The Nothing Phone (4a) series is shaping up to be more expensive than its predecessor according to fresh leaks detailing pricing, specs and release dates ahead of the company’s March 5 launch event.
A new report from Dealabs suggests the Nothing Phone (4a) will start at around €400. This marks roughly a €50 increase over the Phone (3a), with pricing said to vary slightly by region. For instance, Germany and Spain will reportedly see a €389 starting price. Meanwhile, France, Belgium and Italy could see it land at €409. A 12GB RAM variant is expected to cost between €429 and €449.
The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro could see an even steeper jump. Dealabs claims pricing will begin at €479 in Germany and Spain. This rises to €499 in France, Belgium and Italy — around €90 more than the previous Pro model. A higher-tier 12GB version could reach as much as €569 depending on the market.
As for availability, the base Phone (4a) is tipped to release on March 12. The Pro model could potentially follow on March 26.
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Specs are where things get slightly less clear.
Android Headlines, in a separate leak, claims the base model will instead include an 8MP ultrawide alongside a 50MP main sensor and a 3.5x telephoto lens. It also added that the Phone (4a) will run on Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, paired with a 5,400mAh battery and 50W charging. It will also include IP65 dust and water resistance.
Meanwhile, the Pro model is tipped to include a 50MP Sony main sensor, improved optical zoom, an aluminium chassis, a larger 6.83-inch 144Hz display, and a new “Glyph Matrix” lighting system on the rear. The standard model is expected to retain the familiar Glyph Bar and a 6.78-inch display.
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Colour options are said to include black, white, pink and blue for the base model. The Pro may arrive in black, silver and pink.
Nothing founder Carl Pei previously hinted that price increases were on the way. These latest leaks appear to confirm that shift. We’ll have full details once Nothing makes it official next month.
The Men’s T20 World Cup moves into its next phase this week as the Super Eights get under way. The original 20-team field has been reduced to eight contenders, featuring many of the tournament’s heavyweights — though notably without Australia, who were knocked out by Zimbabwe.
The format is straightforward: two groups of four, with the top two from each progressing to the semi-finals, as India, South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe make up Group 1, while England, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka form Group 2.
Platforms like Willow TV on Sling (US), JioHotstar (India), and Prime Video (Australia) will stream the World Cup matches, this’ll require you to get a paid subscription. But, fear not we have found a simple way that you can stream every match of the Super Eights for free from anywhere in the world…
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How to watch the Super 8 for free
Every match of the Super Eight at the T20 World Cup is streaming live and free on ICC.tv in select countries and on Tamasha in Pakistan.
ICC.tv isn’t available in England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia or India without a VPN, and Tamasha is Pakistan-only, but you can unlock both free streams in seconds with NordVPN.
A VPN lets you watch all your usual content as if you were back at home.
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Sign up to ICC.tv or watch on Tamasha for free (no account required), switch on your VPN 🔐, and start streaming from anywhere in the world.
And right now you even get a free Amazon Gift Card (up to $50) included if you purchase one of their plans…
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What devices and platforms are supported by NordVPN?
Amazon Fire Stick (Android TV OS 7.0 and up) Android (Android 7.0 and up) Chromecast iOS (iOS 15 and up) iPadOS (iPadOS 15 and up) Web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari)
Although you can’t run NordVPN directly on other devices, such as PlayStation and Xbox consoles, TVs running Apple TV and various other smart TV systems, and VR headsets, an easy workaround is running NordVPN on your smartphone or computer and setting up a hotspot.
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Super 8 Groups
Group A: India, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe Group B: England, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka
Super 8 Fixture List
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Date (2026)
Fixture
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IST
GMT
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Feb 21
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New Zealand vs Pakistan
7 pm
1.30 pm
8.30 am
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Feb 22
England vs Sri Lanka
3 pm
9.30 am
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5.30 am
Feb 22
India vs South Africa
7 pm
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1.30 pm
8.30 am
Feb 23
Zimbabwe vs West Indies
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7 pm
1.30 pm
8.30 am
Feb 24
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England vs Pakistan
7 pm
1.30 pm
8.30 am
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Feb 25
New Zealand vs Sri Lanka
7 pm
1.30 pm
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8.30 am
Feb 26
West Indies vs South Africa
3 pm
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9.30 am
5.30 am
Feb 26
India vs Zimbabwe
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7 pm
1.30 pm
8.30 am
Feb 27
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England vs New Zealand
7 pm
1.30 pm
8.30 am
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Feb 28
Pakistan vs Sri Lanka
7 pm
1.30 pm
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8.30 am
Mar 1
South Africa vs Zimbabwe
3 pm
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9.30 am
5.30 am
Mar 1
India vs West Indies
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7 pm
1.30 pm
8.30 am
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
A wounded England and a galvanized Ireland face off at Twickenham this Saturday in what looks like a second-place decider – possibly more if France slip up somewhere down the line. Andy Farrell’s men had entered the Six Nations as title hopefuls, a tag that latched onto Steve Borthwick’s group when Ireland were annihilated in their opener… only for England to be shredded by an out-of-sorts Scotland.
More than any other fixture, this is the one both teams must win in order for their respective campaigns not to be written off as a complete failure. The line really is that fine. England’s Triple Crown hopes are gone, and they’ll want to ensure that Ireland aren’t able to claim it instead.
What’s most intriguing of all is that these are two strong teams with glaring weaknesses right now. When England’s kicking game doesn’t work, they don’t seem to have a Plan B, while Italy showed that Ireland haven’t yet fixed their well-known scrum issues.
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Recognizing the need for an injection of positivity, Borthwick has handed England’s provocateur-in-chief Henry Pollock his first ever Test start. Wing Henry Arundell has an opportunity to redeem himself after leaving England a man down for 30 minutes of their shock 31-20 defeat to Scotland.
Farrell, meanwhile, has dropped the under-fire Sam Prendergast for Jack Crowley. The Munster fly-half steered Ireland to the title two years ago, and there’s a real possibility that Italy would have held on to beat Ireland last weekend if it wasn’t for his late introduction off the bench.
Read on below for our guide on where to watch England vs Ireland on TV and get Six Nations 2026 free streams online.
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Watch England vs Ireland for FREE
This game – along with every other match of the 2026 Six Nations – will be streamed live and free across the UK and Ireland. The England vs Ireland live stream is set to be shown on:
What if you’re abroad? Use NordVPN to unlock your free stream — more on that below.
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How to watch any England vs Ireland stream using a VPN
A VPN is handy piece of software that can make your device appear as if it’s back in your home country, so you can unlock your usual service. The best VPN right now? We recommend NordVPN – it does everything and comes with a 74% discount and Amazon Gift Card thrown in on some plans.
How to watch England vs Ireland live streams in the US
England vs Ireland and all 2026 Six Nations matches will be live streamed on Peacock in the US.
How to watch England vs Ireland live streams in New Zealand
Sky Sport NZ is the Six Nations 2026 TV rights holder in New Zealand.
You can access Sky Sport through satellite TV or get an England vs Ireland live stream, with the Sky Sport Now subscription service starting at $29.99 per day or $54.99 per month. You can also stream the T20 World Cup on the platform.
Missing the England vs Ireland game because you’re abroad?NordVPN will give you access to your home streaming service.
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How to watch England vs Ireland in Japan
(Image credit: Future)
In Japan, England vs Ireland will be live streamed on Wowow. Prices start at ¥2,530 ($16) per month.
Visiting Japan from England or Ireland? Tap into your free coverage using a VPN like NordVPN.
What is the England vs Ireland start time?
The scheduled England vs Ireland kick-off time on Saturday, February 21 is 2.10pm GMT local time in London, which is 9.10am ET / 6.10am PT in the US.
Can I watch England vs Ireland on my mobile?
Of course, most broadcasters have streaming services that you can access through mobile apps or via your phone’s browser. For example, ITVX, Peacock and RTÉ Player all have dedicated apps.
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You can also stay up-to-date with all things Six Nations on the official social media channels on X (@SixNations), YouTube (@Men’sSixNations) and Instagram (@SixNationsRugby).
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
The round was backed by big names including Nvidia, AMD and Autodesk.
Fei-Fei Li’s AI start-up World Labs has raised $1bn to advance spatial intelligence – effectively, generative AI “world models” capable of interacting with complex virtual worlds.
Last November, World Labs launched its first commercial product called Marble that generates 3D virtual worlds from image or text prompts.
With this new funding, the start-up wants to continue building AI models to “revolutionise storytelling, creativity, robotics [and] scientific discovery”.
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The round was backed by big name investors including Nvidia; AMD; Fidelity Management and Research Company; Autodesk; Emerson Collective; and Sea.
The start-up did not disclose its post-funding valuation, however, reports from last month estimated it to end up at $5bn. Autodesk has invested $200m in World Labs as part of the round, and with the funding, has also taken an advisory role in the start-up.
“Autodesk has long helped people think spatially and solve real-world problems and, together, we share a clear purpose – building physical AI that augments human creativity and puts more powerful tools in the hands of designers, builders and creators,” Li said.
Li is often referred to as the ‘godmother of AI’, thanks to her groundbreaking work on ImageNet. Her start-up World Labs came out of stealth in 2024, and was valued at around $1bn after a $230m investment round that included Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia’s venture arm and Radical Ventures, where she is herself a scientific partner.
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World Labs describes itself as a “spatial intelligence company, building frontier models that can perceive, generate, reason and interact with the 3D world”. It describes its AI products as “large world models”.
Li called AI a “civilisational technology” in an interview with Bloomberg late last year. “I believe spatial intelligence is as critical [as] – and complementary to – language intelligence,” she said.
The World Labs co-founder is a professor at the computer science department at Stanford University and has served as director of the university’s AI Lab. She is currently the co-director of the Stanford Human-Centered AI Institute and has previously served as the chief scientist at Google Cloud.
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Tito of Macho Nacho Productions takes out his trusty screwdriver and goes to work on a limited edition Zelda Game & Watch from Nintendo that he received in 2020. This portable includes three iconic games: the original Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and Link’s Awakening from the Game Boy. It comes with a great collection of features out of the box, including a crisp LCD screen, a nice D-pad, and separate start and select buttons. The battery life is adequate, and it even has a USB-C charging connection, but Tito wants to take this device to the next level.
First, he removes four screws from the back plate, disconnects the battery, and then pulls out the two ribbon cables that link to the LCD. The speaker desolders, giving him some freedom to operate with. The motherboard is then released by removing ten additional screws. Tito connects an ST-Link programmer to the SWDIO, ground, and SWCLK pads as he boots up his PC and launches PowerShell as an administrator. He utilizes Chocolatey to install Python, Pipix, OpenOCD, and G&W Manager from GitHub. The unlock command is executed, and the device displays a blue screen. Everything appears to be in order.
With a retro look, legendary flourishes, and the power to save Hyrule, the Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda system is a tribute to 35 years of the…
Included are three Full Legend of Zelda games; The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The adventure of Link, and the Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
There’s also a version of the Game & Watch classic, Vermin, starring Link, and a playable clock and timer.
Tito removes the original 16MB flash chip, which is a bit of a bottleneck, and heats it with a hot air station before applying flux to the pads. Tin foil and Kapton tape protect the area to prevent the neighbors from becoming too hot, and then it comes off clean. He cleans the pads, inserts a new 64MB chip, and reconnects the cables. G&W Manager flashes some custom firmware onto the device, which actually works for a second before halting at step 13. A retry resolves the issue, and Tito resumes business.
The next step is to create a custom ribbon cable by soldering a couple of capacitors, a resistor, and an LDO regulator on. He inserts a microSD card slot and reduces the alignment posts flat. He aligns the ribbon pins with the CPU pads, connects a wire to a capacitor, and then uses a rotary tool to scrape off the soldermask and reveal the ground plane. With a little wire and some work, the microSD slot is fully operational. Tito next tackles the rear shell mods, removing the D-pad posts, drilling four holes with 3D-printed jigs, and smoothing out the edges with a file to ensure everything is nice and flush.
With all of the mod completed, it’s time to launch his own firmware. He downloads the firmware update binary from RetroGo SD on GitHub, places it on a FAT32 microSD card, and turns the device on to install it. Once completed, he restarts it and enters RetroGo – from there, it’s as simple as adding some ROMs for the Game Boy, NES, SEGA Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, and other systems. Super Mario World works well, and Zelda: A Link to the Past is as crisp as ever.
Ubisoft has had a turbulent few years, but its biggest franchises are clearly not going anywhere. In an interview with Variety, CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that multiple Assassin’s Creed titles and two new Far Cry games are currently in development, signaling a renewed focus on the company’s most reliable blockbuster series.
Ubisoft
The update arrives during what Ubisoft has described as a major reset. The company has undergone layoffs, canceled projects, and reorganized studios as it tries to stabilize after several difficult years. Against that backdrop, Guillemot’s message was simple. Ubisoft plans to lean heavily on the franchises that consistently attract massive audiences. For Assassin’s Creed, Guillemot said “several titles” are in development, spanning both single-player and multiplayer experiences. The goal is to keep growing a community that already surpassed 30 million players last year. On the Far Cry side, Ubisoft confirmed two promising projects, widely expected to include the next mainline entry and a long-rumored multiplayer spin-off.
A future built around blockbuster franchises
This renewed emphasis ties directly into Ubisoft’s broader restructuring strategy. The company has created new “creative houses” designed to give major franchises more autonomy while improving accountability and production efficiency. One of those units, Vantage Studios, is responsible for Ubisoft’s biggest brands, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. The idea is to treat these series as long-term ecosystems rather than standalone releases, helping Ubisoft deliver a steadier pipeline of games and content over time.
Ubisoft
The shift also reflects lessons learned from the pandemic era. Ubisoft admitted it had launched too many projects and is now scaling back to focus on fewer, bigger bets. For players, that likely means a more predictable future. Instead of scattered experiments, Ubisoft’s roadmap looks increasingly centered on expanding the worlds fans already know.
Ubisoft
While Ubisoft did not share release windows or gameplay details, the confirmation alone matters right now. After months of layoffs and uncertainty, fans finally have reassurance that Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry remain core pillars of Ubisoft’s future. Whether that excites or worries players will depend on how Ubisoft balances quantity with quality.
For the past century, facial recognition technology (FRT) has existed largely in the realm of science fiction. From dystopian literature and film to speculative headlines and industry conjecture, FRT has long been portrayed as futuristic, invasive or experimental.
Yet behind the scenes, facial recognition has been quietly maturing, particularly over the past two decades.
Tony Kounnis
CEO of Face-Int UK and Europe.
In 2026, that maturation looks like it will reach a tipping point: FRT will no longer be perceived as cutting-edge or novel, but as a dependable, everyday enterprise technology.
This shift matters more than it might first appear. We talk about technologies becoming “boring”; it’s an important step, meaning the tech stops being treated as experimental, the hype starts to quieten down, and instead the actual solutions start to be relied upon as business-critical infrastructure.
Cloud computing followed this path. So did multi-factor authentication. AI is fast getting there. And facial recognition is now on the same trajectory.
The market signals are clear. For instance, the global facial recognition market size was valued at as estimated $8.83 billion in 2025, and this figure is projected to grow from $10.13 billion in 2026 to $30.52 billion by 2034 – a CAGR of 14.80% over the next eight years.
But a growth in investment and market value does not equal maturity. What marks 2026 as pivotal is how organizations are beginning to embed facial recognition into routine operations, not necessarily as a headline innovation but as a supporting layer that improves efficiency, security and decision-making.
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FRT moves from pilot to production
Across sectors, FRT is moving out of pilot programs and into production environments. In border control, transport and travel, biometric identity checks are becoming a standard part of passenger flow management, helping organizations reduce friction while maintaining security.
In financial services, facial recognition is increasingly used to strengthen identity verification, protect against fraud and support remote onboarding, particularly as digital-only interactions become the norm.
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In workplaces, healthcare environments and secure commercial premises, facial recognition is being deployed to manage access control and ensure that only authorized individuals enter sensitive areas.
What these use cases have in common is not novelty, but necessity. As organizations scale, operate across distributed environments and face increasingly sophisticated security threats, traditional methods of identity assurance are showing their limits.
Passwords can be stolen. Cards can be shared. Manual checks do not scale. Facial recognition, when implemented correctly, offers a friction-light alternative that fits modern operational realities.
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However, becoming “boring” does not mean becoming invisible or unaccountable. On the contrary, as facial recognition becomes foundational, expectations around reliability, accuracy and governance rise sharply.
Businesses adopting FRT in 2026 will no longer be able to treat it as a specialist tool managed in isolation by IT teams. It will sit alongside core systems, subject to the same scrutiny as any other business-critical technology.
Expect scrutiny – embrace it
Scrutiny is a key word here. And this is where recent public debate offers important lessons.
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The UK police have been using FRT with greater frequency. For instance, the Met Police announced in January that more than 100 wanted criminals were arrested by the Metropolitan Police within the first three months of a pioneering Live Facial Recognition (LFR) pilot in Croydon.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood promptly followed the news by saying they the government would be going ahead with plans to expand facial recognition.
Yet this story came as campaigners have been appearing in the High Court, saying that the technology is expanding without adequate safeguards.
The debate in the policing sector mirrors broader concerns around privacy, bias and accuracy. They are not necessarily obstacles to adoption for businesses across other sectors, but they are certainly signals of where the FRT industry must continue to improve.
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Facial data is inherently sensitive, and its use demands higher standards of protection and transparency. For business leaders, this means moving beyond a narrow focus on technical performance and considering the broader implications of deployment.
Accuracy, for example, is not a static metric. Performance can vary depending on lighting, camera quality, demographic diversity and operational context.
Organizations must understand that responsible deployment requires ongoing testing and monitoring, not one-off validation. Similarly, privacy cannot be bolted on after implementation. Principles such as data minimization, clear purpose limitation and secure storage need to be built into systems from the outset.
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Trust must still be earned
Trust is another critical factor as facial recognition becomes mainstream. In enterprise environments, trust extends beyond end users to employees, partners, regulators and investors.
Businesses need to be able to explain why facial recognition is being used, what safeguards are in place, and how risks are managed. Transparency and accountability will increasingly differentiate responsible adopters from those who treat FRT as a black-box solution.
There is also a strategic dimension to this transition. As facial recognition becomes part of everyday operations, it shifts from being a purely technical decision to a business one.
Boards and senior leaders must understand how biometric technologies fit within their organization’s risk framework, data governance strategy and long-term digital roadmap. In this sense, the “boring” phase of facial recognition is also the most demanding.
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In 2026, the organizations that succeed with facial recognition will be those that treat it with the same discipline applied to other mature technologies.
They will select solutions based not only on capability, but on compliance, resilience and ethical design. They will involve legal, security and data protection teams early, rather than as an afterthought. And they will recognize that earning trust is an ongoing process, not a one-time achievement.
Facial recognition is no longer science fiction, and it is no longer experimental. Its transition into everyday business technology is well underway. So, the challenge is not simply whether it works, but how responsibly it is used.
If organizations get that right, facial recognition will fade into the background of daily operations – not because it is insignificant, but because it is reliable, well-governed and fit for purpose. And that, ultimately, is what technological maturity looks like.
This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro’s Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro
This self-reloading magnet dispenser is the type of invention you didn’t realize you needed until you see it in action and can’t picture life without it. Maker EmGi has created a handheld tool that places neodymium magnets precisely where you want them, with the correct orientation every time, and loads the next one from a built-in stockpile so you never have to pause to fiddle around for the next one.
EmGi began with a simpler version last year, as the original tool employed a simple plunger with a fixed magnet on the end to pick up and pop discs in without getting your fingers in the way or worrying about the polarity flipping at the last second. It did the trick for casual use, but the tip was a little awkward to get into tight spaces, and reloading required stopping to search for individual magnets in a clump. Anyone who has ever attempted to assemble a grid of magnets or arrange them in small pockets understands the irritation, as magnets appear to snap together out of nowhere, stick to your tools, or spin to the incorrect side just as you are ready to push them into place.
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The new design resolves both of these issues. EmGi has managed to reduce the tip size so that it can fit into confined areas, and added a self-feeding magazine. Simply pack a stack of magnets into the body, and each press of the lever moves the next one to the ready position. The mechanism is based on a rack and pinion system that converts the plunger’s motion into a precise tiny nudge. One press separates the bottom magnet from the rest of the stack while dragging it along a guided path to the tip, where a permanent magnet keeps it in place and the attraction pulls the disc along without allowing it to spin or flip over.
Nailing that sequence took a bit of trial and error. Magnets can be stubborn since their fields resist movement. Press too quickly, and the disc will shoot right off. If you press too slowly, it will stick back to the stack. Emgi experimented with various slopes, adding a tiny edge to the tip to give it more control over speed, and modified the design until the magnet simply slides into position. Slow motionfootage shows the disc tipping smoothly onto the tip and remaining in the proper orientation. Then it’s merely a clean press into its slot, a release, and the next one is ready for you when the lever returns.
If you have a 3D printer, assembly is a breeze because the body, case, tip, gear, picker, and lever are all printed in PLA. Five screws hold all of the main parts together, a rubber band provides the tension that causes the lever to spring back into place, and a few little neodymium magnets simply slot into pre-drilled holes, one at the tip to keep things secure and a few more in the mechanism to help guide things along. They’ve created variations for the most common sizes, such as 6x2mm, 5.1mm, and 8.2mm discs. If you’re feeling daring, head over to MakerWorld and get the files for free; printing one should be as simple as getting some filament and waiting for it to print. [Source]
As video advertising output accelerates across platforms, a new challenge has emerged: volume alone no longer guarantees effectiveness. Brands are producing more content than ever, yet performance remains uneven – often because creative decisions are reviewed subjectively and far too late in the process. A growing class of AI-driven validation tools is attempting to change that by bringing predictive analysis earlier into the creative lifecycle.
Instead of relying solely on post-campaign metrics or human interpretation, these systems use machine learning to assess whether an ad is structurally sound before it goes live. The goal isn’t to replace creativity, but to give teams clearer, earlier signals about what works, what doesn’t, and why.
Why creative validation is becoming a tech priority
For many marketing teams, the bottleneck isn’t a lack of ideas – it’s a lack of confidence. Human review cycles are slow, subjective, and inconsistent. Meanwhile, performance feedback usually arrives only after media budgets have already been spent, meaning weak creative can slip through despite heavy investment.
AI-driven validation offers a different path. By analyzing large libraries of historical ads, these tools identify patterns linked to engagement, brand recall, and call-to-action clarity. The promise is consistency at scale – evaluating creative quality using the same criteria, every time, across formats and channels.
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Merging production insight with media planning
A key trend is the integration of creative assessment directly into media planning workflows. Rather than treating production and distribution as separate stages, some platforms now evaluate creative readiness during planning itself, helping teams decide which assets are worth amplifying.
Alison.ai’s Preflight Plus tool exemplifies this approach. It runs automated checks based on Google’s ABCD framework – Attract, Brand, Connect, Direct – to determine whether a video ad meets foundational best practices. While not the only platform in this space, it reflects a broader shift toward validating creative structure before budget commitments are made.
How computer vision is transforming creative analysis
At a technical level, these systems rely heavily on computer vision, scanning video content frame by frame to identify elements such as logo visibility, pacing, facial presence, text overlays, and visual hierarchy. These signals are then quantified, enabling creatives to be scored and compared more precisely.
Alison.ai describes this as its “Creative Genome” – a model that breaks ads into discrete visual and conceptual components. Similar techniques are emerging across ad-tech, signaling a move toward more granular, data-driven creative decision-making.
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Reducing bias and increasing alignment
The practical benefit for marketing teams is alignment. Objective scoring helps bridge the long-standing divide between creative teams prioritizing storytelling and performance teams focused on measurable outcomes. Instead of debating subjective opinions, teams can work from shared data points that highlight where an ad may need refinement.
This shift also reduces dependence on multiple fragmented tools. When validation, feedback, and planning live inside a single workflow, teams spend less time navigating systems and more time improving the work itself.
Toward accountable AI in creative workflows
More broadly, this marks a push toward accountability in AI-assisted and AI-generated content. As generative tools speed up production, validation layers are becoming essential to ensure that increased output doesn’t come at the cost of effectiveness.
Preflight Plus – and tools like Alison.ai’s Agentic Video Ideation Flow – reflect an emerging creative model: AI that not only generates concepts but also evaluates whether those ideas are structurally prepared to perform. While implementation varies across platforms, the direction is clear – creative technology is moving upstream, closer to the moment decisions are made.
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In a landscape where attention is expensive and mistakes are costly, early-stage creative intelligence may soon shift from competitive advantage to industry standard.
Digital Trends partners with external contributors. All contributor content is reviewed by the Digital Trends editorial staff.
Samsung appears to be tightening internal security as it heads toward its next major product cycle.
According to reports from The Korea Herald, the company has introduced a new secure chat mode within its internal communications system. This was done in an effort to curb leaks surrounding upcoming Galaxy devices, including the expected Z Fold 8 and Galaxy S27 lineup.
If you follow Samsung launches closely, you’ll know how early details tend to surface. By mid-2025, much of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s camera upgrades had already leaked, and most of it turned out to be accurate.
Additionally, well-known tipsters often reveal specs and design changes months ahead of launch. As a result, there is little surprise when Samsung takes the stage.
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That’s what the company now seems keen to address.
The reported secure chat mode prevents employees from copying, forwarding, saving or screenshotting internal messages. It also extends to affiliated companies. This suggests Samsung is trying to close gaps not just within headquarters but across its broader supply and partner network.
In summary, the goal is to stop internal memos and product details from finding their way onto anonymous forums, where they’re quickly picked up by leakers and media outlets.
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Ironically, details of this new anti-leak system surfaced through — you guessed it — a leak. Samsung has not issued an official statement confirming the changes.
Whether the new safeguards will actually slow the rumour mill remains to be seen. The Z Fold 8 has already appeared in several leaks, and the Galaxy S27 chatter has already begun circulating, including early claims about potential camera upgrades to the Ultra model.
Historically, much of the most accurate information hasn’t always come directly from internal staff. Instead, it often comes from suppliers, retailers, and accessory makers further down the chain.
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Even with screenshot blocking enabled, it’s difficult to completely lock down information in a global hardware operation. Internal chats can still be photographed using another device, and product details inevitably spread as development ramps up.
With Samsung’s next foldable launch expected later this year and the Galaxy S27 season not far behind, the real test will be whether upcoming leaks slow to a trickle or continue business as usual.
Apple didn’t start out as the privacy company, but in the more than 12 years since iPhone 5s, it is the only company trying to offer privacy by default. Today, that’s more necessary than ever.
Apple’s promise of privacy and security can’t be ignored in today’s political climate