DuckDuckGo is most famous for its privacy-focused search engine and browser (we've reviewed it here), but it also provides other tools that help users surf the web without giving out their identities. These tools are offered under a single, cost-competitive Pro bundle. It's a VPN, AI tool, and data removal service all in one.

I’m reviewing the DuckDuckGo Pro bundle to help you decide if it’s worth adopting for your online security. Read on to learn what this bundle offers, its pros, cons, and how it compares to the competition.

DuckDuckGo: Plans and pricing

DuckDuckGo follows a simple pricing system, which I like - you can see all the plans by clicking here. A monthly subscription costs $19.99 and unlocks access to all Pro features. An annual subscription is discounted to $200, equivalent to $17 per month instead of the $19.99 paid on a month-to-month basis. This discount is quite small compared to what I’ve seen on rivals, but is a discount nonetheless.

The pricing varies slightly for users who live outside the U.S. For example, U.K.-based users pay 19.99 pounds monthly and 200 pounds annually. Converted to the U.S. dollar, that sums up to $27 per month and $273 annually (inclusive of value-added tax). Other countries have similar pricing variations, so you may pay more (or less) than the sticker price mentioned.

DuckDuckGo offers a 7-day free trial for its Pro plan. This is shorter than the 14 to 30-day free trials I’ve used on various online security platforms, but still provides an opportunity to test the features before deciding whether to pay.

Subscriptions can be cancelled anytime, but DuckDuckGo’s website doesn’t mention a specific money-back guarantee period. It seems that refunds can be requested, but it’ll take a lot of back and forth, which I consider a drawback.

DuckDuckGo: Setup

Setting up DuckDuckGo Privacy Pro isn’t as straightforward as most security software bundles I’ve reviewed. You’ll need to first download the DuckDuckGo browser on your PC or smartphone (you can’t use Pro features on Chrome, Firefox, or Edge). The privacy-focused browser is the foundation of DuckDuckGo’s Pro package: it blocks ads, trackers, and cookies that pose privacy risks. The browser is free, but the Pro bundle unlocks enhanced security features, which are the focus of this review.

After paying for a Pro subscription, the first feature to take note of is the VPN. This VPN, built into the DuckDuckGo browser, routes your traffic through remote servers to prevent third-party tracking. Your location, IP address, and browsing history get hidden from third parties, like advertisers or, at worst, malicious actors.

There’s a limitation, though. DuckDuckGo’s VPN servers are concentrated in the U.S. and Europe, with few outside these locations. If you’re surfing the web from, let’s say, the Middle East, connections can get a bit slower because of the server distance. DuckDuckGo’s VPN isn’t like full-fledged VPNs that let you choose from dozens of countries.

On the bright side, DuckDuckGo’s VPN has a default kill switch, which automatically cuts off your internet connection if the VPN malfunctions, ensuring your data doesn’t leak because of a slight network mishap. I checked thoroughly, but didn’t find any button to turn off this kill switch, which is a plus in my perspective. Turning off a kill switch poses privacy risks during network lapses.

The VPN coverage can be used on five devices simultaneously. For example, you can install it on your work PC, home PC, and smartphone via the DuckDuckGo browser. Your traffic gets encrypted on all connected devices.

Another key feature offered under DuckDuckGo Pro is quite unique: identity theft restoration. If you face any incident of identity theft, you can work with an expert to mitigate the effects. For example, the expert helps identify fraudulent transactions that your card may have been used for and then files reimbursement claims with your bank. You'll also get help in fixing any credit report errors from fraudulent transactions.

There’s a catch, though: DuckDuckGo doesn’t offer identity theft restoration services directly. Rather, it has partnered with Iris, a prominent ID protection platform, to provide this service. You’ll be working with Iris’ experts if you use this service.

In this AI era, you’ll hardly find a security platform that doesn’t offer an AI-centric feature. For Pro subscribers, DuckDuckGo offers advanced chatbots (based on ChatGPT and Claude) with active privacy protection. This way, you won’t have to pay separately for the premium versions of Claude and ChatGPT, as DuckDuckGo offers access under the Pro bundle.

Overall, DuckDuckGo’s Pro bundle is feature-rich and effective at maximizing online privacy. However, with plans starting at $19.99 per month, I think it’s quite pricey.

DuckDuckGo: Ease of use

DuckDuckGo is a mixed bag when it comes to ease of use. Its features are exclusive to the DuckDuckGo browser, not the more popular Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers.

For most people, paying for the Pro bundle means learning to use a new browser on Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android. I didn’t find it difficult to get adapted to the DuckDuckGo browser, but it took some time because the browser worked differently from the ones I was used to.

DuckDuckGo: Security and privacy

DuckDuckGo offers a very effective online privacy suite, starting with a browser that doesn’t allow cookies, trackers, or anything that keeps a trail of the sites you visit. The built-in VPN encrypts your online traffic and prevents third-party prying eyes.

Identity theft restoration is another valuable service, and so is the bonus of interacting with advanced chatbots. You’ll be a lot safer online when using DuckDuckGo’s Pro bundle.

DuckDuckGo: Support

DuckDuckGo offers decent support resources. You can start with the help page, which lists answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). I liked the breakdown of questions people often ask about DuckDuckGo’s privacy features and the detailed answers provided.

Users who need direct help can contact DuckDuckGo’s support team via email or by filling out a support form. There’s also an option to interact with DuckDuckGo’s staff via a dedicated forum on Reddit. However, there’s no telephone or live chat support, which I consider a major drawback given the price of a DuckDuckGo Pro subscription.

DuckDuckGo: Competition

Given the many features offered under DuckDuckGo Pro, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact competitor. Instead, I’ll highlight some competitors to key DuckDuckGo Pro features.

For the private browser, Brave is a notable option. After using both, I’ll say Brave offers more privacy controls and is more advanced in general. For instance, Brave supports browser extensions just like you’ll find on Chrome, but the DuckDuckGo Browser doesn’t.

For DuckDuckGo’s VPN, I’ll say any dedicated VPN app like Surfshark and Windscribe would be a better option, with broader server locations to choose from.

However, the point of DuckDuckGo Pro is to kill multiple birds with one stone: you won’t get the best of each feature, but, overall, you’ll get a good deal.

DuckDuckGo: Final verdict

A DuckDuckGo Pro bundle maximizes your online privacy, preventing third parties from tracking your online activities. If you want to surf the web without leaking data that’ll stay on the internet for a long time, I highly recommend it. However, you’d need to be ready to switch to a new browser and pay a significant amount, which I would see as drawbacks.

A potential requirement for 4 gigawatts of computing power has prompted TikTok's American business to investigate additional infrastructure arrangements beyond its current resources.

The company has reportedly contacted potential suppliers about future capacity, although its existing partnership with Oracle remains central to American operations.

TikTok has denied any suggestion of an impending replacement, maintaining that its principal cloud services remain the same.

A massive computing requirement raises supplier questions

“Oracle will continue to be our primary cloud infrastructure provider,” said a TikTok spokesperson.

However, the company did not disclose whether it intends to obtain the additional computing capacity from other providers.

The proposed expansion concerns computing resources that TikTok might need during the early 2030s, rather than capacity already secured through contractual agreements.

According to CNBC, two sources familiar with TikTok's infrastructure discussions confirmed that the company was exploring opportunities to secure additional computing capacity.

One source estimated that TikTok could require approximately 4 gigawatts by the early 2030s, although potential suppliers and agreements remain undisclosed.

The reported scale comes amid increasing demand for electricity and computing equipment as companies develop more resource-intensive artificial intelligence systems.

TikTok's American business already depends heavily on Oracle, whose cloud operations generally use data center buildings leased from third parties.

That arrangement allows Oracle to provide computing services without necessarily owning the physical facilities containing the servers and supporting electrical equipment.

Machine learning ambitions add another dimension

Beyond operating its social media platform, TikTok is recruiting specialists to develop artificial intelligence applications that could require additional processing infrastructure.

Several vacancies advertised by its American organization concern machine learning, while another describes work involving sophisticated AI models and automated content creation.

The latter position concerns a commercial AI offering designed for business customers, involving model inference and software capable of generating creative material.

These recruitment activities establish ongoing technical development, although the company has not connected individual projects to its reported multigigawatt infrastructure requirement.

TikTok's American operations also face specific computing responsibilities arising from changes to the platform's ownership and handling of domestic user information.

Established in 2026, TikTok USDS Joint Venture followed an executive order from President Donald Trump requiring changes to ByteDance's American ownership arrangements.

ByteDance retained 19.9% of the resulting enterprise, while Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX became managing investors with individual ownership stakes of 15%.

Additional financial backing came from Michael Dell's family investment office, which joined the ownership arrangement following the restructuring of TikTok's American business.

In January, the company announced that its recommendation algorithm would undergo domestic training and evaluation using information collected from users in America.

Oracle was designated to host the algorithm within its American cloud infrastructure, giving the provider an established role in handling TikTok's recommendation technology.

The company has not specified whether its potential 4-gigawatt expansion would support these algorithmic operations, commercial AI development, or other computing requirements.

The name 'PROLED XDR' is a new piece of jargon that Apple's debuting with this machine. So what actually is it?

The short answer is that it's a 'Tandem OLED' panel, which means that it uses multiple layers of organic light-emitting diodes — in this case, two layers. Two OLED layers are better than one because the result is considerably brighter than a single-layer OLED: you literally have two OLEDs firing per pixel. It also boosts longevity, because each of the two layers doesn't have to work as hard, so they have a longer lifespan and are more likely to avoid burn-in.

Apple has stayed away from OLED for its MacBook Pro displays in the past, and clearly that's changed. According to Apple that's because PROLED XDR "finally" overcomes the traditional limitations of OLED: low and variable brightness, off-axis color shift and the risk of burn-in from displaying the same interface elements, such as toolbars and palettes, whenever the screen is on.

The confusing thing, however, is that this isn't Apple's first use of Tandem OLED. It used the technology in its shift to OLED in the iPad Pro, but those aren't branded as PROLED XDR. Those are called 'Ultra Retina XDR' displays.

So let's look at the performance differences listed by Apple that put the 'pro' in PROLED.

What's so special about PROLED XDR displays

The Tandem OLED inside the new MacBook Pros is very bright, delivering up to 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness (ie, in a small area of the screen for a short time) and up to 1,000 nits of sustained fullscreen brightness (ie, across the entire screen at once, without having to dim quickly).

The iPad Pro (2025)'s display is also capable of 1,000 nits of fullscreen brightness, but has a rated peak brightness of 1,600 nits — so the MacBook Pro is 25% brighter. That will bring a nice extra boost to clarity in bright HDR scenes, but won't make a huge difference really — the fullscreen brightness is the most important factor, and that's the same on both.

Because it's OLED, it gives you the blackest of black tones — there's no backlight to leak light into areas it shouldn't go — and a very high contrast ratio, in this case 10,000,000:1. That again is an interesting difference from the iPad Pro, which has a claimed contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1.

Why a 5x difference if the brightness is only 25% different? Apple hasn't explicitly said, but it must come down the lowest level of brightness that can be measured on the screen. Doing the math on the iPad's 1,600-nit display with a 2,000,000:1 ratio gives us a lowest brightness of 0.0008 nits. On the PROLED XDR's display, a 2,000-nit panel with a 10,000,000 contrast ratio gives us a lowest brightness of 0.0002 nits.

We can assume this is down to the new panel design, aimed at "minimizing internal reflections common in traditional OLED designs" — so less light is reflected within the panel itself, which could be the difference between those two different black levels.

But if you're looking at 0.0008 nits and 0.0002 nits and thinking the difference must be indistinguishable, then… yes, correct. They will both appear totally black to the human eye when they're supposed to. But it produces a big difference in contrast ratio, because multiplication is overdramatic.

There are other indications that the MacBook Pro's PROLED XDR display might beat the iPad Pro's in other areas. Apple says it can achieve over 80% of the BT.2020 color gamut, which suggest it's likely to hit close to 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut — the iPad Pro was measured by our lab at around 82% of DCI-P3, so that would be a clear jump here.

The screen is powered by a display engine that's been built into the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, which Apple says "continuously compensates each pixel for content, usage, temperature, and ambient conditions".

Refresh rates are variable from 10Hz to 120Hz (with discrete options for film-makers: 47.95Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, and 59.94Hz), and as we've seen with other Apple products there's a nano-texture glass option for people who'll be working in overly bright environments.

The big selling point here is reference monitor accuracy that you can take wherever you go, making these MacBook Pros ideal for video pros and mobile creatives of all kinds.

So do you need it? If you're making the next Wildwood — go see this movie, it's incredible — or working with high-res, high-quality video then these are by far the best Mac mobile laptops that Apple has ever made. But I suspect most of them will end up with people who aren't video pros, but who really like really good displays. I'd love to see Cyberpunk 2077 on one of these.

If you're technically minded Apple has put together a full technical paper on the new displays, and you can read it right here.

I get it. Most people won’t need the LiberNovo Maxis. Most people will see the price, baulk, and close the website. It’s expensive, its headline features run on a rechargeable battery, and it’s more chair than your everyday hybrid or remote worker needs.

But it’s also ergonomic, stunningly designed, cleverly engineered, and built for big and tall users without the usual flabby, foamy designs that I see for half or even a quarter of the price of the Maxis. It’s also one of the best office chairs I’ve tested. If you're over 5'10", you'll want to check this out.

On top of that, the model I’m reviewing here - the Maxis Airflow - includes a cooling fan in the seat, electric lumbar adjustments, and a back massager called the OmniStretch designed for relieving tension.

So, this is not your everyday office chair. It’s an elite seat for professionals who prize all-day comfort, a stylish ergonomic design, supportive top-end features, and don’t mind paying a fair chunk of change for that.

LiberNovo Maxis: Price & availability

The LiberNovo Maxis is available direct from the maker, and I’m also seeing it at online retailers including Amazon and Best Buy.

I’ve danced around that price tag enough. In the US, the LiberNovo Maxis has a list price of $1299; from the UK site, it’s £1099. At the time of review, both are discounted to $1119 / £1002.

And that’s for the base manual model. The Maxis Electric, which includes the electric adjustments to the lower back support sends the price to $1799 / £1579, while the Maxis Airflow reviewed here is priced at $1859 / £1699 (although again, at time of review, they are discounted by around two-hundred bucks).

On top of that, you can buy the chair in three different bundles: the standalone chair, the Standard pack which comes with a footrest, and the Premium Bundle which also adds a spare rechargeable battery. Unless you’re using the electric features constantly, I’d recommend either the Basic or Standard bundle.

All in all, the Maxis is firmly in the premium price bracket, alongside top-tier brands in the office furniture world like Herman Miller and Steelcase. I can understand why, in terms of build quality and design.

• Value: 4 / 5

LiberNovo Maxis: Assembly

This beast of a chair came in two massive boxes (three, if you count the footrest).

As ever, I recommend building this in the room you’ll use it in because this one is heavy and unwieldy to move. The gouges and marks on my wall as I struggled to move it upstairs are evidence of that.

All told, it took me around 40 minutes from unboxing to fully built chair. That’s on the longer side, but LiberNovo makes assembly as easy as possible. Forget your little instruction manuals with walls of text. This one comes with a massive sheet of card that pictorially guides you through each and every step.

It’s also the first office chair I’ve ever tested that includes white gloves for handling it. Maybe that’s over the top, but can bet I pulled them on and wore them throughout the assembly process.

• Assembly: 5 / 5

LiberNovo Maxis: Design & build

Build quality and design are superb. The pieces feel weighty, and I experienced no creaking or squeaking as I swivelled, reclined, and generally made a nuisance of myself at my desk.

This is a premium chair across the board, right down to the wide single-piece aluminum base that feels like it will capably and confidently support anyone up to the recommended weight of 399 lbs (181kg).

Being built for big and tall users, the Maxis is designed for those between 5'10” and 6'7”. Now, I’m an inch shy of the minimum recommended height and yes, it is slightly too large for me - particularly in the broad seat, which provides ample width and depth. I had to dial down the adjustability on the headrest and armrests to its minimum settings to stay comfortable and snug. Effectively, my negative experience here is a positive for larger, taller body types.

In terms of design, I had one thought: This is like an office chair designed by HR Geiger with its Xenomorph-like exoskeleton on the tapering backrest. Unlike so many I test, it’s a real executive statement piece.

• Design & build: 5 / 5

LiberNovo Maxis: Performance & features

I always judge office chairs chiefly on two factors: comfort and support. Here, the LiberNovo Maxis is an easy win. I used this chair for eight hours a day while working and it stayed comfortable from first to last hour. After that, I spent a few extra hours in it, feet up on the footrest, while gaming. I still didn’t tire of the chair or feel fatigue or numbness that some cheap chairs can inflict on me.

And then, of course, there’s that back massager. Actually, I’m not sure ‘massager’ is the right word here. LiberNovo calls it the OmniStretch, billing it as a way to lean back and decompress. I’d liken it to having a couple of fists kneading deep into your lower back while the whole backrest quickly but gently vibrates. That may not sound comfortable, but I promise you it is. It runs for a set five minutes at the press of a button. My pregnant wife has been using it daily for relaxation and pain relief.

Now, I generally avoid foam and fabric office chairs. I run hot, and prefer breathable mesh. And while the seat can get warm when sitting down all day, I found the two-speed cooling fan - only available on the Airflow model - was a very good solution that actually helped maintain a cooler body temperature.

Adjustability is excellent on this chair, and I found it easy to fiddle around with the headrest, seat elevation, recline tension, and swivel armrests. However, the standout mechanism is the motorized lumbar support buttons located below the left armrest. So, I’m not constantly reaching under or around the chair to adjust the positioning for continued support.

What’s notable is the Dynamic Support, so when I reclined back, the seat stayed stable while the armrests dropped back with me so I could feel supported in any position. I appreciated the steady recline system in place here, too. As you lean back, it won’t suddenly fall back, but eases itself into position. The tension can be altered using the under-seat knob, while the recline can be set to lock at different angles depending on how far you want to lean back.

Where it lacks adjustments is the seat depth, which is fixed at a larger-than-average 52cm, which makes it more suitable for taller users. I would’ve also liked lockable armrests. Like a lot of office chairs, they’re directional, moving laterally and swinging in and out without much pressure. That’s fine if you’re getting up and moving around a lot, but not if you’re locking in for longer work sessions. But I appreciate this may be a me problem - I had the same complaint with the Boulies EP600 I recently reviewed.

As I say, it’s a lot of chair for the money - the only one I’ve tested that comes with a rechargeable battery. And not every professional, whether in the office or working hybrid/remote, will need a seat at this level. But I can’t fault the comfort or design at all.

• Performance & features: 5 / 5

Should I buy the LiberNovo Maxis?

✅ Buy it if...

You’re built bigger or taller. The Maxis is specifically engineered for larger body types without compromising on style, comfort, or support.

You want all the bells and whistles. This high-quality office chair does it all. If you’re going to splurge out, it might as well be one with a massager and fan.

❌ Don't buy it if...

You don’t need the extra features. You're paying for well-designed ergonomics and features most office chairs will never have.

You’re under 5’10”. I’d recommend the LiberNovo Omni or LiberNovo Omni Pro if you want the same design ethos.

How I tested the LiberNovo Maxis

For two weeks, the LiberNovo Maxis Airflow became my daily driver chair. Eight hours a day, minimum, I've been sitting on it at work. And, once the work laptop was closed, I carried on using it, both while gaming and using the OmniStretch massaging feature multiple times throughout the testing period (when I could get my wife to stop using it!). During those times, I tended to pair it with LiberNovo's adjustable footrest for the added relaxation.

Apple CEO John Ternus didn't waste much time on stage, quickly announcing the laptops and running through key innovations like the tandem OLED (PROLED) screens and relatively lightweight (3lbs for the 14-inch model and 4lbs for the 16-inch one) before leaving the stage and directing the assembled group of media, analysts, creators, and Apple execs to an adjacent space where I got my first experience ever with a touchscreen MacBook.

You've been waiting for this

If you read no further, know this: it felt totally natural to tap, swipe, gesture with three fingers, pinch, zoom, and more on a MacBook Pro display. It feels like I've been waiting my whole life to do this on a MacBook (or at least as long as I've been using MacBooks).

As a former Windows user, and more specifically a longtime Surface Pro fan, I'm actually quite used to touching a screen, though maybe not one quite as beautiful as this.

For those unfamiliar with tandem OLED technology, which Apple first introduced a few years ago with the iPad Pro, it sandwiches two ultra-thin, light-emitting OLEDs together. This increases the brightness while maintaining incredibly inky blacks (they're gorgeous). It also allows for a far thinner display panel because you don't need a backlight.

Though there now is a "backlight of a sort. This touchscreen MacBook Pro lineup marks the return of the glowing Apple logo on the back of the display. It lights up when you open the laptop and turns off when you close it (people at the Hollywood, California, event were cheering for that).

I played mostly with the larger, 16-inch model, which still features the expansive, backlit Magic Keyboard and a huge ForceTouch Trackpad, which honestly is gonna get a little bit less use now that a touchscreen is just inches away.

A pair of large speaker grills sits on either side of the keyboard, though I couldn't hear them over the din of the demo room. As with previous MacBook Pros, there's still an SD Card slot, three Thunderbolt 5 ports, one USB-4 port, HDMI, and the headphone jack.

In my hands, the 4 lb, 16-inch model felt a tad lighter than previous 16-inch MacBook Pros, though the 14-inch (which might be my preference) felt lightweight at 3lbs.

Touch it, touch it, please say you want to

Let's talk, though, about using the touchscreen.

I tried a 3D design app where I used a couple of fingers to spin a model of a guy in battle armor and then a single finger to paint gold on some of the armor.

I opened Maps and used two fingers to spin the map, then pinch-and-zoom.

I used three fingers to swipe through desktops.

I could use two fingers to grab a window, flip it to one side of the screen, and watch it instantly dock itself as a half-screen app (yes, I've done something very similar on a Surface Pro).

I played touchscreen piano with all my fingers.

At no moment did I hesitate and wonder how I did this or that thing. It's obvious. It never felt uncomfortable, and my arm never got tired. Put another way, a touchscreen is a perfect fit for the MacBook Pro family,

Now, you cannot take the screen and flip it all the way to the back of the laptop (something many touchscreen Windows laptops can do). That might be a shame because I could also use my finger to paint and, though I haven't done it yet, draw.

Speaking of which, there is no indication that the touchscreen MacBook Pro supports the Apple Pencil. Honestly, if it can't fold back at least flat, there's no point in this support anyway.

There is, by the way, a Dynamic Island that's basically copied from the iPhone, but I didn't see it do very much.

As I used the touchscreen MacBook Pro, I was not only reminded of my time with the Microsoft Surface Pro but of my initial weeks and even months with the MacBook after I switched platforms. Yes, I found myself touching the inert MacBook screen and had to retrain myself to stop doing it.

Point is, touch was something I reflexively used on the Surface Pro, and I am now certain I will happily use it on the touchscreen MacBook Pro. You probably will, too.

You will pay for the privilege of touch. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with touch starts at $2,899 / £2,899 / AU$4,599, and the 16-inch model starts at $3,399 / £3,399 / $5,499. Pre-orders are live today, and the laptops ship on November 6.

Amazon has told its engineers to look beyond simply using AI to ensure their work gets done, and focus instead on the results of their labor.

In a memo sent to its workforce, the company warned against using “deeply flawed” metrics such as AI token usage or code generation as a measure of team success.

It also cautioned against workers chasing "tokenmaxxing", noting how, "our most prolific engineers have demonstrated that neither the developer role nor their output is defined by the use of AI."

The age of the "Renaissance Developer"

The memo, written by Terk Terkowitz, Amazon VP/Distinguished Engineer, Worldwide, and entitled "An update from Amazon engineering leadership on the role of the developer in the age of AI", signaled the apparent beginning of a new era in how the company defines its workers in the age of AI.

This includes the age of the "Renaissance Developer", who is able to blend AI tools with human judgment and domain expertise "to build entirely new things".

"AI is changing the work of software engineering both more quickly and more fundamentally than these previous trends," Terkowitz noted. "What it means to be a software engineer, and what software engineering even is, is changing quickly and durably."

What this means for Amazon's workers is a focus on "on what is not changing as we evolved the SDE (Software Development Engineers) roles".

This will mean a move away from "deeply flawed" metrics such as token usage or adoption of AI tools, and more focus on the impact on customers, businesses and teams.

The memo urges managers and division heads to make sure that there is "sufficient understanding" among their teams about the benefits AI tools can bring, and told workers to ensure they become "deeply connected" to their customers in order to gain a deeper knowledge of what they really need from Amazon.

"Despite the speed of change, we believe that it is still early. We all need to embrace this change and take the time to learn, or we risk being left behind," Terkowitz concluded.

“We’re just seeing the beginning of AI’s effect on software engineering. While we have a vision for what the future looks like, there’s a lot that’s still emerging. We are certain that whatever future best practices are, AI will be at the center of software engineering practice.”

Bank of America has requested that customers do not share their usernames and passwords with anyone, “including an Al-enabled tool or agent that offers to act on your behalf.”

As agentic AI assistants have exploded in popularity, so too has the trend of having personal AI assistants make payments on a customer’s behalf. But that has led to a regulatory headache for banking providers.

AI agents ingest everything you tell them, including highly sensitive information which can be regurgitated if there is a security flaw.

Stop giving your banking details to bots

There is an obvious pro to having an AI agent make a purchase on your behalf: if something drops in price or suddenly becomes available after being out of stock, the agent can purchase it so you don’t miss out.

But these payments can sometimes be flagged as unauthorized by financial institutions, leading to customers being locked out of their accounts. Or an agent could purchase something you didn’t want it to, putting some customers into a battle with the bank to try and get the money back.

In these cases, the onus is largely on the customer. Had the AI agent not had your banking details, the purchase wouldn’t have been made.

AI firms have been praising the helpfulness of AI agents in helping organize a busy life, or help regain financial stability through analyzing spending and finances. But there is such a thing as giving too much detail on your life. As we’ve discussed before, even organizing meetings or scheduling your day can have disastrous consequences.

The best way to stay safe when using an AI assistant is to treat it as a stranger who has the power to do anything you ask almost instantly, and not always in the way you want. And don’t forget that every conversation you have with this stranger is fed back to help train other strangers.

Via TechCrunch

They'll be joined by musician Sam Ryder and Princess Andre (daughter of Peter), as well as their chosen family members for a gruelling journey from Borneo, across South East Asia, and into Australia. With no phones and limited supplies, can they go the distance?

Ready to tune into this thrilling and highly competitive gameshow? Here's how to watch Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 online and on TV from anywhere for free.

How to watch Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 from anywhere

If you're keen to watch Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 but you're away from the UK and access to the show is geo-blocked, then you could use a VPN to access it (assuming you're not breaching any broadcaster T&Cs, of course). You may be surprised by how simple it is to do. Plus, we have a great 75% discount on our #1 VPN...

How to watch Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 in the UK

In the UK, Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 is available on BBC iPlayer for free. The first episode will drop on October 28.

You can also watch the series on the linear TV channel BBC One. It airs on Wednesdays, starting on October 28, at 8pm BST.

Outside the UK? Unblock your BBC iPlayer stream with NordVPN.

Can you watch Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 in the US?

Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 is only available in the UK – on television and BBC iPlayer – so you can't find a broadcast or stream of the show in the States yet.

Visiting the US from the UK? You can use our most-trusted VPN (try risk-free) to unlock your usual streaming platforms and watch the show from anywhere.

Can you watch Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 in Canada?

Similar to the US, Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 is not available to stream in Canada and is not on any television channels there.

The solution? Use a VPN to gain access to all the content you'd normally stream at home.

Can you watch Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 in Australia?

Like in the US and Canada, Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 is not available to stream or watch on any TV channels yet.

Away from the UK? Use NordVPN to access your usual shows from anywhere in the world.

Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 need to know

Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 - contestants

• Singer-songwriter Ella Eyre with her childhood friend, Nana
• TV and radio presenter Jeff Stelling with his son, Matt
• Influencer Princess Andre with her brother, Junior Andre, who is a musician
• Singer-songwriter Sam Ryder with his best friend and tour manager, Kaz

Celebrity Race Across The World 2026 - start and finish line

Contestants will begin the race in Kuching, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in North West Borneo.

They'll then pass through five checkpoints, in three countries and two different continents to reach their end goal of Melbourne, Australia.

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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.

Since losing their first game of the season to Man City, Liverpool have responded in excellent fashion by winning four games on the spin. The Reds remain perfect in the Champions League and moved up to fourth in the Premier League table with an impressive victory over free-scoring Brighton. Andoni Iraola will want to maintain this momentum, but he may choose to freshen up his starting XI, with youngsters Rio Ngumoha, Trey Nyoni and Lewis Koumas all seeking opportunities to shine.

Alonso returns to Anfield for the third time as a manager and will be hoping for a first win after suffering defeats with both Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid. To do so, he’ll need his players to deliver a much-improved display after their hugely disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham. The Blues will be without playmaker Cole Palmer due to suspension, while forward Joao Pedro is also out after suffering a thigh injury that will rule him out for a few weeks. That could mean it’s youth and experience in attack, with Danny Welbeck and Estevao likely to start. Emmanuel Emegha could also make his Blues debut after Alonso confirmed that the Dutch striker would be in a matchday squad for the first time this season.

Here's where to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea live streams online from anywhere and possibly for FREE.

Liverpool vs Chelsea team news

Liverpool: Mamardashvili; Araujo, Gomez, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; McConnell, Nyoni; Ngumoha, Gravenberch, Gakpo; Koumas

Subs: Alisson, Endo, Jacquet, Wirtz, Isak, Mac Alister, Chiesa, Barcola, Chambers.

Chelsea: Penders; Acheampong, Lacroix, Fofana, Gusto, Caicedo, Lavia, Henderson, Neto, Welbeck, Rogers.

Subs: Sharman-Lowe, Colwill, Subuloye, Palestra, Barco, Nicoll-Jazuli, Estevao, Quenda, Emegha.

Use a VPN to watch any Liverpool vs Chelsea stream

Away from home at the moment and blocked from watching the game on your usual subscription?

You can still watch Liverpool vs Chelsea live streams thanks to the wonders of a VPN (Virtual Private Network). The software allows your devices to appear to be back in your home country regardless of where in the world you are, making it ideal for viewers away on vacation or on business. Among the best is Norton VPN — we explain why in our Norton VPN review.

How to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea live streams in the US

The Liverpool vs Chelsea live stream is available on Paramount+ in the US.

The Paramount+ Essential package costs $8.99 per month or $89.99 per year, while Paramount+ Premium costs $13.99 per month or $139.99 per year.

Don't want to sign up just yet? Walmart Plus offer 30-day trial for $1 which includes a subscription to Paramount+.

Carabao Cup soccer is available with all these deals, and you can also watch the EFL Championship and Champions League on the platform in 2026/27.

Visiting the US from the UK? Use Norton VPN to access your free Liverpool vs Chelsea stream on ITVX.

How to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea in the UK

As we've already mentioned above, the Liverpool vs Chelsea game will be available to watch for FREE on ITV1 and via ITVX.

Remember, you need to be a UK citizen and have a TV license to watch.

You can also watch on Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Main Event, with Sky Sports packages starting at £22/month for existing subscribers.

Outside the UK right now? Use NortonVPN to access your preferred coverage of this Carabao Cup fourth round fixture.

How to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea in Australia

Football fans in Australia can watch Liverpool vs Chelsea on beIN Sports.

beIN Sports 3 is carrying the game, with a subscription costing AU$16.99 per month. New subscribers get a 7-day free trial. Cancel any time.

Outside Oz traveling? Use Norton VPN to stream Liverpool vs Chelsea all over the world.

How to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea in Canada

Fans in Canada can watch Liverpool vs Chelsea live streams on DAZN.

DAZN Canada plans start at $24.99 per month for a standard annual contract or $34.99 for a flexible monthly pass.

Away from Canada while the game is on? Use Norton VPN to watch the Carabao Cup is if you were back home.

Liverpool vs Chelsea: Need to Know

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.

Cybercriminals could use barcode scanners in warehouses to break into IT infrastructure and wreak havoc, security researchers have claimed, urging organizations to take preemptive measures and secure their warehouse grounds before it’s too late.

Kaspersky researchers set out to see if there are any hidden attack vectors on warehouse infrastructure and are now claiming they found one through a barcode scanner model “from a major manufacturer”.

Opening the floodgates

In a report shared with TechRadar Pro, Kaspersky said the vulnerable device has two components: the handheld scanner, and the base station, which is then connected to a workstation, or a separate business system.

The two components communicate via Bluetooth, but apparently there are no authentication methods between the two.

So, in theory, a malicious actor could obtain the Bluetooth address of the base station through passive eavesdropping on Bluetooth traffic. Then, through the established Bluetooth connection, they could send a malicious payload to the base station which simulates keyboard strokes. The base station would “think” the keystrokes are legitimate, coming from the user of the handheld device, and forward them to the connected workstation or separate business system.

“This attack pattern was observed across devices from multiple vendors,” Kaspersky said in its report.

Through this method, a theoretical attacker could gain an initial foothold on a computer within the warehouse network. Obviously, the scanner is only the entry point and not the actual target. The target is the wider network, where malicious actors could conduct reconnaissance, exfiltrate sensitive information, or deploy malware and ransomware.

“Modern retail and logistics are profoundly digital, from enterprise-wide management platforms down to every device in a worker’s hands. This pervasive connectivity means that any technology at any tier can become an entry point for a cyberattack capable of destabilising the entire ecosystem — as our research shows, even a single barcode scanner”, said Sergey Sidorov, Head of Industrial Security Services at Kaspersky.

“The warehouse sector, and the broader retail industry, should treat cybersecurity as a top priority across every layer of their operations,”

Are other devices vulnerable, too?

Kaspersky says the same scenario can be applied to other warehouse devices like Portable Data Terminals (PDR), or thermal printers, to gain access to Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and similar infrastructure.

Therefore, the researchers are urging companies to secure their environments by verifying every new device before it connects to the network, disabling any unused Bluetooth interfaces, enforcing strong authentication mechanisms, segmenting warehouse networks so that only essential connections are permitted, applying security updates to both devices and the WMS as soon as possible, restricting account permissions to the minimum required, and regularly conducting full‑scale attack‑path exercises.

Unfortunately, we don’t know the name of the manufacturer, or how many devices in a series could be susceptible. The researchers are saying the risk is quite large, since these devices are “widely used” in warehousing, retail, and multiple other sectors.

Global e-commerce sales are expected to reach $6.88 trillion this year, making up more than a fifth (21.1%) of total retail sales worldwide.

At the same time, according to logistics research firm Interact Analysis, there are more than 180,000 warehouses in the world, so the attack surface could be significant. But warehouses are not the only sector at risk here. Barcode scanners and related handheld terminals are also widely used in retail stores, manufacturing facilities, hospitals, pharmaceutical operations, and transportation networks.

There is no reliable way to estimate how many organizations are vulnerable, but the possibility of using an everyday operational device to gain access to a connected workstation makes the findings relevant to a broad range of industries.

Announced earlier this week, the eighth-generation iPad mini is a much bigger upgrade than we expected. Headline new features include a sharper, brighter, and more vibrant 8.5-inch OLED Super Retina XDR screen, a powerful A20 Pro chip, improved audio, and IP67 water and dust resistance thanks to the new aluminum design.

All those upgrades do come at a more considerable cost, though, as the iPad mini starts at $699 / £699 / AU$1,099 for the standard WiFi version with 128GB of storage. That's $200 / £200 / AU$300 more than the launch price of the previous iPad mini. There are also 256GB and 512GB versions available if you want more room for files and applications.

With that increase in price, it's more important than ever to find a good deal if you want to preorder the new iPad Mini. Here are the best ones I've found so far from retailers, networks, and mobile operators — and I'll continue adding any new offers when I spot them.

iPad mini preorders in the US

Also check...

• Amazon: preorders TBC
• Walmart: preorders TBC

iPad mini preorders in the UK

Also check...

• Amazon: preorders TBC
• Currys: preorders TBC
• EE: preorders TBC
• Vodafone: preorders TBC

iPad mini preorders in Australia

Contrary to those aforementioned headline-grabbers, the iPhone 18 Pro is not a flashy product in almost any way. Heck, it even swaps the Cosmic Orange excitement of the iPhone 17 Pro for a more sophisticated, wine-tasting-in-Sonoma Burgundy shade, as if it wants to emerge from your pocket with as little fanfare as possible.

And yet underneath the iPhone 18 Pro’s muted exterior is a phone so consistently competent that it’s hard to find anything to complain about. Not only is it one of the best camera phones money can buy, but it also brings market-leading performance, a gorgeous OLED display, impressive battery life, and refreshing software simplicity to the table.

The iPhone 18 Pro’s well-roundedness is what makes it a cut above the rest. Sure, you’ll find larger camera sensors on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra or bigger batteries in the Oppo Find X10 Pro Max and Xiaomi 17 Ultra. You’ll even find a variable aperture feature on a handful of Android phones from the last decade (Huawei Mate 50 Pro, anyone?). But if I had to recommend a phone that does everything at an 8/10-level or above, it’s the iPhone 18 Pro.

And I really do mean everything.

In recent years, Apple’s flagships have been excellent phones with embarrassingly limited AI capabilities compared to the competition. But following Siri’s long-awaited glow-up in iOS 27, the iPhone 18 Pro no longer feels like a hamstrung device (don’t let the naysayers fool you — Siri AI is good).

Even if you’re not fussed about AI and are wondering whether the iPhone 18 Pro is a meaningfully different device to the iPhone 17 Pro, I’m inclined to say, “no, but that’s not really the point.” Most people aren’t upgrading from a previous-generation flagship, and Apple is hardly alone in shipping iterative upgrades year after year. The iPhone 18 Pro is familiar but formidable.

I also think the arrival of new form-factor devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and iPhone Duo will remind people not to take the iPhone 18 Pro for granted. Consumers have long berated Apple for shipping ‘boring’ new-generation iPhones, and yet critics of the Duo are lamenting its thickness, awkward button placement, and lack of Face ID and Pro camera components.

We’ve been spoiled by the consistency of Apple’s flagship phones, just as soccer star Erling Haaland — who regularly scores 30+ goals every season — is rarely mentioned in conversations surrounding the most exciting players in the world. Haaland’s excellence has been normalized so as not to be exciting anymore: he's the iPhone 18 Pro of the soccer world (Lamine Yamal is the iPhone Duo in this metaphor — I won’t be explaining further).

The question now is: where do candybar flagships go from here? It feels like we’re approaching the end of an era, not only because the margin for year-on-year improvements is as small as it's ever been, but also because foldables are finally entering the mainstream conversation.

What's more, smartphones as we know them might soon be replaced by smartphone-adjacent wearables, especially if OpenAI and Jony Ive get their way.

But if you’re asking me right here, right now, for my pick as the best smartphone of 2026, my answer is the iPhone 18 Pro. It’s the boring choice, but in my opinion, the right one. We've reached ‘peak smartphone,’ and the iPhone 18 Pro is what ‘peak smartphone’ looks like.

I now invite you to (*deep breath*) debate me in the comments.

Apologies for bringing you more negative news about the RAM crisis, but we've heard yet another prediction that supply woes are going to last for the rest of this decade.

This time it's SK Hynix (again) weighing in, a memory chip maker that has just issued its latest earnings report, as Wccftech noticed. Profits are booming, unsurprisingly, but SK Hynix also shared its most recent thinking on the RAM crisis, and how likely it is to be a protracted affair.

In the press release for its Q3 2026 results, SK Hynix announced succinctly: "Memory supply shortage to persist through 2030."

That was the title of a section briefing us on the memory shortage, where SK Hynix further observed: "The company assessed that supply … is not keeping pace with the growth of the market. Given technical difficulty of leading-edge processes and the long lead time required to build new production facilities, it expects the structure in which demand exceeds supply to persist through 2030."

The firm also predicted it will sustain its growth and revenue, which exceeded 100 trillion won in Q3 — the first time that's ever happened in a quarter by the way — thanks to enterprise and AI demand in the shorter-term, and "over the mid-to-long term, demand for physical AI such as autonomous driving and robotics."

Analysis: a 'virtuous cycle' for shareholders – a nightmare for consumers

It's interesting to note that SK Hynix is forecasting that longer-term demand for memory will be driven by robots or 'physical AI' even if software AI (agents) falls away somewhat as the decade rolls to a close. Micron is predicting the exact same thing, and recently went into even more precise detail in estimating that 'humanoid robots' could need 200GB (or more) of RAM and multiple terabytes of storage in every unit.

So there's similar thinking from the big memory module makers here, but we shouldn't be surprised by that. They need to talk up their future profits, after all, and reassure markets that we aren't in a bubble, so it's only natural that they'd want to make predictions of major future revenue sources to be tapped.

Still, there's clearly some substance to these predictions, and it's concerning for consumers that a growing number of analysts and big players in the tech industry are talking about the RAM crisis lasting until 2030, and that robots are apparently set to take the baton from AI data centers and push demand for more memory as we head into the next decade.

We can but hope that Micron and SK Hynix are overshooting with their expectations of the hungry robots eating all our RAM in a few years' time, although how that land lies will depend on how widely robots are adopted, as well as how much memory they'll need.

Meanwhile, SK Hynix asserts that the "virtuous cycle" which has resulted from AI-powered productivity gains driving increased investment in infrastructure (data centers) will continue, and moreover "broaden to include general enterprises and nation-level initiatives", the upshot being that the "global AI data center infrastructure market will continue to grow steadily."

I don't think many PC owners or gamers feel that the way things have gone with memory of late is all that 'virtuous' at all, but the shareholders of SK Hynix and other big chip makers certainly won't be complaining. They can probably afford themselves a very nice PC even in the current super-inflated component climate, after all.

Censorship-resistant provider Amnezia VPN has launched Amnezia Pulse, a public map that tracks internet outages, slowdowns, and "whitelist" restrictions as they happen.

The tool began life as an internal project, powering the company's monthly digests on Russian internet blocking. Now, anyone can check the live map to see which regions are having problems.

That's a big deal in a country where even the best VPN can struggle to stay connected. Russian authorities have spent well over a year cutting mobile internet across entire regions, often letting only a government-approved list of services load.

What is Amnezia Pulse?

Amnezia Pulse maps disruptions on both mobile and home networks, and is updated daily. In Russia, it monitors the four most popular mobile operators (MTS, MegaFon, Beeline, and T2) alongside home broadband providers Rostelecom and Dom.ru.

Each region is color-coded by severity. Green means no disruptions, yellow signals problems, and red marks a serious outage. Clicking a region opens an hour-by-hour graph of the incident.

The tool is already making headlines. Newsweek reports that Amnezia Pulse logged 80 incidents across 36 Russian regions between September 15 and October 20, 2026, with Krasnodar Krai hit hardest.

Amnezia also told the outlet it has begun seeing synchronized shutdowns hitting several regions or operators at once.

How does it work?

Rather than relying on user reports, Pulse reads the traffic passing through Amnezia's own VPN servers, each of which counts incoming and outgoing data and the number of active connections.

The system builds a 14-day baseline of "normal" activity for each region and operator, split into five-minute intervals. It flags an incident when several warning signs coincide, such as a drop lasting over an hour, multiple operators going quiet together, or several regions being hit at the same time.

Amnezia says the data is anonymized. It doesn't collect IP addresses and only processes the region, provider, and connection speed.

Coverage isn't limited to Russia, either. Amnezia has spotted traffic anomalies in Gabon linked to long-running social media restrictions, and plans to expand into Africa and Latin America.

Who benefits?

For everyday users, Pulse answers a simple question: is the problem on my end, or has the internet been cut? That could save time otherwise spent restarting routers or cycling through VPN apps.

Researchers and rights groups stand to gain even more. Amnezia plans to launch an open API for researchers, human rights organizations, and technical experts.

Maria Xynou of the censorship measurement project OONI called the tool "a valuable resource for both the Russian and global internet freedom communities."

There is a catch, though. Pulse's accuracy depends on how many Amnezia Free and Premium users are connected in a given region.

The project has also faced pushback, with Amnezia telling Newsweek it was forced to pause the tool earlier this year following what it described as an attack by Roskomnadzor. The provider has since reinforced its apps against blocking and says it will keep improving Pulse's accuracy and reach.

Europe's next big copyright shake-up could change how your VPN works behind the scenes, even if you never go near a pirate stream.

The European Commission is weighing an EU-wide system of anti-piracy injunctions that would require providers to block access to websites and servers hosting infringing content.

According to the Disruptive Competition Project (DisCo), a blog run by tech industry body CCIA, that system could sweep in VPN providers, including the services on our best VPN list.

The group argues this would turn privacy tools into internet watchdogs. The plans remain on the table for the Commission's Copyright Package, which is expected in the second quarter of 2027.

From privacy tool to traffic filter

VPNs are built to be neutral. They route and encrypt your traffic without monitoring or controlling what you access, and they don't host any content themselves.

DisCo points out that blocking orders wouldn't break a VPN's encryption. However, enforcing them would require providers to check traffic against blocklists, such as destination IP addresses or DNS requests.

That shifts VPNs from passive conduits to active filters. And since the infringing content stays online, pirates can simply move to new domains or routes.

Europe has already tested VPN blocking

Several countries are already ahead of Brussels. In 2025, a Paris court ordered five major VPNs to block more than 200 illegal sports streaming sites, while Italy moved to extend its Piracy Shield system to VPN and DNS providers.

In Spain, a Córdoba court ordered NordVPN and Proton VPN to block IP addresses tied to illegal LaLiga streams in February.

The same court later refused to fine NordVPN for not complying. LaLiga has since asked the Commission to add NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark to its piracy watch list.

DisCo highlights the irony: Spain's national cybersecurity institute, INCIBE, actively recommends VPNs to citizens as a way to protect their personal data.

What it means for VPN users

In July, the EU's top court ruled that VPNs are lawful technical tools and that providers aren't liable when users bypass geoblocking. That ruling dealt with liability, though, not blocking orders, so it doesn't stop an EU-wide injunction system from pulling VPNs in.

If that happens, the most obvious change is that some sites could become unreachable through your VPN. Overblocking is the bigger worry. IP blocking is a blunt tool, and LaLiga's campaign in Spain has already knocked hundreds of thousands of legitimate domains offline.

There's a privacy cost, too. Even light-touch rules to monitor, filter, or retain traffic would weaken the protections that private VPNs are built to offer.

For now, nothing is final. The Commission hasn't published its proposal, so the real test will come when the Copyright Package lands next year.

When a small set of iPhone Duo owners complained that their large inner screens had unexpectedly and disturbingly cracked, Apple did something unusual: it acknowledged the complaints: "We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units. If users experience issues with their iPhone Duo display, they should contact AppleCare for a replacement.”

That's not Apple saying there's a fundamental flaw or that the issue is found on anything more than a small number of the already popular phones.

I watched with some dismay as people started bandying about the 'crackgate' phrase. Apple has had its share of 'gates' over the years, including 'bendgate' with the iPhone 6 Plus, and Antenna Gate with the iPhone 4. On the latter, Steve Jobs memorably told customers they were holding the phone wrong (he later apologized for the issues).

The notion of '[anything]gate' comes from the Watergate Scandal, a cover-up of a crime involving the then President of the United States, Richard Nixon. Now, whenever people think there's an issue and someone is trying to obfuscate it, they slap a 'gate' on it. I've written before that I hate this.

Leaving aside the term, there is the fact that some people claim the iPhone Duo cracked when they opened it and only shortly after they brought it home. Since we can't rewind those tapes, we have to take them at their word. Still, I think it's fair to wonder if they opened it too roughly, like a strongman trying to tear a phonebook in half. We just don't know.

Inside the iPhone Duo Display

Here's what I do know, though: Apple spent considerable effort building a durable folding iPhone. Seriously, how could it not?

Samsung has been doing this for a decade, and with each iteration of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold line it has improved the display panel structure and supporting hinge technology. On the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra it actually uses two titanium plates. One relatively rigid plate sits at the bottom of the stack, and is responsible for making the phone open stiffly flat. The other, for durability at the crease, is a super-thin sheet of titanium alloy.

Apple does not talk about where it sourced its iPhone Duo display technology, though most have surmised that it started with Samsung. Even so, the display and hinge architecture of the iPhone Duo is distinct from that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

It's worth digging into these details to understand the iPhone Duo's potential weak points, and because, in many of my conversations about why the Duo displays might have cracked and how it happened, people want to understand what part, exactly, is cracking. The build, as described by Apple on the Surprise and Shine launch day in September, provides some clues.

It's been more than a month since Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, but I recall Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji explaining in stark detail how Apple builds the iPhone Duo display and hinge (complete with images).

According to Srouji, the goal for Apple was, unsurprisingly, "to provide the high quality for viewing content without what people dislike about foldable displays: The distracting crease, the plastic feel, susceptibility to scratches and dents."

Apple started with what it knew and built something better

Talking to me after the event, Srouji and Apple CEO John Ternus probably leaned a little too hard into criticisms of other foldable displays. Ternus claimed, "I think what you've seen out there are all these just kind of cheap-feeling plastic surfaces that don't feel good to the touch."

Having used most of the major foldable phones out there, I don't think Ternus was being fair. After all, Apple has built its first foldable on the shoulders of giants like Samsung, who all but perfected the display design. Did Apple take it further? Absolutely.

In the keynote, Srouji said Apple's engineers relied on "their learnings from iPad and Mac" to develop the biggest folding display innovation: the nano-texture display. This reflection-killing surface is what's primarily responsible for hiding virtually all visual remnants of the crease.

I don't think the nano-texture covering (a polymer with a special anti-scratch coating, by the way) has anything to do with the possible cracks; instead, they probably relate to the multi-layered construction, and both the display and the hinges' ability to withstand thousands and thousands of folds (or, in the case of these cracked Duo screen customers, one bad unfold).

Based on the images Srouji showed off, the iPhone Duo display is composed of 10 layers. Included in them is a back panel of titanium (yes, like on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra) for straightness and stiffness when unfolded. There are also two ultra-thin flexible glass layers above and below the OLED panel.

Instead of these floating freely, Apple uses an elastic adhesive to keep the panels together while also letting them slide back and forth over each other so that, Srouji said, "the panel doesn't distort over time".

Behind the panel is the hinge, which Apple says has one hundred components, some of which are attached to carbon fiber support plates.

Watch this space

My point is that Apple was about as open as a tech company could be about how and why it made the iPhone Duo display, and we have enough information to make at least one reasonable assumption: one or more of the thin glass panels cracked for a few iPhone Duo owners. After all, the OLED panel is about as flexible as a thin piece of plastic. The titanium wouldn't crack; even the nanostructured polymer is unlikely to crack. My guess is that either a manufacturing imperfection or misuse resulted in one or both of the glass panels cracking, and possibly damaging the OLED sandwiched between them.

There are other hypotheses, like some loose component inside getting sandwiched and cracking the screen or even hinge misalignment. I'm sure Apple is examining every possibility.

The iPhone Duo is the first iPhone with a significant moving part. It's the first with two displays. And the first where one is a flexible display that's expected to survive tens of thousands of folds. The complexity and quality assurance for building such a device is surely enormous. Apple is lucky to have had others like Samsung, Motorola, and Google go through a decade of perfecting the technology before it delivered the iPhone Duo. Still, that doesn't diminish its accomplishment. Nor does it lessen the risks of shipping a folding iPhone to people who don't always know when to stop unfolding. Maybe someone over-torqued it; maybe they just got a bad unit.

In the end, such issues are not entirely unexpected, but they do not, for now at least, indicate a larger issue. I think Apple did its homework here, and I'm simply not buying 'crackgate.'

Cybersecurity researchers from Anthropic and Google have discovered a critical-severity vulnerability in boot-time firmware used by practically every server in existence today.

A patch is available, but given the fragmented market of UEFI manufacturers, it could take months before most of the servers are secured. In the meantime, patch code was made publicly available, which means cybercriminals will have their work laid out for them.

Discovering the bug

Virtually all modern servers today run UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), software built into the server’s motherboard that helps start the device and load the operating system. It includes security features like Secure Boot, which helps stop unauthorized programs from running when the machine starts.

The free, open source toolkit developers use to build this firmware is called TianoCore EDK II - it serves as a common foundation for creating UEFI firmware for different types of hardware.

Alex Matrosov of Anthropic and Dan Holmes of Google recently found that EDK II contained a critical buffer overflow vulnerability. The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) describes it as a bug in BIOS “where a user may cause “Out-of-bounds Write”, Classic Buffer Overflow, and “Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size” by remote access.” “Successful exploitation of this flaw can result in remote arbitrary code execution, " it added.

Just like other UEFI vulnerability exploits, this one would be difficult to remediate in the wild. Deploying malicious code before security solutions, or even the operating system for that matter, means that whatever anti-malware or endpoint protection solutions are installed won’t be able to spot, or remove it. Reinstalling the operating system won’t help, and neither would replacing the hard drive.

The bug is now tracked as CVE-2026-97631, and was given a severity score of 9.5/10 (critical). Luckily enough, it doesn’t seem to have been exploited in the wild. However, that might change very soon, given that the security community botched the disclosure efforts.

Multiple companies and hardware manufacturers develop their own UEFI, and many rely on shared codebases such as EDK II. When a vulnerability is discovered in the code, fixing it upstream (in the codebase) is only half the work - each affected firmware vendor must patch their own product and then distribute the new firmware to their customers. This process can take time, leaving a window between the availability of the fix and its deployment across affected systems.

Discretion is advised

That is why discretion is paramount, and some participants seem to have dropped the ball, with Ars Technica claiming the two researchers who found the bug arranged for it to stay private until a coordinated disclosure that was planned for January 2027.

However, AMI - one of the manufacturers building motherboards - apparently published a pull request last month that not only detailed the vulnerability but also included a fix for the code.

Since the cat was out of the bag, TianoCore Project members then published a public advisory about the flaws, as well.

“With publicly available patch code, it will be trivial for advanced hackers to learn how the vulnerability is triggered and to build working exploits,” Ars Technica’s Dan Goodin writes. “Further compounding the urgency, patching UEFI code vulnerabilities in millions of end devices sold and used by thousands of hardware makers and cloud providers is cumbersome and time-consuming.”

Exploiting this flaw is not that easy, though. Threat actors need to have some level of access to the target device beforehand, meaning that the bug will be mostly used by state-sponsored threat actors, and large, highly organized hacking collectives.

It really is turning out to be Black October - especially since the PHP2Shell flaws were inadvertently disclosed to the public in similar fashion.

I really like the Acer Swift Air 14 and not just because of the price. It’s very portable, attractive in that clean minimalist way popularised by a certain Cupertino company, and comes with a battery life that’s as good as any other I’ve come across.

Acer has been impressing me with its recent Swift laptops, and this one is no exception. Of course, the price tag makes it a no-brainer for anyone wanting a solid, portable laptop at an almost budget price tag. It’s not sub-$500 / £500, but it’s close. I certainly think it’s one of the best laptops for the price.

It does, however, have some of the shortcomings that even the best Ultrabooks have. It’s not the most powerful laptop out there, by any stretch of the imagination – this is for people who just want to go online and do some office work or stream, not game or edit video. And the audio suffers from the laptop's smaller design.

Those things actually don’t bother me. That’s not what this laptop is supposed to be used for. But, Acer makes the same weird design choice that even Apple makes on more budget models, where there are two USB-C ports, both of which can be used for power, but, for whatever reason, they’re on the same side of the computer.

Still, quibbles aside, the amount of computer you get for the price in the Acer Swift Air 14 is pretty impressive.

Acer Swift Air 14 review: Price & Availability

• How much does it cost? $699.99 / £749.99 (about AU$1,010)
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US and UK

If you’re looking for the Windows version of the Apple MacBook Neo, the Acer Swift Air 14 offers just as much value. The base configuration might start at a higher $699.99 / £749.99 (about AU$1,010) price tag, but if you want to match the Swift Air 14’s 512GB of storage, then two laptops end up at the same price. Unfortunately, that currently excludes Australia as it hasn’t yet been released there.

Granted, you’re not getting the most powerful laptop out there. If you’re looking for something similar but better, the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is that computer. Sure, it’s $1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150), but its Qualcomm CPU has double the cores and triple the NPUs than the base version of the Acer Swift Air 14’s Intel Core 5 320 CPU. You can upgrade the Acer Swift Air 14 to a configuration with the Intel Core 7 350 CPU and 12GB of RAM, but it’s still not going to do the same heavy lifting. Plus, the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI has a 360-degree hinge, touchscreen, and stylus.

It might be better to consider the Acer Swift Air 14 as Acer’s budget entry in its Swift line. It’s an excellent value while still functioning as a competent Ultrabook.

• Value score: 5 / 5

Acer Swift Air 14 review: specs

The Acer Swift Air 14 comes in two variants. The base configuration comes with the Intel Core 5 320 CPU with 8GB of RAM, and a model with an Intel Core 7 350 and 12GB of RAM. The difference in processors aren’t that different, except that the Intel Core 7 350 can be boosted to a higher turbo frequency, 4.8GHz vs 4.6, and has 21 TOPS NPU compared to the Intel Core 5 320’s 20 TOPS NPU.

Beyond those internal configuration differences, the Acer Swift Air 14 is available in four different colors – Sage Green, Frost Blue, Blossom Pink, and Lilac Purple with only the Sage Green and Blossom Pink available in the UK. EMEA countries, including the UK, also sport more minimalist etchings on the lid.

Acer Swift Air 14 review: Design

• Very attractive, portable design
• Keyboard and touchpad are good but not amazing
• Both USB-Cs are on the left

The Acer Swift Air 14 is a gorgeous laptop. I’ve only seen the Sage Green color in person – the color of the test unit for this review – but the colors, lid etchings, and aluminum chassis all present a very aesthetically pleasing package. I imagine that the other three colors look just as good in that way that I think makes this an attractive alternative to the Macbook Neo.

Also in its favor is its utter portability. It weighs just over two and a half pounds. That’s about the same as an ankle weight. And it’s just over a half inch thick at its thinnest point. I don’t think you can really get any more portable without going down in screen size to a 13-inch laptop.

Speaking of which, its 14-inch screen is a good-looking, if not amazing, non-touch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 1920x1200p resolution. It does get up to 300 nits of brightness – I typically have the brightness up only halfway when I’m using it.

I appreciate the 180-degree hinge, but that’s mostly because I feel like I don’t have to be as gentle with the Acer Swift Air 14 when opening it. I could see its use, though, if you want to share your screen with someone sitting across from you. If you do that, the viewing angle is more than enough for both people to see at 170 degrees.

Moving on, the keyboard is pleasant to use if nothing spectacular. I used the Acer Swift Air 14 to write this review and didn’t feel fatigue from typing. At the same time, it’s a linear keyboard with a somewhat short travel.

The trackpad is fairly responsive and accurate, though I found it to be a little too sensitive at times when my thumb was a little too close to it and had trouble getting the cursor to cooperate.

The port selection is about as minimal as one would expect on a laptop like this. Along with a USB-A port and headphone jack are two USB-C ports. Unfortunately, they’re both on the left side, a design choice that I always dislike since I find myself regularly having to plug the computer in on the right side, sometimes from a distance too.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Acer Swift Air 14 review: Performance

• Decent for day-to-day work
• Slows down if using multiple RAM-intensive tabs
• Sound quality is just okay

One of the downsides of a laptop built for a sub-$1,000 price tag is that either the design or performance (or both) suffer. The design on the Acer Swift Air 14 is pretty good... so it goes that the performance is what is throttled.

Now, Acer built this laptop to hit a price point, but the company also built it to an expectation. This is supposed to be an extremely portable laptop with long battery life for not much money.

With that in mind, Acer used the affordable Intel Core 5 320 six-core CPU with a speed of 1.5GHz and 20 TOPs (21 for the Core 7 350) and put only 8GB of RAM in the computer. At least the 512GB SSD storage is sufficient.

If you’re looking for a laptop to work on while in a cafe responding to emails in between social media side quests, then what the Acer Swift Air 14 does is more than enough. Even using the AI features like Acer PurifiedView and PurifiedVoice during video calls, both of which work well, or messing with CoPilot+ doesn’t tax this laptop.

But it’s not too hard to push the Acer Swift Air 14. When I’ve tabs open that require a lot of RAM and try to switch windows, I’ve experienced some freezing. And anything but the least demanding games are a jittery mess. I wouldn’t use this laptop for 4K video editing, either. A powerhouse this is not. Then again, it’s not meant to be.

As far as the sound quality goes, the Acer Swift Air 14 suffers from what ails just about all thin and light laptops. There’s just no room for any speakers capable of producing a full sound and it shows. There’s not much bass and the sound is on the thinner side. That said, it’s not harsh, so listening to music in the background while working is still pleasant.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Acer Swift Air 14 review: Battery life

• Almost 17 hours of battery life
• Charges relatively quickly

The new benchmark for a good laptop battery life these days is anything over ten to twelve hours. So, the fact that the Acer Swift Air 14 can hit almost seventeen hours in our benchmark is remarkable. Note that this benchmark requires the laptop to run for that entire amount unplugged.

I’ve been using this laptop regularly for a little over a week and I don’t think I’ve seen it go below 50%. I have charged it a few times, mostly out of habit, but I have yet to be compelled to find an outlet. Plus, it does a good job of holding its charge when the lid is closed.

Acer advertises that the Swift Air 14 has fast charging, which might be true on certain settings, but I found it to charge at a still-good 1% a minute rate when set to a balanced performance mode.

• Battery Life score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the Acer Swift Air 14?

Buy it if…

Don't buy it if…

Acer Swift Air 14 review: Also Consider

If our Acer Swift Air 14 review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

How I tested the Acer Swift Air 14

• Tested for a week and a half
• Used it for work, gaming, and streaming
• Messed with its AI capabilities

I used the Acer Swift Air 14 for a week and a half. I used it for work, including typing up this review (along with the requisite online research). I used it to stream video. I even did some light gaming and attempted some semi-serious gaming. I played around with the AI as well.

After spending time with the Acer Swift Air 14, it’s clear that this is meant for those that want a portable and attractive laptop that’s nice to use on a limited budget.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing tech gear for gaming and otherwise, where I’ve gotten a feel for what to look for and how to put a piece of kit through its paces to see whether it’s worth the recommendation.

• First reviewed: October 2026

The Australian government has issued a bill that will ban AI chatbots which seek to establish ‘emotional intimacy’ with its users, following a speech given by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on October 27.

The Digital Duty of Care bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives on October 28, could create new online safety measures applied across social media, games, apps, and chatbots ‘to provide a safe online environment for all Australians’, says the Labor party. The bill is set to be debated by the Senate in the coming weeks, with hopes it will be officially passed by the end of the year, The Guardian reports.

Not only is the framework designed to prevent AI chatbots from infiltrating young users’ emotional dependency, the bill will replace existing, broader online standards to shield users from harmful content. In 2025, Australia made history by becoming the first nation to ban social media for under-16s.

According to Communications Minister, Anika Wells, content that encourages misogyny, terrorism, suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders will also be included. At the same time, the bill would also require social media platforms to have an easy-to-access ‘opt-out’ feature for suggested content fuelled by the algorithm.

Though the bill will be debated in the upper house before a final decision is made, it’s still unclear whether it will win the support of other parties. As it stands, the Greens continue to back Labor’s proposal while the Coalition and One Nation stand by their opposition to the bill, blaming Labor of forming ‘an ‘Orwellian’ system of censorship’.

Despite this backlash, Labor is determined to convince them otherwise, saying it’s still open to amendments. In his speech given on Tuesday, Albanese addressed the Coalition in an attempt to sway their vote saying ‘the stories we hear about people identifying a chatbot, a non-person as their best friend, should be a huge wake up call for every member of this parliament to be prepared to act’.

In addition to these challenges, Labor has fallen under increasing pressure to enlist the telecommunications ombudsman as a social media and AI watchdog (which doesn’t exist for big tech) after the party rejected an amendment during the lower house debate. This would allow social media users to file complaints if their accounts ever became hacked or inaccessible, and would also include compensation and will make room for investigating broader issues to name and shame tech giants.

Analysis: Chatbot dependency is only getting worse

The Labor party surely has a tough debate ahead, but despite the proposed bill’s criticisms the Australian government’s decision to tighten online safety measures hasn’t come from nowhere — and it’s not the first nation to clamp down on chatbots in this way.

Just a few months back, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and four other government departments introduced new regulations to ban AI-generated romantic companions, including virtual relationships with minors. The laws stated that these AI tools could no longer ‘excessively cater to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and damage users’ real interpersonal relationships’.

Following the rollout of the legislation, companion chatbots from tech companies such as ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba were forced into evaluation before becoming publicly available again. If the government deemed these services unsafe, it shut them down.

With this in mind, both China and Australia’s recent actions reflect an alarming rise of user-chatbot dependency. According to a recent American Psychological Association (APA) survey reported by Medical Daily, Americans are turning to AI for emotional support as they struggle with financial pressure and remain uncertain about the future.

The results from the survey show that 49% of adults who use AI said they conversed with it as a friend, and 47% had used it as if it were a mental health professional including seeking a second opinion on a therapist's suggestions or for therapeutic practices. Additionally, 77% of the survey’s 3,132 respondents identified that the rising cost of living is one of the biggest causes of stress, and 74% mentioned their concerns about the nation's future.

That said, seeking the advice of an AI chatbot is something that Medical Daily seriously condemns. ‘AI systems can provide inaccurate information, miss important context, or respond inappropriately to someone in distress. Users may also share sensitive personal information without fully understanding how a particular service stores or uses their conversations,’ the outlet writes.

It also added the following: ‘People who use chatbots for emotional support should treat responses as general assistance, not a diagnosis or treatment plan. They should avoid relying on AI alone when symptoms persist, worsen, or interfere with daily life, and should discuss significant mental health concerns with a qualified health professional’.

By clamping down on regulations for chatbots, the Australian government has shown its awareness of the rising reliance on AI services, and it clearly wants to prevent this before the issue is irreversible. That said, Labor still faces the challenge of convincing opposers that this bill is the best practice for the nation.

Rugged tablets usually follow one rule. Make them big, make them heavy and hope the specification sheet distracts you.

The AGM Pad P3 does not play that game. It is an 8.68-inch tablet that measures 232 x 146 x 14.5mm. That is thin for a device that claims IP68 and IP69K protection. It means the tablet can survive brief submersion and high-pressure water jets. AGM says it is built for one-handed use, and it includes an adjustable strap for hands-free carrying.

Inside is the MediaTek Helio G99. It is an octa-core chip built on a 6nm process. It is paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. A microSD slot can add up to 1TB more if you need extra capacity. The SoC wouldn’t be classed as fast in 2026, but it has proved dependable in a lot of budget hardware, and it’s better than many of its competitors. Android 16 is the real surprise, since many rivals are still shipping with Android 14. And some of those won’t be getting an upgrade to the latest release.

If this tablet has a weakness, it might be the screen. It has a 120Hz IPS panel with an 800 x 1340 resolution, and AGM quotes a peak brightness of 600 nits. That smooth refresh rate helps scrolling feel quick, but the limited resolution only supports 720p video playback.

Connectivity is practical, but hardly concurrent. You get dual 4G SIM support and eSIM, plus NFC, GPS and WiFi. But there is no 5G, which will matter to some buyers and not to others. The 7,200mAh battery charges at 18W, so this is not a device you can top up in a hurry.

On the back is a 50MP main camera, and on the front is an 8MP selfie, not great but not terrible either. The system supports at least Widevine L1, meaning Netflix and other streaming services can play in HD.

So this is a compact, tough and affordable tablet. It makes sensible choices where cheaper rivals make clumsy ones with even older technology and lesser specifications.

It might not be the best rugged tablet I’ve tested, but it represents good value for money.

AGM Pad P3: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? $236/£249/€300
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Directly from AGM Mobile

To avoid confusion, this hardware has several naming options, including the AGM G3 Compact tablet and the AGM Pad P3, so I’ll use the latter.

The AGM Pad P3 is sold through the AGM EU store at a price range of €299 to €329, depending on whether you choose to include a tablet stand. The store lists versions with and without a tablet stand. AGM is also running a promotion that includes a free stylus with purchase, although this wasn’t included with my review model.

In the USA, you can get this hardware on Amazon for $235.99, and in the UK it’s £249.99.

That is a lot of tablet for the money. It is also significantly cheaper than AGM's own Pad P2 Active, which lists at €369 to €408.90 in the same store. The Pad P2 Active still runs Android 14. The P3 is smaller, has a faster 120Hz screen and runs a newer operating system.

Looking at the usual brand suspects for rugged tablets reveals that the Pad P3 may have found a niche, since most alternatives are more expensive, some excessively so.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 5 is closer to $500. However, you get a much better software ecosystem, guaranteed updates, Samsung Knox enterprise security, and an included IP68-rated S Pen stylus. Samsung also have the Galaxy Tab Active 4 Pro, but that 10.1-inch design is north of $650.

A more affordable Samsung option is the Galaxy Tab A9 (8.7-inch), a tablet that mirrors the size of the AGM P3. It is incredibly affordable at around $175, features a great UI, and has mass-market accessory support. However, it lacks the smooth 120Hz fluid display, comes with only 64GB of storage, 4GB of RAM and lacks the processing power of the P3's Helio G99 chip.

The two competitors that AGM is truly up against are Ulefone and Oukitel, with the Armor Pad Pro from Ulefone and the RT3 Pro from Oukitel. The Armor Pad Pro is only $220, and that price includes 8GB of RAM and better cameras, but the SoC is less powerful.

The Oukitel RT3 Pro is the same price, comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of ROM, has only a 16MP main camera and runs Android 14. As with the Ulefone, it uses a less powerful SoC, in this case the G81.

The bottom line is that as a new product, the AGM Pad P3 is slightly more expensive than the closest competitor options, but the amount of processing power, RAM, and the 50MP primary camera sensor more than justify the extra money.

• Value score: 4/5

AGM Pad P3: Specs

AGM Pad P3: Design

• Slim by rugged standards
• One-handed use
• Stand is optional

Most rugged tablets are built like paving slabs. The AGM Pad P3 tries to avoid that form factor, being only 14.5mm thick, making it slimmer than many ordinary tablets with a protective case on.

My scales say it weighs 535g, although the official numbers are 540g, but that might include the provided strap. That is well under half the weight of the 8849 Tank Pad Ultra, which is a big difference if you carry a tablet all day.

The smaller 8.68-inch screen is critical to the design, letting you hold it in one hand like a large phone. That suits tradespeople on a job site, delivery staff and anyone using a tablet on their feet. An included strap supports hands-free carrying, connecting via loops through slots in each corner.

AGM offers an optional metal stand, which was included with my review machine. This relatively lightweight stand uses four tiny screws to secure it to the back of the P3. It offers a reasonably wide range of positions, from almost upright to nearly flat. In at least one position, it also supports the tablet in portrait orientation.

My only concern with the stand is that the small screws might easily be lost if you decide to remove them outdoors, and without those you won’t be able to reattach it.

The button layout is simple and predictable, with no custom buttons or special functions other than the power button and volume rocker. Because the buttons are small, there is no fingerprint reader, but it supports facial recognition from the front-facing camera.

The SIM and microSD tray was one of my least desirable aspects of the P3. The rubber plug is thin and difficult to remove, and once it's shifted, you need to then find the tray ejector from the box to get the SIM tray out. It’s all excessively fiddly, and it might have been easier without requiring a tool. The tray accepts either two SIMs or a SIM and microSD, but as this tablet supports an eSIM, that’s hardly a significant limitation.

The IP68 and IP69K ratings are the expected baseline, providing serious protection. IP69K adds resistance to high-pressure, high-temperature water jets. The AGM promotional material also cites a MIL-STD 810H drop test, but it doesn't say how far it fell or what surface it landed on. It’s normally impossible for reviewers to test devices to destruction, but the P3 looks like it could take some abuse and keep working.

Design score: 4/5

AGM Pad P3: Hardware

• MediaTek Helio G99
• 8.68-inch 120Hz display
• 7,200mAh battery

The Helio G99 is an old friend, as I’ve covered it in both tablet and phone reviews previously. It uses two fast Cortex-A76 cores and six efficient A55 cores on a 6nm process. The Mali G57 GPU is modest, but better than what you find in budget phones. The G99 is a platform for apps, maps, documents, and video, not demanding games.

AGM has paired it with 6GB of RAM, which is adequate but not exactly indulgent. The 128GB of storage is equally fine, and the microSD slot means you can get more storage space if you need it. Cards up to 1TB are supported, although you can only use one physical phone SIM if you install a microSD.

From a hardware perspective, the most compromised feature is the screen.

At 800 x 1340 on an 8.68-inch panel, it delivers only about 180 pixels per inch. That is on the low side, making text slightly lumpy and fine detail in photos appears missing until you zoom in. On the plus side, the 120Hz refresh rate makes everything feel smoother than the resolution suggests.

AGM claims a peak of 600 nits, and it can be bright, but the glossy display still makes it hard to see in natural outdoor light. If you can find a screen protector with an anti-reflection coating that fits, it might work better outdoors.

As I mentioned in the intro, Widevine L1 certification is included, enabling it to stream HD content from most content providers. The only caveat to that is that the screen resolution doesn’t allow for anything higher than 720p, which has been designated ‘HD’ by marketing gurus.

I wish this tablet had an HDMI port, where it could display 1080p to a suitable TV, because the tablet is undoubtedly capable of doing that. But given how many tablets have only Widevine L3 encryption, even expensive ones, AGM deserves recognition for using L1.

The 7,200mAh battery is modest, but the screen is small, and the SoC is reasonably frugal, so it still lasts a decent amount of time. The snag is that the fastest charging you can get with the included charger is 18W. Some phones can charge at 55W, and some tablets take more power than that. In my performance assessment, I’ll cover how 18W charging affects speed.

The last few points about the hardware in the P3 are that it has no 5G, though dual 4G SIM and eSIM support covers most uses. NFC and GPS are on board.

Overall, not a spectacular platform, but one that is appropriate to its price and potential uses.

• Hardware score: 3.5/5

AGM Pad P3: Cameras

• 50MP on the rear
• 8MP on the front
• Two cameras in total

The AGM Pad P3 has two cameras:

Rear camera: 50MP Omnivision OV50B40
Front camera: 8MP BYD BF20A1

The main camera is a 50MP unit by Omnivision, the OV50B40. For a camera sensor in a tablet, this one is reasonable, as it uses pixel binning to achieve better colour representation.

But, in my testing, it didn’t care much for low-light conditions, resulting in grainy results.

It is possible to take some good pictures with this sensor, but most are taken outside in strong natural light. As you can see in my indoor shots, this sensor tends to crush contrast and slightly wash out saturation below a certain lighting threshold.

Looking at the drivers compiled for the Android distro on this phone, it suggests there might also be a 0.3MP focusing sensor, but AGM doesn’t explicitly mention it or list it in the phone's specifications.

What it does mention for selfie taking is an 8MP BYD chip designed by that brand for cars, like parking cameras and self-driving functionality.

With many phones now coming with Sony 32MP selfie cameras, this one appears to be intended as a cost-saving measure for the makers.

What’s slightly fascinating is that the best video resolution available is the same for both front- and rear-facing cameras, that being 1080p. Although the rear can offer 60fps over 30fps on the front.

The 50MP Omnivision OV50B40 specification says it supports video at 8K at 30fps, 4K at 90fps, 1080p at 240fps, and 720p at a whopping 480fps. However, the G99 can only process 2K (2048 x 1080) at 30 fps, but the camera app doesn’t have those as options. So what does it do with all those unused sensor pixels? It has stabilisation, which is useful for shooting on the move.

Let us be realistic. Nobody buys a tablet like this for photography, I hope. It is a tool for documenting. Think site inspections, damage records and stock checks. What matters is whether the camera is quick, steady and legible.

The primary sensor is good enough for that, and the selfie camera is acceptable for quick face-to-face conversations.

AGM Pad P3 Camera samples

• Camera score: 3/5

AGM Pad P3: Performance

• Modern SoC
• Good battery life

The Helio G99 is no speed demon, but it’s better than the G88 that Ulefone used in its original Armor Pad Pro. That puts it in the middle of the budget field.

The natural comparison was AGM's own Pad P2 Active, which uses the same chip, but there wasn’t much to gain from comparing such similar machines.

The more interesting aspects of these results are to do with battery life, since the G99 is a 6nm chip, and the G88 is 12nm. The reduction in track size for the G99 provides greater power efficiency, and that is reflected in the nearly 20 hours it ran PCMark battery test versus the 15 that the G88 system managed. Admittedly, the Ulefone Armour Pad Pro still had 20% of power left, hinting at another two hours and 15 minutes of runtime. But given that the battery is 6.25% larger on the Pad Pro, it's still an impressive win for the Pad P3.

Charging was abysmal on the Ulefone tablet, and while it's better on the AGM, it could still take between 2.5 and three hours to get a full charge using the included charger.

I also noticed that if you use a high-end charger, like one of the Ugreen Nexode power packs, it actually charges slower than normal. Phones and tablets that are tuned to a specific charger is a recent development, and one I’m not keen on.

Looking at these numbers, I expect everyday use to be fine with the Pad P3. The 120Hz screen helps the interface feel snappier than the silicon deserves, which is why I expect it was used. Android 16 is also a bonus, as it brings better security and, in theory, longer support.

But AGM could improve Android update availability, since they’ve historically never made it a selling point.

• Performance score: 3/5

AGM Pad P3: Final verdict

For tradespeople, delivery staff and field workers, the AGM Pad P3 is easy to recommend. It is tough, small and cheap. It also gets the details right that matter in daily use, like Widevine L1 and a modern version of Android.

For everyone else, it is a sensible rugged option that doesn't cost much or take up much luggage space. At this price, one shouldn’t expect miracles, obviously.

The shortcomings are plain. The screen resolution is low for the size. The Helio G99 is a budget chip, and 18W charging is slow. There is also no 5G, if that’s important to you. None of these caveats is a surprise at this price, but it's best to go into this with your eyes wide open.

Compared with the AGM Pad P2 Active, the P3 is cheaper, smaller, newer and has a faster screen, but the same underlying SoC. It lacks the removable case of the older tablet.

If you need something more powerful, bigger or with a projector, you should look elsewhere.

Which device suits you depends on how much you value portability, because that’s probably the strongest aspect of the AGM Pad P3.

Should I buy a AGM Pad P3?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also Consider

For more ruggedized devices, we've reviewed the best rugged phones, the best rugged laptops and the best rugged hard drives

In the UK, water companies say data centers are using 6.6 million liters of precious public supplies every day; in the US, some voters are blaming rises in their electricity bills on, you’ve guessed it, data centers . Bloomberg has described the data center “backlash” as a “defining midterms issue”.

And so, a narrative has been allowed to develop – that too many data centers are being built, and too quickly, and worst of all in areas where water is scarce. No wonder some communities believe their water needs are being ignored in the name of advancing IT infrastructure to support AI.

In some cases, there has been genuine cause for grievance – in an earlier era, water efficiency was not always a design constraint on data center construction.

But the public debate is now running on figures which range from outdated to plain wrong. Some of the loudest claims overstate the problem by orders of magnitude. Others, including several the industry itself repeats, understate it.

Getting the numbers right matters – and most of all to the communities that host these facilities – because bad numbers produce bad siting decisions, misdirected scrutiny, and misplaced trust.

The No.1 myth about water use

“Every ChatGPT conversation drinks a bottle of water” is the most famous quote in the public discourse about AI infrastructure and data centers. But the claim is not supported by anyone – not even its author. Traced to a single academic paper - Making AI Less “Thirsty” by Pengfei Li, Jianyi Yang, Mohammad A. Islam, and Shaolei Ren of UC Riverside – the figure was a calculated estimate built from public data, not an actual meter reading from a data center.

But a 2024 Washington Post analysis ensured the figure went viral. Since then, Ren has indicated that the GPT-4 estimate was likely far too high and that the real figure is closer to 15ml per prompt in total, of which 5ml is on-site cooling water in a data center. Then in August 2025, Google found that a median text prompt of its AI tool, Gemini, consumed 0.26ml of on-site water – or about five drops.

Credible estimates still span more than a thousandfold depending on model, location, season, and, above all, what you choose to count. But nobody is talking about bottles of water anymore – the honest answer to How much water does a query use? is a range, and the range is wide because disclosure is inconsistent.

Not all data centers are the same

Critics think all data centers are the same when it comes to water and cooling – but that’s simply not the case. Different cooling technologies use different amounts of water. Google disclosed in 2024, for example, that one of its Texas data centers consumed about 10,000 gallons in a year – roughly two months of a single household’s use – while its largest water consumer, in Iowa, used around a billion gallons. Same company, same year, but a difference of five orders of magnitude determined almost entirely by cooling architecture and climate.

There’s another myth that water used by data centers is lost forever. But again, no two facilities are the same. A data center which withdraws river water, runs it through heat exchangers and returns it to the river, at a slightly higher temperature, clearly has a very different impact from one which draws water from an aquifer and evaporates the same volume into the sky. Water withdrawal (and return) and water consumption are two different metrics. Again, bad numbers fail to tell the full story.

Golf is greedier when it comes to water

But are data centers really such water hogs? In most countries, their water use barely registers. In the US, for example, direct annual consumption by data centers accounts for 0.3% of total public supply. By comparison, golf courses use approximately thirty times more water than every American data center combined. And agriculture dwarfs both: the UN’s World Water Development Report puts farming at roughly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals.

National figures, though, obscure local impact. That’s why a single data center drawing millions of gallons of water a day, arriving suddenly in one small municipality, matters more locally than a thousand different water uses spread across a continent. It’s understandable – but important to put in context. Data centers attract community scrutiny not because they are large water users nationally but because they are concentrated and visible.

More AI doesn’t mean more water

The good news is that more AI doesn’t mean more water. The newest data centers have closed-loop designs, immersion cooling, and reclaimed-water agreements, precisely because the thermal loads of next-generation AI demand it.

The three largest hyperscalers – Microsoft, Google, and Amazon – have all committed to being “water positive” by 2030, replenishing more water than they consume. The EU, meanwhile, requires annual water reporting for data centers above 500kW. Regulation has a crucial role to play going forward.

The thirst for facts

On today’s evidence, AI data centers are a small national water user but with a real footprint. However, new engineering, better planning and regulation are achieving results. What is not yet solved is the accounting of water use. Standardized, facility-level and independently verifiable disclosure of withdrawals, discharge, and consumption would cost the industry relatively little and build trust with local communities.

Right now, the bad numbers around data centers and water use create misdirected scrutiny and misplaced trust. That needs to change. Honest accountability matters if public debate and policy are to keep pace with AI's growth.

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An AI startup seemingly gave Anthropic a taste of its own medicine when it used AI agents to break into the company and expose sensitive data.

The company in question is called Cathedral, which was founded by former members of the defunct US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a US government initiative established to reduce federal spending and bureaucracy, while modernizing government technology and operations.

Anthropic is running a two-fold bug bounty program through HackerOne. One part is focused on finding technical flaws in Anthropic’s systems, while the other is an invite-only program that rewards researchers for finding universal jailbreaks that bypass Claude’s safety protections.

Cathedral apparently shared its results with Anthropic through the bug bounty program. After its human researchers unsuccessfully tried breaking in for a few days, they deployed AI agents which took less than 12 hours to find a way in, by exploiting flaws in third-party business software.

Violating the rules

After accessing the company’s network, the agents accessed meeting transcripts, information on salaries and job offers, as well as Slack messages. Employee conversations with Claude were not exposed, it seems.

Anthropic confirmed the news, saying Cathedral accessed a “limited set” of sales, human resources, and IT systems, and compromised contact information and basic user account records belonging to certain customers and partners. Source code and AI model weights were not accessed.

“Our monitoring flagged some of Cathedral’s activity before they reported it to us,” Anthropic said in a statement shared with The Washington Post. “We shut off their access the same day.”

According to Gizmodo, Anthropic accused Cathedral of violating the program’s rules by failing to disclose the full extent of its activity. We don’t know if that means Anthropic won’t release the payment for the bounty, but it sure sounds like it.

Paying the bounty could be the least of Anthropic’s concerns, though. The company is currently gearing up for its Initial Public Offering (IPO), with a valuation of $1.4 billion. Leaking sensitive data to anyone, including white hat hackers, is definitely not a good signal.

A 'bunch of kids' wreaking havoc

“The fact that weaknesses in ordinary enterprise software can compromise the infrastructure of even the most advanced organizations should be a wake-up call for every company in America,” the Washington Post cited Cathedral’s report as saying.

At the same time, a senior Trump administration official allegedly told Via The Independentthat “if a bunch of kids who have just started a company can do this, then potentially the Chinese aren’t far behind.”

Cathedral can hardly be described as “a bunch of kids” - it is an AI startup focused on offensive and defensive cyber operations for the US military and government. Its founders include Gavin Kliger (former Pentagon chief data officer), Luke Farritor (best known for helping decipher ancient Roman scrolls using machine learning), Marko Elez (former SpaceX staffer), and Jack Stein (apparently worked as an investment banking associate at Salem Partners before joining DOGE).

The cybersecurity community had something to say about it. Jacob Krell, Senior Director for Secure AI Solutions & Cybersecurity at Suzu Labs, wasn’t particularly phased, saying if third-party vendors are a risk everywhere, then they’re a risk at Anthropic.

"Cathedral's agents got into Anthropic the same way attackers get into everyone else, through the vendors,” Krell said. “Security maturity is capped by the weakest vendor you integrate with, and no amount of in-house engineering changes that."

Darin Fredde, Senior Director of Technical Marketing Engineering at Ridge Security, praised Anthropic’s response: "Anthropic deserves credit for reporting that its monitoring detected some of the activity and for taking containment measures. But the real measure of remediation is independent verification that those attack paths are closed. We need to stop confusing a successful patch with a verified security outcome. Otherwise, we're just closing the front door and hoping nobody discovered the spare key."

My kitchen already contains more Ninjas than a bad kung-fu movie, all of which I've bought with my own money: Ninja has become my go-to brand thanks to clever design and decent pricing. So I'm intrigued by the launch of yet another multi-cooker, because it combines ideas from two of my favourite kitchen helpers: my multicooker and my dual-drawer air fryer.

The new multicooker is called the Ninja MultiPot XL and it comes with three pots: a seven-liter one for making big meals, and a pair of 3.1-liter ones so you can make two different things at two different settings. I thought dual-pot designs were a gimmick until I bought my air fryer, and now I'm like what's inside it: a big fan.

I've been buying multicookers since the early days of the Instant Pot, and my current multicooker model is the Ninja Foodi Max 15-in-1. It's on as I write this, making soup for the family dinner.

I love the convenience of the Max, but it's awfully big and I don't use the air fryer function. So I'm really interested in whether this new model can do what I need it to do without needing what looks like a very large Darth Vader helmet on my countertop. So let's see what this MultiPot XL can do.

What kinds of cooking does the Ninja MultiPot XL do?

The 11 different cooking functions of the Ninja MultiPot XL are:

• Slow cook
• Sear / sauté
• Bake
• Sauce
• Rice
• Pasta
• Mixed Rice
• Sous Vide
• Simmer
• Hotpot
• Keep warm

You'll notice the absence of air frying here, but that's definitely not a deal-breaker for me. It's one of the reasons this Ninja is so much smaller than my Foodi XL despite having almost the same maximum capacity.

Looking at what I usually cook, I reckon this could easily replace my Foodi Max. I typically use mine to sear or brown meat before slow cooking it, to sauté veg before adding stock for soup, and to make pasta. The keep warm feature is something I'm used to with the Foodi Max and I use it all the time, and the presence of a sous vide option is really attractive: I've tried stand-alone sous vide gadgets before and found them too much of a fuss but I'd be tempted to experiment with sous vide salmon and steaks here.

According to Ninja the pots are oven-safe up to 428F / 220C, they're dishwasher safe (as are the lids) and they can be nested for easy storage. The glass lids are a nice touch — I can't see what i'm cooking when I close the lid of my Foodi Max — and the small size makes this really tempting to me. It's small enough to carry over to the table, too.

There are only two obvious downsides to me. The first is the lack of pressure cooking, which is something I like to use from to time, and the second is that it will almost certainly have the infamous Ninja beep alert that all my Ninjas make. But those are minor issues. If you're big on cooking ideas but short of space this looks like it could be an excellent kitchen companion.

The Ninja MultiPot XL is available now direct from SharkNinja and major retailers. The list price is £259.99 (about $350 / AU$490).

Translucent gaming hardware is having a moment right now, with the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 and Microsoft’s see-through Xbox Series X leading the charge. Now, Sony is getting in on the act with a new range of PlayStation 5 covers and controllers that take you back to a time when seemingly everything had a touch of transparency about it.

Dubbed the Prism range, the new accessories are available in three translucent forms: Flare Orange, Emerald Green, and Graphite Gray. They come with a “premium glossy sheen for a sleek and elevated design,” Sony says, and those finishes “give players a closer look into the design and craftsmanship behind our DualSense controllers and PlayStation 5 consoles.”

As Sony alluded to, it’s not just the DualSense controller that gets the Prism treatment. The PS5 console itself can take on one of the collection’s looks thanks to three dedicated console covers that can be fixed to your PS5 to overhaul its appearance.

Sony says that the Prism PS5 controllers cost $84.99 / £74.99 / €84.99, which pushes the price a little higher than the standard PS5 controller but is in line with other special editions.

The console covers, meanwhile, will set you back $74.99 / £64.99 / €74.99. You’ll be able to pre-order the products on November 10, 2026, and they’ll officially launch on February 4, 2027.

We'll be covering the pre-orders of these products live and predict that the combination of their slick finishes and the appeal to retro and long-term PlayStation fans means they will be in hot demand!

Retro revival

Many tech companies have brought out translucent devices in recent years as they seek to capitalize on the nostalgic hit the look provides for fans of ‘90s design and throwback gaming culture.

Sony is no different, with company designer Leo Cardoso saying: “We know how much our fans have been looking forward to the return of transparent controllers. We wanted to bring back the iconic see-through trend of the late ‘90s in a fresh, modern way that complements the PS5’s industrial design.”

With Sony’s main console rival Microsoft launching a translucent green Xbox Series X alongside an “OG Green” see-through controller, PlayStation bosses might not have wanted to feel left behind — or for their fans to cast envious sideways glances at their Xbox-toting friends and family members.

Now, they might not have to worry about that. And if you’re a fan of the retro aesthetic and want to bring a touch of the 1990s to your PlayStation 5, this could be one way to do it.

If you’ve ever been curious about the world and environments found in World of Warcraft and all its weird and wonderful inhabitants, Blizzard Entertainment has just released a new three-part mockumentary exploring everything there is to know about the company’s latest game, World of Warcraft: Forever. Just don’t take it too seriously.

That’s because the docu-series is being headed up by famed British comedian and musician Bill Bailey, who lends his voice and in-game character to the show as he walks viewers through the much-loved world of Azeroth, which has been reimagined for the launch of World of Warcraft: Forever on November 4, 2026.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the natural world,” Bailey said, “but nothing quite prepares you for Azeroth. The creatures are extraordinary, the landscapes are stunning and, unlike many other nature documentaries I’ve been involved in, I managed to stay dry and not get bitten by something. It was enormous fun exploring this strange and wonderful world,” said Bill Bailey.

Bailey has taken on the guise of a Dwarven adventurer for the series, which Blizzard says will take in “some of Azeroth’s most iconic regions, from the forests of Elwynn to the frozen wilderness of Winterspring.” You can also expect “a documentary-gone-rogue with Murlocs, Kobolds, and many more of the world’s most fascinating inhabitants.”

More episodes are on the way

There’s been plenty of chat surrounding World of Warcraft: Forever, with Blizzard saying it wants to focus on the “foundational lore of Warcraft” and that it’s stuffed the game world with secret content “that’s going to take people a long time to find.” That’s got plenty of gamers interested in seeing what’s coming, with the beta period extended to allow fans more time to explore the world before it launches in full.

The first episode of World of Warcraft: Planet Azeroth is available today on the official World of Warcraft YouTube channel, while episode 2 will be available on October 31, and the final episode will go live on November 6, a couple of days after the release of World of Warcraft: Forever.

That could make it the ideal warm-up act for a game that we’re excited for, albeit with some reservations. If Blizzard and Bailey can strike the right note, there could be a lot to look forward to.

It's been a busy week for Apple, with the launch of the M6 iMac and MacBook Pro M6 following Monday's OLED iPad Mini reveal — but it saved the biggest news for last today with the launch of the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, its first touchscreen laptop.

TechRadar's Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff is at Apple's event in LA, and will be bring you all of our first impressions of Apple's flagship MacBook, which Apple is calling the "world's best pro laptop".

Here's everything that happened during the launch of Apple's most significant Mac launch of the year...

Apple 'Pro and Tell' event: the story so far

• Apple has just announced the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display
• Apple launched the OLED iPad mini on Monday, October 26
• Yesterday we saw the M6 iMac and MacBook Pro M6 announced

October 28, 2026 – 12:17 PM

We're in!

We're inside Apple's event, and it's not quite on the scale of the company's bigger keynotes.

For one, there's basically no seats, which suggests this announcement could be more about the hands-on experiences than a long presentation.

The rumors suggest that a 10am PDT / 1pm ET / 5pm GMT announcement is possible, so we might be just 40 minutes away from the official news...

October 28, 2026 – 1:10 PM

The touchscreen MacBook Pro is official

The 'All New MacBook Pro' (as it appears to be called) is officially here.

We don't have all the specs yet, but it has a tandem OLED display and weighs 3lbs...

October 28, 2026 – 1:20 PM

MacBook Pro with 'PROLED XDR Display': specs

The Wi-Fi at Apple's event is wobbling, but the new flagship MacBook Pro (with the dubiously-named PROLED XDR display) is already live on Apple's website.

It's available in 14-inch and 16-inch variants, with M5 Pro (16-core GPU or 20-core GPU) or M5 Max (32-core GPU or 40-core GPU) chips. Base storage starts at 1TB (going up to 16TB on the M5 Max versions), while base RAM is 24GB (going up to 128GB on the top model).

You can pre-order it now with availability starting on November 6. As rumored pricing starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch version and $3,399 for the 16-inch model...

UK ministers are reportedly considering giving manufacturers extra incentives to add vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology to cars as part of its review of the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate.

The technology, which was arguably pioneered by Nissan in Japan in the early 2010s, supports bidirectional power transfer, allowing electric vehicles to not only be charged from a domestic charger, but also feed energy back into the grid.

Early demonstrations with Japan’s CHAdeMO charging standard showed that something like a Nissan Leaf could provide power to a home during natural disasters, and also help decrease the load on the grid during peak consumption hours.

According to supporters of the technology, increasing the amount of V2G-enabled EVs on UK driveways could help the transition away from fossil fuels to renewables, balancing the grid when wind and solar generation is lower than electricity demand.

According to a report in The Guardian, in order to incentivize manufacturers, ministers are considering offering additional Zero Emission Vehicle credits to those companies that can successfully increase the prevalence of V2G tech.

Currently, the ZEV system sees manufacturers earn credits for every fully electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle they register, with annual targets set for the percentage of electric cars sold each year.

Companies that fall short of their annual sales quota must either buy surplus credits from other manufacturers, borrow against future targets, or pay non-compliance penalties.

While increasing the amount of vehicles that are capable of bi-directional charging could indeed help balance out the grid in times of peak demand, some critics claim that offering additional credits to manufacturers could lead to an increase in the production of polluting petrol and diesel models.

“Vehicle to grid is exciting technology that could help balance the grid and cut bills, but carmakers should only be rewarded if it’s actually used, not just for fitting it,” Ben Nelmes, the chief executive of New AutoMotive, a think-tank tracking the transition to electric cars, told The Guardian.

Analysis: simplicity is key

Vehicle-to-grid technology is nothing new, and the idea of the 'virtual powerplant', where the grid can give and take energy from thousands of vehicles all connected to the grid, has been on the minds of automotive manufactures for well over a decade.

Right now, Renault and Alpine offer V2G services in France through Mobilize and The Mobility House projects, while the Volkswagen Group's Elli sub-brand announced a packaged V2G offer in June for its German customers, targeting compatible VW, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Cupra models.

In the UK, Octopus Energy already offers its Power Pack, which it claims is the first vehicle-to-grid tariff that could save a typical V2G driver £620 per year compared to the company’s other flexible tariffs.

However, as someone who owns a house with EVs, solar, battery storage and inverters, I know first-hand just how complex it is navigating the various energy tariffs, and calculating whether or not it makes financial sense to sell excess solar back to the grid.

Not only does this typically require several apps and a good grasp on the software that manages all of the various systems, it also demands an in-depth knowledge of energy tariffs and dynamic pricing.

Vicky Edmonds, the chief executive of the Electric Vehicle Association England, which represents drivers, told The Guardian: “These technologies have enormous potential, but consumers are still getting to grips with more immediate questions around the cost of their car, the cost of charging, and whether an EV meets their day-to-day needs”.

So, while some believe that the electricity supplied by V2G cars could add up to the equivalent of a power station by 2030, the process would have to be as simple as possible to encourage already confused motorists to adopt the technology.

Most of these products are available now, though some can only be preordered at the moment. Read on for all the details and pricing — at the time of writing international pricing is slowly rolling out, so we'll add that here as it gets announced.

1. Echo Dot

The brand new Echo Dot — the speaker for "everywhere you can imagine" as Amazon puts it, from the kitchen to the living room — gets a host of upgrades. There's a new full-range driver here for improved audio and 50% more bass, the addition of a fourth microphone so it can hear you better, and room temperature detection.

There's some custom Amazon silicon inside in the form of the AZ3 chip, which should make Alexa+ faster and more responsive, and the smart speaker is now both a smart home hub as well as an Eero Wi-Fi extender. It's available now in Graphite, Glacier White, Agave Green, and Coral Pink for $99.99 / £94.99 / AU$199.

2. Amazon Kids Echo Dot

If your kids are after their own Echo Dot, Amazon has you covered here too. There's everything you get in the regular Dot, with a choice of either Octopus and Penguin designs, and a year of Amazon Kids+ (featuring podcasts and audiobooks, usually $7.99 / £6.99 a month if you've got Prime). The Amazon Kids Echo Dot is yours for $109.99 / £104.99.

3. Echo Studio with Home Camera

The Echo Studio is the Echo speaker you go for if you want the best audio possible, and the newly unveiled model adds a feature called Advanced Room Adaptation that "tunes the sound to your space". There's also now Adaptive Volume, so audio adjusts as you move about the room to maintain a steady level.

Also — surprise! — there's now a camera embedded in the speaker. Amazon says you could use it to check in on pets or make sure you've switched the lights off. The camera can also be used with Alexa+, to get info on whatever you're holding, and with Fire TV devices if you want to put video calls on your television.

As always, you can turn off the camera whenever you like. The new Echo Studio with Home Camera is now available in Graphite for $249.99 / £239.99 / AU$479, and the existing Echo Studio (without the camera or extra audio features) remains on sale for $219.99.

4. Echo Time

The Echo Time is a brand new smart speaker series from Amazon, and looks to be a more premium version of the existing Echo Spot. Yes, it's basically an Echo Dot with a clock on the front, but there's also smart alarm functionality here to wake you up at the best point during your sleep cycle, and routine settings for winding down at the end of the day too.

With a 3.2-inch touchscreen, you've got a bit of extra control when interacting with Alexa+ and other features, and Amazon says it's been specifically designed for the bedroom (there's no camera, you'll be pleased to know). The speaker is available now for $199.99 / £184.99 / AU$379, in Graphite, Glacier White, and Coral Pink.

5. Amazon Kids Echo Time

There's a kid-friendly version of the Echo Time available as well for $209.99 / £194.99, in either Galactic Grape or Cosmic Lime. As with the Echo Dot, the version for youngsters bundles in a year of Amazon Kids+ (usually $7.99 / £6.99 a month if you also subscribe to Prime), so there's lots of audio content to explore, plus wind-down content curated especially for kids.

6. Echo Show 16

Amazon is going big with the Echo Show 16, which boasts a screen measuring 16 inches from corner to corner (as you may have guessed from the name). Amazon says its the "most advanced, versatile smart display" it's put out yet: there's a refined design, Fire TV functionality built in, and a choice of three new Screen Styles.

These Screen Styles are basically different widget layout options, focusing on smart home controls, displaying photos, or acting as a family organizer (with calendars front and center). The device is faster than previous Echo Shows, Amazon says, and the 13MP camera lets you use it as a security camera and video calling device too.

Amazon is opening up preorders for the Echo Show 16 now, and it'll be available "later this year". The standard smart display costs $499.99, while one with a special anti-glare Nanomatte layer (as used in the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro) is yours for $569.99.

7. Alexa Home Map

Alexa Home Map is exactly what it sounds like: a map of your home, rendered in 3D. The idea is you can see at a glance how your smart lights, speakers, displays, and cameras are set up, and control them with a tap on the map. You can start setting up the map through the Alexa+ app on your phone, though it's not rolling out until later this year.

8. Alexa Photo Frame

The Alexa Photo Frame tasks the Alexa AI with picking out the best shots from your Amazon Photos library, and displaying them on the 10-inch touchscreen — though you can also manually specify albums and people you want to see. New photos can show up automatically if you want, as they're added to your library.

Alexa is always on hand if you want to request a particular image, and you can even add voice notes to pictures and send them to friends and family with their own Alexa Photo Frames. The digital frame is available now for $199.99 in Black, and $229.00 with a real Birch or Walnut wood frame.

New research has claimed barely any organizations are seeing real success when it comes to the results of heavily implementing AI in their workplace.

A report from Gartner found just 3% of organizations have hit their targets around productivity and efficiency, as well as trying to cut costs across their business using AI.

This is despite three quarters of leaders expecting AI technology to have a significant effect in their organization, with 85% set to spend more on AI in 2027, despite 38% of them already being over budget.

AI benefits to come?

"Ultimately, organizations will not generate cost savings from AI at this point," CV Viverito, senior director analyst for Gartner's HR practice, told attendees at the firm's HR Symposium.

"The greater opportunity is to use AI to do things that weren't possible before, such as shifting employee time into new capabilities, outcomes, and sources of growth."

Moving forward, Gartner says businesses should look to focus their AI efforts where the technology can make a tangible effect in key areas. It also advised organizations to spread AI knowledge across the business, with C-suite as important as entry-level workers when it comes to identifying new use cases and benefitting from such improvement.

“There isn’t a struggle to create capacity, that’s happening already as organizations redesign work,” claimed Viverito. “What organizations are struggling with is how to make that capacity usable and redirecting it to what is valuable.”

Gartner's report is the latest to urge caution when it comes to the possibilities of AI in organizations of all sizes.

A top economist recently warned AI is only helping the world's biggest technology firms - with most other large organizations yet to see any significant benefits, noting that, "Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech."

Via The Register

If you're on more of a budget, then I'd highly recommend checking out the MacBook Air 13 (M5) for $1,099 (was $1,319) at B&H Photo today. Not only is this a great price for the latest MacBook Air 13, but it's one of the best deals I've seen since the laptop was hit by a massive price hike.

The record low for the MacBook Air 13 is technically $949, but it's been hovering anywhere between $1,299 and $1,149 ever since June. It's been a pretty bitter pill to swallow, considering the MacBook Air is arguably the best value MacBook for most people right now. With this deal, however, we're starting to creep closer to that pre-hike price tag.

MacBook Air 13 (M5) deal at B&H Photo

• See more: check out all of today's deals at B&H Photo

Overall, this is a great deal, and one that I wouldn't expect to go much lower over Black Friday. We're just about to hit the end-of-year sales madness, so you could wait it out to see if it drops any lower, but I doubt it will hit the rock-bottom prices we saw before the hikes took place. Annoyingly, component prices have hit both laptop and tablet prices really hard in recent months, with no end in sight.

For more details on this model, I'd highly recommend checking out our MacBook Air 13 M5 review. Overall, the latest MacBook Air 13 is more of an iterative upgrade, but it's still a fantastic machine — enough to score an impressive four and a half stars out of five, in fact.

One of the biggest draws of the best open earbuds is that they're pretty inexpensive. The lack of ANC, fancy ear tips and oodles of in-ear-exclusive features means that the go-to picks generally cost no more than the best cheap earbuds.

Samsung disagrees. It unveiled its first open earbuds, called the Galaxy Buds On, at the start of the month, but only for the Korean market. However, the company has now revealed worldwide availability (while telling us about how its engineers made them), and there are some pieces of disappointing news.

Firstly, if you're in Europe, put your excitement on the backburner. The buds will only launch there (including, presumably, the UK) in 2027, so you can't arrange to try these any time soon. No world on an Australian release either.

If you live in the US, you can buy the earbuds from early November, so you won't have long to wait. But you might want to think about them for now, until the price drops (possibly during a key sales event?), because they cost a princely $229, which is about £170 or AU$340, but I imagine they'll cost a little more in those regions upon launch.

The price of open earbuds

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro launched for $249 / £219 / AU$399 at the beginning of the year, which might make these open earbuds look like a budget alternative. But given how cheap and cheerful these buds tend to be, $229 is a significant sum.

To my knowledge, there are only two pairs of current open earbuds which cost more: the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen), released in September for $299 / £299 / $449 and the Shokz Openfit Pro, which arrived in January toting ANC-like noise reduction, for $249.95 / £219 / AU$399. Bose clearly knows they're expensive, which is why it launched them alongside a cheaper alternative — and the Shokz set boast a feature very rarely seen in such designs.

Other than the Sony LinkBuds Clip, which sell for $229 / £180 / AU$329 (and which we weren't impressed with in our initial tests), I can't think of any open earbuds I've tested recently that come close to this in price.

Anything over $200 or thereabouts is a premium price for open earbuds, and I wouldn't blame you for thinking twice before buying them. Even Shokz, another segment leader, only charges $199 / £179 / AU$339 for its also-premium Shokz OpenDots 2.

And there are some fantastic options for less. The Soundcore AeroClip 2 , from a reliable brand, go for $169 / £159 (about AU$240). I've been using the Baseus Bowie MC2 for a few months, ever since publishing my review in August, and they cost just $79 / £89 (about AU$180). And other brands have loads of options too, like Soundpeats and Earfun, which also cost little.

As I said when I covered in influx of open-ears earlier this week, there isn't a huge difference in design, feature set or sound quality in any of these earbuds, which makes it really hard to justify splurging for a premium pair. You can get basically the same earbuds as the Galaxy Buds On for half the price, and I'd personally never spend more than about $120 on this kind of earbud.

Because of this, I was expecting the Galaxy Buds On to sell for less than the Galaxy Buds 4 ($179 / £159 / AU$299), and I'm really surprised that's not the case. If you're interested in this form factor, I'd recommend picking up a cheaper pair from a competitor, or waiting to see if they get discounts further down the line.

Oracle co-CEO Mike Sicilia has questioned how much of the work employees carry out today will actually be necessary in the future, with artificial intelligence not just speeding up some tasks, but fundamentally rewriting entire organizational processes.

Speaking on stage at the company's annual AI World conference, Sicilia suggested AI could "give people more time to be human," raising questions about the everyday tasks we've come to accept as just an integral part of our 9-5s.

"I think we should be questioning how much of the work we've come to accept today is actually necessary going forward," he declared.

AI will actually do the work – not just help you to do the work

Sicilia's comments come as the company unveils a new generation of AI-powered enterprise applications – with a big emphasis on agentic workloads that can take over many processes altogether.

Now that the world has entered the next stage of AI, where experimentation is largely behind us and real use cases are being laid out, Oracle predicts that AI could eliminate entire stages of work. The company's own recruiting team is using agentic AI to turn market research preparation into a 15-20-minute job – something that used to take two to four days.

As part of its latest announcements, Oracle has introduced new Claw-powered Fusion Agentic Applications designed to reason, analyze business data, simulate outcomes and carry out approved actions. Put simply, it marks an important point in AI's timeline with agents can identify scenarios or challenges, simulate next stages, and then carry the best one out.

Strategic Field Demand Planning stands out as a useful tool for stretched HR teams, predicting staffing requirements, identifying coverage gaps and handling adjustments. It's the sort of job that takes manual hours to do but detracts from direct revenue generation.

A separate Executive Briefing Document application can research a customer's history, company news and revenue potential to pull important information into one briefing pre-meeting. Again, another time-consuming administrative job that now frees up human hours to produce revenue-boosting work.

"This enables organizations to translate business objectives into growth opportunities, reliable service, and stronger customer trust," Applications Development SVP Kartik Raghavan wrote.

'More time to be human'

Sicilia's comments point toward a significant change in how businesses measure productivity in the future, and whether completing more work should necessarily mean spending more time on more work.

Ultimately, there's a big difference between just boosting productivity and automating entire workflows, and we're yet to see the latter in any meaningful scale, which means we don't yet know how companies will react to all that extra free time.

Job displacement is still an ongoing concern for many, but one of the core messages conveyed at AI World has been that companies need to totally rethink how they work – and advanced AI adopters could actually just end up having a different type of work for human employees.

"We're giving people more time to be human," Sicilia concluded on stage.

• Browse the full Currys Black Friday sale

Let's start with a regular favourite of mine: it's this Shark Stratos Cordless Vacuum for £199 (was £419.99). I picked up one of these many years ago, and it was one of the best investments I made to make cleaning around the home so much easier. With awesome suction power, an invaluable anti-hair wrap brush roll, and solid battery life, it's hard to argue against for under £200.

I also want to give a shoutout to the JBL Go 5 for £34 (was £39.99). This tiny Bluetooth speaker quickly became our top cheap pick here at TechRadar — and now it's even more affordable, so what's not to like? Get it for great audio quality, a tough build, and it's many funky colour options.

Check out all of my top picks below, or have a browse through all the major categories from the Currys Black Friday sale to see if anything else looks good to you. This is only a small selection of everything that will be available, so I'll be back to update our guide regularly with all the top new offers that are worth the cash.

And if you're worried about buying this early, then know that Currys has launched a Black Friday price guarantee as part of this sale. It means that if anything you purchase between now and November 24 is cheaper before December 1, then they will refund you the difference. Just make sure you register the details of your purchase so you can make a claim if needed.

Currys Black Friday sale — quick links

• Appliances: up to 40% off Bosch, LG & Miele
• Christmas: up to 40% off lights & decorations
• Fitness: up to £1,300 off exercise equipment
• Headphones: JBL & Samsung from £39.99
• Health & Beauty: up to 40% off Philips & Oral-B
• Kitchen: up to £250 off Ninja & Sage
• Laptops: up to £400 off
• Phones: up to £279 off Honor & Samsung
• TVs: from £129
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Currys Black Friday sale — my top 14 deals

The UK Government has announced a new 'Warm Homes Loan Scheme' designed to provide either interest-free or low interest loans for homeowners buying solar panels, a battery, or a heat pump (and other renewables besides).

The Guardian reports that energy suppliers such as British Gas and E.On have partnered with lenders (including Homeserve, Tandem Bank and The Money Co-op) to offer the loans.

Those wanting solar panels or a storage battery can get a loan of up to £15,000 (so up to £30,000 for a full system with both). An air-to-water heat pump (meaning one that uses your existing central heating radiators) qualifies for a loan of up to £20,000. Air-to-air heat pump loans go up to £10,000, and a loan for a ground-source heat pump runs up to £35,000.

Only some of these loans will be interest-free, but where interest is charged it'll be at a low level, the Government it has worked with lenders to deliver an "up-to-5% reduction in interest rates from regular loans offered by banks or high street lenders".

The Government also notes that the loan periods can be up to 30 years in some cases, and that "people can shop around for the one that works best".

As well as a loan, some homeowners will still be able to benefit from a grant for a heat pump of up to £9,000 under the current 'Boiler Upgrade Scheme' or BUS (for upgrading away from a fossil fuel heating system). There could be a catch here, though, which I'll come back to shortly.

The Government said: "We know demand for these technologies is soaring, with almost 150,000 solar panel installations in first six months of this year. Heat pump sales also reached a record high in 2025. Our loans will help thousands more households cut their energy bills quickly."

All loan-funded installations will use MCS-certified installers.

Analysis: new loans are welcome — but BUS grants are reportedly changing too

Any financial support for making the move to renewable energy is very welcome for obvious reasons. These systems can be very pricey, as I've found out first-hand — I recently had a solar panel and battery setup installed. If you want a sizeable array and a battery with a higher capacity, that doesn't come cheap, so a loan really helps — and the repayments are subsidized by the savings made on your electricity bill.

I live in Scotland, where I couldn't get a loan of this nature before now, and it's worth noting that this scheme is for the whole of the UK, so those in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can benefit.

What we don't know yet is how many of the loans will be interest-free, as obviously that's the ideal proposition — presumably those will be the shorter-term financing arrangements.

For the low-interest loans, the Government gives an example of a homeowner borrowing £10,000 at 8% over seven years, where the expected repayment would be about £155 per month. With the new loan scheme, we're told they'd save "up to £285 a year on repayments", so they'd be repaying more like £130 per month.

The Government estimates that installing a heat pump, solar panels and battery could help a household save up to £550 per year on energy bills — and with solar export (which is plentiful in the summer), £300 more can be saved. I'd say those figures were right based on my experience (with just solar and battery), and this money offsets the cost of the loan as already noted.

What about the potential catch for the 'Boiler Upgrade Scheme' grant that I mentioned? Apparently in today's budget, chancellor John Healey is reportedly going to scale back these heat pump grants, with hundreds of millions of pounds of potential funding to be cut from its £2.7 billion five-year budget.

Currently a grant typically provides £7,500 towards the cost of a heat pump, but it's viewed dimly as a subsidy mostly used by middle-class homes. The Guardian tells us that the Government is likely to switch to offer the mentioned up to £9,000 grants, but crucially these are supposedly going to be for households in remote areas not connected to the gas network. The idea will be to help those homes transition from very expensive oil heating systems to a heat pump.

Meanwhile, for those not looking at a larger investment in renewables, whether loan-funded or not, plug-in solar remains a fresh and much more affordable option than a full solar install.

Oracle has confirmed it will be making Google Cloud's TPUs available through its own OCI platform in a bid to expand the range of AI accelerators available to customers. In doing so, customers will be able to choose which hardware they use to train and run AI models.

Announced at the company's annual AI World conference, the partnership gives Oracle's customers access to Google's purpose-built AI accelerators without them having to go through Google Cloud, while also offering another option instead of Nvidia's GPUs.

It marks an important development for Google's hardware, because it's the first time a hyperscaler other than Google Cloud has sold its TPUs.

Oracle becomes the first third-party cloud vendor to sell Google's TPUs

Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are custom-designed chips designed to accelerate machine learning workloads, spanning both model training and AI inference, but unlike general-purpose GPUs, they've been optimized specifically for artificial intelligence.

While Nvidia remains the dominant supplier of AI accelerators, helping it to maintain its position as the world's most valuable company with a market cap of $5.265 trillion, its facing increasing pressure from hyperscalers' own hardware and custom silicon endeavours.

OCI President Mahesh Thiagarajan explained that "different AI workloads have different compute needs," hence the decision to offer another option to customers.

"The next generation of AI will require a diverse range of compute," Google AI & Infrastructure SVP and Chief Technologist Amin Vahdat added.

OCI is launching the partnership with Google's eighth-generation TPUs – 8t (for training) and 8i (for inference). Both were launched by Google Cloud earlier this year, and will become available via OCI in 2027.

Farewell then, smart AI trolleys: after first being introduced in July, Morrisons' trial of grocery carts that total up your shopping expenses as you go is being wound down, as partner Instacart is now abandoning the Caper Carts tech that powered the scheme.

As The Grocer reports, Instacart has decided that "retailer adoption has not scaled quickly enough to justify our continued investment" in Caper Carts. The trolleys will also be withdrawn from US stores, where they were a little more well established at retailers including Schnucks and Wegmans.

"The trial has given us greater insight into the continued evolution of our customers' shopping habits and we will continue to pilot and develop solutions to meet those needs," a spokesperson for Morrisons told The Grocer. The trial was only run at a single Morrisons store, in Ashton-on-Ribble in Preston.

Via cameras and scales built into the carts, shoppers were able to log all of their purchases as they made their way around the store, with an integrated touchscreen displaying information on the trolley contents. At checkout, a dedicated lane enabled smart trolley shoppers to pay for their items with a barcode scan.

Let the customers decide

Clearly, both Instacart and Morrisons weren't seeing enough uptake for the AI-powered trolleys, and it's a sign that supermarkets don't necessarily know what's in our best interests. Piloting a smart cart around a store puts the onus on shoppers to learn another way of scanning items and paying for them at a checkout.

People will usually prefer the familiar, and at the same time it's not really clear how much faster scan-as-you-go would be compared to scan-at-the-till anyway. Having a camera scan something and use AI to recognize it is a relatively speedy process nowadays (you can do it on your phone), but obviously not speedy enough.

Where AI innovations can be successful is behind the scenes at retailers. For example, AI cameras on the shelves at Morrisons have been much more successful (and won awards) — these cameras watch stock levels, put in orders for anything that's running low, and give staff a heads-up on any potential problems.

We've also seen AI schemes that can predict demand and reduce shortages and waste on a large scale, and it would seem that shoppers would rather see the items they need in stock than have an intelligent trolley.

Phones have come a long way since the Nokia 6300 launched back in early 2007 — that device had no touchscreen and no Wi-Fi capabilities. In fact, you were limited to 2G connectivity on the 6300 — something that the US and some other countries have now shut down. But thanks to a new vibe-coded app, the Nokia 6300 now has some very 2026 capabilities.

X user @EmirKarsiyakali has shared how they’ve created an app dubbed Aikon — that's 'Nokia' backwards — that allows you to access ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok on the Nokia 6300 or any other old phone that runs Java apps (notably, though, it was originally developed for the 6300 and has only been tested on Nokia Series 40 and Series 60 phones).

So if you’ve got one of these ancient handsets sitting in a drawer, you could dig it out and give this app a try — though you’re unlikely to want to ditch your smartphone.

Pricey and clunky

While the Aikon app does add some smart capabilities to old dumb phones, it’s not free, as you have to buy credits from the Aikon site to converse with it.

Also, while some effort has been made to provide a good user experience — the app supports multiple languages, saves messages for 30 days, and includes support for voice messages and image analysis — you’re still going to be working with a tiny, low-resolution screen and a keypad.

Not to mention the fact that, in the case of the Nokia 6300 and some other supported models, you might not even have access to any sort of data connection if you’re in a country that has shut down its 2G services.

Still, it’s impressive to see such a modern technology working on such ancient hardware, and it could be fun to at least dabble with the Aikon app if you have a supported handset.

Japanese internet giant GMO Group has told its customers to scan their computers for viruses, back up all of their data, disconnect the devices from the internet and then shut them down.

The announcement, which literally told customers, “unplug any cords connected to your PC," was made in response to a cyberattack it recently suffered, as well as the threats then made by the malicious actors.

GMO Group gets hit

GMO Internet Group is a large Japanese technology conglomerate whose business spans internet infrastructure, cybersecurity, online advertising, financial services, and more. It brings in billions of dollars every year, and operates a broad portfolio of subsidiaries, among which is Onamae Desktop Cloud, a popular VPS service provider.

Its main customers seem to be individual retail forex (FX) traders in Japan who run automated trading software. It provides a rented Windows desktop hosted on GMO’s servers, allowing customers to keep trading applications running, while being able to shut down their own computers.

On October 20, 2026, the company disclosed having suffered a cyberattack in which threat actors installed malware on some customer environments. Apparently, up to 26,739 servers were at risk, and the company responded by progressively shutting them down, launching an investigation, and cleaning them up.

“We have confirmed that unauthorized access by a third party occurred against Onamae.com Desktop Cloud and that unauthorized programs were installed in some customers’ server environments,” the company said at the time.

The investigation determined that the attackers walked away with sensitive customer data, although it wasn’t said how many customers were compromised, or what types of information were taken. It was also later reported that the unnamed attackers were demanding roughly $50 million in ransom, in exchange for deleting the data. They threatened to release the data on the dark web if the demands aren’t met. Onamae said it wouldn’t pay the attackers, and the data eventually did leak.

Despite the data leaking, no known entities claimed responsibility for the attack.

Condolences money

The attackers also threatened to install ransomware on devices belonging to Onamae customers, triggering the warning and the call for everyone to shut down and unplug their devices:

“1. Request for a full scan of your own device for virus checks 2. Request for backup 3. Request to disconnect network and power from customer PC. Before 12:00 PM on Tuesday, October 27make sure to back up, disconnect the network, turn off the power, and unplug any cords connected to your PC,” the warning, machine-translated from Japanese, reads.

It seems the attackers never acted on their threat, since no ransomware was found on customer servers.

Onamae said it would not pay the attackers, but would instead compensate each customer $30 for their troubles, regardless or not if they actually suffered any damage or not. Those that suffered more meaningful damage will be compensated separately, it was said. Replacement computers were also offered, BleepingComputer reports.

The company has continued its investigation of the attack and is currently analyzing the leaked data to see how many customers were affected, and what is at risk. It also warned the public and the media not to share the leaked information, threatening legal information against those who do.

In one of the updates, Onamae said login credentials and some account details from users of trading platforms MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 were compromised. “Some customers have reported transactions in their trading accounts that they do not recognize,” it added, before urging customers to reset their passwords and terminate all active sessions.

The full scope of the attack, as well as material damages (which might be substantial), are yet to be seen.

Via BleepingComputer

Amazon has long offered a wide variety of smart speakers and smart displays, all powered by Alexa, and more recently, many have gotten the upgrade to Alexa+. Now, after several new devices, from Kindles to tablets with a glare-free Nano Matte coating, Amazon has five more, and the most intriguing is the $199 / £184.99 / AU$379 Echo Time.

A device that earns a spot on your bedside table needs to clear a high bar, and the devices team at Amazon, led by Panos Panay, thinks they’ve cracked it with this one. Speaking to press and creators, Panos called the Echo Time the ‘smartest clock in the world,’ and, first and foremost, it's meant to show you the time in a range of ways.

It really presents itself as a more well-thought-out Echo Spot. Rather than a half-circle display, the Echo Time offers a 3.2-inch screen wrapped in what looks like the body of an Echo Dot Max, with woven mesh on the rear, top, and sides. Controls sit at the top, just above the woven mesh, for volume up, volume down, and microphone mute. It does have microphones you can mute, but the Time notably doesn’t have a camera.

That’s a refreshing admission for a device designed for your nightstand and will likely make the Time more popular than the Spot.

Instead, Echo Time aims to mix clock skills with Alexa+. Like the previous Echo Spot and the forthcoming Apple HomeView, you can customize it with a range of clock faces and even add mini widgets. I saw several designs that look like traditional clocks, with or without hands or numbers, as well as digital ones and others that use photos.

There are some collaborative designs pulling from famous characters like Harry Potter or the Powerpuff Girls — I am hoping for some Disney, Star Wars, or Marvel ones one day. You can swipe left or right to adjust the clock face and long-press to swipe between and customize them.

It can, as you might suspect, function as an alarm clock, but Amazon takes this a step further, as it can raise or lower the brightness of the display and glow light at the bottom to help with your wind-down or wake-up routine. For instance, rather than blaring a loud horn as your alarm, it can intelligently raise the display brightness and work with connected smart home gadgets, like a smart bulb, to help ease your wake-up. It can gradually raise the brightness like a sunrise, and at night, it could start to dim things and even cut blue light from the display. At night, the display can drop to as low as 0.3 nits, meaning that the glow won’t keep you up and the screen can be viewed without burning your retinas.

It will also utilize Omnisense to find the best time to wake you up if you opt in, which is different from Soli on, say, the Google Nest Hub or the Hatch Sleep Clock with sleep tracking. Echo Time isn’t looking to track your sleep but is using these sensors — room temperature, presence detection, ultrasound for breathing, and proximity — to figure out when you’re in a state of lighter sleep and start to wake you up. From there, when an alarm is set, Alexa and the Echo Time can make the call to sound it earlier.

And since it’s running Alexa+, you don’t need to be precise with your asks. You could tell Alexa you have an important meeting at 9 AM, so you need to be up by 7:30 or 7:45 AM, and have it figure out the best routine, potentially setting an alarm but also cueing the lights and hopefully easing you into your day.

With its built-in speakers and screen, you can ask Alexa topical questions and even request music playback, and the Echo Time will happily oblige. It seems like a fully capable Alexa smart display, but it’s unlike the rest of the Echo Show or the standard Echo lineup. Echo Time is squarely built around being a digital clock with Alexa capabilities. And that's a good thing.

Instead of trying to be another smart display that does a little bit of everything, it offers a camera-free design, customizable clock faces, and smart features designed to help you start your day or ease into slumber. It's a more purpose-built Echo, and that could be exactly what makes it worth the space on your nightstand.

At $199.99, it is the same price as the Echo Show 8 and more than the Echo Spot at $109.99. That puts it in an interesting spot in the lineup, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with it soon. Its price puts it firmly in premium smart-clock, smart display territory, so it’ll be interesting to see whether its added features justify the cost over other Echo devices.

Amazon’s also dropping the Amazon Kids Echo Time at $209.99 / £194.99 in Galactic Grape — my favorite — or Cosmic Lime, and it comes bundled with a year of Amazon Kids+. The standard Echo Time comes in Graphite, Glacier White, and Coral Pink for $199.99. Both are available to order now and are shipping now.

Staying connected to the real world is the hot new thing, or so it seems if you've been paying attention to the parade of new clip-on (or cuff-style) open earbuds arriving from Sony, Anker, and Bose, to name a few. The solution is so good when done well that you'll regularly see these buds occupying a healthy chunk of our best open earbuds buying guide. And now Samsung is joining the trend with its first pair: Galaxy Buds Open.

Unlike over-the-ear headphones or in-ear buds, open-ear options must deliver quality sound without the benefit of an audio seal betwixt your ear canal and the buds' driver housings, and all while not making you feel like you're wearing too-heavy ear cuffs (each earpiece here weighs 6.65g). As a Samsung exec told us, "Designing these buds is a complex challenge because of the unique anatomy of ears and the difficulty to find the perfect balance between a secure fit and a comfortable fit."

Part of that is acknowledging that every ear is different. Samsung told us it used AI and "analyzed 119 million ear data points to find the optimal fit for the widest range of users possible." Engineers used that information to optimize the components, including wire length, weight, bridge length, battery, speaker placement, and to select an alloy that flexes for the clip-on components but also stays secure. Samsung claims you could almost forget you're wearing them.

The sound of things

Samsung sounds confident in the fit, but it also had to do some fairly complex audio engineering to make these open earbuds capable of delivering high-quality audio that doesn't leak out to the person next to you.

One of the most interesting aspects of this audio design is the TwinBoost drivers that can be used to both enhance the open-ear audio quality and cut down on audio leakage. The way it works is the open earbuds project "matching reverse soundwaves" from the rear of the speaker, which could cancel out some of the escaping audio. It's a claim we obviously can't confirm until we test the Galaxy Buds On. This is essentially like active noise cancellation, which these buds lack, but instead of the buds creating antiphase sound waves to counteract the noise leaking into your ears, it uses counteracting sounds to cut down on noise leaking from the speakers near your ears.

Galaxy Buds On can't seal you off from outside sounds; in fact, they're designed not to, but they can help keep your calls clear. To manage call quality, the earbuds include three mics and a "voice pickup unit". Samsung claims the Galaxy Buds On capture your voice through the mics and even "jaw movement" to help isolate your voice from other external noises. For those sounds that are not blocked by these audio features, Samsung added some machine learning to automatically cancel out recognized noises such as car horns and construction work.

The buds also support head gestures for accepting and rejecting calls, Gemini access, and Quick Voice Memos. More impressively, Samsung is rating the Galaxy Buds On for 9.5 hours of audio playback and, with the charge case, a total of 38 hours of battery life. Battery life with calls is 5.5 hours and 25 hours with the charging cradle.

Galaxy Buds On, which are only available in black, list for $229 (AU and UK pricing were unavailable at the time of writing) and in early November. That price puts them a touch cheaper than the excellent (and also noise-reducing) Shokz Openfit Pro, at $249, and makes them quite a bit more affordable than Bose Ultra Open ($299).

We'll have more to say about the actual fit, audio quality, external noise cancellation, and battery life when we get a chance to test out the new Galaxy Buds On. But things are looking good on paper.

Correction 10-28-2026: An earlier version of this story mistakenly called the new Samsung earbuds "Galaxy Buds Open". The formal name is "Samsung Galaxy Buds On".

Amazon’s new Echo Show 16 looks like a big step forward for its smart displays. With a slimmer design, upgraded audio, and a redesigned Alexa+ interface, it feels like Amazon’s hardware and software are finally working in tandem.

It has a thinner, more modern look, almost mimicking that of an iMac, with a brighter, more vibrant display that can be treated with the special anti-glare NanoMatte coating. It also boasts a redesigned interface that feels tailor-made for the larger screen.

At $499.99 with a standard display and $569.99 with NanoMatte, the new Echo Show 16 is very much a premium smart display. It’s also only available in the United States for now and is up for preorder ahead of a mid-December launch. You can also save by preordering, with $100 off either finish.

Like the refreshed Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11, this Echo Show 16 feels like Amazon’s device design team, led by Panos Panay, has hit its stride. I only spent a handful of minutes with it, but I can already see that the design and software are working in tandem, and this could be the template for future Echo Show smart displays.

Amazon has redesigned the entire build, including the internals, from the ground up, packing everything into an anodized aluminum frame that’s 40% slimmer than that of the Echo Show 15 or 21. The audio team has also built out eight custom micro-woofers on the sides and two tweeters for robust audio. In the demo space, it got pretty loud with no noticeable muddiness. It can also adjust playback in real time using the onboard microphones, sensors, and custom algorithms to ensure sound stays clear.

There are four microphones as well, so Alexa can clearly hear you when you make queries, but they also help if you’re on a video call, letting whoever you’re speaking to hear you without extra background noise. Two forward-facing microphones sit next to the wide-angle 13MP camera, and two are on the rear.

The 16-inch display is Full HD, and I’m especially loving the NanoMatte finish, particularly for a device that might be wall-mounted or used with the separately sold swivel stand. Either way, it could be exposed to varying degrees of natural sunlight, and glare can be an issue with smart displays.

Of course, Alexa — specifically Alexa+ — is central to this, and the Show 16’s new Cards, which organize your conversations with the assistant, offer a new way to interact with and revisit those conversations. Panos described the interface as a combination of user interface and AI, and explained how the two work together.

When you open a Card from a previous Alexa conversation, you’re presented with the original prompt, condensed, alongside jumping-off points on the right and more detailed information next to it. You can easily tap on those suggestions or pull up the original conversation. Alexa's new conversation design is also reminiscent of how conversations are organized in the Siri app. The new look is also rolling out to the Alexa mobile app.

The whole interface feels a bit cleaner, and you can finally choose between different Screen Styles for the Echo Show 16. These include a Family Organizer for calendars and family plans, a Smart Home view for controlling connected devices — think the Echo Hub on steroids — and a Photos option that turns the display into a digital picture frame.

A more focused Echo Show

After spending a little time with the Echo Show 16, I came away most impressed by the cohesive feel of the hardware and software. The slimmer frame, more capable audio setup, NanoMatte display option, and redesigned Alexa+ experience all serve the same goal: making a large smart display more useful in the home.

The new Cards could be particularly interesting as Alexa+ becomes more capable, giving conversations a life beyond the moment you ask a question. And with Screen Styles that cater to different household needs, the Echo Show 16 feels less like a screen that simply sits on a counter or wall and more like a hub for organizing your home.

I’ll need to spend more time with it to see how well those features work in everyday use, but my first impression is that Amazon has made a more considered, cohesive smart display. If the new Alexa+ experience delivers on its promise, the Echo Show 16 could be one of the more compelling examples of where Amazon wants its smart home devices to go next.

In response, our security models shifted focus. We began verifying the identity of the person trying to log in, inspecting the hygiene of their computer, requiring multiple verification steps during login, and continuously checking that they were who they claimed to be.

This model works well when a human is logging in to perform a task. But with the rise of autonomous AI agents, the real security risk no centralized at the login screen. It starts after access has been granted.

An AI agent does not behave like a standard piece of software. It reads a human instruction, pulls context from company databases, utilizes multiple sets of tools, chooses its own digital tools, connects to external software communication links, and triggers complex automated workflows.

Verifying the initial login simply tells you that the agent is officially recognized by your system. It tells you absolutely nothing about whether the next action the agent plans to take is safe, ethical, or correct, focus has shifted to context.

The evolution of the machine identity problem

IT teams have already experienced a simpler, quieter version of this challenge with non-human identities. For years, companies have used automated service accounts, security tokens, and digital certificates to allow different software programs to talk to one another.

Most security leaders are all too familiar with the risks these credentials present: accounts are created for a temporary project, granted permanent access to database files, and then completely forgotten long after the project has ended. They become silent, unmonitored backdoors into the network.

However, AI agents complicate this familiar problem by introducing the element of independent judgment.

A traditional service account follows strict, pre-written code. By contrast, an AI agent interprets a high-level goal, analyses real-time context, selects its own tools, and actively decides how to proceed.

As a result, security policies can no longer stop at the front door. We must protect every internal data or compute asset the agent can reach and monitor every single decision it makes.

Matching autonomy with executive control

To manage this risk, security leaders must separate two distinct concepts: how much independence an AI agent has, and what level of file access it holds.

The combination of these two factors dictates the level of control required. For example, a basic agent that merely summarizes long documents only needs limited reading rights and clear activity logs. However, an agent designed to update sensitive, production databases, access code repos, write new types of code, or alter business workflows requires mandatory human approval steps, strict operational boundaries, and a clear path to reverse any mistakes.

We can categorize these digital workers into 3 distinct levels of independence, applying tighter security controls as their autonomy increases:

1. First, there are Conversational AI Agents (GenAI), productivity agents usually built and managed by employees & teams as part of their productivity (e.g. managed agents, self hosted chat bots). When driving security, we must enable proper RBAC authorization, associated with the employee and team, ensuring access to non-sensitive or production-related data, enabling logging, and validating the response to ensure proper integrity.

2.Second, there are Agents Acting with Semi/Full Human Guardrails (AI Agents), such as customer support tools that draft emails or prepare database updates for review. Here, security teams must validate the parameters of the tools being used and require a human to approve any actions involving writing, deleting, spending money, or sending information externally. All above controls apply

3.Finally, there are Fully Autonomous Agents (Agentic AI), which reset passwords or trigger complex workflows on their own. These require the strictest boundaries, from visibility (agent architecture, tool usage, and more) and focus on active set of controls. The controls include strict rate limits, continuous real-time policy checks, network access restrictions, run time security controls (Public/Private Cloud) continuous identity and minimal authorization verification, and finally complete, unalterable audit trails.

The industry is leaning toward autonomous agents seeking human approval upon abnormal behavior, can that be triggered in your agent?

The need for real-time inspection

To enforce these policies, security teams need a dedicated vantage point within the network. They must be able to inspect the human prompt, the agent's response, the digital tools being used, and the movement of data while the work is actually happening.

This requires an architecture that can discover all active agent activity across the business, govern how those agents use internal tools, and maintain complete visibility over data flows and automated workflows.

The true value of this approach lies in context. When the behavior of an AI agent is viewed alongside network traffic, user activity, and cloud database logs, security teams can investigate incidents with clear evidence. They can instantly see which agent ran, who in the organization owns it, what data was moved, and which automated tool was called.

For business leaders, this means cleaner, more consistent governance across human users, software applications, and digital agents alike.

How to begin: Start with a single workflow

Securing this new landscape does not require a complete overhaul of your entire security department overnight.

Start by picking a single AI workflow that is currently in use or close to being launched. Map out its digital identity, its level of independence, the files it can access, the tools it uses, the points where a human must approve an action, and how you would undo a mistake.

This simple mapping exercise will quickly highlight where your security gaps lie. If you cannot see the agent's actions in real-time, approve its decisions, block its access, or explain its behavior after the fact, your security controls are simply too far away.

From there, build a baseline on how your secure your coding agents, AI harness (or AI orchestrator) up to utilizing of tools/skills/MCP and moving forward to data assets access and utilization of identity that will allow you to set the correct foundations and guard rails.

The core principle of a "never trust, always verify" security model must follow the agent into its daily work. The most meaningful decision is no longer who is logging in, but whether their next action should be allowed to happen, under these exact conditions, right now.

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One of the big perks of the Kindle Scribe is being able to add handwritten annotations to your books, but it’s a perk that’s no longer exclusive to Amazon’s hardware, as the Kindle app for Android now supports handwritten notes too.

With this update, you can now use a stylus to write directly onto your Kindle books, selecting from different pen styles, colors, and sizes. You can also use this feature to highlight, circle, and underline text.

This could be especially useful for studying, but if you enjoy annotating fiction books, it’s a helpful update there too. It’s not limited to large-screen devices either, with users on Reddit claiming that various standard phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, gained access to this feature as well — though it appears to only work on devices that have native stylus support.

An ereader upgrade — with iOS support possibly incoming

Still, as confirmed by some users, that also means you can access this update on some Android-powered ereaders like certain Boox models.

It’s a feature that’s largely been received positively, with comments on Reddit including “nice surprise,” “I was so happy to see this,” “this is awesome,” and “this is such a game changer.”

Right now, this feature is only available on the Android app, but an Amazon support page mentions that Active Canvas (the feature that allows you to write directly on a Kindle book) is also available on supported iOS devices — so perhaps the iPad and iPhone Duo app will get this update soon.

The Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark is one of the new generation of laptops powered by Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip. This all-in-one system-on-a-chip is packing 20 ARM CPU cores, 6144 CUDA GPU backed up by 64GB of RAM and promises to offer fantastic AI, creative and gaming performance in a lightweight, portable form factor. So how does this new SoC version of the Asus ProArt P16 laptop fare?

When powering up the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark for the first time, perhaps the first thing I noticed is its huge, vibrant 16-inch OLED screen. With a peak brightness of 1,100 nits and a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, it looked gorgeous whether I was loading up my digital artworks or watching movies. And its 120Hz VRR makes it perfect for playing games on.

That’s not the only part of the ProArt P16’s design that feels premium. Its overall build quality feels suitably luxe, with the smooth metal of its upper casing feeling wonderfully tactile. Inside, its keyboard is well designed and feels pleasant to type on, while its haptic trackpad is precise and gives snappy feedback, even if I did find it too easy to trigger the right click at first. I will say its lid has a little bit too much wobble for my liking though: if I’m honest, I’d expect a laptop at this price to have a slightly more stable hinge.

But let’s not just focus on the superficial here: the ProArt P16 RTX Spark has a lot going on under the surface. That’s predominantly thanks to that Nvidia SoC, which enables it to tackle a wider range of tasks than even many of the best laptops.

Perhaps the most attention grabbing feature is its AI capabilities. Designed for hybrid workflows, the RTX Spark makes it easy to use a combination of local and cloud models to run your AI agents. Testing it out with the Qwen 3 8B open-source local model, I certainly found it had pretty snappy performance for basic workflows, with a basic data analysis only taking about 12 minutes.

More involved tasks took much more refining and prompting over multiple sessions though — attempting to automate 3DMark benchmarks took many 75 minute runs before the completion time reduced significantly. Still, being able to run these workflows on such a lightweight, portable machine was pretty impressive

Another area the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark delivers potent performance is during creative tasks. Running multiple PugetBench benchmarks for automating Photoshop and Premier Pro workflows, the ProArt P16 was only a little behind Apple’s M5 chip when running image-based tasks and beat it when it came to video tasks. And this was borne out by my own testing: even my largest 4K 300dpi Photoshop file crammed full of clipping masks didn’t make it wince, with filters and generative fills executing smoothly. Even downscaling the whole image to 2K only took around five seconds, which isn’t bad for a nigh-on 2GB file.

Few SoCs to date have been designed with gaming performance in mind. But given Nvidia’s heritage in this space, it’s hardly surprising that the ProArt P16 RTX Spark is capable of some serious gaming power. While it’s not quite able to deliver at the same level as RTX 5080 and 5090 GPUs, I enjoyed a very smooth 60fps on Cyberpunk 2077 on Raytracing Medium settings, while Gears of War: E-day ran at more solid than bedrock at over 110fps. So this laptop can achieve some stunning results, even if the performance you’ll get isn’t 100% the top of the range.

Given it can handle all of these tasks on the go, you’d hope it has a pretty capacious battery to back up that powerful chip. And it’s relatively good news on this front. While it only managed 11 hours of continuous video playback during my testing, during productivity based work it lasted well over 14 hours. That’s nowhere near as long-lasting as the Methuselah-like MacBook Pro M5 Pro, which clocked over 21 hours in our testing, but it’s certainly enough to get you through a standard day’s work.

Honestly, the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark is pretty adept at everything it tries to do: it’s a talented all-rounder. The only caveat really is its price: like many of the RTX Spark laptops, it isn’t cheap. Starting from $4,399.99 / £3,899.99 / AU$7,999, it costs just as much as a high-end gaming laptop or a pro-level creative workhorse — so, honestly, if you care more about getting the best performance you can in a specific niche, you may be better off investing in one of those instead.

However, if you need a single bow that can handle every single one of your strings, the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark is a good shout. It’ll handle running your own AI agents, whipping up creative work and even gaming for your downtime, all in a single, portable package.

Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark review: price & availability

Having launched on October 9, the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark is available now. Unlike its smaller sibling, it ships with the higher-end Nvidia RTX Spark N1X with 6144-core GPU and 20-core CPU.

As a result, it’s a pricey meatball: its list price starts from $4,399.99 / £3,899.99 / AU$7,999 for the spec with 64GB RAM, 3K screen and 1TB SSD. That increases to $6,999.99 / £5,999.99 / AU$10,999 if you want the version with 128GB RAM, a 4K screen and a 2TB SSD.

Even with its impressive specs, there’s no getting away from the fact that this is a premium-priced laptop. Both in terms of price and spec, the ProArt P16 RTX Spark is pretty similar to the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra with Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, which will set you back $3,799.99 / £3,649 (around AU$5,410).

Alternatively, this kind of spend could net you the MacBook Pro M5 Pro 16-inch with 64GB for $2,999 / £3,999 / AU$6,299, which should give you a lot of performance and creative power but I wouldn’t expect to get quite as much gaming power for your buck.

Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark review: Specs

Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark review: design

• Gorgeous 3K OLED display
• Slim, sleek design
• Slightly flimsy hinge

Like all of the initial lineup RTX Spark laptops I’ve seen, the new Asus ProArt P16 is a sleek-looking unit. While its 16-inch span is pretty expansive, it’s still light in terms of weight, clocking in at 1.77 kg compared to my 16-inch MacBook Pro M4’s 2.14kg. It’s also got a pretty sleek silhouette — unlike some of the RTX Spark laptop models I’ve seen, it’s not concealing a much chonkier base with the help of gradually sloping bevels. And its nano black and neo white colorways feel suitably premium, although I marginally prefer the black version I tested here.

It’s not all about style though: the ProArt P16 RTX Spark has plenty of substance too. Manufactured from smooth metal, its external and internal surfaces feel wonderfully tactile, although I’d say the inner ones feel a tiny bit less sturdy than the solid bodywork of the outside. On top of this, there’s a tiny bit of wobble to its screen when you touch it — I’d expect a slightly firmer hinge on a premium laptop like this.

Speaking of that screen, I found Asus’s 3K touchscreen Lumina Pro OLED to be pretty impressive on the whole. Not only can my unit hit a peak brightness of 1,100 nits and a max 120Hz VRR but comparing it to my MacBook Pro M4’s Liquid Retina XDR display while watching Pixar’s Elemental was — sorry for this — pretty illuminating. While the latter can go slightly brighter at 1,600 nits peak, I didn’t find the difference all that pronounced. And the colors of the P16 RTX Spark’s OLED panel were noticeably more vibrant, with the reds, blues and greens of the fire, water and earth elements really popping.

To say laptop keyboards can be hit or miss might be the understatement of the century but, fortunately, the ProArt P16 RTX Spark’s keyboard falls more in the former category than the latter. Although the keys don’t have a huge amount of travel, I still found the typing experience to be pretty fluid. I rarely ever struggled to find my chosen key when touch typing — although I did occasionally knock both parts of the dual enter key, accidentally sticking random #s at the end of sentences. Still, it felt nice to use, whether I was prompting an AI agent or rapidly splatting demons in Doom: The Dark Ages.

For the most part, the P16 RTX Spark’s trackpad is also well designed. It’s very accurate, gives you a huge area for controlling your cursor and the haptic feedback is spot on, feeling exactly like a mechanical click. Really the only issue I found with it is the right click triggers far too far to the left, meaning I’d sometimes accidentally right click on certain elements. Still though, it’s a decent trackpad for the most part.

As you’d expect from a laptop this premium, the P16 RTX Spark comes with access to a wide range of connectivity options as well. On top of offering Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity, it rocks a pretty decent selection of ports for such a slim laptop. These include three USB-C and one standard USB port, an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an SD Express card reader. So even for most creative workflows, you should find you’re able to plug in plenty of devices to get things done.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark review: performance

• Strong all-round performance
• Local AI workflows impressive but require some patience
• Specialist laptops can give better gaming or creative performance

I’ll be honest: by far the most exciting part about getting my hands on the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark is that eponymous chip. Similar to Apple’s M-series silicon, Nvidia’s RTX Spark is the company’s first attempt at a full system-on-a-chip architecture. And given Nvidia’s involvement in both the AI and gaming spaces, it’s safe to say I was looking forward to putting the Nvidia Spark RTX through its paces.

Combining CPU, GPU and RAM all in one compact package, the version of the RTX Spark included with the Asus ProArt P16 I tested here rocks 20 ARM CPU cores backed up by 64GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on the graphics side, it wields 6144 CUDA GPU cores with 30GB integrated memory. In terms of raw hardware, it's less cooked and more meaty than steak tartare.

While this is the equivalent of using a steam hammer to obliterate a nut, general productivity tasks ran perfectly smoothly on the ProArt P16 RTX Spark. Whether I was browsing the web, tinkering with spreadsheets or leafing through huge PDFs, I never experienced any awkward hanging or slowdowns. Even on the odd occasion when I had to look something up online while the laptop worked on an AI task, there wasn’t any unpleasant gear-crunching, showing the ProArt P16 is plenty fast enough for general use.

But you’re unlikely to be buying an RTX Spark laptop just for doing a bit of Googling or filing your taxes. Instead, the most obvious use case for the RTX Spark chip in the ProArt P16 is its hybrid agentic AI functionality. Put simply, rather than being forced to choose between using cloud models that potentially jeopardize the security of your data and less powerful local models, this blended approach means you can pick and choose which parts of your workflow you’re going to outsource to the cloud and which you’ll keep under strict local control.

With its integrated fifth-generation Tensor cores, the RTX Spark should be perfectly placed to support this. To see how fast it could run some of these models locally, I used the MLPerf Client benchmarking tool to mimic data analyst and SWE agentic workflows using the Qwen 3 8B local model. And the results felt pretty rapid, with the pipelines completing after an average duration of 63.7 and 50.8 seconds and processing up to 14,005 and 10,238 tokens respectively.

But I wanted to see for myself what it could do. So I fired up Hermes, the open-source AI agent tool, and set it up to run the local open-source model Qwen3.8 27B to see what having my own personal AI version of Alfred could help me achieve.

Some of the basic tasks I threw its way, the RTX Spark practically scoffed at. When I asked Hermes to organize a spreadsheet full of web analytics for me and pull out actionable highlights, it whipped the file up into a pivot table and gave me six bullet points within about 12 minutes. Asking it to convert this info into a presentation with slides and prompts took a little longer at 23 minutes, but it helped highlight the best information to pitch — even if the slides themselves needed a considerable glow up before I’d ever call them up in a Zoom call.

In theory though, these hybrid agentic AI tools can go much further than this. Not only can you convert your prompts into skills or schedule them to run as daily tasks but you can even set them to target your apps and control your screen directly.

Some of my experiments paid off here: after one abortive run, I eventually managed to get Hermes to access my emails and create a daily digest in 70 minutes. But trying to automate some of my 3DMark benchmarking process ended up being a real rabbit hole — even with judicious prompts throughout the process and prompting Hermes to find ways to boost the skill’s efficiency, it took around eight runs to significantly improve its workflow. So it’s important to recognize that while some agentic pipelines may save you time in the long run, without utilizing some cloud models, training them may take a decent investment.

Agentic AI isn’t the only use you can put all of that processing power to though. While I’m not a massive fan of generative AI, I can definitely see how fast the RTX Spark is at whipping up new images and videos. Automating some imagery and video pipelines using ComfyUI, the laptop completed tests of Flux2.Dev - NVFP4 and Flux2.Klein 4B Base - NVFP4 models in just 46.5 and 16.2 seconds, while the LTX 2.5 - Distilled - NVFP4 video model took 88 seconds. Those are pretty swift run times for local generative models.

And if, like me, you prefer creating your own stuff from scratch, my testing showed the ProArt P16 RTX Spark can help here too. Using PugetBench to automate a range of creative workflows, I found Asus’s laptop was capable of some lightning fast processing.

Our standard Photoshop workflow completed in 10.83 minutes and achieved a score of 11,801 — that’s not far short of Apple’s M5 chip at 13,755. And the RTX Spark offered even speedier performance for video work, securing a score in our Premier Pro benchmark of 76,234 in 8.12 minutes, giving the M5 chip a bit of a drubbing at 69,887. Unfortunately, it can’t keep up with the similarly priced Apple MacBook Pro M5 Pro though, which managed to best it for both still imagery and video with scores of 15,204 and 105,580 respectively.

Naturally, I’m not just going to take these numbers on trust though, so I dug out one of my most demanding Photoshop files — a 4K, 300dpi PSD with dozens of clipping masks and adjustment layers — and checked how the ProArt P16 RTX Spark handled it.

Manipulating layers and applying filters caused scarcely any slowdown, in spite of the fact I’d tripled the number of layers in the file. Even downscaling the image to 2K — no small task given the total file size was now in excess of 2GB — only took around five seconds, which is pleasingly swift. And thanks to the optimization work that Adobe has been doing behind the scenes to allow its apps to take advantage of the RTX Spark’s AI capabilities, even generative fills and neural filters didn’t take long to generate.

When it comes to gaming performance, I’d say the ProArt P16 RTX Spark hovers somewhere between mid-range laptops with RTX 5060 and RTX 5070 GPUs. For example, when playing Cyberpunk 2077 on Raytracing Ultra settings at 1080p, I found the Asus hovered around 30.16fps — but, by contrast, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI with an RTX 5060 only reached a marginally smoother 34.47fps. Other games told a similar story. For example, Doom: The Dark Ages on Ultra settings sat at a pretty decent 48fps on the ProArt P16. In comparison, with its slightly beefier RTX 5070, the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra whipped the game like meringue into a much smoother 63.98fps.

But that’s running things on max settings. In practice, when actually playing games on more moderate settings, they ran plenty smoothly enough, especially those that are already well optimized for the RTX Spark. As I explored Dogtown in Cyberpunk 2077 at Raytracing Medium settings, it chugged along at a perfect stable 60fps. And playing Dogs of War: E-day on Ultra settings, I never saw it drop below 110fps, which shows what wonderfully smooth experiences you should still be able to expect from native gaming on the RTX Spark.

Honestly, I’d say that if you put the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark up against any similarly priced, specialist laptop focused on AI, creative workflows or gaming, you’ll likely find its performance can’t quite keep up. But that’s the point — RTX Spark laptops are a triple threat: they’re designed to be a swiss army knife that can handle every task you might throw at them. So if you want a lightweight laptop that combines the agentic AI hosting of a compact desktop, the creative power of the Apple M5 and the gaming oomph of the Nvidia Geforce RTX 5060, all in one handy package, the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark should have your back.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark review: battery test

• Battery should last 14 hours of standard use
• Some similar rivals can outlast it

Being able to achieve all of this on the go is impressive. But for that to be sustainable, it needs a battery that can keep up with these kinds of heavy duty tasks. Fortunately, the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark is capable of decent battery life, even if it’s not quite as exceptional as some of its rivals.

Running it through our standard battery tests, I played a 1080p video at 50% brightness and volume to see how long it took to drain the battery from 100% to 0%. The ProArt P16 RTX Spark ran out of juice after 11h 23m — that’s not at all bad but it’s also not quite at the level I’d expect for a premium laptop like this.

But a video test doesn’t necessarily give you the full picture. One of the big benefits of an SoC is through boosted efficiency during CPU usage, so I wanted to also run some tests that showed how the laptop fared in action. Running PCMark 10’s applications battery test — which runs various Microsoft Office based tasks until the battery is drained — the ProArt P16 lasted 14h 24m.

That’s definitely a better score, even if it falls a little ways short of some of the best laptops for Windows. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra managed well over 15 hours in our benchmark tests and that wasn’t even the strongest contender. The MacBook Pro M5 Pro 16-inch clocked over 21 hours, which makes the ProArt P16’s look pretty short-lived in comparison.

Fortunately, the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark does have one extra trick up its sleeve: its charging rate. Thanks to its 140W fast charging, topping your battery up again should be a relatively speedy affair. Sadly, my US unit didn’t come with a UK plug — slight oversight there — so I wasn’t able to test this as I would have liked. Still, my 65W charger topped it up relatively quickly, so you’ll definitely get pretty speedy charging out that 140W cable.

So I’d say that, all in all, the Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark is capable of competitive battery life. When you’re doing standard office work, it’ll get you through a full day without you having to hunt out a charger. But it’s still not quite able to keep pace with the most enduring batteries on the market and particularly intensive tasks like AI or gaming are going to drain it much faster.

• Battery score: 4 / 5