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Apple's product launch event is inching closer, and the Apple Watch Series 11 is one of the most anticipated devices we expect to see at the event - alongside the iPhone 17 series. The Apple Watch series has dramatically evolved over the past decade, but there's still room for improvement and anticipation for new features. Swirling rumors and speculations have given us a glimpse into what to expect from the next-gen Apple smartwatches. Here's a roundup of all we know about the Apple Watch Series 11 so far. More Apple Watch models for the September event Apple's September 2024 event saw the Watch Series 10 as the only smartwatch for the entire year. However, this year's event might also introduce the next-gen Apple Watch Ultra 3 alongside a new, cheaper SE variant. Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to get a sharper display, satellite connectivity, and hypertension detection capability. As for the latest Apple Watch SE, it could get a makeover, a new chip, and a plastic body to lower manufacturing costs. Design remains relatively unchanged Given that last year's Watch Series 10 got a refined design, it's less likely to see any noticeable change to this year's Watch Series 11. However, Apple might still try to give a slimmer profile to the Watch and make it lighter. The device is expected to launch in 42mm and 46mm variants. Other changes we are likely to see in Watch Series 11 include a higher-resolution LTPO display with more energy-saving capabilities and a better battery life with fast charging. While previous rumors said that Apple might add cameras to its smartwatches, the latest report by Gurman suggests that Apple has abandoned the plan and that its watches will not feature cameras anytime soon. A revamped WatchOS is on the way Bloomberg's Mark Guram already reported that Apple's major UI overhaul won't be limited to iPhones, iPads, and Mac devices; the company will also extend it to WatchOS and tvOS. For the software, you can expect to see a revamped WatchOS with a glass-like UI redesign. More details about Apple's new software will go public at the upcoming WWDC on June 9. The new UI design across Apple operating systems will take cues from Vision Pro's visionOS, bringing a unified and sophisticated design to all Apple ecosystems. A faster processor with each new generation Apple Watch has a new processor for every generation, and the Watch Series 11 is expected to continue this trend with a new, faster S11 chip under the hood. This chip, which also powers Watch Ultra 3 Apple Watch Series 11 is also rumored to support 5G RedCap through a MediaTek modem and satellite connectivity for sending texts and SOS messages. New life-saving and fitness features are down the road Blood pressure monitoring has been a constant part of all the Apple Watch Series 11 rumors. After years of anticipation, we might finally see the feature land on Apple Watch devices this year. Gurman reported that Apple has faced difficulties testing the feature as it requires new sensors and changes to the watch design. As for Blood oxygen monitoring, Apple hasn't yet resolved its patent dispute with health startup Masimo. So, US-based customers won't get Blood oxygen monitoring on their Apple Watch Series 11 anytime soon. Glucose monitoring is also said to be down the road, but it won't land on this year's Apple watches. Apple Watch Series 11 is also expected to get a revamped Health app that will focus on AI features powered by Apple Intelligence and provide personalized recommendations based on the user's health condition. Tariffs are looming over Apple In recent years, Apple has shown little interest in raising the prices of its smartwatches. Meanwhile, tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported goods and products from China and other countires might force Apple to increase prices in the US. If the current tariff dispute between Apple and Trump is resolved, the Apple Watch Series 11 price could start at $399. What do you think about Apple Watch Series 11? Can these new features convice you for an upgrade? Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Also: drumming chimpanzees, picking styles of two jazz greats, and an ancient underground city's soundscape It's a regrettable reality that there is never time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we've featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost) missed. This year, we're experimenting with a monthly collection. May's list includes a nifty experiment to make a predicted effect of special relativity visible; a ping-pong playing robot that can return hits with 88 percent accuracy; and the discovery of the rare genetic mutation that makes orange cats orange, among other highlights. Special relativity made visible Credit: TU Wien Perhaps the most well-known feature of Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity is time dilation and length contraction. In 1959, two physicists predicted another feature of relativistic motion: an object moving near the speed of light should also appear to be rotated. It's not been possible to demonstrate this experimentally, however—until now. Physicists at the Vienna University of Technology figured out how to reproduce this rotational effect in the lab using laser pulses and precision cameras, according to a paper published in the journal Communications Physics. They found their inspiration in art, specifically an earlier collaboration with an artist named Enar de Dios Rodriguez, who collaborated with VUT and the University of Vienna on a project involving ultra-fast photography and slow light. For this latest research, they used objects shaped like a cube and a sphere and moved them around the lab while zapping them with ultrashort laser pulses, recording the flashes with a high-speed camera. Getting the timing just right effectively yields similar results to a light speed of 2 m/s. After photographing the objects many times using this method, the team then combined the still images into a single image. The results: the cube looked twisted and the sphere's North Pole was in a different location—a demonstration of the rotational effect predicted back in 1959. DOI: Communications Physics, 2025. 10.1038/s42005-025-02003-6 (About DOIs). Drumming chimpanzees A chimpanzee feeling the rhythm. Credit: Current Biology/Eleuteri et al., 2025. Chimpanzees are known to "drum" on the roots of trees as a means of communication, often combining that action with what are known as "pant-hoot" vocalizations (see above video). Scientists have found that the chimps' drumming exhibits key elements of musical rhythm much like humans, according to a paper published in the journal Current Biology—specifically non-random timing and isochrony. And chimps from different geographical regions have different drumming rhythms. Back in 2022, the same team observed that individual chimps had unique styles of "buttress drumming," which served as a kind of communication, letting others in the same group know their identity, location, and activity. This time around they wanted to know if this was also true of chimps living in different groups and whether their drumming was rhythmic in nature. So they collected video footage of the drumming behavior among 11 chimpanzee communities across six populations in East Africa (Uganda) and West Africa (Ivory Coast), amounting to 371 drumming bouts. Their analysis of the drum patterns confirmed their hypothesis. The western chimps drummed in regularly spaced hits, used faster tempos, and started drumming earlier during their pant-hoot vocalizations. Eastern chimps would alternate between shorter and longer spaced hits. Since this kind of rhythmic percussion is one of the earliest evolved forms of human musical expression and is ubiquitous across cultures, findings such as this could shed light on how our love of rhythm evolved. DOI: Current Biology, 2025. 10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.019 (About DOIs). Distinctive styles of two jazz greats Credit: (l) Tom Marcello/CC BY-SA 2.0; (r) Chuck Stewart/Public domain Jazz lovers likely need no introduction to Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery, 20th century guitarists who influenced generations of jazz musicians with their innovative techniques. Montgomery, for instance, didn't use a pick, preferring to pluck the strings with his thumb—a method he developed because he practiced at night after working all day as a machinist and didn't want to wake his children or neighbors. Pass developed his own range of picking techniques, including fingerpicking, hybrid picking, and "flat picking." Chirag Gokani and Preston Wilson, both with Applied Research Laboratories and the University of Texas, Austin, greatly admired both Pass and Montgomery and decided to explore the underlying the acoustics of their distinctive playing, modeling the interactions of the thumb, fingers, and pick with a guitar string. They described their research during a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in New Orleans, LA. Among their findings: Montgomery achieved his warm tone by playing closer to the bridge and mostly plucking at the string. Pass's rich tone arose from a combination of using a pick and playing closer to the guitar neck. There were also differences in how much a thumb, finger, and pick slip off the string: use of the thumb (Montgomery) produced more of a "pluck" compared to the pick (Pass), which produced more of a "strike." Gokani and Wilson think their model could be used to synthesize digital guitars with a more realistic sound, as well as helping guitarists better emulate Pass and Montgomery. Sounds of an ancient underground city Credit: Sezin Nas Turkey is home to the underground city Derinkuyu, originally carved out inside soft volcanic rock around the 8th century BCE. It was later expanded to include four main ventilation channels (and some 50,000 smaller shafts) serving seven levels, which could be closed off from the inside with a large rolling stone. The city could hold up to 20,000 people and it was connected to another underground city, Kaymakli, via tunnels. Derinkuyu helped protect Arab Muslims during the Arab-Byzantine wars, served as a refuge from the Ottomans in the 14th century, and as a haven for Armenians escaping persecution in the early 20th century, among other functions. The tunnels were rediscovered in the 1960s and about half of the city has been open to visitors since 2016. The site is naturally of great archaeological interest, but there has been little to no research on the acoustics of the site, particularly the ventilation channels—one of Derinkuyu's most unique features, according to Sezin Nas, an architectural acoustician at Istanbul Galata University in Turkey. She gave a talk at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in New Orleans, LA, about her work on the site's acoustic environment. Nas analyzed a church, a living area, and a kitchen, measuring sound sources and reverberation patterns, among other factors, to create a 3D virtual soundscape. The hope is that a better understanding of this aspect of Derinkuyu could improve the design of future underground urban spaces—as well as one day using her virtual soundscape to enable visitors to experience the sounds of the city themselves. MIT's latest ping-pong robot Robots playing ping-pong have been a thing since the 1980s, of particular interest to scientists because it requires the robot to combine the slow, precise ability to grasp and pick up objects with dynamic, adaptable locomotion. Such robots need high-speed machine vision, fast motors and actuators, precise control, and the ability to make accurate predictions in real time, not to mention being able to develop a game strategy. More recent designs use AI techniques to allow the robots to "learn" from prior data to improve their performance. MIT researchers have built their own version of a ping-pong playing robot, incorporating a lightweight design and the ability to precisely return shots. They built on prior work developing the Humanoid, a small bipedal two-armed robot—specifically, modifying the Humanoid's arm by adding an extra degree of freedom to the wrist so the robot could control a ping-pong paddle. They tested their robot by mounting it on a ping-pong table and lobbing 150 balls at it from the other side of the table, capturing the action with high-speed cameras. The new bot can execute three different swing types (loop, drive, and chip) and during the trial runs it returned the ball with impressive accuracy across all three types: 88.4 percent, 89.2 percent, and 87.5 percent, respectively. Subsequent tweaks to theirrystem brought the robot's strike speed up to 19 meters per second (about 42 MPH), close to the 12 to 25 meters per second of advanced human players. The addition of control algorithms gave the robot the ability to aim. The robot still has limited mobility and reach because it has to be fixed to the ping-pong table but the MIT researchers plan to rig it to a gantry or wheeled platform in the future to address that shortcoming. Why orange cats are orange Credit: Astropulse/CC BY-SA 3.0 Cat lovers know orange cats are special for more than their unique coloring, but that's the quality that has intrigued scientists for almost a century. Sure, lots of animals have orange, ginger, or yellow hues, like tigers, orangutans, and golden retrievers. But in domestic cats that color is specifically linked to sex. Almost all orange cats are male. Scientists have now identified the genetic mutation responsible and it appears to be unique to cats, according to a paper published in the journal Current Biology. Prior work had narrowed down the region on the X chromosome most likely to contain the relevant mutation. The scientists knew that females usually have just one copy of the mutation and in that case have tortoiseshell (partially orange) coloring, although in rare cases, a female cat will be orange if both X chromosomes have the mutation. Over the last five to ten years, there has been an explosion in genome resources (including complete sequenced genomes) for cats which greatly aided the team's research, along with taking additional DNA samples from cats at spay and neuter clinics. From an initial pool of 51 candidate variants, the scientists narrowed it down to three genes, only one of which was likely to play any role in gene regulation: Arhgap36. It wasn't known to play any role in pigment cells in humans, mice, or non-orange cats. But orange cats are special; their mutation (sex-linked orange) turns on Arhgap36 expression in pigment cells (and only pigment cells), thereby interfering with the molecular pathway that controls coat color in other orange-shaded mammals. The scientists suggest that this is an example of how genes can acquire new functions, thereby enabling species to better adapt and evolve. DOI: Current Biology, 2025. 10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.075 (About DOIs). Not a Roman "massacre" after all Credit: Martin Smith In 1936, archaeologists excavating the Iron Age hill fort Maiden Castle in the UK unearthed dozens of human skeletons, all showing signs of lethal injuries to the head and upper body—likely inflicted with weaponry. At the time, this was interpreted as evidence of a pitched battle between the Britons of the local Durotriges tribe and invading Romans. The Romans slaughtered the native inhabitants, thereby bringing a sudden violent end to the Iron Age. At least that's the popular narrative that has prevailed ever since in countless popular articles, books, and documentaries. But a paper published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology calls that narrative into question. Archaeologists at Bournemouth University have re-analyzed those burials, incorporating radiocarbon dating into their efforts. They concluded that those individuals didn't die in a single brutal battle. Rather, it was Britons killing other Britons over multiple generations between the first century BCE and the first century CE—most likely in periodic localized outbursts of violence in the lead-up to the Roman conquest of Britain. It's possible there are still many human remains waiting to be discovered at the site, which could shed further light on what happened at Maiden Castle. DOI: Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2025. 10.1111/ojoa.12324 (About DOIs). Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Earlier this month, we reported on a couple of big changes Microsoft is bringing regarding Windows hardware testing. First, the tech giant deprecated Windows Device metadata and the Windows Metadata and Internet Services (WMIS) on the latest OS version of Windows 11. First, Microsoft also published an updated HLK or hardware lab kit release with many new validation tests related to Bluetooth LE Audio, among other improvements. LE Audio received official Windows requirements earlier this year in February. Under the Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP), HLK, as mentioned above, is used to test and validate various hardware and their corresponding drivers and software to ensure Windows compatibility so that all the features of such hardware will work as intended. Unfortunately, in this area, USB-C support has not been the greatest, and Microsoft knows it. As such, today, Microsoft has published a detailed blog post explaining why that is changing soon. The company has stated that it will try and enforce the various optional USB-C functionalities into mandatory ones so that users will not have to wonder and guess which of the USB-C features will work on their PC. Microsoft says that this applies to mobile (laptop and notebook) systems only, at least for the moment. This looks like a great initiative by Microsoft given that it is not often clearly defined which PC supports which of the features and thus with a mandatory baseline for the various USB-C functionalities, laptop makers and OEMs will be forced to make all such features available and make like easier for consumers. The company had earlier published a support article regarding "USB4 device functionality might be limited" problems that users face. As you can see in the image above, Microsoft has published a new set of requirements for Windows 11 USB4 and USB 3.0 devices to make the support for the following functions compulsory alongside their rated throughputs: USB4 15 watts or higher charging Dual 4K 60 Hz display support PCIe 3.0 Intel Thunderbolt 3 USB 3.0 4.5 to 15 watts charging 1x display support You can find the official blog post here on Microsoft's Tech Community website. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

It's been a while since we've done one of these, but the Microsoft 365 roadmap site never sleeps. This week brings several notable updates, especially for Teams users, with a significant number of features targeting a July 2025 general availability. First up, Teams meetings are set to become a bit more intelligent. Copilot within these meetings will soon gain the ability to search the web and also analyze your work files and contacts. This enhancement is slated for general availability in July 2025. Speaking of meeting efficiency, for those sessions that stretch endlessly, a new countdown timer is also coming to Teams meetings in July. Any participant can initiate a timer, and its colors will change as zero hour approaches. Accessibility in Teams meetings is also receiving a significant and much-needed improvement for sign language users. By July, interpreters will be clearly identified, and deaf or hard-of-hearing participants using sign language will be automatically spotlighted as active speakers, ensuring their contributions are seen alongside spoken ones. For organizations with specific jargon, tenant administrators will be able to upload a Custom Dictionary through the M365 Admin Portal by July. This should improve the accuracy of Teams meeting transcripts and Copilot's understanding of company-specific terms. Beyond meetings, Teams users on mobile are not forgotten. Next month should see the arrival of custom ringtones and the ability to set specific alert behaviors for assigned line keys. Then, in July, Copilot support will extend to 1:1 and group calls on Teams phone devices, alongside intelligent suggestions for call transfers based on your recent activity. For those of us who juggle multiple chats and apps, the ability to open Teams' apps like Chat and Calls in separate windows, also slated for July. Finally, Outlook gets a couple of updates. Automatic spellcheck and grammar assistance, core Editor functions, are finally rolling out in next month. It's a bit surprising this was not standard already, but its arrival is welcome. Users will also find it easier to insert graphics like emoji and stock photos from the ribbon, an update planned for July. Microsoft is also making it easier to "keep your inbox clean," so soon, when you report an email as junk, you may also get an option to unsubscribe. This feature is set to begin rolling out next month as well. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

When programs crash on Linux, they usually create a core dump containing the program’s memory at crash time to help developers resolve problems. This is crucial for developers so they can address bugs, but right now, the program responsible for creating core dumps in Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distributions like AnduinOS, are also vulnerable to a new exploit. The bug has been tagged with the CVE number CVE-2025-5054 and has a CVSS score of 4.7 (MEDIUM). This bug is inherently harder to exploit because it requires local access to the victim’s computer. Furthermore, Qualys, which discovered the fault, showed off a demo where it was able to leak hashed user passwords. While this isn’t great, the real-world impact is limited. How the vulnerability works Qualys found that when apport analyzes application crashes, it has a look if the process was running inside a container before performing consistency checks on it. If an attacker can manage to crash a program within a privileged process and quickly replaces it with the same process ID and residing in both a mount and PID namespace, they can get apport to forward the core dump to them via the namespace. The core dump may contain sensitive information from the privileged process. Aside from the attacker only being able to perform this locally, they must also have significant permissions to carry out the attack, limiting the damage that the issue can cause. What to do about it Thankfully, Canonical’s security team has already published updates for apport to fix this issue on all affected Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server. If you have unattended upgrades switched on, you may already be patched, but if you’re not sure, just check for and apply the latest updates with this command: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade If you can’t apply all available updates for whatever reason, then you can run these commands to just update apport: Ubuntu 20.04 and newer: sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade apport python3-apport Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04: sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade apport python3-apport python-apport Do you need to rush to install this update? Given the limited impact of this vulnerability, you’re likely to be fine if you don’t patch right away. With that said, it only takes a couple of minutes to perform the update and it’s good for peace of mind. You may also have more critical updates ready to install to that you haven’t noticed so updating promptly is recommended to catch those too. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The KDE team has released the latest issue of This Week in Plasma, and it's packed with goodies. Most of the current effort is focused on polishing Plasma 6.4, as shown by yesterday's Plasma 6.4 Beta 2 release with bug fixes and improvements like smarter Bluetooth with better device recognition and easier pairing. At the same time, the latest report gives us a tantalizing look at what's cooking for Plasma 6.5. The big headliner for Plasma 6.5 has to be memory optimization. The developers are working to reduce Plasma's memory footprint by making it smarter about how it handles wallpapers. Apparently, Plasma has been keeping a few too many unnecessary copies of each screen's wallpaper sitting in memory, and fixing that should make the whole desktop feel a bit lighter and snappier. Beyond that, 6.5 is also set to introduce the ability to advance your wallpaper slideshow with a keyboard shortcut. KWin's Magnifier and Zoom effects will also get smarter, sharing their initial zoom level and zoom factor settings, making them more consistent to use. The Digital Clock widget's calendar add-ons page is getting a visual makeover, and Plasma will even start warning you if you crank up the "Raise maximum volume" setting for too long, reminding you it is for temporary boosts and could damage your speakers. Plus, the System Settings page for Legacy X11 App Support is being made clearer about its purpose and security implications, and the menu you get when clicking an app icon in a window's titlebar will now be consistently called the "Window Menu" everywhere. Behind all this desktop goodness are regular updates to KDE Frameworks and Qt, the core libraries that KDE software depends on. For example, Frameworks 6.15 is fixing some annoying KWin crashes, glitches that made KWallet freeze, and a bug that turned some Breeze icons into plain white squares in GTK 3 apps. On the Qt side, version 6.8.4 tackles one of the most common random crashes in QtQuick-based KDE apps, bringing a big boost in stability across the board. Looking ahead, Qt 6.10 will fix the issue where context menus pop up in the wrong spot on multi-screen setups. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend