Wayne Williams

Humberside Police in the UK has released results from a trial of an AI assistant designed to guide officers in the field, suggesting that it could save more than 23,000 officer hours per year. The “Project Moriarty” pilot with Coeus Software looked into how British police forces could use AI to boost efficiency and consistency.

AI is inevitably finding its way into frontline policing, as it is in other professions, and the results from the Humberside Police trial show both its promise and its limits.

Experts are warning that the rapid development and growing availability of artificial intelligence tools is leading to an alarming rise in cybercrimes targeting older adults. Since technology alone cannot stop social engineering, specialists suggest that seniors learn to recognize the recurring scam patterns that criminals have used for decades to steal money and personal data.

The surge in AI is giving cybercriminals new ways to deceive people, with elderly users often among the main targets. According to The Hidden Cost of Scams [PDF] report by Independent Age, adults over 65 in the UK lose an average of nearly £4,000 each, with total losses reaching about £7.4 billion.

After years of requests, WhatsApp is finally, fully available on Apple Watch. The app gives users access to many of the core messaging functions found on the phone version, including reading and responding to chats, recording and sending voice messages, and viewing photos and stickers.

The new app will allow users to check messages, respond with quick replies, and listen to or send voice notes directly through the watch. If you rely on WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends, family or work, you can now use it while on a run, during a commute, or in situations where using a phone isn’t possible.

Agon by AOC has announced the first QD-OLED gaming monitors in its AOC GAMING range. The 27-inch Q27G4ZDR and Q27G4SDR introduce OLED panel technology to AOC’s entry-level gaming line, combining QHD resolution with high refresh rates aimed at competitive players.

Both monitors use QD-OLED panels rated for 0.03ms response time and high contrast ratios. The Q27G4ZDR runs at 240Hz, while the Q27G4SDR ramps that up to 360Hz. Each has QHD resolution at 2560x1440 and 10-bit color depth with a reported 1.07 billion colors. The design follows the company’s G4 series styling with slim bezels and a matte finish.

Ashampoo has released Backup Pro 27, an updated version of its backup software designed to help prevent data loss caused by drive failure, malware, or accidental deletion.

Aimed at both home and small business users, the new Ashampoo Backup Pro 27 improves how users create and manage backup plans, and offers faster performance and better support for modern Windows features.

Freepik has introduced Freepik Spaces, a new product within its AI Creative Suite to allow creative teams to design, automate, and collaborate on visual projects in real time. The platform uses a node-based interface that brings the entire creative process onto one shared canvas, so teams can move from concept to campaign within a single environment.

Freepik Spaces is targeting creative directors, advertisers, marketers, filmmakers, innovation leads, and other professionals who work across visual media. Users can connect multiple AI tools and workflows within the same space, doing away with the need to switch between separate applications. The goal is to streamline production and make collaboration easier for distributed teams.

European organizations are encountering ransomware at a record pace, according to CrowdStrike’s 2025 European Threat Landscape Report. The new study found that Europe accounted for nearly 22 percent of global ransomware and extortion victims, second only to the US.

With attacks taking just 24 hours on average, the report shows a worryingly aggressive and complex threat for businesses and governments across the region.

Durabook has announced the R10 Copilot+ PC 10-inch fully rugged tablet powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 200V series processor. Designed for harsh and demanding environments, the R10 combines high performance, AI-driven capabilities, and durability.

The R10 is one of the first available Copilot+ PC rugged tablets, adding new AI features while maintaining Durabook’s focus on field-ready resilience. The tablet can be used as a 2-in-1 device when connected to a detachable backlit keyboard.

Canva has rolled out its new Creative Operating System, a unified platform that brings together design, collaboration, publishing, and performance tools. Built on its proprietary Design Model, the new system integrates artificial intelligence across the creative process, combining new products for video, marketing, forms, and professional design.

Canva describes its new system as a faster and smarter way to design, where human creativity leads and AI enhances what people can produce.

OpenUK has announced plans to collaborate with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to shape new recommendations for sustainable software development across the UK public sector. The work will improve how government and public bodies create, release, and maintain open source software, and also make sure that software funded through public money can be reused and improved long term.

The collaboration focuses on practical implementation as much as policy. OpenUK describes the initiative as an effort to move from goal-setting to action -- so that open source development and reuse become a central part of how the UK public sector approaches digital transformation.

SUSE has released SUSE Linux Enterprise 16, which it describes as the first enterprise Linux distribution to integrate agentic AI through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The update aims to let operating systems interact more directly with AI models and external data sources.

The Model Context Protocol, introduced in 2024 by Anthropic, is an open standard for connecting large language models to tools and data. It defines a simple client-server structure that allows AI systems to request information or perform tasks across different applications in a consistent way. SUSE’s adoption of MCP is meant to make those capabilities available at the operating system level, without depending on a single AI provider.

AI assistants, like chatbots, have been providing customer support and functioning in sales and internal support roles for a very long time. Autonomous agents are the next level of AI, as they incorporate reasoning, planning, and execution.

This is already happening on a larger scale in enterprises, with autonomous AI agents streamlining development processes. 79 percent of executives in PwC's report, AI and the Future of Work, maintain that agentic AI is a key driver for prioritizing automation and productivity. 

RealWear has unveiled its latest assisted reality headset, Arc 3, alongside a new operating system, Ari OS. The aim is to improve safety and efficiency for frontline workers by providing hands-free access to information, enabling collaboration, and reducing distractions in complex environments.

The Arc 3 headset marks RealWear’s expansion into lighter, more versatile designs. At 179 grams, it is the company’s first see-through headset with a double retina resolution display.

Cyber insurance has become the fastest-growing area of demand in the insurance sector, as conflicts and geopolitical tensions increasingly spill into cyberspace. Organizations are reportedly investing ever more heavily in protection against cyberattacks, while insurers are adapting coverage and response capabilities to address complex, politically driven digital risks, according to new findings from GlobalData.

A GlobalData poll conducted across its Verdict Media network, found that 27.4 percent of industry professionals expect cyber insurance to see the sharpest increase in demand. This placed it ahead of political risk insurance at 25 percent, supply chain insurance at 23.8 percent, and business interruption insurance at 13.1 percent. The data suggests that concerns about digital security now outweigh those linked to traditional operational and political exposures.

Mastercard has introduced a new service designed to help financial institutions detect and prevent payment fraud before it happens. Mastercard Threat Intelligence will combine the company’s global fraud data with cyber threat intelligence from Recorded Future, resulting in a deeper level of visibility to how fraud originates and spreads across the payments ecosystem.

Fraud doesn’t always start when someone tries to buy something with a stolen card. In fact, it often begins much earlier -- when criminals hack a website to steal card details, run automated tests on stolen cards, or plant malware to skim payment data, for example. Mastercard’s new system helps banks’ fraud teams and cybersecurity teams spot these early warning signs together, instead of waiting until fraudulent transactions happen.