After several months of teasing, Sony has decided to fill us in a bit more information about its upcoming True RGB TV.

Although only a little bit more.

We still don’t have an idea of what the TV looks like (but we assume it’ll look like any other Sony TV), and there’s no word on pricing yet, but we do know they’ll be multiple TVs as the press alert refers to “Bravia TVs”. And on top of that you won’t have too long to wait. They’re set for release this spring.

Decades in the making

This latst release provides a nugget of more information, just a few days after Sony and TCL came to an agreement over the new TV venture they’ve established together that’s rather nicely called Bravia Inc.

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Sony comments that its True RGB technology intends to set a new benchmark for RGB LED picture performance. Unlike conventional approaches to the technology, True RGB is said to use independently controlled red, gree, and blue light sources (diodes) that can apparently deliver “purer colour, greater brightness, and the largest colour volume ever achieved in Sony’s home TV history”

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Sony introduces Sony’s proprietary “True RGB” technology – the naming convention behind the breakthrough display technology powering upcoming Sony’s True RGB televisions and setting a new benchmark for RGB LED picture performance. By combining the individual RGB LEDs with the strengths of both Mini LED and OLED into one TV, we’re potentially looking at the ultimate TV viewing experience.

Sony’s hope with its True RGB technology is that picture quality looks more natural, more three dimensional, and more accurate, whether you’re viewing in a bright living room or otherwise.

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What makes Sony’s True RGB tick is the “proprietary optical structure and precision backlight control” that’s driven by a new RGB backlight driver. You can add “faithful colour reproduction from wider viewing angles” to the list of plusses that Sony’s True RGB backlight is bringing to the table.

Sony says that its True RGB is the culmination of more than 20 years of its “innovation in LED control”, fomr the first RGB light sources introduced in the QUALIA 005 in 2004, through to the flagship and much praised Backlight Master Drive that launched in 2016.

Similar to how James Bond will Return, additional details will be shared in the “near future”. Trusted Reviews has been invited to a Sony Home Cinema event in May. It’s looking likely that we’ll be seeing the future of Sony’s TVs there and then. Will it be a brighter and colourful one?

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Product designer Matty Benedetto discovered some clips of passengers stranded in airport security lines and clogged airport terminals. He determined that his next trip needed to be less of a nightmare, so he set out to design a carry-on suitcase that would make the entire experience a little less stressful. More specifically, he decided to create one from scratch using his 3D printers.

He tailored the dimensions of his carry-on to normal sizes so that it would pass through security inspections without a second thought. Then he divided the bag’s main body into two parts with overlapping edges to provide strength, and printed a few test copies with some colorful leftover filament to check how the pieces fit together. Putting it all together was like snapping a load of large plastic bricks into place, except he added metal hinges for the lid and a telescoping handle constructed from off-the-shelf components. During a print halt, ball bearings were inserted into the wheels to ensure that they roll smoothly without the need for any additional equipment.

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After determining the basic shape, he went on to the details that would make a long wait more bearable. A flat panel folds out from the front and includes a little latch to secure it in place, allowing you to prop up your laptop during a layover. A MagSafe mount appears next to it to hold your phone, allowing you to watch shows or check your messages without taking your hands off the wheel. When you’re stuck waiting for a delayed flight, it’s usually a good idea to have some food with you, so he included a little jar that twists open easily from the side, allowing you to access your goodies without having to unzip the main zipper.

On a long journey, coffee can pose a serious security issue, spilling all over the place and causing a huge mess. To avoid this kind of disaster, he created a cup holder with a sophisticated gimbal inside that maintains your drink level even when the bag tilts. On the outside, he incorporated a rotating dial that displays the flight number, weather prediction, destination details, and a few emergency contacts at a glance. And for further peace of mind, he designed the feet to detach so you can put an AirTag inside each one, which is entirely out of sight but provides some extra protection against losing your luggage.

The first major test was security, when his luggage breezed through the X-ray machine with no one blinking an eyelash about its printed design. Next, he had to get it into a regional flight, which proved difficult until he gave it a gentle nudge into the overhead bin, where it slipped in without incident. The smooth rolling was due to the ball bearings, and the entire setup weighed about the same as a conventional carry-on.

However, when he arrived at his destination, things became a little more problematic. There were hairline cracks all along the main seam, one of the wheels had broken free during the journey, the snacks in the jar had turned to crumbs, and a couple of the smaller attachments had vanished; not a bad outcome, all things considered.

The Russian military is once again hacking home and small office routers in widespread operations that send unwitting users to sites that harvest passwords and credential tokens for use in espionage campaigns, researchers said Tuesday.

An estimated 18,000 to 40,000 consumer routers, mostly those made by MikroTik and TP-Link, located in 120 countries, were wrangled into infrastructure belonging to APT28, an advanced threat group that’s part of Russia’s military intelligence agency known as the GRU, researchers from Lumen Technologies’ Black Lotus Labs said. The threat group has operated for at least two decades and is behind dozens of high-profile hacks targeting governments worldwide. APT28 is also tracked under names including Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit, Tsar Team, Forest Blizzard, and STRONTIUM.

Technical sophistication, tried-and-true techniques

A small number of routers were used as proxies to connect to a much larger number of other routers belonging to foreign ministries, law enforcement, and government agencies that APT28 wanted to spy on. The group then used its control of routers to change DNS lookups for select websites, including, Microsoft said, domains for the company’s 365 service.

“Known for blending cutting-edge tools such as the large language model (LLM) ‘LAMEHUG’ with proven, longstanding techniques, Forest Blizzard consistently evolves its tactics to stay ahead of defenders,” Black Lotus researchers wrote. “Their previous and current campaigns highlight both their technological sophistication and their willingness to revisit classic attack methods even after public exposure, underscoring the ongoing risk posed by this actor to organizations worldwide.”

To hijack the routers, the attackers exploited older models that hadn’t been patched against known security vulnerabilities. They then changed DNS settings for select domains and used the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol to propagate them to router-connected workstations. When connected devices visited the selected domains, their connections were proxied through malicious servers before reaching their intended destination.

From ancient lunar lava to personal tributes, the new images released from the Artemis II space mission capture fresh perspectives of our celestial neighbour.

Yesterday (7 April), NASA released the first images of the moon captured by the Artemis II astronauts during their historic test flight.

The Artemis II mission took off last week (1 April) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, beginning an approximately 10-day mission for NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Yesterday’s images were taken on 6 April during the crew’s seven-hour pass over the lunar far side – the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years – and provide a fresh look at Earth’s closest celestial neighbour.

From an eclipse to ancient lava, here is just a handful of some of the most interesting images captured by the Artemis II crew so far.

Near and far

A picture capturing two-thirds of the moon. Towards the bottom of the image, the Orientale basin can be seen. North-east of the Orientale, seen as a dark spot, is the Grimaldi crater. Image: NASA

One of the crew’s most striking images captures two-thirds of the moon, showcasing the “intricate features of the near side”, according to NASA. The 600-mile-wide impact crater, the Orientale basin, lies along the transition between the near and far sides and can be seen at the bottom of the image.

The round black spot north-east of Orientale is the Grimaldi crater, known for its exceptionally “dark mare lava floor and heavily degraded rim”.

In-space eclipse

The moon fully eclipsing the sun, as taken by the Artemis II crew. Image: NASA

One of the most unique images taken by the Artemis II crew captures the moon fully eclipsing the sun. The corona of the sun forms a glowing halo around the moon, while light reflected off Earth forms a faint, glowing outline of the near side of the moon.

Nearly 54 minutes of totality – when the moon completely blocks the bright face of the sun – was observed by the crew.

Stars are also visible around the spectacle, which are typically too faint to see when imaging the moon, but are readily visible with the moon in darkness.

“This unique vantage point provides both a striking visual and a valuable opportunity for astronauts to document and describe the corona during humanity’s return to deep space,” according to NASA.

A different perspective

Earth in a crescent phase showing the cutoff between day and night on the planet, as seen from the Artemis II spacecraft as it conducted the lunar flyby. Image: NASA

Another image captured during the lunar flyby shows Earth split between daytime and nighttime.

Earth can be seen in a crescent phase, with sunlight coming from the right of the image. On the day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region.

Meanwhile, the lines of small indentations seen on the moon’s surface to the left of the image are secondary crater chains. These structures are formed by material ejected during a violent primary impact.

Ancient lava

A close-up snapshot of the moon as the crew approached for the flyby. The Aristarchus crater is the bright white dot in the middle of a dark grey lava flow at the top of the image. Image: NASA

In one close-up shot of the moon’s surface, taken as the NASA Orion spacecraft approached for the lunar flyby, an interesting ancient remnant can be observed.

According to NASA, dark patches visible on the top third of the lunar disc represent ancient lava.

Meanwhile, the bright white dot in the middle of a dark grey lava flow at the top of the image is the Aristarchus crater, which measures at a depth of 2.7km – making it deeper than the Grand Canyon.

A personal tribute

A picture of the Orientale basin, seen in the middle right of the image. The first crater named by the crew, called Integrity, lies just above the centre of the image. North of the Orientale at the top right corner of the image is the Glushko crater. To the north-west of that is the second crew-named crater, seen as a bright white spot, which the crew has called Carroll. Image: NASA

During the mission’s lunar flyby observation period, the Artemis II crew snapped an image showing the rings of the Orientale basin, one of the moon’s youngest and best-preserved large impact craters.

According to NASA, these concentric rings offer scientists a rare window into how massive impacts shape planetary surfaces, “helping refine models of crater formation and the moon’s geologic history”.

At the 10 o’clock position of the Orientale basin, two smaller craters are visible. The Artemis II astronauts submitted names for these two craters for approval by the International Astronomical Union: the first being Integrity, named after the crew’s spacecraft; and the second being Carroll, named after mission commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife.

“A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family and we lost a loved one,” said mission specialist Hansen to mission control at the time of the proposal. “And there is a feature in a really neat place on the moon, and it is on the near side/far side boundary. In fact, it’s just on the near side of that boundary, and so at certain times of the moon’s transit around Earth, we will be able to see this from Earth.

“And so we lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie. And if you want to find this one, you look at Glushko, and it’s just to the northwest of that, at the same latitude as Ohm, and it’s a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call it Carroll.”

‘A human story’

Eight days into the Artemis II mission, and a number of remarkable moments have been observed in humanity’s latest major space voyage, including the crew surpassing the record for human spaceflight’s farthest distance at 248,655 miles from Earth.

But for many, the human side of the voyage – such as the crew’s sentimental proposal to name a crater – have stuck as dually important alongside the mission’s technical feats.

This rings true with award-winning Irish scientist Dr Niamh Shaw, who was present on the Kennedy Space Center’s media lawn for the historic launch.

“Space has always been a kind of compass in my life,” she told SiliconRepublic.com. “It has a way of stripping everything back, reminding me of what matters, of how small we are and how extraordinary it is that we are here at all.

“It keeps me grounded in my questions. In curiosity. In wonder. And also in responsibility. Because one of the things space teaches us, very clearly, is that there is no rescue mission coming for Earth. No one arriving to solve our problems.”

Shaw told us that what struck her just as much as the launch itself was “what happened afterwards”.

“The level of interest, the appetite for connection … People want to understand, to feel part of it, to ask questions,” she explained.

“I haven’t stopped: media calls, messages, Zooms with my Town Scientist families.

“And I found myself trying to share it in a way that made it personal for them – sending photos, describing moments, answering questions,” she added.

“Because I genuinely believe that’s where the real impact lies. Not just in the engineering achievement, extraordinary as it is. But in how it reaches people.

“In how it shifts perspective, even slightly. In how it reminds us that we are all part of something much bigger and that the story of space exploration is, ultimately, a human story.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Microsoft has pushed a server-side fix for a known issue that broke the Windows Start Menu search feature on some Windows 11 23H2 devices.

In a Windows release health update (WI1273488) seen by BleepingComputer, Microsoft said these problems have affected only a small number of users since April 6 and are caused by a server-side Bing update aimed at improving search performance.

While the company says these problems are recent, there have been reports of similar issues surfacing online for months, including claims that the Start Menu displays blank search results that are still clickable.

To address this known issue, Microsoft has pulled the buggy Bing update and expects the search issues to subside as the fix rolls out to affected customers.

“An investigation determined that the problem coincided with a server-side Bing update designed to improve search performance. To mitigate the issue, the server-side Bing update was rolled back, and reports of search failures are steadily decreasing,” Microsoft said.

“This issue will resolve automatically as the server-side fix is gradually rolled out to affected devices. To receive this fix, make sure the device is connected to the internet and that Web Search has not been disabled by Group Policy.”

More Windows Start Menu issues

This isn’t the first known Start Menu issue to impact Windows customers in recent years. In November, Microsoft shared a temporary workaround for another bug that was causing the Start Menu, File Explorer, and other key system components to crash when provisioning systems with cumulative updates released since July 2025, due to XAML packages not registering in time after installing the update.

On impacted systems, affected users experience a wide range of problems, including Start menu crashes and critical error messages, missing taskbars even when Explorer is running, crashes of the core ShellHost (Shell Infrastructure Host or Windows Shell Experience Host) system process, and Settings app silently failing to launch.

Microsoft is still working on developing a permanent fix, but hasn’t provided a timeline for when a solution will be available. Meanwhile, affected customers must manually register the missing XAML packages.

In May, Microsoft also silently fixed an issue that broke Start Menu jump lists for all apps on Windows 10 22H2 systems, and in June 2023, it addressed a bug that caused Windows Search and the Start Menu to become unresponsive.

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.

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“Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” — so said [Frank Herbert] in his magnum opus, Dune, or rather in the OC Bible that made up part of the book’s rich worldbuilding. A recent study demonstrating “cognitive surrender” in large language model (LLM) users, as reported in Ars Technica, is going to add more fuel to that Butlerian fire.

Cognitive surrender is, in short, exactly what [Herbert] was warning of: giving over your thinking to machines. In the study, people were asked a series of questions, and — except for the necessary “brain-only” control group — given access to a rigged LLM to help them answer. It was rigged in that it would give wrong answers 50% of the time, which while higher than most LLMs, only a difference in degree, not in kind. Hallucination is unavoidable; here it was just made controllably frequent for the sake of the study.

The hallucinations in the study were errors that the participants should have been able to see through, if they’d thought about the answers. Eighty percent of the time, they did not. That is to say: presented with an obviously wrong answer from the machine, only in 20% of cases did the participants bother to question it. The remainder were experiencing what the researchers dubbed “cognitive surrender”: they turned their thinking over to the machines. There’s a lot more meat to this than we can summarize here, of course, but the whole paper is available free for your perusal.

Giving over thinking to machines is nothing new, of course; it’s probably been a couple decades since the first person drove into a lake on faulty GPS directions, for example. One might even argue that since LLMs are correct much more than 50% of the time, it is statistically wise to listen to them. In that case, however, one might be encouraged to read Dune.

Thanks to [Monika] for the tip!

Google Photos has finally caught up with a feature that iOS has had for years. A new Copy button is now rolling out in the Google Photos share sheet. It lets you copy an image straight to the clipboard, without having to download it to your device first (via Android Authority). 

What exactly does the new Google Photos feature do?

Until now, sharing a photo from Google Photos wasn’t as straightforward. First, you had to store the picture locally on your phone, which meant waiting for it to download before you could actually send it anywhere. 

Now, you can argue that a second of waiting doesn’t sound like much. However, Google Photos users had to go through the same process every single time. That’s a second multiplied by the number of times you try to share a photo each day. 

The new Copy button, spotted across multiple devices running the latest Google Photos version (7.71.0.895417930), eliminates that friction. You can simply tap Share on any image, hit the new Copy button, and the photo lands on your phone’s clipboard, good for pasting into a messaging app, a notes app, or wherever you want it to be. 

Does the new Google Photos feature have a catch?

Unfortunately, yes, and I’d prefer you know it upfront rather than realizing it later. The copied image isn’t a pixel-perfect copy of the original one. To keep things quick and efficient, Google Photos copies a compressed version of the picture, with a slightly reduced resolution. 

So, for casual sharing, the new Copy button does perfectly fine. However, I wouldn’t suggest relying on the feature for professional use or printing something. You’re better off spending those few extra seconds and downloading the entire file. 

On the brighter side, the new Google Photos Copy button works for videos too. Furthermore, if you’re using Gboard, copied media appears in the keyboard’s clipboard, remaining there even after you’ve copied something else.