Category: 4. Technology

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been given the thinner, sleeker glow-up we expected, if leaked hands-on photos are any indication. The trio of images posted by leaker @Jukanlosreve seemingly show what the next-gen Galaxy foldable will look like in the real world from a few different angles.

The new photographs mostly line up with what we’ve seen in previous renders, including the larger, slimmer chassis that’s reported to be around 4.5mm thick when open. That’s slimmer than its 5.6mm Galaxy Z Fold 6 predecessor and allows it to better compete against some of the slimmest foldables on the market from rivals like Google and Oppo. We won’t know its official measurements until the launch event next week, but given the SIM tray appears to occupy all available vertical space, it looks very skinny indeed. The speakers and microphone are also visible along the bottom edge of the device.

The redesigned camera array on the rear is distinct from that featured on the Galaxy Z Fold 6, replacing the chunky black rings around the camera lenses with slim silver ones. It contrasts nicely with the striking blue color option, which might be the “Blue Shadow” colorway mentioned in previous leaks.

We also have some new Galaxy Z Fold 7 specs courtesy of an EU smartphone label revealed by MysteryLupin, which lists the device as having the same battery life as its predecessor, that’s expected to last for up to 40 hours and 28 minutes on a single charge. The phone reportedly has an IP48 rating, which means it can be submerged under water for short periods of time, but it’s still susceptible to fine dust particles (like many foldables).

Cisco has released patches for a maximum-severity security flaw in Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME).

The vulnerability, CVE-2025-20309, carries a CVSS score of 10.0, the maximum severity rating. Cisco said the flaw could allow an attacker to log in to an affected device using the root account, which has default, static credentials that cannot be changed or deleted.

The new Fairphone 6 is smaller and more modular than older models in the series, but it’s just as repairable. The phone picked up a perfect score in iFixit’s teardown test, despite no longer offering tool-free battery replacements.

It helps that the only tool you do need — throughout the phone — is a T5 Torx screwdriver, and only seven screws sit between you and a battery swap. Fairphone itself has shown you can get from shutdown to reboot with a new cell in just two minutes, so it’s still a simple swap. The company says that the screws are required for the slimmer soft-pouch battery.

The only glue throughout is found on the phone’s mainboard, which is just about the only repair Fairphone doesn’t recommend you make yourself: almost everything else, from the USB-C port to the individual camera sensors, can be replaced with minimal effort. Replacement parts will be available from Fairphone and iFixit, and the phone’s replaceable backplate also enables a line of swappable accessories similar to those found on the CMF Phone Pro 2.

iFixit also rated the phone highly for its IP55 rating — not the best around, but impressive for a phone sealed with screws rather than glue — and for the company’s longterm support. Fairphone is guaranteeing seven years of Android OS updates and eight years of security patches, with a five-year warranty and a loyalty program that rewards you for hanging onto your phone and repairing it.

Despite the high score, iFixit acknowledges that you do compromise on specs by opting for the Fairphone 6. Its dual rear camera is fairly basic, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7S Gen 3 chipset is no powerhouse. Even the USB port is limited to sluggish USB 2.0, though the 6.3-inch 10-120Hz LTPO OLED display is more impressive.

This isn’t the first Fairphone to fare so well. Every model since the Fairphone 2 has received a 10/10 in iFixit’s teardown tests, a score that no other phone has ever managed. The Fairphone 6 is available now in Europe for €599 (around $705), from Fairphone and other retailers. It costs considerably more in the US, at $899, where it’s only available from Murena and ships running /e/OS, Murena’s privacy-focused and de-Googled take on Android. It’s available to preorder now, and ships in August.

With the release of Android beta 2.25.20.7, WhatsApp has unveiled a new feature that is being developed specifically for business users. A company credit system that offers monthly trial credits for broadcast messages is made possible by this update. The functionality is still hidden and inactive in the current beta release, so users won’t see it just yet.

WhatsApp has designated the capability for broadcast messages as “Trial,” and it is presently “under development.” Selected companies will get monthly broadcast credits under this method. They won’t need to sign up for a paid plan to send mass texts, thanks to these credits. WhatsApp wants to give businesses risk-free credits while testing the broadcast limit features.

The trial period for the credit system will be six months. Businesses will continuously receive the same amount of credits every month throughout this time. This enables businesses to test out the broadcast capability and assess its efficacy prior to making a payment.

No official release date has been announced; beta testers should stay alert. The 2.25.20.7 WhatsApp Android beta was pushed to the Google Play Beta Program, and the broadcast credit tool is expected in a later release.

It’s been not a great start for Call of Duty World War 2 on the Xbox Game Pass. Players have been reporting about their systems being attacked by severe RCE hacks, compromising the whole machine. Call of Duty World War 2 became a part of the highly popular subscription service on June 30, making it the fourth available CoD title in Xbox Game Pass, after Black Ops 6, Modern Warfare III, and Warzone. But no CoD fan could ever imagine in their worst nightmares what would happen next.

Call of Duty World War 2 gets hit by RCE hackers after being added to Xbox Game Pass

Call of Duty World War 2 was one of the most successful titles in the entire franchise. There is no doubt that fans became immensely happy after the game became available on Xbox Game Pass. But what happened next was utterly shocking. There have been several reports from the fans that after downloading the game from Game Pass, their system got seriously exploited by Remote Code Execution (RCE) hackers. In one instance, the hackers even went on to take control of the whole computer of a user and opened up the notepad in it to communicate with him. This is actually one of the most conercing and shocking incidents in the gaming world ever. No one would imagine how serious the consequences of RCE hacking can become. This is actually a type of cyberattack where the targeted machine or server gets compromised after remotely executing some arbitrary codes on them. These malicious codes usually consist of scripts, binaries, and commands to make the system vulnerable. As Call of Duty World War 2 is an eight year old game, it needed some proper security layers before being added to Game Pass. As the time goes by, the hackers are becoming more and more advanced. So, to cope up with them, serious anti-cyber attack measures should be implemented in older titles if those are going to be made available on modern platforms. As of now, there has been no official response yet from either Activision or Microsoft regarding this RCE massacre. Until some official hotfix arrives, players are strictly advised to stay away from downloading Call of Duty World War 2 from Xbox Game Pass. Yes, players who have the original game purchased previously can play the game without any hassle. It’s still unclear how deep the hackers have dug into Xbox Game Pass and Call of Duty World War 2, so an official explanation of the whole situation is the need of the hour right now. A few days ago, some older Call of Duty titles got sudden updates, speculating a potential entry into the Xbox Game Pass. However, after this severe attack on CoD WW2, those titles seem even more unlikely to be featured in the popular subscription system.Read More: After consoles and games, Microsoft may increase price of Xbox Game Pass

Stockholm-based Toca Boca has been hit with an unknown number of layoffs.

Staff affected by redundancies have been sharing the news on LinkedIn, including roles in art, QA, design, and development.

GamesIndustry.biz has reached to the developer for further clarification on how many jobs were affected by the cuts.

Former game designer Andrew Brierly Chramer claimed the layoffs were due to “project changes and cost-savings”.

“It’s not easy to leave a team you care so much about, but I’m proud of what we built and grateful for everything I’ve learned.”

Former art director Kim Aava shared similar sentiments: “While it’s tough to leave such a kind and inspiring group of people, I’m incredibly proud of what we built together.”

Affected employees also included artist Gabriel Flamm and embedded QA Bathilde de La Chapelle.

As reported by PocketGamer, Toca Boca’s parent company Spin Master announced it would be shutting down Nørdlight, known for the mobile title Rubik’s Match.

The closure was due to the “high costs of acquiring new users and the title’s lower than expected returns”, as the publication noted.

America’s birthday is, of course, a cause for celebration. So is a 3-day holiday weekend that you can spend grilling and hanging out with friends and family. And if you’re a runner, triathlete, or other kind of dedicated fitness fanatic, there’s one more reason to light up some fireworks this weekend — Amazon’s just dropped the price of the awesome Garmin Forerunner 255 GPS running smartwatch to an all-time low of just $200 (43% off). 

Any Garmin deal is going to get the attention of athletes and fitness buffs simply because Garmin has long been the gold standard of running watches for training, measuring your health data, and keeping you on course with its advanced GPS. But when one of Garmin’s most popular models suddenly nosedives to its lowest price ever thanks to an Amazon 43% off sale, it’s going to trigger a mad rush that might cause supplies to dip and dip fast.

See at Amazon

The Wearable Coach

The Garmin Forerunner 255 is like having a running coach on your wrist. As you begin to train for your next race, the Forerunner 255 will have tips and personalized workout suggestions ready for you every day, based on your recent workout and also the health and sleep metrics it measures all day and night. The Forerunner 255 will give you a week’s worth of suggested workouts, and then be able to adapt and modify them on the go based on your performance and recovery.

The Forerunner 255 comes with free adaptive training plans from Garmin Coach for 5K, 10K, and half-marathons, and with the Garmin Connect smartphone app, you can also create and modify your own custom workouts. Punch in the course information for your upcoming race and the Forerunner 255 will customize your workouts and even give you a predicted completion time based on that specific course, the weather, and your training.

Stay On Course

The Forerunner 255 uses Garmin’s SatIQ tech to keep its GPS optimized at all times, and when the satellite coverage is compromised by tall buildings or dense woods, the SatIQ can resort to Multiband GNSS to ensure your location is detected with great accuracy. Even with the GPS mode activated, the upgraded battery of the Forerunner 255 will last up to 30 hours, and when it’s just being used as a smartwatch, that duration grows to an incredible 14 days before needing a recharge.

In 3 short years since replacing the Forerunner 245, this Garmin running watch has become a huge favorite, especially among runners and other athletes. That’s why this Amazon deal shaving the price down by 43% to an all-time low of just $200 is such a big deal, and a deal you really will not want to miss.

See at Amazon

If you’ve put in the effort to secure your data on your computer, iPhone and other devices, you can already sleep better than most people. But there’s still a vector that could be out of your control: cloud data. To ensure you’re running the highest level of encryption between you and Apple’s iCloud servers, turn on Advanced Data Protection. However, the technology is also under scrutiny in the UK, which led Apple to temporarily turn off the feature for UK customers.

If you’re outside the UK and concerned about who can see your data, here’s how to turn ADP on and how it differs from the default iCloud encryption.

Why is ADP turned off for UK customers?

In February, Apple took the unusual step of turning off ADP for customers in the UK. The British government has reportedly demanded that Apple provide a method for law enforcement to access encrypted data as part of criminal investigations. But that creates a serious security problem, because this type of backdoor access can also be exploited by criminals or untrustworthy governments.

Since then, Apple has appealed the Home Office’s demand, and in April, a judge ruled that discussions between Apple and the UK government can’t be held in secret.

ADP can no longer be enabled for people in the UK; those currently using ADP will need to turn off the feature at a future date.

How does Advanced Data Protection work?

The key difference between ADP and how Apple encrypts data by default is how accessible your information is when stored on Apple’s servers.

In what Apple calls standard data protection, information sent between points, such as files stored on iCloud Drive and iCloud backups of your devices, is encrypted and transmitted securely. If someone intercepts that data between the two points, they’ll see only gibberish.

That data remains encrypted when stored on Apple’s servers so you can access it from other devices, for instance. However, Apple can still access the encryption keys to unscramble and read the data — and provide it to law enforcement following a legal request.

By contrast, when you enable Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, the data is end-to-end encrypted, meaning only your trusted devices possess the encryption keys to read it. The information remains encrypted on the servers, and not even Apple can access its contents. (Not all iCloud data can be end-to-end encrypted. Apple breaks out which types of information, such as iCloud Mail messages, remains covered by standard data protection even when ADP is turned on.)

The UK’s Investigatory Powers Act — the Snooper’s Charter — makes that inaccessibility illegal, which is why Apple is turning the feature off for UK customers.

Some services are end-to-end encrypted, regardless of the sensitivity of the data, such as passwords, information stored in the Health app, and payment information.

Make sure your account is set up for Advanced Data Protection

To set up ADP on your account, first make sure you’ve met all the prerequisites for the feature:

• Your Apple Account must use two-factor authentication.
• You must set up a recovery method in case you lose access to your account. That method can be a 28-character Recovery Key or a person you’ve designated as a Trusted Contact.
• Every device connected with your Apple Account must be able to run at least iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, MacOS 13.1, WatchOS 9.2, TVOS 16.2, or a HomePod running version 16.0. For Windows computers, make sure iCloud for Windows is at version 14.1 or later. You’ll be warned during the ADP setup process if any of your devices don’t qualify. If any of those are too old or you can no longer access them, tap Remove Devices in Settings and delete them from your list.

Steps to set up Advanced Data Protection

To turn on ADP on an iPhone, iPad or Mac do the following:

1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud. On a Mac, open System Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud.

2. Scroll down to Advanced Data Protection, which likely says Off, and tap that.

3. If there are any of the aforementioned impediments to setting up ADP, such as needing to update other devices on your account, you’ll review them on the next screen.

4. In the following screen, tap Review Recovery Options. You need to have a Recovery Key, Recovery Contact or both to ensure that you can get your data if you lose access to your iCloud account.

5. Enter your device’s passcode to finish.

Activating ADP on one device means it’s on for all your devices using the same Apple Account, so you only need to set it up once.

For more on securing your data and devices, see how to securely share a Wi-Fi password with Apple and Android devices and everything you need to know about Apple’s new Passwords app.

Runway AI is making waves again, this time with Game Worlds, a bold new platform that lets users build immersive games with nothing but text. The company, already valued at $3 billion, is bringing its Hollywood-grade AI tools to the gaming world, and full game creation capabilities are expected by late 2025.

From Film Sets to Game Dev: Runway AI Expands Its Empire

After helping create hits like House of David, Runway AI is now targeting gamers and developers. Game Worlds marks its first major step into interactive storytelling and real-time game generation.

Build Epic Game Worlds Using Only Your Words

Users can type simple prompts like “Build a haunted city with robot guards” and watch the world come to life. Think AI Dungeon but with high-end visuals and actual game logic. The early version focuses on narrative and illustration, but full interactivity is on the horizon.

Runway AI Empowers Indie Creators and Solo Devs

No coding, no budget? No problem. Game Worlds slashes traditional development costs and complexity, making game creation possible for indie teams and bedroom coders alike. Levels, characters, and quests can all be generated through natural language.

Speed Meets Scale: AI Cuts Dev Time by 40%

Runway AI claims its tools can reduce game development time dramatically. The company is already collaborating with studios to refine its AI models, which are trained on style, mechanics, and world-building frameworks.

Is This Innovation or Just AI Hype?

Critics argue that while the tech is exciting, AI-generated content may lack emotional depth and polish. Some also point to current challenges with exporting assets into engines like Unity or Unreal.

Coming Soon: Full Game Creation With a Single Prompt

By late 2025, Game Worlds will evolve to support real-time gameplay, movement, and decision-making, all powered by AI. If it works as promised, it could democratize game design for everyone.

Prime Day doesn’t kick off until Tuesday, July 8, but if you don’t want to wait until then, these 4th of July deals bring you a chance to save money on your next telescope ahead of the big four-day Prime event next week.

We’ve scoured the web for the best deals ahead of Prime Day, and the entire Celestron NexStar range is on sale right now with savings of up to $200, including our favorite telescope, the Celestron NexStar 8SE.

We only recommend products we truly love from brands we know and trust, and we keep track of prices throughout the year, so we can bring you genuine deals.

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