In an unexpected twist, humans have taken some jobs back from AI. Embark Studios’ CEO Patrick Söderlund recently told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio “re-recorded” some of the AI-generated voice lines in Arc Raiders with human voices, only after its successful launch in October.

“There is a quality difference,” Söderlund told GamesIndustry.biz. “A real professional actor is better than AI; that’s just how it is.”

With Arc Raiders’ player count peaking at nearly half a million users on Steam, the game’s breakout success was still marred by its use of text-to-speech AI. While there was no generative AI used for the visuals of the extraction shooter, Embark Studios paid its actors for approval to license their voices for text-to-speech AI, according to Söderlund. Even though Söderlund said that the text-to-speech AI was reserved for lines “that aren’t as essential to the immersion of the experience,” many players weren’t happy with this creative decision.

Responding to the criticism, Embark Studios is seemingly reversing course and relying more on its voice actors. Söderlund said that the studio pays its voice actors for their time in the recording booth and will “continue to bring many of them back as we carry on updating the game.” However, it’s important to note that Söderlund told GamesIndustry.biz that “some” of the AI-generated lines were replaced by voice actors, which could indicate that the studio isn’t looking to completely ditch its text-to-speech AI anytime soon.

• Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth pushes external GPU hardware closer to workstation territory
• Local AI inference gains attention as cloud costs continue rising
• Developers increasingly explore running language models directly on personal hardware

External GPU enclosures have existed for some time – typically associated with gaming laptops and graphics acceleration tasks that exceed the capabilities of mobile processors.

Plugable’s newly released TBT5-AI belongs to this category, but introduces a design focused on connecting desktop graphics hardware to laptops for local AI workloads.

From the first foldables to the latest and greatest options in the market, from stalwarts like Samsung and Honor, there’s one consistent issue that manufacturers can’t seem to overcome: the crease.

It makes sense when you think about it; when you fold something, it deforms, and a crease appears. It’s just physics. But for some reason, we’re expecting manufacturers to somehow overcome the most fundamental of things – though, to be fair, they’ve been doing a pretty good job at it.

Compared to the grand canyon of a crease that was present on Samsung’s first Fold back in 2019, the crease on modern phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Honor’s new Magic V6 is negligible. You can barely see them head-on, and compared to flip-style foldables with a horizontal crease, the vertical crease in the middle of the screen means you rarely actually touch it.

But it’s when you inevitably have to tap or swipe around the area of the crease that it becomes more apparent – as well as trying to look at the screen side-on, thanks to the overly reflective plastic screens foldables employ. 

For phones whose entire schtick is focused around the big internal screen, it’s a compromise that many smartphone fans simply can’t get over – and I get it. It is a compromise on a phone that can cost easily double that of a pretty solid bar-style flagship like the Pixel 10. 

However, with the upcoming Oppo Find N6, the company has managed the impossible; all but erased the crease. 

Oppo has done the impossible with industry-first techniques

So, how has Oppo seemingly done the impossible? It all starts with the hinge – and an all-new manufacturing process Oppo has cooked up. 

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Rather than just stamping out parts and calling it a day, Oppo laser-scans every hinge component to build an ultra-precise digital model, then uses a new 3D liquid printing process to smooth out microscopic imperfections. Tiny droplets of photopolymer resin are placed exactly where they’re needed, filling in gaps and irregularities before being instantly hardened with UV light.

The end result is a hinge structure that’s far smoother and more consistent than traditional stamped or machined hardware, which in turn helps the inner display sit flatter when you open it up. In fact, Oppo claims that the dip is just 0.05mm deep – thinner than a human hair – compared to the 0.2mm variation found in foldables from Samsung and Honor. 

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The hardware itself has had an upgrade too. The hinge and its wing plates are now made from Grade-5 titanium alloy, making them lighter and stronger than the stainless steel used by many rivals, and allowing Oppo to use a wider waterdrop-style fold. 

That wider folding area reduces the pressure on the panel every time you close the phone, which is one of the main reasons creases form in the first place. There’s also an updated carbon fibre support plate beneath the screen to keep everything rigid without adding weight.

The display itself has also had an upgrade, with a new Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass layer that replaces the ultra-thin glass (UTG) used in most other foldables right now. It’s 50% thicker than typical UTG, which gives it greater elasticity and makes it much more eager to spring back to its original shape after being bent. 

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That’s key for combating what Oppo engineers call “creep” – a slow shifting of internal layers that can deepen a crease over thousands of folds.

According to Oppo, this combination of titanium hinge, carbon fibre support and Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass delivers an 82% reduction in long-term crease depth compared to last year’s Find N5, and says the N6’s display remained essentially flat, with no visible crease, even after more than 600,000 folds, with the ability to survive up to 1 million folds.

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More impressively, Oppo claims that after 200k folds, the crease measured just 11μm, compared to 72μm on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and 127μm on the Honor Magic V5, proving just how effective it is compared to some of the best foldables around in 2026. 

It’s still there, but you really need to look for it

That’s a very fancy way of saying the Find N6’s internal foldable screen has practically no crease – and having used the phone for the past few weeks, I can confirm that’s largely the case.

If you really go hunting for it, the signs are still there. Angle the screen just right towards a light source and you’ll spot a subtle distortion along the middle – though only when the screen’s off – and a finger run across the hinge reveals a slight indentation.

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But when I say slight, I really do mean slight. It’s almost imperceptible, and in day-to-day use I simply don’t notice it – aside from the odd moment when I’m actively marvelling at its absence. It has massively boosted my enjoyment of the internal panel as a result.

It really is as close to a crease-free experience as we’ve seen from any manufacturer so far, and it makes the usual foldable trade-off feel far less like a compromise. I’d be surprised if Apple’s first foldable, due later in 2026, can meaningfully beat what Oppo has managed here.

Much more to come next week

Of course, there’s much more to Oppo’s latest flagship foldable than just its disappearing crease, and you might’ve noticed a distinct lack of specs throughout this article – that’s very much on purpose.

Despite having had it in my pocket for the past couple of weeks, I can’t say much more about the Oppo Find N6 until the phone is officially unveiled at its launch event in China on 17 March, but it’s safe to say it’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting foldable launches of 2026.

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The big question now is whether the Oppo Find N6 will actually get a global release; the Find N5 was limited to select Asian markets like Singapore, Malaysia and China, after all. If Oppo does go wider this time, it could genuinely threaten the dominance of Samsung and Honor in the foldable space – but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

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Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle isn’t easy, but I got a kick out of the wordplay in the purple group. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Critters in a crowd.

Green group hint: Not fast.

Blue group hint: Silent letter.

Purple group hint: States, but shorter.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Animal group names.

Green group: Things associated with being slow.

Blue group: Silent “w.”

Purple group: Words that sound like state abbreviations.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is animal group names. The four answers are gaggle, pack, pod and pride.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is things associated with being slow. The four answers are glacier, molasses, sloth and traffic.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is silent “w.” The four answers are Cartwright, two, wrath and wrestle.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is words that sound like state abbreviations. The four answers are any (NE), Emmy (ME), envy (NV) and okay (OK).

The Oscars remain the ultimate prize in Hollywood. It’s the award Leonardo DiCaprio chased for decades before finally winning, the stage where Matthew McConaughey’s heartfelt “three things every day” speech moved audiences around the world, and the moment where stars, both new and established, find true validation. And in 2026, the competition for the golden statuette looks fiercer than ever.

Leading the battle are the Best Actor nominees, including Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, who has perhaps been the most vocal about his chase for greatness. But he faces some formidable competition, including Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another and Michael B. Jordan for Sinners.

Security cameras flood store shelves, but good 4K options are few and far between, especially if you’re on a tight budget. Wyze changed that with the Cam Pan v4, priced at $46 (was $60), the first of their cameras to record in Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 quality). This update makes a significant impact; the footage is significantly crisper than what you get with most inexpensive pans. Zooming in on details such as a face or a license plate creates a completely different image. That is especially true in retrospect.

Full 360-degree pan and 180-degree vertical tilt allow you to capture the entire room or a huge outdoor area in one image, whether inside or out. You can operate it all from the Wyze app, configure it to sweep around automatically, or track any movement that occurs. An enhanced CPU with its own AI technology makes following people, pets, cars, and other objects appear silky smooth and decreases the quantity of information that slips through the net.

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Color night vision is a big plus in low-light situations, as it converts to IR and goes black and white when necessary, but a built-in spotlight kicks in to provide some color detail if something gets close, with a brightness of up to 60 lumens. The footage stays clear at night, allowing you to see what’s going on without being washed out.

Both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi networks are supported (including Wi-Fi 6, which provides a more robust connection over longer distances). The app makes setup simple, and it works as well indoors and outdoors, thanks to its robust IP65 weather rating. It has a plug-in power supply and no battery, which is good and straightforward.

Storage is also reasonably priced, since you can simply insert a microSD card for continuous recording or event footage without incurring any monthly fees. If you wish to store it in the cloud, that is also an option. You also receive two-way audio (with a built-in speaker and microphone) and a 100dB siren in case you need to alert unwelcome visitors.

The video quality runs at 20 frames per second during the day and 15 at night, which reduces file size while maintaining smooth action. Digital zoom can reach up to 8x, allowing you to zoom in on distant features without sacrificing too much quality in 4K. At a time when most inexpensive security cameras still use 1080p, the Wyze Cam Pan v4 is quietly raising the bar for everyday security.

Starbucks has disclosed a data breach affecting hundreds of employees after threat actors gained access to their Starbucks Partner Central accounts.

As the world’s largest coffeehouse chain, Starbucks has over 380,000 employees (also known as partners) and operates nearly 41,000 locations across 88 countries.

In data breach notification letters filed with Maine’s Attorney General and sent to affected employees on Tuesday, the company says that it discovered the incident on February 6.

A joint investigation with external cybersecurity experts found that the attackers compromised 889 Starbucks Partner Central accounts used to manage employment details, personal information, benefits, and HR information.

Starbucks said the threat actors had access to affected individuals’ accounts between January 19 and February 11, but didn’t explain why it took five days to remove them from its systems.

“On or about February 6, 2026, Starbucks Corporation (‘Starbucks’ or ‘we’) became aware of potential unauthorized access to certain Starbucks Partner Central accounts,” the company said. “The investigation has determined that an unauthorized third party accessed certain Starbucks Partner Central accounts after obtaining the login credentials through websites impersonating Partner Central.”

The personal information exposed in the incident includes employees’ names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and financial account and routing numbers.

Starbucks notified law enforcement agencies after discovering the breach and advised employees to monitor their bank accounts for suspicious activity that could indicate fraud or identity theft. The company is also providing impacted partners with two years of free identity theft protection and credit monitoring service through Experian IdentityWorks.

“Upon learning of the incident, we took prompt steps to investigate the nature and scope of the incident and respond to it,” Starbucks added. “We also notified law enforcement and took measures to further strengthen security controls related to access to Starbucks Partner Central accounts.”

A Starbucks spokesperson also told BleepingComputer, after the article was published, that the data breach doesn’t affect customers.

“We recently identified that a limited number of retail partners had inadvertently interacted with deceptive websites impersonating an employee-facing site. This allowed an unauthorized third-party to access certain partner accounts,” the spokesperson said. “We quickly resolved the issue, notified affected partners, and operations have since returned to normal. There’s no impact on customers’ data.”

Starbucks’ Singapore division also confirmed a data breach affecting over 219,000 customers in September 2022, after a threat actor compromised the systems of a third-party vendor that stored the affected customers’ data.

The coffee chain was also hit by the aftermath of a Termite ransomware attack that affected Blue Yonder (Starbucks’ supply chain software provider) in November 2024.

Update March 13, 13:34 EDT: Added Starbucks statement.

Malware is getting smarter. The Red Report 2026 reveals how new threats use math to detect sandboxes and hide in plain sight.

Download our analysis of 1.1 million malicious samples to uncover the top 10 techniques and see if your security stack is blinded.

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