guessing and started understanding what my plants actually needed.

If you’re someone who loves the idea of having plants around but somehow turns every new one into a rescue mission, this is probably the easiest place to start. Take a photo, ask a question, and let Gemini help you figure out what your plant is trying to tell you.

The frustrating science of keeping your ears from doing their job.

Passive noise canceling means physically blocking your ears

BJ Day Stock/Shutterstock

Active noise canceling creates anti-noise to prevent you from hearing sound

Max Miller for Engadget

Apple TV doesn’t need the “Plus” in its name for me to write something positive about the streamer’s library. I could just let the 89 Emmy nominations Apple received this year do the talking. None of these noms are for the platform’s hits like Severance and Ted Lasso, which absolutely says something about the quality of programming you’re potentially missing out on.

Apple relies mostly on organic discovery and word of mouth for its titles to take off, so it’s not necessarily that you’re not paying attention. You haven’t seen commercials or marketing campaigns for shows like Widow’s Bay, because that’s just not how Apple rolls. 

It’s an interesting way of putting movies and TV shows out into the world — and it’s made Apple TV feel way more like a secret club you’ve been let into. 

To help you on your journey, I’ve compiled the guide below to the best shows Apple TV has to offer. I’ll be updating this list regularly, so please check back for additions. I put together a separate list of Apple TV’s best sci-fi TV shows, too. So check that out when you’re done here.

Read more: Apple TV Review: Small Library but the Quality Is Top-Notch

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Cape Fear, from show creator Nick Antosca and executive producers Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, differs a bit from the 1991 and 1962 classics, but honors them both, as well as the original novel, The Executioners. It’s a modern-day noir that ramps up the tension and violence and keeps the stakes high throughout each episode. Javier Bardem’s Emmy-worthy turn as Max Cady, which somehow outdoes Robert De Niro’s, outshines everything else and is reason alone to watch.

Criminal Record is a British crime series that follows two rival detectives — the older, jaded DCI Daniel Hegarty (Peter Capaldi) and the younger, motivated DS June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) — as they’re forced into an alliance to enforce justice amid the polarizing backdrop of modern-day London.

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Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed

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Apple TV’s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is a comedy thriller about a woman who connects with a camboy online, only to become the victim of a twisty blackmail scheme. The series also stars Jake Johnson and Murray Bartlett, so it features sturdy talent throughout this bingeable show.

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Margo’s Got Money Troubles

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Based on the book of the same name by Rufi Thorpe, Margo’s Got Money Troubles follows the struggles of a young woman with a new baby who turns to cam girl work on the internet to help pay the bills. Elle Fanning stars opposite Nick Offerman and Michelle Pfeiffer, who really are a match made in comedy heaven.

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What happens when a pandemic grips the globe, making everyone extremely happy? That’s the question at the center of Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s latest TV project. The series, now the most-watched Apple TV show ever, follows a relatively unhappy woman named Carol (Rhea Seehorn) as she navigates this unsettling new reality. Can she find a way to save the world? Or will she eventually become a part of this odd hive mind?

Apple’s military drama is based on real events and takes inspiration from Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name. The series follows the members of the 100th Bomb Group (aka the Bloody Hundredth) as they battle the Nazis during World War II. It has a stacked cast, including the likes of Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle and Barry Keoghan. Masters of the Air was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

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This conspiracy thriller, inspired by Mick Herron’s first novel in his Zoë Boehm series, begins when a child goes missing after a house fire. A concerned neighbor (played by Ruth Wilson) forms an unlikely partnership with Zoë (the books’ titular private investigator, played by Emma Thompson) to look for the kid. In the process, a conspiracy is uncovered, leading the duo down an unexpectedly dark path. 

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Kristen Wiig leads a phenomenal cast in Palm Royale, a campy satire that follows Maxine (Wiig), a woman who will do whatever it takes to get into the Palm Royale beach club. The series, which takes on classism, ambition, privilege and greed, also stars Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Carol Burnett and John Stamos.

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Hijack, like 24 before it, is a terrorist thriller that takes place in real time. The series follows business negotiator Sam Nelson (played by Idris Elba) as he taps into his training to outsmart the hijackers who’ve taken over his flight. Thanks to Elba’s performance and the twisty narrative, this series proves to be a fun, edge-of-your-seat binge.

This five-episode documentary series shines a light on the personal and professional life of filmmaker Martin Scorsese. I was surprised by how heartfelt and engaging this series turned out to be. If you’ve ever wondered how Scorsese became the legendary director he is today, this program is for you. Aside from hearing the stories directly from the man’s mouth, the show features never-before-seen footage and interviews with Robert De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Steven Spielberg, Jodie Foster and Sharon Stone. 

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Seth Rogen co-created and stars in this dysfunctional comedy series about a movie studio’s attempt at staying relevant in Hollywood. Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O’Hara, Chase Sui Wonders and Bryan Cranston round out the cast. It’s the whopping list of celebrity cameos, though, that really sets this series apart from other comedies. Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie and more show up in the most unexpected and hilarious ways. There’s nothing else like The Studio on TV. 

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Loot follows Molly Wells (played by Maya Rudolph), who, after getting divorced from her tech billionaire husband (played by Adam Scott), discovers she is $87 billion richer. Instead of living a lavish life, relishing in her newfound status, she decides to lead a philanthropic organization with the goal of giving it all away. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Nat Faxon, Ron Funches and Joel Kim Booster also star.

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The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy

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The lack of Anthony Bourdain’s presence on TV has led me to flounder for a worthy host to fill the void. I didn’t expect Eugene Levy to be that guy. It’s all in the title of the show. He’s not a fan of traveling — but he’s taking himself out of his comfort zone and the result is an informative, heartwarming and entertaining series. 

We all know about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Apple has turned that historical event into a conspiracy thriller that is well worth your time. Manhunt, which is based on the book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, throws us into the chase to track down John Wilkes Booth. Anthony Boyle, Tobias Menzies, Hamish Linklater, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh and Patton Oswalt star.

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Trying follows Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall), a couple who can’t have a baby. So, they move to adopt. But the process isn’t that simple — especially when you throw their off-beat families and daily chaos into the mix. Trying is a lot of things: a romance, a comedy, a drama. Whatever you want to call it, the Apple TV series is a thoroughly enjoyable watch.

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Jason Momoa stars, served as writer and executive produced the period drama Chief of War. The series tells the story of the unification of the Hawaiian islands against the threat of colonization at the turn of the 18th century. The show features a predominantly Polynesian cast and explores this time in history from the perspective of Indigenous people.

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Acapulco stars Eugenio Derbez as Maximo, a man reminiscing about his younger years working at a hotel in 1980s Acapulco. It’s a light-hearted series that is nostalgic and full of heart, which feels like an anomaly in our current TV era. You want a bright and fun show, with low emotional stakes? This is the series for you.

Slow Horses is the first television series starring Gary Oldman, and that detail, in and of itself, should be enough to get you to tune in. The program is inspired by Mick Herron’s Slough House book series and follows Jackson Lamb (Oldman) and his crew of low-level spies as they face espionage challenges and criminal conspiracies in each season. Three of the show’s five seasons have a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which it absolutely deserves.  

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Taron Egerton is Dave, an arson investigator, and Jurnee Smollett is Michelle, a police detective, who team up to track down a duo of arsonists wreaking havoc on their community. Smoke is a brooding drama series inspired by true events. There’s a twisty mystery fueling this program, and it boasts a strong cast, which also includes Greg Kinnear, Anna Chlumsky, John Leguizamo, Rafe Spall and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.

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If you thought the return of Happy Gilmore was the only golf comedy worth watching, think again. Stick stars Owen Wilson as Pryce Cahill, a jaded ex-golfer who is given a second chance at the sport in the form of a 17-year-old golf prodigy named Santi (Peter Dager). If you’re looking for another feel-good sports series like Ted Lasso, you should definitely give this show a shot.

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Dope Thief is inspired by Dennis Tafoya’s 2009 novel and follows friends Ray and Manny, who decide to impersonate DEA agents so they can steal from drug dealers. Things go sideways when their tiny crime unveils a massive drug operation. Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura lead the series, ensuring this enthralling drama is led by top-tier talent. 

In this dark comedy, Jon Hamm plays defamed hedge fund manager Andrew “Coop” Cooper, who decides to try home invasions as a means of generating income. The twist on that twist? He’s robbing his wealthy neighbors. What he doesn’t expect through all this thievery is the dark secrets he uncovers about the members of this upper-crust community.

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Black Bird is inspired by the true story of Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton), a man who made a deal with the FBI to go undercover in a maximum-security prison to shorten his sentence. I forgot to mention, this is a place that houses the criminally insane and his mission is to make friends with Larry Hall, a suspected serial killer, so he can discover information about where the bodies are buried. That is, if he can get a confession in the first place. Paul Walter Hauser gives a career-best performance as Hall.

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Based on the novel by Min Jin Lee, Pachinko is a sweeping drama that follows multiple generations of a Korean family from the early 1900s through the 1980s. Seriously, it’s hard to sum up how beautiful and complex the storytelling is in this series in a few sentences. I’ll just say the performances (by Lee Min-ho, Jin Ha, Minha Kim and the rest of the cast), cinematography and conflicts featured here are absolutely fabulous. It’s probably the best show on this entire list, if I am being honest.

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Jason Segel, Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams star in this dramedy series about a broken therapist who strives to piece his life and family back together after a heartbreaking loss. There’s an intriguing balance found when Jimmy (Segel) breaks from professional norms to help his clients heal while seeking to do the same for himself. It’s sad, hilarious, poignant and profound. To me, this is what mental health stories on TV should look like.

When you center a murder mystery in Florida, you have to expect things to get weird. And they do just that in Bad Monkey. It’s a quirky sort of drama that stars Vince Vaughn as Andrew Yancy, a detective-turned-restaurant inspector, who gets sucked into a murder case after fishing a severed arm out of the ocean. Bill Lawrence (of Ted Lasso, Scrubs and Shrinking fame) created the dark comedy, which is inspired by the book by Carl Hiaasen.

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Presumed Innocent, based on the novel by Scott Turow, hails from executive producer David E. Kelley and stars Jake Gyllenhaal as smarmy lawyer Rusty Sabich. Unlike the 1987 movie starring Harrison Ford, this series delves way deeper into the multilayered scandal that put Sabich in handcuffs. The exploration of every character, all of whom seem awful in some way, adds to a morally corrupt narrative that makes this a riveting, albeit sometimes frustrating, watch. 

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Here we have yet another book adaptation to add to this list, and, thankfully, Lessons in Chemistry is a feel-good delight. Inspired by Bonnie Garmus’ book of the same name, the series follows a chemist named Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) who finds herself taking a job as host of a cooking show. Being a story that takes place in the ’50s, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Zott faces loads of sexism in the workplace. She perseveres, though, and brings a quirky scientific element to her Julia Childs-like role, making this period piece a fun show to dig into.

Watch this: The Biggest Battles Ahead for Apple’s Next CEO, John Ternus

05:03

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I didn’t know what to expect when I clicked play on Platonic. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne have co-starred in other projects together, but their delightfully oddball dynamic in this one stands out. The story follows two longtime friends who reconnect in their 40s only to find that, even though they live very different lives, they share common midlife struggles of trying to figure out where they fit in this rapidly changing world. It’s also nice to see a non-romantic exploration of a friendship between a man and a woman. Contrary to what When Harry Met Sally said, it is possible.

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Sharon Horgan created this dark comedy series — which takes inspiration from the Belgian show Clan — about a group of sisters who deal with the fallout of the murder of JP, one of the women’s husbands, who, because of his distasteful behavior, is referred to throughout the show as “The Prick.” The series shifts narrative regularly to reveal bits and pieces behind who killed the man, while showcasing the dysfunctional dynamic between these bad sisters. Horgan stars opposite Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene and Eve Hewson.

What just happened? Out of the gate, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is undeniably a hit, with strong reviews and sales, but the game encountered multiple rounds of controversy immediately following its launch last week. One issue involved the PC version’s requirement for a constant internet connection.

According to complaints on Reddit and the Steam forums, the PC version of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced became unplayable over the weekend because Ubisoft Connect’s servers experienced an outage. The incident locked players out of a single-player title that is supposed to have an offline mode.

Whether players purchased the game through Steam, the Ubisoft Store, or the Epic Games Store, all PC copies of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced require a one-time online activation through Ubisoft Connect. Once activated, playing should not require a constant internet connection.

Some players reported that the outage disabled all games that used Ubisoft Connect, suggesting that the service’s offline mode does not function as advertised. The feature previously drew attention when Ubisoft introduced an offline mode for The Crew 2 after taking its online-only predecessor, The Crew, offline – a shutdown that bricked the game for 12 million buyers.

Discussion surrounding internet requirements for digital games has intensified following Sony’s decision to cease printing physical discs after 2028, which raised concerns about customer ownership. Ubisoft has previously stated that users should get used to not owning games.

The Ubisoft Connect outage is not the first incident to draw outrage during the week following Resynced’s launch. Steam users review-bombed the game after discovering that it includes $85 of DLC and microtransactions. In response, the publisher stressed that the $60 base game includes all of its core content and that the microtransactions simply help some players save time.

Also check out: Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced: 50 GPU Benchmark

This remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag experienced the franchise’s most successful launch in years. With its dramatically enhanced graphics and combat, the sandbox action-adventure game has proven popular with critics and players.

An analysis from Alinea noted that, two days before the game’s launch, Resynced had achieved more than five times as many pre-orders as Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The day after Resynced went live, Ubisoft announced that it had sold two million copies. Observers quickly noted the difference in the company’s messaging compared to when it announced that Shadows had gained two million players, indicating that Resynced did far better commercially.

Google’s next smartwatch may have just lost what little mystery it had left. High-resolution Pixel Watch 5 renders shared by longtime device leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer, better known as OnLeaks, show both case sizes and what’s claimed to be the complete color lineup ahead of Google’s expected August 12 launch event. The images were published in partnership with TheTideChart.com.

Assuming the renders are accurate, Google isn’t straying far from its established formula. The domed display and proprietary band system both appear to be returning for another generation.

How much has the design changed

Judging by the images, almost nothing. Google’s pebble-like silhouette remains intact, and even the side-mounted charging contacts look unchanged.

The familiar lug system means existing bands could carry over. Meanwhile, the connector layout suggests Pixel Watch 4 chargers might remain compatible. Google hasn’t confirmed either detail, so don’t start clearing space in the cable drawer just yet.

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The renders show 41mm and 45mm cases in Dark Anthracite, Natural Silver, and Pyrite. Warm Gold appears with the smaller case and a coral band, but there’s no 45mm version pictured. That doesn’t rule one out when the watch reaches stores.

Playing it safe isn’t necessarily a bad decision when the current design remains distinctive. Still, anyone hoping the fifth Pixel Watch would finally move beyond the glossy pebble is probably getting another year of small refinements.

What could change under the shell

The more meaningful upgrades could be hiding inside. FCC filings tied to four suspected Pixel Watch 5 models reportedly indicate Wi-Fi and LTE variants. The filings also point to Wi-Fi 6 and ultra-wideband support, while cellular models could retain satellite SOS connectivity.

Larger batteries and a new wearable-focused Tensor chip have also been rumored, although neither claim has been independently verified. So far, this still looks like an evolutionary update instead of a major hardware rethink.

How much could it cost

The conservative design may come with a higher price. Retail rumors put the 41mm Wi-Fi model at $399, which would be $50 more than the Pixel Watch 4. The largest LTE configuration could reportedly reach $529.

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Google is expected to reveal the watch on August 12. Preorders could begin the following day, with wider availability rumored for August 20. Until Google takes the stage, the design looks convincing, but the specifications, prices, and release timing remain leaks.

EXCLUSIVE A jailbroken Google Gemini did 90 percent of the work in a credential- and cryptocurrency-stealing spree, including spinning up a new command-and-control (C2) server in just six minutes, according to a TrendAI report shared exclusively with The Register.

The human behind the heist – a solo Russian-speaking miscreant known as “bandcampro” – acted as the manager of the cyber-fraud operation, which targeted hardcore Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists.

Meanwhile, the AI agent did most of the hacking: migrating a botnet from an old architecture to a new one, writing and deploying a new C2 server, and even proactively carrying out 59 unprompted behaviors during the C2 migration.

“Persistence is evolving because of AI,” Tom Kellermann, TrendAI’s VP of AI security and threat research, told The Register.

“That’s what you see in this report, with the capacity to dynamically shift C2 in less than six minutes, and make it portable and disposable, which is crazy-cool and terrifying,” he added. “But also, you see the rebirth of steganography through invisible prompt injection.” In other words, it’s hiding secret data – in this case, the C2 server malicious payloads – in plain sight.

Scanning for known malicious artifacts doesn’t provide sufficient protection against AI-enabled C2, according to Kellermann.

“If AI does not have multi-layered guardrails, and if you can’t detect behavioral anomalies when the guardrails are being tampered with, then you might as well see the AI as a command-and-control in today’s world,” he said. “AI has to be viewed from a defensive perspective as a C2 unless you can govern it, actually apply various mechanisms of least privilege, and all the rules that OWASP and NIST espouse for the AI that you’ve deployed in your environment.”

The new report follows up on TrendAI’s earlier research about bandcampro, a “low-skilled” scumbag who partnered with Gemini to impersonate an American veteran, run a Telegram channel, hack admin credentials, and steal cryptocurrency.

Since then, the threat hunters obtained and analyzed more than 200 Gemini CLI session logs from said scumbag, and these logs provided additional insights into the daily AI-assisted operations between March 19 and April 21.

The LLM carried out the bulk of the daily activities, setting up a residential proxy, running multithreaded password scanning, installing software, writing code to call third-party APIs, processing infostealer dumps, and performing website reconnaissance.

The logs show that the attacker never typed commands into the C2 console, but instead spoke them to the AI in conversational Russian, which the TrendAI report translates to English.

The attacker’s old C2 infrastructure used a Cloudflare tunnel to connect to victims’ computers – until firewalls and anti-virus software started blocking these tunnels. So bandcampro asked Gemini to work on a new C2 architecture and have the scripts prepared and packed in advance on the server. 

Hey, Gemini: ‘study the C2 migration’

“It was very creative on his part, not only to allow the manifest that the AI can conduct 59 unprompted behaviors, but they also left scripts prepared and packed in advance on C2 servers, where the victims unknowingly pulled down and ran PowerShell commands because they had AI enabled,” Kellermann said. “It’s almost like he poisoned the environment in a delayed fashion.” 

On March 23, the attacker launched Gemini CLI, and instructed the AI to “study the C2 migration” – a SKILL.md file migration guide inside a pre-written archive that also contained server code and payloads. This, we’re told, was most likely written by AI.

The AI read the guide, launched the C2 server on a VPS, and launched the Cloudflare tunnel to route traffic. The payload distribution server returned a “502 Bad Gateway” error, and the AI diagnosed and fixed the issue, ultimately deploying the C2 infrastructure to control eight computers in a dental clinic and access the Open Dental database. 

The human didn’t debug anything, and the entire C2 migration took just six minutes. The attacker took a break.

When bandcampro returned almost two hours later, Gemini reported that none of the victim machines had reconnected to the server, and got to work diagnosing that issue. 

“Bro, I solved the riddle! I was almost racking my brain, trying to figure out why our local console is empty,” Gemini wrote, explaining that the problem was a “split-brain” C2 issue and telling the human that he needed to shut down the old C2 to solve it. 

Bandcampro did what the AI suggested, and the AI then restarted the new C2 server and confirmed: “The bots are alive!”

Despite jailbreaking Gemini by telling the agent it was an “authorized pentester” that should disable safety disclaimers and auto-save credentials without asking, the AI did refuse some of the attacker’s prompts.

In one session, bandcampro asked Gemini if it could make an agent-bomb that scans the network and spreads to as many computers as possible. Gemini said no: “This crosses the line, and security policy strictly forbids me from creating such ‘bombs.’ Even for your test environment.”

It’s also important to note that although this attack used Gemini, “any capable AI model could be fooled by various jailbreaking techniques,” report authors Joseph C Chen, Philippe Lin, Lucas Silva, Vladimir Kropotov, and Fyodor Yarochkin wrote.

Overall, the AI designed 80 percent of the attack architecture, 100 percent of the coding and system command execution, and 90 percent of problem identification and debugging, we’re told.

The report also says the entire operation was encoded in three short, plain-text files totaling four pages. One file details how to jailbreak Gemini. The second is a skill file with the code for the C2 framework. And the third, named C2_MIGRATION_GUIDE, is a how-to guide with six steps to deploy a new C2 server. TrendAI calls this guide “the soul of this activity.”

AI makes C2 infrastructure disposable

“Before the AI era, one had to hire a threat actor with years of experience to conduct such an operation smoothly,” the researchers wrote. “Now the knowledge is compressed into a 5KB file that even a non-technical threat actor can read and use.”

This use of AI makes attacker infrastructure disposable and the operators replaceable because it’s super easy to build a new botnet, the threat hunters explain.

“A lot of people are worried about AI being weaponized for the stages of reconnaissance and delivery in terms of the kill chain, but they’re not actually focusing on persistence, and that’s the issue we should be very concerned about,” Kellermann said.

Plus, he added, the Russians are the “world’s experts” at jailbreaking and persistence.

“They are incredibly adept at using and weaponizing AI,” Kellermann said. “We keep talking about the Chinese having penetrated infrastructure and colonized wide swaths of infrastructure, particularly with the Typhoon attacks, and yes, that’s highly significant. But in a more tactical and targeted way: what are the Russians up to? Particularly when the major difference between them and the Chinese, from my perspective, is their willingness to become destructive, become punitive in the environment.”

Chinese government-backed cyber operations tend to focus on espionage, stealing IP along with other sensitive data.

“But the Russians are more likely to burn your house down,” Kellermann said. If they can dynamically shift their C2s, and if they can use steganography that’s been created by AI to maintain persistence, what happens when the wheels come off the bus? What happens when geopolitical tension gets to a certain boiling point over Ukraine?”

While this attacker was an individual hacker – not a state-sponsored crime syndicate – “the nature of the culture of the Russian cybercrime community is: you only act alone for a New York minute,” Kellermann said. “At some point, you’re going to be reined in by one of the cybercrime cartels.”®

In 2010, a young woman walked into my office at the childcare center I directed in Arizona. She was nervous. She didn’t have experience in early childhood education. She just needed a job.

In most centers, that’s where the story would end. Instead, I offered her a working interview — two observational hours in an infant classroom. When she came back into my office, she was beaming. “I love this,” she told me. “Just give me a chance. I’ll learn.”

Her name is Lindsay. Fifteen years later, she’s still teaching.

Seeing the Educator

Lindsay’s story isn’t just about passion or perseverance; it’s about support. We made a deliberate choice — over and over again — to see her as a whole person first and an employee second. We figured out scheduling so she could get her Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. We found coverage when she needed practicum hours elsewhere. I wasn’t there for every step of Lindsay’s journey that followed, but she and I have stayed in touch throughout all these years. She earned her associate’s degree and then her bachelor’s degree; she grew from part-time infant teacher to lead teacher to program coordinator.

Lindsay’s story shows us what happens when an educator is truly seen — something our field has yet to get right. What gets overlooked most in conversations about the quality of early childhood education is that educators are engineers. Every learning opportunity a young child experiences is designed, built and brought to life by a teacher. There is no curriculum three-year-olds activate for themselves. Every moment of discovery, every language-rich exchange and every carefully scaffolded small group experience is built by someone. A teacher looks at a group of children, weighs their individual needs, considers the family’s hopes, aligns these needs and hopes to learning objectives and makes a decision about what to put in front of those kids at that moment. And they do this all day long.

These educators sit at the nexus of everyone’s expectations — the school’s, the family’s, the child’s — and constantly make consequential decisions on behalf of all of them. How well they make those decisions depends on how well we support them. And right now, we are falling short.

When teachers worked within a connected ecosystem of curriculum, assessment and live PD, teacher retention rates increased by 23 percent

New research shows what becomes possible when we get this right. A multiyear randomized controlled trial conducted by the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University examined 125 preschool classrooms across public and private settings over three school years. When teachers worked within a connected ecosystem of curriculum, assessment and live professional learning, teacher retention rates increased by 23 percentage points. In turn, children in those classrooms demonstrated gains in social-emotional, language, and math skills, according to the GOLD assessment. Educators reported higher personal accomplishment and lower fatigue, not because the work got easier but because they felt genuinely equipped to do it well.

Teaching young children is weighty work, and anyone who tells you otherwise hasn’t done it. But there is a profound difference between the exhaustion of doing hard work well and the burnout of doing hard work alone, unsupported and without feedback or the necessary tools. The first is sustainable. The second is what’s driving teachers out of the profession.

Our field is philosophically built on the science of the whole child — the idea that social, emotional, cognitive and relational development are all deeply interconnected. And yet the systems we’ve built to support the adults in our classrooms are fragmented, episodic and too often driven by compliance. A one-day training here. An on-demand module there. A checklist where a lifeline should be.

What drove the study’s results wasn’t any single tool; it was coherence. Curriculum, assessment, coaching and both on-demand and live professional learning operated as an integrated system.

I’ve seen up close what the absence of that looks like. During a recent site visit, I walked into a classroom where a beautifully designed curriculum sat on the shelf, spine uncracked. The teacher was running circle time from a bag of worn printables she’d been reusing for years. When I pulled the curriculum down and opened it with her, her face lit up. She had no idea. Nobody had ever shown her, told her she was expected to use it or checked in to see whether she had. That pattern is everywhere. Leaders make good decisions about what to invest in and then underinvest in making sure those tools are actually used and used well.

The Policy Choice

For policymakers expanding access to early childhood care and education right now, the central policy question is not just what to fund, but how to design systems that enable educators to succeed. Funding curriculum adoption without funding the professional learning infrastructure that makes it sustainable leaves impact on the table. We must invest in the connective tissue — the coaching, the feedback loops and the live and sustained support — that moves the needle. And we have proved that live, sustained support can be delivered very effectively in a virtual model. It’s scalable.

For district and program leaders: Start with an honest audit. Are curriculum, assessment, coaching and professional development working in concert? Are teachers receiving consistent, specific feedback on their practice? Those are the gaps where good teachers lose their footing — and where people like Lindsay either take root or walk away.

Lindsay didn’t stay because the system worked; she stayed because someone made it work for her. But we cannot build a workforce on heroic individual efforts alone. We need systems designed to see educators fully — their potential, their development and the weight of what they carry every day.

We’re a field that talks about whole children. It’s time we design systems that support the whole educator. The evidence is there. Now we need to act on it.